I made my way down to Emo's on Thursday night for the Ratatat/Envelopes/Panther show. Tickets for this show were only $12.50, which made me feel like I was ripping someone off. I would have been happy to pay two or three times that amount for what I witnessed.
Envelopes, all the way from Malmö, Sweden, put on a pleasant set and warmed up the stage for Ratatat. I was mostly unfamiliar with this band before the show, I only recognized their name from seeing it on various blogs. I enjoyed their set, and stopped by Waterloo Records yesterday to pick up their debut album Demon. Envelopes are a great live band and each of the members are all very talented, I'd recommend that you see them live if you get a chance. Here are a few pictures from their performance, and there's a song down below if you're interested to hear their sound.
After Envelopes finished up Ratatat hit the stage and absolutely ripped Emo's apart. I knew that Ratatat would be great live, but they were even better than I expected. The way these two musicians compliment each other both live and in the studio is fantastic, they are like two puzzle pieces that align together perfectly. They played almost non-stop for their entire set as they tore through most of the songs off of their most recent, aptly-named album Classics, as well as many songs from their self-titled 2004 release. "El Pico" sounded especially good live.
What do you get when you mix a little bit of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! with a dash of The Arcade Fire with a light dusting of Wolf Parade? Probably something that sounds a lot like the album Lanzafame, from the Reading, England musical group Tap Tap.
Tap Tap is fronted by Pete and the Pirates' Thomas Sanders, and Lanzafame has found a home on the Columbus, Ohio based independent record label Catbird Records. Listen to the tracks posted below and if you dig it like I do, then point your browser to CatbirdRecords.com where you can purchase this album for a mere $7.
Beck's newest album titled The Information will hit the shelves next week, October 3rd 2006. The album will come with a blank sleeve and booklet and a sheet of stickers for fans to make their own album art. It will also come with a disc of videos - one for each track on the record. Would you expect anything less from Beck? Hear two of the fifteen new tracks below...
The Decemberists will release their fourth full-length album titled The Crane Wife next week on October 3rd. This will be the first major label release of this five-piece from Portland, Oregon, as they continue to reinvent their sound and influences. There are two tracks on the album that wander into prog territory, both clocking in at over eleven minutes a piece. Also, The Crane Wife is based on a Japanese folk tale. (Wiki) "While there are many variations of the tale, a common version is that a poor man finds an injured crane on his doorstep (or outside with an arrow in it), takes it in and nurses it back to health. After releasing it, a woman appears at his doorstep who he falls in love with and marries. Because they are in need of money, his wife offers to weave great silk cloths that they could sell at the market, but only if he agrees never to watch her when she is making it. They begin to sell them and live a comfortable life, but he began to make her weave more and more. Oblivious to his wife's diminishing health, his greed increases and he eventually peeks in to see what she is doing to make the silk she weaves so desirable. He is shocked to discover that at the loom is a crane plucking feathers from her body and weaving them into the loom. The crane, seeing him, flies away and never returns." You can listen to a stream of the full album here.
I was late in getting into The Decemberists, but once I did I eventually bought their entire catalog. I was browsing through the eMusic files one day and I only had one download left for the month. I came across the 2004 EP The Tain, which is one eighteen minute track with five different parts. I thought to myself, five songs for the price of one, sweet. Once I listened to it I discovered why everyone had been had been talking about this band.
w/ Lavender Diamond 10.17 Crystal Ballroom Portland, OR 10.18 Crystal Ballroom Portland, OR 10.19 Warfield Theatre San Francisco, CA 10.21 The Wiltern Los Angeles, CA 10.22 Rialto Theater Tucson, AZ 10.24 Stubb's Austin, TX 10.25 Gypsy Ballroom Dallas, TX 10.26 House of Blues New Orleans, LA 10.27 Tabernacle Atlanta, GA 10.29 9:30 Club Washington D.C. 10.30 9:30 Club Washington D.C. 10.31 Calvin Theatre Northampton, MA 11.01 Electric Factory Philadelphia, PA
w/ Alasdair Roberts 11.03 Hammerstein Ballroom New York, NY 11.04 Orpheum Theatre Boston, MA 11.05 Metropolis Montreal, Quebec 11.06 Kool Haus Toronto, Ontario 11.07 Clutch Cargo Pontiac, MI 11.09 Agora Theatre Cleveland, OH 11.10 Lifestyle Communities Pavilion Columbus, OH 11.11 Riviera Theatre Chicago, IL 11.12 First Avenue Minneapolis, MN 11.14 Paramount Theatre Denver, CO 11.16 Wilma Theatre Missoula, MT 11.17 Paramount Theatre Seattle, WA 11.18 Commodore Ballroom Vancouver, BC 11.19 Commodore Ballroom Vancouver, BC
Please take a moment to visit my friends and fellow contributors of a new music blog titled Our Last Quarterstance: The Blog Tribunal. Matt, who maintains Still Kisses with Saliva, rounded up a handful of music bloggers to create and contribute to a blog that will focus less on the hottest new band you've never heard of and more on "classic albums, commentaries on pop culture, overlooked albums, overpraised albums, where exactly loud music has gone, histories of record labels, and, yes, the occasional discussion of an exciting new band."
There are some great shows happening in Austin this week. Here's what I'm planning on seeing, and what I'd recommend.
Monday: Art Brut, We Are Scientists, Spinto Band at Emo's Thursday: Ratatat, Envelopes, Panther at Emo's Friday: Reverend Horton Heat, The Horrorpops at Stubb's Saturday: Spoon, Brothers and Sisters, Fishboy at Emo's Sunday: DJ Shadow, Lateef the Truth Speaker at Stubb's
A friend of The Grates recently sent me their debut album Gravity Won't Get You High and asked me if I would be interested in supplying an album review. I was happy to oblige, because I became a quick fan after catching them on tour recently in support of The Go Team!.
The Grates are Patience Hodgson (vocals), John Patterson (guitar) and Alana Skyring (drums) and they hail from Brisbane, Australia. Each of the three members has a background in art, and they design their own album artwork, posters and merchandise. Their sound has been compared to other female-fronted bands such as the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and be your own PET, however they have their own distinctive musical style and I only hear elements of the aforementioned bands at certain moments.
On Gravity Won't Get You High, The Grates supply fourteen indie rock tracks full of high tempo energy and hand claps forcefully pushed along by the outstanding percussion work of Alana Skyring. If there is a crossroads in Australia where one goes to sell their soul for musical talent a la Robert Johnson, then I wouldn't be surprised if this young lady made a stop there. She is a very skilled drummer. The slightly distressed guitar that John Patterson supplies is something that at times sounds like a Jack White-inspired blues riff such as on "Trampoline." Then on the very next track "Science Is Golden", which is also their first single from this album, the guitar style shifts back and forth between pop and rock riffs. The vocals that Patience Hodgson supplies are fuller and more mature than what was heard on their 2005 EP The Ouch. The Touch, especially on the track "Feels Like Pain." All of these elements combine to create an enjoyable album, one which I think deserves more attention.
Once upon a time before I started Covert Curiosity I was surfing through a handful of blogs looking to hear new music, and I came upon a track called "Piano Man" by Ghostland Observatory. I listened to it repeatedly over the next few days before doing a search to find out who this band was, where they were from, and where I could purchase their music. Once I discovered that Ghostland Observatory was from Austin I was ecstatic because I knew that meant I would be able to catch them in concert somewhere around town.
Once I had purchased their debut album delete.delete.i.eat.meat and their most recent release Paparazzi Lightning I made it out to their performance at Trophy's. I had never seen anything like it before in my life. A wall of noise hit the crowd over and over again like waves, and many of the audience members had a total freak out. Many different groups of people were represented that night in the crowd, the indie kids, the hipsters, hardcore rockers, people who just wanted to dance, all of them from diverse backgrounds and cultures. Once Ghostland Observatory turned up the amps many of the crowd members weren't sure if they wanted to dance to the funky groove that electronic mastermind Thomas Turner lays down, or to bang their heads and mosh to the guitar riffs and frantic vocals that Aaron Behrens adds to the mix. What ended up happening was something that looked like a dance-mosh, with each crowd member moving in their own way. Since this show I have told anyone who will listen about Ghostland Observatory, as well as featuring them here on Covert Curiosity a handful of times.
Recently I sat down with this Austin duo over margaritas and queso at Jaime's Spanish Village to learn what Ghostland Observatory is all about, and to find out what lies ahead...
How did the two of you get started with Ghostland Observatory?
A: We were both living in Austin and wanting to make music, and we actually ended up meeting through an ad in the Austin Chronicle. I was playing in a band with a mutual friend of ours and looking to do something different, and Thomas had been doing his own thing musically but never with a band, and luckily he answered an ad in the Chronicle. Things worked out in a very magical way, a strange journey trickling down the side of a mountain, and luckily we came out together in the end.
How long did it take to find your unique sound once you started making music together ? Was it automatic?
T: No, not at all. Actually at first it was really weird and dark. After that we took some time off and when we worked together again it was real organic. And then we realized that if we where going to do this we wanted to stand out in a crowd. Say you go out to a show and you see some band you've never heard of, you might give them a few songs worth of attention and if it doesn't move you you're going to move on to something else.
A: Our push at first was to really try to create something that sounded unlike anything else, but that's the stuff that ended up sounding at first really dark and then kind of organic. But then our music naturally came to what our strong points were as musicians and artists, and we kind of figured out how to put those in the right places.
So you two really feed off of each other musically?
A: Yeah he totally pushes me. Sometimes he'll play something and it's like Boom! Get down! When he turns it up I turn it up and it really pushes me, and that definitely shows the talent that Thomas has to produce.
What about the song creation process, how do you put a song together?
T: I'm always working on tracks, pretty much all of the time. So I'll show Aaron like 3, 4, 5 different things...
A: 6, 7, 8. Thomas is very prolific in his writing, he writes a whole lot. So I really try to take on a character in every song, based on whatever I feel from it. And if it makes me feel something then we're definitely doing it because really react to that.
You've just played these two huge music festivals (Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits) in consecutive months, what was that experience like for you?
T: I think we were on the road (driving) around 34 hours over a two-day span for Lollapalooza, because our set there was early on Friday and we were scheduled for a gig back here in Austin at Emo's the next day. We left on Thursday and we were driving so fast trying to get up to Chicago because we were running late, and we had to be there at eight in the morning on Friday. The entire states of both Oklahoma and Missouri were like a blur we were driving so fast. We ended up getting there at about ten, set our stuff up on the stage and performed, and then got back on the road.
A: It was definitely worth it, the gig we played at Emo's was totally nuts. We love playing to an Austin crowd.
During the last few songs at the Mohawk and at Trophy's gigs a crowd of people jumped on stage...
A: Yeah man at our shows anything goes, we just want to move people.
T: But remember to mind the equipment...
A: Yeah Thomas keeps a samurai sword under his cape, and if you get too close to the electronics he will pull it out..
What is your favorite track to perform live?
A&T: Heavy Heart
What single album do you think everyone should own?
A&T: The Mars Volta, De-Loused in the Comatorium
So what is next for Ghostland Observatory?
T: Well we put out delete.delete.i.eat.meat and Paparazzi Lightning both in less than a year, so now we're going to get out on the road and let the people hear it. We're going to head over to the west coast for a little bit, and after that we're going to do a tour in Europe.
Before embarking on their next tour Ghostland Observatory will be playing again in Austin at Emo's on October 5th. Purchase tickets through Emo's website.
Here's a look at their current tour dates:
Sep 28 2006 - Marfa, TX Oct 4 2006 - Houston, TX Oct 5 2006 - Austin, TX Oct 7 2006 - Dallas, TX Oct 12 2006 - Tucson, AZ Oct 13 2006 - Phoenix, AZ Oct 14 2006 - Los Angeles, CA Oct 16 2006 - Santa Cruz, CA Oct 17 2006 - San Francisco, CA Oct 18 2006 - Eugene, OR Oct 19 2006 - Seattle, WA Oct 21 2006 - Rexburg, ID Oct 22 2006 - Denver, CO Oct 23 2006 - Minneapolis, MN Oct 24 2006 - Chicago, IL
Underneath The Radio, the sophomore album from Southern California's Goldenboy is set to hit the shelves on October 3rd. Goldenboy is Shon Sullivan (vocals, guitar, keys) and childhood friend and musical co-conspirator Bryan Bos (drums and backing vocals). This duo, who are on Eenie Meenie records, create a blend of music that falls somewhere on the indie spectrum between folk and pop.
Goldenboy's approach to music is minimalistic, but while listening to their work you really don't notice the lack of all of the extra musical bells and whistles. For instance on the track "Second Day Of The Year," Shon Sullivan's constant, rythmic guitar strum is complemented perfectly by soft horns and an added layer of floating keys that hover above the sound of the guitar and wander in and out throughout the track. I find it physically impossible to refrain from whistling along with this song every time I hear it.
On other tracks from Underneath The Radio such as "Summer of the Evening," Sullivan and Bos use dual guitars, the acoustic perfectly complimenting the electric without either overpowering the other. These two elements combined with the soft vocals and minimal yet persistent snare and cymbal work to create a truly classic pop song. This is the type of track you put on the headphones and all at once forget that you're listening to it, and then when the song ends it suddenly leaves you wishing the track were five minutes longer and wanting to hear more.
After three days of musical greatness in the Texas heat followed by a cooling rain shower to close out the festival on Sunday evening, I think I have regained enough control over my senses and collected my thoughts such that I am able to wrap up my experience in written form.
I think that one of the more memorable moments of the festival occured early on Saturday afternoon during Ben Kweller's performance. He was bleeding profusely from his nose, apparently due to an allergic reaction. Blood poured from his nose, ran down his chin and flowed non-stop down his neck onto his clothes and onto his guitar. He gave it everything he had, even going so far as to pushing a tampon into his nose before tearing into "This is War", but he was physically unable to continue and was only able to perform a handful of songs. A few other notable occurances were Gnarls Barkley covering The Doors on "Who Scared You" and witnessing Ween lyrics interpreted live for the hearing impaired festival-goers. I can't forsee a situation in which I'll need to know how to sign "big booty bitch," but you never know.
I was able to watch the following artists' performances, and I have them listed here from best to not best. This is just my humble opinion, of course.
Kings of Leon - These four guys from Mt. Juliet, Tennessee are the best rock band in the United States. The new songs that they performed from their as-yet unfinished 3rd album sounded outstanding. Rumor has it that the working title the next album is Because of the Times.
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Perfect. Amazing. Inspiring. Moving. Awesome. A heavy rainstorm came down about thirty-five minutes into the set and the band took a short break to let it pass. Twenty minutes or so later Tom and the band came back out and played for another hour to a huge crowd who didn't budge during the storm. It was a perfect ending to the festival, rain withstanding.
The Flaming Lips - These guys never cease to amaze, and this performance did exactly that. The Wayne in a bubble, the confetti blasts, streamers, space men, fake blood, santa suits, futuristic dancing women, The Flaming Lips have it all. Oh yeah, the music is pretty damn good as well.
Damian Marley - Wow. Austin discovered why Damian Marley has three albums and three Grammys; it's because he's got talent flowing through his entire body, including his five-foot long dreadlocks. His band and backup singers were top-notch as well. Anyone who got out to the festival late on Sunday really missed out on something special. I especially enjoyed seeing some of his native flags flying out in the crowd, that was a proper welcome.
Gnarls Barkley - Damn it was hot. All I was wearing was a t-shirt, and Gnarls Barkley were up on stage facing the sun and wearing lab coats and long-sleeve shirts. I have to tip my hat to these guys for putting on such a great performance despite playing at the worst possible time on the worst possible stage, as far as temperature was concerned.
Los Lobos - These guys have been making music together since the early eighties, and they perfected their sound many moons ago. Their set at ACL was fantastic, just about every person I could see was in motion for their entire set. I'm pretty sure these were some of the coolest dudes at the festival.
Ghostland Observatory - Out-fucking-standing. These two Austinites (Thomas Turner and Aaron Behrens) just played Lollapalooza last month, they've just done the Austin City Limits Festival, and over the next few months they'll be hitting up the west coast and then overseas. I'll be conducting an interview with them very soon, so check back for that.
Calexico - These guys were great. They have the perfect sound to find some prime festival real estate and just chill out and soak in their performance.
What Made Milwaukee Famous - These guys sounded great, and put on a nearly flawless show. Believe the hype.
Deadboy & the Elephantmen - This was a good set, somehow a little less heavy than I expected, but a great performance nonetheless.
Jimmie Dale Gilmore - If I listen to country music, I want it to sound a lot like what I heard from Jimmie Dale Gilmore at the Austin City Limits Festival. His 2005 release Come on Back was nominated for a Grammy.
Ween - I enjoyed their set, it's just hard to get into a lot of their stuff because their lyrics are, uhhh, uninspiring.
TV on the Radio - I loveReturn to Cookie Mountain and Desperate Youth, but either their sound doesn't transfer well to live shows, or I had water in my ears, or the PA system was setup wrong, or they just had an off day. A few of the songs sounded good, but overall I was unimpressed.
...
I'm not placing these artists into my 'best of' breakdown because I was only able to watch less than half of their set.
Ben Kweller - Showed a lot of heart trying to play through the waterfall of blood coming out of his nose on Saturday, and the crowd let him know it. Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips paid homage to Ben on Sunday by pouring a vial of fake blood all over his face mid-set.
Cat Power - From the few songs I saw this set was much better than the one she turned in at the 2004 ACL Fest.
Van Morrison - Sounded great, but I was unable to stay for the set.
Sparklehorse - Looked good on the big screen, but I could barely hear it from where I was in the back.
The New Pornographers - Had to sacrifice their set for a prime spot at another stage...
So that officially wraps it up. I pinky swear not to talk about ACL again until after SXSW 2007, which can't get here soon enough.
A live webcast from the AT&T blue room at the Austin City Limits Music Festival will be available starting tomorrow at 12:30 right here.
The webcast schedule is as follows:
12:30 PM Asleep At The Wheel 01:30 PM Ted Leo and the Pharmacists 02:30 PM Guster 03:30 PM Stars 04:30 PM Nickel Creek 05:30 PM Gomez 06:30 PM Thievery Corporation 07:30 PM Sparklehorse 08:15 PM John Mayer 09:15 PM Deadboy and the Elephantmen
Saturday September 16th, Lineup* 12:30 PM Federico Aubele 01:30 PM Ghostland Observatory 02:30 PM Ben Kweller 03:30 PM The Secret Machines 04:30 PM Los Lobos 05:30 PM Aimee Mann 06:30 PM The String Cheese Incident 07:30 PM Iron & Wine 08:30 PM Ray LaMontagne 09:00 PM Los Lonely Boys
Sunday September 17th Lineup* 12:30 PM Kathleen Edwards 01:30 PM Sam Roberts 02:30 PM KT Tunstall 03:30 PM Jack Ingram 04:30 PM Calexico 05:30 PM Sun Volt 06:30 PM The Flaming Lips *Partial set only 07:00 PM Ben Harper *Partial set only 07:45 PM Muse 08:30 PM Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
I will try to provide some set reviews from ACL over the next few days, and maybe some live audio and pictures from the festival as well. Happy viewing!
Jeff Mangum, born in 1970 in Louisiana, is the founder and main lyricist and songwriter of what was the band Neutral Milk Hotel (1989-1998). Neutral Milk Hotel was a highly influential indie rock band who released two full-length albums, On Avery Island (1996) and the epic In the Aeroplane Over the Sea (1998). He was also one of the founding members of The Elephant Six Collective, along with three of his childhood friends Bill Doss, Will Cullen Hart, and Robert Schneider. The Elephant Six Collective spawned many notable independent bands, including The Apples in Stereo, Elf Power, and Of Montreal.
Jeff Mangum was also a member and contributor of many side projects loosely affiliated with either Neutral Milk Hotel or The Elephant Six Collective, including Major Organ and the Adding Machine, Circulatory System, and The Olivia Tremor Control. Not long after the release of and supporting tour for In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, which was somewhat of a concept album partly inspired by the story of Anne Frank, Jeff Mangum disbanded Neutral Milk Hotel and since then has avoided public eye and has performed live only a handful of times. An article discussing Mangum's Barrett-esque dissappearing act can be found here. Recently there was circulation of a message credited to Mangum reporting that he would return to the spotlight in the near future, but ultimately the message turned out to be contrived.
Apparently if you are in hopes of hearing any new work by Jeff Mangum or seeing a live performance the mantra is "don't hold your breath." However, we can still look back and listen to the work that he has left with us, from which I have selected the following tracks. In each of the songs below Jeff Mangum is either the main artist, a contributor, or sometimes producer.
Okay folks, here is the grand finale of my ACL Fest artist previews. I sincerely hope that my daily entries of the 2006 ACL artists were useful to my visitors both within the United States and abroad, and if so please feel free to leave me some feedback at the bottom of this entry. Travel safely on your way to Austin, see you at ACL!
What: The Greencards are a bluegrass band from Austin, Texas composed of two Australians, Kym Warner (mandolin) and Carol Young (bass), and an Englishman, Eamon McLoughlin (fiddle).
What: New Monsoon is at its core a rock jam band that is based in the San Francisco, CA area that was founded in 1998 by Penn State classmates Bo Carper and Jeff Miller.
What: MUSE, formed in 1994, are a British rock band who blend many different genres of music together - combining classical, modern and even Latin themes into songs.
