Satellite Eclectica

Faith No More @ Mann Music Center 7/3/10

2010-07-11T00:16:00.001-04:00

courtesy of Marcus Darpino.

As much as I would like it to be, Washington DC is not the live-music center of the universe. Sometimes to see that special show I have to hop on a jet, castaway on a boat, or hit the road as I did this past weekend to catch one of the limited East Coast reunion shows by Faith No More. These shows were limited enough (only 3) and special enough (a hell-froze-over reunion) that we thought some of our DC readers might be interested in reading about the one I attended at the Mann Music Center in Philadelphia last Saturday.

When considering Faith No More and the quality of concert they put on, it is the little details that make the difference. The little details like: Mike Patton riding a fan like a horse while singing Michael Jackson's 'Ben'; an unexpected cover of Vangelis' 'Chariots of Fire' theme; song verses done entirely in flawless Portuguese on a whim; and a singing, daredevil, strip-tease atop a 30-foot rope-ladder. In other words, when Faith No More perform live there really are no such things as little details; everything about a Faith No More concert is as huge and in-your-face as it can possibly get. From Mike Patton's epic vocal range and deranged persona; to Roddy Bottum's impenetrable, wall of synth-keyboards; to Billy Gould and Mike Bordin's spastic funk; and Jon Hudson's heroic guitar riffs Faith No More's live sound is so gigantic it is almost absurd. And it would be absurd if they weren't such a tight and overly-talented group of individuals. Saturday night's concert in Philadelphia was a success on every level that treated a few thousand fans to the stellar, albeit brief, return of an old favorite and left us all longing for more from these SF Bay-area originals.

courtesy of Marcus Darpino.

Ah, Faith No More, it has been far too long. For me, going to see Faith No More in concert is like visiting with an old friend. My first real, rock concert was seeing Faith No More perform at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia back in 1992. I also caught them on their farewell tour in 1997 at the 9:30 Club here in DC. Always a fan, my love of Faith No More's music has only grown over the years as Mike Patton has put out project after project constantly swinging between sorta-pop and the experimental. I have seen Patton perform many, many times since FNM called it quits. The man is a musical genius with a head so full of ideas that I think it is literally driving him mad. I enjoy just about everything Mike Patton does, but it was with Faith No More that I believe he produced his very best vocal material. Something about the slight degree of focus that this funk/prog/rock band imposed on him worked just perfectly. On their masterpiece album, "Angel Dust", Patton is all over the place vocally but is never out-of-control. Faith No More produce music that is just odd enough, that there is plenty of room for the genius to play without screwing up the songs themselves. Saturday night's show was the perfect example of the band totally rocking out while giving Patton plenty of time for the vocal acrobatics he is famous for.

Notorious back in their heyday for on-stage shenanigans and tongue-in-cheek covers, Faith No More opened the show with a cover of Peaches & Herb's 'Reunited' during which Mike Patton slinked onto the stage wearing a silver-lame suit and sunglasses, while working a cane. He and Roddy Bottum exchanged verse and chorus through-out the faithful rendition of this soul classic. It was a humorous opening and seemed to be not quite expected by the 1000+ strong crowd of hard rock fans. Any worry or confusion on their part was quickly erased when the band launched into a furious three song stretch of 'From Out of Nowhere', 'Be Aggressive', and 'Caffeine'. It was fantastic to hear these older tunes dusted off and properly kicking-ass again. 'Be Aggressive' of course got the crowd chanting along with its spell-out choruses, while 'Caffeine' kicked in the schizo screamer/wanna-be crooner in all of us.

courtesy of Marcus Darpino.

The Saturday night set-list was a good sampling from all of the Mike Patton-fronted FNM albums, with a focus a bit more on the slow-jam side of their material. 'Evidence' was a real highlight of the night, a majestic slow song that got everyone swaying along. Just to show off, Patton offered to do the third verse in Portuguese and then proceeded to do so and beyond. Having recently completed a solo-tour of Italy singing Italian pop songs of the 60's, Patton's multi-lingual crooning was in top form as he finished out 'Evidence' and then put his hands in the air as if to imply, hey no skin of my back. Color me impressed Mr. Patton, I wouldn't be able to successfully order a glass of water in Portuguese.

They followed 'Evidence' with an on-stage collaboration with opening act and human-beatbox, Rahzel the Magnificent. Rahzel had treated us all to an extended opening set of his deep-bass beats and vocal imitation skills earlier in the night and I was hoping he would appear during FNM's set.* Together the band and Rahzel deconstructed and rebuilt a pre-Patton FNM song, 'Chinese Arithmetic'. It started as a funk-filled groove fest until Patton started singing and howling and Rahzel upped his game turning the song into somewhat of a noise-jam. I was pretty amazed at the different stages this song took while the band and Rahzel had their way with it.

'Surprise You're Dead' offered the angriest sing-along of the evening, satisfying everyone's hunger for Metal with killer guitar work, truly head-bang inducing drum and bass action, and its chants of "It never, ever ends!". I think one of the things that made Faith No More so appealing in the 90's and again on Saturday night is their ability to blend aggression and balladry. They demonstrated this with a superb three song stretch of 'Last Cup of Sorrow', their cover of The Commodores' 'Easy', and 'Midlife Crisis'. Faith No More first appropriated 'Easy' on their "Songs to Make Love To" EP back in 1993 and that was really the world's first introduction to Patton as pure-crooner. The guy really does have the chops which he proved again when the band delivered a uncompromising cover of 'Easy' on Saturday night.

There were a few times that the Metal-ness of the crowd seemed to demand more barn-burners but to Faith No More's credit they stuck to their guns and played the set that they wanted to. Not that I can see how any Metal fan could walk away disappointed after the phenomenal version of 'The Gentle Art of Making Enemies' FNM dropped on us next. I caught FNM's abbreviated reunion set at Coachella earlier this year and that song was a highlight, but their performance of it on Saturday totally trumped the Coachella version. I should say here that the Coachella reunion set was a tightly focused, precision strike of a performance and was fantastic. Saturday night's full head-line slot was even better. On Saturday night we were treated to Faith No More indulging themselves by playing their own favorite tunes and having the time to improvise and interact more with the crowd. Saturday night's show was the full Faith No More experience.

courtesy of Marcus Darpino.

This was never more evident than during the band's cover of Michael Jackson's 'Ben', during which Mike Patton (while singing) climbed onto the shoulders of a rather large audience member and steered him through the front sections of the crowd. Patton did so while tickling the audience member under his chin and giving a pitch-perfect performance. At one point, Patton gave his steed the mic and this good-humored, Metallica-shirt wearing, dude sang part of a verse! Patton rode this guy for the duration of the song until the final bit, when he knelt on the stage and gave his ride a personal verse as thanks.

After that the final bits of the show were right on the verge of total chaos (as any self-respecting FNM show should be). The band played an extended version of 'King for a Day' which they devolved into a weird noise-jam; that judging by Mike Patton's face didn't really seem to go according to plan. No worries though as they recovered by launching into an oddly timed version of their most well-known hit 'Epic' that had the sing-along audience rushing to keep up and then trying to slow down once they did as the band applied the brakes. This instrumental herky-jerky then settled down into a historic version of 'Just A Man'.

After delivering an incredible, show-stopping half of 'Just A Man' the band continued to play while Mike Patton unexpectedly leaped onto a stage-hand rope-ladder. I say unexpectedly because the stage-techs had to dive out from the wings to anchor the ladder bottom while Patton began to climb. We all watched in wonder as Patton climbed up this swinging ladder with his microphone stuck in his mouth. He stopped a few times to sing properly and then swallowed the mic to throat-sing/hum the rest of the song as he sped up to ladder's top a full 30 feet above the crowd. Once up there he finished out the song and then mentioned that he had gotten himself into a little trouble up there. Rather than quickly descend however, Patton asked the band for a strip-tease tune and slowly climbed down, while wiggling his ass in our faces and peeling off his shirt. The crowd howled as he tossed his shirt to the stage below and then he proceeded down to a less-than-graceful landing.

courtesy of Craig Darpino.

Faith No More offered up one encore which started with a surprising cover of Vangelis' theme for 'Chariots of Fire'; not just a few notes mind you, but a lengthy cover. This hilarious choice of song then blended into a soulful version of 'Stripsearch' followed by an energetic 'Digging The Grave' to finish the night. There was an odd moment when a second encore seemed imminent but it was fleeting as the house lights suddenly went up.

While walking out of the Mann Music Center, I talked to several fans about the show and the universal opinion was that Faith No More fully delivered on Saturday night. Not only did they entertain and amaze us; they took to that big stage and owned it with the huge sound that we had all been longing to hear again since Spring of 1998. Faith No More at the Mann Music Center in Philadelphia was without a doubt one of the best shows I'll have seen in 2010.

* Rahzel and Mike Patton did a short tour of vocal improvs together in the early 00's and they worked together on the Peeping Tom project.

Wavves & Cloud Nothings @ RNR Hotel 6/25/10

2010-06-29T22:53:00.001-04:00

courtesy of Wavves.

While the early-week, DC-music, blogosphere is atwitter with tales of Courtney Love's awful on-stage antics at the 9:30 Club on Sunday night, Friday night's Wavves show seems to be completely off radar. This is interesting to me, because Wavves mastermind, Nathan Williams, is an equally volatile personality known for on-stage meltdowns and fisticuffs of his own. In fact, before the weekend began, the quality of the Friday night Waaves' concert at Rock & Roll Hotel was as much in question as was which Courtney Love would appear at the 9:30 Club on Sunday. When faced with the decision of which concert to attend (there was no way I was going to sandwich my weekend with potential cluster-f*cks) I used a simple calculus to aid my decision making: Courtney Love is a miserable, over-the-hill, waste of space who only ever put out one good album; while Nathan Williams of Wavves is an unpredictable, indie-genius on the rise, who cranks out infectious tunes as frequently as normal people draw breath. For me the decision was easy; both shows had the potential to be spectacular personality-based failures, but only Wavves had the possible upside of also delivering brilliant music.

Nathan Williams did not have a nervous break-down on-stage, nor did he indulge himself as the star of his own iPhone-shot reality-show on Friday night. He did talk quite a bit between songs, but then so did his rhythm section. Their collective antics were less delusional rants and more about bratty fun. Wavves did more than hold it together on Friday night. They showed up with their snotty, punk attitude and tore through an hour of great, noise-wrapped pop-music. They were preceded by another blog buzz-band in Cloud Nothings from Cleveland, who also put on an excellent set of bedroom-recording inspired tunes. Both bands combined to put on an fantastic new music showcase for the nearly sold-out crowd at Rock & Roll Hotel on Friday.

Turns out there is something to this lo-fi, bedroom recording, self-release on the internet movement. Until Friday night, I had yet to really catch a lo-fi band live (although I have been following the careers of many of them).* I guess when you get right down to it, their creative ways of generating noise and the types of song structures they choose to wrap it around really impress me as a fan of noisy rock and roll. There is a Husker Du feel in both the emotional vocals and guitars of some of these bands that really appeals to me.** Another aspect of the lo-fi explosion (revival, really) is the bands' self-marketing with the internet and gaining buzz through blogs before landing record deals. Both Dylan Baldi (the brains behind Cloud Nothings) and Nathan Williams (the originator of Wavves) have used the internet in different ways to cultivate a following.

Dylan Baldi under his solo-recording moniker and live group name, Cloud Nothings, has garnered nothing but praise (nearing worship) across the internet for his honest approach to making the best music he can with the equipment at hand. His debut album is a rhythmic, noise-wrapped, power-pop extravaganza. In concert, his four-man unit is one of the tightest young bands that I have seen in quite sometime. Their timing on Friday night was impeccable. Starting and stopping on a dime; the dual guitars and rhythm section hammered away at Baldi's toe-tapping, head-bobbing power-pop. The show gave me a great sense of satisfaction as I watched this young bandleader so committed to the form of his songs. Baldi's appearance is somewhat McLovin'-like and endearing, while his singing style is the perfect balance of sing and shout lending his lyrics a good mix of gravity and fun. I was thoroughly impressed with Cloud Nothings' geek-punk performance on Friday. Their precise sound rivaled the evening's headliner for the best set of the night.

Nathan Williams as Wavves has used the internet (or been used by it) to gain a certain notoriety over the last couple of years. As a personality, Williams is one of the snottiest, brats music has produced since pre-"Dookie"-era, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day. The word punk is used in music to describe a certain genre, and in fashion a particular way of dress, but as a personality descriptor (in the Dirty Harry Callahan sense of the word) it is reserved for a particular breed of wise-cracking, ingrate like Williams. Even when Williams has got his shit together (as he did on Friday night) he still has this snot-nosed, Cali-stoner personality that is just hard to like. His stage banter was at times nonsensical but in a very purposeful, screw-with-the-crowd way. Other times, his jokes were just flat out dumb, stoner humor. Williams is joined on this Wavves tour with his new backing band, the former rhythm section of the late, great Jay Reatard. Looking like hairy orks from some surf cave in Southern California, the rhythm section often supplemented Williams' fooling around. The quote from Friday night that pretty much summed up Wavves' attitude is, "This song is about how shit don't mean stuff."

Musically, Wavves delivered the entertainment that their sophomoric humor did not. Williams broke several guitar strings, shredding it up right and proper, to deliver the amplifier-wrapped-in-a-wet-mattress sound that he created on his old tape-recorder, home-recordings. The rhythm section added to the punk-dance punch of Williams' compositions and got the very enthusiastic crowd slam-dancing and crowd-surfing for most of the set. Williams sang through heavy microphone effects the entire show; in fact most of his bad jokes were told with the same echo-chamber, reverb that was applied to his singing. Wavves' approach to noise is deceptively simple and seemingly sound-a-like on every song, but after seeing his songs performed live, it became obvious that underneath all that noise lies a great song-writing talent. Williams crafts extremely catchy pop-punk songs that are irresistible to a good-natured crowd inclined to dance. For the first half of the show, I was quite surprised to see so many seemingly mainstream people going crazy to Wavves' extremely noisy music. But then it dawned on me that regardless of the noise, Williams' pop anthem structures are bulletproof. As long as Williams can keep up the good song-writing and delivering on those songs in concert like he did on Friday night at Rock & Roll Hotel; I'll be willing to over-look the less than stellar personality.***

* I am finally seeing The Vivian Girls and No Age later this year!

** In fact, No Age (easily my favorite of the lo-fi scene) played with Bob Mould as Husker Du at the 2009 All Tomorrow's Parties New York (man, I would have killed to be there for that!).

*** I look forward to the day Williams outgrows the need to be a silly show-off. I am sure, if he lasts that long, we are in-store for some even better music than his already impressive output.

Silversun Pickups @ DAR Constitution Hall 6/23/10

2010-06-29T22:52:00.000-04:00

'Silversin Pickups'
courtesy of 'MudflapDC'

This was one of those concerts that make me love my job.

Silversun Pickups played at DAR Constitution Hall last Wednesday night. They delivered an exuberant display of musical joy that put a big ol' smile on my face that lasted the entire show. Silversun Pickups are a band with a great sound and a growing fan-base, and yet every time I see them perform they seem completely amazed that people like their music. It's this "they like us, they really, really like us!" attitude and their genuine appreciation for their fans, that keeps this huge-sounding band grounded and endears them to the listener. When watching Silversun Pickups perform you find yourself rooting for them to succeed while they proceed to melt your face off with their massive, alt-rock attack.

Wednesday's concert was the best of the three times I have seen Silversun Pickups perform, mainly because it was the first time I have seen them as headliners. The headliner spot gave them time to stretch their legs musically which really added another level to their performance on just about every song they played. Add to this the fact that the longer set gave them the opportunity to throw some slower songs into the mix and Silversun Pickups were able to create an atmosphere that was all their own and not merely shared space with other, larger acts. Silversun Pickups were the main event on Wednesday night and they used their moment in the spotlight to truly shine.

Silversun Pickups are the Smashing Pumpkins of the new millennium. They occupy a sonic space that exists in that last minute or so of Smashing Pumpkins' 'Cherub Rock'. A space that Billy Corgan and crew crafted so expertly on "Gish" and "Siamese Dream" but then seemed to abandon somewhat with their successive efforts. This grunge meets shoegazer, sonic hell-storm is where Silversun Pickups have set-up camp to produce three terrific albums during the last five years. I am so glad that someone in mainstream music has embraced this sound because it is one that has been sorely lacking on the radio for years.

I first saw Silversun Pickups at Coachella in 2007. They performed in the afternoon on the main stage to a modest-sized crowd and delivered a highlight set of the festival. Their set was a giant, barn-burner full of guitar energy, pounding drums, and deep danceable bass lines. I walked away from their set determined to learn more about them, but also impressed with their infectious happiness at being on stage in front of such a large crowd. I got the impression Silversun Pickups were a band that had been working at it a long time, and were now finally about to have their well-deserved moment. I saw Silversun Pickups again earlier this year when they opened for Muse at the Patriot Center. Their set was very good, but I must admit, a little lost in the immensity that is the anticipation of a Muse concert. Of note during this set were the tunes from Silversun's latest album, "Swoon".

I find "Swoon" to be a crazy follow-up album. Technically it is Silversun Pickup's third album, but really "Swoon" is more like a sophomore effort because it is the follow-up to their break-out album, "Carnavas". As follow-ups go, "Swoon" is a daring, noisy mess that abandons a lot of the structure that made "Carnavas" a hit. I think it is a bold move on the band's part, but after hearing the "Swoon" songs before Muse and then again on Wednesday night, I have to say that based on their quality-live and the crowd's reactions to them, the new songs really work.

'Silversun Pickups'
courtesy of 'MudflapDC'

Wednesday night's concert was a real joy to attend. The sound and lighting in DAR Hall was once again on point.* Each element of the band was crystal clear and distinct in the mix; this really heightened the enjoyment of Silversun's noisier sections by letting the listener hear each and every note that went into them. As I said earlier, Silversun Pickups create quite a racket and I was expecting a feedback squall-fest on Wednesday night. I was pleasantly surprised that the production of the show gave each instrument its due in the mix. I was very impressed by how much of the band's noise is actually generated by the keyboardist, Joe Lester. Silversun's drummer and bassist were also a major presence in the mix this time. There were times when the Nikki Monninger's bass was a flat-out, funky force to be reckoned with; particularly during 'It's Nice To Know You Work Alone', 'Panic Switch' and 'Catch and Release'. Throughout the show Christopher Guanlao's drums were a highlight, particularly during an encore drum solo that was an awesome spectacle.** Perhaps the most impressive element of the band on Wednesday night was Brian Aubert's vocals.

Aubert has a very unique singing voice that I am sure has more than its fair share of fans in radio land. His singing on Wednesday night was a real treat. There were a few times early in the set when I felt his guitar was mixed too low in deference to his singing. This began as a disappointment for me, but my impression quickly adjusted as Aubert delivered one amazing vocal performance after another. 'There's No Secrets This Year' and 'Kissing Families' were particular vocal high points in an evening full of them. That is not to say Aubert's guitar did not eventually get its chance to truly annihilate that big concert hall. The whole night the guitar sounded good such as on 'The Royal We', but it was on the two song main-set closing stretch of 'Panic Switch' and 'Lazy Eye' that Aubert truly unleashed the fury. The second half of 'Panic Switch' featured a jaw-dropping wall of guitar noise that continued into a sick couple of minutes of pure shoegazer indulgence as transition before launching into a guitar-glorious version of Silversun Pickup's opus 'Lazy Eye'.

'Silversun Pickups'
courtesy of 'MudflapDC'

Wednesday's concert featured a lot of stage banter between Aubert, Monninger, and the crowd. Once again, both seemed awe-struck that so many people had paid to watch them perform on stage. Aubert delivered an extended thank you to the crowd between 'Catch and Release' and 'Panic Switch'. With most other performers, these kinds of speeches can come across as disingenuous but coming from Aubert and supported by Monninger their thanks seemed to truly come from the heart. Aubert also gave a shout out to the 9:30 Club as one of their "favorite clubs in this country" when he dedicated their first encore song, 'Substitution', to the people who work there.

Personal highlights of the show were hearing 'The Royal We', 'Kissing Families', and the extended noise jam that Aubert and Lester closed the show out with. Aubert and Lester dived into the sonics after a great version of 'Common Reactor' to close the show. They created some unholy noise that drove half of the floor out of the room before the band had even left the stage. I got a real kick out of watching them embrace the noise at the end of their fantastic set. It felt like we were catching a glimpse under the hood at Silversun Pickups' sound engine. While Aubert and Lester hacked away at their pedals and keyboards, Monniger and Guanlao high-five'd and shook hands with a small army of adoring fans who rushed to the stage as the rest of the crowd began their exodus from noise.

* I still don't get what people are complaining about with DAR Hall. In the last month I have sat in three very different sections and each one had great sound and a great view.

** Silversun Pickups' drummer Christopher Guanlao has the tallest cymbal I have ever seen on a drum kit.

Goldfrapp @ 9:30 Club 6/21/10

2010-06-29T22:51:00.000-04:00

courtesy of Goldfrapp.

Allison Goldfrapp, the fairy godmother of electro-pop, descended from her pink-chiffon cloud to treat us mere mortals to one hell of a concert at the 9:30 Club on Monday night. The performance was one of the first dates on her U.S. tour in support of her fifth album, "Head First", but the concert also served as a reminder to the pop-forgetful that she is the best in the biz when it comes to dreamy-vocals set to retro-chic, electro-beats. This summer is ridiculous with its schedule of electro-pop divas visiting DC. From The Golden Filter, to La Roux, to Robyn, and Dragonette each group owes a huge debt to Goldfrapp for putting the pop polish on the synth and keyboard sound that began its revival as the much harsher electro-clash in the late 90's. Will Gregory and Allison Goldfrapp, the duo that compose Goldfrapp in the studio, have been cranking out great albums since 2000, while Allison and her live band have been putting on terrific live shows full of style and originality that will be hard to forget when seeing their electro-pop descendants perform over the next couple of months. Monday night's Goldfrapp show took a few songs to really get going but once the band got into their groove it was pure escapist, retroactive, pseudo-futuristic bliss.

A few things I'd like to get out of the way right up front.

The set design for this tour is very, very silly and a little confusing. Basically, Goldfrapp emerge from and then perform in front of a giant silver donut. I wish I had a picture of this thing so you could see for yourself but unfortunately I do not. Really a donut is the most polite thing I can call this very lame stage prop. Even when they shined different colored lights on it, the thing still looked like a giant donut. Either that or one of those inflatable circle things pregnant woman sit on for comfort. Who knows, maybe Allison is trying to hint at something? The band's costumes were not much better. Seemingly made out of the same silver material as the donut; their sagging yet tight outfits made the band look like extras in a scene from the old Buck Rogers' television series. I was half expecting Tweaky to emerge from the silver donut to complete the effect.

As far as the atmosphere of the club, it was uncomfortably sold-out and the crowd had more than its fair-share of self-centered jerks. After the show I spoke with several groups of attendees, who stood in very different sections of the club, who all had some portion of the evening ruined by Chatty Cathy, Break-up Bill, and other generally rude a$$holes. This is a real pity because this was not a cheap show and I'm sure some real fans had to dig deep to attend, only to have some oblivious jerk talk through the whole performance or worse literally elbow and shove them.

Oddly the lighting at the start of the show was somewhat lacking. I was expecting Goldfrapp to put on an uber-dramatic presentation, but the show started out with just house lights. This was a bit of a let-down but was soon rectified when the lighting tech woke up from his nap a few songs into it and the visuals really kicked into high gear.

But enough with the gripes! How was the show?

The Giant Silver Donut Tour started off with a fantastic version of 'Crystalline Green' that got the crowd raring to go with its "Here we come, driving down" opening lines. For the most of the set, Allison wore a black bodysuit under a glittery, black, shawl that looked like it was made out of evil Christmas tinsel or the chaff that fighter jets eject to confuse heat seeking missiles. It was the one outrageous outfit that really worked. Her tinsel coat caught the light in hundreds of crazy ways as she danced in slow motion, marched back and forth, and flinged her wild blond hair all around herself.

The music was a little reflective of the lighting situation. After 'Crystalline Green' the band settled into a four song stretch that just didn't really work for me. The songs were slower numbers like 'I Wanna Life' and 'Head First' which are strong on the new album but made me feel like Allison might be entering the aging-diva phase of her career the way they were performed live. There was some hope in a very good live rendition of 'Dreaming' in this stretch but that was tempered by 'A&E' which I felt was the only flat-out lame song of the night.

Thankfully 'Dreaming' was more indicative of how the concert would progress. By their sixth song, 'Number 1', the band and the lights were firing on all cylinders. The stage became bathed in dramatic colors, lights were firing off all over the place, and the band started moving around the stage more. For the first time since the set opener, the band and the crowd felt like they had some energy. After 'Number 1' the energy level in the room and quality of the music skyrocketed for the rest of the show. Each song then took the crowd higher and higher until by set's end we were all completely entranced.

The two song run of 'Believer' and 'Alive' (even with a dropped lyric) was so bubbling with joy that it felt like the walls of the club might blow-out. People were grinning from ear-to-ear and getting down. The crowd may have had its share of jerks, but it also had an overwhelming majority of dance fans. Goldfrapp then cooled it off for a moment with the almost Kraut-techno sounding 'Shiny and Warm'. Once the crowd caught their breath though, this song too ascended into dance-pit mania. This song had the best visuals of the night as a series of powerful silver strobe-lights cut through a wall of fog to illuminate Allison and her shiny chaff-jacket like she was dancing while lit by machine-gun muzzle-flash! Golfrapp dropped the 'Train' bomb on the crowd next, which seemed to lift many people into their own personal music nirvanas.

Mine came a song later when Goldfrapp performed a truly transcendent version of 'Ride a White Horse'. It was on this song that all the elements of the show came together perfectly and beautifully. I was so taken by the extended live performance of this song that I had to remind myself what I was watching was real. The lights were spectacular (some of the best I've seen in the 9:30 Club), the band were killing it, and Allison's voice....oh my god. There is a reason Allison Goldfrapp is a star and it is performances like Monday night's 'Ride a White Horse'. She totally stole the hearts of everyone in the club with that performance. She played many roles on this song; from dance-diva, leading us around the floor with her voice to pin-drop, awe-inspiring, big-voiced heroics; it was all there. There were two points during 'White Horse' that I thought to myself "now this is why we are all here, this is what it is all about". The first was a musical breakdown that featured Allison delivering spacey reverbed-howls, the second was a bit later in the song when the band dropped all their playing except for the beat and Allison's voice; here Allison mesmerized us with a soul-stirring verse until the band kicked back in a few moments later.

Goldfrapp closed their main set with 'Oh La La', but I was still buzzing from the amazing 'Ride a White Horse' to really pay attention.* We were treated to two encores. The first was a three song set that included a cyber-punk, operatic rendition of 'Utopia' and a very nice 'Black Cherry'. 'Black Cherry' was a slow number that I felt redeemed the earlier (sort of boring) slow songs. I thought it was beautiful and really showed the power of a band needing to find their groove. They closed with 'Rocket' and 'Strict Machine'; both songs left us all aching for more.

At the start of the show Allison mentioned that they were all jet-lagged and I thought that you could certainly tell during the first few songs. Thankfully they shook it off like the pros they are and ramped things up for the rest of their set. Despite the slow start, Goldfrapp delivered a show that is the electro-pop concert to beat this summer. I can't wait to see and hear what the rest of the summer has in store for DC.

* Really, 'Ride a White Horse' was that damn good!

The Golden Filter @ DC9 6/18/10

2010-06-20T20:28:00.003-04:00

'The Golden Filter'
courtesy of 'yousayyeah'

On Friday night, DC9 mainstay, Liberation Dance Party brought in New York's The Golden Filter for a special appearance to amp up the already crazy dance party LDP hosts week after week. Unsurprisingly, the result was an even crazier dance party. The Golden Filter delivered a killer set of sexy electro-pop to a packed house eager to dance, dance, dance! And dance they did, taking to the riser boxes, standing on the booths, shaking and grinding while the band delivered on the promise of their amazing debut album, Voluspa, with a live performance that was a delight to watch through the filter of moving bodies.

Each song on The Golden Filter's long-player comes wrapped in a layer of ethereal gauze that I feel elevates the album from run-of-the-mill electro-pop. Going into Friday night's show, I was very curious how that sound was going to come across live. For the most part the band performed amped-up, versions of their album tracks that focused on body-moving over atmosphere (rightfully so playing at a dance party). But there were a few great moments when that atmosphere The Golden Filter is so good at creating was too awesome to resist. For instance when they slowed it down to play 'Moonlight Fantasy'; a sexy, synth-stringed number that had Penelope Trappes delivering a truly dreamy vocal performance that must have got some pulses racing in the dark corners of the club.

The Golden Filter are a duo on their album, but a trio live. Penelope Trappes is the playful, charismatic, master of ceremonies; a tall, blond, goddess peeking out from behind her long bangs and commanding the crowd with her singing and hand gestures. Stephen Hindman may be short in stature but he is a huge presence in The Golden Filter's sound. The synth-mastermind of the group; he played very impressive live keyboards, launched pre-programmed loops via laptop, controlled the lights of the show, and most impressively played a powerful auxiliary drummer with a mini-kit set-up next to his keyboards. I was on Hindman's side of the stage and I was as mesmerized by his timing (switching from keyboards, to drums, and back; sometimes within seconds) as I was with Trappes' voice and stunning appearance. Rounding out the live band is a full-on drummer; always a smart move when taking electronic music on the road.* Perhaps the most impressive aspect of The Golden Filter's live sound is their drumming. When Hindman turns to his mini-kit and accompanies the live drummer the dual-drumming effect is amazing. Talk about getting bodies moving! The dual drumming had the double effect of amping the volume of the beats and deepening their pitch to a tribal sound that the audience found irresistible.

'The Golden Filter'
courtesy of 'yousayyeah'

The Golden Filter's set-list was basically a rearranged song order of Voluspa. The show began with a spare, trad electro-pop sound but the band quickly expanded their sound after a few songs to really hit that danceable yet gauzy sound I mentioned earlier. At one point in the middle of their set, Trappes picked up a silver, box-shaped, noise-maker and the band did a pure atmopshere jam. It was the least dance-portion of the night and Trappes apologized for their "indulgence" before commanding the crowd to "Dance!". It was an apology that was hardly necessary because we were all standing in the crowd completely hypnotized by the beautiful noise The Golden Filter had just created.

By the end of the set, the crowd was so worked up and thick with bodies that the band couldn't even get off of the stage! So they dived head-first into their one-song encore, performing a cover of The White Stripes' 'The Hardest Button to Button' that got the crowd dancing hard and screaming along with the Trappes' singing. The Golden Filter worked the crowd perfectly on Friday, giving them exactly what they were looking for at Liberation Dance Party gone live.

* I was unable to identify The Golden Filter's live drummer. If anyone knows who he is please leave a comment.

Isis & The Melvins @ 9:30 Club 6/16/10

2010-06-19T18:40:00.002-04:00

courtesy of ISIS.

It all began as a simple tour announcement. ISIS playing with The Melvins at 9:30 Club on June 16th. For a few weeks, ISIS fans assumed that this would be an ISIS show with The Melvins as the opening act. Then it turned out that The Melvins were listed as the headliner and ISIS would be opening. And Isis fans let out a collective groan of disappointment. Then ISIS made the bombshell announcement that they are breaking up and that this tour will be their last. And ISIS fans took to the street: crying, breaking stuff, and banging their foreheads against walls like the Ayatollah Khomeini had just died. In reaction, ISIS and The Melvins wisely switched schedule spots for the remainder of the tour. So it was that noise-rock mainstays, The Melvins, opened for post-metal originators, ISIS, when they played together at the 9:30 Club on Wednesday night.

I have seen The Melvins more times than I can officially count. They are one of the all-time opening bands. I have seen this noise-rock group open for Helmet (at least twice), Tool, Butthole Surfers, Jello Biafra (they also played as his backing band), and many others over the last 18 years or so. Perhaps because of this eternal-opener status, I have never really given The Melvins their full due. In the last year or so however The Melvins have been playing with a dual drummer line-up (ever since absorbing the group Big Business) and I have been more impressed with them than ever. When they opened for The Butthole Surfers at Regency Ballroom in San Francisco last year, they really brought the house and I was mightily impressed. The one big reservation I have about The Melvins is their goofy humor. They fool around a lot while performing, which I find off-putting because I know they are capable of seriously crushing noise.

This was the case on Wednesday night. The Melvins took to the stage to the theme from "Rawhide" wearing their usual ridiculous outfits. This is a fine opening bit and it would be great as if in San Fran last year, the humor stopped there. But it didn't. Musically The Mevlins are a super-tight noise-rock unit that really destroy the listener when they perform live. The dual drummers mirror one another in an almost inhuman way that is fascinating and somewhat exhausting to watch. The Melvins's drummers are so good live that you can actually become so absorbed in watching them that you flinch when they unexpectedly break formation from each other with crazy drum-fills. Add to these spectacular drummers, some of the deepest, sludgiest rock guitar and bass you are likely to find and you make for a pretty great live set. Wednesday's Melvins' set was great for the most part, but they did a lot of musical humor that continually pulled the listener out of the moment. I know that this veteran unit must have some larger scheme behind what they are doing with the humor, but I just don't really get it. I wish they would stick to the dirty, dumpster noise-rock and leave the humor for rehearsals.

I should mention here that the 9:30 Club felt completely packed for this show. It seemed like people were jammed into every nook and cranny of the place. I am tempted to say that people were hanging from the rafters just to get the point across; while that did not happen, it is what it felt like. I assumed everyone was there for ISIS' big farewell. After all, in the music business, everyone comes out for a funeral. There weren't half as many people at the last 9:30 Club ISIS show. Where were these fans then? Too bad most of them were not there, they missed the best show in DC of 2007.

ISIS are the band that combined the epic sound and structure of post-rock and applied it to heavy metal to create post-metal. If they are remembered for one factor of influence it should be that. They are the fathers of a genre. I have seen ISIS five times and they have made my year-end, best-of DC lists three times. I consider them one of the very best live acts going. So it is with a heavy heart that I went into Wednesday night's show, knowing it would be the last time I would ever see them perform live.*

It is also with a heavy heart that I must report that Wednesday's set was the least of five times I have seen ISIS perform live. Perhaps because they know they are done as a group, or maybe because they were tired, or maybe because it was just a bad day for them, whatever the reasons, ISIS' set on Wednesday night was lacking. That is not to say their set was bad. By no means was it bad. But it was a little disappointing. Every time I have seen ISIS play live, they bring passion, precision, and perfection to deliver what could arguably be some of the best individual sets of music I have ever seen. To see them playing an average, run-of-the-mill live set is disappointing.** To have that set be their swan song is a little heart-breaking.

The problem with their set was that the band seemed to be just hacking away at the songs. It was a very forceful set that had a certain primal appeal. Very metal for sure, it got everyone moving, myself included. But therein lies the problem. ISIS are a post-metal band. Their music appeals to the inner-ape and the enlightened mind. On Wednesday night ISIS performed their songs with a thuggish approach that entertained but did not wholly satisfy. It was an entertaining set of music to be sure, but I feel that ISIS' material and their legacy deserved a little more.

* Nooooooooo!!!

** A similar thing happened when I saw Radiohead for the third time. My first and second Radiohead shows were epic, the third was not bad but couldn't hold a candle to the previous sets. Sadly, even the greats can be average from time to time.

This Will Destroy You @ DC9 6/10/10

2010-06-19T18:40:00.001-04:00

courtesy of Girlie Action.

The Texan, post-rock quartet This Will Destroy You played DC9 last Thursday. As I type this review several days later, I am still reeling from their titanic performance. I am tempted to free-style gush about it here, but instead I will break the evening down into pieces to help my brain sort out the chaos that is left in the wake of their visit to the nation's Capital. In other words, rather than shout "Godzilla!" and start jabbering in incomprehensible language as I try to describe This Will Destroy You laying waste to everything in their path; I will try to provide you with a semi-coherent write-up of Thursday night's show.

The evening began with a set by New York-based post-rockers, Slow Six. Slow Six put on a very respectable effort that soothed rather then challenged the crowd. They are unique in instrumental post-rock in that they are fronted by two violinists who are very much the rock-stars of the group. Slow Six also heavily features organ/keyboards which I particularly liked as it provided Hammond-like noodling underneath the violins and guitar. At one point, one of Slow Six's violinist thrust a small hand-held radio into the hand of an audience member and asked him to hold it under a microphone for the duration of a song. The radio squawked and talked providing an almost Godspeed YBE feel to Slow Six's set. It is always cool when acts work radio broadcasts into their sets. I've seen Radiohead, Rage Against The Machine, and a few others do this and it makes the performance a one of a kind piece of performance art. Slow Six gets major props for pulling such a neat trick. They also get the nod for making consistently noisy sound-scapes with their nontraditional lead instruments.

Next up were Chicago, psych-rockers, Light Pollution. After an agonizingly long sound-check I was expecting to be really blown away by this large band. After all this was a night of post-rock, one of the most precise genres around, and Light Pollution seemed to be very finicky about their settings. Instead Light Pollution launched into a very mediocre set of noisy, sloppy psychedelic rock. It was painfully average and somewhat annoying to listen to after the inventiveness of Slow Six, and knowing that This Will Destroy You were yet to perform. It was one of those lame sets that you dread having to sit through before the main act goes on. I normally would skip over writing about such lameness but since Light Pollution were sandwiched in-between good and great bands, well, they are getting a bit of the business. Light Pollution came across as very lame, particularly when compared to the great psych-rock I had seen just a few weeks earlier. Their set drove me downstairs to wait it out after awhile. When I returned to catch their ending number, I remained unimpressed and talked with more than one person in attendance who agreed with my assessment. I would say that Light Pollution should go back to the drawing board, or the garage, but instead I think maybe they should just go back to their day jobs.

This Will Destroy You (TWDY) also took a very long time to sound check but had an entirely different result. They crushed us. There is no other way to put it. TWDY crushed us. Their performance was mammoth, filling the room with a physical sound that picked you up and slammed you against the walls, merch table, and bar. Thank god DC9 recently remodeled and moved the old staircase or the force of their music would have been chucking people down the stairs with the frequency of a bouncer gone mad.

If there is one recurring description/criticism of post-rock music it is the quiet-loud-quiet-loud structure of most post-rock pieces. There is no denying that this is a structure that can flirt with formula. The beauty of the genre however is seeing what inventive ways bands can manipulate the structure. Some bands like Slow Six, approach it with nontraditional instruments to create music of real beauty. Others like Mogwai stick to the structure but play with its length for varying degrees of intensity or emotion. This Will Destroy You has a different approach to the quiet-loud thing. They basically obliterate the sense of calm or beauty that the quiet sections usually evoke; opting instead to fill those moments with tension and restrained noise, leaving the listener with no hope of coming up for air. Ever.

This Will Destroy You's songs are epic in length and have the power of jet engines rumbling within them. With no rest for the weary listener, their sound explosions detonate all around you like you are standing naked in an artillery barrage. The listeners have no choice but to stand there wincing as all hell breaks loose around them. Thursday night's show was phenomenal and wholly refreshing. TWDY are perhaps the most unsettling post-rock band I have experienced live. In a sense they create almost Industrial post-rock. There was never really a moment, even after they were joined by a Slow Six violist, when I thought that there was something beautiful going on. Instead TWDY's songs played out like irresistable pressure-builds to inevitable natural disasters.

Composed of two guitarists, a bass player, and a drummer This Will Destroy You provide an awesome set of musicians to watch live. Their drummer and bass-player are very dynamic and have a lot to do as they are largely responsible for lending the quiet moments their sense of propulsion and dread. For the most part, their two guitarists avoided the Explosions In The Sky-style, beautiful, plinky guitar lines and opted instead to create shoegazer haze until opening up their roar-boxes during each song's tumultuous finale.

There were two images that kept reoccurring in my mind while listening to TWDY's on Thursday. The first image was of a tractor-trailer hurtling out-of-control down a mountain road. The second image was of a freight train speeding toward a gasoline tanker-truck stuck on the rails. Both images were in slow motion during TWDY's quiet moments. Then after an eternity of anticipation the band launch into their loud parts. Huge, drawn-out guitar riots that had the imagined slo-mo tractor-trailer speed up to real time and smash through a road barricade, hurtling over the edge, down into a rocky ravine amid a shower of debris. This Will Destroy You's loud moments were annihilating. Very similar to Mono in that their loud moments were so big that the listener is trapped within them and has no choice but to surrender to them. I imagined the runaway freight train also sped up to real-time and smashing into the gasoline-truck creating a massive fireball. When This Will Destroy You performed on Thursday night, the crowd were standing inside that fireball and it was wonderful.

Impeding doom and panic. Explosions and twisted metal. Instrumental tension and then forceful eruption. This is what This Will Destroy You sound like live. On Thursday night they most certainly lived up to their name. I am still picking up the pieces after their terrific and devastating concert.

Conan O'Brien @ DAR Constitution Hall 6/8/10

2010-06-10T00:09:00.001-04:00

Tuesday night had me back at DAR Constitution Hall to witness the madcap hilarity of the Conan O'Brien Legally Prohibited From Being Funny On Television Tour. I don't think I need to recap how Conan lost his Tonight Show gig to its former host, other than to mention how that extremely public NBC scheduling conflict resulted in one of the oddest forms of comedic revenge I have ever witnessed. The whole point of Conan O'Brien taking his variety show on the road is to keep America laughing while exacting sweet revenge on the ratings dead-weight that replaced him on air. For two months now, Conan O'Brien, his writers, and his band have been criss-crossing America delivering knock-out evenings of comedy and music. Tuesday night's stop in DC was no different and provided the sold-out Team CoCo crowd with a non-stop night of comedic genius.

courtesy of Maribeth Darpino.

Conan O'Brien has often shared his fantasy to be a traveling rock musician and with nearly 6 months to kill before he is contractually allowed back on television he has decided to indulge that fantasy. With the remnants of the now defunct Max Weinberg Seven, re-christened The Legal Prohibited Band, backing him up, Conan has created a comedy/music variety show that is unlike anything that I have ever seen.

There were just too many amazing routines and gags peppered through-out the show to recap them all here. The show shifted gears constantly keeping the audience on their toes with costume changes, guest appearances, video segments, and "strobe lights n' crazy movement". Each song Conan performed was retooled with humorous lyrics reflecting Conan's life story and his road to recovery after losing the Tonight Show gig. Notable reworkings were of Elvis Presely's 'Poke Salad Annie' and the Cake cover-arrangement of 'I Will Survive'.

Andy Richter, Conan writer Deon Cole, and band member La Bamba provided Conan with great comedic support. Richter bantered with Conan, had a nice monologue of his own while wearing a tiny cowboy hat and riding a ridiculous stuffed horse, and narrated a hilarious fake commercial for DC Duck Tours. Deon Cole did a mini-stand-up set right in the middle of the show to allow time for a prop set-up. Cole had fun turning racial stereotypes on their head and telling some funny stories about being the only black writer on the Tonight Show. And La Bamba, well, Conan licked La Bamba's face and told the audience he tasted like Funions!

Perhaps the most DC-centric part of the show was an amazing video segment featuring Triumph The Insult Comic Dog. In the video Triumph was delivering canned monologue which had region specific references digitally inserted. It was purposefully done so poorly that it was funny in its own right. But the DC specific references and insults that Triumph unleashed were even funnier. At one point he was insulting the food at Yum's Carryout and said that if he "wanted his colon stuffed with mystery meat he'd go eat in Dupont Circle! Because it's a gay neighborhood!" Insult dog indeed.

Perhaps the two best sight gags of the show were Conan returning to the stage mid-show in a skin-tight recreation of the purple, leather outfit Eddie Murphy wore in his concert film "Raw"; and the inflating of Conan's "AC/DC" style stage prop. Other cities on this tour have had some amazing guest walk-ons. New York got Steve Colbert, John Stewart, and Pee Wee Herman. While those are cool and all, DC got something just a little more bitchin'.

Conan brought the original inflatable bat from Meatloaf's "Bat Out Of Hell Tour" and inflated it not once, but twice on the DAR stage! Or at least what Conan claimed was the original Meatloaf inflatable bat. The thing sure did look aged and beaten enough to be the real thing. It also looked completely and utterly absurd. Conan said he bought it sight unseen and after it inflated he and Andy Richter took hilarious pot-shots at how lame and friendly looking it was. At one point Conan quipped, "This thing was supposed to guard the gates of Hell? We're in Hell, we're baking cookies!"

courtesy of Maribeth Darpino.

It was obvious, from the many references to it, that Conan O'Brien was very affected by losing the Tonight Show job. It was also obvious, from the heartfelt thank you he gave the audience and the great entertainment he provided them, that he was greatly moved by the huge public outpouring of support for him during that time. In a way the whole crazy tour seems like a way for him to travel the country and get as close as he can to personally thanking his dedicated fans.

In fact during the encore song he did just that. Conan leaped off of the stage and ran through the roaring crowd giving out high-fives and hugs and jumping up and down with screaming fans. The he bolted out of the auditorium through one of the side exits while the band wailed away at their tune. Conan was gone for just a few moments too long, just long enough to be funny. And then he suddenly materialized out of one of the balcony seat entrances, the entrance closest to our seats. Conan ran right up to our section and began to hug and high-five fans all around us. I grabbed my sister-in-law (who worships Conan O'Brien something fierce), pushed her in front of me, and she got a hug from Conan O'Brien!*

All of my life, for as long as I can remember, I have wanted to experience a concert where the front-man of the band or the headlining comedian jumped off stage mid-show to run out of the theater's exit and then stayed outside just long enough for it to be slightly uncomfortable for the audience. I think it is a brilliant and whacky thing to do to an audience. I remember this one Kevin Meany comedy special where he left the theater completely and began berating passing motorists with questions and insults. The best footage was of the clueless audience he left behind in the theater. I have always wanted to experience that kind of crazy move at a concert and thanks to Conan O'Brien I can finally say that I have. Conan doing that was amazing in its own right, but even more amazing was how it ended (for my sister-in-law).

*A highlight of her life. If anyone has any pictures or video of Conan hugging people in the upper-seats at the back of the Hall please leave a comment on this article. I would really like to get her a copy.

The National @ DAR Constitution Hall 6/6/10

2010-06-07T23:56:00.000-04:00

"The National at DAR" courtesy of Samer Farha.

The National are blowing up huge in 2010. Of that there is no question. Their latest album "High Violet" debuted at number three on the Billboard Top 200 when it dropped last month. It has been nearly impossible to avoid their massive campaign of television and festival appearances, rave album reviews in print and online, and their inventive use of web-isodes and internet video exclusives. When a band gets pushed this hard it gives one pause. Do they have the chops to back it up or is this all a smoke screen to sell shoddy product? In the case of The National it is readily apparent to the listener of "High Violet" or the attendee at one of their concerts that this is a very talented band that has hit their stride.

"High Violet" is the fifth album by The National. Their style has evolved over the years from alt-country inflected pop albums to a darker and emotionally huge sound (that frankly suits the band better). "High Violet" rounds out a trilogy of excellently written and performed albums. It is preceded by "Boxer" and "Alligator". Vocally all three albums have just the right balance of melancholy, introspection, and frustration to provide a wealth of emotion to the listener. Musically The National have become more and more interesting with each of these three albums. "Boxer" may represent a lush musical peak for the band, but it is on "High Violet" that they employ just the right measure of restraint to their large sound, lending real gravity to their lyrics.

The National performed to a sold out crowd at DAR Constitution Hall on Sunday night. Like their last three albums, their live show proved that The National are seriously talented and exciting performers. The show heavily mined "High Violet", "The Boxer", and "Alligator"; perfectly blending great songs from all three to balance moments of emotional honesty, musical cacophony, and pop brilliance. For a band that features lyrics of such introspection and woe, The National provide a surprisingly powerful and energetic concert that more than once had me thinking of The Cure and U2. After experiencing The National live on Sunday night, I imagine, that much like those two long-running and massively successful bands, The National could have a long and successful future crafting ever-evolving emotional pop music.

"The National at DAR" courtesy of Samer Farha.

The National took to the stage in front of a large, blank canvas backdrop. Rather than featuring pre-prod visuals, they simply employed colored lights and their own blacked-out silhouettes as the visual element of their show. It was very striking to see the blacked-out band members performing in front of a massive wall of solid blue, purple, red, or orange. The lighting was so good at DAR that when they did these band black-out/color wall effects it almost felt like you were watching a high-def music video instead of an actual live band. But that is DAR Hall for you. I hear a lot of complaints about DAR as a rock venue, but personally I think the place is all class all, the way. It is a beautiful concert hall that elevates rock and pop music performance to an almost classical-music presentation.

"The National at DAR" courtesy of Samer Farha.

The National were certainly the perfect class-act for this class establishment. From their beautifully spare opening song 'Runaway', to their excellent renditions of 'Conversation 16' and 'Afraid of Everyone', and rounded out by a devastating version of 'Daughters of the Soho Riots' the band regularly offered up moments of real honest emotion that felt perfectly at home in the surroundings. There were also plenty of moments of pop star exuberance that strained the confines of this esteemed hall. Most notably on 'Able' when lead singer Matt Beringer climbed into the audience and ran screaming through the aisles all the way to the back of the hall and then again during their encore when Beringer climbed up onto the balcony and ran amok amongst the cheap seats during 'Mr. November'.

"The National at DAR" courtesy of Samer Farha.

For Sunday's concert the core band of five was augmented by the addition of a brilliant multi-instrumentalist, Padma Newsome, who played keyboards, violins (both bowed and plucked), and an assortment of yard-sale found instrument oddities; and a two man horn section (trumpet and trombone). The eight man unit was extremely impressive constantly switching instruments from song to song, displaying a wholesale mastery of multiple instruments. The one musician who didn't switch it up was drummer, Bryan Devendorf. I'd like to make special note of his performance because it was a joy to watch. From the most melancholy moments to the loudest cacophony he was always doing something interesting with his drum kit. This was best illustrated during the two song stretch that opened the show of 'Runaway' and 'Mistaken for Strangers'. During 'Runaway' he was holding and using three different percussive implements in his hands while subtly drumming with both feet on separate drums (and that was on a quiet song!). He really unloaded the heavy percussion once 'Mistaken...' went full throttle.

"The National at DAR" courtesy of Samer Farha.

I was thoroughly impressed with The National's concert on Sunday. The crowd seemed to be completely enthralled by this electric performance too. The National have been around a long time, touring hard and tweaking their sound on successive albums. It is obvious they have fostered an adoring fan base that continues to grow as they develop as a band. As I mentioned before 2010 seems to be The National's year and rightly so based on the quality of their latest album "High Violet" and the high caliber of their live show. The National are currently on a ridiculously massive world tour so there will be plenty of opportunities to catch them live if you missed out on Sunday night's stellar performance at DAR Constitution Hall.

'The National at DAR'
courtesy of 'Samer Farha'

* a full and accurate setlist.
* more photos by Samer Farha.

Fear Factory & Prong @ Jaxx 6/3/10

2010-06-07T23:55:00.001-04:00

courtesy of Fear Factory.

Last week I took the trip out to Jaxx in Springfield to catch the industrial-metal, throw-back, double-bill of Prong and Fear Factory. Motivated mostly by nostalgia for two bands that I was a fan of in the 1990's, I trekked out to suburban VA's, heavy metal, bunker, Jaxx to head-bang and mosh with one of the most aggressive and devout crowds I have seen in a decade. The entire experience felt like I had tripped into a space-time continuum hiccup and teleported back to 1995.

In 2010, Heavy Metal is still a hugely popular genre but inside the beltway its fans trend toward a more intellectual appreciation of the heavy stuff. I would say that I fall into this camp as I greatly enjoy post-metal bands and the more experimental and envelope-pushing a Metal band gets the more interested I become. Unfortunately, DC is also home to an enclave of hipster Metal "fans" who listen to the older stuff with sly ironic grins; a position I loathe because it seems to be more about mocking the music than appreciating it. While I have been enjoying the Metal experimental frontier for years, I believe a true Metal fan's love of the genre must be founded in the classics of the genre; loud as an air raid, heavy as a ton of bricks, and finger-bleeding fast.

There is no irony to be found at Jaxx. The club exists as a last-stand outpost for the old school enjoyment of big, dumb, metal in a world that has for the most part moved on to more sophisticated music forms. In other words, thank the dark lord and his minions for a place like Jaxx. Oddly-placed in a tiny strip-mall, this club is a living monument to all things Metal. I haven't been to Jaxx in 15 years, and although the place has been remodeled, it felt exactly the same as it did over a decade ago. With its sunken mosh-pit floor and in-your-face stage, Jaxx is an ideal place to see former genre titans thrashing against the chains of fate and refusing to acknowledge their faded glory. At Jaxx the crowd is hard-core dedicated to their heroes; they scream along every word, head-bang en masse, and mosh more than any crowd I have seen inside the District in years.

This show caught my eye for a few reasons. Prong and Fear Factory felt like a perfect pairing with their industrial slant on trad-Metal. The last time I caught Prong they opened for Danzig and totally upstaged him with their forceful presentation. Fear Factory are a band I never saw in concert before. Their line-up woes over the years have always turned me off from shelling out hard-earned green to see them, even though their album "Demanufacture" is one of my all-time favorite metal albums.*

The double-bill piqued my curiosity enough to research it and I discovered that Fear Factory's original guitarist, Dino Cazares is finally back in the band. In addition FF moved their bass player, Byron Stroud, back to bass (from guitar), and added one of the best Metal drummers ever, Gene "Atomic Clock" Hoglan. This was enough to convince me to buy a ticket. Then I heard Fear Factory's latest album "Mechanize" and began to get very excited. "Mechanize" is a perfect return to form to the classic 90's Fear Factory sound. So good in fact that it erases the lesser 00's albums from memory almost completely.

I got to the club just in time to hear an opening band's final song. Ending with a chant of "We love women, we love weed, get fucked up!" I knew I wasn't in Kansas anymore. One look at the crowd also tipped that off right away. Jaxx was filled with a teeming throng of pissed-off teenage boys in black band t-shirts, past-their-prime Metal babes still giving it their all, and a gang of truly awesome old metal warriors from back in the day. It was one of the roughest looking crowds I've seen in awhile. The whole place reeked of sweat and anger. Everyone from the kids to the grandpas had the same look in their eyes that said, "Life may be shit but tonight it is time for some fist-pumping, mosh-pit dancing, aggression-fueled, me time".

I'll keep the Prong section of this short and to the point because they were not nearly as good on Thursday as they have been in the past. Tommy Victor was having a good time, but he was playing all the guitar parts himself, and I felt his awesome trademark high-pitched guitar lines got lost in the muddle of playing the rhythm guitar parts. Victor's vocals were also a bit lackluster. In a word Prong's set felt lacking. It was merely a fun run-through of their greatest hits. I enjoyed it but might not have without the nostalgia factor. The highlight for me was their performance of "Whose Fist Is This Anyway" which is one of my favorite Prong songs. Prong's set adhered strictly to the speed-limit on memory-lane, which had me a little concerned about what the recently reclaimed Fear Factory would have in store for us.

courtesy of Blipvurt.

The crowd didn't seem to notice any of this though. Dutifully and enthusiastically singing along during Prong and then swelling with anticipation for Fear Factory. I particularly enjoyed the fact that there were so many kids at this show. Young genre music fans provide such unique energy to a show. It was great to overhear groups of kids discussing hypothesized set lists and band rumors. They were all so excited. It reminded me of when I was a kid and every show I was allowed to go to was a really big deal. For some of the kids there, I bet Thursday's concert was the show of their lives.

Luckily for them Fear Factory completely delivered. The renewed energy provided by the return of Dino Cazares and addition of Gene Hoglan, combined with the successful recording and release of "Mechanize" had the band bringing out their 'A' game. Fear Factory played a set-list that was perfect for the old-school FF fan; composed of the very best songs from their very best albums, it often felt like they were playing each FF song I had hoped to hear as I prepped for the show earlier in the week. The set heavily featured the albums "Demanufacture", "Obsolete", and "Mechanize" which strengthened the trilogy aspect of the two classics and the new album. We were also treated to a song from "Digitmortal" and 'Martyr' off of "Soul of a New Machine".

Fear Factory presented a great live show. I was very impressed with lead singer, Burton Bell's, vocal delivery. He switched gears between a shouting angry digital demon and a spooky crooning ghost-in-the-machine so quickly and frequently it felt like there was some hidden controller maliciously changing his channels with a remote. For years I had no idea he sang all of the vocal parts and I was surprised to see him doing so live. Fear Factory offer an ultra-heavy sound and it was amazing to hear it produced by live musicians. Gene "Atomic Clock" Hoglan had a perfectly insane Metal drum-kit and worked it like the precision master that he is. Stroud, back on bass, sounded great as he kept time with Hoglan while offering up abysmally deep grooves that made the mosh-pit dance around like some post-apocalyptic tribe. Finally Dino on guitar just killed it. The guy looks like some kind of evil cousin to Gimli from LOTR; a short, thick, broad-nosed dude wielding an electric guitar into battle. Dino plays an industrialized guitar that sounds like the engine of one of those bone-crushing tanks from Terminator. The live sound generated by the combo of this line-up was incredible. The whole package sounded like the soundtrack to some future of humankind gone horribly awry as imagined in 1995.

Fear Factory's great performance in the setting of Jaxx, with its time-warp sensibilities, and the awesome crowd made for a Heavy Metal best-case scenario. I doubt this show would have been nearly as fun if it took place in town. As I said near the top of this piece, thank the dark lord for Jaxx. Now somebody go sacrifice a goat to keep this line-up of Fear Factory together for a few more new albums.

courtesy of Blipvurt.

* "Demanufacture" perfectly melds the best of Heavy Metal and 90's era Industrial music.

Mono @ 9:30 Club 6/2/10

2010-06-04T02:35:00.001-04:00

courtesy of Mono.

I have been tossing around the word "epic" an awful lot in conversation lately when describing concerts that I have attended. I do that on occasion; get stuck on a word or phrase that is an easy descriptor. A verbal short-cut to get to the gist of what the listener missed by not attending a particularly good show. For a long time it was "rules!" and "kicked ass!". I still fall back on those now and again. It annoys me when I catch myself repeating these things over and over again. It annoys me because it slightly devalues these phrases and robs them of their power when they are truly applicable in writing. Lately my word has been "epic" because I truly feel that I have been lucky enough to recently attend some epic events. Epic in either sound, significance, or both.

Wednesday night's visit to the 9:30 Club by Japanese post-rockers Mono was EPIC. Note the use of all-capital letters. I use them because there is no other word to describe Mono's first-ever concert at the 9:30 Club and I want you to really appreciate the magnitude of EPIC-ness I am talking about here. I use all-caps in an attempt to jump-start this word that I have been over-using of late, because I have no other word to describe how huge and impressive it was when Mono performed on Wednesday night.

In 2005, I saw Mono perform in a space no bigger than a living room on a patch of worn carpet as a stage. That show was my pick for best set in-and-around DC in 2005. It was an evening of true music nirvana. The intangible thing that I spend my life in search of. I was so shocked, enlightened, and blown away by that show I couldn't even bring myself to write about it for months. I was speechless. I have seen Mono perform many times since and they have become one of my favorite bands of all time to watch in concert. However, none of their shows quite matched the greatness of that 2005 set - until now.

I went into Wednesday night's concert expecting a very good show. Mono are consistent performers and I was particularly curious to hear them play on the 9:30 Club's perfect sound system. I knew this concert was going to satisfy my yearly pilgrimage to the church of Mono. But there was an element that I had not factored into my pre-show thoughts about it. Had I considered this element I would have been totally losing my cool over the prospect of this show rather than merely looking forward to it. Mono are frequently produced by Steve Albini, arguably the most precise sound-catcher in the business. I am used to hearing Mono on cheaper, dirtier-sounding club systems. A lot of their subtle brilliance is often lost in the mix at these other clubs. I had not imagined the equation of Mono's dedication to precision (even with the tiniest of sounds) plus the 9:30 Club's forensic sound system.*

The result of this combination was EPIC. First, Mono's sound filled the 9:30 Club better than just about anyone I've seen there. I mean you could practically see huge globules of sound condensing on the rafters and then raining down over the crowd. It was a physical presence that made the air shimmer. Another contributing factor to their awe inspiring sound force-field was that the club was half-full. There were not enough bodies around to absorb this sound. I was on the balcony and had room all around me. Space that filled up with Mono's sound and made you feel like you were floating.

Mono features two alien-thin guitar geniuses; an almost frighteningly focused female bass-player, and a bear-like drummer. Between the four of them they produce beautiful and intricate guitar orchestras that sway between quiet contemplative melodies and cathartic guitar-fury eruptions. When Mono open up their guitars full-throttle, for the listener, it is like trying to out-race and then being rolled over by an avalanche of sound. Mono's two guitar players represent the two general schools of thought regarding noisy-guitars. The guitarist on the right side of the stage comes from the Thurston Moore on his knees, waving his guitar around for effect, pounding on effects pedals with his fists, humping the guitar and amp school of guitar playing. The guitarist on the left plays an equally noisy but more physically restrained Kevin Shields/Jason Pierce style of seemingly effortless cool; merely tapping his pedals with the tip of his show to unleash the tempest.

Mono's drummer has always fascinated me and watching from the 9:30 balcony bird's-eye view gave me a perfect angle on all of the neat little moves he makes on the drum kit. You could hear his every tiny tap and subtle brush across the surface of a cymbal. Even underneath the many guitar assaults of the night, the drums were crystal clear in both their thunder and even more powerfully in their quiet subtle tempos. Mono's bass guitar also stood out better than I ever heard it before. There was real power to the bass sound and driving rhythms that I had never really noticed or felt at their other concerts. This amplified bass provided momentum and direction to the guitar players' epic journeys. Thanks to this, Wednesday night's concert was the most narrative of all the Mono shows I have seen before. This bass urgency added a layer of intensity to the already hugely emotional guitar work.

If you were to look around the club while Mono were performing you would see about 300 people totally dedicated to and tripping off of their sound. This was the final factor in making this the best Mono show I have attended. No one talked! Through out the entire concert, everyone was quiet and I was stunned. You really could have heard a pin drop on stage (if it was mic'd properly). I have been to a select few concerts where the crowd was this respectful to the performers.** Wednesday's crowd is the kind of crowd I wish for when seeing quiet-element bands like this. Their reverence for Mono allowed the band to totally own the club and they used it like an instrument in its own right for maximum effect.

Mono at the 9:30 Club on Wednesday night were in a word: EPIC.

* I have described 9:30 Club's sound system as forensic once before. In 2007 Isis made their 9:30 Club debut and utilized the club system with a ridiculous level of precision in sound.

** More often than not, this happens.

The 9:30 Club 30th Anniversary Concert

2010-06-02T01:53:00.001-04:00

"Bob Mould" photo taken by author.

"The reason this is the best club in America is the people that work here. Trust me, most nightclubs are terrible places. You don't want to go there." - Neill Fallon of Clutch.

"I can not imagine a DC without the 9:30 Club. It is unimaginable. It's just unimaginable" - Mark Noone of The Slickee Boys.

"I love the fact that I'm from DC!" - Henry Rollins

"Let's kick on the way back machine and get this thing over with." - Bob Mould.

One of the truly singular music events I have ever attended took place on Monday night at the 9:30 Club. It was a special free concert held in celebration of this legendary club's 30th anniversary. The night was also a celebration of the people who work (and have worked) there, the icons who got their start there, and the wonderful music that has been played there over the last 30 years. The night was full of anecdotes and music from 13 bands and artists that have strong ties to both the old and new 9:30 Club locations. For some the evening was a living, breathing, crash course in DC music history; for others it was a fun and at times even emotional trip down memory lane.

The 9:30 Club (original location) is the nightclub I cut my teeth on when I moved here in 1993. Within a few days of arriving I was catching my first show there (British twee-band Heavenly); and in the months and years after many, many more shows followed. I took a date there to see The Boredoms and she left with a black-eye. My little brother did his first stage dive when I took him there to see Helmet. I was completely enthralled with industrial music after hearing Einstruzende Neubauten on the PA before the melodramatic, dynamite-strapped Sheep on Drugs brought the house down with their industrial-dance mayhem. The old club opened my mind to most of the music that I still passionately love today.

The V st. location is without a doubt the best club-venue in the country. I've been to venues all over the U.S.A. and it always comes back to the 9:30 Club's awesome sound-system (which I have written/gushed about at length over the years). Seeing a concert at the 9:30 Club is a sublime experience for a die-hard music fan. Perhaps none more-so than the amazing show that club-owner Seth Hurwitz treated dedicated DC music fans to on Monday night.

The evening featured 15 to 20 minute micro-sets of about 3 or 4 songs each by acts spanning the history of the 9:30 Club. There was a loose chronology at work in the order of the line-up, which introduced club fans of different ages to the whole gamut of the 9:30 Club musical family. For the first half of the night each band was introduced by either club-owner Seth Hurwitz or the club's iconic bouncer Josh Burdette. Planned MC Henry Rollins was stuck on a tarmac somewhere en route but would arrive later in the evening.

Starting things off Rockville-born, world-famous, electronica artist BT set the tone as he mixed new wave, goth, and 80's tunes while the club slowly filled up with sun-baked, ticket-lottery winners. He played some choice tracks through the night. My favorites being "Cuts You Up" by Peter Murphy and later some Art of Noise.

Tiny Desk Unit were up first. Introduced as the first band and the last band to play at the old 9:30 Club location, they were invited to kick-off the next 30 years of club history. This band featured NPR All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen on keyboards, who got much love when introduced thanks to his awesome 9:30 Club concert broadcasts. I had never heard TDU before and I really enjoyed their off-kilter, post-punk, creativity. Boilen's Devo-esque keyboards squeaked and squealed, as Michael Barron laid down some high-pitched guitar, while lead singer Susan Mumford crawled onto the stage hooded by a red shawl. Mumford treated us to quite a performance as she slinked up the mic stand, and began singing in an unsettling sing-songy, almost Siouxsie-esque fashion. Their set was a lot of fun and a lot weirder than I expected.

Next up were The Fleshtones. These CBGB/Max's KC-era garage rockers lived up to their legendary pedigree by blowing the roof off the club with a balls-out fun set that featured awesome choreographed dance moves, glittery shirts, and noised-up, classic 70's punk energy. I thought I knew The Fleshtones from their recordings. Their epic micro-set on Monday night showed me that I had a lot to learn. I have to see these guys play a full show sometime. They are amazing.

courtesy of godieinhell2.

The Slickee Boys hold the distinct honor of having played the most shows at the 9:30 Club. Monday night's abridged set was their 80th time performing on stage there! I have never made it to one of The Slickee Boys' famous Christmas shows but after seeing this band of miscreant, rock-n-roll, madmen I may have to rearrange my holiday schedule come December. I greatly enjoyed their rock-n-roll chameleon nature sounding at one moment like Dick Dale gone punk and few minutes later like a cousin of The Cramps with the tune "The Brain That Refused To Die". The Slickee Boys' costumes were also hilarious and awesome; from the Fu Manchu robes, to the neon pink goggles, and of course let us not forget the awesome flower-topped, Pacific island rain-dance mask!

Duo Marti Jones & Don Dixon represented the dawning of the WHFS-era with their acoustic guitar, electric bass, vocal duets. I was sort of dumb-struck by how beautiful Marti's voice is live. I even asked some chatting folks to shush up so we could hear her better. I thought they put on a really sweet, classy set. For their final song Marty and Don invited Tommy Keene to join them on guitar and Seth Hurwtiz to sit in on drums. The final number was a fun and a little more up-tempo. Hurwitz sat in on drums a number of times through-out the night.

Tommy Keene stuck around on stage as the next act and was joined by 3/4 of his original band. I was very excited to finally be seeing this power-pop hero play live and he did not disappoint. Keene's set was full of fiery guitar solos, great pop-vocals, and an energy that was simply infectious. His band sounded fantastic on the club's sound-system and rivaled the best Brit-guitar-pop bands I've seen perform there. For his final song, Keene invited his teenage nephew Hunter to play drums and I have to say the kid did a great job. Keene's set left a smile on everybody's face.

When I first walked into the 9:30 Club for this event, I knew it was going to be special. For both the club, its extended family of staff and musicians, and for myself as a life-long music fan. Looking around the club I could not help but notice that on the far left balcony a performance area had been set-up. A drum-kit, an amp, a little sound-board, between two standing-lamps, on top of a Persian rug. It was obvious something cool was going to happen up there, so that's were I chose my spot for the night.

"The Evens on the balcony" photo by author.

Sans introduction The Evens, Ian MacKaye and Amy Farina, climbed into their intimate little area surrounded by adoring fans. Ian turned to face the floor of the club and the house-lights were turned up to illuminate the packed house below. Ian did his polite version of a sound check by asking everyone if they could hear him okay. "Are you sonically getting me?" Then he told a story about being banned from the old 9:30 Club after his first show there with Teen Idols. Everyone laughed at the irony. In typical MacKaye fashion he talked through a lot of The Evens' allotted time, but he's such a good story-teller no-one seemed to mind. The Evens played three songs all of which were great. Ian's singing is as intense as ever, as he occasionally would ram the mic with his lips before singing a line. It was great being right up next to them as they performed. Ian dedicated their last song to the 9:30 Club staff (past and present) saying "they seem to really have their shit together." It was classic MacKaye and a great mini-set of tunes.

Up next on the main stage, Seth Hurwitz introduced Harrisonburg-native Justin Jones and his band as "the next big thing in music". It was a bit of a music "industry"-feeling moment as Jones' album is set to be the debut release on the new 9:30 Club record label. I don't know if it was that or me just not digging Jones' music very much, but I unplugged a little bit during this set. The music was fine, and Jones definitely has the chops to make it big in mainstream radio-land. But I wasn't feeling it, knowing that indie music icons were en route to the stage. Jones set wrapped up after a song dedicated to farmers and it was obvious the guy is living his dream playing on stage. Who knows, maybe in ten years we'll all be able to say we saw him when...

In no short order, Henry Rollins bounced onto the stage. The travel-hindered MC had finally arrived. The club really came to life seeing ol' Hank and he launched into a very inspired anecdote about the dread of performing after Bob Mould's brilliant band, Husker Du, back in the day. Rollins called Mould one of the few men of integrity left in the music business from the old days and likened him to Ian MacKaye and Corey Rusk (of Touch & Go Records). It was a great intro and I was extremely excited to finally be seeing one of my music heroes perform.*

Bob Mould simply owned the stage. He stood stage right and played unaccompanied. Just himself and his electric guitar. It was a breath-taking fifteen minutes. He played amazing renditions of his Sugar song "Hoover Dam" and his solo tune "See A Little Light". I noticed that the crowd around me fell into hushed reverence as Mould played. I myself was subconsciously holding my breath. This was a personal music history moment and I could not believe what came next. Mould launched into his Husker Du song "I Apologize". It was a beautiful, gnarly, heart-felt version which he then followed with Husker Du's "Makes No Sense At All". By the end of these two songs, I have to admit, I was wiping away a few tears. Later in the evening I heard many people saying Mould's set was one of, if not the best set of the night.

courtesy of godieinhell2.

For the rest of the night Henry Rollins delivered inspired introductions to every act. The man was born to MC this event. He has DC music pumping through his veins. On the 9:30 Club forum, someone suggested that Henry Rollins should host the next Oscar telecast and I have to say I completely agree. He is one entertaining dude.

Poor Ted Leo had the difficult task of following Bob Mould, as Rollins had so many years ago per his story. Ted Leo did an admirable job though. He too was playing solo with just a guitar. He attacked his instrument playing nosier than I remember him usually being. He played a great mini-set of tunes that felt right at home with 90's DC indie-rock. Leo played a song he wrote in Mt. Pleasant 16 years ago, and also treated us to a cover of "To Whom Were You Born" by the Baltimore/DC band Lungfish (which he also covered on a split-single back in 1999).

Rounding out the solo, guitar, samurai performances of the evening was the invite-hinted-at, surprise guest of the night. DC-area-rooted, international rock superstar Dave Grohl did indeed show up to play. He was met with loudest cheers of the night as he walked on stage and strapped on his baby-blue guitar. Grohl told Rollins that he had a half-finished Black Flag tattoo that he tried to give himself when he was twelve. Then Grohl told a story about getting his first record made thanks to a hook-up with Corrosion of Conformity drummer Reed Mullin at the old 9:30 Club. After muttering thanks to all his friends, Grohl launched into a great version of the Foo Fighters' song "Everlong" which got the crowd singing along. It was a sweet moment. A lot of guys hugging their gals from behind and swaying to Grohl's honest lyrics and guitar swoons.

Being the true class act that he is, Grohl made his set less about himself and more about his old band-mates in Scream who he invited on-stage to perform with him. Grohl played guitar while Scream's original drummer Kent Stax (the guy he replaced in the 80's) took the kit. Fritz Stahl was the only Scream member not present. This impromtu Scream reunion was awesome. Pete Stahl sang a melodic, soulful version of their old tune "Chokeword" and then the group launched into not one, but two Bad Brains songs.** They played "At The Atlantis" (in honor of the 9:30 Club's original name) and "Stay Close To Me" (a b-side Rollins noted he had never heard played live). The Grohl/Scream/Bad Brains set left everyone in the crowd buzzing with good old DC Hardcore P.M.A.

courtesy of godieinhell2.

Next up VA/DC ska upstarts, The Pietasters launched into a very energetic and classed-up four-song set. I enjoyed their set immensely. I sort-of grew-up with these guys and have seen them play all around DC over the years. I hadn't caught up with them in many years though and I was instantly struck by what a professional act they have become. No longer the scrappy ska kids I remember, The Pietasters presented a grown-up hooligan ska that was very cool. I might have to catch these guys again soon to relive some of the old days. Of course my favorite of theirs on Monday was "Maggie Mae" which singer Stephen Jackson said they wrote about the 9:30 Club bartenders.

The manic, party-fun energy of The Pietasters' ska gave way to a massive three song set by Maryland rockers Clutch. Singer, Neill Fallon's beard is almost as impressive as his voice. He is truly one of the best hard-rock vocalists on the planet, a fact that he proved without a doubt during Clutch's three song run. The band sounded fantastic, completely working the club's sound system unlike anyone else Monday night. Clutch are simply the evil masters of the 9:30 Club. I have seen them play there twice before and each time was mind-bending. The energy and racket of their three song set ramped up perfectly, ending in an unholy maelstrom of deep, heavy, stoner-rock sound. Clutch's set was so huge that it felt like nothing on earth could possibly follow it without sounding minuscule by comparison.

courtesy of godieinhell2.

As Henry Rollins put it in his introduction for the last group of the evening, the only thing that could hold up to the mighty Clutch was "the sound that defines the 202 area code." Rollins told a great story about riding around with his best friend Ian MacKaye back in the day and hearing the Monday's last band on AM radio for the first time. He said that they pulled the car over just to listen to their song without traffic interruptions. He said that what they were hearing was the beat that they had been waiting to come out of DC all their lives. That beat was Go-Go and the band was Trouble Funk.

Trouble Funk played the longest set of the night and they killed! Playing all of their party hits, "Pump Me Up", "Drop The Bomb", and "Hey Fellas" this massive group got the whole house dancing, chanting calls & responses, and waving their arms in the air. I had only ever read about the attempt to have Go-Go and Hardcore bands play together back in the 80's. On Monday night it was incredible to experience this amazing original Go-Go act share the stage with Hardcore legends like Rollins, MacKaye, and Bob Mould. I can think of very few cities where a crowd would react as warmly as they did to the variety of acts on display at the 9:30 Club on Monday night. This is one of the things that makes the DC music scene so great and its flagship the 9:30 Club such a special place.

Happy 30th Anniversary 9:30 Club! Here's to 30 more years!

courtesy of godieinhell2.

* I never saw Bob Mould perform and it is too long of a story to print here.

** Bad Brains - a group that more than one musician on Monday night had mentioned as a major inspiration.

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra @ The Black Cat 5/19/10

2010-05-21T00:47:00.000-04:00

courtesy of Silver Mt. Zion.

The latest name variation and line-up incarnation of Efrim Menuck's Canadian post-rock outfit, Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, played to a sparsely attended show at the Black Cat on Wednesday night in support of their latest album, "Kollaps Tradixionales". Too easily dismissed by many music fans because of its off-shoot from Godspeed You Black Emperor status, Silver Mt. Zion is in its own right one of the mightiest live post-rock acts going. A fact that they proved again and again during their amazing set on Wednesday night. This show was so damn good that I actually felt bad for the nay-sayers, the second-guessers, and the lazy who missed out on Silver Mt. Zion's unique and powerful performance.

Silver Mt. Zion offered up a bounty of genre signature moments while putting their unique stamp on the quiet-loud-quiet, long-song structure by using traditional string instruments and (gasp) vocals!* Only in the live setting does one truly begin to realize just how special this band's music is. First, there is only one electric guitar in this band. One. The rest of their post-rock racket is generated by a dual-violin attack, a stand-up double-bass, and intense drumming. Watching and hearing these strings rival Explosions in The Sky at their most violent is a thing of beauty. The violinists Jessica Moss and Sophie Trudeau provided all manner of furious strum, intricate tension, and screeching high-notes. Thierry Amar on the double-bass was particularly powerful as he expertly strummed and plucked his instrument, offering a deep rhythm alternately in-time or contrasting with the drums. The new drummer, David Payant, played brilliantly adding a forceful boost to their already potent live show. He also excelled in the many quiet moments by working his drum-kit for all kinds of magical sound effects and quiet, abstract beats. Over, under, and within this dense, tense, thick curtain of sound Efrim Menuck used his guitar to maximum effect through the night. At times he would deliver a heroic lead guitar line, others he would pull back fuzzily playing in the background, and at just the right moment during each epic-length song he would unleash that perfect, massive sound that gives all the post-rock geeks goose-bumps.

Much like Spectrum last week, I saw Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra play at All Tomorrow's Parties NY in 2008. And much like the Spectrum show last week trumped their 2008 set, Wednesday night's Silver Mt. Zion show decimated their 2008 performance. The combination of Silver Mt. Zion's new material and their new drummer is what did the trick. They played a handful of new album songs, the best being the audience requested and seemingly on the fly performed "There is a Light" (which just might be the highlight of the whole show). There was a series of solitary drum hits during '13 Blues for 13 Moons' that were by far the most powerful and impressive sounding thing that I have heard a drummer do all year. Payant made these drum hits so dramatic and forceful that not only did I physically feel them, I can still hear them echoing when I close my eyes. They are burned into my memory like the gunshot that killed Old Yeller.

The other wonderfully haunting memory of Wednesday's show is the incredible vocal work. Too much hay is made of Efrim Menuck's high-pitched voice. I can see how it can be initially off-putting, but in the live-setting it is truly inspiring. The man writes incredible song lyrics and he delivers them so passionately and creatively that once you see him perform you are forever converted. Often backing away from the microphone and screaming over the music, Menuck's passion was on full display Wednesday night. It was fascinating to watch him move his head around the microphone while he sang for different volume effect as well. It was the most basic form of live production and yet it added layers of depth to the performance. The real vocal secret weapon of Silver Mt. Zion is their live harmonizing and staggered choruses. Through-out the night both violinists, the bass player, and Menuck delivered magical and heart-breaking vocal inter-play. None more so than their staggered ending-chorus of 'God Bless Our Dead Marines'. I get chills just thinking about it.

* generally a post-rock no-no.

Spectrum @ Velvet Lounge 5/13/10

2010-05-17T00:33:00.001-04:00

courtesy of Spectrum.

It was a psychedelic throw-down at the Velvet Lounge on Thursday night when Spectrum dropped in to kick-off their current U.S. tour. In what is easily the best live set I have personally seen performed at the Velvet Lounge, the equipment heavy 4-man unit turned the tiny stage into their own personal sound laboratory and dazzled the small but dedicated crowd with an explosive evening of controlled feedback and groovy repetition.

For the uninitiated Spectrum is the most traditional of the many music projects led by Peter Kember aka Sonic Boom. Sonic Boom was one of the members of the hypnotically brilliant Spacemen 3, a legendary UK guitar band from the 80's underground. Since Spacemen 3's demise in the early 90's, Sonic Boom has been pushing the envelope with experimental projects like Experimental Audio Research and Spectrum. The material Sonic Boom records as Spectrum began with a sound very similar to his former band but quickly evolved away from guitars and for many years became based around vintage keyboards and organs. His music has always maintained a 'head' music atmosphere even with the move away from guitars and feedback into tone drones and synth symphonies. On Spectrum's latest EP, "War Sucks", the band's sound seems to be cycling back into guitar freak-out territory. I first saw Spectum at All Tomorrow's Parties NY in 2008. The set was an equal mix of keyboard and guitar manipulations that also featured a nice dose of Spacemen 3 songs. The whole 2008 set was a laid-back fuzz-fest. So it was with the new EP and the 2008 show in mind that I went into Thursday night figuring the concert could go either way. In other words I didn't really know what to expect.

Thursday's show featured exactly one keyboard-centric song. The opener was a nice, mellow drone instrumental. After that they played two dreamy numbers both featuring the lyrical theme of "set me free"; the second of which was the tune 'How You Satisfy Me' from the first Spectrum album. 'How You Satisfy Me' began a ramp up in energy and noise level that would continue to grow through the rest of the show. By set's end the Velvet Lounge was literally shaking from the sonic thunderstorm being created onstage. I leaned on the railing next to the stairs during 'War Sucks' and it was vibrating like crazy.

Ultimately Spectrum played more songs by other people than their own tunes. But that is sort of par for the course with Spectrum. Sonic Boom is a master at re-arranging songs by his peers and influences. Among the covers on Thursday were Spectrum versions of the Spacemen 3 covers of 'Che' by Suicide and 'When Tomorrow Hits' by Mudhoney. Spectrum also played their version of 'The Lonely Death of Johnny Ace' as a tribute to the late Jim Dickinson aka Captain Memphis. All of these songs were guitar-based, feedback filled, repetitive masterpieces. Each featured its own special sonic signature though, most notably '...Johnny Ace' which had Sonic Boom jamming on a theremin. I've never really seen a theremin used so intensely before.

Repetition is a key ingredient of Spacemen 3 and Spectrum songs. The tunes can stretch upwards of 10 minutes with a repetitive rhythm section hypnotizing the listener while Sonic Boom invents and innovates with looped effects pedals, amplifier tweaking, keyboard manipulations, and other usually studio-based trickery. It was phenomenal watching this master at work in such an intimate venue. Half the tiny stage was cleared for him to move around while he whaled on a guitar, dropped to his knees soloing with just an effects pedal, or attacked the theremin like an angry hummingbird. Sonic Boom is a pale, skinny man and an intense performer. His eyes roll back into his head, his cheeks sink in, his face twists into a grimace while he sings. He stumbles around triggerign effects like a zombie or, more appropriately, a junkie high on feedback.

The culmination of all of his gear manipulation was the one-two punch of Spacemen 3's 'Revolution' into Spectrum's 'War Sucks'. It was during this 15? 20? minute stretch of the show that Sonic Boom brought his career in music full circle. One of his oldest classics and his latest song are sonic twins. They combined for one of the craziest, most intense feedback assaults I'll hear this year. At one point, Sonic Boom was lightning-strumming his guitar while see-sawing the guitar's body on the keys of his keyboard! It was one of the most maniacal things I've ever seen a musician do. I didn't really know what to expect going into this concert and I was really caught of guard by the intensity of it all. I don't know if it was the intimate venue, Sonic Boom having a new amped-up attitude, or a combination of the two but this show felt like an adrenalin shot to the heart. Thursday night the wall of sound was in full effect in Washington DC and the air shook.

Public Image Ltd. @ 9:30 Club 5/12/10

2010-05-17T00:32:00.002-04:00

courtesy of PiL.

"Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch." - rumored FDR quote about Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza García.*

I couldn't help but think of this quote as John Lydon aka Johnny Rotten aka "Uncle John" took the stage at the 9:30 Club on Wednesday night. Lydon is one of the ultimate love/hate figures in music history. For every brilliant stroke like the Sex Pistol's 'Bodies' or PiL's 'Rise' there is an equally hypocritical public statement or ticket price outrage to offend anew. So I was not very surprised when a lot of professed fans of Public Image Ltd balked at attending Wednesday night's concert. After all it was over-priced and the quality of a reformed (not reunited) PiL was a huge question mark. Lydon has a lot of audacity expecting sold-out crowds 18 years after the band's last performance or album, especially after the radically mixed reviews received for the Sex Pistols reunion tours of the late-90's and mid-00's. And yet there I stood with a club full of people anxiously waiting for Lydon to challenge us with his noisy, confrontational, anti-pop onslaught. As I stared at the giant PiL banner behind the stage and the growing crowd I thought, John Lydon is a son of a bitch, but (if you love his music) he's our son of a bitch.

For me, with regard to bands, front-men, legends, and their egos, it boils down to music first, personality second. I worship the Sex Pistols and think that Public Image Ltd. was one of the most inspired and brilliant career/style shifts in music history. Lydon's ego aside, I was on-board for this show from the get-go. My two-song preview of PiL at the Coachella Music Festival left me confident that Public Image Ltd.'s 9:30 Club show was going to be something special. I had no clue just how special this show would turn out to be.

courtesy of fizzygeek.

Wednesday night's Public Image Ltd. concert was a gloriously challenging, thematically intense, rhythmically brilliant celebration of sonic weirdness and lyrical genius. The current line-up of PiL includes late-80's members Lu Edmunds (on guitars and other weird guitar-like instruments) and Bruce Smith (on drums and trashcan), with new member Scott Firth (on bass and keyboards). This was one tight unit of musicians dishing out a dizzying array of tempo changes, weird noises, sonic freak-outs, and extended versions of PiL classics. The band sound fantastic! Their strange and primal delivery of each re-arranged tune lent just the right amount of post-punk challenge and primitive rhythm to dazzle the crowd through-out the extra long set.

Public Image Ltd. played sans opening act and took that earlier time to play an extra-long set of music that lasted for over two-hours. The PiL catalog is so stylistically varied that there was never a lull in the concert's energy or ability to captivate. The set list was all re-arranged classics; each song going into 6 to 8 minute extended versions. The best extension being the awesome performance of 'Flowers of Romance', opening with powerful drums and singing for three or four minutes before the guitar and bass dropped like a sound bomb to launch the traditionally 3-minute track into a discordant monster jam.

John Lydon performed like a man possessed. His passionate singing, guttural grunts, and banshee howls were the true highlight of the evening. There was no trace of the cash-in, foot-in-the-mouth son of a bitch ego Lydon is infamous for. As a performer on Wednesday night he came across as a truly passionate, revitalized individual. At times his performance was almost frightening as he unleashed his lyrical fury at a variety of political targets. During 'Death Disco' a halo of sickly yellow light back-lit Lydon's pointy-haired head making him look like some kind of sulfur-pit emergent demon. This show was the first time I have seen Lydon perform a full concert and I have to say that I feel I have finally seen one of the great front-men of all time. Whatever stages he went through towards the end of "PiL phase two", those growing pains are over. Wednesday night's vocal performance was the stuff of legend.

courtesy of fizzygeek.

Not to say Lydon didn't have his fair share of fun with the crowd. He goaded them into dancing by yelling "let me know you're here!", and later telling them "you don't have to stand around like lamp posts all night." Two thirds of the way through this epic set Lydon led the crowd through a painful sing along called 'Sitting the Sun(?)'. The DC crowd lived up to its horrible sing along reputation by butchering it. Lydon and the band were committed to the idea though and dutifully played through the song while the crowd struggled to learn the words. Watching and listening from the balcony, this sounded awful and looked like a giant clusterfuck, but the depraved look on Lydon's face cued that this was all part of the challenge of his music. By the end of the song, the crowd got the chorus right, but Lydon was already moving on. Politics of course played a huge part of Lydon's stage banter and a pro-Obama, anti-Tea Party rant in the middle of 'Warrior' was the highlight on that front; essentially asking America to give Obama time to fix the years of Bush II damage and instructing us with "regardless of your politics...do not let a chimpanzee party divide you."

Normally I prefer my music and politics separate but with some bands it is just impossible to enjoy a show unless you embrace it. Going into a show fronted by Johnny Rotten, you know you're going to one of those shows. Once Lydon got started down the politics path he locked-on teeth like a pitbull. After slamming Arizona's new immigration law Lydon and the band launched into a demonic version of 'Bags', a song whose vitriol was matched only by the scathing attack of 'Religion' a few songs later.

courtesy of Trasnformer1972.

If there was a weak point to this show it was when PiL performed crowd-favorite 'Disappointed'. I just never really liked this song and the live version did very little for me. I thought Lydon and the band sounded a little bored playing it too. The crowd went nuts though, successfully singing along en masse. The entire evening was a perfect blend of PiL's post-punk challenges and mutant-pop that even when they hit on a song that wasn't your cup of tea, you were soon right back into it with another favorite.

The show closed out very strong with an encore of 'Public Image', 'Rise', and (much to my surprise) an incredible version of 'Open Up'.** It was during this three song stretch that I realized how special this concert was. Lydon could have easily resurrected Public Image Ltd., charged the same inflated amount, and played us all for suckers by mailing his performance in. Instead he put together a super-tight band and came out of the gate with fists flying, never letting up on the intensity or talent during this marathon session of incredible music.

Listen to the whole show on NPR.

* we music writers have to use our History degrees somewhere.

** isn't 'Open Up' technically a Leftfield song? Either way, I was not expecting to hear it and was very pleasantly surprised at the killer live version they played.

Buzzcocks @ The Black Cat 5/11/10

2010-05-17T00:32:00.001-04:00

courtesy of Buzzcocks.

Woo-hoo!!!*

Buzzcocks launched the U.S. leg of their "Another...Bites Tour" at the Black Cat on Tuesday night with an exuberant set of their classic, reverb-drenched, pop/punk, sing-a-longs. Since their early-90's revival, original members Shelley and Diggle have been performing non-stop in the US and UK. Right up there with Stiff Little Fingers, Buzzcocks are one of the longest running and quality-consistent graduates of the original UK Punk class. To mix it up on this tour the band are performing their brilliant first and second albums back-to-back (both released in 1978) along with "other hits". While album-entirety shows are becoming quite trendy of late (not that I mind), for Buzzcocks I think this dual-album attack is a great move. As their legacy becomes tied more and more to their ability to write amazing singles (as collected on the essential "Singles Going Steady") this dual album tour is here to remind us that Buzzcocks were also responsible for crafting some brilliant albums; each with an energy flow, sonic imprint, and lyrical themes that deserve their place in rock history as well. Actually Tuesday night's show did much more than gently remind us of this fact; in typical Buzzcocks pop-roar fashion the show served as a blaring klaxon alarm that made the relevance of "Another Music in a Different Kitchen" and "Love Bites" impossible to ignore.

"The Buzzcocks, 5/11/2010, Washington D.C." courtesy of baxzy.

I would say that right off the bat the band were all business when they launched into "...Different Kitchen" opener 'Fast Cars', but when their business is providing the audience with a pop-fueled good time it is difficult to describe Buzzcocks in such terms. Saying the band seemed serious about their two album strafing run isn't quite accurate either because they made it look effortless while seeming to have the time of their lives. The band must have been both all business and serious about this undertaking however because their live rendering of both albums was near perfect on Tuesday night.

Lead singer Pete Shelley delivered his horny, awkward lad lyrics with just the right amount of sarcastic inflection and facial expression punctuation to communicate the gist even if you didn't catch every single word due to the impressive wall of fuzz his and Diggle's guitars were kicking out. Shelley has this amazing high-pitched singing voice that somehow does cut through all that racket which made it even better when he gave the crowd an exaggerated wink or eye-roll to let us in on his lyrical jokes. Every time I see Steve Diggle perform it puts a smile on my face. He physically plays guitar like he is in The Who; he's all dramatic pick hold over-his-head before a major riff, guitar-chest parallels, and strum-arm pinwheels. His frantic, energetic guitar theatrics are amplified by the biggest smile I have ever seen on a musician's face. Diggle's smile is that of a man who is thrilled to be playing live on stage and it is completely infectious. Between Shelley's good humor and Diggle's massive grin the audience had no choice but to have a great time.

Shelley and Diggle's dual guitar formula is a thing of beauty to watch live. As on their albums, it is often difficult to tell who is playing rhythm and who is playing lead. The two switch roles constantly behind the ever-present sheet of electric hum. That said Diggle did have plenty of guitar-hero moments on Tuesday; the high-point being an incredibly bad-ass solo during 'Nothing Left' that (I kid you not) elicited a collective cheer from all of the ladies in the house. The band's current rhythm section of Tony Barber on bass and Danny Farrant on drums did a great job of holding down the structure of Shelley's pop-punk tales and Diggle's guitar freak-outs. I thought Farrant really shined on the drum heavy tunes like 'Moving Away From The Pulsebeat', 'Late for the Train', and 'Walking Distance'.

Personal highlights of the night were many. I loved that when the band finished the last song on "Another Music in a Different Kitchen" they actually waited a moment and then played the album's instrumental coda. So many bands skip little flourishes like that when they play a full album live. I remember listening to "...Different Kitchen" a few days before and assuming they would skip it. I am thrilled that they didn't. I thought that 'Love Battery', 'You Tear Me Up', and the immortal 'Ever Fallen In Love' were all great renditions. Hearing 'Nostalgia' and 'Fiction Romance' live were particularly special as I love those tunes but had never heard them live before. Shelley mentioned that 'I Need' was making its North American debut on Tuesday which lent a special air to that manic punk classic.

Buzzcocks finished up their main set with the an insane live version of 'Late For The Train'. Of all the times I've seen Buzzcocks play, I have never heard them noiser or more powerful. It was the kind of special treat that only happens at these full-album shows when a band dusts off catalog tracks they rarely play and unleash perfectly rehearsed and amped up versions of them. I think the mix of nostalgia and introspection presented by playing these two albums inspired Shelley and Diggle. I have seen Buzzcocks many times over the years and have always enjoyed their shows but I have never seen them perform quite as good as they did on Tuesday night.

* a note I made to myself immediately after the show to remind myself how damn fun it was when it came time to write it up.

Echo & The Bunnymen @ The Black Cat 4/30/10

2010-05-17T00:31:00.002-04:00

courtesy of Echo & The Bunnymen.

Echo & the Bunnymen played to a sold out Black Cat on Friday night. It was a rescheduled date from their canceled Fall 2009 tour.

Ian McCulloch wore sunglasses and a long coat over his sweatshirt. He smoked many cigarettes and told many, many indecipherable anecdotes. His singing voice sounded spot on and mentally he held it together through most of the set (contrary to what I have heard of earlier Bunnymen tours this century). It was during the encore that Ian began to ramble on with medleys and tributes that stretched some of Echo's best songs to their breaking points. I won't say that this aging post-punk genius isn't due his eccentricities though. All told, minus the encore nonsense, he gave us an excellent show chock full of fan favorites. Original member Will Sergeant was there too, killing it on guitar. The backing band was very tight. If you closed your eyes you would think you were listening to the 80's line-up. Except for the keyboards which seemed to disconnect slightly in the set's later half.

I last saw Echo & The Bunnymen play in 2003 in Spain in front of a massive crowd (50k?) at the Festival Internacional de Benicassim. That show was totally rock star. It looked and sounded epic. Friday night's show was intimate and informal. Ian and the band hardly seemed to be putting on a show at all. The feel was very relaxed as if the band were playing for old friends rather than paying customers. Judging from the very warm reception the band received, in a way I guess they were.

courtesy of beckaboo011.

I felt the strongest performances of the night were "Bring on the Dancing Horses" (preceded by an anecdote about Roy Ewing on Dallas of all things!), "The Cutter", and an incredible version of "The Disease". "Killing Moon" sounded great, except for the keyboards which were off in a really odd way that distracted from the rest of the band's awesome effort. It was during the encore of "Nothing Lasts Forever" when McCulloch began to slip into bad habits. I think he destroyed an incredible live-rendition of this song with an agonizing, way too long, injection of Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side". Now before any rabid Bunnymen swoop in, I know that this is a trademark thing Ian does and normally it is pretty cool, but on Friday night it was unbearable; at one point when the band dropped volume almost completely and Ian was mumbling like a homeless person, I wondered to myself if what he was doing could even be considered music anymore. Harsh but true. He did the same sort of deconstruction to a tight rendition of "Lips Like Sugar" to close out the night. An anti-climactic finale to an otherwise fine night of music.

Choice Ian quote of the night: "Tonight the Black Cat is the epicenter of Rock & Roll!" For about the first hour of Echo & The Bunnymen's hour and a half set I would have to agree.

courtesy of mocker567.

The Rock Bottom Remainders @ 9:30 Club 4/21/10

2010-05-17T00:31:00.001-04:00

courtesy of The Rock Bottom Remainders.

On Wednesday night, at the 9:30 Club, I went one of the weirdest concerts I have ever attended. The Rock Bottom Remainders have to be one of the most unique and unlikely cover bands of all time. The band is composed of best-selling authors turned amateur musicians, who live out their collective rock-star fantasy by performing less-than-perfect versions of rock-n-roll classics while occasionally wearing wigs, costumes, and silly hats. We are talking about book industry heavy hitters like Scott Turow, Amy Tan, Dave Barry, and Mitch Albom. As MC Roy Blount Jr. joked they are the only band that has sold more books that The Beatles.

I first heard about The Rock Bottom Remainders in the 1990's while working at Reprint Bookshop, a wonderful and now sadly closed independent bookshop. The band had a kind of mythical status as stories of their rare sightings were told by my co-workers as if they were akin to the Loch Ness Monster or Big Foot. I have always been curious about this literary rock band with a rotating line-up of best-selling authors (at one point even Stephen King was a member!), but I never thought that I would have the opportunity to see The Rock Bottom Remainders perform.

The 2010 Wordstock Tour has The Rock Bottom Remainders conducting a short East Coast tour to benefit World Vision’s efforts on behalf of Haiti relief. In addition the band will also share proceeds with local causes in the cities they perform in. Here in DC they chose the Washington-based America’s Promise Alliance; and We Give Books, who will donate 5 books per ticket-sold to DC Public Schools.

I really did not know what to expect going into a concert where some of the literary world's best-sellers would be putting it all out there by picking up instruments they do not master and taking to the stage. The 9:30 Club was about a third full when humorist, Roy Blount, Jr. took to the stage wearing a very large, plush, American flag top-hat. This set the tone for the show to come immediately; the night was to get much, much sillier. Blount acted as MC for the evening, briefing the audience on the less-than-professional nature of the music to come by telling an anecdote of an old performance when Frank McCourt was singing one Beatles song while the band was playing another!

The band was composed of several hugely successful authors (covering just about every literary genre conceivable), a few professional musicians as ringers, family members, and a classic rock superstar. Playing the keyboards was Mitch Albom of "Tuesdays with Morrie" fame. On guitar, the wildly popular humor writer Dave Barry. On bass, suspense novelist Ridley Pearson. Playing second guitar was thriller writer, Greg Iles. On saxophone, former Washington Post writer and best-selling memoir author, James McBride. Rounding out the back-up singers was publicist and band-founder Kathi Kamen Goldmark; Amy Tan, best-known for writing "The Joy Luck Club"; and legal thriller author Scott Turow. Just about everyone had their turn as lead vocalist. The band was filled out by a professional drummer, a professional saxophonist, Dave Barry's brother, Mitch Albom's wife, Scott Turow's two daughters; and the former singer for The Byrds, Roger McGuinn!

Scott Turow approached his microphone wearing an insane blonde-wig and a purple feather boa. Next to him was Amy Tan also wearing an outrageously huge, blonde, New Wave wig and a slinky black dress. The rest of the band were rocking the middle-aged author moon-lighting as middle-aged rock stars look: sports coats, jeans, t-shirts. Everyone on stage had a huge smile on their face and so did everyone in the audience. It was truly surreal to see so many recognizable authors on stage preparing to rock out. It struck me as very funny seeing Mitch Albom behind his massive keyboard. I had no idea how much more humor he had in store for us.

The band played their tunes as best they could. Occasional looks of intense concentration would erase a smile when someone had to focus on their guitar solo. But no one took themselves too seriously. When there was a mistake made (and there were many) it was laughed off and the tune would grind past it. The Rock Bottom Remainders whole PR approach is to play on the humor of their amateur musician status and I won't deny them that by saying they were a very good band. The best musical compliment I can give to The Rock Bottom Remainders is that there was never a point in the evening when you could not recognize what they were trying to play.

They were a very earnest band in their effort and an extremely entertaining band in their delivery. The entire night was full of music but also the collected wit of a stage full of best-selling authors. The audience was laughing, clapping, and singing the entire time. Witty stage banter was not the only humorous element though. Scott Turow changed wigs several times through out the night, each new one more outrageous than the last. Amy Tan delivered two amazingly bad and hilarious lead vocals (Blondie's 'One Way Or Another' while wearing Kanye West slit-glasses and The Shangri-La's 'Leader of the Pack' featuring her husband as the cool motorcycle rebel). I got the impression that Amy Tan must be one very fun lady. And Mitch Albom delivered an incredible two-song Elvis tribute running on-stage as gold-jacket era Elvis complete with an Elvis wig and sunglasses. Albom had all the moves and while the band jammed before 'Jail House Rock', he turned his back to the crowd and hip swiveled right down to his t-shirt and boxer shorts!

Roger McGuinn was invited on stage as the band's special guest to play and sing a few classics. According to Roy Blount Jr., McGuinn was invited to "remind the audience what good music sounds like". The Bryds' front man brought his instantly recognizable voice and sang about four or five tunes. Including, of course, The Bryds' hits 'Mr. Tambourine Man' and 'Turn! Turn! Turn!', both of which provided unexpected, special moments during a night of out-right silliness.

The Rock Bottom Remainders concert on Wednesday was a really good time for some very good causes. The band and the audience looked like they all had a blast. Seeing these literary titans turned tongue-in-cheek rock-gods in concert was something I never expected to have the opportunity to experience. It was a funny, surreal evening and I am very glad that I was there.

Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival 2010

2010-05-17T00:30:00.000-04:00

courtesy of Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival.

Everyone knows that sometimes the best way to appreciate where you live is to get away for a little while. It is also true that sometimes the best way for a music critic to reboot his love of music is to attend an awesome music festival without an impending review deadline hanging over his head. This past weekend I did both when I attended the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, California.

This was my third Coachella (2004, 2007*, 2010) and I think it is without a doubt the best music festival in the United States. After a three-legged, 12-hour journey by plane, I made my way into the California desert to enjoy some of the best music on the planet for three days. The weather was beautiful, the music was excellent, and I got the re-charge I was looking for. I decided to write mini-reviews of the bands I caught and to post them here for those who follow my music writing. Keep in mind, I was focused on enjoying the music this weekend without my reviewer's hat on. So these little reviews are more personal and less detailed write-ups of the bands I saw over this great weekend.

DAY ONE:

Baroness- They started my Coachella weekend off with a proper rocker of a set featuring their grinding rhythms, howled vocals, and an impromptu jam to cover a mid-set amp swap.

Sleigh Bells - I caught the first few songs of this electro-clash boy/girl duo. Alexis Krauss lives up to all the hype; she performs like a mad-woman.

Proxy - I had to catch the big U.S. stage debut of Russian electronica act, Proxy. Everything I had read pre-Coachella indicated to me that this would be a special set and it far exceeded my expectations. It was the best new electronica set I have seen since the U.S. debut of Justice at Coachella '07. Proxy is the man and we danced like crazy to his maniacal electro creations.

Aeroplane - I caught the beginning of Aeroplane's set. They brought a cool dance vibe that down-shifted gears from Proxy's dance-chaos while keeping the bodies moving.

The Dillinger Escape Plan - I watched most of DEP's set. They impressed on many levels as they laid waste to the Gobi stage with their furious vocals, energetic stage antics, power-house guitar playing, and schizophrenic tempo change-ups.

The Specials - There was no way I was going to miss the reunion of these Two-Tone legends. Their set was nothing but class as they treated the crowd to their musical tales of hooligan youth and racial unity. Personal highlights for me were hearing them open with "Do the Dog" (which I never imagined them playing at this show), skanking during "Nite Klub" at the edge of the huge skank pit that appeared mid-set, and watching this salt-n-pepper unit trade verses on "Doesn't Make It Alright".

Gil-Scott Heron - I caught the end of Gil-Scott Heron's set just in time to hear 'Celebrate' with an extended jam ending. It was pretty amazing to hear this raspy-voiced legend instructing us all to "enjoy your weekend and cel-a-brate, cel-a-brate, cel-a-brate."

La Roux - It wasn't difficult to follow Gil-Scott's advice during La Roux's near-legendary set. The crowd was ridiculously huge for La Roux's set on the festival's smallest stage. I think everyone (including the organizers) was surprised by her rampant popularity. Somehow I ended up in the perfect spot just in front of the soundboard to watch her belt out confident yet catchy vocals while her band generated New Wave revival tunes that sounded incredible in the tiny Gobi tent. I feel bad for the thousand's of people stuck outside.

Little Dragon - I opted to keep my perfect Gobi stage spot to check out Little Dragon over going to watch LCD Soundsystem on the main stage. I am very glad I did because it provided me with one of the highlights of my weekend. After Gil-Scott Heron's jazzy jams, and La Roux's 80's gone aughts, Little Dragon transformed the Gobi stage into their own personal phantom zone with their odd brand of Swedish electro-cabaret. Their already-great tunes became infinitely more danceable in a live setting as their awesome keyboardist, drummer, and bassist played live remixes and extended versions. Yukimi Nagano is a cute, bizarre, soulful front woman that practically led the crowd by hand through her band's unique dance music while crooning with an great vocal style that mixed bad-ass with heart-break.

Public Image Ltd. - I only did a two song preview of the return of the biggest post-punk band of all-time. PIL sounded very tight as they opened with a very loud, extended version of "This Is Not A Love Song". John Lydon's voice alone almost got me to stay for the whole set. His voice absolutely floored me. Much like fellow freak-of-nature Jello Biafra, Lydon's voice is as distinct today as it was thirty years ago. This little preview totally erased any doubts that recent TV clips created about the quality of PIL's current tour. They sound amazing and I cannot wait to see them at the 9:30 Club next month.

The Whitest Boy Alive - As hard as it was to do, I skipped the rest of PIL's set because I have tickets for their show in DC and they were playing against The Whitest Boy Alive. My wife and I have been waiting for this band to come to America since 2003 and their Coachella set was one of the three most anticipated sets of the weekend for me. We caught their first official concert at the Festival Internacional de Benicassim in Spain that year and were completely mesmerized by Erlend Oye's dance-party alter-ego. I don't know why it has taken so long for them to make it to the U.S. but I am so glad that they finally did. Erlend Oye brings his Kings of Convenience quiet and applies it to a funky-jam band that just should not work but somehow miraculously does. The crowd was out of control during this dance-geek explosion. While never raising his voice above a dulcet whisper, Oye got the crowd chanting along, dancing, waving their arms, clapping in unison, hooting, and hollering. Their large-scale U.S. debut was a raging success that shared the magic my wife and I felt in Spain with a crowd of thousands. For the anxiously anticipating it was a moment of bliss and for the unknowing I am sure it was a moment of conversion. The Whitest Boy Alive put a smile on every face the eye could see.

DAY TWO:

Porcupine Tree - The sound during this outdoor stage set was incredibly precise, which fit Porcupine Tree's epic guitar orchestrations perfectly. Their set had just the right level of rhythm and muscle to keep the early-afternoon crowd coolly nodding along while roasting under the desert sun.

Girls - San Fransisco area buzz-band Girls announced that Coachella was their largest show yet and you could tell by their set's lack of showmanship. I really dig Girls' album and the way it combines fuzzed-out guitars and wounded, confidence-lacking vocals but live their songs left me feeling a little flat. It didn't help that their attempt at a mid-set noise freak-out nearly blew the sound-system and felt totally out-of-place with the rest of their set. I was going to blame their lack of pizazz on the sound-system but the next two bands to play the same stage owned it.

Band of Skulls - This British rock trio brought the dark, cool vibe to Saturday afternoon as well as an invasion of pot-smokers. It was at times difficult to see the band through all of the smoke! The highlights of Band of Skulls set were Russell Marsden's terrific guitar riffs and every time Emma Richardson opened her mouth to sing (which didn't take lead nearly enough). The two combined for a really good time, even better after they played their single and all the poser pot-heads cleared out. Pity for them because that is when Band of Skulls kicked their set up to another level and provided one of the strongest finishes of the day.

The Raveonettes - "The Icelandic Volcano is not our best friend right now," is how The Raveonettes' Sune Rose Wagner introduced their set. He went on to explain that their band was stranded in Europe and only he and partner, Sharin Foo were stateside. So they decided to play as a duo rather than cancel as so many other bands had done. Only The Raveonettes could turn adversity into triumph as they did on Saturday afternoon. Modifying their songs brilliantly, the two played sans percussion except for the few times when Sharin Foo put down her bass to drum while singing. Utilizing one drum, a cymbal, a guitar and a bass the two took turns on instruments and vocals (often cutely sharing the same microphone) to treat the crowd to a romantic, dance-able, shoegazer-epic set of tunes. This performance was incredible, one of the very best of the festival, and not enough people were there to do it proper justice. It was the stuff of festival legend and I haven't seen any press talking about it at all. I have seen The Raveonettes so many times over the years I went into this set with a "been there, done that" attitude and walked out completely smitten all over again.

Coheed & Cambira - I caught the end of their main-stage set to position myself for Faith No More and Muse. I don't listen to C&C and more often than not they are the butt of jokes among some of my friends. However, I have to give them props for the most rock-epic moment of the festival. For their finale performance of "Welcome Home" C&C were joined by the University of Southern California marching band on stage and they combined to play a mighty rendition in the mid-90's style of Metallica or Aerosmith accompanied by orchestras. It was cheesy and awesome and I am glad I was there to experience it first-hand.

Faith No More - This was the second of my three most anticipated sets of the festival (they were my first concert!) and it delivered on every level. Musically awesome, creatively twisted, and entertaining as hell. The band sounded tight as they tore through some of the best off "The Real Thing", "Angel Dust", and "Fool For a Day...". Mike Patton's vocal performance was equal parts brutal and beautiful, inspiring and deranged. He played the crowd like an instrument, toying with our expectations, swaying from crooning to screaming, taunting the crowd while at the same time putting on a show of shows for those of us waiting years for this reunion. The best moments for me were their cover of Michael Jackson's "Ben" (yes the rat love song), a vicious version of "The Gentle Art of Making Enemies", and a surprise semi-nude Danny DeVito streaking during "Just a Man". My only complaint is that the organizers only scheduled Faith No More for 55 minutes.

Muse - At this point I don't think I need to explain how great Muse are live. Six years ago Muse made their large-scale U.S. debut on the Coachella main stage and on Saturday they returned to it as the headliners. I saw their 2004 Coachella set and it was a breath-taking statement by a band destined for greatness. I am sure the current tour and this weekend's Coachella set will be remembered as important steps in their bid for rock immortality. Sans their tour's crazy skyscraper sets, the band tore through a variation of their current set-list, to provide a show so spectacular that it was impossible to resist being entertained. Flawless versions of all the Muse anthems were on display. Bellmay seemed to be having fun with every song, mixing up his solos and taking advantage of the main-stage's forensic sound system by plinking and tweaking his guitar strings for all kinds of weird little flourishes. At one point Bellamy laid down an inspired electric guitar instrumental of the National Anthem. This was by far the most crowd-pleasing set I witnessed over the weekend. The crowd loved it, the band seemed to love it, I loved it. Even with a full headliner spot of an hour and a half we all could have watched them play for another two.

The Dead Weather - I only got to watch a few songs by Jack White's current super-group because of the mammoth crowd blocking their smaller stage. Their first album is on constant rotation on my Ipod lately. I find the group's darker edge infinitely more appealing than his other projects. The songs sounded great live and it was obvious from the constant rotation of vocal duties and instruments that everyone involved (especially Kills vocalist Alison Moshart) are musical bad-asses.

Devo - My pick for best set in DC of 2009 closed out Saturday night with a ferociously fun geek dance-party on one of the larger tent-stages. A huge crowd turned out to watch Devo unveil their much advertised "new look for the new millennium" and to hear songs from their forth-coming new album played live. The new songs were great returns to form that erase the memory of the previous & embarrassing Devo revival attempt of the early 1990's. It was obvious from watching their full-album shows last year and the Coachella set that the band is reinvigorated creatively. They treated us to several new tracks then dove into their back-catalog, leaning heavily on "Q:Are We Not Men? A:We Are Devo!" The crowd responded well to the new material and then went nuts for the classics. I drove back to my hotel humming "Mongoloid" which I was thrilled and surprised to hear performed at such a large-scale venue.

DAY THREE:

Deerhunter - The best compliment I can think to give Deerhunter's excellent set is that it convinced me that I need to learn more about this wonderful band. I listened to "Microcastles" and "Cryptograms" maybe twice each when they came out. I ignored the indie-web hype and skipped their DC club dates. Now I regret it. Deerhunter put on a terrific show on Sunday on the smaller outdoor stage. Their Sonic Youth inspired sound was a wonderful feedback-filled yet pop-tinged ramp-up for the great day of music ahead of me.

Sunny Day Real Estate - My partner in crime, Chris Diamond, convinced me through our DPD Project that I needed to stop blaming Sunny Day Real Estate for founding Emo and actually give their music a chance. Since then I have been slowly learning to appreciate their at-times over-emotional approach to rock music. After seeing them play live on Sunday I am a full-fledged convert. I don't know what old prejudice I was subconsciously holding onto all these years, but it melted away as Sunny Day Real Estate unloaded a short, concise set of perfect 90's indie-rock. Live I felt they were akin to my favorites of that period, Jawbox. The modest-sized crowd seemed to genuinely love Sunny Day and the band seemed genuinely surprised by how many people were there and/or singing along. They even commented on how surprised they were by the turn-out. Of any set over the weekend I think Sunny Day Real Estate fed the most off of their crowd's energy. Their set just kept building with each song, becoming more huge sounding, until it was an epic, emotional, angst-filled, rock out. This was the Coachella indie reunion that should have received all the press instead of dull-as-paint-drying Pavement.

Jonsi - The lead singer of Sigur Ros has crafted an excellent solo-debut album that utilizes his bizarre and amazing voice in alternate-universe pop-songs and sweeping epics. His set at Coachella featured just about every song on his new album and left just about everyone that witnessed its performance completely dumb-struck by how...no word does it justice. Suffice to say Jonsi's voice live is one of the current wonders of the world and his drummer is a madman that orchestrated so much percussive chaos that it was at times hard to follow him. I would say that this was one of the best sets of the weekend but it was so other-worldly that I don't even know if it took place in the same time-space continuum as the rest of the festival.

Miike Snow - The most disappointing thing I saw at the festival was Miike Snow. I was looking forward to this set but was horribly disappointed. The sound was just awful and I don't blame the sound-crew. Judging from the way they were performing it, I think the band intended their live set to sound the way it did, as if they were trying to create some kind cool effect and it horribly back-fired. I left during the third song. I heard someone later saying how amazing the Miike Snow set was and I asked him if we had listened to the same set.

Infected Mushroom - I wandered into the infamous Sahara Techno tent out of the Miike Snow debacle to catch these Isreali, dance music populists moving the crowd with their maximum BPM, generic brand techno. It wasn't the most creative thing I've ever seen but I have to admit I gave into the call of their rhythm. What else was I going to do, stand there and pout?

Orbital - The third of my highly anticipated sets of the weekend was the return of the band responsible for my personal dance music awakening at Ravestock '94. To say I was excited about seeing Orbital's return to the decks and keys is an understatement. I have been babbling about this set for months in advance, listening to their discography on near-constant repeat, and generally acting like a little girl who already knows her daddy bought her a pony for her birthday. Orbital's set this Sunday was one of the all-time greatest dance music experiences I have ever had. It ranks right up there with 808 State in Spain, Underworld in the downpour at Giants Stadium, and the original Ravestock that featured Dee-Lite, Orbital, and The Orb. The brothers Hartnoll brought the house with a condensed rave-up for their criminally short-scheduled 50 minute set. They transitioned seamlessly from track to track for a non-stop, high-energy dance odyssey. The crowd was full of older first-gen ravers (like myself) and curious kids who partied side-by-side like it was the last dance-party on earth. Everyone totally in the moment, going bug-nuts dance-floor insane. This was highlighted by the fan organized "Glowruption aka glORBITAL"; a brilliant plan to smuggle thousands of glow-sticks into the festival and launch them via sheet-pulled-parachute-style into the crowd the minute the opening sample of "Satan" ended and the music kicked in. "Glowruption aka glORBITAL" got a glow-stick (or 2 or 10) into everyone's hands and took the party to a ridiculous raver nirvana for the rest of Orbital's brilliant, brilliant set.

Plastikman - I skipped Thom Yorke to watch the unveiling of Richie Hawtin's much-hyped Plastikman set. It was supposed to be a new frontier in the melding of sound and visuals in a live setting. The curtain dropped to reveal his DJ booth hidden inside a massive cylinder. The minimal techno pulse kicked in and the outside of the cylinder came to life with pulsing colors and swirling patterns. I assume the shifts in the visual pattern were triggered by what Hawtin did musically, but really it could have just been good timing like a traditional techno slide-show. There was no way to know for sure and that question mark dulled the wow-factor of what I was watching. Added to which, Plastikman's minimal techno, while excellent, paled in comparison to Orbital's masterful performance just prior. I put this down to bad-scheduling and if I got the chance to see Plastikman do the same set-up in a club I would be there in a New York minute.

Gorillaz - The big question-mark of the festival is what The Gorillaz set was going to be like. Traditionally performing behind cartoons or holograms and performing rarely at that, created an air of mystery around the whole thing. The new album Plastic Beach is a stylistic collision and a minor masterpiece for Blur front man and musical maverick Damon Albarn (who is the Gorillaz mastermind). I was looking forward to hearing the new album performed live with some of the older tunes thrown in. But I was not really looking-forward to watching projected cartoons pretending to play music while a real band hid behind a screen. So much to my delight (and many, many others' chagrin) Gorillaz decided to come out from behind their screen at Coachella and perform as a proper band. Even more to my pleasure the current line-up featured two of my all-time rock heroes, Mick Jones and Paul Simonon of The Clash. Seeing those two performing on-stage together would have got me on an airplane regardless of what else was going on. I nearly cried when Simonon took his cordless bass across the stage and jammed out with his old band-mate. It was a lifetime, live-music, high point for me. Albarn led the band which also included a string section, a 4-person choir, a drummer, two keyboardists, and a traditional Turkish instrument ensemble like he was part mad-man, part ring-leader. De La Soul, Bobby Womack, and Little Dragon's Yukimi Nagano all provided guest vocals. Albarn's voice sounded spot on as he sang just about every dreamy or melancholy number from the Gorillaz discography. I think the majority of the crowd felt a little disappointed by the lack of performing cartoons, but I thought the set was a classy and brilliant once-in-a-lifetime performance. It was like watching a complex hip-hop, rock musical. There were definitely party numbers peppered through-out the set but the over-all feel of the set was a bit contemplative and wistful. I felt it was the perfect come-down for a weekend stuffed to the gills with incredible music.

* for my Coachella 2007 reviews: Day One - Day Two - Day Three - Rage Against The Machine headliner set.

Red Sparowes (+) @ Rock and Roll Hotel 4/11/10

2010-05-17T00:29:00.002-04:00

courtesy of Red Sparowes.

It is always difficult deciding how to start a post-rock concert review. This massive, instrumental genre has no convenient entry-point for the uninitiated and for those who already are, the music is usually so personal that any attempt to describe a particularly beloved band will fall short of the high expectations. I say this as someone who both reads and writes a great deal about music, and happens to have some very personal opinions about my own favorite post-rock bands. It is with this in mind that I am challenged to review Sunday night's spectacular Red Sparowes concert at Rock and Roll Hotel. So, I will take the easiest route and start from the top.

The night began a little late as openers Fang Island lived up to their Brooklyn indie-brat hype by arriving two-hours late. Darlings of SXSW 2010 and the indie-net, Fang Island have a considerable buzz about them right now, selling out venues in their own right up in NYC. It was a little confusing to me that they were tapped to open Sunday night's show. Nothing I had read about them had indicated a musical kinship with Red Sparowes; while everything I had read portrayed Fang Island as exuberant brats set to be the next hipster bandwagon band. Fang Island's pairing to this show began to make a little more sense as they sped through their dense and intense (and yes, exuberant) set on Sunday night. While Fang Island may be a little too sugar-sweet with their non-stop, gleeful, 5-way vocal harmonies for my tastes; their actual music was a surprisingly-complex, multi-guitar attack that came across sounding like classic era Yes gone heavy-metal and that was pretty enjoyable. I'd imagine it is Fang Island's instrumental proficiency that got them paired with Red Sparowes and not their gimmicky vocals. Needless and sadly to say, a third of the crowd filtered out after getting a sneak-peak at the next big thing.

Next up was Boston-area, metal group, Doomriders. They took to the stage like a bolt of lightning hurled by Zeus on high, bringing an aggressive, rock-the-f*ck-out attitude that the shrinking crowd just could not match late on a Sunday night. Sure, there was plenty of head-banging and the occasional whoop of delight from the crowd, but Dave Grohl look-alike, lead singer Nate Newton's (also of Converge) war-cries of "How the f*ck are you doing DC?!", "We're gonna have a good f*cking time tonight!", and my favorite, "DC, how's your f*cking vibe?!", were met mostly with silence. Which is a real shame, because Doomriders totally kicked ass on Sunday night. Their set of classic heavy-metal barn-burners should have got some bodies moving, or at least some devil-horns thrown. Instead they gave it the gusto while the majority of the crowd patiently waited for the headline act. If I had my druthers, Fang Island would have got the boot and Doomriders would have played earlier when the crowd had some spark of life left in it.

By the time Red Sparowes took the stage the crowd had dwindled to less than half its original size. I was shocked. Sure it was getting later on a Sunday night, but really? Really DC? Red Sparowes' latest album, "Fear is Excruciating But Therein Lies The Answer", is a brilliant work that successfully moves them from the post-metal end of the spectrum firmly onto the post-rock side of things. It is an amazing evolution of their sound that is receiving rightfully-earned, critical acclaim everywhere. My pre-show research had me convinced that with reviews so supportive and a new album so damn good, Red Sparowes were poised to be the next break-out band of the genre. And perhaps they still are, you just wouldn't know it from the small-ish crowd that remained by the time they took the stage.

Not that Red Sparowes seemed to mind, or even notice. A beautiful thing about this band, that I also noticed when I saw them in 2007, is that they are all about the music. Their albums are epic, instrumental masterpieces and their live performance requires a lot of concentration. After thanking the crowd for staying out late with them, Red Sparowes launched into a set that lasted a little over an hour featuring a couple of older tunes and a nice taste of their new album. In 2007 Red Sparowes performed with a slide-show projected over their bodies, drenching them in images of bird flocks, Chinese human-wave attacks, and trench-warfare. The slide-show obscured the band with dark hues and created an atmosphere that felt calculated and slightly oppressive. Sunday night featured a similar slide-show cloak, but the images were brighter and seemed less planned out, focusing on generic trippy videos with just a dash of politics randomly tossed in. The visual element which was so impressive in 2007 was actually a little distracting this time out.

But really, the visuals are not what get us out to rock concerts now are they? Red Sparowes opened up a little loose musically, but quickly tightened it up by the end of their opening opus. For the rest of their set the band became totally absorbed in their work generating awe-inspiring music. Each song was like a journey for the audience featuring epic highs and lows, multi-guitar tension narratives, unstoppable bass-lines, and of course their trademark element the seated, steel-guitar. New member Emma Ruth Rundle particularly shined playing dancing guitar-lines that guided the listener through her band-mates' guitar storms all set long (let's hear it for women in post-rock!). Greg Burns also impressed switching between his bass (for my money Red Sparowes feature some of the best bass-lines in post-rock/metal) and his steel guitar (playing hero-sections that alternated between intricate and sweeping). When the show began I actually had a brief moment of panic when I couldn't see the steel guitar on-stage; watching Burns play the steel is both a visual and sonic highlight of Red Sparowes performances. Thankfully three songs in had Burns switching to the steel guitar and Andy Arahood taking over the bass when needed.

The songs off of "Fear is Excruciating But Therein Lies The Answer" sounded fantastic live and reinforced the new album's evolutionary nature when played alongside their older material. Of the older songs they played on Sunday it was 'Buildings Began to Stretch Wide Across the Sky, and the Air Filled with a Reddish Glow' that really hit the home-run. I think that song is the closest Red Sparowes will have to a hit song, it is just a perfectly crafted post-rock/metal song and their performance of it on Sunday, like the majority of their set, was impeccable.

The Wedding Present @ The Black Cat 4/9/10

2010-05-17T00:29:00.001-04:00

courtesy of Frank Bors Jr.

This year marks the twentieth anniversary of The Wedding Present's seminal, break-up album, "Bizarro"; and to celebrate, band founder David Gedge is touring the U.S. playing the album in full. On Friday night The Wedding Present stopped in at The Black Cat to play a handful of non-"Bizarro" tracks and then the album proper from beginning to end. While the current Wedding Present line-up skews slightly younger than the blokes that originally played this material, the crowd on Friday night was definitely composed of first generation fans judging by the abundance of middle-aged and soon to be middle-aged men in attendance. It was certainly a night for reliving passionate youth for many as "Bizarro" is one of the great relationship-angst albums of all time. So great in fact that Gedge's heart-wounded lyrics can still inspire a crowd of grown men to scream along with him even now, twenty years removed from the soul-crushing trials of youthful romance and the debut of the perfect soundtrack for them.

When The Wedding Present took to the stage on Friday night, I was a little surprised to see that Gedge was the only member of the band I recognized. For some reason I assumed with this album-anniversary tour we would see some of the "Bizarro"-years line-up. Not that I was too concerned by the unfamiliar faces on stage, Gedge has been the only consistent member of The Wedding Present over the last 25 years; and a similar, unfamiliar, backing-band sounded just fine when I saw them at the Black Cat in 2005. That show was a fun one, but didn't leave much of a lasting impression on me. I was expecting much more from Friday night's show since it would be featuring the entire "Bizarro" album being played live. I am a huge fan of the current trend in concerts of bands performing entire albums live. I have been to many such concerts and they are always excellent. The combination of hearing an entire seminal work live with the physical/technical dexterity required of the musicians to perform a full-album (including tracks they rarely play anymore) right in front of your eyes is an incredible thing to see.

The Wedding Present opened up Friday's concert with about six or seven non-"Bizarro" tunes. The performance was fun but not incredibly tight and had me a little concerned for the "Bizarro" set that was yet to come. The crowd seemed to be loving every second of it though, coming to life the instant David Gedge opened his mouth. People sing along and dance at every concert I attend but there was something magical happening to the crowd on Friday night. So many of the men and women around me had this light in their eyes and smiles as they cut loose with every kind of weird, herky-jerky, late 80's/early 90's college-radio, dance move you could imagine. It was obvious by the crowd's reaction that Gedge and his band's music are beloved. The crowd's energy and happiness at seeing Gedge on stage was infectious. By the time they were playing 'Corduroy', I was making my way to the very front to join up with a good friend of mine and his high-school buddies who had trekked down from Pennsylvania for the show. I wanted to get right in the thick of things before they started playing "Bizarro"; the principal reason everyone had come out Friday night.

The set was separated into two halves by a manipulated, stuttering sample of a British radio or television announcer introducing The Wedding Present. (this may have been John Peel's voice but I am uncertain). To be honest I thought using the sample was pretty cheesy as it stuttered through the playing of the final, non-"Bizarro" song. But then that song ended and the sample was left to play out fully with the announcer's voice introducing "The Wedding Present's new album, Bizarro!" and the band instantly launched into 'Brassneck' to open the album-portion of the set. It was a transition that turned a kind of lame gimmick into something incredibly cool.

The second half of The Wedding Present's set featured them performing the UK, 10-track version of "Bizarro". This performance was stellar. The band instantly sounded much, much tighter; Gedge's voice went from playful to all-business as he belted out some of the best, post-break-up, acid-tinged lyrics ever; and the crowd went wild. I almost felt like I was watching a different band in the second half of this show. They were so well-rehearsed and on-point that my earlier concerns flew right out the window. "Bizarro" is a speed-strum heavy album and it was incredible to watch Gedge and second guitarist Graeme Ramsay attack the material with intensity. The set's mid-section of 'Thanks', 'Kennedy', "What Have I Said Now", and 'Granadaland' was absolute perfection in bringing the emotional damage and guitar-jangle fury of the album to the stage; it was like watching Gedge rip out his broken-heart and throw it into the crowd.

The set ended with the 9+ minute finale of 'Take Me!'. Arguably "Bizarro's" most cheerful tune, if you play optimist and assume that the narrator gets the girl after the song is over. Maybe not so cheerful if you embrace the unrequited love angle and assume the narrator pines away, never telling the girl what he tells us in the song. Gedge and the band extended 'Take Me!' a few minutes to make for an exciting live jam. By song's end the audience and the band had been through the ringer and Gedge let us all down easy with an abbreviated epilogue. Before playing the album closer, Gedge reminded the crowd that The Wedding Present doesn't do encores, and then he launched into "Be Honest", ending the night with the lyrics:

"And if we're really, really going to be honest.
We might as well be brief."

Serena Maneesh @ DC9 4/7/10

2010-05-17T00:28:00.000-04:00

courtesy of Serena Maneesh.

Norwegian, neo-shoegazer, wunderkinds Serena Maneesh (finally!) returned to the DC area on Wednesday night when they played a painfully short but brilliant set at DC9. It has been four long years since Serena Maneesh first brought their mammoth live sound to our area; when they played to an embarrassingly small crowd at the State Theater in 2006. I was one of the lucky few in attendance that night and I have been a babbling fool about this band ever since; singing their praises every time the shoegazer revival is up for discussion and playing just about every track off their first self-titled debut at my DJ nights over the years. If you read my original review and then their #2 spot on my 2006 best shows list, it is obvious how taken I was by their My Bloody Valentine-esque approach to live performance. The State Theater show is one of the best shows I have ever attended. Hence my many years of agony awaiting their return.

Serena Maneesh have finally returned with a ridiculously titled new album, "No 2: Abyss In B Minor", which they ridiculously recorded in a cave just outside of Oslo, Norway. Yes, they recorded their sophomore album in a cave. For a friend of mine, that fact alone was the selling point on checking out Wednesday's show with me. When a band up and moves their studio into a cave it is a strong indication that they are either brilliant or insane, or in Serena Maneesh's case a bit of both. The product of their spelunker, field recording, ''No 2: Abyss In B Minor", is without a doubt the best shoegazer album of 2010. It not only increases their style ties to MBV's "Loveless", it also embraces a mid-90's Primal Scream-ish approach to rhythm, and a Telescopes-like devotion to discordance. The new album combines all of this to make for one noisy but beautiful, challenging yet dreamlike listen. While I was giddy as a schoolboy that Serena Maneesh were making their return to DC, I was also intensely curious as to how they would pull off all of the new album's intricacy and conflict in a live show.

I knew from the State Theater show that Serena Maneesh could bring the guitars and the noise to challenge genre heroes, My Bloody Valentine (who I have since seen in concert 3 times and whole-heatedly confirm as the most beautiful, insane live band of all time). But I was having a hard time visualizing Serena Maneesh successfully live-playing all of the disparate elements going on behind the new songs' wall of sound. Going in I figured it was either going to be a noisy-mess or a raging success. A band like Serena Maneesh are far too dedicated to settle into some kind of middle ground.

DC9 is the perfect venue to watch technically intricate performers. With the intimate nature of the place you can not avoid being mere feet from the show. January's Adam Franklin show and Wednesday's Serena Maneesh concert have me totally sold on the merits of seeing shows at DC9 right now. We were practically standing on top of Emil Nikolaisen's line of effects-pedals and Aadne Meisfjord's impressive electronics rig. Between a generous use of keyboard, samples, drum-pads, and effect-pedals the two managed to recreate a broad palette of weird sounds found on "No 2: Abyss in B Minor". But it wasn't until they combined their sound squalls with the dead-on and powerful rhythm section of drummer Tommy Akerholdt and the hypnotically beautiful bass player (Hilma Nikolaisen or Jenny Frasier?) that it all started to make perfect sense. Once they added second guitarist Øystein Sandsdalen to the mix my concerns about how the new material would translate literally washed away in a shimmering shower of sound.

One of the most impressive aspects of seeing Serena Maneesh this time was how, more often than not, sounds from the album that I was sure had been created with electronics were actually being generated by the live drums and bass. The Primal Scream "Xtrmntr" style techno beats were played live, while the electronics rig was reserved for adding conflict, dischord, and atmosphere. There was an awful lot going on on-stage in front of us. It was sometimes hard to track exactly who was doing what while the beauty and power of their music swirled around on-stage in some kind of sonic critical mass.

One thing was for sure: lead-singer, guitarist, group mastermind Emil Nikolaisen is one eccentric genuis of a guitar player and vocalist. His singing on 'Honeyjinx' and 'Don't Come Down Here' were everything a shoegazer vocal performance should be. I'm talking a text-book example of whispered beauty with an eerie, ethereal edge. His mouth zooming in and out on the microphone to add or subtract just the right amount of volume to keep the vocal at a constant level of barely-distinguishable in relation to the band's energy level. Meanwhile he was unleashing and wrangling all sorts of mad guitar screeds and scrawls. Emil had particularly impressive guitar freak-outs during the breakdown section of 'Don't Come Down Here' and the entirety of 'Selina's Melodie Fountain'. Speaking of freak-outs, Emil ended the show with an awesome physical spazz while the band blew-out the finale of 'Blow Yr Brains In The Morning Rain'. He moshed around the stage, wrestled his guitar and mic-stand to the ground, then dove into the crowd, thrashing around, and head-locking an adoring fan under each arm. It was an hilarious display of punk energy to match the oft critically-unacknowledged power of shoegazer music.

As I mentioned before, the show felt tortuously short. Their set was about an hour long, but after years of waiting and weeks of build-up since the show was announced, the crowd could have easily eaten up another hour of their Norwegian, shoegazer greatness. Online reports are that this tour was ragingly successful for Serena Maneesh. Unlike in 2006, they are definitely a buzz band now. So hopefully (pray, pray, fingers crossed) we will get another visit from Serena Maneesh in the not too distant future.

PS- Here's a transcript of Emil's set-list:
Ayisha
Reprobate
Honeyjinx
Don't Come Down
Selina
Chorale
Jaana
BYBITMR

Jello Biafra & The Guantanamo School of Medicine @ Ottobar 3/28 & The Black Cat 3/30

2010-05-17T00:27:00.003-04:00

"Jello Biafra with the Darpino brothers" - courtesy of Maribeth Darpino.

Jello Biafra will turn 52-years old in June but you wouldn't know it from listening to his new album "The Audacity of Hype" or by watching his punk-as-f*ck live show. Fueled by a combination of unyielding political outrage and a bottomless reserve of poetic wit, Jello Biafra has been calling it like he sees it to anyone and everyone who will listen (and sometimes to those who refuse too) for over 30 years. Biafra's various political platforms have included his legendary, California, punk band, The Dead Kennedys; numerous musical collaborations, several spoken word tours, and most recently his first 'official' band in 25 years, The Guantanamo School of Medicine.

"The Audacity of Hype" is a collection of songs Biafra has written over the last decade beginning with two tracks he performed (but never recorded) in 1999 with the No WTO Combo. Lyrically the material on the album is Biafra's strongest work since the Dead Kennedys split in 1986. The album paints a portrait of corporate interests run amok, the disaster of the G.W.Bush era, and the short-comings (in Biafra's eyes) of the Obama administration thus far. Whether you agree with him or not, if you appreciate great political song-writing "The Audacity of Hype" is a must listen. The last time I saw Jello Biafra perform also happened to be my first time. The show was at the Black Cat in 2005 and Jello was performing with The Melvins. I was obviously impressed because the show made #4 on my best shows in DC list that year. Based on the strength of the new album and the quality of the 2005 Jelvins show, I decided to catch the Jello/Gitmo show at the Ottobar on Sunday and their show at the Black Cat on Tuesday.

Jello Biafra in concert is difficult to describe. His shows are full of energy, passion, (fake) blood, sweat, anger, humor, rhetoric, slam-dancing, and mimicry. Both shows this week featured amazing punk rock music, mini-lectures calling out administrations past and present for unanswered sins, calls to action against political lethargy at large, information about little known injustices, and of course insane stage antics. In a sense Jello Biafra is pulling off punk rock, poli-sci, kabuki theater.

Both shows began with Biafra taking the stage in a lab-coat, his rubber-gloved hands dripping with (fake) blood. While the band tore through the album opener 'Terror of Tiny Town'; Jello sang, danced, contorted his face, smeared blood all over his lab coat and face, and basically owned the crowd. The Guantanamo School of Medicine are a band of bad-ass punk musicians. Veterans all, they played a punk sound that was Dead Kennedys by way of The Stooges. Their dual guitar attack allowed for the DK surf-twang to wind itself around the deeper, gnarly Stooges' guitar in inventive ways all night. The rhythm section were the beast, delivering chest-thumping bass that kept the kids dancing non-stop.

Jello delivered spoken word introductions to each song explaining their context or expanding on their themes. At the Ottobar show these introductions were much longer, more in-depth, and often involved props (such as a well-thumbed through copy of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks; I don't think I have ever seen a singer whip out a hardcover book and lecture on it at a concert before). These political asides sparked cheers of agreement, shouts of anger, and heckling through out the night; but refreshingly, particularly with the amount of alcohol being consumed on-site, no violence. At the Black Cat, Jello kept his introductions shorter but increased the manic fervor with which he delivered them.

Both shows featured the same set-list which included the entire "The Audacity of Hype" album, three non-album tracks: the anti-gentrification 'Dot Com Monte Carlo', the pro-veterans/anti-depleted uranium 'Victory Sucks', and 'The Cells That Will Not Die' deriding the exploitation of Henrietta Lacks' biology; and of course a couple of Dead Kennedys classics, hand-picked and re-tooled by Jello because of their relevance today.

The Ottobar show featured better stage antics, an on-point professor Biafra, and a more politically engaged crowd; the highlight being the performance of the anti-prison industrial complex song, 'Three Strikes'; during which, 51-year old, Jello Biafra climbed off the stage, attacked the balcony, climbed into it, and sang the song while desperately squeezing through the balcony railings evoking the very prison bars he was singing about! Talk about using your performance space for maximum effect!

The Black Cat show was all punk fury. While this show also featured Jello's crazed stage show and rhetoric, it was all a little more rushed and forceful. Less a community thing, more of an assault. The band sounded EPIC at the Black Cat; a fact they must have noticed at sound check, because they really brought the house musically on Tuesday. The highlight of the Black Cat show was without a doubt the performance of the DK classic 'Holiday in Cambodia' sung by a shirtless Biafra and enhanced by The Guantanamo School of Medicine's muscular instrumentation.

Both shows were phenomenal experiences and I wouldn't be too surprised to see the Ottobar concert wind up on my best of 2010 list in December.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club @ 9:30 Club 4/5/10

2010-05-17T00:27:00.002-04:00

courtesy of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club rumbled into town on Monday night to subject a sold-out 9:30 Club to a shock and awesome display of rock-n-roll annihilation. Touring in support of their latest long-player, "Beat the Devil's Tattoo", BRMC embraced that album's raw power style to play a set that was fast, loose, and loud. So loud that it often felt like the band was testing the audience's commitment to BRMC's maximum rock approach. The noise assault drove fans out in staggered waves through the set but left behind a sizable core of diehards to truly enjoy the display of sonic audacity and seemingly-effortless talent being unleashed on stage. Being a long-time BRMC fan, I was a bit shocked at the levels with which they could still manage to surprise and impress. After many years of watching Black Rebel Motorcycle Club perform, their Monday night, aural brainwashing made me feel like I was seeing the band for the first time all over again.

I have been an acolyte to the church of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and their country-fried, shoegazer, blues-rock for a long-ass time. They have made it onto my year-end, best-of-DC, concerts lists three times before (2007, 2006, top honors in 2004) and, unless this year gets crazy-good, will probably make it onto 2010's list as well. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are repeat offenders on my lists because every time I have seen them perform they offer a new perspective on their great rock-n-roll show. The first time I saw them in 2004 the show was all about atmosphere and cool. In 2006 they hit DC twice, first with a folksy/blues rock-out and then a few months later with a plugged-in fuzz-fest. In 2007, they brought their most polished show-yet, featuring an extra guitar-player, they focused on the expansive nature of their catalog, embracing every subtle note swirling around inside their huge, bombastic moments.

Monday night's show was no different in how different it was from tours past. Gone was the well-rehearsed, beautiful delivery of '07; gone too was the red-light, atmosphere of '04. On Monday night, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club brought the noise. I have heard them work the 9:30 Club sound-system better than almost anyone to produce shows of stunning beauty in years past. On Monday night, BRMC threw that approach out the window. Dialing everything in the sound-booth to max dBs and their amps to Spinal Tap 11, they took to the stage and let the Kraken loose. In a way this show was the most like The Jesus & Mary Chain that I have ever heard BRMC play. They played every moment so loud that the air itself began to vibrate and hum. For two hours and fifteen minutes the audience was trapped on the bleeding edge of sound; for some it was bliss, for others not so much. I personally loved every second of it. Guitar, bass, drums, vocals all bled together to create a primeval racket that had us feeling like banana slices trapped in a giant, jiggling, jello mold. You know you are witnessing pure-rock intensity when your car-keys are vibrating in your pocket and your drink is playing like it's an insert shot from Jurassic Park.

As I mentioned earlier, this was the least rehearsed I have seen BRMC play. That is not to say BRMC performed poorly. What I mean is that they didn't focus so much on big, dramatic moments or precision delivery like they usually do. Much like their new album, the show was a little sloppy, and that worked brilliantly in amping up the rock-n-roll sincerity of the whole thing. No surprise then that the songs from the new album sounded the best on Monday night. The highlights of the new songs were 'Bad Blood', 'Aya', and 'Shadow's Keeper'. There were bass sounds produced during the performance of 'Aya' that were so mind-blowing, they had to have been the coolest sounds on planet Earth at that given moment.

The show heavily featured BRMC's full catalog, particularly in its second half. The older songs sounded fresh with Monday's looser renditions. The material from their brilliant album "Baby 81" benefited most from this; especially songs like 'American X' and 'Berlin'. 'American X' was one of the highlights of the entire show featuring a brilliant vocal performance and an awesome noise jam in its second half. Other back-catalog, highlights of the night included 'White Palms' with its unbeatable cool-vibe, and surprisingly (to me anyway) 'Ain't No Easy Way' from "Howl".

Without a doubt the best moment of the evening for me was their intense performance of 'Six Barrel Shotgun'. It was the moment when the in-your-face, volume matched the material so perfectly that you just had to close your eyes and give in to music nirvana as the insane wall-of-noise washed over you. It was the perfect illustration of what Monday night's show was all about; straining the sound-system to its breaking-point with down and dirty rock-n-roll to provide musical, freak-out bliss to a house packed with BRMC devotees like myself. My ears are still ringing as I type this and I am already jonsing for more.

Muse @ The Patriot Center 3/1/10

2010-05-17T00:26:00.002-04:00

'Muse - Patriot Center - March 1, 2010'
courtesy of 'Mrs. Gemstone'

Even though I consider Muse one of my favorite bands, I have written very little about them over the years. The majority of the 6 times I have seen them perform took place far away from DC and therefore the majority of their shows did not end up reviewed on any of the DC sites I write for. It is fitting that Monday night's show at George Mason University's Patriot Center is the one to finally get a feature review out of me. Fitting because it was without question the best performance of theirs that I have seen. Fitting too because I have followed this band since they first washed up on American shores and have witnessed their progression as a live act. Over the seven years or so they've been touring here, Muse have not so much shown an evolution as performers as they have consistently demonstrated their massive power as a live act; an act so huge that whatever stage I saw them on seemed tiny in comparison to their unbridled, power-pop fury. With each tour, each stage got a little larger, and Muse seemed one step closer to realizing their master plan of becoming the best live band on the planet. Having seen them on Monday night, I think it is safe to say that they have finally realized that master plan.

The last time Muse played the Patriot Center was for the "Black-holes and Revelations" tour and I recall thinking that show was Muse finally getting the large venue they deserved. The band did not disappoint in raising their showmanship to new levels with an incredible visual display to match their monster sound. But I also recall being less impressed with their musicianship that night. While I greatly enjoyed the show, I did think it was the loosest musically that I had ever seen Muse play. I have since been blaming it on the sound at the Patriot Center and I had some reservations about seeing Muse play there again. I almost went out of town to see this tour. I am glad I did not.

Muse on Monday night was epic. Touring to support their latest album "The Resistance" (an insane, fight the dystopia, rock-opera) Muse brought one of the best top-to-bottom live shows I have ever seen. There were points during the show that had me questioning my sanity. The show was "am I losing my mind?" good. Seriously.

Visually the show was fantastic. From the moment the band was unveiled (each member appearing atop their own 30 foot platform from behind three collapsing skyscrapers) to the amazing use of digital-screen wrapped elevator-action, to the sick re-introduction of high-powered green lasers to the concert-going popular consciousness, through to the spinning mid-air drum-kit, piano-key light triggers, all the way down to Matt Bellamy's good ol' shiny, silver guitar the show never ceased dazzling the crowd with its inventive use of classic arena-rock gimmicks and new millennial lighting and digital tech. I have seen a lot of spectacle over the years (Trent Reznor, I am looking at you) but Muse on Monday night brought such a perfect blend of old and new that I found it exhilarating in a way that was unlike any other massively produced show I have ever seen.

Musically the band was on point, bringing the house down with their blend of muscular guitar pop, piano mini-concerto, and Matt Bellamy's alien operatics. Bellamy was in a form vocally and musically that was truly awe-inspiring. The man is in his element on a huge stage, in a silver outfit with glowing purple sunglasses, whaling on a guitar, while giving Freddie Mercury a run for his money on vocal range. Bellamy has always impressed, but on Monday night we were watching the man bloom. His vocals on songs like 'Guiding Light' and 'Stockholm Syndrome' were perfect, but it was on the surprise performance of 'Exogenesis: Symphony, Part One: Overture' that I found myself wondering if Bellamy is even from this planet. Ten minutes later, he confirmed that he is in fact an alien with his inhuman, falsetto opening to 'Knights of Cydonia'. If he were only a vocalist Matt Bellamy would still be considered one of pop's greatest, it is simply genius that he can also play virtuoso guitar and piano. There were so many guitar highlights on Monday it is difficult to list them, so I'll go with the 'New Born' and 'Hysteria' solos. On piano Bellamy shined brightest when playing the rarely performed Muse cover of 'Feelin' Good'. Wolstenholme and Howard had their moments in the sun as well, particularly on the awesome spinning, drum-kit "Helsinki jam".

The greatest moment of the night for me personally was their introduction to 'Knights of Cydonia'. I had heard that lately Muse introduces that song with Wolstenholme on harmonica; befitting the song's Spaghetti Western influence. What I did not know was just what Wolstenholme plays on that harmonica. I don't know how many people at Monday's Muse show were Ennio Morricone fans or would even recognize his composition from "Once Upon A Time In The West" called "Man With A Harmonica" but that is what Wolstenholme played. Not only did he play the opening bars of 'Man With A Harmonica' but the band soon joined in and they played just about the whole damn theme! For me it was the transcendent moment in a night full of transcendence. Ennio Morricone is a hero of mine. Perhaps the most special concert I have ever been to was his only U.S. concert in history at Radio City Music Hall. To hear Morricone's incredible composition being played by Muse, a pop band who all night had proved their live band global dominance was too much for this music fan's brain to compute. Just as I completely lost my mind, Muse slammed into an insane rendition of their tune 'Knights of Cydonia' and put the seal on the night.

For me the entire show was music nirvana. Total, maximum, transporting entertainment. With each new visual element unleashed and each bit of the set-list revealed, I was totally thrilled to be at this show and I could not imagine wanting to be anywhere else. Muse have been called the "Best Live Band on the Planet" for a few years now and I have never completely agreed - until now.

Editors @ 9:30 Club 2/21/10

2010-05-17T00:26:00.001-04:00

courtesy of Editors

Editors made a glorious return to the 9:30 Club on Sunday night playing to a sold-out house of enthusiastic fans and soon-to-be converts. These dark, Brit-pop masters treated the crowd to a set mixing their passion-fueled back-catalog with their synth-focused latest, "In This Light and On This Evening". The transitions between the new and old songs were not always the smoothest, but the sheer power and presence of one of the best performing bands around was more than enough to carry the crowd and the evening.

I have seen Editors on every tour and was particularly taken with their debut opening stint for Stellastarr* back in 2006. Since then Editors have put out a second great album of passion-pop, seen a ground-swell in popularity, and most recently embraced a dramatic stylistic shift on their new album. I don't think anyone was expecting their hard left-turn into synth territory but it does not feel entirely out-of-place either. Tom Smith's deep vocal style and the band's over-all darker tone adjusts pretty easily from their trademark guitar to the new album's near Gothic synth. That doesn't mean I wasn't skeptical going into Sunday's concert. In fact I was not really sold on this synth-shift based on my album-play-through and I was hoping for this concert to provide me a final verdict on how I really felt about it.

Sunday's show sold me on the new synth material but also reinforced the fact that Editors are a much better band when they stick to their guitars. Peppering the majority of the new album through-out their set; they sandwiched their new songs between double and triple shots of their classic guitar-based anthems. This made for some jarring transitions that amplified the alien, often colder nature of the new material. That said some of the new songs really did shine, particularly 'Eat Raw Meat = Blood Drool'. Often dismissed in album reviews due to its silly track name, the extended, kick-ass version of '...Raw Meat...' played Sunday was a highlight of the show for me, eclipsed only by incredible performances of "Racing Rats" and "Bones".

Editors are one of the great, modern, emotional pop bands. Witnessing Tom Smith's vocal-passion fuse with the band's sick sonics in a live setting can really be something special. Each Editors' show I have been to has been incredible and, analysis of their new synth material aside, Sunday's show was no different. The moment it all came together was about two-thirds through the set. The guitars had been pretty well flexed by material off of "The Back Room" and a few tracks from "An End Has A Start" and they had integrated the new songs pretty effectively by this point. Everyone was having a great time, myself included. And then they dropped the 'Bones' emotional/sonic A-Bomb on us. This song sounded and felt incredible on Sunday. Editors generated an awesome wash of sound that built up and around Tom Smith's crooning and then stretched it out, letting Smith cry out "Retreat, retreat" with a mix of force and fragility over and over again to make for an honest and emotional vocal performance that is right up there with some of the greats.

There was more to follow, but by that point it was all gravy. Editors in concert rule (yeah, even their synth stuff) and I hope you read this and decide to catch them the next time they come to town.

Tortoise @ The Black Cat 2/16/10

2010-05-17T00:25:00.000-04:00

courtesy of Tortoise

Indie-rock elder statesmen Tortoise played the Black Cat on Tuesday night and treated the modest-sized crowd to a set that was representative of their career modus operandi. Somehow their set managed to be simultaneously laid-back and intense in a way that was as mind-boggling as it was enjoyable. Covering the lion's share of their latest album "Beacons Of Ancestorship" Tortoise once again displayed their utter mastery of genre collision and band member inter-play.

A lot of articles online hail Tortoise as the "godfathers of Post-Rock" and while I don't particularly agree* I do recognize and enjoy the sea-change impact that they had on indie rock in the mid-1990's. No one on the indie landscape does quite what Tortoise does in practice or in sound. They are the ultimate instrument playing genre colliders. Tortoise does with instruments what DJs can only dream of doing with an arsenal of samplers; Tortoise swallows difficult genres (Jazz, Krautrock, Prog-Rock, Dub, Punk, the list goes on...) and reconstitutes them into insane progressive mash-ups that evoke their influences in brilliant, discordant, and challenging ways. The fact that they can do all that and still lay down a deeply enjoyable jam is Tortoise's own special brand of genius.

I last saw Tortoise performing their greatest album "Millions Now Living Will Never Die" in its entirety at All Tomorrow's Parties NY in 2008. During that set the band came across as intense, professionals hard at work re-creating their studio-born masterpiece. On Tuesday night at the Black Cat the band took to the stage and launched into a three-song stretch that evoked ATP NY's almost scary intensity. Seeing them play (what I believe was) "High Class Slim Came Floatin' In", "Northern Somethings", and "Gigantes" like that was incredible. Their rotating double drum, triple keyboard, double bass, double then triple xylophone/vibraphone** attack was jaw-dropping. Watching five men on stage swapping instruments and roles like inter-changeable parts while playing the most complicated and contradictory rhythms without missing a beat was one of the most impressive displays of instrumental versatility that I have seen in some time. At the end of their third song I shook my head in disbelief and muttered to myself, "They are not human".

In a way, those first three songs were the highlight of the show. They tore through just about every genre known to man in about 20 minutes like some kind of genetically-engineered, American indie rock, Kraftwerk-ian, super-soldiers. It was freakishly good.

After their intense opening trilogy Tortoise loosened up a bit. The band members cracked some smiles. One of them even began to dance! The tone of the music lightened up a bit too as they settled into a long stretch of some of their more jazz-oriented material. While still incredibly complex to pull-off the tunes were more laid-back and the atmosphere in the club shifted from awe-struck reverence to the typical Black Cat hipster shitty-chatty. The Black Cat has got a long running talking-during-performances problem and it reared its ugly head again in the middle of Tortoise's set.

I am beginning to think that the Black Cat is DC's worst venue because of the ignorant hipster crowd it always draws in. Why pay for a show to then ignore it and ruin it for others? A dude in front of me actually tried to start a fight with someone over a spilled beer. This, at a Tortoise concert! Could there be a more ridiculous concert to get in a fight at? I know how important it is for some people to get their monthly "cool" points by standing around and talking over a band they pretend to actually enjoy but it has been beyond ridiculous at the Black Cat for years. Ah, I digress.

The talking and general asshole-ry ruined some of the experience for me but I managed to take in the rest of Tortoise's set from the back of the room, where their bass and electronics actually sounded better (deeper and much more powerful). I found this sweet spot just in time for their strong closing stretch which brought back some of the more challenging and in my opinion more impressive material. One of their songs that I did not recognize was an electronic-based jam that had an intensity similar to seeing Throbbing Gristle in concert. The end of their set also featured their excellent new single "Prepare Your Coffin" which showcases some great, twanged-up guitar playing. 'Coffin' was really reminiscent of classic Cinecittà Italian crime soundtracks from the 60's and early 70's. I didn't really hear that influence when I listened to their album at home but in the live setting that sound and vibe definitely came to the forefront. I am curious if that is where Tortoise plucked that particular guitar approach from.

Tortoise treated the crowd of true fans with a second encore after most of the chaff had left. They closed the night out with a quieter but no less complex piece that was the just perfect as the clock ticked over from late Tuesday night to early Wednesday morning.

* mainly because the genre they supposedly founded sounds nothing like them and I always considered Slint to be post-rock's closest progenitors anyway.

** not to mention the other instruments!

The Cribs @ 9:30 Club 1/19/10*

2010-05-17T00:22:00.000-04:00

courtesy of The Cribs.

The Cribs treated DC to a fantastic evening of guitar-driven Brit-pop at the 9:30 Club on Tuesday night. Sporting their new 4-man line-up (now including pop-guitar legend Johnny Marr) The Cribs impressed and entertained the crowd of die-hard fans with a set heavily featuring material from their two most recent (and best) albums. While they did not stray very far from their musical comfort zone, the band did put on a dazzling display of their strengths that made for one of the most fun shows I have seen hit DC in quite some time.

I have enjoyed listening to The Cribs mature as a band over their four albums but never had the opportunity to see them live until now. Traditionally a trio of brothers (twin front men Gary & Ryan, and little brother Ross), The Cribs were one of many in the crop of new Brit-pop acts to emerge in the middle-00's. Other than producing a handful of catchy tunes, I thought their first two albums did very little to distinguish themselves from the near-overload of quality bands coming over from the UK at the time. It was with their near-perfect third album, "Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever", that The Cribs finally made an impact on me. On "Men's..." the trio raised their game in every department, crafting an awesome guitar-based, bubble-gum pop album that's up there with some of the best Brit-pop around. Perhaps having taken the trio format as far as they could go artistically, the band wisely added a fourth member for their latest strong offering, "Ignore the Ignorant".

Johnny Marr, the new Crib, was the elephant in the room before the show began on Tuesday. The man is a legend and you could hear many conversations around the club wondering how his presence would affect the band. Would he overshadow these youngsters with the simple but awe-inspiring fact that he was in Modest Mouse, The Pretenders, The The, and THE freakin' SMITHS?

It was very funny to me as The Cribs took the stage: three young turks and middle-aged, legendary Johnny Marr. Visually, they were kind of reminiscent of Dave with Alvin & The Chipmunks. Johnny Marr really did seem to overshadow these young guys on stage. That instantly evaporated when The Cribs opened up their set with the pop-assault of "We Were Aborted". The band sounded great and the brothers Jarman came to life, completely owning their instruments, the stage, and the crowd; giving us a glimpse of three developing pop legends in their own right. Once the lights dropped and the music started Marr blended seamlessly into the band, all sense of his musical hugeness was gone as he inserted his heroic pop guitar lines right alongside the guitar-n-bass powerhouse provided by Gary and Ryan. Drummer-brother Ross was no slouch either, often standing on top of his drum-kit while playing it!

The Cribs have a really great thing going. Their live set was all energy and fun as the twin lead singers traded lyrical duties mid-song, seemingly at random, without ever missing a beat. Never overly-serious, their lyrics and tempos kept the the crowd moving unlike anything I have seen in DC in years. When they weren't doing their twin trade-off singing thing, the vocal focus was on The Cribs' excellent call-and-response choruses that had Gary and Ryan belting out lyrics back-n-forth with the crowd.

The crowd at this show was shockingly small, filling just half of the 9:30 Club. I noted before the show that some Brit-sensations must be more sensational than others in DC's opinion. Just last month I saw Arctic Monkeys play to a 9:30 Club packed to the gills. A note on that though: while the Arctic Monkeys show was incredibly good, the crowd was huge and full of jerks. The Cribs crowd, on the other hand, while small had more joy and passion in their chests than a crowd ten-times its size. This was a seriously awesome crowd of real fans and that made a huge difference to the energy in the room. The crowd were ecstatic; dancing, jumping, and singing along to not just the hits but to every damn song. There was even some swooning-girl, Beatles-esque screaming going on. It was awesome and I'm proud of our town for finally shaking off some of the doldrums we are recently infamous for. If any show deserved a great crowd it was this one. The Cribs put on an amazing show and I will definitely be seeing them every chance I get from now on.

*originally titled "I'm a Realist. I'm a Romantic"

Adam Franklin & The Bolts of Melody @ DC9 1/6/10*

2010-05-17T00:20:00.001-04:00

courtesy of Adam Franklin

On Wednesday night, DC9 played host to Adam Franklin & The Bolts of Melody as they made DC the second stop of their month-long American tour. The small venue proved the ideal spot to observe and enjoy Franklin's guitar alchemy and emotional vocal delivery up close and personal. The band put on a really special set for the modest-sized crowd of Swervedriver fan-boys and guitar-geeks who braved the winter's chill to catch this mid-week show.

This is where every review and article on the planet about The Bolts of Melody offers a quick rundown of Adam Franklin's prolific career. If you don't know the man you can read about Swervedriver (personal favs of mine), the interesting Toshack Highway project, and Magnetic Morning on your own dime. For our purposes what is really important is that after many years of self-imposed exile from effects-pedal, guitar work Adam Franklin, one of the very best, has returned.

Simply put the word to describe this set is "Wow". I know reviews are supposed to be a little more eloquent than that, and I will attempt to be shortly, but "wow" is the word that has been repeating in my head since the end of this show. Seriously, if you are an old school Adam Franklin fan and you are reading this, and your town is on this brief January tour, and you were on the fence about going because he has been goofing around with acoustics and electronics for years, go see this and you will be very impressed.

Without dipping into the Swervedriver back-catalog once, Adam Franklin & The Bolts of Melody put on a masterful exhibition that really explored the creative potential contained within the electric guitar. When it comes to guitar there are your power-players, your 'wall- of sound' onslaughts, your epic riffsters, your cold precision players, and so on and so on. It takes a real virtuoso to fully tap into the instrument's beauty through restraint and release like Adam Franklin did on Wednesday night. Every slight movement made seemed to add a new amazing sound to the rich sonic-swirl that surrounded the crowd. Franklin and his fellow guitar player stood surrounded by pedals using the countless gadgets to generate a thousand squeaks, squalls, echoes, and zaps adding layer upon layer of sound textures. It was really beautiful to watch, even more beautiful to hear.

The other great aspect of the show was Franklin's vocal delivery. The slower-tempo songs of The Bolts of Melody (as opposed to the majority of Swervedriver's barn-burners) really gave Franklin's voice the time to sink in with the listener. The show had a pretty powerful emotional element to it as Franklin's delivery ranged from world-weary romantic to wistful reminiscence. This was most evident on the amazing performance of "Canvey Island Baby"; a song that almost felt like an epilogue to one of Swervedriver's many car-obsessed songs of the past.

Sampling handsome portions from each of his solo albums, the set effortlessly swayed from the blissed-out shoegazer of "Autumn Leaf" to the mature power-pop of "Seize the Day" and back again. For an encore we were treated to a thunderous, three-song preview of their forth-coming album that hearkened back to the Swervedriver days and had me holding back the urge to yell out "I'd buy it!". Instead I settled for exchanging a few words and shaking hands with the man himself after the set; yet another benefit of catching this show at the wonderfully intimate DC9.

* originally titled "Summer Has Gone".

Arctic Monkeys @ 9:30 Club 12/8/09*

2010-05-17T00:20:00.000-04:00

"My Arctic Monkeys Tickets" courtesy Greta Kauffman

Arctic Monkeys made their return to the 9:30 club in a rip-roaring fashion on Tuesday night with a set-list that mixed their trademark hyper-pop with their new album's dedication to song-craft and musical exploration. The effect was at times lost on the sold-out crowd but the combination of their good-will towards these Brit-pop phenoms and the lads' savvy use of radio hits peppered through-out kept the good times going for all. I was extremely pleased to see this young band so committed to their artistic development in a live show when so many other young acts fall back on crowd-pleasing when faced with sudden global levels of success.

I last saw Arctic Monkeys at the Coachella Music Festival in 2007 on the "Favourite Worst Nightmare" tour. The band in '07 was confident and beaming, clean-cut in hair and dress. Their set then was a barn-burning bit of guitar-driven Brit-pop that left everyone smiling. A great time but somewhat disposable on an artistic level; really a reflection on their sophomore album which to this day feels like a minor offering compared to their blisteringly awesome debut. Since I last saw them play, Arctic Monkeys have gone on to become one of the biggest bands in Brit-pop and have toured the world several times over; lead singer and songwriter Alex Turner put out an excellent 60's pop-inspired side-project (The Last of the Shadow Puppets); and the band has produced "Humbug", easily their most adventurous and daring music yet. The lyrical risk-taking and musical development on "Humbug" is a breath-taking statement by the band that they are serious craftsmen and represents their evolution from being the latest Brit craze to being vital musicians in a landscape full of one-n-done, Ipod commercial composers.

Arctic Monkeys took to the stage with the quiet confidence of wizened veterans, sporting a much shaggier look than in tours past, and launched into their set with a simple wave from Alex Turner. Right off the bat they ripped through an up-tempo number from each of their albums. The sound was bombast and fury as the band tapped into a snarling, garage rock energy. I was quite impressed with the muscle behind their playing which had much more in common with The Stooges than their own-genre predecessors Oasis and Blur. The opening onslaught was so engrossing that you didn't really notice the other people around you in the crowd until the band took a moment to re-tune. Then an odd thing happened. Turner announced that the next song would be a cover of Nick Cave's 'Red Right Hand'.

An Arctic Monkeys' version of 'Red Right Hand' is certainly something I never expected to see performed live but at least I knew what Turner was talking about. Judging from the crowd's reaction most of them hadn't expected it either but more out of ignorance of the song than reaction to the sheer oddity of the pairing. Needless to say the cover fell flat for most. As a cover, I thought the guys did a nice job. Turner modified the lyrics to fit his breathless, staccato style and then the song descended into a maelstrom of guitar and organ for a good 5-minutes or so. It wasn't until after the cover that it's brilliance really revealed itself as the band segued effortlessly into a four song stretch of tunes from "Humbug". The Cave cover had set-up a sneak attack for this slower, darker music. The drastic gear-shifter tempo changes, the near-crooning quality of Turner's wisdom-beyond-his-years vocals, and the slight 60's guitar-pop hang-over from Last of the Shadow Puppets played out beautifully in person; culminating in their brilliant performance of 'Crying Lightning'. On that song their full power-pop sound melded perfectly with the darker more emotional presence of the new album to mark the high point of the night. At least for me. Through most of the new songs large sections of the crowd went from patient tolerance to ignoring the new songs outright.

Several songs later, the band closed their set-proper with 'Fluorescent Adolescent' and the crowd went INSANE. A song I always considered one of their weakest is apparently their biggest hit with radio-listeners. In true lowest-common-denominator fashion, many otherwise lifeless crowd members suddenly were high-fiving, screaming "THE BEST YOU EVER HAD", and spilling beer all over themselves. I stood there clueless to the song's popularity and somewhat in horror as I watched this amazing show devolve into a Sublime concert; an odd end to an otherwise incredible night of music from some of Britain's top pop-innovators. Mercifully the band retook the stage moments later to play a two-song encore that included a truly beautiful rendition of 'Secret Door'; a version that I overheard some audience members call boring but had me singing to myself for days.

* formerly titled "All The Pretty Visitors"

The Five Best Concerts In And Around DC For 2009

2010-05-17T00:19:00.000-04:00

courtesy of 'bormang2'

One of the things that I am most excited about my return to blogging is that I have the opportunity to continue my year-end tradition of recapping the best concerts that I saw in and around the DC area.

For the uninitiated, this is a list of the best performances by musical acts that I saw in 2009 in the DC area. The list is based on individual sets rather than total concert line-ups. I consider any concert that I can drive to and back from in one night to fall within my radius of coverage. I'm keeping the list to 5 shows from now on because I catch great concerts all over the country and think I should only list the local cream of the crop. In other words, these are five DC area shows that can hang with the best shows in the country.

5. Keelhaul @ Velvet Lounge : I found out about this show just a few hours before it started and was very glad I was able to convince my buddies to check it out. Keelhaul are one of the very best underground Metal innovators and their playing the Velvet Lounge is a real testament to the bold programming at this great little club. Keelhaul's set was a brutal marathon session of thick guitars and break-neck rhythm change-ups that pushed the crowd to the very limits of head-banging endurance (as all great metal shows should). This show was a great, unexpected, aural bludgeoning from a band that I never thought I would be lucky enough to see play live.

4. ISIS @ The Black Cat : These guys have been populating my year-end lists for years. They consistently impress with every show and more often than not blow the majority of the competition out of the water. I would say competition was a key-factor as to why their set last Spring was so powerful that it turned the Black Cat into some fantastical, hard-rock, ceremony ground. Playing with label-mates Pelican (titanic in their own right) seemed to fuel Isis' fire unlike any other set I have seen of theirs. I was expecting this show to indulge in their latest album's prog-rock elements but was treated instead to a furious set of tunes spanning their career; played with a passion that this otherwise complex precision band aren't particularly known for. Whatever was driving Isis that night, their unusually passionate delivery of their insanely complicated post-metal put this show into the stratosphere.

3. The Jesus Lizard @ SONAR : I went to see the Baltimore leg of The Jesus Lizard's historic reunion tour because I wanted to catch them play for a real down and dirty, rock-n-roll crowd as opposed to the traditionally reserved DC crowd. My decision was validated by lead singer Dave Yow when half through the set he announced that DC used to be their favorite town to play in the early 90's but that it had been extremely lame the night before. He said the band was so impressed with the B'more crowd that "Baltimore is the new DC and DC is the new San Fransisco" (their least favorite town to play back in the day). The Jesus Lizard really seemed to feed off the B'more crowd's energy as they ripped through a gnarly set of their noise-rock classics. Seeing these genre giants was a dream come true for me. Dave Yow is a nasty, little wrecking ball of a man who preformed as if possessed - belting out lyrics with such force it wasn't a stretch to fear for his health. The band was sick, with Denison's lazer-saw guitar lines and the hardest working rhythm section in show-biz, creating an hypnotic, collective consciousness, noise-rock catharsis. By set's end every sweaty body there, the band and the crowd, had left it all on the floor. Simply put, this show was the beast.

2. My Bloody Valentine @ The National : Shoegazer royalty My Bloody Valentine treated Richmond, VA to a surprise warm-up show in July. I had the good fortune to see MBV twice in 2008 and both shows were incredibly good. What really impressed me with the '08 shows was that although the set-lists were identical the shows felt and sounded completely unique. The true masters of the wall of sound at work is really something magical to witness and I could not wait to see them a third time. The National theater in Richmond is a truly beautiful concert setting and the general admission (but seated) balcony was the perfect place to take in My Bloody Valentine in all their multi-pedal, gazillion amplifiers glory. Once again MBV sounded completely unique to the setting. Their beautiful noise filling and caressing every acoustic feature of the theater. I sat there with my birds-eye view of the band in true music nirvana for about an hour and half straight (a new personal nirvana record!). Seeing MBV is a lot like sitting in the heart of an active jet turbine while looking at distant space nebula through a Hubble Kaleidoscope. There really is nothing in reality that can compare to seeing My Bloody Valentine playing live and there are but a precious few concerts that could possibly top this one.

1. Devo performing "Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!" @ 9:30 Club : In November, proto-punk/New Wave gods Devo had a two-night residency at the 9:30 Club during which they performed their 1st and 3rd albums from start to finish. I attended both nights because Devo fanatic that I am I could not choose seeing one album performed over another. It was a music fan's Sophie's Choice and I wasn't going to have any part of it. While I greatly enjoyed night two, "Freedom of Choice", I would have to say it was not a year-end list-worthy show. Night one however is a completely different story. I went into this show very excited to be seeing a band that I love for the first time, but I must admit I was not expecting greatness. In fact I was expecting to be mildly entertained by a nostalgia act composed of men in their 50's. I had heard that Devo were not very good live and hadn't been for years now. I expected to check them off of my 'must-see' list and move on. But there was always my inner-Spud boy maintaining a glimmer of hope that I would be proven wrong and that Devo would tear DC a new one. And that is exactly what happened. Performing one of the most entertaining and energetic sets of music I have seen in a long time, these old prophets of Devolution annihilated the 9:30 Club. From their costume ripping to their spastic choreography, their geek humor to their slash-n-burn social commentary, their alien time signatures to their infinitely danceable music - Devo completely pwned the crowd from album's start to album's finish. I have since, on more than one occasion, overheard strangers around town talking about that amazing night. I am still (over a month later) in awe of the timeless punk rock originality and genius musical dexterity that Devo put on display when they performed "Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!". It was without a doubt the best show in or around DC in 2009.

To check out my past lists click on the year: 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004.

Re-entry!

2010-05-17T00:17:00.002-04:00

I have decided to post all of my We Love DC concert reviews here as well. Enjoy!

Greater Than One - Index

2007-07-04T04:18:00.000-04:00

Year: 1990
Genre: Industrial - Dance

Highlight Track: "Dubkiller"
Weak Track: "Metal"

Index is a nice meditative EP from electro-industrial pranksters Greater Than One that focuses more on the electro than the industrial and tones down their usual reliance on mile-a-minute samples by instead doling them out with restraint. I am tempted to call this their ambient EP if not for the inclusion of the track called "Metal" which features a pretty ripping guitar sample loop. Unfortunately "Metal" is also the album's weakest track; so the song is kind of a let down for fans of guitar use in industrial music.

"Metal" is a weak track because it begins with a grandiose orchestrated sound and then launches into a great abrasive guitar attack that ultimately repeats itself into oblivion. The track ends with no payoff whatsoever. This is extremely disappointing coming from a band that made some of the best sample orchestras of the late 1980's.

Fortunately for us the rest of the EP makes for great listening. As I mentioned before Index is ultimately more ambient (or background) than Greater Than One's other releases but that's not exactly a strike against it. GTO are very good at making cool sounding electronic music and this EP is an excellent example of their 'cool' factor. Especially the track "Dubkiller" which simulates the effects of shooting-up with sound. It is an industrial-ambient oddity that works on every level by first hypnotizing the listener and then waking them up with a final finger snap of sampled Christian radio. The listener is then left with the unsettling after-effects of processing all of the subliminal suggestions made by the song's subdued yet subversive samples.

Forced Reality - 13 Years Of Forced Reality

2007-07-03T15:24:00.000-04:00

Year: 2000
Genre: Oi!

Highlight Tracks: "Backbreaker", "15 Pints (And I'm Still Standing)", "Blood Is Thicker Than Water"
Weak Tracks: "The Flag Is Mine"

Forced Reality were an enigmatic Oi! group from Connecticut in the 1980's who reunited for a few years beginning in 1999. During their reunion they recorded this live 'best of' album that also includes the two new songs "Backbreaker" and "Felon Love". I bought this Oi! gem when I saw them play at the DC Superbowl of Hardcore in 2001.

13 Years of... is a great album from start to finish. The band rip through an extremely tight set recorded live at Boston radio station 88.1 WMBR. Forced Reality sound like the spiritual precursors to the Dropkick Murphys. Like the Dropkicks, Forced Reality's version of Oi! is a tighter, more traditional, rock-n-roll sound than sloppier British Oi! bands like Peter & The Test-Tube Babies or Cockney Rejects. Forced Reality's lyrics are a lot more in spirit with the Dropkicks as well. This is American Oi! for American skinheads and the songs are much more about brotherhood and a hard day's work than about politics or senseless beer-fueled destruction. Therefore the album is less an aggro piece than it is a an excellent sing-along album for a late-night at the bar with your crew. Particularly the album's highlight track "15 Pints (And I'm Still Standing)" which is without question Forced Reality's finest moment.

The Exploited - Horror Epics

2007-06-26T11:53:00.000-04:00

Year: 1985
Genre: UK Punk

Highlight Tracks: "No More Idols", "Don't Forget The Chaos", "Race Against Time"
Weak Tracks: "Down Below"

Horror Epics is a great album that doesn't get the credit it deserves. The Exploited have a very strong early catalog and this album at the extreme end of their heyday gets glossed over as their transition from punk to thrash. But that's not what it is. Horror Epics is a masterfully produced punk rock album; I know that seem like an oxymoron but hear me out.

First of all, musicianship has never been the Exploited's strong point. They've always done a passable job but their passion has always made up for their lack of skill. Not so on Horror Epics where they turn the traditional punk three chord progression on its head and focus on drums and bass like never before. This is by far the most musically mature album the Exploited ever generated.

Which gets me to the production of the album. The drums are mixed out of control on this album. Especially on the newly remastered edition. They are mixed way up front and almost eclipse the guitar as the star of the show. Take the title track and "Dangerous Visions" as exhibit A and B on that count your honors. When the drums aren't wrecking your world the bass steps up in the mix to destroy everything you know about punk rock bass playing. The two elements combine to make Horror Epics a rhythmic monster of an album.

That doesn't mean that the guitars or vocals are slouching. The guitars play like humming saw blades in a 2x4 factory from beginning to end. Maybe one could argue that they are tuned for metal over punk but to my ear it just comes across as a variation on the Exploited's original style rather than a departure from it. Wattie Buchan's vocals sound as howling pissed as ever. The one significant change to his vocal style on this album is that he occasionally steps back off the mic to let the music takeover for longer stretches than on previous albums. This raises the impact of his lyrics by spotlighting them and gives the musicians a chance to impress like never before.

Depeche Mode - Violator

2007-06-25T11:30:00.001-04:00

Year: 1990
Genre: Post-Modern Underground

Highlight Tracks: "Enjoy The Silence", "Waiting For The Night", "Policy of Truth"

Does anyone remember Dave Kendall and his show Post-Modern MTV? It was aired on weeknights at 130am in the late 80's and early 90's and introduced a ton of great underground music to the nation. It was a reduced version of 120 Minutes which would air Sunday nights. Kendall was a dorky British bloke but he had wicked music taste. His show 120 Minutes would go on to become the launchpad for the 'alternative' music explosion after a few short years and he would be replaced as host by someone much grungier. While I have no problem with the grunge/alternative explosion, I always did prefer Post-Modern MTV because it never strayed from the music it covered and it went off the air rather than change with the times. Because of that it remains a perfect artifact for the music and time it represented.

I was introduced to a ton of bands on Post-Modern MTV and back in those pre-car-ownership, pre-internet days I had no access to genre resources like All Music Guide or even an underground record shop. So my solution when referring to these bands was to lump all them all together and call them 'post-modern underground'. A genre of my own devising that probably confused more people than it helped whenever I name-dropped it. After all these years I still consider the bands I found on that show to be in that special personalized genre. So since this is my music website, and I make the rules, I'm going to resurrect the genre name and use it first on this write-up.

I saw a Depeche Mode video on the first episode of Post-Modern MTV that I watched and then subsequently on just about every episode after. Kendall frigging loved Depeche Mode and soon after seeing his show so did I. To me they are the quintessential post-modern underground band.

Violator is a masterpiece of songcraft, electronic production, and atmosphere. In Depeche Mode lore it is rivaled only by Music for the Masses for best album. The two albums represent Depeche Mode at the height of their powers. Violator focuses on a minimalist electronic sound that is epic in its simplicity. Every electronic sound is isolated and amplified for maximum effect. This makes for a very clean sound that lets you really hear every single note. This is a success of the album that I think is often overlooked. The production zeros in on every note with laser clarity. There is never any noise or cross-chatter. Each note stands out and each note is perfect.

The production makes Violator one of the best electronic albums of all time. Building on this foundation of great, ground-breaking music the band then up the ante by injecting the album with a great emotional arc. Gore's lyrics and Gahan's vocals combine to take on the highs and lows of addiction, failed relationships, letting yourself down, hitting rock bottom, isolation, and fooling yourself into thinking you've worked through your problems. Emotionally it is a devastating album. But at the heart of it all you feel the narrator is a decent human being. The listener feels the narrator's pain and empathizes with him. The listener even roots for him to pull through his trials and tribulations. That kind of interaction with the listener makes Violator a phenomenal album experience.

Individually every song is extremely strong except for possibly "Blue Dress" which is necessary to wrap up the relationship sub-plot of the album but isn't really an exciting song in itself. What makes the other songs so excellent on their own is that each one is almost an archetype for the mood it represents. So if you want to feel the rush of the narrator's highs simply put on "World In My Eyes" or "Personal Jesus" and let fly. They make for great songs in the concert hall or the club. And if you're feeling vunerable, depressed, or strung-out then you are in luck because there are a plethora of songs here to comiserate with.

Finally "Enjoy The Silence" is one of the greatest songs ever written. It contains the emotional gamut of the album with a message of self-imposed isolation. It can be interpreted a hundred different ways but to me the song is really about knowing when you've got it good and getting the hell out while you still can. Reaching a moment of happiness or peace and escaping from the assault of society to preserve that moment for as long as you can.

The Charlatans UK - Simpatico.

2007-06-20T23:26:00.000-04:00

Year: 2006
Genre: Britpop

Highlight Tracks: "Blackened Blue Eyes", "City Of The Dead", "When The Lights Go Out In London"
Weak Tracks: "Glory Glory"

This is an extremely strong outing from britpop veterans (and my personal favs) The Charlatans UK. Over the course of their 18 year career they have never put out a weak album; not even when they were tinkering with their trademark sound. Simpatico. is definitely one of their tinker albums and it works swimmingly.

The album blasts out of the gate with the only traditional britpop numbers to be found here. "Blackened Blue Eyes" is a terrific Charlatans single that gets the listener bobbing along while Tim Burgess belts out lyrics that are dark and ambiguous. "NYC (There's No Need To Stop)" is a great late night sing-along anthem for the endless party that is the illusion of New York City.

With their two barn-burners out of the way the band slow it down for the rest of the album. This is the Charlatans like you've never heard them before. With a slower tempo the band explore their craft by building a series of songs that dazzle in their rhythm and sonics. The majority of the album falls somewhere between two-tone ska and The Clash in influence but never completely crosses the line into those previously perfected territories. The Charlatans walk a tight-rope between inspiration and imitation like seasoned acrobats by adding their own unique twist the whole time.

Simpatico. is a very atmospheric album but deceptively so. If you slightly modify the volume in the upward direction the album becomes a great foot-stomper with its deep bass lines and unstoppable percussion. This album has got cool rhythm to spare. The keyboards and piano playing are front and center once again but in the form of more direct piano compositions rather than as a rhythm instrument as on some of their previous albums.

Tim Burgess' vocals are pitch perfect on every track on Simpatico. He has always been a competent front man, but I think that on this album he has found a perfect middle-space between the many directions he has taken his vocal style over the years. Now as a slightly older performer he has the mastery to dip into each of those past styles when needed without letting any one eclipse his excellent natural singing voice.

"City of the Dead" is my favorite track on the album. The name is a nod to The Clash while it sounds like it would be right at home next to the Specials' "Ghost Town" or Madness' "Night Boat to Cairo". It is an incredibly different kind of song for The Charlatans to be playing but somehow they make it sound current and completely natural. It is the most exciting song on their best album in years.

Blondie - Autoamerican

2007-06-19T23:35:00.000-04:00

Year: 1980
Genre: New Wave

Highlight Tracks: "Angels on the Balcony", "Do The Dark", "Rapture"
Weak Tracks: "Here's Looking At You", "Follow Me", "Faces"

This is an uneven album. A full quarter of its tracks end up on the "weak" list due to silly style choices. The rest of the album works but sounds like it is from a bunch of separate recording sessions with different producers and guest musicians. As an album I don't think it really works or flows. It sounds too confused.

It opens with the epic instrumental track " Europa" that makes you think you are settling in for a Blondie concept album. The track borders on musical science fiction. The disco-inflected "Live It Up" is a good track but brings the listener back to normal Blondie territory rather quickly. The illusion of a concept album is then completely shattered by the 1920's style of "Here's Looking At You"; an awful stylistic misstep that is only saved by Debbie Harry's unrelenting charisma.

The middle section is the album's saving grace. This strong core of five songs are classic Blondie and a joy to listen to. "The Tide is High" is one of Blondie's enduring hits with its Caribbean horns and lazy summer daze tempo. "Angels on the Balcony" opens with a weird Devo-esque prelude but then turns on the pop charm with its dreamy vocals and new wave instrumentation. I think this song is the best example of Blondie as a band on Autoamerican. "Go Through It" and "Do The Dark" are both strong Blondie toe-tappers that deserve to be spotlighted since they are usually lost to obscurity by being on one of their lesser albums. "Do The Dark" in particular should be resurrected to show all the Goldfrapp fans how it's really done.

"Rapture" is my favorite Blondie song. The music is crazy good and Debbie Harry's vocals and sex appeal are out of control. The song's first section alone would stand as one of Blondie's strongest offerings. The addition of the early hip-hop tribute on the song's tail-end is pure genius. It shows how tiny the NYC music world was back in the swirling chaos of the late 70's but also how fun it must have been. The lyrics of Debbie's "rap" are insane nonsense as she plays around with the 'new style' emerging from the NYC playground battles between the Sugar Hill Gang and The Furious Five. It is such a weird thing for this model-looking-but-punk-at-heart girl to do. It is even more bizarre that the song works so well. "Rapture" is a classic tune.

The four songs that close the album swing drastically from fun to atrocious. "Faces" and "Follow Me" are just terrible songs with Debbie Harry singing torch-style over snore-inducing music. Maybe these two songs are Blondie's nod to Broadway; if that's the case then there are some things that even my musically open mind can't stomach. "T-Birds" and "Walk Like Me" however are both decent new wave tunes that keep the album's second half from completely plunging into a self-indulgent audition for Cats.

African Head Charge - Great Vintage Volume I

2007-06-18T08:01:00.000-04:00

Year: 1989
Genre: Dub

Highlight Tracks: "Beriberi", "Family Doctoring", "Hole in the Roof"

This first volume of Great Vintage collects the best tracks off the first two albums by African Head Charge (My Life In A Hole In The Ground and Environmental Studies). The series was produced by Adrian Sherwood for his On-U Sound record label.

Dub music is some of the best background music there is and the style of dub showcased on Sherwood's On-U Sound label is my favorite kind. Sherwood is an uber-producer who adds a spacey, electronic element to traditional dub to form a sort of industrial-dub. I have always felt that dub music is a direct ancestor of electronica and this African Head Charge volume provides a lot of evidence for that.

I don't know how dub musicians get the ideas for their music. Their music is almost alien in its use of bizarre sounds and super-complex percussion. The song structures are densely layered, with new elements being added in when you least expect them. All of these dub trademarks are reflected in trippy ambient electronica. The major difference is that the music here is being made organically rather than by machines. A fact that I find mind-blowing.

Through the use of production and recording tricks African Head Charge make drums, guitars, bass, and keyboards sound like instruments from another planet. Which is what I have always liked most about dub; the fact that it sounds so damn strange.

The two albums represented on this collection display two different aspects of African Head Charge.

The first seven songs sound a lot more cling-clang. Almost as if the music was being made with recycled junk. The pots and pans sound is enhanced by reverb mutated tribal chants and nature sounds filtered through blown boom-box speakers. A great example of what I mean is found on the track "Hole in the Roof" where rain sounds trickle over a percussive jam that sounds like it is coming from down the street while warbling buzzsaws echo over a faded-out horn section. The combined effect sounds like an orchestra made with broken instruments and yet somehow the song works beautifully.

The second seven songs benefit from much better production values and focus much more heavily on horns than the first batch did. The use of horns here ranges from traditional (almost slow ska) to the extremely bizarre. The genius of dub is what is done to alter trad instruments and what African Head Charge does with their horn section is incredible. Take for example the song "Beriberi" on which they apply an echo effect to the tail end of a repeated saxophone warble; it goes 0 to 60, from soothing to unsettling, in the blink of an eye. Another neat trick AHC pulls is cutting and looping distorted horns so that we only hear the tone-heavy middle of a horn blurt or the chopped off end of a trumpet blast being used to enhance the beat.

The press on African Head Charge usually focuses on their unique approach to percussion, which along with bass are the traditional centerpiece of dub music, but what makes them so exciting to me are the odd extra sounds they discover with their effect-laden horns and junk-pile instrumentation.

Satellite Eclectica DJ

2007-06-15T12:13:00.001-04:00

For any readers in the Washington DC area - the above is a flyer for my DJ night with my partner Chris Diamond - it's tonight at Rock and Roll Hotel - come out and join us!

OST - Desperate Hours - David Mansfield

2007-06-12T11:36:00.000-04:00

Year: 1990
Genre: Original Soundtrack

Highlight Tracks: "Too Many Memories", "Albert Pursued", "The Chase"
Weak Tracks: "Dumping the Body"

I wish I had a scanner so I could show you the back cover of this album. The front cover is almost serene, a man in a suit standing in front of a nice house. Turn the case over (as most are want to do after putting a CD in) and you are met by the bloody image of actor David Morse standing in a stream as he is torn to shreds by hail of bullets. It is a startling contrast of images that matches the music as soon as the CD begins playing. Even if you have never seen the movie Desperate Hours, the music from it evokes tension and conflict.

The score is mostly comprised of a hard-working string section, eerie low-toned woodwinds, and a bombastic brass line. Each section of instruments serves a specific purpose. The strings come across as frantic; the villains on the run after a daring jailbreak. The woodwinds are the family that will eventually be taken hostage; a slightly sad theme for a broken home. The brass instruments are the action; exploding in your face they can't be ignored, much like our hero family can't ignore the gang of cons invading their home. Mansfield composes these elements to openly conflict when needed, but he also has them weave in and out of each other to create an atmosphere of menace through the majority of the piece.

While it is hard to separate the film's imagery from the music, the score plays as entertainment in itself. If you have never seen the movie the score is still a very dramatic listen. The score comes across as eerie and full of conflict. For the most part the focus on the woodwinds makes this a relaxing listen, but the expertly crafted layers of conflict could be a bit unsettling to some.

One element of the score that I really enjoy is that after the initial rounds of action early on the album, the score settles into the restrained conflict of its elements. By the end of the score (which is also the climax of the story) the composer chooses to focus on some of the quieter themes rather than blast the listener through the sofa. "Albert Pursued" is a great example of this, featuring drums prominently for the first time to add the element of an FBI SWAT team while maintaining a quiet atmosphere to lend magnitude and emotion to this two-bit thug's final moments.

Various Artists - DIY: The Modern World: UK Punk II (1977-78)

2007-06-11T11:33:00.000-04:00

Year: 1993
Genre: UK Punk

NOTE: After I complete a run through of the alphabet each month I will cover a couple of miscellaneous categories. I will write-up one various artists compilation and one film soundtrack.

These days, with their massive box sets, Rhino is a major compilation label but back in the early 90's they put out mostly classical music. They were just getting started dipping their toes into the modern music compilation game. The DIY series was one of their first. It focused on the geographic centers of street level rock music of the 70's and 80's. I love this series because it is great source material for the classic LA/NY/UK punk arguments.

This is the second of two entries in the series that highlights punk from the UK. For those familiar with UK punk there aren't a lot of surprises here other than what bands were left out because of licensing costs. However, the exclusion of some of the genre heavy-weights (like The Clash and The Damned) left room for the inclusion of some of the scene's smaller acts (like The Rezillos or 999). This creates an unusual track list that makes this compilation a fun listen for both punk neophytes and seasoned scene veterans.

This particular entry in the DIY series revisits the UK punk scene by focusing on some of the fringe acts and finds the scene about to split into various subgenres. The beginnings of the Oi!, post-punk, and gothic movements are all hinted at here by the inclusion of acts like Sham 69, Magazine, and Siouxsie & The Banshees among others. There are plenty of classic punk rockers here as well with some staples by The Buzzcocks, Stiff Little Fingers, and The Jam. This is a very well balanced mix of music that shows at least some thought was put into the song order (unlike some other punk compilations).

While my unabashed worship of the music here makes it impossible for me to pick out just a handful of highlight tracks - one real highlight I can point out is the compilation's excellent liner notes. The text follows the second half of 70's UK punk by briefly introducing each band and explaining their place in the punk universe. The text is accompanied by some great B&W photos of the bands in their prime.

For the uninitiated DIY: The Modern World is a great (if slightly skewed) introduction to this amazing music scene. For old hands like myself it makes for a really fun playlist of punk favorites that is better than your run-of-the-mill compilation.

Zen Guerrilla - Trance States In Tongues

2007-06-08T08:01:00.000-04:00

Year: 1999
Genre: Noise Rock

Highlight Tracks: "Mod Riot", "Heart Attack", "Preacher's Promise"
Weak Tracks: N/A

As far as I know these guys are the best band to ever come out of the state of Delaware. Yeah, that's right, Delaware. Since when do kick ass rock bands come from Delaware? I mean, Delaware has got to be one of the most boring states in the union. Hell, they even joke about it in Wayne's World. Delaware is basically Pennsylvania's flaccid wang. The whole damn state is a narrow strip of flat farmland with a highway splitting it down the middle. Maybe this music was inspired by the mean streets of Wilmington, Delaware? I've been to Wilmington, the city is basically a bus station, a train station, and eighteen discount cigarette outlets. I can only guess that it was the very boring nature of their homeland that prompted Zen Guerrilla to form; with the mission of getting a record deal and getting the hell out of fucking Delaware. Or maybe it was to shake their sad little tax-free state out of the doldrums? This album could certainly do that.

Trance States in Tongues is a top to bottom rock and roll ass-kicker. This is a noisy, whiskey-soaked, dance on the table-tops party album. It sounds like an insane collision of late-60's garage punk, blues rock (the good kind), and stoner rock. Although I don't know that fans of any one of those genres would particularly enjoy it. This is a bizarre album that some folks will love from its first noisy 'lawn-mower' guitar ignition and others will resist to its final fade out.

If you stripped away all the album's weirdness it might sound fairly typical, but thankfully it is chock full of musical oddity that injects it with an irresistible charisma. The vocals howl at the moon through an array of effects that make it sound like they are echoing back to earth off of the cratered face of that celestial body. The singing never sounds like it is coming from inside the room, almost as if the lead singer is performing outside, drunk in the parking lot, while the band pound away indoors. The music is mixed really clean, even though the individual instruments are twanged, tuned and distorted to put a noisy spin on traditional rock song structure.

The collective sound Zen Guerrilla generates feels huge; like these guys should be rocking apart giant arenas. They go full-throttle on every track in a way that other noise rock bands often shy away from at times. Sometimes the production of other noise rock bands seems to acknowledge that the music is for a smaller audience. Not here. Even though I could never see Trance... appealing to a wide audience (its just too noisy and weird) the album rocks along completely oblivious to its obstacles. These guys just don't seem to give a damn about rock politics and they set out to cut an album for the ages. Which in my opinion they succeeded in doing. This album is one of my favorite rockers.

I just can't believe it came out of Delaware.

Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth

2007-06-07T00:13:00.000-04:00

Year: 1980
Genre: Post-Punk

Highlight Tracks: "Searching for Mr. Right", "N.I.T.A.", "Music for Evenings"
Weak Tracks: "Colossal Youth"

So far 'O', 'Q', and now 'Y' have been the letters with least amount of albums in my collection. I had to dip into my vinyl collection to find a 'Y' band for today and I'm glad I did.

Colossal Youth is a terrific gem of post-punk minimalism from the formative days of the genre. Allison Statton's vocals are the bizarre focal point of this very odd album. Her delivery is almost deadpan but then every once in a while she teases us with a strain of emotion; usually longing or the suppression of longing. Her whole vocal effect brings to mind an attractive woman who has become numb to the relationship game but secretly hopes to have her inner-romantic swept away unexpectedly. It would be heart-breaking if not for the fact that there is also an inflection of fun in Statton's singing that keeps this album out of wrist-slashing territory.

The music that accompanies Statton's voice is an incredible array of minimalist keyboard and guitar tricks set to a drum machine. The music on this album could be printed instructions for post-punk instrument tuning. One of the things that set this album apart from the rest of the pack is the odd pacing of the bass and drum machine. Another is the space between notes. This album isn't crowded with squall, squelch, and noise. The band let their music breath (much like John Cale of The Velvet Underground did) so that each note stands out, highlighted like an escaping prisoner caught in front of the prison wall by a spotlight.

Both elements, voice and music, combine for quite an interesting effect. The album is very minimal and therefore a great relaxing listen. But the mood of it is chameleon-like in that it amplifies whatever mood the listener brings to it. The album can be extremely lonely and sad just as easily as it can be an uplifting and exhilarating musical experience.

XPQ-21 - Destroy to Create

2007-06-06T00:01:00.000-04:00

Year: 1999
Genre: Industrial - Synth

Highlight Tracks: "A Gothic Novel (Body)", "Monster", "Synthesizers"
Weak Tracks: N/A

Combining industrial synth style with classic techno beats Destroy to Create is a great album.

The industrial sounds and techno beats make this a very danceable album while at the same time the synth work here is beautiful enough to put this album on while chilling at home. If Underworld ever cut an industrial album it would probably sound like this. That is probably because Jeyenne, the mastermind behind XPQ-21, spent most of the 90's as a European techno god and he brings his bag of tricks from that genre along with him.

Jeyenne also brings a great vocal style. His german accent adds nicely to his range of dramatic vocals. He often shouts, growls, and mutters before busting out into full-on gothic crooning. Whenever a singer goes the goth route on an industrial album they walk a fine line between drama and farce. Thankfully Jeyenne pulls it off nicely on Destroy to Create.

On this album XPQ-21 is a duo rounded out by a woman called Nicque. When I saw XPQ-21 open for Funker Vogt in 2001 it seemed like she was the one handling all of the music while Jeyenne was singing. On this album I assume they share the programming duties.

The highlight of the album is the programming; especially on the awesome instrumental track "Synthesizers" where XPQ-21 unleash an awe inspiring amount of keyboard and synth layers to bury the listener in sound. At other moments, such as on "Aog", the band slow the tempo down into Kraftwerk territory. The band sound like they are having so much fun on every track that really the entire album is a joy to listen to. The song "Monster" is itself a monster dance track that shows off a range of tempo and techno/industrial musicianship that makes your head spin. Meanwhile the album's single "A Gothic Novel (Body)" is a moody piece of synth brilliance being equal parts atmospheric and danceable.

I really love this album. I'm not the biggest fan of the industrial synth movement but this album really works for me. Probably because it is so much fun to listen to. I often think I would like more industrial synth bands if they would lighten up a bit. Destroy to Create is by no means light fare, but its techno elements do make it more fun to party too than some of the genre's other albums. Where many industrial synth groups pull off fun and beauty on an occasional single or dance-floor hit, XPQ-21 managed to produce an entire album of well-crafted wonders.

White Zombie - La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Vol. 1

2007-06-05T12:01:00.000-04:00

Year: 1992
Genre: Alt. Metal

Highlight Tracks: "Black Sunshine", "Thunder Kiss '65", "I Am Legend"
Weak Tracks: "Starface", "Warp Asylum"

Tired of the usual rummage sales and flea markets we went in search of something different. We heard about the Double Crossbones swap meet from a blind guy selling fake shrunken heads at the '66 yard sale. We followed his directions to the letter: wait til nightfall, drive down past the chicken factory, through the railway switch station, turn left on the dirt road after you pass the rusted out caboose on cinder blocks, drive until you reach a covered wood bridge, park, then walk across.

As we crossed the creaky wood bridge in deep darkness, I could hear small things climbing around on the roof and the sides of the bridge. From the far end of the bridge I could see the flicker of torches and I could hear faint music drifting in. As soon as we emerged on the other side somebody or something grabbed Sally. She screamed and I grabbed one of them. He was a hunched giant wearing a sickly, over-sized, paper-mache skull over his face. He hit me in the stomach with the torch he carried. I crumpled to the ground, wind knocked out of me, beating the flames out of my shirt. Another twisted giant in a straining Luchador mask dragged Sally through the mud by her hair. He carried a torch in his other hand. It cast light onto cages filled with all manner of bizarre mutant creatures and near-nude women wearing rags tattered with age. The skull-faced giant grabbed me by the back of my neck and swung me around. I lost sight of Sally as I was dragged around to face the Double Crossbones swap meet.

Imagine the largest flea market you have ever seen. Now imagine it stretching on for eternity. Tables of junk and sad souls selling from them as far as the eye can see. The horizon blotted out by card tables covered with cheap trash and decades old novelties. The massive used-junk hell was shrouded in gray mist and torches hung from poles to illuminate each table's junk. The skull-faced giant forced my face close to a table, compelling me to examine its wares.

The table was covered in gore: beating organs, shattered bones, curios fashioned out of small animal carcasses, Asian snuff videos, Nazi jewelry, and bottled fetuses in a variety of species (including human).

Each time I tried to turn my head away from the blood and the stink of the table the giant shoved my head back toward it. I looked up to see what manner of ghoul would be selling such horrible items and an empty lawn chair chair met my gaze. Confused I looked at some of the tables nearest me. Behind each sat one or more horrible visage, grinning with greed and desperation. I looked back to the empty chair in front of me. Was this meant to be my station?

Then I heard Sally scream somewhere in the distance. With this I slammed my head back into the skull giant's groin. I heard a crunch and the giant let me go. He crumpled into a 90 degree angle as I leapt to my feet and spun around seeking out Sally's scream.

When a voice commanding me to "Stop" emerged from the darkness. I turned to face the gaping mouth of the old covered bridge. Weird, green demon creatures crawled all over the bridge cover. And a tapping sound echoed from within. The skull giant recovered and grabbed me by both arms, I twisted but couldn't break free. The tapping sound got closer and more familiar.

With horror I looked to the nearest hanging torch. It was a shrunken head set aflame!

I looked back to the bridge just as the darkness parted. Out of the gloom walked the blind man; his cane tapping in front of him, a sack of shrunken heads slung over one shoulder, and a depraved smile on his face!

Veruca Salt - Eight Arms To Hold You

2007-06-04T08:01:00.000-04:00

Year: 1997
Genre: Power Pop

Highlight Tracks: "One Last Time", "Benjamin", "Sound of the Bell"
Weak Tracks: "Awesome", "Shutterbug"

I have always felt that Veruca Salt were one of the 'sell-out argument' casualties of the early 90's (along with Jawbox). They were accused of just going indie to get cred after rapidly selling to a major label. As if these bands were part of some grand conspiracy with the major labels; where a major secretly agrees to sign a band but they both decide it would be a wise move to gather the indie scene's support by surreptitiously 'going indie' for a few months to a few years before announcing the deal officially. As if any of these hard-working bands are that devious. Give me a break. I am so glad that the world of music has moved beyond those inane, small-minded days (well it hasn't really, but at least that particular argument has become moot).

On Veruca Salt's first album they sounded a lot like an American version of Elastica and that was a very good thing. On this, their follow-up, they sound like a cross between Elastica and Courtney Love's hard-rocking Hole which (bad pun aside) is a pretty good thing too. The production here is straight-out of the mainstream grunge days, big loud arena guitars and a knee-slapping rhythm section. Sometimes the big-sound production detracts from the album's quieter moments. Such as on "Benjamin" which is a beautiful song but would be even better if it had been produced with a little instrumental subtlety.

On the other hand the production style makes sense since the majority of the album is totally rocking summer music. This is one for blaring from the boombox at the beach. It's an album that gets toes tapping and heads nodding. Which makes it a perfect little bit of pop music.

There aren't a lot of surprises on Eight Arms To Hold You but I don't know that I want any. The hit single "Volcano Girls" is essentially a sequel to their original single, "Seether" and while it rocks out it pretty much transmits to the listener that the band are staying within comfortable territory. Which lets us sit back to enjoy the ride for the rest of the album. Louise Post and Nina Gordon both deliver a great range of vocals swinging between near RRRiot Grrl intensity and beautiful siren song; a range that's displayed nicely on "One Last Time". My favorite song on the album is probably "Sound of the Bell" which features a weirdly haunting keyboard element that adds a new dimension to the band's sexy rock chick sound. Finally, "Earthcrosser" is an epic rock track regardless of the creators' gender. They slow it down on "Earthcrosser" and enter PJ Harvey territory with a little twanged-up guitar before the song gloriously swells up into the stratosphere.

Unsane - Blood Run

2007-06-01T13:38:00.001-04:00

Year: 2005
Genre: Noise Rock

Highlight Tracks: "Make Them Prey", "D-Train", "Latch"
Weak Tracks" N/A

Entering in the release date for this entry I found myself almost typing 1995 out of habit. Blood Run is the new millenium return of noise rock stalwarts Unsane but the album feels and sounds like any one of their classic barn-burners from the height of the early 90's scene. Pretty much the only part of the Unsane trademark that has changed in the many years between their break-up and this 2005 reunion album is the amount of blood-splatter on the album cover.

I'm going to see Unsane in concert in a few weeks and after relistening to this album I can hardly wait. They are one of the only bands playing today that are still really cranking out the old-school noise rock sound. The music on Blood Run would almost feel retro if not for its richter-scale disturbing sound. Long guttural screams strain against a wall of teeth-gritting guitar while the rhythm section rumble like air-brakes on a semi seconds before collision.

The whole album experience is like listening to a bombing raid from under a pile of rubble. After a while the hum of the restrained guitars becomes an air raid siren. The bass thumps like slow-motion ack-ack guns while the drums pound like bursting flak. The vocal bombs scream from the heavens to explode on the buildings below. Finally the guitars open up like flames and consume everything in their path.

Talking Heads- Remain In Light

2007-05-31T12:28:00.001-04:00

Year: 1980
Genre: Post-Punk

Highlight Tracks: "Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)", "Listening Wind", "The Overload"

As much as I love the memories of my youth, when listening to albums like this I sometimes wish I could trade in my BJ & The Bear afternoons to have been in college during the original Punk/Post-Punk period. Music then was so frigging weird and exciting; you never knew what somebody was going to cook up next.

Take this incredible album by Talking Heads. On Remain In Light they go off the deep end with their Brian Eno collaboration to create an incredibly innovative sound. A perfect fusion of Talking Heads' trademark spastic energy, Eno 70's prog, and world music beats. The perfection is found in the balance of these three elements. The music on Remain In Light sounds like an entirely new genre even today. At times it is almost hard to believe humans made this.

Later the Talking Heads and Byrne in particular would embrace world music to the point where it would detract from their originality, but on Remain In Light they keep those elements in check, using the funky beats as an accent rather than some kind of "Kumbaya" sitting in a circle holding hands malarkey. I find a kindred spirit for this album with The Good, the Bad, and the Queen. Both bands incorporate music highlights from several cultures to create terrific new sounds.

This whole damn album is a highlight track. But if I had to pick a few I'd recommend "Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)" for its awesome Adrian Belew guest guitar and freaky Kraftwerk/Devo electronic noodling. This song builds and builds while Byrne vocally jabs at your ear; the result is a production masterpiece. "The Great Curve" has vocal harmonies that (almost) put Jawbox and The Pixies to shame.

And I am still waiting for Michael Mann to use the double-shot of "Listening Wind" and "The Overload" in one of his movies.

Spectrum - Songs for Owsley

2007-05-30T14:13:00.000-04:00

Year: 1996
Genre: Psychedelic

On this excellent EP, equally inspired by 1960's LSD chemist Owsley Stanley and 16th century philosopher/writer Francis Bacon, Spectrum shift away from guitars to focus entirely on making music with vintage keyboards and synthesizers. The odd music they create feels like it occupies two places in time simultaneously. The music could easily be Francis Bacon experimenting with some arcane device in a 1598 laboratory, or a bizarro psychedelic theremin jam in a Hell's Kitchen basement circa 1969. Being created in 1996 the music is neither of these things but the musicianship here is so imaginative and committed to the premise that it feels like anything but mid-90's neo-psychedelica.

There is a great experimental novel by Steven Beard called Digital Leatherette in which an alchemist uses this weird mystic energy tube to view and communicate with different times and places. This album feels like the background music for an imagined night when Owsley and Bacon accidentally tap into that energy tube and communicate back and forth arguing about the nature of the universe.

1. Owsley - Sonic Boom's vocals on this track sound like the demon offspring of a Crash-like fuck session between Jhon Balance and Genesis P-Orridge after the musical head-on collision of Coil and Throbbing Gristle.

2. Liquid Intentions - An instrumental track that sounds like it should be the score for an episode of Doctor Who directed by Stanley Kubrick.

3. Feels Like I'm Slipping Away - This track is the most traditional song on the EP and the closest to Sonic Boom's usual territory. Essentially a drug haze narrative of consciousness slipping away once and for all. Getting so far out you can never come back in. The music these whispered vocals are set too is amazing. It feels like the band are trying to recreate what they imagine slow-motion LSD crash-pads in the 60's were like. The beautiful part is that what they imagine (utilizing modern production techniques) sounds so much cooler than the real thing ever could.

4. Sine Study #1 - Okay with liner notes that are taken directly from the instruction manual of their vintage Synthi Hi Fli 256 Sequencer you have to expect a track like this. It is a six and a half minute tone poem, Spectrum putting their instrument through its paces, and it isn't very interesting in a dramatic musical sense. That said this one would be a nice song to play when you are sweating out a fifth of whiskey in a claustrophobic apartment staring at circuit boards under black lights.

5. The New Atlantis - Vocoder readings of Francis Bacon's writings on imagined Atlantean technology set to synth freak-outs. Ever time I hear this track I think to myself, ' It doesn't get any better than this!'

Rage Against The Machine - Evil Empire

2007-05-29T12:35:00.000-04:00

Year: 1996
Genre: Alternative

Highlight Tracks: "Vietnow", "Revolver", "Down Rodeo"
Weak Tracks: "Roll Right"

Something about this album is off-kilter. Maybe it is Zach de la Rocha's odd rhyme schemes and obscure lyrical references. Or maybe it is the band pushing the envelope in an attempt to make discordant music kick-ass. Most likely it is a combination of both things.

Evil Empire is RATM's weak album. Not to say that it is a bad album, but it definitely suffers in comparison to the rest of their body of work. Mainly because of the off-kilter feeling that prevails over it.

It feels like Tom Morello and Zach de la Rocha were going after different things on this album. The music is phenomenal here but includes a lot of guitar experimentation that undermines the pedal-to-the-metal Rage that we're used to. As interesting as Morello's guitar dissertation is it does not carry the album. The same could be said for de la Rocha's lyric writing. His critiques of society here are equal parts generalization and obscurity so that a populist middle ground is never attained. What this all adds up too is an album that is sonically interesting but never fires on all cylinders as their debut did.

I prefer to look at this album as a step in the band's development that led to the excellent The Battle For Los Angeles on which Morello and de la Rocha finally achieve a synergy between sick guitar innovation and firebrand political lyrics.

Oddly, the songs on Evil Empire work much better individually than they do when listened to as a full album. Each song feels like a mini-epic and is much more enjoyable when seperated out; almost as if Evil Empire is a singles compilation rather than a cohesive album.

My favorite moments on Evil Empire come when RATM tinker with their formula the most. "Vietnow" has a great lumbering tempo, Zach singing his own backing vocals, and a terrific second half where de la Rocha mutters over a rising slow-jam before the song finally explodes into familiar territory with 'Fear is your only god!' repetition. "Revolver" features the one true moment on the album where Morello and de la Rocha have a meeting of the minds. Both begin restrained and then unleash with their respective instruments at the perfect moment. Finally "Down Rodeo" is de la Rocha's vocal showcase where the band take second fiddle to their frontman's pissed off tirade in which he becomes a Pied Piper for the disaffected by trading in his flute for a shotgun.

Q-Burn's Abstract Message - Oeuvre

2007-05-28T02:27:00.001-04:00

Year: 1998
Genre: Electronica

Highlight Tracks: "141 Revenge Street", "Flava Lamp", "Pools in Eyes"
Weak Tracks: "Bugeyed Sunglasses"

Ah, the good old days of 90's electronic music. The scene was diversifying so rapidly in the mid-90's that browsing the Foggy Bottom Tower Records' electronica section was akin to taking a wagon-coach into the Wild West. You never knew who or what would catch your eye or your ear to introduce you to an entirely new sub-genre of sound. There were boomtowns of sound developing all over the world and names of DJs and producers would spread like the legendary gunfighters of old.

Back in 1998 I remember hearing vague mutterings out of San Francisco about DJ Q-Bert and the mysterious Invisibl Skratch Piklz, so one afternoon I rode into Tower Records to seek them out. I didn't find any DJ Q-Bert that day but I did stumble upon this little gem in the same section.

While Q-Burn's Abstract Message is a terrible name for a one-man band it does not reflect on the music contained within. Most of the music is nice, big-beat techno in the style of The Crystal Method or The Chemical Brothers. Q-Burn never reached the heights of party or personality that his big-beat compatriots did however. Probably because Q-Burn's Abstract Message is more of an IDM lounge project at heart. While most of the beats on Oeuvre can get you moving the really interesting music is in the quiet stretches and dramatic build-ups like on the tracks "141 Revenge Street" and "Pools in Eyes". These are exciting techno tracks without ever being in your face.

A lot of the music here feels like lounge-chic electronica rather than warehouse rave-up. If big-beat was a resurgence of fun, mindless dance music and IDM was atmospheric, chin-stroking then in actuality Oeuvre falls somewhere in between. Each song has elements of both styles which makes for an interesting album but also one that is hard to place.

Prong - Prove You Wrong

2007-05-25T00:02:00.000-04:00

Year: 1991
Genre: Alt. Metal

Highlight Tracks: "Irrelevant Thoughts", "Unconditional"
Weak Tracks: "Prove You Wrong"

Prove You Wrong is a huge developmental step forward for Prong that would pay off in spades on the following albums Cleansing and Rude Awakening.

The lyrics aren't quite there yet but the music is. The album features chunky guitar, fist-in-your-face bass, and ass-kicking drums backing Tommy Victor's guitar squeals. The album is at the border check-point of industrial and metal thanks to the album's tempo that chugs along like the death-machine on the cover of Theodore Sturgeon's Killdozer. It never quite crosses over into industrial metal though because at times Victor seems reluctant to give up on his Headbangers Ball vocal delivery. His cheesy vocals and weak lyrics also prevent Prong from developing their own identity as a band. It wouldn't be til Cleansing that the band and front man Tommy Victor would evolve into their true form.

That said Prove You Wrong has some moments that make it worth listening too. The first two tracks are the highlights of the album. "Irrelevant Thoughts" and "Unconditional" are great examples of what Prong would evolve into in the following years. Listening to them is the aural equivalent of repeatedly punching the front armor of an Abrams Tank. You can't help but curl your hands into fists as the band pounds out these two gems. "Contradictions" is a more traditional metal ballad that borders on cheesy but the excellent slow-tempo work by the band is too good to be ignored.

The entire album gives the impression that Prong were preparing themselves to burst onto the scene with an entirely new sound and direction for heavy metal but that they needed this album to exorcise some of the trappings of traditional 80's metal before they could.

The Orb - Orbus Terrarum

2007-05-24T17:07:00.000-04:00

Year: 1995
Genre: Electronica

Highlight Tracks: "Montagne D'or (Der Gute Berg)", "Oxbow Lakes"
Weak Track: "Occidental"

Orbus Terrarum is an extremely complex album. It sounds different on every stereo system it is played on. It also sounds different at every level of volume you play it at. This is due to its sophisticated construction featuring an infinity of sound layers weaving in and out of each other in a way that is both mind-boggling and mysterious. The Orb craft albums like sound-alchemists rather than musicians.

This album represents at least three unique listening experiences based on volume.

At low volume the album makes for an excellent ambient experience. It is great to have on while you are trying to drift off to sleep. This is a relatively quiet album with soft edged sound molecules that never jolt or offend the listener's ear. At low volume Orbus Terrarum is absolutely hypnotic.

At medium volume the album is perfect background music. It is funky enough to bring energy to a room while never eclipsing the conversations or creative work being done. This is not a dance album (not in the slightest) but it does feature incredibly complex percussion programming that really comes to the forefront at medium volume.

At higher volumes the album is completely captivating and requires the listener to drop everything they are doing the moment it begins. At this volume the hypnotic ambient elements and complicated percussion combine to support the amplified synth lines and sound washes that were otherwise ignored at lower volume. At higher volumes this album leaves the realm of ambient or background music and becomes an work of electronic art.

I listen to Orbus Terrarum quite frequently when I go to bed but always drift off into weird music inspired dreams before the album ends. Today I gave the album a true listen at full volume and it reminded me of why I love The Orb and electronic music in general so much. The Orb are masters of electronic music and on Orbus Terrarum they are in top form.

There is so much going on here that it is hard to summarize in words. The majority of this album is like tripping on a sonic drug. If it had a physical texture it would be like dipping your hand into a lava lamp or maybe that scene in The Matrix when Neo's body is being consumed by the liquefied mirror. The album also brings to mind far-off lands in the near future, a soundtrack to read George Alec Effinger to. But at the same time it evokes dripping water and steam-punk.

If there is a weak track here it is "Occidental" which stretches out to almost 14 minutes without much cohesiveness. The track features an amazing array of studio trickery but no theme emerges to tie it all together. Technically the track is excellent but as a song it does not really work.

The rest of the album however is perfection. Each song inspires the imagination and confuses the ear as sonic elements emerge out of and dissolve into the thematic soup that is swirling around the room. This album sounds like someone playing the DNA helix as if it were a xylophone.

The track "Oxbow Lakes" begins with a discordant synthesized piano line that submerges into a bass heavy synth extravaganza. The percussive motor of the song dives deeper and deeper as schools of sound-fish swim in darting patterns around gigantic lumbering forms. The piano part reemerges in a warbled form as the song busts through the sea-bed and explores subterranean caverns until emerging into the new world discovered in the following highlight track "Montagne D'or".

"Montagne D'or (Der Gute Berg)" begins sounding like your are listening to a conversation through cracks in a sensory deprivation tank. It makes you feel like you are surrounded by life and yet isolated. The use of muffled vocal samples here is excellent. This loneliness quickly explodes into a sonic masterpiece that is the album's high point. The Orb rarely evoke conflict in their music but when they do, as on this track, it is brilliant. This song sounds like someone turning in on themself to discover their conflicted soul feeding on an imagined universe. It is beautiful music that brings to mind conflict on an external level leading to internal self-destruction.

Nine Inch Nails - The Perfect Drug

2007-05-22T00:01:00.000-04:00

Year: 1997
Genre: Industrial - Dance

Highlight Track: "Perfect Drug (Plug Mix)"

What the hell does anyone see in the movie Lost Highway? I mean I know its soundtrack brought Rammstein to America's attention and included this pretty great Nine Inch Nails' song but other than that the movie doesn't have a redeeming quality. Totally Lynch resting on his laurels (but I digress).

I guess Trent Reznor decided to release this EP so that fans could get the song while distancing themselves from that disaster of a film. In usual 90's Reznor brilliance he farmed out the song for several remixes by some of the best in the biz and ended up not even including the original edit of the song on this disc. That was pretty gutsy move on Reznor's part but of course it paid of brilliantly. The Perfect Drug EP is the last of NIN's great remix releases of the 90's. It rounds out the almost 10 year hitting streak of terrific EPs that started with Sin, included the perfection of Fixed, and spun off into a million variations of tracks from The Downward Spiral.

On this EP we get remixes from Meat Beat Manifesto, Plug, Spacetime Continuim, The Orb, and NIN themselves. It makes for a great example of variations on a theme. Each remix explores different directions of the same song in a way that never feels repetitive over the EP's 35 minute runtime.

While all of the remixes are exciting, it is the Plug version (an alias of electronica genius, Luke Vibert) that impresses the most. Vibert somehow manages to speed the song up to drum-n-bass tempo while slowing down its dramatic elements to a point where "The Perfect Drug" is reminiscent of "Something I Can Never Have". It is pure genius how Vibert manages these disparate elements within the same track and the conflict it creates makes for great listening.

MC 900 Ft. Jesus - One Step Ahead Of The Spider

2007-05-21T00:01:00.000-04:00

Year: 1994
Genre: Alt. Jazz

Highlight Tracks: "New Moon", "But If You Go", "Buried at Sea"
Weak Tracks: "Tiptoe Through The Inferno"

Sounding like a jazz club poetry reading at the end of the world One Step Ahead Of The Spider feels ground-breaking in retrospect of the trip-hop movement. At the time it came out though it felt just plain weird. Swinging on the pendulum between individual apocaplyptic oracle and slacker idiocy MC's lyrics and attitude make for one very interesting ride

MC 900 Ft. Jesus has a dark yet playful vocal delivery that gives the impression that he is a mischeivous god toying with the lives of his album's protagonists. From its opening rain sound effects you can already tell that it will end badly for the speed-obsessed woman in the epic first track "New Moon". Her tale of twilight car crash is set to an ultra-cool jazz jam that sets the tone for most of the album. However for all the dark numbers MC tries to right the ship by turning out playful tunes like "If I Only Had a Brain" which unfortunately came to be the public face of this fascinating album. That single's whimsy while entertaining doesn't properly represent the level of artistry on display here.

One Step Ahead Of The Spider is an interesting mix of live jazz, simple keyboard playing, and basic electronic elements. The music feels minimal here but its simplicity is deceptive as each song's subdued repetitiveness propels you forward. It's a very chill album that would be great to listen to when barbequing at sunset or sitting on the front stoop drinking beer from a brown paper-bag. This effortlessly cool album deserves to be listened to a lot more frequently.

Lights of Euphoria - Thought Machine

2007-05-18T00:01:00.000-04:00

Year: 1995
Genre: Industrial - Dance

Highlight Tracks: "No Tears", "Deal in Sex (Protection Mix)", "Subjection"
Weak Tracks: "Give Me You", "Misery"

Lights of Euphoria is the moniker that Torben Schmidt of Zoth Ommog Records releases his industrial dance music under. Schmidt is a talented dance music programmer and Thought Machine features some great beats from the hey-day of the old school industrial dance clubs.

That said the use of guest vocalists from the across the mid-90's industrial landscape make the album painfully uneven in quality. While the beats and atmospheres sound great on every song the melodramatic singing, of Schmidt's hand-picked guests, often cripples individual songs. Fortunately the album's instrumental tracks make it worthwhile.

Back in the day, when I was knee-deep in the scene, I probably took this album a lot more seriously than I do now. I was a freak for the use of good samples and the use of Pinhead from Hellraiser on "No Tears" and of Evil Dead II on "Subjection" were particular favorites back then. Another trick Schmidt pulls on Thought Machine that I totally geek-out over (to this day) is framing the album with three short interludes; each is centered around one sample and features an eerie programmed atmosphere. These could be considered throw-away tracks but to me they divide the album into sections and add greatly to the drama of the presentation.

Even back in '95 I only considered this album third tier when compared to the rest of the industrial canon. Today the music sounds pretty low-tech (especially after the later 90's Synth explosion) and most of the singing has become unbearable to listen to.

The one vocal track that really works is "Subjection" featuring Claus Larsen of Leather Strip. It is a great industrial dance track even by today's standards.

Along with "Subjection" the saving grace of Thought Machine is its instrumental tracks. Even though they sound dated they are fun to listen to when reminiscing about my old industrial/goth scene days.

Knut - Terraformer

2007-05-17T00:49:00.000-04:00

Year: 2004
Genre: Post-Metal

Highlight Tracks: "Solar Flare", "Evian", "Fallujah"

Imagine a wooden Viking ship adorned with low-tech booster rockets and radio arials sticking off of it at crazed angles. A hundred oars stick out of each side, rowing in ghostly unison. The sails made from shiny, 60's-era, Apollo lander tin-foil are full with solar winds.

The Viking ship glides through space passing a giant star that looks like a yellow eye shot-through with loopy strings of blood. Just beyond the star a planet comes into view. The alien continents of its surface pock-marked by giant explosions and mushroom clouds. The Viking captain stands above the forecastle surveying the approaching shore with grim determination. His crew of Viking astronauts, on deck behind him, ready for war.

Then, hidden in the haze of the dying sun, two small interceptor craft appear. The Viking ship banks to starboard as the laser beams of the smaller crafts make the space around it into a net of destruction. A thick energy beam slices into the Viking ship's mid-section. A fountain of wood splinters erupts into space. The shattered planks and slivers floating in the weightless void spin into oblivion as the interceptors rocket through them for the kill.

On deck the warriors curse in their Viking tongue as their ship rides the rough waves of space. As the Captain barks for evasive maneuvers he thinks of how far his immortal crew have come since their earthbound days. Countless planetfall raids on mishaped demons, months of aimless drifting without food or drink, passing through strange vortex and wormhole; challenges all survived. Centuries they have sailed through the stars in search of Valhalla. Perhaps today thay have found it.

Jane's Addiction - Ritual De Lo Habitual

2007-05-16T00:01:00.000-04:00

Year: 1990
Genre: Alternative

Highlight Tracks: "Obvious", "Three Days", "Classic Girl"
Weak Track: "Been Caught Stealing"

One of the best albums of the 90's by one of the best American rock-n-roll bands of all time.

This album is much more than "Been Caught Stealing" and if you've only ever heard that mega-single then you are really missing out.

It all starts with the ironically-named "Stop" easily one of the most dramatic and entertaining album openers ever. Right away the album is tearing along with towering vocals from Perry Farrell and virtuoso playing by the band (especially guitar-hero Dave Navarro - what happened to that guy?). It is a damn exciting song and if it doesn't get you going then you better check your pulse or more appropriately make sure you have one!

The first half of the album is chock full of high-speed numbers dedicated to the fast and loose rock-n-roll lifestyle. Our journey is narrarated by Farrell's nasal whine and psudeo-butch grunts and groans. Meanwhile the rythmn section conduct high-speed dog-fight stacattos underneath Navarro's warp-speed guitar solos. Brilliant tempo changes abound and when we get to the fourth track "Obvious" we already need a breather. Jane's Addiction slow it down on "Obvious" but they never cease to amaze.

"Obvious" is the first of the album's Nothing's Shocking-style epics. It is a beautifully constructed mid-tempo mega-jam. Farrell's voice becomes another instrument, rather than the usual center-piece, as the band bend the listener's ear around a vortex of sound. If I had to describe the Rocky Mountains to a blind person I would play them this song.

"Been Caught Stealing" (the single heard round the world) is probably the album's most boring track. It is a decent enough summer-time single but it doesn't really show off much of what made Jane's Addiction such a great band. There is little innovation here which is probably why it ended up being so popular. This song blends in with any other trad-rocker of the early 90's. Which makes for a passable song just not that interesting.

"...Stealing" is followed by the album's tent-peg song; the gargantuan "Three Days" is a miracle in music. Nothing I can write here will do it justice, you should probably listen to it for yourself.

Actually the entire second half of Ritual is genius.

"Three Days"
"Then She Did"
"Of Course"
"Classic Girl"

In the future that block of songs should be studied in conservatories and books should be dedicated to lauding the band for arranging them in that order. That inspired song sequence combined with the fiery first-half makes this album a modern classic.

That's about as ringing an endorsement as I've ever mustered. I'd almost feel ashamed for such heavy-handed cheerleading but it really is that damn good.

Inspiral Carpets - Life

2007-05-15T00:01:00.000-04:00

Year: 1990
Genre: Madchester

Highlight Tracks: "Commercial Rain", "Weakness", "Sackville"
Weak Tracks: "Sun Don't Shine", "Memories of You"

I feel like I can't properly comment on this album without a vocabulary chock full of Manchester colloquialisms because that's what the album brings to mind: the vibrant and exciting Manchester scene of the late 80's and early 90's. In one month in Manchester you could catch techno-progenitors 808 State at some warehouse then cut across town to catch Inspiral Carpets on the guitar-pop end of the scene (or Happy Mondays or The Charlatans or Stone Roses - take your pick). There was such an awesome proliferation of music going on there no wonder they dubbed it Madchester!

Life crackles with energy and imagination, practically bursting at the seams with ideas. As a debut album it gives the impression that the Inspiral Carpets were going for broke when they recorded it; jamming in two albums worth of quality material as if they thought this was the only chance they'd ever get to cut an album. The result is an album that includes everything and the kitchen sink. A debut that I would call a madball masterpiece of proto-britpop if not for the inclusion of the two weak tracks listed above.

"Memories of You" is weak because it sounds like filler. It feels like the band threw it in to give the listener an unnecessary breather from the blistering first half. Musically the track is okay, but momentum-wise it pulls the chair out from under the otherwise brilliant progression of songs.

"Sun Don't Shine" is just a terrible misfire of a song. It took all of my willpower not to skip over it on today's listen. I hate this song and wish it had been regulated to b-side or better yet 'unreleased' status. I guess the song should have worked since the band pull-off similar ballad numbers on the album's later half and again years later on Revenge of the Goldfish. But no matter how many chances I give it, this song always falls flat. First, they replace the Hammond organ with a cheesy synthesizer line that I can not stand. Then as if that wasn't bad enough the song bogs down in a quagmire of painfully bad lyrics sung with a rare lackluster vocal delivery by Steve Holt. Ugh, moving on.

Thanks to these two tracks the album plays long. Which is a shame because it really is a great example of high-energy British rock and doesn't need those two songs slowing it down.

As I stated earlier the album is overflowing with strong tracks. "Commercial Rain" is a perfect example of what makes Life such an amazing album. Its opening beats drive head first into a wall of distorted Hammond organ then smash through as the bass and guitar open up full-throttle. The song's trademark Madchester jam then wraps around Holt's emerging vocals that manage to sound like the best of the early 80's Romantics. The rest of the album features equally amazing instrumentation and passionate vocals. "Weakness" sums up everything about the band that rocks; being a true party anthem. On the slower side, the single "This Is How It Feels" turned into a genuine hit (and rightfully so) while the album closer "Sackville" is a glimpse into the genius balladry that would come later in the band's career on Revenge of the Goldfish.

HiM - Sworn Eyes

2007-05-14T00:01:00.000-04:00

Year: 1999
Genre: Experimental

Highlight Tracks: "Scorn Nothing", "On The Periphery"
Weak Track: "Trace Elements"

This is a very cool album. I almost would call it trip-hop if not for the more abstract stretches. But then again it has a real jazz aspect to it as well. The entire thing is instrumental and feels like a score for an imaginary film. I'm going to go with experimental as its genre because it gives the impression that HiM mastermind Doug Scharin is trying to create something new by experimenting with cross-genre elements; colliding old-school jazz live instruments with hip-hop production and beautiful electronic programming.

From the above paragraph it should be obvious that this is not the lame pop-goth band H.I.M. this is the Chicago improv-scene jam unit of the same name. Featuring members of June of 44 and Tortoise among others, Doug Scharin orchestrates some real indie-cred talent on this 1999 offering.

Each of the five songs feel epic in scale; giving one the sense that each song is meant for its own urban saga. Without vocals, however, this is left completely to the listener's imagination. I would attempt to write some album-inspired fiction here but with one track clocking at 20-minutes and another at 12-minutes, I feel like I'd be writing a novella or screenplay before I did the music any justice.

Suffice it to say, this music has an extremely cool vibe that would inspire one to write some kind of near-future noir setting where 40's nostalgia was all the rage. It's the kind of music that should be playing in the background of one of Deckard's minor cases or in the head of a private eye character in Shadowrun. Especially the album highlight, "Scorn Nothing", which kicks unholy amounts of ass in its own creepy, trumpet-wailing, 'fist fight on a fire-escape' way.

Girls Against Boys - Tropic of Scorpio

2007-05-11T08:00:00.000-04:00

Year: 1992
Genre: Noise Rock

Highlight Tracks: "Wow Wow Wow", "Plush",
"Everything I Do Seems To Cost Me $20"

Consider this my official petition to get this album remastered and reissued.

This album is an incredible document in the development of Girls Against Boys as a band. It features "safety's off" machine-gun creativity with the band going in a million directions at once. The songs roll into each other with an unstoppable kinteic energy that takes the listener through its 31-minute run-time in the blink of an eye.

The rythmn section hold the whole ball of energy together; rocking deep bass-lines and scattershot drumming through-out. The bizarre vocal performances add a sense of cool to the whole thing, but also include such fun high-pitched asides that its almost self-deprecating at times. Singer, Scott McCloud, sounds pretty young here but you can catch hints of the wizened, cynic of later albums that he would turn into after a few more bourbons. The production wraps the album in a nice level of fuzzy noise so that even the quiet numbers sound like they have a million things going on at once. GVSB sound like they went into this album open to any and all ideas and they packed as many into it as possible.

The one-two punch of album highlights "Plush" followed by "Everything I Do Seems To Cost Me $20" is worth the price of admission alone. The rest of the album features an amazing array of drenched in cool noise rock that should also be taken seriously. To some the album may come across as unfocused (since GVSB tightened up a lot on later releases) but to me this shotgun blast works like a messy little masterpiece.

As a debut full-length this album showed a ton of promise and Girls Against Boys spent most of the 90's living up to that early potential with a catalog of amazing albums.

Their debut definitely could benefit from a volume boosting remastering as it played kind of low on my stereo and in the car. Such unique and exciting instrumentation deserves to be heard with better sound quality and volume.

Fictional - Fictitious [+]

2007-05-10T12:27:00.000-04:00

Year: 2001
Genre: Industrial - Synth

Highlight Tracks: "Blue Lights", "Nightmare", "On Helloween"
Weak Track: "Hangman"

Being the first Industrial-related album on here I feel like I should clarify the genre since there will be a million more. To me Industrial music is based on the beats; strong, driving, repetitive. I break the genre down into three main phases based on the prevelant sound of the phase: Noise (early), Dance (late 80's, early 90's), Synth (late 90's to present). Of course there are obvious ancestors of the later phases in the earlier ones and examples of the earlier phases continue to be made today, but for the most part the phases hold true.

Ficticious being in the Industrial-synth phase don't expect the most profound lyrics here. That said this music is very danceable and when they aren't impressing with their thump-thump, Fictional create some beautiful synth atmospheres. The entire album has a gothic tone with each track dripping in woe and sorrow.

Fictional is a Funker Vogt side-project. The parent band cater to the psuedo-fascist, combat boot dancers of the scene but with Fictional they give a more than competent nod to the scene's children of the night. This makes the album a nice cross-over number appealing to both sides of the Industrial/Goth divide (if that even exists anymore). This appeal generated a true dance-floor hit with the song "Blue Lights" and a reissue by Metropolis records. The reissue features two additional 'live' tracks that I feel detract from the cohesiveness and tone of the album.

For some reason this album (minus the 'live' tracks) makes me think of foot-chases, ornate bridges, and inner-city waterways. Imagine the Liffey in Dublin with the sun blotted out by a biblical swarm of bats, a shadow is cast over the entire city as a doomed couple run from a pack of slavering hell-hounds.

Eugenius - Oomalama

2007-05-09T00:03:00.001-04:00

Year: 1992
Genre: Indie-rock

Highlight Tracks: "Here I Go", "I'm The Sun", "Bye Bye"
Weak Track: "Bed-in"

This is a nice, little record from those innocent and oblivious high school years. In the vein of Teenage Fanclub or The Lemonheads, it is inoffensive mix-tape for-a-girl-you-like music. It pretty much sums up being clueless about girls; complete with the highs and lows of having hopeless crushes across the classroom.

This album is chock full of energetic indie-rockers that would be great anthems for any off-beat teen relationship. Songs that have just the right amount of guitar and whimsy for that drive down to the shore, but also have enough hidden damage in the vocals to put a dagger right through your heart after the inevitable break-up. It has a nice 'remember the good times, I want to call her' quality to it.

Beyond those excellent masochistic teen aspects, for the long-haul the album features great, early-90's guitar-pop. This is a sunny, energetic album with just the right off-beat vocal tone to miss the mainstream. This album went nowhere when it hit U.S. shores back in '92, even though it was plugged by Kurt Cobain as one of his favorite bands. This commercial failure may have been due to the fact that Marvel comics sued the band into changing their name from Captain America only after the music press had heralded Captain America as the second-coming of indie-Jesus. A second coming that came to the U.S. disguised as Eugenius (named after the band's primary song-writer, Eugene Kelly).

After the barn-burner opening/title track, the album feels low-key until the sixth song when it takes-off like a rocket. The excellent indie-rocker "Down on Me" begins an incredible run of nine invincible tracks that really put this album on the map. Oomalama is much more interesting than anything The Lemonheads did in the 90's and nearly rivals Teenage Fanclub's classic American debut, Bandwagonesque.

Death In Vegas - The Contino Sessions

2007-05-08T12:30:00.000-04:00

Year: 1999
Genre: Electronica

This album is one moody bitch so here goes -

1. Dirge: Asphalt at night, slick with rain. Streetlights reflecting in polished black paint on the body lines of a purring muscle car. She leans against the left-side of the hood looking bored, he grips the steering wheel trying to look tough.

2. Soul Auctioneer: Skin taught over junkie bones. Arm dangles off the gray couch, long cigarette burning down over empty beer cans and a bent spoon. Dull eyes watch ceiling fan theater while the landlord yells through the door. John Peel plays faintly on the radio.

3. Death Threat: Neon lights flicker on dormant robot arms. A digital clock reads early A.M. as a conveyor belt jiggles to life. Swivel joints do the robot as sides of beef roll by on rubber and pins. Buzzsaws cut with indifference. The controller presses buttons in a sealed booth, tired and oblivious to the perfection.

4. Flying: Flags flap in the dull morning wind. Alarm clocks strike city-wide. Coffee gets poured, toast gets bit, papers are read. Ties are tied after shoes. Lips brush cheeks. Front doors bang shut. Elevators descend. Feet skittle down steps. Thousands of routines are repeated and completed. Strangers bob heads in rythmn with commuter train rides or with bizarre synchronicity to each others radios while in traffic jams. From the sky all the moving parts look like art.

5. Aisha: A gas station recedes behind two speeding Harleys. It explodes. Iggy nods at Aisha. They ride into the heart of the blood-red sun.

6. Lever Street: The folds in the sheets are a mountian range, their legs smooth glaciers. They sleep with a small fan blowing back-and-forth under a wind chime. Light from the street filters in through bent blinds on their stacks of books.

7. Aladdin's Story: The boys cruise through the warehouse district looking for fun. A car full of bent smiles and challenges. Junior Murvin croons on the radio. Gentle hooligans on the prowl.

8. Broken Little Sister: She sits on the rooftop in a torn dress, teasing pigeons in cages. Her color blind eyes make the gray sky look green and the gaps between buildings the color of oceans. Satellites fall from the sky all around her.

9. Neptune City: A princess puts on foundation powder while her country goes to war. Clouds of powder drift over the people. Letters from sons and daughters. Exotic images on tee-vee. 'So smart in your uniform.' A last night out with the boys, a weekend leave home, marching bands in their eyes.

'Tell us all about it.'
'Sorry mate, I just want to get twisted.'

Chapterhouse - Blood Music

2007-05-07T00:33:00.000-04:00

Year: 1993
Genre: Shoegazer

Highlight Tracks: "Don't Look Now", "Everytime",
"Deli", "Love Forever"

This album brings a smile to my face everytime I listen to it. It is a great combination of shoegazer, pop, and emerging 90's electronica. While their first album Whirlpool is a better straight-up shoegazer affair (with better singles), Blood Music offers up such a joyous combination of styles that I personally like it better.

Something about the carefree attitude of the band in cherry-picking elements from several genres is really refreshing. On Blood Music Chapterhouse are truly inspired in their attempt to carve out a sound of their own; something at the crossroads of genres that hadn't been really heard before. Many shoegazer bands eventually evolved into electronica later in life (see Seefeel, The Telescopes, etc.) ending up radically different from their original sound. Chapterhouse on the other hand incorporated electronica into their lush guitar thing rather than opt for it over the shoegazer elements that made them (semi)-famous. The product is this excellent album.

Blood Music plays like a lush dream. It alternates 'high-def cumulonimbus on crisp blue skies' day-dreaming with 'half-buzzed sunglasses at night hunting for an after-hours bunker party in England' cool. It's real 'watch the streetlights reflect on the cab windows on the drunk ride home' music.

Which is probably why the album inspired so many imaginative remix projects. The American pressing includes a second disc that features two remixes of "We Are The Beautiful" and two b-sides: "Frost" and the collosal jam "Picnic". The UK pressing features the invincible Global Communications remixing the entire album on a molecular level (I'll be giving that bonus disc its own much-deserved entry at a later date).

Had the chance to see Chapterhouse at the old 930 Club on the Blood Music tour and didn't go. Still kicking myself over that one.

Barkmarket - Vegas Throat

2007-05-04T01:03:00.000-04:00

Year: 1990
Genre: Noise Rock

Highlight Tracks: "Ditty", "Poverty", "Salvation", "Backstabbers"
Weak Track: "The Patsy"

The best parts of Vegas Throat are when Barkmarket really bring the noise. Which unfortunately usually only kicks in on the later half of most of their songs. The first half of most of their songs feature slow-building rock and weird lyrics that should be both entertaining and disturbing but really aren't much of either. I keep this album around because it is part of the history of my beloved noise rock genre.

Vegas Throat falls in the third tier of that genre however due mainly to the fact that Barkmarket don't convince me they are as depraved as they claim to be. Most of the vocal performance by John Nowlin feels like bad acting rather than actually insanity on display. The band do a great job with the plodding noise-crawls and climactic explosions but without a truly genuine singer the album falls short.

Noise Rock is one of my favorite genres and some of its best examples are on the Amphetamine-Reptile Records label. Most of the bands in that camp completely sell you on their fucked-in-the-head humidity and when they sing about torturing somebody in a shed you really think they did it. Not so with Barkmarket on Vegas Throat released on Rick Rubin's, Def American label.

That said there are some moments of brilliance tucked in between the community theater. The song "Ditty" is near perfect, a quick series of gut-jabs that really make you feel pummelled after its 1:46 run-time. "Poverty" sums up the best of the Barkmarket formula with a long intro of restrained noise that explodes into Nowlin's best vocal performance on the album. Finally "Salvation" is the noise-rock kicker that I was hoping the whole album would be back when I bought it so many years ago. The best song however is a cover of "Back Stabbers" which produces a bizarre performance from the entire band and is the one time they are really firing on all cylinders (oddly enough it is more a creepy atmosphere piece which makes me think maybe Barkmarket should have switched sound direction in their mission statement at some point).

The fact is that Barkmarket are a good band and their lyric writing is awesome. Unfortunately their execution is lacking (due to John Nowlin's vocals) which results in a very uneven album on which each song must be judged individually. Each song is such a weird mix of good and bad elements that it is hard to come up with a final tally tipping in either direction.

Accelera Deck - Addict

2007-05-03T13:59:00.000-04:00

Year: 2000
Genre: Glitch-tronic

Highlight Tracks: "Untitled Crank", "Quiescene", "Further"
Weak Tracks: "Trip Through", ";11"

Reminiscent of Autechre but not as 'cerebral' as their later works, Addict is excellent background electronica. Glitchy but not to the point of IDM abstraction, Accelera Deck gives the album a forward momentum with subdued beats thumping over very organic and moody backgrounds. This organic base gives each song a latent melancholy which when combined with staring at the cover picture let's the listener's imagination run wild. The final three songs have a weird hip-hop tinge that works for the most part except on the song ";11" which is definitely the album's weakest track.

When the album isn't background music it runs a little long at over an hour however many of the tracks inspire the imagination which makes it a good album to write too.

Take for instance the second half of the song "Pulling Through" which brings to mind everything from a soot stained sky above frozen trenches to being trapped in the hull of a leaking, Chinese, slave freighter.

Orbit Achieved!

2007-05-03T01:54:00.000-04:00

Welcome to my latest music writing project: Satellite Eclectica!

It has often occured to me that in the hustle of the daily grind we find ourselves listening to music from a lot of different sources and in a lot of different situations; however we rarely have the time to actually sit down with an album and give it an honest, thoughtful listen. Music has become mostly a background soundtrack to our lives.

I am a huge music fan with a monster sized collection and even I rarely have the time to devote to listening to complete albums. I mean really listen to them without any other activity going on but enjoying the album itself.

I credit this to being a busy adult. In High School it seemed like all I did was listen to albums all the way through. Nowadays though I listen to albums partially or to individual songs on random. Mainly because I am driving somewhere or walking to class and once I arrive the music stops. Later when I pick up my Iriver or get in the car my mood is different and I put on something different from what I had on earlier.

With this project I have decided to attempt to listen to my entire music collection and chronicle each album I listen to on a daily basis. I vow to listen to at least one full album a day and write in this space about the album in the form of either a review, general observations, or simply what the album inspires me to think about.

This is a daunting task because my record collection is huge but ultimately this should be an enjoyable one. I invite everyone who finds their way here to Satellite Eclectica to join me on my musical journey of full-album rediscovery.