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Tonight’s Show!

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As the concert calendar says I am attending a concert tonight. My third in six days and there’s nothing wrong with that!

The Rifles will be playing at the Great Scott. Seems like they embarked on a brief East Coast tour to coincide with the North American release of their latest album The Great Escape. I’ve been listening to that album for about a month straight, most every day. I’m excited to hear a lot of tracks off of it, but I also look forward to hearing some No Love Lost stuff, which  they played at the Berkeley Performance Center last September when they opened for Paul Weller. And guess who I just found out will be opening for The Rifles? None other than Mike Fiore! Not the WHS grad. I know…I think of him every time I hear the name too. Happens to us all. I’m talking Mike Fiore of Faces on Film. Uh huh, the same Faces on Film that I saw in January  opening for Mission of Burma.

My review of the Rifles from last year: Certainly one of the finest opening acts I’ve seen in my brief concert-attending journey. Reminiscent of The Libertines, The Cinematics, and The Jam, these guys truly rocked. Songs such as “Repeated Offender” and “Peace and Quiet” handled the group’s brief act. Combining pop elements and punk riffs, these songs (and more) came out as polished as you can expect for a band that is just starting to acquire fame. The crowd seemed especially impressed by “She’s Got Standards” — a revival of post-punk that sounds more 80s than 00s.

My review of Faces on Film from January: Faces on Film, a former comedy troupe from Boston, was, if you ask me, awesome live. I did hear a little FoF prior to the show, but I wasn’t so familiar that I instantly recognized any one particular song. When the first words (“your desperate children”) came out of singer Mike Fiore’s mouth, I instantly felt like I was listening to Connor Oberst. Fiore is a bit less emotional than Oberst, but his general folk vocal approach is enough to mention the similarity. Fiore was excellent sans his band (a few songs), but I thought the band added a nice element of instrumentation, warranting an almost immediate comparison to Hamilton Leithauser and his Walkmen. My favorite song of the less than one hour set was “I’ll Sleep to Protect,” off of FoF’s hit 2008 album The Troubles. A polished guitar riff, slick bass line, light drums, powerful keyboards, and Fiore’s “oh oh oh oh oh oh” all coalesced into a memorable four minutes.

Funny how I compared him to Ham.

Hopefully some pictures will be taken and all will be fun tonight!

Art, business, Culture Jamming, Entertainment, Femmes, Lists, Music

My Favorite Record Labels

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1) Sub Pop– No Age, Nirvana, Beat Happening, Mudhoney, Soundgarden, The Shins, Handsome Furs, Wolf Parade, The Vaselines, Iron and Wine, Modest Mouse, Rogue Wave, Sebadoh, The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Postal Service

2) SST– Black Flag, Meat Puppets, Dinosaur Jr, Sonic Youth, Bad Brains, Minutmen, Husker Du, Descendents, Soundgarden

3) Matador– Jay Reatard, Sonic Youth, Fucked Up, Cat Power, Mission of Burma, Yo La Tengo, Pavement, Interpol, Lou Reed

4) In the Red– Black Lips, Jay Reatard, King Khan & BBQ Show, Mark Sultan, Dirtbombs, Vivian Girls, Deadly Snakes- Nice, little label!

5) Vice– Black Lips, King Khan & The Shrines, Death From Above 1979, Fucked Up, The Raveonettes

6) Domino– Animal Collective, Arctic Monkeys, Lou Barlow, The Fall, Stephen Malkmus, Will Oldham aka Bonnie Prince Billy, Pavement, Elliott Smith,

7) Rough Trade– The Smiths, Arcade Fire, Galaxie 500, Beat Happening, Vaselines, Libertines, Babyshambles, Mabuses, Butthole surfers, The Moldy Peaches, The Raincoats, Sufjan Stevens, Stiff Little Fingers, The Strokes, The Veils,

8) Bomp!– Black Lips, The Stooges, The Germs, Dead Boys, Devo, Mark Sultan, The Modern Lovers, The Warlocks

9) K Records– Calvin Johnson, Beat Happening, Beck, Bikini Kill, Built to Spill, Kimya Dawson, Modest Mouse, Vaselines

10) Alternative Tentacles– Jello Biafra, Dead Kennedys, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, D.O.A, Half Japanese, Butthole Surfers, The Crucifucks, Lard, Melvins, Wesley Willis

11) Touch and Go– Big Black, Rapeman, Shellac, Jesus Lizard, Scratch Acid, Butthole Surfers, Naked Raygun, The Rollins Band, TV On the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Urge Overkill

12) Dischord– Fugazi, Minor Threat, The Evens, The Teen Idles, The Nation of Ulysses, Scream

13) Fat Wreck Chords– Descendents, NOFX, Anti-Flag, Against Me!, Propagandhi, Rise Against

14) Epitaph– Bad Religion, Social Distortion, NOFX, Descendents, Green Day, Circle Jerks, Vandals, Converge, The Sounds of Animals Fighting,

15) Saddle Creek– Bright Eyes, Two Gallants, Tokyo Police Club, Cursive

16) Merge– Arcade Fire, Dinosaur Jr, Conor Oberst and the Mystic Vallye Band, … And You Will Know Us By the Trail of the Dead, Lou Barlow, Buzzcocks

I’m probably forgeting some. Oh well. Feel free to post suggestions.

Chris

Art, Entertainment, Music

The Return of the Fuzz!

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The Return of the Fuzz

Anyone out there tired of listening to the same mainstream songs on the radio over and over again? Does Coldplay sound too clean for you? Well, no need to worry, a musical elixir has arrived and it is here to stay. Within the past few years, fans and critics alike have witnessed a tornado in the revival of Garage Rock.
Garage Rock is a genre of music that emerged in the early 1960’s primarily in The United States and Canada, but certainly not limited to those two countries. Simply stated, the music was pure, raw, noisy, and often self-produced. The title of the genre literally refers to bands beginning in their garages creating the aforementioned sound and it later being reflected in their recordings. Most groups of the Garage variety have become obscure names or one hit wonders. On the other hand, British Invasion artists, like The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, and the early Beatles share elements of the no holds barred style in their work. For instance, in The Beatles’ 1963 hit, “Twist and Shout,” the vocals are rather loud and raspy. For readers who are unfamiliar with Garage Rock, listen to the tune again and you will hear it!
Despite the fact that these bands never became as commercially successful as The Beatles, The Kinks, or The Rolling Stones, this did not diminish their clear influence on future generations, particularly the first wave of American and British Punk Rock bands. In fact, Garage icons, The Sonics and The Seeds have been noted for shaping the music of several Punk pioneers, such as The Ramones and The Dead Boys, respectively.
Today, we are fortunate enough to have a myriad of young musicians, who have heard and studied the music of their parents and are injecting the latter’s style with Punk Rock attitude and Pop hooks. This is where we arrive at the revival of Garage Rock. So, what makes this style so unique? Why should consumers of music pay any attention to it? Well, for starters it deviates from the normal, almost formula-driven music listeners hear in the mainstream. Much of today’s stars record radio friendly, overly produced songs. Even artists that may not fall under the banner of “mainstream,” but have garnered commercial success maintain absolutely disparate production values than their earsplitting counterparts. Popular metal bands, Rage Against the Machine and Tool profess to dedicating years recording their LPs. Garage Revival artists, chiefly, The Black Lips, King Khan & The BBQ Show, Jay Reatard, and The Dirtbombs stand in direct contrast to these aesthetics. They release material that is unpolished and often recorded in a brief amount of time. For example, The Black Lips and the King Khan & BBQ Show joined forces and formed the super group, The Almighty Defenders and recorded a self-titled, twelve song, Gospel album in just a few days. But, this isn’t foreign in the Garage world. Jay Reatard claims to have written one of his latest songs, “It Aint Gonna Save Me,” in just one hour and recorded the number in a mere day and a half!
Fans of Rock and Roll will appreciate the fact that these modern bands are resuscitating the fun, rebellion, and simplicity of the devil’s music. So, if you miss the element of shock or dare I say danger in Rock, and then give these wild hipsters some ear time.

Chris

As seen in the UMass Lowell Connector

Music

Concert Review: The Walkmen, Here We Go Magic, The Dig @ Mid East Downstairs (9/19/09)

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Ham!

Bands: The Walkmen, Here We Go Magic, The Dig
Venue: Middle East Downstairs, Cambridge, MA
Date: Saturday, September 19, 2009

The Dig
Ben: The Dig was really good. They have great bass work. The bassist/singer looks like John Mayer but dresses and sings like the guy from Vampire Weekend [Ezra Koenig]. The guitarist/singer’s songs kind of remind me of early Radiohead. The Dig does unconventional rhythm very well. I’m getting technical here but they use weird time signatures and timing changes, and sometimes it’s hard to tell where the “center of gravity” is. But it’s a really nice change from your standard timing in music. It’s also a technique that’s *very* hard to pull off. With their stuff it’s often much harder to locate the center of gravity. That’s what really stood out about them for me.  Really great, inventive rhythms.

Glen: The Dig were just as awesome Night Two as Night One and in the end probably slightly better. They changed up their set-list trivially. Both nights the song I loved most was “Penitentiary.” It has all the makings of a mainstream power pop number, yet it still maintains a very distinctive alt-country sound. The bassist/singer’s voice is very distinctive. I think the guitarist/singer’s songs were more experimental, less hard rock. An example of the heavier stuff was the song “Just Wanna Talk To You,” bringing back memories of live Louis XIV but more explosive and…better! The first night they ended with that…the second night it was second-to-last.

Chris: Pretty damn loud and noisy, so of course I liked it. They rocked out and were really passionate about their music.

Here We Go Magic
Ben: Here We Go Magic was great especially considering the drummer situation. It was the first time I heard “Tunnelvision” with electric instruments and I liked the noisy turn it took towards the end. Luke’s vocals were great.

Glen: Go Chad! Once again, I want to recognize him for truly being instrumental to HWGM’s Night Two set. Night One was ambient…Night Two still maintained ambiance, but all songs especially “Tunnelvision” and “Fangela” sounded far greater with Chad. It takes a lot for an experimental folk band like HWGM to perform a well-executed set; each band member was up to task and enthusiastic.

Chris: I liked it, but not as much as the first band. I commend Chad, the fill-in drummer for having the chops to play on par with the band. Also the bass guitarist and the pianist were sexy!

The Walkmen
Ben: The Walkmen are a tight group with a good mix of songs. Good mix of alt-country, folk, and noisier rock. Really great singer.

Glen: Showcasing quite a bit of new material (according to the band, some old songs they refuse to play), The Walkmen proved that they didn’t need to delve too deep into their repertoire to be awesome. Both nights were astonishing (mind-blowing), but Night Two took the cake! Night Two was quite similar to Night One in a lot of ways; a brass section was featured notably on “Canadian Girl,” “Louisiana,” and “Red Moon,” Ham’s veins were popping out of his neck, etc, etc. Both nights featured the best of the Walkmen (at least according to your average fan): “In the New Year” and “The Rat.” BUT only on Night Two did The Walkmen play “Thinking Of A Dream” (incredible audience reception), “Donde Esta La Playa,” and Bows and Arrows classic “138th Street.” The Walkmen are a class act and no less than one of the best active bands in today’s post-punk revival era.

Chris: They put on a fantastic show! I loved “Louisiana,” especially the horn section. My favorite song was “In the New Year.” Hamilton clearly has a distinctive voice.

Entertainment, Music

Pictures From Night Two

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TheDig
Everyone dug the Dig!

HereWeGoMagic
Luke Temple and crew were without their drummer. A spectator standing near me from Night One named Chad, a huge fan of the band, offered to fill-in as the drummer. And he was nothing short of excellent.

Hamiltonandhorns
Hamilton Leithauser and the horns!

HamiltonandPaul

Leithauser and Paul Maroon deserve an equal amount of credit for the fine show that they put on both nights. Leithauser played guitar on a few songs and sung his heart out on every song. Maroon handled lead guitar on all songs. Not pictured, but thanks and credit should go to Walter Martin (keyboards/bass), Peter Bauer (keyboards/bass) and Matt Barrick (drums) as well.

Music

Night One: “The Rat”

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Just a few notes from last night: The Dig were amazing. The bass lines on all of their songs just were, again, amazing. Pure rock n’ roll. Here We Go Magic were without their drummer and as a result they had to rely on looped guitar effects and spacey keyboards. Of course, “Fangela” and “Tunnelvision” were the most recognizable highlights. As witnessed in the video above the Walkmen played their most all-time most popular song “The Rat” followed by “In The New Year,” their hit from 2008’s You and Me. They also performed “Canadian Girl,” “Four Provinces,” “On The Water,” “Postcards From Tiny Islands,” and “Red Moon” off of You and Me. Of course a four piece horns section contributed to a few of those songs and it was awesome! They might have played “Little House of Savages,” but I honestly can’t remember! They played a three song encore. The last song of the night? What else but a 9 piece rendition of “Louisiana”! That would make Chris happy if they did that again. I just want to say that Hamilton Leithauser is the man. I’ve always thought of him that way, but you gotta see this guy live! He was pounding shit out like crazy and he’s always got that look like he is pissed, but he really isn’t.

Can’t wait until tonight!