“The Twist was a guided missile launched from the ghetto into the heart of suburbia. The Twist succeeded, as politics, religion and law could never do, in writing in the heart and soul what the Supreme Court could only write on the books.”- Eldridge Cleaver
The Minister of Information says “The Twist” by Chubby Checker. Good choice. I’m not sure what I would go with. What do you fine people think?
Deerhunter provides the soundtrack for The Curve of Forgotten Things.
http://pitchfork.com/news/41500-watch-deerhunter-soundtrack-fashion-film/
Song: New Shoes
Link: http://pitchfork.com/forkcast/15442-horse-shoes/
As stated in the Pitchfork blurb this is a reworking of an old tune from Wavves’ 2009 Daytrotter Session, when drummer Zach Hill was still in the band. Hill’s louder, more chaotic drumming is apparent here as is the lack of Stephen Pope (unless I’m totally wrong and he is on this recording, but I don’t hear it!) Hopefully, this is a glimpse at the forthcoming release of old Zach Hill/Nathan Wavves material, if it is this should be a decent record. Though the song may not contain the strong hooks Wavves are known for, it’s raw musicianship can be appreciated. I also second Pitchfork’s sentiment that this has a “garage punk” feel to it. We’ll see what happens next, it seems like Wavves songs are coming out left and right these days!
Check out our Band of the Week, Boston’s Girlfriends. Since, The Maine Coons sudden departure, Girlfriends are easily the best Boston band around or at least my favorite. Their take on the “garage” style is intriguing, to say the least and without a doubt they have a knack for writing catchy pop numbers. Favorites of mine include “Good To Be True” and “I Was Here, But I Disappear.” Here is a link to their myspace page.
Full Title: Sung Tongs
Artist: Animal Collective
Year: 2004
Label: Fat Cat
Tracks:
1) Leaf House- 7
2) Who Could Win a Rabbit- 9
3) The Softest Voice- 7
4) Winters Love– 9
5) Kids On Holiday- 7/8
6) Sweet Road- 7
7) Visiting Friends- 6
8) College- 7
9) We Tigers- 8
10) Mouth Wooed Her- 7/8
11) Good Lovin Outside- 8
12) Whaddit I Done- 7
Comments: Animal Collective is in the haus with some wonderful tongs for you and me. These tongs are brought to you by Panda Bear and Avey Tare, two of today’s greatest tongwriters. On this record, we hear mostly soft tongs, an incredibly warm, serene vibe is communicated. Much of the loud, manic, beastial quality to AC’s music as can be seen in their then previous release Here Comes the Indian (2003) and later recordings is absent here. Instead, we experience something much gentler and calmer- which isn’t bad, but at the end of the day isn’t what I chiefly adore about this group. With that being said, it works quite well on this record and emotional inducing songs like “Winters Love” and “Kids On Holiday” (particularly the former) produce a massive feeling of nostalgia and an almost quiet joy in me. WL is without a doubt one of AC’s best musical moments, powerful in it’s shamanistic yalping and simply acoustic guitar strummin’. Speaking of which, the acoustic guitar plays a crucial role in the sound and recording of this album; it’s all acoustic! Naturally, the lack of electric guitar has an undeniable impact on the sound/production of the album, and for fans of more folkier music this might be a positive thang, for those that dig heavier music, then I could easily see this as a turn off. In any case, I feel like the boys succeeded in what they set out to do and though it lacks in the oft-seen menace of AC, it still delivers a bizarre mish mash of humanity and insanity- especially on what is arguably the band’s first breakthrough “pop” song “Who Could Win A Rabbit,” which was my introduction to their music. Rabbit’ is both playful and savage and is perhaps the biggest song from Sung Tongs. As a whole, I didn’t love this record, but I really dig it; ST marks Animal Collective’s transition from unknown Neo-Psych Rockers to fairly recognizable underground stalwurts.
Grade: 7/10
Thick Shakes
Artists: The Human Tail, Thick Shakes, The Sinbusters, Ladderlegs, Hurricanes Of Love, Gangsta Love
Date: Saturday, February 12, 2011
Venue Dirty Douglas (Lowell, MA)
Comments: This was my first time at the Dirty Douglas, a DIY venue in Lowell, and from the looks of it there’s a pretty rad scene going on in this Heavenly city, as Frank- singer/guitarist for Hurricanes of Love would put it. Good old Frank is from Atlanta, GA and is well-acquainted with our tru gangsta home boys, The Black Lips! Frank and his saw playing bandmate put on a nice, warm folksy-bluesy set that didn’t blow me away, but was still solid. I also really dug Frank’s rastafarian esque interludes in which he always made it a point to thank his Heavenly brothers and sisters. The rest of the evening consisted of various Punk and/or potentially Garage acts. The Human Tail delivered a fast, rockin’ performance and I could easily see them appearing on a small, national label in the vain of Burger or Goner someday. The Thick Shakes bore a similar aesthetic and certainly rocked just as hard, but with a little bit more of a pop element. Speaking of “Garage” influence, Thick Shakes certainly displayed it more than any other band on the roster. Even on their myspace page they descirbe themselves as “Garage” and if their raw, 60s Hard Rock sound didn’t convince you enough just a glance at their influences: The Kingsmen, The Sonics, and In the Red greats, Thee Oh Sees (according to their myspace page) should be enough to end the debate. I suppose for these reasons TS stood out the most to me. The Sinbusters and Ladderlegs rounded out the show, each continuing the trend of heavier, energetic, Garage oriented Punk. Sinbusters actually reminded me of Thick Shakes’ faves, Thee Ohh Sees, especially listening to them now on myspace. Ladderlegs also contains an undeniable savage and certainly strange quality and reminds me of earlier hardcore punk, but a bit more experimental and also some early Reatards vibes, but much more fleshed out and musical. Overall, the sound was top notch for all of the bands, thanks in part to the venue’s audio, I assume. I can’t say my mind was blown by any of the artists, but I did enjoy myself and this show introduced me to several talented, garagey bands that I had never heard of before. Each artist was decent in their own right, so I can’t complain.
The following is a list of the bands and their myspace pages or websites. Check em’ out!
The Human Tail
http://www.myspace.com/thehumantail
Thick Shakes
http://www.myspace.com/thickshakesmusic
The Sinbusters
http://thesinbusters.bandcamp.com/
Ladderlegs
http://ladderlegs.bandcamp.com/
Hurricanes of Love
http://www.myspace.com/hurricanesoflove
Yes, Arcade Fire, a band on an independent label (Merge) won the award for Album of the Year (The Suburbs) at last night’s Grammy Award Ceremony. My thoughts? People on both sides of the fence are making a much bigger deal out of this. Maybe it’s just my perspective as a fan of mostly underground music, to one degree or another, but I don’t see Arcade Fire as being an “unknown” band by any means. So, I find it hilarious the way people are complaining about this obscure band winning Album of the Year instead of their ultra mainstream favorites, i.e. Eminem or Lady Gaga. What is the implication? That music somehow needs to reach a certain level of popularity to warrant acclaim or be valued as fine art and/or entertainment. If that’s your point of view, fine, to each his own. But, for me that’s insane! And to the folks that see Arcade’s win as some sort of “victory,” I have to disagree. I guess it’s cool in a way to see one of my favorite bands and a high quality one at that appear in a mainstream setting on such a grand scale. With that being said, I doubt, especially in this modern age of the internet where exposure to “random” bands is infinitely at one’s hands, a kid or two out there will see Arcade on their TV set and think “wow, what a cool band I’m going to start listening to them now and broaden my musical tastes.” Who knows? Maybe I’m wrong and that has or will occur. But, what is more realistic is AF fan boys and girls getting excited that one of their indie faves won an award at the Grammys and vice versa a bunch of mainstreamers infuriated, perhaps shocked tha their commerical faves did not win… and the majority not giving a flying fuck either way. In short, this changes nothing about how I view Arcade Fire or music as a whole and frankly I don’t think it should for anyone else, but obviously that’s not for me to decide. What do you guys think? Here is a site displaying the obnoxious, yet hilarious! comments of the mainstream, AF haters-
P.S. a special thanks to the Grammys for remembering the life and work of the late, great Jay Reatard…….
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/quentin-tarantinos-surprising-choices-films-67595
Being my favorite director, annually I check in on Quentin to see which films he cites as the “Best of 2010.” In the link above, he lists his twenty favorites from the past year. Most films on here I have yet to see, but of the twenty I have seen Toy Story 3 (1 on his list, 3 on mine) The Social Network (2, 1), Get Him to the Greek (13, not on my list- I’d like to hear his explanation for this one), and The Fighter (14, in the 2-4 range). I knew he would love SN, being an excellent screenwriter himself, I’m sure above all he really appreciated Aaron Sorkin’s script. Here is the list:
1. Toy Story 3
2. The Social Network
3. Animal Kingdom
4. I Am Love
5. Tangled
6. True Grit
7. The Town
8. Greenberg
9. Cyrus
10. Enter the Void
11. Kick-Ass
12. Knight and Day
13. Get Him to the Greek
14. The Fighter
15. The King’s Speech
16. The Kids Are All Right
17. How to Train Your Dragon
18. Robin Hood
19. Amer
20. Jackass 3D
Artist(s): Best Coast, Wavves, and No Joy
Date: Friday, February 4, 2011
Venue: Paradise Rock Club (Boston, MA)
Comments: For starters, it was a blessing that we actually made it to this show alone. Long story short, the concert sold out and we had no tickets! After a frusturating 24 hour journey, thee Best Coast/Wavves tickets were finally in the palms of our hands and all was well in the KLYAM Concert Atending Universe.
Act I: No Joy-
If their name was their aim, then they did not succeed. I felt plenty of joy seeing this “female Deerhunter” as Glen put it (though half the band consisted of men) and from the moment they picked up their instruments I could tell we were in for a loud band. I know fans always say stupid shit like that ” from the very first moment it was gold blah blah blah.” Nah, it wasn’t earth shattering and I’m not saying I knew immediately they would be a sound opener, I didn’t, but I had a feeling from the first guitar riffs that whether good or bad they weren’t a band you could turn away from. Luckily, they put on a decent set and though they didn’t share the same pop qualities as their headliners, they did give off some summery vibes that fit with the mood of the evening. Overall, they rocked hard and clearly weren’t a band that begged for your attention, but rather let their music do the talking. I will be sure to further check out No Joy one way or another in the future, hopefully they will swing by Boston again sometime soon.
Act II: Wavves!-
Yes Best Coast is superb, but unlike most of the attendees on Friday, the KLYAMers were perhaps the few that hail Wavves as the one and only King of the Beach. That’s right, our boys Nathan, Stephen, and Jacob unleashed their best KLYAM attended set thus far- playing all the hits one would hope one of their favorite bands would play. Immediately following a jab about innerband analingus, the trio exploded into King of the Beach classic, “Idiot” and the crowd erupted into moshing and pogoing and the whole nine. I could tell just from this intro that the band sounded better than they did the last time I saw them in June and that was a great performance unto itself. I could hear everything Nathan uttered, making it easier to sing along to all my beloved Wavves tunes. Speaking of which the group played a fair amount of the old (“Wavves,” “Beach Demon,” To the Dregs,” “So Bored,” “No Hope Kids,) the new (“Bug,” “In the Sand,”) but mostly cuts from last year’s landmark record King of the Beach- (“Super Soaker, “Take On the World, “Linus Spacehead,” etc.). All in all they were tighter than ever and the sound was great; there’s just this undeniable musical onslaught that hits you so hard, it’s terrific. I think their musicianship has definitely increased over this past year as well as their roles as performers. This time around they really came off as a “Rock Band,” in a good way. The set concluded with the 90s commericalish pop esque sounding “Post Acid,” a great choice for a closer, certainly leaving me with a smile.
Setlist (not actual set list, but songs they did play in no particular order):
Idiot
King of the Beach
Super Soaker
Friends Were Gone
Wavves
Beach Demon
To the Dregs
Linus Spacehead
Bug
In the Sand
Nervous Breakdown (Black Flag)
Take On the World
Green Eyes
So Bored
No Hope Kids
Post Acid
Act III: Best Coast-
Right now, I’m a little crazy for Best Coast and this set just jostled me into insanity. Bethany Cosentino, Bobb Bruno, and Ali Koehler offered Boston a 60 minute taste of the Summer, California, and youthful AM Pop heartbreak drenched in vintage, reverby Rock and Roll. The reverb was done just right, you could hear everything Bethany sang, which for this kind of music that is key. I noticed throughout their invigorating set the crowd enthusiastically sang along as if they knew the pain Bethany articulated (probably because they did)- though it was mostly the ladies that felt this connection, it seems. Right off the bat with “Crazy For You,” Bethany displayed excellent showomanship and almost naturally shared a wavelength (no pun intended) with the audience. Stand outs from the performance included “Boyfriend,” “When I’m With You,” “Our Deal” (a song NOT about weed, but mentions it!), “Bratty B,” amongst others. One of the most powerful moments of the evening was without a doubt the finale of “Each and Every Day” (CFY’s closer)- the trio rocked hard into the breakdown building up to Bethany’s soft, gentle vocals at the very end of the ballad. When she cried “Every day I wake up and I thank the stars above for sending me a man who I could really love if only I could convince you to feel the same way we could be so very happy each and every day” I could see the passion in some of the girls’ eyes and in just that alone I think Bethany and Best Coast have accomplished what they set out to do.
Setlist (Not in any particular order and I’m definitely missing some songs):
Crazy For You
The End
Goodbye
Summer Mood
Wish He Was You
Our Deal
Sun Was High (So Was I)
Bratty B*
When I’m With You
Something In the Way
When the Sun Don’t Shine
Fist City (Loretta Lynn)
Each and Everyday*
* For these songs seeing them live jolted me into excessive fandom for each in their own right; for whatever reason they never hit me before, but now I’m addicted :)
Final Comments: Some shows deliver surprises (Shattered Records Tour), others offer extreme visceral euphoria (Black Lips, No Age), and then there are simply those shows that satisfy exactly what you anticipated they would and a little bit more. This concert was definitely one of those shows. I can’t say anything was unexpected, but it didn’t have to be. All corniness aside, I think Best Coast/Wavves/No Joy did bring some Summer cheer to this froid as fuck region of the world. And as for first KLYAM attended concerts of 2011, what a way to kick off the year!
Grade: Strong 8 to Light 9
Yep, you guessed it. Wavves is the KLYAM’s Band of the Week. What warrants such an honor? Let’s see dropping the greatest LP of the past year (King of the Beach)-at least our favorite, playing one of our top shows of Twenty Ten, or just being all around great guys! In any case, Wavves deserve the recognition, as they have been rightfully receiving from various media outlets in recent time. Absolutely one of my top ten favorite bands right now; can’t wait to see them live again this Friday, February 4 at the Paradise Rock Club opening for Best Coast.
“There’s something about the Summer.”
Kids Like You & Me (KLYAM) 