28 posts from February 2009

Me Raabenstein, a.k.a. Slowcream, is an experimental electronica artist based in Berlin, fusing classical samples are paired with electronic elements.  Based on blog entries I've read at their MySpace, the artist seems to be an American émigré now living in Germany.

Wax on Wool, which will be released February 27 on Nonine Recordings, appears to be the artist's second work.  Both this album and the one released before it, Live Long And Prosper, are digital-only releases.  This music is different from most ambient material I've listened to in that not all of it is purely instrumental; some selections have spoken lyrics, such as "Into Butter" and "On Carpets".  Many of the tracks, including "Punch Indigo", reminded me of post-industrial music I had studied in college and university.  I was fairly certain it was something familiar, ideas that were avant-garde yet explored before.  This is what Joshua Farrier of DMA had to say of the album:

  
As I had very little to go on as far as Slowcream's biography or background, I would imagine this is another instrumental artist that prefers to remain somewhat anonymous, or a bit of an enigma.  I went to the artist's MySpace under this name, and even the blog entries were very short, reading like little thoughts when one is musing quietly during some time alone.  So it is much easier to suggest that the music speaks for itself, rather than try to determine how Raabenstein was inspired.  The album is available for preview (90 seconds preview per track) here.

Fountains of Wayne writes songs about two very important things in life: drinking and women. Although I'm over simplifying it, that was my first impression of them when I first put on their break-through album Welcome Interstate Managers. I will also admit to actually being a little embarrassed to actually liking their MILF song "Stacy's Mom"... but then quickly found it too annoying for words. Still, it's such a good pop album, I'm sure you all own it already.

Good news for fans: their first ever DVD called No Better Place: Live in Chicago is coming out this Tuesday on Shout Factory. I have a screener copy for review, and the first thing I noticed that I was disappointed in was that it's edited. Songs like "Bright Future in Sales" had the 'shit' word removed (the word is an important part of the song). I suspect the reasoning for this was that this was intended for broadcast television.

The colors are vivid and the audio is clear in 5.1 Surround sound, it's only really a shame that it's not in bluray. Between the quick MTV-style cuts of at least seven different camera angles, the show is never that boring - although looking at some of the audience members, they seem underwhelmed. It's clearly a sit-down venue and everybody is standing in a row.

The majority of the setlist is taken from Welcome Interstate Managers, so you get to see songs interpreted live. Most of the songs are pretty similar to their studio counterparts (such as the wonderful "Mexican Wine"), however songs like "Hackensack" lacked that intimacy and smirk of hearing "talking" rhyming with Christopher Walken.

The bonus features on the DVD includes brand new acoustic performances of some recent songs, recorded in a New York studio in 2008. Some of the acoustic songs are from Traffic and Weather, but there's a few I didn't recognize.

If you love Welcome Interstate Managers, then No Better Place: Live in Chicago will be a good companion. Hardcore fans will want to pick this up for the new acoustic songs, but I suspect most of you will probably already have a bootleg of it or something.

Fountains of Wayne's No Better Place: Live in Chicago can be bought at most music store, but of course you can buy it direct ($16.98 + S&H).

Trivia: Dar Williams recently covered FoW's song "Troubled Times" on last year's Promised Land.

After a long day of schmoozing and being obnoxiously charming, I couldn’t have looked forward to Fujiya & Miyagi’s show any more than I did.  (My real job involves niceness.)  Turning F&M way, way up on the drive into Minneapolis, I was itching to dance and be in the company of friends.  And luckily, in this case, the build-up made the delivery deliciously satisfying.

School of Seven Bells opened up the sold-out show.  I’d heard them on the radio a few times before and was entertained but not intrigued.  Never had that urge to Wikipedia them or play hooky in order to pick up their album.  And, for me, that feeling carried over to their live performance.  Identical twins, Alejandra and Claudia Dehez, are gorgeous and have the voices to match; guitarist Benjamin Curtis is obviously very talented (and under-utilized, in my opinion) but their set, on the whole, left me with a general feeling of indifference.  If I can say this without sounding like an after-school special, I think SoSB has enormous potential and just doesn’t realize it yet.  Keep your eye on them, though. 

Surprisingly, the crowd thinned out a little after School, which was alright with me since I couldn’t see nor breathe. 

Let’s move on to shakin’ it. 

Fujiya & Miyagi.  Yes, yes, yes.  The fine English gentlemen opened with “Sore Thumb,” a scene-setting song from their most recent release, “Lightbulbs.”  A song that says, “You’re going to need your sexy dance pants for us.”  And that crazy talkin’ song speaks the truth.  Next up was “Ankle Injuries” from 2007’s Transparent Things, featuring (gasp!) a real, live drummer!  Prior to this tour, F&M were a trio with a drum machine.  The addition of said drummer, Lee Adams, was a wise choice, resulting in fuller, cruder sound (there is such a thing as too precisely perfect, you know).

With that excellent and promising start, the boys led us through an evening of spellbinding entertainment, perfectly transitioning from high energy crowd-pleasers to stare-off-into-space soundtracks to your silly little daydreams.  Both Lightbulbs and Transparent Things were well represented.  And with the crowd being so tight, the sound being so together and my hips having a mind of their own, I felt like I had invited all of my friends (and their friends and their friends) into my living room for a spontaneous drunken dance party.  Something about this show felt more intimate, more comfortable than most.  I guess that’s what happens when everything comes together perfectly: David Best’s sultry whispers and complex guitar work, Steve Lewis’ hard beats and fancypants technological skills, Matt Hainsby’s hot bass grooves, and an overcrowded room of eager hipsters.  Damn.

Fujiya & Miyagi are not the guys to listen to when you want to relive your most recent break-up or explore your sensitive side.  I don’t think most people could say they feel an ‘emotional connection’ to this noise but I prefer it that way.  Sometimes you need to turn your head off and move.

This is music you feel in your tailbone; these are songs that dare you to stand still; this rhythm is seriously going to get you (yeah, I just said that).

Fujiya and Miyagi are on tour in support of 2008’s Lightbulbs.  Don’t miss them if you can help it.

Tour dates can be found on their Myspace page at: http://myspace.com/fujiyaandmiyagi.

Originally scheduled to perform at the Varsity Theatre in Minneapolis, Blitzen Trapper outdid themselves with fan-age and the show was moved to the much larger First Ave. “Danceteria.”  Even so, the club was packed—not packed in the fun way, when a girl can casually rub against a sweaty young hipster and still play coy, but packed like a big awkward sardine tin, with the majority of the crowd standing, immobile, clutching Red Stripes and sort of doing the head bob.  Weird, huh.  I mean, Blitzen Trapper are certainly no Dance Band, but you’d think they’ve earned a few arm thrusts, maybe some leg spasms, at least a pogo or two (the shit’s going to rain on me for that comment; pogo = bad)*. 

Blitzen Trapper have been described as “experimental folk,” but I say this with a smirk, as it seems these days, any band that writes lyrics concerning farms or hills or serial killers is deemed “folk-y”**.  Similarly, any band that uses synth as a garnish (and not as a main course, a la New Wave/proponents of New Wave), gets a broad ‘experimental’ tagged onto their name.  Thus, “experimental folk” is born; though, I have some problems with calling a band whose frontman occasionally enters the Tom Petty sing-talk-groove territory “experimental.”  2008’s Furr may have folk-ish tendencies, but it also rocks (kinda) hard (“Sleepytime in the Western World” sounds positively 70s and makes me think of being inside some dive and throwing a drink in a man’s face).

On Wednesday, I managed to arrive at First Ave. just as opener Alela Diane was finishing her set (unreliable public transportation; cigarette).  Unfortunately for me (and also for Alela Diane fans), the crowd chatter was so obnoxiously loud that instead of music, I heard entire conversations about bangin’ chicks (classy crowd chatter).  The talking might not have seemed so obvious had Diane’s vocals and instrumentation been more suited to the large venue (the Varsity would fit her perfectly).  It wasn’t her fault, and it wasn’t the crowd’s fault (maybe it was the crowd’s fault a little—give children more space and they feel the need to be unruly); still, the lukewarm beginning did not bode well for the rest of the evening.

By the time Blitzen Trapper took the stage most of the chatter had dissipated.  This was the first time I’d seen BT live, but from what I’ve heard, they have a reputation as an inconsistent live act.  General consensus within the blogging community has been ambivalence—this was not one of their stellar performances.  Still, I would hardly call the show bad.  For now I’ll give them the benefit of doubt:  switching to a big, dirty historic concert hall from a smaller, curtain-festooned, lounge setting could potentially be vexing.  I enjoyed live versions of “Not Your Lover,” “Black River Killer” (my favorite strange little gothic country narrative), and the abovementioned “Sleepytime in the Western World.”  The band looked good (I made a comment about how singer Eric Earley sort of looks like Jeff Tweedy from a great, great, great distance), sounded good, played good.  It was one of those “good” shows:  no surprises, no special energy, no funny in-between song jokes, no extra credit.  A solid B show (B- if you factor in the apathetic crowd). 

Blitzen Trapper is currently on tour with Alela Diane supporting.  The next few dates are East Coast shows; for more information, visit their Myspace or Website.

*At one point during the show I did notice that somewhere in the horizon, near the stage, far from our standing place, a small group of girls were doing something that resembled dancing! 

**I’ve done it.  More than once.

Subscribe to our show at gcast.com (RSS).

For my second episode on favorite songs and breakdown, we take a look at Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand. Named after Austria's Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the band first break-out single is "Take Me Out", debuting #3 on the UK Charts.

With other hit singles like "This Fire", the band's debut album became a fan-favorite - unfortunately, I didn't particularly cared for their sophomore album You Could Have It So Much Better... which the title saids it all. Perhaps it's due to their annoying song "Do You Want To"?

Their latest album is called Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, which sounds like a live album, but it's not. Between You Could Have It So Much Better and Tonight, they quietly released The Fallen EP, which was basically a "Double A" single of Fallen and L.Wells.

"L. Wells" is quite excellent. The song is about singer Alex Kapranos' friend and acquaintance Lynsey Wells, describing her as beautiful and innocent.

Unfortunately the video is played by Saskia Pomeroy for the part of Lynsey Wells (apparently she was too busy helping orphanages in Africa) and was mostly inspired by Rita Tushingham in A Taste of Honey and Julie Christie in Billy Liar.

My least favorite part of the song is the bridge which slows down the song to let everyone know that Kapranos has very bad memory.

Great Western Wind catches in your Celtic hair
Flicks it round your face like flames around the sun
In the bright cold air you seem as innocent and fair
As Rita Tushingham in 1961

Well, Lynsey Wells
How I wish that I could feel so good
I wish that I could be as good as you
Well, Lynsey Wells
How I wish that I could feel the good
Beyond the poison in us like you do

Trivia, the reference to "You'll Never Walk Alone" is from the motto and anthem of Liverpool FC (Football), whom apparently Wells is a huge supporter.

Eleni Mandell's latest album is Artificial Fire and it was released last Tuesday on Zedtone Records. With already six albums under her belt, she's amassed quite a few fans - particularly in Canada and France.

I felt the cover artwork (in addition to songs like "I Love Planet Earth" and "God Is Love") had an out-of-this world feel to it, black background with spiraling dots. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, the only credit to the artwork are "dots" by Alia Penner. You can see a sketch of it on her website.

Most of the album is pretty mellow, despite having a full band of guitar/bass/drums and the occasional horns and wind instruments. If you're into mild girl singer/songwriter-type of music, this is probably up there with the best of it.

The one "loud" songs are "Cracked", a song about losing faith in God because of someone's betrayal? "I'm cracked for you, my soul has been twisted. I'm cracked for you, my heart has been blistered." The song has a punk-ish attitude, which is what I liked about it.

The more I think about Mandell, her singing reminds me a bit of PJ Harvey, especially with "Pauline" from her album Thrill, and especially on the opening song "Artificial Fire".

"Artificial Fire" is a wonderful little song that doesn't seem to go anywhere, despite all the directions and maps and questions in the lyrics. That guitar-playing is very catchy as well! Mandell liked the song so much, they made a little music video for it.

Hey, she's on tour! It looks like she's coming to Minneapolis, at one of my current favorite sit-down venue, The Cedar this late March. I may do more writeup of her if I end up going to see her.

Information on how to get her records can be found on Zedtone.

Sarah McLachlan - Possession Sarah McLachlan 1 comment Read More Circuit City to shut down remaining stores http://news.cnet.... About 30,000 employees face layoffs as the rest of its 567 stores are closed. The fates of outst... 1 comment Taking advantage of the Circuit City closeouts, I bought Sarah McLachlan's Fumbling Towards Ecstasy Legacy Edition for $8. This is not a bad deal, considering that amazon lists it for $24.98 (for the best deal, you might want to check with her current record label, Nettwerks). Since I previously already owned the record when it was originally released in 1993, I only picked this up because I liked it and it was a bargain. The breakthrough hit song on the album is called "Possession", a passionate love song that so popular that an obsessed fan, Uwe Vandrei, sued McLachlan for using his love letters as the basis of the song. Vandrei was obviously mental, as he committed suicide shortly afterward. The new material on the Legacy Edition is The Freedom Sessions EP and a bonus DVD (originally released in 2005 as Fumbling Towards Ecstasy: Live). To be honest, since I am already familiar with the original album, I have only watched the DVD. The DVD is a pretty standard concert, admittedly sometime with poor visuals since the source is probably from 1994 tapes. Between the live show are excerpt of interviews with McLachlan and her dancer/band/performers - which made watching the show more interesting and also give a glimpse into the mind of McLachlan. I also enjoyed the four bonus music video, which contains two different version of the video for "Possession"! I have only seen the US version, on MTV's 120 Minutes, but watching the biblical version of the video - I can see why they decided to re-shoot the video. According to McLachlan, "Oh it's so lofty, it's pompous now. I was trying to dispel that by showing a bunch of female archetypes using historical paintings, ‘Venus’, ‘Adam and Eve’, ‘Salome’s Last Dance’. I wanted to show all women possessing all these different archetypes. I also had myself suspended in the air and wrapped in gauze, as if my personality and my sexuality were bound. Throughout the video I was being unraveled by unseen forces, and I came out in end strong and free and - Ta Da! - there I was my own self. Yes, it was pretty lofty..." As lofty and pompous as the original Canadian video was, it is more interested than just the uninspiring "deteriorating live band" music US video in a Cathedral.

Sarah McLachlan - Possession (US Music Video) 1 comment

Sarah McLachlan - Possession (Canadian Music Video)

Hi.  It's just me, Lara (the 'we' is singularly inclusive).  I thought I'd start this week talking a bit about awesome things like impromptu street jams and hot pants, and non-awesome things like Ryan Adams quitting music (which is old news but still totally funny-sad!).

Team Genius in the streets of Brooklyn

Brooklyn blog Hooves on the Turf recently filmed the kids of Team Genius being all silly and adorable.

Credit:  Sarahana @ Hooves on Turf

Clubhouse Jäger (Minneapolis, MN) / DJ Hot Pants / HOMG! (OMG, hot pants!)

Saturday was VD (Vu hates VD).  What better way to celebrate love things than by dancing to some funk (music that stimulates many a love thing), courtesy of Hot Pants.

Hot Pants is a collective of DJs that spin under the single moniker.  I recently learned that real DJs never choose their own name, they earn it (HOMG!).  How do you suppose the DJs Hot Pants earned their name?  Did they fight for it?  Maybe they engaged in some sort of musical rumble (much like the dance-off in “West Side Story”)?  My sincere guess is that ‘hot pants’ relates to the style of music they spin—groovy, bootylicious, makes-a-girl-wanna-pull-on-a-pair-of-short-shorts-and-shake-it music—but I could be wrong and it could have involved some serious ownage.

See Hot Pants, second Saturday of the month, at Club Jäger in downtown Minneapolis.  Music starts at 10pm (no cover).  Info here and here.

Ryan Adams blogs about being misunderstood in music, then quits music

I wish I read celebrity blogs.  Celebrities are people too, but better people, and they have sadness just like you and me!  Recently, I discovered via Stereogum, that Ryan Adams blogged about his decision to stop making music (and to stop blogging) and then later went back and deleted the blog.  Fortunately, the Internet preserves everything, and thanks to Stereogum, you can read about Adams’s soul searching/destroying here. 

Back already?  I know.  It’s long and (mostly) uninteresting.  Here are the highlights:

“i won't be blogging here anymore either- but not for effect- it just is not being kind to myself- i need a life that is mine- i need to grow up and grow in to who i have subtly been working back towards since i stopped all that nonsense and i know also no matter what i choose to do in the music world, because i chose to do things my way and never lie i will always be viewed as an "asshole" ( i hear and have seen things in the past) and i am not, and i know the truth and i know who i am.”

“…no it is not monetarily as rewarding as people would like you to believe and yes, it is soul destroying. especially when you spend your life trying to write about the really difficult stuff and you stand there losing your way and people yell at you like you were in a circus. when it was your dream to matter and you realize one day, it never mattered- i mean, i am a punch-line and a footnote in what is worse to yell at someone besides "free-bird". i mean, i lost…”

Honestly, I feel for the guy.  It must be hard when even the career eulogy he wrote for himself is accidentally amusing.  But then you wonder why is it amusing?  Because it’s Ryan “Worse than ‘Free Bird’” Adams?  Or because he publicly declared his retirement by writing a very, very long blog about it (with no capitalization and minimal punctuation, which basically screams “I’m too depressed for grammar”)?  Call me a softie, but I’m going with the latter.

We’ll see if the retirement sticks.