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Videos for the Veekend // 4|2 – 4|4

Saturday, April 3rd, 2010

Time for another installment of my favorite video finds of the past week:

Recorded by the talented Austrians at They Shoot Music, the first video is of Thao With The Get Down Stay Down playing “Body” in a hotel bathroom in Vienna. The band uses any and everything they could find in the small space (hairdryer including!), making for an interesting live rendition of the track:

The next amazing video is of Spanish electro-sampling extraordinaire El Guincho playing “Kalise” in the Los Angeles Natural History Museum rainforest exhibit. Recorded by the good folks at Dublab, Pablo Díaz-Reixa’s textured music matches perfectly with the dense foliage of his surroundings:

If I’m living in Portland, I feel the obligation to at least feature some local bands, right. Fortunately the music scene here is first rate, and Reporter is certainly one of those bands that have caught the attention of ears everywhere. Here is a cool video of them playing on top of the City of Portland Metro Department’s ecoroof

It’s no surprise to long-time readers that I like the country sounds of LA’s Dawes, and now, thanks to a recording by Tenth Row, you can experience a complete live set of theirs:

TenthRow – HD Concert Videos, Playlists, MP3 Downloads Tenthrow – Concerts – Dawes – Live @ R&R Hotel

If you haven’t already done so, you need to check out the music site Salad Fork because they are posting some incredible stuff lately. Case in point this unearthed video of Real Estate playing acoustically in an abandoned building in Portugal:

Finally, a video of Bill Murray bartending at SXSW, giving everyone tequila shots regardless of what they ordered:

Tags: Bill Murray, Dawes, El Guincho, Real Estate, Reporter, Thao with The Get Down Stay Down, Video
Posted in Musical Musings, Youtube Finds | 1 Comment »

Slipped Through the Cracks // Dawes

Saturday, January 23rd, 2010

It took another similarly titled article to remind me that, other than a brief live show review, I never got around to talking much about Dawes‘s awesome debut album North Hills. Garnering some attention from some pretty established sites as well as fellow tour-mates, these L.A. alt-country rockers have been slowly building a solid fan base from their killer shows. I was fortunate enough to catch their act in both Lubbock, Texas and Montreal, Quebec (cultural antipodes, I know), and each time I felt that they outshined the headliner Deer Tick. Although their album falls a bit short of capturing the energy of their live set, North Hills still makes for a great listen.

In a year when country was lacking in my opinion, North Hills stands out not because of its inventiveness but because of its return-to-the-roots feel — something that you can’t get from a Wilco album nowadays. Out of the eleven tracks on the LP, you would be hard pressed to find one song that warrants the skip button to be hit, and, if listened to continuously, the album makes for a perfect Sunday afternoon pick-me-up (not unlike Timothy Cushing’s album). Not to imply that easy-listening equates to boring — there are plenty of tracks like “When You Call My Name” and “My Girl to Me” that feature romping melodies — but the LP never begs to be shut-off and, just like Pringles, once you listen to a single song you can’t stop.

No doubt the album highlight is the much revered track “When My Time Comes”. Anchored by repetitive guitar & bass triplets that are sure to make you do some foot tapping, the song is instantly catchy. No doubt helping the track’s popularity is that sing-along appeal which singer/guitarist Taylor Goldsmith nails when the first “Whennnnn My Time Comes…” bubbles up to the surface. Trust me, it’s impossible to not belt out that line with Goldsmith in successive choruses.

If Dawes fell in the one-hit wonder category, no doubt all other tracks would pale in comparison. Fortunately (for us as well as for them), they surround their hit with equally stellar songs. The lead in to “When My Time Comes”, “Give Me Time” is a pleasant listen full of harmonizing vocals and delicate guitar strums, guaranteeing it airtime at a lot of proms in the Southern states, while the follower “God Rest My Soul” is arguably just as catchy as its predecessor.

I could go on and on about the album — like how “That Western Skyline” is an amazing acoustic track or “Peace in the Valley” is a perfect closer — but for the sake of brevity, I’ll just leave you with these two songs to try to convert you:

Dawes // When My Time Comes (Daytrotter Session)

Tags: Dawes, Daytrotter, North Hills
Posted in Album Reviews, Musical Musings, Slipped Through the Cracks | 1 Comment »

Did You Miss Me? Pt. II

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009

Picking up where I left off from my previous post, in June I was fortunate enough to visit the musical center of the south: Austin, Texas. Although I was in town on some other matter, I was able to sneak out and watch Sunset Rubdown tear down the house at Mohawk. I won’t gush too much about the greatest band on the planet, but let’s just say seeing them play tracks off of Dragonslayer, especially their perfect performances of “Idiot Heart” and “You Go On Ahead (Trumpet Trumpet II)”, was one of the most awe-inspiring things I have ever experienced. On a side note, lead singer and all around bad ass Spencer Krug mentioned the performance to Pitchfork.

July sneakily crept on me and before I knew it I was celebrating my Jack Bauer Birthday (24) with Rhode Island alt-country act Deer Tick and LA barnstormers Dawes. Knowing nothing about Dawes, I was pleasantly surprised with their act. Lead singer Taylor Goldsmith confidently spit out vocals throughout, climaxing when Deer Tick’s frontman John McCauley joined him onstage for a powerful rendition of their song “When My Time Comes”. When it came time for McCauley to shine with his group, I have to admit the performance was rather lackluster. Although all the classic songs were played and they performed past their allotted hour and a half time slot, I got the impression that they shipped in their set from the get-go. Fortunately, listened to Dawes in my car on the way home got the sour taste out of my mouth.

Unexpectedly, later in the month when I visited my friend at Penn State, I noticed that Deer Tick and Dawes were performing in Montreal. After exhausting everything to do in State College, PA (which was pretty easy to do in the small college town), we decided to road trip it up to Canada for the weekend. Again, Dawes kicked ass with their performance and Deer Tick sort-of floundered throughout (McCauley cut this performance short because of a sore throat).

Once arriving back into Lubbock via Pennsylvania, I had three days of relaxing before jet setting again; this time to Portland, Oregon. Although I was there to scout out an apartment, I would be lying to you if I said I had no intention to check out the music scene. As fate would have it, I saw a guy in a KTXT T-shirt at one of the bars I was in who just so happened to be the drummer for Thao and The Get Down Stay Downs. He invited me for a non-publicized “secret gig” at the newly christened venue The Woods later that evening. Needless to say, I took him up on the offer and was completely taken aback by the whole show.

Opening was Portland’s own Horse Feathers, which is essentially a more delicate version of Iron & Wine. Lead singer Justin Ringle captivated the crowd so much that you could literally hear a pin drop. Saying it was an intimate setting would be an understatement. The quiet atmosphere was unbecoming to Thao, leading her to plead to the audience to stand up and “come and dance with us”. By the time she busted out “Bag of Hammers” for her second song, everyone shed their cautious skin and started to at least do the “indie-sway”. All-in-all it was a great performance that had the one-of-a-kind Portland feel to it.