The past two weeks, I’ve been catching up on my podcasts because, like most things in my life, I’ve fallen incredibly behind. I’ve always loved the stuff that NPR All Songs Considered have put out (Tiny Desk Concert, Project Song, and of course their regular podcast), but these sets by The New Pornographers and of Montreal, recorded at the 9:30 Club in D.C., are really top-notch. I mean, the live versions of “Myriad Harbor” and “Past is a Grotesque Animal” alone are worth subscribing to the podcast! I’ve linked to their respected episodes below and also threw in some favorite tracks from both groups:
So yeah, it’s been five months since the last show I went to, which kind of sucks, I know. Even before I moved to Utah, I had a feeling that the drought would end when Owen Ashworth, aka Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, embarked on his farewell tour and was planning a stop in the basement of a record store here in Salt Lake City. I knew that seeing Ashworth in such an intimate venue and on such a sentimental occasion would be the best way to hear the sweetly constructed tunes of his before he hangs up the Casiotone moniker forever (he’ll still be recording music, only under the name Advance Bass from now on).
Playing mostly tracks of Vs. Children, his latest and arguably most well-received LP from his past thirteen years of recording, the show was less about reminiscing and more about celebrating the present and the future. Even after seeing Ashworth in person, it was difficult to gauge the emotional impact of this farewell tour on him, and at times I even got the impression that he’s ready to strike the final nail into the Casiotone coffin and just be done with it. Maybe that’s why he sort of “played it safe” with the show, hammering out slow-to-medium tempo songs one-by-one for forty-five minutes before calling it quits, sans encore, once his solo performance of “Tonight Was a Disaster” ended.
Or maybe it has something to do with his backing band, the Australian group Otouto, not being comfortable playing some more of his zanier, uptempor songs (here’s looking at you “Oh, Illinois!” and “Jeanie, If You’re Ever in Portland”) on such short notice, but the whole event fell a little flat for me. It makes me wonder why he even embarked on this tour, considering for his last stint across the US, the setlist was composed entirely of fan’s e-mail requests — a spot on way to end a project and a perfect way to say “thank you” to all the listeners over the years.
Not to say that the performance wasn’t good, because it was, but I guess I had impossible-to-meet expectations. Having the female vocalists from Otouto harmonizing on each track was certainly an added plus (“the first time I’ve had a band when playing in Utah”) — making songs like “Northfield, NM” sound ten times better than if Ashworth were to do it solo. Also, “Natural Light” and “Tom Jones…” should have been recorded on the spot and used for some live CD or something. All-in-all, it wasn’t the life affirming experience I was hoping for, but it was a great way to spend a Sunday evening.
Below, you can find a couple of my favorite Casiotone for the Painfully Alone tracks and a video of “Christmas in Oakland” recorded at the show. Also, The Flat Response has a nice bootleg of CFTPA’s show in Denver from the night before.
For those who aren’t as late on the ball as I am, LA noise rockers HEALTH have released their second remix album, appropriately entitled “Disco2″, giving a refreshing new look into one of my favorite albums of 2009. Below, you can find the fourth single from that record which has found its way on the web, a 70s discoteque ready reconstruction of “Die Slow” done by fellow LAers Nite Jewel. Also included are a pair of live videos shot by the University of Minnesota’s campus radio station (Radio K) at one of HEALTH’s recent Minneapolis gigs — one for “Die Slow” and the other for a new song called “Drugs Beach” (via: TMT).
Two great recordings from two of my favorite indie-rock bands popped up on the web this week. Not to encroach on another blog’s turf, but the first track is a cover of Holly Miranda’s seafaring song “Waves” by the Brooklyn trio, and NPR favorite, The Antlers. The audio quality isn’t stellar, but the beauty is certainly still there.
The second song is a live cut of “Meridian” that Shearwater posted on their website a couple of days ago. Recorded at Lincoln Hall in Chicago this past April, Jonathan Meiburg & Co. show that there is really little difference between studio and live sessions with their music. Amazing!
It seems like NYC experimental pop group Twin Sister has somehow avoided having a single post by yours truly. I don’t know why I keep neglecting all these bands I love — Toro y Moi also suffered from the same affliction until recently — but I promise I’ll start to correct this phenomenon. And what better way to do that than featuring this kick ass live session recorded by the archivers over at NYC Taper.
When I don’t want to sift through the massive amount of live recordings housed at archives.org, I head over to NYC Taper where I know that I’ll wind up with a great listen every single time. Lately, the site has really outdone themselves, hosting stellar sets from PT-Music favorites Local Natives, Harlem, and, of course, Twin Sister — all from the past two weeks!
The song that you can hear below is the p4k approved “spacey disco” number “All Around and Away We Go” off their first EP Vampires with Dreaming Kids which you can download from their site for free here. If you like how the track sounds live, head over to NYC Taper and snag the whole set (available in both FLAC and mp3) gratis as well. Also, check out the video blog-pal Mark at yvynyl put together for the song:
No amount of videos you’ve seen or tracks you’ve heard can really prepare you for a Mountain Man show. In this day and age where you can achieve near digital perfection in the studio, I’m still convinced that no recording will ever do them justice and that in order to truly experience what these three girls from Vermont are all about, you have to see them sing in person. Even the phrase “breathtakingly beautiful” seems to fall incredibly short when trying to describe their sound. Last night, I had a chance to witness them play a twelve song set at the acoustically perfect Reed College Chapel, and it was probably the most spiritual experience I’ve had in quite a while.
After braving through a sample-crazy electro soloist, a singer / songwriter acoustic performance, and a full band arrangement — an interesting collection of Reed College musicians — the time finally arrived for Molly, Amelia, and Alex to take the stage. Holding only a single acoustic guitar (makes it easy to pack their green sedan and drive cross country on a whim), their mostly a cappella set was about as simple of a performance instrument-wise I’ve ever seen. In fact, the group noted how this was the first time ever they’ve performed with a microphone on stage; quite a feat for it being 2010, not 1910.
And their timelessness is one of the best qualities of their music. If it wasn’t for the Appalachian-infused vocals of the group that automatically makes you think of past greats like Cousin Emmy (popular from the 20s-50s), you wouldn’t be able to pinpoint even the century this music belongs to. I mean, small groups of singers huddled together forming beautiful harmonies is one of the oldest arrangements in the books and can probably be traced back to the dawn of humankind.
Although the gravity of their music is intense, during breaks they would counter their emotionally draining performance with lighthearted banter. The most fun conversation they had was when Molly divulged an arrangement she had with her then boyfriend that, if given the opportunity, they would be OK with each other kissing Connor Oberst. Not surprisingly, this spun into a lengthy talk about their first concerts they attended with Amelia proudly declaring it was 98 degrees, even mimicking their choreographed dance moves to the t. Maybe I just have this thing about elevating musicians to higher tiers of humanity, but it’s always refreshing to see down-to-earth personalities from performers.
As anyone who has seen them live can attest to, you really need near silence to fully appreciate their music. Although I berate the arms-crossed crowd of Portland concert goers almost every live show I go to, at the very least I can say it made for good practice for this performance. With the crowd frozen on the front pews and seated attentively on the ground in front of the stage, it was so still that I felt guilty when my stomach started growling — making it impossible to even consider taking photos of the show with my loud ass shutter sound.
Opening with the track “Honeybee” with their hands clasped to each other, it was amazing to see the three only needing to hit the first note a couple of times as warm-up before going into a jaw-dropping rendition of the track, something reminiscent of the sound check I saw Neko Case do almost a year. Since the only recording I have of theirs is composed of six songs, naturally there were some surprises (at least for me) as well as some covers thrown into the mix. Regardless of how unfamiliar some of the newer songs might have been, you wouldn’t have known the difference as every track was spot-on. It didn’t matter if it was the recently-premiered “Babylon” or the Jana Hunter cover song they closed with (which Amelia told me was “the first song we learned as a band”), everything was about as picture perfect as you could get. Here is a rough setlist from the evening:
I haven’t seen the “How I’m Doing Hey Hey” track anywhere online, so I went ahead and uploaded a “video” of their performance of it tonight (more like audio because the lighting was bad and my camera sucks majorly):
It was cool because the Portland crowd pitched in some improvised snapping that went along with the music and the girls looked like they were having a great time performing it on stage.
Well that’s it for last night’s performance. All I can say is that if you get a chance to see them live, do yourself a favor and go. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.
At the show, I got a copy of their limited edition self-titled CD-R (with one-of-a-kind handmade sleeve) that I’ll be giving away. I’m pretty sure this is a tour-only release, as it contains eight tracks as opposed to the six songs on their past release (“Loon Song” and “Buffalo” are the two additions). Anyways, if you won’t get an opportunity to catch them live or if you can’t wait for their almost-ready Underwater Peoples’s 10” to drop, go ahead and retweet this (or if you don’t have twitter, drop a comment) and I’ll pick a winner at random in the coming days (US residents only)!
For weeks I’ve been waiting for this show: Meth Teeth are one of my favorite Portland bands, Best Coast is one of my new favorite groups, and Vivian Girls are definitely in my top five all-time faves. Words can not express how excited I was for this show. Anyways, I wasn’t about to let the typical arms crossed Portland concert goer get me down, so I went into the show ready to go crazy — regardless if I was the only one.
The downside of getting all liquored up heading out to a concert is that you don’t really make for a good journalist. I can’t really tell you much about Meth Teeth as I only own one album of theirs, but they put on a pretty damn good show. As for Best Coast, Bethany Cosentino steamrolled through most of the material on her plethora of 7”s, even playing two new tracks and a cover song in the process (sorry, didn’t have my video camera). Teaming up with longtime guitarist Bobb Bruno and Vivian Girls drummer Katy Goodman, Best Coast’s live incarnation is a sight to behold — not to mention “When I’m With You” and “In My Room” have never sounded better. As for Vivian Girls, they played most of the material from Everything Goes Wrong as well as a few sprinklings of past hits. Also, they played that bad ass Chantel’s cover and Bethany joined them onstage for two tracks.
Although I don’t remember much, I did snag the Vivian Girls setlist and took some photos of the show which you can check out below (or see the full set here):
I think I’m one of the few still riding the Wavves train after his whole melt down in Barcelona, but seeing videos like this one filmed in Lisbon make up for all the ridicule I receive from my friends. In the video, Williams is joined onstage with his new band mates former Reatard members Stephen Pope and Billy Hayes and absolutely slays it. Possibly due to Pope’s addition, the song is sped up to warp speed, taking no prisoners in the process. Nonchalant as always, Hayes sits behind the drum set and tears through the faster tempo like it’s nothing. The Portuguese kids seem to be eating it up too: stage diving throughout, culminating in a mass rush to the stage before the song is over. All-in-all a great performance of a killer song.
The good folks down at Holocene put together an awesome Haiti Benefit show yesterday that rivaled other efforts across town. With all of the money from the $10 tickets and bar profits going to Mercy Corps, the event, entitled “L’Union Fair La Force”, certainly generated thousands of dollars for a good cause. And hey, it didn’t hurt that the attendees got their money’s worthy from a bill including local-studs Grouper and Pyramiddd (formerly known as the less eloquent Starfucker).
I only caught the Grouper set because, well, I knew that all the other acts would pale in comparison to her performance (plus I had some Wire to watch). Like always, Liz Harris puts on a show not meant for musical entertaining but spiritual awakening. With cassettes of pre-made eerie sounds specifically designed for each song, Harris records, loops, and layers guitar and vocals lines and places them on top of the tapes’ creepy noises — kind of like a more haunting Imogen Heap.
To be honest, I don’t know how Harris draws enough courage to go up on stage for live performances. Her music isn’t particularly conducive to casual listening, requiring complete silence from the audience in order to fully experience it. In a town where casual listening is the norm and crowd chatter drowns out even popular acts, if I was Harris I would pull a Sally Shapiro and just let the records speak for themselves and stay away from the stage whenever possible. Thankfully for us true fans, she braved the inevitable disruptions and stage fright associated with solo performing and gave us a gift with her music while helping the people of Haiti at the same time.
Here is “Heavy Water/I’d Rather Be Sleeping”, one of my favorite tracks from her hit album Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill that she unfortunately didn’t perform last night, and a new track entitled “Hold the Way” off of her new split EP with Roy Montgomery which she did play:
There was a sweet show yesterday featuring recently crowned Best New Music inductee Real Estate alongside future Underwater Peoples labelmates Pill Wonder with Northwest homegrowns Rainbow Bridge sandwiched between. Holocene, the very slick venue where the bands were playing, also had a DJ spinning some 80s-tastic tracks in between sets with acid washed stock video footage playing on a huge projector screen — mixing nicely with the “chillwave” vibe of the acts.
I was excited to check out openers Pill Wonder just because I noticed they had a 12” in the queue and was hoping that they played some of their new material (a man can only gauge so much from four tracks on their myspace). I wasn’t disappointed as the seven piece (!) band exceeded their 30 minute time slot churning out their patented psychedelic tinged garage rock for a crowd of about forty. They ended strong with a solid funkadelic/r&b number with bassist Hans doing his best James Brown impression. All-in-all, it was a lively set.
Next in line was the male/female guitar/drums duo Rainbow Bridge. With a set of trolls on stage and the drummer donning a fake beard, I was halfway expecting a quirky kitsch act. Much to my surprise, they played some kick ass garage rock tunes which made me think about how Jack & Meg White probably started out playing to similar crowds in Detroit in the late 90s. Undeniably the crowd pleasure for the group (and arguably the whole night) was their hit track “Big Wave Rider“. With simply sung lyrics “big wave rider / try and ride a little higher / you’re a glider / smile wider” over sparse instrumentation, it didn’t take long for the audience to join in and sing out the chorus.
By the time Real Estate took the stage at 11pm, the crowd had swelled to around eighty or so folks, mostly clad in skinny jeans and eighties regalia of some sorts. In response to the size, the band said this was one of the best crowds on the tour — something that I am sure Porlanders hear quite frequently. Any questions about whether this band was overhyped or undeserving of a constant stream of buzz since their SXSW showing were put to rest when they opened up with the infectious guitar line on “Beach Comber”. Now most reviews I’ve seen of Real Estate tend to follow a madlib like recipe: “Their [adj. / wobbly] guitars invokes a sense of [childhood story of the beach] — with the repetitious [instrument] enforcing that feeling”, however, when you see them live you get a sense on how much more this group is than some band riding the “chillwave” fad of ’09.
Through the glimmering tautophony lies these bluesy syncopated guitar solos that Matthew Mondanile (aka Ducktails) and Martin Courtney shine on — not to mention the commanding power bassist Alex Bleeker has on his instrument (something that will surely translate over to his “solo” work with The Freaks). As time elapsed, you couldn’t help but be swept away by their performance and get lost in their sound. This partly affected my determining of the setlist, as I tended to loose interest in knowing the exact song they were playing and got caught up more with the feeling they were invoking through their tunes:
1 // Beach Comber
2 // Pool Swimmers
3 // (?)
4 // Fake Blues
5 // Suburban Beverage
6 // Black Lake
7 // (?)
8 // (?)
9 // Atlantic City
10 // Fake Blues
I think it goes without saying that if you get a chance to see this band play in an intimate venue, do it because these guys are just going to get more of a following as time goes by. Here is a video of them playing “Fake Blues” at SXSW this past year along with some songs of theirs:
(photos: 
