Here come the mid-week blues. Holiday weekend is ahead though, and that’s a comfort. Today’s Pick Your Poison highlights include tracks from Big Pauper, Handsome Furs, James Vincent McMorrow, and Spencer Krug’s (Wolf Parade/Sunset Rubdown) solo project Moonface.
In the long-standing tradition of “ampersand” groups, the last few decades have spawned everything from Simon & Garfunkel to Hall & Oates, Matt & Kim, and Iron & Wine. There are tons more, but in terms of jumping off the page at you, it’s a fair set of examples. Often failing to earn a mention among these duos or full bands are Damon & Naomi, otherwise known as Damon Krukowski and Naomi Yang. You can rarely get through a piece about them without hearing how they were the two members of the seminal late 80s/early 90s underground band Galaxie 500 whose name wasn’t Dean Wareheim. People loved Galaxie 500 despite their very short-lived history, and as Wareheim has gone onto his own ampersand band Dean & Britta with his wife (I’ll give you one guess as to what her first name is), Damon & Naomi kept working together and have put out six full-lengths of original material since 1992. So yeah, they’ve been making music for a very long time now and even had a lengthy stint on Sub Pop Records during its steady rise to the indie powerhouse it is today. They started their own label 20/20/20 several years back and have been putting their music (and re-releasing the Galaxie 500 catalogue) out on it ever since. After taking a few years away from writing and recording, Damon & Naomi are back with their seventh effort as a duo, titled “False Beats and True Hearts”.
As with a number of their previous efforts, Damon & Naomi are once again joined by Ghost guitarist Michio Kunihara, who continues to bring a fascinating tweak to the duo’s typically calm and quiet demeanor. Their songs more often float by in dark folk or psychedelic mood pieces than they do straight up rock, so when an electric guitar does buzz its way into the mix it stands out that much more. The album starts with a brief guitar solo from Kunihara before the main melody and vocals come in with a more standard acoustic guitar and drums in support. The electric guitar is by no means gone though, and it flitters in and out of the mix at various times, always a distraction but a relatively welcome one. It’s not the sort of thing that Damon & Naomi would have done several years ago, but their slow evolution towards a broader spectrum of sounds has only enhanced their songs and contributed towards keeping things fresh while still maintaining a strong sense of identity. There are even some that assert the duo has largely stalled out and aren’t doing enough to keep fans interested in their music. The thing is, there are so few groups that share the same genre DNA as Damon & Naomi, so in effect they don’t need to completely revolutionize their sound every couple records in order to continue engaging old as well as new supporters. Just the simple move from the guitar buzz of “Walking Backwards” into the piano-dominant Naomi-fronted “How Do I Say Goodbye” is proof enough that they’re more than willing to mix things up just a touch while mining similar emotional territory. The use of other instruments such as saxophones, trumpets, xylophones and a variety of other bits outside of a normal guitar, drums and piano is also something Damon & Naomi have been lightly working with their last couple records, and again they’re used in an economical fashion to avoid too much exposition or overstuffed arrangements.
Damon & Naomi’s other big assets outside of how their songs are instrumentally composed are their vocals and lyrics. Neither Damon nor Naomi have voices that emphasize strength and forcefulness, but perhaps they’ve been holding back the entire time to match their rather subdued melodies. No matter if one or both of them are singing on a track, their meekness and just above whisper quiet voices actually add emotion and heartbreak to these primarily sad songs. There’s a great warmth added to “Ophelia” courtesy of Damon’s vocals, which are additionally mixed in at an equal level with the lush acoustic guitars to help it work that much better. Naomi’s best and most confident singing to date comes courtesy of “Nettles and Ivy”, a gorgeous song about the earliest of morning hours where the sun is just beginning to peek over the horizon and everything is still glimmering fresh with dew. On the opposite side of the spectrum, “And You Are There” retains the nature imagery but applies it towards the sadness of a sunset, Naomi’s voice bringing forth the heartache of the slow burnout that is much more about ending than it is beginning. The nature imagery is one of the main topics the duo explores on “False Beats and True Hearts”, while life and love also get their fair share of musings as well, at times under the guise of well-crafted metaphors. With everything put together, much of the record sounds remarkably like something Beach House might put out, albeit with more instrumental flourishes and less outright organ.
If there’s a complaint to be had about “False Beats and True Hearts” it’s with Damon & Naomi’s commitment to mood and atmosphere over anything that resembles pop music. If you’re looking for something catchy with a solid hook to it, look elsewhere because there’s little to none of that on this album. They’ve done some of that on previous records, but obviously felt like it wasn’t a priority anymore. That will make it harder for those just discovering them to enjoy the record, and by that same token you might have issues with how immensely quiet the whole thing is. Still, if you’re in a darker mood, or even a more ponderous mood, this is a good record to soundtrack that. It’s not the best thing Damon & Naomi have done either, but it’s a gentle reminder that they still know how to make compelling records despite rolling up on what will soon be their 20th anniversary of making music as a duo in the post-Galaxie 500 era. It’s a shame they don’t get nearly enough recognition for it.
Catch Damon & Naomi on tour with Amor de Dias:
Wednesday, May 25 – Toronto, ONT, Horseshoe
Thurday, May 26 – Pontiac, MI , Pike Room
Friday, May 27 – Chicago, IL, Lincoln Hall
Saturday, May 28 – Minneapolis, MN, Triple Rock
Tuesday, May 31 – Seattle, WA, Tractor Tavern
Wednesday, June 1 – Portland, OR, Bunk Bar
Friday, June 3 – San Francisco, CA, Bottom of the Hill
Saturday, June 4 – Los Angeles, CA, The Satellite
Sunday, June 5 – San Diego, CA, Soda Bar
Tuesday, here we are. It’s still early in the week, but not too early that we can’t have a little fun. An intense basketball playoff game is on tonight, among other things, and I know I mentioned it yesterday, but going to a location in which there are lots of televisions and perhaps some alcohol would make for a good evening. When it gets warm(ish) out you can do those sorts of things on weekdays. Or stay home and hang out, who am I to dictate what you do with your evening. Pick Your Poison though, I can help you out there. Recommendations today for tracks from Follow That Bird, I and I, Kyla La Grange, Niki and the Dove, and Ty Segall.
If you were in any doubt that summer has officially arrived, throw on your best open-toed dancing shoes and pick yourself up a copy of Friendly Fires’ “Pala”. That quote right there has been approved for use in any press blurbs about the band you might read. Seriously though, straight off the tropical bird on the album cover and a track titled “Hawaiian Air” you can get a fantastic idea of what the record is going to sound like without even hearing a single note of it. All the better if you’re familiar with Friendly Fires’ 2008 self-titled debut album, which was so rich in dancefloor goodness that it took the band on multiple world tours and required a deluxe edition re-release to help out the new fans and keep the old ones baited with extras to bide the time until a follow-up was ready. Now it is, and “Pala” is in every way an evolotion from where the band was 3 years ago, adding more influences and sounds, not to mention sheer energy to a fire that was already burning pretty strong.
There’s a moment right before the first time through chorus on “Pala”‘s opening track “Live Those Days Tonight” where the beat largely drops out, things go relatively quiet, and somebody whispers, “Don’t hold back” a handful of times. As if pushed by those words of encouragement, the chorus then explodes to life with both some huge percussion and a hook that is more than addictive enough to stay in your head after only one full listen. That’s not even counting the bridge breakdown, where the chanting of “I’ll live” builds to yet another cathartic release of endorphins in case the first time wasn’t enough for you. Even more incredible is how the band is able to dish out variations on that same strategy across the entire record, keeping your feet moving during the verses and then achieving these blissfully anthemic and catchy choruses to keep you coming back. Producer Paul Epworth deserves at least some of the credit for pushing the band to these more advanced levels in which they owe as much to the dance rock craze of several years ago as they do to modern techno and house music. Epworth’s past resume includes working on key records from Bloc Party and The Rapture, so his fit here is a natural one even if he does tend to make a lot of albums sound super squeaky clean to the point where it’s unnatural. “Pala” suffers that same fate, but the light and airy nature of the record makes it a lot like the audio version of a huge blockbuster film – it’s great to put it on and have some fun without the pressure of thinking too much.
Close analysis of “Pala” is largely what might affect your enjoyment of it as a whole, because while it is an immensely fun dance record, there’s not exactly brilliance behind some of the lyrics and subject matter. The choruses are supposed to be memorable and therefore economical on words, but the verses are where the exposition is supposed to take place. That’s why lines like, “Seeing the mountains through the fog/Watching a film with a talking dog” on “Hawaiian Air” come across as poorly constructed and only existing to achieve a rhyme scheme. The topics as well are overly familiar ones, with almost every song either being about the ups and downs of love (“True Love”, “Hurting”, “Running Away”, “Pull Me Back to Earth”), the best and worst parts of the dancefloor (“Live Those Days Tonight”, “Show Me Lights”) and the sheer beauty of nature (“Hawaiian Air”, “Pala”). LCD Soundsystem, among other acts, proved that you can pretty seamlessly blend dance tracks with words that are genuine, emotionally significant and smart. Of course there are also no indications the band is looking to do a whole lot beyond getting you moving and providing you with something easy to sing along with. In an ideal world, “Pala” would be both, but when choosing between smart and fun, fun is by far the better choice for a band like this.
The different sounds explored on “Pala” is one of the more exciting things about the record and also further proof that they’ve made significant advancements since their last effort. With chillwave all the rage these last couple years, there are brief nods to those sounds, which largely ape lo-fi dance recordings from the 70s and 80s, on tracks like “Blue Cassette” and “Hurting”. The way that actual cassette tape noises such as the high-pitched squeal of rewinding and the click of the “play” button are worked into the context of “Blue Cassette” is particularly well played and impressive. Meanwhile, the strong mixture of synths and piano in conjunction with a vast array of beats on “Running Away” and “Chimes” bring to mind some of the more Balearic elements of today’s club scene. “Show Me Lights” is very 90s R&B in its construction, with frontman Ed Macfarlane’s voice sounding like it was forged in those same fires anyways. You might also think that R. Kelly would be proud of the album’s only ballad, the title track “Pala”, which is smooth as glass matched with the sort of slow clap beat you can make some serious love to. The funky bass and synths of “True Love” feel ripped straight from the Talking Heads, which is a delight. And the Afrobeat bits of “Pull Me Back to Earth” have plenty of charm to go around as well. This sort of diversity is absolutely a sign of growth, and while each track is great individually, together the entire record can appear to be a little scatterbrained and unfocused. So long as you keep your eye on the prize of just generally enjoying your listening experience though, it’s a problem that ultimately feels minimal.
“Pala” is a party record through and through, one ideal for the warm months where you can loosen up and have some fun outside. It is, by all accounts, tropical and exotic too, an auditory vacation where you’re not bogged down with the stress of work and everyday life and can just enjoy relaxing by a beautiful body of water. You should treat it as such too, because the more you study it the more its flaws become apparent. Turn your brain off and put your dancing shoes on. It might not be as amazing as Cut Copy’s latest “Zonoscope”, but the two records have a lot in common with one another. There are also so many “big” songs on “Pala” that it’s practically begging to be embraced by hundreds of millions of people. Friendly Fires have been on the steady rise since 2007, and this is in many ways their opus that should launch them into the big time. The songs are crazy addictive and easy enough for even the most hostile crowd to embrace. Give them a few months to build up some more steam and they will take over the world. Hang onto your spotlights ladies and gentlemen, because Friendly Fires are about to steal them. There’s another quote for the next press release.
Can you feel summer just waiting for you right around the corner? Memorial Day (in America) is this upcoming weekend, and that’s the unofficial start to the summer season. Break out your short pants, your flip flops and your cabana wear, because things are about to get nice. Also make sure you’re privy to all of the wonderful summer beers that emerge in time for the season. A bit of summer ale or even a bit of summer shandy can do wonders for a person, provided you’re of age and consume alcohol. So many great choices in what to drink, as there are so many choices in today’s Pick Your Poison. I can point out a few key tracks for you today from notables like Alina Simone, Bosco Delrey, some old(ish) and also previously unreleased Black Moth Super Rainbow, Sea Things, Star Anna and Young Rebel Set. In the Soundcloud section you’ll find a new one from Abandoned Pools, which is better than I thought it would be.
Prior to seeing Death Cab for Cutie play the Metro on Friday night, I had seen them on four separate occasions. The first two times they were supporting 2003’s “Transatlanticism” and the following two times they were supporting their major label debut in 2005’s “Plans”. Ultimately it amounted to four times in about three years, though two of them were headlining music festivals where they were up against poorer options. It also helped that I was obsessed with the band and felt that Ben Gibbard was one of the biggest songwriting prodigies of the last decade. Seriously, his lyrics seem to speak to me. But somewhere in the 3 year gap between Death Cab records, which was also a time period where I graduated from college, the band went down in importance in my mind. That their last album, “Narrow Stairs” was a bleak and generally poor quality piece of music only pushed them further from my radar. It’s easy to suggest that my slowly developed dispassion for the band was a result of their ascent in popularity and major label status. More likely it was a combination of a couple things: my own tastes in music changing along with the fact that “Narrow Stairs” really was a pretty bad album. It’s been another 3 years since that time, and the band is finally ready to put out a new album at the end of the month, titled “Codes and Keys”. In the weeks prior to its release, the boys decided to do a little tour, with the word “little” being the most important descriptor. Considering they regularly headline festivals and play for tens of thousands of people (and announced an arena tour for this summer), Death Cab booked a whole bunch of club dates at venues with capacities of under 2,000. So it was with the hope of reigniting my passion for the band and catching an early listen to a few songs from the upcoming album, in addition to seeing them perform in such a small and classic location.
One of the things that has always disappointed me about the Death Cab for Cutie live show is how neatly scripted it all is. They start with “The New Year”, make sure to play all of the singles from the “Transatlanticism” record and after, and then close with the song “Transatlanticism”. What really counts is the selection of songs that come between all those predictable moments. Breaking Friday night’s 25 song setlist down by album, the clear winner of the night was “Codes and Keys”, as the band played at least 6 (if not 7) songs from it, or over half the record. That’s to be expected, but it did leave the crowd in a bit of a spot. Playing a lot of new and unheard material can be fun to hear, but you can’t sing along to it nor do you know how good or bad it might be. My very early opinion on the new songs is that they’re a definite improvement over much of “Narrow Stairs”. On the whole they’re a little brighter and catchier too, though they stay largely true to everything we’ve come to expect from Death Cab. Both Ben Gibbard and Chris Walla have been trying to talk up the new album by saying it’s a lot more experimental in nature, with fewer guitars and more electronic dabbling, but that only appears true to a minimal degree. Maybe the live recreation is a little different than the recorded one. Also, though their sound is typically top notch and one of the best not only in Chicago but in the country, from the back corner position I was stuck in with the sold out crowd, much of the set came across as muddy and extremely bass-heavy. The band also screwed up/aborted/restarted two of the new songs, likely due to not having played them live many times before. They’re sweetly forgiven for those sorts of mini blunders. Anyways, the point about the new stuff is that it gives me just a sliver of hope that maybe the band will do as well or better than their previous peak. Call it a long shot still, but once I’ve heard the “final” versions of these songs I’ll be able to better judge.
As to the older material, it was excellent to hear the “FOrbidden Love” EP’s “Photobooth” early on in the set. Had the band released that song today, it’d likely be a big hit for them. The wealth of Death Cab for Cutie’s catalogue was actually spread out pretty well across the set, with a few minor issues. It may have been their previous album, but “Narrow Stairs” did not deserve to have four songs in the set. Of course they also could have done a lot worse than “Grapevine Fires” and “Long Division” in addition to the two singles from that record. Their most popular record to date, “Transatlanticism”, earned equal footing with “Narrow Stairs” in claiming four spots in the set, with the traditional starting and closing songs plus their two popular singles smashed in between. The dream matchup there would have been to try a deeper cut from the record such as “We Looked Like Giants” or “Expo 86” rather than the same old, same old. As far as “Plans” was concerned, that was another “all business” transaction, pulling the only three singles from that record and nothing more. The farther back they went the better it got though, which is why “A Movie Script Ending” and “We Laugh Indoors” felt so fresh and exciting even if they’re more “go to” picks from “The Photo Album”. Surely they would have done “I Was A Kaleidoscope” or “Blacking Out the Friction” had they been able to squeeze it in. Instead, three songs from “We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes” emerged from hibernation, with “Company Calls” being the biggest shocker. “405” is a classic and always a delight to hear as well. Finally, mid-way through the set came the lone “Something About Airplanes” song, “Pictures in an Exhibition”. An even more compelling choice would have been “President of What?”, but it’s a miracle to even get a single song from that 1998 debut so let’s consider it a win.
If I’m being highly or too harshly critical of Death Cab for Cutie and their choice in songs from Friday night, it’s because I care about their well-being as a band. The hope for any band is that they’ll continually evolve the longer they’re around, both on record and on stage. You pray for a solid catalogue from which they can pull any number of songs, including b-sides and not bat an eye. Perhaps as a band they grow tired of performing the same songs night after night and either allow their set lists to vary wildly or take the tracks we’ve come to know and love and tear them to shreds in new and invigorating ways. For a band that is close to celebrating 15 years together, they look awfully bored and awfully mellow on stage. Sonically there’s very little fault in their performance. These are songs they’ve played so many times they could do it in their sleep. You watch as Gibbard hits every note with that syrupy sweet voice of his while he bounces back and forth from foot to foot. You see Chris Walla bent over some machines or a piano. Nick Harmer moves around a bit as he’s slapping out his bass lines, while Jason McGerr remains trapped behind a drum kit as usual. It’s a little better than an Interpol live show, where the guys pretty much glue their feet to the floor and play everything straight (but their lighting rigs move!), but not much better. I stopped going to Interpol shows after seeing them five times and realizing they weren’t getting any better both on and off the stage. Now with my fifth Death Cab for Cutie show, a lot of those same feelings are cropping up. Will I ever feel the need to see them live again? Maybe if they put out a truly great new record and I want to hear songs from it. With the completely unfamiliar new material from “Codes and Keys” that seemed to dominate the set, I need more time and listens) to properly digest those tracks to see if the album will be truly great. Once I reach that point, the next best thing these guys can do is switch it up. They may be obliged to play (some of) their singles, but it’d be nice if they’d try and make a concerted effort to avoid pleasing all of their fans all of the time. Those that have stood by them for 10 years or more deserve a little more love than they’re currently getting.
One final note on the crowd and their reaction/behavior. It was a frat-tastic evening with plenty of strong-armed alcoholics trying to show how indie they are by attending a Death Cab show. If many of them weren’t making a trip to the bar, they were high-fiving and chatting through many of the songs. Please note that not everyone was like this, as there were a good deal of respectful and smart concert-goers that wanted to hear every note because they paid for it. Still, cheering and applause appeared to be very thin through much of the set (where new stuff dominated), and only near the end where it was hit-after-hit complete with sing-alongs did people start to get truly excited. “Aw man, they’re hitting their stride now”, some idiot next to me said during “The Sound of Settling”. What made it funny was that they ended their main set immediately after he said that. Still, the general lack of excitement from the crowd either impacted the band negatively or impacted my impression of the show negatively. Either way, the subdued reaction did not help. You saw Death Cab for Cutie at the METRO. They will likely never play a place that small ever again. At the very least, that was something to cheer about.
Set List:
The New Year
Cath
Crooked Teeth
Photobooth
Some Boys*
Codes and Keys*
Company Calls
Long Division
Grapevine Fires
I Will Possess Your Heart
I Will Follow You Into the Dark
Title Track
You Are A Tourist*
Underneath the Sycamore*
Pictures in an Exhibition
405
Doors Unlocked and Open*
We Laugh Indoors
Soul Meets Body
The Sound of Settling \\**ENCORE**//
Home Is A Fire*
??? (New Song)*
Title and Registration
A Movie Script Ending
Transatlanticism
Happy Friday! I’ve got a million things to do, including getting my weekend started, so let’s get right to it. Highlights today include tracks from Candle, DMA, Here We Go Magic, Iretsu and Shoreline Is. Also be sure to check out the new Tom Vek and Army Navy tracks in the Soundcloud section.
There’s been plenty of talk concerning the state of The Clientele these last couple years, primarily about whether the band would continue to exist beyond 2010’s EP “Minotaur”. The main issue on frontman Alasdair MacLean’s part was apparently a lack of inspiration, the thought that perhaps the project in its current state had reached all the potential it could possibly muster. “Maybe if we were asked to score a film,” he said several months back. So while we wait for an official decision as to whether The Clientele will ever make new music again, MacLean has been busying himself with a new project, one that he’s been working on sporadically in the last few years. Amor de Dias is his collaboration with Lupe Núñez-Fernández of the Spanish band Pipas. You might think that taking one part British 60s folk and another part Spanish indie pop would create an interesting mixture of sounds and textures, and on paper the concept most definitely seems frought with potential. Instead though, “Street of the Love of Days”, the debut album from Amor de Dias, showcases just how much the two apparently diverse projects its members came from have in common.
Acoustic folk seems to be the common thread between The Clientele and Pipas, and though it wasn’t exclusive to either band, it’s what comprises many of the songs on “Street of the Love of Days”. Of course there’s more to it than just that, including a few infusions of stylistic traits such as flamenco and bossa nova. Additionally, there are numerous guests that provide additional instrumental work on the record, ranging from Damon & Naomi to Gary Olson of Ladybug Transistor. The styles and additional instruments help to keep things varied just enough to maintain interest, which would otherwise be a huge problem considering how sleepy the entire record is. There’s not much that rises above lullabye status, and Núñez-Fernández’s whisper soft vocals trading off against MacLean’s smooth-as-silk calm voice fails to ignite anything. The thing is, exciting and lively compositions are probably the antithesis of what they were aiming for – not that they wanted to put people to sleep either. Subdued beauty is probably the best descriptor of “Street of the Love of Days”, and the album goes a long way towards avoiding anything that doesn’t fit that mold. As a singular work with such intentions, it succeeds brilliantly. Yet it’s also somewhat flawed.
As the record progresses, or simply to say virtually the entire final third of the album’s 15 tracks, there’s something of a breakdown that occurs. Most of those last few songs are under 2 minutes in length, and you get the impression they could all use an extension. It’s like they had more ideas or more to say, and instead of completing the thought/song the choice was made to just end it early. Nothing ever feels outright cut off, but when most of the songs on the first two-thirds of the album average between 3 and 4 minutes in length, all these quick cuts seem just a little suspect. The other issue with Amor de Dias in general is that the two parts that make up the whole, Núñez-Fernández and MacLean, have both made better music in their main bands. Something that’s been brewing over the course of three years deserves a little better than what we’re given on “Street of the Love of Days”, even if the album has a lot going for it. The creative energy, the variations in influences, and even in some cases the emotion in the vocals, are the bits and pieces that made The Clientele and (to a lesser extent) Pipas bands worth spending time with.
Though Amor de Dias may not quite live up to the promise it shows on paper, “Street of the Love of Days” is still an album worth both your time and money. With summer fast approaching, it’s not exactly coming out during the right season, but should you wait a few months for the leaves to start turning colors, you may find it to be the perfect soundtrack. After all, a re-done version of the Clientele track “Harvest Time” isn’t on here only because it’s a great song. There are lovely and great songs peppered across the record, more standouts in a field of beauty. “House of Flint” is one of the first and most interesting tracks, with MacLean operating at his most dynamic. A Núñez-Fernández highlight comes in the form of mid-album cut “Dream (Dead Hands)”, while MacLean strikes back again immediately afterwards on “I See Your Face”. And just before the final third of the record begins, the title track brings an extra dose of sweetness that carries through those shorter and shakier moments that follow. So as we wait to see what will become of The Clientele, Amor de Dias serves as a nice distraction. It doesn’t quite deserve to be considered a main project, but if this little band chooses to put out more records, there’s definitely still untapped potential that can and deserves to be explored.
Catch Amor de Dias on tour with Damon & Naomi: May 20 Baltimore, MD – Metro Gallery
May 21 Philadelphia, PA – First Unitarian Church Chapel
May 22 Brooklyn, NY – Knitting Factory
May 23 Allston, MA – Great Scott
May 25 Toronto, ON – Horseshoe
May 26 Pontiac, MI – Pike Room at Crofoot
May 27 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
May 28 Minneapolis, MN – Triple Rock
May 31 Seattle, WA – Tractor Tavern
Jun 01 Portland, OR – Bunk Bar
Jun 03 San Francisco, CA – Bottom of the Hill
Jun 04 Los Angeles, CA – The Satellite
Jun 05 San Diego, CA – Soda Bar
We’ve already hit Thursday? This week just seems to be flying by. I’d say time flies when you’re having fun, but there’s not a ton of fun I can rave about. Then again, with a Paul Simon show and a bunch of TV season finales, there has been a higher than normal entertainment value for me in the last few days. Anyways, Pick Your Poison is equally enjoyable, going through a burst of extra mp3s for you just in time for sweeps. I can give a hearty thumbs up to tracks from the following artists: Chad VanGaalen, Falcon, Gomez, I’m From Barcelona, Miracle Fortress, Planningtorock and Wise Blood.
Oh hey Wednesday. Didn’t see you there. You crept up awfully fast this week. All the sooner to get to Friday. Let’s get straight to business. Pick Your Poison today has plenty of the usual highlights. Allow me to point you in the direction of tracks from The Chapin Sisters, Digits, Glorie, GUARDS, People Like Us and Wakey! Wakey!
I love going to shows, I just don’t get the opportunity to go enough. My schedule is just a little bit crazy and if I can’t find the time or the weather is horrible then I just don’t go. Mid-weeks are toughest, but early in the week and weekends are great when I’m able to get out. I make mention of it because I’m not seeing just one, but TWO shows this week and outside of a music festival that’s halfway unheard of for me. Both are great, too. Last night I caught Paul Simon at The Vic and on Friday I’ll be going to Death Cab for Cutie at the Metro. Both artists normally play much larger venues, so there’s a nice intimacy aspect about it as well. Should be lots of fun. If you’ve already caught (or will be catching) either of the shows just mentioned, give me a holler in the comments. We’ll compare notes. Pick Your Poison today has some nice stuff as usual. I can give a hearty plus mark to the following artists: Beirut, Echo Lake, Handsome Furs, The Morning Birds, Washed Out and Woodsman. Also worth listening to is The Album Leaf’s remix of Scattered Trees.
Much like Bob Dylan, Neil Young and even Jimmy Buffett, Paul Simon is one of those musicians worthy of the label “national treasure”. The guy has been making music for nearly 50 years now, first with his good friend Art Garfunkel and then on his own for much longer. There are so many legendary songs that you would most definitely recognize even if you didn’t consider yourself a Paul Simon fan, and he’s even largely credited with starting the musical movement known as Afropop. A band like Vampire Weekend wouldn’t exist today, or at the very least would sound completely different, if Simon and Afropop did not find one another. It’s also fascinating that he’s continued to endure all this time, because while the songs he writes and puts together are typically strong, his own vocals aren’t exactly a selling point. That’s not to call him a terrible singer, it’s more that you’d think Garfunkel would have been the one to hit it big in their duo. What’s written is written though, and we’ve gotten so many great and just delightful songs from Simon over the years. But as with any musician who’s been playing for most of their lives, the last decade or two has seen a significant slow down in progress. It’s been 5 years since his last album “Surprise” came out, and that was after a 6 year gap following “You’re the One”. But if you’ve been paying a reasonable amount of attention to the music scene in the last several weeks, or you just watched the last episode of “Saturday Night Live”, you’d know Simon put out his latest album “So Beautiful or So What” last month. It earned the sort of moderate applause you give to a national treasure, where respect comes first before an truly honest assessment of the music. Really though, it’s not a bad album by any means. In support of said new record, Simon and his 8-man wild cultural mix of a band set out on tour, which includes two stops in Chicago – one at the historic Chicago Theatre, and the other at the remarkably tiny and somewhat intimate Vic Theatre. To see him perform in a stadium or at a music festival is a treat unto itself, but at a 1,000 capacity venue is something truly special.
Setting the scene, after a weekend filled with rain and temperatures that were close to 30 degrees below normal, the sun came out to play but was on the verge of retiring on Monday evening as crowds gathered in front of The Vic in preparation for the sold out Paul Simon show. Shortly after the 8pm listed start time, the house lights went down, the spotlights went up, and the band emerged to thundrous cheering. Starting strong and with something recognizable is always a plus, and Simon did not disappoint with the positively lovely “The Boy in the Bubble” off the “Graceland” record. Light and airy and with an accordion-fueled energy, the dancing began right away for much of the audience. The one big thing you learn from listening to Paul Simon’s catalogue is that despite being credited for Afropop, that’s by no means the only style of music he plays. He, along with his band, are citizens of the world, and the live show is very reflective of that. What really binds us all together no matter where you’re from is rhythm, and so you can bounce from the African beats of “Dazzling Blue” off his latest record into a more funky folk of “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” before running into reggae in a wild combination platter of Jimmy Cliff’s “Vietnam” and Simon’s own “Mother and Child Reunion”. From there it was a trip to Creole country courtesy of “That Was Your Mother”. Outside of a couple early set highlights, the biggest chunks of pure greatness in the set came closer to the end. “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” began completely a capella, as it does on the original “Graceland” version, but the end of the song, which featured a drummer face-off between Jamey Haddad and Jim Oblon, was where things really ran into the highly exceptional category.
At the start of the first encore, Paul Simon returned to the stage by himself, a spotlight the only thing illuminating the stage. He picked up his acoustic guitar and belted out a soulful, mournful version of the Simon & Garfunkel classic “The Sound of Silence”. Knowingly, 99% of the crowd became so quiet you could hear a pin drop. The two people that “Woo-ed” early in the song were quickly shut up. It became the most intimate moment of the entire evening, just a man and his guitar. I’d like to think that everybody paying strict attention during those few minutes felt a connection, as if the song was being performed for you and only you. Surely the smaller venue helped in that regard, as watching a tiny man from a balcony probably doesn’t have the same effect. But that was the real goosebump moment of the show, and honestly, I wasn’t the least bit bothered that nobody stepped in to try and recreate Garfunkel’s vocal harmonies on the song. After not hearing a whole lot of singing along for much of the set, it was a little surprising to me that “Kodachrome” was when people started to pipe up. It was kind of a party from that point onwards though, with some nice excitement when Simon whipped out a rendition of The Beatles classic “Here Comes the Sun” leading into one of his best and most popular tracks, “Late in the Evening”. The crowd had clearly not had enough after nearly two hours and a 5 song encore, so after exiting again, the band returned one last time for “Crazy Love, Vol. II”. There was more singing and more dancing and smiles abound. Prior to walking off the stage for the final time that night, Simon took a moment to give appropriate kudos to his band and introduce them one by one. Not enough performers do that these days, and the way they all embraced one another made it very clear they’re all like family to one another. A 9 man, multicultural family. For two hours on a Monday night, they let us sit in on one of their family gatherings. One can only hope they do something like that again real soon.
Click on “Read More” below to stream the entire new album “So Beautiful or So What”
Set List
The Boy in the Bubble
Dazzling Blue
50 Ways to Leave Your Lover
So Beautiful or So What
Vietnam (Jimmy Cliff cover)
Mother and Child Reunion
That Was Your Mother
Hearts and Bones
Mystery Train/Wheels (Junior Parker cover)
Slip Slidin’ Away
Rewrite
Peace Like A River
The Obvious Child
The Only Living Boy in New York (Simon & Garfunkel song)
The Cool, Cool River
Getting Ready for Christmas Day
Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes
Gumboots \\**ENCORE**//
The Sound of Silence (performed solo; Simon & Garfunkel song)
Kodachrome
Gone at Last
Here Comes the Sun (Beatles cover)
Late in tne Evening \\**ENCORE 2**//
Crazy Love, Vol. II
This past weekend in Chicago was a terrible one weather-wise. Rainy and cold virtually the entire time, made that much worse knowing just a few days earlier it was 90 degrees and sunny. The taste of summer was far too fleeting, and now instead we were handed a dose of late fall. But with a new week starts a new weather cycle, one that sees much more sunshine and temperatures steadily rising towards the normal high of 70 degrees this time of year. Damn, I’ve got to stop writing about the weather. Besides, there are people dealing with far worse right now. Let’s make everything feel just a little bit better with today’s Pick Your Poison. Recommendations today? How about tracks from Brad Laner, Darwin Deez, The Great Book of John, Minden, Nik Freitas and Tape Deck Mountain. You’ll certainly want to download Cut Copy’s remix of The Miracles Club, along with Andreas Lust’s (of Frightened Rabbit) reworking of OSLO, while Jim Jones with special guests Lloyd and Girl Talk is great too. There’s also a couple interesting covers in the Soundcloud section that are both worth checking out.
If Wild Beasts have yet to reach your radar, now’s as good of a time as any to start looking into them. Their second album, 2009’s “Two Dancers”, marked a significant shift in their sound from the completely abstract and weird-for-the-sake-of-weird towards something more pop-friendly musically and hypersexual lyrically. Beyond that, the more challenging theatric and falsetto vocal style of Hayden Thorpe was its own issue, turning off a lot of people that might have otherwise fallen in love with the band. So with that course correction also came a smoothing out of the vocals, along with bassist Tom Fleming bringing his own deeper voice to a handful of tracks that created a better balance. To their added benefit, the Wild Beasts live show became a huge point of attraction, building with even more intensity and beauty than what was heard on record. On their new one “Smother”, they not only continue on the same track, but they’re leaner, meaner and more focused than ever before. And for the fans of the band’s previous efforts, they remain truly original and rock solid in their ambitions, refusing to dull over the edges that made them so sharp in the first place.
“I take you in my mouth like a lion takes his game”, is one of the lines in the first verse of opening track “Lion’s Share”, and it’s a stark indication of exactly where the band’s mindset is right from the start. Yes, the band is highly sexual when it comes to most of their lyrics, but they’re also very classy and moderately obscure about it. In that sense, it is the hinting at sexual situations allows for more florid language that impresses as much as it titillates. It’s also remarkably poetic, though never to the point where while blindly studying Shakespeare you come to find out the totality of words are just metaphors for getting it on. Yet you do come away from “Smother” with the understanding that it was a record made by very smart, art-inspired guys. The song “Bed of Nails” entangles the stories of “Hamlet” and “Frankenstein” within its web, dropping references to the character of Ophelia and the big green out-of-control monster. “When our bodies become electrified/together we bring this creature alive/it’s alive/it’s alive/it’s aliiiiiive”, are lyrics that are as charged with passion as they are pop culture. Similarly, “Reach A Bit Further” was largely inspired by Hemingway’s “Death in the Afternoon”, though that book on bullfighting is, like virtually everything else on the record, infused with meditations on relationships of love and lust. Who says that sex and art can’t co-exist in brilliant fashion? Certainly not Wild Beasts.
Outside of the lyrics being their own separate story, the overall composition of the tracks on “Smother” is amazing unto itself. This is a much slower and sparser record than “Two Dancers”, which as its title suggested, had a decent enough rhythm to get a body (or two together) moving. Still, the way that rhythm and percussion are very liberally used in these songs, with a wide variety of instruments to tap on, is one of the record’s strongest suits. On a record so instrumentally stripped, it makes small contributions like the bongo hits on “Deeper” and “Plaything” interacting with the more traditional drum kit and even some electronic beats that much more impactful. The drama and sweeping beauty that the piano and subdued guitar provide when matched to Thorpe or Fleming’s vocals also makes for some of the most special moments on the record, as with single “Albatross” or the epic finale of “End Come Too Soon”. With things so pared down, there are portions of the album that bear an interesting resemblance to The xx, though Wild Beasts don’t explore silence quite like they do. There’s a little bit of irony in that too, considering that “Two Dancers” lost last year’s Mercury Prize to The xx’s debut record.
The progression of Wild Beasts has been impressive over the course of their three records. With each successive one they’ve shown a distinct ability to do more with less while keeping some of their most obvious eccentric flaws in check. Yet they remain elusive and of a singular vision, both of which seem to be serving them well in spite of the apparent pressure to become more marketable or generally pop-driven. There’s little on “Smother” that feels like it could work in the context of a legitimate, radio-friendly single, save for what they’ve already chosen in “Albatross”, but what the record lacks in easily digestible melodies, it more than makes up for with austere beauty and equally poetic lyrics. There is a sense that in the next album or two they might just come around enough to where they’ll officially catch fire and ride a wave of hype to the standard of success we’ve seen from bands like TV on the Radio or The National. Seeing as how they’re pretty much on the brink already, “Smother” is your ticket to get in on the ground floor.
Friday the 13th! Look out for black cats, everybody. Today’s a dangerous day to be out and about, particularly if you’re superstitious or believe in karma. To me, it’s just another Friday, but I think we all look a little more carefully over our shoulders every time somebody mentions Friday the 13th. Here’s some luck though: a great, extended Pick Your Poison post. Lots of great songs to give your weekend that extra boost it might need. I can give a thumbs up to tracks from Brute Heart, Helios, The Hussy, The Sanctuaries, and White Hills. Also be sure to check out the Johan Agebjörn track featuring Sally Shapiro, along with Jared Mees and The Grown Children’s Beatles cover. Oh, and I can’t forget new songs from Urge Overkill and Yuck in the Soundcloud section. Always worth a look.
