In today’s music news bit, it would appear that Lou Reed now has his own pair of designer headphones. He’s partnered with Klipsch to create his own unique pair of earbud headphones that retail at $400. You read that right, earbud headphones for $400. They go on sale next month, and are signed by Reed himself. The first 50 people to buy them also get Reed’s signature on an album, though there’s no word on exactly what album that will be. Let’s all pray it’s not “Lulu”, right? My hope was that they’d be noise cancelling headphones you’d be able to wear while “Lulu” was playing nearby to keep your ears from bleeding. Okay, let’s move on to today’s Pick Your Poison. If you’re so inclined, some of today’s highlights include tracks from Ace Reporter, Boris, Electric Flower, Escort, The Lost Lovers Brigade and The Spinto Band. Also interesting is the collaboration between Kieran Hebden (aka Four Tet) and legendary jazz drummer Steve Reid, joined by Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson. It’s definitely not what you’d expect.
New album release Tuesday. As we venture deeper into November, it’s becoming more of a holiday albums and greatest hits time of year. There’s still plenty good out there though. This week sees new releases from Annie Williams, Carter Tanton, Caveman, Childish Gambino (aka Donald Glover of “Community” fame), The Do, Drake, Ed Hale, Goldmund, Korallreven, Los Campesinos!, Odonis Odonis, R.E.M. (greatest hits), and live records from Sigur Ros and Tegan and Sara. There’s a couple EPs from Crystal Stilts and Races out this week as well, along with Can’s 40th Anniversary reissue of their amazing “Tago Mago”. So you’ve got those to look at possibly purchasing. In today’s Pick Your Poison, be sure to consider downloading tracks from Apparat, Gary Go, Ice Choir, Rams’ Pocket Radio, Sick Figures and Zambri. Yes, you saw right, there’s an mp3 from Chris Carrabba aka Dashboard Confessional below. He’s covering R.E.M. and it’s not horrible. Also doing a cover, Cuff the Duke’s cover of Dum Dum Girls’ “Always Looking” is pretty solid as well. In the Soundcloud section, be sure to stream a song from Lo-Fi-Fnk if you’re so inclined.
Most bands that survive for at least a few records almost always have one of those “game changing” albums during which they make a radical adjustment to their sound. The thinking is that the shift in direction will keep the band themselves from getting bored while challenging current fans and courting new ones. Musical trends change too, and sometimes a band doesn’t want to sound like they’re “behind the times” or are desperate to sound like whatever’s hot at the time. These shifts are all the more noticeable the higher profile the band is, which is why U2’s transformation in the 80s was so noteworthy, and why Radiohead’s move towards all-out electronica on “The King of Limbs” resulted in a lot of backlash (see also: the knife twist between “OK Computer” and “Kid A”). But sometimes a band changes their sound in the most organic way possible: slowly developing it record by record. Such truths are most evident provided you’ve been keeping up with a band from song 1, and the younger the band members are at the time, the better. Such is the case with Los Campesinos!. The Welsh collective first came to everyone’s attention via 2007’s “Sticking Fingers Into Sockets” EP, then a bunch of fresh-faced college dropouts with pop culture obsessions and heart-on-the-sleeve lyrics. Their sound was undeniable winsome indie pop, complete with glockenspiels galore, shout-along lyrics and choruses that were catchy as all get-out. The exclamation point at the end of their name said it all, along with song titles such as “You! Me! Dancing!” and “We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives”. Such fun and addictive simplicities were maintained on the band’s 2008 full length debut “Hold On Now, Youngster”, but very shortly thereafter things began to change.
Several months after the release of their first full length, Los Campesinos! released the 10-track “We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed”, a limited edition “mini album” containing all new songs that was recorded a couple months prior during a brief break from touring. The title alone said volumes about it, but track titles like “Miserabilia” and “Documented Minor Emotional Breakdown #1” also helped to spell it out for you. The quick tempos, shouty choruses and glockenspiels all began to take a back seat to heavier guitar work and singer Gareth Campesinos’s hyper-literate lyrics. Their sly, winking humor was largely replaced by astute commentaries on the pitfalls of relationships be they romantic, friendly or familial. Think of these transitional stages like a child growing into an adult, with those first couple pieces of music containing an almost child-like innocence, the “mini album” getting darker and dirtier as puberty set in, and then their last full length, 2010’s “Romance Is Boring” parlaying that growth into young adulthood. What are some of your main goals between the ages of 18-25? Drinking and fucking tend to be the two most easily associated with the era, and that last album had both, though much more of the latter. It should come as no surprise then that the band decided to title its fourth (or third, depending on what qualifies) long player “Hello Sadness”. You get one quick guess as to what the general mood of the record is.
For those playing the home game, if you said the mood of “Hello Sadness” was sadness, you would be correct. You win the award for Most Obvious Correct Answer. And while the lyrics do paint an overwhelming portrait of sad-sackery, the good news is the music doesn’t fully embrace that same sentiment. Listening to a bunch of heartbroken or suicidal songs in which the tempo goes overly heavy will likely put you in the same sort of mood the album evokes, and not a lot of people want to listen to albums that bring them down both verbally and sonically. That’s one of the biggest hurdles “Romance Is Boring” faced, and though the band handled the darker stuff extraordinarily well, that record dragged much more than it soared. The cute keyboard-spattered “By Your Hand” opens “Hello Sadness” and it it immediately pushes back against the downer vibe on the last record with one of the band’s catchiest melodies to date. The lyrics may be all about hoping a girl will kill you rather than break your heart, but the instruments bounce along with such zeal it almost makes the experience seem pleasant. The full band sing-along of the chorus is classic Los Campesinos! by now, and while it’s not the sugar rush of a past opener like “Death to Los Campesinos!”, it maintains a bright appeal in spite of its morbidity. Even the title track, with the sentiment of, “goodbye courage/hello sadness” chugs along like a modern adaptation of 80s dark-tinged pop classics, the bass line akin to some New Order gems and Gareth’s vocals take on an almost Robert Smith-esque quality paired next to his Dickensian imagery.
Speaking of Gareth’s vocals, he’s matured them along with the band, pulling away from some of his trademark yelps and not trying to stretch his range beyond what he’s capable of. The result is better control and power, a wise choice given he’s not sharing lead singing duties as much since Aleks left the band (this is their first record without her). While Gareth has always been a fine singer given the outpouring of dramatic shit he spouts off from song to song, this is the first Los Campesinos! record where all his vocals emote in exactly the way they need to. He spits fire on “Hate for the Island”, adopts a snotty punk attitude on “Songs About Your Girlfriend” and is frought with worry on “Baby I Got the Death Rattle”. Given that this record was written and recorded reportedly after Gareth suffered a pretty big break-up, these songs are probably that much more personal to him and you can largely hear it in his voice. It’s a shame then that his lyrics aren’t quite what they used to be. For a band that once even titled a song “We Are All Accelerated Readers” and then pretty much proved it with hyper-literate witticisms that commented on eveything from Rousseau to “Jane Eyre”, there’s a certain sense that things are a bit blander and less clever on “Hello Sadness”. The cleverness factor may be down a bit, but the smart wordplay largely remains intact. It’s difficult to criticize lines such as, “Your body above me, sobbing down/My cheeks wet from your tears/They extinguish each of the burning thread veins/Flow down to my ears/Now they rest in two tiny reservoirs/That overfed the wedded canals” when the images they conjure up are impressively powerful. Even the most depressing lines about death are made that much more engaging to listen to because of the way they’re phrased. “My memories are sepia/But the photograph is not/An historian is fucking with them/As deadly as garrotte”, he sings on “Every Defeat A Divorce (Three Lions)”. You might need a dictionary to truly understand what he’s getting at, but that’s also part of what makes the lyrics so damn good. Some might argue the use of such challenging vocabulary is really Gareth’s way of bragging about how smart he is, but by that same token none of the classical authors felt the need to “dumb down” their words. That’s not to say Gareth is on par with classic literature, but most assuredly nobody else is penning songs quite like him these days.
Perhaps the reason that Los Campesinos! toned down their sillier bits is because like any full grown adult the days of goofing around are largely over. Then again you’re only as young as you feel, and we all probably know a few people over the age of 40 that could use a bit of maturity. It’s not like the band is all of a sudden filled with middle-aged adults either. They’ve yet to reach their late 20s but come across like they’re twice that age. Have they grown up too much, too fast? Their albums have all logically progressed from one into the next, but would they have been wrong to have stayed lighter and poppier for another record or two? Probably not, and given that “Hello Sadness” is a relatively serious adult album, where can they go from here? That will probably be most dependent on whatever headspace Gareth is in at the time. At least on this latest effort they’ve found their pop edge again. There really hasn’t been much to call single-worthy on the band’s last two efforts (even as there have been singles), which is why “By Your Hand” and the title track seem a little like a sonic regression to their earlier days. The overall balance of the record is a little off too, with the front half bringing far more energy and hooks while the back half is a more subdued and depressing affair. The key transitional moment and true crux of the album comes via “Every Defeat A Divorce (Three Lions)”, a five minute electric guitar-heavy excursion that is both harsh and gorgeous, lively and stagnant. It stands as a great testament to just how far Los Campesinos! have come in four short years, and is also a gentle reminder that as much as it crushes our spirits, sometimes sadness is worth welcoming into our lives.
Yargh. On Friday, I mentioned I was sick. I had just come down with a nasty cold. Guess what? A weekend’s worth of rest and vitamins and whatnot did not immediately cure my cold. Big surprise. It’s probably going to take a few more days. If I wind up babbling incoherently on this site about whatever topics, I apologize. That would be the cold medicine talking. Let’s get straight to today’s Pick Your Poison then. I’ll affix gold stars to tracks from Bridge Underwater, Dead Confederate, Futurebirds, Luke Roberts, A Place to Bury Strangers and The Valery Trails. In the Soundcloud section you might enjoy streaming tracks from Ellie Lawson, Kramies and Neon Hitch.
Ugh. I’m sick. If there’s one thing I hate with extreme prejudice, it’s getting sick. Some of my friends and family have labeled me a hypochondriac simply because I refuse to drink from the same glass/bottle/can as somebody else or share a utensil such as a fork or spoon. Occasionally I’ll open a door handle with my wrist as well, or avoid shaking someone’s hand by going for the fist bump. Pardon me for being careful. I’m not washing my hands more than a few times a day (99% of the time it’s only when I use the restroom or before a meal), and if that seems excessive, well then maybe I am scared of germs. Even a minor cold knocks me out of commission for at least a few days so I can recover. I’m not calling in sick to work or anything, but I’ll avoid going out to socialize and will sit around on the couch drinking hot tea and napping as a means of nursing back to health. The point being, this is the worst time for me to get sick. I’ve got about 10 crazy fun events planned for the next week, and if I’m sick I’ll either cancel going or will force myself to go and have a miserable time as a result. Not fun. So I’m going to keep my fingers crossed that this is a momentary illness, that my sniffles and sore throat will magically vanish with a couple days of vitamins and some good old R&R. We’ll know better on Monday. Until then, here’s a Pick Your Poison that’s sure to help what ails you. Tracks I’ll recommend today come from The Antlers (covering The xx), Elliott Brood, Paul Brill, Sunbears!, Walter Rose and Young Dreams. In the Soundcloud section there are a few interesting artifacts. You can stream tracks from Betty Wright and The Roots (with Lil Wayne), Dad Rocks! (with Charles Spearin of Broken Sosical Scene), and remixes of songs from Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. and Lady Gaga (done by Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs).
And so the trend continues. Between his main band Deerhunter and his solo side project under the moniker Atlas Sound, Bradford Cox has released at least one album per year since 2007. That’s not even counting various EPs or the 4 collections of Atlas Sound bedroom demos he released for free last year. The guy’s brain must be a songwriting factory, churning out lyrics and new ideas for songs every few hours. He also appears to know quite well what works and what doesn’t, as evidenced by how increasingly impeccable both projects have gotten over time. Each Deerhunter and Atlas Sound record has been an improvement on the one before it, even though neither project has been around quite long enough to earn “veteran” status. Not only has Cox become a better songwriter through it all, but sonically the arrangements have gotten more complex while largely playing with minimalism and ambient noises. In other words, he proves there’s a way to do more with less. That’s the case more than ever with Atlas Sound’s third record “Parallax”, a lonely and adrift record that carefully treads the line between psychedelia and somber pop.
The cover of “Parallax” tells you so much about what the record itself is like, both sonically as well as emotionally. Cox’s face is halfway hidden in shadow as his hand gently caresses a vintage microphone nearby. First and foremost, this is the first time Cox has appeared unobscured on an album cover. The last Atlas Sound record “Logos” featured a shirtless Cox with a blinding white light in place of his head on the cover. That he’s in clear focus here says volumes, even if it that wasn’t the point. See, the earliest days of both Deerhunter and Atlas Sound featured a far more timid and introverted Cox. Guitars and vocal effects often buried Cox’s singing which was pretty restrained in the first place. Listen to Deerhunter’s “Cryptograms” from 2007 and then last year’s “Halcyon Digest” and you’ll notice a world of difference in the vocals. As Cox’s confidence in his voice has grown, so has his presence in the mix. He’s clearer than ever on “Parallax”, keeping the vocal effects to a minimum and putting more of a range on display. Placing your face on your album cover also is a strong display of confidence, as more than ever people know the exact person responsible for the music they’re hearing. He’s no longer a frail body with a glowing head. It also indicates that perhaps this is the most personal of all the records he’s done, the one he feels best represents his own headspace or personality.
In recent interviews, Cox has admitted that lasting happiness continues to elude him, and that dark cloud that constantly hangs over him partly manifests itself in the shadowy cover, but also in the music itself. Quiet acoustic numbers like “Modern Aquatic Nightsongs” and “Terra Incognita” drift along with a certain listlessness, but it’s songs like “Doldrums” and “Flagstaff” that truly revel in ambient and downtrodden textures. It may not be the happiest stuff in the world, but it is exceptionally beautiful and maintains a consistency that “Logos” never fully achieved. Balancing that darkness out are a few brighter moments, such as opening track “The Shakes”, which is a gorgeous pop song about the ugly topic of being bored with fame and fortune. Album centerpiece “Mona Lisa” is a work of super catchy art and in many ways an opposing emotional force to that of “The Shakes”. It is in many ways the best moment on the entire album, certainly the one that will stick with you in the end, but lyrically speaking it leaves something to be desired. While most of the other songs are remarkably descriptive and specific in nature, “Mona Lisa” skates by on vagaries and gets away with it, largely thanks to how exceptional everything else about it is. Other louder and in many ways brighter moments on the record come via “Angel Is Broken” and the closing “Lightworks”, both of which feel like sonic slaps in the face following much quieter cuts. Those jarring transitions would typically take away from an otherwise coherent mood or feeling established by most records, but in this particular case the elements are similar enough that the impact is softened even as the energy and noise might suggest otherwise.
If we’re keeping Bradford Cox’s two bands separate from one another in the idea that they each hold their own distinct identities and sonic palettes, it’s relatively easy to say “Parallax” is the best Atlas Sound record so far. It is also in many ways the best thing that Cox has ever released on the whole, at least from a songwriting and vocal standpoint. His ever-increasing confidence as an artist has only led to growth in every aspect of his music-making, though viewing things from a wide perspective might yield fewer noticeable changes. The moves he’s made have largely been subtle and small ones, but progress is still being made the way it needs to for any artist. Compared to his last Atlas Sound record “Logos”, “Parallax” is not only a more solid listen from front to back, but Cox is also far less reliant on guests than he used to be. Panda Bear brought a lot of his style to the song “Walkabout” on the last album, and Stereolab’s Laetitia Sadier collaboration with Cox on “Quick Canal” yielded Stereolab-like results. The only noteworthy guest on “Parallax” is MGMT’s Andrew VanWyngarden, and he just played piano on “Mona Lisa”. It doesn’t REALLY sound like a MGMT song, in spite of its psych-pop greatness. To put it another way, this is the first Atlas Sound album that genuinely feels like an Atlas Sound album. Now we’re left wondering – if he can pull off something this great on his own, what can we expect from the next Deerhunter record, especially if you think “Halcyon Digest” was one of the best records of 2010? If the pattern of Cox unleashing at least one new record a year continues, we’ll probably find out in 2012.
There’s a certain sector of the North American population, namely those of us that don’t live on the East Coast, West Coast or select portions of Canada that have been missing out on the brilliance and wonderment that is Jeff Mangum. Since going into seclusion several years ago, apperances and performances by Mangum have been extremely few and extremely far between. For whatever reason, in the last few months Mangum has suddenly re-emerged from hiding and has started to play shows again. He’s confined himself to only about a dozen shows up until now, but it’s more activity than he’s had going on in quite awhile. There’s also a Neutral Milk Hotel vinyl-only box set that will be released in the relatively near future, and Mangum has started to give away outtakes and unreleased tracks via the Neutral Milk Hotel website. He hasn’t given a reason for his comeback, but nobody wants to ask why. We’re all just glad he’s back, and hope you feel the same way. That said, Mangum has just announced a winter tour across much of the U.S., making stops in a number of cities he hasn’t been back to in quite some time. He’ll be coming to Chicago for 2 dates in February, and I couldn’t be more excited about that. Check the official website for the full tour schedule. Now I’ve just got to hope I can get tickets. You don’t need any special pass to gain access to Pick Your Poison. It’s free and always will be. Highlights today include tracks from Lindstrom, Mandolin Orange, Nicolas Jaar, Orchestra of Spheres, Sandman Viper COmmand and Clams Casino’s remix of Washed Out. In the Soundcloud section you can stream some good stuff from Girls and Odd Future project The Internet.
Happy Hump Day. I don’t have a whole lot of time to write much, so I’ll say this: it snowed in Chicago today. First time in a long time. I’m not ready for winter to show up yet, are you? Ah well, at least it’s melting right away. Nothing worse than having accumulation. We’ll have to wait for next month to get some of that (hopefully it can wait until December). Okay, today’s Pick Your Poison is a great one. I can recommend tracks from A Classic Education, Buffalo Killers, Grimes, Julian Wass, Narrow Sparrow, Total Slacker and Western States Motel. There’s a new Tennis song in the Soundcloud section, as well as a Diplo collaboration.
Nobody is telling Cass McCombs that he should pursue a career in stand-up comedy. One listen to anything off his last couple records will tell you that the guy sounds clinically depressed. He could use a little lightening up. The irony is that some of our best comedians are severely depressed individuals. They use humor as a coping and defense mechanism, an escape from their otherwise dark lives, be it an abusive parent or navigating schoolyard politics. If somebody makes you laugh you’re less inclined to want to attack them verbally or physically. There’s also a sense of escapism in comedy, because the time spent performing makes you feel validated and appreciated. Watch the very darkly funny TV show “Louie” and you’ll get a great idea of how there’s depth and morbidity behind so much of what we laugh at. Cass McCombs is by no means music’s answer to Louis C.K., but some of his songs are intended to have undercurrents of comedy to them in spite of their pitch black outlook. Even by titling his album “WIT’S END” earlier this year the intention was not to evoke frustration, as it fits into the common phrase “I’m at my wit’s end”. He meant it more in a literal sense, as in the end of wit. Naturally, there was nothing funny about it (or so it would seem). A mere few months later however, McCombs is arguably in a different mood. As a companion piece to that, he’s now putting out his second long player of 2011, this one titled “Humor Risk”. It’s by no means a barrel of laughs, but if you can comprehend a whole lot of subtle witticisms, there are a fair number of moments on this album that will make you smile.
“Love Thine Enemy” is “Humor Risk”‘s opening track, and it examines the titular Biblical sentiment from a realist’s standpoint. “Love thine enemy but hate the lack of sincerity,” McCombs intones. Hopefully you’re able to grasp the funny part of that line, showing off how we may do what we’re told in spite of a strong distaste for it. Elsewhere McCombs has a little fun as part of a rather dark tale involving a drug smuggling operation run through the postal service on “Mystery Mail”. After seeing police descend on his house as he was returning home, the main character goes on the run only to have “the smirk is wiped from my smile/I was arrested for hopping a turnstile”. Upon being sent to prison, he contacts his cross-country drug smuggling partner Daniel, who has also been caught. “Daniel was indeed in the lion’s den/not the only lion killer in a California state pen,” McCombs amusingly intones, very much comparing his fate to that of the Biblical saint. He brings that reference back around again minutes later after his friend is killed in prison, singing, “Daniel was a good guy but a saint he ain’t”. Perhaps the most weirdly amusing track on the record though is “Meet Me at the Mannequin Gallery”, in which the main character seeks to get a mannequin made in his image, and is told a philosophical story by the gallery secretary intoning that not everybody has the distinctive features required to make a good mannequin. It’s a very WTF topic to spend a song on, but it does make for a great demonstration of how not every song needs to be an all-out pity party.
One of the kindest things you could say about “WIT’S END” was how thematically sound it was. That record may have been dark and depressing and slow, but the tone very much matched up and held steady from start to finish. “Humor Risk” runs more of the stylistic gamut. The balance between more uptempo numbers and somber folk songs works well enough here, even when the lyrics don’t always match up. “The Same Thing” is a sunnier acoustic melody, but it examines the dichotomy between love and pain, arguing that such differences are essentially nonexistent. Meanwhile the nearly 8 minutes of “Mystery Mail” is markedly upbeat rock and roll for a song that’s all about drugs, prison and death. Then again, those same topics and rocking melodies worked wonders for Johnny Cash. When you reach a slice of heavy depression like “To Every Man His Chimera”, it may feel like it belongs on the last record, but McCombs’s completely over-the-top vocal performance provides a sly wink against the uber-serious grain.
The grand point of course is that while a number of these new songs aren’t the epitome of lighthearted humor, even some of the more depressing moments are punctuated with energy and playfulness that makes them much more instantly likable. In that way this record also serves as a nice counterpoint to “WIT’S END”, though they’re not complete opposites of one another. This is the easier record to digest, actually perhaps the most normal and commercially viable McCombs has ever gotten over his six previous records. Yet the pleasantries and morbid rib ticklers also vary enough to make them seem like a piecemeal collection rather than a cohesive whole. The songs on “Humor Risk” were recorded in a number of locations around the country, part of the same sessions that yielded “WIT’S END”. This is far better than a b-sides or outtakes collection and none of these songs miss their mark by much, but there’s no real anchor holding the whole thing together. It’s freeing while simultaneously a little disappointing and difficult to engage with given McCombs’s past material. Hopefully next time he can get the balance just right. If he needs some help with that, perhaps he should call Morrissey. I hear that guy has a regular stand-up gig at the morgue.
New album release Tuesday, my friends. As we climb ever closer to the end of the year, the number of new albums gets thinner, while the number of greatest hits, deluxe editions and compilations gets much larger. We’re not quite there just yet though, so keep hanging on to some normalcy while there’s still time. This week sees new records from 13Ghosts, Al Tuck, And So I Watch You From Afar, Atlas Sound, Band of Bees, Built Like Alaska, Cass McCombs, David Lynch, Joker, King Midas Sound, Marissa Nadler, Noel Gallagher, Summer Camp and Treefight for Sunlight. In the EP department, there’s new short releases from Esben and the Witch, Kurt Vile and Modeselektor with Thom Yorke. Purely from a Pick Your Poison standpoint, today’s got a healthy number of good songs. I can give a thumbs up to tracks from Black Heart Procession, Canon Logic (covering Cinderella), Fall Fox, JC Brooks and the Uptown Sound (Chicago’s own), Keepaway, The Mountain Goats, The New Slave, Red Eye Fugu, and Balam Acab’s remix of Twin Sister. If you like reggae versions of Nirvana songs (who doesn’t, right?) Little Roy’s version of “Lithium” is for you.
It feels like a big music news Monday. Maybe it’s just that two big acts announced some tour dates. Radiohead are busy plotting out a 2012 tour, and as of now they’ll be going on a 10 date jaunt through much of the southern U.S., without any stops on the east or west coast or most of the midwest. Surely they’ll announce a lot more dates in the coming weeks and months, so keep an eye out if your city hasn’t been announced yet (see: Chicago, New York, Los Angeles). Then you’ve also got Jeff Mangum announcing a bunch of new dates, including a lot of markets he didn’t hit this fall (see: Chicago). It feels great to have him back around and touring again, even if it doesn’t result in any new music. So there’s that. And my special deluxe package of Sigur Ros’ “Inni” arrived in the mail today. I’m excited, and if you haven’t ordered yours yet, get on that. Today’s Pick Your Poison has me excited too, and it’s available on demand right here and now. Tracks I’ll recommend today come from Cuckoo Chaos, Doldrums, Golden Bloom (covering Philistines Jr.), Lil Daggers, Sleeping Bags, T.H. White, Virgin Forest and White Denim.
The best live show that I have seen so far in 2011 has come courtesy of Le Butcherettes. Minding my own business and casually stopping by to check out what their performance was like this past summer at Lollapalooza, I became so enamored with what they were doing on stage that I could not pull myself away to go see the other bands I had also marked off in that time slot. The promise I made to myself at that time was that I’d never miss another Le Butcherettes show in Chicago again. They were simply too good to miss. There are very few bands I can say that about, because while so many have energy and are sonically virile, few actually embrace the idea that a performance can also be art. Naturally then, I was excited to hear that Le Butcherettes were coming back through town on a fall headlining tour, making a stop by the under 500 capacity venue Subterranean. Tagging along with them would be two great Chicago bands, White Mystery and Gypsyblood.
While I tried my best to make it for the very start ot the show, I unfortunately missed the entirety of White Mystery’s set. I’ve seen the duo perform live before and they’re excellent and worth seeing even if you do have to show up early to see them. Gypsyblood was the meat in this band sandwich, and thankfully I was able to catch all of their 30 minute set. The band released their record “Cold in the Guestway” this past spring, and it’s a pretty solid lo-fi post-punk collection of tracks, one part Black Lips, one part Liars and one part Joy Division. The ramshackle garage sound echoes well in their live show, which was largely fuzzy but never to the point where it degraded any of their melodies and hooks. The sheer number of “oohs” and “aahs” and “woos” also made it easy enough to sing along even if you didn’t know the words, and it was clear from the packed house that was the case with many. But the band appeared to be having a blast on stage, bringing a fun energy that charmed upon impact and had more than a few people close to the stage dancing like nobody was watching. The further towards the back you went though, the more people you spotted randomly chatting or paying closer attention to their phones than what was happening on stage. Not everybody could be considered a fan and not everybody was willing to be won over by these clearly talented guys. Still, expect to hear more about Gypsyblood sooner rather than later as they do more touring and charm more people.
There are a few things about Le Butcherettes’ set at Lollapalooza that didn’t make for easy repetition. First and foremost was the stage size, as festivals build huge spaces to accomodate the crowds, and Subterranean is miniscule by comparison. Secondly, for this tour normal drummer Gabe Serbian and bassist Jonathan Hischke were not along for the ride. Whether or not they’re simply out of the band or just not tagging along for the handful of November dates, their presence was missed anyways. Teri Gender Bender is obviously the central focus of any Le Butcherettes live show, but those two guys both brought a dynamic energy all their own to the point where Serbian began violently puking during the band’s Lollapalooza show out of sheer heat exhaustion. Hischke bounces around the stage with a style that draws some solid comparisons to Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Replacing them on Friday night and for this brief fall tour was Omar Rodriguez-Lopez on bass and an unnamed female on drums. Rodriguez-Lopez you may be familiar with either for his work in At the Drive-In/The Mars Volta or even solo, but he’s also the one credited with “discovering” Le Butcherettes and pulling them from the clubs in Mexico and onto the worldwide radar. He produced and played bass on all the songs on the band’s debut record “Sin Sin Sin” as well, so there was some charm in seeing him reprise that role for this tour. Yet he also shied away from any sort of spotlight or distinction on his own, standing off on the side of the stage the entire show next to the drum kit and giving Teri all of the spotlight. She of course is more than equipped to take the reins and run with it, which she did with her usual gusto and aplomb.
Things started on a relatively quiet note for Le Butcherettes, with Teri Gender Bender behind her keyboard and grinding out a moderately subdued (and ultimately lengthy) melody. It was a relatively odd choice to open with, particularly because most bands come charging out of the gate with something high energy and fun to immediately get the crowd in a good mood. What this did instead was lull much of the crowd into a false sense of security while quietly building tension for exhilarating moments of release. It wasn’t altogether perfect, but it worked in its own sort of way. Things didn’t really settle into a groove until Teri picked up a guitar, at which point the thrashing and head banging truly began. “Bang!” was most definitely an early highlight, as was “Dress Off”, both largely encapsulating what Le Butcherettes do best on stage, with Teri showing off her unique dance moves and getting interactive with the crowd. She was relatively restricted in her movements, given the small space on the Subterranean stage, but still managed to thrill by relying on the power of her own vocals and singing sans microphone a couple different times. There were also multiple stage dives that only moderately succeeded due to some of the people at the front that were not fully prepared to provide the necessary support for such a feat. The biggest overall reaction of the night came from “Henry Don’t Got Love”, naturally because it’s the single that has a music video and earned a bit of radio airplay in Chicago and around the country. Many were already jumping around and head banging before the band played it, but anyone that wasn’t yet at that point quickly got there during it. “New York” was also met with a similar sort of passion, even if most of us Chicagoans wished it were about our city instead.
After powering through an hour-long set that included almost the entire “Sin Sin Sin” along with a few older cuts, the crowd was more enthusiastic than ever as the band said goodnight and exited the stage. Naturally, an encore was demanded, and Teri was kind enough to give one, albeit in her own sort of way. Taking the stage solo, she picked up a drum stick and climbed atop the bass drum. No guitar and no keyboards, she relied purely on percussion and vocals for a quick 90 second song as one final treat for devoted fans. Above all else, that was a remarkable example of the power of Le Butcherettes – specifically that Teri could probably have spent the entire set with just a drum stick in hand and a microphone at her lips (or, some would argue, no microphone is needed) and it would have been just as engaging. The music is an important part of the equation for any band, but the performance art aspect of it bears an equal or greater share with Le Butcherettes. From Teri’s intense stares to her vocal tics to her stomps, head bangs and dancing, it’s tough not to watch such a spectacle without your eyes wide and mouth agape. While their Subterranean show lacked some of the fluidity and overt drama of their Lollapalooza set, Le Butcherettes remain a must-see live act no matter the venue. Hopefully as their star continues to rise, they won’t lose any of that magic.
LE BUTCHERETTES TOUR DATES (WITH IGGY & THE STOOGES):
12/01 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Palladium
12/04 – San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield
12/06 – San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield
It’s Friday, the first weekend in November. I hope you’ve got some great fall plans and that the weather’s good where you are. Let’s jump right into Pick Your Poison for today. I can throw out recommendations for tracks from The Adamski Kid’s cover of PJ Harvey, Bad Passion’s Beach House cover, and Parenthetical Girls’ Kate Bush cover. Also excellent are songs from Carnivores, Cloud Nothings, Mood Rings, Two Wounded Birds and Way Yes. In the Soundcloud section, be sure to stream a new song from Field Music.
Most discussions of The Decemberists contain similar themes, and that’s probably in large part because the band has cultivated such themes for themselves and one can’t help but be drawn into that whole storyline. The most basic way to put it is that their songs are often tales of olden times, when chimney sweeps and barrow boys were in existence, and people were scared of succumbing to consumption. Though early American in time period, the verbiage put forth by singer Colin Meloy pretty much required an Ivy League education or at least a dictionary to fully understand. And as engaging as their early records were, jaunty little melodies that told such stories in such florid ways, as time went on they became increasingly complex and alienating, the coup de grace being 2009’s rock opera “The Hazards of Love”. There was good news on the horizon though, and it finally arrived earlier this year with the band’s sixth full length “The King Is Dead”. Gone were the heady concepts and a fair amount of the ten dollar words. In their place was a much more humble and dare I say plainspoken alt-country sound, with guest appearances by R.E.M.’s Peter Buck and Americana legend Gillian Welch. Such a rootsy record was a change of pace for the band, and it pretty much saved them from the sharp downward slope their careers had taken. It may not have been on par with their best stuff, but it seemed to be a gentle nod to fans that they had heard their cries of disappointment and wanted to do right by them. As The Decemberists ready themselves for an extended break to pursue other things both musical and non-musical, they’re leaving us with one last taste of country via the “Long Live the King” EP. Culled from the same sessions that yielded “The King Is Dead”, this six song collection is pretty much all outtakes, and that alone should tell you a little something about their quality.
That’s not to say all records that promote b-sides, outtakes and rarities are bad, after all sometimes artists need to leave certain tracks off because they merely don’t fit sonically or thematically with the rest of an album. Then there are the bands whose leftovers are still better than most other bands’ best material. In the case of the “Long Live the King” EP, if your expectations are low going in, then they’ll easily be met. To be cut from a pretty good but not quite great record should already inform you of how well these songs are going to go, piecemeal bits that don’t fully make sense together but nevertheless remain interesting curios for the band’s devoted fan base. The set begins with “E. Watson”, a song about a murder that pairs Meloy’s vocals with only an acoustic guitar. Considering the absence of the rest of the band, it’s easy to think of Meloy’s covers EPs, in which he performed songs by Morrissey, Shirley Collins and Sam Cooke entirely on his own. It’s a somber way to start things, and a good indicator as to why the song might not have fit in with the cheerier demeanor on “The King Is Dead”. Much more in line with that last record is “Foregone”, a track that has the alt-country twang and strong lyrics to make it a solid deep cut rather than an outtake. For whatever reason though, it was cut, and we’re all the better for getting the chance to hear it now. Contrasting with that is “Burying Davy”, a dark, prog-rock trip that certainly feels like the band was still in “The Hazards of Love” mode when it was recorded. If there’s one track that feels most out of place and unworthy of inclusion on any Decemberists release, it’s that one.
The second half of the “Long Live the King” EP takes a turn for the interesting, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. The track “I4U & U4ME” is labeled as the “home demo” version, though honestly if you’ve been listening to a lot of bedroom-recorded demos from unknown artists, this sounds pristine by comparison. The quality isn’t even that different from the professional studio recordings on the rest of the EP. And while the full band is present on the track, there is the sense that it could use just a touch of fleshing out into a more full bodied and impressive cut should they so desire. It’s a whole lot of bouncy fun too, which is not something you can say about a lot of Decemberists songs. Also fun but in an entirely different way is the band’s take on the Grateful Dead’s “Row Jimmy”, a nearly 7 minute excursion that originally appeared as a b-side on the “January Hymn” single late last year. The loose interpretation of the original benefits it greatly and results in one of the more memorable versions of such an oft-covered cut. Last but certainly not least comes “Sonnet”, a rather lighthearted acoustic number whose lyrics are culled from the annals of Dante himself. Yes, the “Dante’s Inferno” guy or the “Divine Comedy” guy, however you want to remember him. It’s a fine way to end the EP, but clearly wouldn’t be an optimal choice for inclusion on any real Decemberists record, unless they crafted one entirely based on the works of classical literature.
It will likely be awhile before we hear from The Decemberists again. That is to say, give them a few years to do their own things before they return to this band. They could use the break and we could use the break. The “Long Live the King” EP comes across as more of a stopgap effort, something to tide fans over or at least wave a temporary goodbye with a few crumbs and morsels left sitting out with no home elsewhere. Outside of maybe “Burying Davy”, there’s nothing here that’s outright bad, though there’s also nothing that outright sparkles either. Just a few more solid songs from a band that could use more of them in their catalogue. Let’s just hope they remember that down the road when it comes time to return to the stage they were meant for.
Allow me to take a moment and comment on the unfortunate split between Ben Gibbard and Zooey Deschanel. They both seemed like people deserving of finding that special someone, Gibbard being the hopeless romantic at the center of so many lovelorn songs, and Deschanel being the ideal, coined phrase Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Sure, their divorce now opens the door for those girls and guys that all thought they were destined to be with either one of them. Try and, you know, stay with something more realistic for your goals. I’ve got a theory as to why they got divorced, and it’s more to do with life’s challenges than it does personal difficulties. He’s in a band and they’re doing a lot of touring around the country. She’s got her own TV show that consumes most of her time. How do you build a marriage around two people that are so busy they get to spend maybe an hour together each day, and primarily on the phone? It just doesn’t really work for a marriage. That’s my guess anyways. Okay, here’s today’s edition of Pick Your Poison. Tracks I’ll give the thumbs up to come from Holmes (covering Ice Cube), The Lowriders, Scout, Sea Lions and Writers Strike. Marissa Nadler has a new record of covers coming out next Tuesday, and she’s given out a few of those for free, so be sure to check out her covers of songs by Bob Dylan, Clinic and Bruce Springsteen below. In the Soundcloud section you’ll find some good songs to stream from Guided By Voices, The Internet and Washed Out.
