Wild Flag w/ Grass Widow and Eux Autres at The Hub – 11/17/10
Posted: November 19, 2010 Filed under: Perfect, Shows | Tags: Eux Autres, Grass Widow, Music, Sacramento, The Hub, Wild Flag Comments Off
I think that most music fans live for this kind of show. They are the kind of concerts that you can point to and say, “I was there.” This was certainly the case on this night when the Wild Flag dog and pony show came to Sacramento. The band and it’s openers played in what was almost certainly a space five times too small for their draw. The Hub in Sacramento boosts no stage and only the bare minimum sound system. There is a “No Hanging Around Out Front” policy and a rule that alcohol must not be in the container it was born in lest the cops come and shut the place down. All these elements pulled together to bring a group of professional musicians into such an intimate setting that it felt like watching the band in their practice space, but without all the mistakes and restarts. At the end of the night I left amazed and with the thought, “concert of the year”.
Wild Flag is an indie-rock super group, formed of Sleater-Kinney members Carrie Brownstein and Janet Weiss, Mary Timony from Helium and Rebecca Col of The Minders. Whether or not you are familiar with these bands the take away is that these are all veteran performers and know how to rock hard, and rock they did. There were jumps off the drum kit, high kicks, and right hand tapping forming into one perfect evening. The long jammy song, “Racehorse”, was the definite highlight, going on forever, never boring, and leaving Carrie writhing on the ground mere feet in front of me. The thing I will always remember is when Carrie Brownstein hit me in the stomach when she did a high kick durning a rippin’ guitar solo. Definitely a badge of honor. The band seemed a bit weirded out by the whole experience, but from my prospective it was great. One thing I was bummed about was that the band had no music for sale. I know they have only formed very recently, but a four or five song tour/demo EP would have been great, especially if it had “Racehorse” on it.
Midpoint Music Festival: Thursday Recap – 9/23/10
Posted: September 29, 2010 Filed under: Perfect, Shows, Travel | Tags: Banderas, Cincinnati, Eat Sugar, Holy Fuck, Midpoint Music Festival, MPMF, Music, No No Knots, Pizza Bagels, You You're Awesome 1 Comment »The first night of my second year at Midpoint Music Festival in beautiful Cincinnati, OH and it was a good-in. Without consciously doing it, Thursday ended up being the local Cincinnati band night with the exception of Holy Fuck who rock out of Toronto. The night was unseasonably hot for fall but was much better than the previous year’s torrential downpour. Not much venue hopping on this night as the line up at The Cincinnati Club was to good to miss, but we’ll see plenty of that later. [Recaps of Friday and Saturday]
Eat Sugar started out the night at the Cincinnati Club a bit more subdued than I had hoped, but that was more of a crowd problem due to their early start. Squeally synth sounds and distorted bass were the prescription for the show and the band killed it. I’m sure their were some cross armed kids, but I know my bother and I were not among them. They were absolutely great on the new stuff too with song “Shadowside” being my favorite of the evening. The band closed out with the staple and just released “Clap Your Hands” too which I most certainly did. While the venue looked like a place where one might host a bar/bat mitzvah, the sound was great and the venue intimate despite it’s size. Someone should start booking here regularly.
You’re The Best, Oh Yeah: M83 – Saturdays=Youth
Posted: July 24, 2010 Filed under: Perfect, Reviews | Tags: M83, Music, Saturdays=Youth Comments Off
I think it may well be possible that Anthony Gonzalez, aka M83, has found a process to bottle that epic feeling a song can instill in the listener when the music swells. Either that or he has scientifically discovered the best possible combination of guitar chords, synth timbre, and soft-spoken lyrics to evoke the feeling. The funny part is that, apparently, this was all sussed out in the 80′s as Saturdays=Youth is an ode to the music and teenage years that M83 experienced. If I were to have gun put to my head and asked to make a list of my 10 best albums of the previous decade, this would be number one.
The album may have disappointed some of M83′s devotes as it is less space-rock/ambient compared to the previous album Before The Dawn Heals Us, however this is certainly not a point against the album for me. The songs “Kim & Jessie” and “Graveyard Girl” may be as straight ahead as an M83 could ever get and while you can here the deep influence of the 80′s in their sounds, the songs still feel timeless in their execution. If the opening drum beats of “Graveyard Girl” don’t pull you into the song immediately, I don’t think you have a pulse. Between these songs and others like them, M83′s ambient past still floats around and holds the whole album together, filling the space and keeping the listener emotionally invested. At the tail end of the album it takes a turn for the melancholy closing out with great tracks like “Too Late”, an 11 minute drone on “Midnight Souls Still Remain” (It works I swear.), and the simple, heartfelt, and repeated lyric on “Until The Night Is Over”. The piano on that last track gets me every time.
This is one of my favorite albums around and kicks off something I may try to do every weekend which is write up the albums I can’t put down. This idea may stick around, may go away, or may get a name change… we will see.
More Songs About Buildings and Food
Posted: July 7, 2010 Filed under: Perfect, Reviews | Tags: More Songs About Buildings And Food, Music, Talking Heads 1 Comment »
In 1978, Talking Heads created an album that put them on the map. Oddly enough the biggest single that broke them through is a cover of Al Green’s “Take Me To The River”, forever showing the power of soul. There are a lot of superlatives thrown at this album, mostly from useless numerics laid down in lists claiming top 100 this, top 500 that. While that’s all well and good it doesn’t really tell us that much about the album.
“More Songs About Buildings and Food” is something I would call a “prefect” album. Now this by no way means that every song is prefect, however each song comes together to make a coherent whole, as cliched as that statement is. The album is framed by the chug of the amazing opening song “Thank You For Sending Me An Angel” and ending with the pastoral “The Big Country”, which goes down like an espresso at the end of a meal. In between the album can be pretty frantic as in “With Our Love”, “The Girls Want To Be With The Girls”, and “Artists Only”. The songs are driven by Byrnes’ choppy lyrics and jangle-ly guitar, but this all out onslaught of jangle could go down the wrong path were it not for the absolutely amazing funky/soulful bass and drum lines that connect the whole album. In a way “I’m Not In Love” and “Stay Hungry” feel like breakdowns in the middle of a song before transitioning to the two more laid back songs of “Take Me To The River” and “The Big Country”. All these elements come together to make something that feels like one coherent thought which comes in sticks around for a while, but doesn’t overstay it’s welcome.
Seriously if you don’t own this yet, you should pick it up immediately.
