Hey y'all. I've crammed the next two weeks into this update since I don't think I'll have a chance to do this again before next Monday... so keep it handy. I'll try to remember and post next week's dates again, but no guarantees. If I'm missing anything lemme know.
Otherwise, see you a few....
(an unnaturally large number of shows in Jersey it seems...)
Monday (3/12): The Roots @ Nokia Theater The Pipettes @ Luna Lounge The Bravery @ Bowery Ballroom The Good, The Bad & The Queen @ Webster Hall The Raveonettes @ Merucry Lounge Astrograss, Jennifer Milich @ Ace of Clubs Steve Earle/Allison Moorer @ Blue Note (early/late) Josh Groban @ Madison Square Garden Tony Scherr @ Marion's Marquee Keren Ann @ Joe's Pub Charlie Musselwhite et al @ BB King's Downright Upright All Stars @ Jazz Standard (early/late)
Tuesday (3/13): Jenny Scheinman/Steve Cardenas @ Barbes (Brooklyn) (early) Steve Earle/Allison Moorer @ Blue Note (early/late) Fab Faux @ Webster Hall Amy Winehouse (The Pipettes open) @ Bowery Ballroom Mute Math et al @ Gramercy Theater Briggan Krauss/Ikue Mori/Jim Black @ Tonic (early)
Wednesday (3/14): Fab Faux @ Webster Hall Rowan/Rice @ BB King's The Shins @ Theater at MSG Brooklyn Boogaloo Blowour @ Sunny's (Brooklyn)
Thursday (3/15): Kelly Jo & The Kochman, Scott Holcomb @ Common Ground Keb Mo @ Town Hall The Pogues @ Roseland Ballroom Iron Butterfly, Mountain et al @ NJPAC (Newark, NJ) Solas @ Joe's Pub Ken Peplowski w/ B. Charlap, G. Cohen @ Jazz Standard (early/late) Wayne Krantz @ 55 Bar (late/midnight) Donna The Buffalo @ Mexicali Blues (Teaneck, NJ) Sleepytime Gorilla Museum @ Bowery Ballroom Matt Munisteri @ Barbes (Brooklyn)
Friday (3/16): Uri Caine @ Symphony Space Rudder @ 55 Bar (late/midnight) Burnt Sugar @ Tonic (early) Laurie Anderson @ Joe's Pub (early) Levon Helm Band @ Beacon Theater Afroskull @ Two Boots (Brooklyn) Ken Peplowski w/ B. Charlap, G. Cohen @ Jazz Standard (early/late) Little Feat @ BB King's (early/late) Theremin Society @ Issue Project Space (Brooklyn)
St. Paddy's (3/17): Levon Helm Band @ Beacon Theater Chris Thile @ Zankel Hall Bustle In Your Hedgerow @ Mexicali Blues (Teaneck, NJ) Circle Sound @ Irving Plaza Jim Staley w/ Z. Parkins, J. Monson @ Roulette UMelt, Licorice et al @ Paul's Tavern (Belmar, NJ) Rowan/Rice, Ralph Stanley @ Count Basie Theater (Red Bank, NJ) Ken Peplowski w/ B. Charlap, G. Cohen @ Jazz Standard (early/late) Laurie Anderson @ Joe's Pub (early)
Sunday (3/18): The Bad Plus @ South Orange PAC (S. Orange, NJ) Ralph Stanley @ BB King's Ken Peplowski w/ B. Charlap, G. Cohen @ Jazz Standard (early/late) Allen Toussaint @ Joe's Pub (noon) Stephane Wrembel @ Barbes (Brooklyn)
Monday (3/19): Lismore et al @ The Annex Autumn Defense @ Mercury Lounge Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog @ Tonic (late) Tony Scherr @ Marion's Marquee Beau Soleil @ BB King's Donny McCaslin @ 55 Bar (early/late)
Tuesday (3/20): Jenny Scheinman/Charlie Burnham/Marika Hughes @ Barbes (Brooklyn) (early) Explosions In The Sky @ Webster Hall Clutch (Dub Trio opens) @ Irving Plaza Randy Weston @ Jazz Standard (early/late) Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. et al @ Mercury Lounge Indigo Girls @ Town Hall Phonograph et al @ Tonic Stanley Clarke @ Blue Note (early/late) Little Feat @ Mexicali Blues (Teaneck, NJ) OoIoO @ Knitting Factory Devendra Banhart, Bright Eyes, Michael Stipe et al @ Hammerstein Ballroom (benefit)
Wednesday (3/21): Randy Weston @ Jazz Standard (early/late) The Decemberists (My Brightest Diamond opens) @ Loews Theater (Jersey City) The Heartless Bastards @ Maxwell's (Hoboken) Stanley Clarke @ Blue Note (early/late) The Panda Band et al @ Mercury Lounge Phonograph @ Union Pool (Brooklyn) Rodrigo Y Gabriela @ Webster Hall Sylvie Courvoisier Trio @ The Stone (late) Justin Timberlake @ Nassau Colesium (Uniondale, LI)
Thursday (3/22): The Decemberists (My Brightest Diamond opens) @ Loews Theater (Jersey City) Allman Brothers Band @ Beacon Theater Rebirth Brass Band @ Lion's Den Doug Wamble @ Barbes (Brooklyn) Randy Weston @ Jazz Standard (early/late) Mew (Oh No! Oh My! opens) @ Bowery Ballroom Clutch, Dub Trio @ Maxwell's (Hoboken) Wayne Krantz @ 55 Bar (late/midnight) Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard et al @ Radio City Music Hall Mahavishnu Project @ Mexicali Blues (Teaneck, NJ) Stanley Clarke @ Blue Note (early/late) Pat Benetar @ BB King's
Friday (3/23): Marissa Nadler et al @ Sin-E Allman Brothers Band @ Beacon Theater Assembly of Dust @ Bowery Ballroom Randy Weston @ Jazz Standard (early/late) Briggan Krauss @ Roulette Lucinda Williams (Heartless Bastards open) @ Radio City Music Hall Hopewell et al @ Union Hall (Brooklyn) Pat Benetar @ BB King's Chris Mann, Lynne Tillman, Marc Ribot @ Issue Project Space (Brooklyn) Stanley Clarke @ Blue Note (early/late) Gene Ween (Chris Harford opens) @ Gramercy Theater Christina Aguilera @ Madison Square Garden Dub Is A Weapon et al @ Lion's Den
Saturday (3/24): Tea Leaf Green (U-Melt opens) @ Irving Plaza Bettye Lavette/NMAS (acoustic) @ BB King's Stanley Clarke @ Blue Note (early/late) Allman Brothers Band @ Beacon Theater Honeytribe @ Joe's Pub (midnight) Big Sam's Funky Nation @ Crash Mansion Randy Weston @ Jazz Standard (early/late) Sonny Landreth @ Boulton Center (Bay Shore, LI) Joan Jett & The Blackhearts @ Center for the Arts (Staten Island) Carbon Leaf @ Knitting Factory Jim Pugliese's Phase III @ Issue Project Space (Brooklyn)
Sunday (3/25): Improv Night @ The Stone (early) (benefit) Randy Weston @ Jazz Standard (early/late) Elton John @ Madison Square Garden Allman Brothers Band @ Beacon Theater North Mississippi All Stars (acoustic) @ Joe's Pub Stanley Clarke @ Blue Note (early/late) Stephane Wrembel @ Barbes (Brooklyn)
Get weird with some Mike Gordon. Good music seems to follow this guy wherever he goes, plenty to choose from. This is as good a sampler as any... old/new, live/studio, front/back, long/short -- dude just gets it done.
01 Hoedown -- Benevento/Russo/Gordon: 28 December 2005 02 The Beltless Buckler -- Mike Gordon: Inside In 03 Island Remedy -- Joey Arkenstat: Bane 04 Sweet Emotion -- Leo Kottke & Mike Gordon: Sixty Six Steps 05 Phil & Mike Bass Duo -- Phil Lesh Quintet: 31 December 2000 06 Tweezer Reprise -- Phish: 9 May 1992
Do you know that guy who Makes It Happen? The guy who not only has time to travel the country making good music happen on stages big and small, hit just about every meaningful show in the City, pimp strong for his friends and cook bacon-inspired meals for them when the mood strikes, scour every bit of poop on the internet and post heady comments on silly blogs like this, now has his own blog as well. If anyone should be gracing us with anecdotes from the road or turn us on to what we should be turned on to, it's him, so check it out. Of course, I only love him because he's a Syracuse native.
While you're wasting time in the blogdome, C-Dawg has got reviews and mixes just like me, but he gets out more often and has better taste in music.
A month or two back I did my best to sum up what I loved about Friday Night Lights, but Heather Havrilesky, one of my favorite writers on the web, does a much better job, seeing how her mission in life is to get people involved in good teevee... and this is better than good, it's grrrreat!
Being March, I'm happy to report that the Orange are still alive in the Big East and likely heading to the NCAA's once again. Did you see their new uniforms? You know when I was a kid.... some really good Cuse blogs:here,here and here
Finally, a pretty funny YouTube to get you through til Friday (via BoingBoing) a brilliant pre-computer edit of Ron & Nancy urging you to "Just Say Yes!" Definitely worth 7 minutes of your time:
Wednesday night was a quintessentially New York City evening of live music. The rooms, the crowd and of course, the music -- not perfect, but straying from perfect in perfect ways.
I started out at Tonic where Doug Wamble was playing with one of those "can't be bad" thrown-together backing bands: Steven Bernstein on trumpet, Ben Allison on bass and Ben Perowsky on drums. Tonic is one of my favorite rooms in the city: it has its flaws, but it sits perched between the blue and white collars of NYC venues. Too stark and grungy with too scarce seating options to be considered a top flight jazz club and a little too classy and open-minded to be a bona fide rock joint. The bookings there fit that bill perfectly and I thought back to this Ethan Iverson interview with Stanley Crouch and his oft-ridiculous notions of what jazz should be while I watched Wamble lead these all-stars through a genreless morass of free-flowing music. I actually had initial plans to catch Iverson further uptown in what could only be regarded a jazz club, and a great one at that, but am glad I made the decision to hit Tonic instead. Wamble announced that they would play music he had written "yesterday" at his house. I couldn't tell if he was joking or not, but there is no doubt that these were little-rehearsed and in-progress works with a band that may or may not ever play again together in this form. Wamble is the kind of guy you really want to like. The word is affable. He's got a gentle Southern vibe and a big, teddy bear demeanor. We all know guys like Doug, but not many of them can play guitar like this. This gig is the perfect example why musicians like Doug Wamble come to play in the city. Everyone is a sideman and everyone is a band leader and the Golden Rule is strongly in effect with the degrees of separation of who plays with whom bordering on incestuous. Bernstein, the consummate bandleader himself, when remarked upon the nifty plaid driver's cap he was wearing as he hopped on stage, called the headwear his "sideman hat" -- perfect summation of the situation. I've seen Wamble a handful of times and it's always been a little different: he's done the smoother Djazzy stuff as well countrified guitar with surprisingly sweet vocals. Wednesday night the 20 or so folks at Tonic got a whole lot of everything. They started with a number called "Pussy Van Halen" which set the tone for the rest of the set. There was a three-chord progression that hovered near classic rock and served as the trunk of the piece. Every song followed a similar path where there was a major theme, often fairly simple, from which everything sprouted out or grew knotty around. Wamble would start along this way, with Steve B. peppering some shots around it and then hand off the theme to Allison who would make it his own as the rest of the band took off in unforseen directions. This first number was very, very loose and basically opened up a rocking jam session. It was free and fun and wasn't necessarily out-there avant garde, but to be honest, it was completely incoherent -- not quite in tune and not quite on point. From there things did get a lot better. The second tune was "Alhambra" and started Wamble on the slide guitar which he would bring back at least once per tune for the remainder. For this one, the intro section was all Doug on slide -- his playing here was very clean and reminiscent of a Hawaiian steel guitar. Throughout the set he would go back to the slide playing some country, some Hendrix-esque rock and roll raging and some Derek-Trucks-style mishmash of a whole range of styles. It was pretty impressive to me and really a great example of the silliness in labeling music. There was one solo in the middle of the set that was nothing short of breathtaking, a climactic explosion of slide playing that was the highlight of the show.
The band behind him did their part as well. It goes without saying that Bernstein is the man. I really liked how he kind of hung back and didn't get too over the top. He was a band member and did his part. He showed some range as well, with nice muting and of course, plenty of great slide trumpet. The slide trumpet + slide guitar combo was pretty delicious at times. The two Bens make for a top-notch rhythm section. As the night went on, Perowsky gained a lot of confidence in the setting and let loose on more than one occasion, pushing the evening well over the border to full-out rock and roll. What started as a simple evening of jazz ended up as a 70-minute blur of everything that isn't jazz... and I guess that was the point.
It was a short couple of blocks from Tonic to The Annex -- one metaphorical small step for Ned, one giant leap in musickind. That show was a Deli Magazine/ASCAP showcase type event and had a bill full of acts doing one thing or another. I got there in time to see the entirety of Vampire Weekend -- a Columbia University-based band which did their party to play the slacker Ivy Leaguer angle. The set started out in one direction: a pretty heady take on the early 80's vibe. They didn't quite channel bands as much as watershed albums: Talking Heads' "Speaking In Tongues," Paul Simon's "Graceland," The Police's "Synchronicity." These were the apparent influences, but their take had its own flavor and a certain level of cheekiness that drew you in. Despite a liberal use of the word "jam" -- used by their frontman simply to signify the playing of music, oh Wetlands, where art thou? -- these guys did have some fun chops with flashes of private lessons in grade school mixed in with the faux-freedom of the prep school dorm room. As the set came to a close, they opened up with some fairly ridiculous numbers, the last one, seemingly concerned with traffic getting back from Cape Cod was a perfect capper for the guys wearing unkempt Oxford's and Rob-Lowe-in-"Class" sweaters.
But the real reason I stayed out past my bedtime was Apollo Sunshine -- most recently seen taking a baseball bat to the mailbox outside the Freaks Ball and blowing out some eardrums in the process. They're kicking off a full-fledged tour that will take them down to Langerado,SXSW and Bonnaroo. For the big road trip, they've enlisted a 4th member, Quentin Stoltzfus of Mazarin (not to be confused with Jesus Christ of Nazareth) rounding their sound out nicely to quartet strength and clicking up the volume by about one guitar. The set was short but, man!, was it schaweet! They started off with something soft and, well, not quite quiet, but not quite... BAM! right into "Flip!" with its whirling dervish of a pedal steel melody and a whiplash bridge that leaves you sitting on top of the world and looking down from such heights that vertigo is all but inevitable. They were really clicking Wednesday night -- the sound just exploding off of the stage in big chunks of blazing electric guitars. These guys pass around their big Gibson bass like a hookah, pulling massive tokes of low end each and blowing smoke rings out onto the crowd. The 2nd guitar player really opens up things nicely so the sound either gets even bigger at times or stays the same size but gets decorated nicely with other nifty sounds and accoutrement. I'd go on in the set to "Magnolia" and "Today's the Day" and a couple others they managed to squeeze into their slot, but the set was too short to merit anything longer than a paragraph. It was a tease, a taster, and I was a smarter man than I am, I would have gone out to Southpaw on Thursday for the full treatment, but alas... I went here instead.
Picture of John Zorn bumbling about in an appropriately confused manner on stage before the Old Knit birthday show/The Stone benefit at Town Hall last Thursday.
There are some really good shots of this one over at Pitchfork. You can read my lengthy review on the show over at Hidden Track.
and now another...Conversation with LJ, Chapter 2:
LJ (from the back seat of the family wagon): How do you make people? Dad: Uh... what do you mean? LJ: How do you make people? How did you make me? Dad: Uh... daddies and mommies make people. LJ: YOU know how to make people!?! Dad (proudly): Yep. LJ: You mean you wanted me? Dad: Yeah, of course. LJ: But how did you do it? Dad: It's a secret, I'll tell you when you're older. LJ: NO, just tell me now! How did you get me into Mommy's belly? Dad: Magic. I'll tell you when you're older. LJ: OK, maybe when I'm 8 you can tell me. Dad (wiping brow): Sounds good.
Monday: Tony Levin Band @ Knitting Factory Nickelback @ Continental Arena (E. Rutherford, NJ) Castanets @ Europa Club (Brooklyn) *Maurice Brown Quartet @ Jazz Standard (early/late)
Tuesday: Jenny Scheinman @ Barbes (Brooklyn) (early) Grizzly Bear @ Bowery Ballroom John Butler Trio @ Hiro Ballroom *SeePeoples, Next Tribe @ The Annex Hopewell @ Club Midway Joy Askew et al @ Living Room Ratdog @ Paramount Theater (Peekskill, NY) Steel Pulse @ Webster Hall Bill Ogg @ Fat Baby Hanson @ Supper Club
Wednesday: *Badly Drawn Boy (Adem opens) @ Webster Hall Bill Ogg @ Vlada Bar Vinicius Cantuaria @ Jazz Standard (early/late) Grizzly Bear @ Bowery Ballroom Binky Griptite @ Lucky Cat Los Lobos, Taj Mahal @ Count Basie Theater (Red Bank, NJ) Stellastarr @ Gramercy Theater Koichi, Zorn, Mori @ Tonic
Thursday: Ratdog @ Beacon Theater Gomez/Ben Kweller @ Webster Hall *The Avett Brothers @ Rebel Walkmen @ Bowery Ballroom Wayne Krantz @ 55 Bar (late/midnight) Vinicius Cantuaria @ Jazz Standard (early/late) Charlie Louvin (Laura Cantrell opens) @ Gramercy Theater Ballin' The Jack @ Barbes (Brooklyn)
Friday: Of Montreal @ Irving Plaza Gomez/Ben Kweller @ Webster Hall *Benevento/Dillon/Mathis @ Tap Bar Anders Osborne @ Lion's Den Stir Fried @ The Underpass (Elmwood Park, NJ) Antony & The Johnsons w/ Brooklyn Philharmonic @ BAM (Brooklyn) Ratdog @ Beacon Theater Masada/Cecil Taylor @ Lincoln Center Vinicius Cantuaria @ Jazz Standard (early/late) Jean-Michel Pilc w/ J. Genus, K. Carlock et al @ 55 Bar (late) Matt & Kim @ Bowery Ballroom Jamie McLean @ Mercury Lounge (early) Weston, Reid, Tacuma @ Tonic John Cowan Band @ The Cutting Room John Ginty/Shannon McNally @ Ace of Clubs (late)
Saturday: Masada/Cecil Taylor @ Lincoln Center The Roots @ Radio City Music Hall Ratdog @ Beacon Theater Benevento/Dillon/Mathis @ Tap Bar *Anders Osborne @ Lion's Den The Breakfast, Licorice @ Knitting Factory (late) Howard Fishman @ Joe's Pub (early) John Ginty/Shannon McNally @ Ace of Clubs (late) Vinicius Cantuaria @ Jazz Standard (early/late) Antibalas (Binky Griptite opens) @ Warsaw (Brooklyn) Of Montreal @ Irving Plaza Andy Statman @ Barbes (Brooklyn) The Raveonettes @ Southpaw (Brooklyn)
Sunday: The Who (Rose Hill Drive opens) @ Nassau Colesium (Uniondale, LI) The Roots @ Nokia Theater *Vinicius Cantuaria @ Jazz Standard (early/late) Matthew Shipp & Guillermo Brown @ The Stone (late) The Pipettes @ Luna Lounge (Brooklyn) Public Enemy @ BB King's Stephane Wrembel @ Barbes (Brooklyn)
01 Oakland -- Charlie Hunter Quintet: Right Now Move 02 Kivah -- Marc Ribot: Masada Guitars 03 Rene's Theme -- Larry Coryell: Spaces 04 Boubacar -- Bill Frisell: East-West 05 Infinity Split -- Wayne Krantz: Greenwich Mean 06 The Windjammer -- Grant Green: Blue Breakbeats
Yesterday I posted some CD reviews including one by The Earlies and I was remembering where I had first heard about them: Very Short List. Totally worth signing up for: you get a quasi-daily email giving you a little heads up on music, movies, TV, books, weblinks, etc. One item a day and it actually does a pretty good job ferreting out something semi-obscure or under the radar. In a day when it's harder and harder to find something before it's already been beaten to death, it's pretty refreshing... not that I follow up on more than one or two of their suggestions, added a title to my Netflix queue but it still makes me feel a smidgen cooler. They've also got a nice overall aesthetic going on, so check it out.
Also cool: Tom The Dancing Bug comic over at Salon. I'm a big fan of Salon for a lot of reasons, but those Ruben Bolling comics kill me every week. Worth clicking through an ad for.
Other worthwhile goodies from my shared links from the past week:
John Tierney was annoying as hell as a Times columnist, but he's doing much more interesting stuff as the science columnist/blogger. Check out this latest work on Stewart Brand.
and in the comedy section, I direct you toward Conservapedia, holy shit these guys are dead serious! For starters, check out the wingnut entry on George Washington, I shudder for my children...
Speaking of the lil' ones, here's a conversation from this week between me and LJ:
Dad [prepares to sink teeth into ribs]: mmm... ow, it's hot LJ: What is? That? That meat or what do you call it? Dad: It's ribs, it's pork LJ: What's pork? Is that a kind of meat? Dad: Yeah, it's from a pig. LJ: People eat pigs!?!? Dad: Yup. LJ (waits a beat): Do people eat dogs? Dad: Er... some do, I guess, but not in this country. LJ: Good, I like dogs. Dad (watches his daughters innocence melting before him)
Classic. And if you're wondering, I eat more than just flesh and fried foods and have actually lost 30+ lbs in the past year and have just started running again... so look out world!
Didn't catch any live shows in the past week... I think it's the 1st week of '07 where this has been the case. Never fear, I'll be out and about multiple times in the next couple days and will be sure to report back with the usual nonsense.
In the meantime, some quickie reviews of the last few new 2007 CD's I've purchased -- yes, I still buy real live plastic CD's, crappy jewel cases and all, old habits die hard. Although a few of these have some wonderful packaging that makes it all the more worthwhile.
[Note: these are my initial impressions, not full-blown reviews, and Ned-O-Matic grades are based on a 5 being an average album in my collection with the caveat that I am an informed buyer these days, so everything I buy I'm probably going to like. Happy to review others if you want to send me free music!]
Of Montreal -- Hissing Fauna Are You The Destroyer I've downloaded an Of Montreal track here and there and always enjoyed the hell out of 'em, but I went crazy and bought the whole shebang and am really happy I did. Expansive, psychedelic doo-wop at times deep and introspective and others swinging and, well, funky. A lot of reviews will dwell on the personal edge to the lyrics, but I've listened to this a half dozen or so times and have enjoyed it immensely without making a single pass at what the songs were about. Some of the more creative CD packaging in my music collection, you don't get the full effect via iTunes, I assure you. Ned-O-Matic: 7
Menomena -- Friend and Foe I got a bunch of these in one batch and threw 'em straight into the living room CD changer. Three of them - this one, Of Montreal and The Earlies - kind of ran together as one blur of that big psychedelic pop sound.I dig them all, but this one continues to stand out head and shoulders above the rest as a truly excellent album. Brings to mind the best of the critically acclaimed Super Furry Animals'Rings Around the Sun and TV On the Radio'sReturn to Cookie Mountain and yet carves out wonderfully new sounds in between those. Can't get enough of this one, highly recommended. Ned-O-Matic: 9
The Earlies -- Enemy Chorus Of the three that I'm kinda lumping together, this one is definitely the most ambitious: symphonic, electronic... big. This is the kind of album that seems to take a different form depending on the venue: background noise while making dinner, dance music when playing with the kids and seriously deep mind-expanding experience when it's just you and the headphones. This thing is growing on me with each listen and I'm sure there's plenty left in there to discover. Ned-O-Matic: 7.5
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah -- Some Loud Thunder Sophmore albums are pretty tough. CYHSY's 1st one came pretty close to living up to the praise and this one is a pretty admirable follow-up, which would lead you to believe that these guys are for real. They don't quite stick to formula and they don't quite change it up radically, so maybe they're playing it safe. The sound has definitely evolved, pushing that Talking Heads-at-CBGB's punk derivative both forward and backward and time, bringing in their own elements and some damn good songwriting. Still they channel David Byrne in the best possible ways on swingers like "Satan Said Dance." Ned-O-Matic: 6
Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter -- Like, Love, Lust & The Open Halls of the Soul Your enjoyment of Sykes' music will certainly be directly correlated to your enjoyment of her voice. She's got a whiskey-stained growl that's been compared (favorably) to Widespread Panic's John Bell. I think it's more of an evolved Janis Joplin, but regardless, the music's pretty damn good... most of the time. When she tries to slow it down too much, her voice just doesn't get pretty enough to carry it. Her band totally rocks, though, so she has that much more in common with Janis. This music sits in that reliving the 70's vibe, channeling that bridge between sweet candy pop and churning dirty rock and roll. Ned-O-Matic: 5.5
Mike Dillon's Go-Go Jungle -- Battery Milk Don't know about Mike Dillon? Get involved! His latest band is a vibraphone-driven mind-and-body fuck. Funky grooves, wild percussional interludes and great subject matter. The title to "Your Mother Was My Teacher" was actually blurted out by a woman to Dillon mid-coitus and "Bad Man" is about good ole GWB with some well-placed samples augmenting the mood. Dark and twisted in reality and much of the same in his music (just look at that album cover). Ned-O-Matic: 6
Tin Hat -- The Sad Machinery of Spring Tin Hat is like mutated chamber music that has lost its way in the East European woods of jazz, pop and folk. With such a colorful palate to draw from, this album plays like it's in black and white: melancholy, moody, everything shadows and shading. While I think their previous efforts as a trio are a little better (Book of Silk is a masterpiece album that should be in your collection), it's all just degrees of wonderful. Tin Hat is listening music at its finest. Ned-O-Matic: 7
Guess you can't go wrong with any of these -- just be thankful I limited myself to a couple sentences. I'll hit you again in a month or so with the next batch of good 'uns and you be sure to return the favor with any recommendations or CD's to avoid for that matter.
Before I get into the meat of today's post, I'd like you to know that we're all about the OTW reader here.... er I'm all about the reader here, so if you say "make it happen!" I make it happen. That being said, I did my 1st draft on the deep fried bacon, photographic proof of such tasty deathliness, or is that deathly tastiness?
The shit was damn tasty, although I'm quite certain it'll be tastier next time. I need to use thicker/better bacon next time. I just threw what I had in the fridge in there which was Oscar Meyer brand. The package claimed "America's Favorite Bacon" which is kind of like claiming that in 2004 George Bush was "America's favorite presidential candidate" -- needless to say it was almost deep fried fat, which isn't saying that's a bad thing. But we can do better... and will!
Onto the game...
Just watched the biggest Cuse game of the year as the Orange absolutely crushed the consensus top team in the Big East and a legit top ten team, so I had to steal some photos off the AP wire and sell them off as my own blog post. It being Georgetown made it that much sweeter, but really what decade was this game played in??
Two technical fouls plus a player named Patrick Ewing (Jr.) all made for some weird Remember the 80's action. In fact, there were at least three players who were sons of former 80's stars: Jeremiah Rivers (son of young coaching phenom Doc Rivers, soon to be late of the Boston Celtics), Ewing (nearly identical to his father except he's lacking his pop's extraordinary abilities to sweat... and play basketball... I kid, I kid, he's actually pretty good) both on Georgetown and Andy Rautins from Syracuse, son of former Orangeman, and present Canadian renaissance man Leo Rautins.
In my pre-Ned days of old I spent many a winter night in the Carrier Dome booing the hell out of John Thompson and watching some sublime in-the-prime Big East action, so tonight was especially sick ass.
This week we welcome March, which is like the Rocktober of late winter. Lots of great music this week... and even more on the horizon. Let me know what I'm missing.
Monday: *Fiona McBain's Starlite Review @ Barbes (Brooklyn) (late) The Bird & The Bee @ Joe's Pub Sigur Ros, Lou Reed, Patti Smith et al @ Carnegie Hall (benefit) Nils Lofgren @ BB King's
Tuesday: *The Slip @ Maxwell's (Hoboken) Marilyn Crispell w/ M. Helias, P. Motian @ Village Vanguard (early/late) American Babies @ Living Room Sam Champion, David Vandervelde et al @ Piano's
Wednesday: John Mayer @ Madison Square Garden Sparklehorse, Jesse Sykes @ Webster Hall Bill McHenry-Ethan Iverson Quartet @ Jazz Standard (early/late) *Apollo Sunshine @ The Annex Doug Wamble, w/ S. Bernstein, B. Perowsky, B. Allison @ Tonic (early) Tim Fite et al @ Union Hall (Brooklyn) Alexa Ray Joel @ Mercury Lounge Binky Griptite @ Lucky Cat (Brooklyn) Marilyn Crispell w/ M. Helias, P. Motian @ Village Vanguard (early/late) Scrapomatic @ Sidewalk Cafe Addison Groove Project @ Mercury Lounge
Thursday: Mofro @ Irving Plaza El Perro Del Mar @ Bowery Ballroom *Zorn, Ribot, MMW et al @ Town Hall (benefit) Marilyn Crispell w/ M. Helias, P. Motian @ Village Vanguard (early/late) Apollo Sunshine @ Southpaw (Brooklyn) The Bird and the Bee @ Maxwell's (Hoboken) George Garzone @ The Cutting Room (late E. Simon, J. Pattitucci, B. Blade @ Iridium (early/late) Hanson @ Starland Ballroom (Sayreville, NJ) Eddie Money @ BB King's
Friday: Keller Williams @ Nokia Theater Oteil & The Peacemakers, Backyard Tire Fire @ Lion's Den Bright Eyes @ Bowery Ballroom Olu Dara @ BB King's (early) *The Bird & The Bee et al @ Mercury Lounge Winterpills et al @ Living Room E. Simon, J. Pattitucci, B. Blade @ Iridium (early/late) The Radiators @ Maxwell's (Hoboken) Marilyn Crispell w/ M. Helias, P. Motian @ Village Vanguard (early/late) Maurice Brown Soul'd U Out @ Blue Note (late night) David Kolker @ Bitter End
Saturday: Bright Eyes @ Bowery Ballroom Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad @ Galapagos (Brooklyn) Scissor Sisters @ Theater at MSG E. Simon, J. Pattitucci, B. Blade @ Iridium (early/late) *Circus Mind @ Chesterfields (Huntington, LI) Guillermo Brown's Cut Up Quintet @ The Stone (late) BuzzUniverse @ Mexicali Blues (Teaneck, NJ) John Ellis Band @ Tonic (early) The Radiators @ IMAC (Huntington, LI) Laurie Berkner @ Town Hall Marilyn Crispell w/ M. Helias, P. Motian @ Village Vanguard (early/late)
Sunday: E. Simon, J. Pattitucci, B. Blade @ Iridium (early/late) Marilyn Crispell w/ M. Helias, P. Motian @ Village Vanguard (early/late) *Rashanim et al (Purim Party) @ Southpaw (Brooklyn)
I'll pick up on the F.Artseries here and there in the coming months (if you'd like to nominate a musician or band, please do, I welcome all suggestions) as well as try to continue some of the other "series" I've left dangling.
In addition, I'd like to throw in some new tunes throughout the year instead of back loading in the fall. Here are 3 new tracks with 3 pretty old ones. A pretty dreamy near-psychedelic mix for your Friday:
01 GoGo's Theme -- Mike Dillon's Go-Go Jungle: Battery Milk 02 Wet And Rusting -- Menomena: Friend And Foe 03 East -- Pat Martino: East! 04 I Am Waiting -- The Rolling Stones: Aftermath 05 California -- John Mayall: The Turning Point 06 Foundation And Earth -- The Earlies: The Enemy Chorus
My link posting has been pretty lame lately, if not for the lifetime of this thing. I've recently started using Google Reader which has consolidated my blog reading quite conveniently and also allowed me to share links with y'all "on the fly" on the sidebar (to your right: "Ned Read.") I can highly recommend the Reader, pretty snazzy and easy as with all of Google's products. I guess I'm a Goo-slut in the worst way and I shudder to think about how much personal information those dudes have of mine between my Gmail account, regular use of Google Maps and now doing about 90% of my web-browsing via Reader, not to mention this blog. Let's hope they don't turn malevolent any time soon.
I will take this chance to recommend some more television, specifically the Sarah Silverman Program on Comedy Central. I've read a few reviews that were kind of "meh" on the show and have heard from people personally who seem to think that shit ain't funny, but I got to tell you, it's been making me laugh consistently for the first three weeks. It's a natural extension of my love for Mr Show, of which both Silverman and a few of the other cast members were a part of. Everyone seems to dwell on the non-PC/making a statement about PC aspect of the show, but really, to me, it's more of the sort of meta-comedy that Bob and David made into an art form: what Mr Show did so brilliantly to the sketch comedy show, Silverman is trying to do to the sitcom. What I'm trying to say here, is that if you don't like it, you're just not smart enough to get it. The incredibly offensiveness is just a bonus byproduct!!
Both of the links above for her show and Bob and David's site have plenty of goodies to get your funny on, but if you're really looking for something to do, pretty much every halfway decent Mr Show sketch is available on YouTube.
To get you started, here are a couple of music-related sketches:
A little late on this one, but I did catch one other show besides the Arcade Fire last week: Jenny Scheinman at Barbes. Jenny is in residency at this little nook almost every Tuesday and there's nothing I love more than the ResideNYC. A residency can serve many purposes -- band's just getting going can use them to build chemistry and hone their collective chops, musicians use them to work out new material before hitting the road or settling down in the studio, or they can be used as a catchall, a blank canvas with no rules or regulations. Scheinman's is mostly the latter these days, the band is rarely the same, the material likely shifts just as much... even the genre is unclear from week to week: when I saw her last week it was mostly jazz-oriented, but this week she was doing her singin' country routine.
Whatever the music, one thing is clear: you owe it to yourself to make it every once in a while, especially if you live in Brooklyn. The shows start and end relatively early, so even on a cold night, you can get in and out without hassle, or let it start your evening off: you'll have plenty of time to go on to other stuff if your Tuesday should allow. Last week, Jenny had a usual cast of NYC bangers: Adam Levy on guitar, Ben Allison on bass, Nasheet Waits on drums and Aaron Goldberg on piano. I thought it was interesting that two big releases from last week, Norah Jones and Lucinda Williams, albums that would sell in the tens of thousands, featured musicians crammed into the corner of Barbes with an audience of 25 looking on.
They started a little before 7:30 with a quiet wash of music that wasn't too far removed from the previous 15 minutes of tuning up and sound checking. The back room at Barbes is one of those wonderfully private cubes, a three dimensional crumb in the universe where good music was destined to be made and appreciated by small groups of believers. This first song was one of those pieces of music that wasn't quite a song at all, where the musicians all sort of sit on the cusp of melody and the audience waits and waits for the song to "start." Minutes later, after completely atmospheric whooshing, when the sound has built to near-climax we realize that this is the song and gasp and smile and then it is over. It was a total-Frisell type piece coming from a band full of Frisell-family-tree types who have learned it well watching and playing with the masters.
The second number shifted gears completely into a more funky rave-up type thing. Scheinman shows total mastery over a range of styles and reveals the violin to be nearly as sonically flexible as the piano or guitar. Waits controlled a lot of the show starting with this piece, as he laid down a range of overlapping James-Brown-worthy breakdowns and drawing Allison into his web of groove. Solos from Scheinman and Levy made way for Goldberg who was very interesting to watch. When the band cleared way for his slot he seemed incredibly tentative, the look on his face not quite terror, but complete bewilderment. His hands seemed too small on the piano as he very delicately dipped his fingers onto the keys like he was washing them in some ceremonial bowl. As the solo built up, though, that look made more sense -- it was more of the concentration of an expert chess player, planning dozens of moves down the line of play. Aaron's touch remained incredibly light across the keys as he built momentum in speed and volume until the entire band joined him in checkmate.
From there the group played a couple more pieces each with its own distinct feel: a more straight jazz piece with klezmish leanings and one or two others. The music as a whole is border-straddling: jazz, country, classical, funk, pop... you can taste a little of all those spices. Jenny is a treat to watch. Every time I see her, on her own or backing someone else, she draws me in completely. She is the type of musician who opens up my eyes to an instrument I usually wouldn't pay a second notice to. She doesn't quite play the violin as much as coax it to sing and speak, sometimes long, gorgeous operatic notes and other times, emotive grunting and groaning. Watching her play, I realize how unnatural the instrument is. Most others: the guitar, the piano, etc., seem to have evolved to fit the human structure, they flow in with our bodily lines so that our hands naturally fall where they should to play. The violin seems to be almost violently orthogonal to this notion, sticking straight out from the body at right angles and forcing even more awkward angles from the wrists. And yet, Jenny makes this look and feel fluid and graceful and the music flows as such.
The band took a short break before which Scheinman announced that she was playing with Waits for the first time. That struck me a bit dumb -- the guy was masterful to the point where it seemed like he was dictating the pace and feel of each piece. This was even more apparent in the second set. The first number started off with a real catchy hook and rotated around each member in the usual way. But then it sort of veered off into this bridge where Jenny settled onto a single note -- one hypnotic bowed string over and over and over for minutes on end. Meanwhile, the band abandoned the one-solo-at-a-time method and congealed around Waits' rhythmic pacing. Nasheet took control, flipping the "jam" into a groove, then a reggae breakdown, then a dancehall breakdown and on and on. It was, if you'll forgive me, a bit Phish-esque, the way the band kind of freely flowed from one form to another under the guidance of the brilliant drumming. Allison seemed especially in tune with Waits, bopping along, literally bouncing up and down to the beats. This is where the beauty of the unknown rears its head and what makes a residency like this so priceless. These guys are all consummate pros, ready for anything, but probably expecting little more than reading some sheet music and taking a predetermined solo every once in a while. But then there are real moments when the bandleader closes her eyes and strokes her instrument in a trance and the entire room becomes completely hypnotized by the music being churned out in real time before them. Nothing short of magical as it smoothly flowed back into the original theme. From there it got drawn out and the band seemed reluctant to just let things end without more exploration. Scheinman was the consummate bandleader following the golden rule, allowing all her musicians freedom within the boundaries she created.
The night ended in a similar manner to which it had started. Jenny lead the charge as they built another sound collage, redefined what "beautiful music" was for just a few moments. When the night had started a short 90 minutes previously, it had been 5 musicians feeling each other out on a cold Tuesday night. Now, as the snow was starting to fall outside in the "real world" they were a band, tight, coherent and pretty amazing. Not bad for a show where they passed around a bucket for the band with the caveat that there was "No Maxium." No maximum indeed.
Jenny Scheinman is in residency every Tuesday in Park Slope and you owe it to yourself to check her out... there are few better.
Aaron Goldberg is playing this week at the Jazz Standard
The Boy had his first taste of the cruel, cold world of the athletic arena today, his first whiff of sweaty, gladiatorial competition... that's right, his first sporting event: Harlem Globetrotters live and in person!! (cue Sweet Georgia Brown) The kid did surprisingly well after a steady infusion of syrupy beverage, deep fried snacks and the coup de grace: the Carvel twist. Next step: The Carrier Dome. [Thanks to birthday boy, David C and family for the fun afternoon in the dirty Jerz]
And for those of you who could care less what my son and I did this long weekend, I add that while we still might be weeks away from chicken fried bacon, we did our first batch of homemade french fries and they were yum for the whole family.
President's Day: *Explosions In The Sky @ Warsaw (Brooklyn) Jon Anderson w/ School of Rock All Stars @ BB King's Smokey's Roundup @ Barbes (Brooklyn) Snowden @ Southpaw (Brooklyn)
Mardi Gras: Jenny Scheinman @ Barbes (Brooklyn) (early) Donny McCaslin @ 55 Bar (late) Explosions In The Sky @ Society for Ethical Culture Scott Metzger @ Old Office Five of a Kind @ Jazz Standard (early/late) Brian Blade Fellowship @ Village Vanguard (early/late) American Babies @ Living Room (early) *Dansettes, Stephane Wremble et al @ Union Hall (brooklyn) Howard Fishman @ Barbes (Brooklyn) (late) Hazy Malaze et al @ Arlene's Grocery
Wednesday: Brian Blade Fellowship @ Village Vanguard (early/late) Rod Stewart @ Madison Square Garden Viktor Krauss @ Joe's Pub (early) *Aaron Goldberg 3 w/ Stefon Harris @ Jazz Standard (early/late) Adam Deitch Project @ The BLVD Binky Griptite @ Lucky Cat (Brooklyn)
Thursday: Guillermo Brown/Dave Burrell et al @ Symphony Space Aaron Goldberg 3 w/ Stefon Harris @ Jazz Standard (early/late) Charlie Hunter @ Mo Pitkin's *Julian Velard @ Joe's Pub (early/late) Stellastarr* @ Gramercy Theater Himalayas @ Zebulon (Brooklyn) Brian Blade Fellowship @ Village Vanguard (early/late) G Love & Special Sauce @ Starland Ballroom (Sayreville, NJ) Joan As Police Woman, Kyp Malone et al @ Tonic BB King @ NJPAC (Newark, NJ)
Friday: *Neko Case @ Lincoln Center (early/late) The Bad Plus @ McCarter Theater (Princeton, NJ) Ruha @ The Cutting Room Brian Blade Fellowship @ Village Vanguard (early/late) Andrea Parkins/Ches Smith @ The Stone (early) David Bromberg @ Joe's Pub (early) Edom @ Zebulon (Brooklyn) Javon Jackson w/ Dr Lonnie Smith @ Jazz Standard (early/late) The Lemonheads @ Southpaw (Brooklyn) Curha-chestra @ The Stone (late)
Saturday: *Black Hollies, O'Death et al @ Mercury Lounge Javon Jackson w/ Dr Lonnie Smith @ Jazz Standard (early/late) Rusted Root @ Nokia Theater Theremin Society @ Issue Project Space (Brooklyn) Brian Blade Fellowship @ Village Vanguard (early/late) Big Yes and a small no @ Lakeside Lounge The Lemonheads @ Maxwell's (Hoboken) Amayo's Fu-Arkist-Ra @ Zebulon (Brooklyn) Brooklyn Qawwali Party @ Joe's Pub Matt & Kim @ Rodrigue's Coffee House (Bronx) Lotus @ Bowery Ballroom Mosh Ben Ari @ Symphony Space
Sunday: Allen Toussaint @ Joe's Pub (noon) Stephane Wrembel @ Barbes (Brooklyn) *Brian Blade Fellowship @ Village Vanguard (early/late) Javon Jackson w/ Dr Lonnie Smith @ Jazz Standard (early/late) The Lemonheads @ Maxwell's (Hoboken)
Guess you guys like Metzger, or at least were willing to give him a try -- last week's was the most downloaded mix yet (not counting the 2006 maxi). Let's keep the "My Guitar Pantheon" theme going with a whole slew of jimmy jam-jams with Jimmy "F'in" Herring. I had trouble whittling it down to just 6, and these probably don't even represent the best tracks from these shows, let alone the whole Herring shebang... in the interest of time and space, these should certainly suffice. If there's enough interest, I could put these entire shows up for download as well, incredibly tasty (except the Panic which is for sale).
Anyway, Jimmy's been all over the place the last couple of decades, hope you appreciate the chops half as much as I do. n.b. I was lucky enough to be at 4 of these 6 shows.
01 Jam -- The Dragonflys: 20 July 2005 02 Slipknot! -- Phil Lesh Quintet: 30 April 2001 03 Compared To What -- Aquarium Rescue Unit: 12 November 1993 04 Bowlegged Woman -- Widespread Panic: 31 December 2006 05 What I Say -- KVHH: 30 April 1999 06 Fountain Jam -- Rogers, Herring, Sipe, Fountain: 10 August 2006
Yesterday's Midlake review was the 100th post here at OTW, so thanks for playing along at home. That's right, Ned pulled a Roosevelt and got shit done in his first 100 days, 20 mixes, 20+ reviews, and a whole lot of unhealthy living in between... pretty much a neat 1 post per day in the past 20 weeks. A lot of those mixes are still available, so feel free to browse through the archives and if there's a particularly old one that's not up and you want it, let me know. And don't be shy, my second 100 post resolution is to get some more feedback from you, the faithful OTW readers... I even fixed those chicken wing photos for you! We're all about you here, don't forget it. You've even gotten me to become the guy I hate, schlepping my camera to shows to take blurry, poorly lit photographs of less-than-attractive jazz musicians, thanks!
In honor of #100, here are some other folk celebrating a centennial in 2007:
How about this, Congress finally passed the budget so we can get on with our lives and maybe I'll actually get a raise this year! Good times.
Finally, this dude from Heroes not only went to my alma mater, but we graduated in the same class. I knew he looked familiar. It's been tough carrying the "only celebrity" flag for so long, I'm totally ready to offload.
Sorry for the lame post, I promise a fat new mix tomorrow...
There was an interesting article in last week's New York Times Magazine about designer dog breeds, a strange mathematics of genes where 1 + 1 = 3 and basset + beagle = bagel. Lately it seems like so many musical acts are trying to pull off the same magic and this was on display Friday night at the Bowery Ballroom. What was ostensibly a chance to check out Midlake and confirm that my lusting after their sound on their album The Trials of Van Occupanther was warrented turned into a 3-band mini-festival of stylistic mashup. The neverending calculus of subgenres and musical oneoffmanship provides for some interesting bedfellows. Each act trying to distill the strengths of one addend and add it to those of another. First up was The Czars whom, within 2 verses of their opening number, I pegged as the unlikely pairing of Billy Joel + Pink Floyd. These guys went the trendy route -- just a duo: piano/vocals with a guitarist accompanying behind him. These things can work and they can't, but it helps if you can sing and you can play and these two could do both. The vocals were particularly strong, and in a universe where that often isn't the case, it was noteworthy. Even when the songs were crammed to the legal limit of lyrical cliches (which was the case on more than one occasion), the power and earnestness of that voice was enough to get me past it. After a while, with some hit-or-miss attempts at humor in his words, I wasn't sure if the lameness was intentionally coy or what, but it didn't matter. With that end being held down with some surehandedness, the fate of the band's good-or-not verdict fell into the guitarists fingers. He was up to the task. This guy obviously took his guitar playing and his guitars very seriously -- watching him play, I saw many lonely hours in a dorm room getting intimate with his axe. But it paid off, especially in his use of effects which consisted mainly of heavy, heavy reverb or heavy, heavy distortion or both. This added some extra oomph to what otherwise might have been bearable but boring love songs. The first tune -- that one that had me feeling the Floyd -- was interesting in that he used an e-bow to get some wild out-there noises and was allowed some room to weave in a dreamy outro. The room was fractionally full and many early-risers were more interested in their conversation and drinks than the music. That goes without saying, of course, but what was kind of neat was the way the music seemed to invite in the din, almost making it a piece of furniture in the room. It was certainly the weakest set of the night, but that's not taking away anything from these guys, definitely worth checking out in some bar or as an opening act.
Post-Czars, I got into that "watch 'em set up the next act" act and tried to guess at what might be coming down the pike. But nothing prepared me for St Vincent (= Norah Jones + Jimmy Herring (seriously)). It's rare that I would become instantly smitten with a musician or band, but that happened after about 15 seconds of St Vincent which is an aka for Annie Clark, solo and in no need of accompaniment whatsoever. It was especially interesting to experience her cold right after my Cat Power experience on Monday. Everything that Cat Power wasn't (she was a whole lot of other things, but there as plenty she wasn't), St Vincent certainly was. Starting with her clothes -- an off-beat take on the quintessential little black dress -- right down to her sense of humor that was actually funny, occasionally hilariously so, both inside and out of her music [n.b. her myspace page lists the following influences: Sarah Silverman, Woody Allen, John/Alice Coltrane amongst others and under "Sounds like" avers "Hand claps and wry smiles"].
Oh yeah, and there was music. It wouldn't be an overstatement to say Ms. Clark was a virtuoso. She had a pair of big, beautiful Epiphone jazz guitars and she treated them both like her pet Labradoodles -- with love, affection and complete control. Fluttering fingerpicking up and down complicated jazzesque lines, she was dazzling to a note. She made sure we knew she was from Texas (or the "United States of Texas" as she called it) and yet her act was much more Paris on the Seine circa Roaring Twenties than Rio Grande turn of the 21st century. Her skills and style coming to fruit in the Lone Star State are about as likely as a finding a butterfly in Antarctic, but there you go. In fact, the EP that I had no choice but to plunk down a fiver for on the way home (she indicated that her full-length might be on its way this summer; already on my must-buy list) is called "Paris Is Burning."
Was it jazz-infused pop or pop-inflected jazz and does it matter? No it doesn't, St. Vincent was phenomenal. The set was one big grin from ear to ear whether she was crooning something sweet and soulful, ripping up some serious shredding on her guitar or moving over to a keyboard. There wasn't a clunker in the bunch. Somehow she fused a sardonic wit with serious chops without any jarring weirdness. She finished a rollicking revenge tale and moved over to her keyboard introducing the next song as "Marry Me" and then pointed out how that wasn't necessarily a strategic set pairing. The latter tune featured one of many memorable lyrics: "Marry me, John... let's do what Mary and Joseph did, without the... kid." Call her Annie, call her St. Vincent, she is the complete package was a total revelation to me. Her songwriting was both intricate and interesting and simple and start at once. I had to remind myself on several occasions how truly amazing her ability to sing and play two complementary yet complicated parts simultaneously was... which isn't to mention the specially miked wood block on which she whammed out an echoing rhythm on select numbers. I haven't enjoyed a musician utterly blind like this in who knows how long. I don't think I was alone, that chit-chat from the Czars set turned into nothing short of awed cooing between songs, a giddy kind of silence. You owe it to yourself to check her out, you'll either be just as smitten as I am or I question your taste in music and beyond.
So, here we are, two hours into the night, headliner yet to take the stage and it has already been $13 well spent. From the beautiful nakedness of St Vincent's solo stage the cozy stage was suddenly crammed tight with equipment, threatening to pop its top button and rip the inseam as a small battalion of roadies lugged piles of amplifiers and a phalanx of keyboards front and center. Now I had the opposite game to play: I knew what these guys sounded like, I'd obsessed over their CD for about a month straight and the melodies linger deep in my subconscious -- now I tried hard to figure out how they could bring that magic to the live stage. Would they be able to pull it off? Would the smiles of the night continue? The small touches of the set-up time -- the paper mache Occupanther mask from the album art was situated on one of the keyboard tables and a projector was set up with a drop-down screen appearing behind the stage -- indicated that it would.
The obvious question to ask, so many paragraphs into this interminable reviews is: what mixed breed is Midlake peddling? Is the algebra as easy as Midlake = Fleetwood Mac - Stevie Nicks or is there something deeper going on there? I've delved deep into the album and I watched them go America soft-rock poetic for a good 80 minutes Friday night and I really don't know, nor do I care. All I know is that they absolutely killed it, through and through, taking the daunting prospect of a sold out Bowery Ballroom (this while playing rooms fraction of the size in Philly and Boston on nights sandwiching this deep-winter Friday) and flipping it into a consummation.
Midlake is a quintet where everyone has a keyboard in front of them. The drummer's keyboard was of the laptop variety and controlled short videos and bizarro movie clips through the projector for each song. Pretty standard fare for a pop act these days, but a nice wrinkle nonetheless with their pre-modern dramatics that synched up with the music pretty well... there was even a homemade video or two in there which echoed the Flaming Lips in a way. The other four all spend legitimate periods of time laying down on a wide variety of keyboard tones, from the piano player sticking mostly to the piano to some deep, evil electronic bassishness from the bass player. The two guitar players did a nice mix and match between 6 & 12 strings, acoustic and electric. The point here being that the sound that was called for at each moment was achieved in a constant flow of pure pop precision. A heavy fraction of the show was taken from Van Occupanther, as you might expect, with probably the first 30-40 minutes being from the album. I wouldn't have had it any other way, especially with the skill in which they pulled it off. The stage presence particularly through this opening stretch seemed to indicate that achieving near-perfect renditions of the material was no easy task. The look on their faces, especially the front man, Tim Smith (I think he's the lead guy?), was almost one of sheer stress. It didn't show in their playing though. It's not that the songs are incredibly complex on their face, but they do have a certain level of subtlety that pretty much makes the sound -- without it, the music pretty much falls apart... something that didn't even come close to happening Friday night. As the set went on, though, they loosened up that top button and the guys seemed to open up a bit between songs. Like they withstood the initial onslaught and realized they were still in the game... not only in it, but winning it handily. We can *do* this. This middle section of the night opened up for some older material from their debut "Banman and Silvercork" -- including "Balloon Maker" and ""Some of Them Were Superstitious") as well as at least one in-progress new number, "Children of the Ground." These showed both a little prodding and malleability to that pastoral Midlake sound at the same time it revealed a tidy limit to where they were going. This was somewhat comforting -- Midlake's sound is self-contained and somewhat perfect in the universe they have carved out for it. These guys are virtuosos of a different sort -- they don't awe in technical mastery of an instrument, but rather excel as a band. There were no highlight moments, no "wow" stretches -- they nailed the material, "Roscoe," "Bandits" and the rest of them. Here's a very short taste of the "Head Home" that ended the set (I can't shoot more than a minute without feeling awkward, but this came out pretty good):
Lush, dense harmony -- three-part vocal harmony and sweet, pitch-perfect harmony of guitars, bass, keyboards and drums -- dig deep inward tunnels toward dreamlike otherworlds. Some bands thrive on gobbling up more and more of the musical spectrum with each step, a group like Midlake has quite an attractive patch of real estate and would do good by seeing what kind of homestead they can achieve therein. To listen to Midlake, on CD or live in concert, is to allow yourself to travel to a slightly alternate reality. The rich storytelling, the harmonizing acoustic guitars, the occasional spaced-out keyboard romp or raunchy electric guitar -- it evokes some of the more beautiful, (very old) Genesis [a personal preference]. This is the kind of music that requires listen after listen after listen -- it draws you in and becomes a part of you and thus the live show was a natural extension of the romance. I would be curious to hear the opinions of someone who went into the show cold. What is it like to walk in from the street and find these five guys on stage, doing nothing that spectacular or out of the ordinary and yet holding sway over hundreds of rapt devotees? For me, it was stumbling out onto Delancey slightly buzzed -- the happy feeling of a great meal and one too many glasses of wine, great music flowing through my veins warming me to immunity from the Saturday morning chill.
Well, I've name-checked Fleetwood Mac, America, Flaming Lips and Genesis, looks like we've got ourselves a lovable ole mutt on our hands. Listen to Midlake. Check out St. Vincent. Designer breeds and mutts all the same: big, fat, wet indiepop doggie kisses.
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