This summer’s highly anticipated Monolith Festival was the first indie-rock fest ever held at Red Rocks, and to my knowledge, the largest we’ve ever had here in Colorado - over 60 bands on five stages at (arguably) the most beautiful venue in the United States. Months of speculation and growing excitement paid off in a big way over the weekend with an incredible two days of music. The festival organization and execution was really first-rate; outside of a few sound problems from the main stage on Friday, things ran very smoothly.

Day One

I’d never been to a multi-stage festival before Monolith, and I admit I was curious as to where they were going to pack five stages into the venue. The stage layout turned out to be quite brilliant - even if it did involve a lot of stair climbing. I managed to hit at least one set at each of the five stages over the two days, and each stage had its own appeal. The two stages inside the visitors center tended to get hot and crowded, but the acts playing more than made up for that.

We arrived just as the festival began. Everything Absent Or Distorted, now unquestionably my favorite local band, was the first act playing the main stage. Even though there weren’t more than a couple hundred people in attendance for their Friday afternoon set, it was great to see the guys playing Red Rocks. They put on an energetic set, as always. But really, you can’t go wrong with white suits, accordions, banjos and happy musicians, am I right?

Next we scaled the stairs to the top of the amphitheater and the New Belgium Stage for The Broken West. I love their debut album and so far their live show hasn’t disappointed either. Our first taste of the New Belgium stage was great; we wondered how its sound would be affected by the main stage, but it seemed that they staggered those two stages enough that there was little overlap. Even when bands were on simultaneously there were rarely any problems. Rarely.

After The Broken West we grabbed some beer and began discussing our options until Clap Your Hands Say Yeah took the main stage - Cat-A-Tac at the WOXY.com stage or Scott Leger at the acoustic stage? I was leaning toward local band Cat-A-Tac, even though they play a lot of gigs, I’d been meaning to check them out for some time. In the midst of decision-making, however, Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band took the New Belgium Stage and made our decision for us. Easily the surprise of the festival, the bluesy/Zydeco-ish Big Damn Band was made up of a drummer, a singer/guitarist (who sometimes played cymbal with his foot), and a washboard player. A washboard!!! The highlight was a song (inspired by a true story) entitled “Your Cousin’s On COPS”. Yeah, the TV show. It was awesome. I’d never heard of these guys (and gal) but will never miss a chance to see them again.

At this point we started to plan our stair-climbing in a rather strategic way. Next was CYHSY on the main stage, but since Ra Ra Riot was on immediately after in the visitors center (accessible only from the top of the amphitheater) we sat about halfway down to the main stage for the CYHSY set. Despite some feedback and microphone problems, it was a really good set. Somewhat surprisingly, only three of the nine songs played were from Some Loud Thunder. The band seemed really confident playing the Red Rocks main stage and were very animated and energetic.

Back to the top and down to the WOXY.com stage for Ra Ra Riot. This was our first experience with the indoor stages, and though it was getting chilly on the outside, the inside was definitely a different story. Ra Ra Riot packed ‘em in and even though it was hot and crowded, the enthusiastic set from these upstate New Yorkers was a lot of fun. I loved the electric string instruments - they looked like violin and cello skeletons.

By this time the stairs and the dancing had taken their toll, so we contented ourselves watching Kings Of Leon from the second from top row of the amphitheater. I’ve never seen KOL before, and I’ve heard they put on a great show, but it was pretty ho-hum to me. Maybe because we were so far away, maybe because I’m not familiar with them, maybe because we’d just been rocked by Ra Ra Riot… Not too much to report from this set.

The Editors though… they were a blast. At times they seemed to sound like any other band from Birmingham, but the energy from both the band and the crowd made the set a complete success.

The Decemberists were the last band we planned to stay for on day one. They took the main stage at 8:30, and when they came out playing Shiny it seemed like we could be in for a treat. Unfortunately, for the most part, the set seemed like the last couple Decemberists shows I’d seen. There were other highlights - Billy Liar, a rendition of You Are My Sunshine that started while Colin was tuning but turned into a full band effort, a funny story about the worst song Colin has ever written (Dracula’s Daughter) that somehow turned into O Valencia!. Colin was entertaining as always, but there was just something a bit disappointing about the set, something I feel I can’t quite put my finger on. Perhaps it was that they, like CYHSY, had several sound issues (I’ve never seen so many technical problems on the Red Rocks main stage in my life) or that their last song was completely drowned out when the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club took the New Belgium Stage. Or maybe I’m simply on Decemberists overload… Monolith marks the third time I’ve seen them in the last year, so it could be I just need a break.

Overall, day one of the Monolith Festival was a rousing success. Even with the slight Decemberists disappointment, I didn’t see a bad set all day. I wish I could have seen more, but I’m the type of music fan where once I get pulled in to a great performance I can’t get away. It was really refreshing to be in the presence of so many talented musicians who were as thrilled to play Red Rocks as we were to see them.

Day Two

Day two of the festival brought more bands and more decisions to make than the day before. I played it safe for much of this festival, tending to stick with bands that I’d seen before and/or was pretty familiar with. Much like the day before, day two was overwhelmingly loaded with great music.

We arrived a little later than the day before, just in time for the start of Matt & Kim’s set at the New Belgium stage. Not unlike their show at the Boulder Theater three days before, Matt and Kim were all smiles, energy and moxie. The constantly growing crowd dug every note of the much too short set. Both Matt and Kim seemed completely in awe of the venue: “Kim, maybe we didn’t make it. Maybe our plane crashed. Maybe this is show heaven.”

In sharp contrast to the wide-eyed wonder of Matt & Kim, Brian Jonestown Massacre was next on the main stage. I stayed only long enough to witness Anton’s tuning meltdown - first cursing his band for not being able to play him a “fucking D”, then ordering the crowd to “Shut the fuck up. I’m doing this for you, just shut up and we’ll tune and play a song for you”. Wow. I can’t believe anyone still books this guy, though I admit it was a bit difficult to tear myself away from the BJM train wreck to catch Nathan & Stephen at the Rock Room Stage.

I’d been meaning to check out Nathan & Stephen (a complete misnomer, as there are at least 8 band members…) for quite a while, and I’m glad I finally caught a performance. The set was jammed with fun pop songs; the band and crowd were having an equally great time.

The next band on the Rock Room-adjacent WOXY.com stage was White Rabbits, who I want to see dearly. Unfortunately William Elliott Whitmore was playing the acoustic stage at exactly the same time and I wanted to see him too. I opted for the acoustic, mainly because I’m seeing White Rabbits at the Larimer Lounge next month. We did exit the visitors center via the WOXY.com room (where White Rabbits were sound-checking) at a very slow pace, in hopes of catching their first song, but no luck.

William Whitmore was a pleasant surprise. I’d heard of him but had never listened to his music. He’s a young guy but sings with the gruff yet melodic voice of a seasoned folk-ster. This was the only set I saw at the smallest festival stage; Whitmore didn’t think anyone would show up to see him and was oozing gratitude throughout the set. He didn’t hide his animosity towards cops, capping off the amazing set with a shoe-stomping rendition of Johnny Law.

Ready Art Brut? They were up next on the main stage. Eddie Argos is the consummate front man, strutting about the stage, or into the crowd, and spitting more than singing the lyrics. The crowd loved them and I can’t wait to see them again with The Hold Steady in November.

Back to the WOXY.com stage for Hot IQs. Even though they play a lot of gigs in Denver, they are my almost favorite local band (second only to Everything Absent Or Distorted), and I didn’t want to pass up seeing them at the festival. The band was already playing and the room was already packed by the time I got in, so sadly I couldn’t get a view of drummer Elaine - arguably the biggest draw of the Hot IQs live show. For those not in the know - she’s hot, she’s got an affinity for bubblegum, and she keeps a raging beat on those drums of hers. The thing I love most about Hot IQs is their ability to create a party atmosphere at their shows. Last time I saw them they brought a cooler of popsicles on stage and threw them into the crowd halfway through the show. For the Monolith set they had confetti-filled balloons floating around, getting popped by the crowd. Great set.

One of the bands that I’d been most looking forward to was Spoon on the main stage. We watched from the top of the amphitheater, in preparation for Cloud Cult at the New Belgium stage. Red Rocks as a venue has a lot of things going for it - one of the most pleasing is that there really is no bad seat in the house; they have a screen so those of us who choose the nosebleed seats can still get a decent glimpse of the action. Although I have to mention that what the second-to-last row of the amphitheater lacks in view it more than makes up for in sound quality, and Spoon sounded extra-amazing. As expected, they played a lot from this year’s incredible Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. The band was extraordinarily tight, Britt was all smiles - it was definitely one of the best sets of the weekend.

I’d only seen Cloud Cult once before Monolith, but it was one of the more moving, almost spiritual, musical experiences I have ever had. The Monolith show was no different. From the New Belgium stage atop the amphitheater, with a bit of wind kicking up, Cloud Cult drew in a large, sing-along crowd with their unique fusion of music and art. In a final bit of deceit that you probably wouldn’t expect from Craig Minowa, he flat-out lied to the crowd and said that the Flaming Lips weren’t going on for another 20 minutes so we all had plenty of time to stay for their last two songs. In reality, the Flaming Lips were starting at about that time (not that I would have left Cloud Cult). I thought it was a clever little bit of trickery.

I stayed up top to watch the Flaming Lips’ first few songs, as I’d decided earlier that I really wanted to catch YACHT’s set - he was booked for the WOXY.com stage half an hour after the Lips’ were scheduled to start, poor guy. I got down to the stage where they were doing a drawing for some free Southwest Airlines tickets or something. There were about a dozen people in the room, and for a moment I thought I was mistaken on the whole YACHT thing… I checked the schedule, made sure I was in the WOXY.com room, and waited. Sure enough, after about five minutes, Jona was introduced and proceeded to look out at the crowd and just chuckle - by this time there were probably about 25 people in the room, including Matt & Kim, Bryan from Hot IQs, and the sound guys.

He spent the first ten minutes or so just talking to us - about how this was exactly what he pictured when he found out he was on during the Flaming Lips’ set, how the car that was supposed to pick him up at the airport never showed up, how he’d already gotten paid, so he didn’t feel like he really had to do anything. Then he asked that the lights be turned down and the speakers up, and put on the perfect display to end the already amazing festival.

If you have never seen YACHT, do yourself a great favor and go do it. He has moves like I’ve never seen, and our small number didn’t seem to faze him at all - it was obvious he put everything he had into his performance. He spent the entire set shifting between the stage and the floor, completely engaging the audience (I hesitate to call it a “crowd”). At the end of his set, he assured us that he didn’t take us for granted, and thanked everyone for coming. He also invited us to stay and hang out, but I thought I’d better get back down to the main stage as I was meeting my friends (and ride home!) after the Lips were done.

I was out in time to see the Flaming Lips’ encore. I’d never seen them before, but of course their live show is legendary, so I wasn’t surprised by all the bells and whistles… I’m sure the entire set was great, but I left thoroughly satisfied that I was one of the few to see YACHT.

Overall, the weekend was impressive, exhausting, exhilarating and completely awesome. The weather couldn’t have been better - mid-September can be a little sketchy in Colorado, but we had no rain (or snow!) and it didn’t even get too cold once the sun went down. The best thing about Monolith was that there was always music happening somewhere - I love not having to wait through set changes. I can only hope that the festival was enough of a success to become a tradition.

Photo Credits
Everything Absent Or Distorted [EAOD MySpace]
The Broken West [solace]
Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band [twentyeightdeep]
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah [catinlap]
Ra Ra Riot [woxy]
Kings Of Leon [ckvenild]
Editors [johnandbelinda]
Decemberists [thinkderek]
Brian Jonestown Massacre [johnandbelinda]
Nathan & Stephen [shifty_eyes]
White Rabbits [woxy]
William Elliott Whitmore [solace]
Art Brut [squish_e]
Hot IQs [johnandbelinda]
Spoon [gloryglorycatchacory]
Cloud Cult [solace]
Flaming Lips [catinlap]

The Sea & Cake celebrating Thrill Jockey’s 15th Birthday… probably.

We’ve previously reported about Thrill Jockey’s birthday celebrations in London, but they’ve now announced the release of a special box set of 7″ featuring Tortoise and The Sea & Cake… full details below:

Tortoise chose to cover a song by Nobukazu Takemura a Japanese musician- whose ground breaking albums- are delicate combinations of live instrumentation largely all played by Takemura, analog synths, Computer manipulated or simulated voice recordings (on one record he used a computer program designed for those who are speech impaired).

Arbouretum recorded a dark beauty by Thalia Zedek a Boston musican who was in Come and UZI. Thalia will be recording her second Thrill Jockey record this fall for release in early 2008. Special Guest on this recording is Victoria from Beach House who are currently on tour with Arbouretum .

The Sea and Cake recorded a new song by Califone from their most recent album “Roots and Crowns”. The vocal styles of The Sea and Cake’s Sam Prekop bring an entirely new feeling to the song. Calfione and The Sea and Cake are currently on tour and will be performing at the Koko.

Pit er Pat selected a gem by the Lonesome Organist from his album “Cavalcade”. Re- interpreting it with a killer calypso feel! Pit er Pat’s Butchy Feugo recently preformed as drummer number 7 in the Bordoms nyc 77 drummers show. Pit er Pat are currently on tour in North America With the Fiery Furnaces.

David Byrne covered Ex Guru by The Fiery Furnaces
Archer Prewitt covered Mrs Turner by The National Trust
Bobby Conn, Califone and Thalia Zedek covered Freakwater songs
Freakwater covered Megre Prick by the Zincs
The Zincs covered Blue Marble Girl by Giant Sand
Directions covered Toy Boat by Jeff Parker
And More!!

These songs will not be released on cd and will be a limited edition set.

This release sees all the recorded tracks by 1980s post-punk Scots The Fire Engines compiled on one album for the first time.  The band were only together for 18 months, but have cast a long and influential shadow ever since.  Indeed, a significant part of the interest in listening to this is in trying to work out which bands have subsequently been influenced by them.  I certainly heard a lot of Orange Juice (both instrumentally and in the vocal, which has definitely shaped Edwyn Collins’ delivery), and thus also Franz Ferdinand.  Less expectedly I could hear a little bit of Depeche Mode (who quite possibly ‘borrowed’ quite heavily from “Meat Whiplash” for their early single “Just Can’t Get Enough”).  It would also seem that a whole host of recent ‘punk funk’ acts (The Rapture, !!!, Radio Four), who have taken the Fire Engines’ template of funk-heavy bass and cowbells, as witnessed here on many of the tracks, including “Meat Whiplash”, “Get Up and Use Me”, “Big Gold Dream” and “Discord”.  

The band manage to combine this danceable funky feel with distinctive  guitar sounds, which are quite hard to describe on paper.  Tracks like the classic “Candyskins” (which is probably the best place to start for an introduction to the band and is, appropriately, the first track) and “Sympathetic Anaesthetic” sound, at first listen, to be full of classically indie ‘jangle’. Yet they also, at the same time, veer between spikey-ness and, at some points, a sound that is closer to a sitar than anything else.  

A good few of the tracks here are instrumentals, and those that do have lyrics are nearly all frustratingly oblique: I’ve listened to this album many many times now and would still struggle to be able to say what any track is specifically about.  This is a shame, but it could be argued that this all adds to their mystique and uncompromising image.

The album ends with different versions of four tracks already included (”Get Up and Use Me”, “Sympathetic Anaesthetic”, “New Things in Cartons”, and “Plastic Gift”) which don’t really add anything to the originals. Sounding in each case pretty similar to the previous versions (although the alternate “Get Up and Use Me” doesn’t have the endearing false start of the original), and tend to just make this album seem overlong.  

The main difficulty with this release is that the band are almost too distinctive: in a strange way they sound so much like themselves that each track ends up sounding too similar to the one before.  This means it can pall a bit, and much of what can be found here was not to this reviewer’s taste.  However, as a primer for an influential and original band then this will undoubtedly be of interest to many a fan of British independent music.
55%

Links
Fire Engines [official site] [myspace] [buy it]

With the release of their “Ex-Voto” EP set for October 22nd the Duke Spirit will be warming up for their November tour with an exclusive ‘top secret’ show in London on October 8th. According to the band the exact location is being kept under wraps for the time being and tickets will be in limited supply.

For your chance to get in on the action wander over to the bands myspace page (where the EP is also currently streaming) and enter your contact details on the competition form. You will then be notified by email if your application has been successful.

For those of you that don’t manage to snag some secret party action, the full UK tour dates are:
Saturday November 10th - Liverpool Evol @ Korova
Sunday 11th - Leeds Cockpit
Monday 12th - Glasgow ABC
Wednesday 14th - Bristol Fleece
Thursday 15th - Manchester Night & Day
Friday 16th - Birmingham Academy
Saturday 17th - Norwich Arts Centre
Monday 19th - Oxford Academy
Tuesday 20th - Nottingham Social
Wednesday 21st - London 229

If you visit the bands web-site store you can buy a ticket for one of the forthcoming shows and pre-order the Ex Voto EP at the same time for a combined price of £9.50! What a bloody bargain! Read more about the EP here, and read an interview we did with bass player Toby Butler here.

Bella Union are set to unleash their latest signing onto the nation over the next couple of months in the shape of Swedish singer songwriter Peter Von Poehl. His name may ring a bell to some of our European readers. He’s already had a hit single in France, not to mention support slots with Brian Wilson. Air are also huge fans which comes as no suprise, as the laid back atmospherics and dare I say it, “mellow grooves” contained within single “Going To Where The Tea Trees Are” are rather akin to Air’s Moon Safari days.

We’ll try and get some mp3’s up in the near future, in the meantime check out his myspace page for a little taster of what’s to come.

Next month sees Peter make his UK debut at Bella Union’s brand new club night “Kill Your Darlings”. Held at the Soho Revue Bar in London the evening will take place on a montly basis and will feature an eclectic mixture of new Bella Union signings as well as non-Bella Union acts. There will also be guest DJ’s (we’ll be there in November with our Vanilla Ice 12″s) and suprise acoustic performances from more established acts from time to time. The first evening will take place on October 22nd. Tickets are priced at £7 on the door, or for £5 by following this link. Doors open at 7:30pm.

Links
Peter Von Poehl [official site] [myspace]
Kill Your Darlings [official site] [myspace]

The Shins return to the UK in November to play a trio of dates in England and Scotland…

November
7 London Hammersmith Apollo
8 Manchester University
9 Glasgow Barrowland

Tickets on sale now from their respective outlets. They’ve also been nominated for an MTVU Woodie… lucky them.

Links
The Shins [official site] [myspace] [buy Wincing The Night Away]

With the help of Ross Orton (M.I.A. – Kala producer) and long-time collaborator Req-One (who releases records on Warp), Kid Acne has dropped some authentic British hip-hop. Romance Ain’t Dead is a brief balls-out album that comes as a welcome shock to the system, with tracks rarely going over 3 minutes and the album itself only 30 minutes in length. In that concise period, Ackers manages to breeze through with hilarious bragging and banging tracks that represent Britain and specifically northern-ness (he hails from Sheffield) without being pretentious or ironic.

The first track’s chorus “That’s right kids/Don’t fuck wit’ Eddy Fresh”, is enough alone to make it one of the best cuts on the album. But lines like “Took a super soaker to laser quest/Held it down like house arrest” and later, “Dr Zhivago, full of bravado/Breath like a wino, neckin’ chinzano” does more than enough to establish Kid Acne’s quality for the rest of the album. The lyrics in “South Yorks” is another witty display that also shows some hometown love, lines like “The East Midlands is the land of north/At the cusp of the peaks and the great outdoors/It don’t rain it pours, for sure/So couples go dogging on Sunday walks” and “A knife a broke bottle and a court/That’s the way you spell South Yorks”, are off the hook and full of genuine affection. “Roc Roc Radio” describes a morning commute to his 9 to 5, told with typical playfulness, “Put on my bowler hat step to the front gate/Adjust my tie and press play on the pause button, mix tape”. He goes to work with his “Brixton briefcase” (boom box) to the sound of a steady drum beat and simple three note rising organ line. There’s a good mix of drum sounds on the album, sometimes live sounding (”Oh No You Didn’t”, “Roc Roc Radio”, “2,3 Break It”, “Sliding Doors”), and at others heavily processed and deep (”Don’t Pity Me”, “Fcuk All Lately”, “You’re Not Wrong”, “South Yorks”, “Worst Luck”) the later style seemingly down to Ross Orton’s influence.

This album is a handbook for ‘keeping it real’, talking about what and who you know, dropping Cillit Bang and Kobadi references (”Eddy Fresh” and “Oh No You Didn’t” respectively), “Spittin’ rhymes between sips of Yorkshire Tea”, (”South Yorks”), and claiming to be “The rap Joe Mangle” (”Sliding Doors”). This is a good album; Kid Acne has the lyrical chops and the  more than solid production backing to make him a star.
85%

Links
Kid Acne [official site] [myspace] [buy it]

Well, this is a bit of a surprise. The Canadian equvilent to the Mercury Music Prize has also gone a bit left-field. Relative newcomer Patrick Watson scooped the Polaris Prize last night, along with $20000, beating an impressive list of contenders including The Arcade Fire, Besnard Lakes, Feist and Miracle Fortress.

Relatively unknown over here, I’ve had the album for a few weeks now and it is very good. Think Jeff Buckley fronting the Aracde Fire but less grandoise.

For a bit of a taster, have a look at the video below for the track “Giver” from the award-winning album Close To Paradise.

Links
Patrick Watson [official site] [myspace]

The press release says it all:

Following their explosive performance at London’s Scala back in May this year. South Carolina’s finest Band Of Horses return for an exclusive one-off performance this November. Showcasing tracks from their forthcoming second album, Band Of Horses will play Bush Hall on November 29.

With unrestrained enthusiasm, Band Of Horses live show definitely lives up to the hype. Bringing their albums to life with epic performances, a marriage of passionate and sincere tunes with lap-steel guitars, folk and country-oozing hits.

Coinciding with the release of Cease To Begin on October 15 and after a year filled with phenomenal tours, lighting up the Hollywood Bowl and a handful of undeniably impressive performances at various summer festivals, Band Of Horses are ready to grace our shores once more. With a full UK tour planned for February this show is surely a taster of what is to come. Bridwell’s echoing vocals and on-stage charisma bound with their good-natured southern charm is refreshing to witness. This is the first chance for the UK to hear Cease To Begin as it’s meant to be heard – live and with no restraints.

Tickets go on sale at midday on Monday 24th September priced at £13.50. Tickets are available from Stargreen on 0207 734 8932 or the venue box office via www.ticketweb.co.uk. 

Act quick on this folks. It’s a sure fire sell out. Look out for Rich Hughes’ review of the new album in the next few days.

Ok, so I’m officially in love with this song. It may be a little late in the season to claim it as a ’summer anthem’ especially after getting soaked to my skin this morning after a torrential downpour; it was five hours ago and my knees are still wet. Anyway, I digress. Released today, “5 Years Time” is a genius slice of indie pop.

Mixing melancholy and optimism with it’s handclaps, xylophone, ukulele and a wistful melody about hanging around at the zoo with elephants in the “sun sun sun”. You get the picture. For those who suffer with seasonal depression, or are just miserable full stop I’d recomend sticking this on repeat for around 15 minutes. You’ll be full of beans in no time. Check out the video below:

Noah and The Whale will be touring the UK with Broken Social Scene in October. Check their myspace for details.

Links
Noah and The Whale [myspace]

If you know me at all, you’re more than aware of my distant relationship with summer (yes, the season). We go back a long way but we’ve never gotten along. Spring, winter, autumn, bring them on! But summer, well, I’ve never been the biggest fan. I don’t tan. I burn. As a young’un the heat and humidity during any given New England summer made for many a bad hair day, too many allergies to sneeze at, more perspiration than a young girl should have to admit to and a yearning for a certain solstice to be made illegal, banned all together. (I was a kid! What do you want ?!)

Moving to NYC only reassured me that summer was a cruel joke. Between the oppressive heat and humidity combined with tall buildings, concrete, constant traffic (creating more heat and humidity) and the stench that rises from the piles of garbage and other unidentifiable waste on every street, it’s nauseating. God forbid you should have to take the subway as air circulation on the platforms is not a priority where temperatures can, and do, rise up over 100°F daily. Some of NYC’s homeless community take it underground turning train tracks into their toilet so you can imagine, after a hard day’s work, what you’re up against once you descend those formidable stairs to where your carriage awaits or is it you that’s left waiting, sweating, desperate for a breath of fresh car fumes and trash… Yes, I love NYC but sometimes it’s not easy.

The National, South Street Seaport NYC. Photograph by Jamie Kleiman

Luckily there was a bit of respite a few Fridays ago as Brooklyn boys, The National, cab’d it to South Street Seaport in lower Manhattan for a free show on the water with support from The Forms and Takka Takka. “They go on promptly at 8” said Jon so I took hede, took out my umbrella and met he, Katherine and Greg at the Heartland Brewery across the street from the seaport and waited out the passing rain, more or less. The clock strikes 8. Cool breezes, a sea of umbrellas and 5 men (actually 6 now) who know how to pour on the good stuff, it’s show time! And great it was. With backdrops of the tall ships, the edge of Brooklyn staring back at you and the National on stage the night took on a dreamy, playful cast. Song after song wooing the crowd, the mood was set. For 45 minutes you barely noticed the weather and then the band and the rain stopped and said good night.

Upon the release of For Western Violence and Brief Sensuality on their own High and Dangerous Records, Pearlene stomped into town for a rousing couple of shows as only they can do it. We caught them at the Knitting Factory and let me tell you, I’ve seen them pretty much every time they’ve come to New York and they keep getting better and better. Hard to do when your fucking brilliant already but they blew me, along with the rest of the crowd, away. This swingin’, stompin’ sexy, delta blues with the best mix of personalities you can imagine makes for not only a fantastic band but one of the best live shows you’ll ever witness. All the way from Cincinnati, Ohio Reuben Glaser and Jesse Ebaugh started small but couldn’t keep it that way as the music poured from their souls bringing on drummer Andy Jody, Andy Higley on keys with Beth Harris and Kristen Kreft on gorgeous back up vocals. Quiet and almost shy off stage, their first notes strike a chord in all of us and we can’t escape. We are hypnotized, all consumed and transformed. It was more a gospel reunion than a rock show.

Our hearts and hands raised we all testified and you will too. Check out Pearlene here and you WILL be saved!

With two albums already sent out to sea, the Seattle-based progressive rock band has carved for themselves a niche in the indie community as the “silly” band that name songs “Hey, Wanna Throw Up? Get Me Naked” or “Monkey!!! Knife!!! Fight!!!” With the chilly pensiveness felt on Planet of Ice the recently reformed band (former sound engineer Alex Rose now plays synthesizer, electronics) tries to shake off the “silly” tag as something of a misnomer.

What remains though is what has always marked the band as attractive – their polyrhythmic beats. Supplied by drummer Erin Tate, they propel the opening song “Burying Luck.” Even the name of the song conveys a sense of death, and the possibly of resurrection for a band mired in triviality. Alex Rose’s warbling synths wilt and struggle as lead singer Jake Snider emotes “Will he take her love?.” The frigid despair of rejection is chronicled throughout an album that appears to remain mired in its own gravitas.

Minus the Bear’s oscillating guitar jams on “Knights” showcases their best ability to tighten and recoil upon their rhythmic structures like a snake about to let loose venom.

On “White Mystery”, Snider sings, “lay under bright lights,” to his Venus with enough emotion to make you think he has necrophilia. The supposed sex-release at the close of the song feels languid to the point of uncomfortable

Still the human voice (even Snider’s) is never quite as expressive as any piece of electronic equipment but the synths feel extra cold and expressionless on songs like “Dr. L’Ling.” The self-proclaimed “business man of the heart” sings with little force again. The dueling guitars brood and parry as the drum kit tumbles down with pensive synths.

The time signatures jostle about, as well, but don’t particularly end up anywhere in particular. Like somebody encased in an icy tomb of a bad mood, the lyrics are repeated like self-fulfilling prophecies, “don’t hand me your hand-me-down love.” The topic of rejection remains and the taxi pulls with another man inside.

The mid-point of the album, supplies the appropriately titled instrumental track “Part 2.” It sports a jazzy guitar solo that brings something light to the proceedings. Like a sputtering engine, the song slowly whirs to a close and the energetic pop-rock song ‘Throwing Shapes” whirly-gigs about for a while. “Double Vision Quest” utilizes organ-like synths and vast vaporous guitar noodling and finishes extremely strong. The sun finally breaks through to melt the icy world the band inhabits.

As a closer, “Lotus,” proves to be a revelatory break from gaping across the empty ether at disparaged relationships havocked by distance and emotional turmoil. It scrutinizes the influence of religion on government, particularly in association with war. It’s a surprising lyrical turn for an album with its head in the sand.

Planet of Ice is a finally crafted album its execution remains in flux. Its isolation never receives any context outside of its own torpor. Like a sample board stuck oscillating between two tones it repeats structures we’re heard from the band before. Only now the prog-rockers intone with a darker palette and accrued restraint. It’s a serious album from a serious band.
70%

Links
Minus The Bear [official site] [myspace] [buy it]

Have you ever had a feeling of impending yet unspeakable greatness? Like there is something lurking on the horizon that will be mind-blowing and unlike anything you have ever witnessed? That’s how I felt when I heard that The Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem were planning a tour together, and that the tour was opening at none other than my beloved Red Rocks Amphitheater. The news about two of this year’s hottest indie bands playing the hottest venue in the nation spread through the blog-o-sphere like wildfire earlier this summer. That the show was to take place a mere two days after Monolith was just icing on the cake. In addition to Monolith, Okkervil River and The National were coming through town the same week. I, like many others, spent months preparing for the glory that SEPTEMBER 2007 had suddenly turned into. Of course, the risk of developing high expectations for a show is the increasing difficulty of that show to meet such expectations. Luckily, on a slightly chilly September evening in lovely Morrison, CO, expectations were not only met, but exceeded.

We entered Red Rocks via the top of the amphitheater, just as LCD Soundsystem was taking the stage, to find the place about halfway full. This was somewhat surprising to me, given that The Arcade Fire sells venues out at the drop of a hat. Keeping in mind, though, that Red Rocks holds around 9,000 music fans, maybe it shouldn’t be so surprising. I suppose what’s MORE surprising (not to mention impressive) is that the last time The Arcade Fire played in Colorado was at the 250-capacity Larimer Lounge less than three years ago. And no, I was not there. Sadly.

Back to LCD Soundsystem. I wasn’t sure which band I was more excited to see, though James Murphy and co. made a solid argument for themselves with their pulse-thumping, booty-shaking deliciousness. Despite the requisite harping on the thin Colorado air (”This is very high altitude. Every time I sing a high note, I feel like I’m going to pass out. If I do, well, uh, sorry.”), LCD tore it up. Even my three LCD Soundsystem-challenged friends were converted: “I liked them more than I thought I would”; “They were really really good”. The highlight of their set, for me - cowbell and three-man synchronized drumming notwithstanding - was James belting out “where are your friends tonight?” at the end of All My Friends. If there is one thing that dragged the set down it was the closer - New York I Love You. I love that song, but after an hour + of maniacal dancing and energy it was a bit of a downer.

Then came the wait for The Arcade Fire. The Monolith Festival spoiled me over the weekend as I never had to wait around for the next band. Luckily, there are few places better for people-watching than Red Rocks - the crowd was quite diverse. The seats to my left were like a revolving door as there were at least three different pairs of people who had sat there since we arrived. During the set break I got to endure two guys who seemingly parked just long enough to smoke their joint before heading off to another spot. Red Rocks is pot-smoke- enveloped enough without having it right next door. Ah well.

Before too long a black and white video of some kind of raving, foul-mouthed televangelist pervaded both the Red Rocks video screen and the half dozen or so round screens that the band had set up on stage. A few minutes more and the band entered the red-light-bathed stage and launched straight into Black Mirror. This was my first live Arcade Fire experience, and no matter how much I’ve read and/or heard about their performances, nothing prepared me for what I witnessed that chilly night at Red Rocks. The band itself is just… epic. Nine (ten?) members who each have so much energy that it’s hard to know where to focus your eyes, incredible songs, more instruments than you can imagine… to say it was a spectacle is a severe understatement.

Besides trying to watch the band itself, there were images of the Neon Bible insignia or band members in action projected not only to the onstage screens but also to the rocks behind the stage. It was an overwhelming sight to behold and I couldn’t help but feel that I would be well-served if I had about a dozen more eyes. The entire performance, almost equally representing Funeral and Neon Bible, was completely awe-inspiring. (Antichrist Television Blues) was cemented as my favorite track on Neon Bible, and Wake Up brought me very nearly to tears. I admit I was skeptical whether any band, The Arcade Fire or not, could follow the LCD Soundsystem set with anything near the same energy and intensity, but Win Butler and his band were more than up to the task. This night at Red Rocks may very well go down as the most amazing gig I have ever attended.

Links
Photos [solace]

Miracle Fortress is the brainchild of Graham Van Pelt, a Montreal-based multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, and Five Roses is their debut full length album, after an earlier, self-released EP from 2006 brought them to label Secret City Records’ attention.

It is, in a sense, unfortunate that this gorgeous album is just now being released, at the beginning of October, since it makes for a great summer soundtrack.  With a series of dreamy multi-part harmonies, the most obvious parallel would perhaps be The Beach Boys.  Particularly Beach Boys-esque are the sweet love song “Maybe Lately”, with its romantic lyrics such as “probably it’s permanent / I love you totally”, and a fluttery harp-like backing; and “Hold Your Secrets To Your Heart” which mines a similar harmonious vein.  Other more recent comparisons could be drawn with modern day psychedelic synth-wielders like The Flaming Lips and perhaps Apples in Stereo.

It is not just the harmonising that makes this such a successful album.  They’re also a band who are no strangers to producing effortlessly beautiful melodies, which – as I can ruefully attest – will nestle inside your mind for days after each listen.  This could apply to pretty much every track, but in particular “Little Trees”, the aforementioned “Maybe Lately” and “This Thing About You”.  

Lyrically, many of the songs cover romantic themes, such as “Maybe Lately”; “Next Train” – “I’ll be on the next train to you”; and “This Thing About You”, where they endearingly sing of the happiness found in walking around with the person you love on your arm “Everyone we see is making eyes at you and me / You see you’ve got this thing with walking / And me, I’ve got this thing about you”.  The other predominant theme is more of a mood: a kind of non-specific wistfulness, as found on title track “Five Roses” and “Fortune”.

If there is fault to be found here (and there isn’t really) then it could perhaps be said that all these lush romantic harmonies and melodic gorgeousness can risk cloying a little after a while.  That would be pretty churlish, however.  If you are in the mood for grit and gloom then you’d be best to steer clear.  If you want something summery with a romantic and wistful cheer, then look no further, this is definitely the album for you.
79%

Links
Miracle Fortress [official site] [myspace] [buy it]

The wonderous twisted, elfan pop of Deerhoof can be yours! For free! 

Last year they offered a free covers/rarities EP which included a take on the Beatles’ “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill.” Now, the band writes on its Kill Rock Stars homepage, “it’s been too long since we offered anything free on our page!”. So, the site now features 13 songs, including live cuts, remixes and rarities, for individual download or free streaming. Marvellous.

Don’t forget you can catch Deerhoof in the UK on the 2nd November at the Release The Bats night at the Forum in London.

Could there be tricky times ahead for The Checks? Too much retro bluesy rock for stereotypical indie types, and no goatees, horned fist salutes or bass players with knee length trousers to keep the Kerrang! crowd happy. If falling between two stools is a danger, I doubt if New Zealand’s The Checks will give a monkey’s. They know what they like and they want to share it. Don’t come looking for innovation just yet in their fledgling career - just a bloody good time live. That’s the initial hurdle here, capturing their inflammatory performance on record. First run through I admit to having been left feeling slightly short-changed (magical two singles excepted) - as though producer Ian Broudie had just failed to cage the beast, and with the songwriting not quite strong enough to avoid a stodgy middle. But there is a rawness that comes with the decision to decline polished studio trickery and remain faithful to their strutting modish sensibility, and a few spins later I had got my rock’n'roll head back on and was embracing the youthful grunt of it all.

“Mercedes Children” sees them auditioning for a support slot at the Led Zep reunion: solid guitars; crusty vocals; an opening statement of intent, but as nothing compared to the knockout one-two punch of “Take Me There” and “What You Heard”. Both good old fashioned rollicking singles in the classic ‘tingle down the spine on intro’ sense and alone worth the price of admission. The video for “What You Heard” has singer Ed Knowles giving the best demonstration of snake hips since Michael Hutchence popped his clogs, and it’s a hell of a blistering vocal. All those wearing ironic AC/DC t-shirts take note; you can now catch something like the original. Play too loud and you’ll get the paint stripped off your walls.

Anything following would seem like an anti-climax, but the next tracks are a disappointment - “Tired Of Sleeping” falters to lumbering without it’s live sting and “Where Has She Gone” seems knitted together from a couple of songs that do not quite gel - though the Beatles harmonies are a nice touch and highlight another influence. A welcome change of scene comes with the parallel female vocal underpinning the lighter “Terribly Easy”, but then it’s back to the dark side. “See Me Peter” even has a groove that could have been laid down by The Doors and “Memory Walking” has the guitar tone of a Peter Green era Fleetwood Mac. It has to be said that Knowles is much more effective roaring than when in lower gear as on the latter.

Guitarist Sven Pettersen has done his homework. He’s got a grounding in many of the greats and can hold his head up with them. He never gets over-indulgent and The Checks thankfully never succumb to the suffocating blanket that is ‘heavy rock’. The blues always needs space. The songwriting needs some work, but it’s a promising debut from a band I’ll be keeping an eye on. Some things you just can’t analyse or argue with: here’s one for those about to rock …
66%

Links
The Checks [official site] [myspace]

Okkervil River holds a very special place in my heart as they were the first indie band that I fell in love with. Obviously late to the party, I didn’t get involved in indie music until 2005. Okkervil River’s Black Sheep Boy absolutely blew me away, and I have been in awe of them ever since. This was my first time seeing them live, and I haven’t been so excited about a gig in quite some time. It amazes me that they aren’t bigger - they played a small 280-capacity club here, and Denver’s really not all that far from Austin. No complaint from me about the intimate setting, but still - this is a band that is criminally underappreciated.

Damien Jurado opened the show and had the majority of the crowd eating out of his hand. I haven’t been able to get into his studio material too much, but live he and his band were mesmerizing - Damien’s definitely got a flair for melancholy folk songs. Plus it was a nice change to have an attentive crowd for the opening act.

The Denver indie set had a tough decision this night, in that Conor Oberst and Bright Eyes were playing just across town at the Ogden Theater. Stiff competition notwithstanding, Okkervil River owned the packed Marquis Theater from the opening note of “Plus Ones”, weaving through highlight after highlight of new songs and old fan favorites with little distraction. The set was heavy on music and short on banter, though Sheff orchestrated a lovely “evil don’t look like anything” sing-along during “Westfall”, and I suspect “The President’s Dead” made an appearance thanks to several crowd requests.

Okkervil River’s live show accentuates all of the things that are great about this band - the fascinating lyrics, the catchy tunes, and the consistent solidity and professionalism. I tend to have a constant and nagging sense that the more shows I attend the less I’m going to appreciate the great ones. It’s both refreshing and comforting to come away from Okkervil River knowing that I was witness to something sublime.

Plus Ones
Lady Liberty
No Key, No Plan
The Latest Toughs
Red
Song Of Our So-Called Friend
A Hand To Take Hold Of The Scene
Our Life Is A Not Movie Or Maybe
Black
A Girl In Port
Unless It’s Kicks
For Real
Westfall
———-
A Glow (Will solo on keyboard)
The President’s Dead
Last Love Song For Now

Links
Okkervil River [official site] [myspace] [album review]

With the impending release of their new album Frames on the 1st October, Oceansize are to release a new single, “Unfamiliar”, on the public.

We’ve been sent the video so it’s only our duty to pass it onto you… and it captures their energy impressively.

Catch them live at the following places:

October
1 Birmingham Academy 2
2 Nottingham Rescue Rooms
3 Sheffield Plug
4 Newcastle Academy 2
5 Aberdeen Moshulu
7 Glasgow King Tuts
8 Leeds Cockpit
9 Manchester Academy 3
10 Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach
11 Bristol Bierkeller
13 Yeovil Ski Lodge
14 Stoke Sugarmill
15 Cambridge Soul Tree
17 London Islington Academy
18 Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms
19 Oxford Zodiac

A brief recap then before we get started. Mclusky - one of the best bands to come out of Cardiff since the Super Furries. An aggressive and raw band with a wicked sense of humour whose live shows were legendary for their energy and noise levels. After an apparent disagreement between the main protagonists, they split to form two offshoots; Shooting At Unarmed Men and Future of the Left. Curses is the debut album from FotL, Andy “Falco” Falkous and drummer Jack Egglestone from Mclusky plus Kelson Mathias, formerly of the Ammanford-based group Jarcrew. Playing this album for the first time reveals not much has changed, Falkous the main driving force with his unique vocals and twisted lyrics grating against the disparate rhythms and oddly melodic riffs.

Kick started by the jarring riffs and fuzzy bass of “The Lord Hates A Coward” it’s a raw and uncompromising listen. The production is open and reveals nothing but the harsh sounds crafted by the rough and ready instruments, the vocals grating against this wall of noise. It’s no wonder that Steve Albini was such a fan of Falkous, the two of them have a shared belief in all things raw and simple. “Plague of Onces” continues this thread, the riff sounding like an air-raid siren bellowing warnings whilst the embelished vocals scream the lines ”why put the body where the body don’t wanna go“. The pop-twist of “Fingers Become Thumbs” with it’s straight-laced guitars and chanted vocals lasts under two minutes and is a thrilling rush of a song that should, in a just world, scare listeners of Radio 1 into submission and buy something other than The Enemy.

Falkous hasn’t lost his sense of humour either. The anthemic “Fuck The Countryside Alliance”, if it took on human form, would hunt down Bryan Ferry’s son and eat him alive. The twisted lyrical cries of “Tories, tories thanks for the tories!” preceed the repeated “Take a man to his nightmares in a landrover” all echoed over a driving and sinisterly simple guitar riff. “Suddenly It’s a Folk Song” mixes it up a little. Falkous always had an ear for a pop song and this is as close as they come to chart fodder. There’s the sound of keyboard sirens, guitars and vocal harmonies that hide the fact that the song is actually a scathing comment on the music industry’s love of folk tinged singer-songwriters.

Curses is an aural assault on your senses that beggers belief. There may be moments where the aggression is turned a notch, but it’s short lived. As Falkous would want, this is a challenging record that hasn’t had to sacrifice tunes or riffs. The FotL’s cleverly dark lyrics are never too far from the front, backed by a rabid dog of a rhythm section that drags riffs kicking and screaming out of the mix in such a suprising way as to create a melodic anarchy. Surely that can’t be a curse. 
88%

Links
Future of the Left [official site] [myspace] [buy it]

How do you write an introduction to a band who are, quite possibly, one of the most successful rock acts in the world? They don’t really need an intro. The fact that they’ve sold out two nights at the 02 Arena in London, were invited to headline Live Earth and shift millions and millions of records should say enough. Of course, the odd fact is still that no one ever expected Dave Grohl’s band to succeed; “He was just the drummer in Nirvana, dude”. But hey, the Foo Fighters have been going for over ten years now whilst Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace is their seventh album. Scary. And yet Grohl still gives the impression of being your best mate. If you stumbled into a pub to find him at the bar, you’d imagine that he’d buy you a beer and laugh at your jokes - the “Nicest Man in Rock” as he’s so frequently referred to.

And that would be a good description of Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace; it’s a nice album. Gone are the post-grunge pretentions of their debut, their alt-rock anthems of The Colour & The Shape and the Queens of the Stone Age pretentions of One By One. This is an album aimed firmly at mainstream rock. There’s nothing here to scare people, the optimistic howls of Grohl on “The Pretender” and “Let It Die” are meer echoes of the past. Perhaps the most surprising track on here is “Statues” - it sounds like they’ve listened to the last Wilco album. It’s full of late 70’s rock guitars with Grohl’s voice sounding suspiciously like Paul McCartney in the intro.

There are still songs on here where you can imagine people chanting the choruses at stadiums around the world. Recent single “The Pretender” may play it straight down the line, but I’ve had the chorus going through my head for weeks with the chunky riffs for company. Whilst it might not be fresh and new, Grohl and the Foo’s still know how to craft perfect rock songs. With “Come Alive” and “Stranger Things Have Happened” you can imagine, if they still let you these days, swaying lighters and matches in the air of a massive arena to Grohl’s pensive vocals and acoustic meanderings.

It’s not that Grohl has become the paraody he always seems to flirt with, but the lack of aggression and originality to the second half of this album is a little worrying. Sure, they’ve become one of the most successful rock acts of the times whilst still being cool and enjoying (though decreasing) critical success. But, if Grohl wants a challenge it might be that he needs to change the mix next time around. Invite Josh Homme over, have a few beers and a smoke and just see where it takes him.
65%

Links
Foo Fighters [official site] [myspace]