The Big March (and a little February) Concert Blog.

A Place To Bury Strangers / Holy Fuck @ Bottom of the Hill
Two up-and-coming indie bands for the price of one.  The downside being the puny stage these guys were forced to play on.  I’d say this is, aesthetically, my least favorite venue in San Francisco.  Their shows are usually too good to pass up though.

During this performance, I overheard someone behind me proclaiming this band’s sound to be a concrete wall of noise. He was understating it, to be more accurate, it was like an unpenetrable force-field of kickassery. There’s certain expectations of a band that’s been compared to Joy Division, Jesus and Mary Chain, and Sonic Youth. Believe me, A Place to Bury Strangers lives up to those. They played through their self-titled album’s songs along with some new songs, each one retaining the epic effect it held on recording. They didn’t linger far from their reputation as the undisputed kings of loud. Thankfully, a careful control on pitch ensured that their thunderous sound wasn’t too painful for the crowd. If you have the chance (along with a capacity for loud volumes), this is a live show I’d recommend seeing.

Quick, hard, heart-pounding drum beats on top of electronic experimentalism with a guitarist to boot. Well, that’s the basics of the other emerging group of talented musicians that we saw that night, Holy Fuck. Their name suits them well, LP is a short album packed with as much intensity as humanly possible. In a way, their set was seemingly similiar to the album. It was over too soon, some songs dragged on too long, but achieved perfection in an indescribable way. Watching them made me a little envious; they’re young, having the time of their lives, and making music that they love. I don’t claim to know anything about them, but that’s definately the aura they gave off during their performance. It really was an incredible show, and at only $10 a ticket!

So Many Dynamos / The Mountain Goats @ Bottom of the Hill
An enormously different concert at the same venue, only two nights later. This one I attended because my father is a big Mountain Goats guy. I didn’t know much of what to expect. It was a matinée show, so that was a different experience in itself.

So Many Dynamos’ frontman (as seen below) continually struck poses during their set that I’m sure would fit perfectly on his Myspace, but not on a stage.  I get it; he was trying to be cute.  Maybe he truly believed that his facial expressions would cover up the brutal squealing of poorly played guitars?  Now, I’m aware that this band has a fairly large following.  My admittance that this is one of the worst live bands I’ve ever seen may incite some hard feelings, but I’m not too worried.  Anyone able to put up with that treble-inflicted garbage that they dare to call angular rock has certainly put up with more.  Poor performance and an all together wreck of a band.  Go listen to Test Icicles or something instead.

The night wasn’t totally lost though, The Mountain Goats made up in whole for the preceeding artists.  The place was packed by the time the band finally came on stage, and it quickly became apparent that there’s alot of people who take this band very seriously.  From hardcore fans who could sing every last lyric to the newcomers soaking in the greatness of this band; everyone was really into it.  The singer, John Darnielle, harbored an unrestrained goofiness in his stage performance that seemed to put everyone in a good mood. He’s a clever one, I didn’t realize how impressively intelligent his lyrics were until during the show.  Darnielle can paint clear pictures with lyrical imagery and tell a story about love and war like a WWII veteran. Never in my history of concerts have I seen a band come out for so many encores, about four or five, that’s how dedicated the crowd was.  I realize that I did a load of skipping around in this review, but there’s so much that could be said about this band’s live show that it’s hard to cover all the bases.  Mountain Goats are a band with a healthy reputation and a close knit fan base, which befits them after so many years of releasing quality indie rock.

The Honeydrips / Jens Lekman @ Bimbo’s 365 Club
The concert that I was most excited beforehand about, hands-down. I had been reading raving reviews about the venue, on top of my mounting excitement towards seeing everyone’s favorite Swede. It really is a great venue by the way, though it is geared more towards an older crowd then I’m used to.

The Swedish (go figure) solo act The Honeydrips opened up for Jens. Unfortunately, it felt a great deal like some sort of glorified karaoke. The sheer awkwardness of a man standing on a stage and scarcely singing along to the background music playing on his laptop, well, it was too much for me. I’ll give him credit though, he has quite a signing voice on him. You know, if it weren’t for his lack of any sort of viable live show, I’d say he’s pretty well off.  I didn’t enjoy it too much, but who can really fully enjoy a one-man laptop band. Give this guy a band, please!

(No picture or clip, sorry)

Jens’ live show was an expected gem for me.  The amount of humor, passion, and creativity he puts into his albums is bound to be reflected in his performances. The surprise in this one was the band, all non-Jens persons, that is. On drums, cello, violin, samples, and bass were all females, and talented ones at that.  Can you imagine that?  Women who are actually good at playing instruments! Before I get a inbox full of hate mail, I was only kidding.  Thankfully, Jens’ jokes were a whole lot funnier then mine.  He was hilarious, each of his overly-detailed and outlandish stories caused an eruption of laughter.  The set came out beautifully, the vocals and instrumentation seemed flawless.  All this plus the added personality to everyone’s favorite songs made for a good time.

YACHT / Vampire Weekend @ Rickshaw Stop
A stuffy, sweaty, uncomfortable, heap of young hipsters in a small venue? Just my thing! Not too bad a place, probably not the best venue for housing a sold out Vampire Weekend show.

YACHT opened up the night pretty aggressively, as a disco/dance/pop band damn well should. I can’t say much, for me to be critical of dance music would be breaking every rule in the book. What book, you ask? The book of dance.

The first thing that stood out for me during Vampire Weekend’s set is the amount of energy they bring to such simple and delicate tunes. The crowd felt it, as was imminent by the mass of moving bodies and singing lips in synchronization. And for a show that people were asking $80 for on ebay, why wouldn’t they be? I knew that Vampire Weekend had been making quite a name for themselves ever since their album’s release, but I underestimated the vast number of fans they’ve managed to attain. All the success definitely has not gone to the band’s heads though. They all still sport their sweater vests, college tees, and fun-loving approach to playing live that separates them from the rest. Their songs came out smoothly, a streamlining of songs to keep a good and gradual pace. If anything, each song sounded even more striking live then ever before. “A-Punk” and “M79″ being a good example of two fantastic tracks that just didn’t quite catch my attention on the album. The only disappointment was the end, which I suppose normally would be a positive thing.  The difference being that this set’s limited length was only because of their lack of material.  The band’s 11-track album was pretty much the entirety of their live show. That’s what I signed up for though, seeing a live band whose discography consists of one album doesn’t leave much room for variation. Vampire Weekend has a great deal of room to grow, It’ll be interesting to see where this band is a few years from now.

Concluding Words
Why am I trying to make this horribly obtrusive “concluding words” thing my signature style? Well, it stems from my inability to reach a finishing point once I get off on my tangents otherwise. Plus, sometimes lazy readers like me enjoy skipping to the summarizations and all the important stuff.  As far as the concerts, I can’t say I enjoyed any one of these concerts more then another, each was equally entertaining and pleasantly surprising.  Looking over all I’ve seen this month, I had to go back and ask myself why I didn’t just go to Coachella instead.  All these bands would’ve been there along with performances guaranteed to be remarkable, such as: Animal Collective, My Morning Jacket, Les Savy Fav, The National, Aphex Twin, Hot Chip, and maybe even some Justice.  Basically, just bands that I’d have to be crazy to miss out on. It all comes down to money though, and that $300+ amount just looks like such a strain.  Oh well, hopefully next year’s line up will be even better. I’m satisfied with what I’ve seen for now though, all these concerts have been an amazing experience.  Thanks for reading!

(All pictures and clips were from the concerts that I attended, unless I’ve been fooled)

The Matches – A Band In Hope

       The new album by The Matches will release on March 18th.  Im listening to it on the trusty ol’ Myspace, and, I dont really like it one bit.  In my opinion, they have been getting worse.  Some parts of songs sound cool. Some sound like their old songs, which were good, but for the most part, naw.  I guess you can torrent it, then burn it, then delete it to free up the hard drive, but its definitely not worth a buy.  They just sound, I don’t know how else to say it, but they just sound weird, and the vocals are just whack.  They also dress all weird now, probably the idea of the singer.  They dress like weird scene/euro fags, and its not cool, because thats not who they are.  They they are liars and fakes.  Meh, whatever, listen to it yourself.  It’s just not good.

Flogging Molly – Float

Well, I’m no Flogging Molly connoisseur, you’d have to talk to my cousin for that kind of service, so lets have no bashing.

Anywho, Float is Flogging Molly’s newest album. I’m not going to go into too much history, because there is a lot of it, but pretty much they are an Irish folk rock good times pub band from L.A.  There are many members, each with their own story.  Since I’m not your mommy, you can do that research on your own.  My purpose is to tell you how awesome this album is.  Flogging Molly always rocks, they can’t be bad, its just not  possible.  This is another solid album with the classic Flogging Molly sound.  To me, this is a lighting more ‘hangout at the bar and have a couple of brews with the buds’ type music, unlike some of their ‘lets get fucked up at the pub and fight then grab another pint and sing/shout with each other’. Dropkick Murphys type of shit.  Go ahead and give it a listen, its some good times, especially having a pint at the pub.  All songs are good, but Requiem for a Dying Song and Float should probably be your first couple listens.  Go have fun and love life, I’m going to fly to London now.  Cheers then!

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There aren’t any good quality songs on youtube for the album, so I’m going to share with you my favorite Floggin’ Molly song.

Flogging Molly – Drunken Lullabies

Once

Fox Searchlight presents ONCE

I saw this movie a couple months ago and thought it was a nice little flick for a quiet sunday afternoon.  The story follows the normal romance guidelines of boy meets girl, etc.  Both characters, simply named guy (Glen Hansard, of the irish indie band, The Frames) and girl (Marketa Irglova), are just trying to make it in the busy world.  Guy works at a vaccum repair shop with his father and is a busker.  Girl is a house keeper and a street vendor.  The two meet in a music shop and play a song together, after this performance they hang out a few more times and fall for each other.  The catch is they love each other but know they cant have each other.  Guys true love is in London and girl has a husband, so this is more of a love fling.  Later on, guy gets the great idea and forms a band with girl and other street performers.  They go on to record an album and guy plans to head off to London to try and sell it and to get back with his girlfriend.  It gets boring for a bit, but the end is really nice.

Anywho, I think I’ve given enough of the story away.  The filming was done in the style of a home video.  It but a nice touch to the film and made it a bit more intimate.  It got a bit shakey at times, but nothing in the calibur of Cloverfield.

The music is all original and is great.  Both the actors perform the songs and the chemistry of the voices are fantastic.  The Soundtrack was award winning - so you know it has to be good.

Overall, this is another great movie brought to attention by Fox Searchlight.

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Once – Falling Slowly

 

Junior Boys

I have been going through a electronica spree lately, and the latest album to fall into my lap has been Junior Boys excellent 2006 effort, “So This is Goodbye”. Ever since picking it up it has received heavy rotation on my poor battered iPod.

The overall album feel is smooth mid-tempo groove, and from there it never really wavers. There are no uproarious openers that come down to slower introspective tracks. Unlike other groups such as Justice or LCD SoundSystem, the album will not give you the instant gratification booty shaker right away, at the same time it doesn’t reside with the ultra low key acid jazz/trip hop sound. So This Is Goodbye sits comfortably in the middle, it isn’t pushing you, yet it doesn’t leave you adrift in an ambient sea.

This shouldn’t give the appearance that the record ultimately sits at a plateau, as each song moves a brisk pace, and the album finishes all to quickly. If there was a moment were the sound picks up it would have to be in the center of the record. “In The Morning” begins with a cascade of bleeps and bloops while slowing layering the vocals and bass, building up to a full on dance groove.

While many electronic/dance albums seem to be tailored to very specific situations, So This Is Goodbye is one of those records that feels incredibly versatile, working well socially and for an introspective solo listen. My favorite tracks are The Equalizer, In The Morning, and So This Is Goodbye.

Junior Boys – In The Morning

Shocking Pinks

The lack of recent posts on my end as of late is definately in part due to this album.  I picked up the Shocking Pinks’ self-titled a long while back with the intention of writing about it.  I listened multiple times and enjoyed each, but when it came time to put pen to paper, I couldn’t find the words.  I put it off, even wrote the Oracular Spectacular review in the meantime.  So after much deliberation, here’s my attempt.

Just to get an idea of what Shocking Pinks are all about, they’re an ex-disco/punk band that grabbed some more band members and turned lo-fi/pop with a sensitive side (practically).  Their sound is somewhere in-between Islands, Radiohead, and LCD Soundsystem.  I’m sorry, that’s horrible, I need to stop using other bands for comparisons.

Usually the most sentimental songs incorporate slow, methodical vocals with an acoustic-driven sound.  Not so for this band, most of their emotional material comes from upping the tempo and quick, wavering vocals.  Songs like “Emily” and “How am I Not Myself?” would be the best examples of this unique dramatic experience.  They have their share of acoustic escapades as well though, “End of the World” and “The Girl on the Northern Line” keep Shocking Pinks grounded in the realms of lo-fi.  “Cutout” is Shocking Pinks’ climax, full of intensity and instrumental power.  Tracks “23″ and “You Can Make Me Feel Bad” are the last endeavors of the album; they’re minimalisitic, but have the emotionally drained feeling that synchronizes well with the end of such an expressive album.  Down to it’s conclusion, the progression in this record is something truly unforgettable.

Concluding words-It’s not shocking nor pink, but it is an easy-listening and emotional album that achieves a great deal through simplicity.  Shocking Pinks forms an inexpressable bond with it’s listener, there’s nothing like it.  My favorite tracks were: “Yes! No!”, “Girl on the Northern Line”, and “Jealousy”.