Guilt By Association
When I was younger and the boring 3-chord simplicity of 90s punk still excited me, many of my favorite bands recorded covers of classic cheesy pop songs. This was my first taste of irony. It was funny to hear Screeching Weasel play "I think we're alone now" or Down By Law cover the Proclaimers.
A few years ago, Ted Leo covered "Since You Been Gone" and it was a reminder of how fun these songs can be. Indie rockers tend to take them more seriously, but Guilt By Association vol. 2 challenges that notion. And unlike when punk bands cover pop songs, the bands on GBA v.2 don't just play the songs faster, they recreate them and give them new life. Nothing you'll find here is as brilliant as some of these bands' normal material, but it's all worth hearing, especially Robbers on High Street's "Cool It Now", Matt Pond PA's lullaby version of My Chemical Romance's "I'm Not Okay", and The Forms' total restructuring of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire."
To celebrate the record release, Takka Takka, Robbers on High Street, Lowry, and some special secret special guests will be performing tonight at Music Hall of Williamsburg. And then on February 5th at Bowery Ballroom Francis & the Lights and Savoir Adore will keep the celebration going.
Frightened Rabbit: "Set You Free"
Jonny Leather Attempts to Break Record for Riding Subway System. Fails Miserably.
The New York City subway system is an anomaly, the true eighth wonder of the world. When it seems that everything in the world follows some sort of pattern, no matter how obvious, the MTA has managed to create a structure that is even inconsistent in its inconsistencies. It is thoroughly unpredictable. There is no explanation as to why the G train is so short—unable to fill the length of the platform. But that’s just a small except of the many oddities that surround the MTA’s greatest accomplishment in incomprehensible train lines. The smells, the late night work trains, the unhelpful station attendants, the 2nd Avenue line—they’re all part of a surreal universe that we as New Yorkers must interact with on a daily basis.
It can be severely frustrating. There are nights when an easy 1-line train ride turns into a full-on adventure that involves multiple train lines, buses, transfers, backtracking, and misdirection.
Only a few days two men successfully broke the record for riding the subway system, managing to hit all 468 stations in 22 hours and 52 minutes. They actually trained for it with four six-hour practice runs, as well as spending time researching combinations for routes, so there’s no questions these guys had far too much time on their hands, and a whole lot of patience.
Last night, I got a little taste of what their record run might have been like, when a simple ride on the G from Gowanus to Williamsburg turned into a two-hour adventure that involved five trains and a bus. With that trip, I couldn’t help but wonder how on earth they managed to do what they did. It seems like an impossible feat, not that it’s a very meaningful accomplishment but damn is it challenging.
Strangely enough, in an odd way I actually find these sort of unpredictable adventures to be pretty enjoyable. These sort of events break repetition, predictability, and can often ignite social interactions that would never happen in the normal cold subway settings.
When you always follow the same easy path, you’ll get to where you’re going, but sometimes your path becomes broken, and when forced to take another route, the series of coincidences occasionally leads you to something totally worth the adventure—in my case the cute girl who I shared the adventure with. It won’t happen every time, but when it does you’ll learn to appreciate it.
And with the MTA cutting lines and worsening service, this sort of unpredictable subway adventure will occur at even more regular rates. I’m not saying cutting service and increasing commute times is a good thing, I’m just shedding a very dimly lit positive light on the subject.
A Less Classifiable Music
Au/Stars Like Fleas
Le Poisson Rouge, 1.24.09
Stars Like Fleas are a challenging band to write about. There are no bands to easily reference in describing their sound. There are no gimmicks. No sing-along choruses. No stage theatrics. At Le Poisson Rouge, playing as an 8-piece, they focused on creating a unique symphony of sounds that spliced together elements of experimental jazz, rock, classical, and other unclassifiable constructs of music. They are not your average indie pop party band, but rather instead an intense musical journey that requires and desires a focused listening experience, upon which you’ll be greatly rewarded.
Following a band like Stars Like Fleas is difficult, but Au’s phenomenal set was easily my highlight of the week. Already in love with their 2008 release “Verbs” and wowed by their performance at Spiegeltent last year, there was not a bad moment in the colorful set, even though singer Luke Wyland never seemed comfortable with the sound in his monitors. Wyland’s carnival like keyboard rainbow and beautifully distinct vocals were perfectly complicated by some of the memorable percussion work I’ve ever seen live. Dana Vlatka just seems to have total awareness of the full capability and range of his kit, and displayed it in a totally unpretentious way. The highlight of the set came with the lively “Are Animals” which had a few people up on their feet and dancing at the seated performance.
Their record is loaded with tons of extra instrumentation that don’t make it to the live setting, but hopefully in the future they’ll be able to bring along a fuller band for what would make for something even more wonderful.
Ray Lewis Fronts Ponytail in Form of Tiny Energetic Girl
Pattern is Movement/These Are Powers/Ponytail
Bell House, 1.23.09
Pattern is Movement is not a pretty band. Not at all. They are 2 bearded fat white dudes with a good sense of awareness and great sense of humor. “We got fat because we ate too much, and didn’t get enough exercise,” joked singer/keyboardist Andrew Thiboldeaux. But even though groups like The Killers and Panic at the Disco may say otherwise, music is not about looks, it’s about the sounds, and the music Pattern is Movement was creating on Friday night was pretty damn beautiful. Thiboldeaux has a lovely voice not unlike that of Shearwater’s Jonathan Meiburg. Most interesting was when the duo busted out a cover of D’Angelo’s “How Does It Feel?” They may not be as sexy as D’Angelo, but their soulful rendition of the ballad was also pretty makeout-worthy.
The 2nd band of the night was Brooklyn trio These Are Powers. With the lights all the way down, the mood was dark and stayed that way. With former Liars bass player Pat Noecker creating the sonic equivalent to doomsday, they generated a powerful deep dark menacing sound that remained surprisingly dancy. Performed with a strong amount of energy, the tribal experimental sounds were heavy and their set was totally engaging for every minute.
The brilliant sets by Pattern is Movement and These Are Powers were tough to follow, but the young Baltimore band Ponytail was why the Bell House was packed, and they brought an extra level of energy and excitement when they dawned the stage, especially tiny frontwoman Molly Siegel (who was sporting a Ray Lewis jersey and black eye paint). While I haven’t yet been totally won over by their sounds yet, it was impossible not to get consumed by the band’s undeniably fun performance and impressive chops, which had most of the crowded room dancing away the recession blues.
Land of the Lost
Once you get started on Lost, you get hooked, addicted, consumed. I was late on the bandwagon, but when I got on, there was no getting off. It’s hard to imagine that it’s already in it’s 5th season, but on Wednesday night at Bell House, a room full of Lost fanatics shared in the joy of celebrating the premier episode of the new season.
To start the celebration off, Previously on Lost—a band whose songs recap past episodes—set the mood, while everyone got loaded up on $1 rum & punch. Their songs weren’t nearly as juvenile as one would expect based on the concept, and were actually rather good, but with anticipation brewing, it was hard not to want their set to end. The 2 hours that followed their set was an incredibly stimulating reminder that there still is some quality TV remaining in this world, beyond all the crap reality-based programming. Sawyer had his shirt off the whole episode, and for every question that was answers, 4 more emerged. It’s going to be a good season.
When Animal Collectives Attack
Animal Collective
Manhattan Center Grand Ballroom
1.20.09
With seizure inducing lighting setting off a rainbow of colors behind them, and an extra heavy bass shaking the walls, Animal Collective put on one hell of a show on Tuesday night. There’s no question they are the band of the moment, and 2009 is their year. Unlike many other bands that get this sort of attention, Animal Collective is doing everything right in justifying all of the praise. “Merriweather Post Pavillion” has received universal praise, and it is, from start to finish, just as good as everyone is saying. There were a lot of fine albums last year, even great, but nothing so fun, yet fully-realized and beautifully produced.
At Manhattan Center’s Grand Ballroom on Tuesday night, they could have just played the album as it is on the record and they surely would have pleased the legion of young fans who clustered near the stage early on, and casual fans, but that’s not what great bands do. Instead, the trio stretched out songs like “Fireworks” and “Banshee Beats” to ridiculous lengths and reconstructed them. It’s one of the things a band can get away with live that is far harder to pass off on record. The usual Residents meets Brian Wilson references still fit the sounds they were generating, but midway through the set as I fell deeper under the trance of their repetitious electronic compositions, the name Underworld kept entering my thoughts. Yes, Animal Collective’s sound is starting to show similarities to Underworld. And with them likely to be playing much larger venues in the very near future, it’s not a bad thing to have things in common with a legendary band that can command a dance floor of thousands.
In the past, Animal Collective’s shows were loaded with new songs in their developmental stage. Anyone who saw them over the last couple years was more than familiar with many of the songs of Merriweather Post Pavillion far before it was released. Tuesday night, however, they chose to play nothing unreleased, and maybe that’s what made it so great. Rather than hearing the songs in their developmental stage, we were hearing them as fully-realized compositions, with hardly a single flaw. The older songs fit seamlessly with the new ones, with updated soundscapes that felt cohesive to their current aesthetic.
Highlights of the set included the 1-2 punch of "My Girls" and "Brother Sport" which ended the regular part of the set, as well as the incredible encore that began with a sprawling "Banshee Beat" and closed with the ancient "Slippi."Yes, "Slippi!" Indiana Jones himself couldn't have tracked this one down on the set lists of recent years. It was a real treat for longtime fans.
Where Radiohead once seemed to unquestionably be the best band alive, Animal Collective is now shrinking that gap. Not all bands can continue to transform and develop their sound with every record. The Beatles, Pink Floyd, David Bowie and Blur all did it, and now Animal Collective is too. Liars could be next.
Animal Collective will be at Bowery Ballroom tonight, but the show is sold out. So, if you want to see them before they’re only playing large capacity venues, you better think of something fast.
NYC Taper recorded the show.
Department of Eagles @ Bowery Ballroom
Department of Eagles/Here We Go Magic
Bowery Ballroom / 1.19.09
The lights were dim, the floor was comfortably crowded, and the audience was remarkably quiet and respectful. They were much more like a Carnegie or BAM audience than the chatter heavy rock venue crowd, but then again Department of Eagles are also not terribly rock. Also a member of Grizzly Bear, Dan Rossen started out the set alone on stage, seated and plucking away at his banjo while his lovely voice consumed the crowd on "Balmy Night." Afterwards, he was joined on stage by Fred Nicolaus and their new rhythm section. They played nearly every song from the outstanding "In Ear Park," including a lovely rendition of "Herringbone" played solo by Rossen on piano. Nicolaus referred to it as the million dollar song, because they can't usually afford to bring a piano with them on tour, but they gave New York City a special treat. The glaring omission from the set list was "Teenagers" which fans shouted out requests for at the end of the set, but the band refused.
Any fan of the record had to be happy about getting into the sold out show. While they didn't bring a lot of extra magic to their songs live, they were tight, and Luke Temple's new project Here We Go Magic was a real added bonus. Their set was almost as good as Department of Eagles. Intelligent indie rock led by Luke Temple's well-crafted acoustic strums and airy vocals, they're definitely a band to look out for.
