So, Tom Vek disappears for five-plus years and now he’s showing up everywhere (not that I’m complaining). It’s good to make up for lost time. After dropping his sophomore album Leisure Seizure in June, he’s now showing up as a guest on new track for DJ Shadow. You could say Vek’s name is, uh, being plastered everywhere.
We trekked to Los Angeles this past weekend to see the National at Hollywood Bowl, and it was easy to get the sense we witnessed a True Moment – a stunning realization of a band’s ascent. Is it possible the group that was playing the smallish Modified Arts in Phoenix six years ago was now nearly filling an 18,000-capacity amphitheater? That’s basically the size of a basketball arena, and when I think of it like that I still can’t wrap my head around it. (I caught myself several times turning around to try to grasp just how many people were there.)
Surely in the seven or so times I’ve seen the National I’ve had more intimate experiences, like, say, last fall at Marquee Theatre in Tempe when singer Matt Berninger’s mic cord nearly clotheslined me as he took “Terrible Love” through the audience. At Hollywood Bowl, we sat somewhere in the middle (section K), and while the band felt far away (I spent a lot of time watching the video screen) the show was still riveting.
Berninger appears more comfortable on stage – he sort of has to be at this point – but there’s still a bit of an anxious edge to him. And the Bowl setlist, about 80 minutes long, played into his hands. While it drew heavy from High Violet (with guest help from Annie Clark, aka St. Vincent), they snuck in older tracks, including “Available” and “Cardinal Song” (I can’t recall ever seeing them play anything off 2003’s Sad Songs For Dirty Lovers).
The show ended with “About Today,” a song off the 2004 Cherry Tree EP that has been revived as a featured song in the movie Warrior. It was a beautiful (if somber) ending to a perfect night, and thanks to the National’s old label, Brassland, you can download the track for free at Bandcamp.
Here is one of the trailers for Warrior, featuring “About Today”:
In July, Miniature Tigers celebrated the one-year anniversary of the release of their second full-length, Fortress, by releasing free demo versions of all the songs from the album.
Now we’re already getting a taste of a new album. On Monday, the New York-by-way-of-Phoenix band released a song, “Boomerang,” that it actually previewed in a turntable.fm session in late June. (Turntable.fm was so two months ago.)
There’s no release date for the album, Mia Pharaoh, but “Boomerang” – another catchy Mini T’s creation full of synthy flourishes – is a freebie that you can get at the group’s website (or below) for coughing up an email address. The site also has dates for a September tour.
Few voices are as moving and beautiful to me as Mimi Parker’s. So, naturally, I’m a sucker for any Low song that showcases her front and center.
On this new video for Especially Me, off the great new album C’Mon, Parker takes a dizzying ride on the New York City subway, her voice floating perfectly above the fray.
The band will be touring the West Coast in September but unfortunately skipping Arizona on this pass.
When I grow up, I wanna be just like Aloe Blacc. Seriously, I’m pretty sure there’s not a cooler cat in music right now. The guy can sing, dance and dress – pretty much the opposite of me.
Not to mention, he writes ridiculously uplifting tunes. Go ahead and try to be in a bad mood after watching this new video for the song Green Lights, which comes off his excellent 2010 sophomore album Good Things.
The first show for Crescent Ballroom isn’t until Oct. 3, but the new downtown Phoenix concert venue from Stateside Presents promoter Charlie Levy has inspired plenty of excitement and prose – not to mention a concert calendar that’s starting to look mighty impressive.
Newest on the list is a Nov. 5 date for electronic-pop duo Phantogram, whom we saw last October in what turned out to be a packed and sweaty fun time. I’m assuming some new music is in the works after the early 2010 release of Eyelid Movies.
Reptar opens the 18-and-over show and tickets ($14-$15) go on sale this Thursday.
I’m not really sure what the Portal video-game series is about – when does the new Madden come out anyway? – but a new song by the National, Exile Vilify, was included on the Portal 2 soundtrack earlier this year.
A couple months ago, Valve Software and the band launched a video contest, and, as reported at Pitchfork, there is a winner, whittled down from 320 entries. Director C.F. Meister created a somber visual that follows around a really sad sock puppet. I’ve seen some sad socks in my day – many of which reside in my top drawer – but this one takes the cake.
You can watch that video above and watch the runner-up – or what the folks at Portal 2 are calling 1.00000000001th Place – below:
Having seen the band twice at the Rhythm Room (about 300-350 capacity) and then once at the Clubhouse (500), this is a sizable step up to the roughly 5,000-capacity Comerica Theatre. The group’s anthemic sounds deserve a place this big in which to expand.
While on the road, Frightened Rabbit has been selling a tour-only EP that contains three songs, one of which, “Scottish Wind,” has already gotten the live treatment earlier this summer. The two other tracks feature guest spots: Camera Obscura’s Tracyanne Campbell on “Fuck This Place” and Scottish folk singer Archie Fisher on “The Work.”
In all honestly, Mike Doughty’s post-Soul Coughing solo career has been one that I think I want to like more than I actually do.
I loved Soul Coughing – even if his time in the band was apparently a nightmare – so it seemed natural that I would continue to love Doughty’s work. But it’s been hit or miss for me, his clever wit too often getting in the way. Something about song titles like “How to Fuck a Republican,” “(I Want to) Burn You (Down),” “Busting Up a Starbucks” or anagramming an album title after your name (Haughty Melodic = Michael Doughty) is just too over the top for me.
Still, I admire Doughty as an independent musician – his new album Yes and Also Yes (see?) is coming out Aug. 30 on his own label, Snack Bar – and the songs of his I do like I often really like.
That’s turning out to be the case for “Na Na Nothing,” the leadoff track from the forthcoming album. Doughty describes it as “a burn-in-hell-wretched-ex-girlfriend song,” though there is (na na) nothing unpleasant about its hummable melody and singable hook.
In an email newsletter blast, Doughty gave a brief history of the song, saying it was “partially stolen from a song written by Nikki Sixx, Dan Wilson (wrote ‘Closing Time’), and Matt Gerrard (wrote a bunch of tunes in ‘High School Musical’). (I got their permission to steal it).”
Rise up, Detroit. Mayer Hawthorne calls Los Angeles home now, but the soul revivalist hasn’t entirely left behind his Michigan roots.
On this new track, “A Long Time” – with its hilarious video borrowing scenes from an ’80s Detroit public-access dance show – Hawthorne offers words of encouragement for his former hometown, a city particularly stung by the economic collapse. With equal parts patience and pride, Hawthorne stands by his fellow Detroiters, using the stories of Henry Ford and Berry Gordy as sources of motivation: “We’ll return it to its former glory, but it just takes so long.”
Speaking of former glory, this video is really something else. I wanted to take a screenshot, but I really couldn’t decide what to pick. You’ve got the blue turtleneck guy (0:33 mark), the kinda creepy couple (1:22), the lady with the triple watch belt/cummerbund thingy (1:49), Frankenstein sweater dude (2:42) … really, the list goes on. It’s worth watching multiple times.
The song is the first preview of Hawthorne’s new album, How Do You Do (Universal), a release date for which I have not seen. Meanwhile, Hawthorne and his band, The County, will open for Chromeo on Oct. 18 at Marquee Theatre in Tempe.
