I haven’t quite wrapped my head around all the releases from 2010 and already there are albums lined up for 2011 that I can’t wait to hear, like ones from Apex Manor, Aqueduct and now Michael Benjamin Lerner’s Telekinesis.
The album was produced by Death Cab for Cutie guitarist Chris Walla, and Spin has the premiere of Car Crash, a charming blast of pop whose chant-driven chorus is quickly nestling into my subconscious. I don’t doubt I’ll be singing this when I wake up in the morning.
In addition to the song, a batch of Telekinesis tour dates also has been released, and they include a Feb. 26 stop at the Sail Inn in Tempe.
It’s been almost four years since we’ve last heard from David Terry’s solo project, known formally as Aqueduct. But Terry is out on the road for the next month with the Posies and Brendan Benson and getting ready to release a new album – the follow-up to 2007’s Or Give Me Death – so the wheels of publicity are turning.
To work his way back into the indie-rock conscience, Terry has posted two new tracks as free downloads on his website. And both songs work as a primer for the Aqueduct beginner or as a nice reintroduction for longtime fans.
The first track is a cover of Bob Wills’ Take Me Back to Tulsa, a 1940s Western swing tune about Terry’s hometown. Only Terry takes the liberty of framing his version of the song around a slowed-down sample of Jay-Z’s Big Pimpin’, a fun marriage that shows Terry’s irreverent side.
Then there’s Past the Point, a track that keeps up the bittersweet breakup theme from Or Give Me Death. Here, Terry anguishes over whether he should burn a photo of he and his ex: “We were together, but now forever the remains of us stay in this picture frame. I couldn’t burn my most precious memories.” Set against Terry’s buoyant, synth-tinged pop, heartbreak never sounds all that depressing in his hands.
There’s a cool story behind Apex Manor, even if it starts with the unfortunate dissolution of the Broken West, one of the great bands that existed in this blog’s five-plus-year tenure.
Stuck in a rut after the demise of the band, guitarist/singer Ross Flournoy came across an open invitation by NPR Monitor Mix blogger Carrie Brownstein (ex-Sleater-Kinney) to write and record a song in a weekend. As NPR wrote recently, “Carrie’s challenge turned out to be just the excuse he needed to get busy.”
Flournoy turned out Under the Gun, a clever piece of writing that flips Brownstein’s challenge into a metaphor for the struggles he was facing at the time: “I apologize / my life’s become an island / and now I’m feeling under the gun.”
And so Apex Manor was born. Joined by friend Adam Vine, Flournoy conquered his writer’s block and cranked out more than 25 songs, a creative outpouring that will result in the full-length album, The Year of Magical Drinking, due out Jan. 25 on Merge.
The Broken West will undoubtedly be missed, but Under the Gun shows the promise of a worthy successor.
I’m still not sure I’ll believe this until I actually see it, which I guess is probably the reaction Red Bull is hoping for with Soundclash, a series of shows that the energy-drink maker calls “the ultimate live music conversation.”
On Nov. 20 at some place called American Junkie in Scottsdale, Miniature Tigers are not only returning home, they’re bringing the legendary Roots crew with them. That’s right: Charlie Brand and Co., who just two short years ago played a show I put together at Yucca Tap Room, will collaborate for a one-off show with Black Thought, ?uestlove and the Roots, a group whose fame was cemented long before making Jimmy Fallon watchable. I have confirmed this is actually happening and both bands will be in New York to rehearse together for a few days.
In a nutshell, Soundclash works thusly, according to the official press release: “Two bands will collaborate like never before, with the audience standing between the two stages for the best seat in the house.” Really hoping for a drum-off between Rick Schaier and ?uestlove … or perhaps the groups will cover each other? This should be interesting, to say the least.
Boston emcee Akrobatik, a member of the Perceptionists (Mr. Lif and DJ Fakts One) will host the event along with local DJ Senbad and DJR. Tickets are $10 and the show is 18-and-over.
With tracks from Bomarr, Copy, Meanest Man Contest and Roman Ruins, Designed Entropy stands as a work of art, in both the music and packaging – a piece that Gold Robot says “explores the relationship between design, structure, and humanity.”
What better way to examine the structure of a song than by breaking it down and rebuilding it via remix? Hunter was kind enough to give me a first crack at posting the Fancy Mike remix of Bomarr’s Exchanges Among Systems, a reworking that isn’t shy about introducing some low end. Turn up the bass.
I’m still on a bit of a high after seeing The National last week in Tucson and Tempe on back-to-back nights. So this new video, which serves more or less as a mini tour documentary set to an alternate version of the song Terrible Love, is already making me nostalgic for seven days ago.
Listening to Terrible Love on record, I’d never guess it would replace Mr. November as the epic, walk-through-the-audience moment of the encore. And, yet, it worked (even if the unwieldy mic cord whacked me in the neck in Tempe).
I love this video, which humanizes the band and loosens the tie a little on singer Matt Berninger’s ever-serious demeanor.
This alternate version can be found on the expanded edition of High Violet, which includes a bonus disc of unreleased songs, live tracks B-sides, etc. You know the drill: Buy album once and buy it again. It’s due out Nov. 22.
With Frightened Rabbit playing the Clubhouse in Tempe on Sunday night, I wanted to re-post this interview that originally ran in April, when the band’s Arizona date was canceled because of the volcanic ash that grounded European travel. Without further ado …
(Note: When an opportunity to interview Frightened Rabbit singer Scott Hutchison arose in advance of the band’s April 19 show in Tempe, I knew my friend Casey, the man behind the great blog Crumbler, was the man for the job. His impassioned response to Pitchfork’s review of the band’s new album is worth your time, as is his outstanding interview here.)
Scott Hutchison answers the phone in Amsterdam, which he is visiting on this day for the first time. He has come to play a show with Frightened Rabbit, the band he started as a solo act in 2003 and has since developed into one of the most compelling acts in indie rock. Amsterdam has lived up to his expectations: “Booze is a cunt,” he tweets a few minutes before I call him. “Brain no worky.” But by the time he picks up the phone he seems to have shaken the cobwebs: He is cheery and thoughtful, gamely answering questions about his band’s excellent new record, The Winter of Mixed Drinks, and the somewhat bizarre critical response it has drawn. Frightened Rabbit comes to the Clubhouse on Monday, and it’s a show well worth seeking out. Arizona was an early adopter of Frightened Rabbit; according to Hutchinson, it’s the first place that ever requested an encore.
Below Hutchinson talks about moving beyond break-up songs, creating his rap persona and being misunderstood by Pitchfork.
Crumbler: So you guys are heading to Coachella next week. Do you like playing festival shows, or do you prefer the clubs? Scott Hutchison: Well, each presents itself with a different kind of challenge and atmosphere. The big shows that you play in the afternoon, a lot of the audience might not have heard your music before. That in a way is a bit more fun. When you play in the clubs, you have an audience from the start. But when you play at an afternoon festival, that feels like more of an achievement — to win a crowd over in the space of 40 minutes. I love them both, though. They have their pros and cons.
I saw you in a particularly sweaty club in Arizona a couple years called the Rhythm Room. Midnight Organ Fight had just come out, but everyone in the pit knew all the words (see video at left), and you guys came out to play an encore. I remember you saying that you don’t usually play encores — is that still the case? The reason back then was that no one had ever called us back before. Now we do plan for it. I do remember that show — it was a surprise that people wanted to hear more.
The new video, which debuted at NME, adds more weight to this anthemic track, tugging at the heartstrings as it follows a day in the life of an elderly gentleman who is seeking some sort of companionship – until he sort of gives a middle finger to it all at the end.
Says singer Scott Hutchison: “The single itself is really about the same things that most of TWOMD focused on: a sense of isolation and the hints of madness and odd behaviour that can arise as a result of that. Like a lot of the record, I also wanted to be fairly sparse with the imagery. I hoped the listener would try fill in the blanks and walk into the song, tying bits of it together along the way. But it’s a simple premise really. A person gets a bit lost and cries for help, or cries just to be heard at all. I suppose it was also relating to what I do most days as a singer in a touring band – shout to make people listen.â€
The Loneliness and the Scream will be released as a single in the U.S. on Dec. 8.
Ten years after the release of their debut United By Fate, the dudes in Rival Schools decided to get back together and release some new material. Shot After Shot is the first taste of an album, Pedals, that is due for release in March.
Combined with the reunion of Far, this is all starting to feel like I’m opening a bizarre post-punk time capsule I’ve unearthed in my own backyard. Still, as I’ve said before, Rival Schools frontman Walter Schreifels has earned a lifetime free pass from me (mostly for the influence of Quicksand) and guitarist Ian Love was the subject of this blog’s very first Q&A.
Weirdly – or maybe not? – Shot After Shot sounds like, well, a Rival Schools song that should have come out in 2003. It could just be that Schreifels’ voice evokes a feeling of a certain time period for me, so I’m eager to hear the rest and see if the band reignites a new feeling or if 10 years is too long to make up for lost time.
A dead tour van earlier in the week had me worried that Phantogram might not make it across the country in time for Friday night’s Phoenix show at Rips Ales & Cocktails (venue change from original announcement). But the problem appears to be solved and the show will go on (with three exclamation points, no less).
Josh Carter and Sarah Barthel make up Phantogram, but the duo has added a third member for the tour – Tim Oakley (The Mathematicians) on drums, samples, and Akai MPC. Even if the debut LP, Eyelid Movies, leans a bit to the electro side of things – which typically ain’t my bag – the music is set in a foundation of beats that appeals to me. No surprise considering Barthel’s affinity for hip-hop.
