With a new album – At Night We Live – due out on May 25, a reunited Far will help ring in the release with a show at Rhythm Room on May 24. Tickets for the all-ages show are $15 and can be purchased here. Dead Country and Phoenix’s Constellation Branch open.
The band is taking pre-orders for the album, coming out on Vagrant, at its site, where you can also stream the single Deafening.
Water & Solutions made a huge impact in shaping my tastes back in the day, but I never had the chance to see Far live in the band’s original go-round. So I’m excited for the second opportunity.
You’ve heard Bloodbuzz Ohio and seen The National perform Terrible Love on Fallon. Now, the New York Times is offering a full stream of the highly anticipated High Violet, due out May 11, to accompany an NYT Magazine feature on the band.
After a couple listens, I’d say Bloodbuzz Ohio, Afraid of Everyone and England are the initial highlights. Also, is it just me or does Matt Berninger’s voice seem to dominate the mix? I guess it’s sort of hard to tone down that baritone, which has become a trademark of the band.
Anyway, that’s a small quibble for what is sounding like an astounding album.
I had little hesitation choosing to see Japandroids on Monday over Beach House after our Frightened Rabbit plans were derailed by that damn volcano. And now I’m starting to think Mother Nature intended for me to be at the Japandroids show all along because it was a pulsating performance, already my favorite concert of the young year. (Now if Frightened Rabbit reschedules for Phoenix, then I’ll get the best of both worlds.)
I didn’t keep a setlist, but I’m almost certain the Vancouver duo – playing their first show in Phoenix – tore through all of Post-Nothing and then some, including Darkness on the Edge of Gastown, Art Czars and its 7-inch B-side, the Big Black cover of Racer X. (I took some video, but I think my digital camera’s feeble audio capabilities were completely devastated by the volume levels.)
Three days before the Phoenix show, the guys stopped by KCRW in Los Angeles for a session on Morning Becomes Eclectic in which singer/guitarist Brian King explained the not-so-subtle secret to success as a two-man band: “The amps, especially their size and quantity, is what it’s all about.”
Here’s the KCRW setlist:
1. Crazy/Forever
2. Sovereignty
3. Art Czars
**Interview**
4. Rockers East Vancouver
5. Wet Hair
6. Young Hearts Spark Fire
I recommend watching the entire session, but KCRW also uploaded Art Czars to its YouTube channel if you just want to watch that (and, man, I love this song):
Now that Record Store Day is over, I’m revisiting all the exclusive releases to see what I missed and what I can still find.
First on the list is a 7-inch by The One AM Radio for the new song Credible Threats, which includes a Mae Shi remix on the B-side. The limited-edition record – only 500 copies were pressed – also comes with a download code for both tracks and a bonus remix by Jogger and (here’s the best part) 3-D glasses to watch the video for the song.
The group and Dangerbird Records has kindly offered a free download of the song, but you’ll have to buy the 7-inch to get the other goodies.
The One AM Radio played this track when we saw them open for Titus Andronicus last month at Chyro Arts, and it’s a pop charmer, full of paranoid visions right from the opening line: “I’m never sleeping, I’m too busy keeping track of all the ways they say I might die.” I’m already sold on the song, but according to the teaser video, Busdriver appears on the Mae Shi remix/cover. Should be well worth tracking down that 7-inch.
Two months ago, Phoenix music fans were forced to make a tough concert-going decision for Monday night: Frightened Rabbit, Beach House and Japandroids were all playing in the Valley on the same date at different venues – an example of the annual spillover thanks to our proximity to Coachella. Unfortunately, the choice narrowed over the weekend after Frightened Rabbit was forced to cancel because of grounded flights in the UK due to the spewing ash from the Icelandic volcano.
That set off a domino effect in town: Stateside Presents has since moved Beach House from the previously sold-out Rhythm Room to the larger Clubhouse, where Frightened Rabbit was supposed to play. That means more tickets have become available. (The Middle East, originally opening for Frightened Rabbit, remains on as support for Beach House.) Likewise, Japandroids (with Avi Buffalo opening) have now been moved from The Trunk Space to Rhythm Room.
So with Frightened Rabbit sadly no longer an option – crushing our dreams of that potential laser show – I’ve chosen to check out Japandroids instead of Beach House, a decision some people find questionable. But the duo’s 2009 albumPost-Nothing gets heavy rotation, and I’ve been happily spinning my new Art Czars 7-inch that I picked up at Stinkweeds on Record Store Day.
As if I needed any motivation to purchase the 7-inch, Carrie Brownstein has an exclusive stream of the A-side, Dirty Thing, at her excellent NPR blog Monitor Mix. Brownstein also assures us the B-sides – Non-Toxic and The Drawback – “are just as snappy and sharp.”
(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.
After sharing a video for the new song Compliments, Band of Horses are giving us a listen at another track off their forthcoming third album Infinite Arms (due out May 18).
Check out Laredo, a song I’m warming to a little quicker than Compliments, even if singer Ben Bridwell seems hesitant here to let his voice really fly the way we know it can.
Last week I spoke to Megafaun drummer Joe Westerlund for a story I’m writing in advance of the band’s show on April 23 at Sail Inn in Tempe, part of their first headlining tour of the United States.
Naturally, he talked about the band’s upcoming release, Heretofore, a sort of stopgap recording between last year’s Gather, Form & Fly and a new album the band will begin recording in the fall. Due this summer, Heretofore is a six-song, 36-minute “mini-album,” with one song alone clocking in at 12 minutes. Westerlund said that song, an improvisation called Connor Pass, has become a favorite talking point for the band and emblematic of Megafaun’s off-the-cuff nature.
Alas, the new song Pitchfork premiered last week is not Connor Pass. It’s called Volunteers, twangy in nature and only a fourth of the length of Connor Pass.
April 17 will be a joyous day. My wife’s birthday just happens to fall on Record Store Day this year, so I’m sure she’ll love the Wilco Kicking Television vinyl box set I’ll be getting her. Just what she always wanted!
Well, that’s one of the many Record Store Day exclusives I have my eyes on. I went to Stinkweeds on Wednesday and got the full menu of what will be available when the store opens at 9:30 a.m.
I’m not sure yet what’s going on at other record stores in the Valley, but I know Stinkweeds will also have live music and food. Could my wife ask for a better birthday??
If you need convincing to check out the Record Store Day fun, then Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme is here to help:
