You Go First

An empty feeling had settled upon my musical appetite as of late. Sadly, iTunes, Amazon.com, and Last.fm no longer provided me with any substantial growth in my listening habits, no groundbreaking artist suggestions based on my consumption habits. Of course, when space-age technology fails us, we can only turn to that which has always been: “the Old School.” In this case, the old school points to a longstanding tradition dating back thousands of years, to a time when bearded men attempted to win affection while standing upon mounts, boulders, or cliffs, spouting energetic and believable accounts of wraths, famines, and pestilences. This tradition is called: The Opening Act.

Due entirely to Opening Acts of the last eight months, my sense of excitement for new music has expanded to monumental proportions. So, I offer this list of opening acts as a way of increasing their influence, their inspiration, and hopefully their fan base. (And no, I am not being paid.)

1.Megafaun (Bowerbirds) – Crofoot Pike Room, Pontiac

I had not even heard much of the headliner in this instance. While Bowerbirds did not disappoint, I think I walked away a bigger fan of Megafaun. They are an amazing combination of down-home folksiness and outright weirdness. And their harmonies made some more well known bands look amateurish.


2.Dawes (Langhorne Slim) – Blind Pig, Ann Arbor

“Wow!” is really all one can say if they have little-to-no experience with Dawes before seeing them live. They have unrelenting energy, sweat, grizzle, and power. And they are damned sexy, to boot. One of my favorite opening acts for one of my favorite artists. Ever.


3.Darwin Dees (Bishop Allen) – Crofoot Pike Room, Pontiac

I have tried many times to dance the way Darwin Deez dances (I just researched and found that his name is Darwin Deez, not the band). I am not what you might call “a good dancer.” In fact, I am below-mediocre on my best day. But this guy, and his band, are top-notch dancers whether playing their instruments or taking a break to tear up the dance floor stage with an interlude mix-mash of MJ and others. Add on the Saved by the Bell wardrobe, and anyone who has difficulty having fun at a Darwin Deez concert is a grade-A a-hole. Word.


4.AA Bondy (Elvis Perkins) – Lincoln Hall, Chicago

Lincoln Hall is a quiet venue. Sometimes awkwardly so. But that actually plays to the advantage of AA Bondy and his humble, finger-picked, revenge lullabies (I just made that up). As the feedback fades out, people barely cheer. Not because they wasted their money or they are, well, wasted, but because they have just been blown away in subtle and confounding ways.


5.The Low Anthem (The Avett Brothers) – Michigan Theater, Ann Arbor

Although the Low Anthem remains the only opening act whose album I did not immediately purchase, that is not representative of their performance. Having little experience with their music, I was pleasantly surprised and truly impressed by the band's ability to change styles, melodies, and instruments throughout the show. And the interactive cell-phone chirping conducted by lead singer, Ben Knox Miller, would take a spot in my top 5 live music experiences if I were ever inclined to establish such a ridiculous list.


6.Hospital Ships (Shearwater & Why Oak) – Beachland Tavern, Cleveland

When I mention Hospital Ships to people, I sometimes forget who the headliner acts were. I had to look it up before writing this. I was nominally aware of Shearwater and Why Oak, and knew nothing of Hospital Ships when I saw them this past April. They are a youngish, thoughtful band whose members also play in Shearwater (Or is it that Shearwater members fill in Hospital Ships?) Either way, I hope they stick around.


7.The Heligoats (Clem Snide) – Lincoln Hall, Chicago & The Frequency, Madison

OK, aside from having a chance to see these guys perform twice in one weekend and loving it, I also had a chance to talk with several members of the band. They are all kinds of nice. They would probably give you the shirt off their backs. Or a shirt out of the merch box. Musically, the Heligoats surround lead singer Chris Otepka's heartfelt, intelligent (and slightly wacky) lyrics with musicianship beyond their years. And some of them wear pineapple Hawaiian shirts. Say no more...

You Go Next

As a note, I would also like to point out that I have listed the headliners alongside the opening acts outlined above. Without them, and without their music, I would still be in the dark about most, if not all, of these wonderfully talented musicians. And so would you. So click some links, listen to some tunes, and please, go see a live show!

The B-52s

I've always loved the way that the B-52s have been able to bounce back and forth between outlandish party rock and catchy mainstream pop. Their self-titled debut profiles that versatility and establishes the band's trademark sound that is echoed throughout their catalog. The album's biggest hit, Rock Lobster, is catchy and seems to get more absurd as it goes, while songs like Lava, 52 Girls and Hero Worship are rockers that maintain a steady intensity. The record closes with a very fun and cool cover of Downtown that, in my opinion, has stood the test of time as much as the original. It's fun to spotlight the B-52s colorful wild side, but from their earliest release, they have been ready to show that they are capable of multifaceted and unique music.

The B-52s MySpace

The Meat of Life

Clem Snide is a great band. They have a new album, titled The Meat of Life, due out February 23, which is available for listen at npr.org. Thus far, I would have to place this album among their best; better than the last two albums (humble opinion only).

As you will read, Stephen Thompson's review suggests that Eef Barzelay is indie rock's Kermit the Frog. However you view this compliment, I couldn't pass up the wonderful opportunity presented to me by Mr. Thompson. So, for your enjoyment:

Seasons

From time to time, I will post comic strips and illustrations that reference or are inspired by music. Some will attempt humor, while others may look more seriously at the way music affects our lives. Many of these posts will continue in a format of sorts, but some may be a one-time creation. If you like something, let me know, and I will bring you more...

Now then, on with the show. (Click the image to see a larger version.)

For my first post, I open a discussion about what music is good for which season. While I chose four albums in one artist's career, I would encourage you to choose from whenever and wherever you wish.

Jukebox Update 2/4/10

I'm excited to say that my good friend Jason will start contributing with us very soon. He will be giving our blog a wider perspective with his opinions and insights through both words and illustrations.
Welcome Jason!

"Real" Music

Recently I've been thinking about how we gauge the authenticity of music. The thought came up while I was reading an album review on Pitchfork and it resurfaced following a bogus mp3 leak.
Last week the internet was peppered with a new Justice mp3, shortly followed by news that they were not responsible for the track. I enjoyed the song that sounded like Justice, but the artist responsible got exposure as a nameless, faceless fraud rather than somebody that released an original song that sounded like Justice. Which way gave them a better exposure? When is it OK for an artist to go beyond an influence and mimic a signature sound? I hear Elvis Costello when I listen to Girls and I hear The Postal Service when I stumble into Owl City. One is acclaimed while the other is ripped apart. Who or what determines if Girls is more relevant/authentic/talented than Owl City. One of the two had a number one hit.
Alex Ebert is the vocalist for pop-punk band, Ima Robot, and indie-folk band Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros. A review of the latter band's album on Pitchfork compared Ebert to Fruitopia, in that he is tricking people into thinking he's a folk singer. It's easy to accuse him of jumping on an indie rock bandwagon, but could it be possible that he is a musically well-versed artist that is simply reinventing himself? Is it fair to speculate what an artist's intentions are, and to what degree should it influence our attraction to the music? Should all music be heard in a vacuum, free of image and explanation or are the peripherals part of the authenticity?

Tegan and Sara - The Con

I used to wonder whether or not I should refer to Tegan and Sara as a guilty pleasure. On one hand, they kind of come off as bubble gum rockers perfectly suited for sound tracking an episode of Grey's Anatomy. But on the other hand, they come off as a stylish indie pop duo that make approachable records. I have dismissed the former point of view in favor of the later because Tegan and Sara have steadily made good music and they have a cool that seems to attract more cool. They've been covered by The White Stripes and Ryan Adams, and Death Cab For Cutie's Chris Walla has been involved in producing their last two albums. The first of those two is The Con, which features Walla along with his Death Cab For Cutie band mate, Jason McGerr, as well as Kaki King, and Matt Sharp. Even while surrounded by all that cool, Tegan and Sara manage to maintain their sound, letting the mood differentiate the record from their other work by occasionally replacing poppy angst with sincere melancholy and vulnerability. It also seems emotionally direct, largely due to nine of the fourteen tracks clocking in at three minutes or less. These shorter songs tend to keep me from settling into a mood before the next song creates a new one. The Con is simply Tegan and Sara at their best in a display of musical accessibility, artistic focus and, of course, cool.

Tegan and Sara MySpace

Contra - Promotion vs. Hype

Today Vampire Weekend released their much anticipated/overly hyped album Contra and it felt like one of those indie albums that could never live up to any expectations that early promotions have built up.
A couple of years ago when Vampire Weekend was an internet buzzband, I never gave them much thought beyond their music. I watched as their identity evolved from unknowns to preppy ivy league grads to indie rock darlings with a growing fan base, billboard charted singles and songs featured in movies. When a follow up to their debut was announced in September 2009, the hype began to snowball into the avalanche that was a weekend long sneak peak of the album on satellite radio, appearances on both The Tonight Show and The Late Show within a week of each other, an episode of MTV Unplugged, and a direct message in my MySpace inbox reminding me that their album was on sale. If i didn't plan on getting excited for this album, they were going to find a way to make me. So could a record that seemed to be doing everything short of begging me to listen to it be any good?
Yes.
Contra is good, but it's not an album that will surprise anyone or change the musical landscape. Vampire Weekend doesn't change their sound, so much as mature it in the sense that they seem more comfortable with it. If you liked their first record, it's safe to say that you'll like this one and it's exactly what a band's sophomore effort should sound like. But the intense promotion was inescapable to me online, on tv, and on the radio. Why push so hard for something that would naturally appeal to so many people? Spread out those talk show performances. Chill out with the radio interviews. If the record is good, it will sell. Maybe I just enjoy watching artists like Vampire Weekend emerge with a fresh sound, rather than having that sound attempt to overwhelm my conciousness.

The Coast Is Never Clear

At surface level, Beulah's The Coast is Never Clear is a fantastic album that had me enamored from my first listen, and the story surrounding the band around the time that they made this record has kept it interesting.
Miles Kurosky, the band's vocalist, wrote much of the material for the album while in Japan, and mailed demo tapes to each of his band mates. Their individual interpretations led to different styles of music on some songs, which gave way to a variety of instruments featured on any given track. The lyrical tone of the album was influenced by Kurosky having been diagnosed with bipolar disorder just as the band began recording. The fusion of upbeat California pop, alt country, and garage rock was met with dark and down beat lyrics. The result could have been a disaster, but the album stands out among the band's other work (which is also good and worth checking out). Many artists try to fuse genres and juxtapose mood with varying degrees of success, but Beulah's ability to do so on this album comes off as sincere, especially in the context of how the material was developed and arranged.

Beulah MySpace (Unofficial)
Miles Kurosky MySpace

20 Favorite Songs of 2009

Musical preferences vary with and without reason from person to person, but given enough time any number of people can find common ground. With that in mind, I'd also like to point out that the following list has no more or less merit than any other that simply states partiality. Hopefully, though, we're able to share an interest in at least one of these songs.

Animal Collective - My Girls
Au Revoir Simone - Shadows
The Avett Brothers - I and Love and You
Gui Boratto - Besides
Dirty Projectors - Stillness is the Move
The Dodos - Fables
Dutchess and The Duke - Let it Die
Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks
JJ - From Africa to Malaga
Lusine - Baffle
Metric - Help I'm Alive
Modest Mouse - Satellite Skin
The National - So Far Around the Bend
Pariah - Detroit Falls
Portishead - Chase the Tear
Trailer Trash Tracys - Candy Girl
The Very Best - Warm Heart of Africa
The XX - Crystalized
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll
Yeasayer - Ambling Alp

Cory's List

The Best Songs I Heard This Year

I don't think there's a need to further introduce or define this bookend year to the musical decade. I'll leave that up to the professionals at Pitchfork, Paste, Rolling Stone, and the amazing amount of quality blogs out there. However, I think its important that I put this list into a personal context. This year opened my ears sonically to music that I would have easily shoved aside a few years ago. There is a mix of nostalgia for the roots rock that I am consistently drawn to but also a pull toward the more complex nature of current electronic/indie trends (see: anything by Animal Collective or Dirty Projectors).

This list is by no means extensive or in any particular order. There are many bands that I am just getting to know (the xx and Fanfarlo to name a few) and bands that I haven't found yet. These are songs that I have simply not been able to put down, songs that seem uncompromisingly honest, and songs/artists that I have recommended in conversations throughout the year.

I hope you found some new and worthwhile music over the past 12 months. There was certainly plenty of good tuneage to go around.

Andrew Bird - Anonanimal

Animal Collective - My Girls

Avett Brothers - I and Love and You (a close second: Laundry Room and really just the whole record)

Bon Iver - Blood Bank

Dave Matthews Band - Seven

Dawes - When My Time Comes

Devendra Banhart - 16th & Valencia Roxy Music

Dirt Projectors - Stillness is the Move (a close second: Cannibal Resource)

Dirt Projectors and David Byrne - Knotty Pine

Elvis Perkins in Dearland - Shampoo

Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks

J.Tillman - Earthy Bodies

Mason Jennings - The Field

Monsters of Folk - Dear God

The National - So Far Around the Bend

Passion Pit - The Reeling

Pearl Jam - The Fixer

Phoenix - 1901

The Swell Season - Feeling the Pull

Wilco - One Wing

Wild Light - California on My Mind

Ryan's List

Labrador

Loyal Divide follow up their eclectic (and maybe at times a little over ambitious) self titled EP with some cleverly arranged ambient pop on Labrador. While both albums draw from similar influences, the latter brings more cohesion from track to track. Through the right combination of ominous vocals, glitchy and brittle beats, and a wistful synth, the band has established a consistent voice and a foundation for their sound.

Loyal Divide MySpace

R.E.M. Live at the Olympia in Dublin

The latest release from R.E.M. is a 39 track live recording that should do more than keep fans satisfied until their next studio album. The collection includes unpolished performances of several songs from last year's Accelerate that the band debuted during this live stint. In a couple of cases the difference between the live track and the final version are extremely noticeable, but for the most part, everything seems to have been put into place before they were road tested. The newer material provides a good core for the record, but a good portion of the album features songs from the group's I.R.S years. The modern takes on the older songs helped me realize, not only, just how much the band has matured and progressed in terms of their craft, but also how steady they have been for so long.

R.E.M. MySpace

Jukebox Update 11/17/09

This blog has been inspired by the excitement we get from finding, sharing, and/or rediscovering music. Unfortunately the balance between an enthusiasm for discussing music and the tasks of everyday life, ranging from trivial to crucial, has been skewed enough to deter from regular posts over the last several weeks. Through acknowledging the lack of posts, I hope to avoid another lapse and move forward with a renewed desire to write.

Moneypenny

I was passing by one of the stages at Wicker Park Fest just as Moneypenny started their set in front of a group of about a dozen people. Quickly into their DJ set, the duo had attracted a much larger crowd and had people dancing as far back as the end of the block. A few weeks later at Lollapalooza, they had another large crowd moving and shaking during their DJ set before debuting some original dance/vocal pop compostions. The change of pace seemed drastic, and the performance was new and parts came off as slightly unpolished, but the songs were fun and kept the crowd interested. I am looking forward to hearing more in terms of their new direction, and in the meantime, I've been enjoying the free mixtapes.

Monneypenny at Wicker Park Fest 2009

Yeah Ghost

Similar to their last release, The Garden, Zero 7 has continued to move away from downtempo lounge music on Yeah Ghost, this time in favor of upbeat dance pop and electronica, along with folk music. Hints of the group's first two albums are laced throughout Yeah Ghost and are the most noticeable on the tracks The Road and Pop Art Blue. For the most part though, the album jumps around from one genre to the next, making it tough to determine which direction the group is trying to move toward. As much as I would love for them to release another album like Simple Things, it's fun to listen to a band like this expand on their material and display more of their influences. In this case, the variety of those influences produce a collection of good songs on an erratically arranged album.

Zero 7 MySpace

No One's First, And You're Next

No One's First, and You're Next collects material that was first recorded along with, but not used on, the last two Modest Mouse albums. The eight songs on the EP are all fantastic and could have easily found their place on either album, but none of the tracks seem to deliver the top 40 appeal of Float On or Dashboard, which feels like a polished and full version of their traditional sound. And if there's any proof necessary that the band is invested in the content and not just dumping off unused material to go through the motions of making an album, it would be vocalist Isaac Brock's delay to release the first single until the vinyl was the shade of orange that he had in mind.
It's a given that any time a band breaks through to the mainstream, they risk alienating fans. If that was the case for Modest Mouse over the last 5 years, this album might help them win a few fans back.

Modest Mouse MySpace

Renfro

Renfro's Mathematics is a beautiful and slow album that uses floating melodies and vocals that seem to hover and glow over a crunchy electronic glitch. While the use of field recordings (such as sizzling noodles or subsonic sounds from space) in their music could be a distracting gimmick, Renfro manage to avoid becoming a victim of their own devices by disguising the sounds in the music, rather than accentuating them.

Renfro MySpace

Out Of Season

Portishead vocalist Beth Gibbons spent some of her time during the band's hiatus in the early part of this decade to collaborate with former Talk Talk bassist Paul Webb. In 2002 the pair released Out of Season (Webb uses the pseudonym Rustin Mann) which spotlights Gibbons' haunting voice supported by moody and jazzy instrumentation. While the tracks Tom The Model and Funny Time Of Year parallel Portishead songs, Romance and Mysteries are examples of how Gibbons and Webb managed to showcase their talent without falling back on their respective trip-hop or synth-pop genres that would have been a safe, and more than likely boring, approach to the collaboration.

Beth Gibbons MySpace

Mongolian Hip Hop

NPR ran an interesting story on the growing popularity of hip hop in Mongolia as a means of voicing social concerns and nationalist pride.
It's nothing I'll be rushing to get on my iPod, but it's a great reminder of the importance of free speech, and the ability to use art to contribute to social change.

NPR story here