Mazzy Star was one of the soundtracks to boho-rooms, bars and coffeeshops through the early 90’s, the band’s drowsy heroin blue romanticism filling spaces on muggy summer days or chilly winter nights. Images of dried flowers and incense sticks arise whenever I hear their music. Of course, I am in love with singer Hope Sandoval as are most of you fans, bedazzled by this archetypal gothic waif floating through melancholy soundscapes. Mazzy Star is no more, but Sandoval sings on in solo as befits her loner aura. In tribute to her former band, here’s “Flowers In December,” a lovely track from their final disc, “Among My Swan,” which provided my own sonic backdrop at Berkeley. Listening to this song is almost as good as walking pensive through crystal-cold fields at dawn…almost…

The Velvets Revolution [2009] <- Download

Entre os que atribuem ao Velvet Underground o título de banda seminal, apenas uma minoria consegue citar exemplos de influenciados para confirmar o que dizem. É o efeito Mate-me Por Favor, responsável por fazer muita gente acreditar ser possível sintetizar a importância do VU em 443 páginas.  Encartada na última edição da Uncut, a coletânea The Velvets Revolution – 15 Bands Inspired By The Velvet Underground pode ajudar essas pessoas a entender o legado dos novaiorquinos. Não se trata de um tributo convencional, desses com regravações; mas de uma pequena amostra da difusa e duradoura a influência do grupo para o rock alternativo.

Na virada para os anos 80, as bandas americanas Feelies e Suicide representaram bem o quanto a água de uma mesma fonte pode causar diferentes efeitos colaterais – jangle pop e no wave, respectivamente. Do outro lado Atlântico, ainda nos anos 80, os extremos vão do proto-indie-pop do Orange Juice ao kraut-shoegaze do Loop. Smog, numa faixa bem Lou Reed, e Hope Sandoval, emulando a Nico, são os nomes mais conhecidos dos anos 90. Entre os filhotes nascidos nesta década, estão o Thee Oh Sees e as Vivian Girls, ambos já devidamente elogiados em posts anteriores. Sobram ainda mais sete artistas que eu desconheço, mas que também fizeram ótimas canções sob influência de Lou Reed e Cia.

Vivian Girls - Tension
 Magik Markers - Risperdal

Here are 5 great duets (more duets on the way…):

1. “God Only Knows” — Beach Boys Cover by Mandy Moore & Michael Stipe

2. “Love Hurts” — Everly Brothers/Roy Orbison/Nazareth Cover by Jenny Lewis & Johnathan Rice

3. “Anyone Else But You” — Moldy Peaches Cover by Ellen Page & Michael Cera in Juno

4. “Sometimes Always” — The Jesus and Mary Chain

5. “Delaware” (Acoustic) — Wesley Jensen and Christie Dupree

The eerily beautiful Fade Into You was the biggest hit for Mazzy Star, taken from their 1993 album So Tonight That I Might See. The band were formed by ex-Rain Parade guitarist David Roback and singer Hope Sandoval from the ashes of Opal, and recorded three albums. Never officially splitting, a fourth LP has been in the worksd, on and off, for over a decade.

“Heligoland” will be Massive Attack’s first new album since 100th Window in 2003.

The release date is February 8 2010.

Tracklisting:

01. Pray For Rain
02. Babel
03. Splitting The Atom
04. Girl I Love You
05. Psyche
06. Flat Of The Blade
07. Paradise Circus
08. Rush Minute
09. Saturday Come Slow
10. Atlas Air

Featured vocalists are Horace, Martina Topley Bird, Damon Albarn, Guy Garvey, Hope Sandoval, Robert and Grant.

I’m looking forward to February 2010 – new album and a gig at Hammersmith Apollo.

It’s been almost seven years since Massive Attack released their last studio album 100th Window, which featured guest vocals from Sinéad O’Connor and Damon Albarn among others, so the February 2010 release of the long-awaited Heligoland is bound to attract a lot of attention. As usual, the remaining founding members Robert del Naja and Grant Marshall have lined up a stellar cast of vocalists to give the album a boost, including Hope Sandoval, Martina Topley-Bird, Elbow’s Guy Garvey and TV On The Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe, plus the return of Horace Andy and Damon Albarn. Produced by Neil Davidge, the album also features DFA’s Tim Goldsworthy and Portishead’s Adrian Utley on guitar. Songs from recording sessions with Dot Allison, Beth Orton, Elizabeth Fraser and touring vocalist Stephanie Dosen didn’t make the final cut.

Heligoland
01 Pray For Rain [feat. Tunde Adebimpe]
02 Babel [feat. Martina Topley-Bird]
03 Splitting The Atom [feat. Horace Andy]
04 Girl I Love You [feat. Horace Andy]
05 Psyche [feat. Martina Topley-Bird]
06 Flat Of The Blade [feat. Guy Garvey]
07 Paradise Circus [feat. Hope Sandoval]
08 Rush Minute [feat. Robert del Naja]
09 Saturday Come Slow [feat. Damon Albarn]
10 Atlas Air [feat. Robert del Naja]

‘Pray For Rain’, ‘Splitting The Atom’ and a remix of ‘Psyche’ are already available on the Splitting The Atom EP, released last month.

Catch Massive Attack (and no doubt some of their guests) on their mini UK tour in February. A percentage of ticket sales will be donated to the HOPING Foundation.

08.02.10 Newport Centre, Newport
09.02.10 Dome, Brighton
11.02.10 Hammersmith Apollo, London

Alan Pedder

R: Todavía no hemos disfrutado el Primavera Club y ya tenemos aquí la primera gran tanda de confirmaciones para el Primavera Sound 2010 (que se celebrará del 27 al 29 de mayo del año que viene). Por respeto al hecho de que nuestros lectores puede que no sean tan frikis como nosotros, hemos puesto de foto de este post a la que, sin duda, es la confirmación bombazo: Panda Bear. Está claro que Merryweather Post Pavilion estará en las listas de discos de lo mejor de este año, pero el hecho de que el debut de Panda Bear fuera de nuestros preferidos el año pasado y que, por desgracia, todavía no hayamos podido catarlo en directo justifica plenamente la expectación. Ahora, si nos preguntáis sinceramente a quién nos gustaría poner en la foto de aquí al lado nos veremos obligados a responder que a… ¡Bis! Sí señor. Y es que los escoceses autores del mítico Eurodisco se van a reunir para que podamos bailotear semejante temón bajo las estrellas primaverales. Una vez pagado el peaje friki, sigamos con el resto de confirmaciones (a las que no les falta chicha): a los ya anunciados Pavement y Pixies hay que sumar nombres como Wilco (que a nosotros nos interesan bien poco, pero que son un vende entradas seguro y es inteligente tenerlos en cualquier cartel), La Leyenda del Tiempo (homenaje al disco de Camarón), The xx (que, si siguen afinando el formato de trío, pueden protagonizar uno de los momentos del festival), The Fall (Mark E. Smith vale la compra de cualquier entrada), The New Pornographers (que siempre le animan a uno la noche), Hope Sandoval (con nuevo disco bajo el brazo que tendremos que sopesar antes de saber por dónde pueden ir los tiros de su actuación), Wild Beasts (si todavía no te has rendido a su magnífico Two dancers, su actuación será la oportunidad definitiva), The Antlers (emo-prog que en unas semanitas aconsejamos degustar en su gira por salas pequeñas), Joker (¡dubstep!), Delorean, Dum Dum, The Bloody Beetroots, Here we go magic y Ganglians. Pero vamos, que si incluso después de leer tres veces esta lista sigues (como nosotros) en shock por lo de Bis, te aconsejamos que le des al play del video que sigue a este texto y vayas preparando el grito de guerra para el Primavera Sound 2010: ¡Euroooooodiiiiscooooooo!

This was quite possibly the darkest gig I have ever been to. Not just in terms of the music, but the actual lighting. Ms Sandoval apparently has a touch of stage fright, possibly resulting in this barely-lit show. This did fit with the music in a way, as if she was saying it’s not about the musicians it’s just about the music, but it did feel as if she didn’t connect with the audience very well.

This gig also came top in the use of glockenspiels, with four being used at one point. A much underused instrument, this is true, but you can have too much of a good thing. Bizarrely, when Hope Sandoval was playing glockenspiel, her microphone was away from the audience, so she was pretty much singing with her back to us (although always breathy and note-perfect).

The support came from two acts, the first was ‘Susanna’, a duo of piano and guitar, who covered Thin Lizzy’s ‘Jailbreak’ and Lou Reed’s ‘Vicious’ in the style of sweet piano ballads. Next was psychedelic band ‘Dirty Blue Gene’, whose instrumentals were not bad, but the vocals were fairly weak. Then Dirty Blue Gene lost their drummer, and morphed into the Warm Inventions. Ms Sandoval appeared, just, in the darkness, along with Colm Ó Cíosóig of My Bloody Valentine on drums and sometimes on guitar (but not at the same time). As a drummer he was fairly impressive, the long psychedelic noodling allowing him to show this off.

All in all a good gig, if a little dark. Obviously Ms Sandoval eats a heck of a lot of carrots (and probably not much else).

Some nights I like to sit alone, weeping uncontrollably into the darkness. I’ll pour myself one too many babychams and think about times past. Maybe if I’d been willing to see things differently, maybe if I’d been willing to change, things could have been different. I light another cigarette, lie back, put another record on. Just a coupla more tunes to see me through troublesome times. Sometimes it’s Armchair Boogie by Michael Hurley, sometimes it’s the Never Ending Story by Limahl. Doesn’t matter. Just me, myself and the music. And sometimes – sometimes that’s enough, y’know?

But crapping crikey, do I really need to pay £20 to go and ‘see’ someone perform in near darkness? One of the best things about listening to music in the dark on your own is that YOU’RE ON YOUR OWN. It’s like being serenaded by angels whilst you have a particularly emotional wank. Things change when you’re sat amongst hundreds of other people doing the same.

Hope Sandoval’s last solo album, Bavarian Fruitbread (and most of the Mazzy Star back-catalogue), is one of those albums you can turn to in a crisis. It never lets you down. It’s dreamy, it’s hypnotic and it can completely re-tune your brain. It goes with darkness like civil servants go with a blank absence of ideas and intellectual rigour. But the choice to actually perform in darkness is questionable.

Ok, I’ve seen some bands pull it off: Mogwai, Melt Banana, Spiritualized etc. There are bands that made nineties journalists dribble themselves into a care homes with talk of soundscapes and sonic cathedrals. There are bands creating a noise such that you don’t know whether to punch yourself in the eyes, or shit yourself inside out. Hope’s music aligns her with the former. Trouble is, it’s music that engages through it’s emotional and lyrical resonance. It isn’t just about the sound. For the audience to be fully engaged and immersed, it helps to see the physical nuances of the performer’s delivery as they convey, amplify or even distort the feelings behind the words.

Don’t get me wrong, the video work is a captivating performance in itself. It’s repetitive enough to draw you in and let the music wash over you.  But without the focus of a visible human being, on it’s own, I’m not sure it’s enough . It may be that performing in darkness is a way for Sandoval to deal with a reported crippling shyness. It may be a way of resisting lazy journalistic reductions of this music to talk about the physical beauty of the performer, which used to happen a lot when she was in Mazzy Star. In which case, all well and good. It’s just a shame that such an unscalable barrier is erected in the process. It begs the question of whether Hope actually needs to attend her own gigs. And that can’t be a good thing.

Wat zou ik jullie graag onderhouden over Hope Zondeval (die ik dit weekend mocht aanschouwen), over de geweldige Daniil Charms (zie hierbeneden) die ik pas herontdekte. Over de Boekenbeurs en alle gekke dingen die je er tegenkomt. Over de lange rij waarvan het staartje plomp langs Geert van Istendael en Etienne Vermeersch doorliep en die begon bij Piet Piraat.

Over verlangen. Over Falling van Connie Francis. Over de foto’s van Felix Baumsteiger, waarvan ik nu weer net de juiste niet vind. Over 2 vriendinnen die simultaan hoogzwanger zijn en misschien wel simultaan besluiten te bevallen. Over tweetalige bundels van Fernando Pessoa. Over publiek en administratief recht en harige Zuid-Afrikaanse zangers die berichten op mijn facebook achterlaten die ik grappig vind, maar amper begrijp. Over treinreizen tussen Brussel en Antwerpen. Over de hele voorraad boeken die ik ingedaan heb. Meer dan ik eigenlijk kan betalen. Meer dan ik ooit kan lezen, zo lijkt het…

Als ik al eens thuis in de zetel zit, is het met een drukproef op de schoot en met een rode stylo in de hand.

Maar ik heb het naar mijn zin. En er komt beterschap. Dra.

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The Warm Invention @ Café de la Danse – PARIS, Nov. 4, 2009 :

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She Hangs Brightly was probably ten years old before I started listening to the dreamy balladry of Mazzy Star. By then, lead vocalist Hope Sandoval had moved onto a new-but-similar project in terms of Irish-American band Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions, and a fine new album called Bavarian Fruit Bread. However, it would be the best part of another decade later before there would be a follow-up to this debut offering in this year’s Through the Devil Softly. Indeed, one could say that the band is as languorous in the recording studio as it is in terms of how it sounds!

Performing to a near-capacity seated audience in Vicar Street last night, the set up brought to mind another melancholic band in Tindersticks, who performed a similar looking show in the venue a year ago. Here, the lighting was kept to a minimum, with the three accompanying guitarists mere silhouettes, for the most part, whilst Sandoval’s white skirt made her a little easier to spot centre-stage. Colm Ó Cíosóig, at least, was lit up by the screen behind his drum kit, as it hypnotically showed recurring images such as dancers, flames, and various abstract objects. The overall effect of this was to lull the audience into a very quiet and remote place in their minds, as they let Sandoval’s husky, soothing, and unvarying voice wash over them.

Highlights in the ninety(-ish) minute set included Charlotte, Blue Bird, and, inevitably, Suzanne. However, it did take until the final song of the main set for the band to cut loose from their mesmerizing guitar drones. Here, Ó Cíosóig dispensed with the wrapped mallets and gave the snare drums a proper workout on For the Rest of Your Life, with the rest of the band following suit. After a slightly pregnant pause, then, where the audience rallied twice to get them back out on stage, before fading again, the band finally re-emerged to perform the most accessible song on their new album in Satellite, before closing the show out with Feeling of Gaze from their first record.

Apart from informing the audience of how it was Ó Cíosóig’s birthday (followed by a lukewarm audience-rendition of you-know-what), it is doubtful that Sandoval spoke more than a half-dozen words following her initial greeting. Equally, she frequently turned to watch the visuals during the instrumental portions of songs and left the stage so promptly at the end that the audience had barely got their shoulder joints working to give her performance some deserved final applause. In light of this, one might even argue that the comparisons to Cat Power actually extend beyond certain similarities in vocal style! Of course, though, these matters are merely the froth on top. The substance of the show made for a perfectly fine evening’s entertainment… just do not go operating any heavy machinery straight away afterward!

I was very pleased that the first post in this series of my personal top 10 albums for every year of the outgoing decade (depending how you count decades, of course) created such a positive and generous response. Thank you for all the comments; they are always appreciated. I should point out again that I can include only those albums I actually have and know well. So Gillian Welch’s The Revelator fails to make the cut, though I believe that those of my friends who argue for its brilliance might have a point.

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Ben Folds – Rockin’ The Suburbs

The are at least two types of Ben Folds fans: those who don’t think that Folds has ever topped the work he did in union with with Robert Sledge and Darren Jessee as the ironically named Ben Folds Five, and those who prefer his more mature solo output. Put me down as belonging in the latter group. While the very funny title track, the driving Zak And Sara, Annie Waits or Not The Same would fit snugly in the Ben Folds Five canon, Folds’ solo debut exhibited a greater empathy for the subjects of his lyrics. On Rockin’ The Suburbs (released on September 11), Folds took the baton from BFF songs such as Brick, Don’t Change Your Plans or Best Imitation Of Myself, musically and lyrically.

Folds is a wonderful story teller. The story of Fred Jones, the old newspaper man whose retirement is going barely noticed by “all of those bastards” who don’t even remember his first name, is particularly poignant. Indeed, throughout the album Folds moves the listener: in the father-and-son relationship of Still Fighting It, in the desperation of the guy still trying to get over a girl in Gone (“the chemicals are wearing off…”), or in the tenderness of the astonishing love declarations on The Luckiest (one of the greatest love songs ever written; alas Folds has since divorced the song’s addressee). The album is not flawless — there is a weak trio of successive tracks in the middle) — but it does suggest that Ben Folds is this generation’s Randy Newman. And that is high praise.
Ben Folds – Fred Jones Part 2.mp3
Ben Folds – Zak And Sara.mp3

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Hedwig and the Angry Inch Soundtrack

The first time I saw the Hedwig and the Angry Inch, I was gobsmacked. The curious storyline, the intense performances, the incongruous humour (black GIs in East Berlin!), the imaginative setpieces, the animation and costumes, and, above all, the fantastic music, written by Stephen Trask and performed mostly by John Cameron Mitchell as the genitally mutilated Hedwig, which ranges from ballads and punk to Ziggy-style glam rock.

The highlight of the film is the Wig In A Box setpiece, also the soundtrack’s most appealing track. Since I am urging those who have not seen the film to catch up with it, I’ll restrain myself from describing the scene. I expect that many viewers will want to see it repeatedly. I’ll limit myself to posting only one song from each album here (apart from the #1 album of the year), but I also might have posted the gorgeous The Origin Of Love, with its Aristophanes-inspired lyrics, or Wicked Little Town, or Midnight Radio, or the explosive Angry Inch…
Hedwig and the Angry Inch – Wig In A Box.mp3

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Judith Sephuma – A Cry, A Smile, A Dance

Before the Idols franchise spewed forth disposable singers of debatable ability, at least in South Africa, televised talent shows in the country brought several artists of notable aptitude to the public’s attention. One of these was Judith Sephuma, born in the northern town of Polokwane (then Pietersburg) and a music graduate from the University of Cape Town. Her 2001 debut album is a captivating blend of jazz and Afro-pop which fully met, and even exceeded, the expectations observers had invested in the artist since her performance at the inauguration of President Thabo Mbeki in 1999, a year before she made a huge impression at the misnamed North Sea Jazz Festival in Cape Town (the local equivalent of the Montreaux festival). If the wonderful Randy Crawford had been South African, this is what she might have sounded like.
Judith Sephuma – Mmangwane.mp3

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Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions – Bavarian Fruit Bread

Much as I love Sandoval’s group Mazzy Starr, I struggled long and hard to “get” this album. It’s the sort of ambient set one needs to be in a perfect mood for (perhaps when one is recovering from a bout of inebriation). But when everything is set, it hits home in its quiet way. If Sandoval sounds fragile on Mazzy Starr, here you want to pack her in cotton wool and keep the volume low, just in case she breaks. The result is exponentially mesmerising and ultimately gorgeous. It’s not the sort of album from which one can pick a representative track (though I’ll try here); it works best as a body of music. If one is in the mood.
Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions – Around My Smile.mp3

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Richard Hawley – Late Night Final

Last month Hawley released a masterpiece, Truelove Gutter. Without wishing to resort to hyperbole, I’ll claim with confidence that it is not only the best album of the year, but one of the best of the decade. Hawley, a former member of Britpop groups Longpigs and Pulp, has produced a series of delightful and always affecting albums that started with his full debut, Late Night Final (it was preceded by a self-titled EP in 2000). The gorgeously melancholy, late night mood of that great triptych of Hawley albums — Coles Corner, Lady’s Bridge, Truelove Gutter — is already evident here. His voice has now dropped a register and the arrangements have become more intricate since Late Night Final (on which Hawley’s country influence is still evident), but the basics of the Hawley sound, and the quality, are already there. The stand-out track is Baby, You’re My Light, which I featured on this mix (which also features Ben Folds’ The Luckiest).
Richard Hawley – Love Of My Life.mp3

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Death Cab For Cutie – The Photo Album

Death Cab For Cutie is one the most stupid band names in modern music. It evokes the image of shouting and wailing nu-metal emo types, or perhaps a death metal outfit that failed in conjuring a suitably satanic-sounding moniker. Death Cab are nothing of the sort, of course, nor do they deserve to be dismissed for featuring so prominently on the teen drama-soap The O.C. (which was actually quite good for a couple of seasons and featured some excellent music that otherwise would not have received wider exposure). The Photo Album is Death Cab’s transition album, still drawing from the Indie rock of the earlier albums but preparing for the almost symphonic feel of 2003’s Transatlanticism and last year’s Narrow Stairs. It lacks the diversity of 2005’s Plans, but like Plans and more than Transatlanticism, it does have tracks that stand on their own. This is solidly guitar-driven, ambient Indie rock, but more accomplished (or, purists might say, polished) than the four preceding Death Cab albums.
Death Cab For Cutie – I Was A Kaleidoscope.mp3

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Rilo Kiley – Take-Offs & Landings

In 2004, Rilo Kiley released a brilliant album in More Adventurous. The preceding two albums are more patchy. Take-Offs & Landings borrows its influences widely, blows some alt.country over it, and voila. Sometimes it works, and there is nothing here that is really objectionable, but this is very much the work of a group still finding its way. Likewise, the wonderful Jenny Lewis is still discovering her voice, which here is still banking on its cuteness before it became the sexiest voice since Julie London’s. If all this sounds half-hearted, then that is not quite fair on an enjoyable album. It suffers not on its own merits, but in comparison to what the group and Lewis as a solo artist produced later.
Rilo Kiley – Plane Crash In C.mp3

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Alicia Keys – Songs In A Minor

At a time when soul music is dying a gangrened death at the hands of dancing corporate muppets and sexless nasal whiners, we ought to be grateful for the few artists who still refer to the rich heritage of the genre. So I find it difficult to sympathise with those who dismiss the artistry of Alicia Keys. OK, she’s not quite all that which the hype claims her to be, as a pianist or as a singer. Much of her material is bland. It’s safe to say that she cannot compare with, say, Roberta Flack. Judging only from her appearances at the Grammys (which I still watch for reasons I cannot comprehend; probably only for the In Memoriam section), I find her a bit smug, a bit corporate, a bit too convinced of her own genius. And yet, her albums includes a clutch of tracks which, had they been recorded 35 years earlier, would be noted as fine contributions to the canon of soul music, celebrating the derivations of her material as reflecting an astute choice of influences. Despite all the caveats I have raised, I’m glad that Alicia Keys is around.
Alicia Keys – A Woman’s Worth

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The Shins – Oh, Inverted World

Playing the song New Slang from this album, Natalie Portman’s character in the fine film Garden State promises Zach Braff’s protagonist that it will change his life. Without wishing to spring spoilers upon the reader who unaccountably have not seen the film, it indeed does so. The Portland, Oregon-based band’s debut thus broke out from the ghetto of Indie cult on the back of Braff’s championing. If the Kinks had been Americans recording their music in the ’00s, this is what they might have sounded like. I have quite enjoyed The Shins’ subsequent albums, which are musically accomplished, perhaps more than Oh, Inverted World. But if I want a fix of The Shins, it’s the debut I turn to.
The Shins – One By One All Day.mp3

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Weezer – Green Album

What is it with all those people who are so quick to dismiss every Weezer album because it isn’t Pinkerton? It seems to be accepted wisdom that Pinkerton, one of the great albums of the 1990s, set some kind of standard that Rivers Cuomo and the other three chaps must live up to. The trouble is, by the time the Pinkerton evangelists listened to the other Weezer albums, they were no longer of an age when they locked themselves in their bedrooms because school and parents and jocks sucked and listened to Pinkerton in the recovery period between wanks. The Green Album is a fine album; it has some great tunes, it’s fun, it doesn’t challenge you; it does everything you’d want from a Weezer album. Island In The Sun is my cellphone ringtone, by the way.
Weezer – Island In The Sun.mp3

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More Albums of the Year

After over 15 years, I finally got the chance to be graced with the presence of Hope Sandoval. On Friday October 16^th, Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions performed to a packed standing room only audience at The Loft in Atlanta, GA. While I have been a Mazzy Star fan for years, I actually really find her Warm Inventions material to stand strongly on its own. It has been 8 years since the release of the brilliant “Bavarian Fruit Bread” album and when I heard Hope and company were releasing a new album titled “Through The Devil Softly”, I was not just excited that I was going to get to hear new music; I was going to get to see her live with The Warm Inventions for the first time.

The show kicked off with opening band Dirt Blue Gene who I felt to be a very fitting opener. They had a sound that was like a fine mix of Mazzy Star meets Pink Floyd. The band had a very mellow sound and the use of subtle effects throughout the mix made it a very ear candy type of experience. The band really didn’t have any memorable songs but this isn’t to say that they weren’t good. I felt like they are a band to see in the moment to really get what they’re about. It was also no surprise to find out that they were also The Warm Inventions.

After a surprisingly pleasant 45 minute set, Hope & Co. made their way to the stage. I was right up against the stage because I just had to take in the entire experience up close and personal. Hope Sandoval has to be one of the most captivating performers I have ever seen. I read a lot of reviews of her shows and they always tend to be written by these kind of obsessive, sometimes bordering on stalker, male fans who talk about how beautiful she is and it actually gets kind of creepy. Let me start off by saying that she truly is beautiful but for me, it’s not her beauty that is so captivating; it’s her aura and the way that she appears to be connected to each word she sings with no distractions. She is in it 100% and that projects right to her listeners.

She enters the stage walking kind of briskly to the microphone and she clasps her hands behind her back. She turns to her band and the band launches into “Courtin’ Blues” by Nick Drake. From that moment on, the audience will be completely under her spell. Her presence is very commanding without being abrupt or even direct. She rarely says more than a slight “thank you” after every fourth song or so and the most I heard her say was at the encore where she said, “Thank you. You all are very sweet.” The dark, swirling undertone of “Blanchard” as the third song really drew me into her space and “Around My Smile” from “Bavarian Fruit Bread” was one of my “have to hear this song live” songs.

The stage presence of Hope Sandoval really reminds me of Jim Morrison on a polar opposite spectrum. While Jim did it with utter chaos, disorder and sexual charisma, Hope uses silence and softness as her tools while delivering her songs with a voice that sounded like thick air as she rarely opened her eyes or made any kind of eye contact. As she stood there in the soft blue and purple lights, it was impossible to not be completely pulled in. Her soft, warm voice is completely enveloped by the intricate yet subtle music made by the band and the chemistry between is completely unspoken. It’s almost as if they are on this mental and emotional wavelength with her that they all just flow in and surround her like a warm, musical aura.

One of the things I was also so impressed to see was the connection they all had to each other as they improvised extended “jams” throughout the songs. Hope’s drummer and creative partner Colm O’Ciosoig made his way to the front to play acoustic guitar on “Satellite” and took over on glockenspiel for a show stopping “Suzanne” which literally brought the house down. Watching Hope play the glockenspiel and vibraphone with such intensity on songs like “Around My Smile” and the dark, haunting and beautifully chaotic set closer “For The Rest of Your Life” was like something I’ve never seen. It was like watching a quiet, fragile person letting you know that she was completely capable of unleashing on you in in a very intense way. It almost made me feel that she could be the type of person that would either cry herself to tears in solitude or rip your fucking head off and make you wish you’d never been born. Again, this goes back to the reason why her presence alone is so fascinating and captivating. Performing to 300+ people in a club isn’t easy task in itself to have that place drawn completely to you and so quiet you can practically hear a pin drop at times is astonishing.

Hope Sandoval has really established herself as a true music icon in my eyes. She has the ability to create such an amazing live experience matched only by that of Bob Dylan in my experience. For over an hour and half, I felt like I was floating and like I was the only person there. There is such intimacy to her performance and her music. The vibe of those songs captured on recorded medium is definitely replicated and in my opinion done so on a much grander level in a live setting. Hope Sandoval & the Warm Inventions completely took me to a place that I am rarely taken to in a live setting by bands. They took me someplace that I hope to go with them again and again. I still have their music to listen to whenever I want and as I listen, I will always remember that feeling of lightness as I was swept away with a smile.

Hope Sandoval stays cloaked in darkness on the Music Hall of Williamsburg stage.

Last night was a busy one for Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone? After the fantastic GraceMusic performance by Anonymous 4 in Nyack, there was just enough time to make it to Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg for Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions.

Because she had some technical difficulties, there was plenty of time to get into position for her set.

If you’ve never seen Hope perform before (I hadn’t), you need to know that the former Mazzy Star lead singer like to perform in darkness. The set started with an announcement that no photography was allowed, and one of the band’s roadies was pretty aggressive about pointing out suspected photo pirates in the audience, using a very bright flashlight beam. (As you can see, WYMMWIG got access to a photo. My apologies for the poor quality, but conditions were far less than ideal.)

Hope’s set was subdued but lovely. Her first song, “Blanchard,” was so low-key that her voice was almost inaudible in the sound mix. After that problem was repaired, her singing could be heard, but remained deliberately obscured.

Hope sang and played glockenspiel front and center onstage, with only the flickering light of projected silent films illuminating her face from time to time. She let her songs do her talking, pausing to speak a few words only in response to a cry of “We love you, Hope” from the audience. Her response: “If you love me, stop the people from talking!”

In the end, it was a strong set, but I didn’t feel compelled to applaud loudly for more. It was just enough,

Read more about the show at Yes, I Am That Important!, which also posted the set list:

Credit: Yes, I Am That Important!

Hope and her band are still in town, and will perform tonight at 9 a Bowery Ballroom, 6 Delancey Street, near the Bowery, Manhattan. (212) 533-2111. $22 at the door.

Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions just released their second, long-awaited collection of music, titled Through the Devil Softly.

The new music stands in some dusty, murky ground between the previous HS&tWI CD, 2001’s Bavarian Fruit Bread (BFB), and the legendary body of work created by Sandoval’s other (long dormant) band, Mazzy Star. Through the Devil Softly (TtDS) is neither as downbeat-shoe-gazing as BFB was, nor is it as deathly otherworldly as the Mazzy Star work was. TtDS finds a glowing haze that the others forego in their overcast evenings and midnight reveries.

The sonic textures of old (glinting, rain-like guitar work; fleeting harmonicas; noir-ish, understated drums) are back and certainly reference the previous HS&tWI recording. But in TtDS they feel not so much quoted as rethought, reconstructed; there really is a different feeling to this new group of songs. Bavarian Fruit Bread’s sound was nested largely in an acoustic feel and this inflected every aspect of the production – even the layered use of keyboards and other ambient soundscapes present in the work. In TtDS, layered instrumentation and vocals signal the constructed, incremental product that it is.

I’m pleased with the confidence in Sandoval’s voice on TtDS and find the syncopation of delivery that she’s using really lovely. Yes, the trademark lilting languidness is there – it’s something fundamental to how she uses her instrument – but on TtDS her intonation touches a clarity and closeness not felt on previous tracks. The music stays pushed off in fade and reverb, yet Sandoval’s breathy voice is near and concise when compared to her past work.

Overall, TtDS feels more varied and staged than BFB… and that’s good. It’s a body of music that feels like it is referencing a greater range of feeling than past tracks were while retaining the trademark sound and mood for which Sandoval is known.

It’s nice to have more Hope out there.

Key tracks from Through the Devil Softly:

Blanchard
For the Rest of Your Life
Sets the Blaze

Okay, that Dervish performance of Bob Dylan’s “Boots of Spanish Leather” was a bit of a downer, here is a real charmer Hope Sandoval singing meeee-ow over a backing that sounds like something out of Fight Club:

And a great live vintage Letterman performance of her utterly charming duet also with Jesus & Mary Chain, which one day a year ago I listened to more than a dozen times in a row I simply couldn’t get enough of it:

Your Thoughts?

Hoy les dejo un video que la neta no está nada interesante en el sentido de la dirección o los efectos ni nada de eso, es muy común y corriente, pero lo que hace que valga la pena es la rola. Sonaba en la licuadora musical esta rola cuando me dije a mi mismo: “Mi mismo, postéala”

Les gustará si han estado enamorados… ahhii, se me metió una basurita en mi ojito…

MASSIVE ATTACK
Splitting The Atom

It’s been more than five years since Massive Attack has released a new album, so it’s understandable that the music blogs are all aflutter over the release this week of ‘Weather Underground’, a four song taste from what is said to be recordings destined for the trip-hop supergroup’s long-awaited fifth album. Word is the boys have been working with an A-List group of artists including Damon Albarn from Blur, Mazzy Star vocalist Hope Sandoval, Martina Topley-Bird and Tunde Adebimpe from TV on the Radio. With that kinda talent this is gonna be one of THE albums you gotta get this year! The first song on the EP, Splitting The Atom, is an electronica lullaby that features the always outstanding vocal contributions from Horace Andy and Daddy G that is both comforting and creepy at the same time…..but it’s probably the most Massive Attack-sounding song since 1994’s ‘Protection’. Keep your eyes and ears open for more news about when the new album is due out by checking out Massive Arttack on MySpace or on the Official Massive Attack Website