I love Diplo’s selection of songs to remix; the finished products are always impressive.

Circles (Diplo Remix) – As Tall As Lions
Reckoner (Diplo Remix) – Radiohead
The Perfect Crime #2 (Diplo’s Doing Time Remix) – The Decemberists
Helicopter (Diplo Remix) – Bloc Party
Shake a Fist (Diplo’s Noise of Art Remix) – Hot Chip

Becky Stark of Lavender Diamond is one of two diamonds that is touring with The Decemberists playing her role as Margaret in the concept album. Somehow on the side she has found the time to contribute a song to Through The Wilderness, an album of Madonna covers benefiting Raising Malawi.

I understand that this is for a good cause and props to them for the effort but let’s talk about the video and song that you are about to subject you self to below. “Like a Prayer” is an iconic song of the 80’s at what most would consider to be at the peak of Madonna’s career. Not only was it a great track but also drummed up quite a bit of controversy with the cross burning video. Now I enjoy a good cover song but am also a firm believer that when a cover song is presented it should add something to the original track, not necessarily making it better, just different. Taking the low production of the video out of the equation for a moment and just listening to the song you might never be able to tell the difference between the original work and the “new version”. Madonna has a little bit of a higher voice but other than that you would think that you were listening to karaoke at the local sake bar.

Now the video. Wow it’s bad and I really hope that it was done that way on purpose. The 80’s extravaganza of bad CGI and even worse “acting” on Starks’ end make for a painful 4:46. Starks seems to be trying to live out her Marry Poppins/princess fantasy all the while being bombarded by flaming worlds and psychedelic animals sings the chorus. This is truly one of the worse videos that I have ever seen, especially from someone that is supposed have some production money.

I’ve seen a sudden increase in the blog visits in light of the previous Essay on Masculinity post – I think my 12 readers like the Chuck P. narrative – anyways . . . I know I’ve been disregarding this blog for a while, but my reader(s) have taken second slot in light of university admissions, and scholarship shit. Hopefully in a couple of months, the haze will die down a bit.

I digress.

Let It Be Album Cover

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been listening to what I’ve been told is an Indie-Alternative Rock album which fucking defined the 80s. While art-popper REM was breaking out to the college masses; The Replacements were making some of the most influential alt-rock/pop of the 80s. Despite appearing on Saturday Night Live and later on, getting signed by a major music record label, The Replacements never caught on.

An Amazon Reviewer who happened to grow up in the 80s said that depending on which night you saw The Replacements, they were the best band or they were the worst band. Never did a band fall from grace as fast as The Replacements did when they broke up on the 4th of July, 1991 at a WXRT concert. He states,

If I remember correctly, after playing for about a half hour, members of the band started snapping at each other, and eventually Westerberg threw up his hands and stalked off the stage. And the Replacements were history.

Along with Husker Du, The Replacements defined the 80s Alt-scene – the influence of which spilled into succeeding generations – Colin Meloy of The Decemberists, REM, Actress Winona Ryder and countless other rockers and social personas have pinpointed that no band has captured the very essence of angst as Paul Westerberg did on Let It Be.

To get it straight, Paul Westerberg is a horrible singer the way Bob Dylan was a horrible singer. Their lyrics; timely instrumental additions made their music.

The album opens up with the track that best defines The Replacements: I Will Dare – the story of what seems to be a relationship-phobic kid that’s willing to take a chance if you’re willing to take one too.
I think Black Diamond is the weakest track on Let It Be – while managing to stay true to the original Paul Stanley, Kiss release, it doesn’t add much weight of its own.
Tales of sexual ambiguity in Androgynous; insecurities seemingly trivial and the sexual come with the delivery of a stand-up comedian in Gary’s Got a Boner and Tommy’s Getting His Tonsil’s Out! The latter of which was about late Tommy Stinson’s fear of the dentist. Unsatisfied – a moving relationship song on the album was what introduced me to The Replacements as I was watching Greg Mottola’s spectacular Adventureland.

– A Spectacular Performance of “Bastards of Young” off their album “Tim”. Bastards of Young was featured in Adventureland as well.

If you’ve ever liked a Green Day album or a Good Charlotte track or anything to do with the alt-rock scene, this is for you. This is your adolescece in 33 mintues, 51 seconds. Good old-fashioned college rock – cum teen-angst cum classic rock. Undefinable, eternal – if not in your collection, then through Simple Plan or Bowling for Soup or whatever mainstream  garbage you listen to.

Megaupload Link! : http://www.megaupload.com/?d=EGH2UAVB – But I prefer you buy this one

Six months ago I barely knew The Decemberists, but last Thursday I saw them play what was one of my favourite gigs of the year. I became properly aware of them thanks to their excellent track on the ‘Dark Was The Night’ compilation, and at the point this gig went on sale I’d given their album ‘The Crane Wife’ a few spins, but I knew at that point this could be a band I’d grow to love, so bought a ticket in good faith.

A major selling point of the gig was the promised full performance of new album ‘The Hazards Of Love’. There was once a time when albums were designed to be played from start to finish, not chopped up into tracks for the radio, a bunch of filler to make it long enough to reach ‘album’ status, and some iTunes bonus tracks to make fans buy it twice. Some took the album concept further, creating a story or narrative from start to finish, with tracks blending one into another. The term ‘Rock Opera’ is often used, some of my favourite examples of such include Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’ and Genesis’ ‘The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway’. These particular examples are also famous for the live full album performances that accompanied them, often on a grand scale. Having missed out on experiencing these firsthand due to my tender young age (bootlegs and tribute bands have helped me experience what I missed out on, but never come close enough to the originals), the concept of a modern-day band performing their own creation in full appealed greatly to me.

The first half of the gig was the full performance of ‘The Hazards…’, start to finish, not even stopping to greet the crowd until the last note had been played. The live environment brought the album even more to life, with extra energy and passion. The 5 members recreated the folk/prog/indie/americana masterpiece perfectly, with guest vocalists Becky Stark and Shara Worden (who absolutely belted it out for ‘The Wanting Comes In Waves/Repaid’) present for their parts. The album features some great elements of 70s prog – fat guitar riffs and lots of organ, all delivered superbly by the band. It was a stunning performance, and I would have left perfectly happy had that been the complete gig. Of course I wasn’t going to say no to some more…

After a 20 minute break the band returned to play a selection of tracks from previous albums. There was a heavy focus on Hazards’ predecessors  ‘The Crane Wife’ and ‘Picaresque’, which was great as it meant I knew most of those played (I really need to check out the rest of the back catalogue though). After the relative seriousness of the first set, the band’s personality shone through with some fun crowd singalongs, one being conducted by singer Colin Meloy, and everyone looking like they were having a great time. Song highlights for me were ‘The Crane Wife 3′, ‘16 Military Wives’ and ‘Yankee Bayonet’, but nothing could beat the epic closer ‘The Mariner’s Revenge Song’ which featured the crowd making noises “like you’re being swallowed by a whale” and an inflatable whale bouncing around the top of the crowd.

For me it was like two separate and amazing gigs – one being the sheer brilliance of a superb album getting the full live treatment, the other being a fun sing and dance along set that left me with a massive grin. Can’t wait for my next Decemberists fix!

[scroll to the end for some beautiful pictures of The Decemberists' performance]

If you dislike raving reviews you might want to avert your eyes dear reader, for I feel a few coming on. The second night of Crossing Border was sublime in my modest opinion. Where to start…

I started the evening with Londonders Mumford and Sons, up in the unbearably hot room suggestively named Paradise. Although I like their debut album Sigh No More, I didn’t know what to expect live. As it turns out these four fetching young folkers managed to get everyone dancing in no time, what an infectious bunch! Yes they use the simple but effective method of building up layers of instruments and gradually picking up speed in most songs and yes the lyrics can be a bit twee, but who cares when it sounds like this? Plus, they can say appelbollen.

There was no avoiding my dear beloved Patrick Watson, I gave in to my slight obsession yet again. What a venue for Watson and his Wooden Arms, perfect for their favourite party trick: the acoustic song (this time Man Like Me) on the edge of the stage. It wasn’t their best show I’ve seen, a bit too short too, but they still make my Crossing Border top three.

I love the way the band plays the songs differently each time I’ve seen them. The only one that has lost its sparkle in a new rendition is The Storm, too rushed an none of the wonderful backing woooo’s. Luscious Life and Beijing still the golden nuggets for me.

No time to waste, off to the venue next door to get in for The Decemberists nice and early. The great thing about Crossing Border is that there is always something going on, and so we managed to catch three poets/ authors in between bands (Flemmish rock ‘n roll poets Andy Fierens and Stijn Vranken and Dutch columnist and language buff Paulien Cornelisse). I would recommend reading all three of them; funny and ripe with sharp observations.

The atmosphere in front of the stage before The Decemberists was one of giddy anticipation. Right in front of me stood a gorgeous little 4 year old girl dressed up like a fairy and her mom, who turned out to be Becky Stark’s sister. They had flown out especially to see the band perform The Hazards of Love in its entirity for the very last time.

The band came on without being announced, I guess to keep the atmosphere of a performance piece rather than a Decemberists gig, and did as promised: they played the Hazards of Love from start to finish. There was the blossoming love between faun and white fairy (Colin Meloy and Becky Stark), there was the jealous mother come forest queen (the absolutely amazing Shara Worden) and the tragic trade off so the lovers can once more be together. Drama! Passion! Tragedy! Guitars! Drums! (one drum even broke from sheer force of pounding) What’s not to like?

The band were obviously really enjoying this last performance together, smiles all round. The girls were an absolutely amazing addition and were clearly sad to be ending their collaboration with the band, Colin Meloy gave them a warm thank you at the end. We were lucky enough to get a six song encore after The Hazards of Love, what a great perfomance. 

After all that excitement there was one more must see on the list: Monsters of Folk. When we walked in the room there was a really cool juxtaposition of the poshness of the room with the excitedly hollering and dancing crowd to be seen. We caught the last 40 minutes of their near 2,5 hour set (!), and I’m glad we did.

As a band I think their material is a bit all over the place and not all of it is particularly good, but what a joy to see Conor Oberst and Jim James on stage together! They were clearly having a great time playing, Conor in particular bouncing all over stage and jumping up onto the drum kit, their energy spreading to the crowd. I was glad to hear a few Bright Eyes songs in the set and sad not to have seen the whole show. 

In fact, how dare those Bordercrossing organisers, having Decemberists and Monsters of Folk play the samen timeslot! Though to be honest, that would be my only complaint about this great little festival. Next year a little less folk perhaps?

Thanks to Guus Krol here are some beautiful pictures of The Decemberists with Becky Stark and Shara Worden:

O mais recente e aclamado álbum do The Decemberists, The Hazards of Love, é um projeto ousado. Para começar, é uma rock opera conceitual. Depois, na estrada, a banda o tocou do começo ao fim em cada apresentação, ao lado de dois dos cantores convidados.

Agora, a banda de Colin Meloy vai mais longe. Em 1º de dezembro será lançado o Here Come The Waves: The Hazards of Love Visualized – que teve sua estreia no último dia 18 em um show em Los Angeles – exclusivamente no iTunes.

Assista ao trailer abaixo:

you don’t often think of the decemberists as a visual band. that will soon change december 1st when colin and co. release a visual accompaniment to the entirety of their sprawling epic hazards of love album. till then you’ll have to make due with the 50 second long trailer, in itself already epic.

the decemberists on myspace

- sunbear

The progressive rock community is a bit like a cult. We’re always looking for new members to indoctrinate with our absurd rules and customs, but we’re also totally cool with simply calling you a heretic and setting you on fire if you don’t want to drink the kool aid. Thus every new band that introduces itself to the public is subjected to this trial by prog, and depending on their music, image, and various intangibles that no one really discusses but we all innately agree upon some how, the band is either forcibly branded with the prog label like cattle or they’re condemned as a source of musical decay, an inferior strand of musical DNA in the progressive master race.

To be fair, progressive rock is not unique in this process. Most niche music genres have their own methods for including or excluding new artists. I do feel though that prog community is exceptional in the sheer scope of artists it’s willing to try to associate the prog tag with. Hip hop, blue grass, jazz, metal, techno, trance, industrial, R&B, basically any genre with the work ‘rock’ in it, classical, hardcore, emo, punk, alternative, I honestly can’t think of a genre that doesn’t have at least one band in it that at some point didn’t also get slapped with a ‘progressive rock’ tag. We’re like the super spoiled kids no one likes in elementary school who invite the entire grade to their birthday party. We don’t actually have many friends ourselves, so we force as many people to be involved with us as possible to make it look like we’re popular. (and HOLY SHIT if you brought a gift we don’t like, you can kiss your turn on that kick-ass moon bounce goodbye).

So today I’m going to look at some of the bands making an impact in popular music and I’ll be asking the all important question, “will it prog?” Is this a band that music nerds are going to claim as their own, a savior of ‘real’ music for the masses, or shun as yet another cancer slowly crushing the vital organs of popular music? (note: according to progressive rock fans, popular music has had terminal cancer for about 40 years now).

Them Crooked Vultures: Super groups almost automatically always get recruited by the prog army. By nature, super groups are pretentious (Hey, I’m an awesome musician, screw my band, I only want to work with other awesome musicians) so the ground is fertile for a pompous progressive rock view point. Also, the odds prog infestation increase exponentially for every member of a classic rock group involved in the project(in this case, John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin).

Result: IT WILL PROG. It will prog hard. I will say that, to me, the music I’ve heard from this band sounds like a more straight forward Queens of the Stone Age than anything actually stereotypically progressive rock. How the music actually sounds doesn’t matter though, they’ll be assimilated by the end of the year, unless they sign some kind of exclusive deal with Target, in which case a hit will be put out for Dave Grohl.

Phoenix: A band growing in popularity with hipsters and people who want to be hipsters. You’ve probably heard a song of there’s in a commercial without realizing it, so your opinion of the 2010 Cadillac RX is no doubt linked directly to that of the band. They’re French, and France is basically the lamest country in Europe when it comes to Progressive rock for some reason. Lamer than Sweeden. Seriously.

Result: IT WILL NOT PROG. No question here. It’s not the immediate corporate shilling (For instance Porcupine Tree has been played on MTV multiple times) or even the hipster association (see: The Decemberists). What it comes down to is that France is the only place in the world that can out-pretentious progressive rock fans. At least that’s one battle they can claim they’ve won.

Cage the Elephant: Cage the Elephant reminds me of Sublime, replacing the southern California influences and replacing them with Kentucky drawl. Their popularity has been steadily growing since they played some big festivals (Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo), tv spots (Letterman), stuck their big single up for free on iTunes, and lent it as an opening theme for a videogame. They also look like they haven’t come out of their parent’s garage in 10 years, making them ripe for the prog-ing.

Result: IT WILL NOT PROG. The music is just too generic to catch the attention of the public, and I keep finding reports of emotionless, sloppy live shows, something prog fans will NOT tolerate. They ARE being tolerated by the jam band and festival scene apparently, so the hippies can have them!

Passion Pit: Another hipster band, using heavy doses of electronics and synths to cover up the actual guitar/bass/drums being used on stage (simple formula: acoustic guitar and sounds controlled with a keyboard or iPhone=hipster. Drums and bass that aren’t produced by a computer=not hipster). Those traditional instruments are actually there though, I swear. Also, I get the feeling that I’m listening to rejected and remixed Sesame Street tunes listening to their material. This is not a criticism.

Result: IT WILL PROG. Their vocalist sings like his balls got ripped off. Automatically this lands them in progressive rock territory. Also, with lyrics like ‘Rapunzel Rapunzel let down your hair’ I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve been stealing their lyrics from the same book of stories and rhymes that most early 70’s progressive rock groups were using.

Hopefully you learned something by looking into this crystal ball. Progressive rock has the ability to sneak up and steal your favorite bands when you aren’t looking, so be on your guard, lest you wake up and find that all of your music has been progged during the night.

The Decemberists have had a lot of fun with the Hazards of Love. First it was a successful rock/opera album and rocked stadiums on tour.

Now, the Hazards of Love will be released as a full-length music video in the form of an animated film, Pitchfork reports. Titled Here Come the Waves: The Hazards of Love Visualized, the film debuted October 19 in Los Angeles.  The hazardous, heady  cartoon will be available for all to December 1 on iTunes.

Watch the trailer below!

The Hazards of Love was a pretty ambitious endeavor for Meloy and crew. Not just with writing a rock opera but also that it premiered live at SXSW and then was taken on the road along with the guest stars Becky Stark and Shara Worden for a long tour with the album being played in it’s entirety night after night. Apparently Meloy hasn’t had enough of the album yet and is releasing Here Comes the Wave: The Hazards of Love Visualized, an animated film that premiered at a Los Angeles show in October and will be released as a full-length film on December 1st via iTunes.

The trailer below has parts that look strikingly similar to the video for “The Rake’s Song” even though none of the creators of that video were used on the film. Filmmakers Guilherme Marcondes, Julia Pott, Peter Sluszka and Santa Maria were enlisted to create animations to accompany individual sections of music from the album.

Grizzly Bear

The New Year’s Falls Music & Arts Festival, Pyramid Rock Festival, Field Day, Days Like This!, Big Day Out, St Jerome’s Laneway Festival, Good Vibrations and the list goes on. Nothing like summer festivals to get out there and check out some extraordinary bands. If you’re going to any of these, lucky you. If not, you might want to consider the odd sideshow or two. I am heading to Lorne Falls Festival again this year and can not wait to kick my boots off and lie in the sun. The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Editors and Grizzly Bear are my festival favourits. All of them are doing sideshows in Sydney in early January. Yeah Yeah Yeahs will hit Hordern Pavilion, while Grizzly Bear have just announced the date for their third show at the Recital Hall, as part of Sydney Festival. Second time around, I’m quite keen to see Moby, also performing at Sydney Opera House, and the very fun live  Norweigan electro rockers Datarock. The Temper Trap, Sarah Blasko, Philadelphia Grand Jury, Dappled Cities and Yves Klein Blue are my local favorite picks. And as always, I can’t wait to hear bands I haven’t quite had the chance to hear yet like The View, The Phenomenal Handclap Band and White Rabbits. White Rabbits are doing a side gig at the Oxford Art Factory in the new year as well.

Cat Power

Now, Days Like This! is not necessarily my type of festival, but boy was I happy to see Cat Power on the performers’ bill. I’m a sucker for female singers with breathy voices, and hers is one of my favourites. I will see Cat Power backed by the Dirty Delta Blues (with Jim White from Dirty Three) perform at Waves in Towradgi as her only Sydney (or 60 km south of) side gig.

The Decemberists

I have never been to Big Day Out, but I have managed to catch a few sideshows in the past. This time around I’ll be seeing the Portland, Oregon-based rock band The Decemberists. It’s been a while since I started tracking their tour schedule expecting to see some dates for their, I believe, first ever down under tour. I can not wait to indulge in their theatrical indie folk extravaganza. They will not be doing the Hazards of Love show, which is completely understandable, but a bit sad since I have placed it to sit comfortably within my ‘top 10 albums of 2009′ list. The Decemberists will play at the Metro Theatre.

After all the busyness of last week I need to catch up on a few gig write-ups, but all in all it was a fantastic week. Some amazing bands and lots of fun, even if I am still tired as a result.

This week sees another couple of gems, but thankfully only two this week and a few nights for me to relax before then!

The Low Anthem – The Tabernacle (Wed 18th Nov)

Another great Rough Trade Album Club introduction, The Low Anthem have been one of my highlights of the year. Whilst I was impressed with the album, it didn’t prepare me for their incredible live shows. I was initially amazed that slow delicate songs like ‘Charlie Darwin’ were sung by the same guy that performs the rough, bluesy Tom Waits style of ‘Champion Angel’ and live highlight ‘Don’t Let Nobody Turn You Around’ (not sure how it didn’t make the standard album, but this bonus track is available digitally so check it out on Spotify!).

After a series of festival dates, a Union Chapel gig, and a super intimate show a few months ago at Hoxton Hall (one of my favourite gigs of the year!) it will be great to see them again, this time at the Tabernacle. Not sure it can match the afforementioned Hoxton show but they haven’t disappointed so definitely one to look forward to!

The Decemberists – The Coronet (Thurs 19th Nov)

Second gig of the week will be The Decemberists, playing at the Coronet in Elephant & Castle, a new venue to me. I decided to explore The Decemberists’ albums after enjoying their track on the amazing Dark Was The Night compilation. I jumped at the chance to see them live, despite not knowing them well at the time. This gig will be a full performance of their latest album ‘The Hazards Of Love’ – a concept rock opera album – which is superb. I love the range of influences shown by this band, varying quantities of modern Americana mixed with 70s prog and lots more. Needless to say I really can’t wait for this one, have heard good things about their live shows.

A couple of nice animated videos for you to enjoy there! Check back to read about these two gigs later this week, along with reports of Babybird and Revere last week! Please do leave any feedback you have too.

Admittedly this post is a tad early, but I’m ready to get these holidays started! I’m actually not traveling this Thanksgiving, but I figured you might be traveling … even if it’s just be from Big D to Funkytown. (That’s Dallas to Ft. Worth for you non-DFWers.)

And what does a good road trip or plane ride need besides great company? Good tunes, man. So in honor of the turkey that sacrificed himself (or tofu for all you weirdos), here’s some tryptophanic tunes. Bon Appetit!

1. Half Way Home • TV on the Radio
2. Two Weeks • Grizzly Bear
3. Shiny • The Decemberists
4. Hideaway • Karen O and the Kids
5. Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want • She & Him
7. Turn a Square • The Shins
8. Albatross, Albatross, Albatross • Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band
9. Lisztomania • Phoenix
10. Dashboard • Modest Mouse
11. Shampoo Suicide • Broken Social Scene

………………………………………………………………………………………

Want more mixed well? Check the archives here.

Heute hatte ich nach langer Pause mal wieder die Ehre als Freizeitradiojournalist in meinem Lieblingsradio “radio blau” meine beiden Sendungen über den Äther zu jagen.

Drei, der von mir produzierten Beiträge, könnt ihr an dieser Stelle nachhören.

1. Kommentar: Die Dichotomie des 9. November

anhören (klicken): Die Dichotomie des 9. November

Warum gibt es einen 3. Oktober als “Nationalfeiertag” wenn ein Erinnerungsbombast sondersgleichen für den 9. November propagiert wird? War da nicht was mit diesem Tag? Wie wird man dem “Schicksalstag der Deutschen” gerecht?

2. Höressay: Was ist Öffentlichkeit und warum ist freies Radio wichtig? oder Was hat der Sozialphilosoph Jürgen Habermas mit radio blau zu tun?

anhören (klicken): Habermas Höressay

Es ist der Versuch die derzeitige bedrohte Lage des freien Radios in Leipzig zum Ausgangspunkt zu machen darüber nachzudenken, warum Mensch eigentlich unabhängige nicht-kommerzielle Medien braucht.

3. Filmrezension: Das Summen der Insekten

anhören (klicken): Das Summen der Insekten

Siehe dazu meinen Blogeintrag.

Playlist

TRACKtate 13.00 – 14.00 Uhr

01. K.C. McKanzie – Lovesick Boy

02. Sara Hickman – Mad World (Tears for Fears)

03. Kommentar: die Dichotomie des 9. November

04. Aimee Mann – The Scientist (Coldplay)

05. Cry Cry Cry – Fall on me (R.E.M.)

06. Manja – Kling Klang feat. radio blau

07. Höressay: Was ist Öffentlichkeit und warum ist freies Radio wichtig? oder Was hat der Sozialphilosoph Jürgen Habermas mit radio blau zu tun?

08. Sarah Jakosz – Shankill Butchers (The Decemberists)

09. Filmrezension: Das Summen der Insekten

10. Chuck Ragan – Old rules

rilleradio 14.00 – 15.00

01. Morrissey - Because of my poor education

02. Editors – You don’t know Love

03. Dead to Me – A day without war

04. Banner Pilot – Skeleton Day

05. Junius – A Dramatist plays Catastrophist

06. Freddy Fischer & his Cosmic Rocktime Band – Halt mein Herz

07. Tom Waits - Circus

08. The Black Heart Procession – Back to the Underground

4. Kasabian – West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum

Kasabian suffered from the sophomore slump with 2006’s Empire. But third album West Ryder… is also the band’s best effort yet. The energy is finally contained — in a good way. On a song like “Fire,” it’s easy to wish you were seeing the band live. And finally, Kasabian have made a complete album. There’s just not much filler here. An interesting instrumental (“Swarfiga”) is about it. It’s a band that might not ever break the United States. Which is unfortunate, because Kasabian is easily one of the best proper rock bands left in the world.

5. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion

A Pitchfork fad? Nope. This is Animal Collective’s eighth LP and it’s experimental bliss. Everything sounds like it’s from another planet. One of those albums you must look up the lyrics to just to know what’s going on. For the first time, it sounds as though Animal Collective knows exactly what they’re doing. Precisely. Down to every note. Complete confidence. On first listen, many will think “this is weird.” Only a short time passes before it usually turns to “this is amazing.”

6. Lily Allen – It’s Not Me, It’s You

Forget Talyor Swift. Lily Allen is 50 times more interesting and a 100 times more entertaining. Case in point: It’s Not Me, It’s You. Lead single “The Fear” shows Allen’s blunt honesty as she sings, “I want loads of clothes and f***loads of diamonds,” all in that soft British accent. But the album is far deeper than honestly. Allen added some electropop to her second LP, adding to the catchiness of her debut Alright, Still. She even does politics. “Kabul S***” might not make you think for hours, but it’s easy to relate to. “F*** You” is even better, with Allen sounding ever so polite while telling a certain former president what’s what.

7. Metric – Fantasies

It doesn’t get much more slick than this. From “Sick Muse” to “Gimme Sympathy,” it’s hard to see why a bundle of songs here didn’t take radio by storm. Nonetheless, Fantasies deserves to mentioned with the best of the year. On a song like “Blindness,” Metric know when to hold back, letting vocalist Emily Haines take the spotlight with lyrics to sing that are more interesting than on any other Metric album.

Honorable mentions:

Bat for Lashes – Two Suns
Pearl Jam – Backspacer
Discovery – LP
Silversun Pickups – Swoon
Jet – Shaka Rock
The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love
Muse – The Resistance
U2 – No Line on the Horizon
Noel Gallagher – The Dreams We Have as Children (Live for Teenage Cancer Trust)
Steel Panther – Feel the Steel
The Lonely Island – Incredibad

Foregoing straightforwardness for esoteric storylines and obscure literary references are The Decemberists, indie-folk outfit from Portland, Oregon.  Since formation in 2001, the group has carved itself a snug little niche relating sometimes grand, oftentimes tragic stories of colorful characters and lovers in peril.

Their latest effort, The Hazards of Love, fits nicely into the genre but represents a significant departure in delivery.   For one, it is essentially an hour-long epic, more closely resembling the band’s 2004 E.P. The Tain than anything else.  With that in mind however, The Hazards of Love is decidedly not shuffle-friendly and completely convinced of own importance.  Tacky vocal dialogue and an intermittent leitmotif remind the listener that strict attention is required.  Expect a good 45 seconds before the building introduction track “Prelude” even fades in.

Musically, the band has embraced a more guitar-heavy sound over the folk-centric sensibilities established in earlier releases.  Many tracks echo the funkier, dramatically fuller experimentation explored in the previous album, 2006’s The Crane Wife.  Highlights include “The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid,” a violently wandering expression of yearning and desperation, atmospheric duet, “Isn’t It a Lovely Night?” and a solid finale-suite.

Newcomers Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond and Lavender Diamond’s Becky Stark add interesting flavors to the mix.  Worden’s deep, emotive vibrato and killer, you’ll-regret-introducing-me-to-your-mom tone counter front man Colin Meloy’s earnest, though sometimes grating register.

There is a story buried in there, something about a woman named Margaret and her various entanglements with a man named William, a shape-shifting rake and a queen seemingly pulling the strings.  I need not recommend anyone dig deeper into this narrative as the only ones with the desire to do so already have, considering the fan base (myself included) that eats this stuff up.

Short Buzz: An audio epic dripping with irony and tinged with theatrical sensibilities that sort of ignores the whole “single” protocol.

So you wanna see some out-of-focus pictures from some concerts we’ve been to over the last couple of months?

Well, if you insist…

August: O.A.R. with Brett Dennon. This was a “thank you” concert for our friend, Travis, who stayed at our house and took care of the animals while we were out of town for 10 days. I was already a big fan of Brett Dennon, but I have to admit, O.A.R. puts on a really fun show!!

Brett Dennon opening for O.A.R.

Travis and Robbie at O.A.R. concert

O.A.R.

O.A.R. II

September: The Decemberists with Laura Veirs. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any pics of this concert! Overall, I enjoyed it, but I think I’d recommend waiting for the next album before seeing them in concert. I just didn’t really get the need for them to play through the pseudo-musical “Hazards of Love”. They seemed to enjoy themselves so much more, and were so much more enjoyable, when they came back out to play a mixture of songs from other albums. Laura Veirs and her crew were great–see them if you can! If you’re dying to see a bunch of pics (all in focus!), you can find them at the jacksonville.com website. We’re in some!

October: Blitzen Trapper with Wye Oak. Looks like we didn’t get any pics of Wye Oak though. You’ll have to check them out for yourselves…

Blitzen Trapper

Blitzen Trapper II

November: One of my favorite bands, Blind Pilot, with The Low Anthem…

The Low Anthem opening for Blind Pilot

Blind Pilot

Blind Pilot II

The Low Anthem joining Blind Pilot onstage for an encore jam

Why aren’t the pictures better, you ask. The iphone. You’d think with all that this phone can do, it could take some better pictures!!!! Boo.

Nothing lined up for December yet…any suggestions?

By Chris Smith

WHEN: 2000-present

CULPRITS: Colin Meloy (lead vocals, guitar), Chris Funk (guitar, various other instruments), Jenny Conlee (Hammond organ, accordion, melodica, piano, keyboards), Nate Query (bass guitar, double bass), John Moen (drums, backing vocals, melodica) / Former members: Jesse Emerson (bass guitar), Ezra Holbrook (drums, backing vocals), Rachel Blumberg (drums, vocals), David Langenes (guitar), Petra Haden (violin, vocals), Lisa Molinaro (viola, guitar, keyboards, vocals)

ALBUMS: 5 Songs EP (2001); Castaways and Cutouts (2002); Her Majesty the Decemberists (2003); The Tain EP (2004); Picaresque (2005); Picaresqueties EP (2005); The Crane Wife (2006); Connect Sets EP (2006); The Perfect Crime #2 EP (2007); The Hazards of Love (2009)

HOW: I stumbled upon The Decemberists sometime during my freshman year of college and quickly fell in love with their unique style of music.  I somehow found their first full-length album Castaways and Cutouts and just became obsessed with it.  For one reason or another, I stopped listening to them after a few months and then just before The Crane Wife came out, I came back around and stockpiled the rest of their musical library to ready myself for the release.  Since then, I have been completely addicted to everything they do and love listening to anything I can find that they have put out.

“Leslie Anne Levine” from Castaways and Cutouts

WHY: They are unique.  Too many bands sound like this band or that band … not The Decemberists.  Colin Meloy has this amazing way of weaving such interesting storylines into each of the songs the band puts out.  Every song is a story, not just a bunch of one-liners that may or may not have some sort of meaning.  They have instruments that you don’t always hear in music these days (accordion, melodica, organ, and various other strange and interesting sound-making devices), and I love the way those instruments are woven into the songs.

The band does not expect their listeners to simply turn on and tune out.  Instead, they put so much into every song that if you do not focus while listening, there is a good chance you will get lost before the end.  With SAT words and crazy storylines, it is hard to get bored when listening to The Decemberists.  I read a few months ago that The Decemberists have killed off about 70 characters throughout their repertoire of songs.  That is impressive, if you ask me.

With The Hazards of Love, The Decemberists gave their listeners an album that should be listened to in its entirety, as all of the songs come together to create a narrative about lovers William and Mary.  I love this album, it is awesome, but it is hard to listen to many of the songs by themselves since all of them go together so much.  I personally prefer their earlier albums, which are decidedly more folk in style.  The older albums have a little more variance and I just love how I can hear so much over each album.

So, here you go 80MFL readers — you will not be disappointed.

“16 Military Wives” from Picaresque

SONGS: I really do not have much of a method to my madness for this list.  I did my best to give you a smattering of their career while picking the best songs from each album.  I only included one song from Hazards of Love because most of the songs are hard to listen to apart from the rest of the songs.  I also did not include some fan favorites, like ‘The Tain,” because it is long and probably best reserved until one has listened to some of the bands other stuff.  With these songs, you will get a great sense of who the band is and what they are about.

LINK: Click on the list below to hear The Decemberists for free on Lala.com!

_______________________

Chris Smith spends his time serving up steaming cups of coffee at an It’s A Grind coffee house in Austin, Texas. When not at the coffee shop, he enjoys tossing frisbees around, spending too much time in book stores, and finding new TV shows to watch on Hulu. He is also somewhat obsessed with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Batman.

Camera Obscura

I always get so excited about the Sydney Festival. This time it was no different. Rumours had it the Scottish indie pop-rockers Camera Obscura were going to hit the town this January, and to my extreme delight, yes they are! Often compared to one of my absolute favourite bands Belle & Sebastian, this fine quintet came to my attention only a couple of years ago with Let’s Get Out of This Country. I fell in love with their memorable intimate bedroom pop melodies instantly. This is one band you will absolutely adore in the outdoor settings of the Beck’s Festival Bar.

It won’t be as epic as this year’s All Tomorrow’s Parties, but anything staring the brilliant Warren Ellis assures a spellbinding experience. Dirty Three and Laughing Clowns will perform Ocean Songs and History of Rock ‘n’ Roll Vol. 1 albums in their entirety at the Enmore Theatre on Australia Day. Dirty Three formed in Melbourne in 1991 and are Warren Ellis (Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds and Grinderman), Mick Turner  and Jim White. Sydney-based Laughing Clowns formed in 1979, after Ed Kuepper left The Saints. Alongside Kuepper and Jeffrey Wegener, the Sydney Festival version of Laughing Clowns will also feature Louise Elliott, Les ‘Biff’ Millar and Alister Spence.

In my opinion, festivals are just as much about seeing your favourite artists, as discovering new ones. I am quite keen to check out the Chicago-formed alternative country husband and wife duo The Handsome Family, especially since I’ve never seen anyone perform in The Famous Spiegeltent before. The Handsome Family have an impressive musical career of 14 years and nine albums! I say bring on some surreal, poetic American folk.

A new addition to Beck’s Festival Bar are the wonderful folk-rockers The Decemberists. This is an unmissable gig people!