Concert Review: The Dodos w/Au

There isn't to much to say about the Dodos, its always the same. They get on stage, and start playing, and I think, my god these guys are SO incredible. It just never gets old. They are so tight. Anyway, see all of my previous reviews, they are going to sum up last night's show. Also, I guess the lead singer Meric Long has mono, but I seriously would have NEVER guessed. They also played a new song or two, both of which left me with high hopes for their next album.

Au on the other hand wasn't really what I had anticipated. That's not to say they weren't good, just that I had expected a 5 piece band with an orchestrated approach to their craziness. In reality, it was a two piece set up with an experimental jam approach. This means that I could only vaguely identify about a third of their set. I did really enjoy the songs that I recognized, but it was a bit spacey for my taste. They def rocked out, but I value their studio recordings because they are so unique and admirably complex, which I didn't feel translated well in the live show.

My brother has a running list of "the best songs in non-standard meters" (assuming that 3 and 4 beats per measure are the basis for 99% of all non-classical music). So far it looks like Outkast is in first place with "Hey Ya" which is in 22 (according to him, not sure if I believe that) and Radiohead's "Everything in its Right Place" in 5. It should be noted that 5 is a tremendouly underused meter in rock music, it really lends itself to a unique sound. Just my opinion.

Lykke Li and Bon Iver....a surprisingly good combo

So she looks much like an Olsen twin here, but thats not her fault. A solid showing.



via Music Slut
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<3 The Elephant

Tonight: The Dodos w/ AU @ Spiegeltent

I think I've said enough about the Dodos to skim over them in describing tonight's show's. I'm going to cut right to Au (get it? like the periodic symbol for gold!). I'm interested to see them tonight, as most experimental music is hard to really understand until you see it live. I'm not even sure what instruments they use, or how they could possibly create so many sounds with only 5 people.

The west coast has been sort of kicking ass this year in terms of releases. Fans of Animal Collective and other experimental outlets will be impressed by the circus-y, jazz influenced sounds of Au's Verbs. The whole album feels like one epic track, beginning with a crazy choral ensemble, slowly whittling down the sounds to a discordant mist in the album's final track "Sleep". This is not an album for listeners yearning for catchy, easy listening, however it will impress those yearning for something one step beyond indie pop.

Anyone else joining us tonight?

<3 The Elephant

Fall Albums

Added Bonus: Who knew that Noah and the Whale were sexy mofos?

All summer long we whined about the lack of new music, and the lack of good shows in the city. My god we are SUCH whiners. Just because we didn't know what the impending joys of fall music were, doesn't mean that they don't exist. I have had some quality time to listen to music at work recently (when they lay off 20 out of 35 people on your team, suddenly things become very quiet, and very busy). In the last few days I can't get enough of the following albums:

-Noah & the Whale: Peaceful, the World Lays me Down (the new Bishop Allen, who will be famous in about 2 weeks)
-Land of Talk: Some are Lakes (doesn't sound at all like Bon Iver, but deliciously different)
-Passion Pit: Chunk of Change (like the Black Kids meets Cut Copy or something)

Listen, my friends, and appreciate what you waited all summer for!

<3 Elephant

OhMyRockness's Calendar Feature

Perhaps I am just a little behind the times, but I just discovered ohmyrockness's calendar feature which allows you to click an icon next to a concert listing, and it will add it to a master calendar that each user can create. Here is the issue: I can't quite figure out how to automatically feed it into my google calendar. Instead, I can put it as a sidebar list on the blog. Obviously, this isn't ideal, and it doesn't look pretty. Ideally, I will figure out how to do this. In the mean time, check out the content to the right!

<3 the Elephant

Reckoner Remix

It might be time ro learn how to make remixes. If you want me to forward you the e-mail so the links work, let me know. See text below:

To coincide with asking radio stations to think about playing Reckoner we are breaking up the tune into pieces for you to remix. After the insane response we got from the Nude remix stems and the site that was dedicated to your remixes...

Unique visitors: 6,193,776, Page Views: 29,090,134, Hits: 58,340,512, Bandwidth: 10.666 Terabytes, Number of mixes: 2,252, Number of votes: 461,090, Number of track listens: 1,745,304

...we thought it only fair to do the same with a tune that at least is in 4/4. You can get the stems (the different instruments/elements) from here

Sample, cut, take the sounds, whatever. Play it in a club. Or your room. Then if you want you can upload your finished mixes to http://www.radioheadremix.com and be judged by everyone else. You can create a widget allowing votes from your own site, Facebook or MySpace to be sent through too. To start things off we asked James Holden and Diplo to do their versions.

Oh, and by the way, if you weren’t lucky enough to get your hands on one of our recycled plastic bottle shirts at a show this summer, you’ll be glad to hear we’ve made some more and they are available at the w.a.s.t.e. shop here

All at w.a.s.t.e x

Passion Pit

I didn't mention that we sort of saw Passion Pit open for Sunset Rubdown. They were fun. I bet they would be Cut Copy fun if the audience hadn't been such a downer. It is clearly dance music. In fact I was standing outside before the show waiting for my group and I heard them all talking and hanging out. I really liked them based on my eavesdropping. I swear its not just because they remind me of my high school boys from Boston (Passion Pit also hails from the great city). Although that doesn't hurt. I just got the impression that they are a bunch of cool, down to earth dudes. Maybe a bit dorky, but isn't that a good quality in a man these days? listen to them here. There is also a nice little tid bit about them here.

<3 The Elephant

Concert Review: Sigur Ros at United Palace

The whole time I was sitting there watching these guys, I was thinking that I needed to remember the three S's to describe them. So now, a week later I'm scratching my head...wtf are the three S's? My own little mnemonic device doesn't even work. Here is my best guess:

Syncopation: Have you ever noticed in Sigur Ros how often it sounds like there really isn't a beat? I think I have it figured out (I was trying way to hard before, and not surprisingly, I was wrong). They very rarely start on the first beat of a measure. So its not like they are writing their songs in seven or something bizarre and unnecessary. Really, they just always start on the second and fourth beats of the measures. I only realized this by watching one of the band members bob his head up and down and obviously, I could be completely wrong. This really lends to the ethereal quality of their sound.

Suspense: There is more suspense in Sigur Ros than anyone I have ever seen. At the show, there was a pause in one song that lasted so long that I seriously wasn't sure if the song was over. Granted, I am not that familiar with all of the albums, but it felt like the pause was well over a minute. And even with their more subtle suspense, they tend to hold their notes, and extend their passages for much longer than a normal band. I think they take a lot of roots in classical and traditional music. Suspense will always attract attention, and their suspense is usually not overt, but subtle, so you find yourself on the edge of the seat, digging your fingernails in. But why? Because they use tonal suspense and rhthmic suspense together. Very cool.

Symbolism: The song that really defined the performance for me is one that I hadn't heard, and couldn't describe. All of the musicians got up and sat together in a cluster and all of the lights in the house went off. As each player began to play his instrument, a single light bulb would light up. In other words, each instrument completed a circuit while it was actively producing sound and when the instrument wasn't being played, the light bulb was off because the circuit was broken. I know this sounds lame: 4 light bulbs turning on and off as the song progressed. But the light bulbs were such a visual representation of the energy of music. They symbolized the levels and depths, as the lights would flicker, the sound would grow and cease. It was beautiful. BTW, this is the song where I realized how heavily they rely on syncopation. Something about being able to see exactly which sound each artist was producing showed me. I was completely in awe of the simplicity, and how their music seems so complicated, but really, it amounts to many many layers of simple music.

At the end when everyone stood for the encore, I felt like they could have played something a little more active to leave us feeling high. But. It was still a very unique experience, completely unlike most of the shows that I see (i.e. sweaty, crowded, dark). They also employ such unique methods of creating sound. The whole thing was quite impressive.

Agreed?


<3 The Elephant

Concert Review: Sunset Rubdown at Mercury Lounge

Well folks, it's fall in New York, and we all know what that means: a new concert season. Typically starting at the beginning of September there are more shows than I have time to attend, but this season I wasn't up for it. Fortunately friends were on their game and got me tickets to shows that I would probably like to see.

I have seen Sunset only a few other times, and usually I really like them. They lack the professional polish of Wold Parade, and its completely charming and wacky (much like their music). But this time something was amiss. D and A blamed it on the audience, but I think that good audiences often reflect good acts. This is certainly not a hard fast rule, but its usually pretty safe. So I am going to divide the blame for this in half: 50% lame ass audience, 50% band fault.

Although the sound was good, I felt like there were a few too many unfamiliar songs (and I like to hear a new song or two, its a little hard to really enjoy entirely new music from an old favorite.) That said, the new songs did leave me with high hopes for the next release, which I think is as yet unscheduled. I also felt a general lack of enthusiasm from them, like they weren't really that excited to be hanging out with us. Possibly because they played the night before at Music Hall of Williamsburg?

Despite my usual harsh and critical review, I still will go see them at every opportunity, and I still think they have some of most interesting music out there right now. So you should go see them, and buy their CDs. For that matter, buy a tee shirt too. Lets support Canada.


<3 the Elephant

Last One...

Download Land of Talk-Some are Lakes. I am not sure if it is going to be good, but I have a bit of a hunch, a suspicion if you will. Its Bon Iver's girlfriend, and I think they recorded the album together.

Also, Noah and the Whale

musicsnobbery.com

I like it. I had a commitment on Friday night and thus had to skip the show, but I do plan to see them when they are next in town. Which doesn't look soon. This is what happens when I stop creating my own concert Calendar. I miss things that I shouldn't have missed. :(

Blitzen Trapper-Furr Out tomorrow...Finally!

Blitzen Trapper-Furr is out on Sub Pop tomorrow. I have been semi-obsessed with the title track since I heard it a few days ago. I know it sounds like all other indie folk blah blah blah, but I still really like it. I also am willing to bet that they will finally get really big this year, even though they have a few albums out already. Signing to Sub Pop was obviously a good thing for them, but a bad thing for us pathetic New Yorkers, since it means that they aren't playing a New York show until November 17th. And then its at Terminal 5 (seriously?? Why not Bowery or something even remotely decent? Webster Hall or Irving would have even been better). Worst of all they are opening for Iron and Wine. Sigh. I know this is insanely ethnocentric but most major bands start their post release tour in NYC. I know they were here last spring, but they are playing a handful of shows on the west coast and then they are off to Europe. Oh well, I guess I will have to decide if I feel like going or not....

Ray LaMontagne-You are the Best Thing

No Ray, YOU are the best thing. Seriously sweet love song.

via Jonk