Partick Watson is Coming!

Thursday May 6th is a big concert night here in New York, there are 3 excellent show choices, including Local natives with Suckers , Beach House and Canadian indie folk band Patrick Watson and the Wooden Arms. I myself will be at the Patrick Watson show at the Bell House. Watson is a known for his crazy instrument choices and his breathy vocals. Most bands get together with the intention of record deals and tours, but Watson's troupe came together to make music to go along with a book, and after a few live shows with enthusiastic responses decided to stick with it.

Here's Watson's Fireweed for you guys to prep for the show. Listen for the trademark percussive drumming and airy vocals. Also check out these awesome Take Away videos.

Hope to see you there!

xx The Elephant

Free Album Download!

Brooklyn based The House Floor is giving away their wonderful album Warship for free! that's right folks, some things in life are free! It sounds like a fuzzy, rocked out Conor Oberst album without all of the overt political innuendo. What I'm really saying is that the lead singer's vocals remind me of Bright Eyes, but that the actual music sounds nothing like them. What I like about this album are the injections of gentle guitar riffs with lots of reverb and breathy vocals. It still qualifies in my book as garage rock, but there are some softer jammier moments.

Enjoy!

xx The elephant

Concert Review: The Morning Benders @ MHOW 4/24

The Morning bender's Chris Chu, photo: Jeremy Bold

Saturday night's line-up at Music Hall of Williamsburg was a sunny pop-rock theme adventure. Featured headliners The Morning Benders are from lovely San Francisco and their music certainly reflects it. As much of today's west coast rock, they are breezy and infectious--ladies seem to be most susceptible to the beguiling charms of lead singer Chris Chu's charms. Big Echo has received tons of critical acclaim (a great 8.2 from LTH) throughout the blogosphere since day 1, so it was no surprise that they were able to completely sell out 2 shows here in New York. Their particular brand of 50's surf inspired indie pop is nice because it blends contemporary indie rock with obvious throwbacks and lots of charisma.

The first thing I noticed about the stage was the clean set up. The space was completely clear of extraneous objects (amps, cups, cords, instruments, etc.) with the bass, guitar and keyboard/guitar players all standing in a clean line across the front of the stage facing out toward the audience. The drummer was on a platform directly behind the lead singer. The simplicity of the set up felt fresh, there was no machinery, just people and instruments, making genuine music. Secondly, this open space allowed for lots of movement from Chu which he freely used for almost every song. The other endearing thing that Chu does is thank the audience between every song, and announce the song title. His unpretentious attitude was cute and very strongly targeted his large group of youthful female fans.

They opened with a fuzzy tune up that turned into a swelling song which I failed to write the title in my notes. I did write a note to myself that my photographer Jeremy confirmed: there are some really Grizzly Bear-ish elements to their music. Certainly more pop hooks and catchier tunes than GB. A little research confirms my suspicion: they toured in Fall 2009 supporting Grizzly Bear, and GB's Chris Taylor produced the album. The strong drum line and piercing guitar in songs like Hand Me Downs and Promises are where I was hearing the influence most. I think the California take on the GB sound is really working for them. Frankly, every song was solid, and more exciting live than in recording. We lucked out and they also played a new song called Go Grab a Stranger which featured a great interaction between the guitarists who happen to be brothers (its extremely apparent on stage).

As much as I enjoyed the performance, I did feel like the quantity of interaction between Chris Chu and the audience was a little bit extreme. This was certainly the closest I've ever come to being near a heartthrob. During their viral hit Excuses, he outright jumped off the stage and was roaming around in the audience. Interestingly, there is very little written literature about them. Stereogum did an interview, but I'm curious about the band itself, and looking for more history from them.

Holiday Shores guitarist wailing on a symbol, Photo: Jeremy Bold

I only heard one of the openers, but it was a band from Tallahassee FL called Holiday Shores. We happened to be positioned next to their super fans and record reps, so it seemed like everyone around us was really enthusiastic about their performance. I certainly liked them, and thought they were a great fit for The Morning Benders. Holiday Shores sounds like a jammy/psych pop explosion. There was lots of crazy onstage dancing, particularly from the lead guitarist wailing on a symbol. The lead Singer/Key Boardist reminded me of Vampire Weekend's Ezra Koenig. Also, I think I need to personally do some vintage shopping in Florida, because i was obsessed with both his floral printed shirt and his cardigan.

Concert Review: Harlem w/ Girls at Dawn at Mercury Lounge 4/22

Image via Matador Records

Much hyped Texas trio Harlem graced New York with a quicky on Thursday. I can think of lots of adjectives to describe their show: silly, giddy, playful, unpretentious...the list goes on and on. They certainly don't take themselves too seriously lending to a signature stage presence.

A lot of bands attempt to play everything technically correctly in their live shows, but Harlem certainly isn't one of them. Not only did they restart songs several times, but at one point during the show, singer/guitarist/drummer Michael Coomers said "Its only been four minutes and I already fucked up". The great thing about this show was how much fun the band was having, they were on stage rocking out, talking to each other over the mics, and entertaining all of us. Instead of worrying about playing a flawless show, their wild on stage attitude lends itself to a true rock and roll vibe. Everything about them was, in a word, badass. The experience of seeing them interacting on stage was as important as the actual music.

The set was relatively short, as is the nature of their dizzying, all-out intensity songs. They covered a great deal of Hippies bringing the messy characteristic of their tracks to life. Every song felt impromptu, as though they had a loose set list and they certainly didn't feel any need to stick to it or even discuss the changes amongst themselves. They seemed to be constantly surprised at themselves, taking a moment to get into the groove of each song. I liked the unrehearsed nature of the show. Abandoning the shiny, pretty boy rock of most pop music seems to be their MO, and it works.

After all of this talk about sloppy performance, I should clarify that there was a great deal of musicianship displayed on stage. The show began with Coomers as lead singer/guitarist with Curtis O'Mara on drums and Jose Boyer on bass. About half way through the set, O'Mara and Coomers traded positions and assumed new roles. The transition was seamless, and I hadn't expected that from the recordings. If either Coomer or O'Mara prefer one role over another, it isn't apparent.

Image via The Girls at Dawn Myspace

Supporting Harlem were Brooklyn based The Girls at Dawn. As my concert buddy said, they were "total babes". As a chick myself I was certainly envious of their position opening up for three other sexy rock boys. They played punk inspired grunge/psych rock. The Girls aren't trying to float by on their looks: they played a tight set which felt well rehearsed and solid. They didn't have a strong stage presence though, it felt a little bit timid and shy. This could be the result of almost constant harmonic vocals, preventing any serious dancing and jumping around, but the show was static. As an opener for Harlem they seemed organized but reserved.

Harlem Hippies is out on Matador, The Girls at Dawn are out on Captured Tracks (who also have Woods, Ganglians, and Dum Dum Girls...I like this label!)

xxThe Elephant

Review: Real Estate and Family Portrait at Monster Island Basement 4/16

Last time I saw real Estate they were opening for Woods at Market Hotel. I liked them well enough then to catch them at another Todd P show this weekend, featuring a total of 4 bands, although we only saw 3 of them.

Big Troubles was on stage when we got there, and they were going at it (EDIT: A very concerned commenter has brought it to my attention that this band was Big Troubles, not Liam the Younger as previously posted. When we walked in and asked at the door who was on stage we were told that it was Liam the Younger. My apologies to Liam the Younger for any trouble this may have caused.) They weren't bad, but they did need some help in the vocals department. Both of the singers were a little bit weak. Neither projected enough and there wasn't any balance, you could barely hear the poor kids. I am going to chalk it up to a little bit of inexperience and a little bit of nerves.

Family Portrait was up next, and in my opinion, they stole the show. Their music has a lot of variety and a lot of energy. Styles swing from 60's surfer songs to Nirvana inspired rock songs. Despite the range of influences, it was still a consistent sound, and enjoyable the whole way through. I look forward to hearing more from these boys (guys? we were guessing at their ages, and the results were inconclusive). Whatever they are doing, I hope playing Todd P basement shows is the springboard for a real record. Stay tuned, I'll be following up on them.

Real Estate headlined the show. Here's the thing about them: they are extremely consistent in their sound. They all sort of blend together a little bit. They put on a good show technically, despite a crowd of adoring fans, people weren't getting into it. On another note, they had some er...supporters there who were sort of shouting in between songs and it was rather unprofessional. I don't want to be that uptight person at a show...but I feel like these guys are probably going to do very well for themselves in the next couple of years and the time to establish themselves as professionals is now. As far as their musical performance was concerned they played like top notch gentleman, I think they just need to get their friends under control a little bit.

A few words about Monster Island Basement: I miss Market Hotel. It had such character (i think that character was old nicotine) and it was a good shape so that you were never in a bad sopt. MIB has lots of suppor beams, and a weird corner stage that makes it easy to be in a blind zone or stuck right next to a speaker. I'll take it over nothing for sure, but I amholding out hope that Todd P can get proper licensing in place for MH so that it will come back to life. Without the nicotine.

xx The Elephant

Fucking Amazing Patrick Watson Video

Review: Liars at Bowery Ballroom 4/15

Upon initial listen, Liars sound rather hardcore and angry, and you know me, I shy away from hardcore. Lately though I've been signing a different tune, I have started to get into lo-fi, which has led me closer to noise rock and hardcore.

So with a little nudging from the deeply trusted Nana, and some other music friends, I decided to go see them at Bowery Ballroom. If I don't like them at Bowery, then they just aren't for me. I really gave their 2007 ST album a few good listens before the show. At Jeremy's recommendation I started with the last track, Protection. It's the softest and most melodic track, and really demonstrates the depth of what Liars are doing. Before the show I was still not 100% on board, but hey, I love shows, so nothing to lose.

We got there just in time for Liars. To me they seem to be a great paradox: the sound doesn't match the act of the band. This can be either a good thing or a bad thing, in this case it's a wonderful thing. They clearly work really hard to build the sound they create, and do it with fervor and enthusiasm. Front man and lead singer Angus Andrew has incredibly long forearms, and when he dances he looks a bit like a transvestite orangoutang, very feminine and little awkward. I loved his dancing, it really defined the paradox: post punk meets Brittany Spears? Also, Andrew is totally raging on stage, and sweats like crazy. He would be still for a moment and then start head banging, and it was like a backlit shower. In the meantime, while Andrew is on stage rocking out, the crowd was essentially moshing in the front. Their music does have some violent undertones ("Blood, Blood, Blood" from the track "Broken Witch") but also some sweet moments. Part of me wonders if it is intended as sarcasm and humor, validating the fact that upon first listen they are merely a hardcore band, but in reality they have a serious musical background and strong theme.

They were having fun onstage, and being badass rocker pirates has nothing to do with the image, and everything to do with the music. They were incredible onstage, created such energy that I am considering seeing them again at Music Hall of Williamsburg on Sunday. They make me want to run out and see Fuck Buttons and No Age and every other angry band that I previously thought I didn't want to see.

Have a nice weekend Lovies!

xxThe Elephant