Nina
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Filed under: New Music, Nina | Tags: computer magic, cults, dom, esben and the witch, South by Southwest
Delicious food trucks at the East Side Drive-In. SXSW Day 1. Photo by Nina Mashurova
Nearly a week after flying back from sunny Austin to snowy Allston, sorting through the SXSW sensory overload finally feels manageable. Although the majority of the internet is probably good and sick of SXSW talk by now, the fest still lingers like a well-deserved hangover. We got away not only with residual blisters and perhaps permanent tinnitus, but with enormous lists of bands to look into, whether we had seen them play, heard of them in crowds or tweets, or met them in taco lines.
Some nights it's entertainment, then some other nights it's work
One of the most impressive things about SXSW for me was the variety – not only of performers and genres represented, but even of ways to experience the festival. Music lovers loaded down with 70s nostalgia still lament the loss of monoculture, but the fragmentations and nerdy specializations of all the different niches make a festival like SXSW rather like Choose Your Own Adventure – there might not be a shared narrative but that only makes each individual one more valuable. You could shell out the money for a badge and rub your chin thoughtfully while listening for the Next Big Thing, or drink as much free booze as possible and collapse from dehydration somewhere on the 6th street bacchanale, or do it up DIY style and catch the formidable amount of talented bands playing under bridges or in front of Pita Pit or in people’s houses. You could have devoted your entire festival to the onslaught of talented hip hop, the UK invasion of post-dubstep/glitch/electronica led by Gold Panda, Starslinger, Jamie Woon, and Mount Kimbie, or even Chinese rock stars channeling Sonic Youth. Possibilities and permutations run free!
So we didn’t see Deer Tick covering Nirvana, or Death From Above 1979 fans rioting outside of Beauty Bar, or Odd Future blowing off the Billboard party, or Kanye West airlifted over a power plant in a hot air balloon dropping power bars and auto-tuned rhymes into a crowd of adoring fans. While official attendees were nursing their hangovers, we joined the ranks of the young and the badgeless to run the day shift, shuttling between the slew of unofficial showcases taking place from noon to six. The lines were short, the beers were free, and because most of the bands were just below the radar, they put a lot of themselves into their shows. Some appealed to me more than others based on taste alone, but I caught close to 40 bands in 4 days and barely any could be accused of half-heartedness. Here are some further standouts:
Computer Magic plays at Cheer Up Charlie's. SXSW 2011 Day 1. Photo by Nina Mashurova.
Computer Magic – Running
Danz, the 21-year old pixie behind Computer Magic, has finally put a girl’s spin on the independent bedroom pop popularized by Memory Tapes and Neon Indian. Although the project is only a few months old, Danz has created a charming space oddity, influenced by 80s synth-pop, spaceship sounds, bizarre safety videos, VHS and casette tapes, and small robots with big hearts. The synths can feel silly on occasion but they make sense when paired with Danz’s voice, which is layered in a way that sounds both intimate and distant enough to avoid being twee. All of Computer Magic’s music is available for free on their website, so get at it while the getting’s good.
Esben and the Witch play at BAMM.tv and Pop Montreal Presents: Hollerado's Nacho House at the Beauty Bar in Austin on Day 2 of SXSW 2011. Photo by Nina Mashurova
Esben and the Witch – Warpath (from Violet Cries on Amazon)
Perhaps if I had seen the darkly unsettling video for “Marching Song,” I would have known what to expect, but when Esben and the Witch took the outdoor stage at Beauty Bar, I was completely unprepared. Rachel Davies was a woman possessed – hair flying, eyes demonic, drums attacked with a rhythmic ferocity usually devoted to sacrificial rituals for unmerciful deities. The trio from Brighton, England released their debut full-length Violet Cries on Matador about a month ago and though I haven’t listened to goth rock for quite a while now (rest in peace oversize black hoodies and Scarling albums), I can vouch that experiencing Esben and the Witch live is nothing short of hypnotizing.
Cults perform at Stereogum's Last Night party at the Pure Volume House in Austin. SXSW 2011 Day 4. Photo by Nina Mashurova
Cults – Go Outside
Cults generated serious buzz with “Go Outside” – an infectiously carefree tune whose xylophone twinkles, Jim Jones samples, and repeated urging “Do you really want to hole up? You really want to stay inside and sleep the light away?” drove me up the wall during finals week. Buzz comes and goes but their late night set at Stereogum’s party proved that Cults were capable of a lot more than “cute.” According to Pitchfork, 21-year olds Madeline Follin and Brian Oblivion, both San Diego natives, started the band as a couple while studying film in New York. With her tossable long hair, punk rock background, and a voice that channels soulful Motown sounds, Follin really dominates a stage. The new single is great and I’m looking forward to their upcoming full-length and their stop at Brighton Music Hall on April 1.
Dom at the Paradise in Boston. Photo by Nina Mashurova
Dom just doesn’t give a fuck, and it is awesome. I was trying to get my bacon on from a grease-bucket truck called Pig Vicious that promised to put fat in everything and ran into a shirtless dude rocking a handlebar moustache and kingly garb. This was Austin so it could have been anyone, but it turned out to be Dom. Dom turned out to be from right around here in Worcester, kindof a hot mess in a really great way, and responsible for one of the most addictive albums I’ve heard lately. Full disclosure: Never actually saw them play because scheduling gets really hard sometimes, but the album has been on constant rotation and when they open for the Go Team at the Paradise in April, I am so there.
Filed under: Emma, Nina | Tags: boston counter cultural compass, concerts, march, upcoming concerts in boston
Guys, March is here already, and as John McCauley sings in the title track from Middle Brother, “My days are numbered but I’m bad at math.” That’s right – counting is out, good music is in, and before you can say “Fat Tuesday,” we’ve rounded up enough worthwhile shows to drag you out of your hibernaculum nearly every day of the month. How’s that for March Madness? Our overjoyed and overwhelmed restless legs are hopping over to Austin for SXSW to see lots of shows, discover new music, worship the sun gods, binge on barbecue and beer, and, if the stars are aligned, get served tequila by Bill Murray. (Rest assured, updates to come.) Considering this, we thought we’d maybe take it easy this month, but this calendar is so good looks like it’s high season for all music all the time. Tut tut now shake ya butt!
3/2 – Smith Westerns @ Great Scott
3/3 – Middle Brother @ Paradise
One fine day somewhere in America, Deer Tick’s John McCauley, Dawes’s Taylor Goldsmith, and Delta Spirit’s Matt Vasquez formed a group called Middle Brother. Middle Brother brings together and amplifies each member’s strengths – Deer Tick’s raw songwriting skills, Dawes’ melodic sensibilities, and Delta Spirit’s warm soulfulness – into a stylistically varied but consistently great album which gets better with every listen. Country-fried folky goodness, ya’ll.
3/3 – Aviary opening – “Sound on Sight”
Read about this in the Phoenix, it’s an editor’s pick for the week! Reception today, but the exhibit will be open all month.
3/4 – Low Anthem @ Old South Church
3/6 – Get Up Kids @ Paradise
If “Overdue” and “Let the Reigns go Loose” figure prominently in my memory montages of being young and vulnerable I’m not alone – the Get Up Kids were one of the most influential bands in the late-90s Midwestern emo movement in the good old days when “emo” meant emotionally honest punk-influenced music instead of angsty teenagers with swoopy hair and fetishes for wrist-slitting imagery and tear-streaked eyeliner.
3/6 – Say Hi @ Middle East Downstairs
3/7 – Oh Land (opening for OMD) @ Paradise
Electro-glitter winter wonderful.
3/8 – Pete Yorn @ House of Blues
Yeah, yeah, yeah, his hair is too shaggy, he’s all over simplified pop rock and old news, something you listened to on the Dawson’s Creek soundtrack in 2001 (No? Just me?), but I refuse to let go of my Musicforthemorningafter memories from before I even knew what a “morning after” felt like. A strange condition, indeed. Plus, on Enjoy Every Sandwich, the stellar Warren Zevon tribute album released after he died, Yorn covers “Splendid Isolation” wonderfully.
3/9 – Rural Alberta Advantage @ Middle East Downstairs
I have these guys on near-constant rotation these days, and for good reason. Before Japandroids realized “The Boys Are Leaving Town” and Arcade Fire were missing The Suburbs, Rural Alberta Advantage tapped into the nostalgia felt by itinerant twentysomethings with Hometowns - a gorgeous album that picks up the aforementioned Get Up Kid emo legacy and updates it with Jeff Magnum-esque vocals, occasional horns, and dislocated heartfluttery synths reminiscent of the Postal Service. Now they’re touring for their follow-up, Departing. Check it.
3/10 – Bright Eyes @ House of Blues
No conversation about Midwestern emo can go for long before hitting on infamous emo posterboy Conor Oberst. Whether you loved him for writing transparent lyrics that spoke to the confusion and pain of growing up or hated him for making grotesque self-pity worn on your sleeve not only acceptable but fashionable, seems like everyone had an opinion on the depressive wunderkind. Eleven years and tons of projects after Fevers and Mirrors, Oberst is finally hanging up the Bright Eyes moniker, so if you’re looking for a cathartic occasion to shed a public tear to “A Perfect Sonnet,” this could be your last chance.
3/11 & 3/12 – Zoe Keating & Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys @ Cafe 939
Zoe Keating: one-woman orchestra/cello extravaganza with a hardworking DIY ethic, collaboration history with the likes of Amanda Palmer, John Vanderslice, and The Secret Life of Bees, and seriously badass dreads. Walter Sickert and the Army of Broken Toys: 15-piece orchestra with baroque sea shanties, neocircus postapocalyptic folk waltzes, and a seriously badass steam-crunk aesthetic. Bored of the same old musical fare? Get at this. (Note: the Friday show is SOLD OUT but Saturday tickets are still available!)
3/11 & 3/12 – The Pogues & Titus Andronicus – House of Blues
3/16 – Mark Kozelek of Sun Kil Moon @ First Church Congregational
3/20 – Blast Forth @ Cambridge YMCA
Whitehaus Family Record presents the fourth annual Blastfest, and it’s loaded with enough DIY New England goodness to melt your heart and melt your face off. The Cambridge installment of the tour features Welcome Home; Peace, Loving; Gracious Calamity; Jimmy Ambulance; Casey Rocheteau; Shai Erlichman; Brian S. Ellis; B. Law; The Needy Visions; Manners; Shira E.; Emma N. Young; Chris North Dream Quartet; Morgan Shaker; Free Pizza; Avi Jacob; and Gobby It’s going to be epic.
3/21 – Simian Mobile Disco @ Paradise
Get your dance on.
3/24 – Sebadoh & Steven Brodsky @ Paradise
3/26 – DeVotchKa @ Paradise
I am told time and again by a certain Russian co-writer that I mispronounce their name, but this Boulder/Denver four piece band plays awesome Eastern world, gypsy-folk music in the vain of Beirut and Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire. Perhaps you heard them in the background of Little Miss Sunshine, which featured arguably two of their best songs, “You Love Me” and “How It Ends.” Unusual instruments (sousaphone, theremin) and Nick Urata’s vocal bravado make DeVotchKa unmissable. I saw them live once in Colorado, and between the hometown spirit and the circus-punk, rock ‘n’ roll accordion, I was hooked. They’ve got a new album just out the last day of February, too, which I have yet to check out.
3/26 – Hallelujah the Hills & Parts and Labor @ Great Scott
3/28 – Klaxons @ Paradise
3/29 – Joy Formidable @ Brighton Music Hall
3/30 – Bodega Girls record release party @ Middlesex Lounge
3/30 – The Dears @ Brighton Music Hall
3/30 – JEFF the Brotherhood & Juiceboxxx @ Great Scott
We saw JEFF the Brotherhood at Homegrown, back when the Temple in JP was still kickin’. Revisit those good times here.
3/31 – Viva Viva & Doomstar @ Brighton Music Hall
Annnnd, as always, we encourage you pick up/find online the Boston Counter Cultural Compass and go to any shows/events listed there. They are always a good time, and even if the music isn’t your thing, the hangings out will be. COMMUNITY, PEOPLE!
Photo by Joshua J. Richards, courtesy of The Shivers's Facebook
Keith Zarriello and the rotating cast of The Shivers turned out <em>Charades</em> in 2004 – a stripped-down rock record that was alternately venomous and heartbreaking, tough with timeless city blues and vulnerable with the poetry of defeat. If you believe the internet, Zarriello followed this up by blowing off the pretentiousness of the Brooklyn music scene for the vastness of the Canadian frozen North, joined up with Québécois farmers and Montreal mimes for some time, and eventually returned to New York to advocate against procreation and play shows for single-digit audiences, covered in skin bleach and his own blood. I know bringing up underrated Brooklyn bands with temperamental time-bomb frontmen is a party trick guaranteed to result in collective eye-rolling, but bear with me here, these guys are for real.
Seven years and four albums later, Zarriello continues to put out the bitterly honest, unapologetically human songs that have gained him a loyal cult following and comparisons to early Lou Reed or Leonard Cohen. At his darkest, as with the spoken word piece “The Lonely Man on the Weekend” which closes out his 2010 all-analogue solo release Truants From Life, Zarriello paints a dark portrayal of urban alienation that could be the whiskey-baptised love child of Tom Waits and Travis Bickle. But when Zarriello is balanced out by bandmate Jo Schornikow, as on 2010′s Sunset Psalms,The Shivers are nothing short of redemptive.
“Thanks to all you guys who in times of drunkenness and despair turn to The Shivers for some solace. This is what we are here for,” says their Facebook page. While this might be the most concise summary of their appeal, additional listens reveal not just a drinking buddy, but reverent reflections, quality old school songwriting, and the darkly flawed soul of rock ‘n’ roll.
Incidentally, these are the same qualities I was so excited to find in Deer Tick’s first release, so imagine the happy surprise when I found out The Shivers are currently touring with John McCauley and Ian O’Neil. Here’s hoping that Deer Tick’s newfound popularity gets The Shivers some well-deserved exposure. (Still kicking myself for missing their Boston stops…hopefully next time.)
Filed under: Nina, Uncategorized | Tags: belle & sebastian, bjork, dark dark dark, grizzly bear, oh land, perks of being a wallflower, seabear, sufjan stevens, winter
It's easier if you have a bear friend. (Photo by Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir)
New England winters always do a number on me. It settles in with the first chills of November and I’ll spare the sordid details, so let’s talk about tastes. Cravings spark for hot cinnamon caramelized everything, mulled wine, spiked cider, thick soup, and as with most other things on this blog, it translates to a matter of music. This is growing affection for thin ephemeral sounds that crackle like snow-caked power wires, whisper like clouds of breath forming in thin air, ebb slow like honey on its way to hot coffee, like blood in need of a good thaw. In the past, these icy months have spurred all sorts of unpredictable symptoms, including a short-lived Joanna Newsom obsession and many nights lying immobile under the power of In Rainbows. For better or for worse, it’s been interesting.
The winter mixtape has been a treasured tradition of mine, ever since stumbling upon and being thoroughly moved by the “One Winter” mixtape from The Perks of Being a Wallflower. (Though the book should be kept undisturbed in a time capsule with other 14 year old gems such as the irrational emotional breakdown and the oversize Nirvana hoodie, “One Winter” has stood the test of time.) When it’s not raining outside still shows the last of precious autumn – daytime is still ripe with picturesque collegiate dream scenes, scarves and falling leaves. But daytime ends at five now, Christmas lights are on sale and you’ve broken down and turned on the furnace at least once already. It’s all in the name of being prepared, right? So while you’re saran wrapping your windows and furnishing your hibernaculum, I’ll throw some tunes your way.
Oh Land – White Nights (see also: “Wolf & I”)
This Danish ex-ballerina makes twitchy shimmery music that sounds like delightfully delirious insomnia, glitchy music boxes, dream pop with a dance beat. She wants to make music “that sounds like it’s from 2050 but still feels really classic.”
Seabear – Libraries (see also: “I Sing I Swim”)
So this one time I lived in the library and never came out except for PB&Js and the occasional fire alarm. By “this one time” I mean November and December. Thanks, college. This lovely soft Icelandic murmuring sounds like the blessed moment when you fold your notebooks up, rub your eyes, and make your way back home. “Next time I wake up / I want it to be / in a rabbit hole / to the sound of you making coffee.”
Belle & Sebastian – Little Lou, Ugly Jack, Prophet John (see also: “Boy With the Arab Strap,” “Calculating Bimbo,” everything)
Norah Jones makes an unexpected appearance on this lovely track off Belle & Sebastian’s latest, Write About Love, and the duet is simultaneously peaceful and heartbreaking. Sounds like lit candles, lonely soup, watching flurries settle down under streetlights, missing summer and the loves that come with it. “Travel south until your skin turns, woman / Travel south until your skin turns brown / Put a language in your head and get on a train / and then come back to the one you love.”
Bjork – Hidden Place (see also: “Coccoon,” “It’s Not Up to You”, all of Vespertine)
People make fun of Bjork an awful lot, and those people are wrong. She might sometimes seem like she’s not quite made for this world, but in music that’s a good thing. Her influence can be felt in St. Vincent to the Dirty Projectors, not to mention a ton of electronic and ambient music. Vespertine is unpredictable – icy and alien, sparking with desire, harboring hidden textures and intimate shimmers. It’s so wintry that cracking ice and snow being walked on are actually used in some songs. According to Bjork, “It sounds like a winter record. If you wake up in the middle of the night and you go out in the garden, everything’s going out there that you wouldn’t know about…I was collecting together all the noises that I know that are like hibernating and that sound like the inside of your head.” Let it grow on you.
Dark, Dark, Dark – Daydreaming (see also: “Celebrate,” “Wild Go”)
Nona Marie Invie’s voice is haunting. I’ve had the good fortune to see Dark Dark Dark in intimate spaces and each time I’ve been moved by its honest emotion, fragile clarity, transcendent way of reaching deep into your soul, sounding like it came from somewhere so deep in the world it’s still prone to magic. Dark Dark Dark is from Minneapolis, but they’re really from the road, and their music has a timeless troubadorial quality. Lonely winds, epic journeys, and wild horizons are as present in their harmonies as the banjo, the accordion, and the viola. These songs tell tales of a world that’s often alienating and apocalyptic, but they come to you with warmth.
Sufjan Stevens – Vesuvius (see also: “Too Much,” “Impossible Soul”)
Age of Adz is so so so good. It takes the melodic appeal of Illinoise and Say Yes! to Michigan and combines it with the electronic experimentation of Enjoy Your Rabbit to make something epic. I’ll save the gushing for another post, but here’s a song that builds slowly into a chant, a prayer, a reason to get out of bed when it’s freezing and inexplicable things are clawing inside you. The glitching screeching mechanistic choral climax dissolves to a simple question – “why does it have to be so hard?” Why indeed.
Grizzly Bear – Foreground (“Colorado” is also something I’ve woken up during)
Today I fell asleep facedown in a pile of clothes and notebooks halfway through a Czech documentary narrated by a man with a startling gap in his front teeth. It was only 7 but it had already been dark for over two hours, I had been some degree of awake for about two days and the world was dark and wet and stressful. When I woke up, this song was playing, pretty and reassuring. I have to admit I haven’t made it all the way through Veckatimest since the first time I heard it because Grizzly Bear is a band I’ve trained myself to fall asleep to on long bus rides and I’m always out cold by the third song. Anyway, this. Warm, cozy, redemptive. Because sometimes you just have to sleep the day away. It’s okay, bears do it all the time.
Filed under: Nina | Tags: aesop rock, halloween, john darnielle, salem, the misfits
It’s Halloween! You know what that means – bands all over Boston are dressing up as other bands and playing sweet shows and massive amounts of college students are dressing up as Snooki, Lady GaGa, Wes Anderson characters, and other truly horrifying things, consuming an unhealthy amount of candy and having a frighteningly good time.
We’ve been trick or treating all over the internet and here’s what we rounded up:
So seasonally appropriate! Named after the infamous torture-town-gone-kitsch-kingdom, this band is disconcerting in all the right ways. I can’t tell if this is an interesting electronic track that conjures that particular kind of nightmare you want to carry through just to see what happens, or if it just reminds me of Skinny Puppy. Sure there was that whole “rapegaze” fiasco, but that was really Pitchfork’s genre-grubbing fault, and once people get over that this is sure to sell like gothcakes.
As classic as they go, old school punk rock goodness in a clean two minutes. No Halloween or Brooklyn house party or junior high school Jansport is complete without the Misfits.
3. Aesop Rock (feat. John Darnielle) – Coffee
We love Aesop Rock. We love John Darnielle. We love coffee. And everyone loves zombies! Seriously, this is so aptly named that there was an extended period of time when I couldn’t get up without hearing this – addictive and delicious! Aesop’s flawless here and every time John Darnielle chimes in at the end it gives me shivers. Also the music video is excellent.
Fun fact: Aesop Rock went to BU and majored in painting. So if you’re freaking out about the whole graduating thing, you know, there are options…
HAVE A GOOD ONE.
How to build a blogging empire
So, I’m a pretty avid doodler and sometimes these doodles manifest themselves as comics. For ages these have been gathering dust in moleskines and between class notes, but now that I’ve discovered that the BU library has scanners for mass use and that MS Paint is actually kindof useful, these might be making occasional appearances here. We’ll see how this goes. (They’ll also probably be of better quality when I don’t have massive papers due.)
Filed under: Nina, Uncategorized | Tags: concerts, james murphy, lcd soundsystem, summer of the midlife crisis, the orpheum, this is happening
wait guyz you mean this isn't the daft punk show?
This was originally going to be a post full of sweet photos of LCD Soundsystem rocking out. I was so ready. I was so ready with two low-light lenses and too-cool press photographer hubris (I’ve shot for blogs, guys, I got this!) that when I got to the Orpheum last Tuesday and the hawk-eyed matronly ushers informed us that we could only shoot halfway back through the crowd, I was completely stupefied. I was oh so ready except I had nothing even resembling a zoom lens, so really I was shit out of luck. Failball.
Fumbled through some shots of pretty lights for the requisite three songs and disappeared into the crowd out of sight of Crabby McLazer-Eyes, who was fit to eject me for not having a real ticket. Nothing left to do but watch James Murphy do his thang.
On more than one occasion I’ve jokingly referred to the musical state of 2010 as the Summer of the Midlife Crisis, and LCD Soundsystem’s This Is Happening is pretty emblematic of this phenomenon. The first thing I catch onto in a song is lyrics and I guess I’m always skeptical when such overtly morose songs tack on dancey beats and inspire thousands of glazed-eye Urban Outfitters poster kids to fist pump like there’s no tomorrow. It took seeing LCD Soundsystem play live to understand the zen-like brilliance of Murphy’s musical philosophy. As Thao Nguyen once murmured in the opening to a song, “Sad people dance too.” It’s as good a cure as any.
Someone great is gone? Might as well dance.
You’re getting old and your rock star life is overwhelming and you miss your friends? Just dance.
Losing your edge to the art-school Brooklynites in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered eighties? Dance yourself young.
Talking like a jerk except you are an actual jerk? Dance yourself clean.
Didn’t accept a job writing for Seinfeld in your 20s? Well there’s really not much you can do about that, but I’m sure dancing will take your mind off of it.
So I danced. And so did everyone else. My most frequent criticism of large Boston concerts is that the crowds tend to be completely sober and immobilized even during the bounciest of sets. But the crowd at the Orpheum was definitely on their A-game that night. They were dancing standing up in their seats because schoolmarmy women patrolled the aisles with iron fists and horn-rimmed glasses. They were dancing and waving glowsticks and cell phones and arms. They danced and the ridiculously ornate 104-year old theater clouded up with dry ice and body heat and human sweat, partially because the air conditioner seemed to be broken, but mostly because bodies were actually moving.
this dude knows what i'm talking about
Sure, some of these bodies were on drugs. In fact, my hiding place in the crowd was directly beside a jumping writhing soaking wet couple that kept whisper-yelling sweet nothings like “Baby I love you. Baby I love drugs. Baby I’m so glad we have drugs.” Even better, immediately ahead was a foot-stomping fist-pumping chant-yelling bro who was getting down with his back to the stage so that he could give passersby in the aisle high-fives and spontaneous massages. (Dude won my respect when he managed to get a diminutive Betty White-esque usher to give him a pound.)
Let’s be honest, the whole scenario was several kinds of absurd. But beyond the thick layers of cognitive dissonance, it was a damn good show. Stumbling out of the Orpheum into a world without strobe lights I could pick out people from the show all the way down to the 57 bus in Allston by how sweaty they were. And that’s what it’s all about, right? Gold stars for Boston, and James Murphy is still in the running for world’s hippest dad. Yeah.
Filed under: Albums, Nina | Tags: 1980s, britpop, ian brown, stone roses
See, my wandering days are over, or at least temporarily put on hold due to this final (idontwannatalkaboutit) school year. But for whatever reason, there’s been a British invasion in my musical consciousness. Perhaps it’s the influx of British bands about to hit Great Scott (Blood Red Shoes on October 24, Joy Formidable on November 13). Perhaps it’s the autumnal bite in the air reminding me of my London ideal (and the coming rains hinting at the London reality). Regardless, it’s been back to Los Campesinos, the xx, Radiohead in the rain, and the aforementioned Great Scott bands. But most of all, it’s been a revival of The Stone Roses.
To this day I don’t remember how I got ahold of The Stone Roses in the first place, but I can vividly see my 15 year old self pacing back and forth across Other Music near St. Mark’s, agonizing over whether I should spend the money I’d accumulated by skipping lunch for a week on The Complete Stone Roses. I can also remember hazy-eyed gazing out of my window onto twilight Brooklyn delerium, choleric thoughts that made “Made of Stone” sound terrifically poignant. I remember being charmed by “Sally Cinnamon,” wishing to exchange awkward teenage fumbling for something resembling those sweet pop riffs. Needless to say, I bought the disc, and it was a damn good decision.
For some reason, most people I gush about these guys to don’t seem to know who they are. That statement would come off as completely obnoxious, but this isn’t exactly a North Brooklyn basement band with a dozen devoted fans and a snazzy MySpace. A little research reveals that NME voted their 1989 self-titled debut the Best British Album of All Time, beating out heavy-hitters such as Sex Pistols, The Smiths, and even The Beatles. On our side of the pond, die-hard naysayers Pitchfork gave that same album’s reissue a perfect 10.0! Flawless victory, ya’ll.
So how did this Manchester breakout band fade so much that, besides a beautifully-placed “Fool’s Gold” in Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and sketchy rumors of a reunion tour, you’d be hard-pressed to find mention of them in pop culture? Probably something to do with a mediocre second album and an ugly breakup. Maybe a gypsy curse.
It’s really a shame because nearly every song on this album is amazing. From the irresistible pop perfection of “She Bangs the Drums” and “Sugar Spun Sister” to the sinister “Love Spreads” (which masks graphic images of the crucifixion, with Jesus as a black woman, beneath a catchy refrain) these songs linger and send shivers, pull you in with slippery psychedelic rhythms and spot-on hooks. Every time I revisit this album something new catches my ear. This time I’m addicted to Ian Brown’s deadpan faking you out several times before launching into a triumphant wail on the chorus of “I Am The Resurrection.” I’m also grinning every time I hear the gleefully appropriate post-Smiths rhyme of “she doesn’t care / for my despair” on “Mersey Paradise.”
Whenever I stumble back onto these guys, a mix of nostalgia and pure enjoyment keeps me hooked for weeks. If the Stone Roses have gotten by your radar, you certainly owe it to yourself to give these blokes a listen or two. Then, when Brown’s plea turn to palpitations towards the end of “I Wanna Be Adored,” we can all give him an imaginary pat on the back and reassure him that he still is.
Filed under: Nina | Tags: beantown jazz festival, boston, broken social scene, concerts, cups, japanther, kath bloom, manners, mighty tiny, phantogram, points north, prince rama, sleigh bells, wavves
image credit: D.L. Polonsky
Hey there, Boston! I’d like to apologize for the delay in posts – late-August American adventures, moving back to Boston, accumulating and moving furniture, choosing and re-choosing classes, and generally getting things together has made the past couple of weeks more than a bit frantic. But rest assured, the Restless Legs are alive and kicking, getting down in Allston-town and ready for more musical goodness.
We’re hoping to get some sort of nifty calendar up before long, but until then, here’s a good old-fashioned list of great shows in Boston that are on our radar for the rest of this month. (For all you newly settled college kids, get out your Crackberry/meticulously organized planner/enormous stack of Post-Its and take notes – these are worth scheduling your study circles and keg stands around.)
9/14 – Prince Rama opens for Deakin (of Animal Collective) @ Middle East Downstairs
Brooklyn/Boston- based deep psych tribal freakout trio Prince Rama puts on an awesome show that just might double as a religious experience. Heavy with chanting and the chimes, moshing and auditory hallucinations, this show promises to blow minds and speakers alike. (Plus, that one guy from Animal Collective, so that’s cool.)
9/15 – Manners, The Points North, The Cups @ Gay Gardens
So, you didn’t hear it from us, but Manners and the Points North just might be coming to a house show near you. Both are Massachusetts natives and both play lovely, heartfelt folk music. Come out to support local artists and enjoy an intimate show that’ll warm even the most frazzled souls. (Hyperactive fun by The Cups also included.)
9/17 – Broken Social Scene @ House of Blues
Bombastic Canadian powerhouse ensemble comes to Boston! Forgiveness Rock Record was awesome, and will be ten times more awesome live! This is pretty exciting!
9/18 & 9/19 – Sleigh Bells & Wavves at Brandeis University
Snaps to WBRS for booking two sweet shows back to back. Noise pop thrashfest Sleigh Bells are this year’s answer to the Crystal Castles and have caught the attention of heavyweights MIA and LCD Soundsystem alike. Self-proclaimed King of the Beach, Wavves is like a one-man fuzzy 2010 take on the easygoing pop-punk sound of the 90s and besides that one notorious Primavera Fest meltdown he’s been doing pretty well for himself. Unfortunately for the masses, Brandeis ID is required for entry, but for Deis kids and outsiders crafty enough to finagle their way in, this is going to be one hell of a weekend.
9/22 – Phantogram @ Paradise Rock Club
Haunting vocals swirl over synths and danceable beats to make beautiful, captivating, trippy pop that’s reminiscent of Portishead and School of Seven Bells. Their debut album, Eyelid Movies is aptly named, but if you’re willing to put those closed-eye visuals on hold for a night, these guys should be worth seeing.
9/23 – Mighty Tiny opens for Electric Six @ Middle East Downstairs
We caught Boston-based circus-rock ensemble Mighty Tiny at Great Scott this Thursday and their deft mixture of blues, punk, accordion, sweet Venetian masks, and enthusiastic cabaret-esque showmanship gets the full RLS endorsement. These guys are one of the more original bands to come out of Boston as of late and their live show is a party and a half not to be missed. (Electric Six are those guys that did “Danger! High Voltage!” and “Gay Bar” – both severely WTF-inducing, and hilarious.)
9/25 - Beantown Jazz Festival
Berklee’s annual jazz festival will be bringing impressive jazz heavyweights (such as Kurt Rosenwinkel, The Bad Plus, that lady who sang “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone” and the Dawson’s Creek theme song…) to Boston all week, but the jazz-illiterate and/or seriously broke among us should look to the 25th for a free all-day festival. If the weather’s cooperative, there are few better ways to spend a Saturday than by enjoying good music and quality people-watching while lounging around on grass and eating an unhealthy amount of fried festival food.
9/ 25 – Japanther @ The Temple
There’s also no better way to follow up a classy day of jazz than with a sweaty night dancing and throwing fists and beer cans at a punk rock show! (Note: RLS does not endorse violence but we do endorse dancing and mosh pits and sometimes things just happen.) Japanther are a Brooklyn-based punk-tastic funfest whose shows get the crowd bouncing off the wall with more hyperactive energy than your caffeine-addicted roommate mid-finals week after she just got a new prescription for Adderall. Seriously. Awesome.
9/26 – Kath Bloom @ Whitehaus
Remember this? Nuff said.
9/30 – Menomena & Suckers @ Royale
Menomena is the ultimate sleeper band. For all their dense structures and instrumental intricacies, their subtle songs rarely grab you on the first listen, but after a couple of spins their brilliance creeps up on you and is suddenly irresistible. Suckers, on the other hand, make incredibly catchy songs that get in your head and stay there for days and weeks and months. That dynamic plus the obvious talent and odd charisma of both bands make this a show not to be missed.
There you go, those are about all the extracurricular activities you need. Go play. We’ll see you there.
Filed under: Nina | Tags: arcade fire, beach fossils, japandroids, morning benders, new york times, twentysomethings, youth, zeitgeist
photo by tim barber
As a self-professed restless young person (can’t deny it now, it’s in the URL…) I thought I’d share this nifty NYTimes article. Apparently, some venerable psychologists are seeing this period of indecision, seemingly limitless possibility (and ensuing dizzy-eyed paralysis), self indulgence, commitment-phobia, and ambiguous confusion (their words, not mine) not as a throwback to 90s slackerdom, not as a too-cool-for-my-day-job delusion of the urban hipster, maybe not even as a side effect of graduating into a recession (gulp) but maybe as a real Life Stage, akin to when psychologists discovered Adolescence nearly a century ago. Whoa.
This is hardly breaking news – almost every coming-of-age tale worth reading is set in the protagonist’s twenties (why hello there Kerouac), and people forced to settle down too early tend to show symptoms of profound dissatisfaction (like alcoholism, Office Space, and Raymond Carver stories). But psychological studies and societal concensus tend to lag behind common sense, so let’s just be glad they’re getting there.
Whether this means that the government will start setting aside funds for a grandiose road trip/foray into self-discovery for every newborn American to be disseminated when they turn 21 (actually proposed in the article but not bloody likely) or just that our parents generation will consider chilling out and letting us take time to settle into important decisions instead of following in their footsteps of resentful marriages, unfulfilling jobs, and explosive midlife crises (angstangstangst) is just not clear.
If that’s just too many words to plow through in the foreboding silence of The Rest of Your Life Awaiting, here’s a soundtrack to give it some context. The aforementioned psychologists can file these away as “primary sources.”
Beach Fossils – Youth
(i know i’m feeling brave / but that’s because my heart’s untied)
(also source of lyrics in title)
Morning Benders – Promises
(they say it’s only natural / they say we’re coming along just fine / but i can’t help thinking we grew up too fast)
Japandroids – Young Hearts Spark Fire
(we used to dream / now we’re worried about dying / i don’t wanna worry about dying / i just wanna worry about those sunshine girls)
(See also: Arcade Fire’s classic Funeral which from the bombastic hits Neighborhood #1 and Wake Up to the underrated In the Backseat is a baroque bildungsroman powerhouse not to be ignored. It’s an Arcade Fire kind of August, deal with it.)
