El Ten Eleven

I’ve had a friend who has been telling me for about a year now that I need to start listening to El Ten Eleven.  I got a feel for their music from the soundtracking they did to the typeface documentary, Helvetica, but just in the last week I finally gave in and listened to their most recent album, These Promises Are Being Videotaped.  I have to admit he was right, this band is pretty damn good.  I’ve seen a lot of descriptions of their sound such as “post rock disco”, “Justice Meets Tortoise”, or “Kraftwerk in the Sky”, but really all you need to know is that the band makes tight, beautiful-sounding instrumental jams.

One track I’m completely impressed with is “I Like Van Halen Because My Sister Says They Are Cool”.  Not only are Van Halen undeniably cool (Roth all the way! Screw Hagar!), but the song has a playful and spontaneous feel to it that is rare with instrumentals.  All of the band’s songs have a wonderful sense of movement, and the quick pacing keeps the music interesting and connectable.  “Chino” is a great example, which also highlights the band’s techinical bravado as well as their lively melodies.

MP3 El Ten Eleven – I Like Van Halen Because My Sister Says They Are Cool
MP3 El Ten Eleven – Chino

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Frank at Chromewaves gives an insider look at this year’s Polaris Music Prize. Congrats to Caribou, the much deserved winner!

Oh hell yea! The Boss aka Bruce Springsteen is playing the Super Bowl this year. The good news comes via Rawkblog.

If you haven’t seen TV on the Radio‘s Late Night performance of “Dancing Choose” on NY Fire Escape yet, head over to Culture Bully and do so.

Is anyone watching Fringe?  I’ve watched all three episodes so far and it’s not too bad.  A little formulaic yes, and not nearly as good as JJ Abram’s other show, but it’s tiding me over till that aformentioned other show begins (Februrary, please come soon)

Pygmalion Fest: High Places

After Saturday Night’s performance from Yo La Tengo, the good times at Pygmalion Fest refused to stop.  Immediately following was a set in the Krannert Muesem Bar & Lobby which was packed full of people to see up-and-coming multi-textural electronic dream pop duo, High Places. The short clips of music I had heard from the band as well as their freaky album cover, led me to believe that their sound was ambient and highly “new age” influenced, so I was pleasantly surprised by the hazey, ethereal, and highly melodic sounds that High Places were making. Quite the opposite of what I expected.

Their set up was extremely simple, Mary Pearson handled the vox while Rob Barber drummed out the beats, while a psych-influenced slideshow was projected off of the band’s Macbook. The electronic atmospherics of the band are actually quite reminsicent of the backdrops that M.I.A. incorporates into her sound, while Mary’s dreamy vocals seem to float above the music.  The listening experience aside, watching the band engaged in the knob twisting and and button pushing to create their unique sound is completely delightful experience.  The duo seemed to be completely lost in the music, unaware that an audience even existed.

MP3 Golden
MP3 From Sentence To Stardust

View some more of my High Places pictures below.

Video: Okkervil River – Lost Coastlines

I’ve been growing to love Okkervil River‘s new album more and more, and “Lost Coastlines” remains the biggest highlight for me so far.  The band unveiled a music video for the song recently that plays of the album’s title, The Stand-Ins.  The concept is pretty simple here, the band is replaced by “stand-ins” with vintage TV sets over their heads with video of the band.  If you saw the Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible tour, the Win Butler did something very similar on stage during “My Body Is A Cage”.  But in this version, all the band’s heads are replaced (ex-Okkervil Johnathon Meinburg even joins in on the fun) and the audience are also stand-ins.  It makes for a visually interesting video, and it has a little twist at the end for kicks.  Watch above, download below.

MP3 Okkervil River – Lost Coastlines

Pygmalion Fest: Yo La Tengo

While I had to miss Friday’s performances at Pygmalion Fest (including Black Mountain and Titus Andronicus), I came prepared to hit Day 4 of the fest with full force, starting with Yo La Tengo‘s festival headlining show at Krannert Muesem.  Most of my history with Yo La Tengo revolves around two albums, And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out and I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One.  I’ve recently gotten into their newest album as well, I Am Not Afraid of You And Am Going To Beat Your Ass.  I didn’t really know what to expect out of the show, but Yo La Tengo ended up playing a wide variety of whispery folk, bouncy pop, and sprawling guitar rock with a few very random covers thrown in (I learned later that this is a pretty typical YLT show).

The show opened with one of my favorite Yo La Tengo songs, the nostalgia-tinged, absolutely gorgeous love song, “Our Way To The Fall” and I was overjoyed when it was followed up by the warm organ tones of another YLT fave (and Girl Talk sample material), “Autumn Sweater”.  Following was the garage rock head-boppin’ classic, “Tom Courtenay, which got a big reaction from the crowd.

It was obvious from the beginning, that the sound in the concert hall was very conducive to the variety of styles that the band plays.  Nothing compared sonic-wise though, to when the band pulled out the epic “Pass The Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind” leading to a massive guitar wank-fest from Ira, while Georgia and James maintained the steady beat. Much of the second half of the set was dedicated to songs of the band’s newest record, out of those “Beanbag Chair” and “Mr. Tough” being the funnest to hear.

The main set closed on the song “The Story of Yo La Tango” and featured an extended session of Ira beating his guitar into submission by swinging over his head, strangling it, forcing into the ground, etc.  It’s all very fun to watch, but I couldn’t help but think how awkward and flailing he looked tossing his guitar around, in comparison to someone like Wilco’s Nels Cline, another aging axe-wielder, who plays with furious intensity while still retaining precision and control over his instrument.  Either way, it’s amazing to watch.

For the set’s encore, the band turned into Yo La Tengo the cover band, first playing “Speedy Motorcycle”, a Daniel Johnston cover, which was requested by email (if I knew you could do that, I totally would sent in “You Can Have It All”).  I was completely surprised when I heard the song was a cover because the band really put their unique style on it, making it easily one of the best songs played that night.

Next up was a fun one.  The band covered what they called a “Traditional Illinois Song” and what turned out to be Cheap Trick‘s “Come On, Come On”.  Finally, they closed on a politicial note covering Sun Ra‘s “Nuclear War”.  A song that features such sunny, upbeat lyrics like “hydrogen bombs / atomic bombs / neutron bombs / kiss your ass / goodbye goodbye.” Alright, so I guess it’s not the most joyous song to end on, but it was pretty cool to see Ira leading the crowd out of the arena with maracas in hand, while chanting “goodbye”.

MP3 Our Way To The Fall
MP3 Pass The Hatchet, I Think I’m Goodkind

See more pictures that I took of Ira, James, and Georgia by clicking below.

About that new TV On The Radio album…

I’ll start out by saying that as recently as last week, I didn’t “get” TV On The Radio.  Sure, I came to appreciate singles “I Was A Lover”, “Staring At The Sun”, and “Wolf Like Me” after some repeated listenings but on the whole I just couldn’t get into their sound.  I could admit they’re a talented group, but it always seemed like the melodies were too buried for me to grab onto.  Even after hearing the ridiculous praise (an understatement) for the Dear Science, I was still skeptical, but now listening, I can safely say that I’ve been completely entranced by this monster of an album.

From the opening “ba ba ba da da”s of “Halfway Home” I was sold.  The soulful electro beats of the next track, “Crying”, gave further proof of the albums greatness and pretty much the rest of the way through the album I was surprised again and again at how much I was sincerely enjoying this.  It’s an incredibly consistent work quality-wise, but the variety of styles represented on the album is what really is keeps you interested, and that incredible horn section.  What’s amazing to me is that for how much I like the dance floor ready singles “Dancing Choose” and “Golden Age”, the songs I keep coming back to are the ballads.  “Family Tree” is absolutely drop-dead gorgeous.  It actually isn’t too far removed from what I imagine Chris Martin is trying to do, just much better executed.  The instrumentation on this track is absolutely inspiring, sounds like something that could be played at a wedding (even has lyrics about being married).

This all leads to “Lover’s Day”, the epic closing track which totally transcends, and yet somehow defines the rest of the album.  I honestly haven’t been able to put together the right words to describe this song yet, but I know it gives me a that same kind of rush that I get from Sigur Ros or Arcade Fire or any number of bands that make you feel like going out there and conquering the world. And I’m as surprised as anyone that this is coming from a band which I previously thought was too obscure and dreary to actually make something that could be this powerfully moving.  Way to prove me completely wrong, TV on the Radio.

MP3 Golden Age
MP3 Lover’s Day

Buy the Dear Science here.  This album is much better when listened in full.

Pygmalion Fest: Monotix / Dark Meat / Dan Deacon

After the Krannert Art Center show, I jumped over to the Canopy Club where Monotix were whipping the crowd into a frenzy. Let me mention that Monotix were a band that I had never heard of until I asked the person standing next to me “who is this band?”, so saying I had zero expectations is an understatement. The band was made up of three half naked long haired guys from Israel and they were absolutely crazy. Their set consisted of lots of crowd participation, monster riffs, some crazy tribal drumming, dumping a full garbage can on their drummer, Mordecai, and leading the crowd pied piper style outside. Well played, dudes (follow the jump below to see a couple Monotix pictures).

MP3 Monotix – Ride

Dark Meat was on next and if I can say one thing about their set is that it was FREAKIN’ LOUD. I guess that is what comes with having 12 people in various states of drunkedness playing as hard as they possibly while the lead singer shrieks out non-intelligable shrieks and growls. Despite the music being a bit much to handle, it was fun just to see what wild stuff they were going to do next. Bring a leaf-blower into the crowd and set it loose on everyone. Check! Continuously throw confetti all over the place and have girls dancing with pom-poms. Check! Have a guy spin around in the middle of the crowd with a giant tuba. Check! The set ended with the lead singer crowd surfing to the back of club and singing the last song on the drink rack. Could I distinguish one note of music that was played from another? No. Did I have lots of fun though? Yes, I did.

MP3 Dark Meat – Well F*** You Then

Finally we came to the main event, Dan Deacon, who wasted no time telling us that he was having a rough day and just wanted to party. And party we did. This was honestly one of the most unruly, hyperactive groups of people I’ve ever seen, and although the show had a slew of problems (mostly sound related), I don’t think anyone left not having an extremely fun time. Dan set up right below the stage, and invited everyone up there to dance. I was first in line, and ended up in a prime picture-taking / dancing my hiney off spot for the first couple songs “Okie Dokie” and “The Crystal Cat”.

Then something happened that no one expected. The stage fell through. Apparently dozens of people jumping up and down is bad for an old wooden stage, and it broke in a couple spots. Luckily, no one got hurt but it was bizarre experience to hear wood breaking and then feel the stage completely let out on you. Afterwards, Deacon told us that he had broken three stages at his shows, all in Illinois, and that we Illinoisans were a bunch of crazy motherf****ers.  At this point also a cord must have been unplugged or smashed or something because the sound was completely messed up the rest of the night. No one seemed to mind at all though, they were having too much fun doing Dan’s sassy dance contest (people came prepared with moves) and doing giant human tunnel, which actually stretched all the way around the club.

By the time, “Wham City” came Dark Meat was on the (broken) stage with all their instruments and confetti machines which added to the madness and tons of crowd surfing ensued. It was all getting a bit too unruly so Deacon had to shut it down, which was probably the right thing to do at that point. As far as dance parties go, this was probably the rowdiest one I’ve been to and just watching people get that ridiculous was quite the rush. I do wish that the sound wouldn’t have been so screwed up but it definitely deter me or anyone else from having a great time.

MP3 Dan Deacon – The Crystal Cat

Click the link below to see more of my pictures from Dan and co.

Pygmalion Fest: Evangelicals / Murder By Death

Pygmalion Music Festival 2008 was definitely the most ambitious and plentiful congregation of artists that the Pygmalion crew has put together yet, and I had an amazing weekend.  I missed Times New Viking‘s opening night show, so the fest started for me at Thursday’s Krannert Art Center show with the killer line-up at Oceans, Catfish Haven, Oxford Collapse, Evangelicals, and Murder By Death.  The stage was placed in what seemed to be either a lobby or large hallway in the middle of the center and was surrounded completely by large windows.  An unexpected choice for a rock show, but it turned out to be a pretty cool venue. Unfortunately, there was a bit of a confusion on my part in finding the place (in short, I showed up at the Krannert Muesem instead of the Kranner Art Center) and in the hullaballoo, I missed all of Catfish Haven and all but the last song of Oxford Collapse (both of which I had seen before, so not too big of a loss).

MP3 Catfish Haven – Set In Stone
MP3 Oxford Collapse – Electric Arc

The first band that I did get to see in their entirety was Evangelicals, who had all the lights in the lobby turned off and used a smoke machine and an ominous black light to set the mood for the band’s trippy and nightmarish musical tendencies.  The set consisted of all my Evening Descends favorites including “Bloodstream”, “Party Crashin”, “Snowflakes”, “Midnight Vignette”, and the “Paperback Suicide” (which absolutely kills live). The band closed with “Skeleton Man” which is still one of my favorite songs of the year. 

I can’t say enough how good this band sounds live. The band uses a variety of keyboards, guitars, and pre-recorded samples to reproduce the multiple layers of their sonic palette and everything comes together disctinctively and seemlessly in the show.  The band also has a lot of showmanship and although there was no crazy stage-climbing antics this time around (in their last show Urbana show, the singer climbed a 10 foot high tower of speakers and jumped into the crowd) they again proved how much they can rock out.  Plus, you gotta love a band that attaches odd things to their guitars, like light switches and car keys. 

MP3 Evangelicals – Skeleton Man

I spent most of time during Murder By Death catching up with Miguel, the bass player for Catfish Haven who I met at Austin City Limits last year.  The songs I did catch though, most of which were from their latest album, Red of Tooth and Claw, were sounding good.  What was most notable about their newer material is that most of featured Sarah on the keyboards instead of in her normal position rocking the cello.  The band was definitely having a good time on stage and Adam, the lead singer, expressed how happy they were to be playing a free show with so many great bands at Pygmalion.

MP3 Murder By Death – Rum Brave

View more underexposed, grainy pictures from this show at Pictures For Kids Who Can’t Read Good (I promise the pics will get much better).

New Songs: Jenny Lewis, Los Campesinos!

While, I’m getting prepped up for Pygmalion Fest this weekend here’s a couple new tracks for you to chew on from two artists who couldn’t be more different.  First one is from everyone’s favorite indie rock hottie / Kanye West song-tester (not to mention extremely talented singer/songwriter/bandleader), Jenny Lewis and it’s the title track from her new album, Acid Tongue.

MP3 Jenny Lewis – Acid Tongue

Jenny Lewis experimented with gospel on Rabbit Fur Coat, but this is her first shot at full out Sunday morning choir music.  What’s noticeable from the very beginning is how stripped down and vintage the sound is.  The old-fashioned acoustics is what gives the song its life, making Jenny Lewis’ gorgeous voice and the multi-layered harmonies that surround it even sharper.  It makes for a completely enchanting 3 minutes and 50 seconds of music.  This song seems like the somber, beaten-down cousin to the Rilo Kiley track, “With Arms Outstretched”.  It’s as if Jenny arrived at the promised land, optimistic and wide-eyed, got in with the wrong friends, dropped acid a few too many times, and is leaving wiser for the wear.

MP3 Los Campesinos! – Ways To Make It Through The Wall

For as much as I love Welsh indie-pop collective Los Campesinos!, I felt something was missing from their debut album.  I songs I already knew, I liked better in their demo/EP form and the new songs weren’t as memorable as I hoped.  I’ve listened to the new album, We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed a few times through now and in my opinion the band has completely redeemed themself.

The melodies are as catchy and the instrumentation as dynamic as anything they’ve done, and they’ve perfected the art of accenuating their music with unrestrained sonic outbursts (take 1:38-2:00 as an example).  As always, LC! have peppered their lyrics with the same clever / inventive observations and references that you’d expect from them.  “Ways To Make It To The Wall” is the first track and presumable single of the album, and in my opinion, is probably the best chorus that the band has created.  It’s been stuck in my head since the moment I heard it.

Oxford Collapse

This last weekend really sucked.  A hurricane destroys my old home town, there’s a deadly train crash because the engineer was text messaging, and the stock market goes down the toilet.  The only bright spot (other than Tina Fey’s awesome Sarah Palin impression) is that I caught up on a lot of albums I’ve been meaning to listen to from this year.  Oxford Collapse‘s “Bits” was near the top of the list after catching them at Pitchfork Fest a couple years ago, liking it, and having “Please Visit Your National Parks” become one of my favorite singles of 2006.   The band continues to make concise, memorable, guitar-pop-with-muscle about massive parties and the mornings after.  While not the most original band in the indie rock bunch, you got to admit they are very good at what they do, and gosh darn it, if I don’t have a great time listening to their music.

The album begins with “Electric Arc” which is a whirlwind of noisey, punchy guitar and pounding drums with the singer yelling over and over “I can’t remember things, I just don’t know what to do” during the verse.  It’s a simplistic but incredibly endearing song that is loud and fun.  It works for the same reason that a song like “Debaser” works.  “For The Winter Coats” is a mid-album highlight that features the kind of rockin’ guitar interplay and sing-a-long choruses that the band excel at.  If you’re looking for party jams that are both accessible and intelligent, look no further.  Buy their new album at Sub Pop Records.

MP3 Electric Arc
MP3 For The Winter Coats

Oxford Collapse are playing Pygmalion Fest on Thursday.  Be there!

David Bowie Vinyl Contest – The Winner!

I’ve taken a couple days to deliberate, and I’ve chosen the contest winner for the David Bowie Santa Monica ’72 Vinyl Contest.  The winner is Anna. I absolutely love the eloquent and poetic description of both her love for the song “Ashes to Ashes” and the joy of owning vinyl.  The details in her description from “stained cover” to the “tingling notes” are beautifully illustrated.  Anna is extremely deserving of the double vinyl set.  Congratulations to you!  Here is her entry in full:

“I am the owner of a beloved little Ashes to Ashes vinyl that smells faintly of spilled coffee and strongly of old paper. The item was given to me by the owner of my local music store, the business itself as much a novelty as the record. Twenty-eight years older that the date on the label, the actual vinyl is in wonderful condition compared to its tired encasing. The edges are fringed, the cover is stained and paper has wrinkled with moisture and time.

Crackling through the speakers, my favorite David Bowie song rings as a striking contradiction to its weary sleeve. Ashes to Ashes glitters in the air, every note tingling and every beat falling into place as naturally as Bowie’s voice. Bowie contradicted himself a hundred times with a hundred different personas, but on this perfect piece of plastic all emotion and color and noise blend harmoniously.  I’ve spun the record a hundred times and with every play the song is newer, fresher, closer. It’s light but deep, exciting but somber. I love Ashes to Ashes because it’s a perfect expression of the artist’s indescribable ability to artfully examine human emotion while creating an exuberantly beautiful melody.”

That, and Moonage Daydream. Because squawking pink monkey birds are just so cool.”

MP3 David Bowie – Ashes to Ashes
MP3 David Bowie – Moonage Daydream

There were numerous other entries that I was very impressed with.  I especially liked the Jeff’s story about how he skipped school to see Bowie at Live Aid play “Heroes”, and his description of the techniques used to record the song. Very informative!  Jeremy’s answer for “Station to Station”, Andrea’s answer for “China Girl”, and Posse’s answer for “Starman” were also highlights.