If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you probably know that we are no fans of the type of festival that requires one to bring their own roof to sleep under at night. Not to mention the sleeping bag, air mattress and pump – though I can safely say, following a rather disastrous encounter at a recent Lowlands festival, that our hate versus pumps is wholly reciprocated. Luckily, there is another type of festival in existence that doesn’t require one to queue to shower (and if your no avid reader of this blog, you might be able to take a wild guess at which we prefer at this point).
As per usual, we of IKRS have been busying ourselves with coming up with what we think are the best tracks of 2011 so far. We might be a bit late this year with our half year lists, but hey, apparently we finally all got lives to attend to as well. My contribution can be found below the bump, that of the others is available via IKRS, and, if you're into that sort of thing, Spotify.
Having your new band labelled a ‘super group’ can be both a good and a bad thing: you’re bound to get a decent amount of listeners, but you could also fall into being a mere curiosity, where people only show up for a gig because they liked your earlier work and leave disheartened when they find that the combination of their favourite artists doesn’t have the expected spectacular result. Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake and Euros Childs (formerly of the more interestingly named Gorky's Zygotic Mynci) seem to have tried to tackle the latter problem by using the most inconspicuous band name of the decade yet: Jonny.
Oh, the absolute impossibility of ranking the overload of records I want to include in this top ten! I think I’ve included and excluded this particular album at least twice on a daily basis over the last week. Am I going to include it over records such as Glasser’s excellent debut Ring? Have I heard enough of the brilliant Autre Ne Veut even though I’ve only discovered their self-titled album two weeks ago? What am I missing on Twin Shadow’s album that everyone else seems to be in love with? And then there are bands of the likes of Beach House, Deerhunter, Bathcrones and Islet that I want to at the very least mention, and how can one manage such a thing when you’re only allowed ten entries in this conglomerate of best music in the first year after the noughties ended?
I’ve managed to see the National perform live no less than three times this year, and only one time did they manage to slightly disappoint me: there had been mentions of Sufjan Stevens appearing as a special guest, but we had to make ado with some guy from Arcade Fire (if you’re not Win Butler himself, you’re ‘some guy’), which given my idolisation of Mr Stevens was an utter disappointment – but more on that particular subject tomorrow. Other than that their shows consisted merely of moments of complete bliss – complimented by someone shouting “The English are waiting” during one of the lengthier moments of contemplation in between songs, though former albums formed the main contribution to this fact. I love High Violet, though someone still ought to clarify that name to me, but it just doesn’t reach the brilliance of Alligator or Boxer. It feels like more of the same – even though even that is very impressive when it originates from a band like this – and I’m craving something new. Track: The National - England
9. Sufjan Stevens - All Delighted People EP
Yes, I’ve included an EP. But as it is the first ever EP to be released on double vinyl (as in, the thing didn’t fit on the by convention defined one slack of vinyl which managed to hold all EPs up until the moment Sufjan Stevens decided All Delighted People didn’t qualify as an album) I reckon I’ll be granted permission to include it on this list (if not, bite me). And a great EP it is. Just look at the cover! It’s like a ‘Where’s Waldo’ book without Waldo (so far, I’ve located five Sufjans, Leonardo DiCaprio, Aaron or Bryce Dessner – they are far too similar for me to able to tell them apart – an inflatable Santa and the Dalai Lama).
Highlight of the album, sorry: EP, are the two versions of ‘All Delighted People’ which are very loosely based on Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘Sound of Silence – and apparently the Apocalypse and existential ennui, whom always make for an interesting combination if I may say so. And of course the fact that it just so happens to come rolling out of Sufjan Stevens’ head only months after admitting in an interview that the whole “I’ll write an album for each and every American State” project might have been a bit overambitious and that he feared he could never write music again. Only to release this beauty and an albumto critical acclaim this year. And though The Age of Adz might be wonderful, it doesn’t measure up to this EP. However, it’s still no Illinois, on which even the song titles were a delightful read.
8. Baths - Cerulean
Seeing Baths live was one of my favourite music-related moments in 2010. I wasn’t even sure whether I should go through the trouble of travelling through half of London (or what qualifies as half of London in my world) in order to be able to see Will Wiesenfeld – a resident of Los Angeles of course – perform his debut UK show in a basement in a venue that goes by the rather appropriate name of ‘Camp’. But hey, I had already bought a ticket and staying home would’ve just be wasteful, now wouldn’t it?
His music rests somewhere between chillwave and dubsteb, two genres which have been exploited by many over the last couple of years for some quick fame, but Baths manages to find some new ground. That, and he is more cute than any baby panda known to the internetz (I may have spent some of my otherwise precious time on lolcats this year, but I balance it out by fervently reading the Guardian’s Science section). I absolutely love it when an artist seems genuinely surprised people even showed up to their show, let alone dance to their music, instead of using the words “thank you” to signify they’ve reached the end of a song. So far, this list had been limited to Dan Boeckner, Alexei Perry and Gareth Campesinos!, but Will Wiesenfeld is a very welcome attribution. Also, the fuzzy animal impression which he uses to introduce ‘Animals’ is not to be missed.
When I first listened to this over half a year ago, I wasn’t convinced. The whole thing sounded rather bland and not one song managed to catch my attention and as a result, I didn’t even consider the album for my half year list. When the album did appear on Ilse’s list, I decided to give it another chance, and what do you know: I loved it. The haziness and how everything just blends together sounded perfectly wonderful all of a sudden.
In a live setting they were amazing as well, even though their London date was the last one of a lengthy tour taking them through Europe, making it painfully obvious at times that sleep is an absolute necessity and that Jack Tatum’s voice does not benefit from a lack thereof. He did manage to reach those high notes though, eventually. Other than that, the gig was rather amazing – maybe even more so since they were obviously not at their best. With tracks like ‘Confirmation’ and ‘Drifter’ they certainly did manage to convince me to add another album to my vinyl collection (though admittedly, given the state of my vinyl addiction that doesn’t take much these days).
As one of the albums I was looking forward to most this year, I’m really glad it turned out this well. There were the mishaps by Foals, Mystery Jets, Blonde Redhead (not that Penny Sparkle is an awful album as such, it’s just a bit of a letdown after 23), Yeasayer, MGMT, and I believe Klaxons dared to resurface – and isn’t it just amazing how many of these albums you can find on the NME end of year list? – just to remind us that good albums by fairly established bands shouldn’t be taken for granted. With gems as their self-titled debut and Sound of Silver, James Murphy and friends certainly had something to live up to.
Maybe it’s the hinting of a retreat from music, just as Sufjan Stevens did, that made this record even more unexpectedly brilliant even though it lacks in songs as brilliant as ‘Someone Great’ or ‘Tribulations’. But nevertheless, it is an awesome record, and live it’s even more amazing. I don’t think I stopped moving for more than a second during their two hour gig earlier this year. But hey, they’ve probably got the best line-up anyone could wish for with people like Nancy Wang and Pat Mahoney; even if James Murphy were to recite the phone book (if those things still exist) over a jam session of the band, the entire city of New York would come out to dance.
I might have been a bit overexcited about this album when I put it on number one half a year ago. I still think it’s absolutely great, it’s just there are about four albums that I think are better, two of which were also kind of around when I attempted to make this list last time round. I think this in itself proves the silliness of these lists: you need some perspective, some time to really appreciate some records and some more distance from others (which brings Editors’ second album – An End Has a Start – to mind, which I found mind-blowing at first and have never listened to since).
Nevertheless, Perfume Genius’ debut album is absolutely excellent. I love the combination of the at times almost hesitant, shy and calm poppy sound of the tracks with the dark, scary content that sounds like it ought to belong in a Xiu Xiu song. There are not an awful lot of people who manage to pull that of successfully. It seems very probable that if it hadn’t been for blogs and the internet, someone operating in such a small and specific niche as Mike Hadreas would not even be able to actually be an artist. Something which showed during his first show in London this year. He’d had next to none experience in performing his tracks live and seemed very insecure at times, and still managed to sell out this venue, solely on the reputation he had build online by recording songs in his bedroom. Pretty extraordinary.
Someone wrote about this album that it’s this day’s classical music, and I couldn’t agree more (and I really should start writing down quotes when I read something I want to use as I couldn’t for the life of me tell you who actually said that). Infinite Body’s music is a sort of ambient Fuck Buttons but with that LA sound that really seemed to catch on this year, resulting in 40% of my end of year list originating from this one city. And when you think about that a bit more, it feels rather weird. How does one city, on the other side of the planet, manage to dominate this year’s album list? According to my flatmate it’s impossible to form a band in London because the city’s too crowded: there are no affordable spaces where you can really practice – meaning without the neighbours calling the police because you’re making noise - resulting in ‘bands’ having to get full time jobs in order to pay for practice space and then not having the time to practice in the now affordable space. The vast open space of the USA seems to be winning on this.
I have used ‘A Fool Persists’ as my ringtone for the better part of the year, which wasn’t a big success as I didn’t really want to pick up my phone on the rare occasion that it actually went off. On the album it works perfectly though. All the songs flow into each other, something which I love as it means you shouldn’t play this album on shuffle. Shorter interludes are alternated between the longer tracks, and while the all tracks feature a drone of noise which strangle reminds me of No Age – or not so strangely as the album has been released on their record label - there is some real beauty in there too.
I didn’t really know which release to choose as Zola Jesus has released rather a lot this year. She’s made it even more difficult by releasing her stuff first in the USA, then adding some songs before she released the same stuff in Europe, then figuring that she should also release the new European stuff in the USA but adding some more new stuff and finally releasing the last new USA stuff in Europe as a single. I could just choose Stridulum II as that features most of her stuff and was actually intended to be an album – according to the press release that landed in my inbox at least, Nika Roza Danilova herself seemed to disagree – but then I’d miss out on ‘Poor Animal’. Moreover, I don’t own that record myself, whilst I do own Stridulum and the Valusia EP (and that last one comes in some beautiful packaging).
But hey, let’s talk about the music. I think these releases are bloody brilliant. The songs on Stridulum sound more like her earlier work, but cleaned up, the layers of noise have lifted a bit. ‘Night’ and ‘Manifest Destiny’ are filled with despair, but at the same time there is that glimmer of hope which sounds so amazing when the opera-trained Nika sings it. The tracks on the Valusia EP are more poppy, as if she discovered catchy melodies and figured she could get away with that as well, and oh my God, she can. One of my favourite tracks is ‘Sea Talk’, which also featured in a now almost indistinguishable version on her Tsar Bomba EP. It’s been brushed up from the – sorry for the cliché, but it just really fits here – rough diamond it was to a real gem.
Live she possibly even more impressive. I’ve seen her with a full band crammed on a small stage in New York and on alone on a vast stage in London with nothing more than a laptop. She has enough attitude to make both work, even though she’s obviously absolutely uncomfortable with a whole crowd of people staring at her. With the progress she has made in this year alone I absolutely can’t wait for her new album next year.
I guess this is my odd one out this year. The music on this album was originally commissioned by the Royal Ballet as a collaboration between composer Max Richter, choreographer Wayne McGregor and artist Julian Opie (whom you might know from the Blur cover he did a lifetime ago). So surprisingly, I’ve got a ballet as my number two, even though I have never seen a ballet. It is also inspired by T.S. Elliot’s ‘The Wasteland’ and Schubert’s ‘Winterreise’, both of which I have never read or heard. Goodie.
The album isn’t actually the original piece. The original was 25 minutes long and recorded as a BBC documentary in 2008. Since then a lot has been added to the piece to make it suitable for recording as an album. Not that is a studio album in the strictest sense of the word. There are individual tracks, but you can’t really listen to on track on its own. The tracks come together to form one piece of music, and the separate tracks might be viewed as chapters. You could try and read a random chapter, but that would only end up like watching a single episode of Lost: complete gibberish (not that I’m insinuating that particular show would start making sense if you were to put yourself through watching more than one episode, or the entire series for that matter).
On this album, Max Richter combines classical music – when he performed the album this year, he was accompanied by a string quintet – with electronic noises, which I believe is the perfect way to get me listening to classical music. Apart from the fact that it’s absolutely beautiful. For the first half of this year I only listened to classical music when my flatmates were practising their violins and that came with a lot of Hungarian swearing (in which I am now quite proficient), so discovering to this was quite the epiphany. Maybe ballet ought to be up for 2011.
If my putting this album on number one comes as a surprise, then you obviously haven’t run into me this year. I have been absolutely infatuated with Former Ghosts this year. Last year’s Fleurs ended up pretty high on last year’s list (third place, I keep an excel file) and with the prospect of live performances this year, I was excited. And wow, I wasn’t disappointed at all when I saw Freddy Ruppert perform live for the first time in May this year. He was preceded by Parenthetical Girls who were all kinds of amazing themselves, and I and the rest of the audience just stuck around for Freddy thinking he could never amount to very much after just having seen the best gig of the year. How wrong were we. During his set the sheer display of emotion on Freddy’s side made me feel so uncomfortable that I wasn’t even sure whether to applaud or slap the girls who were drunkenly screaming at him (I now know I should’ve gone for the second option). It was also the first time I heard ‘New Orleans’ and saw a grown man cry on stage. Wow.
It got even better, if ‘better’ is the right word in this case, when I saw him in his home town of Los Angeles. He performed the track ‘Mother’ that night, the night of his dead mom’s birthday, while his father and brother whom both had never seen him perform under the denominator of Former Ghosts were standing right behind me creating the illusion that Freddy Ruppert was looking right at me each time he almost succumbed to tears. It was heartbreaking. Then he finally released New Love and I just so happened to be the first person in the world to find the vinyl waiting for me on my doormat. So through the magic world of Twitter, the first glance Freddy Ruppert got of his own finished album was of a picture I send him of my album (followed by weeks of harassment by people wanting me to upload to thing, so for future reference: no I will not).
The album itself is brilliant. I love each and every track on it, though ‘New Orleans’ and ‘Bare Bones’ are my absolute favourites. The lyrics seem so simple and the emotions so raw, I’d almost wish I’d have a break-up to get through so I’d have a proper reason to put this album on repeat. To be quite honest, this album has made me a little bit afraid to fall in love. The emotions behind lines as “I waited my whole life to find you / But I’m not the one you waited your whole life to find” and “Oh stop my heart from beating / Oh I’m so tired of not sleeping / Oh love, keep it away from me” make me doubt the lines it’s better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.
Oh, the suspense of going to a Suede gig! And the horror when you finally take a look at your ticket that’s been lying around gathering dust for months and realise that you’ve actually booked a seat instead of a ticket in the standing area. Sitting down at the Suede gig you’ve been quite literally waiting for years for, ever since they broke up ages ago (7 years, 1 month and 3 days to be precise, but who’s counting anyway?). Could it get any worse? Well, there is the venue it’s being held at: the O2 area (or millennium dome for anyone who believes that a venue named after a phone company should at the very least provide you with a proper signal). Maybe it’s me, but I feel there is something inherently wrong when a band that appealed to, and sang about weirdoes, creeps and other generally awkward people sells out London’s biggest music venue. But perhaps it’s just in my mind that the whole raison d’être of a band like Suede is affected when people’s main reason to buy a ticket is “a nice evening out”.
Not that above rant disqualifies Suede as a band in any way. After Brett Anderson’s solo career (or a lack thereof), it seems very reasonable that they cash in now. How many bands have preceded them by now? It’s only a few months ago that Pavement took control of Brixton Academy for almost a week and managed to sell out every single night, so why can’t Suede come along for the ride?
But enough on the why’s and how’s, it’s the music that matters, and one of the (very, very few) benefits of having a seat is that it is pre-assigned, allowing one to miss support acts such as Dial M for Murder, whose name is as off putting as David Cameron’s sudden love for the Smiths – and have you read Morrissey’s subsequent rant? “David Peckham”, excuse me while I giggle as a 5-year old. New Young Pony Club’s faith is rather similar, although ‘The Get Go’ remains one of their more brilliant efforts.
Whilst waiting for the main act, the arena fills, ads for Peter Andre and Barry Manilow gigs flash over the screens and the man next to me enthusiastically recounts his last gig experience: a 1999 concert by Suede. He still owns the shirt he bought at that particular gig, but his lifestyle since has condemned it to be used merely as a flag. When the light finally go down, and a dark opening tune starts to play while people around me scurry to their seats (this takes longer than you’d normally expect, considering the age range of the audience) time seems to turn back and the last ten years seem not to have happened at all. Even from the distance I’m at, Brett Anderson can be made out unmistakingly, and another benefit from sitting halfway up the stairs becomes obvious: from this distance it is impossible to make out whether the band have aged as much as their audience.
Music wise, they certainly haven’t. From opener “This Hollywood Life” to the very end everything is performed absolutely flawless (kudos to the tech guy who had to readjust Brett Anderson’s microphone thingy about every five minutes or so). And because it’s Suede, every other song or so makes your hart jumps as they’re playing one of your favourites: ‘Trash’, ‘Filmstar’, ‘Animal Nitrate’ or ‘Everything Will Flow’. Brett Anderson still has the moves and the voice and every high note is reached, while the giant screens mainly show the drummer as he is the most immobile person in the set. When the cameraman finally zooms in on Brett Anderson (and who else would you want to look at?), a choice has to be made: watch the gig on the screen or live as the set up of the venue doesn’t really allow you to do both. While it is great to be able to actually see Brett’s face, it does feel a bit like you’re just watching it happen instead of actually being part of it. But hey, there is a probably a reason why they were already advertising the recordings of this gig before it actually happened.
As you might expect, everyone is on their feet within minutes and dancing like a bunch of overexcited teenagers whose parents have allowed them to go to a gig unchaperoned for the first time ever. ‘Pantomime Horse’ offers a short moment of deliberation and time to reconsider of the more edgy dance moves before the set is off again and the singing along wins it from the dancing - the question remains whether that was an actual improvement. Naturally, there is an encore, which Brett starts with an acoustic rendition of ‘The Living Dead’ – rather appropriate for the occasion in an ever so slightly sarcastic way if I may say so. The Wednesday night ends on ‘Saturday Night’ and the reassurance that this wasn’t their last gig. Which is all I really needed to hear. Next time I’ll be more careful whilst ordering tickets.
Amir Shoucri, director of the video: The original concept was to recreate a complete Vegas-era Elvis spectacle. I planned and arranged the production for months -- lights, stagehands, the works -- at great personal cost, both financial and mental. We hired four hundred extras: a 23-piece backing band with vintage instruments, a stadium-sized audience all done up in period haircuts and wardrobe, and a second film crew "shooting" a video within the video -- just for effect. We even rented an outdoor marquee for the establishing shot. The day before the shoot, Freddy changed his mind. He said: "I'm just not feeling it dude." So we fired the entire crew, most of whom have families to support, and made this instead.
That is what they say, right? It might not be two opposites actually coming together in the case I'm referring to, but they came damn close. I'm talking here about the extravagantly extravert 19-year-old Anja Plaschg, better known as Soap&Skin, and the introvert Mike Hadreas who makes up Perfume Genius. Two performances that couldn't be more enchanting, though different in so many ways.
First up is youngster Anja. She was supposed to have performed in London earlier this year, but her efforts were thwarted by a particular Icelandic volcano. Just the setting, in the wonderful Union Chapel (and an actual chapel for that, with Sunday services and all) is worth the wait. Add to that the chamber music ensemble that lines the part of the stage that isn't taken up by Soap&Skin's grand piano and you've got a rather promising formula for a good night of music. But that is not all, there is also Soap&Skin's personality that makes up a large part of the show. Her voice is something to be jealous at, and she isn't afraid of showing it off. The theatrical tracks from her album Lovetune For Vacuum are blasted into the chapel, both vocally and by her admirable piano skills. At times the chamber music ensemble seem to have the utmost trouble matching her volume. Not that it really matters, they get to chance to shine in some of the more calm songs.
Halfway through there is a moment though, during 'Spiracle'. Soap&Skin sits behind her piano belting out the lyrics when she suddenly appears to have a complete black out. Seconds of silence, retracing her steps on the piano but the words don't seem to come back to her. A minute passes, still there's silence. A bit hesitant she gets up, and walks over to her background singer - a few people applaud encouragingly, but she, almost panicky, signals them to stop. The other singer whispers the words into her ear and shyly Soap&Skin makes her way back to the grand piano, takes a deep breath and sings the rest of the song with such vigour as to make up for a lifetime of mistakes.
Surprisingly, fear and making mistakes seem to be exactly what the song is about, and the breakdown fits rather nicely in the set. At this point you still want to believe in her sincerity, but as the set progresses it gets more and more obvious she is playing a part. Which is absolutely not a bad thing, it even goes rather well with the music. And the fact that I initially was rather hesitant in believing the black out was a set up is a good indication of her acting skills. For someone of her age, it can only be very promising.
The next performance, only 24 hours later, could not be more different. Perfume Genius has been in London earlier this year, for one of his first performances in front of an actual audience. It was sold out weeks in advance, and talked about for even longer. I believe I wrote at that time that it felt a bit like a piano recital, and oh boy, Mike Hadreas has been listening. Whereas his first performance was in an actual music venue, this time he has taken a step back and is performing in a hall that belongs to the English Folk Dance and Song Society which is also infrequently used, you've guessed it, for the recitals of the local music school. And with the plastic seats lined up especially for this occasion and the lack of proper stage lighting it does set the scene for a proper recital this time.
However, there are some signs of improvement since last time. For one thing, Mike Hadreas appears more confident. Not that he is not his shy self, but the presence of an audience seems less like a surprise to him and he dares to interact with them this time, even make jokes. Also, the pan flute on Alan Wyffels's keyboard is tuned down a bit - a big improvement in my humble opinion. Music-wise, the performance has also improved: there are less mistakes, though it's certainly not flawless. But flawlessness wouldn't suit Perfume Genius as the occasional cock up is actually quite charming. The most impressive bit of the evening is when Mike takes place behind the grand piano that is set up just next to the stage. Maybe it's the contrast with the for the occasion installed sound system that results in rather flat keyboard sounds or grand pianos in general, but it sounds absolutely mind blowing. Where Soap&Skin excelled in big and theatrical sounds a day earlier, Perfume Genius manages to impress with simplistic songs that win on content.
A minor flaw is the lack of a back catalogue, which results in Perfume Genius literally performing all his songs and, in the end, a rather similar setlist to that of his show earlier this year. There is still enough there to keep one interested though: the interaction between Alan and Mike, Mike's smile when he gets a song right, and of course the rather brilliant songs itself. There's nothing like a bit of dark storytelling disguised as a pop song.
'New Orleans' van Former Ghosts! And I couldn't be more excited. Sinds vlak na het uitkomen van het debuutalbum van Former Ghosts dit nummer opeens standaard werd opgenomen in de live set van de band is dit één van mijn favoriete nummers. En dat nu dus al zo'n 10 maanden terwijl het officieel nog steeds niet uit is: op 9 november verschijnt het op het nieuwe album 'New Love'. Live is het nog beter. In deze versie hoor je het al een beetje, in het refrein, aan het eind van het nummer: "I fell in love in the first place." Die snik. De beide keren dat ik mocht toekijken hoe hij zich door dit nummer worstelde had hij halverwege al moeite de tekst nog uit te spreken zonder schijnbaar zichzelf te verliezen. Na die laatste zin had hij even een moment voor zichzelf nodig voordat hij weer de zaal in durfde te kijken. Nou ja, "zaal in kijken", richting het publiek staan en naar z'n laptop staren (en tapdansen, maar dat moet je zelf maar ontdekken wanneer hij in november in Paradiso staat *hint*). De clip gaat een hele andere richting op dan het nummer, maar de fles Jack Daniels verraadt dat het weldegelijk om een Former Ghosts clip gaat (whiskey is essentieel). Op 1 oktober komt Freddy Ruppert nog met 'Old Love' een gratis mixtape die je van zijn blog kunt downloaden als soort van teaser voor het album. Dat en een clip met hem in een Elvis pak. Dat krijg je van al die whiskey.
‘Laredo’ van Led er est! En een instructie how not to make a video. Gelukkig is de muziek beter. Het nummer featured op het debuutalbum Dust on Commonvan de New Yorkers. Het is warmere versie van cold wave – let’s introduce the term tepid wave – met veel synths en bas. Ik kwam de band naam tegen toen iemand met een shirt van de band voor me stond bij een Gold Panda gig en het de volgende dag opeens bij de nieuwe releases stond op Spotify. A lucky find indeed. Als dit nummer je al aanstaat, moet je zeker de rest van het album eens luisteren, dat is zelfs nog beter (ze schijnen band-shirt waardig te zijn) en klinkt iets minder alsof het op de verkeerde snelheid wordt afgespeeld. ‘Port Isabel’ bijvoorbeeld kan concurreren met de beste tracks van een band als Cold Cave. Nu nog een decent video.
‘Brother’ van The Organ! Een band uit Canada, you just can’t go wrong with that. Okay, Nelly Furtado’s werk is van discutabele aard, maar over het algemeen gaat die regel toch aardig op. Zo ook voor deze all girl band die ook wel the lesbian Smiths genoemd werd – en waarschijnlijk om die reden ook gefeatured werd bij The L Word. Het is een van de bands waarvan ik het echt jammer vind dat ik ze pas heb ‘ontdekt’ nadat ze er alweer mee opgehouden zijn. Ze hebben slechts één album nagelaten, Grab That Gun, maar dat is wat mij betreft dan ook meteen een van de betere albums van the noughties. Met name dankzij die fantastische stem van Katie Sketch, die zich sinds de break up in 2006 richt op haar carrière als model. Daarnaast heeft ze ook nog een restaurant geopenend in Toronto en heeft ze zich inmiddels op een nieuwe band Mermaids genaamd gestort. Misschien is Spencer Krug toch niet zo alleen in het niet kunnen stilzitten.
‘Morning After Pill’ van Meanwhile, Back In Communist Russia...! Het is geen proper clip – het is eigenlijk gewoon een foto – maar gezien er schijnbaar geen enkele clip van de band te vinden is on the entire internet en ik de band toch een keer wilde noemen moet het maar voldoen. Mocht de bandnaam je bekend voorkomen, dan zou dat (behalve als je de band al kent natuurlijk) kunnen komen doordat Los Campesinos! ze noemen in het nummer ‘Don’t Tell Me to Do the Math’. En gezien Gareth Campesinos! me al op het spoor van Zola Jesus, Former Ghosts en Perfume Genius heeft gebracht, dacht ik dat deze referentie ook nader onderzoek waardig was, met als gevolg dat de 10” van Indian Ink vandaag op mijn deurmat belandde (en dat ik nu zijn Last.FM stalk, maar dat feit zullen we maar buiten beschouwing houden gezien hij te veel The-Dream luistert). Helaas bestaat ook deze band - uit Oxford, mocht je afvragen waar het accent vandaan komt - niet meer van de solo-projecten na de break up heeft ook niemand meer iets vernomen.
‘See Spaces’ van TEEEEETH!!!! Ik geloof dat TEETH!!! de geprefereerde spellingswijze is, al is het aantal ‘e’s en het gebruik van Caps lock erg variabel. ‘See Spaces is hun eerste single en een album schijnt al onderweg te zijn. Afgelopen weekend stonden ze op het beste festival dat Engeland kent: Offset. Dat was gedeeltelijk vanwege het bouncy castle (the mummy of all bouncy castles) en vanwege de kleinschaligheid en vijf podia waardoor er geen moment was dat je niet ergens een geweldige band kon zien. T3ETH was daar dus één van, met als hoogtepunt dit nummer dat qua sfeer nogal aan ‘Die Slow’ van HEALTH doet denken (of misschien is het de caps lock). Hoogtepunt van de set dan, het hoogtepunt van T∑∑TH zelf was het slotnummer van de set van Telepathe waarbij de man-van-de-Mac (Macist?) in zijn American Apparel onderbroek op het podium stond te dansen.
If this still qualifies as a music video that is. It isn't really a video and, for me at least, it isn't really about the music. Also, it only works properly in Google Chrome, which has never worked properly for me in the first place, so yeah, awesome job on that.
Nevertheless, even as the stop and go movie I had to watch this as, it is still one of the best things I have seen of late. And that includes Inception, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and penguins (and you know how hard it is to beat penguins).
So yes, as awful as Google Chrome tends to be, I guess you'll have to try it out to try this out (I nearly cried and not because of my browser): http://www.thewildernessdowntown.com/
EDIT - The whole Chrome thing is rubbish, just tried it in Firefox and it works absolutely perfect. And just to give you an idea: this is a still of the video that it came up with for me. That's actually the house I grew up in. Amazing stuff.
Another 'secret' gig! Oh, I just love these. At first you're like, "why is everyone getting so excited about this 'Special ageless Guest' at this Upset The Rhythm gig?" Only to start grinning slightly when you finally (it took me at least a day) crack this immensely Beautiful Mind-level-code-breaking-knowledge-requiring-code and know that is actually LA homies No Age - No Age, ageless, get it? - who are playing. And because it is supposed to be secret, and they don't want everyone to catch on, the show's really cheap as well! What more could you want? Okay, a pony or world peace maybe, but let's be realistic, shall we?
Support is provided by Tqqundo frrrr, or whatever you get when you randomly slam your hands on the keyboard. The project is a solo venture by 18 year old Felix Lee, and is... interesting... So it's not my thing: he's just a bit too pretentious for my taste, with the pictures of African statues, the black cape and church bell he uses to create loops. No, definitely not my thing. SAUNA YOUTH I like though. They're a punk band, as simple as that. If they did the old 1-2-3 before each song they'd be the Ramones all over again. As soon as they start to play the singer disappears into the audience, only to emerge between songs to show that there is an actual person doing the singing and that it's not just a tape. They rather literally bring the house down with their final tracks when the crowd surfing singer's foot gets caught on some wires running along the ceiling. Difference with the 'real' punk era is that in this case the loose wires are neatly tied to the ones remaining on the ceiling by someone in the crowd. How very courteous.
I have seen No Age 1,5 before - the half time being at the Lowlands festival, when Franz Ferdinand ran past while I was getting drinks and no one warned about this fact until they had found their way to the front of the crowd (ah, the fond memories!) - and when I was in LA, I took the obligatory picture of the back of the Smell which features on the cover art of their collection of EPs known as Weirdo Rippers. I guess that place is starting to become the Abbey Road for hipsters (not just because of No Age, but of all the amazing bands that emerge from The Smell). So in all you could say I'm a bit of a fan.
As their second album is coming up, No Age bring a mix of old and new, and geez, I'm really looking forward to that new album now. The new tracks neatly fit in with the stuff from Nouns, but may be just a bit more melodic, if you can discern any melodies underneath the layers of noise that is. All the songs you'd want to be there, are on the set list: 'Teen Creeps', 'Eraser' and 'Everybody's down'. The LA duo keep insisting on us being an amazing audience, which I guess has something to do with their performance at the Underage Festival (you have to be < 18 to get in there) just a day earlier. It's always nice to see people whose taste in music you can actually trust appreciate your music, and I can personally vouch for 14-year olds years having untrustworthy tastes in music.
While SAUNA YOUTH got the audience involved by involving themselves in the audience, No Age choose the opposite strategy and get nearly half of the gathered crowd on to the tiny elevated space in the front of the room. It does signify the great atmosphere of the night, as well the culprit of having a singing drummer: once people appear on the stage, Dean Spunt disappears. At the same time, the only sign of Randy Randall's continuing stage presence is his hijacked guitar. Ah well, duo's brilliant looks weren't the reason people were there anyway. So how long do I have to wait now till I can hear this brilliant new album of them?
What a treat: in the same week as naming Perfume Genius' debut album my mid-season favourite, I get to see Mike Hadreas live. And I say Mike Hadreas, as it doesn't really feel like it's Perfume Genius up there, he's more of a real person, less of a distant artist - even though his set is set up at the back of the stage of Hoxton Hall, a place rather reminiscent of Paradiso in Amsterdam.
He is preceded by Porcelain Raft who is off to a bit of a rocky start with his first song, but all else is surprisingly good. It's not the obvious choice to put this artist on as a support act for Perfume Genius (except for the whole hey! He's a male singer-songwriter too, you know?-concept), but who actually likes obvious choices anyway? He's a at a crossroads between Caribou and Alaska in Winter but then poured into a one-man show with a guitar, keyboard and sampler and all of that looped into a lovely electronic slightly danceable mix. Well, I say danceable, but it's rather more of an introverted tap your foot to the rhythm and move your head from side to side kinda music. Rather lovely if I may say so (and as I'm reviewing this shindig, I think I may).
As you might have read on this blog, I'm rather in love with Perfume Genius' 'Learning' - read: obsessed - so you could say I had some very high expectations of this gig. When listening to the album, you might expect to find a singer-songwriter who is rather disconnected from the world and writes his songs in a dark room contemplating the beauty of suicide. Just the mere entrance of Mike Hadreas onto the stage obliviates this image. As if it were a piano recital, and Mike Hadreas the lucky seven year old who gets to show off what he's learned in the past two months, he takes up his place behind the piano and waves at the audience. It gets even more recital-like when he looks up for approval to his patron saint Gareth Campesinos! who's also attending Perfume Genius's London début.
For this live setting, Mike is accompanied by Alan Wyffels (nothing could describe him better than his name - if it is actually his name as I'm only sure it's Alan and there's an Alan Wyffels on the sleeve of the record), who acts as the teacher conducting the recital - as yes, we are still attending a recital. The best moments are when Mike makes mistakes - forgetting to change to a different chord or just getting lost in the music - and the audience, as if we were the proud parents attending our son's performance, applaud even louder. There are actually quite a few of these moments, though they only add to the intimate atmosphere.
Is this then the perfect gig to accompany the perfect debut album? No, it most certainly is not. There is that awful moment, at the very beginning of the gig, when Alan uses the 'pan flute' mode on his keyboard to accompany 'Look Out, Look Out', which absolutely ruins the song for me. Maybe it's my aversion to the pan flute (pan flutes and banjos are works of the devil), or the fact that I happen to be standing on the left side of the stage right in front of the boxes from which the pan flute emanates, but it's more a of a distraction than an addition to the sound in any way possible. Nevertheless, the rest of the set is simply enchanting. 'Learning' - a quatre mains piece in live setting - and 'Mr Peterson' more than make up for the use of the pan flute mode. As a true seven year old, Mike Hadreas seems genuinly surprised and thankful at the love his music is receiving, and as he doesn't really seem to know what else to do, scurries of the stage after another quick 'thank you' at the end of his set. This just might have been the most genuine gig I've seen in quite some time.
In a week time, over 40,000 people will be crazy enough to start the hellish mission of basically walking a marathon a day for four days in a row - and FYI, I am allowed to call it a hellish mission as I once attempted this quite successfully myself. I still believe there was only one reason I managed to pull through these Four Day Marches, and that would be this little festival called De Affaire that takes place in a wonderfully peacefully park right in the hart of Nijmegen, situated at just the right distance from the madness that is the city centre during these shenanigans. On the third day - the day you actually have to face some 'hills' - Late of the Pier were to play de Affaire at a quarter to midnight, and I wasn't to miss that performance, nor the exciting Tour de France stage that was also taking place that day. The only solution was to walk twice as fast as I usually did and skip all breaks (if you are interested, the finish line had just opened up on my arrival and I managed to watch both, and even go out dancing afterwards, only to retire when I thought it was better get at least some sleep ere I start walking again). I thus blame De Affaire's always excellent line-up for my succeeding in obtaining my one and only Royal medal.
But as far as stories go, a lot of people at this festival will have ones better than mine, some might even be music related as the line-up always seems to be amazing. A perfect balance of acts with an excellent live reputation and always some pleasant surprises, and virtually every musical niche seems to be represented. So what to look out for this year at the 24th edition of my now favourite festival?
Los Campesinos! Saturday 21.15- Saddlespan
I love that they're playing this festival, partly because I might have convinced them to do so. I think all I need to say here is that I've already seen them 7 times and am still looking forward to this performance. And it might be a very special one as they're performing at their label Wichita's birthday party just two days earlier and will be performing a lot of old stuff that they rarely play anymore. They might as well do 'The International Tweexcore Underground' in Nijmegen then - any special requests by Tuesday or Thursday evening please, then I'll work my magic on Gareth again. Los Campesinos - This is how you spell "Hahaha, we destroyed the hopes and dreams of a generation of faux-romantics"
Oh No Ono Saturday 19.30 - Saddlespan
Another case of I've-seen-them-live-and-I-want-more. They supported Wolf Parade on their London date, and boy were they better than the actual support act. Their album ended up in my mid-season favourite list, and that was mostly due to their live performances which are just exuberant. Finally a band that seem to enjoy themselves more than their audience does. Oh No Ono - The Wave Ballet
HEALTH Sunday 21.15 - Club Voerweg
Bring earplugs for this one. It's outside, yes, but still bring them. They were amazing on a small stage like Merleyn just last year, and they must have liked the place as they're back for more now. 'Die Slow' is still a personal favourite, though their entire second album is one of last year's better albums. If you don't like noise, you'd better skip this one.If you do, I'll see you there! HEALTH - Die Slow
Toro Y Moi Tuesday 21.00 - Ruïne
Noise haters might go to Toro Y Moi in stead. My first tipped band I haven't actually seen live yet! It's an Affaire exclusive as he hasn't even performed in London yet! Well, he's actually doing his first London date the day before arriving at De Affaire, but still, that's pretty good programming. His album 'Causers of This' was one of favourites of this year, a perfect soundtrack for summer and another one riding the chillwave hype. Looking forward to this! Toro Y Moi - Blessa
Errors Tuesday 20.30 - Club Voerweg
The programming is almost perfect, this being it's only flaw as half of Error's performance clashes with that of Toro Y Moi. I still have to make out which one of them will get my eventual vote.With Errors you'll at least be sure of some deadly catchy and danceable tunes. I want to see people dancing here! Errors - Antipode
Dum Dum Girls Thursday 22.45 - Ruïne
Er, yeah, Dum Dum Girls, so far, I seem to have missed four of their London dates so I really want to see them at De Affaire. I'm even willing to sacrifice the opportunity of seeing both Cut Copy and The Golden Filter in Paradiso. They make catchy lo-fi pop songs, some even in German, that will be stuck in your head for days. Dum Dum Girls - Jail La La
A Very Special Guest Thursday 23.30 - Saddlespan
This year, they've added a bit of mystery to De Affaire, and I love it. Opposed to Glastonbury or Lowlands last year, they've actually managed to keep this secret act secret. Though it must be said that we didn't know about Them Crooked Vultures until a few days before the festival and I might have just missedout if this is just another public secret as I live in London now. The nominator appears to be singular, so I'm guessing a solo performer. As Doornroosje already managed to put Pavement on this year, I can't help but feeling very excited about this - and in need for clues that don't really tell you anything but do manage to make you even more excited.
Other honourable mentions:
The Antlers, The Morning Benders, Tokyo Police Club, The Hundred in the Hands, Post War Years, Memoryhouse, Pantha du Prince, Gold Panda, and a special recommendation by my Icelandic flatmate: FM Belfast from Reykjavik.
(Almost) all recommended albums - by myself and two other IKRS contributors (Stef & Ilse) - can be found in this Spotify playlist.
10. Oh No Ono – Eggs (Leaf Label/Friendly Fire Recordings)
So I may be cheating a bit with this first one as it was released last year on the continent. But as it took a few months more to cross the Channel, and since I may have slightly forgotten about it while compiling last year’s list, I’m giving it a second chance. One of the reasons I might have overlooked it last time round probably was the presence of this other Danish band (remember Mew?), and what is the possibility of two Danish bands coming up with brilliant albums in the same year? Well, the two of them certainly provide evidence for a Danish sound – and that does encompass more than just the high singing – as Oh No Ono do sound rather similar to the aforementioned, but they do provide their entirely own sound, whether this would be psychedelic rock (Internet Warrior) or pure disco (Helplessly Young). Live they’re equally enticing, partly because they appear to enjoy being on stage even more than any person in the audience could enjoy themselves while dancing to their music. And they’re also one of the opening acts on the forthcoming Affaire Festival in Nijmegen! So please do come early if you want to see Los Campesinos!, because Oh No Ono is definitely a band you don’t want to miss (if not for the music, then for their amazingly handsome guitarists, yup).
09. Sleigh Bells - Treats (Mom + Pop/N.E.E.T.) This is one of those rare occasions on which, after I’ve seen a band live, I didn’t particularly look forward to the album. However, as the XX did last year, they really managed to surprise me. Sleigh Bells have a story to them. A story of the kind you’d expect to see in a movie featuring Sandra Bullock rather than in actual reality. Derek Miller, who’d played in hardcore band ‘Poison the Well’, was waiting tables in New York when he met Alexis Krauss, a former teen pop star and at the time fourth grade teacher. He asked her whether she’d like to sing in his band, and electro hip hop duo Sleigh Bells was born. Their songs sound quite aggressive and up front, but do keep a sense of pop which allows them to be stuck in your head for days to come. The album might be just a tad bit too monotonous to ensure them a place in my end-of-the-year list, but for now they’re quite enjoyable.
08. Broken Bells – Broken Bells (Columbia)
It took me quite a while to start appreciating this album, but once ‘The High Road’ really hits you it’s very hard to put this album down. And I’m not the only one to appreciate this fine track by James Mercer of the Shins and Danger Mouse, as it has also been featured on the Match of the Day album for the World Cup. But maybe that ought to cause me to reconsider Broken Bells as they are featured on there among the likes of Glasvegas, Iglu & Hartly and Scouting for Girls – and that’s when I’m not even looking for the bad eggs in there. Ah well, football fans are not a bunch that is well known for their exquisite taste in music and kudos to the person who managed to get at least one decent song on there. I’d have seem them live by now, if it weren’t for the ridiculous requirements to get into the outdoors audience of the Jimmy Kimmel show. Is this the point where someone intervenes with the words ‘That’s Hollywood’?
07. Beach House – Teen Dream (Sub Pop)
‘Norway’ is a good contender for track of the year. It’s structure is so simple that it’s simply amazing they can get away with it. But I guess that’s part of the strength of the album: tracks that are so simple that you just can’t help yourself singing along to them after hearing just the first few lines. That and Victoria Legrand’s voice (I believe a breeding programme should be created in order to preserve her talent and create a whole generation of Legrand-like singers). And it’s not just on record, live they are amazing as well, no matter the size of the venue. I’ve seen them in a storage/art room behind the bar of a pub, a proper sized venue hidden somewhere in Hammersmith (anything west of central London I consider hidden) and in an enormous venue like the Roundhouse and each and every time they delivered an amazing set, even being a match to the equally amazing Grizzly Bear in the latter venue. Also, their Record Store Day exclusive EP was pretty neat as well. And I’m not just saying that because it was on blue vinyl.
06. Xiu Xiu – Dear God I Hate Myself (Kill Rock Stars)
After seeing him ‘play’ in Ekko in Utrecht, Jamie Stewart scares me. Yes, the sound quality wasn’t all that, but there are ways to deal with that other than shouting at the tech/sound guys as if they have stolen your lunch money and getting electrocuted while trying to fix it yourself. I believe even Angela Seo was slightly intimidated – as were the guys standing in the trajectory of the bottle that was kicked of the stage, a point in the show at which the audience collectively took a step back. Luckily, I’ve also seen him play in London and do know how the new album is supposed to sound like live, which is pretty good. I’ve only really gotten into Xiu Xiu since I’ve started listening to Former Ghosts last year (a super group in which Jamie Stewart is also involved who will release what is going to be the best album of the year called ‘New Love’ in September), and as much as I like ‘Dear God I Hate Myself’, it’s not one of his (their?) best. Fabulous Muscles and Knife Play still top that list, but this is nevertheless a very worthy effort. Now let’s just hope Jamie Stewart manages to actually get through a set without physically attacking the audience next time he’s around (which will be on a tour supporting earlier mentioned Former Ghosts album FYI – and yes, I will now stop plugging albums that have not even come out yet).
5. The National – High Violet (4AD)
Even though this is not The National at their best, it’s still an awful lot better than what most bands dare to put out. Alligator and Boxer still top the list of their best albums for me, and they’re tied as I keep switching back and forth of liking one of those better than the other. But this is supposed to be about their newest endeavour so let’s focus on that shall we? It took some time for me to really get the album, well, it actually took hearing it being performed live – and is there anything better in this world than hearing ‘England’ live in London? ‘Runaway’ turned out to be another gem, as well as ‘Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks’ with that beautiful melancholic “All the very best of us / String ourselves up for love” chorus. I just love how Matt Berninger can make any silly thing sound like the most profound truth. Not that his lyrics don’t make sense, but sometimes he just manages to work in a sentence that appears to me more like a mind fuck than a well thought out lyric. And after seeing him joke around a bit at the Electric Ballroom gig, I think he’s rather enjoying people’s attempts to make sense of his nonsense. I’m just sad that ‘Terrible Love’ now seems to have become their set closer of choice, as ‘Mr November’ or ‘About Today’ seemed so much more equipped to let everyone go home on a high.
04. LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening (DFA)
So this album already made an appearance in both other lists, so it must be good! And I absolutely agree. I’m a sucker for songs that exceed the five minute barrier, so this album is a real treat for me. I love the balance between the more dance punk based tracks and the electropop downbeat ones. All killer no filler you could say. So there’s no ‘Someone Great’ or ‘Tribulations’ on this album, but I think that overall it is an equal to the two earlier releases by James Murphy and friends. That point is best signified in a live setting, when all three albums just blend into a perfect mix of all that DFA goodness. As others have mentioned, this album relates more to the work of the Juan Maclean, and that’s probably got do to with Nancy Whang taking up a bigger role in some of the songs, such as ‘One Touch’. ‘You Wanted a Hit’ (which almost touches upon the glorious ten minute mark) and ‘I Can Change’ are the two tracks that bring this album to its high for me. ‘Pow Pow’ is what keeps it out of the top three.
03. Zola Jesus – Stridulum EP (Sacred Bones)
Yes, I’m slightly cheating again. But is it really cheating if there are no clear rules for making this little feature in the first place? There’s just that name – album countdown – that might imply that EPs are not welcome here, that they are what vuvuzelas are to festivals to this blog. But as with vuvuzelas, this Zola Jesus’s EP is pretty hard to ignore. It’s just six tracks long, but oh, they’re all so incredibly good. I already loved last year’s album The Spoils, though that was a bit flawed in that it was just too lo-fi. Home recordings can be absolutely great, but that album just took it too far. Luckily, it did ensure the right amount of publicity for Nika Roza to be able to record this EP in a proper way. There’s this sense of impending doom and anxiety that keeps hunting you throughout the sextet of songs that makes one almost scared to put this record down, while there’s also that spark of hope in lyrics as “But at the end of the night, we’ll be together again” in opener ‘Night’. I’m completely enchanted by this EP – it even beats most full length albums of this year. And she’s also coming over to pay the Netherlands a visit, together with Xiu Xiu and with/as Former Ghosts, together making this already my most anticipated gig of the year. And they’re making me wait till 20 November. The waiting’s unbearable already.
2. Infinite Body – Carve Out the Face of My God (Post Present Medium)
I absolutely love this album! I almost feel bad about my number one being a better album than Infinite Body’s as this is just so amazing, and it seems go so unnoticed – luckily for my number one he made a near perfect album to ensure the first place on my list (and is that enough to get your attention so you come back for tomorrow’s number one? I promise it will be REALLY good!). Infinite Body is the solo endeavour of California’s Kyle Parker who used to make a lot of noise as Gator Surprise, but decided to start making this beautiful music in stead, and what an awfully good choice that was. He apparently still has a full time job working in a movie theatre (he’s the guy getting you the popcorn) and barely has enough equipment to perform live. All the more reason to be amazed by what he manages to create on this LP. Oh, just wake me up with the sounds of ‘A Fool Persists’ and know that nothing could ruin my day – had I only considered this on 11 July. His music seems to relate to what Fuck Buttons do, but less harsh, though still noisy, a bit like Fennesz. It would deem it very appropriate for a Stanley Kubrick film. Or just any other occasion as you should just give it listen. Or two. Or listen to it infinitely as I now tend to do.
1. Perfume Genius – Learning (Turnstile)
I’ve been in love with this album ever since I heard the first demo’s of ‘Lookout, Lookout’ and ‘Learning’ and the album wasn’t even near actually existing. And that’s been some time now, and I still simply can’t get enough of those tracks. Mike Hadreas has such a fragile voice, and manages to get the piano to match this fragility, but his lyrics reveal a much darker side. Songs with a twist, not like the earlier mentioned Xiu Xiu, but more in Pulp way – and that’s always a good way, isn’t it? Just take ‘Lookout, Lookout’ as it tells the story of Mary Bell : “Mary, Mary Bell / With an uppercase M / All the neighbors know / What your mother sells / But you carved out a name for yourself. [...] Keep your wits / He will not be missed / He didn’t have a family to begin with.” It gets even juicier if you’d know that the lead character of this song was just eleven at the time.. But it’s not all just storytelling, Perfume Genius also is the aggressor (Learning: “No one will answer your prayers / Until you take off that dress”) and the victim (Mr Peterson: “My work came back from class / With notes attached / Of a place and time / Or how my body kept him up at night”). All sung with the same rather sweet voice, strangely reminiscent of Sufjan Stevens’ ’John Wayne Gacy Jr.’. A psychological roller coaster, this album, and one of those rare albums that you’d like to label ‘perfect’. And can anyone please enlighten me as to the role Caralee McElroy has played in the creation of yet another one of my favourite albums? I think she might just be my new favourite music person.
Oi. Red-eye flights may seem like a good idea with the whole you-save-money-on-a-hotel-room scheme and the fact that you don't actually loose time during the day in which you could have done something better than trying to make yourself the slightest bit comfortable in an aeroplane seat that doesn't seem to be made to fit a human body, but oi. If you can't sleep in anything else than a bed (a contraption that has proved itself rather bothersome this last month) than it is absolutely not the best idea. For one thing, because one of the side effects of this kind of sleep deprivation is apparently amnesia. While there were four bands on the bill at Glasslands Gallery in Williamsburg - and I am pretty sure there actually were four bands - I can't seem to remember seeing more than two. I do remember the excellent vegan pizza I had at Vinnie's Pizza (seriously some of the best pizza I had in my life - whether vegan, vegetarian or carnivorous) and I certainly remember the taxi ride home, but in between there seem to be some serious blanks. And yes, I blame sleep deprivation.
With Vivian Girls and Dum Dum Girls around, and Mika Miko sadly passing away, there seems to be a thing around for all girl bands. Well, you could call it a trend, but girl bands are around all the time (what about Sleater-Kinney or the Spice Girls for that matter?); it just so happens that quite a few of them have decided that this is the time to get noticed. Effie Briest, named after the lead character of a novel by Theodore Fontane, are one of those bands. There's six of them, and they have just released their first album 'Rhizomes'. Live, it's a pretty impressive sight with the six of them. And it's not just the looks they're going for. Some songs are driven by catchy bass lines while most thrive on the dual forces of drums and bongos (if those things are called bongos, I'm not that into percussion to be quite honest). As Zola Jesus, they are on the Sacred Bones label, and you can expect something similar, though Effie Briest are more mysterious, or as Loud & Quiet describes them: a sub-lunar art rock sextet. And for some weird reason sub-lunar seems to be a pretty accurate description of their post-punk inspired sound, whatever sub-lunar may musically imply..
Much has been written about Zola Jesus in the past few months, most articles including the g-word. Well, I can say one thing for sure now: anyone using that particular description has certainly not seen her perform live. If I'd had to name someone her performance came close to, I could name no other than Celine Dion. Yes, you've read that correctly. Not that I've ever seen Celine Dion live, or would no any other song of hers other than that Titanic one, but that's what immediately sprung to mind. Well, if you consider the five fans blowing onto the stage creating the dramatic wind effect, and Nika Roza's size which necessitated a box for her to stand on (it is possible Nancy Wang!), and the combined effect of the two while she was spreading her arms out wide, you'll get my point.
Now, it wasn't just that moment, there was also something in the delivery of her performance which made it more 'Celine Dion'. While the album and the EP might not be most accessible records, her live performance is at times best classified as pop music, with catchy tunes and an amazing singer accompanying those. Nika Roza manages to give one of those rare credible pop performances, of the kind Sufjan Stevens has been accused of whilst touring with his 'Illinois' album. To back her (in)credible performance up, she has gathered some help in the form of three key/synth players and a drummer, giving herself free reign of the stage and the front of the audience - I'm afraid that if she'd gone further she would have gotten herself lost.
Most tracks featured on the set list are from the Stridulum EP that was released this year, but also last year's album is covered with 'Clay Bodies', which sounds an awful lot better live with less noise covering up Nika's voice.'Night' is still a personal favourite, although absolute every track sounds right on target when she performs them live. Unfortunately, she hasn't actually scheduled any Dutch dates yet, although she is planning her first European tour in August/September. But even if she skips us then, she'll be back in October to tour with Former Ghosts (as will be Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart), which should be even better.
I always try to read books in their original language - except when they were written in French as I can only play bingo in French (or any language other than Dutch, English or German for that matter), so an entire book would be a bit too much of a stretch - so why not go see a band in their natural habitat? Now, I'm not implying I flew all the way from London to LA just to see Former Ghosts (that wouldn't do justice of the great city that LA actually is and might be a slight overstatement on the things my craziness and more importantly budget will allow me to do), but it certainly influenced my travel itinerary.
Now, I've just mentioned that I think LA is a great city, and it certainly is, but the downside of that city just is that the public transportation isn't all that. And why should it in a city where absolutely everyone can afford a car? I for one can't even afford thinking of buying a car, as every other student in Europe, so I had to make ado with the metro as buses where a bigger mystery to me than the solution to a Rubik's cube. I also discovered that streets can bear the same name for miles to come in the States (as in, it took me over 3 quarters to walk there). Surprisingly, I was still early and got the chance of lurking around Origami records which only sells vinyl and has the best collection of local records which I've ever seen in a city (go LA!). I may have spend a bit too much in there.
Afghan Raiders, from Las Vegas, were to start this event, kindly curated by Rainbow Arabia who took on a residency in the Echo in June. After the first few songs I'd rather taken a liking to them, and was even very interested in their upcoming album (do you also feel a 'but' coming?) which is coming out later this year, September if my memory serves me well. However (nope, no buts today), when they ended on a David Bowie cover, they lost my support. 'Fashion' isn't one of my favourite tracks, but Afghan Raiders still manage to personally offend me - but that might be because I'm a bit anal about David Bowie tracks being covered by band that are not worthy (which means everyone but the master himself and Kevin Barnes when he's wearing his golden hot pants). 'Fashion' is to be recorded for the first ever David Bowie tribute album that has actually been approved by Mr Bowie himself. The project is organised by Manimal Vinyl and profits will go to War Child - and with contributing artists ranging from Duran Duran and French First Lady Carla Bruni to A Place To Bury Strangers and Rainbow Arabia that ought to be interesting at the very least.
Luckily there's Freddy Ruppert to lighten up the mood. Okay, scrap that, no Former Ghosts performance is ever going to 'lighten' any mood - even suicidal would darken after hearing this live. But it just is so incredibly good. The sound quality doesn't really compare to the Luminaire, but it doesn't even matter an awful lot as Freddy is so emotive that his performance would be amazing even without sound.
'New Orleans', a track that is well under way of becoming my favourite song ever, is second on the set list, and seems even more stunning than the first time I got to witness it. Just hearing this one track live makes the whole 20 hour journey worthwhile for me (well, that might be just a bit of an overstatement, but it's certainly worth the overstatement). What makes it even more special, if special is a word you'd want to use to describe this, is his rendition of 'Mother', as his mother's birthday would have been coming up this very week and his father and brother - both not frequent members of his audience - are present today. This makes it almost gut-wrenching to watch, but in the best way possible.
The set almost naturally comes to an end when Freddy just doesn't seem to be able to carry on any further. So no encore, and why should you? As John Peel once wrote: "I doubt that Leonardo, having completed work on The Last Supper, presumably to some local acclaim, would have interpreted this acclaim as a signal to paint in a few more figures, and find the utterly predictable making and taking of encores rather debasing." Indeed. Without an encore, it just seems that more real, which seems like the popular term to use these days.
As aforementioned, the evening was curated by Rainbow Arabia who also allowed themselves the closing slot on this evening. Much to my own regret, I had to miss their set as sleep deprivation and an utter lack of knowledge of where I was or how to get back to my hotel urged an early retirement. Thank God for friendly taxi-drivers.
