music reviews and information for the rest of us

I love Long Winters shows, and this show was no exception. John Roderick comes on stage sporting long hair a few pounds heavier and sporting some excellent 70s cocaine smuggler shades. They kick into “Give me a moment” the lead track from “The Worst you can do is harm” and the place lights up. For the ride out solo John gets carried away and crashes into the drums, taking out the mics and falling backwards over the guitar amps. The band doesn’t skip a beat. Everyone hoots and hollers and waits for him to get back up. The band waits. We all wait. He kicks right back in. Damn this is a rock show.

They go through lots of past album material and Roderick explains that his Gibson Thunderbird, his “white hippie space guitar” is changing his ideas about music. This interaction with an audience is what most bands lack at shows. Alberta Cross who opens doesn’t say a word and Say Hi, barely says anything as well except to say thanks. The Winters are tight, they are funny and they are right with the crowd. Its a great show, even if they wont do any encores.

Alberta Cross opens the show and they make believers out of a lot of the crowd. They have a wonderful short set full of crunchy Fender Jaguar blues gospel. We went out and got their record the next day. If you have some money left in your pocket go and pick up their EP “The Thief and the Heartbreaker”. It does not disappoint. Better yet. See them if they are in your neck of the woods. Imagine Jim James from My Morning Jacket fronting the Black Crowes or maybe a gospel version of the The Shins and that might get you half way there. I can’t wait to hear more from them.

What do you get when you cross Ween, New Pornographers, the Rolling Stones, The Bee Gees and Aretha Franklin? You get the Mgmt. And what a sweet, glorious pot of jambalaya it is. I heard a lot of the same sounds coming out of Band of Bees and you know what a huge fan I am of theirs. Mgmt is full of gooey layers of analog keyboards and organs, deep melodies bass, and anthemic sing along lyrics. Your heart will swoon and your hips will shake.

Visit the Mgmt on MySpace.

Read the Rolling Stone review.

While we were recruiting for people to do reviews on IndieGeek.com we ran into someone who said that it seemed that we had nothing but good reviews on the site. Here is a quick answer to that question.

Why would you waste time and space on something that you do not like?

Seriously… There are so many bands and records and only so much time in the day. I could literally do a review a second where I slag some band and I would not get to all the bands in my lifetime. So here at Indiegeek.com we try and concentrate on the stuff that we like, because its so much harder to find. I have read countless reviews and articles that sounded great and then I would get all excited and go and try to listen to the band that was being reviewed and they would be awful. I would re-read the review and wonder, how did they come up with that review? They sound nothing like this or that band.

All reviews are subjective. All musical taste is subjective. The reason I like a band is not the same reason that someone else will. My favorite Radiohead record is not your favorite Radiohead record. So saying that something sounds like Radiohead or even early Radiohead doesn’t really give you all that much.

You can only hope that someone is steering you in the right direction. Great records are hard to find.

“Help talented people, because untalented people will make it without your help”
– Anon

Swervedriver. Remeber them? If you do.. 10 indie bonus points for you. The last time I saw this band they opened up for Soundgarden and Monster Magnet at a show in 1992. Holy crap is that really 16 years ago?

I originally wanted to go to this show because I like “Film School” a lot. Film Schools self titled 2006 release is a great ride and they can weave some magic with two guitars and shit load of effects pedals. Live they seemed a little ethereal, I think the guitars were a little washed out. I would still see them again though.

My only reservations about seeing Swervedriver was the whole, not a show in ten years and even when they did it was a revolving door lineup thing. There just seems to be a whole lot of bands getting back together for “Reunion” tours, and for the most part, most reunion tours suck.

So here is the kicker. Swervedriver was great. I mean not just, good like “wow those old guys can still play” kinda thing either. They rocked.. From note one. Super upfront bad ass guitars and it just kept coming. I would have liked to hear them mix it up for a song here or there, if only to give my poor ears a break but other than that, a great time. I was blown away by Adam Franklins guitar playing. I suddenly realized that he must have a surf guitar player hidden away under all that Marshall stack. Two encores and the crowd still wanted more.

Alanna’s prayers were answered after she yelled out “Play ‘Last Train to Satansville’ or I’ll fucking kill you” and they did. Do not screw with Alanna at the show. She will eat you for lunch.

Side note. They had great gear. I’m kind of a gear nut and they had nice matching Marshall half stacks, each guitar player also had a matchless combo to switch between. Adam Franklin alternated between 2 Fender Jaguars and Jimmy Hartridge alternated between a nice 80’s Les Paul custom and what looked like a Fender Tele Deluxe. The bass player had some nice 70’s Fender P basses player through a huge Ampeg head an cab.

This is kinda of a weird situation because Liam Finn is actually in the opening slot on a bill with Laura Veirs. So if you go to see him on this tour, make sure you get there early.

We are only 5 months into 2008, but crap, I will go out on a limb and say that Liam Finn’s self produced, recorded and mixed debut album “I’ll be Lighting” is probable one of the best of the year. I think a lot of people heard his new record and came to this show expecting to hear that record or at least a close one man band version of it, but what they got was so much more. What they got was a full frontal Liam Finn assault, that made me feel kinda bad for the Laura Veirs, who had to go on after him.

This show made me laugh with giddy glee. It wasn’t that he pulled off some sort of one man band (more like two person band) juggling act, because some of the best moments were when something failed and he kept on going and made it work.
After dropping a drum stick in the middle of one of the first songs

“I’m not really used to this kit. But I’m warming up to it. Mostly by beating it as hard as i can.”

What really worked for me was that it felt like you didn’t know what was going to happen. And I don’t know about you, but I like that. With EJ Barnes joining him on vocals, cowbell and loop layered weirdness this was a show performed on a tightrope. Everything seemed just on the edge of falling apart, and it sometimes it did. But you know what? The crowd loved it.

After taking a huge shot of Jamesons in between songs

“That shot was huge! After taking that shot I thought you were going to see me puke. i guess that would have been pretty memorable. (EJ plays weird loop that sounds like barfing) Yeah kinda like that.”

Although the played lots of the new record it was great to see them up their experimenting and just having fun. Switching between quiet melodies to all out avant garde chaos, it just seemed to work. Well worth it.

Ok, so Laura Veirs…. Ummm… Don’t think this was the crowd or place for her to be playing in. She stood on stage for a couple of minutes trying to get the sound man just to turn off the CD music just so she could start her show and while she was playing the people talking at the bar were frequently louder that her. Her quiet set would have been much better at Noe Valley Ministry, which would have sounded great. Sorry Laura, I like you, I just think that you should be opening up for Liam.

Got some great tickets to go and see the sold out show for “Swell Season” at the Paramount in Oakland. For those of you don’t know Swell Season is the band of Glen Hansard - vocals/guitar Marketa Irglova - vocals/piano. They won the oscar for music for their music and portrail in the movie “Once“.

Half the experience for this show is the place itself. The Paramount in Oakland is probable one of only a handfull of places in the whole country that gives you the kind of feel, acoustics and vibe that you get in an old theatre. This place rivals opera houses not crappy clubs.

The show was pretty amazing. The main thing about it is that there is just not that much amplification, so the musicians are amazing at being able to draw the crowd in with such an intimate show. They are super funny as well Glen Hansard is very quick witted and knows how to move a crowd and keep them entertained. There were points when I think you could have heard a single cough in a sold out packed house of thousands. This was not your normal crowd. Glen comes out by himself for the first song and with out a mic or a plugged in guitar from the foot of the stage proceeds to bring the house down with an amazing song. I thought his guitar would come apart and his throat would pop out from the strain. I haven’t seen performers leave it all on the stage like that in a long time.

Glen and Mar as they call each other are amazingly down to earth about their new found success. Glen puts it this way.

It’s kinda like wanting to kick a ball to the end of the garden and instead you kick it over the wall, over the river, out of town and clear into the next county. Half of you is clearly amazed at kicking your ball that far, and the other half wants your ball back.

If you get a change see these guys play. Thanks to Capt Randy for the tickets.

Check out another great review of their Portland show here »

Saturday was Nada Surf at the Fillmore. Always a great place to see bands. For those of you who don’t know Nada Surf you should really check them out. People who stopped listening after the first record have missed a great live band and record after record of great songs.

The album “Lucky” released this year is another great record for them. While not as cohesive and sad as 2005s “Weight is a Gift” the new one is another solid record.

Sea Wolf opened up the show and while I was not there to them specifically, I definately will be following them over the next couple of records. They were great and anytime a quiet band can get people to stop yakking or talking on their phones, you know people are into it. I went home and got their record and it is in heavy rotation. Imagine Echo and the Bunnymen meets Vetiver and Iron and Wine and maybe mix in some Jon Brion for good measure.

We had seen Matthew from Nada Surf walking around Japantown before the show but didn’t want to disturb. I wonder how his pictures came out from the photobooth Pika Pika in the mall.

Nada was as always super fun. Running through songs from all records and keeping the crowd super into it. Daniel was his animated self at one point gushing about how he loves SF. Comparing it to his own Barcelona. I love sing alongs. Someone should tell Ira that he looks cool in the gold satin jacket, in a 70s basketball short shorts kinda way. 2 encores and people still didn’t want to leave. The only bummer was that they didn’t play Alanna’s favorite song “Meow Meow Lullaby“

This would have been a great show if it has not been for the venue. The sound at this show was horrible. All the bands sounded washed out and cavernous in that huge cement box that is Mezzanine. I have seen the Rosebuds twice and like them a lot. WFANFC was on their first US tour and I was pretty excited to see them live since I am a big fan of their record. Sadly it was pretty tough to hear. Foxtail Somersault is a local band, and I’m sure they have sounded much better at just about any venue they have played.

I will try to catch all of these bands some other time, because I can’t really write a review of a show where the biggest hurdle was the venue itself.

The Beta Band has long since split. Radiohead have gone off the rails into the the vastness that is Thom Yorkes mind. What we really need is another great band from across the pond to crack open our heads and let all the good stuff out. Here it is.Businessmen and Ghosts is an epic 29 song psychodelic reverb extravoganza with just the right hint of electronica. Somehow the Velvet Underground and Can had an alien family and raised them on The Jesus and Mary Chain and Spiritualized.I’m pretty sure they have a Roland RE-201 Space Echo sitting atop a holy shrine in their house somewhere, where they bring burnt offerings and speak in tongues as the spirit of tape echo brings forth great things. All must be cleansed.

There have been so many great albums that I have gotten my little mitts on in the past couple of weeks it’s hard to write a post about each. Here is just sample of the cool records that Alanna and I have been geeking out on.

The National - We liked “The Alligator” so much we got “Sad Songs for Dirty Lovers” and “Boxer”
Califone - “Roots and Crowns” Thanks to Jon for turning us onto this at Xmas
Nada Surf - “Lucky” another amazing record that must be explored
Vetiver - “To find me gone” I got this from my secret santa and I don’t even remember adding it to my Amazon list. What a great surprise.
Asobi Seksu - I would hear tracks from this on Kexp all the time and always say, “Who is this?” So I finally went and got it.

I will probable go into each of these records as I can get some time. All solid purchases though.