Recommended Albums: October 2017

Posted on November 7, 2017 by Very Warm

October yielded some really, really great albums. Some things that had me reach outside my comfort zone and pull back remarkable things I probably wouldn’t have listened to otherwise. I highly recommend anyone listen to the things I’ve listed here. You can do it! You’ve earned it! Enjoy your life and reap its benefits!

CCFX – CCFX EP [DFA]
The oldest car in the Kroger parking lot has a shoegaze mix stuck in its CD player and a copy of Silence Of The Lambs on laserdisc, wrapped in a down coat, laying in the trunk.

Circuit Des Yeux – Reaching For Indigo [Drag City]
A cowboy hat and a bouquet of blue roses are launched into a multi-dimensional rift.

Colleen – A flame my love, a frequency [Thrill Jockey]
A series of recurring dreams in which the clouds and stars and planets and waves and snowflakes and dead leaves become emotionally dependent on one another.

Destroyer – ken [Merge Records]
Otherwise mundane and common occurrences are overplayed to a theatrical, over the top degree by assorted pedestrians that it charms many into a state of euphoric fatigue.

Fever Ray – Plunge [Mute]
A human trapped in alive ice for the past 80 years is thawed and experiences culture shock upon viewing the hedonistic behavior of today’s society, eventually succumbing to the overwhelming carnal pleasures.

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – The Kid [Western Vinyl]
Deep analyses of a dense, murky swamp and all of the complex, intertwined relationships of the organisms that thrive there.

Kelela – Take Me Apart [Warp Records]
A break-up leads our protagonist to a full-bodied metamorphosis into a truly superior, elegant and groove-based individual that effortlessly glides through analyzing and accepting trauma and kindles a new love within themselves.

King Krule – The OOZ [True Panther Records]
A previously charming man who’s spent too long laying in a gutter, covered in mold, shambles around an urban landscape in the dead of night, searching for stimulants.

Kllo – Backwater [Ghostly]
Warm lights bob and pulsate around and against two stainless steel sculptures of lovers.

Nai Palm – Needle Paw [Sony Masterworks]
A room full of candles melt wax into the form of a multi-colored snake, which majestically slithers into the starry heavens.

GR8 SONGS OF OCTOBER::

Listen to all these songs plus at least 150 more from 2017 on this Spotify playlist.

  • Blue Hawaii – “No One Like You”
  • CCFX – “The One To Wait”
  • Circuit Des Yeux – “Black Fly”
  • Colleen – “A flame my love, a frequency”
  • De Lux – “875 Dollars (Juan MacLean Remix)”
  • Deradoorian – “Mountainside”
  • Destroyer – “Sky’s Grey”
  • Fever Ray – “To The Moon And Back”
  • Fever Ray – “Red Trails”
  • Foodman – “Oyaji Voice”
  • John Maus – “Touchdown”
  • Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – “Who I Am And Why I Am Where I Am”
  • Kelela – “Waitin”
  • King Krule – “Vidual”
  • Kllo – “Downfall”
  • Lawrence Rothman – “Wolves Still Cry”
  • Makthaverskan – “Comfort”
  • Nai Palm – “Crossfire / So Into You”
  • NHK yx Koyxen – “Meeting”
  • Palmbomen II – “Ultimate Lovestory Fantasy”
  • SASSY 009 – “Are you leaving”
  • Smerz – “No harm”
  • SoulMates – “Instant Fan”
  • Stars – “Real Thing”
  • St. Vincent – “Sugarboy”
  • Visible Cloaks – “Wheel”
  • The Weather Station – “Complicit”
  • Yaeji – “Drink I’m Sippin’ On”
  • Yumi Zouma – “December”
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Reduction Plan – “Dreams In Blue” & “Autumn” [2017]

Posted on October 27, 2017 by Very Warm

A man in a suit of mirrors walks down a dark highway, reflecting the light of passing headlights into a pitch-black sky.

Reduction Plan is the main venture of CT musician and friend of the blog Dan Manning and is often joined by similar friend of the blog Luis Durango onstage (and potentially in the studio? Who knows! I’m working on a Reduction Plan exposé to answer these questions, so stay tuned). Solo or together, Reduction Plan makes dark rock songs heavily based upon guitar and drum machine work with the occasional flash of synth and loop-based noise interludes. Their newest record, Somewhere, was released this summer.

Buried beneath the 80s-inspired guitar and standoffish, gothic flair lie the architectural basis of great pop songs, learned from years of practice and listening. Dan and I have bonded over many bands that I feel have keys to the basement of Reduction Plan’s foundation, from basics like The Smiths, Echo & The Bunnymen and New Order, to contemporary favorites like Have A Nice Life, Merchandise, and Black Marble. So going into it, I knew the influences were there. All these groups have made obviously incredible pop songs with varying shades of darkness etched into them. There’s no doubt those pop sensibilities would also carry over with the overall aesthetic that Reduction Plan drapes over their own work. The guitars shimmer, shake and smash, the drum machine plods along with a minimal, yet necessary accompaniment, and Dan’s droning vocals keep the nihilistic goth feel alive and well. What I’m trying to say is that Somewhere falls in line with the dark, post-punk lore that has stretched for years before this, marking itself a worthy addition to the catalog.

“Dreams In Blue,” is the first track that really stuck out to me, since it’s the best overall “guitar” song on the record. It also adds another player into the RP lore, Ryan Kalentkowski, who adds guitar work to the track. Thanks Ryan! The melody ebbs and flows like a rough patch of sea, arcing into a high register before quickly dipping down to a crushing, resolving chord. It’s a moving melody, one that takes the listener on a journey and sets it apart from other murky tracks that populate the rest of the record. It has a steady tempo (not too fast to slam, not too slow to stifle), a big resounding “for whom the bell tolls” / “clock strikes midnight” dirge stomp joins a muted drum machine to keep time, and the ghostly vocals in the back add more ambiance than anything. Definitely a great rock song for when you’re in the mood to light candles and sit alone in a nice chair.

I meant to write about the record here sooner, but it honestly didn’t feel right to write about something like it at the time of release. The music of Somewhere is not fit for light summer listening, at least not for someone of my stature. Projects from Vince Staples, Washed Out and Kirin J Callinan had just come out. I was listening to Japanese city pop. Not now, Reduction Plan. Catch me with the candles and nice chair later.

Going back to the draft of this post now was natural. It’s in the waning days of October and despite the weather on the East Coast being unusually humid and rarely dipping below 60º, it feels infinitely more appropriate to start getting people talking about Reduction Plan. This is music made for fast-approaching evenings, deep shadows, great sunsets, central heat getting fired up, layered clothing, the whole fall package. Just check out the song “Autumn,” the most upbeat and pop-leaning song on the record. Doesn’t that make you wanna ride a bike down a leafy path at sunset, racing against the clock? I sure can.

 

Listen to all of Somewhere and buy it on tape here. // Follow RP on FB

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Recommended Albums: September 2017

Posted on October 18, 2017 by Very Warm

September was a breath of fresh air after a stale summer of music. Plenty of great albums are included here, none of which have cracked my Top 10 overall yet, but a few are chilling in the Top 20 for sure 😉  There were also plenty of other notable records that I didn’t even have time to get to, so if you see any glaring omissions, it’s likely because I just didn’t get to it! Or it’s just bad – your call. Things are listed in alphabetical order as always.

Alvvays – Antisocialites [Polyvinyl]
A group of teenage friends live out the last weeks of their final suburban summer break in  flawlessly attractive fashion. All of them have incredibly complicated relationships with each other, ones that are like, completely believable and real, but we just can’t get into that detail right now, okay?

Ariel Pink – Dedicated To Bobby Jameson [Mexican Summer]
An out-of-town ghoul breaks into a recording studio to make a record based off sounds they’ve heard on the retro radio transmissions coming from below the graves they sleep on top of every night.

The Caretaker – Everywhere At The End Of Time – Stage 3 [self-released]
A tube television in the middle of an abandoned, velvet-laden smoking room struggles to play the hits to no one in particular, despite having one lone, decaying participant sitting comfortably in front of it.

Chelsea Wolfe – Hiss Spun [Sargent House]
A man is lost in a never-ending, pitch-black maze, continuously being called by a female’s voice from around every corner. His search instead yields new horrors at each turn him, immersing him in the eternal macabre while the voice wails away in the darkness.

Faith Healer – Try 😉 [Mint Records]
A roller derby team’s star goes through crisis after a crippling injury, resorting to consultations with the occult to help heal themselves before the next big match.

Four Tet – New Energy [Text Records]
Only on the descent to reach 10,000 feet beneath the ocean, amongst the pulsing lights of angler fish and cuttlefish, can you find your truest, most organic peace.

Giant Claw – Soft Channel [Orange Milk Records]
The recording of a symphony written and performed in the room where the Eyewitness intro was filmed has fallen down a flight of stairs.

Hundred Waters – Communicating [OWSLA]
A group of scientists observe a collection of crystalline matter growing at the bottom of a lake that slowly breaks apart and floats into space.

Iglooghost – Neo Wax Bloom [Brainfeeder Records]
Playing every video game at once while hurtling down the side of a mountain in a wingsuit.

Nosaj Thing – Parallels [Innovative Leisure]
Every lost thought or sound unnoticed from the daytime bubbles back up and out from sewers and street lights at night, providing an ominous yet organically rhythmic soundtrack for processes after dark.

Omni – Multi-task [Trouble In Mind]
A cowboy, an Elvis impersonator, a librarian, a priest, a skeleton, a bullfighter, an astronaut, a beauty queen and a butler all walk into a bar.

Phoebe Bridgers – Stranger In The Alps [Dead Oceans]
Meeting up with a friend you haven’t seen since high school at the small town bar and hearing their tragic & dramatic stories since the two of you parted ways.

Susanne Sundfør – Music For People In Trouble [Bella Union]
The last human on Earth reflects on their past encounters of human contact and tries to engineer the next generation of living beings to inhabit a nature-reclaimed Earth.

Trio Da Kali & Kronos Quartet – Ladilikan [World Circuit]
A giant heart beats below the soil, shaking layers of sediment free and allowing nature to flourish amongst a rather uptight environment.

Zola Jesus – Okovi [Sacred Bones]
An immortal, emotionally-tortured vampire tries & fails to resurrect a lost friend in a series of dark magic rituals.

GR8 SONGS OF SEPTEMBER::

  • Alex Cameron – “Runnin’ Outta Luck”
  • Alvvays – “Dreams Tonite”
  • Alvvays – “Saved By A Waif”
  • Ariel Pink – “Kitchen Witch”
  • Bicep – “Orca”
  • Björk – “The Gate”
  • Black Belt Eagle Scout – “Soft Stud”
  • Burial – “Rodent”
  • Chelsea Wolfe – “The Culling”
  • Destroyer – “Tinseltown Swimming In Blood”
  • Faith Healer – “Sterling Silver”
  • Four Tet – “SW9 9SL”
  • Giant Claw – “Soft Channel 007”
  • Hercules & Love Affair – “Controller (ft. Faris Badwan)”
  • Hundred Waters – “Wave To Anchor”
  • Jessica Lea Mayfield – “Offa My Hands”
  • Kaleida – “Echo Saw You”
  • Kamasi Washington – “Knowledge”
  • Kedr Livanskiy – “Za Oknom Vesna”
  • Kelela – “Frontline”
  • Knox Fortune – “Lil Thing”
  • Madeline Kenney – “Uncommon”
  • Midnight Sister – “Shimmy”
  • Mount Kimbie – “Marilyn (ft. Micachu)”
  • Myrkur – “Ulvinde”
  • Nosaj Thing – “Sister”
  • Omni – “Supermoon”
  • Phoebe Bridgers – “Motion Sickness”
  • St. Vincent – “Los Ageless”
  • Superorganism – “Something For Your M.I.N.D.”
  • Susanne Sundfør – “Mountaineers”
  • Trio Da Kali & Kronos Quartet – “God Shall Wipe All Tears Away”
  • Wand – “White Cat”
  • Zola Jesus – “Remains”
  • Zola Jesus – “Siphon”
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September Show Series 2017, Pt. 9: Blanck Mass

Posted on October 10, 2017 by Very Warm

At last, we’ve reached the end of the marathon – the ninth concert in eight days. Granted, by the time I’m writing about this, I’ve gone to at least eleven shows in between, but that’s besides the point. I don’t get paid for this and I have many other things to do. If you’ve been reading all of these, I thank you dearly. It’s mostly something I’ve done on my own but it’s good to have a companion, you know? Onwards:

So the last show on the docket was Blanck Mass, the bludgeoning master of noise and sound hailing from the UK and is one half of the great experimental duo Fuck Buttons. I’ve been a casual fan of his music since his 2015 album Dumb Flesh, but things really started to perk up with his 2017 record, World Eater. This burst of attention was mostly due to two songs: “Please” and “Silent Treatment.” These two songs are hard-hitting angel wings, in that they’re loud, mildly disturbing, but so, so sweet to listen to. The mixture of thumping bass loaded into each track combined with their heavenly samples of voice is too much to comprehend at times. Most of the other songs on this new album are just straight up blasts of noise that wriggles around in the ear canal before slopping out of your mouth.  It’s intense music, that’s for sure. I didn’t really know what I was in for in the live setting. All I knew is that it was going to be LOUD.

Lemme tell ya – loud it was. I was lucky / foolish enough to stand at the front of the stage at Rough Trade for the show: right in front of the monitors and speakers. It was one of those shows where the bass is so loud that the things in your pockets shake around. Your pant legs vibrate against your skin. Teeth perhaps chatter if you’re not careful. He started out with the noisiest, most abrasive material to start the show, as if to say, “oh hey there” in his own crazy, messed up world. There was very little semblance of rhythm or a steady beat going on, just thundering noise and blistering low end. When any high end at all came through, it was piercing, jarring, unsettling. All the while, there were breakneck visuals morphing over Blanck Mass via projector, which mostly consisted of glitched out commercials and cartoons, along with the average “noise show screensaver” type look.

Since I was at the front, I couldn’t really see what the rest of the audience was doing in response to this onslaught. I usually don’t know how to conduct myself at shows either, but this time I was especially curious. Were people bobbing their head to a beat that had not yet revealed itself to me? Were they standing still and marveling? Were they going wild, knocking into one another? I could have looked behind me and made this observation for myself, but I don’t think I ever did. Either that or I saw everyone standing still and watching, which is possibly the most boring and least-memorable thing ever. All of these options are possible. Choose whichever one you’d like to to make a scenario for yourself.

Eventually his set drifted out of the mire and into more familiar territory. This started with “Silent Treatment,” which was just a treat to hear live. Its tornadoes of sound whipping everything around it and throwing it into the stratosphere is killer, along with the rapid-fire kicks. Such a propulsive song. Blanck Mass then started diving into the first steps of “Please,” which is debatably his most popular song. At this point in the show the projections change from rather nondescript images and videos to footage of pulsating colonoscopies, earwax extraction, cyst draining, and other disorienting bodily processes. The beginning of “Please” is rather slow as well, the audience was standing in silence watching these disgusting videos as the song starts up. I could tell other people in the audience are like taken aback by seeing these images, plastered right up on a big stage, while listening to the song that most of us came to see.

Part of me found this hilarious and a really great move to pull by Blanck Mass, whose sole goal is to uproot and disturb with his music. When the song no longer disturbs and uproots but actually brings people in, why not disturb them in another way? The other part of me was the naturally repulsed part – I have a history of not doing well from watching any sort of bodily release or manipulation video. Take the time I almost passed out in a psych class from a video of a doctor poking an actual brain in an actual human body. I had to leave the classroom and got accosted for it by the professor. Or how about the actual time I passed out in eighth grade during a birthing video? Or the time I passed out on the bus in fifth grade when the radio station was sharing an interview with an open heart surgeon? The list goes on. Granted these images on screen aren’t as gory as the examples listed above, but the combination of extremely loud and intense music, mixed with the heat, mixed with the lack of sleep from seeing now nine shows in eight days – I had to get out of there. Or I was gonna be that guy that passed out in the front row of a Blanck Mass show at Rough Trade. I wonder if they’d let me go to shows for free then?

As I moved to the back and readied for departure, I had one more notable observation. While standing behind the soundboard, a person had placed their drink on the sound booth’s ledge and let it chill there. I saw the bass slowly but surely edge the cup off of the ledge, spilling everywhere outside the booth. To this, the sound guy cheered and clapped – clearly this was one of his objectives from the start of the night. I’m glad to have seen that little tidbit to end my night. After that I headed home and straight to bed. That was just nine concerts in eight days for one sleepy guy.

Morale Check: Happy I did it! One of the only reasons I like New York City is that I get to go to shows like these. I feel really lucky to be in such close proximity to all these artists coming through and acknowledge the fact that I probably won’t get the chance, or rather, a chance as easy as these to see them again. With Blanck Mass – who knows when I’d see him next? For an artist like Aldous Harding, whom I’ve seen four times now already, it’s all a matter of interest and convenience. Does that make sense? Either way, I live in NYC, might as well see some dang shows and support live music in this terrible hellscape of a world we live in.

If you’ve been reading through all these, I really want to thank you! You’re a real trooper and it means a lot that you stuck with me on this. Maybe I’ll continue to do some live reviews. But for now I’m gonna chill, I think.

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September Show Series 2017, Pt. 8: Aldous Harding

Posted on October 9, 2017 by Very Warm

Coming to the end of the streak of consecutive shows, but not the end of shows attended in September. Seeing Aldous Harding was my second most-anticipated show of the series, under Mount Eerie, despite seeing her three times already. She’s just that special of a performer.

If you haven’t seen or even heard Aldous Harding before, I’ll start this off saying that you really should do your best to accomplish both things on the quick side. There’s clearly a reason I’ve seen her four times within a year’s span at this point. Her songs are simple, yet carry the weight of the planets (yes, this is a nod to one of her new, unreleased songs). Her vocal style can shape shift to different caricatures of singers, like a lounge singer, a folk singer, but more importantly, back into an undefinable, completely unique form of her own. Combined with her lyrics and voice is the performance aspect, which is also up to par with the talent of the two former. She definitely gets into her performances: making faces to match the intensity, making prolonged eye contact with members of the audience, making slightly self-deprecating comments about the set, etc. It’s a complete package.

I went with a friend who had never seen Aldous before, so I was really excited to see what she thought of her performance. She began the set with potentially my favorite song off the new record, “Swell Does The Skull,” a spare, striking song that slowly develops and whittles away at the soul with its lyrics. She sang it perched up on a stool, awkwardly cradling her guitar and occasionally slouching back so deep that she has to glance up with her eyes to look at the crowd. This is the Aldous that I’m used to seeing now, but one I’m not immune to. I’m not done getting goosebumped when she hisses out lyrics, or when she breaks the act and flashes a weird grin, or just like, whatever she does performing. I, along with most of the audience, remain bewitched despite potential overlap between shows.

The reason I know for a fact the audience was bewitched was because everyone was stone-cold silent. There was a bit of chatter near the beginning, but once Aldous got started on her set, Bowery Ballroom went deadly quiet. She seemed to be put off by these eerie silence, commenting on it multiple times. She wasn’t sure if she liked the silence more than the chatter, since she felt defenseless in this current state. There was a male audience member who tried to initiate conversation with her at this point, to which she kind of made a face at, shrugged and started her next song. Way to go, Aldous. That guy was weird.

In her band was Invisible Familiars, a fellow Kiwi musician who I’ve seen back her up multiple times now, along with Joan As Police Woman playing bass, a notable figure in the NYC music scene. Together they made a tight band that split duties between guitar, keyboard, synth, backup vocals and bass, while Aldous played guitar and sang.

The setlist comprised of all “new” songs: tracks that are off of her 2017 album Party, along with unreleased new material, all of which sounds extremely promising. Earlier in this review I mentioned “The Weight Of The Planets,” which is one of the new songs, one that I’m very excited to hear from the studio. She doesn’t perform anything from her self-titled record from 2014, which is a bit disappointing since there are some really great songs on that record, but they vary quite a lot from this new material, so I can definitely understand the decision not to tap that far back. I’m glad I got to see these older songs at least once – the first time I saw her back in October 2016 when she opened for Deerhunter. Check out one of them below.

One note about this show that deviated from the others I’ve seen is that she did not end the show with her self-appointed “best song of all time,” Paul McCartney’s “Single Pigeon.” This time she played a song I had never heard before and if I remember correctly, it was a song she had never played live at all. She switched over to playing the keyboards – another first. I’m looking forward to hearing the studio version!

In the end, it was another great show to add to her already long list of admirable performances. My friend loved the show and said that even though “Horizon” is probably her least favorite song on the record, she loved hearing it live here. This is for good reason too – “Horizon” is undoubtedly Aldous’ biggest and most bombastic song, so she pulls out the stops in performing it live. On record it kind of sticks out awkwardly if you don’t have any context in how she performs it, but once that piece of the puzzle locks in, I think it becomes a much more enjoyable track. One that is highly anticipated on an average listen-through as well as on the end of a setlist.

Morale Check: With one more concert to go in this daunting run of nine shows in eight days, I was still feeling determined and also very tired. This was the pick-up I needed to complete it though. Who could stop me? Nobody.

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September Show Series 2017, Pt. 7: Big Thief & Palehound

Posted on September 29, 2017 by Very Warm

After over a two-week delay, things are continuing to move. Thanks to you if you’ve been keeping track. Not much to say on this since it was rather standard. No extreme breakdowns of emotions, just really, really solid rock music.

This show took place right after the last part in the series, which featured Gracie & Rachel. I scooted across the bridge to Brooklyn from Manhattan – a casual move. The most extreme two-show capers I’ve ever pulled off is going from Brooklyn Steel, a remote venue in Williamsburg, to Radio City Music Hall up in midtown, Manhattan. Did it, though.

Back to the show at hand – there was another opener that I missed named Really Big Pinecone. I got to catch Palehound though, a band I’ve been a casual fan of for the past four years or so. They played a pretty alright set, to be honest. I wasn’t and am still not familiar with their newer material (only really familiar with their 2013 EP) but they put a lot of heart in their set and a lot of people were into it. Also seemed like really genuine, sweet people! Can’t deny that!

The main attraction though, Big Thief, is a band that I’ve been wanting to see live since last year. My partner had seen them already so I was jealous. I need that extra level of connection between us – we’ve both seen Big Theif. Woah how cool? Their new album Capacity has some really great moments on it – I might like it more than their debut, Masterpiece. In the end, the band really delivered. They’re an incredibly tight live band, with each member keeping in a great sync with one another: making eye contact, signaling changes, etc etc. When a band performs all together, things succeed. Usually if everyone’s off on their own islands, things start to fall apart. This was a case of the former. All the songs sounded great and everyone stayed in line real nicely.

Lead singer Adrienne Lenker had a great, genuine stage presence that was mostly shy, but had some humor to it as well. The guitarist, Buck Meek, also peppered in some banter as well, a lot of which reminded me a lot of things a very good friend from college would say on a regular basis in their more flighty days.

Didn’t stay for the encore because I had just been to six shows in seven days, but it cemented that “Great White Shark” and “Shark Smile” are probably my two favorite songs off that new record. Go sharks. Shout out to Eva, if she’s reading this.

Morale Check: I was pretty doggone tired after this one, gotta say. Two shows plus the real late night of Mount Eerie from before was weighing me down – BUT – only two more to go from here. And they really excited me and got me raring to go.

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10 Best Songs: Hundred Waters

Posted on September 26, 2017 by Very Warm

So Stereogum has been running this segment for the past few years that’s essentially this same exact format – 10 songs from a specific artist, ranked. That’s cool or whatever, but it’s not by me. These 10 songs are ranked by me. These are MY favorites. So I get to write about them on my own time. That’s pretty exciting, right? So here’s the first installment in honor of their recently released record: Hundred Waters.

If anyone knows me personally or follows this blog at all, you know that Hundred Waters is very likely my favorite band of this decade. It all started with receiving their self-titled debut at my college radio station in 2012 and since then I haven’t looked back. Their seamless blend of organic and synthetic sounds have won me over again and again, and even though that balance of sound has dilated in focus a bit across their three albums, they’ve retained their core identity throughout.

Continue reading →

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September Show Series 2017, Pt. 6: Gracie and Rachel

Posted on September 25, 2017 by Very Warm

The sixth part of my September show recap is the first in a two-part series. I could have just logged both concerts I saw in one day in one recap, but the second one is kind of a doozy, so I kept them separate. Adding to that, I’d love to highlight up-and-comers Gracie and Rachel!

This was a concert for work – I promoted Gracie and Rachel’s self-titled, debut record to radio. It’s a great collection of cinematic, well-arranged “art-pop” music, with heavy use of violin and piano. Gracie sings and plays said piano while Rachel provides harmony and plays the violin. Together they are a simple, tight band that’s a treat to see live.

First observation for me, as a violin player, was Rachel. I always gravitate towards any strings onstage at a show first, even before I focus on the lead singer. This situation was no different, and first thought was damn – she shreds. Often times I see bands with a violin player that are fine and it’s clear that there’s a lot of talent, but sonically it just sounds like a side dish to the whole musical meal. A nice stringed accompaniment to the main course. Not so with Rachel’s part in the group along with her playing. Her violin’s voice was strong and sang along with Gracie step for step, providing both excellent harmonies and counterpoints to the song’s structure. Her bow control was also incredible. I’m blanking on the exact word right now, but the lack of stops and start sounds between down-bows and up-bows was flooring to me. She was deadly consistent with an even, perfectly dynamic tone to her playing. I know I’m gushing, but as a violin player it’s always exciting to see someone super skilled in the field and playing shows like this in a club like Mercury Lounge or otherwise.

This is not to discount Gracie, her singing and piano playing and their drummer, though! On record, their music is tumultuous, with the violin and piano and voice and percussion cresting over magnificent peaks and rumbling down in dark canyons. Live, they translate those moods perfectly, with Gracie’s voice matching the pristine recording takes with ease. The drummer held his own as well, providing a booming accompaniment for the two performers up front.

Other observations: they did an acapella version of Kreayshawn’s “Gucci Gucci,” saying that they do it at every show because she went to their high school and they hope that she notices them doing that cover someday. She hasn’t yet. They also teamed up on one song doing a really cool four hands piano approach. And I’m pretty sure Rachel took lead vocals on one as well? This was a few weeks ago now, so my memory of super specifics is foggy. Overall, they’re just an impressive, consistent band that are super stocked with talent. Even if one doesn’t care for the music itself, they could not deny that.

Morale check: This was a really great show and I had one right after in Brooklyn. This got me pumped to be on double duty for the night. Nothing worse than having to go to another show after a stinker. This was quite the opposite!

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Gauntlet Hair – “Top Bunk” [2011]

Posted on September 22, 2017 by Very Warm

Saw this song posted on my FB today and it brought me right back to when this song came out, the summer before I started college. Definitely a song that I was blasting in my car while driving around my hometown in Michigan for the last time. There were a few songs that are also forever associated with that time. Little Dragon’s “Ritual Worship,” M83’s “Midnight City,” Washed Out’s “Eyes Be Closed,” The Joy Formidable’s “Whirring,” Burial’s “Street Halo,” among others. It was a big time in my life that needed some big tunes. These delivered.

Back to the song at hand – people could slap “Animal Collective worship” onto it and say whatever, but I think it’s a bunch more than that. It’s a rollicking, psychedelic, messy, catchy song. Definitely one of the best songs of this decade and better than anything AnCo put out recently. Too bad Gauntlet Hair doesn’t exist anymore! Would have loved to hear new material (they’ve got a 2013 album that I actually haven’t listened to yet) but maybe it’s best to keep the legacy as it is with this incredible song.

I never got into the whole album, which is a shame. I should really revisit it. There are probably a ton of records from that period (2009-2011) that I need to revisit. Such a fertile time for indie rock, birthing bands that are selling out huge venues now, or small groups that fizzled out once the “indie rock world” got really oversaturated. I’ve been feeling a bit burnt out on new music lately, so that’s what I might do in the next few weeks. Hopefully I’ll be posting more about it too.

Until next time.

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September Show Series 2017, Pt. 5: Mount Eerie

Posted on September 21, 2017 by Very Warm

What exactly does a devastation sound like? It can take on many forms: a quiet, bristling rejection of reality; a crushing, blistering blanket of rage; a total drainage of all feeling; a wash of hopelessness; an exodus of the self. There are plenty more dimensions to conquer in regards to what truly encapsulates the feelings and fallout of a devastating event, but right now there’s only one to focus on – the route that Phil Elverum (Mount Eerie) took after the passing of his wife to cancer in 2016. He released an album this year called A Crow Looked At Me, and it is one of the most clear-cut portraits of how one terrible, terrible event can shape everything around it. What I mean by that is Elverum struck right into the vein of his anguish and suffering; a deeply indulgent, personal, meandering type of suffering, and distilled it into this album for all to hear. This album then acts as a conduit for these emotions, letting listeners enter his home, sang about in stark details, and experience the trauma along with him. The record is a cloud – as beautiful as it is, it still casts a shadow over everything that it floats past, changing it for that bit of time. Taking everything into its world. Not every person listening has to deal with the consequences presented in the album for their entire lives, however, but in that 40-minute span it sure does feel like it lasts forever.

Now how do these wrenching songs translate in real time? Does the nature of recorded music, with its presence of a pause button, volume knobs, various other distractions and the option of isolation during consumption affect the delivery of the record to the senses? Is the performance also like a cloud, casting a quick shadow over the listener? After experiencing it, the live version of these songs actually more permeate like a mist and hangs heavy in the air.

Phil Elverum came to NYC to play two shows on separate days at an old theater in Park Slope, Brooklyn. I attended the first day – Monday, September 11th. I came with friends. The show was rather bare bones. It was Phil and a guitar up on stage and he played the songs off of his newest album. The songs, like mentioned before, enveloped the audience into the world he’s lived in for the past year. The fog of his past and his emotional burdens blanketed the room, dampening it with their sheer power.  After those songs (with some excluded, because some “he just can’t do,” understandably so) there was a 30-minute intermission, which was then followed by a shorter set of brand new tunes that are just as striking as the ones on Crow.

The new songs focus on the same subject material, but they seemed to be a little bit more omnipresent in terms of songwriting. The songs on Crow are hyper-literal: they are literally about his journeys and thoughts and actions and emotions after his wife’s death. These are as well, but it seems like he’s asking more broad questions amongst his rambling narrative style, as well as bringing in some humor into the mix, believe it or not. There was one song where he talked about playing the Arcosanti festival in Arizona, singing something along the lines of “I don’t understand why some young people are asking me to come play my sad songs about death to kids on drugs in the middle of the desert.” In the same song Elverum brought up more jovial experiences as well, like “talking to Weyes Blood and Father John Misty outside of Skrillex’s tour bus” and “laughing til early in the morning in hotel rooms with people he had just met.” The weight of immense feeling is still there, but we’re seeing a new document of Elverum’s feelings as time goes by. He’s partly waning into a phase of acceptance on these songs, after stricken with grief, depression, anguish, the whole lot.

Don’t get the wrong impression, though. These new songs were still as brutal as the rest of them. The one time I shed tears during the show was during one of these newer songs. The lyrics took me by surprise and made me reflect upon my own life. The hyper-literal semantics of his song peeled away a bit, bringing in lyrics that most definitely apply to his situation, but also are pliable enough to bring around to the listener as well. Combined this to the fact that he’s still talking about this heartbreaking event and look here, you’ve got tears.

I’m interested to hear these new songs in the studio versions, if they ever get put out, since he was only performing with his voice and a guitar. On Crow there was some extra, sparse instrumentation that actually add a lot after seeing it stripped down live. Speaking of the live setting, he seemed to be uncomfortable to be up there singing his songs, but his will to stay and release them was stronger. After every song, he of did a kind of little bob – not quite a curtsy, but a polite indication that “yes, the song is over. You may clap now” since a few times after songs, the audience waited until the proper time to clap to give Elverum the proper amount of respect.

Many times clapping for his songs felt patronizing: “yes, yes my dear entertainer. Bring me these sad songs and relive your anguish.” That’s how I felt a lot of the time. At one point he said “thanks for subjecting yourself to this,” which got a laugh out of the crowd, along with many “we love you’s.” Another segment that tickled the audience was when Elverum had to restart a song since he botched the opening pitch so much. That reminded him of earlier in the day, when his daughter wanted to watch The Beach Boys on YouTube because currently that’s all she wants to do. In the first video he pulled up, from 1967 or so, The Beach Boys did more or less the same thing he just did, which was completely whiff on the correct pitch to start the song. He said that made him feel a little bit better about what he just did.

The crowd was so deeply invested in the show. Possibly the most polite and attentive crowd I’ve ever seen. I didn’t see a phone out in the entire seated audience, not one even taking pictures. No one spoke to one another during the sets. The only crowd noise I could hear throughout the entire show were from the photographers’ lenses as they crawled up and down the aisles. Even then people shot them dirty looks. Not even at orchestra concerts do photographers get stink eyed like that. In between sets I saw musicians like LVL UP and Jessy Lanza milling about, affirming my belief that Phil Elverum united us all under his powerful album.

As a whole, I cannot say I’ve been to a show like this one. It was pure, raw artistry displayed in full view. Purely just Phil Elverum telling his tales about death, soundtracked by a simple acoustic guitar, to a room full of young people who may or may not be on drugs on a Monday night in Park Slope. I’m very grateful for Phil to come out and sing these songs about death. It was intimate, it was beautiful, it was real and it was devastating.

Morale Check: Going into this show, I was pretty excited. Coming off of seeing one of the most exciting bands I’ve ever seen in Baroness did that to me. That, paired with the fact that I had had the chance to see Mount Eerie previously at Wesleyan University in 2014, but they never listed the venue on the show page, so by the time I had actually found it, the concert was already over and everyone was leaving with big smiles on their faces. Of course! After THIS show, I was floored. I had experienced a giant array of emotion in a short period of time. Joy that I finally got to see one of my favorite musicians live. Sadness from the obvious subject matter. Anxiousness on getting home in a timely manner (Park Slope is inconveniently far away from Bushwick). Awkwardness from when Phil pointed out my Weyes Blood shirt and said “I just sang a song with her in it” and I said “yeah I know, it was really good.” And then I bought a record and left. I’m very bad at talking normally to musicians. And people in general. Something I need to work on. A mix and mash of emotions. But the long journey home kind of wadded all of them up and stuffed them inside a duffel bag. The slow grind of getting home eroded my happiness and replaced it with lethargy. Did I really want to go through with the rest of this week? I had to. And I did. As always, thanks for reading.

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