Oh Land at Pete's Candy Store

So, I wrote a whole post about this show I saw of a really good Danish singer called Oh Land at Pete's Candy Store with some friends last Monday night, and then I kept postponing posting it until I had the time to upload the photos, and lo and behold my computer crashed today, which totally sucked (goodbye browser tabs!) so I have to rewrite it. Ugh.

Basically, I thought that the lead singer--23 year old Nanna Øland Fabricius--and her two back up singers/bandmates had beautiful voices and really tight harmonies. Oh Land is billed as a cappella experimental electronica, which is a pretty accurate description. While I have to say that none of the songs felt completely finished and weren't tunes that would get stuck in my head for days and days, I loved the calm energy that she had and her voice was a pleasure to listen to. The set began really well, but I found myself getting a little distracted when she moved to songs that didn't use the backing track (with the exception of the one song that she did entirely a cappella, and then repeated it with instrumentals...that was fantastic). All in all, I felt there was some disjointedness in the look of the band, considering the fact that Nanna looked like a model with her simple, elegant updo and black dreess, while the two backup dancers were adorned with turqoise tights, frilly umbrellas (used once very effectively, when they opened and closed them in time with the electronic whooshing beat) and little hats shaped like house that lit up in different colors...it was all very cute, but in conjunction with Nanna's ensemble it seemed a little forced and unnecessary. The music alone would have made it a great show, it didn't need all those bells and whistles. My favorite song of there's is "Alive/Awake."

All in all, though, I really enjoyed myself.
P.S. Quick update on the music: We are getting really really really close to finishing a bunch of our songs and even doing some pseudo mastering ourselves. While this weekend seems like another wash for various reasons, we have made huge strides in the last week with finishing tunes and they are really coming together. I'm hoping we'll be ready to do shows in a couple of months...Can't believe how long it's been, but the most important thing is that we put out great music and not try and finish a song just for the sake of finishing it.

Mumford & Sons at Mercury Lounge

Not only is the music catchy, but the lead singer also has a beautiful voice and the four part harmonies are tight and performed with authentic feeling. I would describe it as a grittier folk music--like an edgier Bon Iver.
Marcus Mumford fronts the folk/bluegrass band (who I hear is also the drummer for Laura Marling, another London based folk musician) passes the 'patting your head and rubbing your tummy' test the next level with his impressive ability to do multiple things at once. It's hard to quiet down a crowd at Mercury, and especially to follow a band like Temper Trap, which has a completely different vibe, but their first a capella song of the set brought the crowd to a moving hush.
Had to give a shout out to them for an awesome job at Mercury Lounge, it was a wonderful way to precede my trip to SXSW. Definitely of the best shows I've seen so far this year.

[Kudos to my friend Rob for the tip!]

The Black Lips at Bowery Ballroom

Caught a Black Lips show at Bowery Ballroom last Monday, and what can I say. They were full of energy, and the drummer was hilarious. I couldn't stop laughing at how animated he was...definitely in his own world, but not in a bad way. The show was preceded by an impromptu floor arm wrestling match between audience members (did they know each other? I have no clue), and a huge mosh pit formed in front full of giddy, sweaty fans. While I wouldn't say that they are my all time favorite band of all time, they were definitely fun to watch and seemed quite relaxed onstage.

Countdown to SXSW: 4 days! Woohoo! Austin here we come! :)

a trainwreck of an mp3 for toi

I believe that line was in the last email I just sent John with my latest attempts at a song that I've been hacking away at while he's been in Virginia for the holidays catching big fish that don't quite warrant a citation, but are impressive nonetheless.

Yes, I'm aware that I dropped off the blogosphere for like a month. We were, in fact, getting a lot done, and I just got distracted and wasn't sure there was anything fantastic to update people on. Well, there is this song we are almost done arranging, tentatively titled "Never See." After a few runs under the mill by us, it seems to have taken its shape and we should be putting the finishing touches on it tomorrow. We are slowly but steadily getting a fair number of songs under our belt, and figuring out the next steps we need to take and walls we need to hit our heads against in frustration. Should be fun. I'm excited.

Oh, and we caught an awesome Friendly Fires show at The Annex some weeks ago. They sounded great and the place was packed. Have I mentioned how much I hate going to shows in the wintertime and dealing with people's (and my own) coats in a standing room only area? Yea, not so great. The only good thing is it is a protective barrier against overly excited fans and their wayward elbows.

And the beat goes on

I know, I know, it has been a while, but you will be psyched to hear that we are still alive and kicking. Last weekend we managed to write and arrange a song within about a week and a half, which we are thrilled about. It began with a little idea I had laid down, and then we worked on all last weekend. The song is tentatively called "Because Really You Should." Tonight we are doing pre-production with our buddy Dan, who is going to lay down some drum ideas on the tunes that we have arranged. We also have a number of exciting possibilities that are evolving but I'm going to keep mum about them until we are further along.

Quick show review: Sunday we hit up the free No Age and Titus Andronicus show at Santos Party House. It was my first time seeing No Age live, and from what I heard, they weren't "themselves," which I guess was a good thing since I wasn't blown away by the performance. I wish I had caught them when they played Bowery Ballroom, because that was supposed to have been off the hook.

JUSTICE rocks the house that is Webster Hall

Had a great time at the Justice show last Thursday night. Despite the one hour wait outside in the cold and the fact that Justice didn't start until around 2am, it was still worth it. They put on a slamming show. The kind of show where the music is so loud and awesome that you can just close your eyes and let the sounds wash over you and clear your mind, because there is no way you could get a clear thought through that kind of entertainment. I especially love how Justice does a bang up job of teasing a song out until you absolutely can't take it anymore because you know your jam is about to drop, and then when it finally does all you want to do is jump around and go crazy. The strobe lights, thumping beats, and packed crowd even at the wee hours of the night made it one amazing dance party.
Check out the photo of the disco ball that dropped around 3am (thanks for the pic Angela!).

Weezer show at Madison Square Garden

John and I caught Weezer at MSG last Wednesday. At first I was surprised at how thin the crowd was for the opening bands, but then it got packed as the witching hour approached. I have to say, even though my euphoria could have been due in part to my state of intoxication by the time Weezer took the stage, I haven't had a nostalgic live show like that in a while. It brought back high school to a tee, and I thank Rivers Cuomo for allowing me to relive my teenage years where I listened to the blue album and pinkerton on repeat during car rides. Oh the days of compact disc players, where have you gone? I love the whole "we're dorks and we embrace it" thing that they've got going on. And, I'm not going to lie, any show where I can bond with fellow music fans and complete strangers by collectively screaming out the lyrics to every verse of every song is a damn good show in my book. Say it ain't so. 'Tis so. 'Tis so.

All Points West Takes the Fun out of Fest

I meant to write this before, since it is kind of two weeks late, but I caught the first half of the All Points West Festival in Liberty State Park on Friday August 9th. I only saw the first bit because I had to run back to my place and grab all my stuff to hop on a Chinatown bus to Boston by 8pm (I had a 6am flight out to Vancouver from Boston for the Alaska trip).
I don't mean to sound like a whiner, but I was really shocked with the way the festival was handled. For instance, their puritanical drinking policy. You go up with your ID and receive a wristband that limited you to 5 beers (5 beers!! for an event that lasted from 12pm to 12am! I'm not saying I'd drink more than that, but I don't appreciate being limited to a certain number of brewskies at an all day festival. And it wasn't even like the beer was free! They just allowed you that much). It gets worse, though...So, part of why I love watching live music is the pleasure of drinking as I watch my favorite bands play out. Well, tough luck doing that at APW. All the drinkers are penned up with their beers in a gated area and not allowed to bring their beers outside of it (Now, granted, it helped me quickly spot my buddies who were also at the festival, but come on!) And you weren't allowed to hand in tabs that were broken off--the bartenders had to break it off for you--ostensibly to prevent people from getting more tabs from their friends' bracelets (I figured out a way around that by simply buying my friends drinks with my bracelet so they didn't use their's up).
The sound on most of the stages was also a travesty, and I'm surprised that a festival that size could get away with a sound system that was so unbalanced and crappy. Maybe they bumped it up a few notches for Radiohead, which I regretfully had to miss in order to catch my bus. Let's not talk about it.
All I can say is, it wasn't worth the 100 bucks I dropped on the ticket, and I spent my lonely solo ferry ride back to NYC wishing I had finished up all 5 of my precious drink tabs instead of giving them to my friends.
[Thanks to my girl Angela for the photo. Did I mention they banned umbrellas and it poured on and off throughout the show? Yea. Awesome. Thank god I smuggled one in anyways.]

Bon Iver at Bowery Ballroom

Ok, I wanted to give a quick review of the Bon Iver show I went to last night (if you haven't heard of him, definitely check him out at http://www.myspace.com/boniver).

The Bowerbirds opened for Bon Iver. They were good--the lead vocalist Phil Moore's voice was pleasant--kind of like if Rufus Wainwright got caught in boon country with a couple of bottles of French wine along for entertainment. I couldn't get over how unhappy and discontented the backup vocalist Beth Tacular looked onstage (which was compounded by the fact that when she wasn't straddling a drum kit like she was milking a cow, she occupied the most prominent place on the stage right up front, which seemed a bit odd considering her disposition, but whatever...

As for Bon Iver, all in all I thought the show was fantastic. The songs from "For Emily, Forever Ago" were even better live than they were on the CD. Justin Vernon has an uncanny ability to conjure an ethereal intimacy onstage, exuding both confidence and humility in the same breath, not to mention having some kick ass harmonies that make my skin crawl. The melodies are pretty basic, but when he sings it's coming from somewhere authentic and I totally dig that. And hey, "Skinny Love" and "The Wolves Act 1 and 2" are just damn good songs. The only things I would mention would be that there were times, like in "Creature Fear" when there was a lot distortion added to the songs that seemed unnecessary and even jarring. Also, the final song was a total let down, with all the band members from both bands standing in one line in front of the stage and singing a cover of some song I've never heard (that didn't seem incredibly compelling to begin with, although I'm working on a rendition here, so that might be unfair). I'm gonna go ahead and say it. In theory it sounds like a nice idea...in reality it was kinda painful and overkill in its intimacy.

Oh, and more thing, as a New Yorker I would like to just say that that unlike other parts of the world, NYC fans are not big into collective sing alongs. Especially not when we are instructed to participate with guilt trips about how great some crowd in San Francisco sang the hook, and huge bright stage lights are turned on us. Bon Iver learned that the hard way last night, when they tried TWICE to attempt to cajole the crowd into a sing along. But bands shouldn't take it too hard, it's just not our style.

All in all, an awesome time and some really amazing music. I hope Bon Iver gets all the attention it deserves. The picture above is credited to my awesome buddy Nellwyn and her trusty iPhone. Danke Nell!

Stop Rubbing Off On Me! I'm having an outer body experience

This somehow became the mantra for this weekend. Don't ask me how or why, but it seemed hilarious in the midst of working on our tunes this weekend. After returning to our song "The Rain" on Saturday and playing it for a friend of mine who stopped by to see the space and hang out, both John and I realized that what had sounded rad to us in the studio the night before didn't sound as great with a third person in there (and especially in juxtaposition to the other tune we played her that we finished arranging called '212'). So, after she left John turned to me and said "I think we need to overhaul the song. It doesn't feel right anymore," and so that's exactly what we did. We stripped away bits that didn't add anything to the tune and took out everything that we thought didn't add anything to it. For example, we had this sample that we manipulated to sound like a crashing thunder ball of rain, which we ended up dialing down a lot in volume and just using as a subtle build up to the chorus.
I really think that part of the joy and challenge to making music is being willing to completely disassemble a song you think you've finished, and start from just its barest bones to create something even more cool and bizarre.

Speaking of rain, on Sunday we caught MGMT's show at Mccarren Pool, which--I'm not going to deny it--was even cooler because of the downpour you had to endure to watch the show. Granted, I wore cowboy boots so I was semi-prepared...can't say as much for my friends with flip flops. Too bad we got too drunk to work at the studio after. I guess it was a pipe dream to think we'd be productive after an entire day of imbibing. I blame it on the free shots at brunch. We should have known.

John's Update: After listening to the new track it really didn't snap. I have always stuck to the mantra of taking away rather than adding to make something better. Yeah man, I was exhausted after the show. Should have known: Drinking all day lowers productivity.

Saul Williams at C-stone, what?

Last night I saw Saul Williams (http://www.saulwilliams.com/) perform for a small gathering of folks at Cornerstone Promotions' offices in NYC to celebrate the release of his new album The Inevitable Rise and and Liberation of Niggy Tardust! He performed three spoken word pieces and debuted a music video. It had been a while since I have watched a spoken word performance, and I was blown away by the passion of his delivery and his remarkable grasp of word play. I almost felt like he was a Shakespearean actor in the way that he molded and delivered the consonants and vowels from his mouth. And sure enough, I checked his website and he is also an actor. It all comes full circle. Full circle.

More importantly, John and I had a chance to chat it up with Williams post-performance and find out more about his writing process, which I personally found very provocative as a lyricist and songwriter so I thought I'd share it with all y'all. He described how it starts with the music, and then listens to that and does his first pass just trying to find how he wants the lyrics to be delivered, so he will literally record a track of just sounds of consonants and vowels and how they will pop in the relation to the music with an occasional word here and there. Then he listens through that and starts doing a pass at writing actual lyrics that will create that auditory effect in those particular places in the song. It's always nice to see intelligent, creative people get the attention they deserve and I hope Williams continues to get cred for his art. I, for one, and going to take a crack at writing some songs the way he does and see what I come up with. Who knows, maybe next show I'll be getting all up in some spoken word...

John, I elect you to bang on the steel stool for the beat. It's either that, or we duke it out in a battle of words on stage, and you better hope they don't ask you to spell out your verses. Just saying... HA! :)