Saw Wye Oak last week at the Fox and got more than I expected. I anticipated the indie-folk rock duo from Baltimore sounding good after listening to their recorded material and seeing their name often. But Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack’s contribution onstage was more than I had hoped for.
Wasner is a true emotive force on guitar. Fierce and technical, she adds deep intuition into her playing which causes every song to soar. She’s dirty with distortion and along with her graceful vocals, it enforces a beautiful dichotomy. I find Wasner to be what is so alluring about the band, but without Stack’s additions, there would be no compliment to her power and grit. Stack intertwines his vocals with Wasner’s, while simultaneously playing drums with his right hand and both legs, and bass lines and effects with his left on keys. Together the two create huge walls of sound that envelope. Their lyrics have an emotional directness, adding romantic hues to this hazy shoegaze fuzzpop.
Wasner and Stack formed Wye Oak in 2006. Their first album, If Children, was released in 2007 and again in 2008, once the group signed with Merge Records. The Knot, their second, was released this year.
This song just crushed me. Heard it for the first time now. It’s an unusually dark kind of day in Colorado and the emotion within this song adds color and texture to the bleakness of it all. Taps directly into how I’m feeling. The song is breathtaking and Thom Yorke’s touch turns it into gold.
Waking up and the bed was made
No one looked me in the eye
More I try, More I cry
And it’s all for the best
Watched my brother cutting grass outside
Sitting on the porch he told me
It’s a long way to go before we can rest
But it’s all for the best
You’re so beautiful it sings
On a lonely lazy morning
And when I see you rocking back and forth
Whispering that it’s all for the best
One day the stone will roll away
Soon you’ll see
You’re far away from home but never far away from me
And that’s all for the best
(…and say you love me)
Promise me, son, not to do the things I’ve done
Walk away from trouble
(at the end of the day)
Say you love me
Say you love me
“All For The Best” appears on Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy, the tribute album released to provide support for Mulcahy, whose wife’s sudden death last year left the musician to raise their three-year old twin daughters alone. The original track appears on Miracle Legion’s Surprise, Surprise, Surprise LP (2000).
All 41 songs on the album, staggering in their intimacy and form, burst with love, hurt, loss, sarcasm and melody. Ciao My Shining Star is a strikingly beautiful and entirely appropriate tribute to an under-valued songwriter, who may now receive an appropriate level of attention. The collection (21 on CD, an additional 20 available online only) features covers of Mulcahy and Miracle Legion songs performed by artists including The National, Dinosaur Jr., Frank Black, Michael Stipe, Mercury Rev, Ben Kweller, and Elvis Perkins.
Thom Yorke’s music video for “All The Best”:
It seems that Mark Mulcahy hasn’t quite yet enjoyed the recognition he deserves. Through the Connecticut-based band Miracle Legion and his solo work, he has written an impressive body of largely ignored material.
Mulcahy is an unmistakably low-key individual, but even he was taken aback by the gathering of friends and peers who contributed songs. “This, in a strange way, has given me a look at what I’ve done or what impact I’ve had on something, which I just don’t think you normally get,” he says. “It’s one thing when you meet a band that opens for you, and they say, ‘Oh, man, I’ve always loved you guys,’ and that feels normal. But when it’s Thom Yorke or someone on a much different level, it’s kind of surprising.” – Hartford Currant
All I can say is that we are lucky that Thom Yorke keeps releasing tracks for us.
Built to Spill’s new album, There is No Enemy, brilliantly captures the melodic beauty of these indie rock forefathers. It’s good old, traditional Built to Spill sounding as great as ever. The album is their 7th and the 1st since they released 2006′s You In Reverse, the band’s highest charting album yet. On There is No Enemy, Built to Spill investigates an aesthetic they’ve created and honed over the years, revolving around Doug Martsch’s soft, yet penetrating vocals swimming in a bath of refracting guitar tones. The band again finds a new and interesting way to approach this sound.
Martsch’s lyrics are poignant and inviting. When he sings “Goddammit, things fall apart” on the appropriately titled “Things Fall Apart,” it’s hard not to feel like you understand. And on “Life’s A Dream”, he wisely reflects, “Waste your life/ but you don’t know what it’s worth/ Comb your mind/ For all the treasures of this earth / Too close to find/ anything outside yourself.”
Below are the 3 tracks that lead into There Is No Enemy. The band is currently streaming the entire album on MySpace.
Nowhere Lullaby
Trying not to solve this
Doesn’t mean it’s not that bad
And everyone gets through the night
And everyone wakes up all right
And the fear you feel will pass
Then a calmness that will last
We will learn to drift off fast
Another nowhere lullaby
You can rest or you can try
And this waste it shines in every way
Yeah this waste it shines in every way
Make me laugh every single day
And you hardly make me cry
Made fifteen years fly by
Still here and I don’t know why
Has it been that long
Is the time and the table gone
Hope it’s longer than that now
Don’t forget we don’t know how
And everyone gets feeling down
Everybody understands
We’re all doing what we can
Another nowhere lullaby
You can rest or you can try
And this waste it shines in every way
Yeah this waste it shines in every way
In 2006, friends Erick Crosby (guitar, vocals), Drew Rassmussen (drums), Jeff Pappendorf (keys) and brothers Nicholas David (Guitar) and James David (bass) came together to create an outlet for their musical ambitions. They named the band Yourself and The Air. Crosby, who started the group, chose to leave school at the College of Du Page in Chicago to write music for Yourself and the Air over pursuing music within the confines of an institution. The band had one goal: “make music and feel better”. And they were driven by the notion that as artists there is no other choice than to make art and share it.
I fell upon the band through a recommendation from a worthy source and was immediately pulled in. The musical concept is familiar but the earnest truthfulness and emotion that I sense behind the notes sets the group apart. The rolling guitar-driven indie rock embodies a deep mixture of sounds. It feels intimate and seemingly comes natural to the group of self-proclaimed amateurs.
The band’s first release came in 2006, “Hola mi Cielo”, and in 2007 they released “Cold Outside Brings Heavy Thoughts to Think”. They began touring nationally in 2008 and responded with the EP “Friend of All Breeds”. As the band puts it, with this record, Yourself and The Air stopped playing instruments and started playing songs.
Imagine seeing Thom Yorke (of Radiohead) play a small club. No momentous visual effects and light boards but instead you’ve got the sonic genius of Yorke up close and personal. A limited number of fans watched Yorke perform his solo album “The Eraser” in its entirety last Friday at the Echoplex in L.A. (660 capacity) and at the Orpheum Theatre (1970 capacity) on Sunday and Monday. Other songs included several new and/or previously unperformed songs plus the Radiohead B-side, “Paperbag Writer,” from 2004′s ‘COM LAG’ EP. The star-filled band featured Beck’s Joey Waronker on drums, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Flea on bass, Mauro Refosco of David Byrne and Bebel Gilberto on percussion, and longtime Radiohead/Yorke producer Nigel Godrich on guitar/synths/laptop. The “public rehearsal” at the Echoplex was announced on Friday at 8:30am and tickets sold out within the hour once released at noon. Madonna, Prince, Sting, Slash, Neil Diamond, Celine Dion, Daft Punk, Zack De La Rocha, Spike Jonze, Rick Rubin, and Barbra Streisand were all there.
If you didn’t make it in, check out some the videos taken over the 3 nights. Yorke’s humor comes out in these clips plus his righteous dance moves. The magic of these evenings is felt.
10.02.09 Echoplex – Los Angeles, CA
The Eraser, Analyse, The Clock, Black Swan, Skip Divided, Atoms for Peace, And It Rained All Night, Harrowdown Hill, Cymbal Rush
Encore I (Thom solo): Open the Floodgates, Lotus Flower, Skirting on the Surface, Judge, Jury, Executioner
Encore II (full band): Paperbag Writer, The Hollow Earth, Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses
10.04.09 Orpheum Theater – Los Angeles, CA
The Eraser, Analyse, The Clock, Black Swan, Skip Divided, Atoms For Peace, And It Rained All Night, Harrowdown Hill, Cymbal Rush
Encore I (Thom solo): Lotus Flower (Moon Upon A Stick), Open The Floodgates, Super Collider
Encore II (full band): Paperbag Writer, Judge, Jury & Executioner, The Hollow Earth, Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses
10.05.09 Orpheum Theater – Los Angeles, CA
The Eraser, Analyse, The Clock, Black Swan, Skip Divided, Atoms For Peace, And It Rained All Night, Harrowdown Hill, Cymbal Rush
Encore I (Thom solo): Lotus Flower (Moon Upon A Stick), Skirting on the Surface, Super Collider
Encore II (full band): Paperbag Writer, Judge, Jury & Executioner, The Hollow Earth, Feeling Pulled Apart By Horses
Made it out to both days of the Monolith Festival. Crushing acts were Phoenix, Passion Pit, and Chromeo. Sets were packed and dance heavy. Phoenix’s electrifying Sunday performance on the main stage set them up to be huge in Colorado and beyond. Chance had it that MSTRKRFT cancelled, leaving the 2nd to last main stage slot open. Certainly feels fated that Phoenix played for the most sizeable audience of the weekend. Their lightning speed rise has been incredible to follow. Passion Pit’s surging set confirmed that the eletro pop craze is on. And Chromeo’s sex-saturated synth funk throw down triggered a dance freak-out from the crowd and had everyone smiling hard.
New favorites included OK Go (finally saw them live after all that YouTube hype), Health, The Walkmen, We Were Promised Jetpacks, Woodhands, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, and The Royal Bangs. Great to see Stars of Track and Field again after they took most of 2008 off. Other sweet catches included Thao with The Get Down Stay Down, Gregory Alan Isakov, The Grates, Tigercity, and Danielle Ate The Sandwich. The eletronica was also pumping with choice acts The Glitch Mob, Savoy, and Beats Antique.
The setting of Red Rocks couldn’t have been more beautiful and the bands knew and recognized it.
Ever since SXSW, I can’t stop thinking about Passion Pit. One of the best acts I saw that week by far. The band’s live performance is nothing less than electrifying. Their sound is a fine example of where indie rock has been going. Combining digital effects (2 keyboards, synth, and samples) with 80′s pop and falsetto vocals into decidedly current electro pop. I’m susceptible for falling for these types of bands as they get me on all sides of what I’m into. Love this comparison from Audio Muffin – “… (Imagine) if MGMT got together with Postal Service for a few drinks and decided to create music that balanced out batshit crazy with bespectacled yearning, the result might sound something like Passion Pit.” The band is also becoming known for remixing groups like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Ra Ra Riot, but I think their memorable originals is where it’s at.
Currently based in Cambridge, MA, Passion Pit formed in late 2007. The blogosphere lit up over their infectious single ‘Sleepyhead’ off their-debt, dorm room-recorded EP, “Chunk of Change” (2008). Michael Angelakos (lead vocalist) created Passion Pit in order to write a few songs as a Valentine’s Day gift for his girlfriend. Four of those songs plus ‘Sleepyhead’ and ‘Better Things’ make up the disc, which quickly made it around the Emerson campus where Angelakos was studying. The band released their first full-length album “Manners” this past May. Appearances include almost all the major fests including Sasquatch, Bonnaroo, and Lollapalooza this summer and Austin City Limits, Monolith, and Treasure Island this fall. Catch them.
Sleepyhead
And everything is going to the beat
And everything is going to the beat
And everything is going
And you say it was like fire around the brim
Burning solid burning thin the burning rim
Like stars burning holes right through the dark
Flicking fire like saltwater into my eyes
You were one inch from the edge of this bed
I dragged you back a sleepyhead
They couldn’t think of something to say the day you burst
With all their lions and all their might and all their thirst
They crowd your bedroom like some thoughts wearing thin
Against the walls against your rules against your skin
My beard grew down to the floor and out through the doors
Of your eyes, begonia skies like a sleepyhead
Your head
The Reeling
We dug these holes we crawled into now they’re my home
Now here I cannot feel the wind, cant feel the rain oh no
And I believe in gentle harmony
Well how I loathe all this obscenity
Is this the way my life has got to be?
Have I a single opportunity?
Look at me oh look at me is this the way i’ll always be
Oh no, oh no
Now I pray that somebody will quickly come and kidnap me
Oh no, oh no
Everyday I lie awake and pray to god today’s the day
Oh no, oh no
Here I am oh here I am oh when will someone understand?
Oh no, oh no
And all at once I feel this, oh how it clings to me
It reels and calls me towards it, confounding destiny
And I can feel the madness inch by inch
The more I run the more I am convinced
A color all these like the branches glimpse
Just like the saddle in the foggy mist
Look at me oh look at me is this the way i’ll always be
Oh no, oh no
Now I pray that somebody will quickly come and kidnap me
Oh no, oh no
And everyday I lie awake and pray to god today’s the day
Oh no, oh no
Here I am oh here I am oh when will someone understand?
Oh no, oh no
Look at me oh look at me is this the way i’ll always be
Oh no, oh no
Now I pray that somebody will quickly come and kidnap me
Oh no, oh no
And everyday I lie awake and pray to god today’s the day
Oh no, oh no
Here I am oh here I am oh when will someone understand?
Oh no, oh no
I first started listening to Phoenix back in 2004 when I found the band’s 2nd album, Alphabetical, on a listening station in Bart’s CD Cellar in Boulder. Immediately upon placing the headphones over my ears, I was wrapped up in tight pop grooves, smooth vocals, and sparkling sonic effects.
The band is curiously original despite the fact that their earlier albums inspire comparisons to Maroon 5. I momentarily forgot about the band, but noticed they were on tour this year with a new album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. Went to the sold out show at the Bluebird (Denver, CO) blind, and was pleasantly shocked with where they’d taken the music – expanded direction into danceable, catching indie rock, filled with heavy keys and sound effects all laying on the foundation already built. Hooked again.
Based in Paris, Phoenix took off in Europe in 1999 when Air asked the group to be their backing band on several U.K. performances. The band broke in the U.S. on Saturday Night Live this past April, just before releasing their 4th studio album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (2009). After signing Phoenix in March, Daniel Glass of Glassnote Records released one of the new tracks to build up interest in the record and to increase the demand for live performances. According to Glass, that’s what inspired rampant talk about the band on blogs and the call from Saturday Night Live. Since then, Phoenix has played sold out clubs across the U.S., with appearances at Bonnaroo and on Letterman. This fall’s schedule includes the Greek Theatre (L.A.), The Warfield (S.F.), Monolith Festival (CO), and Austin City Limits.
I’ll leave you with two tracks and a video. “If I Ever Feel Better” is one of the first singles released back in 2000. Next is “Lisztomania” from Wolfgang Amadeus. The must watch is the video of “1901″ from SNL in April.
Lisztomania
So sentimental
Not sentimental no!
Romantic not disgusting yet
Darling i’m down and lonely
When with the fortunate only
I’ve been looking for something else
Do let do let do let jugulate do let do let do
Let’s go slowly, discouraged,
Distant from other interests
On your favorite weekend ending
This love’s for gentlemen only
That’s with the fortunate only
No i gotta be someone else
These days it comes it comes it comes it comes it comes and goes
Lisztomania
Think less but see it grow
Like a riot, like a riot, oh!
I’m not easily offended
It’s not hard to let it go
From a mess to the masses
Lisztomania
Think less but see it grow
Like a riot, like a riot, oh!
I’m not easily offended
It’s not hard to let it go
From a mess to the masses
Follow, misguide, stand still
Disgust, discourage
On this precious weekend ending
This love’s for gentlemen only
Wealthiest gentlemen only
And now that you’re lonely
Do let do let do let jugulate do let do let do
Let’s go slowly, discouraged,
We’ll burn the pictures instead
When it’s all over we can barely discuss
For one minute only
Not with the fortunate only
Thought it could have been something else
These days it comes it comes it comes it comes it comes and goes
Lisztomania
Think less but see it grow
Like a riot, like a riot, oh!
I’m not easily offended
It’s not hard to let it go
From a mess to the masses
Lisztomania
Think less but see it grow
Like a riot, like a riot, oh!
I’m not easily offended
It’s not hard to let it go
From a mess to the masses
I am gaga over this track by The Books. Such a beautiful combination of artists making a great song so much more. The Cello Song, written by Nick Drake, was originally released on his album “Five Leaves Left” in 1969. I feel fortunate for the fact that this duo, based in the Berkshire Mountains in MA, decided to play with it. The track was recorded exclusively for “Dark Was the Night”, the 20th compilation of its kind benefiting the Red Hot Organization (raises funds and awareness for HIV and AIDS).
Strange face, with your eyes
So pale and sincere.
Underneath you know well
You have nothing to fear.
For the dreams that came to you when so young
Told of a life
Where spring is sprung.
You would seem so frail
In the cold of the night
When the armies of emotion
Go out to fight.
But while the earth sinks to its grave
You sail to the sky
On the crest of a wave.
So forget this cruel world
Where I belong
I’ll just sit and wait
And sing my song.
And if one day you should see me in the crowd
Lend a hand and lift me
To your place in the cloud
Radiohead just released their new single, “These Are My Twisted Words,” Aug 17. Pulsating and dark, the track embodies the band’s reoccurring hypnotic essence. “We’ve been recording for a while, and this was one of the first we finished. We’re pretty proud of it. There’s other stuff in various states of completion, but this is one we’ve been practicing, and which we’ll probably play at this summer’s concerts. Hope you like it.” Johnny Greenwood
Greenwood has posted the track on Radiohead’s site with accompanying artwork for free download.
Watch the first live performance of “These Are My Twisted Words” at Australia’s Frequency Festival on August 21st, 2009.
These are my twisted words
When I feel you still walking
I know I should not look down
But I’m so sick of just talking
When are you coming back?
I just can’t handle it
When are you coming back?
I just can’t handle it
When are you coming back?
I just can’t stand it
I just can’t handle it
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