Thao Nguyen to get down and stay down in Ithaca 08.03.10
Okay, make your choice: Will it be the sassy and brassy Thao Nguyen or the Flaming Lips and their magic body bubble?
Sadly, this isn’t even a hypothetical, it’s a real choice you’re going to have to ask yourself, RIGHT NOW, considering Thao and the Get Down Stay Down will be hitting Ithaca on April 18th. Personally for me, there’s no contest. Considering Thao’s frenzied stage manner, the band’s extreme chops, the precise live show, and her brilliant 2009 album, Know Better Learn Faster, it’s an easy decision. In fact, Know Better was in this half of skipster’s top ten of 2009!
Details are to come forth soon, however the show will be $12 and most likely will take place at one of the clubs here in Ithaca courtesy of dan smalls presents!
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Friday morning’s traditionally the best time of the week to kick back and let all the feelings you’ve accrued over the past five days wash over you — the good, the bad, the ever-popular somewhere in between. We all need to take stock of whatever’s happening before we hurtle headlong into weekend madness. With that said, here are three tracks I’ve had in constant rotation over the past week, each of which is good enough to help usher you toward self-actualization before you go ahead and melt your brains tonight.
First up is Twin Sister’s “I Want a House,” the smoky, slow-burn finisher to the band’s self-released Vampires with Dreaming Kids EP. You can download the rest of that EP for free on their website, and stay tuned for another forthcoming release via Infinite Best Recordings. That one’s called Color Your Life and will be available digitally and on vinyl starting March 30th.
Next is Jimmy Ruffin with Motowon staple “What Becomes of the Brokenhearted,” a song that Beach House’s Victoria Legrand recently named as an inspiration during the recording of their masterpiece Teen Dream. Opening with a melodramatic stomp before segueing into Ruffin’s genuinely cathartic vocals, his repeated mantra of “I’ll find a way somehow” coasts into the three-minute mark on the wings of pop perfection; it’s a land of despair and heartache, but never total resignation. One to keep on repeat.
Finally, we have nascent Los Angeles band Pearl Harbor with their latest, “California Shakedown.” As reported on Gorilla vs. Bear last weekend, this song will function as the b-side to their limited-edition, Japanese-distributed Slivers of You 7″. The sibling duo currently occupies my slot for “favorite working band who haven’t released an actual full-length,” and this is just another confirmation of their preternatural knack for opiated-yet-immediately-addictive dream pop. And check out that bassline.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
More Groove Armada To Get You Through Your Friday 05.03.10
Okay, okay, we all get it. Scott’s obssessed with the new Groove Armada, album. Etc. But really. The group just started touring in support of Black Light , and the reviews and this video speak for themselves. Above is GA, with Saint Saviour and Ben Duffy (0f Fenech Soler) on lead vocals singing Skipster’s current anthem, “Paper Romance.”
More importantly, the band stopped by the BBC6 studios in London, playing stripped down versions of album cuts “Paper Romance” and “Cards to Your Heart”. Check them out below.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Groove Armada / “Paper Romance” (BBC Live Acoustic)
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Groove Armada / “Cards to Your Heart” (BBC Live Acoustic)
To all those excited to see Kimya in Rochester tomorrow, as we posted previously, we have sad news. What we assume is due to her schedule, Kimya had to cancel her Rochester appearance. She will still be playing in Alfred, NY, and the other bands will still be playing in Rochester…but no Kimya.
sorry to be the bearer of the bad news..
UPDATE: although it didn’t happen we did find out that the cancellation was due to sickness in Kimya’s family. Hopefully this gets reschedules.
Regardless of what the name makes you think of, here’s something you SHOULD know: Kimya Dawson will be passing through Rochester, to play an afternoon show this upcoming week! She will be playing at The Flying Squirrel Community Space this Wednesday alongside Seth Faergolzia of Dufus. That night Dawson is playing Alfred State University, and is squeezing this show in, because well, she’s awesome. Her schedule is understandably tight, considering she has a show that night, therefore the settimes are TIGHT, and as of now I believe Kimya is set to go on around 3pm. Alongside Kimya and Seth, Kerrin of Rochester Band Meddlesome Meddlesome Bells, and Ian Downey will be playing.
The community space is a great venture in Rochester. It’s incredible the way things like this bring people together, so please go support it.
To get in you only need five bucks, but really, this place is so nice the event page on facebook says:
“$5 at the door, no one turned away for lack of funds
children are welcome, but there will be adult language in the show”. After reading that, how could you not support such a place?!”
Flying Squirrel Community Space, 285 Clarissa St
What: Kimya Dawson, Dufus, and Friends
When: March 3rd, 2010 from 12pm – 4pm
Cost: Five bucks, for a good cause
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Kimya Dawson / “Loose Lips”
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
I can’t remember the last time I was charmed out of my mind by a musician. Nevertheless, last night at Castaways in Ithaca, Norwegian heart-throb Sondre Lerche put on the moves to a near sold out Castaways. Between his smile, his unforced and humorous stage banter, and his many references to The Office, Sondre was in it to win it. Playing classics such as “Two Way Monologue”, “Sleep on Needles”, and “Heartbeat Radio”, Lerche had the crowd in his lil’ fingers the whole time. For being a mere 5′7″ Lerche packs a whole lot of punch not only in his delivery, but in his impeccable guitar playing. Switching between an electric and an acoustic guitar all night, his frenzied singing and bopping around kept what could have been a dull affair absolutely hyptnotizing.
Unfortunately the same can’t be said for opening act, JBM, who played what sounded like a set consisting of the same sad song over and over again. Whatever happened to the days when opening acts functioned as a mean to pump you up the audience for the main event. These days all opening support seem to send the crowd into a bout of depression..
Nonetheless, the best part of the night was inarguably Lerche’s encore of fan favorite “Modern Nature.” While the gal who sings the other part of the song wasn’t present, the crowd didn’t even have to be asked to fill in. Within 10 seconds it was clear the audience knew what to do, and correct me if I’m wrong but Lerche seemed amazed. Watch it all below!
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Roughly two minutes into their set, one of So Cow’s guitar players cocks his head toward the audience and asks if the sound’s okay. There’s a quiet, hesitant murmur of a reaction, and lead singer Brian Kelley jokingly says, “A little early to break the fourth wall, eh?”
The moment is typical of the live So Cow experience, all frenzied guitars and twee vocalizing — that is, until you hit a moment where the bottom drops out from under the agitated facade and humor lets itself in. Currently touring in support of both their self-titled 2009 album and the just-released Meaningless Friendly — both released stateside via Chicago-based record company Tic Tac Totally — So Cow exist in a humane netherworld between pop and punk. They don’t wear their heart on their sleeves, exactly, but they’re more willing to subvert their anger with slyness than the concise, Jay Reatard-ish construction of their songs would indicate.
There’s clearly enough passion in their play for them to have built a selective core audience, even on these tundras of Upstate New York — certain members of the Bug Jar crowd knew these songs by rote, which is more than can be said about most Dublin-based twee-punk acts. Kelley’s interactions with the audience proved to be the focal point of the show; at one point, he went through the crowd and had each person standing shout his name. Elsewhere he allowed another audience member to hold onto his eyeglasses before launching into another string of Beat Happening-inflected pop; “I’m bound to step on these things,” he added. Welcome to the fold, apparently.
Musical highlights of the set included opener “So Cow vs. The Future” as well as personal favorite “Moon Guen Young,” presumably a by-product of Kelley’s four-year tenure in Korea and one whose stop-start rhythms translate particularly well to the concert setting.
So Cow play another 50-odd shows in the next two months nationwide, including a number of showcases at the annual clusterf*%! otherwise known as South by Southwest. Meaningless Friendly is out via Tic Tac Totally.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
So Cow / “To-Do List”
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Afternoon Delight with Daredevil Christopher Wright 07.02.10
Wisconsin-based trio Daredevil Christopher Wright played a daytime show at Ithaca’s quaint and brightly-colored The Shop today with local songstress Emily Arin. The snow was falling, the breeze was bitter, and honestly, there couldn’t have been a better way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Arin took the stage around 2:00, playing a handful of beautiful heartfelt folk songs, piercing the hearts of the small crowd left and right. “Sweetly Breathe”, which was recently nominated for an Independent Music Award, never ceases to draw out that giant lump in the back of my throat. Despite being 7 minutes long, this song captured every ounce of my attention, creating a tension suggesting that if I stopped focusing on the words, a bomb in my head would go off. Arin’s music is not to be ignored. After some small talk and a few more songs, including “When You Knew Me When” and “Hidden Flame” — two songs that were recently included on the soundtrack for Greenland’s first motion picture, Nuummioq — Emily thanked the crowd and sat down for some chai.
Walking into an artist’s show without hearing their work always creates a sense of anxiety in my bones; however, my anxiety evaporated after Daredevil Christopher Wright first harmonized in their opening song (which shares the band’s name). The group has the harmonies of Fleet Foxes, the falsetto of Sufjan Stevens, and the lively energy of the Dodos. Considering the sleepy nature of the day, the trio was smiling and awake, engaging the small crowd in conversation and giving information about their work. They thanked their second cousin, an Ithaca College student that helped them set up the show, and even talked philosophy… albeit about bears, wolves, and indie music culture. After a crowd-requested encore, the dudes stuck around chatting with fans and friends, which pushed them over the categorical edge from “nice guys who happen to be musicians” to “OMG REALLY NICE KIND DOODZ that are in a RALLY RALLY tal3nt3ddd band.”
I’m not quite convinced their studio recordings measure up to their live performance, but that’s a question you’ll just have to figure out for yourself.
The Daredevil Christopher Wright play in Rochester tomorrow night at the Bug Jar.
Live Review: Vetiver @ Lovin’ Cup, Rochester NY, 1/15/10 21.01.10
Early last year I missed Vetiver playing Los Angeles out of sheer laziness, and the situation almost repeated itself last night as I sat around debating until the opening band was well into their set. Maybe that’s appropriate for a band whose casual, near-languid energy is both their defining strength and weakness, but an earlier relisten of 2009’s admirable Tight Knit convinced me.
Their set was actually tighter than expected, ironically benefiting from the schizophrenic setlist that frontman/vocalist Andy Cabic allowed his bassist to “guest write.” Cabic wryly noted how they seemed to awkwardly alternate between electric and acoustic, cover song and original; fortunately, the approach doubled as a healthy way to keep their roots folk audience from getting complacent. Tight Knit highlight “Sister” lost some of the rhythmic snap it has on record; otherwise the band were exact in their recreation of the album’s sound, and certain songs — mainly the labored white-funk of “Another Reason to Go”— were stronger in this context, given actual bodies to bump around. Cabic’s a potent vocalist, too, substituting the studio’s smooth edges with a contoured lilt that feeds into his troubadour aesthetic. It’s already hard to believe this band emerged out of the mid-decade “freak folk” scene: they feel eternal in their reliability, shuffling from one literate bastion to the next like a comedown lullaby for the frantic and hype-hungry.
Gig Recap: Camera Obscura in Rochester last week 02.12.09
Camera Obscura: Rochester, NY 11/23/2009 @ the German House
It was a spacious venue, the German House: a towering ceiling, classy balcony, shitty beer choices, people well spread out–making it easy to move through. What more could you ask for on the night before Thanksgiving? The air smelled of a base-note essential oil as Camera Obscura nonchalantly took their place on stage, opening with “My Maudlin Career”, also the title of their latest album. Maudlin, meaning foolishly sentimental, wittingly mirrors the feel of their songs: desperate and peppy with sock-hop-esque tones that suggest surfing, or perhaps pining for waves.
A band from Glasgow, Scotland, Camera Obscura had their way of engaging the Rochester crowd. “That was the second song–are you drunk?” Tracyanne Campbell, the band’s lead singer responded after a shout-out request. During the song, “Come Back Margaret”, the band cohesively executed a specific clapping pattern, of which the crowd enthusiastically mocked. The energy was high. Shadows danced on the hard-wood floor in shades of blue and red. And then, without warning, Tracyanne got feisty, pausing the song “Pen and Notebook” to say, “If we’re going to do a quiet song…shut the fuck up,” to the crowd below. People were getting rowdy. She was on top of her game. She even added a courteous, “no offense”. (see video below)
The instruments in the show ranged from guitars to an organ and a trumpet, all haunting, all played like your favorite mix tape. I have to give extra credit to Kenny McKeeve for his backup vocals–I’ve never heard better “Ooh Ooh Oohs”.
Visually, the band was refined and polished. Their look encompassed the fifties’ style: women in vintage dresses, men in chic vests, depicting gender roles. Diners, drive-in movies, sentimentality–a sister’s social agony.
Between songs, the band thanked some folks for a delightful Thanksgiving dinner, and on the topic of the holidays, introduced a wintry single–a Jim Reeve’s cover titled “The Blizzard”. (For those of you who aren’t my grandmother, Jim Reeves was a twangy country singer in the 50s.) Pitchfork features “The Blizzard” here: http://pitchfork.com/forkcast/13616-the-blizzard-jim-reeves-cover/ so give a listen while looking at a pretty illustration of snow falling on a rustic house, taken from their EP.
Camera Obscura ended the evening with “French Navy”, a song that is arguably the best on My Maudlin Career. Two minutes later they regrouped on stage for their encore, playing, “Let’s Get Out of This Country”, and “Razzle Dazzle Rose”. The trumpets left us happy in the crowd, satisfied, some might say full. It was a musical feast and I’ll say it, catching this show was, in fact, “lucky as a four-leaved clover”.
