SKIPSTER / ECHOING VOICES OF INDEPENDENT MUSIC IN UPSTATE NY

Last Friday, the biggest  crowd I’ve ever seen at an Ithaca College event packed into the extremely hot Emerson Suites for the first concert of the semester: The Mountain Goats (or rather John Darnielle solo) and local chanteuse Emily Arin. Our beautiful photographer, Angelina, was up close enduring the heat, to get up close and personal with Emily and John. Before the show John did do some artwork for the skipster museum, so be sure to check that out too!

John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats

Emily Arin

photos courtesy of Angelina Castillo

Akron/Family, Jeffrey Lewis and Slaraffenland: 9/16/09 at Ithaca’s Castaways

Akron/Family

Jeffrey Lewis

Slaraffenland

check out this clip of the 15 minute plus jammy version of “Ed is a Portal” from the night- definitely a highlight.
*thanks to Joe Caitlin for taping the show: download here.

all photos taken by the wonderful Angelina Castillo

Facing the onslaught of a new academic semester, as well as a recent breakout of Swine Flu, the student-driven community of Ithaca, NY gathered last Sunday to usher in Labor Day 2009. The occasion for this was the Positive Jam, a miniature music festival whose line-up comprised of the Rural Alberta Advantage, Deer Tick, the Felice Brothers and the Hold Steady.

Among openers, Deer Tick fared best, cycling through highlights from their twin LP’s War Elephant and Born On Flag Day without misstep. The band, whose frontman claims Hank Williams as a pervading influence, were an inspired choice for the event: they, like much of the crowd, consist of Northeasterners with an affinity for American roots music. It’s to their credit, too, that they were able to deliver a number of self-reflective numbers without losing their audience to the anticipation of those promised “positive jams.”

The wellspring of those jams, headliners The Hold Steady, arrived following an effusive introduction by promoter Dan Smalls. Smalls’ local booking company, Dan Smalls Presents, organized and promoted the event.

The Hold Steady’s set consisted mostly of tracks taken from their last two full-lengths, 2008’s Stay Positive and 2006’s Boys and Girls in America. Though it’s all a glorious mess of murderous townies and soaring riffs, one highlight was keyboardist Franz Nicolay’s self-consciously operatic solo on “Stuck Between Stations,” suspending the song in tense delay before a rousing final minute. There were others, too, like “Hostile, Mass.” and “Multitude of Casualties,” both early-catalogue staples that grow more ferociously accented with time. “Slapped Actress,” the final track on Stay Positive, closed out the main set with a wink to the Cassavetes’ film Opening Night. In a brief interview before the show, lead singer Craig Finn explained that the film had impacted him with its “all the world’s a stage” theorem, something he was concurrently dealing with as his band exploded and he began to discover fragments of his personal life doubling as blog headlines.

Finn went on to discuss a number of other points. When asked about the band’s mercurial attitude toward the desperate, liquoroed-up smalltown heroes that inhabit their songs, Finn confirmed that “it’s not out of dislike… it’s just describing certain clichés or things like that.” He also responded to the recent release of A Positive Rage, a DVD documentary/live album the band released whose footage was taken during the Boys and Girls in America tour several years ago. “When Boys and Girls in America came out, it felt like something was kinda lifting off. It took a hundred hours to try to make a compelling story out of it. Now, whether that’s compelling…” (Editor’s note: Don’t worry, it is.)

The band also unleashed a few new songs: the first sounded suspiciously like a punk appropriation of Meet Me in St. Louis’ “Trolley Song,” with a flailing Finn standing in for that Hollywood musical’s swooning actresses. Then there was “Heaven Is Whenever,” a ballad more in line with either “Lord I’m Discouraged” or “First Night” that seemed to convince the crowd that it had already been long-established among fans. Finn himself was unsure of the new material’s direction and whether it would continue the linear chronology of characters’ aging that has linked their first four releases. “Stay Positive definitely had a concerted effort to write about people that were a little older. That’s was it was about, keeping idealism as you’re aging,” he said. “What happens next, I don’t know.”

As The Hold Steady’s ambivalence confirms, it’s unclear how much satiric bite informs their own song “Positive Jam,” a cut off the debut Almost Killed Me LP. Either way, it seems that attitude has translated into a local reputation in step with their critical admiration. If “boys and girls in America have such a sad time together,” as the band’s Kerouac-borrowed lyric goes, at least they’ll wake up hung over on Labor Day remembering a night with the Hold Steady.

Mike Spreter (Photo by Judson Baker)

Ra Ra Riot with Maps and Atlases and Princeton
Thursday, September 10, 2009 at Castaways in Ithaca, NY

Maps & Atlases

Ra Ra Riot

Before the Show Workin’ for the Skipster Museum:

Erin and Dave of Maps and Atlases doing some drawing

Allie of Ra Ra Riot with her masterpiece. Check it out in the Skipster Museum.

all pictures courtesy of the beautiful Angelina Castillo, except the last three, by Scott Pollack.

In the hot hot sun, five incredible bands took the stage about 40 feet away from the blue Cayuga Lake in Stewart Park thanks to Dan Smalls Presents’ the Positive Jam! Starting in the early summer, one by one each great act was announced… the local support announced just days ago (Ithaca’s own Caution Children- who will be playing the Skipster Halloween Party!!). From Rural Alberta Advantage’s rompin’ and stompin’ early afternoon set, to Deer Tick’s cover of “La Bamba” – it was definitely the place to be this weekend. Local favorite the Felice Brothers definitely culled in the crowd, packing the pit area for their long and energetic set. Between the spastic violin solos, the smokin’ accordian player, and the frontman with his tribal painted face, it was a circus. Last and certainly not least was the Hold Steady. After packing Castaways in June, apparently Smalls planted the idea in the bands head and it just grew from there. All I can say about the Hold Steady’s set…Energy…oh and my Dad would have loved it. Hey Dad.
Here’s to hoping this becomes an annual event!

The Rural Alberta Advantage

Deer Tick

The Felice Brothers

The Hold Steady

Check back later this week for Skipster’s interview with the Hold Steady!!

all photos by Scott Pollack, do not use without credit.

Sunday Music

Sunday was, personally, the better of the two days. Minus two or three acts, I was pumped for everyone on the bill, leading up to an important show for me.

The first band was Coeur de Pirate. I love how bands think stupid shit in a language that sounds better makes a name ok. It doesn’t. Francophone, Anglophone, whatever, heart of the pirate is stupid. The lead singer was cute and seemed genuinely pleased that the people in the audience reached double digits for their early set. The band also had nautical themed accents to match their moniker, like a navy hat and life ring. Kudos.

Datarock are good sports. They stepped into what is essentially the worst setting for their Nordic tongue-in-cheek disco rock. Daylight, a giant open space, and a tiny lethargic crowd. The red track suit clad quartet attempted to clap, hop, and sing along their way into hearts. It didn’t work. The tall guy even came into the pit and danced around on the 3/4 empty floor. Poor Datarock. I liked you.

datarock: notice the sad audience

The headliner’s hand-picked opener, Mew, took the thinly fogged stage next. These guys are awesome, if you’ve never given them a shot on album, I suggest you do so. You may hate it after thirty seconds and switch it off, but if you don’t, you are going to love them.

I think Mute Math decided after a year or two of relative obscurity, screw it, let’s just let the drummer freak out a lot. That’s the live show. A frenetic singer hops around during mostly generic guitar songs while a drummer whose style is similar to Animal from the Muppets pounds recklessly on a comically small drum set and a big bass drum set off to the side. “Typical” is still a great single though. And even though it’s gotten predictable, the drum breakdowns are still, well, pretty thrilling.

mute math

Next up in the line up was the Cold War Kids, who are always good. They are the wingman extraordinaire of the rock festival scene. Bob your head, groove on them, and then wait 30 more minutes for the bigger acts. The crowd shrunk during their set, dropping down to a couple thousand. More than halfway through the day, on the main stage of what was supposed to be a destination festival pulling more than 35,000 fans a day. Maybe 5,000 people. But those of us that were there, enjoyed it.

cold war kids

Seriously, would anyone give a shit about N.E.R.D. if Pharrell wasn’t in the band? Point is moot, because of course he is in the band, and the crowd swelled back up for their raucous set. Early on, Pharrell mentioned Nine Inch Nails prompting an eruption from the crowd, and said it was their job to pump the crowd up for Trent. With that simple goal set forth, the band spent 45 minutes fulfilling exactly that. So the songs aren’t that great, and I can’t really tell what the band is going for, ever. And the gimmick of bringing fans up on stage may still fool people into excitement for one song. But for 4 consecutive songs? Anyway, it worked. Crowd = pumped, and stayed that way for the rest of the night. Thanks for the atmosphere, Pharrell.

I might offend people here. If you’re offended, I’m not really all that sorry. Our Lady Peace suck. C’mon now, you have to know this. Every song is the exact same! They’re like a north of the border Everclear. I can’t even make up an embellished comparison to describe them…something about U2, leather jackets…Adam Levine, shit-grunge…yadda yadda. But the Canadians LOVED them. Maybe I just don’t get it, I don’t know. But by the fifth time they played Superman’s Dead, I was ready for something fresh.

our lady peace

Pet Shop Boys on the other hand, were something fresh. After a day of mostly stronger, louder guitar-rock, Neil and Chris were anything but. Highly-choreographed, brightly colored, backup-dancer-ed electro pop? Bring that shit on! With two robotic cube-headed back up singers, the duo came on stage between giant white cubes and put on a show. More theatrical, bigger, and certainly aware of what they were doing, they danced and flashed their way through a thoroughly staged hour of hits from the late 80’s and 90’s, all the way up to some of their recent material. Really, just look at the pictures, and know that there were four backup dancers shimmying in a circle dressed as skyscrapers, and also trampolines. One of the best of the weekend.

pet shop boys

This leads us to the reason that half of the audience had actually come out. For the one and only time, the venue was full to capacity with a brimming pit and every seat crammed with one too many people. Nine Inch Nails is playing on their advertised “Last Tour Ever”, and like myself, there was the palpable sense that everyone was there to see them on more time. The crowd was vast, various, and grateful. Fifteen minutes late, Trent Reznor stormed onstage and launched into “Somewhat Damaged”, a personal favorite from The Fragile. From there, the set never let up. The four piece tore through classics (“Terrible Lie”, “March of the Pigs”) and more recent material from The Slip and Year Zero. The highlight for me was the quiet, tense “Something I Can Never Have” from their debut, Pretty Hate Machine. Huge nerd alert. This was my fifth time seeing NIN, and all I wanted was that song. It shows up on maybe 40% of set lists and I had never once gotten it. This was the night.

After an hour and 45 minutes of the career-spanning set, the band closed with their usual triumvirate of “Hurt”, “The Hand That Feeds”, and “Head Like a Hole”. The pit erupted in chants of Thank-You-Trent! Like a lemming, I joined in just as the chant died and looked like an idiot. But I really wouldn’t care how newbie I looked the set list and show were killer. Very The Fragile heavy, very fan friendly, and the last chance we will get to see Nine Inch Nails for a very long time. I call Coachella 2015 headliner.

Final Comments:

On Virgin fest’s website, it thanks 30,000 fans for coming out to the show. Obviously, that is the combined total for both days. (How do I know? Venue capacity is 17,000.) So hitting half of their expected ticket sales and all of the costs associated with picking the festival up and moving it 50 miles three weeks before the show probably means we will be looking elsewhere for entertainment next summer. But for all the faults in planning and carrying out the festival itself, the programming and music was a huge success. Back to back glorified Pixies and Nine Inch Nails concerts are good enough for me, and it seems to me like they were good enough for Toronto.

Drew Nelson

Healthcare reform. Shaq in a Cavs uniform. Caring about Michael Jackson. Jon or Kate. Virgin Fest Ontario.

All things that won’t be around in 2010.

In its fourth year, Virgin Fest Toronto established some lofty goals. With sights on the likes of Lollapalooza and Coachella, the festival expanded into Virgin Fest Ontario, a two day destination affair with camping. Set an hour north of Toronto at Burl’s Creek park, site of an auto flea market, the intent was to bring huge crowds to a “Bonnaroo-of-the-North”. Apparently, no one at Virgin realized that the North American economy is, well, shit. Or that Ben Harper isn’t a headliner.

So after severely underselling expectations, the festival moved once again, this time to a giant tin box in downtown Toronto. you know, the Molson Amphitheatre. Yes, a general admission destination festival packed into a seated 16,000-capacity venue. Who exactly thought that was a good idea? There were people asking how the seating worked up until the last set of the weekend. It had to be a desperation move.

And despite that, it was a total success musically. There were three stages, but I’m convinced the smaller ones didn’t exist, they were just put on the schedule to maintain that this wasn’t a “concert,” it was a “festival.” I never saw them, apparently they were shoved in a joined amusement park or something, requiring a wrist band to get back and forth. I said musically it was a success.

SATURDAY

The Saturday line-up was all about indie; leading up to one of the forefathers of the genre. *note: I’m going to act like Ben Harper wasn’t even there. I have nothing against him or his new band, and actually liked him live last time I saw him. But there is no excuse for putting him after the Pixies. Thus, my boycott. *

Mates of State were the first set of the day and I would like to be able to say this was a great set, but I can’t. It was a great two songs at the end of the set. In other words, the process of getting into the venue sucked. But it’s worth mentioning that they played a Tom Waits cover.

Lights were next. I listened to about ten seconds of the bland keytar pop before turning off my nonexisting hearing aid. You have to empathize with the acts that start these festivals though, playing to an empty shell of a crowd. They tried to pull people in, and at times it seemed like they were about to break into “Lykkean” territory with synth swells and female coos. Never happened.

Third was way, way too early in the lineup for Grizzly Bear to play. You know- making the best album of the year (what, you like MPP better?) should probably qualify for a primo spot. Apparently Canadians rank Veckatimest just above whatever-the-fuck-Lights-puts-out. But in the end of the day it just didn’t matter as their set was tight, unpredictable, and musically pristine. Making a kingly album is one thing, putting it all together live and adding to the mix makes a band Great. And, after their criminally short set, the band put down their instruments, waved, and walked off as if nothing had just happened.

It should be added that at this point, maybe, maybe 1,000 people were in the venue. Probably far less.

Sloan played next. If you don’t know Sloan, well, imagine a goofy Canadian Oasis. Without the raw tension or Beatle-esque songwriting chops. Also, have the drummer look like my high school physics teacher.

The biggest surprise of the festival was certainly Paolo Nutini. After seeing him a few years back and walking away after two weepy ballads in a row, imagine my surprise when a crumpled up soulman stormed the stage with an exuberant backing band, including one of the guys from Mythbusters on harmonica. A friend turned to me and said, “That can’t be his real voice.” When a girl who loves Dylan makes a comment like that, it means something. Nutini added some flavor to a day that was otherwise frankly a little homogenous.

The crowd finally grew to a respectable volume before Franz Ferdinand took the stage. The pit flooded with people who had apparently found the other stages earlier. Or who preferred beer to some of the bands. Either way, the previously docile crowd swelled as the band took the stage clad in Dad-appropriate outfits, plaid shirts and striped sweaters. They made the wise choice of drawing the crowd in quickly, opening with “The Dark of the Matinee” and rolling through a brief but hit-driven set. I guess I hadn’t noticed, but it turns out Franz Ferdinand have released three CDs with two or three legitimate singles each, enough to fill a festival set easily. They’ve also gotten better at writing for live performance; newer songs like “Ulysses” and “No You Girls Do”, in fact, rock. Top five set of the weekend.

I don’t care if they weren’t playing last, Pixies were my headliner, dammit. With the familiar row of identical Marshall amps lined up and Lovering’s drum kit pushed to the side, Pixies walked out onto the stage like the indie Grandparents they are. Frank Black still looks like Matt Pinfield and Kim Deal is still cute as shit, and they played their parts flawlessly. Frank barely looked at the audience, Kim thanked us after every song.

Here’s the thing about seeing the Pixies. It doesn’t really matter how they play. They could hire circus performers to come out and play their instruments and watch the show from folding chairs at the back of the stage, and it wouldn’t matter. When it’s those songs, it has to be good. And they’re pretty good live to boot. The second largest crowd of the weekend agreed and I was pleased with the reaction they got; over the course of the day, I had become wary of how this crowd would treat the band. They did well. Good job, Toronto.

After an hour of songs spread out over the entire the back catalog, the band hit their stride and bombarded the audience with a “Debaser” > “Monkey Gone to Heaven” > “Where is my Mind?” > “Gigantic” series that got the already amped audience up and singing every word. The band utilized falling action and came down for the rest of the set, and then politely in the manner of elder statesmen, came to the front of the stage together, waved goodbye, and walked off.

I didn’t stay for Ben Harper. I’m sorry, I just couldn’t do it. I’ll just make something up… His songs were long and he talked about community politics between them. Good enough?

Drew Nelson

Alright get ready for New Release Tuesday! Well, to be quite honest, it looks like a pretty shitty week for new releases- with next week harboring all the goodies. However, here’s a handful of the noticeable ones.

*all preview songs are downloadable. If you like em’ grab the album at yer local record shop. Rochester, that means Lakeshore Records, and Ithaca, that means Volume Records. Got it!?*

David Bazan // Curse Your Branches
(Out Tuesday)
download: “Bless this Mess”

Formerly of Pedro the Lion, David Bazan is back with a second solo effort, thanks to Barsuk Records. A man of consistent art, this is anything and everything you could want and/or expect from a Bazan record.

The Apples in Stereo // #1 Hits Explosion! [Greatest Hits]
(Out Tuesday)
download: “The Bird That You Can’t See“

Juliette Lewis // Terra Incognita
(Out Tuesday)
download: “Suicide Dive Bombers”

I’m not sure what’s up with Juliette Lewis. To me she will always be Carla, the mentally retarded character from The Other Sister. However, she’s still trying out her hand at a career in alternative music. She’s like the C-List Karen O. I must say though, listening through her album it’s not as bad as I anticipated. The song above, “Suicide Dive Bombers” certainly has awful lyrics, however really, it’s not half bad. I take that all back. I listened to the song on repeat 4 times. I never ever want to hear it again.

Susanna and the Magical Orchestra // 3
(Out Tuesday)
download: “Another Day”

I first heard of Susanna Wallumrod when I stumbled upon a few of her beautiful covers. (most noteable Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” and Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence). She takes her heartbreakingly simple voice (I mean that in a good way) and gives these songs a whole different vibe and meaning. Either way, Susanna’s new album 3 may not be a masterpiece, but it’ certainly worth checking out

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THE BRUNETTES // HOTEL REVERIE @ the Bug Jar, 8/8/09

Another week, another surprisingly fruitful showcase at Rochester’s Bug Jar.

Headliners The Brunettes were preceded by Rochester’s own Hotel Reverie, a boy/girl pair whose casual, mumbling female vocals slow-burn alongside a threatening drums-and-guitar setup. Sort of like PJ Harvey with a drumming animal trainer trying to keep her sexuality in check. A quick look at their MySpace reveals they’re actually a brother and sister act, so tell me: what is it about punk music that generates so much incestual tension? Either way, they’re one of the more promising local acts I’ve seen in years. Strangers & Music-Makers is the title of their (rather homemade) new full-length, and it’s been on pretty consistent rotation here over the past week

The Brunettes were next, pivoting the onstage energy from ascetic to joyous, with five band members now occupying the venue’s tiny stage. The band expressed apparent nervousness over their use of backing tracks — their new LP is the first to use them — but they worked well in context, laying down Spector-ish beats for the crowd to chew on while the band fine-tooled their new material. (For the record, there’s not much deviation from the girl-group-meets-West-African-beat formula they’ve been shopping since their debut.) They were all indeed brunettes from New Zealand, too, something on fine display in their audience banter as they hopped between self-deprecation and mocking rockers’ swagger. Before one ballad, the frontman sadly admitted that the forthcoming song was “not danceable… maybe swayable,” perhaps clarifying the band’s infectious drive for late-comers.

That drive was enough to rile up enough fervor, apparently, that they later became heroes upon kicking open the back door to let in an outside breeze. They even segued directly into an encore, blithely announcing “This is our encore” instead of playing the traditional “will your clapping lure us back onstage?” game that wastes so much time elsewhere. The match with Hotel Reverie seemed odd in retrospect, other than the continuous trade between male/female energy. But we could all use more beer-fueled nights that open with narcotic fever and end in wall-of-sound ebullience. Not the other way around.

listen to the brunettes:

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Michael Spreter