Cuzinmank has the intro to this set, and this band, so I shall show it now. It’s the song I like to call “High School Dance Jam”
Posts Tagged ‘2009
Making the list for the top 15 was painful. I think it took me until about number ten or so to really solidify who would best represent my feelings on the festival.
Sadly, I did take off a few key acts that also shaped my mind in important ways each and every year. Starting with last year, I’m going to go back into each festival and highlight some of the smaller bands that put on a fantastic show, but couldn’t crack the top 15.
#5 – Cage the Elephant
First off, any band that uses Orange amps is a friend.
Cage the Elephant is sort of new to the music scene, but the nature of their songs has kept them in the radio loop consistently. Because of this, you either have no idea or are very aware of who they are. Either way, they put on a good show to an anxious crowd on the first day of the festival. It was hot, the sun was punishing, and although being under a tent saves you, it also brings in a whole new level of heat and funk.
Cage’s rowdy blend of twang grunge helped cool me off and added more to their persona than their album allowed. The singles “No Rest for the Wicked” and “Back Against the Wall” worked live, and the other tracks sounded better than the album. All in all, I was impressed by the newbies and look forward to seeing what they can do on (hopefully) 2nd and 3rd efforts.
I don’t know a single word from a single song from this band. I don’t own any albums nor know the intimate details of the members in it. What I do know, however, is that I’ve seen them twice in the dark hours of the night and both times I came away impressed and dumbfounded.
Here we have a two piece band (a DJ/drummer and singer/guitarist) that focused on delivering a solid live performance and providing the right type of music to make your booty shake and your brain melt.
Islands –Vapours
Two years ago, I was introduced to the band Islands via some music research I was doing and found their debut album, Return to the Sea, very good, but sort of chaotic. It had a rap breakdown and a ten minute opener and closer. The album they put out in 2008 was focused, in a broad way. Sweeping epic stories filled Arm’s Way, and the theme switched to a dark, grimy place, filled with murder and justice and evil slowly creeping into your life. The themes seemed narrowed down, but the composition was sprawling, which, honestly, I loved.
Vapours rejects both of these and institutes its own reality. Four minute morsels of greatness are sprinkled lightly throughout my second favorite album of the year. Gone are the double-digit closers and multi-faceted songs and instead flow from start to finish, often giving a waterfall effect, going from serene to intense without the slightest warning.
Gone too are the dark stories and, in their place, are intriguing questions about life, and living with yourself. Not to mention, the best love song I’ve heard in years. These are the lyrics from track 6, “Tender Torture”
I’ll be your wave carrying you to shore.
And if your ribs are peeking through your fur,
I’ll feed you some more.I rode out of the city,
without you in my arms.
Under the moonglow,
i was a windblown, cast-down,
carved out watermelon.
Without you in my arms
Without you in my arms.And i’ve seen some great things,
But i dont want to see anything
If i cant see you.
Kicked open a coconut,
Could’ve shared it with anyone
But i wanted to share it with you.I’ll be your strings;
If you pluck them,
I’ll sing for you.
And if your hands are feeling tender,
I’ll take them in my own and make them better.I rose out of the water,
I can hold my breath for only so long.
I push past the breeze from the palm trees,
I’m coming towards you.
I’ve got to have you in my arms,
I’m gonna have you in my arms.And i’ve seen some great things,
But i dont want to see anything
If i cant see you.
Kicked open a coconut,
Could’ve shared it with anyone,
But i wanted to share it with you.You send me over in tender torture.
And when it’s over, it’s tender torture.
The song I’ll give as example is “Devout,” a great track told from the perspective of a bank robber that sells out his partner. He feels bad for the guy for believing him so much and then bailing out on him with all the cash.
When this dude sings the “You were so devout…” line, with that drum build up and bass essence…it raises hair. This album also came out on my birthday and it’s still in my car’s CD player.
The song “Heartbeat” is another stand-out, with singer Nick Diamonds calling out fans and critics alike with the use of auto-tune while challenging “I could’ve written more/But you don’t know what to listen for” and “Qued up the major third/But you don’t know you just take my word.” The whole thing is this great tongue-and-cheek critique of critiquing, and the fact that its done with this obvious fad is brilliant.
I really enjoy putting on a record and finishing it feeling like i just met four people. Four people that tried their hardest to tell me a story, especially if that story is a personal one, and a sincere one. This is the most sincere album of this year and the best un-categorizable band I know.
Please, go listen to Islands.
The link at the top will take you to a prior post I wrote about this album, so I’d like to introduce you to somebody.
America, meet Mr. Steven Wilson.
Steven Wilson, meet America.
Enough with that…
Steven Wilson is the renaissance man behind Porcupine Tree, and has been (as well as many other projects) for 20 years. Fans have only recently been popping up in the States, but fame and fortune is not the motivation here.
For people that know me, they now how big Pink Floyd is in my life. Rather, how big Pink Floyd was in my life. It’s tough when bands don’t exist anymore; the classics always hold a place, but the inability to get new material or hear it live cuts the cord from fan to band.
My favorite aspect of Floyd was Roger Waters and Roger Waters survived Pink Floyd, and created a vivacious solo career that helps fuel my fandom of his prior group.
Steven Wilson and Porcupine Tree are the Yin to my Pink Floyd Yang.
Waters grabbed me with his ability to sum up the trials and tribulations of being a kid. Family issues, questioning authority, hell, questioning everything. I learned more from The Wall then I did from Sesame Street. But I never felt like Roger gave me the Adult experience. Nothing graphic, just nothing deeper than hate, love, greed, etc. When I got older, I found the musical element was growing on me, but I couldn’t stay mentally stuck in youth anymore and I was growing out of that aspect of their music.
That’s not to say that those themes aren’t present in PT’s music, but it’s the way Wilson conveys his message, and more importantly, how the audio aspect of the band combines with his message. His music creates the landscape and his words fill in the details, line by line, until this descriptive, complex work of art is left.
Another bonus: The man can play guitar. Epic-ness begins at 2:15:
Like Waters, it’s Wilson’ ability to compose that impresses me so much. When someone has the ear for different parts, layers under and upon layers of sound, it’s astonishing to see it all work. And it all works. Not just his guitar work, which is excellent, but the crafting of the soul of a song.
Imagine every song is a pizza. The topping bar is there, and you have every choice of topping you could ever want. Go ahead, grab some cheese and pepperoni. Who doens’t love that? Ok, maybe add some onions. Oh, do you like olives? Me too! Ok, now let’s throw on the anchovies…
In essence, this is the model of staleness in music today. Everyone will stuff down a pepperoni pizza, and that’s what the labels give you, they give you regular, similar, easily-duplicated “pop”peroni pizza.
Wilson is a master chef, and throws everything he can into the mix and comes out with a gourmet meal. It’s a risk because not everyone is gonna like it and most people won’t even give it a shot because it looks too complicated and fancy.
Waters. Wilson. Not that different, eh? One plays psychedelic bass and the other proggy rock. Both scraggily hair British intellectuals with flair for the dramatic. It all makes sense now…
God, I hope they don’t play at Bonnaroo this year. It would break my heart…
Top ten of 2009 – #7
The Mars Volta – Octahedron
Thank Baby Jesus for Thomas Pridgen.
A few years ago, a group of buddies and myself all drove out to the famous Yoshi’s jazz club in Oakland to see a fabulous horn player (Christian Scott), but ended up asking “Who the hell is that drummer?” the entire set. Turns out, it’s the Bay Area’s own Thomas Pridgen, who ended up replacing Jon Theodore behind the kit for The Mars Volta last year on their strong outing Bedlam in Goliath.
Pridgen’s drumming is the glue that holds this band together. Omar Rodriguez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala are as “Jimmy Page and Robert Plant” as any other duo since the 70’s, and they may finally found their John Bohnam.
This album is a powerhouse with a slow burn. It starts off deftly, with no music, tiny synth sounds, and soft, acoustic melodies. Skip in five minutes and the drums hit, then the rocking starts. And it doesn’t stop until the final track.
“Teflon”, the second track, is a great example of Mars Volta machinery at work. While Cedric tells us to “Let the wheels burn/Let the wheels burn/Stack the tires to the neck /with the body inside,” the rest of the band is exploring the space and range around his vocals, filling empty space with trippy psych-synth and non-repetitive fills and riffs…until the end when Cedric’s chants become explosive and the guitars swirl like a swarm of angry bees. Furiously overcharged Orange amps produce some of the best sound in music today.
“Cotopaxi” picks up right where their first album, De-Loused in the Comatorium, left off, and we are all better for it. This track really showcases the strength of an entire ensemble working together. Sadly, the song writing process for the band is sort of odd, as the main two write and compose the tracks, then tell the bandmates what to play. This is supposed to be the last album they record in that fashion, and it makes me look forward to their new material even more.
The greatness of this band is impossible to explain until you’ve seen them live. The energy and passion put into their art form is nearly unparalleled, and while the footage isn’t amazing, I do have some to share with you. It’s from Bonnaroo earlier this year, and it’s indicative of other live Mars Volta events.
This album one of the first of the year that had me glued and was actually keeping me from getting around to a lot of other things. Strangely, almost all of their albums have that effect on me, but it’s a treat to see a band’s sixth studio effort (five albums and one EP) be more memorable than their last and even more promising of things to come.
Top Ten of 2009 – Numero Ocho
Brand New – Daisy
Released on September 22nd (my birthday), the Long Island wailers gave me the best present I could ask for. One of the most raw and promising bands of my generation put out another tome of rugged riffs and screaming confessions. Brand New’s singer, Jesse Lacey, really brought out his skeletons and smashed them to pieces. I appreciate artists that are not afraid to put out the opposite of what’s expected. I don’t mean flashing skin or going “extreme”, I mean hearing a guy talk about life and love and loss without it sounding fake or soft. Bands like Alkaline Trio do this extremely well, and as a male listener, it relates on a different level than most music I listen to.
Brand New isn’t for everyone, but I don’t know a lot of casual fans of theirs. Pretty much just the die-hard support these guys and they’ve been pleasing their constituents for years. I had the pleasure of seeing them at the Warfield in San Francisco a few years ago and was stunned. Sometimes deeper music is tougher to play live, as pyro tricks and fog machines are counter-productive to relating about issues. But this band thinks about the music as a live piece of art first and foremost, then scoops it out onto an album.
The best qualities of this album, however, are the slower moments. The hardest thing to do in music is to be quiet and powerful at the same time. To stress subtlety. It requires restraint as well as force. That sort of musical harmony sums up a band like Brand New. They are able to take the sweet with the sour and provide the id, ego, and superego for those willing to experience it.