Archive for April, 2009
Noah and the Whale + Chicago, it’s a love story.
I have a tendency to forget to post about shows. This will not be one of those times.
With a slated start time of 10pm, I decided to begin my trek to Chicago’s Empty Bottle for a night of folk-love fun, Noah and the Whale style, at around 8:30pm. A train and bus ride later, I found myself alone in the heart of Humboldt Park at the corner of Rape & Assault walking three blocks towards a venue that had so many times denied me the joy of live music for simply being unable to purchase alcohol in accordance with U.S. law. My resentment towards this ludicrous piece of legislation is something the Whale boys are all too familiar with, much to my embarrassment, but luckily they’ve been known to sympathize. But alas, this is not a time to dwell on the past. Oh no, it is time to focus on the goods. The Future.
Taking the stage at a quarter past 10, Chicago’s own Anni Rossi brought the small still-gathering crowd to silence as she opened her set with “Machine”, plucking her viola and stomping on the floor in time. Although distracting chatter could be heard coming from the bar throughout her set, Rossi managed to keep the crowd at the front of the stage captivated with her unique playing style and dulcet voice. Ferraby Lionheart and company were up next. With a set comprised of songs from his debut Catch the Brass Ring and a handful of new material, Lionheart’s lighthearted, pop-folk sound set the tone for what would follow–Noah and the Whale.
The Whale boys wasted no time in setting up their gear and before any notes were played, the oohh’s and ahh’s and declarations of love began flowing from the crowd, from sober and inebriated males and females alike. Allowing the anticipation to build, Noah and the Whale finally took the stage a little after midnight much to the delight of the packed room. With no acoustic guitars or ukuleles in sight, it became obvious that we were all about to be treated to Noah and the Whale, electric style. Exciting.
Opening the show with “Blue Skies”, a new one which will also serve as the new records’ opener, the song would prove to be one of the slower and more quiet numbers of the night, along with an album version of “Mary”. Songs like “Give a Little Love” and “5 Years Time” saw the band channeling the energy of their punk-influenced side project, The A-Sides. And for a minute during “Slow Glass”, the band often referred to as folk and ‘twee’–whatever that actually means—became a noise band à la Sonic Youth as Charlie began holding a variety of objects, including an electric toothbrush, over his pickup, creating warped guitar noises and successfully driving onlookers wild.
The crowd, half of which had been intoxicated even before Noah and the Whale took the stage, was more than willing to oblige when Charlie requested audience participation during the climactic ending to “Stranger”. Handclaps and sing-along’s galore went down during album favorites “2 Atoms in a Molecule” and “Rocks and Daggers”. Although the audience responded very well to the new material, it was obviously “5 Years Time” that drove the packed room into a joyous frenzy. After a fun, good-time cover of The Smiths’ “Girlfriend in a Coma”, the boys closed their set with “The First Days of Spring”—title-track from their upcoming second album—a song that slowly builds up into an explosion of energy with the sound of the violin at the epicenter. I swear, if I could have babies with a song it would be this one. The last time I saw Noah and the Whale was at an all-ages show that had been organized last minute, resulting in a relatively weak turnout. Although they played an incredible set, the majority of the crowd seemed too timid to show much enthusiasm. This time, it was fun to see the band feed off the excitement and energy of the crowd, so much so that they returned to the stage for an encore, ending an incredible night of music with “My Door is Always Open”, purposely leaving the crowd with a taste of what’s to come.
More photos from the night: http://www.flickr.com/photos/catalinaaa/sets/72157617358522154/
Video #1:
Video #2: My Door Is Always Open
For now, Noah and the Whale will return home to finalize plans for their second album, The First Days of Spring, which will be accompanied by a feature film written and directed by Charlie himself. The band hope to have the album/film out by the Summer, allowing them to return to the States in the Fall after touring the UK. So in the meantime, keep your fingers crossed, eagerly await the new record, and go see them live if you’ve got the chance! They have three shows left on their US tour: Paradise Rock Club/Boston – April 29, Bowery Ballroom/NYC – May 1, Black Cat/Washington D.C. – May 2.
The Maccabees – Wall of Arms (2009)
Those who keep me company, they are wall of arms around me. It is they who are my army.
Well ladies and gentlemen, The Maccabees have honestly managed to create an album nothing short of incredible.
From the energetic guitar sounds that open the album to the heartwarming, closing proclamation that our love is “so much more besides” a bag of bones, the boys have managed to produce much more than Colour It In: Part Two. Which, after all, is precisely what they had set out to do. Not because their debut effort was in any way subpar, but to prove to fans, critics, and partly to themselves, that the band hadn’t yet reached the peak of their creative potential.
The Maccabees have no doubt grown as songwriters and musicians since that first time we heard early versions of “X-Ray” and “About Your Dress “almost four years ago. They’ve toured relentlessly, managing to build a passionate and supportive fan base all before even releasing a debut album. While the recording of Colour It In gave The Maccabees a chance to perfect the songs that had introduced the band to millions (“First Love” and “Latchmere” becoming crowd-pleasing-anthems at their live shows), Wall of Arms serves as the perfect showcase of the band’s growth and willingness to experiment with sounds—title-track “Wall of Arms” and “Dinosaurs” feature horns, piano sounds grace “One Hand Holding”, while the rhythm section shines throughout the album. But, through it all, The Maccabees have managed to keep that inherent, impossible-to-pinpoint quality that makes them the same band we fell in love with all those moons ago. And although Wall of Arms is as perfect as an album can be, something tells me The Maccabees aren’t quite done showing us what they’ve got to offer.
PRE-ORDER “WALL OF ARMS” NOW
or buy a copy at your local record store May 4th. Support bands, buy music. It’s fun.
Another leg of their UK tour starts Thursday in Northamton (support coming from the one and only Mumford & Sons) taking them straight through the big summer festivals. Go see them live in my honor: http://www.myspace.com/themaccabees
Florence and the Machine overload!
Florence and the Machine’s A Lot of Love, A Lot of Blood EP comes out tomorrow, but today details about her debut album were finally released:
Lungs will be due out July 6th (not sure about the US release just yet) in three different formats:
Standard and Vinyl editions
1. Dog Days Are Over
2. Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)
3. I’m Not Calling You A Liar
4. Howl
5. Kiss With A Fist
6. Girl With One Eye
7. Drumming
8. Between Two Lungs
9. Cosmic Love
10. My Boy Builds Coffins
11. Hurricane Drunk
12. Blinding Bonus: You’ve Got The Love
Special Edition (special packaging + second disc)
Tracklisting is the same as the standard album, but the second disc includes:
1. Bird Song
2. Dog Doys Are Over (Demo)
3. Falling
4. Hardest Of Hearts
5. I’m Not Calling You A Liar (Demo)
6. Girl With 1 Eye (James Ford version)
New single “Rabbit Heart (Raise it up)" premiered tonight on Steve Lamacq’s radio show. Check that out here, the song starts about 23 minutes in. Sounds very different from Dog Days are Over and Kiss With a Fist, but still excellent.
Pre-order the album here and check her myspace for the 8932745982374 festivals you can catch her playing this summer!
Wall of Arms preview!
Written preview, that is. No audio just yet, it seems. Bummer.
Ellie Brown over at The-Fly.Co.UK has written a few words on every track from The Maccabees’ upcoming “Wall of Arms”. As the release date gets closer and closer (May 4th!!), the anticipation keeps on building.
‘William Powers’
The Maccabees fall off the rails with this adventurous journey of ‘William Powers’. It starts off with throbbing strings and spiky drumming, but the vocals build up an inexorable tension, broken by fragile soft “I’ll see you when you’re older”. A burst of drums break up some guitar fury and at one point the song really turns up the heat and the drumming pace picks up like The Killer’s ‘All These Things That I’ve Done’. The song has more sides to it than a Rubix Cube and takes a few listens to really appreciate its intricacies.
Let’s not be insulted by the reference to The Killers, instead let’s be excited about how great it will be to hear a proper recording of “William Powers” after all these years! READ THE REST OF THE ALBUM PREVIEW HERE.
Damn it’s going to be good.
The Maccabees played an acoustic instore two days ago over at London’s Sister Ray as part of Record Store Day and rocked none other than a melodica! How great. You can hear the melodica maccasounds in action on this clip (the sound is a bit off because of the zooming, but after you skip to about 1:14 it’s all goooood):
You can also hear the melodica on this clip of “Love You Better”, but the zooming messes with the sound quite a bit. My guess was that the melodica would sound brilliant on it…and I was right.
Kid Harpoon is back in business!!
The one, the only Mr. Kid Harpoon (aka Tom Hull) is back in action. He was never “gone” per say, just away recording his debut album, scrapping it, starting over, and finally finishing it again.
The album is now finished, mastered and ready for release in September. The first single, “Stealing Cars”, will be available on 7” and via iTunes on June 15th and I’ll be playing a few UK dates around that time too. To hear the new song (and the B-Side) and get details of the live dates please visit the Kid Harpoon myspace http://www.myspace.com/kidharpoon
What are you waiting for?! Do as the man says and head over to his myspace to hear his brand new songs! “Stealing Cars” is already stuck in my head and I’m not minding it one bit! September will be a terrific month. And as always, you lucky UK folks have some amazing shows to look forward to!
Late of the Pier tear Chicago a new one
Hard to believe it was only last Saturday when Late of the Pier infiltratred Chicago and kicked the city’s ass like no other. Back in February when I first heard the band would be making waves across these great states of ours, I was shocked by the venue they would be playing (Congress Theater– 4000 capacity and notorious for horrible sound) but it all made sense once more details about the show were revealed. Unlike most of the other shows on their first U.S. tour, Late of the Pier would be playing Chicago as part of Branded, the first show in a series “[presenting] both breakout and established acts, and [fusing] together electronic, rock, hip-hop, art, fashion, new media, technology, and culture” (source). Dj acts Deadmau5 and Crookers would serve as the night’s headliners, with Late of the Pier and The Whip (and a gaggle of local djs) acting as “support”.
Yeah, Chicago definitely got the short end of the stick on this one. But alas, beggars can’t be choosers and getting to see and hear even 10 seconds of Late of the Pier live was more my little synth-loving heart could ask for.
After the three longest dj sets of my life and a band whose name I can’t remember but who I had never been happier to see because they were actually playing INSTRUMENTS (no matter how badly), The Whip took to the stage and played as best they could considering the sound problems that plagued their mic and keyboards through the entirety of their half-hour set. The crowd seemed too intoxicated to notice any problems with the sound, they jumped and happily threw their arms in the air when Mr. Whip Frontman told them to do so.
More sound and equipment problems made the change up between The Whip and Late of the Pier almost an hour long, meaning we all had to stand through yet another godforsakenly long dj set from lord-knows-who. Finally, the music stopped and the lights went out. The next half hour of my life was a blur. They kicked started the party with “Space and the Woods”. Faley wasted no time, jumping on Ross’ drums and driving the crowd into a frenzy. Potter, dressed in a sequinned gold top, worked up the crowd with his signature dance moves while Sam tried his best to sing through faulty microphones. Eventually becoming aggravated with the lack of decent sound, he began kicking the monitors off the stage and into the photographers pit (the biggest and most irritating photographers pit in the world. seriously, more irritating than the one at Aragon Ballroom). Some saw it as a childish, temper trantrum but that’s exactly what it was not. Late of the Pier is the kind of band that want to give their audience the best performance possible, if something like shit sound is going to interfere with that then the band will, and pardon my French, fuck shit up. It was glorious. Sam kicked a monitor here and a second monitor there. He flipped over his keyboard and jumped on the stand, opting to play it vertically like it was no big deal. After jumping into the crowd and successfully infuriating the Congress Theater security team even further,Sam and the boys closed the set with “Bathroom Gurgle”, leaving the stage in shambles and the crowd wanting more. Perfect.
Setlist: Space and the Woods / Heartbeat / The Bears are Coming / VW / Focker / Bathroom Gurgle
I took a minute from my lunatic-dancing and screaming and managed to record VW (and a bit of Heartbeat), for memories sake. Love party.
I can only hope they return sooner rather than later. At a better venue. With shiny new songs that tug at my heartsrings and make my body dance.
Oh, I didn’t care for Crookers or Deadmau5 so I didn’t stick around. Doubt I missed anything.
