More lists

This week's Other Paper has my top five albums for 2008, along with brief write-ups, and the top five Columbus albums (all of which you'll probably recognize).

Semi-regular posting will resume next week.

This week's Other Paper

Christmas music reviews: Rosie Thomas's A Very Rosie Christmas! here, Julian Koster's The Singing Saw at Christmastime here.

Dear Time

TV on the Radio's Dear Science has been popping up on a whole lot of "Best of 2008" lists, even topping off compendiums by mainstream mags like Spin and Rolling Stone. I could bemoan how blog culture is becoming synonymous with the mainstream press like Idolator did, but I'd rather just be happy that most people--Big Media and bloggers/blog readers alike--seem to recognize how great this album is, and they're giving TV on the Radio the credit it deserves for this one (it nabbed the #4 spot on my list).

Time has joined the party too, awarding Dear Science the #2 spot. Now, I hate to be one of those guys who critiques someone else's critique, but I have to say the accompanying writeup smacked of ignorance, especially this line: "With its Beach Boys '"ba-ba-bas" and killer lo-fi guitar, "Halfway Home" is all propulsion and energy, the best album opener of the year."

True, it's a great opener, but "lo-fi guitar"? Is it me, or does almost nothing on this album, guitars included, even approach lo-fi? To my ears, this is one of the most crisp, cleanly recorded albums I heard all year. I don't hear it.

And one more quibble with the closer: "Hopefully the merging of their cerebral side with melodies you can actually hum will finally get TVotR an audience outside their borough." To say that TVotR hasn't had an audience outside Brooklyn until now is just uninformed, lazy journalism.

Guilty Pleasure?

I like the new Fall Out Boy album. In fact, I'll go so far as to say I like most of Fall Out Boy's albums. Yeah, Pete Wentz is a spotlight whore whose lyrics can sometimes be as annoyingly narcissistic as his eyeliner, but Patrick Stump is the real talent. The dude has turned into a real-deal singer, and he has a seemingly endless supply of huge hooks in his head. (And a cameo from Elvis Costello on the eighth track makes up for blatantly stealing the guitar riff from "Teenage Wasteland" on the first track.)

I'll just say this: Folie a Deux is the best Island/Def Jam promo I've received in quite a while (I'm looking in your direction Kanye and Killers).

Love is All, Crystal Stilts, Times New Viking

All of the above bands will be playing tonight at the Summit, next to Cafe Bourbon St. I was supposed to cover the show but woke up feeling like sh*tgaze. It should be a good show, though, and I recommend checking it out. I'm betting the first band will go on around 10 or 10:30. Love is All is a crazy bunch of Swedes playing a crazy bunch of jittery punk, Crystal Stilts play really morose songs that should appeal to the Joy Division crowd or those who like their post-punk sopping wet with reverb. And if you don't know Columbus's own Times New Viking by now, you should.

Anyway, the show tonight also made me already realize I forgot Crystal Stilts' Alight of Night on that big list below. You can mentally insert it somewhere between 35 and 55. (On a semi-related note, I probably should have included the Raconteurs' Consolers of the Lonely somewhere, too.)

Top 55 albums of 2008

I’ve been looking over and reordering this list for a couple weeks, and I’m sure it would change a bit again after another couple weeks and some more re-listening, but at some point you gotta stop and go with what you got. Probably not too many surprises here for regular readers of this blog (all two of you). I’ll also give the usual disclaimer that there are plenty of albums I just never got around to. Oh, and looming deadlines are preventing me from adding any mp3s or (attempts at) pithy descriptions below each. Use the Hype Machine and your imagination, respectively.

1. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
2. Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight
3. Shearwater - Rook
4. TV on the Radio - Dear Science
5. Blitzen Trapper - Furr
6. Deerhunter - Microcastle
7. Okkervil River - The Stand Ins
8. Sigur Rós - Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
9. The Welcome Wagon - Welcome to the Welcome Wagon
10. The Hold Steady - Stay Positive
11. Gentleman Auction House - Alphabet Graveyard
12. The Low Anthem - Oh My God, Charlie Darwin
13. The Tallest Man on Earth - Shallow Grave
14. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
15. Anathallo - Canopy Glow
16. Man Man - Rabbit Habbits
17. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
18. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
19. Son Lux - At War with Walls and Mazes
20. The Black Keys - Attack & Release
21. My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges
22. Margot & the Nuclear So & So’s - Animal/Not Animal
23. Ra Ra Riot - The Rhumb Line
24. Matt Bauer - The Island Moved in the Storm
25. Alina Simone - Everyone is Calling Out to Me, Beware
26. R.E.M. - Accelerate
27. Mates of State - Re-arrange Us
28. Dodos - Visiter
29. No Age - Nouns
30. The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride
31. Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson - Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson
32. The Avett Brothers - The Second Gleam
33. Horse Feathers - House with No Home
34. Conor Oberst - Conor Oberst
35. Bodies of Water - A Certain Feeling
36. Centro-Matic/South San Gabriel - Dual Hawks
37. Death Cab for Cutie - Narrow Stairs
38. Bowerbirds - Hymns for a Dark Horse
39. Sun Kil Moon - April
40. Titus Andronicus - The Airing of Grievances
41. The Weepies - Hideaway
42. Butch Walker - Sycamore Meadows
43. Ryan Adams - Cardinology
44. Department of Eagles - In Ear Park
45. The Uglysuit - The Uglysuit
46. Bombadil - A Buzz, A Buzz
47. Throw Me the Statue - Moonbeams
48. Dr. Dog - Fate
49. The Walkmen - You & Me
50. Thao & the Get Down Stay Down - We Brave Bee Stings & All
51. Titles - Up with the Sun
52. Little Joy - Little Joy
53. Lambchop - OH (ohio)
54. Plants & Animals - Parc Avenue
55. Love is All - A Hundred Things Keep Me Up at Night

Best Columbus albums 2008

Since I already gave away that Miranda Sound's self-titled record is my favorite of Columbus album of 2008, I figured I should post all top ten. So here they are, though after the top three the order itself doesn't mean a whole lot--some of these will switch spots with others, depending on the week, day or whatever mood I'm in. The point is, these are all great records. 2008 was a good year for Columbus music. (Links go to previous reviews.)

1. Miranda Sound - Miranda Sound
2. Times New Viking - Rip It Off, Stay Awake E.P.
3. Melty Melty - Rise of the Birdmen
4. Two Cow Garage - Speaking in Cursive
5. Envelope - Shark Bolt!
6. The Lost Revival - Homemade Confetti
7. Moon High - Moon High
8. Our Cat Philip - Apart of Someone
9. Sinkane - Color Voice
10. Brainbow - Brainbow

Sunken Treasure Records: Free!

Sunken Treasure Records, Robert Duffy's Donewaiting.com companion label, announced it's offering its entire catalog as free downloads this month.

You'd be a big dummy not to take advantage of this. If nothing else, at least grab the new (and sadly, last) Miranda Sound record. It's my favorite Columbus album of 2008. But there's also Eric Metronome, the Evil Queens, Megan Palmer and the Celebrity Pilots. So go start downloading.

In other Sunken Treasure news, Duffy also announced an upcoming Black Swans/Alina Simone 7" split next year, as well as the debut from Eve Searles aka Bird and Flower.

Moviola, D. Charles Speer & the Helix - Surly Girl Saloon

Friday’s Moviola show was my second Surly Girl concert experience, the first being the Alina Simone/Jerry DeCicca show back in July. Right now Surly Girl is two for two in my book, and I’ll likely head to more in the future if the bar keeps it up.

Only a living room could be more intimate than this space. Pass all the mildly hectic eating and drinking in the front section of the Short North bar/eatery and you’ll eventually hit a curtain that serves as a visual and aural divider. Behind it, there’s the tiniest of stages and some chairs and benches that look more like church pews. Recessed and red-rope lighting cast a warm, subdued glow to the “Parlour.”

Suffice it to say, it was a nice, relaxed setting in which to watch Moviola, a Columbus band that has now been in existence about 14 years, with some silent periods sprinkled throughout. The last proper Moviola full-length came last year in the form of Dead Knowledge, one of 2007’s strongest Columbus releases. This year also saw Spirit of Orr release Broken Horses, a collection of songs from the band’s early period, 1994 to 2001.

Friday night was a pieced-together affair with false starts, flubbed notes and imperfect harmonies, but none of that detracted from my enjoyment too much. Guitarist Jerry Dannemiller opened the night with a nice rendition of “Children, Go Where I Send Thee,” an African-American spiritual/Christmas tune he dedicated to the recently deceased Odetta. I was also glad to hear a fair amount from Dead Knowledge, especially “Rudy,” “Akron to Oakland” and “Spanish Moss.” All five members took turns on vocals, as is Moviola’s custom, including keyboardist Parker Paul, who’s apparently a permanent fixture in the band now; his voice often reminded me of Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum.

I’ve just recently started exploring Moviola’s entire catalog, but I can safely assert today’s Moviola sounds quite different from the ’90s version. There has almost always been a rootsy sound that would make an “Americana” classification tough to dispute, but the band’s fuzzy early days were characterized by a more lo-fi approach, earning them Pavement comparisons that probably weren’t undeserved.

But watching Moviola perform, I couldn’t help but wonder if any slacker-rock tags were, in retrospect, an oversimplification. Maybe the band never was slacker rock, just laid-back and unfussy enough to seem like slackers. Whether in its current, rootsier form or lo-fi campus-kids version, Moviola approaches recording and performing in a relaxed, unstrained way that expresses something honest and true.

Sure, it may seem silly to attempt any deep analysis of five aging musicians on a small stage having some fun on a Friday night for a rare gig. But it made me appreciate Moviola for playing music with such rewarding nonchalance.

The intimate stage wasn’t quite as friendly to New Yorkers D. Charles Speer and the Helix, but only because Speer himself (real name: Dave Shuford) is a tall scarecrow of a man, and Surly Girl’s one little spot lamp was practically butting up against his forehead during the set.

But he was a good sport, and after some adjustments to the mix, Shuford’s baritone carried the songs, especially on some of the more muted country tunes. The band’s skilled lead guitarist needed a lesson or two in knowing when not to play his Nashville riffs, but Shuford’s quirky guitar leads, which were more prone to psychedelic flourishes, were an essential part of each song. That said, I could have used a little more psychedelia in the set. While a couple of these guys also play in uber-experimental troupe No-Neck Blues Band, it was often hard to tell.

mp3s: Download Dead Knowledge for free, courtesy of Catbird Records.
mp3: D. Charles Speer & the Helix - Single Again

Critic-based pricing structure

Got this press release from Asthmatic Kitty today. They're experimenting with a new pricing structure that's based on critics' reviews of the label's albums. Well, sort of. In this trial run, critics = Pitchfork. Thoughts? Also, think this statement is true? "It's 2008, but until now [music critics'] point systems had absolutely no effect on the value of music."

Here's the full release:

Music label Asthmatic Kitty Records is experimenting with a new post-In Rainbows method of determining the price of an album. Instead of allowing the consumer to dictate price, Asthmatic Kitty looked to the next obvious choice to determine the value of an album: the music critic.

Today, renowned and respected indie rock critics Pitchfork Media released a review of Ropechain, the second full length album from Indianapolis-based Grampall Jookabox. Employing their 10-point system, Pitchfork scored the album at a 5.4.

Asthmatic Kitty will therefore sell Ropechain for $5.40 for 54 hours from 9am, December 8th.

"Pitchfork's ten point scoring system, along with their infamous one decimal point makes them the ideal choice for a dry run with this experimental pricing structure. It just makes dollars and sense," said Michael Kaufmann, A&R.

Moose, frontman for Grampall Jookabox, commented, "I know that it has been a long and difficult road for music critics everywhere. It's 2008, but until now their point systems had absolutely no effect on the value of music. Today, they rightly take their place as determiners of the value of music. "

Both Moose and Kaufmann are so excited about this new move for the label and band that they quickly collaborated in a music video of "Let's Get Mad Together" from Ropechain to commemorate the new pricing structure. Moose dons a dollar bill costume and dances while Kaufmann stands on his head. The video is here:
http://vimeo.com/2446399

Whether this pricing structure will proliferate through the entire record industry depends both on the experiment's success at Asthmatic Kitty Records, and the willingness of music critics to adjust their reviews to fit currency valuation. Just as Radiohead's album sale did, this move may send shock waves through the industry. It is expected that those publications using grade levels, percentage points, or "stars" may have to quickly adjust. Some have purportedly already started converting their scores straight into U.S. dollars.

Consumers wishing to participate in the experiment can buy the album from this news item:
http://asthmatickitty.com/news.php?newsID=372

Welcome to the Welcome Wagon

Sufjan Stevens is woefully behind on that whole 50-albums-about-50-states project he started a few years ago. He covered Michigan in 2003 and Illinois in ’05, but since then all we’ve heard, other than a Christmas box set (which I recommend--’tis the season!), was 2006’s Illinois outtakes, The Avalanche.

I, for one, have been getting impatient for more Sufjan, and now, finally, I have something to sate my need for Soof. No, there’s still no new release, but the Stevens-produced debut from the Welcome Wagon is a more-than-capable stand in ’till then.

The husband-wife team of Vito and Monique Aiuto form the band’s core, and like Stevens, much of the Aiutos’ music is biblically anchored, though more overtly in this case. Given Vito’s day job as pastor of a Presbyterian church in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (remember “Vito’s Ordination Song” on Michigan?), it’s not surprising. A few of the songs on Welcome to the Welcome Wagon are reworked versions of old spirituals, and the album cover and jacket are filled with dated, Precious Moments-evoking images. It’s purposefully campy and perhaps a bit ironic, but you get the feeling the couple is also sincere when the cover says, “May it help to comfort and sustain you.”

In the liner notes--written by Stevens, of course--he describes the Welcome Wagon as gospel music that is “refreshingly plain,” explaining that “it doesn’t impose its religious pitch on the listener with hyped up garnishes of sound; it merely conveys the deepest of convictions with the deadpan verdict of a surgeon.”

That’s pretty accurate. The Welcome Wagon manages to write gospel music that preaches without preachiness. Part of that’s the unadorned way in which the couple sings: Vito sounds astoundingly similar to Sufjan, and Monique’s voice is so childlike and dryly sweet that disliking it is akin to punching a puppy. The record’s charming, homespun vibe also plays a part in the band’s lack of pretense. The last song ends with Monique admitting, “Um, I screwed up twice.”

Old spirituals aren’t the only revamped source material here. The Auitos try their hand at the Smiths’ “Half a Person” and the Velvet Underground’s “Jesus,” and Daniel Smith (of Danielson) gets the songwriting credit for “Sold! To the Nice Rich Man.” It’s not surprisingly the most springy, near-danceable track.

Stevens’s fingerprints are all over the album, which makes sense, as he produced, recorded, engineered and mixed it, not to mention added vocals, banjo, bass, guitar, drums and on and on--more instruments than Vito and Monique combined. And in typical Sufjan fashion, some of the arrangements are overly ambitious (“I Am a Stranger”) and threaten to topple the “refreshingly plain” songs. But others, like the woozy marching-band romp of “You Made My Day,” are perfect.

So yes, it’s an album to tide you over till the next Sufjan Stevens outing, but it’s more than that, too. For me, that realization crystallized on the songs Vito wrote himself, like “American Legion.” At times it’s just Vito and a simple acoustic guitar recounting a somber memory. “If I’d been there I’d surely have stayed with you/ If I’d been there I’d surely have prayed for you, I want you to know,” he sings. It’s one of several moments where I realized this pastor and his wife are something special, with or without their friend with the funny first name.

Welcome to the Welcome Wagon is out Dec. 9 on Asthmatic Kitty Records.

mp3: The Welcome Wagon - Sold! To the Nice Rich Man

Dean & Britta: 13 Most Beautiful... Songs for Andy Warhol's Screen Tests

There certainly hasn’t been a lack of programming associated with the Wexner Center’s “Andy Warhol: Other Voices, Other Rooms” exhibition, especially of the musical variety. And for good reason, considering Warhol’s inseparability from the Velvet Underground.

There was the Robert Forster event, at which the former Go-Between covered the Velvets; in February, Times New Viking will do the same. And last Thursday, Dean & Britta gave a performance that combined with Andy Warhol visuals to create a captivating hour of mixed media.

“Dean” refers to Dean Wareham, former frontman of genre-shapers Galaxie 500 and its successful follow-up, Luna, of which Britta Phillips eventually became a member. For this show, Dean & Britta performed (mostly) new music to complement 13 of Warhol’s famous “screen tests,” also throwing in a Bob Dylan cover (“I’ll Keep It With Mine”) and a Velvet Underground tune (“Not a Young Man Anymore”).

Warhol made around 500 of these screen tests at his studio, the Factory, each of them being shot with a 16 mm camera on 100-foot rolls of silent, black and white film. The films normally would have lasted 2¾ minutes apiece, but they were projected so that they ended up as 4-minute films, the slight slow-motion effect elongating and exaggerating any movements.

Some of the subjects seen in the featured screen tests were well known. A young Dennis Hopper cycled through several emotions, looking fierce, confused, amused and contemplative. Velvet Underground vocalist Nico, someone who was undoubtedly used to cameras, seemed bored and slightly annoyed. Lou Reed drank a bottle of Coke, making art of a mass-produced item—a concept made famous by Warhol.

Between a few of the songs, Wareham gave a little commentary on the video portraits. Sometimes the background was a nice addition, and other times I wished I had plugged my ears, because the story and emotions I was projecting onto the images were more interesting than the reality.

Take the screen test of Ann Buchanan. While Dean & Britta played a song called “Singer Sing,” the dark-haired, dark-eyed Buchanan gazed unfalteringly at the camera as tears began to well up in her eyes and eventually cascade down her face one at a time. It had me wondering what could be causing so much sadness in her life. Or was it something Warhol was saying in the background of the silent film that we, the viewers, weren’t privy to? And how did she remain so stone-faced with such internal grief?

Perhaps if I’d been more observant, I would have noticed that the tears were merely a result of not blinking for nearly three minutes, as Wareham noted after the song. That explains the stone face and lack of any visible grief other than the tears. Still, I like my version better.

Wareham’s comments about Freddie Herko, on the other hand, were a welcome—if a bit disturbing—confirmation of suspicions I already had. Herko appeared shifty and angry in his screen test, at times looking downright menacing. Something was not right with him, like a man searching for peace but finding the opposite. The band accompanied the portrait with a repetitive instrumental melody that built to an intense climax toward the end of the film.

Turns out Herko, a dancer, committed suicide soon after the screen test. At 29, he leapt out the window of a friend’s apartment. He also was a speed freak, which would account for some of the shiftiness, too.

During the performance, the musicians often faced the video screen, undoubtedly taking cues from the larger-than-life projections. The Velvets cover, appropriately played during Reed’s test, was the only real rocker of the night. Most songs were marked by Dean & Britta’s dream-pop vibe, a nice companion to the portraits.

Wareham’s voice oozed his usual indolent cool, and Phillips’s silky-sweet singing was almost as gorgeous as her runway-model looks. I couldn’t help thinking how well she would have fit in with screen-tested Factory starlets like “Baby Jane” Holzer and Ingrid Superstar.

Adding music to such an iconic project is a daunting and risky proposition, even for someone with as much cred as Wareham. But Dean & Britta’s pop and Andy Warhol’s art melded to make a most beautiful evening, indeed.

Also at The Other Paper

A Very Rosie Christmas

I'm a bit of a grinch about Christmas music before Thanksgiving. To me, it feels like the result of retailers forcing the holidays upon us earlier and earlier each year. So it ends up sounding more like a dentist's drill than wassailing.

But once Thanksgiving hits, I'm ready. Full steam ahead. Get out the egg nog and bring on the Christmas tunes. (Well, at least the good ones. I'm not a "Santa Baby" kind of guy.)

Rosie Thomas just released A Very Rosie Christmas, and I think it's going to become a holiday staple at my house. Thomas's sweet, lovely voice and overall gosh-darn-cute presence on record make her the perfect artist to release a Christmas album. Her version of hymns like "O Come O Come Emmanuel" and "Silent Night" are gorgeous, and her take on Joni Mitchell's "River" is surprisingly new and refreshing.

I'm can also be a humbug about new Christmas tunes, just because they never seem to measure up to the classics. But Rosie proves me wrong on her originals, especially "Why Can't It Be Christmastime All Year." I may even listen to it before Thanksgiving next year...

Local roundup

Reviews of recent (and not so recent) Columbus albums:

The Lost Revival - Homemade Confetti
Let me first say that I'm way late on this one. The Lost Revival released its debut, Homemade Confetti, earlier this year, but it somehow passed me by. That band wasn’t hiding under a rock, either. The seven-piece multi-instrumentalists have become known for their intense live shows, earning them a spot opening CD101’s Summerfest this year.

Homemade Confetti, which was apparently recorded in one weekend, doesn’t sound the least bit like a rush job. It’s a big record, with lots of atmospheric layering in the background, providing a thick blanket in which to wrap Kevin Collins’s throaty vocals--like a less lackadaisical, sea-urchin-swallowing version of the Black Swans’ Jerry DeCicca.

Collins must be a Bob Dylan devotee, given some of his phrasing, harmonica style and religious imagery. (Not to mention the intro guitar riff to “Jailbait” sounds just like “Hurricane,” and “Thin Man’s Mile” is probably not a coincidental allusion to “Ballad of a Thin Man.”) But with all those instruments and dark overtones, any sort of “Americana” tag would be misleading--especially on a song like “A Bird on a Chain,” the best on the album. The Lost Revival has a sound entirely its known, and a good one.

Karate Coyote - Move EP
Just the name Karate Coyote exudes playfulness, so it’s no surprise this up-and-coming band’s debut EP, Move, is filled with hand claps and a friskiness that brings to similar-minded acts like Los Campesinos!.

Playful is cool with me, especially when it’s done this well. “Move yourself to dance,” instructs Karate Coyote on the bouncy leadoff track, “Move Yourself,” and if no one’s looking, you’ll no doubt find yourself heeding the advice. Surprises abound on this little EP, like the bluesy guitar solo on “Easy” and the synth outro on “Incogneat-o.”

KC is a new band, so there’s room to grow, of course. I could use more of the back-and-forth guy-girl vocals, and I think the singers in general are buried too deep too often on these tracks. They’re good enough to be front and center--a position Karate Coyote should get used to if it continues down its current path.

mp3: Karate Coyote - Move Yourself

Melty Melty - Rise of the Birdmen
A few weeks ago I told you about the whole debacle Melty Melty went through while recording Rise of the Birdmen, i.e. losing the entire album to a computer crash and having to start from scratch. It makes for a good story, but good stories only matter if the record follows suit. This one is so good you won’t really care how it came to fruition.

Like Sean Gardner’s other projects (Bookmobile, Winter Makes Sailors), Melty Melty continues his pattern of making highly accessible but no less artful indie rock, this time with an unmistakable deference to Pinback--a comparison I wouldn’t make lightly.

Rise of the Birdmen is polished and spacious. “Walls” is built around a simple, repeating guitar bend, and “Killing Time” is Melty Melty at its dreamiest, Gardner and former Kopaz compadre Kevin Davison making tasteful use of analog synths, eerie guitar and found sounds. “Same Situation” would be the obvious first single, if singles still mattered. Gardner’s instantly recognizable tenor has a tendency to wander too far into whiny land, but it usually anchors the songs nicely; his inventive vocal melodies provide the majority of the album’s hooks.

Nothing against the band’s label, We Want Action, but Melty Melty deserves something bigger, and with this debut, the band just might get it.

This week's Other Paper

In this week's paper, you can check out my review of the seven-year anniversary concert at Skully's featuring seven local bands: the Whiles, Two Cow Garage, Deathly Fighter, Good Company, Bush League All-Stars, Psychedelic Horseshit and Unholy Two.

I also wrote a feature about all the behind-the-scenes turmoil accompanying this year's Hate Michigan Rally with the very much alive Dead Schembechlers, Watershed, and, oddly, the All American Rejects. For some reason that one isn't online yet, but I'll put a link up when it (hopefully) goes live. UPDATE: Here we go.

Oh, and preview blurbs for Marnie Stern and AC/DC, also not online. Yay web presence!

Blitzen Trapper, Horse Feathers - Skully's

Blitzen Trapper is on track to become The Next Big Thing. Not a here-today-gone-tomorrow buzz band (remember Black Kids?)--a mainstay.

Here’s proof. First, the Portland band released Wild Mountain Nation last year to moderate acclaim. It’s a good record, if a bit uneven, with a hefty dose of messy slacker rock amid crispy bits of countrified rock. It was Blitzen Trapper’s most widely heard album yet, leading to a deal with Sub Pop and this year’s Furr. Furr is a terrific album of Dylan-inspired tunes that find the band maturing without growing dull--a tough feat. Expect to hear more about this record as the audience grows.

And so all that’s left to solidify Blitzen Trapper as a force to be reckoned with is its live show, and the six-piece proved Tuesday night at Skully’s that it’s more than capable of winning hearts and minds from the stage.

In the big scheme of things, bandleader Eric Earley’s chiseled good looks probably won’t hurt Blitzen Trapper’s coming ascension, either. Earley is the band’s songwriter, usually writing songs on his own and recording/producing lots of them himself in the studio. But Blitzen Trapper doesn’t feel the least bit like a solo project. On stage the band is a tight, finely tuned machine, and each part is integral in making the gears turn.

There were only a few Pavement moments Tuesday night, “Love U” being one of them. Most other songs mixed the band’s fuzzy past with its furry present. “Gold for Bread” was one of the best examples of how well Blitzen Trapper mixes the old with the new, taking an energetic rocker and giving it an unmistakable Western vibe.

The full room responded most to “Furr,” the superbly written centerpiece of the band’s new album. The acoustic-based tune is a songwriting exemplar that uses Dylan as inspiration, yet still manages to feel original. The creative, more electric live arrangement brought spontaneous, simultaneous cheers from the crowd at certain points. (See? A finely crafted song can even get hipsters all worked up.)

There’s no reason for the band to ditch older songs like “Country Caravan” or “Wild Mountain Nation,” either. It allows the Oregonians to unleash a more playful side. That side came out during the encore, especially on “Miss Spiritual Tramp” (“It was a drive-by/ Columbian necktie”) and a cover of Dolly Parton’s “The Last Thing on My Mind.”

Tour mate and fellow Portlander Horse Feathers, on the other hand, wasn’t playful in the least. The guitar-violin-cello trio played quiet, folky songs you’d expect to hear coming from inside the snowy, wintry barn on the cover of the band’s most recent record, House with No Home.

It was a strange juxtaposition to have a such a hushed, lulling band bathed in Skully’s pink lighting underneath a disco ball, but eventually everyone caught on to the vibe and quieted down, allowing singer Justin Ringle’s tenor to carry. Ringle’s voice is soothing, and he has a calm presence to match it. He also happens to look a lot like Ron Howard--the bearded, director version of Ron Howard, not Opie or Richie Cunningham.

The live performance offered more dynamic range than House with No Home, which suffers from a bit of sameness. But the strings provided plenty of interest Tuesday night, even when Ringle’s singing began to sound a bit repetitive.

“Working Poor” featured a violin riff that hung in the air long after it was gone. The violinist also played the saw for a tune called “Heathen’s Kiss.” Maybe it’s a gimmick, but I give extra points to any band that successfully employs a cutting tool in its songs.

mp3: Blitzen Trapper - Furr
mp3: Horse Feathers - Curs in the Weeds

Melty Melty

For some reason the Other Paper never got the Melty Melty preview I wrote up on the website, so here it is, even though the release show was last weekend. Of all the local releases this year, Rise of the Birdmen is one I highly recommend picking up.

----

On Melty Melty’s debut album, Rise of the Birdmen, singer Sean Gardner sounds like a man who has come to grips with technology’s aggravating tendency to implode. “Machines can tumble on over, it doesn’t even matter to me/ Machines can burn out their motors, it doesn’t even matter to me,” he sings on “Same Situation,” the leadoff track.

Gardner learned to roll with the punches the hard way. He and bandmate Kevin Davison had just about finished recording the album with their engineer/drummer Mark Himmel (The Slide Machine) when Himmel’s hard drive crashed. They lost everything.

“It was awful,” Gardner said. “We looked at companies that could recover hard drives, and it was way too much money and they couldn’t guarantee it. We got programs to try, spent countless hours at the Mac store, but it was just a lost cause. And then we all invested in external hard drives.”

It took a couple of months to gear up and start over, and once they did, the record began to take on a whole new feel. The first time through the songs had a raw, home-recorded sound, but Rise of the Birdmen is “a lot more polished than we expected and a lot more produced,” Gardner said. “We love it. I’m really, really proud of it, but it’s definitely a lot different than the beginning.”

The real beginning of Melty Melty goes back even further, to the days when Gardner and Davison were in Kopaz, a Columbus band that garnered some major label attention and then promptly called it quits. So the two began focusing on the direction Kopaz had started to take--slower, spacey, poppy and simple, taking cues from Pinback and German duo Tarwater. (On Rise of the Birdmen, the Pinback influence is impossible to miss.)

At first the pair tried to tour on their own, looping live drums with Gardner behind the kit. “It was a really cool idea but it didn’t always work,” he says. “Every song kinda started out the same and it wasn’t as fun to perform. And sometimes you’d get a bad sound guy who didn’t know what we were trying to do.”

Eventually Himmel came on board and Melty Melty did some touring, but he has since been replaced by Brian Moore, drummer for Brainbow and formerly of Tiara. Bookmobile’s Antonio Garza occasionally fills in as well, and the plan for this Saturday’s record release show at Ruby Tuesday is to have all three drummers playing simultaneously at certain points. It’s super-trendy these days for indie-rock bands to have two drummers, Gardner says, but three? “We’re treading new ground,” he joked.

Like Gardner’s other projects--Bookmobile, Winter Makes Sailors--Melty Melty doesn’t shy away from a hook. But Gardner said the different bands occupy a different space in his head when it comes to songwriting. Slower songs tend to become Winter Makes Sailors tunes; catchy, fun songs usually go Melty Melty’s way, and when writing for Bookmobile, Gardner said there’s “beer in the air and jump-kicking, the fun rock and roll side.”

Oh, and then there’s the Kyle Sowashes, but Gardner admitted not much sweat goes into his role there. “All I have to do is write a sweet tambourine part.”

Chairlift w/ Moon High - Wexner Center, 11-3

You gotta hand it to the folks at Apple. They’re pretty good at finding just the right songs to soundtrack all those boldly colored iPod TV ads. The most recent commercial for the Nano is no exception. While watching those new gadgets bleed their vivacious colors, you’ll hear Caroline Polachek of the band Chairlift singing about handstand attempts over the bounciest bass line allowed by law. The song is called “Bruises,“ and it’s playful, catchy, hummable, vaguely familiar--all the things Apple is going for in hopes that those Nanos will fly off the shelves, economic crisis be damned.

But Feist has no need to worry. She won’t be relinquishing the iPod-commercial crown to Chairlift anytime soon. For many, “1234” served as a jumping-off point for discovering other gems in the Feist catalog, but judging from Chairlift’s sparsely attended show at the Wexner Center’s Black Box on the Mershon stage, an exploration instigated by “Bruises” turns up a lot of filler from a band still searching for an identity.

That’s not to say that this Brooklyn three-piece doesn’t have some stuff worth hearing, namely the songs where Polachek showcases her tremendous pipes. “Make Your Mind Up” was the most impressive of Monday night’s very brief set, as Polachek’s soulfulness spilled over the levee, revealing a beautiful vocal tone and an uncommonly high range. The song made her slightly bothersome theatrical gestures (draping herself over the keyboard, etc.) seem more justified.

“Bruises” came off just as it should have, and the short-and-sweet “Evident Utensil” was nice and danceable, despite some rhymes that felt a little forced. But the rest of the set was spotty as Chairlift attempted U2 (“Deer Hunt”), French pop and some industrial-inspired stuff.

“Planet Health,” the closer, mentioned something about a food pyramid, puberty and saying no to drugs, with a chorus of, “I’m feeling great tonight.” It’s a snoozer till the the song’s resilient outro (“Stop, drop and roll”), but by that time it was a little late, and I was still befuddled about this planet Polachek was attempting to describe.

Until Chairlift learns to consistently harness Polachek’s voice, sharpen its focus stylistically and mature a bit lyrically, it’s probably not worth filling up that Nano with more than a couple Chairlift tracks.

Moon High, on the other hand, has created and fully embraced a unique identity. The local band’s ultra-mellow, organic folk--an odd contrast with Chairlift’s synth-heavy sounds--is unlike any other band in Columbus, and you’d have trouble finding an equivalent outside of Ohio, too. People like to lump Moon High in with freak-folk bands, and David Fowler and Ryan Wells may take some inspiration from that scene, but reducing the band to that label does it a disservice.

Fowler and Wells shared lead vocal duties and switched between various acoustic guitars, banjo and cello throughout the set, accompanied by flute and violin at times from the two female background singers. Moon High completes its aesthetic visually with a couple of large, foot-switchable, white globe lights that I find more warm and peaceful than gimmicky.

Just about all of the band’s songs have a mournful vibe, and that consistency does come with a small price. If you head to a Moon High show with some sleep debt, the tranquility of “Lying Here, Dying Here,” “Where You Go” and other songs can become a bit drowsy. But these guys aren’t trying to shake the rafters, so I have a feeling that if you kicked back and closed your eyes at a show, they might take it more as a compliment than an insult.

Battleground

So there's this big election tomorrow, and apparently Ohio has some significance in it. Here's a few of my favorite recent and semi-recent Ohio songs that should sound a lot nicer than the talking heads tomorrow night, if you find yourself needing a break from the chatter. (And if you like the Low Anthem track, I highly recommend picking up a copy of their new one, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin.)

mp3: The Low Anthem - To Ohio
mp3: Damien Jurado - Ohio
mp3: Lambchop - Ohio
mp3: Sun Kil Moon - Carry Me Ohio

Wilco will love you, baby

Last night self-referential rockers Wilco paid a visit to The Colbert Report, performing a new song, aptly titled "Wilco the Song." I love it. Playful and Summerteethy. Here's some video evidence.

This week's Other Paper

I'm getting lazy, so I'll just refer you to TOP's site for stories with my byline this week:

Concerts
Live review of Magnetic Fields (above) at the Southern Theatre last Friday

Locals
Review of Times New Viking's just-released Stay Awake 7"

Review of Ugly Stick's Still Glistening, the band's first release in 14 years

Review of Team Smile and Nod's Look Both Ways Before You Die

Gentleman Auction House at The Futurist

I'll continue my pimping of underrated St. Louis band Gentleman Auction House by referring you to The Futurist, where they're hosting live mp3s of a recent WOXY Lounge Act. All the songs are keepers.

Margot & the Nuclear So and So's - Skully's, 10-19

At Sunday night’s Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s show--the band’s first in Columbus in quite a while--all the ingredients were there to make a memorable performance. The back of Skully’s was comfortably full with attentive attendees, the stage was set off nicely by an artful backdrop in the vein of Margot’s recent cover art, and all 10 players were audible in the near-perfect mix.

So my biggest complaint is that it didn’t last long enough. The band exited the stage after a strong 45-minute set. It wasn’t their fault, really. Skully’s had something else booked later that night. But it left me, and from what I could tell, most of the crowd, wanting more.

I imagine the band didn’t enjoy setting up for 10 people and then taking it all down 45 minutes later. But each musician played his or her role with aplomb. As I mentioned in last week’s preview, on record Margot has figured out how to avoid choking songs with overpowering arrangements--a common temptation for any band with more than five members. That strength carried over to the live show, as well, even with two extra people.

There was almost more of an emphasis on bandleader Richard Edwards’s words live. It wasn’t uncommon to have only two instruments playing at a time, or to see three tambourines and other hand percussion all going at once, which is comical, but also a good thing. You don’t need the brass on every song. (I’m still not sure what purpose the contraption with a big water bottle on top served, other than providing an elaborate stand for the attached triangles.)

Edwards had a serious disposition throughout the set, even when the violinist from Judgement Day (an opener I missed, along with David Vandervelde) was blowing bubbles in between maraca shakes. That could have been due to a cold, which made his voice a bit more nasally, but not detrimentally so.

Just as violinist/lap-steel player and hometown boy Erik Kang (Tiara, the Emerald Down) predicted last week, the band focused mostly on material from Animal!, Margot’s new album on Epic, as opposed to Not Animal, the other new album on Epic filled with songs of the record company’s choosing. The only two older songs of the night were “On a Freezing Chicago Street,” which had a beautiful, orchestral sound as Edwards conducted with his guitar, and “Skeleton Key,” one of my favorites from The Dust of Retreat. The strings were nice and pronounced on that one, too, but the slower, waltzy arrangement detracted from the propulsive feel the album version conveys.

“My Baby Shoots her Mouth Off” was chock-full of falsetto goodness, and I’m also partial to the back-and-forth vocals with keyboardist Emily Watson on “There’s Talk of Mine Shafts” and “Mariel’s Brazen Overture.” Other songs such as “O’ What a Nightmare!” and “A Children’s Crusade on Acid” showed how the band’s songwriting now focuses more on tunes with different movements that rely on a groove or feeling rather than traditional pop structures.

Animal! standout “As Tall as Cliffs” ended the abbreviated night on a loose, playful note, preceded by Edwards’s run-on send-off: “Sorry about the cold this is the last song hope you had fun bye.”

Oh, Margot. We hardly knew ye!

The Killers - "Human"

I kept reading that the Killers had a new single out but never streamed it or watched the video or anything. Finally heard it on the radio today. Wow. It's beyond horrible. Apparently others have mentioned the atrocious lyrics, too, but seriously, "Are we human or are we dancer"?

The over-the-top video is just ipecac-flavored icing on the cake:

Margot & the Nuclear So and So's: A review/preview

It’s not uncommon for a band making the leap from the indies to the majors to have some disagreements with its deep-pocketed but often creatively impaired new boss. What is uncommon is resolving those conflicts by releasing two different albums—one to appease the band, the other to appease the label.

But that’s the route Margot & the Nuclear So and So’s and their new label, Epic, decided to take. The Indianapolis eight-piece just released Animal! (the band’s preferred version) digitally and on vinyl, while Not Animal is available on CD, digital and vinyl. The two records have five songs in common, but according to Margot member and Columbus musician Erik Kang, Animal! feels a bit darker.

“It probably reflects the fact that we were cooped up in a studio in Chicago during the coldest months of the winter,” Kang said. “I think there’s some songs on (Not Animal) that are a little bit lighter. Some people may like it better because of that.”

Kang, an alumnus of cowtown bands Tiara, the Emerald Down and Alasdair, joined Margot in 2006—a few months after the release of the band’s debut, The Dust of Retreat—and now handles violin and lap-steel duties. He admits there was some uncomfortable wrangling over the new album(s).

“It’s a complicated situation when you present music that you spent two months working on night and day,” he said. “To present what we felt was the strongest record, to have that rejected, you can’t help but take that personally and be hurt and be upset by it. It was really important to us to have that record released.”

At the same time, though, Kang said the band recognizes the strengths of Not Animal. “These were not songs that we never wanted to see the light of day,” he said. “We were proud of all of them. It was just a matter of which songs flowed the right way.”

Still, Kang recommends purchasing Animal! to hear the album the way the band intended it to sound. “We picked the songs that flowed the best and made sense as an entity itself. Not Animal is more just a collection of songs. They don’t necessarily flow as a record,” he said.

Both new albums reveal a much different band than Dust of Retreat-era Margot, trading some of its slightly emo tendencies for more orchestral, layered, atmospheric chamber pop. The hooks aren’t as immediate, and some of Retreat’s childlike spark is gone, but the slow burn usually pays off.

Is Animal! vastly superior to Not Animal? Not really, but it would have been a shame to miss out on the former’s boozy, string-heavy “Mariel’s Brazen Overture” and “There’s Talk of Mine Shafts.” Both find singer Richard Edwards in a duet with keyboardist Emily Watkins, whose ethereal harmonies can be found all over the new songs.

In general, Margot has discovered how to be an eight-piece without always sounding like an eight-piece, forgoing the bombastic tendencies of large bands. Edwards’ voice is always up front in the mix, often with scant accompaniment.

“Having all the instruments isn’t a gimmick,” Kang said. “It just makes sense for the songs that we’re doing. We’re very cautious and sensitive to only having the parts that really matter for the song and not overcrowding it.”

On the current tour, which will make a stop in Columbus on Sunday for the first time since Kang joined the band, fans can probably expect to hear more from Animal! than Not Animal because that’s the record Margot wanted to put together, Kang said.

Plus, the band has been keeping tallies of which album is selling better, and overall, Animal! is winning.

“So we’re right,” Kang said, laughing.

Margot & the Nuclear So and So's will perform Sunday at Skully's, 1151 N. High St., along with Judgement Day and David Vandervelde. Doors open at 6 p.m.; all ages. 614-291-8856.

(Also at The Other Paper)

This excites me

That's the cover of Ryan Adams's new Cardinology LP, out on collector's edition red vinyl at the end of the month. Here's the description from the store:

This first run of Cardinology will be pressed on translucent red vinyl. Leah Hayes gives an incredible aesthetic to the packaging art, as well as an included Lyrics/Comic Book. Her artwork will only be used in this first vinyl pressing. This release will also include a Bonus 7" and digital download code.

Pre-orders here.

Damien Jurado w/ Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson - Milo, 10-4

Damien Jurado is a singer/songwriter whom I’d always resisted over the years until recently, because really, does the world need one more sensitive folkie with an acoustic guitar? And this is coming from someone who’s often a sucker for sensitive folkies with acoustic guitars.

But I’ve discovered that Jurado sets himself apart with his words, which was evident Saturday night at the Milo Arts show. While his guitar playing and voice aren’t poor by any means--he sounds a little like a mash-up of Josh Ritter and Mark Kozelek--they’re fairly unremarkable without those profound, literate lyrics that often turn the lens outward instead of inward.

For a guy whose biggest strength is stories, the songs usually work best when pared down, so as not to distract from the words coming through. A few of the tracks on Jurado’s new album, Caught in the Trees, suffer from overdone production and a lack of intimacy (unlike 2006’s spare And Now That I’m in Your Shadow), but Milo’s spartan stage setup served the songs well, as did the respectful crowd. Jurado stayed mostly seated with his guitar while his two bandmates added percussion, keys and guitar flourishes. Jenna Conrad’s vocal harmonies were a highlight throughout the night.

Jurado is a somber-looking fellow and a little schlubby (losing the crustache would do wonders), but he’s got a dry, self-deprecating sense of humor that I appreciated. He apologized for not coming to Ohio in a while and appealed to the crowd by playing “Ohio,” a song he said he wrote on a codeine high from a toe operation. Jurado asked the crowd to lobby their politicians to make it the state song, “So I can be really rich.”

Not likely. “Ohio” is about a girl who’s taken away from her mother by bounty hunters. That’s his specialty, really. Jurado writes consistently depressing songs. You’d probably get into quite a funk if you listened to Jurado all day, but not many songwriters can do depressing better than he, so stick with what works, right?

Jurado seems to be very aware of this. “This is an upbeat number,” he announced before playing the sprightly “Gillian was a Horse,” but quickly added, “Not lyrically. Just the music.” And “Coats of Ice,” which reminded me a lot of an Aimee Mann song, showed that all the sullenness is starting to catch up with him. “How does it feel to be what you sing about?” he sang, adding in the chorus, “You look like you could use a rest/ You look like you’d be better dead.”

But on one of the night’s final songs, “Best Dress,” he offered a possible remedy for the malaise. “Hey now, put your best dress on. . . We should just have a good time.” A good time, indeed.

I was sorely disappointed by Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson’s opening set, especially because I’ve been enjoying his self-titled debut, an album of bedraggled, folk-inspired songs that come across as both dark and rambunctious. But I can’t remember the last time I’ve heard an artist sound so utterly different, and worse, than on record.

For one, the mix was bad, but I don’t think a better one would have saved him. Robinson attempted a vocal tremolo that vacillated between loud, thin yelps and almost inaudible marbles-in-the-mouth mumbling. All the songs’ hooks and clever turns of phrase were lost, and his bandmates looked alternately embarrassed and confused as to what the four-named man was up to.

I think Robinson was going for a Pavement feel, or something like that. Whatever the reason, the young man needs some more touring underneath his belt.

mp3: Damien Jurado - Ohio

(Also at The Other Paper)

My Morning Jacket - LC Pavilion, 10-6

For the first five or six years of My Morning Jacket’s existence, the band was on the low diving board, bobbing up and down to prime the board and giving consistently good--sometimes great--performances. But in the last few years, Jim James has taken his band up to the platform high above the pool with even more success, plunging My Morning Jacket into the hard-to-reach category of an “important” rock band.

The old My Morning Jacket built its sound on Southern rock archetypes, importing Neil Young and Lynyrd Skynyrd into a new indie Americana led by James’s trusty abandoned-grain-silo tenor. (And that ample use of reverb has inspired countless copycats in recent years, from Band of Horses to Fleet Foxes.)

But starting in 2005 with the release of Z, MMJ went out of its Kentucky comfort zone, opening the album with a bubbly bass line and adding some psychedelic art-rock into its pop songs, while still remaining accessible. This year’s Evil Urges stretches the band even further, at times conjuring the Flaming Lips and Prince but still not forgetting its roots.

Monday night’s concert at the LC Pavilion--billed as “An Evening with My Morning Jacket”--drew heavily from those last two albums, along with some choice morsels from the past. What astounded me most as I watched James twirling across the stage, his curly mop flopping around him, was how well MMJ has merged their two identities into one conjoined, unstoppable rock beast.

October 6 seemed a little late to have an outdoor show at the LC, but the crisp, chilly air ended up creating a nice autumnal atmosphere. Right from opening number “Evil Urges,” the band appeared to be enjoying themselves quite a bit, as well. Throughout the night James used a litany of quirky, complimentary adjectives to describe Columbus and the crowd: powerful, elegant, beautiful, fragrant, faithful and “luxurious, like finely conditioned hair just out of the shower.”

The set list was one that made me realize just how many great songs this band has, from “Gideon” and “Lay Low” off Z to “Mahgeetah” and “Golden” from It Still Moves, plus a lot of solid new ones like “I’m Amazed” and “Librarian.” Even “Highly Suspicious,” which I viewed as sort of a failed experiment on Evil Urges, was an unexpected surprise, with James channeling his inner Prince for a funky, falsetto bookend to “Wordless Chorus”--one of several tunes that found the bearded singer sporting a cape. (I know, I know. Sounds stupid, right? I’m not sure how he made a cape cool, either.)

Lots of these songs opened up and provided space for the band to jam, which is often a dose of Ambien for me. But these guys could give workshops on how to jam successfully, a workshop many bands need (cough, Black Crowes, cough cough). “Dondante” was the only song that lost a little of its energy in the instrumental section. Others, like “Off the Record,” featured an extended ending with spicy guitar that only enhanced the song’s feeling.

But “One Big Holiday,” the “Free Bird” for the new millennium, was the Flying V guitar song the whole crowd was waiting for, and MMJ didn’t disappoint in the encore. Even though the band probably doesn’t let a show go by without playing the song, they performed it like it was the inaugural night--just another reason an evening with My Morning Jacket is an evening well spent.

The Avett Brothers - Murder in the City

There hasn't been much buzz around the Avett Brothers' The Second Gleam, but I like this EP, especially the bare-bones "Murder in the City." Here's the bare-bones video to go along with it:

To Be Free: The Nina Simone Story

On the DVD included in the just-released box set To Be Free: The Nina Simone Story, Simone explained to an interviewer in 1970 the effect she wanted her music to have. “I want to shake people up so bad that when they leave a nightclub when I’ve performed, I just want them to be to pieces,” she says. “I want to go in that den of those elegant people with their old ideas, smugness, and just drive them insane.”

What’s fascinating about Simone is not just how well she succeeded in shaking people up, but how she did it in so many different ways. Just when you think you’ve got her figured out, she jumps ship, using genres like jazz, soul, blues and folk as mere stepping stones, yet putting her full weight on each she goes by.

Ironically, her penchant for skipping around stylistically is probably also what held her back from mainstream stardom--in the U.S., that is. Simone (born Eunice Waymon) had great commercial success in the U.K. during her lifetime. She’s probably known best to a younger generation through artists like Feist and Shara Worden (My Brightest Diamond) covering her songs, which is fitting for a woman who spent much of her career reclaiming other artists’ songs.

On this 51-track, three-disc (plus DVD) retrospective, the “High Priestess of Soul” tackles show tunes (“Feeling Good,” “Ain’t Got No-I Got Life”), French pop (“Ne Me Quitte Pas”), Dylan (“Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues,” “The Times They Are A-Changin,’” “Just Like a Woman”), the Beatles (“Here Comes the Sun”) and plenty more. To my ears, the only essential track missing is Simone’s take on the African-American spiritual “Sinnerman.”

Her fierce advocacy for civil rights was inseparable from many of her re-appropriated songs, but originals such as “Four Women” and “Mississippi Goddam”--a song she wrote after four girls were killed in an Alabama church bombing in 1963--boldly display Simone’s outrage. The live version of “Mississippi” on this compilation penetrates even more deeply since it was performed on April 7, 1968--just days after Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination.

Those live tracks are some of the best inclusions in this retrospective. They reveal a performer whose aberrant voice and persona were so huge they often needed to be set free from the confines of the studio and loosed onto an open stage. A medley of George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord” and “Today is a Killer,” complete with some of Simone’s improvised lyrics, waxes and wanes for a full 18 minutes.

Simone’s catalog is vast. She was known for releasing seven albums in a three-year span. In that same interview on the DVD, Simone said she was scared of not going fast enough to do everything she was supposed to do before she died, which she did in 2003. But after listening to this impressive compilation, I’d say she surely did everything. And then some.

Gentleman Auction House, Yea Big + Kid Static, Bookmobile - High Five

Gentleman Auction House can’t seem to catch a break in Columbus. In June, the last time the St. Louis band came through, only a tiny handful of folks came out to the High Five. Last Thursday more people showed up at the same venue, but this time the band was plagued by sound problems all night.

Lead singer Eric Enger attempted to lead the seven-piece through “ABCDEFGraveyard,” a stomper of a tune the band likes to start off with, but Enger’s mic was cutting in and out throughout the song, so they had to stop and let the sound guy come back up and sort things out while the house music played again. Talk about a vibe killer.

It didn’t get much better on “Call it Casual,” but once “We Used to Dream About Bridges” kicked in, the band shook off the sound issues and started playing with the intensity they’re known for. And probably a little anger, too.

Enger’s Conor Oberst-ish voice led the bouncing band through indie pop anthems that pound their way into you. Anyone who wasn’t at least tapping a foot to the beat must have been a robot. And with everyone in the band shouting along to the songs, whether they had a mic or not, the performance felt like one big sing-along.

Before Gentleman Auction House took the stage, Michael Jackson was blaring through the speakers, and it was actually a fitting intro. There’s a reason GAH likes to throw in “R&B” when describing itself--some songs are all about the groove. “I Sleep in a Bed of Scissor Arms” is some of the most danceable indie rock you’ll hear this year.

The insistent snare of “The Book of Matches” anchored the last song of the set as floor toms flew off the stage and everyone screamed out their aggression for a night that could have been so much more. “We won’t stay down long,” Enger sang, and I believed him.

Preceding Gentleman Auction House was Yea Big + Kid Static, a Chicago rap duo I was completely unfamiliar with but thoroughly entertained by. Kid Static was a black dude in jeans and a T-shirt, and Yea Big was a red-haired white guy in yellow running shorts, a headband and socks pulled up to the tops of his ankles. An unlikely pair, to say the least.

The duo, which relied on a Macbook for the beats, started the set by stretching. Not I-just-woke-up stretching. These guys made sure to hit every muscle group. It was odd and a little awkward, but obviously tongue-in-cheek, and it made the next song all the more impressive when the two busted out their rhymes while making the stage look like a trampoline. Dance routines in the middle of songs were common, and to intro another tune the pair literally ran around the room yelling. With energy like that, even bearded hipsters and indie kids were getting down.

The acoustics of the High Five suck (wall of windows: nice-looking, bad for sound), so it was hard to discern a lot of Yea Big + Kid Static’s words, but what I did hear I liked. Some of it had dark overtones, but most of it was really playful, especially one about Mega Man (the Nintendo character) and another called “Eatchyo Samwich”--probably my favorite of the night.

Bookmobile’s set suffered from the bouncy acoustics, too, and a bad mix. Columbus’s ever-present man on the scene Sean Gardner (MeltyMelty, Kyle Sowashes, Winter Makes Sailors) was hard to hear above the guitar, but I still enjoyed his tunes. And his goofy dancing. Gardner’s the type of singer who sounds good even (or maybe especially?) when he’s off-key and often reminds me of David Bazan in that way. I liked the spastic guitar with choppy leads, too. So despite the sound issues, Bookmobile made a good impression. With all Gardner has going on, I don’t know if he considers this band a side project or not. But I say don’t relegate it to the sidelines.

mp3: Gentleman Auction House - I Sleep in a Bed of Scissor Arms
mp3: Yea Big + Kid Static - Eatchyo Samwich

Swell Season live

For those of you who caught the Swell Season show at the Palace Theatre last week and want to relive it, or if you just like the Swell Season and want to hear a good performance, PlayedLastNight.com has the full show as a .zip download here for $9.95, and the quality is pretty darn good. Worth the $10, in my book.

Here's a little taste--one of my favorites of the new songs the Once couple played called "I Have Loved You Wrong."

mp3: The Swell Season - I Have Loved You Wrong

Columbus releases: The Flashing Clock, Two Cow Garage

The Flashing Clock - Hot Brown
Dan Spurgeon is probably better known for his other band, Bush League All-Stars, but the Flashing Clock just might change that with its new album, Hot Brown.

Recorded by Datapanik’s Nick Schuld, it consists of 11 two- and three-minute ditties that sound like they were all put to tape in a creative frenzy one substance-fueled night. The songs are devoid of frills and (high) fidelity, just old-fashioned rock ’n’ roll with a dash of punk thrown in.

Lyrically, it’s doubtful any of these songs will have you pondering your place in this world. (Take the hook in “Teardrop Tattoo”: “Teardrop tattoo, don’t know what I’m gonna do.”) But rock music doesn’t always have to do that. Sometimes all you want is distorted guitars and a catchy chorus, and the Flashing Clock delivers. I absolutely love “Knife Fight” and “Have You Seen.” Let’s hope Spurgeon (or “Cosmo Time,” as the CD sleeve refers to him) keeps this project on the front burner.

RIYL: Bush League All-Stars, the Patsys

The Flashing Clock and You’re So Bossy are on the bill for the Evil Queens’ (possibly) last show Saturday night at Ruby Tuesday.

Two Cow Garage - Speaking Cursive
Speaking in Cursive, the fourth full-length from Two Cow Garage, follows in the same vein of the band’s last one, III, but this talented band’s cowpunk just keeps getting better—probably a result of constant touring.

“Bastards and Bridesmaids” and “Your Humble Narrator” are destined to become Two Cow classics. “Swingset Assassin” is a folk song that highlights singer Micah Schnabel’s knack for storytelling, tracking his childhood musical journey from the Beatles through Black Flag: “I wrapped myself up in Black Flag and flew it as my own...But in the end punk rock just left me empty and alone.” But Schnabel never discarded any of those influences completely; all of them have been incorporated. Two Cow Garage’s sound wouldn’t be the same without that punk edge--due in part to Schnabel's shredded vocals--alongside the country and pop-rock sounds.

Along with tackling death, drugs, self-doubt and heartbreak, Speaking in Cursive continues Schnabel’s attempts at reconciling his love for music with its destructive force in his life. In “Folksinger’s Heart,” he mentions a bit of advice he received: “My father, and the truth: ‘Destroy the thing you love, son, before it destroys you.’”

Good thing for us he’s not heeding his father’s warning.

RIYL: Haynes Boys, Drive-By Truckers, Replacements

(Also at the Other Paper)

The Swell Season - Columbus, 9-22

Fans who came to see Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova (aka the Swell Season) at the Palace Theatre because of their love of the movie Once were immediately satisfied Monday night.

In the film, there’s a scene in which Hansard busks on a dark street, singing and shouting “Say It to Me Now” as his voice and guitar bounces off the dumpsters, buildings and bricks around him. On this night, Hansard came out unplugged, stood at the edge of the stage and sang the same song, letting the natural acoustics of the theater do the work. He even played the same now-iconic, beat-up guitar with a giant hole in it. It was a stirring performance, and the first of many times Hansard let loose his throaty roar while beating his abused guitar into submission.

From there, Irglova came out to accompany him on “Falling Slowly,” the best-known song from Once. It was a pretty duet, and you could tell the crowd just loved seeing these two together as a real-life couple, especially after the fictional characters they played went their separate ways in the movie. The couple’s celebrity status was undeniable.

It’s a risky move to open the show with such anticipated songs, but the concert seemed to only get better. Hansard showed himself to be charismatic, humble, theatrical and affable. He gave entertaining prologues to just about every tune and wasn’t afraid to wax philosophical, but did so with a smirky sense of humor that never made any of the rants feel ponderous. The guy’s really likable. Irglova was predictably his understated, talented foil, and Hansard’s other band, the Frames, served as the more-than-capable backing band throughout the night.

Other than the drums often being too low in the mix, it was great to hear the songs with such clear sound and in such a visually stunning room. Though some Swell Season tunes stay consistently quiet, Hansard usually builds them to a loud climax that makes it impossible to write him off as a sensitive folk rocker. The technique worked well, especially on songs like “When Your Mind’s Made Up” and “Leave.”

The most frenetic song of the night was a cover of Van Morrison’s “Astral Weeks,” which Hansard played solo, speed-strumming his guitar so fast and hard that it turned into a rhythmic wall of machine-gun noise. (It was also one of many times throughout the night an elderly couple in front of me plugged their ears.) Strings broke, sweat dripped. “That was very cathartic,” Hansard said afterwards. No kidding.

Of the new songs, I was less impressed with “Backbroke,” but “I’ve Loved You Wrong,” featuring Irglova on lead vocals and guitar, was beautiful. The band repeated the song’s refrain--“You’ve been, every now and then, on my mind”--as the tune came to a close, with more and more instruments dropping out until it ended a cappella with all six voices on stage contributing.

The most unexpected moment of the night came during the encore, as Hansard explained that his drummer needed some metal in his system after a night of folk rock. So the guitar tech came out and led the band through a hilarious and surprisingly awesome rendition of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs.”

The band threw in a few Frames tunes, as well, including “Red Chord,” a great full-band song that reminded me of early Counting Crows, and “Fitzcarraldo,” a second-encore song that was the most epic of the night. It’ll have plenty of folks, myself included, exploring more of the Frames’ back catalog.

This same night, Irish band Bell X1 was playing a show at the Basement. (They were previously scheduled as the openers for the canceled Stars show at Milo.) Apparently the Frames and Bell X1 are friends, so Hansard invited two of the guys to play a couple songs as a last-minute opener following Bill Callahan of Smog. On record Bell X1 reminds me a bit too much of the Fray or a neutered Frightened Rabbit, but in this setting--a stripped-down, impromptu, thrown-together performance with wonderful sound--it was nice. Expect to hear “Eve, the Apple of My Eye” on multiple TV dramas this fall.

Callahan was the definition of laid-back, but got peppier as the longish set went on. The crooner showcased his crystalline guitar playing and big baritone on “Sycamore,” then his noisier side on “Cold Blooded Old Times” and “Blood Flow.” Callahan’s robotic stage mannerisms gave the set an overall lack of intensity, especially compared with Hansard, but he was an enjoyable opener nonetheless.

Blitzen Trapper - Furr

Furr is Blitzen Trapper’s first release for Sub Pop, a label that has begun to reshape its sound into something pretty and pastoral, especially when you consider this is the label that released Nirvana’s Bleach and Mudhoney’s self-titled debut a little less than 20 years ago.

In its roster now are bands like Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses, Iron & Wine, Grand Archives and Loney, Dear. So it should come as no surprise that Furr is significantly less skronky than last year’s Wild Mountain Nation, a loose, lo-fi affair that harkened as much to Pavement as it did to alt.country and Deliverance-style banjo pickin’.

Still self-recorded by Blitzen’s singer/songwriter/producer, Eric Earley, Furr’s edges are more rounded. Even the songs with a runaway-train-falling-off-the-tracks approach (“Love U,” “Fire + Fast Bullets”) feel quieter and more restrained. And in between touring, Earley must have been listening to a lot of Dylan, because that troubadour’s influence can be felt all over this record—lyrically, melodically and even in Earley’s intonation.

For a band like Blitzen Trapper, it’s dangerous to “mature,” especially when what made Wild Mountain Nation so fun was its carefree, all-over-the-map aesthetic. But fortunately, maturity suits this Portland band, and the cohesion of Furr more than makes up for any real or perceived lack of spontaneity.

The title track is the keystone of the album, a warm folk song featuring only Earley’s voice and guitar (and a little harmonica) that revels in the band’s less noisy, more melodic new direction. Earley starts the song as a 17-year-old who wanders into the woods, hears the howling of a wolf and decides to join the pack: “So from the cliffs and highest hill we would gladly get our fill/Howling endlessly and shrilly at the dawn/ And I lost the taste for judging right from wrong/ For my flesh had turn to fur.”

The second verse finds the narrator on his 23rd birthday, the day he meets a girl similarly wandering in the woods and settles down on a farm with her to raise children. The fur has become skin again, and the narrator is now in a world “I confess I do not know.”

It’s a superbly written song, one I’ve listened to over and over. It works as a metaphor for all the various ways a man goes off to sow his wild oats (going to college, not going to college, starting a band, etc.), then eventually settles down. But the transition is never easy. It’s hard to shake that yearning for the freedom of the prodigal years. Still, Earley advises, “If you’re gonna get made, don’t be afraid of what you’ve learned.”

“Lady on the Water” and “Not Your Lover” are similarly mellow, the latter using a rickety old piano that found a place on several tunes, mostly to their betterment.

Blitzen Trapper hasn’t completely forgotten its past. Opener “Sleepytime in the Western World” melds old and new Blitzen, and “War on Machines” reminds me a lot of “Wild Mountain Nation,” not a bad thing. The band has found a way to refine and hone without becoming boring.

Furr is an album that with each listen may have you reconfiguring your top 20 list of 2008. And then your top 15. And your top 10.

mp3: Blitzen Trapper - Furr

(also at The Other Paper)

The Walkmen - The Basement, 9-15

The Walkmen have always fascinated me. Yeah, I like their music, but it’s more that I’m inordinately drawn to a voice that just doesn’t match its supplier, and Hamilton Leithauser fits that bill.

I mean, just look at that name. Doesn’t it sound like a signature of sweater-clad privilege? Usually, Leithauser’s appearance furthers the case: nicely coifed blond hair, bright blue eyes and clean, nice-fitting clothes. On Monday night at the Basement he even made a black leather jacket look upper-crust preppy instead of bad-boy, sort of like Ralph Macchio’s nemesis in The Karate Kid.

For all I know, Leithauser was wasted Monday night, but he sure looked stone-cold sober and serious, which made the wild, drunken squall that emerged all the more shocking, even when you know what’s coming. Wrenching those notes out looked and sounded like a painful exercise, as if Leithauser were giving birth to the songs sans epidural, lobster-faced and sweating.

That voice is the defining characteristic of the Walkmen, and it was front and center at this show, as it is on the Walkmen’s recent album, You & Me. The band opened the show with that album’s “New Country,” a great song with only vocals and echoey guitar. Even when the other instruments kicked in for the rest of the night, it was a no-frills setup. There’s no wall of sound here, just each instrument playing its role in the whole while also remaining distinguishable. (Credit that to the sound guy, too.)

The band played a lot of new stuff, which was fine by me. “Canadian Girl” had a nice, very un-Canadian island vibe, and the horns on the ballad “Red Moon” were an essential, forlorn counterpoint to the keys and guitar; I never thought of the Walkmen evoking Calexico, but they did on that tune.

Some of the slower numbers began to drag a bit as the night went on, but the inclusion of “The Rat” gave the crowd a new burst of energy with its post-punk beat and insistent guitars propelling Leithauser’s scratchy howl. The song was also a reminder that the Walkmen can explore all sorts of styles, from post-punk to lazy island songs, yet still sound unmistakably like the Walkmen. Credit Leithauser again.

The band wasn’t consistently engaging all night, but I blame the venue more than the band. The Walkmen’s popularity, combined with music fans itching to get out of dark, electricity-deficient houses and apartments, made for a packed house, and that sucks at the Basement.

I remember that the first few times I went to at the Basement, I thought it was a great venue. Then I went to concerts that were better-attended, and the Basement’s absurdly awful sight lines obscured everything. Support joists obstruct views for all but about 50 people. And watching the band on the TV screens behind the bar is just a continual reminder of what you’re missing just a few yards away. This venue needs an extensive renovation to make big shows worth the price of admission for more than the people up front.

I don’t think I’d buy an album from Monday night’s opener, Golem, but the band sure was entertaining to watch (which I actually could, since there weren’t as many people there yet). The Brooklyn group played klezmer, a type of music that’s often played at Jewish weddings and other occasions where dancing is involved.

The musicians were all immensely talented—brass, violin, drums, upright bass and accordion—and the songs were all in Yiddish, but the band often provided quick summaries. Even without the synopses, it was quite apparent what was going on, especially when Aaron Diskin took lead vocals. The mustachioed Diskin, decked out in a ruffled pink shirt, acted out the emotions in caricature form, theatrically gesturing, laughing and crying when the song called for it.

Though not quite as gypsy or punk as Eugene Hutz’s merry band, fans of Gogol Bordello should take note. As should anyone looking for some good bar mitzvah music.