Imagine, if you will, an exotic, delicious and totally unique fruit that only grows every 3-4 years. Given the opportunity, you would probably binge on this fruit, knowing full well that you won’t get to taste it again for some time, correct? That’s essentially what I did this past weekend, when I went three-for-three on Dismemberment Plan reunion shows here in D.C. And I have to say, I had more fun this weekend than I’ve had since, well, the last time the Plan reunited in 2007. See my photos and read some of my impressions over at Stereogum and peep a few more of my photos at DCist.
“I get it now too: the first 54 seconds of the track are an ode to the beauty of urban life — guitar, synth, bass and drums humming along like the familiar repetition of bus routes, taxi horns, nine to five, happy hour, police sirens — and all of it before Travis Morrison even utters a word.”
Earlier this week, I saw the Blow perform at the Black Cat and reviewed the show for DCist. One commenter rightfully points out that “$15 for 50 minutes on stage, with about 35-40 mins of that being music is a bit much,” especially when Khaela Maricich “has several albums”. I hear that! And yet, at the same time, I think it’s important to be mindful of the way that our preconceived notions of what a “proper” indie-pop show entails inform our perception of value at a performance like this. I’ve been following Marichich for quite some time now (I once saw her perform to a crowd of about 20 kids at a YMCA in suburban Wisconsin, back when she went by the catchy moniker Get the Hell Out of the Way of the Volcano) and as she has grown as an artist, she has increasingly become more of a “performer,” in the classical sense of the word. Placed in that context, her current show, with its conceptual narrative, recurring themes and strong performance art elements, makes perfect sense. While I don’t doubt that more than a few folks showed up expecting an electro-pop band and left disappointed (I overheard one group of girls gripe, “I guess we weren’t cool enough to understand that show” on the way out), I hope that just as many checked their expectations at the door and were rewarded as a result. Khaela Maricich has little use for convention and if indie-rock is indeed still a subculture then quite honestly, neither should we. Read my review of the Blow’s Wednesday night set at DCist.
I hereby submit for your consideration the following hypothesis: Titus Andronicus is one of the best live bands in America right now. In support of this thesis, I provide as evidence the above video, which I shot during the band’s raucous set at the Rock and Roll Hotel on Friday night. I also shot a slightly longer video of the band covering Bikini Kill’s “Rebel Girl,” with Amy “Andronicus” Klein on vocals, which you can find here. What makes the latter so great—moreso than even the reverent tip of the cap to the progenitors of the riot grrrl movement—is how Klein manages to strike the perfect balance between empowering, righteous rage and lighthearted fun. Is it just me or does it seem like she would be the ideal person to teach a workshop on stage presence at a Girls Rock Camp? At any rate, you can check out my photos from the show and read Matt Siblo’s review over at DCist.
I first encountered Crystal Castles in 2007, when they opened for Metric at the 9:30 Club. I was less than impressed by the early incarnation of their live show that I saw and wrote a pretty critical review to that effect (my powers of premonition apparently leave something to be desired, as evidenced by the damning quote, “Crystal Castles…seem destined to live out their days in relative, albeit, hip obscurity”). In the course of writing that review, however, I happened upon the band’s MySpace page and found myself returning with surprising frequency, in order to hear tracks like “Alice Practice” and “Crimewave”. By the time the band’s full-length saw release in 2008, I was a dyed-in-the-wool fanboy, as my review of their debut LP—which identifies the duo as no less than the saviors of electro—attests.
Still, as much as I love this band, I wasn’t expecting anything quite as accomplished as this new album—I don’t think anyone was, really. Bands making music this volatile usually aren’t built to last; they tend to burn brightly and quickly before disappearing in a plume of rumor and speculation. So it’s to everyone’s surprise that the second album to bear the title Crystal Castles is a sophisticated, refined, polished affair, the unmistakable product of a band with career ambitions. It’s also catchy as hell and digs deeper into many of the ideas and genres (goth-pop! house!) that the band previously nodded toward superficially, pushing past the dissonance and noise to find the kernel of pop that lies at the heart of each song. I had thought that I would finally be able to put this record down after I had finished penning my review but as it turns out, that was just wishful thinking. The longer I live with Crystal Castles, the deeper my fascination with it grows and it just might be my favorite album of the year thus far. Read my full review of Crystal Castles (II) here.
In my day, I’ve seen relatively few electro-pop bands that have managed to occupy that perfect middle ground between energetic live band and lone performer twiddling knobs/staring at a laptop onstage (see: New Order, Cut Copy). My feeling is that it’s not as easy as it looks to mesh pre-recorded beats with live instrumentation in a way that’s seamless and convincing, especially in a live setting. At any rate, I can now add Caribou to the list of bands that manage to walk that tightrope with both style and finesse. While many of the songs on Swim are hazy affairs shot through with echoes of house music, they take on a new urgency live, with all four members of Caribou’s live incarnation working in tandem to nudge things along toward the nearest climax. It helps that they don’t just do the two drummers thing for the sake of spectacle but rather, manage do it well—we’re talking cascading rolls across the two drumkits, etc. Do make an effort to see them if they’re coming to your town but in lieu of that, check out my photos from Monday night’s show over at DCist.
Up until last week, I had yet to cast my lot in the 20+ year debate regarding the Pixies’ merits as a live act or lack thereof. Which is a fancy way of saying that I had never seen the band play before. Granted, I was all of six years old when the Pixies first toured on Doolittle, though rest assured, I would have done my level best to see them, had my young mind not been held so firmly in the grip of the Beach Boys’ comeback hit “Kokomo” at the time. Regardless, I was disappointed to find that the Pixies circa 2009 are not so much performers as musical reenactors. While every note of Doolittle was reproduced faithfully and with great care, the band’s passionless, largely sedentary performance left a lot to be desired. Head over to DCist and PopMatters for my photos and full-length review.
On Monday night, I saw Animal Collective play the 9:30 Club. The last time I saw the band, I was quite disappointed. It was the summer of 2004 and while Animal Collective was, ostensibly, touring on Sung Tongs, their set consisted entirely of a series of extended drone experiments. Even worse, the band seemed to take an almost confrontational stance toward their restless audience. It was bad vibes all around (not to mention terribly boring) and I swore I would never go see them again. Of course, I’m not very good about sticking to my guns when it comes to embargoes on bands, so when I heard that Animal Collective planned to actually play songs from their albums on this tour, I decided to give them another chance. This time around, the band fared far better, thanks in no small part to the strength of the material on Merriweather Post Pavilion. Sure, there was still a good bit of repetition, improvisation and psychedelic noodling but thankfully, the more tedious bits were tempered by a fantastic light show, some serious low-end and a handful of eminently danceable renditions. Check out my full review and photos at DCist.
On Tuesday night, I caught the Junior Boys and Max Tundra at the Black Cat. Both acts exceeded my expectations, displaying a knack for performance that too few electronic artists seem to have. Check out my full review/photos over at DCist.
I caught Passion Pit on Tuesday night at the Black Cat. Despite all the buzz, I found them to be kind of disappointing and not nearly as interesting as their recorded output suggests. You know what Flavor Flav would say: don’t believe the hype. Review/photos at DCist.
On Wednesday night, the Mad Decent tour rolled through town, bringing with it Diplo, No Age, Abe Vigoda, Boy 8 Bit and Telepathe. No Age was better than I’ve ever seen them: intense, loud and delightfully noisy. Diplo, meanwhile, had pretty much the whole club dancing, which is impressive when you consider that this is a town better known for “doing the standing still”. Head over to DCist for my photos and full review.
It’s funny—the last time I saw Conor Oberst at the 9:30 Club, I swore it would be my last, yet this past Monday, I found myself at the 9:30 yet again and guess who was on the stage? I have to say, the vibe was much better this time: Conor was less confrontational and there seemed to be a lower proportion of tween girls in the audience. This is probably because he’s now trading under his birth name, possibly in an attempt to clarify that no, he’s not going to play any songs that are more than a year old, so stop asking already. Anyway, the show was a little on the boring side—I’m not the biggest fan of the self-titled record and all of the new songs he played seemed pretty weak to me, especially lyrically. Still, he covered the Dylan version of “Corrina, Corrina”—that’s got to be worth something, right? Click this-a-way to see my photos and full review at DCist.
Having never been to one of the Hirshhorn’s After Hours events before, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I showed up this past Friday to see Dan Deacon play a set underneath the museum’s giant concrete donut. As it turns out, the party drew more socialites, dilettantes and revelers than it did genuine art enthusiasts. If the goal of After Hours is to pull folks into the museum who wouldn’t normally show up, then Friday’s event should be considered a rousing success. Unfortunately, such company does not usually make for an enjoyable evening but that’s where the mighty Dan Deacon came in. Summoning the sweaty, neon-clad masses as if by sheer will, Deacon transformed an art museum plaza into a moshpit, playground and communal art space. Oh, and he also played some music too. Click this way if you’d like to see my full review and photos over at DCist.
When I moved to Japan in the summer of 2005, I made a mental checklist for myself of places I’d like to visit, things I’d like to experience and bizarre animals I’d like to eat. Upon moving back to the States, I felt that I had made the most of my year overseas, having checked off the vast majority of my list (especially that eating bizarre animals part). Despite this fact, I did manage to leave a few things undone, the most glaring of which was seeing Tokyo’s premiere synth-pop-meets-spazz-core act, the Polysics. Three years later, I’m glad to say that I finally managed to see the band live, though not in their natural habitat. Regardless, the Polysics totally fulfilled my expectations for what a self-professed “technicolor pogo punk” band should be—and that’s no small feat. As usual, my review and photos can be found at DCist.
On Tuesday night I saw The New Year play an excellent set at DC9. As usual, my photos and review can be found at DCist. If you think that these dudes have a lot of guitars on their records, you should see them live—at one point during the show, all five members of the band (one of which was Centro-matic’s Will Johnson) were playing guitars. It reminded me of a line I recall reading in a Buddyhead review of the first Death Cab For Cutie record about ten years ago: more clean guitars than a Guitar Center showroom.
