Bon Iver Show, New EP

I just wanted to update and say that the Bon Iver show the other night was spectacular. Justin Vernon and company put on an absolutely wonderful show and I encourage everyone who likes the record to try to catch them live. For Emma, Forever Ago is stark and intimate, which works well for the recording, but live, the band fill out the sound in a fantastic way, breathing new energy and life into the songs. The first track, "Blood Bank" from the new EP of the same name, is absolutely massive. "Skinny Love" features four people playing drums while Vernon plays guitar and sings. "The Wolves Acts I & II" is one of the best set closers I've seen in a long time.

The changes that are made to the songs in the live set are one of the things that impresses me about Bon Iver. It would be very easy to simply play the songs as they were played on the recording, but Vernon doesn't seem content to do that. He is aware that the record came about under unique circumstances and the recording reflects that, so he simply moves past that and gives the songs a new uniqueness in a live setting. And I'm sure they're more fun to play that way, as well. The group explores more experimental directions in the songs, allowing space for atmospherics and almost-solos, though the band never slips into that dangerous territory.

As a musician myself, I appreciated how connected Vernon was with the rest of his band. During the experimental moments of the songs he often turned to the other musicians onstage to make sure he was with them and they were with him. I've heard people say that they think he should play to the audience more, but I appreciate his devotion to making good music by being a good musician. Vernon has become quite a celebrity to those who know him, but it doesn't appear to have gone to his head. He was genuinely excited to be playing a show in Wisconsin, his home state, and was excited about the fact that members of his extended family were in the audience. He related to us that the song "For Emma" was written after members of this family had visited him at the hunting cabin he wrote the record For Emma in, and proceeded to dedicate the song to them. Remaining humble while in the position Vernon is sure to be a challenge, but it appears that he is handling it well, and I applaud him for it.

The EP will be out on January 2oth, though it was available at the show on Friday. I'm very impressed with the growth. The recording quality is slightly better, and the songs are a little more filled out. The result is that they sound like the next step in Bon Iver's inevitable rise to greatness. Gringo already reported on the details. Check out the post here. I'm excited to hear what the next record sounds like.

Bon Iver:
Website: http://www.boniver.org/
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/boniver

Laura Stevenson: A Record

I only recently found out about Laura Stevenson, but I'm glad I did. Her first record just came out via "the first ever donation based record label," Quote Unquote Records. The record, titled A Record, came out on October 29^th to almost no fanfare. There was a banner on the Quote Unquote Records homepage (there still is, actually) and Stevenson's myspace mentioned it, but that was it as far as promotion, which is a shame because the record is wonderful.

The lead track, "Baby Bones," sounds like something that Alela Diane would write (see previous post for more on Diane), but with a clearer voice. When the trumpets and percussion kick in, however, I can't help but be reminded of a female-fronted Neutral Milk Hotel. That influence is especially strong in the track "Landslide Song/The Dig." Beginning with a quick count off, the song is a low-fi burst that wouldn’t sound out of place on NMH's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.

Stevenson's strength, though, is the softer song. "The Pretty One," "Nervous Rex" and "A Shine to It" are by far the strongest songs on the record, and "A Shine to It" is easily one of the best songs I've heard all year. Stevenson's voice and guitar work complement the words and the melody perfectly. The harmonies on all three of the songs listed above stand out as being a strong aspect of Stevenson's recorded sound. She's clearly a talented songwriter with fantastic instincts.

My only complaint is that there are only eight tracks on the record, leading me to believe that An EP would be a better title than A Record. Regardless, this is a fantastic set of songs and I encourage you to check them out. I also encourage you to donate to the label so more artists like Stevenson can release music with them.

http://www.quoteunquoterecords.com
http://www.myspace.com/laurastevenson

Tartufi at St. Olaf College

I mentioned in my previous post that I might not be able to check out the band Tartufi who were to play at tonight. I did, in fact, manage to see them and it was, in fact, more interesting than Romantica.

I showed up just as doors opened at the venue and was impressed right off the bat by the wide array of guitar pedals and drum equipment. Now, a lot of equipment can sometimes signal a really awful band who happen to have wealthy relatives who support their "artistic endeavors." Tartufi are not that band. Hailing from San Francisco, California, the band play a blend of electronic, rock and atmospheric music. The band consist of Lynne Angel on guitar, bass, vocals and pedals, and Brian Gorman on drums, bass, keyboards, pedals and about 800 other things.

Again, many toys can mean an unbearable noise so I was initially skeptical. That skepticism last all of two minutes. At the end of that two minutes I realized that Tartufi were there to play music, with a little noise thrown in for good measure. Angel and Gorman make the most complex music I've ever seen created live by only two human beings. They looped everything possible and continued to play over it, creating lush soundscapes that would instantly switch to heavy-as-hell, overdriven bass, tribal drum madness.

What most impressed me was the ability of both performers not only to loop the music, but to continue to play over it with one another. Looping is a difficult thing as it is, but two people looping different parts has the potential to be chaos. Angel and Gorman were consistantly on the same page, however, cueing one another with both looks and hand signals. That trust in your fellow performer, as well as that connection, was wonderful to watch.

The only thing that seemed to be lacking, in my mind, is more visual elements. Angel and Gorman were, as I said, wonderful to watch, but Tartufi's music screams to have multimedia elements added. Video elements or even dancers would be incredible. Tartufi's show, as it is, is so carnal and involved that adding more to it visually to create a complete sensory experience could give these two the push they need to be huge, especially with the Sigur Ros, Explosions in the Sky and Radiohead crowd.

For fans of Sigur Ros, First Communion Afterparty and Animal Collective.

Romantica at St. Olaf College

I'm very lucky to attend a college that is close enough to a major city (two, truth be told) which allows us to get a wide variety of musical acts to perform on campus relatively regularly. This weekend we were fortunate enough to book two shows on two consecutive nights, beginning this evening with a group from Minneapolis called Romantica. Owing to the twangy indie/alt-country that the band plays you wouldn't know that the lead singer, Ben Kyle, originally hails from Belfast except for his accent. The rest of the group are from the U.S.

Bridging the gap bands like The Wallflowers or Counting Crows and Ryan Adams (all of whom are much better than Romantica), Romantica are to the Minneapolis-St. Paul country scene what Quietdrive is to the Minneapolis-St. Paul pop-punk scene. Well loved and receiving more and more attention nationwide due to their very safe, straight-ahead songwriting sensibilities.

I arrived at the show a little late and, frankly, I don't think I missed too much. Romantica are good musicians and good songwriters, they're just redundant. Every song began to blend into the previous one with only the occasional tuning or "thank you" to break up a set of songs. Kyle has a good voice but he never quite explored his full range the way I was hoping. Every so often he would hit a higher note in a more "intense" moment of a song, but for the most part he stuck to a safe range. This wouldn't necessarily have been a bad thing if he had opened his eyes once in awhile during the songs. After the third song I grew tired of watching him emote over twangy guitars and a rather boring rhythm section.

The rest of the band didn't do much to interest me either. While Kyle is the attractive lead singer with an acoustic guitar, the lethar jacket-clad Luke Jacobs was the gritty bringer-of-twang, switching back and forth between electric guitar and pedal steel guitar. Rounding out the lineup was bassist James Orvis (a chubby bassist - imagine that), and Tony Zaccardi on drums. For the most part they stayed on their respective parts of the stage, going through the motions. Again, it wasn't that it was bad, it was that there seemed to be no live-show spontinaity.

The best moments came when Kyle explored the upper regions of his vocal range or when Jacobs was allowed to do something interesting on the guitar. However, the low point of the show came when Kyle announced, "This is is a Leonard Cohen song," just before launching into a cover of "Hallelujah." Considering that everyone and their little sister has covered the song, I hope that Romantica don't think that theirs is original (click the link - the song has "been recorded more than 170 times for release...").The song itself is beautiful and can be incredibly haunting. Unfortunately, Romantica did not pull it off.

Romantica had been talked up to me by a number of my friends but I found myself feeling rather let down. Perhaps it was simply this particular performance, though I have a hard time believeing that they could be animated at all. I can only hope that tomorrow's performance by California band Tartufi is more interesting.

Review: Against Me!, Ted Leo & the Pharmacists and Future of the Left

I had a chance to see Against Me! (AM!) play with Ted Leo & the Pharmacists (TL/Rx) and Future of the Left (a group featuring former members of mclusky and Jarcrew) at First Avenue in Minneapolis this past Thursday night.

Being an all ages show Future of the Left took the stage at about six-fifteen as people were still trickling in. I have to say, I was impressed by the show they put on, especially considering the early start time. Drummer Jack Egglestone attacked his drums with a look on his face that implied the drums had done him a deep, personal wrong. Bassist/vocalist Kelson Mathias and vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Andy Falkous sweated enough to douse a fire. Their set ended with Mathias jumping from the four-foot high First Avenue stage onto the dance floor where he proceeded to do pushups over his bass.

What stood out to me the most was the heavy use of bass in their songs. Nearly every song used bass overdrive and Mathias played as if he were playing a guitar. Playing in this way gave a very melodic quality to the rhythm section and forces Falkous to use his typically melodic instruments to play basic rhythms.

Considering Ted Leo is nearly forty, he’s still rocking harder than a lot of people half his age. Still pissed off in his middle age, his songs speak of and with anger at the way things are while being surprisingly danceable. His set began with a short speech by two of the people preemptively arrested before the RNC (those arrestees have since been dubbed the RNC 8). TL/Rx recently released a fund-raiser EP called Rapid Response to raise money for the non-profit organization Democracy Now! that is helping with the legal fees of the RNC 8, and the Minneapolis chapter of Food Not Bombs.

If you don’t know TL/Rx I urge you to check them out. They draw from a variety of styles including folk and reggae but can most accurately be described as a gritty indie band. Their most recent record, Living with the Living (2007), is the strongest of their releases, though Shake the Sheets (2004) is also great.

Against Me! has been one of my favorite groups for awhile now and this was my second time seeing them live. It has been my experience, and the experience of those I’ve talked to, that AM! rarely disappoint. They took the stage with little fanfare, which is appropriate, and launched immediately into the set.

This is the final tour AM! Are doing in support of their 2007 album, New Wave but we were treated to a set of songs covering most of their career. In fact, we didn’t even hear half of the tracks off of New Wave. Crowd pleasers like “Walking is Still Honest” and “Pints of Guinness Make You Strong” (both of which were sung a capella by the more boisterous of those in the audience before AM! even took the stage) were in abundance and Tom Gabel and the rest of the AM! crew seemed to be enjoying the evening as much as the audience.

The most entertaining moment of the night came when Gabel – who rarely, if ever, says anything more than “thank you” and “good night” to audiences – mercilessly called out someone in the audience for flicking off the band during the entirety of “Borne on the FM Waves of the Heart.”

“I think my favorite part about playing that last song,” Gabel said, “was the guy in the pink scarf who flicked me off during the entire song.” Gabel went on to say, “God forbid the lead singer have the audacity to write a song about how he fell in love with his wife.”

I’ve heard that after more touring abroad the band will head back into the studio to work on a follow up to New Wave. However, if you ever have a chance, be sure to catch these guys live – you won’t regret it. Same goes for TL/Rx and Future of the Left.