You're almost always serious.  You're artsy for the sake of being artsy, but you kinda can't help it- that's how you and everyone around you were raised.  You're always in touch with catharsis, but you still understand the subtle humor of sampling an '80s Tom Petty song and how it wouldn't detract from the intelligence and uniqueness of your track.  Despite your cohesive sound on your debut album, there's still something that hints you may be able to run with the most absurd of styles if need be.

Akron/Family

You're happy.  You're goofy.  You enjoy the depth of seemingly straightforward statements of everyday life.  You come from a wide variety of influences ranging from Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young to the Beta Band.  You've always got a smile, even if the sincerity of that smile can occasionally be doubted.  You laugh a lot.

MGMT

You are a blend of psychedelic pop mixed with '80s dance music, making you one of the strangest hybrids around even though you seem completely derivative.  Despite all this, you still have a strong enough appeal to open for Radiohead, undoubtedly locking you in as one of the next big waves of rock (but let's not get too ahead of ourselves, as we remember that Liars opened for Radiohead recently, too).  You may just have happened to be in the right place at the right time, but I guess we won't know that for certain for a while yet.

A Place to Bury Strangers

You simply can't let go of that '90s sound, yet you refuse to completely rehash it.  You're living in the past in a number of ways but update it enough to pass it off as modern.  You keep up with the artsy-for-the-sake-of-artsy trend that TV On the Radio started years ago by including black-and-white, non-cohesive videos (indicative of your Generation X influence) but it really doesn't do a whole lot more than give Black Rebel Motorcylce Club a reason to be pissed at you on tour when you take 40 minutes to set the projector up. Yet, unlike the previously mentioned groups, you have always stuck with a particular scene or genre which is important to you and attempted to make it your own.

Tag, we're it. Our good friend Jody over at When You Awake just tagged us with a type of blog chain letter called the "Seven Songs Shaping Your Summer." Here's the deal:

"List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now, shaping your summer. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they're listening to."

Here are mine:

Akron/Family - There's So Many Colors

Michael Hurley - Twilight Zone

Mississippi John Hurt - I'm Satisfied

Dock Boggs - My Old Horse Died

Entrance - Darling

Fire on Fire - Liberty Unknown

Mariee Sioux - Flowers & Blood

[ download ] Tyler's Seven Songs of Summer

This past weekend, I made the twelve-hour drive from Los Angeles to Quincy, California to go to the High Sierra Music Festival. Well, more specifically, I drove to see Akron/Family, who were scheduled to play two sets over the course of the four-day fest. The sky, ashen with smoke, loomed overhead. California’s burning, and the air moaned with congestion.

Above the smoke of wildfires and the scent of body odor and patchouli, the sun still shone on the tie-dyed masses. The festival, a yearly tradition in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, was comprised mostly of colorful, boisterous -- if maybe a tad monotonous -- jamband music. With thousands of people, five stages, delicious food, camping, singing, dancing, yoga workshops, Frisbee, and meditation, though, the High Sierra Festival was everything that I hoped it would be. Of course, once Akron/Family took the stage for the first time, it became so, so much more.

As the opening notes echoed through the pines, I had to battle my jaw to stay shut. It won without much resistance. The set started with “Phenomena,” from last year’s Love is Simple LP and proceeded to meander, both assuredly and nebulously, down a sonic rabbit hole so deep that only my tired feet knew they were still on this planet. The rest of my consciousness knew only love.

For the most part, the band played material unheard on previous recordings. This is the Akron/Family that I’ve always admired, a band that tirelessly and passionately pursues innovation in a way that seems both effortless and meticulous, whimsical and erudite.  Their new material snaked through chord changes, complex rhythms, and immaculate harmonies with waterfall fluidity; no change was expected, and every one punched me in the gut. The crowd, more accustomed to the paint-by-numbers Phish clones, seemed at first confused, then delighted, by the challenge set forth by Akron/Family. Their technical proficiency, staggering emotional aura, and melodic depth were beyond anything I’ve ever seen before.

And I’ve seen a lot of shows.

[Note: the above photo is not from High Sierra - I'll post one up if I can find one]

=tyler=

Silencio. Suenan unas guitarras lánguidas y una voz clara, limpia, hermosa. Andy Cabic abre el concierto de Vetiver en el Teatro Central de Sevilla con una lentitud extrema, casi decadente. La siguiente canción no parece cambiar mucho el ritmo, son temas bonitos, pero que no llegan, no traspasan. Sin embargo de repente la música se llena de energía, de pasión de verdad, de un estilo propio que al principio no existía. Las guitarras, la batería (formidable percusionista) y el bajo suben los decibelios y Vetiver suena como una banda hecha, nada que ver con las consideraciones que los vinculan como mero acompañamiento del ínclito Devendra Banhart.

Andy Cabic y los suyos apuestan por un folk desnudo, muy americano, pero moderno y sentimental, alejado de la temática "freak" de su amigo Devendra y de las progresiones rockeras del grupo que les siguió en el escenario (Akron/Family). Los americanos sucedieron las canciones de sus tres discos (la mejor, "Red Lantern Girls"), además de presentar un par de adelantos que abren el apetito para un cuarto álbum que apunta a importante dentro del folk contemporáneo. Era un grupo que conocía poco y se ganaron un fan de por vida.

Pero el plato fuerte de la noche fue Akron/Family. Tras su espectacular disco del año pasado (Love is Simple), tenía muchas ganas de ver cómo se desenvuelven en el escenario una de las bandas mejor consideradas por su directo... y no defraudaron. Claro que no fue gracias a un público frío y poco participativo. Doble mérito para el grupo por tanto, por dejarse la piel en el escenario y no caer contagiados de la apatía de los asistentes. Quizás la propuesta fue demasiado radical -hubo incluso un par de abandonos del teatro-, y el sitio no era el adecuado -el concierto invitó más al baile y el desenfreno que al recogimiento de un teatro-, pero aún así fue uno de los conciertos del año.

Empezaron tranquilos, con aires caribeños casi, utilizando todo tipo de percusiones, incluyendo la colaboración del batería de Vetiver, y terminaron enloquecidos, rockeros, progresivos, hasta con cierta actitud "noise" en determinados momentos. Las canciones no eran reconocibles, pero da igual, transmitían magia en el escenario, un sonido ejemplar y una potencia inusitada para un trío (uno de sus miembros está de retiro espiritual budista). La palabra que define su concierto es "sorpresa", tanta que incluso se arrancaron con una batucada siniestra para terminar una canción y enlazaron en el último tramo, tema tras tema en una bacanal de ruido y melodía que explotó definitivamente con la majestuosa "Ed is a Portal", mezcla imposible de rock, folk y música tribal. Una pena esa mirada de decepción al terminar un gran concierto en un momento poco adecuado.

]]> http://hideyaface.wordpress.com/?p=23 Fri, 30 May 2008 04:40:40 +0000 hideyaface http://hideyaface.wordpress.com/?p=23 SXSW is arguably one of the greatest things about Austin. I went full force this year (through a bit of scheming, guess who ended up with an artist's badge?), spending day and night wandering downtown.

(me loving life, downtown. photo by mike the 2600 king)

It's a little late to go into details about the festival, but I will say that of all the great acts I caught (Blitzen Trapper, Man Man, Billy Bragg talking about facists, Bon Iver, Half Japanese, DJ Klever, etc), Akron/Family was easily the greatest performance of the week. I'll even say, without reserve, that it was probably the greatest show I'll ever see.

I wasn't sure how to describe, Akron/Family, so I checked Wikipedia: "folk-influenced experimental rock." It sounds pretentious, but I suppose it probably works pretty well. Their albums are all remarkably different, with songs ranging from mellow and twangy to chaotic and almost tribal. It's always a good idea to listen to a complete album of theirs, as opposed to skipping around. This is especially the case in their latest album, Love is Simple (2007). For the record, their self-titled (2005) is easily my favorite album.

(stolen from the interwebz)

Regarding the live show, I can't really explain it and expect to do it any sort of justice. Everyone danced and created makeshift percussion instruments (banging two shoes together, grabbing aluminum cans), there was no break between songs, and at the end of the show we ended up singing in the middle of Red River Street. Instead of going in to more detail and reminiscing while getting cheesier with every word, have a few of my favorite Akron/Family songs:

Running, Returning (my favorite)

Shoes

Ed is a Portal

Let me know what you think!

Voxtrot - Angry Mulch

Voxtrot is a great band. Their EPs are better than the album they released last year, but the album has grown on me and I like it. This song is from their first EP (l'adieu à l'été! (you are loved)) which might've been their demo and/or self-released. Either way in this day of filesharing it isn't particularly rare anymore. I like this song for the reasons I like all Voxtrot songs. The lyrics are cheesy yet accessible (actually I can't read the lyrics, but I have an overactive imagination so anything is possible with me!) while the music has a poppy and driving rhythm and the sound overall makes you somewhat underestimate their seriousness. Of course this is different on the self titled album which is rather angry, but it still shares many of the same qualities.

Also listen to: Voxtrot (whole album), KEXP Live Performance (find it somewhere on the internet), Raised By Wolves EP ("The Start of Something" is one of my favorite songs), Your Biggest Fan EP (Mainly "Trouble" as it's great).

Daniel Rossen - Too Little Too Late [Jo Jo Cover]

I've never listened to Jo Jo, but I have heard Grizzly Bear, and Daniel Rossen is a songwriter (and vocalist) for them. This song vocally sounds like Grizzly Bear, of course, and that alone makes it sound completely like grizzly bear (at least to me). It also has the layered and numinous backing vocals which are a good sign you're listening to Grizzly Bear. The rest of the piece, however, is pretty irregular (of course). I just read the Grizzly Bear wiki page and apparently this song was done last year for Ed Droste's 29th birthday (but it's wikipedia so take it with a large grain of salt). It's one pretty damn good birthday present, too!

Also listen to: Yellow House

Iron And Wine - Carousel

Searching the internet for Carousel will get you several results. One is Beirut with a song from their Lon Gisland EP and the other is Blink-182 with a song from Cheshire Cat, meaning all types of bands love Carousels. This song is off Iron and Wine's latest album, so it's not particularly lo-fi (to be honest I don't know a ton about Iron and Wine so I'm just winging it, but not going overboard), but it still has the aura of folk-rock. Rather minimalist and non-offensive, but interesting nonetheless.

Also listen to: The Shepherd's Dog (favs are "Boy With A Coin", "Resurrection Fern", and "Flightless Bird", "American Mouth") Hell if I know. Dylan, I'm sure.

Fun Fact: I'm more of a ferris wheel kinda guy, I just can't get enough of them and every time I see one my eyes are stuck on it.

Srsly, so cool and interesting!

Menomena - Evil Bee

Not to compare the two or anything, but this song by Menomena somewhat reminds me of OK Computer. Not particularly musically, but just the feeling and the whole 'machine' idea. Anyway, don't flame me because this song is no "Karma Police" or anything and I didn't mean that. Anyway, this song is cool because of the variance and changes (somewhat) in time. I'm a sucker for that though I think everyone is, biologically, so it isn't a big deal. There's also the many odd instruments. Oddity is something I definitely associate with Menomena, anyway, as I think they are somewhat experimental (though I'm clearly no expert). Saxophones and other assorted classical instruments add to the feeling. With all of the instruments and changes, in the end the song sounds somewhat minimalist still. The piano is in the background and is pretty much the backbone, so that might be what I'm picking up on. Anyway, I enjoy it, even if this band is something of a 'once in a blue moon' thing for me.

Also listen to: Friend and Foe (whole album -- also, does anyone know if it's something of a concept album?)

State Bird - Streams of Light

State Bird is one of those large indie-rock bands in the tradition of Akron/Family, Beirut, Tunng and Arcade Fire. Probably most of the Elephant 6 bands, too. They're not really a ton like Arcade Fire (especially since their female vocalist can actually sing), but Akron/Family and Tunng having a child while Beirut and Six Elephants watch would sound a lot like this (aside: who's the man in that relationship?). They play folk songs and sound, overall, like they're from Appalachia, which isn't too far off since they're from Ohio. This song is one of the best on their 2008 album Mostly Ghostly, and pretty much includes all of their dominant themes: indians, ghosts, god/the spiritual, and other things you'd probably hear in an Appalachian folksong.

Also listen to: Mostly Ghostly (whole album, srsly, it's free on last.fm -- recommend tracks: 2, 4, 6, 9, 10), Love is Simple (Akron Family), Good Arrows (Tunng), The Flying Club Cup (Beirut), Funeral (Arcade Fire)

Fun fact: Ohio's state bird is the Cardinal. It's Illinois', Indiana's, North Carolina's, Virginia's, and West Virginia's too, but don't tell anyone or they might get into a fight!

Anyway, the show was phenomenal. It was rather crowded, so I took all the shots from the same spot, and all with my 85 f/1.8 lens. It was a bit too crowded to risk changing lenses. Maybe next time I can get a press pass and run around backstage and use flash and all that fun stuff.

THE DODOS

AKRON/FAMILY

The Dodos are a relatively new band who reminds me very much of Akron/Family meets crazy mountain folk (like West Virginia voters, har har). Their songs are somewhat lo-fi with acoustic goodness. Rather mellow, too, at points within the album Visiter (I actually didn't even know they released a previous album until recently and still need to get my hands on it!)

Also listen to: Park Song, Jodi, Red and Purple, Undeclared, God? (All from Visiter)

The Hold Steady - Banging Camp

The Hold Steady are, as I've heard said before, "the world's best bar band." No matter what you call them, they make some good music. Separation Sunday (which this song is from) is by far their best album in my opinion. It's a concept album that takes characters and storylines from their previous album Almost Killed Me and builds on it. Oh, and I love concept albums <3

Also listen to: Separation Sunday (Whole album)

Explosions in the Sky - Catastrophe and the Cure

Explosions in the Sky have been making music for the greater part of this decade and so far they haven't released and album I don't like. It's all instrumental (I'm a post-rock genre skeptic) and very long (average song length is probably over 6 minutes) but the albums will fly by. This song is from their latest album All of A Sudden I Miss Everyone. Despite the song and album names they aren't emo (in an instrumental world no one can hear you whine!). Emotive, though.

Also listen to: All other albums

The Deathray Davies - Corrective Lenses

The Deathray Davies are an awesome Dallas based band (currently on hiatus, I think, as the lead man, John Dufilho, is now the drummer for The Apples in Stereo) that can best be compared to Spoon and The Spinto Band. I also tend to think that the early Death Cab for Cutie album Something About Airplanes (and perhaps The Photo Album and We Have the Facts... too) at times sounds similar to this band. It's a long shot, though. At any rate, this band is all rock all the time, though more on the poppy side in their more recent endeavors.

Also listen to: All other albums

Tulsa - I feel Great

This band is from Massachusetts, not Oklahoma. Tulsa made a bit of a splash on the blog scene a year or so back, and I just happened to be listening to them right now and realized that this song really does make you feel great! This song is mostly instrumental (post-rock-y) but the other song for the most part sounds a lot like Band of Horses and My Morning Jacket with a little neo-grunge thrown in (I coined that term which means it has no value once so ever. Check it out if you can.

Also listen to: I Was Submerged

Allow me to announce my first surefire top ten album of 2008, before ever announcing my favorites of 2007, and before even finishing my SXSW blog about discovering this band in the first place.

The band is Megafaun and the album is Bury the Square.

First let me just say, the degree to which the phrase 'old timey' is dissected on urban dictionary is adorable. And familiar. I especially like the exposition on the relative old-timeyness of facial hair configurations, and the compare and contrast between the distantly related concept of retro chic. One wonders how long you could explore the usage and shades of meaning of the phrase 'old timey' as the sole thesis of a serious grad school paper. But I digress.

Megafaun are an Akron/Family sister band, and themselves an offshoot of another interrelated project. I didn't know they existed until their performance on the tremendous Table of the Elements showcase at SXSW 2008. They moved me to tears with their plaintive set, full of wistful harmonizing. Now whenever I listen to their album, the memory of that emotion is pricked. And I've been listening to it frequently ever since.

I use the phrase old timey here loosely, and with apologies to the wordanistas over at the urban dictionary. It may not be a proper description of Megafaun in the specific musical genre sense, especially since the free-form, electrified bliss outs at the end of a couple of their songs have nothing old timey about them. But it does capture the mood of this and the Calexico/Iron & Wine song I blogged about just the other day. It is a direct descendant of vintage rural folk, and it evokes all the predictable imagery of and nostalgia for sepia-toned times predating my own.

I have an intense love for banjo and pedal steel, and will go to such great lengths to hear it as listening to country and bluegrass, when bands of those styles accidentally end up on stages I happen to be sitting near at the time. Megafaun has a song called Drains that features both, the tune of which has been on my tongue for some several weeks now. The blend of voices on this track so rich and resonant that it sinks into the throat and settles there, until the fullness of sound forces you to crack lips and sing along.

I do love Drains, but after debating it with myself for the amount of time I've been writing this post, I have decided to share the obvious standout track instead: Where We Belong. It is epic in every sense of the word: length, range, and majesty. It catapults out of the acoustic into a stormy, clipped electric climax, and back down to a fiddle led denouement sweeter than the best moments from the Dirty Three.

[audio http://tinyurl.com/6927cc]

These Akron-cetera boys can do no wrong by me. It makes me want to buy up every volume of every related project out to six degrees of separation, in a mad fit of completionist abandon.

Video courtesy of thranshan. Song courtesy of WFMU. Some bad words like BLEEP and BLEEP and Rush Limbaugh, so not work-safe.

jillenium00 made a time-lapse movie of her painting a mural, and decided to score it with Ed is a Portal. Sez jillenium00:

On Saturday I hated this wall in my apartment and I loved to paint. Today I now love this wall and hate painting.

By the way, this mural is apparently based on the work of Roy Henry Vickers.

I'll save Ministry for tomorrow, when I get to kick ass for the Lord with my half-dragon paladin.

Akron/Family is known for their uncanny ability to be prolific while never sacrificing creativity or sincerity. They've released an album every year for the past couple years, and in my opinion every album has evolved in surprising - but always rewarding - ways. I think their unparalleled output can be credited to, amongst other things, a paradoxical combination of sheer childlike joy and a disciplined, professional work ethic. But they achieve both effortlessly, without pretension, and without self-consciousness.

These are musicians doing what they love, and it shows. It's my opinion that A/F is going to be the next Phish (not musically, but in terms of a rabidly loyal fanbase and voracious touring schedule). They recently played sets at Coachella and will be playing the festival circuit again at this summer's High Sierra Fest and Nelsonville Music and Arts Fest.

The guys have just debuted a new demo (live?) recording that they've probably been forging in the blast furnace of the open road in the past few months. They also just added a new show on May 2 in Los Angeles at the Museum of Natural History with the Dodo's.

[download] "Always there O.G."

[audio http://www.mydatabus.com/public/naturalismo/AlwaysThereOG.mp3]

]]> http://nedraggett.wordpress.com/?p=515 Sat, 26 Apr 2008 19:44:02 +0000 Ned Raggett http://nedraggett.wordpress.com/?p=515 Which almost sounds dismissive, but isn't meant to be, trust me.

Thing is, I'd known of Akron/Family's work for a while since the first album, as I've been lucky enough to be on Young God's promo list for a bit, and was well aware of how they were good sounding sorts, both on their own and playing with Michael Gira in Angels of Light efforts. Apparently at some point they'd been tagged with being another one of 'those' NYC bands in a 'you're all from Williamsburg or Park Slope or something, right?' sense, which sounded pretty nonsensical to me three thousand miles away and all. It's not like they sounded like the Strokes, for heaven's sake. (Good thing too.)

I'd not seen them live, though -- and it wasn't until I read something from Nari about how a performance she caught up in Big Sur was apparently one of those WHOA-my-god-my-world-is-changed moments along the lines of me seeing MBV that I realized 'okay, so something is clearly up.' In rapid succession I had almost everyone and their mother who had encountered them live say, "You HAVE to see them perform." This is a good thing, it reminds me of the essential difference between Radiohead in studio (exquisite) and Radiohead live (monumental), both astonishingly great but somewhat different beasts.

In a convenient bit of timing, there's a great piece on the band in the latest Yeti which I recommend -- I actually need to recommend the whole issue, that'll be another post -- so they'd been on my mind anyway. Then friend Eric drops me a last minute line after I get home from work yesterday saying, "Hey, they're playing a secret show at the Echo Curio tonight, wanna go?" (Like a lot of bands playing Coachella, as they're doing today, Akron/Family decided to slip in an unannounced show for LA while in the area.) Tentative plans had fallen through so I was on board pretty quickly, helped by the fact that the Echo Curio is a great venue -- last year's Bottling Smoke festival was a treat and a half, as I wrote about for Plan B, and you can scrounge through all my photos here if you like.

It was great to go again, been far too long, and folks like Grant and Ged and Tim and many others familiar from last year were there, as were a healthy contingent of the current KUCI crew (many of whom recognized me from the library -- love how that works). Opening bands Vampire Hands (Minneapolis quartet, percussion heavy art/math/pop dudes with a slight early Eno fetish) and Chapa (local LA quintet, stylish jazz/hint of klezmer/sweetly zoned rock, like a better National or something) both put on some great sets so the mood was right, and Akron/Family came in and set up, introduced themselves as the great Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem (no Riverbottom Nightmare Band?) and DAMN. Yeah, they killed it. I'm still tired from getting in late last night so the words aren't really around, but even if you didn't know a note from these folks, bring your earplugs and get there and go to town. Most energized crowd I've seen in nonstop dance mode for a 'rock' band as described since probably the New Fast Automatic Daffodils -- and that was seventeen years ago.

What was most interesting to me wasn't their vaunted and successful sense of getting the crowd going with singalongs and handclaps and direct participation without having to do any sort of "C'MON LET'S SEE THOSE HANDS!" hoohah (Dave Gahan is the only one I'll allow that from). It's not like they involved call-and-response, after all (and they would never claim to have). Instead, it really was all about the jaw-dropping fluidity with which the band performs and slips and moves from mode to mode, style to style, without making it seem clunky or forced. At the risk of damning with faint praise, at a couple of points I thought "This would be what the Arcade Fire might be like if I liked them," ie able to be successful at uplifting energy transformed outward -- a more apt comparison to my mind came later, namely that they might actually approach prime Boredoms instead. (And I thought this before I met Sam from KUCI wearing his Boredoms shirt.)

Anyway, took photos of all three bands, quietly crouched near the fan and the front door (the Echo Curio can and does overheat just by default, so I've learned to trust my comfort levels), and my set of Akron/Family photos is here. A lot of murk of course but there were a few shots that stood out for me:

Good stuff. Great band. And Miles and Seth were extremely polite and cool fellows when I chatted with them briefly. Yeah, see 'em. (And see Vampire Hands and Chapa too -- the former are currently going up the coast with their tour and they're all real friendly dudes, so introduce yourselves!)

More later. And goodnight.

The Gutter Twins - Idle Hands
[audio http://aolradio.podcast.aol.com/aolmusic/mp3s/the-gutter-twins-idle-hands.mp3]

Manu Chao - Politik Kills (feat. LKJ, Remix by Dennis Bovell)
[audio http://www.politikills.com/public/politkills_remix_free.mp3]

Akron/Family - Phenomena
[audio http://spin.com/audio/download/27698/af-phenomena.mp3]

French Kicks - Abandon
[audio http://www.girlieaction.com/frenchkicks/frenchkicks.mp3]

The Wombats - Kill The Director
[audio http://www.brightantenna.com/TheWombats_KillTheDirector.mp3]

Speck Mountain - Stockholm
[audio http://www.burntbrownsounds.com/stockholm.mp3]

Nina Simone - Revolution
[audio http://downloads.betterpropaganda.com/music/Nina_Simone-Revolution_128.mp3]

*Note: if done now (April 2008), this list would include Animal Collective's Strawberry Jam very high and Panda Bear would be much higher

Dica do dia: quer esquecer um bee, arranja outro. Coisa que todo mundo sabe, mas só acredita quando acontece mesmo.

There's the boy that left me bitter. Want to pay some other boy to just walk up to him and hit him. But I can't I can't I can't I can't

Akron/Family - The Rider (Dolphin Song)

Ok vou parar de ouvir Akron/Family. Deixem-me dormir.