"You're at a rock show on a Tuesday night. You're already successful."
-Ian Williams, guitar and keyboards
Battles performed Tuesday
evening at Webster Hall in Manhattan. I had no idea what I was getting
into, but a friend had been clamoring about this show for months. The
best way to describe the concert experience is with two words: organized chaos.
Their sound veers across a musical spectrum that is difficult to describe. So, give this a listen as you read on:
Their latest release Gloss Drop exemplifies this complex sound
(steel drums, cicada-sounding beats, manipulated vocals, distorted
guitar, and driving percussion). The band's creativity isn't limited to
their musical arrangments. Since vocalist Tyondai Braxton left Battles,
they recruited various artists to sing on the album. What other way
to bring talented (and busy) artists into a live concert than with
video? Using two large rectangular video screens we were graced with
closeups of Gary Numan, Blonde Redhead's Kazu Makino, and Matias Aguayo
singing and dancing awkwardly.
Battles goes off on tangents of experimental discord and when I'd
think they were just conducting a live jam experiment, they'd bring it
back with speedy synchronization in-tune with the flashing colors on the
illuminated screens behind them. Drum beats perfectly in-sync with
these blasts of color over the audience reminded me that this was in
fact, organized chaos.
The building dance beats of "Futura" put me into a trance in which I
actually closed my eyes for the entirety of the song (six minutes I'll
have you know, and no, I wasn't drinking).
The perfect way to start the Fall concert season? Broken Social Scene + TV on the Radio + Brooklyn Lager + Williamsburg Waterfront. Thursday night's show was part of the 2011 Williamsburg Waterfront concert series (past shows included Kid CuDi, Sonic Youth, Bright Eyes, and Death Cab for Cutie, with Fleet Foxes performing in two weeks).
Canadian rotating collective, Broken Social Scene kicked off the show to a smaller crowd (surprising, but my guess is most people were trying to fight New York’s rush hour). They played my favorite "7/4 (Shoreline)" off of their 2005 self-titled album. They also covered Modest Mouse's 'The World at Large.' Although the crowd was not abundant, their set was full and expansive.
Brooklyn's own TV on the Radio took the stage right after sunset. With the wind blowing, a heavy-duty smoke machine, and a flowing starry backdrop behind them the scene was set. I was surprised by the deviation in pace and sound from their recordings and their live performance. The energy from the crowd resulted in the increased tempo of every song. The effect: dancing to songs that you might not to when just listening in your living room.
Trying to describe TVOTR's sound is challenging, especially after seeing them live. Electronic beats, an occasional trombone, funky bass and drums, and shoegazing-styled guitar rifts. Lead singer Tunde's vocals range as much as the band's sound. Singing, talking, guttural, falsetto, and nasally. The lyrics are poetic and delivered with intent. They played many songs from their Spring release Nine Types of Light including 'Second Song,' 'New Cannonball Blues' 'Will Do', and 'Repetition.' I was excited to hear a little blast from the past with 'Staring at the Sun' off of their album Desperate Youth, Bloodthirty Babes. They dedicated their performance to former bassist, Gerard Smith, who passed from lung cancer in April. Tunde said that everything they do is for him "forever and ever and ever." TV On The Radio - "Will Do" by Interscope Records
TV on the Radio continues to tour the US through November.
Forget driving down a country road with your windows down - I'm just going to sit under the ceiling fan with an iced Pimms and my cat, whose name happens to be Pimms. It's too damn hot to do anything but listen to this super awesome podcast.
I spoke with Heather McEntire of Mount Moriah while the band was driving through Wisconsin on their tour with the Indigo Girls. We chatted about the band's new critically acclaimed self-titled album, North Carolina music, and how growing up the the mountains inspired her to write folk music.
Congratulations on the new album. Were you surprised by the positive response?
Well, yeah. You know, you never know how people are going to receive what you create and it’s been really wonderful to see the positive responses and encouraging words. Yeah we’ve felt a lot of support so it feels really great.
I think the song, "Lament", is a great example of the sort of spareness and candid writing found on the rest of the album. How did that song come about for you?
Well thank you. “Lament” was written several years ago actually, and initially it was written a lot slower and a little sadder, you know, when I was going through that break-up. And then, you know, after some time, post-break up, I started feeling more confident and it became a pop song [laughs]. And it became really powerful for me to sing those lyrics, and so it kind of took on a new energy I guess.
I love the music video for the song too. It looks like it was filmed in a single shot.
The video is one continuous take. We shot it in Durham, my home town, and on top of a parking deck. Hueism Pictures - who we’ve worked with for four videos now – we just really trusted them and they wanted to do a continuos take and it sounded pretty fun, a little ambitious, but It worked out. It’s a little rough around the edges but I think it gives it a good look, like a good window into our friends and it’s a little more casual. It’s not a super serious video with all these effects and stuff. It’s a little more natural and celebratory, which is what we wanted for that particular song.
I think I even recognized a few friends from Carrboro in the video.
[Laughs] There are probably a few familiar faces in there. It’s a small town.
You've collaborated with lots of other North Carolina artists. What is it that you like about working with local artists and the scene here?
Well, it’s very comfortable for me to create here. I think that the cost of living and quality of life is a really great balance and so it allows an artistic freedom. I’m surrounded by really talented musicians who were inspired to move here or remain here in some way, or come back here, but there’s always this kind of pulse of creativity that I find really inspiring. I don’t know what it is exactly. To pinpoint why it is such an amazing place – there’s a lot of different reasons, you know? I love North Carolina. I grew up in the western part of the state and so it feels like home. And it’s awesome to feel that community and be a part of that continuous shaping of the music and arts scene. It’s really fulfilling for me.
Who are some of your favorite North Carolina artists right now?
Jenks and I, my bandmate, we run a small record label called Holidays For Quince Records, and so our output is almost exclusively local music, and we’re going to be releasing the new Caltrop record early next year. We’re excited about that. We [Mount Moriah] are working on a new record as well. But in terms of wanting to collaborate on our next Mount Moriah record with some folks, or just being interested in local bands, I really love The Tender Fruit, Christy Smith’s project. I also really love Skylar Gudasz's voice, she has a band called Skylar Gudasz And The Ugly Girls. There’s so many to choose from.
There's a lot of folk influence on the new album, and the style really showcases your voice. Was that an intentional decision to go the folk route?
Sure. I grew up in the mountains and kind of come from a family of bluegrass musicians. I guess for a lack of a better phrase, it’s kind of in my blood to kind of lean towards that country/folk feel. Also, I have spent the last ten years playing post-punk music in a band called Bellafea, which was really kind of anti-structured, so Mount Moriah is a neat challenge for me to write in a more traditional format, and still be unique in that format, so I’m really interested in that challenge.
There's a real power in the simplicity of it.
It’s a different kind of intimacy - a different kind of expression.
The album really harkens back to these legendary badass female singer-songwriters like Carol King on Tapestry or Joni Mitchell. Were those women an influence for you?
Yeah. You mentioned Tapestry. I love Carol King. I had all of her records in a really formative time for me, when I first started playing guitar. I had all the Fleetwood Mac records too. So those are really formative as well. Honestly, the band we’re touring with right now, The Indigo Girls, [listening to them] is kind of how I learned what a harmony was, outside of hymms and things that I would learn in church. I listened mostly to mainstream country for the most part of my life.
I never really noticed the church influence in your music before, but I guess it really makes sense now that I think about it.
It’s something that never really goes away. It’s so formative. Even though I was really shy as a child, I didn’t sing, but I really took it in and listened really carefully.
Mount Moriah is playing at this year's Hopscotch Music Festival. How has the experience of being involved with the festival been for you?
I already knew that we had an amazing music community, but I think what [Hopscotch] does is put our community on the map in a more national, or kind of local sense, and it’s nice to kind of come together and be surrounded by all the local labels and just encourage each other and go to everyone’s shows. It’s fun
It's really an incredible lineup.
You kind of have to commend the people currating it because it’s a pretty big undertaking, you know. And it’s doing a lot for the Triangle. It’s awesome.
You mentioned being a part of the group Bellafea, and the 2007 album, Cavalcade, is one of my favorites. Any plans to return to that project or something similar to it?
We’re working on a new record. It’s plugging along. It’s a little harder to stay focused on it because Mount Moriah is kind of a priority for me right now. But we work on it. I guess we’re about a third or halfway done. And that’s a fun direction to turn to. And it’s a chance to express myself a little differently.
Thanks to Heather for taking the time to talk with me despite the early morning time difference and bad reception in Wisconsin. You can read my full feature on Mount Moriah in the Raleigh Downtowner magazine.
When art-pop duo, The Blow, released Paper Television in 2006, it was a refreshingly unromantic compilation of love songs crowded with flirtatious snaps and staccato keyboard riffs carrying lyrics that dissected relationships by comparing love to things like the human digestive process instead of anything idealistic or grand.
That was back when lead singer, Khaela Maricich, was working with Jona Bechtolt - before he took his mastery of bursting-at-the-seams electro-pop construction to YACHT.
Now, Maricich performs on stage completely alone. Completely alone - no backing vocalists or band or even the smallest of stage props.
As a solo act, Maricich's neurotic sense of humor is as strong and endearing as ever. Her animated expressions and quirky dancing had the mostly-lesbian crowd in chuckles during "Hey Boy". She looked like a dorky teen movie character who is desperately trying to seem sexy and live out her video-vixen dream, but comes across as spazzy and adorably awkward.
At times, the show felt like one of those comedy specials where the comedian incorporates humorous songs into their carefully timed, carefully scripted act. If Stephen Lynch and Woody Allen had an indie musician baby girl, it would be Maricich.
Half of the songs from the show came from an ostensibly random side project in which Maricich claimed to have collaborated with a "very famous" girl who "wasn't gay but had a girlfriend and it was all over the tabloids". She never explicitly said it was Lindsay Lohan, but it was obvious, with Maricich adding, "You totally know who this girl is... but you probably don't listen to her music."
The premise of the project was that Lohan had been a fan of The Blow, and would even perform "Parentheses" to her girlfriend, Samantha Ronson (a performance that Maricich re-enacted with lots of exaggerated hair tousling and playful attempts at smoldering bedroom-eyes). Maricich donned a pair of glittery platforms and asked, "Do I look like a world famous lesbian?" before singing a song called "Make It Up" (with lyrics that Lohan had allegedly written) about having a love with no precedent so that the two lovers are forced to make up the rules as they go along.
Even with an easy sense of humor, Maricich may have looked fairly ridiculous while trying to resemble a pop star playing up her breathy vocals and minxish vulnerability - but if Lohan herself were alone on stage she would have looked utterly sad and even more disastrous than usual.
It's hard to tell how much of the Lohan collaboration story or the performance is just shtick. It didn't feel like a concert. Maricich's twitchy silliness was sweet, but I paid $12 to go to Local 506 and hear live music, and left disappointed.
There was also an opening band called T-kette... The girls were wearing cute outfits... that's all I'm going to say.
Author's Note: I apologize for the shitty quality of the picture. I drunkenly lost my camera during an epic Spring Fling party at a friend's house a few months ago, and have been forced to use my iPhone ever since. If anyone in Carrboro finds a hot pink Sony camera with a blurry screen (from being dropped into a Blue Cup during college. Whatever, it still works) it would be really awesome of you to get that back to me. Thanks.
