Out the Other

The Bravery & VHS or Beta at Exit/In

There's nothing like getting drunk in a Logan's Roadhouse on a Sunday night to put you in the proper mood for a Nashville dance party.  There's also nothing like getting drunk in a Logan's Roadhouse on a Sunday night to make you feel a tad trashy, but hell - my sister had a gift card, the shots were triple the normal size, the beers were cold and it was right down the street from Exit/In.  Plus, a super-sized red-headed slut is the perfect cocktail to help you shed that last ounce of sobriety and last inch of self-consciousness before you shimmy your way through two deliciously danceable sets.

I've never been as into Louisville, KY's VHS or Beta as I could be, but then again this was the first time I managed to take in a live show.   And wow, does this make me sad that I passed up a few earlier opportunities to catch them in person.  Their deliciously guitar-heavy dance-punk has just enough shimmer, streaked with lead singer Zeke Buck's Robert Smith-like vocals.  They played for almost an hour, and kept a respectable number of bodies moving thoughout an early set.  Sadly, the band announced that they wouldn't be back in town for a while - they are headed back to the studio to work on the follow-up to Night on Fire after their upcoming European dates - but I would definitely check them out if you get the chance. 

Heading to this show was a random decision - I saw The Bravery at the Austin City Limits Festival last month and wasn't very impressed.  Granted, "saw" in this context can be defined as "vaguely listened to from the opposite side of a field while laying under a tree in the shade and trying to not faint in the extreme, 108 degree heat."  Still, from my position 100 yards away, it sounded exactly as if the festival organizers were just playing the band's debut album over the stage's PA system.  And I had heard that lead singer Sam Endicott was tedious at best with his arrogant rock-star posturing.  But I do enjoy the band's CD (even when played in a sweltering Texas field) and I had a feeling their bravado would resonate a bit more appropriately inside a much cooler, darker club. 

It took a little while for the stage to be changed after VHS or Beta wrapped up their set, and my sister and I took the opportunity to move a bit closer to the stage.  We also took the opportunity to check out the guitar tech, who was far too pretty, even in his black t-shirt, jeans slouched to reveal the tops of Calvin Klein tighty-whities, and a headband (?!?).  Yet that outfit was nothing compared to what he appeared in as the band took the stage - a cheerleading uniform.  He wasn't the only one in pre-Haloween spirits - the whole band actually took the opportunity to dress up (slightly), which was a little surprising, and Sam Endicott even wore a rasta hat with fake dreads.

A few observations about The Bravery's performance:

1- There probably was a strong correlation between my notable enjoyment of the show and the amount of alcohol I consumed prior to entering Exit/In.  Still, although the alcohol was definitely required for me to not be annoyed by the fact that Sam Endicott rarely picked up a guitar (a particular pet peeve of mine) and had only one pose (foot on the monitor, leaning over the crowd) I think I would have been dancing regardless.

2- Despite the fact that Sam Endicott is clearly a bit of a tool, he's still hot.  Hot in an excellent, Christian Troy kinda way. 

3- The bass player, Mike H., proved to be hot as well.  Once he removed most of his priest costume, that is.  And I didn't really mean that the way it sounds... he just looked much better in a sleeveless t-shirt than he did in a funny hat, glasses and collar.  I also enjoyed the fact that at one point in the set he accidentally smacked Endicott in the head with his bass.  "Accidentally"... right.  Your secret's safe with us, Mike.

4- I'm not sure I've ever been to a show with lighting that complemented the music so well.  Bright colors, strobes, excellent back-lighting - the whole nine yards.  It made for better pictures, as well.

5- I have to give them props for playing "An Honest Mistake" in the middle of their set.  I can respect a band that plays their big hit before the encore.

6- The Bravery's songs all sound fairly similar. They rely on the same formula - the catchy hooks and danceable beats that leave the indulgent aftertaste of a guilty pleasure.  But to my surprise, seeing them live left me feeling even less guilty. 

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Check out all of my pictures from the show (there are lots, lots more) on Flickr.  Cause I know you want to download this one:

Death Cab For Cutie & Stars @ the War Memorial Auditorium

Last night I saw Death Cab For Cutie and Stars play downtown, at the fairly gorgeous and certainly historical War Memorial Auditorium.  The auditorium, part of the War Memorial building and Legislative Plaza, has been around since the 1920s, and has played host to some phenomenal rock shows in the the past - artists like Elvis Costello, REM, the Kinks and Lou Reed.  In recent years it has only been used as a venue for symphony performances, meetings and the like, but under the recent management of the Tennessee Performing Arts Center, the Auditorium is once again featuring events of the more rocking variety.  But despite the overwhelming history of the venue, both of the bands were a bit underwhelming.

Granted I arrived a bit too late to catch the beginning of the Stars set (oh the joys of parking downtown).  But after all my praise of their current release, Set Yourself On Fire, they just didn't live up to my expectations.  With seven band members on stage, I expected them to be a bit more... entertaining.  I know I'm spoiled - I saw the Arcade Fire a month ago, and I guess somewhere inside I expected a similarly large Canadian band to be just as crazy on stage.  And a few weeks ago I saw Metric - so when Amy Millan attempted some of the dance moves that were quirky and endearing when executed by Emily Haines, I was just kind of annoyed.  They did play some of my favorite songs though, including "Ageless Beauty" and "The Big Fight", but I was forced to draw the conclusion that I enjoy them more as a studio act rather than a live act. 

A similar conclusion was drawn at the end of Death Cab For Cutie's set.  They've been growing on me lately, but I'm always the first to say that you have to be in a certain mood to enjoy their music.  As beautiful as it is, a huge portion of their material is laced with more than a touch of melancholy, and that's just not something I can listen to at any given moment in the day (or week, or month).  Plans to a certain extent departs from that formula, but it's all still a little angsty - and in the live setting that's almost multiplied.  The audience at any given concert plays a huge role in the impression a band gives you - and watching Death Cab For Cutie play to a sold-out auditorium of glum-looking teenagers who knew all the words wasn't exactly a jump-up-and-down dancing kind of fun.  We had general admission tickets and were in the thick of the crowd in front of the stage, but after a beer run halfway through the set, my friend and I decided to not push our way back to the front.  And leaning against the wall in the back of the auditorium proved to be the perfect setting for listening to their live act.  Then again, I could have been leaning against the wall in my own bedroom and it all would have had the same effect.  As great as Death Cab For Cutie sounds live, their music just doesn't lend itself to the live experience I'm usually looking for.

All in all, an okay show that sounded nice but just didn't have the energy I wished it did.  Part of that was the music, part was the audience, but the whole thing combined is making me rather excited about the dance party the Bravery and VHS or Beta should offer tomorrow night.   

Concert Preview - Death Cab For Cutie

Friday, October 28

with Stars
@ The War Memorial Auditorium, 8:00 p.m., SOLD OUT

It wasn't too long ago that I was previewing Death Cab For Cutie for ACLFest.  I never ended up seeing more than a few songs played by the indie-rock princes while I was in Texas - the crowd was packed tight against the stage and I knew I had tickets to see them in the darker, cooler War Memorial Auditorium here in Nashville.

But it's been a little while since I wrote that first entry, so let me recap again.  Death Cab For Cutie was formed in 1997, originally as a solo project for frontman Ben Gibbard. The band's name comes from a song by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, a comedic, psychedelic '60s British rock band who were a big influence on Monty Python.  The current line-up includes Chris Walla, Nick Harmer and Jason McGerr (their third drummer), and the group has released four albums on Barsuk Records. Their fifth full-length, Plans, was also their major-label debut - released at the end of August on Atlantic.

I've been listening to Plans for almost two months now, and while it won't creep into my end-of-the-year top 10, it's not exactly #261.  There are some fantastic songs on the album - "Marching Bands of Manhattan", "Different Names For the Same Thing", "Crooked Teeth" and the fragile, unadorned "I Will Follow You Into the Dark".

"Title and Registration"
"Wait"
"A Movie Script Ending"
"Song For Kelly Huckaby"
"For What Reason"
"Champagne From a Paper Cup"

Playlist - October 26

Yay for fan calls and Halloween songs.  Maybe next week we can get Nick to dress up like David Bowie.

Rotation songs are designated by a (*):

1.  Stars - Ageless Beauty (Set Yourself On Fire)
*2.  Death Cab For Cutie - Summer Teeth (Plans)
3.  Okkervil River - No Key, No Plan (Black Sheep Boy Appendix)
4.  Halloween, Alaska - I Can't Live Without My Radio (Too Tall to Hide)
5.  Sun Kil Moon - Ocean Breathes Salty (Tiny Cities)
6.  Rogue Wave - 10:1 (Descended Like Vultures)
7.  The Bravery - Public Service Announcement (The Bravery)
*8.  VHS or Beta - Heaven (Le Funk)
9.  The Russian Futurists - Paul Simon (Our Thickness)
10.  Shout Out Louds - Very Loud (Howl Howl Gaff Gaff)
*11.  Supergrass - Sad Girl (Road to Rouen)
12.  The Brokedown - Down In the Valley (The Dutchman's Gold)
13.  North American Halloween Prevention Initiative - Do They Know It's Hallowe'en

October 26 show preview

How do I even being to make a concert pick of the week when I'm going to three shows this weekend?  Well, I think I'll have to choose Shout Out Louds, who will be playing at Exit/In on Monday.  It's the show I'm most excited about, and definitely the cheapest since tickets are only $10.  I'll try to convince you to spend your Halloween with the band by playing something off of their 2005 release, Howl Howl Gaff Gaff.

But that's not all the live music you can catch this weekend - Death Cab For Cutie, Stars, The Bravery and VHS or Beta are all coming to town as well!  And... (go figure) all four bands have put out 2005 releases, so I can tempt you with their newest material.  Plus, I'll let you know how you can win Death Cab For Cutie tickets (the show's sold out!) just by listening to WRVU on Thursday.

So with all that concert-previewing... what about new releases?  Well yesterday Rogue Wave released Descended Like Vultures, and lucky for all of us Sub Pop is offering up an mp3.  So we have our free download of the week:

Rogue Wave - "10:1"

And one last thing... expect a Halloween surprise.  Hey, if I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise!

Brrrrrrr

Let's just talk about how totally freezing it is all of a sudden.  Just a week ago (less, even), it was about 90 degrees here in Nashville.  Now it's 38 outside.  I had to scrape frost off my car this morning.  Um why, exactly, did I move away from Rochester if not to escape this crazy crappy fluctuating weather?  Brrrrrrrr.

Russia's cold too.  Even in the future.

The Russian Futurists - "Paul Simon"

Sorry, that had nothing to do with the cold or anything, but I love the song.  And the cold has impaired my ability to write reasonable posts.

The New Pornographers @ Mercy Lounge

Lesson learned... if I don't take pictures at a show, there's a good chance I won't get the review up in a timely fashion.  But it's better late than never... so here's my recap from last week's New Pornographers show.

First up that evening was Immaculate Machine, which features keyboardist Kathryn Calder, who also played with the New Pornographers.  According to the band's website, her connection to the New Pornographers is more than just professional - Carl Newman is actually Kathryn's long lost uncle, from her mother's recently discovered biological family.  Immaculate Machine was poppy, keyboard-ish stuff, and Calder split the lead vocals with guitarist Brooke Gallupe.  It was a little too poppy for me I guess, but their cover of "Good Vibrations" was excellent, and well-suited to their sound.

Next was the very interesting Destroyer.  Um, yeah.  Destroyer is the solo project of Dan Bejar (also of the New Pornographers).  It was a little much for me - the songs sounded repetitive and interchangeable, and Bejar's singing style got to be fairly tedious.  He seems to have a flair for the dramatic, and his stop-start over-enunciation was frustrating when it was obvious he could really sing.  Combine that with Bejar's wild head of dark, curly hair and thick, mountain man beard and you get a bit of a spectacle. I was pretty excited when they wrapped up their set.

Then, The New Pornographers played.   The band was massive, which I knew, but it was still pretty impressive to see seven band members crowd onto the Mercy Lounge's rather small stage - eight members when Bejar stumbled out to harmonize.  I rapidly learned that I can tolerate - wait, I'll go so far as to say enjoy - Bejar's "singing" in the context of TNPs.  Although he sang in the same fashion, his yelps were smoothed over with the lush harmonies of Carl Newman and Neko Case, so that he acted as a counterpoint to their saccharine tones. 

The songs they played were varied and complex, drawn from all of their albums, according to the friend beside me.  Personally, I was surprised by the amount of their material I actually recognized, since Twin Cinema is the only album I've really listened to closely.  There are different singers, different sections, and different instrumentation thoughout many of their songs; it's pleasantly poppy indie pop but with enough diversity to hold your interest.  And the songs that Newman, Case and Bejar sang together really were the highlights of the show - although Bejar's drunken stumbling came pretty close to detracting from their performance.  Each time he sang, he grasped the microphone in one hand and his beer in the other, looking like a crazy, hairy karaoke singer.  Newman even joked about the difficulty getting him on stage - that it was something akin to giving a cat a bath.

It was a good show though, and hearing "The Bleeding Heart Show" played gorgeously right in front of me was worth the ticket price.  Sorry for the lack of pictures, the Mercy Lounge isn't well-suited for photography and we hung out toward the back.  I promise to do better this weekend - with the pictures and the reviews. :)

Lazy

Oh well... every blogger needs a few days off now and then.  And it's not like I even had a super busy weekend - in fact I probably spent the majority of it sleeping.  But I really can't think of a better place to spend the first really cold weekend of the fall than in my bed.  And considering the fact that I'm going to three (probably four) shows next weekend, I can use all the rest I can get.

Speaking of which, I will be previewing all of the shows I'm going to... Death Cab For Cutie/Stars, The Bravery/VHS or Beta, and Shout Out Louds. 

Anyways, when I wasn't sleeping, drinking too much at my friend's wedding, or getting the bejesus scared out of me last night at Devil's Dungeon (as my sister says - my bejesus is totally gone), I did manage to fill in for I Like Songs on WRVU yesterday.  My friend and natural DJ the Amazing Yen came to hang out with me, to do an excellent job reading PSAs, and to be horrified by the disarray in the music library.   Here's the playlist - (+) denotes a request:

1.  Doves - Black and White Town (Some Cities)
2.  Hockey Night - For Guys Eyes Only (Keep Guessin')
3.  The Brokedown - Down In the Valley (The Dutchman's Gold)
4.  Spoon - Everything Hits at Once (Girls Can Tell)
+5.  Prom Night - Technology (Demo EP)
+6.  Bloc Party - Pioneers (Silent Alarm)
7.  Beck - Sunday Sun (Sea Change)
8.  Jeremy Lister - So Far (So Far EP)
+9.  Crooked Fingers - Valerie (Dignity & Shame)
10.  Death Cab For Cutie - Different Names for the Same Thing (Plans)
11.  Stars - The Big Fight (Set Yourself on Fire)
+12.  Ben Folds - Jesusland (Songs for Silverman)
+13.  Nick Drake - Things Behind the Sun (Pink Moon)
14.  Beulah - Emma Blowgun's Last Stand (When Your Heartstrings Break)
15.  We Are Scientists - It's a Hit (With Love and Squalor)
+16.  Weezer - Tired of Sex (Pinkerton)
17.  Arctic Monkeys - Fake Tales of San Francisco (EP)
18.  Shout Out Louds - The Comeback (Howl Howl Gaff Gaff)
+19.  Mike Doughty - Grey Ghost (Haughty Melodic)
+20.  Queen - Fat Bottomed Girls (Greatest Hits)
21.  Jamie Lidell - Multiply (Multiply)
22.  Andrew Bird - Measuring Cups (The Mysterious Production of Eggs)
23.  My Morning Jacket - Wordless Chorus (Z)
+24.  David Gray - Be Mine (A New Day at Midnight)
25.  Toad the Wet Sprocket - Something's Always Wrong (Dulcinea)

Show this Sunday

Sorry about the lack of posting yesterday (and the lack of a New Pornographers review... that's still coming, I promise).  I haven't skipped a day in a long time, but I left the house at 7:30 and didn't get home until far past my bedtime.  Chalk it up to the undefeated Predators pulling off another amazing overtime shoot-out victory.  Damn, I love hockey. Then there was a little roof-top bus partying to celebrate my friend's nuptials tomorrow.  I'm ready to head straight to bed.

This still doesn't count as a real post, but just wanted to let you know I'm filling in a timeslot this weekend because the DJ is out of town for Vandy's fall break.  So tune in on:

Sunday, from 6-8 p.m. (still Central!)

It's definitely not going to be as planned as the usual Wednesday shows, so get your requests ready now.  You can even email them.   I will do a show preview though... before the wedding tomorrow if I get to it, or at least Sunday before the show.  Okay off to work... TGIF!

Playlist - October 19

Excellent, excellent show tonight.  Except for the phone call from the disgruntled listener who was peeved that the show at the End did not start in a timely fashion this evening.  Gold Rush dude, Gold Rush. 

But I did get a lovely call from a listener who enjoys all the interesting musical things I have to say, as opposed to the usual rambling you hear on college radio.  I'll tell you the same thing I told him - I learned a long time ago that I won't shut up on air, so I might as well talk about the bands I'm playing.

Here's the playlist, (*) is WRVU rotation.

*1.  Death Cab For Cutie - Earth Angel (Stubbs the Zombie: The Soundtrack)
2.  We Are Scientists - This Scene Is Dead (With Love and Squalor)
3.  Dios (Malos) - Later Skater (Dios (Malos))
*4.  Metric - Empty (Live It Out)
5.  Ok Go - A Million Ways (Oh No)
6.  DraculaZombieUSA - Thomas Window Paine (DraculaZombieUSA)
*7.  The Walkmen - There Goes My Baby (Stubbs the Zombie: The Soundtrack)
8.  We Are Scientists - Inaction (With Love and Squalor)
9.  Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Gimme Some Salt (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah)
*.  Supergrass - St. Petersburg (Road to Rouen)
11.  Arctic Monkeys - A Certain Romance (unreleased)
*12.  Great Lake Swimmers - Various Stages (Bodies and Minds)
*13.  Rogue Wave - Every Day (Stubbs the Zombie: The Soundtrack)