Photo Gallery: Pinback at the Masquerade, Atlanta, GA

Pinback played Atlanta's Masquerade last night. Their discography-spanning set included a projector with different visuals all night.

Singer/guitarist Rob Crow had this cooler next to him for the duration of the show, where he plucked out beer, after beer, after beer.

Crow.

Smith on keyboards.

Photo Gallery – Bars of Gold at The Belmont, Hamtramck, MI

Bars of Gold played an awesome, no-bull set at the Belmont last night. If you haven’t heard of them before, run, don’t walk to check out their debut album Of Gold. The band is composed of ex-members of Bear vs. Shark, and members of Wildcatting.

Record Review: Cee Lo Green – The Lady Killer

The hype behind Cee Lo Green’s latest album, The Lady Killer, could have been a bit much. Although the single that started it all didn’t get much radio-play, you might be tired of hearing “F*** You!” everywhere else – the video has 17 million YouTube views alone. But who can blame anyone for overplaying Green’s blunt statement to an ex-lover? The three-minute song puts most full-length break-up letters to shame, and Green does most of the talking with just two words. So, thank God for the hype – Cee Lo deserves it. The album’s 14 rock-solid tracks prove that Green’s recent success is about much more than novelty – nothing driven by novelty is this damn good. The Lady Killer captures the energy that made Motown so special in songs like “Wildflower” and “Satisfied,” and Cee Lo’s knack for soaring melody manages to breathe life into Band of Horses’ “No One’s Gonna Love You.”  The Lady Killer is a beam of light in the face of radio-pop, proving that creativity and wit still have a place on the airwaves.

Tim Kasher at the Blind Pig, Ann Arbor, MI

Boy, when Tim Kasher gets stuck on a subject, it is hard to get him off of it. He built his whole career with Cursive and The Good Life crooning about those ugly parts of life that most people don’t even want to talk about. Failed marriage, drinking too much, having sex with strangers, losing your faith, they’re all conversation staples, common ice-breakers for Kasher. And on Sunday night at the Blind Pig, Kasher dove into it again, and again, and again and again touring behind his solo release The Game of Monogamy.

I don’t want you to think this whole review is going to bash Kasher – it isn’t. Kasher played a good set that exploded into near-greatness with what he called “a proper encore.” What surprised me even more, was that the guy who moved hundreds of thousands of records with Cursive only managed to bring about 30 or so people to the college town. But the people that were there were into it, and they were the most into it when Kasher was playing stuff from his Cursive or Good Life albums. The show sported the typical Kasher fans – mostly girls with weird dyed hair, “snakebite” piercings, and their most important accessory – the word-for-word memorization of any song that Kasher slipped out.

 

 

Kasher was sipping from a mug all night. I wonder what was in it.

Kasher put on a show, though. Right from the get-go, I was pretty sure that Kasher was pretty sloshed from some of the faces he was making, but I wasn’t able to confirm this with the way he executed his songs. Kasher’s one-of-a-kind howl was in top form, I don’t think I heard him hit a bad note all night. He held down all of the guitar parts on a single acoustic guitar. He was backed by a cellist that sometimes played bass, a keyboard player (who also plays with Cursive, if my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me…) and Erin Tate, the drummer from Minus the Bear. I had no complaints about his live band, other than the fact that the cellist seemed to be a much better cellist than bassist. The guy showed amazing proficiency with the instrument and had no problem replicating Gretta Cohn’s Ugly Organ parts for “Driftwood: A Fairy Tale,” but when he switched to bass, he seemed uneasy and it looked like he had a rough time getting through the songs.

But the part that was a little troubling for me, was the hour-plus of subject matter that seems like a theme on record, but in concert seems like a broken-record – follow? He makes art out of the ugly thoughts we think when sitting at the dinner table with our family, or sitting at the bar all alone. It is the most personal kind of art, and his lyrics seem to come from a poetry major with a dark sense of humor who had about three drinks too many. But this time, he’s spilling the beans on getting old and settling down. About worrying about drinking too much and fucking up someone’s life. Yeah, I appreciate Kasher’s honesty, but as he was making his way through The Game of Monogamy’s tracks, I found myself kind of shrugging. So what?

 

I’ve listened to the album a few times after the show and, I’m still feeling this way. The work honestly isn’t Kasher’s best. The lyrics just didn’t jump out at me (or hold on, kicking and screaming) the way they did the first few times I heard The Ugly Organ, Happy Hollow, or Album of the Year. The hooks are gone that explored Kasher was an asshole for making money off of his art, or meeting a future love while hurling in the ladies’ room. The Game of Monogamy‘s tracks just felt like diet-Kasher, and this surprises me coming from someone who I thought had a clear strangle-hold on his craft. His characters are predictable now, they want to be in love, or at least pretend they’re in love. They’ll do terrible things to hurt their partner. They are bored and restless in suburbia. They still drink too much. But, overall, the effort feels genuine and has its good moments. I’m Afraid I’m Gonna Die Here was by far the highlight of the night, overshadowing crowd-pleasers like “The Recluse” off of Cursive’s The Ugly Organ. Overall, I had a great time at the show, and I did like Kasher’s set. But the new stuff is about exciting as, well, monogamy.

Record Review: Weezer – Death to False Metal

Geffen/Interscope Records

After 10 years of falling off of their horse over and over again, Weezer have done the improbable by dusting themselves off and releasing a really decent album. Death to False Metal features a bunch of re-worked b-sides that recall some of Weezer’s best moments. When they ditch the single-obsessed mindset that produced crap like “Beverly Hills” and “Pork and Beans,” Weezer just rocks.  Songs like opener “Turning up the Radio” and “Trampoline” might make you nostalgic enough to run to grab tickets to the band’s Memories tour. However, it isn’t fair to dismiss nostalgia as the reason this album is good. Death to False Metal is sincere, which is more than can be said for The Red Album and the absolutely unforgivable Raditude. The album feels totally genuine until the over-the-top corniness of the last few tracks. “Odd Couple,” starts with the line,“I’ve got a PC and you’ve got a Mac, I’m givin’ you flack for your airport,” but even at its worst moment, Death to False Metal will still leave you tapping your feet.

Record Review: Brian Eno – Small Craft on a Milk Sea

Warp Records

Don’t get me wrong, Brian Eno’s latest release Small Craft on a Milk Sea is absolutely beautiful. Every note is in the right place, every sound is of the right timbre. From the synced bass and synthesizer melodies of “Bone Jump” to the bubbling blips of “Paleosonic,” Eno has created another pleasant sonic landscape. This shouldn’t be a surprise. After all, Eno’s knack for atmosphere and tension produced both Talking Heads and U2’s best work. Small Craft is paced brilliantly -“Flint March,” “Horse” and “2 Forms of Anger,” all in a row create a period so tense you will be lucky to make it out without biting off all your fingernails. Although Small Craft is very well put-together, it always feels like it should be part of something bigger – this should be a soundtrack. Unlike his albums under the ambient title, the songs are short – about three minutes long – and by the time you’ve become immersed in the track, it’s over. Save Small Craft on a Milk Sea for when you have plans to watch a lunar eclipse or silent performance art or something.

Maps and Atlases at Mickey Finn’s in Toledo, OH

Maps and Atlases played their last show of a slew of dates touring behind their latest, and folkiest release, Perch Patchwork. The atmosphere of Mickey Finn’s was excellent – An awesome pub with great service, decent enough bar food (they even had veggie burgers) and even better drink specials. They had domestic pints for a buck, and my buddy Trevor’s gin and tonic was as stiff as they come. But, onto the music, right?

The Globes

 

The Globes kicked the night off with a fitting set of gloomy, to the point rock songs. I hadn’t heard of them up to this point, but I was impressed from the beginning of the set with the band’s musicianship. The dual singers shared some nice harmonies and played some completely appropriate guitar parts – something that was easier said than done for another one of the openers. Their bass player managed to find a great balance between his bass guitar and the Korg MicroKorg in front of him. He switched instruments seamlessly in the middle of songs, and you never really felt like there was an empty spot when he switched.  Their changes were well thought out and caught you off guard in all the right ways. Dynamically, they reminded me a lot of Sunny Day Real Estate, but the songs were a lot more drawn-out in trying to establish a mood. I wouldn’t mind seeing The Globes again.

Tera Melos

Tera Melos was up next, and although they drew a much bigger crowd and had fliers posted everywhere promoting their new album, they were a clear step down from The Globes. What puzzled me, was the band’s almost comical use of effects. The guys were clearly decent musicians – the guitarists knew more than your everyday power chords, and the guy stage left was shredding up a storm, but Tera Melos was little more than organized noise. The drummer was good, the bass player was rock solid, and the band’s two vocalists had an OK-enough sense of melody. So why didn’t it work?

The guys were everywhere. I honestly could not tell what they were going for – they’re metal-shred-tapping with Telecasters and Fender amps. They might start a song with a math-rock breakdown and immediately launch into some big, power-chordy choruses that kinda sound like Weezer. And when they weren’t doing these things (which was 50 percent of the time) they were fiddling around with their effects pedals – which seriously looked like around $3,000 worth of shit sitting at their feet. The aforementioned guitarist at stage right had two – count them – two full effects boards that were jammed to capacity on both fronts.

I couldn’t gauge how I felt the whole time. There was no unifying theme in a given song. I guess the ADD, always-shifting song is interesting for some people, but it isn’t for me. The shame was that these guys did have some talent, and they were too busy dicking around with their pedals to do anything with it. Again, I can understand why people like them, but, again, it isn’t for me.

Trevor and I made up a few alternate names for Tera Melos – A few of them included “My dad runs a Guitar Center franchise,” and “Hey, look! I made all of them work!” I’m sure they are nice guys.

Maps and Atlases

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Maps and Atlases was a lot better last night than I ever remember them being live. Back in the day (I saw them around 2007 and 2008) their concerts could get pretty sloppy. While their jaw-dropping tapping patterns were probably nearly impossible to play proficiently live, the band has pulled their shit together. This new Maps and Atlases isn’t only tighter, they are beginning to grasp a newer form their craft. Perch Patchwork has opened up a new door for the band by finishing what they started on You, Me and the Mountain. Perch Patchwork takes their earthy, organic, but super technical sound and adds more of a songwriter aspect to it – gone is the novelty of guitar-tapping as the only form of technique.

Let’s get Perch Patchwork’s problems out of the way – the album lacks that sheer intensity that the band’s first releases had. On first listen, I was bored with this newer, folkier take on the band. But, what it lacks in energy it makes up in cleverness and subtlety. The Perch Patchwork stuff really breathes live, and creates a much more engaging atmosphere than on record. Maps and Atlases are trading in frightening tapping parts for some pretty awesome chord progressions and instrumentation. Dave Davison’s voice isn’t hiding behind the crazy-guitars and the clicky drums anymore- he sings outright and embraces the melodies he’s written on the new stuff. But, he could even do more – the guy has a really pleasant, soulful voice, but it gets lost live sometimes from him just plain… mumbling. In last night’s performance of “Ted Zancha,” I wanted to yell “speak up, son!” – the lyrics that were pretty clear (and awesome) on record did not come across at all. But you have to give the guy credit. I could do little more than tap my foot if I was playing the guitar parts that he plays under all of his vocals.

You can tell that after years and years of touring behind Tree, Swallows, Houses, the band is (understandably) sick of what the sounds that ignited the small following they’ve established. In fact, the only song they played off of their debut EP was the fan favorite “Every Place is a House.”I found myself really liking the new stuff live. Maps and Atlases are embracing a new kind of instrumentation that they hadn’t before. Guitarist Erin Elders stepped out from his corner on a few occasions to play some synthesizer or bell-toned keyboards. It has been pretty awesome to see the band progress over time and step outside of what they created in 2005, rather than milk their success with Tree, Swallows, Houses.

Shiraz Dada is one of the classiest bass players out there – his parts are always appropriate and right on-point – and he is an absolute pleasure to watch live. He’s got a true handle of where his instrument sits tonally, and because of that, his parts can remain flashy and never seem like they are too much. And like his presence on the stage, his parts dance all over the place – the guy looks like he’s ballroom dancing with his Music Man bass. He works really well with drummer Chris Hainey, who is also becoming a bit more tasteful with how he hits the skins.

Overall, the show was a good one, and for the 10 buck admission, I can’t complain at all. The music was awesome, the venue was the definition of intimate, and the people were a joy to be around. With all of the changes Maps and Atlases have gone through, it was sort of like seeing one of your buddies come back from college all grown up. But for me, the whole thing was kind of bittersweet. I looked around, and the venue is only filled maybe to half capacity. This is a small venue, too. I don’t know if it was Toledo, or if this is the way the whole tour has been, but America, what the fuck!? Maps and Atlases are here, and they are super-talented. Check them out.

THEYYYYYY’RE BAAAAACKKKK (An interview with Eric Axelson of The Dismemberment Plan on their short reunion tour)

When The Dismemberment Plan was last touring, I was too young to know any better, and even if I did, I couldn’t drive a car. Thankfully, they announced a bunch of dates a few weeks ago. I plan on going to the Chicago one, myself. Check out what bassist Eric Axelson had to say about their upcoming reunion tour:

Other than the re-release of Emergency and I, did anything else inspire the Dismemberment Plan reunion?

Not really.  We got in the basement to kick around some songs, and it felt good, so we decided to play some shows to celebrate the re-issue’s release.

Have rehearsals for the shows started? If so, how have they been going? Is anything different about playing these songs again?

We played a little over the summer, and then realized due to scheduling that we couldn’t practice consistently until early December, so we’ll start playing on the regular then.  It was fun over the summer, though sometimes it’s funny to relearn songs, some that we’ve played thousands of times.

You’ve had a one-off reunion before, what kind of feelings do these kind of events generate?  Do you get nostalgic playing with the guys after all of this time?

It’s a good time and does bring back some great memories.  I think in our day we played over 700 shows, maybe 800?  So it’s cool to be able to get on stage with the guys again.

You’ve had to add shows due to the demand for them in New York and DC. What is your response to the demand for these shows?

We just weren’t sure how the initial shows would sell, so when the sold out we talked to the clubs, and our booking agent, and decided to add two more.   It’s a bit more than we’d planned initially, but we want to make sure that more people can catch a show.

How has your musical influences changed since the release of Emergency and I? How do you view the record differently since its release?

I think for me, personally, I don’t listen to as much current music as I used to.  I mean, stuff like Dirty Projectors and Peter Fox really blew me away, but I do need to get back in the mix and start seeing more of what’s out there.  As for the record, I’m glad it’s coming out on vinyl, because there’s a lot more “air” to the record now.  You can hear some of the room where we recorded, and the lows are a lot more full.  I just need to buy a record player now!

Are there any plans to have a Detroit date? What do you remember about playing in Detroit around the Emergency & I days?

There aren’t any plans for a Detroit date right now, but we had a great time playing the Magic Stick when we toured.  It was always a feisty crowd, a little like being back in DC, and there were people that we always saw and came up to say hi when we came through.   And on the last tour, I remember we swapped a local (well, Ann Arbor) brewery some guest list spots for a case of their fantastic beer.  I think they’ve moved to Colorado since then.

Could you see a new album coming out of this?

Probably not, but you never know.  When we practice, we always mess around a little first and see what happens.  It’s not in the plans, but then again neither were these shows.

Lots of thanks to Eric Axelson for doing the interview

Say what you will about the music, but The Smashing Pumpkins figured it out

The internet has changed the way people consume music; for anyone that has iTunes installed on their computer, this is common sense. With programs emerging early on in the decade such as Napster or Limewire, peer-to-peer file sharing networks put more of an emphasis on the single, rather than a focus on a 10 to 14 song album.

The pop industry has had no problem endorsing this. In fact, singles have been a huge part of pop music ever since records became available for purchase. Seven inch singles have always been popular; Penny Lane existed independent of a full album, and I know for a fact that Los Del Rio didn’t move that many full length LPs when “Macarena” came out. Recently, Katy Perry’s “California Gurls” was all over the radio months before her album Teenage Dream hit shelves. Cee-lo Green’s incredible “Fuck You!” is released as a one-off single with no full-length album in sight, and has spread like wildfire across music blogs and Twitter alike.

The Smashing Pumpkins have taken a new approach to releasing media in a way that makes sense in the ultra fast-paced information age. Teargarden by Kaleidyscope is a 44-song project that is released one song at a time through The Smashing Pumpkins’ website. Two-song limited run physical singles are released through the publishing label “Martha’s Music.” They trickle-in, they show up by surprise, and as I type this in September of 2010, the project is 6-songs in.

This isn’t a first for The Smashing Pumpkins. Experimenting with the short release has always been a big part of the band. The massive “The Aeroplane Flies High” box set collected all of their singles throughout the Mellon Collie era, and more recently, they released the internet-only acoustic-oriented American Gothic EP without much buzz. “Superchrist,” a single that was played on their “reunion” tour, was later released as a single online, and physically through a compilation put out by Guitar Center.

This was the smart way for Billy Corgan and co. to release the Pumpkins’ most recent project, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope. The music medium has changed so much, that the general public doesn’t have time to sit down and absorb such a dense album. With the singles being free, people can look forward to the new singles that The Smashing Pumpkins are putting out with no financial gamble of paying for a full-length album that some felt that they paid with 2007′s Zeitgeist.

Corgan could have released this 44-song juggernaut as a four-disc box set, sold it for $40 and left the remaining die-hard Pumpkin’s fans with shallow wallets and scratchy heads. Instead, by leaking track by track, by focusing on the individual parts, Corgan is releasing something that is eclectic, spontaneous, but well thought out.

By releasing an album this way, the audience has time to adjust, time to get used to the album or time to say, “yeah man, this really isn’t for me” as tracks are released. Like Radiohead’s In Rainbows was an experiment in the way we distribute our music, Teargarden by Kaleidyscope is an experiment in the format which it is released in the years to come.

So far, the singles have been hit or miss. The riff-rock that people long for is there in “Freak,” but, it is missing that Jimmy Chamberlin hi-hat stomp, that drum attitude, the bad-ass tom-fills, that attitude that Jimmy is behind the set and just killing it. It has always been apparent that Corgan is the songwriter of the band, and has dominated as far as string instruments go in the studio, but this collection really shows what Chamberlin’s 20+ years with the band added to Billy’s stacked guitars and clever lyrics.

Instead, we have 19 year-old Mike Byrne, a freshman at Berklee College of Music whose recordings with the Pumpkins feel clunky and dreadfully need another 10 years under his belt. This isn’t Byrne’s fault – I mean, who hires someone so young to play in a seasoned rock band? A prime example is the first single off of Teargarden, the epic “Song for a Son,” where Byrne isn’t killing it, he is struggling to get through it. Although his rags-to-riches, “I worked at McDonalds to pay for school and got into The Smashing Pumpkins” story is inspiring, his drum parts sound like, well, a 19 year-old freshman at Berklee is writing them.

Mike Byrne, probably a nice guy, just isn’t cutting it

Corgan is really starting to show how clever he can be in his bare-bones songwriting. With a deceptive sense of simplicity, the progressions and melodies in “Spangled” and “A Stitch in Time” are good for the same reasons that musicians love The Beatles.

I think some of these songs will stand as some of Corgan’s best songwriting. Three out of the six songs (“Spangled,” “A Stitch in Time” and “Song for a Son”) are sound and written very well. Still, in some instances, Corgan is stuck in that old Pumpkins’ 100-guitar sludge attack for songs like “Freak” and “Astral Planes,” and for the first time (yeah, not even on Zeitgeist), it is starting to feel pretty old. Perhaps if Corgan was working in better company, these releases would be as effective as the potential that they show.

With Teargarden, it is important to take a look for the album for what it is in the always-evolving realm of music. Teargarden is an exercise, a new way to release an album, which essentially cancels out the idea of an album. Surprise release dates replace the daunting deadline for musicians pushing for a big label release. This puts music journalists and listeners on level playing field upon the release of the single. Pitchfork or Rolling Stone won’t tell us what they think of the singles before we’ve heard them.

With the possibility of the art of the full-length LP going down the drain, I start to feel kind of sad. I remember the first time I heard Siamese Dream by The Smashing Pumpkins. It was a fall afternoon. I was sitting in my bedroom, going through records that looked cool off of my dad’s shelves and shelves of album. Siamese Dream caught my eye, but how could it not? The twin girls in the pale sunlight in easter dresses, the cool logo, that awesome name. “Cherub Rock” roared into gear, and oh my god, these guys are the one’s that wrote “Today”? I didn’t want any song to end and I couldn’t wait for every new cut to begin. Ironically, the guy behind this experience is the same one that is taking steps forward to evolve, to abandon the full-length. It is an undoing, a sad thing to see, but with Twitter, with the information age, Billy, I understand.

MMM 7-18-2010 (Death Cab for Cutie – Debate Exposes Doubt)

What is to be said about Death Cab for Cutie’s The Photo Album? As a record, it sounds great, is intelligent, at times catchy and overall very pleasant to listen to whenever. With that being said, it wasn’t until Transatlanticism that the band was discovered, signed, and plastered all over The OC soundtracks and messenger bags everywhere. Fans still love “the old Death Cab” when referring mostly to songs off of Something About Airplanes and We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes, but for some reason, The Photo Album just fell in-between the cracks. When I saw them live in 2009, they only played one song off of the release. I know some Death Cab “fans” that haven’t even heard “A Movie Script Ending”.

Enter “Debate Exposes Doubt,” the album’s closer. It is awesome. The track kicks off with those guitar hooks that made Death Cab sell a ton of records for Atlantic and Jason McGerr’s absolutely locked in drums. What makes the track for me are a few things, and thankfully, every member plays a huge part creating something special here.

First of all, as far as production goes, this album is my favorite. The drums on this album sound so… real. Not the kind of “real” that you hear on a Pavement record where you know the drummer is playing a piece of shit kit and is out of time, no, Jason McGerr’s real is different. The sound that comes out of his kit is from a guy that has sat down and tuned drums for years and knows exactly how to hit them. The production meets the wide-open drum sounds of We Have the Facts…  with the addition of better gear, and a much better attention to detail. You can hear the wood resonate in McGerr’s perfectly tuned bass drum as it bops through the song.

Awesome drummer Jason McGerr

Like many of their other songs, the guitars talk back and forth as if they were one instrument, playfully playing on each-other without one note being misplaced. It is obvious that guitarists Ben Gibbard and Chris Walla either sat down with each other and spent hours after hours figuring out the way the other played or both have the ability to read minds.

The bass wonders around like always, fitting in some perfect space that has been left between the locking guitars and drums. The bass walks off of the page just enough for musicians to say “Dude! I never would have thought of that… but I wish I could.”

Then there is the melody. Painfully monotonous considering the space that Gibbard is given with the music, I think this is the best part of the song. His coldness and simplicity over some pretty clever lyrics make the track for me.

Check it out here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_LJUeKc4NM

Sadly, I couldn’t find a live video, and if that is the case, the band should be playing this one more often.