Radiohead (and Liars)

EDIT: Direct downloads of 192kbs mp3's of this show are over here Saw Radiohead last night at the Verizon Ampitheater in Charlotte. Managed to get there about 2 hours early but had to walk around the parking lot and drink Captain and Sprite by myself b/c Allison was stuck at work... Tried to wait, but it wasn't going to work, so I went in to catch the opening band. Knew they were opening, but I never looked them up... I suppose that, since Deerhoof opened in Amsterdam, that I was going to dig whoever it was. And that worked out. I had a video, but I deleted it to save room for another Radiohead song instead. I still have a shitty 1GB memory card in my camera... But they were cool. Except that they finished, and Allison was still sitting in the car.........................
But she did manage to show up with, really, just seconds left before Radiohead came on. Frightening... but everything worked out in the end. She's funny looking in this photo. Oh yeah... and just before Liars went on, I finished Memories of My Melancholy Whores, and it was awesome and really at all the kind of thing I thought I'd like. Like the ending isn't typically a kind of ending I'd appreciate, usually... Not now...
I think this is probably my favorite photo... He was crazy dancing all night. I tried to do that too, but now I just hurt and no one much thought I was very cool. Which is best. We were row 12 behind the pit, far stage right. I think we were maybe slightly closer than the last time, but I think I would have preferred to sit a few rows further back and to be closer to the center. Wonder how those seats are allotted, actually... all the way down the middle and then to the sides? hm... regardless. It was still awesome, and we were still plenty close. :) I don't really have anything insightful or interesting to say... there is very little I would have changed... setlist was fantastic, sound was great, light show was great, Allison made it in time... So I'm going to not say anything and just post the photos and videos. (Oh... I would definitely pay another $75 to see that again.) ((And there was some stupid review about Radiohead/In Rainbows/Previewing the Show in Creative Loafing this past week. It was dumb. It sounded like "Radiohead are so past their prime." or "In Rainbows is a weak effort from a formerly great band." Something like that. It sucked.))
Tried to grab one more picture as they were leaving the stage, but I was still all shaky from the sound or the movements or something, so everything was blurry. This is still kind of... cute, I guess.
I start to film pretty much every song that gets played... and then stop if I don't like it or something... so it's always pretty random or luck-of-the-draw as to what I end up actually getting and keeping. There There showed up pretty early... I guess it's not "cool," but I still really like this song, and I kept the video of that. Got Myxomatosis the same way, and it's badass enough for me as well, so I kept that and, given the size of my tiny memory card, I was done with the filming. The sound kind of sucks, which is too bad, b/c it was actually just about perfect when we were there... So it goes... There There Myxomatosis

Labels: Allison, Charlotte, concerts, music

posted by schmakt at 4:15 PM 0 Comments

Ministry

I've been slack. Because that's what I do. But a couple of weeks ago, one of my best friends from high school drove down so we could go to the Ministry show over at Tremont. It was forty freaking dollars to get in the door, and I was definitely not going to go except for that Will was coming. I talked to a guy at the last KMFDM show who said that the last Ministry show he saw featured only the new songs being played. I picked up the 2nd to last album, and it was cool... but there was a lot samples of george bush talking, and it was very overtly political. I hate george bush at least as much as the next guy, but even though I liked most of the sounds on the record, it did get a little heavy-handed. Al hates george. I got it. Regardless, I just didn't want to drop a lot of cash to see a band that I liked purposefully skipping over all of the songs that initially made them great. I didn't need to hear the "hits" necessarily, but ... I'm rambling. You get the point, I'm sure.
I'd never heard of either the opening band, Hemlock, or the "special guest" Meshuggah, but Brian Burton liked the drummer for that second band, so he actually went with us as well. We were too busy pre-drinking and missed the opening act which, frankly, was fine by me. We did, however, get there just in time for the Meshuggah set. Which, in my opinion, was pretty brutally awful. The sound in the building was terrible... sure it's industrial metal, and it's often going to sound pretty mushy, but this just was not good. I didn't like the lead "singer" at all either. He did a lot of posturing and putting his hands up like he was Jesus. Then yelled and mumbled some into the mic. I dunno, but I was glad when it was over and pretty stoked to finally see Ministry. Between sets, I was talking to people around me... met a few nice people and took photos b/c I was bored...
	I got both of these dudes to put their email addresses in my cellphone... I tried sending the photos over, but my emails got bounced back. Oh well... I tried.
So, anyway... Ministry was headed out soon. So, good. But the bouncer guys started putting up fences. wtf. Divas? It was definitely packed in there, and there was a little moshpit, but no one was going totally apeshit or throwing stuff on stage or anything. Very strange. And annoying. But, whatever. So they came out, and it was all dark, and everyone was screaming, and they tore into a newer song that I may or may not have heard before. In fact, throughout the entire first set, there was only one song I heard that I was absolutely positive I had heard before. I don't know the name of it, but I could pick out all of the soundbites of george bush saying something stupid, and Al was like, "This is for our goddamn stupid fucking President" or something. A lot of it sounded the same, because I, not being a die-hard post-Filthpig Ministry fan, didn't have my ear trained to listen for any particular riffs. I was mostly waiting to listen for the intro to "Just One Fix" so I could tape it, but it never came. So I watched with a feeling of removed bemusement and tried to snap a photo or two when I thought something would look sweet. After I took that one to the left, (the first photo I took since Ministry came on) some bouncer guy came up and told me that he wasn't trying to kick me out, but I wasn't allowed to take pictures. Despite the sea of cameras being held aloft all around me. I was all, "wtf, really? Just photos?" "Yep, camera phones only; nothing with a zoom on it." Does that statement sound contradictory to anyone else? So, whatever. I quit taking pictures for a while. Then I thought I had a good chance to take one of Al, (it's only even mediocre b/c I touched it up in Photoshop) so I gave it a shot. I know I shouldn't have done it, but I figured I definitely wouldn't get bitched at the only two times I took a picture.. Within 2 seconds, dude was tapping me on the shoulder and took me out for a stern talking-to. "If I see you with that camera again, I'm kicking you out." Fine. Whatever. So I got another drink and went out back to the side entrance to watch from outside. It was way too hot and loud and annoying in there anyway. And still yet, not a single song off anything older than 2 records ago. (maybe 3...) Which, I should clarify... is cool if you're touring on a new record or something. But if you're on your "farewell" tour, why wouldn't you try to mix it up a lot? *baffled*
Right. Enough complaining about that. So I went to watch the show from outside. Usually I'm not allowed to get up on the little staircase there, but I started talking to this guy named Craig, and he let me come up and watch from the band doorway. So I ended up hanging out with Craig, the guitar tech from Meshuggah (whose name I have sadly forgotten), Chelsea, and Chelsea's two friends. I couldn't quite understand who Craig was, but he seemed like a really nice guy and was happy to talk about stuff including and not including Ministry. He was down from Greensboro just hanging out, so he said. Chelsea, as best I could tell, was somewhat of a band-aid. She had 5 or 6 kids back in California, and I found out that one of the little girls is, supposedly, a really great ice skater. I don't think she was an industrial-dance ice skater tho. I kind of watched the show out of the corner of my eye, but mostly talked to Craig and watched the guitar tech guy hit on that girl. At some point, Craig was like, "hey, you want to meet someone interesting?" I really had no idea what to expect, but sure, I like interesting people. So he pulls this guy back from inside, and "hey man, this is Burton; Burton, this is jim." It took me a minute, but then I asked, "wait... Burton C. Bell?" And, sure enough, it was the lead singer from Fear Factory. Well, shit, that was pretty cool. So I tried to get from him what he was doing there; the closest I could get for a while was that he was going to be singing some old stuff with Ministry. Eventually I finally got him to tell me just what he'd be singing. And, sure as hell, "Just One Fix." Bad. Ass. I tried, for a little while to seem like I was sort of cool by mentioning that I'd bought the Remanufactured Fear Factory disc but that I'd bought it around the same time I got the first Gravity Kills record. I think that pretty much killed any chance I had of seeming cool. Oh well. Burton was nice enough to let me have a picture with him. Why do I do that tho?? I look like such a complete tool. Blah blah. So there was a short break in the set inside, and Burton took off. I took my post on the side of the door to try and get Just One Fix taped. I managed to get it although my position sucked, and I was drunk, so I kept shaking and zooming in and out WAY too much. But it was cool... they were finally doing some older stuff... Stuff that I recognized. They played Just One Fix, N.W.O., and Thieves... all with Burton on lead vocals. He was definitely awesome, but isn't that super strange too? Farewell tour. Finally playing old stuff. And the one guy whose band this really was stops singing. It was all such an incredibly strange experience.
When the show ended, I was standing just outside the door still watching things inside... Within seconds of the show being over a cadre of yellow-shirted strong guys started running through escorting Al into the waiting tour bus outside. They weren't overly rude, but they certainly weren't saying, "excuse me" or "please." So they rushed Al out to the bus, a few curious onlookers wandered over to stand around the bus, and I went inside to find Will. We were definitely too drunk to drive, so I was glad to be walking home... plus I walked out enough of the alcohol to drive us over to Jeff's Bucket Shop for the after party. Which was, perhaps, more fun than the concert itself. I'm definitely glad that I went, but I'm also definitely sure that I wouldn't ever pay $40 to do all that stuff again.

Labels: concerts, music

posted by schmakt at 1:00 PM 0 Comments

possibilities

posted by schmakt at 9:20 AM 0 Comments

new songs...

posted by schmakt at 11:57 PM 0 Comments

The Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead

I ordered the new Helio Sequence on vinyl when the pre-sale started the other day. While I waited I remembered thinking about how annoying it is to get a vinyl and not be able to easily transfer it to other media. And how, really, can't I just get a free mp3 download when I buy the record? Then, sure enough, Keep Your Eyes Ahead shows up on my doorstep with a sticker on front announcing the inclusion of a coupon for a free mp3 download. How about that? Plus I got all that other cool stuff... SubPop sticker (as always), KYEA sticker, KYEA ahead button, and a CD with some outtakes. I dunno, but that's a package for which I'm more than happy to shell out a few dollars.

I am, when trying to write about music, loathe to attempt a track-by-track review of any sort. I tried it once, and it was awful. I realized that and then realized that the only thing about which I am qualified to write is that which I feel. That often turns into a huge mish-mash of run-on sentences and inside jokes that only I get. Which is fine since I'm only writing for myself. Now, as I attempt to think what I feel, it's impossible for me to get away from the opening cut without saying something. There's really nothing original about the subject matter of Lately, and the song itself is pretty straight forward. If, however, there was a *type* of song that makes me cry, it's this. It's an easy idea to butcher, but this was done beautifully. The production and playing were both crystal clear and razor sharp (as they were throughout the album), and Brandon's voice soared and every word was placed perfectly. Easily one of the most beautifully painful things I've allowed myself to experience in quite some time. There's never an admission that every word of the song is a lie, but you can feel it. It's heavy and, at the same time, promises freedom. If you just put it down on paper. Put it in a song. Making it concrete makes it real, right? But no... no it doesn't. I didn't come away from their show in Charlotte feeling like this song is as amazing as I think it is now. But, really... just fantastic.

So... there's that. I tried to stay with Brandon's vocals, but the words quickly desolved halfway through the 2nd song, and his voice really became another instrument playing its part in a well choreographed tete-a-tete between space and sound. Now I purposefully did not listen to the record on myspace before I had it in hand... there's something about sitting in a room listening to music for the first time; I didn't want to ruin it. But they must have really been proud of these songs b/c they played most of them at the aforementioned show. I'm sure that had some effect on me as the next songs melded together, and I let them wash over me with a mild sense of comfort and familiarity. I'm spastic and fidgety enough that perhaps the highest compliment I can give to anything is that I was able to sit, unmoving, doing nothing else and not wondering what I would be doing next. It was soothing in such a strange way. I could feel the music slowly trying to pull some sort of low-level sadness out of me as it went by. And then Shed Your Love came on. A pretty atypical song for me to enjoy. No drums. Just Brandon picking a guitar and channeling shades of Bob Dylan with some neat production stuff going on in the background. Its placement on the record definitely helped the long, and it really pulls you out of the electronic beep-boops that are so often prevalent in Helio Sequence songs. Highly highly unexpected... both its presence on the record and that I'd actually like it. End Side 1.

Tangent... I'll try to make this quick... I was lucky enough to have been around real musicians a few times during the all-important final step of making an album. Figuring out the tracklist. I may have mentioned this before, but KYEA was done so perfectly that I just had to mention it again. A record has 2 first songs and 2 last songs. What those songs are is important. What if I Want You wasn't the last song on Abbey Road? That's all I'm really going to say about that except that the experience of listening to this album is greatly enhanced by the pause after Shed Your Love. (oh, and there was a big pause in the middle of the theatrical release of Lawrence of Arabia too...)

And there's a pause in the middle of this blog post... So, Side 2. Side 1 got you all good and depressed but not really sure why b/c it mostly sounds poppy and happy, and then they kick you with that last track and follow it up with the title track to open Side 2. The power of the pause. The effect is very mildly jarring as I listen to it now on iTunes... But Keep Your Eyes Ahead is a fantasticly hopeful and forward looking (duh) song. Red All-Stars. That's what it makes me think of. Sadly, it ends in a fade-out. One of those that seems to start fast and then just last a little longer than it should. So there's my one initial complaint about this record. The remaining four songs were all new to me, which was nice. I couldn't help but feeling Beck mixed with Primative Radio Gods on Back to This, which was strange... But both of which are good things. Side 2 kind of did this sin curve thing. Keep Your Eyes Ahead was definitely the highest peak, then we dipped a little for Back to This and then back up just a little for Hallelujah, and it was a great ride. I like Hallelujah a little bit more each time I hear it. There's a lot of noise, and the lyrics got lost very easily. Pretty sure I got the general idea tho. And Brandon's really got a fantastic voice. And then Broken Afternoon. I wasn't completely sure what to make of this. Initially b/c I just knew it was signalling, all too soon, the end of the record. Then b/c, well, where is Benjamin?? And then, why do I keep hearing Bob Dylan and Dan Bern? And, lastly, wtf is this? Dog Faced Boy? (No ophphense) I know it's a sign of weakness to fall into making comparisons, but it's all I've got at this point. The record ends with such an odd little ditty that it leaves me rather confused... As a whole, Keep Your Eyes Ahead holds up better as an album than Love and Distance. Largely b/c L&D played like Cooleyhighharmony with it's divided sides, and KYEA flowed in and out and played much smoother overall. Also the overall production quality is amazing with nothing seeming out of place and everything feeling as though it was meticulously planned and very carefully put together. Aside from that fade-out. My only other complaint? 37 minutes long.

How sad it was that we could not believe And everyone who believes And everyone who believes And they said, "We all said hallelujah" "We all said hallelujah" And everyone moves around with ease And everyone fell right to their knees and then, "We all said hallelujah" "We all said hallelujah" "We don't want answers anyway"

Labels: music

posted by schmakt at 9:44 PM 0 Comments

Radiohead vinyl

posted by schmakt at 1:44 PM 2 Comments

Silent Weapons & Bang! Bang! @ The Milestone

I was planning to write about this long ago. Really, I was. Sarah bitched at me last night for slacking off on my quickness tho, so I'm trying to make up for lost time. Now it's one month later, and I hardly remember what happened. I do recall being pretty psyched to be at The Milestone again. And pretty ashamed for not being there more often. But I was also pretty psyched to see The Silent Weapons play in a place with good sound. Sadly I've got no audio/video from that night... I tried, but the lighting was so freaking low that making videos was just silly. And yeah, so I really don't remember any details past what I just said. Dammit. It must be the drugs. So, I guess mostly, here are some photos from their set.
The one in the middle is my favorite. But it only beats out the one above b/c Jason is standing in front of Josh.
Uhm... and I just poured the Rum & Sprite I was drinking into a clear class. I think I forgot the Sprite.
	Allison also had recently dyed her hair purple. This photo got me kind of famous. myspace default photo famous. And, dammit, I hope that I actually took it and not Sarah and that I'm not just forgetting yet another thing. Regardless. The purple was sweet. Then this other thing happened... later...
As is often the case with shows in Charlotte, the crowd was, sadly, rather sparse. I suppose it's slightly understandable this time as it was a Tuesday night. With a new band from Charlotte and a band from Chicago. I really wish I'd had some recording of the show, cuz this was absolutely the best the actual sound has been. I like being able to hear Eliza sing. I think she looks great, but, ugh, I ALWAYS just want to hear her better. It was much much much better at The Milestone than I've heard it before. Given, of course, I've only heard them at SK Net and the Bucket Shop (which is now NOTORIOUS for shitty mics...), but still. I do recall being glad that the levels sounded better and that I could hear Eliza. Dammit, I wish I could remember more better. I do know that I often feel that I'm just waiting for a wall to come down when I get to see TSW play. I really like what I hear, but I just have this feeling that it could *sound* so much better. It'll get there. The songs are really fucking good, and everything happening on stage is pretty sweet. (and, damn, Josh knows his way around the equipment on stage.) Anyway. It's good. But totally has a lot of room to get better. A lot of very fillable room. It'll get there. And it's great fun to watch it progress. Also, I'm eating Cheetos. mmm. But the other reason that the lack of bodies on the floor was sad was b/c this random band from Chicago called Bang! Bang! was actually really fucking cool.
But before I get that, here's the last photo. Of Eston. Because he's completely a diva and would be pissed if I didn't post. Well... not pissed. I've seen Eston pissed. I don't think I've quite gotten that far on his bad side yet. <3 Eston.
From what I've heard since, Bang! Bang! is actually quite the popular band up Chicago way. They've certainly got more friends than filboyd studge... The lighting came on for this show, and I probably should have recorded something, but I had no idea what to expect, so I just listened and watched instead. What a novel idea. It was this kind of punk/pop thing that leaned more towards the whole punk thing instead. And I thought it was really badass. If I wasn't so poor, I definitely would have bought a CD. (speaking of which, why the hell aren't Silent Weapons CD's for sale at shows??) Anyway. I kind of think this is the kind of thing that I might get tired of if I were to try to listen to it for an extended period of time. Not that that makes it less good... just not exactly what I'm looking for long term. For a random discovery as a band that happens to be playing with another band that I like? Wow. Maybe one of the best one of THOSE bands I've heard in a long long time. They had a really good stage presence too. Cuz it completely seemed like they were just having a great time. I don't think I've ever heard a cymbol solo before either... And the guitar string broke, so we got the Flying V. And it all happened like everyone there were just friends having fun. the fact that I recall that may or may not have anything to do with something I find missing in day-to-day life. Hm. Although I'm getting old and boring and bald and rarely venture outside the safe confines of my apartment to discover anything unknown, I'll keep my eye on this band... maybe they'll play somewhere near a stop of the new light rail. Or, hell, maybe they'll come back and play with The Silent Weapons again. I really liked it.
Jack Flash Jason, dude! You're always in the way!	Gretta Fine	Nick Kraska
Although Holster was actually headlining the show I, yet again, missed their set. Allison had to work early, so we took off after Bang! Bang! had finished up. But the end of their set certainly worked out for the end of the show. I know there's a video of this whole thing floating around somewhere b/c the guy next to me was holding his phone up recording it all. I don't really remember exactly how it happened but they, somehow, managed to get all the prettiest people in the crowd up on the stage for a nice little dance party to send things out. Of course I didn't join, cuz I didn't want to make anyone feel bad. With my skillz. But that's good for everyone else who is a dude b/c it means that I have a couple of photos. So there's that. And there's my awful awful words that are simply here to fill space b/c I have these pictures, and I didn't want to do nothing with them.

Labels: Allison, concerts, Eston, music

posted by schmakt at 6:07 PM 0 Comments

sixwire

posted by schmakt at 9:51 PM 1 Comments

Silent Weapons @ sk Net

Silent Weapons (with Holster) 03 November 2007 sk Net Cafe - Charlotte, NC
Finally made it out to see Eston's newly acquired musical home in concert the other day. Biased tho I may be, I was pleasantly surprised. I got there kind of late and missed most of the first set by Holster... I'd never heard them before either, so I wasn't overly worried. But I kind of liked them as well. The lead singer was fun to watch and, for some reason, reminded me of David Byrne. I have no basis for that... it's just what I thought of when I was watching. I only had a couple of photos... neither were that great... but they're here for the taking or viewing or whatever. They're playing again next Tuesday at the Milestone, and I'm not at all unhappy about seeing them again. Perhaps I'll have more of a real opinion then. The only thing that I had time about which to be annoyed was the muddiness of the sound. At first I thought it was just the lead singer either not really belting it out or just being low in the mix... When Silent Weapons played, I felt like I was losing Eliza in the songs sometimes too. So I'm chalking that up to either sound problems or venue acoustics. Or lack thereof. Actually... you can't really have a lack of acoustics, can you? It's really a matter of quality as opposed to quantity.
But the only reason I went was to see Silent Weapons... I did catch that whole show. And, like I said, I was pleasantly surprised. I'd really only heard songs on myspace, and I don't really pay attention. I dunno why. I guess it's that stupid player with all it's controls locked down or the poor buffering... whatever... it's not talk-about-why-myspace-sucks time. Right... music.
From stage-right... Eston looking very pleased with himself.	Eliza trying to figure out just what, exactly, to do with that gun...	And Josh looking like he's doing that AC/DC kick-step across the stage thing. (he wasn't)
(perhaps I should say that I, obviously, used a lot of Photoshop lighting and red-eye effects to try and make these photos better...)
	Well... it didn't take her long to figure out what to do with it. Eston busted a string on, like, song 2. Idiot. His playing must be completely superfluous tho, as it didn't seem to affect the rest of the show. Hopefully he's learned his lesson now...
So. I like drums. There is, as you can see, no drummer in Silent Weapons. Which, is you watch the videos, you'll hear does not mean that there are no drums in Silent Weapons. Josh, as I understand it, programs the bass beats, and all the songs are played to backing tracks. On the one hand, it's really cool to be able to execute your songs basically the same way night-after-night. (I didn't hold it against The Helio Sequence) And I am kind of a sucker for the fusion of talent and technology. But, on the other hand, a drum track... Something about a real-live drumbeat is so much more comforting and emotional and raw than digital tracks. Not that I'm trying to get stuck on one minor thing. The tempos and beats that were there were groovy and entertaining. I just missed the sound of someone actually banging on something. And the sound issues... there was definitely some muddiness that pulled away from the show, but nothing I couldn't get over. Sometimes I just wanted to hear Eliza better, and I couldn't. I do think that both bands were just suffering from the acoustics of the venue. sk Net is a low-ceilinged, narrow, and long coffee bar. Not really the best place for big crisp sounds. The band itself seemed to be pretty tight and on with the backing tracks. At the very least, there weren't any major issues, and they sounded good. And like they were having fun. Well... Josh looked like he really wanted it to sound good. As Eston said, "Everyone listens to Josh but watches me." Makes sense. I'm going to steer away from making any sort of comparissions. At this point, I'd end up saying they sounded a bit like the Rockfords, but I think I'd take that back in an hour. The song-writing was pretty catchy and hooky tho, and I don't recall being bored. I didn't record the whole show this time, and it's actually been a while since I've tried to write about something I didn't have recorded. Strange that it matters. But my memory sucks. The two videos I got were decent and, I think, a pretty good representation of the show. There are definitely two distinct moods in the songs... the slower spacey kind of thing and then the more punk/pop kind of song to which I am more partial. Except for if I'm home alone lost in a project. Or really sad. Or on tons of drugs, perhaps. But I digress. What else? ...The lighting was actually really neat. Especially for such a small place. Basically, it was just cool that the lights were doing something other than shine. (cuz I'm pretty sure there wasn't anyone actually running lights.) Silent Weapons are playing with Holster at this next show too, and I'm looking forward to it. It'll be nice to go in having some kind of previous knowledge. Uhmmm... and, to be completely honest, I wasn't really struck by the uniqueness of either band at the time, so it'll be cool to get to listen a bit closer this time without everything just being "new." Dispite my earlier complaints... there are some good sounding songs on myspace... Silent Weapons on myspace Holster on myspace
To be fair about the uniqueness statement... and, really, everything I said... I definitely wasn't giving 100% of my attention to the stage cuz there were other people there with whom I could interact. These people. So that was mostly nice. Except for the universal annoyance of ever trying to interact with anyone ever at a concert. Or maybe that's just me.
Sarah	Judith	Shirin (and Sarah again)
And, dammit, I almost forgot this one. I jumped up on stage and took this from behind the band looking out. (obviously) I think it turned out to be pretty cool. That's Jason - Holster's bass player - standing in the middle. Isn't it sweet when bands stay to watch bands who perform later? Yes. Yes, it is.
ugh. I forgot this one too. Definitely the last photo this time...
And, lastly, the couple of videos I have from the show.

Labels: concerts, Eston, Judith, music, Sarah

posted by schmakt at 12:42 PM 2 Comments

hyperactive emo leprechaun

posted by schmakt at 5:09 AM 0 Comments

famous by association

posted by schmakt at 5:20 PM 0 Comments

The Helio Sequence

The Helio Sequence, somewhat amazingly, showed up in Charlotte this past weekend. They played between two bands I'd never heard of: Tiny Vipers and Minus the Bear. I didn't dig the Minus the Bear stuff on their myspace page, but I didn't care. $17.00 for The Helio Sequence right down the street... I couldn't pass that up.
Uhm... Tiny Vipers consisted of a pretty cute indie-looking girl with a Dolores O'Riordan voice and soft stepping fingers and a kinda geekycute guy playing backup accousitc and accent bass. They had some technical problems, but regardless, I just didn't get it. Maybe it was just wrong for this soft flowing duet to be playing the big stage at Tremont. Or maybe it just wasn't right for me. Or maybe they just weren't very good. I dunno, but it seemed pretty painful for everyone - performers included. They definitely left the stage before finishing their set. I felt bad for them, but something just wasn't there. The bass was superfluous, the guitar was too soft... it was just background music to showcase her voice. It almost had a Velvet Underground feel, but I asked the guy later, and he was just like, "Yeah, I know who they are..."
	So, enough of that... I haven't seen The Helio Sequence since they opened for The Secret Machines and Kings of Leon in Asheville a couple of years ago. One of those bands that I remembered fondly but didn't think I'd ever get the chance to see again. I remembered Benjamin's flailing arms, a bunch of groovy electronic beep-boops, and this really clean voice that I oddly enjoyed. When I bought the record (the, at the time, new Love and Distance), I really liked the upbeat first half but could rarely get into the more mellow second half. Luckily, for me, the show stuck to the live / first-half-of-the-record sound that I remembered...
I went alone... there were lots of people younger than me. Also, I didn't really take any pictures b/c I was video-taping the whole thing. I tried taking this one photo with my left hand while a I taped with the right hand. It didn't work out so well. I should say that I can see some people thinking that it's a waste to go to a live concert and focus more on taping the thing than living in the moment or whatever. Fuck you. Anyway. I don't think I could have been happier with the set. Yeah, longer would have been nicer, but the battery on my camera was dying and I didn't want to try to swap to my other camera. OK... there's a reason that taping a show might not be cool... Ugh.
	They played 4 out of the 5 songs from Love and Distance that I really like and none of the slower stuff that I didn't feel like hearing at a concert. I hadn't heard anything off their new album (Jan. 29th on SubPop), so I was also really really happy that they played a lot of new stuff. I can't figure out the name of the 3rd song they played, but they either played 4 or 5 from the new album, and I really liked all of them. Honestly, not too "new" when compared to the last album, but I still think it's good. (Am I changing tense improperly?) You know, it's actually probably good that I was filming. If I had been free, I would have wanted to be moving much much more than the crowd in front of me. I guess that most everyone was there for Minus the Bear although I did hear some people calling out "Harmonica Song," so at least some people knew who The Helio Sequence were. Still. A bouncier crowd would have been nice. And the lighting... There was one moment towards the beginning of the show where it looked like they might have had someone doing lights, but no one really was. I think I remember liking the light show from Asheville, but nothing was really going on here. But it was fine. It was bright enough for me to see the band, and that's what I really wanted. Benjamin is a freakin' machine on the drumkit. I suppose the both are, really, but watching him play the drums is so much fun. And he looks like he's having a blast too. Fantastic. :) Plus Brandon and Benjamin were both really nice when I asked them to sign my record. For some reason, Brandon thanked me... Then Minus the Bear came on... I listened for a minute while I waited to get the 2nd signature and left after I did. They were fine, but I didn't think they were very special. And I had things to do.
So... watch the show or download the mp3's... they only played about 47 minutes, and I think I did an ok job of recording and cutting, so hopefully it will be entertaining. There is a little bit too much bass, so maybe turn that down a bit. I probably would have not really cared that much when their new record came out in January had I not seen them again. But now I'll be pre-ordering for sure.

The Helio Sequence - 13 October 2007 Tremont Music Hall - Charlotte, NC
	01	Can't Say No
	02	Don't Look Away
	03	The Captive Mind
	04	Let It Fall Apart
	05	Lately
	06	Harmonica Song
	07	Everyone Knows Everyone
	08	You Can Come to Me
	09	Keep Your Eyes Ahead
	10	(Square) Bubbles

Labels: concerts, music

posted by schmakt at 1:32 AM 0 Comments

The new Radiohead...

posted by schmakt at 2:57 AM 1 Comments

Femme Fatale

posted by schmakt at 5:57 PM 0 Comments

sap

posted by schmakt at 4:07 AM 0 Comments

Trarth

posted by schmakt at 9:51 PM 0 Comments

posted by schmakt at 10:58 PM 0 Comments

The Fiery Furnaces

Despite a plethora of cool releases in the recent past, (read: NIN, Spoon, White Stripes, Interpol.....), I've not really done a very good job of following music lately. We'll chalk it up to a lack of funds. But now Continental Airlines and Chase Bank USA have joined forces and given me the ability to earn my way back to Amsterdam by buying a bunch of crap I don't need. Or crap I do need like food and tires on my car.

Regardless, my most recent frequent-flyer-miles purchase involved a pair of tickets for the triumphant return of The Fiery Furnaces to my musically shallow city. Last time I got to see this band was a few months prior to the release of 2006's Bitter Tea. I went in a Fiery Furnaces virgin and came out struck more by the opening band (deadboy and the Elephantmen) than by FF. This time, however, I'd let Bitter Tea sit in the car stereo for a few days, I had my recording stuff, and I was prepared. Hell, I got there almost an hour before doors opened b/c I forgot this was Charlotte, and I thought that people might be lined up for the show... but that's neither here nor there. dios. The Fiery Furnaces. I will now talk about them both.

Opening band was a pleasant surprise. While it wasn't my thing as much as deadboy was, dios was a lot of fun and turned out to be a fantastic choice as an opener for The Fiery Furnaces.

Their website, however, is fucking terrible... The lead singer reminded me (quite a lot, actually) of a South Carolina band called A Decent Animal, but that's about all I can do for comparisons. Everything was super-tight with a fantastic amount of ambient noise, and the drummer was a fucking BLAST to watch. It was just the right mix of painful groove and groove rock that neither put me in a mosh pit nor put me to sleep. While not a jam band by really any stretch of the imagination, it almost could have been. I had a hell of a time noticing when most songs ended and the next began. I even recorded the thing, and I've been struggling fruitlessly listening and re-listening trying to find where to chop the 40-odd minute set up into individual tracks. It's not that everything sounded exactly the same, but everything fused together so well that pinpointing that moment where things changed is just proving to be impossible for me. Not that it really matters. I really enjoyed the set, and I would definitely go see them again. If anyone who reads this knows this band and would like to help me track the show, I'd be grateful... I'm here.

<------------- dios breakdown takes next to no time at all... the stage crew gets everything ready for the main act, and Allison checks my equipment for me. (that is not a euphemism) --------------> While waiting we meet new friend and fellow Orange Peel/Arcade Fire/Sonic Youth/Pearl Jam fan Darryl... but what's up with everyone and the earplugs?

And, so then... The Fiery Furnaces

Caveat: **If you want a really good review of The Fiery Furnaces, I implore you to check out Scott Shupe's review here on CrazyTalk.** I'm just going to end up rambling and not really saying anything meaningful. So here we go... As I mentioned, I'd been spinning Bitter Tea in the car for a while, and so I thought I was totally prepared. I was going to know the songs and the words and the beats, and I was going to be soooooooooooo cool. Then they actually started playing... "Little Thatched Hut"... a song I definitely know... kicked off the first half of the show, which ended up being entirely devoted to songs off the new record. And I hardly recognized it. Bitter Tea clocks in right at 80 minutes, and they played a pretty healthy number of tracks off the record... plus another equally long "set" devoted to older stuff (and one brand new song). The entire show was almost exactly as long as the record. Everything was blisteringly fast. Combined with Eleanor's voice often being submerged under the sonic wave sent forth by the rest of the band (I had no idea Jason Loewenstein was playing with them!!), I found myself completely lost. But that was great. And hopefully part of their plan. Very little stage banter... No breaks between songs. Just continuous sound after sound after sound. Although I was trying to pay attention to my computer and searching for familiarity in the music, I couldn't help but getting lost in everything they were throwing out to the crowd. Every single song raced off the stage like the damn place was on fire... lyrics were left out, but not Eddie-Vedder-I'm-Trying-But-I'm-Too-Drunk-To-Remember-All-My-Words style... it was all very calculated. Also not a lot of stage antics or really much movement at all. The whole show was 100% about the sound. You really just couldn't get away from it - there was nothing to really distract you from just being there and listening... actually... I guess I take that back a little bit. I have no idea what in the world the point of this was, but Eleanor and the lead singer from dios did end up tossing a softball back-and-forth near the end of the show. Dustin (comic-book guy) Harbin was there begging for the softball but was met with a simple yet firm shake of the head that said simply, "I don't think so." She's smart. So, yeah. I liked it. Not that I've become a huge Fiery Furnaces fan now or anything, but I'm very very glad that I got to see them again with a little bit of knowledge in my head. I'll be picking up Blueberry Boat the next time I see it at Manifest, and the next time they're at The Visulite (God, please don't go to the Neighborhood Theater...), I'm totally there. And now I have to completely rethink my