Deep in the Internet abyss, past the viral videos and all the insufferable memes lies Common Ground, a haven where one can find solace and camaraderie through a shared passion for music.
LCD Soundsystem has once again teamed up with the lovable Muppets. This time, instead of rocking New York City, Kermit, Piggy, Animal, and the gang bring their musical talents to Brighton, UK. Watch them play "Dance Yrself Clean" in the hilarious unofficial music video directed by Javier Douglas:
And of course, here's the classic "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down" music video, featuring the great Kermit the Frog. Just wait for the ending, it's hilarious.
For their third album, Outside, the Minnesotan indie-rock quartet, Tapes ‘n Tapes, channel a ‘who’s who’ list of indie artists. Lead vocalist Josh Grier’s voice sounds unpolished, yet remarkably passionate, almost channeling Hamilton Leithauser of The Walkmen, while the band behind him seems to have a penchant for crescendoing at the ¾ mark. The opening track, “Badaboom,” is a fun number, starting off with a poppy and light drum beat with some guitar thrown in for good measure before bright keyboard kicks in and Grier distorts his voice. The song then ends with a few interesting stop-and-start guitar and drums moments that appear throughout the album. “SWN” has dreamlike quality to it that transforms suddenly into an Modest Mouse-esque number as Grier shout-talks “and when you walk in, walk in walk in, walk in, I’ll be on my knees” in Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock fashion. “Freak Out” starts off like a b-side off MGMT’s Congratulations before finding its place as a frenzied shuffle. “The Saddest of All Keys,” perhaps the album’s strongest track, has a Cold War Kids vibe to it, however, the very neat ambient organ that drives the song to its final, chaotic, destination is what really makes the song stand out. Yet, not every ditty off Outside harkens back to fellow indie-rockers; in fact, “People You Know” finds it’s place as an early 60’s slow-dance number that almost seems to channel The Penguins’ classic “Earth Angel."
On Outside, Tapes ’n Tapes doesn’t bring anything new to the indie-rock table. The album gets a bit repetitive at times, yet there are quite a few interesting tracks that make it worthwhile. While the album isn’t poor, the bands such as Cold War Kids, The Walkmen, Modest Mouse, MGMT, and others that Tape ‘n Tapes clearly draw influence from have already fleshed out their indie-rock sound and do it better.
By Michela Smith The original version of this article was published on February 14, 2011 for The Arts Fuse.
Folk's Messiah?
Boston remains capricious about folk music. While Joan Baez, James Taylor, and Bonnie Raitt began their strumming in rhythm with the Charles River, Pacific winds soon drew them and others westward, stripping the area of its folk identity. Thus, as critically hailed folk savior Iron & Wine (I&W) visits Boston’s House of Blues in April with his new album, Kiss Each Other Clean, its bushy-bearded messiah, Samuel Beam, has serious evangelical work to do.
In 2002 Iron & Wine debuted with The Creek Drank the Cradle, a brilliant Simon & Garfunkel-meets-Bob Dylan synthesis that caused many to proclaim a folk revival. Since this success, however, I&W’s singer-songwriter Beam has steadily drifted from his organic folk roots. With this latest album, Beam diverges completely and crafts Kiss Each Other Clean with producer Brian Deck to “sound like an early Elton John record.” While achieving John-like instrumentation on the uninteresting tracks “Walking Far From Home” and “Glad Man Singing,” most of the album fails to capture the storytelling spirit, charisma, and energy essential to John and, in previous years, to Beam.
Beam’s art-school training is evident in his imagist style on Kiss. Like brushstrokes, Beam sings in coarse, concise concepts, presuming his expressions will paint eloquent illustrations on tracks like “Me and Lazarus,” “Monkeys Uptown,” and “Rabbit Will Run.”
While imagism has the potential to be effective when complemented by an engaging storyline or a colorful backing track, Kiss’s tracks feature neither. Beam sings in a tangle of metaphors that feature nature, animal, and religious allusions, together rendering his message incomprehensible. Driven solely by electric bass, “Me And Lazarus” and “Monkeys Uptown” are only accompanied by random, extra-terrestrial sound bytes and the occasional electrical guitar whines, making the tracks entirely unsalvageable. “Rabbit Will Run” centers on an underdeveloped, African polyrhythm and misplaced Ian-Anderson-esque flute, making Beam’s inclusion of the disastrous pieces downright confusing.
When channeling folk, Beam is outstanding in his field.
When Beam deviates from this imagist pattern, Kiss achieves some aesthetic deliverance. On “Tree By the River,” simple acoustic guitar and a chorus of innocent voices complement Beam as he asks his past lover Maryanne if she remembers “the tree by the river, when [they] were seventeen,” together composing a lush landscape of adolescence. The slide guitar on “Half Moon” creates the album’s most folky sound, and its lyrics are drenched with tender passion as Beam asks to die if he loses the woman he adores. These concrete stories and emotions recall Beam’s previous work—and it would serve him best to remain with the style.
Ironically, the two most interesting tracks on the album are Beam’s most novel. On “Big Burned Hand,” Beam saunters with funky bass, hot saxophone, and electronically-singed vocals. Closing the album is arguably its best tune; “Your Fake Name is Good Enough For Me” boasts a full horn section and a guitar solo that drips with low-fi hiss and distortion. Beam’s voice then intertwines with breathy vocals that twirl the piece 180 degrees. The track ends in a mesh of electric and acoustic sounds, a metaphor for the tangled style of the entire album.
While a mostly experimental album punctuated by some success, Kiss’s mediocre performance shouldn’t discourage Bostonians from returning to the House of Blues this spring. Beam is guaranteed to revive his stronger past work and with his folk will once again breathe redemptive life into this city, delivering the people of Boston.
That was the reaction from Arcade Fire’s twitter after taking home the Grammy for Best Album and man, was this award deserved. I apologize if I’m a little all over the place, but I’m honestly too excited to write. I screamed when they announced the award. I’ve only ever screamed while watching TV one other time in my life (that came when Zach Parise of Team USA scored with 24 seconds left in the Gold Medal game in the 2010 Winter Olympics to tie it up against Canada, however, let’s not talk about how that ended…). Not only did I scream at the top of my lungs, but I also jumped on top of my friend, and paraded through my room. I actually missed the English portion of the victory speech thanks to my excitement.
Yes.
God, I’m happy. So many times I thought to myself while watching artist after artist getting rewarded for mediocrity that there was no way The Suburbs would pull through. I lost more and more faith after seeing the band lose the “Best Alternative Music Album” and “Best Rock Performance By a Duo or Group with Vocals” to the Black Keys. Now, I love the Black Keys, but Suburbs absolutely deserved to come away with some hardware. If you’ve read my review of the album then you know that I adored The Suburbs. It’s just beautiful. To quote myself, ”The Suburbs is much more emotionally-wrenching than any of Arcade Fire’s previous albums. The lyrics are those of a band at its strongest, showing more emotional meaning than Funeral while being less overtly political than Neon Bible.” Seeing them live at the front of the pit at Madison Square Garden August 2nd certainly helped them cement their reputation in my book. Not only can they compose beautiful music, but they have a knack for unbridled performances. This was especially true tonight; for all the hate “Month of May” seems to get, it is still a great song that’s even better live. Tonight’s performance of the rocker was simply superb and the encore of “Ready To Start” was also pretty fantastic. Just purely emotional, almost cathartic, performances.
Now who expected this outcome when the nominees were announced? How did Eminem, Lady Antebellum, Lady Gaga, or Katy Petty not end up winning? No, I don’t think they deserved it, but this is the Grammys after all and indie bands, even indie mega-stars like Arcade Fire, aren’t expected to win. I just can’t help but feel like justice was served tonight in Los Angeles.
For all that is said about the death of the album, what does The Suburbs mean? Is this the revival of the album? Is this what contemporary music needs or am I just getting ahead of myself?
While Michela also vocally rejoiced in the unprecedented, but proper and fitting, win of Arcade Fire, to avoid repetition with her reaction, here is a summary of the rest of the awards:
Other winners included Lady Antebellum who snatched up both “Record of the Year”, “Country Album of the Year” and “Song of the Year” through her success of “Need You Now”, a pop-country mix that has dominated Top 40 radio. While Cee Lo Green won for "Best Urban/Alternative Performance", Justin Beiber was surprisingly shut out, despite being one of the most advertised acts of the night.
The Black Keys: Lookin' Sharp Boys
Mirroring their fortunately astute appreciation for quality music that honored Arcade Fire, the Recording Academy donned The Black Keys with “Best Alternative Music Album” for Brothers and with “Best RockPerformanceBy A Duo Or Group with Vocals” for “Tighten Up” off the same record. Neil Young won “Best Rock Song” with “Angry World” and Them Crooked Vultures, the latest project by Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones, won “Best Hard Rock Performance” with “New Fang”.
Cee Lo and Paltrow.
Besides for Arcade Fire, the night’s performances were mixed. Muse delivered a solid performance of “Resistance”, the title track of the album that won them “Best Rock Album.” While the novelty of the Bob Dylan, Mumford & Sons, and The Avett Brothers trio held promise and the latter two delivered in their solo sets, Dylan’s incomprehensible aged grumbles spoiled their collaborative “Maggie’s Farm”. Miranda Lambert’s “The House That Built Me” was surprisingly moving and secured her win of “Best Female Country Vocal Performance”. The performances by Bieber, Usher, Rihanna, and Eminem were predictably derivative (save for Dr. Dre’s appearance). Yet, the fun from the colorful Lady Gaga and the Elton-John-esquejaunt by Cee Lo Green and Gwyneth Paltrow did manage to recover mainstream’s Grammy effort.
The Grammy's are an annual opportunity to yell "YES!" and REALLY?!" at the television set out of passion for the music that connects to our human experiences and speaks to our very souls. The Grammy's honored that tradition tonight and in the Recording Academy's recognition of those not always heard on radio airwaves, several underdog artists were given the chance to sing directly to us.
Hey everyone, just a quick thought to spark interest and discussion.
I've been listening to Buddy Holly quite a bit lately. While I know "Everyday" has been covered by many including John Denver and James Taylor and has been featured in several commercials, I simply can't get over how absolutely adorable its melody and theme are in their simplicity and romance.
Even more endearing is Holly's use of the "celeste", a rare glockenspiel-like instrument so cute in its innocent tone that you suddenly feel the urge to reach through the speakers and give Buddy a hug.
So in the spirit of Valentine's Day -- even if you're feeling grumpy on the 14th -- take a listen, because "everyday", love's "gettin' closer" :)
A quick look through the Decemberists back-catalogue reveals a band influenced by eclectic music who isn’t afraid of taking risks. The Portland-based band toyed with European, DeVotchKa-esque, elements on The Tain and incorporated a much heavier electric sound for their 2009 rock opera entitled The Hazards of Love. For their latest release, The King Is Dead, the band toned down their celebrated quirkiness as they looked to country and folk to guide them.
Joining the Decemberists for a few tracks on this album is Peter Buck of R.E.M whose influence is most apparent in the album’s opener, “Don’t Carry It All,” and the album’s first single, “Down By The Water.” The former track begins a bit like Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up” with harmonica spruced in before Colin Meloy’s ever-unique voice makes an entrance. Also featured on the track is singer-songwriter Gillian Welch whose voice meshes fantastically when harmonizing with Meloy’s. Some captivating mandolin and upbeat drumming line the song, which serves as a great primer to the Decemberists’ new sound. “Down By The Water” sounds much more like R.E.M than any other track on the album and once again, the harmonica blasts and Welch’s vocals effectively complement Meloy’s, creating a very strong and upbeat track.
The Decemberists turn to country roots
“All Arise” oozes bluegrass twang and the rollicking piano, dual vocals, and string arrangements make this a fun and playful song that’s a delight to listen to. “Rise To Me” sounds like an expanded version of “The Hazards of Love 4 (The Drowned),” containing similar slide guitar and country accents, but with abundant harmonica and stronger harmonies.
With songs like “All Arise,” “Rise To Me,” “June Hymn,” and more, it is obvious that the Decemberists were influenced by folk and country music on this album. These influences, however, aren’t limited to the American tradition. “Rox In The Box” is a playful shuffle-romp, clearly influenced by Irish folk that further exhibits the Decemberists varied musical influences.
One noticeable change of pace on the album is “This Is Why We Fight.” The track is prominently more sinister and heavier than any other on the album, and yet, it doesn’t feel misplaced. While the drumming is more sprawling than on others and, at times, the song gives off hints of an old-time Western, the previously-mentioned country twang and harmonica are still ever present.
While The King Is Dead is not quite what you’d expect from the Decemberists, it is still a very strong album. After The Hazards of Love,there was a danger that the band could continue with an even grander, intricate, and overly complicated sound. Fortunately, the band suppressed this urge and created a fine back-to-roots country stomper that’s arguably their most upbeat album yet.
Overall Grade: 8.25
Other Notes:
The band just recently released "The Great Outdoors" for the children's television show Yo Gabba Gabba. Read about it on Rolling Stone, but before then, take a moment to enjoy the acid-trip of a kid's show:
