2 May 2012 :: Mavericks, Ottawa, ON

I’ve written at length about both my love of Future Islands (even if I didn’t love their last record) and their insane touring schedule. It needs to be said and re-said: hardest working band in dodge. I knew that it would only be a matter of time before they came to my hometown.

⊙ Keyword Tags: Future Islands

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5 April 2012 :: Maxwell’s, Hoboken, NJ

The best song Marissa Paternoster performed at Maxwell’s was “Bell,” Screaming Females’ thesis statement from 2009’s Power Move. The song floats by as a subtly melodic and muscular thing of a piece with any other basement punk band until Paternoster’s larynx goes to shreds in the second verse, giving way to her own post-Masicis guitar shredding and heading back again. It represents all that’s great about the Screamales, and is a de facto blueprint for the rest of their albums—including this year’s mighty Ugly, which formed the vast majority of the set.

⊙ Keyword Tags: Screaming Females

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26 January 2012 :: Studio at Webster Hall, New York. NY

Now here’s an interesting night out: Cloud Nothings, a whole two days removed from their album’s release date, are headlining a sold out show at Webster Hall’s smaller basement annex (the fire code sign, clearly visible by the door, states 326 capacity) while upstairs is J. Cole’s weekly Ladies Night Out. Either way, the bouncers checking ID have their hands full. Standing near the bathrooms allows me glimpses of the two crowds mingling: young women in snug platinum dresses bewildered at a room full of flannel; dudes with beards sipping PBRs relieved to unabashedly ogle. Each group snickered at the other, and each group was right.

⊙ Keyword Tags: Cloud Nothings

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08 January 2012 :: Le Poisson Rouge, New York, NY

Classical music needs Andrew W.K. the same way he needs classical music. Which is to say that both seem like they’re slumming at the moment, but both have and will continue to secretly—or not so secretly—benefit from the association. Greasy frat anthems like “Party Hard” or “I Love NYC” shine under simple, clean arrangements, and “4’33“” seems less pedantic or academic when viewed through the lens of what amounts to a classically trained stand-up comedian. W.K.‘s lack of overwhelming (though generally satisfying) success as party popster, metal balladeer, solo pianist, television personality, motivational speaker, and nightclub owner has rightly left the focus on Andrew W.K.: the idea of a relentlessly positive rocker. It’s a caricature played so straightly and smartly he only truly belongs in the overwhelming, hall-of-mirrors company of Groucho Marx. Or Rick Ross.

⊙ Keyword Tags: Andrew Wk, Calder Quartet

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7 December 2011 :: Tractor Tavern, Seattle, WA

What a difference seven months can make. When I saw Cass McCombs for the first time in 2011 at Seattle’s Tractor Tavern, he played to a sparse crowd, appeared averse to performing much from Wit’s End, the first of two excellent records he released last year, and repeatedly asked whoever was running lights to adjust their brightness, rendering the stage almost completely dark before admitting that the appearance was “kind of a drag” and bringing them back up to more manageable levels. That set ended in a fine rendition of Catacombs (2009) highlight “Harmonia,” at which point an excited few applauded in hopes of an encore, which someone from McCombs’ quashed quickly by making the hands-across-neck gesture to the sound guy as if to say “Please make them stop, it’s your job.”

⊙ Keyword Tags: Cass Mccombs

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29 October 2011 :: Town Hall, New York, NY

Jeff Mangum wants to feel closer to his fans than they do. Not that you can blame them; it is a little strange seeing the myth himself after over a decade of silence, a little uncomfortable hearing the erstwhile hermit nagging everybody before a rousing “Ghost” to “fucking sing.” It’s like watching Pynchon do some promos at Barnes & Noble. At one point, when Mangum asked if anybody had a question for him, somebody yelled, “What’s your favorite book?” “You know the answer to that,” he replied, garnering chuckles as he dove straight into “Oh Comely” for maximum effect. Something awesome and terrible about Mangum’s little re-emergence: a pure musician, completely out of “the game,” who’ll never put out an album again if it doesn’t feel right, appeasing us out of the goodness of his heart and nothing else. (Although I’m sure the money isn’t too bad either.)

⊙ Keyword Tags: Jeff Mangum, Neutral Milk Hotel

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11 November 2011 :: The Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL

Not knowing what to expect when I’m not expecting but have decided to go to a show has never been a problem for me, with the exception of a Round Robin performance art/concert I accidentally dragged a similarly unknowing friend to; sure, while the girl dancing around with a stuffed octopus on her head wasn’t what I’d call a pivotal moment in live-music-making, I wouldn’t write it off as a bad time either. So as usual, I was ultimately comfortable deciding last-minute to ditch my plans and the people I had plans with to just slump around the Empty Bottle stage, soaking up some cheap beer and live music all by my glorious lonesome, whoever might be on the bill. But on the bill? Memoryhouse and headliner Balam Acab, the latter’s third show on his first live tour ever.

⊙ Keyword Tags: Balam Acab, Memoryhouse

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10 October 2011 :: Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL

Being too congenial in Craigslist inquiry emails occasionally pays off. Sometimes it just means dealing with a lot of undesired, winky-face e-mails/texts long after I have said, “Er, never mind about the bike, dude.” But sometimes, sometimes: it means I get shuffled ahead of the masses for something just bonkers-rewarding.

⊙ Keyword Tags: Wild Flag, Yellow Fever

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21 October 2011 :: Music Gallery, Toronto, ON

The Music Gallery carries a lot of weight in Toronto both as an idea and a venue. Initiated by CCMC back in the ’70s, it has since bore a great deal of both the city’s experimental and avant-garde-leaning performances as well as its international imports. But its current incarnation at home in St. George the Martyr Church, that stubborn adherence to classical beauty in the shadow of Frank Gehry’s revamped Art Gallery of Ontario and the pencil crayon legs of the Ontario College of Art and Design, raises the stakes considerably. Its alcohol-free sanctuary has seen music as rapturous as the setting, but it doesn’t exactly produce an environment conducive to music that would be better suited to safely lingering in the background.

⊙ Keyword Tags: Global Cities Ensemble, Oval, Tim Hecker

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01 October 2011 :: The Columbia City Theater, Seattle, WA

While Jens Lekman’s new EP, An Argument With Myself, is his highest-fi outing yet, with all but one sample removed in favor of the biggest and most ambitious arrangements he’s crafted to date, his tour supporting its songs saw him reduced to acoustic guitar, with percussion and backing vocals courtesy of Bloomington scene fixture Addison Rogers. There was also a sampler, but it largely sat unused as he reworked a dozen or so songs, both old and new, into a warm and intimate performance in one of the best-sounding rooms in Seattle.

⊙ Keyword Tags: Jens Lekman

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