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2006:03:30:08:00. Thursday. NO!: MARITIME (#61, MAR 24 2006).
Maritime put on a surprisingly energetic set -- Davey von Bohlen was covered in sweat by the time they were done, and it wasn't because the room was overly hot. This two-song overture marked the physical and musical peak of a set dominated by new material that's a degree of magnitude better than their older stuff. Their live set, too, is a step beyond where they were as a three-piece a couple years ago. I hope they're positioning themselves to find some big success, because the music and the show are right there and ready to go.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:03:29:08:00. Wednesday. NO!: MARITIME (#60, MAR 24 2006).
Since coming to Madison as a grad student three and a half years ago, I've gotten used to being the old guy at certain shows, especially at Club 770 shows. So I'm always surprised when I'm the only person really getting into some hot-sounding, hard-working band. By the time Maritime had gotten a few songs into their set, Emily and I were bouncing around, singing along, letting the music do its thing, but everybody else just kind of sat there and watched (although not in the sense that people sat and watched the City on Film, which is to say, by sitting cross-legged on the floor). The band kept the energy up throughout their set, but as polite and appreciative as the crowd was, they never quite got past their hipster self-consciousness.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:03:28:00:19. Tuesday. NO!: MARITIME (#59, MAR 24 2006).
It's really unfortunate that Maritime's second record, We, the Vehicles, took six months to come out in the US following its Japanese release. It's loaded with good songs and potential singles, and could've been the kind of break-through record that Death Cab's We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes was way back when, except every indie rock nerd on the planet downloaded it last October. Hopefully that translates into touring success for them -- it's certainly the reason I was so excited to see them at MadisonFest -- but US sales are definitely not going to be what they could've been. This song, early in the set, was sandwiched between my two favorite Maritime songs, "Someone Has to Die" (from Glass Floor) and "Tearing Up the Oxygen." I didn't much mind not recording those, though, as this is one of my favorites, too. The song and the clip are both good indicators of the quick, fun energy the band is able to dive right into.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:03:27:08:00. Monday. NO!: THE CITY ON FILM (#58, MAR 24 2006).
I didn't get to see as much of MadisonFest as I'd wanted, but what I did see was pretty good. Emily and I got there in time for the last two songs from the City on Film (better known as former Braid and Hey Mercedes frontman Bob Nanna), then saw Maritime and Rainer Maria on Friday night. I didn't make it back on Saturday but I'm hopeful that the bands I missed will be back in town soon. I realized sometime during the evening that the top of the Friday night bill was kind of an awesome throwback to the days when emo wasn't something you could buy in bulk at the mall. Ten years ago, Nanna was with Braid, Maritime's Davey von Bohlen was with his pioneering previous band, the Promise Ring, and Rainer Maria was Rainer Maria (except in Madison instead of New York). All of them were heavy hitters in a scene that didn't know what to do with heavy hitters. Now, all of them never quite made it, while Jimmy Eat World and Death Cab do body shots off the cast of The O.C.. And yet, they keep on truckin', playing free shows in campus cafeterias for whoever will show up. Nanna closed with this sweet, fanciful reading of a true classic in the late history of pop. He's back in town for another free show this Saturday, opening for the Smoking Popes on the terrace, so check him out if you're in Madison.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:03:24:08:00. Friday. NO!: JENNY LEWIS (#57, MAR 13 2006).
Jenny ended her set with a lengthy, walk-off version of "Born Secular," which culminated in an explosive true drum solo -- the drummer was the only person left onstage. Her encore began a few minutes later when she came back out by herself to play a solo version of "It Wasn't Me," effectively the closer of Rabbit Fur Coat. I assumed that would be it, but instead she played a few more that really got the revivalist revue flavor up. The Watson Twins came back out for an a cappella rendition of Laura Nyro's "I Met Him on a Sunday" and they closed with a rollicking, quasi-pentecostal take on the Grateful Dead's "Cold Jordan." I wouldn't have expected to love a secular gospel record this year, but goddamn if Jenny Lewis hasn't made it happen.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:03:22:08:00. Wednesday. NO!: JENNY LEWIS WITH THE WATSON TWINS (#56, MAR 13 2006).
This song has got the Kiley-philes of the Internet all riled up, so to speak, and with good reason. It's the musical and thematic high point of the Jenny Lewis Revivalist Revue and the moment when it's clearest what she's trying to do while apart from her band. Jenny sits down behind the piano for this one, allowing her guitarist and call-and-answer partner to take center stage. The song itself is a throwback about love, jealousy, murder and regret -- a perfect homage to the 60's and 70's sub-radar tours of Johnny Cash and the Carter Family. The only bad thing about it is that it's likely to be relegated to b-side status, since Jenny will probably be back recording with Rilo Kiley again before she puts together another full album's worth of solo material. It deserves more prominent exposure than that, and hopefully the reaction of the online fan community can help spur that on.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:03:21:08:00. Tuesday. NO!: JENNY LEWIS WITH THE WATSON TWINS (#55, MAR 13 2006).
Generally when I list a song as "untitled," that actually just means I couldn't find the title anywhere. In this case, this song is actually new and untitled -- Jenny solicited title suggestions before they began playing. I like "Tonight." It's vague, doesn't get in the way of the song, etc. Anyway. The unfortunate thing about where we sat is that when I zoomed in as far as I could, to capture at least a little bit of detail, it was just a little too far to be able to get the entire stage in the frame, which meant one Watson twin had to get cut out of most of the action. The instrumentation for this song sounded like it might not yet be complete, which meant all they did was sing occasional accents, but on "You Are What You Love" the one that got cut off had a zither or something, which mostly didn't show up in the clip. As for this song, complete or not, it's a nice little ballad, full-bodied but sparse, that would fit well closing an album, assuming Jenny has another "solo" effort up her sleeve.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:03:20:08:00. Monday. NO!: JENNY LEWIS WITH THE WATSON TWINS (#54, MAR 13 2006).
I don't remember the last time I went to a sit-down-only show -- maybe never when it comes to pop music. The Pabst Theatre is a sit-down venue, though, and we found ourselves sitting near the front of the balcony where we had a good view of the stage and of the entire venue. It's really a nice, impressive looking place, but I doubt it could take anything more rocking than Jenny Lewis's Carole King-via-June Carter routine. She played this song early in the set and I was glad to hear it. It's my favorite song from Rabbit Fur Coat, maybe because it's the most like a new Rilo Kiley song, and while I don't think it translated perfectly to the atmosphere she created onstage, I'm really happy to have captured it.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:03:17:08:00. Friday. NO!: ROBBERS ON HIGH STREET (#53, OCT 12 2005).
Here's an illustration of just how much these guys sound like Spoon. You know those Pontiac ads that inexplicably urge you to "Google 'Pontiac'" at the end? This song is the song that plays under those ads. Emily, well familiar with the Robbers' record, was shocked when I pointed that out, because she was so sure the ad used a Spoon song. For the record, Spoon has music in no commercials, or at least no commercials that I've encountered, but maybe it's telling that these guys managed to successfully commodify the sound before Spoon did.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:03:15:16:00. Wednesday. A SENATOR IS MISSING. The U.S. Senate is supposed to be the world's greatest deliberative body. It's also supposed to be where the grown-ups of official Washington reside. As power has been replaced by decorum as the currency of Washington Democrats, it has come also to be a wonderful, golden stable -- a cage for dozens of geldings who have learned that obediance gets them a sugar cube, or at least staves off the crack of the whip. And even though the stable doors are kept wide open, to show us all how docile they are, none but one ever dare to stray. A Senator is missing today, again, and worse, he seems to be unlearning his training. He voted against dismissing the impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton, he voted to confirm John Ashcroft and Condi Rice and John Roberts. He also voted against the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act, the Iraq War and thrice against "Strip Search" Sam Alito. Yesterday he left the ranch again to introduce a motion to censure George Bush for his illegal wiretapping of American citizens in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and every measure of human decency. With the exception of Iowa's suddenly feisty Tom Harkin, none of Russ Feingold's stablemates will stand with him, most demurring to the completion of an investigation which has already been voted down by the Senate Intelligence Committee. Many in the Democratic horse show were in the Senate during the prologue to our current national nightmare, and 21 of them voted to censure Bill Clinton for spying on an intern's genitals without a warrant. Two years later, not a single one of them would stand with the Congressional Black Caucus to challenge the certification of Florida's electoral votes. A stream of Representatives -- including one white guy who just got swept up in the moment and wanted to support the cause, even he'd had no intention of doing so prior to seeing what his colleagues were doing -- took to the floor of the House, showered in boos and catcalls from the members of God's Own Party (and probably one or two from Joementum, to boot) and presented official challenges to the results. As sitting President of the Senate, Al Gore asked each one if their challenge was signed by both a Represenative and a Senator. "A Senator is still needed." "Not a single Senator would sign." "A Senator is missing." A Senator is missing today and the stable masters are in a tizzy. The doors are open and one's already gone. What if the others get spooked? Even if they're just for show, even if they've had their testicles removed, 43 horses can cause a lot of damage. We'd better just thank the lord that these animals know their place and little else. If they ever realized they were free, our whole system would be fucked.
2006:03:15:08:00. NO!: ROBBERS ON HIGH STREET (#52, OCT 12 2005).
I seem to have amazing luck when it comes to recording new or rare songs. By my quick count, out of 63 tracks that I've recorded since I started doing this, 12 were not released (or not close to being released) at the time -- including two new songs at Monday's Jenny Lewis show. I think that's mostly pretty cool, but the downside is that I occasionally wind up with no title to put on the title card and the RSS feed. Such is the case with this song. There's no particular fan community presence on the Internet for these guys, and nowhere in particular to find info about unreleased and new songs. So, here it is; feel free to make up whatever title you might like for it.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:03:13:08:00. Monday. NO!: ROBBERS ON HIGH STREET (#51, OCT 12 2005).
This week I'm closing out the 2005 clips with the band that out-Spooned Spoon. This is surely heresy among the chattering classes of indie rock elites, but Tree City, from Robbers on High Street, was a much more fulfilling effort than Spoon's Gimme Fiction, in my opinion. They lose some points for sounding exactly like Spoon -- really, it's kind of unbelievable how much every aspect of the band sounds like Britt Daniel et al. -- and they lose a few more for being in those Pontiac commercials -- the particular song from which will be posted on Friday -- but they still come out with the more pleasing record. This didn't translate into show attendance, though. Less than a dozen people saw the Hat Party and the King of France open the show, and not too many more came in for the headliners. It's too bad, because the set was really strong and they threw in some new material to boot. This track is one of Emily's favorites from their LP and it's got a driving punch that's hard to ignore. Just remember: They're not actually Spoon.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:03:12:17:54. Sunday. NOTHING MORE NEED BE SAID. From the NYT's coverage of the Southern Republican Leadership Conference:
The session culminated with a straw poll of delegates, organized by The Hotline, a political newsletter. The results were clouded by a request by Mr. McCain that his supporters cast write-in votes for President Bush, as a show of support for the president.
What an amazingly INDEPENDENT MAVERICKY thing to do. Yes, rarely has the Senate seen such an INDEPENDENT MAVERICKY shithead graces its halls as John McCain. Why, he's even INDEPENDENT from his own laws:
The complaint stems from a large donor fundraising event with Sen. McCain on behalf of Gov. Schwarzenegger scheduled for March 20, 2006 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, where platinum sponsorships go for $100,000. The complaint alleges that Senator McCain violated his own federal campaign finance law which restricts federal officeholders from taking part in such political fundraisers.
You could call this guy Mel Gibson he's such a fucking MAVERICK.
2006:03:10:08:00. Friday. NO!: HELIGOATS (#50, JAN 18 2006).
The Heligoats set ended with a brief digression about a fortune cookie fortune, and then an upbeat run-through of this song from the last Troubled Hubble album. But I want to talk about Jason Anderson instead. When Chris finished, he handed the guitar over to Anderson, little-known as the frontman for a band called Wolf Colonel. You've almost certainly never heard of the band or the dude, as I hadn't before that night. I frankly wondered why the hell Chris Otepka was playing a six-song set to open for nobody in particular. And then something illuminated the coffee shop, the night, the entire ramshackle procession of noise, steam and man that we call live music. Anderson stepped into the middle of the room, into an area maybe a yard in diameter, surrounded by kids and peering out from under a faded hat. He began to play some driving, simple chord progression and sing with a mid-range rasp. He immediately called on us to sing call-backs and we did it, reluctantly at first, and then less reluctantly. He cajoled the holdouts personally and it quickly got loud -- I wondered what outside passers-by must have thought hearing a coffee shop shouting "Hell yes!" en masse. His material would, on paper, appear to be straight out of the Bright Eyes handbook, but it was so much less... horrible. Where Conor Oberst whines, Anderson exalts. Where Oberst whimpers, Anderson reminisces. His tales of youth and young manhood were both obvious and edifying; what he was doing was a secular revival. As he rocked -- and he did rock that tiny acoustic guitar -- he traveled more than performed, and he brought us with him. He told us where we were going and why. With every song, with every shout-out-loud, he demonstrated communion with ourselves, with who we were and who we are. We came together and we knew who we were -- who he was -- even though we didn't. Near the end of the set, it became clearer and clearer that this was something special. An emo boy across the room from us took off his sweater and began to cry -- I couldn't help but be reminded of the fake emo record review I wrote a few years ago. Anderson seemed to understand what was happening and he began to preach the gospel of rock. Don't let this go and don't discount it, he said. "This is our church," but not in a creepy way. It's what we have to bind us, to bring us together across distances. Afterwards, Anderson hugged everybody who came up to talk to him and said it was the most amazing thing he'd ever been a part of -- he even warned potential CD buyers that the recordings couldn't possibly duplicate what we'd just done. I don't have any clips of Anderson's set because I couldn't record it. It was a singular live event, ephemeral in its peculiarities but eternal in its essence, played out again and again at every show in every city. To record it, to step outside and observe through the flat moire of the viewscreen, it would've been disgraceful. This may never happen again in this way, but it happened once, and that's enough.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:03:09:08:00. Thursday. NO!: HELIGOATS (#49, JAN 18 2006).
I had two last chances to see Troubled Hubble and I didn't take either one. They announced their break-up just a couple days after the second of the two, which has bothered me ever since (ever since meaning for the last six months). After their split, frontman Chris Otepka went out on a few mini-tours with his solo-ish side-project, Heligoats, one of which stopped at a tiny coffee shop on Regent St. The place was packed -- we were lucky to get actual seats and even luckier to wind up right at the front of the crowd. Chris and his tourmate Jason Anderson had only one piece of equipment between them: an acoustic guitar that looked like they'd just pulled it off the shelf at ShopKo. I wasn't very familiar with Chris' Heligoats material before the show, but I bought both CD's he had available (Emily bought a shirt, and he only wanted $15 for the whole mess of it); this song isn't on either of them, or on the out-of-print Manitoba, so I assume it's from his upcoming full-length. Considering the glee with which he played his six-song set, I can't wait to hear what that record sounds like.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:03:08:08:00. Wednesday. NO!: NADA SURF (#48, MAR 4 2006).
I almost didn't go to this show, because I'm not what you'd call a "fan" of either Nada Surf or Rogue Wave -- I like some of their material, but when I saw the show announced it wasn't like the Motion City Soundtrack/OK Go show or next month's Metric show. And frankly, there are better things I could spend $13 on than shows I'm not fully committed to. The reason I ultimately went with my gut and bought a ticket was this song, the greatest indie pop love ballad since, well, maybe ever. When I record I almost never try to get certain songs, because it's kind of annoying to do and it goes against the ethos of enjoying the shows themselves. I do, however, try to guess when certain songs are coming up in the set and base judgments about how many songs I want to record based on whether those certain songs have been played yet. In this case I wanted to get a second song but didn't really expect "Inside of Love" to be coming up. As they began playing I smiled, recorded the whole thing and pocketed the camera for the rest of the night.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:03:07:08:00. Tuesday. NO!: NADA SURF (#47, MAR 4 2006).
Two hours. Two damn hours! I don't think I've ever seen such a long headlining set at a club show. They ended with an eight-song encore -- eight! -- which really brought the house down. Both Inara George and Zach Rogue came out to do songs with them, there was a fight right next to me near the end of the set and they managed to hold the crowd in thrall through to the end of a four-hour show. Awesome. This is one of the songs I like from The Weight Is a Gift, which I think is generally a much lesser album than Let Go. Live, they take on a surprising energy that not only sets the similar-sounding songs apart, but moves far past their three-piece nature. Good show, and highly recommended if they're coming to your town.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:03:06:08:00. Monday. NO!: ROGUE WAVE (#46, MAR 4 2006).
Who would've expected such a thorough sell-out at a Nada Surf show in 2006? Not only that, but a sell-out packed with fans who know all the words and the old songs and everything? Not I, I'll tell you that. But more on Nada Surf when I post the first of their clips tomorrow. The show was opened by Inara George, whose beautiful voice (reminiscent of the singer from Eisley) was poorly matched with uninteresting material. Then came critical darlings Rogue Wave, who I saw about a year and a half ago opening for A.C. Newman. To be honest, they were really boring at that show, and I've basically given up trying to be a fan of their records. And yet, their set before Nada Surf was really terrific, much better than their actual albums. The new material from Descended Like Vultures was especially good. Ryan from Muzzle of Bees has video of them at an "in-store" appearance (actually "in-parking-garage") from earlier in the day, which is great as well. By the way, if the sound is distorted in this clip it's basically because the bass was turned way up and I was literally right underneath the left speaker stack. It turned out to be an interesting spot later on, though...
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:03:05:18:43. Sunday. SCHMOSCAR. Serenity -- a cinematic adaptation of a cancelled space-fic TV show -- was the best picture of 2005. No joke. I've seen three of the five best picture nominees, and I really appreciate the way Brokeback Mountain has the Right and their homophobic pals in the press up in arms, but none of them were spectacular and all of them were a little boring. Transamerica needed more comedy, given its kind of absurd high-concept approach. Me and You and Everyone We Know was terrific but it felt dated as soon as it started. I loved Millions but I think it actually came out in 2004.
2006:03:04:13:13. Saturday. WHEN YOU PAY DOWN DEBT, YOU CHARGE WITH HITLER. A Rhode Island man has been investigated by the Department of Homeland Security for paying off his credit card:
They paid down some debt. The balance on their JCPenney Platinum MasterCard had gotten to an unhealthy level. So they sent in a large payment, a check for $6,522.
And an alarm went off. A red flag went up. The Soehnges' behavior was found questionable. And all they did was pay down their debt. They didn't call a suspected terrorist on their cell phone. They didn't try to sneak a machine gun through customs. They just paid a hefty chunk of their credit card balance. And they learned how frighteningly wide the net of suspicion has been cast. After sending in the check, they checked online to see if their account had been duly credited. They learned that the check had arrived, but the amount available for credit on their account hadn't changed. So Deana Soehnge called the credit-card company. Then Walter called. "When you mess with my money, I want to know why," he said. They both learned the same astounding piece of information about the little things that can set the threat sensors to beeping and blinking. They were told, as they moved up the managerial ladder at the call center, that the amount they had sent in was much larger than their normal monthly payment. And if the increase hits a certain percentage higher than that normal payment, Homeland Security has to be notified. And the money doesn't move until the threat alert is lifted. Coincidentally, I just paid off a large chunk of credit card debt with MBNA. As far as I can tell there was no delay, but short of demanding records from them or DHS I really have no way of knowing.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:03:02:08:00. Thursday. NO!: THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS (#45, FEB 22 2006).
The back end of the show featured less banter than the beginning, and it ended kind of abruptly. I realized during the break that, even though I didn't see the end of the set coming, it was a pretty full set, which included most of what I wanted to hear. One of the few I was left waiting for was the title track from their latest album, which they used to open the encore (and which I recorded, of course). At this point I no longer cared about the security presence, so I actually used the LCD display and got a clip that looks pretty decent. I also wound up recording a slight digression about the gap left by Guided By Voices in the drunken shenanigan band market, which sort of came out of nowhere and went right back there. There's a bit of a let's-get-off urgency to the song, but it has a tightness that works well for the encore. It really was time, naturally, for the show to wrap up and they brought things to a close pretty well.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra 2006:03:01:08:00. Wednesday. NO!: THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS (#44, FEB 22 2006).
Just after shooting this clip, I realized what it was that I didn't like about Twin Cinema, or at least that made me rank it well below Electric Version: The non-standout songs go on way too long. This is one of those songs. It's a decent album track -- not a contender for song of the year by any means, but a good enough listen, until you realize that it ends with about a minute and a half of extraneous chorus repeats. If you realize this at a live show, you'll also notice it happening with other songs from this album, but not with songs from their previous albums. I'm not sure why they took that approach, as all of the too-long songs could just end before the repeats, but there you go. The song in tomorrow's clip, also from Twin Cinema, is perfectly compact, so maybe there is no good explanation.
posted by Aaron S. Veenstra |
