Quit your job and travel: 11 songs for inspiration

November 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Travel

Let’s be honost, traveling is a pretty awesome experience. If you have the opportunity to abandon life’s routines and take on adventures far from home, you probably should do it.

So many countries actually encourage young people to go traveling abroad before settling down into a job and a family life. The United States has never embraced this, which isn’t surprising for a country that doesn’t value vacation or family proximity like other countries (see everywhere else).

Sometimes you just have to take a leap. Quit your job, say goodbye to your friends, spend most of your money and go have the time of your life. Experience new things and meet new people.

Listen to these 11 tracks from the last year for further inspiration.

Travel

John Talabot – “Journeys” feat. Ekhi

If you are doing it right, travelling is a collection of journeys, or one long journey. “Journeys” is one of the standout tracks from John Talabot’s 2012 record fin, and “running away with me” is the repetitious hook that will ingrain in your brain until you book your one-way flight.

Wild Nothing – “Paradise”

The best part about going on an international journey is discovering an ideal place that is hard to leave. It’s often good policy to keep moving if you don’t like a shitty destination, but settle in if you find your version of paradise.

Hot Chip – “Look at Where We Are”

That moment when you look around, make eye contact with your travelling partner, and acknowledge the overwhelming beauty around you – this moment is irreplaceable. And this usually only can happen if you challenge yourself to get somewhere.

Van She – “Idea of Happiness”

To those stricken with wonderlust, the idea of happiness is not knowing where you will go, where you will stay, or who you will meet.

Delicate Steve – “Positive Force”

Travel has it’s ups and downs, especially if you are going for an extended adventure. Shit happens, like missing your bus and sleeping at the station all night or you might get swindled or robbed. It’s OK. Be the positive force of your travel group.

JJ – “Beautiful Life”

You have no responsibilities except where you are going, what you are doing, and what you are consuming. It’s a dog’s life. It’s a beautiful life.

Vacationer – “Good As New”

Sometimes the best reason to go on a jaunt or extended travel is to get rejuvenated, to reboot your mentality or shake things up. This cut from Vacationer will make you feel as good as new, even if you’re stuck in a cubicle.

Liars – “No.1 Against the Rush”

Methodically moving with no set schedule can be key to freeing yourself. Don’t rush it. Take time to look around and absorb your surroundings.

Conner Youngblood – “Australia”

While this track from Australian singer/songwriter Conner Youngblood may be specific to a certain place, it’s sure to help you break out of your bubble.

Kavinsky – “ProtoVision”

Need a more upbeat kickstart to leave it all behind? Get your kinetic energy flowing in the form of crunchy beats. If life is static, break out of your mold and change something.

Bright Moments – “Tourists”

There are travelers and there are tourists, and the difference is that tourists don’t adapt. So many aspects to travelling absolutely suck, but focus on the good things when you get low and want to head home. You’ll wish you kept moving once you give in to being homesick.

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Destroyer inspires beer-drop silence at The Independent

November 7, 2013 by 1 Comment

DestroyerPhotos by James Nagel // Written by Mike Frash

Destroyer frontman and founder Dan Bejar brought his sparse, solo acoustic interpretation of the Canadian indie act’s music to the Independent Monday (November 4) presented by Noise Pop, and the show did not disappoint. Volume-wise, it was a hushed show, to the point where the success of it relied on rapturous immersion over talking or walking to the bar for more drinks.

Bejar mapped out a simple routine. He would play a song, bow, move to his drink stool to quench his thirst, reposition his moppy hair then repeat. The crowd mimicked Bejar in his restraint when he performed, giving the quietest moments their low-fidelity due. In fact, the audience was so mesmerized and respectful that it inspired beer-drop silence — late in the show, a mesmerized fan slowly spilled his drink onto the floor of the venue for about three seconds by accident, humorously gaining quick glances from those around him.

Destroyer1

The stripped down performance spanned Destroyer’s discography, but many of the songs in the setlist were from Destroyer’s most successful album, 2011’s Kaputt. Take away the drums and saxophone, and unsurprisingly the tone of songs like “Chinatown” and “Savage Night at the Opera” transform into something more cerebral and grim. Destroyer’s vocals and lyrics became the focal point of the performance and the pace of the music slowed down, mutating the cuts into subdued tunes that made them feel more reflective and sad than the full band versions.

Stage banter was almost non-existent, except for a “two-song-left” end of show warning and the introduction to “The Chosen Few”, a song from Destroyer’s 2002 LP, This Night. Bejar said, “This is from when I was bit younger and a bit angrier. Still I wasn’t that angry.” The slowed down focus on the lyrics hit home one of Destroyer’s central themes that our best days are behind us.

Destroyer2

Destroyer’s bitter, post-ironic lyrics become more obvious with only simple guitar chords coalescing with Bejar’s voice. “My Favorite Year” and “European Oils” exemplified how poetic yet fractured Destroyer’s music is — these songs can be taken either literally or figuratively in nature, or perhaps even a combination of the two is apt.

It’s a bit odd Bejar chose a solo acoustic tour to support Destroyer’s upcoming Five Spanish Songs EP — the record covers Spanish language songs from Antonio Luque of the band Sr. Chinarro. To explain why the new material is en Español, Bejar has written:

It was 2013. The English language seemed spent, despicable, not easily singable. It felt over for English; good for business transactions, but that’s about it.

So Bejar shows disdain for his native language, yet he has chosen a method of musical exhibition that puts all attention on his English vocals. There may be a disconnect here, but it’s one that makes for a magnificent show.

Filed Under: Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: , ,

Arcade Fire’s masterful album marketing, concert promo case study

October 29, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Arcade-Fire-Reflektors_post

Arcade Fire performed at Capital Studios in Los Angeles October 28 to a small group of super fans and industry execs one evening prior to Reflektor officially releasing in the U.S. This abbreviated show, live-audio streamed by NPR Music, provided the first soundboard quality mix to listeners that haven’t been lucky enough to see Arcade Fire (or The Reflektors) in Montreal, Brooklyn, Miami or at the Bridge School Benefit. Sure, the Bridge School Benefit show was video webcasted, but only three songs from Reflektor received the stripped down, acoustic treatment that is customary at Neil Young’s yearly gathering this past weekend.

The performance Monday night provided further proof that Arcade Fire are the band of a generation, both in a live and studio context; the chamber pop group arrived overnight in 2004 and has consistently impressed with their frenzied live show, improving with each tour. This 10-song performance Monday solidifies they are a group driven by progression and an evolving sound — they will only get more quintessential with time as they sell out arenas and headline festivals throughout 2014.

Arcade Fire’s ingenious marketing campaign is a case study in using a band’s strength of performing live to help promote and encourage the purchasing of a new album. First, Reflektor street art started appearing in metropolitan areas all over the world in August. An interactive video arrived for “Reflektor” in September, integrating the viewer into the “It’s just a reflektor!” peak of the song. Then mysterious posters appeared in Montreal, then again in New York & Miami, promoting shows by “The Reflektors”. By touring in small spaces throughout the slow burning process of releasing previews and snippets of virtually every song on the album, the buzz has never slowed down. These intimate shows served as warm ups gigs for the band, and a genius marketing tool. If you pre-ordered the album, you received a code that gives you priority tickets to an Arcade Fire show in the next year. (I wonder if they will offer early access for Coachella through their website?)

Then “Afterlife”, “Here Comes The Night Time”, “We Exist” and “Normal People” premiered on Saturday Night Live and a concert-based feature, and some songs were reinforced on The Colbert Report. The day the album leaked last Thursday, Arcade Fire had the entire album streaming on YouTube within four hours, stemming the digital thievery by offering something better. They synced Reflektor and the album’s lyrics with the 1959 film Black Orpheus à la “Dark Side of Oz”, and it was nothing short of mesmerizing before it was pulled (“Afterlife” is still available below). And on the day of Reflektor‘s release (October 29), Arcade Fire has chosen to make available a live recording of an incredible performance from the night before (view it above).

It all signifies Arcade Fire are a group of innovators, bucking trends and norms through new angles of marketing and incentives. But more importantly, Reflektor is a classic record because it showcases a band that has improved sonically while developing more effective, vital lyricism.

The overt theme in Arcade Fire’s fourth album is life after death, most notably in “Afterlife”, “It’s Never Over (Oh Orpheus)”, and “Reflektor”. Win Butler has referred to Reflektor as “a mash up of Studio 54 and Haitian voodoo,” and it is clear the band’s trip to Haiti two years ago heavily impacted the group. Members of the group connected with local Haitians through traditional rara, the additional drumming the group has brought with them to the studio and on tour. Régine Chassagne draws her lineage from the Caribbean island — the place has been an influence and rallying point for the group since they featured “Haiti” toward the end of Funeral. Many parts of Haiti the country have been stricken by disease and squalor since the horrific earthquake in 2010. Then add the cultural layer of Haitian voodoo into the mix, which revolves around connecting with and brining people back from the dead, and the source of the storytelling and lyricism of Reflektor begins to come into focus.

More important than wondering what happens after the inevitability of death, the meat of Reflektor harnesses the idea of dancing, celebrating and embracing the best moments of life. “Here Comes the Night Time”, one of the best songs on the record, creates a divide then asks a semi-hypothetical question:

They say heaven’s a place and they know where it is. But you know where it is? It’s behind a gate that won’t let you in. And when they hear the beat coming from the street, they lock the door. But if there’s no music up in heaven than what’s it for?

This multi-tempo sequence might be the part of Reflektor that resonates strongest with many Arcade Fire fans. The payoff line “When you look in the sky, just try looking inside, God knows what you might find…” leaves no room for ambiguousness. In a less obtrusive way than Neon Bible, Butler and Company are still pleading for people to think for themselves.

When Win Butler greeted the audience by literally saying hello to “liberal America” via the NPR webcast, he clearly continued a common Arcade Fire thread that has existed since the beginning, the idea of Us versus Them. This ever-present theme is inert within Arcade Fire, and it was most notably projected through Butler’s introduction of “Normal Person” Monday night in Hollywood (Listen at 41:01 at the top of the page):

Thank you liberal america, to all the blue states, and all the gay people stuck living in Atlanta, and all the parts of everywhere you believe people should be able to marry whoever they want, and if you get sick it’s ok if we all pitch in.

Arcade Fire clearly want to use their influence to keep pushing what they believe in, which is frankly inspiring and fearless. These are the qualities that exist in a group that defines a generation — Arcade Fire aren’t merely reacting to contemporary social issues, they are engaging and driving the conversation.

When it comes to the sound Arcade Fire has developed with Reflektor, and understanding the impact of James Murphy’s production assistance, it’s not so sad anymore that Murphy retired LCD Soundsystem. He did quip in Shut Up And Play The Hits that one of his reasons for retiring his band revolved around not being able to produce an Arcade Fire record because he was on tour. James Murphy ‘the producer’ could leave a bigger impact than James Murphy ‘the artist’ in the end. His fingerprints are all over one of the best records of 2013 — the tempo changes in “Here Comes the Night Time” to the disco groove in “We Exist” smell like they were concocted in DFA’s Brooklyn studios.

The setlist from the performance in LA Monday night is pretty much what Reflektor would look like had it been a singular record (except “Awful Sound (Oh Eurydice)” was left out. I don’t care what anyone says, that song is incredible.) A wonderful tribute to the late Lou Reed bookended a sparkling “Supersymmetry”, starting the song with “Perfect Day” and splicing in “Satellite of Love” in toward the end. This is, in fact, a must listen (around 17:10 in the top video). “It’s Never Over (Oh Orpheus)” begins with a fast paced, crunchy dance beat that heightens the live version right away. Massive reverb is placed on the line “If there’s no music in heaven, than what’s it for?” in “Here Comes the Night Time”, announcing that this part of the song deserves extra attention. For the first time on this tour, it appears they are not ending with “Wake Up” for the first time, another signifier the group is moving forward artistically. There are many added texture layers throughout this performance that are absent from Reflektor that simply enhance the music, elevating Arcade Fire to the level of “better live”, not to take away from Reflektor in any way.

SETLIST
Reflecktor
Flashbulb Eyes
Afterlife
Supersymmetry (Lou Reed — “Perfect Day” intro, “Satellite of Love” outro)
It’s Never Over (Oh Orpheus)
We Exist
You Already Know
Normal Person
Here Comes The Night Time

ENCORE
Sprawl II

Filed Under: Artist Spotlight, Featured, New Music Tagged With: ,

Zedd shows his Bay Area fans at the Fox Theater Oakland that he’s not just the future of pop music, but also the immediate present

October 15, 2013 by Leave a Comment

ZeddPhotos by Marc Fong // Written by Mike Frash //

Zedd //
Fox Theater Oakland – Oakland
October 9th, 2013 //

Zedd has settled on a pretty effective and lucrative EDM sound. Just take a look at the German DJ’s two sold-out shows in Oakland last week while on his “Moment of Clarity World Tour.”

Let’s be honest here: This is not just the future of pop music, but the immediate present. Encroaching into Kaskade’s long-developed aesthetic but producing singles like “Clarity” even more accessible for radio play, Zedd’s music is anthemic and centered around angelic female vocals.

Along these lines, Zedd is now cashing in — wouldn’t you? — by producing tracks for Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber. A Zedd show still packs a punch, giving bass heads the drops and video-game inspired noises they crave, and we were on the scene at the Fox Theater to capture every moment of it.

Setlist:
Spectrum (Tristan Garner & Gregori Klosman Knight Remix)
In My Mind (Swedish House Mafia cover)
Here & Now (Ummet Ozcan cover)
Wake Me Up (Avicii cover)
It’s You (Duck Sauce cover) (DJ Snake Remix)
Komon (Madeon cover)
Breakn’ a Sweat (Skrillex cover) (Zedd Remix)
Kick Out the Epic Motherfucker (Dada Life cover)
BBBS (Clockwork cover)
Anxiety (Charlie Darker cover)
Ode to Oi (TJR cover) (Crookers Remix)
Slam the Door
Cinema (Benny Benassi cover)
Animals (Martin Garrix cover)
Animals (Martin Garrix cover) (Martin Garrix & Victor Niglio Trap Remix)
Animals (Martin Garrix cover) (Botnek Remix)
Karmma (Deep Dish cover)
Stay the Night (DJ Snake Remix)
Toulouse (Nicky Romero cover) (Tommy Trash Remix)
Clarity
Nuke (Wolfgang Gartner cover)
Silhouettes (Avicii cover) (Syn Cole Mix)
LRAD (Knife Party cover)
Bubble Butt (Major Lazer cover) (Dada Life Remix)
Atom (Nari & Milani cover) (Afrojack Edit)
Mercy (Kanye West feat. Big Sean, Pusha T & 2 Chainz cover) (RL Grime & Salva Remix)
Clarity (Brillz Remix)
Niggas in Paris (Jay-Z & Kanye West cover)
Bird Machine (DJ Snake cover)
Coming Home (Diddy – Dirty Money cover)
Quasar (Hard Rock Sofa cover)
Follow You Down
Reload (Sebastian Ingrosso cover)
Safe and Sound (Capital Cities cover) (Tommie Sunshine & Live City Remix)
Save the World (Swedish House Mafia cover) (Zedd Remix)
ID (Dillon Francis cover)
Awooga (Calvin Harris cover)
I Love It (Icona Pop cover) (Sick Individuals Remix)
Push Play
Sub Zero (Rick Mitchells cover)
The Legend of Zelda Theme (Koji Kondo cover)
Just Another Groove (Mighty Dub Katz cover) (Lookback Remix)
Datsun Tropicalia (2 Edit cover) (Torro Torro Remix)
Through the Night (Botnek cover)
Codec
Sweet Nothing (Calvin Harris cover)
Greyhound (Swedish House Mafia cover)
Tung! (Deniz Koyu cover)
Stache
Fall Into the Sky
Freak (Lucky Date cover)
Bender (Tom Piper cover) (Angger Dimas Remix)
Bounce (Marco del Horno cover)
Uncle Sam (Dirty Disco Youth cover)
Spectrum
Lost at Sea
Alive (Empire of the Sun cover) (Zedd Remix)

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PHOTOS: Hot Buttered Rum at The Indy 10/4

October 14, 2013 by Leave a Comment

HBRPhotos by Marc Fong // Written by Mike Frash //

Hot Buttered Rum //
The Independent – San Francisco
October 4th, 2013 //

The Bay Area’s very own Hot Buttered Rumm kept the string-based goodness going after this year’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass (see our photos from the festival here), and Marc Fong was on the scene at one of the Bay Area’s best live music venues, The Independent, to get some snaps of the band.

Keep your calendar open near the holidays for the Nat Keefe Concert Carnival, a music-filled variety show curated by the Hot Buttered Rum frontman. This year, expect to see Tim Carbone (Railroad Earth, the Contribution), DJ shOOey, Tim Flannery (Lunatic Fringe, SF Giants), the T Sisters, Melody Walker & Jacob Groopman (Front Country), Matt Sharkey, the Coeds, and members of Hot Buttered Rum on Thursday, December 19th at The Independent.

Buy tickets to the Nat Keefe Concert Carnival here or win tickets through Showbams here.

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Savages heighten contrast to achieve total live music immersion

October 2, 2013 by 5 Comments

Savages

Photos by James Nagel // Written by Mike Frash

Jenny Beth embodies the ethos of Savages‘ first record, Silence Yourself. Upon taking the stage at the Independent Friday (September 27), Beth surveyed the room to the opening instrumentals of “I Am Here”, commanding the room by darting pierced looks of fury at individuals in the audience. Everyone present at the sold out performance reciprocated with compliant reverence — entering the venue we were individually told there was a cell phone ban in effect for Savages, and multiple print outs placed on every wall in the house carried a more nuanced message than the bouncers.

The sign made waves earlier this year when Savages first started enforcing a policy that proportionately reflects the group’s music and stage presence. The most informative part of the camera ban relates to the idea of immersion, and that the four members of Savages are striving to deliver a live music experience that thrives on the idea of living in the moment and being where you are. The effect of rapturous immersion wasn’t only accomplished through the denial of modern technology though — the fierce all female foursome achieved their goal of “totally immersing ourselves” through visual aesthetics and sound that center around elements of contrast.

Savages4

Beth’s stage presence exhibits traditional masculinity and is accented by her androgynous look, but it adds up to a style of hard femininity. She engrosses herself in each moment, sending vibes out to the crowd while peering out in search of response. Her moves are like a stop-start Henry Rollins, and Beth keeps the stage banter to a minimum, letting the music speak for itself.

The Savages front woman subverts traditional gender roles by wearing mens pleated pants and sporting buzzed hair, but Beth directly contrasts this message by wearing high heels, one of the biggest feminist scorns. This juxtaposition sends a mixed message of homogeneous subversion, creating an ambiguous visual aesthetic that contrasts normalcy.

Black and white, the ultimate contrast between dark and bright, is utilized masterfully by Savages through lighting and wardrobe. The lighting at the Independent was devoid of color, deferring to darkness then illuminating the room with white light during high-impact moments. All members of Savages are clad in black from head to toe, except for Beth’s light yellow heels. This draws greater attention to the faces of the performers and aids in the immersion process.

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Much like the lighting and wardrobe, Savages’ music centers itself in duality and choice. Savages lyrics delve into strong, graphic storytelling about being present in the moment, sexual exploration, & dominance vs. submission. And it’s done through poetic prose, far from being straight-forward or didactic.

“I Am Here” is a call to action, a tone-setting statement to be where you are. “Shut Up” explores the notion of the world being a “dead sorry hole” and trying to intervene, only to find rejection. “Hit Me” finds storytelling in the form of a submissive abuse — “Hit me with your hands, oh it’s the only way I ever learn.”

The driving, dynamic drum and bass is the most immersive element of Savages in a live setting. Combine this with fuzzy guitar work from Gemma Thompson that is used as a rhythmic layer more than a lead element, and it’s impossible to not be drawn in at an aural level. All four members of Savages are constantly moving, leading by example, showing the engagement level that they expect from their audience.

Savages

“No Face” was the first big highlight of the night. The song ends in a fury, and it brought about a huge response, prompting Beth to say “I was waiting for you.” “Husbands” was aborted after a couple measures so drummer Fay Milton could launch into an the explicit “Hit Me” before giving “Husbands” it’s proper play. The false-start to “Husbands” made the song even more enjoyable when it came back around. “Fuckers”, a song that doesn’t appear on Silence Yourself, encouraged that you “don’t let those fuckers get you down.” Opener Duke Garwood joined the headliners for an elongated and intense “Marshall Dear”.

Overall, Savages curate an immersive live music experience while contrasting with the rest of contemporary music — they’ve blasted through the doors of homogeneity and aren’t looking back. And that is a damn good thing.

SETLIST
I AM HERE
CIT’S FULL
SHUT UP
I NEED SOMETHING NEW
STRIFE
WAITING FOR A SIGN
DREAM BABY DREAM
FLYING TO BERLIN
SHE WILL
NO FACE
HIT ME
HUSBANDS
FUCKERS
HUSBANDS
FUCKERS
MARSHAL DEAR — With Duke Garwood
XXX — With Duke Garwood

Filed Under: Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: ,

Little Boots lights up for the encore at The Independent

September 27, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Little-BootsPhotos by Marc Fong // Written by Mike Frash //

Little Boots //
The Independent – San Francisco
September 24th, 2013 //

Electro-pop darling Little Boots took the stage at The Independent on Tuesday to belt out her self-empowering anthems that mostly revolve around relationships and the search for love. Victoria Hesketh seemed slightly hesitant at first, but she grew more comfortable as her performance unfolded. The crowd was a bit lethargic for this one, save for super fan number one who was front and center and danced ecstatically throughout with a flat brimmed Amish-like hat.

The translation of Little Boots’ music in a live environment is relatively faithful to her recorded work, but a handful of extended breakdowns and seamless transitions kept things moving at a steady pace. Based in 70s disco grooves, yet rooted in the now with electronic overlays and vocoder modulation, Hesketh’s sound can safely be classified as disco nouveau. She’s backed by a drummer and two keyboard players that create the synthesized elements on the fly quite effectively while Hesketh keeps her fingers on the master controls via a stylish stand-up podium.

Little-Boots

The flat, projected visuals in Little Boots’ show were archaic, like something out of a screen saver from 2002. The fog that continuously pumped out of the venue infrastructure lent more effective visual enhancement then the visuals Ms. Boots brought with her.

The best highlight of the evening came at the encore, when Hesketh reappeared with a costume change and her most upbeat, dancy numbers. Little Boots sported a technicolor Rainbow Bright dress that lit up like the Electric Carnival Parade, changing colors to pulsating versions of “Remedy” and show-ender “Shake”. This impressive display of satisfying eye-candy got the entire crowd moving to the same beat as super fan number one.

During the extended outro for “Shake”, Little Boots took the flat brimmed hat off of super fan number one and placed it on her head like a crown as her dress started to spell out “S-H-A-K-E” one letter at a time. Hesketh may have begun the evening in a state of self-consciousness, but she ended it as empowered as her music, adding one final kiss into the mic to say goodbye.

MNDR put on a crazy-fun opening performance as well. Check out photos of Little Boots and MNDR shot by Marc Fong.

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Local Natives return to Fox Theater Oakland with bag of new tricks

September 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Local-NativesPhotos by Marc Fong // Written by Mike Frash //

Local Natives with Wild Nothing //
Fox Theater Oakland – Oakland
September 12th, 2013 //

Local Natives kicked off the first show of their new tour by returning to the Fox Theater Oakland on Thursday, the same Bay Area venue the group graced in February (see our photos from the show here). While there may have been a dose of déjà vu for super-fans that caught both shows, Local Natives’ super-charged lighting is now grander and the headliners surprised the faithful with a couple acoustic numbers for the first time.

Slow-building, three-part harmony and layered instrumentals signify the LA natives, and the group has enhanced their live performance through a strikingly new light show. Staggered floodlights are now placed behind the five performers as smoke machines continuously billowed wispy textures toward the center of the stage.

Local-Natives1

One consistent element that can be found in Local Natives’ song structures is a mid-song break, a quiet lull that gives context and more meaning to the high-decibel crescendos. Then, to end the brief respite, the thunderous wall of sound returns — but now it’s not simply the listener’s ears that are barraged. The back lighting is blinding, almost seizer-inducing — and maybe this is what the group is going for. The absence of sight does make the process of hearing sound (including music if you are at a concert) more critical to the brain. The timing and tone of the lighting matches the music perfectly, but sunglasses would still have been useful.

My Bloody Valentine might be the loudest show I’ve ever heard, and without hesitation, it’s easy to proclaim this was the brightest show I’ve ever seen. Dangling firefly lights descended from above the stage toward the end of the set and remained for the evening. The bulbs would light in unison, then blip randomly at times to reflect sonically chaotic performance parts. The firefly lights made their biggest impact during the final encore song, “Sun Hands”, when the hanging light bulbs twirled around like a whirling dervish — this made Local Natives’ last song more memorable than usual, sending the young audience onto Telegraph Street en fuego.

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Mustachioed frontman Taylor Rice announced they would be “trying something new,” as two acoustic songs ended the main set. “Warning Sign” was first, but it was a stripped-down version of “Who Knows Who Cares” that brought pure glee to many faces in the crowd. Rice pointed out they had performed the song for La Blogotheque in 2011, but this was the first time they performed the acoustic version live.

One of the best attributes a live music group can have is passion, but if an artist doesn’t put enthusiasm front and center, what good is it? Local Natives get this concept. They seem spiritually invested in the music they have created and give to people on stage, and physically they couldn’t try any harder. Cheers to Local Natives for being one of the most enthusiastic outfits in indie rock.

Wild Nothing did a bang-up job opening to an empty-ish house, and their positively toned psych-rock is oh-so-delightful live. “Paradise”, one of Wild Nothing’s best songs, was jaw-droppingly wonderful and surprisingly heavy. Swirling instrumentals allow for floaty mind-wandering, and lead singer/songwriter Jack Tatum uses both a high and low vocal range in his singing, often in the same song. Hopefully the group swings by SF again soon for a proper show.

Filed Under: Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: ,

AlunaGeorge share ‘very sexy’ vibes in SF

September 12, 2013 by 2 Comments

AlunaGeorgePhotos by Marc Fong // Written by Mike Frash //

AlunaGeorge //
The Independent – San Francisco
September 11th, 2013 //

Buzzy British duo AlunaGeorge blasted into The Independent, proceeding to get the house bouncin’ while announcing their presence with authority. Singer and sultry frontwoman Aluna Francis referred to the clubbier-than-normal crowd as “very sexy” before launching into “You Know You Like It”. But it was Francis’ confident dance moves and spot-on vocals, combined with George Reid’s live production work, that proved sexiest.

Based on AlunaGeorge’s current tour schedule, the she-him collaboration of Francis and Reid (hence, the group’s name) are an international phenomenon in the making. How often does a group this new, who just released their first record, embark on such a long, worldwide tour? They are ready for the big spotlight — their tight, quick set packed a heavy punch, one that kept building in excitement.

Francis and Reid have expanded to a foursome on the road by adding live drums and bass, and this live instrumentation makes the beats sound more immediate, drawing you into the dreamy, sensual soundscape.

AlunaGeorge

AlunaGeorge’s show feels like a DJ performance. Sonically, the brain is processing clean sound that mashes principles of UK garage, 90’s R&B and hip-hop, but it’s all so infectiously poppy thanks to Francis’ easy-to-digest hooks, smart lyric inflection and a vocal tone that gets more addictive with each listen.

Reid creates the production elements live on MIDI pads and keys, building his studio vision on the fly — it’s the furthest thing from button-pushing EDM laziness. Low-bass vocal effect samples are utilized as hooks (like in “Your Drums, Your Love”), and these moments help to make the performance hypnotic. Every note curated by Reid is slick and seductive, and when someone as striking as Francis is the one attracting all eyes in sight, it all works perfectly.

AlunaGeorge

Highlights from Wednesday’s show included a slowed-down translation of Disclosure’s “White Noise” (which AlunaGeorge collaborated on), and a much more evolved rendition of “Analyser”, the track that put AlunaGeorge on the map early on. They also covered “This Is How We Do It” by Montell Jordan — how appropriate.

It’s as if Aaliyah came back from the dead, hooked up with Flume and put on an amazing live show — so maybe this helps to explain why AlunaGeorge is so popular. Any way you look at it, AlunaGeorge is a live-music experience worth investing in.

Filed Under: Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: , ,

PHOTOS: Big Gigantic @ Fox Theater Oakland 9/6

September 10, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Big-GiganticPhotos by Marc Fong // Written by Mike Frash //

Big Gigantic //
Fox Theater Oakland – Oakland
September 6th, 2013 //

Big Gigantic have built a hefty following by producing an eclectic dance music experience that layers live saxophone and drums. Producer/melody-maker Dominic Lalli and drummer Jeremy Salken harness a sound that doesn’t discriminate, making room for hip-hop, house, funk and dubstep.

The Colorado-based duo brought their raging party to the Fox Theater Oakland last Friday, allowing the youthful crowd to get the weekend going properly. Marc Fong was on hand to capture the moment.

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Treasure Island Music Festival: New music from 2013 artists

September 9, 2013 by 3 Comments

Treasure-Island-Music-Festival-2013Photo by Marc Fong // Written by Mike Frash

Treasure Island Music Festival serves as the exclamation point to festival season in the Bay Area, giving music lovers one more chance to live it up before winter. The festival, which takes place this year October 19 & 20 in the middle of the bay, is properly stacked this year, offering a pleasant mix of up-and-coming indie fare along with DJs that bring the rage and rock outfits that bring the noise. Really, there are at least 7 reasons to GO BIG.

The placement of this festival mid-Fall creates some interesting dynamics for artist tours — some groups have been touring relentlessly and will likely be wrapping up their current road trip in the fall (see STRFKR, James Blake, Palma Violets and Major Lazer).

Other groups are just getting started, releasing new music in the coming weeks before playing TIMF. Here are six artists to keep an eye on before heading to the island.

Holy Ghost!
Dynamics releases September 10, 2013
Best Tracks: “Dumb Disco Ideas”, “Okay”, “Bridge & Tunnel”

Holy Ghost! procured a retro-house disco sound through live instrumentation long before nouveau disco became the sound of 2013 thanks to Daft Punk, and now Arcade Fire. Arcade Fire has launched their new single, “Reflektor”, in a big way September 9 — And LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy is already garnering credit for helping to transform the group to a dance party catalyst with their forthcoming release. Before the Arcade Fire long player is available in full, James Murphy’s label DFA will release Holy Ghost!’s second LP Dynamics Tuesday, September 10.

While Holy Ghost!’s second full length doesn’t read as a raging dance party throughout, their live show sure does. The Brooklyn duo consists of a songwriting partnership between Nick Millhiser and Alex Frankel, but the touring group fills out to a thick porridge of seven people, including LCD System’s Nancy Whang at times. At FYF Music Festival August 25, the group set the crowd afire by playing songs faster, segueing them seamlessly and by curating a pleasing stage set-up (see “Dumb Disco Ideas” above). The sum of these parts is a pumped up, ass-shaking crowd that usually only happens with DJs these days — yet Holy Ghost! achieves this through instrumental layering that delivers a nuanced, deeper sound that isn’t found in the group’s studio work.

Whispers of “the new LCD Soundsystem” have been reverberating around the web and the water cooler, and it’s a fair comparison within the context of the live experience both groups create — LCD left a gaping hole in the world of live music by hanging it up, and it’s easy to envision Holy Ghost! filling this gap over the next year.

The group performed a live set on LA’s Morning Becomes Eclectic (KCRW) September 9, showing exactly why they are a group on the rise. When performing live they sound grittier, with faster BPMs, and they exhibit more control around build-ups and explosive moments. “Dumb Disco Ideas”, “Okay” and “Bridge and Tunnel” were all more intense than their clean, sanitized versions on Dynamics.

When asked about DFA, they said that the label is “somewhat responsible for the band’s existence,” and that they have been with Murphy’s label since the beginning. “DFA stuck with us for 4 years while we were figuring things out.” The morning show also announced Nancy Whang was performing with the group Monday. The inclusion of Whang on the full tour with Holy Ghost! would add yet another similarity between this musical metaphor.

Regarding the performance at FYF August 25, they called it the “Best show we’ve ever played in the United States,” saying the crowd was great and it was a memorable night. It seems distinctly possible that the party animals that populate Treasure Island October 19th will set the bar even higher.

HAIM
Days Are Gone releases September 30, 2013
Best Tracks (so far): “Forever”, “Falling” and “Don’t Save Me”

One of the fastest rising groups of 2013, Haim, have a not-so-obvious way of pronouncing their name. It rhymes with “time”, so if life were fair the spelling would be HIME. But, that’s the name these three talented sisters were given at birth.

Many of the tracks from their first long player, which officially drops September 30, have been trickling out for over a year. It’s apparent the premiere album from the LA sister trio will be well received, since about half the songs on the album track list are already out, and they are great. Songs like “Forever” and “Falling” are so well-regarded they’ve already received multi-artist remix treatment. And the group has been so productive the last couple years that some previously released songs like “Send Me Down” and “Better Off” didn’t make the final cut of Days Are Gone.

Este, Danielle & Alana HAIM have a unique relationship with rhythm & melody — their vocals often syncopate with rhythm over melody, especially with backing vocals. This unique vocal tactic circles around addictive hooks that twist and build while evolving past traditional verse/refrain/verse song structure.

Treasure Island Music Festival 2013 will somehow be the group’s first performance in the Bay Area, even though the LA-based group have played Southern California and in Europe dozens of times. Get there early Sunday for this one.

Sleigh Bells
Bitter Rivals releases October 8, 2013

Things have been evolving quickly for noise-rock duo Sleigh Bells. Their third album in three years, Bitter Rivals, will unleash in early October. Singer Alexis Krauss is now heavily involved in production — guitarist, songwriter and producer Derek Miller did all the heavy lifting on the groups’ 2010 breakthrough Treats.

Krauss & Miller have been planning a “cleaner, more melodic album” for their third record. Does this mean fuzzy guitar anthems are out in favor of easy to digest tracks like “Rill Rill”. Lead single “Bitter Rivals” hints that the answer lies somewhere in the middle.

Expect this set to be one of the loudest sets of the weekend, even though Sunday is usually a day reserved for more mellow indy fare like James Blake or Real Estate.

Beck
Two new albums to be released in late 2013, early 2014.

We’ve known for about nine months that Beck has had two albums in the works for this year — yet as we head toward the Fall we don’t have any official release dates for his acoustic album and the proper follow-up to 2008’s Modern Guilt.

What we do have are two new songs that are meant to be stand-alone tracks — Neither “Defriended” or “I Won’t Be Long” will be found on Beck’s forthcoming records. Although, both tracks would serve as excellent lead singles for any Beck record.

The most delicious part about these two new tracks are the 14+ minutes b-sides of the same songs. The extended version of “I Won’t Be Long” is an adventurous journey that begins in My Bloody Valentine territory, then it wallows blissfully in the refrain “I won’t be long” before grinding down into a feedback-based breakdown, then rebirthing where the song started.

Let’s hope Beck feels like extending these new tracks at Treasure Island to end the weekend.

Phantogram
New album, possibility titled Voices, to be released in late 2013, early 2014.

Phantogram haven’t released any new music from their second long player, which is due this fall, but expect to hear at least a couple new cuts before they hit up TIMF in six weeks. The group headlines a month-long tour in the fall and have been in the studio this summer. Phantogram’s recent teaser video (view it above) promises more of the same — an awesome amalgamation of dance, beats and indie rock.

There’s been a lot of hash tagging of #phantogramvoices lately on Phantogram’s social media — a new single and album release date seem imminent, maybe as early as this or next week.

UPDATE 9/12: Phantogram released a new song entitled “Black Out Days”:

Little Dragon
The group’s fourth LP to be released in late 2013, early 2014.

Much like Phantogram, Little Dragon are hard at work on a new album, and they’ve shared a video to prove it too. Little Dragon only have four shows lined up in October, including their appearance at Treasure Island Music Festival.

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How to Dress Well previews new music at The Independent

August 30, 2013 by 2 Comments

How-To-Dress-Well2Photos by Sam Heller // Written by Mike Frash

“Call Your Mom!” became a phrase of humorous repetition throughout the How To Dress Well show at The Independent August 26 — And it wasn’t Tom Krell, aka How To Dress Well, who was yelling it.

Krell made the unfortunate mistake of admitting he forgot to call his Mom the day prior for her birthday due to the stresses of touring. This disclosure led to a semi-mob response as the crowd demanded that Krell call his Mom mid-show. All this is from a guy that croons “Dear Momma didn’t you tell me everything was gonna be right” in the song “When I Was In Trouble” — he clearly felt guilty.

And one female audience member kept coming back to the funny hook as she yelled “Call your Mom!!!” at opportune moments another half dozen times. Krell smiled each time it was bellowed, so it’s possible the gal giving Tom shit was a close acquaintance. The rowdy lady in the audience proclaimed one other word throughout the show: “Minna!”

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Minna Choi helped Krell produce the strings for his most recent album Total Loss, and for the second time she was performing live piano for How To Dress Well.

Krell usually defers to a fully electronic backing for concerts, save for his striking two-microphone singing. His right mic has a clean, true sound, while his left mic projects a heavy echo effect — and Krell has mastered the back and forth timing between his one and two mic, allowing him to replicate processed studio sounds in a live environment. Aaron Read controlled the electronics per usual while adding live violin and synthesizer play.

How To Dress Well’s biggest hit, “& It Was U”, was mashed up by Minna’s layering of “The Way It Is” by Bruce Hornsby as a keyboard melody. (You know, the Tupac “Changes” song.) How To Dress Well’s addition of live instrumentals is a welcome move — something Krell hopefully will evolve once his looming second LP is released.

One of the most noteworthy qualities of Tom Krell as a lead presence is his ability to bounce back and forth between engaged, spontaneous crowd banter and the way he falls into a trance while performing, channeling pain and projecting his inner passions without distraction. The only other contemporary performer that pulls off this “Jekyll & Hyde,” bipolar mastery is Jessie Ware.

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There is most definitely loads of heartache in Krell’s lyrics — the set ender “Set It Right” includes a lengthy list of family and friends whom have passed on. Between songs that often include huge bass-wall drops, Krell seems happy, smiling and radiating positivity. But Krell can also get a bit serious (and honest) during his mid-song banter, as he did with the first new song of the night “Let You Know”. Tom said, “This song is about feeling a lot of pain from the past, and trying to reckon that.”

Krell announced he has been holed up in Berlin making a new album in recent months, and he confessed that it’s “…great to play new music. We’ve been playing the same stuff for a while.” Someone in the crowd — not the “Call Your Mom!” chick — asked when the record would be coming out. In perfect timeless fashion, Krell stated, “June or April.”

The second unreleased “future” song of the night is called “Bad Shit Outweighs the Gladness”. At least, that’s what Krell said it’s called on his computer at the moment. He explained it came about as a product of his Grandmother’s very recent death, and how his Mom has now moved into a matriarch position for his family. Then Krell shifted to the point that he wants to have a baby, and how his friends have the most beautiful toddler. So this new song is about how his mom is a “Future Grandma.” Pretty heady.

The evening encored with one more new song. It was a dancy 80’s dance-pop track that is synth heavy and is a tonally upbeat departure from How To Dress Well’s typical sound. And as Krell was about to begin the final song of the night, what else would make sense but one more comical “Call Your Mom!!!”

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Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: ,

Outside Lands 2013: Five Friday Favorites

August 10, 2013 by 2 Comments

PaulPhotos by Patrick Tyrrell // Written by Mike Frash //

Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival //
Golden Gate Park – San Francisco
August 9th-11th, 2013 //

With so many blissful distractions at Outside Lands, it’s easy to get sidetracked. While encompassed by the most opulent culinary treats in the City’s finest park (sorry Dolores), festival-goers could get sucked into the beer or wine tent or even watch a long comedy set (I’m sure Jeffrey Ross slayed). But in the end, we all go for the music (and friends).

Here are five glorious sets I absorbed on Day 1.

Paul

Sir Paul McCartney

A lot of bucket lists were checked off Friday. McCartney’s boyish charm is truly uncanny and defies reality. His stories were contextualized to history, not simply music history, and they seemed too short. During “Back In The U.S.S.R., “FREE PUSSY RIOT” flashed on the screen for five seconds, and the legend said that when he met Russian government officials in Moscow, they told him they learned English through The Beatles. Macca took listeners through a progression of Beatles lore, starting with the early 60’s boy band material, then progressing to psychedelic fare once it was dark. McCartney is a rock and roll God, and he fulfilled the promise of an epic set — the “Live and Let Die” firework moment will never be forgotten.

Paul

The-National

The National

The lyrics “with a beautiful white heaven hanging over me” have never been more appropriate; the foggy confines of the Lands End Stage painted that word picture. Matt Berninger’s group needs fog. And while the kids were busy getting their euphoria on over at Zedd, those looking for floaty poetic musings placed over life-affirming musicianship found it. Like Paul McCartney, The National were lovingly backed by the Kronos Quartet, adding uplifting symphonic layering. Those that stayed until the end were offered a local treat; Bob Weir of Grateful Dead fame came out to help on the final song “Terrible Love” — and that made me think, what ever happened to that Grateful Dead cover album that was to be curated by The National?

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Twenty One Pilots

Twenty One Pilots might be trying to be cool, and that seemed to be on the mind of Tyler Joseph, as he kept referencing the ‘cool factor’ in a self-denigrating way. But the duo turned the stage antics up to 11, doing back flips off the piano, jumping into the crowd, and donning a full ski mask while climbing on top of the Twin Peaks stage. And ya know, as much as it was Macklemore-esque cheese, the passion these two young men exhibited transcended any second thoughts.

21-Pilots

Wild-Belle

Wild Belle

The brother-sister duo has evolved to a full band, but Natalie Bergman’s throwback-rasp vocals are still the focus of their strolling, reggae-dub style instrumentals. Dressed in classy white suits and surrounded by wooden keyboard barriers and speaker crates for added visual aesthetic value, there was certainly a timeless quality to the set.

Houndmouth

Houndmouth

Houndmouth provided a delightful opening to Outside Lands for many, including me. From the opening line of “Penitentiary” referencing San Francisco, the foursome brought bluesy gospel goodness right into everyone’s faces. With lyrics that seemed rooted in finding one’s self — and sobriety — Katie Toupin’s seductive stage presence and heavenly vocals were downright delightful.

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Outside Lands 2013: Five last-minute finds

August 8, 2013 by Leave a Comment

OutsideLands

Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival //
Golden Gate Park – San Francisco
August 9th-11th, 2013 //

As Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival in SF’s Golden Gate Park prepares to open its doors, music fans are scrambling to pick which shows they should grace. And while it’s impossible to see everything, isn’t it the worst when you discover an artist right after a festival? Here are five under-the-radar artists you might want to consider before Outside Lands begins.

Check out our Outside Lands articles:

• Outside Lands 2013: Ten sets not to miss
• Outside Lands 2013 Beer/Artist Pairings
• Outside Lands Schedule Announced!
• Daft Punk to replace D’Angelo at Outside Lands?
• Outside Lands Music Festival Lineup 2013: Rumors vs. Reality

Discover your last-minute finds by listening to our Outside Lands 2013 Spotify playlist:

CHIC featuring Nile Rodgers – Friday at 6:05 p.m. // Sutro Stage

So the bad news is D’Angelo can’t perform at Outside Lands due to a health scare. The awesome news is festival promotor APE was able to fill the gap with the legendary group CHIC, featuring Nile Rodgers. Anyone that’s been paying attention to Daft Punk this year already knows who Nile Rodgers is — he’s responsible for the funkiest electric guitar grooves in American history. Expect a dance party. Expect butts to be shaking. Don’t expect Daft Punk. CHIC Featuring Nile Rodgers is only directly opposed to Wavves and Stanton Warriors and should serve as a proper warm up for Sir Paul.

The Growlers – Saturday at 3:25 p.m. // Sutro Stage

Southern California psych-garage rockers The Growlers have steadily been making their way up festival bills the past few years, and for good reason. There is certainly an element of 1960s California surf rock present in their guitar tones, but vocal and instrumental reverb effects are more in your face. Touring on their new album Hung At Heart, The Growlers will face tough competition Saturday against Young the Giant and Youth Lagoon. But as their song “One Million Lovers” says, “You know you’re living when it all becomes a blur.”

Bombino – Saturday at 4:30 p.m. // Panhandle Stage

Bombino is an worldwide artist on the rise halfway through the year 2013. An acclaimed Nigerian singer songwriter and guitarist, Omara “Bombino” Mortar focuses his tongue on geopolitical concerns in the northern Sahara region. Dan Auerbach from The Black Keys produced Bombino’s second album, Nomad, which was released in the US this year, and people have taken notice. Bombino and his band have opened for Robert Plant, Amadou & Mariam and Gogol Bordello this year alone. Bombino is up against Thao & The Get Down Stay Down on Saturday.

GRiZ – Saturday at 7:50 p.m. // Panhandle Stage

GRiZ offers your only chance at dance music Saturday, save for Baauer and the beats that circulate within the Heineken dome. Balancing between not-too-aggressive dubstep and hip-hop aesthetics while adding live instrumentation, GRIZ will be a nice warm up before both Phoenix and more notably Nine Inch Nails. A late add to the festival lineup, GRiZ is only directly opposed by Head and the Heart.

Deap Vally – Sunday at 2:50 p.m. // Panhandle Stage

Female rock duo Deap Vally have been hitting the bricks hard in 2013, touring endlessly while turning heads at the biggest festivals in the land. Odds are Deap Vally will continue this trend Sunday on Outside Land’s smallest stage. The LA-based twosome’s rock and roll energy is undeniable, and their hooks plenty catchy. Their debut LP Sistrionix was unleashed earlier this summer, and the ladies might need some fan support while FOALS and Kurt Vile perform at the same time.

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El-P and Killer Mike make ‘rap church’ a reality as Run the Jewels

August 1, 2013 by 4 Comments

Run-The-JewelsPhotos by James Nagel // Written by Mike Frash //

All hyperbole aside, El-P and Killer Mike have joined forces to produce one of the best live-music experiences of the year as Run the Jewels. Those present at The Independent for sold-out shows July 30th & 31st were treated to a triple threat of sets — Killer Mike got things started with an incredibly memorable solo set before El-P took over for the second act. Then, just before midnight, the best rap duo alive joined forces to Run the Jewels in epic fashion.

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Killer Mike might look and sound intimidating to some, but he’s really the Robin Hood of Rap, a populist leader at heart that looks out for the downtrodden. As much as Michael Render despises the government, racial-based violence and institutionalized religion, he sure presents himself as a preacher — a most awesome evangelist of justice and women’s rights while still enjoying life’s vices.

He connects with everyone in the room through individualized eye contact, by sitting down on the stage with his legs dangling and by projecting everything he stands for passionately, and it draws the audience in. Everything Mike does works toward the message that we (the audience and Killer Mike himself) are on the same team, working together to fight the people, actions & power that create society’s ills — most notably politicians, police and racially-based hatred.

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But let’s be clear — if you’re not on Killer Mike’s team, watch out; Mike’s foes are repeatedly the subject of his vitriol and death wishes. While introducing “Burn”, a new song dedicated to Oscar Grant, Mike simply stated that the police officer who shot the young black man should be killed. Mike cultivates an ‘Us vs. Them’ mentality, and by engaging with concert goers this way, it wills everyone to reciprocate by participating in call-and-response moments while putting hands in the air.

Killer-Mike

Mike’s banter is as entertaining as his R.A.P. music, and the control he exhibits over his rhymes, body language & subsequently the audience is admirable. Almost everyone in attendance got involved in a striking a cappella version of “Reagan”, but Mike switched up the form of the song to make “fuck Ronald Reagan” the refrain so everyone could sing along multiple times. With no instrumentals in the background, Mike slowed the song down, delivering the lyrics with whispered urgency, like he was telling a secret.

The high point of the set arrived during Mike’s introduction to “R.A.P. Music”, when he allowed himself to be vulnerable by sharing an important moment in his life. Render discussed how his mentor challenged him six years ago when he was formulating a new album. His mentor asked him if he wanted to make a party record, or something meaningful. That was clearly a turning point in Michael Render’s life, and it’s obvious he picked the correct path — Killer Mike has certainly found his calling. He continued on, saying “God is in the building tonight,” and that we were experiencing “Rap Church.” This is his standard introduction to the song — but Mike showed extra emotion Wednesday night. He said he’s never had a religious experience in a Church, but we were giving him that feeling people look for in religion. But in reality, Mike Render only gets back what he gives on stage. Hands down, Killer Mike is one of the best entertainers in music today.

El-P

El-P, the sole producer of Killer Mike’s music and their collaboration Run the Jewels, took the stage with two instrumentalists and a second MC to perform his solo work. El-P exhibited his hyperactive spits with fire, contrasting perfectly with Mike’s message-driven music. Random sounds like clown horns, crying babies and dolphin squeaks pop in to add elements of humor during otherwise serious songs. While introducing the second song of his set, El-P got serious, only to drop quickly into “The Full Retard” with spastic flair.

El Producto is such a future-forward, progressive producer, and beats from all three sets came from his pioneering brain. His style is based in weirdness — his instrumentals utilize non-standard form and his sound layering, often built off modulated vocal beats, cross-pollinates with so many genres like dance and rock music successfully.

Run-The-Jewels

El-P and Killer Mike (aka Run the Jewels) got into character with their faux-opulent chains, and they said as much before they performed their album Run the Jewels in its entirety. They held their chains in one hand and pointed at them with the other, as portrayed on the cover of the Run the Jewels album. But before starting, El-P disclosed that their jewels were fake, but the chains make them feel good and powerful when they are worn. It proved to be a candid lesson about 21st Century materialism, showing that it’s more important how you feel over how you spend.

Half way through the set, Killer Mike complained to his tour manager that they need wireless microphones — and that is a fact. He then turned his annoyance into a vaudeville-esque skit, shuffling over to EL-P to hold the twisted cables over their heads, joking that they were connected by friendship beyond the physical tanglement happening in the moment.

Run-The-Jewels

El-P stopped the set before “Get It” to tell the story of how he was discovered. El-P was at a club in San Francisco when he slipped DJ Qbert one of his early records. Qbert previewed the track in one ear, nodded in approval, then mixed in El-P’s cut, proceeding to scratch over it for four minutes. All the producers in the room ran over to meet him, and the rest is history. Then El-P introduced DJ Qbert himself to guest DJ for the song.

By seeing El-P and Killer Mike perform their solo material, then their collaborative work as Run the Jewels, adds up to the perfect equation. They are an ideal yin-yang duo, complementing each other with grace. Killer Mike has more fun but still interjects meaningful messages into a handful of songs, while El-P tones down his cartoonish antics in favor of machine gun back-and-forth rap mastery. Together they have produced a concert experience with an entertainment-first mentality, something that music fans — not just hip hop or rap fans — will enjoy thoroughly.

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Treasure Island single-day tickets, lineups announced

July 31, 2013 by Leave a Comment

TIMFPhotos by Marc Fong

Treasure Island Music Festival has announced the daily lineups and the release of single day tickets — so those who immerse themeselves soley in electronic music or rock can opt for a one day festival experience come Friday, August 2 at 10am.

Our advice: Snag a two-day pass before they are gone, and be sure to get those parking passes for a quick arrival and escape.

TIMF

Saturday, October 19

As always, Saturday is packed with high-energy acts — including most of the digitally-oriented artists, including Major Lazer, Disclosure, DJ Falcon & Robert Delong. Atoms For Peace, unsurprisingly, are already gaining steam as a can’t miss live act as they hit the major festival stops in Europe this summer. Electro-pop party-starters Little Dragon, Phantogram & Holy Ghost! will also be performing Saturday.

•Atoms For Peace
•Major Lazer
•Little Dragon
•Phantogram
•Disclosure
•Holy Ghost!
•DJ Falcon
•Poolside
•Adult.
•Robert Delong
•Giraffage
•Antwon

Sunday, October 20

Looking at the Sunday lineup, the days look as similar as ever. Maybe it’s just that Sunday, traditionally the indie rock day, is flush with loud performers: Animal Collective, Palma Violets, STRFKR, Sleigh Bells, Japandroids and HAIM. Cayucas and Lord Huron promise to deliver ideal, mellow-ish Sunday sets. James Blake will melt hearts during his Sunday sunset show, and as Beck slowly releases epic 14 minute tracks to preview his new records (yes, that’s “records” plural), Treasure Island Music Festival is poised to end on a high note.

•Beck
•Animal Collective
•James Blake
•Sleigh Bells
•STRFKR
•Lord Huron
•Japandroids
•Real Estate
•HAIM
•Palma Violets
•Cayucas
•Io Echo
•Deep Sea Diver

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The Postal Service keep the nostalgia fresh with some help from Big Freedia & Baths at the Greek Theatre Berkeley

July 27, 2013 by 3 Comments

The-Postal-ServiceBy Mike Frash //

The Postal Service with Big Freedia, Baths //
Greek Theatre – Berkeley, CA
July 26th, 2013 //

The Postal Service played their third-ever Bay Area show at the Greek Theatre on Friday — the supergroup had previously performed at two tiny clubs, Bottom of the Hill and the Los Gatos Outhouse, respectively, in 2003 before their only record Give Up became a massive success. It was a night of nostalgia, yet The Postal Service made everything feel fresh, successfully sucking in the attention of the surprisingly youthful crowd. The audience was engaged throughout the show, a setting and mood that should be partially attributed to the night’s two openers, one that seemed completely out-of-place and another perfect.

Baths is a fast-rising electronic musician (born Will Wiesenfeld) who is touring on his excellent second record Obsidian. Baths is the ideal opener for The Postal Service — his music is more somber and moody, but his digital textures are so similar. The crunchy, industrialized beats found in “Worsening” and “Ossuary” sound related to the underlying, limping baseline in The Postal Service song “This Place Is a Prison”. Wiesenfeld and Postal Service digital mastermind Jimmy Tamborello have the same knack for atypical, Nintendo glitch production and therefore are kindred spirits.

Baths

Wiesenfeld’s live show includes another performer to help with button pushing, knob turning and electric guitar. The stage production is decidedly minimalist — both artists face each other while playing muddled, industrialized sounds from MIDI pads stacked on top of the boxed they were originally packaged in. Wiesenfeld plays the keyboard live and nails his passionate, on the brink-of-death lyrics with precision. His falsetto was on point, and all of the electronic sampling was performed live except for the driving, minimalist beats.

The audience may have been chatting away for much of Baths’ performance, but all it took was some booty twerkin’ and the first Sissy Bounce performance the Greek has witnessed to get everyone on their feet. When looking at the bill for the evening, it was hard to gauge how a Postal Service crowd would react to Big Freedia, the Queen Diva of Bounce. Bounce music is a rap-based hip-hop subgenre from New Orleans, heavy on bass with a NOLA second-line mentality — hence the booty.

Big-Freedia

If ya got it, shake it — bouncing female booty while wearing short shorts or tight spandex is virtually synonymous with bounce music itself, and Big Freedia understands this historical aspect. The Queen Diva has worked the art of booty bouncing into live production art, as her dancers know how to put on an entertaining show that is exciting and fun to watch.

The dancers performed upside-down booty rockin’ with handstands, ran the booty train with Freedia as the locomotive and climbed speakers and lighting pillars to shake that ass. It was anything but boring, either making you dance or ask yourself, “What the fuck am I watching?” The wild, random featured act was joined by Postal Service leader Ben Gibbard for some booty shakin’ to end the set — it was the final night Big Freedia opened for the headliners on this tour.

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Big Freedia ended up prepping the crowd perfectly for The Postal Service, getting everyone’s attention turned toward the stage. The crowd was attentive during The Postal Service set, adding harmonious sing-alongs to the group’s biggest songs. Some of these moments were spontaneous, others were encouraged by the performers. Opening song “The District Sleeps Alone Night” elicited a perfectly blended sing-along with the line “I was the one worth leaving” — but show closer “Brand New Colony” ended the night in a most memorable fashion. They ended the concert by encouraging the audience to join them in continuing “Everything Will Change” a cappella — and those in attendance obliged Gibbard wholeheartedly. He counted out the four beats in the measure before signaling to the crowd to yell the line, and it was clear the frontman was pleased with the participation after the final notes had been played.

The set was performed tight and cleanly — the foursome is clearly honed in at this point of the tour. The mid-set cover of Beat Happening song “Our Secret” was a highlight. The track built then segued into atmospheric territory — it was a long song but ended right as it was starting taking off. Gibbard jumped into press row for the set-ending “Natural Anthem”, leaving the rest of the group to awkwardly leave the stage for the encore.

The-Postal-Service

Once again, Jenny Lewis is the MVP. She’s so present in the moment while in control of her craft. Gibbard was enthusiastic and might be one of the worst dancers in live music today. But he owns his stage presence with gusto, and it makes you realize one possible reason why he shifted from electropop back to more indie-laden fare with Death Cab for Cutie.

At one point, Gibbard sincerely thanked everyone for being there, saying that “We know you have many options for your concert dollar. Thank you for not choosing Justin Bieber,” playfully referencing the Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z mega-show happening at Candlestick Park across the bay. While that comparison is weird, frankly, everyone present at the Greek must have had a couple goose-bumpy moments thinking back to a time 10 years ago when they first listened to The Postal Service.

Setlist:
The District Sleeps Alone Tonight
We Will Become Silhouettes
Sleeping In
Turn Around
Nothing Better
Recycled Air
Be Still My Heart
Clark Gable
Our Secret (Beat Happening cover)
This Place Is a Prison
There’s Never Enough Time
A Tattered Line of String
Such Great Heights
Natural Anthem

Encore:
(This IS) the Dream of Evan and Chan
Brand New Colony

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: , , , , ,

New Music: Run the Jewels (EL-P + Killer Mike) – Self-titled

July 26, 2013 by 3 Comments

Run-The-Jewels

Run the Jewels (EL-P + Killer Mike) – Run the Jewels

4.5-BamsTop Tracks:
“DDFH”
“A Christmas Fucking Miracle”
“Run the Jewels”

Highlights: Before Killer Mike brought on El-P to produce his bangin’ 2012 album R.A.P. Music, he was mostly known as a frequent OutKast collaborator on tracks such as “The Whole World” and “Snappin’ & Trappin'”. El-P released his 2012 LP Cancer 4 Cure the exact same day as Mike’s album last year — signaling a certain syncopation beyond MC competitiveness. Fast forward one year to the present, and El-P & Killer Mike have joined forces as the best hip-hop project in years dubbed Run the Jewels, touring on their landmark new album Run the Jewels.

El-P is the sole producer of Run the Jewels, and it’s safe to say this shit will be pumped in the future. The world of sound is incorporated into tight, aurally pleasing production that feels familiar yet completely original. El-P uses everything from classic organ to Nintendo glitch sounds to electric guitar to build epic beats. Contemporary dance elements can be found interjected into the beats most often, but in a micro-sampling fashion not akin to today’s trap movement. The most groundbreaking instrumental aspect of Run the Jewels is the sole producer’s use of vocals in beat production. The opening cut “Run the Jewels” contains an echo effect on accented words until they meld into the music track, blending parts of the rhymes into the instrumentals. “Job Well Done” & “Banana Clipper” feature instrumental melody stems that are really modulated vocal beats that loop and pitch-shift with ease. The effect of rhyming over modulated vocal-based beats is striking.

The lyrics constantly paint descriptive word pictures, and frequently celebrate wide ranging drug use — “No Come Down” is hyper-catchy with the chopped up refrain “I get so high, I close my eyes like I may die” contrasting with “and I won’t come down.” “DDFH”, the best track on the record, delves into aspects of police brutality, government surveillance & the US’s unbalanced prison system with ease within one Killer Mike verse. Killer Mike breaths fire as aggressively as ever, but with his patented wink and a smile.

Lowlights: Like the rest of hip-hop, Run the Jewels embraces Molly use — pure MDMA — without hesitation. And in “Twin Hype Back”, the duo include an over-the-top date rape skit with the help of Prince Paul about putting MDMA in a girl’s drink. Paul, playing “Chest Rockwell,” goes into cheesy-creep mode by crooning “You feeling relaxed? Maybe it’s that half a molly I put in your Mountain Dew. Ya works like a charm / I’ve got your glass of Beefeater, a pack of Uno Cards / OK, how about I come over tonight and pick you up on my Segway and we go to Long John Silver.” Seemingly, this is a song-long spoof about the Rick Ross controversy, where he rhymed about date raping a girl by using Molly.

There’s a bit of contradiction between the El-P & Killer Mike’s very real celebration of drug culture and the hip-hop date rape skit that is meant as social criticism in “Twin Hype Back”. It’s obviously lampooning Rick Ross and the controversy around it. And clearly, most people that enjoy recreational drug use don’t rape people. But it’s hard to take the intention of the spoof seriously after hearing about how dope Molly, shrooms, blunts & blow is the previous eight tracks.

Takeaway: One of Run the Jewels’ greatest successes is that it can be both funny and dead serious within the same song and often within in the same flow or line at times. El-P & Killer Mike are at their strongest when spitting rhymes with meaning — regarding oppression, government hypocrisy, racism — and this is the Killer Mike influence (the same guy that made the four words “I’m glad Reagan’s Dead” a catch phrase over the past year).

But this shouldn’t detract from how fun this album is to listen to — whether the topic at hand is dead serious or downright funny. Killer Mike broaches serious topics, bringing up the “elephant in the room” whenever possible, and EL-P is a hyperactive, light-hearted goofball MC. And that really is why El-P & Killer Mike are the perfect duo. Put these two together and you have the best hip-hop album of the year so far, and one of the best overall albums of 2013.

*Win free tickets to see Run the Jewels at The Independent in San Francisco on July 31st.

Filed Under: Featured, New Music Tagged With: , , ,

2013 Outside Lands schedule announced!

July 25, 2013 by 2 Comments

Outside LandsPhotos by Mark Fong // Written by Mike Frash //

Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival //
Golden Gate Park – San Francisco
August 9th-11th, 2013 //

The schedule has been released for the completely sold-out 2013 Outside Lands Music Festival, meaning the schedule conflict stress has already begun. Some folks have the misplaced assumption that they can see half, or even most of the artists on the OSL bill. They are wrong. With four stages and long walks from Lands End/Sutro to Twin Peaks/Panhandle (and back), you won’t see more than 1/4 of the performers on any given day.

So, now it’s time to start dealing with this first-world festival problem by making some tough choices. But remember, you don’t have to commit! Sometimes it’s best to choose shows while at the fest based on your mood.

Here are the biggest conflicts we see on the schedule — along with the sets we are most likely to attend in bold.

OutsideLands
FRIDAY SCHEDULE // AUGUST 9th

• Paul McCartney vs. Yeasayer, Chromatics & Pretty Lights
*Macca has a two-hour, 45-minute set!

• The National vs. Rhye vs. Zedd vs. Stanton Warriors
• Band of Horses vs. Jessie Ware vs. Twenty One Pilots vs.
• Surfer Blood vs. Wild Belle vs. Jeffrey Ross
• Smith Westerns vs. Midi Matilda

OutsideLands
SATURDAY SCHEDULE // AUGUST 10th

• Nine Inch Nails vs. Phoenix

• Yeah Yeah Yeahs vs. The Head & the Heart vs. Grizzly Bear
• Jurassic 5 vs. Thao & The Get Down Stay Down vs. Baauer
• Young the Giant vs. Youth Lagoon
• Gary Glark Jr. vs. Milo Greene vs. Atlas Genius

OutsideLands1
SUNDAY SCHEDULE // AUGUST 11th

• Red Hot Chilli Peppers vs. Dillon Francis, Kaskade

• Vampire Weekend vs. Willie Nelson & Family vs. Matt & Kim vs. MS MR
• Dawes vs. A-Trak
• Hall & Oates vs. Trombone Shorty vs. King Tuff
*4:20 Hall & Oats set. Just sayin’
• FOALS vs. Kurt Vile and The Violators vs. Deap Vally
*Winner of worst conflict: FOALS vs. Kurt Vile

Check out our previous Outside Lands articles:
• Outside Lands 2013 Beer/Artist Pairings
• Outside Lands 2013: Ten sets not to miss
• Outside Lands Music Festival Lineup 2013: Rumors vs. Reality

OutsideLands2

Filed Under: Featured, Festivals, Outside Lands Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Futurebirds & Diarrhea Planet present SF with layered southern psych-rock

July 24, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Futurebirds


Futurebirds

By Mike Frash

Futurebirds with Diarrhea Planet //
The Independent – San Francisco
July 18th, 2013 //

Futurebirds are one of the best bands to emerge out of the Athens, Ga., music scene in a while, and anyone present The Independent can attest to this notion. Guitar instrumentation was the theme of the night as featured act and conversation starter Diarrhea Planet perfectly mirrored the night’s headliners through layered Southern psych-rock.

With a name that dares you to say it out loud in front of other people, Diarrhea Planet put forth a killer set. Balancing between heavy metal and punk, yet centering around accessible hooks, the Planet would rage hard then let intricate instrumentation create a floaty atmosphere.

The Nashville-based group was there to party and make a scene, something Diarrhea Planet achieved by reinforcing their music with four guitarists and a variety of stage antics. Emmett Miller on guitar led the way with the shenanigans, climbing speaker banks to jump from and by performing on the floor of the general admission area to end the set. They had fun and left a good impression in line with the Diarrhea Planet motto: “Shred till you’re dead, or go to hell.”

Diarrhea-Planet


Diarrhea Planet

As the stage was being prepared for Futurebirds, tunes from Kurt Vile and Tame Impala rang through the venue. This choice of pre-game music was highly appropriate — psychedelic guitar layering proved to be the hallmark sound of Futurebirds. The group features two electric guitarists, one acoustic and the all-important steel petal guitarist.

The stoic steel pedal guitarist added haunting accents to songs, even though he was the only performer onstage who seemed kind of bored. Futurebird’s music is rooted in alternative country, but every song transformed halfway through, morphing with a pleasant sound-shift into psychedelic-rock territory. For instance, “Death Awaits” is a wavy, country ballad until layered, electric guitar stomps into the third part of the song, adding Syd Barrett-like wails. The steel pedal ended up bringing the song together for the guitar-harmonized, blended outro.

Touring on their 2013 LP Baba Yaga, Futurebirds transformed almost every offering into a Neil Young-like slow burning jam, picking up the pace through layered Southern aural goodness.

Filed Under: Editor's Picks, Featured, Live Music Reviews Tagged With: , , , , ,
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