 Remember that post I did on The Balkans way back in the day? Yeah, I can say that now because Newdust has been around for over a year! But enough about us, in the year since we’ve covered The Balkans they’ve continued to deliver us with catchy, fast-pace punk with delightful 60’s surf rock undertones. I haven’t heard a song from them I didn’t like. Here’s a couple videos that were shot by the really cool site Indie ATL. |
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Here’s a plethora of footage from the Washed Out / Beach House show Wednesday night at the Granada Theater in Dallas. This was the first show from their sold out US tour, and it was absolutely incredible. These videos do not do it justice. Ernest Greene (aka Washed Out) opened the show with some familiar songs, and some not so familiar. He did an adaptation of “Hold Out” that wasn’t true to the album version by any means, but amazing nonetheless. Wish he could have played a longer set, but I enjoyed every minute of it. Then came Beach House, and let me just say that Victoria Legrand is one of the most powerful female vocalists around right now, without a doubt. She’s up there with Stevie Nicks. The highlight of the evening was their closing song “10 Mile Stereo”, which I did not bother taping because I was too busy moving. Only a statue could stand still during a Washed Out / Beach House show. Oh and also, many thanks to gorilla vs bear for bringing this show to Dallas. They’ve got some pretty rad photos of the show posted on their homepage right now so check them out. |
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Wednesday brought The Ruby Suns and Toro y Moi to The Black Cat Backstage. My only previous experience with the Backstage having been a screamo mess which I peeked in on while at The Black Cat for non-concert purposes (but definitely for pinball purposes), I was interested to see how the whole thing would go… I was pretty impressed. I neglected to check out Toro y Moi (whose real name is Chaz and who almost smiled once during his set) before the show, largely because I was too busy continuing to be obsessed with the Fight Softly record that The Ruby Suns are out supporting. Having not heard a thing of his before, I enjoyed most of it. I have an inexplicable soft spot for solo musicians who loop instruments and, particularly, vocals for self-harmonizing and Chaz fits the bill more than nicely. (We were too far away for me to gawk nerdily at his gear setup, so I remain curious what he was using to pull it all off.) I was impressed with the breadth of genres he spanned. He stuck mostly in the synthy, head-bobby, steady rhythm pop neighborhood but ventured into hip-hop and casually into techno and then, to close hit set the odd choice of a strummy-strummy electric guitar song that most of the audience tuned out. Aside: A kind gentleman felt it necessary to, at one point–I believe the term is ‘back it up,’ right onto my exposed toes and then into my receptive arms. It was very cute. A breather at set break and a bourbon prefaced The Ruby Suns, who pretty much thrilled the hell out of me. Most of the set came off of Fight Softly, with which I have been mostly enthralled since it hit my speakers a few weeks ago. I recall specifically that we were treated to Mingus and Pike, Cranberry, Haunted House, Dusty Fruit, Two Humans and, my personal favorite from the record, Closet Astrologer. Though it was Mingus and Pike that I sung to myself for my entire trip home. I questioned how the band would translate from the studio to the stage. Broken Social Scene makes sounds like The Ruby Suns do but with 410 more musicians. It works. It works nicely. The highly-layered, drum-centric songs went off largely without a hitch. The ping-ponging stereo samples at the start of Dusty Fruit pinged and ponged across the crowded room. The ascending oohs and aahs that form the backbone of Two Humans oohed and aahed in the same style that’s had me practicing my falsetto since I first heard the song. The Ruby Suns are a band who put on a thoroughly enjoyable show. Everything from the highly complex album is there. Every voice, every I-got-a-saw-and-hit-it-with-a-wisk sound. They sit on the edge of overdoing it. But just on the edge. That’s part of their magic. In a related fashion, I am absolutely loving that all the kids whose parents played them Graceland through their entire youth are now making music. It’s my favorite non-Jazz album of all time. And I get to hear its influence all over music these days. These guys definitely grew up on this album and Mr. Simon comes out in spades. It’s the choirs of backup singers; it’s the giant, bassy drums; it’s the hand claps, the use of vocals as more than a way to spit out some words; it’s the genre-in-a-blender mentality that is present in so much great music. The Ruby Suns haven’t created a Graceland-quality album, but that’s a pretty damn tall order. Do they make really good music and put on a kickass show? You bet. Head to see them and pick up the LP. It sounds fantastic. Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. Artist: The Ruby Suns Post by Ryan (Not Bryan) Sims |
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 I can’t get enough of Freelance Whales right now. These guys just finished up at SXSW and I’m sure they left a lasting impression on anyone who was lucky enough to see them. Here’s an acoustic performance of “Ghosting,” a song from their latest album Weathervanes. This was part of NPR Music’s Tiny SXSW Concert series. As always, their acoustic performances are great! |
| I got a chance to see Freelance Whales last night at Mango’s Cafe in Houston, TX. These guys are fantastic live! If you’re gonna be in Austin this week for SXSW, I highly recommend you check ‘em out. Weathervanes is Freelance Whales’ latest effort, a love story between a little boy and a ghost who lives in his attic. It’s set to release April 13th, but can be pre-ordered on their site. Check out the footage below from last night at Mango’s; this is “Generator ^ 1st Floor.”:
I also had a little Q & A with drummer Jacob about the band, the album, and a ukelin: Newdust: How did you guys all meet and when did you start playing together? |
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| Jacob: Aside from Doris, who’s originally from Queens, we all had moved out to New York a year or two prior to pursue music. We had various projects posted online, and we were all scouring the web for music projects to work on. Judah had some great demos mocked up and he actively responded to the different things we were doing at the time. The formation went through some brief and semi-frequent lineup changes early on, but eventually came together fully as a quintet around November of 2008, and we played our first show a couple of months later, in January of 2009. | |
| ND: I’ve seen several clips on youtube of the band performing out on the streets or in subways….Who’s idea was it to play street shows? With your tour in the works and your growing popularity, are you going to continue to play street shows? | |
| J: We decided to play street shows – and will hopefully continue to play them when we can (we’ll be going out today for the first time since November) – because of the opportunity to meet new people and bring strangers to shows. We had gotten to a point where relying on our friends to come to shows every other weekend seemed unfair, so we used street performing as a sort of jumping-off point to play to crowds of people who had never heard us. The first time we did it, we noticed a handful of people from the street had come to the show a couple of hours later. So we’d play at least one street show before every “proper” show, and it grew from there. | |
| ND: I read on your pr’s website that over the last couple years you guys have been collecting instruments. What’s the coolest instrument you’ve come across? | |
| J: Judah just got a Chinese zither, and is in the process of putting it together. It’s an instrument I’ve always been fascinated with, so I’m really looking forward to getting that thing into the fold. Kevin is also working on restringing his ukelin – a sort of hybridized ukulele and violin – in the hopes that we can bring it out on the road and start writing with it. | |
| ND: Weathervanes tells a ghost story. Tell me a little more about the story & how it came about. | |
| J: The story is based on some dream logging that Judah did for a class in college. He filled up many-a-notebook and eventually noticed patterns forming in his dreams, which he pieced together into the thematic elements on Weathervanes. Without giving too much away, the story is about the relationship between the narrator – a young boy – and the ghost – a young girl – that haunts his childhood home. It’s about how she wants to be seen now that she’s gone, and how the boy can learn to be a ghost when his time comes. | |
| ND: What’s next for Freelance Whales? is there a new album in the works? | |
| J: There’s no new album, per se, but there are lots of ideas and song bits floating around. On our next tour we’re going to make a concerted effort to write together lots more, in the hopes that we can start to develop and play these new songs at shows. Many of our favorite bands are into road-testing material, and I think it’s an essential skill to have. | |
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Well, there you have it! Look out for Weathervanes April 13th on Frenchkiss/Mom & Pop Records. I’ll let Freelance Whales play us out with “Generator ^2nd Floor”: Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. |
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Lightfoot- Will Uncoil When from Brett Vaughn McCullough on Vimeo.
| So heads up on this relatively new act from Washington D.C. This lovely lady goes by many names but currently is playing under the moniker Lightfoot. She is performing live at DC’s Rock n’ Roll Hotel this Friday at 8PM. Enjoy!
PS: Check back tomorrow for my interview with Jessica (Lightfoot). Hopefully I can get all the juicy details about her songs of heartbreak. |
| So the new Spoon album has been out now for about two weeks, and I have yet to listen to it. Shame on me for being both a dedicated Spoon fan for nearly a decade now, and an avid member of the indie music community for not being all over this when it came out. But I have come to my senses and have just purchased the album (you can do so as well on the band’s merch site). I did some YouTube searching to see what live footage has been thrown up so far, and I came across this excellent live recording of “The Mystery Zone” from their performance on Santa Monica, California’s KCRW. The performance aired on January 20th as a part of the station’s “Morning Becomes Eclectic” show program. You can watch the entire performance on the station’s website. |
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