citysol @ stuyvesant cove park, 7/14/07

first off, citysol itself was a really great time. it was a beautiful day (as o'death's greg jamie commented about three or four times) and solarone (the sponsoring organization) had set up some cool things. there was this really neat semi-enclosed food/beer space which seemed to be made solely of prefabricated wood pieces and zipties, an art exhibit (maybe?) with lots of white shirts flapping in the wind, lots of earth friendly retailers, including a lady who only made bicycle art that i wanted to buy but was too expensive, and an action booth where you could sign petitions and write letters to your assemblyperson about congestion pricing.

by the way, if you're reading this and it isn't july 16 yet, and you live in new york, please please please call your local representative and urge them to vote for congestion pricing. it is a super critical issue, especially for those of us who bike, and will bring a lot of needed tax dollars to new york, as well as cut out a lot of the smog. if you have an email address that ends with an .edu, you can sign up to read the new york times for free online, and read this article by ken livingstone, mayor of london, who imposed congestion pricing on an unwilling public some years ago, and now the measure is supported by over 2/3 of all londoners. here is a link to a photo of the flyer transportation alternatives is handing out, with all the benefits of congestion pricing, and the phone number of sheldon silver, speaker of the new york state assembly, is (212) 312-1420. i sincerely urge everyone to call him to urge him to vote for congestion pricing. thanks.

back to citysol. just a quick disclaimer - if you're looking for a les savy fav review, i can't help you. i arrived just as OCDJ was ending, so i can't tell you much about his set, except that he wore some strange muppet-esque mask over his face. but o'death - o'death was fucking awesome. i'd been waiting to see them again after the art brut show they opened, and they've only gotten better since then. frontman greg jamie told us they had just returned from europe (where one assumes they did fairly well), and they had a brand new bunch of stompers for us. now, i'll be honest - i haven't bought head home yet, but it's not because o'death doesn't kick ass - i think the production is really lousy, so i'll stick with seeing them live until their next album. as a result, i don't know most of the song titles, beyond what i've been able to glean from the hype machine. but names are neither here nor there, especially because you can hardly understand a word from greg jamie's lips. the songs are straight-up country stomp/appalachian death blues, and all of o'death looks the part, from drummer davd rb's wild eyed devil glare (especially with chain wrapped around his neck) to bassist newman's proudly displayed beer belly and armpit tattoo ("rats get fat while brave men die"). everyone has some bit of facial hair, and every one looks as if they could be carted into town to be hanged for some egregious offense when the sheriff comes to town. i was in west virginia once, when i was younger, and i was actually rather disappointed that all of its inhabitants didn't look one lick like o'death. maybe i was in the wrong (or right) part of town.
o'death's sound, so tame on the album, is blistering live. all five band members turn red in the face as they all yell into whatever microphone is nearby and kick their heels up in the middle of songs. a cup of whiskey was being passed around, which no doubt aided their performance. their entire set was outstanding. what was ostensibly their set closer, "nathaniel," started off as a slow dirge, jamie's vocals fleshed out by four riotous others bellowing sounds that weren't quite words, yet the song quickly sped up into a rampaging anthem that would not have sounded out of place in 1933 campfires, sung by men preparing to shoot it out with g-men. each and every o'death song is like having a bottle broken on your face, or feeling the white-hotness of a bullet in your side, or some human sacrificial ceremony, a raw, unblinking look at the grim actualities of life, where the first person to blinks loses. o'death is raw, desperate - they call their own sound "blackgrass" - the sound of men who have nothing to lose, singing about the things they've lost.

each time i've seen o'death, i've been struck by the simple, yet potent, d.i.y. punk aesthetic they proudly wear. greg jamie's guitar is 100% acoustic (you can see the mic cord running into it in the photo), fiddler bob pycior's bow was in tatters before the set ended, and drummer dave's kit consisted of a bass drum, two floor toms, a plastic bucket, and a ragged, jagged cymbal with pieces carved out of it. on more than one song, he used a chain to coax the right sounds out of his drums. greg jamie did not wear shoes at all during the set.

o'death's sound is one of carefully calculated anxiety - playing in minor keys; quick, nervous fiddle parts; arbitrary wails, as from a dying man, inserted in the middle of songs - the speed of their songs alone would create a deep feeling of unease in anyone, except that they are all so joyful in their performing. on songs like "adelita," they all stood up for a mid-song stompfest onstage, to bellow with equal parts of joy an sorrow for what has been and what could have been. the real set closer was an acapella rendition of a folk hymn, the name of which i (stupidly) neglected to write down. i know, shame on me. anyway, during said folk hymn, the four in the front - jamie, newman, pycior, and banjo/ukelele-ist gabe darling - dropped their instruments to caterwaul around the stage and belt out the lyrics at the top of their voices. however loud they were, it would not surprise me to learn that the only member of the band to lose his voice yesterday was davd rb, the drummer, who let out more than intermittent woops, as was most noticeable in "down to rest." o'death played one of the new songs from their daytrotter session (still untitled, as far as i know), and you can download all four songs here, and i would definitely recommend that you do.

in short, an o'death performance is not to be missed, no matter what. fortunately, they have some shows coming up, including an in-store at soundfix a week from today (the 22nd) and they're playing spiegeltent for the second year in a row on august 29. you can buy head home from ernest jennings here. there's also a video of "only daughter" below, and all of my videos from yesterday here.

the besnard lakes sucked. i don't like their music at all. what kind of band actually NEEDS three guitarists? also, it was like 4 times too loud. let's move on.

land of talk. good god, i've been waiting to see land of talk pretty much since brooklynvegan called applause cheer boo hiss, their 2006 ep, one of his favorites of the year. i just found out that they are playing soundfix later today (3pm), so i'm gonna put the pedal to the metal, so to speak, and kick the ass out of this post so i can make it down there.

land of talk fucking rocks. until i saw a video for "sea foam" they recorded for aol last week, i had no idea they were only three people - they sound much louder than that. they lived up to everything i had hoped for yesterday, and with only a seven song ep to their name, they played all my favorites (check the video for "all my friends" below and five (jeez) others at my youtube page). writing about land of talk reminds me that i may have spoken too soon in my built to spill post about the death of distortion, because land of talk has it in spades.

frontwoman/guitarist elizabeth powell masterminds every song, skillfully alternating between burrowing heavy chords and sharp individual notes, all while singing huskily into the mic. what sets land of talk apart from all the other canadian bands (seriously, they're like a plague!) is how fucking hard they rock (that, and they don't have 12-15 members). powell's voice is dynamic, able to sound entreating, commanding, naive, and ancient all at once. but in addition to powell's obvious singing/lyricist skills, she is quite the songwriter. no land of talk song is complete without jarring, frantic chords played against quick bursts of needled melodies, or off-tempo crashes followed by darting notes.
in addition to basically every song from applause cheer boo hiss, land of talk favored us with some new songs, which you can download at lullabyes. the new "some are lakes" was, as powell disclosed, was virtually written by her father, with the lyrics taken from a letter he had written to her mother. "yuppie flu" was another strong new one, as was "young bridges," a song about misheard lyrics. and speaking of misheard lyrics, i was able to clearly hear some in "speak to me bones" that had been mixing me up - a slight mistake, to confuse "stop spitting on girls you love" with "stop hitting on girls you love," especially because they're sung back-to-back, but i was pleased to hear the difference at last.

land of talk are studious performers, as is evinced from powell's fastidious tuning between each song, and it paid off. their energy was high and their personal enjoyment was obvious. powell seemed to go into a trance when she played, her eyes focused on some point in the distance, and when land of talk gathered in front of the drum kit during instrumental sections, she rarely turned towards the audience, but i don't think it's stage fright. it seems more like that miss powell gets into the zone when she plays, and nothing is going to take her away from that special place she goes to. land of talk's set was rock-solid, and i'm thrilled as fuck that i have another chance to see them today. i encourage you all to go out and see them (again) at soundfix at 3, and pick up a copy of applause cheer boo hiss while you're there. i bought my copy last night.

land of talk's sound is a descendant of dinosaur jr. or sleater-kinney, but powell adds a new level of dynamism that neither of those bands (love them as i do) have. land of talk are simply master songwriters who know their sound dynamics, the power of abrupt changes in sound levels, though they certainly know a thing or three about the importance of tempo and key versatility - in short, all the elements of songwriting that keeps music alive and fresh even after listening to it for month after month. having learned much from punk and grunge, land of talk has improved on it. their future will be bright, and, hopefully, i will be standing in the front of the crowd to see as much of it as possible.

buy applause cheer boo hiss, released by the rebel group, here.

o'death - "only daughter"


land of talk - "all my friends"

art brut - two nights for the price of two

art brut's magic has always been two-fold, from the biting witticism of lead singer eddie argos's studio lyrics to their raucous live shows that make the floors shake from the jumping. i had been smitten with art brut ever since "formed a band," the first song on last year's bang bang rock & roll, and i needed no excuse to see them this week on their american mini tour. their show at southpaw last year had literally left me floored, so it was a no-brainer when i saw they were playing at both bowery ballroom and studio b - i got a ticket for each night and made sure my dancing shoes were clean. here are the stories:

4/17/07 - bowery ballroom with ra ra riot and holy hail

i've had terrible luck getting good openers at bowery ballroom far too often. i saw the hold steady there last year, and black mountain had visa problems, so they replaced him with a judas priest cover band and a local mediocre alt-country band, a situation that seems endemic to the venue. this show's openers had a similar cobbled-together-quickly feel, with ra ra riot coming from syracuse university and holy hail from the l.e.s., no doubt. ra ra riot put on a good show for such a young band and had tons of energy, jumping around and headbutting each other, their enthusiasm making up for the lack of musical nuances. they had a cello and violin, which added a little bit of cool to their sound, which was layered and driven. however, the cello was entirely lost in the mix, though the violin came through loud and strong. their sound is not mature enough to compare it to anything like land of talk, but i would think that's where they're heading, strong repetitive guitars supporting vocal/violin melodies. maybe check them out in a few years.

holy hail, on the other hand, was downright awful. jesus. partway through their set, i started asking myself if coming tonight was even worth it, they were so bad. they had a crappy, played out, dark synthy rock sound accentuated with yelps and screams and entirely indistinguishable vocals. they didnt use much in the way of dynamics or tempo changes or any concessions to musical ingenuity and flexibility, and even stood still most of the time, just like the audience. what a mistake, coupling them with the 'brut. even worse, their set felt like forever, and was nearly 40 minutes long...i would've preferred ra ra riot played an extra 10 minutes than listen to holy hail longer. seriously gross.

but then, thank the gods, there was art brut to save the night. thanks to a vegan in brooklyn, i had downloaded five new songs and was prepared to sing along; a wise decision, since they opened the night with "pump up the volume," a seriously philosophical song that debates the wisdom of breaking from a kiss to turn up a pop song. the conclusion? well, go for the pop song, of course. other new songs included the also-downloaded "direct hit," which exhorted the crowd to move around like their shoes didn't fit, and many obeyed. by the third song, which was probably "bang bang rock & roll," the whole front of the stage was jumping and pushing and sweating...it was awesome. the crowd literally went from maybe a one on the excitement meter to at least an eleven. in addition to the brilliant "nag nag nag nag," released as a single in the u.k. last year, art brut rocked all the songs i had downloaded as well as three other new ones, "people in love," "i will survive," and "blame it on the trains" (i'm not positive about the last one). which was all good and well, and very exciting for it's a bit complicateds june 19 release on downtown, but most of the crowd obviously hadn't heard any of the new stuff, and the best responses came to favorites off bang bang. "rusted guns of milan" enjoyed a big sing along, and "bad weekend," introduced as a blues song by a blues guitarist (ian), played early in the set, got the crowd moving like mad. the biggest hit of the night, of course, was the inimitable "modern art," replete with backup vocal yelping and superincredible dancing in the pit. at the end of the song, eddie jumped into the crowd, driving everyone into a jumping screaming frenzy for at least two minutes as he navigated his way back to the stage. during "moving to l.a.," eddie displayed his airplane prowess and informed the crowd he would not only be drinking hennessey with morrissey, but that he would also imbibe rose with axl rose, stella with paul weller, and a couple other celebrities i can't remember now.

while we're on the topic of argos's in-show vocal improvisation, he does it. a lot. not only on "moving to l.a.," but on "modern art," "post soothing out," "late sunday," and a handful of other tracks, which, for me, is part of the live art brut magic. all of their antics, from jasper's pointing (eddie repeatedly claimed this stems from his inability to actually play the guitar) to argos's own fun, which happens mostly during the instrumental bits. during their inestimably fun love song "emily kane," argos jumped rope with the microphone cord and later did pushups with the same candidness and tongue-in- cheekness that is part of everything art brut does.

art brut's mission remains the same as it ever was: getting everyone in the whole world to form a band. in one of the many mid-song interludes, eddie argos ordered the crowd to go home and make a band the next day, comparing how much fun we in the pit were having with how much more fun everyone on the stage was having (apparently, they were having a whole lot more). other argos interludes included a long rant in "emily kane" about how absolutely stupid we all were to listen to people in bands, because bands lie and make things up. in interviews, argos often talks about how uncynical american audiences are, and how easily we all buy into the reality of emily kane, but why he feels so strongly that we shouldn't believe him, i don't know. there is one band that argos believes in and told the crowd to believe in as well: the mountain goats (more on this later).

art brut gave us a double encore of "my little brother" and "good weekend," which included a nice little bit of "formed a band" in the middle. argos recited his standard schtick about "good weekend"and how it was top of the pops everywhere that doesn't have top of the pops (the now-deceased british television program), including germany, sweden, portugal, narnia, hogwarts, and the american independent charts, to the great delight of the crowd. by the time they finally left the stage, it was like the rest of the night hadn't even happened.

4/18/07 - studio b with o'death

after how fucking awesome the previous night's show was, i had high expectations for this one. i had never been to studio b before, but had heard about how good the crowds are and was totally psyched for more sweaty dancing. this was a todd p show, which also contributed to my excitement, and the press on o'death has been really favorable. so, basically, my excitement was at an all-time high for this show.

it started on a bad note. i hate wearing pants to show where i know i'm gonna dance, so i wore shorts, like i did the previous night. however, i arrived at bowery ballroom after the doors opened, so i didn't get cold outside. i got the studio b right around the advertised door time of 8 pm, and then stood outside for 40 minutes for no reason along with everyone else. so that sucked and put me in a bad mood for starters. o'death was simply fabulous, however. their myspace describes them as gothic/country/punk, a fairly spot-on assessment, though i would think less punk with a double scoop of gothic. the sound itself, the fidelity, has a lot in common with iron & wine, but greg jamie's vocals are thin and reedy, almost piercingly high and melancholy like you can only get in country. you can almost taste the agony during the slow parts, and you can't help but stomping your feet when they get good and riled up, which happens often. they're all obviously very talented musicians, and i definitely want to hear a lot more from them in the future. they have a lot of mp3s here, and i'll post some at the bottom as well.

the worst part of the o'death set was that they only play for 20 minutes. what's up with that, todd p? i'll tell you what's up with that - it was for the same reason that art brut was off the stage and packing up by 11. soulwax and 2 many djs were playing a set afterwards. i really hate that shit. i didn't know that until afterwards, but it's such fucking bullshit. that, plus the awkward setup of studio b, really soured me on the venue, and i don't think i'll be going back there anytime soon (it's also fucking way far away from the L train).

i think, by the time the show started, it was another sold out one for art brut, but the dynamics were really different than the previous night. i recognized some familiar faces from the night before, but the energy level was entirely different. art brut opened the night with "pump up the volume" again, and it seemed like, right there, the second-nighters resigned themselves to the same set as at bowery. sadly, it was indeed virtually the same. they played "my little brother" during the set this time, but there weren't any different songs. there was a request for "maternity ward," but eddie said jasper didn't know how to play it. in this same vein, much of the banter was the same. there were the same exhortations to form bands, the same chiding for believing in what bands say (this time, it was except for the mountain goats and the hold steady), the same new lyrics to "moving to l.a." that was really disappointing for me, but it was understandable at the same time. the crowd was really bad, with very little dancing until 3/4 of the way through the set. even as eddie dove into the crowd during "modern art" few people were moving around. the stage at studio b is much smaller than bowery, and i maintain that small stages are terrible because it gives the crowd less space to be close to the band as well as condensing the band space. eddie couldn't move around without having to duck because of the lights, and i think it was a bad setup overall.

two nights of art brut might have been one night too many, for a few reasons. the venue and crowd at studio b was definitely to blame for a lot of the less-than-stellarness of the second night, but if art brut had made a different setlist and new jokes, that would've gotten a lot of repeat-nighters more involved. when they come back to new york, if they play two shows, i think i'll just go to one next time, but we'll have to wait and see how fucking awesome it's a bit complicated is actually gonna be. i've got the faith.

as for it's a bit complicated, it's due out on june 19 on downtown and pitchfork has the tracklist. they've also got a dvd coming out on may 22 (though eddie isn't thrilled about it...check back later for more). i've posted an o'death song and two new art brut gems, "nag nag nag nag" (though, to be fair, this has been online for at least six months) and "direct hit," both off complicated. all five of the leaked tracks are here.

o'death - "down to rest" their album head home is being re-released on june 12th by ernest jenning. check out insound.com or itunes for more.

art brut - "nag nag nag nag," "direct hit." bang bang rock & roll is still available; it's a bit complicated drops june 19 on downtown records.