yeasayer's take away show

heads up, y'all.

"2080"

yeasayer @ mercury lounge, 12/15/07

there was one storm that wasn't forecasted yesterday, and that was the media one in effect on the lower east side. bloggers, photographers, and media mavens of all sorts gathered at the clusterfucked mercury lounge for yeasayer's first new york show since cmj, a sold out affair courtesy of friction. the diy promoter brought together up-and-comers chairlift, team robespierre, and high places to open for the much-hyped yeasayer, with the night's only downside being the set limits (half an hour for openers, 45 minutes for the headliner). 45 minutes seemed to be the perfect length for yeasayer, whose chris keating kicked the crowd out by declaring they had no songs left, and the taster we got of the other bands was just enough to pique interest.

seeing as yeasayer hasn't played their hometown since cmj, it seemed only fitting that this show's lineup was as (future) star-studded as anything the music marathon had to offer. the show kicked off with chairlist, a lo-fi pop electronica trio that yeasayer's chris keating called "the most beautiful band in new york." they charmed the small crowd of early comers with their gentle, emotive songs, easy keyboard/guitar melodies often supported by a drum machine. chairlift embraced a decorative minimalism, the drummer eschewing a full kit in favor of only a snare and a floor-mounted tom (he also played an organ that doubled as a bass line) and singer caroline draping her keyboards with blue tinsel, a cute aesthetic that matched their cheerfully wistful tunes. their songs often seemed to be pre-made for the next wes anderson soundtrack, winding and gentle as they were.

team robespierre, much like their namesake, were harbingers of catastrophe and destruction, wreaking pure havoc on and off the stage (though without any "reign of terror" nonsense). a jarring follow-up to charlift's subdued pop, team robespierre literally ransacked the place, starting their set with a no-holds-barred stage dive. music took a backseat to energy for their set, understandable for a five-piece band with four singers, all of whom prefer making their own dance pit than playing instruments. the crowd, which had quadrupled in size since chairlift, seemed stunned by their very un-new york display of unbridled enthusiasm and dancing, the front of the floor empty save for a few intrepid souls and a guy dressed as santa. since team robespierre ditched their instruments as often as not to spazz around in the pit, it was hard to tell what they sounded like, but imagine a frenetic, dance-happy punk mashup with lots of yelling and elbows, and you're on the right track. the point of their set was to sweat and dance as much as possible, and it's safe to say that team robespierre made up for everyone else's reticence by dancing twice as hard. lead keyboardist tom even set his keys up on the edge of the stage, so he could have easier access to dancing. i don't know if it was a success - there was clapping, but most faces were incredulous or stunned - but, judging by the constant flashbulbs exploding on my retinas, team robespierre made an impression, and one hell of one at that.

high places are weird, man. the boy-girl duo said little as they sped through their set, their sound at once unique and bizarre. for one thing, they used their own speakers instead of mercury lounge's, giving them a muddy and deep sound that their instrumentation doesn't hint at. mary pearson and robert barber put a new spin on the boy-girl shtick, playing self-described "hawaiian hardcore chinese pop," which actually sums up their sound pretty well. barber plays a selection of instruments, which, from my vantage point, seemed to be mostly toy or found objects, which (i think) are then routed through some kind of receiver/looping unit. he played all his instruments with self-designed sticks, and each note of each instrument created a unique sound - i was not the only one who hoped to get a glance inside his case, because who the fuck knew what was going on in there. barber's thick sounds were perfectly complemented by pearson's airy (yet reverb-heavy) voice, but i don't think i really understood them. their sound was as globally informed as yeasayer's, but their approach confused as much as it entranced. for me, the jury's still out.

i've talked about yeasayer a lot this year, and you've probably heard about them everywhere else - they have certainly owned the latter half of this year, publicity-wise. their live show is as visually exciting as it is aurally, and though the 45 minute restriction was welcomed with boos, yeasayer rocked the house and left no one wanting. they tackled all their "hits," starting the set with the anand wilder tune "forgiveness" before breaking out "2080" to universal applause. other songs included "no need to worry," "sunrise," both seasonal songs ("summer" & "wintertime"), "final path," and a new song which, unfortunately, seemed less complex than their other work. despite that, their set was musically solid and rewarding - much heavier than all hour cymbals - a satisfying conclusion to a great night of music. if friction's job is to handpick bands that are going places, they couldn't have done better than last night's show.

probably the most exciting part of yeasayer's set was chris keating, the band's charismatic frontman. though all of yeasayer was into their performance, keating took it to another level, totally lost in the music. seemingly transported or possessed by spirits, keating fell over a couple times, broke multiple keys on his keyboard by banging them with a drumstick, and tripped over the drums. mostly, though, he swayed and jerked with a supernatural intensity, punctuating his wails by punching the air or twitching in time to the heavy sounds. i wish his energy had been infectious though; the crowd stayed placid and unmoving for their entire set in dismal contrast to the band, but yeasayer was, as always, excellent.

"wait for the summer"

chairlift - "evident utensil"

team robespierre - "ha ha ha"

high places - "new grace"

all hour cymbals

it's hard to discuss grandiose bands in simple terms. i've run into this problem every two to three minutes while conceiving this review, and it's a doozy. yeasayer is a band instructed by contradictions, a band that embraces double standards and duplicitous perspectives - in other words, the most authentic american band of the new millennium. yeasayer waves this banner high, the flag of fear and uncertainty, bedecking their sound with pangeaic rhythms from countries that we fear the most. it's a compelling hybrid, coupling worried lyrics with globally inspired sounds, and it makes all hour cymbals one of the year's most ambitious releases.

the brooklyn quartet vaulted into the musical consciousness earlier this year, after the release of "2080," the band's first single. driven by a restless bass hook, "2080" is yeasayer's multiculti paradigm, and the lens through which they will eternally be judged. charismatic and precocious, "2080" is all hour cymbals in miniature. on the track, frontman chris keating's voice is tremulous and boasts a hefty amount of reverb, begging the oft-repeated peter gabriel comparison. the linchpin of the song is the near-acapella chorus midway through, backed by bare drums, acoustic chords, and a distinctly subcontinental pan pipe melody, a carefully arranged cultural hodgepodge. such is the blueprint for the entire album, especially their repeated four-part vocal harmonies (all of yeasayer's members were in vocal groups as young men). it is keating's words, however, that inspires yeasayer's entire framework; lyrics from "2080" are not only the most often scrutinized, but they also adorn the pages of their website. deservedly so - "2080" is a capsule of fear and worry, as the graphic to your right sums up. the song opens with keating's honest fright as he sings "i can't sleep when i think about the times we've living in; i can't sleep when i think about the future i was born into," tapping into a natural (universal?) fear. but keating remonstrates us, "in 2080 a.d. i'm sure to be dead, so don't look ahead, never look ahead." fearful but determined to live for the moment, yeasayer's sprawling sound reflects our national attitude.

yeasayer has positioned themselves at a unique intersection in music, one that both defines and generates their sound. they play what is undoubtedly "world" music, called such not because they hail from a different musical heritage, but because they have assimilated (and reinterpreted) the sounds of the world. all hour cymbals features, in addition to a clear homage to genesis, peruvian pan pipes, native american and pagan imagery, african drumming patterns, the laughter of children, shaker harmonies, and sleigh bells, just to name a few. this trans-cultural borrowing is yeasayer's hallmark, along with their bizarre songcrafting. yeasayer are so deliberately progressive that all hour cymbals could be the product of a resourceful (and brilliant) one-man band, slowly layering disparate phrases until the aural goal is reached; as it is, a yeasayer song is like a mystery novel, with seemingly unrelated clues accumulating until awareness comes. yeasayer are globalization bluesmen, spinning yarns about our unsteady times with melting pot melodies.

yeasayer - "2080" (from their daytrotter session)
"sunrise" (from all hour cymbals)

all hour cymbals - first impression

okay. i bought all hour cymbals approximately 15 minutes ago, so i clearly haven't heard the whole thing yet. but no matter - it's fantastic. the same native american influences i heard at r bar are present, and even more pronounced on the record, though other comparisons may also ring true. in any event, it's already one of the most compelling debuts of the year, and may very well turn out to be one of the best albums of the year.

yeasayer is about to embark on an epic european tour.

yeasayer - "final path"

buy fine yeasayer products at their own store.

"2080"

brooklynvegan's showcase @ r bar, 10/19/07

after grabbing some lunch, i headed straight over to r bar for brooklynvegan's superawesome superfree showcase, featuring, among others, hype-heavyweights yeasayer and black kids, and my personal favorite, islands. unfortunately, i had to sit through a few rather less than excellent bands in order to see the good ones, but that's how it goes. islands deserves a full writeup, which they will get after their all-ages todd p show tomorrow, but everyone else in BV's lineup get theirs right here.

1. health - i arrived in the middle of health's set, and almost walked right back out the door. apparently, this is what noise rock actually sounds like. health = thrashy battles ripoff? gross. yet the place was packed, as it would remain to be throughout the day. when BV speaks (and offers free music), people listen.

2. mika miko - another strikeout - l.a. gutter thrash punk. watching mika miko, however, created three independent trains of thought in my head, though only one was worth following up. what i thought, and that you're welcome to comment on as well, was that punk really has no place in our culture. i mean, the ramones and the sex pistols and other seminal punk bands used their music to try and tear down the cultural edifice of complacency and acceptance - a musical revolt. and, for a time, it worked. it dramatically altered both the social and musical landscapes of great britain and the united states, and left an indelible mark on a vast majority of the music that has been created since punk's demise. and, argue this point all you want, punk is dead. hell, rock is practically dead, whatever that means. so why the hell is punk being played now? is it still a revolt? is it a dance movement? i don't know.

other thought trains:
a) this sounds like the kind of music the girls in the virgin suicides would have played if they hadn't killed themselves instead.
b) why the hell did i come so early for yeasayer?

3. yeasayer - they've been tipped as one of the hottest bands of 2007 for awhile now, and their cmj shows just confirm it. today was actually the first time i had heard them, though it wasn't at the show; fortunately, kexp had recorded a session with them yesterday, which i podcasted this morning. yeasayer live in person is even better than yeasayer live podcasted. i was initially put off by the "tribal" descriptor that kept popping up (mr. mammoth is no fan of "world" music), but the "tribal" people are talking about isn't the world kind. yeasayer, a band with three ex-choirboys (and we're talking gospel here, people), sounds like a group of shakers who channel nature spirits through volume. yeasayer's music is esoteric and engaging, drawing listeners in with deceptively soothing melodies then buttressed with, for lack of a better word, tribal rhythms. but instead of using african sounds, yeasayer incorporates native american sounds, giving their overall performance a levelheaded pagan feel. these aren't guys who worship trees, but they're clued into the magic of nature. yeasayer frequently reminded me of the black angels, in the sense that both clearly honor the native american musical tradition, something that sets both bands apart from the mainstream. in short, though, yeasayer were fucking fantastic. they have a record release party on tuesday for their first full-length at glasslands, and you can see them at glasslands tomorrow as well, right before they embark on a european tour.

4. black kids - as if they haven't had enough press already. well, here are my two cents: overhyped, overrated, and overwhelmingly mediocre. their lo-fi charm is very endearing, and very successful at hiding their real lack of talent. last time i checked, earnestness is not a substitute for skill. maybe i missed that memo. black kids were catchy, but totally juvenile, with all their lyrics having to do with middle school partying or childish crushes. reggie youngblood's voice is "distinctive," yes, but not in a good way. more in the "not a good singer" way. aside from the bassist, black kids seemed virtually unable to play a consistent melody, as most of the band dropped their hands during songs to sing along. r bar was packed, however, with a throng desperate to hear the young sensations; i wonder how many of them were as disappointed as i.

5. saturday looks good to me - slgtm played a blend of 50s and 80s pop with a midwestern sound, a la the team love crew. they seemed generally unexciting. the singer had some jeff magnum-esque melisma going on, and the bass was solid, but none of their hooks really caught my ear. anyway, i was too psyched for islands to really think of much else.

6. islands - full review soon after their todd p show today! islands go on around 6 at continental army plaza in brooklyn!