king creosote @ queen's hall, 9/29/07

though it holds over 1000, edinburgh's queen's hall felt more like a rather spacious pub for saturday's king creosote gig. shaggy, chronically unshaven, and humble, kenny anderson - the man behind king creosote and fife's fence collective - acted like the show was no more than a pub session, albeit it with a slightly bigger crowd. the prolific recluse was totally at ease for the entirety of his hour-and-a-half set, telling jokes and stories, and chatting comfortably with friends in the audience. the crowd seemed to be solid fence faithful, cheering on the pictish trail's impressive guitar solos and chuckling at inside jokes about lone pigeon (a.k.a. gordon anderson, kenny anderson's brother, who now performs with the aliens), while king creosote ate it up. one of their few gigs in scotland, and the only one near fife, the queen's hall was packed with friends, family and fans, who cheered the almost-hometown heroes on for two encores, the last song a raucous version of the aliens' "the happy song." king creosote delivered a set that was more exceptional than his recorded works, refashioning his languorous folk into exuberant rock without sacrificing the allure of old loves, playing them with an honest tenderness and tangible excitement.

virtually unknown outside the uk (and, until recently, outside of scotland), kenny anderson enjoys his anonymity. and while his latest bombshell was released by 679 records, a division of warner, it is unlikely that it was propel him to heights of fame - he joked during the set that it peaked at no. 98 before plummeting - and there's no denying that king creosote is perfectly happy with that. with around 900 people in attendance on saturday, one of the biggest crowd KC has ever played to, the overwhelming emotion one felt from the stage was fright. in his own report on the show, the pictish trail details the churning of his insides, and the first thing anderson said when he came on stage was "now, let's not pretend this isn't weird." but it wasn't, not in the slightest. in fact, it was a joy. i came without earplugs, expecting an even-handed folk show. my mistake. king creosote lost whatever fear they might have had as anderson sang, wailed, and bellowed into the mic with an intensity totally unheard on his albums. though the king creosote i saw played the same songs as the other one, there's not many other similarities between the one i saw and the one in my headphones, and i was thrilled to hear it.

before king creosote blew me away, however, emma pollock opened the show. beloved in the scottish indie scene for her work with the delgados and chemikal underground, pollock recently released watch the fireworks, her solo debut, to mild acclaim. she performed well to a good-sized crowd, though many of her songs seemed plain; warmed-over indie rock. her set was not without highlights however - her single "adrenaline" was very well received, churning and bouncing, and another standout was "acid test," an edgy song with a wickedly catchy backbeat. while nice, pollock's songs lacked zest, leaving an otherwise excited crowd stranded. though her stint as an opener was pleasant, her songwriting ability is not developed enough to make me want to hear more.

kenny anderson came onstage ahead of schedule, alone and looking a bit sheepish, to thunderous applause. deftly avoiding the praise with a few self-deprecating barbs, he picked up his guitar and opened the show with a stark solo version of "and the racket they made," bombshell's closing track. as we had seen at the avalanche instore earlier, a solo KC performance is folky and homey, and not far off from his album sounds. yet it was a calculated move, not giving away a smidgen of what the full band would unleash. anderson has been performing live with the same musicians for a while now - the pictish trail on guitar, uncle beesly on bass, and onthefly hitting the sticks - and their performance in edinburgh showed them to be not merely a touring band for anderson, but fully integrated members of king creosote, fleshing out its sound in ways anderson could never have accomplished alone.

with 34 releases under his belt, i fully expected not to know a single song king creosote played. however, they performed mostly bombshell tunes, anderson having played older fan favorites earlier in the evening at avalanche. but the crowd went wildest for songs from kc rules ok and rocket d.i.y., king creosote's previous two releases, like the boisterous "not one bit ashamed," the first full-band song KC performed, or its follow-up, "twin tub twin," which got some of the loudest applause of the night. but even cherished tunes became fresh in the able hands of the pictish trail. a fellow fence-r, the pictish trail's work has yet to cause a stir outside the fence community, but i'd wager that a lot more people will be paying attention after his guitar histrionics at queen's hall. whaling on his axe with a fury and brutality that would normally seem alien in an ostensibly folk gig (and that was obviously frightening to some of the more docile crowd members), the pictish trail nearly singlehandedly made saturday's show as good as it was. his distortion solos were as welcome as they were unexpected, but he was not the only dark horse onstage. uncle beesly, the bassist, was no mean talent either. not content to merely add depth to the KC sound, beesly produced intricate, compelling, and complementary countermelodic bass lines, adding to king creosote's live dynamism. i suppose it remains to be seen whether these changes are just live extras, or whether anderson is ready to shirk the "folk" classification that hangs to the fence master.

the set was exciting, due in a large part to the musical antics of the pictish trail and uncle beesly, but thanks mostly to kenny anderson. he joked about the pictish trail's testicles and what the durness town slogan ("don't go there") really means (it involves sheep), and had the crowd in the palm of his hand. changing from acoustic guitar to accordion, he cracked that "a real gentleman can play the accordion, but chooses not to," mere moments before launching into an epic version of "favourite girl." expected highlights were the single "you've no clue do you," "bombshell," and "at the w.a.l.," all from bombshell, but what clinched the show were the encores. yes, there were two of them. for the first, anderson once again came onstage alone, performing "admiral" to a hushed crowd and then "678" with the whole band to a giddy crowd. when they had departed, some time still left before the curfew, we waited with our fingers crossed and hoping hearts. but no one was expecting "the happy song," yet there is nothing else that KC could have played that would have been as good. tossing aside his moody troubadour guise for the evening, king creosote played what they themselves call "the best show of the tour by a million miles." all i can say is, i'm glad i was there to see it.

read the pictish trail's bandstand report for his perspective, along with a full setlist for both the instore and queen's hall sets.

emma pollock - "acid test." buy watch the fireworks from 4AD.

king creosote - "not one bit ashamed." support the fence collective.

kc rules tonight

so, tonight i'm off to see king creosote at queen's hall, which i'm totally psyched for. after his really nice set at connect, i've been eagerly waiting for this show, which should be especially good as it's his first proper scotland gig on this tour. i'm heading back to new york early on monday, and might not get around to doing another post this weekend, so i'll leave you with some old kenny anderson (a.k.a. king creosote) tracks, and one from his new album, bombshell.

when i get back home, expect a flood of concert reviews in addition to this one. at the very least, i'll be hitting up nina nastasia on wednesday at mercury lounge and subtle (who are opening for minus the bear) on friday at warsaw., both of whom i'm incredibly psyched for.

khartoum heroes - "cat-gut," from khartoum heroes
skoubhie dubh orchestra - "long pockets, short arms," from spike's 23 collection
king creosote - "nooks," from bombshell.

a great place to buy all three of these albums is at avalanche records, where king creosote is also playing instore today at 5.30. see you there.

mr. mammoth gets a makeover!

you might've noticed something new about mr. mammoth today. no, he didn't get a haircut or lose any weight, but he did get some way effing cooler - a brand spankin' new look! tearknee, our lovely artistic mastermind, designed and drew the header that you now see on the top of the page. we're really pleased to finally give mr. mammoth a recognizable face and a new colo(u)r scheme, and we hope you like it as much as we do. if you have any suggestions, leave 'em in the comments.

to celebrate, here are some rare-ish tunes.

panda bear - "bonfire of the vanities," take pills single b-side. buy panda bear stuff at paw tracks.
caribou - "stones," from the 2007 tour release. buy caribou stuff directly.

the go! team w. operator please @ edinburgh university, 9/25/07

i had a rough morning today. i could barely turn my neck, there was a dull ache in my right arm and a shooting pain in my left, and even though my ears are still ringing, i didn't mind in the least, because the go! team put on a great show last night. it was the third time i had seen them in a month (the other two being connect and abc), so there weren't any surprises, just pure, sweaty pleasure. i'm not going to bother with a full review, just a few thoughts i had about the gig, some pictures, and a bit of video.

you might be aware of how strongly mr. mammoth dislikes big venues. well, potterow (one of edinburgh university's student unions) was certainly not big. in fact, it was a pretty sweet space. its short, arched ceiling, nice wide stage, and bar at the back made for a great show, as the crazy-as-shit crowd proved. i had initially been disappointed to find out it was an all-ages show at the door, but the crowd seemed anything but. though it was the first night of the nme freshers tour (hitting up universities all over great britain), there was a strong post-student presence, which made for a less reckless drunk and more informed and energetic crowd. i was right at the front, and got pushed around constantly, but it was more activity than i've seen from a go! team crowd before, and everybody was into it. after the disappointing show at abc, it was great to see the go! team one last time on their home turf in such a good environment.

for their freshers tour, nme handpicked two bands that have received virtually no press attention - the satin peaches and operator please. the two bands are taking turns opening throughout the tour, and the satin peaches kicked the show off last night. the detroit foursome play rabid, screamy rock that, really, just sucked. frontman george morris spent most of the set proving that you don't need to be able to sing to be a singer, especially when your grating yells are backed by an inarticulate sonic mess. the sheer awfulness of their half hour set meant that a good twenty foot buffer was kept between the stage and the closest fan. not a band to watch (yet somehow, they're already signed to a major label...)

so when operator please came on stage, they could've played meandering space jams and i would've been happy - or at least happier than the satin peaches made me. but my interest was actually piqued when operator please came onstage with a keyboardist and violinist, and a drummer who couldn't have been older than sixteen (and that's being generous). and no space jams either - the quintet rocked quick and tight with songs as spastic and ferocious as anything le tigre has ever made, no mean feat for a group with half its members still in high school. though frontwoman amandah wilkinson was obviously unhappy with the sound (frequently motioning for more violin and commenting that her guitar sounded "like a gremlin"), operator please rocked the house and made many heads turn, especially mine.

operator please have commanded much attention in their home country of australia despite their young age, having won themselves a major label (boo) contract less than two years after forming. their history is quite dramatic - operator please came about as a battle of the bands experiment, but found their sound to be so compelling that they stuck it out even after winning the prize (a box of donuts). after releasing their debut ep, cement cement, to native praise, operator please have moved on with a new single "just a song about ping pong," which has completely sold out. after their rotating stint as a go! team opener, operator please is playing at least one show stateside, with land of talk and film school at mercury lounge. don't forget your dancing shoes and/or booty shaking ability.

which brings us, of course, to the go! team itself. since i've said pretty much everything a person can say about the go! team ("supercharged schoolyard funk" is probably my favorite), i don't think i should say any more. they were great, especially in the small space, and i've certainly gotten my fill of their live act, so i'm not upset about skipping their bowery ballroom show later this year. ninja had some great moves, ian parton wore the same shirt we saw him in at abc, it was the same set that we'd heard before with the same videos, and i was totally happy.

here are some mp3s and videos to keep you just as happy as me.

operator please - "just a song about ping pong." you can buy the single online.
the go! team - "milk crisis," from the proof of youth bonus disc. buy the album here.

operator please - "ghost"

the go! team - "the power is on"
(there was a security guard blocking my view of half the stage. sorry.)

september 25 is the best day ever!

...if you're looking to go broke on a bevy, nay, a slew of excellent independent releases set loose today. the obvious choice is the shepherd's dog (no shit), but dig deeper, and september 25 will reward you in ways you could not have dreamt. faced with a list longer than my arm, there are two albums released today you might overlook, but do so at your peril.

two gallants let loose with their third LP, the appropriately titled two gallants (buy), and telephone jim jesus returns with more excellent glitch-hop on anywhere out of the everything (buy). you could also shill out for the excessively-blogged about bang bang boom cake (buy), or tunng's good arrows (buy), but those come without the mammoth stamp of approval. one album that was released last week but disappointingly overlooked was jesca hoop's kismet, which will be reviewed here soon-ish. no matter what, if you're looking to empty your wallet this week, you won't be denied. if you need me, i'll be out shopping.

two gallants - "miss meri"
telephone jim jesus - "a mouth of fingers"
jesca hoop - "seed of wonder"

yeah yeah yeahs - the peel session, 8/22/02

in the course of doing research for another piece, i found a peel session the yeah yeah yeahs had recorded in 2002, one year after the release of their self-titled ep on touch & go, but before fever to tell. the four song session features three songs that would have then been new - "maps," "y control," and "tick," as well as "miles away."

yeah yeah yeahs -

"maps"
"y control"
"miles away"
"tick"

yeah yeah yeahs peel session 8/22/02

buy all the yeah yeah yeahs' albums at your finest local independent music retailer.

the shepherd's dog

the iron & wine sound has matured in the five years since our endless numbered days, and, honestly, how could we expect otherwise? forever restless, iron & wine continually reforge themselves in the crucible of sam beam's imagination, and even the two eps they have dangled before us since 2002 - woman king, their first foray with an electric guitar, and in the reins, an impressive, collaborative rethinking of some of iron & wine's oldest tunes - only began to hint at what was to come on the shepherd's dog, their third full-length. on this album, sam beam, the man who traffics under the iron & wine moniker, whose musical growth mimics that of his named medium, has matured beyond all expectations. as with wine, beam's flavors and sub-flavors have developed shades and tones, untasted at first blush. from the rough peasant red of the creek drank the cradle, burning the throat with its coarse beauty, to the marvelously aged shepherd's dog, striking the palate with a multitude of textures, it is clear that beam's time in the cellar has produced a work with unparalleled depth and complexity.

with an artist like iron & wine, whose musical maturation is evident at every stage of his recorded career, a listener's initial tendency is to compare and contrast his releases, an impulse that must be suppressed. each time sam beam consents to putting his songs on wax, iron & wine is reinvented, reshaped to the point of nearly being unrecognizable. wistfulness for the iron & wine of yore - the fireside hymns of the creek drank the cradle, the fastidious empathy of our endless numbered days, or even for the militant order of woman king - such longing does the shepherd's dog, and iron & wine, a great disservice. to plumb this album's depths, listen to it as if in a vacuum, devoid of context, with a blank slate mind, and focus on how iron & wine sound right now.

how iron & wine sound right now is pretty damn good. the shepherd's dog starts on sure footing with the lilting "pagan angel and a borrowed car," heavy on the harmonies, fiddle, mandolin, piano, marimba, and god knows what else, instantly displaying iron & wine's enthusiasm and energy. as ever, each song is immaculately arranged and orchestrated; though beam remains the crux of the band, laying down his deceptively simple sounding melodies and whispering his woes in our ears, he is joined by an exceedingly diverse collection of musicians. what all the instruments are, i can't say - all i know is that his friends (and ex-collaborators) calexico join him at least on "wolves (song of the shepherd's dog)," providing dub-esque inflections to beam's shifty and staccato melody. having long graduated from the stifling limitations of the folk-rock genre, beam flexes his songwriting muscle on the shepherd's dog, packing it with some of the finest songs he has penned thus far, dividing the album between anxious, bluesy jams like "the devil never sleeps," with its gaudy saloon piano, and the sitar-inflected "white tooth man," and delicate loveletters to melancholy: the reverbing lullaby "carousel" and "peace beneath the city," a down-home lament with a slow cello drawl. "boy with a coin," the album's first single, falls somewhere in between: a quick, hypnotic melody, backed by a handclap chorus that changes rhythm with the song's, lulling the listener into musical paralysis. the shepherd's dog closes with a waltz, a serene, humble song of simplicity and casual happiness that belies beam's overarching dissatisfaction and uncertainty. "flightless bird, american mouth" seems to resurrect, even if just for a few minutes, a ghost of americana, barnyard dances and girls with braided hair, ghosts that no longer haunt beam's lyrics.

sam beam has always been a master storyteller, metastasizing everyday incidents into profoundly raw and emotional vignettes of the human experience, capable of making our hearts ache for the tragedies of strangers. the characters of the shepherd's dog are his most human yet - flawed, suffering, and alone. this album speaks of ordinary heartbreak, of everyday tragedies that we have grown cold to - automobile accidents, absent fathers, unhappy marriages. yet through all these challenges, americans have kept their faith. inescapable in contemporary america - our president honors jesus as his greatest inspiration, having disdained our longstanding pledge to divorce church from state, while others, blinded by the limitations of two thousand year old words, blame homosexuals for inciting terrorism - but the faith that has inspired sam beam is of a humbler variety; the faith of mothers, praying for their sons at war, the hopes of boys whose fathers don't come home, the jealousy of brothers. "peace beneath the city," the album's penultimate song, is perhaps its most sorrowful, a song of wanting nothing more than a modicum of certainty about the future (or the present), a cry for assurance in a world where faith is not always enough. to create the desire for such a simple thing, iron & wine flesh out beam's quietly earnest lyrics with a languorous pedal steel, solitary handclaps, and the faint beats of a tabla, as beam mutters "black valley, peace beneath the city / where women tell the weather but the never ever tell you what they pray / they pray, 'give me a yellow brick road and a japanese car and benevolent change.'"

for the album's midpoint, "innocent bones," iron & wine do not abstract faith, but use it as a direct inspiration; here, cain and abel, born of the memory of our lost eden, are beam's protagonists. in "innocent bones," a gently lilting tune carried by sparse piano, a washboard, and beam's guitar, cain buys a knife and abel a bag of weed, and beam lays a bet that "if christ came back, he'd find us in a poker game." and while there are other direct references to christianity in "innocent bones" itself, the album as a whole generally focuses on unspoken faith, and what it has begat - american confusion. one track that highlights our national uncertainty is "the devil never sleeps," one of the most musically compelling songs on the album. upbeat with strong piano jazz and a tantalizing pedal steel in the background, flushed with energy and vigor, "the devil never sleeps" is still suffused with that tangible sense of feeling lost that muddles and confuses our everyday lives. one of its most telling lines succinctly captures our national nervousness: "all of us lost at the crosswalk waiting for the other to go / someone bet a dollar that my daddy wasn't coming home." as iron & wine is wont, the beauty of the shepherd's dog's arrangement beguiles the listener, tricking us into falsely believing that its lyrical message is as soothing as its sounds. "carousel," another standout track, entices and enchants, lulling us into a sweet stupor, even as beam sings "your grieving girls all died in their sleep / so the dogs all went unfed / a great dream of bones all piled on the bed."

after circulating for the internet equivalent of millennia, "boy with a coin" has become the ubiquitous face of the shepherd's dog, with good reason - it's a great song. but it's often difficult to tease out the meanings of songs when they arrive in an inbox devoid of context, which is how it came about that i didn't understand "boy with a coin" until i listened to the entire album. with my 20/20 of hindsight, i see now that the lyrics of "boy with a coin" are the heart of the shepherd's dog, the key that opens the lock of its meaning. the song's setting is in the debris of an automobile accident, "when god left the ground to circle the world," an idea that i believe explains the entire album. given iron & wine's history for favoring animals in his titles ("lion's mane," "the rooster moans," etc.), the shepherd's dog does not, at first glance, carry any larger meanings, any subtext that we need to read into. the portrait of a dog on the album's cover should confirm this assessment, as does "wolves (song of the shepherd's dog)" - the dog is merely an object of a song, the shepherd the same. but, while the shepherd's dog is definitely not a concept album, it does have hidden meanings, buried deep in its lyrical heart. through sophisticated use of metaphor and allegory, sam beam subtly, yet directly, challenges our modernity and our faith. the titular shepherd is no mean peasant, toiling in the hills - for beam has long outgrown any need for idyllic, pastoral metaphors - but none other than christ himself. despite the regular allusions to faith throughout the album, however, it is not about christ - it is about his dog. the dog is the essential instrument of the conventional shepherd, warding away wolves and other predators from the tender flock, too weak to protect itself and too dumb to do much else. but the dog must also direct the sheep, away from treacherous cliffs and unstable footings, guiding the flock to green pastures. the shepherd is the lord of the flock, able to decide its fate, but the dog is its true redeemer. if "god left the ground to circle the world," then maybe we cannot rely on the shepherd any longer. we must look for the dogs in our midst, guiding and protecting us, and put our faith in them, for only they can soothe our fears and show us the right path to follow, away from the precipice on which we are balanced.

iron & wine - "boy with a coin," "innocent bones"

buy the shepherd's dog from sub pop.

listen to the shepherd's dog streaming at iron & wine's myspace.

live iron & wine photos taken by gregory william wasserstrom and stephen dowling.