Month: June 2014

VIDEO REVIEW: Phèdre “Karmic Mechanic”

Phedre press photo

phedre_by_DIMITRI_KARAKOSTAS

Kids get bored on airplanes. To remedy this dilemma, my sister and I used to play a game while flying to numb our stinging boredom. I now know it as The Exquisite Corpse. It’s essentially a sketching game in which one player draws an appendage belonging to any phylum of flora, fauna, man or machine. The subsequent players then add their own body part to the drawing, and when the game is finished a gruesome and humorous hybrid is left on the page.

I can’t imagine this childhood pastime wasn’t on the mind of animator Leah Gold when she created the music video for Phèdre’s “Karmic Mechanic,” a number off of the band’s sophomore LP Golden Age. Phèdre has no shortage of esoteric imagery in their arsenal of videos. 2012’s “In Decay” boasted Dionysian hedonism with its food-orgy scenes, and “Sunday Someday” concluded with a family being poisoned at their dinner table. It’s therefore refreshing that the band is taking a time-out from overwrought theatrics to bring fans a short, sweet video that is more whimsical than disturbing.

“Karmic Mechanic“ begins with a wash of pale peach that is invaded by collage-like objects in the form of decapitated statue heads, painterly triangles, and a minuscule pony. The shapes flutter away to their respective places in a landscape of colorful trees and dip-dyed clouds, and in stumbles a beast of no particular species. With the limbs of a man, a spherical torso, and a head that resembles a horse-born lion, the video’s central character dances around his two-dimensional world on hinged legs, playing hackysack with an amorphous face.

A whopping 57 seconds of watch time, the visual aspects of the short are consistent with the song’s audible qualities. The track itself is a subdued pulse of electronic drums and carnival-like synths, which are made all the more strange by a kid’s vocal track. The resulting combination of childlike graphics and mythological lyrics yields a video that is equally strange as it is adorable.

Gold, who is a good friend of Phèdre’s founding members Daniel Lee and April Aliermo (formerly of Toronto’s Hooded Fang), occasionally dances with the band and has certainly picked up the duo’s sense of humor throughout their collaborations. Aliermo and Lee often belabor the point that they are simply the base components of the band, and that it is the ongoing contributions by their buddies that enrich the project.  This model is proven successful by the creation of an eerily endearing music video.

Check out “Karmic Mechanic” below, and be sure to give Golden Age (out now on DAPS Records) a thorough listen.

 

ALBUM REVIEW: Parquet Courts “Sunbathing Animal”

Parquet Courts

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Following their highly acclaimed 2012 album Light Up Gold, Brooklyn-based punks Parquet Courts delve into something more disembodied and fragmented in Sunbathing Animal, out June 3 via What’s Your Rupture? and Mom + Pop Music. Their sound is essentially the same – still plenty of the lively guitars and driving drums that drew the mass of listeners that religiously follow them now – but there’s something more exact about it, more complete. The 13-track endeavor was inspired by the band’s time on the road and that feeling of displacement and transit is reflected in the lyrics and sound.

The opening track, “Bodies,” is a great introduction to the album as it plays on themes of separation and introspection. As lead vocalist Andrew Savage sings of “bodies made of slugs and guts,” the accompanying guitar follows in spirals and the repetition of phrases and rhythms creates a nearly out-of-body experience where the mental becomes separated from the physical. This effect is repeated in “What Color Is Blood” and “Instant Disassembly” where a dissociation of body and spirit makes the listening experience that more meaningful.

Sunbathing Animal is an album that can be listened to – and should be listened to – from first track to last in order to get its full impact. Shorter, one-minute tracks like “Vienna II” and “Up All Night” act as transitional interludes that really capture the wandering sense of being on tour with the band, feeling their moments of freedom and captivity, and the not-much-longer “Always Back In Town” hinges on ebullient transience. That central theme is visited and revisited in different ways, and at every pace: “Dear Ramona” unwinds slowly for moments of contemplative limbo, “She’s Rollin” stretches into a dissonant harmonica jam by its end, “Raw Milk” captures stumbling, early morning disorientation, and the sneering “Ducking & Dodging” as well as the intense energy and searing drive of the title track are tailored for rowdy live iterations, built to anchor yet many more tour dates in DIY spaces and moldy basements of house shows. As a whole, the album is a strong sophomore follow-up to their early success, their sound more precise and their exploration of different themes relevant especially in times like these, when it often seems as if everything is always in transition.

Watch an animal sunbathing in the video below (+ tour dates):

June 2, 2014 Houston, TX – Fitzgerald’s w/ Radioactivity
June 3, 2014 Dallas, TX – Club Dada w/ Swearin’, Radioactivity
June 4, 2014 Memphis, TN – The Hi-Tone w/ Protomartyr, True Sons of Thunder
June 6, 2014 Columbus, OH – Double Happiness
June 7, 2014 Detroit, MI – PJ’s Lager House w/ Tyvek, Protomartyr
June 8, 2014 Toronto, ON – Horsehoe Tavern w/ Tyvek, Protomartyr
June 9, 2014 Montreal, QC – Il Motore w/ Tyvek, Protomartyr
June 10, 2014 Boston, MA – TT the Bears w/ Protomartyr
June 11, 2014 Brooklyn, NY – Sugarhill Supper Club w/ Protomartyr, Future Punx, Xerox
August 2, 2014 Chicago, IL – Lollapalooza
August 3, 2014 Happy Valley, OR – Pickathon

VIDEO REVIEW: Weatherbox “Pagan Baby”

Weatherbox Brian Warren

For a song about lamentation, a video paying homage to times past is the perfect eulogy for something that is lost. Gearing up adfter a hiatus of nearly five years, San Diego punk rockers Weatherbox recently released Flies in All Directions, and with it comes a video for lead single “Pagan Baby.” If you missed 2007’s American Art or 2009’s Cosmic Drama, “Pagan Baby” works well as a refresher, kicking in immediately with catchy riffing and an upbeat drum section. From there, it’s all angsty, fuzzy agoraphobia beneath sweet overtones of radio-friendly pop punk that ironically beg singing along.

The video for the track, directed by Max Moore, is a throwback to The Replacements’ “Bastards of Young” clip. The Replacements’ video made a huge impression in the mid-80’s by featuring an unbroken shot of a speaker with some vinyls stacked against it. The only listener is an unseen person that sits on a couch just out of frame smoking a cigarette. As a statement piece, it came to symbolize a rebellion against the coming age of MTV and the onset of the elaborate, glitzy music video, all by letting the music speak on its own before the anonymous guy in the video kicks the speaker in.

Similarly, the Weatherbox new video uses a static shot, but this time it begins with footage of the band performing, panning out to rest on a desk and a computer screen on which the action plays out. There’s another anonymous person on a couch, this time drinking a beer instead of a smoking a cigarette. On a basic level, the visual mirrors the reclusive comforts that frontman Brian Warren sings about in “Pagan Baby” (it’s such a nice day / let’s stay inside) by presenting a viewer content to soak in the internet instead of the sun’s rays. But implicit in this very modernized appropriation is the fact that whoever’s watching the actual video (that’s YOU, dear reader) is also watching a computer screen while life goes on beyond it.

In this way, the video’s statement speaks more on behalf of how we experience music thirty years after The Replacements used “Bastards of Young” to shows that music was becoming something that would no longer exist solely in an aural realm. We no longer kick in speakers; instead, we troll comments sections. There’s no emotion or reaction from the listener as the computer screen goes black, and why should there be? Discovering a band is less immersive and far more casual than its ever been, our pixelated rockstars filling blank moments in our lives.

Oddly enough though, Warren seems to be okay with that sea change, arguing as he does in the song’s verses and choruses that maybe there’s value in curling up inside and and “keeping a crooked life,” that sometimes that act is a necessity. Warren’s own mental health is a crucial example of this; he’s suffered near-debilitating delusions for years now, something he’s finally able to spin positively on Flies in All Directions. Though the lyrics are less than sunny, the hooks on “Pagan Baby” are ones you’ll find stuck in your head whether you’re staying home or are out and about.

Weatherbox begins their North American tour in July, see dates below.

7/11 – Atlanta, GA –  Drunken Unicorn
7/12 – Charlotte, NC – Area 15
7/14 – Baltimore, MD – Metro Gallery
7/15 – Asbury Park, NJ – Asbury Lanes
7/16 – Philadelphia, PA – The Fire
7/17 – Brooklyn, NY – St. Vitus
7/18 – Albany, NY – The Ice House
7/19 – Copiague, NY – The Wood Shop
7/20 – Boston, MA – Great Scott
7/22 – Buffalo, NY – Waiting Room
7/23 – Toronto, ON – The Cave at Lee’s Palace
7/24 – Cleveland, OH – Mahall’s
7/26 – Chicago, IL – Township
7/27 – St. Louis, MO – The Demo
7/29 – Lawrence, KS – Art Closet Studio
7/30 – Denver, CO – 7th Circle Music
7/31 – Salt Lake City, UT – Shred Shed
8/3 – Pomona, CA – Growing Up Dumb Festival

LIVE REVIEW: Willie Watson Record Release @ Bootleg Theater

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Three years ago I went to a concert in San Pedro, California. I had bought my ticket to see a British folk band, which shall remain nameless to keep focus of this article on the brilliant voice of Willie Watson, but I left the concert intensely curious about the band that had played alongside them. At that time Watson was playing with Old Crow Medicine Show and the vitality he brought to the stage was striking. He played banjo, guitar and sang; needless to say I was mesmerized by his artistry. Unfortunately a few years ago I had very forgetful tendencies and by the end of the set I couldn’t for the life of me remember his name. Then, a few months ago, I saw an ad for Willie Watson’s Record Release with a picture of him right in it. I jumped up and exclaimed with excitement; considering the fact that I was in the middle of a library my reaction probably wasn’t appreciated but was quite unpreventable.

I was ecstatic and honored to see Willie in action again, this time as a solo act, so on May 28th I strapped on my boots and headed to Hollywood with a big smile on my face. The show was at the Bootleg Theater, a venue I’d never attended before, and the dark wood floors with low lighting seemed to fit perfectly. The crowd was diverse in style and nature; one group had donned cowboy hats and boots while another rocked Vans and graphic t-shirts. Some of the people attending lived near Willie in Los Angeles and were there to support him. Others had been following him since his early days in music and sat waiting with stars in their eyes.

Willie was born in Watson Glen, New York and was introduced to great music at a young age, with Roy Orbison standing out from the crowd as Willie’s first vocal influence. Later on he became fascinated with Neil Young’s high singing register, which can be heard in Willie’s voice today. Willie spent time travelling around New York developing his sound with Ben Gould in their band The Funnest Game. The band dissolved when Willie met Ketch Secor and Critter Fuqua and they began to play around the “lively old-time music scene” in Ithaca, New York. The group busked around Canada and moved their way down to North Carolina where they officially formed Old Crow Medicine Show and were discovered by folk-country legend Doc Watson. After a long and fruitful career with OCMS, Willie split, saying that “it was time to move on and find a new situation.” I think that Willie’s time flying solo has been fruitful, with his first solo album seeing release on May 6th of this year.

Folk Singer Vol. 1 was produced by Acony Records in Nashville, Tennessee and is a mixture of classic folk and blues tunes with Willies’ personal touch added; the mix is brilliant. My favorites include “Keep It Clean,” a blues classic written by St. Louis singer Charley Jordan, and “Mother Earth” a blues song from 1951 originally recorded by Memphis Slim. While Willie was intimidated by the “singer-songwriter expectation” (meaning when he tells people that he didn’t write the songs he’s performing they seem less impressed), I think that Willie sticking to the roots of folk and blues is truly incredible. And as his old friend and producer David Rawlings has said, “Willie is the only one of his generation that can make me forget these songs were ever sung before.”

As he walked on stage the crowd erupted with hoots of delight, quickly replaced by Willie’s gritty voice and quick guitar riffs. Throughout the show Willie transitioned between banjo, guitar, and even harmonica. His performance had a sassiness to it; before one of his songs he asked the audience, “Would you folks like to hear a song about heartbreak or about a prostitute?” Of course the overwhelming response was wholeheartedly for the prostitute. When Willie performs, his voice matches his twangy back and forth gestures and recalls some combination of Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan (although he is much too humble to accept that). He had wanted this album to be “more of a listening experience” that will “take people through all walks of life,” and he’s certainly accomplished this goal during his performances by bringing in themes of heartbreak, scandalous sexual references, sing-alongs and even a bit of Willie Watson wisdom.

Many of the artists who Willie draws inspiration from have passed on, leaving only their amazing records and songs behind. To Willie these people are legends from the beginning of the folk and blues movement, and have left behind a thriving community in the artists they’ve inspired. I truly believe that Willie Watson (jerky dancing motion and all) is the next great voice revitalizing the world of folk music. I can’t wait to see what comes from him next.