The Trundler: June 2012

After 2010’s sunny and spectacular Clinging to a Scheme, Sweden’s The Radio Dept. finally acquired deserved attention and a wider audience. Hopefully new listeners explored the bands prior discography, including Pet Grief and the exquisite lesser matters Lesser Matters. Released in 2003, this album comprises 13 songs concerning lost romance, life’s uncertainties, and the emotions that arise from reliving a specific time of life. Lesser Matters does all of this with a shoe-gazey sound that drips with reverb and a shimmering haze underscoring the entire album. Kicking off with Too Soon, a simmering song that gently paves the entrance for this majestic album, which fades into the quick hitting guitars and fastest paced track on the album, Where Damage Isn’t Already Done.

One of most powerful 4 track efforts I have ever heard begins with the aching 1995, a song that clearly means a great deal to the band, as they reminisce and drift away back to better times, better loves in the mid 90’s “1995 is missing buses, It’s walking 15 miles to see your love, It’s knowing you’re alive through all the fuzz, It’s never coming down from going up. And though I’m happier now I always long somehow, back to 1995.” We all share that feeling of nostalgia, of hoping against hope that the world can somehow come together as it was when every day meant waking up in a pure state of bliss. Following this devastatingly gorgeous track, comes Against the Tide, a tune that embraces fighting off the chains and always moving upstream, against what everyone else wants and simply enjoying the gifts that two people can share with one another.

Stranger Things Will Happen is sung with a female vocalist, the only track to do so, asking an important question about the odd occurrences that happen in our lives: “Today was a pretty day, no disappoints no expectations on your whereabouts, And Did I let you go? Did it finally show that strange things will happen if you let them?” The organ underlying these words enhances the significant emotional tones and truly grasps those inexplicable moments that cause us great joy and pain. Finally, Your Father closes this wondrous segment in Lesser Matters, acknowledging the pain of a lost love, especially one that was unwanted by a family member: “We were only kids when we first laid eyes on each other, Everything great but you should have warned me about your father, you finding someone else was a real blow, but will defend me, I’m drinking every day but try to behave the same way I did before, but It’s oh so hard.” This song lists just over 4 minutes, and the tension involved drags the listener into the song and an instant later the music ends, leaving us wondering if the character was able to ever recover. Closing track Lost and Found begins with a roar of static and a gentle voice crooning “But now when all is changed around, I’m buried in the lost and found.” A light guitar over the static slowly fades into silence, ending this terrific album and an epic emotional journey through this phenomenal band’s debut album.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Songs of the Century: Skeleton Key: by Margot and the Nuclear So and So's.

Opening in a haze of layered static, Skeleton Key languidly drifts along until slight percussion is slowly added and a rush of sounds carried by a despondent violin melody blooms. Richard Edwards’s vocals begin around the 50 second mark, singing in a hollow, desperate, and hurt tone. Using the idea of a key that can open any door and fit in any lock, the lyrics analogize a Skeleton Key with betrayal by a loved one, its devastating personal effects, the substances necessary to move on, and finally a complete break with the past. “Don’t claim you love me, cause you know that ain’t true, My dire affliction I’ll attribute to you, and you’re finally free to twist and turn like a Skeleton Key.”

The underlying music is haunting, brooding sullenly along to begin, but growing in steps in tune with the lyrical struggle to shrug off the pain. At times a light piano lithely bounces along with the cadence, intermingling with a quivering violin. At various intervals the music explodes and pounding drums rise to finish the song powerfully before ceding to a sad violen trailing off alone. It’s a breathtaking piece hitting emotional peaks several times with all elements of the song, and one of the best tracks I’ve ever heard.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

City Selections: San Francisco

06/09/12: Blitzen Trapper @ Mcnears Mystic Theatre

06/12/12: Here We Go Magic @ The Independent

06/14/12: Beat Connection @ Rickshaw Stop

06/14/12: Japandroids @ The Independent

06/15/12: How To Dress Well @ Rickshaw Stop

06/16/12: Jenny Lewis @ Swedish American Hall

06/16/12: Mayer Hawthorne @ The Fillmore

06/17/12: Allen Stone w/ Mayer Hawthorne @ Uptown Theatre Napa

06/17/12: Scissor Sisters @ Fox Theater

06/22/12: Grass Widow @ Verdi Club

06/25/12: 2:54 w/ Widowspeak @ The Independent

06/27+28/12: The Mountain Goats @ Swedish American Hall

06/27/12: Tanlines @ Brick & Mortar Music Hall

06/29/12: Foster the People w/ Mayer Hawthorne @ Greek Theatre

06/30/12: Big Tree @ Rickshaw Stop

07/01/12: Lower Dens @ The Independent

07/02+03/12: Mates of State @ The Independent

07/03/12: Colleen Green @ Brick & Mortar Music Hall

07/11/12: The Babies @ Hemlock Tavern

07/12/12: Codeine @ Great American Music Hall

07/15/12: Aesop Rock @ The Fillmore

07/17/12: Marissa Nadler @ Brick @ Mortar music Hall

07/17/12: Shearwater @ Bottom of the Hill

07/18/12: Talib Kweli @ Ruby Skye

07/20/12: Grass Widow @ Rickshaw Stop

07/21/12: Fresh and Onlys; Unknown Mortal Ocrchestra; Gardens & Villa; La Sera @ Portrero Del Soul Park

07/27/12: Dirty Projectors w/ Wye Oak @ Fox Theater

07/28/12: Fiona Apple @ Fox Theater

08/04/12: Dodos w/ Craft Spells @ Speakeasy

08/14+15/12: Red Hot Chili Peppers w/ Little Dragon @ Oracle Arena

08/16/12: Twin Shadow @ Great American Music Hall

08/19/12: Braid w/ Owen @ Slim’s

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

City Selections: Los Angeles Shows

Here's a listing of some concerts in the LA area; I'll be doing a series of these for a few other cities and I'll update them periodically. Next Up San Francisco. Hope you all can find a few shows out on the West Coast!

06/07/12: Kurt Vile @ Largo

06/07/12: Maps & Atlases @ Constellation Room

06/12/12: Tallest Man on Earth @ The Wiltern

06/13/12: Tallest Man on Earth @ The Wiltern

06/14/12: Freddie Gibbs @ Viper Room

06/15/12: Here We Go Magic @ Catalina Bar & Grill

06/15/12: Japandroids @ Hollywood Park

06/15/12: Mayer Hawthorne @ The Wiltern

06/15/12: Yacht @ Glass House

06/16/12: Beat Connection @ Troubadour

06/16/12: How To Dress Well @ Echo

06/16/12: Cults, Grimes, Grouplove, Dam Funk @ Make Music Pasadena (Various Venues)

06/16/12: Scissor Sisters @ Hollywood Palladium

06/20/12: Jenny Lewis @ Largo

06/21/12: Jenny Lewis @ Largo

06/26/12: 2:54 w/ Widowspeak @ Troubadour

06/27/12: 2:54 w/ Widowspeak @ Troubadour

06/27/12: The Men @ The Smell

06/29/12: Gardens & Villa @ Troubadour

06/29/12: Lower Dens @ Constellation Room

06/30/12: Foster the People w/ Mayer Hawthorne @ Gibson Ampitheatre

06/30/12: Lower Dens @ Troubadour

07/01/12: Foster the People @ Gibson Ampitheatre

07/03/12: Beach House w/ Wild Nothing @ El Rey Theatre

07/03/12: The Mountain Goats @ Claremont Folk Music Center

07/05/12: Mates of State @ Echo

07/07/12: Mates of State @ Echo

07/15/12: Shearwater @ Echo

07/17/12: Trash Talk @ Echoplex

07/20/12: Marissa Nadler @ Bootleg Theater

07/20/12: La Sera @ Echo

07/23/12: The xx @ The Fonda

07/28/12: Dirty Projectors w/ Wye Oak @ The Wiltern

07/29/12: Fiona Apple @ Hollywood Palladium

08/03/12: Real Estate @ The Fonda

08/08/12: Of Monsters and Men

08/10/12: Jack White @ Shrine Auditorium & Expo Center

08/12/12: Andrew Bird w/ Sharon Van Etten @ Greek Theatre

08/12/12: Sigur Ros @ Hollywood Forever Cemetery

08/12/12: Tennis @ El Rey Theatre

08/13/12: Tennis @ Constellation Room

08/14/12: Alabama Shakes @ The Fonda

08/14/12: Franz Ferdinand @ Glass House

08/17/12: Braid w/ Owen @ Glass House

08/21/12: Polica @ Echoplex

Monday, June 4, 2012

2012 Favorites: Frankie Rose-Interstellar

Frankie Rose, member of several bands (Vivian Girls, Crystal Stilts, Dum Dum Girls), released her second solo full length this past February. Beginning with the S/T, a drone based track to start that explodes about a minute in expanding into a furiously driven beat with pounding drums and a cooing Rose layered over them. Following this “Know Me” begins with a Cut Copy guitar line and quickly takes off and begins to develop a trademark hazy sound that accompanies the entire album.

The poppiest song “Daylight/Sky” is coupled with the most sublime “Pair of Wings;” these two tracks form a distinct centerpiece that is truly majestic. Pair of Wings opens with a shoegaze style organ that lazily moves along with Rose’s voice singing pure poetry: “All that I want is a pair of wings to fly, Into the blue of the wide open sky, Show me your scars I’ll show you mine, Perched along the city on a pair of power lines, On clouds I’ll sing and dance, I just might fall but I’ll take that chance.” As the song grows the organs are multiplied and increased in volume perfectly as those lines are repeated with an ever expanding intensity. The emotion emanating from this song is staggering as the trust and willingness given by Rose feels sacred, pure; a promise to share secrets, old wounds, and to recover from them in a magical place.

The rest of the album creeps out from the first half, always with a pounding drum driving the songs and a twinkling guitar drifting over the mix. “Moon in My Mind” and “The Fall” close the album down, each reverb soaked and culminate in a terrific ending to a terrific album and one of the best I've heard this year.