Take Cover

So, I've noticed as of late an onslaught of bands covering one another's songs and I thought I'd throw up a post about it.

First and definitely most noteworthy is that Art Brut and We Are Scientists have covered "The Great Escape" and "Bang Band Rock & Roll" from each other's albums (TGE is a WAS song and BBR&R is Art Brut). This is just excellent for a host of reasons, the first being that WAS and Art Brut sound nothing alike so I'm sure they will bring unique viewpoints to each of the songs. According to NME.com, Art Brut has recorded the fast paced and exciting "Escape" as an homage to Lynard Skynard's "Free Bird" (Lynne, holla!). Meanwhile WAS aimed to sound like the Velvet Underground when recording "Bang Bang" in response to an Art Brut lyric declaring their dislike for the Velvet.
Look! WAS with no beards!

But this sh*t is about to really get interesting as the two bands embark on a tour together next month. Sadly, for whatever ridiculous reason NYC has not been made a part of that tour (Art Brut will perform at Warsaw in Oct but with The Spinto Band as opener). Regardless though these two covers are destined to get the crowds roaring for what are already sick live scenes.

I'd also like to take this moment to say how much I love that WAS is friends with like every band out there. Chris Cain of WAS (bassist) appeared in a video for still relatively unknown Scottish band the Cinematics (cross btw Mogwai and Interpol - not bad, download "Break"). And they are just blowing up in Europe - all their UK shows in Oct are sold out. Yay WAS!

Second random cover to note - the Polyphonic Spree is covering Nirvana's "Lithium" on their new EP (also courtesy NME.com). I've not really too much to say about this because, well, I have no idea how it's going to sound.

And finally, this doesn't have anything to do about covering one another's songs but I heard on an NME podcast that Alex and Nick from Franz Ferdinand were most excited to see Belle and Sebastian at the Carding festival in the UK last week.

So bands like each other, listen to each other, and cover each other. What's not to love about that? All artists must be best friends and hang out all the time! I can dream, right?

Operating on The Shins

Hello friends -

Some of you might think the title of this blog entry is merely cute but, ha ha!, it has two references. 1) The Shins show I saw Thursday night at McCarren park in Brooklyn, 2) a great article I read in the Times this week about operating room music.

First things first: the Shins. Last year I saw The Shins on Coney Island when they were the opening act for the White Stripes. Perhaps due to a somewhat unfortunate pairing of the two acts, the Stripes fans and Shins fans did not mesh well when the bands started playing, repelling each other like oil and water. making for a less than desireably concert experience. This time around I approached the concert with great anticipation, hoping that now that The Shins were the opening act I could really get into their live show.

The big lesson for me from these experiences: I need to manage my expectations a little better. The Shins are excellent musicians - their music is unique, well written, exquisitely played, attending to the detail of each note and roller coaster melodies, and their albums are ones that you often find yourself enjoying time after time, year after year. While perhaps not changing your life, The Shins can certainly improve your music collection.

Unfortunately, this musical prowess doesn't translate to their live show. Its a bit of a chicken and egg scenario: fans of The Shins aren't exactly the racuous folks who are going to be dancing and jumping around when they hear those first seconds of their favorite songs. But similarly The Shins aren't the kind of band who are going to get their audience riled up. They are silly, a bit irreverent, and definitely welcome with open arms in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, but that definitely doesn't translate to crowd surfing or contageous excitement. Instead, it results in what my friend called "about 5,500 toe tappers."

Anyways - this doesn't make them any less of an excellent band to listen to, and I am eagerly anticipating their next album, which, speaking of , NME reports this week is due out January, 2007. The album is titled "Wincing the Night Away" and include tracks called 'Sea Legs', 'Red Rabbits' and 'Phantom Limb.'

Shins homepage:
http://www.theshins.com/

Shins MySpace page:
http://www.myspace.com/theshins

On a total side note, I am fascinated by music in operating rooms. The NY Times did a cute/interesting article on it this week, covering not only the musical choices of various surgeons in the NorthEast but what the protocol is for who gets to choose the musical accompanyment in the OR. Just from having shared an office once in my life, the thought of being at the mercy of one person's musical tastes is brutal. At the same time though my dad's friend is the Chief of Medicine at a hospital in New Jersey and as a huge jazz and blues afficionado I can imagine he probably broadens the horizons of many an intern in his OR.

To read the entire article click here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/10/arts/music/10doct.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5070&en=7b1445a2ca3b639b&ex=1156651200

French Licks

On heavy rotation this week in my iPod has been the latest album from Brooklyn post-rock-alterna-punk-indie band French Kicks. Although these guys are not new on the circuit by any means (they've been touring since 2000 and released their first full length album "The Trial of the Century" in 2004) they are touring again this fall so I thought it might be a nice time to revisit.

The funny thing about The Kicks is that I have a hard time comparing them to any other band out there right now. Each of their songs has its own feel: it's own distinct melody, lyrics and innovative use of instruments and voice. The first single off their recent album "Two Thousand," So Far We Are, most certainly has a twinge of The Walkmen in it (these guys are buddies and probably influence each other a bit), but the most interesting part about the song is the way the Kicks are able to stop and start the music without losing the string. It's almost like giving the listener a little tug, but in an exciting instead of scary or annoying way.

The common thread throughout the album is the feeling that each song is at this great crossroads between synthetic rock and traditional crooning/melodic piano rock. It almost gives the Kicks the kind of range that Radiohead had on The Bends - they are definitely not as hard as RH, but you can tell that the Kicks are sitting on that edge of doing something completely new without turning away listeners. It's a hard line to toe, but they do it quite well, and leaves me with the feeling that they just have the talent to keep producing excellent albums.

The Kicks will be at Bowery Ballroom on Sept 6.

Listen to tracks from their album at:
www.myspace.com/frenchkicks

Official Website:
www.frenchkicks.com

Show reviews

Hi friends!

Sorry for the lack of posting this week but I've been busy frequenting shows. In the past 7 days I've managed to fit in three pretty solid acts, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at McCarren Park Pool in Brooklyn, Dirty Pretty Things at the Bowery and Gnarls Barkley at Central Park Summerstage.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs were - as always - excellent. First to note, they played at the recently renovated McCarren Park Pool in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. For about 20+ years this public pool has been abandoned, but apparently last year someone had the brains to put it to good use and turn it into a concert venue for the throngs of hipsters who don't leave New York in the summer. The venue is phenomenal - first off, it's enormous (capacity is 5,500 people). Secondly, the set up of the actual "pool" space means that there is a lift all around the pool for folks who don't mind watching the band from afar and avoiding the fray. Warsaw - a nearby venue - I think is actually organizing the bookings for McCarren as all the amazing Polish ladies were at McCarren park serving up their Perogies and Kielbasa (reason enough to trek out there). FYI for New Yorkers, they hold parties at this venue every Sunday where bands play and DJ's spin from 2-8 in the afternoons (www.thepoolparties.com). BUT! Back to the YYYs. After a mediocre set by Sonic Youth Karen O came bounding on stage wearing what is probably best described as a pinata/birthday cake/explosion of pastel streamers. The YYYs made an conscious effort to play great selections from both albums (Gold Lion, Phenomena, YControl, Art Star, and of course, Maps) and I think were genuinely psyched to be playing to such an enormous crowd in their hometown. Despite the general elation of everyone at the venue the tension between Karen and guitarist Nick Zinner was clearly palpable. She barely interacted with him throughout the whole show and went out of her way to bring Brian Chase (the drummer) out to the crowd, but didn't acknowledge Nick at all. I read last spring in Spin that Karen didn't think the YYYs would make it past this tour, which would be a terrible terrible shame, and you could really feel it at the show.

Click on the below link to watch a video of Karen's YControl encore from YouTube (please note sequin cap).



Gnarls Barkley played last night at Central Park's Summerstage. This venue is pretty much the opposite of McCarren park - terribly organized and poorly staffed (especially re: beer). Despite the physical difficulties the show itself was pretty fun. I was definitely unaware of quite how many people were on stage for each show. They brought out 2 strings folks, 2 drummers, 3 backup singers, a keyboardist, CeLo and Danger Mouse. Matching outfits were of the prep-school variety, but it was hot enough that by the end of the show CeLo only had a wife-beater on. Overall I give the show a B - nothing particularly mind blowing but their music is fun enough that even if you are less than psyched about the venue the tunes make up for it. Plus, they led with a cover of "The Wall" by Pink Floyd and played Smiley Faces in their encore - a fave of mine.

There isn't any good video up from last night and you all know Gnarls' songs, so instead enjoy this little video of the band "Of Montreal" covering Crazy at McCarren Park a few weeks ago. Awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MshngvNaMKQ

Last but certainly not least was my favorite of the bunch - Dirty Pretty Things. I won't go into too much detail about these guys as I just wrote about the album, but suffice it to say that I think DPT is really one of a few bands out there that have a real musical talent and an amazing rapport with fans. The mood at the Bowery was literally exploding at the sight of Carl Barat. Carl's fans have stayed through some tough times with him, and to see that not only has he survived the dissolution of what many touted as one of the greatest bands to come out of the U.K., Carl has set the bar even higher with DPT. The band gels flawlessly, and not only that but you can tell they absolutely love playing with each other and adore their fan base. I think that Carl has enormous potential and fingers crossed will continue to make fantastic music.

Below a clip of Carl playing France (actually a song he wrote while in the Libs) at the Bowery. He didn't play guitar all night except for this one song (due to his dislocated shoulder).

Tour updates

Hello -

apparently all solid bands are coming to New York the 10 days out of the year that I won't be here. And, on a scale of bitter to frantic, I'm just about at teeth grinding stage.

But for all you folks - here's a list of just a few of the bands that will be hitting the east coast this fall (not just New York, but Boston, DC, Philly, etc):

Scissor Sisters - hitting the Manhattan Ballroom Oct 21 (um, if you couldn't tell, I'm pretty much in love with the sisters, Jake Shears and all other scissor sister related items. In fact, when I was at the Siren festival my friend Bridget and I actually saw them on the boardwalk, but couldn't get up the courage to say hi. So instead we awkwardly took pictures of them from a ridiculously short distance. See above pictures. Awesome.)

TV on the Radio - Irving Plaza on Oct 17 and 18. ***FYI this hasn't even been put up on Irving's website yet, but was confirmed on NME.com

Goldfrapp - Oct 18 at Roseland, one of my first posts to MOR... Love them!

Minus the Bear - Also Irving, 10/12

Art Brut - Irving, 10/19, If you haven't seen these guys I would definitely recommend. Their music composition is sub par at best but the performance is hilarious. The lead singer basically speak/yells his angst about awkward sex, his kid brother learning rock & roll, and more gems. I'd be tempted to say he's like Johnny Ramone only for his sheer ferocity, but that would unfortunately sully Johnny's name...

Anyways - as you can see, lots of good stuff just that week! The fall lineup for shows is coming together quite nicely, with several bands that made rounds this summer doing so again this fall...

Tickets available either through:
www.ticketweb.com
www.irvingplaza.com
www.ticketmaster.com

And finally - for anyone without plans the weekend of Sept 23, check out the vfestival down in Baltimore.

www.vfestival.com

Dirrrty

At this point in his career, pretty much anyone and their mother know about Pete Doherty and his drug problem. What may or may not be as apparent is that Pete was an accomplished musician before he was a disaster, and his talent was most apparent when he was playing with Carl Barat, the other singer/songwriter from British sensation The Libertines.

The Libertines put out two albums, the critically acclaimed Up the Bracket and their sophomore success self titled LP. Unfortunately, two albums was all they could get through before Pete's antics became unbearable and the band split. Pete went on to front the post-punk discombobulated band, Babyshambles, and Carl went on with other original members of the Libs to create Dirty Pretty Things.

After a couple of years underground, DPT have finally released their debut album, Waterloo to Anywhere, and it was worth the wait. The album is a compilation of just over 30 minutes of songs that are totally likeable - they've got dueling guitars, lyrics steeped in heavy rocker experience and British accents, and a beat that keeps you attune for each 3 minute song. Where Barat might lack in Doherty's musical unpredictability, emotion and sometimes genius he makes up in hard earned talent and well written songs.

From the opener, Deadwood, Barat keeps listeners interest. Highlights include "Bang Bang You're Dead" (who we all might guess is aimed towards none other than Doherty), "Gin and Milk", "Blood Thirsty Bastard" and "Last of the Small Town Playboys."

Barat's clearly had influence in a slew of bands over the past few years (most notably the Arctic Monkeys) and I hope he can take DPT to the next level of success.

DPT is currently touring in the US - they have two sold out shows at the Bowery Ballroom this week in NYC.

http://www.dirtyprettythingsband.com/index.php/gigs/

Indie Mania

Hi friends!!!

Boy has it been a long time since I last posted, and I can't tell you how psyched I am to be back on top of things. The last month has been a whirlwind, to say the least, but looks like it's easy going from here on out and back to regular posts.

Anyways - wanted to update you all on some good bands that have been swirling around lately. These guys are all much more emo/indie than I have been listening to over the last year (much more Clap Your Hands/Shins/Mates of State than We Are Scientists/Hard-Fi/Bloc Party). But truth be told there's something so soothing about an experimental, melodic, different and slightly intruiging group of songs, which is what each of these bands has put together.

First is Camera Obscura - a group of 6 Scottish lads and lasses who recently put out their third album "Let's Get Out of This Country". The six bandmates have an easy sound that makes for a cohesive group of singles, starting with the extremely catchy "Lloyd I'm Ready to Be Heartbroken" to "I Need All the Friends I Can Get" and the song from the title "Let's Get Out of This Country." Lead singer TracyAnne Campbell has a mesmerizing voice - it's soft and sweet but pulls you in at the same time, using lyrics that ring true of poignant moments in life like letting go of love. The band prop up TracyAnne's vocals with just the right amount of support, and the album is an easy addition to any collection. I will note that when I saw them at the Bowery last month they were less than stellar live - CO doesn't seem to quite have the chemistry onstage that they do in the recording studio, but regardless the album is a must have for the end of summer slow days.

http://www.camera-obscura.net/

Second band to note is Dirty on Purpose. These guys have a little more poppy edge than CO, they've played with The Arcade Fire, CYHSY, Dr. Dog (currently touring with The Raconteurs) and more. There's a nice simplicity to this band - their guitars don't veer off too wildly, and their vocals sounds like the bandmates are dancing around one another, but they add in horns to several of their songs, and simultaneously can take what at first sounds like a one note song and bridge it into a stronger, harder riff. They recently released Helleljuah Sirens, a nice compilation of their range of songs - from easy to hard, somewhat eclectic to a little more predictable. They are currrently touring and will be at South Street Seaport with The Spinto Band for free on Sept 1.

http://www.myspace.com/dirtyonpurpose

Last, but certainly not least, is Band of Horses. These guys have been making the circuit for a while now, and I'm pretty sure I've even mentioned them in this forum, but only recently have I actually started listening to the group and the buzz surrounding them. The foursome from Seattle in many ways is carrying on the tradition of great alternative bands coming from the rainy city. While they don't wear any plaid or flannel, their music is often melancholic and pensive, but surprisingly not in the way you might expect. They seem to me a funny combination of several bands - they have the unique guitar solos that I hear in Tapes n' Tapes, and the vocals could've come off of a Death Cab album, but the combination doesn't sound overplayed or used. Band of Horses has their own unique aesthetic, and the result is an album that has held its own with critics and fans alike. Horses are making an appearance in NYC in November at Webster Hall, and I will most certainly be there.

http://www.myspace.com/bandofhorses