popwreckoning updates |  |
| Handsome Furs @ Mercury Lounge, NYC Posted: 10 Mar 2009 03:02 PM PDT Handsome Furs' Alexei Perry flashed a jubilant smile to her husband and band mate Dan Boeckner, and admitted to being nervous playing to a sold out crowd Friday night at NYC's Mercury Lounge. You certainly wouldn't have known it by the way she kicked off her shoes, stomped her right foot aggressively, and manhandled the synth. She looked like she was born to do this. While Boeckner may have been battling a cold, he didn't hesitate to roar through the set with a ferocity and commitment that left the audience in what felt like the aftermath of a great, lusty storm, fuzzing out everything in its path. Opening the show with the large and in charge, "Legal Tender" off their sophomore album, Face Control (Sub Pop Records), Perry and Boeckner, ablated any remaining notion that the Handsome Furs are a just a side project. Within the first few minutes of the show, Boeckner, disarming the audience with the hard hitting raw boom of his guitar and Perry defying expectation with an accelerating electronic thrash, it's clear that this collaboration is intense, fully wrought, and has a life of it's own. Boeckner, widely known for his work with Wolf Parade, showcases a much darker side here. The divergence present both on stage and in the music draws you in. His feet planted firmly like roots in the ground while her electro-beats levitate, soar, and are never still. The music is at times organic and industrial, lost and found, nostalgic yet detached, and ends up landing somewhere in the middle of a Bradbury-like landscape. While the beauty of the Handsome Furs lies in this juxtaposition, it is not to overshadow the love and passion they so clearly have for each other and the music they make, easily shown in their looming performance and the sweet, aching glances they exchanged throughout.  Related Posts |
| Posted: 10 Mar 2009 02:10 PM PDT Anarbor Free Your Mind EP Anni Rossi Rockwell :: "Ecology" BLK JKS Mystery EP Boomkat A Million Trillion Stars :: "Run Boy" Cursive Mama, I'm Swollen DM Stith Heavy Ghost Elvis Perkins In Dearland Elvis Perkins In Dearland Fight Like Apes You Filled His Head With Fluffy Clouds and Jolly Ranchers, What Did You Think Was Going To Happen From Monument To Masses On Little Known Frequencies Handsome Furs Face Control :: "I'm Confused" John Wesley Harding Who Was Changed And Who Was Dead Midnight Masses Heaven 7″ Mirah (A)Spera Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band Mt. St. Helens Vietnam Band Richard Buckner Bloomed :: "Gauzy Dress" Richard Buckner The Hill :: "Emily Sparks" Richard Buckner Impasse :: "Born in to Giving" Rocco DeLuca and the Burden Mercy The Library The Library EP :: "No Mercy, Only Violence" The Traditionist Season to Season The Weight Are Men :: "Closer Than a Friend" Wheat Medieros (re-issue) Wheat Hope & Adams (re-issue) Related Posts |
| Kathleen Edwards @ Paradise Rock Club, Boston Posted: 10 Mar 2009 10:16 AM PDT I have to admit, I have a bit of a crush on Canadian singer songwriter Kathleen Edwards. She’s got those charming girl-next-door looks, skates with hockey legends Marty Mcsorely and Paul Coffee in music videos, and isn’t afraid of a few well-place curse words. Seeing her live at the Paradise Rock Club in Boston only worsened my crush, Kathleen Edwards is one of the best live performers I’ve had the privilege to see. The music she played was wonderful but not groundbreaking and she didn’t partake in any awe-inspiring onstage theatrics. What made her show at the Paradise so amazing was her authenticity, her ability to have fun and the lighthearted repertoire between her and her band. It was like being invited into her living room to watch her perform with her best friends, telling stories in between and drinking beers. After playing the song “I Make The Dough, You Get The Glory” written about her band mate, Jim Bryson, in which she describes him in hockey terms as The Great One (Gretzky) and herself as Marty Mcsorely (the Bruiser), Bryson expresses his confusion. He questions the so-called glory he’s supposed to be getting, talks about having to live in a dump and then answers with a hilarious counter-song called “You Got the Diamonds, I Got the Shaft.” It’s laugh infectious moments like these that really made the Kathleen Edwards show a complete joy. Edwards is a good songwriter but as an onstage storyteller, she’s peerless. Where most performers only give glimpses of their lives through their lyrics, she goes out of her way to connect with the audience further, sharing hilarious yarns about getting stuck at the border and expressing her flabbergasted disappointment when Marty Mcsorely wimped out in their music video kiss, failing to give her tongue. Keeping in mood with the humor of everyone on stage they ended the set with a cover, and I kid you not, of The Outfield’s “I Don’t Want to Lose Your Love Tonight”. Everyone left that show with a grin on their face and honestly, I don’t see how anyone couldn’t be smitten with Kathleen Edwards.
Set List: Kathleen Edwards: website | myspace  Most Commented Posts |
| Paul McCartney Vegas show sells out in record 7 seconds Posted: 10 Mar 2009 08:53 AM PDT
The astonishing demand for the Macca love-in which will inaugurate The New Joint is evidenced too by sky-high prices getting asked by scalpers - the respected fansite Beatles Examiner reports one pair of top-line seats are on sale at $9,999. “It’s going to be a night like Vegas has never seen before”, said the spokesman, “Paul will leave The Joint smoking.” Get it? GET IT?!! Good show, Paul, old chap.  Photo: Ruth Ward Related Posts |
| Posted: 10 Mar 2009 08:07 AM PDT Don’t cross Christopher Browder, the man behind the biting lyrics of Mansions, or he just might write a brilliantly defaming song about you. For anybody already familiar with Mansions or the recent EP Initiative Project, many of the songs on Mansions’ debut album New Best Friends, might already be old familiar tunes, but the album collects the best of these songs into cleaned up recordings that makes this a must have for any music collection. The cloudy musical layers of distorted vocals over instrumental fuzz fittingly mirrors the cloudy issues presented in the vocals. For many of the songs, there comes a moment of clarity where the effects are removed, leaving Browder’s voice and an acoustic guitar. These naked moments, removed from the security blanket of electronic effects, often are the most self-revealing. “It was a mistake that caused your heartache,” sings Browder in “Curacao Blue”, a song of drunken betrayal, which in it’s moment of clarity reveals, “I understand exactly why I fell. I didn’t really want you myself.” “Gotta Be Alone” constantly asks the question, “Sometimes you just gotta be alone. If you can’t be happy on your own, how will you ever be happy with somebody else?” After alternating between single voice to group vocals, Browder solitarily admits, “I don’t know.” Now, Browder’s moments where he realizes something about himself are exposed and raw, but when it is somebody else he is criticizing, he has no qualms about shouting them for all the world to hear. Perhaps the strongest song on the album, “Talk Talk Talk” bluntly states, “You tell me all the things as if I care, but honey I don’t care.” On “Take It Back”, Browder sings in a way that is brutal, yet refreshing, “And while we’re on the topic, you’re an asshole.” And who else can so vehemently pull off starting a song by saying, “Fuck you and your goddamn scene” like on “The Worst Part”? There are a few songs that I questioned on the album. “Por Favor”’s mixing was rough, “Millions” doesn’t stand out next to the other gems on this album, and the lovely “Sub Angel” seemed very out of place. Granted, these criticisms hardly count. “Sub Angel” is sweet in comparison to the other songs, but still cynical and well-crafted song. No it’s just that these particular songs don’t match the weightiness of a song like the apathetic, drunken daze of “Holidaze” or the harshness of telling a person you’d be relieved if they weren’t in your life anymore as described on “Insulated”. No, the questions like that found in “All Eyes On You”, “But what would you do without the attention?” that gives a listener pause and makes this album worth spinning over and over. Summer 2009 is shaping up to be the summer that acts like Brand New, Manchester Orchestra and Kevin Devine take over the music world with new albums filled with poignant, intelligent lyrics, so impress all your friends and add to that list by tipping them off to Mansions. Tracklisting: Mansions: myspace | Mansions EP review | Talk Talk Talk EP  Related Posts |
| Tapes ‘N Tapes @ the Rock n Roll Hotel, Washington DC Posted: 10 Mar 2009 07:45 AM PDT Tapes ‘N Tapes came to town for a sold-out show at the Rock n Roll hotel on Friday. The Minneapolitans must’ve felt at home as it was another freezing weekend in DC. Having said that the main room was packed and warm and was pretty sweaty quite soon. Taking the stage around midnight, the band played a good mix of songs from The Loon, Walk it Off, and a couple of new songs, too. Sadly the sound seemed a little off throughout the night, which was surprising as I’ve been impressed by the R n R’s system in the past — it’s one of the loudest I’ve come across. Singer Josh Grier having a scratchy voice didn’t help, but the band were in good spirits, chatted with the crowd, and rolled through their set energetically.
Some of the lighter, subtler, songs got a little lost in the dense mix — “Just Drums” sounding more southern rock than the jaunty version on record, while “The Iliad” came across with a stomping glam beat. The band didn’t seem to notice though, and were visibly enjoying themselves even if they were sweating through their pants, as Grier happily shared with us. “Conquest”’s 50’s heart came across sweetly and the low key slow burn effect of Omaha was left intact. The new songs (whose names I’m going with from the set list I got a look at after the show) fitted right into the set — “SWM”‘ a springy ode full of promises to someone or other, “Hidee” more skeletal and bare. “The Dirty Dirty” is certainly a song for the times, with it’s “where did all the money go” chorus, and TnT rocked out accordingly.
The show was decent overall, though having enough bass to make my trousers vibrate was probably too much, the lack of subtlety at the sound desk not doing the band’s playfulness and variety justice. Seemed like that, as well as the heat, may have been a bit too much for others in the crowd too — not sure if an encore was planned, but the short round of cheering by a small section of the crowd at the end wasn’t enough to get one. No matter though, the show was still sold out and I’m sure DC’s mustachioed indie kids were pleased enough. Tapes ‘N Tapes: website | myspace | Walk It Off review | @ first unitarian church  Photos: Jessica McGinley Related Posts |
| You are subscribed to email updates from popwreckoning To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
Inbox too full?  Subscribe to the feed version of popwreckoning in a feed reader. | |
| If you prefer to unsubscribe via postal mail, write to: popwreckoning, c/o Google, 20 W Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
