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| Interview With: The Action Design Posted: 05 May 2009 02:27 PM PDT Bethany Smith, Popwreckoning: How did The Action Design form? Joshua Hammond, Popwreckoning: How is this band different from the previous act? BS: How do fans react to the Tsunami Bomb/Action Design switch? Did they follow you over or did you get some backlash? JH: Have you guys ever played SXSW before?
JH: Ee were definitely thankful for the Power bars yesterday. BS: Who have you guys already checked out here, and who else do you wanna see?
BS: Is there one thing you wish people knew about your band, that they didn’t? The Action Design: website | myspace  Photos: Jessica McGinley Related Posts |
| The Felice Brothers - Yonder Is The Clock Posted: 05 May 2009 01:35 PM PDT For never having heard the Felice Brothers prior to this album, my intrigue for their roots rock/ revivalist folk flair escalated from the first track to the final ballad. It may be because growing up in an area where country music reigned supreme, I yearned for a massive folk revival as a substitute. But it may also be the passionate charm that accompanies their blues-ridden album, Yonder Is the Clock. Yet, this isn't the Felice Brothers' first appearance in the genre dubbed Americana–the three brothers have been pumping out folk tunes since they plucked their guitars in the depths of the New York City subway. Ian, James and Simone's musical creations are littered with reminders of their origins in the Catskill Mountains and Upstate New York. Their songs depict the simplicity of the lives they lead and the ideals they hold dear. The album begins with an eerie tune that seems to be slowly describing an impending disaster referred to as "the big surprise" that climaxes with a violent outburst of orchestrated sound. This brings me to another aspect of this album that pleasantly met my ears: the ease with which these rollicking free spirits transformed their instruments into vessels laden with onomatopoeia. The imitation of realistic sounds is quite prominent on the album. For instance, the mid-track break down in “Penn Station” consists of a synchronization of instruments that resembles an oncoming train (even accented with verbal "woo woos" at its peak). The influence of Bob Dylan is obvious in the stylistic set-up of the Felice Brothers, especially in melody and subject matter. Songs like “Chicken Wire” and “Run, Chicken, Run” emanate of gritty blues that induces involuntary foot tapping and finger snapping. The guttural, wheezy vocals interspersed between the three siblings are endearing in quality, and their often peculiar lyrics make the experience all the more enjoyable. Yonder Is the Clock is the brothers' second major album release. They will be visiting the West Coast June 13 for a bit of blues, a dash of folk, and a lot of soul at the Troubador. Tracklisting: The Felice Brothers: website | myspace  Related Posts |
| Win tickets to see The Crystal Method in Philadelphia on May 10th! Posted: 05 May 2009 11:55 AM PDT The Crystal Method will perform at Philadelphia’s Theatre of Living Arts on South Street this Sunday, May 10th as they make their way across the country. We’ve got a pair of tickets to giveaway for the show! Not sure what to get mom for Mother’s Day? Maybe she’d be down to get down to The Crystal Method as they play some new cuts from their upcoming Divided By Night album, due May 12th. Or maybe just buy her some flowers and head to the show afterwards.
To enter to win a pair of tickets to see The Crystal Method at the TLA: Follow @popwreckoning on twitter and leave a comment with your Twitter name. A winner will be picked Friday morning! Tour Dates: The Crystal Method: website | myspace  Related Posts |
| Coldplay to give free live album to fans Posted: 05 May 2009 09:33 AM PDT In an especially thoughtful gesture during this global recession, English stadium rockers Coldplay announced on their official Web site last week that they will be giving out free copies of a new 9-track live compilation called “LeftRightLeftRightLeft” to fans who see them on their 2009 summer tour, starting May 15 in West Palm Beach, Florida. The tracks were recorded at different cities during the Vida La Vida tour. Tracklisting: The album will also be available as a free download from their website starting May 15th.  Related Posts |
| Fleet Foxes & Blitzen Trapper @ The Crystal Ballroom, Portland Posted: 05 May 2009 09:16 AM PDT With such a fantastic pairing, Fleet Foxes and Blitzen Trapper show had been sold out for weeks. Of course, it never hurts when the opener can sell out the show on their own. At 9:02 I walked into the opening chords of “Sleepytime In The Western World”, one of my favorite songs off Furr. Apparently, the Crystal Ballroom runs a tight ship and are serious about their start times. I guess the carefully restored historic dance floor should have tipped me off long ago that this was not your average indie rock dive.
With only 45 minutes, Blitzen Trapper stuck almost exclusively to songs from Furr. The funky “Saturday Night” led into the thumping “God & Suicide”, which included a beautiful a cappella section that highlighted the narrow gap between the two bands. “Black River Killer” drew whoops and cheers from the crowd for the lines “So I took the first train up to Oregon / And I killed the first man that I came upon.” They closed their set with a self-described “rock block” breaking out all four guitars for wild and crunching versions of “Gold For You”, “Love U” and “Fire And Fast Bullets”. It was fantastic. Fleet Foxes kicked off their more expansive set with the beautiful a cappella “Sun Giant”, followed by the “Sun It Rises” and an awesome version of “Drops In The River”. They continued to alternate between the best EP and LP tracks, while still working in a handful of surprises.
After a pair of rocking versions of “Ragged Wood” and “Your Protector”, the band left the stage, allowing Robin Pecknold to sing a couple songs solo, including a cover version of Duncan Browne’s “My Only Son” and a new song. Although Pecknold said he wasn’t settled on the lyrics or structure contained plenty of pretty “oh oh oh’s” to satisfy any Fleet Fox fan. The second new song had the full band back on stage and featured the organ. My favorite new song, which didn’t come until the encore, seemed the most fleshed out of the three, and contained some great and spirited harmonies. Aside from playing roughly the same genre, I am not sure if the similarities between the bands were always as apparent as they were that night. Blitzen Trapper’s harmonies never sounded better and the Fleet Foxes never sounded so wild and lively. I imagine fans of only one of the bands walked away fans of both. Blitzen Trapper: website | myspace   Photos: Related Posts |
| Noah and the Whale with Anni Rossi and Ferraby Lionheart @ Black Cat, Washington D.C. Posted: 05 May 2009 07:59 AM PDT The London folky four-piece Noah and the Whale made huge waves last year with their well-received debut album Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down and memorable singles "5 Years Time" and "Shape of My Heart". Earlier this year in Hoboken, New Jersey, the band laid down the tracks to their follow-up, tentatively titled First Days of Spring, which drummer Doug Fink noted to me in a previous interview that the album will have a more electric feel than their first. So I was eagerly awaiting to hear how their new sound would compare to the whistling and fiddling so closely linked to them in my mind. The Washington D.C. date at the Black Cat on the 2nd of May was a great night of 3 great folk rock acts and capped off a 2-week jaunt across America. Coming along for the ride were two American acts – Anni Rossi and Ferraby Lionheart. In a smart, short, burgundy dress and cute white boots, Rossi was a little firecracker ready to rock. I heard a fellow gig-goer comment to his girlfriend that the mic was too low for Anni – she solved this by standing on an extra wooden platform that she used to great effect, with her boots, as percussion as she was playing. It's almost incomprehensible that she could sing so sweetly, play her viola, and stamp her feet to the beat – she was a complete one-woman band. She humorously introduced one of her songs as "being inspired by Ace of Base," which elicited delighted whoops from those of us who danced to "The Sign" in the early '90s. The highlight of her short, five-song set for me was the beautifully sung "West Coast", which felt like she was taking us on a trip across America. If you closed your eyes for a moment, you could imagine sitting in a railway car, the Sierra Madre passing you by when you glimpsed out the window. If you like Nick Drake, the Lilac Time, or Elliott Smith, you'll like Ferraby Lionheart. He has the kind of gentle, fragile voice that works exceptionally well against an acoustic guitar or lightly played piano chords. Truth be told, I knew nothing about Ferraby before coming to this gig except that the band came highly recommended from their tour mates in Noah and the Whale. I was especially taken by the romantic "Under the Texas Sky", which was even more wonderful with the cheeky line of "I miss you like a honey jar misses the bear." I don't get a chance to listen to nearly enough thoughtful singer/songwriters, so I really enjoyed Ferraby's set. I look forward to hearing the music he'll be making in the future. Now, to the main event – Noah and the Whale. They've been a mainstay of my mp3 player's song rotation since I heard "5 Years Time" late last summer for the first time on BBC Radio2 and fell in love with it instantly. (If I remember correctly, it was a new addition to the Radcliffe/Maconie show playlist.) It's not every day you have a band that has the usual elements of a traditional rock band – a vocalist with a guitar, a bassist, and a drummer – augmented with the surprisingly complementary and very un-rock instruments of fiddle, ukulele, and the occasional whistle. But it all works together like a dream with singer Charlie Fink's emotional lyrics about relationships. The band was met with thunderous applause when they first took the stage. A couple songs into their set, Charlie asked us how we were, and this question was met with cheering. The poor guy must have been waiting for us to ask him how he was doing, because he next deadpanned, "I'm fine, thanks for asking." He also later let us in on a little secret – that his voice had been giving him trouble during the whole tour, but after 2 nights of partying in New York City, he was feeling much better. Of course, the D.C. crowd ate this story up, happy to hear that vocally he could give us 100%.
Anni Rossi took the stage at singer Charlie Fink's invitation to provide backing vocals to their popular single, "5 Years Time", and Tom took a break from his fiddle and impressed me with his on-the-spot whistling. None of that frantic pressing of buttons on the iBook for this band! Charlie said he and the band were really pleased to have such an amazing reception on the last night of their all too brief North American tour, and I'm glad D.C. was able to give that to them. Their unexpected encore was a cover of the Smiths' "Girlfriend in a Coma", which was met with excited cheers. The crowd only wanted more. Noah and the Whale will certainly be welcomed back to Washington with open arms whenever their schedule allows them to return to our fair city.  Related Posts |
| Posted: 05 May 2009 07:30 AM PDT
Why? Well, there are numerous possible explanations. Many of the aforementioned artists are now in their 30s (some even their 40s) and grew up hearing Fleetwood Mac and James Taylor on the radio or had parents who would endlessly play their Jackson Browne vinyls while their children unknowingly soaked it all in. For some, those records would come to define what music meant to them. "When you listen to most of the records that really had an impact on you, they always seem to be from a different era," said Wilco front man Jeff Tweedy in an interview with Pitchfork in reference to Wilco's last album Sky Blue Sky, and its notable 70s-influenced sound. "I still don’t think that this record sounds as good as that period of music. I still don’t have any clue why. All I’m saying is I feel like we’ve gotten close enough for it to be comfortable to listen to."1 The Laurel Canyon Syndrome could also be related to the recent indie-folk boom (as seen by the success of Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes last year) in that in both cases modern audiences are turning towards more earthy, acoustic material. "I think it sort of speaks to a larger idea that people are being more and more drawn towards organic sounding music, especially in light of the so-called "digital age", you know?" said Tony Dekker of Toronto-based folk band Great Lake Swimmers in an interview I did with him for the Dalhousie Gazette. "I think that having music that sounds really organic and that traces its roots back to - not necessarily a simpler time, but something that has been passed on for centuries before the dawn of the recording - I think it allows people to connect with it on a deeper level, I guess."2 Another possible explanation is that in today's world of indie rock, for better and/or worse, many bands and artists no longer write songs with the same discipline and emotional resonance with which the Laurel Canyon songwriters debateably represented in its peak form. Jason Collett, in an interview with Scene Point Blank said, "That's the basic difference. [Broken] Social Scene [note: of which Collett is also a member] tries to take the form of a song and turn it inside out and upside down, I still am attracted to something that's ultimately a traditional form."3 In today's world of indie rock, we no longer have many Lennons, Townsends, Dylans, etc. Writers who not only knew how to compose a timeless melody, but to accompany that melody with words that had weight and meaning. Sure, songwriters like Sufjan Stevens and Okkervil River's Will Sheff may compose modern semi-masterpieces like Illinoise and The Stage Names, respectively, that are exploding with brilliant lyrics and melodies, but has either of them – or anyone else of this generation for that matter – composed anything as genuinely moving and foundational as "Won't Get Fooled Again", "Imagine", or "Tangled Up In Blue"? It seems as though ever since Dylan defined the modern concept of the songwriter in the early 60s, those who want to be taken seriously as songwriters (not musicians, but specifically songwriters) have favored a more acoustic approach that allows people to focus more on the lyrics and less on the rhythm and drive of the music. As things have worked out, many of the serious songwriters of the 60s now sound amazingly dated with the exception of Dylan, Paul Simon and Leonard Cohen. Phil Ochs, Fred Neil, and even Tim Buckley simply sound too troubadour-y for modern tastes, but for some reason "Running On Empty" is still a kick-ass song. So is "Go Your Own Way" and "You're So Vain" and everything on Court and Spark. But since then, there have been no songwriting movements on the same scale as the Laurel Canyon one. There have always been great songwriters, as there always will be, but it seems as though now, if you want to create an album that's highly personal, lyrical and earthy sounding, the best precursors to turn to are those Laurel Canyon albums. – Photos: Related Posts |
| Alexi Murdoch @ the Paradise Rock Club, Boston Posted: 05 May 2009 06:45 AM PDT Alexi Murdoch’s last full length, Time Without Consequence, was an overlooked release that became one of my favorite albums of 2006. He sings with a low droning voice that is similar in sound and style to that of Nick Drake, and plays with a simple picking style. While Alexi is hardly a household name, his song “Orange Sky” has been featured on numerous TV shows such as “The OC”, “House”, and “Prison Break”. Because he is still somewhat obscure in America, he had previously never toured here, so when I discovered that he was doing a short North American tour I jumped at the chance to see him perform live in Boston. Coincidentally, the show that I would watch at the Paradise Rock Club would be the final performance of his short North American tour. The show started off with Dawn Landes who took the stage with her band to perform some country and folk inspired music. Her name would remain strangely familiar to me until I would later remember that she is responsible for the quirky and upbeat folk cover of Peter Bjorn and John’s “Young Folks”. The music didn’t stick out to me in either a good or bad way but I was amused with the fact that the drummer would sometimes play harmonica while drumming. Due to his strange set-up, seemed to be sitting directly on his bass drum which he would slap like a donkey and at one point would be enticed up to the mic to recite his lines from a Shakespearean play he was rehearsing for, a moment that intended to be cute but would eventually outlast its welcome, culminating in an audience member yelling “Less talk, more rock!” Ouch, awkward. Murdoch’s performance was satisfying but did not exceed expectations. The thin, bearded Murdoch is the shy type whose music does not lend to spirited performances; his is the type of music that calms and incites inflection. Perfect for relaxing at home with the windows open on a sunny spring day. One strange moment during the show occurred when Alexi tried to encourage the audience to dance to one of his songs, a song that in all honesty, was not at all danceable. Did he really think that his music was what the hip young kids gathered around to dance to or was he joking with us with strange European humor? Overall he played his music flawlessly and exactly as I’ve heard and adored on his records and it made for an amazingly chill and satisfying night of music.  Related Posts |
The crowd sang along enthusiastically to songs off their first album like "Mary" (an obvious favorite of mine) and "2 Atoms and a Molecule". Another crowd favorite, "Give a Little Love", started enough like the album track we all know and love, but then, like several songs in their set, concluded with an extended all-out rocking jam outro with Charlie kneeling over his guitar, frantically fooling with some electronic gizmos on the floor, while drummer Doug, bassist Urby Whale, and fiddler/keyboardist Tom "T-Bone" Hobden were playing equally as frenetically on their instruments. As expected, we were treated to several new songs from the new album, including the title track, "First Days of Spring"; overall, the new material went down very well with the audience. My impression of these songs was that Charlie is trying a sultrier voice tone, and there's more of a harder rock edge musically with the new material, but the band's sound is still unmistakeably Noah and the Whale, with Tom’s welcome and omnipresent fiddle.
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