popwreckoning updates |  |
- Peter Bjorn and John @ the Granada, Lawrence
- Remix Monday: Digitalism – “Taken Away”
- Joe Pernice – It Feels So Good When I Stop
- MP3 Minute: Andrew Belle “First Day of My Life” (Bright Eyes)
- Xylos – Bedrooms
| Peter Bjorn and John @ the Granada, Lawrence Posted: 01 Sep 2009 01:11 PM PDT Most everyone knows Peter Bjorn and John for the group’s popular single, “Young Folks.” For a long while, the song’s carefree whistle seemed to waft out of every car, restaurant, and apartment I passed by. No doubt that single helped PB&J attract the large crowd of starry eyed gals and floppy haired boys at the Granada in Lawrence, Kansas last Friday evening. The band’s stellar performance that night, however, ensured the audience would walk away thinking, “Wow. What a great show,” rather than, “Sweet. We got to hear ‘Young Folks.’” Lawrence locals Cowboy Indian Bear started out the evening at 9 p.m. The three piece band, composed of Beau Bruns (percussion, vocals, glockenspiel, guitar), Charles Calhoun (vocals, guitar, keys, bass, percussion), and Martinez Hillard (vocals, guitar, keys, bass, percussion), performed well. CIB’s songs contained haunting melodies and whisper-like lyrics that sounded somewhat akin to Death Cab For Cutie. The band of former members from the local acts Kennedy Luck Club and the Jen Say Kwahs were a lovely opener who set the mood of the evening appropriately. Around 9:55, Peter Moren (guitar, vocals), Bjorn Yttling (bass, keyboards, vocals), and John Eriksson (drums, vocals), took the stage quietly, and eased into their first song of the evening, “Nothing To Worry About.” After completing the song, Moren addressed the crowd humbly, and clarified who was who in the band. He also said the band had never visited Lawrence before, but stated they were having a great time. He also asked the crowd about the Jayhawks, Kansas Univesity’s championship winning basketball team. The mention was sweet, but I couldn’t help but think that Moren had addressed the audience to get the girlies to say “ooh” and “ahh,” but later, when Moren said he wanted to thank the Love Garden (a local Lawrence music store) for taking all his money, it was obvious he was being genuine. During the next few songs, Peter Bjorn and John proved they are more than a band that writes watercolor ballads with semi-sweet lyrics, and new wave songsters, who create hollow tunes, such as the Depeche Mode inspired “Chills, The.” Live, PB&J’s songs have a jaunty vibe, and sound very similar to early Beatles tunes. Towards the middle of “Living Thing,” the title track from their latest album, Moren took off across the stage, dancing at a rapid pace. He kicked up his white shoes causing his sky blue pants to slightly ruffle past his ankle, and his white shirt to rise, strained above the silver clutch of his black suspenders. As Peter strutted back and forth across the stage, the crowd around me shook and stirred, while a man back towards the merch booth waved a Swedish flag. Although Moren was the only member of the trio who busted massive moves that evening, each member put on a mini performance of their own. During “See Through,” Yttling faked a tragic death. While he lay motionless on the floor, Moren appeared in front of Yttling, “shocking” his limp body three or so times, after which Yttling leapt from the floor in a heated fervor, his solid black outfit barley amiss. During “Melt” Moren, layered in a leather jacket, white shirt, black pants and a green stocking cap, was bathed in red light as he sang and drummed the beats of the solemn melody. The middle portion of the show was filled with recognizable tunes. The crowd responded well to the slow and clompy “Amsterdam,” danced to the synth-tastic “Move Me,” and spat out the sassy lyrics to the sing along ready “Lay It Down”: “Hey shut the Fuck up boy. You’re starting to piss me off.” Before the trio started playing “Young Folks,” Moren introduced the band’s “fourth member,” and said he’d be playing a bit of drums. A serious looking Scottish man began to tap out the song’s recognizable beat, which launched a thousand screams. Although PB&J (plus the extra drummer) played most of the single as it’s known, they changed it up a bit, keeping the audience curious. PB&J finished up the main part of their show with “I Don’t Know,” and the beautiful song “Objects Of My Affection,” which sounded like a power anthem, backed to the beat of running horses. After the musicians left the stage for five minutes, the crowd quickly beckoned the members back. The trio played “Stay This Way,” “Fa Ci La” and ending with “Up Against The Wall,” which went off track for a bit, touched on Joy Division’s “Transmission,” and came back for a riotous close. I mean it. Moren rocked the f out. He busted out a crazy guitar solo while jumping from speaker to speaker. He moved about the stage in a frenzied, frantic, and fantastic fashion. At the conclusion of his surprising stage rocking performance, he walked from stage right to left, shaking the hand of every fan he could. When the house lights came up, everyone in the crowd looked a bit stunned. The three young folks from Sweden left us all in a bothered sweat; satisfied, and happy.           Set List: Peter Bjorn and John: website | myspace | @ 9:30 club | @ lolla 2009 Photos: Scott Spy Related Posts |
| Remix Monday: Digitalism – “Taken Away” Posted: 01 Sep 2009 10:40 AM PDT Digitalism is a German electronic, dance punk duo consisting of Jens Moelle and Ismail Tufekci. They have been together since 2004 and released plenty of singles, an EP, but no full length album as of yet. Digitalism has also released many remixes of various artists. They are certainly one of the most prominent and prolific electronic groups in the scene right now. .Digitalism – “Taken Away” .Gooseflesh Remix .MMMathias Remix .Justice Remix Related Posts |
| Joe Pernice – It Feels So Good When I Stop Posted: 01 Sep 2009 09:30 AM PDT As a longtime fan of the Pernice Brothers and having enjoyed Joe Pernice’s first novella, Meat Is Murder, from the 33 1/3 series, I’m looking forward to reading It Feels So Good When I Stop. However, I haven’t had a chance to read it yet, so I can only assess the album on its own worth. The album sounds as if Pernice had you over to play a random assortment of songs in his living room, and unfortunately the result simply isn’t as good as any of Pernice’s other works to date. But for whatever shortcomings it has, it was very effective at increasing my desire to read the book. So by that metric, it’s a success. The album consists mostly of acoustic covers, with three snippets from the book and one original instrumental. Not surprisingly, my favorite track is the one song that Joe Pernice wrote. After each cover, I was left wondering why he chose that song. How did it fit the text? Did the lyrics or the era appeal to him? This is especially true for songs I know well, like “I’m Your Puppet,” originally made famous by James & Bobby Purify, but written by all-star songwriters Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham. Pernice’s version drains the soul out of this great song. It is almost painful. I hope the sentiment translates in the book, because I already have a handful of versions of this song and this is the least moving. He fares better with his covers of “Dream Syndicate” and “Sebadoh” by stripping these songs of their distinct sounds and thus focusing on the lyrics, which are more involved, so it works. However, in the end, the originals are still more interesting because he isn’t adding anything new. The three excerpts are cute, like movie quotes on a soundtrack. The cover of Plush’s “Found A Little Baby” connects to the preceding quote nicely. In these instances the covers work and given the right context, they make sense. The quotes act like footnotes. I would love footnotes for each song, especially the ones that seem like odd choices, like the cover of “Chim Cheree” from Mary Poppins, which seems out of place. I look forward to listening to this album again when it serves its true purpose; to indulge the reader who, when reading about a band, wonders what they sound like. Fellow bloggers Crawdaddy! say, “Hopefully [Pernice's] literary ambitions don’t continue to prevent him from knocking it out of the park instead of floating on his baseline. But the baseline for covers collections is arguably much lower, and Pernice’s efforts here are a success for both him and the dying art of tackling (or identifying) standards.” Tracklisting: Pernice Brothers: website | myspace Related Posts |
| MP3 Minute: Andrew Belle “First Day of My Life” (Bright Eyes) Posted: 01 Sep 2009 08:19 AM PDT Chicago and Nashville-based Andrew Belle is a true working musician, playing a weekly gig at the famed Rockit club in Chi-town. Playing a mix of covers and original songs, Andrew finds his own unique voice in the songs. Here, we’ve got Andrew’s rendition of Bright Eyes‘ “First Day of My Life,” with more original and re-interpreted covers to come with the upcoming release of Sundays at Rockit. Andrew Belle – “First Day of My Life” (Bright Eyes) You may recognize Andrew’s voice from songs off his debut EP All Those Pretty Lights which were featured on TV and received nationwide airplay, including love from KCRW. Belle is now completing his debut LP, The Ladder, with Grammy award winning mixing engineer Vance Powell (The Raconteurs). Fellow bloggers Saving the Set List say of Belle: “The first time I listened to singer/songwriter Andrew Belle I knew immediately that this guy was something special. His lyrics, his voice, and his hooks all work together to form something truly enjoyable and noticeably unique.” Andrew will be playing some of his new songs when he hits the road (dates below) with Ten Out of Tenn, a diverse and unique community of artists making organic pop music in the shadows of Nashville’s slick commercial country music industry on the road supporting each other every night! Tour Dates: Andrew Belle: myspace Related Posts |
| Posted: 01 Sep 2009 07:15 AM PDT Allowing me to be a bit brash for a moment, consider yourself lucky you're hearing about this band now, well ahead of all your other friends who "remembers when" this and that band was hand printing stickers. Xylos will be your new favorite band. Xylos, a group that is composed of East Coast darlings, and who recently hit the "Bands To Know" L Magazine list, introduces themselves with a five song EP. And if you don't pick it up immediately, you should be ashamed of yourselves. They call it Bedrooms, but the album art features a skinny little thing in a bikini standing shy alone on a beach. As one giant 24 minute feast, it plays beautifully and can keep up with your musical A.D.D. In fact, there are so many different sounds and influences—Spanish guitar, electronic, world beats, Jenny Lewis-like swooning, shakers, auto-tune, heavy and soft acoustic—that it should be all wrong. Except the approach is so slight and tender, that even those slow songs come out romantic and whole. "In The Bedroom" opens with a sticky sweet rhythm and electronic accoutrement, a little like a good Discovery—in fact, if Discovery hadn't overkilled it with such ridiculous vocal manipulation, they would sound as damn good as this Xylos tune. It's not a boring first impression, even though the track carries much of the same sound, it's a good sound, and the end hints at drummer Mike Greenfield's talent. If the opener was beachy, "Wrapped In A Page" is a foggy autumn evening on a porch in the mountains. Still lingering, still bringing about a newer noise with strings floating throughout. The xylophone and percussion do a quirky duet leading to an epic verse where dubbing and boy-girl proclamations give you goosebumps. And although "Yellow Flip Flops" sounds like a sunny one meant for a walk along Long Beach Island, we hear birds, some 70s folk, and that Jenny reference I mentioned (though singer Nikki Lancy has a better composition to work with). And once again, wait for the end. There's an impressive solo bout that reminds me of a Bryan Adams riff. But pleasantly, not in that condescending, lame way. By the time "This House We Built" and "Testament" arrives, you'll understand how the EP is mood-based, never pinned down with a certain theme or heartbreak. The album was a basis for frontman Eric Zeiler's haikus. And hell, if that's what it takes, plus a group of childhood friends, a Craigslist post, and talented four (not one) songwriting minds entangling perfectly together, than expect more genius out of the English department. I recently read that the band was so young (let's hope they throw a killer one-year anniversary party this month) that they come across as amazing but raw; that they hadn't found their sound yet. And I want to scream as loud as I can that if they change, I walk. If you need more, like I did, there are some demos available on MySpace. They also drop their first full-length in the fall, to be followed with massive touring of the UK and our States. Pay attention—you'll want to be front row, and those of you that are constantly awaiting the newest indie darlings, watch for who they bring to open. Bedrooms is available now for free download on the band’s website. Get it here! Related Posts |
| You are subscribed to email updates from popwreckoning To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
