AS FAR AS BALTIMORE's musical givings go, they don't come in hordes. After casually following the steady but subtle progression of Beach House since their formation in 2005, I was astonished with the buzzing reception at their show, promoted by increasingly-esteemed club night Now Wave (motto being 'new music, and only new music that we really like'). I succumbed to the beckoning but coolly unbothered finger of Now Wave's elitist yet admirable attitude, and really, really liked Beach House's performance held within the bleak looking but apparently cosy Islington Mill.
Earlier material was kept to a minimum, much to the glee of the equally-balanced boy/girl crowd, quickly falling in love with both Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand (who recently lent her vocals to Grizzly Bear's 'Slow Life' for Twilight: New Moon.) Justly, songs from all the former albums peppered the hour-long set, but it was songs from most recent record Teen Dream that pleased Beach House's unthreateningly cool and chillaxed crowd in the Salford dungeony depths. Unarguably sounding like Nico on a happier day, and utterly true to the ethereal requirements of label Sub Pop (and internationally, Bella Union, in particular), they echoed the likes of Mazzy Star (with 'Silver Soul' specifically) and Cocteau Twins; the two also retained a charged onstage relationship that is almost cinematic; the duo seem like the softer, sweeter, art-house Jack and Meg.
And in complimentary contrast to the band's association to the aforementioned vampire-themed teen-pleasing cult, the show could have made for the ideal movie soundtrack to a Coppola film (Sofia not Francis Ford), embroiled as they were in musical bouquet. In doing so, BH defined quite darkly and dreamily the romantic turmoil of youth. Standout songs were 'Gila,' 'Walk in the Park,' 'Zebra' and 'Apple Orchard,' the latter two displaying typically BH shoe gaze/dream-pop reverb. Their live sound emitted a sleepy hypnosis that held the audience captive and half awake, albeit entranced in the most controlled and purposeful of ways.
THE VIOLATORS back Vile (real name) tonight in a sparsely populated Deaf Institute, surprisingly so for a growing left-field angst-folk name in a growing left-field venue. Still, despite seeming slightly nerved at the echoey room, Vile holds his modest own, chatting between songs, of which are each played with Philadelphian woe and sentiment that channels the likes of his childhood influences Tom Petty and Neil Young, with a noticeable modernity and edge that can only be translated through Matador’s new-ish wonder, moody Springsteen, Kurt Vile.
And following in the footsteps of his father-label 4AD peers St Vincent and Atlas Sound, his music has been whispered about all over the likes of Pitchfork over recent months giving him the platform to showcase his distinct performance before critical ears and eyes. Granted, the small crowd at this show are listening intently and did not just stumble into the bar to see any old acoustic performance. Vile sounds like Ariel Pink in tune, and displays a stage presence that slightly awkward, his long centre-parted hair covering much of his face for much of the set. Even so, the music is inviting, consuming and quite brilliant. Vile lives up the Chinese whispers within the landfill-indie network, playing eerily, beautifully, mysteriously; at times it is hard to understand from where such intense lyrics have sprung: ‘Walk down my line, Better be sure you'll be dead,’ and ‘You gonna give me a heart attack, you gonna give me a heart attack,’ seem heavy stuff for such a sweet, chilled-out looking man. No doubt it is his darker twisted side that enabled his signing to a label renowned for its sense of rebellion (Sonic Youth are also with Matador).
Despite the bewilderment factor of his lyrics, songs ‘Heart Attack,’ ‘Blackberry Song’ and his better-known ‘Freak Train’ are very well received; the acoustics are faultless alongside Vile’s voice that echoes in one’s memory for hours afterward. Not terrible for a former forklift driver.
LIVE
Julian Casablancas @ The Ritz
11.12.09
4/5
SHOCKINGLY, Casablancas is far from his usual brooding self on his solo tour, fresh off the back of his long-awaited debut record Phrazes For the Young, which incidentally is no longer awaited and came out two days after this show. This said, there was not a single fan in the house that wasn’t aware of the rock and roll treasure that was before them, and in all his newfound cheery solo freedom clearly remained the rough and growling leader of his band that we came to love last decade.
The success of Casablancas’ band with which he rose to musical celebrity gave footing to the excitement and anticipation of this show as well as it did to the expectation of disappointment for those waiting for number after number of Strokes classics. Those ignoramuses quickly and it seemed at times, almost gleefully, celebrated Julian’s failure to play all of Is This It, whilst truer and less hasty audience members enjoyed his divine, faultless set of new songs. ‘Ludlow St’ was the perfect nostalgia-toned track easing the sell-out crowd into a set that ended festively with Christmas songs and efficient soulful rock and roll from New York’s finest front man.
With standout performances of ‘Out of The Blue,’ River of Brakelights’ and standout single ‘11th Dimension,’ the collection of songs is a confident but steady one which manages to seize desperation, jubilation and nostalgia from track to track and project these emotions upon his steadfast fans. Not one to disappoint a single attendee, Casablancas threw in a wonderful rendition of early demo ‘I’ll Try Anything Once,’ if only to settle those angry peeps stuck way back in 2005. He pulled it off with laid-back charm and dignity, ever the true professional.
NAKED BICYCLE RIDES, confetti and a surreal past, present and future; The Flaming Lips burst back into town hot off the summer release of their twelfth studio album Embryonic. Regarded as both dynamic and controversial in his opinions of other musicians, Wayne Coyne challenges the boundaries of traditional rock without being a brag or a bore. When they played in Manchester, I met and sounded out the voice, mastermind, luminary and legend behind Oklahoma’s finest psychedelic rock band. In other words, the uncle we’d all love to have.
This latest tour involves much of the show and experimental theatricality that The Flaming Lips have become renowned for displaying live. Is there a starting point when planning a new tour and its updatability?
I’d say this show has been evolving since about 1999; the balloons, the confetti, the suits. Forming a new show always makes us think, what can we incorporate into what we have established already in our live act? I know there’s a certain amount of sustainability involved in the Flaming Lips identity. We saw Kiss play a couple of weeks ago and without some elements of their show, they wouldn’t be Kiss. This time we have a wonderful cosmic mother-queen who gives birth to us all onstage. She spreads her legs and we enter out of her and I roll onto the crowd in the blow-up ball. Great! And of course we get to do new songs! With all the old songs, we love the sing-a-longs like ‘She Don’t Use Jelly,’ ‘Yoshimi,’ and ‘Race for the Prize’; we love making the big songs precise and dynamic and a great experience for everyone.
Let’s talk about your new video for ‘Watching the Planets.’
The naked video! A great video! It was shot in Portland, Oregon. I’d heard a story on the radio about assembled groups of naked cyclists, and so we got in touch with them. I think we had literally a thousand people wanting to get involved with this. I came up with the concept, the whole big fur vaginal bubble thing that guys are pulled out of in the beginning, and as the storyboard went along, I thought, I guess I should get naked now. Everyone was comfortable with it. Apart from Cliff (roadie, who laughs nervously across the room).
Was it scary?
Oh yeah, there’s that horrible moment just before you get naked and all the fear and anxiety bubbles up. But then you’re naked! You’re all in it together! Luckily there was a lot of healthy, fun, enthusiastic weirdos there; there was no ‘your butt looks better than mine, your dick is bigger’ etc.
The Flaming Lips have been going for over twenty years now! Does the industry still interest you in terms of new music, and are you influenced by it?
Since 1984! When were you born? Isn’t that weird?? We’ve been around since before you were born! I was just talking to Zane (Lowe) and he asked about new stuff, and of course yeah, I love MGMT, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the new Portishead record. There’s some wonderful things happening today.
I saw your ‘fight’ with Bradford Cox on the ATP backstage video. Do you think you’d ever collaborate with him?
No, I mean, not after our falling out…I’m just kidding, wow he is great, Atlas Sound is great. Deerhunter are awesome. Probably the best thing I saw at ATP this year. The thing about Bradford is that he just real relaxed, so laid back and that’s why it works well. He’d rock to work with…
Your nephew’s band Stardeath and the White Dwarfs are on the road with you as your support. What advice would you give him?
I’m not gonna lie, he’s had it lucky that he’s seen first hand what we do from when he came into the world. But he was a roadie for us for years; he enjoys all aspects of the industry. There is no music industry unless you’re successful enough. You do your music, make your art, and make pitfalls day to day. I think he knows not to believe the hype crap, and the importance of having a contract with a label that understand you.
You made a film, Christmas On Mars. Would you recommend watching it with the family on Christmas Day or no?
It’s hopeful, funny and fantastical. It depends on the liberalness of your family I guess… for little kids, they don’t know what’s happening but a little older, like over five, it may disturb or terrify them. It looks like a whole bunch of druggie weirdness but really it isn’t that at all. It’s a Flaming Lips movie! It’s a happy one, no specific message, it’s just fun. You should watch it. It plays on cable channels on Christmas Day everywhere obviously.
To what extent are you intrigued by imagination and the way the mind works? Are you into Surrealism?
Or to whether the mind really works at all! I like everything that’s done well. What I do like is Salvador Dali. His collections are admirable because there’s so much of it, have you seen how much he did? I think he talks some bullshit but a lot of the time he’s really just painting from his emotional subconscious. He must have painted all day, every day. But people point to Surrealist concepts in terms of dreaming, thinking and designing, but Dali shows us it’s about getting up and doing it, physically making as much as you can.
So do you believe the Flaming Lips live show channels his creative drive?
I would say more Absurdist, and yeah, we do all these things without studying them too intently; I try to bombard you with enough colourful and loud things that make you just surrender and say hey, I don’t have to bestow this a meaning, it is what it is. We just like to obliterate you with the moment!
A lot of rock shows are about being cool, ya know, just about the image. We get rid of all that, there’s no grand meaning, we’re not trying to change the world. It’s a big spectacle. We’re really lucky, Warner Bros totally get what we’re about, we’re not the Beatles or anything. Not that we’re so smart, but twenty-five years on we’re still doing what we love. It’s weird.
Doesn’t time fly! What now after this tour?
IT DOES. Watching bands come and go, negotiations fabricate and fall apart. You see how fast everything turns over. As for this tour, it’s gone so quick. I don’t know that we’ve ever been free here, so to speak. There’s some great mega groups from here right…Stone Roses?
And The Smiths…
Oh god, I knew there was someone! We come here so often we forget where we are, isn’t that terrible? Well, after this - after Embryonic - is the future.
Expect more nudity, robot battles, balloons and brilliance from Wayne Coyne in years to come.
I chat with Alison Mosshart as she prepares for their Manchester date.
INTERVIEW: THE DEAD WEATHER
A DISTINGUISED COLLECTIVE - members from The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, Queens of the Stone Age and The Kills. Surely this equals fast success from day one? Alison Mosshart reveals how a drunken night in Tennessee gave birth to one of the most exciting ‘side-projects’ of the moment; where classic rock goes to expire, The Dead Weather is freed, oozing raw, sexy blues-rock upon us.
‘We were all crashing at Jack (White)’s place and started jamming; just four people in a room, seeing what happens if we hold these instruments and lock the door.’ So like a human-meets-music experiment? ‘Exactly. It started out as just fun, but it’s interesting when you’re all used to playing with other musicians, in other ways. Playing in The Kills, Jamie and I faced only one another other. It was like a conversation you’re having with somebody else; we were just almost psychically linked. The audience saw an intimacy and energy being pulled from one another. I wasn’t really ready to let go of leaning on somebody else, but when I started playing with Jack I suddenly did. I just turned and faced the crowd.’
Once Mosshart faced her crowd fear, The Dead Weather became a serious project. Was the presence of her celebrated on-stage guise VV a help in tackling such feats? ‘VV was created not so much to present another persona as a device to help plug my debut Kills stuff…’she laughs. ‘So long ago, wow…’ she trails, reflectively. ‘It stuck, huh. Between Discount (Alison’s first band when she was 14 – she is now 30) and now, I’ve learnt how to be part of a more traditional set-up definitely.’ But on how it is that something so casual became an album, followed by a tour, it seems Mosshart was as pleasantly surprised as us all.
‘It started off as a conversation between Jack and I wanting to make a 7-inch (featuring their first single ‘Hang You From The Heavens.)’ ‘We really weren’t starting a band! I guess it was a project to put out a single for Jack’s label Third Man Records. But then we found we just couldn’t stop writing. I think it was after playing a surprise show at a party that we decided to carry on playing these new songs live. Everything fell in front of us.’ Did the sudden presence of a real drummer as opposed to a drum machine as used in The Kills influence prove something hard to get used to? ‘Yes, and no. It’s a really different set-up. You can’t always rely on what’s coming next. But… working with Jack, who’s not traditional in any sense really, is always going to be unpredictable and unusual.’
So collaborating with Jack White, a man who’s almost built a musical empire from his name, and giving him prize place of control directing you with his drums - wasn’t daunting? ‘Somehow it wasn’t like stepping into a void; it was exciting knowing everything can change each night.’
White, known for his unabashed and seemingly borderless capacity for invention, has of course been the proverbial backbone to his newest venture; to him the band is perhaps just another outlet of his constant unquenchable need to make music... and direct. The circus-themed video to their latest single ‘I Cut Like A Buffalo’ is directed by White, who also features as a creepy ringmaster. In a circus, the ringmaster exhibits performers, speaks to the audience, and generally keeps the show in motion. White conducts The Dead Weather with his time-perfect and deeply unnerving drumming – and is clearly the power behind the group, with his label and iconic status. Plus, it was at his house where the band came to be. As Mosshart testifies, their dirty, bluesy rock has both a traditional formality and a White-esque contemporary quality to it that speaks to teams of audiences.
Having let debut album Horehound off its leash in July, The Dead Weather are already deep into the creation of record number two. How will it differ to Horehound? ‘I don’t know, but a hell of a lot. We wrote fifteen songs in three days, and because we’ve been playing live a lot, we’ve discovered more and more about each other’s techniques. It feels like family now.’ Well, to feel like family to the guy who claimed his wife was sister must feel pretty close.
CHARMING AND INOFFENSIVELY TWEE is on the menu tonight as another Brooklyn band hit our shores, supporting French pop rock act Phoenix. For a drizzly and newly freezing winter night, Chairlift sweep away any chills and play a delectable collection of songs from their second album released by Kanine Records, Columbia. Strangely, Chairlift are put in the same bracket as friends MGMT, and though they sound lands apart, have not hit the popularity mark of those they keep company with back across the pond. Their songs - amongst the best are ‘Garbage,’ ‘Planet Health,’ and radio-familiar ‘Bruises’- include super soundscapes and complicated keyboard and looping effects, not to mention interchangeable instrumentalists in the form of Aaron, Patrick and Caroline. Tonight, a real life drummer replaces their usual drum machine, and is the transmitter of great effect for a band who are sometimes deemed limited live. Beautiful Caroline is delicate, calming and sexually provocative with lyrics like ‘we made love with each other’s eyes…’ and (less romantic but wonderfully honest) ‘our intercourse was well-protected.’ Strange, other-worldly yet down-to-earth romantic lyrics (‘I tried to do handstands for you, I’m permanently black and blue for you’) vocals and slightly post-apocalyptic songs later, my heart is lifted from the dreary outside reality and won by wonderful Chairlift.
Our (albeit BEST LATE NIGHT SHOW) award-winning radio show is back!
Listen to NEW SLANG on fusefm.co.uk every Tuesday 10am-12pm with myself, Claire Fraser and Zara Meerza. Old music, new music, in between stuff, interviews and chat.
One of my best friends is still singing as beautifully as ever. She caused small scandals at school for writing (brilliant) songs about our peers, but one of her best tracks is 'Shakespeare' one she wrote about me and a garden pegola flying over a hedge, and back on her page after popular demand...
