mewithoutyou/Maps & Atlases/Gasoline Heart concert review

Summer time means rock show season. This past Thursday, mewithoutyou, Maps & Atlases, and Gasoline Heart played at Mac's Bar in Lansing, MI, and since I have been in the middle of nowhere for the past several months, this show was my first of the season.

First off, a big thumbs up (in the Roman sense) to Gasoline Heart's set. Their 45 minute set was comprised of incredibly unimaginative, original songs that reminded me of a bad mid-90's cover band. Both the crowd and the bartender, who was nice enough to do a shot with myself and my friends in order to numb the pain created by the excessive and retarded stage chatter of frontman, Louis DeFabrizio, were unimpressed. Their only highlight was the bassist, who seemed to be holding the band together.

Next, Maps & Atlases took the stage. At first, I had no idea what to expect seeing as I had never heard of them play before. I walked away from their set a changed man, and have never enjoyed an opener as much as I did this band. Their lead singer looks like Napoleon Dynamite, and he turned the microphone sideways in order to not face the crowd. The energy was not in their stage presence, but in the music that they played. For a more detailed review of their sound, see my post "Music Review: "Trees, Swallows, Houses" by Maps and Atlases."


Finally, mewithoutyou took the stage at about 9pm. As a recent newcomer to the experimental sounds of mewithoutyou, this was my first time seeing them live. My first experience was a few years ago at a church youth service where their song "Torches Together" was the music for some evangelism video. They have a great stage presence, and some very dedicated fans. Their live sound was both developed and well-balanced, and song transitions were seamless. What floored me the most was how open-ended their set actually seemed. Frontman, Aaron Weiss, held the crowd with his energy and humble stage commentary. One notable moment was before a song he proceeded to lightly make fun of Lansing, and midway through the song he stopped the band to apologize to the crowd and explaiin thaht he felt bad and he didn't really think ill of Lansing. Even, if there was some sort of mistake or stage mishap, the band held it together. Crowd members sang along, and during one of the encore songs, "In A Sweater Poorly Knit," a crowd member jumped on stage with a tamborine and played along with the band. Their entire set seemed like one giant collaboration between the band and the crowd, and I highly recommend seeing them again.

Overall, it was a great night held at a good sized venue, which was filled to capacity and bouncers had to turn about 100 people away at the door. The drinks were reasonably priced, and the sound was good for a small club.

Here is a review posted by Jason Carr at AbsolutePunk.net.

(Image provided by Wikipedia)

Top 5 List added

If you look at the sidebar, I have just added a "Current Top 5 Picks" list, complete with links to Amazon if you feel so compelled to buy them. I don't get a kick back for promoting that site, although I should. Enjoy.

p.s. So far, I've found that buying MP3s and download-able albums from them is cheaper than buying on iTunes.

Music Review: "Trees, Swallows, Houses" by Maps and Atlases

If you saw Maps & Atlases walk on stage, you'd think that it was the guys from Napoleon Dynamite who had just walked in holding guitars, drums, and a glockenspiel. What will mystify you, however, would be when they started playing, because you have to imagine at this point what it would sound like if you developed four add children into musical virtuosos, had them overdose on pixie sticks, and told them to write indie pop sounding songs. Or you could imagine what it would sound like if The Shins played technical music. The best part of it all is that it would make you incredibly happy to both watch and listen to them do it.

The Chicago based group's release, "Trees, Swallows, Houses," is packed with 7 rhythmically complex and melodic tracks bound to keep you on your toes for the entire EP, which is less than a half an hour in length. The first track, "Every Place Is A House," takes no shame in showing off the melodic, virtuosic guitars and bass, and the shift in time signatures by their incredibly compelling drummer. The vocals of Dave Davison, however, are what create a sense of accessibility to an otherwise overwhelming, but pleasant, sound.

The album will take several listens in order to pick up on the subtle nuances, because it's all over before you realize it and you won't know what just hit you. They are the only band I have ever heard the crowd cheer for what seemed like five minutes after they were finished playing. As of June 19th, Maps & Atlases was a pleasant surprise, and has become one of my new favorite bands of the year.

Other notable tracks are: The Ongoing Horrible, Big Bopper Anthems, The Sounds They Make, and Songs for Ghosts.

Nude Remixes

Big Ideas (don't get any) from James Houston on Vimeo.For those of you who know me well, it's no secret that I've been bitten by the Radiohead bug. Several future posts are already planned dedicated to that band alone. In more recent events, Radiohead offered individual stems from their single, "Nude," for purchase and hosted a remix contest. Some people were upset that Radiohead charged for the stems when Nine Inch Nails frontman, Trent Reznor, set up a remix contest for his band without by encouraging people to Torrent his songs, but I will also discuss this in a later post. The Nude remix contest is over, and the winners have been posted. Follow this link to hear the spor remix, which was voted the most popular remix on www.radioheadremix.com.

Embeded is a remix by James Houston, a student at the Glasgow School of Arts. Regarding his remix, Houston said, "Based on the lyric (and alternate title) "Big Ideas: Don't get any" I grouped together a collection of old redundant hardware, and placed them in a situation where they're trying their best to do something that they're not exactly designed to do, and not quite getting there [...] It doesn't sound great, as it's not supposed to." (see the rest his post here.) The result is both haunting and surreal, and reminds me of the tape music pioneered by French-born composer, Edgard Varese, in the early 20th century - something I know Radiohead would appreciate.

Album Progress

For those of you who know, don't know, might be interested, etc., my current musical project, "Seraphim," is almost ready for the release of our demo/debut album. We've been working hard since September writing, rehearsing, performing, recording, and spreading the news. The album will feature 10 original songs written by myself and the band, and it's something I'm very proud of. Close friends and family who have heard the demos in their pre-mastered stage have been very impressed so far with the result. Please see Jason Carr's blog for his current thoughts on the project. He ran sound for several of our shows this past year.

We won't release the album under the monicker "Seraphim," however, due to the fact that the name is already taken. Currently, we're in the process of brainstorming new names, album names and artwork, and shopping around for a studio to master the project before we release it.

The current image is one of our original logos, which was also painted onto a banner we would put on display behind us during our shows. I'll post more on this once we decide on a new name, and when we have some recordings up for people to hear. Jason said we'd be idiots if we didn't shop it around to record companies, and Joy, Ethan the drummer's girlfriend, posted on my facebook wall regarding the song "Come Along,"

"...come along was always my fave song of yours... but now I ABSOLUTELY love it. your voice is awesome, and the production makes it so wonderfully textured so far.."

She later told me that while listening to it the song brought her to tears.

(originally posted on 6/18/08)

The Coldplay Album I've Been Waiting For: A Review of "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends"

10 years is a long time for a band, but time has given Coldplay both perspective and maturity. Their highly anticipated release, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, shows not only lyrical growth on the part of frontman Chris Martin, but additional musical development on the part of the entire band. They've been called "Radiohead-lite," and "U2 wanna-be's", and their earlier works are guilty of near plagerization of these influences, but thanks to the work of co-producers Brian Eno, best known for his work on U2's The Joshua Tree album, and Marcus Graves, known for his work with Arcade Fire, Coldplay has learned to pay proper respect to their influences while sounding like their own band. In fact, after their disappointing effort on X & Y, which succeeded more due to marketing hype than musical prowess, Viva la Vida hails as the Coldplay album the world has been waiting for.

The ambient opener, "Life in Technicolor," and hidden track at the end of the record, "The Escapist," serve to set the album apart from the band's first three works by immediately showing off the band's new artistic and musical direction. The album isn't quite as avante-garde as the band hopes it comes across, but the work does push pop music in a progressive and promising direction. The anthemic vibes from the church organ in "Lost!" and the string-dominant title track, "Viva la Vida," display a different side of the band, a side that isn't afraid to let go of it's old tricks and crutches. The absence of repetative drum beats and piano lines is filled by hand-claps, bass drums, and intelligent lyrical writing. "42," "Lovers in Japan," and "Violet Hill," give Martin a chance to show that he learned a lesson about using the piano as a textural instrument instead of as the main driver of the song, and the band no longer sounds like four separate players, but a distinctive unit.

Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends proves itself to be a step in the right direction for one of the world's most commerically successful musical acts. As with their previous release, Coldplay assaulted the market with aggressive advertising, a free download of their first single, "Violet Hill," and an iTunes commercial. This time around, however, this critic was not disappointed and hopes that the band will continue to head keep putting their best foot forward.

To read what other critics are saying:

RollingStone.com
WashingtonPost.com
The Wall Street Journal

(originally posted on 6/17/08)

Friday, June 13, 2008 The Whole World Should Vote on the American President

"I think that, really, the fair thing would be, in electing the American president, to let everyone in the world vote, because it affects all of us," the words of Coldplay frontman, Chris Martin, in a recent RollingStone.com interview.

Seriously, man, I like your music, but really? Have the whole world vote? First off, there are so many countries on this planet that do not even believe voting is a good thing, such a statement is preposterous! Second, you have revealed once again that the rest of the world does not understand the American political process. Besides, who in their right mind would allow one's own enemies to determine the decisions affecting leadership and policy?

Martin also reveals in the interview producer, Brian Eno, when asked for constructive criticism essentially ripped the band a new one. Maybe someone should do the same with regard to his skills as a logician.

(originally posted on 6/13/08 - photo originally posted on Elisabeth Mahoney's blog at The Guardian )

Expansion

In an effort to make my blog more aesthetically pleasing, this page will contain anything music related. That includes, album and show reviews, band previews, updates on my own music projects, and commentary on the general music industry.

In order to bring this section, some of the first few posts will be repeats.