Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
Retail Release Date: May 25, 2009
Leaky Faucet Acquisition Date: March 11, 2009
Phoenix is a French pop band that plays music that can only be described as Britpop. What does French Britpop sound like? It sounds like the band Phoenix. Perhaps I should explain. Continue reading “The Leaky Faucet: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix”
The Fox Theater has had a run of sold-out shows over the past few days: BB King, Band of Horses and Black Keys all sold out the 3000ish capacity Oakland theater within the last week. Yet Bloc Party hardly sold any seats above the mezzanine level. I think some folks should have chosen differently; Bloc Party was the best of them all. Bloc Party writes songs that beg you to dance, jump, sing along, and get sweaty on a crowded dance floor. And all of this happened on Monday night.
Full disclosure: Continue reading “Bloc Party at The Fox Oakland, 4/20/09”
I hadn’t planned to attend tonight’s Green Day show at the Uptown in Oakland. I knew it was happening, but I wasn’t going to get there early enough to get in line, skip Franz Ferdinand, and spend another late night with Green Day. I wanted to, but I was just going to do something different.
Then a funny thing happened. Continue reading “Green Day at The Uptown Nightclub, 4/15/2009”
There was a lot of discussion in the weeks leading up to this show about why it was happening now. None of that seemed to matter when I saw the marquee, pictured above, with the name and dates. It was really Leonard Cohen, live in concert!
I’d listened to the NPR recording a few times; needed to make sure he was still going to sound good at age 74 before I made the effort to go to the show. There’s nothing worse than going to see a legendary act and have that act look and sound awful. It can ruin all the memories. But the NPR recording sounded so good, I came in with high hopes. Continue reading “Leonard Cohen at The Paramount Theater, 4/13/2009”
The Anvil Experience at Slim’s promised a preview screening of the documentary Anvil! The Story of Anvil followed by a live performance by the band itself. I figured this was going to the best possible way to see this movie, so off I went.
I’d be lying if I said I were familiar with Anvil. Their name sounds familiar, but it’s so generic, it would sound familiar to anyone, I’d imagine. They are a Canadian metal band that’s been playing together since 1978, and although they were influence on a few more famous bands, they never found success themselves. Thirty years later, they still play together and try to make their rock and roll dreams come through. The band goes on a comically bad tour of Europe, tries to get a record deal, and just try to keep themselves together as a band.
I’ve seen interviews where the band’s leader “Lips” does not like comparisons to This Is Spinal Tap, but here comes some. And if he has anyone to blame, it’s the director. There are some spoilers in the next bullet points, both for Anvil! and This Is Spinal Tap, so be warned. Continue reading “The Anvil Experience at Slim’s 4/12/2009”
I thought I was seeing a White Lies show, and it was nice that Friendly Fires were playing. But by the time the show was over, it was clear I had seen a Friendly Fires show, and that it was nice that White Lies were playing.
I got there right as White Lies were taking the stage. (There was an opener called The Soft Pack but I was unable to see their set. Other reviewers might lie about this.) I like White Lies album a lot, and the music sounds good live. It’s just that they don’t do much on stage. They just stand there. Their music calls for them to be dressed better, too. I still like the album, but their set left me cold.
I scooted up front with some friends to watch Friendly Fires, and this band is a great time! The songs sound so lively on stage, and the band performs with a catchy intensity. It makes it hard to not dance. There was, in fact, much dancing. I still can’t recommend their album other than as a demo for their live show. Their set was only 40 minutes or so; they’re going to need more material to become a true headlining band. But if you are at a festival where they’re playing, make a point of visiting their stage.
When the email came through announcing that Green Day was playing the Independent (a 500-or-so capacity venue in San Francisco) that same night, I bought tickets before I could consider whether I could actually go. How did I get the email fast enough to buy tickets? I thank Blackberry push email. Thanks Blackberry!
When I arrived, there was still a lengthy line at will call. There were folks walking up and down the line offering big money for tickets, but I decided $200 a ticket wasn’t worth both missing the show and the ribbing I would take from people for missing the show. (My price was going to be $500 a ticket, but I wasn’t going to ask and no one was going to offer.) Besides, you wouldn’t be reading this if I had taken the money, and you–the readers–are very important.
As expected the show leaned heavily on the material from the new album. Thanks to the photo above and Wikipedia, I was able to determine the likely song titles for everything they played. The setlists and my full review are below:
Silversun Pickups – Swoon.
Retail Release Date: April 14, 2009
The Leaky Faucet Acquisition Date: March 26, 2009
The Silversun Pickups new album Swoon landed on my hard drive last week. I wasn’t thrilled with the last Silversun Pickups album. I really liked their live show, but the energy of that show didn’t end up on the record. This album continues that trend, but is overall a far better album anyway. Why’s this?
Swoon is the kind of album that simply isn’t made much anymore: a major-label 90s alternative rock record. What I mean by this is that it has that shiny perfection in every sound and an overall gloss that makes it really easy to listen to. There’s strings in parts where there should be strings. The guitar is fuzzy but never distorted. The vocals are clean with just the proper amount of reverb. If you fondly remember the production style of Bush’s Sixteen Stone or Candlebox’s debut album, then you’re totally going to dig this record.
The songs are good here, especially the driving rhythm section. There’s a decent amount of dynamics here; Silversun Pickups don’t do Pixies-ish loud-quiet-loud too much, but rather slow builds from soft to loud. The lyrics sound cool, but in the end have no real meaning to me. I might not be paying attention that much because the groove is really quite excellent.
Again, these songs are likely to sound even better live, but this album is a good listen. Recommended.
I sat down to make a top 5 list of my favorite musical moments from South By Southwest 2009, but as I started putting it together, I thought I’d rather just give my comments in each of a few different categories. Read ahead to see: