Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
Dredg was nice enough to schedule two hometown shows on their tour with Torche and Judgement Day. Because of this, neither one sold out and I was able to go to the show at the Great American Music Hall. Hometown shows are usually great because the band will play longer and bring a lot more energy into it. So how did this one stack up? Continue reading “Dredg at Great American Music Hall, 5/19/09”
Retail Release Date: June 9, 2009
Leaky Faucet Acquisition Date: May 6, 2009
Dredg really never had a shot on the major labels. They’re a prog rock band, first and foremost. This is, of course, why I like them. For their last album, Catch Without Arms, they teamed up with a big name producer (Terry Date) and had songwriting help from Queensyche’s Chris Degarmo. That’s a high powered team, and the album that came out of it had a lot of polish and shine, but also lacked some of the musical innovation found on the band’s older releases. In a lot of ways, it made their earlier albums sound like demos.
So now Dredg is off of the major label, yet they’ve maintained the polished sound, but–and this is exciting–they’ve also thrown caution to the wind in a lot of ways. No longer worried about trying to sound like the band the majors want them to sound like, they go back to the more experimental sounds of their earlier albums, Lietmotif and El Cielo. And it’s almost a complete success. Continue reading “The Leaky Faucet: Dredg — The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion”
Every Monday, I am going to post a quick list of shows this week in the bay area that won’t be a waste of time. I won’t necessarily be at all of them, because I don’t have infinite wealth and time, but you can use this as a handy guide when looking for something to do!
Ponytail are a band from Maryland, and they are currently on tour. Guitarist Ken Seeno has offered to answer a few questions by e-mail from their travels, so here are his answers.
Retail Release Date: June 2, 2009 (digital only)
Leaky Faucet Acquision Date: May 3, 2009
I’ll start with the album cover. Patrick Wolf is posed here as an alien who’s landed in an oddly shaped spaceship tent, in some crazy cyberpunk outfit with a purple glow behind his hand, and some ancient instruments at his campsite. What is Patrick Wolf saying about this album before you even listen to it? He’s saying, “please don’t take me too seriously. I’m an utter goofball.” Continue reading “The Leaky Faucet: Patrick Wolf — The Bachelor”
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="207" caption="Jawbreaker in their natural environment: the Mission District."]
[/caption]There is no pain greater than that caused by a relationship’s dead future.
It is nearly unspeakable. All the best hopes and promises that a person could possibly have — dashed. Irretrievable. Yet the memories of sweetness linger and haunt, ever out of reach.
With “Sluttering (May 4th),” the band Jawbreaker ink around the outlines of what it is like to feel this specific pain and the particular interpersonal agonies that go along with it: the machinations that can occur, the sheer hurt, the recriminations, the kissoffs (both real and imagined), and where hope goes after all that.
There is no pain greater than that caused by a relationship’s dead future.
The agony is nearly unspeakable. All the best hopes and promises that a person could possibly have — dashed. Irretrievable. Yet the memories of sweetness linger and haunt, ever out of reach.
With “Sluttering (May 4th),” the band Jawbreaker ink around the outlines of what it is like to feel this specific pain and the particular interpersonal agonies that go along with it: the machinations that can occur, the sheer hurt, the recriminations, the kissoffs (both real and imagined), and where hope goes after all that.
Defined by the writer of the lyrics, Blake Schwarzenbach, the word itself means “pontification under duress and/or a kind of drunk muttering.”
And as the song’s chorus whipsaws in, Blake’s voice climbs meticulously across the syllables of what it sounds like to know that the person who was once with you is now with someone else:
slow dance alone with no one to the sound of four hands clapping / congratulations to you both I hope somewhere you’re happy / if there’s a moral to this story, then I wish you’d show me
Today is May 4. It is Sluttering Day. Listen to the song. And if you can help it, don’t break anyone’s heart.
Admitedly, I was a bit apprehensive about this show. I love Maria Taylor’s albums and singing along to her songs in the car. But her songs are slow and moody, so I was a worried the show would be boring. But Maria Taylor was hypnotic. She has that special charisma or ‘it factor’ where you really can’t take your eyes off her. Or really, it’s that you can’t look away from her eye: big, shining and soulful. It reminds me of love story where a man sees a woman sing and instantly falls in love. The voice, the eye, the giant left handed guitar, she is an indie dream woman.
Though Maria’s sultry left eye was the star of the show, there was a lot of good music too… Continue reading “Maria Taylor at Cafe Du Nord, 5/1/09”
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”
Graham Coxon’s new solo album The Spinning Top is due to be released on May 11th, a month before his former band Blur reunites for a series of reunion tours. I must admit that I have been in fangirl love with Graham Coxon since I was 16 years old, and The Spinning Top makes this fangirl swoon. Musically, we’re back to a simpler Graham, focusing on him and an acoustic guitar, unlike his last two more rock-tastic albums. Thematically, The Spinning Top is more complex. It is a concept album, following the story of a man from birth to death, but the theme gets a little lost. It comes across more as a way for Graham to expose his deep inner self without having to be held accountable for anything that he reveals.
Continue reading “Album Review: Graham Coxon — The Spinning Top”
Throbbing Gristle are an early industrial band that formed in the early 70’s. They were known for both electronic experimentalism, and blatant shock value. I probably have read more about this band than any other band that I have never heard before. In fact, this show at The Grand in San Francisco will in fact be the very first time I actually will get to hear this band that has followed me for years as nothing but academic text.
Continue reading “Throbbing Gristle/Erika Andersson at The Grand Ballroom, 4/23/09”