Remade Horizon: Dirty Projectors bring their experimental indie rock to Minneapolis
November 15, 2009
Considering how incredibly tight the vocal and instrumental interplay on Bitte Orca is, I was, needless to say, skeptical about whether or not the Dirty Projectors would be able to reproduce their avant-garde indie rock/pop sound live. Luckily for me and everyone else at the Cedar Cultural Center, it turns out that the band is exceptional at doing just that, and even better, they’re able to maintain their melodies and harmonies while improvising and jamming into and out of songs–a mark of true musicianship.
The sunny opening chords of “Cannibal Resource” fittingly opened the show, setting the mood for the remainder of the night. All nine songs from the Projectors’ highly-acclaimed 2009 album, Bitte Orca, made an appearance in the set, with the remaining few songs being a mix of new and old material. One of these new songs was “Ascending Melody,” which recently appeared on the UK-only Temecula Sunrise EP. The track is full of text painting, featuring several rising or “ascending” melodies (clever ones, those Dirty Projectors), particularly obvious during the chorus. It was one of my favorite songs from the concert, embodying the radiance and playfulness of the band; unfortunately, the majority of the audience seemed to have never heard it before and watched the performance with little reaction.
The middle of the set slowed down considerably, moving from “No Intention” to “Two Doves” and finally to “The Bride” from Bitte Orca, before coming to a complete stop as the band sorted out some technical difficulties. After fixing the sound issues, another new song was played, “When the World Comes to an End,” which was debuted live on Jimmy Fallon’s late-night show and has not been released on record as of yet. The band’s women–Amber Coffman, Angel Deradoorian, and Haley Dekle–steal the spotlight on this (and, let’s be honest, every) track, which showcases their ability to flawlessly pull off complex vocal interplay. Bitte Orca’s first single, the funky, bumping “Stillness is the Move” followed, putting the crowd into a dancing frenzy that was further extended into “Useful Chamber,” the song that contains the iconic, cathartic shout: “Bitte orca! Orca bitte!” Translation: “Please orca! Orca please!” It makes little sense, but sure is fun to yell out along with hundreds of others.
A two-song encore containing “Fluorescent Half Dome,” another fitting choice, considering its placement as the last song on Bitte Orca, and “Knotty Pine,” from the Dark Was the Night compilation closed the performance. Leaving the stage ablaze with ecstatic songs, the Dirty Projectors cast their overjoyed light upon the audience, who walked out into the night newly illuminated and gleaming.–Cassie Traun, Contributing Editor
Treasure Island Festival ‘09: Day Two
October 25, 2009
One major plus about the first day of this festival was the weather; yesterday was clear and warm, with a spectacular sunset and almost no need for long sleeves. All of those things tend to be a rarity in San Francisco this time of year.
Things are looking much more ominous as I get off the bus Sunday, with threatening cumulonimbus brewing out over the Golden Gate while Sleepy Sun kick off their set for a small but stalwart crowd.
The weather may not be as good, but the audience today is certainly mellower, and also more diverse, covering a much larger age bracket. Surely there are a few Pavement and Bob Mould geeks amongst this bunch.
The North Carolina trio keep roots music alive with their Rick Rubin produced new disc.
October 25, 2009
For most bands, change in musicianship can be frightening, but not for the Avett Brothers. Starting out in early 2000’s as a hard rock band, they made the impossible transformation to an acoustic-oriented roots music group. While this could have meant the end for most bands (can you imagine System of a Down making an album of Woody Guthrie covers?) the Avett Brothers have prevailed and released the superb I and Love and You.
On their last album Emotionalism the first track was entitled “Die Die Die,” but this one starts off with the gorgeous ballad that shares its name with the album. The song starts off with a solo piano and vocals, which starts a song-long crescendo with instruments and volume being added throughout. This track leads into the pleasant little number “January Wedding” which displays the group’s undeniable ability to sit down and play an enjoyable piece of music. After this song is when it becomes more obvious that the band has just been signed to a major label, as elements like string sections start to make their way into the songs. Just when you think that the album could suffer as a result from over-bloated arrangements is when they fire back with their stripped-down sound and win you back again. “Kick Drum Heart” is the most fun song on the album, and it has the perfect balance of those strings and the live band playing and it leads to the band re-uniting with their rock n’ roll roots. The second half of the album finds the Avetts rocking a little harder with tracks like “Tin Man” and the sing-a-long worthy “Slight Figure of Speech.” The album then ends with what seems like a mockery ballad “Incomplete and Insecure,” which does not leave you wanting more as much as the end to Emotionalism did, instead it makes you feel sorry for the dudes who made an album which has an overwhelming majority of enjoyable music.
Although I and Love and You can feel uncomfortable at times with too much production, there is top-notch songwriting involved. “The Perfect Space” could just as easily be called “The Perfect Song,” and it doesn’t take ten thousand words to describe how good the song “Ten Thousand Words” is. But I and Love and You finds the Avett Brothers as comfortable musicians who are still on a quest to improve and grow doing what they love best, and if this album is any indication as to where they are going, let’s hope they keep it coming. — Kenny Pirog, Contributing writer
Treasure Island Festival ‘09: Day One
October 25, 2009
It’s only three years old, but San Francisco’s Treasure Island Music Festival has already carved a unique niche in a musical landscape overburdened with festival events of all shapes and sizes. Utilizing a combination of unparalleled scenic beauty and savvy organization, promoters Noise Pop and Another Planet Entertainment have managed to make Treasure Island the standard-bearer for the so-called “boutique” music event. It’s the kind of festival even festival haters like me can rally behind.
“This is a foreground”: Grizzly Bear heightens its star status at First Avenue
October 14, 2009
On a cool, late September fall night perfectly suited for Grizzly Bear’s cerebral and reflective music, the band played to a sold-out crowd at First Avenue, the Minneapolis nightclub infamous for being the venue in Prince’s 1984 movie, Purple Rain. Chris Taylor, the band’s bassist and multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire, mentioned this fact later on in the night and proclaimed himself to be a huge Prince fan.
Opening with the first song from their critically acclaimed 2009 album, Veckatimest, “Southern Point,” Grizzly Bear began the night with high energy, showing an enthusiasm for performing that would persist throughout the show. An electric version of “Little Brother,” from the 2006 album Yellow House, included a spirited jam that was, musically, one of the loosest moments of the night. In contrast, “Lullabye,” also from Yellow House, was necessarily more subdued, making for a beautiful mess of vocal harmonies and dissonant guitar chords that explodes into an enveloping sound in its last couple of minutes. And, during a raucous version of “On a Neck, On a Spit,” Grizzly Bear displayed their skill at not only recreating their sounds, but taking them further live by infusing as much passion as possible into each performance.
For two songs, Victoria Legrand, the lead singer for opening band Beach House was also invited onstage. On “Two Weeks,” which, by now, has had its immensely catchy piano part punched into many people’s heads (of course, this isn’t terrible, as the song is fantastic and one of the best of 2009, if not the best of the year), LeGrand’s vocals were a welcome addition. It was just the minor change needed to freshen up the song a bit. Then, “Slow Life,” a new song that is set to appear on the Twilight: New Moon soundtrack, followed. Ed Droste, Grizzly Bear’s lead singer, and Legrand duet well together, and the track is an elegant collaboration.
To complement First Avenue’s house lights, Grizzly Bear brought along their own lighting contraptions, made of lights placed in mason jars, which were then hung up on poles around the band. From their music down to the lights they use on stage, taking a lo-fi approach and then innovating it is a trait that the band uses frequently. It’s one that is epitomized in “Colorado,” the only song played during the encore. The song builds from a simple keyboard part to having multiple vocal, instrumental, and sound loops layered upon one another, until finally releasing into the question that repeats, “What now?” For Grizzly Bear, who began as a bedroom project for Ed Droste to now debuting albums at #8 on Billboard’s Top 200, it seems that the only answer is this: the sky is the limit.–Cassie Traun, Contributing Editor
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