Look Out For: Metric - Fantasies

Metric is back after a four-year hiatus with Fantasies. Singer/songwriter Emily Haines, a founding member of Canadian supergroup Broken Social Scene, dropped into anonymity in Buenos Aires to write much of the album. It was a vision quest of sorts, where Haines wanted to free herself of outside influences and make a "record based in simplicity and be really genuine," she says.

Fantasies, recorded in a farmhouse outside of Seattle, is neither a serious departure in sound for the band nor is it a groundbreaking, life-affirming album. Instead, it simply sounds like another installment in the band's heavily textured catalog of catchy, synthesizer-friendly rock. The album could have been recorded in a basement or apartment anywhere in the world as long as there were a few instruments and a computer.

But Haines is the driving force of the band, and she delivers on her promised quest for sincerity with sharply insightful lyrics and melodies that have a slow magnetic pull, especially on "Help I'm Alive" and "Blindness." The two songs feature the band's most dynamic and clever instrumentation on par with past Metric classics "Police and the Private" and "Dead Disco."

Unfortunately, the album isn't entirely consistent. Many songs drown Haines, the group's most effective and unique instrument, in an unnecessarily muddy mash of synthesizers and distorted guitars. On "Gimme Sympathy," the album's addictive throwaway single, Haines talks about being "close to something better unknown" and then asks the age old question "Beatles or the Rolling Stones?" Metric shouldn't be so afraid of discovery and taking chances on what makes the band great (ie., Haines). And if you're asking, the answer is the Rolling Stones.

Take a taste:

Metric - Gimme Sympathy

Metric - Blindness

Metric - Help I'm Alive (Acoustic)

Buy: Directly from the artist!

Look Out For: Local Natives

Aside from a slightly redundant name, the Local Natives, a mellifluous harmony-driven quintet from Southern California, seem primed to blow. The unsigned band will release its debut Gorilla Manor later this year. I've only heard a few tracks, but its sound is filled with layers of rich and breezy vocals with a slight melancholy tinge.

Here's a description from the band's singer/guitarist Taylor Rice via Ear Farm:

We’re really a vocal band, and we draw a lot of inspiration from ’60s harmony bands like CSNY, The Beatles, and The Zombies. Animal Collective, Annuals, and Talking Heads have had a big impact on our tribal, percussive sound. Instrumentally, I personally take an inspiration from orchestral sounding indie bands, like Broken Social Scene, The Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens, and Beirut.

If we're going to name-drop every great band, the Natives also displays an ability to create intricate and sophisticated arrangements a la Grizzly Bear. Oh, and they also design their own art work, which as you can see, kicks ass.

Local Natives - World News

Local Natives - Airplanes

Video:

Local Natives - Cecilia (Simon & Garfunkel cover)

More Local Natives coverage:

Q&A w/Taylor Rice

Live review

Live: Soft Pack, Friendly Fires, White Lies at the Black Cat

Tuesday night at DC's Black Cat was a backwards affair. The lineup, that is, was a bit inverted.

San Diego's the Soft Pack—formerly the much discussed Muslims quartet and the band whose minimalist, expertly arranged, clean driving punk rock I can't shake—opened. That meant paying to see a band in a half empty room with a largely sober and sedate crowd.

Instead, London's White Lies—the band that reached the #1 spot in the UK charts for its simplistic and clumsy take on the much beloved Joy Division—headlined. The band's performance didn't change any of my preconceived notions: its sound is more derived from alternative chart-toppers Lifehouse than it is from any post-punk group. In fact, the act tried to make up for its one-dimensional sound by seizing the audience with direct and flashing beams of blinding light. At a Cut Copy concert or in a club filled with intoxicated and/or rolling youths, this would be acceptable. For dreary industrial rock, obnoxious is more the appropriate sentiment.

But that's the last of my negativity. After all, Friendly Fires was also on the bill. Lead singer Ed Macfarlane came out as a bouncing, bobbing, and spotlight loving jackrabbit of sweet, synthesizer-fueled love. The dynamic rhythms of songs "Jump Into The Pool" and "Skeleton Boy" elicited loud cheers and limb-throwing dance moves from the crowd on an otherwise tame night. Friendly Fires, hailing from St. Albans, Hertfordshire in England, have a bit of that 1980's Manchester club sound that propelled groups like New Order to fame. On stage, they are entirely unself-conscious and unafraid to show how much they enjoy delivering blissful and dance-friendly pop music.

Lastly, but playing first, were the furiously simple Soft Pack. The band earned buzz last spring for both its spacy and retro-punk debut as well as its name, the Muslims, which was subsequently changed after it became more of a distraction than it was worth. Now it seems the group has a lost a bit of that publicity magic as audiences members seemed unfamiliar with the band and any of its tunes. The Soft Pack seemed use to this exercise and nevertheless dove into a rush of deceivingly fast songs, including the excellent "Right and Wrong," "Extinction," and "Bright Side." Singer Matt Lamkin delivered his Lou Reed-esque vocals slow and steady, which almost conceals the speed of the group's songs and the fact that drummer Brian Hill plays at a break-neck pace. But Hill's face told the story: within minutes his balding forehead was pouring down sweat and his expression was imbued with pain. I guess that's what happens when you sprint through the first two songs back-to-back with a ten-second wow-factor drum segway.

I learned two things Tuesday: Sometimes it's okay to go first. And sometimes it's best to leave early.

Playlist: Where The Wild Things Are

Maurice Sendak's Where The Wild Things Are is coming to the big screen October 16, 2009. With director Spike Jonze of Adaptation and Being John Malkovich at the helm, the film will undoubtedly be an interesting venture. Here are a couple songs to celebrate the giant fuzzy monsters in all of us. 

Jimmy Cliff - Wild World (Cat Stevens)

David Bowie - Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud (Live)

David Crosby - Wild Turkey (a.k.a. Leather Winged Bat)

Black Mountain - Wild Wind

Blitzen Trapper - Wild Mountain Nation

Brighten Your Day with... Friendly Fires

A fuzzy bass, popping synthesizer, echoey discoed-out guitar, high-pitched falsetto "oh yeas" and clichéd and belabored talk of the ups and downs of love. Listening to the Friendly Fires is sort of like watching a John Hughes film (Sixteen Candles, Some Kind of Wonderful): light, bouncy, admittedly embarrassing, and entirely enjoyable.

The band, from St Albans, Hertfordshire in England, is currently on tour with the Soft Pack and White Lies. They play the Black Cat tomorrow night.

Take a taste:

Friendly Fires - Skeleton Boy

Buy: Amazon, eMusic

Look Out For: Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix may be snyth-pop's magnum opus. The fourth album from the French rock band Phoenix is an inventive and precisely orchestrated collection of beautiful and funky songs built to become classics. They may not end up in an esteemed musical canon like the works of Franz Liszt and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart—two of the classical composers referenced in the album—but Phoenix's masterpiece is too thoughtful and expertly executed to get lost in any shuffling of trends.

This is an album Phoenix has been hinting at since its inception over a decade ago in Versailles. The band has produced pure moments of bliss and nostalgia before with songs like "Too Young" and "On Fire" off the band's 2000 debut United, but they've never been able to contain that excitement over the course of an entire album.

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is different. Set amongst waves of swelling synthesizers and shimmering guitars, its simultaneously restrained and forceful drumming paired with singer Thomas Mars's dynamic and graceful set of pipes plant the record in a timeless spell of funk, soul, and electronic rapture.

The band's helped make a few splashes before. Guitarist Laurent Brancowitz played in the band Darlin' that later became Daft Punk. Mars, who's married to director Sofia Coppola, landed "Too Young" in his wife's award-winning Lost In Translation. Now, after spending a year recording in Paris, Phoenix is poised to unleash its own noise. And a glorious one it is.

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix releases May 26.

Taste a peek:

Phoenix - Lisztomania

Phoenix - Fences

Buy: Amazon

Look Out For: The Soft Pack

The Soft Pack—the band formerly known as the Muslims—is a mash of Replacements-style brash and smarts with the space and minimalism of the Velvet Underground. The San Diego quintet isn’t out to reinvent the wheel, but its battered drum kit, fervently plucked bass and guitar, and singer Matt Lamkin’s no frills punk rock voice together make it spin. 

The band, which has already made international waves in the blogosphere, is sure to grab even more ears when it releases its first full-length album this summer. In the meantime, the Soft Pack is touring the States and Europe with pop acts the Friendly Fires and White Lies.

Click here for dates, including a 3/24 stop in DC. 

Here's one of the band's best originals and two classy covers:

The Soft Pack - Bright Side

The Soft Pack - Red Headed Girl (Tijuana Panthers)

The Soft Pack - Grinding Halt (The Cure)

Graphic ⓒ Matt Carr. 

Dance Jukebox: Remixes

The art of the remix is alive and well these days with the sprawling tentacles of the interweb dishing out songs left and right. Most of the time, an added beat and a couple of effects amount to a senseless cacophony. But occasionally, a song thrives under a little stirring of the pot.

Chromeo's affinity for funky synth lines and nostalgia for all that is cheesy helped turn Feist's "Sea Lion" into a booty-shaking dance number. They do the same here with Vampire Weekend. Even if you're sick of the band, the song's worth a spin. The "Ce Jeu" remix here has that same effect: it replaces any potentially annoying and cutesy sounds with a Billy Squire beat and waves of deep and dark synths. The Cut Copy remix? That's just a great song in the hands of a different maestro.

Taste!

Yelle - Ce Jeu (Bill Eff's Love 1987 remix)

Vampire Weekend - The Kids Don't Stand A Chance (Chromeo remix)

Cut Copy - Far Away (Damn Arms remix)

Graphic ⓒ Matt Carr

Tribute: Wayne Coyne thinks the Arcade Fire are A-holes

Apparently Wayne Coyne, frontman for the Flaming Lips and generally considered the nicest guy in rock, thinks that indie rock prophet Win Butler and the rest of his Arcade Fire are a bunch of narcissistic jerks. Here's the quote via Stereogum via Rolling Stone:

I'm a fan of them on one level, but on another level I get really tired of their pompousness ... We've played some shows with them and they really treat people like shit. Whenever I've been around them, I've found that they not only treated their crew like shit, they treated the audience like shit. They treated everybody in their vicinity like shit. I thought, 'Who do they think they are?' I don't know why people put up with it. I wouldn't put up with it. I don't care if it's Arcade Fire or Brian Eno. If either of them walked into a room and treated people like shit I'd be like, 'Fuck you, get outta here.'

... People treat Arcade Fire like they're the greatest thing ever and they get away with it. Those sort of opinions change my view of their music. They have good tunes, but they're pricks, so fuck 'em. Who does Arcade Fire think they are? I've been around groups. I've been around the Edge from U2 and he's the fucking sweetest guy ever. I was around Justin Timberlake when he was young and he was just a normal, nice, kind person. Anyone can be polite and kind and people who have the privilege and money and attention should understand that. If they don't, then fuck 'em.

There's no reason to doubt Coyne. He may be a bit weird, but he's very sincere and always has the best of intentions when it comes to his fans and music. I mean, this is the guy that gets in a giant bubble for concerts. I love giant bubbles. Anyways, here are two early songs from two awesome bands.

Flaming Lips - "She Don't Use Jelly"

Arcade Fire - "Headlights Look Like Diamonds"

Buy Lips: Amazon

Buy Fire: Amazon

Soundtrack: 500 Days of Summer

This movie could be great. But it could also be terrible. Either way, it's soundtrack is loaded with some great songs including "Sweet Disposition" by Melbourne, Australia's Temper Tramp. The singer's crooning falsetto coupled with an echoing guitar riff makes for a Joshua Tree-era U2-like moment in its size and instant accessibility. 

Temper Tramp - "Sweet Disposition" (mp3) 

Buy: iTunes

Digging For Covers: G. Love & Jack Johnson do Madonna

There are different types of covers. An artist can transplant a song into a different musical genre (Al Green funking up the Beatles), strip it down to emphasize lyrics and structure (Johnny Cash covering anyone), play an authentic tribute (Cat Power mimicking Dylan in I'm Not There), or rip it off for money (Uncle Kracker on "Drift Away"). And sometimes it's just for fun.

Here's G. Love and Jack Johnson covering Madonna's "Holiday" off her 1983 self-titled debut. Listen for the segway into Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love."

Taste it here:

G. Love & Jack Johnson - "Holiday" (mp3)

Live: Gentleman Jesse + The Black Lips

Review via Washingtonian:

It was a bit of a time warp last night at the Black Cat with the 1970s-era power-pop offerings of Gentleman Jesse & His Men and the 1950s and ’60s psychedelic garage rock of the Black Lips.

Gentleman Jesse & His Men, a four-piece outfit led by Atlantan singer/guitarist Jesse Smith, hopped onstage around 9:30 and strummed and stomped their way into “Highland Crawler,” the opener off the band’s 2008 debut Introducing Gentleman Jesse. The song’s jangling guitars and hook-filled choruses recall some of the more poppy moments of Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello as well as the straightforward punk sound Smith learned while picking bass with the Carbonas.

The band played the heart of its recent record, including the catchy and addictive “All I Need Tonight (Is You)” and “Black Hole,” but the night’s standout was the cover of Vermont-based King Tuff’s “Connection.” Smith inflected a deeper tone and a well-timed stutter for its chorus: “I’ve got the telephone in my eyes, / I got your number memorized, / Co-Co-Co-Co-Connection.” Check out the original below.

At 10:30, fellow Atlantans the Black Lips arrived on stage with their usual set of goofy grins and dived into a set that included fan favorites “Cold Hands,” “Veni Vidi Vici,” and “O Katrina!” The show was surprisingly sober for a band whose performance résumé includes passing body fluids and other onstage antics. Sure, there was crowd surfing, bassist Jared Swilley climbed around the rafters like a monkey, and guitarist Ian Saint Pé’s gold teeth sparkled under the spotlight, but the Lips kept the near-capacity audience’s attention focused on the music. It was probably the right choice, considering the band’s recent run-in with the law in India.

Even those in the audience who were there just for the circus had a hard time ignoring the band’s tireless enthusiasm during eclectic doo-wop numbers and twangy guitar solos reminiscent of the early Rolling Stones. There was even some dancing during the spot-on delivery of “Bad Kids,” the band’s country-tinged, anthemic sing-along. The Lips kept the show on the short side, but coupled with Gentleman Jesse, it was a solid place to spend two hours on a Thursday night.

Take a taste:

The Black Lips - "Bad Kids"  (mp3)

King Tuff - "Connection" (mp3)

Live: Marah at Iota

Review via Washingtonian:

Marah ended its acoustic tour Friday night with a sold-out show at Iota. It was a small setting for a band that has been routinely heralded by novelist Nick Hornby, performed onstage with Bruce Springsteen, and released almost ten albums. But for a night of intimate drunkenness and sloppy rock and roll, it was just the right fit.

The four-piece band came on around 10 and kicked off a 2½-hour set that was anything but acoustic. Led by singer/guitarist Dave Bielanko, who looked like his usual disheveled self dressed in a mechanic’s jumpsuit and his requisite mad-bomber hat, the band performed about 25 songs ranging from restrained ballads (“Formula, Cola, Dollar Draft”) to foot-stomping barn burners (“My Heart Is the Bums on the Streets”).

The high-energy and chain-smoking Bielanko may be the hardest-working man in rock and roll. When he wasn’t dripping sweat over his furiously picked electric banjo or taking celebratory shots of Patrón tequila with his bandmates, he was entertaining the audience with stories about searching for country ham and procuring a goat. Even when Bielanko was busy tuning his guitar, he insisted that keyboardist Christine Smith entertain the audience, which she did with a couple of covers including the theme from Rocky.

Missing was founding member Serge Bielanko, who’s spending time with his newborn daughter, but his absence wasn’t nearly as detrimental as it could’ve been. The steady and occasionally virtuosic play of bassist Johnny Pisano, drummer Martin Lynds, and keyboardist Smith left room for the remaining Bielanko brother to win over the audience with his freewheeling charisma on songs such as “Round-Eye Blues,” “Walt Whitman Bridge,” and the Skip James cover and ode to President Obama, “He’s a Mighty Good Leader.” But that was all in the first three-quarters of the show.

Two hours in, it was hard to tell who was more intoxicated: Bielanko, who fell backward onto his guitars, or members of the audience who were incessantly yelling unintelligible and nonsensical one-liners. But it didn’t matter. We’d already heard plenty.

Take a taste:

Marah - "Walt Whitman Bridge" (mp3)

Buy: Amazon, Emusic, iTunes

Favorites: Josh Ritter

There's always a "next Bob Dylan." Someone with insightful lyrics, songwriting chops, and a distinctive voice that bears a resemblance to the poetry-spewing God. But there won't ever be a second coming, just like there won't ever be another Michael Jordan. Instead, we have a collective of young songwriters—like M. Ward, Conor Oberst, and Jim James—that together, come close to filling the void that Dylan's left behind.  

Add Josh Ritter to that mix. I first heard the Idahoan songwriter in the ski film Sinners by Warren Miller photographer Bill Heath. The song "Snow Is Gone" was a burst of sunshine set across Heath's stark and snow-filled landscape. Ritter, who studied American history through narrative folk music at Oberlin College, pairs a genuine and natural feel for the craft with a tremendous knowledge and care for it. His music merits comparisons to Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle, and Bruce Springsteen, but none of the names stick. After listening to an album like The Animal Years, Ritter's the only name worth mentioning. And it's one worth remembering. 

Taste a little sunshine:

Josh Ritter - "Snow Is Gone" (mp3)

Buy: Amazon, Emusic, iTunes