The Botticellis live at the Bottom of the Hill, August 2007
As you may remember, I have a string of four bands down at KZSU in five weeks on Wednesdays from 9-10pm PDT. This week’s band is the Botticellis. You can listen at 90.1FM in the Bay Area or online[1].
I’d seen Liam before, at the same venue, in fact. The set was quite similar, as was my reaction: I liked some of his loop-heavy songs and disliked others and many of my favorites were his more straight-forward songs.
One notable new happening: he ended one song with a solo on an odd instrument. After the song he announced his new “toy”, a Stylophone. To a fan’s cry for “more Stylophone!”, he said “ok”. His next song, his last of the night, was completely improvised and built around various loops of Stylophone along with drums and vocals. It was pretty impressive.
Veirs came out with just her guitar. It was just her, that guitar and looping pedals all night (with one exception, see below). She started with “Pink Light”, one of my favorites of hers. After that first song, the appreciation from the crowd was obvious–this was a very receptive crowd. She even noted it: “Wow, it’s nice to hear that, especially on a Monday night”.
The talented Ms. Veirs continued the entire evening, playing a great selection of songs from her “five good albums” (the last one is “bad”) skillfully. Additionally, she played two traditional songs that influenced her greatly, like Mississippi John Hurt’s “Spike Driver’s Blues”
She brought out the banjo for one song, Cluck Old Hen. She played it deftly in clawhammer style. Here’s a teaching version of that song, first slow and then full speed.
This is an action packed post, kiddos. Brace yourselves!
The Morning Benders, talking through tin cans; photo by Adrian Bischoff
The Morning Benders (myspace) release their debut album, Talking Through Tin Cans today on Plus One Records. They’ve got a pretty kickin’ deal going that if you buy their digital album, you get it, plus some b-sides, and a ticket to their CD release show either in SF or LA. The LA release show is at the Echo on Thursday (May 8th) and the SF show is at 330 Ritch on Friday (May 9th). More about the deal here. You can also get more info about the shows here.
You can also check out a free in-store at Virgin Megastore downtown (2 Stockton St) tomorrow evening at 7pm. Be sure to get there early so you can get a spot close.
All the songs I’ve heard from Talking are really good. I’m pretty excited to hear the whole thing.
I sat down at a recording studio and music offices in the Mission with Chris Chu, the Morning Benders’ songwriter, singer and guitarist, last week to catch up and ask him a few questions as the album release approached.
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Adrian Bischoff of ipickmynose: Are you excited that the album’s finally coming out?
Chris Chu of the Morning Benders: Quite. Quite.
A: It’s been a while since you recorded it, right?
C: Yeah, it’s been a while. I think that’s sort of what happens.
A: It’s been … eight months or something… last August.
C: Yeah. August. So it’s been a while.
A: Have your opinions of the album changed since then? Or the songs?
C: Um, yeah, definitely. I guess I haven’t listened to it in a while. That’s what happens, you know. You obsess over it for so long, you don’t want to ever listen to it again. You get over that after a while and you can put it on again and be more objective about it. It’s cool. I mean, everything we’ve gone through is a learning process. I’m the sort of person who’ll look back and think about all the things I would do differently or want to change for the next time and that sort of thing…
A: Is that what happened with the EPs? Because you recorded some of those songs again.
C: Yeah, the EPs were definitely a learning process because I was recording them and that was my first time ever recording, so I was just learning that for the first time. I sort of knew going into them that those weren’t going to be what I had intended them to be because we were really limited. We were really limited, obviously. What we had was just whatever was around my house.
When we got into the studio that was what was so cool about it. We got to flesh out the songs how I wanted in the first place.
A: I read somewhere that one of the EPs–I forget which song–but the second song you ever recorded was on one of the EPs.
C: The first song I ever recorded was “Grain of Salt”. And it took me like three times. I have a bunch of versions of it. We’ve actually been talking about–because that song’s not on the record, but we still like to play it. So we’re thinking about putting out an EP of just “Grain of Salt” recordings because there are so many different versions of it.
A: That’d be awesome. You should get some other bands to cover it as well.
C: Yeah. That’d be cool. I didn’t think of that. That’s a good idea.
A: I’ll expect a royalty check.
C: [laughing] Yeah…
I recorded acoustic demos but that was just like putting a mic up and hitting record. But the first time I tried to record a band or a song was “Grain of Salt” and I did it piece-by-piece.
A: I mean, historically, that’s not, like, how bands work. People sit in their basements for 10 years and record on a four-track and then finally release an album. Do you feel like you’re–I don’t know–bursting onto the scene quickly?
C: I don’t really think about it that way. I think try to not think about it too much or deliberate too much and just let it happen like it needs to happen. I don’t feel you need to be tinkering away on songs for years and years before you put them out. Because it takes away a lot– I think, some of the spontaneity, some of the early creative hit or whatever–or energy.
So I kind of like the spirit of recording things haphazardly and putting them out. I started writing songs a few years ago, so that was sort of a new thing. Most of these songs are some of the first songs I’ve ever written.
A: Do you think that–obviously it’s a lot easier to record a song and get it out there [now] with the internet, so do you think ten years ago that you’d have been releasing songs as quickly?
C: That’s a good question. I think we probably would. We would have found some way to do it. People have been recording things for themselves for a good amount of time, like you were saying, on a four track. We probably would have done that or whatever was cheaper. It just so happens that recording on your computer or something is the cheapest way, because you don’t have to really buy anything else. Yeah, the internet is obviously a good tool for getting your music out there. That would have been a lot harder or a lot different.
(Find the rest of the interview, a new video and the flyer after the jump.)
Most of those tracks come off of their forth-coming album, save “Sad-eyed Casio”. Studio versions of “Rushing In, Rushing Out” and “Can’t You Wait” have been released as a free CD single and I believe you can also grab them at the band’s myspace.
I know what you’re saying: I don’t want to read what they played. I want to hear it! Well, just this once I will bend to your wishes and offer you up some exclusive mp3s of the in-studio:
I’m from Barcelona is a giant band–a collective, I think you could call it–consisting of upwards of 29 people at times. I didn’t how many filed onto the medium-sized Independent stage but I could believe it was 29. The stage was packed. Guitars, bass, keyboards, drums, saxophone, clarinet and a variety of other instruments were scattered around. There were perhaps a half a dozen or more people just singing/ dancing/ playing miscellaneous instruments.
There set started out with my favorite of theirs, “Treehouse”. The stage was alive. Balloons and confetti were flying. Elaborate choreographed hand movements were in action. Within seconds the crowd seemed to go from staid to joyous, from subdued to exuberant.
The show continued in this vein for its entirety. Some songs clicked better than others (”Oversleeping”, “We’re from Barcelona” and “Jenny” stick out), but the band–and quite-possibly-extroverted front man Emanuel Lundgren–kept the energy up and the crowd hopping, singing along, hitting balloons, and throwing confetti.
The comparisons to another large and happy choral band seem obvious. I’ve walked out of PS with an insatiable feeling that I’d been somehow drugged by joy, a feeling I couldn’t shake for days. I’m from Barcelona’s show was great, a lot of fun and a joyous experience but–perhaps I’m old and jaded–but didn’t quite leave me with the same feeling. I’d still recommend catching them live if you have a chance.
Song obsessions are those songs that we listen to on repeat. I noticed that my obsessions are often a week long. I also thought that other people might have similar obsessions. I’ve collected a panel of a few like-minded individuals and gotten their “song obsessions of the week.” Quite often it’s easy to explain why the song is good; it’s much hard to explain why we’re obsessed. Maybe you’ll become obsessed with one of these.
I got sent this album and I popped it in. I was pretty skeptical, but actually he seems to do new-music-that-sounds-old really well. The production on this track was really catchy. I like the horns, strings and percussion.
So I’m not trying to shill for emusic (ahem, uh, my id is zaxxon25), but I’ve come to enjoy the process of browsing through their stacks for import or small label stuff that I just wouldn’t connect with otherwise. One fine find is this effort by the Victorian English Gentleman’s Club. The full-length combines an overdriven bass/spindly guitar sound borrowed from late 80’s US alt-rock with a nervy art-punk vibe out of the early 80’s UK scene. That leads to deceptively complex yet quite catchy confections like this winner.
Port O’Brien’s upcoming release is the best album I’ve heard this year. This song will burrow into your skin. That’s all I’ve got - I think my wife is going into labor…
The vocals at the end of the song remind me a lot of Bon Iver. And really, that’s about all you should need to recommend this band to you, and to explain my obsession with this song.
I heard this wrapping up on KZSU a while ago and it stopped me in my tracks (da-dum chiiih;) the drums’ sound particularly grabbed me — especially the building 8th notes that morph across whatever bell(s) are being used (I would love to know, what a great sound!) — but Hugh Masakela’s vocals are of course the highlight. The amount of emotional intensity he puts into the last quarter of this song is fantastic, especially as it is somehow perfectly blended into and build out from the rest of the track’s early-nineties noir loungyness.
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Testing: Posting that awesome Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Band track again to test something.
SF-based blog Anyone’s Guess has a crazy contest going on. You can win a pair of tickets to Outside Lands or a custom cigar-box guitar. Pretty crazy prizes.
All you have to do is write a song (about climate change).
Song obsessions are those songs that we listen to on repeat. I noticed that my obsessions are often a week long. I also thought that other people might have similar obsessions. I’ve collected a panel of a few like-minded individuals and gotten their “song obsessions of the week.” Quite often it’s easy to explain why the song is good; it’s much hard to explain why we’re obsessed. Maybe you’ll become obsessed with one of these.
Just a well put-together song. The guitar part is ace. The keyboards, drums and vocals all work really well and add to the song. The breakdown/ slowdown pulled me in. I was fully obsessed with this for most of the week.
I’ve written about how much I love this tune. The groove is tight and the song is fun, but what makes me obsessed with it is the 30-or-so seconds of “People Get Ready” and specifically the insane vocals during that section. I like the Impressions song and various other versions, like Curtis Mayfield’s and the Chamber Brothers, but this is unlike anything I’d heard before.
While I’d like to think I judge each song/album based on merit, truth is I’m just as susceptible to manipulation as the mainstream music listener. But it’s not plastic surgery disasters that positively manipulate my attention. No, it’s the geek girl. Perhaps Bess Rogers would object to my objectification of her as a nerdy girl, but I’m afraid those sexy librarian photos on her latest CD (there’s even more of them on the website - I checked) have only one interpretation in my lecherous mind. Oh yeah, the songs are quite fetching as well.
Last week I mentioned an unsigned band named Gringo Star. Today I have another unsigned act out of Denver by way of NY called Motel Motel that describes their sound as “shwag rock.” These guys are working on releasing their debut LP, appropriately called New Denver, in the coming months. Until then, get shwaggy.
would put all of The Midnight Organ Fight as my song obsession(s) for this week, if that were allowed. Since I downloaded it on Tuesday, I’ve probably listened to the album in its entirety at least 8 times. With this song in particular, I love the line “You’re the shit/and I’m knee-deep in it.”
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[1] This is totally cheating. I’ve never let myself or anyone else have more than one song obsession in a week, but what was I supposed to do? Five days were dominated by “Science Fiction” but in the last 48 hours I haven’t been able to stop listening to the Charles Wright song.
Great UK home-spun folkie Adem (formerly bandmates of Kieran Hebdan aka Four Tet in Fridge) has an album that reportedly comes out May 12 but no word from his (former??) record label Domino on that point. Takes is a covers album of songs that Adem has loved from 1991 to 2001. How’s that for a fairly arbitrary theme?
I loved his first album Homesongs immediately and Love and Other Planets started good and has just gotten better over time. I’m pretty excited to hear Takes
the Dodos performing at the Cafe du Nord March 29, 2007
It’s been a hair over a year since I first heardthe Dodos (myspace). That show was what first inspired me to create the Local and I’m Listening series and their sound left me obsessed for months. (I may have caught on early but I was certainlynot the first[1].) I liked them enough to bring a bunch of people to see the Dodos, again as an opening act five days later. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen an opening band cold and wanted to see them again five days later, but I did. I’ve since been song obsessed, hosted them at KZSU and seen them yet again. This was all before Visiter came out and they gotallthatattention.
What I’ve set myself up for here is the perfect indie snob I-knew-them-way-back-when-but-now-they’re-crap moment. As much as I hate that sort of stuff, there’s a little part of me that’s yearning to take advantage of it. But here’s the thing: there’s no need. They’re still great. I’ve been listening to it a ton and I’ve been song obsessed again. There’s no need for any sort backlash here; the Dodos still have it.
One of the reasons I love their first album, Beware of the Maniacs, is because it has topnotch songwriting across the board. I can put that album on shuffle and basically always hit a song I love. I love their live show a ton because of all the energy, but Visiter (and Beware) doesn’t quite capture that. Where the live show succeeds on account of its energy, Visiter succeeds on subtly great melodies, meticulous production and layering and its willingness to put on some of the experimentation they do live.
The beginning of the album is impressive: the first four songs make a great introduction to the album and, for new listeners, a great introduction to the Dodos. “Walking” is a pretty atypical Dodos song. It’s got banjo and female vocals and Meric’s singing in a sweeter tone that usual. It’s a nice melody and the banjo works really well.
“Red and Purple” picks up the pace and introduces an intense world-referencing beat (reminding me of “The Obvious Child”’s beat). The chorus has one of those subtle melodies that I was talking about and the toy piano just adds an extra little hook for part of the song.
If you’ve heard of the Dodos, you’ve probably heard or seen the video for the single “Fools.” It’s still a great song–I’m not glossing over that at all–but you probably know it already. Follow “Fools”, “Winter” is another solid song with particularly interesting production (mandolin, reverbed clapping, brass).
“Paint the Rust” comes close to capturing the intensity of their live performances. The song builds to a point with frantic finger-picking and spastic drums. But here’s where the Dodos do what may become a signature element for them, a thing other bands don’t do: instead of building to a frantic climax and stopping, they breakdown the song and slow it down until it effectively segues into “Park Song.” That song and the song after it, the second single “Jody”, feature more of those subtle and beautiful melodies, sneaked into the choruses and surrounded by more agitated and experimental parts. “Jody” is a great song all around. It has intensity, great guitar parts and nice melodies.
In the last bit of the album you’ll find “Ashley” and “Undeclared”. These two songs took a little bit to sink but sank in nicely. The album ends with the almost seven minute long “God?”, which is a great way to end the album: interesting percussion and production, both softer and intense parts, and even a little of their experimental sides.
So, to recap: Visiter is great. The Dodos are great. There’s a lot of press about them and it’s warranted.
You can buy Visiter at insound or at Amoeba or Aquarius (last I checked they both had it in stock).
A still better idea is to check them out live and buy it at the show. They’ve got three dates coming up in SF, all either with great bands or free. Can’t lose, can you?
4/27 Les Savy Fav, the Dodos @ Great American
5/14 the Dodos @ Amoeba, FREE
7/19 the Dodos, The Oh Sees, Dreamdate @ the Independent
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Other local and I’m listening posts (newest-to-oldest):
I found one kid that’s already been bitten by bug. This is Mates of State’s daughter Magnolia doing her version of the song (via the band’s entertaining babble blog):
How old is she? Like 3 or 4? Watch out all you kid bands, this one’s gunning for the charts.
I’ve been listening to everything I’ve been able to get my hands on–which has been their album, Strange Ammunition and a split 7″ with the song “No Place”–and I’ve been really enjoying it. There are easy comparisons to be made on their sound, but let’s forgo those and try to get down to the nuts and bolts. Two Sheds do bluesy, folky rock music with some of appreciation of the slowness and spareness (and the tension created by those things) of slowcore all while being drenched in the deceptively simple melodies and gorgeous, breathy female vocals of Caitlin Gutenberger.
Almost two months after first hearing “It’s Hard” I’m still floored by it. It’s a slow, finger-picked tune with very simple percussion under it, but that’s all that’s needed to support the gorgeous, soulful vocals.
“Undertow” is a rocker in the slowcore school, and while the guitars and music follow the down sentiments of that sub-genre, the vocals here show something more like cautious jubilation, like they’re ready to burst out of the song.
4/18 Elf Power, Flowers Forever, Two Sheds @ Bottom of the Hill, 10pm, $10, a/a
6/11 Two Sheds, Friday Mile, Geographer, and Marabelle Phoenix @ Annie’s Social Club, 8pm, $7, 21+
They’ll also be on KZSU from 9-10pm on May 21. I’ll be hosting this and I’m pretty excited about it. They also have plenty of Northern California and West Coast dates coming up. Their myspace page seems up to date on the tour info.
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Posted in SF bay area, blogs, radio by adrian at 2:41 am
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