Japandroids - Live Review

When you see a group of twenty-somethings walking around together in hoodies and hearing aids, it’s a tip off. They probably spent the night watching Japandroids’ brand of vicious, loud garage rock. Amps bigger than human bodies took up more of the majority of the stage, backing Vancouver’s tightest new rock band.

Though Japandroids only has two members – guitarist Brian King and drummer David Prowse – it still blew the crowd away with a raw, unrelentless energy. Prowse was the Energizer bunny, and King had no trouble keeping up. The two musicians move like one well-oiled machine, intimately sensitive to each other's every move. With a small nod from King, Prowse picked up his sticks, moving between time signatures with ease.

A seamless transition between “Crazy/Forever” and “Sovereignty” showed the crowd that the pair could bring their debut album, Post-Nothing, to life with the same sense of immediacy as the recording. As King spastically whipped his head around and ripped away on his bright red guitar, it took serious control keep from convulsively jerking your own body back and forth.

The band played a majority of the songs off Post-Nothing, including crowd favorites “Young Hearts Spark Fire” and “Heart Sweats,” a propulsive song about a girl whose “heart is cold as ice… I should know I’ve been to the North Pole.” But King explained a few songs into the set that they were incorporating new songs to keep the show interesting. “Don’t worry,” he assured the crowd, “our lyrics are really fucking easy. You can sing along after 30 seconds.”

Japandroids are smart, despite vapid lyrics and the occasional shallow desire. They combine melodic, movable guitar lines with heavy drums full of cymbals and sudden blasts. The vocals always repeat, not only the same words, but the same notes. Read as: great for shouting along, even if you can't sing. And boy did the crowd shout.

Love, On the Rocks

Listening to Jens Lekman is like taking a placebo for love. You are submerged into this bubbly world where every kiss is remembered like your first and you would "never kiss anyone that doesn't burn [you] like the sun." It's like popping a hit of romantic into your cd player; the notes come out colored like roses.

I don't remember ever listening intently to Jens while being in a happy relationship, and maybe that's how it should be. He serves as a nice replacement for the late night walks you won't be having, the sweet kisses you won't be sharing, and the kind words you'll go without hearing. The music wraps itself around you, wooing you with it's melodic perfection and lyrical odes to love (goshdarnit, even the breakup songs are called "I'm Leaving You Because I Don't Love You.")

Sitting here with my dog cuddled next to me and and my Jens on my iPod is keeping me perfectly satisfied. Well, almost.

Langhorne Slim, You Control Me

Sean Scolnick always had dreams of moving to New York City to become a famous singer, and he figured a good nickname was the first step. The Langhorne, PA native adopted the name of his hometown to set himself apart from all the other John Smiths at open mic nights in the big city. And the label stuck, even though he now plays and tours with a band. With Malachi DeLorenzo on drums, Jeff Ratner on bass, and the band’s newest addition, David Moore, on keyboard, Langhorne Slim is a full-fledged folk rock band. The four of them are ready to introduce the fierce folk rock of Slim’s latest album to live crowds. Be Set Free is littered with Scolnick’s deeply personal lyrics and usual lush soundscape of intricate finger picking and ass-shaking country jigs. But what he’s really excited about is the big picture. “These guys are really badass players onto themselves, and they bring in their own style. Their parts make the songs our own through each one of us making it individually our own. It becomes a collective thing.”

Preview of What's to Come...

I spoke with Sean Scolnick, i.e. Langhorne Slim, tonight. Podcast will be up in a while...

For now: he recommended a comedy album. I haven't purchased the album, but I checked out the myspace, and this is a MUST-HEAR prank call.

Click here and listen to "Ditchweed." Be prepared to laugh so hard that people come downstairs and ask you what's going on. It just happened to me.

Ten out of Tenn - Live Review

So I promised I'd give some feedback on this show I saw Friday night. Let's start by stating this fact:

1. I am a NERD. I brought my parents to this concert with me.

Which is justified by this second fact:

2. This music is SO UNIVERSALLY GOOD that I like it, my fifty-something parents like it, and I think my 6-month-old cousin would like it. (Ok, disclaimer: I don't know if my little cousin has good taste in music yet. I hope they fed it Led Zeppelin in the womb or something.)

Back to the show. If you read my preview (the previous post), you will get some background on these people. They are super talented, really down to earth, and - let's face it - I couldn't wipe that stupid grin off my face Friday night. How sweet is it that 10 people can continually rotate instruments and vocals to create a comprehensive performance full of rock, folk, country, electronica, and psychedelia?

Highlights:

a) When we found out that Jedd Hughes has been touring with Keith Urban, and then he ripped into the hardest rock 'n roll guitar solo I've heard in years. That man can shred, and I think it's a redeeming quality that he's not just Keith Urban's bitch. Thank goodness for that.

b) When Kyle Andrews played "Sushi," the most kickass song of the night and my hips couldn't keep from shakin' to the synths. Oh, and the rest of the band kept screaming out "Whooooooo!!" at intervals which made me feel like someone was finishing a marathon or something.

c) When the band came into the audience for an encore, and Joy Williams handed me a tambourine to shake around. I don't know if I'm really a pro percussionist, but I think I did alright. And they sang "Everything's Gonna Be Alright." (Is that Bob Marley's or Al Green's originally? Anyone know?) It was one of those grassroots feeling shows where you are completely and utterly absorbed in the performance and the music. LOVE that.

Ten out of Tenn - The Best Nashvillians!

The last time the Ten Out of Tenn tour stopped in Cleveland, it wasn't pretty.

"We came through in the wintertime," says singer-songwriter K.S. Rhoads. "We weren't playing, but we just stopped for the day. One of the water mains broke downtown. We got to the hotel, and they didn't even tell us that there was no water anywhere downtown. The restaurants couldn't serve food because there wasn't any water. It was pretty crazy. So we just sat in the hotel room, got giant bottles of Maker's Mark and big ol' bottles of wine and played Mafia."

If it sounds like a PG-13 version of a family vacation, that's because Ten out of Tenn is just that — a summer camp for musicians, a traveling band, a family of Nashville artists sharing a tour bus and months of their lives.

Read the rest here at the Cleveland Scene.

(p.s. I saw their Cleveland show last night. BLEW MY MIND. More about that later...)

Perfect Description

Daytrotter pins the very essence of Langhorne Slim, back in 2006.

"The band brings themselves to you in a continual state of sousing - with beer, sweat, the kind of body odor that women are still drawn to, cigarette smoke, adulation and a healthy cut of the heavy stuff that's rubbed deep into their fiber. They seem to come from where nights have no expiration and the moon provides the lamplight for mischief and smoldering heart and mind situations."

October 21st cannot come soon enough. I've waited too long to see them.