2009 February | Citizen Dick - a cleveland/brooklyn based music blog, new music reviews, live music reviews, fashion, art, and walrus pelts

Archive for February, 2009

It’d Be Cheesy to Quote Mott the Hoople, So We’re Not Going To.

Feb.27, 2009

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

We’re not quite sure what’s going on, but we’re not here to complain about it. Our local music venues are housing some great shows in the upcoming weeks. It could be that we’re just a dusty stop along the trail, but we’d like to think the scene is on the up and up here. If you’re a Clevelander and reading this site, get your ass out there to support these bands. We’ll be bringing our business cards to the show, so don’t be surprised if you leave the Beachland palming a two-of-clubs with ‘Citizen Dick’ dymo-taped to the back. We’re not claiming to be cheap bastards, but the next Black Label is always in our thoughts.

February 28 – DD/MM/YYYY and Don Caballero – The Grog Shop

March 1 – Harlem Shakes and Tokyo Police Club – The Grog Shop

March 2 -Deer Tick and Jason Isbell – Beachland Ballroom

March 5 – Dan Auerbach, Hacienda and Those Darlin’s – Beachland Ballroom

March 11 – Cotton Jones – The Beachland Tavern (yeah!!)

Other notable shows on the horizon:

March 22 – Ben Folds – Lakewood Civic Auditorium

March 31 – Gaslight Anthem – Cleveland Agora

April 2 – Andrew Bird – Allen Theater

April 8- Dinosaur, Jr. – Musica (Akron)

April 21 – Neko Case and Crooked Fingers – Allen Theater

May 17 – Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers – Beachland Ballroom

We’ve got some possible interviews in the works and will be writing reviews for most, if not all, of these shows. Lots of great things blowing through the Cuyahoga Valley the next couple of months. We’re not quite sure if we’ll see something as sweet as the bands we’ve posted below, but nonetheless, we’ll be there with bells on. TGIF, musical brethren.

Magma – I’m unsure of the title, but this was twittered by Rain Wilson the other day. Shit yourself at the 1:40 mark like Diamond Jim did.

Morris Day and The Time – Brian was singing this all day yesterday and annoying me. We pay homage by posting the vid.

Tags: Andrew Bird, Ben Folds, Cotton Jones, Crooked Fingers, Dan Auerbach, DD/MM/YYYY, Dinosaur Jr., Don Caballero, Hacienda, Harlem Shakes, Jason Isbell, Magma, Morris Day and The TIme, Neko Case, Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers, The Gaslight Anthem, Those Darlins, Tokyo Police Club

Alela Diane – To Be Still and Condo Fucks – Fuck Book: Citizen Dick album review, twin bill

Filed Under: General Interest, New Music

Feb.26, 2009

Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)

There are a near infinite number of ways to stumble across new music. Thinking about my favorite artists often makes me think about the first time I heard them. I caught Ani DiFranco’s “Little Plastic Castle” on the radio on a Saturday morning, driving home from the laundromat. The first time I really listened to The Who, I caught a ride home from my summer job with a kid who had Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy in his cassette player. I’d never heard of Medeski, Martin and Wood before I saw them open up for Morphine at Cleveland’s venerable Agora. No doubt you, dear reader, have as many little anecdotes for your own favorite acts.

Today’s twin bill album review, at first blush, might seem wildly inappropriate. We’ve jammed a sensitive, acoustic singer-songwriter in with a collection of garage rock covers. But, for us, Alela Diane and the Condo Fucks epitomize two of the classic ways to find new music: going to rock shows and hanging out with cool kids. Alela Diane opened for Blitzen Trapper in Detroit last weekend. We caught her and were hypnotized by her talent. Condo Fucks, the erstwhile incarnation of Yo La Tengo, are the cool kids, showing us why it’s important to pay attention to Small Faces and Richard Hell. Alela Diane is the hand of fate, guiding music lovers to rock shows; Condo Fucks are the tape deck, cranking out badass tunes that you should have heard before, but were too busy listening to ELO to notice.

Our first exposure to Diane’s music, as mentioned above, was the live show. As such, the impressions many of the songs made at the show carried over as we listened to the album for the first time. Happily, there’s no drop-off from the live stuff; the songs were powerful in person and that translates on record. Alela Diane’s songs are little nuggets of folk perfection; her vocals are both emotive and rangy, shifting from a smooth calming tone to a high warble as the content demands. The instrumentation is lushly acoustic, with a diverse drum sound and broad spectrum of stringed instruments, including, among other things, occasional banjo and mandolin and a prominently featured (and well-used) violin.

There are several standouts on the album. “White as Diamonds” is a showcase for both Diane’s voice and that violin we mentioned above. This song has an intensely homey feel; it could have been recorded in an Oregonian log cabin’s great room in front of a roaring fire, with snow visible through a hand-blown glass window and a hunting dog sleeping on a homespun rug. The harmonies behind Diane’s voice are pitch perfect and the drumming is more up-front than the folk tag might suggest (we’re not saying that it’s Topper Headon back there, but it’s not just sissified brush strokes on a cymbal either).

Another clear highlight is the duet with Michael Hurley, “Age Old Blue.” This was another point where the live act informed our ears; Diane’s father is a member of the touring band and I assumed that it was her father singing on this song before I read the liner notes. It’s, essentially, a song about family, beginning with Diane’s crystalline voice intoning, “The sea beneath the cliff is the blue in my mother’s eyes that came from the blue in her mother’s eyes, thrown on down the line by our family who worked the fields on borrowed land above the ocean.” This is when Hurley dives in, his grizzled voice contrasting perfectly with Dianes’s. It’s an almost uncomfortably personal song, and it’s right in your ear; where some of the other songs have that living room sound, this one sounds like you’re standing in a closet with the band. It’s a can’t miss song.

The album spreads out a bit as well; “The Ocean” (which killed live) hinges on a distinctly native American drum sound with a tweedly mandolin in the front. “The Alder Tree” brings back that mandolin but almost moves in a march tempo, with what sounds to be a wood block in the chorus. These tracks show that Alela Diane has more than one gear. There’s not an electronic re-mix on the album, but it’s not a fifty minutes of monotony either. Alela Diane comes with a fervent recommendation from us. If you’re going to see Blitzen Trapper on their remaining dates, show up early and catch a treat. We’ll bet that you’re walking out of the show with a copy of To Be Still tucked under your arm.

Buy Alela Diane at insound!

“White as Diamonds” – Alela Diane

I feel a bit guilty for outing Condo Fucks as Yo La Tengo. (In fact, I’m worried that Matador is going to send over a team of indie rock ninjas to take out Citizen Dick’s servers and erase all record of both me and this review. Matador, if you’re reading, I thought it would be cool because Brooklyn Vegan spilled the beans first; if you’re sending an elite strike team anywhere, it should be to them.) My ethical concerns to the side, this album’s pedigree doesn’t have any bearing on my love for it; its dirty garage feel is cool as hell and works independently from any feeling you might have about the alt-gods that recorded it. I’m in no position to assess the motives of Yo La Tengo, but I think the nom de guerre here might be to play up that notion of garage geniuses toiling in obscurity; it’s nice to imagine three dudes you don’t know banging out Beach Boys b-sides in one of their mom’s basements. Condo Fucks are those guys.

Yo La Tengo’s encyclopedic repertoire of cover songs, highlighted on their annual visits to WFMU and on Murdering the Classics, is legendary and this collection of covers does not disappoint. They have a fantastic ear for picking songs that are both neglected by the masses and brilliant. Be honest. If I say “The Troggs,” you think “Wild Thing,” not “With a Girl Like You,” which is the song Condo Fucks cover. I’d not heard the original, but the cover had me scrambling to the internet to find the original. The background “bah-bah-bah”s, poking out beneath a layer of fuzz are strangely beautiful and the song’s theme of young love is touching. My modern ears prefer the Condo Fucks’ version, but the importance of the track to modern music is, I think, what the album is trying to emphasize. How many great (or mediocre) bands have emulated this sound? How many of them credited The Troggs?

It’s this older brother quality of the album that is a large part of its appeal. Condo Fucks are dragging the milk crate of records down to the rec room and cranking tunes, helping folks to discover great music. Further, they’re offering a weird kind of time line of amazing songs and ideas. Richard Hell and the Voidoids’ “The Kid With the Replaceable Head” follows that Troggs cut and it’s impossible not to hear the similarities. It might be hard to draw that line if you’re not an honest-to-god rock journalist, but this album gives the average listener that insight. (I don’t have a degree from Northwestern and I was able to connect the dots, so there you go.) Even without this second layer of meaning, the songs rock. If you ignored the fact that these were covers, you’d still be grooving on the gritty solo in “Dog Meat” and nodding your head to the stoned surf rock of “Shut Down.” Granted, it makes it that much more fun to know that those are Flamin’ Groovies and Beach Boys songs, respectively, but Condo Fucks pump enough energy and authenticity into the album that it almost doesn’t matter.

There are eight seconds on this record that epitimoze why it’s so easy to love. The band launches into the killer riff that starts Clifford T. Ward’s “So Easy Baby,” before someone says, “let’s try that one more time.” Tape keeps rolling, the band stops and starts right back up, crushing the rest of the song. This is a record in the most traditional sense, a document of people making music, warts and all. It’s 33 minutes of stomping fun and I’d wager that it was recorded in less than a week. There are no fancy over-dubs here. Given that, it still sounds great, in the way that a dirty mutt with a flea bitten hide and chewed ears is cute.

We’ve got a track below and underneath that, the Small Faces’ original version. Listen in whatever order you want, but know that when this album drops on March 10, you’ll be crawling the internet looking for the originals of all these tracks. Buy this album and reserve an afternoon.

“What’cha Gonna Do About It” – Condo Fucks

Tags: Alela Diane, Condo Fucks, Matador, Rough Trade

These Are Powers – All Aboard Future – Citizen Dick Album Review

Filed Under: General Interest, New Music

Feb.25, 2009

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

This weekend was good to me musically. I decided it was about time I launched back into the vinyl arena after long abandoning it for the ease of digital downloads. It’s not that I haven’t always loved the warm sound vinyl gives off, but as a broke ass college student, well, you know the drill. Ten years later, I had still never pulled the trigger and headed back to flipping through record store aisles for new releases. I decided to craigslist a kick ass system, opting for a pair of Klipsch tower speakers, a dual channel receiver at a bargain open-box price from HHGregg and a relatively un-unique turntable a guy just wanted to unload from his attic. Partner these new purchases with a stop at Music Saves, and Bent Crayon, local Cleveland record stores with hefty indie selections, and I’ve been blanketed in beats and smiles all week. The album drawing the most ire from my neighbors over the past few days is All Aboard Future by These Are Powers.

This Dead Oceans Records release by the Brooklyn and Chicago trio is a sonic suite of noise, consistently sludgy and filled to the brim with enough spooky ambience to freak little kids out. The polyrhythmic quality of each track, poised with impeccably organized arrangements and percussion creates not only a record that’s loud and intense enough to warrant a few broom pounds from the neighbors, but also deep enough to please the ears for hours. I’ve repeated the record back and forth and each new spin uncovers something new and pleasing. This record tangles an entire spindle of aural thread around the knees and yanks back hard, slamming audiences to the floor.

“Easy Answers” begins the sound brigade with a darker and fuzzier tilt on electronica. Anna Barie’s vocals are energetic and unstable, rooted in digressive intensity. The track includes stomping drum machines and high-pitched swirls painting a haunting and pounding emotional landscape. It’s not so much the broodingly dark environment the sounds create here, but more the thumping percussion that sits behind everything else that’s going on. This is not a guitar album, nor is it even a distant cousin of club thump either. I’ve plowed through this opening track probably twenty times in the last couple of days and it’s difficult to categorize. A self-professed rocker like me can quite possibly understand it better than the hipster electro dudes can. Interesting. Where do I sign?

The second track changes gears a little, but the band still goes into the sound toybox to play a little. The bongo-like drums in “Life of Birds” are at the center, paired with a screeching synthesizer and high pitched vocals. This is a sinister song and the atmosphere it creates is edgy and the largeness of the drum echo makes skin crawl in such a good way. Other tracks are grounded in shredding darkness, too, like “Light After Sound” and “Parallel Shores.” ”Light After Sound” is a track I’d probably listen to just before I burned something to the ground. Pat Noecker’s fuzzed out bass sounds resonate and hum behind his tautly delivered whisper vocals; this track is well worth the price of the entire record, and shouldn’t be listened to alone.

The second half of the album produces more dissonantly ambient experiments. ”Adam’s Turtle” begins with a pots and pans percussion sound. They’re throwing the kitchen sink of noise at your ears early in this track with a fragmented rhythm and a throbbing synthesizer film oozing overtop of everything. As mentioned, this is an album for all ears, and the blips and whistles in “Glass Blocks” and “Sand Tassels” are teeth-rattling candy for any mature ear. Great albums can sustain the audience from beginning to end, and the closing track, “Blue Healer” is a prime example of an album that peaks where it should–at its close. It begins with some record-scratching effects and a pulsating thump that’s tunneled so deep it’s nearly indecipherable at first take. The vocals in this track aren’t really sung, as the audience is approached as mere passersby of vicarious conversation. The conversations are muffled, as if the band took the microphones and recorded from the bottom of a murky pond. About halfway through, Barie begins belting out some screams. My flesh crawls each time I hear the track; I think of Carol Anne screaming for Mommy through the fuzzy television set. As quick as this aura is created, both the track, and the album, sputter out completely exhausted and devoid of anything. It’s probably one of the best closers I’ve heard this year.

Ultimately, this album is so full of noise and intrigue that it’s going to stay in your record player for quite awhile. Why waste any more time? If it’s possible to make darkness colorful, These Are Powers has done exactly that. The brooding structure and sludgy electronic arrangements are splashed with colorful intensity. They’re experimenting, but they hang onto pop and rock undertones just enough to make it accessible and cool. The album has been out for a few days, and we give it our Citizen Dick stamp of approval for fast purchase. Now that I’m back into the vinyl realm, I suggest picking it up that way. The hums hum louder and the thump resonates. Either way, this album doesn’t disappoint. Not a bit.

These Are Powers – “Adam’s Turtle”

Snag this album right this second at Insound

Tags: Dead Oceans, These Are Powers

Kill it Kid will Kill it in May

Filed Under: General Interest, New Music

Feb.24, 2009

Rating: 10.0/10 (2 votes cast)

We’ve been a bit UK focused over the past few weeks, with an unexpected and much appreciated link on Fat Cat’s homepage. Our across the pond angled ears have caught wind of a band we think will create some waves this May. Kill it Kid is a five piece from Bath just signed to One Little Indian, and the split this band will create in the indie universe will at least be fun to watch. On one hand, they’re a Mississippi Delta sounding rock n’ roll outfit, blasting violins, steel guitars, fuzzed out riffs and stomping rides funneled through the deepest origins of America’s rock heritage. On the other hand, they add in a kind of Anthony Hegarty style vocalist, which can either sound completely out of place or uniquely purposeful and striking, often managing both at the same time. On the first listen, the sheer musicianship of the band is the focus, but on subsequent ones, focus is pulled to the dynamic range of the disquieting vocals.

Currently, the band is reworking some of the tracks from their soft-released December EP, Burst its Banks, and have teamed up with Ryan Hadlock in the studio. Hadlock has worked with Foo Fighters, Fleet Foxes and The Strokes to name a few, and this has us pretty stoked, too. The four-track EP is pretty bruising and intricately composed, ranging from crushingly intense violin-laced rock down to gorgeous female lead vocals and dueling acoustic soloing in “Private Idaho” (Track is downloadable below). OLI plans on releasing a reworked version of the EP’s second track, “Send Me an Angel on Down,” on May 18 and follow it up with an October release of a full album.

To unleash a healthy baseball extended metaphor, it seems Kill it Kid has all the raw tools to make it to the show, and are honing their skills in Single A. The unique and fresh sound is sure to make its way to the top tier in May when they drop the new juice on us. It’ll only be available in the UK, but that’s not going to stop us from snagging it immediately. They’ve got major league potential and we can always get behind a band that’s fusing successful conventions with a twist. We’ve got permission to post “Private Idaho” from their December EP, which is interesting because the focus on this track is Steph Ward’s smoky vocals and Chris Turpin’s raspy warble is not included. This makes us sneakily believe big things are happening in the studio at the moment and that they’re fine-tuning the vocal nature of the tracks and getting them perfectly mixed. You’re going to have to wait until May to get the full and finished sound. Nonetheless, Sun Records would have snatched this band up in the 1950′s, no doubt, and as the tracks get reworked, keep the name of this band in the back of your head.

Kill it Kid’s Myspace Page

Kill it Kid – “Private Idaho” (Demo)

Tags: Kill it Kid, One Little Indian

…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead – The Century of Self – Citizen Dick Album Review

Filed Under: New Music

Feb.23, 2009

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

album_the_century_of_self_cover You know how we roll here at citizendick; we’re cowed by the stern words of my man Sam Coleridge: “reviewers are usually people who would have been poets, historians, biographers, if they could; they have tried their talents at one or the other, and have failed; therefore they turn critics.” That burns. As such, we only review things that we like; I’ve not produced a lot of art in my life, so I’m not prepared to shit on someone else’s. Given the choice, we’d rather elevate things done well. All this to provide some justification for saying that I did not love the last Trail of Dead record, So Divided. I don’t think I’m alone on this and the band’s difficulties with their former record label, Interscope, are well publicized. That last record was a bit of a blow for me, as Worlds Apart is one of those albums I’ll be listening to straight through at least once a month until I shuffle off. (And, if cds had grooves like records, I would have worn them off of “Days of Being Wild” from Source Tags & Codes). As a Trail of Dead fan, more than as a reviewer of records, I was excited to see where the band went with The Century of Self, their first album post-Interscope, released on Justice Records. I’m happy to report that it’s a return to form. Trail of Dead are loud and literary and intricate, just like you remember them. It’s an hour long dose of tension and it’s cathartic release. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t be writing about it. Promise.

Right off the bat, it’s clear that Trail of Dead has dropped some of the pretension of the last album. That palate cleansing instrumental first track is still here, but it’s a bruiser, with big fuzzy guitars and splashy cymbals. It’s a two minute reminder that the band can bring the muscle. That song bleeds right into the albums early highlight, “Far Pavilions,” which feverishly recalls the band’s early work. There are the half-shouted gravelly background vocals which anchored songs like “Heart in the Hand of the Matter’ back in the day are prominently featured here. There’s a breakdown in the middle, where the guitars dip out and some ethereal oohing and ahhing takes over. That’s punctuated with an increasingly intense march like rhythm from the drums before the guitars explode back into the speakers. It’s that swaggering theatricality that makes me love Trail of Dead, so it’s nice to see on the second track.

“Far Pavilions” goes right into “Isis Unveiled.” Apparently, at least at the beginning of this record, the attitude is “breaks between songs are for candy-asses, we roll right into the next track.” “Isis Unveiled” is another dose of heaviness, with a left turn in the middle of the song to a stomping guitar and piano riff behind some of the creepier lyrics I’ve heard in some time: “and if they taste blood, we’ll let them drink and if they taste the flesh we’ll let them be” delivered in a bar room-style multiple part harmony; it sounds like a pack of cannibals huddled around the piano at a seedy pub. It’s awesome. On the first listen, it was clear that Trail of Dead were back to form after the first three tracks.

I could keep going with the track by track break down, but you’re going to want to hear all of this for yourself. There are other clear highlights on the album; “Fields of Coal,” for instance, dials it down a notch without sounding soft, while managing to force the listener to recall Bon Jovi’s “Runaway” in the strangest way ever (this is intended as a compliment). The musicianship throughout is top-notch, as expected; no one has ever accused the fellows of not being able to play. In short, it’s an album that I’ll be listening to straight through for a while. I’ve got high expectations for Trail of Dead. I don’t want a song or two that make me tap my toe or that perk my ears up. I want albums that I can hit play on and leave alone. This one delivers.

If the review hasn’t convinced you to hop in the car and head to the record store, this scorching live version of “Bells of Creations,” another one of the album’s standout tracks, should. It’s from a March 2008 date in Schorndorf, Germany, which I probably couldn’t find on a map. As an added bonus for you, loyal reader, we’ve tacked on “Will You Smile Again For Me,” principally because it will melt your face off, but also because you can hear a drunk German shout “1234″ right before it kicks in. Danke Schoen!

“Bells of Creation” – …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead

“Would You Smile Again For Me” – …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead

Buy …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead at insound!

Tags: ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Justice Records

Have Dick, Will Travel – The Citizen Dick Road Show Featuring Blitzen Trapper

Filed Under: Concert Venues, Live Shows

Feb.21, 2009

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

We know you’ve been on the edge of your seat, waiting expectantly for Citizen Dick’s first road show, covering Blitzen Trapper from Chicago to Detroit. We pulled out all the stops on this one, with pictures, commentary, set lists, and even a few words from the Trappers themselves to share with you today. So sit down, strap in, and prepare to live vicariously through our Blitzen Trapper adventures.

Diamond Jim Reporting from Chicago

If you caught Friday’s entry, you probably already know that I love the Empty Bottle. I would have been stoked to go there just for the cheap beers and to hang out with Radley (pictured below), the black cat who calls the bar home; so the fact that Blitzen Trapper happened to be playing two shows there on Thursday had me overwhelmed with joy. For those of you who have not had the pleasure of visiting the Empty Bottle, you should know that it is definitely not your typical concert venue. It is, however, your typical neighborhood dive bar that just happens to feature some of the best live indie rock shows in Chicago. As you might imagine, the place is a small, dark, and intimate no-frills type of joint, just the way I like it. It is so intimate, in fact, that no one in the room could have possibly been more than 30 feet away from the band when Blitzen Trapper took to the small, dimly lit stage, which was packed full with 6 grown men, 4 guitars, 2 keyboards and a drum kit.

The first set of the night started off with one of my favorite tracks from Furr, “Stolen Shoes & a Rifle,” and took a mellow tone early on with a heavy dose of more material from their most recent album such as “Sleepytime in the Western World” (after which singer Eric Earley reminded the crowd that the first headlining show they ever played was right there at the Empty Bottle just a few years ago), the title track “Furr,” and “Lady on the Water.” But once the band fired up “Black River Killer,” followed by the hard rocking classic “Murder Babe” from Wild Mountain Nation, the crowd really started to get going and the show took on a new, slightly more intense tone. From there the set was sprinkled with a mix of old and new material, with the standouts including “Big Black Bird,” “Love U,” and another of my favorites from Furr, “Fire and Fast Bullets.” All in all, it was a very strong and diverse set, closed out with a stellar rendition of the Blitzen Trapper anthem, “Wild Mountain Nation.” And by the way, I stole the set list. Check it out below:

*Although “Devil’s A-Go-Go” is listed here, they did not play it due to time constraints. Good thing I was able to take in both shows, eh?

After the first set came to an end I was forced out into the cold Chicago night for a bit while the venue prepped for show number two, so I strolled a few doors down to the Blind Robin where I enjoyed a pint of Cleveland’s own Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold and a quick game of Scrabble. About an hour later, after getting my ass thoroughly kicked at Scrabble, I was back at the Empty Bottle waiting for Blitzen Trapper to take the stage once again. As soon as I returned I could sense a completely different energy in the bar, and at that point I realized that I was about to experience a completely different show from the one I saw just a few hours earlier.

The late show began just after 11:30pm with a hard and fast rendition of “Fire and Fast Bullets,” followed immediately by an absolutely epic romp through “Saturday Nite” which ended with an outrageous mini-jam session that featured Eric Earley wailing on the electric guitar. At that point, Eric mentioned to the crowd that they might have gotten a bit “too crazy” (not possible), with drummer Brian Koch reminding us that this is what the band is capable of when they “reach for the stars,” providing some memorable banter for the crowd; this something that was missing from the first set, likely due to the tight time constraints of the early show. The next several songs, including “Stolen Shoes & a Rifle,” “Murder Babe,” and “Big Black Bird” maintained a high level of energy and kept the crowd rocking until a small acoustic break midway through. The acoustic portion of the show featured Eric and Marty on stage alone performing a cover of “Cocaine Blues” and a few other tunes. When the rest of the band returned they picked up right where they left off, rocking out with “Black River Killer,” “Gold for Bread,” and a handful of others before closing out with a mind-blowing one-two punch of “Devils A-Go-Go” (thankfully they actually played it this time) and “Wild Mountain Nation.” In this blistering section, the band was able to treat us to a small and stripped down encore that consisted of Eric, Brian, and Marty performing an acoustic cover of Dolly Parton’s hit “9 to 5.” To wrap this all up, after two complete shows I actually left wanting to hear more; that is when you know you just witnessed a phenomenal performance. And by the way, I stole the set list (picking up on a possible theme here?). Check it out below:

Citizens Brian and Kevin Reporting from Detroit

Our journey was a touch different from James’ in that we had to burn through three hours of highway before the show. Diamond Jim can hop on a train and rock out; we’ve got to trek across Ohio, slog through Detroit construction and sort out where to park in a foreign land. Happily, we made it to The Magic Stick relatively unscathed, sound in mind and body, but with a speeding ticket from Ohio’s finest in the glovebox.

We pulled into the venue just as the doors opened, our brief detours resulting in strangely ideal timing. The Magic Stick is in an apparently recently refurbished area of Detroit, with high class eateries rubbing elbows with seedy corner groceries. The venue itself is in the second floor of what seemed to be a manipulated warehouse, with exposed duct work and high ceilings. It’s a bit cavernous, longer than it is wide, and the acoustics, depending on one’s position, ranged from eardrum rupturing to pleasant.

(Editor’s note: Keep this in mind in the following paragraph: we’re not moist-pantied fanboys, but we’re also not Kurt Loder, dig? We’re journalists and fans at the same time) We were doing some generalized milling about before the show and bumped into guitarist Marty Marquis. We chatted for a minute about the tour and the broader world. We were worried that the Trappers might be tired after two sets in Chicago and a long night on the road, but Marty assured us that they were fresh and ready to kick out the jams. Best part of the conversation: Marty’s belief that the Obama administration will mandate kindness from border patrol guards.

Marty also talked up opener Alela Diane and his assessment was spot on. The quintet, fronted by the winsome Diane, played a nuanced set of countrified blues, with soaring three part harmonies and solid musicianship. The set struck an emotional chord with the audience when the guitarist was introduced as Alela’s father; his work on the telecaster and mandolin were a clear highlight, but the vocal acrobatics with his daughter were both technically astute and indicative of a genetic love for harmony. We were not familiar with Alela’s work before the show, so a standout track for us was the cover of “Gold Dust Woman.” It takes some brass to sing Stevie’s songs, but Alela pulled it off. At the merch table after the show, she passed along that they love playing those more personal covers. It made us want to wrangle an invite to a Diane family holiday. They’ve probably got a violin prodigy cousin squirreled away. Alela Diane was a perfect opening act and someone to keep and eye on in the future.

The crowd was well primed for Blitzen Trapper, and they came out of the phonebooth with the cape on, ripping through four blistering cuts before giving anyone a chance to catch a breath. The night’s second song, “Saturday Nite” is, essentially, a dance song, and it had everyone, even the hipsters, ducking and weaving. The cap to the opening blast was a deeply freaked out “Sleepytime in the Western World,” which devolved into clomp and clatter before regaining its composure and shuffling to the finish line. It’s an intricately crafted song and it’s impressive to see the sensibilities transferred live; this delivery of complexity is a trick the Trappers have down pat and one they pulled all night.

The clear reason that the band’s able to get the live show to sound as smart as it does is that all six members are wildly and diversely talented; nobody does one thing. Each member has a toybox of instruments at their disposal, which they use with vigor and attitude. For example, Marty plays the big ass farmer cowbell as acutely as he does the ax. (Another Marty highlight: his declaration after “Lady on the Water” that everyone should buy melodicas and form a “Grand Melodica Army”) The band’s chameleonic ability to play a vast array of instruments well gives the band a huge sound on stage; it’s as if the twelve hands on stage are fifty.

The setlist did a solid job delivering both more accessible newer material (the hits, to be succinct) and more raucous and eclectic older material. “Furr” got everybody to sing along, but only the tuned in were nodding their heads during “Miss Spiritual Tramp.” A highpoint was the three-song dive into psychedelia of “Gold for Bread,” “Jericho” and “Love U.” Blitzen Trapper turned up the distortion and hammered through those songs without pause or concession. It was a thrilling display of power and chops.

As all great things must end, the set closed perfectly with the blistering “Devils A Go-Go” and “Wild Mountain Nation.” (This coincided with the tail end of James’ shows, so folks in Toronto and beyond should NOT be trying to beat traffic.) In a set that weaved through nearly every song from Furr and half of WMN, it’s a fitting shout-out to their loyal fans to end with the two songs that essentially sparked some of the success they’ve been enjoying. Interestingly, Marty mentioned in our chat that the last time they played in Detroit, Fleet Foxes opened up for them in the very same venue to a mere 60 intrepid souls. The 400 fans at Magic Stick tonight, regardless of what songs they came to hear, caught two of the best in the Trapper arsenal at the end of the night. ”Devil’s” smacked the audience with a palm full of erratic intensity and the guys’ were clearly going for it here. Maracas, keys, blips, pounding bass lines, punchy guitars and shake your ass rhythm wrecked the audience before “Wild Mountain Nation” gave the couples one last track to smooch to.

The encore involved a three part harmony and reference to Detroit Rock City. When we talked to Diamond Jim after the show, we figured the encore was very similar to the second set at Empty Bottle the night before, but it had its own highlights, particularly the crushing “Cracker Went Down” off of their first album. The pulsing blues jam was a fitting way to wrap up an exhaustive and highly charged 3 concerts-in-24-hours marathon.

In two nights, we got a ton of killer live music. There’s too much that we love to describe in detail. When we sat down to write this review, we were a tad overwhelmed. It’s difficult to pinpoint, at least in the Detroit show, what stood out, because everything was a highlight. We were lucky enough to catch Blitzen Trapper this past September in Buffalo, NY where they opened for Iron & Wine. Even in a more calm and stripped down set, it was obvious how hard-working and invested these guys are in their craft. When standing in these tiny venues watching them rock out, it’s almost as if a dual certainty emerges. On one hand, the personal anthems and quirkily talented musicianship resonates very well in an intimate environment. However, it’s also obvious that these guys are soaring, enjoying making music and getting the crowds asses to shake. Make sure you get the chance to see them on this tour, becuause tiny venues may be a thing of the past real soon. Take a cue from your Dicks and pile into the car if they’re not hitting your home town. (We’re looking at you, Syracuse.)

As we left the show completely satisfied (snagged some free stuff on the slide at the merch table, bought a signed vinyl of Wild Mountain Nation and Alela Diane’s new LP), we had just one little job left to finish. Not with luck, but with great and dexterous skill, as is the pattern, we stole the set-list. Check it out below this review. Also, enjoy a few photos from BOTH shows below, and then click on the link to head over to our Eye Candy page where you can view even more. With a yawn (we’re tired, dudes), we leave you with two last thoughts:

If you only take two things away from this adventure, let them be:
1. NEVER miss a Blitzen Trapper show if they come anywhere near your town
2. Citizen Dick ALWAYS gets the setlist. Always.

25-plus kick ass pics from our tour diary-Click Here!

Blitzen Trapper – “Gold For Bread”

Buy Blitzen Trapper music at insound!

Tags: Alela Diane, Blitzen Trapper, Empty Bottle, Magic Stick, Sub Pop, TGIF Hodge Podge

Citizendick’s TGIF Hodge-Podge – METZ, Ponderosa, Etc…

Filed Under: General Interest, New Music

Feb.20, 2009

Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)

Happy Friday, kids! We have a bit of a hodge-podge for you today, so bear with me if you can. First of all, I would like to share a bit of bad news with you from Citizendick’s western campus. As of last Friday, yours truly Diamond Jim has joined the ranks of the unemployed. That’s right, these tough economic times have taken their toll on me as they have on many of us at this point. On the bright side, I will now have more time to contribute to the cause of rock here at Citizendick; on the downside however, I may soon be homeless. With that said; if you or anyone you know is looking for a dynamic marketing guru feel free to hit me up at james@citizendick.org.

Now that I have gotten that shameless plug out of the way, lets talk some music. The first band I want to share with you guys today is a three-man Canadian band called METZ. I came across these guys while working with the folks at We Are Busy Bodies on the DD/MM/YYYY review from last week and they absolutely blew my mind. They do not currently have a proper full-length album to speak of, but they have recently released the first of three two-song 7”’s. The music is a heavy (and I do mean HEAVY) dose of fuzzed-out guitars, pounding rhythmic percussion, and screaming vocals. Imagine Death from Above 1979 if they weren’t pretentious hipster DJ’s and listened to more Motorhead. If I were to categorize it, I would call it free-form punk metal. Both songs from the 7” are available to stream on their MySpace page, and if you have the means to play vinyl you can purchase a physical copy directly from We Are Busy Bodies:

http://www.myspace.com/metztheband

http://www.wearebusybodies.com

Ponderosa band big

Next up is a band that I discovered in Paste Magazine of all places. They are called Ponderosa (no relation to the shitty steakhouse buffet, I promise), and this southern-rock quintet from Georgia is a straight-up blast from the past. The first time I heard them I seriously thought they were sent straight from the 70’s in a rock n’ roll time machine to remind me of simpler times and better music. Currently the band is working on their first full-length album at Nashville’s Blackbird Studios, working with Grammy award winning producer Joe Chicarelli (who has worked with Zappa, Elton John, The White Stripes, and others). No definitive word on a release date as of yet, but the album will be called Moonlight Revival and it will include several of the same songs from their earlier EP of the same name. To tide us over until then, the original 10-song EP is currently available as a free download from their official site (link below). Be aware that a few of the tracks from the download are labeled incorrectly, but it hardly matters. These songs are all amazing, and this is the kind of record that you put on, pour a glass of whiskey, and enjoy without even paying attention to what track you are on anyway…

http://www.ponderosamusic.net/downloads/

Finally, I want to remind all of you to check out our mini tour diary featuring Blitzen Trapper coming up tomorrow. As I type this I am mere hours away from taking in their Chicago set at the Empty Bottle (big thanks to Sub Pop for the guest list add), which happens to be one of my all-time favorite local dives. By the time you read this I will have already been rocked by the mighty Trapper, and Brian and Kevin will be well on their way to Detroit to catch their set at Magic Stick (I know, WTF right?). So be prepared to wake up on Saturday and nurse your hangovers with a healthy dose of pictures and commentary from our multi-city Blitzen Trapper excursion!

Tags: Blitzen Trapper, Empty Bottle, METZ, Ponderosa, Sub Pop, TGIF Hodge Podge, We Are Busy Bodies

Say Hi – Oohs and Aahs

Filed Under: New Music

Feb.19, 2009

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

As a society, we throw a lot of mythology and stereotypy at our artistic figures. Ask your buddy to describe a writer and he’s going to give you a caricature of Ernest Hemingway or William Styron, right? A tortured booze-hound hammering out art on a manual typewriter with a sticky key, ashtray full of cigarette butts and bottle of Johnny Walker at his side. Ask for a description of an artist and you’re going to get a variation on that same theme, Jackson Pollock staggering towards a canvas, splashing rye and paint with equal fervor. I’d argue that these mental crutches help us excuse ourselves from producing art; of course I haven’t written a novel, I have excellent mental health. This artist as lonesome genius thing has deep roots; Vincent Van Gogh was a whacked-out loner; James Joyce was an alcoholic. Happily, for every one of those cats, there’s a relatively well adjusted Georgia O’Keefe or John Updike, indicating that cultural inclinations are often misplaced. You don’t have to be unbalanced to produce art, just talented.

This is a long way to go to introduce a rock record and I’m certainly not attempting to elevate an indie rock outfit into the literary or artistic canon, but Say Hi plays into some of our deeply embedded zeitgeist-y notions about art and artists. Say Hi is Eric Elbogen. Barsuk’s website says that he recorded his upcoming LP, “Oohs and Aahs,” alone in his home over the course of 2008. I’m not in any position to make any claims about Mr. Elbogen’s personal habits or mental state, but he went into the cave of art, alone, and produced an amazing document on what it means to be a human. It’s big ideas and little ideas, splashed across a startling and diverse sonic canvas. I have no clue how he worked, but, in my brain, it’s late at night, hair matted, beard three days grown, moonlight glinting in his wild eyes as he tweaks that keyboard line for the fortieth time.

“Oohs and Aahs” comes at the listener quickly, with ten gem-like songs clocking in at just over thirty minutes. (I can hit almost the whole album on my commute). There’s a lot of stuff jammed into that half-hour, though. As mentioned above, Say Hi is just the one fellow, but he’s playing a dozen instruments on the record; it’s not a dude with an acoustic and some sorrow. It sounds like a band throughout. One of Elbogen’s notable skills is adding layers of sound to a song, then dropping out all but the most important or intriguing. The opening track, “Elouise,” starts with an infectious bass line, then successively adds a single repeated piano chord, a high hat, a sweet guitar riff, more drums and, finally, another guitar line, before dropping everything but the bass and piano when the vocals kick in. It’s a little more than a minute of music, but it’s breathtaking in its execution and precision. It’s also something that happens a ton on the rest of the record. It’s a subtle manipulation of the loud/soft dynamic that so many bands employ. But, here, instead of loud guitars/soft guitars, it’s lots of incrementally building sounds/only the absolutely critical sounds. The record demands re-listening, because there’s a lot to attend to.

Musicianship and technical skills only get records so far; at some point, the songs themselves have to be good, or the whole thing falls apart. (editor’s note: We took out a really snarky example here. There‘s no reason to be mean. Think of your own favorite highly-skilled musician that can’t make good records.) While I’m completely in love with how this album sounds, what is says is just as good. As a listener, I often hone in on specific chunks of lyrics, rather than the broader narrative. On that level, there are lots of witty snippets to love on the album. Dude’s a good writer and that bleeds through consistently. My favorite comes in the stellar “Maurine,” when Elbogen sings “Maurine, I couldn’t come to your party, cause I think that I’m dead.” That’s the kind of melancholy that would make Morrissey blush and which demands a closer examination of the broader song; the narrator of the song is thinking about a girl he ought to have pursued more vigorously, but still wishes the best for, while hating his own inability to act. It’s more or less the first story ever told, but it’s really well executed. Another total lyrical winner is “Audrey.” (It only seems like all of the songs titles are women’s names; in reality, it’s only five out of ten.) The super brief song, again in the first person, walks through a man looking for comfort from his lady in an achingly mundane and familiar way. It cuts off in the middle of this line: “Would you just play records and listen to my sighs? Cause if you do that, I might be all…” That truncation is wicked for the listener. The song itself builds, and the logical conclusion is the soaring chorus, starting with “alright.” Say Hi does not deliver that easy ending, opting to leave the listener hanging, wondering. Kevin and I spent ten minutes talking about what that song means. I’m sure that my interpretation was right, but so was he. It’s not often that rock records can get you that far down the rabbit hole.

There are a ton of other fancy flourishes to love on this record (the hand claps on “One, Two…One,” the world’s highest xylophone solo on “Dramatic Irony,” the evil keyboard intro on “Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh”), but, more as a music lover than a reviewer, I’d like for you to uncover them for yourself. Get your hands on this record when it comes out on March 3 and dig in. We invite you to listen to the track below, but it’s almost certainly only going to serve as an appetizer.

“November Was White, December Was Grey” – Say Hi

Tags: Barsuk Records, Say Hi

Citizen Dick Album Review – Iran – Dissolver

Filed Under: General Interest, New Music

Feb.18, 2009

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

As Brian succinctly pointed out in his Boston Spaceships review, it’s good to know that artists can stretch outward into other areas and be successful without the tag and label of their home base. Kyp Malone is an amazing musician, and regardless of TVOTR fame and stardom, his musicianship is only amplified when examining his side project, Iran. As they will launch their third album physically through Narnack Records (out Feb. 3 digitally) this week, it’s obvious this is its own nebulous monster, and as a reviewer, it’s entirely refreshing to abandon TVOTR completely when looking at the record. In many ways, Dissolver stands alone as its own mark of talent, and the sum of its parts can be quantified without any prior understanding of where it was birthed.

This a rock n’ roll album in its grittiest and guitar-driven fuzziest sense, encapsulating pop undertones and raucously opined darkness and chaos. Aaron Aites has been quick to point out that this album is more hi-fi, polished and complete than the previous two LPs, but Iran doesn’t sacrifice what has worked in the past. The sludgy mop-water guitar crunch and lyrics about isolation and frustration splatter the headphones throughout this record. The sound owes a lot to dark metal, thick punk sleaze, 50′s beach tunes, and a clotheslined laundry list of musical influences from psychedelia to surf wax. The first track, “I Can See the Future,” bolts out of the starting blocks, woo-hoos and anthemic guitar fills plowing through one of the first damn good rock n’ roll songs I’ve heard all year. Significantly, Dissolver’s tone is set early with no awkward fake handshakes in its greeting. The crushing central riff of the chorus and clicky clean verses make the mere 2 1/2 minutes a slamming welcome.

The throwback qualities are present in tracks like “Buddy” where catchy rhythm is replaced with soulful crooning and experimentation. ”Buddy” includes a mandolin sounding guitar effect throughout the track, reminiscent of a meandering Venice gondola ride until it grows louder into a searing guitar barrage. The track includes pianos, some synthesizer fuzz and a pop vibe to the vocals. The band gives a big kick to the ribs, however, to anyone who strays too far into the dreaminess when the song crescendos into “I think I’m dying” and the track signifies itself as a rock song. The mandolin-esque guitar distortion bleeds out to the end all alone.

“Airport 79″ is where the album peaks and this 6 minute anthem in the middle of the pack is a doozy. At its center is a three chord acoustic riff that is sustained throughout the song. The track moves in shifts, however, as the first two acoustic verses set the tone and then it goes into a brilliant chorus where loopy keys and interesting airy synthesizer sounds swirl around its edges and grab at the guitar. The fuzz hits in its third shift when the heaviness and distortion drives in, but the acoustic strumming is left unmarred until the end. This is a track that, stylistically, could be played numerous ways, and as the heart of the record, sets itself apart as a sonic haymaker.

Although, lyrically, the album covers some intense loneliness and stormy times, it’s not without its fun. ”Baby Let’s get High One Last Time” is, at its heart, a fun song with popping guitar work. Although it’s sad lyrically, the strings are warbly and somebody’s having a blast launching the keyboard into a Doors-like aura. Likewise, “Digital Clock and Phone” is the instrumental jam sequence on the record, raiding the full pantry for about every sound possible. Although Dissolver’s outer shell is a rock n’ roll visage, it’s impossible to miss how talented these guys are. The instrumentation, quite simply, transcends the lyricism and trumps everything.

This is an album that’s easier heard than discussed thematically, which makes this review a difficult one. In what may be one of the best straightforward rock albums of the budding new year, Iran is all systems go with this one, and I’m stamping it as a best of 2009 early. I should probably be careful with such labels, but I think this one’s a safe bet. Buy the record and rock it out this week….

Tags: Iran, Narnack Records

Citizen Dick Album Review – Bosque Brown – Baby

Filed Under: General Interest, New Music

Feb.17, 2009

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

One of the immediate perks of critiquing music is the broadening of my sonic spectrum. I’m typically a rock guy, and this is no secret. I love me a good rock record. However, and this has been a regular occurrence for me since I’ve become more focused on the reviewing side of things, I’m astounded by the interwoven strands all musical genres exude, despite hype, pigeonholing, and labeling. This is not to say I don’t believe in quantifiable striations of musical patterns, but instead that I can think outside the box and slow it down a bit. I can handle the crooners, the jazz, the hip hop, and the blips and whistles. Texas native Bosque Brown’s upcoming LP, Baby is a prime example of my latitude and expansion. It sings to me on so many levels, and wipes any inkling of my narrowed fandom clean. It’s a polished, haunting, and deeply contemplative effort and well worth a purchase on March 3rd.

The first run through of this record splashes rich and deeply textured vocals alongside quiet guitar, piano, and synthesized accompaniment. Make no mistake, however, as this is vocalist Mara Lee Miller’s cruise ship and her echoingly haunting crooning comes out of the gates crisp and smoky. “White Dove” emits the simplicity of basic piano arpeggios, and the mellow start to the album begins Miller’s consistent vocal focus on singular, held out notes and repetition. The wispy and soft percussion, along with her repeated “on a white dove” to close the track out, sets the sleepytime and jaw loosening pace that connects the rest of the LP.

There is an emphasis throughout on the importance of silence, as the quiet parts of the album allow her voice to pop brilliantly. Miller’s vocals stab out of the dark quiet like knives, particularly in “Went Walking,” an edgy track shrouded in Texas blues and 1950′s hum and echo. Simply put, her singing hurts the brain in the best possible way, punching through the listening comfort zone with brooding loudness and clarity. ”So Loud” is accompanied by carnival-like organ swirls and galloping percussion in the background and her voice sounds like leather, worn and tired. Despite the beaten down qualities, however, Miller and band manage to immediately gratify and create catchy numbers.

This is not a dance album, obviously, but there are moments of bright light amid the hazy gloom and darkness, and although the stylistics don’t vary much throughout, it’s her vocal arrangements that pepper slightly delicious diversity; at times, it’s impossible not to sing along and tap toes. ”Train Song” and “Whiskey Flats” are excellent moments of Bosque Brown’s added instrumentation and the sing-along vibe exposes their countrified roots. “Whiskey Flats” isn’t quite a boozing tune, but it’s close, with an upbeat (comparatively) rhythm, and some experimentation going on with the band. When listening to this track, it’s impossible to shake the pondering of what could happen if they turned up the distortion and rocked out. The dueling harmonies with Mara’s sister really hit viable emotional undertones and what’s created is a sound that could span multiple genres beautifully. ”Train Song” has the best chorus of 2009 thus far, where Mara croons “Ride, baby, ride, baby fast or slow. East, baby, west, baby I don’t know,” and with some stomps and a rising intensity, the album hits its peak.

Lyrically, the album is rich and is a complex journey into Miller’s emotion. ”On and Off” is a three part continuous song that spans three major sections of the record. Its ambitious and despairing repetitive lines will lull you right into her vibe. The first segment is Mara acapella, her voice as her guitar. She’s angry and hopeless, repeating, “The doors are closed. I can’t try another, I can’t try another time around.” The second segment inserts another band member in the background, and the third rounds things out nicely with her sister dueling away with her. The three tracks signify the lazy day and inward-thinking lyrical nature of the album. The focus, here, isn’t on the music, but the size of Mara’s heart and the yearning life’s path fosters.

13 tracks weave us through a consistently haunting and rough Texas landscape with not one ear-offensive note. Press has alluded to the striking presence of Mara Lee Miller on stage, and it only takes one listen to imagine how these sounds correlate in a live show. The band, accordingly, is here to paint the auras, and vocally, this thing is an absolute gem. If you get the opportunity to put your ears to this, you won’t be disappointed. Expand horizons a bit and allow this musty world into your library. Worst case scenario, you’re going to have a great album to sleep to, or more importantly, to melt those more idle moments with a lulling soundtrack.

Bosque Brown – “Went Walking”

Tags: Bosque Brown, Burnt Toast Vinyl

Odawas – The Blue Depths

Filed Under: New Music

Feb.16, 2009

Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)

Odawas’ new LP, The Blue Depths, really starts to make sense about three and a half minutes in the third song, “Our Gentle Life Together.” The first chunk of the song shares a distant genetic ancestor with Radiohead’s “No Surprises.” It’s one of those things that isn’t overt, but the first minute of the Odawas song sound like that track in the same way that my hand looks like a dolphin’s fin. The song slowly build, adding elements, most notably a haunting cello, until the weight of all the elements collapses; with a minute and change left, everything drops out of the song, leaving only and ethereal keyboard, laying down dreamy and soothing chords. A piano starts to pick out a few notes, way underneath the synthesizer wash and the song drifts away into the ether. This sound crystallizes the album for me; there are several variations on the general theme, but those drifting chords are the thing the album hangs its hat on.

Odawas make pretty cerebral music; in the wrong hands it could sound uber-pretentious and self-serious. While it’s an album that employs a lot of electronic sounds, it still carries a ton of feeling and authenticity. All this to say that the album is composed of elements that could sound mechanical and snobby, but instead feel homespun. It’s a weird bit of cognitive dissonance ad makes the album a rich listen. Clever touches like the echoing and briefly used handclaps in “Sound of Lies” and the wickedly distorted guitar solo in “Secrets of the Fall” give the album a distinctly human thumbprint. The apparent dichotomy is nicely distilled on the band’s website, where they list the members as follows: Isaac Edwards – keyboards, patience, ears and beards, sounds and songs, Michael Tapscott – keyboards, guitars, vocals, harmonicas, dry skin, songs and sounds. That’s some funny stuff from a band that lists The Blue Nile as an influence.

Tapscott’s vocals are perfect for the sound that Odawas pumps out. It’s soothing but emotive. It’s another aspect of the album that dances on the border between wildly disparate ideas. He doesn’t work through a lot of tonal changes, but still conveys a sort of aching wistfulness that fits in with the drifting ambient sound. when Tapscott sings “I’m on fire” in “Secrets of the Fall,” he can’t be taken literally, given the mellowness of the delivery and the generalized calmness of the record. However, the lyrics still hit home; dude’s torn up. There are also times on the record when they manipulate the vocals a bit; on the opening track, “The Case of the Great Irish Elk,” it almost sounds like they’re pushing him through a Peter Frampton era vocoder, which, strangely, completely works.

There’s a lot of harmonica on the album as well, appearing prominently in three of the eight tracks. I’ve never really thought of the harmonica as a particularly flexible instrument, assuming that most harmonicas are going to sound like John Popper’s to a large degree. The Odawas harmonica, however, is a wildly different animal. In front of the bank of keyboards, it sounds like a French horn being played inside an oak tree; it’s an oddly familiar, but totally subverted sound. We’re used to harmonicas in front of blues songs; here, it’s in front of a completely spaced aural landscape. It’s one of my favorite touches on the record.

While the keyboard sound is omnipresent, the harmonica heralds another sneaky attribute of the record. There are a lot of different sounds beneath the more consistent ambient approach. Several songs feature an approximation of a dance beat and there are several where a piano leads the way for the things moving across the background. It’s one of those cases where the songs all sound like each other, but are recognizably unique. Odawas has a distinct sound that underpins most of what they do, but the album moves through some diverse modes.

Overall, The Blue Depths does not disappoint. We were fans of Raven and the White Night and were eagerly anticipating this new effort. Odawas have come through with another winner. You’re not likely to play it when you’re looking to get folks riled up, but it will almost certainly work to help folks cool out. It’s an ideal apres-club record. This and a ginger ale are a winning recipe for wrapping up an evening.

“Harmless Lover’s Discourse” – Odawas

Tags: Jagjaguwar, Odawas

Blitzen Trapper in the midwest, elsewhere

Filed Under: General Interest, Live Shows

Feb.15, 2009

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

Citizen Kevin and I had the pleasure of catching Blitzen Trapper opening for Iron & Wine in Buffalo, New York this winter. They played a slightly restrained set, avoiding some of their noisier material in deference to the bearded, acoustic-centric Sam Beam crowd. Highlights included a transcendent “Wild Mountain Nation” and the show’s one notable freak-out, “Love U,” which left more than a few of the unplugged scratching their noggins. When we left the venue, after Iron & Wine’s equally sublime set (“Boy With a Coin” kills live), we made the pledge to travel any reasonable distance to catch Blitzen Trapper headlining. Happily, that opportunity comes this Friday, when we’ll pile in the car and head to Detroit’s Magic Stick to catch the Trappers again . Native Detroiters beware: If they don’t play “Devil’s a Go-Go” this time around, I’m going to flip over a cop car.

In a true fit of journalistic enthusiasm, citizendick is planning on sending Chicago correspondent Diamond Jim to the Blitzen Trapper show at the Empty Bottle on Thursday, so we’ll have a tour diary of sorts for you sometime next weekend. In the meantime, check the dates here and enjoy a few tracks from a superb 2008 live show.

“Love U” – Blitzen Trapper

“Devil’s a Go-Go” – Blitzen Trapper

Tags: Bltizen Trapper, Sub Pop

Radio Dick – Valentine’s Day Playlist

Filed Under: General Interest

Feb.14, 2009

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

Before I get into the Radio Dick segment, and because I’m not sure if I have formally done so publicly, I wanted to send a shout out and a thanks to Joe at Each Note Secure and Ryan at Muzzle of Bees for linking up with us on their much older and wiser music blogs. We appreciate it, so if you’re visiting us, head on over there for some great reading.

I bought a car on Friday the 13th. This cannot be a positive sign. As I sat down with the Nissan guy to sign the paperwork, I seriously had thoughts about putting it off until today, Valentine’s Day. Then, I couldn’t help wondering exactly how often this phenomenon occurs. First, we take the most ominous day of the year and pair it with the second most ominous day on the calendar. Needless to say, there really wasn’t a great choice here. Superstition and a near certainty I’ll die in this automobile at some point, or spending 13K on a day where I have nobody to buy chocolate and flowers for. I opted for the least scary of the two and sided with Jason Vorhees and his decapitated mother.

The only problem with buying a stripped down Nissan Versa with my stimulus package money is that I have no auxiliary input jack in the stereo. This is a kick in the nuts to a music addict, and the fine folks at Best Buy assured me that they have no harnesses and brackets to install a stereo into a 2009 so soon. As I grumbled out of the Nissan dealership driving a stick shift for the first time in six years, I found solace in my FM transmitter and iPod dock. Yes, if you pulled up right next to my car and tuned your transmitter to 90.7 on the FM dial, you would have heard an excellent 1 hour session of Radio Dick, complete with songs for lovers of rose petals and bloody axe fights alike.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – “Six Barrel Shotgun” ++ Iran – “Buddy” ++ Bruce Peninsula – “Steamroller” ++ White Denim – “Heart from Us All” ++ Boy in Static – “Toy Baby Grand” ++ Death from Above 1979 – “Little Girl” ++ Eliot Lipp – “Proceed” ++ Ponderosa – “Old Gin Road” ++ Bosque Brown – “Went Walking” ++ Department of Eagles – “Waves of Rye” ++ Harlem – “Psychedelic Tits” ++ Queensryche – “Suite Sister Mary” ++ What Laura Says – “Illustrated Manual” ++ Frank Zappa – “Valley Girl” ++ Benjy Ferree – “Gold Doubloons (And Pcs of 8)” ++ Woodpigeon – “I Live a lot of Places” ++ TVOTR – “Golden Age” ++ 2 Live Crew – “The Fuck Shop” ++ Vivian Girls – “Such a Joke” ++ The Twilight Sad – “Cold Days from the Birdhouse” ++ Fight Like Apes – “Lend Me Your Face” ++ Cymbals Eat Guitars – “Some Trees” ++ Okkervil River – “Lost Coastlines” ++ Cotton Jones – “I Am the Changer” ++ Jackson Browne – “The Load Out” ++ Jason Collett – “Charlyn, Angel of Kensington” ++ Blitzen Trapper – “Gold for Bread ++ Vetiver – “Another Reason to Go” ++ Circus Devils “Letters from a Witch” ++ Alexandra Hope – “Dangerous” ++ Junkyard – “Hands Off” ++ Animal Collective – “For Reverend Green” ++ Harlem Shakes – “Winter Water” ++

Tags: Radio Dick

Millard Fillmore is My Homeboy – Henry’s Funeral Shoe, What Laura Says, Wild Light

Filed Under: New Music

Feb.14, 2009

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

After Purim and Arbor Day, President’s Day is Citizen Dick’s third favorite holiday. In celebration of President’s Day weekend, we’d like to offer our thoughts on three records; Warren G. Harding would want you to have a lot to read before the holiday that honors him.

Henry’s Funeral Shoe – Everything’s for Sale

The inclination when examining Henry’s Funeral Shoe is to evoke other hard-rocking, blues-based guitar and drum duos. That seems wildly unfair and I refuse to do it. I’m not even going to mention those bands that you’re thinking of. Take a minute and wipe your mental palate. I’ll wait. Clear head? Let’s proceed.

Welsh brothers Aled and Brennig Clifford bring a good bit of volume and energy to their ten-song Bomp Records debut. The songs, for the most part, are direct and visceral. They rely on the strong guitar work of Aled and the often intricate drumming of Brennig while highlighting Aled’s guttural and grizzly vocals. The riffs are huge and compelling; these fellows have a distinct knack for getting a memorable guitar bit into the tracks. The fuzzy slide work on “Don’t Lose the Rhythm” and “Stranger Dig” is catchy and memorable; it’s a classic sound used to excellent effect here. “Stranger Dig” is one of the album’s highlights, because of that guitar work and the varied delivery in Aled’s vocals. On much of the record, that raspy growl is pushed to the max, but on “Stranger Dig” and a few other tracks, we get a subtler approach, which offers some nice diversity. The album stomps through the first nine tracks, rarely pausing to catch its breath, providing tunes that are going to keep your motorcycle boots tapping. The brothers radically alter things with the last track, “Mary’s Tune,” an acoustic ballad that shows that Henry’s Funeral Shoe has more than one gear. The wistful harmonica and brushed cymbals backing vocals devoid of any whiskey-fueled scratchiness tell us that there are some un-plumbed depths here. We’re into this album and excited to see what happens next.

“Henry’s Funeral Shoe” – Henry’s Funeral Shoe

What Laura Says – Thinks and Feels

We lucked out and caught What Laura Says opening for Annuals last month. Their live show was an electric-guitar driven aural assault, punctuated by towering psychedelic solos and characterized by intense energy. We picked up their 2008 Terpsikhore debut, Thinks and Feels, expecting more of the same. Happily, it’s an incredibly diverse record, drawing significantly on the group’s origin as an acoustic two-piece. The highlights we remember from the show are present and stellar: the unamplified, shouted tent-revival style vocals at the tail-end of “Fashionably Moral” and the kitchen sink percussion throughout (I’m 90% there’s a zipper solo on “Get Better Soon”) . The stuff that either wasn’t in the live act or that we missed is as impressive, however. The multiple-part harmonies are beautiful, notably in the near doo-wop brilliance of “Wish I Could Fly,” highlighted by a street-corner-esque vocalized bass-line. The middle of the record has a tremendous homespun feel, with spaced-out folk tracks that encourage close-listening and self-reflection. Lending to the dreamy feel is the lack of significant breaks between the songs; once the first track kicks in (with a head turning door knock that sounds like the police crashing in on Michael Phelps) the album doesn’t pause, meshing the songs together with ethereal vocals or found-sound elements. It’s a cool approach that makes this a very re-listenable album; when I listen to it, I don’t go to a specific track, I just hit play and let it run its course.

The principal thing that comes through loud and clear in both the live presentation and the recorded material is how much these guys love playing music; it is a joyous and raucous album. The hand-claps and half-mumbled sub-vocalizations feel like artifacts of legitimate music production. Dudes are having fun and it shows. If you missed this when it came out, pick it up. They’re still touring as well, check the dates and hit the shows.

“Illustrated Manual” – What Laura Says

Wild Light – Adult Nights

We’d cover Wild Light for no reason other than their gratuitous and frequent use of the word “fuck” in the lead single for their upcoming record on Startime International. “California on My Mind” is a delightful piece of pop-rock candy, full of jangly tambourines, angelic backing vocals and near constant exhortations to fuck things, mostly geographical locations, California in general, San Fransisco and Oakland specifically, but also more general concepts, like “today.” Fine. You got our attention Wild Light. We’re more than pleased to heed your advice and fuck California. We’re going to buy it dinner first, though. We’re gentlemen.

The rest of the album offers fairly consistent music of the same stripe. There’s way less cursing on the remainder of the tracks, but there’s a ton of hand-shakers, synthesizer fills and crisp vocals. There’s not a lot of new ground covered here, but the ideas being mined are good ones. Sing me a pop song that I can play when folks are kicking it on the porch and I’m generally a happy dude. If it’s warm where you are when this album drops, pick it up.

“California On My Mind” – Wild Light

Tags: Bomp Records, Henry's Funeral Shoe, Startime International, Terpsikshore Records, What Laura Says, Wild Light

The Twilight Sad – Citizen Dick Interview

Filed Under: Interviews

Feb.13, 2009

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

Scottish quartet The Twilight Sad are currently in the studio, working on the follow-up to their excellent 2007 Fat Cat debut, Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters. The explosive muscularity and emotional weight of that record have us on the edge of our seats for new material. We had the opportunity to bounce a few questions off vocalist and songwriter James Graham; we’d assumed he’d be a sharp dude, and he hasn’t disappointed. It’s our distinct pleasure to present that conversation to you. Not to spoil anything, but the most exciting new bit is that The Twilight Sad appear to be using fire extinguishers as musical intruments on the forthcoming release. That’s something we can all get behind.

Look for the as yet untitled sophomore LP from The Twilight Sad in October. In the meantime, to both satisfy your craving for Scottish rock and to whet your appetite for the future, check out the tremendous odd and sods collection, Killed My Parents and Hit the Road, available here.

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Citizen Dick: You wrote in The Skinny that the lyrical content of the new record will be a bit dark. Will that also affect the music itself? 14 Autumns, 15 Winters worked, we’d argue in a primarily anthemic mode; do dark lyrics imply less soaring sonics?

James Graham: Andy [MacFarlane, guitar/accordion/noise] and I write separately, so the lyrics won’t ever effect what direction the music goes. Andy likes making noise too much, so we won’t ever compromise the soaring sonics.

CD: How’s the recording going? Any big stylistic left-turns to expect?

JG: I have just finished my vocals and this is the last day we are tracking. Everything is sounding really big and noisy and we are really happy so far. The only problem we have had is that Orzel [Craig Orzel, bass] has blown up three bass amps. We expect this record to be a lot noisier and a lot more intense.

CD: Any insider info on the new album we can share with our readers? Album title, songs to be included, things of that nature?

JG: No album title as of yet, but there are a few ideas floating about. The song titles aren’t going to be as long, I think. We have used fire extinguishers on a few songs!

CD: “Half a Person” is my favorite Smiths song. (I’m not saying that to try and impress anyone; that’s totally true, you can ask my wife, as I put it on about a million mix tapes when we were dating.) It was thrilling to hear your cover on Killed My Parents and Hit the Road, as it shows that there’s somebody out there who loves that track as much as me. Further, it’s a perfect cover, in that it’s recognizably both yours and theirs. When approaching covers, how do you manage the line between faithful and blasphemous? Is it fun to play covers, or would you rather skip them in favor of your own material? Are there songs that you wish you’d written?

JG: First of all, I am glad you like the cover. To be honest, I don’t really like doing covers unless its a song that we feel that we can do justice to and relates back to us. I am big fan of The Smiths and that song seemed to fit with the band lyrically. When we do a cover, we just try to make it as much as our own as it was for the artist who wrote it. I wish we had written a few Abba classics, “Lies” by Fleetwood Mac and a number of Leonard Cohen songs. Lady Gaga’s new song is pretty good, but I don’t think it would translate well in a Scottish accent.

CD: Did the tour with Mogwai influence your sound? Or vice versa? When touring, in general, do you find that you get a bit of interplay of ideas with your tour mates? Or is it more, they play, you play, end of story?

JG: The tour with Mogwai was great! To be asked to go on tour with one of your favourite bands is a great feeling. We knew Stuart and Barry but we didn’t realise that they were really into the band. The shows were great, probably the best we have ever played. We all came off the tour feeling that we had made some great friends and we had really accomplished something, with some stories that can’t be repeated. We have really improved as a live band over the past six months thanks to that tour. To be able to watch Mogwai every night for a month was something I will never forget. Usually, we just play the shows and get drunk after, so that doesn’t really leave anytime for messing about with ideas. When we were on tour with Beirut, I sang three songs with them in Copenhagen, which was great cause I really like what they do. That’s the probably the closest to a collaboration.

CD: After the record’s in the can, are the any plans to tour these United States or the broader world?

JG: We will be back on the road as soon as everything is done. There is a big US tour getting planned for September, I think. It will be a support tour. Then we will be back for a headline tour, depending if we are allowed back in and if you like the record. We will be very busy over the next year. We are already planning another EP after the album is out. We have recorded a lot of songs that we are really happy with and want to get them out into the internets, shops and illegal downloading sites.

CD: We often hear the influence of location on bands from this side of the ocean; New York bands sound like New York, southern bands sound southern and so on. How does Scotland influence your sound? Quick follow-up: Do you have any cool Scottish slang we can appropriate?

JG: All the songs are about where we live, people we have known and things that have happened in our local area. It’s where we are from, so it’s going to have some kind of influence, but we don’t think about it too much. It’s not as if I go up the nearest mountain with a bottle of whiskey and my kilt on and start to write songs. I sing in my accent because it’s who I am and it would be stupid to do otherwise.

As for some Scottish slang, try these on for size…

battered a dug = kicked a dog
shat a brick and built the bennet estate = got scared
what you lookin at, am no fuckin porno = what’s your problem
delt wae = slept with
airchie = ass
guys oot = tits out
walaper, doober = dick
dobber supper = sausage and chips
am oan a pure mad whitey by the way = when you drink too much and you go pale and spew
whitemare = nightmare

CD: We found your advice to students, also from The Skinny, to be pretty useful, notably the admonitions to “stay away from dickheads and try not to look like a complete fanny.” Any other advice we could pass on to our readers?

JG: You booze, you lose!

CD: Where are your manners? (editor’s note: We were trying to be clever in our last question, asking the same question that we thought Graham was repeating at the end of “Cold Days From the Birdhouse.” In his response, Graham points out that we misheard the lyric. We could have done the snobby blogger thing and deleted the question, so as not to look like asses, but we respect you, dear reader. Laugh at our question and Graham’s response, then enjoy the tune to see how totally off-base we were.)

JG: It’s actually mirrors!

–

Big thanks to James Graham of The Twilight Sad for giving us killer answers to our queries. Look for more Citizen Dick Interviews in the future.

“Cold Days From the Birdhouse” – The Twilight Sad

Tags: Fat Cat, Interviews, The Twilight Sad

DD/MM/YYYY – Black Square

Filed Under: General Interest, New Music

Feb.12, 2009

Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)

ddmmyyyy

I remember not long ago, a friend of mine looked at me on a Sunday morning after I had just woken up on his couch still fully dressed from the night before and said “Jesus, you’re a hot mess.” I took it as a compliment. I was wearing skinny black Dior jeans, ankle boots, a white v-neck stained with beer from the previous evening, and I still had the flavor of whiskey in my beard. I’m sure I looked a little rough, but (as I picture it, at least) it was the kind of rough that said “don’t mess with that dude”, not the kind that said “take a shower, loser.” In any event, I just want it to be known that when I refer to the upcoming DD/MM/YYYY album Black Square as a hot mess, I mean it with the utmost respect. It’s sexy, but rough around the edges, and it likes it that way.

At this point you may be asking yourself how exactly you say DD/MM/YYYY, and that would be a very good question indeed. Unfortunately, there really isn’t an answer for that. In keeping with the unstructured style of their music, the band insists that their name can be anything you want it to be, and the characters DD/MM/YYYY are merely placeholders to refer to themselves in written or typed characters. And after you give them a listen, this will all make perfect sense. The band, consisting of five members who play musical chairs with their instruments, refers to their music-making approach as being “no-style” and list Zappa as a major influence. I would describe it as serious music that isn’t afraid to be playful and irreverent. There is a definitely a sense of urgency to the sound, but it is never rushed and seems to not be in a hurry to get where it is going, making the journey there an interesting one.

Black Square is the third release from DD/MM/YYYY, and it is definitely their most accomplished effort to date. There is a certain vibe to it that draws comparison in some ways to Les Savy Fav with a slightly rougher, almost slacker-like approach. The opener, “Bronzage” kicks in right away with driving percussion and moving rhythms, an appropriate track to ease into more complex and less-structured songs that come later. Experimental, semi-dancey rockers “No Life” and “Infinity Skull Cube” bring to mind earlier work by The Faint while retaining a new and fresh sound that is all DD/MM/YYYY. Perhaps the most profound juxtaposition of sound to sum up the free-flowing mantra of the band is the transition from the calming ambiance of the instrumental track “Birdtown” leading directly into the instant chaos that kicks off at the opening of “Sirius.” “Lismer”, another instrumental track, is a starry, experimental gem along the lines of later Flaming Lips material, though perhaps a bit more focused and lacking the pretension of overwhelming perfection. Closing out Black Square are quite possibly the finest two tracks on the album, “I’m Still in the Walls” and “Digital Haircut.” “I’m Still in the Walls” is an indie masterpiece bordering on pop in a Vampire Weekend sort of way, only with fuzzier guitars and without the art school pretense and pomp. “Digital Haircut”, the prize at the end of this musical rainbow, is without a doubt the perfect song to close out the listen. Drawing influence from everything previous, wrapping everything into a tidy package of frenetic post-punk experimentation.

DD/MM/YYYY’s Black Square releases digitally on iTunes on 17/02/2009 with hard copies hitting the stores a month later on 17/03/2009. In the meantime, the band has already embarked on a massive tour in support of the album, likely coming to a town near you in the near future:

DD/MM/YYYY – “Digital Haircut”

12/02/2009 – San Diego, CA @ Casbah w/Don Caballero, SBACH

13/02/2009 – Los Angeles, CA @ Spaceland w/Don Caballero, SBACH

14/02/2009 – Long Beach, CA @ Alex’s Bar w/Don Caballero, SBACH

15/02/2009 – San Francisco, CA @ Independent w/Don Caballero, SBACH

16/02/2009 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge w/Don Caballero, SBACH

17/02/2009 – Seattle, WA @ El Corazon w/Don Caballero, SBACH

18/02/2009 – Vancouver, BC @ The Biltmore Cabaret w/Sylvie

20/02/2009 – Calgary, AB @ Broken City w/Sylvie

21/02/2009 – Edmonton, AB @ Pawn Shop w/Sylvie

23/02/2009 – Winnipeg, MB @ Royal Albert Hotel w/Sylvie

24/02/2009 – Fargo, ND @ Aquarium

25/02/2009 – Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock Social Club

26/02/2009 – Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Bar

27/02/2009 – Chicago, IL @ Reggie’s w/Don Caballero

28/02/2009 – Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop w/Don Caballero

10/03/2009 – Pontiac, MI @ Pike Room

11/03/2009 – Ypsilanti, MI @ Elbow Room

12/03/2009 – Chicago, IL @ Beat Kitchen

13/03/2009 – Louisville, KY @ Skull Alley

14/03/2009 – Nashville, TN @ The End

15/03/2009 – Memphis, TN @ Hi Tone

16/03/2009 – Denton, TX @ Rubber Gloves

17/03/2009 – Dallas, TX @ Lounge on Elm Street

18/03/2009 – Austin, TX @ Emo’s (Leafy Green SXSW Showcase)

19/03/2009 – Austin, TX @ SXSW

20/03/2009 – Austin, TX @ SXSW

21/03/2009 – Austin, TX @ SXSW

22/03/2009 – New Orleans, LA @ Dragon’s Den

23/03/2009 – Pensacola, FL @ Sluggos

24/03/2009 – Atlanta, GA @ Lenny’s Bar

25/03/2009 – Charlotte, NC @ The Milestone

26/03/2009 – Richmond, VA @ Gallery 5

27/03/2009 – Washington, DC @ The Red & Black

28/03/2009 – Baltimore, MD @ Talking Head

29/03/2009 – Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie

30/03/2009 – New York, NY @ Mercury Lounge

31/03/2009 – Brooklyn, NY @ Union Hall

01/04/2009 – Boston, MA @ Middle East (Upstairs)

03/04/2009 – Truro, NS @ TBA

04/04/2009 – Halifax, NS @ All Age’s TBA

04/04/2009 – Halifax, NS @ Gus’ Pub

05/04/2009 – Charlottetown, PEI @ TBA

16/04/2009 – Toronto, ON @ Black Square LP Release Party @ Lee’s Palace w/METZ

17/04/2009 – Montreal, QC @ Il Motore w/METZ (release show)

18/04/2009 – Quebec City, QC @ Le Cercle w/METZ (release show)

19/04/2009 – Ottawa, ON @ Mavericks w/METZ (release show)

24/04/2009 – Guelph, ON @ Shadow w/ METZ

25/04/2009 – Sudbury, ON @ Adanac Ski Hill Chalet w/TONNN

25/04/2009 – Sudbury, ON @ The Townehouse w/TONNN

Tags: DD/MM/YYYY, Killbeat, We Are Busy Bodies

Fight Like Apes – US Debut EP Out March 9th

Filed Under: General Interest, New Music

Feb.11, 2009

Rating: 4.5/10 (2 votes cast)

As a man of Irish lineage, I tend to avoid the nonsense associated with the “American” St. Patrick’s Day and and usually, all economically created imagery surrounding my heritage. Instead, when I think of Ireland, I think of labor, rural towns and fighting. I think of bland food, warming folk balladry, and angst filled lyricism of strife and politics. Truth be told, unfortunately, is that I’ve only traveled overseas once, and I really have no idea what I’m talking about. These are simply associations I make, even if they’re a bit naive. Perhaps it’s film, stories passed down from relatives, or even worse, history textbooks, that create my view of Ireland and what it represents. One definitive certainty, however, is that Fight Like Apes has pretty much blown all of this to shit.

Fight Like Apes has been at it for a couple of years across the pond. Their most recent release, Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion has garnered heavy critical acclaim and award nominations. Their US debut is now on the horizon (dropping March 9th), with a hodgepodge of tunes from previous efforts mixed together in an EP entitled You Filled His Head with Fluffy Clouds and Jolly Ranchers. What did you Think was Going to Happen. Besides having a panache for lengthy album titles, this is a band rooted in energy and a healthy mixture of fury and humor. After a first few listens I was wholly undecided on what to think, but this is partially because I was startled at its open defiance to my concept of Ireland and its music. A couple of listens through and I’ve got it on immediate repeat and have for the last few days. The five songs they’ve chosen for this US debut paint a pretty good portait of the band and the styles explored in their previous work.

Guitars are sandwiched into the mix, but there’s a dominance of synthesizers with an Irish flavor. If it’s possible to fuse a bagpipe sound into a synthesizer and loop it around into something viable, Fight Like Apes manages it throughout, specifically in “Canhead,” where their roots are impossible to ignore. Lyrically, this is some witty stuff, spanning pop culture critique to slamming vulgarity; ”Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues,” a Mclusky cover, spins an intricate web of squeals, plenty of F-bombs and edgy commentary. ”Knucklehead” begins with what, I swear, is a tampon commercial vibe, into humorous asides about Fran Drescher, peoples’ obsession with shitty television and mindless consumerism. Although there’s a quirky sound in each of these five songs, there’s a brash confidence in both the style and lyricism. There’s depth here, despite the outward visage of frivolity and carelessness. The closing track, “Snore Bore Whore” mellows things out a bit, and points to, what I think, where this ship is headed on future efforts.

This is not Bono and U2. It’s not The Cranberries. There’s not even a stout wind of Braveheart bagpipes coming from their northern neighbors. This is a band you’d likely find in an NYC punk bar, squealing out raucous jams until 5 in the morning. It’s dance music, but dance music you can fight to. Pick it up March 9th.

Fight Like Apes – “Lend Me Your Face”

Fight Like Apes-”Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues” (Mclusky Cover)

Tags: Fight Like Apes

Vetiver – Tight Knit

Filed Under: General Interest, New Music

Feb.10, 2009

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

A generation ago, Sub Pop gave the world a slate of artists with a singular ethos, destroying corporate rock in the process. Mudhoney, in our humble estimation, was the apogee of that sound, bringing northwestern sludge into the stereos of plugged-in hipsters everywhere. This millennium’s Sub Pop is presenting a similarly uniform stable of artists, with Iron & Wine, Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses and several others pumping out quality neo-folk in subtly different flavors. Vetiver fits that mold; their soon to be released Sub Pop debut, Tight Knit, is well-made record with lots of songs that are going to have you reaching for a rocking chair and a craft beer.

While there are other musicians involved, Vetiver is Andy Cabic’s ship; Sub Pop’s promotional material indicates that on some tracks he plays all of the instruments, a la mid-period Billy Corgan (we guarantee we’re the only folks bringing up the Pumpkins in a Vetiver review, just trying to keep you on your toes). This makes dissecting the individual instrumental attributes of the album a bit fuzzier, but, for the most part, this isn’t wildly problematic. With a few notable exceptions, the album works to create a sonic blanket, individual instruments are woven into a unified soundscape. It’s a comforting approach that results in tracks that feel well-worn and warming.

Vetiver does straight ahead, quieter folky music well. Songs like “Sister” and “Through the Front Door” are directed at the bearded guy in the back of the room, who’s gently swaying to the acoustic guitars and brushed cymbals. We love that strain of the album, but things get interesting when Vetiver spreads out a bit. The album’s highlight occurs when Vetiver trades the acoustic Taylor in for oily 1970’s horns and keyboards in “Another Reason to Go.” It evokes handle bar mustaches and wide-collared puffy velvet shirts and oozes coolness. The listener can imagine Cabic and his band of miscreants strolling through Brooklyn, slapping fives with leather clad cops and drugged-out freaks. It’s a winner and a complete toe-tapper.

There are some tracks that strike a middle ground between those two extremes, songs that are neither down-tempo folk strummers nor left-turns into nostalgic instrumentation. While “Another Reason to Go” might be our current favorite track, we expect that tracks like “Everyday” and “On the Other Side” will soon be battling for our serious affection. Both songs offer a nice conglomeration of the two modes described above. They’re clearly the neo-folk neighborhood, but they’ve got some intriguing, diversifying flourishes: a bubble-gum pop sensibility on the former track and an almost mechanical drum sound on the latter.

On Sunday morning, Mrs. Citizen and I slept in, cooked a vegetarian breakfast in our pajamas and slippers and read the Sunday Plain Dealer while sipping our coffee and chewing our soy bacon. I groggily hit play on the stereo, not at all sure what would pop up; the last thing I’d listened to on Saturday night was “Rolling Sea,” the first track on Tight Knit. The album picked up there, soaking our weekend feast with soothing sounds. This is a near perfect distillation of the emotional tenor of the album as a whole. I’ve not heard a more perfect soundtrack for a lazy Sunday morning in a while. As such, I’ve got a go to new go-to album for my quilted robe moments. Get to a record store, pick up the new Vetiver release, and you will too.

“Everyday” – Vetiver

Tags: Sub Pop, Vetiver

Boston Spaceships – The Planets are Blasted

Filed Under: New Music

Feb.09, 2009

Rating: 9.0/10 (1 vote cast)

It’s often difficult to disassociate canonical artists from the bands that they left or dissolved. Has anyone ever written about Frank Black without referring to him as “ex-Pixies front man” or reviewed a Morrisey solo record without mentioning Meat is Murder and gladioli? (On a far less cool note, don’t try to tell me that there’s a single George Michael song better than “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.”) Happily, the genius of Ohio’s own Robert Pollard reaches far beyond Guided By Voices; his work with Boston Spaceships stands on it’s own. If you’re one of the unlucky souls who’s never heard Bee Thousand, you’ll still love The Planets are Blasted. It rocks without any regard for Mr. Pollard’s storied lineage.

Pollard’s long been regarded as both prolific and chameleonic; Boston Spaceships put out a well-received album a mere five moths ago, he released an album under his own name in January and there’s a Circus Devils album set to drop in April. Dude’s been busy. Boston Spaceships are Pollard, handling the vocals and song-writing, Chris Slusarenko on guitars and bass and John Moen, of Decemberists fame, on drums. Moen and Slusarenko are both top-notch. Slusarenko’s bass-line in “UFO Love Letters” is a nice blast of semi-funk on a rock record and Moen’s energetic work keeps things solidly anchored throughout. Pollard’s distinctive vocals are a treat across the record; he’s got a broad emotional range, moving from world-weary cajoling in the rocking opener “Canned Food Demons” to plaintive yearning in songs like “Lake of Fire” with an array of tones in between.

While there’s diversity on the record, the songs all work within set parameters; this is clearly a rock record, but the songs draw on different traditions and genres. The result is an engaging topography, where songs are unique but recognizably similar. “Big O Gets and Earful” relies on dark power chords and almost chanted vocals. The next track on the album, “Catherine From Mid October,” incorporates some acoustic guitar and an almost lilting lyrical delivery. This is a familiar sensation for long-time Pollard fans; his ability to write top-notch rock songs of many different stripes is one of his finest qualities.

The lyrics are consistently intriguing; there’s a lot of stuff that seems impenetrable, but the more accessible lyrics are often head-turners. It’s the rare rock band that can get away with high-falutin’ verbiage like “I repudiate thee, thou venomous harpy.” Boston Spaceships totally pull that one off, however, in the rocking stomper “Keep Me Down.” It probably works because the song is direct and punchy with the exception of that line. There’s a wailing guitar solo in the middle of the track and the big chords and incessant drumming wouldn’t be out of place on a classic rock station. There are lots of other lines to love here. When Pollard sings, “you supply my mind with pollution,” on “Dorothy’s a Planet,” it’s about halfway between admonition and celebration, which is pretty bad-ass.

There are songs on the album that sneak up on the listener a bit. “Tattoo Mission,” the song that stands out as the one I can’t stop listening to, features a string trio and dueling guitar solo that both come out of nowhere. Embarrassingly, the first time I listened, when the strings kicked in, I was startled, thinking Mrs. Citizen was blasting another song in another room. It’s that element of surprise that makes this an album to come back to. Once I wrapped my brain around those strings in “Tattoo Mission,” it became clear that they’re completely perfect. When Kevin listened to the song, he described it as “the cat’s ass.” I’m fairly certain that that’s a ringing endorsement. It’s a song that’s worth the price of admission, a highlight amongst a slew of other great songs. Boston Spaceships throw some curveballs, but they’re all over the plate.

We have a bit of an imagined personal connection to Robert Pollard here at citizendick. It’s fairly well known that Mr. Pollard taught the fourth grade before Guided by Voices took off. Both Kevin and I work in public education as well. I acknowledge that we’re not creating anything here, merely commenting on the work of others, but the idea, embodied by Mr. Pollard, that one can pursue dreams outside of the workaday world is a powerful one. I love my day job, but it’s cool to think that I can work beyond those constraints if I want to. The new Boston Spaceships record is worth your time for a lot of reasons. Primarily, it is awesome. On a completely different note, it, and the broader work of Robert Pollard, inspires.

Tags: Boston Spaceships, GBV Inc.

Benjy Ferree – Come Back to the Five and Dime, Bobby Dee, Bobby Dee

Filed Under: General Interest, New Music

Feb.07, 2009

Rating: 0.0/10 (0 votes cast)

Bobby Driscoll died in 1968, a penniless and drug-beaten shell of a 31 year-old man. As a prodigious child of Hollywood, Bobby Dee culminated his career as the voice of the animated Peter Pan, which eerily symbolized his own fate. Peter Pan is canonized because of it’s timeless themes; youthful innocence and the direct defiance of growing up are standard adolescent struggles, and Bobby Driscoll’s real life sagas matched these themes. Unfortunately, Tinkerbell’s dust didn’t last long enough to save him from his eventual plummet. A child star in the truest sense, Driscoll won an academy award and firmly planted himself in standard conversations about Shirley Temple and other stars of similar ilk. Sadly, like the wings of Icarus, the soaring heights of stardom singed and melted his success as drugs and domestic turbulence overtook the hero. As if torn from the pages of J.M. Barrie’s classic, the kid never had a chance. His pubescent acne led to a non-renewal of Disney’s contract and he became, in every sense of the word, an aimless and drug abusing wanderer. In his latter days, he rubbed elbows with Warhol in NYC’s art syndicate and hung with avant-garde beatniks, but the cultural movements of the late 60′s left him behind, too, and his death in a ramshackle tenement at the young age of 31 ended a tortured life, but one of intriguingly sentimental ill fortune.

Benjy Ferree’s new LP, Come Back to the Five and Dime, Bobby Dee, Bobby Dee is a concept album revolving around the tortured and yet completely satiating life Driscoll led. Ferree hearkens back to his childhood love of Peter Pan, and in doing so, has created an album of vintage, grandiose coolness, dripping with influences, shatteringly smart lyricism, and aural atmospheres of blues, 50′s pop, and kick you in the nuts rock n’ roll. In the wee bit that has been 2009 thus far, Ferree’s ambitious effort is worthy of top album nods, and it’s my strong opinion this this record will show up on plenty of year-end lists this December. Every now and again, a record of weight and lofty uniqueness hits the shelves, and Ferree has the “it” that sustains stardom. The key question is whether or not the intelligence and latent nature of the album’s concept, in general, is identifiable enough to connect to listeners. In short, this side-note is inconsequential, particularly because Ferree isn’t singing for a particular audience, and that’s what makes the LP so unconventionally badass.

What’s crucially important in blending Driscoll’s life into the bruising music, is that we somehow have to be transported back to the late 1950′s. Fortunately, Ferree takes care of this in the first two tracks of the album. ”Fear” is not only the first single released off the record, but it’s also an aura producing track that provides the exposition necessary to digest the rest of the LP. In just 2:50, Ferree and band doo-wop, shoo-wop, bang triangles, grab the family jewels, and wail high pitched vocals into the audience’s eardrums. Ferree is crooning here, and bass-filled backing vocals create a dreamy jangle up and down into lofty slow-motion crescendos and danceablilty. I want to sip malts and dance with Peggy Sue at the sock hop when I hear this. Conceptually, the idea of fear also has to be imported early here, as the fear of embracing adulthood is the demon Bobby Dee never could effectively vanquish.

The iconic tale of a child star gone bad inevitably follows an archetypical narrative. The self-indulgent ignorance of youthful impulse buys and freedom is laid bare here in the track, “Big Business.” Business is good. Business is fine. Business is so good. Stylistically, it’s a big kick back to southern blues. Ferree’s balls-out coolness emulates a 50′s version of Jack and Meg White if one existed, but something shifty and unique is also present. As he belts out bring out the pixie dust, it’s intelligently addressing two ideas, Bobby Driscoll’s intense drug addiction, and the dust that made children fly in Peter Pan. The duality of the smart guy lyrics is sure to fly over the heads of many a listener; fortunately, the song kicks ass, so everybody gets a sip.

Throughout the album, Ferree shifts gears into sentimentality and heavily digs into the yearning nature of Driscoll’s love life. The high-octane numbers mirror his addictive and reckless side, where the slower jams purposefully aim for character development; I might add, they do this poignantly. Tracks like “The Grips,” and “Whirlpool of Love” are more contemplative, fusing early and mid 50′s crooning with loftier ideas; themes like the push and pull of sexual attraction, yearning and despair run through each of the throwback slow tracks, and the shift from bluesy rock jams to dreamy bubble gum music, I suppose, is probably similar to the highs and lows Driscoll faced in his few short years on earth. Is Benjy Ferree really this smart? Yup.

To transition, it’s really the rockers that draw me into the record. The tunes about addiction, impulse, and craving are what hit me hard, and Ferree accordingly boosts up the volume when addressing these concepts. ”Blown Out (Gold Doubloons and Pcs of 8)” is one of my favorite tracks on the record, as it bounces a slamming riff against a lyrical pallete of risk-taking naivete. I’m not a well-read Peter Pan guy, I must confess, but I seem to distinctly remember how the children viewed their world with wonder and excitement, and fantasy ruled the roost. When Ferree says in the chorus, I was blown out at a ripe old age. When I turned. 17, the nature of the reflectional narrator grabs ahold of the audience. Driscoll knows where he fucked up. But damn, there were some great times involved. ”Great Scott!” is a jabbing track late in the record, centering around an ass-shaking rhythm, and we’re excited to see how this one plays out live (we will travel the seven seas to see him in 09) , as the crazy energy is blasted at the audience. Ferree contemplates in Driscoll’s point of view that dyin’s overrated. It’s been done before, and the indulgence of instant gratification in both love and drugs is painfully smashed together here. It’s difficult to pinpoint lyrically where the shift takes place, but we’ve roundly decided that two tracks earlier, with “Pisstopher Christopher,” the album peaks and hits all cylinders.

“Pisstopher Christopher” is a childish title for a rock song, let’s face it. However, it’s purposeful. The most anthemic, pounding, and brutally kick ass song on the album gets a childhood playground-ish taunt title. Love it. The song is a conglomeration of all of the styles Ferree emits on the record as well as a meshing of all the major thematic elements. It’s a song rooted in largeness, with a booming sonic riff behind a cool Jack White-style delivery. It’s about the speed and the slow down, the high and lows of drug use and, I imagine, fame. The last 1:35 is one for the ages, as the distorted guitar fills sing some old school plugged in Neil Young and the stomping riff in the back completely rejects the 50′s bubble gum vibe created in the early tracks. It’s a shame that “Fear” was the song all of the bloggers got ahold of so early, as it essentially means jack shit to the meat of the record. As the track blows out your speakers in it’s last seconds, Ferree wails out My painful memory is my alibi. Won’t somebody play the guitar while I cry, and when he does this, if shivers don’t race down your spine, check your own pulse immediately. This is a dark, dark track, and points to not only the well-read intelligence of Benjy, but also to how close this guy is to sniffing out greatness.

As I’ve covered much of the thematic and trackology here, it’s probably worth mentioning “Iris Flowers,” a minute-long track midway through the album. It’s a spooky poem recitation from a pleasant sounding little girl with a chipper and matter of fact voice. The spookiness is from what she says. Beware is a brand name. Your ouija boards are not a game. Excess. Risk-taking. Dice. Shortly thereafter our little girlie says, with a smile, “All of the campfires of the world were left by themselves. So the world is still turning and it burns like hell.” Ominous and creepy, the poetic diatribe is a breakaway from the flow of the record, but signifies much. Exactly what would have happened had Driscoll never succumbed to the pressures and temptations of child stardom? Are fires lit and left untended? Should someone have steered this poor kid? Taken care of the fire they started? I certainly don’t know the answers to these, but by the end of the album, it’s pretty obvious that Benjy has taken a metaphysical and brilliant stab at answering them.

This is an album taut with with rock largeness and stylistic diversity, yet also is an intelligent commentary on pop culture awareness. We can’t speak enough of this record, and it’s probably time to shut up with our analysis. I’m going to go ahead and post “Fear” here because that’s what they gave me permission for. What you must do is purchase the entire record and spin it top to bottom to fully understand it’s complexity and how just plain cool it is. If someone sits down to this record as a casual listener, they’ll be satisfied on a superficial level, but satisfied nonetheless. For we non-scarecrows though, Benjy Ferree is asking us to hear him out. We encourage you to do just that.

www.benjyferree.com

www.dominorecordco.us

Tags: Benjy Ferree, Domino Records

Archive for February, 2009

It’d Be Cheesy to Quote Mott the Hoople, So We’re Not Going To.

Alela Diane – To Be Still and Condo Fucks – Fuck Book: Citizen Dick album review, twin bill

These Are Powers – All Aboard Future – Citizen Dick Album Review

Kill it Kid will Kill it in May

…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead – The Century of Self – Citizen Dick Album Review

Have Dick, Will Travel – The Citizen Dick Road Show Featuring Blitzen Trapper

Diamond Jim Reporting from Chicago

Citizens Brian and Kevin Reporting from Detroit

Citizendick’s TGIF Hodge-Podge – METZ, Ponderosa, Etc…

Say Hi – Oohs and Aahs

Citizen Dick Album Review – Iran – Dissolver

Citizen Dick Album Review – Bosque Brown – Baby

Odawas – The Blue Depths

Blitzen Trapper in the midwest, elsewhere

Radio Dick – Valentine’s Day Playlist

Millard Fillmore is My Homeboy – Henry’s Funeral Shoe, What Laura Says, Wild Light

The Twilight Sad – Citizen Dick Interview

DD/MM/YYYY – Black Square

Fight Like Apes – US Debut EP Out March 9th

Vetiver – Tight Knit

Boston Spaceships – The Planets are Blasted

Benjy Ferree – Come Back to the Five and Dime, Bobby Dee, Bobby Dee

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