Tag Archive: Akron/Family


Concert Update – Akron/Family in Cleveland March 3rd

Filed Under: Live Shows
Feb.28, 2011

I woke up this morning with "Another Sky" on infinite loop in my brain, which has been happening a lot lately.  Akron/Family's February release, S/T II: The Cosmic Birth and Journey of Shinju TNT, is a vitamin-fortified, slick, and divergent smorgasbord of sound, and each listen only heightens my enjoyment.  Folks that opine about the death of the album as an art form tend to forget albums like this one.  I'm actually surprised people are talking about anything else as February comes to a close.  Pop artists release tracks.  Rock bands release albums, and this record is just that, in every sense of the word.  We once chatted with Phil and Brad Cook from Megafaun, who described Akron/Family as being "turned to 11….all of the time."  The interesting thing bout S/T II is that it lassos a bunch of different sounds and even reins in the intensity at points in the album.  The most exciting thing, however, is the opportunity to see how this all translates live (although I think I already know the result).

On Thursday, Akron/Family brings their lunchbag full of rock zest to The Grog Shop and all of the Dicks will be in attendance for this one.  I know for certain it's my most anticipated show of the year, thus far.  When a band makes a towering rock opus, that tour shouldn't be without asses in seats.  Here's to hoping your ass is in one of those seats Thursday.   Additionally, enjoy the Vonnegut-suggestive, "So it Goes," and a killer live version of the aforementioned, "Another Sky," from Music Hall in Williamsburg, which, to me, is the best damn rock song of 2011.  The sharp hooks and jungle-land chicanery have been fueling my three week bender of energetic mornings.

Akron/Family – So it Goes

Akron/Family – Another Sky (Live @ Music Hall)

 

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On the nature of time and experience. (Lazy Saturday)

Filed Under: General Interest
Jan.15, 2011

We had an event last Saturday at Loop in Tremont.  We got together with some like-minded folks, hammered down some of Cleveland's finest coffee and listened to the soon to be released Akron/Family record.  The record, without question, is fantastic.  I do not have cohesive thoughts on the record itself because I listened to it once and then set it on fire.  I remember some riffs and some emotions I had while listening, but I don't have a high level of specific memory of the album.  The band asked us to destroy the compact disc we played at the event as a prophylactic against leaks, but (for me) the act of participating and destroying cut a bit deeper than that practical concern.

It speaks to the nature of communal, live experience. 

A digression:  I own audio copies of a few shows that I've attended.  Pearl Jam at the Gund in 2006 and Phish in Pittsburgh in 2009 spring immediately to mind.  Both of those bands meticulously document their live shows and make high quality recordings easily down loadable.  Past those two show that I was actually in the crowd for, I have a thousand recordings of shows that I did not attend.  In both cases, I think I might be cheating.  I remember the experiences I had at the Pearl Jam and Phish shows.  I remember the people I was there with and the things that I felt.  With the recordings, I can dip back into that experience at will, re-engage with it in a nearly perfect way.  For the vast majority of shows I've been to, I don't have that luxury; I have to rely on my imperfect memory.  Vince and I saw Soul Coughing at the Odeon sometime in the mid nineties.  I remember the encore because there was an amazing bass solo.  I can see it in my brain.  But I'm not completely sure that the solo came during "Screenwriter's Blues."  It really could have been "Sugar Free Jazz."  I don't want to know which is right.  It deepens the experience to not know for sure.  It makes the whole thing about something else.  With the shows that I have on record, I don't have that kind of uncertainty; there's no depth; there is a right answer.

Back to the listening party: I heard a record with some people and then destroyed the record.  We had a communal experience and made it impossible to revisit it (at least until the record comes out on February 2).  It was kind of beautiful, a certain expression of what art can be.  As in: here's this amazing thing; hear it once and then never hear it again.  If Akron/Family had gigantic balls, they wouldn't release the record.  They'd light the masters on fire.  They'd say to the world: we made this thing.  People heard it.  Now it is over. 

All that said, I'm going to cheat today.  This is, after all, a music blog.  Akron/Family are taper friendly.  They appear to want the live expression of their music to live on past its performance.  So, I've got a live version of one more track from Shinju TNT.  It is good.  It's polluting my Loop memories a bit, but such is life.

Akron/Family – Another Sky, Live

In completely unrelated news, Cake is coming to Cleveland.  (Actually they are coming to a lot of places.)  Enjoying Cake is another thing that demonstrates when I went to college.  It might make me "uncool" to think that Fashion Nugget is fantastic, but I'll take that hit.  Tack on the fact that they're playing at the Cleveland Masonic Auditorium (a venue I've never been inside of) and that Mrs. Citizen loves them as well (she generally dislikes the music that I like, probably because I generally like music that other people do not) and I will be in attendance.  Yeah.

Cake – It's Coming Down (bizarre alternate version)

 

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What am I gonna do when I run out of Saturdays to Lazy?

Filed Under: General Interest
Jan.08, 2011

(Editor's Note: Two things to address before the post proper.  In reality, it's only one, but it felt weird to divorce the words on Akron/Family immediately below from the video immediately above.  So, that first.  If you live in Ohio, you are going to Loop in Tremont tomorrow to listen to the new Akron/Family record before everyone else in the world.  If you live somewhere else, you're going to go somewhere else.  If you need more details, they are here.  Get excited everybody.  Secondly, I heard a live version of "Turn the Page" by Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band on 98.5 (Cleveland's home for classic rock) on the way home today.  (I know that I am the only blogger on the planet listening to terrestrial radio.  Fuck you.)  This struck me:  what does the saxophone player do on stage for the six minutes between the saxophone parts?  It's a long time between riffs, is all I'm saying.)

First: "So It Goes" is awesome.  I'd tell you that even if I wasn't sponsoring an event previewing the rest of the record in roughly eleven hours.  The guitar riff is unshakable.  The lyrics have that pseudo-boho-universalist-everyman tenor that I love about much of Akron/Family's work.  The first drum hit (for some reason) makes me think of "Fight Test," which is always a good thing.  There's a lot to like.  If the rest is as good (and I have a sneaking suspicion it is), we're all in for a treat this evening.

Second: The song is even better when you tack on the suite that precedes it in the video.  Holy cow.  And the video is really clever, right?  Who doesn't love a little infinite regression?

Third: The title is a Vonnegut reference, yeah?

Akron/Family – So It Goes

If you would have told me in 1997 that two members of The Dismemberment Plan would eventually make insanely catchy Morris Day and the Time-esque semi-funk, I would have shit my pants.  I'm still surprised by this development in 2011, but less so.  Good times.

Poor But Sexy – Hotter Than a Poptart

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Akron/Family – Shinju TNT Listening Party

Filed Under: Live Shows
Jan.05, 2011

We know that this is late notice, Northern Ohio.  We know that you might have something cookling already for Saturday night; it's just as likely that you're planning on watching Fringe reruns in your pajamas.  In either event, cancel all previous arrangements.  Converge on Loop in Tremont and prepare to listen to the new Akron/Family record way before everyone else does.

To recap:  you, me, and dozens of our closest friends are listening to the new Akron'Family record at Loop in Tremont on Saturday night at seven o'clock. 

The coolest part?  After we listen to it, at the band's request, we're going to light it on fire.  No leaks, yo.

For those of you not in the Cleveland area, there are other listening parties happening around the country (check here for emerging details).  Know this: going to the listening party in your area makes you way cooler than the rest of your friends.

See you there.  (To get your motor running, we've got a new one and an old one below.  Oh yeah.)

Akron/Family – Silly Bears – Live

Akron/Family – Phenomena – Live

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March 2011 is going to be awesome.

Filed Under: New Music
Dec.08, 2010

It is full on winter in Cleveland.  I'm looking out my front window at something like six inches of snow with more falling.  I went to the grocery store with the littlest Dick today and his little jacket was covered in powdery snow after the walk from the car to the door.  Right now, in northeast Ohio, it is easy to forget that it will eventually be warm again.  I got two emails today that made next spring seem a bit more real, a bit more exciting to look forward to.  Two very awesome things are happening in March:

First, J Mascis is putting out his first true solo record (March 15 on Sub Pop).  The first single is acoustic.  (Really.)  It is awesome, if a bit surprising from someone we typically associate with distortion and volume (even if that's a bit reductive, given that it's super tough to paint Mascis with a single brush).  The song is good; we are going to buy the record.

Second, (and, for me, probably more exciting) Akron/Family is coming to Cleveland.  They will be at the Grog Shop on March 3.  I will be there.  You should be there too.  I've been publicly jonesing for another Cleveland visit from my second favorite trio of folkster spacemen since I missed their free gig at the Rock Hall a couple of summers ago.  The show is four months away and I am already foaming at the chops.  

Akron/Family – Meek Warrior, Live 2009

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My baby rolled up in a brand new Lazy Saturday.

Filed Under: General Interest
Nov.13, 2010

If my internet music blog was a baseball team, I feel like I would be a middle of the rotation starter, something like 14-8, ERA around three and three quarters.  The evidence:  I eat innings (my nearly uninterrupted streak of Lazy Saturdays).  I struggle against left handers (I don't get bands that are ostensibly awful but that the critical community loves; see: Animal Collective).  I pitch to contact (I love me a good remix).  Most importantly for the metaphor (and this post), I have three go-to pitches: 1) Cut fastball = I think this album/band/song has some connection to an abstruse/arcane/mildly boring concept.  This is my go to pitch.  In three years, I've  connected records to African art, Martin Heidegger, contemporary American mythology, Scrabble, Russel Branyan and any further number of douchey pseudo-academic bullshit.  That's my best pitch.  I love it.   2) Circle change = I like music best when it is presented in a live format; I get hitters off balance with the snooty references; then I get them way out in front on some earthy  "music is a live medium" junk.  Word.  3) Sinker = "Music blogging is sweet because you get music you would not otherwise get."  I have written that 162 times.  Cool stuff comes to my inbox (because I am cool).  I throw this pitch at any point in the count.    To get full circle, I am throwing that pitch now.  I have heard Plume Giant, because Plume Giant sent me a track.  I heard about twelve seconds of "Fool Hall" and knew that I lucked out.  Multiple part harmonies!  Fiddles! 'Nuff siad.  These cats are the truth.  After listening to the two tracks below, you are going to want more.  You can download more here.

Plume Giant – I'm on Drugs

Plume Giant – Fool Hall

I was a late adopter of "facebook."  The argument I used to make was (roughly) this: I do not like people.  Why would I want to make an effort to further connect with them?  Turns out that "facebook" is ideal for folks who don't like people.  I keep tabs on my "internet friends" without them knowing about it.  Perfect.  It's like being at a cocktail party, but without the inconvenience of having to talk to actual people.  Awesome.  Due to my recent conversion to "facebook," I was recently exposed to Sun Airway (I hate the name of this band, but love the tunes.  In related news, they have a website.)  The nice folks at Music Saves sang their praises (much like people in the know are wont to do at, say, cocktail parties) so I checked them out.  It was worth my time.  It will be worth yours.  (Also: drone!)

Sun Airway – Put the Days Away

Dead Oceans recently announced the impending arrival of a new Akron/Family record.  I am shitting-in-my-trousers-excited.  We posted what we now know to be the first track from this record many moons ago.  Today we are posting the second track from the record.  Before the internet, shit like this would not have been possible.  There is a part of me that longs for those days, for the time when I had to wait until a physical object was in my hands before I could hear the newness.  Now, with a few clued-in google searches, I can hear live cuts of 70 percent of the new record well in advance of its release.  I am not totally sure that this is progress.  In any event, this track is the truth.  Get excited for the new record. 

Akron/Family – Island – Live

(Extended aside to close the post: as I write this, I have the television on.  I am watching professional basketball.  (In related news, the Miami Feet fucking suck.  Enjoy second round playoff exits, South Florida assholes!)  Right now, there is a commercial on.  It is for a video game.  The song playing behind the visuals is "Young Men Dead" by the erstwhile Black Angels.  What in the hell is going on?  I hope they got paid a shit ton.  I hope it was worth it.  Ugh.)

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Ain’t that some Lazy Saturday?

Filed Under: General Interest
Sep.04, 2010

I'm sick.  I've got a cough, a runny nose, random aches and pains.  It sucks.  I think I always get sick when school starts back up; my immune system takes the summer off and isn't prepared for the bombarment of germs and malaise that my students inflict.  They walk into my classroom, eyes aglow, ready to learn, but also dripping with snot.  Such is life.  I'm crawling out of my cave of Dayquil and tissues to drop two tracks on you today.  Any typos are the result of lingering codeine syrup. 

First up today, we've got a killer track from The Migrant.  This wandering Danish song bird reminds me of that Jim James KVRX recording from an abandonded hospital, but without the echo and the starkness (which is probably 30% of that recording, but you get the drift).  The instrumentation is pitch perfect and Bendsten's vocals are both clearly foreign and uniquely American.  It's a winner.

The Migrant – The Organ Grinder

Next, we've got a new track from Akron/Family.  It looks like they've been playing this sporadically during 2010, but this is a really clean recording.  It's weird to think about, but Set 'em Wild, Set 'em Free came out like 18 months ago.  "Silly Bears" is promising; hopefully there's a new record on the horizon from Citizen Dick's favorite Brooklyn longhairs?

Akron/Family – Silly Bears, Live

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There’s never a next time, there’s only a Lazy Saturday.

Filed Under: General Interest
Jul.10, 2010

(Editor's note:  I only have three things to say about it:  1.) I told you that was going to be some seriously self-aggrandizing shit. You knew it was going south (lit. and fig.) when the stentorian announcer paid homage to the king over a series of highlights to kick off the festivities.  "Where will the greatest person who ever lived decide to play basketball?  The world will find out in mere minutes."  Suck it.  2.) Miami is not going to be very good next year.  Chris Bosh isn't as amazing as he thinks he is.  Dwyane (sp?) Wade's middle name is Penny Hardaway.  LeBron James, while phenomenally gifted, won't be able to cram his ginormous ego into the arena and he'll still shrink from big moments (see Game Five).  And I'm on their depth chart at center.  Mark this down: somewhere between 50 and 55 wins and a second round playoff exit.  3.) I'm proud to be a Clevelander.  I love this city unconditionally and the presence or absence of a 25 year old douchebag doesn't factor into it.  We still have a whole mess of douchebags in the Warehouse District, so I think we'll be fine.  Go Cavs.)

Not a ton of introduction for the live tracks today; I just grabbed a couple of things that rule off of the sheld.  Enjoy.  First off, I felt like some Akron/Family.  I like the tenuous titular link to recent current events and these cats always cheer me up when I'm feeling a touch bleak.

Akron/Family – Phenomena – Live

I've been pushing this track on strangers for a while.  It's sad and thoughtful and perfect.  This live version is particularly praiseworthy.

Magnolia Electric Co. – Whip-poor-will – Live

To wrap things up today, we've got another entrant in the Summer of Remix.  Remember last year, when it seemed like everybody was doing something freaky with "Two Weeks?"  This summer, the track that everybody wants to mess about with appears to be Local Natives' "Wide Eyes."  Given that the best description of the band that I've heard is "sort of a west coast Grizzly Bear," their remixability makes some sense.  (Sidebar:  the quote comes from P4K . What does it mean that I quoted those cats?  Am I slipping?  Am I selling out?  I could probably count the number of people who know the answers to those questions on one hand.)  We've already posted this and this, but today's blast might be the best, if not the most danceable.  This one comes from the laptop of Fool's Gold's Lewis Pesacov.  While touring with Local Natives he "couldn't help but envision it as a southern rap joint, with its half-time drums and deep-azz bass-line."  Agreed.  This one even has a rap verse.  Good times.  Fool's Gold continue to tour; I'm optimistic that more remixes are on the way.

Local Natives – Wide Eyes (Fool's Gold Remix feat. Aristotle Pop A Bottle)

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I sound my barbaric Lazy Saturday over the roofs of the world.

Filed Under: General Interest
Apr.26, 2010

Twenty-eight minutes ago, I submitted my comprehensive exams to the Office of Graduate Studies at Kent State University.  Holy fucking shit.  I recognize that this is a "music blog" and that you, dear reader, come here for "music" and "criticism."  However, we generally inject our own lives to a greater or lesser degree into our posts.  It's part of the evolution of non-ficitonal writing, yeah?  This emphasis on the first person singular?  This idea that "I" am somehow interesting?  I'm probably not, but, right now, I don't give a shit.  You're here for tunes?  I have them coming up in a minute.  For several seconds, I just want to stand on an imaginary hilltop in the internet and scream to the limits of digital creation: "I am done with my Jesus Christing comprehensive exams."  I recognize that I still have to write a disseratation, but I am really, really, really close to a terminal degree at this point.  Shit yeah.

This is relevant to you, dear reader, because I am now emerging from the doctoral cave.  For at least a few weeks I'll be able to interact with the "blogosphere" in a more meaningful fashion.  I'll have a show review from Megafaun's latest visit to Cleveland for you in a few days and, soon thereafter, a review of the recent release from local heroes Good Touch Bad Touch.  I'll also be back for Lazy Saturday fun.  I'd like to reassert my presence as a Dick with an iteration of that self same recurring post right now.  I know that it's Monday, but, given the completion of my comps, it seems like the greatest Saturday ever.  Today, I'll ply you with the tunes that got me over the hump.

After hitting send on the mammoth file containing my exams I hit play on a killer live version of "Surfin' with the Shah" from Mike Watt.  He's been this Urinals track with The Minutemen and his solo groups for thirty some odd years, but it absolutely still gives you what you need when you want to celebrate an accomplishment.  Mike Watt knows what it's like to do something meaningful and difficult and time consuming.  Dude speaks to the punk rock soul of every doctoral student.  I've posted a different version of this track here at some point in the past, but this one is the tits.  One, two, surf's up!  Yeah!

Mike Watt and the Missingmen – Surfin' with the Shah, live 2009

I listened to the new Local Natives record approximately one thousand times while hammering through the comps process.  Holy balls.  That record is so good. Kevin had to hold a gun to my head to get me to listen to it, but I am super glad that I did.  Good lord.  There's not a bad song on that thing and "Sun Hands" is the best single track since "Two Weeks."  True story.  You've seen this video a dozen times already, but we've never posted it, so I feel like it's fair game.

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The other thing (other than classic jazz (I probably listened to Live from Birdland thirty times over the last month) that got me through was good old-fashioned psuedo-psychedelic rock music.  There's never a next time, friends, there's only a this time.

Akron/Family – Untitled>Meek Warrior, live, 2009

Lastly, to all of you poor saps still working on some rdiculously challenging intellecutal  (or non-intellectual, for that matter) activity: you'll make it; you can do it; it'll feel awesome when you finish.  I've got your back.  You'll never walk alone.  Not on my fucking watch.

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Things that are still, sometimes appear to Lazy Saturday

Filed Under: General Interest
Mar.06, 2010

(Editor’s note: Did you know that they’re messing with the penny?  The wise old souls a the U.S. Mint are totally cocking up the back of that thing. Given that our reader demographics department tells me that there’s a 72% chance that you’re an American, this seems to be an appropriate forum to start a campaign the stop this travesty.  Rise up, folks!  What would you prefer?  Some lameass shield or a badass representation of our nation’s second or third coolest presidential memorial?  Shields are for squares!  Neo-classical building things are for the hip!  Let’s write letters to the U.S. Mint, flood their mailboxes with our righteous protestations about this defilement of the penny.  Yeah! As an aside, I’ve always preferred the wheat penny, but this hardly seems the space to dive into that briarpatch.)

I’ve been listening to a ton of Akron/Family lately.  You know (probably) that I’ve just had a baby and that I’m in the final throes of my doctoral work.  The drifting psychedelia, hair-raising harmonization and wild-eyed exuberance of live Akron/Family work really well for managing a baby and comprehensive exams.  This trio of songs (“Meek Warrior” melting into “River” blending into “The Alps and their Orange Evergreen”) has been on a near constant loop as I outline and draft, research and annotate, diaper and feed, cradle and shush.  I’m slated to get my degree in December; my son will graduate from high school in 2028.  Akron/Family will be getting a thank you card from me on both occasions.

Akron/Family – Meek Warrior, Live -2009

Akron/Family – River, Live – 2009

Akron/Family – The Alps and their Orange Evergreen, Live – 2009

That’s really all that I’ve got today.  Got to get back to the application of evidence-based practices in special education settings (if you haven’t read Odom et al.’s 2005 exploration of the subject, you haven’t really lived).  As a parting shot with no context, we’ll close out with a killer version of “Spine of a Dog.”  I am a pinball machine.  Indeed.

moe. – Spine of a Dog, Live – 2008

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