Interpol - Interpol

When I first heard the first new Interpol single, "Lights", I couldn't get fully immersed in it. My initial reaction was to associate it with some of the slower, meandering and frankly boring songs from their last and third LP, Our Love to Admire. I didn't listen again or hear anything else new until I saw them at The Vic back in August. Since their last album dropped, I've only revisited them occasionally, throwing Turn on the Bright Lights into the car cd player for a few cold winter commutes (back when I had my old job and actually drove everyday).

Now off the heels of one of the hottest and spiritually brightest summers I can remember, Interpol comes to try to make a comeback, and I honestly felt it was too early in the season to give them a chance, as I tried to milk as much as I could of the freewheeling and non-serious summer days and nights. I almost didn't even go to the show, and seeing them live seemed anachronistic as I just found myself wishing that it was January, when I would expect their dark and brooding music would fit perfectly with the bitter Chicago cold and my post-holiday reflective blues.

They did not demonstrate much of their new material live, and the show acted as more of a distant reminder of the kind of pain and cold loneliness that used to be more prevalent within, rather than a timely beautiful reflection or amplification of it.

But when they played "Lights" live, there was definitely an effect. Some dark invisible hands grabbed me by the shoulders and threw me into a empty dark space, where I found myself floating without the aid of rhythm (the ground to dance or at least stand on), only to be barely carried along the wispy wave of the singular guitar line that pilots the track. The echoing vocals of Paul Banks climbed perfectly with the guitar line to form a dim light source of only minimal illumination. The light grew as the backing vocals and soft rimshots joined in, followed by the kickdrum, then galloping stick rhythms to become bright pulsating and alive, like a violent burning star. The lyrics are for me like most of Interpol's other songs, poignant only really with the fragments that stick out, which as usual tie together with feelings of bitterness, angst, and melancholy. There isn't complete emptiness in the lyrics. Like with the xx, there is much sentimentality, but the feelings are bittersweet, like the recognition of a complicated and abstract love that will not be calm or harmonious. Like a star that grows, love grows too. But burns too much at times. And wavers with violent turbulence. And will eventually die. Though it has the warmth to sustain, its potential for harm can be intimidating to the point where you might want to sail away, or at least stay in distant orbit.

Excerpt from "Lights":

All that I see
show me your ways
teach me to meet my desires...with some grace

All that I fear
don´t turn away
and leave me to plead in this hole of a place...what if I never break

[edit]

All that I can see
a gold mystic spree
a seeithing routine
I could never navigate
maybe I like to stray

no harm it seems to be less so free...not today
it´s like you want it that way


As much as I appreciated the live show, I still was reluctant to dive into the deep waters of a new Interpol album. Again, I recalled the inconsistency and overall low impact of the last album, and I was feeling like I should be ready for some more burnt embers from charred remains of their incendiary debut and fairly sizzling followup, or the failed experiments of the slow dirge-like experimentation a la Our Love to Admire's opening track. When I eventually did take the plunge, I found echoes of early work in theme and feel only, not in execution, and that the attempts at heavy dirge-like toils to be powerful and naturally emotional instead of vapid and mechanical. The album is finally the real reinvention, or at least long-overdue evolution for the band. Their self-titled offering is not the definition of an original artist's original work (that would be their first album), but it could be. It stands alone as a flowing body of solid songwriting and careful execution, a statement of original work that stands on its own yet can also fit in a catalogue. Going back and revisiting the third album, there are songs I like, but they ultimately are again concepts in the wake of the burst of dark beauty that was their earliest work. Many tracks demonstrated Interpol's attempts to evolve, but they felt forced as if the band knew they had to experiment but without inspiration, and pushed the album out on the reliability of the familiar-sounding songs that were actually not much more than degenerate mimicry of their early work.

However now on Interpol we are finally treated to some new material that finally does something new and does it well. They are still brooding, but they are brooding slower and more deeply. This is the heaviest Interpol album yet. It sounds like they finally gave up on the rat race to outrun their dark speed demon of a first album and just let their dark personas bleed emotion slowly out of their mouths and fingertips. There are no radio singles here, no songs to drop on a party mix, or even a driving mix (unless you like driving slow). Instead what you get is an album you can listen to front to back and want to start it all over when you're done because you just can't get some of those heavy lyrics or guitar lines out of your head. I've only been primarily listening to this in my basement on lukewarm October nights... on the rare circumstances I have no plans... so I can't even imagine its impact on the snowy and frigid nights in January where there is nothing to do and no one to keep you company but your anxieties and regrets.

Interpol - Interpol (full album)

Sufjan Stevens [Live at the Chicago Theater, 10/15/10]

I bought my tickets to Sufjan presale, half because I haven't seen him before and was a big fan of the two states albums, and half because I knew it would sell out and I would have security in selling them in case I didn't end up going. Since I knew they would sell out, I bought two tickets. As it turned out, I didn't get a date for the show, but more surprisingly, none of my friends were interested, or at least interested enough to pay the face value, which was $48 (after fees). So prior to the show I was losing interest in going, but my tickets never arrived in the mail and it was looking like I'd have to get them Will Call, precluding me from selling the pair in advance to free my weekend for a trip to Madison with some friends. However, listening to a leaked stream of the Age of Adz on NPR a week or so renewed my interest and reaffirmed my faith in the mystical minstrel.

What excited me and made me forget all about the Christmas album (the last release of his I could remember until I looked up and recalled he put out that BQE EP as well as a self-released psuedo-LP mp3 collection) is the fact that while his songwriting retained the orchestral instrumentation and epic nature, he also incorporated electronic sounds as well as prog rock developments. I only listened to it once though, deciding that I'd like the actual show to be as fresh as possible.

The day before the show my roommate expressed an interest in the extra ticket, but the day of the show he admitted he had to work late and would prefer to save his money for Bob Dylan on Halloween weekend. My tickets did end up arriving at my office last minute upon reshipment, so at about 2pm the day of the show I posted on CList that I'd sell my extra for face. Apparently earlier in the week people were scalping, but the day of the show people were getting desperate and were accepting less than face (technically face as opposed to face plus fees), so I wasn't getting any takers. Finally I added my phone number, which I've never done on a CList ad, and right as I left my house to go downtown to the venue, I got a call from a guy interested. No harrassing at the venue for me!

I met the guy at the venue a bit early, and we walked around the block so I could properly prep for the show with a little chat with Samson. This guy, who turned out to be a pretty serious 20-year-old music major, was a straight shooter (much like me at 20), and talking about music was about the only thing we had in common. Not only did he not fraternize with Samson but was no smoker or drinker either, and didn't have much to say when I brought up the topic of girls. In any case, he was a nice enough guy, and we got in our seats just as DM Stith was opening.

Now I was really hoping to have halfway decent seats. I knew they were in the balcony, but I got them presale so I was hoping for a nice view from up front or the side. Instead, we were in the very LAST row in the main balcony section, with the only people behind us being in a special row of chairs on the top landing. Not only did this make for a terribly far and awkward view of the performers but of the screen behind as well, which was host to much animated video during Sufjan's set. Not only that, but of course it did not sound quite as good (though still better sound than almost any other venue in the city), and to boot, it felt like it was about 85 degrees.

The unfortunate part about talking to Samson so early was that it was peaking during the opener, DM Stith. Only familiar with him as far as reading reviews, I enjoyed his short set which included a range of instrumental pieces, from acoustic to small chamber horn quartet, to looped wordless vocal chants. Sufjan started with a stage-full of musicians, himself poised in the front with everyone forming a filled-in semi-circle behind him (at least I can appreciate the geometry of the setup from that high up). After the first lush vocal-heavy piece, he introduced himself and the show which was to be basically all 'explorations' from Age of Adz. About halfway through the first set, he took a long break to explain the inspiration of the album, which was essentially the life story and work of an artist who, plagued by schizophrenia, escaped with his family to live and paint in the forest, before eventually driving out his family and losing complete touch with society due to his paranoia. The themes of his art were apparently very spacey, as in the outer variety, but also had this aspect of the cosmos of the mind and heart. Deep shit, indeed.

Sufjan rambled about this shit for a while, and while the information about the inspiring artist (who died of a heart attack one day when he left his house upon 'having a vision') was interesting, Sufjan's personal take on his own songwriting definitely got a bit overindulgent. It was nice to hear him crack some jokes too, and made me wonder if he actually doesn't take all the lovey-dovey shit in his songwriting as serious as I originally thought.

The worst part of the experience was definitely the vantage point, and the fact that I started getting tired as I came down from my talk with Samson during the second half of the set. The highlight for me, aside from the music, were definitely the videos. What made them cooler was that they were apparently animations created using images from the inspiring artist's paintings. There were definitely some spacey voyage-like trips, with one part uncannily resembling a flight down the corridor of the Death Star. It was definitely a quasi-cinematic experience.

Fortunately for old-time fans like me, the show was entirely Age of Adz material. After almost an hour, he thanked us for letting him play new material, and then dedicated the next song to us, which was of course, Chicago. This was definitely a nostalgiac and beautiful treat, and I sang along and swooned with the rest of the enamored crowd. He took a short break and then came out and did an encore with minimal accompaniment, playing two low-key tracks from Illinoise and Michigan, before finally closing with a pure acoustic rendition of John Wayne Gacy, Jr. Although that song is beautiful, it's fucking tragic, and it kind of sucked to leave on such a sad note, especially on a Friday night.

So because of that as well as the comedown from my drinks and talk with Samson that I left the show tired and introspective, and without desire to go out and party for the first Friday night in a long time. Many times I've gotten a bit fucked up for a show I wonder afterwards if I would have gotten more out of it if I would have been sober. Then again, I also many times wonder the shows I saw sober would have been like if I had been a little fucked up. I would say either way Sufjan's latest tour is still a unique and incredible experience, and I would definitely see him again if I had the chance. I just might try a little harder to solidify a date next time...

Sufjan Stevens - Age of Adz (full album)

Sufjan Stevens - Chicago (from Illinoise)

Menomena - Mines

I have three shows from last week to review, but I need to mix it up and throw down an album review first. Especially when I find a great album that is mostly overlooked, as is the case yet again with Menomena's latest offering and fourth LP, Mines.

I first discovered Menomena upon the release of their third LP, Friend and Foe, in the same way I discover a lot of great albums, via Pitchfork, in particular their review with the Best New Music seal of approval. It was actually my roommate at the time who bought the CD and got into it first. It took me a bit of getting used to their sound and quasi-oddball songwriting, but especially once I started picking up on the lyrics, I quickly got hooked.

This happened sort of the same way with Mines. Not exactly the most upbeat album (perhaps they should rename themselves Melancholia), it took me a bit to get into this album again, not so much this time because their sound was unfamiliar but because I was apparently not morose enough to get into it. Now that summer is over, and whatever unfulfilled hopes and dreams went with it are descending along with the angle of the sun in the sky, the ruined statue on the cover art inspires reflection upon the unreconcilable ruination laid evident with the absence of blinding summer bliss. Yet something is comforting about the wilderness that cradles the human remains that are left to slowly rest and rot...

This is the inspiration of the soul behind Menomena: deep, philosophical, stark and grand. And I'm not typically a lyrics guy, but their lyrics somehow speak volumes to me. While they can be cryptic, there's usually a meaning I can glean, even if I don't fully understand it. The best comparison I can come up with is Radiohead, for they even have some tracks with very few yet very poignant lyrics. Here is the lyrics to the entire song Tithe, which clocks at just under five minutes:

spending the best years of a childhood horizontal on the floor
like a bobsled minus the teamwork and the televised support

and nothing sounds appealing

someone retired on a percentage of the tithe that paved these roads
they lead to nowhere but they're still gridlocked, made of Solomon's pure gold
beneath the door frame waiting for earthquakes after the rapture comes and goes
the saints went marching, the trumpets salving, the chosen ones are phoning a goal

and nothing sounds appealing

The lyrics are devastating, yet I don't find them depressing for some reason. It's like a scientific result that is not what you hoped for, whether it's because it proved a hypothesis incorrect or whether confirming a bleak truth, either way it's still a fragment of truth that is appreciable for the nature of its infallibility.

While the lyrics indeed serve as the face of Menomena's strange and grotesque appeal, the music fleshes out the body, providing a decadent wonderland of technically precise and inventive songwriting, on which to color with the sharp musings of the Portland quartet. Again I cannot help but to comment on the scientific approach of the musicianship. While there is a fair share of electronic samples, the arrangement is still primarily rock instrumentation, and shows are still a completely 'live' experience. What keeps the feel and sound of the band distinct and not easily lumped in with other sound fads is that they have a more stripped down sound, with much less reliance on guitars and consistent use of piano, sax, various percussion instruments, and synth lines to color in over the basic drum set and low-fat electronic synth backbone. The cleanliness of the sound is occasionally marred by a jagged guitar line here and there to give an aggressive edge, but you will remember the piano and sax lines far more easily than the guitar lines, which is a credit to the delicate balance they strike in the songwriting.

The album is on the whole a tad less upfront than Friend and Foe, but there is no less complexity to the songwriting or profundity to the lyrics. I would definitely start with their last album, as this one definitely has more of an afterglow feel (I never did get into the first album, I am the Fun Blame Monster, although it was critically acclaimed, and the second album's existence I only discovered today, which was produced as a soundtrack to a local dance crew). But when you are musing about the emptiness of this post-summer autumn or the loneliness of your introspective self, reach for Menomena to fill your sunset with colors and your mind with reassurance that the loneliness, emptiness, and frustration is not only an inevitable orchestration of the hands of fate, but also that the aspect can be an acceptable and beautiful one to view and appreciate.

Menomena - Taos

Menomena - Tithe

Menomena - Five Little Rooms

MySpace page

M.I.A. [Live at The Vic, 09/30/10]

At least she wasn't preggers...

It's still weird though. Maya Arulpragasam, better known by her artist name, M.I.A., is 35 years old, yet she looks like she's 18. I can only hope I have any such luck with whoever I'm with when I'm in my 30's.

The show, which was at the Vic Theatre in Lincoln Park, didn't sell out in advance. I was expecting it to, but I guess because she booked two nights there was just the right amount of demand because although I was able to get a ticket at the door, the venue was still crammed with a dizzying array of all-aged bodies. My friend and I tried to get close, but we were stuck in the aisle not even halfway down to the stage, which meant more traffic and less dancing. Really I don't know where there was any room to dance, except for on stage, and one lucky fan did actually get the space to dance when M.I.A. after one of her many quasi-stage dives invited him up to party with her two quirky bald male dancers and three chicks in saris that covered everything but their eyes. When M.I.A. pointed to someone down front and invited them onstage, I assumed it would be a girl, or at least some small dude who must have looked like he could bust moves, but no-- it was a tall lanky white dude with a unzipped hoodie and graphic tee which he kept pulling the corners down in proud display. His dancing was atrocious, and this is even coming from me, and when he quickly ran out of moves he devised every BS idea possible to keep busy, from running around the stage to working the crowd (even standing in front of M.IA. while she sang), to eventually even grinding on the Sri Lankan firecracker herself! And the best part was that she ground back! Honestly, I had a great time at the show, but this guy had the best hands down.

Thankfully he jumped off at the end of the track and we could go back to watching real performers. The music sounded decent overall. I never thought of M.I.A. as hip hop until now, which is definitely what it is at least as far as the live show goes. She had a tall dark-skinned chick DJ who was pretty chill. She focused on her work, but she did smile and nod to the audience enough to show she wasn't working that hard. The first track was a little off, I think M.I.A. just needed to warm up, but once she got going she did her job well... which isn't too hard, considering she only has to do the vocals live which consist of less singing or rapping and more shouting.

So far everything was what I expected. Lots of entertainment on stage, no room to dance, and sound that is decent but not loud enough. What I also expected was MIA to have a crazy outfit and to play mostly stuff from the new album. Now I've only listened to the new album a couple times and I like some tracks but the ones that are abrasive scare me away (after all, I'm always a whole album kinda guy), so I did recognize most of the new songs, but I was surprised that she played a lot of Kala and Arular. In retrospect now it makes more sense because they are much more fun albums, but at the show I was ecstatically surprised to hear so many old tracks.

I first heard of M.I.A. when Kala dropped. I was DJing at the University of Pittsburgh's student radio station and I ripped a copy for myself. This was way before Paper Planes was released as a single and M.I.A. was a household name. In fact, I didn't really like Paper Planes at first. I even meant to play a different track on the album during one of my shows, but I actually accidentally played Paper Planes and just ran with it. Of course, I love it now, but at first I thought the beat was just way less exciting than the rest, and the sound effects during the chorus just seemed silly. So for me at first M.I.A. was Bamboo Banger, Boys, and Jimmy, the first two of which I got to hear that night and was consequently super geeked. The other surprise was that her costume was pretty simple. At first she was wearing something sort of skimpy on top, but then she ended up throwing on just a big white t-shirt which she kept on the rest of the night. I think she wore pants too, so overall very low key, yet she's so damn cute and sexy anyway (she really enjoyed sitting on top of the speaker.... damn lucky speaker) that I can't really complain.

Overall a good time, but again, I would have expected her to have enough cred to secure a show at Congress. At least that way we could dance, even though I'd probably find some way to offend someone with my moves or lack thereof and get kicked out. And then I wouldn't have gotten to hear Paper Planes, which she finally did as the last song of the encore. I was sort of expecting her not to play it actually, just because I'm sure she's quite sick of it, but I'm glad she did because if not for that song she would still remain only a major underground sensation a la Santigold, who is next on my list of world/hip hop/electronic/r&b genre mashers...

M.I.A. - Bamboo Banger

N.E.R.D with Daft Punk - "Hypnotize U"

Absolutely dripping with Prince-esque soul, from underneath the covers crawls this smooth and surprisingly minimalistic jam from the N.E.R.D. crew with production by none other than the anti-smooth (jagged) French rock-ravers (or rave-rockers?) Daft Punk.

Enjoy.

Hot Chip / New Order Members - "Didn't Know What Love Was" [Converse promotional single]

Everyone loves a sellout these days. And Converse managed to grab talent from two quite premiere bands and shake out a solid disco-house dance track out of them. To be specific, we have New Order frontman Bernard Sumner, Hot Chip members Alexis Taylor and Joe Goddard, and dance act Hot City altogether on this one.

Enjoy.

the xx [Live at Chicago Theater, 09/28/10]

This show marks the xx's sixth show in Chicago this year. SIXTH. I can only think of three of the other times they were here. I remember they came to play a show with jj back in April, but I'm not crazy about those guys (maybe if I was drugged out on a party boat floating on pristine lakes tucked between some lush Bavarian mountain ranges... yes, I know they're Swedish but Bavaria small towns is where I've been to). Furthermore, AR over at Market Snodsbury saw them first and told me they were pretty boring live, so I passed on that opportunity. They were oddly paired with Hot Chip for their next show which was only a couple weeks later, and I again passed on this. I even got a ticket as soon as they went on sale, but because the show ended up being the day after Coachella where both bands were to play, I sold the only tickets I can remember selling in recent history. I did end up unexpectedly catching a bit of their set at Indio, actually, and enjoyed the handful of songs I stayed for. The third time they were in Chicago was at Lolla, and once again I had no intention of seeing them in the clusterfuck that is the north side of Grant Park. If I recall, I was even over there for a bit while they were playing but it was such a loud, crowded, horrible environment I didn't even try listening to them.

Which brings us to the latest show, which I was well aware of, but had no intention of going to given all the other shows this fall that are much higher on my priority list. There was no conflict with the show, but I have been just seemingly throwing money away lately. That night was also to be my one night in this week. Yet my friend who won two tickets via XRT bailed as well as the friend she was going to go with, leaving me with two tickets at 6:00pm on the day of the show.

After texting at least ten people and getting at least four negative responses, I got a positive response from my old roommate who was a big fan of the LP and to my knowledge, hadn't seen them before. We missed the first opener, Zola Jesus, in order to get a late dinner, but we caught most of the second opener, Warpaint, who for whatever reason I enjoyed a lot more at Lolla actually (I think it was my first/hangover act of Day Three... somehow it ended up fitting that situation better).

As for xx, I thought I knew what to expect. I expected no special effects. I expected no fullness of sound or energy. I expected no one to even stand. Yet they started their set behind a giant curtain which dropped to expose their trinity of guitar on the right, bass on the left, and producer on a raised platform with a table bearing a bright luminescent xx logo. They opened with the Intro, which sounded like a dark ship of death rolling out to the open night sea. It wasn't an especially thick or overpowering sound, but it had a dense and resilient enough quality to it that it spread like a plague and penetrated every soul in the theater. There was immediately a palpable excitement, and within the first thirty seconds of the Intro the entire theater was on its feet, myself being up within about the first five.

The initial excitement naturally quiesced into a steady absorption of the dark and empty notes, the music which acts as sort of a macabre skeleton which can be dressed with flesh, but is most often left rather hollow and bare with minimal sound textures and melodies from the musicians. The vocals however, imbue the bag o' bones with a different fundamental piece of humanity, the soul. The lyrics of the xx are highly sentimental to say the least, but they are of a depth and complexity of human relationship that weighs equally on the warmth of a tender lover as much as the coldness of a love lost or even unrequited. Even the tender moments seem cold somehow, and the tragic dischord of incompatible feelings familiar in its honesty.

What I did expect was to shed quite a few tears. And this expectation was fulfilled.

I almost forgot to mention that we saw the xx leave their bus and walk into the venue right before the show. We walked right behind them for only a handful or so of paces before they got into the Theater's side door. Something about their music is so sacred that I don't think I could ever approach them to talk. I feel like I can only show them appreciation indirectly through supporting their music financially (bought the cd last spring), and in that way showing them a love that is ghostly but yet still heartfelt, much like their music.

the xx - Crystalized (video)

the xx - Islands (video)

the xx - Shelter