Spoon’s Transference hits early this year and hits hard. This record is not a reinvention, but neither is it a rehashing. This is Spoon and Spoon, as you well know, is a darn good band. Since this record has gotten and will continue to get a ton of press, I thought I’d mention a few things to listen for that I’d hate to see overlooked:
The piano. Spoon may get categorized as a guitar band, but wow — we don’t get a lot of piano playing like this in contemporary rock. Of course, deft piano playing is par for the course in Spoon with classic tunes like “The Way We Get By” and “Don’t Make Me a Target” but man, keyboardist Eric Harvey kills it on Transference. Check out the first 30 seconds of “Written In Reverse” You’ll see what I mean. The next song, “I Saw The Light” has an amazing piano-based break-down section and “Goodnight Laura” as an all-out piano ballad.
The intimacy. My penchant for the piano on this record may have something to do with this sticking out to me, but Transference — more than any of it’s predecessors — has a house-show production quality. It feels present and light and close. Right out of the gate with “Before Destruction” a simple thing like vocal mic placement (Daniels must have sung and played that acoustic guitar a few feet away instead of right into the mic) creates immediate intimacy. Some records never get there; this one does in the first 1/3 of the first song. I guess the band did their own production on Transference which, if this is the result, should be the way it gets done from now on.
The lyrics. And, really, the delivery of those lyrics. Britt Daniel is such a good singer. It’s not so much that there’s a poetry to the lyrics as it is that the songs on Transference, as on all Spoon records, are lyrical. Sometimes vocal style and word-choice/arrangement become a part of the musical aesthetic of a record in the way, for example, that the piano that I was mentioning earlier does. Some artists have a knack for knowing how to make a line sound good — to smack — over a musical phrase. Daniel Does.
Discuss: Let’s hear what you think. What stands out for you in this release? How does Transference stand up among Spoon’s other records? Will we still be listening to this in a year when people start putting together their favorite records of 2010?
Today Mark Everett, better known under the guise of his band Eels, releases a new album, End Times on Vagrant Records. Up until ten days ago that information would meant little compared to what it would have five years to a decade ago for me. You see, I got off the Eels train at the Hombre Lobo stop last year. It’s not that I didn’t like the album, (though it remains my least favorite amongst the Eels discography) it’s that I simply wasn’t so miserable that I connected with the music in the same way I once did. Life got good.
That’s not to say I’ve abandon my love for sad songs or albums heavy on heartbreak. Far from it. I guess the honest explanation is that I’m really not sure what made me so disinterested in news of a new Eels record in 2010. Something had just stopped clicking for me. I downloaded my digital promotional copy and got around to giving it a courtesy listen. I had to make sure that I was really not interested. Listening on headphones, I was quickly sucked in, playing the entire record once through early in the morning, completely putting off my day’s plans until it finished. No surprise, it’s filled with introspection and brutal, honest, gut-wrenching sadness. I’ve always loved E’s ability to bare his soul, after this album I’m not sure he’ll have anything left unexposed.
This record is too beautiful to overlook. It’s available on the cheap (link below), but if you need some audio to convince you of how exquisite this album is, please don’t hesitate to download/sample two of my favorite songs off the album below.
Giveaway: We have one copy of End Times on vinyl to give away to the Muzzle of Bees faithful. To enter, drop a comment with some 2010 releases you’re excited about. We’ll select a winner at random and notify them via e-mail next week.
Here are the Wisconsin and Illinois shows we recommend you take in this week. Check them out below and let us know which ones you’ll be attending or ones you think should really make our list.
Upcoming Shows:
1/20 – Sharon Van Etten + Daniel Knox – Cactus Club (MILWAUKEE)
1/21 – Brandi Carlile – Pabst Theater (MILWAUKEE)
1/21 – Brighton, MA – The Frequency (MADISON)
1/21 – Decibully – Schubas (CHICAGO)
1/22 – Anthony Bourdain – Riverside Theater (MILWAUKEE)
1/22 – The Daredevil Christopher Wright + Decibully + Jookabox – Der Rathskeller (MADISON)
1/22 – The Gold Motel (Hush Sound side project) + Empires – Canopy Club (URBANA)
1/23 – Pablove Benefit Concert – Turner Hall Ballroom (MILWAUKEE)
1/23 – Decibully – Cactus Club (MILWAUKEE)
1/23 – Yo La Tengo + Times New Viking – Barrymore Theatre (MADISON)
1/23 – The Hood Internet + The New Loud (MADISON)
Just Announced:
3/9 – Vetiver – High Noon Saloon (MADISON)
3/13 – Retribution Gospel Choir – Schubas (CHICAGO)
3/20 – P.O.S – Turner Hall Ballroom (MILWAUKEE)
3/20 – Scout Niblett – The Frequency (MADISON)
5/10 – Shout Out Louds – Lincoln Hall (CHICAGO)
Owen Pallett graced the stage of Schuba’s as the headliner of three breath-taking live performances on Saturday night’s instilment of Tomorrow Never Knows. Pallett, following incredibly powerful and intimate sets by Peter Wolf Crier and the lovely Sharon Von Etten, fell nothing short of concluding an amazing evening of music. Having caught his November set opening up for the Mountain Goats at Metro, (while he still fell under his Final Fantasy moniker), I knew this would be no surprise. The only difference this second time around (unless you count my brief flirtation introduction to this magnificent multi-instrumentalist’s sound at Pitchfork this past July), is that was I now much more familiar with his song catalogue, especially with the recent Jan. 12th release of Heartland.
Schuba’s was long sold-out; with me bumming that I was going to have to miss the set until a last minute confirmation came through – I seriously felt like I had won the lottery. The walls of this cozy music hotspot was packed with people shoulder-to-shoulder (with a surprising 9/10 male to female ratio), making it extremely easy to forget it was a frigid January evening in Chicago. Warm amber lighting illuminated the sometimes one, sometimes two man set-up on the small wooden stage.
Pallett took to the stage at approximately midnight, to a suddenly stone silent, hushed crowd who were anxious for what was about to come – I could actually hear the humming of his amplifier before he kicked things off with Heartland’s “E is for Estranged.” A second musician joined Pallett on stage off and on for several songs of the 70-minute set—breaking right into another new track, the amazingly catchy “Keep the Dog Quiet.” While the majority of material came from Heartland, some older favorites were accounted for as well including “This is the Dream of Win and Regine,” “He Poos Clouds,” “The Butcher,” and the encore “The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead.” A newer track I didn’t recognize without the help of my good friend Google was the catchy, “Honour the Dead or Else.”
Incredible musicianship overall, Pallett maneuvered seamless transitions into various usages of his violin – plucking, strumming, bowing, shouting, the man is a musical genius. For a mere two man show, the usage of his loops, pedals and techniques made quite the jaw-dropping experience come to life. The only noticeable difference from his November Chicago set was the absence of his wise cracking charisma, woven between songs to which he later apologized to the crowd for not being “in full showgirl mode,” due to feeling under the weather. Sick or ill as he may have been, other than his lack of witticisms, the crowd would never have been able to tell – the show was dead on, and everyone in attendance seemed equally impressed – even the loud, drunk dude bros behind me were getting down.
Pallett again apologized at one point later in the set, but this time for all the new songs. But the fact that he utilizes his live performances as his forum for new music is what makes his performances so enjoyable – sure, you probably have the fans here who just want what they know, but even in November prior to Heartland’s January release, Pallett was showcasing numbers from his fourth album. With today’s addiction to internet’s download immediacy and music, fans should appreciate the live instant gratification of new material even so much more. Definitely good stuff.
From start to finish, Pallett showcased an incredibly quiet yet loud, intimate yet powerful, breath-taking performance. As always, I definitely encourage checking out his live sets – while you may not be sold on his recorded works, I assure you his live interpretations can and will easily change your stance on this magical musicianship.
Set List:
1. E is for Estranged
2. Keep the Dog Quiet
3. Lewis Takes Action
4. Oh Heartland, Up Yours!
5. The Butcher
6. He Poos Clouds
7. This is the Dream of Win & Regine
8. Many Lives
9. Midnight Directives
10. Honour the Dead or Else
11. The Great Elsewhere
12. Lewis Takes Off His Shirt
13. (Encore) The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead
14. (Encore) This Lamb Sells Condos
I’m looking forward to checking out the upcoming Gil Scott-Heron album, I’m New Here, arriving next month (2/9) on XL. It’s been a long time coming. If you haven’t had the opportunity to check out the recently released video for “Me And The Devil,” please take the time to do so now.
James Taylor and Carole King touring together again is a pretty big deal. They’ll be in Chicago on May 24th at the AllState Arenaas part of their “Troubadour Reunion Tour“. The last time they team-toured was back in 1971 when Sweet Baby James and Tapestry exploded in sweet, sunshiny goodness upon the American airwaves. These two now-classic albums would have a paradoxical effect on one another. On one hand, Sweet Baby James with the title track (my favorite JT song) as well as “Fire and Rain,” and “Country Roads” would be heard and learned by many a suburban boy and sung to woo many a suburban girl. And then Tapestry, with that incredible three-song opening (“I Feel the Earth Move,” “So Far Away,” and “It’s Too Late”) was there for the girls when the moon-dust would wear off into one heartbreak or another, or they would realize that their dearest could neither play or sing like James Taylor—whichever came first. (And, of course, vice versa, lest we succumb to the pitfalls of gender stereotyping here.)
All this is to say that I really love James Taylor (and Carole King, but it’s JT that’s got me thinking). My parents were those 1971 suburban kids. When I eventually joined the party, we would listen to JT albums in the car on the long drives up canyons to yonder fishing holes. Those songs stuck, and even as a teenager with all that brit-pop and alterna-distortion I was into, I had my JT Greatest Hits safely in the collection. Seriously, who doesn’t have that album? (It’s been Diamond certified and has sold over 20 million copies.)
I’ve been trying to figure something out, though — and feel free to chime in here. From where I stand, it doesn’t really seem like James Taylor has penetrated into the current cultural spheres of musical influence the way, say, Neil Young has. Granted, JT is a different kind of artist than Young—with, arguably, a greater “mass-audience” appeal, which can sometimes damage critical credibility. He’s been more (gasp!) commercially successful and, perhaps worst of all, as a result has been marooned on that lonely island of “adult-contemporary” rock. I mean, if I hear “Carolina in My Mind” at the grocery store on a regular basis, no need to go home and listen to the record, right? All this, compounded by the addition of back-up singers in the mid 80s — major yuppie points there — is, perhaps the reason you don’t hear Robin Pecknold or Justin Vernon citing him as an influence.
But, despite the back-up singers, I don’t think it’s a justified oversight. I think that he has been more influential than may first meet the eye, as a guitar player (he makes it look effortless) and certainly as one of the most successful singer-songwriter acts, like, ever. During the 70s, he produced a long string of quality records that included some famous (and less-famous) collaborations including Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Stevie Wonder, Bonnie Raitt, Paul Simon and even Paul McCartney (Taylor, as is likely well-known, was one of the first artists signed to the Beatles’ Apple label and remains a friend and favorite of McCartney’s). He’s had musical ups and downs, personal successes and failures; he’s been hospitalized several times for depression and drug addiction over the years (he finally kicked the methadone habit in the early 80s) — other recording artists have had lower lows and still maintained their critical ethos. But his body of work, taken as a whole, is remarkable, and should be given the credit it’s due.
For those of you only familiar with his grocery store hits, I urge you to delve a bit deeper into that back catalog. Here are a few places to start:
“Don’t be Sad Cause Your Sun is Down” is a sweet little tune co-written by Stevie Wonder who also provides backing on harmonica (it’s pretty obscure though, so let lala give you your one free listen). It’s on JT’s In the Pocket (1976) which features many of those collaborations I was speaking of above. Other tunes to check out here are “Nothing Like a Hundred Miles” and “Golden Moments.”
“Millworker” from the 1979 record Flag is a classic. Not only does it show off Taylor’s ability as a songwriter, but it also is a window into his political ideologies and support for blue-collared America. It apparently struck a chord as it’s been covered by the likes of Springsteen, Emmylou Harris, and even Eddie Vedder
“Frozen Man” from 1991′s New Moon Shine is another songwriting gem–this one the imagined back-story of a dude they pulled out of the frozen tundra. It’s in my top five favorite JT tunes.
Finally, Taylor’s two most recent releases of original tunes (he’s put out a few covers records more recently), 1997′s Hourglass and 2002′s October Road are evidence that he’s back on the top of his game. Nearly every song on these two records resonate and teach the way you might expect a journeyman’s music to. I remember listening to Hourglass‘s “Enough to Be On Your Way” when I was 19 and thinking– wow, this is what adulthood must feel like. It encapsulates the bitter-sweetness of divergent paths as the lyrics reflect on the loss of an old friend.
October Road offers a dozen other songs in this vein–songs about remembering, songs about forgetting, songs about honoring and hoping. My favorite here didn’t really sink in until Taylor released a live concert collection called One Man Band (2007– and if you’re looking for a good live collection of the best JT songs, this is the one. It’s just him and a great pianist.) The song is “Traveling Star” and instead of the hip-swaying back-up singers that I tend to cringe at, Taylor manages an on-stage, prerecorded video sync with a choir from his hometown. For me this is the epitome of Sunday afternoon music–my wife and I reading on the couch, kids occupied quietly (yeah, right) somewhere. Our lives passing happily, slowly; but not too slowly.
I can’t promise anything more than soft rock here, folks. But despite its softness, it’s meant something to me. I think you’ll also find some depth and wisdom here– more, at least, than you might find wandering the grocery store.
stop last year. It’s not that I didn’t like the album, (though it remains my least favorite amongst the Eels discography) it’s that I simply wasn’t so miserable that I connected with the music in the same way I once did. Life got good. 
