By Jeff Kollath

A mid-April show in Madison should be preceded by a walk around the Capitol, a beverage or meal on State Street, not getting stuck in traffic or sloshing around in an inch of ice-flecked slush. Mother Nature’s cruel tricks were not lost on the Decemberists – they opened with ‘Raincoat Song’ – while a late-set ‘Calamity Song’ made us wonder if the end times are actually near, as nearly everything that could possibly fall from the sky, save for frogs, pelted Madison on Monday afternoon. Despite the band’s best efforts, they too fell into the typical sluggish Overture Center slow start (see also: Wilco), beginning slow and light, confusing an audience that was clearly ready to jump up, dance, and sing along. The Overture Center is a wonderful place, but its strength is also its weakness when it comes to rock shows – it has a strong identity crisis and both bands and fans alike have a hard time figuring out how to act. There were a number of open seats on the floor, and lots of room in front of the stage, so when Colin Meloy urged everyone up to come on down, it filled the floor, giving fits to security staff who eventually cleared the floor again. Meloy pleaded with the staff to let everyone come back, which they eventually did, giving the band and the show a needed shot in the arm.

Having ex-Nickel Creek fiddler/vocalist Sara Watkins sitting in throughout the entire show was a highlight. She not only provided additional layers of texture and emotion with her fiddle and rhythm guitar, but also superb backing vocals, both of which shone through on ‘Don’t Carry It All’ from January’s The King is Dead, with its rich natural references reminding the crowd that spring is, in fact, just around the corner. After a stellar “16 Military Wives,” Meloy’s guitar tech emerged from the back with a 12-string guitar emblazoned with a ‘Wisconsin Solidarity’ sticker. The set closer, ‘This Is Why We Fight,’ was an apt closer for a show that started out a bit disjointed, was somewhat divided in the middle, and brought it all back together at the end – solidarity, indeed.

While the Overture Center is a difficult place for ‘rock’ bands to figure out, opener Justin Townes Earle had a hold of it right away, using a big chunk of the stage to pace, strut, sing, and shout. On the surface,  Earle’s brand of acoustic country-blues would appear to be a better fit for a roadhouse, but he has always had difficult being heard over clinking bottles and a talkative crowd. New lead guitar loops/samples added a great deal to his Earle’s sparse, yet crystal clear sound that  filled the entire room. Last night was the best Earle has sounded in some time, confident, clear voiced, and energetic, reminiscent of the first time I saw him at Rathskellar in 2008.

Bon Iver returns with a self-titled release Bon Iver, Bon Iver on June 21st via Jagjaguwar. Check out the album art above as well as additional details from the label here. Details below courtesy of NPR:

The Jagjaguwar label today announced they’ll soon release a long-awaited followup to Bon Iver’s incredible 2008 album For Emma, Forever Ago. The new record, due out June 21, is called simply Bon Iver. We’ve been listening to it for about a week at NPR Music and can confirm it’s pretty wonderful. The songs take a different direction sonically from For Emma, Forever Ago. It’s a slightly broader sound, more textured and not as spare or acoustic-heavy, with more synths and electric guitars. Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon also uses a little auto-tune, but it’s done artfully.

Here’s the full track listing:
1. Perth
2. Minnesota, WI
3. Holocene
4. Towers
5. Michicant
6. Hinnom, TX
7. Wash.
8. Calgary
9. Lisbon, OH
10. Beth/Rest

Credits from Jagjaguwar: Rob Moose (Antony and the Johnsons, The National) helped with arranging and strings; and Jim Schoenecker and Tom Wincek (who have previously collaborated with Vernon under the Volcano Choir moniker) provided processing. The album also features the pedal steel of Greg Leisz (Lucinda Williams, Bill Frisell) and a horn section including Colin Stetson (Tom Waits, Arcade Fire), Mike Lewis (Andrew Bird, Happy Apple), and C.J. Camerieri (Rufus Wainwright, Sufjan Stevens).

by Joshua Miller (@jmmiller528)

Sometimes even major hail storms have their silver linings. Yesterday throughout the day, in a continuation of Wisconsin’s predictably unpredictable changing weather, a seemingly never ending pouring of hail, wind and rain drenched many plans. Luckily though the storm let up as the evening grew older, and with that people ventured out in the world to the Cactus Club to see some intricate folk stylings of Breathe Owl Breathe and Photographers that helped brighten the mood with hope, laughter, child-like wonder and journey in the lyrics and overall a great night of music.

A decent sized crowd began to form as Chicago based band Photographers set up on stage and began to unravel a intricate folk tapestry that helped win over the crowd. Singer Maren Celest and the rest of the band had their pick of instruments from ukea lle, clarinet, chord organ, and xylophone. At many points during the set Celest pulled out her clarinet and added it’s soothing tones to the band’s blending of guitar, organ and plunkering of keyboard, drums and xylophone. She flexed her voca l cords to a wailing sound midway during the set as if wailing into the night, gesturing her hands with a lot of emotion. The band played a number of new songs from their album, which is scheduled for release this summer, and will likely have photographs as everyone in the band actually does photography. The band’s melodic moving folk was mixed with humor and jokes which kept the mood light.

Breathe Owl Breathe also brought plenty of humor, as well as catchy, simple and almost child-like melodies and lyrics in a folk style that incorporates some contemporary pop. The Michigan trio’s – featuring Micah Middaugh (guitar, vocals), Andréa Moreno-Beals (cello, vocals) and Trevor Hobbs (percussion) – recent album “Magic Central” plays out like a rugged wonderer in the woods longing for a relationship and core meanings of things and along the way unravels story after story about the simple and connecting facets of life.

The band ‘s songs last night told stories about someone rollerblading listening to music, baseball bats and breaking glass (to which they used nice effect for breaking glass) and dragons falling and trying to stay in love with a princess. Middaugh provided a perfect narrator for the night, letting his wise and wistful sounding voice to wrap around the lyrics and humorous commentary and stories between songs. Moreno-Beals, who provided supporting singing, cello playing and more, as well as Hobb, helped meld the lyrics with a great folk backbone. Moreno-Beals and Middaugh seemed to enjoy themselves emenselly as they playfully traded vocals, sometimes in call and response fashion. Middaugh cracked some jokes, including one where he narated a story about needing a hail coat, a lead up to one of my favorite tracks of theirs “Own Stunts.”

Breathe Owl Breathe are no strangers having played the club before, and made the most of the surroundings throughout the night. During “Lake Light” the two singers stood at the front of the stage to sing a moving version of the song. Each band member frequently switched instruments, including banjo, keyboard, and others. Later Middaugh frequently stepped off stage into the space in front of the crowd, and began to get the crowd fired up, instructing them to get involved with the songs whether clapping or singing the lyrics to the songs. To this request the crowd happily complied. “Swimming” found the crowd making swooshing noises while “Dragon” found the crowd splitting clapping rounds as the story of a dragon in love unfolded. At one point Middaugh was singing, Moreno was drumming away with forceful emotion, and crowd clapping away to the infectious melodies, and there was definitely magic in the air.

After a wild storm, the concert was the perfect way to put a positive ending to the day and hopefully the band can come back again (hopefully a weekend) to find new fans.

Buy: Breathe Owl Breathe – Magic Central
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MP3: Breathe Owl Breathe – “Across The Loch”
MP3: Breathe Owl Breathe – “Own Stunts”
MP3: Breathe Owl Breathe – “Swimming”

By Steven Spoerl

Explosions in the Sky have been one of my favorite bands since I first heard “First Breath After Coma” some years ago. I was drawn to the elegant structure, melancholic (almost meditative) mood, and the cathartic crescendos. The guitar tones were blissful, the drumming was propulsive and concise, and as a whole it added up to something surreal. After that initial listen, I thought it may be a fluke- but on the chance it wasn’t I slowly obtained their entire discography. There were no real disappointments. Some songs were weaker than the others, sure, and none being finer than each on The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place – but Explosions in the Sky proved to be a consistent (if sometimes formulaic) band.

I’ve anxiously awaited hearing their soon-to-be released Take Care, Take Care, Take Care all year and after getting the first taste of it with “Trembling Hands” about a month ago, my anticipation level shot through the roof, as did my expectations. Fortunately, not only were my expectations met, they were exceeded. Greatly.

The album opens with “Last Known Surroundings” and a new-found ambition and scope is immediately evidenced as the track opens with a spaced-out orchestral swell overlaid with feedback (and then some audio effects) before a single guitar note shreds through everything and the drums kick in around the 1 minute mark. What follows is one of the bands most propulsive and forceful tracks to date. A lot of times an abundance of ideas can weigh down a track and very rarely do they all exceed. “Last Known Surroundings” falls squarely in the latter category. There’s hand-claps, droning guitars, multiple riffs, more audio effects, and a dense atmosphere. As a result, it’s one of the bands most thrilling, energetic, moments.

When “Last Known Surroundings” dies out, it does so amidst a hazy effect loop that leads seamlessly into the second track “Human Qualities.” While it doesn’t start off as strongly as the lead-off track does, it quickly commands attention by introducing more unique ideas that are relatively new to the band- more orchestral sampling, general sound effects, and- as the first portion dissolves – vocals. For a moment, everything fades except for a faintly hummed, harmonized, melody- and the extremely distant thump of the bass drum. It’s Explosions in the Sky’s most haunting moment- and one of their most brilliant. Stunning. Not too long after that, a wonderfully syncopated guitar line is featured as the rest of the instruments slowly swell underneath it. They gradually join it as the songs focal point before the song absolutely explodes in the final minute and a half. With even more vigor than “Last Known Surroundings.”

This renewed vigor and energy continues on the following track “Trembling Hands” and is immediately noticeable. “Trembling Hands” is a knockout of a song that features “oh oh oh” vocals throughout close to the songs entirety- as well as a very quick pace and some extremely noteworthy performances from each band member. Easily one of the years biggest surprises thus far- and one of the absolute best songs to be released so far as well. At an extremely short (for an Explosions in the Sky song) 3:30 run time, the song succeeds as a visceral gut-punch that absolutely floored me upon first listen and continues to do so now. It only grows fiercer as it progresses and is a clear standout not only on this album but in their collective discography.

“Be Comfortable, Creature” halts the momentum for a while, allowing the band to retreat into their standard atmospheric mode. It’s a fine song that utilizes some slowly progressing crescendos extremely well, which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone who’s been following the band even just a little bit. There’s interesting slide work and guitar tones employed throughout and (again) the band introduces some new ideas towards the end of the song but it’s not until those latter moments that the song succeeds on the same incredibly high level as the rest of the album. While it’s undeniably an excellent song, it’s probably the albums weakest overall- and the second longest at around 9 minutes.

However, where that song fails “Postcard From 1952” succeeds in abundance. Not only does it begin in the same standard atmospheric way (to much greater effect) it also gets the albums pace back on track at about the midway point. In the latter portion there’s some more of Chris Hrasky’s fiery frenetic drumming and it propels the song into a towering outro segment that (once again) finds the band reaching new lengths of force. It’s yet another great moment on a consistently incredible album.

The album closes with the 10+ minute track “Let Me Back In” that starts as ambitiously as the first track did- this time with a distorted vocal loop that features someone either talking or singing- it’s impossible to make out but fascinating to listen to. It’s complemented nicely by a wonderfully sparse piano arrangement. When the guitars kick in the song sounds somewhat similar to a particularly artsy Radiohead song. That comparison holds true for a good portion of the songs early moments before a bright syncopated guitar line leads straight into a segment that elevates the song to the albums general overall mood and pace. It returns to a quieter moment after a short while and the same Radiohead-like guitars reappear before (again) being overtaken by a volume swell lead by a syncopated guitar line. Then the band kicks in the distortion and lets loose, which they’ve done before but never as effectively as they have on this album. Things die down again, once more, the distorted vocal loop is used softly in the background as distortion swells go in and out, providing an entirely eerie quality to the song. The song floats along like that in its final minutes before gradually disintegrating into just the haze of the distorted vocals.

Explosions in the Sky have never seemed like a band that had something to lose but they’re playing like it now. “Take Care, Take Care, Take Care” is an incredibly ambitious record from an already great band. It’s not often bands as established and practiced as Explosions in the Sky expand their scope this greatly- or this well. Everything works, even the weakest song- “Be Comfortable, Creature” works as a context piece. With this record, Explosions in the Sky should be raising their profile and will quite possibly be on the tip of a lot of peoples tongues when it comes to year-end lists. Buy it when you can.

Stream Entire Album: Explosions In The Sky – Take Care, Take Care, Take Care
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Buy: Explosions In The Sky – Take Care, Take Care, Take Care

My Morning Jacket returns to the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee on Thursday, June 16th with Daniel Martin Moore opening. Tickets are $42.50 and go on sale Friday, April 22nd at noon.

Download: My Morning Jacket’s at the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee (10/3/08)

Pre-Order: My Morning Jacket – Circuital

Here are the Wisconsin, Illinois and Austin shows we recommend you take in this week. Check out the upcoming concerts below and let us know which ones you’ll be attending or ones you think should really make our list. This week we’re proudly presenting the return of Breathe Owl Breathe to the Cactus Club on Tuesday night.

MP3: Breathe Owl Breathe – “Across The Loch”
MP3: Breathe Owl Breathe – “Own Stunts”
MP3: Breathe Owl Breathe – “Swimming”

Upcoming Shows:

4/18 – Parts and Labor + Call Me Lightning – Cactus Club (MILWAUKEE)
4/18 – The Black Angels + Suuns – Lincoln Hall (CHICAGO)
4/18 – Odd Future – Empty Bottle (CHICAGO)
4/19 – Delorean + Yawn – Lincoln Hall (CHICAGO)
4/19 – YACHT – Emo’s (AUSTIN)
4/19 – Breathe Owl Breathe + Photographers – Cactus Club (MILWAUKEE)
4/19 – The Decemberists + Justin Townes Earle – Overture Hall (MADISON)
4/19 – The Budos Band + Charles Bradley – High Noon Saloon (MADISON)
4/20 – The Kills + Cold Cave – La Zona Rosa (AUSTIN)
4/20 – Low – Majestic Theatre (MADISON)
4/20 – The Black Angels + Suuns – High Noon Saloon (MADISON)
4/20 – The Budos Band + Charles Bradley – Turner Hall Ballroom (MILWAUKEE)
4/21 – Interpol + School Of Seven Bells – Austin Music Hall (AUSTIN)
4/21 – Titus Andronicus – Emo’s (AUSTIN)
4/21 – Cut Copy – Stubb’s (AUSTIN)
4/21 – Low – Lincoln Hall (CHICAGO)
4/21 – Foals + Freelance Whales – La Zona Rosa (AUSTIN)
4/21 – The Budos Band + Charles Bradley – Subterranean (CHICAGO)
4/22 – TV On The Radio + Glasser – Metro (CHICAGO)
4/22 – Cut Copy – Stubb’s (AUSTIN)
4/22 – Trampled By Turtles – Turner Hall Ballroom (MILWAUKEE)
4/22 – The Juan Maclean – Crisp (MILWAUKEE)
4/22 – The War On Drugs – Mike & Molly’s (CHAMPAIGN)
4/22 – Chris Cornell + William Elliott Whitmore – Vic Theatre (CHICAGO)
4/22 – Arcade Fire + The National – UIC Pavilion (CHICAGO)
4/22 – Fever Marlene + Faux Fir – Cactus Club (MILWAUKEE)
4/23 – Jessica Lea Mayfield + Nathaniel Rateliff – Emo’s (AUSTIN)
4/23 – Girl Talk – Canopy Club (URBANA)
4/23 – Sleigh Bells + CSS – La Zona Rosa (AUSTIN)
4/23 – Those Darlins – Mohawk (AUSTIN)
4/23 – Chris Cornell + William Elliott Whitmore – Pabst Theater (MILWAUKEE)
4/23 – The Pixies – Eagles Ballroom (MILWAUKEE)
4/23 – Junip + Acrylics – Empty Bottle (CHICAGO)
4/24 – Arcade Fire + The National – UIC (CHICAGO)