The Endless Stream of the Everyday
Posted on August 9, 2006 at 4:49 pm | No Comments
Been too long since I’ve done a random, non-mp3 music post. So here’s a quick one…
The summer touring season, which is traditionally a quiet one this college-crammed area that is Boston (at least for bands I give a damn about), has been surprisingly chock-full of greatness this time around. Can’t remember the last time I was this backlogged with songs, thoughts, and links to share. And as it nears its end (I know, say it ain’t so… but it is August after all), there’s been tons of very cool fall dates announced. Some of the personal faves coming in September…
9/3 – Sonic Youth @ Avalon
9/5 – Cat Power @ The Museum of Fine Arts
9/8 – Band of Horses & Chad Vangaalen @ The Paradise
9/10 – Serena Maneesh @ the Middle East Down
9/14 – Asobi Seksu @ Tufts University
9/15 – Magnolia Electric Co. & Bottomless Pit @ the ME Down
9/17 – M. Ward @ The Somerville Theatre
9/19 – Eric Bachmann & Richard Buckner @ Club Passim
9/28 – Yo La Tengo @ Avalon
Whew. And that doesn’t include October visits from Mojave 3, Built to Spill, Portastatic, Ida, and Tara Jane O’Neil. For more, check out my ever-growing list to the left.
Show of the summer so far? Ted Leo’s not-solo show this past Sunday at the Middle East Upstairs. Billed as just Ted and his guitar, he surprised us by inviting his two Pharmacists on stage with him, and was joined on a bunch of songs by ex-Pharmacist (and ace show opener) Drew O’Doherty. So much energy, and the new stuff? Wow. There’s a track called ‘The Lost Brigade‘ that is bound to be the highlight of his next album. But more on that show when I share up the mp3s (all but the new stuff… promised TL I’d keep those on the DL.) Go ahead, call me a tease.
Two, count ’em two, other potential contenders for show of the summer are happening this Friday, and it pains me that I have to choose between them: Throwing Muses with 50 Foot Wave at the Middle East Downstairs, and The New Year with Nina Nastasia and Kahoots at the Middle East Upstairs. Two of my top ten bands (The Muses & The New Year/Bedhead) playing mere yards away from each other at the exact same time. Curses! As rare as an appearance by either band has become, I bought my Muses tickets first, and I’ll be seeing The New Year next month at the Touch & Go 25th Anniversary Celebration thing. Even so, I’m very tempted to head down to Brooklyn on Saturday to catch the Kadanes & Co. at North Six the next night.
Speaking of head-Muse Kristin Hersh and her latest band, 50 Foot Wave, there’s something special over on their My Space page. They took Kristin’s 1994 solo acoustic number ‘Your Ghost‘ (which I enjoyed enough when it first came out, but wasn’t too jazzed by Mr. Stipes’ guest vocals) and rocked it up a notch or ten. The song has been utterly reborn as a dark guitar dirge, and nearly knocked my headphones off. I’m going to have a hard time not requesting it when I see them this Friday.
Some notes about the track from their newsletter:
“This is a rare recording. The band was short on songs to perform live during their first year in existence, so once in a while, they would play this song. The band found themselves with a little extra time in the studio one afternoon and decided to record it — as close to ‘live’ as a studio recording gets. Download it. Dig it.”
Yes, go do so. Right about now.
Banner day for merch, bad day for my wallet. A lunchtime trip downtown scored me a couple of those newly-remastered Cure discs (just ‘Kiss Me’x3 / ‘Head on the Door’ for now), the reissued Sebadoh III cd, and Sealab 2021’s fourth season on DVD. Also ended up winning myself a copy of the new fan-shot Beastie Boys concert DVD from the Kendall Cinema, so I’m gonna be checking that out. Might even re-gift it here on the Almanac when I’m done. In any case, I’ve got some good audio-visual times ahead.
Hey, Bostonians… got any plans tonight? No? Well, why don’tcha join Amie and I at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge for a free set of music by my old friend Sean Toohey at 8pm. I’ve known him since his old band Spray 9 played tons of shows with my first band, Hover, back in the early 90s in Burlington, Vermont. He went on to start Envy, then moved to Boston to form The Red Telephone, and now he’s doing the solo thing. If Sean’s last name is familiar to you, it might be because his also-talented sister, Meghan Toohey, fronted Boston band The So and So’s before heading out to LA.
So yeah, Sean’s set is at 8 o’clock, and shortly after he’s done we get the second ‘Every Wednesday In August’ residency show from Buffalo Tom‘s Bill Janovitz and his other band Crown Victoria. Their set’s not free, so bring more than just beer money.
For a taste of what you’re in for, hit up Sean Toohey’s MySpace page, and grab a brand new Crown Vic song called ‘Look After Me‘ right here.
How ’bout tomorrow evening? More free music: TV on the Radio and Yeah Yeah Yeahs at 6pm in front of Boston’s City Hall. I’ve yet to see either band live, so I’ll be there a little early to claim my piece of the plaza.
Congrats to Canadian visitor Nicole, who won the 5 first issues of Brian Wood‘s excellent DMZ series.
And finally, I’d like to share a recent email I got from another ‘Nac reader, this one in the UK. It pretty much encapsulates the main reason I maintain my humble little piece of the web here…
Hi Brad,
I check your blog daily and am just writing to say thanks for the Silver Jews post in March. They came to my home town of Cardiff last night. I had never heard of them prior to your post and when I saw they were coming, downloaded the show. I am now a fan! They were excellent.
They had a curious crowd I would say, rather than committed, and took to the stage to almost total indifference. When they left the crowd were screaming for more. Tremendous.
Thanks again,
Gerald
Now that’s the stuff.
Mp3s: The Legends live in Cambridge, MA
Posted on August 7, 2006 at 8:32 pm | No Comments
Last month, Swedish label Labrador Records sent two of their signature pop bands on a week-long excursion to the U.S., with 7 quick stops to the east of the Mississippi River. Boston was lucky enough to be one of ’em, when The Legends and Acid House Kings played TT the Bears in Cambridge, MA on July 10th.
While A.H.K. have been around far longer, I was way more familiar with The Legends thanks to being sent their debut disc, ‘Up Against The Legends‘, a couple years back. Guitar hooks and Motown bass lines, sing-along choruses and handclaps galore, programmed beats and slightly distorted vocals that all came together in twelve short and catchy-as-hell pop songs. And while some of the promo material painted the project as a multi-member affair, a little web-surfing revealed that it was actually all from the mind of Johan Angerg�rd, himself a longtime member of Acid House Kings.
The fact that it’s a one-man studio band helps explain why The Legends second album, ‘Public Radio’, revealed such a drastic change in style and sound… it’s easier for a bicycle to negotiate a hairpin turn than it is for a van full of bandmates. While the memorable melodies and warm production remains, gone is much of the distortion and the anthemic choruses, replaced by echoey guitars, subtler vocals, and reverbed drum beats that fans of Seventeen Seconds-era Cure or early New Order will warm to immediately. Fortunately, I’m one of those fans, so I not only took to the disc right away, but was more than a little impressed by Johan’s ability to mutate so dramatically.
I will say this, though… sometimes the Cure influence comes off more as blatant homage than incorporation, almost uncomfortably so. Listen to The Legends ‘Air‘ alongside the Cure’s ‘M‘ and you’ll hear what I mean. And is it simply coincidence that a recent single is titled ‘Play It For Today‘? If it is, and Angerg�rd grew up in some sort of Cure-free bubble, then color me amazed. Either way, it all makes me very curious to see what’s up his sleeve for album number three.
The newer singles may offer a bit of a hint, with dancier material that Johan only-half-jokingly called ‘disco’ at TTs last month. The studio-project aspect made me very curious about the live show, so I was happy to see a full band (live drummer, keyboard, two guitars, and bass) take the stage. The songs from ‘Up Against…’ are more obviously energetic, so I wasn’t too surprised to find just two songs from ‘Public Radio’ (‘Hide Away‘ and ‘People Like Us‘) make it into their short nine song set. The rest were from either the debut disc, from the two more recent releases (‘Blue Lights‘ from the ‘Play It For Today’ EP, ‘Lucky Star‘ from a brand new EP). And as far as I know, the opener ‘Darling‘ has yet to be recorded. Here’s the set…
Live at TT the Bears
Cambridge, MA
Monday, July 10th, 2006
01. Darling
02. The Kids Just Wanna Have Fun
03. Hide Away
04. People Like Us
05. Your Song
06. There And Back Again
07. Lucky Star
08. Blue Light
09. Call It Ours
Some Legends links…
The Sound of Indie loves The Legends, too. Mp3s, two videos, and a few streams at the Labrador sounds page. Video for ‘There And Back Again‘ and a couple streaming songs from ‘Up Against…’ at their Lakeshore Records page. Their MySpace page
Next week: The Acid House Kings set from the same show.
the fine print… If anyone has an issue with this live set being made available, just say the word (email link on left). Recorded with a Sony ECM-719 mic and a Sony MZ-RH10 minidisc, converted to .wav and then edited to 192kbps mp3s. Mp3s are made available for a limited time, and are not reposted once removed.