Bowerbirds Tour Dates:03-17 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
03-21 Washington, DC – Black Cat
03-22 Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s
03-23 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
03-24 Boston, MA – Paradise
03-26 Montreal, Quebec – La Sala Rossa
03-27 Toronto, Ontario – The Garrison
03-29 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
03-31 Minneapolis, MN – Cedar Cultural Centre
04-03 Seattle, WA – The Crocodile
04-04 Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge
04-06 San Francisco, CA – The Independent
04-07 Los Angeles, CA – Troubadour
04-08 San Diego, CA – Casbah
04-11 Austin, TX – The Parish
04-12 Dallas, TX – The Loft
04-14 Birmingham, AL – The Bottletree
04-15 Atlanta, GA – The Earl
Andrew Bird will release his newest album Break It Yourself on March 6th via Mom and Pop Records. Perhaps you even heard the first single, "Eyeoneye" when we streamed it just a few short weeks ago. Well, if your patience has waned awaiting the newest release from America's preeminent indie-pop whistler you can find something new to worry about because the kind folks over at NPR Music are streaming the whole record on their site. Writer Stephen Thompson also shares some of his initial thoughts on the record as a primer for those about to take their first listen.
In addition to the new long-player, Bird and his band will be hitting the road this spring. Below are his upcoming American dates.
Andrew Bird Tour Dates:
03-15 Dallas, TX - Majestic Theatre
03-16 New Orleans, LA - The Howlin' Wolf
03-17 Atlanta, GA - Tabernacle
03-19 Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium
03-20 Columbus, OH - Southern Theatre
03-22 St. Louis, MO - The Pageant
03-23 Kansas City, MO - The Uptown Theater
03-24 Milwaukee, WI - Riverside Theater
04-09 Seattle, WA - Paramount Theatre
04-10 Vancouver, British Columbia - The Vogue
04-11 Portland, OR - Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
04-13 Oakland, CA - Fox Theater
04-18 Mesa, AZ - Ikeda Theater at Mesa Arts Center
04-19 Santa Fe, NM - Lensic Performing Arts Center
04-20 Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theater
05-03 Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer
05-04 New York, NY - Beacon Theatre
05-05 New York, NY -Beacon Theatre
05-06 Boston, MA - House of Blues
05-08 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
05-09 Baltimore, MD - Ram's Head Live
05-10 Detroit, MI - The Fillmore Detroit
05-12 Chicago, IL - Auditorium Theatre
Legendary German techno group, Kraftwerk will be performing eight of their studio albums live this April at New York's Museum of Modern Art. The concerts will take place from April 10 through April 17 and will feature the band playing live versions of their now famous albums with the accompaniment of three dimensional video.
San Francisco's Girls were heavily - and justifiably - lauded for their wonderful 2011 LP, Father, Son, Holy Ghost. Now, the band have prepped a single for the track "My Ma". True Panther will release the single on May 22nd and will limit the pressing to just 1000 copies.
To celebrate the release, the band have also assembled a video for the single. The heartfelt video follows an elderly woman around as she ruminates on her former life as an actress. The footage is endearing and works very well with the narrative of the song, but at times comes off a bit creepy as the woman rehearses her faces to prove that her acting chops are still in tact. Goofy, but ultimately, effective.
In addition to the forthcoming single, Girls will also be making a live appearance on Conan on March 22. Watch the video below.
As previously mentioned here before, indie darlings The Shins have a new long player called The Port Of Morrow coming out on March 20. For a few weeks now twee kids in every neighborhood across America have been rocking to the first single from the record, "Simple Song".
Now, the band have unveiled a b-side to the single, entitled "September". In addition to that joyous news, The Shins have also plotted a tour across much of the nation for the spring and early summer.
You can see a video for "September" below and find out what day James Mercer and Co. will hit your town.
The Shins Tour Dates:
April 13—Cosmopolitan/The Pool—Las Vegas, Nevada
April 22—Civic Auditorium—Santa Cruz, California
April 23—Robert Mondavi Center—Davis, California
April 25—Grand Sierra Resort & Casino—Reno, Nevada
May 25—Les Schwab Amphitheatre—Bend, Oregon
May 28—Red Butte Garden Amphitheater—Salt Lake City, Utah
May 29— Red Rocks Amphitheatre—Morrison, Colorado
May 31—Harrahs Council Bluffs—Council Bluffs, Iowa
June 4—The Pageant—St Louis, Missouri
June 5—LC Indoor Pavilion—Columbus, Ohio
June 6—Fillmore Detroit—Detroit, Michigan
June 8—Masonic Auditorium—Cleveland, Ohio
June 9—Iroquois Amphitheatre—Louisville, Kentucky
Stephen Merritt and his Magnetic Fields are famous for their audacious 69 Love Songs set and received even further notoriety when they were the collective subject of the recent documentary, Strange Powers chronicling Merritt's day to day life and his musical approach. Now, Merritt and Magnetic Fields are set to release their tenth album on March 6th.
Entitled Love At The Bottom Of The Sea, it marks the first Magnetic Fields release on Merge Records since the much lauded 69 Love Songs and the follow-up to 2010's Realism. The first single from the record, "Andrew In Drag", is a truly Merrtian pop song that both provokes chuckles and humming from the listener after just one spin.
You can stream the new song below and see upcoming Magnetic Fields tour dates throughout North America and Europe. There is also a track listing for Love At The Bottom Of The Sea.
Love at the Bottom of the Sea Track Listing:
1. God Wants Us to Wait
2. Andrew in Drag
3. Your Girlfriend's Face
4. Born For Love
5. I'd Go Anywhere with Hugh
6. Infatuation (With Your Gyration)
7. The Only Boy in Town
8. The Machine in Your Hand
9. Goin' Back to the Country
10. I've Run Away to Join the Fairies
11. The Horrible Party
12. My Husband's Pied-a-Terre
13. I Don't Like Your Tone
14. Quick!
15. All She Cares About Is Mariachi
-- THE MAGNETIC FIELDS - 2012 TOUR DATES
Mar 6 Hudson, NY Helsinki Hudson
Mar 7 Philadelphia, PA Union Transfer
Mar 8 New York, NY Barnes and Noble
Mar 11 Minehead, UK All Tomorrow's Parties
Mar 14, 15, 16 Austin, TX SXSW
Mar 18 Vancouver, BC The Vogue
Mar 19 Seattle, WA Neptune Theater
Mar 20 Seattle, WA Neptune Theater
Mar 21 Portland, OR Roseland Theater
Mar 23 Los Angeles, CA Orpheum Theater
Mar 24 Oakland, CA Fox Theater
Mar 26 Chicago, IL Vic Theater
Mar 27 Chicago, IL Vic Theater
Mar 28 Iowa City, IA Englert Theater
Mar 30 Toronto, ON Sound Academy
Mar 31 Montreal, QC Le National
Apr 3 New York, NY Beacon Theater
Apr 4 New York, NY Beacon Theater
Apr 6 Boston, MA Berklee Performance Center
Apr 7 Boston, MA Berklee Performance Center
Apr 9 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
Apr 11 Carrboro, NC Cat's Cradle
Apr 12 Carrboro, NC Cat's Cradle
Apr 13 Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse
Apr 24 Brighton, UK Komedia
Apr 25 London, UK Royal Festival Hall
Apr 27 Manchester, UK RNCM
Apr 28 Dublin, IR Olympia
Apr 29 Cork, IR Opera House
May 1 Porto, PT Casa da Musica
May 2 Lisbon, PT Teatro Maria Matos
May 4 Murcia, ES Estrella Levante SOS 4.8
May 6 Barcelona, ES Sala Apolo
May 7 Madrid, ES Teatro Rialto
May 9 Oslo, NO Rockefeller
May 11 Gothenburg, SE Annedalskyrkan
May 12 Stockholm, SE Filadelfiakyrkan
May 14 Berlin, DE Passionskirche
May 15 Hamburg, DE Kampnagel k6
May 16 Amsterdam, NL De Duif
Tomorrow marks the official release date for the self-titled debut LP from Hospitality. Being a sucker for well-crafted and intelligent pop songs, it seemed a shame to let this occasion pass unnoticed. To celebrate, watch the video below for "Friends Of Friends". Not only is it a catchy song likely to make you run out to your local record purveyor, but it also features Alia Shakwat of Arrested Development fame. And if there is one thing we love around here more than intelligent pop songs, it's intelligent TV shows that make us laugh our asses off.
Oh, and after the new video, you can spy are a few Hospitality tour dates (imagine the puns they'll have to endure) along the eastern half of North America.
Hospitality Tour Dates:
Feb 3 Brooklyn, NY Glasslands Gallery (Record Release Show)
Feb 25 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall (Noise Pop w/ Archers of Loaf)
Feb 26 Los Angeles, CA Troubadour w/ Archers of Loaf
Feb 29 Toronto, ON Horseshoe Tavern w/ Tennis
Mar 2 Boston, MA Brighton Music Hall w/ Tennis
Mar 3 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom w/ Tennis
Mar 7 New Haven, CT BAR
Mar 9 Chapel Hill, NC Local 506 w/ Tennis
Mar 10 Atlanta, GA The Earl w/ Tennis
Mar 11 Orlando, FL Orange You Glad Festival
On March 6th, North Carolina's Bowerbirds will release their third full length, The Clearing on Dead Oceans. After two records filled with mostly sparse and Appalachian-esque instrumentational approach, The Clearing brings on a bigger, more fulfilled sound. Trading murder ballads for genteel pop - at least a little bit.
In addition to being the supposedly "difficult" third record, the band have also undergone a number of trials and tribulations during the writing and recording process. After the release of 2009's Upper Air, singer Beth Tacular nearly died of a mysterious illness and she and her band mate, Phil Moore have broken up and then reunited. Pretty tough circumstances under which to make a record.
Based on the first two unveiled songs, Bowerbirds sound better than ever. Below, you can find a track listing for The Clearing, catch up on the planned spring tour and stream/download a track from the new album called "In The Yard".
The Clearing Track Listing:
Tuck the Darkness In
In the Yard
Walk the Furrows
Stitch the Hem
This Year
Brave World
Hush
Overcome With Light
Sweet Moment
Death Wish
Now We Hurry On
Bowerbirds Tour Dates:
03-17 Carrboro, NC – Cat’s Cradle
03-21 Washington, DC – Black Cat
03-22 Philadelphia, PA – Johnny Brenda’s
03-23 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom
03-24 Boston, MA – Paradise
03-26 Montreal, Quebec – La Sala Rossa
03-27 Toronto, Ontario – The Garrison
03-29 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
03-31 Minneapolis, MN – Cedar Cultural Centre
04-03 Seattle, WA – The Crocodile
04-04 Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge
04-06 San Francisco, CA – The Independent
04-07 Los Angeles, CA – Troubadour
04-08 San Diego, CA – Casbah
04-11 Austin, TX – The Parish
04-12 Dallas, TX – The Loft
04-14 Birmingham, AL – The Bottletree
04-15 Atlanta, GA – The Earl
Spiritualized have announced plans to release their follow up to their 2008 LP, Songs In A & E. Fat Possum Records will release Sweet Heart Sweet Light in mid-March.
To coincide with the release of the new album, Spiritualized have also mapped out an extensive tour of North America slated for this May.
You can see tour dates and a track list for Sweet Heart Sweet Light below. As an added bonus, you can also find a video of the band playing a track from the LP called "Little Girl." The performance comes from the Other Voices Festival which took place in Ireland last April.
Sweet Heart Sweet Light Track Listing:
01 Hey Jane
02 Little Girl
03 Get What You
04 Too Late
05 Heading for the Top
06 Freedom
07 I Am What I Am
08 Mary
09 Life Is a Problem
10 So Long You Pretty Things
North American Tour Dates:
05-02 Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue
05-03 Chicago, IL - Metro
05-04 Detroit, MI - The Majestic Theatre
05-05 Toronto, Ontario - The Phoenix
05-07 New York, NY - Terminal 5
05-09 Boston, MA - Paradise
05-10 Washington, DC - The 9:30 Club
05-11 Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of Living Arts
05-12 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
05-13 Atlanta, GA - The Variety Playhouse
05-15 Dallas, TX - The Granada Theatre
05-16 Austin, TX - Emo's East
05-18 Tucson AZ - The Rialto Theatre
05-19 Phoenix AZ - The Crescent Ballroom
05-20 San Diego CA - Belly Up Tavern
05-22 Los Angeles CA - The Wiltern
05-23 San Francisco CA - The Fillmore
05-25 Portland, OR - The Wonder Ballroom
05-26 Vancouver, British Columbia - The Rickshaw Theatre
After storming the folk-indie-pop gates with their terrific 2009 debut, Reservoir, London based Fanfarlo played a ton of shows and made a host of really solid acoustic and stripped down web videos. Now, they're prepped to launch their follow-up LP, Room Filled With Light on Feb. 28.
As frontman, Simon Balthazar (yep, that is really his name) explains in the interview piece below, the band have slightly adjusted their sound, but based on what we've heard so far, they're still focused on simple melodies, tight songs and orchestrated arrangements.
To celebrate the release of the new long-player, Fanfarlo will also be hitting North America throughout March and April, including stops at SXSW and Coachella. The full list of dates can be found at the end of this post along with one of those terrific aforementioned 'stripped down' vids.
Fanfarlo 2012 Tour Dates: 03/05 – Boston, MA @ Paradise Rock Club 03/06 – New York, NY @ Webster Hall 03/07 – Wahsington, DC @ U Street Music Hall 03/08 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer 03/09 – Chapel Hill, NC @ Cat’s Cradle 03/10 – Atlanta, GA @ Vinyl 03/13 – Houston, TX @ Fitzgerald’s 03/14 – Dallas, TX @ The Loft 03/15-18 – Austion, TX @South by Southwest 03/19 – St. Louis, MO @ Blueberry Hill 03/20 – Nashville, TN @ Mercy Lounge 03/22 – Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar 03/23 – Ann Arbor, MU @ The Blind Pig 03/24 – Toronto, ON @ Mod Club 03/25 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Smalls 03/27 – Columbus, OH @ Skully’s 03/28 – Chicago, IL @ Lincoln Hall 03/29 – Madison, WI @ High Noon Saloon 03/31 – Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theatre 04/01 – Kansas City, MO @ Record Bar 04/03 – Denver, CO @ Bluebird 04/05 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge 04/06 – Boise, ID @ Neurolux 04/07 – Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge 04/09 – Vancouver, BC @ The Biltmore 04/10 – Seattle, WA @ Crocodile Cafe 04/15 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival 04/17 – San Francisco, CA @ Slim’s 04/22 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival
World renowned whistler, violin player, ex-Squirrel Nut Zipper and tall indie-rawk hearthrob, Andrew Bird has unveiled the new single from his forthcoming LP, Break It Yourself. EyeOnEye is a bit more rocking than the typical Bird fare, prompting Rolling Stone to inquire "Who Pissed Off Andrew Bird" when reviewing the single in its most recent issue. But, fear not Bird lovers, the same old catchy melodies and semi-sensical lyrics are still in full plumage. Furthermore, there's a hooky whistle break just like you know you wanted.
You can listen to the new single below. In addition, you can see a track list for the Break It Yourself record which hits stores on March 6th and see upcoming tour dates in support of the album.
Upcoming American Tour Dates:
03-15 Dallas, TX - Majestic Theatre
03-16 New Orleans, LA - The Howlin' Wolf
03-17 Atlanta, GA - Tabernacle
03-19 Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium
03-20 Columbus, OH - Southern Theatre
03-22 St. Louis, MO - The Pageant
03-23 Kansas City, MO - The Uptown Theater
03-24 Milwaukee, WI - Riverside Theater
04-09 Seattle, WA - Paramount Theatre
04-10 Vancouver, British Columbia - The Vogue
04-11 Portland, OR - Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall
04-13 Oakland, CA - Fox Theater
04-18 Mesa, AZ - Ikeda Theater at Mesa Arts Center
04-19 Santa Fe, NM - Lensic Performing Arts Center
04-20 Tucson, AZ - Rialto Theater
05-03 Philadelphia, PA - Union Transfer
05-04 New York, NY - Beacon Theatre
05-05 New York, NY -Beacon Theatre
05-06 Boston, MA - House of Blues
05-08 Washington, DC - 9:30 Club
05-09 Baltimore, MD - Ram's Head Live
05-10 Detroit, MI - The Fillmore Detroit
05-12 Chicago, IL - Auditorium Theatre
Break It Yourself Track List:
01. Desperation Breeds…
02. Polynation
03. Danse Caribe
04. Give it Away
05. Eyeoneye
06. Lazy Projector
07. Near Death Experience Experience
08. Behind the Barn
09. Lusitania
10. Orpheo Looks Back
11. Sifters
12. Fatal Shore
13. Hole in the Ocean Floor
14. Belles
M. Ward will soon release his first album in three years. Wasteland Companion, the follow up to Hold Time, will arrive via Merge Records on April 10. Ward says he was heavily influenced by his rigorous travel schedule over the last several years, giving the album the feel of a travelogue.
He explains, “Between now and when I made Hold Time there has
been a lot of traveling which requires a lot of reckoning with what to
leave behind and what to carry – material and otherwise – and thinking
about what I want versus what I need, creatively and otherwise. I wanted
to get a reflection of that on the album. It was a process of stripping
away my security blanket, which is the same four walls I always record
in.”
The record was recorded in eight different studios and features contributions from the likes of She & Him bandmate Zooey Deschanel, Mike Coykendall, Howe Gelb, Steve Shelley, Adam Selzer and many more.
In addition to the forthcoming LP, Ward will also be busy out on the road with a host of tour dates across the US in April and May. Scheduled dates for the tour and a track list for Wasteland Companion are below.
Track Listing:
1. Clean Slate (for Alex & El Goodo)
2. Primitive Girl
3. Me And My Shadow
4. Sweetheart
5. I Get Ideas
6. The First Time I Ran Away
7. A Wasteland Companion
8. Watch The Show
9. There’s A Key
10. Crawl After You
11. Wild Goose
12. Pure Joy
M. Ward Tour Dates:
Feb 2 Los Angeles, CA Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Apr 11 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore
Apr 12 Santa Cruz, CA The Cocoanut Grove Ballroom
Apr 13 Indio, CA Coachella **SOLD OUT**
Apr 14 Santa Barbara, CA SoHO
Apr 16 San Diego, CA Belly Up
Apr 17 Phoenix, AZ Crescent Ballroom
Apr 18 Flagstaff, AZ The Orpheum
Apr 20 Indio, CA Coachella **SOLD OUT**
May 5 Portland, ME State Theatre
May 6 Burlington, VT Higher Ground
May 7 New Haven, CT Toads Place
May 8 Boston, MA House of Blues
May 11 New York, NY Webster Hall
May 12 Philadelphia, PA Union Transfer
May 13 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
May 15 Durham, NC Duke Performances at Page Auditorium
May 16 Athens, GA Georgia Theatre
May 17 Atlanta, GA Buckhead Theatre
May 22 Chicago, IL Vic Theatre
May 24 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue
Remember when you used to make mix tapes to make friends and impress girls? So do I. And, I miss it. Therefore, I bring you the new endeavor from our humble little blog; The Sabauteur Radio Hour.
To kick off my excitement of all things musical in 2012, here is the very first episode of a new podcast type effort I'm calling The Sabauteur Radio Hour. The concept is pretty simple: There are songs I like and some stuff I want to say about those songs. So, that is primarily what happens here.
Along the way, I will attempt to uncover the new, revisit the old and aged and talk about what's going on in music that excites me. In the first installment we check out the new single from the forthcoming Shins LP. I wax poetic about the first LP from Youth Lagoon, wish a happy birthday to a soul legend, mention many times, many bands on the playlist that will also be playing at Coachella, and I'll explain why The Eagles are a far greater scourge on society than Marilyn Manson or Judas Priest.
Given the Sabauteur predilection for music documentaries, we have to admit some excitement and interest in the forthcoming LCD Soundsystem doc, Shut Up And Play The Hits. Not only is this film a music documentary, but it captures the end of a good band pulling their own plug. This is a phenomenon near and dear to our hearts, as exhibited in our love for end of days indie docs like Tell Me Do You Miss Me and A Good Band Is Easy To Kill.
The film chronicles the final live performance of the band at New York City's Madison Square Garden in April of 2011. Stylistically, the approach appears to be a combination of live footage mixed with LCD frontman, James Murphy talking about the end of the band. Adding to ourgeekish interest in the film, is the fact that Murphy is interviewed in these segments by the terrific cultural essayist and author, Chuck Klosterman.
Shut Up And Play The Hits will make its debut at the Sundance Film Festival later this month. You can watch the trailer below.
Youth Lagoon | The Year Of Hibernation (2011) - Fat Possum Records
The Year Of Hibernation, the debut album from Youth Lagoon is an album that seems like an auditory oxymoron. On the one hand, there is a simple, honest and humble appeal to it. The songs sound very much like you'd expect from a record made by one young man, Trevor Powers, in the bedroom of his Boise, Idaho home. On the other hand, the arrangements are epic. The songs are mature and self-assured and the narrator through muffled voice and reverb drench often sounds wiser than his years would belie.
It is within these contradictions that the greatest appeal of this record lies. It would be easy for a 22 year old kid to make a bedroom record with a few twee instruments and a laptop. Yet, that would make these songs seem cute or cloying. Youth Lagoon never elicit any of those emotions. Instead, the simple melodies are repeated in almost Reichian fashion and are built upon so as to elevate the songs to ethereal planes.
In the title of the record, and throughout mush of the lyrical material, Powers writes about his own sense of loneliness and anxiety. But it almost always seems smarter than the songs we should expect from someone who is just entering his adulthood. The production value and subject matter evoke a sense of nostalgia that this young man has created for a dream world that never really existed.
The potpourri of influences here are part of what make the record so interesting too. In quieter moments, there is a sense of a piano style 70s solo act. Yet, at the moment that aesthetic becomes clear gears shift and a synth loop chimes to throw the listener off track. The guitar riffs owe a large debt to early New Order with their melodic repetition and simplicity. Yet they never feel forced or out of place.
Powerful moments are common on this record, but none is more evident than in the coda that ends the penultimate track, "Montana". As the a slow melodic whistle builds with a smacking, metallic anvil sound to the songs crescendo. It is haunting and beautiful and very much original. This is a melody you will have in your head for days.
The best compliment I can give this record is that when it's over, you'll want to flip it over and start again from the beginning.
Rating: 8/10
The haunting beauty and melodic charm of Youth Lagoon
are even further displayed in the marvelous video
for "Montana", which can be found below.
We're proud to bring you our brand new series, My First Time Ever, in which a guest contributor tells a personal story of discovery. The stories included in this series are designed to be a sort of compendium of the individual moments we all have as we gain self-awareness and determine what matters to us. It's an experiment in where our experiences in growing up and becoming culturally critical and informed are similar and disparate.
For our inaugural essay, Chad Patterson tells us about the moment early in his college days when he realized he was, as Steve Perry once opined, "just a small town boy".
My First Time Ever: The Violent Femmes By Chad Patterson
I had a moment in college where I realized just how "small town" I was. I will never forget it.
I was studying theater at Lansing Community
College. And, as you do in college I met an eclectic group of
people; young, old, black, white, hispanic, gay and straight. None of
that surface stuff really mattered. What mattered is that performance brought us all
together. We all loved doing live theater and we also all loved
partying.
On opening night of my first College theater production we
had a cast party in a small two bedroom apartment. There had to have been 20-25
us roaming around this little place. I was still a minor, but alcohol
was there and accessible to all of us. It was a party like you see in
the movies. There were people making out, people wearing lampshades on their head,
and loud music playing and drinking. Lots and lots of drinking.
Now, don't
get me wrong I had been to my share of shit kicker barn keggers in High
School, but this was different. This party had that Bohemian art feel to it
where at any time sex might just accidentally happen to you, or some
older guy might start cutting lines of cocaine on the kitchen counter.
Now none of that happened but it felt like it could.
Everything was hot
and smoky and unlike anything I had ever experienced. I felt very
outside of it, like a kid looking in at his own birthday party. But
there was one moment in which I felt alienated more than any other and
it wasn't because my friends were ostracizing me or that I wasn't
participating. This environment, if nothing else, was extremely inclusive. This moment had everything to do with how out of touch I was culturally.
Everyone was gathering at the CD player. One person in particular, my Improv teacher and mentor Bill getting very
excited about what was going to happen. There was a palpable buzz
about the music that was about to be played. My friend Dawn, whose
apartment it was, took a CD from the jewel case with a dark cover
and she placed the disc in the player. The door closed on the player and
people backed away from it as if it were going to emit light and melt
their faces.
I was glued to this plastic kitchen chair seemingly
unable to move in anticipation for what they were about to hear. My
mind filled with great party songs of my youth; Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, or maybe
some Bob Seger? No. I was painfully out of touch.
The sound that
came from this tiny little stereo at an apartment party in South
Lansing was a raw, whiny lone voice that primally moaned "DAY AFTER DAY I
WILL WALK AND I WILL PLAY, BUT THE DAY AFTER TODAY, I WILL STOP, AND I
WILL START..."
Everyone in the room knew the words, they screamed them
along with this man and as soon as the very raw, crude music began to
this very simple beat and guitar riff the entire group of people were
gone on this mad pogo jump around the living room slamming into each
other. Then the singing started and everyone sang along sans
myself. The words were so unforgettable; a man actually pleading
in a song "Why can't I get just one fuck?" and then for good measure
repeating the same line because inquiring about why one can't get a fuck
bears repeating.
This was the first time I had ever heard The Violent
Femmes and I may venture to say the first time that I had ever heard
anything that would qualify as college radio. My entire childhood had
been littered with a hodge-podge of classic rock, heavy metal, disco or
easy listening contemporary crap. In other words Popular music.
Here I
was in college looking at this group of people that I admired a great
deal reveling in this song that they had obviously worshiped like a
church hymn of youth rebellion and I couldn't even identify it. I was
still wearing my Motley Crue concert T to class sometimes and not to be
ironic either, but because I actually thought it was cool.
From that moment
on my ears and eyes were opened. I had missed out on an entire list of
great artists in the 80's and early 90's because if for no other reason
they weren't ever on the Monsters of Rock tour. I missed out on great
bands like R.E.M., The Smiths, The Cure and Depeche Mode and of course
the Femmes, who will always hold a special place in my heart because in
my ways they very roughly deflowered me culturally and musically at a
little apartment party in South Lansing.
Slice Of Five is a series of (what will be) ongoing essays that chronicle five chronologically consecutive creative endeavors from one particular artist, and the lasting cultural importance of that quintet. This the inaugural edition of the series.
Slice Of Five: R.E.M.
1983 - 1987
It's uber-glamorous to speak in the past tense of a band that shuttled itself across the American countryside to spread the word of their terrific songs and musicianship. Every college town in America has a guy sidled up to a bar somewhere who was a 20 year old philosophy major when he saw R.E.M. at a now closed dive bar, in said college town, that could hold 95 souls on a good night and break the fire code while doing it. For one more beer he'll tell you all about how it was a weeknight and almost no one was there, but he knew better than the rest of the world. He still thinks he does, though he's probably wrong.
John Q. Storyteller can still vividly remember a humble rendition of Radio Free Europe and the sweet jangle of Peter Buck's guitar cranking out a lovely, if slightly drunken version of Talk About The Passion. There was muted applause and the band stayed for a couple of beers after their set and seemed like pretty nice guys. The personal angle of the story is most likely a lie and the details have been embellished or perhaps even fabricated. Yet, you don't care as you listen intently and spring for one more Rolling Rock in exchange for the tale. The story may be made up, but it still seems truer than the truth. This is how R.E.M. forged its legacy - one bar room at a time. And having one of the most distinctive sounds and some of the best songs in the history of American rock music didn't hurt either.
During the years 1983 to 1987, this seemingly humble quartet churned out five of the most terrific records around. That's one great record a year. Most bands would kill to make one record as good as say Fables Of The Reconstruction or Life's Rich Pageant. This band cranked records like this out every year for five years running. Amazingly, none of these two records seems cut from the same cloth. Each record is a step in a new direction and remains at the same time a record that is an aural declaration of the R.E.M. sound.
By combining the overlooked brilliance of The Byrds and collecting parts of their Southern surroundings and the urgency of the punk records upon which they were weened, Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry carved out a new sound for the very American decade that was the 1980s. Shaking off the circus-top ethos of stadium-glam-rock-cum-soft-metal that was so popular at the time, they crafted a simpler, more compact sound that was both sharp and still seemingly relaxed. Stipe's muffled words lent a cloud of mystery to the underlying stories the songs were about and constructed an intensely personal experience for the listener. Tossing in some elements from power-pop heroes like Pylon or Big Star, R.E.M. assembled an almost perfect American art-form; a sort of mystic folk-laden southern white jazz for the jaded American Lit major.
Below is an album by album rundown of one of the most prolific and profound five year outputs in the history of one American musical group.
MURMUR (1983)
There is a murky quality to the first full-length R.E.M. record that never gets in the way of the band's energy. Between Stipe's mumbled lead vocals and the shaggily muffled quality of the recordings, the vaguely swampy fidelity of the record becomes a large part of its charm. At times, in an almost utter contrast to the record's overall aesthetic, Peter Buck's guitar sounds almost crystalline in the nebulous of the rest of the band; a hammering jangle that carries every song to greater heights. Rhythm section Mike Mills and Bill Berry had already developed an intimate musical connection with each by the time recording for Murmur began. Not only is Mills locked in rhythmically with Berry's drum parts, but is also sonically supporting everything coming from Buck's side of the stage. Radio Free Europe was the closest thing to a hit on the record, but other great songs like Talk About The Passion and Sitting Still carry an urgency that belong in Radio Free Europe's thumpy/poppy class. Other, more reflective numbers like Moral Kiosk and Perfect Circle give Murmur a surprisingly level of depth for a debut record. To any one listening for the first time in 1983, it should have been obvious that there were big things to come from this Athens, GA quartet. Perhaps even more remarkable is that nearly 30 years later, Murmur has the same effect today.
RECKONING (1984)
The first noise you hear once your drop the needle on Reckoning is a Bill Berry drum fill into a chugging and chiming pop song called Harborcoat. Within seconds, it's evident that the next chapter in the R.E.M. discography is a much surer and confident brew. What follows is 38 compact minutes of straight up pop magic. Balancing the delicate refinery of So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry) with the playfulness of 7 Chinese Brothers and the bombastic ruralism of (Don't Go) Back To Rockville, the production team of Mitch Easter and Don Dixon were able to perfectly capture the enthusiasm and energy of a live R.E.M. performance without sacrificing fidelity. Not only are the songs and musicianship on Reckoning quantitatively tighter than Murmur, the record just flat out sounds better. With their first two proper LPs, R.E.M. had garnered loads of critical praise and begun to develop a sizable following amongst American college campuses and an increasingly larger number of music fans across the pond. In less than two full years, the band had made two seminal records and gotten the music industry's attention. In many respects, they were just getting warmed up.
FABLES OF THE RECONSTRUCTION (1985)
For their follow-up to Reckoning, the band decided to seek a different locale for recording and finally decided to record an entire album's worth of material at Livingston Studios in London, England. In addition to a change of scenery, R.E.M. also chose to work with a new producer. Joe Boyd was an American ex-pat who had built a reputation in the late 60's and early 70's by recording terrific folk albums by acts like Nick Drake and Fairport Convention. The soon to be recorded material also comprised the band's first full fledged attempt at a record with a coherent and consistent theme by exploring the mythology of the American south. In retrospect, Boyd seems a very odd choice and London an equally odd location. The resulting sessions were legendary for their awkwardness. Recording during the particularly rainy months of February and March in Britain under the production of a man with a penchant for making notoriously British sounding records made for a fairly dismal time. There are apocryphal tales of the band nearly giving up and packing it in altogether. And, at least once, Mike Mills admitted he considered quitting the band during the sessions. Somehow, Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe managed to turn a rough situation into great art. Much of the reason that the difficult working conditions translate so well to the finished product is the depth and darkness of the material itself. Song like Life And How To Live It and album opener Feeling Gravity's Pull especially seem to benefit from the dire surroundings. The atmospheric sense of melancholy reinforces the fragile nature of many of Fables' songs. Perhaps even more amazing is the way the band manages to nail the songs that most reinforce the southern themes of the album; singles Driver 8 and Can't Get There From Here feel positively peppy and alive up against other more tempered material. It's a balancing act of push vs. pull that keeps the listener engaged and guessing with every spin. At an hour that nearly spelled their end as a band, R.E.M. stepped up and made a quintessentially American record, outside of America's shores, and a great one at that.
LIFE'S RICH PAGEANT (1986)
The release of Life's Rich Pageant in 1986 marked a real watershed moment for the boys in R.E.M. and for the burgeoning alternative movement in American music. With the LP's first single, Fall On Me, two major milestones would be complete: The band would score their first top ten single on the Billboard chart and would do so with an overtly political song. This would mark the rise of a new level of marketability for the quartet, but also be a harbinger of a theme of politics in their songs from this point forward. Hindsight being 20/20, it's possible and maybe even easy to look back and see a history of political messages in their earlier canon, but Fall On Me, a song about ecological irresponsibilities run amok would be the first time that Stipe would wear these beliefs on his lyrical sleeve. It's possible to make the case that this helped the song's popularity, but it's far more likely that the cause of the single's success was due to it's beautiful vocal line and the band's quickly rising star. Similar themes occur on another standout track on the album in Cuyahoga, a song recounting the travesty of an environmetal disaster in the famed Ohio river. While charging new political territory, R.E.M. also clung to its southern roots with barnburner I Believe and Swan Swan H a forlorn ballad borne of the remnants of the American Civil War. The songcraft is overwhelmingly good and Don Gehman's production here is razor sharp. At times, one could say that R.E.M. actually hits an apex. Because of all of these factors and the record's catchiness and instant accessibility, this is probably the record where one should begin to explore R.E.M. for the very first time.
DOCUMENT (1987)
By the time R.E.M. released the Document LP in 1987 they were the unquestioned kings of college rock. In fact, they weren't just the kings of college rock, they hauled its water almost exclusively, at least in a large scale way and were the ones who had almost single-handedly started the wave to begin with. They did for American independent rock in the late 20th century at least as much as The Beatles did for the British Invasion of the mid-1960's. Document featured big singles like The One I Love and It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) and MTV obliged the coronation ceremony with serious airplay, taking time out from its regular run of epic Aerosmith vids and Billy Idol remakes of Lolita. This was before The Pixies and Nirvana and Nine Inch Nails and Pearl Jam came along to make college rock a cottage industry. Without this seemingly humble band from Athens, GA those bands, and dozens like them would have likely floundered in the obscurity of the left of the dial radio stations and the tape deck of twenty-something tastemakers and fanzine writers. While this is probably the least cohesive records of the five chronicled here, it is undeniably a great work and a further continuation of the R.E.M. narrative arc. Exhuming McCarthy uses historical context as a way to shatter the myth of Reagan-ear prosperity and imagined freedoms and to that point is certainly the band's most directly political song, upping the ante even from stances made on Life's Rich Pageant. Document is also the first time that R.E.M. made an appearance the Billboard's Top Ten Albums chart. A staggering accomplishment for a band from a very small label that had begun just five years earlier.
After this string of remarkable LPs, R.E.M. would continue on to make more terrific records; most notably Green, Automatic For The People and Adventures in Hi-Fi, but the work would gradually become less consistent and less frequent. While no one could expect the band to maintain its dizzying pace of churning our records annually, the spaces between the release dates of the albums after Document and the lack of consistent greatness of them, makes those accomplishments of those first five records all the more amazing. The R.E.M. of 1983 to 1987 was a sight to behold and a sound to hold tightly to. That is what is perhaps most amazing about this run. Sure, the band made five of the best records of any American band in pop history successively over a five year period; but most recordings from the 80's now sound thin and synthetic. These records maintain a clarity and freshness that is palpable well in to the 21st century. Their urgency, clarity and compact qualities take the songs to higher places and resonate today louder than ever.
