Uncle Jack got sumfin (the new Spoon song, that is) · Jun 30, 08:04 AM by Don
Timedoor’s “Uncle Jack” recorded Spoon playing its new song, “Got Nuffin,” at Summerfest here in Milwaukee last night with his new iPhone. enjoi!
Concert Review: The Church at Shank Hall in Milwaukee · Jun 24, 08:43 AM by Don
Here’s the set list for last night’s Church show at Shank Hall here in Milwaukee:
Tantalized / Block / Day 5 / North, South, East and West / Happenstance / After Everything / Almost With You / A Month of Sundays / Deadman’s Hand / Pangaea / You Took / Operetta / Under the Milky Way / Reptile / Encore #1: An Interlude, Space Saviour / Encore #2: Hotel Womb
Though the show was great overall, by checking the Church message board, Hotel Womb, I’m noticing that the set list has been pretty static for this tour. Womb contributer “KSP” shared the set list from the June 14th Portland show:
Tantalized – sizzling, mindblowing guitar by MWP set the tone for the evening
Block – i love this song and glad to see it is part of their live repertoire
Day 5 – dragged a touch, but rescued at the end by interweaving bits of two other songs
NSEW – I’ve always liked this one
Happenstance – brilliant vocals by Steve & Marty and powerful live
After Everything – understated and sublime
Almost w/You – America doesn’t know this is a classic
Month of Sundays – good but not essential
Deadman’s Hand – Steve on lead guitar & rockin’
Pangaea – glad they played it
You Took – wow, mindblowingly good.
Operetta – beautiful and theatrical vocals and gestures by Steve
UTMW – i know they don’t like playing thus one anymore, but I enjoyed it very much
Reptile – wow…the crowd really responded to this one
An Interlude – a real highlight of the night
Space Savior – they had fun performing this one
Hotel Womb – classic song to end a great show…MWP is a real showman
Friendly warning: This won’t be a formal, well-crafted, and well-polished review. It’s more just a collection of observations. Enjoy!
When I bought a ticket at the box office earlier in the day yesterday (the day of the show), I asked about sales. The box office employee said sales were good. That night (last night) the club was well attended. I don’t know if it was a sellout show, but it was undeniably good attendance for a Tuesday night. The performance itself was great. The band seemed to be having a good time and the crowd was very supportive. My only gripe about the crowd was that the applause for the first encore was pretty tepid. I’m surprised the band came back out. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad they did, as “Space Saviour” was a barn burner. “Space Saviour” prompted a more genuinely enthusiastic call for a second one-song encore comprised of “Hotel Womb.” The band jammed out near the end of the song. That’s one thing the band seemed to really enjoy; a handful of songs received extended intros or outros.
During a semi-improvised massage 3/4 of the way into “Day 5,” lead singer Steve Kilbey sang what I think may have been lyrics from “My Sweet Lord” by George Harrison (please correct me if I’m wrong) and a line or two from “Electric Avenue” by Eddy Grant.
Kilbey mentioned the merch table and cheekily offered that some have called Untitled #23 “the best album ever made… or ever will be made.” (It’s very good, but I wouldn’t go that far. And I didn’t.) He specifically mentioned the double-vinyl edition of #23 before saying they take cash, credit card, or “nude Polaroids.” And, yes, they do take credit card, which was nice, because they have a ton o’ stuff to buy. I bought Back with Two Beasts, Tin Mine, the “Numbers” single, the Coffee Hounds single, and Kilbey’s Live DVD (all for $55).
“Pangaea” was preceded by a silly improvised number Kilbey called “Seaside Shuffle.” Marty “Manson” Piper (his current Charles Manson/Hell’s Angel look is such a departure from the handsomely androgynous look that so captivated my high school girlfriend in the late ’80s) was fixing something on his guitar, so Peter Koppes sat behind the drums and played a light, jazzy beat while Kilbey made up a poem about how you used to be able to walk from Milwaukee to Sydney, an obvious reference to the song that followed.
The epic “You Took” was awesome. I just read Lurie’s Kilbey/Church bio, No Certainty Attached, and I came away with the impression that Koppes was the band’s resident guitar hero in the early ’80s, only to have Willson-Piper usurp that a bit. I say this because it was obvious that Koppes was the guitar hero last night. “You Took” was just one example of this.
While introducing the band, Kilbey joked that drummer Tim Powles was the new guy and has “only been with the band, for what is it, 17 years” (loose paraphrase).
Kilbey introduced “Under the Milky Way” by saying, “This song needs no introduction.” What it does need, in my opinion, is to be excised from the set. I love the song and it’s undeniably a classic, but, like “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” “Where the Streets Have No Name,” and “Stairway to Heaven,” I probably don’t need to ever hear it again. That being said, a close-dancing couple in their late 20s/early 30s near the front of the stage would have disagreed with me. Considering my boredom with the song, it was fun to hear Kilbey goofily shout/sing, “And those Hollywood nights! In those Hollywood hills,” from the Bob Seger song over the final strains of Koppes’ solo.
At one point, Charlie Manson-Biker (must beat that dead horse of a joke) put in a good word for Van der Graaf Generator, who will play at Shank on June 27.
While waiting for the second encore, one guy near me was shouting for “Metropolis.” I wish they had played that song, or similar uptempo numbers. I feel like the set list skewed too midtempo, but that’s a quibble. It was still a great show.
During “Space Saviour,” Powles noticed the mini Stonehenge hanging behind him and banged on it as if was part of his drum kit. As you might expect, the Milwaukee crowd loved this bit of silliness.
Late in the show, Kilbey said the show had been his favorite Shank Hall experience.
mp3: The Church – A Month of Sundays :: (live on KCRW’s SNAP with Deirdre O’Donoghue on March 24, 1988), from Acoustic Sermon (1995)
Photo: Steve Kilbey on stage with the Church at the East Brunswick Club in Melbourne last March. Photographer: thegreensea
FYI: I’ve begun posting at Hotel Womb under the name The Great Machinist.
Review vs. Review: The Church - Untitled #23 · May 17, 10:31 AM by Don
I noticed that a fellow critic and I had similar things to say about the new Church record, Untitled #23. I thought it’d be fun to detail exactly how similar our reviews were. His was written well before mine, but I had not read it until two days after submitting my review to my editor at the Onion AV Club.
Greg Barbrick wrote: The atmospheres The Church toyed with back in the day have now fully matured.
Greg implied that the Church’s strength comes from its longevity. I did the same: “So confident is the psychedelic quartet that it has chosen to slow things down with its latest, Untitled #23.”
Greg Barbrick wrote: Untitled #23 is a dark dream of a record, hypnotic almost.
I too used the word hypnotic, though I used it in reference to one song in particular: “On Angel Street.” I called it “a spare, hypnotic wonder.”
Greg Barbrick wrote: The opening track “Cobalt Blue” draws the listener in immediately. With Marty Willson-Piper’s chiming guitars framing Steve Kilbey’s haunting refrain “Let it go, let it go” the results are riveting.
I also mentioned the song, “Cobalt Blue”: “The pace is set by the vagabond’s rumination, ‘Cobalt Blue,’ and continues through most of the ten songs.”
Greg Barbrick wrote: “Pangaea” and “Space Saviour” continue the mood, but it is with “On Angel Street” that this record becomes triumphant. It is a film noir journey through Kilbey’s subconscious, as he ruminates on a relationship’s end. This is the most personal song I have heard in ages, an achingly beautiful piece of music.
Greg and I agreed that “On Angel Street” is the best song on the album: “The centerpiece, ‘On Angel Street,’ is a spare, hypnotic wonder, sketching out a picture of dead love.”
Greg Barbrick wrote: Given the band’s spotty record since Starfish, I thought they might have front loaded the best tracks, and I kept waiting for the clunkers to appear.
Greg and I both referred to the rough patch that was the early-to-mid-‘90s: “After a taste of stardom in the late Eighties, the Church crumbled a bit. By the end of a rocky Nineties, the band had eventually settled into a prolific groove, one that continues to this day.”
Greg Barbrick wrote: There are none on Untitled #23. To record what is quite possibly their best album ever after nearly 30 years together is an extraordinary achievement. It is also one hell of a record. I wish I knew the significance of the title, but like everything else here, it really does not matter. All that matters is the music, and in that regard The Church have hit a home run.
Greg and I agreed that its a stellar record: “Quibbling aside, Untitled #23 finds the Church doling out its sonic pleasures with masterful restraint.”
Click to read Greg Barbrick’s review in its entirety.
Click to read my review at the Onion AV Club.
Video: Made by David Duchow for half (!) of the 17-minute “So Love May Find Us,” a song from the Pangaea EP. Click to watch the other half.
Star Trek vs. Star Wars vs. Joseph Campbell · May 16, 10:51 AM by Don
Joseph Campbell would have liked this video, as it nicely summarizes not only two movies but hints at the basic structure of what he called the Monomyth.
The Monomyth is an arguably overused but undeniably effective story structure. You’ve read/seen it dozens (probably hundreds) of times and maybe didn’t quite realize it.
Timedoor has "The Touch" (and it wishes it didn't!) · May 15, 05:43 PM by Don
Fans of the movie, Boogie Nights, can’t forget the Dirk-Diggler-begins-his-music-career sequence, the highlight of which is his performance of Stan Bush’s song, “The Touch,” originally written for the 1986 animated Transformers movie. In 2007, he released a new version (see below) to coincide with the release of Michael Bay’s take on the line of toys. Ever the optimist, he has released yet another re-recording to coincide Bay’s sequel, out next month. It’s been retitled “The Touch: Sam’s Theme.” Watch/listen/furrow your brow in morbid curiosity above.
Original 1986 video:
Fan-made video for the 1986 version of the song:
The 2007 version:
The patriotic mix from earlier this year:
Timedoor makes it all better with the Dirk Diggler version:
Has Daniel Faraday been hangin' with Nina Persson of The Cardigans and A Camp? · Apr 29, 07:04 PM by Don
Tonight on Lost, we will (hopefully) learn what Daniel Faraday has been up to for the past few episodes. Could he have traveled forward in time to form and play in the band Shudder To Think before romancing Nina Persson of The Cardigans and forming a band with her called A Camp? Maybe.
Check out the video for “Stronger Than Jesus,” the best song on the new A Camp record, Colonia:
Click to read my Onion AV Club review of Colonia.
Trailer for the new Lars Von Trier film · Apr 27, 08:28 PM by Don
The trailer for the new Lars Von Trier film Antichrist should put you in a bad mood.
Lykke Li & Bon Iver doing "Dance Dance Dance" in L.A. · Apr 27, 07:36 PM by Don
Lykke Li & Bon Iver doing ‘Dance Dance Dance’ in L.A from Lykke Li on Vimeo.
Lykke Li and Bon Iver doing “Dance Dance Dance” in L.A. should put you in a good mood.
You are the juice I need for life: "Sweetness & Light (The Orange Squash Mix by My Bloody Valentine)" by Lush · Apr 26, 08:57 AM by Don
For fans of Lush and My Bloody Valentine, the pairing of the two bands could lead only to (I apologize in advance for this) the ultimate sonic shoe-gazm. Like most genre tags, “shoegaze” is a label that the artists it corrals would most likely balk at. But we humans need names for things. Language: It separates us from the animals! Let’s let the All Music Guide tell us a little bit about “shoegaze”:
Shoegaze is a genre of late ’80s and early ’90s British indie rock, named after the bands’ motionless performing style, where they stood on stage and stared at the floor while they played. But shoegaze wasn’t about visuals — it was about pure sound. The sound of the music was overwhelmingly loud, with long, droning riffs, waves of distortion, and cascades of feedback. Vocals and melodies disappeared into the walls of guitars, creating a wash of sound where no instrument was distinguishable from the other.
Click to read the complete shoegaze article at the All Music Guide.
XLR8R has a great article on shoegaze, with quotes from most of the major players. Here a quote from Lush singer Miki Berenyi talking about the origins of the term:
Shoegazing was originally a slag-off term. My partner [K.J. “Moose” McKillop], who was the guitarist in Moose, claims that it was originally leveled at his band. Apparently the journo was referring to the bank of effects pedals he had strewn across the stage that he had to keep staring at in order to operate. And then it just became a generic term for all those bands that had a big, sweeping, effects-laden sound, but all stood resolutely still on stage.
Click to read the complete XLR8R article.
mp3: Lush – Sweetness & Light (The Orange Squash Mix by My Bloody Valentine) :: from Splendor – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1999)
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Songs in the MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 format are offered for a limited time only. Songs that are no longer downloadable can be streamed at the Timedoor page at Hype Machine. Dead mp3 links take you to the top of the blog.
Concert Review: Death Cab for Cutie at Carroll University in Waukesha, WI · Apr 25, 05:29 PM by Don
I hadn’t seen Death Cab for Cutie since a 2002 show at the Miramar in Milwaukee. That was with the Dismemberment Plan and the tour was called, you guessed it, the “Death & Dismemberment Tour.” The openers at the show last Sunday at the Van Male Field House at Carroll University in Waukesha, Wisconsin (about 15 miles west of Milwaukee) were Ra Ra Riot and Cold War Kids. Ra Ra Riot was competent and polite, but ultimately forgettable. Like an Arcade Fire with zero melodrama. Cold War Kids played most of their set backlit, bathed in shadow. The only things preventing their set from being better was (1) my only passing familiarity with their songs and (2) the fact that it was in a field house and not a small club. I’d love to see them again in a place like Turner Hall Ballroom in Milwaukee.
Death Cab for Cutie played a mix of songs from its last three albums, Transatlanticism, Plans, and Narrow Stairs. “Grapevine Fires” was an affecting highlight. Unfortunately, “Bixby Canyon Bridge” failed to connect during its big climax. This may have had something to do with the field house acoustics. (I did like the Van Male’s white ceiling. It reflected much of the stage lighting, giving the room a glow missing from darker venues.) The first song of the encore was a Ben Gibbard solo rendition of “I Will Follow You into the Dark.” He requested that everyone put away their cameras and just let the song exist in the moment. I appreciated his message. I sensed somehow that there was more that Gibbard wanted to say. Maybe something along the lines of, “Don’t become slaves to the machines, or it’ll be just like The Matrix! Or Terminator! Or Battlestar Galactica! Or, Gods help us, that Stephen King stillbirth/unintentional comedy, Maximum Overdrive!” At five songs, though, the encore dragged. That the last song was the epic “Transatlanticism” didn’t help.
Set List: Marching Bands of Manhattan / The New Year / We Laugh Indoors / Crooked Teeth / Photobooth / No Sunlight / Company Calls / Your Bruise / Grapevine Fires / I Will Possess Your Heart / Little Bribes / Title and Registration / Cath… / The Remainder / The Sound of Settling / Bixby Canyon Bridge / Encore: I Will Follow You into the Dark / Styrofoam Plates / A Diamond and a Tether / Soul Meets Body / Transatlanticism
mp3: Death Cab for Cutie – Soul Meets Body :: live at Kulturbolaget (2006)
Photo Credit: andmerk
Correction: Carroll College is no longer the name of the institution where I saw the above concert. On July 1, 2008, the institution changed its name to Carroll University. Thanks “Comic Book Guy”!
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Songs in the MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3 format are offered for a limited time only. Songs that are no longer downloadable can be streamed at the Timedoor page at Hype Machine. Dead mp3 links take you to the top of the blog.
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