Independent Music

THE LOOM: LIVE AT CRASH MANSION

I know what you are thinking: The Loom? I though you were going to see Emanuel and the Fear. A more dedicated, organized and aggressive girl would have seen Emanuel. I apparently lack any of those characteristics…I got really caught up in the beautiful weather, and then really, really caught up in traffic. By the time I got to Crash Mansion I was in a mood, to say the least…and have I mentioned how I feel about Crash Mansion? Let me reiterate: not good. I get it, its a small venue that sort of clean, has a good sound system, and isn’t full of pretentious hipsters. I guess that’s nice, except that I like all of those things about the other equal sized venues. Crash Mansion is an attempt to bring a little tiny dab of indie culture to people who absolutely couldn’t find it on their own. The kind of people who think The Fray are indie. So needless to say, I don’t like the venue. However, I was on an open tab, and this brightened up my mood considerably, allowing me to get to business with The Loom.

So the first song they played was AMAZING. It involved two drummers sharing one drum set, and the lead singer was playing a ukulele. He had sort of a gravelly, speaky way of singing. I think it may have been “Song for the Winter Sun” which is on their myspace page. I had HIGH hopes for them, as I couldn’t really relate them to another band too closely, and they had their own sound. Very percussive, and very strong. Unfortunately, that was sort of the end of my awe. The rest of their songs were all significantly more main stream sounding: catchy, beatuiful and soulful. There is a heavy bluegrass influence, but also a lot of incontinuity. They are very clearly talented musicians, but they lack direction and cohesion. I would put “True Believers All” with “Song for the Winter Sun” together on an album, and “Of Vegas and Vanity” with “Patience for Books”. This is not to say that the two sets of songs aren’t strong and worth a good listen, because they are, but unfortunately I don’t think they are attracting the same crowds. I genuinely felt like The Loom has a lot going for them, but they need to decide where they are taking it. I hope they take the path with all of those brambles, without the ease of the bluegrass carrying them through. I feel guilty being so judgey and harsh, since this isn’t a band thats just trying to be cool or weird, they seem pretty genuinely like s group of people who derive joy from music. I would absolutely go see them again in a year. I want to know what they are doing, because I do believe that they have a lot of potential, and that they will follow through. They do have a lot of gigs scheduled in the New York area, so hopefully we will be seeing more of them in the better venue circuit (i.e Union Hall, Union Pool, Mercury Lounge). I actually wish these guys a lot of success, and hope that they prove me wrong, by becoming one of the break out acts of 2009.

Listen to them, tell me what you think.

<3 The Elephant

SIGUR ROS: LIVE AT MOMA

On Tuesday evening, myself and several friends joined the lucky swarm of hipsters invading the Museum of Modern art on 53rd st. I’m going to come right out and say it: MoMA isn’t an ideal setting for a concert, as there was no stage, although there was free beer. The show was unusually long (maybe two hours?) but I had no sense of the length until I got outside and it was past 11. The concert was in conjunction with the exhibition Take your time: Olafur Eliasson, an exhibition which featured works of this Icelandic contemporary artist. Sigur Ros and Olafur Eliasson are an interesting parallel to draw in the art/music consortium. Sigur Ros’ music creatures textures and landscapes primarily using instrumentation and rhythm, forcing the listeners to draw conclusions without verbal cues. Eliasson similarly creates environments and space using lights, spacial relations and mirrors. His compositions don’t contain any symbolic or concrete imagery that the viewer can identify as scenery, rather he alters one’s inner sense of space creating a fantasy environment of space and time.

One thing that really set this apart from a regular show (although having no history with SR, I can’t compare to their usual sets) was an absolutely exceptional light show. I have virtually no idea how lighting design works, but I was very impressed. Without theatrical lighting, SR can create create suspense and longing, with the visual cues, it was an all encompassing experience. The lighting was primarily composed of several lantern like orbs that were behind a glass wall in an exterior courtyard. The orbs were a soft, warm light at their “home state” and as the mood of the music called for, the quality of the light would change. Ranging from a very yellow soft tone to an industrial, harsh blue. There were also gels that looked like moonlight through a summer forest, creating moving shadows that imitating the rustling leaves. They were absolutely beautiful. At one point, they employed a green back light that brought the whole courtyard to an emerald glow.

If I had a better position at the front, near the stairs, I would have had the pleasure of watching the marching band approach, in full white uniforms. There were four of them, that comprised the horn section and they entered with such theatrical grace, the whole audience was completely overtaken with thrill. It was a nice, ironic touch. Here is the BV link with lots of great pictures.

I am overwhelmingly excited to see them again in mid september at the church in Harlem. Yeah, you know, the ornate one, with no windows. On the corner.

<3 The Elephant

FLEET FOXES: LIVE AT UNION HALL

Seattle quintet Fleet Foxes graced New York with their presence at two venues this week: Bowery Ballroom, capacity 498, Union Hall, capacity 100. The decision there was not a tough one. I, being high and mighty, didn’t buy a UH ticket the second they went on sale because it’s Union Hall. Then suddenly, they were all gone. As I just found out today, after the fact, Sub Pop bought themselves 40 of those tickets. Whether it was intentional or not, by selling out the Brooklyn show, they got a huge hype in a very short period of time and Bowery sold out too. I was pissed that I wasn’t going, particularly since I had only myself to blame.

So on Thursday at 10 am when they announced an additional midnight show, Dave was right on his game, reading BV. He tried to get them, and of course they sold out. We got nothing. When I checked Craigslist later, people were offering $160 for two tickets. Sick. I had already realized that this show wasn’t in my future. So when my boss asked me to go fabric sourcing in midtown at 8 or 8:30 the next morning I didn’t sweat it. Until 2 seconds later when Dave texted me that he had gotten tickets. In the land of irresponsibility, I am queen.

Every ounce of doubt dissolved in the first 3 seconds after FF started playing. I had heard that they really rocked when they played Bowery in March, so I was reasonably confidant that they would be good. Good doesn’t begin to do justice to they way that they performed. A lot of their music is dependent upon graceful harmonies and dissonance in their chorus. Whenever this is the case, I always fear that they are just working really hard for their studio takes, but in reality they will not be able to hit those notes live. Every pitch was executed, every rhythm was nailed, and every pause was suspenseful. They played a tight, ridiculously tight show. I was floored. I read a bunch of bitching on BV about the quality of the audiences, and a lot of criticism of the photogs, but that must have been for the first show of the night. At the second show everyone was respectful and the photographers were fine. People just look for a reason to complain about shit. Seriously, they should be so lucky to have been at that show. They have a flexibility on stage that allows them to push and pull throughout each song and they can remain in control. They are a band that is so much better live than in recording that I only hope to see them again, since listening to the record allows a faint nostalgia to linger.

The other thing that I really liked was the band’s random on stage banter. I know it annoys some people, but they were funny and witty. They seemed to think that they were playing pretty well, and so did I. They were clearly enjoying themselves and the crowd. A band that is at ease with themselves and having fun always performs better. Anyway, if you know what’s good for you, you will go see Fleet Foxes in any context possible. Also, buy their album and EP on insound.

<3 The Elephant

CHAIRLIFT: LIVE AT THE KNITTING FACTORY

For a number of reasons, mostly involving bitchy firewalls, I didn’t get a chance to listen to Brooklyn based Chairlift before I went to Knitting Factory on Wednesday. Turns out that it was for the better, because they were pretty awesome live. I was actually there to see LA crazy man Ariel Pink, but you all know how I feel about getting my beauty rest, and I wasn’t about to hang around for hours waiting for his set to start. After Chairlift finished their set, I was satiated musically.
At work on Thursday, I listened to Chairlift on hypem, and was sort of disappointed. They didn’t seem nearly as exciting in recording as they did live. It essentially sounded like Au Revoir Simone occasionally mixed with Stars.

In concert, it was surprisingly ethereal, there was something about the way that they performed, even their slower, spacier sounds made us want to dance. The lead singer was very powerful live, her voice sounded sweet and confidant, and not at all dependent upon her background music. The synthy sound wasn’t overpowering either, it wasn’t just some chick with a casio, there was solid music making happening.

Chairlift’s album releases on Kanine sometime this summer….although I doubt that I will buy it, they are more of a live band anyway. We’ll see if I’m eating my words in a few weeks, but for now, I’m holding off on home listening.

<3 The Elephant