VAGUE SPACE

Yo La Tengo in Los Angeles

Yes, it's a bit odd that the week after I moved to Hoboken, NJ, I had to travel all the way across the country to see Yo La Tengo, a band that is from none other than Hoboken, NJ.  But such is the fate of the craziest few weeks I've had in my life, where I sold my house, found a new place in a new city, packed all my stuff, and moved in less than 10 days.  Then 5 days later I was on a plane to Los Angeles.  Where I got to see Yo La Tengo at the Fonda Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard -- right next to those stars on the Walk of Fame -- an amazing venue for an amazing band and a night that was truly spectacular.  The band opened for itself, in effect, by playing a full acoustic set of songs before taking a 20 minute break and returning for an electric set that lasted well into the night.  They played my favorite song off new album Fade twice -- "Ohm" acoustic opened the show and "Ohm" electric came toward the end.  They played some classics like "Autumn Sweater" and "Sugarcube" (which had me jumping up and down the entire song) and mixed in some obscure gems like "How to Make a Baby Elephant Float".  They played a bunch from Fade ("Stupid Things", "Ohm", "Before We Run", "Paddle Forward", "Is That Enough", "I'll Be Around") but otherwise didn't focus on any single album from their extensive 25+ year career.  They also played a couple Beach Boys covers (appropriate for where we were) and generally rocked the shit out of their set, getting the crowd on board early and often.  An almost perfect show.

 

"Stupid Things" below...

 

New Summer

Ok that fucking groundhog was soooo fucking wrong about spring coming early this year but it seems to kind of be here now and I'm so freaking excited to be done with this cold weather.  And even though it's not yet summer, there's a new track from Young Galaxy off their forthcoming album that helps set the mood.  It actually feels more like a spring/fall song than summer to me and I can't wait for Ultramarine, coming out April 23.  Thanks to Gorilla vs. Bear for the linky link. 

 

Sigur Ros at MSG

I've never seen a concert at MSG.  Admittedly, most of the bands I follow max out at the 600 capacity Bowery Ballroom, not a 20,000 seat arena, but at one point in my former life I saw U2 at a stadium (Veterans, if I recall correctly) and New Order at an arena (in Philly, I can't remember where).  But I'd never been to Madison Square Garden for anything but basketball games.  Until Monday night.  When Sigur Ros sold out the mecca of New York.  As they said in an email to fans before the concert, “When we performed downstairs at the Madison Square [Garden] Theater in 2006, Billy Joel was doing a 15-night run above us.  That seemed like the right order of things. And yet, here we are, two weeks out from what we can only described as the big one!”  This was their first show as a 3-piece, with long-time multi-instrumentalist Kjartan “Kjarri” Sveinsson leaving the group, but there were 8 backing musician on stage, filling the cavernous arena with such wondrous sounds that the whole experience felt intimate, touching.  Special.  A large screen backed the stage, providing ethereal images for the beautiful music, and Jonsi sounded great throughout.  Possibly the best part of the night was when the band came out to the cheering crowd after the encore and took a thank you bow en masse... then came back out again when the crowd wouldn't stop cheering and thanked the fans again with blown kisses and another bow.  The excitement they had for actual being able to perform on that stage filled me with such joy that such an amazing band with such a unique sound -- lyrics in Hopelandish, a made up version of Icelandic for crying out loud -- could make it so big says something positive about the world in my eyes.  It's not all shit that rises to the top, sometimes.  Setlist below courtesy of Brooklyn Vegan.  Pics and video by me.

SETLIST: Sigur Ros @ MSG 3/25/2013
Yfirborð
Ný Batterí
Vaka
Hrafntinna
Sæglópur
Fljótavík
E-bow
Varúð
Hoppípolla
Með Blóðnasir
Olsen Olsen
Kveikur
Festival
Brennisteinn

Encore:
Glósóli
Popplagið

Farewell Transmission

Jason Molina died a weekend ago due to "organ failure as a result of years of alcoholism."  At the age of 39.  Which is too young for anyone to die and too young for as talented a singer / songwriter as he.  Molina started out many years ago as Songs: Ohia, putting out poignant, devastating record after record before shifting his focus in the middle part of the last decade to a project he called Magnolia Electric Co. and then, unfortunately, ending his career too soon using his own name.  His apparently final album, Autumn Bird Songs, a song cycle full of sad ruminations into tape, came out last summer, unreviewed by this site.  I can't do the album or any of his music justice with my words and I surely don't know enough about his life to pretend that I can write anything approaching a eulogy so I will just say that I was touched by his music through the years -- in particular Songs: Ohia's "Axxess and Ace" and "The Lionness" and Jason Molina's "Pyramid Electric Co." and the eponymous (or billed under Songs: Ohia) "Magnolia Electric Co." Two of his songs, "Honey Watch Your Ass" off of Pyramid Electric Co. and "Farewell Transmission" off of Magnolia Electric Co. are in my top 200 songs of all-time, which is a pretty remarkable feat for any band that doesn't have Spencer Krug as a member, so to say I will miss him and his music is quite the understatement.  I will leave you with the songs of his I loved the most.  And let them wash over you as you remember the beauty of his music.

 

• Download Songs: Ohia - "How To Be Perfect Men".mp3
• Download Songs: Ohia - "Lightning Risked It All".mp3
• Download Songs: Ohia - "Tigress".mp3
• Download Songs: Ohia - "Champion".mp3
• Download Magnolia Electric Co - "Montgomery".mp3
• Download Magnolia Electric Co - "It's Made Me Cry".mp3
• Download Magnolia Electric Co - "What's Broken Becomes Better".mp3
• Download Jason Molina - "Honey, Watch Your Ass".mp3
• Download Songs: Ohia - "Farewell Transmission".mp3

The whole place is dark
Every light on this side of the town
Suddenly it all went down
Now we'll all be brothers of the fossil fire of the sun
Now we will all be sisters of the fossil blood of the moon
Someone must have set us up
Now they'll be working in the cold grey rock, 
In the hot mill steam . . . in the concrete
In the sirens and the silences now 
All the great set-up hearts
All at once start to beat
After tonight if you don't want us to be 
A secret out of the past
I will resurrect it, I'll have a good go at it
I'll streak his blood across my beak and dust my feathers with his ashes
I can feel his ghost breathing down my back
I will try and know whatever I try
I will be gone but not forever

The real truth about it is 
No one gets it right
The real truth about it is 
We're all supposed to try
There ain't no end to the sands 
I've been trying to cross
The real truth about it is 
My kind of life's no better off
If I've got the maps or if I'm lost
We will try and know whatever we try
We will be gone but not forever

The real truth about it is 
There ain't no end to the desert I'll cross
I've really known it all along
Mama, here comes midnight 
With the dead moon in its jaws
Must be the big star about to fall
Long dark blues
Will-o'-the-wisp
Long dark blues
The big star is falling
Long dark blues
Through the static and distance
Long dark blues
A farewell transmission

 Long dark blues
Listen

Joyce Manor

Joyce Manor are a punk band from Torrance, CA, who have released 2 albums in their short history, 2011's self-titled debut and 2012's Of All the Things I Will Soon Grow Tired.  Both albums are filled with 2-minute-and-under blasts of punk, veering into hardcore and sometimes into pop, as the tracks are littered with hooks and generally about the banalities of life ("Constant Headache", "Leather Jacket", "Comfortable Clothes").  And they are awesome.  I saw Joyce Manor live in Asbury Park, NJ, a few weeks ago -- their first time in NJ ever, they said -- when the young foursome were opening for Desaparecidos. Many in the crowd had heard of them before and maybe even came to the show just to see them, as a mosh pit formed for the opening act and people were singing along.  I was pretty taken with the stage presence and energy of the band (and the crowd), even as I didn't know the songs.  I've seen them twice since then opening for Desaparecidos and by the final time, I was a definite fan.  I downloaded both their albums and kind of went crazy for them, for their inspired brand of throwback punk and the energetic phrasing and full-on hooks, particularly in standout songs "Derailed", "Beach Community" and the aforementioned "Constant Headache."  I think their debut album is decidedly superior to their follow-up but in the concerts they played several "new" tracks that seemed pretty great so I can't wait to hear more from them.  Anyway, if you're like me and always searching for new music from new bands that can inspire you, check out the boys from Joyce Manor.  They fucking bring it.  Mosh pit and all.

• Download Joyce Manor - "Derailed".mp3
• Download Joyce Manor - "Beach Community".mp3

 

  

Desaparecidos Live

Conor Oberst's hardcore band Desaparecidos concluded a brief tour of the Eastern US with a 2-night sojourn at Webster Hall in Manhattan and I got to see both shows.  I'd also seen the band in Asbury Park's famed Stone Pony a couple weeks earlier but unfortunately missed them in Philadelphia when I somehow lost the tickets between the car and the venue somewhere on the trash-filled streets of that filthy town and instead drowned my sorrows in many many beers and way too late a night with my friend.  But that speedbump aside, I did get to see Conor and his mates play three times the last two weeks when I thought I'd never ever get the chance to see them live -- since they hadn't released a single between 2002 and last August and hadn't toured since 2003.  Hell, they weren't so much of a band as a one-off punk side project by Bright Eyes' Oberst, but that one-off album -- "Read Music - Speak Spanish" -- was so deliciously beautiful that I have been wanting to see them live ever since and I'm finally sated.  Again, sorry it's been so long since I've posted but I've been traveling nonstop for work and going to class and having a crazy busy life that only allowed me free time enough to see Conor and his band and be wonderfully happy again.

Don't Get Any Closer

I'm sorry for my sporadic posting the past couple weeks.  Things have been rather hectic.  I've been traveling a shitload for work and every time I've gone away there's been some weather incident in NJ or Philly that has prevented me from getting home on time and I'd get into all that but I'm also sick right now (thanks Rob's daughter!) and I just got an offer on my house and I've got class this weekend and the foot doctor tomorrow and Syracuse games this weekend and Desaperacidos concerts this weekend and next week and I think I have to move in like 6 weeks and I think I'm going to be in California for work at least a couple of those weeks.  So.  Yeah.  Posting may continue to be sporadic until I finally settle into Hoboken.  Or you know, my brain explodes.  But here's some new Eluvium to tide you over.  It's the kind of soothing I really need.

 

Desaparecidos

In 2003 and 2004, I lived and died by Bright Eyes.  This was before I started this blog so even longtime readers may not be aware of how much I loved Conor Oberst and his band, eating up everything he ever recorded as Bright Eyes, from first full-length Letting Off the Happiness as a teenager to the brilliance that was 2001's masterpiece Lifted, Or the Story is in The Soil.  This was also during the brief dormant period of file sharing where all the services like Napster and Limewire and Audiogalaxy went away and I actually purchased rarities through mail order like the 3-song Drunk Kid Catholic collection or 3 More Hit Songs or the Oh Holy Fools split EP or even the entire Saddle Creek Sampler collection just for a single unheard song.  And I believe it was on Disc 2 of the Saddle Creek Collection (that's the name of the Omaha, NE label Conor formed) that I first heard from Conor's "hardcore" band Desaparecidos, who contributed two songs to that album -- "Man and Wife (The Latter)" and "Poppin off at the F".  And since I loved all things Conor at the time, I fell in love and instantly bought the album Read Music - Speak Spanish, a collection of punk/hardcore songs at Conor's most raging, definitely more reminiscent of his earliest, most desperate work than his more lyrical and plaintive later self.  I liked it, but I remained mostly a Bright Eyes fan.  And Desaparecidos disappeared.  A single album in 2002 and that was it.

Fade

Yo La Tengo released their 13th album last week, titled Fade.  The band has been around so long they've had a book written about them (the fascinating combo Hoboken/Yo La Tengo history titled Big Day Coming) but it's been 4 years since 2009's Popular Songs so I was surprised and excited to receive a vinyl copy of the new album via UPS a couple weeks ago.  Surprised because I don't own a turntable.  But excited because there was a link to the MP3s and I got a bonus track with the vinyl purchase (the unfortuantely forgettable 11-minute "Oriole").  The album starts off with a gem -- the classic sounding but fully relavent Yo La Tengo-esque "Ohm," which they played on Jimmy Fallon last week (check it out below).  I already love the song and wish the rest of the album continued with the midtempo classics that made these guys (and one girl) indie rock legends.  Instead, much of the rest of Fade is a subdued affair, lots of gorgeous melodies and lots of Georgia Hubley's beautiful voice but not enough guitar explosions for me.  Don't get me wrong, it's a strong album in its own right, but not really what I expected.  The only other song besides the opener that has really stayed with me through the first several listens is 4th track "Paddle Forward", which also has a midtemp rage (or range).  "Stupid Things," released last year, is also strong but a little too slow for me, but all in all, the first six tracks are really solid.  Somewhere in the midst of "Cornelia and Jane"s languid melody the spirit of the album loses me.  But I really can't complain about a new Yo La Tengo album, one that I've been playing a bunch over the past couple weeks.  Check out their performance of "Ohm" below.  And for my friends outside this blog, the thinner guy singing on the right is lead singer Ira Kaplan.  You might find that interesting.  Oh, and I'm not entirely sure why SNL's Fred Armisen is playing drums but he's not actually part of the band.

 

2012 Year in Concerts

Here's my final end of year list for 2012, the best concerts I attended this year in easy to follow numerical order:

#1.  Sigur Ros, Mann Center, Philadelphia

#2. Dinosaur Jr. (and guests), Terminal 5, Manhattan

#3. Moonface with Siinai, Bowery Ballroom, Manhattan

#4.  M83, Wellmont Theater, Montclair, NJ

#5.  Japandroids, Union Transfer, Philadelphia

#6.  The Mountain Goats, Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn

#7.  Sebadoh, Bowery Ballroom, Manhattan

#8.  Divine Fits, Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn

#9.  David Bazan (Plays Pedro the Lion's "Control"), Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn

#10.  Mount Eerie, Le Poisson Rouge, Manhattan