Photo by Colin McLaughlin [I] admit it. Even after many years of music writing, I still have no sense of whether or not an album, or single, or artist’s commercial products are good or bad. Take producer/artist Flying Lotus. Those fish-slap beats, clunky bits of proto-industrial noise, and psych-jazz electronic intrusions…surely those are too much for the general populace? Right? Yet, there Until The Quiet Comes is, squeezing into the top 50 of the Billboard charts; there he is collaborating with Thom Yorke and Hodgy Beats, and there he was on Friday night packing Portland’s Roseland Theater with able bodies thrilled to…
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Photos by Carrie Johnston The Black Angels’ spin on 60’s psych-rock is nothing short of monumental. Jim Morrisson died too soon, but thank goodness people like Alex Maas are alive now to channel his voice and break through the haunting spectrum of sound that The Doors (Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, et al) established. Their newest album, Indigo Meadows at once guides and disorients. Stephanie Baliey’s drumming leads a stampede of soldiers onward through a dizzying maze of fuzz, wobbles, and foreboding lyrics while the crushing power of it opens the mind and forces meditation. This is to say that it…
1 CommentPhotos by Carrie Johnston [A] prominent downtown venue on a warm Saturday attracts all species of night crawlers. Due to this, nothing exclusive or particular about VietNam playing at Dante’s on such a night struck me. The noncommittal crowd was thin to begin with, then fattened when VietNam started, and mostly disappeared before the end. Save for the second opener, Small Arms, the whole experience– the crowd, the music, the low red lights, the air… was like the low hum of a car engine on a three-hour highway jaunt. The most desolate moments were during Daydream Machine’s set with their…
2 CommentsPhotos by inger klekacz [T]wo Minneapolis bands swept through Portland the other night, packing the Wonder Ballroom and sending us back out to combat the gloomy weather with an army of groovy jams. First up were Night Moves; a trio of curly-haired boys (and the odd flat-haired blonde man) that pooled influences from 70’s soft rock titans like Fleetwood Mac and Chicago to the indie and psych-folk of Band of Horses and Devendra Banhart. They pounded out rich layers of instrumentation and familiar chord progressions with a natural energy and cool happiness that seemed to affect everyone in eye-shot. There…
3 CommentsPhotos by Boston Concert Photography Bearing witness to Spirit Family Reunion selling out The Sinclair in Harvard Square furthers the current tide that seems to be rolling through many channels today: work for it, live it, and it will happen. Over the past few years, SFR have become well known for working their modestly sized audiences into foot-stomping, hand-clapping, throat-throttling sweats while belting out tunes that are reminiscent of a simpler time in our culture. Attending one of their shows was kind of like being in on a speakeasy. Your friends would tell you you should get to one of…
Continue ReadingPhotos | Spirit Family Reunion + Thick Wild + Spitzer Space Telescope @ The Sinclair
21 Comments Photos by inger klekacz [M]ajor Lazer is not what you’d call a “sit down” show. It’s not even what you would call a “personal space” show. Major Lazer is a writhing mass of young flesh, dancing and jumping and gyrating to carefully crafted beats and explosions of light. Do not bring your mother to this show. Unless your mother loves vertically spooning with excited 18 year olds who have all the love in the world to share at a sold-out concert. In which case, you should absolutely bring her. A beginner’s guide to a Major Lazer show: expect fun fur, masks,…
7 CommentsPhotos by Carrie Johnston [M]att Costa is the musical equivalent of a contemporary Hollywood romantic comedy. He makes good kids smile and bad kids cringe. Now, it’s perfectly natural for couples to get cuddly, even make-out-y at a concert, but the critical mass of either (attempted) ballroom dancing, making out, cuddling, and looking longingly into one another’s eyes was enough to make Hugh Grant throw up in his mouth a little. Costa even employed an Anna Karenina lookalike (his wife?) to do little more than play tambourine, making the boys swoon and the girls wish they’d die and come back…
2 CommentsHalfway through “Festival,” a track that initially waves gently to and fro, Jónsi crescendos an “ooooooooh” then lets it fade away. At Boston University’s Agganis Arena, that slipping towards stillness was sung past the point of absurdity. Surely there must have been a peddled effect that extended the note, surely that was the case. Or, some unseen sprite must have echoed the haunting vowel past the point of lung capacity. Yet, whatever Íslenska magic formed this surreal tremolo everyone knew what was about to happen- from this momentary silence, a throbbing bass line punched the ethereal into celebration. I’ve often wondered if Sigur Rós is…
1 CommentPortland is chronically nostalgic. For which decade? Apparently, all of them. [P]ortlandia creators Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen once made the claim that “the 90’s dream is alive” here, but the well-preserved architecture also suggests a tight bond with the 20’s. On the other hand, the surplus of vintage clothes, furniture, and retro-themed music events suggest that we have an even stronger allegiance with the 60’s and 70’s. Regardless of decade, a prominent selection of Portlanders are indisputable masters of aesthetic preservation, making it no surprise when throwback bands like Foxygen find their shows sold out and well-attended. The opening…
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