Well I’ve been hiding in this bag of bones
In a dream where no one comes to wake me up
So long, so long, chemical inversion
Smiling on the black talk[?] cause my mind’s made up

Cause I’m riding
On a long shot
And the future’s bare
And my radio’s on

No entrance, no evidence
No black burns[?] of fire
In a dream where no one comes to wake me up
We’ll all go
We’ll all go
I’ll see you in that halo
Quiet like the body of the passing thought

Cause I’m riding
On a long shot
And the future’s bare
And my radio’s on
Cause I’m riding
On a long shot
And the future’s bare
And my radio’s on

Download “Cet Air Là” (link up only for a short while)

Ecstatic Music Festival continued at Merkin Concert Hall, Kaufman Center, this past Saturday with a cappella group, Roomful of Teeth. They performed pieces by William Brittelle, Caleb Burhans, and —  our favorite — Merrill Garbus a.k.a Tune-Yards. Merrill joined them on stage for “Hatari” — which she’d promised to perform in NYC only after finishing her sophomore album — and “Doorstep”, a new track off that sophomore album, coming out April 19.

Here are the four Tune-Yards performances recorded from that event, in the order they were played in:

Download “Ansa Ya”
Download “Hatari”
Download “Doorstep”
Download “Quizassa”

Few more photos after the jump.

Press photo merged with press photo because the smirk was too much to bear

It starts out with a variation on the opening of “Walk like an Egyptian” set to hyperactive mode. Then it evolves into Blink 182, or a number of similar bands of that era with names with numbers in them (Sum 41?). The blistering, hop-hop beat only ever slows down for the pestering chorus that insists, “That I’m just having fun, that I’m just having fun, that I’m just having fun, with youuuuuu-uuu-uuuu, with youuuuu-uuuu-uuuu, with youuuu-uuuu-uuuuu” (well, clearly), and the bridge that goes, “Huuhhh-huhhh-huhhaaa-huhhhh”. If rebellion to intellectualism is your thing, this song is a champion of low brow. Embrace it.

Download “Post Acid” by Wavves (if you must)

I was never a huge fan, yet I’m really surprised at Phosphorescent’s new song “The Mermaid Parade”. The voice is pretty as usual (great for singing forlornly about wolves), but this entire song is one boring melody repeated incessantly, with lyrics that attempt to invoke the salty smell of a sultry evening (I guess?) but fail to capture anything at all: the emotion is really flat (for being a sentimental song), and there’s not even an imagery or a rhyme that claims a territory in your brain. Did I mention there’s way too much bluesy guitar? That’s probably why The Tripwire thinks it’s “an American classic”, and that’s the only reason I’m terrified. Listen to it, what do you think?

PS. Just listened to it again. The ending is just horrendous.

Download “The Mermaid Parade“

Photo above: Original by Sebastian Mlynarski. I just put my picture of a naked dancing “mermaid” on top it.

Paavo Hanninen and I sat on the internet, pretending to be in a Victorian room. The walls were a deep green, owing to the vintage wallpaper, and the armchairs were oversized and maroon. It was raining outside, so Paavo brought out a bottle of Jack Daniel’s.

I said, “I don’t know if you’ve heard of Yellow Fever, but I was listening to them on my iTunes, and a song I’d never heard before, by a band I couldn’t recognize, came on. It was dreamy pop with jingly guitar floating in space. I thought, How do I not know who this is? Sounds like someone relatively famous.”

Paavo put his glass down and leaned in, “Who was it?”

“Well, the singer was singing seductively, and there was French Horn. I guessed it must be something new from Broken Social Scene. I figured only Kevin Drew can pull that off. I was liking it, though, so I looked at the track information.

“And?”

“It said nothing but ‘all that shit again’.”

“Ha!” Paavo picked his glass right back up and took a big gulp.

“This song was listed after ‘Yellow Fever’ because we’d entered the perilous zone of ‘Unknown Artist’. I spent 20 minutes on Google before I figured out it was from Squirrelhouse, your band, and the song was actually just called ‘All That Shit’ without the extra ‘again’. You sent your mp3 out into the world like a poor orphan with a faulty name tag. How the hell do you explain this inexplicable behavior? I mean, don’t you want to be famous?”

He leaned back and laughed. “Well that’s a good question. Can’t really give a good reason other than a lack of due diligence and tech-savviness the rest of the music world has. I suppose it was a product of impatience. You know, I had just finished mixing that track and I threw it out there because I was so excited about how it’d come out. If we weren’t doing everything ourselves, that probably wouldn’t have happened.”

He took a sip and said, “But I’m glad you took the time to figure out the puzzle.”

The fire was starting to crackle.

“Yellow Fever, aren’t they from Austin?” he said. “Yes,” I nodded.

“We’re sort of in Austin, now.”

“What does that mean?”

“Well, we’re from Alabama. I was born in Birmingham and lived in Tuscaloosa for 22 years. We started when we were at University of Alabama. We’re sort of in Austin now because I moved in the fall to get my MFA in Film. The rest of the band is moving here in bits.”

“We stopped in Birmingham on our way to SXSW,” I said. “We ate amazing ribs at Dreamland. And we ate quite a bit at Las Cazuelas in Austin. Have you eaten at either place?”

“I’ve eaten at Dreamland many times. I’m glad you liked it, but if you ask around in Alabama, most people agree their ribs are overrated. The sauce is the amazing part. But I haven’t eaten at Las Cazuelas yet.”

“Yes, the sauce was my favorite part, too. So how’s the slow move to Austin?”

“Well, it’s complicated trying to juggle everyone’s lifestyle and figure out how we’re going to keep it all going.”

“Did you play any SXSW shows?”

“No. I was in the middle of production of a short film, so we didn’t schedule anything. I saw a couple of shows on our off day, though. The one band that blew me away was Avi Buffalo. That guy can play guitar.”

“What’s the short film?”

“It’s called ‘Fertile’, we shot it on 16mm. It’s in the middle of post-production right now, and I was actually editing it before you arrived. I’m also messing around with a music video for ‘All That Shit.’”

“I watched your video for ‘Fours’ on Vimeo. I loved it.”

“Oh, thanks.”

“I make music videos sometimes, and I find it to be a difficult format. Your video does an amazing job of keeping it fun, simple and cheap. Was it your idea?”

“Yeah, that was my idea but there was a lot of collaboration. ‘Single Ladies’ was a big inspiration. We were trying to match the atmosphere of our shows, too. We got a keg and convinced a bunch of our friends to let me choreograph them. We only did one take because we ran out of confetti and champagne.”

“Well you’ve certainly got nice moves. Where was it shot?”

“An empty lot on the side of our friend Meghan’s apartment complex. We called it the Conference Room. My friend Eric did the camerawork. We had to shoot it in night vision because the street lamp was busted. It was quite a night. It snowed, too, which rarely happens in Alabama.”

“What about bands from Alabama? Who should we be listening to?”

“Probably the best known right now is The Dexateens. I filmed a documentary about them playing a set of gospel songs in an abandoned mental hospital on Halloween last year.”

“Cool.”

“I think they’re the best Southern Rock group out there. Taylor Hollingsworth is really well-known, too. He plays guitar for Conor Oberst. Lesser-known bands are the Grenadines, El Cantador, Through the Sparks, The Dirty Lungs, Duquette Johnston. Many more good bands but that’s a start.”

“And when does your new album come out?”

“I don’t know. It’s hard to say. We put out one album ourselves, and it was such a big undertaking, we’re really hoping someone will help us put this one out. It’s pretty much all done.”

Shortly after this, my ride arrived and Paavo went back to editing.

Download “All That Shit” by Squirrelhouse
Download “Jolene” by Squirrelhouse

Club 8′s new album The People’s Record, coming out on May 12, is a treat for the oncoming summer. Take it with you for the lying about in the park watching kites! The band is Swedish, comprising of Karolina Komstedt & Johan Angergård. I actually like the rest of the album better, but here’s “Western Hospitality”. Before I looked them up I thought they were Brazilian, and if I paid no attention to the lyrics, which is in English, I’d think this song was a vintage Disco number from a 70’s Bollywood movie. Not kidding, check out disco songs from 70’s Bollywood movies.

It’s true, The Living Sisters is a hunk of estrogen; not because it’s a female “super group” consisting, at the moment, of Becky Stark (Lavender Diamond), Eleni Mandell, and Alex Lilly (Obi Best); not even because they look exactly like hot young mothers that all little boys (but their own) are blindly fascinated by; but because there is an undefinable yet easily recognizable embodiment of sisterhood in this band. Maybe it’s the flawless harmonies between three female voices on top of matching clothes and soothing songs, or the fact that each of these women is very woman-woman; I want to say, breast-baring-fertility-symbols-like women in their womanhood. Personally, I love Becky Stark. She’s pretty wacky in her love-and-peace hippie world: “A Harmony can never fail because even when it’s wrong, it’s hilarious.” Going by a few snippets I heard of their recording, it seems like they’re much more enjoyable live, for about 30 minutes; because, after all, lullabies, no matter how charming, put you to sleep.

They opened for She & Him at Bowery Ballroom last night, and being that the set was about 30 minutes long, it was pretty pleasant. Owing to the harmony, my favorite was “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down”, but the track that’s internet-approved seems to be “How Are You Doing?” My pictures of them and She & Him are up on Brooklyn Vegan.

I don’t think North Highlands intended to channel Mongolia when they came up with that band name, but the intro to “Sugar Lips” sure evokes the highlands of that region. Apparently the band was born on “a lazy summer afternoon in Brooklyn”, the implied directionless of which, despite the obvious talent sitting about, seems pretty romantic to me; and the mood of that implication is definitely captured in this song.

I’m about to listen to the EP, which came out December last year, but so far the song “Sugar Lips” sounds like a refreshing break at a time when new music is beginning to get dull and formulaic. Also, singer Brenda Malvini’s voice is one of my favorite female voice types: it doesn’t’ scream “Hey, listen to me! Listen to me!”. It just says, “Hey, singing is kinda fun”.

Photo: Lena Hawkins

Download “Sugar Lips” by North Highlands

Kristian Matsson / The Tallest Man on Earth. Photo: Sarahana

The Tallest Man on Earth’s next album will be The Wild Hunt, and he’s switched labels to Dead Oceans. The album is set for an April 13 release in the US. Everyone’s live favorite “King of Spain” (below) is the first listen we’re getting from it; as you might’ve expected,  it’s pretty true to the live version. He also played a song called “The Wild Hunt” at the last few New York shows. Can’t wait to hear the rest!

Download “King of Spain” (album version)
Download lots of other Tallest Man goodies< on this site.

The Tallest Man on Earth, The Wild Hunt album artwork