Firstly, Bowerbirds is returning to New York for two dates:
10-01 New York, NY – The Bowery Ballroom
10-02 Brooklyn, NY – Studio B

Mark these down, because the last time they played Bowery Ballroom (video!), they were quite fabulous. Secondly, given that Dan Deacon’s shuffle iPod, which remains taped to a plastic banana, went missing during a show in London, we can assume his cousin’s friend in the State Department was able to get him a passport for his first ever trip to Europe. On his “missing beast”, he posted a MySpace bulletin saying he’s not mad, but he’d like it back.

Photo: Jeffrey Scott

Beth Tacular of Bowerbirds, on the other hand, claims her accordion was stolen by Gumby, and is offering a $500 reward for the Gumby, with or without the accordion.

While I was taking photos, Borchers was down in the pit:

As a 3rd tier opener for Octopus Project, Dan Deacon’s set was a fraction of what it usually is. But at about 5 feet from his signature, crowd-level table (equipped with his colorful gadgets), Deacon might as well have been a headlining act. The set was filled out by opener OCDJ, friend and fellow Baltimorite.

More after the jump.

Deacon. The man, the myth, the same awful blue shirt and shorts (one of my favorite artists this year). A champion of getting people to have a great time, he decided to begin with a unique countdown, whose explanation first confused the piss out of me. Once executed, it made (less than) complete sense, as, when the countdown reached 2, he began to draw out every syllable of “MCCARREN POOL PARTY” until he was out of breath- and this guy can hold a note.

From there he kicked it off by hitting play on his new blue iPod shuffle, which seems to have replaced his classic 90’s discman he had so much trouble finding batteries for at his Mecury Lounge show. However, when he had it paused for a while and it turned off automatically, he complained to whoever had given it to him that this was a terrible feature.

So he didnt have the lyric sheets to “Wham City” this time, but we got another round of the dance-off and a sing-along to “Silence like the wind over take me …. OOOOOoooOOOoooo”. Deacon said in excitement, “Can you believe these words were written? In this order?”

(sarahana’s note: Explaining the tradition of a tag dance-off, Deacon asked people to not be a coward but also not hog the floor. The first girl hogged all the way, joined even by her friend, so it didn’t turn out to be the traditional tag dance-off after all. There were just a bunch of people dancing at the same time.)

Oh no! Deacon’s been vulgarized. I don’t think it’s appropriate to blend winged Wham City dwellers with Khia’s top ho’ness. I’m not a fan of this mix, but Absorb the Lip Goss still rocks.

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Parts & Labor will be playing, too, with Team Robespierre. Free and for all ages, doors open at 8.

I forgot to post my favorite song last week, but absolutely buy this album! I couldn’t find a vinyl version online- Wildfire Wildfire has put it out and I bought one at the show for $12. And, of course, there are photos and videos from Saturday’s Mercury Lounge show.

Dan Deacon sets up his table in front of the stage and tapes a luminous green skull on a mic stand raised high. Amongst other things, his essential setup includes a midi controller, effects for his voice, a small collection of lights he syncs up with the music himself, a disc man he bought from Radioshack and other haphazard-looking electronics. As much as of an unorthodox musician he may appear to be, he’s got a natural way of defying awkwardness. It takes him no effort to connect with the audience and warmly welcome them into his universe as if this were his house party.

“Wham City”

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(Photos & more videos after the jump)

Dan had gotten into a little scuffle with the waitress over the issue of turning off the AC, saying that he likes it hot. So he began the show by organizing an “AC is inappropriate” chant. When the AA batteries for his disc man died, he started singing, “My battery died, my battery died,” and continued in this tune to direct members of Ponytail and other friends to fetch the new pack of batteries shoved somewhere in his bag. He played older songs and several from Spiderman of the Rings, including “The Crystal Cat,” “Snake Mistakes” and “Trippy Green Skull.” With one hand he held the mic and with other he either controlled various sounds or synchronized the light, including periods of darkness, red wash, green wash, bright yellow or the flickering green skull.

Later on there was a dance tag, for which he asked the audience to form a large circle and participate in a contest where each dancer would tag the next one. Several friends present were familiar with this tradition, but Dan Deacon, suggesting weariness over the old trick, said that perhaps this will be the last tour where he does this (but we hope he’ll change his mind).

Dance tag (I missed the first dancer!)

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Dan had several other spontaneous things to say, one of which was that if you watched it without reserve, Matrix 3 is an amazing movie. This confused a fan who asked if there was a Matrix 4 out, but Deacon said Matrix 3 was on On-Demand. He was also thankful that there wasn’t a mosh pit at this show. Though I assume it’s a recurring phenomenon at his energetic performances, mosh pits at a Dan Deacon show would certainly be ironic, he being a rare musician gleaming with pure, uncontaminated kind of love. So much so that he’s got a traditional prayer in which everyone holds hands with his/her neighbors, raising their arms. The prayer is essentially an apology to a friend whose Netflix DVDs Dan has lost, fully aware that the account was under the friend’s girlfriend’s name. Describing a bruise he’d gotten at a most pit during one of his performances, he referred to the shape of the platform found in the video game Doom, going on to share his reviews of other similar games. To the waitress he said that he likes a person with a strong opinion.

For the last song, the 11-minute “Wham City,” there was a stack of lyrics available, passed around so that the audience could sing the big chorus. If you want in on the fun, drink coffee and wear comfortable shoes for the August NYC show he’s trying to put together. As for now, last night was the last of the two NYC dates included in the current tour.

Previously:

• Ponytail at Mercury Lounge – video + photos
• Videohippos touring w/ Dan Deacon – mp3 + NY date?
• Dan Deacon: Spiderman of the Rings

More videos:

• Beirut & Final Fantasy at Bowery Ballroom (May
• The Books at Wordless Music Series

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There’s more where Dan Deacon comes from. Baltimore’s duo Videohippos are members of the collective Wham City!, which also includes bands like Ponytail and Beach House (and, of course, Deacon). Kevin O’Meare and Jim Triplett will begin touring with Dan Deacon 25th of May, which means they won’t be in New York for the May 12th date at Mercury Lounge. A New York date, however, is in the works. They will be here with a giant screen and all.

Unbeast the Leash will come out in June from Monitor Records.

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Sunday: Asthmatic Kitty’s Unusual Animals Series will host a release party for Canada’s Shapes and Sizes on May 13th at Union Hall. The album is Split Lips, Winning Hips, A Shiner, which comes out on May 22. They will head out on a North American tour with the National in June, and are stopping by for one more NY date at the Cake Shop on May 11th.

Saturday: A terrible conflict of interest: YACHT plays w/ LCD Soundsystem at Studio B. Dan Deacon plays Mercury Lounge ($8).

Friday: Banjo-loving Illinois play w/ the Kooks at Filmore at New York Irving Plaza, currently sold out. Or head to Sound Fix Records to see a free Mountain Goats show or the previously-mentioned Shapes and Sizes at Cake Shop.

Release Date: May 8, 2007

On the surface Spiderman of the Rings may sound like the kind of record where anything goes. High-pitched voices sing without intending to be pretty, and sporadic noises from the world of pixels are found in plenty. The playfulness of it all has been so skillfully whipped that glaring choices seem to have been made out of pure silliness. There’s enough evidence, however, to indicate otherwise; that this is a record where a particular aesthetic has been sought, be it a seemingly bizarre one, and classically-trained Dan Deacon has expertly brought it under his control so he may let it loose.

But what’s the story here? Who’s to know, though one might take a stab at it. There are a variety of voices that make an appearance, some more than once. One of these we assume to be Deacon’s own. It sings a duet in “The Crystal Cat” with an extremely high-pitched one, which we naturally think is the cat’s. Other normal human voices make rare appearances, most strongly in the big chorus of the eleven-minute-long “Wham City.” This song, the album’s most remarkable, is as revealing as it gets. We know there is a city whose tour it involves. The chorus makes an introduction in a fascinating outburst of rhymes. We are told of a mountain, a castle, a fountain, a big hand, a bear with a bag of a ton of things, including brooms and bats and cats! They leave us to a long musical interlude as if for a solitary exploration, after which a single voice emerges as though it were rising in revelation, joining the friendly chorus eventually.

The album begins with the menacing-yet-melodic laughter of Woody Woodpecker in a constant loop, whose slowed-down version reveals how much like a song the trademark laughter is. This dream-like repetition is a gateway to the world Deacon has created. “Wham City” is somehow central to this world, but there’s a universe to which it belongs, and it’s got an entire landscape of its own. If the dreamy, wordless melodies of “Pink Batman” are the landscape, “Big Milk” is the sky at night. It’s got soothing, twinkling sounds to which stars may blink, but amongst watery drops there are also radio signals shooting through the galaxy. “Okie Dokie” introduces us to the squeaky gang that is quite jubilant about its leader’s possession of a rattle snake gun. These must truly be the citizens of Deacon’s world, even if they’re the rodents whose masses make the earth squirm through the night, because they re-apear in “Trippy Green Skull” and “Snake Mistakes” with uncontested confidence. In the former they are joined by a monk-like group, and in the latter someone’s been led to boast, perhaps in intimidation: “My dad is so cool, he is the coolest dad… he would break you up if I asked him to”.

There is an outward appearance to music that traditional training deals with, and then there is the spirit of it which tends to be intuitive. Deacon seems to have applied spirit to the album’s appearance and the fruits of his classical training to its spirit. This means the same thing as having the rings, but being the Spiderman, not the Lord, of them. The last track “Jimmy Joe Roche,” named after his artist-friend, leaves us with a reaffirmation: Spiderman of the Rings is epic without being serious.

NYC Dates:

May 5: Brooklyn, NY @ Raven’s Den ($tba)
May 12: New York, NY @ The Mercury Lounge ($8)