Download “Don’t Haunt This Place“ | I went to Pianos camera-less last night with the intention of being “off duty” but here I am, posting a few re-colored cellphone pictures and a summary. It was The Loom’s last residency show at the venue (new material’s sounding great and showing signs of a maturing band); they had invited Rural Alberta Advantage to play with them, which, as it turns out, would make it the first US show for the Canadian band. I’ve never seen Pianos that packed on a Tuesday night. Even when great bands are playing, sometimes it’s just disappointingly empty, but there was no room to move last night. RAA’s frontmant Nils Edenloff looked visibly surprised as his band took stage, saying, “Is this some kind of improv group pulling a prank on us?” He thanked The Loom about a hundred times for asking them to play, and kept repeating how grateful he was for the “warm reception” in the US. Story continues…

Not only was the place packed, but at least the first two rows knew all the lyrics to RAA songs. There was one girl who yelled out that it was her friend’s 25th birthday and that the birthday girl, also present at the show, was a huge fan. She added, “She’s from Poland! She’s a Communist!”, at which point Nils stopped short alarmingly and refrained from delcaring any political allegiance, saying emphatically, “We do want to come back to America”. They were catching a flight back in about 4 hours after their set, but they will return on Feb 6 for a show at Union Hall with some band called These United States (about whom I know absolutely nothing–but I hear they’re promising).

To use points of reference I’m familiar with, Nils’ voice sounds somewhere in between AA Bondy and Jeff Mangum (of Neutral Milk Hotel), but the music’s quite different from both. There were several songs inspired by Nils’ own hometown(ish), including a pilgrimage site of a town upon which surrounding hills collapsed and fell (once upon a time!) and another about a group of kids who planned to make a 5-hour-long bike-ride during winter from one town to another, both of which kind of had the Neutral-Milk-Hotel-ish quality of storytelling, but the similarities stop there. The other two members, who said they were happy that Nils didn’t require them to wear uniforms anymore, have cheerfully hyper personalities on stage, moving from one percussive instrument to the other, dancing, and singing along. Once done, they walked into the crowd and sang a wonderful good night song unamplified–everything sounds so much better unamplified!

Oh, and for the 101st time, thanks to The Loom.  They’re playing Bell House on Feb 12 as part of the “BAM: Sounds Like Brooklyn” program.

Update: Video of the unamplified “Good Night” from the Pianos show (via A Rightly Timed Pause)

The last time I saw Sharon Van Etten was when we filmed our very first Secret Garden show in July. Since then she’s been been touring and playing an endless number of local shows. When I saw her at Pianos this past Sunday, she had recently returned from Portland after the making of a music video for “For You”, and she said that she was planning to perhaps take it a little slow. I bet not that much slower, though, since there is a new album possibly coming out in May. Unlike the “home recordings” I’ve heard of her and the way she plays live solo, I hear this one is going to have a more produced instrumentation.

Onward for the movie feature presentation premiere exclusive blockbuster!

There were quite a few things happening at Pianos that night: Sharon’s set was squeezed between a comedy show and Camper Van Beethoven’s double-set secret show, followed by a whole different late show, which meant that she had time only for five songs, out of which 3 1/2 are captured here. They dimmed the lights halfway through, for whatever reason, but she sounds gorgeous–not necessarily “pretty” in the “everything’s going to be okay, the world is so beautiful, I am so sweet” way; more like she was wallowing from the depth of her entrails, which is way better. She’s up for “Best NYC Based Artist of 2008″ over at The Deli Magazine, if you’d like to vote.

Please link to this page if embedding.

ps. I put the last song twice. I’ll fix that later.

Websites: Sharon Van Etten

Pianos,
New York, NY
Jan 11, 2009

Twi, named after twilight for its quality of balance, is front man Anthony Lebron’s beloved fictional character, whose adventures in deep space are so precious, it’s only proper the band devote itself to translating them into worthy musical narratives. Speaking to him after the show, I gathered from Anthony that there are volumes of unwritten Twi stories in his head, though one telling story can be found on the cover of Music for Spaceships and Forests EP in the form of a lovely poem. A brief history I picked up from the conversation: first there was Twi, who met the Humble Feather, the first being Twi ever met, and then the two became one, and the Humble Feather “regurgitated” (to use Anthony’s word) through Twi, hence the deliberate removal of the “and”, which leaves us with Twi the Humble Feather. The band is presently working on a full length album. Download “Higher Than the End“.

Fredrik may be from Sweden, but their music bears little relation to fellow Swedes like Lykke Li, I’m From Barcelona, Ace of Base, et cetera, though perhaps there’s a tiny volume of fleeting Abba remains in some corners of the song posted, “Black Fur”. Overall, though, and especially live, this bunch is more on an Icelandic wavelength: somewhat sullen and somewhat dreamy. The wispy voice and the warm cello give the songs a tint of fragility, but the resilient drums carry the weight, finding its inspiration in marches while rolling along a more gentle path hospitable to delicate melodies. Download “Black Fur“

Pianos, New York
November 15, 2008

All photos after the jump.

I would’ve really liked to see the other bands, but I had to run in and out. 

Pianos
East Village, New York City
August 13, 2008 

Previously: Passion Pit’s “Sleepyhead”