We headed downtown and went to Red Eyed Fly to catch Harlem Shakes. This band’s got a ton of good things going, but I’m still not sold on the lead voice. I remember seeing them at Southpaw eons ago and thinking the same thing.

Other than wanting to see what Harlem Shakes has been up to (I hadn’t seen them since their reunion), I thought it might be nice to catch up with Princeton.

The Kivel brothers are really good at writing songs that are catchy and fun, yet with plenty of thoughts and attention to details in them (I love that new one about loving the man who comes home). But there is probably a point in what the person standing next to me told me during the set, “They’re adorable, but I’m not sold”. I think that if they just learn to relax and have fun on stage without appearing stressed out, their live shows will do justice to their music; some of this is evident when they play “Shout It Out”, a song where they let loose a little. The brothers have seemed a little under pressure the last few times I’ve seen them, and that doesn’t appear to help, since to create a good show for others you must immerse yourself in it first. I’m sure they’ll mature as a live act very quickly though.

On the other hand, I’ve noticed drummer David Kitz is always at ease when he’s on stage, and that gives him a pleasant presence.

Outside, more parties were going on.

People were in line for yet another day.

I ran into Parenthetical Girls waiting in the VIP line there. They have such awesome faces!

We headed north to Waterloo Cycles, a bike shop that was hosting shows outside. One Happy Island was playing.

Mexico City’s Hello Seahorse was next and they sounded good.

I’m on an ongoing hunt to find new cool bands from Mexico, or any other Latin country, and I think Hello Seahorse was my first real success. I’m obviously ignorant when it comes to bands from Latin America, though I already like some hip hop artists and have been a fan of Gotan Project for a while, so if you have recommendations, email me; by “cool” I mean bands that aren’t stuck with the 80’s-to-90’s idea of a traditional rock band.

My Brooklyn friends swore by The Besties, who came on next.

The sound was a little muddled, and I thought they were just okay. I need to give ‘em another try. The women seemed to be the main singers, but I preferred the male voice (guitarist Richard Francis), especially when he did a little test during sound check.

We went back to the east side, to an awesome place called Moose Lodge, which was truly in the middle of nowhere. Once again the events lined up for the evening were the doings of the coolest DIY kids we encountered in Austin, a circle of musicians based around the band Quiet Hooves, of Athens Georgia. Inside, this band with scarry masks was playing.

Outside, it was all sweet breeze and green grass and awesomeness.

Prince Rama of Ayodhya played on the balcony.

This isn’t exactly my favorite kind of music on record, but in person they sounded excellent.

I was sold, which is why I left my nice green grass to catch their set.

It’s no surprise that my real reason for making it out there was to see Tune Yards one more time. Here is Merrill watching Prince Rama:

She went on next. It wasn’t an ideal setup for her because there wasn’t enough volume to have her looped samples as loud as she wanted, but it was still pretty freaking good.

She gave it all.

She always does!

Quiet Hooves played next.

They were giving out free CDs and they gave me a whole bunch, which I’ve yet to listen to. I guess I’ll have a more reliable opinion of the music when I get to those recordings (because the sound setup was very DIY indeed and it was hard to tell the details apart), but for now, I can say that their set was pretty rocking. I loved it 30 seconds into it. I think they were probably one of my very few discoveries that I hope to look further into.

On our way out, more bands were playing inside.

We were back at our base, Todd P’s patio party at Ms. Bea’s, which was the most happening place by the end of it all.

Going there was always like coming up for air. It was the last night, and Crystal Stilts were playing.

It was a festival of its own.

Our two new really nice friends from Austin told us they didn’t mind us Brooklynians at all: hi!

We left Ms. Bea’s to go to a private house party These United States was playing.

It was all unamplified by the fire, so of course it was awesome. The cops gave the hosts a second warning, so they had to take it indoors for the last song. They played “Speed of Light”, which was a strong finish.

The Lonesome Heroes, from Austin, played there next. They were good but I was hoping to like them a whole lot more (Rich Russell grew up in Greenpoint and he’s not even Polish!). The only issue I couldn’t quite move past is that Landry McMeans’ breathy singing style just doesn’t feel natural; I really want to hear her own voice some time. The rest of it was fun and good, and they’re really nice to be around.

20 “Run to Your Grave” by The Mae-Shi

A song to play really loud and jump to, whenever one feels the need to be an ecstatic, aimless punk, which one should feel often, I guess. Taken from Hlllyh.

19. “Oceanic” by Imaad Wasif

When Imaad Wasif played with his band at Cake Shop, the loud treatment of his songs made his delicate voice gasp for air under the weight of all that noise. Then there was a rare moment when everything was quiet and he slowly pulled his voice away from the microphone, and those few seconds had the ache of a dagger through the heart. “Oceanic” is a song where you can hear some of that; a voice that must hurl itself towards everything that will ruin it so that it can resurface all alive and resilient.

18. “Klara” by Ólöf Arnalds

The only non-English song in the list, and this one’s in Icelandic. It reminds me of clothes hung to dry, blowing through the wind, and clouds chasing in over a blue hill. Blue! Whispers of accordion from somewhere not too far.

17. “I Can’t Tell in His Eyes” by Wildbirds & Peacedrums

Mariam Wallentin prefers a highly stylized approach to singing, one that makes her sound primal and aggressive. Sometimes it sounds overworked, but most times it just sounds pretty damn impressive. This song, however, is an unusual slip where she just sings, without a cloak or a mask of any sort. Filled with scenic evocations of the everyday, it’s pretty colorful for a break-up song. Then there’s this killer: “She is the country / That deeply betrayed him / So now he’s moving to Spain / Now he’s packing his things / All of his belongings / And I can’t tell in his eyes / If he’s gonna cry or if he’s gonna fight”. Taken from Heartcore.

16. “Fools” by The Dodos

Rhythm drives The Dodos. The boyish melodies serve to hold the the drums from running too far; the words are a vessel for rhymes; and the consonants are the necessary evil to vowels. “Fools” is a good mix of these things.

15. “Bleed Blood” by City Center

What it feels like to swim under water and let yourself go. City Center’s Fred is a river that runs through Brooklyn.

14. “Dance Dance Dance” by Lykke Li

A song of sweetness, and hips; it reminds me of Vanessa Paradis. Taken from Youth Novel.

13. “The Waves” by Princeton

“The Waves” is an elaborate work of production by Princeton. It’s somewhat silly, with all its tropical inclinations; somewhat dorky, with all its literary references; but all the while endearing; and there’re quite a few places to visit here in 3 minutes and 15 seconds. Taken from their four-song EP, Bloomsbury.

12. “The Nights Pt. 1” by The Builders and the Butchers

I was lucky I got to this band at a tiny dive bar in Connecticut filled with crazed fans who knew all of the songs. Two drummers packed into the corner and faces red and wet with sweat. This is the first song off their self-titled album, a world where you must grow beards, wear big black hats, carry shovels everywhere you go, and sing loudly over beer all the freaking time. Even if you’re a woman. Plus, what an awesome band name, and so filled with character.

11. “Rapture (Sweet Rapture)” by AA Bondy

Here’s how it begins: “I don’t wanna talk about Jesus / I just wanna see his face / The trees are swinging like hanging men /And I just wanna see his face”. Then it gets better; it’s as if the shadows give over to the sun, still water begins to run, and the day breaks as the chorus hits in a swooping lift: “Rapture, sweet rapture / Won’t you lay your hands on me”. But wait, it gets better still: “Mary take that silver dagger / Put it through my throat”. Sung in that amazing voice of AA Bondy’s and taken from that amazing album, American Hearts.

10. “One Cotton Shot Short” by Matt Jones

These verses smell like waffles and they melt in your mouth. It’s taken from The Black Path, which I don’t think is out yet. I stole it from Jesse Elliott’s Mixmas.

9. “More Than Right” by Callers

I’ve been hanging on to this song ever since I heard it back in the summer, though I know little about this Brooklyn band… what a great voice, what a drunkenly staggering pace, and what a night these lovers must have whisked through. They’re playing at Union Pool tonight, the 19th.

8. “The Butcher” by Final Fantasy

Owen Pallett writes a song that sounds like rainbows and butterflies, waterfalls and waves, despite a title that suggests otherwise. Taken from Spectrum, 14th Century, one of the two EPs he released this year.

7. “Trouble No More” by Dark Dark Dark

“I’ll take these rosy cheeks of mine / And be headed south”

6. “Mister Jung Stuffed” by Man Man

A song that captures everything Man Man. Incredible musicians, enthusiastic and consistent theatrics; goofballs, hooligans, drunkards. It opens this year’s Rabbit Habits.

5. “Horn Song” by Suckers

This tune here? A soundtrack for your trip to the gate where angels drink wine, play cards and call each other whores; and you’ll be the most beautiful person when you get there.

4. “Original Bones” by Cotton Jones

“The last time I tried to be so original / I broke all my original bones”

3. “Drops in the River” by Fleet Foxes

“White Winter Hymnal” was the first song I heard and loved from these here Fleet Foxes (like everyone else), but “Drops in the River” was the one I really clung to; it’s got all the goodness of White Winter, but it travels further. I think of them as the same person at different ages, I don’t know which one’s older. This one’s the younger, probably.

There was an unbelievable overabundance of overrated crap this year (Cut Copy – what?), as was there a lot of great music that not everyone discovered and loved as deserved. Then they’re all these year-end lists that are themselves the most overrated act of every freaking year. But, I love Fleet Foxes, and the amount of love and hate that’s been directed towards them, or perhaps the obscene extent of fame they seem to have found (but fame is a ridiculously nonsensical by nature), has ultimately nothing at all to do with my own enjoyment of their songs. They use the language of music with care, compassion and devotion, they seem to understand it really well, and this language, which unleashes its power over your heart than it does your brain, is a funny thing. Right? While it’s great to be articulate about how you feel about music (despite everything, the writers at Pitchfork are really good), it’s terrible to be unable to enjoy music with your heart. I don’t understand why it matters so much that the guy from Fleet Foxes sounds a little like the guy from My Morning Jacket… I really believe in Robin Pecknold. I think he’s good for us. Us humans.

2. “The Gardener” by The Tallest Man on Earth

Heart breaker of a song, everything about it will stab you.

1. “A Day to Float the Bahnar Boat” by These United States

When I first heard this song, my blood level dropped to an all-time low. About 30 seconds in I was having an existential awakening, thinking, “What am I going to do with my life?“, and after I’d recovered, “What were they thinking?” When I made other people listen to it they didn’t quite freak out like I had, which kind of reaffirms my belief that taste is all physics. Everything to do with heart rate and blood levels and how the molecules of the songs fit into the molecules of you. For me, this is one of the most perfect songs ever: in its few words and the compassionate melodies that accompany them, it contains not one but several, unending life cycles, and there’s nothing quite as thrilling as a life. Nothing quite so filled with an exploding spectrum of emotions like hope, triumph, loss, disappointment, sadness, happiness, and so on, all of which I felt when I listened to it the first time.

It was recorded as a free track for Peppermill’s 52 weeks project, for the Spring set in particular. From what I understand, Jesse Elliott took parts from this article in the Washington Post–which was published in the week the band had been assigned by Peppermill–and rearranged them into lyrics. They’ve credited the article’s author Joshua Zumbrun for the lyrics, but that is a lie, essentially. The words and phrases may have been lifted, but the effect they have in the song owes entirely to what parts were picked, and how they were edited and rearranged. Then there’s Tom Hnatow with his haunting glockenspiel and piano…
]]> http://hoovesontheturf.com/200812/best-songs-2008/feed 7 http://hoovesontheturf.com/200812/princeton-unionhall http://hoovesontheturf.com/200812/princeton-unionhall#comments Thu, 11 Dec 2008 01:22:24 +0000 sarahana http://hoovesontheturf.com/?p=2121

I canceled my plans of seeing Yeasayer and Chairlift last Friday so that I could go see Princeton at Union Hall instead—I wanted to catch them at least once on this tour, and I’d missed them at Pianos two days prior. When I got to Union Hall and began to realize that I was in the presence of the worst crowd ever, I wondered if I had made the strangest concert-going decision in the history of the universe.

It didn’t seem like most of those present were there for the music at all—perhaps there were a lot of high profile shows going on that night, and these people here were just for the drinks? They were irresponsive, inattentive, chatty, and shockingly unwilling to clap. It was awkward to the point of hilarity—but I don’t want to give the wrong impression, there were about two or three rows of people at the front that were listening.

Jesse Kivel, one half of the fronting twins, seemed visibly affected, jokingly saying things like, “If you shut the fuck up” and “I know this is Brooklyn, I know it’s hip here, but come on, come closer”. The performance was pretty good otherwise; if they had chosen to ignore the sorry audience and rocked out like it was their own party, it could’ve been a solid show (and I guess I’ve seen some bands pull that off). Matt, the other half of the fronting twins, was much more polite, as he softly suggested, “You guys can dance to this one” before playing “Eminent Victorians”. I was, however, entertained (to say the least) by this bit of snark from Jesse: “I’ve never heard so much chatter all my life. Guys, what’s going on? What’s important? Talk to me, we’ll sort it out. Obama’s president, we know that now. The economy’s in shit, we know that. Now what else do you have to talk about?” But, these people, they just kept talking right over him.

It was still worthwhile for me, though; I was paying attention, and was pretty excited about the new songs, which will likely go in the album that’s in the making; especially one called “Power Makes Magic”, which you can hear on their brand new session on WOXY, and another, the name of which I don’t know yet “Show Some Love, When your Man Gets Home”, that I captured in video below (the audio isn’t the greatest, but I kind of don’t mind the distortion here). I just wish it had been a “happy show” without a sour aftertaste—a heartfelt cheer to Princeton for braving it, though.

I don’t want to give too much credit to this guy, but there was a childhood friend of the band who went on stage before they did, for a comedy routine, supposedly, and he might’ve just helped set the wrong tone for the band. I don’t think he did. But! It was a somewhat unauthorized appearance, and he was mostly really bad, and I couldn’t stop laughing because he was so bad—although the one racy joke he opened with was maybe funny: “I live in Bushwick. You know who lived in my apartment before I did? [AWKWARD SILENCE] A black man!” With his bad delivery, it was especially funny at the time.

These three are screen shots from video:

Union Hall,
Brooklyn, NY
Dec 5, 2008

Princeton will play Pianos on December 2 and Update: December 5 at Union Hall. Read all of our previous posts on Princeton.

Kashish joined me at Club Love and took a lot of pictures, and we both really enjoyed their set—it was cut short because Jesse Kivel’s throat hadn’t been feeling too well (everything was running behind schedule anyway), but it was a short, uplifting, feel-good and fun-filled set nonetheless. Since Club Love is a funky little club in the West Village with a tiny performance space, the number of people trailing outside the venue in an enthusiastic line to get in was enough to pack the place—it was hot and full inside—and for that reason it was a more fitting venue for them than the Bell House. The show ended with a lot of dancing to “Shout It Out”, which wasn’t a bad way for me to end my CMJ adventures at all, except, we decided to stop by at Red Bull Space afterward. By this time I’d lost track of who was playing where, and it had started to rain like hell, which was kind of perfect.

The showcase was organized by Cantora Records, though Princeton isn’t on that label.

When CMJ marathon finally brought Princeton here this week, it was with much excitement that I went to see them at the Bell House last night (thanks to my gracious hosts, The Loom). It was also my first time at the venue, and whereas the performance space at its sibling Union Hall commands intensity on the strength of its smallness, the Bell House, being barn-like and big enough to provide plenty of space for mobility, does the opposite: it gives the shows a feel of being much more laid-back and informal, which I enjoy.

However, a relaxed atmosphere also tends to encourage chatter amongst the audience, and a crowd spread thin can seem intimidating. Given this, even though a few people started dancing as soon as they started playing, I thought the boys from Princeton were perhaps a bit shy in the beginning, especially in contrast to the undeniable vibrancy of their music, but the shyness fizzled soon enough. They loosened up a few songs in, talking about their fondness for New York and saying how they thought LA was just okay, and one-half of the leading twins, Matt Kivel, going berserk over his guitar at one point. When his brother Jesse Kivel was finally free from playing any instrument for the last song “Shout it Out”, he asked the crowd in front of the stage to move forward and dance with him, and dance they did. When I told him how much I liked that segment, he said that it’s been somewhat of a tradition at their shows, which only means you should try to catch them at one of the several CMJ shows they’re playing this week.

Download “All the While“ |  Frances is another band I’d been meaning to see for a while. My friend from Michigan thought they sounded a lot like a band would in Michigan, and that’s funny because I thought they sounded so Brooklyn because they sounded so Michigan. I don’t know about you guys, but that makes total sense to me. They had really good chemistry and a fun, positive presence on stage.

Download “Song for the Winter Sun“ | And then, my old friends The Loom, who seems to bring out an extended family of super supportive friends to every show. Surely, this won’t last for too long if the frequency of their shows keeps going up, but if you see their friend-based fan base at the next show, you’ll notice how they’re very much a happy bunch, and you’ll certainly wish you had friends like that! Also, I was really digging the French Horn last night.

An anecdote worth mentioning, as it further illustrates the relaxed vibe of the venue: while The Loom was playing, Nick Anderson from Frances came up to the stage and returned a pen he had apparently borrowed from singer John Fanning. For some reason, it seemed totally appropriate to return it in the middle of a set, although John was perhaps taken back a bit, as he went on to explain how the return of a borrowed pen is evidence of a person’s humanity, and how what had just happened was clearly the best “pen return”.

The band mentioned that their drummer Jon Alvarez seemed to be on fire, and that was the truth.

I’m sorry I couldn’t stay for La Strada. Day jobs are a bitch!

The storytelling is akin to the skills Sufjan deployed in Michigan, though the effort here is intentionally less epic and seemingly un-orchestrated. The atmosphere of the music is very present, and at least in me it triggered a suburban image for some reason: gaping blue sky, quiet streets, and so on. 

Which Virgina Woolf book does this blog get its name from? You’re on your own on that one, but view the full post to find out why the band is named Princeton.

Answer: Princeton is the street in Los Angeles brothers Jesse and Matt Kivel grew up on.

Check out Princeton’s website: you’ll be welcomed by a wonderful sketch of the four Bloomsburies profiled. It’s drawn by Stephen Halker, who has, the band tells us, also sketched for Sufjan, and did the artwork for the EP cover.