quick brown fox

I’ve always been a little curious about Captured! By Robots, but this I’ve just got to see for myself:

“The goal one day is to create a teddy bear orchestra. It would be a full big band with [robotic] teddy bears playing all the instruments. I would be the bandleader — like a [short-tempered] Buddy Rich character, just yelling at the teddy bears like, ‘You call that a fucking note?‘”

Captured! By Robots & Teddy Bear Orchestra @ Luna Lounge, May 8th. Like you have anything better to do.

The Thermals
The Body, The Blood, The Machine
Sub Pop, 2006

It’s surprising what $50,000 will and won’t buy these days. A Hummer, for instance. $50K is almost enough to buy you a Hummer, but in the event that you ARE Hummer, $50K won’t buy you a Thermals song for your tv commercial. Now that’s surprising. For an indie rock band in the year 2K7, selling your music to ad agencies is the new flannel shirt. Everyone from The Shins’ (McDonald’s) and Iron & Wine (M&M’s) to Of Montreal (Outback Steakhouse), Spoon (Jaguar), The Spinto Band (Sears) and M.I.A. (Honda) are doing it. Hell, I even heard a Magnetic Fields song in a dog food commercial the other day.

At least a few of those bands had the good sense to regret it afterwards, and yet, a little research on the products they’re shilling for shows the stigma associated with going commercial is so minimal that one might even mistake it for enthusiasm. So why then wouldn’t a virtutally unknown Portland band like The Thermals cash in too? According to lead singer Hutch Harris, “We thought about it for about 15 seconds, maybe…it was a really easy decision. How could we go on after soundtracking Hummer? It’s just so evil.” There you have it.

So who DID take the money? Badly Drawn Boy, it would appear. And over the years, Fischerspooner and Ratatat as well. Mark Mothersbaugh did too, but unlike the aforementioned bands, he and his Devo cohorts make no bones about what business they’re really in. At the rate Cat Power’s penning jingles these days, perhaps it’s time she did the same.

On the subject of “selling out”, Apples in Stereo says: “You understand it better as you get older,” but fuck that. I AM older. In fact, I’m their target market, and putting your hit song in an ad campaign still amounts to endorsement of a product and a corporation. Why not loan your cred to something you actually believe in for a change?

Now I’m not saying everyone should go out and buy The Thermals record solely on the pretext that they aren’t sellouts. “As you get older” you come to understand that even the most pricipled band might someday break your heart. But taking this small stand earned them my attention. Since I liked what I heard, it also earned them my $14 for their album, plus $12 for a ticket to their show at Studio B on Monday. That’s still a long way from $50K, but it’s a start. Care to join me?

Here’s Your Future by The Thermals

Elvis Perkins
Ash Wednesday
XL, 2007

If you’ve been meaning to check out Williamsburg’s freshly relocated Luna Lounge, Elvis Perkins’ upcoming show there is as good an excuse as you’re likely to find. Though at first blush, you might be tempted to compare him to Dylan or Bragg, or even other Elvises, it’s probably the Perkins you should be paying more attention to. Man, this kid’s had a rough couple decades, but don’t feel too bad for him—he’s got a record contract, been featured on NPR and just got back from touring Europe with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. What have you done with your life lately that’s so great?

I accidentally caught EP’s set during CMJ last year, and was pleasantly surprised to find I didn’t hate it. While to call him a folkie sounds like an insult these days, he is first and foremost an old school troubadour. And in the event that you’re unable to, you know, tolerate that shit, this singer-songwriter comes equipped with a backup band that manages to give every sullen, melancholy ballad an upbeat turn.

In point of fact, I’m sure it’s them I have to blame for adding another notch to my long and well-documented tradition of missing the point entirely. I must have listened to “While You Were Sleeping” over 20 times before noticing it had anything to do with 9/11, and just thought it was about someone who, you know, takes a lot of naps. A heavy sleeper myself, I instantly related. Ah, well, I guess I still like it anyhow, so I’ll see you at the show.

While You Were Sleeping by Elvis Perkins

Yo La Tengo
I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass
Matador, 2006

While picking up the latest Yo La Tengo album a little while back, I joked with the record store clerk that I was buying it more out of habit than anything else. YLT pretty much reached the status of indie rock royalty a long, long time ago, and their chances of staying fresh and relevant get slimmer with each passing album. This made it all the more startling to find that their latest and quite appropriately titled LP, “I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass”, ranks among the best YLT albums out there to date.

So why am I talking about it now instead of when it first came out? Well, half the songs barely even sound like Yo La Tengo so, yeah, it took me awhile to notice. Vince Giraldi, maybe, or something from a movie soundtrack or a 60’s surf band and, wait…is that Ira yelling on “Watch Out for Me Ronnie”? What in the Sam Hill is going on here? This is not the sleepy Sunday morning Yo La Tengo we have come to expect. If you don’t believe me, just watch Hal Hartley’s great video for their old song “From a Motel 6″ and compare and contrast with the newer stuff below. Keep an eye on the Maxwell’s website for some shows when they get back from tour, or you can catch the band at Webster Hall in April.

Mr. Tough
Watch Out for Me Ronnie

There were some long faces among Northsix’s staff during Frightened Rabbit’s set last night, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the music getting them down. It was recently announced that Bowery Presents is buying Northsix, and word has it they’ll be laying off just about everyone when the place closes at the end of the month for a makeover. The larger and presumably lamer new venue taking its place will be known as (get a load of this) “The Music Hall of Williamsburg”. Yikes! I guess that’s just about par for the course around here these days.

But back to Frightened Rabbit. Half the crowd took off before their set even started, but it was easy to imagine these guys playing in front of a full house of rowdy, drunken upstarts, and though a lot of time was devoted to tuning, the lead singer made up for it by hurling some good-natured insults at the crowd (everything just sounds nicer with a Scottish accent) to keep us entertained between songs. I’m thinking I might try to catch their act again before they head back to Glasgow, which shouldn’t be too difficult considering they’re playing three more shows in New York between now and Monday.

Oh and another thing: I really should apologize for neglecting to mention The Spinto Band earlier. I’m afraid you’ve all suffered terribly as a result of this egregious error, and would have for quite awhile longer were it not for the great showing by their spin-off band Batman and The Robins last night at Northsix. I’m no Spinto expert, but as far as I could tell, B&TR were basically the same lineup, playing a similar brand of heartwarming dorkpop (can I trademark that term?) with some added Batman Begins references and a great cover of Mr. Blue Sky to top things off. Since I happened to see them on the very same day I finally got myself a Wii (I don’t even want to tell you how much it pained me to leave the house that night), I simply must share just this one, oh yes, track with you re: Japan being an island. I’ll even throw in some E.L.O. for good measure. Enjoy.

Japan is an Island by Spinto Band
Mr. Blue Sky by E.L.O.

Holy crap. I’ve been waiting ALL year for Scotland’s Frightened Rabbit to play a show in NYC, and it looks like my impatience has finally paid off…fivefold, even. Starting with Micheline’s basement Monday night, these guys are going to be all over town. No word yet on who’s playing with them at Northsix, but it’ll be a great excuse to give the place one last look before it goes under the knife.

1/15 Micheline’s w/Hundred Eyes & Ill Ease. $5 (All ages)
1/17 Northsix
1/19 Cake Shop w/The Sky Drops, Death of Fashion & La Dolce Vita. $7
1/20 Sin-e w/The Octagon, American Devices & Brother Kite. $10
1/22 Mercury Lounge w/Cities of Fire. $8

And elsewhere:
1/21 Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia, PA
1/23 Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL

Previously:
Frightened Rabbit | Keep it Secret, Keep it Safe

Okay, one more post and that’s it till Spring. No really, I mean it. I’m in hibernation, I swear!

Brooklyn’s own favorite punk rock sweethearts Matt & Kim are playing an all ages-show this weekend at Studio B, and I assure you that no matter how lame the venue is or how far from Greenpoint you live, nothing should keep you from showing up at that door on Saturday with six dollars in your pocket and your A-game slam dancing on tap. It’ll be well worth the price of admission, and I’m not just saying that because it’s so cheap. But it is. Cheap, I mean.

There’s no way to buy tickets in advance, so you can put off deciding to go until the last minute, but take a look at their new food-fightastic video now while you have the chance. And as J. over at Heart on a Stick says, if you don’t like the music, you can just “turn the volume off and watch people throw shit at them”. Yea Yeah!

I know I’m still supposed to be in hibernation, but this news is just to good to wait. Sub Pop Records plans to release the new Shins album, Wincing the Night Away, on vinyl with (wait for it…) a code for downloading all the tracks as mp3s for free inside. Sweet!

Home to The Postal Service, Thee Headcoats, Wolf Parade and a ton of other great bands, the record label also says that ALL their future vinyl releases will be on digital vinyl too. This, my friends, is a step in the right direction. CDs are so 1984. Well, 1965 actually, but who’s counting? Viva la Digital-Analog Revolución!

Sadly, this announcement comes too late for anyone to get a copy of the badass new Thermals album on DV, but you can still get yourself some tickets for their show at Bowery Ballroom in March. Here are some tracks to get you in the mood.

Here’s Your Future from The Body, The Blood, The Machine
No Culture Icons from More Parts Per Million

Previously
(Let’s Get) Physical, Digital

As anyone as addicted to Brooklyn Vegan’s comments section as I am can attest, it was a great loss for the NYC blog-reading community when the site went on the fritz recently, so once things were up and running again, I found myself taking a little stroll down memory lane, and stumbled upon this little gem which I just have to share with you here. Consider it a Christmas gift from QBF.

Ignore, for the moment, the question of whether Green Day is great/sucks or the Sex Pistols are great/suck (which is hilarious, considering they both eventually became the corporate face of anti-establishmentarianism), and skip straight to the last comment in the thread, which reads, and I quote: “you are so hot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”.

Now I ask you: Are there really people out there who still think Green Day is hot? And not just hot, but, like “hot?????????????????????????????????????” It would appear there are. So many, in fact, that like every month for nearly a year, they continued to comment on how much they loved Green Day in this thread, usually in open letter form addressed directly to Billy Joe himself (whose name, for the record, is spelled Billie Joe).

So in closing, I encourage you, dear reader, to make your own contribution to Brooklyn Vegan’s comments section, preferably also in open letter form, and limited to the subject of the hotness that is Billie (um, er, Billy) Joe Armstrong. Together, we can keep this thread alive! (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Man, leave it to me to completely miss out on anything resembling a viral anything whatsoever. If you and your mother are sick of seeing this thing already, I don’t even want to hear about it because you really should have let me know about it earlier. Bitches.

They shot the video in one take and performed it live on the VMA Awards (tautology FTW!) after it made the rounds on YouTube and elsewhere. I confess I haven’t given OK Go anything more than a cursory listen a few months back, but I think we can all agree that a healthy dose of treadmill dancing is good for the soul.

Despite several requests, the QBF team was a little too (choose one of the following: drunk/hungover/indecisive/cold) to give out any CMJ picks this week, but that’s probably for the best considering that the amount of (alcohol/aspirin/vacillation/ice water) running through my veins would have resulted in some pretty questionable judgement on my part.

Still I managed catch a few great shows (Pela’s set at the KEXP/Crackers United showcase, for one), but, as these things often go, the biggest surprise was a band I never even set out to see: Brooklyn’s The Jealous Girlfriends. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, it should be noted that I’m peripherally acquainted with a member of TJG, but since the same could be said for about a third of the bands I saw at CMJ this week (and by half the coffee-drinking residents of Williamsburg), I can state with some confidence that this hasn’t swayed my opinion of them one way or the other.

In point of fact, I just happened to be passing near Rocks in Your Head when I heard strains of a Chan Marshall-sounding voice echoing down the block, and had already begun composing this post in my head long before I got close enough to see who was playing. I didn’t feel like curling up in a fetal position and crying, so I knew it couldn’t actually be Cat Power, but they’d attracted a large crowd of people who, like me, found themselves unwilling to walk on by nonetheless. For a band this confident and compelling live, it’s sort of a miracle they aren’t signed yet.

Don’t just take my word for it, though. They’ll be at Union Hall Saturday 11/11 with Say Hi to Your Mom (another great name for a band). Check out the video for “How Now” here (or here), and let me know what you think.

Elsewhere
Indie-Licious: The Jealous Girlfriends @ Pianos - 8/16/06

As a working stiff and a badgeless cheapskate, I won’t be able to make it to more than a handful of CMJ shows this year, but I’ve constructed a little CMJ Week RSS feed for my sidebar anyhow to help keep things in perspective. Enjoy!

Beck
Angel Orensanz Center
October 22nd, 2006

Caught Beck at Angel O. last weekend, and though the admission price and scarcity of tickets guaranteed glowing reviews, all I could think of it was, well, there’s another great opportunity blown. A solo acoustic set in an old synagogue seating 250…it should have been the cat’s pajamas, just like his show at Lincoln Center a couple years back. A little banter, some interesting covers and folky renditions of less-overplayed old favorites would have gone a long way towards bowling me over. Instead, we got a lo-fi sample of Beck’s current live show (backup band included) with a bunch of slow, depressing songs thrown in, believe it or not, by audience request. I mean, really, who shouts out for “Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime” at a concert anyway? And “Nobody’s Fault But My Own”? Come. On. People.

Don’t even get me started on Death Vessel.

The highlight of the evening was easily “Where It’s At”, not because it’s a great song, but because Beck’s Falco impression kept me from falling asleep. Also not awful were some selections off the new album. At $55 a head, you’d think they would have handed everyone a CD at the door, but instead I have to go out and buy it now. Grrr.

Rock Me Amadeus by Falco

Elsewhere:
Brooklyn Vegan: Beck @ Angel Orensanz, NYC | pics
Stereogum: Beck @ Angel Orensanz Center, NYC 10/22/06
Who’s Driving the Bus: Beck Unplugged!

There’ll be a slew of great shows happening while I’m away next week, and though I know you’ll be crying your little eyes out until the moment I get back, you may want to pull it together just long enough to get out and see a few of them. Here are some suggestions:

1. 10/07 Two Gallants @ Northsix. N6 should be the perfect venue to catch SF’s Two Gallants at on this tour. If you’re lucky, you might even make it into their next video.

2. 10/10 Islands @ Northsix. This is the show I’m most reluctant to miss. I never caught The Unicorns live, but Islands’ show at SoundFix earlier this year is still the best one I’ve seen there to date. Unicorns may come and go, but Islands are forever, right? Right.

3. 10/11 Social Distortion @ Warsaw. The price for this show is pretty steep for a band that doesn’t even record anymore, so I might have rationalized away buying tickets until the very last second. The prospect of hearing “Ball & Chain” (otherwise known as AA’s national anthem) would have just been too overwhelming, though.

4. 10/13 Violent Femmes @ Warsaw. I had my first VF record stolen from me by one of the popular boys at my elementary school. Suddenly, the entire sixth grade class was into them, and that’s when I first learned what it’s like to have your favorite band go mainstream. Fernando, you bastard!

5. 10/14 Okkervil River @ Bowery. Sure, they’d be a hell of a lot cooler if their name was Overkill River, or, better yet, Urge Overkill, but word has it their live show is better than their name, so, you know…

Oh and there’s Xiu Xiu, Built to Spill with Camper Van Beethoven, and a ton of others. If you make it out to any of these, be sure to drop a line here and tell me what I missed. That’s all for now—I got a plane to catch!

The Rezillos
Can’t Stand the Rezillos
Sire, 1978

By way of reminding everyone to go see Art Brut at the Warsaw 10/18, QBF brings you something entirely unrelated. Okay, well, maybe not entirely. You see, like Art Brut, 70’s punk band The Rezillos got their start as somewhat of a joke. A bunch of art & fashion school kids from Scotland, they adopted ironic stage names like “Luke Warm” and “Gail Warning”, sported mod Mary Quant-style outfits (designed by way of homework), and specialized in songs like “Somebody’s Gonna Get Their Head Kicked in Tonight” (a Fleetwood Mac cover?), “I Can’t Stand My Baby” and perhaps most famously, “Top of the Pops”, which railed against the show that all but dictated which bands would hit it big.

Doesn’t matter what is shown, just as long as everyone knows…what is selling, what to buy: The stock market for your hi-fi.

The first time I saw Art Brut live, I’d only really paid attention to about half their album, so when the audience started calling for “Top of the Pops,” I assumed they were going to play a cover. Art Brut gets hit up with a lot of comparisons (The Fall, Wire, The Buzzcocks, etc.), but I think the spirit of the band has more in common with The Rezillos than anyone else, so I couldn’t help but be a little disappointed when their ode to TOTP finally made an appearance with nary a “The Rezillos, Top of the Pops!” in sight.

Though The Rezillos broke up after only a couple years, they did hang around just long enough to play “Top of the Pops” on TOTP, an opportunity that just recently passed Art Brut by.

Top of the Pops from Can’t Stand the Rezillos
(My Baby Does) Good Sculptures from Can’t Stand the Rezillos

Superchunk
The Daily Show Ten F#@king Years (The Concert)

Of all the songs I’ve played for people in my life, I think Superchunk’s “100,000 Fireflies” is the one I most often get asked for a copy of later (sometimes years later). It’s actually a cover of a really ethereal Magnetic Fields song turned rousing indie anthem in the hands of Mac McCaughan & Co. It’s also a great song to play for the ladies when you want to show your sensitive side.

You won’t be happy with me, but give me one more chance. You won’t be happy anyway.

Hopefully Superchunk will remember to include it in their setlist when they play The Daily Show’s 10th Anniversary at Irving Plaza in November. You’ll have to pay the high dollar to get in ($30 (+$8.95 if you’re a sucker), but all the (non-TicketMaster) proceeds go to benefit 826 NYC (aka “The Dave Eggers Center for Kids Who Can Write Good”), so that should help soften the blow.

If there’s any justice in the world, the surprise guest will be Craig Kilborn.

100,000 Fireflies by Superchunk (Magnetic Fields cover)
100,000 Fireflies by Magnetic Fields

Elsewhere
Superchunk playing Daily Show 10th Anniversary show @ Irving Plaza

*That number’s probably closer to 750, but whatever. I was going for a theme here.

Frightened Rabbit
Sing the Greys
Hits the Fan, 2006

No one ever asks me what I’m listening to on my headphones these days unless A) I’m listening to some truly awful band or B) I’m listening to some great band with a truly awful name. We all know there’s no shortage of those these days (take my Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, please!), and a few months back when a coworker in the elevator asked me what music I was listening to, I think I visibly cringed before replying, “It’s, um, Frightened Rabbit”. Yeah, that’s right. Frightened. Fucking. Rabbit.

Are you still reading this or did I lose you back there? If I’d only had a pair of speakers on my person, I could have blasted the chorus to “Go Go Girls” and all would have been forgiven.

This is me and my brother getting blood on the street tonight.

Armed only with a pair of earbuds, though, I found myself ruing the day Music for Robots turned me on to this album, and got in the habit of hitting shuffle on my mp3 player whenever one of their songs came on in the elevator. Slowly, though, and despite all efforts to the contrary, FR managed to creep their way back in to my “recently played” list. Half the album’s all rainy day sweetness reminiscent of Dave Matthews (+”cool Scottish accent”, -”10 weary years”) and the rest is the kind of music you’d expect to hear soundtracking a really fun barfight.

As far as I know, the Hutchison boys haven’t made it across the Atlantic on tour yet, but maybe they’ll get the hint if we all keep buying the album (available for download on their website). Get to it!

Behave from Sing the Greys
Go Go Girls from Sing the Greys

The Devil and Daniel Johnston
Sony Classics, 2005

Just finished watching “The Devil and Daniel Johnston”, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. Culled from what must have been mountains of family photographs, drawings, homemade films and home recordings, Jeff Feuerzeig’s definitive documentary is a Rosetta stone for the singer/songwriter’s music, art and life. And though I’m about 6 months too early for a concert preview here, I should also note that Daniel Johnston is slated to play the High Line Festival next year. As with all things DJ, that’s likely subject to change, but it goes without saying that if I could buy unrefundable tickets for myself and everyone I know today, I’d do it anyway.

Though he rarely makes it up to New York, Daniel played the Knitting Factory back in 1998, and it was one of the most memorable shows I’ve seen to date. Less so for the melodrama that ensued (he’d lost his yellow notebook and was unable to perform more than a brief medley of songs) than for the experience of being in the same room with the kind of person that inspires such unconditional affection from an audience that, after a 5 minute set, cheered like they’d just seen Cheap Trick at Budokan.

I heard my first Daniel Johnston song, “Speeding Motorcycle”, on the radio when I was 15, and though I had no idea who he was at the time (or who these Yo La Tengo characters were for that matter), I was instantly smitten. It would be a few more years before I tracked down the record and learned of his illness, but I’ve always considered that song the gateway drug that steered me from the vapid commercial pop spoon-fed to my peers by MTV. When critics talk about DJ, they often make like they’re daring and question whether anyone would find his music fascinating if it wasn’t for the accompanying “sideshow”. I’d like to settle that issue once and for all because, in my case, the answer is obvious: yes, yes, and emphatically yes.

Speeding Motorcycle by Daniel Johnston & Yo La Tengo
Some Things Last A Long Time by Beck (Daniel Johnston cover)

Sunset Rubdown
Bowery Ballroom
September 25th, 2006

Sunset Rubdown may not have as many fans as Wolf Parade, but the ones they do have are ardent as hell. As much as I like “Shut Up I Am Dreaming”, I can’t imagine there’s a force in this world that could induce me to memorize the lyrics to every song, and yet only 12 hours ago, I found myself standing next to a guy who had done just that. It wasn’t actually as annoying as you’d think. But it was darn close.

Also not as annoying as you’d think: Spencer Krug’s new (ish) mustache. What does that have to do with the show? When it comes to SR, everything, because no matter how spectacular the sound is, how much the drummer kicks ass on the new songs, or how sweetly Camilla Wynn Ingr smiles, all eyes clearly favor stage left.

Not that they could see much. The stage was lit mainly by a few table lamps. I’ve seen this done before of course, but never to such great effect. Despite the size of the Bowery’s ballroom, the low-key demeanor of everyone on stage coupled with a sparse turnout made it feel less like a show than an intimate gathering, and trite as that might sound, it perfectly suited the stormier, more introspective brand of music for which SR is known.

With that in mind, it didn’t feel right to pull out my camera for the standard QBF was here shot, so I’ve hijacked a photo for this post instead. I didn’t make it to the Sunday show, but this CMJ review makes me wish I had. Of all the performers I’ve seen too many times this year, Spencer Krug’s the only one I haven’t come close to tiring of yet. With any luck, he’ll be back again before the year’s out.

All Fires by Swan Lake

Tokyo Police Club
Studio B
September 23rd, 2006

Wow. Just. Wow. What can I possibly say about Studio B that hasn’t already been said before (by New York Magazine and reposted all over the internet)? Well for starters, it’s a club. And I mean that in the worst possible sense of the word. Disco lights, smoke machines, dance floor, DJ, platinum blonde bartenders, burly bouncers, make-out couches, chainmail curtains, expensive beer, skeevy guys, V.I.P. section…

Somewhere in the back of my head, I knew it was going to be like this. Secretly, though, I hoped the new owners of Studio B (or Plan B as I will disaffectionately refer to it from now on) might have figured out how to unlock the potential lying dormant in this former Polish nightclub. Instead, it seems, they just tried to give it some kind of L.A. upgrade. Eeew. My advice to them now: shut the place down for a year, gut everything but the sound system, fire yourselves, and hand the keys over to someone with a clue.

The night wasn’t a complete waste, though: I noticed one of the brothers from Redd Kross was there hanging out (Johnny Tremaine even, be still my beating heart), and Tokyo Police Club sounded great. After two weeks of touring, this wasn’t quite the same energetic band I saw at the Syrup Room last June. “We know you’re all here to see Enon anyway.” If only they’d stuck around a little longer, they might have noticed that much of the crowd (Steve McDonald included) left shortly after their set.