Lo-Fi Loud

May 11, 2012
The Electric Owl
Vancouver, British Columbia

I battled for the better part of the last month over whether I should have gotten tanked with a bunch of friends and seen Vancouver's Five Alarm Funk during their Rock the Sky album release  or seen Brooklyn's quite antithetically lo-fi, washed out Beach Fossils by myself and in all likelihood sober. Naturally, solitary tendencies aside, I chose to see Beach Fossils, mainly because a few days prior to the show, I read that Seattle's Seapony, one of my favourite bands, were opening. Not to take anything away from Five Alarm Funk, whom I'm sure were nothing short of fucking amazing, but I'm preeettyyy sure I made the right decision for me, even though Beach Fossils with Seapony wasn't exactly the dreamy, feel-good, sway-to-the-music evening I'd expected.

Unlike the first (and only) time I saw Seapony, when they played their songs pretty much the way the songs appeared on record, at the Electric Owl, Seapony rocked their songs the fuck up with solos, tremolos and faster tempos; save for maybe a couple of songs, Seapony certainly weren't as sentimental as usual. In another change of pace, just slightly more than half of Seapony's set included new songs, surprisingly leaving no room for their usual closer, a cover of the Field Mice's "Emma's House," despite Rose Melberg's presence (I saw her hanging around the bar with the band before the show). Also conspicuously absent from Seapony's set was "Always." I don't know what they have against that song, but once again, it didn't make the set. Will I ever get to hear "Always," the song that got me into Seapony, live?

Next was another surprisingly rocking band, Vancouver's Student Teacher. And not only were Student Teacher, of whom I'd never heard, surprisingly rocking: they were rocking period. How was Student Teacher surprisingly rocking, if I'd never heard of them before? Because judging by lead Student Teacher Daniel's (I can't find his last name anywhere on the 'Net) unassuming demeanor when he asked me before the show if I was in a San Fransisco shoegaze band called Permanent Collection, (well, I definitely see the resemblance between myself and Jason Henhardy .....), I did not think the utter anarchic sonic destruction that spewed from his quartet could have emanated from someone like him; never judge a book by its cover, as the age old adage goes. Ignorant me. Indeed, Student Teacher was the most melodically discordant force I'd heard since Sonic Youth - such control, although the only thing over which Student Teacher didn't have control was volume. The band was so damned picky about volume. They must have asked for more volume on the guitars and vocals and then less volume on the guitars after every song. They're lucky they're so damned good that they can afford to be so picky.

And finally, there were Beach Fossils. Usually, opening acts don't get to "outshine" headliners in terms of volume, and I didn't think loudness befitted Beach Fossils anyway, so I thought, "There's no way Beach Fossils are going to be louder than Student Teacher." And I was correct. Even though Beach Fossils were leaps and bounds beyond how fast and furious I thought they would have been, they still couldn't touch the sheer blistering volume of Student Teacher.

On record, it wouldn't be a far cry to call Beach Fossils intimate bedroom pop with a grainy texture like the damp remains of sifted detritus. Live, however, they are just an energetic indie rock band - straight-up. No bollocks. "You guys can move around more; it's okay," frontperson Dustin Payseur politely yet playfully encouraged the audience before launching into another jumpy, rousing version of a song from their self-titled debut album (their only full-length to date), swaying, spinning and kicking in jolty, erratic movements. The band rocked with such abandon that the members stumbled into each other and their equipment, specifically birthday boy Tommy Gardner's drum set. There were a few moments when I thought John Pena was going to scrape off my face with the head of his bass (which was tuned so sharply, it sounded like a third guitar) while he was spinning around onstage. Even though Beach Fossils seemed to have missed a lot of notes here and there, the energy they brought more than made up for it.

So, I didn't get the show I expected, but every part of it was great. Okay, as usual, I do have at least one minor complaint: Both Student Teacher and Beach Fossils stopped at least one song because they screwed up. In all the shows I've seen, this was the only time I could ever remember a band restarting a song. It doesn't seem particularly rock 'n' roll to restart a song instead of just covering or rolling with the mistake. But then, "I'm not a musician or performer, so what do I know?" Right?

Closing note: I bring elastic bands to shows now. It just makes snatching and carrying set lists easier. How rock 'n' roll is that? And here I am complaining about bands restarting songs. And I brought exactly enough elastic bands to Beach Fossils/Seapony/Student Teacher: two. I'm two-for-two for Seapony set lists. My set list wall just grows and grows with every show. ROCK! \m/

Come For Seapony, Stay For Memoryhouse

March 10, 2012
The Waldorf Hotel
Vancouver, British Columbia

The night started with a Vancouver band called Jay Arner. Well, it was fronted by a guy named Jay Arner, but he introduced his whole band as "Jay Arner." I could have sworn I heard Seapony members refer to him later as "Christian," though … Anyway, on drums was Rose Melberg of Tiger Trap cult fame, one of the original 90s twee pop bands, and on guitar was Seapony's Danny Rowland. It was only Jay Arner's third show ever, but they sounded really good - really crisp, every instrument discernable from the others. Their songs were feel-good pop rock to the max, but they also sounded pretty unique for twee pop if only to the extent that their songs were just a bit more complex and unpredictable than most twee pop (twee being a style that can sound quite homogenous even within the same act).

After a short break, it was time for Seattle's Seapony, the band I went to see. They sounded pretty much how I expected them to: almost perfect but a bit rough around the edges - not so rough that it interfered with how much I was able to enjoy them though. They played ten songs off of their twelve-song debut LP Go with Me (Hardly Art, 2011), but unfortunately for me, one of the two songs they decided to cut was "Always," one of my top two Seapony songs and the song that got me into them. I was pleasantly semi-surprised when Rose joined Seapony to sing their encore cover of the Field Mice's "Emma's House." I say semi-surprised because I'd forgotten that "Emma's House," one of my favourite songs ever, was a live Seapony staple.

Finally, it was time for the night’s headliners Toronto's Memoryhouse. I actually might have enjoyed Memoryhouse more than Seapony. At the very least, Memoryhouse may have been the second most surprisingly good performance I've ever seen, behind Final Fantasy, and that's saying something because Final Fantasy kicked ass, and I only liked one song on Memoryhouse's debut album The Slideshow Effect (Sub Pop, 2012) before I saw them.

I'd always expected atmospheric dream pop shows to be pretty nondescript, all of the details drowned in an amorphous sea of electronic textures to the point where I can’t tell who's doing what. But at Memoryhouse, I could hear everything: every time Denise Nouvion's mic reverberated; every key she pressed on her keyboard; Evan Abeele's guitar parts which, despite his use of various pedals, distinctly sounded like guitar and not the multitude of synthesized sounds from Denise's keyboard; and the drums were so bold and crisp yet never hard on the ears.

Speaking of boldness, I'd also always expected atmospheric dream pop shows to be pretty quiet and un-engaging, smooth textures resulting in a lack of tension and thus a lack of a sense of liveliness. But not only were Memoryhouse clear; they were loud too. And they rocked - hard enough to warrant an incredibly casual dance competition for a prize (you'd have to ask the winner(s?) what that prize was - if there was a winner. If there was a prize). I especially didn't expect that of Memoryhouse, since their album is so tepid (or placid, more positively) that it can hardly keep my attention; even after listening to it after the show, the album doesn't fully grab me, though it does now more than before. Even the apropos grainy, super-zoomed in stock/home-video footage that was projected behind the band during their entire set didn't damp the energy.

Also lumped somewhere into Memoryhouse's set were a couple of covers, although I couldn’t identify either of them. One was supposedly a Country & Western song, but they totally dissolved it into another flood of ambience. Then, at the end of their exactly fifty-minute set, with ten minutes to spare before the 11 P.M. curfew, they had enough time for two encores, although they said by that point, they'd pretty much run out of songs. I could have sworn their last song was one they’d already played, and before that, Evan teased us with the intro of "Stairway To Heaven." Again, if there was another cover in the last ten minutes of Memoryhouse's set, I couldn't tell.

If there are four things I've learned at this show, it's these: Always get to shows as soon as doors open. Based on all of my previous experiences at the Waldorf, I decided go to this show pretty late, but Jay Arner started playing half-an-hour after the doors opened; always grab set lists A.S.A.P. I got the show schedule and Seapony's set list, but even though Memoryhouse's set list was a foot in front of me, I decided to wait a couple of minutes before grabbing it. By the time I decided to make my move, a stagehand had started quickly closing the curtains; as simple as some music may sound, it's sometimes more complicated than I think. Finally, and most importantly, Memoryhouse has taught me that dream pop shows don't suck.

Click here to view more photos of Memoryhouse at the Waldorf.

Finally Getting My Dose of TWEE POP LIVE

When Seattle dream-poppers Seapony open for Toronto dream-poppers Memoryhouse at the Waldorf Hotel on March 10.

Oh, February to April is going to be good to me. Actually, February to April has already started being good to me, starting four nights ago with a live orchestral/folk/blues/doo-wop/slightly Semitic cabaret performance (more than a concert: a performance) by the Plastic Acid Orchestra with Maria in the Shower at the Vogue Theatre. With shows by Andrew W.K. with the Evaporators (this Saturday), Memoryhouse with Seapony (the Saturday after that), Sharon Van Etten with the War on Drugs (two Saturdays after that) and shows by Chilly Gonzales and Shane Koyczan & the Short Story Long in April, the December-to-end-of-February concert dry-spell was worthwhile.

Here's "Always," my other favourite Seapony track, also from their debut album Go with Me (Hardly Art, 2011):

High Rotation

Cover art of Go with Me by Seapony (Hardly Art, 2011)

A.K.A. the most-played/my favourite tracks of the approximate week listed in order of when I started listening to them recently. This inaugural edition features new songs by Mazzy Star, Jack White and the Black Keys. As usual, click the song-titles to listen. (Note: this is only a compilation of the stand-out tracks I've been listening to lately and deem worth sharing, not literally my most-played tracks. If I wanted to share those stats, I just would have kept my Last.fm account):

1. Blur - "Song 2" - I had a random urge to listen to this song. I think I moreso just had an urge to listen to a short, punchy song with a crunchy riff and randomly thought it'd been a while since I'd heard "Song 2." Surprisingly, I didn’t have it in my iTunes. Anyway, it's strange how I've liked this song since fourth grade (give or take), but I didn't know the lyrics until last week.

2. Eagles of Death Metal - "Wannabe in L.A." - I came across this song on a friend's Facebook page. I always knew EoDM rocked, but this song is just pure awesomeness. Also, I usually hate cheesy videos, but EoDM are so cool, I actually like theirs. Death by sexy indeed!

3. Mazzy Star - "Lay Myself Down" - Santa Monica shoegaze/dream folk group Mazzy Star are back after an essentially fifteen-year hiatus with "Lay Myself Down," the B-side to their Common Burn single, their first release since 1996's Among My Swan LP. I was never a huge Mazzy Star fan (except for their cover of Arthur Lee’s "Five-String Serenade" which I first heard the White Stripes cover), but I really like "Lay Myself Down." I thought such was strange, because I'm not a big Mazzy Star fan, but then I realized why I like the song so much: it's a damned country song, at its core.

4. Jack White - "Love Is Blindness" - Already discussed here.

5. Seapony - "Always" - Seapony really deserve a post of their own; they're just some of the best stuff I've ever heard. They sound like they're straight out of the 80s, with their lush, airy pop, post-punk drum-fills, watery guitar-hooks, reverb and twee-pop sweetness/simplicity/wholesomeness. I first heard this track on a friend's blog, and I just HAD to get rest of the album Go with Me (Hardly Art, 2011) immediately, which led me to the next track on the list.

6. Seapony - "Dreaming" - The opening track on Go with Me.

7. Plastic Flowers - "Drive Me Home" - I'm not usually into washed out, electronic-tinged pop, but I like the slightly sombre, spacey quality of "Drive Me Home" a lot. The song evokes a feeling of nostalgia for nothing in particular. I don't know much about Plastic Flowers though, because there are at least two acts named Plastic Flowers. I haven't really bothered looking into which Plastic Flowers is which.

8. The Chameleons - "Serocity" - Are you noticing a theme between this and the last three songs? If the song isn't actually from the 80s (as the Chameleons track is), it at least sounds like it is. I just love Mark Burgess' off-kilter vocals.

9. The Black Keys - "Lonely Boy" - Like "Song 2," I've had this song on repeat for up to an hour at a time. Got me finally listening to a lot of the Black Keys' older albums again which I hadn't done in a long, long time.