thus spake drake: man man

Showing posts with label man man. Show all posts

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Now Downloading: New Releases 05.10.11

Thanks to the Bloggerpocalypse that occurred earlier this week, this nearly finished post was lost forever when Blogger reverted back, jettisoning out over 30 hours worth of posts/comments. The work that was published has mostly been brought back, but, as in my case, drafts were lost or reverted back, losing all updates. Too bad, to, as this was a pretty deep week for releases, one that deserves attention. Between releases from Okkervil River, Man Man, The Antlers, Sloan, Sam Roberts Band, The Felice Brothers, Raphael Saadiq, Mountains, The Sea and Cake, The Lonely Island, Joan of Arc, Le Butcherettes, interesting-to-great returns from Urge Overkill, The Cars, Peter Case and Greg Brown along with (finally) the US release of Howe Gelb & a Band of Gypsies. Like I said, too impossible to ignore, so instead of just moving on and trying to get ahead of next week's, I'm recreating most of what I did earlier... abridged to say the least.

Playlist: New Releases 05.10.11

Okkervil River - I Am Very Far
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

Will Scheff, emboldened by his production and backing of the 2010 Roky Erickson collaboration (True Love Cast Out All Evil), took the reigns for the first time in the studio for Okkervil River, and no expense was spared. Orchestras, guest musicians... the unemployment rate in Austin had to have had a decent dip during the recording. And while it's not as essential a release as the excellent Black Sheep Boy, it's streets ahead of their past two releases.

Download: "Wake and Be Fine" [mp3]

Man Man - Life Fantastic
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

Philly's Man Man gets reigned in a bit, recording for the first time with Saddle Creek producer a la casa Mike Mignola, and the result if their first album that didn't expand the sound of the one prior. But this is still a great Man Man album, and still has the manic gypsy barker delivery backing Honus Honus' dark and frightening lyrical magic.

"Life Fantastic" [mp3] (via The Hype Machine)

The Antlers - Burst Apart
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

We're not in a Cancer ward anymore (2009's breathtaking Hospice), but frontman Peter Silberman's haunting falsetto is still devastating, even without the conceptual flourish.

"I Don't Want Love" [mp3] (via The Hype Machine)

Sloan - Double Cross
Stream / Purchase [mp3]

Sloan has been rockin' the good fight up North for 20 years now, and they released their best release (2006's Never Here the End of It) late in their career. The Abbey Roadish connection of songs (30 of them!) was a epic, and while The Double Cross only clocks in around 33 minutes, there's a brilliant string of connected songs to start that for a moment makes you believe NHTEOI take two is in session. It loses a little steam after that, but the boys from the great white North still bring it.

"Unkind" [mp3] (via The Hype Machine)

More on the radar (and in the mp3 player) this week:
Howe Gelb & a Band of Gypsies - Alegrias / "4 Door Maverick" [mp3]
Sam Roberts Band - Collider / "Longitude" [mp3]
The Felice Brothers - Celebration, Florida
Urge Overkill - Rock&Roll Submarine
The Cars - Move Like This
The Lonely Island - Turtleneck & Chain
The Sea and Cake - The Moonlight Butterfly/ "Up on the North Shore" [mp3]
Raphael Saadiq - Stone Rollin'
Gang Gang Dance - Eye Contact
Here We Go Dance - The January EP / "Hands in the Sky" [mp3]
Mountains - Air Museum
Manchester Orchestra - Simple Math
Booker T Jones - The Road From Memphis
Lee "Scratch" Perry - Rise Again
Joan of Arc - Life Like
The Shivers - More / "Used to Be" [mp3]
Sleepy Vikings - They Will Find You Here
Antietam - Tenth Life
Le Butcherettes - Sin Sin Sin
Peter Case - The Case Files / "Round Trip Stranger Blues" [mp3]
Psychedelic Horsesh*t - Laced
Greg Brown - Freak Flag
Wild Beasts - Smother
Hugo - Old Tyme Religion
Balkans - Balkans
Delay Trees - Delay Trees / "Cassette 2012" [mp3]
Other Lives - Tamer Animals / "For 12" [mp3]
COMPILATIONS
Randy Newman - The Randy Newman Songbook Vol. 2
REISSUEs
Laura Veirs - The Triumphs and Travails of Orphan Mae
Holly Golightly & Dan Melchior - Desperate Little Town

tags: music, album review, okkervil river, man man, indie rock, new releases

Sunday, August 31, 2008

Bumbershootin' - Wet, bloody and poopy

Well, the boys and I survived Bumbershoot.

It was during the Walkmen's set, during the great song "Louisiana," that it all sunk in. Frontman Hamilton Leithauser belts out the line "I've got my hands full," and I just had to laugh. Eli was nowhere to be seen, and Zane had a diaper full of poo, working it's way up his back. Minutes prior, Eli had bit his lip and bled like a stuck pig, so our towel we were sitting on was spotted with blood, and now with Zane's diaper change, it had sh*t added to the mix. Oh, yeah, and ketchup (from the curly fries).

It started how it ended. After playing in Seattle Center, we hung out at Fischer Green stage waiting for the great Darondo to come on. Zane, mobile for the first time, was uncontainable. Meanwhile, Eli was hiding a secret - he was working on a big shit. Darondo's backing band, Nino Moschella, started the set, as it was revealed that Darondo would come on later. Too bad... just like with Eli, it appeared that poop was preceding Darondo. 4 songs into their set, I get the cue "I have to poop!" and we're off to the races (just made it).

Then it was off to the fountain, which is where Zane was trying to walk/crawl to during the waiting for Darondo/Poop period of the program. Eli tore off all his clothes and it took some wrestling to get his boys in the shorts I packed before he disappeared into the heart of the fountain. Then I got the screaming and pointing Zane stripped to his diaper and he was off. Interpretive dancers showed up and danced around Zane before moving into some crazy water soaked routine. I finally find Eli when he sneaks up and steals the dancers' umbrella. He seems to have made some new friends and found a new family to hang out with. Makes it easier. Zane's knee is bleeding from crawling on the rocky surface. I can hear Darondo singing "Didn't I" in the distance, with the crowd loving it. Damn.

I finally negotiate Eli back into his clothes and the stroller and we're off to see The Walkmen. Perfect soundtrack to the blood, poop and ketchup stains to come. We may have been beaten up during the Walkmen set, but when Man Man followed, the kids rallied and danced their soggy bottoms off. When "Hurly Burly" came on, Eli recognized it from one of his mixes ("this is one of my songs!") and got his FREAK on, dancing, spinning and screaming with glee. Pretty soon he had his own audience. After the set, it didn't take any negotiations to get the kids in the stroller, and they passed out long before we got to the car. Perfect end to a successful wet, bloody, poopy and ketchup-stained day Bumbershootin'.

Friday, August 29, 2008

Man Man up for Bumbershoot, Day 1

For nearly as long as I've been alive, the end of summer in the Northwest has been shown the door by the Bumbershoot Arts Festival. The 3 (formerly 4) day festival starts tomorrow, and I'm heading in with a difficult challenge.

Remember my challenge of taking a three-year old to the Sub Pop festival? Well, I'm upping the ante and going solo with both my 3-year old (Eli) and my 14-month old (Zane) tomorrow. And, on top of that, trying to utilize a photo pass. I've had zero luck taking photos with Zane in tow, so if anyone's going tomorrow and wants to hold a baby for a couple songs, please contact me immediately. Seriously.

Every year, with kids, there's a list of "I wish I could see" and the more realistic, "I logistically could see." So while there's Beck, Band of Horses, New Faces, PWRFL Power, Neko Case, etc. and the THREE comedian stages, with kids you really have to pick one stage and park, and historically, it's the Broad Street Stage (this year called the 'Rockstar Stage'). So that means we're looking at Throw Me The Statue, Thao with the Get Down Stay Down, The Walkmen, Man Man and M. Ward, which is still pretty good. Of course, with a 14-month old, there's no way you can make it that long. So it gets whittled down even more, to probably The Walkmen and Man Man, and a hop over to see Darondo prior to those sets. So, with 40 acts playing tomorrow, I'm hoping to see three. I remember the days when I'd hop around and see nearly 10 acts a day... maybe when the rugrats are older, we can hop together (but not the little lady, boy does she hate to hop).

Playlist: Bumbershoot 2008 - Day 1

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Now Downloading: New Releases 04.08.08

If some were worried that 2008 wasn't going to have the same share of great albums we've seen in recent years, a slew of this week's releases should alleviate most (if not all) of those concerns. Last week I poached Foals great debut on Sub Pop and yesterday I wrote about Tapes n' Tapes' sophomore release, which is fortunate, since I probably wouldn't even be able to get to either this week with all the rest of the riches that dropped. To wit, we have the latest from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Man Man, The Breeders, Clinic, The Long Blondes, Jason Anderson, Cloud Cult, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, Richard Swift, Neva Dinova, Peter Moren, The Duke Spirit, Robots in Disguise, full-length debuts from Wye Oak, New Bloods, The Old Haunts, and new EPs from Spoon and the much hyped Fleet Foxes. In fact, there's so much good music, I'm breaking up this post into two parts, one today and a continuation tomorrow.

Playlist: New Releases 04.08.08

Album: Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!

If the garage rock of Nick Cave's Grinderman project last year served as a cathartic exercise, then Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! is a refinement of that midlife Christ-kick. Cave hands the guitar back to Mick Harvey and mans the organ, hammering out an album that infuses some of Grinderman's noise and bravado into songs that often recall the power of '97's The Boatman's Call. At age 50, Cave is now releasing some of his most vital work, and he seems to be having more fun while doing it, taking himself a little less seriously. In the stomping title track and opener "Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!" Cave re-imagines Lazarus (calling him 'Larry') crossing America before ending up "back in the streets of New York, in a soup queue, a dope fiend, a slave." Meanwhile, with "We Call Upon the Author," Cave eschews Bukowski ("a jerk!") preferring the works of John Berryman ("the best!") but still calling upon the author to explain his suicide. Prolix, of which I often suffer, provides another humorous take. "I say prolix! Prolix! Something a pair of scissors can fix." And then there's the line "our myxomatoid kids spraddle the streets." Colin Meloy's thesaurus just got green with envy. It's not all fun and diction, though, as Cave still has time for one of his patented murder ballads in achingly beautiful "Jesus on the Moon." The album ends with eight minutes of Cave saying 'c'est la vie' to the unstoppable force of time with "More News From Nowhere." "Don't it make you feel so sad, don't the blood rush to your feet, to think that everything you do today, tomorrow is obsolete? Technology and women and little children too. Don't it make you feel blue?" As long as it's backed by the Bad Seeds, it don't feel so bad at all.

Full Album Stream from AOL

Album: Man Man - Rabbit Habits

When Philadelphia's Man Man released Six Demon Bag back in 2006, it was if someone had blended all my Tom Waits, Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa albums as into one delectable shake. But both live and lyrically, the songs took on more than just a rehash of music's marginalized past. Rabbit Habits, whose title comes from the practice of rabbits eating their young, doesn't stray too much from their Waits/Zappa/Beefheart junkyard ethos, but this time around, there's an underlying darkness amidst all the vaudevillian tomfoolery. Frontman Honus ruthlessly hunts down the title character in "The Ballad of Butter Beans," and then calls out a vacuous lover in "Poor Jackie." "I don't see what everybody sees in your sexy body. All I see is a shallow grave, trapped inside a pretty face." "Whalebones" brings it's own dark heartache, with the line "but she holds him like an infant, though it breaks her in half to know he'll wake like a man -- sold on cold indifference." All this lies underneath tremendously fun (re: great live) songs, full of crazy instrumentation. Pitchfork TV launched yesterday, and the first ~~video~~ time-waster you should check out is the behind the scenes look at Man Man recording this album, recording falling junk, dogs in the bathtub, and of course fireworks ("Mysteries of the Universe Unraveled.") All in all it's a great rock album, even though there's nary a guitar in the mix.

Full Album Stream from AOL

Album: Wye Oak - If Children

This album is already destined for my Best of the Year (That's Really Rrom a Previous Year) list, as it was originally self-released last summer by the duo from Baltimore. If Children is a great debut, one that relies quite a bit on the shoegaze of the nineties, along with the dreamy folk pop of Yo La Tengo, but without sounding entirely derivative. Jenn Wasner's vocals are a bit like a laid back Kim Deal, dry and double-tracked, but lyrically a bit more like Jenny Lewis, smarter than you give what you're hearing credit for. The duo easily move from the controlled feedback of first single "Warning" into the gentle acoustic pop of "Regret," a nice demonstration that the band isn't reliant on the shoegaze angle. Meanwhile, "I Don't Feel Young" is a joyous number, where Phil Spector's wall of sound meets Crosby Stills and Nash, by way of lots of distortion, of course. It's an album that I've had on repeat all week now, and only through the incredible depth of today's haul will it (temporarily) slip out of rotation.

Stream the album from Merge Records
Download: "Warning" [mp3]