ONE of our favorite newish bands, here at The Misread City's sleekly refurbed listening room, is Futurebirds, from Athens, Ga. Some listeners compare them to My Morning Jacket and Crazy Horse -- I certainly here that, too. But to me they're a mix between the two great chapters of Athens music -- the southern shamble of early R.E.M. (especially the echoey Fables-era band) and the neo-psych Elephant 6 bands like Olivia Tremor Control.
Photo Jason Thrasher
Of course, a lot of groups have smart influences. But these guys have the songs as well, complete with great melodies and hooks.
Here's their song, Virginia Slims, from their record Baba Yaga (Fat Possum). It takes a minute to build, but ends up in power-pop heaven.
OVER the last few weeks I've seen a bunch of bands and gotten some good new albums by groups on tour; three of the four are from the Golden State. I'll have to be brief here, but I want to sign the praises of a few of them.
I've been hearing about these guys for a while now, so was happy to stumble into them at a show at the Silverlake Lounge about a week ago. There's a real punk-style force to these guys, but it's matched with fine, melodic songwriting and a style as retro-Brit as their name... Remind me of the Buzzcocks and The Jam. Nothing I find on youtube matches what I saw the other night, but here's something:
Duniven:
I've known Patrick as my bartender at The York, one of my favorite gastropubs in town, for a while now -- it often takes me a long time to order food and drink because we get sidetracked into conversations into Neil Young, Ryan Adams or Blonde on Blonde. So I was pleased to finally check out his band, which reflects his fandom but also takes his influences somewhere. Very sweet old California backup band complete with chick on tambourine.
Patrick, who some might know from the Capshuns, also plays a mean harmonica. The late hour required me to split mid-set, but here's a talent to watch. Here's the last song from a recent set.
The Postelles:
Missed these guys at the Echo last week because of exhaustion, but as I keep playing their debut LP over and over again and kicking myself for it. They're a young bunch of Anglophiles from Brooklyn with a knack for catchy, hard pop and an association with the Strokes. A reviewer on the All Music Guide called them too squeaky clean, but frankly I find that louche, prep-school swagger of the Strokes a bit lame at this point. I'll take the more polished style of these guys anyday. And next time they're in town I'll be there for sure.
Alela Diane:
This Northern California singer-songwriter impressed me with her last record, the intimate folky LP To Be Still. Her voice and songwriting have deepened since then and her music has taken an alt-country direction. (Some have said she sounds like Cat Power fronting one of Gram Parsons' old bands.) Whatever it is, she's a serious talent and I'm not gonna let her get in and out of town next time without catching her set. Here's a sweet little live bit from a benefit in NY; it's the first song from her new LP, on Rough Trade.
I guess the moral of this story is that I need to sleep a lot less.
I MUST admit, I'd forgotten how good a live band the New York trio Versus could be. Last night's show at the Echo -- part of their first full-scale tour in a decade -- was devastating, reminding me both how strong their playing is and how bogus the notion that indie rock is wimpy.
In some ways Versus were typical of '90s indie bands in their use of jangly guitars, strong melodies and distortion. But they always seemed to the closest thing to the Pixies -- with their sense of menace, wild swings of loud-soft-loud dynamics, their incongruous bits of quiet beauty amidst the noise, the male-female vocal trade-offs and perhaps leader the hint of surf guitar in Richard Baluyut's playing. Some of their songs have such evocative fragments of imagery to them that they could suggest entire novels.
Tuesday night -- with what I think of as the original lineup, plus the addition of a keyboard/violin player -- all their best qualities were out in force for a small but devoted crowd. The show had a nice balance between old stuff and new songs from their latest, On the Ones and Threes, more proof that the people running Merge have the best ears in the business.
After a slightly too long period of sound checking and what Richard called "uncomfortable silences," the show started with a kick and kept its force all the way through: Two highlights "Circle" "River" from the band's full-length debut The Stars Are Insane, but I was struck during the whole show by how good this band is at generating drama in its songs and in giving each one a sense of shape.
Here they are playing one the best on the new record at a show in Brooklyn.
Mostly, this was a great, bracing time-machine show without any huge surprises. One thing was different: The old laconic, slightly surly Versus has warmed up, and even sometimes-fearsome vocalist Fontaine Toups was playful and joking with the crowd. The whole show took the sting out of having missed Gang of Four the night before.
They're on to San Francisco, Portland and Seattle.
