Robert Pollard boards a spaceship to Boston

The thought process behind this post went, “Wow, I really like this Boston Spaceships track from Bob Pollard’s latest. I wonder what else he’s up to?”

You Satisfy Me – Boston Spaceships

When it comes to updating oneself on Dayton’s prolific Robert Pollard (Guided by Voices) this is a dangerous question that will suck all your time away. Pollard famously claimed that he can “can write five songs on the toilet, and three of them will be pretty good,” and you will have multiple chances to test out this theory in the coming months. In Bob’s own words, “I’m doing more than I’ve ever done,” and that’s saying a lot.

Earlier this year, Pollard released Brown Submarine with Boston Spaceships, a project that reinvigorated Pollard so that he decided to take to the road these last months for his first club tour in two years. The Boston Spaceships site describes the album as “a pop punk album, made by and for kids who’ve worn out the grooves on their Cheap Trick, Alice Cooper, Wire and dBs records.” Of themselves, they say “Boston Spaceships rock hard, have fun and drink Miller Lite.”

Pollard has said that he plans to stick with this Boston Spaceships business and release an album a year with them. They’ve got a new album called The Planets Are Blasted coming out on February 17, 2009. Check out the new song from that album called “Headache Revolution,” live in Philly in September.

Pollard also released a new album a few weeks ago with his band Circus Devils called Ataxia (on Happy Jack Rock Records):

Girls Will Make It Happen – Circus Devils

And finally, just so no one thinks he’s wasting any time, there’s a new solo album under his own name called The Crawling Distance, due out Jan 20th on his own Guided By Voices imprint.

According to Bob’s Facebook page, there’s a sweet little mp3 sampler containing tunes from many of these recent efforts that you could snag if you bought a shirt at one of his shows, but I can’t turn up hide nor hair of it online. I’m anxious to hear some of these new tunes, especially if any of them come close the celestial pop magnificence of this song off 2008′s Robert Pollard Is Off To Business:

Gratification To Concrete – Robert Pollard

Man I love that song.

The 2008 Gummy Awards

I got an email from the Stereogum folks this morning, letting me know that the voting is open on the 2008 Gummy Awards and “early returns indicate that I Am Fuel, You Are Friends is a top contender for Best Music Blog.” Eh! Pretty cool.

If you wanna state your piece, do so over at www.gummyawards.com — and everyone who does will be in the running to win the top 50 CDs of the year, as picked by the poll. I’ve played along the last two years and my favorite part is always voting for Indie Rock Crushes because clearly that is a very important topic.

Gorgeous new Beach House video :: “Used to Be”

The saturated desert hues and retro motel settings of this video (shot during a recent West Coast tour in the desert outside LA with director Matt Amato) are visually stunning. The fact that this is such a marvelous song makes it even better.

Baltimore duo Beach House remind me of a female-fronted Fleet Foxes on this outing: a lot of space inside the song, a haunting build, but with that persistent and anchoring tambourine rhythm.

Following their sophomore album Devotion earlier this year, Beach House just released a new limited-edition 7″ with this song on the a-side, and the b-side featuring a 4-track demo version of “Apple Orchard” (from the Beach House S/T album) recorded three years to the month before the new song.

The b-side is one of the first things Alex and Victoria recorded together as Beach House. Their third full-length is anticipated sometime in ’09.

BEACH HOUSE TOUR DATES
Dec. 06 Philadelphia, PA Theatre of Living Arts*
Dec. 09 Brooklyn, NY Music Hall of Williamsburg #
Dec. 10 Providence, RI Club Hell #
Dec. 11 Northampton, MA Iron Horse Music Hall #
Dec. 12 Boston, MA Museum of Fine Arts #
Jan. 19 Solana Beach, CA Belly Up Tavern*
Jan. 20 Los Angeles, CA Henry Fonda*
Jan. 21 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore*
Jan. 23 Portland, OR Wonder Ballroom*
Jan. 24 Seattle, WA Neumos*

* = w/ The Walkmen
# = w/ Tickley Feather

El Ten Eleven is el bomb

This weekend I had my face melted (a few times actually) down at the Larimer Lounge — most completely by the duo El Ten Eleven, who were opening for Land of Talk on Saturday night. Kristian Dunn and Tim Fogarty make mindblowing sounds using just a drum set and fretless bass/double-necked guitar.

With the help of about 27 different pedal and whirlygig deals on the floor, they loop layers of sound to create some amazing(ly fun) music. From the initial stirrings of even something like Pachelbel’s “Canon in D,” I’ve always found the slow build and denouement in any song to be fascinating, especially ones that focus on adding the layers of sound or noise and then taking them back. My brain likes appreciating each element distinctly.

The vague confusion that I felt when I first walked in on their set (“Wait — I am hearing sounds that are not currently being played by those hands I see in front of me…”) slowly melted into a hot flush of wonder. I’m a sucker for cool loops. Watching Kristian lay down one bit of melody and then another, effortlessly weaving in and out of different sounds with a flick of a finger across the strings — it was sort of like watching a magician at work, albeit in sneakers and a striped t-shirt. Together with Tim the relentless drummer, he constructed something that was awesomely danceable but intelligently (and joyfully) composed.

WATCH: “Hot Cakes” (live in Arizona)

El Ten Eleven hails from the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles (although 1/2 of the duo went to a neighboring high school from mine in the San Fran Bay Area). Their music is, hmmm . . . danceable like Justice, with pulsing basslines like Primus, and radiating sonic atmosphere like Sigur Ros. Their music darts in and out of ethereal and rocking, sublime and visceral.

These Promises Are Being Videotaped is their third album, self-released after a stint with Bar/None Records. I can’t get enough of this first song, and check that Radiohead cover! The crowd packed around the stage provided the “sing-as-loud-as-you-can” vocals to their instrumental rendition.

Jumping Frenchmen of Maine – El Ten Eleven
Paranoid Android (Radiohead cover) – El Ten Eleven

And while you’re over on their website, you can check out the sweet “Slasher Tee” I bought at the show and love because it makes me look like an Eighties guitar hero. Which is something I shall ne’er be.

GO SEE FOR YOURSELF
Nov 17 – Record Bar, Kansas City, MO
Nov 18 – Mojo’s, Columbia, MO
Nov 19 – Canopy Club, Urbana, IL
Nov 20 – Founders Brewing, Grand Rapids, MI
Nov 21 – Beachland Tavern, Cleveland, OH
Nov 22 – Casa Cantina, Athens, OH
Nov 23 – Bug Jar, Rochester, NY
Nov 25 – Cafe 9, New Haven, CT
Nov 26 – The Bell House, Brooklyn, NY
Nov 28 – 92Y Tribeca, New York, NY
Nov 29 – Brillobox, Pittsburgh, PA
Dec 1 – 816 Pint and Slice, Fort Wayne, IN
Dec 2 – Schubas, Chicago, IL
Dec 3 – TBA St. Louis, MO
Dec 4 – Opolis, Norman, OK
Dec 5 – The Cavern, Dallas, TX
Dec 6 – Beauty Bar, Austin, TX
Dec 10 – Hotel Cafe, Hollywood, CA
Dec 19 – Hotel Monte Vista, Flagstaff, AZ
Dec 20 – Plush, Tucson, AZ

[pics from the glorious Laurie Scavo, natch]

New Ben Nichols (Lucero) solo: “The Last Pale Light In The West”

Ben Nichols of Lucero has a gravelly, urgent voice full of hard wilderness. I cannot fully tell you how excited I am by the fact that his new solo album The Last Pale Light In The West is inspired by the Cormac McCarthy book Blood Meridian, which I coincidentally just started reading last week. McCarthy is one of my favorite authors, and Nichols has the chops to compose the perfect atmospheric soundtrack to his writing.

STREAM: The Last Pale Light In The West – Ben Nichols

The seven song “mini-LP” was recorded this past summer with Rick Steff (Cat Power, Lucero) and Todd Beene (Glossary), and will be released January 2009 via Liberty & Lament / The Rebel Group.

In full band news, the formidable Lucero [previous lavish Fuel/Friends love] has signed to Universal, and they’ll be heading into the studio to record music for their 6th studio LP at the end of 2008, which is scheduled for release in summer 2009.

[Top photo credit the fantastic Denver photographer Todd Roeth]

Jeff Buckley, Glen Hansard “Neath The Beeches”

Today, November 17th, is Jeff Buckley‘s birthday, and a reader sent me this interview clip with Glen Hansard (Once, The Frames, The Commitments) discussing the months when his guitar tech/roadie was this young guy named Jeff.

Listen to Hansard tell the story of Jeff first playing “an Irish club in the East Village ” with him (of course, the famous Sin-é) and the reaction of the audience when this unknown kid started to sing. As he discusses their relationship in this wonderfully unguarded interview, he also recounts the story of playing the Tim Buckley song “Once I Was” in the hotel room for Jeff, and being stunned when Jeff casually mentioned, oh yeah, he was my father.

It closes with a gorgeous version of the song “Neath The Beeches,” which Hansard says fell fully formed from his mind, and that “I was thinking about (Jeff) when I was doing it, so it became his song in my head.”

Glen Hansard discusses Jeff Buckley / plays “Neath The Beeches”

Here is also the album version, from the 1999 Frames album Dance The Devil:

Neath The Beeches – The Frames

“make you believe / make you forget” :: Matt Nathanson in Denver

San Francisco songwriter/rocker (and fellow covers-whore) Matt Nathanson played the Bluebird last Monday in a sold out show which, as usual, juxtaposed his own wonderful songs with a well-picked stream of covers and snippets of other tunes. I’ve seen Matt several times and always walk away from his shows feeling a little gutted by his songs (especially his recent output chronicling the unmagnificent relationship difficulties of adult life) and smiling from the force of his hilarious and engaging personality.

He closed the night with this, one of the saddest songs of the year in my book:

Come On Get Higher (live in Denver) – Matt Nathanson

And I had not realized how devastating (and uncomfortably close) the lyrics of “Cath” by Death Cab for Cutie are until Matt quoted a few of them at the beginning of his song “Wedding Dress.”

Cath –> Wedding Dress (live in Denver) – Matt Nathanson

Check out the rest of the show on the Live Music Archive, including a sweet little cover of “All I Have To Do Is Dream” by the Everly Brothers, which was a song I’d requested, and came out just lovely. Also, we rocked that singalong cover of “Take On Me” in a catharsis I wouldn’t have thought possible.

[see all pics here]

Bright, snarly indie rock from Montreal’s Land of Talk

Land of Talk is an effortlessly cool chick-fronted trio from Montreal on the Saddle Creek label (Bright Eyes, Cursive, Rilo Kiley). Centered around the “slow-burn drawl that suggests Lucinda Williams fronting a power trio” of Elizabeth Powell, Land of Talk hits Denver’s Larimer Lounge tomorrow night and I am told I shall enjoy them greatly.

In the midst of some tour dates with Broken Social Scene, they are currently supporting their debut full-length album Some Are Lakes.

The album was co-produced by Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver), but sounds nothing like his music. This bright, snarly, indie rock was recorded in an old converted church outside Montreal, and possesses loads of charm with a fiery edge.

Death by Fire – Land of Talk
Give Me Back My Heart Attack – Land of Talk

LAND OF TALK TOUR DATES
11/15 – Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge
11/18 – Nashville, TN @ Cannery Ballroom *
11/19 – Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse *
11/20 – Tallahassee, FL @ The Moon *
11/21 – St. Petersburg, FL @ Jannus Landing *
11/22 – Pompano, FL @ Club Cinema *
11/27 – Toronto, ON @ Sound Academy *
11/29 – Utrecht, NL @ Le Guess Who ^
12/1 – Berlin, DE @ Festaal Kreuzberg ^
12/2 – Copenhagen, DK @ Vega ^
12/4 – Heidelburg, DE @ Zum Teufel ^
12/5 – Offenbach, DE @ Hafen 2 Club ^
12/6 – Ghent, BE @ Etolie Poliviers Festival w/ Bon Iver
12/8 – Brussels, BE @ Botanique ^
12/9 – Paris, FR @ Main D’Oeuvres ^
12/10 – London, UK @ Water Rats

* w/ Broken Social Scene
# w/ Josh Reichmann
^ w/ Think About Life

War/Dance: “In our daily lives there must be music”

It’s currently International Education Week in the U.S., which translates into busy times for me in my dayjob life. I don’t mind this kind of busy, because I am tasked with bringing global culture to our campus for a week of free activities. In a welcome intersection of music and film, my event Tuesday was a screening of the exceptional film War/Dance.

I sat in a darkened theater in the late afternoon and watched a group of school children from Northern Uganda prepare their music and impassioned dance for their National Music Competition. The children are displaced refugees of the Acholi tribe, which has been subject to a horrific persecution at the hands of the Lord’s Resistance Army for twenty years — abducted, forced into child soldierhood, raped, orphaned. This tribal war has left 200,000 Ugandan children without parents, seen 30,000 abducted to fight for the LRA, and forced almost all of the Acholi people to leave the green hills of their ancestral homes and relocate to dusty camps, guarded by military 24 hours a day.

But — when these children are swimming in the waves of their music, they are free. You can see it in the spark in their smiles, the unbridled earthy joy shining in their faces when they sing, when they stomp the dry earth and arch their backs. As one girl says in her sonorous native tongue, “In our daily lives there must be music. In everything we do, if there’s music, life becomes so good. That’s why I want to be part of music.”

Suffering of great magnitude is extremely difficult to wrap our Western minds around, and the filmmakers incisively narrow the lens to track three young teenagers and the stories of the dark path that brought them to the camp, to this school in the remotest part of Northern Uganda. The kids take seriously the opportunity to compete with the other 20,000 schools throughout Uganda to represent their tribe as one of the best. When they perform the 500-year-old Bwola dance of their tribe, they radiate pride and spirit as they stomp and whirl in shades of a Feist video (I must not be the only one who thought that).

The film is a deeply human exploration, one that made me question what it is within the human spirit that flares up, that remains unbreakable and irrepressible. One of the main characters Nancy explains, “When I’m singing, I feel that everything is exactly how it used to be. Everything feels okay again, like I’m at home and not in the camp.” Rose muses, “Music is the most important part of Acholi culture. It is our tradition. Even war cannot take it from us.

War/Dance is shot with the stunning eye of a photographer, with shots that make you ache in their purity, their power, and their sadness. The dance scenes are swirls of color and shifting focus. As they tell their unflinching stories, the skin of the children shines with an illuminated vibrancy that seems out of place in their dusty, hard surroundings.

Out of the gritty horrors of a story that could be the bleakest of bleak, hope and pride rise up in the kids. In music, they survive. It’s a message that resonated deeply with me, and indeed should with all who have ever felt the power of music in any capacity. I give this movie (and the corresponding music) my highest recommendation of the screen this year.

And hey, the percussion that punctuated all the pounding-heart moments of this film made the tiny little djembe player in my own heart leap a little:

Khine Sine – Doudou N’diaye Rose [wiki]

You can watch War/Dance online now if you have Netflix, and the soundtrack is on Amazon. For more information about how to support these kids in Northern Uganda, visit shineglobal.org, a foundation set up by the filmmakers.

saw death on a sunny snow (running, running . . .)

For Emma (MySpace version) – Bon Iver **highest recommendation**

…And get Flume, Blindsided, and Lump Sum here

[via MySpace Transmissions]