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My 80/35

miloprometheus — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 14:41:10 +0000

Well, as Allison mentioned further down the page, this past weekend was the inaugeral 80/35 Festival here in Des Moines. And like her, I only watched a few full sets. Here is what I saw:

ANDREW BIRD

I'm not super knowledgable when it comes to Andrew...most of what I know is from Scott playing his records and a few albums I got from Mandy. I will definitely make more of an effort to check him out though, as I thought he put on a great live performance. His live band consisted of himself on violin and guitar mostly, another gentleman alternating on guitar and bass and a third gentleman on drums and keyboards. The thing that I was really impressed by was the loops Andrew and his band members used...as far as I could tell, most were looped live, and the violin plucking that Mr. Bird did seemed pretty complex ( at least to my musically retarded ears). I think you would have liked this one, Scott. He played a new song at the end that was pretty good too, though most of the songs were new to me. So, good job Andrew.

THE FLAMING LIPS

This was my third time seeing the Lips in three years and the setlist, by and large, was the same as what they played the first two times, with about half the songs pulled from 2006's At War With The Mystics. With most bands, this might annoy and/or bore me, but seeing The Lips is such a spectacle and there's so much good will between the band and the audience that I still really enjoyed it, and probably always will. This time there were dancing Teletubbies on stage instead of aliens or superheroes, but apart from that the basic setup was the same, with the large half-circle screen behind the drums synched up with videos for most of the songs. Presumably this and the confetti cues are some of the reasons why the setlist remains steadfast. Wayne is still, and will probably forever be, everybody's cool uncle and played that role perfectly. Michael still sits to oneside playing his bass, and Steven stands at the other, speaking to the crowd in his Mickey Mouse voice. And the show is still amazing. It never gets old being covered with confetti, or seeing painted naked girls dancing around a giddy Wayne. I was glad that among the singles from the last few albums they found room for a couple of more obscure numbers, like the excellent Steven-led "Pompeii Gotterdammarung" from Mystics and "Mountain Side", pulled from In A Priest Driven Ambulance from way back in 1990. Unfortunately, this being a festival show, the set seemed slightly truncated and the rumors I'd read of about the inclusion of some Clouds Taste Metallic material proved, at least for this show, to be unfounded. I really hope this isn't coming off as me not liking the show; I did, very, very much. I just hope that the next time I see them, it will be in conjuction with the release of a new album, so that I can look on their show with fresh eyes again.

SETLIST:

1.) Race For The Prize

2.) Free Radicals

3.) The Song Remains The Same (Led Zeppelin Cover)

4.) Fight Test

5.) Mountain Side

6.) Vein Of Stars

7.) Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots, Pt. 1

8.) The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song

9.) Pompeii Am Gotterdammarung

10.) The W.A.N.D. (w/ "Taps" Intro)

11.) She Don't Use Jelly

ENCORE

12.) Do You Realize???

BLACK FRANCIS

As with The Flaming Lips, this was also my third time seeing Charles Thompson IV live, though the circumstances have greatly varied each time. The first was in 2004 in Minneapolis, at the first Pixies show in 13 years. The second was Frank Black, solo and acoustic at the Sokol Underground in Omaha in 2006. This third time saw CT IV playing under his Pixies-era moniker of Black Francis, which he reverted to a couple years ago in a conscious move to signal a change from the more country/bluesy route he'd been pursuing for awhile to a more angular, punky sound closer to his Pixies work . And this was definitely a Black Francis performance: pretty much all the material he played was from records he's released since the name change. This included some songs from the part-live/part-studio album CHRISTMASS, a couple from his new mini-LP Svn Fngrs and the entirety of last year's Bluefinger record. I'm sure most people were disappointed that no Pixies songs made it into the set, or even a "Los Angeles" or "Headache" (and I certainly wouldn't have minded either), but I was more than happy to hear a whole set made up of songs I like that I've never heard live before. I'm glad that of the three different times I've seen him perform, there's only been three or four songs played at more than one concert. As a fan, it's nice to know that each time I see Frank Black Francis or whatever you want to call him, I'm likely to have a different experience with a completely new setlist each time. Frustrating for more casual fans maybe, but hopefully even they can appreciate his desire to showcase new material as opposed to playing "Where Is My Mind?" as an obligation.

SETLIST

1.) Tight Black Rubber

2.) Threshold Apprehension

3.) Test Pilot Blues

4.) Seven Fingers

5.) When They Come To Murder Me

6.) All Around The World (Trad.)

7.) Bluefinger

8.) (Do What You Want) Gyaneshwar

9.) Captain Pasty

10.) Lolita

11.) You Can't Break A Heart And Have It (Herman Brood Cover)

12.) Your Mouth Into Mine

13.) Discotheque 36

14.) Angels Come To Comfort You

15.) She Took All The Money

16.) That Burnt Out Rock 'N' Roll (Gary Green cover)

MISC.

I saw some of Jakob Dylan's set while I waited for Black Francis...pretty standard folky/countryish rock. I also saw a bit of Yonder Mountain String Band, who I officially hate. But the hippies shore liked 'em.

CONCLUSION

Though there were only three performers that really appealed to me, I think, for a first effort, that 80/35 did a good job filling the bill with bands diverse enough to draw enough differing segments of people to create the great turnout they ultimately had. It seemed from my view that Friday was more of the "alt/indie" lineup and Saturday was more "dirty hippie", but the organizers seemed to know what they were doing booking a jam band and The Roots, as they pulled in the people. Also, unlike the other outdoor festival I've been to (Pitchfork), I could come and go from the premises as I pleased. Which was nice. So, all in all, good job 80/35. Looking forward to next year.

miloprometheus

Andrew Bird

dudufraga — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:40:26 +0000

Andrew é músico, escritor e multi-instrumentista que representanta bem a nova onda indie folk que está tomando conta dos mais modernos. Americano de Chicago de 35 anos com grande influência de música clássica (formado pela Northwestern University em violino), jazz antigo e blues ele acabou, depois de quase 10 albuns, se encontrando com a folk music. Esses, dividos entre albuns com banda, albuns de banda (em que ele era um dos integrantes) até os três últimos solos, que são os seus discos mais indie folk

A formação clássica e com inspiração no jazz e no blues fazem com que Andrew tenha um folk um pouco mais elaborado e menos imitando Bob Dylan do que a média dos 'indie-folkers', o que para alguns é até um erro, um pecado para os puristas da folk music (que é, na cultura americana, um revival da música tradional do país feita por artistas como Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger e Joan Baez na década de 50 e 60. Outra definição de folk music é simplismente música tradicional).

Aliás, vale o comentário, conheci Andrew Bird numa linda participação que ele faz na faixa 'London Town' do disco da ótima cantora francesa Emily Loizeau (vale entrar no site), disco esse que ganhei de uma grande amiga.

'Armchari Apocrypha' é o nome do último disco de Andrew que escolhi para colocar para download(link para baixar o disco). O disco foi lançado em março de 2007, apesar de ter vazado na internet em janeiro.

O disco todo é muito interessante, arranjos bonitos e produção muito boa. Vale baixar e ouvir todo, mesmo para quem não gosta de folk, pois o disco não é nada monotono. Aliás, ele é cheio de referências à música clássica e até eletrônica (na faixa 'Simple X' gravada com Martin Dosh), bem diferente da tradicional folk music americana.

Destaco duas músicas:

Plasticities: talvez a melhor música do disco. A introdução é linda, com instrumentos clássicos, tem um dedilhado de violino e um outro instrumento que não sei o nome, mas adoro. Animada, a música toda é bem legal, é a música que mostraria para apresentar o artista, se só pudesse escolher uma.

Heretics: também bem animada é outra faixa onde a participação do violino é bem marcante, deixando a faixa com um ar de herudito, mesmo com toda a bateria que conduz e carrega o ritmo dessa faixa.

Videos:

(clipe da faixa 'Imitosis')

(apresentação de 'Plasticities' no Coachella em 2007)

(episódio do La Blogotheque em Montmartre, Paris)

Site do Andrew: www.andrewbird.net

Armchair Apocrypha, the enigma of Andrew Bird

Edvard — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 08:56:32 +0000

Andrew Bird's albums always take a few listens before one can truly appreciate their brilliance. His latest, Armchair Apocrypha, isn't the most easily approachable album at first but with a few listens the subtle and intricate harmonies really take hold. With the addition of Martin Dosh, many of the new songs have a vastly different sound to them compared to his previous albums. At first I was weary of the introduction of new drummer Martin Dosh, because his solo material is more technical and experimental than Andrews. However, I think he has been a muse for Andrew and breaks him free of his recent solemn song structures that have dominated his last two albums. The only downfall of the album is that it apparently doesn't include a song that I have been eagerly anticipating for months after seeing him play it live. The instrumental version of it was recently released under the name "Water Jet Cilice" on Fingerlings 3. When playing it live with vocals he introduced it as "The song that I have only sung aloud for crickets," I was only able to put a name to it after I grabbed the setlist at the end of the show. The name of the song with vocals is "Self- Torture." I was going to attempt to describe it but once again I am struggling with putting words to one of the most incredible songs I have heard in some time. After he finished playing it, the crowd was motionless and silent and he literally had to motion that he was finished to snap everyone out of it. Andrew then mentioned that it would hopefully be recorded for his next album out in march if they could fit it in. Unfortunately, it apparently was never recorded with vocals during the albums recording. I learned this after contacting Dosh inquiring if it was possibly a b-side to Armchair, he had this to say...

RE: The Water Jet Cilice / self - torture Body: i have no idea when it will come out, but i suspect it will at some point, cuz it is a great song..... sorry to not be of more help.

peace

martin

I am awaiting a possible copy of the video of the live with vocals version of Self Torture but until then the instrumental Water Jet Cilice will have to hold you over:

Andrew Bird - Water Jet Cilice

buy fingerlings 3 here.

also,

Here's the new single from his upcoming Armchair Apocrypha:

Andrew Bird - Heretics