Friday April 17, 2009, Mercury Lounge: Acid Mothers Temple, Sonic Suicide Squad and Floating Action

We arrived towards the end of Floating Action's set, so we really just got to hear about one and a half songs. The first had a fairly solid simple riff that worked for me. The final song featured a toy piano. It was pretty mellow, but enjoyable. They seemed to have some enthusiastic fans in the audience. Afterwards, before Acid Mothers Temple, some guy who overheard me saying nice things about them felt the need to interject that they were "yacht rock". I didn't really agree with that assessment. Anyway, I've written enough about a band that I heard for all of ten minutes.

Up next were Acid Mothers Temple's touring partners, Sonic Suicide Squad. I was pretty sure I knew what these guys were going to do before I arrived. When I saw that they had a saxophone player and a trumpet player, I had my doubts, but within a minute into their set, it was clear that my first hunch was right. Sonic Suicide were a noise band. My friend Patrick claims her heard a bit of melody in one of their numbers, and I think I remember hearing one bit of structured sound, but for the most part, each piece was a slab of chaotic noise. They used some sampled spoken word bits, but other than that, there was nothing but noise. For some reason, the guitarist had 20 (we counted) pedals, but we couldn't hear any noticeable effects. Maybe they were being swallowed up by the guy on the various electronic equipment.

Anyway, for what it was, I thought it was enjoyable. They couldn't have played more than 30 minutes, and that was probably just right. Anything more, and I might have grown impatient. As it was, it was a nice warm up for the main attraction...

Last time I saw Acid Mothers Temple I was a bit disappointed. Half of the disappointment was seeing a band that I felt was going through the motions. The other half was the bastardized version of La Novia they performed in the middle of their set. This time they didn't even play La Novia. And it was the same lineup of the band that I had seen last year. And with maybe a couple small exceptions, they played the same set (Intro jam, Dark Stars in the Dazzling Sky, Slide guitar Jam, Pink Lady Lemonade with Cosmic Death Disco thrown in the middle, Milky Way Star) minus La Novia. But this night was better. They played a quieter version of Dark Stars before playing the full version that worked quite nicely. And I was actually getting into Milky Way Star this time.

It is disappointing to see a band that's capable of releasing as many as eight albums in a year play almost identical sets every time. There have been some changes since the early 2000s when every show included a 30 minute version of La Novia, but Pink Lady Lemonade remains the 30 minute centerpiece of their set. Kawabata Makoto even manages to include it in other Acid Mothers projects at least briefly. While it is a great jam, and the solos he unleashes for the 2nd half are truly stunning, it always comes with ten minutes of repetition beforehand. Sometimes the melody begins to build on itself, but this is never a guaranteed occurence.

But even if their sets evolve slowly, I will keep coming back. Even if they play the same songs, they are always looking for ways to make them more interesting, and no song is ever played the same way twice. But that's not even the point. Beauty never gets old, and watching Kawabata swing his guitar around his head while moving his fingers all over the fretboard is the most beautiful thing one can ever witness at a rock show. And as long as he keeps doing it, I'll be there even if they never change their set, because with all of the bands I have seen, none of them on their best days come close to displaying the perfect beauty of Kawabata Makoto playing guitar.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs: It's Blitz!

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs last album Show Your Bones proved that the group was more than just a gimmick. They were able to tone down the sonic aggression, develop their sound and still deliver captivating songs. Unfortunately, none of those successes are repeated on this album. While SYB saw the group adding acoustic guitars and synths to the mix, It's Blitz! is almost entirely dominated by keyboards, and that's a real shame since Nick Zinn was one of the most interesting guitarists around. This was always this groups secret weapon. Sure, Karen O is right out front with her vocals -and she's a very capable frontwoman, but it was Zinn that added that really made their music unpredictable and was as equally capable of beauty and agression as Karen O.

Unfortunately, none of that is on display here. Instead the songs are dominated by keyboards, and while none are particularly bad, none of the tracks show the sheer joy of "Mystery" from SYB. Instead, this is a fairly restrained and dull affair. After listening to this album more than five times, I can't recall more than half of the tracks. That's never been a problem with the other two YYY albums. The hooks just aren't here.

Opener "Zero" shows promise. It's no coincidence that it's the only song from this album that they played on Saturday Night Live last week. It has a catchy synth hook, and is a genuinely strong pop song. But right after that, things go downhill. "Heads will Roll" tries to keep the party going, but it just doesn't work. "Soft Shock" is even worse and begins to approach irritating territory. By the time I'm listening to "Runaway" I've been so bored that it's hard to notice that this is a pretty song. Closer "Little Shadow" would be a nice bring down if the rest of the album had some life in it. Instead, it just feels like the final disappointment.

Black Lips: 200MillionThousand

It seems like their last album Good Bad Not Evil just came out. But of course that's not true. I just bought it recently, that's all. But it does seem like the tour to promote it never ended, and that may be true. Whatever the reason, 200MillionThousand seems almost unnecessary. Not that it is. It's actually better than their last album in places, and definitely doesn't sound like a retread. But if you had asked me who I wanted a new album from in 2009, The Black Lips wouldn't be on my list.

I probably wouldn't even be mentioning all of this, but this album is too fucking long by at least 10 minutes. Their last two albums were under 40 minutes, so why the hell is this one 50? Sure, 3 of it is silence for the hidden track (and why the fuck is any band including hidden tracks in 2009? Do they pull this crap on every album?), but that just adds to the frustration. It's also not hard to find the tracks that are worth cutting. "I'll Be With You" just sounds unnecessary when the band already has "Dirty Hands", and about half the songs on the 2nd half are pretty forgettable. At least I've forgotten them while writing this review.

All that aside, the album has its strong moments, and shows a lot of promise. Opener "Take My Heart" is a nice dirty rocker, and "Starting Over" is a pretty little song. "Big Black Baby Jesus of Today" is one of their harder rocking songs. Really, the album's best moment is it's official final track "I Saw God". The song opens with inaudible narration that actually gets bleeped out towards the end. This jarring gimmick might frustrate and irritate a lot of listeners, but I think it works. Otherwise, you wouldn't notice that he's cussing, and it adds a certain element of sonic terrorism that makes the song more dangerous. When the final build kicks in, you're definitely paying attention, and that makes it all the more powerful.

But it's the actual final track that highlights my problem with this album. Where "I Saw God" was a thoughtful restrained song, "Meltdown" sounds like something that was crapped out in one jam session with little to no thought put into the lyrics...which is fine. But I would expect a song like that to rock a little harder. In fact, I wish just about every song on here rocked a little bit harder. The Black Lips definitely have no shortage of catchy hooks. What they seem to lack is the ability to translate those hooks into energy in the studio. Live, they definitely know how to make their songs roar. Which is maybe where these songs should have stayed.

March 27-29: Akron/Family

And I'm back. I guess. I really don't have the discipline to keep a blog. Or interesting enough thoughts. But I went to another concert, so here I am.

Being the super fan that I am, I went to all three Akron/Family shows last weekend. The first was at The New Museum in Manhattan, and the 2nd two were at Union Pool in Brooklyn. Openers were Lexie Mountain Boys (who actually had to play after Akron/Family Friday due to traffic troubles), Golden Sparkle Band and Larkin Grimm.

I guess I'll cover the openers first:

Lexie Mountain Boys: I think I would have liked them less if they were the opener. They only played for about 10 minutes after Akron/Family had finished, and that's probably as much as I can take. LMB are an all female group that sings and doesn't play any instruments. They have interesting outfits. Their "songs" are really just a lot of chanting and yelling. It's somewhat entertaining, but to be honest, it looks like some Williamsburg hipster performance art piece more than an actual band that tours, which is what they are. I saw them back up Akron/Family in 2006 at what I considered to be one of the best shows I've ever seen. There, their chanting really helped add something to the music. By itself, I think I would start getting annoyed if it went on much longer than 10 minutes.

Golden Sparkle Band: Jazz group. Piano, guitar, sax/clarinet, trumpet/bass clarinet, drums and standup bass. I really don't know what to say about these guys. I don't listen to much jazz, so it's hard for me to evaluate them fairly. I wouldn't say that I enjoyed them especially, but I wasn't bored or annoyed either. When I do listen to jazz, I tend to prefer the late-career John Coltrane stuff that manages to dance on the border between total chaos and controlled improvization. I wouldn't say these guys managed that. The pieces seemed to have a pretty clear written melody that they would then take detours from. They even had written music with them. When they joined together to play a clear tune, I found myself more involved than I was for the rest of the set.

Larkin Grimm: She continues to impress me. The first two songs which just featured her playing dulcimer and singing were a bit difficult to get into, but once her "band" (a woman on violin and a guy on some Asian instrument I still don't know the name of) joined her, things picked up greatly, and she never lost me. She managed to get the entire audience singing along for the entirety "Ride that Cyclone", and it worked a lot better than I thought it would. The bulk of her set was from her latest album, Parplar, with the exception of the first two songs and another song called "Butcher". Vocal theatrics were even more present than they were the first time I saw her, but instead of being annoying, I found it quite captivating. If you told me that my favorite new musical discovery of 2009 would be a hippie female singer/songwriter with a penchant for high pitched yells, I woudln't believe you. But here we are.

And here's my attempt at a setlist for Larkin Grimm:

Unknown song
Another song I don't know
They Were Wrong
Ride that Cyclone
Parplar
Butcher
Durge
My Justine
Anger in your Liver
Hope for the Hopeless
Mina Minou

And finally. My review of the 3 Akron/Family sets. Here are my rough setlists:

Friday:

Quiet song off the first album that I've never seen them play. I think it might be the hidden track.
River
Unknown new song--Seth sings. Something about objects appearing closer than they are.
Lake Song (with a seperate jam at the end)
Ed is a Portal
Everyone is Guilty
Sun will Shine
Last year

Saturday:

Meek Warrior
River
Lake Song
Raise the Sparks
Ed is a Portal
Everyone is Guilty
Sun will Shine
Last Year
Phenomenon

Sunday:

Meek Warrior
River
unkown song from Friday
Gravelly Mountains of the Moon
Ed is a Portal
Drum machine song that Dana sings
That jam where Miles screams a lot
Everyone is Guilty
Sun will Shine
Last Year
Then they went outside, kept singing Last Year, and then I know you Rider and then Crickets...this went on way too long.

As you can see there was some difference between sets, but not really enough for my tastes. I hadn't heard Sun Will Shine before, and since it was really good, I liked hearing it all three nights. But there were a lot of songs they could have swapped out that I would have liked to have heard. I was surprised to not hear "They Will Appear" which they also didn't play new years, but played at both shows I was at last year (except for NYE of course).

But overall, all three nights were strong sets. New Years Eve, I was very disappointed to see them as a three piece (with backing horns and woodwinds) for most of their set. To me, Akron/Family is a band that needs two guitarists, and ideally 2 drummers and some other people to mix it up. Their brass/woodwind section helps fill out their sound wonderfully, but they tend to stay in the background. The exception was Saturday night when the tenor saxophonist and the alto saxphonist from Golden Sparkle Band joined them for a couple of noisy solos in Lake Song. But I think Seth has really gotten good at looping his guitar at the right times, and using his small keyboard to really fill out the sound.

I still think they were a stronger band when they played with Megafaun, but this was a vast improvement over New Years Eve where I felt their sound was just a bit too empty. I'm once again optimistic about the future of Akron/Family.

So the sets were all great. But I have a complaint with how they ended every one. The segue from "Sun Will Shine" to "Auld Lang Syne" and into "Last Year" was neat. Would have been neater on New Years though. On New Years Eve, I thought "Last Year" was something they had just thrown together before the show for the holiday. Apparently it's on their album and it's their new closer and sing along. That's really a shame because it's just not very good. It's just one line, "Last year was a hard year for such a long time. This year's gonna be ours," and they repeat it over and over. While the silly rap at the end of "Ed is a Portal" and the sing along "Love and Space" managed to get the audience in a joyous mood, this one is just a downer. And I honestly just get annoyed being asked to sing it for 5 goddamn minutes. It doesn't have the spiritual component that made those other closers so successful. Sunday night was the worst where they took it outside where no one could hear them and then added 2 more dull acoustic singalongs.

So yeah. I hope they drop that shit or find a better closer that's actually fun to sing along to. Their sets deserve better.