PJ Harvey and John Parish: A Woman a Man Walked By

There is an ongoing debate among Simpsons "fans" about whether or not the show should continue to exist. I've always been baffled by those who wish it off the air simply because the episodes over the last several years have not (supposedly) been as good as earlier episodes. I've never really agreed that they've been that bad, and even if they were, who cares? It doesn't make the earlier episodes any worse.

But after hearing the last 3 PJ Harvey albums, I am beginning to understand why someone might wish The Simpsons would go away. Each PJ Harvey album since 2000's Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea has been increasingly disappointing (and even that one was a disappointment when compared with her previous two efforts). These albums have been so bad in fact that it has poisoned the other PJ Harvey albums I have. The most recent collaboration with John Parish is no exception. While some of my disappointment can be passed off to Parish, it still manages to go back and taint Dancehall at Louise Point, an album from what I considered Harvey's best years.

So what's so bad about it? Just about everything. The music is rarely interesting, Harvey's vocal delivery approaches the obnoxious at points and the lyrics just sound a bit silly. From the beginning with "Black Hearted Love", the album disappoints. This is the kind of mid tempo rock song that might have been decent enough filler 15 years ago, but now, it's hard not to grow impatient. The album picks up with the second track, "Sixteen, Fifteen, Fourteen" which features less electric instrumentation, but a much more driving melody. Unfortunately, the next few songs are snoozers, and when things pick up with the title track, they don't move into any welcome areas.

I bought this album shortly after moving in with my fiance, and it can frequently make my enjoyment of music much more fraught than it used to be. Now, when I listen to a loud song that I love, I worry that I'm driving her crazy. There's always a dueling desire within me to turn the volume up to maximize my enjoyment or down to avoid making her miserable. No such battle takes place during the louder songs on this album. I just want to turn them down for both of our sakes.

Wednesday May 6, 2009, Bowery Ballroom: Akron/Family

So in the last four weeks I've seen my three favorite live bands. And all three times I've walked away somewhat disappointed. With Oneida, it wasn't their fault, I was extremely tired, and the venue was suffocatingly humid and hot. And Acid Mothers Temple basically did what I expected them to do. But Akron/Family I had high hopes for, and they kind of let me down.

Why you ask? Well lets start with the set list:

They Will Appear
River
The Alps and Their Orange Evergreen
Gravelly Mountains of the Moon
Ed is a Portal
Creatures
Everyone is Guilty
Sun will Shine
Last Year
Woodie Guthrie's America
Crickets
Freestyle audience jam that I didn't stick around for

If you look at the setlists from the last shows, you'll notice that there's not a lot here that they didn't play those nights, and some great songs that I've been hearing a lot of were left out. Lake Song and Raising the Sparks were especially missed. I thought that they were going into Lake song towards the end of The Alps and their Orange Evergreen, but it didn't happen. Just about everything that bothered me about the last shows was present last night in greater quantity.

But what really had me disappointed was the length of the actual set. I've grown very accustomed to two hour sets from these guys. Not counting anything after Last Year, the set couldn't have been an hour and a half. From most bands these days, it wouldn't be bad, but Akron/Family has set the bar pretty high, and they did not live up to it. Even more alarming is that this is similar to the previous 4 shows I've seen where I just sort of assumed the shortened sets were due to circumstances. But no. Apparently now that they are a real three piece band (with horns/woodwinds backing them), they only play hour and a half sets. From a lot of bands, this would be great, but when amazing jams are getting left out of the set, it's a real bummer.

And then there's how they've been ending the shows. I was briefly excited to see Dana go back to the drums and Seth pick his electric guitar back up after Woodie Guthrie's America. I thought they might play a real encore. But no. It was Crickets. The most boring and useless song Akron/Family has ever performed. And then it got worse. Because for some reason the audience is supposed to sing the final melody over and over. This went on for what seemed like forever. Eventually some girls at front got impatient (not that I wasn't there 5 minutes before them, but all I could think to do was groan) and started stomping and chanting. Eventually this caught on and we got a pretty neat audience/band jam in the middle of the place. I might have been more into it if it hadn't taken so long to get there and the actual set had been better. Instead, I just felt kind of cheated and mystified at how people could be so into it.

I hope this doesn't mean the magic is wearing off for me. Nearly 3 years ago, before Love is Simple was released, I saw them perform at the Bowery, and it was one of the best shows I have ever seen, if not the best ever. They closed with Ed is a Portal like they always did in those days, and while the closing rap had never excited me, they somehow managed to turn the entire audience to mush by the end of the performance. Was I witnessing something similar last week, but unable to take part myself? Or was it really not as good? I don't have an answer, so this review is done.

Akron/Family: Set 'Em Wild Set 'Em Free

This is a hard album for me to review. By the time it arrived in the mail, I had heard 9 of these 11 tracks live on multiple occasions. Because everything sounds better live (especially with Akron/Family), I was inevitably a bit disappointed. Making matters worse, I received the album on MP3 several weeks before the CD arrived in the mail. Since listening to the CD, I have found myself enjoying the album a lot more than I did at first. Further proof that MP3s do not sound as good as CDs. I just wish more people felt this way.

But even with CD quality (which I contend is as good as vinyl) sound, I find myself feeling disappointed and frustrated with this album. There are just too many songs that do not live up to their live versions. One, MBF, should not have even been recorded in the studio. This track is not as much as a song as it is Akron/Family playing as loud as they can. Seth wails away on his guitar and Miles screams. Live, it works. On the album, it's just kind of irritating and doesn't fit with the rest of the material which is mostly wonderfully melodic.

Penultimate track, Sun Will Shine also does not live up to its live version. The song only has one lyric "The Sun will shine and I won't hide" that gets repeated several times. Live, Miles only sings it a few times before Seth's guitar blasts it off into the most wonderful places eventually leading the audience into some beautiful but loud white noise. On the album however, the line gets repeated almost to the point of being obnoxious. And while the same guitar melody is played, it does not flow naturally into the white noise that concludes the song. The only song that is an improvement over its live version is Last Year, simply because the band doesn't insist that everyone sing along for 10 goddamn minutes.

But after listening to the album several times and getting further away from the live show, those two songs are really my only complaints. Sure, Akron/Family sound better and more adventurous live, but that doesn't make the album any less inspired. Their albums hold up better than those of their predecessor's The Grateful Dead. In fact, opener Everyone is Guilty might actually benefit from the studio treatment. The song has actually had a long road to travel before becoming an actual song. The first couple of times I saw it, it was just an instrumental (or nearly instrumental) jam that didn't seem to go anywhere. Now, the song is a tight and constantly shifting powerful rock song driven by a wonderful groove. The first time I listened to it, I found the constant tempo and melody changes jarring. But after repeated listens, I find myself craving it.

The band's other two rockers are also broken into movements. Gravelly Mountains of the Moon sounds like it's a pleasant acoustic singalong until around three minutes in when the electric guitars and horns kick in, giving the album an extra kick that it was needing around the halfway mark. My only complaint with the song is the "Put me in, let me run with the ball. Ha!" coda that concludes the song. Studio restraint does not manage to dampen my irritation with it. They Will Appear" is almost more successful, but the rock part of the song just feels to short. I once thought that it could eventually become their closer and replace Ed is a Portal (which has actually been replaced by Everyone is Guilty/Sun Will Shine/Last Year), but they haven't figured out how to make this one take off. It's a wondeful song, but not much of a jam.

And then there are the album's numerous smaller pleasures. The mostly acoustic The Alps and their Orange Evergreen, Set 'Em Free and Many Ghosts (the last two have not appeared live at any show in NYC) are both simpler wonderful songs that show what a great songwriter Seth is growing into. Dana's one contribution Creatures may not be the major work that Lake Song was, but it definitely makes the album more interesting.

Ultimately, I like this album. What had me disappointed is not what's on it, but what's not. Akron/Family have worked hard to cement their reputation as one of the most formidable live bands around today. And they have yet to release an official live album (they sell a live disc on their site and at shows, and included a DVD with Love is Simple), and I have seen several major set changes that have yet to be documented publicly in a live format. For their third album, The Allman Brothers decided to do a live album. The Grateful Dead did it on their 4th, and the MC5 made their first album live. So why the hell hasn't Akron/Family released a live album after five studio albums? I make this complaint about tons of bands, but this is by far the most egregious failure of a band to release a record showing them at their best.