Gig Review: Midnight Juggernauts AND Empire of the Sun.

photo taken by yours truly

MIDNIGHT JUGGERNAUTS

AND

EMPIRE OF THE SUN

LOVEBOX FESTIVAL 2010

VICTORIA PARK

LONDON, UK

17 JULY 2010

The sun was out and an uncharacteristic warmth filled the British skies as the 7th annual Lovebox Festival played out over three days in Tower Hamlets' Victoria Park in East London. Me and 49,999 of my closest friends had spread ourselves out over 40 acres of music, art, food and booze and soaked up the atmosphere on an electric Saturday afternoon. The Lovebox Festival is a three day bacchanalian fiesta of the senses that was launched in 2003 by all-around badass electro-cats Groove Armada, was this year boasting such acts as Roxy Music, Dizzee Rascal, Grace Jones, Mark Ronson and the Business Intl., Paloma Faith, These New Puritans, Hot Chip, Cut Copy, I Blame CoCo (Sting's daughter), Midnight Juggernauts, and Empire of the Sun. It was freaking brilliant, it was.

In between fabulous carnival rides (The Swirly Sea was particularly awesome), drag disco cabarets, over-priced festival food and drink, bumper cars, a Royal Navy helicopter dressed up like a menacing ogre with earth-mover legs, and a giant tree house with sparkling lights, there was actually time to see honest-to-goodness live music! For your reading amusement, I'd like to review the impressive sets delivered by Australian bands Midnight Juggernauts and Empire of the Sun. Yes!

Midnight Juggernauts

picture: messandnoise.com

May 28th of this year saw the release of Midnight Juggernauts' second album, The Crystal Axis - a hypnotic and soulful hybrid of 70s glam, soaring Ennio Morriconesque soundscapes, and spacey synths that would fit quite comfortably in anybody's music collection. It really is quite a lovely and majestic record that, I learned Saturday afternoon, lends itself very well to a live performance. I'd never seen Midnight Juggernauts live before and was, as I tend to be from time to time, rather curious as to how it would all play out. My curiosity was rewarded, and then some, by this Melbourne, Australia trio who proceeded to blow our minds at the Gaymer's Stage near the massive Tree House tucked into the tree-line. Singer and keyboardist Vincent Vendetta began by apologizing to the audience: "Sorry if we seem rather harried - we were stuck in some serious traffic and just got through the gates fifteen minutes ago!" No worries, mate. Your alleged harried-ness did not appear during your magical 80 minute set.

Launching into my favorite song from the new album, "Winds of Fortune," Vendetta, drummer Daniel Stricker, and bassist/guitarist Andrew Szekeres sounded fresh, vibrant, and completely in charge of the mood-making. To paraphrase Brian Ferry, Midnight Juggernauts let loose with a rhythm of a rhyming guitar, distinctive drumming, and sleek, trance-like synths; every note was resplendent with lushness and beauty. "Shadows" and "Road To Recovery" from their debut album Dystopia were alive and even more dynamic than their studio mixes. New songs "Cannibal Freeway" and "This New Technology" tickled the imagination as to where their music is headed - and it sounds like a wonderful, mythological place indeed. They closed their set with "Into The Galaxy," and as beach balls and straw hats (from the Cuervo Fiesta Hall) flew through the air and young women sat on their boyfriends' shoulders, everything came together with a psychedelic luster that hung invitingly in the air long after the last note was played. As Vendetta sung, "Floating to the edge of the world, floating to the edge of the sea, floating off the edge of the ocean, out into the galaxy." Well done, lads. The new album is, in my humble opinion, quite a corker. Good work!

setlist

Winds of Fortune

Shadows

So Many Frequencies

Vital Signs

Tombstone

Cannibal Freeways

This New Technology

Road To Recovery

Into The Galaxy

And so that was that. My friends Michelle and Peter and I then proceeded to meet up with my girlfriend, who was watching Paloma Faith on the Main Stage. En route, we stocked up on some canned Tuborg and Gaymer's and then hit some of the carnival rides. One in particular, The Swirly Sea, was quite brilliant. Here's a pic:

The sun's final trip towards the Western horizon was well under way as I parted ways with my companions and headed back to the Gaymer's Stage for a show I was very much looking forward to: Empire of the Sun. When Emperor Luke Steele released his multi-faceted and innovative debut album Walking on a Dream in late 2008 (early 2009 for the US release - we always have to wait a bit longer, don't we?), it was almost as if the entire audacious idea had been hatched in the fevered dream of a long-extinct elemental deity. Sadly, Steele's partner in aural crime, Luke Littlemore, had left Empire of the Sun to return to his band Pnau late last year, but that didn't matter here.

At approximately 9:10, the spectacle began! A drummer wearing a bright blue mohawk helmet with LED lights, a guitarist all in black, and four nubile female dancers with skin-tight body suits of powder blue with large half-cubes perched on their heads took to the stage. With heavy drumbeats and an ominous synth score, two of the dancers stood on a raised dais with a golden tiger head at the rear of the stage, in front of a video screen, holding up giant black Japanese fans. As the thematic music, "The Emperor's Heart," came to a thundering crescendo, the black fans were thrown down, revealing the Emperor Steele himself, dressed in shiny black samurai's panoply threaded with silver bands and wearing his trademark sunshine headdress. The opening surf-rock guitar strains of "Standing On The Shore" floated effortlessly outward, and all of us present were thrust headfirst into the realm of the Empire of the Sun.

Empire of the Sun

photo by me

We were putty in his hands. The audience knew the words, note by note, and were more than happy to bellow the lyrics at the top of their lungs. Even for "We Are The People," the crowd was willing and able to hit the high notes of the chorus. More beach balls, straw Cuervo hats, and hula hoops flew through the air - all of which, I might add, are FAR preferable hitting you in the back of the head than, say, the half-empty plastic bottles employed by the audience at the far rowdier Wireless Festival in Hyde Park two weekends ago with LCD Soundsystem, 2ManyDJs, and Snoop Dogg.

The video screen accompanied Steele and his musical disciples with a charged display of trippy galactic visuals and fractal patterns, pausing in between songs to show detailed images of the various planets and moons of our solar system. From time to time, the dancers would run offstage and return, costume changed, as other "characters" from Empire of the Sun's videos. There were the golden-masked green vixens, the "blockheads," and then the shiny black beetle-like sentry warriors with the prisms for hands. Alas, the swordfish girls did not appear.

The space-age surf rock of "Standing On The Shore," sported an intense and extended bridge that was simply electric. "Half Mast," with its sleek, propulsive synch arrangements and driving drums, really got the crowd jumping - the urgency of the lyrics ("Hear me now, I'm down on knees and praying though my faith is weak without you") really shone in a live setting. The weird psycho-funk of "Swordfish Hotkiss Night" throbbed with menacing sensuality, Steele's dulcet falsetto filling the nighttime air with its primal energy. (No dancing swordfish girls, alas.) "King's Cross hotshot, Jesus Christ on web blog," intoned Steele darkly. The sad and bereft heartbreak of "Without You," the set's only slow number, just felt right. But when the opening acoustic chords of "We Are The People" began, the crowd went certifiably apeshit. Everybody - and do I mean everybody - sang along at the top of their lungs; even, I'm proud to say, managing to hit the high notes of the chorus: "I can't do well when I think you're gonna leave me, but I know I try - Are you gonna leave me now? Can't you be believing now?"

It was a magical evening - a flood of plain brilliant music performed with heart and passion to an enthusiastic crowd that believed in this particular Empire. Emperor Luke Steele is onto something special here, and I'm a believer. With a (rumored) second album coming out later this year, I myself cannot wait to see where the Empire is headed.

setlist

The Emperor's Heart (Intro)

Standing on the Shore

Breakdown

Half Mast

We Are The People

Swordfish Hotkiss Night

Delta Bay

Without You

Tiger By My Side

Walking On A Dream

Update and Free Music From Röyksopp!

Torbjørn Brundtland and Svein Berge, better known as the Norwegian chill-out electronica heroes Röyksopp, are incredibly busy bees these days. Just last year they released Junior, their third album (and, in my humble opinion, their finest and most complex); embarked on a fine worldwide tour promoting said album with featured collaborator Karin Dreijer Andersson, the lead vocalist of Swedish experimental electronica duo The Knife; popped up on Swedish chanteuse Robyn's fantastic new album Body Talk Pt. 1 (on the terrific song "None of Dem"); and now have a new album, Senior, coming out on the 13th of September. As Röyksopp themselves explain on their website:

"The two albums (’Junior’ and ‘Senior’) have a kinship, in that they represent Röyksopp’s two very different artistic expressions. ‘Junior’ – with emphasis on vocals, accessible melodies and harmonies, has the energy, the inquisitive temper and confident 'hey-ho, let’s go!'-attitude of youth, whereas ‘Senior’ is the introverted, dwelling and sometimes graceful counterpart – brimfull with dark secrets and distorted memories, insisting 'I’m old, I’ve got experince…'. Senior’ is furthermore an album about age, horses and being subdued – with devils breathing down your neck."

I myself find this to be excellent news! Röyksopp is on constant rotation in my household, and their albums -- The Understanding, Melody A.M., and the aforementioned Junior -- I find to be exhilaratingly gorgeous soundscapes, each with their own personality and inner rhythm. I can easily imagine Brundtland and Berge ("B+B"), with all their warmth and humor, likening them to their children. I've got to say, I'm really quite looking forward to Senior!

However, if one would like to download, for free, some new music from Röyksopp, then do I have some good news for that downloadable-music-for-free person. From now until the new album comes out, Röyksopp are giving a free song away every month. Yep, you read that correctly. A free song every month. And going all the way back to February. Here's the list of songs and their corresponding months:

February: Röyksopp -"Vision One" (Instrumental)

March: Gustavo Santaolalla - "De Usuahiah a la Quiaca" (Verson RYXP)

April: Steve Reich - "Electric Counterpoint III"

May: Röyksopp - "It's What I Want" (Instrumental)

June: Röyksopp - "Happy Up Here" (Instrumental)

... and, this month's musical piece,

July: Röyksopp - "Hus Nr. 9".

CLICK ON THIS LINK TO DOWNLOAD AND LISTEN TO THE FREE SONGS.

So there you have it! And when Senior is in fact released, then by all means expect a juicy review, right here on these very pages. Cheers, my friends. But until then, I'd like to leave you with the mind-blowingly off-the-charts cool video of my favorite track off of 2001's Melody A.M. It's called "Remind Me," and it quite frankly is one of the most pretty and delicate pieces of electronic warmth to exude from my speakers in quite some time. It certainly is time to reclaim it from the aggrieved-cavemen-obsessed insurance people from GEICO, that's for sure.

Electro Classic Jukebox: Icehouse.

Even though I just finished working on this Icehouse essay on their debut album Flowers, it unfortunately got back-logged to the month of May, so some new readers might not get a chance to read it. However, there's always room for more Icehouse, so I'd like to share with you one of my favorite tracks of theirs.

Originally released in 1982 on the album Primitive Man, "Great Southern Land" was subsequently re-released in the United States in 1989 on the compilation album also known as Great Southern Land. It is also, to this day, the single most popular song from Icehouse's oeuvre. It was also featured in a really really really terrible Yahoo Serious film called Young Einstein. Have you seen this "film"? I truly and deeply love and respect Australia and its citizens (in fact, I've plans on moving there later this year), but seriously (haha) - their export of Yahoo Serious should be investigated by Interpol as one of the more atrocious international crimes ever committed. He is that unfunny.

But I digress. The song in question is quite good - filled to the brim with chunky guitar riffs, hypnotic drumming, spacey sound-effects, and a beautiful, soaring synth that nicely dove-tails the whole thing, coloring everything the shade of an Australian sunset (which are quite beautiful). Iva Davies' falsetto voice finishes things off nicely as he sings of his lovely island home and of how it's been ravaged over and over again ever since it was a "prison island."

Great Southern Land, Great Southern Land

You walk alone, like a primitive man

You walk alone with the ghosts of time

And they burned you black,

Yeah, they burned you black.

Anyway, with no further ado, here is Icehouse and the gorgeous desert-set video for "Great Southern Land." Just like with INXS' "Kiss The Dirt," there are fires in the desert at night! Sounds like a great party. Enjoy, my friends. And check out that awesome goanna!

100 Greatest Movie Insults of All Time.

Now, I know this isn't music-related in the slightest; but goddammit it's really, really brilliant. Harry Hanrahan, a film editor based out of London, England, put this absolutely hilarious and well thought-out 10 minute clip of - you guessed it - 100 of the greatest put-downs, slanders, insults, and general verbal nastiness together ... and the result is nothing short of magical. For a full list of the movies contained herein, click here.

Enjoy! (Though I must warn you, dear reader, that this is totally NSFW. Naughty language abounds in this here clip.)

Electro Classic Jukebox: INXS

Well before Sydney-based rockers INXS (though half of them hailed from Perth, WA) became super-sized stadium champions with a penchant for funk-laced rock 'n' roll (not that there's anything wrong with that), Michael Hutchence -- rest in peace, mate -- and his merry gang leaned more towards the New Wave/pop end of the musical spectrum.

They were also quite prolific during the heydays of the early 80's, having released a total of five exceptional albums from 1980 to 1985: INXS, their auspicious debut; Underneath the Colours; Shabooh Shoobah, laced as it was with tendrils of mysticism and delightful melodies (including, of course, the most-awesome track "Old World New World"); The Swing, which, quite frankly, doesn't have a single bum note on it; and Listen Like Thieves, from whence today's Electro Classic Jukebox selection comes.

"Kiss The Dirt (Falling Down The Mountain)" entranced me from the first listen. I loved the rolling and playful guitar strumming, that ghostly synth that hovers imperceptibly in the background, that cool little dooboodoodoo sound, and the beautiful lyrics that tell a lovely little story about falling in and out of love, and how the whole process is actually quite good for you. And then it finishes with a healthy rock-out! The video is pretty special, as well. Filmed in one or two of Australia's many vast deserts (hey to any Aussies reading this -- anybody know which one?), it really is quite nice-looking. I love desert imagery, and the members of INXS standing and playing their instruments out in the middle of nowhere is always a nice image to behold.

So! Without further ado, I would like to show you today's ECJ: "Kiss The Dirt (Falling Down The Mountain)"!

Gary Numan - Rescheduled.

It was a sad day for Gary Numan fans in North America last April when he had to postpone the United States leg of his The Pleasure Principle tour as a result of the spewing ash propelled by Iceland's temperamental Eyjafyallajökull volcano, wasn't it? Yes, it was indeed!

Luckily, he's officially come through with his rescheduling promise and, on top of that, he's expanded the original scope and will now be hitting fourteen cities, instead of the original two (plus Coachella) he had originally planned on. Rock on, Mr Numan, rock on.

Is your city on the list? Look below at the new and expanded dates of the 2010 The Pleasure Principle Tour of North America.

Oct 17. Orlando. The Club at Firestone 578 N. Orange Ave. Orlando. FL 32801 Tickets $20 Advance. $25 on the door.Oct 18. Atlanta. The Masquerade 695 North Ave. NE Atlanta. GA 30308 Tickets $25 Advance. $28 on the door. Oct 20. Washington DC. Black Cat 1811 14th St. NW Washington. DC 20009 Tickets $25 Oct 21. Philadelphia. The Trocadero 1003 Arch St. Philadelphia. PA 19107 Tickets $24 Advance. $26 on the door. **With support: Emillie Autumn** Oct 22. Boston. Paradise Rock Club 967 Commonwealth Ave. Boston. MA 02215 Tickets $25 Oct 23. New York City. Nokia Theatre 1515 Broadway @ W44th St. New York. NY 10036 Tickets $27.50 Advance. $29 on the door. **With support: Emillie Autumn** Oct 24. Toronto. Opera House 735 Queen St. East Toronto. ON. M4M 1H1 Tickets $27.50 Advance. $30 on the door. Oct 25. Detroit. Majestic Theatre 4120 Woodward Ave. Detroit. MI 48201-2027 Tickets $25 Advance. $28 on the door. Oct 26. Chicago. Metro 3730 North Clark. Chicago. IL 60613 Tickets $25 Oct 28. Denver. Gothic Theatre 3263 S Broadway Englewood. Denver CO 80113 - 2425 Tickets $23.50 Advance. $28.50 on the door. Oct 31. Seattle. Neumo's 925 East Pike St. Seattle. WA 98122 Tickets $23 Advance. $25 on the door. Nov 1. Portland. Roseland Theater 8 Northwest 6th Ave. Portland. OR 97209 - 3607 Tickets $25 Advance. $30 on the door. Nov 2. San Francisco. The Fillmore 1805 Geary Blvd. San Francisco. CA 94115 Tickets $27.50 Nov 3. Los Angeles. El Rey Theatre 5515 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles. CA 90036 Tickets $33 Nov 4. Los Angeles. El Rey Theatre 5515 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles. CA 90036 Tickets $33

So, there you have it! If you get a chance to attend, then I would highly recommend doing so. He doesn't tour all that often, and he puts on one hell of a show. He's Gary freaking Numan, for crying out loud!

And it's The Pleasure Principle in its entirety. You gotta admit, even if you're not especially a fan of synth-pop, this is a damn fine album. Anyway, for your amusement this first of July, here's a taste. This is Gary performing "M.e" from the aforementioned album at the Wembley Arena in 1981. I think, after thirty years, it's going to sound even better! (Not to mention it's my favorite track from TPP.)

Free Music! From Moby!

Hola! I've recently stumbled across an opportunity for a free mix - by the one and only Moby, (supposed) great-great-greatgrand nephew of Herman Melville, author of the oft-discussed (but rarely actually read) masterpiece Moby-Dick. I consider him to be one of the major forces in electronica; his debut, Everything Is Wrong, alongside the 1999 master-work Play (which frankly stands as one of electronica's finest moments) and his most recent effort, the under-appreciated (in my humble opinion) Wait For Me. Have you heard it yet? If not, I recommend picking it up like now and giving it a spin. Works well at night, with some candles going, and (preferably) a nice glass of Cabernet.

Now, the nice folks at XLR8R Magazine had something of an "itching" for the glow-stick/whistle fueled house anthems of the early 1990's. Like when you hear ghosts, brother, freaky ghosts, baby - who ya gonna call?

Moby, naturally. Asked if he could come up with a nice mix of early rave anthems you could shake your booty too and blow your whistles and shake those glow sticks under them flashing lights, he said, in effect, Damn right.

I'm listening to the damn thing right now as I write this, and I gotta tell ya - the shit delivers! Clocking in at 48 minutes, it's a joyous and righteously awesome flashback to the days (daze?) of rave, warehouse parties, anthems, and, yes, glow sticks. I'm sure you're asking yourself right now, Now where on Earth can I get one of these free mixes for myself and shake my booty all night long?

Wonder no more, faithful friends!

CLICK HERE FOR MOBY'S MIX FROM THE KIND FOLKS AT XLR8R.

You're welcome!

Electro Classic Jukebox: Eurythmics.

As I was writing my recent review for the LCD Soundsystem show last week, I'd made the point that one of the tracks off their new album This Is Happening, "I Can Change," reminded me of early Eurythmics. What song was it, I asked myself, aware that I hadn't really listened to Annie Lennox and Dave Stewarts' deliciously icy pop in quite some time. Needless to say, my curiosity was piqued, so I pulled out my little collection of their first three albums - In The Garden, Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This), and Touch - and proceeded to have myself a sweet little Eurythmics listening party. Cool! I had completely forgotten what a rich treasure trove of material those two had put out during the first half of the 80's.

Cutting edge synths and beautiful orchestrations beautifully dovetailed with Lennox's silky alto voice on such choice tracks like "Who's That Girl?," "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)," and "Here Comes The Rain Again," propelling them to the top of the electro scene back in the day. After I realized what song LCD Soundsystem's single had reminded me of ("Love Is A Stranger" off of SD(AMOT), in case you were curious), I dutifully visited our dear friend YouTube and watched the video!

The video has it all: A mysterious chauffeur, a nighttime ride through the streets of London, a creepy puppet, and the one and only Lennox wearing BDSM-inspired clothing with a multitude of sexy wigs over her shock of bright red hair. Watch out for her (looking awfully damn sexy, by the way) writhing on a bathroom floor with a length of film - damn, she's freaking hot! And the lyrics themselves, in my own humble opinion, are really quite frank and honest in describing love itself. Here's a sample: "It's guilt-edged, glamorous and sleek by design/You know it's jealous by nature, false and unkind/It's hard and restrained and it's totally cool/It touches and it teases as you stumble in the debris" And it's absolutely fabulous when delivered by Lennox's smoky voice.

Also - watch for Dave Stewart (as the aforementioned chauffeur) pulling out a phone that looks suspiciously like an iPhone. See? They were ahead of their time!

So, with no further ado, here's the video for "Love Is A Stranger." Damn, I'm glad for my little listening party - their music will certainly continue in my ongoing shuffle!

F••k You, BP.

You know, when I started this blog earlier this year, I toyed around with the idea of having it be one of those one-size-fits-all affairs - balancing popular culture, music, science, and politics into one particular frenzied ball of whathaveyou. I decided to stick with one thing that I know pretty well, and (as most bloggers know) it's probably best to stick to one topic; otherwise you might lose readers! (Like I'll ever have that problem!)

However, events of late have been preying at my mind. As anybody who knows me will vouch, I'm a nature buff - especially when it comes to our fine feathered friends. I've stalked beaches in NSW with an Australian pelican, I've roamed a park with wild and crazy grazing cockatoos, I've hung with bizarre (and trust me they are strange) mallards, and watched over a hummingbird nest built on a tree right outside my balcony.

I looked at these pictures today, and frankly my heart is broken. Words cannot describe how fucking disgusting, hurtful, and rending these photos are to me. I truly hope somebody goes to prison for these crimes ('cos that's what they are!) against ... against everything. The victims are not just the birds. We're talking about sea turtles, dolphins, snook, tuna, jellyfish, shrimp, sperm whales, sharks, and other such creatures. (Don't worry, I haven't forgotten the humans involved in this death trap - it's just that we have free will: We CHOSE to continue our addiction to oil.)

But, in keeping with the electronic reputation of my blossoming (I like to think!) blog, I'd like to put out a song that I think perfectly encapsulates my feeling for the oil behemoth who has currently drowned the dreams of the Gulf of Mexico in curlicued swirls of poisonous brown muck and destruction.

Behold, "Destroy Everything You Touch," by the one and only Ladytron.

Fuck you, BP.

Gig Review: LCD Soundsystem.

LCD Soundsystem

03 June 2010

The Fillmore Auditorium

San Francisco, California

Let's just say he has a better record collection than you do. God bless Mr James Murphy - the rambunctious, energetic, clever, and just plain inventive frontman for LCD Soundsystem. Only he, during their manic performance at the legendary Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco, could deliver a line like this (from "Pow Pow," my favorite song off the new album, This Is Happening) - and in one breath, at that:

On this occasion, there are a couple of things that we know

that we learned from Fact Magazine:

One, the king wears a king hat and lives in a king house

Two, your time will come, but tonight is our night, so you should give us all your drugs

Three, we have a black president and you do not, so shut up,

because you don't know shit about where I'm from that you didn't get from your TV.

Take these lyrics, practically spoken-word/poetry-slammed into what looked like a vintage '50s 555 VMOT microphone over a staccato rhythm of intense percussion, jangling guitar, heavy dub-style bass, intricate and spidery synths, and a catchy-as-all-fucking-hell chorus ("Pow, pow pow pow pow, pow pow pow pow!"): Whatcha got?

Well, according to my math, you've got yourselves a pretty goddamn good time. The sold-out crowd at 1805 Geary, sweating their asses off whilst dancing, swaying, and generally having the time of their life was good evidence of this scientific theory.

Earlier in the day, Ess Eff was getting rather balmy (about 75ºF/21ºC), and in the midst of all the pressing bodies in the venue - well, I gotta say, it was getting fairly hot (and this was before the show started!). Murphy and company took the stage at a little past ten - he wiped his forehead with his arm and bemoaned the fact that there wasn't a towel available to wipe away his sweat. "Damn, it's hot up here and I think they forgot about me?" he half-asked into the mike - a roady immediately fluttered out from stage left and delivered a fluffy blue towel. After a quick wipe-down and a thank-you to the bearer of cloth, Murphy and company wasted absolutely no time in crunching into their set with the opener, "Us V Them," from the second album, Sound of Silver.

LCD Soundsystem did not disappoint; not in the slightest. James Murphy and his usual gang of suspects - including the lovely Nancy Whang from DFA (Murphy's record company - interestingly enough, they used to be called Death From Above, but after the 9/11 attacks it was generally felt that that name was somehow inappropriate for a NYC-based label) band The Juan MacLean - tore into the venue's revered atmosphere like Lindsey Lohan into a baggy of white powder. Madness ensued forthwith, as the stage saw Murphy and his six cohorts ripping and roaring through a two hour set spattered with songs from all three albums. (On a sad note, James Murphy has said in no uncertain terms that This Is Happening will be the last LCD Soundsystem album. I hear he's champing at the bit to return to his producing and compiling duties with DFA. I hope he changes his mind!)

From the mad rush of percussion and Herbie Hancock-inspired keyboards of "Us V Them," to the sinister madness and howling laughter of "Yr City's A Sucker," and to the sheer brazen spectacle of the epic "Daft Punk Is Playing At My House," the trademark humor and winking irony of Murphy's lyrics went hand in hand with a hodgepodge of music stylings - veering wildly at times, but almost always working like a charm. And if you can find in your collection another band that's as enthusiastic with the cowbell, please let me know! (Christopher Walken would be proud.)

"I Can Change," a wonderfully cynical love song ("... And love is a curse shoved in a hearse/Love is an open book to a verse of your bad poetry/And this is coming from me.") brings to mind the lyrics of Morrissey, delivered with panache over the synth-pop flavorings of early 80's figureheads The Eurythmics (I was thinking "Love Is A Stranger"). "Drunk Girls," the first single off of the new album rings with echoes of the late 70's Iggy Pop-fueled Detroit Rock cacophony (that, in this reviewer's opinion, did not mesh well with the rest of the show. Not the best song in LCD Soundsystem's canon). Downbeat and pretty damn sad tracks "Someone Great" and "New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down" closed out the set once again, proving that James Murphy is purely capable of capping off a party with a downer like he did last time I saw them at Mezzanine in 2007! But - whatever.

As I hinted at above, I would like to make a plea to Mr Murphy regarding his rumored plans to cease and desist his purported disintegration of LCD Soundsystem. Mr Murphy, if you're reading this, I implore you: The world of electronic music and synth-pop need you! We need our resident trickster, our jack-of-all-trades. True, sir, it may be that you feel you're truly shining as a producer/mixer/collaborator extraordinaire - and I'm imaging that that's probably true; I'm not trying to be selfish - but we do need you, I reckon. Because in a musical genre that tends to take itself just a wee bit seriously, it's always nice to have a sense of humor, don't you think? Thanks for listening!

setlist.

us v them

drunk girls

get innocuous

yr city's a sucker

daft punk is playing at my house

all i want

all my friends

i can change

tribulations

movement

yeah

--------

someone great

losing my edge

new york i love you but you're bringing me down

For my loyal readers, here is LCD Soundsystem performing "Us V Them" in Manchester, UK!

Yo Gabba Gabba!

No, it's not an anthem from the Ramones ("Gabba Gabba Hey," anyone?). It is, however, one of the most original and interesting (and, for want of another adjective, trippy) children's television shows, like, ever. Created by Scott Schultz and Christian Jacobs (the lead singer of The Aquabats), Yo Gabba Gabba! (is that fun to say, or what?) is currently in its third season on Nick Jr. Why am I writing it up in this blog, you might ask? I'm happy to give you the answer: It's the music. Yo Gabba Gabba!, while staying true to its missive of treating children with respect (something so very few children's programming does these days) with powerful messages of respect, self-esteem, health, and strong familial relations and friendships, features incredibly colorful characters and musical guests who might have come straight from a Coachella line-up (which is appropriate, seeing as the cast members of Yo Gabba Gabba! made appearance at the last Coachella Festival in Indio, California). MGMT? Check. Ting Tings? Check. CHROMEO, Jack Black, Elijah Wood, Of Montreal, Ladytron? Check, check, check, check, and CHECK. Throw in some crazy puppets designed by KidRobot (one of which, a giant red cyclops named Muno, resembles a crazy *ahem* sex toy) and a cheerfully insane MC with a giant ghetto blaster named DJ Lance Rock, and you have something that, if I had children, I would rabidly watch with my little rug-rat. But what's cool is you don't have to have kids to enjoy what Yo Gabba Gabba! is all about, you really don't. Frankly, give me a glass of California Zinfandel and a magic cigarette, and I'll happily watch for hours.

But don't take my word for it. Watch the zaniness for yourself and let the barely-controlled kiddy-crazy wash over you like a Kool Aid acid bath.

For instance, here's CHROMEO extolling the virtues of clean hands. A VCB, indeed, good sirs!

... And, here's Ladytron, telling children that "mysteries can be very fun ... for everyone," and how it's cool to "use your mind." Good advice!

Fun With Organs: Apparat Organ Quartet.

In case anybody out there read my May 16th gig review of Jóhann Jóhannsson's show at the Great American Music Hall and came away from it thinking, "Man, that avant-garde shit sounds boring," then do I have something to share with you today.

Yessir, it's true - Jóhann Jóhannsson has a fun, lighter side to his musical persona. It's a nifty project he founded in 1999 called Apparat Organ Quartet, and it's a delightful thing, indeed. You may notice in the album cover above that there are actually five members in the band (JJ is represented by the top-right Lego-man with the light-brown fuzz-cut), making them essentially a quintet - but one is a drummer, natch, and he supplies the beats!

So what we have here is four musical virtuosos having a field day noodling with various organs, vocoders, and voice manipulators whilst a steady rock and roll drumbeat backs the sounds up with aplomb and vigor. And it's all good. As I've said before, I've become a big fan of the Icelandic music scene, for I feel it aptly reflects the island's personality - a fair amount of quirkiness, unpredictability, and a sense of magic that can only come from living on one of the most fascinating and beautiful chunks of land on the planet.

And it was in this construct that Apparat Organ Quartet was originally founded. Kitchen Motors, a Reykjavík-based think tank, music label, and art collective (of which JJ is one of the founders) set about in the late 1990's to curate a series of collaborative efforts utilizing musicians and artists from disparate backgrounds in order to create new and exciting variations of the Icelandic artistic spectrum. Other members of the consortium include musicians from bands such as Sigur Rós and Múm.

Apparat Organ Quartet grew from this musical soup, made a fantastic record, toured Europe extensively, and got wildly popular. 'Twould be nice if they came to the United States on tour sometime, but who knows. For now, at least, we have their eponymous debut, Apparat Organ Quartet, and a collection of songs that are both clever and rocking. Who knew an organ in the right hands could sound so heavy metal? The evidence:

Here is a song entitled "Konami". Does it not remind you somewhat of Kraftwerk?

And here is my favorite track from the album, "Stereo Rock & Roll". Do yourself a favor and turn it up loud!

The Presets: Girl And The Sea.

From Sydney, Australia here are The Presets with their bewitching single, "Girl And The Sea." Released in 2004 on their second EP, cunningly entitled Girl And The Sea, I have reason to believe that this is my favorite song created by Mssrs Hamilton and Moyes. So it's fitting, then, for the video for the song to be so damn gorgeous! This one has it all: Brooding animation, woodland critters, spooky visuals, a cute mermaid, a morose wolf who's sacrificed his tail, and owls. All these things (and many more!) come together perfectly in accompaniment to a tune that practically revels in grandiose lushness. Enjoy, my good friends. I do hope you're having a nice weekend. I would like to think that watching this video will be a nice addition to it!

Are You Gonna Leave Me Now? Can't You Be Believing Now?

A long time ago (2006), in a galaxy far, far away (to pinpoint it, look toward the cities of Perth and Sydney, Australia), two musical spaceships collided and combined their genre-stretching powers for a brief and magical moment - creating a veritable powerhouse of psychedelic awesomeness.

Luke Steele from Perth, West Australia-based The Sleepy Jackson and Nick Littlemore of PNAU from across the continent in Sydney, New South Wales had been introduced to each other by mutual A&R peeps in a Sydney bar in 2000. After having exchanged ideas back and forth for a while, they decided to join forces and create something that was larger (in this writer's humble opinion) than themselves.

Thus, Empire of the Sun. (Though it was generally assumed that they named themselves after the novel by the one and only JG Ballard, Mr Littlemore explained to RTE (out of Ireland) that the name comes from "... all the empires of the civilisation where the sun has been a theme of worship.")

Empire of the Sun. In late 2008, they released their debut (and, to date, only) album, Walking On A Dream, and I gotta tell you - it's a corker! It's safe to say that as far as debuts go, this has just about everything one could require in a must-listen experience: Adventure, romance, loss, science fiction, tigers, swordfish, lush electronica, fascinating beats, emotive lyrics, and "Emperor" Steele's dulcet voice, which frankly must be heard to be believed. (Littlemore, who is unfortunately not with the band anymore after heading back to his PNAU camp, was referred to as "Lord" Littlemore.)

It's no secret that "We Are The People" stands as not only my favorite song on the album, but pretty much my favorite song, period. Full stop. Not only does this track exhibit an unrelenting freshness and beauty that fully engages and immerses the listener in its myriad charms, but the video filmed for it relays those attributes and creates what is, for me, a genuine multi-media piece of fine art.

Directed by Josh Logue, who has worked with Empire of the Sun on their other singles "Walking On A Dream," "Standing On The Shore," and "Without You," "We Are The People" takes the Mexican holiday Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) as its inspiration. Filmed entirely in Mexico (locations include Monterrey, García, and the incredibly lush and surreal Sir Edward James Gardens in Las Pazas), the video follows our heroes as they search for ... well, God, it seems. "Es este el camino a la diosa?" they ask a fellow on a bicycle in the desert toward the beginning of the film. Then they come across a man digging a hole. "Es para usted," he says to them. "It's to stop you." Enough of the transcribing! Here's the video for your own viewing pleasure. Enjoy! It really is a fresh and exciting work. And, I have to say, I'm a huge fan of Luke Steele's fashion sense. The headdress itself is just plain awesome.

And, as a bonus, I thought I'd throw this number at you. On the 22nd of July, 2009, the world experienced the longest total eclipse of the sun (six minutes and thirty-nine seconds to be exact). Empire of the Sun decided to do a broadcast that lasted as long as the eclipse did, and I gotta say, it's pretty bonkers (in a good way). Featuring characters from the "Standing on the Shore" video (Swordfish Girls! Black and Shiny Box Men!) and mixing together re-worked bits of the rest of Walking on A Dream, it really is a sight to behold. Once again, enjoy!

Gig Review: Jóhann Jóhannsson.

Jóhann Jóhannsson

14 MAY 2010

Great American Music Hall

San Francisco, California

Reykjavík, Iceland-based composer and musician Jóhann Jóhannsson touched down on San Francisco's Great American Music Hall Friday evening with a mission: To perform select pieces from his newest project, And In The Endless Pause There Came The Sound Of Bees and, in the process, showcase a pristine minimalist approach to creating music that sounds as if it was made by the Earth itself, from some underground locale deep beneath the vast glaciers of Vatnajökull. Spellbinding!

As I write this, wearing my favourite red robe and sipping a cup of English Breakfast tea, I am listening to what is, for me, the ultimate Jóhann Jóhannsson experience: 2006's IBM 1401, A User's Manual. This stands as a most curious work, seeing as it is, essentially, a love letter to the first affordable, mass-produced digital business computer available in Iceland - imported for the first time in 1964. It's heyday lasted for seven years, until it was put out to pasture in 1971, the year of my birth.

I'll take this moment to let Mr Jóhannsson explain this project in his own words. From the liner notes of IBM 1401:

"The chief maintenance officer for this machine was Jóhann Gunnarsson, my father. [...]he learned of an obscure method of making music with this computer - a purpose for which this business machine was not at all designed. The method was simple. The computer's memory emitted strong electromagnetic waves and by programming the memory in a certain way and placing a radio receiver next to it, melodies could be coaxed out - captured by the receiver as a delicate, melancholy sine-wave tone."

I don't know what's cooler - the fact that his father was the chief maintenance officer for the "Model T" of computers, or that he figured out how to make music with it. Needless to say, Iceland (always a quirky and eccentric place) mourned the machine's passing in 1971, when it was discontinued. They held a funeral for it, playing the notes from it for one last time, and capturing the ghostly sounds on tape, alongside the noises it made during operation.

And what a cool thing for Jóhannsson to do - take these sounds from nearly four decades ago and create a five-part symphony with a string quartet! Every so often during the piece, a disembodied British voice intones over the ominous and earthy music, instructing the listener on the basics of computer operation, and on the art of simple maintenance. I'm getting goosebumps right about now!

I'd first heard of Jóhann Jóhannsson when I was in Reykjavík for Christmas of 2007. I'd entered the record store 12 Tónar early one afternoon and asked the friendly clerk if he could turn me on to any Icelandic electronica that I (most assuredly) hadn't heard before. He plunked me down on a black leather couch, poured me a cup of coffee, gave me a CD Walkman along with a nifty little pile of CDs, and told me to listen to my heart's content. And so I did. And ...

Enough digression, already! So, how was the show?

I'm glad you asked.

There was a slow-building intensity, gaining momentum in the Great American Music Hall's intimate womb as Jóhannsson and his colleagues took the stage bathed in dark blue light. There was Jóhannsson, perched behind a couple of Apple MacBooks and an electric piano; a string quartet assembled from three violins and a cello; and a bespectacled man off to the right, who performed the evening's percussion on an array of buttons, knobs, laptops, and keyboards.

It's hard to describe the music - but I'll try. Imagine a flurry of percussion washing over you: the gravelly crackle of pebbles tumbling down a field of ice and rock - increasing in volume and intensity until it is a veritable avalanche of boulders coming loose from their summit and raining down on the entire audience, accompanied by the soaring crescendos and notes of the highly skilled and emotive string quartet. Jóhannsson's bald pate shines in the violet and indigo lights as he massages his computers and elicits forth a dynamic spectrum of sound that seems almost as if it were recorded underwater.

A pebble falls down a mountainous glacier and falls into a pool of water - the ripples emanate outwards in concentric rings, splashing imperceptibly on a distant shore, whilst the strings occupying the wake left in mythical angels' wings streak overhead like the airstream from a ridiculously fast aircraft.

In the liner notes for IBM 1401, A User's Manual, Jóhannsson stated the encapsulation of what he was looking for: "man-machine interaction; obsolete, discarded technology; nostalgia for old computers; ... the relationships between human and artificial intelligence ..."

That was back in 2006. There I was, seated at a small table with a faux-marble finish, and drinking champagne out of a can (Sofia, by Francis Ford Coppola), watching this musical magician conjure these elemental dreams with his cohorts on an intimate stage on the fringe of the Tenderloin in downtown San Francisco; what I heard and experienced was a step beyond what he'd stated only four years ago. I think he's delved into a close and beautiful examination of the relationships between human and nature itself.

setlist.

tu non me perderai

englabörn

flight from the city

rocket builder

miracle.mystery.authority

corpus camera

sálfrae∂ingur

drömme i københavn

ibm 1401 part one: processing unit

englabörn - variations

melodia (guidelines for a space propulsion device)

odi et amo

---------

fordlandia

Let me close on this: I'm sure it's hard to get a gist of what I'm talking about in regards to the music. Don't worry! I'd like to share a sample of his music with you -- and who knows? If you'd like, you can look up some of his art; frankly, I think it makes fantastic afternoon music. Check it out, by all means. In the meantime, here is "IBM 1401: Processing Unit" off of ... well, I think you know that by now. Enjoy!

It's Always Cold Inside The Icehouse...

... though the rivers never freeze."

Thus begins the first track off Sydney, Australia-based band Flowers' debut 1980 album, Icehouse. The track, also called "Icehouse," turned out to be quite the blessing in disguise - after Iva Davies and company released the album, they found out that there was already a Scottish band called The Flowers (don't you hate it when that happens?). So they renamed themselves Icehouse (named after a particularly drafty flat Iva had lived in that seemed to always be freezing), and the album is now known as Flowers. Got all that?

Formed in 1977, Flowers - wait, sorry, Icehouse - consisted of Iva Davies (a talented multi-instrumentalist, he was (and still is, I reckon) fluid with guitar, bass, keyboards and - get this - the oboe), Keith Welsh (bass), Michael Hoste (keyboards), and Don Brown (drums). They played the pub circuit in Sydney zealously, performing covers of their musical heroes, such as Bowie, T-Rex, and Roxy Music. After having amassed a rather large following, Brown was replaced on the drums by John Lloyd, the drummer for Paul Kelly and his band at the time, the Dots. Flowers got themselves signed to a record label, released a corker of a first album, changed their name to Icehouse, and proceeded to become one of the most popular Australian bands of their time.

After their tour promoting the new album, Icehouse unfortunately split up, relegating Iva Davies to recording the follow-up album, Primitive Man, largely on his own.

But I'm not going to talk about Icehouse post-Flowers (though I will probably do so sometime in the not so distant future). Instead, I'd like to focus on a couple of songs off of that legendary debut recording that, to this day, I still find to be absolute masterpieces.

Whoosh. Masterpieces. That's not necessarily a word that should just be thrown about like so much confetti. But I'd like to share with you, dear reader, two songs off of Icehouse - oops, I meant Flowers - that are stunning in their rousing melding of moody atmospherics, introspective lyrics, and general rocking-out-edness. (And yes, I know that is not a word. But I like it.)

First off, the song known as "Icehouse." It's always nice, I think, to hear a song that delivers on the promise of its title. Sure enough, the song itself is just so damn chilly and desolate, it almost makes me shiver when I listen to it. Beginning with just the faintest of cymbals tchk-tchk-tchking over a sinister synth loop, it grows in volume and stature as Davies' voice, mildly filtered through some sort of distorting mechanism, joins in and begins to tell the rather spooky tale of a young woman waiting and waiting and waiting for her true love to come to her - though it's bound to be quite a long wait indeed. Davies sings:

"And now she's dreaming of a new love

And she hopes he'll be there soon

She says she's got no time for winter nights

She doesn't notice as the days grow colder

She can't remember getting any older

There's no love inside the icehouse..."

It's a powerful song from start to finish - multi-layered and menacing, with just the right ratio of cold electronics and amped up guitar toward the end. Does our heroine find her new love? I don't think she does, and one thing "Icehouse" does perfectly is to convey her hopelessness through the music. We feel what she feels, and frankly it feels quite cold indeed. Longtime 80's video director Russell Mulcahy (whose bizarre 1980's monster flick Razorback was scored by Mr Davies) directed the video for "Icehouse," with his trademark slapdash imagery - and it rather works, I think. This is the director who also filmed Duran Duran's "Wild Boys" - see if you can spot any resemblance!

Second up is the rousing and rollicking track "Sister." Gosh, this is such a fun song to listen to! Imagine, if you will, a cyborg pieced together from the best bits of Icehouse's heroes that they used to cover in Sydney pubs back when they first started playing. You've got some Roxy Music in there; along with T. Rex, Bowie, and Ian Durie. There are a lot of influences coming through in "Sister," and the fact that the song itself reads as something of a science-fiction story doesn't hurt matters, either. Based around the conceit of a robot woman programmed to love and be loved, "Sister" is a blast, with its mixture of lyrics concerning flesh-and-blood relations and the clinical examples of the circuitry of a humanoid replicant. I find myself thinking of Darryl Hannah's "basic pleasure model" character from Blade Runner, Pris.

"Behind the scanners and tapes

She's programmed for perfection

But sometimes simple mistakes

Get by without detection

Her figures need correction!"

I wonder if the model Iva Davies is singing about is as dangerous as Pris! The music is fast, the keyboards are flawless and exciting, and it's probably the closest to punk that Icehouse ever got. Awesome track. Here is Davies and company performing it live in 1981. Enjoy, friends!