advertisement
follow us
Newsletter signup
Get a little Crawdaddy! right in the inbox once a week:
Straight to Video
Rock Art Rock
The Decemberists
September 19, 2009
Terminal 5, New York, NY
By Amanda Hatfield "The Decemberists played a special one night 'lottery show,' where the songs played were picked at random by a master of ceremonies, played by John Wesley Harding..."
Ra Ra Riot
April 4, 2009
Webster Hall, New York City, NY
By Amanda Hatfield "This show was, at the time, the biggest one Ra Ra Riot had sold out as headliners, and it was clear to me after watching it that the band is destined for even bigger and better things..."
Florence and the Machine
October 28, 2009
Bowery Ballroom, New York City, NY
By Amanda Hatfield "Florence Welsh and her backing band delighted and mesmerized a sold-out crowd at Bowery in her first official NY headlining show..."
Dirty Projectors
July 19, 2009
Williamsburg Waterfront (Brooklyn, NY)
By Amanda Hatfield "I was skeptical about how well Dirty Projectors' gorgeous, complex vocal harmonies would carry over outdoors, standing under hot sunshine..."
See more in the Rock Art Rock gallery.
Most Read Articles
- The Smoke-Filled Room: Music and a Woman’s Right to Choose
- What Goes On: Liam Gallagher Reveals Post-Oasis Plans, and Other News
- My Life Is the Road: Clarence White and Jim Morrison Stretch on a 747
- It Shows, What Goes On: Live Show Review: Devo at the Regency Ballroom, San Francisco
- What Goes On: This Just In: Steven Tyler Is the Rainbow
- Reviews: Weezer: Raditude
- Introducing: His Name Is John Michael Rouchell
polls
Loading ...-
Search results for: unwound
Deerhunter
Deerhunter
Rainwater Cassette Exchange
(Kranky, 2009)
Deerhunter is an oddity in the current landscape of What Is Now Indie. They play relatively static, Spacemen 3-inspired drone rock with less the weight and grandeur of du jour space metal like Isis or Sunn O))), but rather the dollar-bin post-Velvet-isms of the Stratford 4 and Unwound. A great thing really, as I’m not much for metal, but their problem is an affliction shared by many bands saddled with the expectations of Rockcrit 2.0—delivering on the cult of personality that’s the real reason you’ve heard of them. Despite some beautiful album art (Cryptograms), shocking titles (their self-titled debut album was alternately titled Turn It Up Faggot), solo indulgences (Atlas Sound, Lotus Plaza), and enough backstory to fill Jack Kerouac’s Benzedrine-operated quill, none of Deerhunter’s pre-2008 records are any good. Bradford Cox made love/hate waves with his incomprehensible Pitchfork reception, posting pictures of band members’ feces on the Deerhunter blog, picking fights with rock journalists, and generally making more memorable news than any tunes.
A provocateur in search of the full package, basically, he calmed down, apologized for his antics, reinstated an aghast guitar player, and turned out last year’s Microcastle—not only his first good record, but his first great one. Barring some dead air in the middle, the album’s numerous excellent moments rank with the best Yo La Tengo drones floating in syrup and lemon for a melted summer day, and finally delivering on the disturbing lyrics apropos of his psyche to match: Try “Agoraphobia”, which takes its title so literally that its protagonist wants to be buried and kept alive rather than face the world. Not everyone gets a second chance to prove they’re not a fraud—just ask Devendra Banhart. But Cox finally put up or shut up—established himself with humor and reason for being.
Unwound: Leaves Turn Inside You
Unwound
Leaves Turn Inside You
(Kill Rock Stars, 2001)
I loved the title. Given, I’m biased because my favorite record is Sonic Youth’s A Thousand Leaves and Unwound was milking my sweet spot here by invoking an even more psychedelic autumnal image. Nevertheless, I listened to Leaves Turn Inside You because I liked the title, and the art didn’t hurt either: A stark midnight backdrop with the band name rendered ominously in Middle English-style text à la Beowulf. I took the compliment personally when someone I know called it “fucking metal.” While Sonic Youth’s masterful spelunking expedition had the politeness to finish up over the course of one 80-minute disc, Unwound’s holy tome messily splays across two because it’s fucking metal.
Unwound aren’t metal at all, actually. A post-hardcore noise unit from Olympia who struggled for years alongside, oh, Polvo, and countless other faceless (don’t wince, I didn’t see you picking Sara Lund out at 88 Boadrum last year) groups who struggled to put noises and tunes together in new ways without leaving their world. And granted, it’s hard to distinguish the earlier Repetition and The Future of What from Polvo or make out much of anything from the disconsolate if occasionally interesting dissonances. But on these 1999-2000 recordings released the following year as their swan song, the perennially discordant trio finally succeeded in keeping their sludgier tendencies at bay. The particle beam of feedback—which passkeys a whole two minutes of Leaves opener “We Invent You”—is an audacious start in many ways, not least for its Icelandic clarity. At the pace of a floe, with thundering guillotine drums and elegiac, off-in-the-distance vocals, the tune sets all kinds of bars too high for future standards of art rock, stoner rock, and prog; if there was any justice, some Strat-wielding jughead is transmogrifying it into the next Sunn O))) as we speak.
Leonard Cohen: April 14th at the Paramount Theatre, Oakland
Leonard Cohen
April 14th at the Paramount, Oakland
At one point during Leonard Cohen’s three-and-a-half hour show at the Paramount Theatre last night, I looked around at the rapt, seated audience, and never before have I seen so many people clinging to sound. People were literally on the edge of their seats, mouths agape—not a soul was stirring. I caught myself on several occasions coming up for air from the intensity of this performance and realized I was wearing a wide smile on my face, touched by the depths of Cohen’s catalog and his pervasive ability to really, truly deliver these treasured songs live as well. I felt so privileged to even be here (with, um, sixth row seats). As the performance unwound, it quickly became clear that all the publicity, all the spectacle surrounding his longtime return to the stage, served to put our expectations up on a pedestal, where a renowned and aging Cohen was more than ready to meet them and deliver them right into the lucky laps of us there to bare witness to this transcendent musical experience.
We had a bit of trouble with traffic and parking, and as such entered late during “Everybody Knows”, the sound of which was resonating throughout the grand, art deco-era theater, even down into the cavernous belly of the place where the bar and bathrooms resided. When we were permitted to enter the auditorium in between songs, it was clear at once that the audience and Cohen were enjoying a mutually beneficial synergy but the exchange was driven just as importantly from his shining backing musicians, literally among the best out there in the world today. Cohen was flanked by an incredible ensemble of multi-instrumentalists: Javier Mas, a virtuoso Spanish banduria player; a phenomenal woodwind/horn player who traded duties on clarinet and saxophone, among others; organist Neil Larson; a pedal steel/guitar player; and three backing female singers, one of whom, Sharon Robinson, has co-written songs with Cohen; and the Webb sisters, whose harmonies melted with Robinson’s and poured like warm honey from their lips… simply angelic.
Your Handy Guide to the Month in Music
I don’t like February very much. Where I live, it’s still ridiculously cold, and as much as I like the winter and the weather that comes with it, I think the truth is that I only like it because I associate it with Christmas and my birthday, two occasions for which people buy me things. But come February, those two occasions are long gone, and all I have is seriously dry skin and fantasies about drinking beer outside in the sun, which can’t realistically happen with any kind of consistency for another two months. If nothing else, though, at least there are the Grammys to help get me through the dark times. And news about the Barenaked Ladies.
This Month’s Most Notable News Stories
Bonnaroo Lineup Announced
Well, it’s March now, which means you should be getting ready to spend the next five months of your life hearing people talk about summer music festivals. Who’s playing them, who went to them, who accidentally got dusted at them, and so on. It’s exhausting, but it’s a sad fact of my life, which I’m done trying to avoid. So, I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to play along.
Polvo
by: Andres Jauregui
In Prism
(Merge, 2009)
Time off can be a good thing. In fact, when it’s requested—in a relationship, at a job, during sporting competitions—it’s usually out of self-care, part of a larger plan to perform better by way of being rested and re-focused. But, with a rock band (and, alas, in some relationships) a hiatus is too often seen as a sign of weakness, a threat to the tenuous charade of stability that albums uphold. A hiatus, eroded by time, can become a permanent break.
Before re-forming to play the Explosions in the Sky installment of All Tomorrow’s Parties and the mammoth Primavera Sound festival in Spain, Polvo’s break indeed looked permanent. Their previous album, 1997’s Shapes, was followed by a “farewell” tour and a 10-year period of inactivity during which members focused on family and other projects. But whether renewed interest led to new recording prospects, or vice versa, the reformed Polvo (original line-up with new drummer Brian Quast) has used this moment in the sun to release the album of their career.
read more
by: Andres Jauregui
published: September 18, 2009 in column: Reviews
no comments yet