Yo La Tengo + Broken Social Scene Live at Cornell

As usual I was running late to see Yo La Tengo and Broken Social Scene(presents Kevin Drew), but I did get to drive down rt 89 on the way which had a very pretty if somewhat dark view of Cayuga Lake the whole way. I highly recommend it, I bet its even better in the day time.
I'd like to admit before I start really get into this post that I've never really listened to either of these bands all that much despite both of them being somewhat iconic in the indie rock world and the fact that this show provided the one chance to see them together on what are otherwise separate tours, seemed like a good opportunity to check them both out.

I missed the beginning of Yo La Tengo's set and by the end of it I felt like that wasn't all that I was missing. I really just don't get whatever it is that they were getting at in there set which ended with about a six minute songs who's lyrics were mostly "Lets talk about nuclear war, yeah". Thats not my main gripe though, mostly the set seemed to me just sort of uninspired. In my past experience though bands don't get signed to Matador Records or last more than twenty years for nothing and I am willing to bet I really am missing something here, so I would ask you dear reader to please help fill me in. If I was going to put one (of the fifteen) Yo La Tengo records on my mp3 player to give my self a chance to see what they are all about which one would it be and why?

Broken Social Scene on the other hand who I also didn't know too much about before hand was awesome. They put on a rip roaring show all the way through (there were no ballads and no female members, I don't know if there was any correlation) and got the whole crowd to hug itself, literally. Their new record Spirit If is quite good and I have also since been directed to their classic You Forget it in People which I would also recommend.

Mt Eerie live at Bard

After my ride got pulled over by a cop on the way to pick us up for Mt Eerie last monday we were running late & worried we would miss the beginning of the show. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it, Phil's car broke down and after a string of bad luck he showed up at the packed hall at around 11pm looking exactly like he does in this picture.

He had just sold his trusty tour mobile for 100$ to a mechanic and had a rental car he could barely fit all his gear and merch in. He had admittedly had a really bad day and after telling everyone about it he announced he was going to do an all request show!!! Everyone started spasticly screaming the names of songs. Having not seen him before he played the best hour and a half set I could have hoped for including a slew of my favorite old microphones songs off the Glow Pt 2, including I want wind to blow straight into the glow part 2, the moon and he ended with sing along versions of I can't believe you actually died and Human Human. Lucky for me I had my handy mp3 player to record the whole thing.

I've heard that he rarely plays stuff off the glow pt 2, I'd be really interested to hear from anyone else who has seen him on this tour about what he played when you saw him.


mp3: I want wind to blow + The Glow Part 2 (live @ bard 11/5/07)
mp3: Solar System
mp3: Great Ghosts
mp3: 2 Blond Braids

You can check out his new expensive(60$) but worthwhile album/picture book/disc over at pwelverumandsun.com .

Here are a couple of my recordings i have mastered a little, if you are interested in getting the whole set drop me an email at am3081 at gmail dot com.

Anathallo, Your happy makes me go...

It has been a long hiatus since I last visited the 3 Benson blog. And although this visit will be short, I could not pass up on the opportunity, for I felt it more of an obligation, to write about Anathallo, that seven member band that filled my ears with melodies and harmonies sweeter than any sweet joy this past Sunday eve at Valentine's in Albany. Anathallo hails originally from Michigan, so I hear, and now is based out of Chicago. They have but two shows remaining on this tour, as listed on their myspace page: October 30th in Holland, Michigan and November 9th in Muncie, Indiana.

You can find some of their music at their myspace:

www.myspace.com/anathallo

But don't even think you can begin to understand this band by listening to their recordings. Their studio recordings can't capture half of the energy these guys and gal emit from the stage. You can't see the giant marching band drum that is played more like a sport than an instrument. You can't experience the chills from their sometimes seven part harmonies, for though they harmonize nicely on the recordings, it's nothing like seeing them do it flawlessly live.

Their recordings don't show off what incredibly talented musicians these guys are either. Though the recordings of their multi-part songs melt and flow into one another in true indie fashion, where melodies end abruptly only to introduce an even more meandering and melodic section of the song, coming from seemingly out of the blue, we all know how handy recording instruments are at aiding in these effects. To see these songs pieced together live with all the skill of a conducted orchestra, that still has the energy of a band of friends goofing off on stage, is something to grin until your cheeks hurt at, shake your head in awe at, have band and choir teachers everywhere pointing out to their students that "this is what you can do if you stick with it", and send musicians everywhere back to the drawing boards.

If you could take Belle and Sebastian and put them in a blender with a choir and a school band, you would get Anathallo. They are talented, they are spellbinding.

See them live.

If You're Not Happy Where You Are, You'll Never Be Happy Where You Go

It's A Crab's Life

If you tuned in back in March, then you may have caught a story about Jon of the Atom's life in Groton, New York. In that cold and blustery month he was a mad scientist; stirring his dark stew, adding frog lips and hog hair to his steaming cauldron. He was on the brink of a remarkable new musical discovery, or was it aural hysteria?

Sometime around mid-May he opened the door, the fresh country air poured in and overwhelmed him. He gathered a few necessities and headed for the hills. After a short trek he built a shelter of twigs, and traded in the maniacal steps of a scientist for the slow amble of a mountain recluse. He played Elvis and Hank Williams songs in his cabin to the attentive ears of the local fauna. Squirrels, foxes, deer, sparrows and chickadees were all regular sites around his abode and soon they joined forces to help Jon create his latest masterpiece, "Critical Mass: Flying Things vs. Crawling Things".

He would stumble into town now and then, with a new moustache and view of the world. The folks there never expected to see him but we're never surprised when they did. They knew he was harmless, and only wanted to trade his wares for a few kind words, a whiskey sour, and a good nights rest on the couch.

I heard rumor that he will most likely release his new creation upon the world in 2011, most likely the day of the apocolypse. I traded two Little League baseball bats, 16 cherry tomatoes, and a bail of twine for a copy of the disc, and I believe it was well worth it, though I've now resorted to using brooms and pears to get my baseball fix.

You can find some good things to trade to him for his new disc, or go to his Myspace and ask politely for one, though none of the songs from the album are up as his songs as of now, he doesn't get very good wireless in his twig hut.

JOTA's Myspace

mp3: Jon of the Atom - Ducks Flying By
mp3: Jon of the Atom - Moths at the Bug Zapper


Disclaimer: This post went no where and was entirely made up. He was never a mad scientist (to my knowledge), and (to my knowledge) has never been any sort of wilderness recluse. He lives somewhere in mid-Western New York, and occasionaly sleeps on my couch. Flying Things vs. Crawling Things has been on a steady rotation in my room. I hope you enjoy.

Animal Collective: Strawberry Jam

Other blogs are probably writing better reviews on this album than I ever will, but seeing as how I haven't posted in a while ( and there isn't anything else that I've listened to that has been worth writing about) here we are.

I've always felt like the fairest way to review Animal Collective is to have a rather ambivalent attitude towards them; most people you ecounter or either Animal Collective fanatics or they don't have the patience to sit and down and figure out what this band does. Speaking as an ambivalent listener (in all honesty I can typically take or leave AC) Strawberry Jam is probably the most accessible record from these guys to date. However, they are good enough at what they do to maintain the eccentricities and complex time signatures that have earned them so much respect in the music world. This album is much more poppy than their previous work and differs a lot from their last release. Feels was very spacey and introspective, Strawberry Jam has a much more jubilant, melodic vibe. The songs are almost (dare I say it) catchy. Longtime listeners will appreciate the fact that Animal Collective have not lost their original sound at all when making this record, they've really just enriched it and taken it another direction. What I've always found interesting about AC is how they really don't sound like anyone else, it's as if they come from another dimension, all of their songs could very easily be songs from a distant planet. Animal Collective is one of the very few bands that successfully pushes the creative borders in a way that keeps one interested without getting too annoyed with their pretentiousness. (Because lets be honest, of COURSE they're pretentious.) Avey Tare's vocals only add to the very surreal feel of the band, sometimes his voice can be hard to really get into, but I think it meshes with what this group is all about very well.

Regardless, Strawberry Jam is a good album, it has something for both the faithful listener and the newbie. If you want to read a more specific review of this band I'm sure you will figure out a way to do so, all I am really trying to say here is that I think this a record that truly deserves a listen. Love them or hate them, Animal Collective is a band that consists of some of the most innovative talent of the current music scene. Give them a try if you haven't already.

http://www.myanimalhome.net/

http://www.myspace.com/animalcollectivetheband

The Ants go Marching

Mirah And Spectratone International - Community

I saw Mirah in chicago this summer and along with playing all of my favorite songs that she has ever written she played small snippets from her new album Share This Place and asked the crowd to guess what each song was about. Community the first song on the album is a beautiful meditation on selflessness and community. Ants of course can't think, well at least about themselves but as a group do some really impressive things. The wonderful wisdom of having no wisdom.

[Website][Myspace][Buy]

Memories of a Muddy Cup Open Mic

It didn't dawn on me the first time I went to an open mic at Muddy Cup that the event was in its infancy. I was new myself and felt like an outsider looking in through gigantic windows while old friends strummed guitars, sat on couches, and sipped mocha lattes like they must have been doing there for centuries.

It didn't dawn on me that attending that Open Mic would change the course of my life's events forever, for I stumbled upon the Muddy Cup Open Mic somewhat by accident -or perhaps it was the forces of musical fate that were having their way that day. Either way, the Muddy Cup lured us into it's grasp, and hasn't let go.

Having grown up in Albany, yet only having just returned after a long hiatus, Eric and I forced ourselves to the streets, looking for something to do one August evening back in good ol' 2006. Eric decided to surprise me by taking me out to see a film about farmers playing at the Madison Theatre. But, as often occurs when Eric surprises me by trying to take me out to an event, we realized upon arrival that we had arrived on the wrong day...it's kind of a cute quirk of his, his dyslexia. Silly numbers.

But instead of taking our newly purchased champagne colored Honda Station wagon (which at the time had only 187,000 miles on it instead of the 194,000 it does now.... they grow up so quickly!) all the way back to Altamont so we could sit beside the energy of the unfamiliar ghosts we had just moved in with, we decided to grab a cup of joe at the coffee shop next door.

Before we even made it inside a giant poster on the window caught our attention.

MUDDY CUP OPEN MIC MONDAY
SIGN UPS AT 8:00

"Can we go Jenny? Can we?"

I was hesitant about making a mental note of the date and the time, it was rare that I had a positive experience at the various open mics I'd ever been to. I almost wanted to leave it up to Eric to remember the details, and hope his dyslexia would rear it's ugly (but, on occasions like this, helpful) head. I couldn't help the painful images entering into my brain. Memories of open mics rushed back in a flood of crooning, self depricating, and off time strumming musicians that shattered my calm, sprinkled on top were crass bathroom comedians and dark eyed "the-world-is-at-its-nearest-end-at-this-very-moment" poets. I shuddered.

But surely, this open mic would be different.

"Excuse me, sorry to bother you, but we need to set up here." I looked up to find myself engrossed in my book, sitting at the table on the Open Mic stage. How dreadfully embarrassing. I had "freshman" written all over my face. I was so busy feeling akward I didn't notice how akward everyone else looked. It's like the first day of class when you're so busy feeling stupid about studying your class schedule that you don't notice that's what every one else is doing too.

I spent the rest of the night in a haze of dark roast aromas, the drone of tuning guitars, the energy of caffeine-high-wracked-nerves, and attempted to read the same paragraph of my book over and over and over again.

Had we gotten in over our heads?

Suddenly Eric was on stage singing...and dancing?

"I can't believe that it's August, I can't believe we can fly. I can't believe I can't believe, and I have no good reason why. I feel like I am enlightened and I'm in over my head."

And the next thing I knew, from the corner of my eye I spotted these crazy hobos, who by the third verse were singing along...

"Whoo hoo, Whoo hoo. Yeah we're in over our heads. Whoo hoo, whoo hoo...
Yeah, we're in over our heads."

Muddy Cup Open Mic celebrates its one year anniversary...sometime around now.
The weekly event is more popular than ever, having just been voted 2nd best open mic in Albany, with an average of over 25 acts signing up each Monday.

Sometimes it feels good to be in over our heads.

Kudos to you Josh & Tom.

www.myspace.com/muddycupopenmicnight

www.muddycup.com/albany