All photos by David Greenwald

Indie rock’s inconvenient truth is this: the more people we let into the party, the louder and dumber it gets. The advantage to the hipsters of yore was that having an audience of nerdy elitists meant bands actually had to be some baseline level of “good” (or an equivalent level of “cool”) to get listened to. This is now not necessarily the case. James Mercer peaked in 2003, on the Shins song “Kissing The Lipless,” and has produced diminishing returns ever since. Broken Bells, by any reasonable estimation, are a poor man’s Postal Service, with Mercer writing unchallenging pop and Danger Mouse rehashing production tricks that didn’t sound any more exciting the last four or five times. The whole thing sounds so much like a victory lap that one wonders why the band even bothers, until, duh: lots of people love this! Like, with actual, know-every-word affection! Maybe that’s better than the room-half-full, folded-arms stoicism of the Oh, Inverted World era, but last night, I couldn’t say I didn’t miss it. (On the bright side, opening act the Morning Benders were awesome. H8/<3 U SO BAD, 2010.) More photos of Zach Braff James Mercer after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

All photos by David Greenwald

The big news of LA Font’s latest gig was that their debut full length’s all tracked and into the mixing/mastering stages. As soon as you can hear/buy it, I’ll let you know, but until then, the band’s wall-scorching live show will have to suffice. Every time I see them, they sound more like Pavement; hopefully by the time they play my little thing next month, Danny Bobbe will have completely mastered Malkmus’ sneer. On a technical note, I kinda love how shitty and film-y these shots turned out; also, note bassist Greg Katz’s Black Flag/Justin Bieber t-shirt. I’m a belieber. More photos after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

And here I thought Ryan Adams spent 2006 recording Sad Dracula albums. Orion, his so-called “most legit metal” album was also recorded that year and is now for sale on “extremely limited” vinyl. Suffice to say, yours truly just proudly ordered one. You can, too.

Previously: Ryan Adams Hints At Album(s), Tour

Faded Paper Figures’ latest single finds the band — one of my 2008 favorites — taking a glossy page from Phoenix and Metric and turning up the volume. The group merges Postal Service sincerity with pulsing electro-shocked grooves in the best way; in a perfect world, Owl City bro hears this and applies to law school.

Faded Paper Figures – “Invent It All Again”: mp3

(Sophomore album New Medium is due May 25)

Previously: Faded Paper Figures – Dynamo

The National’s High Violet presents a protagonist whose world has darkened in the face of the spotlight. The Cincinnati upstarts-turned-Brooklyn scene kings’ narratives have gone inversely bleak as the group’s popularity rises to previously unfathomable heights: a nationwide Google ad, the front page of the New York Times’ website, a YouTube webcast co-directed by Dont Look Back’s D.A. Pennebaker; these are the kinds of things that change lives — and can twist great songwriters into bad ones. Yet, High Violet is not a record that dwells on success.

On 2005’s Alligator, the band’s breakthrough release (and my favorite album of the past decade), singer Matthew Berninger presented a persona that thrived on disaster. “I’m a festival/I’m a parade” he sang on “All The Wine,” positing himself with self-mocking hyperbole as a hubristic anti-hero even as he acknowledged the demons lurking below his high-wire exploits. Boxer showcased that character evolving, even as the band’s constant touring and slow-building critical acclaim raised the album’s stakes. Berninger’s once-raging baritone was toned down, wrapped in chamber arrangements and turned suddenly adult and aware, admitting a desire to “stop thinking of my dick” rather than “ballerina ’round a coffee table, cock in hand.” “Mistaken For Strangers” best captured the band’s growing pains, with a lumbering, laborious chorus tangled up in “the unmagnificent lives of adults” even as Berninger metaphorically instructed himself to “fill yourself with quarters”; like a videogame, lit up and started fresh, perhaps, or a parking meter, doomed to a two-hour limit. The curled-up imagery of his lyrics is less so on High Violet, an album that embraces more straightforward misery. Read the rest of this entry »

The nerdier among us (which, OK, hand raised) may remember the months and years of waiting for The Dark Knight — and the viral campaign which helped fill the lonely hours at home, alone, laptop a-glow, wondering what Heath Ledger would look like as the Joker. It was worthwhile for a number of reasons: the gestation time of films is long enough for Octomom to pump out another litter; the mystery dovetailed perfectly with Batman’s own role as the world’s greatest detective, and its intelligence only (deservedly!) increased confidence in the prospects of the film itself.

Applying these same smoke screens to music, however, has been less effective. Read the rest of this entry »

The National in 2006 / photo by David Greenwald

Jams: Two new songs from International Waters; Ghosty’s O Foolish Pride EP reviewed; a First Look at Ted Leo’s bracing new disc.

News: The National played a pretty great YouTube-broadcasted show, capping off their High Violet release week festivities; I got a C&D for the first time in years.

Videos: Laura Marling covers Jackson C. Frank’s “Blues Run The Game”; a Destroyer clip from his still-spine-tingling May 10, 2009 performance surfaces; Alright Class’ twee, quirky clip for “The Fall”; Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin teased its next album.

Deeper Into Movies: My fanboy take on Iron Man 2.

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Yes, like U2 did. Yes, The National are now, through sheer force of talent, the most popular band we like. (Update: Sufjan’s there!) Watch now.

Previously: The National – “Terrible Love” (Live) | “Bloodbuzz Ohio” | All Posts