Fresh Bread

The Polyphonic Spree / Rooney - Terminal 5 11.16.2007

My first trip to upper midtown's new venue on the west side, Terminal 5, was for the Polyphonic Spree this past Friday night.  This was my first Spree show - not sure I've ever seen a band be so dramatic and anthemic that many times in one show before.   And it was awesome.  Front man Tim DeLaughter's smiles sum up the music and show: Fun.  Big.  Infectious.  The band's two covers, "Live And Let Die" and Nirvana's "Lithium" are so unique and amazing I wet my pants in excitement when I hear them.  I'm just kidding...but seriously.  Here, listen, and check the pee factor yourself:

The Polyphonic Spree - "Lithium".mp3

View the rest of my photos here

Fun pop rockers Rooney was second on the docket (I missed the first opener, The Redwalls).  I only caught the last 3 or 4 songs of their slickly produced set but enjoyed it nonetheless.

Commercial Views Of Montreal - Quit Your Hatin'

via Stereogum, deep thoughts by Kevin Barnes on putting songs in commercials:

The pseudo-nihilistic punk rockers of the 70's created an impossible code in which no one can actually live by. It's such garbage. The idea that anyone who attempts to do anything commercial is a sell out is completely out of touch with reality.

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Like all things in this life, you have to make certain sacrifices to get what you want. At least most of us do. If you're not some trust-fund kid or lotto winner, you've got to slave it out everyday. People who wanna be artists have the hardest time of it 'cause we are held up to these impossible standards. We're expected to die penniless and insane so that the people we have moved and entertained over the years can keep us to themselves. So that they can feel a personal and untarnished connection with our art. The second we try to earn a living wage or, god forbid, promote our art in the mainstream, we are placed under the knives of the sanctimonious indie fascists. Unfortunately, there isn't some grand umbrella grant that supports indie rockers financially and enables us to exist outside of the trappings of capitalism.

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Next time you see a commercial with one of your favorite bands songs in it, just tell yourself, "cool, a band I really like made some money and now I can probably look forward to a few more records from them." It's as simple as that. We all have to do certain things, from time to time, that we might not be completely psyched about, in order to pay the bills. To me, the TV is the world's asshole boss and if anyone can earn some extra bucks from it and they're not Bill O'Reilly, it's a good thing.

read the whole post (and download some mp3s) here

Phosphorescent - Cake Shop 11.10.2007

After years of teasing me with mostly good albums and one excellent EP, Phosphorescent has finally come into its own and created a complete masterpiece. Pride is easily in the running for top ten of the year. It's always a joy when a band finally delivers on the promise of great things....highly recommended. (Music For Robots)

It's (Pride) Phosphorescent's third full-length, first for Dead Oceans, and far and away his finest work, sustaining a bittersweet, organic vibe throughout. There's no picking faves on an album that runs this deep, but these two are perfect Pride primers. Matthew's (Houck, lead singer) circadian strum on "Wolves," joined by harmonium and later star-gazing guitar, set a dusky backdrop for his cracking, fireside vox. "The hilltops at night, they are beautiful." Perfectly beautiful. (Stereogum)

If I had to describe it, I'd say it fits in nicely with its label-mate Dirty Projectors, but is more like (a lot like) Will Oldham (aka Bonnie Prince Billy) with a bit of Neil Young and Sufjan Stevens thrown into the mix. (Brooklyn Vegan).

If in the past Phosphorescent's work contained moments that could be received as echoing Sparklehorse, Tindersticks, Clem Snide, Low, downbeat Flaming Lips, the Pacific-pastoral K Records stable, and the Joe-Henry-curated Jesus' Son soundtrack's commingling of soul, spirituals, oldies, and faux-ldies, well, good for humanity. (Pitchfork review of Pride)

Phosphorescent played a fine show at Cake Shop last night.  The band seemed bigger than the room and, from the great reviews above, will be sure to move onto larger spaces when they return to the USA after a quick jaunt in Europe. 

Bodies of Water opened up.  I'm not really into out-of-key, banshee-like vocals and therefore couldn't wait for their set to finish. 

Pop Tarts Suck Toasted was there too - loved the bands, hated the crowd

Gothamist interview with lead singer / guitarist, Matthew Houck.

Listen to some live tunes from Phosphorescent's Daytrotter Session

Pela's Studio Blog

Five days into the recording we are now deep into the record. We have laid down the foundation for seven of the songs and developed a few of them late into the evening. Five days equals 60 hours of work, lots of tacos from the roach coach across the street, and an impressive amount of coffee. The album is slowly birthing itself on tape. (tour blog)

Pela is in a Los Angeles studio recording a new album.  They are keeping a blog while they are there.   I'll be following along as I really dig them.  You should too.

Photo Of The Day - I Got Hitched.

the freshest wedding shoes ever.

yes, she let me wear them. 

No Take Off, Eh, And A Missed Sea Wolf Show

I've been quite busy in the real world recently:  I got married.  My wife is from Toronto where we were this past weekend for a wedding party.  I was supposed to be back early enough last night to make it down to the Mercury Lounge in time to catch Sea Wolf.  It didn't work out that way. 

As Brooklyn Vegan points out, there are quite the number of Wolf bands that inspire this band.  More wolf equals more good (You can quote me on that).  Therefore, they must be amazing and thus I was pretty excited to see them live for the first time.    Plus, I had heard a number of tracks off their recent release Leaves In The River - one of the tracks in particular ("Middle Distance Runner") is currently in heavy rewind mode.

Amazon album description:

The songs on this debut full-length are awash with longing for distant places visited, lived, and loved, and are molded by the geography of singer/songwriter Alex Brown Church's past - the long, winding descent from the Sierra foothills to the hazy shores of the Barbary Coast. Lofting, arching melodies over foggy, elegiac pop and folk structures. The impression left by these songs lasts long after they've packed up and moved on. Produced by Phil Ek (The Shins, Built To Spill, Band Of Horses).

Anyways, back to my story.  Was supposed to be back in time for the show but after sitting on the runway for WAY too long (stupid congestion in the greater NYC area flight corridor) I got back too late to go to the show.   Hopefully they will be back in the city soon. 

Peep this live version from WOXY of "Middle Distance Runner" and this Daytrotter Session version of "You're A Wolf"

Better Late Than Never - Gothamist CMJ Day House (Friday) - Jukebox the Ghost - 10.19.07

I was only able to catch one of my two "blame you cmj" bands a few weeks ago.  D.C. based Jukebox The Ghost were as good as I hoped.  You can't help but like the voice of lead singer Ben Thornewill and his band's Ben Folds meets Flaming Lips-like sound.  As I said before, "Good Day" is a brilliant pop song (download it here) and was the highlight of a fun 30 min set.  I only wish the set was longer (and more on time) than it was. 

JBTG is back in NYC next week, playing Columbia university; they are also playing Union Hall December 1 with Ra Ra Riot.  That is a nice lineup.