let the haunting begin…

Happy All Hallows Eve!

The MINDset folk wish you a happy day of spooks, tricks and treats. We encourage you to celebrate this day of ghoulish delight by bobbing for apples, carving a jack-o-lantern and listening to some sweet halloween tunes such as the music of Gwar, Mayhem and Lordi (pictured above). Also, check out this tune from a couple years back by the North American Halloween Prevention Initiative entitled “Do They Know It’s Halloween?” (featuring members of Arcade Fire, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Rilo Kiley, Beck, Les Savy Fav, Postal Service, Sonic Youth, Wolf Parade and a special appearance by David Cross).

The Radiohead Effect

These days, it’s all about choice. Not believing in money (or capitalism), I’m not sure what they’ve been teaching in business school, but apparently the new model is to let the customer pick their price. For a limited time, you can pick your price for a Paste subscription. Do it.

Actually, print is dead.

Miss the late 90s?

Well, tomorrow the music world wants to take you back to the late 90s (perhaps 1999 to be exact) with the following releases:

Backstreet Boys – Unbreakable
Britney Spears – Blackout

I would tell you to buy both of them, but apparently Britney Spears’ friends are encouraging her fans not to purchase her album until she gets her life back together. What kinds of friends are these? When I was in a band, I had my friends sell our album to their relatives to help us out. Oh wait, Britney’s a walking meltdown… oh well, then I guess they’re good friends. In related news, head over to The Superficial to read about Britney’s erratic behavior from the mouth of K-Fed’s new girlfriend (did I really just type that?)

If you’re actually looking for something to buy tomorrow (and BSB won’t get the job done), let me recommend the following:

Coheed and Cambria – Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume 2: No World For Tomorrow
Saves the Day – Under the Boars
Thrice – The Alchemy Index: Volumes I & II (see review below)
Thursday – Kill The House Lights

… maybe more 2003 than 1999, but they get my vote.

Thrice – The Alchemy Index: Vol. I & II

On October 16, 2007 Thrice released the first two volumes (fire and water) of their four-volume concept album focused on the basic elements of alchemy (earth and air are set for release next April). With this project, Thrice hoped to give each individual volume its own unique sound by capturing the feel of the element. At the same time the band was looking to make a record that they truly felt was 100% their own. Guitarist Teppei Teranishi states, “We really wanted to try doing things our way this time around, and make this record sound the way we want it to sound, not the way it’s ’supposed’ to sound.” (Teppei did most of the production of the album himself to help in this regard.) So were they successful? Count my vote as a yes.

Volume I, Fire, is a heavy and blistering album that is reminiscent of earlier Thrice material. The bass and drums on this volume provide a booming foundation for the riffs and melodies that Thrice has built their career around. Highlight tracks here are the opener “Firebreather,” “Backdraft” with its super hooky refrain, and “Burn the Fleet,” which shows the ability of the band to retain its sound while bringing in new elements (a bit of Isis-esque post-rock, perhaps?).

Volume II, Water, heads in a much different direction. Here the band experiments with synths and drum machine lending a much more serene and electronic feel to the album. A very new direction for Thrice, although there were hints of this sound on Vheissu, that shows their versatility as a group. Highlight tracks: “Digital Sea,” “Lost Continent,” “The Whaler” (especially the last 90 seconds or so, wow).

Needless to say, I cannot wait until April to hear what Volumes III & IV (Earth and Air) sound like. Until then, catch Thrice on tour now with Brand New and mewithoutYou.

Portman Mixtape

Pitchfork reports that Natalie Portman has revealed the tracklist for her Big Change: Songs for FINCA compilation.

01 Tokyo Police Club: “Be Good”
02 Beirut: “My Night With the Prostitute From Marseille” [exclusive]
03 Tom Brosseau: “Plaid Lined Jacket”
04 Curumin: “Tudo Bem Malandro”
05 The Shins: “Australia (Bjorn Yttling Mix)” [exclusive]
06 Brett Dennen: “Ain’t No Reason”
07 Sean Hayes: “Turnaroundturnmeon”
08 Thee More Shallows: “Oh Yes, Another Mother”
09 Angus & Julia Stone: “The Beast”
10 Antony & the Johnsons: “Paddy’s Gone”
11 Vetiver: “Idle Ties”
12 Norah Jones: “Broken”
13 Devendra Banhart: “There’s Always Something Happening” [exclusive]
14 M. Ward: “What Is a Soul?” [exclusive]
15 Wooden Wand: “Forgiveness Figg (Bethany Hotel Blues)”
16 Rogue Wave: “How We Landed” [exclusive]

I guess it’s a pretty good mix of songs/artists — some fairly obscure things along with the obvious safe choices.

In other news, Natalie Portman recently appeared in Wes Anderson’s new film, The Darjeeling Limited, for a whole four seconds.

Better late than never

 

On September 14, 2007, Legends pulled off another awesome show. Because I’m writing this blog right before November, I honestly don’t remember the two starter acts—only that they were fairly decent and from Chicago.

 

Anywho, the Chicago-based phenomenon played most of their Every Second Counts CD, and, of course, one or two from All That We Needed (maybe you’ve heard of “Hey There Delilah”?).

 

Lead-singer Tom Higgenson was energized throughout the show, which was, in my opinion, the perfect length for a Legends concert. I gathered from the crowd’s feedback that previous fans were more than satisfied, and the band collected a few new fans as well. After the show, hottie/guitarist Tim Lopez braved a continuous swarm of girls to take pictures with the fans.

 

Photo courtesy of Megan S.

The New Pornographers at Metro

Pictures for now, the first two are from the openers.

Spoon @ The Riviera, 10/12/07

I love Spoon. And I’m sure my review would look no different if the show had been horrible, but it wasn’t.

I’d never been to the Riviera before, so walking in maybe 20 minutes before the opening band (The Ponys) came on I was slightly surprised how small the crowd was for a sold out show. My friend and I made our way somewhat towards the center on the main floor but expected to soon be mobbed by people trying to aggressively, though sometimes rhythmically with the music, push their way towards the front. It never happened, even after Spoon came on. I was quite excited by this small thing, but when your head/face is at sweaty-man armpit height, you really appreciate it.

Anyway, so The Ponys opened, and I had heard of them but hadn’t really heard any of their music before Friday night. Not bad, but nothing amazing. Kind of your run-of-the-mill garage rock influenced indie band. The lead singer did have a glow-in-the-dark Halloween sweatshirt, though. Like +108 awesome points in my book.

Spoon came on and started off I think with The Fitted Shirt from 2001’s Girls Can Tell. There were some sound level issues for a couple of songs, but nothing too horrible. Spoon’s somewhat sparse sound seemed to work perfectly, though. Once we could actually hear the keyboard, at least. Playing a variety of songs from different albums worked out great, as it seems like there were different people screaming in the first few seconds of each of the songs, and that’s another thing I love about Spoon — different songs hit people differently. Some of the overall crowd favorites were (not surprisingly) I Turn My Camera On, You Got Yr Cherry Bomb, and The Way We Get By, which they played in the encore. I was surprised at how much I actually enjoyed The Ghost of You Lingers, the haunting and somewhat disjointed-feeling song from Ga(x5). I am impressed by most lights at concerts, but I really think they added a little something special for this song.

I’m realizing more and more that I suck at concert reviews, so here are a few more things I can think of: my highlights for the show were Vittorio E. and I Turn My Camera On. Vittorio E. is one of those songs you can just lose yourself in, and the simplicity of it lets you add your own element. And I’m not much of a dancer, but I Turn My Camera On had everyone doing a little bit more than your average hipsterheadnod. Oh, and the horns playing for The Underdog and a couple more were also fun.

Basically, it was everything I expected from the lovely Britt Daniel et al, but nothing too much more than that, though not in a bad way.

(Sidestory: Jim Eno raised his drumstick after the encore and my friend and I are convinced he was trying to throw it to us. However, a tall guy was able to reach out over our heads and grab it, but not before I could latch onto the butt end of the stick before I landed from my jump. He was holding it with two hands; I was still gripping it with one. We stood there for a little bit. I’m sure I made some slight tug at some point — I just really didn’t want to give up or let go. He made some awkward comment about the situation, and I laughed and let go. I should have yanked that drumstick out of his selfish hands and slapped his wrists with it, but I restrained myself. That seems to be my main regret of the night. Along with being right behind the girls who got the setlist and didn’t seem to know what to do with it.)

Here are some pictures:

Spoon concert 10/12/07

Sufjan Stevens, a Franciscan?

Well no not in a literal sense, but Sufjan Steven’s “All the Trees of the Field Will Clap Their Hands” off of Seven Swans is being featured by the Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity as their Vocation Meditation song for the month of October. If you’d like to read more about this latest honor for Sufjan head here: Franciscan

Emery, I’m Only a Man–Review

I always hesitate to post album reviews up here because I never know if my taste in music will blacklist me permanently in the Mindset world, but here goes nothing! I know that this isn’t nearly as momentous an occasion as a new Radiohead album, but not everything can be.

This time around, Emery is considerably “softer” than they once were. Their 2004 debut album, The Weak’s End, was decidedly screamo: Screaming and singing were artfully combined in every single song, with more use of melody than other bands of their genre. The screaming was toned down for The Question, present in only about half the tracks on that album. The screaming is all but absent on I’m Only a Man; one questions whether fan favorite Josh Head was even present for this album, as you only hear him on a handful of songs. Fortunately, Emery lost none of the edgier rock vibe that their music always had; just no screaming. Even more fortunately, singers Toby Morrell and Devin Shelton have amazing voices and the ability to sing harmonies that are more complex than a third above the melody.

As far as subject matter, the album speaks directly to this generation, indicting questionable values of instant gratification, easy living, and sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Depending on who you ask, that qualifies these guys as a Christian band, but you don’t have to be a Christian to identify with the messages of their music.

If you spring for the deluxe version like I did, you also get a bunch of live acoustic tracks. I admit, I’m a little disappointed at the extra tracks of their old songs that they chose to include. Don’t be mistaken–”The Ponytail Parades,” “As Your Voice Fades,” and “Listening to Freddie Mercury” are among my favorite Emery songs. BUT…They’ve done and re-done these songs over and over again! A pre-order EP accompanying The Question featured acoustic versions of precisely these three songs; the re-release of The Question had acoustic versions of all but “As Your Voice Fades.” Surprisingly, they didn’t include an acoustic version of “Walls,” probably their most popular song. Nevertheless, it’s a pretty solid third effort that I think I can safely recommend.

Standout tracks:

• The Party Song
• You Think You’re Nickel Slick (But I Got Your Penny Change)
• Rock-N-Rule
• After the Devil Beats His Wife