!!! - Myth Takes

Rating: B-

Most folks would say there are Stones people and Beatles people. I would make that dichotomy a trichotomy and add Bob Dylan. I love all three of those, but I'm a Dylan guy. This shows up in the rest of my musical taste. Dylan's work is rooted in all of Americana - folk, blues, country, and early rock n' roll - and music with these influences speaks to me. And I'm a lyrics guy - some people just view vocals as another instrument, paying little attention to the words, but to me they are vital to the meaning and emotion communicated by the song.

All of which is a roundabout way of saying that !!! is the kind of band I normally don't have a lot of use for. The music derives not from the roots of American music but from dance beats and ambient guitar and keyboard sounds. The lyrics are at times immature and shallow, and even at their best strive for only cleverness rather than emotional impact. Take one of the album's highlights, the irrepressibly catchy "Must Be The Moon," which chronicles a club one-night stand. The song starts off dumb ("One drink two drinks three drinks four / She had eyes that I couldn't ignore") and only gets dumber ("You could blame it on the music but it wouldn't be right / 'Cause I've gotten lucky to some pretty bad tunes / Must be the moon, must be the moon"), but it's almost irrelevant when the beats are this catchy. Lead singer Nic Offer has a goofy vulnerability behind his swagger, selling the lyrics no matter how silly.

In short, !!! is catchy, shallow, bouncy, quirky, uneven, and fun.

Random notes and opinions:

• Gotta love the way the album starts (in the title track), with haunting keyboard sounds over a catchy drum beat.
  
• The instrumental outro to "Bend Over Beethoven" sounds like what would happen if Interpol guitarist Daniel Kessler made a dance track. If that sounds awesome, it is.
  
• Closer "Infinifold" is likely supposed to be an "end of the night clubbing, chill-out" track, but it just makes me sleepy. Maybe because I've just been sitting at home listening, not dancing all night.
  

Buy it from Amazon (MP3 Format)
!!! on MySpace

Austin City Limits - Day Two

Deer Tick - "It's 11:45, so if you think my voice sounds bad normally ..." began lead singer / guitarist John Joseph McCauley III, looking more than a little like Thomas Jane's character from Boogie Nights. Any raggedness in his voice was welcome edge, complimenting their blues, country, and surf-rock-tinged rock. They betrayed their influences by covering Lightin' Hopkins and Townes Van Zandt, but it's hard to imagine either of them closing with Richie Valens' "La Bamba," as the Providence quintet did before being cut-off mid-song for going over their 40 minutes. Even their quiet songs turned loud and anthemic, as exemplified by opener "Easy," with it's snarling chorus "You don't know how easy it is." A great wake-up to the festival's second day.


!!! - the Sacramento group was also struck by the early hour. "We do, like, moody nightclub music - and it's 2:30 in the afternooon," lead singer Nic Offer noted halfway through the set. "Normally we haven't even had our coffee by now." If he was sleepy, it didn't show - he stalked around the stage like a modern-day Mick Jagger, gesticulating rudely with a microphone stand and repeatedly climbing over equipment and jumping into the stands. Between (and sometimes during) songs, the band kept things light by repeatedly shouting "God dammit!" to crack up drummer Paul Quattrone. !!! is a terrific live act; if you're not dancing, there's something wrong with you.

Bon Iver - the first real dud of the festival. I loved For Emma, Forever Ago, their 2008 album, and enjoyed the performance of Justin Vernon and company in Boston last year. In the open festival setting, their spare acoustic music came off as sleepy rather than moody. Two exceptions: anthemic crowd favorite "Skinny Love," amplified from the studio version with extra percussion, and the closer "The Wolves (Act I and II)."


Mos Def - the Brooklyn MC was nearly a half-hour late for his scheduled show, but delivered a solid set of literate hip-hop. He showed a range of talents, drumming, rapping, and singing, freestyling a song ("You feel like you should know this / But I just made it up"), and even breakdancing a little with the dance troupe he brought out for the finale. The set was heavy on this year's strong Ecstatic, and went over well with the fans despite his tardy arrival.



The Decemberists - as has been their modus operandi on this tour, the group played The Hazards of Love front-to-back. If you love this album and you love the Decemberists (as I do), this is exactly as expected - wild and awesome, with band members switching instruments, goofball theatrics, and some of the most awesome and gorgeous songs of the year - "The Wanting Comes in Waves / Repaid" and "The Hazards of Love 4 - The Drowned" to name two. If you find the Decemberists dorky and annoying, nothing about their live act is going to change your mind. The crowd was apparently in the first camp, eating up the set even in its more subdued moments.

Deer Tick Site
!!! Site
Bon Iver Site
Mos Def Site
The Decemberists Site