The National - High Violet

Rating: A-

I feel like reprising my review of LCD Soundsystem's This Is Happening. Everything I said about that album applies here: it's hard for me to judge High Violet without comparing it to The National's last effort, Boxer. That album, like LCD Soundsystem's Sound Of Silver, was one of my favorite records of 2007. High Violet, like This is Happening, maybe doesn't quite reach the heights of its predecessor but is nonetheless a damn fine album.

Among the highlights: the fuzz-laden opener "Terrible Love," with its haunting refrain "It takes an ocean not to break"; middle track "Bloodbuzz Ohio," which apes the rhythm section of Boxer's "Brainy" but can be forgiven because Matt Berninger's baritone carries us "to Ohio in a swarm of bees"; and album closer "Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks," which moves from stark quiet to lush string backings and back.

I'd count their lyrics among the strong points of The National, but like many great lyricists, Berninger isn't confined by having his lyrics make sense. Take the cryptically-titled "Conversation 16." Like in Boxer's "Slow Show," the protagonist is a a self-loathing loser. But while in "Slow Show" he felt socially awkward ("Can I get a minute of not being nervous / And not thinking of my dick?"), here he feels morally reprehensible ("I was afraid I'd eat your brains / 'Cause I'm evil") ... or something. Maybe he's a zombie. The verses, with lyrics like "We live on coffee and flowers / Try not to wonder what the weather will be" don't really enlighten us further.

There's nothing wrong with cryptic lyrics; many of the greatest songwriters have been at the same time the most inscrutable (I'm looking in your direction, Mr. Dylan). The trick with The National is that they make the cryptic lyrics seem direct and personal. After listening to Boxer it became hard to listen to Interpol, a band with a lot of sonic similarities; their lyrics just seemed shallow compared to The National's. But I don't know if that's really true; I think it's all in Berninger's delivery. Closer "Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks" probably shows this the strongest - there's no story in the lyrics at all, just a vague sense of being lonely and wanting love. But the chorus, backed by harmony vocals (one of the few changes on High Violet in a sonic sense) and strings rises and rises, falling back to Berninger plaintively crying "I'll explain everything to the geeks." I don't have any idea what that means, but Berninger convinces me it means something to him. And maybe that's all that matters.

Buy it from Amazon:
High Violet
The National Official Site

Jerks of Grass - Come On Home

Rating: B

My introduction to the Jerks of Grass was at the inaugural Saddleback Mountain Bluegrass Festival earlier this month. I was impressed with their energy and music virtuosity and picked up their CD.

How does their live act translate to disc? The musical skill is definitely on display. Two Bela Fleck tunes, "Stomping Grounds," and "Big Country," showcase the impressive pickers. Kris Day's bass dueling with Jason Phelps' guitar in "Stomping Grounds" is particularly noteworthy. There aren't too many bass players skilled enough to play solos on record. Phelps slips between guitar and mandolin, while Carter Logan alternates between five-string banjo, dobro, and guitar. The variety of instruments gives the band a full sound even with only four members; the fourth, Melissa Bragdon, plays fiddle throughout.

The album does hit a couple flat notes. While the group shines during up-tempo tunes like "Foggy Mountain Special" and "Why You Been Gone So Long," slow change-of-pace tune "Come On Home" feels dull, failing to match Day's strong voice. The other vocalists sometimes leave a bit to be desired; Phelps takes the high tunes and Logan the low ones, and while they make it work it isn't the quartet's strong suit. Probably the harshest criticism is that while the album is good and entertaining throughout, there's no one moment that really stands out as extraordinary.

The group is at its best in the several instrumental tunes on Come On Home. Whether led by Bragdon's fiddle in slow and sentimental "Tennessee Waltz," by Phelps' mandolin in the fast, melodic "In The House of Tom Bombadil," or by Logan's banjo in the spacious, mellow "Big Country," the Jerks love to throw their technical skill around. Is it ever transcendent? Probably not, but it's a lot of fun.

Buy it from Amazon:
Come On Home
Jerks of Grass Official Site

LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

Rating: B+

It's tough to evaluate This Is Happening, because James Murphy and co's last album Sound Of Silver kicked my ass so hard. "All My Friends" was my favorite song of the year for 2007, and one of my favorite tracks of the decade. I'm not normally huge on dancey stuff, but this was different. Sure, it had it's groovy moments, but it never strayed too far from its emotional core, an even-handed look at nostalgia and the way we view the past. The title track reminds us that as much as things "make you want to feel like a teenager," then "you remember the feelings of / a real-life, emotional teenager. / Then you think again."

But wait, I'm not reviewing Sound of Silver, I'm reviewing This Is Happening. I guess this is my point; Silver was just a terrific record, touching chords of the heart at the same time it made you move your feet. How can Murphy follow it up? Well, it's not quite as ambitious as Sound of Silver, but it's definitely not as stupid as you'd expect from an album with songs named "Drunk Girls" and "Pow Pow." The former, for all its club feel and subject matter, contains gems of lines like "Just 'cause you're hungry doesn't mean that you're lean." And the latter cuts through banal tales of party sideline activity with cutting questions like "But honestly, and be honest with yourself, how much time do you waste?"

This is Happening gives its tracks room to breathe; only "Drunk Girls" clocks in at less than five-and-a-half minutes. Leadoff track "Dance Yrself Clean" is a nice example; it kicks off the album in subdued fashion with just a backbeat and quiet vocals before the synthesizers kick in three minutes in, at which point things really takes off. The longest track, "You Wanted a Hit," runs over nine minutes, starting with a dream-like synthesizer wash as the drums and bass kick in and rise in volume. Amazingly, the space in these songs never bores, and there aren't any duds on here that make you groan and skip to the next track.

Murphy has a great feel for the emotions bubbling beneath the surface of ostensibly happy party-goers and teens / twenty-somethings: anxiety, joy, uncertainty, loneliness, and passion. The heart of the album is "All I Want's" refrain of "All I want is your pity / And all I want is your bitter tears." This Is Happening shows LCD Soundsystem maybe not at its strongest, but pretty darn close.

Buy it from Amazon:
This Is Happening
LCD Soundsystem Official Site

LIve Review - 8/14/2010: SolidSound Festival

A week after hitting up the first annual Saddleback Mountain Bluegrass Festival, I hit up another inaugural event: The SolidSound festival curated by Wilco at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MassMoCA). The festival combined MassMoCA's typical array of visual arts displays with comedy and musical performances. I spent much of the day perusing the interesting artwork, watching hilarious comedy, and generally just wandering around. In the evening, I moseyed over to the main stage (on a field within the museum grounds) for Mavis Staples and Wilco.

Mavis Staples: legendary from her work with The Staple Singers, Staples has teamed up with some high profile producers on her last two albums, 2007's We'll Never Turn Back, produced by Ry Cooder, and the forthcoming You Are Not Alone, produced by Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy. Staples teamed up with Tweedy for the title track on that album (which he wrote) and Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Wrote a Song for Everyone." She largely stuck to gospel standards, though she did throw in The Band classic "The Weight." At one point, Staples left the stage for ten minutes while her capable band played on. It was a little scary and didn't seem planned, but Staples came back to close with The Staple Singers' big hit "I'll Take You There."

Wilco: Wilco has gone from an iffy live band to a terrific one, and their now-stable lineup keeps pushing them to new heights. The sextet started off with a lot of material off their new album and no between-songs patter, but after a few tunes Tweedy and the rest of the group loosened up. Highlights included the crowd sing-along for almost the entire song "Jesus, Etc.," the extended feedback at the intro of "I'm the Man Who Loves You" (including Glenn Kotche standing on his drum kit like he was in K.I.S.S.), and a nod to hardcore fans by playing unreleased B-Sides "Not For the Season," "Cars Can't Escape," and "A Magazine Called Sunset" as well as debut-album relic "I Must Be High." After playing for two hours, the band came on for an encore consisting of "California Stars," "Heavy Metal Drummer," and Woody Guthrie-co-written "Hoodoo Voodoo," which featured guitarists Nels Cline and Pat Sansome trading blistering guitar riffs. A great performance to serve as the keystone for the festival.

Links:
SolidSound Festival official site
MassMoCA official site
Wilco official site
Mavis Staples official site

Live Review - 8/7/2010: Saddleback Mountain Bluegrass Festival

Grey Fox is the signature Northeastern bluegrass festival, but last week a new contender came on the scene. The Saddleback Mountain Bluegrass Festival may lack in size and history, but it compensated impressively with beautiful scenery and a stellar lineup. The festival was held in scenic Rangeley, in western Maine, and the mountains provided a backdrop for the stage through the show.

The bands were a nice mix of big national acts (The Del McCoury Band, David Grisman, Infamous Stringdusters) and bands with Maine ties (Jerks of Grass and the Stowaways), with Darol Anger bridging the two worlds. The schedule only ran one day and ended at 8 PM, but it was perfect for a fine day of bluegrass music.

Best act: Del McCoury brought out the big guns, playing an extra half-hour. David "Dawg" Grisman and Darol Anger joined the band for some crazy jamming late, including three different harmony mandolin breaks between Grisman and Ronnie McCoury. Nearly as impressive was a haunting version of gospel classic "Get On Your Knees and Pray," featuring stark music and four-part harmonies.

Saddleback Mountain Bluegrass Festival official site
Del McCoury official site
David Grisman official site
Infamous Stringdusters official site
Darol Anger official site
Jerks of Grass official site

Live Review - 7/15/2010 - 7/18/2010: Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival

I haven't posted in a while. I'm going to try to get back in the swing of it, but things will change a bit as my focus steers more towards bluegrass / roots music.

I spent the past four days in scenic Oak Hill, NY at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, the premiere bluegrass festival in the Northeast. I've written a bit before about bluegrass and its role in the modern music world, and it's a topic I'm interested in exploring in further detail. It was really interesting traditional acts like The Del McCoury Band (Del was a member of Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys) juxtaposed with a progressive jammy band like Railroad Earth. In Colorado and in New England especially there seems to be a revival of bluegrass, with a hipster 20-something crowd embracing the same music that hippies did years earlier after Old & In The Way.

Best act:
The mandolin workshop at the Master's Tent, with David "Dawg" Grisman, Buddy Merriam, Sarah Jarosz, Ronnie McCoury (of the Del McCoury Band) and Joe Walsh (of the Gibson Brothers) trading licks for an hour. It was staggering. Grisman and McCoury are giants, but Walsh is just in his mid-twenties and Jarosz is only 19, and they were keeping pace with the big boys nicely! It seemed as if each player was trying to out-do the next. There was some humor, too, with Grisman telling the requisite banjo joke and the quintet turning ultra-fast instrumental classic "Rawhide" into a waltz.

Best surprise:
Rockin' Acoustic Circus surprising us all with Melanie's "Brand New Key." I never would have thought that would work as a bluegrass song, but it sounded like it was made for the genre. Cellist Emma Hardin's voice captured the innocence of the original, and the bouncy accompaniment complimented it terrifically.

Biggest disappointment:
Sam Bush's set was cut short after just four songs due to thunderstorms hitting the area. He did get in a nice "Uncle Pen," though, with the well-known mandolist returning to his original instrument, the fiddle, on the Bill Monroe classic.

Links:
Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival
David Grisman official site
The Del McCoury Band official site
Sarah Jarosz official site
Joe Walsh's MySpace page
Buddy Merriam official site
Rockin' Acoustic Circus official site
Sam Bush official site

She and Him - Volume Two

Rating: C-

This is a boring record. It is meandering and self-indulgent. While Volume One was a breath of fresh air, this album blows stale. While Volume One was charming in its reverence for music we haven't heard in forty years, Volume Two is downright nostalgic. Sure, I love it when "Hang On Sloopy" comes on the radio as much as anybody, but there's a reason songwriters introduced polysyllabic words into rock music in the '60's. This album is repetitive and kinda lame and it kinda makes you feel stupider for listening to it.

The highlight is opening track "Thieves," with M.Ward's (the "Him" of the duo) Spanish-tinged guitar over Zooey Deschanel's (the "She") vocals. Her voice is great on this album, even a little more confident than on their debut. But she's dragged down here by her weak songwriting and some lousy choices of cover tracks. "Ridin' in My Car," an inane NRBQ song, contains such insipid rhymes as "Remember last summer when we had the chance / To find each other, start makin' romance?" With Deschanel and Ward, it turns into a Meatloaf-lite call-response song. Originals "Don't Look Back" (out-of-place Greek mythology references), "I'm Gonna Make It Better" (cheesy emo lyrics), and "Over It Over Again" ("Running away from you / Is like running a business" ... really?) are worthy of high school poetry class.

The music isn't much better - it's not bad or cheesy, it's just dull. The album never moves out of its sleepy pace. Volume Two might make for a fine Sunday brunch album if the lyrics weren't so silly, but that's about it. There's little interesting or engaging here; the best I got is "catchy." Disappointing, after an interesting debut.

Buy it from Amazon:
Volume Two
She and Him Official Site