Review: Happy Diving | Electric Soul Unity

San Francisco power-rock five Happy Diving return this week with a stirring long-player whose mutability and periodic lightness leaven the act's heady mix of bracing power and ready melody. In terms of sonic development, the progress feels fairly conventional for a second album, but just because the path is well-trodden does not diminish the act's cracking songwriting. Indeed, Electric Soul Unity collects 12 tunes ripe with gritty, fuzz-caked power chords, tastefully bummer vocals, and newfound nuance that expands the quintet's domain in welcome ways.

Opener "Bigger World" both references the title of the band's 2014 debut on Father/Daughter Records [review] and assures fans that Happy Diving very much understands a formula that has worked so well for them. Commencing with a blast of mid-range guitar feedback that abruptly tosses the listener into the take, "Bigger World" descends into a finessed, palm-muted chug that emphasizes the heavy low end that made Big World such a favorite in the underpop underground. "Don't Be Afraid of Love" follows and makes plain that Happy Diving has no intention of softening its sound or increasing the clarity of production. As with its earlier material, the band's noisy sonic signature feels well-designed to transport listeners to some ideal house show environment, where shuddering amps and the thump of the kick drum reverberate from concrete walls and ratty rugs.

It's not until fifth track and highlight "Head Spell" that the band deviates from its tried and true. Here strummy and clean grunge chord progressions and dynamic blasts of distortion echo second-wave '90s alt.rockers Cracker and, well, Everclear with carefully considered, beautiful sadness. The relatively spare approach offers just enough space within the production to reveal more tenderness than the Bay Area bombers' usual two-minute fuzz blasts typically allow. "Head Spell" proffers a big-tent take on the '90s-rock revival that embraces the cheesier songwriting of the more commercial end of the era. Why not?

The back half of Electric Soul Unity features still more surprises that make it the stronger side. "The Call, It Thunders" features some of Happy Diving's best lead guitar hooks, while "Pain Country" takes another run at the quieter electric style of "Head Spell." "Unknown Feeling," a 104-second acoustic (!) solo number, is the album's biggest surprise, and stands in stark relief sonically while suggesting an affinity for aspects of Lou Barlow's catalog. To close the proverbial circle, the riffage resurfaces with closer “River Will Flow” (whose opening suggests Dinosaur Jr. interpreting "Don't Fear the Reaper"). The final cut offers another welcome addition to the mix, some slight dual-singer harmony that modulates the album's otherwise monochromatic vocals.

Speaking of, a monochrome feel represents Electric Soul Unity's sole Achilles' heel. Despite the efforts to vary the album's feel and flow, the persistently pounding Blue Album rock guitars can dominate to such an extent that some of the nifty songwriting on this Jack Shirley-produced set is obscured. Still, Happy Diving's successful revision of classic '80s and '90s indie rock not only reframes great moments of the era, but also presents fans broader opportunities to connect with the band. When in doubt, just play the thing real loud: it's rock and roll. Electric Soul Unity is slated for release Friday on black, white, or coke bottle clear vinyl, CD, cassette or digital download; pre-order the collection in any format right here from our friends at Topshelf Records (which also released Happy Diving's terrific "So Bunted" 7" last year). Happy Diving is in the final leg of a lengthy U.S. tour, and the dates for the final two weeks are posted below. Get to the gig. -- Edward Charlton

Happy Diving: Bandcamp | Facebook



08.17 -- Bloomington, IN -- Jan's Rooms
08.18 -- Eau Claire, WI -- Vivian House Concerts
08.20 -- Minneapolis, MN -- Dead Media Records
08.21 -- Sioux Falls, SD -- Total Drag Records
08.24 -- Calgary, AB -- Tubby Dog
08.26 -- Vancouver, BC -- Antisocial Skate Shop
08.28 -- Seattle, WA -- Neumo's
08.29 -- Portland, OR -- The Know
08.30 -- San Francisco, CA -- Bottom Of The Hill

Related Coverage:
Today's Hotness: Happy Diving
Review: Happy Diving | Big World
Today's Hotness: Happy Diving

Forever Now: The Infinity Girl Interview

It's that they make it look so easy, that's what initially enticed us to approach the chaps in upstart Boston shoegaze unit Infinity Girl for an interview. With almost zero warning, the foursome issued in May a very impressive full-length debut, Stop Being On My Side, which we reviewed here last month. There were no singles and very few shows to serve as harbingers for the set, making the band's sudden leap into the vanguard of the city's expanding shoegaze scene all the more surprising. With its remarkable debut out, a personnel change brought on by the departure of founding bassist Ransom for Los Angeles, and some great live bills facing Infinity Girl in August, we thought it was high time to check in with the band, which is certainly among the most promising of Boston's current crop of startlingly good young bands. Fronter and guitarist Nolan Eley and drummer Sebastian Modak were very gracious with their time, and while we ultimately didn't learn why it is the songs seem to come so easily, we did get a feel for how the band did what it did and does what it does.

Clicky Clicky: You've just released a very good record. If you could choose another, released by anyone ever, that you wish Infinity Girl could have made itself, what would it be? And you're not allowed to say Loveless.

Nolan Eley: If I was answering this for myself I might say Emergency And I by Dismemberment Plan, but as a band we'd probably go with Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth.

Sebastian Modak: I think it would have been pretty nice to have made Yuck's recent record. Personally, I would be content with life if I had played drums on Fugazi's 13 Songs (yeah, it's a compilation, but whatever). I can't even imagine what it would feel like to play those songs live.

CC: There were very few shows and no singles leading up to the release of the record. And that's one of the things that made a big impression on me: no single, no fucking around, just a handful of shows and then BOOM, a wonderful, fully formed full-length. It reminds me of the genesis story of the Greek goddess Athena. Did Infinity Girl feel like it was important to make such a strong statement right out of the starting gate?

NE: Thank you, to be honest, it was kind of surprising how easily it happened. I think we just wanted to record the songs we had and at first we were thinking it was probably going to be a 6-track EP when we initially went into the studio. We had just learned "Void" at that point and decided trying to record it. We did a few takes that weren't that great, but listening back, the energy was so good we decided to include that on the record. Shortly after those sessions happened Seb and I wrote "By Now" and we were all like 'we have to put this on the record.' So we went into the studio and recorded that. So at this point we were sitting on 8 songs and thinking 'is this an EP or a full length?' Then "Pulling A Smile From A Drawer" happened almost on accident, I was messing around with this piano at The Record Company, it's an acoustic piano but it has electric pickups on it, so I was running it through a bunch of guitar pedals, just messing around. Thank God somebody hit the record button. Anyways, after that I got the idea to record some instrumental tracks. Those, I think, helped the record really flow together as a full length and brought it up to 11 tracks.

CC: Who does the bulk of Infinity Girl's songwriting?

NE: I've done most of the songwriting so far, but the songwriting process is evolving as we play more.

SM: [When t]he band started [it was] based around songs Nolan had already written. We were already friends and I heard him playing at a weekly songwriter's circle that some close friends of mine used to run at All Asia [in Cambridge, Mass.]. I immediately started fantasizing about how great the songs would sound, louder and with a full band. What you hear on the record is mostly from Nolan's existing songs. But as the band has evolved, so has the songwriting process. I wrote the lyrics to "By Now," while I was in Spain and sent them to Nolan while he was in China... So, it's not always just Nolan. But most of the time he'll be the one that turns our ideas into something that sounds kind of like a song.

CC: The reason I ask about songwriters is that, from a songwriting standpoint, there seems to be a tension in your music between the more pure shoegaze stuff and something like "Cellophane And Gold," which is more uptempo and has almost a punk edge, or the lyrics to the chorus of "Cannons," which is surprisingly up top of the mix and pretty emo?

NE: I think the reason for this is that most of the songs on the record did not start out as a band writing them together. I have always just written and recorded music for fun. Sometimes I would keep the songs hidden on my computer, sometimes I would put them online for my friends to hear. Creating an album with a consistent aesthetic was not my priority. I just wrote the songs how I felt that day or that week. Some of them were straight-up shoegaze, some of them with complex orchestral arrangments, some folky, some electronic. I guess the songs that made it onto the record and into the Infinity Girl catalog were the ones that translated over to a four-piece rock band the easiest.

SM: It's also a product of what we're listening to. Sure, a lot of what has influenced us comes from the same time period, but when you're (subconsciously or otherwise) thinking about "Big Day Coming" by Yo La Tengo and "The Leper" by Dinosaur the result can be all over the place. And I think that's a good thing.

CC: Did you heavily demo Stop Being On My Side? I'm just curious to know how hard you had to work to get the sounds on the record? Did you bring a record to the producer and say "make it sound like this?"

NE: About half the songs I had recorded beforehand, for my own personal enjoyment, so this gave the producer and the band a pretty strong idea of what certain songs were going to sound like. Also we recorded some live demos in our practice space so we could all listen to the songs and share ideas about them. From experience I gained recording my own music, I already had a lot of ideas as far as the sounds for the record. I just had to get these ideas across to the other people involved in making it.

SM: Once we got the idea in our heads to make a record, we reached out to our friend (and new bassist) Mitch Stewart to produce. He and Pat McCusker engineered it at The Record Company -- they're both close friends of ours (I went to high school with Mitch and play in another band with both of them called Friendly People). We did a couple of demos in our practice space as well and I think both Mitch and Pat knew what we wanted in terms of sounds by the time we spent two insane nights at The Record Company. It was a really open, not to mention surreal, experience, considering the time of night we were able to get recording time, and the sounds kind of shaped themselves along the way.

CC: Shoegaze, or at least shoegaze influences, certainly seems to be having a moment in the Boston music scene right now. Does that sort of external influence, what you are seeing out in clubs and basements, factor into what you do at all?

NE: I've been mostly unaware of the local shoegaze scene until recently, and I'm pretty excited about it. I would say that the music we make mostly just comes from us liking the music we like and being friends enough to share a few hours a week together playing what we like playing.

SM: It helps that people are into it right now, but we're just a band that is doing what we individually and collectively love to do. If it turns out that people are into it, then that's fantastic and we really appreciate it. But we'd be doing it anyway if we were the only noisy band in town. It's just that ALL our shows would be at the Elks Lodge, if that was the case.

CC: The common conception is that a band in the early part of its career focuses in and settles on a style in time. Do you guys step back and think about where you are heading, about where you might be stylistically two years from now?

NE: We don't really think about this too much, I know I'll always keep writing music that reflects the music I'm currently listening to, and what's happening in my life, and we will always want to play music, so wherever that takes us is where we'll end up. As long as everyone else in the band doesn't hate me and I don't hate them we'll keep on doing this thing.

CC: Assuming people can agree on what the term shoegaze really means anymore, it's hard to think of a lot of examples of shoegaze bands that have had long, continuous careers -- much to my own disappointent, I'll say. This is sort of a loaded question, but as songwriters and music fans, do you think shoegaze is too limiting a style to sustain a band creatively over the course of, say, a ten-year career?

NE: Shoegaze is such a niche genre. Loveless simultaneously created and destroyed it. Everything that can be said in that language has been pretty much said on that album. I think the only way shoegaze bands can survive is if they have something else to offer along with it. It's not really straight-up shoegaze bands that are surviving but mostly bands with shoegaze influences; bands like Deerhunter or Yo La Tengo that have these undoubtedly shoegaze moments but are diverse enough in their arrangements to avoid being pigeonholed as just a shoegaze band.

SM: Whenever I'm describing Infinity Girl to people, I'll use the word "shoegazey," and immediately feel like an idiot. But it kind of makes sense. It's true that the term "shoegaze" has lost a lot of its significance over time, but I don't think bands like ours are making shoegaze music, in the most traditional sense of the word. Sure, we're inspired by bands like MBV and JAMC but we'll never be them or even sound like contemporaries. That music came out of a very specific time and place, both literally and culturally. What's happening now is its own beast and I think it will develop in its own way, independent of nostalgia. I think we're part of that and that will definitely sustain us creatively. The risk comes only if we box ourselves in, and I don't think that has happened or will happen any time soon.

CC: You've got two shows coming up next month. Will these be the first with Mitch Stewart playing bass live for you?

SM: Yes. Having spent so much time with the songs -- producing, engineering and mixing the record -- it was very easy having him take over on bass. I think he knows the parts better than the rest of us do at this point. Surprised he's not too sick of them at this point. That being said, Ransom is a big part of what has made Infinity Girl what it is and I hope he hates LA (joking... sort of).

CC: What's next for Infinity Girl after the shows in August? What do the next six months look like for you guys?

NE: We are just trying to play as many shows as we can around the area, and get people listening to our record. We've got an EP (probably) still in the demo stage, we haven't started recording anything yet. The songs sound summery and less dark than Stop Being On My Side does, so it would be nice if we could get it done while it's still warm out. Obviously though we're not going to compromise anything just so we can rush it out before the next equinox.

CC: Thanks so much for giving this interview, guys.

SM: Thank YOU. It's fantastic what you are doing for the Boston music scene with your blog. Far too few people are pointing people towards good music with the consistency and eloquence that you do. It's humbling to be included in all of that.

NE: Thank you for taking an interest in us! Seriously, we've all been fans of this blog for a while now and it's so cool to be included in it.

See Infinity Girl live at Precinct in Somerville Aug. 4 [Facebook event page] and at TT The Bear's Aug. 30 with the mighty Soccer Mom and serial face-melters Young Adults [tickets].

Infinity Girl: Internerds | Facebook | Bandcamp | YouTube

Review: Dinosaur Jr. Bug Live at 9:30 Club, In The Hands Of The Fans [DVD]

At least as far as this DVD goes, you can judge the contents by the cover: herein legendary indie rock trio Dinosaur Jr. performs the third album recorded by its original line-up. The proceedings feel a little rote at times, but it's all there, and, damn, is it good. This performance of Bug was one of many the band executed in 2011, and this particular show was captured to video in late June (here's DCist's review). From a cinematographic standpoint, the concept of the DVD -- that six Dinosaur Jr. fans were selected to film the concert, presumably to give it some sort of stamp of fan approval -- results in probably many more cuts than necessary to holistically capture the excellent performance. Sure, some of the angles are nice, and the crowd shots are occasionally amusing. Still, we feel like director David Markey (the man behind the absolutely wonderful "The Year That Punk Broke" film) perhaps felt obligated to use more than just the best camerawork. Cutting to a shot of the backs of heads in the balcony just as the first chorus of "Post" kicks in? Really?

Or perhaps that is a bit of humor creeping into the process. After all, this is a film that starts with the exceeding loquacious and musically pedigreed Mike Watt feeling his way through some introductory lines he reads off a piece of paper out of frame as a used car salesman might in a low-budget commercial. Keith Morris, the first singer of legendary hardcore act Black Flag and now with the band Off!, similarly and comically gets through his lines, and Dinosaur's bassist Lou Barlow has to take a do-over. Stacking the three stilted intros at the beginning of the DVD underscores the econo/DIY vibe characteristic of the scene birthed by the above-referenced bands, among others. One other little hint of humor -- the DVD credits state it features Ian Mackaye at one point, and we learn at the close of the film that the extent of Mackaye's presence was him posing for a photo with fellow D.C. hometown hero Henry Rollins toward the beginning.

All that said, the cuts to the various angles we mention supra perhaps serves as some proxy for the overwhelming sensorial stimulus of Dinosaur Jr.'s ear-bleeding volume, which doesn't quite translate, although the sound on the DVD is crystalline and, to a certain extent, revelatory, as guitarist J Mascis is sometimes so loud the various sonic textures from his pedals are unclear. Overall, the performance is a series of rushes, big moments like when drummer Murph and Mr. Barlow (wearing only socks throughout, incidentally) locked in on a caffeinated groove during "Let It Ride."

After some perfunctory introductions of the fans in whose hands the cameras were placed, they just disappear for the most part. That is, until the end of the show, when one of the cameramen (and they are all predictably and somewhat disappointingly men) takes lead vocals on "Don't" to protect Barlow's voice from the throat-bleeding lyric "Why!? Why don't you like me!?" Incidentally, we recollect from Juliana Hatfield's recent bio that Ms. Hatfield (who once recorded a bracing cover of Dinosaur's "Raisans") was in a studio adjacent to Dinosaur when they were cutting the song, and apparently Barlow was spitting up blood after recording this vocal. While it would have been nice for Mr. Rollins or Mr. Mackaye or Mr. Morris to sing, the guy acquitted himself well. And so "Don't" is one of the surprise highlights of the night, as the lysergic power-downer begins with a gentle feel before the threesome conjures the hurt something fierce.

The DVD contains a number of extras, as is de rigueur, including the encore, "Sludgefeast" and the aforementioned "Raisans" from the Dinosaur Jr.'s epic sophomore set You're Living All Over Me, as well as two tracks the band warmed up with, "The Wagon" from Green Mind and "In A Jar" from ...All Over Me. MVD Video released "Dinosaur Jr. Bug Live at the 9:30 Club, In The Hands Of The Fans" February 21. View the trailer here. Purchase the DVD here.

Full album stream of Bug.

Dinosaur Jr.: Interzizzles | Facebook | YouTube | Twinkers

Today's Hotness: Archers Of Loaf, Dinosaur Jr., The Books

>> Merge Records announced Friday it will reissue all four full-lengths from seminal North Carolina indie rockers Archers Of Loaf, beginning with a remastered and expanded version of the quartet's 1993 debut long player Icky Mettle. Icky Mettle has been remastered by Bob Weston (who also recorded the band's devastatingly great 1995 full-length Vee Vee), and the reissue will include period-appropriate singles, b-sides and the completely bulletproof -- perhaps the greatest indie rock EP ever released -- Archers Of Loaf vs. The Greatest Of All Time. The expanded Icky Mettle will be issued Aug. 2 on CD and limited edition blue vinyl, and will also be available as digital download. Reissues of the aforementioned Vee Vee, All The Nation's Airports and White Trash Heroes (all of which were previously released on Alias, we believe) are slated for release in 2012.

Archers Of Loaf formed in 1991 in Chapel Hill (by way of Asheville), and along with Superchunk, The Connells, Small 23 (which at one time also featured Archers fronter Eric Bachmann on guitar) and countless others, helped establish the town and surrounding region as a mecca for indie rock. The quartet disbanded in 1998, but the Archers recently reunited and have 17 dates booked over the rest of the summer -- sadly none of the current shows are in Boston. For full dates and additional information, check out this post at the Merge Records blog.

>> Speaking of reissues and older stuff, it was disclosed today that Joyful Noise Recordings will reissue indie legends Dinosaur Jr's 1988 opus Bug -- the final record the band recorded with the original lineup intact before the reunion in the middle 2000s -- in a limited edition of 250 hand-numbered, purple cassettes with original eight-panel insert. Only half of those cassettes are being sold by the label online, and we wouldn't be surprised if they were already sold out (we just clicked the buy link and it still looks live). The other 125 copies will be sold by Dinosaur Jr this summer during its 15-date tour in which the band is playing Bug in its entirety. The 2011 Bug tour kicks off in Northampton, Massachusetts on June 21 and comes to Boston's Paradise Rock Club June 22.

>> The Books' Nick Zammuto disclosed at his blog Friday he is planning a new band that will perform new music he has been writing; the band will be a trio or quartet and Mr. Zammuto hopes the act will play shows before the year is out. A non-final version of one new song, "Yay," was posted to Soundcloud for a couple days over the weekend, but is now gone. However, folks who visit the Zammuto Soundcloud page will find a treasure trove of music to enjoy, not the least of which are several remastered songs from each of The Books' first three full lengths. The three records -- Thought For Food, The Lemon of Pink, and Lost And Safe [review] -- were re-mastered, re-designed and re-released by Temporary Residence after The Books signed on to the label for the release of last year's characteristically wonderous The Way Out; we reviewed The Way Out here last July. Check out four remastered tracks from The Books' fantastic Lost And Safe below, including the Clicky Clicky fave "Twelve Fold Chain." Zammuto intends to continue releasing new tracks for limited amounts of time, so if you are on the Soundcloud you'd be wise to start following him stat.

4 Tracks from Lost and Safe by The Books

That Was The Show That Was: Yuck | Paradise Rock Club | 28 April

[We are pleased to welcome back to these digital pages longtime friend and former editor Ric Dube. Mr. Dube these days hosts the thoroughly wonderful More Lost Time rare indie rock podcast. Subscribe right here -- we heartily endorse his product and/or service. -- Ed.]

Oddly, even though Bryan Adams used to sing "everywhere I go the kids wanna rock," all he ever served up was that Canadian, Phil Collins-type ballad gunk. Maybe his observation was one of despair. "I'd like to help," he was trying to say, "but I only know these songs about Robin Hood."

And this is where we're at with rock n' roll these days. The kids want to rock but so many of the bands are still heavily involved with the bleeps and the la-la-la. Sure, there are plenty out there that would like to bring it, but they just don’t have the songs.

Which is why it was so damned exciting to see the audience at the Paradise last night love Yuck.

The beauty of Yuck is that the London-based quartet's songs are deceptively simple and extremely influenced by much of the best classic alternative rock of the '90s (Dinosaur Jr., My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, Sugar, Pixies, Lemonheads) and thus, fantastically well written and about as common these days as a Drop Nineteens reunion.

For a quartet of near children -- two members of the band were without wrist bands, suggesting they are not of drinking age -- Yuck boasts a road-weathered confidence. The 45-minute set consisted of tunes from its debut record released in February, performed on a pair of Fender Jaguars with a self-assurance that follows from constant touring over the past 12 months throughout England and Europe. On one hand, tight performance sound can make an act seem unenergetic. But to Yuck's credit, this professionalism made the songs extremely accessible for anyone there to see the evening's headliner, Australia's Tame Impala, and not already familiar with the act.

Also, there's something to be said for pacing a set; at this early phase in its career Yuck is finding a performance style. For now that means keeping things moderately restrained and focusing on the songs for most of a set ("The Wall," "Get Away," "Suck") so that its finale ("Rubber") is that much more effective when it's time to really open up stage presence.

The few simple tones of "Rubber" throbbed within a haze of feedback, a young artist’s punk rock symphony about hoping away his virginity. The room groaned and surged, as if the floor might suddenly part to reveal a layer of fossilized music that might explain this as sound left behind decades ago, when Dinosaur Jr. and Galaxie 500 had procreated and left behind a fertilized guitar pick that was covered in volcanic Rolling Rock (your father’s PBR). Fans already familiar with every note became indistinguishable from the undetermined number of immediate converts. Both stood thoroughly involved -- closed eyes, heads slowly nodding in unison. -- Ric Dube

Yuck: Internerds | YouTube | Facebook | Flickr | SoundCloud

Previous Yuck Coverage:
Today's Hotness: Oupa
YouTube Rodeo: Yuck's "Get Away"
Be Prepared: Yuck | Self-titled | 15 February
Footage: Yuck's "Rubber" [NSFW]
Footage: Yuck's "The Base Of A Dream Is Empty"
YouTube Rodeo: Yuck's "Suicide Policeman" Live
Footage: Yuck's "Weakend"
Footage: Yuck's "Automatic"
Today's Hotness: Yuck
Today's Hotness: Yuck

The Youth Are Getting Restless: Young Adults Plot Debut LP

It's only half over, but 2010 has been a busy year for Allston, Mass.-based indie upstarts Young Adults. After forming late in 2009, the trio quickly captured and released an echoey, careening fuzzfest of a demo, and this month the act plans to head back into the studio to record a full-length already carrying the working title Black Hole. The planned full-length will be issued on a date to be determined digitally and in a limited edition of 500 vinyl LPs by Prague-based promotion and label concern AMDISCS. The sessions for Black Hole are being helmed by Justin Pizzoferrato, who has worked previously in some capacity recording records by alt-rock gods Dinosaur Jr. and Sonic Youth. The recording will take place at Esthudio, the same studio where the Young Adults demo was tracked by Dan Gonzalez early this year. The band's arc is definitely on the rise and we wanted to check in with guitarist Chris, bassist Demitri and drummer Kurt for their perspectives on where they're heading and what their hopes are for the new record.

Clicky Clicky: It seemed like the demo was well received. Were you pleased with how it went over with fans? To the extent you had any expectations at all, were they met?

Chris (guitar, vocals): Yeah, we made a racket and people liked it. I'm glad.

Demitri (bass/vox): The main purpose of the demo was to declare our existence as a band, to make some sort of audible shout against the clamor of all the new bands trying to communicate something relevant, or perhaps in a way that is relevant. It was our opportunity to sublimate our somewhat perverted obsession with guitar music by exposing our own collective interpretation of it. So, when the demo received some reviews that basically spit back all of the stuff we spit into it, I can honestly say that I felt somewhat self-affirmed. Some people "get it" I suppose.

Kurt (drums): I think we can all say that we are very pleased with how the demo went over with the small but growing group of fans that we have. It is always pretty rad to have someone tell you that they put one of your songs on their running mix or walking mix. It means people are really digging our music which is just great. I think we have a lot of pride with what we have accomplished and what we are doing. Pair that with all the good blogging and reaction we get from crowds, I would say that almost all of our expectations have been met. We obviously have raised our own expectations and hope to fulfill those.

CC: Tell us a little but about the planned recording sessions in July. How many songs do you hope to get down? Is the goal to get an album's worth of material? Did you learn anything from recording the demo that will help you through the process next month?

Chris: It's a loose concept album and we're shooting for 11 songs with ambient instrumentals somewhere in there to make the album flow. We want a real LP, not a collection of singles. I'm looking forward to overdubs and more room for sonic candy.

Demitri: We are actually recording at Esthudio, which is where we recorded our demo. It’s a really nice home studio in Brighton, MA run by Dan Gonzales and Jeremy Mendacino (guitarist and vocalist of Pretty & Nice). We felt really comfortable in that space because we're friends with the engineers there and the space is cozy and warm, as opposed to an austere, expensive studio that might make us feel stressed or pressed for time. Our friend Mike Caulo, local management and booking dude, recommended that we get in contact with Justin Pizzoferrato about recording our record. After discovering that he had worked on recent Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. records it became instantly clear that we wanted him to help us craft this thing. It’s exciting.

Kurt: I think we learned a lot about recording from our demo, really that art should never be rushed. We recorded 5 songs in one day! I think given the circumstances we put out a great demo and I cannot wait to see what we can do with more time...

CC: It looks like there will be a different engineer for the sessions next month? Any particular reason?

Demitri: We like what Dan G did with the demo. That man is really a savior for us. Whenever we’re in a crunch when it comes to recording, equipment or live sound, he is usually there to extend some degree of help. We are just enticed by the idea of fresh perspective on the 12 inch, especially one that helped to craft Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. records. I apologize for my unabashed love for those bands.

Chris: We contacted Justin P and he immediately was enthusiastic. Based on his experience working with some of our core influences, it seemed like a very fortunate opportunity that we couldn't really pass up.

Kurt: I think this is just an opportunity someone should never pass up. It's very humbling and exciting. It will be interesting to see how Justin P. interprets ours music and the direction he will take it. I think we just wanted a new perspective on our music and see how it goes from there.

CC: Do you plan to self-release whatever comes out of the planned sessions, or has a label expressed interest in getting involved?

Demitri: AMDISCS reached out to us a few months ago about putting out our next release. The same people involved with the label have a blog called All Everyone United, based out of Prague, that promotes somewhat esoteric music projects. After they posted our demo they e-mailed me about the possibility of putting out our first record. Initially I was somewhat sketched. I sat there thinking, “what could a bunch of dudes from Prague possibly want with us?” After chatting with one of the founders of the label on the internet for a while I began to loosen up and really dig those guys. He was telling me about this fest he’s running in July called Creepy Teepee featured bands like Vivian Girls, Male Bonding and Toro y Moi. We shoot the shit about bands fairly consistently. Anyway, they’re solid dudes. We're stoked to be working with them.

CC: I see you'll be playing the Deep Heaven Now festival in August. How did that come about? Any other local shows on the horizon?

Demitri: Jinsen Liu who sings and plays guitar in 28 Degrees Taurus invited us. I’ve seen him around at shows in the Boston area for years so we’ve come to know each other that way. About a month ago he explained that he liked the new band I was playing in and invited us.

Chris: Jinsen is really dedicated to celebrating Boston music, and he is a huge fan of our sound. He thought that we would be a good change-up in the prominently shoegaze/psych fest. I think we might be the most aggressive band on the bill, which is never really a bad thing. As for other shows, we are also playing our friend's birthday gig on August 12th at O'Briens in Allston. His name is Omar and he is one big, beautiful man.

Demitri: We’re trying to stay focused on making this record everything we want it to be. It’d be nice to get invited to play NYC or some neighboring states in August though...

CC: I recall in the interview on WERS you were sort of weighing your options about touring outside of the Boston area. Any plans firming up to take the show on the road?

Demitri: AMDISCS was talking about having us come out to Europe for a little over a month and doing a US tour as well. We’ll see how things roll.

Chris: It's all a matter of resources and organization at this point. Once we're ready, we will let everyone know.

Young Adults' "Let Us Out" from the band's 2010 demo

Young Adults: Internerds | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

08.07 -- Precinct -- Somerville, Mass. (early set)
08.12 -- O'Brien's -- Allston, Mass.

That Was The Show That Was: Dinosaur Jr. (Night 2) | Middle East

[Photo Credits: Michael Piantigini] When it is the mighty Dinosaur Jr. -- a Clicky Clicky Top 5 Band -- the second night of a sold-out two-night stand isn't "everything else." It's a celebration of beloved, ear-bleeding rockers, of losercore hits for riot nerrrrrrds (as the saying used to go), delivered with a visceral punch felt through the 30 or so rows of people that clustered in front of ourselves and KoomDogg as we made the scene almost-too-late but right on time. Opening with the gothic creeper "Bulbs of Passion" and "The Lung" back to back, even an even more reserved than usual J Mascis -- not much of a talker, that one -- couldn't dull the electric thrill of the reunited band's welcome re-return. Our colleague Mike Piantigini noted the exceptional versions of the originally "post-Lou" cuts "Thumb" and "Get Me" performed on Night 1, and we were again treated to the epic tracks. "Thumb," which percentage-wise is more guitar solo than song, was given a stirring reading, despite Mr. Mascis' almost comically dour demeanor.

Ostensively in the proverbial house to promote the trio's latest set of rockers, Farm, Dinosaur Jr. delivered a handful of new cuts, including the upbeat almost-anthems "Over It" [awesome video here] and album-opener "Pieces." The crowd predictably filled the brief pauses between tunes with enthusiastic applause, so Mascis' lack of interest in chatter didn't stick out. Bassist Lou Barlow -- who opened both evenings with his Lou Barlow and The Missing Men, and is promoting a record of his own that streets Tuesday -- was his usual animated self, announcing over and over and over that a particular classic cut that has just been performed had been recorded here in Cambridge, Mass., which he thought was as funny as the fact that the following cut was recorded in Amherst. Perhaps Mr. Barlow was just glad to be back in a city he had called home at one point, as Dinosaur is only relatively recently back from a jaunt abroad which lasted from late August through the end of September. Anyhow, we were glad to have Dinosaur back in our town, and look forward to seeing them a lot more.

Read Mike Piantigini's coverage of Night 1 at the Middle East right here.

Dinosaur Jr. -- "Severed Lips (Live)" -- Daytrotter Session (June 9, 2009)
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[buy Dinosaur Jr. records from Newbury Comics right here]

Dinosaur Jr.: Internerds | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

Previous Dinosaur Jr. Coverage:
That Was The Show That Was: Dinosaur Jr. (Night 1) | Middle East
YouTube Rodeo: Dinosaur Jr.'s "Been There All The Time" In Paris
That Was The Show That Was: Built To Spill, Dinosaur Jr, Meat Puppets
YouTube Rodeo: Dinosaur Jr.'s "Puke And Cry" Live
YouTube Rodeo: Under-Rated Dinosaur Jr. Or "Whatever"
NotYouTube Rodeo: Dinosaur Jr. Live At Amoeba Music
That Was The Show That Was: Dinosaur Jr. | Urban Outfitters

That Was The Show That Was: Dinosaur Jr. (Night 1) | Middle East

Dinosaur Jr., Middle East Downstairs, 10/2/09; Photos by Michael Piantigini

Whose crowd is more enraptured by the sound of "Just Like Heaven?" The Cure's? Or Dinosaur Jr.'s? My money's on the latter. By the time the band got through to this capper of their 80 or so minutes, tonight's adoring crowd went nuts at the sound of that bass line. Sure, Dinosaur Jr. is part nostalgia trip, especially for loooong-time fans -- how could they not be? But the ranges in age at the gig, along with the band's two especially strong albums since reforming the original line-up, make Dinosaur one of the few indie bands of their era that successfully transcend generations. There are plenty of young fans to keep J Mascis in purple high tops for a long time.

Though it seems like Mascis gets all the accolades, the original line-up is as much about drummer Murph and, especially, bassist Lou Barlow. How do you find room between Mascis' 3 full stacks (plus another combo) and Murph's thunder? Partially by fighting fire with fire: Barlow's Marshall half-stack/Ampeg SVT combination deals a wallop; but its Lou's throwing his entire body into his playing -- flailing with the bass and playing huge chords -- that helps put him on equal footing.

This is one of those shows where there will always be some folks disappointed that they didn't play their favorite song, but Dinosaur covered a lot of ground. Half-a-dozen -- most of all the strongest tracks -- from this year's Farm were represented, though I was disappointed that "Been There All The Time" was the lone representative from 2007's excellent Beyond. There were plenty of great oldies, of course: they tore through "Forget The Swan," and "Freak Scene" was every bit the anthem it should be. Post-Barlow (and pre-Barlow, as it turns out) tracks like the epic opener "Thumb," along with "Get Me" and "Feel The Pain," feel a little weird with Barlow playing them (like, why not throw in a Sebadoh song then?), but he puts enough of a stamp on them to make the set a well-rocked full-on career-spanner. Only 1997's Hand It Over went unrepresented, but I don't think it was missed. Watch this space for Jay's report on tonight's show, when Dinosaur plays the finale of their two-night stand at the Middle East. -- Michael Piantigini

Here's the full setlist:

1. Thumb
2. Been There All The Time
3. I Want You To Know
4. Imagination Blind
5. In A Jar
6. Get Me
7. Pieces
8. Plans
9. Feel The Pain
10. Over It
11. Forget The Swan
12. The Wagon
13. Freak Scene
14. I Don't Wanna Go There

Encore:
15. Kracked
16. Just Like Heaven

YouTube Rodeo: Dinosaur Jr.'s "Been There All The Time" In Paris

From last night's show in Paris, supported by Johnny Foreigner, as shot by Parisian uber-cooler Vee. Thanks Vee!

Only The Greatest Concert Bill We've Run Across In Recent Memory

We're sitting on a whole mess of Johnny Foreigner news, too. We'll try to get that online in the next 24 hours. In the meantime, start pricing flights to Paris. Unless you are Parisian. In which case, you are the luckiest people on the planet come Sunday.

YouTube Rode: Dinosaur Jr.'s "Pieces" On Jimmy Fallon

Rock Over Boston: Andrew Bird, Calexico, Gravel Pit, Blackjacks

[We are pleased to welcome to these electrical pages the reportage of Michael Piantigini, guitarist for the recently resuscitated (but now we believe doubly defunct) indie rock outfit Lump and all-around cool guy. Mr. Piantigini's schedule is full, his taste is impeccable, he is a great shot with a camera, and we are fortunate to have his help filling inches with a new column we are calling Rock Over Boston. As you can see below, Mike had a busy Friday night. -- Ed.]

With the humidity high and the weather threatening the Boston waterfront’s Bank of America Pavilion last Friday night, Calexico fought for the last few minutes of sunlight with their southwestern film soundtracks. All Morricone and mariachi, they were facing an uphill battle trying to catch the attention of the late arrivals that, er, weren’t really arriving. As such, who could blame them for not quite catching fire in the way that you’d hope?

Andrew Bird is a musician’s musician. It’s hard not to admire his musical curiosity, willingness to experiment and improvise, and effortless arrangement chops. He opened the show by taking the spotlight gently plucking simple (and sometimes not-so-simple) melodies on the strings of his violin. With a stomp of his foot on a sampling pedal, he’s on to a counter-melody –- maybe this time it’s a bowed, bent note digitally dropped an octave, or just a few seemingly disjointed notes on his glockenspiel, or a whistle. As often as not, he does all of these things and pieces them together and it feels like magic.

If not magic, there’s definitely some mastery involved -- I’ve seen these sorts of set-ups fail embarrassingly on stage, but not for Andrew Bird. It’s obvious that he could do this all night and it would be mesmerizing. Instead, though, these meanderings provide interstitial diversions or extended intros, and the rest of his talented band somehow manage to latch onto the wavelength that seem to be coming directly from this over-stimulated musical psyche.

All this, and songs too: the meat of the show was a six-song run from his excellent latest album Noble Beast. ”Fitz and the Dizzyspells,” had a terrific harmony hook in the chorus that is as pop as it gets. He followed this with that album’s more traditionally folky “Natural Disaster” and “Masterswarm,” the latter with subtle flamenco rhythms and guitar flourishes. These were only prelude to “Anonanimal,” that built to a crescendo that reaffirmed the dedicated and made fans for life of the casual fans within earshot.

That was the point where you realize that this was one of those shows that, without you realizing it, had set up a transcendent moment that incites a crowd into an almost involuntary response. Seated throughout, mesmerized by the spell being conjured by Mr. Bird’s swirling, looping, octave-shifted string and whistle samples, the audience was whipped out of their seats as if moved by a preacher. In much the same way, this crowd was his.

Shortly thereafter, Calexico -– horns and all –- joined Bird and co. for a rousing “Skin Is, My” from the commercial breakthrough “Andrew Bird and the Mysterious Production of Eggs.” Of course, it wasn’t enough that there were now ten musicians on stage -– this song, too, was built upon layers of plucked violin samples. It was staggering and fun. On more crowded nights, I wonder if the security would have been so forgiving of the dancing in the aisles.

Much is made of Bird’s genre-jumping, and he does effortlessly weave together a traditional quilt of all kinds of music –- pop, folk, gypsy, spirituals, etc., etc. -- but it all felt like Andrew Bird music, not some derivative disjointed collection. A fantastic solo version of “Why,” from 2001’s The Swimming Hour, for example, is a kind of bluesy torch song, except he made it utterly his own by building it on an extended loop of strummed violin, riffed on throughout both plucked and bowed.

While wrapping up the show during his encores, Bird name-checked our own Middle East, Johnny D’s, and TT the Bear’s, talking about how he got his start in those clubs. He seemed to really remember them fondly, and maybe some of that energy fed this show, which was much more raucous than his Orpheum show a few months ago.

One genre Andrew Bird most definitely did not own this night was good old-fashioned Boston rock. While some bands may only get their start at the smaller clubs, others thrive their whole careers in those places. With a short Silver Line/Red Line trip after Bird’s show ended, I made my way just across the river to TT’s, but it may as well have been a million miles, and, well, about 25 years.

The late, great, and lamented Homestead Records label is enjoying a bit of a modest renaissance these days with its-about-time reissues of Dinosaur Jr, Big Dipper, and Volcano Suns among others. Notably still not reissued is catalog number HMS-001, titled Basic Blackjacks, the debut of Boston legend Johnny Angel’s banc the Blackjacks. They were tearing it up for the first of two nights at TTs to celebrate the 25th anniversary of that record with a TT’s crowd of long-time local rock luminaries who remember (and shared) their history. I swear -– there was even, however briefly, some slam dancing.

After midnight, the 80’s turned into the 90’s, and The Gravel Pit took over with their catchy pop hooks, Lucky Jackson’s power chords, and Jed Parish’s deep howl and meandering farfisa solos. As if their sound wasn’t big enough, The Figgs’ Mike Gent joined in for a few too. After a few mostly-empty recent visits there, it was great to see a packed TT’s again. -- Michael Piantigini

Andrew Bird -- "Oh No" -- Noble Beast
Andrew Bird -- "Heretics" -- Armchair Apocrypha
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Andrew Bird: Internerds | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

Fergus Lawrie On Album Of The Year Contender Yoyodyne

[PHOTO CREDIT: Alex Woodward/Crimson Glow Photography] We've raved about Projekt A-ko's towering debut Yoyodyne so much already that a review at this point would be superfluous. Instead, we've asked band fronter Fergus Lawrie for a track-by-track breakdown of the record, whose official release date is Monday in the U.K. Mr. Lawrie was kind enough to oblige, but first we do have these remarks: if there is anything disappointing about Projekt A-ko's full-length debut it is that, at least for the time being, the band is solely a recording unit, and no touring to tout the record is planned. This is a shame, as we believe Yoyodyne is the best record released in 2009 to date. Lawrie, et al.'s potent amalgamation of early (read: good) Mercury Rev, Teenage Fanclub and mid-period Dinosaur Jr. would certainly win fans were the band to snag a slot on a hot tour supporting, say, Dinosaur, or Johnny Foreigner, or... well, it doesn't really matter. There's no tour to look forward to for now. There's also no distribution, no press agents (beyond some help from Darren Walker of Filthy Little Angels, who initially hipped us to the record), no advertising -- Yoyodyne is wholly DIY, released on Projekt A-ko's own Milk Pie imprint, only available by Internet order and in select shops in Glasgow. The good thing is there are more recordings in the offing, including what promises to be a shattering cover of Drop Nineteens' "Winona," which is one of Lowrie's all-time favorite tracks (and one of ours, as well). So we've that to look forward to. Now let's see what Lawrie has to say about the songs on Yoyodyne.

Track One: Hey Palooka!

"How’s it feel to be surreal, how’s it feel to be corporeal?" The oldest song on the album written (as a development from Urusei Yatsura songs "Plastic Ashtray" and "Majesty") as part of an ongoing effort to get to grips with "Winona" by Drop Nineteens, an all time favourite song of mine -- we’re working on recording a cover version just now. The long intro to "Hey Palooka" is kind of meant to be intentionally frustrating to people who expect bands to put the obvious "hit" song at the front of the album. The tracklisting was devised by my friend Captain Polaroid as I felt too close to the songs. I think he did a great job of creating a flow and making the album a real grower. Also includes the phrase "pyroclastic flow" (thanks to Kenny!).

Track Two: Nothing Works Twice

"A unique confluence of movement and time -- or not." Sardonic attempt to acknowledge the futility of being in a band coupled with a warning to stop being in a band whilst still being in a band, doh! At one point we actually literally rip off Pixies as opposed to being "heavily influenced" by them or whatever...

Track Three: Supertriste Duxelle

"A gown of Martian spores." Possibly a Stereolab song with the drone surgically removed. Lyrically seeking synthesis of retro / sci-fi / historical / hardboiled / personal / microbiological inspirations. I tried to be fearless with words for these songs even if it meant overdoing it a bit sometimes.

Track Four: Here Comes New Challenger!

"Hey Keiko, give a little milk!", "I tried, but my tears were wine." A light-hearted romp through mortality and the human condition. All post-modern pop is self-aware and in this case the last verse serves as a critique of the song itself [This is totally our favorite part, too -- Ed.].

Track Five: Xavier

"Wish I had a luminous left arm!" An historical epic. A long time was spent structuring this song and I guess it just about hangs together. References include 1) a saint who lived in a cave in Fife and copied the Bible by the light of his glowing right arm and 2) The Bangles. The guitars actually sounded even more foul and brutal until Steven Ward -- who did an incredible job producing and engineering the album -- ditched a couple of Fender Twins we’d used in the recording from the mix. I love Elaine’s vox on this song, especially at the end. It's been great having her start to sing and I hope she’ll be doing a lot more.

Track Six: Molten Hearts

"Eyes like atomic decay, hearts melt like snow bouquets." Finally, the secret truth about Dr. Phibes and Vulnavia! This was the last song written for the album and a lot of fun to record and play; I’d love to play it live. The drums and some of the guitars + vox for this and "Ichiro," "Scintilla" and "Black Empire" were recorded at CaVa studios in Glasgow by Geoff Allan.

Track Seven: Scintilla

"Jars of State moonshine." Drunken Cosmonaut fires death ray at random, or thinks he does. We had a "2001: A Space Odyssey"-type arrangement for the middle drone, but it made the section too exciting so we dropped it in order to save all the extra instrumentation until the end of the album. The Tommy Cooper-style guitar solo was completely unrehearsed and done in one take -- I’m not sure whether to be proud of that or not...

Track Eight: Ichiro on 3rd

"The mind democratic, the heart is a fascist." Ichiro Suzuki [outfielder for the Seattle Mariners, according to Wikipedia -- Ed.] trapped in the jaws of America. He fantasises about a past lover before hitting a home run. He runs towards Japan. Too late, he’s already dead!

Track Nine: Otaku Blue

"Kevlar Superstar do your vinyl best." Underground Celebrity-obsessed geek thinks he's a robot. The alternative stars sing to him from the chorus to try and make him see sense. Nearly all the vox for this album were done in one take (yeah, I know, it shows!) apart from the little scream before the final verse which I had to do about 12 times before it sounded remotely convincing. That was in The Diving Bell with Marcus Mackay, who recorded some of the guitars and vox [he also recorded Frightened Rabbit's Sing The Greys, or at least parts of it -- Ed.]. My voice is knackered from belting out "Kewpies like Watermelon."

Track Ten: Utopia

"Anatomise thy foppery, just don’t fake on me now." Yes, the chorus is a Swirlies reference! It's possible the album breaks out in a fit of optimism at this point before collapsing into noise. We used a lot of effect boxes in a feedback loop to create the sonic squiggles at the end.

Track Eleven: Black Empire

"No man is an island but I am an isthmus." Some nice crisp drum fills from Ian. The distorted vocals were created using a baby monitor.

Track Twelve: Yoyodyne (Scintilla II)

"You only really exist in the days you fight." These last two songs were arranged by my friend Richard Spiller, an amazing musician who does a lot of music for TV shows. "It is nice party after all" is a line from a Bollywood film I was watching one night, "Angelica of despair" from an online poetry generator. Oedipa Maas from "The Crying of Lot 49" makes a brief appearance. I particularly like the arpeggio which decays into nothing at the end of the song, inspired by a visit to Glasgow’s premier minimal art/sound/noise festival Instal. Entropy in action.

Track Thirteen: Don’t Listen To This Song

"I made you love me then I let you down." I wrote the lyrics for this on the train to the recording so they’re kind of scratchy and unfinished, but it suits the song. This song is a spell. Don’t listen to it -- it can only work if you do, like using the video in "The Ring" or the disk in "Pulse" or the phone no. in "Cell."

YouTube Rodeo: Built To Spill's "You Were Right"

[Uploader: CoolLikeMiles] Shaky camera work, annihilatingly great track. We logged a lot of hours in a cubicle in early '99 listening to Built To Spill's fourth set Keep It Like A Secret. And while the kids all swooned then for "Carry The Zero" and "Time Trap," it was this immensely bitter anthem -- which appropriates memorable lyrics from Dylan, Hendrix, The Stones and others -- that fueled our actually-pretty-contented-in-retrospect general discontent for many months that year prior to our move to Boston. In late September of 2008 we benefitted from KoomDogg's misfortune and were able to avail ourselves of his second-row, center seat for Built To Spill, Dinosaur Jr. and Meat Puppets [review here]. "You Were Right," sadly, was not performed. The video above was shot at Lancaster, PA's Chameleon Club on July 3, 2007, and is well worth looking at.

That Was The Show That Was: Built To Spill, Dinosaur Jr, Meat Puppets

We last saw veteran indie rockers Built To Spill so very long ago that we couldn't recall the year and our review of it no longer exists. A search of the Googles reveals that the show was Sept. 18, 2001. Which seems like an odd night to see a show, as it was but a week after Sept. 11. Weren't we all hunkered down in bomb shelters back then? We guess not. We recall the show as being along the lines of the press we've seen for the current tour: nice, but somewhat uninspired. Some lame fan called out for "Free Bird" toward the end of the set that night, and Built To Spill obliged, which was slightly bad-ass. But the emotional high point of the show was the all-too-brief encore, when fronter Doug Martsch returned to the stage alone with an electric guitar and delivered a haunting solo rendition of The Smiths' "This Night Has Opened My Eyes." Another search of the Interwebs reveals this was a favorite of Mr. Martsch's around that time, because he was playing it a lot; here's a video of him playing an acoustic version.

Built To Spill was selected to perform its (in our opinion, relatively bloated) third record Perfect From Now On at last week's All Tomorrow's Parties festival in New York, and Martsch and band tacked on a strand of additional performances, of which last night's show at Boston's Orpheum was one. We've expressed numerous times that we prefer Built To Spill's earlier indie pop material, specifically the band's sophomore set There's Nothing Wrong With Love. That record is love-struck, wide-eyed and optimistic, while Perfect From Now On is heartbroken, darker and bummed-out. Despite its slower pace, its fewer emotional punches are potent, occasionally devastating, and are punctuated by some of Mr. Martsch's best lyrical hooks. We get goosebumps each time we hear the lines "I'm gonna be perfect from now on / I'm gonna be perfect starting now" (from "Randy Described Eternity") and "there's a mean bone in my body / it's connected to the problems that I won't take for an answer" or "let you go to sleep / feeling bad as me" (from "I Would Hurt A Fly"). Still, that Perfect From Now On has steadily developed a cult following, as evidenced by the skinny, t-shirted and flailingly enrapt in attendance last night, is curious to us. Even so, it is our second favorite of the band's records, and we are certainly happy that Martsch -- he formerly of the underrated act Treepeople -- continues to cultivate a young, fervent fan base.

Which brings us to last night. Contrary to the press mentioned supra, we thought the show was fairly gripping -- at least when Martsch was at the microphone. He sings like an agitated Muppet and sweats like an out-of-shape jogger. When delivering lyrics, he fully extends his torso upward and his head tilts off the top of his neck to the right and left as he sings. However, Built To Spill as a band, or at least in this configuration (a sextet anchored by exceptional drummer Scott Plouf, formerly of The Spinanes) exhibits zero stage rapport. The group -- save for Martsch -- largely looked to Plouf for cues, and generally comported itself as if it were a group of session players unfamiliar to one another. For his part, Martsch offered no stage banter and was content to quietly tune his guitar between tunes. That said, there was certainly passion in last night's performance, particularly in the two encores that followed the faithful recitation of Perfect From Now On. Directly on the heels of the album closer "Untrustable Part 2 (About Someone Else)," the band catapulted into a searing, dynamic version of "Going Against Your Mind," the standout cut from 2006's You In Reverse [review here]. We were thrilled that the final song was "Car," from There's Nothing Wrong With Love, which closed out the evening on an upbeat note.

Schedule conflicts have conspired to keep us from seeing Dinosaur Jr., one of our five favorite bands, since a wonderful in-store set in Cambridge in June 2007 [review here]. The trio turned in a thrilling, hits-packed performance last night, and we were as surprised as anyone to end up with one of drummer Murph's sticks when he lobbed it into the crowd at the close of their alloted time. Had instinct not kicked in, we're fairly certain the stick would have lodged itself in our left eye. We're building up something of a collection of band memorabilia, as we ended up with one of Lou's bass picks after it was flicked into the audience at the in-store [see our review of the show for a scan]. Anyway, Dinosaur Jr. last night played a loud and exciting set. It seemed to take J a bit of time to build up a head of steam as far as his soloing went, but by the time the band played "Pick Me Up" from last year's excellent collection Beyond [review here], the notes started coming rapidly and furiously. As best as we can recall, the band began with "Sludgefeast," "Been There All The Time" and "Back To Your Heart." The set closed with "Mountain Man," and the encore was "Just Like Heaven." In between Dinosaur played "The Wagon," "Freak Scene," "Out There," "Feel The Pain" and the aforementioned "Pick Me Up." It was awesome.

Doors last night were scheduled to open at 7:30 so we figured we had at least until 8PM before The Meat Puppets took the stage. We figured wrong. By the time we got seated the band had already played a few numbers. Luckily, as we got settled in our awesome second-row, center seat [thanks to KoomDogg] The Meat Puppets kicked in to "Up On The Sun," our favorite song of the band's. The trio, fronted by Chris and Curt Kirkwood, strung together a handful of tunes with echoey space jams, hitting a number of career highlights along the way. We shot a number of typically mediocre pictures of the show last night and you can view the entire set right here. If you are thirsting for audio, we recommend checking in with NYCTaper, who recorded the show the preceding night. Built To Spill's set is posted here; Dinosaur Jr.'s set is posted right here. Built To Spill heads to Europe Oct. 1 for five weeks of tour dates, and you can check out the entire itinerary at the band's MySpace casa right here. Here are a couple Dinosaur Jr. MP3s for readers who actually slogged all the way through.

Dinosaur Jr. -- "Freak Scene" -- Bug
Dinosaur Jr. -- "Pick Me Up (Live)" -- Urban Outfitters In-Store, June 11, 2007
[live recording courtesy of Bradley's Almanac]
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[buy Dinosaur Jr. records from Newbury Comics right here]

Today's Hotness: Sea And Cake, All Tomorrows Parties, Bob Mould

>> The new video for veteran, Chicago-based indie rock act The Sea And Cake's "Weekend" is very good -- but the song itself is amazing. The track, from the band's forthcoming long-player Car Alarm, is perhaps the most sonically forthright return to the blissed-out electropop sounds captured on the quartet's peerless 1997 effort The Fawn. This is interesting, because when we reviewed the quartet's previous record Everybody here in April 2007, we noted that the collection reminded us of one of our two favorite records from The Sea And Cake to date, The Biz. The Biz is more guitar-oriented than its successor The Fawn, and we're wondering if Car Alarm might similarly be more electronically oriented than Everybody. We suppose time will tell. And while the video -- posted here to Pitchfork.TV last week -- complements very well the tune's carefree feel, it is hard not to just focus on the gorgeous melodies floating among a clutter of digital tones and held aloft by persistent acoustic guitar strumming. The Sea And Cake's eighth record in fifteen years, Car Alarm will be released by Thrill Jockey Oct. 21. More details and ordering information is online right here. Below are The Sea And Cake's fall tour dates, which include a show at The Middle East Rock Club here in Cambridge, Mass. Nov. 12.

09/27 -- Chicago, IL -- Symphony Center
11/07 -- Philadelphia, PA -- First Unitarian Church
11/08 -- Washington, DC -- Black Cat
11/10 -- New York, NY -- Bowery Ballroom
11/11 -- Brooklyn, NY -- Music Hall
11/12 -- Boston, MA -- Middle East
11/13 -- Montreal, PQ -- La Sala Rossa
11/14 -- Toronto, ON -- Lee's Palace
11/15 -- Chicago, IL -- Empty Bottle
11/28 -- Portland, OR -- Doug Fir Lounge
11/29 -- Seattle, WA -- Chop Suey
12/02 -- San Francisco, CA -- Great American Music Hall
12/03 -- Los Angeles, CA -- Troubadour
12/04 -- Los Angeles, CA -- Troubadour
12/05 -- Pomona, CA -- Glass House
12/06 -- San Diego, CA -- Casbah

>> Esteemed independent radio broadcaster WFMU will air and stream certain live performances from next weekend's sure-to-be monumental All Tomorrows Parties Festival, which is being curated in part by legendary shoegaze quartet My Bloody Valentine and includes performances by it, Dinosaur Jr., Lilys, Mercury Rev, Polvo, Yo La Tengo and many others. WFMU has not yet received permission from all performers to bitcast and broadcast their performances, but it is working on securing as many assents as possible. A list in this blog post seems to say that we'll be able to hear sets from many of the bands we listed above, as well as sets from Bob Mould, Low, Brian Jonestown Massacre and others; hit this link to see what is hopefully an expanding roster. We're gutted to have to miss this festival, so the fact that WFMU has stepped into the breech for all of us out here in radioland is greatly appreciated.

>> Speaking of Bob Mould, the storied songwriter and former fronter of Hüsker Dü and Sugar will publish an autobiography in the fall of 2010. Mr. Mould has signed and agreement with Little, Brown to release the book, which will be written in tandem with veteran rock journalist Michael Azerrad. Mr. Azerrad previously wrote the excellent "Our Band Could Be Your Life" as well as the highly regarded "Come As You Are: The Story Of Nirvana." One of our favorite Mould jams is "Celebrated Summer," which was released by Hüsker Dü as a single in 1984 to promote the album it was released on, the epic New Day Rising. Since the autumnal equinox is just a week away, the song feels appropriate. Enjoy.

Hüsker Dü -- "Celebrated Summer" -- New Day Rising
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[buy Bob Mould, Sugar and Hüsker Dü records from Newbury Comics here]

>> Our friend BrighAAAAm has been talking about The Flaming Lips' movie-in-progress "Christmas On Mars" for about seven or eight years. And, after seeing some tantalizing footage in the band documentary "Fearless Freaks," the feature film is finally upon us. It apparently began screening recently in New York, although the possibility of a broader release may be hamstrung by the fact that Lips fronter Wayne Coyne insists that the film only be viewed in a special screening room with a custom sound system. Earfarm has more details and awesome video clips right here.

YouTube Rodeo: Dinosaur Jr.'s "Puke And Cry" Live

A complete face-melter of a performance. We had forgotten all about the HBO show "Reverb." Not that we ever saw it broadcast, but the head WMG press guy we used to deal with back in the day was also the producer of the show. Sent us a VHS of a Built To Spill performance, he did, if memory serves. That's probably around the house somewheres. Anyway, we spent most of Wednesday evening watching Ride and Stone Roses clips, but somehow ended up back looking for Dinosaur Jr. clips from the Green Mind era. We were not disappointed. We'll be seeing Built To Spill and Dinosaur Jr. with Meat Puppets here in Boston next month. Yay.

Review: Sebadoh | Bubble And Scrape [Expanded Reissue]

The story of Sebadoh, like that of sorta-precursor Dinosaur Jr. which featured 'Doh principal Lou Barlow on bass guitar, hinges on the interplay of different personalities, or -- to put it more simply -- who was in the band when. And so for the same reason certain people prefer Gary Young-era Pavement, our tastes for all things Sebadoh tend toward recordings made with original member Eric Gaffney. Yet paradoxically it is not because we are such big fans of Mr. Gaffney's compositions (each member of Sebadoh writes and sings his own material). Instead, we feel like his influence raises everbody's game, or at least provided a quirky spark that bled through everyone else's material. Perhaps we are reacting a little too strongly -- even now -- to the eventual, ahem, wimpiness we perceived in Barlow's ballads going forward. However, on Bubble And Scrape, the final Sebadoh release featuring Mr. Gaffney, all three songwriters -- including Jason Loewenstein -- are in the proverbial zone. Ballads rock, rockers rock, everything rocks. It's a brilliant record, and despite the conventional wisdom that favors Sebadoh III, it is in our opinion the best Sebadoh record.

It is notable that Bubble And Scrape flows as well as it does, because poring over the original liners after more than a decade without giving them a thought reminds us that the songwriters roughly take turns contributing a single's worth of tracks. Barlow leads off with "Soul And Fire" and "Two Years And Two Days," then Gaffney gets in a couple hits. Loewenstein bats cleanup with another pair and then the cycle roughly repeats. Since he wasn't an original member, it is curious that our favorite Sebadoh track is Loewenstein's "Happily Divided" (followed closely thereon by many other numbers on this record, including "HomeMade," "Two Years And Two Days," and "Think (Let Tomorrow Bee)," which are all Barlow jams). This may be because his compositions here split the difference between Gaffney's cracked compositions and Barlow's increasingly, errrr, songwritery songs.

This expanded reissue packs in nearly as many bonus tracks as there are originals, and many of these are dynamite, including demos or alternate takes of "Happily Divided," "Soul And Fire," "Sister," "Flood" and "Bouquet For A Siren." The additional version of "Happily Divided" stands out as a highlight, deliciously adorned as it is with out numerous out-of-tune guitars, glass-shattering quasi-snare and tambourine percussion, and stoned/depraved backing vocals. The original lineup of Sebadoh will perform the whole of Bubble And Scrape July 18 in Chicago at a music festival sponsored by Pitchforkmedia. Domino releases the deluxe reissue of this absolutely essential '90s indie rock album July 8.

Sebadoh -- "Soul And Fire (Acoustic Demo)" -- Bubble And Scrape [Expanded Reissue]
Sebadoh -- "HomeMade (Live)" -- The Offramp, Seattle, WA, 8/6/93
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[pre-order Bubble And Scrape from Newbury Comics right here]

Sebadoh: Internerdz | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

YouTube Rodeo: Under-Rated Dinosaur Jr. Or "Whatever"

We remember that, when it hit retail racks, the Dinosaur Jr. EP (or was it marketed as a maxi-single? we think it was) Whatever's Cool With Me had a sticker on the shrink-wrap that clearly stated that the contents were absolutely NOT a new record. Being old and jaded we now wonder whether that was more for the benefit of the label, you know, whether they were just making sure J. didn't get the set counted as an album under the terms of his deliverables of his contract. But at the time we thought it was weird and a little unnecessary. Granted there were a lot of songs, a lot of great songs, some old and some new, on the short stack. And the cover picture of the grumpy, cute dog was a delight to behold. But still, we just didn't think anybody was going to mistake this for a new Dinosaur full-length. And the relatively remarkable sea change that Where You Been would manifest makes the idea sorta laughable that Whatever's Cool was the follow-up to the equally strong but in a sorta different way major label day-bew Green Mind. But now we're just blathering. The point of this post is exactly this: this is a really weird video for a really great song that we don't think gets enough props within the Dinosaur Jr. canon. Incidentally, the band kicks off the first of two legs of a European tour tomorrow night in Cologne, Germany.

Clicky Clicky Mini-festo: Certain Minor Axioms Of Indie Awesomeness

Folks who really know their way around the Internetses are likely familiar with Cute Overload's objective Rules Of Cuteness, which turn on such things as ear size and -- in the case of the newly inaugurated Rule #38 -- belly roundness. We've long pondered a similar set of axioms for indie rock, although our criteria are so subjective that it doesn't make sense to apply them on the macro level that Cute Overload does. All the same, there are at least several things we take a lot of enjoyment from in indie rock, and they are 1) when a band namechecks itself (the most prominent aspect of an often entertaining universe of meta references to a song being performed), 2) when lyrics mention the act of listening to records or the radio, 3) when singers plead for the object of their affections to change his or her mind and it seems pretty clear that is not going to happen, and 4) the ludicrously over-loud sonic element.

A band can garner style points with specifically clever application of an axiom. For example, the first two words of dearly departed indie rock supergeniuses Haywood's sublime "Take An Inventory" are quite purposefully "Hey would..." Sticking with the 'Wood, one of the more entertaining applications of Axiom #1 is the first line to the relatively rare rocker "Alpenland," which opens with "Calling down to base camp this is Ted..." Readers of yesterday's post regarding Johnny Foreigner know the trio's forthcoming b-side also hits our first axiom. The Concretes' "On The Radio" fairly bluntly satisifies the requirements of our Axiom #2, but of course the grandaddy of this rule is The Replacements' consistently electrifying and dizzyingly poignant "Left Of The Dial." Or maybe The Modern Lovers' "Road Runner." Axiom #3, the sad little rule that nurses a beer quietly at the end of the bar, is found in the indie wild more more often than you'd expect. Our favorite manifestation is in Lilys' peerless classic "Claire Hates Me," but of course there is always the upbeat Sugar tune "If I Can't Change Your Mind." For Axiom #4, we usually think of the ridiculously loud "YOU!" in Dinosaur Jr.'s cover of "Just Like Heaven," or most of the guitar solos on Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's Extra Width, although it's sadly been years since we've heard that record. Anyway, we'll try to point out these various axioms when they come up in the future. Enjoy these MP3s.

Haywood -- "Alpenland" -- Self-Portrait comp [our version is an unmastered pre-release ca. 1997]
Lilys -- "Claire Hates Me" -- In The Presence Of Nothing [still sadly out of print]
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[buy Haywood and Lilys recordings from Insound here and here]