Review: The Low Anthem | Smart Flesh

The Low Anthem have threaded a high wire throughout their new album Smart Flesh (Nonesuch), and they traverse it with a solemn grace.

The politics of war and empty suits ("Hey All You Hippies") and love and guilt ("I'll Take Out Your Ashes") conspire with the album's direct and oblique, references to high wire walking - and specifically to Phillipe Petit, and his 1974 walk between the in-construction World Trade Center towers (documented beautifully in the 2008 film Man On Wire) - to conjure a wrenching mix of inspiration, bygone eras, vague menace, and resulting sadness. The lynchpin is the exhilarating "Boeing 737," which demands your attention early on an album otherwise filled with a stillness and meditation.

There's welcome trend in the pop music these days of bands moving beyond electric guitars and electronic gizmos (hey, one of those bands just won a Grammy, even!) and broadening their sounds with more variety of traditional instruments. The Low Anthem do this in a way that feels more organic to me than most of these other bands. I love that breathing field organ and Jocie Adams' clarinet and singing saw.

This is presumably what WNYC's Soundcheck host Jack Shaefer was referring to in this past Sunday's New York Times feature on the band, because there's no theremin on this album. I suppose that a singing saw might be a sort of unplugged theremin, though, and his larger point about The Low Anthem messing with our expectations is certainly well-taken. Boilerplate Americana on paper, they've crafted a unique voice. There's a certainly a Southern rural undercurrent, but it's heavily overlayed by a despairing Northern (or rust belt?) post-industrial, post-9/11, post-financial collapse malaise. It creates a reflection of a recurrent America in a timeless template. That most of it was recorded in the former spaghetti sauce factory formerly owned by Providence, Rhode Island's convicted felon mayor is almost too perfect.

I've talked before of how magical their performances can be. I still regret not being able to see them in one of the church venues at SXSW a couple of years ago that was reportedly transcendent, but I have another chance! As they headline Boston's Old South Church on Friday, March 4th [tickets] with original member Daniel Lefkowitz and Vermont's Bobby (a difficult-to-Google band name, but I found 'em). The tour opener from a Washington, DC synagogue will be broadcast live on NPR and should prove to be a good preview.

-Michael Piantigini

The Low Anthem: Intertubes | MySpace | Twitter

Today's Hotness: The Low Anthem | Parting Gifts | Apple on Apple |

[The Low Anthem at the Paradise, Boston, MA 4/20/10. Photo by Michael Piantigini.]

BE PREPARED: Rhode Island's soul-piercing, magic-conjuring, Americana (in the purest sense) purveyors The Low Anthem have just announced Smart Flesh, the follow up to the widely acclaimed Oh My God Charlie Darwin, which topped my 2009 favorites list. Recorded in what appears to be a cavernous, haunting (if not haunted) space in an old pasta sauce factory, the handful of tracks that the band has played live or teased online (see below) hint at further exploration the quieter parts of the landscape.

Smart Flesh is out February 22nd on Nonesuch, there's no single just yet, but "Ghost Woman" is a strong contender. And there's lots more fun in-the studio stuff here, here, here, here, and here.

The Low Anthem: Intertubes | Facebook | Twitter

THE PARTING GIFTS are the the latest project from Oblivian and Reigning Sound frontman Greg Cartwright, this time in collaboration with the Ettes' Coco Hames along with Raconteur Patrick Keeler, Black Key Dan Auerbach. The result is their cool new LP Strychnine Dandelion (In The Red) that doesn't stray so far out of their comfort zone, and ours: these are just great strummy garage poppers (along with a few rockers) that are worthy of both of their main gigs.

Parting Gifts: Facebook
Reigning Sound: MySpace
The Ettes: Intertubes | MySpace | Facebook | Twitter

HOT APPLE-ON-APPLE ACTION: The sort-of big music news of the day was that The Beatles are finally on iTunes. Big whoop, right? There was a lot of backlash on my social networking platforms - and it's true that it's hard to believe that anyone who wanted Beatle music was seriously waiting around for this to happen. But, it had to happen eventually, especially since we seem to be in the waning days of physical media (resurgent vinyl notwithstanding). Hard to blame Apple (both of them) for trumpeting the news. Now, with the complete catalog "Box Set" going for $150 on iTunes, I feel a little bad for people who shelled out $280 for this, since they've essentially paid $130 for a plastic apple. On the other hand, both the stereo and mono box sets are going for $129 on a major online retailer, so why wouldn't you do that? Those box sets are pretty sweet.

Anyway, the big Apple news by my reckoning, though, was the reissuing of a chunk of Apple Records' non-Beatles catalog. Which has been out of print and pretty scarce since their last early 90's reissue. Remastered by the same team that did all The Beatles campaign, the handful of Badfinger and Billy Preston titles I've heard all sound as great as those of their label bosses'. The easy must-gets: Badfinger's pop classic Straight Up and Billy Preston's soulful Encouraging Words. The label-wide compilation Come And Get It: The Best of Apple Records, is a great primer and an interesting peek into what was going on in that universe at the time.

Apple Records has a slick new website too.

In other Beatle news, while I'm at it:
Paul McCartney's new reissue campaign (on his new coffee-fueled label) kicked off with multiple configurations of Band On The Run. The album sounds as great as ever, again remastered by the above team, but the DVD's inclusion of a period TV special One Hand Clapping with it's live-in-the-studio performances was the big draw for me.

The post-Thanksgiving "Black Friday" holiday shopping kickoff is a little less soul crushing this year thanks to the full on deluxe vinyl replica reissue of George Harrison's masterpiece All Things Must Pass on the 40th anniversary (minus a day!) of it's original issue. The original 3-LP boxed set isn't too terribly difficult to find used, though they're usually a bit beat up. So, mastered from the original analog master tapes, getting a clean copy of this sounds like a good 'un to me.

-Michael Piantigini

Rock Over Boston | The Low Anthem | 4.20.10

[The Low Anthem and David Wax Museum at the Paradise Rock Club, Boston, MA 4/20/2010. Photos by Michael Piantigini]

Still riding the cresting wave of well-deserved acclaim for Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, the album they self-released in 2008 and later re-released on Nonesuch in 2009 (and this humble blogger's favorite album on last year), The Low Anthem returned to Boston's Paradise Tuesday night as headliners after supporting Blind Pilot at the same venue just a few months ago.

Spreading out on the Paradise's stage, Low Anthem's junk shop goldmine of instruments traditional and odd painted a unique picture warm and familiar enough to feel classic, but evolved enough to feel like they've found a new way into your soul. Their amazing field organ, harmonium, singing saw, and Jocie Adams' clarinet and ghostly bowed crotales over Ben Knox Miller's gently plucked acoustic guitar and Jeff Prystowsky's stand-up bass are all arranged with wise economy.

They're not simply milking Charlie Darwin on this tour, either. There's a new album apparently planned for fall release, and the band previewed several of these beauties as well, most notably the handful that had the band huddling around an old-time single mic setup at the front of the stage that emphasized their easy harmonies. After laying this meditative groundwork, the moments where the band cuts loose, like on their amped up cover of Tom Waits' Jack Kerouac cover, "Home I'll Never Be," were welcome and elating relief, with Adams revealing herself a belter.

Low Anthem draw you in with whispers and connect with quiet intensity in that rare way that lulls rock clubs. All that shattered the rapt silence was a couple of particularly prolific photographers with sharp elbows and the loudest imaginable shutters, who took what sounded like 8000 shots over the course of the 90 minute set (really? Still taking shots by the dozen during the encore?). But even this wasn't enough to break The Low Anthem's deep spell.

-Michael Piantigini

The Low Anthem: Intertubes | MySpace | Twitter

Michael Piantigini's Top Albums of 2009

Listened to a lot of great new stuff this year, 10 of my most appreciated below. What better way to work out your (and my) love/hate relationship with Top 10 lists?

1. The Low Anthem, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin (Nonesuch)

If I were truly in-the-know, the earlier indie release of Oh My God, Charlie Darwin should have been one of my top 10 of 2008, but lucky for me – and the world generally – Providence, RI trio The Low Anthem got promoted to the show this year and their sophomore album was re-released by Nonesuch. After seeing this performance of “This Goddamn House” from the band’s 2007 debut What The Crow Brings, a gut-punch performance so powerful and affecting that it makes one question their whole life, I was prepared to pack it all in and follow them around on tour or something. Or, at least, see them as much as I can. Of course, my punishment for not getting hip sooner is that I missed them in your more intimate venues, but their recent opening slot with Blind Pilot at the Paradise demonstrated that they are one of those rare quiet bands that can silence the chattiest of crowds and hold us mesmerized.

When I realized that the composer of “This Goddamn House” wasn’t even in the band anymore, I naturally worried that what was left couldn’t possibly be as good. Thankfully, I thought wrong and Charlie Darwin more than lives up to my hopes. The gentle songs are gentler, the rockers more ramshackle. The music more varied and the arrangements more creative. And songs to match: “To Ohio” feels like it’s always been there, and we’ve just discovered it on some lost reel of tape. The set makes you feel like privileged – like you’ve been invited to the most amazing, house party in the best sounding living room ever.

The Low Anthem: Intertubes | MySpace | Twitter

2. Lo Moda, Replica Watches (Creative Capitalism)

Internet details on the Baltimore combo Lo Moda are hard to pin down, but listening to their two albums, 2007’s Gospel Store Front and this year’s Replica Watches, that mystery (whether inadvertent or not) seems to suit them fine. Alternately playful, hooky, sinister, and often all three, describing this album makes it sound much more difficult than it really is. For all the odd, creative arrangements of insistent droney riffs, there’s just enough hook to grab onto and get under the skin.

“Robespierre” riffs its way into an organ hook and string drone over a marching rhythm section while telling us “we’re practically nowhere,” but the building droner “Real Real” – simpler than it seems with droning strings, organs, and guitars trying to break free certainly feels like its heading somewhere. That somewhere may be the perfect pop gem “Paper Bombs” that has all the aforementioned properties, but in a tighter, neater package. If I was doing a "Top Songs" of the year it would surely be near the top. If one isn’t enough, I’m certain that if “Simple Geographies” were done got the exposure it deserves, it’d be some kind of hit.

Lo Moda: MySpace

3. Obits, I Blame You (Sub Pop)

Sort of like a more punk rock Feelies, Obits have the same jittery energy as their brothers and sister across the Hudson, but with louder guitars, grittier vocals, and an angrier attitude. It actually doesn’t seem fair to compare them to the Feelies, since Obits have more than their share of college/alternative/indie rock pedigree just from main singer and guitars Rick Froberg’s tenure in Drive Like Jehu and Hot Snakes alone. If the Low Anthem’s album sounds like you’re in the best sounding living room ever, this hooky, dual guitar (which is different from guitar-dueling!), soul-shaker is what’s going on in the packed, sweaty basement.

Obits: Intertubes | MySpace | Twitter | SubPop

4. Yo La Tengo, Popular Songs/ Condo Fucks, Fuckbook (Matador)

For a band with a 20+ year history, it is more than a little amazing that Yo La Tengo have a clunker rate that is near zero. All the while absorbing styles and continuing to evolve and express those elements in great songs in a way that is distinctly theirs. They’re like a one-band record collection.

On Popular Songs, elements of soul and just classic sounding well-arranged 70’s “records” (when that really meant something) influences have led to gems like “Hard To Fall” and “If It’s True”, both with their classic string arrangements (by a classic string arranger!), stomping single “Periodically Double or Triple,” and the just perfect “All Your Secrets.” The latter having some of the better “do-do’s” you’re likely to have heard in a while.

Of course, there’s certain elements of their sound and style that they have continued to keep fresh after all this time – I’m talking here about how Popular Songs closes out with not one, not two, but three guitar epics in a row clocking in at 10 minutes, 11 minutes, and 15 minutes, respectively. Each, though, has totally different palettes and tones and they all draw you in in a different way. “More Stars Than There Are In Heaven” mesmerizes with a droning repetitive vocal line over e-bowed guitars, while “The Fireside” relies on sparsely strummed acoustic guitars and sound effects, and “And The Glitter Is Gone” is just an all out heavy bass and guitar orgy. I’m all in.

Meanwhile, under the guise of long lost “legendary New London, CT trio” the Condo Fucks, the members of Yo La Tengo also displayed their impeccable taste with a bootleg-quality collection of covers of the likes of Small Faces, The Kinks, and Slade. Just plain fun.

Earlier Clicky Clicky Yo La Tengo coverage

Yo La Tengo: Intertubes | MySpace | Facebook | Twitter
Condo Fucks: Matador | Documentary

5. Reigning Sound, Love and Curses (In The Red)

I’m admittedly late to the party, but Reigning Sound hit me hard this year and have me scurrying to catch up – I can’t believe I've lived this long without them! Led by longtime Memphis rocker Greg Cartwright, late of the greasy Sun Studios-inspired garage punks, The Oblivians (and occasionally still of – the Oblivians did a European tour with the Gories this year), Reigning Sound still have that Sun influence, but are tempered by more prominent soul influences (the Stax side of Memphis?). Still garage rock and primal swagger, but with the sneer making room for a knowing weariness, Love and Curses, their fourth album of original material has a warmer, lusher guitar sound than the biting attack of it’s immediate predecessor, 2004’s Too Much Guitar, and it is pure garage rock comfort food.

Reigning Sound: MySpace | Facebook

6. Wye Oak, The Knot (Merge)

Just when I was starting to think the guitar and drum duo line up was just too limiting to really allow a band any breathing room, along comes Wye Oak to prove me stupid. Jenn Wasner’s honey-sweet voice and nimble guitar riffiing are more than well-supported by Andy Stack’s... well, everything else. It is a sight to behold: some songs have him keeping the beat with one hand (and his feet) while playing bass lines with the other all while supplying harmonies. Hooky stomper “Take It In” leads the way, but gives over to the shoe-gazers like “Talk About Money” and “Tattoo” and the lurching “That I Do.” The Knot is one of those exciting albums where a band tops their road-tested first record with an even better set of songs.

Wye Oak: Intertubes | MySpace | Facebook

7. The Bats, The Guilty Office (Hidden Agenda)

I may just be a sucker for the well-crafted strummy guitar pop that New Zealanders seem so to be so good at, but The Guilty Office is really is one of those deals where we what have is just good, solid songs. The Bats have again returned with another batch that makes me ask, what more do you need?

The Bats: Intertubes | MySpace | Twitter

8. Varsity Drag, Night Owls

Long-time Boston rock underdog Ben Deily, the under-credited co-founder of the Lemonheads and arguably the creative force of that band’s formative years is back with Night Owls, the latest from his band Varsity Drag (and the first with the latest lineup with his Mrs., Lisa on bass and Josh Pickering – the bass player in 90’s-era Deily project Pods – on drums).

Looking at the credits, it seems that it would be a back-to-basics affair, with the production handled by Tom Hamilton – no, not that one, the other one, who produced those aforementioned early Lemonheads records back in the day. In some ways it is – Deily’s got a distinct style – but there’s more going on here, and Night Owls takes chances: “Morning” is practically a self-contained rock opera, and “Post Script” is as naked a piano ballad as any, all the more poignant coming from a classic punk-rocker.

Deily hasn’t been as prolific over the years as us greedy fans would like. To have a new full-length just 3 years the Drag’s debut EP (albeit years in the making), For Crying Out Loud, is a happy occasion indeed.

Earlier Clicky Clicky Varsity Drag coverage.

Varsity Drag: Intertubes | MySpace | Ben Deily | Twitter

9. Megafaun, Gather, Form & Fly (Hometapes)

Had Megafaun not been one of those serendipitous SXSW stumble-upons - had they been just sort of explained to me - there's a chance I would have dismissed them as another bunch of hippy rednecks making with the wanky jam-band antics. As I said above of guitar-drum duos, I'd be proved stupid. They have a warm, soulful sound and feel that has a way of making you as intrigued by the sound collage of "Darkest Hour," as you are hooked into the sunny three-part harmony pop sound of "The Fade," and the lyrical direction of both add even more depth.

Gather, Form & Fly is a thrilling exploration of the marriage of traditional folk instruments - guitars and banjos and percussion - and sound manipulation both analog and digital. One of the best things about it is wondering where it will lead Megafaun next.

Earlier Clicky Clicky Megafaun coverage.

Megafaun: Intertubes | MySpace | Twitter

10. Mean Creek, The Sky (Or the Underground) (Old Flame)

Why is it that when a band like Mean Creek so eagerly reaches for the sky, it is so surprising and refreshing? In a world of bedroom pop, it helps when good bands with good songs turn up now and then to remind us about ROCK. Look, I'm not going to lie to you: there's plenty of big rock touchstones here - there's some Zeppelin, some Pink Floyd, and - so help me - does "Beg & Plead" ever so much remind me of mid-90's Boston rockers Smackmelon (I guess you'll have to trust me on that one, kids), but the songwriting is solid, the arrangements tight, and the vibe inspirational.

Mean Creek: Intertubes | MySpace

BONUS LIST! Top 5 Songs not on any of those albums that I just couldn't not mention:
1. Wilco, "One Wing" from Wilco (The Album) (Nonesuch)
2. The Clean "In The Dream Life U Need A Rubber Soul" from Mister Pop (Merge)
3. Superchunk "Crossed Wires" from the Crossed Wires 7" (Merge)
4. Bare Wires “I Lie Awake” from Artificial Clouds (Tic Tac Totally)
5. Noise Addict “Big Ups” from it was never about the audience (self-released)

-Michael Piantigini

Check out Jay Breitling's Top Songs of 2009, and watch for his Top Albums of 2009 next week!