That Was The Show That Was: A Silver Mount Zion | Colmar, France

[PHOTO CREDIT | Indie rock vagabond Lars Ro, one of our oldest friends, returns to the electronic pages of :: clicky clicky :: with this performance review of Canadian post-rockers A Silver Mount Zion. Mr. Ro is a veteran of numerous indie acts, the longest-running being Sfu-ma-to, and he recently opened a show for SMZ in Lausanne; Ro also operates Purr Mama Resistor Records. Ro previously reviewed a live performance of David Yow's new endeavour Qui here, months before most publications knew Qui from a Cuisinart. -- Ed.]

Last night, as the septet A Silver Mount Zion took the stage of Le Grillen in the French city of Colmar, Jessica Moss and Sophie Trudeau assumed positions flanking the stage like violin-bearing angels. And then new tune "13 Blues for 13 Moons" commenced apocalyptically, before shifting into a serious Hendrix-esque riff and building into pure, bucking rock. Drummer Eric [sorry, Eric, we don't know your surname -- Ed.] appeared possessed, despite being a relatively new addition to the band. "Mountains Made of Steam" [the inspiration for the so-named fan site] was super-hushed, illuminating how the crowd tonight seemed to be tamer than most on this tour so far. Sweeping, cresting waves of overlapping violins, cello and contrabass gave way to the klezmer-like "Lai lai lai la lai." As was band progenitor Godspeed You! Black Emporer before it, A Silver Mount Zion is a master of shifting dynamics. Ms. Moss even contributed some Sigur Ròs-esque screams into her violin.

The loose and dissonant passages of new composition "Engine Broke" were perfectly suited to Eric's percussive blasts: epic soundscapes which would do Wilhelm Wagner proud. Lyrics like "building trainwrecks in the setting sun" invoke fitting images for our age. "Take These Hands & Throw Them In The River," the only oldie-but-goodie of the set, kicked off with strings that sounded like air-raid sirens. I could literally feel my guts turn, and had a sense of what a young miss in Brussels meant when she characterized SMZ's music "distressing." Onwards to chugging rock, into a feedback fest and finally an avant-garde symphony. The new hit "1 Million Died To Make This Sound" started off in a similarly unsettling manner, navigating experimental waters and then entering medieval plainsong territory. (I found myself wondering if one million notes were being played in the song, being quite exhausted after a near-sleepless night...)

Six songs might sound like a short set, but considering the lengths of SMZ's opuses, think again. The encore consisted of "Blind Blind Blind" [YouTube], with the stated preference "we want punks in the palace" falling on eager, anyone-but-Sarkozy ears (it was election day in France this day). It was a powerhouse of a song, sliding down chutes and up sonic ladders again. I was wondering why I wasn't crying to the refrain of "some hearts are true" as I usually do, and then they suddenly began streaming down. The audience's final applause was quite impressive, so maybe Colmarians aren't as tame as I'd first feared. -- Lars Ro.

You can download A Silver Mount Zion's April 17 performance, the fourth show of its current strand of tour dates, in lossless audio files at Archive.org here. The remaining tour dates are listed below the requisite links. After these dates the band will turn its attention to completing a live record tentatively titled F*ck You Drakulas, which it hopes to finish by mid-summer according to the band's web site. A Silver Mount Zion plans to tour the U.S. and Canada from late July until early September.

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band: InterWeb | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

04/24 -- Nancy, FR -- L'Autre Canal
04/26 -- Brighton, UK -- Komedia
04/27 -- Colchester, UK -- Arts Centre
04/29 -- Somerset, UK -- ATP Festival
04/30 -- London, UK -- Scala
05/02 -- Sheffield, UK -- Corporation
05/03 -- Oxford, UK -- Zodiac
05/05 -- Hasselt, BE -- Zall Belgie
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Review: The Sea And Cake | Everybody [Stream]

Anticipating the release of a new record from The Sea And Cake is a ritualized experience for us, during which we wait in uncertainty like Pozzo and Lucky for signs of a return to one of the band's landmark recordings. In 1995 and 1997 the Chicago-based quartet issued back-to-back records that are pillars of indie pop, the guitar-oriented The Biz and the electronically textured The Fawn. Over the past decade we've done two things more than we'd care to admit: listen relentlessly to those records, and hope that the four horsemen of the indiepopalypse (Mssrs. Prekop, Prewitt, McEntire and Claridge, each Chicago music luminaries in their own right) would finally concoct a third perfect record mining one or both of those records' styles. Today we can report after a four-year wait (since the release of the band's prior effort Oui) that the quartet's forthcoming collection Everybody is as close to a perfect guitar-pop album as The Sea And Cake has crafted since The Biz.

While maintaining a characteristic understated sophistication, the set is touted as The Sea And Cake's "rock record." And indeed the group's gentlemanly pop here is propelled by punchier rhythms and occasionally aggressive -- well, relatively -- performances and production. "Left On" pulses with the inevitability of vintage kraut rock and occasionally unleashes avian shrieking and feedback in what may be the heaviest Sea And Cake tune ever tracked. The show of strength is bracing, but it is little surprise when the band retires to its pop boudoir as the song recesses into silence. "Crossing Line" bursts open with an abundance of sonic fizz in the form of a fuzzed out guitar, resulting in another near-brash track from a group that typically maintains a sort of polite decorum with its compositions. The Sea And Cake states Everybody is relatively straightforward and live-sounding and that there are fewer overdubs than on their other collections. That may be so, but there are still many nice production touches, such as the electronic flourishes in the denouement of the irresistible sorta title track "Lightning."

Everybody will be released May 8; a deluxe gatefold LP will include a 16-page booklet that we imagine will be a delight to behold. The Sea And Cake plan a substantial strand of tour dates beginning May 14 in Vancouver. The full tour is listed below, as is a stream of the African high-life tinged "Exact To Me."

The Sea And Cake -- "Exact To Me" -- Everybody
[it's a stream, just click, and get ready to adjust your volume]
[buy Everybody from Thrill Jockey here]

The Sea And Cake: Interweb | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

05/14 -- Vancouver, BC -- Richard's on Richards
05/15 -- Seattle, WA -- Neumo's
05/16 -- Portland, OR -- Crystal Ballroom
05/18 -- San Francisco, CA -- Bimbo's
05/19 -- Los Angeles, CA -- The Troubadour
05/20 -- Los Angeles, CA -- The Troubadour
05/21 -- Solana Beach, CA -- Belly Up
05/31 -- Chicago, IL -- Empty Bottle (Two Shows)
06/02 -- Toronto, ON -- Mod Club
06/03 -- Montreal, QC -- La Sala Rossa
06/05 -- Boston, MA -- The Paradise
06/07 -- New York, NY -- Webster Hall
06/08 -- Philadelphia, PA -- Theatre of Living Arts
06/09 -- Washington, DC -- Black Cat

[Click here for European tour dates]
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