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]

Review: Johnny Foreigner | Arcs Across The City EP

Arcs Across The City -- which could have just as easily been titled Six Clattering Explosions And One Soft One -- is the new gold standard in indie rock. After more than a decade of our comparing the merits of new recordings to monumental releases including Archers Of Loaf's Vs. The Greatest Of All Time EP; Lilys' A Brief History Of Amazing Letdowns EP; Haywood's Men Called Him Mister; The Lemonheads' Lovey; Camper Van Beethoven's Key Lime Pie; et cetera; Johnny Foreigner's mini-album sets a bar for this decade and -- based on our proclivity to peg our affections to certain albums for inordinate lengths of time -- perhaps some of the next.

The band professes a love for Kinsella-spawned music and generally anything "Chicago in 1997," although it isn't much of a stretch to peg the trio of Alexei, Junior and Kelly as simply less wacky than Minus The Bear but more damaged than Treepeople, either. Despite a reverence for bygone records, Johnny Foreigner's songs convulse with a markedly contemporary and granular dissection of the lives and failed romances of wage slaves and hangers-on. Miles and miles of self-aware lyrics proffer incisive commentary on young scenemakers, their decaying scenes and the desperate longing that more often than not combusts therein. After months of rocking out to MySpace rips of much of the record, we are freshly blown away by the fully realized productions -- with clean layers of slashing guitars, airy keys, thundering bass and chanted "doo doohs" -- contained on the proper release.

Johnny Foreigner's roots in England's second-largest city, the hyper-industrial and (when viewed on Google Maps) amazingly grey Birmingham, contextualize each song on their first two singles and Arcs Across The City in a drunken underdog's fighting stance: backed into a corner, probably in the wrong and with nothing to lose. The corollary to this is that we don't believe Johnny Foreigner could have come from London, or Los Angeles, or even New York, because an outside-looking-in perspective is both present in and inextricable from the band's music.

No matter the geography, the band's captivating amalgamation of scrambling tempos, breakneck changes, big melodies and clashing vocal lines earns Arcs Across The City critical raves. But more important than the copious kudos is Johnny Foreigner's rescue of British indie music from a contrived necessity to cater to dance-floor denizens. From this American's perspective, British indie music has been hamstrung and flattened by an oft-referenced proscription in UK blogs that new music must move people on the dance floor. We chalk this zealous viewpoint up to the broad success of bands like Arctic Monkeys and Scotland's Franz Ferdinand. The fits and starts in the verse of "The End And Everything After," by contrast, angularly proclaim Johnny Foreigner's independence from many UK bands' 4/4 fixation, while acknowledging great indie rock's innate need to pogo.

Arcs Across The City was released Nov. 26 on Best Before Records, the label arm of a London-based live entertainment and artist management concern. As we suspected, the set has made a sidelong entrance into the U.S. market via EMusic's digital storefront. Unless you just don't like music you should hit the link below and run over to EMusic and download the EP forthwith. As we noted as part of last week's review of the band's U.S. debut [review here], Johnny Foreigner expects to issue its first full-length recording in mid-spring. In the meantime, here is an MP3 of the second and quasi-title track of the EP.

Johnny Foreigner -- "The End And Everything After" -- Arcs Across The City EP
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[buy Arcs Across The City from EMusic right here]

Johnny Foreigner: Interweb | MySpace | YouTube | Flickr

Clicky Clicky Parade Of MySpace Stars vol. 2 -- Updates

There's news in the world of two acts we previously profiled here in Clicky Clicky Parade Of MySpace Stars vol. 2. Read on.

>> Birmingham, England-based noise pop heroes Johnny Foreigner have been voted into the final round of a competition in the U.K. called The Road To V. The contest bestows upon the victor a slot performing on a certain stage at an event called V Festival, which occurs in mid-August and is sponsored by the mobile phone service prong of Sir Richard Branson's decentralized Virgin empire. The next step of the competition to determine the lucky V Fest performer has Johnny Foreigner and 13 other finalists performing live on the teevee in the UK for a panel of judges -- hopefully that video ends up on YouTube. In the meantime, the act's second proper release, a split single with Sunset Cinema Club on Laundrette Recording Company, will be released May 21. The record features each band playing one of their own ("Yes You Talk Too Fast" and "Down On The Farm" respectively) and one of the other band's tunes, much like the excellent 1994 Archers Of Loaf/Treepeople split on Sonic Bubblegum we mentioned previously here. You can already stream the cuts at Laundrette's MySpace shed here, and they are flipping brilliant. And did we mention the art for the Johnny Foreigner/Sunset Cinema Club split is 3-D and the single comes with 3-D glasses? Nutty. The release is limited to 500 copies, so start limbering up those ordering fingers when May rolls around. In the meantime, Johnny Foreigner offers a few downloads at its MySpace hut, a couple of which we've pulled down and put back up for you at the links below.

Johnny Foreigner -- "Sometimes In The Bullring"
Johnny Foreigner -- "SofaCore"
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>> Indie rock quartet Darling Nerves, which we saw play a hot set in early February, has parted ways with drummer Caryn Havlik. Ms. Havlik will reportedly be devoting her full attention to pursuing her passion for dog racing (as the owner of a retired greyhound, we can say this is a passion we don't share). The remaining members of the Brooklyn-based combo, which features former Phantom Tollbooth guy Gerard Smith on bass guitar, is auditioning drummers. Hit up their MySpace pad here if you think you've got the skin-slamming skills or if you want to bask in the glory of their indie fuzz.
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