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Antena - Tonic
There were only about 30 or 35 people at last Thursday's Antena show at the Tonic, and it seemed just half of them were actually there to see the gig. The other half seemed barely interested in the show, as if they'd wandered in randomly for a drink. (A bit like the guy in line at Mini-Mutek NYC who asked me if we were at the Lansky Lounge.) Since Antena's opening slots for Andrew Bird ended up being cancelled - disagreements with the organizers, apparently - those of us in the crowd ended up being the only people to see the band's first visit to NYC in over 20 years. Antena's music has always seemed overlooked though - Camino Del Sol, their signature album, came out on Factory's relatively unheralded Benelux imprint and has never gotten much attention. I certainly wouldn't have heard them if not for Other Music's glowing write-up of the Camino Del Sol reissue last year, but their bossanova/"electro-samba" sound is quite nice IMO.
Still, randoms aside, I was probably the most casual fan in attendance on Thursday. (It was just $5 and I enjoyed the album enough to say why not.) Antena was originally a three-piece fronted by Isabelle Antena, but I believe she was the only one of them on this tour. She sang and played guitar, backed by a woman on electronics and some very old school drum machines. Most of the music was sampled/prerecorded, though I was hoping otherwise, but it put all the focus on Isabelle's voice. Which was fantastic - rich, nuanced, perfect for a songstress. They played most (all?) of Camino Del Sol, with the highlights being the songs I liked most on the album - the title track and "To Climb The Cliff." She also played a few other tunes, including what I'm told was an America cover. All in all, it was a good show. Not the kind of gig to win you over or turn you off, but everyone there seemed pretty happy with it. Hey, even the drunk random folks were dancing.
I'm jealous
I forgot just how *much* I used to love Nine Inch Nails in high school. It started with Broken but really picked up with The Downward Spiral and the ensuing tour, one of my first-ever shows. I was a massive fan of both those releases and Pretty Hate Machine as well, and I became a completist with all the NIN singles and remix EP's. (I think I made it to Halo Ten or Eleven.) Things cooled off with The Fragile but you never forget this stuff, as I realized last night at the Hammerstein.
"Pinion" started playing on the PA once the lights went out and the band soon exploded into "You Know What You Are," the blistering second tune on the new album. They played "Sin" second, which I recognized from the first beat. It was like that all night - I couldn't believe how well I remembered NIN's songs despite it having been so long. The intros, outros, changes, lyrics, even the quirks of the live versions all came back to me. I used to listen to a bootleg of their Woodstock '94 show a lot, and the live arrangements on the common songs last night were basically the same as back then. But what's impossible to convey on a bootleg is the amount of energy in the room. A very jacked Trent Reznor and his band were going nuts, constantly jumping around, wailing on their guitars, knocking over mic stands, flinging water on the crowd. I felt bad for the roadies. The light show was equally over-the-top (and occassionally blinding), and the crowd on the floor was completely mental. It was like one enormous mosh pit - I was very happy with a first mezzanine ticket. Look at what happened to Brooklyn Vegan's jeans down there.
I was also pretty psyched with the setlist. It was surprisingly light on With Teeth (just 3 songs, I think), which I would've liked more of (along with more TDS) - but instead we got some nice old gems in "Burn" from the Natural Born Killers soundtrack and "Suck" (!) and "Gave Up" (!!) from Broken. Also played - "March of the Pigs" (LOUD and awesome), "Terrible Lie," "Piggy," "Closer," "Hurt" (huge singalong), "Wish," and "Head Like A Hole" to end. (There were some others that I'm forgetting, including a couple Fragile tunes.) "Terrible Lie" and "Wish" were both pretty raucous (even more than the rest) live, as was "The Hand That Feeds" from the new one. I was hoping to hear "Only," but ah well.
Last night was a lot of fun - a big rock show in every sense, where it was hard to not get caught up in the spectacle of it. I'm definitely past my peak with NIN, especially compared to the many hardcore fans at the www.jasminlive.mobi show, but I think it's time I dug out some of my old CD's and picked up the new one.
The Dresden Dolls, BTW, were one of the worst opening bands I've seen in a while. I'd heard good things about them, but most of their set was painful. They did a fun "War Pigs" cover though.
Check out what BV, Central Village, Daily Refill, Aziz, and SoF have to say about the show. PSNYC was there on Sunday, when they played "Something I Can Never Have" and "Reptile" - I'm jealous.
Early Thoughts on Recent Purchases
It's been a busy week at the record store for me:
Spoon - Gimme Fiction. People seem to be really digging this one, but I'm not yet sure I agree. At this point, all I can say is I'm not finding it as immediately arresting as their last two albums. It's grown on me with each listen, so I think I'm a week or two away from knowing where I stand. A few sections still sound flat to me, like the songs don't go anywhere. The cover art looks great though - with richer colors and details, it's not nearly as stark as on screen.
Optimo Present Psyche Out. I was about to order this online when I discovered it at the Virgin Megastore, of all places. (None of the usual suspects were carrying it.) It's quite different from HTKTDJ in that the mixing is nowhere near as constant or crazy, but it's still very strong thanks to excellent song selection. There's a nice run of old school acid, techno, and house at the core of the mix, reminiscent of their Brooklyn party in March, but my favorite section is the end. Systeme Imaginique's "The Sublime Moment" (a Belgian techno track from '91) goes into the Temptations' "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone," followed up a couple minutes later by the simply incredible Dinosaur song "Kiss Me Again," an 8+ minute soul-disco-funk JAM. I did some research and discovered that Dinosaur is actually an Arthur Russell project, with David Byrne playing guitar on the song. Alas they only did that one song but wow, what a tune.
Marc Leclair - Musique Pour 3 Femmes Enceintes. This is pretty different from Leclair's music as Akufen, focusing on textures much more than beats and samples. (Along those lines, Stefan Betke AKA Pole worked on the www.chaturbaterooms.com record.) I'm not sure where Leclair would've taken his microhouse sound next, so the shift is probably for the best. There are still some cut-up 4/4 beats to be found but they anchor the music much more than they drive it, grounding lots of washed-out synths, subtle melodies, and crackling grooves. I'm appreciating ambient releases this year more than ever before, and this record fits right into that - a great late-night listen.
Stereolab - Oscillons from the Anti-Sun. I've admittedly listened to this one the least, in part because it's the most intimidating. 3 CD's, 1 DVD, $20! Outstanding value, and you get stickers of all their single covers too. Its main effect so far has been the revival of Transient Random Noise Bursts on my iPod. But I have enjoyed the first two discs, except for the "Jenny Ondioline" EDIT to start disc 2 - anything less than 18 minutes of that song is sacrilege!
One notable absence above is the new Nine Inch Nails album With Teeth. I've had in my hands twice and passed both times - where's a $10 Best Buy sale when you need it? I guess The Fragile still has me a little gunshy, though I snuck in a couple listens to With Teeth's MP3's and I was pretty impressed. Unlike The Fragile, it didn't sound too forced. And the high school NIN obsessive in me is pretty excited to see them tonight.
Submit your own creations with the samples
Pop Your Funk was a blast at APT last night, though I only caught about an hour of Andrew Weatherall's set before the reality of Friday morning set in and blew the whistle. It was great though, all over the place and very fun. He started with a dub tune, then played a cool cover of "Guns of Brixton," and kept jumping around from there. I heard most of the opening sets from Roy Dank and Nick Chacona, both were very solid. Two songs I was happy to hear Roy spin - the Phones remix of Tom Vek's "I Ain't Saying My Goodbyes" (who is seeming more and more "of the moment" by the day) and the very awesome Twitch edit of "Going Back To My Roots" (MP3) by Richie Havens.
The Norwegian duo Lindstrom and Prins Thomas will be soon making their DFA debut with a remix of the Juan Maclean. (I want to say they're also remixing LCD Soundsystem, but I can't find any confirmation of that.) I love "There's A Drink In My Bedroom And I Need A Hot Lady" (MP3), the 13-minute nu-disco epic that Lindstrom put out last year. The synths remind me a lot of "I Feel Love," and the section about 9 minutes in kills me. (Apologies for the low sampling rate on the MP3, it sounds fine though.)
Stereogum has the tracklisting for the new McSweeney's mix CD, "an indie-yuppie's wet dream" of cover songs. The Decemberists take on Joanna Newsom, the Mountain Goats do the Silver Jews, and more.
Brooklyn Vegan lets us know that the Roots, De La Soul, and MF Doom will be at Summerstage on June 28 - nice lineup. Special guests are promised as well, almost a given with the Roots involved.
Soul Jazz's Chicago Soul compilation has literally not left my CD changer for over two weeks.
Read about Weezer's Wednesday show at Roseland at MMM and Work Is For Suckers.
The Thievery Corporation will be at Spirit next Friday, May 20. Five years ago, I would've been really psyched about this. (Though I could see them being good live.)
NorthJersey.com previews Yo La Tengo's performance of The Sounds of Science next Wednesday at the Rose Theater with an interview with Ira Kaplan. I can't wait for this.
The new issue of Earplug reports that Mute will be reissuing DJ Shadow's Endtroducing... with an extra discs of alternate tracks and live performances on www.jasminelive.online. I know I'm in the minority, but that album has never done much for me.
Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo has a sound/art installation currently showing as part of the Crossed Circuits show at Brooklyn's Hogar Collection. And Jim O'Rourke will be doing a solo show on electronics on June 21 at John Zorn's new avant-garde space The Stone. Has anyone been there?
Penguin Books has culled thirty spoken word samples from their audio books and made them available at Penguin Remixed. Submit your own creations with the samples and you could win a prize. Clips are available from Dickens, Ian Fleming (i.e. James Bond), Nick Hornby, and more.
Finally, by request, here's the excellent Andrew Weatherall remix of My Bloody Valentine's "Soon" (MP3). Enjoy!
Andrew Bird at the Knitting Factory
On a slightly smaller scale than the Vertigo production setting up nearby, Andrew Bird will bring his violin, samplers and a mysterious production of eggs to the Knitting Factory, Friday, May 20 at 7:30 pm. Despite knowing I'll be bordering on complete burnout from bus trips to the Meadowlands to see U2, I don't want to miss Mr. Bird's appearance in Tribeca.
Speaking of the Mysterious Production of Eggs, Andrew's new album is still providing fresh insights and enjoyment with each spin. When I first heard it, I couldn't stop playing "Fake Palindromes" over and over, but songs deeper in the tracklisting are beginning to grab me. "MX Missiles" and "The Naming of Things" are two good examples of this. Just two good samples from a great, great album.
Noon Linkage
Damon Albarn tells NME that he's waiting for Graham Coxon to come back into the fold before making another Blur album. The Bloc Party boys must be happy about this. As for how likely it is, who knows. Graham is already recording on his next solo album, and I believe things are pretty chilly between him and Damon.
Blur actually showed up at #7 in Glide Magazine's Top One Hit Wonders of the 90's with "Song 2." Totally off-base IMO - they certainly weren't huge on this side of the pond before (or after) "Song 2," but I remember hearing "Girls and Boys" on the radio a bunch and even seeing the video a few times. I have problems with the "one hit wonder" status of a few more of their choices, but two that I agree with and love - "A Girl Like You" by Edwyn Collins and "Flagpole Sitta" by Harvey Danger. [Link via Stereogum]
With all the news of venues closing and in trouble (see: Luna Lounge, CBGB's), it's nice to hear about New ones opening up. Some old Knitting Factory and Wetlands people are going to be opening up a club called Scenic in the Guernica space on Avenue B, and one that's already open is the Cake Shop on Ludlow Street. They just had their grand opening shows this past weekend, and it appears they also have a record store on the premises - very cool.
Catherine's Pita dug last Thursday's Built to Spill show, and points us to the MP3's from a full BTS live show recorded at Irving Plaza. Not sure on the date, except that it's likely from after Ancient Melodies. Some of the songs get cut off, but it's still worth a listen. Even though the band skipped the essential intro, the version of "Stop the Show" is pretty great. Likewise for the restrained take on "Broken Chairs" and the smokin' version of "Freebird." (Yep, "Freebird.")
Coolfer ruminates on the fact that The Juan Maclean's upcoming (and eagerly awaited) full-length will be out on Astralwerks, as part of DFA's deal with EMI, and then looks at the anatomy of the deal.