Certainly one of the most popular albums of 2009 was Phoenix’s fourth release, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. I’ve always liked Phoenix’s music from their debut in 2000 with United, but this album was something else. And I’m glad to see Phoenix getting the attention and stardom they deserve. One of my favorite tracks off of the album was “Fences” and I really like the remixes that have been done for this song.
.Phoenix – “Fences”
Fences is a mid tempo track that feels faster with the music, but slower through lead singer Thomas Mars’ vocals. The song has a romantic tinge to it with the highs and lows of Mars’ crooning voice. The vocals are really the best part that reach a falsetto, the music pursuing the change, creating a song with a lot of variety. The music is a beautiful blend of rock, jangly guitars with touches of synthesizers and light body moving drums.
.Def Starr Remix
This is by far the best remix of the song. The synthy beginning reminds me of the intro to “Forever Young” by Alphaville. The mix then jumps into squiggles and rubs on a synthesizer, which create sounds as such. The rock aesthetic of the song is subtly peeled away to be replaced by soft electronic music. The music is incredibly hushed and delicate; the altered version comes across as something simpler and purer. It’s the track I listen to the most out of all of them. Mars’ vocals seemed enhanced here, perhaps because they stand out amongst the softer music.
.Friendly Fires Remix
Friendly Fires change up things significantly here. The music is louder, jumpier and definitely faster. I see this one being played on dance floors. It has an old schools 90s dance vibe to it, mixed with jangly pianos, splinter splashed drums, and eventually some heavy presses on the trusty synth. The vocals are of course left in place, because they’re oh so good, though at times come across muffled by the music. Either way, a great re-working of the original.
.Neo Tokyo Remix
The Neo Tokyo mix is an even further cry away from the original. All rock/soft aesthetics are stripped to be replaced by French electro trash instrumentation; all very distorted, jarring, sleazy and buzzy. But it’s a fun mix to get into, as it has typical house builds up and come downs. It’s got all sorts of craziness in it throughout.
Amanda Palmer is a force of nature. She’s inexhaustible, intense, and pretty fucking unstoppable. She just finished up a whirlwind east coast tour with Brooklyn’s Nervous Cabaret, and she allowed me behind-the-scenes access before her New York show to make some portraits and peep her soundcheck, which included old school favorites, a danceable cover of the Ting Tings‘s “That’s Not My Name,” and an off-the-cuff first verse/chorus of St. Vincent‘s “Marry Me.” All of this when the woman had been in a car accident a mere hour beforehand. See what I mean? Force of nature. Board up your windows.
“Returning to the scene of the crime,” is how the Get Up Kids phrased it, but really the only injustice was that it had been a 3-year wait for that November 2008 show. Fortunately, since that first reunion show at the Record Bar, the band was kind enough to give the Kansas City metropolitan area a Lawrence and a North Kansas City show before ending their reunion with a two night stand where it all began. And since I saw them at the very first reunion show, it was only fitting that I would see them at their last.
There seemed to be some confusion about the show start time, so a lot of the crowd was still coming in during Louisville band Mansions set. “Talk Talk Talk” came early in the set and while listening to the biting lyrics, I was torn between loving the band for their passionate sound reminiscent of Manchester Orchestra or Brand New and hating them for being so passionate that my mood dropped as they struck some chords a little too close to heart for comfort. The ended the set with “The Worst Part,” another song with strong lyrics of a bit of a depressing nature. These guys are super talented, but I think as an opener, it was a bit hard to warm up to for some in the audience with their cold tone.
For those that pay attention to the lyrics of Kevin Devine, he too has lyrics that are biting commentaries and often downer-sounding self-reflections, but unlike Mansions, his set had a different feeling. Instead of falling deeper into a whirlpool of sadness, Kevin made me happy and simply impressed. There are two reasons for that. Usually, I do focus on his lyrics and his voice because it is hard not to. He presses his face up against the microphone for some of the softer verses, but when he steps away from microphone and yells a chorus or a line or even a ba-da-da-dah-da, all eyes are on his face, which has veins enlarged into a map of his energetic passion for the piece. I’ve heard him compared to Conor Oberst, but I would be bold enough to say that Kevin might have more to offer, at least in his live show, than the Bright Eyes frontman. This time, thanks to a gentleman next to me calling out, “When will we see you on Guitar Hero?” I watched his hands racing on the instrument. Damn, was he good, and maybe he should be on the game. I felt alive just watching him play the arpeggiated riffs. And this brings me to the other reason why his set was uplifting: he has fantastic audience interaction. “The question on the floor is when will I be on Guitar Hero. I would love to be on Guitar Hero. I work for that every day,” said Kevin. “I’m just not that good.” At another point he bent down close to two little boys in the front row and asked, “You don’t have ear plugs? Will you be ok? It is going to get loud.” So modest and sweet. He isn’t only a great performer, but a great person. What a package in an artist these days! I was so happy with him and his set, which featured tunes such as “Brother’s Blood,” “Fickle Friend,” “Cotton Crush,” “No Time Flat,” a Nirvana cover and more, that I could have left the show then. Although, what a poor Kansas City citizen I would be if I left before one of our biggest acts?
Last time I saw the Get Up Kids in this venue, they played “Something to Write Home About” in order. During the encore, they played a few other fan favorites. Now tonight was not a rehash of that same show. While the set was heavy with those songs as they started the night with “Holiday,” they interspersed songs from other albums throughout it such as a new song from the forthcoming album, “Walking on a Wire,” “Martyr Me” and the rounded out the night with their cover of The Cure‘s “Close to Me.” They even jammed a bit before “Martyr Me.” Check it out:
One of my favorite moments of the set was during “Out of Reach” when the crowd came in with the “Oh oh ohs” and guitarist Jim Suptic and bassist Rob Pope exchanged a look of “OMG.” I wasn’t sure at first if they were impressed by how boisterous the crowd’s singing was or if they were shocked by how off we were. Turns out it was the latter. “How many girls were singing on that?” asked singer Matt Pryor. He shook his head as the girls yelled back. “That was a choir of dudes. Really out of tune dudes.”
Another set highlight was when Suptic took the vocal reigns and grabbed an acoustic guitar for “Campfire Kansas,” which of course held a special meaning for the Kansas City crowd. While he was singing, Pryor went over to the aforementioned kids in the front row and invited the two boys on stage to play tambourine. It made a sweet song extra adorable. However, the boys must have rocked so hard on that acoustic number, that it blew out all their equipment. When the rest of the band came back the only thing left working were the microphones. The Record Bar employees debated how to fix the problem when sparks came flying out of an amp and throwing the breaker just resulted in the same problem. Suptic and Pryor bantered about how this was or was not fitting for the final night of the tour and then they tried to get drummer Ryan Pope to jam out for the audience. Pope seemed hesitant, so it opener Kevin Devine to the rescue. With a beat from Pope and some extra help from Suptic, Devine graced the audience with an amazing and strange rap. Yes, Kevin Devine raps. And it is wonderful.
The Get Up Kids mentioned that Kansas City seems to have a love/hate relationship with them. I’m glad to be on the side that loves them and I’m glad that they are finally just doing their own thing and not worrying how people choose to embrace them.
Oh, and reuniting must have felt so good that the band promises we’ll see another show in 2010 after the new! record comes out. Now that’s something to write home about.
Say what you will about Jack White…but there’s no denying the fact that his Energizer mind works in marvelous ways. After seeing It Might Get Loud earlier this year it became clear to me, and maybe only me, that he is a consummate artist. We watched him pull inspiration from the far reaches of music’s history, pay homage to the deep, Southern soul at the heart of his work, and experiment with heavy, disparate metallic howls in the upstairs attic of an abandoned Victorian home, in the same way that a mad scientist might tamper with boiling beakers—deranged and raw.
2010 will see White return to the mixer in the role of producer. Remember that fantastic album he made in 2004, Van Lear Rose, with Loretta Lynn? This time around White intends to reinvent the touted “Queen of Rockabilly,” Wanda Jackson, a one-time tour mate and lover of Elvis Presley, a dynamic collaboration that is sure to feed the “little bit o’ Country, little bit o’ Rock and Roll” thing that White does so well. In fact, I’m going to go ahead and make this my first “most anticipated release” for 2010.
To commemorate the 25th anniversary of the release of U2‘s 4th studio album, The Unforgettable Fire, the band has remastered and re-released the record:
The Unforgettable Fire is available in four different formats:
Limited Edition Box Set: containing 2 CDs (remastered album and bonus audio CD), a DVD with live footage, documentary and videos, a 56 page hardback book with liner notes by The Edge, Brian Eno, Danny Lanois, Bert Van de Kamp and Niall Stokes, and 5 photographic prints
Deluxe Edition: containing 2 CDs; the remastered album, and the bonus audio CD which features B-sides and previously unreleased material, a 36 page booklet with liner notes by The Edge, Brian Eno, Danny Lanois and Bert Van de Kamp
CD format: featuring the remastered album
12″ vinyl format: 16 page booklet with liner notes by Brian Eno, Danny Lanois and Bert Van de Kamp
We’re celebrating the re-release by giving away U2′s re-mastered vinyl catalog. This includes: October, Boy, War, Under a Blood Red Sky, Joshua Tree and of course, the new release of The Unforgettable Fire.
To win, share why you find U2 “unforgettable” in our comments section by Friday, Nov. 27 at 12 p.m. CDT. We’ll pick a winner then. Please use a valid email address and this contest is limited to U.S. residents.
If you don’t want to take your chances with our contest, buy the regular re-mastered album here or the deluxe version here.
Bohemian Caverns is a D.C. institution. Founded in 1926, it’s been a jazz bastion of the U Street corridor pretty much ever since. Saturday night, its smaller upstairs nightclub Liv played host tothe Pimps of Joytime, a six-member band based in Brooklyn. And the Pimps definitely brought out the funk on an unseasonably mild evening in the nation’s capital.
Instrumentally live, there’s three keyboards on stage (plus points in my book) and one of them is a Moog (bonus points!), saxophone, and conga drums, in addition to the normal rock band-required set up of guitar, bass, and drums. So their sound could be described as soul and jazz with a funk foundation, tinged with a bit of Latin.
Brian J, guitarist, keyboardist, and essentially frontman of the group, bears a striking resemblance to Eagle-Eye Cherry and but he sure doesn’t play like him. He introduced the band with “we’re Pimps of Joytime. We invite you to make yourselves comfortable, and we’re going to have a little party.” Delighted shouts of “woohoo!” could be heard from the floor, which started out a bit empty but started to fill in as the band played on. “Street Sound,” dedicated to the band’s fellow musicians in New York City, was a highlight, and like the other tunes they played, turned into a raucous jam that got people cutting a rug to their funky beats. Brian J also commented that he was a big fan of Washington and of Chuck Brown, the godfather of go-go and one of our city’s most beloved music figures.
Their far too short set was punctuated by the superb “Joytime Radio.” Oh, if only real radio could be as joyous! By the end, the band had won everyone over, with people whining loudly that the show was over (especially those that had arrived too late). The Pimps of Joytime are a pleasure to see live. Definitely catch them at a venue near you if you can. They’ve only got a couple dates scheduled for Connecticut and New York for the rest of the year, but I hope they’ll be touring more extensively in 2010.
Tour dates
Nov 25 – Toad’s Place / New Haven, CT
Nov 28 – Field Restaurant and Bar / Bridgeport, CT
Dec 04 – Brooklyn Bowl / Brooklyn, NY
Dec 05 – Red Square / Albany, NY
Dec 08 – Vassar College / Albany, NY
Fall in Philly is a beautiful thing—especially when the soundtrack to the season is one that includes M. Ward, Mike Mogis, Jim James, Conor OberstAND Bob Dylan. The city has seen itself nearly taken over by both contemporary and classic folk musicians this November—first with Dylan’s performance at the Liacouras Center and then Monsters of Folk festival at the Academy of Music (on the same night, no less.)
To wrap up this folk-themed month, Popwreckoning’s Jess McGinley and her roommate (yours truly) braved the rain-slicked streets of Fishtown Thursday night to see recent MP3 Minute feature and local folk hero Langhorne Slim perform a sold out show at Johnny Brenda’s.
And when I say local, I do mean local: a mere 24 miles up I-95 North lies the little town of Langhorne—a Philadelphia suburb Sean Scolnick (better known as Langhorne Slim) and I both call home [Ed note: proof below]. Slim sums it up perfectly in his song “Hello Sunshine”–“There’s a place I know in Pennsylvania / If you never want to go, well darling I can’t blame ya.” Poignant lyrics, when you consider we’re best known for a Sesame Street inspired water park and the planet’s largest auto dealership.
Langhorne the musician, though, offers much more than our hometown. Perched precariously on a packed balcony above the stage, I watched Slim and company perform in support of their new album Be Set Free.
Sort of like Tom Waits without five decades worth of cigarette smoke, Slim successfully crooned and yelped along with his band for a full two hours. For me it mostly felt like a drunk sing-along with some townies at the Langhorne Hotel bar (better known as the black and white building in the beginning of the music video for “Restless”).
Although his backwoods brand of blues/folk seemed like inauthentic posturing at times, (C’mon man-you’re from Bucks County) there were genuinely beautiful, touching moments throughout the set (“Restless,” “Worries”) and songs that left me teetering back and forth on my bar stool. It was nearly as good as the Dylan concert—if only he’d broken out the harmonica.
Once known for their exceptional and quirky debut chill-out album Melody A.M., Norway’s Röyksopp was kind enough to include San Francisco as one of the stops on their brief three-city North American tour. In the four years since their 2005 SF show at The Independent, the band’s membership has remained unchanged yet their product has become quite different. The sometimes dark, atmospheric melodies and introverted live presence has been replaced by a tougher, more electro-pop sound, interesting visuals and stage theatrics.
Playing to a sold-out crowd at the Regency Ballroom, Torbjörn Brundtland and Svein Berge were joined by Anneli Drecker whose mysterious vocals were a spot-on fit for the blippy, joyous, Norwegian club-pop. Drecker was the focal point as she posed in an ever-changing array of costumes that would make Daft Punkproud. The set list was a mix of tracks from all three studio albums, though the more placid tracks from Melody A.M. and The Understanding were given a club-friendly conversion. Although this is to be expected given the percussion-driven and pop-influenced style of 2009’s Junior, the live show still captured the festive atmosphere and triumphant and danceable sensibilities of their 2005 EP Röyksopp’s Night Out.
The 15-track set included an extended version of “Eple,” a vocoder-thickened version of “Remind Me,” “Happy Up Here,” “Poor Leno,” a disco-tinged “So Easy,” “You Don’t Have a Clue,” a raucous and frenetic “This Must Be It” and a groovy, head-bobbing, down-tempo version of “What Else Is There.” The pace never slowed to allow songs like the red-velvet lounge of “Sparks” to fit in although there were occasional momentum-disrupting pauses between songs. In every instance, the sophisticated melodies and lush instrumentation were given a very dance-worthy treatment that never felt forced or awkward. Along with Flunk, Röyksopp continues to be one of Norway’s hippest musical exports.
Combining bits from The Chemical Brothers,ABBA and Orbital, Röyksopp constructs some seriously addictive beats, innovative melodies and swirling, brooding electro-pop. This time out, it’s more suited for the club than the coffee shop.
Set List: Royksopp Forever
This Must Be It
Remind Me
Happy Up Here
Tricky Tricky
Alpha Male
You Don’t Have a Clue
I Wanna Know
The Girl And the Robot
Eple
What Else Is There?
Only This Moment
—–
So Easy
Poor Leno
—–
Fat Burner
To keep this site up and running, we reserve the sidebar for ads. In that case, put your ad here.
All that's needed is for you to fill out this lovely form.
All media content contained within PopWreckoning is meant to enhance reader appreciation for the art and medium. Please support artists you discover here by purchasing albums, attending shows and buying merch.
Contact us should you wish for certain media to be removed from PopWreckoning.
Concert Calendar
Nov 23, 2011
HaHa Tonka @ Recordbar, Kansas City MO
Nov 25, 2011
Thee Oh Sees @ The Granada, Lawrence KS
