popwreckoning

Beirut is set to embark on its first national tour in over four years in support of The Rip Tide, out August 30 on Pompeii Records.

Joining Beirut lead singer-songwriter Zach Condon (ukulele, trumpet, piano, vocals) on the road is Perrin Cloutier (accordion, piano), Paul Collins (electric bass, upright bass), Ben Lanz (trumpet, piano, tuba), Nick Petree (drums), and Kelly Pratt (trumpet, euphonium).

With songs that speak of universal human themes that are less fabricated stories than impressions of life at a quarter century of age, the album exposes a depth of honesty that outstrips the simplified nomadic troubadour image of his past. This album is the first thing we’ve heard from Beirut in over four years. Hear album track, “East Harlem,” below.

Listen to Beirut’s “East Harlem” off of The Rip Tide here: http://soundcloud.com/revolver-usa/beirut-east-harlem

Beirut’s The Rip Tide pre-order now available: http://www.midheaven.com/item/rip-tide-by-beirut-cd

Below is a list of North American tour dates; for a complete list of dates visit www.beirutband.com

Fri. July 29 — Portland, ME @ State Theater
Sun. July 31 — Montreal, QC @ Osheaga
Tue. Aug. 2 –Toronto, ON @ The Phoenix
Thu. Aug. 4 –Toronto, ON @ The Phoenix w/ Owen Pallett
Fri. Aug. 5 — Sun. Aug. 7 – Chicago, IL @ Lollapalooza
Wed. Aug. 10 — Vancouver, BC @ Commodore
Fri. Aug. 12 — Portland, OR @ Crystal Ballroom
Sun. Aug. 14 — San Francisco, CA @ Outside Lands
Wed. Sep. 21 — New York, NY @ Terminal 5
Thu. Sep. 22 — New York, NY @ Terminal 5
Wed. Sep. 28 — Denver, CO @ Fillmore Auditorium
Tue. Oct. 4 — Los Angeles, CA @ Greek Theatre
Sun. Oct. 9 — St. Louis, MO @ The Pageant
Tue. Oct. 11 — Royal Oak, MI @ Royal Oak Music Hall
Tue. Oct. 25 — Richmond, VA @ The National
Thu. Oct. 27 — Atlanta, GA @ Variety Playhouse
Sat. Oct. 29 — Austin, TX @ Stubbs Waller Creek
Fri. Nov. 11 — Cincinnati, OH @ Bogarts
Sun. Nov. 13 — Philadelphia, PA @ Electric Factory

Believers is ten new songs by A.A. Bondy. They were conjured during and between dreams, in bare rooms, and on the late night streets of America. It was recorded in the spring of 2011 by Rob Schnapf at Mant/Kingsize Studios in Glassell Park, California. Musicians include Ben Lester on drums and piano, and Macey Taylor on bass.

Believers is the follow up to the 2009 album When The Devil’s Loose, and is A. A. Bondy’s third album for Fat Possum Records.

Tracklisting

1. The Heart Is Willing
2. Skull & Bones
3. Down In The Fire (Lost Sea)
4. Surfer King
5. 123 Deputy Street
6. Hiway/Fevers
7. Drmz
8. The Twist
9. Rte. 28/Believers
10. Scenes From A Circus

For more information on A. A. Bondy and Believers, visit www.fatpossum.com.

I’m here to tell you about a boy. His name is Adam Tomlinson and he is a musician from Long Island. He plays in a band called Sleep Bellum Sonno (if you haven’t heard them, you should).

But there’s this other thing, a new project: More Than Skies. Starting as an outlet for him to play his own songs apart from Sleep Bellum Sonno, More Than Skies is now a full band and are currently recording a full-length album. While you wait until it’s done, you can purchase their new 6-song EP – The Liar, The Puppet, The Fox on bandcamp. I highly suggest you get this lovely tape of new music for only $5.

The physical tape is set to be sent out on or around July 5 and you can choose between blue and gold. However, you receive a digital download immediately. How satisfying! You can do all of that here.

The Liar, The Puppet, The Fox has been playing on my laptop and iPod for the past day or so and I absolutely love it.

There’s the perfect blend of folk and alternative. Tomlinson’s vocals are big, but not overpowering, which makes for a pleasant listening experience.

Play the tape while driving in the evening with the windows down.

Oh, and make sure to check out their Facebook for more information and upcoming shows.

The Mountain Goats’ fan base is made up largely of nerds. Don’t deny it. That’s probably the reason that they didn’t sell out the Showbox – because nerds generally don’t like leaving the house and being in large groups. But the crowd was surprisingly large, considering.

Arriving in just the nick of time, I walked into the Showbox, with people sitting on the floor waiting for the opening act, Midtown Dickens. Clearly, people were taking ownership of their rightful places in the crowd. So naturally, I sat down because everyone else was.

Once the members of the openers, Midtown Dickens, took the stage, people instantly stood up. The North Carolina natives put on a fantastic energetic show, considering the fact that vocalist Kym had just arrived to Seattle 20 minutes before they went on stage. Her guitar wasn’t even tuned when she got on stage, so they filled up that awkward time with some of the wittiest storytelling I’ve heard in a long time.

Midtown Dickens had a great stage presence, what they call on their Facebook page “post-folk punk grass,” preempting several songs with the story of their origin. It was the perfect precursor to the Mountain Goats, with the largely narrative songwriting.

After the highly entertaining set that Midtown Dickens put on, the Mountain Goats had one of the weirdest introductions I’ve ever heard. As they took to the stage, very excruciating indistinguishable death metal played over the loud speakers (emphasis on the ‘loud’). I couldn’t help but laugh, because of the sheer irony of the death metal juxtaposed to John Darnielle in his suit, tie, and nerdy glasses taking the stage. It was perfect.

This was the point when I realized that this crowd was full of nerds – because a.) most people danced like dorks, and b.) personal space was honored more than usual. People were spread out, which made the venue much more comfortable for the night.

While I love the Mountain Goats music, I just love listening to Darnielle speak. He’s incredibly eloquent and quite funny. At one point, bassist Peter Hughes brought up the idea of narrating the set like a DJ would on the radio. “That was ‘You Were Cool’vby the Mountain Goats, and here’s another one from the Mountain Goats,” Darnielle said aloud with the quintessential radio voice.

Speaking of “You Were Cool,” that song really needs to be on an album, like legitimately recorded. Mainly because I feel like it is the perfect theme song for, well, life.

Seeing that Darnielle is one of the most prolific songwriters of our time, I had no clue which songs we were going to get. It’s definitely a different experience than seeing an emerging band with only enough songs to play a full set. While a lot of songwriters try and hide the muddle the meaning of a song with metaphors and vague references, Darnielle’s songs are painfully honest and easy to relate to – especially us nerds.

To end out the set, the Mountain Goats played my favourite song of theirs, “This Year.”

“If the members of Midtown Dickens are still in the building, would they please join us on stage?” Darnielle shouted to the audience. So Midtown Dickens quickly made it to the stage, and “This Year” turned into a joyous, triumphant dance party. Again, it was perfect.

But it wasn’t over yet, because we got not one, but two encores. Heck, there are enough Mountain Goats songs to fill almost an entire 24-hour day, so two encores wasn’t surprising.

In fact, I would like to see 24-hour Mountain Goats marathon. I’d be all over that.

Déjà vu couldn’t even describe how I felt last weekend when I went to see the Builders and the Butchers at the Tractor Tavern. The last time I saw a show there I seemed to have thought the Builders and the Butchers headlining, but I was wrong. Turned out that they were opening for Murder by Death. Stupid me. But this time I made sure that Builders and the Butchers were the headliners – and I was in luck – in more ways that one.  Local folk math rockers Ravenna Woods and another local band – Yuni in Taxco opened for Builders and the Butchers on this night for the Noise for the Needy festival.

The Noise for the Needy festival is Seattle’s premier benefit festival, with proceeds this year benefiting Real Change, a “reader-supported social enterprise” for Seattle’s low-income and homeless population. For more information, visit http://www.noisefortheneedy.org/.

But back to the music. Both Yuni in Taxco and Ravenna Woods were some of the few local bands I’d never seen live, and I’d been dying to see. Yuni in Taxco didn’t disappoint with their easy, beachy pop rock, and I’ll definitely try and catch them at either Bumbershoot or the Capitol Hill Block Party this summer. Their set was full of energy, however, it was apparent that they hadn’t been playing together as long as other local bands. With such an intimate venue, eye contact goes a long way. But I’ll be keeping my eye on the horizon for them to break through in 2012.

While you’re waiting, you can download their whole album for free from their bandcamp at http://yuni.bandcamp.com/. I just did.

After Yuni in Taxco left the stage, Ravenna Woods began to set up their equipment, and I must say that it was interesting setup. The drum kit consisted of a tom-tom, a bass drunk turned on its side with an egg carton below it to buff the sound, and a tambourine duct-taped to the top of a cymbal stand. And since one of the rubber foot covers was missing from the drum stand, a duct tape wallet sat beneath one of the legs to keep them all even.

Ravenna Woods MacGyver’d the crap out of that drum kit.

But I don’t see how it could have worked any other way, because they were amazing life. On their new record Valley of the Headless Men, the dark mathy rock is complex with a punk attitude, and it’s that much better live. With just the three members of the band, you see how much sound it created from Chris Cunningham’s precise acoustic guitar, Brantley Duke’s perfect harmonies, and Matt Badger’s frantic beating of his one-of-a-kind drum kit.

I’m so in love with this band’s live show, that there’s no other way to express how great it is than to show you. I captured a quick video with my new camera of the song “Tides” here, so you can see for yourself.

At this point, I would have been happy going home, but I was here to finally see Builders and the Butchers headline a show in Seattle. After seeing them three times before, once in Portland and twice in Seattle, I knew exactly what I would be getting. But like a great movie, even after watching it several times over, you often find new things to enjoy about it, and that’s what the Builders and the Butchers do.

The band broke into a plethora of new songs off their fantastic third album Dead Reckoning, and then several older ones for the quite crowded room. I wouldn’t say it was as crowded as the Murder By Death show back in February, but that show included a lot more alcohol from what I gathered, so personal space wasn’t really on anyone’s mind at that show. This was a little bit more subdued, but by no means subdued in a larger scheme of things.

Builders and the Butchers didn’t miss a beat, not even when banjo/mandolin/guitar player Harvey Tumbleson’s mandolin went out. He just kept playing, shoving the hollow of the mandolin up to the microphone so the audience could hear.

Ten years ago, if you would have told me that I would be rocking out to a band armed with a banjo, mandolin, acoustic guitar, a bass, and two drum kits, I would have scoffed at you and gone back to listening to Good Charlotte (yes I listened to Good Charlotte, I was 12, forgive me). But seeing the Builders and the Butchers live for the fourth time made me see how amazing the indie music scene is these days, especially up here in the good ol’ Pacific Northwest. I couldn’t be more thankful that I get to do this in such an innovative time for music, and in my eyes, the Builders and the Butchers is one of the bands leading the way.

I did take some video of Builders and the Butchers, but they were so loud that the sound got blown out and you can barely hear anything. Just take my word for it – they’re an amazing band.