popwreckoning

Last night, Hole played the second of two nights of sold out shows at Terminal 5 in New York City and PopWreckoning was there to check it out. The band is currently doing a short international tour in support of their new album, Nobody’s Daughter.

I’ve got to say, I was disappointed. Courtney Love is a little more put together (okay, I realize this isn’t saying too much) than I’d hoped for, and a little more subdued. I was expecting RAW and LOUD, and there was a glimmer here and there during gems like “Violet,” “Miss World” and “Celebrity Skin,” but it only really ever came out–and briefly, at that–during the encore when the band played “Doll Parts.” I can take or leave the new material, but can’t deny the greatness of “Skinny Little Bitch.” The set also included a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Gold Dust Woman,” and the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” and “Play With Fire.” Regardless of any disappointment on my part, it was nice to [finally] see the band that colored my teenage angst, even if the show was way too short.

Check out some shots below.

Photos by Dese’Rae L. Stage.

There’s nothing like spending a Saturday night at your favorite venue checking out a pair of great bands.

Girls is this great, modern day surf rock band with a penchant for occasionally producing a wall of noise that makes you wish you had an extra pair of ear plugs. The stage was strewn with flowers, which occasionally got tossed out into the crowd, who would then offer them back to the band. “Ghost Mouth” was the set highlight for me. It really got the crowd going, a noteworthy difference from the usual stoic New York crowd. The combination of Christopher Owens‘ voice and that shimmy he does when he plays made me wish I was lounging on a beach somewhere watching the show, instead of in a dark bar in the big city, but it is what it is.

After resisting for quite awhile, I finally took a listen to Dum Dum Girls‘ I Will Be and found that I really enjoy their muffled garage rock cum-throwback to 50′s and 60′s girl groups vibe. They’ve been getting a lot of airtime both in my cubicle and at home, so I thought I’d check them out live. Sonically, their live show is true to the recordings. They sound great. The difference between Dee Dee‘s (aka Kristin Gundred) vocals in Grand Ole Party and Dum Dum Girls gives an idea of her range, but also makes the listener wonder which is genuine. Sadly, Dee Dee doesn’t really do stage banter, and for whatever reason, their set was extremely short. Both disappointing facts. It should also be noted that these ladies are visually stunning. As a photographer, I can’t wait until their next tour where, I’m hoping it’s safe to assume, their live performance will be even more dynamic.

Top 3 Albums of 2009:

• Tegan and Sara – Sainthood
• Lady Gaga – The Fame Monster
• Matt and Kim – Grand

Best Show of 2009:

• Tori Amos at Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, NJ.

Most Anticipated in 2010:

• The National
• Charlotte Martin

Most Overrated in 2009:

• The Dead Weather.  No, thanks (even though Alison Mosshart is infinitely photogenic).

Favorite Musical Memory of the Decade:

• It’s impossible to choose.  I get to see things that blow my mind regularly, so I’ll stay safe and go with seeing Tori Amos 17 times because I’m a big geek (and her music got me through the hardest times of my life).

PopWreckoning’s Dese’Rae Stage got the chance of a lifetime: an interview with the one and only Tori Amos, a longstanding hero. Tori is currently out doing press for her holiday album Midwinter Graces. Faced with a ten minute time limit and the daunting task of playing it cool, Dese’Rae dropped questions on topics ranging from fear, regret, pop music (then and now) and more. Check it, and some photos, out below.

Dese’Rae Stage, PopWreckoning: Hey, Tori.
Tori Amos: Hi there, Dese’Rae. How are you?
PW: Good, how are you?
TA: Very well.
PW: Awesome. Alright, we’ve got such a quick interview, I’ve just got a grab bag of questions here.
TA: Okay.

PW: Okay, so, you’ve got your new album, Midwinter Graces. I wanted to know what your favorite holiday tradition is or what one tradition you’ve created for your family is?
TA: Well, one of my favorites is Christmas dinner, and that’s my mother’s fried chicken: southern fried chicken.
PW: Mm, good stuff.
TA: Yeah, I’m not a turkey person. Once in a blue moon, y’know, but it’s not my thing usually. So, my mom makes that and my husband’s pretty wicked in the kitchen, so he helps my mother and we have Christmas at our beach house. My folks live about half an hour north, and we meet up with Tash’s cousins. My sister has five kids from 16-24, so we meet up with them usually every year. That’s a tradition we’ve created. Before Christmas, of course.

PW: Does Tash believe in Santa?
TA: Oh yeah.
PW: Really? That surprises me.
TA: Yeah, she does. She also believes in Kali.
[Laughter on both ends]
TA: She has all kinds of beliefs.

PW: I love it. So, I heard that this album doesn’t count toward your contract, and I was wondering what was next?
TA: Oh, um, well, I’m finishing writing this musical, The Light Princess, which is something that I’ve been developing with Samuel Adamson, the playwright, along with the producer Tim Levy, who’s out of New York now. He’s New York based, although he was with the British National Theatre for a long time. And so it’s a mixture of American and British, um, people together.
PW: Which will be nice. It’ll be opening in London, right?
TA: Well, we’ll see where it’s opening. It’ll be workshopped in the spring in London, and after the three week workshop, I think everybody will decide the best place for where it should open.

PW: Okay. I was wondering what your writing process looks like with regards to your music?
TA: Well, I like to write on the road, mainly because you have different sights and sounds and you don’t fall into the same routine that you can when you wake up in the same place day after day, night after night. And you can fall into a routine when you’re doing that, but as a writer, I don’t like to fall into a cliché pattern, so I push myself to travel. Touring is just part of my life, so it all works together that I travel while I’m touring.

PW: Here’s one—I think this is my favorite question—I wanted to know how you combat fear?
TA: Well, you have to confront the issue that’s causing you fear. You know that saying, “If it’s too loud, turn it up?” You have to go into that place of… if you’re being intimidated by an idea or thought, you have to hold your ground and look it right in the eye. And that’s tricky sometimes, because whatever you’re confronting might be more slippery than a—well, I don’t know—and that could just be information, crap your friends are telling you about something. You know, you don’t… sometimes. Fear comes because you don’t know what to believe.
PW: Right.
TA: What you’re facing, what fear you’re facing, it doesn’t mean you’re going to be getting the truth from it. And that’s scary, too.
PW: Definitely.
TA: So when you’re facing a fear, whether it’s in a relationship at work or personal, um, you know, you have to go back to instincts and making sure that they’re razor sharp and a place of neutrality is the most powerful place you can be to confront a fear. You have to be okay that things don’t work out the way you’re fantasizing.
PW: Right. Which is also hard.
TA: Which is also hard. But neutral is… when you’re facing a fear, I try and step into a place of neutrality, where everything doesn’t have to end okay. Everything doesn’t end with a hug.

PW: Okay. Um, here is kind of a—taking it back a little bit, but the last I heard, you never got a chance to meet Greg from “Pretty Good Year” and you never heard from him. Is that still the case?
TA: That’s still the case, yeah.
PW: That’s insane.
TA: Mmhmm.

PW: Do you have any quirks that are reserved solely for alone time?
TA: Yeah. Yeah. Yes. [Laughs] That’s okay. That’s why you marry who you marry and that’s why your kid is your kid and hopefully, they enjoy them.

PW: [laughs] Yes. Well, what are you listening to and/or reading right now?
TA: Listening to I keep pretty much to myself.
PW: Oh.
TA: Reading… we were just in Poland, and we got a lot of material on Auschwitz. We went there, and um, it was some pretty harrowing reading, as you can imagine. Just different accounts from all different viewpoints. Um, one thing that I found fascinating was… I went to Churchill’s war room, and I was reading a lot of—I had a few books on that whole time, that he was able to conduct the war, a lot of it, from underground in the war room when they were being bombed. And that his wife was there and she had a place. Underground. And they had a flat above where they were when the bombings weren’t occurring and they could go upstairs. I don’t think they enjoyed it down there, but just to see what they went through at that time. That was from both sides, so seeing how the people in the camps were, what their story was, and then seeing the story of the Allies who were fighting.

PW: That’s really interesting. Hm. I’m kind of interested in how you feel about this new guard of female pop stars who are kind of taking over lately, like Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift, and whether or not their fame is valid.
TA: Well, of course their fame is valid. I think Lady Gaga is very entertaining.
PW: Me too.
TA: She’s very entertaining, and we need some entertainment about now. Taylor Swift seems to… she writes her songs, and there’s something to be said for the fact that both of them are musicians as well as performers. And what you might—well, not just you, but what one might think about those songs, whether they think they’re in the league of Lennon or McCartney, that’s a different conversation. But not everybody can be in the league of Lennon and McCartney. That doesn’t mean they’re not entertaining.
PW: True.
TA: But for those that are in the league of Lennon or McCartney, then that’s for you all to highlight as well. That’s not my job. And those who are will be known in ten, fifteen, twenty years’ time. And history will support that. It’s hard sometimes when it’s happening to be able to christen that.

PW: Okay, so I guess my last question is a pretty broad one and I wanted to know if you had any regrets?
TA: I think you always have some regrets. Sometimes they’re little. It’s how you handle certain situations. I go back to that thing, “Be smart, not right.” I find that when I have to be right over being smart, which can achieve the win that you’re wanting to achieve, that you usually look back and wish you were smart instead of needing to be right.
PW: Sage advice. Thank you, Tori.
TA: Lovely to speak with you. Happy holidays to you.
PW: And to you. Thanks so much.

Photos by Dese'Rae Stage from the 12/7/09 recording of the etown radio show at the Grand Ballroom in NYC, which will air on NPR on Christmas Eve.

Tori Amos: website | myspace

The Watson Twins just finished up a brief tour with Josh Radin, giving fans a preview of their forthcoming Vanguard release Talking to You, Talking to Me, due out on February 9, 2010. The album is a departure from previous releases Fire Songs and Southern Manners, giving us less of a Route 66 campfire feel and much more of a full-body groove, backed up by the same brilliant harmonies we know and love. It was a risky move, but we’re pretty sure it’ll pay off. Besides, the twins are some pretty charming ladies and they assure us they’ve got some tricks up their sleeves come next tour cycle in February. Check out some photos below.

The Watson Twins: website | myspace | @ manhattan center grand ballroom | interview with pt. I | interview with pt. II | @ homers

Words & photos by Dese’Rae Stage.

Photo: Matt Salacuse

On December 3rd, Rihanna took the stage at Hammerstein Ballroom for Myspace Music’s “THE RELEASE” concert series, and PopWreckoning was there to check it out. Fans started lining up for tickets to the free all-ages show at 7 a.m. Despite the extreme lack of organization at the venue, which resulted in a near-riot as doors opened, we got the perfect spot in the second row, house stage left. Instead of an opener, a DJ (sadly, we didn’t get his name) filled the air and the long wait with tracks that seemed to please the whole, incredibly diverse crowd.

When the time came, the band and backup singers took the stage clad in black from head to toe and Rihanna emerged from below. The stage was set as a post-modern wasteland, strewn with discarded televisions and metallic mannequins, and Rihanna navigated it in spike heels. She opened the show with “Wait Your Turn,” and followed up with her current single, “Russian Roulette,” both tracks off her newly released album Rated R. One thing to be said about this new album is that its’ darkness is inversely proportional to the lightness evoked from “Umbrella,” the song that brought Rihanna into the limelight with its positive message and catchy beats.

She continued the set with hits “Live Your Life,” “Please Don’t Stop the Music,” “Disturbia” and “Run This Town,” running seamlessly one into the next. Rihanna is a true entertainer. Her voice is strong and clear and she doesn’t miss a beat. Even better, she seemed genuinely grateful to have such an adoring fanbase, and made plenty of contact with the lucky fans in the front row. Sadly though, the show ended short about forty minutes in. Umbrellas popped open one by one throughout the crowd as she belted out the chorus of the closer, reminding us that true friendship stands the test of time.

One thing is clear: regardless of the unfortunate nature of the past year spent in the spotlight, Rihanna hasn’t buckled under the pressure.

Rihanna: website | myspace

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.

Amanda Palmer: website | myspace | @ highline ballroom | Who Killed Amanda Palmer? review

Photos (and words) by Dese’Rae L. Stage.

Tegan and Sara christened the birth of their 6th labor of love, Sainthood, at New York City’s historic Town Hall on October 30th and 31st, an event that Tegan confessed had been a dream of Sara’s since they began their career ten years ago.  The twins played two sold out shows debuting the new album in its entirety on both nights as well as beloved fan favorites such as “The Con,” “I Bet It Stung,” “Knife Going In,” and “Where Does the Good Go,” among other classic T&S gems.  Having been a certified fan of the girls upon seeing their show last year at Terminal Five in New York, I was anxious to relive the infectious way in which they engage with their audience and the awe-inspiring way the band beasts through a two-hour set with muscularity and prowess.

After losing yourself in the angsty wrench of “Nineteen,” it’s easy to resurface and doltishly think, She’s singing that to me, right? While revisiting the hits was definitely a priority, fans were feverish for a live peek at new tracks from Sainthood, screaming loudest for Sara’s slinky ode to 80s synth-pop, “Alligator.”  The new material, which the girls recorded with a live band in the studio, translated seamlessly to the stage and proved the oft-overshadowed fact that T&S are a masterful live band.

In addition to the epic set list, the girls entertained adoring fans with their ever-endearing, self-deprecating, twin-teasing banter.  Sara treated us to a ten minute monologue on Friday night, in response to Tegan’s taunting admission that “Sara has the asthma,” sharing her thoughts on Armageddon, survival of the fittest, and concluding with an offering of her body to Tegan for food and clothing should the end of the world, in fact, come.  Sara says she’s not going to fight it if it happens.  It’s just this kind of dark, antagonistic banter between the twins that their fans have come to cherish, that keeps them connected, and that sets them apart from other artists.  In this sense, T&S are pioneers, “tweeting” from the stage before the Internet even existed.

Other highlights included a dedication on Halloween night to Sainthood producer Chris Walla (Death Cab for Cutie), who was in the audience Saturday and rumored to be dressed as “Kenny The Page” from 30 Rock as well as a gushing thank you from Tegan on behalf of both twins, for continuing to support the band after so many years, turning the raucous encore applause around on the fans, house lights up, urging us to applaud ourselves for a job well done. Despite a restless nod to unrequited love inherent in many T&S songs, the sentiment bouncing around in the theatre this weekend definitely found a welcome place to rest.

Tegan and Sara: website | myspace | interview with: Tegan pt. 1, pt. 2 | @ terminal 5 | Sainthood review

Written by Reni Papananias.
Photos by Dese’Rae L. Stage.

Photographer Dese’Rae L. Stage shares photos from Passion Pit‘s performance at Rumsey Playfield on Sept. 25 in NYC.

Passion Pit: website | myspace | @ monolith | interview with: ayad al adhamy

Phoenix: website | myspace | @ monolith | @ record bar