popwreckoning

Sympathy from Chicago’s Scattered Trees is a beautiful headphones record that almost didn’t happen. After becoming staples of Chicago clubs, time passed, and the band members began to drift. Then fate intervened- singer Nate Elseland’s father passed away and he started to write the songs that became the album. Sometimes loss fuels great creativity. Like Hospice by The Antlers or Leave Ruin by Strands of Oak. this is a beautiful album born of great pain.

The album’s first track, “bury the floors,” starts with a droning sound, and then a vocal against a single piano key, plinked softly. A chorus of harmonies play behind the lead vocal and against a tambourine. Most of the song is this simple, very reminiscent of an old Beach Boys song.

The next song, “A Conversation About Death On New Year’s Eve” is much more interesting. It starts with simple drums, bass, and keyboards. Soon the vocals kick in, followed by a fantastic, catchy chorus. “Everybody’s falling apart” sings Elseland. It’s slow, sad, and somber, but oh so beautiful.

Most of the album continues in this mode. The third track, “Love and Leave,” is a little faster, but still sad, and still featuring a great chorus. “Every day you love and leave me”, is sung but it sounds like there’s a smirk behind the whole thing.

“Sympathy” makes it obvious that there’s a theme behind these songs. They’re full of leaving, and loss, and desperation. The whole thing is produced very well, and the sadness belies a pop sensibility. It’s fantastic stuff in a lot of ways.

“I Swear To God” is probably the best thing here. The lyrics are nakedly honest in a way that’s a little scary: “now my father’s dead, and still you haven’t shown”. The “where are you Jesus” is a little hokey, but if you can get past that, it’s a great song. Brian Wilson referred to Smile as a “teenage symphony to god”, and the same thing is going on here. The song is a plea to god, and that could be the key to the album.

After that song is “On Your Side” where Elseland seems to make peace with the lover he seems to be disagreeing with throughout the album. It could be god, or his father’s ghost, or simply a woman. It’s a fascinating coda to an album that is kind of fascinating as a whole. Then the whole thing is over, and all you can do is listen to it all over again.

Track listing:
1. Bury The Floors
2. A Conversation
3. I’m in a Panic
4. Love and Leave
5. Four Days Straight
6. Sympathy
7. Five Minutes
8. Where You Came From
9. I swear to God
10. On Your Side

“Do you know what ‘moto’ means?” singer Esau Mwamwaya of the Very Best asked the crowd at DC9 Monday night. (I presume he was asking if we knew what it meant in his native Chichewa, the national language of his homeland, Malawi.) The crowd, smiling back at him, collectively shook their heads. “It means ‘fire’!” Funny you mention something incendiary, Esau, because on a cold Monday night in Washington, the “band” from London figuratively lit a fire under the audience at the sold-out DC9 with their brand of African tinged dance music and turned the club into an all-out dance party.

The opener for the night was the Brooklyn-based duo Javelin. Not sure where they got their name – maybe cousins Tom Van Buskirk and George Langford were good at track and field in high school? These days, I imagine the two must be flexing their muscles carrying all their gear around – a whole table full of electronics including several synths and a drum pad, colorfully painted boomboxes they call “boombaatas” that form large speaker totems, and a collection of maracas and cowbells.

Javelin’s brief but entertaining set of pop / hip hop / electronic music at times lifted lyrics from songs of days gone by like Mariah Carey‘s “Fantasy.” Another example: they commandeered the words from the children’s lullaby “Frere Jacques” and turned into something completely different. Who would have guessed that song could ever be so dancey? And with humorous song titles like “Lindsay Brohan” and “Soda Popinski,” you’d have to smile. My faves from the set were “Twyce” and “Vibrationz,” the latter name-checking Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys and Marky Mark (aka Mark Wahlberg when he was a singer way back when). If you’re going to name your song “Vibrationz,” it’s totally appropriate to give a nod to the only two songs from popular culture that also mention such scandalous quivering.

The Very Best is a trio comprised of singer Mwamwaya and the London-based DJ/production duo of Radioclit (Swede Johan Carlberg and Frenchman Etienne [DJ] Tron). I first became aware of them when the title track of their first official full-length album, “Warm Heart of Africa”, was added to the BBC 6music playlist. The song was an instant hit with me, buoyed by the gaiety of vocals from Mwamwaya and guest Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend (who incidentally also cowrote the song) and joyous instrumentation. I was a little skeptical how this live exhibition would turn out when Carlberg first came onstage and immediately broke out a large album full of CDs and popped a disc into his Philips player. Thankfully though, my uncertainty quickly dissolved as the band got going.

For the live performance, singer Mwamwaya alternately stood, danced, and interacted with fans directly in front of Carlberg, who played DJ and assumed additional audience warm-up duty for the evening, waving his arms back and forth vigorously to get the crowd going during songs. For added oomph, they even brought with them two energetic dancers, resplendent in jackets that read “TVB” on the back; Mwamwaya proudly announced that the girls had come “all the way from the UK!” “Julia” and “Warm Heart of Africa” from their official first album were warmly received. So was “Tengazako,” a track from their 2008 free-to-download mixtape that featured an obvious sample from M.I.A., causing everyone in the club to do the gun-toting moves that I have only recently learned are requisite when hearing her “Paper Planes.”

Generally, you can expect a headlining act to play for a significantly longer period of time than their opener. Unfortunately for those of us gathered to see this band at DC9, this wasn’t the case. The two of them were clearly not prepared for such a lively reaction from their Washington area adoring fans and as such weren’t equipped to do more than the eight songs they played us. At the tail end of their set, Carlberg asked the audience what song they wanted, and after some random shouts and murmurings, it was decided that the Very Best’s cover version of Vampire Weekend‘s “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” would be the tune. After Mwamwaya left the stage, (the crowd didn’t want to let him go), Carlberg stayed behind to spin records, and the audience continued dancing to the pulsating beats on offer. I think if they keep this up, the Very Best could very well be the next global phenomenon.

The Very Best: myspace
Javelin: website | myspace