popwreckoning

Having played here last at Lollapalooza in August, London post-punk rockers White Lies are headed back to our side of the pond to play gigs later this week. The band have headlining gigs in New York City, Toronto, and Chicago lined up and will also support Southern rockers Kings of Leon for a further string of dates. They are also scheduled to appear at the Austin City Limits Festival in October. Their last major tour in North America was in March and April of this year, co-headlining the “NME Presents Tour” with fellow English band Friendly Fires.

To whet your appetite, check out this live performance of “Death” at the Masonic Lodge in Hollywood Forever in Los Angeles.

Tour dates:
Sept 25 – Webster Hall / New York City
Sept 26 – Phoenix Theater / Toronto
Sept 28 – Target Center / Minneapolis*
Sept 29 – Metro / Chicago
Sept 30 – Scottrade Center / St. Louis*
Oct 03 – OK Ford Center / Oklahoma City*
Oct 04 – Austin City Limits / Austin
Oct 06 – Toyota Center / Houston*
Oct 07 – American Airlines Center / Dallas*
Oct 09 – Phillips Arena / Atlanta*
Oct 10 – Rupp Arena / Lexington*
Oct 12 – Mid America Centre Council / Bluff, IA*
Oct 13 – Sprint Center / Kansas City, MO*
Oct 15 – BJCC / Birmingham*
Oct 16 – Sommet Center / Nashville*
* supporting Kings of Leon

White Lies: website | myspace | @ Black Cat with Friendly Fires | Under Cover: Kanye West “Love Lockdown” | @ Lollapalooza Day 1

Photo: Mary Chang

Not so ‘Far’ that she can’t be reached…Regina Spektor’s recent performance proves that her performance needs to be seen before she’s unobtainable.

For those not in the know Soviet-born, Bronx-raised and classically trained folk-pianist turned quirkster-songwriter, Regina Spektor began her career as a solo artist with training from the Manhattan School of Music and Purchase College. After honing her skills as a solo artist in New York’s East Village, Spektor scored a contract with Warner Brothers’ record label Sire Records in 2004 and this little piano lady with a huge smile and wide eyes hasn’t looked back.

In the passing years since The Strokes took their first tour in 2003 with then the little-known opening solo act, the tides have changed for Regina – scores of fans have been gathered, collaborations with the likes of Keane, Ben Folds and The Kings of Leon have garnered attention and the previously main stage drummer (Fabrizio Moretti) well, he’s become the opening act with a little-known and sweet band called Little Joy. The now 29-year-old Spektor has taken the Indie and Pop World(s) by nothing short of a tidal wave and as seen by the turn out at the recent Chicago Theater performance this past Saturday, it appears that Regina’s reign will not come to a downfall any time in the near future.

Stepping on stage to reveal a florally white dress, pink shoes and bright red lips – Regina Spektor swiftly walked to her silhouetted piano and struck up the first chords (“The Calculation”) to kick off what was to be a special evening of new offerings from her recently-released fourth album. For added flair, Regina also had in tow drummer (McKenzie Smith), cellist (Dan Cho) and violinist (K Ishibashi) to help aid in bringing the underlying sounds, intricacies and plush arrangements of her recordings to life.

The first half of the 90-minute performance played tribute to Far by highlighting on all but two tracks. Of the new material, the George Orwell inspired “Machine” was possibly one of the earliest and best performances of the evening – Spektor, in fine form and equally matched by cello and drums, brought forth a tortured story only intensified by samplings, deep vocal screeches, and darkly tinged solos on cello. “Folding Chair” proved as driving as ever with Spektor showing off her vocal prowess for finite intonations and trills, while “Laughing With” brought everything back to the essence of who Regina Spektor is – an artist with an ability to touch people at the truest and most honest level.

Songs such as: “Bobbing For Apples,” “That Time,” “Apres Moi,” “Human of the Year” and “Man of 1000 Faces” rounded out the solo portion of the evening while “Poor Little Rich Boy” certainly became the crowd pleaser as The Village- inspired artist managed to whittle down a drum stick to mere shavings from self-percussion on a wooden chair.

As “Samson,” “Us,” “Fidelity” and “Hotel Song” saw the re-emergence of Regina’s band during the encore, one can tell that of the greatest item which Regina brings as an artist is her ability to reach an audience through talent, intimacy and personality by giving us warts and all.

Overall Regina’s voice on this evening was as loose and precise as one would hope – this performer can show that her range and precision are not just proven in the studio, unfortunately this did not begin to reveal itself until at least 30 minutes into the set. At times Regina’s presence to hold the stage energy and focus (esp. during her band’s absence) may be due to the size of the Chicago Theater’s 3,880 seats or this artist may just be too polite and shy for her own good. And perhaps as this artist has grown from her solo days to packed houses, some of her mystique may have gave way to a bombardment of media, press, interviews, phone calls, fan sites and the day-in-day-out life of a touring musician who has the ability to sell out 4,000 seat houses in a matter of a few hours. Whatever the case may be anyone who was witness to this show could tell you from the constant yells and barrage of cat calls which Regina has come to accept on a nightly basis, the only thing that seems to matter to her 20 to 60-year-old concert-goers are the connections and messages which each person seems to gain from this true artist.

Overall Concert Review: A –

Regina Spektor: website | myspace | @ uptown theater | mp3 minute: “Laughing With” | Far review

Written by: Matt W. Miles

After already popping my Lollapalooza cherry in 2008 and coming back home actually looking like a cherry, I came prepared to Lollapalooza 2009 with lots of sunblock and summer dresses. However, Friday quickly showed that 2009 would not be like 2008 in that regard. As a cold rain trickled throughout the day, I spent the entire day shivering uncontrollably and cursing that I had left my sweatshirt 30 minutes away at the Catholic worker house that I was crashing at. In an attempt to warm up, I even tried to buy one of the absurdly expensive festival sweatshirts, but every booth was sold out, leading me to curse some more.

I was not alone in my cursing of the way events transpired that day. As Hockey kicked off the day over at the PlayStation Station, severe technical difficulties cut their set abruptly short. The large crowd which had gathered to hear the band that has exploded onto the scene since JC Penny started playing them in a commercial was disappointed, but Hockey tried to make up for the sound problems by jamming out with an impromptu drum solo and then throwing beer into the crowd (which I am sure made security happy as who knows how many minors caught those cans).

It was a tough call to choose between Manchester Orchestra and Hey Champ. Manchester Orchestra is a band I’ve seen several times before and they have always impressed, but Hey Champ has been getting a lot of buzz lately, so I wanted to see them too. I watched a few Manchester Orchestra songs first. I was impressed with how extra intense the yowls of Andy Hull were and how extra beardy he looked. Despite Hull’s chops, Chris Freeman always steals the show with alternation from keyboard playing to air guitar.

I dashed over to catch some Hey Champ and as I was walking up, they warned the front row to “cover your faces because this next song will make them melt.” Now, while there wasn’t a re-enactment of Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Arc, the fun electropop rock of Hey Champ might have at least rocked socks if they didn’t melt faces. I’m not sure I saw enough to decide if they were worth all the hype, but they are worth looking into further.

The Knux were next on my schedule. Despite not being a part of the usual genre that I like, it was fun to watch as the hip hop/rap crew invited fans on stage then proceeded to teach us how to do a dance and “put it in the air.” Despite the unnecessary swearing and the confusion of what song was about to be played (they would start a song, say it didn’t feel right and play something else), it was a blast to be in the crowd.

I was again torn at 2:00 p.m. as to whom I should see. I started with a bit of Jersey rockers The Gaslight Anthem. I’m not sure if if was them, sound problems or the weather, but something was just off and I left early, unimpressed. I went to the opposite end of the venue to watch some White Lies, which started to lift my spirits in the cold rain, but still was not enough to wow me.

The “wow” band was soon to come. And I caught Kevin Devine tucked away on the BMI stage. The crowd wasn’t the largest of the day (Bon Iver was a few stages over and LeAnn Rimes was getting ready to play as a special guest over at Kidzapalooza), but the people there were excited to see him. I was especially excited to see him get his own set at Lollapalooza this year after he surprised us last year by joining Brand New on stage for their performance. Kevin sang his heart out, but the crowd got distracted when they noticed Manchester Orchestra’s Andy Hull sitting on stage mouthing along to the set. As the overzealous crowd yelled for a guest performance, Hull eventually left the stage to let Kevin enjoy his moment in the spotlight. Hopefully no hard feelings, the crowd did not mean to make diminish his performance with their request.

I took a break to do an interview and got back in time to catch some Ben Folds. His piano chords carried throughout the streets and as  I heard “You Don’t Know Me” start, I ran over in hopes of seeing a surprise guest of some sort do the Regina Spektor part. The song was great, but I was disappointed to see that no guest would be joining him and a recording track would take care of the part. Alas.

The perfect harmonies of the Fleet Foxes warmed me up a bit, and I especially enjoyed their good humor as they joked about their beards. I would have liked to have heard some more new songs, but like many Lollapalooza bands, they stuck to what people knew and shied away from anything that was still in the works.

Tummy grumbling from a long day, I skipped the Decemberists, whom I heard were a bit of a let down, and walked past the jams of Thievery Corporation to grab some food and wait for Of Montreal.

As I expected, Of Montreal owned the day with their clusterfuck of a stage show. Costumed characters, balloons, confetti, trippy videos, glitter and more, they not only were tight as musicians, but they were the best performers of the day, really interacting with the crowd. They even had the best surprises. Janelle Monae joined for a few numbers, some of the stage performers surfed the crowd in an inflatable boat and to end the set, the singer tossed his guitar up in the air twice. When it didn’t break he just handed the whole guitar to a kid in the front row. Imagine going to a festival and leaving with a souvenir that was an entire guitar. Mind-blowing.

It was actually really hard to be super impressed after that set. Kings of Leon were kind of boring for a follow-up to Of Montreal. Depeche Mode was cool, since they’re fairly legendary and influential to some of my personal favorite bands (Killers at Lollapalooza on Sunday!!!), yet again, they couldn’t beat out Of Montreal as my most memorable act of the day.

Lollapalooza doesn’t end at 10 p.m. People flooded off in all directions to hit up after parties, both official and unofficial. I hit up one that was supposed to feature Kid Cudi and the Knux and an open bar (holla!). After a bit of a Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist moment–where’s bunny–they told us we had the wrong entrance and the line of people mad dashed to the other side, we finally got into this party. The acts did show, but went relatively unannounced and only did like one number, but the open bar was still pretty ace. The only performer who was there the whole time was a very intoxicated Hollywood Holt, but he was just enjoying the party.

Lollapalooza: Friday in summary:
Best set of the day: Of Montreal
Best surprises of the day: Of Montreal giving away an entire guitar, Janelle Monae, LeAnn Rimes
Breakthrough of the day: Kevin Devine
Biggest let downs of the day: Kings of Leon, Decemberists
Crazy crowd moment: Saw a woman taking a dump in the middle of the crowd at Depeche Mode…ew!!!

Lollapalooza: website | schedule | set lists | saturday

As Fuse TV continues their extensive summer music festival coverage, Fuse TV has announced that they will be airing all of the highlights from this year’s Lollapalooza festival, which starts today!, on August 15th.

This year’s lineup promises to ensure a continuation of the legendary festival’s cutting edge acts with Kings of Leon, Jane’s Addiction, Rise Against, Depeche Mode, the Killers, Tool + MANY more, including our personal favorites like Kevin Devine and the Goddamn Band, scheduled to perform.

Additionally, Fuse is helping music fans stay connected to all of this year’s  Lollapalooza ’09 artists with Twt-a-palooza, a centralized online hub that lets you find, filter, and interact with thousands of tweets from the musical acts playing this year’s fest! Log in with you Facebook or Twitter account to ensure that you don’t miss a beat from one of this summer’s hottest musical gatherings: http://fusefest.fuse.tv/a/home

Wait, it gets even better… like free music? Well, Fuse has over 50 Lollapalooza ’09 artist tracks up for FREE download now on their site! Free tracks from Animal Collective, Alberta Cross, Neko Case, Band of Horses, Deerhunter, No Age, Santigold and MUCH more can be found right here: http://fuse.tv/tours/lollapalooza2009/downloads.html

Enjoy, and be sure to tune-in to Fuse on August 15th @ 9pm/8c for Fuse Fest: The Best of Lollapalooza ’09.

Fuse’s Best of Lollapalooza: website | twt-a-palooza | find Fuse in your area