TV on the Radio are doing a not-so-secret show this Monday, August 18th at Santos Party House in New York City. If you haven't checked out Santos yet and you live in NYC, you probably should since they are booking amazing things week after week.

This monday there will be a benefit concert called "Laventille Bus" with performances by Simply Fly (aka TV on the Radio) , Dragons of Zynth and the Brooklyn Jumbues Caribbean performance troupe. The show will be a benefit for SFOTE's 2008 educational Initiative, which provides children free sustainable transportation to and from school.

100% of the proceeds will go to the busing system in Laventille, Trinidad. Tickets are $30 and can be purchased here. Get them before it sells out.

I caught about half of Parts & Labor's set at Siren by my estimation, and what I saw was pretty good, but it kind of annoyed me that singer B.J. Warshaw (who had a cool, Matisyahu-esque beard) sounded as close to Billy Joe of Green Day as Ben and Nicole said that Victoria Legrand of Beach House sounded like Feist, though Nicole tells me that he sounds just as much like the lead singer of Brazil (though I've never listened to them) than Green Day, so I guess I don't know shit.

Anyways, they weren't as boring as Islands, but were by no means memorable, so I almost forgot that I could review them as my third, and probably final, Siren-related review.  I was trying to decide between the Dodos, to whom I've already listened a million times, or The Helio Sequence, whom I never saw at Siren.  But that dilemma was solved.

When I looked up Parts & Labor in various corners of the internets, I was told that they were noise rock.  Based on their latest album, last year's Mapmaker, I don't really believe that.  I think they're a little out there, but not as far as say, Dragons of Zynth.  They sound pretty close to early Green Day as a band, just with some craziness added on top, so in that vein, they can be considered like punk, I guess.  I'm never quick to label something punk; I have very little experience in the genre, and my first instincts are normally wrong in regards to anything beyond, say, the Ramones.

It seems a bit shallow to say that the reason they're considered noise rock is because they have noise, but that's pretty much it.  They have standard, real songs, they just add a little weird noise either at the beginning, somewhere in the mix in the middle, or more likely, at the end.  That's really all there is to it.

They all seem to be really good musicians, which is refreshing.  Drummer Chris Weingarten is unbelievable on this album, plowing through lots of parts with incredible speed on multiple drums that I'm really pissed I didn't take notice of while I saw them live.  Another key difference that makes their CD experience better than their live experience is that keyboardist Dan Frier takes more of the singing duties than in the live set, which makes me think less of Green Day, which is good, because I like to have a band have their own identity in my mind beyond something "that sounds like this other band".

Unsurprisingly, Mapmaker's best song is its opener, "Fractured Skies", which comes in on an awesome drum beat by Weingarten, which gets layered on top of it a guitar effects loop, followed by heavily reverbed vocals that make it hard to make out the lyrics at all (this goes for the whole album, but strangely, I don't see it as a problem this time; there's enough stuff going on for the lyrics not to be necessary), which builds into a great crescendo and release.  Then the release gets even better when they add a brass section later - gotta love the huge sound.

Although from there on out, the pacing of the album varies, with slower songs like "Long Way Down" and "Ghosts Will Burn" smack dab in the middle, the ridiculously fast drumming of Weingarten keeps the energy up the whole way - and I do like the idea of putting some balls-to-the-wall drums in a ballad to fuck shit up.  Seems pretty badass to me.

Then again, this album isn't perfect.  I think some of the noise flourishes go overboard, and I think that it's easy enough to make the lyrics of a song intelligible - if you take the time to write them, why not allow them to be understood? But as I said before, the second one doesn't really negatively impact the effect of the album, I just think it's a bit n00bish.

P.S. - I realize this review was horribly written, but I'm tired of writing music reviews right now.  After my Siren review for BOTO, I may be refreshed, but I'll try to get a couple of movies in the next few days, after my off day tomorrow.

P.P.S. - Look out for Nicole's inaugural review on IAMDC; I believe it is a review of the show Sex In The City.  We're all waiting with bated breath, Nicole.

I love DOZ, but I don't love their music.  I like it, I think it's pretty good.  They call their music "Afrotek", and it's just a bit (really, not a lot) less pretentious than it sounds for them to have come up with their own genre.  It really is a whole different animal, though; this music is fucking hard to describe.  Really, my TV On The Radio comparison isn't fair.  Only on atmospheric "Anna Mae" are the similarities definitely there, and less obviously on closer...ahem, "Closer", and beyond that, they are loud, they are unconventional, and they are black.

Don't think that calling them black was for some stunted shock value or just to be funny; they wear their identity out on their sleeve here, like with the beginning of "Who Rize Above," which combines a Jimi Hendrix-ish guitar dabble with hip hop self-introduction before launching into a raucous "beat explosion" coupled with the shouts and yelps of Aku O.T., the lead singer who can do anything he wants with his voice.  They then just jam at this ridiculous pace in their Esau to jazz's Jacob, abrasively, but then again, they aren't making this music so you'll like it.  They want to "show their intent," as they say in the above article.

The next track, "Take It to Ride", sounds like a kind of parody of "Ticket to Ride", but it's really an apocalyptic version of Caribbean rap, as I understand it.  You get the little glockenshpiel (I think) figure, sounds pretty straightforward, and then you get unrelenting, half-screamed raps over equally unrelenting mashed guitars that mirror the original glockenshpiel beat.

But I haven't even mentioned the best song on the album yet.  That's second track "Breaker", which, after a little pause from the opener, just breaks your skull with a badass guitar riff straight out of Guitar Hero that I did NOT see coming the first time I heard it.  It was one of my favorite moments in music that came out in 2007, looking back.  Another one comes a few seconds later, when the guitar goes almost to your breaking point in pitch, and hangs while Aku sings/yells "Send sweet, unholy breaker..." As he hangs on the "y" in unholy, the song just explodes in a fit of percussion and hard guitars which look a lot like this:

And the song goes on from there, in much the same vein of badassery.

Now, I can completely understand someone not liking this album, or not even wanting to hear it based on my review.  It's some of the most out-there shit I listen to, and I didn't realize it until I heard these guys at Siren right along with yawn-inducing Islands and when they gave Ethan a headache with measly laptop speakers.  I'm not going to push these guys on anybody.  I'm just happy and content in my knowledge that these guys are completely out of their minds and glorying in it.

Again, a bit of a short review, but two in one night will do that to a person.  You're cool with 645 words, right? Right.

If you live near New York City or the surrounding areas, you might want to check out the Siren Music Festival on Saturday July 19, 2008. Backed by the United States largest alternative weekly newspaper The Village Voice, this free event brings together a potent mixture of music to Coney Island.

Featuring two outdoor stages, concert goers will get to check out live performances from Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Broken Social Scene, Islands, Ra Ra Riot, The Helio Sequence, Beach House, Times New Viking, Jaguar Love, The Dodos, Annuals, Film School, Parts & Labor, Dragons of Zynth, These are the Powers, and DJs Ted Leo and Deadheat.

If that’s not enough for you, there is an after-party at Music Hall of Williamsburg featuring Apes & Androids, a Place to Bury Strangers, and more. You can get tickets for the after-party here.

You have to go back to go forward on this story however.

(more after the jump + music files + whiskey??)

So, following two epic, self-produced albums on Portland’s Cavity Search Records, The Helio Sequence had just released the slinky Love and Distance in 2004; their debut on Sub Pop. Brandon and best friend Benjamin "Benji" Weikel were traversing the country with their obsesessive collection of synthesizers, pedals, guitars and big 'ol amps all jam-packed into a secondhand tour van (a two-seater obtained during Benjamin’s stint as the drummer for famed Modest Mouse). After a very taxing six months of tours in the U.S. and Europe with Kings of Leon, Blonde Redhead, Modest Mouse and Secret Machines, Brandon’s vocal chords became severely shredded. When he lost his voice for the first batch of these dates, he thought it was a fluke thing and decided to made the best of it [enter the whiskey]. Halfway through the tour, though, he could hardly speak—let alone sing—and literally had to stop talking during daylight hours--much like a vampire??. To kill the boredom of the forced silence during the day and the frustration of crappy show performences at night, he took in 60 books in about as many days. One of the first books he read was Bob Dylan’s Chronicles. Upon returning to Portland, Brandon’s doctor forbade him from singing for almost two months. The doc's directive led Summers to a feast of indie rock anomalies: healthy living via exercise! and a regular practice/recording schedule and dare we say! improvement via singing exercises. “I really hit the wall,” he recalls, “Going into 2005 I actually had to think, ‘If I lose my voice, what will I do?’” The results lie in ascendant vocals that replace awkward growls and breathy whispers with precise notes and even phrasing.

Brandon taught himself vocal exercises and mic technique, after trading his Maker's Mark in for Ricola, and took up jogging and vowed not to be another lazy musician; from that point on, recording and practice sessions were to begin at 9am sharp (Kinda like Luke Wilson's character in Bottlerocket). So, it isn't that surprising that Keep Your Eyes Ahead is The Helio Sequence's most dynamic, extraordinary work to date. Keep Your Eyes Ahead marries the duo’s signature layered keyboards and Large-room guitars with crisp songwriting and a newfound appreciation for minimalism. The finger picking on Shed Your Love is backed by exquisite classical-like strings and ambient noise, but Brandon’s serene, self-assured delivery remains front and center. While songs from the band’s early releases were up near 7 minutes, even the longest, jammiest, catchiest track on Keep Your Eyes Ahead (the barn-stomping Hallelujah) clocks in at 4 and a half minutes, evidence of just how refined their craft has become. Or are they trying to be more radio friendly? Beyond the new health regimen, Brandon’s forced silence helped him deconstruct and refocus his approach towards musical expression. Lyrics increasingly became a stream of consciousness. The vocals were recorded spontaneously in bedroom closets and family living rooms, which may explain the haunting urgency you hear in Brandon’s voice, like his parents were coming home soon and they hadn't cleaned up, especially on driving tracks like Keep Your Eyes Ahead. The band also took it's time on the album. After the bulk of official recording was completed, a listen through of all the demos and snippets on Brandon’s hard drive convinced Benjamin there were more gems in the rough. Most of which became the aforementioned Hallelujah and Keep Your Eyes Ahead, as well as the mid-tempo Back to This. True Neo-Indie indeed, with their macs a blazing; they obsessively obsessed over the album until the album was an album and not just a bunch of songs.

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With Summers' new found vocal expertise came his "need" to "carry" songs. Some would say that Keep Your Eyes Ahead falters when Summers and Weikel set aside their "elctro" wiring and aim for a folky sound sprinkled with some ambient backgrounds. What?? well we here at eargoggles like it. It lends to the "play-straight-through" classification of the album; not having to skip or mix in a playlist with other types/genres. There are lines like "Drank the dark wine of the New York night/ With shattered mind across the borderline" that pull at some heartstrings and make the listener feel far away from someone. On Keep Your Eyes Ahead''s final track, the harmonica-laden No Regrets, the clacking percussion behind a drunken sing-a-long rivals some of the Neo-Indie-Americana bands. Keep Your Eyes Ahead has a refreshing maturity and certain kind of poise; like a cancer survivor. And that is just what Summers is, a singer who lost his voice and fought to come back better than ever. He gets it right during Hallelujah-- "We don't want answers, anyway"--they have learned to do what they do and they do not have to answer to anybody because they know what they had to go through to get here.

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There is a lot of emotion here, but not the "emo" type that uses sappy words to convey. Summers' lyrics speak of a man who has finally found himself or even found his purpose. He has "broken-up" with his former self and started "going out" with this new more focused musician and they click. It's like he went on vacation to Europe and grew a beard, came back and was sour with the friends he was with. The choppy ta-ta-trucks and trains! verses of Can't Say No and the tremble-y guitars of Lately encompass the flat skies and multitudinous bridges of hometown Portland and could easily be in a teen movie just after the main characters have ended their relationship; The Captive Mind ventures near Modest Mouse's "Gravity Rides Everything". The pulsing sequencer of Hallelujah, the album's longest and most strident anthem, plays counterpoint to Summer's long, loose solos. The muscular title track wrestles lustily with the Stone Roses: "You came on like you knew you would/ Wearing high-top shoes walking home from school/ And I just 'bout fell right off the balcony." Here's a video of Keep Your Eyes Ahead:

One listen to Keep Your Eyes Ahead, which was self-produced by the duo and then mastered by Greg Calbi (Iron and Wine, Interpol, and Paul Simon’s Graceland), confirms The Helio Sequence teem with an energy and a range that continues to defy such narrow categorization.

News::::

Village Voice has announced the lineup for the eighth annual Siren Music Festival. The free event fills up a whole day at Coney Island on July 19. As of yet, performers include Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Broken Social Scene, Beach House, Times New Viking, the Dodos, Parts & Labor, Annuals, the Helio Sequence, Dragons of Zynth, These Are Powers, Film School, and Jaguar Love. Pretty sweet if your over on the East Coast.

You Can Come to Me file

Hallelujah file

En première partie déjà, les belges de K-Branding se sont révélés absolument géniaux et méritent à eux tous seuls une mention plus qu'admirable. Durant les 30 courtes minutes de leur set et devant une quinzaine de personnes maximum, le trio (un guitariste, un batteur, un saxophoniste/claviériste/vocaliste/percussioniste) nous balance une sorte de harsh-math-jazz-core-noise-nowave de qualité, fascinant et oppressant du début à la fin. Pour introduire le concert, le batteur fait crisser sa cymbale en la frottant avec sa baguette, puis le groupe nous envoie une déflagration sonique monstrueuse en pleine tête. La guitare, torturée et trafiquée par les pédales d'effets, est complètement hallucinante, le saxophone, lui aussi bidouillé par les différents effets, et dans lequel le saxophoniste n'hésite pas à hurler, sonne comme une sirène d'alarme qui surplombe le chaos contrôlé créé par la guitare et une batterie impressionante de maitrise. Le groupe enchaine ses différents plans de façon inattendue, pourtant on rentre vraiment dans ce magma sonore délivré par le groupe. Le saxophoniste change régulièrement d'instrument en plein morceau, utilisant à de rares occasions un micro, plus souvent un synthétiseur, une tom basse et une cymbale supplémentaire, et même une cowbell durant une section! Le troisième morceau du set en particulier retiendra mon attention, le groupe parvenant, plus encore que sur les autres morceaux, à témoigner d'une alternance parfaite entre passages de tension retenue mais palpable, et explosions de furie relâchée. Commençant par une section chantée de façon lancinante par le batteur, le groupe, après un développement parfait, introduit une partie drone monstrueuse, dans laquelle le batteur s'empare d'une petite flûte pour rendre l'ambiance encore plus inquiétante. Toute la tension retenue finit par exploser, et le saxophoniste prend à la fin ses baguettes pour jouer sur sa tom basse, donnant un côté tribal au morceau. Le dernier morceau du set lui aussi se révélera parfait: commençant sur une section stressante guitare/synthé (incroyablement oppressant une fois de plus)/voix triturée, il finit de même par exploser et se terminera dans un chaos tribal incroyable. On est subjugué par ce groupe qui, même s'il rappelle bien sûr les premiers Sonic Youth, James Chance ou les Liars par exemple, arrive à être inventif et intéressant à la fois. Dommage que le set ait été si court, car on aurait bien redemandé un peu plus de ce magma sonore.

Après cette expérience incroyable, faire mieux semblait très difficile pour la tête d'affiche, Dragons Of Zynth, donc. Et pourtant, même si les deux groupes ne jouent pas du tout dans le même registre, les dragons se révéleront tout aussi bons que leurs prédécesseurs. Devant trente personnes maximum, le groupe va nous livrer un set une nouvelle fois très court, mais intense: accompagnés d'une nouvelle bassiste, les deux frontmen et le batteur vont nous livrer trois quarts d'heure de musique de très grande classe. Même si la reprise (des Ramones, me semble-t'il) en ouverture, puis le son assez brouillon (on ne distinguait pas très bien les voix) sur l'ultra-distordu Anna Mae pouvait laisser sceptique, le reste du concert nous emmènera en revanche très loin. Dès le troisième morceau, Get Off, le son se fait bien meilleur, le chant se distingue beaucoup mieux et l'on peut pleinement apprécier les explosions du refrain. Le groupe enchaine avec une nouvelle composition (ou une composition qui n'est pas apparue sur l'album), très syncopée, mais c'est lorsqu'après ce nouveau morceau, le riff acide de Breaker se fait entendre que le concert va vraiment décoller. L'explosion du début du morceau est foudroyante. La basse vous assène un riff punk vindicatif d'entrée, puis le groupe y alterne ses passages d'énergie punk et ceux d'accalmie (toute relative) soul - superbement bien chantés! - où le mélange des voix peut rappeller TV on the Radio, mais pour mieux repartir ensuite! Cette ambiance est confirmée lorsque l'on entend la mélodie de synthé introductive de Take It To Ride qui explosera une nouvelle fois de façon fulgurante, et le charisme des deux chanteurs s'y fait réellement sentir. Aku, tournoyant, dansant, se balançant dans tous les sens, attire tous les regards. Le groupe poursuit avec son "tube", War Lover, qui se révèle très distordu en live - et agrémenté d'une partie supplémentaire qui n'est pas sur la version album -, et encore une fois excellent, le chant étant vraiment d'une justesse à toute épreuve. Le concert atteindra son sommet lorsque, War Lover terminé, l'introduction de Who Rize Above fait son apparition. Après cette intro tendue, le groupe entame le morceau le plus intense de son set sur le cri d'Aku qui sera en transe et complètement déchainé tout du long du morceau, allant d'un bout à l'autre de la scène, haranguant le public, puis sautant dans la fosse, me prenant par l'épaule et chantant devant moi pendant quinze secondes! Lorsqu'il saute de son ampli, tourne sur lui-même ou entame des pas de danse, une évidence s'impose: les Dragons of Zynth ont la classe, la grande classe même. Le groupe annoncera malheureusement à la fin du morceau que le prochain sera le dernier: il s'agira de ce qui est probablement le meilleur morceau de Coronation Thieves, l'incroyable Rockin Star: après une longue partie soul très calme et posée, le morceau implose sans prévenir dans une explosion post-rock distordue magnifique, qui aurait pu durer plus longtemps mais qui était déjà parfaite ainsi. Le groupe, visiblement satisfait du public même s'il était très clairsemé, quitte alors la scène après 45 minutes, et malgré les applaudissements et cris répétés du public qui espère un rappel, les lumières se rallument et les enceintes jouent à nouveau une sélection musicale (King Eternal de TV on the Radio, justement).

Malgré sa courte durée donc, cette soirée aura été absolument géniale, tant en première partie qu'en tête d'affiche: deux groupes géniaux, inventifs, novateurs, excellents visuellement parlant (par le charisme des chanteurs pour Dragons of Zynth, par le mouvement sur scène pour K-Branding). Il n'y avait peut être que trente personnes maximum, mais je suis sur que ces trente personnes ont été conquises par ces deux groupes. Bravo.

Setlist Dragons of Zynth:

• ??? (cover des Ramones ?)
• Anna Mae
• Get Off
• ???
• Breaker
• Take It To Ride
• War Lover
• Who Rize Above
• Rockin Star

Muchos de los artistas participantes, entre los que se encuentran Feist, Of Montreal, Deerhoof, Muse o Bloc Party, por poner algunos ejemplos, han contribuido con algún tema previamente inédito. En el dvd, además de media docena de vídeos, también se incluye una entrevista con el co-fundador de la Energy Action Coalition, Billy Parish.

Cd 1:

1. The Appletrees - Look Up to the Sky
2. Feist - Hone Honey (BBC Session)
3. Harper Simon - Henrieta
4. Young Love - Underground
5. Muse - Knights of Cydonia (live)
6. The Exit - Hey Man
7. Of Montreal - Feminine Effects
8. Pete Yorn - Old Boy
9. London Souls - Someday
10. Citizens Band - Fortune Teller
11. Violens - Trance Like Turn
12. Bloc Party - The Prayer (Hadouken remix)
13. School of Seven Bells - Trance Figure
14. Deerhoof - +81 (BBC Session)
15. Juliana Hatfield - Back to Freedom
16. Satori - Intimate Revolution

Cd 2 :

1. The Bad Plus - Casa Particular
2. Carina Round - Hookah
3. Asobi Seksu - Strawberries (CSS Remix)
4. Dragons of Zynth - Xerathyn
5. Earl Greyhound - This Tree
6. The Appletrees - Messin Around
7. A Place to Bury Strangers -NeverGoing Down
8. State Radio - Camilo

dvd:

1. The Appletrees - Messin Around
2. Young Love - Underground
3. The Exit - Hey Man
4. Satori - A Clear View
5. Violens - Trance Like Turn
6. Rebecca Schiffman - Penguins and Igloos
7. Interview wirh Billy Parish

Vía: Pitchfork

Dragons of Zynth

Thumbs Up: Despite their ridiculously festooned MySpace Profile, the Dragons of Zynth impressed me last night with their multi-textural show at the Mohawk. Especially impressive was drummer Bizza (not pictured) - who relentlessly wore immaculate drum riffs into the ground. This guy made ridiculously sweet live drum loops look easy as cheese. Even the smarmy Pitchfork gave their full-length debut, Coronation Thieves, a solid 7.0 I haven't heard it yet, but have already purchased via the wonderful internet.

Check out this video of the Dragons from CMJ...the audio isn't great, but you can see Bizza do that crazy live drum loop I was talking ' bout...