Exxopolis At The Long Center

Architects of Air: Exxopolis Luminarium opened this morning on the lawn of the Long Center.  The five domed exhibition runs through January 27.

A Few Small Joys Of 2012

While this doesn’t proclaim to be a “best of” list in any regard, it does serve to highlight a few gems that made 2012 worth smiling about.

My Heart Is An Idiot:  Essays by Davy Rothbart

As the editor of Found magazine, Rothbart spends a lot of time combing through the secrets and stories of other people’s lives.  In this set of essays (ala David Sedaris and Sarah Vowell), the ever-affable and big-hearted Rothbart opens up about his own life.  Rothbart’s a charming troublemaker bent on fully living his own experience and writing compelling prose about it.

“Cabin In The Woods”

Somehow both subverting and embodying the ideas behind what makes a horror film (and yes, what makes a good horror film), “Cabin In The Woods” presents its horrific scenarios in service to its story, rather than out of pure gratuity.  The Joss Whedon/Drew Goddard-penned script doesn’t overlook character development, and its workaday “B” storyline, featuring Richard Jenkins and Bradley Whitford, emerges as the surprising engine of the movie.

“Beasts Of The Southern Wild”

It may not be possible to watch this film without crying or falling in love with Quvenzhane Wallis, the movie’s six-year-old star.  Based on the stage play “Juicy And Delicious,” “Beasts” can feel more like a lucid dream than a film.  It has a mystical quality that helps keep the crushing realities of loss of home and family at bay.

“Ted”

On the surface, it seems like there are 100 ways this movie could be terrible, but with its inventive well-developed story, forceful characters, and irreverent flourishes, it’s surprisingly funny.  The humor is often dirty, but Seth MacFarlane’s story of a teddy bear come to life, who continues to live with his best friend John (Mark Wahlberg) in a prolonged state of adolescence may be the funniest movie I saw this year.

Jeff Mangum at ACL Live

No one can make you want to both cry and make-out in public like Jeff Mangum.  The Neutral Milk Hotel singer’s acoustic set at ACL Live leaned heavily on songs from In An Aeroplane Over The Sea and it was beautiful to watch.

“The Colbert Report”

It’s hard to believe that Stephen Colbert has been delivering his hard-headed satire for seven years.  Whether highlighting “Difference Maker” (nee high art proprietor, nee exotic dance club owner) Stephen Dick Jr. or spoofing the sad Sarah McLachlan pet-adoption ads, the show is better than ever.

“Shut Up And Play The Hits”

If there was one music documentary to be impressed by this year, this was it.  From directors Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern, who’d previously made the documentary “No Distance Left To Run” about the band Blur, “Shut Up…” has a purposefully narrow scope.  The film takes place in the week leading up to, and the day after, LCD Soundsystem’s final concert, at Madison Square Garden.  Showcasing footage from that show, along with an interview by Chuck Klosterman (whose nasal voice adds an excellent texture), the film follows James Murphy as he pointedly chooses to shut down his band while he’s still on top.

“Shut Up…” doesn’t lean on typical documentary conventions – it’s very rare that anyone looks into the camera directly, or even pays it particular attention.  The view is much more fly-on-the-wall, allowing the film to pull off the feat of feeling both intimate and removed, like watching characters in a play.  We’re right there with Murphy, watching intently as he exercises the want to maintain ultimate control, even if that means organizing his own funeral.

Best Of 2012: Songs & Albums

If there seems to be a lot of consensus about which artists’ albums were real stand-outs in 2012 – Japandroids, Beach House, Frank Ocean – it’s for good reasons.  These albums featured solid and interesting song construction, texture, and unique perspectives; the music transported you to another place.  It was also easy to get lost in the lo-fi pleasures of Tame Impala, and mesmerized by the electronic pulses of Tanlines’s long-awaited full-length debut.

Best Album Picks:

Fear Fun – Father John Misty

Maybe it’s Joshua Tillman’s beautiful voice, but somehow this album makes the ethereal real.

Channel Orange – Frank Ocean  

His soulful r&b marries heart and clever descriptions.  Sample lyric: “My TV ain’t HD, that’s too real.”

Celebration Rock – Japandroids

How can you not be swept away by the sound of fading fireworks at the end of “Continuous Thunder”?

Bloom – Beach House 

Picking up where their previous effort, “Teen Dream,” left off, the Baltimore duo pull off another lazily mystical album.

Boys & Girls – Alabama Shakes 

This Alabama band’s debut disc somehow manages to feel current and timeless.  Brittany Howard’s higher gritty vocals are alluringly distinctive.

Mixed Emotions – Tanlines

If there’s been a criticism about this Brooklyn duo’s first LP, it’s that the songs don’t have a definitive arc.  But sometimes it’s nice to linger in the infinite.

The Only Place – Best Coast 

There’s a wistful sense of remorse tucked into the songs on this record – songs whose melodies might otherwise have you believe that everything’s fine.

Young & Old – Tennis 

Have you not been seduced by Alaina Moore’s glorious vocals yet?  How about her lyrics contemplating longing and existence?  Open yourself to the possibilities.

Lonerism – Tame Impala 

Some days you just need a dose of Australian pyschedelia.

Best Of 2012 Playlist:

“The Only Place” – Best Coast

“Stay Useless” – Cloud Nothings

“Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings” – Father John Misty

“Continuous Thunder” – Japandroids

“Hold On” – Alabama Shakes

“I Know What Love Isn’t” – Jens Lekman

“Don’t Leave Me” – Regina Spektor

“Cameo Lover” – Kimbra

“One Heart Missing” – Grace Potter & The Nocturnals

“I Belong In Your Arms” – Chairlift

“My Better Self” – Tennis

“Myth” – Beach House

“Angels” – The XX

“Everything Is Embarrassing” – Sky Ferreira

“Oblivion” – Grimes

“Anything Could Happen (Blood Diamonds Remix)” – Ellie Goulding

“Pyramids” – Frank Ocean

“Not The Same” – Tanlines

“Madness” – Muse

“I Love It” – Icona Pop

“Feels Like We Only Go Backwards” – Tame Impala

“Thinkin Bout You” – Frank Ocean

Of Monsters And Men's My Head Is An Animal

This article also appears on Ground Control


For Iceland’s Of Monsters And Men, there was a very small amount of time between winning a battle of the bands competition (Iceland’s Músiktilraunir) and capturing international attention. First formed in 2010 as a duo between Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir and Ragnar “Raggi” Þórhallsson, the band had expanded to include four other members and produced a number one hit in their home country within a year. That hit, “Little Talks,” became the lead single on the Reykjavík band’s full-length stateside debut, My Head Is An Animal.

With the resurgence of pop-folk led by the likes of Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe And The Magnetic Zeroes, and The Head And The Heart, it seems Of Monsters And Men’s success is owed to being in the right place at the right time – at least in some part. My Head Is An Animal trades on folk elements, but gives off a pop sheen; it’s full of whimsical and earthy lyrics delivered by traded male/female vocals, acoustic guitar, and tambourine-backed shouts of “hey!” 

The album’s opening track, “Dirty Paws” plays like a fable from Aesop, it’s lyrics mentioning forests, queen bees, and furry friends, backed by the chanting of “lalala”s. Natural elements – waterfalls, seagulls, mountains – pop up in much of the first half of the album, while the second half seems to focus on songs of love and romance. 

The album may be at its most exciting when its pace is turned up. On “Mountain Sound” the vocals are rousing – all the band’s members chime in – and the tone upbeat, making it feel a little like Givers’ “Saw You First.” “Six Weeks” opens with a chant and a marching beat, its pace quickens half-way through to strongly echo Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up.” With its oddly melancholy lyrics – “alone / I fight these animals / alone / until I get home” – and different song structure, “Six Weeks” may be the most interesting track on the album. 

But of course, there’s “Little Talks.” Its forlorn, nostalgic quality, punctuated by notes from a happy trumpet makes the song stand out, and singers Hilmarsdóttir and Þórhallsson are at their best when singing together in the song’s bridge. Their harmonies together are more noticeable here than in any other place on the album, though they share some nice moments on the tinkly and hypnotic “Yellow Light” and the alternately subdued and exuberant “Lakehouse.” Þórhallsson can sometimes sound like Colin Meloy, which he does most notably on “Sloom” and, when he's singing story-driven lyrics, it’s easy to see the case for The Decembrists comparisons. 

My Head Is An Animal is not an undeniably exceptional record, but it does give Of Monsters And Men a nice entrance into the scene. Looking ahead, the challenge for the band seems like it will lie in creating songs which don’t just sound like Arcade Fire/Decembrists/Edward Sharpe songs, but songs that truly sound like Of Monsters And Men. 

Liking Things On Facebook Is An Inaccurate Representation Of How I Truly Feel

There’s a lot of pressure to “like” things on Facebook.  But sometimes, “liking” stuff doesn’t correctly convey the way I feel.  (Despite the first line of this article.)  

Sure, it’s easy to “like” stuff like “These kitties are adorable!” [picture of kitties] because, yeah, those kitties are adorable.  Everybody knows that.

But other times, it’s like, you clearly posted an inside joke that only a couple of people would get, so I feel compelled to “like” it to validate the joke you are making.  Maybe you write something like, “Sea bass anybody?” and then I feel like I have to “like” that because that’s some joke between us.  But to the outside world it looks like “Sea bass anybody?”… Nicole Beckley likes this.  Which just makes it seem like I’m into sea bass.  Which is not an accurate portrayal of how I feel. 

Then, there’s the other kind of “like” I feel compelled to make.  The acknowledgment like.  This happens whenever my name is tagged.  You wanted me to see something, so I’m just letting you know I did.  I saw it.  “Right, Nicole?”… Nicole Beckley likes this.

But sometimes, things get more complicated.  For instance, maybe I have a friend who is a journalist and they wrote a great article and I’m proud of them and I want to “like” it.  And maybe I do.  Then, to the outside world it looks like, “Mexican Tourism Declines As Drug Violence Escalates”… Nicole Beckley likes this. 

Wait, what?!  That’s, no, that’s not why I like this.  Its just cause, my friend, wait… no, I’m not, like, taking pleasure in the success of the drug cartels.  This is an inaccurate representation of how I truly feel!

Other types of confusing “likes”:

Ironic likes – there’s no way more than 12,000 people genuinely like Milli Vanilli’s Facebook page

Unintended Sarcasm likes – when your lactose-intolerant friend keep posting about how great ice cream is, but you don’t know about their lactose thing and think they’re being sincere

Potentially Devious likes – when you “like” something just so you can get updates on it in your newsfeed

Unicorn likes – when you exclusively like things that involve unicorns

Un-likes – when you like something and then un-like it immediately afterward

Misery Loves Company likes – when you like people’s posts about how they’re having a terrible time, cause you are too

Stalker? likes – when there’s somebody who, no matter what time it is, always immediately likes a post you’ve made

Fake Letters To Fake People

Aunt Sara,

Look, we need to talk. 

First of all, I’m sorry about what happened between you and Uncle Royce.  You were together for 14 years, and it’s sad when things come to an end.  And yes, it’s highly possible that Anna Lynne is, to use your words, a gold digger.

But let’s get to the matter at hand, your “getting back out there.”

You’ve still got it, as evidenced by the events of last Thursday evening. 

At 9:25PM, two men came over to where we were standing at Harringer’s Bar, and appeared to be waiting for a pause in our conversation.  You turned and looked at the taller of the two gentlemen and said, “Take a picture, it’ll last longer.”  And what happened?  He took a picture.  He pulled out his iPhone and snapped a pic before abruptly leaving.  Now who knows where your face is going to turn up.

At 10:17PM a mustached gentleman approached and attempted to introduce himself, to which you said, “Here’s a quarter, call someone who cares.”  And you tried to hand him twenty-five cents.  Twenty-five cents!  Like he was going to use a payphone?  Where does one even find a payphone – I mean, outside of the set of a creepy movie about serial killers, because those are likely the only people using payphones. 

At 11:09PM a guy in a navy blazer walked up and quizzically asked, “Have I seen you someplace before?”  To which you responded, “Haven’t I seen you someplace before?  Oh that’s right, on America’s Most Wanted.”  It turned out that he was talking to me, and we had met at a UN Foundation meeting.  And here you were sarcastically suggesting he was a wanted criminal whose face you’d seen on a tawdry television program.

Aunt Sara, I know it’s been a while since you’ve been on the dating scene, but you can’t be using these insults from the 1990s.  They don’t make any sense.

Listen, I mean, I get it, the last time you were on a date, you thought it was cool to play hard to get.  You were reading The Rules.  It was the late ‘90s.  But it’s not like that now.  Men want to talk to you, so give them a chance.  And then, if you feel like insulting people, do it in a sophisticated way – on the internet.  Like everybody else.

Sincerely,

   Your niece, Cassie

To The Big Screen

Guys, I’m worried… that the movie Battleship isn’t going to stay true to the source material.

When I first heard that the classic kids game was being made into a feature film, I thought, “Great, yes, finally – they’re going to make a movie about cheating, deception, and sibling rivalry!”  But I’ve seen the trailers, and it doesn’t look like any ships get stacked on top of other ships in order to trick your younger brother. 

And Liam Neeson’s in the film?  How much do I want to hear Liam Neeson call out “You sunk my battleship!” as he struggles to get his crew into lifeboats.  So badly.  And yet, I just know I’m going to leave the theater going, “yeah, it was okay, but the game was way better.”

 

Since this board game-to-film craze shows no signs of letting up, here are some movies I’d like to see:

Robert Rodriguez’s Go To Texas – Oil barons, decrepit ranchers, and tawdry saloon patrons butt heads in a Texas town under a post-apocalyptic backdrop.  Based on a little-known board game that’s excruciatingly similar to “Monopoly,” but takes place in Texas.  (Get on this San Antonio tourism board!)

Pedro Almodovar’s Sequence – An aging soap opera actress and her young protégé host a dinner party attended by a drag queen, a once funny but now melancholy comedian, and a poet having a midlife crisis.  But what happens when one of them is suddenly taken hostage?

J.J. Abrams’ Settlers of Catan – A desolate island nation lies in peril under the harsh dictatorship of the land’s ruler, who is stockpiling resources and treating his countrymen as slaves.  When a small band of peasants bonds together, an uprising begins.  Can the peasants stay together, or does the luster of power mean it’s every man for himself?  (So many sequel possibilities!)

Guillermo Del Toro’s Candyland – A young girl loses her way home and winds up in a fluorescent forest, but something dark and menacing lurks beneath the saccharine sheen.  She quickly finds herself battling for her life against the monsters of the woods.  Alas, nothing is quite as sweet as it seems.


Sofia Coppola’s Don’t Break The Ice – An alcoholic figure skater returns to their hometown after an unsuccessful Olympics bid and reconnects with their past on the road to sobriety.  When a young child gets caught in a patch of thin ice, there may be only one person who can save them.  Gin, love, and a skating career are all on the rocks.

Fun.'s Some Nights

This article also appears on Ground Control.

If there’s any song that feels poised for “Pumped Up Kicks”-style ubiquity, that song would be Fun.’s “We Are Young.” The first single from the band’s new Some Nights album has already topped the Billboard charts, as a Glee cover, months before the album’s release, and has been inescapable thanks to its commercial use (in a Chevy Sonic ad). And, just like that aforementioned Foster The People track, it is impossibly, and somewhat maddeningly, catchy.

Some Nights as a whole is a bit difficult to categorize – the collection of songs includes upbeat harpsichord-backed tracks about loneliness and encouraging chants that have been excessively autotuned. However, the album may be a less diverse collection of songs than Fun.’s previous 2010 effort Aim and Ignite. Where that album felt like it might belong to the canon of emo bands like Panic! At The Disco (with whom Fun. toured in 2011), Some Nights seems like something that could more aptly be described as post-emo.

Of course Fun. doesn’t shed its emo aesthetic completely. The song “All Alright,” with its prominent drums and hyperbolic lamentation “I’ve got nothing left inside of my chest,” could belong in the My Chemical Romance catalogue. But most notably, the release of Some Nights has brought on Queen comparisons, largely due to Fun.’s operatic “Bohemian Rhapsody”-inspired intro track, and the chanted opening on track two, “Some Nights.” At the top of the titular song singer Nate Ruess adopts a vocal style reminiscent of Freddy Mercury on “Fat Bottomed Girls”—but if Ruess begins with deep, commanding vocals, he neglects to sustain them throughout the song and he finishes in autotune territory.

In general throughout the album, the heavy autotuning and vocoder-ed falsetto feel like unnecessary constructs, especially on songs like “It Gets Better,” where Ruess might as well be T-Pain. Autotuning can eliminate all of a singer’s personality, and in this case it seems to shortchange Ruess, who, as Fun.’s appearance on Conan can prove, does have a powerful voice. If anything, the autotuning only succeeds on the album’s final track, where there’s a Wallpaper-esque R&B vibe and the computerized vocals seem to be pushed into outer space.

Ruess (who bears a passing resemblance to the comedian John Mulaney), along with Andrew Dost and Jack Antonoff make up the New York band, and Fun. certainly seems to be on the verge of… something. In an age where Glee can make your song a hit before you have the chance to, who knows exactly what that something will be.

SXSW 2012 Dispatches: Sleigh Bells And Sunburns

Before noon on the streets surrounding West Sixth, eager St. Patrick’s Day partiers, in green and white knee socks, leprechaun hats, and green tutus paraded in and out of bars, fresh faced and full of the sort of enthusiasm for drinking that can never lead to anything bad, right? The crowd in the parking lot outside Waterloo was wearing about 50% less green and 100% less gold coin necklaces. We were waiting for Nada Surf, who, joined on guitar by Doug Gillard, played punchy new songs from their latest album, The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy. They played “Jules and Jim” and “Waiting For Something,” and the drummer was clearly having a great time, making faces and ultimately launching his drumsticks into the crowd.

Nada Surf - Waiting For Something by cityslang

A few blocks from Waterloo, in another parking lot, free margaritas were being handed out and hula hoops were passed around. And who can say no to a parking lot hula hoop party with a soundtrack provided by a band playing electronica covers of The Smiths? (Rhetorical device usage.)

Two miles away, on the other side of I-35, J. Roddy Walston was demolishing a piano, leaving the crowd worked up for Lucero. The combination of Ben Nichols’s beautifully gravelly voice, along with trumpet and piano made songs like “On My Way Downtown” and the melodic “Darken My Door” especially pop – even if Nichols claimed to have just woken up. For the record, it’s quite possible to get caught up watching a band and neglect to realize when one is getting terribly sunburned.

Lucero - On My Way Downtown by MMMusic

When the last night of South By happens to coincide with St. Patrick’s Day, it only makes sense to try to go to a place removed from the heart of Sixth Street where you have the best chance of sitting down. At ACL Live Brooklyn’s Sleigh Bells was backed by a wall of amps, sending the sound of their blaring guitars into the upper balconies and issuing pounding electronic pulses. It seemed that singer Alexis Krauss, clad in shorts, tennis shoes, and a ripped t-shirt, wanted nothing more than to get both in the crowd’s face and in the crowd. She prowled around the stage, issuing screams, reaching out for audience members, standing on the guardrails, and ultimately crowd-surfing atop the first couple of rows.

While her sojourns didn’t stop her from singing, including “Riot Rhythm,” “Infinity Guitars,” “Born To Lose,” and “Tell ‘Em,” the microphone cord constantly threatened to get hung up on something and nearly caught guitarist Derek Miller. The combination of intense lights, violent guitar, and aggressive vocals made the Sleigh Bells show feel like a full sensory assault – it seemed a bit like South By itself – engulfing and exhausting.

Now to treat this sunburn.

Born To Lose by Sleigh Bells

SXSW 2012 Dispatches: Kimbra, Magnetic Fields, And When To Go Home

When the breeze passed through the outdoor covered stage at the W Hotel yesterday afternoon it felt pretty idyllic. Despite the fact that there hadn’t been any set times announced for Nylon Magazine’s party, it was rumored that Kimbra would be playing at 2:30. The New Zealand pixie, who guests on Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know,” quickly confirmed the rumor, taking the stage in a puffy pink and lace Disney princess-style dress. More than once during the set the dress threatened to fall off, as Kimbra shook her tambourine and danced enthusiastically. The drummer, with his awesome Kid ‘N Play-style flattop, pounded away and Kimbra smiled widely through “Cameo Lover” and “Two Way Street.” She was such an emotive and inventive singer, it was a shame it had to end.
Cameo Lover by Kimbra

Hours later, inside the W, at ACL Live, Philadelphia’s The War On Drugs unleashed their noisy guitars. While the vocals seemed muffled by choice, there’s something in the lead singer’s style that seems to want to echo Bob Dylan. Or perhaps it was the harmonica he pulled out during the closing number. Throughout the show I did not notice anyone using drugs, so I can only assume their message must be working.

It was far too comfortable in the padded seats at ACL Live to want to leave, and besides, who would want to miss The Magnetic Fields’ deadpan stage banter? With a piano, two guitars, a violin, and Stephin Merritt’s distinctive voice, the Magnetic Fields played a mix of old (“Come Back From San Francisco,” “The Book Of Love”) and brand new (“Your Girlfriend’s Face,” “Andrew In Drag”) songs, Merritt occasionally offering an insight like, “This is a song about a very famous hole in the ground,” before playing “Grand Canyon.” Like the Decembrists and Broken Social Scene, The Magnetic Fields have the great ability to tell whimsical stories through their songs, and having just released their 10th album, their stories are in no short supply.
The Magnetic Fields - Andrew in Drag by MergeRecords

Torn between setting up a permanent residence at ACL Live or venturing out, I chose to head to Easy Tiger. Here’s where I made a mistake – when I got to Easy Tiger, they were largely selling tickets for entry. The patio beneath their glorious bake shop was packed with folks who’d paid to get in, meaning they wouldn’t likely be leaving and weren’t here because they were fans of a particular band. The patio was packed with middle-aged women and flamboyant men bent on dancing now that they’d been filled with drinks and baked goods.

While Mexico’s Ximena Sarinana cranked out some great jazzy pop occasionally backed by computerized sounds, multiple women’s oversized purses locked me in place. When I finally got free, I made a break for it; the want to see Alabama Shakes eclipsed by the want to breathe freely. On the way out I passed the throng of badge-holders waiting to get in, including the comedians the Sklar brothers. Yep, I gave up my spot at a hot ticket show – you’re welcome Sklar brothers.

SXSW 2012 Dispatches: Worlds Of Synth

If there’s a secret place to enjoy day parties, it may be Red Eyed Fly. Two covered stages mean you don’t have to be out in the sun, and alternating set times let the music flow nearly continuously. Plus, it’s cool inside and not impossible to sit down. It’s the little things that count.

Yesterday on the back patio at Red Eyed Fly Brooklyn’s Savoir Adore moved from a cool dreampop opening to a snap-happy rhythm, topped with guy/girl vocals. They sounded a bit reminiscent of the San Francisco band Minipop, especially on “Loveliest Creature,” which found the crowd waving their arms from side to side and singing along.

Inside, the buzz-garnering Charli XCX was waiting for her keyboardist’s board to be fixed. If it’s easy to forget that the British singer is only 19, the two huge black Xs on her hands were a big reminder. That and the fact that it looked like she’d been styled by Ke$ha – wearing ripped black stockings and a mauve nylon and velour dress. She worked through a super-short set, including “Stay Away,” and “Nuclear Seasons,” ‘80s-inspired pop tracks with vocals that sometimes drifted into Shakira-sounding territory. It felt like a rare instance where the space was too intimate – there has to be some distance between the performer and the audience to really sell a sexy pop song.

CharliXCX - Nuclear Seasons by charlixcx

There’s nothing better to see than a band that’s enjoying getting to play together, and St. Lucia looked like they were having a great time. Playing synth-heavy tunes filled with themes of nostalgia and missed opportunities, St. Lucia sound something like the Naked and Famous by way of Yeasayer. They played “Closer Than This” and “Before The Dive,” but when they got around to closing with “The Old House Is Gone,” I couldn’t help but think they might switch it up half-way through and play Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s “Relax.” All that synth-y orchestration.

Closer Than This by St. Lucia

Not only are the four Canadian girls that make up Chic Gamine adorable, it’s hard to imagine an instrument that one of them doesn’t play. Throughout their set they punctuated four-part harmonies with drums, triangles, tambourines, cowbells, cabasas, and cymbals. A little gospel, a little soul, a little French, and a lot of percussion.

If the backyard at Beauty Bar had filled up for Com Truise, it filtered out a bit for Teengirl Fantasy, the remaining patrons likely staying to see Dan Deacon. Teengirl’s electronic stylings left something to be desired – I’d never seen someone actually yawn at an electronica show before. Of course that attitude did a 180 after Dan Deacon arrived, planting his characteristic green glowing skull in front of the stage and projecting flashing colors and images onto the side of the venue. The backyard became a jumping dance party, with Deacon clearing space for a rotating dance-off to occur, which happened nicely until someone mooned the crowd and it went back to being a jumbled mass of dancers. There’s one in every crowd.

SXSW 2012 Dispatches: Unexpected Soul

It sort of felt like kicking off the day by going back in time.

The lead singer, clad in a leather jacket, despite the near-80 degree heat, deepened his voice as he took the mic, almost like he was intentionally trying to sound like Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode. This was the Chain Gang Of 1974, who neither employs the musical styles of 1974 nor (to my knowledge) is a chain gang. At 2:30 on the Stage On Sixth, the band repeated the lyric, "can you feel it?" and the bass pounded in my chest. Yeah, I could feel it. Ripping through "Tell Me" and the '80s industrial-sounding "Undercover," the Chain Gang also took time out to dedicate a song to Molly Ringwald, saying, "if you're out there Molly Ringwald, this one's for you." The lead singer finally ditched his jacket and came out into the audience, working up the crowd on the Hot Chip-tinged electrodance track "Hold On."

Inside Hospitality was playing that sort of happy female-led rock reminiscent of Tennis, who'd be taking the stage just after them.

An hour and a half later, the inside of Mellow Johnny's bike shop was all set up for KEXP's radio broadcast of Allen Stone. By the looks of Stone -- shoulder-length blondish hair, big glasses, and earthy style of dress -- you'd almost expect him to play a set of folk-inspired indie rock. But don't judge a book by its cover, friends. Kicking off the set with "Sleep," the singer harnessed his soulful voice, launching into a terrific falsetto on "Contact High." If Stone's brand of soul belongs somewhere in the mix with Jamie Lidell and Aloe Blacc, he reserved the real funk (and a bit of whistling) for the closer, "Satisfaction."

Unaware by allenstone

The thing I actually was not expecting to see at the Last Call with Carson Daly-sponsored showcase at Red 7 Patio was Carson Daly. But after a schedule mishap, SF rockers Thee Oh Sees took the stage, and in their final song Daly joined them on drums. Well, he joined them as an additional drummer, trying to match the exhaustive energy of the band's regular drummer. Thee Oh Sees' energy throughout the set was powerful, eclipsing the fact that you couldn't understand the lyrics to any of their songs.

Some time after 11PM a trumpet and a saxophone were brought out, followed by backing band The Expressions, and finally Lee Fields. The Brooklyn soul singer, with his occasionally deep and guttural vocal phrasing can sound like James Brown, though he didn't fully demonstrate this until the closer "Faithful Man." What Fields has in vocal strength unfortunately isn't matched by songwriting. Songs like "I Still Got It" and "Ladies" just don't seem sophisticated enough for such a soulful voice. In the song "Ladies," Fields takes time to call out all the types of ladies he loves, "Short ones! Tall ones! Big ones! Small ones!" Lyrically, "Ladies" might as well be "Mambo Number 5."

Lee Fields & The Expressions - Ladies by sylvanscott

It was well after midnight and Colombia's Bomba Estereo was shaking up the place. Singer Liliana Saumet, in a shiny gold jacket, paced rapidly across the stage, repeating lyrics with a speed normally reserved for details at the end of cell phone service commercials. Once the band started a song it seemed impossible for them to stop, getting so caught up in their cumbia rhythms topped with CSS-style intensity. They only made it through three songs.

Sometimes you just can't stop.

50 Million Views And Counting

I reviewed Gotye's new Making Mirrors album for Ground Control.

Also, there are some especially nice sentences in Rob Harvilla's SPIN piece about Lana Del Rey.

The Big Picture: why it doesn’t matter that the Golden Globes don’t matter

If there’s any reason to talk about the Golden Globes it would be only to jump-start a larger conversation about the worthy pictures and performances of 2011. What’s always curious about the Golden Globes’ nominee list is that it seems to so easily confuse celebrity with acclaim (where else would Ryan Gosling’s Crazy Stupid Love performance be nominated alongside Jean Dujardin in The Artist? Or Angelina Jolie’s In The Land Of Blood And Honey be nominated as best foreign film? Or The Ides Of March be nominated for anything).

More generally speaking, and the Golden Globes aside, it seems like throughout 2011 we saw some great performances in mediocre movies, and some good films that somehow fell off the radar. While Michelle Williams and Meryl Streep have both garnered a tremendous amount of praise for their performances in My Week With Marilyn and The Iron Lady, respectively, the films themselves haven’t lived up to their leading ladies. My Week With Marilyn suffers largely because it lacks any real depth. Because our narrator is a dopey rich kid who lucks into a film job, he’s really not got too much at stake. And the portrait we get of Marilyn is too erratic to be satisfying – her only moments of confidence and competence come at the very beginning of the film when we see her singing “Heat Wave.”

While there were high hopes too for Young Adult, which reunited Juno director Jason Reitman with that film’s writer, Diablo Cody, the film had neither the heart nor wit of Reitman and Cody’s previous work. While Charlize Theron does an admirable job of playing our intentionally unlikable main character, one wonders if her demeanor, especially at the end, could have been softened – and certainly one wishes that she could have been redeemed. It’s hard to spend two hours watching someone despicable refuse to change. (Truthfully, Young Adult felt more like an Alexander Payne film than The Descendants.)

Despite its divisive status, Tree Of Life did give us an excellent performance from Brad Pitt as a stern, withholding father. (Tree Of Life, Cave Of Forgotten Dreams, and Margin Call all made my “Movies I Fell Asleep During” list in 2011.) Will this best his Moneyball performance in the eyes of critics? With that film’s tight, sparse script that makes a tricky subject matter seem elegant, my money’s on “no.”

Certainly 50/50 got a fair amount of attention at the Golden Globes, but it really was a very satisfying, funny film with a worthy performance from Anna Kendrick that’s often been overlooked. Kendrick plays a very green therapist who thinks she can give textbook answers to cancer-stricken patients. The character Kendrick develops is layered – insecure, but not over-the-top, caring, but not motherly, naïve, but not dumb. Nobody is playing that 20-something/new-to-the-workforce young woman like Anna Kendrick.

The Delightful and The Forgotten

Is anyone still thinking about Win, Win, Cedar Rapids, or Super 8? They should be. Other delights: Bridesmaids (ladies! friendship! hilarity!), Midnight In Paris (Owen Wilson gives a fresh twist to Woody Allen’s insecurities), The Artist (magical filmmaking and sound gags). Definitely keep talking about these.

Best of 2011: Songs & Albums

If 2011 left something to be desired in terms of the number of solid album releases, there were some bright spots (notably The Weeknd doing double duty with House of Balloons as well as their Thursday mixtape).

Here’s a rundown of the albums that stood out, as well as a “Best of 2011” playlist.

Best Albums:

Nine Types Of Light – TV On The Radio
After Dear Science and Return To Cookie Mountain, you’d think TVOTR would take a break and phone this one in, but no. They continue to deliver well-orchestrated songs with haunting hooks.

Cults – Cults
For fans of indie boy/girl groups like The XX and Beach House, Cults do male/female harmonies and serve up stylistic variety with a polished finish.

House Of Balloons – The Weeknd
This album captures a perfect lazy-sexy sound, with vocals that borrow heavily from R&B. It’s sensual and a little disorienting – like the way you feel during the last hour of a very late night party.

Smoke Ring For My Halo – Kurt Vile
A carefully constructed album that’s both odd and pretty. The sound is laid-back and intimate, led by Vile’s unique voice. Maybe don’t listen to this while operating heavy machinery.

Bon Iver – Bon Iver
The songs on this album seem to go on and on, though only two clock in at over five minutes. It’s as if with his peaking vocals and gently beautiful melodies Bon Iver has found a way to stretch out time.

What Did You Expect From The Vaccines? – The Vaccines
Drawing from a canon that includes The Strokes and The Arctic Monkeys, this British band delivers the sort of non-stop guitar-driven rock that makes even break-up songs feel incredibly happy.

Father, Son, Holy Ghost – Girls
Somehow Christopher Owens continues to make melancholy incredibly listenable. While it’s not as strong as the debut “Album,” it’s certainly a good effort.

Songs of 2011:

“Wreckin’ Bar (Ra Ra Ra)” – The Vaccines
“Something to Brag About” – Deer Tick
“Bedroom Eyes” – Dum Dum Girls
“Lonely Boy” – The Black Keys
“Go Outside” – Cults
“Taken For A Fool” – The Strokes
“Shake It Out” – Florence + The Machine
“You” – TV On The Radio
“The Magic” – Joan As Police Woman
“I Stand Alone” – Theophilus London
“East Harlem” – Beirut
“An Argument With Myself” – Jens Lekman
“Lost In My Mind” – The Head And The Heart
“Saying I Love You” – Girls
“Helplessness Blues” – Fleet Foxes
“Love Out Of Lust” – Lykke Li
“Midnight City” – M83
“Circuital” – My Morning Jacket
“Whirring” – The Joy Formidable

Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra) by The Vaccines
07 Something To Brag About by ShaynewithMWL
Dum Dum Girls - Bedroom Eyes by subpop
The Cults - Go Outside by pcagx
TV On The Radio - You by Interscope Records
Joan As Police Woman - The Magic by PIASBELGIUM
Beirut - East Harlem by artsandcraftsmx
Lost In My Mind by theheadandtheheart
Midnight City by M83

Let's Get Weird

There's something absurdly delightful about watching a grown man in a head-to-toe tiger-striped suit croon a song full of thick innuendoes ("I don't have a library card / but do you mind if I check you out?") to a crowd of uncomfortable ladies. Or at least, it's delightful when that man is Weird Al. A third of the way into his set Saturday night at ACL Live, Weird Al Yankovic finished an interactive rendition of his "Wanna B Ur Lovr" on the ground summoning a high, ridiculous falsetto.

Here, Weird Al was doing what he does best -- exploiting the absurdity of a certain type of performer while singing truly and intentionally silly lyrics. This is a man who has devoted his adult life to co-opting the styles of everyone from Billy Joel to Eminem to sing songs about strange foods, underwear, Spider-Man, and Star Wars. And yet, this mix of the subversive and silly is exactly what makes Weird Al so undeniable.

Raising his accordion, Weird Al and his band opened the show with "Polka Face" -- a goofy polka parody of Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" that quickly morphs into a DJ Earworm-worthy mashup of current pop music. Kid Cudi's "Day N Nite," Justin Bieber's "Baby," Britney Spears's "Womanizer," Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl," plus others, all get covered polka band style -- which even includes a yodel during Ke$ha's "Blow." Shifting into another song from Alpocalypse, the band played "TMZ," a send-up of celebrity bad behavior set to Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me," before letting Weird Al do some full body rolls at the keyboard on "You Make Me."

Ushering in an evening that must have had something like a 1:2 ratio of costume changes to songs, Weird Al slipped back stage, only to reappear in a short blonde wig, flanked by cheerleaders for "Smells Like Nirvana." He busted through a couple of newer songs, "Skipper Dan," "Party in the C.I.A." and "CNR," a song about Charles Nelson Reilly of "Match Game" fame that borrows the now-defunct White Stripes' "Icky Thump."

From here the band went into a medley of songs, beginning with UHF's "Money For Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies" and working through "eBay," "My Bologna," and "Lasagna." While Weird Al's ability to outlast many of the performers he parodies has been frequently acknowledged, at no time was it more apparent than at the start of "Spam," a riff on "Stand" from the just-broken up R.E.M. Toward the end of this set, on the Billy Joel "Piano Man" parody "Ode to a Superhero," Weird Al had a stage hand assist him by holding a harmonica, which he then played while also playing accordion at the same time. While it may be easy to write off his musical abilities while listening to his recorded work, in person it's hard not to acknowledge his musicianship, however strange it may be.

All the big costumes and props came out in the night's final act, with Weird Al pouncing on the keyboard in a red Thriller jacket for "Eat It," donning a long beard and large hat for "Amish Paradise," riding out on a Segway for "White & Nerdy," wearing a plush peacock mascot suit for "Perform This Way," and finishing in a full fat suit and facial prosthetic for "Fat." The crowd was all on their feet for the encore, which found a cast of Star Wars characters, including storm troopers, Darth Vader, and R2D2, grooving to "The Saga Begins" and ultimately "Yoda."

Throughout the evening, interview clips from the rarely-seen AL TV played, as well as numerous clips from TV shows ("Everybody Loves Raymond," "Friends," "The Simpsons") that referred to Weird Al, often as a punchline. And just as some artists consider it a badge of honor to receive a Weird Al parody, being given punchline status clearly secures Weird Al's place as an oddball cultural icon.

Nine Tonys Can’t Be Wrong: The Book Of Mormon

If the idea behind The Book of Mormon – the creators of Comedy Central’s South Park doing a Broadway musical about Mormon missionaries – sounds inherently ridiculous, it is. But it’s also a sparkling piece of theater.

Working with Robert Lopez, who penned the decidedly adult puppet-driven musical Avenue Q, Trey Parker and Matt Stone (South Park, Team America: World Police) have created a fiendishly fantastic production. The Book of Mormon is chock full of jokes, excellently staged, and brilliantly performed. It is also, as many of Parker and Stone’s other works have been, fairly offensive. These are men who exceed at delivering sharp social commentary using very blunt instruments.

At the outset of Book of Mormon, we see a group of eager young Mormon missionaries waiting to be paired up and assigned their two-year missions. Among them is Elder Price (Andrew Rannells), a polished poster-boy for the faith, who has gotten most everything he wants in life, and now wants to be sent to the promised land – Orlando. However, he soon finds himself paired with the slovenly misfit Elder Cunningham (Josh Gad) waiting to be shipped off to Uganda.

The relationship that develops between Elders Price and Cunningham is delightful to watch, as Elder Price longs for accolades and praise and Elder Cunningham wants friendship and largely, acceptance. The buddy song “You And Me (But Mostly Me)” is superbly staged so Elder Cunningham finds he’s disappearing behind the stage curtain as the song becomes more and more about Elder Price.

Indeed the staging of the musical is quite terrific, from one of the opening numbers, “Hello!”, where we see multiple missionaries ringing doorbells and issuing their elevator pitches, to the infectious clap/tap number “Turn It Off,” a call to bury one’s feelings and thoughts, especially if those thoughts are gay. This may be the most excellent number of the show (not just because it features The Clapper), but to say that would be shortchanging other numbers like “I Am Africa,” a near send-up of “We Are The World,” which literally pokes fun at U2’s Bono, or “Spooky Mormon Hell Dream,” which includes anthropomorphic cups of coffee.

What Parker, Stone, and Lopez do so successfully is utilize songs to tell jokes. When Elder Price sings “Orlando,” he’s not just singing to express his want to go to his ideal location, he’s also borrowing strains from Annie’s “Tomorrow.” Similarly, much fun is poked at The Lion King, specifically the song “Hakuna Matata” and the idea that a simple melody could help ease some of Africa’s very real problems.

Much of the musical’s story centers around the missionaries’ attempts to teach the villagers about their faith, and the prickly and unsettling comedy comes from the disparity between how the missionaries and how the villagers understand and view the world. Here, both the characters of the missionaries and the villagers are heightened to comedic effect, making their interplay more potent. Despite a certain amount of heightening, the show is laden with real “big ideas,” like strict literal interpretations of religious stories and symbols versus interpreting these things as metaphors. There is some discussion of whether Salt Lake City is a real place or just a fantasy. Of course, one man’s Salt Lake City may be another man’s Orlando.

To be certain, there is some tough stuff in The Book Of Mormon – Africa’s AIDS epidemic, genital mutilation, not to mention the heresy of inserting Star Wars and Star Trek characters into religious histories. These are not usually the touchstones of smash musical comedies. But what really makes the production work is the tremendous performances. Rannells is pitch-perfect (and likely actually pitch-perfect) as Elder Price, and Nikki M. James, playing a daughter in the village, knocks her songs out of the park (and has the Tony to prove it). Gad brings Elder Cunningham to life with the terrific use of his voice, occasionally issuing a girlish squeal, summoning deep manly tones, or utilizing nervous nerdy laughter.

What makes The Book Of Mormon so successful is that it takes typical musical conventions and plies them with jokes. People of most any faith will certainly find some of the content objectionable, but for the most part things are done to serve the story and are not done with malice. The jokes may not be of the most subtle variety, but the show would surely be more offensive if it wasn’t so tremendously well done.