“The music director [in high school] once famously stopped the entire orchestra during a dress rehearsal to storm down the aisle screaming 'Amanda!!!! You CAN’T SING!!'”-Amanda Palmer’s The Dresden Dolls Companion.
For the past eight years, Amanda Palmer’s eccentric style has acted as the foundation for her work with Weimar punk cabaret two-piece The Dresden Dolls; her signature wailing and piano key banging fuel such tracks as “Girl Anachronism” and “Missed Me.” However, on her debut solo album Who Killed Amanda Palmer, the singer/songwriter embarks on a welcome exercise in artistic advancement.
“Astronaut,” a tragic story of an astronaut’s widow, is a strong opener to WKAP; by featuring guest cellist Zoë Keating along with Palmer comfortably at her piano, the song cues the listener that they aren’t in Doll-land anymore. It’s a much fuller sound than the simplistic keyboard and drums used by The Dresden Dolls. Palmer’s theatrical style is a presence throughout, notably in “Leeds United,” recorded on a drunken night in Scotland, and “Guitar Hero,” (featuring East Bay Ray of The Dead Kennedys) is about kids obsessed with the video game and is metaphorical for the Iraq war.
Palmer has always been noted as a strong lyricist and along with the help of producer Ben Folds, Who Killed Amanda Palmer perfectly showcases her way with words. Ballads “Have to Drive” and “Another Year” reveal a persona with an unshakable sense of ennui and dread propelled by some of her most powerful lyrics. “I’m getting smaller by degrees/You said you’d help me disappear/But that could take forever/I think I’ll wait another year” she sings on “Another Year.” When coupled with the haunting piano and backed by violins and cellos, it becomes a truly emotional listening experience.
WKAP does fall short, though, in regards to its lack of variation in song pacing The transition of “Blake Says” to following track “Strength Through Music” isn’t vastly different in terms of dynamics, tiring the listener’s ear. Some listeners also might be confused by ironic cover “What’s the Use of Wond’rin,” a ditty from the musical Carousel. The song is about loving one’s husband no matter what, even if he beats you; those who casually listen may not pick up on the lyrics’ significance.
The most impressive part of “What’s the Use…” is Palmer’s ability to go shot-for-shot with guest vocalist Annie Clark of St. Vincent. It took me two listens to realize that Palmer was actually part of the recording, busting out an accomplished, throaty, jazzy style I’ve never heard her use in previous recordings.
I’m sure you’ve figured it out by now Amanda, but be rest assured: You CAN sing!
Originally appearing in The Rutgers Review.
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Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Review: Who Killed Amanda Palmer
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Day 1: All Points West (Some people like Underworld?)
The first day of the inaugural All Points West Music and Arts Festival made me doubt the sincerity of sponsors AEGLive and Goldenvoice.
How do I mean? There is an overwhelming effort on the festival’s part to be environmentally conscious, ranging from cardboard trash and recycling cans (blowing over at the slightest wind) to concertgoers exchanging their plastic bottles at the TRASHed Recycling Store for movie passes and iPod speakers. The most innovative eco-friendly offering were the $35 Radiohead t-shirts. Each t-shirt is made from three recycled plastic bottles and organic cotton, and they’re surprisingly comfy. Yes, I broke down and bought one. Shut up.
I’m all for saving the environment, don’t get me wrong. But besides the eco-conscious theme and installation art, APW had the typically overpriced food of any festival: $4 for a bottle of water, $5 for a slice of pizza, $10 for a gyro. It was madness and as I type, my wallet is gently weeping. This is where I doubt the festival’s sincerity. It’s also where I wonder how much Radiohead’s amazing light show cost, and how much energy it consumed.
Eco-friendly installation art.
The Friday lineup for APW was arguably the strongest: The Go! Team, Mates of State, The New Pornographers, CSS, Girl Talk, Grizzly Bear, Andrew Bird, and Radiohead. It’s a lot of music to catch in one day, and set times overlapped. I missed out on Girl Talk because he didn’t allow press into the photo pit (boo on him) and I also missed Grizzly Bear and Andrew Bird to shoot CSS and stake a semi-decent spot for Radiohead.
I’m gonna take a minute to Tarantino this review: let’s art with The Go! Team, because they were the first act I caught on Friday.
Definitely a solid performance, and I was shocked but pleased to see the turnout for the festival’s first mainstage act. I thought very few people would show at the beginning of the day, since Fridays are still work days for those of us in the real world. Plus, at $89 for a day pass, I had my doubts as to how many people would attend. Lead rapper/vocalist Ninja (in real life known as Nkechi Ka Egenamba, even though she reminded me of Scary Spice) gave a characteristic high-energy recital of the Team’s disco-funk rock. I observed this performance from the hill within the VIP area. No one bothered to tell me my press pass got me into the photo pit (there were people with photo passes as well) so I have nothing to show for The Go! Team’s set. Oh well.
I wandered over to the second stage next to catch husband-wife duo Mates of State. It was there I noticed people sporting press passes going into the photo pit, so I sidled my way in there, dinky little point and shoot camera in hand. Organ and keys player Keri Gardner and drummer hubby Jason Hammel played extensively from last May’s Re-Arrange Us, an album New York Magazine compared to Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys. (Although I loved Re-Arrange Us, I don’t see The Beach Boys comparison. Let me know if you do.) I spotted Mates of State wandering around the press area later that day, one of their tow-headed daughters, in, well… tow. For having been so grandiosely compared by a major publication, Mates of State certainly appear down-to-earth.
One of the festival rules for press photography was a three-song limit. Once a band finished the third song of their set, event security kicked us out. It would have been nice to catch all of Mates of State’s set, but being forced to leave gave me plenty of time to head back to the main stage for The New Pornographers (who I also spotted in the VIP area.) The band definitely catered to their fans in terms of song selection; I’m not very familiar with their albums, but every song played was one I recognized. Diehard fans could be seen rocking out and cheering each song as The New Pornographers efficiently churned them out.
One of the day’s highlights was definitely CSS. (For those of you not in the know, CSS stands for ‘cansei de ser sexy,’ Brazilian Portuguese for “tired of being sexy.”) Not only do the Brazilian natives have widespread popularity due to “Music is My Hot Hot Sex” being featured in an Apple commercial, the whole band sports crazy getups and performs alongside similarly-attired dancers, creating an upbeat experience for their sizeable audience. Lead singer Lovefoxxx prowled back and forth across the stage wearing head-to-toe Technicolor spandex with face paint to match. Their latest album Donkey was released in June, but CSS played to their fans with most of their set coming from debut Cansei de Ser Sexy. This of course included the aforementioned “Music is My Hot Hot Sex,” as well as fan favorites “CSS Suxxx” and “Meeting Paris Hilton.”
After CSS finished their set, I was ready to go back into the photo pit for Girl Talk, a performance I had been looking forward to since the APW lineup was announced. However, due to the nature of a Girl Talk performance (the whole stage becomes one giant dance party) event security did not allow press to take photos. Well, I still like Girl Talk and I wanted to catch his set, but I’ve been listening to Radiohead since I was 16 and I like them way better. It was a no-brainer. I headed over to the main stage to stake out my Radiohead spot.
This involved suffering through an hour of Underworld, a band I’d never heard of and to my dismay perform techno. I don’t get techno. In terms of my musical preferences, techno is right up there with rap: it’s repetitive, violent, and completely lacks dynamics. My ears ache just thinking about it. I did spot others in the crowd dancing and apparently enjoying Underworld’s set, so I guess that’s ok. At least festival organizers brought in an act to appease the crowd before Radiohead took the stage.
And now for the part you’ve been waiting for: Radiohead. That sentence could be a euphemism for the first two days of APW, since more people seemed to show up as it got closer to Radiohead’s performance time. We were packt like sardines in a crushed tin box 50 feet from the stage, watching as roadies prepped the lights and set the stage for one of the biggest bands ever. A general, almost apathetic electronic music played over the sound system. It served to heighten anticipation in addition to setting the mood for Radiohead’s image: ghostly, ethereal and untouchable, appearing only through the medium of pixels, sound and colors.
There was no announcer at all at the festival, and it worked to Radiohead’s advantage as they took the stage. All you could hear was the roar of the crowd, and then the opening beats of “15 Step,” the first track off of their latest album, the critically acclaimed In Rainbows. Their performance was mainly a vehicle for In Rainbows, as you can see from the setlist below (IR tracks marked with *):
1. 15 Step *
2. There There
3. Morning Bell
4. All I Need *
5. Lucky
6. Nude *
7. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi *
8. The Gloaming
9. Optimistic
10. Videotape *
11. Reckoner *
12. Jigsaw Falling Into Place *
13. You And Whose Army
14. Idioteque
15. Climbing Up The Walls
16. Bodysnatchers *
17. How to Disappear Completely
Encore 1
18. House of Cards *
19. Pyramid Song
20. Paranoid Android
21. Dollars & Cents
22. Street Spirit
Encore 2
23. Cymbal Rush
24. Just
25. Everything In Its Right Place
Something about Radiohead’s unique blend of rock and synthesized beats are equally soothing to all humans. During the entirety of their two and a half hour set, even the most obnoxious people around me were lulled into silence. It was the best sound experience I ever had at a concert. It felt like the sound was inside me, all around me, and during songs like “There There” and “Paranoid Android” I simply closed my eyes and swayed to the beat, while Thom Yorke’s ageless voice floated above the crowd.
Radiohead ended their Friday night performance just as gradually as they had begun. The use of synthesizers in closing song “Everything In Its Right Place” allowed the band to loop different sounds as each member left the stage one by one, while the words “everything in its right place” flashed by on the LCD background. It was a perfect ending, but as the light show ended and the crowd began filing out of the park, reality came crashing back. It was the first time I honestly felt drugged by live music, and I wanted more. Luckily, I still had Radiohead’s Saturday night performance to look forward to. (Check out my video of “15 Step” in my APW Day 2 post!)
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Friday, August 1, 2008
NJH All Points West Coverage!
Despite all odds, the kind PR folks at the All Points West Music and Arts Festival have granted me press access for all three days!
As such, I will be covering each day of the festival (August 8,9,10) on this here blog for your pleasure. It's nice to be back!
Let me know via your comments which bands you're interested in hearing about.
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Sunday, June 15, 2008
M.I.A to be MIA? (Bonnaroo Retirement)
Rapper M.I.A (best loved by indie and urban kids alike for "Paper Planes" and its gunshot hooks) has apparently retired from the biz.
At her Bonnaroo performance last night, M.I.A announced not once, twice, but thrice her decision to stop performing. I first caught the news on Perez Hilton, who linked to a report from The New York Times.
This isn't the first time an artist has falsely announced their retirement from music, but M.I.A's impromptu announcement follows on the heels of a Pitchfork news report from last Wednesday. M.I.A canceled her summer festival dates, citing exhaustion as the cause.
Pitchfork quoted the rapper as saying (in a NyMag.com story) that"I'm canceling because I feel like physically I just have to stop for a second. It's too insane. I was losing a sense of just, like, reality, you know what I mean? I think for an artist like me, it's so important for me to be in the streets and go to the same shop every day and see the same people and, like, communicate. And it's really difficult to do that when you're in the city every day for 24 hours. Like, I love connecting with my band, but I want to actually help them and be a part of peoples' lives. Which is really hard when you're on tour...It takes a lot out of you, physically. I make club music, which means I'm clubbing every night for, like, six months. Know what I mean? So now and again you finally just want to be gardening and get your nails done or something like that."
No confirmation from Interscope on M.I.A's departure. But if you're already feeling nostalgic, check out her "Paper Planes" video below. (Man, just last fall her biggest problem was MTV's banning of the vid!)
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Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Wednesday's Video: Flight of the Conchords- "Ladies of the World"
New Zealand's fourth most popular digi-folk parody duo produced a music video for "Ladies of the World" in honor of their debut record with Sub Pop Records.
Those familiar with the Conchords' HBO television series will recall this video from episode 10:
It's fairly simple, featuring Bret and Jemaine singing to a roomful of women in a 60's/70's era television studio. There is little comedic value to this version, except that it is a fantasy happening inside the band's heads. (Much like Zach Braff's fantasies as J.D. on NBC's "Scrubs.") The point is, anyone watching the video as a standalone is probably confused and not amused, since they are watching it out of the show's context.
Sub Pop's version:
The decision to put the Conchords on roller skates really gives the viewer the disco-y feel of the song. (Not to mention the hilarious jumpsuits and bellbottoms worn by the band, in addition to Jemaine's glasses.)
The roller skates have many uses (including those mad tricks Bret and Jemaine pull off) and as such, the video is a lot more fun to watch. Also, the hipster douchebag character bragging about backstage passes provides the viewer with context not seen in clips from the show, making it accessible to everyone.
Apparently the Conchords HBO show will be back on the air this January. Hopefully they'll make some more videos to tide us over! (And not working double lives as pastry chefs and snipers.)
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Sunday, June 1, 2008
To Be Scene: The Delfields at Octopus Studios, 5/30/08
The appeal of a live show is that anything can happen once the band takes the stage. And as many veteran concertgoers know, the event itself can change in a matter of minutes.
Such was the case at Octopus Studios this past Friday in New Brunswick, also known as The Delfields' home turf. There were two other touring bands scheduled to play that evening at Octopus Studios, but their van threw a belt on the Parkway en route to the house, forcing their absence. What is a show house to do?
Rock it out, of course. For the faithful friends and fans who made it out to OS on Friday, The Delfields gave a solid effort. Performing tracks from this year's Ogres and their new EP Sooner Than You Think!, it was clear the band has a tight chemistry. An added bonus was their cover of "Here Comes Your Man" by the Pixies, which is a song I never thought I would hear live.
It was a refreshing New Brunswick basement experience. Octopus has a decent setup; the only improvement might be more room, but that's a pipe dream in this town. Regardless, it was a relaxed and chill atmosphere. Attendees stood and watched, swigging Coors or bottles of white wine. After the band performed (somewhere to the tune of 30 to 45 minutes) the party continued elsewhere in the house, with a congenial and friendly atmosphere. It's the kind of setting lead singer and guitarist Joe Fekete was talking about: a fun and progressive indie rock experience, instead of assembly-line hardcore.
The Delfields are perfoming this Friday at John and Peter's in New Hope, Pa. Show starts at 8 PM. I highly suggest you attend, because I can only imagine The Delfields' performance gets better when they play in better venues.
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Thursday, May 29, 2008
June Show Calendar!
Never fear. New Jersey Hipster is back! June 1st: - Langhorne Slim @ Sound Fix Records, - Screaming Females with Cheeky @ MeatTown - - Wakey!Wakey! @ Mercury Lounge, - The Delfields @ - - The Roadside Need directions or addresses of the venues listed? Want a show added to my list? Email me! lvoytko@newjerseyhipster.com
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
OneRepublic Cancels Rutgersfest Performance
Lead singer Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic injured his Achilles tendon before a show last week at CMU, which has forced the band to cancel their Rutgersfest appearance this Friday.
According to OneRepublic's MySpace blog, Tedder had surgery on the injured tendon and is recovering well. Rutgers University's campus-wide paper The Daily Targum reported the news this morning:With only three days until the show, [the Rutgers University Programming Association, or RUPA] does not have enough time to schedule another band, but Rutgersfest will go on as planned. Instead of replacing OneRepublic in the lineup, Third Eye Blind will go on during their time slot. The show will start at 3:30 p.m. and most likely end at 7:45 p.m. (by Cait Callahan)
Quick! Someone get a cool band to take the OneRepublic slot!
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Jay Reatard Quits Music?? (Toronto done him in)
After a performance cut short on Apr. 17 at Toronto's Silver Dollar (where he clocked a fan in the face) Memphis punk-rocker Jay Reatard has apparently quit music for, well, ever.
Reatard posted a MySpace message in which he claims obnoxious/over-enthusiastic fans ruined his band's equipment from throwing beer bottles and jumping onstage during the performance. Since then, the whole debacle has degenerated into a he-said/she-said debate with show promoters Against the Grain denouncing Reatard's actions. Silver Dollar booker Dan Burke has also jumped into the fray, fighting against Reatard's MySpace message.
However, a short post by Reatard on his blog early yesterday morning states he is retiring:So after hundreds of message board post and and equal amount of blog post I have decided to quit music !!!! But fear not Stephen Pope is a god amongst men and will not let you dudes bring him down !! Solo gone solo ....
Grammar and spelling mistakes notwithstanding, if this is true then it's a big loss to the indie/punk scene. I was introduced to Reatard's Blood Visions sometime last year and after feeling like I was being hit in the face (much like the Toronto fan) I grew to appreciate the music. I've introduced friends to Jay Reatard who have become bigger fans than me, actually!
Full drama from Pitchfork.
What will happen to the Matador-released singles?
UPDATE: If you check the comments area of the post, Jay said [sic] "this is a joke assholes...My band mates love me ." Save the drama for your mama, Jay!
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Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Cover Song of the Week: Amanda Palmer Performs "I Will Follow You Into The Dark"
Amanda Palmer's cover of Death Cab For Cutie's "I Will Follow You Into The Dark" has been around for over a year. However, upon tonight's YouTube surfing I found a particularly heart-wrenching video of this beautiful song.
The sound of Palmer's cover versus the Gibbard and Co. original is quite a departure, since Palmer plays piano and Death Cab is all about guitar. But Palmer has slowed "I Will Follow You..." down to emphasize the song's emotional lyrics. Backed by a grand piano, it's haunting and heart-wrenching. It makes you wish you loved someone that much, and you think it describes you, even if you never went to Catholic school or visited Calgary.
The cover (disregard production values! live footage!):
The original:
The best part is, you can download Palmer's cover for free via her MySpace profile.
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