Suzanne Vega @ The Moore Theatre

Two days ago, my mum and I were lucky enough to be able to go see Suzanne Vega preform live at the Moore Theatre in Seattle.

Suzanne Vega is a well known singer-songwriter in folk-pop music. She was first recognized for her incredible songwriting talent (her songs are like poetry, no joke) in the late 80s and has released 8 studio albums over the years. Recently, however, she was dropped by her record label, who snatched up the rights to the original recordings of her songs and left her with nothing (like we didn't already know record labels were complete whores). And in response to this, Vega has started down a path that potentially could have looked like a half-assed way of saving her career, but instead came off as a rather bold move. On her own independent label, she's re-recording acoustic versions of her songs and releasing them on a series of themed albums, the first of which is called Love Songs. We got a signed copy of this album after the show!

I promised photos in my post yesterday and I'm done editing them, so here we go!

Unfortunately, I forgot to get a picture of the Moore from the outside, but here's the stage before the show:

This is probably the best photo from the whole show. Everyone was seated and there was almost no one else taking photos, so I was hesitant in taking out my camera (flashy light!) so I didn't get that many shots, but this one is nice.

Also, I was sitting in the very center which is a very fun angle to take photos from...

In addition to her guitarist and bassist, Suzanne was also accompanied by 4 string players Andrew, Alina, Danah and Seth from the Seattle Rock Orchestra for part of the set.

Signing albums after the show.

Go see more photos taken by the Seattle PI's photographer Kam Martin.

[currently listening to: A Rook House for Bobby - iLiKETRAiNS]

(Not a Creative Title)

Hello hello! Guess what? I am insanely happy right now. Why, you ask? Well, I just received my acceptance phone call from Nordic. Yes, that's right! Beginning next year I will be writing for Nordic News, Inglemoor's school paper! This blog might have played a role in getting me in, but mostly I should thank my wonderfully supportive and helpful brother, Artur, who has been on the staff for two years. 57 applicants, 15 accepted. The celebration commences with blasting Ágætis Byrjun (because celebrating with Sigur Rós is the only way to celebrate).

And to add to the excitement, yesterday my mum and I went to Seattle to see Suzanne Vega preform at the Moore Theatre. I'm not a big listener of Vega (I grew up listening to her, but never really had an obsession), but I enjoyed the show regardless. We even got to meet her afterward and get an album signed! So cool! I took some photos which I'll post here within a day (so please visit again if that's what you're looking for!). Here's one for now:

And random sidenote: The Fall of Troy just posted a goodbye on their website stating that they are breaking up and will not continue to make music together after this tour is over... :( and that it is not very cool at all. In fact, it's kind of sad. They're playing here in March and my friend wanted to go see them, so perhaps we will catch one of their final shows.

So yeah, expect a post tomorrow. It's the weekend... finally!

[currently listening to: Viðrar Vel Til Loftárása - Sigur Rós]

Sisters! Brothers! Small Boats Of Fire Are Falling From The Sky!

I haven't posted anything but album reviews for a while, which I'm trying to get in the habit of doing more often (I'll be posting my review of Massive Attack's Heligoland soon), but right now I feel like some sort of interlude is necessary.

I've been messing with the website a lot lately. "Experimenting", I guess. A few weekends ago, I managed to edit the post layout to make it more "blog-like" (note: more compressed posts), which is quite an accomplishment for me, since I know shit about html. Yeah. A "nice job, mang" would be appreciated.

I also learned how to upload music files, which is pretty cool, because I've been doing all sort of piano and guitar covers lately that I'd like to upload. Here is a piano cover of Sigur Rós' "Fljótavík" I recorded today using my mum's skype headset (classy, I know). I also recorded and mixed a cover of The xx's "VCR". The quality of the recording itself was not so hot so I won't post it, but it's the knowledge of the recording process that counts. So yeah, expect lots of Sigur Rós covers coming up in the future.

In other news, I'm stroked for the upcoming Portugal. the Man album, American Ghetto, which comes out on March 2nd. Also, Circa Survive finally released news on their forthcoming album, Blue Sky Noise. I'm not at all impressed by "Get Out", the first single... and the fact that they're touring with Coheed & Cambria is disappointing, but I still have very high expectations for the album. (But even if it does end up sucking, the artwork is still amazing).

Oh, and guess who I'm seeing April 10th? Jónsi (: I'm also seeing Suzanne Vega next week and A Sunny Day in Glasgow in early March. And if you by any chance know how it's possible to age 6 years in 2 months, please let me know, because I want to see Caspian this April too.

[currently listening to: Antennas to Heaven - Godspeed You! Black Emperor]

Sugar Crush - Useless Beauty

Sugar Crush
Useless Beauty
2010
- - -

So this post is going to be a little different than usual. I’m reviewing an EP by Useless Beauty, a local indie band from NYC consisting of pianist and producer, Nam Choi, and singer and percussionist, Katie Boone. Nam kindly emailed me asking me to review their newly released EP Sugar Crush. Never having received a request like this before, I’m excitedly taking on the opportunity.

Claiming to take influences from distinct female musicians such as Joni Mitchell, KT Tunstall, and Regina Spektor, Useless Beauty have created their own style of sweet, melodic pop music that sounds about as intoxicatingly sweet as the cover of their EP looks. Sugar Crush is primarily run by Katie’s soothing, sing-song-y vocals and supported by a melding of keyboard, guitar, and percussion. There is even an added element of saxophone that gently rises up in the background of the first track, “Shut Up and Let Me Love You” and “Broken Bones”, and solos during “Giggling Eyes”.

Useless Beauty’s carefully constructed pop music might seem cheesy at times. I mean, when you put cupcakes and gumballs on the cover of your album and name it “Sugar Crush” it might be hard to avoid the stereotype. But for two young musicians trying to create something fun and new in the modern music scene, this EP still comes off as a decent attempt despite hitting some cliché moments.

“Mer Song”, the second track and longest on the EP, would probably be the best example. It opens with a sugary sweet keyboard melody, reverb’d guitar, and some la la la’s from Katie. It’s your typical love ballad, but develops as it goes along and becomes a little more than the other tracks do. Nam’s gentle and somewhat shy voice makes an entrance halfway through the song, creating a delicate atmosphere Katie’s singing couldn’t quite establish at first. Katie’s voice seems to fit better in the pop-rock flavoured songs, but towards the end of “Mer Song” both vocalists sing a pleasant harmony together that works as a great ending to the song. It's moments like this when the vocals start to slip beneath the layer of instruments that Sugar Crush moves away from a forced, clean-cut pop sound to something more natural and enjoyable.

It may be that I had Citrus and Hush set on constant repeat during January, but I’m definitely hearing some Hush-era Asobi Seksu in “Broken Bones”. I’m guessing it’s not an immediate influence, but I can’t help but be reminded of Asobi’s “Sing Tomorrow’s Praise” or “Gliss” in “Broken Bones” 's vocal stylings (is that a word?) and dreamy mix of keyboard and guitar. Sadly, the song remains fairly laid-back for the most part, but its overall sound resonated with me and I consider it a highlight on Sugar Crush.

Naturally, my own music taste leads me to choose the beauty of “Mer Song” and “Broken Bones” over the pop-rock focused side of Sugar Crush. I enjoy “Shut Up and Let Me Love You” to a certain point, but “Giggling Eyes” is more iffy and “Get There” doesn’t catch my attention at all. “Eyes” almost gets away with its unoriginal sound just by being catchy, but the excessive guitar soloing ruins it. Even the sax starts to lose its magic. The problem with straightforward rock and pop-rock is simply that it’s boring. Useless Beauty should direct the effects of their sugar intake toward making cute pop music and stay away from mixing that with rock elements.

Download Sugar Crush

Check out the band’s myspace here.

EDIT: Looks like Soundcloud is currently down so no track downloading is available at the moment. Servers are expected to be up again soon. Servers are up!

[currently listening to: Kolniður - Jónsi]

Ashes Grammar - ASDiG

Ashes Grammar
A Sunny Day in Glasgow
2009
- - -

Remember me saying that I missed a lot of awesome albums last year? Yeah. I bought Ashes Grammar, the band's second album, two or three weekends ago, at the same time I got Hush, and have been listening to it endlessly since. I also just went through the band's very amusing tour diary and downloaded some live tracks, free mp3s, etc etc etc from their website. Not only are these guys one of the most overlooked shoegaze acts I can think of, but they also sound a very cool bunch of people. Probably my favourite band at the moment.

...But getting back to the actual album. To be completely straightforward, it's just mind-blowing and beautiful. Sure, there are little things wrong with it, most notably its having about 51894486 million songs, but that only pushes it a little past an hour. And let me tell you, that is one enjoyable hour.

ASDiG describe themselves as making "dreamy pop" music and I suppose this is a better way to label their style than "shoegaze". From the very beginning of the album, which opens with some shorter tracks before launching into the first actual (regular length? solid?) track, we can tell that this will be very dreamy indeed. Faint, echoing voices float above a background of droning something-or-other before a tambourine enters, stirring up the ambient atmosphere for the upcoming song "Failure".

"Failure" is one of the more eccentric songs on the album— Not to say that the others aren't as creative, but this one is... well... you listen to it. It's bouncy and weird and makes you want to jump up and start clapping and chanting. Annie and Jen sing "Fall forward / Feel failure". Sort of inspirational in a non inspirational way. How this band manages to write a song this weird and get it away with it is beyond me, but hell, it's a blast.

"Curse words", which is what I just said when my computer after my computer randomly decided to crash a second ago and I couldn't remember whether or not I saved a draft of this entry (I did), is some more whispery stuff. It acts as a beautiful interlude before "Close chorus", quite possibly the greatest song on this album. Here, you start wondering if what you're hearing is even real. If maybe all these unearthly sounds you're hearing are just fragments of thought passing through the mind of a dreamer. One who speaks in colour and sees in emotion. Who may not even remember his dream once he wakes up, but will faintly remember the rush of ecstasy and confusion he felt during it. "I don't understand why it's wrong to feel happy...". Ashes Grammar as a whole is very emotionally distilling, although you don't always know exactly what you are feeling.

It's hard not to say the same for the next few songs. "Shy" always gives me chills when I hear it. The layered vocals buried beneath the blurred instruments create such an airy effect that you almost think you'll disappear into it... But then that fiddle jumps out of nowhere and you're back on the surface. And if I honestly had to pick a favourite song on this album, I think it would be "Passionate introverts". It's absolutely flawless and loses me every time. I've been listening to it every morning before school while I'm half asleep and still dreaming...

You could say that "Failure" to "Passionate Introverts" is the greatest section of the album and possibly be right, but there is no excuse to saying that the rest is not worth listening to. Perhaps the largest climax has passed (and really, it's hard to beat that stuff back there), but the album continues its creative streak and churns out some more gems.

"The white witch" starts off sounding like some regular rockin' shoegaze, but is still subject to ASDiG's spell. It's simple and lovely. The band has this distinct sound they stick to all of their songs, but this mold is rather flexible and it gives their music virtually no limitations.

"Close chorus" had a nice little deconstruction and crescendo, but it really doesn't beat what's going on in "Nitetime Rainbows". This song is running all over the place dropping little uncertain hints of this and that, but it definitely knows where it's going (don't question it). By the end you'd think it had already run out of innovative juices, but at around 5:00 we hear the greatest crescendo known to man (don't question that either).

...But before you get a chance to even think on that, "Canalfish" jumps out from its canal and snaps its vicious jaws at you, reminding you that you're just a visitor here. Don't get so comfortable!

Toward the end of Ashes Grammar, the songs start to display some overused concepts repeated throughout the album. Extensive intros, predictable song structure... I can see why people would say it's somewhat monotonous at times. While these last songs don't add much to the album, there were rather high standards set at the beginning and I, personally, wasn't expecting them to be beat. Another (somewhat irrational) disappointment for me was that the title track wasn't anything special.

Ashes Grammar seemed to generate mixed reactions among its listeners. Many seem to find the album messy and sort of a disappointment, while others thinks it's rather brilliant. While I can agree that it seems to drag on at some moments, mainly due to lack of extreme variety amongst the tracks, it honestly takes a few listens for it to all sink in. On first listen, only several tracks seem to stand out and yes, those are the ones of regular length. The developed ones. You only ever really remember certain parts of a dream, don't you? But what about the stuff floating amongst that? To be honest, I think the majority of it is necessary to complete the album. Ashes Grammar is not so much about individual songs as it as the entire impact. Listening to it in one go and giving it your full attention is a must.

Rating: 8.9/10 (This would definitely have made my top 10 of 2009).

Whether or not the band can recreate the magical effect this album gives live is a different question. But from the looks of this and this, it seems rather promising. I'm seeing these guys on March 9th. I'm so stroked!

Sorry for the obnoxious length of this review! I'll be updating with other (shorter) interesting things soon.

[currently listening to: keep your splendid silent sun - sleepmakeswaves]