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— Pat McGuire, Editor-in-Chief
arcade
fire
have gang,
will travel
summer
festivals
#18 • Aug.-sept. ’07
Björk • Editors
New Pornographers
Crowded House
Letters, inquiries, randomness: [email protected]
Advertising and suchlike: [email protected]
We get a lot of mail here at the Filter offices—some good, some bad,
some…well, completely unclassifiable. Send us something strange and
you might see it here.
Ask the Guide staff
what the key to our
happiness might be, and
the unanimous answer
would resound: “Why, a
miniature Fender Strat,
of course!” Imagine
our delight when
this 12-inch replica
arrived (courtesy GMP
Diecast). It’s all we dreamed of, from the poseable whammy bar to the chrome
tuning keys. But that’s not all: the folks over at Rock Your Religion sent us an
example of their faith/rock-based jewelry, for when we want to take the rocking
to a higher power. Consider our Creed-ence revived.
IN THE GUIDE
You can download the Filter Good Music Guide at
goodmusicwillprevail.com. While there, be sure to
check out our back issues, the latest of which features
Interpol, Travis, Queens of the Stone Age, Patton Oswalt,
and Hot Fuzz. With so many of our friends and good
music fans heading to Chicago for Lollapalooza, we’ve
given this issue a summer festival slant. If you find yourself in the Windy City, keep an eye out for the Guide; but
keep your other eye covered, it’s windy out there.
ON THE WEB
Visit goodmusicwillprevail.com for music news, MP3s,
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AT THE STANDS
Out now: Filter Issue 26—“Rilo Kiley:
Stepping Out.” Rilo Kiley’s royal couple—
Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennet—joins Filter for
a swanky evening in downtown Los Angeles,
where they walk the thin line separating maturity
and, well, its inverse. Between ballsy comments
of headstrong self-assuredness following stories
of breaking down under grown-up pressures,
it’s apparent that after 10 years, Rilo Kiley is still
figuring itself out. Also: Filter takes an incisive
look at the church of Common; Iron & Wine’s
Sam Beam takes his tried-and-true nomadic family myth-making to a bigger
level; and twin chanteuses Tegan and Sara reunite. Plus: Happy Mondays, the
State, diving into the U.K. dance scene, Joaquin Phoenix, St. Vincent, Maps,
Earlimart, J*DaVeY, Savath & Savalas, Meat Puppets, The King of Kong, Danny
Boyle, Bob Odenkirk, and some carefully chosen favorites care of Interpol.
Contact us
[email protected] or 5908 Barton Ave., Los Angeles, CA, 90038
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Scribes
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and Dad, Martins and Vlacks, Marc
McAlpin, the Oakland Bay Area, Baillie
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Filter Good Music Guide is published by Filter
Magazine LLC, 5908 Barton Ave., Los Angeles
CA 90038. Vol. 1, No. 18, August-September
2007. Filter Good Music Guide is not responsible for anything, including the return or loss
of submissions, or for any damage or other
injury to unsolicited manuscripts or artwork.
Any submission of a manuscript or artwork
should include a self-addressed envelope or
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© 2007 by Filter Magazine LLC.
all rights reserved
filter is printed in the usa
goodmusicwillprevail.com
cover photo by brantley gutierrez
THE FILTER MAILBAG
Your Guide to Innovations in Entertainment
Joseph Arthur
Hawks His Live Show
Better than a band T-shirt, better than catching a drumstick thrown from the stage, even
better than a couple of steamy moments in the artist dressing room, leaving a show with an
audio recording of what you just heard is the best souvenir a music fan could ask for. You’ve
seen those huge trucks churning out discs curbside, but they’re totally faceless (and you have
to wait a while). You’ve tried to sneak in your own recorder, but that’s obviously not smiled
upon and is usually illegal, not to mention the quality sucks. Troubadour Joseph Arthur has the
cure for your souvie blues: he tours with his own CD burner that records each of his shows,
then burns discs to be sold immediately following the last note of the final encore. “We began
selling live shows because there was no longer record company interference,” Arthur says.
“The audio comes from the soundboard, blended with a couple of mics at either side of the
stage for ambience, and then a couple of towers burn seven discs at a time. I think there’s
something special about buying a CD of a show you just witnessed.” Prepare yourself to see
Arthur himself hawking his new ware from the merch table, then signing and doodling on
your copy’s sleeve (he’s also a visual artist). So what else does JA have up his sleeve? “Don’t be
surprised someday if I sell you a transcript of what you are thinking.” Ah Joe, if this live show
burning thing doesn’t catch on, there’s always stand-up. SHANE LEDFORD
Pro Surfer
Danny Fuller
Recycle your iPod
At the rate our tech-consumer culture is progressing, gadgets nowadays are already out of
fashion or outdated by the time they’re released to the public, and often completely obsolete
or nonfunctional within a few years. And while this turnover is clearly ludicrous, finally someone’s doing something to help the technological advancements progress in an eco-friendly
way. Since the end of May, Mac and iPod accessory retailer TheGadgetLocker.com has begun
a new business campaign to recycle old iPods. The iPod Recycling Program is designed to
provide customers with a convenient and green way of disposing of old iPods, protecting our
environment from the mostly non-biodegradable digital music players. The company provides
the shipping label and covers all shipping costs, while offering $20 in credit redeemable at
the online store. So far, owner Joe Ryan estimates about 450 iPods come in per month, with
definite room for growth. So maybe we can’t slow down the future, but at least we can help to
make sure that music isn’t what makes it look grim. COLIN STUTZ
quiksilver.com
filter good music guide
Your Guide to Innovations in Entertainment
Akai Professional Mobile MPC 500
It’s happened to all of us: you’re
stuck on a crowded flight or
subway train, struggling to stay
awake, when the annoying kid
behind you starts kicking your
seat incessantly: BOOM! BAP!
BOOM! BAP! Well hell-o, that
sounds like a dope beat! You
attempt to rush home to your
trusty beat machine, but by the
time you arrive, the beat—and
your tolerance for junior—
have vanished from your mind.
Meet Akai Professional’s new
MPC 500—a 32-voice drum/
phrase sampler with up to
128 MB RAM. It’s the world’s
first completely mobile Music
Production Center. The MPC
500 runs on batteries but can also be plugged in, and features a drag and drop option so you can transfer
any data from the MPC to your computer, or on to your other MPC equipment (it also comes with a headphone jack). Production cats rejoice: not only will you never again lose a beat idea while traveling, but now
you can also take and make your tunes on the road. Yo, junior—kick it! BEAU POWERS
Belkin My Best FM
At this point, you probably believe that it’s your Jobs-given right to listen to your iPod at all times—and
just because you can’t afford an MP3 hookup for your car doesn’t mean you don’t need music on the road.
FM transmitters are the poor man’s stereo solution. They should be genius—but, all too often, they require
endless futzing and dial-diddling to prevent the mariachi station you’ve appropriated from cutting into your
Joanna Newsom. Fortunately for you, electronics accessory-manufacturer Belkin has created an online
database of your city’s finest vacant FM stations: just enter your ZIP code at Belkin.com/mybestfm to get
a list of available frequencies. Sure, they recommend using a Belkin transmitter—but feel free to cut loose
with Griffin or Kensington. Or, you know, start a pirate radio station. MOLLY FISCHER
Buy U.K.
imports
at 7digital.com
In the music business there’s something called a
release schedule that most everything revolves
around. And sometimes this schedule is set in a way so that a record is released overseas in the U.K.
before it becomes available here in the United States of America. That’s fine and all, but what if you’re
a super fan and you want that music now? iTunes won’t have it; most record stores won’t have it; and
Amazon.com will surely overcharge you for any kind of import. Enter 7digital.com, a U.K. digital music
distribution service that allows you to download U.K. releases stateside. What’s more, over 50 percent
of the 7digital catalogue is available without any form of Digital Rights Management. And while that all
sounds quite dandy, there are two major downsides, beyond the exchange rate, from what we can tell:
purchasing is complicated (you might have to use PayPal); and not all of their catalogue is available in
mp3 or an iPod-compatible format. Still, if you’re looking for an early release or some U.K.-only singles
or B-sides, 7digital is worth a peep. COLIN STUTZ
filter good music guide
CALLING THE WORLD
DELUXE EDITION ALBUM IN STORES NOW
FEATURING “WHEN DID YOUR HEART GO MISSING?”
AND “I SHOULD’VE BEEN AFTER YOU”
PLUS FREE RINGTONE AND CELL PHONE WALLPAPER!
“Calling The World sticks
to what Rooney does best:
sunny West Coast pop-rock
with sweet Beach Boys-esque
harmonies, hooky choruses
and buzzing new wave
keyboards.” -Nylon Magazine
www.rooney-band.com
www.myspace.com/rooney
g
AVAILABLE AT
©2007 Geffen Records. All rights reserved.
Crowded House’s
Guide to New Zealand
By David iskra
Crowded House may have formed in Australia, but lead singer Neil Finn hails from neighboring New
Zealand. It’s easy for Americans to confuse the two accents, but N.Z. is a unique and magical place where you can
see active volcanoes and then hit the beaches to surf killer Pacific waves with a wondrous mix of Mãori, Polynesian,
Asian and European locals. Lord of the Rings may have made the country a recent vacation hotspot for those brave
enough to take the long flight, but lengthy plane rides haven’t seemed to stop Neil and co. from hitting the road once
again—what started out as a Finn solo album slowly became not only a Crowded House album but a full-fledged
reunion. Here’s what Finn shared with the Guide about his birthplace, that other Land Down Under.
New Zealand’s Best…
…place to see “four seasons in one day”
Piha Beach or anywhere on the west coast, really. The
hills rise up from the Tasman Sea. The weather hits the
mountains and bounces back; it becomes pretty extreme.
…place to see “7 worlds collide”
Real Groovy on upper Queen Street in Auckland. It’s a
great store, not unlike Waterloo or Amoeba. They have
lots of vinyl and a really good selection.
White Island, which is an active volcano off the coast
of Bay of Plenty of Whakatane. You can take a boat or
helicopter and walk around. It’s like the surface of the
moon with vents. Steam rises up out of them. It’s really wild.
…place to catch a rugby match
…local cuisine
On a Saturday morning at Sacred Heart College Rugby
Grounds in Auckland, there would be about seven or
eight games of rugby or cricket going on. Sit in a chair
with the families and have some muffins and coffee
while the kids are getting balled out or knocked out!
There are some other great parks as well—the Domain in Auckland, or Eden Park to watch the All Blacks.
Seafood or chocolate fish. The real fish is fresh but the
chocolate is a real thing. It’s marshmallow covered in
chocolate, a tasty morsel.
…record shop.
…spot to see a bit of music history
Befriend the members of local band Catch a Fire then
get invited to the Mãori for a hungi, a singsong and a
few beers!
If he’s still playing gigs, Bill Sevsi is a lap steel guitar
player and a real piece of living musical history. He’s
one of the grand old men of N.Z. music, a Hawaiianstyle player, an Islander and a very good man. Otherwise, there’s a great history of bands breaking up and
never playing again, like us! You might catch a Split Enz
reunion if you time it right.
…agricultural hot spot
…location to re-enact Lord of the Rings
The biggest corrugated iron sheep in the world is somewhere down in Tikawitti, which is real farming territory. It’s a building made to look like a giant corrugated
sheep. So there you have it.
…place to meet the pretty Kiwi ladies
Near where I grew up is Matama, where they built the
Hobbiton village. It’s being developed and the Hobbit’s
holes are still there. It’s really wonderful and grassy
and peaceful. The more classic place to go is the South
Island, where you can see the really spectacular landscapes from the film.
I wouldn’t know, but my son Liam definitely would.
There are a lot of clubs in Auckland. There are extraordinarily beautiful girls in New Zealand.
…distinctly New Zealand sight you can’t see
anywhere else in the world
…place to see a slice of Mãori culture
…place to meet locals where they won’t make
fun of your American accent
Ponsonby, because it is the hip, chic, slightly gay part of
New Zealand where people are really tolerant. I doubt
you’d get picked on to begin with. Maybe the odd drunk
10 filter good music guide
in a dodgy part of town, but we all love Americans here.
Well, maybe not George Bush...
The entire country is full of them. If you are in a small
town in New Zealand, kids go to school barefoot. The
land and the light in the late afternoon, seeing kids
running home from school in their bare feet with the
mountains and a mud pool bubbling away in the background—it’s a distinctly New Zealand thing to me. F
good music guide filter 11
There comes a time in every girl’s life when she’s got to reach for the trigger and take aim at the motherfuckers who seem forever stuck on poisoning the sugar and spice of life. Not that Björk has ever spent a tenth of
a millisecond playing by their dastardly rules, but perhaps she’s finally exhausted the certainly noble but possibly
futile “all is full of love” approach and is, rather, intent on rolling a few heads. And after all, this is the girl who once
emphatically reminded us in song that she’s “no fucking Buddhist.” True Björkies, of course, knew that all along.
On her newest album, Volta, some heads do, in fact, roll. And like all of history’s great cries for justice (think, in
modern terms, of Sinéad gloriously savaging the Pope on network TV), it is not a coy, introverted affair. The groovy,
futuristic pop goddess we all fell in love with when Debut was released in 1993 has arisen once again. These are the
most immediate tunes she’s done in years. Björk, it seems, would have us dance our way over the barricades, rather
than sit around griping that they might be too difficult to scale. Here she speaks with the Guide about her place on
the battlefields of music, politics and people.
Army
of She
There were some rather violent reactions to
your last two albums, the challenging and
fascinating Medúlla and Drawing Restraint 9.
How was the making of Volta, a much more
accessible record, a continuum or a reaction
by you to those records?
Antony [of Antony and the Johnsons, who guests
on Volta] told me that he wished that people
would stop seeing him as odd or eccentric, and
realize that he is just writing simple, heartfelt
songs. Have you ever felt you were overly classified as being peculiar or idiosyncratic?
Medúlla and Drawing Restraint 9 were very important
albums for me to make. I don’t think I could have done
Volta without having gone to these other places first.
People overrate extrovert music, and introvert music is
underrated. Personally, I probably listen more to introvert music than extrovert. But I have been lucky—I’m
not complaining. A lot of people’s favorite albums of
mine are Vespertine and Medúlla. So, I guess I’m just
going to continue on my little path. Some people will
get it and some won’t.
Yes. I feel I’m a pretty healthy, normal human being.
I haven’t been oppressed by religion or sexism and so
on. But people are scared of anyone different, so they
point at me.
A collision of nature and machines seems to
be an ongoing idea, maybe even struggle, in
your work. How does that play out on Volta?
The struggle is still there for sure, but it is more seamless and complex. Some of the most natural sounding
noises on this album are actually done with computers
and then there are trumpets imitating Morse code.
Planting Flags with Björk
by Ken Scrudato
12 filter good music guide
Bernhard Kirstin/ILC
Is there struggle or harmony between your
modernist and ancient impulses?
Was there a statement in your working with
African musicians, at a time when the West
seems to be badly fumbling our responsibility
to that continent?
Yes, but not consciously. I asked both Konono N°1 and
Toumani Diabaté [to play] because of their brilliant
musicianship and it was a coincidence they were both
from Africa.
Your politics have always seemed to be those
of the human spirit—that the world can be
changed by not being afraid to be an individual. But “Declare Independence” seems
to be railing with a bit more of a punk sense
of defiance. Can you describe your emotional
zeitgeist?
Overall I’m always quite interested in uniting—in
creating a whole. Some cheap psychology might explain
it, being a child of divorced parents, but I have always
felt that by uniting techno and acoustic, the modern
and the roots, man and woman, the symphonic and the
rhythmic, sound and vision, words and music… I can
go on forever, but I seem to be quite driven by uniting
these things and feel that only then a flow will happen.
Maybe I felt that up to here things would be okay and the
“good” would win in the end if only it persists. But things
are not looking so good right now. It is time to go up on a
mountain with a flag and a trumpet and insist on justice.
You use an Icelandic female brass section on
Volta. Yet on “Wanderlust,” you sing, “I have
lost my origin.” Was employing musicians
from your homeland a way of trying to reconnect with the primal essence that Iceland has
instilled in you? Or am I overanalyzing it?
Hmm. It is always funny when you see old comments of
yours taken out of their original context—they seem so
extreme. But in a way it is still true. Making music is a
way of survival for me. Otherwise, I would probably implode. The Volta chapter is very much about justice; justice for women, the female spirit, nature and people in
need in general. Perhaps having a little girl influenced
me in a way that I felt I needed to update, to educate
myself on the state of things and how I was going to
explain it to her. F
Could be. My anchor this time around was pretty
global; I’m tired of nationalism. But it is great to have
them around. Perhaps they support also the “female
power” aspect of the album.
You told me before that you would probably die without your music. How would you
describe this chapter, Volta, in terms of carrying on the Björk life force?
good music guide filter 13
have
gang,
will
travel
davida nemeroff
By Colin Stutz
Rollin’ deep with
14 filter good music guide
The road will leave you battered and
bruised. It’s an unavoidable fate for those destined
to live as vagabonds. Beaten down, you return
home, only to leave again—feet and fate to the
asphalt. And at some point, those miles and miles
of concrete might just seem more welcoming than
your own front door, and the constancy of your
fellow transients more comforting than a clean
pillow. Just ask Arcade Fire. In the three years that
have passed since releasing their exquisite debut
LP, Funeral, the seven-piece (plus friends) from
Montreal has been touring constantly, gaining
massive popularity due largely to the raw emotions
of their songs and performances. Leading crowds
through anthemic sing-alongs, switching instruments at the drop of a mallet, dangerously scaling
scaffolding, using each other’s helmeted heads as
percussive instruments…the Arcade Fire road
show has become the stuff of legend.
And now, scant months after the release of the
band’s dynamic followup, Neon Bible, it’s begun
again. Their sophomore release was one of the
year’s most anticipated albums, debuting at number
two on U.S. and U.K. charts, number one in Canada, and boosting them to the high rungs of a slew
of notable summer festivals on either side of the
pond. But something’s different this time around.
Onstage, Arcade Fire’s members are joined by a
small cast of additional musicians, various visuals
and, occasionally, an enormous pipe organ. All of
which makes for a neon circus writhing in rebellion
against the pitfalls and pragmatism of modern life.
Thus, Arcade Fire hit the road en masse with a
crew that fills two buses, traveling where no cars
go and converting onlookers to their massive mob
at every stop. To find out how it all works, the
Arcade Fire
good music guide filter 15
Jeremy busts open the knuckles
on his right hand almost every
night now. He’s like a boxer; has to
get all taped up before the fight.
— Will Butler
Guide spoke with drummer Jeremy Gara, bassist Tim
Kingsbury, and multi-instrumentalists Will Butler and
Richard Reed Parry on the eve of their largest, most
elaborate North American tour to date. But, of course,
it’s all business as usual for Arcade Fire, who, as Gara
puts it, remain “friends first and band second.”
By most standards, you’re already a big band.
What’s the touring crew like?
Jeremy Gara: It’s the seven of us, plus Kelly Pratt—we
kind of stole him from Beirut for the tour—and Colin
Stetson, who’re both from New York and play a bunch
of horns. And then Marika Shaw is playing viola—that
brings the band up to 10 people. There’s a tour manager
and an assistant who go wherever we go. And we bring
our own PA and production and sound, so there’s just
this army of people. Including techs, we’re traveling
with roughly 25. It’s intense.
How do you guys handle the actual traveling?
Will Butler: We travel in two tourbuses packed to
the gills—one for the crew and one for the band. The
crew bus has a lot more Doritos on it, and more pranks.
Cabin fever never really sets in, even though we’re
really not made out for bus travel. There are so many
of us and we’re so tall; we’ll all be hunchbacked in five
years with weird lumpy skulls from bumping into things
all the time. There’s a lot of chummy chatting on the
bus. We talk logistics and watch bad movies—by the
way, The Exorcist 2 is awful.
How do logistics change with such a mass of
people?
Jeremy: It might be just the band or all 25 of us, but
on the days we have off we still hang out together
and always end up fumbling around trying to make
reservations, etc. It used to be frustrating but now it’s
fine because we’re so used to it, like, “Okay, fine. We’ll
wait an hour.”
Tim Kingsbury: And there’s the catering at the festivals. When we were in a van, it was much more of a
hassle. There were more mandatory schedules. If we
were driving and someone was hungry, we’d all have
to stop. Now we do a lot of traveling overnight on the
bus, or we’re sleeping, or we travel by plane if it’s a
long distance. In a lot of ways, it’s easier for the band
now; we have people helping out with setting up and
16 filter good music guide
taking care of that kind of stuff.
We spend a lot less time worrying
about all that.
What is the mob’s dynamic
like? Do you buddy up, or
is it always a gang of 20
walking around together?
Jeremy: It’s kind of both.
There’re definitely pairs in the
band—Win [Butler, frontman]
and Régine [Chassagne, multiinstrumentalist] are married and
would obviously pair up, and
there are a couple people in the
band dating, but it isn’t weird.
Even when we’re home and not
doing anything band-related we
still hang out as a large group
pretty regularly. Like when we
meet for coffee it ends up being
an affair—kind of nuts, but kind
of awesome at the same time.
Even with all the extra musicians and friends who help
out on record?
Jeremy: It’s always been like that.
There’re all these additional members of the band—
Owen Pallett from Final Fantasy has toured with us
before, and Marika has played viola on a bunch of songs
with the band. When it comes to recording, there’s the
core of our set that plays every single day and writes
songs and arranges things, but there’s a huge pool of
musicians we pull from. If we could bring everyone on
tour we’ve ever played with, we would, but you’ve got
to draw the line at some point.
What’s one piece of wisdom you’ve picked up
while traveling?
Tim: The biggest thing is something specific to touring,
as opposed to just traveling the world: There are just so
many opportunities, but sometimes you can get burnt
out. I get really burnt out if I’m always doing everything
I possibly can—if there’s a party or people to talk to.
Time’s pretty precious on tour. It’s harder to get alone
sometimes—so, to me, that’s a big thing. Just to be with
yourself. But we’re fortunate to be able to do what
we’re doing, to play to people who really want to hear
us. It’s really exciting.
How did your live show develop?
Jeremy: The performance part is just kind of who we
are; that’s just the nature of the people in the band. The
only thing that’s truly been in development recently is
the actual stage show. Now we’re traveling with electrical
lights and a video projector that pops onstage because as
the venues get bigger, you want to do something a little
more visual for the people in the back. We tried a couple
of shows with really intense lights and the first one we
played, it was stroke city—way over the top. It’s enough
to look at with 10 people on stage that you don’t have to
bombard a crowd with a bunch of lights. So we scaled it
back, making sure that it’s interesting with the music.
It’s a pretty energetic show—what sort of inju-
ries do people get while performing?
Richard Reed Perry: Bodies are fragile. I wish it
wasn’t so but them’s the breaks. Usually by week three
or four of a tour I have a minefield of cuts and bruises
all over my body.
Jeremy: Will’s hurt himself a couple times, running
around where he shouldn’t be or climbing something.
I’ve got cuts all over my knuckles; everybody’s got their
little battle scars, but nothing too serious. We’ve had to
tell Will to calm down a little bit because he’s run out
on balconies and twisted his ankle badly enough that
he was hurt for weeks, which is kind of dangerous…but
nothing really brutal.
Will: It’s not just me. Jeremy busts open the knuckles
on his right hand almost every night now. He’s like a
boxer; has to get all taped up before the fight. We can
do about three shows in a row before we run out of gas.
It’s nice in between tours to have enough time for all the
bruises to fade. F
good music guide filter 17
Proustabout!
What do you most value in your bandmates?
An unspoken understanding of each other, an acceptance of who we are as individuals, and the way we
connect as four people. The lyrics come from me and
we don’t sit around analyzing and discussing them.
There’s just an understanding of what we’re about.
It’s pretty special to come across four people who can
live with each other pretty much non-stop for seven
years and still be unshakable.
What is Editors’ favorite city?
A Psychological Profile of Editors
By Ken Scrudato
Few contemporary artists inspire psychological profiling as much as Editors. Their debut, The
Back Room, was a trawl through the murkiest swamps of
human dread and dissatisfaction. A lyric from first single
“Munich” summed it all up: “People are fragile things
you should know by now/Be careful what you put them
through.” Indeed.
Of course, putting anyone through two years of constant touring can certainly provide the inspiration for a
good unraveling. But perhaps reaffirming the redemptive qualities of art, their philosophically titled new album An End Has a Start finds them grasping at ways
forward from all that confusion and despair. The Back
Room felt for everything like an imminent violent collision—youthful anguish swerving out of control, reveling
in its own murk. But its follow-up contains moments of
distinctly self-possessed reflection—hopefulness, even.
The opener, “Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors,” is
a chilling, thoughtful lament on human frailties and our
penchant for self-destruction; yet Tom Smith’s insightful
lyrics in “The Weight of the World” (“Every little piece
of your life/Will mean something to someone”) actually
18 filter good music guide
proffer a sort of cautious optimism.
Sonically, Editors’ manic gothic rock still has not
just a few shrill interludes, but the tone is more contemplative and paced. Screeching, metallic guitars and
fitful rhythms seem less about to shatter into pieces
than before, and the overall effect is less distant, more
spine-shivering than desolate. Sensing the inadequacy
of capturing this moment by way of the usual interview
tactics, the Guide decided upon a truncated version of
the Proust Questionnaire, the legendary psychological
profile linked to the troubled, neurastheniac French author. Singer Smith obliged.
What is your greatest fear?
People thinking that you don’t mean it, and challenging
your integrity. That’s not just in music, but in anything.
What is your current state of mind?
In writing lyrics...it’s a personal thing, you know. Just trying
to go a little bit deeper, and look deeper at things, question things more than I normally would, trying to explore.
Even if it comes out as self-indulgent rubbish, I would
prefer to over-emote than under-emote any day. I’m trying to strive to find some answers, find some light in dark
situations, and find some hope in something scary.
What do you regard as the lowest depth of
misery?
On a human level, I just don’t understand how certain
people do the things they do to other people—that level
of evil. It makes you question humanity. Especially as,
when it comes down to it, we’re all the same, all made
of the same pieces.
Do you have a fear of death?
Of course. It’s the most fundamental, primal fear,
isn’t it? And through literally exploring those kinds
of worries and insecurities on this record, thinking
about death and the things that scare me... I really
got something from putting it all on paper, some kind
of release. I don’t think I possess any sort of higher
understanding of what goes on in the world. I’m just
putting my psychoses on paper and struggling to
find little bits and pieces of answers. And when you
put it in a song and you sing the words every night,
the feeling kind of changes over the months and the
years; in a year’s time, I’ll probably think completely
differently.
Glasgow. We’ve had some of our best shows there.
There’s something about the Scottish people—they
don’t have any cynicism. It doesn’t mean that they
like everything. But you know how some people will
go to a show and stand there and not like it? If you’re
Scottish, or Glaswegian, you just don’t go. You go to
have a good time, not to be impressed by the musicians. Playing in that environment is really amazing.
What is Editors’ greatest achievement?
This album. We made the first record and had some
success and we wanted to prove that there was more
to us than that. When we finished touring The Back
Room for two years, every bone in our bodies wanted
to get back into the studio and be creative and make
something new. If you’re in a band, you have to have
that feeling—otherwise you’re in the wrong job. And to
meet every demand we made of ourselves... well, I’m
very proud of this record.
Who are your favorite writers?
Jason Pierce of Spiritualized is someone that I just love
everything about. He makes the simplest songs sound
very profound.
How would you like to die?
I’d like to be in a plane 50,000 feet up and jump; I think
I would just enjoy the falling.
What is your motto?
I don’t have one, because I’m always changing my
mind. F
good music guide filter 19
Blowin’ Through
the Jasmine
with the New
Pornographers
By Bryan Chenault
While most everyone else spends their JuneSeptember outside grillin’ burgers in the backyard, sippin’
a cold one and soakin’ up rays, the man who puts the New
in New Pornographers (Carl Newman, aka A.C.) prefers
to spend that same time toiling away inside a dark studio.
While ironic (and Brian Wilson-esque) that the force behind such an energetic, sunny pop repertoire would rather
hide out from the heat than spend the afternoon say…
wakeboarding, it’s not at all surprising. “There’s something
about being a musician that makes me automatically not
good at stuff like water sports,” says the fair-skinned frontman. The band’s new record, Challengers, is more somber than summery, providing the perfect soundtrack to a
seemingly endless season that has finally met its fate. Here
the Guide cranks up the A.C. to talk soft serve, strawberry
mojitos and sweaty shows.
Vancouver has an amazing double shot of both the
ocean and the mountains, and they’re only a 20-30
minute drive away from each other. It’s pretty singular in that way; I can’t think of another city that has
it. When it’s sunny, it’s one of the most idyllic places
on Earth.
Favorite summer reading:
What’s on the grill at a New Pornos’ BBQ?
How high does it go? 90? I’ll take SPF 90. Then again,
sometimes it’s nice to have that subtle, healthy-looking
burn, so I’ll go with 30.
What’s your ideal summer day?
The ice cream man rolls up in front of your
house—what are you running out to get?
Lately it’s just been hanging around doing nothing, although I have been wanting to check out some castles.
I’m getting married soon and we’ve been looking at some
honeymoon spots. You know, live like royalty for a week,
put on some chain mail and joust…
What’s the best thing about summers in
Vancouver?
20 filter good music guide
Many steaks. We’re pretty much all big carnivores, so
anything with blood. We eat every part of the animal.
Favorite summer cocktail?
I have many. All forms of margarita. Gin gimlet, gin and
tonic—the classics. Actually, mojitos are my favorite, as
long as they’re not like some strawberry version. Basically, any kind of girlish drink will do.
marina chavez
Wet Hot
Canadian
Summer
Depends on if he has one of those soft serve machines.
If so, a cone with chocolate-vanilla swirl. If not, some
kind of Drumstick or ice cream sandwich.
Favorite summer listening:
Endless Summer by the Beach Boys. There’s no more
quintessential summer album. And our albums, of course.
Any Kurt Vonnegut is always good and light without insulting your intelligence. That, or a novelization of Point
Break.
You don’t strike me as someone who tans well.
What number SPF do you slather on?
Sweaty indoor club show, or sweaty outdoor
festival show?
I actually prefer the sweaty indoor show. We played
Coachella and it was so hot I almost passed out. As
sweaty as I get indoors, it’s never like, ‘Holy shit,
I can’t take it.’ There was just heat coming from
every direction. Although, Lollapalooza last year
was great.
Fill in the following Seals and Croft lyric:
“Summer breeze/makes me feel fine/Blowin’
through the __________ in my mind”.
I keep thinking pinwheels, or…cartwheels. I know it’s
something weird and hippyish. Actually, I don’t feel at
all bad for not knowing this. F
good music guide filter 21
available at
One-Liners:
a miniature take on selected Filter Magazine reviews
...........................................................................................................................
Music,
etc.
...........................................................................................................................
(Go to Filter-Mag.com or pick up Filter Magazine’s Summer Issue for full reviews of the albums covered here)
Spoon
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
92%
merge
Soothing, disarming, dark and charming—it’s Spoon in a nutshell. No matter
where they go, there they are.
Minus the Bear
Planet of Ice
81%
suicide squeeze
MtB play the part of Trotsky subtle,
tenderly thawing their frozen world
rather than swinging away, picks-inpaws.
Bat for Lashes
Fur and Gold
91%
she bear/echo
Like taking a tour through a Grimm
world of fairy tales, harpsichords and
horsies with Björk as your guide.
John Vanderslice
Emerald City
80%
barsuk
Barsuk’s leading troubadour reflects on
9/11 just a bit too late to elicit any
meaningful audience response.
Architecture in Helsinki
Places Like These
78%
polyvinyl
Six Aussies play a harsh game of hopscotch all over that extremely fine line
between quirky-cute and sickly-sweet.
Talib Kweli
Ear Drum
88%
warner/blacksmith
From the familiar to the predictable,
thoughtful lyrics over laid-back beats
quell any questions of Kweli’s true
colors.
The Rakes
Ten New Messages
77%
v2
The Rakes grew up, but we liked ’em
more when they were rebellious snots
thumbing their noses at everyone and
everything.
KT Tunstall
Drastic Fantastic
86%
virgin
The Scottish songstress returns, soulfully wielding her double-edged voice
over acoustic anthems—enough to rally
the feminist troops.
UNKLE
War Stories
74%
surrender all
Between blahs and yawns, it might
work best as background music when
CSI investigates a strip club murder.
Blahwn.
Gogol Bordello
Super Taranta!
85%
side one dummy
These Gypsy Punks insist we dance
the revolution in with new cultural
theories of world music, punk and
reggae. Oi!
Smashing Pumpkins
Zeitgeist
67%
reprise
The simple, bludgeoning sound of a
megalomaniac, his guitar and his
drummer—the Pumpkins return in
name alone.
Justice
✞
83%
vice/ed banger
Le debut du dance duo Français chases
raw power with bubbly gulps of singsong and Super Mario melody.
22 filter good music guide
FILTER
ALBUM
RATINGS
Beastie Boys
The Mix-Up
90%
capitol
Two decades after Paul’s Boutique,
the once-punks pick up their instruments again and bring on the funk. Say
hello, nasty!
91-100% 8
81-90% 8
71-80% 8
61-70% 8
below 60% 8
a great album
above par, below genius
respectable, but flawed
not in my CD player
please God, tell us why
Iron & Wine
The Shepherd’s Dog
93%
Sub Pop
With his grandest album to date, mark
the return of Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam
a triumphant one, packed with romantic tales of small
towns, countrysides and the expansive sea. There
are motifs of death, dogs, and jealous sisters here, as
Beam proves his radical development as an artist—not
within the lyrics (although they, too, prove majestic)
but rather within the compositions. Replace the simplistic guitar plucking of yore with full, well-textured
arrangements and a plethora of instruments topped
with fluid rhythms and you’ve got yourself something
mighty fine. COLIN STUTZ
Manic Street Preachers
Send Away the Tigers
89%
Epic
God save the Manics. Since 1991, the
fiery Welsh trio has been treating us
to peerless politicized anthems and pithy soundbites,
though they’d been running short on both in the past
few years. Thankfully, Send Away the Tigers is a roaring
return to form, full of articulate, catchy diatribes
against the war in Iraq, suicide and the CIA. In a world
where Big Brother looms larger and larger, it’s good to
know that the Manics are still a vital, vitriolic voice of
protest. NEVIN MARTELL
Shout Out Louds
Our Ill Wills
88%
Merge
Amid the crowd of Cure-indebted
bands, it’s only taken two albums for
Sweden’s Shout Out Louds to prove the most skilled
and inspired. But their sophomore effort isn’t a straight
send-up; rather, it’s a spirited Robert Smith rallying
around the reckless abandon of Arcade Fire and
heartfelt harmonies of Stars. While there’s nothing
as instantly catchy as Howl Howl Gaff Gaff’s hits, the
sweeping grandeur of Our Ill Wills is infectious, with
every song benefiting from just the right amount of
orchestral glow. BRYAN CHENAULT
Animal Collective
Strawberry Jam
91%
Domino
The most disconcerting aspect of Animal
Collective’s kiddie-weirdo-Brian Wilson
trajectory is that as the sounds on their albums have
become less recognizable, their songs have tightened
up, making a trip through AC’s glowing and pulsating
sonic environs ever more the pleasure safari as opposed
to a scientific expedition. The odd cadences and bad-trip
howls are still intact, as are the suites of droning repetition, but the balance across the album (as opposed to the
drop-off second half of Feels) makes it their most forward and enjoyable work to date. SAM ROUDMAN
The Perishers
Victorious
71%
Nettwerk
Like Teitur fronting a Coldplay tribute
band, the Perishers peddle soppier-thanthou ballads for disaffected mallrats who watch The CW
a lot. Unluckily for them, the world isn’t made up entirely
of adolescents bent on relationship drama and confessional MySpace blogging. Victorious comes off like bad
soundtrack music for One Tree Hill, which is too bad,
because we know that this Swedish foursome is capable of
crafting something much more original and inspiring (see
2005’s Let There Be Morning)—they just need to stop
writing tunes for the idiot box. NEVIN MARTELL
dvd
Lights! Camera! Elvis!83%
Paramount
Hardcore Elvis Presley fans
won’t even blink at the price tag
for this boxed set, which compiles eight of his Hollywood
forays in a blue suede case,
but even the casual King consumer will find
a few moments of true Elvis cool amidst the
redundant tropical locales, lousy plots and laughable tunes. Best of the bunch: King Creole, with
Presley singing “Trouble” and romancing Carolyn
(Morticia Addams) Jones. PAUL GAITA
Oh No
Dr. No’s Oxperiment
87%
Stones Throw
Oh No is a true hip-hop alchemist.
Lovingly crafted from deep in the crates,
Madlib’s brother has created a swirling madness of beats
using “raw and rare psych” from Turkey, Lebanon,
Greece and Italy. At first listen, it sounds like a collection of high-end Stones Throw grooves, with strong
kick drums and sharp snares. Further consideration
reveals the careful construction of the layers, where Oh
No mixes pieces both exotic and familiar and winds up
creating pure gold. JEREMY MOEHLMANN
good music guide filter 23
Young Marble Giants
Colossal Youth [deluxe reissue]90%
Domino
The one and only full-length effort
from the short-lived Welsh trio Young
Marble Giants, Colossal Youth is total in its conception
of shuttered exploration. Fifteen miniatures deprived
of ornament, few longer than three minutes, are built
from dry bass, taut jangle, the slight melodies of
Alison Stratton, stray organ frequencies and flecks of
machine rhythm. These precise and elegant sketches
prove there was more to post-punk’s ravenous insurgency than just jagged death disco. Accompanied by
a second disc of YMG’s few other releases and liner
notes by Simon Reynolds, this is primitivism at its
most perfect. BERNARDO RONDEAU
Fog
Ditherer
88%
Lex
Fog’s sixth album teases out pop effervescence and alt.country twang while
remaining firmly ensconced in creepy vocoders, even
by songwriter Andrew Broder’s standards. With a clear,
vibrato-tinged articulation, his lyrics float down that
familiar stream of subconscious where natural and
psychological disasters seek to stamp out humanity. The
final lyric of Ditherer centers on a faint light shining
from a far-off, offscreen bedroom. It’s existential, but
under piles of heavy thoughts, Broder reaches for little
bits of luminescence. CAMERON BIRD
video game
BioShock
82%
360, PC
2K Games
The first-person shooter world
gets wet for this underwater
wonderland full of zombified
corpses and mangled mutations. Traipsing
through a failed utopia, it’s up to you to stay
alive as you juggle unusual genetic skills (like
throwing lightning) and a handful of upgradeable weapons. Destructible environments
allow you to set traps for enemies—shoot
a liquor bottle next to an enemy and a fire
will spark, flushing him out into the open.
Mmm…liquor. ZACH ROSENBERG
Imperial Teen
The Hair the TV the Baby and the
Band
80%
Merge
On first listen, those accustomed to
the baby skin-smooth production of current indie-pop
(New Pornographers, Shins, et al) might find this
unvarnished and simplistic, but apparently in the ’90s
(when Imperial Teen started), that was the accepted
M.O. The Teen’s male/female vocal harmonies and
26 filter good music guide
occasional big rockin’ choruses are designed to make
you love them; at first this will make you hate them,
then hate to love them, and finally either get over it
and start bobbin’ your head, or crush this album with a
hammer. SAM ROUDMAN
funk and early hip-hop-inspired songs that scream for
attention like some sort of ballistic boogie woogie idiot
at a high school dance. Still, everything has its time and
place, so just because you don’t feel like dancing today
doesn’t mean you won’t tomorrow. COLIN STUTZ
dvd
Modeselektor
Happy Birthday
84%
BPitch Control
When skimming through places that
might crank out sloppy, sweaty crunk
and tech rap, dubstep, dissonant eastern beats, splintered, reggae-infused dance and grime, the last place
people likely turn to is Berlin. Look no further, however, because Modeselektor has it all, and much more,
pulled off with mind-blowing skill and humor. The
Teutonic duo—Gernot and Szary—have another notso-hidden gem in their sophomore album, this time
with the help of Thom Yorke, Maximo Park and
TTC. KENDAH EL-ALI
Supersuckers
Live in Orange County 86%
Mid-Fi
Motherfuckers be trippin’ in
concert in this live whapadang
from 2004, featuring 18 cuts from
the venerable raunch rockers’ largely Sub Pop
catalog. Frills are few from the self-proclaimed
greatest rock and roll band in the world—
there’s a single interview and a discography;
yippee—but you didn’t buy this DVD for the
bells and whistles, didja? No, you bought it for
the sweat and the leather and the lightning. And
considering the location of the concert (Orange
County), the band probably made it for the
merch booth returns. PAUL GAITA
Sara Lov
Three Songs
82%
self-released
I’d say most women hate the saying
“sugar and spice and everything nice,”
and for good reason. But with Sara Lov, lead singer of
dreamy Los Angeles duo Devics, whose songs are about
everything nice, you see where this cliché was born. On
her first solo effort, a three-song EP, Lov offers up servings of melancholic, swooping vocals and heart- wrenching
ballads. The simple, well-thought-out songs are soft and
seem perfect for coffee shop pining or a warm embrace.
So what’s wrong with that? COLIN STUTZ
Galactic
From the Corner to the Block 88%
AntiGalactic is too hot for New Orleans.
This digitized voodoo funk makes the
Meters look like the goddamned glee club, and y’all
know the Neville Brothers ain’t never gotten Juvenile
and Chali 2na to collaborate on the same record. Shit,
these electric bayou grooves got the paint peelin’ off the
walls a’ my kitchen, and my woman done lost her shirt
and gone shakin’ in the streets. You best bring in the fire
squad—Louisiana’s burning. PHIL EASTMAN
Junior Senior
Hey Hey My My Yo Yo
78%
Rykodisc/Crunchy Frog
Sometimes you really just don’t feel
like dancing—and that’s something the
poppy Danish duo Junior Senior doesn’t understand.
In fact, there are plenty of situations where it would
be downright inappropriate to dance to those raw, pop,
Kinski
Down Below It’s Chaos
80%
Sub Pop
If and when the powers that be open up
space exploration to the masses, Kinski
can rightfully vie for the role of cosmic sandman. Down
Below It’s Chaos retreads Kinski’s previous outings
with fuzzed-out riffs that converge on the aesthetic of
Acid Mothers Temple. But while songs like “Argentina
Turner” threaten to reduce it all to a tryptophan sandwich for stoners, other instrumental tracks like “Plan,
Steal, Drive” and “Silent Biker Type” unveil more
expansive, sobering realities. CAMERON BIRD
dvd
Gilberto Gil
Acústico MTV
89%
Wea International
What says summer more to
you: CG robots crashing into
each other, or the floralscented, soulful groove of
Tropicalia co-founder Gilberto Gil? If you
raised your hands for number two, pick up
Gil’s unplugged performance from 1994, and
see how long it takes before your hips (or
your fave partner’s) begin a gentle, oceanic
roll to his languid and lovely grooves. Mildly
psychedelic, extremely innovative, and eternally cool. Three bonus tracks round out this
region-free DVD. PAUL GAITA
Oakley Hall
I’ll Follow You
81%
Merge
Oakley Hall brings a bit of singer Pat
Sullivan’s Oneida heftiness and tingling
acidity to their folk-twinged Americana. This is their
first album for Merge, and though the band has a
number of long-players behind them, it smacks with
the alertness of a debut. Settled into a six-piece after
several lineup mutations, the group’s communal jams
lilt on melodic curlicues; not just amber-gold guitars,
but also twinkling harpsichords and usually bittersweet
moods. Country-twanged but also psych-dappled, I’ll
Follow You is a pleasant enough halfway point for a
respite. BERNARDO RONDEAU
book
Irvine Welsh
If You Liked School,
You’ll Love Work
85%
W.W. Norton & Co.
Drugs, booze, sex, racial tensions and a car crash begin
Irvine Welsh’s latest—nothing
too shocking from the author who brought
us an existential parasite (Filth) and the loveable band of Edinburgher heroin addicts in
Trainspotting. Like those novels, these short
stories showcase Welsh’s talent for transforming
language into art; the clever, complex plots are
no trite morality critique. Rather, the experimental methods and disastrously flawed characters Welsh is famous for compose an insightful,
bizarre journey into the best and worst of societal relationships. BREANNA MURPHY
Jamie T
Panic Prevention
82%
Caroline
Jamie T’s full length debut is a cocktail of
cheap beats and cockney rap, and while
he’s certainly engaging, he’s not always enjoyable. Kind of
like what would happen if you locked Mike Skinner in a
garage with a guitar and some meth, Jamie’s brand of punk/
pop/hip-hop somehow manages to hold your attention for
the length of a record. Panic Prevention may not be easy to
like, but it’s also hard to ignore. ANDREA BUSSELL
matt pond PA
Last Light
84%
Altitude
It’s not that the signature strings are
missing or the lyrics are less poignant,
it’s just that Last Light finds them hidden behind a big
ol’ indie rock rather than center stage amid swirling
chamber pop. Utilizing a more sophisticated, self-produced sound while playing host to a gaggle of guests,
Pond’s revved up guitars and clap tracks drive you out
of the New Hampshire woods and into the Brooklyn
28 filter good music guide
streets. Though dive bars have long since replaced the
tree forts of 1998’s Deer Apartments, mpPA reminds us
the sun hasn’t set just yet. BRYAN CHENAULT
video game
Madden NFL 08
90%
360, PS3
EA Sports
If tight pants and pigskin’s
your thing, Madden ’08 is your
Mecca. New in this edition are
“weapons”—no, not grenades; rather, players with
mastery in a particular skill. So if you’re down
by two, 10 seconds to play, fourth down, bring
in your “Elusive Back” who can superhumanly
escape tackles—just watch out for your opponent’s
“Brick Wall Defender.” Fluid animations and crisp
graphics make this the next-gen Madden we’ve
been waiting for. ZACH ROSENBERG
Liars
Liars
87%
Mute
Nobody predicted a return to ROCK
after Liars released 2006’s love letter
to “tribal” percussion and drone, Drum’s Not Dead.
But the band’s self-titled fourth record takes only
seconds to signal the triumphant homecoming of
the guitar—in all of its grizzled, gurgling glory—on
“Plaster Casts of Everything.” Still, we’re far from
the punky Monument (or even the witch-rock of
Drowned), as Dead’s vocal twirls and pummeled
percussion play off Liars’ sun-burnt guitars in yet
another new light. ROBBIE MACKEY
Ferraby Lionheart
Catch the Brass Ring
85%
Nettwerk
Los Angeles loves its lonely troubadours. You know the music: slightly
theatrical, a little folky, each song’s sunny surface
hiding a vague melancholy. The lyrics are reflective, the pacing slow and the piano prominent.
Ferraby Lionheart is the perfect example—while
not as distinctive as a Wainwright, Ferraby sings
with the same slightly droopy intonation, letting
the melodies slowly drip out of his mouth rather
than spewing them forth like a Jackson Pollock
painting. This troubadour may not be lonely for
much longer. JEREMY MOEHLMANN
The Mekons
Natural
83%
Touch & Go/Quarterstick
With their chameleon-like tendencies and constant reinventions, the
Mekons have ensured that they’re an acquired taste
for most. Natural, their first album of all new material since 2002’s Oooh!, is more of their brand of
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sparse, postmodern folk that will mostly appeal
to their already devout niche of fans. But with a
handful of songs highlighting the beauty of their
ragged and minimal punk melodies, they might just
gain some new ones. ANDREA BUSSELL
S
video game
•••
729 N 14th St• Omaha, NE
www.theslowdown.com
402.345.7575
•••
MAIN ROOM
470 capacity
SMALL ROOM
140 capacity
For bookings, email
[email protected]
•••
Open Daily 4PM-1AM
Excellent selection of
both tap and bottled beers
Interesting wines by the glass
Patio seating
Pool Table
Over 35 Board Games
Ms. Pacman/Galaga
Black and white photo booth
Free play juke box
Metroid Prime 3:
Corruption
87%
Wii
Nintendo
Imagine all of the action of the
last two MP games, but with
the added radness of aim-and-shoot Wiimote
controls. Your job is the same as always: be
the sexiest bounty hunter this side of Zebes.
Oh, and blast the crap out of anything that
stands in your path—even if it’s your evil
twin. And due to the recent swashbuckling
craze, Corruption comes with 50 percent
more space pirate and 75 percent more
booty. ZACH ROSENBERG
Tegan and Sara
The Con
86%
Vapor
Even in their humble Lilith beginnings, Canadian twin-sis duo Tegan &
Sara hinted at the saccharine power-folk that would
come to be their calling card. But it wasn’t until 2004’s
rockcandy surprise, So Jealous, that the vigor actually
muscled its way to the fore. Three years later, The
Con is a startlingly dark, yet characteristically vibrant
offering, featuring a band that’s learned to harness
the energy-highs, while tempering pretty (even pastoral) pop-folk with a new, deeply-affecting brand of
melancholy. ROBBIE MACKEY
Emmylou Harris
Songbird: Rare and
Forgotten Gems [box set]
91%
Rhino
Emmylou Harris has never been given
her proper due. In a career spanning four decades, the
silver-haired beauty is known mostly for sharing her
honeysuckle croon in collaboration with nasally-voiced
powerhouses like Neil Young, Dylan, Willie and Gram
Parsons, but whenever the time comes for accolades
she modestly lets the boys shine first. Harris has always
been way more than a backup singer extraordinaire,
and Songbird thrusts her solo talents to the forefront,
offering a four-disc sampler of live, unreleased and
lesser-known tracks that’ll make cowpokes weep and
lift our good spirits beyond the borders of the big sky
above. PHIL EASTMAN
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W
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O
U
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U
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O
U
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I
L
L
L
L
O
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S
S
SPOON
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
2007
A L S O O U T N O W:
Side One
Don’t Make Me A Target
The Ghost Of You Lingers
You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb
Don’t You Evah
Rhthm & Soul
Side Two
Eddie’s Ragga
The Underdog
My Little Japanese Cigarette Case
Finer Feelings
Black Like Me
T O N I G H T I H AV E T O L E AV E I T E P
U.K.
Imports: presented by
...........................................................................................................................
Simian Mobile Disco
Attack Decay Sustain Release
Wichita
Emerging from the wreckage of largely
unloved early Noughties band Simian, knob-twiddlers Jas Shaw and James Ford had their work cut out
clawing back a career. Six years, a gajillion DJ gigs,
underground releases and chaotic club nights later,
here’s the first full-length result. Having exorcised
their guitar-based demons by producing Klaxons and
Arctic Monkeys records, SMD have turned out a
punchy electrofest long-player that doesn’t outstay its
welcome. “It’s The Beat” throws ants down all nearby
rave pants with the help of Go! Team rapper Ninja;
“Tits & Acid” skitters like a pantechnicon on corrugated iron. Only thing: where’s the bass? The album
seems to have been mixed, Spector-style, specifically
for mobile phone speakers. What about the rest of us,
you bastards? CHARLIE IVENS
Air Traffic
Fractured Life
EMI
There’ve been some dark days at EMI
these past years. Luckily, Air Traffic have “pulled an
Athlete” and produced an album of startling beauty and
depth—with sizeable doses of homage to Muse and
Coldplay, naturally. They’re at their best on the lovely
“No More Running Away,” which has the lustful innocence of Parachutes’ Chris Martin. Air Traffic are on
the edgy side of mainstream pop—people want whole
albums like this, not just one poppy single. While Chris
Wall could do with laying off the falsetto a bit, it’s great
that the concept of “longevity” over quick hit seems to
have been rediscovered. VIC JAMES
The Enemy
We’ll Live and Die in These Towns
Warner
Oasis: brilliant band, crap role models.
Since Definitely Maybe swaggered into the mid-’90s
and stuck a huge size 9 in the balls of the competition,
thousands of other rubbish lad bands think they can
do the same. Fortunately for Britain, the Enemy have
brains to back up their sizable clout. Their debut is
an album that pinches from the lyric-books of Weller,
Burgess and Ryder, and marries them seamlessly with
balls-out, radio-bullying tunes. “Aggro” is as spiteful
an opening track as the Gallaghers’ “Fuckin’ In The
Bushes,” while the anthemic “Away From Here” sounds
like the View crossed with Dario G’s “Sunchyme” (er,
seriously). Yes, the influences are more than obvious,
But if your heart’s not on your sleeve, then you’re just
not Mad Fer It, are ya? JJ DUNNING
The Pigeon Detectives
Wait For Me
Dance to the Radio
Like the reviled scavenger that partinspired their moniker, the Pigeon Detectives could
be criticised for opportunistic pilfering: tidbits of
Television, Beatles, Motown, Buzzcocks, Chuck Berry
and Buddy Holly litter their perfectly pecked poppath. But this is no robbery with plagiaristic intent; the
sole agenda is to chart this youthful existence—sex,
booze and heartbreak—as it comes. The result is
often reassuringly bittersweet: the key refrain of “You
Know I Love You” is followed by the significantly
less romantic hormonal desperation of “take off your
clothes.” There’s something incredibly admirable about
the Detective’s anti-pretentious adherence to songwriting simplicity, but, like their Kaiser Chief kindred,
they’ll need to plot future pickings carefully in order
to avoid a limiting ‘signature’ formula without losing
the live-for-the-moment honesty that makes them so
compelling. DAVE BEVERIDGE
The Thrills
Teenager
EMI
When the Thrills first appeared in
2003, the Dublin quintet was the pre-Keane staple
of white van men across the nation. And whilst the
band may have swapped L.A. for “the worst neighbourhood in the whole of Canada,” it doesn’t sound
particularly like Teenager was recorded in anything
approaching a slum. “Long Forgotten Song” could
easily be off Keane’s first album, while “Restaurant”
is like a more twinkling Bright Eyes with chocolate sprinkles. Opener “Midnight Choir” is wholly
sublime—trademark Thrills in every way, heaving
out the kind of heavenly saccharine harmonies the
Magic Numbers are too bumbling and arrogant to
find. Ultimately, though, it’s still music to do your
Christmas shopping to. VIC JAMES
The Fly is the U.K.’s second largest circulated music magazine. Focusing on emerging talent, it’s the essential
guide to new music in the U.K. Subscriptions are available, priced at £40 for 12 months (11 issues),
by contacting [email protected], or online at www.the-fly.co.uk.
32 filter good music guide
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