Tuesday Turntable 9.15.09

Green Day has made their 2004 radically-popular concept album American Idiot in to a stage musical. Don't believe me? I don't really blame you... but it's true.

In honor of this bizarre happening, this Turntable is dedicated to concept albums more deserving of a stage show than Green Day (as much as I love the little tykes.)

The Who's Tommy actually -was- made into a feature film. A weird one. But "Pinball Wizard," one of the enduring hits from the record, is a great song any way you spin it. The plot up to here - Tommy, the main character, is stricken deaf, dumb and blind after witnessing his father murder his mother's lover. (convoluted, much?) Turns out, though, Tommy is a total prodigy at pinball. Who knew? (HAHA pun...) "Pinball Wizard" is a really fun song, to sing along to and to appreciate for the fact that it means -exactly- what you think it means.

I have written (at length) about The Decemberists' new concept album The Hazards of Love, but I still think Colin Meloy would make a phenomenal Broadway front man in the production of this fantasy. This is a really nifty movement in which the Queen is first introduced, possibly my favorite villainess ever, anywhere. And, at the beginning, there is ostensibly a fawn playing the pipe organ, in the highest room in the tallest tower, I like to think. Fantastic image, there.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is one of the most famous concept albums ever. Not shockingly, since it's The Beatles. However, it's somewhat controversial to call it a concept album. A few ideas were there in pre-production - at first, the album was meant to explore the concept of aging, then it morphed into the story of an ex-army bandmaster (Sgt. Pepper himself.) But, just like Sgt. Pepper, the idea met some problems, and didn't really end up in the final cut, except in name. Regardless, "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" is a song that could have it's own show in and of itself, being placed in the craziest circus setting in music. This especially comes through in this Eddie Izzard version, more theatrical than the Beatles version.

Most people in our generation don't take Styx very seriously. Maybe that's because their most famous song is "(Domo Arigato) Mr. Roboto." But come on, what could make a better stage show than this song?? Check out the full plot of the album, courtesy of Wikipedia:

The album's somewhat rock-operatic story tells of a future where rock music is outlawed by a fascistgovernment and the "MMM (the Majority for Musical Morality)". The story's protagonist, Kilroy, is a former rock star who has been imprisoned by MMM leader Dr. Righteous. He escapes using a disguise (according to the album's famous song "Mr. Roboto") when he becomes aware that a young musician, Jonathan Chance, is on a mission to bring rock music back.

THAT IS SO AWESOME.

Deltron 3030, who you will recognize upon listening as the rapper from Gorillaz, has made a pretty bad-ass rap concept album following Deltron Zero's dystopian fight against evil corporations, oppressive governments, and his quest to become the Galactic Rhyme Federation Champion. Think 8 Mile... IN SPAAAAAACE!

To listen to this Turntable without having to stay on Wax Cylinders, click the Pop-Out Player button below the playlist. If your pop-up blocker is reluctant to allow this, try holding the control key when you hit Pop-Out Player.

Enjoy!

Tuesday Turntable 9.1.09

Aah! It's September!!!!

Well... you know what this means.

There is only one possible theme for this week's turntable...

That's right.

Horses vs. Unicorns.

...

Allison's recommendation. I couldn't agree more.

First... a Horse! "Judy and the Dream of Horses" by Belle and Sebastian. Really, Belle and Sebastian is one of those bands that I really want to like a lot, but for which I can usually only muster minimal excitement. This song, however, I'm always happy to hear. A very sweet and simple beginning that keeps you focused on the lyrics detailing Judy's story builds to a nice, up-tempo latter half. As for our contest, the horse in this song is stolen by some girl in Judy's dream. Not a very good start, horses. Let's see what the unicorns have in store.

The best unicorn song, ever. "I Was Born a Unicorn," by who else but The Unicorns. A charming blend of punk and 50's pop, this song is a big smile-inspirer. Weird Vincent-Price-like breakdown in the middle of the song doesn't throw anyone off, it just makes this quirky song all the more lovable. Contest judgement: Unicorns score one for having a band named after them, but these unicorns keep getting left behind by Noah's Ark and have some identity issues. They are doing much better than our next horse though...

"Wildfire" by Michael Martin Murphy. AWW! COME ON! Yes, I am giving you the famously tear-jerking 70's ballad about a young girl and her beloved pony named Wildfire. A killer Nebraska blizzard hits, Wildfire busts out of her stall and gets lost, and the girl is doomed to run through the blizzard screaming for her best friend, who has tragically perished in the storm. How freaking sad is that??? It's the saddest thing. Horses lose.

"White Unicorn" is a pretty awesome Wolfmother song. Catchy as "Woman," but with more interesting instrumentation. Definitely holds up to repeat listening, whereas a few other Wolfmother songs get kind of old pretty quick. Contest: the unicorn in this song is really only a tattoo, but it isn't stolen, left behind from an ark, or killed in a blizzard, so unicorns have scored the first point of the game.

Finally, "Is There a Ghost" by Band of Horses. Has some of my favorite Band of Horses features: deep, echoey mastering, Ben Bridwell's unique vocals, and really accessible but fascinating lyrics. True, there is no horse in this song. But it is played by a whole band made of horses. Do you know how hard it is to play guitar with hooves? Didn't think so. Horses score 1, making our contest a tie game.

To listen to this Turntable without having to stay on Wax Cylinders, click the Pop-Out Player button below the playlist. If your pop-up blocker is reluctant to allow this, try holding the control key when you hit Pop-Out Player.

Enjoy!

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Up Close and Personal with Mehko and Ocean Birds

"The most exciting thing for us right now... Everything," answers drummer, Chris. "We're in a world of firsts."

True, Mehko and Ocean Birds are brand-spanking new, the spring chickens of Denver's music scene. Everything is relatively up in the air, still, particularly the lineup. Lead singer and ukelele player Stephen only arrived in Denver about four months ago, at the beginning of this summer. Why Denver?
"Everyone here is doing something, and they have this openness. You have house shows here, that never happens other places. The crowds care about what's going on onstage, they aren't just looking for a cool place to smoke a cigarette." As for Mehko and Ocean Birds, Stephen explained the recent origins of the group, sitting on the curb out front of the then-closed Larimer Lounge, where the group had just finished their set.

"'Mehko' is what I called myself as a solo act. As far as the Ocean Birds... anyone can be an Ocean Bird. This isn't my band, it's all of us. Everyone is as permanent and as impermanent as anyone else. How it goes is, we meet someone, play together. If they're in, it's because we just got that feeling - that they really care, that we can make music together."

As for now, Mehko and Ocean Birds consists of seven talented musicians. Stephen on vocals and uke, Chris on Drums, Allison and Isaac on the beautiful cello, Micah on keyboard, Kate on 'dream vocals,' (as Stephen put it), Leslie on tuba, and Robert on trumpet.

"We're like a molecule with various neutrons and electrons darting around," Chris adds.
If that's true, the group, whoever happens to be playing at the moment, has a bond as strong as those in a diamond when they are making music together. Everyone involved is a part of what they love most, and it's very evident when hearing them play, or talk about why they play.

Chris expressed the most important part of a live performance: "With this band, specifically, everyone likes to use this venue for catharsis - let emotions flow, and find what makes us human."

"You can talk to anyone with music," agrees Allison. "you can't do that with anything else." Stephen follows the metaphor: "Like, with a painting, you can work on it for a week and then find out it doesn't work. A song either happens or it doesn't."

Mehko and Ocean Birds does what it does, all for the right reasons. But, readers not familiar with the band's work might be wondering, what exactly is it that they do?
"We do magic, we play love songs. Aggressive, chaotic, passionate love songs," offers Micah. Stephen recounts the band's practice session days before the show.
"We were playing at my place, we had been at it for over an hour, and my roommate busted in, and put his hand down and said "Man, you can't do this right now. It's too much for me right now." Instead of being miffed at his roommate's obstinacy, the group took it as a compliment - indeed, the music they produce is out-of-this-world, in every sense of the term. The cohesion of the rag-tag-seeming selection of instruments is something that can only be fully appreciated when you see the band, perhaps at their next show? More on that later...

Mehko and Ocean Birds are presented with some pretty unique challenges - they're new, and they are a daunting 7-piece act. Timing practices, sussing out the sound balance (for example, between a ukelele and a tuba,) and properly memorizing their rapidly growing catalogue all come to mind for the group. Yet, Mehko and Ocean Birds are on an exponential trajectory at this point. A month from now, the group hopes to have doubled their repertoire, and to get in to the studio for some professional recording time.

In the more short term, the band has a couple shows ready for your listening enjoyment.

Friday, August 28.
The Tea-House (house show)
721 Elati st, Denver, CO 80204
All Ages, No Cover.

Friday, September 11
The House for Clownfish (house show / cupcake bar)
2001 S. Clayton st, Denver CO 80210
All Ages, No Cover.


*note: Yes, I did attend their show at Larimer Lounge. Yes, I did intend to review it.... No, I was not allowed into the club - alas, Larimer Lounge is strictly 21+. The show this Friday will be reviewed here!

Decemberists Get Ticket for Street Performing

Cutest music news ever - The Decemberists' Colin Meloy announced from his Twitter that the band was 'busking,' or, playing on a street corner for tips, on Royal Oaks, MI's Main street.

Alas, the impromptu street sesh ended in a ticket from the Royal Oaks cops... Busking is technically illegal without a license in Michigan.

Tuesday Turntable 8.18.09

Summer is over. Well, pretty much. Anyone who hasn't headed back to the hallowed halls is probably packing up to do so, surely with a grimace.

But fear not, we all have a few more weeks of sun and summer left to us, and these songs are here to remind you of the last months in music.

All these tracks were released, brand spanking new, this summer, all from blockbuster bands, at that. Let's take a look-see at these Next Big Things!

"Guilty Cocker Spaniels" is a track off of Modest Mouse's new EP, released August 4th, No One's First, and You're Next!. The album is famously composed of rejected tracks from Good News for People Who Love Bad News and We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, and considering these two albums earned Modest Mouse the bulk of their huge fan base, "Guilty Cocker Spaniels" has enough elements from both records to act as a catch-all track for everything likable from the previous two albums.

"These Are My Twisted Words" has the most Radiohead-ishly bizarre backstory ever. The track surreptitiously floated onto a message board of Radiohead fan site At Ease, with absolutely no explanation or commentary from the band. This sent the blogosphere into a frenzy since Wednesday... "well, is it Radiohead or not??" Thom Yorke's entrance at 2:38 on the track had most people convinced it was at least a Yorke single, but nothing was confirmed until Monday, when the band acknowledged it on their site, adding, "We've been recording for a while, and this was one of the first we finished. We're pretty proud of it." Oh yeah, and did I mention it's a free download?

Panic! at the Disco has had a turbulent summer - two members, aka half the band, guitarist Ryan Ross and bassist Jon Walker walked out of Panic! over creative differences to start their own project. Jon and Ryan are gone, the exclamation point is back, and a new track is out.

Panic! at the Disco released "New Perspective" on July 27th, first as a MySpace exclusive. (What's left of) the band announces the video is already shooting for the new single.

Weezer has named their upcoming album, featuring this track, "(If You're Wondering if I Want You To) I Want You To," Raditude. That pretty much sums up my opinion of Weezer, right there. Still, new track, I'll be seeing them open for Blink-182, and new track becomes official August 25th.

Upcoming Event - Mehko and Ocean Birds

This Wednesday, Denver gets a real treat.
Local artists Mehko and Ocean Birds will be playing the Larimer Lounge in Denver, just an $8. You should all be psyched for this show, and here's why.

Mehko and Ocean Birds is truly one of the gems of the Denver music scene. A dauntless experimental sound combined with the genuine talent of its members make the tracks from this band truly exciting to hear. Originality like this doesn't spin around too often, so it's up to all of you to make it down to this show to make sure it sticks around for us. If the show at the Larimer is big enough, we'll be seeing Mehko and Ocean Birds at the Bluebird, a venue worthy of this fantastic new sound.

Hear it for yourself:
http://www.myspace.com/warmumbrellas
My personal recommendation for best track currently on the player is "Iri." This show, though, will feature plenty of new material not on the MySpace player, so the only way to hear it is to come on down!

Here are the details:
Wednesday, August 19th at 8:00 pm
Larimer Lounge
2721 Larimer St, Denver
Cover- $8

I better see you all at the show! If you are stricken with plague Wednesday, (the only viable excuse for missing this!) expect a review up on Wax Cylinders Thursday afternoon!

Spring Season - Modest Mouse @ Balch Fieldhouse, 2/28

Show:

Modest Mouse

Venue:

CU Balch Fieldhouse

Date:

2/28/09

Openers:

Japanese Motors, a surf-rock California group were admittedly silly with lyrics such as ‘Ugly girls are drugs to me,’ but they turned out to be a pretty solid act, with solid bass and energetic melodies.

Mimicking Birds gave a far more finished and serious sound, coming onstage with familiar indie-folk and a vocalist quite reminiscent of Band of Horses’s leader Ben Bridwell.

The Show:

This show, unusually housed in CU Boulder’s small track house off the side of the football stadium, was definitely one to reward long term fans – only four songs all night came from Modest Mouse’s newest album We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank; “Dashboard” wasn’t played at all. In lieu of the new, more radio-ready material, Isaac Brock put new touches on very old, messy favorites. 1997’s The Lonesome Crowded West saw the most attention, drawing Modest Mouse’s traditional raw energy out from the entire set.

Highlights:

- The hot, dirty, mosh-y and frantic “Doin’ the Cockroach” that proved the worth of having two full-kit drummers onstage this tour.

- “This Devil’s Workday” gets unconventional with a trash can lid stomp routine and brass band, shows off Brock’s completely signature lyric delivery.

- The most perfect close to the show possible, “Custom Concern”, my personal favorite Modest Mouse song ever, puts everyone in a peaceful hypnotic trance at the end of the high-energy show.

Lowlights:

- Serious punctuality issues – Modest Mouse didn’t take the stage until nearly an hour after Mimicking Birds finished, also another 20-minute break before encore.

- Really, really bad sound system. This probably has the venue to blame, but painful mike screeches and feedback both ruined basically every song from We Were Dead, especially “The View” and “We’ve Got Everything,” and also went to piss off Brock, not a fun thing to do.

Overall: 80/100 (Lots of energy / enthusiasm, yet sound quality very hard to get past.)

Setlist:

1. “Paper Thin Walls”

2. “Never Ending Math Equation”

3. “The View”

4. “Dramamine”

5. “The Good Times are Killing Me”

6. “Doin’ The Cockroach”

7. “Fire it Up”

8. “We’ve Got Everything”

9. “Satin in a Coffin”

10. “Float On”

11. “Trucker’s Atlas”

12. “Ohio”

13. “Broke”

14. “Trailer Trash”

15. “Education”

Encore:

“Satellite Skin”

“Black Cadillacs”

“This Devil’s Workday”

“Custom Concern”