I’m happy to report that fun post-punk music is alive and well thanks to New York’s WALL (Vanessa Gomez, Vince McClelland, Elizabeth Skadden, Samantha York). Their four-song EP is a jolt of lightning to everything drab coming out of your radio right now.
“Cuban Cigars” is a middle finger to rich douchebags full of skronky guitars and visceral lyrics like, “These guys they got the money, only once they’ve been to the laundry.” It’s one of my top singles of the year so far. “Fit the Part” is a great mix of X (sing-along / shout vocals), Buzzcocks (beats and guitar), and Circle Jerks (attitude). “Last Date” could be an early Devo track, but it’s really more of a paranoid freak-out fueled by McClelland’s Gang of Four-influenced guitar. Just when you think they’re all about post-punk madness, along comes “Milk,” which is neo-psychedelic rock (Post-psych? I should trademark that term.) with slightly reverbed vocals and building instrumentation that is perfect for tripping or getting ready for a fight.
This EP is a shot across the bow of modern rock. WALL have put up a metaphoric version of their namesake and dared anyone to scale it. It’s covered in spikes, barbed wire, fuzzy amps, and four New York rockers atop it ready to stomp down anyone who even tries to climb up there. They can’t release a full-length album soon enough for my tastes, and the sake of the world.
[Rewind Reviews are reviews of albums over a year old that I haven’t heard until now.]
Groove Armada’s Vertigo is one of those records that I’ve been meaning to pick up for years but kept forgetting to seek out whenever I was in a wrecka stow or visiting an online music sales site.
It’s a masterpiece of late 1990’s techno, house, and lounge. The opener, “Chicago,” is a perfect anthem for late night clubbing in the Windy City – fat beats, luscious synth grooves, and kinky guitar. “Whatever, Whenever” starts off sounding like something from a grindhouse horror film trailer before rapper M.A.D. slides in with smooth rhymes to save us all from whatever horror was about to pounce on us.
“Dusk, You & Me” is one of the best make-out songs of 1999. If Roddy Lormiar’s trumpet doesn’t get things moved into the naked zone, you only have yourself to blame. I don’t know if the “63” in the title of “Pre 63” refers to the year 1963, but you could put this fly song of heavy bass, playful flute, and crisp beats into any early 1960’s Euro-crime film or sex comedy.
“If Everybody Looked the Same” weaves a great use of a sample from A Tribe Called Quest through a song about bigotry. “Serve Chilled” is perfectly titled, as it’s great for relaxing after late night parties. “I See You Baby” is the opposite, however, and will get the party jumping again as soon as you start it. I mean, the chorus is “I see you, baby, shakin’ that ass.” What more do you need?
“A Private Interlude” has great scratch work from Dominic Betmead. “At the River” is weird, almost sounding backward at some points, and creeps out of the speakers like something from a bad print of a Fellini movie. In other words, I like it. “In My Bones” is a sweet house track about how a good groove gets inside you and can only escape by taking temporary control of you. It has some of the best synth work on the record and probably is one of their best “unknown” hits.
“Your Song” isn’t a cover of the Elton John tune. It’s a funky track with sexy vocals by Sophie Barker. “Inside My Mind (Blue Skies)” is a song you’ve probably heard in dozens of movies, TV shows, and commercials and not realized it. It’s ambient lounge grooves instantly put you in a mellow state of mind. It’s impossible to be depressed during this song. It chills you out like few songs can. The album ends with a saucy remix of “I See You Baby” by Fatboy Slim.
It’s a solid house music record. Pick it up if you’re looking for some good late night grooves for your next party.
Radiohead, arguably the biggest band in the world (and still one of the few pushing the envelope and daring to not be pigeonholed), have announced their as-yet untitled new album will be released on May 8th in digital formats and in physical formats on June 18th.
The band surprised everyone by erasing their entire Internet presence for two days and then returning with the new single “Burn the Witch.” Two days later they released the single “Daydreaming,” which has a video directed by film director Paul Thomas Anderson (for whom Radiohead guitarist Johnny Greenwood has scored multiple films).
Radiohead are playing multiple festival dates in the U.S. and around the world starting this summer. They always put on an excellent show, so don’t miss them if they’re near you.
Aussie legends Midnight Oil announced on May 4th that they are reuniting for a tour in 2017. In case you don’t know “the Oils” (as they are sometimes called) are one of Australia’s greatest bands and easily one of the most politically charged / Stick-it-to-the-Man bands of the last 30 years. Lead singer Peter Garrett even went into politics after the band split up to further their causes for Aboriginal Australians, economic equality, and environmental action.
They haven’t announced tour dates or locations yet, but this will be a must-see show. My wife and I have seen them twice, and both shows were excellent. We got to meet some of them after a show, and they were all good lads.
They’re offering a free download of a live version of “Forgotten Years” (one of the hits off the classic Blue Sky Mining album) through their website to celebrate the announcement, so grab it while you can.
We began the fourth day of Levitation Austinby heading to Threadgill’s restaurant for their Sunday gospel brunch buffet. The buffet was average, although the sweet potato pancakes are a delight, but the music by a band whose name I never found was classic country. I knew we were in for a good show when the lead singer asked, “Any Flatt and Scruggs fans out there?” My wife and I were the only ones who yelled in the affirmative. Sigh…
Who is this band? Does anyone know?
We then went to the famous Museum of the Weird, where I took part in a circus sideshow involving a man immune to AC electricity (getting zapped by him a few times). We also saw things like this.
I gave a dollar to a homeless guy we’d seen the night before getting shooed out of a food truck vendor lot by a woman who said, “Move on, Karate Kid!” We’d seen him three times, so I wanted to give him something. He asked everyone, “Do you have a dollar?” I finally had some change for him, so I gave it to him while he rested on a gas meter outside a building. Austin has a large homeless population, many displaced by the gentrification of downtown. I hope the city is addressing the issue.
I didn’t miss the irony of helping a homeless man and then grabbing lunch at Terry Black’s BBQ, where I had some of the best smoked turkey I’ve ever eaten. I liked it better than Stubb’s, which is more famous. Afterwards, we headed to Symphony Square in time to see the last half of Indrajit Banerjeeand Gourisankar‘s set at the river stage.
Gourisankar and Indrajit Banerjee at the Symphony Square outdoor stage.
“This is my favorite part of the weekend so far,” my wife said.
We chatted with them after their set and gave them some ideas about Indiana theaters that might host them. They told us they were playing at the Scoot Inn later that night – the same place we had tickets to see Golden Dawn Arkestra. It was going to be a good evening.
We went to the Scoot Inn right away to get decent parking. We saw the construction crane upon which many people sat to see over the fence the night before when the Black Angels and the Brian Jonestown Massacre played there. We met more festival attendees while standing in line. People complained about scalpers selling tickets for up to $100 each (20x face value apiece) and not getting to see any bands scheduled for the festival. One couple behind us got to see a pop-up gig by stoner metal masters Sleep. They wanted to see at least one band from Levitation, even if they didn’t like stoner metal. Other people hadn’t learned about the makeup shows until they were sold out. The couple in front of us had gone to MR Festand saw La Luz perform there.
We got in and saw Blondi’s Salvationhad been added to the lineup. They got the show off to a good start with their French blend of psych rock.
Blondi’s Salvation
We had seen Puerto Rico’s Fantasmes at the 2014 festival, and we were surprised to hear how much heavier and darker they’d become since then. They looked and sounded like a Latino version of Interpol. It was a good set that made me want to seek out their newest material.
Fantasmes
I was pleased as punch by this point because not only had Fantasmes delivered some fine music, but I discovered the Scoot Inn sold an Austrian radler that I hadn’t had since a trip there almost three years ago.
Indrajit Banerjee and Gourisankar played a half-hour set after Fantasmes. We got up front for it. One of the sound guys walked past and said, “This is going to be bad-ass.”
“He’s right,” my wife said. He was, and so was she (as usual). The Indian music masters wowed the crowd and had everyone booming with cheers by the end of their set.
Gourisankar and Indrajit Banerjee
The night ended with a wild, powerful performance by Golden Dawn Arkestra, who I can best describe as a combination of Goat and Earth, Wind, and Fire. The band is as big as their Afro-jazz-funk sound. I counted seventeen people on stage at one point, and there was even a dancing wizard in front of the stage during the whole show to boot.
One half of Golden Dawn ArkestraAnother half of Golden Dawn Arkestra
People were bouncing during the whole set. I heard many raving about it after it was over. One woman was happy she hadn’t left after Fantasmes as she had planned. I told her I was glad she stayed.
I was glad everyone stayed for the whole weekend. I’m sure many turned around and went home when the festival was cancelled, but many toughed it out and either attended the makeup shows, went to other gigs, or had their own parties.
Levitation Austin 2016 will be remembered as “the one that got cancelled,” but it will also be looked upon as a badge of honor if you were there. Everyone has stories from the other festivals, but this one will have stories that become legends.
I hope to see you next year, Austin.
Keep your mind open.
[We hope to see your e-mail address in our subscription box.]
In case you missed it, music titans Radioheaderased their Facebook, Twitter, website, and pretty much everything else they had on the Internet two days ago. They were gone. Fans were puzzled, but not entirely surprised as Radiohead have been Internet renegades for years. They were the first to release an album (In Rainbows) online and told fans they could pay whatever they wanted for it, even nothing at all if they liked.
Their website and Twitter content was often cryptic, and they’d go for long stretches without posting anything.
They came back yesterday with a new single and video – “Burn the Witch.” It’s a dissonant, almost frantic song with Thom Yorke’s usual mysterious lyrics. The video is also a tribute to the unsettling film The Wicker Man. Don’t bother with the Nicolas Cage version. Just don’t. Enjoy the original, this new song, and the upcoming album (whenever that is) instead.
Keep your mind open.
[Don’t get burned by missing a post. Drop us your e-mail address in the subscription box to your left and get updates sent straight to you.]
What do you do when you fly from Indiana for Levitation Austinand it gets cancelled due to bad weather? You go to another music festival in San Marcos not even thirty miles away.
The Levitation coordinators and Travis County Emergency Services were putting out photos of the damaged festival site at Carson Creek Ranch by the time Saturday morning rolled around.
You can’t levitate when you’re stuck in mud.
That’s just one photo. Others showed vendor tents wrapped around trees. You can see collapsed tents in the background. The camping area was underwater. There would’ve been many injuries and perhaps worse if campers had been there during the storm.
We got a nice breakfast, my wife got a manicure and pedicure, and we were off to San Marcos for MR Fest. My Radio Fest (AKA MR Fest) is put on each year by Texas State University radio – KTSW. It’s an indie rock festival taking place over one day and two nights in eight different venues in downtown San Marcos. The best part? All the shows are free. They were actively Tweeting for people devastated by the loss of Levitation to come down for it. I was sold once I learned Night Beats were playing Saturday night for free.
We got into town around 2:00pm and happened to park next door to Superfly’s – a wrecka stow that was also one of the eight venues. We walked in and saw a three-piece rock band called Sloe Your Rollwho were putting on a good set of blues jam-rock.
Sloe Your Roll
We then wandered down to a nice underground bar called Kiva and saw a Hum-like three-piece called Sidechick. “They could play Levitation,” my wife said. She’s right. They have a solid sound that mixes shoegaze with hard rock.
Sidechick
Strange Lotplayed right after them. They were a mix of psych and stoner rock and so good I picked up their two CD’s after their set.
Strange Lot
We got a snack and then came back to see a partial set from Jumping Moons, who were a heavy two-piece that played to the back wall.
Jumping Moons
We then headed across the street to Stonewall – a local gay bar that was hosting four different bands that night. The first we saw was The Real Hands, who played a set of mellow rock and a lot of songs about relationships. Another fun part about the Stonewall shows was that KTSW was giving away hundreds of CD’s from their archives. I snagged a copy of Bob Mould‘s Life and Times.
The Real Hands
Up next were Dayluta Means Kindness, who were the loudest band we’d seen so far. They played a great set of instrumental heavy shoegaze / drone rock. I need to find their material.
Dayluta Means Kindness
We went to dinner at a local brew pub and realized the place was packed due to the NBA playoff game between the San Antonio Spurs and the Oklahoma City Thunder starting about the time our food arrived. The pub was full of Spurs fans (as San Antonio is about 40 miles from San Marcos), so we joined in on the fun for the first quarter and then left to see the last half of the set by Mr. Lewis and the Funeral 5 (even though there are only four of them) – who play blues rock with a gothic twinge.
Mr. Lewis and the Funeral 5
We walked across the town square to The Marc – a nice concert hall venue – to see Golden Gravesopen for The Night Beats. Golden Graves played to a welcoming crowd who liked their alt-rock style. You could tell they were having a good time, and that energy transferred to the crowd.
Golden Graves
The Night Beatscame out and put down another killer set. They had some issues with the Marc sound crew not getting stuff right in their monitors, but they soldiered through the difficulties and wowed the crowd by the end. It was their first time playing in San Marcos and they won many fans that night. They are gunslingers on stage, and the crowd knew it. “My face is melting!” yelled one college lad.
The Night Beats
That was about the time I realized my wife and I were among the oldest people in the crowd. Truth to tell, I’ll still be going to shows like this thirty years from now.
We left tired but happy. It was a fun day that took us somewhere unexpected. Plus, we got to see the Night Beats twice in three nights – and once for free. I’d also scored tickets to a Sunday Levitation makeup show featuring Golden Dawn Arkestra – who was high on my list for the festival. Sunday was looking good.
Next: Double sitar and tabla, killer BBQ, electric shocks, the Karate Kid, and Ra worship.
We awoke Friday with no plan of what to do or where to go. We weren’t in panic mode, mind you. Austin’s a fun city and you can find plenty to do there. Live music is always happening at some place in town. I snagged a copy of the local alternative newspaper and scoured it for anything fun. The folks at Levitationhad also Tweeted they were going to post the schedule and locations of makeup shows as soon as possible.
We decided to see a movie at one of the Alamo Drafthouse theaters in town. I discovered on the way there that many gigs had been scheduled for the weekend, and tickets were only five bucks apiece. I ordered tickets for a Friday night show at Empirefeaturing Imarhan,Indrajit Banerjee and Gourisankar, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Klaus Johan Grobe, and others. The other shows scheduled for the rest of the weekend sold out in minutes. The website crashed from so many people attempting to access it, meaning many were left high and dry for tickets. To make matters worse, scalpers went to the venues and bought fistfuls of the five-dollar tickets so they could attempt to reap a heavy profit from the desperate festival attendees.
We saw Keanu, and it’s good fun. I figured the city would be soaked in the predicted rain by the time we left the theater. Nope. Not a drop. The day continued with warm weather and cloudy skies, but no rain. Twitter was buzzing with angry Tweets to Travis County Emergency Services. Even I Tweeted, “Is your meteorologist of choice going to issue an apology for their erroneous forecast? This is egg on your face.”
They replied that “forecasts change” and they had to go with the information they had at the time. I replied that I understood their position, but they needed to issue a press release instead of the Levitation coordinators being responsible for dispensing all the information. Not doing so made them look even more like the grumpy men who cancelled the festival to spite all the hippies and freaks.
They did send out links to official statements not long after this. Their fire marshal explained that the ground was so saturated from previous flooding that they told the Levitation coordinators that they’d have to find alternate parking before the festival since people would get stuck there if the predicted rain came through, not to mention that it would flood the entire camping area. No alternate parking or camping areas could be found, so the festival was cancelled.
It turned out to be the right call because the predicted heavy storms came through around 4:30am on Saturday. 60mph wind gusts, hail, heavy rain, lightning strikes, and tornado warnings were involved.
But you’d probably like to know about the show we actually saw. We had a tasty ramen meal at a downtown restaurant and got to Empire in time to see Klaus Johan Grobe. They played a fun set of electro funk that we really enjoyed. We probably wouldn’t have seen them at the main festival because their set was during someone else’s I wanted to attend, so it was a lucky break for us.
Klaus Johan Grobe
I wandered to the outside stage to see the beginning of Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats‘ set. I didn’t stay for all of it because the humidity and heat was brutal out there. The venue had put up a long tent over the outside portion of the stage to protect the sound boards and attendees from more potential rain. The rain never came, but the humidity did. It combined with the heat of hundreds of bodies and was stifling. I went back inside to see Nots play their Bikini Kill-inspired rock set .
Nots
We were disappointed when sitar master Indrajit Banerjee and tabla masterGourisankardidn’t play. I figured their set must’ve been cancelled. I didn’t find them playing anywhere in the venue and was on my way to get a drink when I saw them in the bar chatting with people. I asked Gourisankar if I missed their set. He laughed and said their manager had mixed up the venues and they thought they were supposed to play the Mohawk (about two blocks away) at 10:00pm instead of at Empire at 9:00pm. He introduced me to Indrajit, and both were very pleasant and asked where I lived. I told them northern Indiana “near South Bend,” and they said they’ve played at the University of Notre Dame many times. I told them I DJ’ed there and they said they were looking for more clubs in Indiana to play gigs. They invited me to a free show they were playing on Sunday at Symphony Square so we could talk more about it.
Up next were Imarhan, a Tuareg band who were high on my list this year. They didn’t disappoint. They played a great set of African / Arabic / desert rock that had the crowd moving, clapping, and cheering.
Imarhan
We stuck around for part of a Prince tribute by local band Foot Traffic, but left once a large part of the outside crowd stuffed into the indoor space and shot up the heat in the room by about 200%.
I couldn’t get tickets for any of the Saturday shows. I was eager to get tickets to see Bayonne and Caribou, but they were already going for at least $40 each on Craigslist. In case you forgot, that’s eight times face value each.
I had to find something for us to do, and I did in a town about 25 miles away. It involved music, and it was all free.
Up next: Mr. Fest, indie rock, Night Beats, and free CD’s.
Keep your mind open.
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We flew into Austin for our semi-annual trip to the Levitation Music Festivalon April 27th. I dropped my sunglasses in the Austin airport, cracking the left lens. It wasn’t in a spot that affected my vision, but it still wasn’t a good sign. There were no festival-related gigs going on that day, so we spent our first day in Austin getting good food, and checking out the Sfanthor wax museum and a couple wrecka stows before settling in for a nice sleep at the Air BNB house we’d reserved months ago.
Day 1 of the festival was actually April 28th. The Thursday night pre-festival shows are always worth flying into town a day ahead of the full festival. My wife and I have seen great bands at the Thursday night shows: A Place to Bury Strangers, Night Beats, Sisters of Your Sunshine Vapor, Elephant Stone, and more.
The festival had expanded the Thursday night shows from two venues to three this year. Unfortunately they also added separate admission prices for each venue. Buying a weekend pass to the festival got you into the Thursday night shows for free in previous years. The Levitation promoters have stated they hope to return to this format in the future. I hope they do, as shelling out another $30.00 (for two people) per venue wasn’t something I couldn’t afford. I had to choose just one of the venues, so I chose the Empire – a converted auto mechanic garage with indoor and outdoor performance areas.
We’d get to see Night Beats, the Blind Owls, the Hollow Trees, Al Lover, the Golden Dawn, and Studded Left there. It meant missing Blaak Heat, The Well, Death Valley Girls, Silk Rodeo, the Turns, Vinyl Williams, and the Coathangers at the other venues, but I won’t skip a chance to see Night Beats, the Golden Dawn are Texas psych legends, and the Blind Owls were a new discovery that sounded like they were good rockers.
They were. The Blind Owlswere the first band we saw at Levitation, and they kicked it off well. They, like us, arrived late due to heavy traffic on I-35, so their set was cut a bit short. “No slow ones,” my wife said as they launched into early 1960’s garage-style rock that knocked you back on your heels.
The Blind Owls
I met most of them afterwards and told them I’d be playing them on WSNDthis summer. They said they’d send their full-length album for me to play there. Let’s hope so, because everything from it sounds great.
I saw posters at Empire advertising the official app for the festival. I downloaded it and then I learned what everyone else was learning.
Levitation Austin 2016 had been cancelled.
Travis County Emergency Services pulled the plug on the festival due to flash flooding the previous week causing the festival grounds at Carson Creek Ranch to be oversaturated with water. Further flooding was a serious concern, mostly for the camping and parking areas. There were also predicted heavy storms due to hit Austin the following day around 1:00pm – exactly when the festival started. These storms were supposed to bring hail, 60mph winds, rain, and maybe a tornado or two.
We were stunned. We’d flown from Indiana for this. We knew that thousands were descending upon the city for the festival, many from even further away. People and bands come from England, Australia, South America, Europe, Africa, Japan, and even more countries for this festival. Campers would be left without places to stay. Bands would be left without gigs. Vendors would be left without sales.
The Levitation folks were as shell-shocked as any of us, but they promised full refunds for purchased tickets, and that they would scramble to find venues for makeup gigs throughout the weekend. Those gigs would be a separate admission price, unfortunately, and would likely sell out since thousands would be competing for tickets to a small venue. The upside was that the proceeds from these shows would go to victims of the recent flooding.
The word quickly spread as we watched the Hollow Trees play their trippy and heavy psych rock.
The Hollow Trees
After that came a good set by the Golden Dawn, who played to an appreciative crowd.
The Golden Dawn
Back inside, people were drowning their sorrows with any drinks they could buy. We sat in the Control Room, the Empire’s interior performance space, for part of psych-DJ Al Lover‘s set and mused on what we were going to do all weekend. Would we still get to see Brian Wilson, Lee Scratch Perry, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Caribou, Slowdive, the Black Angels, David J and the Gentlemen Thieves, or any of the 20+ bands we wanted to see?
Al Lover
We were cheered by the Night Beats, who have yet to play a bad set whenever I see them. This set was faster and angrier than their Levitation Chicago set in March. It was as if they were saying, “You know what? Screw you, bad weather.” and venting everyone’s frustrations. One great highlight was them including a new cover of Bo Diddley‘s “Mama, Keep Your Big Mouth Shut.”
The Night Beats
We caught the first part of Studded Left’s (a side project of Indian Jewelry) set inside before getting some nice food truck BBQ and then heading to our rented bedroom to sleep off our travel exhaustion and blues.
Studded Left
Tomorrow: Scrambling for tickets, crashed websites, breakfast in outer space, Travis County ES faces wrath, and gangster kittens.
Brazilian songstress and soon-to-be your new favorite singer Ceu’s new album Tropix is a nice blend of bossa nova, electro, and lounge pop that’s like a breath of fresh air in the nasty political landscapes both here and in Brazil right now.
“Perfume Do Invisivel” is the first single, and it’s a lovely electro song that blends bossa nova beauty with club banging beats during the chorus. I’m sure it’s inspired a hundred remixes in clubs across South America and Europe by now. “Arrastarte-Ei” gets quirky with its beats, but Ceu’s voice remains a constant smooth groove throughout it. “Amor Pixelado” (“Pixelated Love”) is haunting and lovely as Ceu’s voice drifts around you like a heartbroken ghost until the computer beats drop and turn the song into something Thom Yorke probably has on an iPhone playlist.
“Varanda Suspensa” (“Suspended Balcony”) will get your hips moving with its synth horns, and the synths are even more prominent on “Etilica / Interludio” (“Ethyl / Interlude”). It’s a good track, and sounds like something the Pet Shop Boys would’ve created in the early 1990’s.
“A Menina E O Monstro” (“A Girl and a Monster”) starts with a music box and then a synth beat that sounds like a skipping record before it turns into a wonky warbled thing that is as catchy as it is bizarre. “Minhas Bics” has neat, crisp guitar that taps out the beat before the dubstep bass wanders into the room like a fat guy eyeing a buffet.
“Chico Buarque Song” is the first time I’ve heard Ceu sing in English, and it’s a stunning piece. It has a big, bold chorus, spooky synths that border on goth music, and Ceu’s voice at its sexy best. “Sangria” is a lovely ballad that I’m guessing is more about actual blood than the booze.
“Camadas” (“Layers”) is even sexier than “Sangria.” Sade wishes she had a song like this. The drums are exquisite, the bass is smooth, the synths are groovy, and Ceu’s voice is sultry. I’m fairly certain scores of Brazilians are shagging to this song even now. “A Nave Vai” has sharp funky guitar throughout it, and “Rapsodia Brasilis” has the funkiest drums on the record.
It’s a good close to this lovely album of electro-bossa nova, which should be an entire genre if you ask me.
