Concert Review – Of Montreal – Queen Elizabeth Theatre – 28/10/08

I’d heard that Of Montreal involved theatrical elements in their live shows, but I never would have expected what was on show at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.

It was my first time at this venue, and I have to say I was pretty impressed – not too cavernous, but not too small either, with a nice back section with stacked seating, which provided a clear view to the stage.

Ah yes, the stage. The band had quite a set-up, with two drumkits (sometimes played simultaneously), keyboards, varying numbers of guitarists and bassists and of course, Kevin Barnes himself, who spent the entire night bounding around in a variety of costume changes, including a glittering blue jacket, pink bathrobe and, in a few cases, tiny shorts that no man with a sense of shame would be seen wearing.

But then again, shame isn’t really prominent at a Of Montreal show. If you’re here to look trendy and nonchalent, you may be wondering whether to laugh or enjoy yourself or not when there’s gold robots dancing around the stage, or several people in naked bodysuits (with replica gentilia) leaping around, or Barnes dressed as a centaur, or being covered in red paint, or emerging from a coffin smeared head to toe in what looks like shaving cream.

Add to that a a large video screen running edits of the band playing with cartoons, and a few set pieces, such as a short story involving a shoot out in a Wild West saloon, a hanging complete will full life size gallows, and a “scene” with soldiers crawling around the edge of the stage before breaking into dance, all of this going on around, and through, the songs.

The songs! I almost forgot. Blending a decent mix from their extensive back catalogue, with barely a break between them, the band played quite a bit from their most recent release, “Skeletal Lamping”, including a personal favourite of mine – the album’s opener “Nonpareil of Favor”.

After they finished their confetti and feather strewn main set, and after a man dressed in a black bodysuit with a parrot’s head and giant arms/wings worked up (and down) the crowd, the band returned to the stage, playing their last song of the night which was, somewhat strangely, a straight cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. It was interesting to see the band in a completely different light – without the acts and the dancing (well, there were still some people dancing) it offered a new view of the band.

So overall, after seeing the night’s performance I’ve found more of a respect for the band – they’re truly trying to give the ticket buyer a full-out show for their money, and in this day and age, that must mean something.

 

last song i heard – “i thought you said you were blind” – bearsuit

 

Feeder in Bus Crash.

Feeder could consider themselves lucky after today, when they managed to get out of their tour bus after a crash on the M62, before it exploded.

They were leaving that night’s gig in Glasgow and were on their way to Lincoln when the accident happened. The motorway has been shut down due to the accident.

Their tour is apparently unaffected, according to their management.

And I chose to post this as an excuse to put this video in, which is still is good as it was when I was 16 – enjoy!

 

 

last song i heard – “buck rogers” – feeder

 

Animal Collective’s New LP Gets A Tracklisting.

Animal Collective’s website changed recently, adding an almost cryptic video to the main page, as well as presenting the words “Merriweather Post Pavilion” and not much else.

Word is that it’s their next album, and is expected to be out in January of next year.

The tracklisting of the new album, according to 3/4’s of the band, is:

1 – In the Flowers 

2- My Girls

3 – Also Frightened

4 – Summertime Clothes

5 – Daily Routine

6 – Bluish

7 – Guy’s Eyes

8 – Taste

9 – Lion in a Coma

10 – No More Runnin’

11- Brother Sport

The band are currently on an extensive tour of Europe:

10/11 Berlin, Germany @ Berghain
10/12 Warsaw, Poland @ Fabryka Trzciny
10/13 Krakow, Poland @ Jazz Club Hipnoza
10/14 Prague, Czech Republic @ Archa Theatre
10/15 Vienna, Austria @ Arena
10/16 Ljubljana, Slovenia @ Menza pri Koritu
10/17 Bratislava, Slovakia @ A4
10/18 Zagreb, Croatia @ Teatat and TD
10/19 Belgrade, Serbia @ Dom Omladine
10/20 Skopje, Macedonia @ Mac MKC
10/21 Thessaloniki, Greece @ Principle Theatre
10/22 Athens, Greece @ Gagarin 205
10/23 Tel Aviv, Israel @ Zappa
10/24 Istanbul, Turkey @ Babylon
10/25 Valencia, Spain @ Greenspace Festival
11/06 Santiago, Chile @ Industria Cultural
11/08 São Paulo, Brazil @ Planeta Terra Festival
11/09 Buenos Aires, Argentina @ La Trastienda
11/13 Lima, Peru @ Centro Fundación Telefónica

You can see a video with the song “Taste” in it here.

 

last song i heard – “when you wasn’t famous” –  Bromhead’s Jacket

Might As Well Be Blockbuster.

While I’m in the video type of mood, here’s the one from the new single “Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants” by the excellent Wild Beasts:

last song i heard – “the old dog” – wild beasts

Words Fail Me.

Actually, no they don’t. 

Consider this:

Now…

- How can so many instruments sound like nothing at all?

- Why do I hear girls when I see men?

- Why do bands still insist on doing that awful synchronised guitar movement thing?

- These lot are apparently English, so why do they sound like an average U.S “punk” money shitting machine?

- What sort of Englishman says “lame ass”?

 

last song i heard – “terrible excuse for a song” by some terrible excuse for a band (or if you want to be accurate – “you got guts” by paige)

Concert Review – Le Stack, Hospitals, Hot Panda, The Awkward Stage – 12/10/08

We got to the Merchant Ale House close to 9:30, in time to catch a few songs by the first band, Le Stack. Consisting of a drummer (who’d apparently came down from Milton and learnt the songs on the same day) and a singer, who switched between playing the bass, a keyboard and his hair. It seemed like every twenty seconds or so he was making sure his fringe was pulled over to the right side of his head, in consequence making himself look like a bit of a tit. Music wise, rough electronic indie stuff, that seems oddly out of time in places. They did do a couple of songs where he started rapping instead, and these were probably the best part of the short set. But the songs that focused on making lots of Shout Out Out Out Out Out-esque noise resulted in just that – noise. Next time they should focus on what the keyboard’s doing instead of what their hair’s looking like.

The next act was someone called Hospitals, who had a classical guitar and a laptop. Seems like everyone is using laptops to provide backing music these days, so I was a bit wary, and started concentrating on my lovely home-brewed blueberry beer. However when he started playing it was a nice surprise, with Latin sounding music with some mellow rapping over the top. It reminded me very much of some of Buck 65’s work, but that’s not really a bad thing, and the subject matter of some of the songs was refreshing, and not just the usual “let’s go and get drunk and look at women and fight someone because we’re young.” So all in all a good set and someone I’ll remember – I noticed he had a CD for sale too. Not bad, not bad.

The third band was Hot Panda, who can probably look forward to being bundled in with the “twee-core” genre, if it’s big enough to be called a genre. Playing songs from their EP along with some from their forthcoming album “Volcano… Bloody Volcano”, which is due out in February, they had a good sound to them. Sounding a lot like Los Campesinos on first impressions, but with the added element of an accordian, they rattled through their roughly 40 minute set with a fair level of energy. After the set I got talking with Mike, their keyboard/accordian player, who told me that accordians are very heavy to practice with, and a good way of learning to play one is to watch tutorials on youtube. Well, you learn something new every day.

With my new pint of apricot beer – I know, I know, very manly – I started watching the headliners, the Awkward Stage, who I think are from Vancouver. I’ve got to be honest, they didn’t really stand out to me. One aspect I liked was the trumpet player, which added some extra depth to the otherwise basic one-bass two-guitar set-up. I don’t know why there isn’t more trumpet in music, but I suppose it’s a good thing that it’s not milked for all it’s worth and everybody’s playing one.

Other than the bits with the trumpet, I wasn’t really impressed. They seemed like an average bar-style band, and even kind of looked like one. I think they’ve got a couple of albums out (and were promoting their second one, I believe), and they’re playing a tonne of dates, so for a cheap night out – tickets were only $5 on the door – they’re worth trying, but it might be a good idea not to go in the doors with high expectations from the headliners.

 All in all though, a couple of good bands and a couple of so-so ones, but how often can you see four bands in one night?

 

last song i heard – “careful” – hot chip

 

 

Does This Mean the Dinosaurs Might Come Back?

I was given a college assignment which asked to pick a geopolitical topic of our choice and write about it. I chose to write about biodiversity and its losses:

 

Flick to the environmental section of any magazine or website and chances are you’ll plenty of articles regarding what style of bike to buy, why to shop at a farmer’s market and guides on how to live without power, you know, just in case. Choose to read a newspaper instead and you may more daunting reads, including updates on peak oil and the dreaded global warming. However, there is a subject that doesn’t seem to receive the same hysterical media coverage, and that subject is the biodiversity crisis.

Biodiversity is basically the variety of life forms within a certain area, or ecosystem. For Earth’s ecosystems to remain healthy, they require many varying kinds of plants and animals, from forests to insects.

However, many biologists and environmentalists believe that biodiversity is in serious trouble, claiming we are in the beginning stages of a global mass extinction not experienced since the age of the dinosaurs.

There have been at least five mass extinctions in the history of life on our planet, with the last occurring 65 million years ago, which is known to be the instigator of the end of the Cretaceous period.

In 1998, the American Museum of Natural History carried out a survey with 400 biologists, with almost 70% believing that they were in the beginning stages of a global mass extinction.

You may be asking what ‘s so interesting about this. Clearly it’s not the first time it’s happened, so why are those with scientific experience getting so worked up?

The difference between previous mass extinctions and the current one is us. The last one wasn’t a result of people going around killing dinosaurs with rocks and elaborate Wile E Coyote style traps. Yet many scientists agree that human activity is the root cause of the deterioration in our biodiversity.

The expansion of human settlements, mining, farming and pollution have all been blamed, as well as the seemingly obvious over-exploitation of certain species, such as shark-finning and whaling. There was even a study released in January stating that researchers are killing wild chimpanzees by inadvertently giving them colds.

A 2004 article from the “Nature” journal suggested that by 2050 around a quarter of the world’s plants and animals could die, as a result of global warming. The article was a result of a global collaboration of 19 scientists., each of which fed field data into a computer that simulated the ways that different species are expected to respond to climate changes.

The World Conservation Union has found that animals are becoming extinct at 100 to 1,000 times the usual rate.

My point to all this is: why is this not being reported on the same scale as global warming or peak oil? Does it not matter?

The media have seemed to embrace environmentalism, as seen in this year’s widespread coverage of Earth Hour. I agree that raising awareness of power consumption is worthwhile, but so surely is raising awareness that we’re killing many groups of species that help to keep us alive, through purifying water, carrying out photosynthesis and pollinating crops.

Actually, that last one is interesting. One of the insects largely known for pollinating crops are bees, which have been disappearing from their colonies in recent years. The possible cause is something called Colony Collapse Disorder, which results in a hive empty apart from a few survivors. The others simply leave, with many apparently dying off soon after. CCD, is it’s known, is reportedly occurring in twenty-two U.S states, Poland, Spain, and much of Europe.

The thing is though, bees are a lot more important than we take them for, and I was surprised when I started reading about this. Insects pollinate around one third of the human diet, with bees being responsible for 80% of that third. Some people believe that if bees were to go completely extinct, humans would last no more than 4 years. The theory goes that no bees means no plants, which feed animals, so there’d be no more animals. Animals feed us, so there’d be no more us.

Whether this is exaggerated or not, it is interesting nonetheless. The idea that one species going under could be responsible for the destruction of human live, in four years(!), makes me stop and think.

 I think the reason that nothing is being done with this issue (from a political standpoint) could be down to the belief that this is a natural occurrence, that has happened before, therefore nothing can be changed. Therefore, we may as well continue building, forcing animals out of their habitats and leveling foresty and green regions.

The other reason I can come up with is that, compared to other topics like pollution, offshore drilling and how nuclear power is going to kill us all, spending all your time talking about saving frogs, penguins and pretty little blue flowers seems very self-indulgent and almost weak. Yet, even for a swaggering pile of testosterone like myself, it’s a tough topic to take a concrete stance on – would you rather see people die from hunger due to a lack of cropland, or a few birds?

Looking ahead, the human population is expected to grow at its current rate of 6 million people a month. By 2030, that’ll be 132,000 extra people, requiring current world food production levels to rise by 50% in order to feed them. Obivously those people will have to live somewhere, and food will have to come from somewhere, so that probably means spreading out into more habitats, which probably means a further loss of species.

It’s a tricky subject for me to get my head around. The fact that all this around us is the result of 4 billion years of evolution must mean something, and for us to watch as it dies off must be saying something about us, I’m just not sure what.

In the end, though, maybe there’s nothing we can do. Maybe it’s just a part of Earth’s random evolvement, and this time we’re part of it. But surely the relentless building of suburbs isn’t helping.

In the meantime, though, I’m going to try and get out and see a bit more of it, before it all turns into concrete and tower blocks.

 

last song i heard – “cheerio chaps, cheerio goodbye” – wild beasts