art is the new religion

Best of 2008: Wildbirds & Peacedrums

A few Sundays ago, I sat with a group of friends at a bar before we all headed to the same show.  Three of the five of us hadn't heard much from the band we were about to see, so they asked me to describe it.

Me: "Well, they're not going to change your life --"
Friend:  "Why do you say that?  You said that when you were describing another band, too."

I say that because most of the music I truly love does change my life.  The highest calling for my most beloved musicians is that they touch my ears and my heart in a completely new way.  They open up new worlds of possibility in my imagination.  Their work can make me feel new sensations, emotionally and physically.  When I hear, for the first time, an artist whose work will change my life, it's one of the most exhilarating experiences I've ever known. 

Accordingly, it's not often that I find an artist that affects me this way.  This is not to say that I don't enjoy a lot of music.  In fact, I regularly discover new artists and uncover artists from the past whose music I love and who I rave about and recommend.  But my life-changers?  I only run across one of those artists once every year or two.

A few Fridays ago, I discovered another one*: 

Wildbirds & Peacedrums

How did I find them?  I was making a rare visit to Stereogum, paging through post after post about bands I don't care about -- new bands that are covered mostly because they're new and heaven forbid Stereogum not cover the next big [blank] -- when I saw My Brightest Diamond listed in one of the posts.  Thinking it would take me to a live performance or news or a video by My Brightest Diamond, I clicked through only to discover it was a post where Shara Worden, aka MBD, talked up "a couple of her recent favorite outside sounds" in a series about bands from Sweden. 

(A word of advice: whenever you get a chance to get recommendations from an artist you love, listen to them.  It's the best kind of word of mouth.)

Wildbirds & Peacedrums are Mariam Wallentin (vocalist) and Andreas Werliin (drummer), a married couple from Sweden.  Much of their music consists of spare arrangements of drumming and singing with only the occasional embellishment from another instrument.  There isn't a whole lot written about Wildbirds & Peacedrums yet (at the time of this post, they have less than 3000 MySpace friends), but what's out there includes a whole lot of comparisons.  You can drop names like The White Stripes (another two-person band), Joanna Newsom (it's just an occasional similarity in timbre), Karen O (I don't hear this one really) or PJ Harvey or Feist, but I promise you've never heard anything like Wildbirds & Peacedrums before. 

"We had no musical ideals to trust or lean on, so we just had to believe in ourselves and each other"

- Werliin

Their album Heartcore is high art: it doesn't follow convention, it finds its own way, makes its own strange sense.  It's not easy, but it feels right.  It rewards the careful listener, blooming brighter with each successive spin.  There are no signposts here; the terrain changes from one song to the next so you must be willing to get lost with them. Wallentin's voice is a universe unto itself, a true original.

After reading Shara's words about them that Friday night, I woke up the following morning and made a rare trip to Amoeba to buy their album.  Thank you, Shara, for the tip, and thank you Amoeba for having one copy of Heartcore on vinyl.

I cannot wait to see this band perform live.  Until then:

#9.2 Wildbirds & Peacedrums - Doubt Hope from Handheld Shows on Vimeo.

#9.1 Wildbirds & Peacdrums - The Window from Handheld Shows on Vimeo.

• Buy Wildbirds & Peacedrums Heartcore on vinyl from Insound.
• Related: My post about My Brightest Diamond's new album

*I'm not saying they'll change your life, I'm saying they're changing mine.

Woke up with this song in my head: Whiskeytown "16 Days"

Here's a live performance of "16 Days" from April 1997 in St. Louis.  Doesn't Ryan look happy here?  I wish I could have seen Whiskeytown back in '97, but I don't think I'd heard of them yet.

If you enjoy Americana, country, folk, or any of Ryan Adams' later efforts, I highly recommend you get a copy of Strangers Almanac.  It's a terrific record from start to finish.  

• Buy Whiskeytown's Strangers Almanac from Amazon.

Unboxing Insound

I don't really understand the fascination with unboxing, but I'm excited enough to get my order from Insound today that I'm going to share photos!

I opened the box to discover some free stuff that had been thrown in.  Seven inches from Trail of Dead and Midnight Movies, a RATATAT iron-on, and a Spring/Summer Insound catalog.  The other seven inch is one I ordered - Constantines' "Hard Feelings/Easy Money" - in order to reach the free shipping over $x threshold.

 

My Brightest Diamond A Thousand Shark's Teeth & Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago:

 

Constantines Kensington Heights & RATATAT LP3:

No way to control it, it's totally automatic

I've had this song stuck in my head for days, so the only thing to do now is pass it on to you.

I've known this song for years, but I never knew who sang it until I Googled it.  And, I'm not gonna lie:  all this time I thought the lead vocal in the verse was sung by a man!  I had no idea it was the Pointer Sisters.  I'm still wrapping my head around this as I watch the video.

"All I can manage to push from my lips
Is a stream of absurdities"

OK now I'm on to the costumes - how great are they?  The lavender pantaloons?  The iridescent fabric?  Ruffles, ruffles, ruffles!  The Pointer Sister in the hot pink on the right, her legs go on for days.  The synth sounds in this song are out of this world.  And pay attention to the dancers on the wide shots - I love the woman wearing the spandex bodysuit with a belt.  What is the belt holding up??

More fun facts:

• They really are sisters with the surname of Pointer!
• The Pointers are from Oakland, heyy.
• They were the first black female singers to perform at the Grand Ole Opry.
• Ruth Pointer was a grandmother by the time "Automatic" came out!
• They recorded the pinball number count from Sesame Street!

That is quite possibly the greatest cartoon ever made!

So that's two earworms for ya.  Which one is in your head now?

We Are Scientists: Git Along, Lil Doggie

My love for We Are Scientists is pretty well-documented, but they've managed to make me love them a little bit more.  I just saw the new video for "Chick Lit" off of Brain Thrust Mastery (thanks to CupCate's post).  Combine the humor we're accustomed to from W.A.S. with lots of fluffy pomeranians, and I'm hooked:



Can't wait to see We Are Scientists at The Independent on Sunday.

• Buy We Are Scientists' Brain Thrust Mastery from Insound.

cassettes from my ex

Continuing on the cassettes theme, I found this site via Randee Dawn:

http://www.cassettefrommyex.com/

The stories on the front page come largely from professional writers, who include a photo of themselves, a photo of the tape and a complete track listing.  (They should send me a photo of themselves WITH the tape!) 

The coolest aspect of each entry is that there's a neat inline player that lets you listen to the audio of each mixtape.  Side A and Side B are separate streams, of course.

I've only read a few of the stories, but my favorite so far is from Katy Finch called "Scarface and 40's":

"I met Robert at a Purple Rain party. It was 1992 and my spring break trip to Santa Cruz, where my friend Crina was going to a much cooler school, was almost over. But I had one last night and a party full of Prince before my departure. While Crina’s roommates rehearsed their band in the garage, beating their way through a Dokken cover then smoothly transitioning into a track from Freaky Styly, we hung lavender vinyl in the windows and baked pot brownies for the party. I was not looking forward to flying back to Poughkeepsie where everyone at my east coast college was trying to convince each other that they had bought Bleach before they had bought Nevermind. Including me."

Cheers to Katy for all those delicious details, and cheers to the team that created the website.

My Brightest Diamond

My Brightest Diamond, a.k.a. Shara Worden, released her second album last week.  I don't have A Thousand Shark's Teeth yet but I'm going to snag a copy on vinyl as soon as possible.  The tracks I've heard from it, online and during a live set earlier this year at SXSW, are even more haunting, gorgeous, challenging and ambitious than those on her first album.  I love to hear an artist grow, mature and stretch, filling an ever more unique shape amongst the edges of their influences.  I usually despise it when people compare artists to Jeff Buckley, either because the comparison is completely unfounded, or because the comparison just highlights outright imitation.  Shara comes close to copping a few of Jeff's most unique legacies in her vocals, songwriting and guitar tones, but for some reason I register her similarities as tributes and not theft.

I got to see Shara perform at SXSW earlier this year in a church with gorgeous acoustics.  I sat with dear friends, eating homemade cookies we bought from the churchgoing ladies while Shara serenaded us with her opera-quality voice, theatrical garb, and comfortable command of dynamics.  Watch this live performance from Other Music (a record store in NYC - I used to work right across the street from it) for a taste of Shara's talents.

Hear more of Shara's thoughts about the new record:

Shark's Teeth - Part I from My Brightest Diamond.

The copy editor in me would like to point out, due to the placement of the apostrophe in the album title, that we're talking here about one thousand teeth (which come from a shark), and not all the teeth from one thousand sharks.

• Buy A Thousand Shark's Teeth from Insound (mp3).

Happiness is a Hammond

I found this video on Jessica Hopper's blog, one of my all time favorite blogs which I've read regularly for a few years now.  I don't know this Candy Lawrence, but in less than two minutes she's summed up a great deal of how I feel about music, dancing, and happiness.

Thank you, Candy Lawrence.

Ted Nugent at The Fillmore

It's been a crazy week.  I was out sick, work's been wild, and then last night I found myself at the Ted Nugent show at the Fillmore. 

As I mentioned yesterday, my friend Chris was playing with the opening artist Alex Winston.  He smuggled me into the venue before the doors opened with this impressive custom VIP pass and we caught up over a pre-show meal in the Fillmore's dining room.  We killed time before their set in the backstage area, which is really on the side of the stage on two levels.  Since Ted doesn't really spend time backstage (he probably lingers in his plush tour bus or nice hotel room and then shows up minutes before his set starts), Alex and her band had access to the main backstage room on the upper balcony. I was able to watch Alex's set from this vantage point. 

After her set concluded, the guys had to load out their gear.  I knew I had at least half an hour to kill so I left the backstage area to wander around and people watch a bit.  I'd estimate Nugent's audience to be around 85% male, and I was definitely the only female wandering around by herself.  The people watching was interesting for a little while, until I started to feel a little creeped out by the leers of drunk dudes.  I walked back up to the side balcony and attempted to re-enter the safety of the backstage area and was promptly stopped by the bouncer at the entrance.  Apparently even with my fancy VIP badge, I still needed to be escorted by a band member.  Nugent's security is pretty tight.

I sent Chris a text telling him to come save me, then took a seat on the public side of the balcony where about 40 or so fans were waiting to watch the show.  A few moments later, two burly dudes came in and ordered a few people to clear a walkway.  Then the 'Nuge himself strode in, all hat and flowing hair, long legs and smug smile. He was surrounded by about five men, all making a quick walk of the 20 or so yards to the backstage entrance.  It happened so quickly that most people just had enough time to turn their heads and smile and maybe let out a "Hey, man!"  Except for one woman:

"Teeeeed!  THAT'S TED!!!"

She wobbled to her feet and teetered after the entourage, sloppily grasping over the shoulders of the rear bodyguard.  Though her desire to touch her idol was indisputably fervent, the fact that she was at least a few drinks into her evening softened the effects of her pursuit.  She almost seemed to be grasping for him in slow motion, yelling out his name at full volume while forty other fans stood by and watched.  It didn't take Ted long to disappear behind the backstage curtains and it was over as quickly as it started, but the woman's night was made.  "That was TED F*$^IN' NUGENT!" she yelled as she tottered back to her friends, elated.  I can only imagine how many times and to how many people she'll tell this story for years to come.

I finally made my way backstage again and before reuniting with Chris I watched a few songs of Ted's set.  In addition to a fully painted backdrop, his stage set included: 

• a semi-automatic weapon (fake?)
• US flag
• California state flag
• animal skull
• animal pelt
• Ted Nugent-branded wall of amplifiers
• raccoon tail, affixed to pants

Got Me In A Stranglehold

I've been sick this week but managed to rally today, just in time to see my friend Chris who is in town tonight playing at The Fillmore in Alex Winston's band.  He says he hates when I mention my "friends" on my blog, so this should really annoy him.  Here's a video of Alex's band on this tour (Chris is the guitar player wearing glasses):

I don't know Alex's stuff very well, but I do know the headliner:  Mr. Ted Nugent.  Come on, come on up!