You gotta have some soul to start off a Sunday, and church this morning was provided by the Screamin’ Eagle of soul himself, Mr. Charles Bradley & the Menahan Street Band. Charles had a perpetual look on his face like he just couldn’t squeeze enough love out for all of us, but he tried and the band had their groove on lock. Solid enough start, got us warmed up for one of the best performances I think I’ve seen anywhere.

Merrill Garbus is tUnE-yArDs on her own, but she performs with Nate Brenner on bass/drums/coke-bottles (srsly!) and two random guys on sax who also valiantly bang on pot lids at points during the performance. Her main weapon of choice is the looping pedal, which she uses for both voice and beats, quickly constructing sonic stunners just by grabbing the second loop mic and banging a drum or singing a vocal layer, lather rinse repeat, and BOOM it’s an attack, devastating versatility and really mesmerizing to behold. If that weren’t enough, her songs are ferociously frenetic and fantastic, comin’ up with her full and capable voice jumping from serene songbird to savage scream in the space of a drumbeat. Amazing, really great set, she definitely made some fans in that crowd.

Caught the set from buzz band Grouplove next at the Panhandle, with an immense crowd gathering due to their high-profile touring and show schedules. Having Yes guitarist Trevor Rabin’s son on drums has definitely informed these guys as to media positioning for their shows and songs, but they brought the goods in the hooks, each song chock-full of sunshine and each of the four non-drummers taking turns on lead vox. Redheaded chanteuse Hannah Hooper had her sun-goddess mask in tow, and they even brought out the big-balloon trick, showering the crowd with brightly-colored inflatables filled with pineapple juice (which epicly-bearded bassist Sean Gadd discovered firsthand as one exploded right on him!). Fun times.

Priority for the day was Little Dragon, but between sets we shot over to the Endless Summer Sweets vendor tent for the most epic festival food of all: BACON FUNNEL CAKE. Spectators could not believe their eyes, and my taste buds could not believe their good fortune. The peerless goodness of this confectionary delight was enough to help me endure the wonderful but not-my-cup-of-tea latin pop of Julieta Venegas in order to squeeze up to the front of the Sutro stage for one of my favorite artists: Little Dragon.

Little Dragon has been on repeat on my iPod since their Machine Dreams LP woozily danced its way into my ears a few years back with atmospheric lounge-groover “Feather” (which they did NOT play), and their new Ritual Union LP is a smart slice of synth-pop with soulful vox from pixie-ish Yukimi Nagano, who had the groove in her the whole set and was just adorable to watch. Keyboard wizard Hagan had his epic beardage dialed in to 11, drummer Erick was solid like kryptonite, and bassman Fred even brought the cowbells. It was pretty much a late-night trance-pop rave in the daytime, which was a bit odd, but excellent.

Casting a pall on my Little Dragon experience was the small group of fans who had also filled the front of the stage for the next act, avant-garde ingenue Zach Condon’s Beirut, whose ecclectic brand of multi-instrumental oddity I appreciate, but of which I do not consider myself a fan.

Next on the menu was media-obsessed dance machine Deadmau5 at Twin Peaks stage. Stopping through for some sweet tea and cupcakes in the Food Truck Forest and enduring the last 15 or so minutes of meandering electro-jammage from STS9, we found a spot of land dead center in front of the soundbooth and readied ourselves for the lightshow.

You know going in you’re gonna get a rave when you show up for a Deadmau5 show, but the real bonus is his stage set-up. The ‘mau5 didn’t hold back: a dizzying array of geometric shapes adorned the sizable stage, and every available surface was decked out with multi-media lights for some mind-blowing visuals. I think one of the girls next to me had her brain asploded, but I bet she would’ve said “worth it” if she were able to while being carted off to the medical tent. After some serious giant Rubik’s Cube video game/rave action, we bolted to catch the last half of main stage headliner Arcade Fire.

Win Butler had joined Mavis Staples on the Land’s End stage earlier in the day for a take on perennial classic “The Weight”, so he’d already marked his territory, as it were; the stage is always set for the headliner, and you could see their huge marquee in the backdrop of every other act throughout the day. These Canadians were so full of energy, I couldn’t keep up, and just sat jaw agape as they tore through hit after hit, even infusing slower numbers like “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)” with enough juice to shame a Red Bull. Those in the crowd with enough energy left to dance were engulfed in joyous glow near the stage, and the encores of “Wake Up” and “Sprawl II” were the perfect way to end a killer set and a so-worth-it festival.

This year’s lineup will be hard to beat, but I look forward to the Outside Lands people trying. Compared to other festivals, the OLF crew really excelled at pulling in amazing local vendors, keeping the park clean, having eco-friendly facilities and options for everything, and generally keeping the vibe peaceful and mellow. And the acts really brought their game; everyone I saw was top-notch and the sound was pretty good throughout, so props to the respective sound crews as well. So ends a great festival season, on a WINning note (<–Arcade Fire frontman pun, for the WIN).

Summertime– it’s festival season, and for any Northwestern U.S. residents (or really committed and globetrotting fans) this year’s Outside Lands Festival provided food, festivities, and (most importantly) a wide array of popular music artists to allow the 100,000+ attendees to cram half a year’s worth of shows into a single weekend. Before recapping the three days of aural bliss, a few things I learned while spending time amongst the glorious throngs of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park this weekend:

1. Bacon-covered funnel cake will replace every food on your “favorites” list and you will thank it for doing so.
2. Fuzzy-eared hats are becoming waaay too popular. Among adults.
3. The tiniest women will be the most aggressive people pushing past you to the front of the stage.
4. When Phish headlines the main stage of a festival, every other stage is blissfully less crowded. Phish need to headline more festivals.
5. Whether you’re smoking it or not, at a festival you must be prepared to be high on marijuana, even if it’s just a contact high (see #4).

On to the recap, with limited picture interruption:

Day one: Phantogram, Foster the People, MGMT, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, The Limousines, The Shins
Day two: Ximena Sariñana, The Vaccines, OK Go, Sia, Eskmo, The Black Keys, Muse
Day three: Charles Bradley & the Menahan Street Band, tUnE-yArDs, Grouplove, Little Dragon, Deadmau5, STS9, Arcade Fire, Mavis Staples

Ritual Union
Release Date: July 26th via Peacefrog/EMI

01. Ritual Union
02. Little Man
03. Brush The Heat
04. Shuffle A Dream
05. Please Turn
06. Crystalfilm
07. Precious
08. Nightlight
09. Summertearz
10. When I Go Out
11. Seconds

In many ways, this band, at this time, is the perfect redemptive convergence of music-world happenings: hip-hop and R&B have shifted from legit artistry to moving units in mainstream culture; synth-pop is really happening in underground circles but mostly too obscure and inaccessible to uninitiated music fans; soul singers have little audience left and too often rely on old, worn-out formulas for their craft; indie music is strong as ever but also as non-mainstream as ever with very few exceptions. All these problems are solved in Little Dragon, bringing in a well-proven toolbox of electronic savvy and synth sorcery from keyboardist Håkan Wirenstrand, hip-hop-level beatsmanship from drummer Erik Bodin, ambient mastery and diversity from multi-instrumentalist Fred Wallin, and peerless, unifying soul flavor fusing it all together courtesy of singer Yukimi Nagano, whose smooth and sultry voice flows seemlessly between this menagerie of styles.

Since most of these unassuming Swedes have been playing together for over a decade now, their sound is incredibly cohesive for being so indefinable, and the songs on this album add layers to their formidable sound. Elements of dream-pop and electronica infuse late-night dance floor fillers like “Brush the Heat” and lead single “Nightlight” with hazy, shimmering undertones, and the shadow-edged bounce of cuts like “Break the Shuffle” and “Crystalfilm” is a brand of dance music all its own in our scene right now, lush yet uncluttered and ominous in its pacing and promise.

It’s no big surprise that the band has been recruited by such notables as Gorillaz’s Damon Albarn and TV on the Radio’s David Sitek to collaborate on their recent releases (Gorillaz’s Plastic Beach has two LD songs, and their track on Sitek’s Maximum Balloon side project is stuck on repeat in my braincase), and have made big name fans like The Roots’ ?uestlove and the DJs at taste-making LA radio station KCRW. This is a band that has been uniting their diverse influences into a rare, intelligent breed of danceable synth-pop that doesn’t require checking your IQ at the door to enjoy, and this album brings the strongest set of songs in this vein yet. If you haven’t heard of Little Dragon in mainstream media yet, just wait– this is a band poised for greatness and whose notoriety is richly deserved.

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For more on Little Dragon, visit little-dragon.se.
Buy Ritual Union on iTunes.

»Album Reviews For Release Date: 11.03.09
by Joshua Krage, with Glee review by Sereyna Avila

I love it when a plan comes together, especially when it’s a plan that usually fails. Side projects, holiday albums, new LPs from long-running bands — these are a few of my most-dreaded things, but this week finds these things coming up aces one after another. There’s even a musical score that doesn’t make me gag with pretentiousness and over-singing! Don’t just take my word for it, read on:

ABBA – live in Japan DVD
The Almost
Amerie
Bee Gees
Andrea Bocelli Christmas

Julian Casablancas, Phrazes For the Young — Much of the material on this first solo outing from the voice of The Strokes (*swoon*…) shouldn’t surprise any fans who have been paying attention since their second album. There’s some neon dance beats and some electro rhythms, generally more divergent sounds than their early lo-fi garage revival. However, Casablancas’ lyrics here are some of his best yet, and about halfway through this 8-song LP, he starts changing it up with a softer, more colorful musical side and some really experimental textures. The only thing that grated on me were the vocals. He would’ve sounded much better if he’d ditched the trademark flat, dry, and doubled vocal track for something that matched the lush, three-dimensional atmosphere he has constructed here. It’s only a small detraction, though, and beyond that, the album is probably my favorite of all the Strokes side projects I’ve heard (which is saying something, since Albert Hammond Jr.’s first album was one of my favorites of ’06/’07).

CFCF
Steven Curtis Chapman

Cold Cave, Love Comes Close — I’m almost positive this is the band Ian Curtis would have formed if he started making music in the middle 2000s, and Joy Division has its shadow all over these keyboard-born electronic indie grooves. Features Xiu Xiu expatriate Caralee McElroy, whose interplay with doom-baritone Wes Eisold reminds me of some of Canadian band Stars’ more electronic moments.

Kate Earl, Kate Earl — Her debut, Fate is the Hunter, was probably my favorite music during all of 2005, but being on a tiny label and having little exposure in the overcrowded Los Angeles landscape (in conjunction with some personal issues) quickly stalled what little momentum her early work had achieved. This sophomore album relaunch has some bold additions, for both better and worse. In the plus category, she’s now signed to Universal Republic Records, who gave her some major label push with a few industry showcases, a free iTunes single of the week, and now a huge opening tour slot for label mates Maroon 5 (coming soon to a town near you!), so exposure shouldn’t be a problem this time around. On the minus side, however, the sound she’s sporting now has pretty much lost all of her first album’s intimacy and charm, replacing it with big-beat studio sheen, which plays against her strength as a highly personal singer-songwriter whose voice is vulnerable and soulful, not bright and punchy like this by-the-numbers, sugar-filled mainstream production. I know that Lauryn Hill was a big influence on her writing process on this album, and some of that comes through pretty well (especially on decent single “Melody,” which sounds much better if you can catch her singing it with only her piano backing her up). Bottom line is that I still love this artist, and her voice sounds absolutely wonderful here, but this music is really not that good, and she would’ve done better to pursue (or preserve) a style which suited her voice better. I hope she learns this and comes back strong next time around…

John Fogerty
Foo Fighters – Greatest Hits, with a couple new (and kind of enh) tracks for good measure
Gift of Gab

Glee Cast, Glee: The Music, Vol. 1 — The fresh-faced kids of the Glee cast get a shot at stardom with the release of the original television soundtrack. The record features covers of popular songs that span decades, genres, emotions, you name it. While it was their version of “Don’t Stop Believing” that first attracted attention, there are several tracks on the Glee soundtrack that deserve a listen apart from their context within the show — the boisterous “Bust Your Windows” and the silky smooth “You Keep Me Hangin’ On” are early standouts. While the production on some tracks is a little unrealistic for a “glee club” performance, little gems like “Somebody To Love” and an especially charming rendition of “Dancing With Myself” keep the listener singing along … maybe adding a box step or two. For anyone that ever harbored dreams under the big lights, a stirring performance of “Maybe This Time” featuring Broadway royalty Kristin Chenoweth is a most welcome addition. Maybe this record won’t change your life with its complexity and deep philosophical meaning, but it will make it a little more… well, gleeful.

Mike Gordon
Guided By Voices
Halford
Taylor Hollingsworth
Joy Electric

The King Khan & BBQ Show, Invisible Girl — King Khan’s work with The Shrines was some of the best, rawest retro throwback to ’60s horn-adorned adreno-psychedelia I’ve ever heard. On this album (or “show”, rather) with BBQ, the psychedelic is still here, and the ’60s are firmly in place. Really the only things that have changed are less horns and more updated production. Still crude as ever, but you won’t find a better, sweatier, kitschier dance party.

Ryan Leslie

Little Dragon, Machine Dreams — Surprisingly lush and atmospheric second album from the Swedish equivalent of Cibo Matto or Asobi Seksu, taking deft electro rhythms and synth layers onto the indie dance floor. Less soul and hip hop leanings this time around (for better or worse, depending on what you liked about their debut), but just the same this intelligent music will get you moving, and singer Yukimi Nagano’s soft, reverb-laden lilt covers the tracks with pristine poise.

Malachi

The Mary Onettes, Islands — New new wave out of Sweden with soaring synths towing these dance-worthy tunes through the magical night sky, even if it’s a night sky from 1986. Check out “Puzzles” for a catchy (even prom-worthy) chorus that will stick in your head like Aqua Net.

Michael McDonald
Melt-Banana
Morrissey – Swords (B-sides)

Nirvana, Live at Reading, Bleach Deluxe — If you haven’t seen or heard their headlining set from the ’92 Reading Festival, you’re missing one of the best live rock and roll moments in all of history, seriously. They absolutely KILLED on stage that night.

OST Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Have Yourself a Meaty Little Christmas — If you know the show, you know this won’t be your grandma’s holiday album (unless your grandma is an Adult Swim franchise fan). With song titles like “Hark the Herald Angels Rap,” “Jingle Bells Deep” (!) and “I Sure Hope I Don’t Have to Beat Your Ass This Christmas,” you get the sense that Santa’s in mortal danger, and those wise men better show up packin’ heat…

OST – Fantastic Mr. Fox – did you know Wes Anderson made a kids movie? Neither did I…
OST – NCIS
OST – The Sound of Music 50th Anniversary Edition
Plumb – hits
Rolling Stones

Serena Ryder, Is It OK — Stellar Canadian starlet whose versatile vocals hit me like Alanis Morissette filtered through country legends Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. Muscular lyrics of love and loss catch a wistful fire over uncluttered, acoustic-based tracks which frame her powerful voice like a shimmering white horse in moonlight. She’s already won over our neighbors to the north, and to anyone looking for a solid, well-versed singer-songwriter with the pipes to knock over the competition by sheer vocal force, this is your new favorite artist.

Say Anything
Shane & Shane
Shwayze
Frank Sinatra
Slayer

Straight No Chaser, Christmas Cheers — I’m not one for most Christmas albums, but these a cappella fellas are aces on everything I’ve heard them do thus far, and they shine bright (star of wonder!) on this collection. From soul-ifying “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” to jazzing up the classic “Let It Snow” in grand fashion, the boys roll sans instruments with incredible panache. It would be hard enough to adapt “We Three Kings” to fit over the Mission: Impossible theme with a full orchestra and they pull it off in style with only voices and the occasional finger snap. This is a holiday album that should please just about everyone, teenagers, grandparents and aging hipsters alike.

Themselves
Carrie Underwood
VA – Now That’s What I Call Music! 32 - is anybody paying attention to these anymore? Oh, sorry Wal-Mart shoppers, didn’t see you back there.
Vitalic

Weezer, Raditude — Most bands get stale after singing about the same stuff album after album. Luckily for Rivers Cuomo, his various neuroses and turbulent romantic escapades only get more entertaining, especially filtered through his wry-but-sincere lyrics and apparently-conquered mid-life crisis. To top that, this band’s musical composition is as strong as ever and only getting stronger with the chances they’re taking on this LP. Kicking off with the catchy-as-hell sock-hop stomp of “If You’re Wondering If I Want You To (I Want You To),” Cuomo & Co. keep their guitars big and crunchy (and sometimes synthesized!) and their sound classic Weezer, but I enjoyed finding the following surprises: drummer Patrick Wilson’s contribution “In the Mall” being one of my favorite tracks (with bonus Rush-tribute guitar solo!), dance floor-ready anthem “I Can’t Stop Partying” complete with synth’d-out guitars and Lil’ Wayne verse (a nice to sequel to “Beverly Hills”), full-on authentic Indian instrumentation and vocalization on “Love is the Answer,” and a completely unexpected, heart-wrenching and bulletproof ballad in proper album closer “I Don’t Want to Let You Go” (seriously you guys, I was floored). For anyone looking to get the whole album, you’d be well-served to get the deluxe edition, as three of the four extra songs are fully worthy of inclusion, especially if you’re fans of their metal resurgence from the Green-album era. I see, hear, and read plenty of Weezer fans hating on their post-Pinkerton output, but if you’ll open your ears and remove your snark, this album easily bests all albums they’ve released in the ’00s and has loads of absolutely awesome songwriting, some of the best of their career. And if that doesn’t get you, check the rad album cover — flyin’ doggie attack!!1!

If that don’t fill you like half a pumpkin pie, I don’t know what will. If I weren’t so satisfied with the new Weezer LP, I’d probably be gushing more about a few other releases. These are some of the last big names of the year, but there are some stunners still ahead, so stay tuned to this site for all the best of what’s to come. See you when I read you…

P.S. As if reading about them weren’t enough, you can enjoy a playlist featuring most of these fine artists on my MySpace Page. Enjoy.

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To view past reviews, visit our archives.