Rooftop Playlist

For the past few days I’ve been listening to Heaven, the new album by The Walkmen, and I have to say I am definitely in love with their 7th studio album in the last 10 years. I will be purchasing on vinyl asap. I was really surprised that Heaven is as good as it is because when they played their set late last year for Austin City Limits, including a lot of new material, their performance was bland and flat. I heard a handful of songs and walked off disappointed. Prior to that I had seen them in early March 2011 during their tour for Lisbon and they were dynamic and killed it.

If you have followed The Walkmen through their career, you will notice that their sound, lyrics, and production continues to progress. With age The Walkmen have grown with their music. It has moved from a dab of angst in their lyrics and a loud brash sound to darker, more cohesive, rich sound with lyrically happier connotations than you usually get from this band. You can even say it’s a little hopeful. Even vocally lead singer Hamilton Leithauser seems to be more in control of his vocals with a lot of clear range instead of that raspy scream-o voice that lingers throughout previous efforts. The opening track “We Can’t Be Beat” is a very strong, soft lullabying track, the production of the track is beautiful. It is a slow song but track-by-track the album picks up speed musically. The climax is the 3rd to the last song, “Heaven,” and it really highlights the changes and growth that The Walkmen have made in the last 10 years.

Key Tracks: We Can’t Be Beat, Heartbreaker, Southern Heart, and Heaven

Listen to “Heaven” below:

Wednesday night I checked out Grimes at Lambert’s BBQ. Grimes prefaced the performance sharing that she had a sore throat but that did not stop her from bringing it. Her vocals are what make me like the music. The electro-pop, sort of dancy is becoming slightly more popular and not quite mainstream hype but not as unique as it once was unless done well and Grimes does it well. It is her unique and peculiar vocals that make the electric synth music work. Unfortunately, her set was rather short (I could listen to hours of her stuff) and covered her new (fantastic) album, Visions than her other 2 LPs, both of which were released in 2010/11 for free at some point. Grimes has amazing stage presence that sets the tone for the atmosphere in the venue. There are moments where the audience was so enthralled in her energy and times where one is just tranquil in the comfort of her soothing, yet high vocals. I would definitely love to check her out in another venue to fully appreciate the art of her music. As usual Lambert’s BBQ cannot handle such an elaborate sound setup that is not your basic bass, guitar, drums, and vocals. Anything synth driven makes it the sound so broken that it takes away from the quality of the performance, which is not to be attributed to the performer because Grimes is a dimensional talent.

Grimes will be at South By Southwest in two weeks.

Check out her new video Oblivion.

On Monday I went to see Drake at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas. I had seen Drake perform on SNL and award shows and his sound and vocals tend to be absolutely distorted during live performances. My expectations for Drake live were exceeded as he put on a decent show. He was entertaining and even spent almost 20 minutes engaging with the audience and shouting out to specific people. That I can appreciate; he makes his fans feel loved.

Like I expected, Drake had a lot of pre-recorded vocals which can either work for you or not. The annoyance comes from when he’s signing over his own vocals on particular songs. Granted, it was not like listening to Drake karaoke to himself but it left something to be desired because Drake that night had clear and fluent vocals. Drake played most of the hits in his catalog but unfortunately cut a few songs short, which was disappointing i.e. “Marvins Room.”

Aside from those quirks that either work for you or not, the element that makes up for what could be a boring one-man show with a lot of flashing lights and a big screen is the element of the live band. Drake’s back-and-forth interaction with the live band makes for a solid show. For the $70 seats I had it was worth what I got but I would probably not be saying that if it were seating on a bad section of the venue which is about 70 percent of the Frank Erwin Center.

Friday I saw Los Campesinos! and Parenthetical Girls at The Parish in Austin, Texas.

I went in not knowing Parenthetical Girls and went out knowing I probably would not listen to them again but would not mind seeing them live again. Let me explain. Their music was not my kind of thing; their sound is experimental pop but lacks quality, very bland, and some pretentious sounding lyrics (I mean look at the band’s name). But the constant theatrics and banter with the audience i.e. Comparing Austin to their current location Portland, Oregon “1. Laziness 2. Suspended Adolescence 3. Good looking people over 30” marching around The Parish, talking about semen smelling trees, and swinging from speakers made their 30+ minute set enjoyable.

I would not call myself a “hardcore fan” of Los Campesinos! I did not particularly care for their latest release Hello Sadness as a whole but have enjoyed the albums in-between their first release. My hope was that they would play enough stuff from their other albums to satisfy my urge, which they did. One of the main things I enjoy about their music is that it has dark undertones mixed with an upbeat sound, even added that one-step dance, hands in the air feel. But not Saturday and it wasn’t for a lack of trying, Los Campesinos! just seemed to lack steam and their sound quality at times seemed to be amiss. They just did not have consistent momentum in their first night of two night performances at The Parish. I did not stay for the encore and I must have looked at my phone a few times during their under 80 minute set. I’ll be honest; if it had not been raining I probably would have left early, which is disappointing because they ARE a good band….just maybe on CD only.

Check out their new video for “Songs About Your Girlfriend” off their new album, Hello Sadness. It reminded me why I went to the show in the first place.

Keeping it local:

Last Saturday I checked out the CD Release Party for the Whalers EP, Paddle Easy at Lambert’s BBQ.  I was a little hesitant because I absolutely hate Lambert’s BBQ as a music venue.  Sure their space above the restaurant is swanky and serene but the sound set up can vary from okay to awful.   But I decided to give it another chance and concluded I still dislike Lambert’s BBQ as a music venue.

 The openers for Whalers were The Zoltars and Young Girls. Unfortunately, I missed The Zoltars and arrived in time to see Young Girls.  I had already seen Young Girls play during Free Week in Austin.  I didn’t like them then and still don’t.  I understand their sound is this lo-fi, messy, grungy rock ‘n roll and that can work but Young Girls are sloppy and it’s not just live sets but even their recorded stuff can be a little slack.

Whalers Paddle Easy is driven with a lot of gusto, crisp notes, and irresistible melodies.  Whalers performed songs off their new EP but also added some old schools and a sweet cover of “The Power of Love” by Huey Lewis that they could have done without because their own song catalog is more than sufficient to entertain and get the audience dancing or swaying. Singer, Gus Smalley even performed both parts of the duet on the song “Lighthouse” on his own and nailed it.

 The same type of energy in their recorded version translates to their live sets with the same intensity and scrupulousness in their lyrics and vocals. Smalley’s vocals are absolutely deep, persuasive, and unique which is accompanied by the clarity of each note whether on bass, guitar, or drums - the arrangement of their music is fantastic. Musically every note can be heard and all of it necessary to deliver music that is complete.

Whalers should be on your radar because they are the full package.  Great Songwriting? Check.  Great Sound? Check. Great Vocals? Double Check.

The show was worth $10 and even though I didn’t get my hard copy of Paddle Easy that night, they offered to get it to me still.  What a stand up band.

Favorite Songs of the Night:

Pixel In Your Picture

Cheat On Each other

Lighthouse

I’m still trying to figure what the focus of my music blog/tumblr will be but until then I’m just going to continue to throw some stuff out there.  I won’t regurgitate everything music related like most sites do but I will share some good stuff with a personal touch.

Please check out this write of my blog from Columnist Nathan Bustillos for Austin Community College student paper.

http://www.theaccent.org/forum/opinion-columns/study-buddies-study-breaks-1.2755862#.TycNJyNB6x5