YIS Recommends : Spoon - Transference

Ever since I first heard Wilco's "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" I've become a little obsessed with things missing in music; little pieces cut out to make the whole more powerful, or to highlight certain things within a song. "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" is the sound of a band pulling back and looking inwards; everything isn't layed out for you. Not everything is there all the time. Not all the arrangements are the most "classic" or satisfying as they could be in the way that a traditional musical climax is satisfying. Not everything is "pretty", even though it's a beautiful record. It's music that you're not sure you like but can't stop listening to until you're obsessed with it. New layers reveal themselves over a number of listens. Patience is rewarded, and although things might seem spontaneous or experimental, everything on that album is deliberate and sculpted to be just so.

It's an amazing album. I sometimes get a bit cynical about music; that one time back in 2005 where I described a gig as "amazing" to some friends they couldn't believe it. I seldom describe anything as "amazing" as I think it's a word that thrown around a little too much. Sometimes when it's a while since I've seen or heard something where "amazing" is appropriate, my stance softens a bit and I sometimes start to say some things are "pretty good" or even "excellent"... and then bands like Spoon come out and make music of such genius that reminds me of the true definition of the word "amazing".

Soundwise, I think a good counterpoint to the new album "Transference" is Grizzly Bear's "Veckatimist"; where as Grizzly Bear is soaked in reverb and sounds full no matter what number or combination of instruments are being played at once, Spoon's sound is dry and sparse; this isn't a big wash of sound; it's jagged little pieces that all sit in their own sonic realm. You can hear the gaps. I love the little touches on this album; the abrupt fadeouts or cuts at the ends of songs, the way the echo on Britt Daniel's vocals doesn't trail off nicely but just stops mid-decay. The way that they mix fidelities within songs, either abruptly transitioning between Britt's home recordings and full studio production, or with piano spilling over the gaps.

There's very few bands who make "pop" music today that are brave enough to make these choices. Spoon are a band who stand high above most, and the worst thing about it (as a musician) is how casually brilliant it is. There isn't anything on this album that could be described as "busy"; the playing is economical and the sound is distinctly Spoon.

Transference is out today in Australia. Go and buy it.

Week of Mayhem, Night 7: Future of the Left, The Corner, 08/01/10

The week of mayhem was completed with a gig that was, fittingly, absolute mayhem. An outstanding gig from the first note. Highlights (apart from the music) were the distribution of the backstage fruit platter to the audience, and Kelson attempting to climb one of the poles at the end of the gig whilst the Falco and Jack dismantled the kit onstage. Due to the keyboard going out of tune, we got one-and-a-half Manchasms, and Drink Nike was added to the setlist. YES! They were also pretty touched about playing their "biggest headline show to date" and that they felt like they were a real band when they play in Melbourne. Aww.

Setlist: Arming Eritrea/Chin Music/Wrigley Scott/Small Bones Small Bodies/Plague of Onces/Manchasm (aborted halfway through due to keyboard breakage)/Stand by Your Manatee/Drink Nike/Manchasm (full)/You Need Satan More than He Needs You/Land of My Formers/The Lord Hates a Coward/Fingers Become Thumbs!/My Gymnastic Past/adeadenemyalwayssmellsgood//The Hope that House Built/Yin/Post-Yin/Cloak the Dagger

The mayhem doesn't really stop though: tonight is our good friend Clare's gig with Between The Wars at The Rainbow in Fitzroy (onstage at 8pm), and then on Sunday, Sunday, Sunday it's THE MINPINS (Andre from YIS + Tim from The Strange Attractions with some VERY SPECIAL GUESTS) playing with TELECOM (in their first show in over a year) at The Brunswick Hotel on Sunday. Kicks off at 9pm. Details here.

Week of Mayhem, Night 4: Grizzly Bear, The Corner Hotel, 05/01/10 (+ Gear Talk)

Tonight's Grizzly Bear show perhaps wasn't totally mindblowing, but it was pretty damn impressive. Perhaps it's just how casual they are about being a great band. They opened with Southern Point, and it was probably the highlight for me; the part where it kicks in felt like reaching the top of a hill and looking out across a great expanse that was far more breathtaking than you'd anticipated. It's very cinematic music.





Okay, so, here's the important bit. Grizzly Bear are total gear-whores. Here's what I could decipher from their setup.

Chris Taylor had the most pedals of all the Bears. He had a couple of microphones set-up that went through his pedals; the one up top was for vocals (and might have not gone thorough his pedalboard, but often had a big wash of reverb, as well as tremolo for Knife). The bottom one was used regularly for his trio of wind instruments (flute, clarinet and tenor sax), which he ran through an Electro Harmonix POG (version 1) to transform his clarinet to bassoon to killer whale. It seriously pumps out a lot of bass. Other pedals were a Moogerfooger (Bass?) MuRF, an Akai Headrush 2 looper, a Boss Digital Delay, a Boss OC-3 Octave and a Boss PS-5 Super Shifter. He played both a Rickenbacker and a Hagstrom bass, and all of this was going through to a Musicman Head + Ampeg Classic 4x10 cab. He also had a radio which he used to feed static through his pedals, often looking very frustrated at not getting the static just right, which reminded me a bit of this for some reason.

Ed Droste has a pretty simple setup with nothing too fancy; he has a little keyboard and an omnichord up top, and played a Fender Telecaster through a Fender Twin. Pedals were a Sansamp (Bass Driver?), an MXR Carbon Copy delay, a Electro Harmonix Big Muff Pi NYC and a Boss Tuner. He also had a Boss Digital Delay and a Boss Reverb which I think he ran vocals through. There's also an older EHX Holy Grail and a Small Clone on his board.

Daniel didn't have all that gear as well; he played a few different hollowbodies (a Guild and a Gibson ES series with the one P90 in the neck), as well as a 70s Gibson SG through a bigger Fender combo. He also has a Wurlitzer electric piano (which I like more than the Fender Rhodes). Pedals were an Electro Harmonix POG, a Boss Digital Delay, an older orange Ibanez Compressor, a ZVEX Distortron and a wah of some description, plus a couple of others.

The coolest thing about this band is their ability to sound so full when there's not much going on at all; even when it's just a guitar and a couple of voices, it doesn't feel there should be more going on, or it's a quite part in-between loud parts.

Setlist: Southern Point/Cheerleader/Lullabye/Knife/Deep Blue Sea/Fine For Now/Two Weeks/Colorado/Shift/Ready, Able/I Live With You/Foreground/While You Wait For The Others/On A Neck, On A Spit//Fix It

Tomorrow night... a night off? My ears need it, and I've got some stuff to prepare for the show on Thursday. And the Future of the Left on Friday and the Week of Mayhem will be OVER...

Week of Mayhem, Night 3: King Khan & The Shrines, Ding Dong Lounge, 04/01/10

It doesn't get much more intense than that. Not much I can say, really. This gig had it ALL. If you miss this in Sydney, you are a stone (soup) cold fool.

Okay, well, maybe there is something to say about this gig. Highlights were Khan's "gospel" tale of rebirth (basically involving getting his entire body inside his woman's vagina and coming back out again reborn) and a ripping version of The Saints' "Know Your Product" (performed mostly on-top of the crowd). Lowlights were inconsiderate dicks in the crowd getting all pushy-pushy when people just wanted to dance. A shame. Oh, and I got to do a little organ freakout solo when the keyboard was thrust into the front-row. I was pretty chuffed.


Tomorrow: band practice and Grizzly Bear at The Corner. Brother Matthew just returned from this one and he had content smile on his face and said "It was really good. Look forward to it." I will.

Week of Mayhem, Night 1: Andrew Bird, The Hi-Fi, 01/01/10

There's no shame in stating the following: I will never be as talented as Andrew Bird... and I'm okay with that. This is the second time I've seen him; the last time was on the back of "Armchair Apocrypha" (not my favourite A.B. album) and it was stil pretty damn magical. This was just as good, possibly better because of the material from his new album "Noble Beast", which is an amazing album (and a grower, so, stick with it if it didn't click first time).

Oh, yeah, and this was all the more amazing because he did the whole set from a chair with a busted foot. The magnitude of his achievement tonight can only be fully appreciated after you've seen how much tap-dancing on loop pedals he has to do on stage. Apart from being a master on several instruments, he also is one of the only artists I've seen who is able to use a loop pedal in a musical fashion without sounding like... well, a song sounding like it's built around a loop drifting in and out of sync. Even guys like Mick Turner can't get this quite right sometimes, and Mick Turner is one of my favourite guitarists ever. It's hard enough to get a guitarist and a drummer playing to a loop, but to have four guys doing just blows your mind. The rest of the band are quite a nifty set of players; a new guitarist, the same bassist from last time (I think) and Martin Dosh (a.k.a. Dosh who supported him last tour) on drums, drum machines and electric piano.



The setlist had some great rarities and nuggets in the set tonight. I'm the kind of person who loves hearing the embryonic song material just as much as the finished product (stuff like Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot demos, engineer's demos and studio sessions is my favourite shit ever), and tonight's setlist contained a bunch of this kind of stuff. After doing an amazing version of the regular opener "Why?", he prefaced the main set by saying that he was currently interested in doing new songs and old songs the way he originally concieved them, well before they were done the way they are on the album. So, next up was what he called a "kinda mashup" of "Sweet Breads" and "Dark Matter" which was great, and later in the set we got the original version of "Imitosis" (containing lyrics scratched because Walt Disney wouldn't let him borrow a chorus from a Sesame Street song about the letter I).

The setlist below was chopped and changed a little bit; for instance, we got "Headsoak" off the Bowl of Fire album instead of the Dylan cover "Oh Sister" and maybe a few songs swapped around...

The undisputed highlight for me was my favourite track from the new album, "Anonanimal"; just a brilliant rendition that extended beyond the recorded version and shot off into the stratosphere. I can't really describe it. Just gave me chills.

(and, on the "embryonic" tangent, here's a pro-shot live version of a "not quite finished" (but still brilliant) version of "Anonanimal".)

It's going to be very hard to top this this week, or even this year, but there's some good competition... next gig to be reported on will be Yeah Yeah Yeahs at The Forum on Sunday. Should be good. Also coming up this week: King Khan on Monday, Grizzly Bear on Tuesday, (maybe) Aktion Unit on Wednesday at The Old Bar (but we might have band practice), and Future of the Left on Friday... and maybe the DFA crew spinning records after that if we've got the energy. Oh, and wait, our gig at The Birmingham on Thursday! How can we possibly compete??