Good Weather For Airstrikes

After an improbable rise to superstardom in his adopted home of Australia over the past few years, Gotye finally made his UK debut last week in London. Monday things went down at the Metro, but as I was still dealing with the maelstrom of shit that was finals week, I had to postpone my gratification until his Hoxton Bar & Grill show Wednesday. Absolutely worth it though, as his Hoxton show was by all accounts the better gig, with a sold out crowd and amazing support in the form of the lovely Marina & The Diamonds and the afrocentric fingerpicking of Nick Mulvey. There were also some extremely hot jams dropped by Fresh Prints in between sets and after the show. I read somewhere they’re gonna be the next Justice or something.

Marina was up first for a brief, but brilliant twenty-minute set. She’s got one of the best and most unique voices I’ve heard in ages, and her powerful vocals easily won over those lucky enough to be there earlier enough for her set, tracks like “We’ve Got Obsessions” and “Simplify” standing out as some of her more awe-inspiring highlights.

MP3: “We’ve Got Obsessions” (Demo) – Marina & The Diamonds
MP3: “Simplify” – Marina & The Diamonds

Next came criminally unknown up-and-comer Nick Mulvey, who’s one of the more special talents I’ve had the pleasure of seeing live this semester. I first caught him at Cross Kings pub (the closest you can get to Brooklyn in North London) in February, but this was the first full-length set I’d heard him play. Given the nigh-on unfathomable hype surrounding Vampire Weekend and the current music climate, you could be forgiven for passing off any indie act rocking an afrobeat influence as mere bandwagon jumpers, but tagging Nick Mulvey as such would be doing the young London troubadour a significant injustice. For starters, he just finished a degree in ethnomusicology focusing on African music and has been making a name for himself as a percussionist in award-winning modern jazz four-piece Portico Quartet for a few years now. Then there’s the small fact that he’s fluent in Congolese… yeah. He’s also one of the more gifted guitarists I’ve ever seen in a live setting, so yeah, it’s safe to say Mulvey’s one to keep an eye on. All of Mulvey’s talents are on display on “I Didn’t Have Time”, which bounces along on sunny guitar melodies and his unique bilingual charm, and it was easily the highlight of his thirty-minute set last Wednesday.

MP3: “I Didn’t Have Time” – Nick Mulvey

Finally, it was time for Gotye to take the stage and fuck if he didn’t put on one of the more amazing shows I’ve taken in during my time here. Easily the most impressive one-man show I’ve ever seen, Gotye bounced back and forth between keys, a sampler and his drum kit, with captivating visuals (like this and this) projected behind him all the while. The drums were and always will be his first love, a point made obvious during his hour-plus performance, in which he frequently returned to the kit to pound out drum solo after awe-inspiring drum solo to take his songs to a whole new level of brilliant intensity. Singles “Heart’s A Mess” and “The Only Thing I Know” were incredible early highlights, but it was underrated album track “Thanks For Your Time”, which stole the show during the main portion of his set with its streaking strings samples and Wally’s piercing “Oh, oh!” backing vocals.

MP3: “Thanks For Your Time” – Gotye
MP3: “Hearts A Mess” – Gotye

For the encore, Nick Mulvey returned to join Wally on the stage for a collaboration the duo had spent the entire day working on in the garden behind the office. A Mulvey-enhanced acoustic version of “Puzzle With A Piece Missing” was a change of pace from the rest of the set and lacked the energy that made his main set so stimulating, but it was more than made up for by his collaboration with Mulvey on a brilliant cover of Paul Simon’s “Gumboots”, which also featured the talents of Gideon Brazil on saxophone. Rounding out the night, Mulvey left the stage as Gotye and Brazil launched into a truly awe-inspiring rendition of future summer smash “Learnalilgivinanlovin”, on which Wally just destroys the drums and unleashes his most impressive vocal performance to date, and it provided the perfect end to one of the best nights of music one could as for.

MP3: “Gumboots” – Nick Mulvey

Dude is a special talent, folks - remember the correct spelling because the rest of 2008 belongs to one man, and his name is Gotye.

All Tomorrow’s Parties is exactly that: a fucking party. It feels unlike any festival I’d ever been to - everyone seems to know each other, and it’s one of the few large-scale music events I’ve ever attended where it seems as if the majority of punters are with the band, both of which add up to create an atmosphere of familiarity and makes for one hell of a three-day bender. The venue is ridiculous - there’s really no American equivalent to Pontin Sands Holiday Centre, the best I can do is to describe the rundown middle-class family resort as a supersized Chuck E. Cheese. There are mascots painted all over the walls, a shitty arcade, go karts (sadly not in service during the festival) and lots of cheesy restaurants and too much wordplay. Suffice it to say, taking in some of the world’s most rocking bands in this environment is considerably strange. Regardless, we had an awesome time.

We’d been planning on skipping Friday, as Les Savy Fav were set to play a warm-up gig in Oxford that night and we were just going to hitch a ride down to Camber Sands with them, but at the last minute everything fell through, as their booking agency somehow forgot to submit their working papers. I’m still not sure how they sorted it so that they could still do ATP, but we met Syd and company at Camber Sands Saturday, the only band of significance missed during the opening day of the festival being Vampire Weekend, and considering I’ve seen them nearly 20 times now, it wasn’t that big a deal. Saturday totally ruled, but as all the bands I saw I’ve already reviewed in these pages for (or you’ve surely read countless reviews of elsewhere), I’m gonna be sparse with the details (do you really need me to go on about how good Les Savy Fav are live again?). Yeasayer was an unexpected highlight, with “2080″ going down as the best song of the festival and one of the best songs you will ever hear in a live setting. That chorus, those shouts, that energy… shit was unreal. The only letdown of their set was the absence of the visuals that have been taking their live show to new heights over the past few months. The man responsible for said visuals - which are unbelievable, by the way - is my main man and good friend Sam Muglia, so to say we were bummed when the extension cord came up like two feet short is an understatement. Still a great set and one of the highlights of the festival though.

MP3: “2080″ - Yeasayer

Beyond that, the festival was everything you’d expect. Hot Chip ruled, Of Montreal ruled, Les Savy Fav REALLY ruled, the Hold Steady ruled and Black Mountain were decent but threw a damn fine party at their chalet Saturday night. Aside from the highlights, I wasn’t really feeling the Black Lips, whose antics were decidedly tame considering the legendary stories of golden showers and broken equipment I’ve always heard surrounding their live reputation. Also, we overslept because we’re fuck-ups and missed Bon Iver on Saturday (and then Jens Lekman on Sunday), and we tragically had to leave before Caribou’s festival-closing set Sunday night, as my roommate (who moonlights as the better half of Fresh Prints) and I both had finals the next day and needed to catch the last train home. Thus, there’s no real reason for me to post this, but I’ve been listening to it too much recently not to give it some love.

MP3: “Melody Day” (Four Tet Remix) - Caribou

All in all, it was easily the best weekend I’ve had yet in England. The beach (the “sands” in Camber Sands) ten minutes from the holiday centre was unreal, the largest stretch of sand in all of England, and the weather was the best I’ve ever experienced in Britain. 80 degrees and sunny, and people are swimming in mid-May. In England. Crazy. Granted, I’ve never seen more frighteningly pale bodies in my life, but it was nice just to take in some cosmic rays and get away from the city for a little while. More live reviews from the past wee (including Gotye’s debut UK gigs and the Great Escape) to come as I recover from finals and get back on track.

THINGS TO MAKE THIS POST SUCK LESS
I’m really not a fan of my live reviews, so here are some bonus jams to keep you coming back for more. Kicking shit off, here’s a collaboration that remarkably few blogs have picked up on, given the immensity of the names involved. Fresh off last summer’s chart-topping megahit, “With Every Heartbeat”, Kleerup’s back again, swapping Robyn for her shit-hot understudy Lykke Li on “Until We Bleed”. It doesn’t immediately stop you in your tracks like “Heartbeat” did, but it’s refreshing to her Lykke’s vocals in a new sonic context and “Bleed” is a damn fine single in its own right.

MP3: “Until We Bleed” (ft. Lykke Li) - Kleerup

I’ve been searching for some Fyfe Dangerfield solo material for as long as I remember, and now James has done us all a SOLID solid and brought this into the collective consciousness of this here blogworld. While not an original composition per se, this here cover is a fucking gem. I’ve never been much of a Larrikin lover, and was significantly less sad than many of my contemporaries when they broke up last year, but the original version of “Well, Love Does Furnish A Life”, featuring Mechanical Bride on backing vox, was the closest thing I had to a favorite track on their first and final record, The Freedom Spark. Fyfe’s interpretation treats it with a gentle introspection that seems more fitting of the lyrics, and it stacks up quite nicely with any of the more sentimental moments on Red.

MP3: “Well, Love Does Furnish A Life” - Fyfe Dangerfield

At the polar opposite end of the sonic spectrum, here’s the bangin’-est remix I’ve heard in a minute. I’m not exactly trailblazing here, as this has been making the rounds for a good bit now, but if there’s one track that’s absolutely destroyed dancefloors during our sets, it’s when we mix from the Robyn remix of “Sexual Eruption” into this bad boy and lay waste to anyone in a 40-foot radius of the DJ booth.

MP3: “Lights & Music” (Moulinex Remix) - Cut Copy

You have been appeased. I’m out.

FIXED: Updates to resume when university stops shitting on me.

My first-ever Camden Crawl experience totally ruled. Here’s why:

SAM SPARRO (Electric Ballroom, 6 PM)

We kicked things off at one of two 6 PM offerings, hitting the legendary Electric Ballroom to see Sam Sparro’s first-ever London show. His debut single “Black & Gold” went supernova seemingly out nowhere and currently sits at #3 on the charts so this was an understably hot ticket, the packed house a resounding testament to this fact. While I’ll admit the single is catchy as fuck, I’m definitely not his biggest fan, but my friends we’re jonesing for their Sparro fix so I went along with it hoping for the best. Turns out dude puts on a damn good live show. The flamboyant Aussie took the stage looking like a party pix all-star in sparkling gold tights and an oversized tribal-print top, before cruising through a set of future chart hits and keeping the crowd bouncing throughout. Don’t get me wrong, shit was like, super gay, but Sparro’s a top notch performer and the crowd loved every minute of it. Those of you who’ve been waiting for the next Jamiroquai listen up, Sam Sparro’s your man.

MP3: “Black & Gold” (Phones’ As Hard As Diamonds Edit) - Sam Sparro

DOES IT OFFEND YOU, YEAH? (Koko, 7:20 PM)

From the Electric Ballroom we made our way down the high street towards Mornington Crescent, where Does It Offend You, Yeah? were set to take the NME-sponsored stage at Koko at 7:20. I’d not yet seen them do their thing in a live setting, and to say I was pumped would be an understatement. Fortunately they didn’t disappoint, rocking the perfect medium of punk and electro and putting on the first epic show of the weekend. There was dancing, there was moshing, and there was definitely no shortage of drinks flying through the air. My 6′3″ stature makes me a kind of lightning rod for that shit and I left the venue sufficiently drenched in beer, sweat and assorted other bodily fluids, but it was all good - Does It Offend You, Yeah? fucking slayed.

MP3: “Doomed Now” - Does It Offend You, Yeah?

FLORENCE & THE MACHINE (The Crescent, 8 PM)

Leaving the ridiculousness of Koko behind us, we crossed the street to the Crescent to see the inimitable Florence and her machine. I’d been awed by her uncanny vocals and stage presence on a few occasions last summer back when it was still just Flo and her guitarist, but now the line-up had expanded to include a drummer as well. The added intensity of live percussion really took her show to a new level, and it was easily the best performance I’d seen her put on to date. We missed the amazing “Girl With One Eye” and her cover of Beirut’s “Elephant Gun” waiting in the interminable line outside the packed pub-turned-venue, but her set was amazing regardless, the rollicking “Kiss With A Fist” rounding out her set in triumphant fashion and more than making up for the tracks we missed. That track, her upcoming debut single, will at long last see a release on Moshi Moshi June 9th (backed with a brilliant cover of “Hospital Beds”, no less), and from there it’s only a matter of time before she’s taken over this entire London folk scene.

MP3: “Girl With One Eye” - Florence & The Machine
MP3: “Going Down” - Florence & Kid Harpoon

LYKKE LI (Black Cap, 9:15 PM)

One of the more hyped shows of the weekend was Lykke Li’s 9:15 slot at the Black Cap just a few blocks up from The Crescent, and the place was absolutely packed. Florence and her crew were there, along with a few hundred other eager onlookers, and finding standing room was no easy feat to say the least. We’d seen her before at February’s Chocolate Rain night at Cafe Mahiki and thus were totally ready for her adorable stage presence and fly-ass moves, but this was far better than her previous showing. The sound was an issue at Mahiki, but everything was perfect for Lykke’s Black Cap gig. She played all the hits - “Little Bit”, “Let It Fall”, “I’m Good I’m Gone”, et. al - and proved why every single person in this fucking industry is absolutely shitting themselves over her. I said it back in November and I’ll say it again, this girl will be huge.

MP3: “I’m Good. I’m Gone.” - Lykke Li

SOKO (The Crescent, 10:30 PM)

The only letdown of the day may have been Soko’s performance at the Crescent rounding out our European female singer-songwriter trilogy. It’s not that she was bad, far from it in fact, it’s just that it’s still quite early in her career and her live show doesn’t seem to be quite there yet. Furthermore, her charm lies in the quirkiness of her endearing vocals and lyrics, and the less-than-ideal sound and buzzing crowd made it difficult to here in the packed Crescent. Thus, we rolled out after three or four songs, figuring we might as well try to see Robyn across the street despite the slim chances of gaining admittance into Koko for one of the most popular shows of the entire festival.

MP3: “I’ll Kill Her” - Soko

ROBYN (Koko, 12:30 AM)

Surprisingly, we made it into Robyn with remarkable ease, and after a brief wait in line we found ourselves at the front of the venue ready for the sugary girl-pop experience of a lifetime. Now, I’ll be real with you: I was way drunk at this point, which is the kind of thing that happens when you’ve been drinking for six-and-a-half hours on a half-full stomach, and my memory of her show isn’t exactly crystalline. What I do know, however, is that she totally dropped “Sexual Eruption”, which pretty much made my life. I also remember realizing just how many chart-toppers this girl’s put together on one album of new material and being a little bit awestruck, but I guess that wasn’t exactly a secret or anything. Either way, I’m pretty sure I had the time of my life and it was a perfect ending to what was probably my best day in London so far.

MP3: “Sexual Eruption” (Fyre Department Remix ft. Robyn) - Snoop Dogg
MP3: “Who’s That Girl” (Styrofoamkid Remix) - Robyn

So there you have it, unbelievably good times. I wasn’t able to go Saturday, as my bank account is in the red (please donate drug money at the PayPal link above kthx) and the only band I was really dying to see was White Lies, and that can wait until the Great Escape for now.

OH and how ’bout those Caps? Four straight goals last night (including two from Alex Wale Ovechkin) at Philadelphia to tie up the series at 3-3 and bring game seven back to the Chocolate City? Fuck yeah.

Despite my lukewarm feelings towards his debut LP, The Last Resort, I regard Trentemoller as one of the most gifted talents in electronic music. As demonstrated by his impeccable remix work and the finer cuts off Resort (especially “Take Me Into Your Skin”, perhaps the most technically impressive song I’ve ever heard), what he does with sonic textures puts him in a league of his own as far as I’m concerned. Sure, he’s not quite there yet, but I feel that he could unleash one of the better electronic albums of all time further down the road in his career, and if his takeover of the Kentish Town Forum last Monday was any indicator, he’s well on his way.

It’s hard to find an entry point for discussion of such a performance, as it really doesn’t compare to anything I’ve ever seen. This certainly wasn’t a DJ set and it was way more than a mere live performance, shit was an experience. The night got off to an ominous start with an opening DJ whose set was just abysmal – aside from looking like a total douche, dude couldn’t mix for shit and his song selection was all over the place to say the least. But none of that mattered as soon as Trentemoller took the stage and brought the audience into a whole new world of sensory overload. Performing in the company of live guitars and percussion, Trentemoller stood before a monolith of synths and keyboards in front of a backdrop of some of the best visuals this side of The Knife’s much-hyped live show. Haunting monochromatic images created the perfect atmosphere within which to process the Danish maestros mind-altering soundscapes, taking already mindblowing tracks like “Take Me Into Your Skin” and “Moan” to new levels of otherworldliness.

His set was comprised predominantly of tracks off The Last Resort and a few excerpts from his remix work (a thirty-second teaser of his masterful “What Else Is There?” remix threw the crowd into a frenzy, but he quickly moved on before allowing the vocals to drop), and there wasn’t a weak moment to speak of. To me, Trentemoller’s the most technically impressive artist in the game right now, and this was very much on display as he strung together climax after climax for nearly 90 minutes, keeping the crowd in a constant state of nigh-on pandemonium. I’m not exaggerating when I say it was unlike anything I’ve ever seen: Monday night was more than just a concert, this shit was an all-out rave.

Closing with “Moan” and “Always Something Better”, I reckoned he didn’t have much more in his repertoire for an encore. How wrong I was. Returning to the stage minutes later, he took shit to a whole new level when he launched into an absolutely earth-shattering remix of “Seven Nation Army”, in which he repeatedly dropped the pressure like Zeus himself, raining down blows on the unsuspecting masses below. I’d heard he’s got all kinds of amazing bootlegs laying around his studio (including a rumored edit of “Toxic”), but I never expected anything of this magnitude. If this shit ever escapes the studio look out, I promise: You Are Not Ready.

Trentemoller appears to be operating on a whole new level right now, what he’s doing with electronic music is miles away from everyone else as far as I’m concerned. After Monday night he’s joined an elite pantheon of artists I’d travel to the ends of the earth to see, and if you’ve got any sense in you you’ll make an important point not to miss him if he rolls through your town on this tour. Trust me, it has to be seen to be believed.

MP3: “Take Me Into Your Skin” – Trentemoller
MP3: “What Else Is There?” (Trentemoller Remix) – Royksopp

In my efforts to unearth some of these alleged bootlegs Trentemoller seems to be so fond of making, I came across this jam. We’ve been dying to find a droppable remix of “Tainted Love” for ages and even recently started working on our own, but Trentemoller’s gone ahead and rendered our efforts wholly unnecessary. I don’t know what that “Co-pen-hay-gen” sample is from, but I do know this shit is GOLD.

MP3: “Tainted Copenhagen” – Trentemoller

You’ll hear that track and more if you come down to PUSH tonight, where Fresh Prints will once again be taking the decks, this time closing out the night upstairs after the likes of Noah & The Whale, Bombay Bicycle Club and White Lies spin on the 1’s and 2’s and Innerpartysystem does their thing on the main stage. This will be our last gig in London for a long-ass time, so if you want to see us stumble through an hour of shoddy mixing and drunken button-pushing, get your ass to Astoria 2 between 1:30 and 2:30 AM Saturday. See you there?

Also, there’s no better time than now to mention the blog superstars over at Transparent Magazine, as they’re the ones kind enough to be putting us on tonight. They’re running what’s easily the UK’s finest blog and also put on some brilliant shows around London, and their absence from our blogroll to this point is pretty much unforgivable. Show them some love.

Globetrotting ain’t easy. My two-week bender across Europe has left me with a head cold of epic proportions and so now it’s a beautiful day in Barcelona and I’m stuck inside with this here blog shit. A blessing in disguise though I guess, as I’ve been trying to find time to devote some words to Danger’s unfuckwithable set at Berlin’s Club Maria last Friday night.

First things first: Fuck pretty much everything on Ed Banger, Danger IS the next great hope for French electronic music. I told you so way back when, but with only one (albeit phenomenal) EP under his belt it seemed a bit early to give the 23 year-old maestro such a lofty title. That said, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who saw dude obliterate Club Maria in Berlin last Friday who would disagree. I’ll say it: this was THE best DJ set I’ve ever seen, and this is coming from a kid who’s seen SMD, Justice, and Girl Talk in their various incarnations upwards of five times each. At such an early stage in a DJ’s touring career, it’s hard to know what to expect from an hour-long “live” set. SMD and Justice both underwhelmed significantly until they got some higher production values behind them (Simian with their over-the-top light show and Justice with their flashing cross and monolithic amp setup), but less than a year into his touring life cycle Danger seems to have it all figured out. Working with nothing more than a pocketful of absurdly hot jams, two laptops, a mixer, and an incredible visual backdrop documenting different animated moments in his mysterious genesis (something about a pyramid, a jungle, a bunch of flashing lights and a shadowy alien-looking creature), Danger keeps it simple while managing to put on one of the most brilliant audio-visual spectacles this side of Mssrs. Bangalter and de Homem-Christo, so much so that he can even be forgiven for perpetuating the DJs-wearing-masks pandemic.

Danger took the stage around 1 to a sparsely-populated dancefloor and immediately started dropping the heat, tearing through a set exclusively comprised of his own material, with what sounded like a few as-yet-unreleased remixes thrown in for good measure. The video accompaniment was amazing, but it was the tunes that really made the night, as the visuals unfortunately malfunctioned and dropped out about halfway through his set. It didn’t matter though - Danger didn’t miss a beat and just kept on doing his thing, playing the mixer like it was its own instrument and dancing every bit as hard as the crowd, a refreshing change for the cooler-than-thou DJ types that pervade throughout the French scene. The new material sounds amazing, but it was “11h30″ the headline track off his 9/14/2007 EP that provided the uncontested pinnacle of the night, with that incomprehensible chorus and omnipotent bass surges absolute destroying a dancefloor that had since filled to max capacity since the start of his set. Furthermore, “11h30″ was my absolute favorite electronic single of last year, coming out of nowhere to edge out “D.A.N.C.E.” and “Pogo” on my perpetually-unreleased year-end lists. If you somehow missed it the first time around, jump on the bandwagon and revel in what you’ve been missing out on.

MP3: “11h30″ - Danger

Danger’s also got a remix of Sebastien Tellier’s “Divine” coming down the pipeline for the upcoming single release of the track. I was of the mind that this would be his first official remix, but it looks like Mr. West and company are one step ahead of the pack as usual, as Danger’s remix of up-and-coming John Legend protege Estelle recently hit the blogs to much pomp and circumstance. Here it is in all its unreleased glory.

MP3: “American Boy” (Danger Remix) - Estelle ft. Kanye West

Those of you who want to get a taste of the Danger live experience should check the video linked below, as it’s got mostly high quality sound throughout and does a good job documenting the visual accompaniment as well. You can also hear an early edit of his “Divine” remix towards the end (around the 14-minute mark), so it’s definitely worth checking out here if you can’t wait a few weeks until the single release.

What else is good? Well I finally regained access to the internet yesterday, only to find that The Devil, You + Me, the LONG-awaited follow up to the Notwist’s Neon Golden, had hit the internet and that City Slang was giving away its lead-off track for free. You’ve not read much of the Notwist in these pages as they’ve been dormant for most of the decade, but Neon Golden is one of my favorite albums of all time and I couldn’t be more excited to delve into their latest offering. I mean, I was only 15 at the time of Neon Golden’s release and thus not exactly as on top of my music shit as I am today, but I can’t think of a better album released in 2002, so suffice it to say I’m pretty fucking pumped. Here’s The Devil, You + Me opener “Good Lies” and my favorite track off its predecessor, “Consequence”. Has there been a better track to get vulnerable to in history? Doubtful.

MP3: “Good Lies” - The Notwist
MP3: “Consequence” - The Notwist

Finally, there’s nothing better than walking around Barcelona with this on your ‘phones, which I still hold in the highest regard as one of the greatest songwriting accomplishments of the 21st century. Hyperbole much? Yeah, but I mean it really is that good.

MP3: “Sao Paolo” - Guillemots

You know what, fuck it, I’m gonna come clean: I really don’t enjoy writing live reviews. I don’t know what it is, I’m just really not into it. And writing about CMJ just feels like bragging sometimes and I don’t really like how that comes across. Plus, I didn’t see anyone on Thursday or Friday that you haven’t already read about on this site (and every other one like it) thousands of times before. M.I.A. was a fucking party, as were Erol Alkan and MSTRKRFT (especially when they dropped “Da Funk” and their ill “D.A.N.C.E.” remix within ten minutes of each other), and Justice was honestly mind-blowing. Easily the best thing I’ve seen since Daft Punk in Hyde Park, which is no small feat considering LCD Soundsystem put on a pretty much flawless performance at Randall’s Island earlier this month.

A lot of this had to do with the fact that I’ve legitimately never seen a crowd so into a show. Even after the band had finished their encore and the house lights came on, the crowd hung around to scream out “We! Are! Your friends! You’ll! Never be alone again!” for a good ten more minutes, prompting the duo to come out and make one last curtain call from high up on the second-level balcony to roaring applause. Once out in the streets, people were pretty much just hanging around, still buzzing about the epic performance they’d just seen, when a car drove by pumping “We Are Your Friends” on the soundsystem and people just started dancing and belting out that chorus right there in the street. Shit was awesome. One thing though, I’d somehow managed to totally sleep on “DVNO” to this point until I totally woke up to it when they dropped it in their set on Saturday, so definitely get on that below if you’d made the same mistake I did. Also, did anyone stick around long enough at Studio B to see if Justice played that “secret” set that people had been whispering about all week? We were there for the first hour (maybe two, who even knows) of Erol Alkan’s set before we rolled out. We saw Xavier chilling in the background up in the DJ booth, but did he ever actually play? I’d be interested in hearing how it was if it actually happened/anyone saw it.

MP3: “DVNO” - Justice

Finally, I also caught Black Kids playing Brooklynvegan’s final day party at R Bar, which was apparently their only good show of the week. They’re performance was kind of cheesy (any mention of the word “heart” in their lyrics was always accompanied by keyboardist Ali making a little heart-shaped sign with her fingers and there were plenty more lame moves where that came from) and the lead singer came off as a bit of a prick at times, but I guess I might too if I’d spent the last four days being told by everyone in the industry that I was fronting the best band in the history of music ever (which is what seemed to be the consensus on Black Kids heading into the festival - they were the band to see). All that aside though, they put on a fucking great show. Most in attendance had only heard the four song demo available on their MySpace and I’ve got the full eight song version they sent to labels, and they still had great songs even beyond that. One track from the full-length demo that I haven’t seen hyped up nearly enough ’round the blogs is “Listen To Your Body Tonight, which totally slayed at R Bar on Friday. Ali takes lead vocals on this one and steals the show, but its that back-and-forth dialogue between her and Reggie towards the middle (”Hell-O?”, “Hello this is your body”, “What do you want my body?”, etc.) that totally rules despite the fact that it blatantly shouldn’t. Check it out below and sorry for any of those who wanted a full-fledged rundown like Part 1, but something tells me there aren’t very many of you included in that group.

MP3: “Listen To Your Body Tonight” - Black Kids ((highly recommended))

And I might as well take this time to address this issue: Apparently a lot of you are having trouble with the downloads? I’ve gotten a lot of complaints that the tracks often download only halfway or less before timing out, yet any time I try to download a file it always works fine without fail… So I’m not really sure what to do. Basically, how many of you are having this issue? And anyone have any ideas how I can fix it? Get at me in the comments.

It’s Monday now and I think I’m actually deceased. As in, no longer living. I woke up today (after only leaving bed yesterday long enough to watch the Redskins game and then collapse again) covered in bruises I don’t remember getting with my throat on fire and a hangover leftover from a Thursday through Saturday bender that probably won’t go away until mid-week. Whatever though, it was worth it. Below is a day by day account of my evolution from a normal, functioning human being to the pile of uselessness that I am now.

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 17
With two midterms just waiting to get all up in my kool aid on Thursday, I took it easy on Tuesday and Wednesday and only treated myself to a few CMJ pleasures in the early evening of Day Two. The main event for me was Vampire Weekend’s “secret” gig with Jack Penate at the Cakeshop, which was easily the smallest venue either band had played in months. Penate announced the show through his MySpace, but I’d say the crowd was still populated almost entirely of industry types or those with direct ties to the two acts. These kind of events are often a letdown, but it turned out to be a pretty great show.

VAMPIRE WEEKEND W/ JACK PENATE (CAKESHOP, 2:00 PM)

I saw Jack Penate twice in Brighton at the Great Escape last year, and on both occasions he played with his backing band to absolutely packed venues of amped up fans. The nature of Wednesday’s secret gig at Cakeshop was quite a different affair, with Penate playing solo to a room of subdued industry folks with a few in-the-know fans scattered amongst them. Primed to become the UK’s next great pop talent, Penate plays a unique blend of brass-less ska and, uh, rockabilly to put his own distinct spin on the singer-songwriter genre. The essential quality of Penate’s music - and his entire persona, really - is how unequivocally fun it is, and this came across loud and clear in a live setting. His inter-song banter is grade-A and totally endearing, and he races through his tracks cutting a rug while rocking out on his electric guitar. He played all the favorites during his short set, even taking the time to sing a few bars in his best Morrissey impression and just generally winning over the audience with his catchy pop songs and playful persona.

MP3: “Second, Minute or Hour” - Jack Penate ((highly recommended))

Vampire Weekend was up next, playing the smallest venue they’ve played since becoming NYC’s Official Next Big Thing this summer. Their Columbia University fan club was noticeably absent, but they were still able to coax the audience into some crowd participation on “One” (”Blaaake’s got a new face!”) and were well received from the respectful, if a bit detached attendees. They kicked out the jams and all the fan favorites (”Oxford Comma”, “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa”, “A-Punk”, et. al) and treated us to new songs like “I Stand Corrected” and “M79″, both of which are destined to be stand out tracks when the quartet finally releases their hotly-anticipated debut album proper next January. I stepped out to meet up with Lizzy and the rest of the Vassar radio kids before finding out if the band closed with their typically mind-blowing rendition of “Walcott”, but I’ve seen VW like ten times now, so I kind of knew what to expect by that point. Their first single proper, “Mansard Roof”, is out tomorrow backed by way good B-side “Boston” on XL in the US and XL-subsidiary Abeano Music in the UK, so be sure to cop that from your local record store at your earliest convenience, as it’s bound to be a collector’s item before you know it.

MP3: “Boston” - Vampire Weekend

My plan for the rest of the day was to get as drunk as possible on free beer and liquor so as to allow me to fall asleep by 8 and be able to wake up at 5 the next day to study for midterms (yeah, I’m that responsible), so we rolled over to the The FADER Sideshow party to get our dranx on and take in a few mediocre performances from HEALTH (loud), MGMT (not worth the hype) and Adrian Orange (boring). The performances were a total letdown, but the converted gallery proved to be a terrible venue that would have been hard for any band to engage a crowd in. Either way, I succeeded in my goal and stumbled home just in time to pass the fuck out around 8:30. All in all, a decent first day.

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17
So my big “plan” kind of backfired and I only got about an hour total of studying in on Thursday, but it ain’t no thing. My Art of Listening exam went decently, but I totally killed my History of Film midterm, so it’s all good. You could care less about that though, so onto the shows. Thursday was the first real day of CMJ for me, and with the Frenchkiss Showcase, Simian Mobile Disco and New Young Pony Club ahead of me, I overcame my adderall comedown and forged ahead into the night.

FRENCHKISS SHOWCASE (PIANO’S, 7:30 PM)

Piano’s was the first stop of the evening for the Frenchkiss Showcase, so I met up with Kira and Lizzy on the corner and we headed in. Juiced Elfers (the new project of Nick Diamonds of Islands/Unicorns, Les Savy Fav’s Syd Butler and two of the dudes from AIDS Wolf) were supposed to play from 7:30 to 8:30, but Nick was way late and they only got to play a truncated 20 minute set. It wasn’t a huge deal though, as they only actually have four songs written and rarely remember how to play them anyway, but it was still a fun time. They played one original song, a Troggs cover, an improvised song about eggs (seriously) and a three-minute rendition of “The Bird’s The Word” (again, I’m serious) and it was all fine and good. Nothing even remotely serious or something to write home about, but certainly not a waste of time either. I’m not really sure where this is going to go - if the band is actually gonna release anything or not - but it’ll definitely be fun while it lasts.

Next up was New Zealand’s finest, power-pop guitar-rockers Cut Off Your Hands. Where Juiced Elfers might not take themselves seriously enough, Cut Off Your Hands might take themselves a little too seriously, but they fucking rock, so it’s okay. I saw them a bunch last winter, but this was the first time I’d seen them since they’d secured a deal in the UK (courtesy of 679), put out their debut EP in the US (out this month through IAMSOUND) and released another EP of new material in New Zealand through Levi’s LeviTY label, which I guess was created to spotlight new talent coming out of New Zealand or something. It’s called Blue On Blue and it totally rules, so definitely check it out if you can find it. Regarding their performance though, it was great. They sounded as good as ever, with the band ripping through debut EP standouts like “You And I” and a new-and-improved version of “Expectations” alongside new hits-in-waiting like “Still Fond” and “Closed Eyes”. Frontman Nick Johnston freaked out all over the place, jumping up on the drum kit, launching himself from the amps and hanging from the rafters as usual, and it was a totally rockin’ affair throughout. Attendance was sparse - likely because they played like 40 other shows during the course of CMJ - but it was definitely a set worth seeing and enough to get me really excited to see what this band can do in the future.

MP3s:
“Still Fond” - Cut Off Your Hands ((highly recommended))
“Closed Eyes” - Cut Off Your Hands

SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO (MUSIC HALL OF WILLIAMSBURG, 12 AM)

Simian Mobile Disco was an hour later than scheduled in taking the stage, which threw off my schedule a little bit, but they still fucking killed it. We rolled up just before they hit the stage and managed to get all the way up front, where the sensory overload was at critical levels as a result of the blinding light show and deafening brilliance of the band’s set. They pumped out chart-toppers like “Hustler”, “It’s The Beat” and set-highlight “Sleep Deprivation” and generally brought the venue to its proverbial knees while the duo unplugged wires and twiddled knobs on their analog set up. An encore including more lightshow hotness and a bangin’ rendition of “I Believe” rounded out their set, sending us hustling out the door to get over to Studio B for the Modular Showcase. In other news, anyone seen SMD’s new video for “Hustler”? Shit is fucked up.

MP3: “Sleep Deprivation” - Simian Mobile Disco ((highly recommended))

NEW YOUNG PONY CLUB (STUDIO B, 1:30 AM)

SMD’s delayed set time meant we had to miss Muscles set at Studio B (my only significant regret of CMJ), but we were still able to catch New Young Pony Club at the best venue in New York City so it all good. NYPC took the stage a few minutes late around 1:30 to a crowd that was clearly pumped to end a day full of drinking and debauchery with the sexiest band around (those basslines, ooooh), and they didn’t disappoint. I’d seen them perform twice in London to crowds of 1,000+ on both occasions, so the comparatively intimate setting of Studio B was a welcome change of venue and totally owned my previous live experiences with the band. “I hear this is the city that never sleeps, so fucking prove it to me,” Tahita challenged the audience before launching into the band’s set with new single “Get Lucky”, and the audience responded by losing their collective shit and dancing into the early hours of the morning. Their set consisted of all the standouts off their fantastic Fantastic Playroom LP, but the real treat was a cover of Technotronics’ Jock Jams-era burner, “Pump Up The Jams” (file under: wayy awesome). Sidenote: Anyone else still got love for those classic Jock Jams compilations? I found Volume 1 in my basement during a party I had over winter break last year and you better believe it soundtracked the rest of the night; Jock Jams were AMAZING. Moving on though, “Pump Up The Jams” was an awesome surprise in a thoroughly excellent set, and the night only got better when Simian Mobile Disco rolled over from Music Hall of Williamsburg to close off the night with a killer DJ set of their own. I eventually made it home around 3:30 and Day Two officially came to a close with me asleep in my bed with all my clothes on, apparently only managing to get one shoe off before unconsciousness took hold and ushered in Friday morning. A fitting close to an endlessly awesome evening, I’d say.

MP3s:
“The Bomb” - New Young Pony Club
“Get Lucky” (MSTRKRFT Remix) - New Young Pony Club

That’s it for the first half of my CMJ 2007 coverage, check back later for the full rundown of Friday and Saturday.

Thanks to Soundbites, Pitchfork and Music Snobbery for the photos.

UPDATE: “Flux” now available for download below.

I saw Bloc Party play the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden last night. It was okay. Not spectacular and nowhere near as good as they’ve been in the past, but it was the venue and audience that was to blame more than anything. The band gave it their all and were clearly psyched to be back under the bright lights in the states again, but it’s hard to get into a show when you’re surrounded by investment bankers who don’t dance ’cause they’re only there to impress their girlfriends. But whatever, it was fucking Bloc Party playing live ten feet away from me; I still had a phenomenal time. They played pretty much everything I wanted to hear, surprised everyone by working B-side “The Once And Future King” into the setlist and even had the entire audience wish my niece a happy birthday at one point. She turns one tomorrow, and even though Kele told the crowd to wish her a happy fifth birthday (we’ll chalk that up to the, uh, five year time difference in England…), it was a sweet gesture.

But the big news of the night was the unveiling of a BRAND NEW SONG to open the encore, featuring Gordy trading his bass for a Korg synth on the track. It didn’t sound all that mind-blowing, but it was only the second time they’d ever played it live and regardless, it’s not like the news of a Bloc Party song isn’t gonna give me a big old hard-on. Even more exciting though, is what they’re going to do with that new song. Titled “Flux”, it’ll see a release as a non-album single on November 12th (only three weeks!), backed by “Emma Kate’s Accident” on the CD-single and “Once And Future King” on the 7″. They recorded it live tonight, mixed the studio version yesterday and it’ll be in the hands of the masses before you know it. Or I could just give you the radio rip now, which Zane Lowe debuted as his Hottest Record In The World Today an hour ago. I’ll let you be the judge, but it’s… different. You can definitely dance to it, but oh man does Silent Alarm seem so far away these days.

MP3: “Flux” (Radio Rip) - Bloc Party

And yeah, that’s pretty much it. Most of all I’m just bummed I never got to see Bloc Party before their graduation to big-league venues and theaters. I managed to break my ankle they night they played their first-ever DC show at the Black Cat in 2005 (which I may never forgive myself for), and when they returned to play the 9:30 Club that June I was off in Europe, busy smoking my bodyweight in pot in Amsterdam. Now I’m stuck getting lost in the crowd at fucking Madison Square Garden and other over-sized venues around town, but whatever, I can deal I guess. At the end of the day, it was was a pretty fucking great way to spend a Wednesday night, so I’m all smiles for now.

MP3: “The Once And Future King” - Bloc Party

And in case you’d forgotten, that James Rutledge remix of “Uniform” is still one of the best things to ever happen to the band and one of the elite remixes of the year.

MP3: “Uniform” (James Rutledge Remix) - Bloc Party ((highly recommended))

It’s a really exciting time at Frenchkiss Records, what with the new Les Savy Fav record getting ridiculously good reviews and the band touring solidly outside NYC for the first time in years. But before they skip town they’re rocking a few more venues around the city, and I had the pleasure of catching them at the Music Hall of Williamsburg last Friday. And… they were AWESOME. There were costumes, streamers, confetti and cameos by SNL star Fred Armisen and even Bunny. Remarkably, I’d only seen them twice before, but this was by far the best show I’ve seen of their to date. Maybe it was because half their set was comprised of material off the new album (which I really fucking love, by the way), or maybe it was because I moshed harder and longer than I have since, like, 10th grade. Whatever the reason, it was not a show to be forgotten and has me even more excited than I ever thought possible for their Randall’s Island show on the 6th of October with Arcade Fire and LCD Soundsystem.

MP3: “The Sweat Descends” - Les Savy Fav ((highly recommended))

The new album, Let’s Stay Friends, dropped last Tuesday and it’s all kinds of excellent, a severely pleasant surprise considering there was a time not too long ago when it looked like this record might not come to fruition. Singles “Patty Lee” and “What Would Wolves Do?” are two of the band’s catchiest tracks ever, the latter standing out as my favorite song on the album, no contest. A few tracks - including “Wolves” - employ drum machines on the record, allowing the band to access a new, more danceable sound than on previous recordings that adds a whole new dimension to their sound. Sadly those tracks were forsaken in the live setting because, as Syd explained to me before the show, they haven’t quite figured out how to play them with an actual living drummer yet. But burners like “The Equestrian” and “Raging In The Plague Age” more than made up for it, the latter straight killing it as one of the most bad-ass tracks I’ve ever heard in a live setting. So yeah, see this band while you still can; Les Savy Fav are touring less and less these days, and you wouldn’t want to miss your chance to see one of the best live bands in history do their thing in their while they’re still in their prime. There’s still about 8,000 tickets available for the Randall’s Island show on the 6th and I can assure you it’ll be absolutely ABSURD, so get on it, will you? Oh and buy the record. Thanks.

MP3s:
“What Would Wolves Do?” - Les Savy Fav ((highly recommended))
“Raging In The Plague Age” - Les Savy Fav

I’ve devoted more than enough text to brand new XL-signees (holler) Vampire Weekend in this space over the last eight months, so I wasn’t planning on reviewing their show last night at Music Hall of Williamsburg, but they were better than ever and the Shakes and Yeasayer turned in awesome sets as well, so yeah… here it goes. First a note about the venue, the latest addition to the Bowery Presents family. Formerly the Northsix, Bowery Presents rolled up and took over the place and made it over into what is basically an exact replica of the Bowery Ballroom, down to the last very last blueprint. That said, it’s still a great venue (…in the same way that Bowery is a great venue) and the largest Vampire Weekend has headlined to date, so it was an exciting night. But to rewind for a moment - I saw this band playing a frat party at Columbia in February and now their fetching $12 a ticket and selling out legit venues all over town? What a year it’s been.

Moving on to the actual show though, Yeasayer (think a more streamlined, less absurd Animal Collective) opened with an extremely impressive set highlighting their brilliant melodies and frontman Chris Keating’s unique vocals, all of which were underlay by a winning combination of live drums and a sample pad. I’d not had extensive exposure to them outside of single “2080″, so I wasn’t totally sure what to expect heading in, but they didn’t disappoint. Their ridiculous energy came to a climax in the final refrain of “2080″ (though I did long for that children’s choir at the end), and it was easily the best non-VW song of the night.

MP3: “2080″ - Yeasayer ((highly recommended))

I was far more familiar with the Harlem Shakes, whose Burning Birthdays EP was one of the finer debuts of 2006, though I’d never had the pleasure of seeing them live before. They were fucking fantastic - hampered only by backing vocals mic’d far too low in the mix -and even rocked a horn section comprised of brass players from Beirut and the Arcade Fire, which took some extremely exciting new material to a whole new level. Particularly awesome was a new track called “The Fucking Ocean”, which stood out alongside established gems like the brilliant “Carpetbaggers” and “Sickos” off their aforementioned debut EP. Sadly, it appears that no one wanted to post pictures of their performance on the internet, hence the lack of a graphic above. But yeah, they were way good anyway.

MP3s:
“Carpetbaggers” - The Harlem Shakes ((highly recommended))
“Sickos” - The Harlem Shakes

But their was no question that the best set of the night - and one of the best of the year, for my money - belonged to the headliners. A summer of coast-to-coast touring has their hype at critical mass and there were no shortage of people in attendance just there to check out what the buzz was all about. But there was also a strong Columbia presence, so much so that one hipster-looking douchebag looked at Rya and I as we walked in and muttered to his friend about how “Ivy League” the scene was. Or something. ANYWAYS, Vampire Weekend fucking KILLED it, and it’s been said before, but it’s worth saying again: this is a band who knows how to play their fucking songs.

With incredible tightness the band blazed through a fourteen song setlist chock-full of solid gold hits excluding only one track (”Boston”) from their untouchable demo LP and adding four new songs, each as good as the demos that preceded them. Ample praise has been lofted in the direction of “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa”, “Oxford Comma” and the rest of the songs on their now-infamous Vampire Weekend Blue CD-R, but the new tracks are pretty damn excellent in their own right. Live staples “M79″ and “Arrows” pleased as usual, but “I Stand Corrected” sounded downright single-worthy in its latest incarnation. But it was a brand new track debuted for the first time that night, tentatively titled “Little Giants”, that saw keyboard maestro Rostam Batmangij stepping away from the keys in favor of a guitar and Vampire Weekend at their sunniest, with lyrics about California and skateboards arriving just in time to rekindle lingering memories of summer before fall sets in for good. At least two of the four songs will likely make the band’s debut LP proper, out next January on XL, with the remaining two likely providing some extremely solid B-side fodder on future single releases.

The performance as a whole was impeccable as usual and more, with the band looking like they could belong - nay, thrive - in a venue three times the size of the Music Hall. Their performance was as tight as ever, without so much as the slightest hint of a mis-step to be found. Benefiting from better acoustics and a soundsystem upgraded from the venues the band made their name, Christopher Thomson’s drums sounded massive, breathing a new vitality into the band that elevated the band’s performance above and beyond every set of theirs I’d seen prior to Saturday. Their typical Columbia fan club was in full effect at the front of the crowd, fists pumping and bodies bouncing as usual, only further adding to the addictive energy of the show. All in all it was a phenomenal set - the best I’d seen them play to date and one of the most memorable of the year - and it’s safe to say anyone at the Music Hall that night not already on board the Vampire Weekend train was fully down by the time the band left the stage on Saturday.

The band closed out their main set with a rousing rendition of “Oxford Comma”, perhaps the best song ever written about punctuation, and exited the stage to roars of approval and more deafening cheers from their traveling fan club. I’d never seen them headline a show before, so I wasn’t use to the idea of an encore from the band, but one was obviously coming due to the glaring exclusion of “Walcott” from the tracks they’d played to that point. And less than three minutes later they returned to unleash one of the most euphoric single-song performances I’ve seen in a long time, a straight-up empire-toppling rendition of “Walcott” that brought the room to their collective knees and let everyone in attendance know that this is a band that’s absolutely not fucking around when it comes to epic guitar-pop songs. Considering how amazing the song is live it almost pains me to post the demo version, as it’s the one track on their demo LP that suffers from a noticeably sub-par mixing job (in respect to the vocals, mostly), but it’s best song they’ve written to date and will likely be one of the best songs of the year when it sees an official release - not to mention a professional mixing job - early next year.

MP3s:
“Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa” - Vampire Weekend ((highly recommended))
“Walcott” - Vampire Weekend ((highly recommend))

Miss Modern Age has pictures and a decent quality video of “Little Giants” to accompany her account of the show, so head over there at your earliest convenience and break yourself off a slice of the goodness. Also, I recently stumbled upon the trailer for Vampire Weekend (starring frontman Ezra Koenig), the half-baked student film idea from which the band took their name. It’s worth checking out I guess, if only because the first five seconds are pretty much priceless. Get at it here.

In other news, it’s good to be back.