Fleet Foxes @ Corn Exchange, Edinburgh (June 29th)

"I'd say I'd rather be
A functioning cog in some great machinery
Serving something beyond me"

On a rare sunny Scottish evening, indie folkies Fleet Foxes performed at the Corn Exchange. The concert was opened by the Bees, a band I have never heard of until this concert, but who nonetheless blew me away with their tight sound. Following arguably one of the best opening acts I have seen in a long while, the Seattle-based quintet-turned-sextet took to the stage.
It has been a long time since the last time I saw the Foxes back in November 2008. The frontman Robin Pecknold has cut his hair, which has successfully turned his appearance from Jesus-like to a very regular "band guy" look. The music has also undergone a significant change. Unlike the aural spotless harmonies of the self-titled debut, the band's new album was more soul-searching, more self-critical, which was reflected in the music less confident in its own harmony. Not to worry, though, this year's Helplessness Blues still has plenty of soaring, pitch-perfect vocals, a distinctive trademark of the band.

And yet, in the concert, one could definitely which song belonged to which album, simply by its performance. The new songs tended to be more melodically crowded, if not rich, often culminating in strong, busy crescendos, with the beat of the song dictating the rhythm to your heart. Most of the musical "busy-ness" was created by the multi-talented multi-instrumentalist Morgan Henderson, who with his beanie hat and quarter-length jean short cut-offs looked more suitable on the set of Life Aquatic, than on stage. The older songs were mostly the sunny periods between the clouds created by the Helplessness Blues and were more often than not stripped down to vocals and one or two guitars, creating an experience of almost a cappella. This was particularly evident in the stretch between "Mykonos" and "Ragged Wood", where five songs from the 2008 album were played, and the mood of the show noticeably brightened up. The natural climax of the show was reached when the band played the lyrical "Montezuma" and mesmerizing "He Doesn't Know Why". Encore was opened with the old staple "Oliver James", with Pecknold singing alone on the stage, slapping a rhythm on the side of the guitar.

While the new album may not be as enchanting as the debut, it is certainly a very strong effort and most likely to be one of my favorite records of the year. The lyrics are probing, at times existential, which makes for an enjoyable listen, this time the pleasure often derived from the words rather than from the melody alone. I am sure, Fleet Foxes had an option to release an album to follow in the footsteps of the first success, but instead they eschewed the easy way out, and went for an option that deliberately challenged the harmonies they have established. I love seeing this band grow (scary to think that most of the band is my age!), and, frankly, can't wait to see which direction they'll choose next.

Setlist:

1. The Cascades 
2. Grown Ocean 
3. Drops in the River 
4. Battery Kinzie 
5. Bedouin Dress 
6. Sim Sala Bim 
7. Mykonos
8. Your Protector 
9. Tiger Mountain Peasant Song 
10. White Winter Hymnal 
11. Ragged Wood 
12. Lorelai 
13. Montezuma 
14. He Doesn't Know Why 
15. The Shrine/An Argument 
16. Blue Spotted Tail 
17. Blue Ridge Mountains 
18. Oliver James (encore) 
19. Helplessness Blues (encore)

Exit Music: "Whip It"

In the Exit Music section, I would like to introduce some wonderful music that I have discovered from the movie soundtracks.

Apollo Sunshine - Breeze

A while back, I saw Whip It, a semi-indie comedy about a teenager girl who joins a local roller derby team. Surprising herself with the natural talent for the sport, she is quickly accepted into this motley coterie, a decision which immediately puts her at odds with the expectations from her parents. With the indie darling Ellen Page staring as the main character, the comparisons with Juno were inevitable. And the movie didn't shy away from going down the same path as Page's previous success. From the witty banter and the gentle ridicule of small-town life to the meticulously-chosen, indie-snob-approved soundtrack, the movie has got a lot of things right. The musical highlights of the movie would include an irresistibly cute pool scene, perfectly timed to Jens Lekman's "Your Arms Around Me". And yet, for whatever reason (maybe partially due to the unavoidable expectation of Juno's comedic deadpan finesse), the film does slightly fall short. In the final scene of the movie, as the protagonist looks far off into the distance and reflects on her experience (easily the cheesiest moment of the entire 111 minutes), a beautiful song starts playing. From the first dream-like strums of the pedal steel, I was hooked.

Belle & Sebastian @ Roundhouse, Camden (May 29th)

"She was into S&M and Bible studies

Not everyone's cup of tea

She would admit to me"

On Sunday night, the Scottish indie pop legends Belle & Sebastian rolled into London to play three consecutive concerts at the Roundhouse. I have previously missed them in Vancouver way back in 2006, and I was determined not to make the same mistake this time.

As the band took to the stage, and the applause subsided, the set started off with the gentle guitar strum and the whisper of Stuart Murdoch's falsetto in "The State I Am In". The gentle undulation continued into "Write About Love", during which I was slightly disappointed by the frailty of Sarah Martin's voice. Her vocals, while unimpressive alone, blended perfectly with the support of the rest of the band during the chorus. The tempo picked up during "I'm Not Living in the Real World" led by Stevie Jackson, who appeared to be responsible for spearheading the group's jaunty hits. By the time the extended version of "Sukie in the Graveyard" and the crowd-pleaser "Fox in the Snow", the B&S locomotive was charging full steam ahead.

Murdoch was at his charming best, dancing up a storm, joking about the indieness of his group (on the night composed of members of Camera Obscura and Teenage Fanclub), bringing up with him five lucky audience members, and awarding them medals (one of them proceeded to not exactly dance but rather hop on an invisible pogo stick the entire time he was stage). The concert was a blast, the band was perfectly melded together, and yet it was quite obvious that the old favorites were still the undeniable highlights of the show. Every first strum or chord introducing the old hit received countless cheers of recognition and appreciation. I guess it was no surprise that more than half of the songs performed were from B&S's golden era - the 90's. As for me, with four songs from If You're Feeling Sinister album, I was flabbergasted and slightly disappointed not to hear "Get Me Away From Here I'm Dying" - the first song that got me into the band's music.

Setlist:

1. The State I Am In
2. Dirty Dream Number Two
3. Write About Love
4. I'm Not Living in the Real World
5. If You're Feeling Sinister
6. I Want the World to Stop
7. She's Losing It
8. Sukie in the Graveyard
9. The Fox in the Snow
10. My Wandering Days Are Over
11. The Wrong Girl
12. I Didn't See It Coming
13. The Boy With the Arab Strap
14. I'm a Cuckoo
15. Simple Things
16. Sleep the Clock Around
17. Judy and the Dream of Horses (encore)
18. Me and the Major (encore)

Aural Fixation: Summer Fiction - Chandeliers

"Love is blind under the chandeliers"

Summer Fiction - Chandeliers

What can I say? The harpsichord does it for me. It's been a while since I've heard a really good harpsichord song, so I think "Chandeliers" deserves the spotlight. Summer Fiction is Philadelphia-based band which specialises in creating musical nostalgia for the innocence and torment in the 1960s, as can be evidenced from the videos for "Chandeliers" and Throw Your Arms Around Me". Their 35-minute self-titled debut LP is collection of bitter-sweet ballads interwoven together by the instrumental interludes. It is easy-listening in the best possible sense of the word, and it won't be long before you'll be left wanting more.

Most appropriate for: reading "Oliver Twist" by Dickens on a sunny July afternoon.
Least appropriate for: reading "The Idiot" by Dostoyevsky on a gloomy January night.
If you liked this, you will: like the rest of the album, and possibly enjoy "Tremble the Sails" album by the fellow Philadelphians, Buried Beds.

Levelling the Playing Field for the Rest of the Weekdays

It has come to my attention, that in the light of the recent coup-de-Youtube, Friday has been getting a lot of publicity due to the fact that it's the day, which everyone apparently gets down on and looks forward to the weekend. As a result, in the past several months, the rest of the weekdays have been severely overlooked. I would like to rectify such a glaring omission by bringing the much-deserved pride back to the rest of the week.

God Help the Girl - Come Monday Night

There are a lot of great songs about Mondays. Back in 1966, the Mamas and the Papas set the bar high for the rest of the Monday songs to follow. My personal favourite though is "Come Monday Night" by God Help the Girl, the recent incarnation of Belle & Sebastian. Despite the moniker change, the band stays true to their signature sound.

Rolling Stones - Ruby Tuesday

Without a question, the best Tuesday song belongs to the Rolling Stones. One of their best songs and an undeniable classic.

The Beatles - She's Leaving Home

There is a dearth of good Wednesday songs. After looking through lists of songs with Wednesday titles, the best I could come up with was "She's Leaving Home" by the Beatles. Wednesday gets only mentioned once, but I guess it's very important because it's precisely the day that she left home.

Matt Costa - Sweet Thursday

Thursday's dose of music comes from the singer-songrwriter Matt Costa, signed on his friend Jack Johnson's Brushfire Records, from his way-back-when EP The Elasmausaurus.

Herman Düne - On a Saturday

For all fans out there of the extinct umlaut, I include "On a Saturday" by Herman Düne, a band composed of two brothers, who as of 2005 had decided to remove the dots above the "u".

Auditorium - Sunday

Of course, the weekends get a lot of mention in songs. Everything is a little bit more exciting on the weekends. Drinking on a Wednesday afternoon is quite tragic, whilst the same activity on Sunday is nearly a godsend. Odes to the day of rest have been written by as diverse of a crowd as U2, Maroon 5, Nick Drake, The Lonely Island, if only to name a few. A lesser known hymn to Sunday may be by LA band Auditorium (née Field).

If you have any favorite weekday songs of your own, I look forward to reading your suggestions/comments.

P.S. To start your rapping career by featuring on Rebecca Black's song, where do you go from there as a musician? Especially, if you're spitting nonsense rhymes such as these:

"Passing by a school bus in front of me

Makes tick tock, tick tock, wanna scream"

Men Without Hair: 30 Years Later

"Cause your friends don't dance

And if they don't dance

Well they're no friends of mine"

The Internets are abuzz - the legendary Canadian band Men Without Hats are back on tour after a decade-long hiatus and nearly 30 years since the release of their greatest and arguably only hit "Safety Dance". The tour kicked off in Vancouver last Saturday, and despite the sold-out show, I bet absolutely every single person in the audience waited for exactly the same thing - the first line they could finally sing along to - "We can dance if we want to". With the Safety Dance being the obvious climax of the show, I don't even know where you could go from there both as an audience and as an artist, because the rest of the concert must feel like an extended denouement. To put it in post-coital terms, both parties are sitting up in bed, smoking cigarettes and awkwardly trying to piece together a conversation about the weather, until it is socially acceptable for one of them to leave.

Still, I would like to take this momentous occasion as an excuse to share some music that may make you dance if you want to, maybe even leave your friends behind. Turn down that bass, turn up the treble, let the synths sound even more synthy!

Architecture in Helsinki - Contact High

A new single from Architecture in Helsinki is squeaky clean pop like a yellow rubber duck after a scented bubble bath. The claps and the French horn prevalent on the early albums are replaced with the computerized effects and Auto-tuned vocals on the newly-released Moment Bends. Despite having the production sleeker than a greaser's hair, the song never forgets the playfulness with which the band had approached each of its previous efforts.

Austra - Lose It

Austra was one of the Canadian bands at this year's SXSW that has garnered a lot of attention from the critics and the peers. It should come as no surprise as the towering vocals of the band's lead singer Katie Stelmanis pole-vault Austra over other electronic acts. Katie's previous operatic training is particularly noticeable on "Lose It".

Young Galaxy - Peripheral Visionaries

I am easily entertained by puns in song titles, and "Peripheral Visionaries" is no exception.

Duck Sauce - Barbra Streisand

You know you're late to the party, when you discover a song after it's been covered by the Gleeks. I'm embarrassed to say that I haven't heard of this song until a few weeks ago. Duck Sauce, almost a house-music supergroup, is comprised of Armand Van Helden and A-Trak, who teamed up once again to bring the most infectious dance mix of the year (so far).

Martin Solveig & Dragonette - Hello

After having watched a video for "Barbra Streisand", I randomly clicked a link for "Hello", and I was very pleasantly surprised. Not only does the video include cameos from Novak Djokovic and Gael Monfils, but the song itself is simply bursting with poppy goodness.

Aural Fixation: Timber Timbre - Black Water

Timber Timbre - Black Water

The aptly-named new effort Creep On Creepin' On continues where the eponymous Timber Timbre left off.If you are into music that will haunt your dreams and that will be a fitting soundtrack to the psychological thriller of your life, chances are that Timber Timbre has got to be on it. And yet not to be misunderstood, I want to stress that the overall darkness of the record in no way detracts from the auditory experience. We've got all the usual suspects assembled once again: Taylor Kirk with one of the most unusual voices you will ever hear, Simon Trottier with the mood-setting lapsteel and autoharp, and Mika Posen on the heart-wrenching strings. In the first single off the new record and a stand-out track "Black Water", the lyrics are extremely misleading as Kirk's grave baritone chants: "All I need is some sunshine..." This is no summer song. In my opinion, sunshine is the last thing the band needs; in fact, their music is probably best enjoyed in an abandoned barn at dusk, with a flickering lone candle just about to be blown out by a sudden gust of wind leaving you alone with your imagination. So whenever you're in the mood for that, turn to Timber Timbre for something sober sombre.

Most appropriate for: catching your doppelgänger
Least appropriate for: setting the mood for a first date
If you enjoyed this, you will: definitely love "Demon Host" from the band's previous album (if you haven't heard it yet).

December Playlist

Let’s kick off the new year with a little bit of dancy music. Put on your brightest spandex tights, don those Wayfarer knock-off shades, and shake your turkey-and-gravy-stuffed booties.

Wolf Gang - Lions In Cages

A great catchy chorus – a perfect way to start off a year, a playlist and, ultimately, a day.

Hooded Fang - Promise Land

A second song from my favourite new band of 2010 (first one being “Highway Steam” in November). The cascading waterfalls of keyboard arrangements in addition to Morse code drumming are guaranteed to stick in your memory for a little while.

Bikini - American Mourning

Let’s continue the toe-tapping romp with a song from this scantily-named New York band.

Winter Gloves - Plastic Slides

The band hailing from Montreal has recently released a new album All Red. If you're a big fan of their poppy hooks and synth-laden melodies, you won't be disappointed by what you hear.

Cut Copy - Take Me Over

Crafting their own brand of 80s-tinged pop, Cut Copy's new album is already one of the most anticipated of the young 2011.

Black Keys - Tighten Up

A seemless blend of soul and rock, "Tighten Up" is a great high-energy song. The band is Black Keys. The album is Brothers.