About

Mango Nebula.
hanging music on the walls

A song is as much a work of art as a painting hanging in a museum. There's a certain beauty to crafting a perfectly infectious pop melody as there is to channeling reality shattering experimental noise. When a group of people form a band, they don't create a troupe of musicians or a brand. The lyrics, sound, album art and video that a group produces spawns an entire universe full of moods, characters, ideas and philosophies, whether its members intended to or not. The Mango Nebula is a gallery intended to capture and communicate that universe to a reader with a few words (a lot of words usually) and a bit of poetic flare dripping with sarcasm.

To learn about how things are rated in the Mango Nebula, click here.

The words are all by Lee Stepien
I attended Emerson College from 2005-2009 with Bachelor of Fine Arts in Writing, Literature and Publishing.
From 2008-2009, I wrote articles as a journalist with the radio station 88.9FM WERS.
Since 2009, I've also written articles for the Boston initiative, Artist's Advocacy.
Beginning in 2010, I've contributed articles to the Northeast edition of Performer Magazine.
This portfolio includes those works, some created with no association to anything and some bits of my stream of consciousness.

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The written content appearing in this blog is copyrighted by Lee Stepien and any distribution, reproduction or any other action must be approved by the author.

The music appearing in this blog is property of the artists and is intended as samples only. Please support these musicians by buying their LPs, t-shirts, mouse pads and kaleidoscopes, so that they can keep eating and inspiring us with awe.

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Festival Review :: Coachella - Los Angeles, CA, Sunday, April 19th, 2009

After deciding the week of the festival that I should probably buy a ticket to Coachella, I began scouring craigslist. It was nearly impossible to find any for Friday, which was a shame, because it meant I couldn’t see Conor Oberst, Leonard Cohen, Paul McCartney, M. Ward, The Black Keys and more. The most tickets offers I found were for Sunday, which was surprising as it had the second best line-up. I ended up buying a ticket from a fifteen year old kid in Encino for cheap. Thanks kid whose name I don’t remember! A quick drive to Empire Polo Field in Indio and I was ready to bake in the heat. If you went to the right stages, the day carried the theme of an ear bleeding noise-fest.

Los Angeles is spoiled, because if you miss one No Age show, the natives are bound to be playing again next month. Downtown hosts The Smell, which is the art-noise and No Age center of the universe. The front of the venue proudly wears the band’s name and title of their first compilation record “Weirdo Rippers,” as it was the cover photo. The Mojave hosted the only mosh pit I saw that day as No Age trippingly thrashed three chord tantrums all over the stage. Guitarist Randy Randall tossed his luscious sweaty locks about as he jumped around or waded into the crowd or leaped off his amp. As Drummer and vocalist Dean Allen Spunt pounded at his ripped up kit, he repped a New Image Art t-shirt from their show at the West Hollywood gallery a couple of months earlier. For their last song Randall tossed the green dinosaur piñata that had been adorning the stage in the air, beating it into the crowd with his guitar where it was promptly torn limb from limb.

Okkervil River was inconveniently lined up at the same time as Shepherd Fairey. I really wanted to find out what Mr. Fairey could be doing on stage for an hour, live art or otherwise. ‘Literary’ is the go to word branded on Okkervil River when reviewers are feebly attempting to describe them. It makes sense, the round glasses and button up shirt tucked into dark slacks made singer and guitarist Will Sheff look like a literature professor. Oh yeah, it’s not all about their look, they’ve also got encyclopedia sized narrative lyrics and the band takes their name from Russian author Tatyana Tolstaya. The Texas natives felt right at home in the Indio desert, encircled by palm trees, mountains and a bleary sun. Shraff’s hollow meandering vocals guided the set from the jumpy “Unless it’s Kicks” to the slow strum of the lovely female guitarist Lauren Gurgiolo on “Plus Ones.”

For the next couple of hours, the only bands to watch were the appropriately named Lupe Fiasco or the K’breaded K’Naan. The absence of any captivating set to watch had me puking into the grass. Then again, that could’ve been a bad chicken sandwich I had for lunch. After that, there was a wailing match between Peter Bjorn and John and Anthony and the Johnsons. and.

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs exploded onto the stage, singer Karen O glitteringly sober in her gold plated dress. A giant eyeball with sparkly plastic explosions hung behind the band. Their set decorations reflected the docility and high production of their newest album. However, Miss O proved she could still manically thrash about and scream on songs like the b-side epic “Countdown.” Guitarist Nick Zinner and drummer Brian Chase showed that they haven’t lost any vigor since their first album. Then they played the droll “Zero”…

Taking the noise throne as night descended was My Bloody Valentine. The lighting behind them brought the pink and black of 1991’s Loveless to life, blinding, blurring and blending musician into instrument into the abstract visuals on the screen behind them. Loveless was characterized by riotous riffs and drowning vocals with eerie and unmistakable, albeit indistinguishable, guitar and vocal melodies. The band likewise brought their music to life a grand cacophonous scale. The music flowing with the lights out into the crowd to drown them in noise. The only downside was that the band got so loud at times it all buzzed into one, like ambient television static, particularly for those close to the stage. There were also melodic meditations. Scruffy guitarist and vocalist Kevin Sheilds was poised and zen-like through tunes like the methodical “Only Shallow.” Wearing a red dress and cardigan, the sweet Bilinda Butcher sang most of the songs while playing guitar and looked like she would fit in just as well as a mother of three in the sixties.

My Bloody Valentine sure has a sense of humor. The bridge of their last song “You Made Me Realize” was the climax of dissonance for their set. Guitarists strummed as loud and as quickly as they could and the drummer beat a crashing rhythm into the kit. This went on for at least fifteen minutes. I’m not even exaggerating. People covered their ears and walked away as the droning wall of sound made even your blood vibrate to the point where you thought it would turn into gelatin and ooze out of your pores. It went on for far too long, tried the audience’s patience and was hilarious. When they decided they were good and finished, they bounced right back into the chorus to finish out the song.

Some people stayed and cried all through The Cure’s set. I wasn’t one of them.

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Feature :: Ace Enders and A Million Different People - T.T. The Bear's Place, Boston, MA, 2007

The shadows cast on Ace Enders in the dim back room of T.T. The Bear’s Place in Cambridge make the bags under his eyes seem to crawl down his face. Behind the walls of instrument cases and gig bags that surround Enders, a member from Steel Train pops in to grab a guitar and then runs back on stage to play his next song. Enders Yawns. He’s been traveling for hours in a van with his wife, Jenn and he’s exhausted. Trying to revolutionize the music industry will do that to a twenty five year old.

When he was nineteen in New Jersey, Enders started the pretty pop punk outfit, The Early November. They built a strong fan following, releasing two EPs, a full length album and a triple disc LP, but the band went on an indefinite hiatus in March of 2007. Enders’ new project is called Ace Enders and a Million Different People. The name disregards brevity like the introspective, acoustic favored solo album from 2004, I Can Make a Mess Like Nobody’s Business.

Being the creative force behind The Early November’s lyrics and instrumentation, Enders is used to doing things independently. He recorded the acoustic EP the band released in 2002 by himself and wrote his solo album three months after The Early November’s first release, The Room’s Too Cold.

The mission statement for I Can Make a Mess posted on the band’s website was about getting back to the beginning and trying to do things a little differently. “I wanted to go back to the time when the only thing that mattered was the music and not all of the other messy things that come with it,” Enders says. Now, four years later, he really is starting over and finding that his biggest problem is being broke. “After The Early November ended, we all thought that we would be able to get a little bit of money to start our own new things,” Enders sighs. “It turns out that we were left pretty much where we started.”

Enders' focus is now on the music more than ever. His previous bands have gained him firsthand experience with the problems in the industry and the freshly blooming digital medium. “There is a huge miscommunication between bands, fans and the industry. There’s no respect at all for anything,” Enders says, shaking his head. “So many fans steal records and so many bands make records to be big and just want people to buy them.”

Enders' attempt to resolve the problem is an organization he started with his wife, Jenn, called The Sound of Evolution. When it’s mentioned Enders eyes light up and his tone changes, “Ah, The Sound of Evolution! That’s my favorite little project right now.” It is an amalgamation already hundreds strong of bands, people, labels and other groups that agree on the organization’s mission statement. Thesoundofevolution.com outlines its goals, which include creating an alternate form of distribution and compensation, attempting to grant artistic control to the songwriters and to build a respectful relationship between artists and fans.

“It’s going to be basically the same idea that Radiohead had,” Enders says. “Donating for records and picking your own price and stuff like that.” Unfortunately, due to contract and financial restraints, Enders has to release an album through his old label, Drive-Thru. “Obviously, I’m not as big as Radiohead, so it wouldn’t have been as big of an impact at all,” Enders says as he rips the label off of the water bottle he holds, “A little band like myself would not have been able to stay afloat doing that.”

His solution: do both. He already has one eight track album available for download on Fuse’s website called The Secret Wars. He plans to release another before his new record, When I Hit the Ground, hits stores next year.

“This new record is going to have wrapped up in it everything that every other record tried to say,” Enders says. Through the whispering, wailing laments and infections melodies of the songs he’s already released, his lyrics reflect what he is going through now, starting all over. “It was like everything I had invested my life into in the past six years went away and left me with nothing pretty much,” Enders fidgets and pops the plastic of the water bottle.

One of the ways Enders is trying to actualize the relationship to his fans is by letting them pick what songs he’ll play. Using pickrset.com, fans can vote for their favorites before a show and Enders reviews it when making his set list. “The hard part is not knowing all the songs that I have,” Enders says. “Like Early November b-sides that never made it onto any Early November record and that we’ve never ever played. People call them out during shows and I have no idea.”

Ace Enders has a million different projects. In addition to his records and The Sound of Evolution, Enders has other aspirations. Such as Regular Music, his own independent record label. His intention is to give artists all the control and allow them to make a living just being artists, without having to conform to a certain sound or role. There are currently three bands on Regular, Peter Nischt, Nothing Ever Stays and One Two Three Four.

“It’s extremely had starting up a label, especially when you don’t have any money,” Enders says. He can’t even put his own band on that label as he is still contractually obligated with Drive-Thru Records from when he was in The Early November. Enders is okay with the situation, “I wouldn’t want to leave Drive-Thru anyway, because they’ve been very kind to me and I’m happy with our relationship.”

Enders has also built, by hand, a studio for Regular Music in the basement of a shopping center. It’s called Pink Space. He works as a producer when he isn’t busy with his other projects.

After the interview, Enders takes the stage and all the stress and exhaustion seems to be lifted from him. He plays the songs his fans have picked with as much charisma and intimacy as he did with The Early November. He took suggestions from the crowd, playing “Sunday Drive,” a slightly obscure, yet fan favorite. He didn’t even have trouble remembering how to play it.

www.aceenders.com

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Feature :: The Motion Sick, November 7th, 2007

October, 2007


Listening to The Motion Sick, unsigned Boston indie rockers, is like digging up a grave to find a clown buried inside. Both the lyrical content and musical arrangement contrasts a haunting sensation with childlike euphoria. The Motion Sick comfortably blends bright and dark moods and themes, juxtaposing the playful and the poignant. They’ll have you dancing while conceptualizing fate.

The band consists of acoustic guitarist and vocalist Michael Epstein, guitarist Patrick Mussari, bassist Mathew Girard, drummer Travis Richter and friends that fill in on various instruments. They sat down with me to talk about the band and their new album, "The Truth Will Catch You, Just Wait." Guitarist Patrick Mussari wasn’t present, but “cutting cheese,” as the band affectionately put it, his part time job at a whole foods grocery store. After the interview they played two songs . The highlight was Girard’s hilarious vocalization of an electric guitar solo in the middle of “Walk On Water.”

Their music bends the normal parameters for genres. It couples folk instruments such as acoustic guitar, banjos and tambourine with synthesized electronic elements and fuzzy, wailing electric guitar riffs.

The lyrics will have you thinking outside conventional love song boundaries. The content ranges from the French revolution to society and politics to video games to suicide and the walking dead, all built on a romantic foundation. “Sometimes there are lines in songs that people think are really sad and awful and some people think are really funny,” Epstein says. “The Most Beautiful Dead Girl” is definitive of this duality. For a song about the living dead and a girl that commits suicide, it sounds like a silly dance tune.

The track is from "Her Brilliant Fifteen," the band’s first release. It has a focus more on the playful side than their second, favoring the acoustic instruments and electronic melodies. The album earned the band the title of one of the best Boston albums of 2006 by the Boston Metro and band of the month in January of 2006 from SPIN magazine. They achieved this notoriety without being signed to a label.

The Motion Sick remains independent because the band insists on artistic freedom. Girard, who has experience in the industry as a recording engineer, says, “It’s much more about business and almost nothing about art. It's very difficult for artists to make their own way where they feel like they don't have to compromise their integrity to make a lasting career.”

At the same time the band isn’t restricted by indie dogmas. “I think the DIY ethic is very important to be aware of,” Girard says, but it’s also important to “know when to reach outside of that circle, or when people are trying to reach into your circle.”

The band admitted that the venture was far from profitable without a label backing them, relying completely on listener support through selling CD’s, MP3’s and merch. Epstein says they’d consider an offer if it was right for them, but “until that happens, we're kind of in a situation where we have to do most of the work on our own.”

Work they do. They write and fund the music themselves, while mastering and producing with the help of friends. They put out their second record, "The Truth Will Catchy You, Just Wait…" through Naked Ear Records; its producer, Barry Marshall, an Emerson professor. They’ve also filmed their own music video for “30 Lives.”

The Truth features the electric guitar more prominently than the first record, giving the album an eerier feel. Richter says “Her Brilliant Fifteen was very much a studio project for Mike to begin with. On this go around, it was much more collaborative,” he says, noting there are more songs that are “very dark and deep and creepy.”

The song “The Owls Are Not What They Seem,” outlines this audible and thematic difference. Howling guitar and thunderous cymbals crash along to the repeated line, “There is no escape.” The title for the song is an allusion to David Lynch’s Twin Peaks, dealing with one of the album’s biggest themes, the futility of resisting fate.

You can check out videos of the interview and songs, “Tiny Dog (Nodboy Cries)” and “Walk on Water,” below and support the band by visiting themotionsick.com.

www.themotionsick.com

Tiny Dog (Nobody Cries)


Walk on Water

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Concert Review :: Bon Iver - The Wilbur Theatre, Boston, MA, December 15th, 2008

Last night, Bon Iver’s wintery falsettos ricocheted off the chandeliers and vaulted ceiling of the Wilbur Theatre. The bluesy southern acoustic act The Tallest Man on Earth opened the show.

When songwriter and vocalist Justin Vernon stepped out of the darkness, guitars, drums and electronic equipment littered the stage. Each musician performed multiple duties throughout the set; Vernon was boxed in by a rack of guitars, a synth, microphone and amp. Mike Noyce played guitar and beat a floor tom, Sean Carey was poised behind a drum set and played acoustic and Matt McCon picked up the bass line as well as drums. They all joined their voices together for the four part harmony that appeared in most songs. The group is exactly what you would picture them to look like from the music’s sound: weathered, winter cap wearing lumberjacks with gnarled hair and beards.

The intro noise and wailing falsettos to the first song “Lump Sum” was longer, building anticipation before the lights came up and those three repeated down stroke chords started.

Vernon pulled out the steel guitar for the unmistakable twang of the romantic crowd favorite, “Skinny Love.” It showed off the band’s ability to be unconventional as they experimented with random notes and played the guitar in ways it wasn’t meant to be played, such as above the fret board or below the bridge.

The band then transitioned into two songs from the newly released “Blood Bank.” The EP is only available now on 45 rpm vinyl, a speed Vernon connoted by saying, “that just means its cooler.” The songs come from the same sessions as the album For Emma, Forever Ago so he could appropriately say, “These are old songs, but I guess they’re new to you.” Vernon played the repetitious heartbreaking keys for “Babys” and Carey stepped from behind the drum kit to play nylon acoustic for the whimpering and trudging along “Beach Baby.”

“Creature Fear” showed the band at more improvisation. As one of the heavier songs, they took the chance to rock out towards the end. For “The Wolves (Act I and II)” Vernon said the song would only sound right with the audience’s participation. They followed the crescendo of the line “what might have been lost.” Then at the end of the song, Vernon requested them to scream as loud as possible, because as he said, “It’s not often that you get to scream bloody murder before Christmas, so you should just go for it.” It didn’t sound like screams however, but yowling moans and bawling yelps that echoed off the theatre like a frosty cavern.

For the encore, the band played the marching snowy tryst story “Blood Bank,” also from the new EP. As the song bloomed into improvisation, Vernon borrowed a trick from the grunge and art/noise scenes by kneeling in front of his amp and playing with the feedback from his electric guitar and effects pedals.Vernon said that this would be the last time the band would be in Boston for a while. Hopefully that means they’ll be recording again soon. Bon Iver makes their way back to Wisconsin this month before heading to Australia in January.

www.boniver.org

~Lee Stepien


Posted at WERS.org on December 15, 2008
Photography by A. Grant

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Concert Review :: Ben Kweller - The Paradise, Boston, MA, October 16th, 2008

Boston means a lot to Ben Kweller. It’s the place where he met his wife and he paid it tribute last night during his show at the Paradise. At the end of “Things I Like to Do,” Kweller substituted the nightclub’s name for the lyrics ‘noisy bar.’

Aussie Lawrence Greenwood of Whitley opened the show with just an acoustic guitar, a mellow voice and large, round, black glasses.

The set started with Kweller’s catchiest tunes like “Fight.” The whole band got into it, Kweller on his acoustic, backed by a bass, lap steel and drums. He dedicated “Family Tree” to his wife and baby boy who were in the balcony. His son was standing on the railing in his mother’s arms wearing a giant pair of earmuffs.

Kweller played a few new songs from the forthcoming Changing Horses, out in January 2009. One of them was “Sawdust Man,” a jumpy tune which Kweller played piano for and another band member sat Kweller’s acoustic guitar in his lap and played it with a slide piece like a lap steel.

Towards the end of the show Kweller played some crowd pleasers, everyone singing along to “I’ll kill you with karate I learned in Japan.” He created a large gathering that night, the club full of everyone from college students to middle-aged bar hoppers.


Kweller returns to Mass with Conor Oberst in November at the Academy of Music in Northampton.


www.kweller.net

~Lee Stepien

Posted at WERS.org on October 17, 2008
Photography by A. Grant

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Concert Review :: The Music Tapes - The Church, Boston, MA, October 12th, 2008

There’s a line outside of The Church Nightclub down the block. Fans are waiting patiently for the doors to open so they can see The Music Tapes and the rest of the Elephant Six Orchestra form Athens, Georgia. It’s taking longer than expected, because an unusual microphone set up has to be used for the singing saw, Magnus organ, tuba, clarinet, violin, two drum sets, and of course the standard guitars and basses. They also have to set up the projector and screen for the evening’s short film. It’ll be worth the wait, because this show will be one of the most unique concert experiences those fans will see in a while.

The mad scientist, Brian Dewan opened the show, singing antique tunes on his accordion and autoharp. A couple of the songs were renditions of fairy tales, Rumplestiltskin and the Three Billy Goats Gruff, and one song was about a robotic arm industry in Boston. Julian Koster, the force behind The Music Tapes, said he was a big inspiration.

After Dewan, a screen was set up and the short film “Major Organ and the Adding Machine” was shown. It’s based on and uses music from the album of the same name by Koster and Neutral Milk Hotel frontman Jeff Mangum. The film was a psychedelic journey about two kids gathering ingredients for Madame Truffle’s Moonpie Eye cookie, while the old bearded folks ask Major Organ to save them.

The collective of bands from the Elephant Six Recording Company played, including Olivia Tremor Control, Circulatory System, a few songs from Elf Power and many more. Koster introduced the show saying, “We are the Elephant Six holiday surprise…and so are you!” The show was like a huge jam session between friends, as no band played more than three songs before another band took over. Members were constantly trading instruments, pulling new ones from the back and jumping on different microphones. The technicians could hardly keep up with the changing sound levels, as the bands kept signaling them to turn up certain microphones.

The one downside to this type of show was that the songs by The Music Tapes were the most interesting, but Koster humbly played only his allotted amount. During “Majesty” the seven foot metronome that was stored in the corner of the stage swung back and forth, keeping the beat of the music. Some of the earlier Music Tapes songs consist of audio clips and strange effects on Koster’s voice. Such one song was left to Static the Television. On top of an amplifier was an old television set with a squiggly smile on it that sang as Koster jumped around in a circle, playing banjo. The way Koster bounced around with a guitar in his hands or a saw between his knees imparted the audience with his childlike glee.

Halfway through the show, Dewan set up the screen again to project what he calls I Can See Filmstrips. It was a series of paintings and drawings all about innovation, a topic appropriate for the evening. After that, Koster retuned and said the show was like a record they were flipping over and were now heading into side B.

The crazy collective Elephant Six holiday surprise continues this month across the country.

http://www.elephant6.com/

~Lee Stepien


Posted at WERS.org on October 13, 2008

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Concert Review :: Mount Eerie - Mass Art's Pozen Center, Boston, MA, September 27th, 2008

The best kept secret last Saturday was a Mount Eerie show. Trying to find Mass Art’s Pozen Center where the show was held proved to be puzzling even to the Mass Art students smoking on the street. For a show with such a unique atmosphere and hypnotizing performances, it was tricky to find out anything about the show as it wasn’t even publicized on the school’s web site.

Following a hand written sign, past the large tower building, a couple of dumpsters and through a side door, was the venue. Despite its hidden location, one step inside the auditorium hushed the onlooker with its glowing hardwood floors and huge light riggings hanging in front of the classical molding on the ceilings. For such a large space, the music was intimate while sounding full and having a distant natural reverb.

The opening band, Manners, played in the center of the room, rather than on stage, with the audience sitting in a circle around them. A single clamp light created a dark and bright contrast on the band and transformed the room into a séance. It reflected Greg Sun’s quiet whisperings and meditative electric guitar, the sound filled out by a synthesizer.

After Manners finished, the Needy Visions called everyone to circle around them on the side of the room. Their music was silly, but not a joke, resembling Vampire Weekend…even though the band has no idea who they are. The quirky Dan Shea played acoustic guitar complimented by his staccato vocals such as on the catchy “Weymouth.” The bassist, Sam Portykus is formerly of Christians and Lions, local Boston folk philosophers. The drummer, Bill Conroy sat against the wall with a Djembe drum in his lap as Elliott Chaffee followed the melody on electric guitar.

The rest of the show was set up in front of the stage. Calm Down, It's Monday played first, with Julie Doiron on drums. Dick Morello was part musician and part comedian for his set, keeping the audience laughing with his off topic banter. While he played electric to his story-like songs, his eyes never moved from a spot on the floor a few feet in front of his microphone.

Morello switched instruments with Doiron for her set, although Morello was more like a member of the audience for most of it. Doiron was amazed by the mood in the room, which prompted her to play older, slower songs. “I should’ve written a set list,” she said. “That’s the professional thing to do, right?” Her sweet songs were like Regina Spektor meets Maria Taylor (even though she has been playing longer than both of them). She has such a large catalog that at times she forgot the lyrics, but cutely recovered, once swearing in French, “Merde!” She thanked everyone profusely for being so attentive and said that the show was one of the best she played.


Doiron and Fred Squire recently recorded an album called Lost Wisdom with Mount Eerie’s Phil Elverum. After Doiron, they played the album in its entirety from start to finish. Morello played electric for the set, while Elverum used a nylon acoustic. Doiron mostly sang backup, although a few songs soloed her songbird vocals, particularly “If We Knew…”

Elverum experimented with the acoustics of the room during “Voice in Headphones.” He had the whole crowd quietly resounding “It’s not meant to be a strife, it’s not meant to be a struggle uphill.” During Mount Eerie’s set, Phil Elverum kept hinting for fans to buy Doiron’s CD’s as her 90s band, Eric’s Trip was a big inspiration for him.

After the album had finished, Elverum played alone. By request, he started out with two songs from his previous moniker, the Microphones, “I Want Wind to Blow” and “The Glow, Part 2.” Strangely, when asked to play “Headless Horseman,” Elverum shook his head, saying, “Oh no, I can’t play that one.” He added another plug for Doiron, explaining that the type of guitar playing at the end of “The Glow, Part 2” was invented by Eric’s Trip.

The next song, newly unpolished “Wind Summons” off of the forthcoming Wind’s Poem, felt like being lost in a dream. The lyrics roamed around with imagery of nature, the melody being tossed about like dead leaves in the wind. The song is exemplary of Elverum’s experimental free association technique. It seemed like he was trying to capture every moment of inspiration by writing and singing whatever first came out of his head during the creative process. This kind of style mirrors the idea behind his unfiltered lo-fidelity recordings.

Elverum ended the set with another new song “Buried in Space” before shyly walking away from the stage, through a mesmerized and cheering crowd.


Mount Eerie Set List:
2. Voice in Headphones
3. You Swan, Go On
4. Who?
5. Flaming Home
6. What?
7. If We Knew…
8. With My Hands Out
9. O My Heart
10. Grave Robbers
Phil Elverum solo encore:
11. I Want Wind To Blow
12. The Glow, Part 2
13. Wind Summons
14. My Burning
15. The Intimacy of the World with the World
16. Buried in Space



www.pwelverumandsun.com

www.juliedoiron.com

www.myspace.com/calmdownitsmonday

www.myspace.com/theneedyvisions

www.mnnrs.com


~Lee Stepien


Published at WERS.org on September 28, 2008
Photography by Jenny Bagnyuk

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Concert Review :: Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band - Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY, August 12, 2008

Conor Oberst was once a bashful little boy, whispering and wailing his darkest secrets into the microphone while hiding behind an acoustic guitar. His recent tour to support the album Conor Oberst showed him with a new poise and vigor, stomping and strumming (occasionally stumbling over to pet keyboardist Nate Walcott’s hair) and more comfortable than ever before, singing his new country folk songs. It was his escapist attitude that led him to Topaztlan, Mexico to record a self titled traveling album. For an hour and a half on August 12 at the Bowery Ballroom in the Bright Eyes Mecca, New York City, the audience escaped with him too.

The set was split evenly between upbeat do-si-does, the audience actually dancing to “I Don’t Want to Die (In a Hospital)” and “Get-Well-Cards,” and intimate moments as during “Eagle on a Pole” and “Milk Thistle.” In between songs, sipping Miller Lite and a mysterious black liquid from a plastic cup on top of an old tube amp, Oberst would thank everyone profusely. He thanked the audience and The Evangelicals, the crashing noise opener with soaring solos and Jeff Buckley-esque vocals. Each of his mumbles of gratitude was met with even louder shouts of thanks from the audience.

Unfortunately for Bright Eyes fans, no ‘covers’ filled up the set. Instead, Conor took that chance to give the spotlight to his band mates. Taylor Hollingsworth played “Central City” off his record Bad Little Kitty. Guitarist Nik Freitas played “Sun Down” from his recent record with the same name. Even bassist Macey Taylor got to sing the first half of the droopy Harry Nilson cover “Everybody’s Talking.” All the while drummer Jason Boesel was keeping the rhythm and providing backup vocals.

After the critics had been giving him the Dylan nod for quite some time, Oberst finally addressed it in “Clairaudients,” the first track off the last Bright Eyes record, Cassadaga. It was a bit of well penned sarcarsm, “Would you agree times have changed?” This side project has Oberst inching closer to the legend and his band with not only the name of the project, the arrangement and the sound, but also for the fact that they covered a song Dylan played, “Corina, Corina.” The bluesy rock and roll bounce was fresh for Conor and, as he may be trying to do with the Dylan comparison, he made the song his own by adding lyrics like, “You’re way out there in Toluca and I’m trapped in Topaztlan.”

The Mystics played four songs that didn’t make the record. “Synasthete” had a riotous intro that was infused with noise and feedback for an eerie, psychedelic, dissonant jam. They also played the unfiltered rock of “Gentleman’s Pact” and the newer synth heavy plea, “I Got the Reason #2.”

Oberst took the keyboards to end the set with “Breezy” and the intensity felt after a lost loved one was still worn into Oberst’s voice. The song is about Sabrina Duim, a friend and harpist for Bright Eyes who died in January 2007. The set ended not so much with a jam, but an agonized and defeated randomization of notes. The band played whatever they could hit, Hollingsworth exploring the length of the fret board with a lighter as a slide piece and Oberst sweeping his hands across the keys.

Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band continue touring in the UK until late September. They’ll be back in New York at Terminal 5 in November.

Set list:
1. Sausalito
2. Get-Well-Cards
3. Eagle on a Pole
4. Central City
5. Cape Canaveral
6. Danny Callahan
7. Gentleman’s Pact
8. I Got the Reason #2
9. Corrina, Corrina
10. Lenders in the Temple
11. Synasthete
12. I Don’t Want to Die (in a Hospital)
Encore:
14. Sun Down
15. Everybody's Talking
16. NYC – Gone, Gone
17. Souled Out!!!
18. Breezy

www.conoroberst.com

~Lee Stepien

Published at WERS.org on August 16, 2008
Photography by Erina Uemura

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Concert Review :: Fleet Foxes - Middle East Upstairs, Boston, MA, July 14th, 2008

Fleet Foxes has quickly garnered much attention since their first release earlier this year. Their show last night at the Middle East Upstairs had been sold out for weeks, so it was no surprise to overhear “shouldn’t they be playing the Downstairs?” which is the bigger venue. However, an intimate setting proved perfect for the foxes as their old folk sound, earthen lyrics and a heard of vocal harmonies turned the night club into an overgrown mountain pass.

The opening bands were both in contrast with one another and Fleet Foxes, but such is the mold at the Middle East. The first was the pseudo-psychedelic Boston rockers, The Soft Drugs, followed by nerdy songbirds, The Duchess and the Duke.

Everything about Fleet Foxes’ live show was consistent with the tone of their music, presenting quite a thematically cohesive band. Their album cover, name, lyrics and appearance all conjure imagery of northwestern wilderness. They looked just like the kind of humble, bearded mountain men you would expect to play songs about red squirrels, quivering forests and white winters. Even the way lead vocalist Robin Pecknold’s mouth gnarls when he sings reminds one of twisted wood. The organ-like synth and mandolin played by Casey Westcott capture the folk feel of the music all the while still incorporating heavier elements of Christian Wargo’s bass, Skye Skjelset’s electric and Nick Peterson’s drums.

To say Robin Pecknold is the "lead singer" is a relative term. He guided the melodic foray into multiple levels of harmonies from four of the five other members. Their voices were instruments, sometimes comprising a portion or an entire song as in “Sun Giant,” the band’s opener from their EP with the same name. These vocal chants sounded otherworldly and possessed the audience likewise.

The band seemed genuinely surprised by the excited ovations they received, Pecknold shyly thanking them, when breaking to tune or switch instruments. Many times one song would seamlessly flow into another, leaving little time for the audience to applaud. Pecknold joked that he felt like they needed a grandiose "trash can ending" so that the audience would know the song was over. However, the crowd wasn’t inattentive, they were soaking up every moment of the uninterrupted baroque harmonic pop jams.

“White Winter Hymnal” and “Ragged Wood” were broken up by Wargo and Peterson’s banter about flan. Wargo had stolen a menu from the Upstairs restaurant, which reminded Peterson to tell Wargo, “Don’t order for me again dude. It’s embarrassing. I’m my own person … But I will have the flan.”

When the band left the stage for Pecknold to play acoustically, he covered “Crayon Angel,” a Judee Sill song which he fervently recommended the audience check out. The band returned and altered their arrangements a bit. During “Mykonos” Skjelset played his guitar with a bow and plugged in a mandolin to drive the melody in “Blue Ridge Mountains.”

As the audio-meadow that the foxes created faded away at the end of “Tiger Mountain Peasant Song,” the audience was left cheering for more. Soon we may be seeing Fleet Foxes playing on bigger mountains.




http://www.myspace.com/fleetfoxes

~Lee Stepien

Published at WERS.org on July 15, 2008
Photography by Alison Klien

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Concert Review :: Say Anything - The Avalon, Boston, MA, May 3rd, 2007

The crowd’s ovation embraced Max Beamis, lead of Say Anything, like a drunken messiah with reasonable right, as he wrote every instrumentation for their abrasively honest debut album, ..Is a Real Boy. Now rising on their MTV escalator ascent to fame, Say Anything bounced and wailed through their short, one hour co-headlining tour with Saves the Day. The character of their live show mimicked their music, absurdly serious while at the same time candidly playful. The defining moment of Say Anything’s dichotomy was clear when Max, for unknown reasons, randomly threw up his middle finger to someone in the balcony and immediately retracted it with childlike embarrassment with his other hand, apologizing and sending his love into the crowd.

The seemingly always coupled ‘Belt’ and ‘Woe’ were performed with belching mellowness and fury, the breakdown of ‘Belt’ revealing stagnant mercenaries within everyone present as Max handed the mic to the masses and crowd surfers in front of him eager to assemble, chanting after him ‘what say you and all your friends step up to my friends in the alley tonight.’ The set marched on with the rarely played ‘Metal Now,’ from the bonus EP …Was a Real Boy. The band blessed the crowed with the freshly crafted hymn , ‘People like You Are Why People like Me Exist’ from their ellipsis lugging upcoming album, ...In Defense of the Genre. The new song, much like their set list, suggests Say Anything has adopted a slightly formulaic structure for success, only slightly challenging convention yet still delivering the delicious Say Anything sound that the crowd was eager to devour.

The ringtone to ‘Wow, I Can Get Sexual Too’ rang out for a half minute signaling the start of their encore. They returned in full force with the vehemence of their new single behind them lauding the stupidity of love. They finished their short set with the ranting ‘Admit it!!!’ more accusatory than ever. The show captured an honest and brutal energy, but whether Say Anything will be the band to infiltrate the clear channel corrupted, MTV overproduced music system from the inside or whether the self-confessed (in the jacket of ...Is a Real Boy) rock star ego of Beamis will force them to conform to its standards for success is yet to be determined.

Set list:
Alive With The Glory of Love
Belt
Woe
Metal Now
People like You are why People like Me Exist
The Futile
Yellow Cat/Red Cat
Every Man Has a Molly
Encore:
Wow, I Can Get Sexual
Admit It!!!

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Concert Review :: Modest Mouse - Lupos, Providence, RI, May 2nd, 2007

Any song by Modest Mouse reveals the band’s unconventional style. Flowing bipolar vocals, catchy ethereal guitar and soft yet abrasive beats create an irresistibly bizarre sound. Everything about their live show echoes this same curious style. Their two openers were given an hour each to do whatever they wanted. The second opener, Man Man, is exactly the kind of band you would expect Modest Mouse to ally with. Their look, first off, was nothing close to that of a rock star. They were ugly, portly with long greasy and curly hair in matching white uniforms with face paint under their eyes like their microphones had been placed on the goal line of some imaginary football game. A small setup with keyboards and drums up front facing one another and three mics behind who’s owners were brandished with unusual instruments like blow pianos. These are essential small, handheld keyboards with a mouthpiece at one end held, played like a clarinet. A guitar seemed to be an optional instead of essential addition to the arrangement. Combined with the sporadic vocals, the whole set challenged the convention of what a band should look like and how music should be composed.

Looming in the background of both opening bands were several black stands that branched out like the arms of some PVC tree, each limb carrying a lantern. Before Modest Mouse emerged from backstage, they began to glow like miniature lighthouses, guiding the audience’s eyes to the stage. An appropriate choice for their nautically themed new album, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. The usual bassist, Eric Judy, was unexplainably absent from the stage, but Brandon Angle from Love As Laughter took up his duties. The band began with a pulse pounding performance of ‘Bury Me With It’ and then passed into ‘Paper Thin Walls’ from The Moon and Antarctica, proving two things; the new guitarist, Johnny Marr (formerly of The Smiths), a wise addition as he could accurately thrash through their old material and the mouse hadn’t forgotten about the fans they made when they weren’t nationally popular.

The vocalist, Isaac Brock, was stationary for the whole performance, with few words in between songs. There was an ancillary mic set up that was distorted to mimic the megaphone effects that are present in the vocals on many of the recorded versions of the songs. Its presence made it clear that this was a band that strived for an intriguing and accurate live performance. The demeanor of the musicians especially Brock was intense and serious. Towards the end of ‘Florida,’ halfway through the set, Brock stopped short because someone in the front of the crowd had been hurt. He let out a resounding “What the fuck is going on here?” almost agitated that he had been interrupted.

Old favorites were served up with new ferocity, like the extended versions of ‘Trailer Trash’ and ‘Doin’ The Cockroach.’ The latter was probably most impressive as it was almost double the length of the version present on The Lonesome Crowded West. The band performed their best new songs, including ‘Education,’ ‘Little Motel,’ and ‘Missed the Boat,’ but the best part of the show was the antique encore. They began with ‘Dramamine,’ which had lyrics from ‘Life Like Weeds’ spliced into it and then transitioned into ‘Breakthrough.’ Both tracks are from This is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About, the band’s first album and songs only true fans would know. They finished the show with the already long ‘Spitting Venom,’ by extending it to add portions of ‘I Came as a Rat.’ As the lanterns faded and the house lights came on, Modest Mouse had made it clear that they were the same band that had played small clubs in Issaquah all those years ago.

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Concert Review :: Brand New - the Avalon, Boston, MA, April 24th 2007

The minute lead singer Jesse Lacey stepped out to the microphone to accompany the opener, Manchester Orchestra, any suspicions that Brand New is a tragedy factory riding the current trend of sin surplussed musicians were banished from the stage. He was unshaven, donning a dirty white t-shirt and a black beanie that seemed the attire of a crazy hobo more than a hipster or a rock star. Jesse’s words few and his actions subtle, seeming to suggest he was possessed likewise. It almost appeared as if he hadn’t noticed the crowd of adoring fans, but thought he was back in a basement on Long Island playing music for and with friends. His guitar and voice came from another world inside his own head, the torture within his lyrics immediately legitimized. At one point Jesse lay down on an overturned drum, supine and playing guitar for the ceiling.

Jesse became an additional member of the Orchestra and the Goddamn Band for Kevin Devine, but it was hardly the Jesse Lacey show. Each band brought their own unique personalities to the stage, especially evident during Devine’s set when he broke out in a freestyle jam, culminating in a break dancing, to a chant of Yankee’s suck for which Jesse, a New York native, was playing guitar. During both opening sets, Lacey crept behind microphones and guitars like a bashful shadow without introduction, despite the applause, reminding the audience what band was really onstage.

The tone for all of Brand New’s set was established before they even came onstage with a single, distorted note before breaking into ‘Okay, I Believe You, but My Tommy Gun Don’t.’ Guitarist Vinnie Accardi, bassist Garret Tierney, drummer Brian Lain, and the fresh face of Derrick Sherman (an extra guitarist recently added to aid live shows) seemed equally possessed by the music and displayed the same type of humble showmanship as Jesse, devoid of flashy antics. The emotions were so genuine it appeared that perhaps, as the title of their new record suggests, the devil and God really were fighting an epic battle within each musician. The whole set had a punk rock and grunge feel, with unique soloing and jams in the middle of songs lead by a soul piercing noise and feedback. At the Bridge of ‘Sic Transit Gloria…Glory Fades,’ Jesse screamed the hook into the pickup of his guitar with unbelievably convincing fury. During ‘Play Crack the Sky,’ the lead singer of Manchester Orchestra provided backing vocals and many others from both opening bands appeared throughout the set, blurring the lines between band and collective.

The set was split in two. The first half was all songs from Deja Entendu with ‘The Shower Scene’ and ‘The No Seatbelt Song’ from Your Favorite Weapon. Sadly a fan favorite, ‘The Quiet Things that No One Ever Knows’ was missing from the line up. Forty-five minutes into the set left fans questioning if they were going to play anything at all from the new record. It was possible that the band disliked the new songs calling to mind an interview posted on their website in which Lacey stated “our creative decisions are no longer ours to be made alone for ourselves. We are only a small part, now, of a much larger machine that has made us completely dependent on it… but which, for all intents and purposes, can function perfectly well without us.” However, an hour into the show Lacey stepped up to the mic and said ‘we’re just getting started.’ After that they bled into ‘Sowing Season (Yeah),’ the first single off their new record.

The defining moment of Lacey’s anguish came between songs, while he was tuning. A girl from the back of the crowd shouted ‘Jesse, you’re so hot!’ He gave a backward smirk and nodded his head in reluctance to the identity of a sex symbol feigning emotional love for physical passion that he is trying to escape as outlined in ‘Okay,’ ‘Me Vs. Maradona Vs. Elvis,’ and several other songs. The girl continued to shout and someone came to Jesse’s rescue by yelling ‘shut the fuck up!’ which received a loud ovation from everyone in the crowd. This moment coupled with the following ‘Jesus Christ’ made clear the progression of Brand New and Jesse’s lyrics. Deja Entendu confessed his sins and The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me is his attempt at redemption.

The set ended unconventionally with a soul sucking rendition of ‘Welcome to Bangkok,’ an instrumental song. Every single member of every band came onstage and played a guitar, beat a drum of cymbal, or jammed on a keyboard. It was the climax of Lacey’s agony as he screamed into the pickup and then beat his guitar against his forehead several times. The band refrained from cliché instrument smashing and Jesse proceeded to beat a cymbal mercilessly, at times missing it and knocking it over. People slowly filtered offstage and a few remained, beating their kits so badly that the cymbals were mangled and the drums torn. As the guitars rang out and the stage was emptied the lights went down and that was it. No encore.

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Feature :: Apollo Sunshine in studio

The psychedelic Apollo Sunshine came to trip out the studio, playing songs off their new record Shall Noise Upon.

The band blew into “Breeze” for their first song, which is driven by a twinkling harp, no guitar at all, and twin heaving vocals, sounding like Bob Dylan in a dystopian future.

Guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Sam Cohen was boxed in behind an autoharp and a pedal steel. After the first song he was meticulously tuning and plucking each instrument. As he did, bassist Jesse Gallagher, wearing a tattered bright green sweater tied at the neck in a bow, kept things interesting with silly banter. Jeremy Black sat behind the drum kit, eager and patient.

Although the band appeared as a three piece, the album features many other guests including Gallagher’s father on vocals. “It’s been pretty hard to reproduce live” Black said.

The next tune, "Honestly," felt as if someone gave folk singers an autoharp and a distortion pedal. The warped pedal steel soared and wobbled out of the song’s bridge, which made it seem as if the acid had kicked in for Simon and Garfunkel.

Cohen dusted off the electric for the last song and while he was tuning it, Gallagher began talking about the possible conspiracy of global warming, with which Cohen and Black flatly disagreed. Appropriately, the band then played “Singing to the Earth.” The song ended with the warped pedal steel, expertly improvised by Cohen.

Despite Gallagher’s skepticism, the band is environmentally conscious. They’ve been touring in a short blue school bus that has a converted vegetable oil engine.

You can see Apollo Sunshine pull up in their little blue bus at the Middle East on October 30th.

www.apollosunshine.com

~Lee Stepien

Published at WERS.org on October 15, 2008
Photography by Ross Dallas

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Feature :: Anne Heaton in studio

Anne Heaton came into the studio today to sing us her lullabies that sound like a sunset on a warm summer day.

Like one of her influences, Tori Amos, Heaton is a classically trained pianist. “When I first started playing, I played super busy, because it was hard to transition from classical piano to writing your own songs.” Heaton says. “It’s harder to get comfortable with just space.” Heaton did get comfortable with her music however, even if she thinks it is “overly spacious.” The ballads have a slow and glowing sound that rings and whispers.

Heaton began with “You Heart”, a song with a pretty melody with a playful and childlike spirit. Before the piano kicked in on “Where Your Scar Is” Heaton’s vocals were complimented only by Dave Godowsky’s acoustic guitar, which accompanied Heaton the entire set. The third song, “Pieces of Me”, Heaton says was told “from the perspective of a younger person looking at a grandfather or father and carrying the love for them through all their relationships.” Heaton finished the song with her eyes closed and head lowered. After the chords rang out she pushed her hair out of her face and smiled, welcoming more questions.

Her new album, Blazing Red, is to be released sometime in the fall. It was recorded in Somerville at Q-Division studios and WERS’s own Colin Gallager assisted its production. It was the first time that Heaton had recorded live in the studio, which she says gave the album a really nice feel. The idea for the record spawned from the title track that Heaton wrote on an airplane back from Florida. “I think I have this vision that in your life you can play a lot of different roles or things can change, but there’s always a core that’s powerful, whether it’s your heart or your soul, that you can kind of connect to and weather the changes in your life.”

On Saturday, June 21, Heaton will be playing at Club Passim. The show starts at 8 p.m., but those who show up earlier will get a unique Anne Heaton concert experience that includes mini-massages and tarot readings.

www.anneheaton.com

~Lee Stepien

Published at WERS.org on June 13, 2008
Photography by Alison Klien

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Album Review :: Lou Reed - Berlin, Live at St. Ann's Warehouse

In 1973 Lou Reed recorded his third solo album, Berlin. The album was a darker departure from the mostly pop catalog of his other solo work and his previous band, the Velvet Underground. It tells a love story of two junkies in the city from which the album gets its title.

It was considered a commercial failure when released and over the next thirty three years Reed rarely played songs from the album live. Two years ago, during the course of five nights in Brooklyn, Reed recorded Berlin - Live at St. Ann’s Warehouse. It includes three tracks not on the original album: “Candy Says” sung by Anthony Hegarty, “Rock Minuet” and “Sweet Jane.”

The live recordings sound full, well produced and orchestrated in contrast to the original album. It brings a new life and unique sincerity to the songs. Some of the tracks sound more like spoken poetry with musical accompaniment. Reed plays only the guitar and is joined by some of New York's top jazz and rock musicians.

A concert film was released in conjunction with the live album that was directed by Julian Schnabel, who also directed The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.

Mango Nebula favorite from this artist:
The Velvet Underground & Nico

www.loureed.com

~Lee Stepien
Published at WERS.org on November 30, 2008

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Album Review :: Bob Dylan - Tell Tale Signs: Rare and Unreleased 1989-2006

Bob Dylan has released the eighth installment of his bootleg series, Tell Tale Signs. Dylan’s rare and unreleased music has finally caught up to his most recent release, as the tracks cover 1989-2006. The songs span the sessions of the studio albums Oh Mercy, World Gone Wrong, Time Out of Mind and Modern Times. The two disc set comes complete with a 60 page full color booklet. There are photos from throughout Dylan’s career and an article by Larry “Ratso” Sloman that traces a fan’s experience with bootlegs as well as an inside perspective of Dylan’s Career. A paragraph for each song explains its sound and its seclusion.

Tell Tale Signs serves up all the folk fervor that an old Bob Dylan can offer. Most of the songs are ballads focusing on acoustic guitar or piano and having a jazzy and bluesy feel. There are different arrangements that represent a re-envisioning of tracks on studio albums. There are also a few live songs as some that appeared on movie soundtracks.

This set will please any diehard Dylan fan.

Mango Nebula Favorite from this artist:
Bob Dylan - The Times They are a Changin'

www.bobdylan.com

~Lee Stepien
Published at WERS.org on November 15, 2008

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REVIEW: The Music Tapes :: For Clouds and Tornadoes

Julian Koster has explained his main project The Music Tapes as ‘post cards from his imaginary world.’ If this is true then their latest album For Clouds and Tornadoes was post marked nine years ago. That’s how long it’s been since the band released 1st Imaginary Symphony for Nomad.

The new album is a lo-fi journey into the wintery shallows of Koster’s mind. It is much more accessible than 1st Imaginary, which was characterized by experiments in sound and noise, audio clips cut together and storytelling, all blended in song. For Clouds and Tornadoes is reminiscent of Koster’s work with Neutral Milk Hotel, however the band is in no way trapped in the shadow of Jeff Mangum and stands by itself amazingly well. The only darkness looming over The Music Tapes is that of the sonic tornado Koster has created.

The album was recorded in various bedrooms using vintage equipment, such as microphones from the 1930s. There’s even a track of Koster’s grandfather singing, called “Julian and Grandpa,” adding to the homemade feeling of the record.

Koster plays banjo, harmonium and even the ping pong ball in “Saw Ping Pong Orchestra.” He also plays the singing saw, present on nearly every track, as part of a quartet featured on the album. Don’t forget the wild musical inventions such as the seven foot metronome, Static the singing television and the Clapping Hands Machine, among others.

Throughout the record, imagery of snow and clouds conjure strong themes of Christmas. The three instrumentals that feature singing saw interludes relate to the holiday as well. “Schedrevka” is the name for a Ukranian New Years Carol and “Kolyada” (numbers one and two) is the original Slavic word for Christmas.

Koster has a unique way of creating percussion on the album. In addition to the ping pong ball, songs like “Freeing Song by Reindeer” rely on natural mechanical noise to create a rhythm. The harmonium clacking against itself becomes the steady mournful heartbeat of the ballad.

Koster’s lyrics can sometimes be overpowered by the music and the vocals buried, but his emotions ring through. The album is a carefully balanced mix of sorrow and happiness. “Majesty” buzzes and crashes in the album’s most joyous moment. Koster proves that he can still get noisy at the end of “The Minister of Lognitude,” the trombone blasts making you smile every time you hear it.

Then there are songs that could be both celebrations and laments. “Tornado Longing for Freedom” is a poppy tune of longing. It ends with Koster’s catchy and eerie woohoo-ing.
Visually, his imagination probably looks something like his Web site, mimicking Koster’s music as a swarm of antique images and stories. The site is made up of sequences of photographs, each with a written passage to accompany it. The pages deserve some time to be set aside in order to allow for proper exploration.

The Music Tapes’ For Clouds and Tornadoes proves a strange and wondrous place that can be revisited over and over again with something new discovered each time.

www.orbitinghumancircus.org

www.mergerecords.com/artists/music

~Lee Stepien

Posted at WERS.org on October 11, 2008

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REVIEW :: Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band

The folk swagger and lyrical imagery of Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band may cause ancient magic, UFOs, and Quetzalcoatl, the feathered Aztec serpent-sky-and-almighty-creator God, to emerge from your speakers. That's probably because the record was recorded in Tepoztlan, Mexico, a place famous for those three things and the locus of Oberst’s most recent vision quest. He and his bandmates lived and built a studio there in four adobe-like houses complete with ceramic tile floors.

Conor Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band first appeared on the stage of the 400 Bar in Minneapolis back in December 2007, a well performed show that resourceful fans can find online. The new album is a Bright Eyes record for those who somehow find sorrow laden, quivering, pessimistic whispers too inaccessible. Songs like the bluesy rock and roll "I Don’t Want to Die (In a Hospital)" is something to which you can clap along.

The project has a fixed and fundamental arrangement rooted in festival folk music. You won’t hear any of the digital effects prevalent in previous Bright Eyes albums. The set up is Bright Eyes member Nate Walcott on keyboards and trumpet, on guitar is Nik Freitas whose album Sun Down came out this past May, guitarist Taylor Hollingsworth, bassist Macey Taylor (brother of Saddle Creek artist Maria), and drummer Jason Boesel.

To say that this is Oberst’s first solo album in thirteen years isn’t quite accurate. He’s still playing with a lot of the friends that help him with Bright Eyes. Also, of course, there are the three prepubescent "self-titled" cassettes. The album dons a new name because producer and multi-instrumentalist, Mike Mogis, couldn’t be a part of it. Oberst told The Independent that he plans to return to the studio this November to record a new Bright Eyes record. Mogis’ absence gave Oberst a chance to do what he does best, play with his sound.

Oberst said, “My whole modus operandi for the project was that it should be stress-free. If we got stuck on a song we’d just stop, light a fire, drink beer and watch the fireworks down below.” This M.O. translates to the music well as it sounds lighter, relaxing, lively at times, and (although it feels like blasphemy) happy. There is a film of optimism stretched over the album with lines like “There’s no sorrow that the sun’s not gonna heal” from "Sausalito."

Oberst’s poetry has evolved to juxtapose contrasting imagery as in "Lenders in the Temple" that takes you from Caesar and Joan of Arc to paper tigers and pink flamingos in malls. One of the most personal songs is "Eagle on a Pole." It’s also probably the most like a Bright Eyes song, with a slower tempo and lines like “I could never get used to happy sounds” recalling “the sound of loneliness makes me happier” from I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning's "Poison Oak." If you listen closely enough to the riddle lyrics, a tale of acceptance and infidelity can be unwound.

Sadly some of the best songs from the live set didn’t make the album. "I Got a Reason #2" appeared on the second Mystic Valley Band record and "Man Named Truth" showed up on the Monsters of Folk record. Several other songs made it to the short tour only EP called Gentleman's Pact, including the eerie alien abduction symphony, "Synethete's Song," and the title track, "Gentleman's Pact." The EP also covers an old folk song called "Corina, Corina" (which was also recorded by Bob Dylan for his Freewheelin').  Oberst adds a few words here or there, saying, "You're out there in Toluca, I'm trapped in Tepozlan!" The other song on the EP is "Breezy." The title was a nickname for Bright Eyes' harpist Sabrina Duim. The song is a chilling piano love confession with a crackling fire in the background. The song seems essential to the album, giving it a new context.

Like all of Bright Eyes before it, if you’re looking for answers to why Oberst does anything, it’s in his lyrics. You just have to listen closely enough.

Interview with The Independent

www.conoroberst.com

Published at WERS.org on August 06, 2008

Similar to the Mango Nebula re-arrangement of Cassadaga (see link below), I've hypothesized what this album might look like if it were::


Bright Eyes :: I'm Really Freezing, It's Breezy

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More Reviews from the Mango Nebula::

I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning

Cassadaga or Turning from a Cartoon Back into a Man

The People's Key

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Album Review :: My Morning Jacket - Evil Urges

2005’s Z gained My Morning Jacket indie super-cred with its experimental style, spacey synth and spiritual tone. After four reverb loaded albums, My Morning Jacket has reinvented themselves with something that sounds more like rock and folk from the sixties and seventies. This ain’t your hipster daddy’s My Morning Jacket.

The cover art immediately contrasts Evil Urges from the previous releases. Instead of surreal and silly surgical birds or crystallized bears, the dark figure surrounded by an opera house and clocklike patterns gives a kind of dark, big brother, martial law tone and its sound is harsher as well. The album takes on the ambitious task of weighing moral ambiguity and trying to portray the subjectivity of good and evil with lines like, “What is it inside our heads that makes us do the opposite of what’s right for us?” from "Librarian".

Evil Urges plays to a slightly different audience as the abstraction and absurdity that made their previous efforts so appealing is less of a focus. The reverb and synth isn’t as prevalent and singer Jim James’ smooth whimsical falsetto has morphed into cruel, shrill, high harmonies. The album is more earthbound than ethereal, with fewer jam sessions and a lot more solos.

The band said that they were trying to emulate live performances and the mood is drastically different. Instead of being set in a long winding tunnel, it sounds like it's set on the stages of Bonnaroo or Coachella. With this direction and the following they’ve maintained, My Morning Jacket is likely to become a festival classic among the ranks of Phish and Dave Matthew’s Band.

Some songs on the album have gone through a time warp from decades ago. "I’m Amazed" feels like Aerosmith, "Sec’ Walking" channels James Taylor and “Aluminum Park" would make The Rolling Stones proud. Each song has a distinct twist that keeps it cohesive with the rest of the album.

The standout track is "Librarian" as one of the band’s few narrative songs. It is a story about a young man’s lusty affair with a librarian, very reminiscent of the tale of Mrs. Robinson, except without that whole adultery thing. The song has a Simon and Garfunkel feel with twinkling acoustic and sweet vocals. Meandering through social commentary are lyrics like, “Ramble up the stairwell to the hall of books. Since we got the interweb these hardly get used” and “when God made mirrors he had no idea.” It also makes reference to Karen Carpenter of the seventies band, The Carpenters, who died of complications with anorexia.

The vocals on ‘Smokin’ from Shootin’’ have a very Beatles-esque type of reverb. It opens with a gurgle in the back of James’ throat and a bass line that sounds like the pattering of feet, perhaps running away from said smoking gun. It progresses into a clash of slow crashing metallic riffs and a wailing slide guitar.

The album is bookended by songs that sound uniquely My Morning Jacket. Evil Urges slinks along to James’ ridiculous and irresistible falsetto. "Touch Me I’m Going to Scream Part I" is a provoking love song about forced sex and bondage, but reversed, about a victim who is going to scream if he isn’t touched.

Touch Me Part II has a techno beat, ethereal electronic blips and repetitive piano chords that makes it feel like it is set in a club, before the screaming incident. The song leads to the end of the album as the piano and bass’ tempo slowly decreases for almost a full two minutes. My Morning Jacket won’t let the album just fade away, as ‘Good Intentions’ finally delivers this scream that the listener has been hearing so much about.

Mango Nebula favorite from this artist:

My Morning Jacket - Z

www.mymorningjacket.com

~Lee Stepien
Published at WERS.org on June 10, 2008

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Album Review :: The Black Keys - Attack and Release

A collaboration between The Black Keys, low-fi indie rock enthusiasts, and Ike Turner, wife Tina, isn’t too off-matched. Throw electronic, hip hop, mash up ‘auteur’ Danger Mouse in as producer and it might be strange. This was the band’s plan before Ike Turner’s unexpected passing on December 12th last year. Although he isn’t on the new album, Turner’s presence lingers in the keys' rock and roll sound that he was influential in founding. The songs that the Keys wrote for Ike to hear ended up becoming the groundwork for their new record, with Danger Mouse still attached.

Fortunately, the album doesn’t sound like a faux-fi pop tragedy with techno tacked on. Instead, it is rock and roll with a dash of gospel coming through a fuzzy megaphone in space. Maybe that still sounds strange, but the music doesn’t. Strange isn’t the word for it anyway. The words are Attack and Release, the fifth album from The Black Keys.

The duo (do not insert White Stripes comparisons here) is Dan Auerbach on guitar and vocals and Patrick Carney on drums. Their previous four albums were all recorded in basements at the insistence of the band. Whether it was aesthetics or frugality, the results were raw and pure. For their second release on Nonesuch Records, the pair actually went into the studio. In order to keep the recording process as fundamental as possible, they did it at a studio called Suma in their home state of Ohio on a hand built console called ‘The Legacy.’

The sound of Attack and Release is much more diverse than the rudimentary rock of their previous albums. Their rock and roll fervor is lustily infiltrated by folk, psychedelic and electronic elements, but with careful subtlety. The banjo, a jazzy flute and a synthesizer are compliments of Ralph Carney, drummer Carney’s uncle, and the experimental guitar from Marc Ribot, both of whom played in Tom Wait’s band. The digital touches never take over the mix, but the mood of the album would be severely different without them. Minimalism wasn’t completely discarded and the songs still have a spacious and simple sound.

"All You Ever Wanted" feels like a slow, hot day in the south, with lyrics about black birds on telephone wires and flaming hearts. Throughout the album, Auerbach’s voice is mournful, but never depressing as he sings about the girl that done him wrong. It sets the tone, which is not so much dreary as melancholy, with a soulful, gospel like feel. The side A/side B versions for the two tracks of "Remember When" share a different imagining of the same song, a country slide lament and overdriven groove. The album ends with "Things Ain’t Like They Used to Be," Auerbach followed by the sweet and sincere voice of eighteen year old bluegrass and country singer Jessica Lea Mayfield.

So, if it is strange, whatever. As Auerbach echoes on the third track, "Strange times are here."

Mango Nebula favorite from this artist:

The Black Keys - Rubber Factory

www.theblackkeys.com

~Lee Stepien
Published at WERS.org on June 05, 2008

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