sometimes i look for a show just to fill a gap in the calendar. such was the case when i decided to see Bell X1 (hate the name, btw) after reading the café du nord calendar email recently. not sure what made me click through to read about this band, but i did and the blurb was interesting enough for me to click through to the myspace page and listen to a few tracks. i liked what i heard and decided to fill up wednesday night, march 26. oddly, the opening band had a six degrees of separation (more like three) connection to me and my band from back in the day. i was more familiar with the two musicians—blake hazard and jack dragonetti—that comprise the submarines than i was with Bell X1 (really don’t like that name), but unfortunately i didn’t make it in to see anything but the final minute of the submarines’ set. next time.
so, Bell X1. they’re irish. and, of course, any irish band is going to invite comparisons with other irish bands (i don’t know why this is, but it is). but i don’t think i was imagining things when i heard traces of hothouse flowers (the rolling piano licks that drive some of the tunes) and U2 (some anthemic choruses on a bed of shimmering guitar lines) throughout the night. what really struck me on occasion, however, was the similarity of paul noonan’s voice to that of gord downie of the tragically hip. in fact, i didn’t make the connection until just now listening back as i write this. it drove me crazy all night during the show.
other musical reference points are midlake (again, the piano might be the common ground, but there’s a shared overall vibe as well) and oddly, at times, siren-era roxy music. there was even a moment in “flame” where the vocal melody line was aping the talking heads’ “girlfriend is better.” (and noonan had quoted three lines from “once in a lifetime” earlier in the set) and oddly, i found myself thinking of “axe victim”-era be bop deluxe during “white water song.” together, all of these aural reference points, influences or not, make a pretty interesting stew. irish stew, to be precise.
i like this band. there is an earnestness that doesn’t feel calculated or silly—just honest. and though i wholeheartedly recommend and support changing the band name, it isn’t likely given the amount of success they’ve had in ireland and europe (i was reminded of this by bbernardini over on DIME).
here’s the second song of the set, “My First Born for a Song.”
vampire weekend
the rickshaw stop
san francisco, ca
2008-03-23
as the subtitle to my blog says, this is a place for ‘live music and liberal rants.’ i’ll be the first to admit that it’s been a little light on the former and heavy on the latter of late. that doesn’t mean that i haven’t been keeping up my usual insane schedule of seeing live music. au contraire, mon frere (ou soeur). it just means that in recent months i’ve been particularly aggravated by both republicans and democrats. which is probably why i’m not affiliated officially with any political party. don’t get me wrong… i love a good party. which is why i go to see so much live music.
but today’s clip comes from a show i attended last sunday at the rickshaw stop (a very cool little club, btw) by the relentlessly hyped vampire weekend.
i went into this show expecting unbelievably great things. so that might explain why i was underwhelmed. after reading all of the hype and hearing nothing but raves from folks who had heard the record, i decided a few months ago (when i bought tickets to this show) to keep myself in a bubble and not listen to any VW (studio album or live shows or youtube videos or anything) until this night. i’m glad i did because i think it allowed me to evaluate this band on the criteria that mean the most to me: are they dynamic live performers? are their songs compelling in a stripped-down live setting? is there tonal variety to the overall ‘sound’ of the artist/band?
while i enjoyed the show, i thought the songs all began to sound the same after a while. there was never any variation in the guitar tone (i understand that this is intentional… the african influence is a deliberate ‘signature’ of the band’s sound). but that just made me hunger for another guitar in the mix. the guys were as pleasant as can be in terms of onstage demeanor… no “we’re the next big thing” swagger, which was refreshing. but it also added to the overall feeling that another year of playing columbia frat parties might have been a good thing for them in terms of developing a broader stylistic range.
i think it will be interesting to see what this band sounds like in three years—if they make it that far.
the complete show from the rickshaw stop can be downloaded here if you do the bit torrent thing.
here’s a sample: a new song of theirs, called “little giant” (if missmodernage over at youtube knows what she’s talking about).
most of us know, instinctively, that these three statements are absurd. yet these are all things republicans believe. how else can one explain the past five years of war in iraq? the bush administration would like you to believe that through war, we can achieve peace and ‘democracy’ in the middle east. they’d like you to think that freedom in this country will be protected by making us all slaves to the watchful eyes and ears of data-devouring, privacy-eviscerating government ‘security’ programs. and they want you to put those goddamn stubborn facts aside and just trust them to ensure america stays strong in the face of grave threats ‘out there’. truth be damned; dogma be praised.
eric blair was more than eerily prescient when he wrote 1984 back in 1949—he was keenly observant. blair had just lived through world war II and had seen the ugly face of totalitarianism up close. and though ‘democracy’ carried the day to defeat hitler and those who had rallied around him, it wasn’t too hard to extrapolate a future in which a more insidious form of fascism could take root underneath the fertile ground of post-war prosperity.
fast-forward to 2008. today marks the fifth anniversary of the iraq invasion and occupation. as many others have written, this military disaster has gone on longer than world war I, world war II and the civil war. it has cost us dearly in human life, dollars, reputation and our ability to make sound judgments as a nation. it has been, arguably, the single greatest foreign policy disaster in our history. and we’re nowhere near close to ending it. that pathetic shell of a man, mccain, wants to keep us there for another 100 years. he claims it’s inevitable. the only thing that’s inevitable about iraq is that it will take us decades to recover from our blunders there.
it didn’t have to be this way. and it better not be this way in the future. because if we can’t learn from this colossal mistake, then we are truly ignorant. truly slaves to immoral so-called leaders. and truly locked in a never-ending war—with ourselves.
how does it feel to be told “fuck you” by your president? because that’s exactly what’s happening in this incredible affront to decency:
of course, this is no surprise to those of us who have been paying attention for the past seven years. but i’m curious if any of those “hey, bush isn’t so bad” head-in-the-sand-ers feel any differently about the worstpresident in american history after watching this clip. somehow i doubt it.
here are just a few of the things bush finds uproariously funny:
i find the entire bush presidency—and anyone who still thinks the man is anything more than a lying, cynical, arrogant, useless sack of shit—devastatingly sad. and the above little snapshot of our media laughing and fawning over the emperor with no clothes is sadder still, as it demonstrates not only how much we’ve lost during the bush years, but how hard it will be to claw our way back.
