Breathe Owl Breathe - Baseball Diamond

Doing something a little different today -- here's video I shot from Breathe Owl Breathe's show Thursday, April 15 at the Tractor Tavern in Ballard. It's an OWY and YouTube exclusive!



I'm sure I've championed this plucky folk band from Northern Michigan before, but last week was my first chance to see them live. They opened for Megafaun and Horse Feathers at the Tractor. (I was too lame and an old man to stay for the latter two sets, and so can't offer a report.) You'll hear some chatter through this recording, but overall the reception at the Tractor was pretty strong -- enough that they came back for an encore, a rarity for an opening band (in my experience, at least). Lead singer Micah Middaugh -- whose voice could pass for Bill Callahan on an endorphin kick -- dropped references to Shawn Kemp and Gary Payton into one of his songs, which is a thing that I can love. The show was part concert, part summer camp -- they guided us through the typical clap-and-response but also the wave and a sabertooth-tiger dance that involved sticking your hands to the sides of your face and rolling the index fingers downward to form tusks. It was silly and goofball and altogether wonderful.

I picked up their most recent album on vinyl at the show and have given it a couple playthroughs, and I'm pretty high on it. Their songs take these seemingly mundane slices of everyday life and breathe a heartwrenching honesty into them. I think that's a good way to describe them, is honest, and I would not be surprised if many of their songs were inspired by personal experience, a chance encounter or a childhood memory. And then they also have their songs about sabertooth tigers escaping from glaciers to go out dancing (which itself was probably inspired by a trip to the museum of natural history).

And what's this? A Daytrotter session from three days ago?

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Beat the Devil's Tattoo

Timing is everything with me and music. I consume styles, genres and artists in phases -- not too long ago, I listened to nothing but blues and soul. I haven't played a Dylan record in months; at times I cannot get enough of him. The last six records on my turntable have been somewhere in the Kraftwerk / Brian Eno / Talking Heads continuum. What does this have to do with anything? When Black Rebel Motorcycle Club released their third album, Howl, in 2005, I was right in between a Dylan / The Band / Tom Waits binge and a revitalized interest in new music. That album, with its stripped-down, haunting folk rock, hit a sweet spot for me. It's still one of my favorite albums of the past decade. When they released "Baby 81" a couple years later, I saw it as a return to the form of their first two albums, but with subpar results. It was a disappointing follow-up to Howl, and I sort of let them go at that point.

Until last Friday, when they played the Showbox here in Seattle. A good friend of mine has a gig writing music reviews for an online publication (when his BRMC review goes live I'll link it here); he managed to snag me a +1 and a photo pass to cover the show. I'll let Wes tell the story with his review; for me, it was a reminder of just how great BRMC are as a band. Though they've largely moved on from that Howl sound, it's hard for me to think of a better blues rock band out there today. Maybe The Black Keys. But I'll take Black Rebel against The White Stripes every single day of the week. They even have a lady drummer. A LADY DRUMMER, LIZ LEMON!



(I do have to say, though, that the stuff they played from Howl received the warmest reception of the night.)

As for the photo assignment, it was a great learning experience. I've never shot in those lighting conditions before (for the most part I was shooting with a zoom lens, sans flash, from the back of the club), so I was kind of at the will of the stage lighting. The photos you see here are my own; I've put up a small gallery here. Out of about 150 shots taken, I got maybe 20 that I'd call presentable, nine of which made it into the gallery. But it was a lot of fun, and I hope to do it again some time.



So, the music. I'll close with a couple tracks from their new album, "Beat the Devil's Tattoo," which I'm pretty high on. Here's the album opener and title track, shot live at THE VERY SHOW I WAS AT:



(The mix is terrible, and that is the Showbox's fault; here is the album version.)

And here's the album version of "The Toll," which could be an outtake from Howl:



(I told you guys Matt Bouldin looks like that dude.)

Titus Andronicus - A More Perfect Union

So I've been digging on this one, too.

Joanna Newsom - Baby Birch

Joanna Newsom's "Have One On Me," a staggering triple-disc affair, was released yesterday, and it is an album that rewards patience. Each of the three discs is comprised of six songs over 35-45 minutes, and while there are a few 3- or 4-minute tracks, the bulk of it is folk songs of the 7-10 minute variety. Listening to it as the backdrop for women's curling this weekend, I got nothing more out of it than decent background music. But I gave it my full attention on Monday and again Tuesday, and it knocked me flat out.

The music is what you would expect: Newsom's feathery vocals backed by harp, strings and/or piano, plus a few surprises along the way. All very meticulously and beautifully arranged, but without much interest to chorus, bridge, or what we otherwise know as song structure. There are no pop songs here, but a few of the tracks fall into the more accessible 3-5 minute range. This is not one of those songs.



I had originally upped this song to post, but came back to this one, which is becoming my runaway favorite. But if you like this one, you might try the other.

(Incidentally, when did Joanna Newsom become an incomparable, unparalleled indie goddess? I picked up the album on vinyl today, after getting a demo version from a friend this past week, and I wish I could show you the photos on the liner notes. But I mean, goddamn, you guys. I want to go to there.)

Beach House - Norway

It's 2010 now, so time to look ahead. This one's already been leaked, but it doesn't actually get released until January 26, and me likey.



(My original goal was to do a post relating to the movie 2010 - I even went so far as to watch the movie again - but that thing does not lend itself to music at all.)