Concert Review: Death Cab for Cutie with Ra Ra Riot

Death Cab and Ra Ra Riot played at the UCSB Event's Center (aka "Thunderdome!") last night. I'd really like to start by saying something nice, but I can't help it. The sound was absolutely AWFUL.

Some background: UCSB students won this "free" concert for registering the most students to vote before last November's election as well as another "free" concert by the Decemberists for most new voter registrations. After we were declared victor in these contests, it was revealed that while the bands would play for free, the school was on the hook for the overhead costs of the concerts (sound, lighting, venue, ticket distribution, etc.) In the middle of California's, the UC's, and UCSB's budget crises, this was not possible. As a solution, our student government passed on the Decemberists concert, and creatively found funding for the concert.

My question to whoever was in charge: did you get your buddy to run sound last night? Do you realize there are monkey's who more effectively run a sound console? You know that good sound can make a bad band and bad sound can ruin a great band? I'll bet you do now. The bad sound ruined to great bands last night. I recall at least two occasions for each band where I heard what sounded like a mistake in a song followed by the band looking around to get back on. Considering both bands also spent their entire set telling the monitor engineer to make adjustments (this usually doesn't happen after the first two songs), I'm not willing to chalk up mistakes to Death Cab and Ra Ra Riot having a bad night. They just got screwed by the sound engineer.

On the upside (and weighing the bad sound), Ra Ra Riot played really well, and Death Cab gave me chills on two songs: Transatlanticism and (guiltily admitted) Soul Meets Body. But most of Death Cab's set came from Narrow Stairs, which is definitely my least favorite of their work.

PUR Recap from 21 April 09

For Parallel University Radio listeners, I'm going to start posting links relevant to music conversations we have on the air.

1. KCSB has begun logging playlists online. While listener use is still limited at present, you can view tonight's playlist here. Explore kcsb.radioactivity.fm for many of KCSB playlists.

2. The free Sonic Youth mp3, Sacred Trickster promotes their upcoming album on Matador Records. The Eternal is scheduled for release June 9, 2009.

3. Modest Mouse's new "Satellite Skin" 7" was released last weekend in observance of Record Day. Mouse has been pushing "Satellite Skin" lately, namely on The Late Show with David Letterman. Here's their appearance on Late Night.

Concert Review: Fleet Foxes and Blitzen Trapper @ The Hub

What a show!...to which I was a bit late: a pre-concert beer + a very long line + security frisking everyone = we missed the first half of Blitzen Trapper. But what we saw was amazing, especially their intense performance of "Fire & Fast Bullets." A quick set change brought Fleet Foxes to the stage. As expected, they wowed the audience with beautiful vocal harmonies. Atypically, the Foxes skillfuly control energy levels by entering and exiting the stage when they are/aren't playing to alternate between a lively atmosphere and an intimate one. The most incredible moment of the night was when frontman Robin Pecknold played the first song of the encore acoustic. This simultaneously created an almost-coffee-shop-like feel (despite the sold out crowd) and showed off his instrumental and vocal command to project in such a large room. On a humorous note, it would seem Fleet Foxes like to drive jokes into the ground between songs. I believe we spent about 5 minutes talking about "nog," primarily egg nog, but other varieties as well. And apparently it is/was recently/will soon be just everyone's birthday. To end the show, Fleet Foxes brought members of Blitzen Trapper on stage for a mass performance and jam session. It was quite a conclusion and full of mutual appreciation and humility.

Concert Review: Menomena @ Velvet Jones in SB

Last Friday night, Menomena played their first ever show in Santa Barbara. The show was full of energy, some from the band, a lot from the crowd. Perhaps this is because the audience was unusually young (18+ show). The Velvet Jones had designated a "no alcohol" area immediately in front of the stage for underage fans. Since I wanted to be up close, I ditched my beer and hung out with the kiddos, who actually started a mosh pit at one point. I guess Menomena songs have more energy (especially in Danny Seim's heavy and precise drumming) than evident from the album. Despite this, Menomena did little to feed the youthful energy. They appeared grateful for the audiences enthusiasm, but their performance was rather introspective. I presume this is at least partially because they are playing difficult parts and multiple instruments in each song. Impressive to watch if somewhat lacking in band/audience interaction mid-song.

Menomena opened the show with The Pelican, and followed it up with many songs from their newest (2 year old) album Friend and Foe. Among my favorites were "Muscle'n Flo" and "Boyscout'n", live performance of which caused me to realize that I greatly prefer Justin Harris' (guitar, bass, saxaphone) lead vocals. Both Seim and Brent Knopf (guitar, keys, glockenspiel) have nice voices, but they're not nearly so distinctive. A number of other songs, namely "Wet and Rusting" and "Wierd", grabbed me for the first time due to the band's live performance. It's amazing how much little gestures from the band accent certain instrument parts or notes that can get buried in the mix. Towards the end of the set, the band played a mixture of old/new songs (I'm not familiar enough with the first two albums to tell the difference).

Concert Review: Kimya Dawson @ Biko Garage in SB

Last night outside the Biko Garage in Isla Vista, Kimya Dawson gave an intimate performance to more than a few hundred folks. How is that possible, you ask? The audience was incredibly quiet and listened respectfully unless prompted for participation or laughter at one of Kimya's witty lyrics or jokes. Also, almost the whole crowd spent the concert sitting on the driveway so that everyone behind them could see despite short stage. With everyone sitting calmly, Kimya's kids songs from her newest album Alphabutt seemed reminiscent of an elementary school concert (if only we'd had carpet squares).

Kimya opened up with the title track from Alphabutt and played mostly songs from that album, including (not in performance order) Bobby-O, Little Monster Babies, I Like Bears (I wonder if Kimya would get along with Steven Colbert...), Seven Hungry Tigers, and We're All Animals. She told touching stories about her daughter, Panda (videos on her myspace), for whom she wrote the song "Little Panda Bear." Kimya has amazing stage presence and is a true performer. She frequently interjects jokes, stories, and even snippets of other peoples' songs sung in humorous voices (I believe there was some mocking of Miley Cyrus, hehe).

Kimya puts on an amazing show and is definitely worth seeing. Check out one of her upcoming shows.

Album Review: Metric - Fantasies

In the past, I haven't been much of a Metric fan (though I did watch The Go! Team next to bassist Joshua Winstead at Coachella). Don't get me wrong: their music has energy and is interesting, but it never grabbed me enough to get me to listen to a song more than once or twice. But the new album strikes me differently. "Help I'm Alive" is fantastically catchy, and I'm intoxicated by the counterpoint between the keys and guitars in "Collect Call". And I've got to give props to their producer and sound engineer in addition to the band. The recording is super clean as is the performance. It is rare to hear an album with this much polish come out on an indie label, especially when it is self-produced.

Overall characterization: distorted lo-fi pop with subtle synths and effects pedals.

Preview the album on the band's myspace page. Buy it here.

Track list:
1. Help I'm Alive
2. Sick Muse
3. Satellite Mind
4. Twilight Galaxy
5. Gold Guns Girls
6. Gimme Sympathy
7. Collect Call
8. Front Row
9. Blindness
10. Stadium Love

Album Review: Gliss - Devotion Implosion

Perhaps I'm a little behind, but I just discovered Gliss, a three piece from just down the road in L.A. Coincidentally, I found them out on the very day that their new album, Devotion Implosion, came out. Needless to say, I took the opportunity to listen to it in its entirety. Overall, the album sounds like the progeny of the Stone Roses and Les Savy Favy, but with prettier and more subdued vocals. Gliss's crunchy guitars and droning harmonies remind me of the something from the mid-90s, Hum's "Downward is Heavenward" maybe. But they give it a pop twist only possible in this decade. The most obvious stand out track is "29 Acts of Love", but maybe that's just the DJ in me thinking about what's going to keep my radio listeners energized while they drive down the 101. The album as a whole is better suited for chillin'.

Oh, and they twitter and blog, if you're into that kind of thing (irony).

Gliss - Devotion Implosion
1. Morning Light
2. 29 Acts of Love
3. Sleep
4. Beauty
5. Anybody Inside
6. Lovers In The Bathroom
7. Sad Eyes
8. The Patrol
9. Love Songs
10. Sister Sister

Download on Amazon