Remember when bands made really good videos and MTV would play them and you’d go buy a cassette or CD not necessarily because of the song but because the video was stunning? Doesn’t happen any more and it’s not going to happen for Fever Ray (the solo project of Karin Dreijer Andersson of The Knife), unfortunately, even though this video for “If I Had a Heart” is a true masterpiece (and the song is equally impressive). Two weeks into 2009 and it might be the most amazing video of the year … that is, unless, of course Fever Ray follows it up with something even more amazing.
The self-titled debut by Fever Ray is currently available digitally on Amazon.com and you can probably find it other places. The physical copy will be available in March.
I have a stack of CDs to review by Sunday for the next issue of Wonka Vision but this week it’s been all about Pavement and post-Pavement projects (Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Preston School of Industry) as far as listening to music goes. Matador re-released Pavement’s Brighten the Corners CD with a ton of extra songs (B-sides, live stuff, etc.) in early December, Malkmus released an awesome jam/rock album – Real Emotional Trash – in March ’08, and PSOI (featuring ex-Pavement guitarist Scott ‘Spiral Stairs’ Kannberg) is putting the finishing touches on their 3rd full-length which should see the light of day in May.
Here’s a video from each:
Pavement – “Painted Soldiers” (featuring a cameo appearance from Veruca Salt)
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks – “Jenny & The Ess Dog” (on Letterman)
One night later and I can’t get Nine Inch Nail’s performance of “The Great Destroyer” (at the 70% full Schottenstein Center in Columbus) out of my head. It was truly a thing of beauty, especially the last half as the LED screens (or whatever they were) flashed television static in sync with the electronic blips and bloops coming out of the keyboard and keyboard-like samplers that Trent and band were playing (at about the 2 minute mark in the video below).
(This isn’t from the Columbus show – it’s from a August 2007 show in Sweden – but it looked exactly the same)
There has been enough talking about the show and the crowd size on the Interweb so I’ll just say that I thought the show was well worth the $17 (plus $12 service fees) that I paid.
For most bands whose CDs I have in my collection, there seems to be a pinnacle album – one that I’ll listen to more than anything else in that band’s catalog. One that I don’t think they’ll ever do better than even though they may come close. Case in point – Superchunk’sFoolish. Now, part of this may be due to the fact that that was the first Superchunk CD I heard and I’m sure many would disagree and say they’ve made better. That’s fine. But ask me my favorite Superchunk album and, without any hesitation, I’ll say Foolish.
So, it’s really cool when bands decide to do a nostalgia tour and play one of their albums, start to finish, especially when it’s a band I like doing my favorite album of theirs. Jimmy Eat Worldjust announced that they are doing a 10-date tour in which they’ll play Clarity in it’s entirety. Released in 1999, Clarity was considered by many fans to be Jimmy Eat World’s OK Computer – a shift and expansion in sound from their previous release (the also outstanding) Static Prevails. I remember talking to Robby from Crumb around that time and he was telling me how he had heard Clarity demos (this was the early days of the web and a few years before file-sharing) but that they were a fourth generation cassette copy (ha ha … CASSETTE). Clarity didn’t disappoint and to many JEW fans, myself included, this is the one album from the band’s catalog that, if picked to save one from a burning house, there wouldn’t be any hesitation.
Here are the dates. Tickets go on sale this Thursday (Nov.13):
Feb. 23: New York (Terminal 5)
Feb. 24: Washington, D.C. (9:30 Club)
Feb. 25: Philadelphia (Trocadero)
Feb. 26: Boston (House of Blues)
Feb. 28: Chicago (Metro)
March 2: Denver (Ogden Theatre)
March 4: San Francisco (Fillmore)
March 6: San Diego (House of Blues)
March 7: Tempe, Ariz. (Marquee Theatre)
This is sad news since I had pegged The New Frontiers to fill in for The Damnwells as that band seems to be on a permanent hiatus (though an Alex Dezen album of some sort is supposedly in the mixing phase right now). Both bands have a rural rock sound without coming across as too alt.country, though I wouldn’t mind if either band indulged a bit in the twang!
This song (“Mirrors”) reminds me a lot of my friends in Bel Auburn (who seem to be missing from the scene as well … please don’t say THEY’VE broken up too).
Another great one (“Walking on Stones”).
And the one that’s going to end up on my “Favorite Tracks of 2008” mix (“Black Lungs”).
Here’s the official word from the band:
It’s never fun to tell people news they don’t want to hear so I’ll get right to it: The New Frontiers are quitting. It’s been a priceless experience, writing music together and sharing it with all of you in our travels across America, but the time has come for us to move on to other things. There are so many people out there that we couldn’t possibly thank you all for the support you’ve given us through the years. Giving us a place to stay on tours, making care packages for us, coming out to shows, buying records, feeding us, the list really does go on and on… We could not have done it for as long as we did without you. We’ll be playing a couple final shows here on the home front in Dallas and we would love to see any and all of you who can make it out. Thanks for taking part in the life of our band. We will miss you all…