Austin Town Hall

When there is a collision of famous indie artists, it’s not really an exaggeration to say that the internet world blows up a bit. So a few months back when this project between Indie darlings Dan Boekner, Britt Daniels, Sam Brown and Alex Fischel came to the surface everyone was abuzz with excitement for their debut album. As a fan of Spoon and Wolf Parade/Handsome Furs, the main projects of which Daniels and Boekner are frontmen, I jumped right on the excited bandwagon. How could this much creative genius combine to equal something less than amazing?

First up on the album is the much hyped single “My Love is Real,” which features Boekner taking the lead on vocals and a heavy amount of synthesizer and other electronic sounds. It’s an interesting start, as it is a pretty straightforward song, lyrically and sonically. You have the steady drum machine beats, some thick synth lines and Boekner iterating that “[his] love is real…until it stops;” a tangible one liner that can get itself stuck in your head for hours at a time. Next up is “Flaggin’ a Ride,” on which Daniels takes vocal lead. Noticeably, it sounds a lot more like Spoon, as the first song exhibited signs of Handsome Furs. Apart from the vocal similarities, you have the signature guitar lines that takeover the song and the overall rockier sounding song.

The album progresses gradually, with most of the tracks ringing true to their titles, which are often repeated quite frequently. Another standout, and perhaps the most cohesive song for this group comes on “Baby Get Worse,” on which Boekner has the lead in the beginning and the focus is strong on synth lines and buzzing beats. However, instead of leaving on a one note status, a break comes late in the song with electric guitar surging through with Daniels shortly following, giving it the magic touch of both of these guys. “Shivers” also possesses such a factor of intrigue as “Baby Get Worse,” despite it being an altogether Spoon-ish sounding effort. The lyrics on this ninth track walk a bit on the somber side, but are no less than the brilliance that we’ve all come to know, doling out lines like “my baby’s so vein she’s almost a mirror,” and other quirky darkness that adds to the overall appeal of the Divine Fits.

While this is by no means a bad album, it is a bit of a disappointing one. I was expecting the powers that combined on this work to be greater than the sum of their parts, culminating to an excellent new super group I could get behind. However, A Thing Called the Divine Fits comes across as a mixture of slightly altered songs from the original bands of these gentlemen, but when it’s such talented artists, who’s really complaining?

I always felt like Robbers on High Street were a vastly underrated band, but I’m pleased to let you know that regardless of the trials of a modern indie band, they’ve continued to work hard.  Late last year they released Hey There Golden Hair, but now they’re already back with an EP titled Anything Could Happen.  If you’re looking for modern touchstones for comparison then perhaps Spoon would do, but RoHS has a much more complex sound in my opinion, at least in so far as they’ve got a fuller sound.  Some bands never get the love they deserve, but staying true to themselves will always reap great rewards, which is the case with this new EP.

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Download:Robbers On High Street – Anything Could Happen [MP3]

At this point in time, there probably aren’t too many people familiar with the Portland outfit, Light for Fire.  Honestly, that’s probably the biggest tragedy we’ll come across, as their self-titled debut is chocked full of brilliant pop moments, fusing moments of great indie-pop with arrangements created by a singer-songwriter format.  It’s just flat out golden.

You’re going to struggle to find as good a one-two punch as the opening tracks on Light for Fire this year.  ”The Huckster” appeals to those interested in the craftsmanship of a singer/songwriter, with the majority of the song revolving around strummed guitar and J. Nicholas Allard’s great vocal performance. From here the band joins Allard with the stomper, “NY (By the Hand),” which is in the running for one of the greater tracks of the year.  There’s a hint of a scratch to Allard’s voice, but with the banging piano and his storytelling, there’s not much that sounds better coming through your stereo speakers.

If you’re looking for some sort of generic marker to throw at Light for Fire, you’ll easily find comparisons to Spoon.  But, that being said, the band has cleaned up some of the noisy meandering that’s been associated with Spoon, instead allowing the poppier side to push on through.  Take “The Letters,” and you’ll have that semi-stomp, with Allard doing his best to give that scratchy croon perfected by Britt Daniels.  Even “Green Life” seems to take a bit from the comparison, using hints of piano to craft their tune, reminiscent of some of the singles off GaGaGaGaGaGa.  This isn’t a bad comparison, as few people write great pop numbers in the vein of Spoon. But, I suppose someone’s bound to get caught up in the similarities.

But, the more you listen to these eleven tracks, the more you see the band has definitely attached themselves to the songwriting of Allard, and rightfully so. “Where I Was Born” is a track for storytellers, with the narrator giving a brief summation of his life.  There’s restraint in the guitar playing, that is until the band jumps in, making it a passionate Americana rocker. And with “4th of July,” you get a quiet number that evokes other songwriters from the Portland area.  Allard’s voice takes on a more gentle quality, and the guitar lines barely trickle into your ear.

One of the best things you can do for your day is to get your hands on this wonderful effort by Light For Fire.  Yes, there’s touchstones of modern indie stars, but beneath those allusions lives great songwriting.  It’s executed to perfection, providing listeners with eleven tracks, not one of which begs to be skipped. For a band seemingly coming out of nowhere, this is the perfect place to start.

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Download: Light for Fire – NY (By the Hand) [MP3]

It’s that time of year folks, the time when we THINK we know what’s the best of the best.  In a year where some old faces reemerged, and some new faces joined the scene, we had a hard time narrowing things down, but these are our favorite Ten Albums by Austin bands in the year 2010.  If you think we’re wrong, we’re cool with you voicing your opinion, but be nice, these are just one group’s opinions.

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In a conversation with one of our local blogger friend’s, Sonic Itch Mike, I decided that I really needed to take a close look at which spots on any given album are the killer spots to put your hits.  Some people think that the immediacy really makes Track 1 the best, but I’m going to look a little closer at this idea.  I mean, there are hundreds of classic albums out there, and surely they ascribe to this great song placement formula.

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Wednesday was a packed night of rock n’ roll across our fair city, and I found my way to the Independent so I could catch White Rabbits with our friends Here We Go Magic.  If you weren’t there, you missed one heck of a show.

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Two years ago Jonathan Meiburg released Rook under his project, Shearwater; it was an operatic endeavor, which came across forceful in moments, while resting quietly in others.  His band returns with The Golden Archipelago, along with an abbreviated dossier, unless you opt to shell out the bucks for the completed dossier.  An album such as this is not something to take lightly; it’s full of depth and precision, all of which successfully push the listener into the realm of masterpiece as created by Meiburg and associates.

“Meridian” is a tricky album opener, especially for those mindful of the band’s past releases, Rook in particular.  Slowly the song builds upon the quietest strum of guitar matched perfectly with Jonathan’s falsetto.  The tone is somewhat ominous, especially with echoing vocals in the background and the orchestral touches.  You expect a crash of some sort, similar to that exhibited on the first track of Rook, but instead, the song sort of fizzles to an end suddenly.  It pushes you into “Black Eyes,” which is perhaps the loudest of the tracks on this collection.

Once you arrive at “Landscape at Speed” you begin to arrive at core of the album.  Consistent rim shots provide a hollow percussive element to barely audible strumming.  Instead of focusing this number on the guitar work, Shearwater fills out the space with various snippets of noise.  It’s the sort of restraint demonstrated in the work of fellow Austinites, Spoon; these sorts of approaches tend to keep listeners in a holding pattern of sorts, asking you to indulge yourself in the cinematic quality of the record.

However, songs like “God Made Me” are precisely what make everything Meiburg does relevant to the broader spectrum of music listeners.  His strong vocal performance in front of string instruments begs you to hold onto every emotion within, only to release it during the semi-chorus that leaves his vocals feeling somewhat scratchy like his one-time bandmate from Okkervil River, Will Sheff.  The barrage of banging pianos only heightens such a release, yet he manages to let you rest quietly as the song fades into thin air. Finally, he seems to have taken his songwriting as seriously as he’s taken the orchestration of his previous albums.

Those looking for an album constructed of singles and hits might not find such numbers here, at least not apparent to the naked ear, so to speak. “Castaways” has a pounding drum beat that illustrates that Shearwater is more than just a project of Meiburg.  But, his vocals cresting and crashing warrant the song one of the most accessible on the album, though time spent with The Golden Archipelago finds all these songs as such.

Perhaps the best summation of this album is the second to last song, “Uniforms,” existing in a dense world brought on relative noise before kicking in with powerful vocals.  Just as the vocals signal for bombast, they’re immediately pulled back in favor of a more gentle confrontation with the listener.  At  2.5 minutes into the song, you’re greeted with the complete ensemble of the band smashing everything into a raucous moment, all before the song peters out.  With that, you find yourself at the end of an album that seems to revel in the contrasting experiences of quite and loud; it’s a trick used by many in the past, yet never done in such an operatic manner as we find here on The Golden Archipelago.

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Download: Shearwater – Castaways [MP3]

A few years back, Spoon created a pop masterpiece when they put out Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (is that enough Gas?).  They return here with Transference, a record that may not be as easily accessible as their previous effort, but one that seemingly feels more rewarding than its predecessor.  Where Ga Ga Ga hit you in the face quick, Transference takes time to unfold before you, often upon repeated listens.

As the hazy organ work grinds over the opening moments of the album, you can tell that the tendency to rely upon hooks is gone.  Still, when you hear the audio switch from having Britt in another room, to having him right in your ear, you can tell that hooks aren’t required to reveal the power in this record.  It’s a dense tune, but it feels more like the reworking of tracks off Kill the Moonlight.

A lot of listeners will wonder where the catchy numbers have gone, as this record feels striped down and dirty by the time you get through the first three songs.  Then you come across “Who Makes Your Money.”  Initially, I couldn’t understand this song in the spectrum of the Spoon catalogue, but the more I listened to the record, the playfulness with which Britt approaches the vocals is so rewarding in time that it’s hard not to see this as one of the album’s stronger moments, which says a lot considering how simple it feels.

Oddly, the slow burner that is Transference is just picking up the pace.  ”Written in Reverse” makes waves as it did upon its release as the single months back.  You combine that with the grittiness of “I Saw the Light,” and you can’t help but feel as if Spoon are finally hitting full stride midway through the album, preparing to carry you into bliss.  Such is the moment when you arrive at the brightest moments on the record, with “Terrible” and “Goodnight Laura.”

“Terrible” has the lo-fi appeal that everyone seems to crave in their musical coffee, yet it maintains the clever layering that Spoon has always held on to in their songwriting.  As the song barrels along, you can feel the classic moments of the band’s history come back into the present.  Then you stumble upon “Goodnight Laura,” which has to be my hand’s down favorite song on the album.  It reminds me of “Black Like Me” of Ga Ga Ga in its ability to evoke the utmost emotion from the listener, except it utilizes a piano as opposed to the use of guitar. Yet the hits don’t stop coming right here.

Transference fades into its closing moments filled with tunes like “Got Nuffin,” a song you already should have heard by the group, and “Nobody Gets Me But You.”  Neither of these songs feels completely polished, unlike the last album, so it maintains the quality that was established at the beginning. It has that sense of trial and error, though they clearly care less about the errors, choosing to leave them as part of the complete portrait they intended to create.

In closing, a lot of people just don’t get Spoon. They’ll claim that the band lack some sort of killer instinct, or that they chose to produced the album themselves, but let’s not forget they have Jim Eno and Britt Daniels, both who have produced records of brilliance in their own right (White Rabbits anyone?).  At the end of the day, the more you listen to this album the more you will get out of it, as it unravels bit by bit, leaving you with such a wonderful record that you’ll have to look hard to find faults.  It reaffirms that Spoon is one of (if not the only) the most consistent bands around, and Transference just adds to their list of quality records.