I’ve been waiting a long time for Land Of Talk’s first full-length. It was over two years ago that I recorded a “new song” at The Syrup Room. That song is now “Give Me Back My Heart Attack”. Part of the delay might be attributed to the departure of drummer Bucky Wheaton, who was replaced by Eric Thibodeau in 2007. But I like to think they were just making sure the album was sufficiently awesome before it came out.

Land Of Talk’s show at Mercury Lounge was split evenly between songs from their 2006 EP “Applause, Cheer, Boo, Hiss” and songs from the brand new “Some Are Lakes” (buy: LP, CD) released by Saddle Creek.

On all of Land Of Talk’s recordings, Liz Powell’s voice is doubled in a very obvious way. It leads to an effect which I personally love. At the live shows there’s only one of her, but she’s still amazing. The vocals were a little low on the first few songs, but the sound was great after that.

Three-piece bands are my favorite because everyone needs to pull their weight at all times and there is little room for error. Even though Liz’s vocals are the most pronounced element of Land Of Talk’s sound, each instrument plays a unique role. Eric’s transitions to the off-beat hi-hat are seamless and he is always in sync with Chris’s bass playing which carries as many melodies as the lead vocals. The chords that Liz chooses to play on her guitar are perfectly dissonant and she knows just when to pluck out arpeggios and when to strum away.

Land Of Talk are currently on tour with Broken Social Scene. Liz often joins them on stage for 7/4 Shoreline and other songs that Feist and Emily Haines are too busy to sing.

Land Of Talk live at Mercury Lounge - September 11, 2008

01 Yuppy Flu
02 Summer Special
03 Some Are Lakes
04 Give Me Back My Heart Attack
05 Sea Foam
06 Speak To Me Bones
07 Death By Fire
08 Young Bridge
09 Street Wheels
10 Breaxxbaxx

Yay! I posted something besides an After The Jump announcement!

There’s an awesome flyer in the works, but for now… here are the pertinent details.

After The Jump takes over all three floors of the Knitting Factory!
Wednesday, October 22nd at 7pm

The Knitting Factory
74 Leonard Street
New York, NY 10013

Old Office:

8 PM the Beets
8 45 the Lisps
9:30 Inlets
10:30 Motel Motel
11:15 Alina Simone
12:00 the Muggabears

Tap:

8 PM Best Friends Forever
8 45 PM the Depreciation Guild
9 30 PM My Teenage Stride
10:30 A Sunny Day in Glasgow
11:15 the Pains of Being Pure at Heart
12:00 Ringo Deathstarr

Main

8 PM Starfucker
8 45 PM Unicycle Loves You
9 30 PM Bad Veins
10:30 Crystal Antlers
11:30 Heloise and the Savoir Faire
12:30 Juvelen

After The Jump wasn’t content just sponsoring shows in our own country so we decided to involve ourselves with Canada’s shows as well. If you’re heading up to Pop Montreal this weekend to gain some foreign policy experience be sure to check out the show at Petit Campus on Saturday.

Cafe Campus/Petit Campus
57 rue Prince-Arthur est
Near bd. St-Laurent, Plateau Mont-Royal
Métro: Sherbrooke
www.cafecampus.com

Mother Mother sound promising. They’ll be down for CMJ later this month, playing Mercury Lounge on the 24th. By the way, I just realized that the myspace music player has been revamped. The sound quality of the music still leaves something to be desired, but at least the moving EQ bars are actually reacting to the music and are not completely random. Audio dorks care about this stuff.

After the Jump Fest is the effort of 20 New York City music bloggers whose goal is to help new artists gain exposure while raising money for struggling school music programs. This year, After the Jump is teaming up with The Music Hall of Williamsburg and Galapagos Art Space for a festival stretching from noon until last call. In the next few months, After the Jump blogs will be making more announcements about the festival including new artists and pre-parties. Stay tuned and in the mean time, check out AftertheJumpFest.com for information on our past events and mark your calendars! It’s going to be a doozy.

For press opportunities such as interviews with the organizers or bands, please contact publicity@afterthejumpfest.com
For sponsorship and all requests, contact producer Jennifer Kellas: jkellas@afterthejumpfest.com.

Here is the first of many recordings from this year’s SXSW festival. I mentioned Jukebox The Ghost briefly last summer and promised you’d hear from them again. Here they are performing at After The Jump’s Backyard BBQ in Austin, Texas.

Jukebox The Ghost hail from Washington D.C. and their first full-length album “Let Live and Let Ghosts” hits stores on April 22nd. They are touring quite a bit this spring and I recommend that you catch them live. I had trouble believing this sound came from only three people until I saw it with my own eyes. All tour dates are listed here.

photo by irockiroll

01 Hold It In
02 Beady Eyes On The Horizon
03 Victoria
04 My Heart’s The Same / Lighting Myself On Fire
05 Under My Skin
06 End Of The World Trilogy
[Fire in the Sky -> Where Are All Your Scientists Now? -> A Matter of Time]
07 Good Day

It’s been a rather slow start to 2008, but I’ll be at this year’s SXSW festival hoping to discover some new bands and catch some old favorites. I will be helping out with the sound at After The Jump’s backyard barbecue on Friday and Saturday. Downtown gets really crazy by the end of the week, so I’m looking forward to chilling out in the east side ‘burbs with free food and drink. Stay tuned to the site for post-SXSW audio goodness.

Friday 3/14, 7pm
The After the Jump Backyard @ 1204 Salina St. - East Side
Free and open to the public + Free beer and bbq!
7 Laura Palmer
745 Senryu
830 The Physics of Meaning
915 Salt and Samovar
10 Oliver Future
1045 These United States
1130 The Lisps

Saturday 3/15, High Noon
ATJ/Indie Outlaw/Paper Garden Day Party @ Lucky Lounge 209 W 5th St,
Free and open to the public, Open bar + bbq and free shirts and bags courtesy of Speakerheart!
1215 Peasant
100 The Pendletons
145 Darla Farmer
230 The Answering Machine
330 LoveLikeFire
415 Morning State
5 Cloud Cult

Saturday 3/15, 2pm
The After the Jump Backyard @ 1204 Salina St. - East Side
Free and open to the public + Free beer and bbq!
215 Bell
3 Laura Gibson
4 Luke Temple
5 The Lisps
6 White Ghost Shivers
7 Jukebox the Ghost

Saturday 3/15, 7:30pm
ATJ Official SXSW Evening Showcase at Lambert’s BBQ
401 W 2nd St - badges and limited tickets @ door
8 The Teenage Prayers
9 Care Bears On Fire
10 Neimo
11 Tigercity
12 Cassettes Won’t Listen
1 Project Jenny, Project Jan

Laura Veirs’ album Saltbreakers was one of my favorite albums of the past year and I was terribly disappointed when the Decemberists tour which she was supporting was canceled. I am extremely happy to have caught this solo show which was a warm-up for her short tour of the UK. She should be back on tour with her band this spring.

During this Sunday night show she played a little banjo, shared stories of her quiltmaking adventures (with samples) and debuted a brand new song for the attentive crowd at Union Hall. Though it hadn’t been named at the time, her new song has been listed as “To Be Held” on her recent setlists.

Laura Veirs - To Be Held (live at Union Hall 1/27/08)

Aside from the dull thump of bocce balls coming from the bar above, the atmosphere was just about perfect for this solo show. It was the first time I had seen folding chairs (about four rows deep) set up in front of the stage at Union Hall, allowing for everyone to have a great view.

Below is the setlist along with some highlights from the show.

[photo by David Trawin]

01 Pink Light
02 Ether Sings
03 Wandering Kind
04 Song My Friends Taught Me
05 Magnetized
06 Cast A Hook
07 Rialto
08 To Be Held
09 Through December
10 Cluck Old Hen
11 One Thin Dime
12 Nightingale
13 Ocean Night Song
14 Riptide
—-
15 Black-Eyed Susan
16 Wrecking

“It’s so fucked, eh? The Internet, eh? We perform and you go off and you blog that shit.”
- Adrian Jewett, 12/14/07

I agree that the internet is fucked (we have a love/hate relationship), but I wouldn’t be blogging this shit if I didn’t think it was fantastic. Since I first heard them play live at CMJ two years ago, The Most Serene Republic have only gotten more and more exciting. Their latest album Population is simultaneously overwhelming, enveloping and infectious, and their live show is no different. You may wonder how a person with only four appendages can play such complicated drumbeats, or how three guitars can be so tastefully combined into such a cohesive sound, or how music so progressive can still be so catchy. Or you could just stop thinking about it and get lost in the music.

Almost invariably, it seems that my favorite time to see a band is between their second and third albums. The catalog is deep enough that you don’t know exactly what they will play, but you’re sure to hear most of your favorite songs. It’s not that I don’t enjoy going to see… let’s say Radiohead, these days. But at this point they have so many songs I love that I know I won’t get to hear all of my favorites. I can only wish that I’d seen them touring The Bends while trying out songs from OK Computer.

Last Friday, The most Serene Republic played mostly songs from their new album along with 3 selections each from their first record and their EP Phages, which is still my favorite of their recordings. I especially enjoyed the three-part vocals on “(Oh) God”, the pots and pans opening up “Humble Peasants” and all of the keyboard and drum segues between songs, which sounded partially improvised and partially born of sections from various songs.

The Most Serene Republic at Mercury Lounge

December 14th 2007

full show (65 MB).zip

01 Humble Peasants
02 You’re Not An Astronaut
03 Anhoi Polloi
04 The Men Who Live Upstairs
05 Phages
06 (Oh) God
07 banter
08 Sherry And Her Butterfly Net
09 Why So Looking Back
10 banter-intro
11 Compliance
12 Career In Shaping Clay
13 You’re A Loose Cannon McArthur… But You Get The Job Done
14 Content Was Always My Favorite Color
15 Present Of Future End

P.S. Though it was hinted at, there was no encore. I was happy to get such a nice long set considering they needed to clear the hall for the late show that night.