Stars @ Webster Hall

Photo via Brooklyn Vegan by Amanda Hatfield

I show up and the doorman is the nicest I’ve ever encountered. I’d never been to Webster Hall before surprisingly, so I’m a little confused about where to enter. He unhooked the red velvet rope for me and said I had my own entrance; I could get used to Manhattan decorum! …Or maybe it’s the new dress. I enter the concert hall and it’s packed. A haze of smoke drifts above the crowd and it’s hard to tell if it sprung from them or if the venue is purposefully papering us in vapor. Nope, smoke machine spotted in the balcony – either way, it works.

Due to a serious of unfortunate events that include the lack of F & G service to south Brooklyn this weekend, I miss Diamond Rings. I’ve had bad luck with transport lately.

They’re setting up the stage for Stars, though, who were another early-college-idol-band for me that I’ve never seen live. The set list you ask? What can one say about a set list that seamlessly blends every old heart-knocking ballad with the new set of sparkling knife-like songs just released on their latest record The North? It was a knock-out. The show was more beautiful and regal than Lady Liberty herself, and as these songs went back to the beginning of college for me, it felt historic too.

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Band of Horses @ House of Vans

Photo via Brooklyn Vegan by David Andrako

Due to the propensity that Brooklyn has for flash rainstorms, I was late to the show, which infuriated me. A monsoon erupted right around the time I got off work, and I managed to get caught in it not once, but twice. But, I was going to see Band of Horses even if I was a bedraggled mess of a journalist, so when I showed up to House of Vans in Greenpoint a half hour after listed set time, I was pleased to discover I had only missed three songs.  Not only that, but BoH veterans went on to play 21 full songs, after months of indie band shows seeing a major band perform again felt a bit odd. I mean 21 songs counting the encores? It was almost too many, but the musicianship of Band of Horses live allowed them to carry it off.

Sadly, since I was late, I missed my absolute favorite nostalgic jam “NW Apt.” off their third full length record Infinite Arms. This track is basically a love song dedicated to what life in Seattle feels like and it reminds me of driving through those streets late at night with my sister Natalie. Band of Horses got their start in that beautiful emerald city, sparking the interest of Sub Pop, but have since relocated to South Carolina where lead singer Ben Bridewell is from. However, their stint in the Northwest inked something of that area into both their sound and their demeanor. Bridewell’s heartfelt interaction with the crowd and humility, even after all these years, was a far cry from many indie bands’ stone-faced-hipster game.

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Royal Canoe, I love you

Empty out a swimming pool. Spray paint it in neon colors. Learn to ride a skateboard better than Tony Hawk. Ride your skateboard around the empty, painted pool. If you did this, the song you would need to listen to while doing so would be “Hold On To The Metal” by Royal Canoe. […]

A not-too-late look at Daniel Rossen’s wild and free Silent Hour/Golden Mile EP

Daniel Rossen builds a world of craggy cliffs and lapping seas, calling sirens and fireside revelations. He sings a whole world into being in five tracks; a starlit world full of shrines, deserts to traipse and promises to fulfill. Listening to this record feels a bit like reading a novel that begins right in the middle or a fantastic, sparse short story.

The symphonic strains of “Return To Form” or the hearthside confessional of “Up On High” delight both the ears and the imagination in a cacophony of tales told in sound. There are elements of cowboy, the west and the old open range in “Up On High” that aren’t country by any means, it just sounds wild and free, not quite untamable. The dreamscapes are astonishing.


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Beware and Be Grateful and be happy because Maps & Atlases’ new album is extraordinary

The latest record from Maps & Atlases, Beware and Be Grateful, opens with just the tiniest sample of sound that seems like it could be taken from an episode of Twin Peaks, then fades directly into a song that has the bones of at least three other songs wrapped up in it. This amalgam of sorts is entitled “Old & Gray” and covers the opening throes of love in daydream doodles all the way through the hope of having someone stand by you until you reach the decrepit gray of old age.

Maybe it’s just because I’m in my early twenties trying to figure out life, love and the universe, but it seems to me these questions are woven into this album, and not answered but probed, examined and bemoaned with a care that is inspiring. The quilting of different sounds and marriage of styles contained in this record is outrageous and wonderful. Without fear and without discrimination Maps & Atlases take the best parts of every genre and every sound and mix it into one big beautiful mess. An angular jam of circuitous pop energy and lyrics of ancient innocence and juvenile sin.

Dave Davison’s voice glimmers through the opening song like a guiding light, though it is surrounded on all sides by walls of sound. Beats, pianos, acoustic guitar strums, electronic sounds of all glorious shapes and sizes and a variety of harmonies appear at different points, only to fade into themselves and out again. Oh, and I’m still only talking about the first track.

Maps & Atlases “Old and Gray” by Barsuk Records

Continue reading Beware and Be Grateful and be happy because Maps & Atlases’ new album is extraordinary