New Frightened Rabbit side project: Owl John

This came out of nowhere. Frightened Rabbit’s Scott Hutchison teamed up with fellow FR bandmate Andy Monaghan and friend Simon Liddell to create Owl John. Our first listen comes in the form of a song called “Hate Music” which is a darkly marching intense and brooding tune. Frightened Rabbit has had this kind […]

[Hype Hype Hooray] How Frightened Rabbit Could Turn Into Smash Mouth

Every [two weeks?] Jamie Hale takes a long, hard look at the music industry and the blog scene that feeds it. Here, he releases those findings and makes snarky, sarcastic remarks. Admittedly, both Jamie and Knox Road are a part of this scene. So sue us.

I used to LOVE Smash Mouth. […]

Frightened Rabbit is mature and refined on The Winter of Mixed Drinks

On 2008’s The Midnight Organ Fight, Frightened Rabbit was brash and blunt. Frontman Scott Hutchison Scottish-ed forth his lyrics (there’s no other way to say it, really), which themselves weren’t particularly rays of sunshine. And, above all else, the music never got too out of control. You had your guitars, keyboards, drums, and vocals, […]

Frightened Rabbit is lining up a big ol' American tour

You heard me. Frightened Rabbit is going on an extensive American tour in support of their forthcoming third full-length, The Winter of Mixed Drinks, due out March 9. This doesn’t happen particularly often, so don’t miss it. Seriously, don’t. If I hear any more about this negligence of yours, I’m really […]

The Shape of the Earth

Hey, you! Yeah, you, with the flannel and Ray-Bans! Want some new Frightened Rabbit? Well, that’s too damn bad, wait until March! Listen to south Californians The Shape of the Earth instead!

On The Shape of the Earth’s newest full length, Do I Dare Disturb the Universe?, […]

New (live) Frightened Rabbit track!

Recently, Frightened Rabbit performed a short set on BBC Radio 1’s Rob Da Bank Show, where they played “Old Old Fashioned,” from The Midnight Organ Fight, as well as two new songs: The released single “Swim Until You Can’t See Land,” and a brand-spankin’ new, never before heard track called “Nothing Like You.”

[…]

Frightened Rabbit set to release third album in March 2010

Frightened Rabbit, the awesome Scottish band that seems to be perpetually going through a bad break up, is coming out with a new album! It’s going to be called The Winter of Mixed Drinks (natch), and it’s due out in March 2010.

The band will also set out on a “full North American […]

Stream two new Frightened Rabbit songs, you lucky so-and-sos!

So Frightened Rabbit, who is really awesome, is releasing a single on November 16, and it’s going to be really awesome. I’m super serious, guys! Midnight Organ Fight was one of the best albums of 2008, so my hopes are high for the next album, which is set to come out sometime next […]

There Will be Fireworks is intense, epic, Scottish

When I first heard of There Will Be Fireworks, they were described to me as “The Twilight Sad meets Explosions in the Sky.” Now that sounds ridiculous, so naturally I was all “yeah right, stupid” and the guy was like “give it a try, you’ll like it” and I was like “stop pressuring […]

Frightened Rabbit @ Siren

FrightenedRabbit01

Allow me to preface this post before I delve into Frightened Rabbit‘s performance at Siren. They were, by far, the act I was most looking forward to, as I have been utterly obsessed with the The Midnight Organ Fight, and to a lesser extent, Sing The Greys. I also was well aware of the fact the guys were from Scotland and wasn’t expecting to see them around for a while. Yet here they were, embarking on their American tour (as aforementioned) right in New York City.

What has attracted me most to Frightened Rabbit’s sound are the intense, gut-wrenching, heart-breaking vocals from Scott Hutchison. While the band is incredibly talented and has a knack for making brilliant pop songs with their staggering crescendos and unique arrangements, before Siren it had been blatantly clear to me that Hutchison’s voice made Frightened Rabbit. Without him, they were another great indie band – with him, they were one of my favorites. So I went into the show expecting this sentiment to be the case. But boy was I wrong.

It should be noted that Hutchison’s vocals are no less stunning in person. But what I didn’t expect was the rest of the band to hold up their end as well as they did, and I apologize for not having given them more credit beforehand. I’ll expand: When Frightened Rabbit took the stage, I told Jon I wanted to hear them play “The Modern Leper”, “Keep Yourself Warm”, and “Backwards Walk” – and for the rest it could be anything – they’re all on the same (high) level playing ground. Me being the expert psychic and all, FR naturally started with Modern Leper, and it was looking to be like one hell of an experience. I was ready for a Hutchison vocal drop-kick to toss me to the ground. But the main stage just wasn’t delivering the vocals the entire day – they were soft, blended in with the sound, and almost became a background noise at times – not only for Frightened Rabbit but also for the other main-stagers. FR struggled through that first song (disappointingly), sounding confused and out-of-touch. But as the set moved on, they became all the more comfortable and adapted to the poor levels of the main stage, churning out the guitar and bass lines as best they could. By the time “The Twist” and “I Feel Better” came around (among others) they were in “the zone”.

The highlight was an awe-inspiring second-to-last song, which I can’t even name for you – because honestly, there was so much going on up there at once, with different sounds coming together into one huge musical orgasm, that I had no idea what I was listening to – I think (with Jon’s help) it was a reworked version of the end of “Square 9” from Sing The Greys, but I’m not going to pretend to know just for the sake of being indie smart – I could be totally wrong.

Oh yeah, and if there was any doubt, FR finished off the set with “Keep Yourself Warm”, as Hutchison’s Scottish red beard dripped of spittle and the echo of perhaps the most memorable lyric off The Midnight Organ Flight,  “It takes more than fucking someone / to keep yourself warm”, reverberated throughout the crowd.

Frightened Rabbit – “Keep Yourself Warm” [MP3]

Frightened Rabbit – “Last Tango in Brooklyn” [MP3]

More photos after the jump.

Continue reading Frightened Rabbit @ Siren