Review: Elvis Perkins in Dearland @ Bowery Ballroom (+The Himalayas HOLY S#*%!!!)

Last Wednesday I ventured over to the Bowery Ballroom after a recommendation to see Elvis Perkins in Dearland.  I had stumbled upon him two Siren Festivals ago without knowing him and enjoyed the experience, but recently a couple of friends had recommended him.  The sold-out concert was full of 20-30 somethings who likely felt much of the hurt that Perkins himself has been through: losing a mother to the September 11th attacks and his actor father (Psycho) to AIDS in the mid-90s.  From the floor, Perkins’ waxing voice seemed to resonate with much of the crowd.  Some of the songs were very solid, especially his arguably most well known tune, “While You Were Sleeping.” Despite the genuine connection in the ballroom, I couldn’t help thinking that Perkins’ sad story made him.

Oftentimes celebrities are helped out by their parents, but while this effect might seem the opposite, his parents’ tragic deaths only seem to have boosted the career of the singing strummer.  Without their tale becoming his backstory, I don’t know how successful this gentleman might have been.

Most notable during the evening, however, was the NYC music collective that opened the show, The Himalayas.  Traveling to NYC not from Nepal, but likely via the 6, F, and Z trains, this group is a raucous cacophony of sound that ranges in size.  This evening’s performance included approximately 20 members including some guy from Lithuania who was allegedly legendary.  I counted more than 2 trombones, at least five saxes, and endless percussion and bass instruments.  The musical menagerie were led by Kenny Wollesen, playing multiple percussive instruments. His back was to the audience and was conducting the collective, as if they were his own classical orchestra.

The Himalayas’ music could best be described as experimental New Orleans Dixieland jazz on meth and steroids.  Sure they could play soft, but the group was at its pinnacle when rocking back and forth and side to side while the audience danced away.  When the Lithuanian entered, the tone did shift slightly to include an Eastern European gypsy feel, but the core of the collective remained the same.

The recap of the show could not be mentioned without a short word about the events that commenced after I relieved myself in the restroom following Elvis Perkins’ encore.  As I walked onto the relatively quiet New York City street as the clock struck midnight, I saw Perkins, Dearland, and the nearly entire Himalayas group rocking out Big Easy-style again on the sidewalk.  I was quickly dancing along with the crew, working my way towards the cute trombone playing girl in the gold cow girl boots to ask for her number once the group finished.  Perkins’, however, thwarted my plan as he led the entire group of about 25 musicians down into the JMZ Subway entrance to continue the concert.  The group jammed in front of the station agent for a couple of minutes (while I’m sure he dialed the police), and then eventually wound their way out.  All in all, they were a group that made a large impression on their followers, and you can be sure that you’ll see an update or 20 on this blog as the collective continues to perform.

MP3: Elvis Perkins in Dearland-Chains, Chains, Chains

VIDEO: The Himalayas @ Prospect Park Band Shell in Brooklyn MySpace: The Himalayas

FOR THOSE WITH FACEBOOK, VIDEOS FROM THE STREET AND SUBWAY PERFORMANCES: STREET//SUBWAY1//SUBWAY2 (login required)

MP

Live Review: Lykke Li @ The Fillmore, San Francisco

Hello, If It’s Good readers. I’m Moses and I am honored to make a guest post, straight from San Francisco. Perhaps this will become a semi-regular thing.

Last week MP and I managed to score tickets off craiglist for the Lykke Li concert at the Fillmore. When the Swede first took the stage, both of us were expecting something slightly soft, ethereal, kind of barely there… and were both awesomely surprised by Lykke’s presence, bitchin’ dance moves and general hotness. She could throw it down.

Opening with Dance, Dance, Dance, MP’s very own #5 song of the year, Lykke sang “my hips, they lie, cause in reality, I’m shy, shy, shy”… with that line, she gave a cute little side-to-side shake of her cute little bum, and I began to dream of Swedish-American romance.

The Fillmore is glorious, and even the carpet, sticky with years of spilled booze, breathed history. Chandeliers dangling from the ceiling, booths up above and countless framed posters lining the walls…. combine that with the fact that Max scored Lykke’s own drumstick and yours truly grabbed a setlist (that looked much like this one), and together we’ve got a concert experience that will be difficult to replicate.

MN

MP’s note and a nice little bit of Lykke Li remixed after the jump.

Live Review: The Loser’s Lounge Tribute To The Kinks @ Joe’s Pub

New York City has an innumerable quantity of aspiring singers, songwriters, and musicians. Ride the subway on any given day in the Big Apple, and every other person sitting across from you likely qualifies as a member of this ever-growing category. If you want to act, got to L.A,; if you want to sing, go to New York. (And if you want to do both, well, just ask Scarlett Johannson or Zooey Deschanel where they call home.) The talents of these musicians range from indescribably awful to spectacularly gifted. The ladies and gentlemen I saw recently all fall into the latter category.

Live Review: Sloan @ Bowery Ballroom

In a world of once-around music acts, the hit-or-dismiss industry all too often ignores those acts that work their asses off to develop small but enthusiastic and growing groups of fans.  The perfect case study is Canadian rock group Sloan. Were these gentlemen not of the more appreciative Canuck brand, they could have easily been devoured by a label-driven music society that has little appreciation for the laboring type.

It is through this style of hard work, however, that what would have been a throw-away bar band in the States got two sold-out shows in one of New York City’s premier venues, the Bowery Ballroom.  An audience says volumes about a band, and from this particular crowd’s response, one could tell this was no random outing for the Lower East side regulars. No, this particular group came to see Sloan rock.

Dawn Landes @ The Mercury Lounge

This review is cross-posted at the soon-to-be-launched www.music-news.com USA site.–

Young alt-country vocalist Dawn Landes performed at New York City’s grungey Mercury Lounge this past weekend, filling the small venue with her tangy-not-twangy voice. It is near the beginning of a long tour for the fresh face who has made a name for herself by releasing a single covering “Young Folks,” originally released by Swedish trio Peter, Bjorn, and John. 

Vampire Weekend @ Central Park Summerstage

–This review is cross-posted at the soon-to-be-launched www.music-news.com USA site.–

Vampire Weekend stormed through New York City’s Central Park this past weekend, brining with them Flosstradamus female Kid Sister, Canadian rock band Born Ruffians, and Kanye’s Beatmaster General A-Trak. The rain came on harder than Summerstage host and musical utility man Andrew W.K, so let the bad weather metaphors commence. You must first understand that the day’s worth of rain came in stages. There was the calm, cool, and refreshing sprinkle that came after an hour of standing exposed in the 90 degree sun. Alternatively, there were moments when the precipitation came in excess. Coincidentally, the few hours of music pelted in audience in a similar manner.

Review: Mason Jennings @ The Living Room

The Minnesota-based singer-songwriter made a trip out east Wednesday night, performing at The Living Room, an intimate venue in Manhattan’s lower east side. Playing solo guitar for nearly the entire show (he added the harmonica for two tracks and fingered the piano on another), Jennings brought a lively show that turned a disappointingly dull crowd of about 100 individuals into a cohesive unit.

Jennings made his way to the stage through the awaiting crowd, as is often common at a venue this small, and donning a grayish-blue t-shirt with a tiger on it tuned his guitar. He primed the audience with the comical strum-along from his new album “Your New Man.” He next turned to the classic Jennings love-ballad “Adrian,” and followed suit with several similar tunes (see entire track list after the jump). He was merely priming engine, however, preparing to drive this audience into full throttle.

Before jumping the gun, though, it is worth mentioning a story he told that is unbelievable as it is a great introduction to a song. As Jennings tells it, he was hanging out with folk music idol Donovan one night, drinking tea (no backstory to this situation exists), when Donovan throws him a guitar and asks that he sings one of his songs. Jennings reaction? “Oh fuck.” Then, a third (and unnamed) party suggests he plays the song Mason is about to play: “The Darkness Between the Fireflies.”

After this tune from his self-titled first album, Jennings thrusts into fifth gear. He lays the pedal to the metal with one of the more popular tunes from his most recent album, “Fighter Girl.” While the song does not especially stand out on the LP as the most energy-packed, it emerged live packing the metaphorical punch of ten Clif Bars (or PowerBars for those of us more classically-minded). The weak crowd, which at this point had failed in starting three group clap-alongs, finally found their rhythm and bobbed along with the tune. They erupted into an applause easily five times their previous efforts, and Jennings, not wanting to waste this momentum jumped almost immediately into the catchiest tune from In the Ever (and possibly of his career), “I Love You and Buddha Too.” The new-agey crowd this song was aimed for had the biggest smiles of their collective day throughout, and there were even a few shouts of joy in the middle of the song.

“Be Here Now,” the opening track from his previous album, and “Living in the Moment” carried the crowd to a calmer and cooler finale. He closed the last third of the show with songs ranging from somber (“The Flood,” written when he was in high school) to love (most every other song: “Crown,” “If You Ain’t Got Love,” “How Deep Is That River?” and “Big Sur”).

Based on the evening’s show, Jennings’ songwriting abilities could be criticized for lack of depth; nearly every song he chose was about love and filled with flowery metaphors and similes. He left much of his best material back home in Minnesota (“Ballad for Paul and Sheila,” “Sorry Signs on Cash Machines,” and, surprisingly, “New York City”). But with the aid of a flexible voice using trombone-like vocal cords, Jennings successfully turned a crowd of Lower East Side lame-o’s into a raucous crowd that cheered for an encore they never received.

Live Show: Atmosphere @ Webster Hall

Do you remember elementary school as well as I? There was a distinct group of students who were considered the cool students; allow me to describe them for you. They had the coolest Halloween costumes, made the coolest-looking projects (likely with the help of their seemingly cool parents), and other not-cool students flocked to these few during recess, hoping to bask in their coolness.  Looking back on this elementary charade, it is easy to see that these students were not in fact cool at all. Rather, they understood a system that existed amongst the young students and succeeded in seeming to be at the top of this system.

The Glen Carpenter Experience

Given the fact that I’m fresh off the 3rd greatest musical experience of my life, I figured I’d share with you all the top five shows of my grand 23 years. A little taster compliments of youtube. After taking in all these videos, I guarantee you won’t think twice about hittin’ up a show the next time one of these groups rolls through your backyard.

In all cases I wasn’t able to find videos of the exact shows I was at, or the quality of the available video was terrible. Therefore, I loaded up videos that best embody my experience and left me jacked as I sit here, eating Chinese, at work, in my Viper chair.

Let the bliss commence:

5) In my five slot I’ve got the only tie on my list. A lot of shows went into consideration, and it was seriously hard to cut some. These two shows took place at the same location and were the highlights of my weekend in Tennessee….so really they were one giant romp.

A) The Hold Steady @ Bonnaroo Music Festival June 2007

Craig Finn is the Hold Steady.  His stage banter, dance, and mannerisms make The Hold Steady one of the best live acts in the country. I have many a friend, my fellow c0-contributor included, who have cared less about this band until experiencing them live. Now they fiend em’ all night long.

Here’s the Hold Steady playing “Stuck Between Stations” at Bonnaroo 2007. Max and I were in the audience:

The Hives @ Terminal 5

Last night The Hives hit NYC with a big fat Swedish homerun.  Check out some quotes from Howlin’ Pelle, a female hair band opener, mp3s, and a full show review after the jump…