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Sunday, November 9, 2008
Fun Fun Fun Fest review: Islands
It seems like Montreal-based Islands is in Austin every other week, and the city is lucky to have them. Singer Nick Thornburn was without the white mime makeup of the band’s 2008 SXSW appearance, and the new material isn’t as eclectic and indulgently operatic as 2006’s “Return to the Sea,” but these guys rock.
Songs off the latest album included “The Arm” and the polka-infused “Pieces of You.” There were plenty of tunes off “Return to the Sea,” including “Rough Gem” and “Swans,” which closed their set.
Part of the fun in watching Islands is trying to identify what musical genre the band is evoking at any given moment. Rock, country, hip-hop, and Latin music all make appearances. On “Don’t Call Me Whitney, Bobby,” Graceland-era Paul Simon does, too. Can’t wait to see them again in a month or two.
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Fun Fun Fun Fest review: Frightened Rabbit
On day two of Fun Fun Fun, it was still hot and still dusty for Frightened Rabbit’s 2:45 p.m. set on stage one. It would be an understatement to say this Scotland-based band likes their guitars; most of the time they play three, with no bass to be found. Not surprisingly, the songs are mainly guitar-driven rock tunes, often with folksy undertones.
Stomping tunes such as “Old Old Fashioned” kept the crowd bouncing along for the set, and it was interesting that the band had a much more powerful presence than their most recent album, “The Midnight Organ Fight,” would suggest. With so much guitar threatening to drown out the subtly of the songs, singer Scott Hutchinson made sure that didn’t happen, with wailing vocals that matched the umph of the rest of the band.
The band looked pretty tired from being on the road, and they announced this was their last show on the tour (which seems to happen at a lot of Austin shows). They closed with the amusingly vulgar “Keep Yourself Warm,” a lament about the difficulties of finding a meaningful relationship.
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Review: Dangerous Toys
Santa’s worst enemy returned with a bang Saturday when Dangerous Toys reloaded at Red Eyed Fly for a one-night stand of hair-metal mischief.
As Austin’s late-’80s bullet-belt rock champs, the Toys once played in the same box as L.A. Guns, Faster Pussycat and other mid-level motley crews. Tours with Alice Cooper, Judas Priest and the Cult kept the carousel spinning until the life of leather and leisure disappeared in the gloom of Nirvana.
To the delight of Saturday’s 200 Backroom refugees, the Toys still enjoy random returns to the playground.
Opening with “Gunfighter” from the the 1991 sophomore album, “Hellacious Acres,” singer Jason McMaster screeched with the red-faced fury of Janis Joplin while guitarists Scott Dalhover (bald) and Paul Lidel (hair to spare) traded sharp jabs of shredded blues. Bassist Mike Watson sported a bandanna-beneath-a-backward ball cap and was returned to health after illness postponed the gig a few months earlier. Curtain-haired drummer Mark Geary caffeinated the pulse.
The hard-charging “Outlaw” was followed by “Sugar, Leather & the Nail,” the bluesy bop of “Take Me Drunk” and the teeth-chattering scat of “Gimme No Lip,” which melted into a snippet of Iron Maiden’s “Runnin’ Free.” Somewhere in the flashback, a shout of “Watchtower” referenced McMaster’s pre-Toys thrash band and drew a raised eyebrow and appreciative grin from Austin’s well-traveled, current Broken Teeth singer.
As expected, the radio and MTV hits were greeted like high school crushes. Peppered among gems from the Toys’ overlooked third album, “Pissed,” the hits included the jet-engine vocals of “Queen of the Nile,” the sing-along shout of “Line ‘Em Up” and the silly slyness of “Sport’N a Woody.” A rarely heard “Demon Bell” was summoned from Wes Craven’s schlock flick, “Shocker,” before the two-hour gig came to a close with a bump-and-grind punch of “Teas’N Pleas’N” and “Scared.”
All told, the Toys were sturdy as a Tonka, skinny as a stick and still a whole lotta fun.
(David Glessner is a freelance music writer in Austin.)
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Fun Fun Fun Fest: the punk stage
Time for a confession that’ll likely get my already expired punk rock clubhouse membership card revoked altogether: Going into Saturday’s Day 1 of the Fun Fun Fun Fest I was pretty much a newcomer to the throwback punk vets on the fest’s third stage. Had never heard ALL, only knew a couple Dead Milkmen songs and my knowledge about the Adolescents could fit in a beer bottle cap.
“Sacrilege!” the tattooed masses say. Probably right.
I mean, I like punk. A lot. The Clash are a top-three band for me, and Rancid, Operation Ivy, the Stooges, New Bomb Turks, NoFX, Rocket From the Crypt and Austin’s Riverboat Gamblers all pull extra heavy duty on my iPod.
But I was never a completist and so missed a lot of the heavies even while loving local mid-level Michigan punk and hardcore bands who likely aped every riff from the big boys. So I barely knew Fugazi for a long time and only got into Sunday FFF Fest headliners Bad Brains because the Beastie Boys were such vocal champions of the hardcore legends.
Given that, I approached Saturday uneasily. Don’t get me wrong - as I neared the crowd around Stage 3 and the massive hardcore roar of Integrity became clearer I felt in a way transported. The mohawks, safety pins, Casualties and Exploited patches and decades-old tattoos scattered in the crowd brought back memories that made me feel half my 30 years.
And the loud/hard/fast fury of punk will always connect with me way deeper than the heartfelt, pained creations of the indie masses on the fest’s other three stages, a point Adolescents singer Tony Cadena alluded by thanking the crowd for “coming to see the bands who don’t have publicists.” Nice.
So it was catchup time on Saturday - punk rock Crib Notes if you wanna spin it like that - and here’s what I learned:
You can’t go back. As much as the riffs, shouted/yelped vocals and tales of societal and personal torment fit the template of lots of stuff I’ve loved through the years, you can’t force yourself to like something, even if it’s considered genre canon.
Because the thing about punk - the thing that’s always made it the soundtrack for the discontented and marginalized - is its of-the-moment urgency and its knack for scratching that anti-whatever itch lots of us develop around ages 12-15. Post-college and 10 years into a professional carer it’s harder to muster the angst that provides the fertile ground and lets the right band with the right two chords take root.
That brilliance and release can pop back up later in life, of course, but it’s a completely unpredictable blessing that hits you in the head like an anvil.
Given that, I couldn’t have gone into Saturday and planned to be blown away by those bands any more than I could plan to go to a club tomorrow and fall head-over-feet in love. It just don’t work that way, which is part of what makes those elusive moments so extraordinary.
Not that Saturday was a lost night - I mean I’ll always hold to my belief that Stage 1 headliners the National have only one really good song — and that’s it.
While I didn’t connect with ALL one bit, the Adolescents deserve further investigation and there will definitely be some Dead Milkmen added to the iPod soon.
For lots of the thousands gathered Saturday night the throwback/reunion lineup provided welcome cruises down Memory Lanes most never thought they’d get to see again. For me, it was more of a sightseeing journey.
Not exactly what I had in mind, but to be able to take that trip was worthwhile enough.
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Fun Fun Fun Fest review: The National
A good chunk of people that braved the dust and the chilly temperatures for the final sets of the evening Saturday did so to see the reunited Dead Milkmen; the rest made their way over to the center stage to see Brooklyn-based band the National. Still energized by the success of their 2007 release “Boxer,” the band doesn’t shy away from all things big — many of their songs start as quiet laments and crescendo into epic rockers a la U2, made even bigger in a live setting with eight people on stage, including a horn section.
On the opener “Brainy,” frontman Matt Berninger affected a bit of a Morrissey-style British accent. His vocals on stage had a much more gritty feel to them compared to their smoothly produced studio counterparts, which is not a bad thing, especially when he let loose, dancing and falling into his bandmates.
Like Centro-matic earlier in the day, the band’s set had a joyousness about it that betrayed some of the cynicism of their studio work. “Fake Empire” came across as a celebratory romp, a strange contrast to the song’s sarcastic escapism.
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Fun Fun Fun Fest review and scene report: Deerhoof
As the day went on Saturday, the amount of dust in the air increased dramatically as the number of people did. Seeing San Diego-based Black Heart Procession take the stage after cute indie newcomers Bishop Allen was amusing, as the look (and age) of the two groups couldn’t be any more different.
A cool non-musical element of the festival was artists Dominique Vyborny’s giant metal sculptures, Cranky and Plucky. Check out www.extraurbanelephant.com for pics.
Two local acts that shined on Saturday were Octopus Project and Golden Arm Trio, the latter playing on stage two, a pleasant addition to the festival with its tucked-away feel.
As the sun went down and the festival got cold cold cold, proggy San Fransisco outfit Deerhoof got going on the main stage. Singer and bassist Satomi Matsuzaki set a playful tone as she appeared on stage with a giant furry tiger mask.
A lot of Deerhoof’s charm lies in their ability to take familiar-sounding classic rock guitar riffs and process them into slightly schizophrenic bundles of musical joy. It’s even more fun live, especially on songs like “The Perfect Me” off the 2007 album “Friend Opportunity.”
Deerhoof is an exercise in musical democracy. Drummer Greg Saunier, who was just phenomenal, is positioned up front rather than behind the rest of his bandmates. His drum work is as central to the songs as the guitars and Matsuzaki’s voice, which made wild leaps in chorus with the guitars. Let’s hope they’ll be back in Austin soon.
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Fun Fun Fun Fest review and scene report: Centro-matic
Maybe it was the UT football game in progress up the street, or maybe because it was 2 p.m., but Waterloo Park was empty in the initial hours of day one at the Fun Fun Fun Festival. The early draw was Dengue Fever on stage four, where a hundred or so people (compared to maybe 50 over at the punk stage) crowded in the small shaded area by the main entrance to hear the Los Angeles band’s bouncy psych-rock.
At first glance, the festival appeared toned down from last year, with a modest T-shirt sales area on the deck and some merchants selling typical music festival schwag — glass bongs and posters.
By the time Denton-based Centro-matic went on at 2:45 p.m., the crowd was steadily growing. Frontman Will Johnson declared an era of good feelings because of the election and the foursome did seem a bit sunnier than usual. The band, who play Austin quite a bit, didn’t offer up anything radical, but they are good at what they do — rock with a slight country tinge.
The set, which included crowd-pleasers such as “Flashes and Cables,” seemed too short to give the band time to really flex their muscles. On “Fidgeting Wildly,” Johnson and Co. demonstrated that they’re also good at being loud and somewhat cacophonous, but not so much so that it doesn’t sound great. I wouldn’t be surprised if Okkervil River’s Will Sheff isn’t a fan, as there are definitely similarities between the songs and the emotional presence of the two groups.
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Austinite engineering part of new U2 CD
Although producer/ engineer C.J. Eiriksson wouldn’t say who he was flying off to London to work with in this recent Statesman article, the word is out. A couple reports have Eiriksson’s boss, producer Steve Lillywhite, in London working on the U2 album which was supposed to be out in time for Christmas.
The release date has been pushed back to spring 2009. The delay is, according to Bono, not because the record’s not ready, but because the boys from Dublin are on a songwriting roll and want to make the record as good as possible. Click here for everything you want to know about the upcoming record.
