my latest obsession, live viewing: White Denim

June 22, 2011 Leave a comment

White Denim is a band from Austin, TX. With three previous records from the three previous years, their latest is D – out now on Downtown Records. Four men have never created such volume before me. They are a chilling powerhouse of brains and mastery only get better from here.

Joshua Block is a true rock and roll drummer. A punk’s right hand man while the other belongs to Buddy Rich. Thin because his job demands so, Block barely had two feet on the ground. His leather boots moving on the high hat pedal like a tap dancer. Keeping the rhythm section close together, Steve Terebecki played his fingers like a pianist all across the bass fretboard. (The other great ranking live show I’ve seen this year, Yuck, kept the drums and bass close together, also in the middle of the stage. It shows us a band aware of the basics.) Terebecki never lost his pace even when the lights blinked off, when all we saw was the fuzz of his hair and his gleaming oversized square glasses. Austin Jenkins played his guitar fluidly, smiling at the crowd between closed eyes and the electricity he was sending the crowd. The two guitars and bass played in synch regularly throughout the set. The three of them wore their instruments up high to keep a close eye on themselves.

White Denim communicates seamlessly, as if it was a rehearsal with no one watching. Lead guitarist and songwriter, James Petralli conducted song by song while never losing his footing. His band mates watched, rarely losing his eyes, looking to where he stood behind the microphone. Which was set up at the far end of the stage, almost to show us that vocals can be treated as an afterthought - post instrumentation, orchestration, composition.

James Petralli

Before the show, I watched Block measure his drums based on his body. Smart rock and skill laced with technology, a chorus of guitars from Jenkins and Pertralli were lead by foot pedals, equalizers and reverberation add-ons mounted on boards they could pack up for the next city. Each of them had ten or so pieces. And they never missed each other’s moves despite being on oposite ends of the stage. Terebecki’s pedals muted and morphed the thick sound from his Rickenbacker. The three of them finagled swiftly and effortlessly, memorization of the exact nobs and twitches was long ago.

Opening with a fifteen minute trip jam, they stayed true to conventional song lengths only twice. Their new single, Street Joy, and later on with Keys  – the closing track of D. The set was a thrill dosed in Texas rockabilly. Movements in their songs were dedicated to long changes, where the original riff only occasionally came up for air.

Austin Jenkins, Steve Terebecki, Joshua Block

With his back mostly to the audience, Pertralli worked the amplifiers to guide the feedback into quick drones. Sweat flew from him as he screamed and led you into a tender trap. Only to lure you awake with his smooth croons and moans.

This band is everything. Jazz psychedelia meets punk wails and devoted, out-of-this-world musicianship. I thought I heard the Grateful Dead at first listen of a few online tracks. Now I hear a band that is completely their own. White Denim can fit along side the sounds of peers My Morning Jacket, only they’re soaked in psychedlia. Their record D is a tight jam with loose funk and twang. Instrumentals and singable hits, the too short ten track album has endings that bleed into beginnings, with songs that stand on their own in between. Seeing them live is just more proof that this band really has what it takes. Referring you directly to them is the best way to show, not tell.


White Denim’s tour ends the first days of July, next week. So catch them when, and where you can. Head over to their website for tour dates, videos and to buy their new, smashing record D.

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Bon Iver/Bon Iver

June 21, 2011 Leave a comment

Delicate raw finger taps on an acoustic guitar on The Wolves (Act I and II) send shivers down my spine. When someone creates a piece of art that can move you to goosebumps, furthermore to tears, it makes them unforgettable. The spider-webbing found most famously in Elliot Smith’s catalog finds it’s way to Bon Iver’s debut record For Emma, Forever Ago. There are also sounds of trains crossing the tracks and the white noise of winter woods.

Bon Iver - like his music it is busy and beautiful

There are rare moments when a sophomore album has such high expectations. When it seems almost impossible that it can surpass the debut. Few performers and writers can really satisfy themselves while giving the people what they want. With the release of the self-titled Bon Iver, Justin Vernon spreads his wings yet again, without leaving his home base too far behind. This new record is full of beauty, just like the last. Poetry flows, we learn how to love through sound (again), and the train reappears only to fool you in the five seconds of album-opener-silence.

Bon Iver demands your attention immediately with Perth. Horns, drum line snares, there are strings and electricity is everywhere. Epic and ever present (perhaps learned from last year’s collaboration, work with Kanye West) songs rise and fall into each other forming a completely compelling unique concept record of places to be found in its sonic visuals and lyricism.

The euphoric dreams found on this record have soundtracks of their own. Lying in bed on a rainy day, driving in the country during summertime or doing what we all do – imagining life’s soundtrack in those most perfect moments. Justin Vernon creates an atmosphere unlike any other singer and songwriter. It is what he’s known for. His production is tight and clean after the past’s remote recording. Waiting three years between records not only tested our patience but let him take his time on a form of music that needs it most. Certainly following his habits, these sounds are anything but recycled. If they sounded all the same, you wouldn’t find that new moment in every track. (Perhaps tested on 2009′s Blood Bank EP.) Bon Iver is peaceful music that helps you find peace in your headphones and perhaps within yourself.

Echoes found in Minnesota, WI and Michicant, while produced, are romantic and let your eyelids flutter with relaxation. The pianos trickling in Wash. follow your heartbeat. And then he grasps us with his groans on Hinnom, TX. While For Emma, Forever Ago is intimate in more ways than many and can make you feel alone, Bon Iver is well versed in progressions and choruses and still remains private. Chiming guitars on Holocene bounce inside your head and the claps pulse along with you. Musicians and creators included on this record gained his trust and certainly gained ours with the comfort they provide.

It is on the standout closing track, Beth/Rest – including it’s transition Lisbon, OH – where Vernon may receive some guff. But it is here where he finds a new path. Vernon closes this record with unfamiliar and almost unwanted sounds. Those pieces have been described to me as elevator music or the height of cheese in ’80s flicks as the guitar and sax come in. But this listener finds comfort in his change. I hear him do well with it.


As writing goes, Bon Iver – whether you want to participate or not – creates a space you cannot escape. While the lyrics are beautiful and almost hummed to us, it is simply the sounds that get us lost in Vernon’s woods. It’s the sort of record you need to physically remove yourself from. Without music and art like this there would be nothing to live up to. Bon Iver leaves us with synthetic ringing into the future. Hopefully we don’t have to wait too long to see what’s next. But as it goes, usually that works out best.

Out on Jagjaguwar June 21st, Bon Iver leads you to discovery. Whatever it is, you’ll find out for yourself.

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Rave On Buddy Holly/Various Artists

June 17, 2011 Leave a comment

Despite the diverse cast of characters found on this cover collection, the album still has consistency. It’s found in Buddy Holly’s enduring song writing. With all of the different writers and performers contributing to the record, it is the heavy hitters you expect the most from who deliver the least: McCartney, Patti Smith, and Lou Reed.

Patti Smith sticks with herself in slowing down Words Of Love, making it poetic (and almost inaccessible.) She leaves her punk roots behind, along with the original charming rockabilly strum-a-long. McCartney tries to sound young and we only hear his overproduced It’s So Easy, more than doubling the length of the original version. Lou Reed gives us a great sound on Peggy Sue but with a voice that sounds just what it is, bare and worn out. It is with Gram Nash’s closing track, Raining In My Heart, we find articulation and enchantment with a chorus of strings and reverb on the harmonica that is mindful and charming.

Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys croons and delivers on the opener Dearest, proving that the band’s soul never really leaves them. With Every Day, Fiona Apple is still round and full. Her thick voice rumbles and patters well with the every present xylophone chiming along. Florence Welch wails on the lines of Not Fade Away. My love a-bigger than the Cadillac/I try to show it ‘n you drive-a me back, reminds us of Holly’s time when the Cadillac was king. (You’re So Square) Baby, I Don’t Care is a true carnival, highlighting Cee Lo Green’s ability to not only make a great track, but make any track great. Karen Elson gives us a straight delivery on Crying, Waiting, Hoping. As does Julian Casablancas. He finds himself wedged in a guitar chorus with seamless panning and a grungy echo that always works perfectly as he fronts The Strokes.

The album stays true to Texas, and Holly, with Jenny O. on I’m Gonna Love You Too. Justin Townes Earle is sure of his country twang on Maybe Baby and Nick Lowe’s Changing All Those Changes remains a hop-to rockabilly rock song. She & Him follow suit. Zooey Deschanel might be one of the most recognizable female vocalists – remaining timeless herself while still holding her own on a track preceding her by decades. Her other half, M. Ward, remains anything but mysterious through his guitar work. My Morning Jacket become the slow jam kings (also mastered on their new release, Circuital) and focus the photo with strings accompanying their acoustic romance on True Love Ways.


Modest Mouse wisps you up with their odd, yet epic memorable dream scape on That’ll Be The Day. With the dirty channel on the bass at full force they let you forget the original song. You’ll need to go back and revisit it’s vocal jabs and consistent sounds, which you won’t find in the cover.

The sleeper track remains to be seen, to some, but is found here with Kid Rock. Play the hundred guesses game and no one will select him as the performer on Well…All Right. The guitars are groovy and slide around, the horns are in full swing and his voice finds its soul placed wonderfully between hand percussion and toe tappin’.

Rave On Buddy Holly stands out as a great cover record. Each track can be it’s own featured on any radio playlist or as a whole piece in tribute to one of America’s greatest loves, Buddy Holly. The only surprise we find here is that the performers in furthest removed generation deliver the best portion of the album. We shall expect nothing less of our current musical community, eclectic and noteworthy on its own, to still find value in honoring Holly’s songwriting. Out on Fantasy/Concord on June 28th, Rave On Buddy Holly will do just that. Rave On.

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Unknown Mortal Orchestra/Unknown Mortal Orchestra

June 16, 2011 Leave a comment

bizarre architecture seems fitting here

It’s that opening track that drew me to it.  High hat drum fills always catch my ear, I know there is a drummer paying attention somewhere. You’ll want to hear the first track, FFunny FFriends, again. And maybe once more. This record is plain without being boring. Simple and beautiful, it plays with time – mixing modernization of percussion with detailed single note guitar solos. You can find your love on the first listen, and like for it in the details.

The familiar English sounds that are reminiscent of underappreciated early psychedelic rock and filtered vocals go with the unusual spelling. Thought Ballune kicks off with a riff you might find in popular Beatles records, only here it’s layered on itself, thickening the sound and droning out. Looped beats come in to remind you what year it is – while an echo of synth makes it whatever year they dream it to be. Not noticing it’s repetitiveness, you’ll nod your head. You can listen to it on unlimited replay, in a daze. Find it hard to get sick of. The loops and hooks are so thick you’ll need to shake them off.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra uses dissonance like the delicate tool it should be. They don’t overwork their sounds. Working with the filtered hip hop drums makes them dreamy, giving the whole record a feel for itself. Soul sneaks in on Jello And Juggernauts and takes it’s pace on How Can U Luv Me. The bass really takes a walk around the layered chorus, “how can u luv me/when you don’t let me baby”. Surf rock finally arrives on Nerve Damage! with a creepy rasp this side of Captain Beefheart.

Each track seems to be a great hook with an expected guitar solo bridge, re: Little Blue House. The forms are filled out and the formula is known. It’s apparent. Any repetitive nature will speak for itself. Although with that in the back of your mind, you still don’t seem to care. Giving this debut a first listen is what it needs. The beats will have you going back for more, wanting to hear it again. Double checking the details. What you do with it after, you can decide.

Check out their website for tour dates and to pre-order the self titled debut, out June 21 on Fat Possum.

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