I didn't know anything about Alaska when I downloaded their debut release, a seven song e.p., from their bandcamp. In fact, even if I wanted to know anything about the band before I downloaded their debut release, it would have been dang near impossible becuase a google search of "Alaska music" takes you to a wiki page of the music of Alaska... The state. Not the band. So when I unzipped the band and added them to my ever diverse itunes library, all I knew was as follows:
- It's late at night and I need somethign new to listen to. And hey, if it sucks, it's not like I spent money on it.
I wasn't expecting much of anything out of Alaska but within moments, I found myself thoroughly impressed. It's a ballsy move to start out your debut release with an instrumental track but it works in Alaska's favor greatly because, after the instrumental opening track "Introduction", there's really no place to go but up. That's not because "Introduction" is a bad composition but rather because Alaska has so much to offer, both vocally and lyrically, that once more elements are introduced, things start to get quite impressive. Imagine M. Ward's ragged vocals leading the multi-instrumental indie pop band Ravens & Chimes, with delusions of Arcade Fire's grandeur. And that'll give you a good idea of what Alaska is all about.
Like I said, I found myself thoroughly impressed. I found myself so impressed, in fact, that I e-mailed the band directly via their bandcamp all but begging for links, news, a press kit, anything! Who were these kids and where did they come from and how were they making such grandiose folk music without me knowing about it beforehand!?
The answers are as follows: Alaska does not have links. Nor do they have a press kit. They do, however, have a facebook. Who is Alaska and where did they come from? Well, they're a band of fairly-young'uns, by the looks of things, and hail from New Zealand. Why the heck are they called Alaska if they come from New Zealand? I don't know! But I'm not going to argue because guess what? The music they're making proves to me that New Zealand has a heck of a lot more to offer than Lord of the Rings and Flight of the Conchords. To be honest, aside from Little Pictures' ace cover of Weezer's "Buddy Holly", I wasn't so sure music existed in New Zealand and I'm glad to have Alaska to shatter that misconception.
I reviewed the band's EP for sister site Mezzic recently, raving about how the band's 2009 free EP has all the markings of a future great band. And even if you disagree, let's face it: The music's free. Did I mention how free it was? Come on, folks: This might be the only free trip to Alaska you ever get!
I know, I know, a post or two (or three!) a day is sometimes a bit much to keep up with. So, I thought, how's about if, at the end of every month, I link back in one giant post to some of the most noteworthy things to hit RFC? I am, after all, here to make your life easier! So starting this month, and hopefully continuing onwards into the distant future, enjoy this: An RFC Round Up! (Full disclosure: This idea may or may not have been snagged from a celebrity gossip site. I please the fifth.)
- Want a hint at what's going to end up on more than a few "Best of 2010" lists? Twin Shadow.
- New recruit Sara Jacobsen cuts her teeth on an editorial on why Deerhunter isn't the only dears worth your time. How about The Dear Hunter?
- Another new recruit, Adam, turns in his first piece on RFC. Man, it's been a while since we've had some punk around these parts. Check Adam's review of The Brokedown's Species Bender. Speaking of punk, we got some Riot Fest coverage via a three part photo editorial from Katie Hovland!
- Guest blogger Abby Holmes became a regular contributor and man, that was swell. Check out her review of the Daytrotter approvedBen Weaver and a tried and true Abby favorite, The Moondoggies!
- A new weekly was started called "RFC Thinks You Should Know", all about artists that RFC staffers, well, think you should know. This month, we hope you turned an attentive ear towards Wolfgang Schaefer and Amber's favorite non-folk band of possibly ever Lightning Love, as well as the ever lovely Bicycle Voice!
What's coming up in November? Only time will tell, kids! But I hear the month's gonna start out with some brand new mixes and a ton more of your favorite weeklys, RFC Thinks You Should Know and People Covering Songs I Love! Until then, preview an artist RFC doesn't just think you should know, but thinks you should love with all your little heart, Gun Lake. Followers of RFC's twitter and facebook page might be a little familar already because seriously, this Gun Lake record that's going to be coming out "eventually" (Before 2011, guys? Please?) is going to be For Emma, Forever Ago good. This is Black Sheep Boy material. Don't be fooled by the video of the two piece that appears below, however. In their four piece incarnation, Gun Lake is somethin' else.
And who did Gun Lake share the stage with that night? Chicago's very own Gold Motel!
Like any good Minnesotan, when I venture back home I make it a point to head to all the usual old stomping grounds. The Turf Club in St. Paul has a rich history when it comes the Twin Cities music scene and I happened to venture to back on the right night. Astronautalis, (Andy Bothwell) rapper, accomplished freestyler and cat lover, this Jacksonville, FL native who now calls Seattle home was performing. Bothwell started freestyling when he was a preteen, and thank god he was afraid of girls and needed something to occupy his time because I can genuinely say that his rhymes and his tempo are of the same caliber as Atmosphere and Aesop Rock.
The Turf Club was half full as I wandered up to the bar to order a whiskey-ginger ($4, I love it here). Most people seemed to be crowding the bar area, and I had only hoped that by 9pm when Bothwell was to take the stage it would thicken up. It did, the placed filled about 3/4 full and to my delight sitting next to stage right was Stef Alexander, aka P.O.S, local hip hop genius and Doomtree family member. That is one of the great things about the hip hop scene in Minneapolis, it's a close family, and once you are involved even if you aren't a Minnesotan, you have support here. Hell, they don't call it, "Minnesota nice" for nothing. Sure it's wasn't an uncommon sighting, considering the two are best friends and are releasing an album, The Four Fists based on the work of F. Scott. Fitzgerald due out at the end of this year or early 2011.
Donning a black fedora, jacket and white button down Bothwell mingled through the crowd with ease before he took to the stage. But let's face it, it really doesn't matter what he wears (women would agree here, the less articles of clothing the better-i digress), but it's all about what comes out of this mouth. Before the show Andy joked with me, "I've got to go rap now. Maybe when I'm done you can rap and I can take notes." Little does Andy know that this Mexican/Russian Minnesota native has a sharp tongue and the wit to match. We'll schedule a battle for next time, just make sure my friend Jim Beam is invited.
As he took the stage he encouraged the crowd to move from the bar area and get close. So close that he wanted to be able to steal the contents of your pockets. Also he gave a PSA announcement, "I want you all to keep your windows open a crack. I am going to climb in and give you all a kiss on the cheek...and then I'm going to steal your X-BOX. You'll get a kiss on the cheek and a slap on the ass and I'll get an X-BOX.". Note to self: buy X-BOX. Standing upwards of 6 ft. this blonde haired, blue eyed Floridian has a voice equal to that of Tom Waits. He started his set with a pound thumping beat and rhymes that spouted out of his mouth as if he were a word geyser. I don't know how this man finds a beat to breathe, I surmise that is in part due to the care and time he puts into his writing. If you are familiar with the iambic pentameter you can follow his rhymes and you know exactly when he is breathing and on which beat. If you are not, it's almost magic that he is still standing after each speedy verse.
This man most certainly doesn't lack confidence when on stage. In between songs he would joke with the crowd. "You should quit your jobs and become a rap musician." "This is the part of the night I like to call the freestyle." Bothwell took suggestions from the audience his only terms were, "They have to be something no one has ever rapped about before, and something that wont get me arrested. I gotta be up tomorrow to buy cheap suits and get tattoos." The crowds suggestions were:
Garbage Pail Kids (Muscular Molly to be particular)
Ragtime
Ford Pinto
The Silk Road
The Bar at the beach that used to brew their own root-beer in Florida (before they started buying that IBC..)
Hard Salami
Freestyling over the beats of Outkast's Miss Jackson, he did everyone in the crown proud. Leaving no suggestion untouched, especially about the hard salami Bothwell's freestyling skills went mad. This man is a freestyle magic machine. "Sometimes you have to talk about hard salami." He said afterwards. Rapping about everything from eating doughnuts with 2 Pac to his grandfathers karmactic stroke, and now hard salami there is no word, or phrase that it too challenging for him. He even invented a new dance, "Do the hand sausage." -I guess you have to see it, but you all have imaginations. His shows have proven to be all about audience participation, engagement and making everyone happy. Every single ounce of his body is in involved with each performance. It's easy to see and understand just how much heart and love is placed into each intricately chosen word.
Eager to meet, greet and give praise fans lined up at the merch booth he was manning. He greeted every fan warmly, signing albums, shirts, and engaging in friendly conversation. "Dude that was some sick energy up there." , one fan spouted out. As the crowd subsided Andy and I spoke a bit more about music, and after a series of about 5 "Choose Your Own Adventure"-esque questions he helped me figure out a name for my new kitten, Sir David Attenborough. We decided to call him Sir, for short.
If you have the chance to see Astronautalis perform live, do it. If you live somewhere close to a town where he is playing, drive, take the mega bus, take a plane, find a winged unicorn. I don't care how you get there, (although I prefer you carpool, ride a bicycle, or use public transportation for nature's sake) you wont be disappointed. Bothwell channels his inner spirit animal, which seems to be a wild, yet smartly tamed beast. Everything you thought you knew about freestyling will change, you will have developed a crush and you will leave inspired. If you are disappointed, you are at the wrong show, and you are not doing the hand sausage dance properly.
Demographically speaking, I do not know much about Meg Webb. I do not know her full name, her age, her educational background, or her employment status. I have no idea what kind of car she drives, nor if she prefers public transportation. If Meg Webb is a homeowner, an activist, a student, or a genius janitor that solves an allegedly impossible equation on the chalkboard in a prestigious university’s hallway…well, I just don’t have a clue. Alas, thanks to the straight-forward and unexaggerated songwriting of her band Bicycle Voice, I can make plenty of other assumptions about Meg Webb.
The first assumption that I can make about Webb is that she is a talented multi-instrumentalist. When I was presented with this album, I was told Bicycle Voice was a “girl with a ukulele.” I mean no offense to the messenger, but if I were to try to sell you on Bicycle Voice by pitching her as just another girl playing uke, I think I’d be guilty of offending Webb herself. Truth be told, the ukulele is one of the stars of the debut album ‘Tis the Ghost of Martinellis, but very early on in the first track “Ellis the Trellis” Webb shows that she also knows her way around a guitar. The second song is heavy on percussion (which is attributed to a cohort by the name of Alex Cardwell on Bicycle Voice's Bandcamp page), but by the stunning third song “Red, Red, Blue” and its wide-eyed follow up “The Prologue to Snow” Webb has displayed first class chops on both piano and violin, as well as a few other effectual instruments that I probably shouldn’t embarrass myself by incorrectly identifying (Bells? Xylophone? A synthesizer? I’m just not sure).
Webb’s voice is an instrument worth mentioning as well. A good portion of the album’s appeal lies in her range and her accompanying restraint. Her vocals can be equally as dramatic (“You Are Graveyard”) as they can be playful (“Shine”), and she is able to slip in and out of her various characters with taste and grace.
The second assumption I can make about Webb is that she is fairly young. Most pictures you find upon searching Bicycle Voice on the web feature an adorable girl that looks like she wouldn’t even be allowed in the door of a bar to play a set. I have doubts that she is even old enough to see an R-rated film without a guardian. I have to hand it to the gal, though – she has either survived enough heartache and soul searching at a tender age to sing about it with conviction, or she really fakes it until she makes it.
Assumptions four and five about Webb are that she is a partial geek at heart and that she knows how to have fun with her art, which I came to via assumption three: Bicycle Voice hearts Harry Potter. The album is mostly filled with sweet and summery “will we or won’t we, and do I even care anymore?” odes to romance, but Webb slips a shenanigan of sorts on to the album’s roster with “Hermione’s Meeting Us at the Store.” The song is almost too silly to be present amongst all of the other pretty little gems on ‘Tis The Ghost, but it will still make you grin (especially if you are a bit of a Harry Potter nutter as well, and may or may not have watched the show “Hogwarts: Creating the Wizarding World of Harry Potter” on television last weekend like a certain review writer did...ahem). I offer a word of caution, however: I had the lyrics, “Hermione’s meeting us at the store, Hermione’s meeting us at the store – hopefully she won’t run in to Malfoy!” in my head for 16 hours after my very first listen.
Besides the chorus that wouldn’t quit, the only conclusive criticism I have of Webb’s debut LP is that the recordings are a little rough, sometimes burying her voice underneath the copious instrumentation. Hopefully the polish and pizzazz of Bicycle Voice will only flourish over time; I’m definitely an early fan left wanting to know more about Meg Webb.
Editor's note: Not familiar with the lovely author of this lovely article about a lovely girl and her ukulele? Well, guess what? Her name's Mylynda and she's pleased to meet you. She runs Indie College, a sibling of RFC. I write there for her. Most recently, I gave her a steamy editoral on the sexual significance of Gayngs called "Audio Orgasm: One Girl's Sexual Relationship With Gayngs". Read it!
More astute RFC readers may have checked out our contributors page. If you've done so, you've probably seen that all the RFC staffers have a cute, eye catching little bio that they wrote themselves. Rachel Angres, for instance, is an "idiosyncratic thumb war champion". Shani? Well, she's a "Texan, photog, writer, stone fox." As for me? "If Amber's life was an album, it would be November Birthday by Lightning Love because she can't help havin' a good time."
Interestingly enough, despite the truth of that statement, Lightning Love has had nary a mention on RFC or, well, on most any blog anywhere. And I'm here to tell you why that's a crying shame.
Lightning Love is universally lovable. Seriously, there's nothing not to adore about these kids. They're a band of cute, young Detroit kids who sing some of the catchiest and honest electro pop that's ever been made.
You see, I am not an electro pop fan. And, as we've covered before, it takes a pretty special female singer to win over the cold heart of Amber Valentine. So certainly an electro-pop band fronted by a female should be kryptonite to my ears, right? Well, to my surprise, Lightning Love isn't so much kryptonite as it is audible bliss.
Lightning Love is what's called "the entire package". To quote a recent Mezzicreview of the band's debut, November Birthday, "It’s amazing that Lightning Love isn’t better known because they truly have a winning formula. Diehl is cute as a button and plays the keyboard better than most the girls in electro-pop bands that Pitchfork is raving about these days. Couple that with the fact that both her band mates are foxy gents and you’ve got the “attractive” part of the market cornered. (For those keeping score at home, those gents answer to Ben Collins, who slings guitar, and Aaron Diehl, Leah’s drumming brother who occasionally lends his voice to accompany big sis.) The music is catchy and can soundtrack a mean dance party. The lyrics are honest, earnest, and relatable. And Diehl’s voice? It’s the most unique voice this side of Joanna Newsom, only instead of being backed by harp during a sixteen minute ambitious composition, it’s backed by searingly infectious keyboards! Is there anything not to love about the Michigan trio? Answer: No. No, there is not."
By the time Lightning Love's album wraps itself up with the stand out "Good Time", you feel as if you know Diehl as well as your best friend because it's hard to tell whether her lyrics are deeply personal or if she's created an ingenious concept album about a twenty-something girl who can't get things right no matter how hard she tries.
Well, readers, you may have noticed that RFC is rockin' sister sites these days. Look up. See those snazzy links to the left side of the header? Yep, those are our sister sites. (Also, there's a handy link to Radio Free Chicago on Facebook. Have you "liked" us yet?!) The best part of these new RFC siblings is the fact that they're both run by RFC alums. Indie College is helmed by the lovely Mylynda, who's as music savvy as she is pretty, and Mezzic is helmed by RFC's own personal Tony Stark, John Brunner. Now, I'm not one to turn my back on RFC family because being a part of the RFC family is kind of like being a part of a mafia family, and not only because we frequent the Bada Bing. Lately, I've found myself thinking "Man... I wish I could write about this artist but shoot. They're not really relevant to RFC right now." Or... "I've already sort of exhausted the topic." And that's where sister sites come in handy! Because they're always ready and waitin' for brand new content!
I lost my Mezzic v-card recently by reviewing the debut from Milwaukee folk troubadour Wolfgang Schaefer. I came across Schaefer in a wonderful, kismet-y way via a friend who's house Schaefer spent the night at while on tour through the midwest and, knowing my penchant for beards, sad songs, and acoustic guitars (All three of which Wolfgang possesses!), my pal thought it was right up my alley. Guess what? Dude was right!
So when I decided to start a new weekly feature, RFC Thinks You Should Know, I figured why not kick things off with Wolfgang Schaefer? RFC Thinks You Should Know is all about exposing people to under appreciated, little known, and/or local bands that we think deserve your attention and Schaefer certainly fits those criteria.
Schaefer's just-released self titled LP might be only 5 songs long but as you listen to it, you realize each song is better than the last. Schaefer specializes in impeccably composed folk music, as best evidenced on the album's last three tracks, "This Time Is", "Broken Hearts and Billy Clubs", and "The End Of Something", all of which showcase Josh Ritter-like story telling lyrics and gentle, lilting folk music in step with such modern indie heroes as Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Iron & Wine.
To quote my own review of Schaefer's disc, "The dark overtones of raw emotion that were masked with smooth vocals and lilting acoustic guitar early on in the album are prevalent (on "This Time Is") to great effect. The seductive dirge of “This Time Is” wafts and curls around you before it dissipates like cigarette smoke. When Schaefer sings “This time it works; this time it hurts”, the pain Schaefer feels is audibly evident. It gets under your skin until you find yourself hurting right alongside Schaefer. The ache he sings about isn’t only his ache anymore, it’s yours as well. At nearly five minutes long, “This Time Is” doesn’t seem long enough. Thankfully, the albums two closing tracks are just as strong as “This Time Is”."
Check out this video of Schaefer playing in Iowa, courtesy of that aforementioned pal, Mike Roeder of Play B-Sides.
So why does RFC think you should know Wolfgang Schaefer? Because gorgeous, sad folk music made by a 100% stand up dude whose lyrical intricacies keep things from being anything close to boring is always worth an ear. Watch for Schaefer in a town near you, buy his disc, and offer him your floor to sleep on. And while you're at it, read my full review of Wolfgang Schaefer at Mezzic!
RFC Thinks You Should Know... Wolfgang Schaefer
I lost my Mezzic v-card recently by reviewing the debut from Milwaukee folk troubadour Wolfgang Schaefer. I came across Schaefer in a wonderful, kismet-y way via a friend who's house Schaefer spent the night at while on tour through the midwest and, knowing my penchant for beards, sad songs, and acoustic guitars (All three of which Wolfgang possesses!), my pal thought it was right up my alley. Guess what? Dude was right!
So when I decided to start a new weekly feature, RFC Thinks You Should Know, I figured why not kick things off with Wolfgang Schaefer? RFC Thinks You Should Know is all about exposing people to under appreciated, little known, and/or local bands that we think deserve your attention and Schaefer certainly fits those criteria.
Schaefer's just-released self titled LP might be only 5 songs long but as you listen to it, you realize each song is better than the last. Schaefer specializes in impeccably composed folk music, as best evidenced on the album's last three tracks, "This Time Is", "Broken Hearts and Billy Clubs", and "The End Of Something", all of which showcase Josh Ritter-like story telling lyrics and gentle, lilting folk music in step with such modern indie heroes as Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Iron & Wine.
Wolfgang Schaefer - This Time Is
Check out this video of Schaefer playing in Iowa, courtesy of that aforementioned pal, Mike Roeder of Play B-Sides.
So why does RFC think you should know Wolfgang Schaefer? Because gorgeous, sad folk music made by a 100% stand up dude whose lyrical intricacies keep things from being anything close to boring is always worth an ear. Watch for Schaefer in a town near you, buy his disc, and offer him your floor to sleep on. And while you're at it, read my full review of Wolfgang Schaefer at Mezzic!
Oct 12, 2010 8:09:33 AM | Commentary, Downloads, RFC Thinks You Should Know