The Walkmen - Heaven

Andy James has a listen to the latest outing from The Walkmen:

Formed over a decade ago from the ashes of indie outfit Jonathan Fire*Eater, New York five-piece The Walkmen's flame burns brighter than ever - and in Heaven, the follow up to 2010's Lisbon, they've released their finest record in years.

One part Dylan and one part Casablancas, frontman Hamilton Leithauser's trademark rasp is still at the fore, but much of the album is a world away from the blistering rawness that marked early material like 2004 breakthrough single The Rat.

From the beautifully stripped-back acoustic opener, We Can't Be Beat, to the rallying call of album closer The Love You Love, it's a near-masterpiece - the sound of a band hitting musical maturity while sounding more relevant than ever.

Fleet Foxes frontman Robin Pecknold lends his vocals to four of the songs, and the indie rock credentials are boosted further by Phil Ek (The Shins, Fleet Foxes, Band Of Horses) behind the recording desk.

If there's any divine justice, Heaven will secure The Walkmen a place at indie's very top table.

Review by Andy James.

Getting To Know... Easy Star All Stars

Michael Goldwasser from Easy Star All Stars tells Bobbysix.com a little about the band:

Easy Star All-Stars are what you would get if you took some great musicians from all different cultures, got them really high, and then shuttled them back and forth between Jamaica and New York until they didn't know where they were anymore.

Our new album is the reggae equivalent of Chinese Democracy by Guns and Roses, only really good. We've been telling the fans that we would have an album of originals for a long time now, and it's finally here. No Axl though....

We take inspiration from our families, our fans and local brews from around the globe.

In the past we hung out with Pink Floyd, Radiohead and the Beatles.

In the future... ??????

It might surprise people to learn that we've actually been around for fifteen years - slow and steady wins the race.

Our live shows in Australia will be psychoalphadiscobetabioaquadoloop.

Here are Easy Star All-Stars upcoming Australian tour dates: 
December 29, 2011 - The Falls Festival, Lorne, VIC
December 30, 2011 - The Corner Hotel, 57 Swan St Richmond, Melbourne, VIC
December 31, 2011 - The Falls Festival, Marion Bay, Tasmania
January 04, 2012 - The Factory, 105 Victoria Rd Marrickville, Sydney, NSW
January 05, 2012- The Zoo, 711 Anne St Fortitude Valley, Brisbane, QLD

Interview by Bobby Townsend

Glasser interview

Bobby Townsend chats to Glasser as she prepares to make her Australian debut: 

"I've been expecting you, Bobby," says Glasser in her best Bond villain voice as she picks up the phone to chat about her upcoming visit to Australia. Her impression makes way for a laugh. It's an infectious belly laugh that will feature heavily over the next few minutes of conversation. It turns out, you see, that Glasser - aka Cameron Mesirow - is just about the loveliest person ever.

Glasser heads to the Southern Hemisphere early next year to play at St Jerome's Laneway Festival on the back of critical acclaim for her debut album, Ring. "I'm so excited. I cannot wait," the New York-based singer/songwriter says of her first ever trip to Australia. "My only expectation is that it will be warm."

Warmness is something associated with Laneway, from the general vibe of the crowd to the fact that the weather always seems to be baking hot on the day of the event. Having never played on these shores before, is Glasser looking forward to the opportunity of playing the festival to win over some new fans? She takes a few seconds to answer. "Erm. yeaaaaah," she says, as if in slow motion. Most of her answers start in such a fashion. "That's an interesting thing, I guess. Winning new fans is really great, but at the same time it's great when people are already excited and know all the songs."

That is more likely to be the case at her sideshows, in which she features in a double-bill with Chairlift. However, regardless of whether you head to one of her club shows or you see her at the festival, you're best advised to pay attention to what is happening on the stage. "In both cases, the crowd is quite loud," she says if I ask whether she prepares differently for an indoor show and a festival. "There are some quiet parts to my set sometimes that require attention. I use in-ear monitoring so I don't hear people chattering, but I often see tweets after I've played where people were saying 'I'm at the Glasser show and the people behind me won't shut up.'" She stops herself. "I don't know. I've had enormously good luck so far so I don't want to sound ungrateful. People are usually really respectful. I have a nice time." When I tell her that the worst thing about going to gigs for me is, in fact, the other people in the crowd and that I would be happier if it were just me in attendance, she laughs. "A personal gig?"

So, if the uninitiated pay attention, what can they expect from the show? And how does her one-woman-orchestra dynamic translate to the live arena? Does she bring a bunch of musicians with her to achieve the intimate, luxurious sound she lays down on record? "I have done but now I don't. I have one person who travels with me and he is the wizard behind the live show. But it's really, like, a show of me dancing and singing. What can people expect? They can expect quite a lot of my voice. Yeah," she chuckles, before continuing. "They can expect that I want them to be happy and entertained by my show."

Glasser's lyrics are rather abstract and cryptic, which leads me to wonder whether that is just her natural writing style, or if she consciously goes out of her way to encourage people to join the dots? "I've experimented with a lot of different styles of writing. I cringe when I write anything that is too specific. I like to keep a vagueness in the writing. I think there are things that I can do better and that I have a long way to go as a lyricist and a musician. But I think that I am definitely moving all the time. I'm not just staying in the same place, so that's good."

Her musical style is quite unique in that it draws from a whole spectrum of sounds and gels them together. But did she have the vision to create such a sonic landscape from the very beginning, or did it come about organically? Her answer again, starts off slow and considered, before accelerating rapidly. "Err... I think... a little bit of both. There were definitely some things that I couldn't help but do. I know that's true. There is always going to be something about the way that you write an article or the way you brush your teeth or whatever that is uniquely yours almost by accident, but then there were things that I felt very calculated about. I think the latter is more common for me." By this, she is referring to the way she creates her sound by taking influences from here and there and piecing them together. When something is moving too far in one direction, she'll consciously go the other way. "I intend to exhibit myself as a fan of many different types of music. I'm not sure if I've finished doing that, but it is definitely something I have in mind when I'm writing. Not being too much of this or too much of that, and to throw a little bit of the opposite into the mix. If that makes sense."

Before Laneway, the musician will be spending some time at home, where she will be crafting some new tunes that, who knows, might just make their way into her set at the festival. "I working on new music. I'm in New York and I'm really excited about being here because I've been away touring for a long time. It feels so good to be back. I've just been smiling at everyone on the street." Of course, she ends this sentence with a laugh.

And what is the Glasser masterplan? The Glasserplan, if you will. Does she want to see a zillion records, or make one more album and then move onto projects new? "Ermmm... I don't..." She stops, and starts again. "I've never considered going into business as, like, a farmer, or anything like that," she offers, rather strangely, before chuckling to herself. "I have every intention to stay creative. But I can't say if it will continue to be music forever because I have lot of other creative interests and I have a million ideas all the time." More giggles. "I don't know... books... and... different types of internet start up companies." She can barely finish her sentence through laughter. "It's a funny world I live in."

Before she signs off, she says, "I hope you like the show." If her performance is half as engaging and fun as this 15 minute telephone conversation, that seems in little doubt.

Interview by Bobby Townsend. For more details on Laneway, click here. See Glasser's tour dates here.

The Jezabels announce US Tour

Here at Bobbysix.com, we have something of a crush on The Jezabels. So we're excited for them that, upon completing their European tour in September, the foursome will be hitting up the U.S. and Canada in November to tour with Canadian band, Hey Rosetta! as well as playing a headlining show at The Mercury Lounge in NYC.

While already a well-recognized name in their native Australia, The Jezabels have been building an international buzz since delighting audiences at the CMJ Music Festival in New York, Canadian Music Week, Austin’s SXSW and Brighton's Great Escape. After releasing a hat-trick of EPs, the quartet are currently putting the finishing touches on their debut long-player, Prisoner. You can here a track from this highly-anticipated release below the tour dates.

November 8 The Echo Los Angeles, CA
November 9 The Rickshaw Stop San Francisco, CA
November 11 The Crocodile Seattle, CA
November 12 Commodore Ballroom Vancouver, BC, CAN
November 14 MacEwan Ballroom Calgary, AB, CAN
November 15 Myer Horowitz Theatre Edmonton, AB, CAN
November 17 The Garrick Centre Winnipeg, MB, CAN
November 18 7th Steet Entry Minneapolis, MN
November 19 Lincoln Hall Chicago, IL
November 21 The Mercury Lounge New York, NY
November 24 Phoenix Concert Theatre Toronto, ON, CAN
November 25 Bronson Centre Ottawa, ON, CAN

The Jezabels - Endless Summer by thejezabels

Getting To Know... Britany Nola

Read our exclusive, candid interview with model and actress Britany Nola, as well as checking out some more photos by visiting our new site: www.somethingyousaid.com

The Felice Brothers - Celebration, Florida

The Felice Brothers - a close-knit band of two brothers and three long-term friends - recorded most of the songs that made up their first three albums in a converted chicken coup in upstate New York. Their sound has always been distinctly earthy American country-folk, so it comes as something of a surprise that their new long-player is quite as expansive as it is.

Alongside the more familiar sounds of piano and guitar, Celebration, Florida bursts with horns, ambient synths, big drum beats, bigger bass lines, piano, violin and accordion. Not only that, but you’ll even find rave beats and acid jazz here. That’s right, acid jazz.

Indeed, you know this album is going to be an experimental outing when a cacophony of raucous schoolyard chanting infiltrates the chorus of opener Fire At The Pageant. While the urge to push the envelope and develop their sound is commendable, the strongest moments on the record still come when The Felice Brothers are at their most delicate, when Ian Felice’s fragile voice sounds as though it could crack at any time. Through the sorrowful reminiscence of Oliver Stone, for instance, Felice’s vocal is so beautiful over soft ivory tinkling that all other sounds - the horns and the added ambience - even though they are pared back, still seem somehow intrusive.

However, for all the bells and whistles of Celebration, Florida, The Felice Brothers’ sound remains atmospheric and the sense of genuine Americana is strong. Crucially, their fine storytelling is still present and, whether they are embellishing their songs with added dimensions or not, no-one tells a good old fashioned yarn like The Felice Brothers.

Review by Rob Townsend. 
Read Rob's review of The Felice Brothers, here.

The Strokes - Angles

I had a disagreement with some fellow music critics once about the impact The Strokes had on the indie music world. It was largely over my claim that their arrival changed everything. It's easy to see why my peers scoffed at such a suggestion. Over the last few years, The New York quintet have hardly set the world alight with patchy second and third albums, slurred live shows and uninspiring side-projects, but I stand by my claim. At the turn of the Millennium, The Strokes really mattered. Like, really mattered. Back then, Limp Bizkit were considered the height of talent. They were bleak times. Then The Strokes arrived on the indie scene like a slap in the face. A brilliant, jangley-guitared slap in the face. Is This It remains the best record so far this Century and if you don't agree with me then you are wrong. Not only was it 30 insanely amazing minutes of the punchiest garage rock songs since godknowswhen, but it also allowed the likes of The Libertines and The White Stripes to follow in the band's slipstream and into the consciousness of the indie fraternity.

Since then though, it's been a mixed bag. The second record offered a couple of outstanding singles that only served to illustrate just how disappointing the rest of the album was and the next record was similar in that it had a few brilliant songs but was still a long way short of recapturing the magic of their debut.

Now, after a lengthy break to allow for side-projects and wotnot, comes Angles. Was it worth the wait? Unfortunately the answer to that question is emphatically in the negative. To be honest, after five years, unless they had come up with the next Pet Sounds, it was always going to be a let down.

Angles is an album that tries to paper over the cracks of a band that clearly aren't into it anymore by being fun, upbeat and at times experimental. However, every sound that emerges from the speakers does so dripping in insincerity. It's not a bad record - in fact, it's an above average one - but there is nothing believable about it. On first listen it's very clear that these songs were not created because Messrs Casablancas and Co simply couldn't bear for the world not to hear them.  Sure, there is plenty of energy and a few stirring moments, but it's all merely a smokescreen to disguise the fact that Angles is clearly weighed down by a miserable sense of obligation. If Is This It was the sound of The Strokes changing everything, then Angles is them as a tired old wedding covers band - offering enough to allow for moderate enjoyment, but the kind of enjoyment that no-one will remember too much about when the party's over. At its best, it wanders somewhere vaguely near the landscape of their first recordings. Under Cover of Darkness, for instance, is strong because it has its roots in that classic Strokes sound. The more experimental efforts don't come across so well though. Machu Picchu is an example of this, opening the album on some kind of ill-advised reggae tip.

Simply, once I put the last full-stop at the end of this review, I doubt I'll revisit this record often. If I want to listen to The Strokes, I'll give their debut a spin. Even all these years since its release, it still sounds fresher than their new offering. Sadly, if Angles does anything, it suggests that it is time for this once important, vibrant and exciting band to finally reach their own full-stop.

Review by Bobby Townsend 

Cymbals Eat Guitars - Why There Are Mountains

New York’s Cymbals Eat Guitars took their name from a Lou Reed quote and, judging by the first couple of minutes of opening track ...And the Hazy Sea, would appear to have taken their sound from Pavement. However, just when you’d expect this nicely angular indie affair to wind down at the three-and-a-half minute mark, it evolves into a huge Arcade Fire-style barrage of sound. At over six minutes, it’s an ambitious and interesting start and is indicative of the genuinely unpredictable arrangements throughout. What starts in one camp might very well end up somewhere completely different. For instance, Indiana segues from shoegazing atmospherics into perky indie-pop with pianos and horns.

In an age when gratification needs to be immediate, Why There Are Mountains is something of a rarity, as it is the very definition of a grower. Because it is crammed so full of ideas and because it sprawls in so many directions, anyone looking for instant accessibility might struggle. But to give this album time is to discover something that manages to be ambitiously crafted without feeling self-indulgent or pompous. It is also reminiscent of its influences (Pavement, Built To Spill, Modest Mouse) without sounding too derivative. And something so epic has no right to sound this visceral and raw.

In the old-fashioned spirit of a long-player being a body of work that takes time and effort to fully appreciate, Why There Are Mountains is a fine record that gets better with every listen. The fact that it is their debut album makes it all the more impressive.

Regina Spektor interview

Regina Spektor was still little-known in Australia when I last spoke to her at the end of 2006 about the release of her fourth long-player, Begin To Hope. While music lovers in the U.S. and the U.K. have long-since been mesmerised by her diverse, piano-led tales, word took longer to spread to these shores. However, such was the record’s charm that it was easy to envisage this country quickly falling head-over-heels in love with the Russian-born New Yorker.

Predictably, the album has been so well-received that the clamber for tickets to see Spektor’s first ever Sydney show at The Enmore Theatre meant another date had to be added. This leads me to ask the delightful songstress if it feels somewhat strange to be selling out sizeable venues in a country that she has never previously visited. “Absolutely,” she confirms in her delicate New York accent. “It’s very, very strange and I’m feeling a lot of pressure. In other places it’s a little bit more natural because I started out in small clubs and little bars and worked my way up. It’s a strange feeling just to show up in a place and to have something that in other places you have to put in the time and the work for. I feel like I’m getting handed something and I’m like: ‘Wait. Don’t give it to me. You need to see if I’m worth it first’.”

 

To see Regina Spektor perform live is an experience so captivating and intimate that it feels like she is singing to you and you only, and proves that she is indeed well worth the fanfare that she arrives to. Pleasingly, the anticipation is reciprocated, even though she has to overcome a massive fear of flying to make it here at all. “I can’t wait. I’m terrified of the flight and the jetlag – I’m a very nervous flyer, but I’m excited about everything else. I really hope I won’t just be doing promotion and playing. I want to see some real places and get a feel for the country.”

In spite of her keenness to take in some of Sydney’s attractions, you’re unlikely to spot this particular tourist embarking on the Harbour Bridge climb during her time in the city. Being a consummate professional, her need to put on a great show takes precedence. “I put so much energy into my shows and I need to have lots of physical and mental strength, which means I can’t go sightseeing all day and then just pop in to sound-check. I feel the desire to come through every time and give people the most that I can. So I can’t spend the day running around the city getting tired and then be like: ‘Oh whatever. The show will be fine’.”

As well as being fully committed to performing to the very best of her ability when she sits down to tickle the ivories at The Enmore Theatre, Regina will also treat us to some previously unheard material. “I have written some new songs and I’ll play some of those. Everything is mixed up together: old songs, new songs, middle songs, album songs and demo songs. It’s all a big mush.” In keeping with the vagaries of her set-list, her musical style is also wonderfully eclectic. She offers tender piano ballads, anti-folk romps and playful vocal melodies so varied that when I ask what her songwriting process is, she struggles to answer; eventually admitting that the way she creates her music is something of a mystery, even to her. “In that way I’m kind of a crappy interview,” she states.

 

Her refreshing unwillingness to simply reel off a hackneyed quote when faced with a question she doesn’t know how to answer brings me back to a point we discussed last year. The bashful, unassuming 27-year-old is open in her aversion to doing interviews, which makes me wonder if she is starting to find them any more bearable as her profile grows and she gets more practised at dealing with journalists. “I guess it depends who it is and how I’m feeling. Sometimes I’m still like: ‘Oh this sucks. I just want to make songs.’ It’s not hard for me to talk when interviews are nice like this one, but sometimes interviewers have an agenda, or they’ll seem to want to phrase things in an aggressive, sarcastic manner and bust my balls. Those aren’t a pleasure, but in general…” she pauses, before asking with a nervous giggle: “I don’t know. You spoke to me before. Have I gotten any better?”

The way that the genuine and friendly Regina patiently and thoughtfully answers my questions as I stumble through our conversation with the bumbling awkwardness of a schoolboy with a crush suggests that she is a better interviewee than she gives herself credit for. In her a sugar-sweet tone, she continues: “I hope that it’s one of those things where I am still in the transitional state, and either the interviews will die down because I’ll have eventually talked to everybody in the whole world, or I’ll learn how to write music in these conditions. I feel like something’s got to give though because, although it’s been an exciting year, it’s also been a bit frustrating to not be able to make as much music as I’d like. I’m the least prolific that I’ve ever been,” she
laments.

 

Even though Regina may not be as productive as she’d like, she is still incredibly fruitful in her songwriting and has “tons and tons of songs waiting to see the light of day.” While this is an exciting prospect for those of us who have played her latest album to death, her next record is still very much in the pre-production stage, and she is keeping a typically open mind about how it will sound, as things can easily change once she gets in the studio. “It’s all theory at the moment. It’s like baking a cake in theory, but then all of a sudden you have to handle stuff with your own hands and you accidentally spill half of the milk so you’ve only got half of it in the cake. Everything changes, you know? Man plans and God laughs. I might meet someone tomorrow who plays the best banjo I’ve ever heard and I might end up with banjo on my record.”

While banjos have so far failed to permeate Regina’s output, it is true that she has no fear of pushing the musical envelope in her vividly-imagined stories. On one song she plays piano with one hand and uses the other to hit a chair with a drumstick. Elsewhere, she sings Russian couplets, applies differing accents, or uses her voice as an additional musical instrument. These nuances make Regina Spektor’s music as interesting as it is charming and, as she is set to prove with her debut live dates in this country, she one of the most talented and intriguing songwriters of our generation. Hers is a unique talent which should be cherished.


Read Rob's previous interview with Regina here.
Read the review of Regina's show at Sydney Opera House here.