Lizzyville

Determining Whether The xx's xx Is Good or Great and If Great, How Great

Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim, lead singers of The xx.

Photos & Show Recap | Florence and the Machine - Bowery Ballroom - 10.27.09

Photos | CMJ Day One: The Antlers - Music Hall of Williamsburg - 10.20.09

Photos | The Dirty Projectors - The Bell House, Brooklyn (New Yorker Festival) - 10.16.09

OK by photos I mean iPhone photos. Dude in the middle in the cardigan is the drunk fan who was invited on stage by Dave to profess his undying (and merely two-week-old) love for the band.

Set list:

1. Cannibal Resource
2. Temecula Sunrise
3. The Bride
4. Remade Horizon
5. Useful Chamber

Read my show recap over at Spinner.

Fever Ray | Webster Hall, NYC | 09.28.09

Kind of all you need to know. But I'm sure these guys or this guy and no doubt this guy will have recaps imminently.

Here's misterellwood's quite lovely video of "Coconut" (watch in HD!):



Photo by Colin Clark via his iPhone

Live Review | The Drums | Mercury Lounge, NYC, 09.22.09

Some time after 10:30 on a Tuesday night, the Drums, led by best friends Jonathan Pierce, a New Yorker and the band's lead singer, and Jacob Graham, a Floridian, began a night of hand claps and helicopter arms, tambourine pounds and cross-stage prances, asserting a live presence that's helped them become one of the most buzzed-about bands of 2009.

Read more...

Photos: The Drums at Mercury Lounge NYC | 09.22.09

See the whole set over at Baeble Music!

Photos: Lia Ices at Sir | Fashion's Night Out | 09.10.09

Lia Ices performed at Sir's Williamsburg store last night as part of Fashion's Night Out. (Unfortunately, I photographed her using a crap point-and-shoot.) She's really catching fire following the 2008 release of her debut album, Necima. She's put out a few videos, did an acoustic performance for Fader recently, and will be playing Joe's Pub on October 20. When I emailed her people about press coverage of that show, she responded herself. Let's just say that by this time next year, she won't be answering her own e-mails. This virtuosic Vermonter is one of the most talented singer-songwriters I've heard in awhile.

Is Record Store Day a Total Waste of Time?

Record stores are about more than just records. They also happen to be the seat of some of the most unique and exciting musical events, especially on April 18, when this year's second annual Record Store Day is held. Surprising groupings of musicians band together, as Beck and Sonic Youth are doing by "covering each other," Stereogum reported in February. Limited editions of merch and music are sold and general revelry takes place. The old hat independent music store is put up on a pedestal. For one day, revenue models are forgotten.

What some people might find surprising is that, according to Nielsen SoundScan, more long-players were sold in 2008 than in any other year. Admittedly, the club scene around the world is strong. (Would you believe there are other DJs in the world than Samantha Ronson? Well, yes, you would, because you are a Dear Reader of Lizzyville and you are smart and snobby and never read People magazine.) But people are also realizing or remembering that LPs are the purest form of recording there is. CDs are utter crap, but of course they slightly edge out mp3s because their digital quality can be tailored by the user. But don't forget about "Imperfect Sound Forever." LPs are collectors' items and they are wonderful to listen to. Joanna Newsom discussed the simple, organic process of listen to an LP straight through in a Wire interview awhile back. (And it's online! Go read it now!)

The independent record store of legend, I argue in today's Record Store Day feature on findingDulcinea, is a place staffed by attentive and knowledgeable music enthusiasts, curious patrons, listening booths and limited-edition offerings alongside anticipated releases, all encouraging leisurely exploration and education.

But browsing a music store is no longer the preferred purchasing method. Amazon routinely offers deep discounts and free shipping, the blog Technologizer points out. Affordable subscription plans from retailers like eMusic also entice users away from the tactile but more time-consuming process of visiting a physical store. If one digital music store doesn’t offer what a consumer wants, another likely will.

And if a store doesn't, a torrent does.

An interesting discussion on the matter is circling the Web. Idolator and NME's Luke Lewis both argue that, hey, maybe it's not such a bad thing for these stores to die out. Don't we need better representation of artists in organizations like the ERA, record labels, PR firms and (evil) tour companies? Is this a futile cause?

In The Telegraph, the ERA's Kim Bayley called record stores "a heady mixture of unofficial youth club, cultural centre, recruitment agency for musicians and music education centre. They recommend new music and they nurture new artists.”

Guess what? The Internet can do all those things. If influential Web sites such as Pitchfork are any indication, music fans still turn to others—critics and music bloggers—for curated views of new music. We arguably don't need record store employees anymore. Also, some of them are virtually unapproachable, which Luke Lewis kind of hints at. Wired reported extensively on the “Pitchfork effect” in 2006, citing the Toronto band Broken Social Scene as just one band whose success has been significantly bolstered by Pitchfork’s praise. It certainly doesn't hurt that Pitchfork and others organize mega festivals to help boost artists' incomes--and their own, so they can keep paying writers to curate the large promo pile.

“[M]ost listeners still find their music with the assistance of a filter: a reliable source that sifts through millions of tracks to help them choose what they do (and don't) want to hear,” Wired’s Dave Itzkoff said.

I believe the live music scene will be huge, and clearly I'm not the only one. But the trouble is keeping the companies that organize these events above board. They are clearly verging on conglomerate/titan status and it scares the crap out of me. I am tired of paying $20 surcharges to see Neko Case, to dance to a Hercules & Love Affair DJ set, to wave a glowing cell phone at David Byrne, to see David Longstreth and Ed Droste in one place.

But the Internet makes things easy and it makes us stingy.

Read the rest of my article here.

Marisha Pessl

The witty, inventive, precocious Marisha Pessl, author of Special Topics in Calamity Physics, rightly listed as one of the New York Times' 10 Best Books of 2006), is reading for free on Wednesday, December 13 at 7:00pm at the Strand Bookstore (Broadway/13th St., or something to that effect).  Her book is a show-stopping journey formulated as a textbook, drawing inspiration from books obscure and classic, and ending with a multiple choice exam.  And she is also beautiful (doesn't hurt). And an actress AND playwright and graduate of Barnard. Think of her as the American Zadie Smith--in terms of hype and how it relates to actual talent. It's an equal relationship.

Live: Joanna Newsom, Webster Hall, 11.13.06

When a set of music has been literally orchestrated, as a symphony or, in the case of Joanna Newsom's new album, a veritable concerto––five tracks, supported by strings, ranging in length from 7 to 16 minutes––the pleasure in hearing it performed live is not really related to sound so much as meaning.  Even for those of us most interested in sounds––the sound of music, the sound of word––sight will trump.  As we find ourselves yards back from the stage fixated intently on the performer, we'll be transformed as fans.  And it's not the eighteen dollar double shot of whiskey; it's that face hammering home hundreds of words.

Joanna Newsom is petite and pale with wavy, dirty blond hair that cascades down her back.  She's Californian, but is more convincing as a Hardy heroine, with a girlish figure, a makeup-free, nearly unkempt face, and an expression of modest bewilderment also known as intense concentration.  Watching her on Monday, it was easy to see she’s a classical musician at heart: a hardworking and subdued individual with a great talent, both with words and music, that allows her to eloquently unharness emotion and passion.  Her new album is, as many have said, a masterpiece, intimidating and embracing, and something that must be embraced even (especially) by the most diehard haters of women, of female musicians other than Patti Smith, or of The Milk-Eyed Mender, her two-year-old debut. 

At Webster Hall, Newsom played each track of Ys in order and employed guitars, banjos, and a backup vocalist as her replacement Van Dyke Parks. This of course adds to the intimacy: Ys becomes less a concerto and more just another unplugged folk performance.  But it’s not fucking folk.  And it’s not ‘just another’ anything. It’s unclassifiable and stunning.

What you notice in your drunken transfixion is a) that the orchestra’s soul is still there, just missing a half dozen strings and their guts: the guitar family is minimalist and reserved, following along behind Newsom’s melodies like timid animals; and b) that the context of these songs begs understanding.  The live performance is only further enlightenment of their pretty much unknowable meaning.  My guess is: family life gone astray, romances destroyed by loss, and a life lived in ornate and peaceful landscapes, removed from cities and the boring, overcooked energy with which music about cities can be composed. 

Hence Thomas Hardy.  Newsom is not so much a fan of metaphors but, as Hardy was, the intense relationship between nature and the mind; the psychological connection between a person and his/her landscape.  This is not an oeuvre of comparisons so much as literal, concrete interactions: Newsom’s father explaining meteors; her affectionate observations of flora and fauna. (Though of course the metaphors are valuable, too.) Ys is an example of how nature transforms and helps our understanding of inward problems with which nature might have little to do.  The album is richly visual, and in a live performance Newsom’s lyrics are louder, are more substantive. It’s the same effect as being taught something in a classroom, if only one were drunk and standing in a sweaty crowd in a classroom. At a Newsom show,  you’re listless, adoring, attentive.  There are glimmers of meaning you didn’t hear before. You finally get this or that. And every subsequent listen of the album will yield more meaning.

This is why live shows exist. Not only to give the artist a little money and watch her face glow with stunned surprise at the vastness of her happy audience, but to examine the work in another light, which, by the bye, was red and blue, bright and sharp, focused directly over Newsom’s immaculate pallor, angel hair, and the majestic instruments of lady and harp.