popcorn youth

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Long overdue gig writeups.

Published by Natasha November 1st, 2006 in Music, Reviews.

Been putting this off for so long, seems to make the most sense to do a quickie write up of the past few gigs I’ve attended. Also note new Photos tab, with tons of extra pics I’ve snapped (will be functional until I sort out how to work our flickr account).

Tilly and the Wall (10/14, Alice Cook House, Cornell Univ.) was exuberant, giddy pop fun. Not much can be said for their alt-country/indie rock openers Devin Davis (a lame indie version of the dreadlocked lead singer from the Counting Crows) and Golden Shoulders (a sort of burlesque, honky-tonk indie pop duo that established a jokey-haha camaraderie with the eager audience). TATW was geniunely glad to be there, constantly thanking the audience with a charming, wide-eyed wonderment. The charisma of the three women Kianna, Neely, and Jamie — which included girlish banter, wide smiles, and requisite sexy hipster costume — more than made up for the occasionally haphazard musical laxness (due in no small part to Jamie’s enthusiastic but messy tap dancing). Kianna taking the mic for “Lost Girls” was a lovely moment suspended in time, and their five song encore (!) prompted raucous screaming from the mostly undergraduate audience.

Art Brut (10/21, Club Euphoria) proved themselves to be slick musicians and expert, seasoned performers. Unfortunately, Ontarian (Ontarioan?) youths Tokyo Police Club were somewhat the opposite; lead guitarist Josh Hook broke a string in the first song, and then broke another one halfway through the set; lead singer Dave Monks was enthusiastic but clearly still addled with the awkwardness of adolescence. Their set had the feeling of tense expectation and promise; you know they’ll do something good, but just not quite yet.

Art Brut (above), on the other hand, played like a well-oiled machine. All stage banter — as off-the-cuff and inside-jokey as it seemed to the audience — was well-rehearsed and planned. Eddie Argos (who, with his speak-sing style, is apparently the UK version of The Hold Steady’s Craig Finn) has all the trappings of an indie rock superstar. Argos is an enticing combination of stand-up comedian (”This is a song about football … actually, it’s about sadness”)/ circus ringleader/ freak-show spectacle/ communist leader (”Ready Art Brut!” he commands his bandmates before every song). He holds a pretentious awareness of his attempts to be non-pretentious; namechecking figures of pop culture with wild abandon (throughout the course of the night, Argos mentioned: Top of the Pops, his favorite, and now defunct, music programme; Jonathan Richmond of the Modern Lovers; The Smiths; Franz Ferdinand; Tokyo Police Club; The Mountain Goats) and to the sheer delight of the audience; Argos displayed endless amounts of energy (skipping with his mic rope; flinging himself into the crowd and then getting lost; running around barefoot).

However, all of these little quirks have been documented before (just Google “Art Brut live”). It’s nothing new, it’s all recycled material, and if you think about their approach to performing live long enough, you’ll come to the cynical conclusion that they are really no different to a Madonna-type choreographed performance. But maybe that’s what they want you to think, because Art Brut does what they do very, very well. The music itself is nothing special, the compositions, arrangements, and note selection are all old news to any alert music listener, but it is their enthusiasm and sheer energy and admittance that they are, in fact, throwaway fun, that makes them something pleasurable and modern.

The entire performance reminded me of Ben Yagoda’s essay “Heavy Meta” in which he discusses exactly what is happening above. To quote:

… Self-references in pop music does not escape the curses of preciousness, self-regard, cliche, and portentousness it is subject to elsewhere. A clue to its avoidance strategy is the word itself: the music — the melody, the singing, the instrumentation, the beat — takes attention and a portion of the burden from the words. This phenomenon is one of the glorious things about popular music. The words to a song may lie leaden on the page in a CD booklet or an ill-conceived Collected Lyrics, but, through a strange alchemy, reverberate like poetry when they are accompanied by melody. In the same way, the music can remove the self-importance from a level of reflexivity that, drunk neat, would be deadly …

Now would be appropriate time to examine the lyrics to Art Brut’s “Formed a Band.”

Formed a band/ We formed a band/ Look at us/ We formed a band (x4)
Honey pie, I don’t know when it started
Just stop buying your albums from the supermarkets
They only sell things that have charted
And Art Brut? Well we’ve only just started

And yes, this is my singing voice/ It’s not irony/ And it’s not rock and roll
I’m just talking/ To the kids

Formed a band/ We formed a band/ Look at us/ We formed a band/ (x4)
I want to be the boy/ The man/ Who writes the song
That makes Israel and Palestine/ Get along

I’m gonna write a song/ As universal as Happy Birthday
That’s gonna make sure/ That everybody knows
That everything’s gonna be ok/ I’m gonna take that song
And we’re gonna play it/ Eight weeks in a row on Top of the Pops

Formed a band/ We formed a band/ Look at us/ We formed a band/ (x4)
Dye your hair black/ Never look back/ My past is my business

It reads like total wankery, am I right? Now think about what it sounded and felt like when they played the same track live. Feels completely different, right? They’re smarter than I thought.

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