Bon Iver: Bon Iver, Bon Iver Album Review
August 16th, 2011 • Album Review • No comments
Anyone who knows and loves Bon Iver can tell the tale of front-man Justin Vernon’s debut recording experience. After the breakup of his former band, the end of a relationship, and a mononucleosis infection, Vernon headed to his father’s cabin in the woods of Wisconsin, seeking solitude.
What emerged from this ultimately cathartic experience was the dark, sparse, and hauntingly beautiful album For Emma, Forever Ago. Everything about the album just worked; listeners could hear Vernon’s isolation and identify with his emotional longings.
Four years, an EP, and several collaborations later, Vernon released Bon Iver’s (semi) eponymous sophomore album, Bon Iver, Bon Iver. Just taking a quick listen to his collaborations (an eclectic combination of ambient, experimental, indie rock, and hip hop), and you know this album will be different.
Honestly, with all the praise the debut album received, I’m surprised Bon Iver didn’t get more hate. However, upon listening and relistening, you realize that this sophomore album is still brilliant. And while it’s different, it’s not that different.
Despite the large variety of new sounds present – dirtier and grungier guitars, plenty more horns and woodwinds, 80s style balled synths(on more than one track mind you), random blips and bleeps, metallic percussion, saxophone – there are still more than a few songs that could have been recorded on For Emma and no one would be the wiser.
The first track, “Perth,” serves as a prime analogy to the transition of sound Vernon has taken in Bon Iver. It starts with a few seconds of a breeze blowing and distant clanking (perhaps dinner plates inside a home or rustic wind chimes). Then a soft guitar progression with only a hint of grit on the peaks of the pattern enters and fades. Then a church cathedral vocal harmony joins a military snare pattern under Vernon’s opening verse, finally giving way to the chorus which includes the initial soft guitar progression along with a standard drumset backbeat.
It’s not what you would expend from Bon Iver, but it’s also pleasantly familiar. They definitely sound more like a rock band at certain moments while in other moments I feel I am back in Vernon’s Wisconsin cabin.
If there is one thing consistent between both albums, it is the excellent songwriting and attention to detail. There was a lot of ambience you could pick up from the sparse arrangements in For Emma. You can only imagine the level of detail in this lush second effort. Every close listen draws another interesting detail I hadn’t heard before. Sometimes I have to stop listening and ask myself, “What was that exactly?”
Of all the various sounds present in Bon Iver, I’ve find the most strange and uncharacteristic of that familiar Bon Iver sound to be the strange, sparkling 80s synth tones and pads that occur on “Minnesota, WI,” “Calgary,” and “Beth/Rest.” It almost comes as a little out-of-place or even gimmicky, like a purposefully unexpected turn in an otherwise cohesive plot.
Of course, there are other strange, eclectic moments within the album (the classic rock/country guitar mesh at the end of “Beth/Rest” and the blips and bleeps in “Lisbon, OH”) to reassure the listener that this album, as best I can tell, is a breakout album. Debunking any previous assumptions that Bon Iver has a particular sound or genre.
While I do find the mesh of disparate styles to be interesting, it can also be a bit disconcerting or even annoying for those looking for a cohesive sound. You can’t deny the brilliance of Bon Iver, Bon Iver although I do hope their next effort has a more focused aesthetic and sound.
Mariana Ashley is a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about online colleges. She loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031 @gmail.com.
Band suggestions: You Won’t
August 15th, 2011 • Album Review, Boston, Folk • No comments
On a long drive back to Portland from a northern Maine seacoast town I decided to relive some musical favorites from past years at Bates – I played some Tallest Man on Earth, some Langhorne Slim, some Deer Tick and even some Elvis Perkins. It’s been almost two years since these bands were basically my go-to music and I’ve struggled to find anything since then along the same genre of these pseudo-folk-indie-pop stars that I’ve been as excited to listen to on repeat for three moths. So I’ve looked to other genres to fulfill my obsessive personal music interests.
At last, I can return. Boston natives You Won’t rock. They display the same vim of other-year favorites with reflections of recent musical trends – the more soulful-rock oriented influence of popular Mumford and Sons and the less formulaic electronics of Passion Pit’s diminishing popularity. The group’s first album, Skeptic Goodbye, is available for download on bandcamp.
KhaBang in Bangor
August 9th, 2011 • Uncategorized • 1 comment
This Friday and Saturday (Aug 12/13) music is coming to Bangor. KhaBang is a Music/Art/Film Festival that’s been going on since the 5th and ends the 14th. Lupe Fiasco, Grace Potter and Atmosphere among other will be hitting the stage Friday, followed by My Morning Jacket, Surfer Blood and Portland locals, Brenda on Saturday. Check out the full lineup here.
Should be fun!
Typhoon: Concert Review
August 7th, 2011 • Concert Review • No comments
The sweetness of summer is pretty much universally understood to be unrivaled, and I’ve yet to come across a band that epitomizes the epic summer anthem quite like Portland, Oregon-based Typhoon. Introduced to Typhoon last summer some months after the release of their excellent full-length album Hunger and Thirst, I have had the privilege of seeing them play twice in the last few months: once on the west coast at the 4th Anniversary bash of Tender Loving Empire, the group’s home-grown recording company, at the Wonder Ballroom in Portland; and out east at the Mercury Lounge in New York City while on tour promoting their newest EP, A New Kind of House. The band’s an unusual ensemble, with upwards of 15 members including both a string and horn section in addition to two drummers working full kits. While one might think such a cohort runs the risk of being becoming a chaotic mess of a super-band, anchored by front man Kyle Morton’s artful lead vocals and vivid, elegant lyrics the band manages to create remarkably tight instrumental arrangements which nearly always include a particularly economical use of choral capacity — background vocals are provided by the entire band, not a single member’s voice goes unused. As a result of all of the above, the sheer volume of instrumentality, at any given moment as delightful as it is complex, entirely avoids becoming overwrought. They are, in short, alternately warm and bold, or mild and easy — that is, the perfect summer night in a musical nutshell.
Having established the good-on-paper qualification of Typhoon’s recorded music, let me also say: boy, can these guys play the bejesus out of a live show. TLE’s birthday showcase featured several other acts signed to the label, but Typhoon’s ceaselessly energetic performance saw even the most subtle songs in their repertoire completely adapted for live performance; that is, into jams you couldn’t help but rock out to, making them the memorably unequivocal focal point of the night. The venue and the band’s following may have been significantly smaller in New York than their Portland counterparts, but the performance ethic translated with crystal clarity. After playing at Lollapalooza on August 6th they are headed back to Oregon via Missouri and Colorado, so if you can’t catch them before the summer ends do check out both Hunger and Thirst and A New Kind of House.
Check out some of their stuff here.
Recommended tracks: CPR-Claws Pt. 2 (Hunger and Thirst)
The Sickness unto Death (Hunger and Thirst)
The Honest Truth (A New Kind of House)
Summer Home (A New Kind of House)
Also recommended: video of the lead singer performing a cover of Bruce Springstein’s “Atlantic City” with Danielle Sullivan, who’s also in a pretty great Portland band, Wild Ones. (They date each other.)
Lily Joslin is a Portland, Oregon native. How cool.
Back to the Nordic we go
July 29th, 2011 • Folk • No comments
A couple of years ago, WRBC seemed to be a promotional organization solely for new Icelandic music. It was all pretty good and this past year I started to miss new Nordic sounds. Just in time (before I spent all of my money and flew to Scandinavia), Danish band The Great Dictators appeared. With a vocal mixture of Matt Berninger (The National) and Eugene Hutz (Gogol Bordello, although I like to think of his voice more in the context of Wristcutters: A Love Story) and incomparable lyrics the singing drives the band. Instrumentals, however, don’t fall short in making the band another Nordic hit. An EP is coming out soon, but for now check out Coffee & Cigarettes. More music is available here.
WRITE FOR US
June 30th, 2011 • Uncategorized • No comments
Hey WRBCers! Hope summer is treating everyone well and that you’re taking full advantage of the sun or the beach or in my case… the cubicle. But summer means festivals, driving around with your windows down and your speakers blasting, going to shows in your hometown or wherever you happened to end up for the summer and chilling out with your favorite jamz. And guess what? WE WANT TO HEAR ABOUT IT!
I’m writing to encourage all you DJs and, therefore, music fans, to contribute to our dear, beloved, and struggling music blog– THE MONKEY — http://wrbcradio.com/blog/
Did you hit Bonnaroo? Lolla? Have you created THE summer playlist? Tell us all about it. We want the blog to represent as many music tastes and preferences as possible, which means TELL YOUR FRIENDS and SEND ALONG SUBMISSIONS. Concert reviews, album reviews, playlists, or just a few stray thoughts
Think about it, and send all submissions to wrbc.blog@gmail.com
Writing for the blog is just one way that YOU can help make WRBC a better radio station.
xoxo
Nora
WRBC Publicity Director
Some Summery Songs
June 8th, 2011 • Uncategorized • No comments
Today’s insufferable heat is reminding us that it’s almost (seasonally) summer. That means new (and old) festivals. That means new summer releases. That means new summer playlists…for all.
For the indie electro-pop fans
Canopies – Rebels
For the folk fans
Wood Brothers- Postcards From Hell
For the Canadians
The Rural Alberta Advantage – Don’t Haunt This Place
For the wistful of winter
Bon Iver – Calgary
For the, well, anyone who was excited for the first new Beastie Boys studio album in four years
Beastie Boys – Make Some Noise
For the hip-hop/party rock people
Tiny Danza – Beat Fly
Summer shows in Portland/Surrounding Area
June 6th, 2011 • Uncategorized • No comments
Summer means more time to go to shows, which is sweet. Check out hillytown for summer shows in the Portland area! Just some highlights – Decemberists, G.Love, Elvis Costello and Wiz Khalifa. Awesome.
Okkervil River: I Am Very Far Album Review
June 4th, 2011 • Album Review • No comments
Okkervil River
I Am Very Far
Jagjaguwar
May 10, 2011
As a long time Okkervil River fan, I was convinced that (by me) frontman Will Sheff (the only surviving member of the original line up) could do no wrong. With this in mind, my first listen of I Am Very Far actually upset me. There was no immediate “Westfall” (Don’t Fall In Love With Everyone You See, 2002), no “Black” (Black Sheep Boy, 2005) and certainly no “Unless it Kicks” (The Stage Names, 2007). What Okkervil created, instead of previously characteristic energizing riffs masking shockingly dark lyrics (“Some nights I thirst for real blood, for real knives, for real cries”), is its most surprisingly succinct album to date (I say surprising because it’s actually proceeding a few concept albums). So after a second listen, I’ve become relatively obsessed.
This album is dark to the core and even “upbeat” tracks like “Rider” and “Wake and Be Fine” introduce something new in Sheff’s voice – an instrumental cry that, while highlighted in others albums, becomes almost infernal. And the devil (or at least his voice) comes with company- a whole orchestra, in fact. While the band has previously toyed with instrumental variations, there’s barely a track relying on the simple classic guitar-bass-drum combo. But really, it seems that more and more bands are doing that now so what’s the big deal, right? The big deal is that Okkervil doesn’t just have some extra instruments to add to its sound. Its sound becomes the union of the orchestral, full band (brass without being ska, alright!) and original band instruments.
That’s no accident, either. The band did live recordings on a lot of the songs, having seven guitarists, two bassists, two drummers, and two pianists in one room at the same time. Playing live. You know what the means? That means one mistake and everyone has to start at the beginning. Every time. Sheff admitted in an interview with Pitchfork in April that “we started to discover that the way for it to sound good was for everybody to try not to play with any personal flair at all. The more individuality people were expressing in their music, the worse it was.” It’s not like performing. It’s like perfecting- which they did.
So clearly this album has that constructed-album-not-just-a-bunch-of-individual-hits-thrown-together thing that, in my opinion, separates lasting musicians (Okkervil River has, in name, been around since 1998) from the scores of fifteen-minute bands that flood “the scene.” That’s not to say, however, that there aren’t stand-out tracks. “Rider” and “Hanging from a Hit” are two such songs. “Rider” is a bit of a throwback to energized and unrestrained vim of previous albums but retains that good ol’ I Am Very Far maturity that, while not absent in Okkervil’s earlier work, dominates the album. Also, it’s pretty catchy. That’s pretty fun. “Hanging from a Hit” is not so catchy, but easily the album’s best track. It’s melodic. It’s emotional. It’s instrumental. Actually, it’s instrumentally emotional relying on a a simple piano line to deliver some of the emotional punches that usually Sheff’s vocals take care of alone. His lyrics and wails still do the job, just with some help. His fade away “I like back on my pillow and ask what her husband is like” is a like stranger’s wry morning smirk that you can’t get out of your head until you fall asleep…but it feels good.
Listeners warning: Be prepared to feel uncomfortable. Be prepared to feel scared. Be prepared to feel initially skeptical. Be prepared to have to unwrap an intentionally created mystery with no definite answer. Be prepared to have it be worth it. Basically, be prepared to fall in love.
New Cass McCombs Album
April 17th, 2011 • Release Calendar • 1 comment
Cass McCombs recently released his 5th studio album Wit’s End. Folky, melancholy, lyrical- the man’s aging well.
Check it out here