The Daredevil Christopher Wright

It's been quite the hiatus, but I'm back, at least temporarily.



The Daredevil Christopher Wright is a band based in Eau Claire, WI, and I discovered them last year when they played at my school which is just a short drive away. They have a fairly eclectic sound, but their songs are very accessible (in a really good way). While watching them perform live, I decided that they have a hint of Decemberists in them, and even some Animal Collective on one song, "Parade of Tigers", which features all three band members banging on one drumset while yelling and singing. They have a soft side as well, however. "Everything I Do Comes Back To Me" is one of my favorite songs in my music library. The song is acoustic, with a hint of cymbals and xylophone. Jon sings, "what if all of those things that you did came back to you/would you feel regret?" The text doesn't quite do the vocals justice though. His voice is so sincere, and the entire atmostphere (for lack of a better word) of this song makes it really great. It carries on for about 6 and a half minutes which is enough time to allow you to get completely enveloped.

The band will be releasing a new album soon (I don't believe there is a release date set at the moment), and they just posted one new recording entitled "The East Coast" on their myspace page. The song is a slight departure from the work on their EP, but it's absolutely wonderful, and it has me pretty psyched for the album.

If you live near Wisconsin or Minnesota you can check them out at the following venues this month:

Jun 12 2008 9:00P	House of Rock	Eau Claire, Wisconsin
Jun 20 2008 8:00P	Beaner’s	Duluth, Minnesota
Jun 21 2008 9:00P	Nomad	Minneapolis, Minnesota
Jun 22 2008 7:00P	Planet Supply	St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin
Jun 24 2008 8:00P	Paradigm	Sheboygan, Wisconsin
Jun 26 2008 7:00P	Project Lodge	Madison, Wisconsin
Jun 28 2008 8:00P	The Grand Little Theatre	Eau Claire, Wisconsin

New Buffalo

New Buffalo is Sally Seltmann, a woman from Australia who makes some really, really beautiful music. Similar to Feist or Cat Power, her songs are driven by her vocals and lyrics, while the instruments are there to add just a little extra charm.

"Cheer Me Up Thank You" is the first track on her (fairly) new album Somehwere, Anywhere. and it also is my favorite track on that album. The song is a happy song, quite simply about someone who cheers her up all the time. Her voice, in addition to the simple strumming of a guitar, creates a very delicate, sincere song that captivates me. I hope it captivates you, too!

download "Cheer Me Up Thank You"

Peter Bjorn and John with Andrew Bird Review - Milwaukee

I wasn't at this show, but my friend Lenny was, and he gave me the scoop via AIM tonight. Enjoy...

Me: hey

Lenny: hey

Me: so, tell me about the show last night

Lenny: k

Lenny: so the opening band, mcarthy trencheon or something like that, was pretty okay but i couldn't get into it. very country. they were introduced by a guy saying, "these guys are from omaha and they're friends of connor oberst. lots of slide guitar. songs about drinking and love.

Lenny: Andrew Bird played next

Lenny: and was fucking amazing

Lenny: oh and btw there was still that dumb construction, only this time i didn't get lucky so i was driving around for like 45 min. before i got there

Lenny: anyways, he had this thing set up, remember that big horn/gramophone looking thing he had? he had another one that like split into 2 horn/speaker things...and then it spun...and he played his looped violin through that and it had a surreal doppler effect. that was fucking awesome...it blew me away.

Me: whoa

Lenny: he played a few songs from eggs and few from armchair

Lenny: i wrote down the set list:

sovay
why
sparrows
some new song (self induced ritualistic torture(?))
he said he hated that name so he renamed it "Home of the water Jet Sellice"after Du Buque
Plasticities
Section 8 city (new?) i didn't recognize it
(some song i didn't recognize that he played with a stop motion video playing on the backdrop
the video was by Britta Johnson)
a nervous tick motion
...then he actually played an encore
which was Weather Systems, except it was totally reworked and slow and un recognizable but still neat

Lenny: then PB & J played and they were okay. they had really good showmanship, stepping to the edge of the stage and rocking and shit...but yeah, like i said on your facebook, it just made me wish they were the hives.

Lenny: i only liked Young Folks and then they played Teen Love (concretes cover) right after that, which i liked a lot. there were a lot of really young people there, getting really into it, and for some reason that kinda killed it for me.

Me: weird

Me: that seems odd

Lenny: but i still bopped my head

Lenny: oh! haha and some girl behind me asked me if i was at pitchfork

Me: haha

Lenny: and she recognized me because she was behind us at girl talk and i had my bag on again, so she recognized the bag

Me: haha, oh man

Me: i bet she hated you

Lenny: haha i know! I think she hated me more because i was like, yeah i didn't really like girl talk

Me: uh oh

Lenny: and she really loved it

Lenny: whatever

Lenny: oh and the crowd couldn't keep a beat worth shit. everytime pb&j wanted them to clap along they'd fuck it up after like 3 bars, and bjorn made fun of them for it.

Lenny: oh and then when i left it was a really terrible thunderstorm and i was lost for another half hour before i found the highway

Me: oh man

Me: that really sucks

Lenny: you should post this on your blog as a review for that show

Me: haha

Me: just copy and paste this conversation

Lenny: yes you should, haha

Lenny: it would be my first contribution to your blog

Pitchfork Festival '07

I have no choice but to deem this year's festival a success. It's hard to not consider it a success when you have the chance to see so many great bands over the span of two days for just $35. I'm going to keep this short, because there has already been a ton of coverage of this festival on other blogs. I'll just tell you my brief opinions/thoughts, and you can ask me questions if there's something else you want to know.

My favorite acts...

1. Battles (they reproduced the sound from Mirrored incredibly well in a live setting. great energy. crowd loved them.)

2. Dan Deacon (his set was all about dancing and having a good time, all while trying to avoid crowd surfers falling on your head from behind and/or falling down and being trampled to death. his set was cut short because the crowd was getting too out of control.)

3. Menomena (musically, these guys were better than Dan Deacon. they played a really solid set, and the reminded me of how awesome Friend and Foe is. i've been listening to it a lot again since the festival ended.)

4. Stephen Malkmus (i was really excited for his set. he was first or second for my most anticipated acts to see going into the festival, next to Battles. i did enjoy his set, but it wasn't really what i was expecting. he played a solo set, and he played a fair amount of Pavement songs. unfortunately for me, i'm not that familiar with Pavement. it's really a shame, so i'm working on changing that in the coming weeks.


I don't feel the need to rank any more of the bands from the festival, as they were all pretty much on par with each other, from the shows that I actually caught. I felt like I missed a lot of potentially great acts, however.

I wanted to see, but didn't see: Of Montreal, The New Pornographers, Cat Power, Clipse Mastodon

Of those four bands, I'm actually most upset that I missed Of Montreal, and I've seen them live more than any other band. I watched their set from a distance, and it was spectacular. I know what it's like to be up front for an Of Montreal show, and it's one of the greatest things in the world. Fortunately for me, I might be catching them in October in Minneapolis (they announced a fall tour).

Overall, Pitchfork was a great time. The festival is so laid back that it's hard to not enjoy it, even if you're not there to watch bands play.

p.s. I didn't mention the sound problems (there were plenty of them), and I hope Pitchfork gets their crap together before next year. The problems didn't stop me from having fun, but minor annoyances like these can certainly hurt the festival in the long run.

I <3 Animal Collective

Animal Collective's new album, Strawberry Jam, is due out this September, but as you know, album release dates mean nothing on the internet. This quickly became one of my most highly anticipated albums this year, once I found out that they were releasing an album this year.

Somehow, this album managed to surpass my expectations. There are a handful of 5-star songs here, and I just can't drag myself away from listening to this for very long. I've been listening to it as often as five times a day. It's crazy! This will definitely give Of Montreal a run for my favorite album this year. If I ultimately decide that it's not my favorite album this year, then I would be shocked and amazed if it drops any further than third place on my list. I just can't see it happening.

download "For Reverend Green"

video of "Fireworks" on youtube

those are just a couple of the 5-star songs.

Bears - "You Can Tell"

Bears released an extremely solid album last year, entitled, simply, 'Bears'. They seemingly came out of nowhere and won over a lot of new fans. On album, you're hearing the work of two guys, crafting a collection of pop music that's oh-so-pleasing to the ears.

"You Can Tell" is a song from their fairly new EP 'Shortest Day of the Year'(released in early April of this year). It's actually my favorite song that I've heard from the band thus far.
The lyrics are pretty straightforward:

"Adjusting to having to think about more than myself is not so simple for me and I know you can tell"

That's the chorus, and it really is the base for the whole song, lyrically. It's about someone's hardships with his or her girlfriend or boyfriend. What made me fall in love with it is the sincerity in the vocals, and that's hard to describe in words.

download "You Can Tell"

visit Bears' website

5 Albums That Surprised Me (in a good way) in 2007

The following are albums that I've been listening to a lot this year, and thoroughly enjoying. Most of these artists I hadn't even heard of before this year.

Battles - Mirrored
I knew nothing about this band or any of the band members' other projects until a friend of mine played me a song from this album in March (thanks Billy!). The song was "Ddiamondd", and at first I started laughing out loud because I was totally unprepared for what I was hearing. The song starts with really fast vocals, but they're just gibberish (as far as i know). I wouldn't consider myself a person who really gets into experimental music, but this album definitely rocks out enough for me to get my feet moving. The song "Atlas", which is my favorite song on the album, apparently contains the following lyrics at some point during the song:

"singer is a crook, whoa-ey-oh
singer is a crook, whoa-ey-oh
singer is a crook, whoa-ey-oh

kitchen is for cook, whoa-ey-oh
sissors at the barber, whoa-ey-oh
The Chorus Doesn't matter" [source]

haha, I love Battles.

download "Atlas"
download "Ddiamondd"


Jeremy Messersmith - The Alcatraz Kid
Jeremy Messersmith is just a down to earth dude from Minneapolis. He played at my school this year, and he was a super cool guy. He took time to talk to the crowd, tell some short stories, and he even played bowling with some people before he took the stage for his set. I have a soft spot for singer/songwriters. If you can create a song with just an acoustic guitar, and it's good, then you have my respect. Jeremy takes it to a higher level at his shows, trying to imitate a full band experience, I guess you could say, by looping other instruments and vocals. However, what matters to me most is his lyrics and the stories he tells through his songs.

download "Novocain"
download "Beautiful Children"


LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
Okay, so the only other LCD Soundsystem I've ever heard is "Daft Punk is Playing at My House", even to this day. I really think I should check out some older material of theirs, but I'm a bit nervous that it will not live up to my expectations after listening to 'Sound of Silver' many, many times this year. From start to finish this album is solid. "Someone Great" is one of the best songs of the year as far as I'm concerned. I have nothing but positive things to say about this album, and I have nothing to compare it to, so I guess I've said all that I need to say.

download "Someone Great"


YACHT - I Believe In You. Your Magic Is Real.
Holy crap this album came out of nowhere and made me really happy really fast. I precisely remember my first time listening to this album. I couldn't stop raving about it. A lot of the album is just silly, but it's so much fun. Once I got to the song "I Believe in You" I was taken aback at one particular moment. That moment comes at about the 1:56 mark, when Jona sings "Why is there a picture of a penis on your fridge door/it makes me feel awkward." I wasn't sure if I heard that lyric right, so I did a "wait, what?" and replayed it. Sure enough, that's exactly what he said. It was then that I knew I was a YACHT fan for life.

download "I Believe In You"


Brother Ali - The Undisputed Truth
I'm not the biggest hip-hop fan in the world, but I really appreciate good hip-hop. Brother Ali is another Minneapolis artist that played a show at my school this year. The show was one of the best shows I've ever experienced as a fan of music. It was all about involving the audience and everyone uniting as one and saying "fuck the man". There was so much energy, and Brother Ali performed some very moving a cappella renditions of songs from 'The Undisputed Truth'. He demanded the crowd's respect for these songs, by not singing unless everyone was completely silent. I loved this for two reasons. One reason being that there is just something special and eerie about a large group of people standing around in nearly complete silence, and the other reason being that absolutely all of your attention was directed to his lyrics, which are sensational, by the way.

download "Truth Is"