Wind's Poem: Phil Elverum's Newest Album is One of the Best I've Ever Heard.

Hello once again readers from various corners of the internet. I bring a review which I have been planning for quite some time now. It deserves a graceful and just review, and I plan to do it justice.

Album Review


Mount Eerie




Wind's Poem


This album has and represents a movement back to when things were simpler. Phil Elverum is a man who epitomizes this ideal. He works in a business making and selling his own records and artwork, he runs his own record label, he writes his music in such a way that mistakes are left in, and there is such a raw and powerful feeling to his music, like he is there singing to you in the room. He is the master of that lo-fi sound, which is representative of his work as The Microphones, but this record is more than that. After a period of time in 2003 there he spent some time in Norway in a cabin writing and living a solitary lifestyle, he changed his band name to Mount Eerie and his name from Elvrum to Elverum. His first albums as Mount Eerie have a similar feel to them as the older Microphones albums. But Wind's Poem is different. To begin, this album is in some areas an assault of the ear, loud distorted sections with a black metal feel to them, but with a twost, something different.

"Wind's Dark Poem" sets the album off with a blast, the kind of thing where you buy this new album, and you think you know Phil Elverum pretty well, this song dissuades you of that. Granted "The Glow Pt. 2" has a bit of what's being shown here, but not in this intensity. The double-bass pedals and overtly-distorted guitars gives you this feel of intensity, and if you can get through the first minute, you get the lyrics. Phil speaks of the wind speaking a poem and of flames and fire, really stark and powerful imagery. This is a song which acts as an overture to the rest of the album. Beautiful lyrics, powerful music, and the delivery really sets you in the music, you become part of it. Speaking of such elemental things that Phil speaks of makes this music coarse through you like a primal element.
The next two songs are classic Phil Elverum. "Through The Trees" is a monolithic song, wherein the first two and a half minutes are organ and humming. He doesn't make it easy for you to get comfortable; you can't just be spoonfed something as immense as this album, or even this song. Phil himself said in an interview that putting a song that's 11 minutes+ as the second track of an album is such an idea that it's going to make you sit up and really listen, "...I put it right at the beginning, compulsively difficult, just to clearly define that this album is weird and a little challenging right at the beginning. No easy rides." this makes the album a real masterpiece, the little details. "My Heart Is Not At Peace" is track three, and it is quite a short song, and the imagry just rips you heart out. He speaks of the violence in his heart and all the ways which he is feeling unrest: "I was writhing in the tomb, my heart a frozen boulder, the romance and all I've rejected comes like music on the wind." this song is beautiful in so many ways, and just so full of agony and morose it is amazing and beautiful.
To speak on every track as I have these first three would end up being a novel, so I will highlight two more songs of note in this mythic record; "Between Two Mysteries" and "Lost Wisdom Part 2". The first of the two is a bubbling little song with a simple drum beat with these layers of synthesizers, percussion, and little guitar licks which build the song in such a fashion that it makes a static platform for the vocals to perform upon. The latter of these "Lost Wisdom Part 2" is my personal favorite in this album. It epitomizes this powerful anguish feeling in the album; with a descending chord progression in tremolo guitars while the drummers literally freak out on their instruments, it brings out a immense deep emotion which after this volume clears and the texture changes to add an aural break. the drums creep in with a simple quarter note beat, synthesizers come in outliing a new chord progression, punctuated with single guitar notes. Then double stops and the vocals finally come in at the perfect time, any later and it wouldn't feel right. Phil comes in: "I think the screaming wind heard my name, significance found in rocks, and the mountains slowly blowing in the river, lost wisdom returns." these are the words of a man who is looking for wisdom and is answered by the wind, and puts them into song. truly a work of a genius.
This album is the epitome of continuity, power, emotion, and musical mastery in Phil Elverum's unconvertional way. If you don't go and purchase it, you are that much the fool.

10/10

Until next time.

The Arcade Fire: Music With The Greatest Of Earnest.

Hello again people, I was listening to a playlist this morning and a song from The Arcade Fire's Funeral came up, and I thought that I couldn't go on without reviewing it on here.

Album Review




The Arcade Fire - Funeral


The Arcade Fire are one of the groups around nowadays that are so intense about their music. Every chord, beat and note seem to carry across so much life and emotion that it is staggers the mind; and none better to represent this than Funeral. This album from end to end has this power that makes you want to smile, jump, scream, respectively. Kicking off the album is a great builder, "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" with its very well chosen tempo, it feels like your walking through a neighborhood before dawn's first light, frozen air. The lyrics paint this scene of two people living in a frozen world. It's quite beautiful, thinking about losing yourself in a world of two, being so extracted from culture that you forget "the names we used to know." By the end you feel like you're running and running to nothing, but it's ok. Next is "Neighborhood #2 (Laika)"one of my personal favorites. It's a chilling tune about an older brother who isolated himself from his family. The imagery in this song is so vivid. "When daddy comes home you always start a fight, so the neighbors can dance in the police disco lights. The police disco lights. Now the neighbors can dance!" Powerful and very earnest. "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" describes an epic journey to find light and see kids dying in the streets and how "the power is out in the heart of a man" such powerful images and subject matter make for the most intense of music. The most popular tune on this album, now featured on a new movie Where The Wild Things Are is "Wake Up" a very powerful tune about how growing up can just make you lose all the love and happiness. The song has this powerful melody which is sung at the top of everyone in the bands lungs, so filled with life and earnest that it is nearly impossible not to fall in love with this song. "Rebellion (Lies)" is a great tune about not believing everything you hear from people, and that it's all right to believe what you want.

This group of musicians creates the most intense of music, and are also able to make a very comprehensive album of powerful music. And be aware, they may be coming out with a new album soon.


8.8/10

Until next time.

Neglectful Non-Posting Leads to Triple Live Review and Single Review for You!

Hello Viewers of the internet, it's been a long while. School is taking up a lot of my time so I have not been updating this as much as I should. So, as an act of apology, here's the last three shows I've been to, and a review of an amazing track on an amazing compilation.

ROUND ONE!

Live Performance Review


























Grizzly Bear w/ Beach House Live at The Orpheum 10-08-09

This was an amazing show for so many reasons. I got there with time to catch the opening act; usually I try to see them because it is important to support opening acts, and I was interested in Beach House. A nice trio sound playing occasionally with backing tracks. Good stuff. I'm not the biggest fan of people playing with backing tracks, but it worked well for what was going in the sound. The thing that intrigued me the most with these guys was Victoria's singing voice. It's raspy quality, and middle range for a female vocal was an object of interest. Their set was punctuated with attempts to talk with the crowd, which was awkwardly humorous because no one really talked back. Overall, a good opening act with a couple gems interspersed within the set (i.e. "Wedding Bell" etc).

Then Grizzly Bear took the stage. An amazing set of incredible music proceeded to ensue. A great rendition of "Ready, Able" as well as an explosive version of "I Live With You" which personally made my night. Many of the songs were with dedications of Boston landmarks or people who came to the show who were friends and family of the band. Victoria was brought out again for her backup vocals on "Two Weeks" which is just as infectious live as on the album. The interesting thing about this show excluding the music was the lights, which were electrical cords in a jar with light bulbs inside to give the firefly effect in different patterns, but also the audience reaction to the bands; the last time I went to the Orpheum (to see Built to Spill, Dino. Jr. and the Meat Puppets) the crowd was really into it, not sitting, and really digging it. This show, everyone sat until the final song by Grizzly Bear, a chilling rendition of "He Hit Me" which even though I would not pick as an encore, worked for the night and gave a surreal texture to the rest of the night.

9/10 (7/10 for the audience[you lazy lethargic people you])


...ROUND TWO!

Live Review





























Mount Eerie w/Tara Jane O'Neil, No Kids, and Manners at the Pozen Center, Mass Art 10-28-09

I will begin this review with a statement about Phil Elverum, who is Mount Eerie. He is a creative genius and one of the best living songwriters of our time. He embodies an older age in his styles and recordings, but still is just a person. When I entered the Pozen Center, the first thing I noticed was, GONG (Phil Elverum would bring a gong, I thought). There were no chairs, just open floor. Everyone sat down on the floor and waited. I looked at all of the merchandise at the tables, and was shocked to see that Phil Elverum's stuff was cheaper at the show then for sale at a store, a phenomenon which I have never come across before (I took the opportunity later to purchase Dawn on LP, and a t-shirt, all for $23). Manners, a JP based band went onto the stage and played probably 4-5 songs. The crowd was great at the show, very receptive, or, as receptive as a bunch of artsy hip adolescents can be to bands like these. Manners were pretty good, however, being a bass performance major at a conservatory, I had personal quarrels with the bass players technique, as it was atrocious; they chugged through their quasi-set, and moved out real fast. then came the waiting portion of the show, as No Kids was the second act, but didn't show up until Tara Jane O'Neil showed up and took their spot 20 minutes after Manners finished. during this waiting time as well as before, Phil Elverum was running around in a t-shirt he designed himself, bleach-stained jeans, and barefoot, fiddling with the mixers, selling his merchandise, and drinking his naked juice drink (yellow machine I believe). Tara Jane O'Neil next up; she came on with one of the drummers from Mount Eerie, played one song with the drummer, which he rocked out on the 3 piece drum set complete with huge and minuscule gong, and one ride cymbal. TGO did a good job of getting the audience involved with passing out sundry percussion, showing them rhythms to shake to while she set up complex loops of guitar as well as nice vocals. A good set overall, though off putting with the delay. No Kids then took the stage for a nice set where Phil Elverum plays drums (not at the gong set, though occasionally he would hit the mini-gong), just another thing he does for this show. He (Elverum) spent a good part of this set running back and forth to the mixer to fix a problem that Nick Krgovich was having with his monitor, which disturbed several songs, but overall it was an ok set.

Then something amazing happened. A culmination of the night, No Kids, Tara Jane O'Neil, the two drummers and Phil Elverum formed together to create Mount Eerie. Now, anyone who knows Mount Eerie should know The Microphones, the earlier name for Elverum's solo project, this music, as well as early Mount Eerie is lo-fi 1-4 person recordings of stripped-down and raw songs. Mount Eerie's newest record, even with some of this older idea also has the most intense sections of loud, black metal, that anyone who had not heard the new album was in for a surprise when both drummers go in full tilt with TGO and Elverum pumping out guitar volumes, and Nick Krgovich and Julia Chirka of No Kids with their synths. Phil's voice creeps in over this cacophony and creates the most sincere and intense thing I personally have ever heard. The set was punctuated with Phil asking feedback from the audience, whether things were too loud or soft, or if he could do anything to improve the experience. All of the songs played were exclusively from Wind's Poem (a great record, go buy it), and great songs were "Lost Wisdom Pt. 2" "My Heart Is Not At Peace" "Wind Speaks" and "Between Two Mysteries" overall, an amazing performance which converged with all of the bands coming together in a reenactment of Wind's Poem, though not all of the songs, and not in the right order.

10/10


and finally . . . ROUND THREE!!!


Live Review

Pinback w/Ho-Ag at Paradise Rock Club 10-31-09

As there was a delay going to this show (dinner needed to be had) I missed the beginning of the opening act Ho-Ag, which in my opinion, was not a dissapointment. I really found nothing of interest in their sound; they did do some interesting time signature reductions, but that doesn't save the overall performance. Also, as a person who has lost his fair share of hearing, they were to goddamn loud. Then Pinback took the stage, and all of the (metaphorical) crap the Ho-Ag slew over it. As it was Halloween, the group, save Mr. Armistead Burwell Smith IV. Rob Crow was in a onesie with bunny slippers, he made a joke about how his pedals were very hard to push with said slippers on, which was quite humorous. Highlights of this show were definitely "Penelope" "Loro" and "Non-Photo Blue" a great time was had by all.

7.7/10


BONUS TRACK REVIEW!




Service Bell - Grizzly Bear with Feist (Dark Was The Night)

This song has been in a lot of playlists of mine recently. With its sneaky intro, reverse synth effect, 6-bar phrases, or what have you, it embodies the season of fall to a perfection. The Drum beat with the timbre of the brushes, and Feist's high-pitched voice singing " I keep a service bell by my bed for you" it is chilling in the tone she sings it in. then Grizzly Bear does what they do best, vocal effects, the song build to a climax which is never really reached, and the song goes out in the same way it came in, such a mysterious fashion. It is one of those songs which is perfect in its interpretation; it could not be done any better. Dark Was The Night has many songs like this but this is by far the pinnacle of this particular emotion. Also, go buy this compilation too. Every song is a gem, and the benefits go to fighting AIDS.

9.7/10


I hope this will tide you over until the text time.

Until then, internet.