She fell in love with a [coked out] drummer...

So I'm sure InDet will be posting his own thoughts about this, but I figured I'd say a few words anyway. Last night we drove to Columbus to see Vampire Weekend at the Wexner Center.

First things first, it was an absolutely awesome show. The Wexner Center is a full sized theater, but the show was a Black Box show, where they curtain off the stage and build a small riser on one end of the stage while the audience packs on to the rest of it. It dramatically decreases the performance space and creates a really intimate atmosphere, which I think was perfect for a band like this. I'd say there was probably about 200 people there at most.

The opening band was...well...fronted by a guy who was 100% nuts. I don't really have anything else to say about them. After intermission, Vampire Weekend came out, and they looked exactly like you'd expect an indie rock band from New York to look. They sang, they danced, it was rad. One thing that stuck out, though, was the drummer. He had to have been on something, because aside from being insanely awesome at his instrument, he just looked out of it during downtimes.

All in all, awesome fucking show. My only gripe is the fact that they don't tour with any sort of strings player, which I think makes each song lack just a little something from the album that gives the songs a certain kind of character, or catchiness. (Also, no harpsichord on M79. Sad.)

Sounds of the Studio

Hot Chip - Made in the Dark

Immediately following the spoken advice helpfully given midway through the second song on Hot Chip's third studio album, "Shake a Fist", to get out and crank up your headphones, Hot Chip delivers one of the more engrossing synth breakdowns in recent memory. Bouncing and stumbling through a glitch-filled beat, it helps to showcase the top notch musicality of these five Brits (as well as their superb ear for production). The opening vocal repetition of the next track demonstrate that they know how to have fun, and the perky beat testifies to that. Elsewhere, the almost stream of consciousness ramblings of "Hold On" ("I'm only going to Heaven/If it tastes like caramel") and references to Willie Nelson and WWE in the same song ("Wrestlers") show their tongue-in-cheek sense of humor.

Really, the strongest and weakest moments on the album come from the ballads. The standout title track strips away the effects in favor of soul-influenced guitar lines while Alexis Taylor sings gently about broken love. On the other hand, the final two tracks bring the tempo down, but fail to pay off in any significant way. These aren't bad songs, but on this record they seem almost irrelevant, a way to lull you to sleep so you won't notice the music is ending. Still, these are minor quibbles, and for the most part, the album shines with an infectious groove, a beat you can dance to, and lyrics that carry a both a sense of humor and an emotional weight worth paying attention to. Crank up your headphones.

7.5/10

"This Is Based On A True Story..."

Super Furry Animals - Hey Venus!

The Super Furry Animals' eighth album is perhaps a small step away from the spacey psychedelia that the Welsh quintet is best known for. Described by lead singer Gruff Rhys as "a 'speaker blowing' LP", there are very few moments on this album that aren't bursting with pure psych-pop goodness. Indeed, from the Phil Spectoresque "Run-Away" to the mellow soul of "Let the Wolves Howl At the Moon", there's harly a moment to catch your breath as the Animals take every good idea pop music has had in the last fifty years (these guys pulled out their old Beatles and Beach Boys vinyls) and turns into a sound that is invariably and unquestionably unique. Hey Venus! isn't the strongest album the Super Furry Animals have released, but it is one of their most immidiately engaging, and a good album to point to for anyone trying to discover what SFA is all about.

7.0/10