[A quick note: No, this blog isn't dead. It's not even technically on hiatus! But the fact that it's taken me three weeks to write this rather brief concert review pretty much explains why there hasn't been a post here in two months: sheer laziness.]
It’s a little embarrassing to admit that this was my first Doves concert. I’ve counted the band amongst my favorites since I picked up their first album, Lost Souls, back in 2001 (about a year after it came out), and they’ve come through town several times since then. But I’ve always managed to miss them, thanks to then-girlfriends, overseas travel, and (ahem) not getting around to buying tickets before they sold out. So it was great to finally see them after all this time.
To be honest, though, I was somewhat dubious of Doves as a live act. The band’s origin as dance group Sub Sub, along with their meticulously constructed albums, suggested a group that was more comfortable laboring in a secluded studio, rather than a live band that knew how to put on a show. But my fears were unfounded — not only did the band (supplemented by a keyboard player) do an impressive job of recreating the complexities of their recordings on stage, but they showed a looseness and sense of fun that was entirely unexpected in a band whose records are usually so dour. How they managed to do both things at once — retain the songs’ epic scope while also investing them with a bit of ragged vitality — I have no idea, but it made for a great show.
Not surprisingly, tracks off the recent Kingdom of Rust dominated the set, starting off with the spectacular “Jetstream”. About half the main set came off the album, and all the songs came off quite well. The rest of the set pulled off their other three albums, but sadly my personal favorite, Lost Souls, got the short end of the setlist: “Rise” showed up early, but that was it until the encore, when they played “Firesuite” and “Here It Comes” back-to-back. The absence of “The Cedar Room” and “Catch The Sun” saddened me a fair bit, but obviously you can’t expect a band to play your nine year old favorites just because you couldn’t be bothered to catch them live in a more timely manner — and anyway I love Kingdom and wouldn’t have really minded if they just played the album end-to-end and called it a night.
Honestly, I can’t really think of anything to complain about from the show. They sounded great, I had a blast, and I hope they hit San Francisco again soon.
Kingdom of Rust, the new Doves album (out next week!), has finally leaked. I got a copy off a co-worker this morning, and have been listening to it all day. It sounds fucking awesome, so much more vital than Some Cities (which some swear by, but I found to be a let-down after the first two albums), while losing none of the band’s atmosphere and scope. Listening to it on the bus ride home this evening, it made Turk Street feel even more forlorn and bleak than usual. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea for Doves to disappear for four years after all.
I’m really, really excited about this record — and for once, it looks like my anticipation may not be in vain. I also downloaded the new Pet Shop Boys today, so we’ll see what I think of that.
Yet another Doves remix to download — this one is a remix of “Kingdom Of Rust”, courtesy of the NME from a week or so ago. (As a bonus, the NME also posted that Sub Sub video. They seemed a lot less somber in those days.) The remix is very electronic, cutting out most everything except the vocals, and burying all traces of the original version’s hooks — and in the process taking out much of the emotional punch. Kind of monotonous, actually. But what the hell, it’s not like they’re not giving it to us for free, right?
Speaking of Doves, picked up my tickets to see them in May at the Fillmore. Yay me!
Stereogum put up a new Doves track yesterday. It’s not off Kingdom of Rust, but instead is a dancefloor remix of b-side “Push Me On” by “British electroclash act” Playgroup. And as Stereogum says: “it basically works”. Though to be honest, I’m a bit puzzled by Stereogum’s surprise over a dance remix of a Doves song, given the group’s background in dance music. For myself, I like the remix, don’t love it, but I also haven’t heard the original version.
Still struggling to get back to some sort of regular posting schedule, but here are a few random news bits ….
Doves have announced a North American tour in May and June to support their new album, Kingdom Of Rust (out April 7th). They’re playing the Fillmore in S.F. on May 18th, and since I’ve managed to miss them on both of their last two US tours (and any previous tours, of which I am unaware) I really better get my ass to this one.
The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart are also launching a US tour, but since they’re spending half of it camped out in Austin, and the other half on the East Coast — before departing for a lengthy jaunt around Europe — fuck ‘em.
And this is something I’ve been meaning to post a link to for weeks, but did you know that Saint Etienne’s Bob Stanley wrote a Bee Gees record review for Pitchfork? They’ve referred to him as a staff writer a couple times since then, so maybe Pitchfork will be marginally less insufferable for the immediate future.
Probably everyone and their mother has seen this by now, but in case you haven’t seen the video of Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon playing “This Is A Low” at the NME Awards — their first time playing together in nine years! — you can see it on YouTube here. (via Pitchfork)
cerulean, Brighter/Still: I think this is what Buffalo Tom would have sounded like if they’d decided to record a shoegaze record. Big droning guitars, but the singer’s gruff vocals gives the proceedings a sort of American alt-rock flavor. The album doesn’t quite live up to the promise of the majestic instrumental opener “Cathedral City”, but it’s pretty good.
Travis, Ode to J. Smith: Travis’ most recent album, written and recorded on a rushed schedule which resulted in a much more vital, rocking sound than they’ve tried in a decade. That said, my favorite song (so far) is “Song To Self”, which sounds much more typical of the band’s recent, anthemic output.
Asobi Seksu, Hush: Yeah, this album was a letdown, but I still figured I’d pick it up. The best gauge of my disappointment: I bought it digitally off eMusic, instead of buying a physical CD like I originally assumed I would.
Despite being really into British shoegaze bands back in the early 90’s, I rarely had the money to buy full-length albums back then, and so I missed a lot of stuff that I knew was supposed to be awesome. Case in point: Swervedriver. Although I’d heard a fair amount about them, the only thing I actually owned by them at the time was the four-song US-only Reel To Real EP. Furthermore, whereas albums by other scene mainstays like Ride, Chapterhouse, and Slowdive were easy to find for five or six dollars by the end of the 90’s (which is actually how I filled out my library for those bands!), Swervedriver albums seemed quite rare in the used bins.
All of which is just backstory to explain why I’m so stoked that Second Motion has reissued Swervedriver’s first two albums, Raise and Mezcal Head. I haven’t picked up the latter yet (I try not to over-saturate myself with too much music from a single band), but Raise is awesome. What surprised me, though, is how much of a rock record it is, compared to the other seminal shoegazer albums of the era. My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive records might have had loud guitars and pounding drums, but the bands were still largely working from a dream pop template. But Swervedriver’s foundation wasn’t dream pop, it was swaggering, piss-off rock and roll, which they then layered loads of overamped guitars on top of. There’s a galloping urgency to their music that none of the other scene mainstays had, and Swervedriver end up coming across as the scene’s clear heirs to the Jesus & Mary Chain.
On the other hand, they don’t feel nearly as cerebral or spacey as their contemporaries, and in a way I’m surprised that they were pegged as a shoegaze band at all — sure, there are some sweeping guitarscapes here, but they’re put to an entirely different purpose, and if I was listening to Raise without knowing who it was, I’m not sure I would have initially categorized it as a shoegaze album (a noisy alt-rock record, perhaps?).
Regardless, the album rocks, and is highly recommended. My only actual complaint about the reissue is that, with four bonus tracks tacked on, the CD still only clocks in at about an hour — so why not pad it out with three or four more songs? The band put out a slew of EPs and singles around the time Raise came out, so there’s no shortage of material — and speaking for myself, I would have loved it if they had included the other two tracks off Reel To Real, “Scrawl & Scream” and an excellent cover of the Velvet Underground’s “Jesus”.
Via the NME, it looks like Silvertone Records is preparing a 20th anniversary box set of the Stone Roses’ debut album. That’s right, a box set.
Now, normally this is where I go onto one of my rants about how doomed the music industry is, trying to stay solvent by milking every penny out of aging fans without finding ways to connect with younger ones. But that’s not really the case here, because Silvertone’s been playing this game for something like seventeen years now. God knows what could possibly be left to reissue that didn’t show up on The Complete Stone Roses, The Very Best of the Stone Roses, Turns Into Stone, Remixes, or any of the umpteen reissues they’ve already done of The Stone Roses itself.
And just to be clear, I love that album. Easily in my all-time top ten list. And I do actually recommend supplementing it with Turns Into Stone, which has a ton of excellent non-LP singles and b-sides. It’s just this perpetual returning to a long-dry well that amazes me.
Oh boy! Via Stereogum, the video for “Kingdom Of Rust”, the title track off the fourth Doves album. The first few seconds confused me a bit — what the fuck is this, a sea shanty?!? — but nope, it’s definitely another Doves epic. A good one, based on two listens.
: I think this is what Buffalo Tom would have sounded like if they’d decided to record a shoegaze record. Big droning guitars, but the singer’s gruff vocals gives the proceedings a sort of American alt-rock flavor. The album doesn’t quite live up to the promise of the majestic instrumental opener “Cathedral City”, but it’s pretty good.
: Travis’ most recent album, written and recorded on a rushed schedule which resulted in a much more vital, rocking sound than they’ve tried in a decade. That said, my favorite song (so far) is “Song To Self”, which sounds much more typical of the band’s recent, anthemic output.
EP. Furthermore, whereas albums by other scene mainstays like Ride, Chapterhouse, and Slowdive were easy to find for five or six dollars by the end of the 90’s (which is actually how I filled out my library for those bands!), Swervedriver albums seemed quite rare in the used bins.
. I haven’t picked up the latter yet (I try not to over-saturate myself with too much music from a single band), but Raise is awesome. What surprised me, though, is how much of a rock record it is, compared to the other seminal shoegazer albums of the era. My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive records might have had loud guitars and pounding drums, but the bands were still largely working from a dream pop template. But Swervedriver’s foundation wasn’t dream pop, it was swaggering, piss-off rock and roll, which they then layered loads of overamped guitars on top of. There’s a galloping urgency to their music that none of the other scene mainstays had, and Swervedriver end up coming across as the scene’s clear heirs to the Jesus & Mary Chain.
, 
, 
, 
, or any of the umpteen reissues they’ve already done of 
itself.