FRIDAY APRIL 16: Jay-Z, LCD Soundsystem, Them Crooked Vultures, Vampire Weekend, Deadmau5, Public Image Limited, The Specials, Grizzly Bear, Passion Pit, Echo and the Bunnymen, Benny Benassi, Fever Ray, Grace Jones, She & Him, Erol Alkan, The Avett Brothers, Calle 13, The Whitest Boy Alive, The Cribs, La Roux, Yeasayer, Lucero, DJ Lance Rock, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Proxy, Ra Ra Riot, Deer Tick, Wolfgang Gartner, Aeroplane, Iglu & Hartly, Sleigh Bells, P.O.S., Baroness, Hockey, Little Dragon, White Rabbits, Wale, Kate Miller-Heidke, As Tall as Lions, Jets Overhead, Alana Grace, Pablo Hassan.

SATURDAY, APRIL 17: Muse, Faith No More, Tiësto, MGMT, David Guetta, The Dead Weather, Hot Chip, Devo, Coheed and Cambria, Kaskade, 2Many DJ’s, Major Lazer, Dirty Projectors, Gossip, Z-Trip, The xx, John Waters, Les Claypool, The Raveonettes, Mew, Sia, Camera Obscura, Tokyo Police Club, Porcupine Tree, Old Crow Medicine Show, Aterciopalados, Bassnectar, Frightened Rabbit, Dirty South, Flying Lotus, Corinne Bailey Rae, Pretty Lights, Shooter Jennings, RX Bandits, The Almighty Defenders, Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros, Craze & Klever, Zoe, The Temper Trap, Portugal. The Man, Band of Skulls, Girls, Beach House, Steel Train, Frank Turner.

SUNDAY, APRIL 18: Gorillaz, Pavement, Thom Yorke????, Phoenix, Orbital, Spoon, Sly and the Family Stone, De La Soul, Julian Casablancas, Plastikman, Gary Numan, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Sunny Day Real Estate, Yo La Tengo, MUTEMATH, Deerhunter, Infected Mushroom, Club 75, Matt & Kim, The Big Pink, Gil Scott-Heron, King Khan and the Shrines, Florence and the Machine, Yann Tiersen, Little Boots, Miike Snow, Talvin Singh, Ceu, B.o.B., Babasonicos, Owen Pallett, The Glitch Mob, Mayer Hawthorne, Local Natives, Rusko, The Middle East, Hadouken!, The Soft Pack, Kevin Devine, Paparazzi, Delphic, One EskimO.

Tickets for COACHELLA go on sale Friday, January 22 at 10 a.m. at all Ticketmaster locations and www.coachella.com. Three-day weekend passes are $269, plus surcharges.  More details on layaway, camping options and up-to-the minute information, can be found at www.coachella.com.

“Amber Gris” Music Video from Medeski Martin and Wood on Vimeo.

Here’s an outtake from the interview:

Lille/The AV Club: Why is the series called Radiolarians?

Billy Martin: The images all over the packaging are actual Radiolarians [drawn by 18^th century scientist German biologist Ernst Haeckel]. To us the drawings are architectural forms that we related to our music in an abstract way, evolution and life. We always use that word [evolution] as how we like keep going with our music. We like to evolve, and that’s what our creativity is about.

Tour Dates:

Saturday, Nov. 21, 9:30 PM, House of Blues, Chicago, 312-923-2000 http://www.houseofblues.com/venues/clubvenues/chic

Thursday, Feb. 18, 9 p.m., The El Rey, Los Angeles (323) 936-6400 http://www.theelrey.com/

When I imagine what a fuck buttons is, I picture the experiment in which scientists rigged a rats’ brain to emit doses of serotonin every time it hit a button.  As to be expected, the rat continuously hit the bar — over-and-over again — foregoing all food and drink for a quick-fix brain orgasm endlessly until it died.  So, what would a band like this sound like?  Probably somewhere between Abba and Junior Senior.

But UK’s Fuck Buttons (Benjamin John Power and Andrew Hung)  do not sound like that, at all.  Not anywhere near it.  It’s more likely someone pointed out to Benjamin or Andrew that they missed a button on their shirt, and his straight-faced reply was “fuck buttons”. This disregard, or at least challenge, of the “norm” sounds closer to what could be FB’s sonic approach.

Their sound is one of  static, overdrive guitar layers, and distorted vocals out of which gasps of harmony and rhythm emerge. In 2008, F.B. unleashed Street Horrrsing to near universal critical acclaim — an unlikely feat for a six track, 49-minute endurance test whose first discernible beat begins after the 30-min mark.  The coarse fuzz was dotted with keyboard peaks, tribal polyrhythms, indecipherable chanting and contorted screams — no one was sure what they were getting at, but were enjoying the trip.

The first discernible beat on their Sophomore album, Tarot Sport, enters at about 1:30 on the first track “Surf Solar”, followed quickly by a club worthy cut-up female vocal sample.  So… the Fuck Buttons can throw a change-up as well as a screwball.  It’s a pleasant surprise though; an apt introduction to the more accessible, more immediately pleasurable follow-up LP.

The highlight is the LP’s centerpiece, “Olympians”, whose gradiosity should soundtrack a slow-motion marathon montage.  Clocking in at nearly 11 min, the track itself is a rewarding endurance challenge.  Closing the album is equally epic “Flight of the Feathered Serpent” with drum machines, keyboards, and Zinner-like guitar squall creating what a mounts to an exultant sonic victory lap after an intriguing two year 15-track output.

While the first album felt more organically distorted, the Fuck Buttons’ more electronic approach this time around still reaches for a familiar goal; transcendence through pattern and repetition.  Tarot Sport will be a different experience if you loved with their debut, but there is nothing you can really get upset about here.  The base materials are still there — distortion, rhythm, synth –  it’s just in a more structured form.

Imagine taking a weighty, imposing piece of abstract art and dividing into a more-manageable triptych. Arguably, the new form could make for an equally enjoyably aesthetic experience (perhaps even moreso), but those enamored with the original may still cry foul.

11.21.2009 Chicago, The Empty Bottle

11.27.2009 New York, The Market Hotel

Lille/The AV Club: Most of the reviews of this tour talk about the high level of energy.

Peaches: It’s just something that I do, actually. I have an entertainment disease (laughs). I just think if you’re nervous and you hold it back if you’re doing a live show, it takes more energy [then letting it all out]. I think I’m on top of my game in my live show and my music. Right now I have a full band, costumes, homemade lasers.

11.20.2009 Chicago, Metro - Smart Bar
11.28.2009 Los Angeles, The Wiltern

We Can Tell How Good A Band Is Without Listening to Them!

On Tuesday we blindly picked a band to unfairly judge based on things aside from their music. Today we look at photos of the band but still refuse to listen to their music.

The Band We Are Blindly Judging This Week:

The Library is on Fire (now with photos!!!)

Araceli: They don’t look like complete dirt bags, but I’m only stating that because I’ve become immune to that look: dark rimmed glasses (got a pair), fingerless gloves (got those too), “messy hair” (yup), sedated-eyes, with a shimmer of malnourishment (check). All of these characteristics are equivalent to a typical hipster, my counterparts. Though on behalf of of the Library Is On Fire, I’d like to add that anyone under 40 who is an “artist” doesn’t have any other option but to wear rags and look greasy––doing otherwise takes too much effort, and we all know that our generation lacks motivation, but I digress. Rating: 6

Lille: As a collective the band looks a little bit like a team of janitors. Maybe that’s why they’re called Library on Fire. Maybe they were bibliotheque custodians who set books on fire. And then they have to expose their photos in weird manners, or wear white paint to camouflage themselves and not get caught by the authorities. For some reason these photos REALLY REALLY REALLY make me want to listen to their music. Not. Rating: 3

Brian: Okay, well.  The first pic they look inoffensive enough (wait… is the guy on the left wearing a janitor jumpsuit?).  But THEN the second pic, egads, there are so many cliches going on.  I see two questionable hats, a suitcoat-over-blazer, wayfarers, skinny jeans, and Pumas.  Not to mention, the photo’s colors are inverted.  Here, let me un-invert the image…

not so cool anymore right? Hipstah Pleeez.  My Rating: 4

On Friday, we will actually listen to the music and give ‘em a fair shot.

BURNS photo courtesy of TheCultreOfMe.com

BURNS PLAYS THE CONGRESS THEATER THIS FRIDAY 11/20.

In the club world, getting your song remixed by Fred Falke is the equivalent of Jesus himself descending on your warehouse party and licking your eyeball in appreciation of good electro.

Such is the honor bestowed on BURNS, who’s track “First Move” off of the Tecknique EP, received the Falke-First-Ask-Questions-Later treatment earlier this year.  BURNS is doubly-blessed by touring with Deadmau5, whose reputation for killer beats was substantial enough to draw Lollapaloozers away from Sunday night headliners this year to the consistently impressive DJ Tent.

But BURNS himself is no Extenze — that is, all hype with questionable results — he has a killer feel for club music.  He deftly swaps genres with a turgid middle-finger to dance label snobs.  “Tecknique” starts the EP with loops you’d expect from a Matthew Dear track,  while the bass and obligatory femme vocal sample fit it squarely in modern House.  Two tracks later “In My Eyes” illuminates its thumps with enough funky clips and cuts that make you think he threw his turntables out the window and bought a laptop… because he wanted to make something real.

MP3: “Teknique” - BURNS

MP3: “First Move” - BURNS (Fred Falke Remix)

It occurs to everyone that listens to music…  It happens when you’re scanning the paper to see who’s playing next weekend or when co-workers give you their demo CDs…

You Can Tell How Good A Band Is Without Listening to Them!

But is this true?  We are here to test it out.  Araceli has chosen a band that all three of us have not heard of.  We will proceed to rate the band (1-10) based on their name alone.  We’ll get a look at the band, and then eventually actually judge their music.

The Band We Will Be Blindly Judging This Week:

The Library is on Fire

Lille: Where is this band from? It sounds like a name picked out of a hat, like it’s forced. That, or someone has a hatred of books and a love of fire. Since I love books AND fire, that’s one out of two. It sounds like this could be a teenage emo band that will be forgotten like my favorite band of 2005 (the Futureheads, anyone?).  Rating : er, 3

Araceli: I have no idea where this band is from, a friend from Chicago suggested them, so perhaps Brian will have some inkling on these folks. Obviously this band is trying to ride the Arcade Fire wave. In order to have a supposed “cool” demeanor, they intentionally chose to burn a sacred establishment. Why can’t they burn a liquor store? 7Eleven on Fire? Now that sounds promising. I think they’re trying to build on the lit crowd and cater to the bookish types of Brooklyn. I find this marketing scheme repulsive.

Perhaps they appreciated Kings of Leon’s “Sex On Fire” phrasing, as to say “damn, that girl is hot, she’s on fire!” Again, fronting on the intellectual realm: that library is smokin’!  my rating: 4

Brian: While I’m relieved the band had the restraint not to add an exclamation to the end of their name, I’m with Araceli on this one — conjuring images of our temples of learning set afire is a pretty high precedent for rock music.  Does their sound topple the towers of rockness that we’ve built up in the last 75 years?  Do they deconstruct what it is to be a rock band? Probably not.  I believe the last popular anarchic band was actually Chumbawumba. My Rating: 4

On Thursday, we will look at photos and update our increasingly superficial opinions of mystery band, The Library is on Fire.

As he talked about their new album, Matt also told me that they covered songs on I’m Going Away based on fans’ descriptions and reactions to the album. It’s now released as Take Me Round Again, and is available for streaming here.

Matt Friedberger of the Fiery Furnaces, on fandom and memory: “We feel obligated as a rock band to have things for fans to do, besides listen, so they’re not passive. And obviously that’s a fake thing, because fans are never passive. You’re always re-imagining [a song] whether you notice it or not, on your own end. Fans are re-imagining music all the time, otherwise how could you like all this crap that you like? You’ll find something to like, just make it up in your own head.”

The Fiery Furnaces play in Bembang cities on these dates:

11/21 LOS ANGELES, CA / El Rey Theatre

12/11 BROOKLYN, NY / Music Hall of Williamsburg

12/12 NEW YORK, NY / Bowery Ballroom

12/30 CHICAGO, IL / Schubas

12/31 CHICAGO, IL / Lincoln Hall

*cough* Hi… well, um, Twee is back, sorta.  You know?

Depending on which circles you hang around in, Twee is either hailed as “punker-than-punk“, or maligned as “music for bedwetters.”  Nevertheless, the most misunderstood pop genre continues to tout cuteness over coolness and has the market cornered on Growing Up Awkward.

Twee has always been the most unapologetically emasculate sect of “Indie”, but it always seems to hover, smirking, just on the outskirts of popular music.  It’s too catchy to ever be marginalized, but it’s just too fey for the trampy-or-macho American taste.  Pitchfork’s excellent essay of all things Indie Pop, “Twee as Fuck” said it well:

…”indie” and “alternative” became popular in precisely the hard-rocking, masculine, centralized form that indie pop usually shied away from. The mainstream honed in on the underground’s hard-rock side, and, acts like Superchunk and Modest Mouse would go on to become Important Bands; acts like Tiger Trap and Heavenly would, for good reasons and bad, fade into history. And there on the television, ironically, was the K-tattooed Cobain, still wearing his cardigans and covering songs by the Vaselines.

So there twee sits, like the kid not picked at recess, rewarding anyone willing to seek it out.

Maybe it’s because of the excellent Juno soundtrack, but twee artists seem to be on the rise again.  The playfull Architecture in Helsinki, sallow Vivian Girls, the spider-fearing Boy Least Likely To, and the self-referential spunk of Los Campesinos!, have all attracted the blogosphere masses in the past few years (and, oddly, a large number of television commercials to boot). Fast on their heels are artists like New Jersey’s When I Was 12 – producing the sonic equivalent of a painfully joyous (or joyously painful?) prolonged adolescence.

I ran across WIW12 searching a now-defunct music site and really enjoyed their aesthetic.  The endearing strum-hook-and-harmony style burrows deep into your head and doesn’t go away — like a library volunteer into Franny & Zooey.

Earlier this year their principle songwriter, Adrianne, was nice enough to swap a few Q&A emails with me before their first non-basement gig of her young career:

Brian B (BemBang): First things first… Who’s in the band, or is it a “swinging door” type thing where there’s a core and people come and add vocals and accompaniment etc?

Adrianne Gold (When I Was 12): First things first… When I Was 12 consists of two main members: Adrianne Gold and Camille Bayas. Then some other beautiful revolving members; our friend Brianne Evans did some harmonies on “Dear Eskimo” with her angelic voice, and my guitar teacher, Mike Yelle assisted with lead guitar. When we play live friends Jenn Diaz plays bass, and Will Samtur on drums. We are so lucky to know so many wonderful people.[ ...] It’s been a little hectic we’ve been getting offered shows and things lately!.

BB: Good to hear you’re busy… I hope things are going well. Is there some sort of tour in the works? When I hear the name “When I Was 12″, I immediately think of both the charming and awkward aspects of that transitional age… was that the aim?

AG: We still have two more months of high school so we’re not exactly planning a tour but we’ve been getting offered a lot of shows lately! I suppose so about the name, I mean we definitely try to be charming and I definitely am a bit awkward!

BB: Ha. Since there’s not much info about you guys online I couldn’t tell if you were in high school, or if you were just channeling your inner-highscooler to write the songs.

Your music, lyrics, production, etc seem very attuned to what I would consider classic indie-pop/twee. That is to say; sweet, clever, and fixated on youthful experiences… even when the person singing may be 30+ years old.

Ha. You’re the real deal, apparently.
What inspiration do you draw from … musically or otherwise?

AG: We are the real deal! We write about things on a high school level because it’s what we know! It’s what we are familiar with. But like I said only until June! We are so excited for summer and then of course for college! We are inspired by so many things.

Camille really likes bands such as: Los Campesinos! Beirut, The Submarines, and Seabear. I on the other hand am insanely inspired by Bright Eyes (of course, who isn’t!) Tilly and the Wall, Mates of State, and Saturday Looks Good to Me. We were actually just featured on an online mix CD, “Birdsongs, Beesongs - Eardrums Spring Compilation 2009″ and so was Saturday Looks Good to Me! So that was exciting to see!

Inspiration otherwise would of course include every boy i’ve ever known, even if only for five minutes. The boys who’s hearts I’ve broken, the boys who have broken my heart, and the boys who have yet to break my heart. Boys in bookstores, coffee shops, New Brunswick basements, and any other place you can imagine. However! I did write about my grandmother, “You Me & Symmetry” is about my grandmother, I love her. We still do arts and crafts together.

CHECK OUT THE REST OF THE INTERVIEW HERE

(Joining us is L.A.-via-Milwaukee’s Adam Lovinus )

The Band We Are Judging Today:

Mercedes Sosa

And now… the moment of truth… feast your ears on THIS! (Last.Fm, MySpace)…

MP3: Mercedes Sosa - Sabiendose de los Descalzos care of food & music blog Muscial Pairings.

Brian: Well shit, now this experiment has made me feel like a fat, conceited American-centric jerk for not knowing what she’s saying, or who the hell she is. (Listening to “Mi Cajita de Music”).  Very nice… a lovely slightly-hefty voice. Definitely 60s era folksy latin classical acoustic. I very much enjoyed those tracks, though, I won’t be guilted into giving her a 10 because I know nothing about the Argentinian Folk Tradition, or what the hell she’s saying. Final Rating: 8 (Previous Superficial Rating: 7)

Lille: I knew this had something to do with my grandmother. It’s exactly the kind of music I’d hear in her souped-up Lincoln. At first I wasn’t incredibly impressed by her songs, but I started listening to her whole catalog, and for some reason she reminds me of Leonard Cohen, but Argentinian and female. It’s perfect early morning listening; it transports me to a place that’s foreign, sad and beautiful at the same time. I googled her after listening to a couple of songs and found out she just died. I am humbled by the fact that Mercedes Sosa is not, in fact, a drain cleaner. And while I have an excuse not to like world music (I’m ethnic, give me a break), I think I would like to put this on my iPod in a playlist with the Buena Vista Social Club (heh). (Superficial Rating: n/a)

Adam: Indeed, she sounds as authentic as she looks. She’s NPR World Cafe all the way. The fine Spanish guitar work scores high on my nerd index. But it’s nothing I haven’t heard before, and it’s hard for me to get too excited about traditional music. As an unapologetic American, I can’t fully appreciate anything sung in a foreign language that’s not produced by Ry Cooder. My rating remains an 8.   (Previous Superficial Rating:

And there you have it.  We were relatively on-the-mark with this one. Tune in soon when we take on a much more terribly named artist. Oh, and if you’re curious (via Last.fm):

Mercedes Sosa (born 9 July 1935, died 3 October 2009 in Buenos Aires) was an Argentinean singer inmensely popular throughout Latin America. With her roots in argentinean folk music, she became one of the preeminent exponents of nueva trova (new song). Sosa is greatly admired for the depth and beauty of her contralto voice. She is nicknamed “La Negra” by her fans for her long, jet-black hair.