If you are an avid concert goer in the Bay Area, the above picture should be familiar. This my friends, is the Mezzanine; a hot spot for the latest in hip-hop, dance and electronic music. Now every once in a while an epic act will swing by the Mezzanine and completely knock the socks off anyone who dares to attend the show. This week however, is a probably going to be one of the busiest weeks in the venue’s history. You have Simian Mobile Disco playing tonight, MSTRKRFT on Thursday, Busy P on Friday, and FOUR TET on Saturday.
Jeez.
Now don’t think the rest of the venues in the Bay are getting the short end. You’ve got …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead at Slim’s on Monday, Black Mountain at the Rickshaw Stop and Ellen Allien with Thomas Muller at the Mighty on Friday.
I have a few friends in town this week from the North East so I might have to skip out on these (though I might sneak into the Trail of Dead show).
See you out there!
…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead – Insatiable (two)
Here it is. Click on the album covers to purchase the album and keep reading, I have a few more surprises up my sleeve before this year ends.
20. Woven – Designer Codes: Listening to this album was like watching Alien for the first time. Terrifying, moving and pieced together with Goth -like architecture and supernatural sounds.
Woven – Fragments
19. Nada Surf – Lucky: What makes me love Nada Surf is that poetry + pop mix that they mash so well. Lucky is not as abstruse as Let Go, but it’s certainly a straight up fun rock record.
Nada Surf – These Bones
18. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes: Indie rock’s version of the Byrds arrived this year with this gently harmonic record debut that warms the heart and sooths the soul. It’s the kind of record that rewards with every listen.
Fleet Foxes – White Winter Hymnal
17. Facing New York – Get Hot: Balls out entertaining rock music is hard to come by these days. But lucky for our benefit Facing New York decided to overcome some changes in line-up and enhanced their style to this clap-demanding super catchy rock & roll with Get Hot.
Facing New York – Me N My Friendz
16. Girl Talk – Feed the Animals: Whether you consider this an album for A.D.D. indie brats or a genius mish-mash that is a view in the future of party music, you can not deny that Feed the Animals is a shining star in today’s sky of pop culture.
15. Beck – Modern Guilt: Beck paired with DJ Danger Mouse seemed like a good idea on paper, but no one really knew what to expect. What we got was Beach Boys-like surf music with that special Beck tweak. This record was made for convertible cars.
14. The Walkmen – You & Me: This disarming and dramatic record was slow to grow on me. However, after a few more listens, I was marveled by its well structured songs and throwback to classic rock ‘n’ roll.
The Walkmen – The Blue Route
13. The Mae Shi – Hllyh: There aren’t that many bands out there like The Mae Shi and there wasn’t any album like Hllyh this year. This spastic yet charming record screamed in my face yet for some strange reason…I enjoyed it.
12. Man Man – Rabbit Habits: Man Man can’t exactly bring their famous frenzied live show to your living room, but listening to Rabbit Habits is the closest you’ll come to it. The gypsy psycho freak band has probably made their finest record to date.
11. Foals - Antodotes: Sounding like Bloc Party’s evil twin, Foals entered the scene with their swarming guitars and sketchy vocals and left me in awe. Songs like Two Steps Twice and Hummer are electrifying in execution and make this record a perfect driving soundtrack.
Foals – Balloons
10. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago: This is not your average folk record. Bon Iver’s emotional record paints pictures of snowy pine trees and the pain of a guilty man. This record must be handled with care and loved for its delicacy.
Bon Iver – Skinny Love
9. Quiet Village – Silent Movie: Like some kind of 70s soundtrack mixed with RJD2-like sampling, Silent Movie is what I miss from proper easy listening music. Be careful though, your mom might like this too.
Quiet Village – Circus of Horror
8. Santogold/Diplo – Top Ranking: There is so much going on in this masterfully manufactured mix tape. Mashing dub-step, reggae, dancehall, and the extremely talented Santogold is an ideal equation for the perfect party music.
Santogold – Creator (Mumdance Mix)
7. Q-Tip – The Renaissance: No hip-hop artist came close to even evening out to this masterfully constructed album. Q-Tip has more than proven that he can hold his own as a solo artist with a little help from the late, great J Dilla.
Q-Tip – Life Is Better (ft. Norah Jones)
6. Max Richter – 24 Postcards in Full Colour: The concept is almost laughable but this Berlin based 21st century composer brings on the emotion by showing that love and loss can happen in small increments of time.
Max Richter – H in New England
5. Black Mountain – In The Future: Rough, wicked, and wailing with desert rock brutality; In The Future is a Frankenstein-monster built from the best aspects of classic rock and prog-metal.
Black Mountain – Tyrants
4. The Notwist – The Devil, You + Me: Gracefully trekking musical ground that has been graced a million times over; The Notwist somehow make electronic rock music interesting and touching again.
The Notwist – Good Lies
3. TV on the Radio – Dear Science: If you list out all the elements that make up Dear Science, you’ll wonder how an album stock pilled with so much could be so amazingly catchy. This album is a grand picture of what to expect in coming future of rock music.
TV on the Radio – Red Dress
2. Portishead – Third: I can’t tell you how much a loved this record the day it came out. I don’t normally listen to a record on repeat in fear that I may ring it dry of all its magic, but that is not the case with Third. It’s yet another masterpiece from this deeply mysterious band.
1. Sigur Rós – Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust: Along with one of my favorite live shows of the year, Sigur Rós also made my favorite album of the year. I guess you could say that they were my favorite band of the year? Maybe. But I can without a doubt say that this album is a flawless piece of work. How could a band so epic in execution take on a more upbeat direction? This album is the answer to that question. It struck me in a time of my life that involved a lot of changes and therefore will always have a special place in my heart.
10. Caspian – La Cerva from the CASPIAN / CONSTANTS Split 7‘: Caspian has always been a shining star in this recent mess of mediocre instrumental bands. I’ve been waiting for that one song that would launch Caspian’s potential meter through the roof and I think they’ve done it with this ever-so epic track taken from their split with Constants. You can purchase the EP here.
9. The Roots – Rising Up (Featuring Chrisette Michelle & Wale) from Rising Down: The magic of The Roots gloriously return with this gem of a track. If this song doesn’t remind you of the days of Things Fall Apart, you need get yourself educated.
8. Shearwater – Rooks from Rooks: Shearwater never ceases to amaze me with their dark yet fragile songs and this track enforces that. It wasn’t hard to fall in love with this song.
7. The Walkmen – In The New Year from You & Me: Viciously upbeat and begging to be loved, In The New Year is the poster song for The Walkmen’s wonderful album, You & Me. This track will take you places…
6. Man Man -Top Drawer from Rabbit Habits: Man Man is, of course, best experienced live. However this song is the closest you’ll come to the chaos and fun that makes Man Man what they are. Whatever that is.
5. Why? – The Hollows from Alopecia: “To those last 10 years I been howlin’ a paper moon…fuck you.” Yoni Wolf returns with his infectiously catchy song about shit I can’t understand. I just know I love it all.
4. Hot Little Pony (Far) – Pony: To celebrate their 10 year return, Far recorded a ridiculously raunchy cover of Ginuine’s Pony. What makes matters weirder, is that the now almost 40 year old lead singer, Jonah Matranga, sounds like a dirty old man singing to his 18 year old bitches. The song itself has become a radio and a strip bar hit all across the West Coast and isn’t showing signs of slowing down. (Song posted here)
3. Portishead – Machine Gun from Third: Another band that hasn’t played together in 10 years. GOD I love this track! I remember the face i made when I first listened to it in the car on way back from the local Rasputin. It was something like this. Anyway, it’s a wonderfully brutal return from this fantastic band.
2. Black Mountain – Bright Lights from In The Future: This intoxicating brew of metal, stoner rock, and garage-rock elements smoke and ignite at minute four. This 16:41 long track is a onslaught on the senses and battle cry to those skeptical critics.
1. Santogold – “Get It Up” (Radioclit Mix feat. M.I.A. and Gorilla Zoe) from Top Ranking: A Diplo Dub: This song will be my official summer anthem until…forever. It’s just a full out fun track that is definitely better than Santogold’s whole debut record combined…in my humble opinion.
Well I arrived in San Francisco around 1:30 to meet up with some friends for some homemade salsa before I descended into the festival grounds. Once I was full and my breath smelt bad enough, I headed over to Golden Gate Park to somewhat map out my travels. The place was bigger than I thought, so right away I knew I was going to miss Beck’s set. So I chilled out in front of the Twin Peaks stage to wait for Black Mountain.
Black Mountain are a unique psychedelic indie-rock band Canada. Most of their material sounds like a grungier and sludgier Queens of the Stone Age. The live show they put on was very impressive. Vocalist Amber Webber has got quite a set of pipes on her. Also the co-vocalist/guitarist seriously tore up some awesome guitar solos that got the crowd pretty pumped. You could tell people who weren’t familiar with the band were really digging them.
Black Mountain – Tyrants
After Black Mountain, I tried my damndest to get a good spot of one of my favorite bands ever, Radiohead. I made my way to a good comfortable spot away from the drunk old people and overly stoned hippies that were laughing and dancing to absolutely nothing.
Well, I think it goes without saying that their live show was phenomenal beyond anything I was expecting. I’ve seen my fair share of videos and DVD footage, but to witness this band perform is a whole nother experience.
There is so much emotion and tightness in this band when they hit the stage. Despite the two sound cutouts (yes the sound literally turned-off in the middle of two songs for no more than 15-20 seconds) they still played on without flinching.
As you can see, they used 4 angled cameras for the huge screens during the performance. This has pretty neat considering each song had it’s own angles and color tint.
The light show was just fantastic. I’ve never seen anything like it. The hanging strips of lights and the banks of seven cell lighting modules were working in unison to create a dazzling show of pattern and color to chameleon-like effect. The set was designed by the U.K. stage lighting company i-Pix using Titan series LED lighting from Lamina. The lights used a sixth of the energy consumption usually produced by concert lighting.
Radiohead played a good collection off many of their albums as well as my favorite b-side, Talk Show Host. Mostly the songs they played were off the recent In Rainbows. Which was fine by me because that album is still slaying me since it’s release.
Overall, this is one of the best concerts I’ve ever attended. There is no question in my mind that this is the most important band in music right now.
After Radiohead was done, I aimlessly walked back to my friends place for some really strong ginger tea (I’m still kind of struck by how strong that was) and food.
Tomorrow I’ll be heading over around noon to see dredg, Lupe Fiasco, Regina Specktor and a bunch of other bands that I’m super frickin’ excited about. Twas a good night…
Kata Rokkar is a place where you can download free mp3 from artists and bands that I currently love and listen to. They are only for sampling purposes and to influence you to go out and support these artists by purchasing their records and going to their concerts. If you are a record company or an artist that is displeased with a song being displayed, feel free to contact me and I will remove it ASAP. Thank you and enjoy!
If you are an avid concert goer in the Bay Area, the above picture should be familiar. This my friends, is the Mezzanine; a hot spot for the latest in hip-hop, dance and electronic music. Now every once in a while an epic act will swing by the Mezzanine and completely knock the socks off anyone who dares to attend the show. This week however, is a probably going to be one of the busiest weeks in the venue’s history. You have Simian Mobile Disco playing tonight, MSTRKRFT on Thursday, Busy P on Friday, and FOUR TET on Saturday.
…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead – Insatiable (two)
