Akron/Family melted a characteristically tough New York crowd into sing-along surrender during their free outdoor show at Castle Clinton at Battery Park in New York on Thursday, July 24th. Striking the perfect balance between free-flowing creative expression and indulgent crowd-centrism, Akron/Family ignited the set with mellower folk-rock songs that gradually blazed into a full-fledged jam session with enough intensity and magnetism to spark fire in a black hole.

Walking into Castle Clinton, one would at first imagine that they stumbled into a medium size open-air wedding reception, complete with neatly lined rows of white chairs and a ground-level stage. At vocalist Miles Seaton’s nonchalant observation “So, we’re gonna be standing…” the seated crowd lifted from their chairs for the entire length of the show. At the first sound of the guitar, silence cloaked the venue, and the performance commenced for hundreds of anticipating ears and eyes.

Alt-folk trio Akron/Family played a pulsating set that took those who are old enough back to a Grateful Dead concert and blew the untamed hair on younger heads in countless wild directions. Joined by North-Carolina based Megafaun, Akron/Family incorporated the audience in their energetic show, creating an ambiance of intimate sharing and communal pleasure. Any theoretical lines between genres were blurred by the fusion of rock, folk, and electronic beats coupled with beautiful polyphonic harmonies, wailing guitars, beat boxing, and booming percussion. The spirited vibe of the mostly youthful hipsters gathered together at a summer day’s dusk recalled a round fire tribal drum circle, complete with chants and trance-inducing rhythmic repetitions. A tiny outdoor rave minus the glowlights and pill-popping, if you will.

The three members of Akron/Family - Seth Olinsky, Miles Seaton, and Dana Janssen are multi-instrumentalists known for experimental live improvisations that morph their recorded tracks into unhinged fluid renditions that mesmerize the crowd. On this clear July evening, the neatly lined white chairs remained useless as people danced and clapped to the rhythmic pounding of drums, swayed to the ethereally woven harmonies and melodies, and marveled at the pastoral enchantment of poetic lyrics. Helping the meter along with measured finger snaps, the audience was thrilled to be part of the insane intensity that flowed from the stage. Megafaun and Akron/Family came together to spread the love and created a sacred feral celebration for all.

After signing to Michael Gira’s Young God label in 2004, Akron/Family have released four full-length albums and toured extensively across Europe and the US as headliners as well as part of Angels of Light. Their sound has been associated with the alt-folk or new weird Americana movements and draws on influences ranging from African traditional music, to jazz and American folk songs. The last song of the set, “I Wanna Live In Woody Guthrie’s America” was a wistful longing for simpler times gone by amplified by a dreamy vocal contribution of an elated twentysomething audience chorus.

Towards the end of the set, vocalist Miles Seaton hollered louder than a woman in labor pains, but an intense vocal outlet is to be expected in any form of creative expression, be it childbirth or a live musical performance. The whole concert experience was above and beyond spectators passively observing an act on stage. The rapturous joy that Akron/Family and Megafaun felt while jamming out together was not only evident to each person attending, but also completely infectious.

A sense of timelessness and space permeated the show – the end of the two hour set felt like a sudden landing into brisk Manhattan reality. Wishing to live in Woody Guthrie’s American dream was a welcome nocturnal stomp around our imaginations on a beautiful evening of being one with Akron/Family, Megafaun, and a community of euphoric music lovers.

Photos courtesy of: Mike Dote @ www.mikedotephoto.wordpress.com/

The 7th annual Pop Montreal is just around the corner with a stellar line up including Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Wire, Hot Chip, Dan Deacon, The Sainte Catherines, Beach House, Silver Apples, Crystal Castles, Julie Doiron, The Wedding Present, Vetiver, The Dodos, Black Kids, Jana Hunter, Cex, Evangelicals, Liam Finn, The Veils, Great Lake Swimmers, Jason Collett, You Say Party! We Say Die!, Irma Thomas, Chad VanGaalen, Dark Meat, Headlights, and Burt Bacharach (and friends). Pop Montreal runs from October 1st to 5th.

Don’t forget to check out the Puces Pop, a D.I.Y. festival with a marketplace, gear swaps, record sales, a fashion show and numerous workshops and seminars. Which will also include a film festival featuring Vincent Moon of La Blogotheque.

Takka Takka played a Tuesday residency show @ Piano’s in New York last night. This Brooklyn-based indie rock quintet got their break after touring with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah in Fall 2006.

Their lyrics and melody are melancholy (listen to the eerie Silence), yet the hooky guitar and drums help strike the balance between sad and edgy. Their performance was relatively calm and low-key, and their recorded tracks sound tighter than they did live yesterday.

The Takers has psychedelic undertones – and it’s lush indie rock at its finest. Everybody Say starts with a catchy guitar riff that serves as the perfect backdrop for Levine’s wistful vocals. The playful keyboards add a touch of faraway dreamy-ness to a fully textured sound that grows on you after each listen.

Gabe Levine’s spacey vocals recall Tom Petty or even Adam Duritz (of the Counting Crows). Takka Takka’s melodic progressions are smart and unpredictable. The guys create a clever blend of rock, pop, and tribal sounds. Their songs are the perfect backdrop to a rainy day indoors or a long drive. Their sound goes down smooth – it’s gentle and soothing like a frothy cappuccino.

Takka Takka’s latest record Migration will be released on July 29th on Ernest Jenning Record Co.

Have a listen to a couple tracks on their myspace.

You’re one lucky bastard. Not as lucky as people who will be at Chicago’s Union Park this weekend (like me), but lucky enough to be able to watch a majority of the sets webcast live. Here’s what the good people at Pitchfork arranged for this year:

“The other new tidbit about this year’s Pitchfork Festival is that a majority of the sets will be webcast live! All you need is Adobe Flash Player 9 and a web browser directed to this address: www.pitchforkmusicfestival.com/player.php.

The webcast will start with Mission of Burma’s performance of Vs. in its entirety at 6 p.m. CDT on Friday, July 18. Until then, footage from the 2006 and 2007 editions of the festival is streaming at the aforementioned address.”

You can read more on the Pitchfork festival website.

Enjoy watching the sets in front of the computer. Just think on the bright side: you can sit in the peace and quiet of your home, and walk away from the screen to grab a beer or make an occasional sandwich as you please. I will not have those luxuries. Standing for hours on end under the sizzling sun, crammed between thousands of music lovers, taking in live shows, eating greasy food - this is what awaits me this weekend. I’m not complaining. I’ll make the best of it somehow.

Will Ferrell’s doe-eyed love interest in Elf dusted off her home demos and collaborated with M. Ward to create Volume One, a collection of romantic country croons released in March of this year on Merge Records. Zooey Deschanel lends her rich silky voice to M. Ward’s charming guitar arrangements to produce a timeless blend of country and jazz inspired melodies.

Their music video for “Why Do You Let Me Stay Here?” will premiere tonight at 8pm ET on the MTV video show FNMTV.

She & Him have announced a summer 2008 tour, with one Canadian date schedule in Toronto. Check the complete tour itinerary here.

Los Angeles-based avant-garde cult favorite Ariel Pink is hitting the road with his band Haunted Graffiti this summer. Known for going out of his way to sound under-produced, Pink’s twisted demo-like sound will be polished up and tightened for his live performances on tour.

Having made home recordings from an early age, Pink got wider exposure after opening for New York-based Animal Collective in 2004. A Montreal show has been scheduled for July 28^th at Zoobizarre, so you’ll get a taste of his signature lo-fi bizarre sound then.

Summer 2008 Tour Dates:

7/19 San Francisco, CA Cell Space
7/21 Salt Lake City, UT Kilby Court
7/22 Denver, CO Larimer Lounge
7/24 Omaha, NE Slowdown
7/25 Minneapolis, MN 7th Street Entry
7/26 Chicago, IL Empty Bottle
7/27 Toronto, ONT TBA
7/28 Montreal, QC Zoobizarre
7/29 Boston, MA TT The Bears
7/30 New York, NY Knitting Factory
7/31 New Haven, CT People’s Center
8/1 Philadelphia, PA M Room
8/2 Baltimore, MD Sonar
8/4 Atlanta, GA Eyedrum
8/5 Tallahassee, FL Beta Bar
8/6 Baton Rouge, LA Spanish Moon
8/7 Houston, TX Walter’s on Washington
8/8 Denton, TX Hailey’s
8/9 Austin, TX Mohawk
8/11 Tucson, AZ Plush
8/12 Los Angeles, CA Echo
8/13 Costa Mesa, CA TBA

Recently, I took a six week long hiatus from reality and ended up in California. (In case you’re wondering why LA shows are being posted in a Montreal magazine.) The Echo is a popular LA venue that showcases up and coming indie talent, so I went to check out The Muslims show on July 2^nd.

Originally from San Diego, Matt Lamkin (vocals/guitar), Matty McLoughlin (guitar), Dave Lantzman (bass), and Brian Hill (drums) rocked the venue with their super spunky punk rock reminiscent of The Fall, The Replacements, or even Abe Vegoda. Their cunning lyrics are humorous and sharp. Their melodies are playful. The jingling electric guitars and bass scurry to weave a platform for Lamkin’s confident vocal delivery.

The set included the infectious “Extinction” opening with an endearing warning: “If you give me a gun, I will point it at you.” A Troggs-flavored “On My Time”, followed by “Bright Side”, and the tragically catchy “Beside Myself” was the perfect mix of punk, pop, and rock. These guys have created a brand of punk that appeals not only to those who wave the freak flag. The Muslims is a fusion of sixties rock, and eighties/nineties punk that results in modern day garage punk with a charming pop flavor.

After the show, I chatted with the guys about their day jobs, career aspirations, and friends who abuse guest list privileges. During the twenty minutes or so that we sat outside the venue, The Muslims were approached by a fan complaining that “The Muslims is the worst band name ever, man. The Christians would have been way cooler.” Minutes a later, a documentary filmmaker asked to interview the guys for a film about the 1990s San Diego music scene. It seems like The Muslims are in high demand these days.

Most of the guys recently relocated to Los Angeles where they file medical records, make health-conscious sandwiches and telemarketing calls during the day, and jam out with each other come nighttime. Judging from the sold out debut release, the nightly jam sessions are doing these guys a whole lot of good. Sweet Tooth Records will re-release The Muslims 12”, which will be available for purchase on www.sweettoothrecords.com.

Tour dates have been confirmed in California, and plans are in store for shows around the US and Europe, with a slight chance of storming across the border to play a couple shows in Canada. We hope.

Riding happy after selling out their first 12”, The Muslims will press more copies and re-release their record sometime this July to satisfy a growing fan base.

http://www.myspace.com/themuslims

Canadian music critics have spoken. The long list of 40 Canadian albums has been cut to a mere 10. So let your predictions fly. The previous winners of The Polaris Music Prize are Final Fantasy (He Poos Clouds) and Patrick Watson (Close To Paradise). It appears that the prize winners are solo acts (and close to the east coast), so this year my money is on a band (closer to the west coast). I want The Weakerthans to get it but I my gut says Black Mountain will come out on top. What do you think?

Polaris Music Prize 2008 Nominees

Basia Bulat - Oh, My Darling
Black Mountain - In the Future
Caribou - Andorra
Holy Fuck - LP
Kathleen Edwards - Asking for Flowers
Plants and Animals - Parc Avenue
Shad - The Old Prince
Stars - In Our Bedroom After the War
Two Hours Traffic - Little Jabs
The Weakerthans- Reunion Tour

Thanks to a heads up from Brooklynvegan I caught news that Pearl Jam front man Eddie Vedder is doing a show at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier-Place August 9th. The presale for this show starts July 8th at 9am PDT here for 10 Club Members. The rest of us will have to get tickets from Friday July 11th through Ticketmaster.com. There is also a August 10th date which is not confirmed…..

From Pearl Jam news

The August 10th Montreal date is a “ticket reservation” pre-sale. The show is not confirmed. Once tickets are sold to the public for the first Montreal show, the second show may be added. If the show is added, your credit card will be charged and your tickets will be confirmed.

Pre-sale tickets for the August 10th shows is July 8th at 11am PDT for 10 Club Members and Friday July 11 for the rest of us.

For now, I want to take you back to New Years Eve 1992, New York, New York with Pearl Jam. What I love most about this set is that they do a cover of The Dead Boys/Hard Core Logo song “Sonic Reducer“.

Pearl Jam - New York [12/31/1992]

1. Wash
2. Sonic Reducer
3. Why Go
4. Even Flow
5. Alone
6. Garden
7. Daughter
8. Dirty Frank
9. Oceans
10. Alive
11. Leash
12. Porch

Devendra Banhart, unofficial leader of the so-called freak-folk genre, joined his idol Gilberto Gil (current Minister of Culture in Brazil) to perform an energy packed set at The Hollywood Bowl on June 29^th in LA. Donning tear-drop shaped war paint under his eyes and a vintage SWANS t-shirt, Banhart sang folk-inspired and Brazilian flavored songs like “Samba Vexillographica”, “Long Haired Child”, and “The Good Red Road” with that characteristically charming wild look in his eyes that says: “I’m high and I’m happy. I wish I was a seahorse.”

Banhart shimmied to and fro during his band member’s vocal number. Seeming as equally at ease on the stage as he would be in his living room, Banhart sipped a glass of wine, and chatted with band members, making it clear that he simply expresses himself on stage without any conscious effort to “put on a performance”. After finishing the set with “Carmencita”, Banhart thanked the audience in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Wishing a happy belated birthday to Gilberto Gil, he left the stage before a twenty-minute intermission.

What came next was a magically colorful set of samba, reggae, and capoeira music interwoven around a graciously told history of the origins of Brazilian music. Following a computer generated cell-phone melody, a tall skinny man dressed in white entered the darkly lit stage with a series of dramatic steps. Gil was received with roaring applause and a waving sea of green and yellow Brazilian flags. Performing a set of easy-listening pieces, Gil’s homage to reggae had the entire audience singing “Three Little Birds”. With neat long dreadlocks and moving hips highly uncharacteristic of average men in their sixties, Gil resembled a cross between Michael Jackson (especially the sexy bursts of high-pitched yelps of “Ow!”) and Bob Marley.

Joined by a six-piece band, which included his son, Gil called Banhart out on stage to perform the final number. Instead of jamming with Gil and company, Banhart danced happily around the stage, providing vocals during the chorus. The two hugged warmly before walking offstage to the sound of eager applause.

Next time you are in LA, do not dress up to go to The Hollywood Bowl. Instead, bring a large bag stuffed with any possible experience-enhancing convenience. Imagining a night at The Hollywood Bowl to be a fancy affair, after standing in line for a few minutes before we bought tickets from a scalper, I realized that this was far from the truth. Coolers filled with food, ice, alcohol, and god-knows what else, six-packs of beer, slack bag searches - all clues pointed to the fact that here people come to let loose, get drunk, and take in live music under a balmy LA night sky.

Photos of the show can be found here.

Video Summertime