Concert Review – Stars – March 7^th, Rams Head Live, Baltimore, MD

I should be ashamed of myself.  To be a respectable blogger on Indie music someone should devote a certain amount of time to listening to new music and album releases, stay current on the latest music news, and go to concerts regularly.   Let’s just say I am failing in most categories right now…..for shame.

But the good news is that while a work schedule and other commitments are hampering my time with Indie music, I was able to catch the band Stars when they visited Baltimore on the 7^th.

Playing at Rams Head Live, here was the set list for Stars:

• “Theory of Relativity” – The North
• “Ageless Beauty” – Set Yourself on Fire
• “Death to Death” – Heart
• “Reunion” – Set Yourself on Fire
• “The North” – The North
• “Backlines” – The North
• Unknown Song
• “Do You Want to Die Together” – The North
• “Progress” – The North
• “Your Ex-Lover is Dead” – Set Yourself on Fire
• “Set Yourself on Fire” – Set Yourself on Fire
• “Going, Going, Gone” – Nightsongs
• “I Died so I Could Haunt You” – The Five Ghosts
• “Lights Changing Color” – The North
• “Dead Hearts” – The Five Ghosts
• “Elevator Love Letter” – Heart
• “Tru” – Nightsongs
• “Window Bird” – In Our Bedroom After the War
• “Hold on When You Get Love & Let Go When You Give It” – The North
• “Take Me to the Riot” – In Our Bedroom After the War
• “Walls” – The North

Encore

• “My Favorite Book” – In Our Bedroom After the War
• “Personal” – In Our Bedroom After the War
• “A Song is a Weapon” – The North
• “Calendar Girl” – Set Yourself on Fire
• “The 400” – The North

    

*% below represents the metacritic scores for the albums listed

Feb 27, 2001 – N/A

- “Going, Going, Gone”

- “Tru”

Feb 11, 2003 – 80%

- “Death to Death”

- “Elevator Love Letter”

Mar 8, 2005 – 81%

- “Ageless Beauty”

- “Reunion”

- “Your Ex-Lover is Dead”

- “Set Yourself on Fire”

- “Calendar Girl”

Sept 25, 2007 – 70%

- “Window Bird”

- “Take Me to the Riot”

- “My Favorite Book”

- “Personal”

Jun 21, 2010 – 70%

- “I Died so I Could Haunt You”

- “Dead Hearts”

Sept 4, 2012 – 70%

“Theory of Relativity"

“The North”

“Backlines"

“Do You Want to Die Together"

“Progress”

“Lights Changing Color"

“Hold on When You Get Love & Let Go When You Give It"

“Walls"

“A Song is a Weapon"

“The 400"

      

      For those who don’t know, Stars is a Canadian band based in Montreal, Quebec.  They have been active in recording and releasing albums since 1999 when friends Torquil Campbell (lead singer/songwriter) & Christopher Seligman (keyboardist) first started the band.  Band members Evan Cranley (bassist) and Amy Milllan (singer/guitarist) would eventually join before the release of Stars’ first album, Nightsongs.  Pat McGee (drummer) would join for the follow up album Heart.

  

      Supporting their 6^th studio album, The North (released Sep 4, 2012), Stars could have been caught at Rams Head Live in Baltimore, MD last Thursday.  This venue allowed for a more intimate interaction with the band and concert goers.  In fact, at one point fans requested that Stars play a song and the band obliged after some witty banter between the band members and crowd.

      Stars’ music is a blend of electronic-pop and rock, which when combined gives their sound a cool groove that is highly danceable.  One of the highlights for me was definitely catching sights of Stars fans contorting themselves into interesting shapes while listening to the sound.  So, while a hard rock fan may mosh, a Stars fan will awkwardly dance.

      One on the defining characteristics of the band and their music is the interaction between singers Torquil Campbell & Amy Millan.  Most of their songs are performed as duets and the on-stage theatrics add to the live performance of the songs (think along the lines of Grease with characters Danny and Sandy).  It doesn’t hurt that Campbell is an actor with two parents who are also actors; Shakespearean actors to be more accurate (I kind of want to hold up a monocle and revert to a bad British accent all of a sudden).

  

      Not being a fan of the band and knowledgeable of their history, I can still confidently say that Stars’ success owes a lot to Campbell’s persona and energy.  I don’t think their music or live show could be pulled off without him.  In fact, during the show I turned to me friend to ask if Campbell and Millan were in a relationship.  Turns out Millan is married to Stars member Evan Cranley and Campbell to actress Moya O’Connell.  Point being, Campbell and Millan were very believable as the couples who storylines were being song about in the songs.

      The concert saw Stars play a mixture of old and new material, from each era of the band.  Obviously, the focus was on their latest effort, The North, with ten songs being played from that album, but love was given to other albums like Set Yourself on Fire and In Our Bedroom After the War; five and four songs played respectively for each of those albums.

      In all, Stars played a set list that included 27 songs.  No fan of theirs has the right to be disappointed from this concert as that is a workmanlike performance.  You have to give it up to a band willing to play that many songs for close to two hours. 

      The highlight of the concert, by far for me, was the performance of “Hold on When You Get Love & Let Go When You Give It”.  Not only were all the members in the band fully giving themselves to the performance of the song but it was the first time all night that everyone in the crowd seemed to be energized by a song; a symbiotic relationship between the band and crowd was formed in a swell of passion and energy that created a great moment.  That moment caught me jumping up and down with other Stars fans in joyous unison and my friend describing the feeling of the moment as “palpable”.

      That moment is even more impressive considering Stars just arrived back from touring in Asia and playing multiple shows in the past week.  Campbell and Millan were noticeably tired at certain points of the concert.  Campbell at one point stating that after all the touring he felt like an “empty shell”.  Millan too had her moment as she actually yawned during the performance of “Elevator Love Letter”.  Apparently rocking out hard can be boring for those who have done it multiple times in a week haha.

      The biggest impression this concert and the band Stars left me is that this is a group of tightly knit people who enjoy writing and playing music for a living.  Having had their moment as the “It” Indie band back in 2005 with Set Yourself on Fire, it seems Stars could be headed for the twilight of their career (most members are closing in on 40). 

   

      However, the band that I saw last Thursday definitely has enough vigor left to keep up with bands half their age.  A touching moment during the last song, “The 400”, had most members sitting down together on the stage performing, with Millan leaning and placing her head on her husband’s shoulder.  All these actions being indications of people who are comfortable with each other and who have been doing this for a while together; thankful for another successful concert and although tired, ready to move on to the next city.

      Now for the verdict on the concert, here at B-More Indie Sound we will rate concerts on a scale from 1 - 5.  A five being a concert that is on par with Woodstock and a one being the Britney Spears concert your parents forced you to go to in Middle School (not talking about myself, I swear).

      3/5 Woodstocks – Concert was enjoyable for a non-fan and I would recommend people seeing Stars live in concert if they are looking for something to do, however, the concert itself was not a culturally defining moment in history.

      Concert Wisdom – Sometimes it pays to show up later to a concert and after the opening act.  My friend Steve was able to score a free ticket from a drunk girl who had purchased two extra tickets for no reason.  Me, having showed up on time and purchased my ticket 10 mins earlier, did not get a free ticket….go figure.

Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock'n'Roll Group

     Considering one of my main goals this year (& for the last 2 years) has been to create a rock band, this book title caught my eye while visiting Pitchfork.  Disregard the fact that I don't play an instrument currently, a book where I could learn some supernatural strategies that could then be put into play could probably help my predicament and goal for rock stardom; albeit on a slightly less ambitious scale.  To be honest, I would be happy with a gig at a local bar.

     The book Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock 'n' Roll Group is written by punk enthusiast and musician Ian Svenonius.  Svenonius has been involved in the Washington D.C. music scene for a little over 25 years, with his start coming in 1988 with the outfit Nation of Ulysses.  Described as a Marxist and anti-autthoritarian (punk band remember), his music and writings veer off into a realm of philosophy that would be safe to say is not shared by most people at your work place.  If that were the case though, then Svenonius would probably need to change it up and rage against another type of machine.

     With that said, Svenonius centers his new book on reporting the advice and wisdom given to him by dead rock stars through seances to find out the basic how-to's of forming a rock band.  According to Svenonius, "I tried to interview living people who I thought would be of help, but I really got no satisfaction from these establishment characters that I talked to.  Because of that, I had to resort to speaking to the dead, and I found they has less political motivation to spin things in any particular direction.  And they had lost their fear of insulting the living, so I got a lot of really honest feedback from the ghosts" (1).

     Naturally, the question for most readers would be, is he serious?  Fair enough, writer David O'Neal of the Los Angeles Review of Books wrote a great review of this book and commented, "Svenonius acts as an enervated docent in the rock 'n' roll hall of fame, more interested in torching the wax dummies around him than in getting them to speak.  And Svenonius is not a very skilled ventriloquist, anyway, or, really, he's not trying to be.  (For example, this is from a surprisingly sober and analytical Jim Morrison: "Surf groups exploited actual surfers and objectified them as fetish dolls in order to give the lost and desperate post industrial teenyboppers of Southern California - and via them the entire teenage nation - an identity").  So, the seance joke soon sputters.  Svenonius's autodidactic prose style, his dazzling jump cuts, and his glib-serious tone sounds off-key when it's (supposedly) filtered through a dead icon.  Brian, Buddy, and Jimi all sound like Ian - and he's the one we want to hear from, anyway" (2).

     So, it's safe to say that the advice and insight presented in this book are not that of Jimi Hendrix's or Buddy Holly's ghost.  What is the book about then?  Well, really what the title states, startegies for making a rock 'n' roll group.  I was able to read 3 chapters from the book online, each with a rather non-extraordinary title.

     One chapter is dedicated to the discussion of how one should determine goals in a rock band, how to practice and hold rehearsals, and finally how to prepare for performances.  On determining the goals one should have in a rock band, Svenonius states there are generally four goals that most people have in forming a rock band: (a) to be famous, (b) sexually popular, (c) to write songs in the style of another particular group and (d) to advance a particular ideological system.

     On the goal of starting a rock band to become sexually popular, "If b), to be an amorist, is your goal, give up the group as a means to carnal buccaneering.  The best thing for you is to pursue a job in advertising, medicine, or the field of "law".  These professions are celebrated by televised propaganda (in programs such as Law & Order, Grey's Anatomy, and Mad Men), and will provide you with the financial incentives - in the form of real estate, luxury cotton sheets, and perceived stability - required to seduce your prey..." (3).

     Now, I left off the last part of the quote because it went on to rant against a "capitalist society" with the implication that some how being an amorist, one who is dedicated to sexual love, necessarily entails that one live in a capitalist society.  I can't for the life of me see why that would be considering one living in say a Communist regime could equally be dedicated to the pursuit of sex (I just want to toss out to all my friends who work for the government, Yay America! Yay Capitalism! Haha).

   As you can see, of course, these seemingly mundane sections on determining goals, band practice, and performances take on a more lively tone due to the interesting and unique thoughts offered by the author.  If you weren't paying attention in that last passage, the aim of the book isn't so much to just offer practical advice on how to form a rock band but more as a medium in which to share an ideological viewpoint.

     Reading just 3 sections of his book, I can say that Svenonius views are not my own, but I still found the writing interesting and did find points of agreement with him even though they were from a very different perspective.  Take the following passages for example from the three sections I was able to read:

"The change you will effect using a group is not unlike a magic spell.  Whatever your intention, your conjuring will invoke something deformed and accidental.  It will unleash uncontrollable forces or it will snowball slowly, insidiously, into something monstrous that will torment you for eternity."

"Therefore, if your group is fervently ideological, aware of the implications of its aesthetic presentation, and committed to its cause, it will be almost unbeatable.  This kind of faith is hard to muster in our blase, cynical, intellectually paralyzed, narcissistic, pornoholic, and postideological word..."

"Because the group is not really about music - it's a model or an ideal.  All life is practice when one is "in" a group...One must learn to be as directly indirect, unselfconsciuosly self-aware, poetic, loose, dynamic, and charming offstage as one is when one is "treading the boards."  One must delight, captivate, entrance, and seduce whether one is in the coffee shop, sitting room, or the office cubicle" (3).

     Lets see, how can I sum up those last three passages.  Obviously the focus is on the concept of a "group".  According to the passages, a group can be extremely powerful, unleashing accidental effects that can be either positive or negative.  A group that is committed to a cause to the point of faith is almost unbeatable and rare.  Finally, life is really a study of how to interact within a group, with the caveat that a person's individuality might become secondary to the group or enhanced (can't quite tell from the last passage - concern might lie in the fact that personal behavior is often a show for the group and not necessarily true or genuine).

     Ok, got it...check...let me start that rock band now lol.  If I picked up anything from reading Supernatural Strategies for Making a Rock 'n' Roll Group, it's the sense that a group or being a part of a group is some how intrinsically bad.  If I had to disagree with a major implication or rant of the author it would be about that point.  For as long as a group strides for the common good and is aware of its unique pieces for that mission, then the ugly mechanistic and cruel depiction of a group is lost.

     On last note before I wrap up this post that started out about discussing the advice a person was said to have received from dead rock stars.  This is a quote from Svenonius:

"A rock 'n' roll group should not be respectable, nor should it be bourgeois or prestigious.  If it's to retain any power or any threat, its status must hover somewhere between that of the vagrant, the doomsday prophet, the street urchin, and the prostitute" (4).

     Funny enough, I agree.  The best artists, whether they be dead or alive, have always sought to tell the stories of the downtrodden, weak, abused, and hopeless.  For in those stories the group's power would become manifest, freeing the individual from the chains that bind them, if only for a brief moment in time.  All courtesy of, you guessed it, a group.

(1) - http://pitchfork.com/features/paper-trail/9050-ian-svenonious/

(2) - http://lareviewofbooks.org/article.php?id=1365&fulltext=1

(3) - http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/43510/rock-n-roll-a-manifesto-in-his-new-book-ian/

(4) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Svenonius

Paul Banks – ‘The Base’ – from the album Paul Banks

So here’s some semi- new music courtesy of Paul Banks aka the lead singer of Interpol aka Julian Plenti.

This is Paul’s second solo album in 3 years.  The album preceding this release was 2009’s Julian Plenti is…..Skyscraper.  His second effort has a less pretentious album title, it simply is Paul Banks, but there is a reason he chose to drop the Julian Plenti moniker.

Here is an excerpt from an interview with Paul conducted by FaceCulture (The whole interview can be found on Youtube):

“I never really pegged myself or looked at myself as a performer.  I think I like making art but the performance side of things was always a little strange for me….so I kind of gravitated in the early days to having an alter ego and a stage name and sort of trying to inhabit that idea of a public face to the art….Before Interpol even got off the ground, I was using that stage name.  I almost used my stage name in Interpol and then the band kind of collectively decided we would all use our real names but I was going to be Julian Plenti in the band."

"The reason why I did my 1^st record as Julian Plenti was because I basically, I had these songs before the band..and I just kind of left them there….I was originally going to be a solo artist and then I kind of got seduced into being in this band because I loved what they were doing.  I told myself at the time that I joined Interpol, you need to come back to this and finish what you started..because this is really your identity."

"As far as why not on this one [record] is because with the exception of ‘Summer Time is Coming’, there is no music on this record that dates back from that period….The first record had to be that because they were Julian Plenti songs.  These songs are just my most recent material, and I just felt it would be a little forced for me to continue with the alter ego for this record.”

A quick listen to ‘The Base’ should remind listeners and fans of the music from Interpol, simply because of Paul’s voice.  However, it would be a mistake to quickly throughout Paul’s songs as Interpol lite.  Paul does attempt to create his own sound and the listener can judge how well he succeeds. 

Like Interpol, this music does find Paul singing songs about his prevalent malaise.  It would be unique if one day something great happened in Paul’s life where his music would reflect a more upbeat attitude, however, such is his art and it is what fans have come to expect from him.

As a fan of Interpol, I much rather prefer the work Paul has done in that band and I feel nothing in his solo records come close to touching the greatness found on Interpol albums like Turn on the Bright Lights and Antics.

With that said, enjoy the song and Part 3 of the FaceCulture interview.