Music Under Fire

Division Day - Beartrap Island
Rating: 6.3/10

Deas Vail - All the Houses Look the Same
Rating: 7.5/10

Don’t be confused by the name. Deas Vail isn’t foreign. They are straight up center of the USA indie music with a style for all 50 states.

The Russellville, Arkansas group, which carries amazing similarities to This Day & Age, joined hands in 2003 but didn’t find their way into any limelight until being signed by Christian Rock guru Mark Lee Townshend and his upstart Brave New World Records in 2005. From that point Wes Blaylock (lead vocals) and crew (Laura [keyboard], Kelsey [drums], Andy [guitar] and Jonathan [bass]) have crept slowly onto an indie scene scattered with synth users and maniacal drum players. Their 2007 release of All the Houses Look the Same escaped from typical indie and instead conformed outside the box with plenty of optimism.

Aided by the impressive singing range of Blaylock, which is Deas Vail’s signature, ATHLTS calmly projects message after message of turning fear into hope. Without doubt, the naming of the first song, “Standing”, and the final song, “…Still” portray that overcoming adversity is a way of life.
As the first and last song sing stories of hope, the middle of the album quietly has inset similar stories of looking past the darkness and toward the light of day. Without this upbeat and optimistic charge to their lyrics, Deas Vail could easily fall closer to emo than indie. But they didn’t.

Matching each other eloquently across the board, the instrumental and vocal aspects of ATHLTS help send the ‘just be calm’ message even stronger. At track five “Shoreline” captures Deas Vail at their best. Not only does the piano/keyboard playing (similar to “Piano Song” from The Starting Line) add a hypnotic melody but a violin and the stretching vocals of Blaylock carry any heart from a black room to a sunny ocean view.

At “Follow Sound” several tracks later, the fluid transition of vocals and instruments continues with a rapping drum and weary synthesizer to accompany an accommodating voice that sings “and I fell asleep and no one said anything to me, so I never knew that you were ever lost wondering this world without a chance of getting through.” Mid song the vocals cut low and a thumping bass and excited guitar fill the gaps with the ever-pressing hope before the pending energy releases with another high octane serenade ensues from Blaylock.

Deas Vail carries a positive spirit to another level, but without their ability to change from song to song (giddy), they could lose the luster that makes any group original. Although somewhat similar in style throughout ATHLTS, the bending factor for Deas Vail falls within the fact that they change their lead instruments throughout the album, saving a monotonous sound and bored listener. “Surface” could be referred to as a harder song on the album with its guttural guitar but a high male voice to follow creates an entirely new feel. As “Rewind” begins with a hummingbird-paced guitar it also ends with an unworriedly played piano. Not only do these instruments find their place in the album but the occasional violin and synth keyboard mix things up.

The high-range singing actually negatively affects the album. If Blaylock hit some softer notes more often instead of constantly resorting to his almost femininely high ballads, then this album would appeal to a larger scale of music listeners. Instead of controlling their greatest asset, Deas Vail falls back on the vocals when they don’t need to, hurting the overall sound.

With certain setbacks it is easy to say All the Houses Look the Same wasn’t the best album in 2007. It might not make your CD player for longer than a week due to the often-high vocals. What this album brings is a positive message rarely found on listenable albums. As emo music tends to bring about feelings of despair, Deas Vail brings about hope. Besides the message, the five members of this group sync with their talent. Blaylock’s strong range is tuned to. The keyboard mixes in and out of style. The bass and guitar play slowly and evenly when needed. The drums don’t break out too early. When ATHLTS might fall out of your player one week, it could fall back in the next.

"Jumping Frenchmen of Maine" may seem like something out of a dream, or perhaps an odd nonsensical thought you had while you were driving in your car today, but don't consider yourself so clever. Jumping Frenchmen of Maine is a new song released by El Ten Eleven, the post rock duo from L.A. The group consists of only Kristian Dunn and drummer Tim Fogarty. Their simple, playful approach to the post rock genre has been refreshing for me since I stumbled upon them in 2006, a brief year after their self-titled release off of the Bar/None Records. Bar/None has had other successes with talented bands such as Architecture In Helsinki, Of Montreal, They Might Be Giants and even the indispensible Yo La Tengo back in 1990; El Ten Eleven truly is the label's little known secret.

Chris Walla, the guitarist and producer for Death Cab for Cutie, will release his solo project, Field Manual, on Tuesday Jan. 29.

Walla played all of the instruments on the album except the drums, which were added thanks to Jason McGerr (DCFC) and Kurt Dahle (New Pornographers)

According to DCFC news, if you buy the album before Feb. 4 from barsuk.com, you will also get three MP3 non-album bonus tracks.

Here are the track listings, as well as a clip from one of the songs:
1. Two-Fifty
2. The Score
3. Sing Again
4. A Bird Is a Song
5. Geometry & Co.
6. Everyone Needs a Home
7. Everybody On
8. Our Plans, Collapsing
9. Archer v. Light
10. St. Modesto
11. It's Unsustainable
12. Holes

DCFC posted a teaser video for the release of their new album, which is scheduled to be released in May.

Sigh... they broke up. Although the Langhorne. Pennsylvania based band was not well known, their talents did not go unappreciated. Days Away, who have been making the rhythmatic music their fans adored for the past four years under Fueled by Ramen, are officially broken up according to a message posted on Absolutepunk.net, on 12/29/08:

Live @ the TLA at the Fillmore, Philadelphia

On Tuesday, January 22, solo artist Tyler Ramsey and the group Cass McCombs opened up for Band of Horses in front of a packed house on South Street's finest music venue. With facial hair and enthusiasm at a premium, the crowd came to life with every set.

Band of Horses


Apart from already having reached #35 on the Billboard Top 200 with Cease to Begin, Band of Horses once again emitted an array of harmonious sounds their hit album didn't cover. When they performed Tuesday, January 22 in downtown Philadelphia, the crowd beckoned to the bubbly bearded fellows of BoH.

The organic and sappy voice of Ben Bridwell sang dearly to the audience from start to finish while members Creighton Barrett (drums), Rob Hampton (guitar), Ryan Monroe (keyboard/backup vocals), Tyler Ramsey (guitar) and Bill Reynolds (bass) all backed him with a sensatious orchestrated melody.

Bridwell's presence emulated as they opened up with "Monsters". This song proved quite perfect as the show started up somewhat quiet, then as the song kicked in about two minutes into the song. The drums and bass kicked in, complimented by the lights all at once; a light feeling ran through my fingertips as the four guitarists on stage played the light BOH melodies in accord.

The show truly took off once "Is There A Ghost", a crowd favorite off of Cease to Begin, was plucked away, then built up into a placid fan fury. Soon following up was "The Great Salt Lake" and "Marry Song", two songs dwelling on upbeat patterns careening off of the high notes. At this point in the show, Bridwell was playing to the fans and song titles were being yelled out, yet not played, such as "No One's Gonna Love You", "Ode to LRC" and their most popular song to date "Funeral".

Band of Horses - Effigy (live) (Creedence Clearwater Revival Cover)

A few things came into light as the show went on: "Ode to LRC" was their crowd pleaser, as the sell-out crowd sung along, "Laaaa, laaaa. de, daaa, daaaaa!". Videographers on the sides of the stage pointed their cameras to the crowd capturing the delight of the crowd as they sung in unison "The world is such a wonderful place!" This was truly the bands moment of zen for the night. The wholesome lyrics, the elated feeling of the crowd, and pure love for the band was felt all around.

Finalizing "LRC" with a swift pull back from the mic, Bridwell leaned forward and spoke to the crowd, "This is a song about living...." and began to play Band of Horses best song, lyrically that is, "The Funeral". The lyrics of this song truly hit home seeing this live:

Set List (below)
I'm coming up only to hold you under
I'm coming up only to show you wrong
And to know you is hard and we wonder
To know you all wrong, we were

Really too late to call, so we wait for
Morning to wake you; it's all we got
To know me as hardly golden
Is to know me all wrong, they were

At every occasion I'll be ready for a funeral
At every occasion once more is called a funeral
Every occasion I'm ready for the funeral
At every occasion one brilliant day funeral (x2)

I'm coming up only to show you down for
I'm coming up only to show you wrong
To the outside, the dead leaves, they all blow (alive is very poetic)
For'e (before) they died had trees to hang their hope

As you can see, we have their set list, which was not followed through as depicted, but is tit-for-tat for the most part. Also notice, the second song is listed as "Snow", which is actually their demo version of "The First Song" from Everything All The Time. You can listen to their demo version on their MySpace page. Their last song on the set before the encore was "Writers", which Bridwell sung with his long time friend and keyboardist, "... since he was 4 years old" (says Bridwell), Ryan Monroe.

When they finally walked off stage, empty beer bottles in hand, the crowd summoned the band back on stage, and soon played the recent fan favorite, "No One's Gonna Love You" (see our top songs for 2007) . Their set was finalized by a Creedence Clearwater Revival cover, "Effigy", which we caught on video. The show captured more than originally expected from Band of Horses. Their breakdowns and rock anthem riffs were truly stimulating. If they ever do release a live album, I would highly recommend buying, as many of the songs they played are dulled down by the studio recording aspect for the louder, upbeat songs. A+++

Cass McCombs

Before BoH took the stage, Cass McCombs and his three companions stroked through a 45-minute set. Formed around the talents of McCombs and his guitar, the almost jittery foursome careened through one cascading song after another.

With a feeling to their sound of southern country rock, the rhythm keyed around a jogging tempo through the repetitious ambling of the two guitars, the bass and the drums. The changing moment for the group's sound came about 20 minutes into their set when the bass began to overshadow the lyrics and the other instruments. At this point, the TLA was rumbling and hypnotically swaying to the thudding of McComb's tempo.

A noticable disjunction appeared throughout the set as sound checks ensued and the group lackadaisically spoke to each other. Towards the end of the set McCombs mentioned something to the degree that they were still working on the one song which they just played. Despite being generally giddy on stage with each other, the group seldom spoke to the crown, not even mentioning their own group name.

Check Out 'Cass McCombs' on iTunes!

Tyler Ramsey

With Tyler Ramsey performing first in the lineup, we noticed a certain theme was about to be carried throught he course of the show: Flannel shirts and beards. Tyler was quite stunning to listen to. There is only so much that can be done as a solo performance as far as layers of sounds go, but the twangs and guitar artistry were done quite well. We were suprised to see him performing later with Band of Horses and had originally suspected he was merely helping the band set up their equipment before Bridwell and Monroe carried their equipment on stage. It was just that, his quiet and friendly misdemeanor would make you think he was that nice a guy.

There were easy comparisons to draw against the American rock band, My Morning Jacket's Jim James. Ramsey's subtle long-winded vocals appealed to most in the audience, particularly, with his song , "A Long Dream". His sound was folksy and simmered with a motionless and restful caddy. Although the singing was kept to minimal, Ramsey kept to what he does best, and that's to play the guitar. The eloquence of the playing reminded me of the great Gordon Lightfoot. Ramsey was so focused on this guitar playing, he barely looked up to the crowd, even between songs. His performance was focused and well executed. Tyler was a great added bonus to the lineup and his skills, honed in with Band of Horses made it that much more enjoyable.

Please help support Tyler Ramsey by buying through iTunes. Check out his music on MySpace too!

Live @ The Electric Factory 1/18/2008

Louis XIV

I've honestly never listened to Louis XIV nor did I ever set aside time to check them out, so it was very interesting going into this show blind. About all I knew about these guys was that they're from San Deigo, CA and weren't exactly up my alley. From their show I realized a few things: 1) They will most likely never impress me. 2) Their best song is not "Finding Out True Love Is Blind", which is their most heavy promoted song, but surprisingly is "There's A Traitor In This Room" from The Distances From Everyone To You - EP. 3) The band's main theme revolves around dirty sex talk, lust and raw banter.

Their style of peforming consumes the band entirely. The vocals of lead singer Jason Hill are more talk than singing, although sing-talking in the higher notes was somewhat impressive. The backup vocals of Brian Karscig were very impressive. His odd top hat and beard topped off with a higher pitched singing style coupled with both guitar and keyboard playing made him the busiest performer on stage (and most talented it would seem). All of the little details built into the style of their performance all the way down to the spiral telephone-like-cord for the guitar input were nice additives.

Mixing in two violinists with the the foursome was also an added bonus, but really only made an impact in one song. I can see why people dig these guys, but their performance was lacking the gusto I was looking for. I also noticed, once I did a little research on their material, everything was from The Best Secrets Are Kept, which happens to be their only full length LP to date. There was a new song they played called "Ground Control" or something to that effect.

MP3: Louis XIV - Guilt By Association (buy)
Louis XIV MySpace Page

Hot Hot Heat

Hot Hot Heat were the zaniest, most electrifying band in the lineup. This is another band I had no past experiences with nor do I have any recollection of their songs. This Canadian group, led by the poofy red-headed Steve Bays got the crowd into their performance immediately. Let me say that the contrast from Louis XIV to Hot Hot Heat was night and day. My first thoughts were Bays' vocals tweaked like that of the infamous lo-fi vocals of Brandon Flowers (The Killers). The white synthesizer held up by thick white pillars was amusing, as was the beanpolishness of the band overall which had them oddly bouncing around the stage.

I was surprised to know one of their songs "Goodnight Goodnight", which spurred somewhat of a dance party in the front of the crowd, as well as did my favorite song they played, "Talk to Me, Dance With Me". Their performance was highly entertaining. Every band member moved with the poppy beats and the charismatic singing of Bays', who truly controlled the crowd. It was a great surprise to catch these Canadians in their element of a performance surrounded by hip clap-a-long songs and pleasing crowd favorites, which they seemed to have plenty of.

MP3: Hot Hot Heat - Get In Or Get Out (buy)

Hot Hot Heat MySpace Page

Editors

The band we really came to the show to watch. Editors infectious guitar tandems drizzled with squeaky, tight-laced riffs were enough for me to like them on first listen when I discovered this UK groups rock style a year ago. Building upon their first success, The Back Room, was trumped in 2007 with their release of An End Has A Start featuring songs such as "An End Has A Start", "