music
It’s Been A Long Time, Long Time Now
Sad Synths and Future Islands
Elegant composition is lost on our dumb generation. When was the
last time you heard Kanye West orchestrate the equivalent of an entire
Bavarian marching band single-handedly into a coherent tune that’s
both catchy and just hipster enough that plaid-wearing fixie-riders
would love it? Thankfully Beirut’s Zach Condon’s influences range
from USSR-era waltz to modern day electronica, and all the while
inherently classical European compositional traditions blast through.
Since Condon began the solo venture in 2006 with the release
of Gulag Orkestar, the project has flourished into a venerable six-
person band and moved away from Tarantino score-esque tracks and
into indie-dance-folk land. Sad, really, but that doesn’t mean you
can’t still hear the beautiful, traditional compositions of Orkestar
and Flying Club Cup at a live show. Don’t get me wrong, the group’s
record March of the Zapotec was still incredible, howling indie-folk
for a larger audience, it just didn’t have that same war-torn Europe
feel that we all fell in love with back when “Nantes” was released.
Maybe I’m just stuck in the past.
The gratuitous use of horns, ukulele, accordion and snare drum are
still ever present on the group’s latest record The Rip Tide. These
instruments constitute Condon’s domain, and it’s nice to hear that he’s
found a balance between that dancer-pleasing electronica and hipster-
kerfuffling traditionalism. Beirut is now poised to please as many
people as possible — those older fans and those folks that cut their
Beirut teeth with the pop — and that’s exactly what the group will
continue to do, no doubt, until the memories of old Europe fade and
their fingers are withered from playing accordions and synthesizers,
quite adeptly, I might add, on every record from here to eternity.
Beirut & Menomena play 8 pm Thursday, Sept. 6, at McDonald
Theatre; $32.50 adv., $35 door. — Andy Valentine
Many of my favorite singers can’t sing. I’m accustomed to sticking odd aural objects in my
ear hole. That being said, Samuel T. Herring of Baltimore-based trio Future Islands has a pretty
weird voice. Its closest corollary is Joy Division’s Ian Curtis; melodramatic and theatrical, his
spectral moo cow explodes into apoplectic fits — think Springsteen and Waits, or Curtis himself
at his most epileptic.
His voice is double-odd in front of
the Future Island gauzy-synth
backdrop. Here the Joy Division
comparison deepens, bridging their late
Closer era electro-iciness with the
warmer, sweeter, more human sound of
New Order that followed, complete with
Peter Hook-style melodies supplied by
William Cashion on guitar and bass.
This is electronic music, but don’t
expect booty-shakin’. And that’s not to
say you won’t dance. But it’s more like
before you hit the club, staring into the
mirror applying lipstick or touching up
your hair wondering what the night
holds for you. Or the taxi ride home,
the last gin ‘n’ tonic warming your gut
as melancholy cymbals splash the
windshield like raindrops, regretting that the night was not what you hoped for.
And it’s on this taxi ride home you’ll think of Herring’s words from 2010’s In Evening Air: “You
couldn’t possibly know how much you meant to me,” or “you hurt me so bad.” You’ll wish you’d
thought of these lines when you needed the perfect, most honest thing to say.
Future Islands sound like a break-up feels and they play with Black Mountain and Quest For
Fire 8 pm on Thursday, Sept. 6, at WOW Hall; $12 adv., $15 door. — William Kennedy
Staples of Soul
Aretha Franklin is considered the Queen of Soul, but Mavis Staples is Robin Hood. Now in
her early 70s, Staples got her start singing gospel tunes as a child with her father, Pops, and
her sisters as the Staples Singers in 1950. Ever since those early days, Staples has made a
career out of sticking up for the little man through powerful songs.
In her youth, she marched with Martin Luther King Jr., helping to provide the
soulful soundtrack to the civil rights movement. Staples and her sisters sang
everything from Bob Dylan (who allegedly asked for her hand in marriage)
covers to original gospel tunes with a message. Her infectious grizzly bear
voice belted out timeless hits like “I’ll Take You There” and “Respect
Yourself,” scoring hits throughout the ’70s.
Through the years her fight for social justice through song didn’t stop;
Staples released Live: Hope at the Hideout, an album of freedom songs on
Election Day 2008. Most recently she paired up with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy
for the 2010 release You Are Not Alone.
Staples’ website says of the album: “The phrasing, the tempos, the
arrangements are different, but the messages are the same things I’ve
been saying down through the years. They’re about the world today —
poverty, jobs, welfare, all of that — and making it feel better through
these songs.”
Tweedy plays to Staples’ strengths throughout the album. The title
track is a beautiful arrangement of soulful lyrics backed by Tweedy’s
gentle guitar. Staples both growls and purrs all the way through; her low
vocal range expertly showcased on everything from the Creedence
Clearwater Revival cover “Wrote a Song for Everyone” to the rollicking
gospel tune “Wonderful Savior.”
See this modern day musical Robin Hood tear through 60 years of soul at the
Cuthbert Amphitheater 7 pm Wednesday, Sept. 5, with Bonnie Raitt. Tickets $65.50
reserved, $35.50 general admission, www.thecuthbert.com — Jackie Varriano
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AUGUST 30, 2012 19