music does indeed save.

Yes, yes, the Aloha show was grand. The new material is very good. I've spent a little time with "Some Echoes" and I do think it is quite solid. I can't wait until they are more confident with the songs. That's the trouble with being one of the first stops on a new tour. The "Here Comes Everyone" songs just dominate due - in no small part - to the fact that they've been playing them for about two years. They did play "Water Your Hands" which, if you didn't know, contains the origin of my blog title. I anticipate that being part of the Sunday wrap-up. Back to the Thursday night show: I'm still betting that Mazarin has a killer album (if anyone can confirm or deny, let me know), but due to a poor audio mix I just couldn't get too impressed. The Double are an entirely different story. Watching The Double is like watching a really decent indie-rock band inside a bubble. I don't mean a metaphoric bubble. I mean an actual soap bubble. At times, the soap is so thin and evenly distributed that it's all but transparent, but as the bubble turns there can be a warping effect such that everything is still identifiable but altered in an undeniably unique way. Rhythms based on echoing guitar cord tip tapping. Hi hats mic'ed to sound like powerful stomps. It was truly quite good, and I have to recommend you listen to their latest Matador release, "Loose In The Air."

Since I missed a day on here (I spent Ashley's birthday with her, a pepperjack bacon burger, a disappointing lesbianism movie and "Ooooooohhh... On The TLC Tip"), I'll make it up to you by making public a conversation I had with Cleveland's best record store's owners (on one of whom's brithday) at the Aloha concert:

Me: "I credit you guys for introducing me to a big three, being Menomena, The National and The Double."
Kevin: "Whoa."

I definately shouldn't go into a career of interviewing. Here now are songs from each of those magnificent bands, along with a brief personal history. Have a great weekend, all. I'm off to Music Saves at some point during it.



The Double's "Idiocy"
Just see my unusual bubble reference above. These four guys are truly creating something great. Actually, more appropriately, this is some of what Village Voice says about the album:

"There is a foreboding sense of everything coming apart at the seams in The Double’s subversive take on pop music. Their Matador debut, 'Loose in the Air,' is an eerie, paranoid album steeped in a hyper-awareness of the impermanence of things. Melody moves through thick layers of noisy, manic guitars and heavily distorted keyboards, and drums fight through a dense fog of melancholy. Tender vocals soar high and low through an atmosphere of chaos – it’s at once unsettling and utterly captivating."

The National's "Secret Meeting"
Remember Clap Your Hands Say Yeah? No, their one and only LP so far is still quite good, but at their live show last fall - as assured to me by Team Music Saves would happen - The National wowed me more than CYHSY could even hope to. With a rich baritone croon, a gentle guitar jangle, and perfect pop tendencies, The National are a seasoned New York-by-way-of-Ohio outfit that you should go out of your way to see. It just so happens I have that solution. Make the same journey I am to Chicago in July for the Pitchfork Music Festival. The National is part of the already stellar line-up.

And finally...Drumroll...

Menomena's "The Late Great Libido"
Menomena has a unique website a unique MySpace account, their debut CD is a half-inch thick flipbook, the LP version is a gigantic pop-up monster, and oh yeah, they play music. Nothing I say about their sound will turn you on to them as much as simply listening.
I remember stopping into Music Saves before going to a show last Spring of a band I had only heard about called Pit Er Pat. The infant record store seemed stoked for the headlining band, which I wasn't going to see and was even intending on leaving after a couple of their songs. That band would be Menomena and suffice it to say, I stayed. Read about them on Pitchfork if you'd like. But please don't deprive your ears of them any longer.