My annual pilgrimage to SXSW in Austin was – as always – amazing!
Show Preview & Interview: Citizens! @ Neumos, Mon. 3/25
“I am not afraid of losing my mind, as long as it happens a day at a time,” announce Citizens! in their song, “Reptile,” a track off their smashing 2012 debut, Here We Are. Their music is all about melody; you can get involved in their songs in a completely unsterile and intimate way. As evidence I submit “(I’m in Love With Your) Girlfriend,” “She Said,” “Love You More” and “Let’s Go All the Way.” There’s disco, New Wave, indie guitar . . . fast-paced loveliness. The British five-piece boldly announced their international presence with an album released by the French label Kitsuné and produced by Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand – two superb people to have in your corner when you’re making great, appealing pop music.
Last week I talked with Mike Evans, Scottish-born drummer of Citizens! (don’t forget the exclamation point, it’s part of the name). Evans also provides backing vocals in the band, which includes singer Tom Burke, who has become a new face for Hedi Slimane/Saint Laurent. That’s right, this is a 100 % handsome band. As they drive through the States, Evans mentions that it’s really pretty, but “we’re driving through snowdrifts and cars are coming off the roads.” They soldier on. One activity Evans has been able to partake in as a visitor to the States is sampling the local beers (at the time of this interview he’d enjoyed Brooklyn Lager the best). Of course not while driving through snowdrifts.
Citizens! – Mike Evans is center, with flower & with more than a passing resemblance to film star Omar Sharif.
Three of Citizens! used to be in a band called Official Secret Acts, and soon after it disbanded they regrouped to form what would become Citizens!. From listening to OSA’s myspace page, they sounded like a pretty tasty band as well, but now we are lucky to have Citizens!. You can credit friend of the band, Art Brut’s Eddie Argos with the group’s name. Evans reveals, “He kind of casually mentioned it. He’s a fount of all popular culture knowledge. He’s very funny. It made sense with what was going on at the time . . . the riots. It’s a headline. It’s a statement.” It stuck. “I think it’s got a broad appeal. We really like the way it sounds, and we wanted not to confuse people with our name.”
The band got the attention of eventual producer Kapranos via mutual friends. Evans recalls, “We had (mutual) friends who were in different bands. We were getting demos together and starting to think about labels, we brought a couple demos to Alex. He immediately seemed to get what we were trying to achieve, without even mentioning that he’d want to produce our record.” Everything fell into place, all quite organically. “We were just talking to him about mutual influences and our favorite bands. We were on the same page. Our next conversation kind of naturally led towards Alex being involved with the record as a producer. It was kind of a natural process really.”
When it was time to record Here We Are, Citizens! headed to Kapranos’ isolated studio in rural Scotland. Sometimes you hear tales of tempestuous album recordings, but for Citizens! Evans says, “It was wonderful. It was in the middle of nowhere, away from the usual distractions. We really focused on what we wanted to achieve as a band. Working with Alex was a wonderful experience. He really challenged us, and made us ask ourselves questions about every aspect of each song.” To me the album sounds as if it could transfer to a live show quite well – and very straight forward in some ways. I can’t seem to put this elegantly – Evans says it better: “There’s no trickery whatsoever. We really wanted to get that across, which we’ve managed to achieve. It’s a very human record. Alex was very instrumental in that. It’s a band playing parts and songs – it suits the ethos of the band.” As far as Evans’ top track off the album goes? “I think we got pretty close to what we imagined with “True Romance.” We wanted to mix up all of the parts having the poppy and repetitive piano riff and bringing the influence of the drums from somewhere else – that no two parts of the song sounded from the same era.” That might just be one of the most appealing things to me about this band, the disconnect in times.
Show Review & Photos: Donots @ the Paramount
Donots @ the Paramount, 3/12
Show Review & Photos by Dagmar
Germany’s Donots, who hit their 20th anniversary next year, made their first visit to Seattle last week. I cannot explain why this super band had not made it to our city earlier, but let’s not complain. They made it here; give thanks to Flogging Molly, who brought the band to the Paramount as openers for many North American dates.
With their prior releases seeming to be very difficult (or expensive) to get here in the States, I’m most familiar with Donots’ most recent albums, 2012’s Wake the Dogs and 2010’s The Long Way Home. I’d recommend purchasing these albums, whose songs featured strongly in last Tuesday’s performance (along with 2008’s Coma Chameleon in the set). I especially loved “You Got It,” “Wake the Dogs” and “Stop the Clocks, They Are Saddening.”
I was really excited to see Donots, and the group put on an exciting and crowd-captivating show. Singer Ingo Knollmann got a large section of the floor into a crazed mosh pit circle, joining them towards the end of the set. Donots are one of those bands you want to cooperate with, and there was no way you can’t be on their side during a show. The band was into the audience, the audience was into them – Donots were energized and totally happy. I was also impressed by how guitarist Guido Knollmann and brother Ingo Knollmann traded off with vocals. Sometimes that just does not work. In this case it was right on.
Unfortunately I had to miss their headlining performance the next day in Seattle. Still, what I experienced at the Paramount thrilled me and showed me a band who’s just getting stronger, and whose music is solid punk rock with every album. I’ll have my interview with singer Ingo Knollmann up on the site very soon!
Photos: Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside w/ Thao & The Get Down Stay Down @ Neumos
Portland, Oregon’s Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside and California’s Thao & The Get Down Stay Down were at Neumos for a show on March 7th. Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside have been described as rockabilly, and has had some marvelous album art for their albums, including Untamed Beast. Thao & The Get Down Stay Down and Sallie Ford & The Outside will continue touring through the spring. All photos by Simon Krane:
Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside
Atmosphere @ Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside w/ Thao & The Get Down Stay Down
Show Review & Photos: Ben Folds & Nataly Dawn @ Showbox at the Market
Ben Folds & Nataly Dawn @ Showbox at the Market, 2/4
Review & Photos by Abby Williamson
The line was all around the block. A Monday night, and there was a line around the entire block from 1st to 2nd and Pike. Several people walked by me and asked what the line was for.
“Ben Folds is playing at the Showbox,” I replied.
They understood.
Opening the show was singer-songwriter Nataly Dawn, whom you might know from the YouTube-famous duo Pomplamoose. On this particular tour Dawn performed songs off her new solo album, How I Knew Her, which I absolutely love. I’ve seen Pomplamoose perform before, so this was a treat to get to see Dawn doing all her own songs. “Oh in case you guys hadn’t noticed, I’m not Ben. He’ll be up next,” Dawn told the audience.
Two songs into the set, my night was interrupted when I face-planted in the photo pit, narrowly saving my camera, in exchange for my knees. Seriously, my left knee looked like something out of Wile E. Coyote and The Road Runner.
After Dawn finished her set – my knee was causing considerable pain – Ben Folds took the stage to a huge amount of applause from the crowd. I never listened to a lot of Folds’ music growing up, but what I can tell is that it’s universally enjoyable and I did get to hear songs that I did know, “Brick” being my favorite.
I can tell you, it’s nice to see Folds get so much excitement from the audience. He’s honed his craft and has a huge catalog of songs to choose from, so we really didn’t know what we were gonna get. That’s exactly how it was. Folds has so many darn songs that we could have stayed there for three hours and people would still be surprised.