Saturday - Agora

I've got a full slate of commitments this weekend, but if you don't, you should check out the Agora festival going on at Junctionview Studios in Grandview. Put on by the Couchfire Collective, there'll be lots of local artists selling their wares, vendors, food & drinks and a terrific lineup of local acts. I guarantee it'll be more fun (and sound better) than Rock on the Range. Here's Saturday's main-stage lineup. Check Agora's website for more bands playing a second stage and indoors.

Main stage:
Noon - Our Cat Philip
1 pm - The Kyle Sowashes
2 pm - Dr. Kenny Delicious
3 pm - The Language Our Fathers Forgot
4 pm - Melty Melty
5 pm - The Slide Machine
6 pm - Karate Coyote
7 pm - Wing & Tusk
8 pm - Six Gallery
9 pm - Pretty Mighty Mighty
10 pm - HighJinks Fire Show
11 pm - Agora Hip Hop Showcase

Paste magazine seeking bailout

Apparent the Georgia-based music magazine is in a lot of debt. Here's some links to explain things:

- The campaign to save Paste

- Paste's letter to readers

- Paste's letter to contributors (many of whom apparently haven't been getting paid recently)

- Atlanta Journal-Constitution's story about the situation, w/ editor Josh Jackson interview

- Rundown/analysis from Blurt (formerly Harp)

Recent release roundup

The Veils - Sun Gangs
The third full-length from the Veils finds the band progressing from its folk-influenced beginnings to something comfortably bigger, as if writing anthems was never a stated goal, just an organic consequence. The brains behind the London-based crew is Finn Andrews (son of XTC’s Barry Andrews), who has an uncommonly good voice—versatile enough to sound natural yowling or crooning. The best songs are piano-led, such as leadoff track “Sit Down by the Fire,” along with a few darkly pretty ballads. The peppier songs are hit and miss: “The Letter” is War-era U2 done well, but “Killed by the Boom” is post-punk gone awry. “Larkspur,” at 8 1/2 minutes, is a bit bloated. So Sun Gangs is inconsistent, but when it’s good, it’s really good. And when it misses, it still comes pretty close.

Tinted Windows - Tinted Windows
Tinted Windows is one of the oddest supergroups you’ll find. That’s James Iha, formerly of Smashing Pumpkins, on guitar, Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger on bass and 57-year-old Bun E. Carlos of Cheap Trick on drums. The singer? Taylor Hanson, the middle brother from Hanson. Not surprisingly, this is power pop (emphasis on the pop). Say what you will about Hanson, but the guy can sing a hook that’ll stick with you like a melted Blow Pop. While the mid-tempo stuff kinda sucks (“Dead Serious,” “Back with You”), zippier tracks like “Messing with My Head” and “Can’t Get a Read on You” are irresistible. As a whole, though, it’s too much. Power pop is always sugary. That’s part of the fun. But this is like pouring syrup on your Lucky Charms.

Silversun Pickups - Swoon
Let’s get it out of the way now: Smashing Pumpkins. It’s next to impossible to listen to Silversun Pickups without thinking of the Pumpkins. There’s the wall of guitars, the early-grunge loud-quiet-loud dynamic, and singer/guitarist Brian Aubert’s voice even sounds like Billy Corgan’s at times. All that has made this LA band pretty polarizing, and putting out another album in the same vein doesn’t do anything to help that. The Pickups do go overboard on the aping, and at times Swoon feels too ponderous. But I still give these guys (and girl) the benefit of the doubt. I love the giant sound of multi-tracked guitar fuzz. I like the addition of strings. Most importantly, I like the accessible yet engrossing songs.

Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band - Outer South
Since ditching the Bright Eyes moniker, Conor Oberst sounds like a man all loosened up. Gone is the tortured, quivering boy hunched over his acoustic guitar. The cover of last year’s eponymous record showed Oberst sleeping in a hammock, and the music had a likewise peaceful, easy feeling. While I miss some of Oberst’s raw, youthful indignation, the maturation has served him pretty well so far. But he’s feeling a bit too generous on Outer South. Six of the 16 tracks are written and sung by his bandmates, with whom he has obviously jelled. That’s nice and all, but those are by far the weakest songs, especially the cringe-worthy “Air Mattress.” It’s a shame, because if you take those way, there’s close to an album’s worth of good material.

The Receiver - Length of Arms

When it comes to their music, Casey and Jesse Cooper don’t do anything halfway. The brothers who make up local band the Receiver are perfectionists, especially Casey, the apparent vision-caster who handles vocals, bass, keyboards, synth, piano, programming and all the lyrics while Jesse mans the drum kit.

With Length of Arms, the two have mastered the art of making a richly rewarding, sonically crisp studio album. Like the Receiver’s 2006 release, Decades, this new record is meant to be heard from front to back, with songs that ebb and flow into others, yet stand on their own just fine. The Coopers do one thing, and they do it quite well. If it’s not broke...

There are some subtle differences, though. Length of Arms is more densely layered with keys and synth, creating a thick, liquid sound to back up Casey’s mournful, milky voice. It’s like an electronic, alien orchestra. And just as before, having Jesse’s live drums instead of loops is crucial, grounding everything back to earth with something organic. That rich combination of sounds is maintained throughout the entire record, without a hiccup. It’s a fully realized vision. (Producer/engineer Mike Landolt no doubt had much to do with this, as well.)

Radiohead is an obvious touchstone for arty rock such as this—complex melodies presented thoughtfully, gracefully and with a fluidity that’s rarely off-putting or inaccessible. In fact, there are slightly more pop leanings on Length of Arms (see “Intervals” and “Amazing Thing”) than on the previous effort, along with more open space to allow the record to breathe; the piano intro to “Hide” is a particularly nice, airy respite.

Casey’s vaguely confessional lyrics are more about crafting a mood, stretching out a phrase like well-chewed gum. It’s nothing for a monosyllabic word to contain three or four notes. “Strength in Numbers” yearns for clarity (“I try to look past mirrors, shifting weight and dreaming in hope to view what blind men see”) while the confessional album-closer “Amazing Thing” seeks redemption (“Bearing my slate to wash it clean”). The first single, “Visitor,” seems to deal mostly with materialistic excess and consumption, echoed by the kleptomaniacal video, which is (unsurprisingly) one of the best-looking, best-produced music videos that’s ever come out of Columbus.

The Receiver’s songs worm their way a little farther into the wrinkles of your brain with each listen, and while they’re undoubtedly crafted so that layers reveal more layers over time, a few of these ambitious songs could stand to be reined in from five minutes to four. That said, no one could justly accuse the Cooper brothers of lazy composition. It’s rare to hear an album this artfully arranged.

The Receiver’s CD-release show will be held this Friday at Skully’s, 1151 N. High St. Also scheduled are Hotel Eden and a DJ set by Kelly Warner.

(Also at The Other Paper.)

Pains of Being Pure at Heart w/ Zaza, Tin Armor - The Summit

On the stage of the Summit Friday night, all the non-drumming members of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart stood at the edge of the stage, leaning over with their instruments, looking as if they were ready to jump into the crowd. If they weren’t all so mild-mannered.

That combination of rock ’n’ roll ebullience and reserved timidity has served the Brooklyn band well. There are the big, fuzzy guitars that make comparisons to shoegaze forebear My Bloody Valentine too easy, but then there are the twee melodies led by singer Kip Berman’s unaffected vocals, which bring to mind the indie pop of Belle & Sebastian.

There are other bands we could start adding to the recommended-if-you-like list (some people swear all they hear is the Smiths), and each name on the list would simply magnify that sense of nostalgia you get when listening to the Pains of Being Pure at Heart’s self-titled debut.

But the reason this band has garnered so much hype and press this year—well beyond the realm of fawning bloggers—is that: a.) Nostalgia is fun when it’s done in a way that avoids mimicry, and b.) Pains combine noise and pop better and more accessibly, in my opinion, than other bands who have recently attempted to revive the merging of those two seemingly disparate qualities. (I’m looking in your direction, Vivian Girls.)

There’s not too much that can be said about the Pains of Being Pure at Heart on record that can’t be said about the band live. If the mix is good enough, which it was at the Summit after a couple of songs, it’s pretty much like hearing the album. Berman sang his parts with a blank, doe-eyed stare to complement his easy, unassuming voice, and the rest of the musicians played their parts well—all with a kind of dorky-but-endearing vibe. It wasn’t mind-blowing, but it was a good representation of the band and made for a fun set.

On the other hand, Zaza, which was also on the bill, greatly disappointed. I had downloaded the band’s free EP from its website and liked what I heard—ethereal vocals, droney grooves and cool atmospherics. But live, the Brooklyn trio seemed to take itself way too seriously. It was pretty boring. To make things worse, the band insisted on using two high-beam lights as its only means of lighting, and one of those lights bounced off the Summit’s mirrored wall into the crowd, blinding a good portion of the audience. Donewaiting Duffy eventually got all MacGyver on the situation and blocked the reflection with some boxes, but even without Zaza’s stage props burning my retina, it was still boring.

Local opener Tin Armor has had some good slots recently, opening for Matt & Kim at Skully’s a few weeks ago. The band has earned those slots, too, because each time I see these guys, I like them more. There’s some punk fervor in there, plenty of pop sensibility and two equally strong singer/songwriter/guitarists to boot. Fans of Ted Leo, take note, and keep your eye on these young locals.

Colin Gawel (Watershed) solo CD release

Colin Gawel, better known as one of the principal singers and songwriters of veteran local rock band Watershed, has more than an album full of solo material, but he’s forgoing the traditional record-release model for his debut. Instead, Gawel’s releasing a CD single on producer Mike Landolt’s Curry House Music label every six months or so, beginning with Chemotherapy this Friday at the Rumba Cafe. The show will feature his backing band, the Lonely Bones. Admission includes a CD. Music at 9:30 pm.

Judging by the rootsy title track, along with two other originals, Gawel still knows his way around a hook. “The Words We Say” is probably my favorite. Super catchy. Here's the video, courtesy of the Palestra.

New Tim Easton

I somehow missed that Tim Easton came out with a new record last week (why no emusic?). It's called Porcupine, and Blurt (a new digital and quarterly print mag from the guys behind Harp) has the new video for the track "7th Wheel." I can't figure out how to embed it, but here's the link.