Ariel Pink gets funky at The Glass House 9/11

Ariel Pink at the Glass House (Photo: Taylor Hamby)

Perhaps it's the difficulty in defining Ariel Pink's music that makes it hard to review one of his shows. Ariel Pink and his band played at the Glass House in Pomona Saturday.

The Kurt Cobain look alike creates David Bowie-esque tunes than can be classified as dance, eighties revival, lo-fi, funk, or a genre of its own.

Whatever you want to call it, it was not love at first listen. Ariel Pink's music takes a bit of time to dial in your ears to this unique sound.

He has an odd stage presence. Sometimes he looked nervous. He fiddled with a tie during two songs; wrapped it around his neck and then his finger. He put the microphone in his mouth.

Odd presence or not, he is still able to get the crowd riled up. During songs like "Fright Night" and "Menopause Man" fans screamed out and formed a pit.

In fact, I was called out at my lack of visible excitement. A boy hit my shoulder to get my attention and told me to start dancing. "I'm not seeing enough excitement out of you!" he said.

The has more energy in concert than his live recordings, but offers the same comparison defying, confusing sound.

Ariel also demonstrated the large range of his voice that night, and moved from a speaking voice to a falsetto seamlessly.

White Arrows opened for Ariel Pink with their psychedelic goes electric sound. While they didn't break any new ground, they played an entertaining set.

They projected light fractals onto the stage which added an element of mystery, or pretentiousness, depending how you look at it, to the show.

White Arrows seems to be at the imitating, not innovating, stage in their career, but this is nothing that a bit of practice and an acid trip or two can't remedy.

In that vein, they played the best version of Springsteen's "I'm on Fire" I have ever heard.

Bella Novela opened up the evening. Sorry guys, I was late and missed them.

-Taylor Hamby

Radiohead's drummer goes solo

Phil Selway's "Familial" (2010)

For his first solo effort, “Familial,” Radiohead drummer Phil Selway explores himself as a singer and songwriter, creating a warm and soothing record.

This isn’t his first venture away from Radiohead. Selway had partaken in Neil Finn’s all-star concerts, “7 Worlds Collide,” recording an album titled “The Sun Came Out.”

While working on the project, Selway established some creative relationships with multi-instrumentalist and singer Lisa Germano, bassist Sebastian Steinberg, and Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche who all contribute on the record.

As the drummer of Radiohead, Selway has always demonstrated restraint and patience, and the songs on “Familial” are much understated.

Similar in vein, the music is effective and Selway indulges in themes of parenthood, relationships and middle-age.

He devotes “The Ties that Bind Us” to his son, singing, “I want to show you another way, I want to shield you from my mistakes” and on “Broken Promises,” he addresses the loss of his mother.

The songs are mostly restricted to acoustic guitars and bare instrumentations, and the lyrics are far less abstract than anything Thom Yorke ever wrote, providing relatable and universal imagery.

Selway’s vocals are also very tender and delicate, and his natural singing serves well to the haunting music.

“A Simple Life” is the most romantic song on the album, with Selway dreaming of a runaway relationship, “we’ll leave and disappear into the night, we’ll turn out the lights, we just want a simple life.”

The best song might be the introduction, “By Some Miracle,” a direct confession of his inner demons, “there’s a black dog in my basement, he is barking out my name.”

There is a Radiohead song called “Electioneering” off the classic album “OK Computer,” where Selway, on a rare occasion, goes berserk on the drums, perhaps releasing that “black dog” he is talking about.

While “Familial” is successful in its purpose, a Radiohead fan might wonder what Selway could have written in his younger years, and at 43-years-old, with a wife and three children, he only examines middle-aged themes.

“Familial” does not break any new ground, but it is a refined and touching release, easy enough for a long drive and pleasant enough for a quiet night at home.






-James Vu

Paramore's at the top of its game

On May 3rd, Paramore performed a solid set at a sold-out show in Columbus, Ohio. Orange Coast College alumnus and former managing editor of The Coast Report, Tony Lee, was there to catch all the action and has graciously written a review for TMP. Check it out below!

“Best show of the tour, so far,” said Paramore’s Hayley Williams after playing the third song of its 17-song set-list at the LC Amphitheater in Columbus, Ohio.

She was wrong. It might have been the best show of Paramore’s career.

Paramore, led by the 5-foot-2-inch, fire-truck-red-haired vocalist, displayed they have what it takes to be the next rock ‘n’ roll superstars.

With Relient K and fun as opening acts, the band had the sold-out crowd on May 3 rocking out to its punk-pop-rock ’n’ roll fusion and showed why they are one of the top-10 bands to see in 2010.

Williams ended the 75-minute show with the same insanely energetic demeanor she had at the beginning. Guitarists Josh Farro and Taylor York, drummer Zac Farro and bassist Jeremy Davis echoed Williams’ contagious energy that had the majority-tween crowd jumping around like popcorn kernels being popped from start to finish.

Williams even took a fan’s camera during the band's last song “Misery Business”, filmed herself, her band mates, and the crowd and captured the unforgettable atmosphere (click here to see the YouTube clip).

Williams engaged with fans throughout the entire concert by encouraging them to sing along, especially during "Whoa", and sharing gifts that she received from fans.

She had a problem with her in-ear monitor during “Decode” that deprived the audience of 10 seconds of singing, but the entire crowd filled the outdoor venue by belting the lyrics word for word.

At one point, Williams announced she would be doing a “low-budget costume change” and put on a black New Found Glory hoodie because she was “freezing” on this windy day.

The hoodie, most likely an ode to New Found Glory guitarist / boyfriend Chad Gilbert, actually became an endearing accessory as she sang “The Only Exception” - Paramore’s latest single and love song.

The show consisted of basic concert lighting, three different backdrops, and gimmick-free continual flow of songs.

Last summer, Paramore was the opening act to No Doubt. This year, they are proving it's not a stretch to say Paramore may reach No Doubt’s superstardom in the near future.

Paramore’s spring concert opened on April 27 in Nashville and ends in July 2 in Werchter, Belgium at the Rock Werchter Festival. Its last U.S. spring showing will be on May 16 in Las Vegas, Nev. at The Joint.

They will headline the Honda Civic Tour starting July 23 in Raleigh, N.C. at the Raleigh Boutique Amphitheater and ending Sept. 19 in Orange County, Calif. at, fittingly, the Honda Center.

- By Tony Lee (twitter.com/sHecKii)

"Careful" clip provided by Tony Lee

"Misery Business" clip provided by YouTube user angie0491

Set-list

1. Looking Up
2. That's What You Get
3. Playing God
4. Pressure
5. For A Pessimist, I'm Pretty Optimistic
6. Brighter
7. Turn It Off
8. The Only Exception
9. Whoa
10. crushcrushcrush
11. Let The Flames Begin
12. Ignorance
13. Where the Lines Overlap
14. Careful
15. Brick By Boring Brick

Encore

1. Decode
2. Misery Business

Check out more on Paramore - including tour dates - at their websites:

http://www.myspace.com/paramore
http://www.paramore.net

Vampire Weekend Impress at The Fox Theater in Pomona

All Photos by Flavia McBride 

 

Two days before thousands of people swarmed to Indio, CA for the Coachella Music and Arts Festival, a seemingly endless line of ticket holders weaved their way around the circumference of The Fox Theater in Pomona to see Vampire Weekend perform a sold-out show. 

The five piece band from New York recently released their sophomore album Contra to rave reviews. The album even hit number one on the Billboard 200, and it was clear that fans at The Fox Theater had Contra in constant iPod rotation since its release. 

Vampire Weekend opened with "White Sky" and the room instantly erupted with energy that would hold throughout the entire performance. The audience danced, sang, and cheered along to favorites like "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa", "One (Blake's Got A New Face)" and "A Punk".

The mood quickly became relaxed for a calm and stripped down performance of "Taxi Cab", but picked right back up for "Run" during which the eyes of the woman pictured on the giant backdrop (and Contra album cover) lit up like lasers. 

 

Frontman Ezra Koenig interacted frequently with the audience, making endearing quips between songs. At one point, when asking the crowd to sing along, he said "It's gotta be funky. Not Baja Fresh, more Del Taco, know what I mean?"

Bassist Chris Baio demonstrated some admirable dance moves, and the entire band seemed genuinely excited to play together. 

Vampire Weekend closed with "Oxford Comma" before returning to play three encore songs. Koenig thanked the audience and boldly declared to all those not attending Coachella that the festival "might not get any better" than this performance. 

In a way, he was right.  Not only were Koenig's vocals spot on the entire night, but the band as a whole was able to perform in a polished yet natural way. There were no instances where I felt like I could sense the band thinking, rather they seemed to be able to let go and have fun without worrying about the result. 

The attitude definitely transferred to the audience; it seemed like the crowd could not have been any more excited to spend an evening rocking out with Vampire Weekend, and neither could I.

-Eszter Zimanyi

Check out more photos from Vampire Weekend's set at The Fox Theater on our flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/themusicpirate 

See videos of Vampire Weekend's ENTIRE set at The Fox Theater on Eszter's YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/eszterzimanyi

Keep up with Vampire Weekend at their websites:
http://www.myspace.com/vampireweekend
http://www.vampireweekend.com