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Reports from the Road by Bryan Devendorf (Glastonbury, Part 2) - June 30, 2010
Two days ago, The National's Bryan Devendorf resumed his Reports from the Road series with a report from home in anticipation of the band's appearance at the Glastonbury Festival in Pilton. We learned that listening to NPR is a good way to begin a nap, that the car service to the airport was probably not on the up and up, and that Bryan is comfortable with a window seat.
Well, now comes Day Two. The "most-esteemed" Boeing 747 has set down at Heathrow and the twenty hours of R&R commence. What does a drummer do with that kind of time? Read below.
Day Two: Day Off
London, UK
June 25, 2010
In the ongoing film of my life of which I am star, cinematographer, writer, and sole producer, today's events belong with that extensive trove of outtakes and deleted scenes which resides somewhere in the temporal lobe of my brain. I am a drummer in a mid-level band; I am paid to hit things. I'm getting softer. But I am moving ever forward, ever closer to my destination. Thirty-six thousand feet over the Atlantic Ocean, listening to Neu, bobbing my head along to the relentless motorik beats, the words Glastonbury, Glastonbury float across my mind like fugitive clouds in an otherwise clear sky. . .
Our most-esteemed British Airways 747 aircraft touches down safely at Heathrow and by black cab I travel into the city where I rendezvous with the rest of the band and crew in the lobby of an internationally known chain hotel. It's furnished in exotic hardwoods and brushed chrome. At the bar, an archipelago of overstuffed sofas offers a view of the pedestrian traffic moving through the sunlight on Bloomsbury Street. I'm holding a chilled glass of Sancerre, pondering the tiny beads of condensation that have formed around my fingertips. The anonymously chic décor, the workday crowds passing soundlessly by the windows, the mid-tempo dance tracks emanating from unseen speakers all have a tranquilizing effect. Calculated. Soothing. Like something out of Brave New World. I have another sip of wine and I'm thinking abstractly about a dream girl at the center of this one William Gibson novel. I don't remember the title. But she's in peril. Or being pursued maybe? What's the difference? It is the near future. She travels from New York to London which she deems a mirror world. Ordinary things like traffic patterns, electrical outlets, shops, common appliances, all appear familiar to her except they’re flipped around, mirrorwise I guess. My mind wanders further.
I finish my wine and order another glass before heading up to my room where I'm overcome by jet lag, alcohol, and a generalized feeling of dislocation. Promptly, I fall into a dreamless sleep and wake with a start deep in the night, thinking for a moment that I've missed the bus. There's a faint light visible behind the curtains. Lobby call is still a few hours away. I lie awake, thinking, breathing, mouthing a Biggie Smalls lyric that for some reason relaxes me when I repeat it, like the monotony of counting sheep for some people: It’s the N-O-T-O-R-I-O-U-S, you just lay down slow . . . It's the N-O-T-O-R-I-O-U-S, you just lay down slow . . . It's the N-O-T-O-R-I-O-U-S, you just lay down slow . . .
-b
That does it for now - tune in Friday for the Glastonbury wrap-up. And to find out where Bryan plays next, head over to the Shows page. (Special thanks to Mr. November for the illustration.)
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Return of Reports From the Road by Bryan Devendorf (Glastonbury, Part 1) - June 28, 2010
Two years ago, The National toured the United States and Canada with REM and Modest Mouse. Drummer Bryan Devendorf documented the band's travels with words and pictures, bringing tales of the road to Brasslanders everywhere.
Now that the band is again touring - this time through Europe in support of their Billboard-charting new album, High Violet - Bryan opened up his word processor and cranked out some prose for your reading pleasure. Without further ado, we bring you "Reports from the Road by Bryan Devendorf, Volume 2." Enjoy!
Day One: GLASTONBURY NOW
Brooklyn, New York
June 24, 2010
It’s morning in America, again.
I study the ceiling. Atrium white. A suffused brightness floods the room; radio voices drone. The walls are stark, tremulous and beautifully pink, all glowing in the summer light and for no reason at all I’m thinking of ancient Egypt, the sun-obsessed mystics there, the mummies, before I’m lulled back to sleep; a deep, pleasing NPR-induced snooze.
"Newshour" from the BBC World Service bleeds into the "Brian Lehrer Show" and I'm up in a cold sweat. The air-conditioner hums its accusing, one-note mantra. I'm having one of those "shit . . . Saigon" moments like in Apocalypse Now. Starring the young Martin Sheen, all Caribbean tan and burned out on coke. Method acting. The voiceover is clear: When I was here, I wanted to be there; when I was there, all I could think of was getting back into the jungle. I'm here a week now . . . waiting for a mission . . . getting softer. Every minute I stay in this room, I get weaker.
Which resonates with the self-styled itinerant musical operative I am. Or the one I wish to be. It's been one week since we played Radio City, so my fantasy takes root, expands, mixes its own metaphors, grows legs, takes flight. This is me then. Projecting. Waiting for a mission, getting softer. Fantasizing about going up The River to kill my personal Marlon Brando: the Glastonbury festival.
Now picture Harrison Ford wearing those army-issue glasses in the mobile home with the shag carpeting (so incongruous in the jungle!) - the oversized, insectoid river prawns set out on the table, their dead eyes lending an air of menace to the proceedings – he's handing you a folder containing the details of your mission, your life: the tearful goodbyes; the unlicensed car service to Kennedy; the 120 kph thrill ride down Linden Blvd; boarding most-esteemed Boeing aircraft 747 to LHR, seat 29K, best seat in house; the ensuing twenty hours of R&R in London; the lobby call next day at 0800 hours for the bus that will transport you to the festival site: Worthy Farm, Pilton, UK. Glastonbury.
-b
For those that are curious, Glastonbury went well, as this review from the Guardian will attest. To see where Bryan and the band will be next, check out our Shows page.
And if you can't catch them in the flesh, there are always recordings - the Brassland Store is your one-stop shop for the band's back catalog. With various CDs, EPs, and LPs in stock, we've got you covered. And don't forget the free shipping for all US orders.
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Brassland Hearts CocoRosie - June 25, 2010
On May 11th, CocoRosie released its fourth full-length record, Grey Oceans. The release came and went without too much fanfare. Our friend Brandon at Stereogum noticed this and decided to run this op-ed article - featuring input from artists such as Antony Hegarty, Yoko Ono, Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu) and Annie Clark (St. Vincent) - on the lack of critical discourse surrounding CocoRosie's music as well as critic's individual cowardice in embracing more challenging music generally. Brandon writes:
A few years ago I wrote a positive review of CocoRosie's 'The Adventures of Ghosthorse And Stillborn.' Too positive, it turns out: The publication that assigned it killed the piece at the 11th hour and instead ran a snarky takedown. I'd never had that happen before and I've been championing challenging music for a long while. At the time I noticed Antony also liked the record. John Darnielle, who called it his favorite album of the year, did too. As he put it: "At its lyrical best, it inhabits its own country, unashamed of real poetry and willing to put in the hard work necessary to inhabit a space unlike anybody else's." Truth. Plenty of others like it, of course - though, oddly, when not spewing vinegar, there were mostly crickets from other music journalists...
'Grey Oceans' is the Casady sister's subtlest, most cohesive statement. (And it is a statement, something we need more of these days.) Even when they play "Hopscotch," the feeling remains a kind of grayish blue. It may seem downcast in a way, but like all of their work, it's uplifting even when discussing tears, lost relations, a fear of sharks, these grey (and increasingly black) oceans. As always, there are plenty of dance beats ("Fairy Paradise"), but nothing as outrageously disco as last year's "God Has A Voice, She Speaks Through Me." It's for singing with a flashlight under a blanket. I've always found CocoRosie’s work honest and bravely naked - some of the most emotionally bare music you'll hear. Which is part of why the shouts of "pretentious" confuse me. They give a lot of themselves, something people tend to miss because of the fake beards and outfits. This album's no different - a strange mix of strength and fragility. Also, their ear for melody is crystalline, their compositions so weirdly fathomless. It's hard listening to the title track without getting goosebumps.
In addition to Brandon's critical input, Brasslanders Nico Muhly and Doveman contributed their thoughts. Nico's words:
CocoRosie are magpie queens, who collect objects and bring them into not only a nest, but an entire universe of their own creation. Listen to just half a second of their music, and the incense, rituals, and grammar of this world unfolds. As an artist, I cannot overstate my admiration for their simultaneous embrace of the digital and the organic; the world they hinted at in 'La Maison de Mon Reve' had as much technical prowess behind it as it did emotionally shattering music and lyrics. I've always liked their ability to insist on the irregular shapes of their music: trees growing through the sidewalks of pop songwriting. While each of their albums has irritated me as much as delighted, it's always in the same way I am irritated by not being able to speak Chinese when I walk through the supermarket under the Manhattan bridge, or by watching the ease with which deaf lovers address each other across the noise of a crowded restaurant. I want to achieve a fluency in their world, and with each album, I feel myself coming closer to a child-like ability to phonate.
CocoRosie's music is shockingly beautiful, impossibly engaging, and ultimately, some of my favorite music being made today.
And Tommy Dove's:
Listening to Cocorosie, I feel like I'm being invited into a secret garden filled with the most precious and exotic flora and fauna from a distant, beautiful future, or from some past that never happened - it's an experience both wondrously strange, and deeply, comfortingly familiar.
In other words, CocoRosie salut!
To get a look at CocoRosie's wondrously strange world, watch the video (for Grey Oceans's first single, "Lemonade") below. Cue the images and sounds:
Doveman Covers Katrina and The Waves for Brooklyn Vegan - June 23, 2010
In May, Brooklyn Vegan began an EP-length tribute to Katrina and The Waves in celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the release of the band's classic "Walking on Sunshine." Featuring some of the blog's favorite artists, the individual tracks to Sun Salute (cover at left) were released one by one, beginning with 802 Tour alumnus Sam Amidon's cover of "Walking on Sunshine". Since then, Deer Tick, Fucked Up, and Tune-Yards have thrown in tracks ("Sun Street," "Walking on Sunshine," and "I Really Taught Me to Watusi," respectively), creating a decidedly eclectic line-up for the release.
And today, Doveman adds his particular brand of lamp-rock to the mix, joining the party with a cover of "Love Shines a Light" to conclude the BV EP. To hear and/or download the tune, click here. When you're done swaying to Tommy Dove covering Katrina, refresh yourself on the his past work covering '80s classics. Yeah, he's good at this.
And now for more nostalgia, courtesy of YouTube:
Clogs Receive Mid-Year Love from eMusic and Drowned in Sound - June 14, 2010
Though we've tweeted it, 140 characters just doesn't quite do this story complete justice. The news? Clogs' The Creatures in the Garden of Lady Walton continues to rack up praise, this time from eMusic and Drowned in Sound.
eMusic's article, The Best Albums of the Year...So Far, places Clogs on an eclectic list that includes Titus Andronicus, Caribou, The New Pornographers, and Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy), among others. What did they have to say about The Creatures? We found a pertinent quotation: "Clogs have developed an accessible style of composition that draws on both Renaissance lute and keyboard music, as well as American minimalism... Newsome (has) created a stunning set of songs, which truly blur the boundaries between rock and a classical song cycle." Nice.
Drowned in Sound gave the album a 9/10 rating in their review. DiS, playing off the garden metaphor, decided that the "album places itself in the thick of the vegetation, but with clever instrumentation, the sounds spark images of stunning green scenes – some safe, some scary, some seemingly from another world. But by the end of the record, Clogs have shown us around their favourite spots, and we are settled in the garden of Lady Walton, happy to let ourselves wander through the locations that these magnificent sounds evoke."
Have Clogs made one of 2010's best records? Could be, sez eMusic and DiS. And the best news is that The Creatures hoopla isn't over - in addition to magnificent sounds, there may be some magnificent images in the near future, so stay tuned for more.
To experience the sounds of Lady Walton, head over to the Brassland Store. In addition to special deals, all US orders receive free shipping, which is a deal in and of itself. Later.
