High Places Set Tour

Ever since I fell in love with the compilation track "New Grace" and I saw them open for Abe Vigoda this summer, I've been mildly obsessed with Brooklyn's High Places. I mean, the actually made me dance quite a bit when I saw them, and I hadn't let a crowd see me dance like that since I saw last saw LCD Soundsystem well over a year ago. There's just something about Mary Pearson's vocal beauty, contrasted with the warm sounds created by her and band mate Rob Barber that just make me melt. Deep bass lines and other exotic moments have combined to make some of the finest music of the year.

They've already won us over with the singles comp 03/07-09/07, and now Thrill Jockey is releasing their self-titled full length debut on September 23rd. In honor of such a momentous ocassion, the boy and the girl are hitting the road in the states including some west coast dates with Ponytail. Please, do yourself a favor and go see them. You will not be let down, I promise.

09/16 Pittsburgh, PA @ Brillobox
09/17 Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop
09/18 Grand Rapids, MI @ Division Avenue Arts
09/19 Madison, WI @ Forward Music Fest
09/20 Champaign, IL @ Pygmalion Festival
09/21 Rock Island, IL @ Huckleberry's Pizza Parlor
09/23 Chicago, IL @ AV-aerie
09/24 Minneapolis, MN @ Triple Rock
09/25 Grinnell, IA @ Gardner Lounge at Grinnell College*
09/26 Iowa City, IA @ The Mill
09/27 Denver, CO @ Rhinoceropolis
09/29 Salt Lakt City, UT @ Kilby Court*
09/30 Missoula, MT @ The Badlander*
10/2 Seattle, WA @ Nectar Lounge*
10/3 Anacortes, WA @ Department of Safety*
10/4 Vancouver, BC @ Richard's On Richards*
10/6 Portland, OR @ Backspace*
10/8 San Francisco, CA @ Bottom Of The Hill*
10/10 Los Angeles, CA @ The Smell*
10/12 Phoenix, AZ @ Modified*
10/15 Austin, TX @ Emo's*
*w/ Ponytail

Download: "Head Spins" [mp3]

Best New Music of Right Now (07.16.08)

In our second edition of our new weekly column of what is tearing up the stereos and iPod's of us SIS folk, Rusty gets his chance to let people know what's been kicking his ass. Spoiler alert: NO. ABE. VIGODA. *gasp!*

High Places - 03.07 - 09.07 (Thrill Jockey)

You might've seen my thoughts on their live set a few posts down when I saw them the other night, but sometimes it is records that are always the better formal introduction. The Brooklyn duo actually had their friends at eMusic release this collection of 7" singles from the title's frame earlier this year, before Thrill Jockey picked them up out of free agency and wanted to give people something to tide them over until their self titled full length in September. The seven singles on here range from paranoia ("Shared Islands"), to songs that actually had me dancing ("Head Spins"). Of the three bonus tracks that round out the disc, it's all about the alternate version of "Freaked Flight" that helps one fully realize that High Places are definitely on to something. Mary Pearson's beautiful vocals fit perfect with the schizophrenic sounds swirling from channel to channel.
Download: "Head Spins" [mp3] // [Buy Here]

Lackthereof - Your Anchor (Barsuk)

Menomena's Friend And Foe dominated my 2007, and I think that Danny Seim's side-project might just own me for the rest of the summer. On his ninth (yes, ninth - Menomena was supposed to be his side project once), Seim channels his kindred spirits in Menomena on the fantastic "Choir Practice", while making a name for himself in "Last November", a song with a chorus worthy of being used as the soundtrack to some shitty MTV program to make it that much better. But what comes as the total shock is the closing number - a cover of The National's "Fake Empire". Looking at the tracklisting, I thought, "no way", but yes way, indeed! A very intimate reading of a very intimate song. Good job, Danny boy.
Download: "Last November" [mp3] // [Buy Here]

Quiet Village - Silent Movie [K!7]

I almost had forgotten about this record until last night. Not too long ago, I curated one of my many mixes and had "Free Rider" as the opening track after some unlisted noise took up the first 30 or so seconds. Last night, I put on Silent Movie for the first time in a good while. It's a tight, well-oiled late night soundtrack. Between the production style and the samples and other noises, it sounds like it's stuck between late 60s sunny beach love stories and early 70s cops chasing bad guys scenes. Whatever the case, I like it either way. A sunny tale of cops chasing love lorn beach folk? There we go, much better.
Download: "Free Rider [mp3] // [Buy Here]

Women - Women (Flemish Eye)

I think only one word is needed to describe this musical year - and even this post - brevity. Brief and concise must be the mantra some bands are following in a year where money is tight, and gas costs more than your favorite mp3 download (seriously, each record discussed here so far clocks in at 30 minutes or less). On their debut, Alberta, Canada's Women run through 10 songs in 29:29. Where some can be longer, like the near five-minute epic "Shaking Hand," there's some questionable minutes like "January 8th". And in the middle of all this, there's "Group Transport Hall". In what has to be the best 71 seconds of 2008, the band summons a song that Guided By Voices would've written if they stayed the course of Alien Lanes. Verse, chorus, bridge, verse, chorus, bridge, end scene. Acoustic guitars, call and response, I'm gonna play this song for the 43rd time now.
Download: "Group Transport Hall" [mp3] // [Buy Here]

SIS At The Club: Abe Vigoda / High Places

For 7:30 on a Monday evening in Cambridge, I was surprised to see there was already a line of 20, maybe 30 people outside the Middle East. There they all stood, smoking cigarettes, tickets grasped in their hands, as they awaited for the doors to open at the top of the hour. Man, people really want to see No Age, don't they, I thought to myself.

Once I was in the club and I had taken the last spot along stage right, I started to take notice to something. As I looked around the group of individuals surrounding me and took notice to their hands, it was all big black X's abound. No wonder there was already a crowd formed - they were all kids. Usually, I lump in with my age bracket of one slightly older than the people inside the venue already, and I show up with some time to spare to catch the band I want to see. But this night, I was there to see the earlier bands, the bands supporting who everyone else was really there to see. Though feeling like the oldest one there, and because there was next to no one really hanging out in the 21+ section (a first I had never seen at the Middle East since moving here over a year and a half ago,) deep down I was happy. The underage Rusty of yore was elated that night, knowing that the youth was still coming out seeing bands who weren't on the map quite yet, who weren't right above the underground.

After an opening set from local sampler / No Age sound man Palm, they walked on stage, they of Abe Vigoda. They looked sleepy at moments: Michael Vidal tuned his guitar, alfalfa standing up in the back. Juan Velasquez in an oversized Jesus & Mary Chain shirt that wasn't ironic nor unfashionable. Within 10 minutes of Palm ending, the AV had started their set. "Live Long" signaled the start of something I had been waiting for since Skeleton came in to my life like angel from the skies a few weeks back. "Animal Ghosts" would find Vidal singing and shuffling, thrashing on his guitar while Velasquez would play like a light swtich, going from sway to stifle. Reggie Guerrero, the oldest Vigodan at 22, played with precision and pep, clanging on the cowbell when appropriate. Of the nine songs played that night, seven were from the tour de force Skeleton, the others were brand new. The final number, listed on the piece of envelope set list as "Jammer," was the most brutal and abrasive thing I've heard from them, yet beneath it all was one of the catchiest melodies I've heard in awhile. Juan ended the set just clamoring about his side of the stage, before resting his guitar appropriately on his amp. When Michael kept yelling his name at the end, it was overpowered by the feedback erupting. "I like broke my string I play that song on, I had made up the entire song," I heard him say. Improvising never sounded more well rehearsed. Oh, and "Skeleton" was epic as well to see that in the flesh. Abe Vigoda Set List:
Live Long / Animal Ghosts / The Garden / Don't Die / Lantern Lights / Bear Face / Cranes / Skeleton / Jammer

Afterwards, the duo of High Places plugged in for their set. Showcasing breakbeats, exotic noises and Mary Pearson's sweet vocals, Robert Barber cooked up a sweat as he turned knobs and playing his drum pad. While her vocals were buried in the mix earlier in the set, they would soon become as prominent as the beats and loops that pulsated through my body for their entire set. While playing what I hope are already underground club hits outside of their native Brooklyn from their 03.07-09.07 singles comp, they also previewed new material from their upcoming self-titled full length and that amazing contribution of their's on that split single with Xiu Xiu. Did the crowd prove Pearson wrong on her welcoming claim that Boston was nothing but prudes when it came to shaking money makers and getting the groove thing on, or other assorted cliche phrases described to dance? She exclaimed at the end of the set that we weren't prudes after all. The crowd's reception was very warm to High Places for their first night ever in Boston. I could only predict big things for them as the year goes on. High Places Set List:
Sandy Feat / The Storm / Golden / Oceanus / The Tree / Namer / Head Spins / From Stardust to Sentience / New Grace / Gold Coin / Vision's The First / Freaked Flight

View more pics [here]

Buy: Skeleton [here] // Buy: 03.07 - 09.07 [here]