Music

Keller Williams Electronic Experiment 2010-06-09

Wednesday, Fredericksburg, Virginia’s Otter House played host to a little something new. Announced as K. Lovedub And The Sun, local-boy-made-good, Keller Williams took his recent “Electronic Experiments” to a new level.

The evening began with Magic Hat beer specials and a 90 minute set of roots, dub, and dancehall reggae from DJ One Drop. He got the room ready to party and, as midnight approached, the curtain pulled back and the bass from the stage merged with the bass from the records and the experiment was underway. Onstage with Keller was Scott Sunn, a visual/video artist who has worked with Radiohead, SCI, as well as Keller at many of his festival performances. As Keller laid down bass, midi-guitar and more Sunn mixed video on the screen near the stage and the two appeared to collaborate on selecting and triggering samples via the onstage mixer.

Keller’s longtime sound engineer, Lou Gossain, was mixing in the front-of-house position, of course, and he had the room sounding as good as I’ve ever heard it. This made for a great 90 minutes of dance music that definitely had the room on their feet and dancing well into the night.

[youtube width=”640″ height=”385″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2Rq7OA7K9w[/youtube]

K. Lovedub And The Sun (Keller Williams & Scott Sunn)
The Otter House - Fredericksburg, VA
Dance music > Fire On The Mountain / More Than A Little >
More dance music > Don't touch that button > Freeker * >
More dance music > Freshies > More dance music >
Old School hip hop groove > Cosby "Himself" groove **

Encore:
Celebrate Your Youth

* HR Puff N Stuff on the screens
** with thanks

Watch this post or follow my twitter for updates, including audio links and an improved video.

Pics are here.

http://www.kellerwilliams.net

Scott Sunn/Tracer Visuals

Megafaun 2010-06-08

Megafaun played the Iota Club & Cafe in Arlington, Virginia, last night and, if I could set aside my so-called objectivity for a bit, it was awesome.

Got there nice & early because it’s right across the river from my office and too far to go home first. So I had dinner in the area and rolled into the venue right as the band arrived. I had tweeted my request to tape earlier in the day and gotten an affirmative response so I checked in with the band and chatted with the club owner (whom I had heard was sorta tough on tapers but I found him to be very nice) and secured permission and prime position to setup. As the band loaded in and setup, I secured my mics to a pole about 6 feet from the stage, dead center, and about 7 feet high. I taped soundcheck then hung out and met the band. We chatted about a lot of different things including the Gayngs album (on which they all play and in support of which two of the band members will be touring in the fall. Gotta see that!) and an upcoming project for UNC involving Alan Lomax’s field recordings… Continue reading →

Dr. Dog – Shame, Shame

Dr. Dog - Shame, Shame

Great records are like old friends. As we move through life, we often drift apart due to geography, time limitations, other relationships that might have taken precedence, whatever. But, being friends, we reconnect periodically. Some you only see at a party; others for a quiet evening at home. Sometimes you get together and it’s a flurry of intense catching up- reliving details of the past and intervening years- other times history and time passed need not be rehashed and the present can simply be as if there were no time apart. All of this can be true with great albums and even ordinary albums that you love. With “Shame Shame”, Dr. Dog has blended the new with the familiar and crafted a new old friend for all of us. Continue reading →

Godspeed You! Black Emperor Reunites

Pardon my giddiness as I blast this info to all media but I’m very psyched to hear, (via Pitchfork) that the media-eschewing, politically charged, Canadian, post-rock collective will be touring in the Winter.

They will first curate and headline All Tomorrow’s Party’s “Nightmare Before Christmas” in Minehead, UK. Then, according to the announcement on their website, they will play a “handful” of UK and EU dates followed by exactly nine US dates.

Here’s a little taste of what they do:

[youtube width=”480″ height=”385″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rsf2LoLk3SA[/youtube]

2010-03-31 Megafaun with Sharon Van Etten

The Stage Awaits

Last night, in Washington, DC, The Black Cat Backstage (the downstairs, more intimate room at the Black Cat) played host to a great night of music. Sharon Van Etten, who got such great press from NPRMusic during SXSW, opened for the North Carolina based freak folk band, Megafaun and those of us in attendance were definitely given a treat.

Sharon Van etten

From the beginning of Van Etten’s set the crowd stood or sat attentively but with the standard opening-act-respectful-distance-from-stage buffer in place. That, until after the first song, Sharon cut to the chase and encouraged folks to gather close. Buffer broken, so began a well received set of original material (and one cover- see the clip below.) Van Etten’s voice shimmers in the room as she accompanies herself on a striking, red Gibson electric guitar. These, along with her strong lyrics and enchanting sense of humor as she chatted from the stage made it definitely worth arriving early to see and hear her perform.

Check out this brief clip that I shot of her covering Blaze Foley’s “Oooh Love”:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UzO01vruXU[/youtube]

Megafaun came to the stage with no announcement or fanfare and proceeded to gush about being such fans of Sharon Van Etten and how they were thrilled to have finally seen her perform. (in fact, the moment she hit the stage, the trio bounded from the backstage door and into the crowd to watch.) My setlist notes are a jumble but they leaned heavily on the most recent release, “Gather Form & Fly”. I think the opener was “Kaufman’s Ballad” which, with it’s eerie harmonies set a great tone for the night. Continue reading →