Voxtrot
June 15, 2007
Webster Hall, 13th St., NYC.

(Clearly, we're as good as The New York Times -- if not better! Thanks for the exclusive images, Kathryn!)

What can we say? The Voxtrot show last Friday is a memory we'll cherish always.

Give Pinkie a moment, and she'll remind you that there was a time, very, very early in Voxtrot's history, that I wasn't exactly kind to them (a truism for which I've done my penance) and a time that she saw them play for maybe ten people at Habana Calle Six at SXSW 2005. She was one of the first (if not the first) people to write about Voxtrot on the interwebs -- but she's super-modest about that fact. Later, they were our best Valentine's date ever in 2006, and showed us a dang good time at the Mercury Lounge a few months later.

From our perch in VIP (yeah, yeah), we were positively moved to (very happy) tears at the sight of the kids -- about 1,500 of 'em -- dancing and singing along. The bouncing young man in the fedora and suspenders; the two drunk BFF, arms draped around each other blissfully singing along; the tiny little girl on the front row pumping her fist with the beat as if her life depended on it.

And the boys were dazzling. With the Tosca String Quartet (and vibraphone!) in tow, they glittered on the new songs and brought a patina of road-weary wisdom to old favorites. It was a glorious sight. Our favorite little Austin band is no longer just "local music for local people" -- they're a bona fide phenomenon. And Ramesh's songs just keep getting bigger, tighter, angrier -- as demonstrated by the anti-hits of Voxtrot -- yet each is practically overflowing with a pop sensibility you can't find anywhere else these days. (Except maybe in Spoon -- and Voxtrot are certainly the worthy heirs to Austin's elder statesmen of indie rock.)

(And I admit, I was totally chuffed by the shout-out, Jared -- even though I wasn't at that Magnetic Fields show -- Kathryn was! But I'll pretend, for you, that I was in attendance!)

(More pics at Kathryn Yu's Flickr.)

Voxtrot -- Firecracker

Also, four things to remember!

One: Luxxury plays at APT on Thursday!

repost: Luxxury -- Drunk (Lovesick Vocoders at Night remix)

Two: Brooklyn's best AM gold tunesmiths The Silent League (think Todd Rungren meets ELO meets mushy 80's Roxy Music, tied up with what made Beulah awesome -- swingin' horns!) play the Annex on Wednesday, before heading off for their festival stint in the UK.

The Silent League -- Breathe

Three: Minus Story's My Ion Truss is out today. Check out their amazing site with gobs of pictures and secret tracks galore. They're touring later this summer with Shearwater and Old Crane! They also have a tour blog!

Minus Story -- Stitch Me Up
Minus Story -- Joyless, Joyless

Four: Just so you know that we're not totally biased towards one party in the matters of bespoke suiting, check out the work of tailor-to-rockstars Craig Robinson in photos by Rudy Archuleta at The Gallery at the Soho Grand (310 W. Broadway), through August 31.


Devastatingly sexy: Mr. Robinson at Work. (directed by Robinson and Archuleta, edited by Aurelio Valle, music by The Secret Machines)

(photo courtesy of kathryn yu, who is TOTES FAMOUS, yay!)

As noted elsewhere, it's a totally Austin-tastic weekend in NYC.

A quick reminder that darling Voxtrot plays the grand, mold-infested Webster Hall tonight (Friday) early with the assistance of the Tosca String Quartet -- doors are at 6, and they play at 9:15. It's the ADORABLE BOYS vs ADORABLE GIRLS bill -- similarly sweet Brooklynites Au Revoir Simone also play. (Here's hoping the uh, less adorable Favourite Sons' live set has improved (or something) since we saw them last on a bitter winter night earlier this year @ Joe's Pub. ) Anyway, look for the girls in pretty dresses glowing like proud indie rock den mothers -- that'll totally be us. (MySpace)

Voxtrot -- New Love

Elsewhere in the city, raucous geek popsters Peel are invading!!!! Our former favorite band to spot at the grocery store -- it's true, frontman Dakota Smith and I shopped for groceries at the same hours of the night, and we'd meet in frozen foods, or on the shampoo aisle -- is blazing through town, with stops at Matchless Friday (with That Charles Bissell Guy from That Wrens Band, The Antlers, and Cinema, Cinema) and a two-night stand at Piano's Saturday and Sunday. Be there or be quadrilateral, with sides of equal length. (MySpace)

Peel -- Moxy Blues

ps -- Latest addition to the Rich Girls Awesometastic Summer Jams list: Eve's "Tambourine" -- featuring Swizz Beats, and costumed, it seems, entirely by the fine people at American Apparel.



pss -- BONUS REMIXES & ETCETERATA, because we love you ... Fall Out Boy -- Thnks Fr Th Mmrs (The Lindbergh Palace Remix) // Feist -- My Moon, My Man (Damage On The Backseat remix) // Tiga -- You Gonna Want Me (Van She Tech Mix) // Queens of the Stone Age -- White Wedding (Billy Idol cover) // Hail Social -- Cherry Cola Funk (Sta mix)

So, whilst people were having the best time ever over at the Of Montreal show/karaoke jam (it did sound way fun...) at the always-entertaining Studio B, we were having the best time ever seeing Calla at the Bowery Ballroom -- which, given my informal survey after the show and this morning, is proving to be one of everyone's favorite Calla shows ever, it seems (second only to that one last February at Northsix, maybe). They were tight, they were on, and they were brutally lovely. But more on that later... and some other events of the evening, including a nice turn from the Sugar Report and a predictably dull and soul-less (though tight, mind you) set from Dirty on Purpose -- AND the part where we were mistaken for glamorous burlesque queens headed for our shift at The Slipper Room. Color us flattered! Must be my new Chinatown special haircut ($20!) and hot new shoes with the dirty cone heels or Pinkie's high-Weimar Republic makeup scheme, starring Nars' Exhibit A blush and her four-inch dance-a-tattoo-on-yr-grave heels. (No, I'm not kidding. We're still laughing about it, even now. Gotta love NYC.) [Note from Pinkie: Dude, those are five inch heels.]

But for now, we have the second in our two-part series of extra special Voxtrot content, live footage of "Your Biggest Fan" intercut (via the editing skillz of Reynard Seifert) with even more road hijinx and co-starring the Golden Gate Bridge -- I tell you, that tour with Au Revoir Simone is gonna be like the best boy-girl party ever. EVER.



Other big news of the day: So, was the first Interpol show on Canadian pre-release tour lackluster -- or was it first-night jitters? (Were you there? Do tell!) If you're >dyingfor a peek at the new material, head this way (beware of the crappy resolution, though). In other news, you got your tickets for the secret Spoon show at the Bowery Ballroom next Monday, right? Should be a grand old time. They haven't played a venue that small in NYC since ... what, 2001? 2002?

ps -- i fixed the mp3 links on the entry below -- sorry about that. but now, like, the comment link isn't working. WTF? I checked the code, and the bit for the comments just isn't there -- but is on all the other posts. If anyone has suggestions as to what might be going on, please do let me know.

pss -- Brian Banks of Ear to Ear Productions makes $20,000 a pop writing 30-second compositions for commercials -- most of them Fortune 500 companies. Once upon a time, he sold pianos and synths in LA in the 70's and was a session musician -- most notably on Thriller. Now, you hear his compositions several times a day, probably. (via Fortune, link forthcoming)

A few short things before the weekend. I know I'm lagging on my recap of the Xiu Xiu/Shearwater/Casiotone for the Painfully Alone show -- the hosting hijinx earlier in the week really threw me for a loop -- but I do have a few small items for you today.

First -- Calla, Dirty on Purpose, and the newly-retooled Sugar Report take the stage at the Bowery Ballroom Saturday night. The Sugar Report's demos are enough to make us want to see if they can bring it (you know, "it" being that je ne sais quois that the best bands have live) on a bill with two bands that are pretty formidable performance machines. We'll let you know how it goes.

Secondly -- A friend sent me an interesting article, which you may or may not have seen around the interpipe, about violin virtuoso Joshua Bell's experiment with The Washington Post. They asked him to busk with his Stradivarius violin in a busy DC subway station to see what happened when a master of his caliber graced a more humble venue than a vaunted concert hall. Would people notice? Or would it not even register? The results didn't really surprise me all that much -- now that I live in a city constructed atop a massive public transportation system, nothing that happens in a subway station gives me pause. Anyway, I'd like to posit that this is some of the best writing about music, just in general, that I've read in quite some time. I was moved to tears a few times. You'll see -- I have a feeling that if you're reading this, you're the kind of person who'd be touched by it as well.


I wasn't able to get an mp3 of Bell's recording of one of the pieces in the article (though you can watch a video of his performance at the article link) -- Bach's Chaconne from the Partita No. 2 in D Minor -- but I did find another fiery virtuoso's version...

Lara St. John -- Bach's Chaccone from Partitia No. 2 in D minor. [site]

Thirdly -- I'd forgotten how great lovefingers is. (Recent posts: Michael Moorcock's Deep Fix! Tuxedomoon! METALLICA!! A Kid Creole remix! All in one week!) I'm super bummed that I missed his dj sets here in NYC in February. Ooops.

Fourthly -- James Green Peaness has a great review of the self-titled Voxtrot record. As a preview of coming attractions, I suppose I should let you know that my opinions are pretty much aligned with his. VXTST (hey, I just made that up -- I like it as an abbreviation!!) isn't a collection of jangly, light-hearted singles -- it's a hefty bildugsroman-esque (Though, Pinkie tells me that maybe it's more Künstlerroman-y. Smartypants!) album, which I think is pretty neat. I have a weakness for what I call "thinly-veiled semi-autobiographical coming-of-age" novels -- you know, the kind of thing that lots of promising writers put out as their first effort (everything from To Kill a Mockingbird to Less Than Zero to The Mysteries of Pittsburgh to Special Topics in Calamity Physics follow this literary trope -- there are countless others), and most never get around to following up? Yeah, those. That's what the Voxtrot record is like, in a way. (Except I surely hope there will be an exceptional followup!) Anyway, this will make more sense later, I promise.

YOUR OFFICIAL PARTY TRACKS OF TAX WEEKEND, BTW or, I'm cleaning out things I've wanted to post for months now:

Pull Tiger Tail -- Let's Lightning [ myspace ]
The Longcut -- Idiot Check [ myspace ]
Beyoncé -- Irreplaceable (Dances With White Girls RMX) [ remixer ]
Herbert -- The Audience (Martinez Cosmic Re-Edit) [ remixer ]

Wow, what a weekend -- Patrick Wolf, quality time with Shearwater and great sets from Xiu Xiu and Casiotone for the Painfully alone. More on all that later, though.

First, we're happy to have to have our very own exclusive content (does that mean we're really in the big leagues now? oh, I crack myself up...) -- an adorable video from the Voxtrot camp of the band's 2006 Fall tour, set to the strains of "Fast Asleep" off the Mothers, Sisters, Daughters & Wives EP: Five boys in a minivan take on the West Coast!



And, the oft-posted -- and in our humble opinion, totally rad -- teaser for the band's self-titled album, out May 22. Yes, it's darker. Yes, it's not so user-friendly as the earlier stuff. We think that's totally okay -- better than okay, even! Totes perfect.

Voxtrot -- Kid Gloves

...the boys hit the road again soon with the similarly adorbable Au Revoir Simone. BOYS VS GIRLS! Be sure to bring mash notes and cupcakes and hugs, they'll need them -- they're sure to leave a string of broken hearts across America!

05-25 Austin, TX - Emo's
05-29 Los Angeles, CA - El Rey
05-30 San Francisco, CA - Great American Music Hall
06-01 Portland, OR - Doug Fir
06-02 Seattle, WA - Crocodile Cafe
06-05 Minneapolis, MN - Triple Rock
06-06 Grand Rapids, MI - Intersection
06-07 Detroit, MI - Magic Stick
06-08 Toronto, Ontario - Sneaky Dee's
06-11 Cleveland, OH - Beachland
06-12 Baltimore, MD - Ottobar
06-13 Washington, DC - Black Cat
06-14 Boston, MA - Middle East
06-15 New York, NY - Webster Hall
06-16 Philadelphia, PA - Pure

***

In other news, I was at what was apparently the nicest of the Patrick Wolf shows around town this weekend -- at Studio B on Friday night. (And apparently, Kelefa Sanneh was there too, but I didn't spot him -- I also didn't see him at Shearwater's Bowery Ballroom set Sunday, but I assume he was there, too.) Anyway, it was an experience, to say the least: I took the bus alone at night! I walked a long way in heels! I waited in line for ages in the cold and put up with the obnoxious kids behind me erroneously discussing the completion of Mozart's Requiem, praising Rasputina and calling the show a "concert" in a most tedious fashion!

Luckily, once inside the venue, there wasn't a massive, disinterested crowd, as was apparently at the Hiro Ballroom on Thursday. (I tried to go to that show after a lovely dinner at Dimple with the lovely Meg, but promptly turned on my heel when I saw the swelling crowd of wannabe hipsters spilling into the street.) Nor was there drama over the passed out, accosted, and finally uh, unemployed drummer (sad, as he had REALLY NICE HAIR), as at Wolf & band's appearance at MisShapes at Don Hill's on Saturday. (Which also I almost attended as well, and then remembered that it would be more fun to stay home and be boring and give myself a manicure and watch Beauty Shop). However, much to everyone's chagrin, there was a party hostess who blathered like an airheaded dj at a radio remote appearance from hell. I mentioned this to the handsome, mustachioed gent next to me, and he agreed. We were also treated to the worst opening band of all time, Dreamburger. I mean really ladies, if you must get up and scream and play synths in front of people, could ya do it without the bad 80's manqués, and maybe practice a little first? Otherwise, do us a favor, and like, don't subject us to your cutesy/disgusting little-girl slumber party singing-into-a-hairbrush stage antics. OKTHX! (PS -- you might want to watch La Brune et Moi for pointers on how to do it right, yo.) Can I also mention that DJs-of-the-Moment Eamon Harkon and The Bangers' sets were underwhelming at best? Oh, I think I can. (That being said, they do generally book great bills, so uh, don't blackball me, or whatever okay, ya'll?)

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah -- really, for all my complaining, I had a great time. Wolf & band (when conscious) put on a hell of a show -- even if it was a mere 30 minutes long. He has about the most compelling stage presence I've seen in a long, long time -- in a completely organic and charming yet totally and completly affected way, he rocks the punk rock queer Puck role flawlessly, at that liminal point where New Romantic stage melodramatics, Rufus Wainwright, Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy), Antony, and well, yeah Rasputina and their ilk all collide. (No wonder he's such a hit with the LiveJournal set..!)

Much like Eddie Izzard as megalomaniac manager Jerry in Velvet Goldmine -- someone at Universal probably has dollar signs in their eyes right about now, given that the door girl was walking up and down the block outside the club, screaming to make sure no one in the plebian cash-only/will-call line was a guest-listed label VIP. And Wolf's giddy scream-inducing stage antics can't be hurt by that 8.3 review in Pitchfork, either. (Meanwhile, I was totally won over by his cover of Kelly Marie's "Feels Like I'm In Love" -- at least I think that's what it was..? Confirmations/corrections appreciated.)

The hype couldn't be more clearly deserved, IMHO.





Wolf-y selections from the archive:


Patrick Wolf -- Accident and Emergency
Annie -- Hopeless Fool For Love (Patrick Wolf Remix) [which I originally described as "the ABBA-from-another planet remix"]

[photo courtesty of Kathryn Yu]

***

And later ... how I actually physically enabled Shearwater's Kim Burke in the signing of her contract with Matador on the downstairs bar the Bowery Ballroom -- by providing a pen! (Hahahahaha!) But seriously, y'all. Go buy the new version of Palo Santo tomorrow, okay? OKAY! It's sooooo pretty! You'll see! (Really, this necessitates a hard copy and not the iTunes version, all you packaging fetishists!)