Lot of people are liking the new Hiss Golden Messenger (very fine, reviewed for Dusted here). Micah Blue Smaldone's new album The Ring of the Rise is in the same family of folk-based, Neil-Young-style-electrified rock...you could also throw Arbouretum and Red River Dialect into the mix. Micah has been around for a while, and I believe he's playing Peterborough's Thing in the Spring in about a month...might have to check that out. Ring of the Rise is out now on Immune records.
Showing posts with label Arbouretum. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arbouretum. Show all posts
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Arbouretum's in a fog...and so am I
I think I'm on a perfect roll with Arbouretum having reviewed and/or interviewed the band on every album since Rites of Uncovering (still my favorite). So I can't let that slip, can I? Even if it seems like they're sort of making the same album over and over...
My review of Coming Out of the Fog in today's Dusted.
Arbouretum
Coming Out of the Fog
Thrill Jockey
Dave Heumann’s Arbouretum is arguably the best of the millennial classic rock bands, a guitar-fuzzed powerhouse that follows Neil Young’s trampled trail, bending folk and country into surreal shapes through the sheer force of volume and distortion. Coming Out of the Fog is Arbouretum’s fifth full-length, and it is not quite a complaint to say that it is more of the same. Heumann has placed more emphasis on song structure this time out, less on open-ended, jammed improvisation, and the recording quality continues to improve. Still, the basic template is not much different from Rites of Uncovering. As always, these are loud, slow, ponderously heavy songs that explore the conjunction of feedback buzz and intellectual inquiry, 16-bar blues and spiritual struggle.
More
Sean got into Columbia College, not the Ivy college in upper Manhattan but a small-ish, arts oriented school in Chicago, which sent him by far the prettiest acceptance package to date...including a sketch book and a set of stickers. So that's two safe schools, let's see what else he can wrangle.
Meanwhile his audition material is coming along really well. He's doing Trinculo from the Tempest for his comic/classical, Tom from the Glass Menagerie for a contemporary/dramatic and then he's got Edmund's bastard speech from Lear for a back-up. He's got one more that he's been working on, but it's not really coming together the way the others are, so he might try something else, not sure. The two main ones (Trinculo and Tom) are in my humble, biased opinion remarkably good. I'm starting to wonder if he might actually get in somewhere. We'll see.
My review of Coming Out of the Fog in today's Dusted.
Arbouretum
Coming Out of the Fog
Thrill Jockey
Dave Heumann’s Arbouretum is arguably the best of the millennial classic rock bands, a guitar-fuzzed powerhouse that follows Neil Young’s trampled trail, bending folk and country into surreal shapes through the sheer force of volume and distortion. Coming Out of the Fog is Arbouretum’s fifth full-length, and it is not quite a complaint to say that it is more of the same. Heumann has placed more emphasis on song structure this time out, less on open-ended, jammed improvisation, and the recording quality continues to improve. Still, the basic template is not much different from Rites of Uncovering. As always, these are loud, slow, ponderously heavy songs that explore the conjunction of feedback buzz and intellectual inquiry, 16-bar blues and spiritual struggle.
More
Sean got into Columbia College, not the Ivy college in upper Manhattan but a small-ish, arts oriented school in Chicago, which sent him by far the prettiest acceptance package to date...including a sketch book and a set of stickers. So that's two safe schools, let's see what else he can wrangle.
Meanwhile his audition material is coming along really well. He's doing Trinculo from the Tempest for his comic/classical, Tom from the Glass Menagerie for a contemporary/dramatic and then he's got Edmund's bastard speech from Lear for a back-up. He's got one more that he's been working on, but it's not really coming together the way the others are, so he might try something else, not sure. The two main ones (Trinculo and Tom) are in my humble, biased opinion remarkably good. I'm starting to wonder if he might actually get in somewhere. We'll see.
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Couple of things I've been listening to
I've been on some deadlines lately, listening pretty hard to records that I have to write about quickly. Live show reviews, in my view the most rushed of music writing projects (because you have to write before you forget what you saw and can't make out your handwriting), have taken up more than usual of my time.
So, I haven't been listening to as much random stuff, but there's been some, namely:
The Swell Maps, Jane From Occupied Europe...truly mental proto-post-punk from 1980. I like "Blenheim Shots" the best, sort of a straightforward banger, but there's very little that's straightforward about this album.
Rangda, Formerly Extinct...haven't really gotten to the bottom of this one, since it's not out until September-ish. It's a second album from Richard Bishop, Ben Chasny and Chris Corsano has, like the first one, a jawdroppingly beautiful long track ("White Nile") right in the middle. I don't think there's any free audio anywhere yet.
Arbouretum, Covered in Leaves...Rob sent me this live album from one of my favorite bands, and I'm liking it a lot, especially the cover of Pure Prairie League's "Amy" (Arbouretum spells it "Amie").
I'm also kind of enjoying the new Mojo compilation The Roots of the Rolling Stones...a bunch of early rock and blues tunes that everybody's heard ("Suzy Q" "I Just Wanna Make Love", "Not Fade Away") but nobody could mind hearing again.
So, I haven't been listening to as much random stuff, but there's been some, namely:
The Swell Maps, Jane From Occupied Europe...truly mental proto-post-punk from 1980. I like "Blenheim Shots" the best, sort of a straightforward banger, but there's very little that's straightforward about this album.
Rangda, Formerly Extinct...haven't really gotten to the bottom of this one, since it's not out until September-ish. It's a second album from Richard Bishop, Ben Chasny and Chris Corsano has, like the first one, a jawdroppingly beautiful long track ("White Nile") right in the middle. I don't think there's any free audio anywhere yet.
Arbouretum, Covered in Leaves...Rob sent me this live album from one of my favorite bands, and I'm liking it a lot, especially the cover of Pure Prairie League's "Amy" (Arbouretum spells it "Amie").
I'm also kind of enjoying the new Mojo compilation The Roots of the Rolling Stones...a bunch of early rock and blues tunes that everybody's heard ("Suzy Q" "I Just Wanna Make Love", "Not Fade Away") but nobody could mind hearing again.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Arbouretum, Carl Jung and the great outdoors
I interview Dave Heumann about his really excellent new-ish Arbouretum album The Gathering today at PopMatters.
The Natural Order: An Interview With Dave Heumann of Arbouretum
By Jennifer Kelly 2 May 2011
“The feeling of being out in nature and disconnected from the man-made world can create different thought patterns. It can generate a different state of mind,” says Dave Heumann the songwriter for Arbouretum. “If I’m out in the woods and go to a quarry for a swim and hike around, my mental state is going to be qualitatively very different than if I sit inside my apartment and screw around on Facebook all day.”
Aptly enough, Heumann is walking through the woods when I ask him about his connection to nature. Yes, he’s on a path in north Baltimore, not an Appalachian trail. Yes, he’s on his way to a coffee shop, not about to cook porridge over a flintlock fire. But the fact remains that he’s in a forest, which is exactly where you’d expect Heumann to be after hearing even a fragment of Arbouretum’s guitar-wrenching, distortion-fuzzed take on rustic rock and roll.
Heumann is the kind of songwriter who, when he slips in a lyric about a tree or a bird or a running river, seems to have actually observed such objects, not just read about them in books. There’s something elemental about his fuzzed-drenched, Americana-infused anthems, something both grounded and deeply mystical. His fourth and latest album, The Gathering fuses the guitar heroics of Jimi Hendrix and Neil Young with the weathered calm of Kris Kristofferson or Michael Hurley. It also includes a good helping of the otherworldly, partly inspired by a fascination with Carl Jung and his Red Book.
A link to the rest
“Destroying to Save”
In other news, we won our first track meet at Keene Middle School on both the girls' and boys' side. Also Saturday at our big home relays meet (an enormous headache getting everybody onto a team with two boys and two girls and then a quarter of the team doesn’t show up and we have to rejigger everything at the last minute), we tied with Keene for the win. Keene is probably twice as big as our school, so tying is like winning. So track is off to a pretty good start. Aside from feeling exhausted and like I’ve been nibbled to death by mosquitos (for an inkling of the experience, get someone to ask you: “Is this a relay?” thirty times in a row and each time, answer, “Yes, everything’s a relay today.”), I’m enjoying the coaching. I really like the kids, even when they’re driving me crazy.
Also, on Sunday, I bought a new laptop to replace one that finally died last month, so I can download promos again.
And finally, I’m reading This Band Could be Your Life right now and enjoying it immensely, but could use some Black Flag if anyone wants to share.
The Natural Order: An Interview With Dave Heumann of Arbouretum
By Jennifer Kelly 2 May 2011
“The feeling of being out in nature and disconnected from the man-made world can create different thought patterns. It can generate a different state of mind,” says Dave Heumann the songwriter for Arbouretum. “If I’m out in the woods and go to a quarry for a swim and hike around, my mental state is going to be qualitatively very different than if I sit inside my apartment and screw around on Facebook all day.”
Aptly enough, Heumann is walking through the woods when I ask him about his connection to nature. Yes, he’s on a path in north Baltimore, not an Appalachian trail. Yes, he’s on his way to a coffee shop, not about to cook porridge over a flintlock fire. But the fact remains that he’s in a forest, which is exactly where you’d expect Heumann to be after hearing even a fragment of Arbouretum’s guitar-wrenching, distortion-fuzzed take on rustic rock and roll.
Heumann is the kind of songwriter who, when he slips in a lyric about a tree or a bird or a running river, seems to have actually observed such objects, not just read about them in books. There’s something elemental about his fuzzed-drenched, Americana-infused anthems, something both grounded and deeply mystical. His fourth and latest album, The Gathering fuses the guitar heroics of Jimi Hendrix and Neil Young with the weathered calm of Kris Kristofferson or Michael Hurley. It also includes a good helping of the otherworldly, partly inspired by a fascination with Carl Jung and his Red Book.
A link to the rest
“Destroying to Save”
In other news, we won our first track meet at Keene Middle School on both the girls' and boys' side. Also Saturday at our big home relays meet (an enormous headache getting everybody onto a team with two boys and two girls and then a quarter of the team doesn’t show up and we have to rejigger everything at the last minute), we tied with Keene for the win. Keene is probably twice as big as our school, so tying is like winning. So track is off to a pretty good start. Aside from feeling exhausted and like I’ve been nibbled to death by mosquitos (for an inkling of the experience, get someone to ask you: “Is this a relay?” thirty times in a row and each time, answer, “Yes, everything’s a relay today.”), I’m enjoying the coaching. I really like the kids, even when they’re driving me crazy.
Also, on Sunday, I bought a new laptop to replace one that finally died last month, so I can download promos again.
And finally, I’m reading This Band Could be Your Life right now and enjoying it immensely, but could use some Black Flag if anyone wants to share.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Couple good ones, up this week at Dusted
Both Mirah’s (a)spera and Arbouretum’s Song of the Pearl have a pretty good shot at my mid-year top ten…along with, let’s see, Lotus Plaza’s Floodlight Collective, Ty Segall’s ST (if you count stuff from 2008), Animal Collective’s Merriweather Post Pavillon, Zero Boys Vicious Circle (if you count stuff from 1981), Vetiver’s new one (sorry Clif, I really it) and, possibly, not sure yet two listens in, Akron Family.
And coincidentally, I reviewed both Mirah (“Mirah picks her soft, knowing way through songs that soothe even as they challenge. Her melodies curl gently up into question marks, as she asks you to make sense of life and love and loss.”) and Arbouretum (“With Song of the Pearl, Arbouretum’s third album, Heumann’s band slips slightly, but distinctly, into the rock side of the equation. It has a denser, more cohesive sound, more defined rhythms and richer arrangements -- and yet lacks some of the subterranean pull of its predecessor.”) this week at Dusted.
I can’t find anything new for either artist, but here’s Arbouretum’s “Mohammed’s Hex and Bounty” from the second album.
And here’s Mirah just down the road at the Iron Horse, playing “Telephone Wires”
And coincidentally, I reviewed both Mirah (“Mirah picks her soft, knowing way through songs that soothe even as they challenge. Her melodies curl gently up into question marks, as she asks you to make sense of life and love and loss.”) and Arbouretum (“With Song of the Pearl, Arbouretum’s third album, Heumann’s band slips slightly, but distinctly, into the rock side of the equation. It has a denser, more cohesive sound, more defined rhythms and richer arrangements -- and yet lacks some of the subterranean pull of its predecessor.”) this week at Dusted.
I can’t find anything new for either artist, but here’s Arbouretum’s “Mohammed’s Hex and Bounty” from the second album.
And here’s Mirah just down the road at the Iron Horse, playing “Telephone Wires”
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Two from Dusted
Lots of stuff going up in various places this week…here are a couple of records that I’ve really been into lately, reviewed in Dusted yesterday and today:
Giant Sand
Provisions
Yep Roc
Howe Gelb’s last record Sno Angel Like You enlisted the gospel choir, the Voices of Praise, to fill out his sound, his cracked and wandering voice set against harmonies and counterpoints. It was, many people thought, a career highlight. With Provisions, he is back to a more minimalist sound, relying primarily on his ‘00s band – drummer Peter Dombernowsky, guitarist Anders Pederson and bassist Thoger Lund – to craft dark and open-ended grooves. Not surprisingly, given Gelb’s history of rampant collaboration, a few guests appear: M. Ward trades rockabilly licks with Gelb on the Cash-like "Can Do”; a brass band materializes once or twice; and Isobel Campbell and Neko Case add a soft balm to feverish cuts.
And yet, it’s mostly the band – brought together for Gelb’s 2002 solo effort The Listener and reconvened for Giant Sand’s 2004 Is All Over the Map – that defines Provisions. Their interaction – loose and shambling rather than rigidly controlled, oblique and implicative rather than overtly melodic – makes the record seem less like a manifesto and more like a rumination.
Consider "Increments of Love,” with its backslider’s brushes-on-snares shuffle, abrupt flares of blues guitar and deep wells of negative space. You never lose sight, during this song or most of the record’s first half, that the band started with a blank canvas and added sparingly, listening to one another as they went, and perhaps, subtracting as often as they built. This is as close to a single as Provisions has, and yet, it’s subtle, soft-spoken and very loosely put together. The most structured normal-sounding song on the CD is, not surprisingly, a PJ Harvey cover ("The Desperate Kingdom of Love”).
More
“Increments of Love”
Pontiak
Sun on Sun
Thrill Jockey
Kale, Pontiak’s split with Arbouretum last summer was most people’s first taste of this band’s country tinged, trance-rock, but it was also, chronologically, its latest work. Pontiak’s second album Sun on Sun is getting wide release roughly two months later, and if the debut Valley of Cats reappears after that, the whole backwards movie will be complete. For now, listeners are in the unusual position of getting to know Pontiak the way they get to know most of their friends: starting with the present and working backwards to understand where they came from.
It does turn the idea of context on its head, though. Normally, you study the album you’ve just received (the "new" one) in light of all the others you’ve heard. Where did it come from? What were they working on before, and how did it turn into what you’ve got here? This time, the process is reversed. You’re looking for seeds that might have sprouted into what you know...and that’s harder. Acorns are so much smaller than oak trees. Still if the split with Arbouretum was bounded by polar opposites - the desert rock dirge of "Dome Under the Sky,” the light and playful John Cale cover ("Believe Me Mr. Wilson") - you can find inklings of that wide focus in Sun on Sun.
More
“Shell Skull”
“White Mice”
Giant Sand
Provisions
Yep Roc
Howe Gelb’s last record Sno Angel Like You enlisted the gospel choir, the Voices of Praise, to fill out his sound, his cracked and wandering voice set against harmonies and counterpoints. It was, many people thought, a career highlight. With Provisions, he is back to a more minimalist sound, relying primarily on his ‘00s band – drummer Peter Dombernowsky, guitarist Anders Pederson and bassist Thoger Lund – to craft dark and open-ended grooves. Not surprisingly, given Gelb’s history of rampant collaboration, a few guests appear: M. Ward trades rockabilly licks with Gelb on the Cash-like "Can Do”; a brass band materializes once or twice; and Isobel Campbell and Neko Case add a soft balm to feverish cuts.
And yet, it’s mostly the band – brought together for Gelb’s 2002 solo effort The Listener and reconvened for Giant Sand’s 2004 Is All Over the Map – that defines Provisions. Their interaction – loose and shambling rather than rigidly controlled, oblique and implicative rather than overtly melodic – makes the record seem less like a manifesto and more like a rumination.
Consider "Increments of Love,” with its backslider’s brushes-on-snares shuffle, abrupt flares of blues guitar and deep wells of negative space. You never lose sight, during this song or most of the record’s first half, that the band started with a blank canvas and added sparingly, listening to one another as they went, and perhaps, subtracting as often as they built. This is as close to a single as Provisions has, and yet, it’s subtle, soft-spoken and very loosely put together. The most structured normal-sounding song on the CD is, not surprisingly, a PJ Harvey cover ("The Desperate Kingdom of Love”).
More
“Increments of Love”
Pontiak
Sun on Sun
Thrill Jockey
Kale, Pontiak’s split with Arbouretum last summer was most people’s first taste of this band’s country tinged, trance-rock, but it was also, chronologically, its latest work. Pontiak’s second album Sun on Sun is getting wide release roughly two months later, and if the debut Valley of Cats reappears after that, the whole backwards movie will be complete. For now, listeners are in the unusual position of getting to know Pontiak the way they get to know most of their friends: starting with the present and working backwards to understand where they came from.
It does turn the idea of context on its head, though. Normally, you study the album you’ve just received (the "new" one) in light of all the others you’ve heard. Where did it come from? What were they working on before, and how did it turn into what you’ve got here? This time, the process is reversed. You’re looking for seeds that might have sprouted into what you know...and that’s harder. Acorns are so much smaller than oak trees. Still if the split with Arbouretum was bounded by polar opposites - the desert rock dirge of "Dome Under the Sky,” the light and playful John Cale cover ("Believe Me Mr. Wilson") - you can find inklings of that wide focus in Sun on Sun.
More
“Shell Skull”
“White Mice”
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