The Decemberists and the Hazards of Love (9-20, Burlington, VT)

I never got around to formally reviewing The Decemberist’s latest album, The Hazards of Love, when it was released this past spring, but when I saw that they were coming up Vermont, I elected to hold off until I’d watched them in person and kill two birds with one stone.

The Decemberists is a group that I admittedly have a hard time with. They were largely introduced to me through a now-ex girlfriend, bringing back some memories that I’ve not really thought about for a long time. Initially, I really disliked these guys to begin with. I hadn’t gotten to the point where I would sit down and process songs – I just didn’t like the sound. That changed when I listened their first major record, The Crane Wife, which I really enjoyed. Listening to them a bit more, I really got into their lyrics and began to enjoy some of their earlier songs as well, although I still think that the Crane Wife is one of their best albums to date.

The Hazards of Love, then, was an interesting experience. Initially, I wasn’t as fond of it. It was a little too out there, I remember thinking, after my first listen through it. A friend of mine told me that he liked it more, because of the prog-rock roots and connected nature of the entire album. This prompted me to go back and listen to it a couple more times with this in mind, plus a little research through the internet to some of the themes and references throughout, and I enjoyed it a lot more.

The Hazards of Love was initially conceived as a rock-musical, of sorts. Several additional singers (Becky Stark of Lavender Diamond, Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond and Jim James of My Morning Jacket) were brought in to sing the various ‘parts’ that make their appearances throughout the story. The first song really sets the story in motion, when Margaret, voiced by Stark, comes across a shape-shifting fawn, and they fall in love. She then becomes pregnant and goes off to find William (the fawn). We later learn that his mother, the Forest Queen had cast a spell upon him (this is influenced by a number of mythologies – she had saved his life in a river when he was a baby) and he can only remain human during the night. The Queen caught William, and he bargains her for a single night of freedom to be with Margaret. The Queen agrees, at a cost – one night, and after that, his freedom is hers.
We’re then introduced to the character of the Rake, who’s killed his children and when he comes across Margaret, he kidnaps her and takes her to the Annan Waters (the same river where William was rescued). The Queen comes across the Rake, and knowing that Margaret is the only thing that can take William from her, she offers to take Margaret and the Rake across to cause everyone some misery. The Rake continues to escape, but is haunted by the ghosts of his children, and in the struggle, William catches up, and kills the Rake. However, to cross the river the first time, William offered up his body to the waters once again, and when they attempt to cross, and together, they drown in the river.

Like the rest of the Decemberists songs, this is a very complicated album. The themes alone are characteristic of the group, as are their lyrics, and after working out just what this album is about, I absolutely love it. When I finally realized the good parts of the Decemberists, their lyrics, complicated stories and sound, I really got into it, and this is much the same case here. The Hazards of Love is a stunning, complicated and beautiful album. I highly recommend giving it a good solid listen – be warned, this is the sort of album that requires you to really pay attention to the lyrics.

Last night, The Decemberists appeared at the Flynn Theater in Burlington, Vermont, opened by Laura Veirs and the Hall of Flames. The Flames were decent, but a newer band that really sounded like they were learning their sound. At times, they sounded fairly good – when all were singing together. Veirs on her own felt very unsupported, and out of place. Hopefully we’ll hear a bit more from them, improved, in the future.

The Decemberists as a group are a fantastic live act, and the Flynn was a fantastic place to see them live. Unfortunately, my phone died, and I was unable to take down the set list. According to Colin Meloy, they intended to play The Hazards of Love in its entirety, but because Becky Stark’s flight was cancelled, they improvised, playing a mixed set of old and new songs. There were a number of notable songs that they played, from 16 Military Wives, Apology Song, The Crane Wife 3, as well as a couple of older, more obscure ones that I didn’t know the names off the top of my head.

One of the things that really impressed me was at how much of the show was a group act, not Colin Meloy supported by the remaining band members. Throughout the show, given the nature of the album and their songs, it seemed like the sound was put together by everyone, each with an integral part that made the result what it was. While Meloy was certainly one of the more visible parts of the group, it’s a group effort, through and through.

I was also impressed with the sheer energy and drama that they brought forth from the stage. The group was already fairly theatrical, from what I’d heard, but once again, given the nature of Hazards, there was certainly a bit of acting between some of the singers during those songs. Shara Worden provided a stunning stage presence with her other-worldly like appearance of the Forest Queen, as well as her cover of Crazy On Me, originally by Heart. I really wish that I had been able to see the full performance of Hazards, because I suspect that would really be something to see. Hopefully the group will feel the need to make it up to Burlington, and return again in the near future.

Album Review: Nothing Rhymes With Woman

My favorite group, Carbon Leaf, is back with their third major label record, Nothing Rhymes With Woman, the followup to their fantastic Love Loss Hope Repeat, released in 2006 on Vanguard Records. Over the past three years, they’ve been touring in support of that album, while working on new material. They’ve come up with what is possibly one of my favorite albums from the group, (although Echo Echo, their last independent release will always be my absolute favorite), and Nothing Rhymes With Woman showcases the best of what Carbon Leaf has to offer.

Where Love Loss Hope Repeat was fairly consistent throughout when it came to tone and theme, Nothing Rhymes With Woman is far more varied, and at my first listen, it felt like a step backwards. However, with several more plays through the disc, I’ve come to believe that the album has a far more nostalgic theme to it. Where Love Loss Hope Repeat was tightly structured around the idea that falling in love and out of it again is akin to the passing of the seasons, it came with a fairly dark and somewhat somber feel to the album as a whole. Nothing Rhymes With Woman feels far more free and lively in comparison, if a bit less connected together when it comes to the overall sound and feel to the album.

In a way, this album feels like it should fall between Indian Summer and Love Loss Hope Repeat. There’s a share of the more thoughtful, lyrical songs, such as Mexico, Lake of Silver Bells, Pink and Snowfall Music, more lively, free songs, such as Indecision, Miss Hollywood, Cinnamindy, What Have You Learned, and X-Ray, while there’s a couple harder songs such as Another Man’s Woman and Meltdown.

This is also the first foray for the group with their two new members, Jason Neal and Jon Markel, who replaced Scott Milstead and Jordan Medas on drums and bass, respectively. The change doesn’t seem to have effected the group all that much, although I can somewhat detect some differences there, but nothing overly noticeable. The other three members, Barry Privett, on vocals, Terry Clark and Carter Gravatt, both on guitar, sound excellent as ever – their overall sound feels tighter, more mature and overall is easily at their best – this is something that I’ve noticed on the numerous concerts that I’ve attended for these guys, and it’s fantastic to hear it translate into this album so readily.

The overall feel to this album is that it is nostalgic, looking back to good times. Indeed, the opening track, Indecision, contains the lines: “I face the trail of the old lonesome pine, I catch a glimpse, flickers of brilliance, straight ahead for what’s left behind. Long days, fade away, I hope to see them again.” and “I may get lost but I’ll know where I’ve been.” Lonesome Pine was a track from Echo Echo, and I can’t help but wonder if this album is an attempt to go back to that style – a number of songs, such as Indecision, Lake of Silver Bells and Drops of Rain feel as if they could fit on that album quite easily.

The idea of nostalgia is prevalent throughout the album, and there are two tracks in particular that really highlight this - X-Ray, which looks back to the rosy boyhood days on summer vacation, something that I myself remember fairly fondly, and Pink, which looks at a woman dying of cancer, looking back to the days before her illness. Looking back towards better days isn’t necessarily a bad thing – in this album, it shines, as each song looks back towards good times gone by, as well as some bad ones, but there’s a parallel feeling that there’s more to come, that there’ll be more to look upon in the future. I especially got this feeling with What Have You Learned, a quasi-breakup song that looks at the failure of a relationship, but also looking at what good can come from such an event in one’s life.

Of all the songs on the album, my absolute favorite is Lake of Silver Bells. It’s a gorgeous song that starts off smoothly before everything kicks into high gear about a minute into the song. This is the perfect song to drive along with the windows down, the volume up, and falls well within Carbon Leaf’s tendencies to write very descriptive and lyrical songs, and it feels very much like the album that I like the most, Echo Echo, for much of those reasons. Thus far, it’s easily the best album that I’ve listened to all year, and undoubtedly (and I’m a bit biased here) one of my favorites for the year.

Download Lake of Silver Bells. (It’s okay, the record company okayed this one.)

Bryan Dondero to Depart the Nocturnals

According to Vermont’s largest daily newspaper, Bassist Bryan Dondero is departing from the popular VT band, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, raising some issues that he had with the band and their creative direction. The recent move has forced the band to cancel several shows (Revolution Hall in Troy, NY on March 25th; The 8×10 in Baltimore, MD on March 26th; and Mr. Small’s in Millvale, PA on March 27th) that were coming at the end of the month, although there is no word as to whether the band will continue at Bonnaroo.

The article cited Dondero’s displeasure with the band’s move to a major record label in 2007 for their fantastic album This Is Somewhere, which marked a noted change from funk-soul in the band’s style to something more along the likes of classic rock. In the article, he stated: “I was always a little skeptical, they’re owned by Disney.” He then goes on to note that he and Potter disagreed on several points, and that he felt that he was going to be asked to leave the band.

This is a bit surprising, at least to me. I’ve been a huge fan of the Nocturnals since I started listening to them several years ago, and being from the same place, and indeed, attending the same high school as Grace, it’s been absolutely fantastic to see the band grab so much attention as they have in the past couple of years. The group has largely been seen to have been a great creative force, and it’s unclear as to how this will affect the band, especially as they are working on their next major record label album.

This also brings up the argument about indie vs. major label records. Obviously, there is far more creative control when it comes to an independant record, as the band found with their first two albums, which gained them quite a bit of notice around the state, and only with the major record, were they able to gain even more attention on a nation-wide level, especialy with appearances on Jay Leno, Grey’s Anatomy and One Tree Hill.

That being said, Potter’s latest single, I Want Something I Want is a huge departure from her normal style, and even I’ve been a little disapointed with the stylistic change here – it’s an incredibly shallow and pop-ish song, far below what we’ve come to expect from her. It’s not a bad song alone, but within the context of what we’ve heard before, it doesn’t come close. However, the Nocturnals are on the rise, and it should come to no surprise that they will have to sacrifice some style and independance for the attention. While it’s not a good situation, they can do far more later on, as well as with their live shows, which are incredibly energetic and exciting to watch.

I really hope that the Nocturnals will find another bassist in the near future, so that they can continue to play around the area, as well as complete their new album, but I hope that they won’t forget their Vermont roots and where they came from, because that would be an enormous amount of talent that would be squandered with the regular, consumer level music. The Nocturnals are much better than that. I also hope that this doesn’t spell any more problems for the band, because I’ll be very, very sad if they break apart.

(Originally posted to Carry You Away)
Image from Flickr

Review: Gossip in the Grain

Ever since I’ve started up my music blog, I’ve come across hundreds of new artists and found a lot that I’ve liked, and a lot that I haven’t liked. But, there are only a handful of artists whom I literally count down the days until I can pick up their new album. This is the case with Ray LaMontagne, whom I’ve been a fan of since his first release, Trouble.

Gossip in the Grain is his most personal, emotional and well crafted album, and is easily one of the best albums of the year. It comes as an extremely bittersweet release for me, because a number of the songs hit so close to home for me that it literally knocked the breathe out of me during a couple of songs.

Gossip expands the sound of Trouble and Till the Sun Turns Black, building on the sound and feel of both extremely well, while not being boxed into any particular mode – this album represents an evolution in his sound – very similar to what Amos Lee did with his own third album earlier this summer, Last Days at the Lodge. The album opens with horns in the opening track, You Are The Best Thing. The playlist reads like a story – a love story, with all the hurt, joy and love with You Are the Best Thing, Let It Be Me, Sarah, I Still Care For You, and later, with Falling Through. This is the section that is absolutely brilliant, but at times, far too relatable, at least for me.

There are tracks that are easily some of the best that LaMontagne has done thus far. In addition to the aforementioned tracks, Meg White proves to be a fun listen to singer Meg White, of the White Stripes, Henry Nearly Killed Me (It’s a Shame), and the title track, Gossip in the Grain. There’s a wide variety of emotion and sound, and we see LaMontagne at vulnerable times, and when the cuffs come off and the sound takes right off. With this, there’s a wide blend of rock, acoustic, bluegrass and country brought in here to build a fantastic sound.

This album is easily one of the best of the year, and its sure to make a high point on my end of the year lists. Its emotion, energy and spirit sets this far above most of the albums that I’ve listened to, and proves that LaMontagne is still capable to release better material as his music career ages, and that he is one of the best, and defining musicians of the decade.

I’m particularly excited to see LaMontagne live tomorrow night – he is one of the artists on my priority to see list, and it’ll be nice to see his performance live. Gossip in the Grain is due out next Tuesday, October 14th.

Bon Iver

(Photo from the New York Times)

Usually, I relegate talk of music to my music blog, Carry You Away. I love music, and through my work on that site, I’m finding a lot of new bands, most that I most likely would have never found anyway. Every now and again, I find an artist that just stops me in my tracks. It doesn’t happen very often, although I come across a number of artists that I really do like.

The artist that I’m thinking of now is Bon Iver. I first came across him back in January, when Bob Boylan of NPR’s All Songs Considered raved about him. Listening to one song, I think Flume, I was hooked from the first notes. With a little digging, I found that Bon Iver is the name of Justin Vernon, who essentially went to the wilderness to get away from the world. With minimal recording equipment, he came back with his album, For Emma, Forever Ago.

How to describe this artist in one word… sublime. The first word that popped into my head was beauty. Vernon’s singing is haunting, delicate and graceful, with lyrics that resonate, if a bit odd for some of the songs.

From Re: Stacks:

This is not the sound of a new man or crispy realization
It’s the sound of the unlocking and the lift away
Your love will be
Safe with me

Much of the album is simple guitar and vocals, but every now and then you’ll get a burst of sound that startles you to attention. It flows, and there’s a perfect balance between the vocals and lyrics here. Easily, this is one of the best artists that I’ve ever come across.

Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!

For my master’s, the subject matter has changed from historigraphy to more historical study, which is great. The title for this 11 week course has been The Western Way of War, which examines the nature to which the west (Europe) conducts conflicts. Non-west generally refers to everything not in Europe – with the exception of areas that have been completely colonized by European powers – Asia, the Middle East, Africa, etc. It’s a facinating subject.

Something that I came across last year was a song by Corb Lund and the Hurtin’ Albertans, the title track from their latest album, Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier. While I was listening to my iPod yesterday, this came up, and I realized that it was a pretty good representation of the changes in warfare, but also some of the elements of Western vs. Non-Western conflict.

The following are some excerpts from the lyrics:

I’s with Custer and the 7th in ‘76 or ‘77
Scalped at Little Big Horn by the Sioux
And the pain and desperation of a once proud warrior nation
This I know ‘cause I was riding with them too

This line concerns the use of the US cavalry during the plains wars that followed the American Civil War. This time period was an interesting time in military history, because it’s an interesting clash between technologically superior Western forces, against a numerically and technologically inferior non-western force. What makes this interesting is how the Native Americans adapted numerous Western innovations, such as the horse and gunpowder technology, while not becoming a western force.
What this also brings up is the question to how much crossover can there be between styles of warfare, and to what extent can a foreign power become a Western one? Does borrowing western technology make the Native Americans western? I believe the general consensus is no – and I don’t think that it does. The Native Americans never adopted disciplined, rank and file forces, an infrastructure that supported offensive weapons creation or anything along those lines.

I drank mare’s blood on the run when I rode with the Great Khan
On the frozen Mongol steppe when at his height
I’s a White Guard, I’s a White Guard, I’s the Tsar’s own palace horse guard
When Nicholas was martyred in the night

Here, we have a look at the use of the Horse by the Mongols, then a little about the Russians. The Mongols are an interesting group of people, because they were numerically inferior to all those that they conquered, but ruled that part of the world anyway. One reason was because of their use of mounted forces, combined with mounted archers. Their dependence on cavalry is one reason why they didn’t operate very effectively in Europe – there was a distinct lack of grazing land that was otherwise available to them in Asia.

I knew Salah al-Din and rode his swift Arabians
Harassing doomed crusaders on their heavy drafts
And yet I rode the Percheron against the circling Musselman
And once again against myself was cast

One of my lessons focused on the clash between the Middle East and the West during the crusades, where mounted forces proved to be crucial. Where European forces were quick to adopt technology (this is one of the big aspects of the WWoW), Muslim forces were not, mainly because of the nature to which they relied on Cav forces – as a result, their tactics were very quick, utilizing ambushes and strikes. Given how slowly technology evolved, especially with items such as artillery, it wasn’t feasible for them to really utilize those.

On hire from Swiss or Sweden, be me Christian, be me heathen
The devil to the sabre I shall put
With a crack flanking maneuver, I’m an uhlan alles uber
Striking terror into regiment of foot

This refers to the military revolution, or just before. The use of Cavalry was a dominant thing in the battlefield during the middle ages up through to the point where gunpowder sparked a major revolution in how wars were fought – not so much with the actual use of firearms, but the discipline and infrastructure, not to mention the role to which governments supported war, helped bring combat to a much more modern style. This included the use of rank and file infantry, where the use of Cavalry suddenly became diminished, because large groups of massed soldiers proved to be a very effective means of countering this.

I knew my days were numbered when o’er the trenches lumbered
More modern machinations de la guerre
No match for rapid fire or the steel birds of the sky
With a final rear guard action I retreat
No match for tangled wire or the armoured engines whine
Reluctant I retire and take my leave

Today I ride with special forces on those wily Afghan horses
Dostum’s Northern Alliance give their thanks
No matter defeat or victory, in battle it occurs to me
That we may see a swelling in our ranks

These last two sections refer to the essential replacement of Cavalry forces, except in small circumstances, such as US special forces using them in Afghanistan. Starting with the American Civil War, one can really trace the growth of modern warfare through to the two world wars, where items such as Machine guns and armored vehicles, took control, and have since pushed the use of horses off from their traditional uses. The last parts of the song reference Polish lancers charging German tanks, as is what happened in the Second World War, and shows the degree to which technology can be used and replaces obsolete aspects of combat in the Western Way of War.

Overall, the song is an interesting look at the ways in which horses have been used in battle over the years, from very early on to within a couple of years, and speaks to the nostalgic image of the mounted soldiers.

Watch/Listen to the song here:

Random Stuff

• I’m liking this blogroll application that Blogger has allowed to be added to blogs. There’s been a bunch that I’ve tracked over the years, but this lays them out in a neat manner, and arranges them according to when they’ve been updated, via RSS Feed. I’ve grouped the history ones, people I talk to, Authors I follow and my other two blogs (501st and Music) together to make things easier for me.

• Residency is here at Norwich University. I’ve been back and forth between campus, working extra hours while all of our students have been here. It’s been interesting thus far. I’ve sat in on one presentation, Explorations in Military Effectiveness, which was facinating, and I’ll write up something about it at some point.

• Did a troop at the Montpelier Kellogg-Hubbard Library with our newest Vermont storm trooper, Mike, which went pretty well. Details here.

• I get to see José González tomorrow night at the Higher Ground! So excited to see him in person, finally.

• Anna’s coming up on Friday for the weekend and a couple days. Can’t wait for that.

• George Carlin died yesterday, at the age of 71, from heart failure. Undoubtedly, he would have something funny to say about it.

Alternate Routes & Paolo Nutini

I went out to the Higher Ground to catch The Alternate Routes and Paolo Nutini as they played a couple of good sets of music up here. The Alternate Routes have been up here in Vermont before, and I was able to see them at their free concert back in July. Paolo Nutini, I’d heard of, as he’s been on the radio with his two singles.

The Alternate Routes opened, and played a fairly good set this time around. It was a bit of an improvement over their July performance, and it was a bit of a shorter set, and they had concentrated on their better songs. Consequencely, their songs were pretty fast, which brought the crowd into full gear by the middle of their set until their finale. They once again used their toolbox & microphone combination during Fourtune Teller (I really hope that this makes it into their next album, whenever that is.) and they got the crowd singing along for My Old Lady. They pulled out an incredible amoung of energy for their time on stage. They’re still a new band, and had a couple of moments where they stumbled a little. They talked a little much between songs, but they’ve really started playing much better together as a group. Above all, it looked like they were having fun.

Set List:
- Shelly
- Time Is A Runaway
- California
- Going Home With You
- Roxanne (Tease, The Police)
- Fortune Teller (Toolbox)
- Aftermath
- Ordinary
- My Old Lady

Paolo Nutini is an artist that I don’t know a whole lot about, andreally didn’t have a whole lot of time to research them. I’ve listenedto New Shoes a number of times, and was fairly surprised at how raspy hesounded, as if he’s been on tour for a long time. He was also a bithunched over and seemed shy on stage in front of everyone, and took acouple of songs to really get a good flow going. They really kicked inwhen they got Trouble So High, a cover song, where the reggae sound really complimented his vocal work.

It took a while to get used to his voice, but it’s different, and worked pretty well with his songs. The faster songs worked the best with him, such as New Shoes, Last Request and Trouble So High, as well as a couple of others. He also did a number of covers – 3 – which seemed like quite a bit compared to other concerts that I’ve gone to. By the end, it looked like he was beginning to enjoy himself, and the crowd certainly seemed to be enjoying the act – he was the main focus of the night, and the crowd got into his music much faster than they did with the Alternate Routes.

Set List
- Alloway Groove
- New Shoes
- Rewind
- These Streets
- Autumn
- Natural Blues (Moby Cover)
- Millions Faces
- 55 to 1 (New Song)
- Everybody’s Talking (Harry Nielssen Cover)
- Last Request
- Rainbows
- Jenny, Don’t Be Hasty
Encore
- Millions of Stones?
- I Wan’na Be Like You (Louis Prima & Phil Harris Cover – From the Jungle Book)
- Funky Cigarette

Both performers did very well on stage. The Alternate Routes seems to be improving their act, at least since I’d last seen them in July, and they performed a really good, if a short, set. They demonstrated a considerable amount of energy and really seemed to enjoy their time on stage.
Paolo Nutini seemed to be a bit more shy in front of the crowd, but played a fun set that really got the crowd going, which was fun to watch, with a good blend of fast and slow songs.
In both cases, they both played their radio singles early in the sets, which surprised me, but it seemed to work nicely. They built up to a finale with their faster songs and settled into some of the deeper tracks from their albums over course of the sets.
A couple of people asked me what I was doing while I was writing down the set lists, which was interesting. I handed out this address to a couple of people, and if you’re reading this, thanks for your interest and hope that you found this okay. I also talked with a husband and wife who were there with their daughter, and they seemed to enjoy their time there.

I’ll get more pictures online at some point later today.

Hype – Buy – Look

R.I.P. Rusy Jacobs

Rusty Jacobs, one of the founding members of the Vermont Irish/Folk band died last week. He will be really missed.

Grace Potter and the Nocturnals – Concert 2

Grace Potter kicked off her tour after the release of her latest album, This Is Somewhere, with a concert at the Waterfront Park in Burlington Vermont to a nearly packed venue. Their opening band, Josh Ritter, wasn’t bad, but he was somewhat forgettable after last night’s performance, athough he is worth looking into for a decent band. I went with my brother, whom we abandoned, and a friend who’s just returned from Greece. I got a couple of tickets for two of our neighbors, but I wasn’t able to find them anywhere.

This was my second time seeing the Nocturnals, and this performance topped their one a couple weeks ago at Club Metronome. For starters, they were in the open air, which helped Grace’s sound by a tenfold. She no longer sounded as high and poppish as she did last time, this time, they had proper speakers, so there was no problems there. They launched into a fantastic set that included several songs from their prior album, Nothing But The Water, as well as a couple of ones that they’ve performed live before, such as Belledonna and Watching You. They also included a six or seven minute drum solo, with the entire band playing around the drumset before the end.

Like before, they had an incredible amount of energy and used it well. This set seemed to include a couple more faster songs than last time, and didn’t seem to drag on as long, and with a much larger crowd, they seemed to feed off of the energy a bit more than they did last time.

Set List:

Ah Mary
Treat Me Right
Stop the Bus
Here’s To The Meantime
Belledonna
Apoligies (MP3)
Lose Some Time
(John-Something Cover w/ Josh Ritter)
Falling Or Flying
Mastermind
I’ve Been Watching You
(Unknown – Girls)
Joey
If I Was From Paris
Drum Solo – 4-Way
Nothing But The Water (1)
Nothing But The Water (2)
Cortez, The Killer
Big White Gate

More pictures from the event: Here