When I go through a lineup to decide which bands I want to check out, I make sure that I at least watch a video or two on youtube of the act’s music. When I googled Woodkid, I found some videos that immediately caught my attention. The videos were visually stimulating, sharp and stark, mostly in black in white, but what kept my attention was the music. Heavy instrumentals and booming drums, with a contrasting voice that was smooth and subtle.
Woodkid’s stage production, like his music videos, had the black/white effect. All of the players in the band were wearing black, with gothic images projecting on the screen behind him, and the bright white light that shone down on him not only gave me the opportunity to snap some pretty decent photos, but also gave the performance a highly dramatic effect.
Woodkid’s performance was the surprise of my Friday. I’d keep my eye out on Woodkid and his music. With the right type of exposure, I can imagine him doing big things state-side.
What intially hooked me to How To Dress Well’s music was twofold. First, the music leaned dark, simple and atmospheric; the kind of music you could press play on a rainy day, lie on a couch and let it sooth you to sleep. Second, I was very partial to Tom’s tender and vulnerable vocals stylings. A lot of male singers can use their falsetto, but not all male singers can use it the way Tom does.
Before the set started, I scanned the room to see what kind of audience was in attendance. I didn’t have to ask. By the looks of it, I may have been the oldest one in the room. I was a bit impressed insofar as the music that’s been released thus far is quite mature (both lyrically and musically). I asked the two fresh faced kids standing to the right of me (who weren’t wearing drinking bracelets) how they got into How To Dress Well’s music, and they said Spotify. I asked the young girl standing to my right the same question. She said Spotify. A quick non-sequitor … even if major recording artists are complaining about the amount they get paid from streaming services like Spotify, it would appear that Spotify led at least 3 kids to spend their extra cash to buy a ticket to see an act like How To Dress Well perform at a Hollywood club on a Tuesday night. Just saying …
The music of the evening was stellar. I knew that Tom was in the process of recording new material, but I wasn’t expecting that he’d be showcasing a lot of the new songs at the gig. It was truly a pleasant surprise for me. He had the drummer from Broken Social Scene play with him (he used a drum machine at FYF Festival) and that added a new life to the music’s live effect. I was again impressed with the way he used his two-mic set up (one mic without reverb and one mic with) to give his songs layers of depth and feeling.
And I was right about wanting to see him perform in an intimate venue. The concert-going experience was magnified 10 fold for me. For How To Dress Well’s music, you want to be captivated. You want to focus on the emotion that Tom is purging from his body and hang on very word/note. Being in an intimate venue afforded Tom the ability to interact and really connect with the audience. When introducing songs, I really got the sense that Tom wanted the audience to connect with its meaning, and it’s a lot easier to do so when the audience is captivated rather than tent-hopping at a festival. When I say intimate, I don’t necessarily mean a small club venue. In fact, if could pick another venue for Tom to perform in, I’d love to see him perform at The Orpheum.
I didn’t quite catch the names of all of the new songs (some of them were still untitled) but I did my best to list them below, together with little concert notes that I took.
“Two Years” (?): A song about his father
“The Power” (?)
“What You Wanted” (?): A song about how you feel when you have a desire that you can’t control
“Cold Nites”: After he sang this song, he told that audience that he got shivers while he was singing it stating, “That felt really good”
“If You Were My Girl” (?): A dance song
“No More Death” (?): He asked for the venue to turn the lights down since it was a “really dark song”
“I Don’t Know What’s Best For Me” (?)
“Suicide Dream 1”: A song about a friend
“Childhood Faith in Love” (?): Inspired by “You Can Have The Best Of Me” by the Starting Line
“Repeat Pleasure”: A song about controlling emotions even though you know that “if you do something once, you’ll probably do it again”, Tom suggested that this was perhaps the most “poppy” songs he’s written and that it was going to be a big hit
“Words I Don’t Remember” (?)
“Set It Right”
Encore
“Baby” (?): Tom mentioned that in the next part of his life, he wants a baby, but that this song is his fear of the fragility of babies, derived from a fear of wondering if a baby is alive while its sleeping (A cappella)
“Lovers Start” (A cappella)
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Opening for How To Dress Well at the Roxy was a music producer from Liverpool, England named Matthew Barnes, know by his stage name, Forest Swords. I hadn’t put two and two together before, but as it turns out he produced How To Dress Well’s 2012 single “Cold Nites”. In digging up a little history of his discography, I discovered that his 2010, debut EP “Dagger Paths” received rave reviews across the board; named FACT Magazine’s #1 album of the year, given 8.4 rating on Pitchfork and called “one of 2010’s finest underground records” by NME. Critics have even compared his musical stylings to current stand-out recording artists like James Blake and Bon Iver. If that isn’t high praise, I don’t know what is.
If you are at all interested in music by Portishead or Massive Attack, you need to hit up his Soundcloud account to get a taste of what he’s all about. I’ve embedded his track “Miarches” below for you to check out:
Backed only by a bass player, he performed a set of dark, brooding, atmospheric instrumental creations that had the audience mesmerized, caught in a hypnotic dreamscape. I realized that I was hooked to his music as I caught myself humming made-up melodies to his instrumentals. I immediately started wondering why I haven’t heard more of his production for other recording artists.
After the evening’s music ended, I made my way to the merchandise booth to purchase some music. Matthew was there shopping his wares and I made some small talk with him asking him whether he’s produced for others. He indicated that he had taken a break from music for a spell and was just focusing on his own projects for the moment. If I were a betting man, I’d put a few dollars on that changing sooner rather than later.
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Gemini Club is a four-piece indie-electronic band from Chicago, Illinois that have been earning a lot of praise recently opening for the likes of Chromeo, Two Door Cinema Club and Chateau Marmont. When I was doing research to decide which bands I wanted to see perform at Culture Collide, I found a couple videos of this band’s live performance and I was immediately interested. Though the band’s stage set-up was flanked by two stacks of keyboards, Gemini Club’s live music isn’t preprogrammed. Centered around a drummer, the electronic dance music is a live as live can be. Taking full advantage of MIDI, who says a laptop isn’t an instrument?
I was new to their music, so I wasn’t too familiar with the lyrics of their music, but in this particular instance, I was more focused on their vibe and sound, dancing and grooving to their tunes. Phoenix, Simian Mobile Disco, Hot Chip, Two Door Cinema Club … Gemini Club’s music is on par with the bands listed. Though the set was cut a little short due to set times running late at the venue, their set was filled with the kind of energy that only a confident band with devoted fans could evoke.
There are a lot of electronic bands flooding the music market these days. Gemini Club is an independent band that lacks the backing of a major so it’s their live performance and the word of mouth circulated by their fans that’ll get them noticed in the marketplace. Their live show is solid, and it’s my opinion that if they keep touring relentlessly, they’ll be able to lock in fans for the long haul. Follow them on Facebook, and check out their music. You may want to check them out when they are in your neck of the woods.
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Phoenix, Daft Punk, Justice … France turns out some great electro, synth pop bands. Oh yeah … M83 is pretty damn good too. Named after the spiral galaxy Messier 83, M83’s music is as cosmic as that system of stars. Adding a full orchestra and choir to their already sonically complex arrangements like “Midnight City” only raised the level of their cosmic sound.
I wasn’t planning on attending the show. In fact, I had been offered to get in on tickets when they first went on sale, but passed it up since I purchased some tickets for other shows and funds, at the time, were running low. But as fate would have it, a dear friend of mine called me up last minute the day before the concert to see if I wanted to attend the sold out show, and I got to attend the last installment of KCRW Radio’s World Festival series. The stars were definitely aligned for me …
The indie pop/Electronic rock band Phantogram opened for M83. It was my first time listening to their music, but I could tell why they were opening for M83. Their songs were all dance friendly, and had catchy hooks. Sarah Barthel’s vocals were strong and sexy. The band didn’t seem intimidated by performing on the famous stage, but they expressed their humble gratitude by acknowledging the hallowed stage they were on, and thanked the audience for listening.
M83’s performance, back by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and its choir, was stunning. For a band whose music is already big with layered synths, guitars and voices, I wondered how the orchestral arrangements would come off and how it would alter the original arrangements. Surprisingly, the orchestra didn’t overpower the band’s sound. Rather, at least in my humble opinion, they seemed to be used only to accent the original sound. Truth be told, it was hard to me to actually note when the orchestra was playing and when they weren’t. M83’s sound, alone, is that big.
M83 used a lot visual media in their performance. Though it was hard for me to actually glean what the purpose of some of the visual montages were, I supposed that it was used to evoke mood and metaphors for the audience to come up with. As visually stunning as the montages were, personally, I think that the performance could have done without it, as I hardly spent time watching the video screens.
M83 brought up a couple of special guests during their performance: grade-school aged Zelly Meldal-Johnsen (performing “Raconte Moi une Histoire”) and Brad Laner (from the band Medicine) and though each special guest’s performance was entertaining (Zelly’s song about the frog was especially cute), I was hoping that the special guests, especially at the Hollywood Bowl, would have been more exciting or well-known…. After all, it IS the Hollywood Bowl.
Special guests notwithstanding, M83’s performance was the kind of show you hope to see- and is typically delivered- at the Hollywood Bowl. Grand in scale. Aurally pleasing. Toss in a seat in a Terrace Box, with great friends on a lazy Sunday? Perfect.
Raconte-moi une histoire (with Zelly Boo Meldal-Jophnsen)
Skin of the Night
Midnight City
Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sun
Encore:
Oblivion (Susanne Sundfor)
Outro
Couleurs
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To check out pictures of other bands I was able to catch at the festival, CLICK HERE.
Holy Ghost!
At the suggestion of my cousin, I decided to see Holy Ghost! rather than My Bloody Valentine as the last band at the festival. This turned out to be a good suggestion as I understood that My Bloody Valentine had a plethora of technical difficulties which put a damper on their set.
In reading up on Holy Ghost!’s history, I read that while dipping their feet in the rap game, Alex Frankel and Nick Millhiser released an album produced by James Murphy, the founder and frontman of LCD Soundsystem. When their rap careers failed to gain traction, James Murphy suggested that they continue making music, but to make it dance music, thus planting the seed for Holy Ghost!.
In what I see as perfect timing, Holy Ghost!’s first album was released the same year LCD Soundsystem called it quits. Being signed to James Murphy’s DFA Records, it would appear that Alex Frankel and Nick Millhiser’s band would be the one to fill the huge gap LCD Soundsystem left behind. Performing at the festival in support of their second studio album, my impression is that they may well be on their way in doing so.
The six member band took to the stage to the applause of a raucous audience. It didn’t seem as if anybody in the crowd was weary from the two days of stage hopping and swirling dust in the air. Influenced by LCD Soundsystem and New Order (with whom they recently toured with), their set was danceable and fun. The large band (consisting of 6 member if I recall correctly) kept the energy up throughout the set.
Holy Ghost!
In a moment of NYC cool (the founding members are from NY) during the set, lead singer Alex Frankel casually lit cigarettes onstage and smoked during a couple songs. It’s been a while since I’ve seen an artist do that, and for some reason I appreciated it. It was almost like having a smoke after successfully completing an arduous task as a symbol of triumph. After two days of great music, it was kinda what I needed.
Alex Frankel of Holy GhostAlex Frankel of Holy Ghost!Nick Millhiser of Holy Ghost!Alex Frankel of Holy Ghost!Alex Frankel of Holy Ghost!
To check out pictures of other bands I was able to catch at the festival, CLICK HERE.
Members of MGMTA member of MGMT ran by me during their set back at Coachella 2008.
The last time I saw MGMT was when they played a tent at Coachella back in 2008 supporting their debut album Oracular Spectacular. The buzz around them was huge at the time, and their singles “Kids“, “Time to Pretend” and “Electric Feel” were getting tons of radio play. I remember their set being energetic and raucous, with the band members jumping off stage to run through the packed crowd. One of the guys ran right by me.
My interest in the band tapered off a bit with their follow up album, Congratulations, probably because it wasn’t as youthful and fun as its predecessor, but having looked at the festival schedule, I decided that I would at least catch the first half of their set before heading to the tent that was supposed to host Omar Souleyman’s performance (which in hindsight, was a bad idea as Omar’s set was delayed by about 30 minutes, meaning I could have stayed for the entire MGMT set).
The trippy visuals during MGMT’s set
Taking to the main stage, MGMT’s psychedelic video images and lighting was a far cry from what I remembered about them back in 2008. I sensed that they weren’t as carefree as they were 5 years ago, but I guess that’s just something that comes with age.
In a bit of a light moment, they called to the stage Henry Winkler (aka “The Fonz”) to play a huge cowbell for a song. Gimmick or not, it was a fun moment that indicated to me that the band still had it’s youthful playfulness that made them jump off the stage, and run through, the crowd at Coachella.
The Fonz (Henry Winkler) on Cowbell. More Cowbell!!!
Keeping an eye on the time, I was simply hoping that they would play some of the songs that I knew and loved and having played “Time To Pretend” and “Electric Feel”, I left their set with a smile on my face and skip to my step.
To check out pictures of other bands I was able to catch at the festival, CLICK HERE.
Shlohmo amidst the mist.
Earlier in the day I had watched Tom Krell p/k/a How To Dress Well perform, and having done some research before the festival about different projects he had worked on, I found a video on youtube of a track How To Dress Well performed on produced by Henry Laufer p/k/a Shlohmo called “Don’t Say No”.
Intrigued by the sound and the fact that he was apparently working with Tom Krell, I decided to buy his latest LP “Bad Vibes” and after a couple spins on my record player, I decided that I’d put him on the list of acts I wanted to check out at the Festival. I’m not a big fan of DJ sets- I’m more of a live band kinda guy- but having enjoyed Flying Lotus in the past year at the Hollywood Bowl, I decided to swing by the tent where he was performing to check out a bit of his set.
As the “house lights” dimmed, and the smoke machines started pumping out a thick mist over the stage, Shlohmo came up to his DJ console and started his set. His live set was a little different than I had expected. “Don’t Say No” and “Bad Vibes” are very moody records, extremely ambient in there overall approach . The live set still carried the eerie mysticism of the music that I had purchased and watched before the festival, but during the fifteen minutes that I watched, it didn’t feel as lo-fi as maybe I had wanted. Missing was the interstitial feedback and ambient hisses that gave “Bad Vibes” its unique sound. The live show was almost too “clean.”
Don’t get me wrong. The music was good … the filled tent of bobbing heads was proof of that, and I love “Bad Vibes” (which sounds amazing on vinyl) …. but like I said, I’m more of a live band kind of guy.
To check out pictures of other bands I was able to catch at the festival, CLICK HERE.
Nic Offer of !!! (ChkChkChk) getting into the audience during their set.!!!’s latest album cover.
Over the past 5 months, while perusing a local store, I kept noticing an album cover for a band that I wasn’t familiar with (see right). The band’s name was !!! (pronounced ‘ChkChkChk’) and a record store employee told me that they were from Northern California and described their style of music as dance. I didn’t ask to hear any of the music play on the store sound system, and for some reason I neglected to look them up online each time I got home, but I was often reminded of them often because the cover to their LP was always staring me in the face whenever I entered that record store .
Fast forward to the FYF Festival, I noticed that they were listed as an early evening set. I decided to check them out, and anticipated an energetic set. I was not disappointed. A large band consisting of 8 members, the music was groove centric, the band was tight, and the lead singer was singing and busting moves all over the stage. In fact, the lead singer’s energy was off the charts and it spread into the audience as everybody around me was bouncing to their tunes. My first impression was that !!!’s sound was if David Byrnes of the Talking Heads started up in the 2010s, with splashes of LCD Soundsystem and Hot Chip. Take a listen/look at the video clip below to make your own opinion.
Nic Offer of !!! “saluting” the crowd.
The photographers in the press pit left after their second song, and Nic Offer, the lead singer, yelled out, “Hey, where you guys going?!?! I’ll only get cuter and cuter as the set goes on!” He laughed into the mic, and the band kept the set rolling. His stage manner had a likable, cocky air to it and it was infectious, as everybody was, while eyes transfixed on the stage, moving to the rhythm. The vibe was so positive that time seemed to pass instantly. When their set had ended, I was left wanting more, and it was a good indicator that I should probably purchase that LP to add to my collection and catch them when they are back in town.
To check out pictures of other bands I was able to catch at the festival, CLICK HERE.
How To Dress Well’s double mics.
Though he released a highly acclaimed album back in 2010, I didn’t become familiar with Tom Krell’s (p/k/a How To Dress Well) music until earlier this year. While I was reviewing the various acts that were slated to perform at the festival this year, I clicked on the musician’s link from the FYF Festival website and thereafter spent the next hour playing his music. I was hooked, and circled his 5:20pm set time as “must attend”.
I spent the months leading up to the festival buying albums of all of the artists that I was interested in, when I purchased How To Dress Well’s 10” EP “Just Once”. It may be one of the best purchases I’ll have made this year. Limited to 1000 copies, that vinyl is described as a one time-only, orchestral release, part of proceeds from sale of which went to MindFreedom.com to benefit those with mental health issues. It was recorded in the memory of one of Tom Krell’s friends and was simply, amazingly, hauntingly beautiful.
Tom Krell p/k/a How To Dress Well.
I was able to get up front for his set. While the stage hands were setting up, a DJ was spinning some 90s era music. An Aaliyah song started to play and I noticed Tom offstage singing along. When he took to the stage, he was accompanied by a keyboardist and a violinist. Using the a two-microphone technique, he jumped into his set opening with a new song tentatively titled “For Cyril.” Amazing. And it kept on coming.
His music, with sparse drums and layered, falsetto vocals, set a mellow vibe as haunting as the recordings I had purchased. It may have been a rather dark set for the middle of the day- which Tom acknowledged half way in when he introduced an upbeat song with, “This is a dance song, because it’s too early to be this dark”- but I was loving every minute of it. He further made light of the dark set by also telling the crowd that it was his mom’s birthday. He mixed R. Kelly’s “I Wish” into one of his songs to his audience on their toes. At the end by telling the audience that if there was anything he would want to impart on the audience before he left, it was to be, “Be nice to people.” A simple message amongst complex, stunning music.
Tom Krell p/k/a How To Dress Well.
His set met my expectations, save but a few technical difficulties, and I will definitely be keeping an eye out for any more intimate club gigs that he may have in Los Angeles in the future.
#DKLPHOTOS 