The Old Ceremony - Cat's Cradle - Feb. 14th, 2009

Who - The Old Ceremony
Where - The Cat's Cradle
When - Feb. 14th, 2009

It's been a while since the release of Our One Mistake, The Old Ceremony's sophomore release, and after finally pulling Walk on Thin Air out of... yeah, you can make up your own joke and insert it here... the band offers fans a spot-on Valentine's Day gift at a CD release party/concert.

The Chapel Hill based pop-noir band has amassed a loyal following within the local music scene, noted for their unique circus-like stage presence and implementation of multiple instruments (ranging from guitar to violin to cello to xylophone to cow bell). The Old Ceremony is a crystal clear example of how music has not lost its integrity.

Playing to a sold-out Cat's Cradle, The Old Ceremony figuratively grabbed the audience, "by the haunches and humped it into submission," with an enamored vitality and surging live show rivaling falling power lines in a circus tent.

With hanging luminaries and Christmas lights in check, TOC boisterously exhibited an eclectic collection of inspired pop/rock jams, channeling everything from a house band at a 1950s sock hop to harmony based world music to Houses of the Holy era Zeppelin - all engineered to melt your face with unexpected jam sessions including violin strumming and xylophone solos.

Album - Walk on Thin Air
Released - Feb. 14th, 2009

Walk on Thin Air is easily the band's most progressive release to date. Throughout the album, vocalist and songwriter Django Haskins fathers conceptually stunning moments and emotionally melting lyrics that never weaken nor falter.

Utilitarian, perfected and lyrically moving moments like those infused within the title track, Walk on Thin Air, are what drive the album to the limits of brilliance. From the upbeat melodies on tracks, Someone I Used to Know and Ready to Go, Haskins limitlessly toys with the concept of masking dark lyrics with cheerful melodies; it’s both provocative and inspiring.

This is an album that anyone can connect with and one in which anybody can find more than enjoyable. It’s expressive, without being cryptic. It’s moving, without being cheesy. It’s minimal, without losing its complexity.

Walk on Thin Air hardly feels rushed and incomplete - it's one of those albums you'll always keep alternating between your CD player and the visor. If anything is apparent at their shows: it's that devoted fans are never far away - showing the same dedication as other notable bands from the Carolinas - i.e. Jump, Little Children.

(And coming from me that's a huge compliment.)

www.myspace.com/theoldceremony

Keep It Hid - Dan Auerbach

Artist - Dan Auerbach
Album - Keep It Hid
Released - Feb 10, 2009 (Nonesuch Records)

Dan Auerbach’s solo album is like that “official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle” dad pointed out hiding majestically behind the desk after all the Christmas gifts had been opened.

Assuming, your name is Ralphie and you live in fear of that intangible parent figure incessantly waving their finger at you chanting, “You’ll shoot your eye out!” denying you the happiness of a warm gun after pelting Black Bart right between the eyes.

Yes, that was two references. Yes, for the people who are nice enough to frequent my little site, this is another obscure musician I think everyone should love and admire… because my taste is impeccable and speaks to all walks of life.

Yes, that was sarcasm.

Dan Auerbach is one half of the Black Keys, the soulful, incendiary blues-rock duo hailing from Akron, Ohio, and easily could pass as a love child of Gregg Allman.

Keep It Hid, Auerbach’s first solo album, surpasses being just another solo effort from an arrogant vocalist burdened by a band who refuses to experiment - it’d be especially hard to defend given the fact the Black Keys is comprised of just Auerbach and drummer, Patrick Carney.

In an interview with Paste when asked why he chose the direction that he did, Auerbach said, “It’s like if an actor were only allowed to make a movie with the same cast as the same character for the rest of his life. It’s very strange that people think like that.”

Keep It Hid goes beyond what the Black Keys' exultant fifth album, Attack and Release, managed to do – which was take the staple blues composition, fuse it with a rootsy Southern Rock sound, jam it into an old Peavy amp and render the listener incapable of breathing without an auxiliary ventilator.

Auerbach is best known for his gut-busting guitar licks and two-string chord plucking most apparent in his work with the Black Keys. He’s built a catalog of simple blues-focused, foot-stomping music and kept tightly to the mold for four albums, until the critically acclaimed Attack and Release, which as stated earlier was an absolute triumph.

Beginning with the opening track, Trouble Weighs a Ton, Auerbach eases in with a doggerel acoustic tune - something most Keys fans are not entirely familiar hearing. His soothingly ragged voice discretely burrows its way in, displaying an enthusiasm to, sorry for the cliché, venture out on a limb instrumentally.

Opening with the lyrics, “What’s wrong dear brother, have you lost your faith?” the album boasts the same ambiguous subjects and personally ascetic lyrics which Keys fans love and connect with.

Experimenting does come with its set-backs and everyone is susceptible to making flawed works of genius.

Exhibit A: Mean Monsoon, a Doors-esque track with an opening lick resembling Derek and the Dominos' Layla a bit too much, which can be forgiven, especially given the fact its composition and lyrical integrity are routinely aware that Auerbach is creating a gradient slope of tracks increasingly harder for him to one-up.

“The one thing I didn’t want to do is to try to sound different from the Black Keys,” Auerbach said on his website. It doesn't rely too heavily on the Black Keys sound as much as it expounds on it. He’s still the same Dan Auerbach as always, just somewhat matured, wiser and quasi-evolved in his music.

Keep It Hid touches on the infinite talent engrossing all that is Dan Auerbach, never overstating himself, never denying his abilities. He has yet to tap completely into the azure reserves of his talent though. He’s a guy who creates a reverent sound, adding enough of his soul and complexity into the music to make the album both unyielding and profound.

www.myspace.com/danauerbachmusic

Fleet Foxes

I've mentioned before that Fleet Foxes' self-titled release, "is a bit like petting a unicorn.”

It was referring to the extraordinary conditions that had to take place in order to compose something so rare… After millions of years of intense heat and pressure, two world wars, Scorsese finally winning his Oscar, Global Warming and other minute and sundry events, the conditions were perfect for one such album.

These seemingly disconnected and unrelated things have nothing in common, right? That’s true, they don’t.

This is unerringly why their debut album is like nothing else. It has nothing in common with most music today.

It takes so much more to stand out from the crowd these days. Between globalization and the voluntary loss of personal thought, assimilation just simply happens.

So many aspiring singer/songwriters pay their homage to the perennial '60s rock era, and it's basically expected. The baby boomer generation bred such affluent diversity among its children that naturally it would produce a brilliant impact on music for decades to come.

Too bad everyone does it.

Musicians often rely on past musical exploits to better build on their own talent and it is no more apparent than with Fleet Foxes. The band encompasses an era; borrowing influence from Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, the Kinks and even the Beach Boys –but unlike most, they never become their parent's vinyl collection.

Foxes bring a rustic harmony based melody to a scene populated by synthesized vocals. Bridging the gap between chamber pop, rock and folk, the band's vocal aesthetic mirrors the syrupy pop of groups like, the Beatles and Pet Sounds era Beach Boys. It's the multi-part harmonies that define Fleet Foxes' sound. These choral-like qualities give it an authentic taste of lost talent and a style missing in the midst of a radio recorded fallout.

Fleet Foxes audaciously casts their line into the crowd of music snobs and casual listeners and catching a buzz tailored specifically for them.

After signing to Sub Pop, Fleet Foxes became more than another basement indie band; they surpass genre titles. Hearkening back to early recordings of bands like My Morning Jacket, their sound is similar, but they do it even better.

This Seattle-based band, just a few years out of high school, already has become a band all their own. They’re quickly becoming one of the most buzzed-about bands in America.

Haven’t heard of them yet?

You’re just not listening hard enough.

Front man Robin Pecknold's voice never falters, the warmth in his voice comforts, his songwriting invites and the band creates a wistful affair that begs to never let go.

www.myspace.com/fleetfoxes

Just in case you care:

J. Tillman's name probably doesn't ring a bell and it's okay. Tillman is Fleet Foxes multi-talented drummer, the thing that makes him special is the fact Tillman is an excellent guitar player and songwriter.

Touring the Pacific Northwest and Europe since 2004, he's a commodity nobody knew they wanted.

You can check him out at the usual spot... Myspace.

www.myspace.com/jtillman/