Event on 2012-08-24 20:00:00
Manchester Orchestra
On April 1st, 2009, Andy Hull started to put his life back together.
Manchester Orchestra's new album, Simple Math, is about that experience. "It's the reaction to my marital, physical, and mental failures. But for the first time, I'm not blaming anyone but myself," Hull says. Produced fat, tactile and beautiful by Dan Hannon, Simple Math is Hannon's third full-length LP with the band, starting with the debut album I'm Like A Virgin Losing A Child and then the follow-up Mean Everything To Nothing. Recorded at Blackbird Studios in Nashville and mixed by Joe Chiccarelli, the band kept the same studio set-up and production team intact from their second to third records.
Simple Math is a concept album. As Roy Shuker defines in his book Popular Music: The Key Concepts, a concept album is a record "unified by a theme, which can be instrumental, compositional, narrative, or lyrical." Simple Math is indeed unified by all of these. The instrumentation is big, even in its smallest moments. The composition is emotional and complex, expertly weaving music with story. The narrative is a trip through a man's brain, through his mistakes, regrets and realizations. And the lyrics, which take us firsthand through this life-changing experience, are poetic and raw, honest and passionate.
But Manchester Orchestra has always been about truth; about passion. It's why Alternative Press gave MO's 2009 acclaimed Mean Everything to Nothing (which yielded the Top 10 Modern Rock hit "I've Got Friends") a five-star lead review that called the album "a masterpiece of intricacy and honesty." You can feel their passion in the power of Hull's voice and the fury of the band's music in every track they've ever laid down, a power that wraps itself around you and demands your attention as Hull's lyrics guide you through the world as he sees it. "I've always had a clear perception of right and wrong around me," says Hull, "I've constantly questioned my beliefs, trying to find the truth."
The son and grandson of southern ministers, Hull formed Manchester Orchestra in 2004 at the age of 17 with his lifelong friends (Jonathan Corley on bass, keyboardist Chris Freeman, guitarist Robert McDowell and drummer Tim Very) and used their music as a way to explore the issues that mattered most to him, issues of life, emotional vulnerability and the human condition. "I've always believed in God, but modernized Christianity can scare me. I'm a spiritual, but not a religious, person. And I like to use my music to explore how that faith stretches and challenges me to be a better man."
In 2005, before they were even old enough to vote, Manchester Orchestra headed out on the road and played over 200 shows, quickly building a legion of loyal fans that grows bigger and bigger with every show they play and every album they release. "We wouldn't showcase for the record labels," says Hull of the band's early days. "We wanted to play as many gigs as we could and we wanted the labels to come see us live, with our audience, in the clubs." And the labels came. In 2007, their explosive first record I'm Like a Virgin Losing A Child became a critical favorite, the New York Times praising it as "Music to swoon to." Two years later, Mean Everything to Nothing arrived and was heralded as one of the best records of 2009, with Absolute Punk raving: "Quick note to the rest of the albums coming out this year: The bar has just been set." And now with the arrival of Simple Math, the bar has been set yet again. "The songs on this record are stories," explains Hull, "but more directed and personal. In many ways, it can be called a dueling conversation between my wife, God and myself."
The opening track "Deer" sets a simmering and descriptive starting-point to Hull's and our journey. It begins with an honest confession, carefully full of vivid detail. The lyric I'd go out in public if nobody ever asked perfectly sums up just how hard it is to lead a normal life once your pain becomes public. This is followed by the hard driving and rich Mighty, which Hull describes as sounding "like the Apocalypse. It's my darkest hour, in a sense." The third track, Pensacola, is a meditation on where the band has taken him and where he thinks he may be heading. "In this song, the innocence is leaving," says Hull. The raw and masterful April Fool is next, an exquisite dynamite blast of big guitars, giant drums and soaring harmonies that, ironically, "was my first attempt at a love song on this album." This moves directly into Pale Black Eye, a power-chord powder keg that builds from controlled discourse ("The song is sung three ways: Me to God, me to my wife, and God to me") to earthshaking confession, a rock and roll bloodletting. Bite your veins/ bleed your pain/ into me.
Virgin appears next, a four and a half minute rock opera that looks back at the road that led the band to the present. "It's a tri-fold story that parallels three 'firsts' for me," explains Hull. "The loss of my virginity, the potential loss of relationship, and the realization that our band has and will change after our first album. To all of these issues, the same lyric applies: It's never gonna be the same." It's here that the heartfelt and elegant title track (and first single) Simple Math arrives. "This is a song about an affair, non-existent but unrealized. I cannot hide from the truth. It finds me. The chorus is myself questioning God. Had I convinced myself, my family, my band that something is real when it isn't?" Leave It Alone next slips quietly (at first) into the aftermath, a beautiful yet angry recounting of a three-hour argument brought on by what five years on the road can do to someone. "I love the last line, If we end up alone, a plague on my head and a curse on our home. This song is my realization that there's a chance no one will ever love me like my wife Amy."
Second from last is Apprehension, a sobering, lyrical tour through the guilt, the blame, the questioning of who's at fault. "Not only is the song about Amy and me, it's also about several friends and family members going through a miscarriage. It represents that even after all has been mended in one heavy situation, life will continue to give you trials that require immense trust and faith in someone or something." And ending it all is Leaky Brakes, which tiptoes quietly but confidently in to lead us back into the present. "The final breath is essentially to admit to everything I've ever done wrong," says Hull of this final track. "The lyrics are so evolved compared to where we began. It's all here and ready to be confronted. It's up to me now."
Rarely does an album come along of such monumental honesty and vulnerability. The power of the music, the complexity of the songwriting, the opportunity to hear a band at the top of their game evolving before our very eyes – it all makes Simple Math so much more than a collection of songs, so much more than just a concept album. Simple Math is a deeply emotional experience. And, simply put, it is a masterwork.
at The Social
54 North Orange Avenue
Orlando, United States
Old 78 Farm Fall Festival Featuring Paranoid Social Club, Girls Guns and Glory, Cabinet, Jack Grace, Rhythm Inc & More
Event on 2012-09-22 12:00:00
Paranoid Social Club
Paranoid Social Club is the bastard brainchild of Dave Gutter and Jon Roods of the Rustic Overtones. Hailing from Portland, ME the band has received international accolades for it's high energy style. Equally inspired by punk, soul, psychedelic rock, and the human psyche; PSC is a musical movement like no other. Picture Jimi Hendrix smashing a keyboard or The Clash backing Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival. The fervor of their incendiary live show has propelled them to that of cult status. Paranoid Social Club has managed to create one of a kind anthems using sarcasm and beauty, two things that rarely coincide. Paranoid's debut Axis ll, spawned the hit "Wasted" which was featured as the theme for Broken Lizard's cult classic film Beerfest, as well as being the soundtrack to every college party in America. Their follow up double LP Axis lll & l featured the single "Two Girls" and was remixed and released on EMI's ON Entertainment record label. "Two Girls" was used in HBO's series Entourage and Cathouse and birthed a house remix album produced by club dj's ; Invisible Kid, Powder, and Butterface and Clinch. "Two Girls" quickly became PSC's biggest international hit, as it landed them on countless radio stations most requested list. In 2009, PSC began work on their fourth studio album and enlisted a variety of their musical peers: Gavin Castleton, Tony Mcnaboe (Rustic Overtones, Ray Lamontagne) Trent Gay (Stars Look Down, All Night Chemist), Craig Sala(Planeside) and Chris Moulton (The Cambiata, Vanityites). Paranoid Social Clubs current line up: Dave Gutter, Jon Roods, Trent Gay, and Craig Sala
Girls Guns and Glory
"I've been going wild, like the river runs. And I'm afraid that this rambling has only just begun." So sings Ward Hayden, singer/songwriter of Girls Guns and Glory, on the band's new album Sweet Nothings (Lonesome Day, 2011). These words, found in the song "Snakeskin Belt," are an apt introduction to the band itself. Girls Guns and Glory is a celebration of sweet and tasty, fun lovin' and hard timin', honky tonk music that is simultaneously casual and complex. The band combines elements of early rock 'n' roll, country, and rhythm & blues to deliver its own brand of American Roots music that satisfies like homemade apple pie. Girls Guns and Glory is the brainchild of Lonesome Day recording artist Ward Hayden. Hayden formed GGG in the Winter of 2005 and within 2 weeks of the groups formation they entered Noise in the Attic Studios to begin a prolific period of recording. Releasing 3 critically acclaimed full-length albums in as many years (Fireworks & Alcohol – 2006; Pretty Little Wrecking Ball – 2007; Inverted Valentine – 2008). Hayden's original compositions conjure the palpable ache of a crushed heart; they touch on themes of love lost and hope found, and their words alone could be published in anthologies of poetry. Hayden recalls that once he got on stage with GGG, he found he had never felt more comfortable doing anything else. Performing quickly became an addiction, and it is due in part to his efforts on and off stage that GGG is now an internationally touring band, named Independent Artist of the Year at the French Country Music Awards, and two-time winner of both the Roots Act of Year (Boston Phoenix Awards) and Americana Act of the Year (Boston Music Awards). GGG is also the only band of its genre to ever take home the top honors of Act of the Year (Boston Music Awards) and to win the legendary WBCN Rock 'n' Roll Rumble. Hayden, who originally hails from Scituate, MA, leads the band on Vocals and Acoustic Guitar. And after full shake up of the line up in 2009, the solidified group that helps him create their sound is a band of Pennsylvania transplants who made their way to Boston to further their musical pursuits: Chris Hersch on Electric Guitar, Michael Calabrese on Drums/Vocals, and Paul Zaz Dilley on Upright/Electric Bass. They are a well-trained group: Hersch and Calabrese went to the New England Conservatory of Music and Dilley attended Berklee College of Music. With the demands of a heavy-touring lifestyle, this is a group that cut its teeth on the road, and their resulting chemistry on stage is enjoyably electric. Hayden is quick to mention that, not only do these guys play their focal instruments with mastery, appreciation, and—on occasion—spirited abandon, each one of them is a multi-instrumentalist. In another life, Hayden might have become a fisherman or even a marine biologist. He loves the outdoors and has a special affinity for aquatic life and for the solitude that being out on the water, alone with his thoughts, can bring. His other main interest is in collecting vintage clothes and decor. As a boy, he spent a lot of time with his grandmother, who was a flea market vendor. To this day, looking at the objects he has amassed in his personal collection fills him with a sense of nostalgia. It's really no wonder that Hayden says he feels most at home surrounded by things from another era, as you get the sense listening to some of his songs that he was transported to his current residence in Cambridge, MA from another time and place where long-fringed leather jackets and white-tailed deer foot lamps were the norm. The idea of survival, sometimes conveyed by quiet presence, at other times more in-your-face, pervades Hayden's personal interests and his music. The ocean can be churned up and swirling on one day and calm and placid the next; but every day when you rise, it is there. Your oldest possessions may be scuffed and worn and maybe even a little worse for wear, but their mere presence asserts that they are still here. Likewise, even Hayden's most gut-wrenching songs about heartbreak have a triumphalist flair. To any of the girls out there that this may apply to: you may have given him something to sing about, but you didn't get him down for long. According to Hayden, the band has just begun to scratch the surface of what they can do with their 4th full-length studio release: Sweet Nothings. Hersch stretches out on baritone guitar and Fender Six, Calabrese contributes harmony vocals and a myriad of percussive instrumentation, and Dilley rocks the mellotron. And listen for Sarah Borges (Sarah Borges & the Broken Singles) as she lends her voice to the Hayden-penned duet "1,000 Times." For a band that spends much of its time on the road, the up-shot is they love what they're doing. This is a band that has John Prine sing-a-longs in their primary tour vehicle, a Ford E-350 dubbed "The Road Hawk." For new fans looking for a conversation-starter: each of the band members has a hawk nickname, which they will probably explain to you if you ask them nicely. Hayden states, "One of the greatest joys of the road has been meeting so many people from so many different walks of life" and he credits the hospitality of GGG's fans with helping them to get from square one to across the Atlantic Ocean. Hayden says, "Music has been our ticket to see the country and beyond. It's largely due to the kindness of people we've met who've housed and fed us and taken us in for the night that's enabled us to continue our pursuit of creating music and being touring musicians." Hayden speaks about the release of the Paul Q. Kolderie (Radiohead, Uncle Tupelo, Lemonheads) and Adam Taylor (Sarah Borges, Portugal The Man) produced Sweet Nothings as a rebirth of sorts. For him, it is a reconnection to the roots of rock 'n' roll for which he exhumed influences of the past including Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, The Everly Brothers, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, and Little Richard. The album, which has songs both quick and catchy about the simple pleasures in life and slow and sentimental about—what else?—getting your heart ripped out, chewed up, spit out, and pieced back together, is a masterful follow-up to the band's earlier endeavors. What would drive someone to leave the comforts of home and the stability of a 9-5 job with a steady paycheck? For Hayden and the other men of Girls Guns and Glory, it's the pursuit of artistic expression. They hold the goal of creating something that's at once accessible and full of depth. Who hasn't stayed too long at the dance hoping that special someone would look their way? Who hasn't called one last time, even though they knew it was the wrong decision? When Girls Guns and Glory takes the stage they're there to play their hearts out and capture in song those experiences with genuine honesty and naked emotion. Give Girls Guns and Glory a listen and come see these boys when they're out on the road. This party has started and this is your open invitation. Girls Guns & Glory has shared bills with: Stone Temple Pilots Wanda Jackson Southern Culture on the Skids Eilen Jewell Dale Watson The Low Anthem Dawes The David Wax Museum James McMurtry Sarah Borges & The Broken Singles Hoots & Hellmouth Corb Lund & The Hurtin' Albertans Roger Creager Commander Cody Trampled By Turtles Junior Brown Bobby Bare Jr. Silversun Pickups And many many more great artists all over the US and Europe. Girls Guns & Glory is: Ward Hayden—Vocals, Acoustic Guitar Paul Dilley—Electric Bass, Upright Bass Michael Calabrese—Drum Kit, Percussion, Vocals Chris Hersch—Electric Guitar, Banjo, Vocals
at Old 78 Farm
823 Orange Rd
Warwick, United States
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