To Hell with Good Intentions

The Dodos, Live@Bush Hall, London, 3/09/09

It often smacks of a lack of confidence or ability when a writer reverts to trite comparisons with a band’s larger peers in ‘the great scheme of things’ but when you’re talking about a band like The Dodos it just happens to be the sensible course of action. Sensibility does not always seem to come to the fore tonight, songs seem to stretch out and on forever when they might just be over a terse six or seven minutes (and they aren’t all Red and Purple, either). It all ends up as an over-complicated mess of simplified-folk mugging. The rolling plains atmosphere of opener Paint the Rust recalls Okkervil River or The Shins at their peak but those heights aren’t scaled again until the evening draws to a close with a peachy transition from Fools through to Walking and a furious Red and Purple.

Chances are you’ll see where I’m going with this. The critics haven’t been very loud in vociferous praise for new LP Time to Die and as an onlooker versed in the ways of their lopsided precursor, Visiter, it probably won’t get a look in at the next spotify session (just checked and the first album isn’t on there). There are times where the songs just seem to draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaag and the chatter at the back of the hall becomes a little more pronounced with each passing track. Everyone quiets down when God? busts out, all picked out on Meric Long’s gross finger nail (rather long) and explodes, as they do all night, at its conclusion but all the dancing is reserved for the encore. The intimacy of the surrounds and the skills of the duo (plus friend on vibraphone!) married to their collegiate looks evokes a similarity to Vampire Weekend in every sense; the misjudged pacing of the set is forgivable but there are simply too many songs that exit the memory stage left as soon as the final strains disappear.

A conscious build-up of energy between artist and audience is rare to see these days and it does seem to take place this evening but the captivation seems, at times, wasted or, worse, ignored. Support band Coastguards had remarked earlier in the evening that this was their third night on the tour, “on the first night, they were jetlagged and they put on an awesome show, last night they were tired and tore the shit out of the place… so tonight ought to be pretty special”; the environment portended this modest soothsaying to be true but in reality it sinks into more of a dispirited ebb and flow between the magnificent and the must-try-harder. There are moments when the roof really does come close to blowing off and then it seems like lullaby time, let’s all get ready for bed. Nothing else momentous, just a tad more finger-picking and a slump into mediocrity, until an ornate construction leads into a billowing Fools and everyone involved shakes the lead out, a little late, but the crowd go ballistic anyway.

The Dodos have chosen a perfect moniker, as they come close to signing their own execution notices at the midway stage after a promising opening fifteen or so minutes, which no band can afford to do in a saturated market where the punters are starting to count their pennies. It might be a(nother) lazy cliché but… The Dodos seem to want to have their cake and eat it but that just seems like a one-eyed approach when everybody can tell you the icing is what you ought to savour. Who’s the fool now?

The Real Thing

The indie guitar template is being dispensed with! First The Horrors, now The Maccabees! There is hyperbole all over the place about Primary Colours (listen free here) but with a powerhouse independent like XL (Thom Yorke, White Stripes, Vampire Weekend) behind them then you ought to expect it. This isn't to discredit what they're doing, Sea Within A Sea is a monster, it's just a bit different with The Maccabees. The first album was chocker with poppy singles but there was a lack of bite; no real substance.

Love You Better is a new beast. They've added horns and keys to their arsenal and sculpted a track full of self-doubt and longing that makes better use of those yelpy vocals. Its a lot more fulfilling and there is a greater maturity about the band themselves. The song builds and you expect some sort of woolly, overwrought machismo to burst forward but the song maintains the tenderness of the opening bars and climaxes with a tidy flourish. Nothing over the top, no bolshy megalomania, just a well-weighted pop song. The majority of the guitar bands that have come and gone since the turn of the century have faded away because they have failed to match the initial hype/buzz/whatever (thanks, internet) or because they were always a bit crap and people just love finding new things these days rather than stuff they genuinely enjoy. Love You Better is a captivating listen and ranks with Glass and Hysteric as my favourite track of the year so far.

Shame that I can't listen to them more, but The Power of Lard is taking up the majority of my time at the moment...

Flood Pt. 2

Interesting article on DiS by their music industry 'insider', this week on how the audience is not blameless in the p2p argument and the additional comments beneath the piece are a cut above the usual squawking you might encounter on the internet. I like to think (in a narcissistic manner) that this ties in, to a point, with my mixtape musings from a couple of weeks ago. I started using Spotify yesterday and it has given me access to the Bowerbirds album (at last!) and, in tandem with my last.fm recommendations, introduced me to the utter beauty of Port O'Brien, who might be one of the best bands I have heard in bloody ages. Of course, I could have downloaded Bowerbirds (lord knows I tried) or bought it (never in stock in Rough Trade...) but then the sense of excitement, that first time, would have been diluted. On a personal level, waiting to hear it for so long made it refreshing on that first listen and I will be going out of my way to get a copy in the near future (at a reasonable price; the days of me paying any more than £10.99 are over).

So does downloading devalue music? I know people who stuff their computers with it, but shouldn't they, we, wait? Its more satisfying for me to have a new cd in my hands, to have a little book to flip through (for example, if you downloaded No Age's Nouns then you missed out on one of last year's neatest inserts) and to bask in their reflective glory on my shelves at home. Collecting music is the pinnacle of capitalism, right? You can do it for the right price, if you're prepared to shop around. Browsing bundles of torrent sites just isn't as satisfying as pulling the Superman version of Illinois out of the racks in Rough Trade East. Is it? Of course, I don't have an answer and until someone comes up with a satisfactory one, this is all just pointless pontificating. It is something to think about the next time you unpack that rar. file though. Maybe that little band you love would do a bit better if people paid for it. You can't rail against faceless 'evil conglomerates' for ever; its real life, not Blade Runner.