Tag: "arcade fire"

Cedar Avenue

Husbands and wives tend to make pretty good music together. See: Sony and Cher, Wings, Sonic Youth, Mates of State, Arcade Fire and about a million other acts, including Cedar Avenue. The Twin Cities band is led by Jessie and Derrin Mathews who, along with their bandmates, craft plaintive and ethereal indie pop. “7 Years” unfurls with a tambourine rattle, lapping acoustic guitars and the charming back and forth of boy-girl harmonies. Electric guitars, pounding tambourines and pummeled drums ratchet up the urgency on “Up North,” while a scattershot beat picks up the pace on “Tuesday.” The diaphanous “After All” acts as a panacea to those hot flashes, smoothing over ruffled emotions with sailing falsettos, ebbing guitars and the treacle of a glockenspiel. Once you’ve heard the dreamy and dynamic melodies of Cedar Avenue, you’ll be a fan till death do you part.

Like most musicians at the age of twenty, singer-songwriter Rome Ramirez was inspired by the music he listened to growing up, including influential reggae group Sublime. Little did he know, he would not only be given the opportunity to jam with Sublime, but to also become their new frontman. The band had not performed as Sublime since the death of original vocalist Bradley Nowell in 1996, but founding members Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh knew that Ramirez would be the right choice to sing for the newly reunited band. Sublime with Rome released their debut album, Yours Truly, in July 2011 and have been touring nonstop since. We had the opportunity to speak with Rome himself about fronting this legendary band, what it’s like to write with Bud and Eric and his future plans for a solo record.

OS: What is your musical background and how did it lead you to connecting with the members of Sublime?

RR: I started playing guitar when I was eleven years and I wanted to learn Sublime songs. I played other instruments too, but I was mainly a guitar player. I didn’t start singing until way, way later. I was in a studio in Orange County, and the studio owner was good friends with Eric, the bass player of the band. Eric would come by and hang out and shit, and over the course of time we started to jam. My soon-to-be-manager caught wave that a kid who kind of sounded like Brad was playing Sublime songs once in a while with Eric. She thought of the idea and talked to Eric, and Eric was like, “I was thinking the same thing!” Next thing was going up to Tahoe and seeing Bud…

OS: That’s crazy!

RR: Dude, it’s nuts. It happened so fast!

OS: What is like to be so young, but performing with a band that has a twenty year legacy?

RR: I grew up listening to that music, in particular, so to be able to pick up a phone and call them is just fucking weird [laughs], let alone being on stage and playing their songs!

Continue reading ‘Exclusive Q and A: Sublime With Rome Remember the Past, Embrace the Future’

We never thought we’d be in favor of the concept of rock bands giving lectures, but then there’s this.

Grammy award-winning band Arcade Fire will be at the University of Texas at Austin on March 19 to discuss the socioeconomic crisis in Haiti, along with their own efforts within the region. The cause has always been close to the group’s collective heart, particularly for singer Regine Chassagne, who was born in the area. She, along with band members Win Butler, Will Butler, and Marika Anthony-Shaw, will discuss Haiti’s need for healthcare reform and First World aid. The lecture is intended to bring attention to the non-profit organization Partners in Health, through which the band has helped raise over $1 million dollars in ticket sales and licensing.

If you need any proof that indie music is quickly becoming mainstream, look no further than Arcade Fire. The band first burst onto the scene in 2004 with their debut album Funeral, which garnered much critical acclaim and is now regarded by many as one of the best albums of the last decade. 2007′s Neon Bible continued the band’s success by debuting at Number 2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. The band then cemented their status in the public’s consciousness by winning last year’s prestigious GRAMMY Award for Album Of The Year with their third album, The Suburbs. Arcade Fire stand out from the plethora of other indie rock bands through their use of baroque influences and varied instrumentation; using anything from violins to accordions to xylophones and many more. Their music can best be described as “anthemic,” and their headlining slots at huge festivals like Coachella and Bonnaroo this year have proved that their music is intended for the masses. Luckily, OurStage’s own Bethesda share Arcade Fire’s penchant for making stadium ready indie rock.

OurStage's Bethesda

Arcade Fire

Like Arcade Fire, Bethesda is great at creating slow-building songs that lead to epic conclusions. Their song “Dreamtiger” is a perfect example of this formula, and it bears some resemblance to Arcade Fire’s song “Haiti.” Both songs begin with strummed acoustic guitar chords, but add a variety of instruments as the songs progress. While “Dreamtiger” picks up momentum pretty quickly, the song takes a drastic change about halfway through. Here, all of the instruments drop out except for the acoustic guitar and vocals. Other instruments like violin and electric guitar are soon added to create texture, followed by the entrance of a snare drum, which creates a march-like rhythm that gradually gets faster and faster. This eventually leads into the bold ending, with the repeatedly sung refrain “we are free” backed by pounding, rhythmic drums and guitars. Words can’t fully do this song justice; you really need to listen to it yourself. “Oh, How We Crane Our Throats!” is another Bethesda song with some similarities to Arcade Fire. This song also begins slowly, this time with acoustic guitar, banjo and vocals. Violin is soon added to the mix to double the vocal harmonies. However, this slow section only lasts for a short period of time, as the song quickly picks up tempo. Driven by a pounding bass drum beat and hand claps, the song sounds like it could be played at a hoedown.

Continue reading ‘Bethesda Vs. Arcade Fire’

• When collaborating with Rihanna is the highlight of your album, that does not bode well for your album.
• That’s some serious love for just watching Stone Roses grow.
• Add somebody who isn’t in Metallica in the writing mix and it’s the best Metallica output ever. Hmm.
• Probably more than a few people out there going “Dammit, so close.”
• Indie becoming mainstream right in front of our eyes.
• Didn’t know that everybody had to deal with getting abused by Chris Brown. Huh.
• Coldplay still playing second fiddle to Radiohead.
• Only appropriate that Gruff Rhys wins a music prize from a place that most people didn’t know makes music.
• Selena Gomez getting her J-Lo on.

• For someone who might be getting kicked out of Bloc Party, Kele is taking it quite well.
• We didn’t know Glastonbury took requests.
• Here’s to hoping that Aerosmith’s album is “nasty” as in good and not “nasty” as in naaaaasty.
• Great name for a MCR side-project: Your Clean Breakup.
• It needs more bling, Jay-Z. More bling.
• Win Butler, demonstrating how to properly use a headband to all the hipsters.
• Leona Lewis, what a tease.
• Who’s ready for some Lil’ Bieber? You are not ready.
• And who would know MJ better than his choreographer?

Get pumped, Nine Inch Nails fans. Early last week, Trent Reznor announced that the upcoming HBO miniseries based on his concept album Year Zero will be penned by Fight Club screenwriter Jim Uhls. And if that isn’t the greatest thing you’ve ever heard, you obviously weren’t reading closely enough. It’s Trent Reznor! And Jim Uhls! Writing a sci-fi miniseries based on Year Zero! Sure, aside from that, there are essentially no details about the show at the moment. But if previous HBO miniseries like Band of Brothers or Generation Kill are any indication, there’s no way this won’t be awesome.

Year Zero was praised for taking the concept album to places it had never been before after Reznor and 42 Entertainment created an online alternate reality game to accompany its 2007 release, but a miniseries like this would be the first of its kind (although it’s probably just the next logical step in Reznor’s journey toward total media domination). And Reznor isn’t the only musician who’s using television and film to create a more immersive music experience, which has us wondering if long play movies—or miniseries or short films or video games—could be poised to eclipse the music video.

Arcade Fire are one of the other bands using multimedia components to compliment their work. In February, the Canadian indie rockers unveiled a half-hour, Spike Jonze directed film called Scenes From the Suburbs at SXSW. The film was inspired by their GRAMMY-winning album The Suburbs. (It was also supposed to be available for free online last week, but hosting site Mubi pulled the video down at the last minute for residents of the US, Canada, Australia and Germany. Womp Womp.) The heart wrenching film scored rave reviews and had many fans begging for a full-length movie.

Angels & Airwaves are jumping on the movie bandwagon as well, announcing last week that their upcoming album Love II will include a co py of the movie Love, which the band produced and scored. Even Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk is getting in on the multimedia game for her forthcoming album Biophilia. Each song on the album will have its own iPad app, and all of those baby apps will reside in one “mother app”. Yeah… it’s about as confusing as it sounds. And sure, Björk is exactly the type of artist we’d expect to include some sort of super outlandish component with her album. But with all the buzz that Biophilia is generating already, it can’t be too long before other artists try their hands at it.

Of course, There are plenty of critics who believe that movies and visual experiences accompanying the music are a scheme intended only to drum up interest and sell more albums. It’s an accusation Reznor was met with as he geared up to release the online experience for Year Zero, and he admitted that it was “frustrating” to hear the word “marketing” tossed around in conjunction with his work. “It’s not some kind of gimmick to get you to buy a record—it IS the art form,” he said. But frustrating as it may be, the success of albums like Year Zero and The Suburbs can only make multimedia releases more prevalent.

And even if these long playing music videos aren’t the wave of the future, plenty of standard vids have won us over this year as well. If you haven’t yet, check out the Foo Fighters‘ Falling Down-inspired video for “Walk,” watch Red Fang smash a car in the most fun way possible in their video for “Wires,” laugh as Matt and Kim beat the shit out of each other in “Cameras” and get creeped out by Tyler, the Creator‘s “Yonkers”.

Friday held performances from Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Matt & Kim, Atmosphere, Ray LaMontagne and Florence and the Machine. Despite the temperatures peaking the mid-90′s, My Morning Jacket‘s frontman Jim James took the stage for their 8pm set wearing a black coat and giant pair of white fake-fur boots, topped off with a red and white scarf. The Louisville rock band has had some legendary moments at Bonnaroo over the years, like the apocalyptic storm set in 2004 and a three-hour marathon of a show late-night in 2008. MMJ filled their first big stage set with a range of epic rock jams and mellower, down south tunes. Cellist Ben Sollee joined for “Smokin From Shootin” and the band expressed their appreciation, saying ” We’ve had our minds blown so many times at this festival, “and it’s an honor to be with you tonight.”

My Morning Jacket

Headliners Arcade Fire continued their homage to suburban slums with a stage set up mirroring a drive-in theater, complete with previews (the trailer of 1979 teen-exploitation flick Over the Edge). The crowd danced to all the hits, including “We Used to Wait”, “Ready to Start”, “Month of May” and “All Cars Go”. After the phenomenal balloon drop at Coachella during their encore of “Wake Up”, the anticipation for something spectacular was thick. They gave “Wake Up” a break, introducing it into the encore as having been “written for rooms of twenty people”.  While the party tricks were kept to a minimum, the ninety minute set was closed with “Sprawl II,” one of The Suburbs grooviest tracks, made for open air.

Arcade Fire

At 1:30 AM it was time to get gangster with Lil Wayne, who was wearing zebra pants and a backpack and thanked fans for sticking by him. What started strong got a little weird in the middle when it slowed down in order to plug some friends o’ Weezy. Still, I have never seen to many white kids get down, so a good time was had by all.

An hour later, Centerroo was just as packed as it had been at 6:00 PM, and people buzzed from tent to tent checking out LATE late night sets courtesy of Pretty Lights (“awesome”) Ratatat (“too crowded”) and Shpongle, a light show extravaganza who’s name had been on everyone’s tongue, presumably because of the name, but no one seemed to know anything about.

Saturday started out with some attitude as we went to cheer on OurStage artist Lelia Broussard as she competed for the cover of Rolling Stone. Decked out in face paint, she rocked songs about hipster bitches and sad robots to a slew of fans who showed their support with their own face paint.

Lelia Broussard

Chiddy Bang took the stage just as the sun really started beating down. The Guinness World Record holders (for longest freestyle rap—over nine hours!) took freestyle suggestions from the audience and closed with the anthemic “Opposite of Adults”. Alison Krauss‘ soothing voice brought some relief to a crowd relaxing on the lawn in the afternoon. Together with her bluegrass band Union Station, she lulled fans with songs “Restless” and “Miles to Go,” off the band’s 2011 Paper Airplane.

Portugal, the Man, Amos Lee and Wiz Khalifa brought the hip quotient to the afternoon, with one Wiz goer overheard saying that it was the best set so far. Current girlfriend(and Kanye ex) Amber Rose looked on from the side of the stage as he performed tracks like ”B.A.R.,” “Cabin Fever,” “The Race,” “Wake Up,” “In the Cut,” with eyes past the point of glassy.

Wiz Khalifa

Mumford and Sons stole the show Saturday afternoon, making the leap from afternoon tent to evening stage since last year. “There are so many more of you than there were last year” keyboardist Ben Lovett told the swelling crowd, which included Ron Jeremy, Zach Braff, and American Idol cast-off David Archuletta, a very real truth when taking into account the fifty or so fans in attendance just last summer. Mumford performed all the hits off 2009′s triumphant Sigh No More, but also introduced three new songs inspired in part by Tennessee itself, and promised their new album would be done by year’s end. Joined by members of Old Crow Medicine Show, who Mumford joined onstage for their finale hours earlier, Harris,and Jerry Douglas, the group encored with “Amazing Grace”. The stage resembled a back yard hill billy party as the Sons belted out all too relevant lyrics about being “found”.

Mumford and Sons... and friends

Tens of thousands of fans packed into the main stage for what would turn into one of the most memorable performances of the weekend. While The Black Keys put on a set comprised mostly of last year’s breakout Brothers, Daniel Kolitz (Prefix magazine) remarked “Bonnaroo could have easily been 1968: their proudly analog jams make almost no concessions to the last thirty years of music.” Described as “super sized and stunning” it was the perfect music to watch the sun set to.

Eminem took the stage for his first performance of the year in support of Recovery, but catered to his fans by playing tons of hits from years past including “Stan” and “The Real Slim Shady”. His performance was purely triumphant, pounding energy into the stage with determination and grit, proving that he does in fact have the steel to perform in a festival setting. Encoring with the mega hit “Lose Yourself”, Em humbly thanked his fans before walking off. “Everybody here tonight,” he said, “I just wanna say thank you for sticking by me and not giving up on me.”

Eminem

Late night dancing entertainment was provided by New York rockers Scissor Sisters, jam staples String Cheese Incident, DJ Girl Talk and traveling gypsies Gogol Bordello. Fans poured themselves into their tents well after the sun came up.

After twenty hours, and what felt like a million miles, we finally made it to Great Stage Park for Bonnaroo. In the morning, we reminisced about the festival kick off, and analyzed the day’s lineup. From what we heard, J. Cole blew everyone’s mind, unfortunately we were over at The Other Tent posting up shop for Sleigh Bells. We weren’t the only ones—people continued to swarm in after The Drums finished. Sleigh Bells finally started half an hour late, but we were disappointed to be pounded with an overwhelming amount of bass, to the point where we couldn’t even make out Alexis Krauss’ voice. So, we gave ourselves a break and headed over to That Tent to catch The Walkmen finishing their set. It was a good decision, they rocked hard, and we appreciated it. We had to call it quits afterwards—preservation is key at Bonnaroo, sleep even more so, especially since Friday boasts such a fun lineup. We passed out to the sounds of Beats Antique, but not before pausing outside Centerroo to listen to the end of Sleigh Bells, who sounded fantastic once the fence was blocking the bass.

We started Friday off with an OurStage (and personal) favorite: Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. They were up against Matt & Kim, who we love (we just chatted with Matt on the phone, look out for the Q&A), but Grace provided hours of hippie dancing, and more importantly, great people watching. Wearing a lace caftan which she quickly whipped away to reveal a printed mini, Grace danced barefoot like an animal. Overheard: “I want to marry her.”

Next, we caught a bit of Atmosphere, who almost “called in sick.” “Hey Bonnaroo,” Slug said in his hypothetical phone call to the president of Bonnaroo, “I’m not gonna be able to make it into work today. I’m gonna be way too f-cking hungover.” When the crowd started booing, his response: “Don’t boo me, I’m here. I’m not booing you.”

Next we were off to catch Ray LaMontagne, who actually hates performing on stage and usually hides in the shadows of the stage, so we were excited to see him play at 6:15 PM when the sun was shining. He did his best though, standing way off to the right off the stage, less than 10 feet from the wing and facing across to the left, not daring make eye contact with the hundreds of fans singing along. After a heart-breakingly beautiful “Jolene,” an awkward “thank you, thank you very much,” and he was gone.

We headed back to basecamp to pound a burrito and rest up for Arcade Fire. But, as we walked out of Centerroo, we could hear Florence (and her machine) wailing “Dog Days Are Over” as fellow passerbys sang along.

Overall, there seems to be less heat this year (knock on wood) but more people. Rumor has it over 100,000 tickets were sold, and general admission sold out a few weeks ago. Not everyone is as well prepared as we are though—a fellow camper slept with a towel as a blanket and a hackey sack as a pillow last night. But at Bonnaroo, to each their own.

A few more deets: It’s so dusty here people are wearing bandanas over their faces. It’s like living in a real life Hipstamatic print. Also, the light in the giant balloon marking our camp (Roger Murdock) isn’t working, go figure. On a sad note, a woman was found dead today outside her tent. Dehydration, heat and drugs are all being considered as probable causes. If you’re here, be sure to drink water, and then drink some more. More to come about Arcade Fire‘s headlining set and Lil Wayne late night. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter—we’ll be tweeting all weekend long!

• Saves The Day and The Get Up Kids announce co-headlining tour. Angsty teens everywhere rejoice.
• As if we needed more reasons to love Win Butler and co.
• Ke$ha to guest star on Nickelodeon’s Victorious. Because she’s a great influence on children, obviously!
• John Mellencamp and Stephen King are developing a musical? Best. Collaboration. Ever.
• Adam Lambert gets sloppy, pisses off Gaga. Bad move, guy.
• Craig Robinson is wayyyy too cuddly to play the anti-christ.
• Awwwwwww.
• Stan Lee to develop Arnold Schwarzenneger comic book series. We’re seriously hoping that this isn’t an April Fools gag.
• …Okay. But only because it’s Friday and we, we so excited for the weekend.