Category Archives: Bands

Marvin’s cover of Brian Eno’s ‘Here Come The Warm Jets’

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I was set up this morning to write a little bit about LCD Soundsystem…not really something undiscovered or needing of press, but it’s a beautifully composed album. James Murphy seems to pull from a lot of things I love: Brian Eno, Talking Heads, Joy Division…so the album hits me in the right places. The track “All I Want” always stuck in my ear, because the guitar riff felt warmly familiar. The song opens with a warmly dissonant, wandering guitar lead that I ultimately figured out is the love child of riffs from Brian Eno’s ‘Here Come The Warm Jets’ and David Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ (also produced by Eno).


From a 1977 Bing Crosby christmas special


A pretty amazing song, from an equally amazing album

Listen to those, then give a try to LCD Soundsystem’s ‘All I Want’. It’s not some note for note thieft, but you can see where the Eno influence has bled into Murphy’s music…something I wholeheartedly approve.

While I was researching, poking around at different versions of the above songs to post up here I came across this French experimental metal trio Marvin. The chose to close out their bizzarely sprawling album Hangover The Top album with a spaced out, Isis-derived take on the Eno’s album closer. I think as much as I’m really just happy that anyone is still interested in Eno’s solo pop work, I’m a fan of the riff heavy route that Marvin has gone. It’s a good way to discover a band.

MARVIN – HERE COME THE WARM JETS (BRIAN ENO COVER)

From what I’ve heard of the album, it’s a mixture of many different metal influences. Some songs groove like old Trans Am, hit riffs with that same Isis-ian sense of space, others are like the faster moments on any given Boris record. The band is just synth, guitar and drums, which makes for some interesting moments throughout. Given their taste in covers, I’ll definitely endorse.

Hangover The Top was released on April 6th, 2010 (my birthday, bonus points for that) and is available on iTunes, Amazon, or direct from their label African Tape.

Portland’s Breakfast Mountain is kinda blowing my mind

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I’m realizing now I probably should have counted my pennies last year and hit up that DAT Politics show when I lived in Portland. I’ve been meaning to see what the fuck they do live with their live set, but it’s hard to convince folks that the spastic electro they make is awesome. Had I gone, I would have gotten a sense of the equally awesome weirdness that is Breakfast Mountain, as they opened up the show. Instead, a year later I had to find out via the PDX Pop Now comp that is released in honor of the long weekend of music. Among them, Breakfast Mountain is my favorite and they’ll be of the 40+ bands playing the festival, which showcases the fertile & eccentric scene that Portland is home to.

Go download Hooooded Plus+, which is Breakfast Mountain’s debut-ish, for free by clicking on the cover above. It’s a collection of tracks, edits, remixes and live stuff that is hard to really put a single genre tag on, as it’s an explosion of styles assembled with a Jackson Pollock precision. The smashed together, sound collage element of Breakfast Mountain feels like it’s a mixtape made for someone you love that was left in a shoebox full of liquid acid for a few months. Heavily influenced by beat driven electronic music, cheeseball hip-hop & at times, noisy shoegaze, it’s incredibly enjoyable without slotting it under any single group.

His myspace page says he’s off recording, so keep an eye out for new material hopefully soon.

Here’s two of my favorites, both available on Hooooded Plus+:

BREAKFAST MOUNTAIN – J HOLLERDAY (RE-EDIT)

BREAKFAST MOUNTAIN – SECRET DRUMM

Guest Blog: Partially Frozen’s Mark Theriault brings us Daniel Buxton

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Life is a complicated thing and it’s made for a quiet few weeks here at Taking Tiger Mountain as a result. My buddy Mark Theriault, CG artist extraordinaire behind Partially Frozen is helping me out by sharing with us the evening he discovered Daniel Buxton on a Vancouver street corner.

Look for more TTM updates coming soon…

Last night, I had a moment that made me remember why music and live performances can’t be contained by a stage or venue. Daniel Buxton is something of a rarity that proves my point. As I was leaving an eatery on Granville, I heard a voice coming from across the street and I thought to myself “Wow, is this guy really singing?” My friend and I ran to see this lone man standing in the light of an Aldo shoe store. With a thin frame and hair that for sure makes women more than a little jealous, stood Daniel Buxton.

He was playing a square guitar and using a wooden foot plank attached to tambourines, belting out a song that I can’t remember the name of, but the title of which was truly irrelevant. This man could sing and play better than most people I’ve ever seen live. Buxton embraced the emotion with his tightly closed eyes and booming voice. The street was empty but for an audience of two and he played like it was two hundred. After a few covers, he took a short break to which I used the opportunity to ask if he had any original stuff. Instantly, he lit up and said “Yeah man, for sure. Here, I’ll play two songs.” I was nervous. I have heard a lot of acts that can cover a song flawlessly but can’t bring to the table stuff of there own making.

To this, Buxton started to play…and play he did. His original work was way better to hear then the covers. Now, don’t get me wrong, I know the covers are a valid addition to a street performers repertoire, but if I had it my way this man would play all original work. Granville St. in Vancouver isn’t the most music appreciative place on earth…the neighborhood mainly consists of Kim Kardashian-esq women and what I would consider ‘roided douche bags. When he was playing large groups of people would walk by and 9 out of 10 wouldn’t hear a lick of what he was playing. The singular guy that knew and appreciated talent that would turn his head, stop and join the audience. This happened at least 3 or4 times while I was watching. He would approach the two audience members, just my friend and I at the beginning, and say “Holy shit, this guy is so good” while frantically searching for a dollar or more to throw into the guitar case. What can be said about Daniel Buxton and his performance in the doorway of that Aldo is that he has the ability to truly pull out the best in people who appreciate music and soul.

Check out the Candice Weapon remix of Daniel Buxton’s ‘Sex With My Ex’:

DB Buxton Revue – Sex With My Ex (Cadence Weapon’s No Sex Mix)


An article on Buxton from Edmonton’s VUE Weekly

Daniel B. Buxton – “St. James Infirmary Blues”

…In With The New – Andrew Bird’s Noble Beast (MP3s & Tour Dates)

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As the pastoral album cover hints, Noble Beast is a different kind of Andrew Bird. It’s grounded in a kind of naturalistic realism, a smaller album overall. While not a bad thing, but as it’s a comedown from the dark grandeur of Armchair Apocrapha, there’s definitely a period of listener adjustment that has to happen. Most every moment of Noble Beast is fraught with restraint, lacking the soaring bombast that permeated both its predecessor and …And The Mysterious Production of Eggs. Many of the tracks on Noble Beast are gentle to the core, crafted with touches of straight piano, acoustic guitar and cautious percussion.

It’s definitely a throwback to an older Bird, as there’s many moments where Noble Beast recall the simpler songwriting style of 2003′s Weather Systems which felt like an album of songs to be performed alone. Noble Beast has the essence of being written for someone, a touching living room performance in a house with creaky floorboards and a snow dusted roof.

‘Souverian’ is a good example of the new dynamic. At over seven minutes, it’s the lengthiest track on the album, and it retains touches of the more complex Bird songwriting. It begins a delicate stitch of violin, acoustic guitar and brushed drums that hang against the. The song snakes along, taking it’s time, pausing often to catch its breath; there are moments where you can feel the hints of a build coming, but it’s only a tease. An older Bird would use those moments as springboard into a looped cloud, but instead you get just a taste…a single bowed note arcs higher, reaching out of the mix, then things are quickly grounded. The song shifts in the last few minutes, the drums grow heavy and the melody somber, before taking off slowly into a glacial cloud of guitar noise. The entire song, as well most of the rest of the album is a work of patience…still quintessential Bird, but different in its approach.

Andrew Bird – Souverian


‘Anonanimal’ is an incredibly subdued and interesting track that quickly grew to be my favorite on the album. It snakes around the first half with a deft tangle of prickly guitar, violin and gorgeous wordplay. After a moments pause, it leads the listener along to a pop of Dosh’s skittering drumming and a bolder guitar riff.

Andrew Bird – Anonanimal


Overall, we’re faced with a slow moving, intricate work that takes time to crack open and examine the majesty within. Initially, I wasn’t totally sold on the album as a whole and was prepared to just write it off as a low point in his catalog, but I needed to sit with it for longer in order for it to grow on me. I’m a very staunch Bird fan, but on the same page, I love the complexity and the dexterous layering that made a beautiful fog out of his last two albums. The absence of those elements was off putting at first, but with repeated exposure, became a benefit. The strongest element of Noble Beast stands with Bird’s vocal melodies. While the older albums sucked listeners in with the craft of the music, I think that this album marks a change in his confidence as a songwriter. He’s less afraid to hide behind technical elements and lets the small touches speak just as loud. If you’re not in love with this album instantly, do take the time to get familiar with the melodies, to peek into the corners and find the subtle details that makes this album worthy of many repeat listens.

Tourdates:

Feb 14 2009/ The Rialto Theatre – Tucson, Arizona
Feb 15 2009/ SOMA – San Diego, California
Feb 18 2009/ The Orpheum Theatre – Los Angeles, California
Feb 19 2009/ The Fillmore – San Francisco, California
Feb 20 2009/ The Fillmore – San Francisco, California
Feb 21 2009/ Roseland Theater – Portland, Oregon
Feb 23 2009/ The Moore Theatre – Seattle, Washington
Feb 24 2009/ Knitting Factory – Boise, Idaho
Feb 25 2009/ The Murray Theater – Murray, Utah
Feb 26 2009/ The Ogden Theater – Denver, Colorado
Feb 27 2009/ Slowdown – Omaha, Nebraska
Feb 28 2009/ Hoyt Sherman Place Des Moines, Iowa
Mar 15 2009/ The Pageant – St. Louis, Missouri
Mar 16 2009/ Liberty Hall Lawrence, Kansas
Mar 17 2009/ Cain’s Ballroom – Tulsa, Oklahoma
Mar 21 2009/ House of Blues – Houston, Texas
Mar 22 2009/ Granada Theater – Dallas, Texas
Mar 23 2009/ The Lyric Oxford – Oxford, Mississippi
Apr 2 2009/ Allen Theatre – Cleveland, Ohio
Apr 3 2009/ Queen Elizabeth Theatre – Toronto, Ontario
Apr 4 2009/ Le National – Montreal, Quebec
Apr 5 2009/ Higher Ground – South Burlington, Vermont
Apr 7 2009/ Carnegie Music Hall – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Apr 8 2009/ Michigan Theater – Ann Arbor, Michigan
Apr 9 2009/ Civic Opera House Chicago, Illinois
Apr 10 2009/ Civic Opera House – Chicago, Illinois
Apr 11 2009/ The State Theater – Minneapolis, Minnesota
Apr 27 2009/ La Cigale – Paris

Noble Beast was released January 20th in North America on Fat Possum Records and February 2nd in Europe via Bella Union/Cooperative.