Klaxons @ Bowery Ballroom, 4/10/07

I'm not sure what it says about a band when the lead singer, Jamie Reynolds, is wearing a Burberry coat on stage. No matter how much he was sweating, you can bet that jacket wasn't coming off. I found him to be the most entertaining. He had more of a rough-around-the-edges appeal that I'm not used to seeing from the other UK upstart bands; it's that glazed look of borderline insanity that I like to see out of a band leader. Really, I could have done without seeing the rest of the fools up on stage. The keyboard player looks like he's four. The guitar player was so bombed, he should have been on stage with Trail of Dead. He was a complete waste of space. The drummer was a late addition to the band and I thought he actually performed quite well although his look was straight out of a terrible '80's video. As for the songs, it was a bit of a mixed bag. They started exceptionally strong with "The Bouncer" and "Atlantis to Interzone" then dipped through the middle of set until, what was the higlight for me, the three song stretch of "Magick," "Gravity's Rainbow," and "It's Not Over Yet." They then finished up with two more songs and after 45 minutes, they left the stage without an encore. Some may be annoyed by this. I'm not. With one album there's no need to prolong the show, especially when you've played everything that the crowd needs/wanted to hear. Come in, bring your best effort, and leave. I'm not sure we saw the best of them but I left with the feeling that I saw a good performance of songs from what I still believe to be one of the more enjoyable albums I've heard this year.

Setlist:
"The Bouncer"
"Atlantis to Interzone"
"Hall of Records"
"Totem on the Timeline"
"Golden Stans"
"As Above, So Below"
"Two Receivers"
"Magick"
"Gravity's Rainbow"
"It's Not Over Yet"
"Isle of Her"
"Four Horsemen of 2012"

Full Album Streams

Here are a couple new full album streams worthy of attention.

AOL has Klaxons' Myths of the Near Future. Ignore all that bullshit about the term "new rave." This is actually a really great rock album. It's 10 bucks at Insound and as an added bonus, they're shipping the Magick and Golden Skans import CD singles along with it. It comes out tomorrow.

NME has Maximo Park's Our Earthly Pleasures. It was a tall order but it doesn't quite stand up to their debut. The album drops off a bit during the bottom third of the album but overall, it's a very solid effort from a band that I think is very underrated here in the States. The album is out next Monday in the UK and May 8 in the US. No pre-sale information yet.

Additional Headlines Cont'd w/Klaxons, Deerhunter, and PB&J

I wanted to take a quick moment to recognize the debut Klaxons album Myths of the Near Future. I haven't quite figured out if this album should be considered a guilty pleasure but I am sure that you can throw throw this NME-loving term "new rave" out the window. I have no clue what that means but damn is this album fantastic. I've read some grumblings that there isn't a lot of new material beyond the 4 pre-released singles but for someone who didn't follow them previously, this album surprised me in more ways than I can remember. It reminds me a lot of when I listened to Silent Alarm for the first time. It's not as good, mind you, but I keep asking myself how each song can be so catchy and it's the only thing pulling me away from Cloud Cult right now. As InMyTree mentioned this morning, the album will be released in the States in late April. However, it's out now in the UK and you can stream the full album now at NME. After an altogether down year in music in 2006, it's hard to complain with the music I've heard in the first month of 2007 alone.

Klaxons Album Stream

The writing has been on the wall for the Best New Music tag for the Deerhunter album. I've managed to collect 6 songs off the album from various Hype Machine sources as Ryan Schreiber has been pimping these guys for awhile now. I'm not quite convinced this deserves an 8.9 but I think I need to hear the album in full before passing judgement.

Going to see Peter Bjorn and John tonight at Bowery. After reading the gushing reviews from BV (night 1, night 2), I can't fucking wait. There is currently an interview with the band on Pitchfork. This is my vote for the second best song on the album.

MP3: Peter Bjorn and John - "The Chills"

Clipse Tour Dates

From Pitchfork...

02-27 Cambridge, MA - Middle East *
02-28 Baltimore, MD - Sonar *
03-01 Pittsburgh, PA - Rex Theatre
03-02 Chicago, IL - Metro *
03-03 Minneapolis, MN - Myth
03-04 Ann Arbor, MI - Blind Pig
03-05 Englewood, CO - Gothic Theatre
03-06 Boulder, CO - Fox Theatre
03-07 Jackson Hole, WY - Mangy Moose
03-08 Colorado Springs, CO - The Black Sheep
03-10 Tacoma, WA - Tacoma Center
03-11 Bellingham, WA - Nightlight Lounge
03-12 Seattle, WA - Chop Suey
03-13 Seattle, WA - Chop Suey *
03-14 San Francisco, CA - Mezzanine *
03-15 Santa Cruz, CA - Catalyst *
03-16 Los Angeles, CA - Key Club *
03-17 San Diego, CA - Belly Up
03-18 Anaheim, CA - House of Blues
03-19 Albuquerque, NM - Sunshine Theater
03-21 Austin, TX - Emo's
03-23 Miami, FL - I/O
03-24 Orlando, FL - The Club at Firestone
03-25 Atlanta, GA - The Loft
03-26 Asheville, NC - Orange Peel
03-27 Carrboro, NC - Cat's Cradle
03-28 Richmond, VA - TBA
03-29 Baltimore, MD - TBA
04-26 New York, NY - B.B. King's

* with Low Budget

Additional headlines:

- Klaxons Send Myths Stateside via Rinse/DGC
- Modest Mouse Unveil Dead Tracklist, Release Date