Pilot Speed :: "Please Put The Phone Down"

I thought Pilot Speed's lead-singer was Sting's kid. As in: bassist, "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic," The Police -yeah, his offspring. Actually, I was thinking of the band Fiction Plane which is, in fact, fronted by Sting's child. Pilot Speed is different. I conjecture too quickly. And definitely not Blind Pilot either, a brief, incorrect, second-try on my part. This band is not to be confused with any other pilot or aeronautical metaphor. This band is not the band you think they are. One more time with feeling.

The truth is, Pilot Speed doesn't sound like any of the mistakes I made when I read their press release rather hastily three-and-a-half weeks ago. They sound a lot like The Thrills playing Snow Patrol songs. The arrangements are big, sweeping, string-drenched affairs. The vocals are close, fragile, and almost confiding. Close your eyes and picture the sun-sweat of The Thrills' "Santa Cruz" and the morose, over-emotion of Snow Patrol's "Run." Take those two aesthetics and tempos and average them: it works and I'm not a mathematician.

It's the middle of the morning and I'm scribbling "Please Put The Phone Down" on a notepad. No one is on the phone. The lyric is just in my head. The frailness, or maybe the simplicity of the request, "please put the phone down" resonates. It's certainly not perfect but I promise you'll remember it. You might even end up scrawling it on a legal pad in a fit of bored hysteria. So as your mind drifts to the people you talk to on the phone too much and see too little, remember the words. And don't forget their name - you might need it.

Listen :: Pilot Speed - "Please Put The Phone Down"

The XX :: "Crystalised"

The XX might be the most tense bunch of 2009. You can't listen to this band and not feel a vague sense of anxiety. Weaving taut arrangements dipped in a post-punk after-glow, they are all build-up and no pay-off. It is all intentionally unsatisfying. The music is almost nervous, or more aptly, would be nervous if it weren't so self-consciously confident. Still, watching someone be confidently tense is about as relaxing as watching the middle 50-minutes of Man On Wire. It's kind of pretty, but you feel like disaster is riding shotgun, somewhere around an invisible corner, waiting to ruin everything. The fear ends up in your mouth without really being there.

But perhaps the point is to court a disaster without actually having one. Sort of like eluding to tragedy without actually experiencing it. Sort of like knowing someone who is emotionally destroyed without actually being emotionally destroyed yourself. Sort of like walking a slow-core Interpol high-wire without actually risking anything. Why? The XX are just fine. Whether their self-awareness is crippling or powerful - I wouldn't turn around: Danger is sitting on the back of your neck with a view to a kill.

Listen :: The XX - "Crystalised"
Bonus :: The XX - "Stars" (demo)

Foreign Born :: "Vacationing People"

It is late in 2007 and I have a CMJ badge. One of these things gives me hope and one of them gives me options. You can decide which is which. I am in the basement of the Delancey and Foreign Born is meandering through a set in completely unimpressive fashion.

And then, in a moment, the whole thing shifts. Lead-singer and guitarist, Matt Popeiluch, launches himself into the air. His legs make scissors and his arm a windmill. He is locked into one of the great postcards in New York rock history. He didn't invent this pose, but he seems more than comfortable trafficking in the irony. The music isn't that hard but the moment is, nonetheless, masterful. As his hand comes swinging through acoustic strings, the crowd blows the roof off the basement. This is the band the West Coast Kids can't stop talking about it. I get it. They aren't a let down.

So now Foreign Born are signed to Secretly Canadian and their second record is due out in June. This is what American Folk Rock should sound like: No apologies and no regrets. There isn't time for either when you're launched to the ceiling and bound for the floor.

Listen :: Foreign Born - "Vacationing People"

On The List :: Bloc Party @ Terminal 5 [3.24.08]

The moment of the night comes late and it is brief. We're about three beats from the beginning of the second chorus to "The Prayer" when a young man rises from the crowd on the hands of his peers. In about the third row, he's raised straight up from his waist, almost crucifixion style, with his arms out and a look of complete, unrestrained awe. And in a heartbeat and a half, he drops. The lights explode in time and Kele screams: Tonight, make me unstoppable.

The image of youth defying gravity and a band having the power to elevate is fleeting. It's not that Bloc Party isn't trying. Kele's stage banter resembles the encouragement of an elementary school teacher; two parts encouraging, one part reinforcement, and one part constructive criticism. He expects more out of us, but, well, aren't we doing pretty decently all the same and, isn't there a little more we could give? Yes. Yes, there is more we can give.

Shift gears a minute, lower your eyes from the stage and stare at the backs of the two guys in front of me. They've paid their $31.50 like most of the rest of the crowd. They're reasonably dressed and know some of the words to some of the songs. They are what most people would call "fans." Unfortunately, they are locked in the battle of who can move less. It's like watching two statues start a staring contest. Simply, everyone loses. They don't clap during the first encore and they give nothing of themselves. I yell, as unironically as possible, "feel. feelings. Care about anything. Please." We are slow-clapping. They don't turn around. It would require moving.

"Ion Square" (Live @ 3.24.09)


And the crowd's effort isn't to be blamed on the set list. Bloc Party plays a majority of the new record, the favorites off the first record, and a few choice cuts off the middle one. It's anything but safe, moving from one high-wire routine to another. And in a few spots, it doesn't work. "Ion Square" doesn't sound nearly as epic live but, frankly, if it were any more epic our hearts might pop. A little comedown isn't so bad because when "Song For Clay" becomes "Banquet" there isn't time to breathe. After the first encore, the band unleashes "Flux" like a hot mess into the crowd. The lights blink and go green. Everyone moves. This is a song that no one got in September '07. It's March '09 and there isn't a person in the audience with questions.

The band closes with "This Modern Love" and a message: "This is for all the people who supported us on that first record four years ago." Has it been that long? Yes, it has. About half the crowd claps. Silent Alarm seems like forever ago but "This Modern Love" still seems fresh. It makes people dance. It makes me reflective. We are terribly, terribly alone. And yet, here we are, all together. It's moving. Which is exactly what everyone should have been doing from the outset.

Listen :: Bloc Party - "Signs" (AVH Remix)

Twin Sister - "Ginger"

Twin Sister has a cool-looking website with almost no information to speak of. This, I like. It says, "we are aesthetically pleasing but that doesn't mean you get our life-story." They are a pretty girl who won't give you their phone number. This, somehow, makes them more attractive.

"Ginger" sounds a little like a slowed-down Stereolab or like some of the Holly Miranda material that's been coming out in the last month or so: Deliberate, almost hungover, and certainly pretty. It has a certain pace to it, a head-nodding bass line and a pendulum-swing of an arrangement. The melody is two parts seductive and one part mournful. The whole thing is fuzzy at the edges and takes an expectant, if lazy, flop into the wordless chorus.

It's contradictions. It's a dream sequence in fast motion; real life but slowed down. It's the water-borne dream of life and death. It's the overstatement of exaggeration mixed with the understatement of modesty. It's controlled excitement and unrestrained boredom. It is aesthetics with no content. Or the other way around.

Listen :: Twin Sister - "Ginger"
Bonus :: Twin Sister - "I Want A House"

Local Natives :: "World News" and "Airplanes"

Local Natives are one of the 2,000 bands who tried to takeover SXSW this week. Let's look at the pro and cons.

Cons: There are 2,000 bands there. 400 of them are probably tour-tough and pretty good. 200 of them probably employ full-time publicity staff in some capacity. 25 of them are already signed to major labels and another 100-150 are already signed to "major indies." Your odds of "breaking" in this environment are simply not very good. Also, on the label front, everyone is cash-strapped and panicked. And, even if you are ready to break, there are probably three and maybe five other bands with equally good records and good buzz. I'm not a mathematician but if you carry all those ones, your odds of smashing this festival and grabbing the cash are ... slim.

Pros: We've heard XL Records is looking at this band pretty hard. Which, barring all the negative math above, can break your name pretty quickly. It also helps if your songs are strong (yes) and if your publicity machine is working harder than everyone else (Daytrotter session, blog features, etc.). It also helps if you sound like you could turn into Rogue Wave.

So, what's the verdict? Enjoy "World News" and "Airplanes" and you tell me. Despite what we think of the landscape, the days of bands toiling in brilliant obscurity are over. As a major A&R recently put it to me: if the music is good, people will find it quickly. Indie kids, consider your world officially shattered. Local Natives, consider yourselves officially broken.

Listen :: Local Natives - "Airplanes"
Bonus :: Local Natives - "World News"

Voxtrot :: "Trepanation Party"

Voxtrot evaporated from the world in 2007. Facing somewhat absurd and overly righteous backlash from the same community of bloggers and indie kids who buzzed them in the first place, the band just kind of disappeared. We were left with weird 5,000 word blog posts from the lead-singer, written in solitude and anxiety in Berlin. They referenced "new material" but was it a solo record or something involving the whole band?

As SXSW descends on their hometown of Austin, Voxtrot seems determined to return with a relative vengeance. I say relative vengence because this is a band whose previous dominant influence was early Belle and Sebastian. But "Trepanation Party" isn't that at all. It has thumping, immediate drums - a riff with a decidedly ominous behavior and quality. The vocals are familiar but the synths are foreign and cold. I guess they're supposed to sound that way. Part of me doesn't get it yet. Part of me thinks this isn't what I wanted. But part of me didn't go try to find myself in Berlin. Part of me has no idea what this band has been doing for the last two years. So, Voxtrot, welcome back. In my book, go ahead and make something that sounds like it could go on M83's last record. It's your world, kid - we just live in it.

Listen :: Voxtrot - "Trepanation Party"