The Alkaline Trio coming to Reno

Crimson is the best next step for Alkaline Trio. It keeps Good Mourning’s blacks and reds and crack melodic sense. But it’s also much more accessible with its measured aggression, rich piano (courtesy of Jellyfish and studio veteran Roger Manning), and production from Jerry Finn, who’s worked with blink-182 and the very-relevant-to-Alkaline Trio Jawbreaker.

Like those groups Alkaline Trio has grown away from punk-pop; they’ve grown up. On 1998’s Goddamnit!, Matt Skiba and Dan Andriano let out rowdy “woah-woahs” and wished things like “I wanna wake up naked next to you.” But then that happened, and the other side of the bed wasn’t as pretty. By Mourning they were dealing with death metaphors and painful levels of self-medication. Crimson has a similar sense of emotional brokenness, but things never get so heavy that you’ll need the goth eyeliner — the album’s pop sense glimmers steadily beneath its dour shroud. “Poison” and “Time to Waste” downshift into powerful choruses despite lines about dead eyes and meaninglessness, “Mercy Me” and “Dethbed” rock self-hate and cynicism over propulsive beats, and “Prevent This Tragedy” incorporates a keyboard descent that’s a perfectly pretty foil for a line like “the flames of hell they give me hope.” As great as Alkaline Trio are at relating their booze and blood-spattered lives to listeners, it does get a little tedious. But Skiba and Andriano’s interlocking harmonies never flag, and the band’s rhythms are just too catchy throughout. Let’s see. They’re writing smart, bright, punk-derived pop, but they’re black and white and blocky-featured, and they like Depeche Mode much more than Duran Duran. That settles it — Alkaline Trio are the bizarro-world Killers.

Panic at the Disco and Honda…

Let alone a match made in heaven, I believe the world will start cleaning itself knowing Honda and Panic are headlining the 2008 Honda Civic Tour…

Due in Reno at the Grand Sierra Resort June 10th 2008, Panic at the Disco brings, Motion City Soundtrack, The Hush Sound and Phantom Planet. I do like PATD’s new album, I like Motion City Soundtrack and like what I’ve heard from both The Hush Sound and Phantom Planet.

Here’s the 2008 Honda Civic Tours widget…

Liam Finn Podcast

The young New Zealand singer-songwriter (and son of Neil Finn from Crowded House) stopped by Studio C recently to talk about songwriting and touring and play a few fantastic songs from his solo debut album, I’ll Be Lightning.

The Papercranes at SXSW

If you’re inclined toward mind-alteration, taking the edge off, stewing in your own juices, there is good news on the music pipeline: A beautiful dose of Gainesville, Florida by way of New York, LA and the Great Beyond. With all the goodness of ecstasy and vicodin, good pot and expensive wine but without the hangover, papercranes bring on a perfect buzz that will let you operate heavy machinery and explore the dark side without getting drowsy.

“We like each other. We like playing music together,” lead singer Rain Phoenix tells us. Sure, it’s an understatement but the fact is, the whole band likes to keep it simple. Elemental. They start with modest musical ideas and stream-of- consciousness lyrics, seemingly translucent layers of clarity, and they twist it all into nuanced, mystifying works that call to mind the early purveyors of moody, melodic rock that recalls Luna, Mazzy Star and Belly. That is, if those bands were fronted by the stunningly beautiful and sultry-voiced Rain Phoenix.

And after searching both coasts and employing some very able players, Rain simplified — settled down with their friends and neighbors: Robb Buono (guitar), Andy Lord (bass), Miles Matheny (guitar), Mike Amish (keyboards) and Dave Lebleu (drums). They are an understated lot that lets you explore their charms at your own pace.

And yes, Rain Phoenix has been involved with an amazing array of projects. Starting with Aleka’s Attic, which she started with her brother River, to singing with REM and The Red Hot Chili Peppers, to playing in a local metal band called Nux Vomica and glamming it up for NYC political cabaret ensemble The Citizens’ Band, she has cut her teeth in awfully public arenas. Maybe that’s why she possesses a preternatural confidence and an almost scary stage presence. To see papercranes live is hardly the same trip as floating through the new album, Vidalia, since Rain can wail as well as she can whisper. Hers is the ravishing voice that can stand up to the intricate delicacies of Vic Chesnutt and Angela McCluskey, both of whom guest on the album.

Vidalia comes out through the band itself this fall. Recorded in Athens, New York, Gainesville and Los Angeles, the album was produced by the band and mixed by Jamie Candiloro, who mixed Ryan Adams’ Rock N Roll album. The songs spiral and swirl out your stereo, as atmospheric as they are delicate, tackling topics like trust, abandonment, loss and need. “For the most part we like to write using whatever is inspiring us in the moment,” Rain says. “With less attachment to the outcome, we often find we are happier with the results. We aren’t ‘going for anything in particular we just want to see where things naturally ‘go.’”

And “go” they certainly do. papercranes is at work already on a new album and will soon be touring the East Coast in support of Vidalia. If their tour is anything like their music, it will be one beautiful trip indeed.

PREVIEW - Papercranes - Treasure

My Morning Jacket at SXSW

A warm swell fills the room when My Morning Jacket takes the stage, but there’s also unmistakable energy. The band’s roots lie in distinctly American music forms (country, folk, classic rock), all wrapped in reverb and Jim James’ soaring voice. Hear a concert recorded live at the Austin Music Hall in Austin, Tex., complete with eight songs from My Morning Jacket’s new album, Evil Urges.

Click here for NPR’s Coverage

The Ravonettes - Lust, Lust, Lust

In a previous life, half a century ago, sune Rose Wagner was probably an aspiring Raymond Chandler, churning out tight, bone-hard fiction about rogue gumshoes and icy femmes fatales. In this life, Wagner — the singer-guitarist-songwriter-producer half of Danish duo the Raveonettes — does the same thing in seven-inch-single bites, soaking his short stories of want and danger in fuzz guitars, squealing-tire feedback and his furtive-whisper harmonies with singer-guitarist Sharin Foo. Most of “Aly, Walk With Me,” the first song on the Raveonettes’ third album, Lust Lust Lust, is as cold and bleak as an all-night stakeout: reverb, a worried-heartbeat pulse and Wagner’s and Foo’s voices marking the way like torchlight. That is, until the guitars blow in like the Velvet Underground Orchestra.

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Mesa Boogie

With visionary prowess, the one-space 20/20™ Stereo bursts on the scene, making power truly portable. Two pairs of EL-84s wired for patented Dyna-Watt™ unleash touch-sensitive dynamic punch far in excess of their twenty watt per channel rating. Dyna-Watt’s stored musical energy is released -like a camera flash, controlled by your pick. With enough fan-cooled power to cover small venues, the 20/20™ can also double as a power amp “tone generator” in bigger rigs. Simply use the built-in stereo Slave Outs to capture the great sound of a small amp’s musical clip.

Gnarls Barkley Reinvents Popular Music

The studio reinforces my hypothesis about perception vs. reality. You’d think it would be a flashy space with three secretaries wearing headsets in a mod waiting room where I’d be forced to sit awkwardly in a hanging-ball chair. Danger’s studio is actually nondescript—not quite dingy, but very worked-in, with computers and keyboards lining the walls. The down-home feel sets me at ease as the guys walk in and introduce themselves.

I’m immediately drawn to how laid back they seem. They give off a regular-guy vibe, even though nothing they create, either independently or as Gnarls Barkley, has any hint of regularity. They also both have an understandable “here-we-go” look on their face, the kind you get when you’re about to embark on a several-month-long publicity tour promoting your latest creation.

Cee-Lo wears a gold satin jacket, black jeans and an inch-thick diamond bracelet over his heavily tattooed arm. Danger Mouse is sporting a vintage grey blazer with a shirt underneath that says “Cassius Clay” in red cursive. I’m distracted by the fact that I could never pull off the blazer-over-shirt look, and by my bubbling excitement to ask not only about The Odd Couple, but also their obvious love of ’60s music and melancholy pop. And of course I’m also curious as to how they maintained any sort of artistic vision after birthing the monster that was their ubiquitous smash, “Crazy.” But instead of getting to any of that, I spend the first two minutes rambling about the following idea:

“I think The Odd Couple is the soundtrack for a tortured superhero.” They look at me and nod politely. For reasons still unknown to me, I continue: “Yeah, when I heard the album this morning, I felt like I was listening to a story about a very lonely superhero who raced from planet to planet looking for someone to love. At one point, I even saw myself as the superhero, and I was floating underwater looking up at the moon through the water, and I was feeling overwhelmed by the pressure of being who I was destined to be and the sadness that no-one could help me with that.”

Cee-Lo flashes a big smile, and Danger Mouse says, “That’s why we don’t like telling people what these records are about.”

It turns out that this is one of Gnarls Barkley’s main goals: to create a mysterious new sound that allows for individual interpretation. They accomplished this with their first album, St. Elsewhere, which crossed all boundaries by sampling Gianfranco Reverberi, covering the Violent Femmes and unleashing a pop masterpiece that could be heard everywhere from here to Estonia. Literally. It was #1 in Estonia. Number üks with a bülletään!

Drumroll, please…

The name of the new Weezer album will be…Weezer!? Indeed, now half of the band’s six studio albums are self-titled. Of course, this information was released on a certain Foolish day recently, so maybe Weezer is just messing with us.

Either way, Weezer (the third) will be released June 17 on the band’s Geffen label. According to Billboard.com, frontman Rivers Cuomo has described the songs, produced by Rick Rubin, as “dark and deep and beautiful,” and “definitely more sophisticated and adventurous. You’ll hear very long songs … and non-traditional structures.”

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The Virgin Mobile Festival

The Foo Fighters, Jack Johnson, Kanye West, Nine Inch Nails and the Stone Temple Pilots will be headlining the 2008 Virgin Mobile Festival, organizers announced yesterday.

The third annual music and arts festival will take place August 9-10 at the Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Md. A complete artist line-up and additional ticket information will be available on the festival’s official site in the coming weeks.

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