Showing posts with label Wolf Parade. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Wolf Parade. Show all posts

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Handsome Furs at the Ottobar

Need a break from Whartscape this weekend? Didn't get a megapass to get you into LOF? Need somewhere to scurry off to after Ponytail kills it? Head north up Howard Street to the Ottobar.

Montreal's Handsome Furs will be gracing Remington with their presence.

Fresh off the release of their second full length with Sub Pop, this husband/wife duo should serve as a pretty fantastic alternative to all the other madness this weekend.

Dan Boeckner, the husband, is the more reasonable voice of the indie mega group Wolf Parade. It's not that Spencer Krug's medieval croons are unreasonable. It's just that when combined, Boeckner's verses come off as the more balancing voice of rationale. However, both sport some seriously intrigueing pipes and side projects.

Describing the Handsome Furs as Wolf Parade with dance beats instead of live drums wouldn't be completely ludicrous. The duo sports soulful vocals and heartfelt lyrics, as Dan Boeckner's songwriting is yet again the highlight of their most recent release Face Control. Their newest LP includes many of the fantastic and quirky choruses that Boeckner began to master on his other band's Apologies to the Queen Mary.

The new album is also far more dynamic than their previous effort, with the rhythms and beats being far more varied. Though, Face Control focuses on the simplistic much like it's predecessor Plague Park. Blending more smoothly with some stellar guitarmanship, the drum machine sounds much more at home on this affair.

Not sure what to expect from their live show, but based off their two LPs this one seems worth the trip. The show is on Saturday at the Ottobar. Doors are at 9 PM and tickets can be purchased here for 10 bucks.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Lookout Ice Cream, Lookout Zoomer

There are three releases to look forward to tomorrow, one of which features the elephant adventurer cover art seen to the left. The Silver Jews drop Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea on Drag City tomorrow. The band just finished a tour with Monotonix, who bring their supposedly stellar live show back to Baltimore on Tuesday.

Another local event this Tuesday includes the release of Ponytail's second album. The band's highly anticipated Ice Cream Spiritual promises to be packed with shrieks of experimental power pop. And of course, Sup Pop's behemoth, Wolf Parade also puts out their second LP the 17th. At Mount Zoomer is an album most have been looking forward to since their first epic release in 2006.

In completely unrelated news, today's Daytrotter session features Spoon. The four free tracks include a Paul Simon cover, a song from their very first EP, and a song that Daytrotter claims to be unreleased.* However, that song is in fact the second to last track on their 2002 record, Kill the Moonlight.

*edit: The page still says its unreleased but changed it to mention that it is on Kill the Moonlight (probably Spoon's best record).