Found Sounds

Salt Lake City Upcoming Concerts: Yo La Tengo, The Killers, New Found Glory

By Brian Staker, 10-12-06

	Jason Anderson: Pick of the Week

Yo La Tengo, Why?

Yo La Tengo is the obvious choice for Pick of the Week, and that’s exactly why I had to turn a bit contrarian and not select them. Everyone in the know would already have beaten a path to get tickets for this already, right? The Hoboken, NJ critical darlings have been called the indie rock world’s Velvet Underground, but unlike that band of whom it was said that not many heard them, but everyone who did started a band, Yo La Tengo has become the band everyone has heard by now but scarcely anyone can recognize, with their music in advertisements for Volkswagen and film soundtracks like The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou.

What has come to be their invisible ubiquity is because of their quintessential American-ness, evidenced by a release like 1990’s Fakebook, in which they added their own contributions to the great American pop songbook with covers of nuggets like Cat Steven’s early “Here Comes My Baby” and Daniel Johnston’s “Speeding Motorcycle,” later used in the VW ad.

Their own original work along the way has been a resume filled with brilliance as well, with incredible songs that you might find yourself humming all day long. They took the Velvet Underground influence in the opposite direction from Sonic Youth, who emphasized the noisy feedback side, and instead created little gems of outsider pop for the in crowd, to the point where they have become mainstream almost, not by selling out but because the center has moved towards them, a remarkable achievement. Their latest effort, I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass, is no small addition to their catalog despite the unfortunate title. Yo La Tengo is the little engine that could in American music.

October 12, In the Venue

Captured By Robots

If you haven’t seen Captured By Robots, you have to have the experience it at least once in your life. San Franciscan Jason Vance (“J-Bot”) is literally held prisoner by musical robots, enslaved and in chains. The best or worst part, depending on your point of view, is that they play heavy metal music, albeit of a cartoon variety. This could be a great Saturday morning kids show, if they just toned down the bondage and abuse they heap on him. But then that’s pretty much all the show is about. DRMBOT0110 and GTRBOT666 may teach you novel forms of invective. There is also the Ape Which Hath No Name, a talking stuffed animal,which is the voice of sanity, the only one to follow the Prime Directive, ‘a robot shall not harm a human.’ (You do read Asimov, right? Do I have to recite that rule? Geeks)

Since late in the last millennium, the combo has been perfecting the act, but ‘perfecting’ doesn’t seem like the right word. Adding new wrinkles? Steel doesn’t get wrinkles. It gets rust spots, and Vance has gotten some pretty ugly chafing from the chains. But seriously, the spectacle of robots that actually play music is one of the most unique acts you might ever witness, and have a psychotherapy bill for afterwards. They have produced an album based on the Ten Commandments, together with the exercise CD “Get Fit With…” which is f-ing brilliant, IMHO. 'F-ing' because I don't want to use profanity before you sensitive online community and say 'flip.' And they have been featured as Band of the Day on NPR. Guess which sentence in this review is false.

October 12, Urban Lounge

Also appearing:

October 13-14 Denver, CO (Lion’s Lair)

Jason Anderson **Staker’s Pick of the Week!**

A Jason Anderson musical evening isn’t a concert, it’s a campfire singalong, up with people, reunion of best friends celebration all rolled into one. The New Englander, former frontman of Guided By Voices-like garage band Wolf Colonel, has for the last several years pursued his own version of sensitive indie guy acoustic pop. But he’s turned it up several notches. Where others wear their hearts on their sleeve, he’s got it tattooed there. He’s emotional, but not emo. He doesn’t whine; he celebrates life in his songs, even the sad, poignant moments. In the process, he makes the emo kids look damn near stoic. His latest, last year’s The Wreath (K Records), is filled with searching and pensiveness yet also his whimsical humor. He says “I’ll play anywhere,” and actually prefers tiny venues like Kilby, where everyone can sing along. And leave which a huge smile on your face.

October 14, Kilby Court

Also appearing:

October 15: Nampa, ID (Flying M Café)

The Killers

What was all the ‘fuss’ about? The Las Vegas, NV quartet the Killers has ridden the wave of post-new wave retro nostalgia to become the most shining megastars of the movement, if you can call it that, or musical fad. Their 2004 debut, Hot Fuss was one of the most eagerly awaited releases (read: hyped) and glowingly reviewed discs of the period. Like their hometown, they are more about style than substance, and that’s fine; entertainment doesn’t always need to be some heavy message-oriented Bono-esque B.S. But on this year’s Sam’s Town they are starting to show their weaknesses, as you can only have so many dance hits, adding a faux-Springsteen influence for this release without the Boss’ sincerity. It’s hard to see it as more than another part of their schtick.

October 14, Saltair

Also appearing:

October 15: Denver, CO (Fillmore Auditorium)

Brandtson, Fall of Transition, Mayday Parade, Melee, Wheatus

One of the key stalwarts in the emo field, Cleveland Ohio’s Brandtson has lent it’s efforts to such documents as leading emo label Deep Elm’s Emo Diaries II compilation. This is because they have a keen sense of melody and what makes a memorable power pop song, and rock out to enough of a measure in the process. After their Deep Elm contract expired in 2004, they moved to the Militia Group, and this year’s Hello, Control veers off in a new direction of electronic dance oriented experimentation. Emodance as the new genre? I don’t know, but it seems to me like it’s hard to be whiny when your movin’ your hot body and shakin’ what you got out on the dance floor. If emo can ever be witty, you might call it Wheatus.

October 15, Bleachers (Provo)

Also appearing:

October 14: Denver, CO (Marquis Theater)

Cursive, The Thermals

This Omaha, Nebraska indie band recently was the recipient of a guest slot by Jenny Lewis, whom you might have seen here several weeks ago. Cursive has the same kind of songwriting craft and painstaking production values that Tim Kasher has insisted on in his band that along with Bright Eyes, has been one of the flagships on the Saddle Creek label. Like Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst, Kasher has a powerfully emotive voice that never descends into emo sentimentality. The group’s ironically titled Happy Hollow continues their essaying of deliberately designed song structures and storytelling about the great spiritual malaise of the wide open American Midwest.

October 17, In the Venue

Also appearing:

October 15: Denver, CO (Ogden Theatre)
October 18: Boise, ID (The Venue)

Califone, Peter & the Wolf

It’s a great idea to name a band after the manufacturer of workmanlike audio equipment like the record players they used to use in elementary schools in the 1970s. But then Chicago’s Califone is about the sound, as almost an instrument in itself. Emerging from blues-rock innovators Red Red Meat, their music is much more experimental, combining tape loops with computer samples and synthetically-generated drumbeats. But they also add acoustic melodic compositions to hook the ears, as opposed to purely experimental music, which had a phase of popularity in the late 90’s just as it had in the late 70’s, as both eras saw the development of new audio equipment facilitating the sound, but then as the limitations of the technology in the hands of all but the really innovative and musically talented, the ‘experimentation’ waned. Califone continues, because of their ability to draw upon blues and folk song structures makes for more appeal, as on their latest release, Roots and Crowns (Thrill Jockey).

October 17, Urban Lounge

Also appearing:

October 16: Boise, ID (Neurolux)

New Found Glory, Limbeck, Cartel

New Found Glory is yet another band marking roughly a decade in existence, but then that stands to figure since their particular brand of pop-punk has been extant as a genre about that length of time. The Coral Springs, Florida combo didn’t take long to become a Warped Tour favorite, for how much that is worth, but they are one of the most critically-lauded bands on that wagon, and at least they have some of their own personality to infuse into it. Their fifth full-length, Coming Home, shows a maturity they have grown into over the years as a musical unit, such that you don’t have to be eleven years old to appreciate them. But it helps. Limbeck has diverted from emo to alt-country in a fascinating development for them.

October 18, In the Venue

Also appearing:

October 17: Denver, CO (Ogden Theatre)

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