Sound Bites

CMJ 2007 Day Three | British Sea Power | Bowery Ballroom

British Sea Power are responsible for one of my favorite gigs of the last five years (NorthSix, August 2003) but it was not exactly their night on Thursday. It was still better than most of the shows I went to that week. Singer Noble has a mesmerizing voice that my friend Kate says "is like a cocoon." And their abbreviated set meant we only got a greatest his set (plus two new songs, one of which being the Wedding Present-esque single "Atom"), short but satisfying. So where did it all go so-so? CMJ audiences are not the most attentive -- there was a group of fratty dudes up front who would not shut up. This probably wouldn't have been a problem if BSP were playing at their normal volume but for whatever reason the amps were below the band's normal gale force. It definitely knocked the wind out of their sails.

CMJ 2007 Preview: Thursday Picks

British Sea Power + Pela + 1990s + Tiny Masters Of Today + Stardeath and White Dwarfs + The Grey Race @ Bowery Ballroom (6pm, $17)

New Young Pony Club + Muscels + Simian Mobile Disco (DJ set) + The Cool Kids @ Studio B (11pm, $10)

Islands + Yo Majesty + Thunderheist + Dengue Fever + Octopus Project @ Highline Ballroom (8pm, $20)

Imperial Teen + Aqua Sorba @ Southpaw (9pm, $20)

Division Day + The 1900's + Let's Go Sailing @ Union Hall (8pm, $8)

M.I.A. @ Terminal 5 (8pm, $30)

Stars @ Town Hall (8pm, $25 - $30)

I SAY: M.I.A. is certainly tempting, but with it's location (not near anything else) and her being the only act on the bill makes it not so appealing. Stars are usually pretty good live, but I don't really like the new album. Instead, I'm heading to Bowery probably just in time to catch Tiny Masters of Today, and bolt right after British Sea Power (always great live) to catch New Young Pony Club at Studio B. NYPC's show at the White Room was one of my favorites of last year, I'm hoping they'll replicate it at the best place in NYC to see dance acts. The show at Highline is tempting, though -- as is the show at Union Hall. What I really wish is that some booker had had the foresight to put the 1990s and the 1900s on the same bill.

MP3: British Sea Power - Down on the Ground

New Young Pony Club pic swiped from Abbey at Punk Photo.

New British Sea Power

Brighton's finest, British Sea Power, are back with a new EP, a short U.S. tour and a new look. The band have been laying low since releasing Open Season in 2005, and haven't played here since May of that year... when I bought a British Tea Power mug at the merch table.

The new EP, Krankenhaus, is "one that will combine a pre-school understanding of atomic theory with ancient wisdom in amplified rock music," according to frontman Yan. It will be available digitally October 8 and in the decreasingly popular CD format on November 20.

Coinciding will be a brief East Coast tour. If you've never seen them, British Sea Power put on a pretty intense show -- though the days of them covering the stage in locally-foraged greenery is past them. According to a friend of a friend who saw them recently in the UK, "flags are the new twigs." (This picture from BSP's Sept. 22 show in Bradford confirms it.) And listening to their new song "Atom," I'd have to say the Wedding Present are the new Pixies.

MP3: British Sea Power - Atom

Here are those tour dates:

10/15     Maxwells, Hoboken, NJ
10/16     Johnny Brendas, Philadelphia, PA    
10/18     Bowery Ballroom, NYC
10/19     Black Cat, Washington
10/21     Middle East Downstairs, Cambridge, MA

Concert pic swiped from Alex Craven's Flickr photostream.