Sound Bites

NYC Popfest 2009: Cats on Fire | Mondo! @ Don Hill's | 5.15.2009

"America, your economy is shit." Cats on Fire singer Mattais Björkas was addressing  the NYC Popfest crowd at Don Hill's with grave seriousness. "Our is too of course. And greenhouse gasses are at an all-time high. Of course, that didn't stop us from bringing a suitcase full of Finish bottled water on the airplane with us." Rimshot! It was at this point that I realized I had him figured all wrong. Impeccably dressed and coiffed, prone to pursed lips, I thought he was kind of a sourpuss when the Finnish band played Don Hill's at last year's Popfest.

But last night I got it -- he's hilarious. And I don't mean laugh at this person prancing around onstage. Björkas is a genuinely funny guy with a bone-dry wit and tongue planted firmly in cheek. And when not playing guitar, he has the guts to dance onstage the way many of us dance to the Smiths when no one else is at home. The rest of the band are ace, it should be noted, ably replicating the immaculate, arpeggiated pop (think Aztec Camera, Smiths, Felt, Eggstone) found on 2007's The Province Complains and the excellent, just-released Our Temperance Movement. And Cats on Fire are a flat-out great live band, the whole group has chops, and the audience was lapping it up, dancing... well, more of a bob and sway than the geek-out the music really meritted.

MP3: Cats on Fire - Horoscope
MP3: Cats on Fire - Letters from a Voyage in Sweden

If you missed them Friday night, Cats on Fire play Bruar Falls with Swedish trio (and fellow Popfest-ers) Liechtenstein on Tuesday, May 19. I highly recommend you clear your schedule. Our Temperance Movement was just released in the U.S. on Matinee Recordings and if you like the MP3s on this post, you're gonna want to get the whole thing.

I shot video of two songs, which you can watch if you click through the jump...

Cats Still on Fire, Visiting Sweden

Finland's impeccably dressed Cats on Fire will always have a place in my easily-embarrassed heart as the first band to quote this blog onstage, at least while I was in the room. The band are back with their first album in two years, Our Temperance Movement, which will be released on March 11 in Europe and perhaps elsewhere. The record's first downloadable taster, "Letters from a Voyage to Sweden," has just been set forth upon the internet, and it's quite a catchy little number -- no surprise, really. The arrangement is especially nice, with arpeggiated 12-string acoustic guitars in the chorus, and glockenspiel near the end that gives it an Eggstone sort of vibe.

MP3: Cats on Fire - Letters from a Voyage to Sweden

You can get Cats on Fire's lovely 2007 album, The Province Complains, via indiepages.

Soundbites Best of 2008 | Singles, Tracks + EPs

So here's my list of best singles, album tracks, and EPs from 2008. Unlike my Best Albums List, songs that were from a 2007 album but were released as singles in 2008 are eligible. But single reissues are not. (Which is why "Time to Pretend," Friendly Fires and Pacific are absent from my list.) With the concept of the "album" diminishing in this world of digital downloads, singles are becoming more important. I'm not calling the death knell for the Album, but if groups whose music leans toward the poppy and immediate side of things wanted to just release singles or EPs every couple months instead of a full-length, I'd be okay with it. As I've said before singles are ephemeral in nature, and though I've hit my yearly limit on a few of the songs on this list, there was certainly a period of time in 2008 where all 50 of these were stuck on repeat.

1. Mystery Jets feat. Laura Marling - Young Love (MP3) (Video)
The most inventive, deceptively simple (but actually kind of crazy complex; listen to all the little flourishes), repeatedly-rewarding pop song of the year. Great video too.

2. Metronomy - Heartbreaker (MP3) (Video)
Fantastic bassline + creaky doors + whistling = my second favorite song of the year.

3. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Everything With You (MP3) (Video)
A great big hug wrapped in a fuzzy indie pop sweater.    

4. Violens - Violent Sensation Descends (MP3) 
Loud Quiet Loud as has never quite been done like this before. I can't wait for their full-length.

5. Dizzee Rascal w/ Calvin Harris - Dance Wiv Me (MP3) (Video)

I've never been much of a Dizzee fan, but add Calvin's '80s-style production and you've got a dancefloor killer.

6. Sam Sparro - Black and Gold (Video)

The rest of this album does nothing for me but "Black and Gold"'s glammy throb is irresistible.

7. TV on the Radio - Golden Age (Video)
2008 was the year of Change and TVotR made the perfect soundtrack. This is the sound of hope with a good beat.

8. Sexy Kids - Sisters Are Forever (MP3)

Just try not to bounce 'round the room while listening to this slice of Scottish pop perfection a la Altered Images.

9. Esser – Headlock (MP3) (Video)

Effervescent single, ridiculously catchy, like superballs set free inside a perpetual motion machine... yet loaded with downer lyrics like "I've got a problem, it's called living." Perfect.

10. Summer Cats – Lonely Planet (MP3) (Video)

Like the Rosebuds backed by Stereolab, Australia's Summer Cats put a sunny coat of paint on the krauty VU groove. 

11. Metronomy - A Thing for Me (MP3) (Video)
I could put almost all of Metronomy's Nights Out on this list, but restrained myself at two. Be sure to check out the video to this one.

12. David Byrne & Brian Eno - Strange Overtones (MP3) 
Too bad the rest of the Byrne/Eno album didn't deliver on the promise of this great single.

13. Sky Larkin - Fossil, I (Video)
Old school indie rock done with vim and vigor by this Leeds, UK trio. Vim and vigor? Really. Just listen to the song. It rocks. 

14. Lykke Li - Little Bit (Video)
Lykke Li's coquettish delivery slightly disguises just how hot this is.

15. Ida Maria – Queen of the World (MP3) (Video)
One of the most joyous songs ever about being smashed on whiskey.

16. MGMT - Kids (Video)
Hate their fashion, hate their friends, hate their rich hippie-ness, but MGMT have some great songs. The hooks are undeniable!

17. Girls – Lust for Life / Morning Light (MP3) (MP3) (Video)

There are too many "Girl" groups right now, but I've got room for San Francisco's shoegaze folk rock wunderkinds. Especially on this double A-side.

18. Animal Collective - Water Curses EP (MP3) (Video)

Animal Collective have finally started to get poppy enough for me to genuine like them. Bring on Merriweather Post Pavillion!

19. Late of the Pier - Heartbeat (MP3) (Video)

One of the many "this shouldn't work" songs on LotP's great debut Fantasy Black Channel. Yet it does, brilliantly.

20. Vivian Girls - Tell the World (MP3) (Video)
Every time these girls open their mouths to the press, it's a disaster, but give 'em instruments and hard to hold it against them. So many things in that sentence could be construed the wrong way.

21. Casiokids – Grønt Lys I Alle Ledd / Togens Hule (MP3) (Video)

You don't need to speak Norwegian to dig this double A-side. I imagine it would help, though. But not that much.

22. The Last Shadow Puppets - Standing Next to Me (MP3) (Video)
Alex Turner and Miles Kane seem a little young to already be going through their Jacques Brel/Scott Walker period, but that's also probably why it's as good as it is.

23. The Wild Beasts - The Devil's Crayon (MP3) (Video)
Not since the days of the Associates and the Triffids has pop attempted to be so grandiose... and successful at it. I must say I can't really stomach the resto of them album, but but "The Devil's Crayon" is a bullseye.

24. Adele - Cold Shoulder (Video)
I'll take Adele over Duffy any day... "Cold Shoulder" perfectly-produced soulful pop. Ronson-produced, natch.

25. Amazing Baby - Infinite Fucking Cross EP (download EP) (Video + Video)
Hated by Brooklynvegan commenters, loved by me. Harder, more-rocking Roxy Music? About as close to a good description as you can get with there pigeonhole-adverse Williamsburg residents.

26 - 50 after the jump...

NYC Popfest: The Hermit Crabs + Cats on Fire + More | Union Pool | 6.15.2008

"So we played Mondo Party on Friday," said Cats on Fire's Mattias Björkas after their first song at Union Pool on Sunday. "And there's already a review on the internet. It was mostly positive."

Oh boy. I was pretty sure he was talking about this site.

Then, I was sure. He continued: "The person wrote...'The Finnish don't quite have the command of the English language their Swedish neighbors do, and Björkas stage banter came off stilted and a cold." The audience erupted in laughter. Me, I felt flushed. I yelled out "It's much warmer today!" but I don't think he put it together that I was the guy who wrote that. Probably just as well. That was a first, getting quoted. If there's a next time, I hope it's about something positive.

And Björkas' stage banter was warmer on Sunday. The band was more relaxed -- probably less jet-lagged from the long trip from Finland -- it was a better show than at Don Hills on Friday night. The crowd ate it up like sugary cereal.

The final event at NYC Popfest 2008 was a lot of fun, very chill, and way off schedule. Bands were supposed to start at 2PM but then the kickoff got pushed to 3PM. But they didn't actually start till maybe 3:30 and there eight acts on the bill.

It was all right though, despite it being monstrously hot and humid. Union Pool is a nice place to hang out, with a big outdoor area with a fair amount of shade. A barbecue was set up with The Besties manning the grill. And the performance room -- which is really cute and actually perfect for Popfest -- stayed nice and air conditioned.

The day's biggest discovery was Boston's One Happy Island, who had some really winning songs with lots of interesting instrumentation, including kazoo, glockenspiel and ukulele, which at one point was played a distortion pedal. (That was a first.) Three of the four members sang, though they'd do well to feature the lovely voice of drummer drummer Rebecca Mitchell.

MP3: One Happy Island - Temporary Tattoo

Other bands on the bill included the ukulele stylings of Dent May (who I'm guessing probably listens to Jens Lekman); twangy Boston indie rockers Hands and Knees; and the slightly fratty (but master of self-depricating stage banter) Steve Goldberg and the Arch Enemies.

The band I was actually looking forward to were Glasgow's The Hermit Crabs who are purveyors of the loveliest folk-pop in Scottland this side of Camera Obscura. Comparisons to that band abound, but The Hermit Crabs are a little more country, and a little more subdued. Maybe a bit too subdued after a long day in the hot sun drinking beer, which is totally not their fault. Singer Melanie Whittle seemed like the nicest person on the planet and performed with her shoes off. I'd love to see them again under cooler circumstances.

I shot video of The Hermit Crabs doing "Friends Folk Festival"...



MP3: The Hermit Crabs - Friends Folk Festival

So ended my Popfest 2008. A few more pictures from Sunday after the jump...

Popfest NYC: Cats on Fire | Don Hill's | 6.13.2008

Scandinavians are made of different stuff than us Americans. Cats on Fire singer Mattias Björkas looks like he was gene-spliced from equal parts Low-era David Bowie, James Dean, and Morrissey. His look was perfect, from the boots and perfectly rolled jeans to the ascot and perfectly jelled hair. I was sort of mesmerized by his hair, I'm not sure why.

Cat's on Fire's music is just as immaculate. A delicate -- though sometimes speedy -- jangle with occasional country flourishes (and a love of Motown), it's the perfect soundtrack for biking in the countryside, or walking through the park. And you can dance to it... in an indie-pop kind of way. It's hard not to bop along to rediculously catchy songs like "Draw in the Reins," "I am the White-Mantled King" and "Higher Grounds." I'm pretty sure this is the first Finnish band I've ever seen (here's hoping The Dø make it this way soon, though) and from this one experience and say that they don't quite have the command of the English language their Swedish neighbors do, and Björkas stage banter came off stilted and a bit cold. But the music was warm enough.

MP3: Cats On Fire - Higher Grounds (from The Province Complains...buy it)

This was Night Two of Popfest NYC, this time way the hell West at Don Hill's for a party co-sponsored by the party people at Mondo NYC. The late set time (1AM) didn't seem to phase anyone. The Pelle Carlberg autographed guitar made another appearance. If it was too late for you, word is Cats on Fire will be playing tomorrow at the Popfest closing BBQ at Union Pool. It's a great lineup, with The Cannanes, The Hermit Crabs, and lots more. Starts at 2pm.

I also shot video of their song "Mesmer and Reason":