Honestly, who needs a drummer when you have a cute, spazzy tutu-wearing girl who can tap-dance? Tilly and the Wall doesn't. Although they've expanded their format more recently to include drums in some songs, Jamie Pressnall still heads up the rhythm section and drives the songs forward with her relentless stomping. Set this behind angelic group-vocals sung with a punk attitude by Neely Jenkins and Kianna Alarid, as well as Derek Pressnall killing the rhythm guitar and Nick White on keys, and you've got yourself a great band.
Tilly and the Wall started in Omaha, Nebraska in 2001, an offspring of the practically incestuous Omaha folk-rock scene which saw different combinations of members from Bright Eyes, the Faint and Rilo Kiley.
They've enjoyed some moderate success beyond that of their cult following at different times, such as performing live on the Late Show with David Letterman in 2007, a cameo performance on Sesame Street last year, as well as having songs featured on movie soundtracks.
They're great at coming up with very rich, original instrumentation in their songs, complete with accordions, brass, keyboard, and of course tap-dancing. Sit back and let's get to know 'em this week, and then try not to fall in love, I dare you.
Despite every instance I hear about Belle and Sebastian also including the words "artsy" and "fartsy," I like them. Here is one of my favorite Christmas songs this year, "Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto" (James Brown cover).
Musicians are pretty prone to dying, so I'm starting a recurring segment - "i have created a eulogy" - in which I will pay tribute to those of rock's weirdest who have passed on. Normally, these will require some time travel, as I'm not waiting for current living people to die in order to write about them. But here's the first attempt.
"Once you've heard Beefheart, it's hard to wash him out of your clothes. It stains, like coffee or blood." - Tom Waits
Don Van Vliet (Captain Beefheart)
Jan 15 1941 - Dec 17 2010
Once, in the 1950s there was this big party started called rock n' roll. Well, it got going pretty quickly, and there were some pretty zany people that showed up. First, Elvis busted through the front door, moving his hips in all kinds of ways that weren't okay for some people. But soon everyone got used to that. And the Beatles showed up, too, and they were nice boys and people liked them. The Rolling Stones came, but they were mostly assholes, but they brought a bunch of beer and drugs, so people let them stay.
But then in 1964, Don Van Vliet showed up. He wasn't invited, but apparently he snuck in behind Frank Zappa. Vliet was the kid at the party that was wearing the top hat, climbing onto the roof with the aquarium and making friends with the fish before throwing them one by one into the swimming pool - yet he was the only one that was completely sober, which officially made him the weirdest kid there. He demanded people call him Captain Beefheart, for the love. So people kind of just let him do his thing on the roof until the 80s, when he stopped on his own.
I don't know if you've ever tried listening to his 1969 double album Trout Mask Replica from beginning to end, but if you do it now for the first time, you probably won't make it through. The songs are hard to swallow when first heard. However, the brilliance behind Captain Beefheart is only revealed through familiarity. With incredible, complex polyphonic rhythms among the instruments, Beefheart provided a gritty vocal howl with surrealistic lyrics of which more modern bands like At the Drive In and Modest Mouse are reminiscent. You must remember - in the late 60s, the Beatles were writing psychedelic rock and taking themselves sort of seriously. Beefheart, along with Frank Zappa, both totally drug-free, somehow reached much further into the realm of psychedelia, creative expression and the surreal than any other bands. Beefheart makes calling Sgt Pepper "experimental" seem like calling a bicycle ride "life-threatening." Sure, by some standard it is, but there are other things you could do that would kill you for sure. For instance, while The Who were riding their bicycles with Tommy in 1969, Captain Beefheart was leaping out of an effing spaceship without an oxygen tank with Trout Mask Replica that same year.
The Rolling Stone wrote that Captain Beefheart was always "more influential than popular." Many artists have openly attributed their styles and tastes as being heavily influenced by him. Tom Waits said that his "shift in artistic direction" in the early 80s was a result of his wife introducing him to Beefheart's work. Matt Groening, creator of the Simpsons and Futurama, claims that Trout Mask Replica is the greatest album ever made. The White Stripes, the Sex Pistols, the Clash, Man Man, Beck, Franz Ferdinand, the Pixies, Red Hot Chili Peppers - all groups that have claimed to have been heavily influenced by the dude.
Having gained a following primarily through YouTube, Pomplamoose has the luxury of being basically autonomous. They can operate without external influence, which is what this is all about. Their attitude works for what they do; they don't take themselves too seriously. I've been seeing/hearing them in Target ads, and in a car commercial, but they just look like they're doing exactly what they've been doing all along, even in the ads. They just have a blast no matter their surroundings, so... more power to them if they can manage to get paid doing it.
Which brings me to the subject of Christmas. I love it, first of all. The holiday season brings out a different side of everyone, it seems, and we get to celebrate life and family and how awesome Arizona's mild winters are. I love Arizona Christmas. In the desert, it's unique. The snow doesn't ruin our lives, yet it's only about an hour-drive away if we want it.
With all these endorphins on the loose, we see a lot of people just getting silly. I remember hearing in an anthropology class that winter celebrations have always involved euphoria, even predating the formation of the Christian holiday. Mistletoe, for instance. Not only does mistletoe have hallucinogenic properties, but is also medicinal and is associated with love and affection. Also, think of all the old-fashioned Christmas art with mushrooms in it - a symbol of psychedelic euphoria, as used by ancient shamans. Seriously, the concept of flying reindeer comes from shamans observing how much reindeer loved drinking human urine that held psilocybin chemicals from mushrooms, which would make them TRIP. How else do you think anyone came up with that stuff? Maybe that's why people started bringing pine trees into their houses? People dressing in costumes, telling fantastic winter tales, and being generally more loving and accepting.
I personally like it because everyone's allowed to get a little weird and be really happy about it.
So, straight from their weird little hearts, Nataly and Jack sing for us a Christmas tune, "Always In the Season".
Remember how I mentioned that one of Pomplemoose's strongest suits is cover songs?
I'm not talking about Me First & the Gimme Gimme-style cover songs. Anyone can punkify old songs - all you need is a fast drum beat and a little vocal creativity. I'm talking about complex, thought-out reworkings of songs that aren't by Journey. The Sound of Music, for instance - award-winning, classic music performed by one of the world's most talented musical actresses, Julie Andrews. We all remember the thunderstorm scene where all the kids act like babies and Maria calms them all down with a comforting song. Pomplamoose has taken that lighthearted diddy and darkened it substantially, giving more gravity to the lyrics, while coating the melody with intricate jazz chord harmonies that almost make absolutely no sense.
Song widgets brought to you by the best resource for online music imaginable - Grooveshark.
Now, I don't spend a lot of time (or any at all, let's be honest) listening to Aerosmith. 30 years of pop-metal is quite enough, my boys. Steven Tyler, you've birthed a gorgeous, talented movie star daughter - your contribution to American pop culture has exceeded our wildest expectations, so can't you just sit down and enjoy your senior discount at Denny's from now on?
As I was saying. Not a huge fan. But I appreciate the talent and the influence they've had on rock culture. If only.. if only somebody would take what is undoubtedly good songwriting and do something a little less butt-rock with it.
Boom! Wish granted. Pomplamoose beautifully interprets Aerosmith's "Don't Wanna Miss a Thing" (or thang?)
I'm not sure how being a badass works when you're as adorable as Nataly Dawn is, but it works. The only other person I can think of who is super badass while simultaneously being cute as a button:
While Nataly probably can't devour 1000 hams in one sitting (or excrete balls of dark matter), she can do something most indie rock musicians who try will completely fail at doing --> successfully covering a Michael Jackson song. When I say, "successfully" covering, I don't mean just learning the chords and getting through the song. I mean, Pomplamoose straight up reinvents this song. Nataly doesn't try to mimic the King of Pop, nor does she try to outdo his edginess (i.e., Alien Antfarm's "Smooth Criminal" cover). Right away, Conte lays out a solid, colorful instrumental scheme for Dawn to add her voice to. The theme is fully recognizable; it's just played on an xylophone and a toy piano. This is a fantastic tribute to an artist, done by capturing and mimicking the spirit of the song, rather than trying to copy the original style of it.
"Beat It" as performed by Pomplamoose
Pomplamoose's creatively-conceived cover songs are part of what brought them notoriety on the internet. More will be featured, coming up this week!
A bit of foresight would have helped me a little more with this transition, as I make the featured artist switch to California "indie jazz duo" Pomplamoose. I say that because the video below is a collaboration between Pomplamoose, Nick Hornby and Ben Folds, who I featured a couple weeks ago. Oh well, I guess. Here it is anyways.
Pomplamoose is Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn, and their presence is almost completely an online one. They give very few live performances, as part of the originality of their particular medium comes in their video-songs. Much of the reason people like them is that their YouTube videos are so damn captivating. They gained a whole bunch of followers in the short 2 years they've been doing it, and have sold over 100,000 songs on iTunes. Between Dawn's cherubic voice and striking eyes, and Conte being the likable spazz, there is almost no need for them to be excessively talented, which, by the way, they are.
Those of you who have any grasp on music theory should be at least mildly impressed with Dawn's squirmy, dissonant bass lines. As I will show in my next few posts, these two have got an affinity for taking a song with a simple concept and bending into a sort of aural prism by exploring the boundaries of scales and harmonies.
You've really got to take it upon yourself to just spend some time perusing YouTube for live Man Man videos.. there are a lot of them.
This last video I bring to you is from a fantastic music website based in England, you can't find it on YouTube.. What they do is find bands/musicians who are doing European tours, meet up with them, and have them play a song live in the back of their car. You can't get much more intimate of a performance than stuffed in the back seat of a car (with your feet on the hump) with a Rhodes stage piano and two brass instruments in your face. Give me a ride to moustache-land, Black Cab Sessions! <-- Click to see the Man Man session video, then check out some of the other ones from favorites such as Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses, Brian Wilson, The Flaming Lips, Bon Iver, and SO many more.
(Black Cab Sessions does not allow videos to be embedded without permission, so you've gotta just live with the link, people. Apologies all around.)
I wanted to take a post to focus on Man Man's music by itself. Preferred mode of listening: loud, in the car on a rainy day. But since this is a website and you're most likely at some sort of desk or couch, go ahead and crack those crappy little speakers and check out the range of instrumentation on this song. Sounds a little Nightmare Before Christmas-y?
This was the first Man Man song I ever heard and it was on an episode of Weeds. I looked up that episode's soundtrack on the world wide internet and was led to this glorious group and quickly became a fan. The vocals are hard to stomach, but that's part of why it is fun.
By the way, Grooveshark is a site that was shown to me by my friend Sarah and, it's final, there is absolutely no use for Pandora while Grooveshark exists. I have a widget through which I can eventually list all of the blog's featured music into a playlist, but the widget apparently still has some kinks in it, so please be patient while I work it out. Until then, you'll have to bear with the YouTube videos and Grooveshark links. Seriously consider making a Grooveshark account. It's completely free, and you get to listen to any music you want - YOU pick it, instead of some logarithm. You can make and save playlists and, as long as you're on the internets, listen to them commercial free and as long as your bored office job heart desires.
This is a fun little music video to an awesome little song.
Don't let the star power of the video distract you from the coolness of the song (music begins at 2:24) - starring Fred Armisen, Charlene Yi, and Martin Starr.
While Man Man has attracted a lot of attention due to their enthralling live performances, that doesn't mean the recordings are lacking. Their third proper album, and definitely their best and most "polished", Rabbit Habits, takes you on an audio ride through the haunted, the disturbed, the heartbroken, the lonely, the drunken, and sometimes the just plain happy. How did this particular song make you feel?
I first heard Man Man on an episode of season 3 of the television show Weeds. Three of their songs were used as part of that episode's soundtrack, and something about their sound instantly gripped me. If you've not heard them yet, just think: if Tom Waits got really into Modest Mouse and hired vikings for his back-up band. Actually, maybe it'd be more like if vikings got really into Modest Mouse and hired Tom Waits as the back-up band. Either way, it's effing crazy. Bike horns, pots and pans, xylophones, honky tonk piano... One thing is for sure - they have a style and a sound that is completely their own. Regarding that original sound, and where it holds its roots, the band's lead singer (who goes by the pseudonym Honus Honus) had this to say:
"I'm just making the songs I know how to write. The one thing I want to clarify is that this is an organic project -- who we are, the kind of lives we lived before we met each other, and the lives we have together. [That's] what makes this band and this music what it is. I would say being broke is one of my biggest influences. That and being in and out of relationships. Those are bigger influences than listening to a [Captain] Beefheart record."
Although the band does admit to being inspired by the forefathers of avant-garde rock like Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa and Tom Waits, they clearly dwell in their own realm of musical creativity, claiming to be "the torchbearers of the unusual," carrying on the spirit of past imaginative musicians who were the first to really start getting weird.
Man Man does not break between songs during their live shows, but they move around, revolving-door fashion, from one song to another, "commandeering and discarding any of number of the instruments lying at their feet as the mood strikes and the music dictates."
Here is my top pick for your first exposure to Man Man... live video = necessity
this video is brought to you by the unfortunately-named baeblemusic.com
