SXSW 2009 Review: Loney Dear at Habana Calle 6

“We love the Paramount,” frontman Emil Svanangen of Sweden’s Loney Dear said near the end of his band’s set at the Polyvinyl Records showcase on Friday night. “We were there a few weeks ago. It was freaking marvelous.”

And indeed, everything about Loney Dear’s opening gig for Andrew Bird at the Paramount last month was freaking marvelous — the venue, the sound, the band.

The band’s South by Southwest performance wasn’t bad, but it was certainly different. Svanangen had a few less members and thus a few less instruments backing him. Paired with the lack of the Paramount’s stunning acoustics, Loney Dear sounded less like a twinkly, floating folk with charming melodic sensibility than stripped-down, hard-driving rock backed by electronic samples.

And unfortunately for audience members near the back of the venue, the door to the bar had to remain open for the majority of the show because of fire hazard restrictions, so the sounds of the pounding blues band inside collided with Loney Dear’s melody-driven music to create an awful mess of sound.

But that was hardly the band’s fault, and near the front of the stage, the samples that backed songs like “Airport Surroundings” and “Everything Turns to You” from the band’s latest album, “Dear John,” raced forward and got the crowd moving, while the backing vocals from the new female keyboardist resonated with a haunting echo.

Other songs, like the ambient “I Was Only Going Out” just sounded out of place at a venue that gave the music such a rough edge.

It was a decent performance by Loney Dear, but it definitely highlighted the difference a venue can make.

Originally published on the Austin American-Statesman’s Austin360 21 March 2009.

Concert Review: Owen

After two and a half years, his fourth full-length and a slew of international dates, Chicago’s Mike Kinsella of Owen returned to Austin to play Thursday at Emo’s, much to the excitement of a group of dedicated fans.

As Kinsella took the stage after fellow indie-icon Caithlin De Marrais, formerly of Rainer Maria, the crowd began clamoring before the stage in hopes of seeing some of Kinsella’s intricate acoustic riffs in action.

And even though live the songs were stripped of the many instrumental layers that make his albums so engaging, Kinsella’s unconventional tunings and complex guitar lines made the music sound full. “Bad News” created the illusion of two guitars, while during “Playing Possum for a Peek” the rapid classical fingerpicking brought the crowd to a hush.

“How do you do that?” one listener called out during the latter.

Between songs, Kinsella was laid back and conversational. He talked to the crowd about everything from the recent election to their drinks of choice for the night. During songs, he seemed enthused by the audience’s response. He belted out an energetic rendition of “Nobody’s Nothing,” and sang just above a whisper to the tongue-in-cheek “Good Deeds.”

He even had some listeners singing along to “Good Friends, Bad Habits,” despite telling them beforehand that they probably wouldn’t be familiar with the hard to find track.

Near the end of the show, Marrais and openers El Mays joined Kinsella onstage for a playful blues-rock version of Huey Lewis’s “If This Is It” to close out the night.

Originally published on the Austin American-Statesman’s Austin360.

Interview: Mike Kinsella of Owen

As an integral member of bands like Joan of Arc and the now-defunct American Football, Chicago’s Mike Kinsella has long been part of an innovative and influential music community, but he makes some of his best music on his own. Behind the soft vocals and cutting lyrics of Kinsella’s solo project Owen lie lush instrumental arrangements, including acoustic guitar lines that would leave the fingers of most players in a tangle. In preparation for Thursday night’s show at Emo’s, Kinsella sat down to talk about his occasional heavy metal outbursts, as well as his creative process.

American-Statesman: How often do you play Metallica during a set?
Kinsella: It comes up more and more. The first time it came up, it was just like, “I’m bored. This show sucks. I admit it. I concede. I’ll play some songs that maybe you guys like.” Now it’s just a joke. People are like, “Play Metallica!” I sort of taught myself to play guitar by learning Metallica songs, so whenever I get into standard tuning, the first thing I go to is “Fade to Black.”

For the singer/songwriter music you play, your songs are much more intricate and layered than most in the genre. What kinds of influences do you draw on?
I list my influences as Red House Painters, which is acoustic with open tunings. Then My Bloody Valentine brings in the layers. Then the Sundays, who were a band that sounded just like the Smiths but with a girl singer, are sort of my all-time favorite. It’s just gorgeous. It’s acoustic, but there’s this 90’s, dreamy reverb electric guitar going on. I don’t listen to singer/songwriters for the most part, so I guess that’s why, hopefully, it’s different.

Being the sole driving force of this project, how do you write all the different instrumental parts?
Lots of sitting around at home alone. My wife goes to work early every morning, God bless her. She teaches high school history. She wakes me up, takes the dog out and I go back to bed for a few hours. I wake up and sit around, and I’ll pick up the guitar every day, but sometimes I just play Metallica songs, or sometimes if I finally find a part I’m working on, I’ll play it over and over. Then when I finally put it to a click track, it’s like, “How do I make this sound like the Sundays or My Bloody Valentine?” But when you hear it as a whole, when you put all the parts together, hopefully it sounds unique.

There are some bootleg videos on YouTube of you playing new songs. Are you releasing anything in the near future?
There’s a whole full-length started. I would say it’s two-thirds done. It’s over the hump, but I still have to go back and put strings on some and piano on some to make them stand out from each other.

Originally published in the Austin American-Statesman’s Austin360.

ACL 2008 Review: Mates of State

Originally published on the Austin American-Statesman’s Austin360 on 26 September 2008.

The quirky pop tunes of husband-and-wife duo Mates of State have always sounded full, even with just the two members. Kori Gardner’s electronic organ pumps out so many diverse sounds over Jason Hammel’s pounding drum beats, and the two belt out such meticulously layered melodies that both their live shows and studio recordings create the illusion of at least a four-piece band.

But at the ACL Fest the duo took their live sound a step further for many songs by adding a three-piece string ensemble to the mix. The violin and two cellos soared over the doo-wop piano rolls of “Like U Crazy,” while in “You Are Free” they melded with the organ to create an epic sound.

Aside from a couple of shaky moments, the vocal delivery of both Gardner and Hammel was impeccable as always. On many numbers, their voices blended in harmony so well that it was hard to tell which member was singing what.

Equally as impressive was their seamless flow between the shifting rhythms in many of the songs. Fan favorite “Ha Ha” in particular changed drum beats at least three times, but the shifts always sounded natural. Whether they’re playing as a two-piece or more, Mates of State always seem to make it work.