The Dodo's at Spiegeltent 9-29-08

Photo Courtesy EduardoO

There are still tickets available? I was watching the Speigeltent site for weeks hoping I'd catch when these were listed and I'm completely shocked there are still tickets the night of the show for this under 100 capacity venue.
It's really the best space, I know tickets are probably a lot but it weeds out the casual fans, and you have a better show. I don't know, I don't like paying that much generally...it's like madison sq garden or something, but really at the end of the day you have to pay for the people that didn't show up....or in this case they didn't promote this as much? Either way you can literally stand on this pier in the east river next to a huge yacht parked within earshot of the show. I would see anyone here.

The thing that struck me most hearing them performing was the difference from their show at Siren. This time it was just Meric and Logan side by side on the stage creating the tracks from Visiter. For some weird reason I really felt like it was a bit like seeing Doo Rag. It was the same set up. One guy with an acoustic guitar and a mic, or in this case two, and someone on non traditional percussion. The amount of sound created. The magic of a duo that has put in an amazing amount of time working with each other and know the intricacies of changing the chorus ever so slightly, extending parts. They had none of the repetition or burnout from coming up with this energy practically single handed every night. Granted this was the second performance on this tour but right now they are clearly still in love with their songs.

That's the amazing thing, the pathetically little they are working with in the end. Drums and acoustic guitar. As many times as I think that can't be done a new way, you're proved wrong. I was reading about Logan Kroeber studying african drumming and it shows on the full length and live. Recorded they are coming from all kinds of far away places, like they were individually mic-ed in all kinds of rooms. The kick drum is cavernous and there's all kinds of clicks and metallic hits on high hat stands, every part of the kit is used. I just like that mentality, the subtlety of coming up with these rhythms. The beats are so counter intuitive to pop and defy catchy it's all tom and bass, no crashes...to Meric's credit he's adding the perfect amount of restraint and melody to this dense percussion. There's no fighting for attention. The two mics I thought were just for some kind of stereo ended up being for the end of a verse he'd switch over the right mic and it had all the effects on it, repeating a line with all chorus for the yelp. There's clearly a blues background in Meric's playing, it goes from a bent plucking to all hand strumming...but at the same time I'm kind of questioning it, it's not obvious...the melody as soon as it appears turns frantic. Not to forget their second drummer, Joe Haener who was standing on a riser in the back with xylophone and an even more extensive kit, adding to the yelling choruses and hitting opposite Logan. It turns into that Animal Collective feel of bordering on almost too much, but you couldn't imagine a single thing missing.

Siren 08 - Dodos, Times and Jicks

Remembering last weekend and Siren:
The Dodos: This was easily the stand out performance, even after missing a few of the songs in favor of beer and fried whatever they've got at Coney Island. Coming from the boardwalk we ended up right next to the stage and watched Meric Long sitting down playing 'Jodi', with Meric rocking back and forth on a shitty plastic folding chair. I thought that it's just two members, singer/guitarist Meric Long and drummer Logan Kroeber, but they must have wrangled a friend for random percussion duties and for most of this song he was hitting a metal trash can, then switching to xylophone.
A couple of guys were standing behind me talking about how their friends girlfriend was taking them to see these weird shit bands and to expect more like this. 'well any band playing a trashcan can't be too bad.'
Live, they reminded me of New Neutral Milk Hotel, (not that I ever saw him live) in the obscure lyrics and off melodies and watching Meric commit to just yelling out these lyrics from Visiter only reinforced that...or more recently the Bowerbirds feel, the faraway sleigh bells and bass drums played with mallets, but all sped up and pop full of strange rhythms and even stranger percussion sounds. Tom heavy and hitting the edge of the snare which I feel like I rarely heard. By the end Meric got up out of the chair and was destroying the miked garbage can, finally falling off the stand and they ended the set way too soon.


Times New Viking: I waited for TNV who were going to be on next, and as much as I love a free show, and even coney island, knowing that it's all about to change...this might even be the last Siren for all I know, but it brings out the crazies. The friends who have to dance like idiots, determined to get attention, and this bad ass old drunk biker/punk crazy bald fuck heard about 5 seconds of the opening song and started pushing his way through to start moshing I think, but then he looked on stage and saw the band and threw up his hands 'Oh fuck this', and just shook his head making his way back to the half dressed girls handing out Devry college fans.
Jared, the guitarist came out first, already in the middle of a party with a bottle of jack in hand, tucked in shirt, like some kind of shitgaze Townes Van Zandt.
Drummer Adam Elliott was the voice of the band, talking to the crowd inbetween songs, asking Jared for a cigarette and saying 'this song is untitled # whatever'...nice.
I think the thing with this live versus recorded is he songwriting is essentially there, no matter what it's hiding behind or under...they are plain fun...and you could see that from them onstage. It's very different, but the energy is there. They might have even been the only band to possibly sound better from out on the strip with all the sound reverbing around.
Beth Murphy on some kind of tiny Alesis, adds that super fuzz.... really...we've all heard guitars distorted, but I think she's playing the simplest piano sound at 11, through a tiny amp behind her so through a PA is just gets that messed up tone that's always there. I knew they were going to blow the speakers out and they didn't dissapoint, luckily afterwords I took a long hiatus in the ocean becuase my ears were most definitely ringing.


The Jicks: It wasn't as hot and after lots more beer and walking around in the ocean, I mean really where else can you do that... I made it back over for the Jicks, through the Broken Social Scene crowd and after an insane wait for the bathroom which always make you think, you know what there are worse jobs out there and I'm glad the one I have isn't dealing with any of this tomorrow morning.
I just can't get over the classic rock jam sound on Real Emotional Trash, songs are even more drawn out live and gave me the creeps in this fairground crowd, like I was stuck at some awful has been band at the county fair with my parents and I just want to get the fuck out of there. I'm not saying it wasn't good, they must have played everything from their latest and it was good, but I couldn't shake that feeling. Their renditions were new, they kept them interesting, changing the breakdowns and Malkmus is just plain funny, a true perfomer, great to just watch. I'm just not in the same place musically as Steve lately.
They did rock a cover of 'Two tickets to paradise' which wast pretty rad.
The entire live show is available from NYCtaper here.

The Dodo's 7" 'Red and Purple' is still available from Witchita or can be had somewhat locally from Modlang.

The dodos - Red and Purple

I found out about this album a few weeks ago and ended up listening to it one night straight through and of course the stand out track was Fools with it's chorus and background yelling, crazy off beat timings hitting sticks together...woodblocks.
This single Red and Purple is equally as good, the only problem I have with the drum track in this is they need to use the humanize button or something on the drum machine/sequencer, especially after hearing the Fools track and that organic beating, this feels weird....not as good... it kind of gives it away as being studio or laptop recorded.
I like the collective drumming sound so much, but here it's so obviously perfectly in time that it just sounds cheap or something. Or unauthentic...it's a weird high pitch snare sound too, super tight and tiny. I could be wrong...it's a great track irregardless....it could just be me....or their drummer is too in time.

It feels smart in the way Wolf Parade does with just interesting uses of instruments, every track was changing, surprising in good ways....vocally it's kind of like the shins or something...a little nondescript at times, or too lost in echo or chorus, but musically there are great pop experiments happening all over the place.

At times when it's quietly playing in the background I think I'm hearing a new animal collective tracks by a third member whose singing...or they found an a capella grandaddy track and remixed it. It has that multiple percussion sounds, layers of drums that couldn't be played single handedly....I hate to even think about a drum circle...but maybe these guys can make it good, turn it around.

Please tell me someone can find this domestically.

The first single Red & Purple will hit UK stands on June 30th with the album 'Visiter' to follow on July 14th.

Nice, bright, folky-sounding pop from The Dodos now with 'Red and Purple' on a limited 7". It's quite an uptempo little number on the whole with quite slow, drawn out vocals vocals in the verses that are hazily efective, the chorus jaunts it up a notch for maximum catchiness. The lyrics seem to suggest he's got some kind of war fetish though, that's Americans for you (only joking [or am I?]). I'm reliably informed that this is the best track from the LP, having not heard that myself I can only say that does a good job of makin you feel a wee bit better about the world. The other side is quite similar with the same speedy rythms and slower melody, the song's not as strong but that's why it's the B-side innit

Or it's only imported like fine wine from wichita