W♥M

Passion Pit/Youngblood Hawke/Hollerado at First Avenue, Minneapolis (10/30/12)

SET LIST photograph by Steph Paxton Tour Dates 11/01 Milwaukee, WI – Riverside * 11/02 Detroit, MI – Royal Oak Music* 11/03 Columbus, OH – LC Pavilion * 11/04 Covington, KY – The Madison House * 11/06 Pittsburgh, PA – Stage AE * 11/28 Los Angeles, CA – Roxy (KROQ show) Read More Passion Pit Passion Pit took the stage to much acclaim and the occasional fangirl squeal (mostly directed to oh-so-dreamy keyboardist, Ian Hultquist). The first song, “Make …

At First Ave. on the 30th for LA based pop quintet Youngblood Hawke. This was the 2nd sold out day they opened for Passion Pit in Minneapolis.

HOLLERADO photo by Steph Paxton

I walked in as the always hyper Hollerado was hitting the stage. I saw them awhile back when they opened for Free Energy at the 400 Bar. It was a similar high energy performance. The thing is as with any opener, it’s hard to play for an audience that may not have heard of you before or because they are mainly there for the headliner. Hollerado definitely tried their best. They talked a lot more than the last time I saw them. Maybe a little too much. They also tried some stage tricks like spitting beer up in the air in unison.  Anyway, I saw some people get into it. Although in my opinion playing all ages shows is easier for a band. Younger folks are easier to impress. . .

Next up was Youngblood Hawke. I had never heard of them before last month but I dug their single “We Come Running.” That song specifically reminded me of Passion Pit’s newest, maximalist album. Their set was actually very full force, like their single, they started strong and finished strong. On the first song the lead singer had broken a drum stick he was bashing on his single tom. Those guys were really having a blast. In the first few songs, two drumsticks and a snare were broken. The only time they took to have a bit of a break was when they covered Notorious B.I.G.’s “Juicy.” Which even then, it was still a very feel good vibe. Quite a bit of the audience knew who they were, and were singing along joyfully to the lead single “We Come Running.” They definitely did a bit of genre bending during their set. Some of their songs sounded like throwback rock and roll anthems  that were very, very glossed out, and some were pop to the max.  Overall I was very impressed, I’d definitely like to check these guys out in a headlining gig.

PASSION PIT photo by Steph Paxton

Youngblood Hawke did a good job at ramping the audience up, and when Passion Pit came on stage they were very well received. They started out with “Take a Walk,” then went right into “The Reeling.” This took the crowd by surprise and they went ballistic in response. The pit was so crowded that I couldn’t tell people apart, just arms and heads, all pulsing up, down, left, and right. That was definitely a “passion pit” if I’ve ever seen one. From then on the show was just phenomenal. The crowd ate up every song, and they sang along to everything they could. Michael even stopped a few times to thank his fans. That it meant a lot to him that they weren’t on their iPhones and snapping pics the whole time. He made it clear he had no problems with recordings or photos; it was just flattering to have such a dedicated audience. They closed the set with “Sleepyhead,” which almost caused a riot in the crowd. Then they came back and gave a wonderful two piece encore of “Moth’s Wings” and “Little Secrets.” The latter of which even  I was even being hysterical about.

Overall it was an amazing show, P Pit really knows how to put on a show and they sure picked winners with Youngblood Hawke. High energy all night with these guys. So if they are stopping by your town and it hasn’t sold out, don’t wait any longer, grab a ticket!!! Or get it off someone who isn’t going.

Youngblood Hawke at First Avenue, Minneapolis (10/30/12) photograph by Steph Paxton

oscar + stephanie ♥ passionpitmusic.com ♥ youngbloodhawke.com ♥ hollerado.com

Potpourri

Here are a few non-indie rock album reviews for you. One of the nicest thing about W♥M is that we don't necessary serve a niche music genre, so we're often sent a huge variety of music genre. Below are some genre of music that I don't normally listen to - but all equally enjoyable: oldies, reggae, death metal, and Christian.

By the way, someone should do an article called "putting the pot in potpourri" and have a series of, er, grassy music.

OPM opmden.com ♥ myspace.com     OPM - Family and Friends California's OPM's Golden State of Mind was released in August, and features a diverse collaborations with Jim Perkins (acoustic folk), Pato Banton (reggae), Big B (rap/hip hop) and Jamie Allensworth (soul/funk). This album is mostly chill reggae, but with a small splash of rap - mostly through collaboration with Big B & Dirtball. This is also radio-reggae, so if you're looking for reggae dubs, you might want to look elsewhere - however fans of reggae should really enjoy the mix of rock, rap, reggae (and even punk!). This band first exploded on the reggae scene with their major label (Atlantic) debut 2000 album, Menace To Sobriety, mostly due to their popular skater song, "Heaven Is a Halfpipe". They left Atlantic and have been with Suburban Noize Records since 2004. The one clear song that I think is such a good song is "Family & Friends". There are two mixes on this album, the Saber mix seems to stress certain music riffs/beats, but the original mix I thought was just fine - if not better as is. I think mostly because you can hear the vocals more clearly on the original mix. It looks like they've been touring all summer long, and continuing: 15 Sep 2008 CROSSROADS Fresno, California 16 Sep 2008 FAT CAT Modesto, California 17 Sep 2008 FISHLIPS BAR AND GRILL Bakersfield, California 18 Sep 2008 JILLIANS Las Vegas, Nevada 20 Sep 2008 THE ROCK Tucson, Arizona 22 Sep 2008 HAILEY’S Denton, Texas 23 Sep 2008 EMO’S Austin, Texas 24 Sep 2008 THE ROCK BOTTOM San Antonio, Texas 26 Sep 2008 MERCY LOUNGE Nashville, Tennessee 27 Sep 2008 THE FIVE SPOT Atlanta, Georgia 28 Sep 2008 THE PARISH ROOM@ HOB New Orleans, Louisiana 29 Sep 2008 MARKET STREET PUB Gainesville, Florida 1 Oct 2008 JANNUS LANDING St. Petersburg, Florida 2 Oct 2008 CULTURE ROOM Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 3 Oct 2008 THE SOCIAL (TWO NIGHTS!) Orlando, Florida 4 Oct 2008 THE SOCIAL (TWO NIGHTS!) Orlando, Florida 5 Oct 2008 FREEBIRD’S Jacksonville, Florida 7 Oct 2008 THE MUSIC FARM Charleston, South Carolina 8 Oct 2008 THE NORVA Norfolk, Virginia 9 Oct 2008 RECHER THEATER Towson, Maryland 10 Oct 2008 JC DOBBS Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 11 Oct 2008 HARPER’S FERRY Allston, Massachusetts 12 Oct 2008 WEBSTER UNDERGROUND Hartford, Connecticut 13 Oct 2008 HIGHLINE BALLROOM New York City, New York 15 Oct 2008 MOD CLUB Toronto, Ontario 16 Oct 2008 THE SHELTER (downstairs St. Andrews) Detroit, Michigan 17 Oct 2008 THE BASEMENT Columbus, Ohio 18 Oct 2008 REGGIE’S ROCK CLUB Chicago, Illinois 19 Oct 2008 PEABODY’S Cleveland, Ohio 21 Oct 2008 THE ANNEX Madison, Wisconsin 23 Oct 2008 STATION 4 Saint Paul, Minnesota 24 Oct 2008 RECORD BAR Kansas City, Missouri 25 Oct 2008 GOTHIC THEATER Denver, Colorado 26 Oct 2008 THE BELLY UP Aspen, Colorado 27 Oct 2008 AVALON THEATER Salt Lake City, Utah 28 Oct 2008 THE BIG EASY Boise, Idaho 29 Oct 2008 HAWTHORNE THEATER Portland, Oregon 30 Oct 2008 MEDIA CLUB Vancouver, British Columbia 1 Nov 2008 EL CORAZON Seattle, Washington 5 Nov 2008 THE HOUSE OF BLUES West Hollywood, California 6 Nov 2008 THE HOUSE OF BLUES San Diego, California 7 Nov 2008 THE PHOENIX THEATER Petaluma, California 8 Nov 2008 SENATOR THEATER Chico, California 9 Nov 2008 SLO VETS HALL San Lius Obispo, California   PS, I never found out what OPM stands for. Is it for "Other People's Money"?

STEPHANIE iamstephanie.net ♥ myspace.com     Stephanie - The Rain You probably don't know this, but I often get interested potential writers with interesting proposals for music angles. One of them included someone who wanted to write about Christian music, so I requested some of this genre of music from our PR people. When it came to actually producing reviews, that person was never heard from again.  I haven't gotten a Christian album in a while, but this one recently turned up: the self-titled album by the artist simply known as "Stephanie". Surely she must know that she's not the only musician called Stephanie? I had a heck of a hard time looking up her myspace/website. With the exception of the live recording of "Wake up Arise", all of these songs are studio-recorded and mixed. It sounds very clear and professional - including the live song. The closest "rock" song is the ironically named "Back to the Rock", featuring pianos and Céline Dion-style singing and wooing. I did enjoy her songs when it had more than a few instrument arrangement, like "The Rain", "Through Christ" (electric guitar!), and "Back to the Rock", as they seem to bring more of a full-music experience for me - at least for this album. I can understand the route to keep it simple (either with just pianos or acoustic guitar), because I felt they were trying to spotlight Stephanie's vocals. If you like vocals and minimal music, songs to check out are "Now I Know", "Bless Those Beside Me", and "Take Away". The overall feel of this album is that it's Christian pop music, at times inspirational. If you enjoy other Christian pop acts like Amy Grant, this should fit right in. After a few listen, you forget that it's even Christian, despite the obvious religious overtones. If you're in the Texas area and just generally like pop music, you should check her out: 14 Sep 2008 Word of Love Church Hurst, Texas 28 Sep 2008 Lighthouse Fellowship Church Ft.Worth, TX 24 Oct 2008 Seekers Coffee Shop Hurst, Texas

THE PONSONBY DC'S myspace.com/ponsonbydcs     The Ponsonby DC's - Just Another Kick This band doesn't have anything to do with death, sans for their gloomy "Death Doom and Destruction". This song is actually pretty good, sampling some speech from George Bush. This band have been around since 1984 (WTF!) and currently based out of Canterbury, New Zealand, according to their myspace. By 1986, this band was in top form with their self-titled album featured in Spin Magazine and all over the college radio airwaves. Their third and latest album is called That's What All The Girls Say, released this year. Just look at their cover art, featuring what looks like a "serious" Cubism style - yet showing a pop-art style of a boat captain to the right. Maybe I'm over analyzing it, but this has a very serious and a not-so-serious tone to it. This also reflects in their songs, some songs have modern social commentaries to them, like the "Death" song mentioned above to "Pluto's Not A Planet Anymore". Other songs ("Son of a Street Fighting Man", "Girls!") are just fun. Other trends I notice from this band is that they have a late 50s "oldies but goodies" feel to them. Check out "Little Baby You're Mine" and "Ponsonby Waltz", both are well worth a look if you love classic oldies songs - done by a modern band. PS, Gavin Buxton's NZ accent definitely shows up on "Just Another Kick" and "Son of a Street Fighting Man". I love it!

NETHERBIRD netherbird.com ♥ myspace.com     Netherbird-Forever Mournful Since we already mentioned the life-inspiration songs of Stephanie, I thought it would be fun to balance it with a little bit of the Dark Side. Usually I reserve this sort of music for Dr Soup, as this is a death (read: Satan) metal band from Sweden. I was actually pretty impressed with the production on The Bone Collector, it doesn't sound too "cookie monster" but it's clear that their inspiration lies in death metal. Even though I think some of their songs sounds like operatic metal (especially on "Carcess Symphony"). I thought "Forever Mournful" was the stand-out track on this album - and I'll tell you why. You have Nephente's demonic/agonizing vocals (I'm not even sure what he's saying!!) with a counterpoint of a sweet, angelic voice (no idea who's singing as the promo copy I have doesn't have any liner notes). The song lends itself to an epic feel as its theme seem to flow right into "Adrift Towards Eternity" (with its sweet violins and thunderstorm soundclip). Speaking of epic, check out "Boulevard Black" - the very first song that Netherbird recorded. This is a fourteen minute, utilizing lots of guitar, bird sounds (crows?), pianos, and includes a semi-cheesy voice over that seems to sound like an old 80s horror movie. Even the reprise song have a feel of Phantom of the Opera with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre! The most surprising thing I found out is that Target.com is carrying their CD. Wow, right? Apparently there is a standard release and a collector's edition - as usual, I always suggest getting the deluxe version if you can swing it.

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