W♥M (Archive)

Babies, Children, and Kids

Read More Kidding around Before we put on the kids glove, I wanted to separate the men from the boys: When you think of Mountain Man, you think of burly bearded hunters wearing animal furs.... but Mountain Man is a an all-girls band

THE BABIES
facebook.com/pages/The-Babies

The Babies' EP, Cry Along with the Babies, comes out tomorrow (January 10th), physical CD comes out on the 24th.

I did get a chance to listen to a sneak preview of the EP, which is a little too lo-fi for my liking, but fans of boy-girl acoustics would enjoy this. Plus the band does feature members of Woods and Vivian Girls (the latter, I do have a crush on), so it can't be all that bad. Their best/strongest song, "Hey Mama", which I did read that the song just warped into "Sick Kid" from their self-titled album. I liked the rhythm and tambourine, I wish more of their songs sounded like this track.

The Babies are currently on tour with Real Estate (with the exception of the last date):

Sun-Jan-15 Boston, MA Brighton Music Hall
Mon-Jan-16 Providence, RI Met Cafe
Tue-Jan-17 Burlington, VT Higher Ground Showcase Lounge
Wed-Jan-18 Montreal, QC La Sala Rossa
Thu-Jan-19 Ottawa, ON Mavericks
Fri-Jan-20 Toronto, ON Lee's Palace
Sat-Jan-21 Cleveland, OH Beachland Ballroom
Sun-Jan-22 Washington, DC Black Cat
Tue-Jan-24 Asheville, NC Warren Wilson College

BRIEFLY:

CASTLE KIDS castlekidsmusic.com California's Castle Kids has a free EP, Long Live Castle Kids (although the album artwork looks like "Long Live the Rook and Pawn"), on their website. That's pretty much all the details that was given to me. Most of their track sounds like laid-back electronic, except "Ancient Hymns" which suggest they're into world music too.

KID MASSIVE kidmassive.com Kid Massive is threatening a forthcoming album soon from Transmission Records. In the meantime, his latest song and various remixes for "Yawn" is available for download on Soundcloud. The Silcox & Eyes remix that I listened to is a little too house/rave/loud for my taste. In case you were wondering, the singers of the track are Sam Obernik (the lady) and Jay Colin (the rapper).

THE CARETAKERS thecaretakers.bandcamp.com "Flowers For Peace" is a protest song from The Caretakers. It was written for their forthcoming sophomore album, Love War and Propaganda, and it was released on 11/11/11 - Remembrance Day. The song is a free download at Bandcamp, and the video was made by using Sudan refugee camp footage from War Child Canada (donations can be sent to War Child). I like their song a lot, you should definitely give it a listen. And if you were wondering what "C.O.D." stands for, it's "credit on delivery".

SAD BABY WOLF sadbabywolf.com If I lived in San Francisco, you know I will probably be attending Noise Pop Festival on February 21-26. Since I don't live there, I'm going to have to get one of my contacts to attend for me. Cursive, Built to Spill, Archers of Loaf, and Die Antwood, are among some of the headliners. They recently announced that Sad Baby Wolf will be opening up for the Hold Steady's Craig Finn at the Bottom of the Hill on the 21st. I did get a chance to listen to their song, "8th Level", it sounds like Sugar/Bob Mould, which is not bad at all. You can listen to the song on Under the Radar.

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The Hold Steady at First Ave, Minneapolis (12/29/10)

Tour Dates 02/04/11 University Southampton, UK 02/05/11 O2 Academy, Bristol, UK 02/06/11 O2 Academy 2 Birmingham 02/08/11 O2 Academy Newcastle 02/09/11 O2 ABC, Glasgow 02/10/11 Academy, Dublin 02/11/11 Spring & Airbrake, Ireland 02/13/11 Ritz, Manchester 02/14/11 Metropolitan University, Leeds 02/15/11 Norwich Waterfront 02/17/11 Junction, Cambridge 02/18/11 O2 SHEPERDS 03/08/11 Virgin Mobile Metro Theatre 03/09/11 The Zoo, Brisbane 03/11/11 The Hi Fi. West End 03/12/11 Golden Plains Festival

Wednesday night's Hold Steady gig at First Avenue was an interesting mashup of the generations, a testament to the group's massive appeal (locally, at least). It was the only show I've attended in recent memory where drunk 50somethings could chant along with equally plastered college kids, to music that is just as relevant to both of them.

There was no question that the night belonged to Craig Finn, the group's exuberant frontman. He was positively beaming during every minute of the show, literally trembling due to his overwhelming enthusiasm. This wasn't nearly the case for the five bandmates he shared the stage with, but I suspect that most of the crowd was far too inebriated to take note of their slight indifference.

On stage Finn plays the part of a manically enthusiastic storyteller, often delivering a line and then lurching away from the mic to bark an utterly inaudible response to emphasize what he's just said, typically with an exaggerated accompanying gesture.

One of the more lively songs of the night was "Sequestered In Memphis", which ended as Finn frantically paced the length of the stage screaming sans microphone; a careful read of his lips revealing that he was repeating the song's final lyric ("I went there on business! On business! On business!!")

The audience was remarkably tepid during some of the material from the band's latest full-length, Heaven Is Whenever, indicating a band that is arguably past its prime, but still showing a decent amount of chutzpah as its members near their forties. These more languid moments were thankfully brief though, as the lengthy setlist was loaded with enough older tunes to keep everyone satisfied. Particularly rousing were Separation Sunday highlights "Your Little Hoodrat Friend" and "Stevie Nix", both of which feature lyrics that are peppered with references to the Twin Cities, which were often met with an uplifted drink from most in attendance (or simply a raised fist in the case of those few with X's on their hands).

The pinnacle of the evening was certainly when they ripped through the title track from 2008's Stay Positive, with its "oh oh oh, oh oh oh" refrain that anyone who wasn't completely blotto was undoubtedly shouting along to.

The Hold Steady make good on their reputation of being a solid live act, but one that is decidedly welcoming to fans of all ages, making their performance so agreeable that it fails to be anything extraordinarily noteworthy (in my opinion anyway). I suppose it's kind of like going to see the latest Pixar film - you and your parents can go and undoubtedly both enjoy it to some extent, but ultimately it's not anything you haven't seen before, just something common that is done by this specific outfit particularly well. They simply put on a damn fun rock 'n roll show, no more, no less.

♥ The Hold Steady - First Ave, Minneapolis (12/29/10)

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