ALBUM REVIEW: Yeasayer - Live at Ancienne Belgique

(Self-Released, 2011)
Review by Michael Bird
                                              

3.5/5

I suspect that one of the reasons Yeasayer’s debut All Hour Cymbals was met with more enthusiasm than follow-up full length Odd Blood is the absence of any real sense of discovery in the latter. Yeasayer had been playing together for little more than a year when All Hour Cymbals hit shelves, and were undoubtedly still refining their sound and exploring what they could do as a group. Odd Blood is a much more streamlined and focused album, but at the expense of loose arrangements, varied instrumentation and a willingness to let songs wander. Live At Ancienne Belgique shows that Yeasayer have arrived at a comfortable middle point between the two albums, at least in their live show.

The performance is taken from a time when Yeasayer were still touring and promoting Odd Blood, so initially the focus is on releases from that album. A little of the oppressive studio click-track feel of cuts ‘Madder Red’ and ‘Rome’ is gone though, and both songs benefit from the looser, livelier atmosphere. There’s a little imperfection in the keys and percussion, giving life to what might otherwise have been a monotonous affair. Straddling the line between acoustic performance and digital texture has always been one of the group’s strengths, but erring on the side of truly live performance is what elevates Yeasayer above their contemporaries in the experimental indie scene.

Singles ‘Ambling Alp’ and ‘2080’ are highlights toward the end of the show, and both are microcosms of the whole Yeasayer live package. Front man Chris Keating ups the delay on his vocals (he seems to control a great deal of what would normally be left to the sound desk from his keys/mixing station) and both guitar and bass swim in effects evoking vintage psychedelia. Again, the effects betray welcome hints of imperfection, wavering tonally from time to time and not always falling into place with the same precision you’d expect from a studio release. Live At Ancienne Belgique captures Yeasayer in an exciting phase, hitting their stride in a performance that emphasises the most enjoyable parts of their first two LP’s and sets the stage nicely for their next release.




The album is available for download here: http://yeasayer.net/xmas/


 

An interview with Alec O'Hanley (TWO HOURS TRAFFIC)

Interview by Sean Sebastian
                                                     

Constantly referred to as one of the most successful independent acts to hail from Canada in recent years, Two Hours Traffic were recently in the country touring their new album Territory. This album marks the band’s third major studio album, under Bumstead Records. However the band’s writing process has remained untouched since their first EP, The April Storm, released in 2003, “[We’re] generally pretty collaborative,” says Alec O’Hanley, guitarist and back-up vocalist, “Usually one of the three of us; myself, Andrew or Liam, will bring a sketch of a song to the group and we’ll all hammer it out from there. We don’t really pigeon hole ourselves to the instrument we play. So there’s healthy discourse,” he adds almost sarcastically, “[The process] can last anywhere from a week to several months”.

Photograph by Scott Munn

The Australian leg of their tour sees them teaming up with Triple J favourites The Jezabels, to play shows at The East Brunswick Club and The Bended Elbow. The two bands met at a Dead Letter Chorus show in 2009, “We had done a little jaunt with Dead Letter Chorus in June. And our manager down here, Jeff Trio, kinda floated their EP around. They showed up at our show in Sydney and we concocted a cultural exchange,” Alec adds with a wry smile.  “And I think it’s panned out rather nicely so far. [They’re] the most polite band we’ve encountered so far”.

The band’s sound lends itself to the sentimentality of popular teen dramas, and the similarity hasn’t gone unnoticed. Their track Limelight featured on an episode of The O.C. in 2006, but the whole ordeal can be quite fruitless, “It can be anti-climactic. I remember our local newspaper back in Prince Edward Island has a piece saying Limelight was gonna be in the O.C. That night we all tuned in and it was just on in the background for like five seconds. You don’t wanna go along with that sort of thing too much,” he says with a laugh.

That said, the soundtrack for The O.C., at the height of its popularity, had a knack for breaking indie acts and this effect can be seen to have touched Two Hours Traffic. Their following album Little Jabs was nominated for the 2008 Polaris Music Award.

But popularity isn’t a quality the band is concerned with, “When Liam and I started the band in high school, we had no idea how long it would persist, or to which heights. We’re still small potatoes in the big scheme of things. We don’t pat ourselves on the back very much”.

Following this tour, Alec plans to knuckle down and start work on the next album, “I’d love to really delve into writing. Get a whole bunch of equipment and bunker down in Prince Edward Island and experiment with the guys. Try to make our masterpiece”.

Alec expects the album to be released later this year.

DUCKDUZZ presents: FELIX WEATHERBOURNE

Written by Sean Sebastian
                                                  

Felix Weatherbourne, standing in the studio he hand-built with his dad, recounts the last year; the gig he played at Falls Festival, “I played in this ‘GeoDome’, it was a little outside the main stages, in this sort of village. It was weird, it had a kind of ‘carnie’ atmosphere. But the dome got packed out and it turned out to be really good.” He also spoke of the untimely break-up of his band, Press Colour, “Some things were said,” he pauses, the faint smile fades from his face, “I mean, I appreciate honesty. It’s a good thing.”  And the origins of his solo music career, “Mountain Man was the first track I wrote. This was in April, 2010. Back then I had no idea how to use any of the equipment I have now.” Influenced by the looping mastery of Jamie Liddell and Reggie Watts, Felix’s music is constructed almost entirely of his own voice. He denounces the use of backing tracks, “it’s like a Britney Spears type of thing. I don’t like that.” So when it comes to playing live, Felix simply creates his songs from scratch.


Check out Felix Weatherbourne playing live at the Grace Darling Hotel, Collingwood supporting Signet Mae and Bright Knights on the January 25th.