Showing posts with label Alabama Shakes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alabama Shakes. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Alabama Shakes live on KEXP
It feels good to be home! I'm not going to lie, I'm quite content to have missed the last few weeks in American music. I really don't need the Biebs whispering in my ear, and if I want someone to call me, I make it quite clear.
Anyway, I returned last Wednesday from a dream five-week romp through Europe -- documented on my personal writing blog -- during which I didn't actually listen to much music as a rule. I wanted to separate a bit from the familiar, and I was actually getting really used to listening to birds tweet instead of phones. But then I remembered the Alabama Shakes released their first big studio album, Boys and Girls, on April 10, and I folded like a hot yoga instructor. I put the album on repeat, and now it courses through my veins like it's always been there. Seriously, Juke Box Hero called it two months ago: These guys and gal are my new favorite band.
Our first video back is a heftier edition, as appropriate for a Full Concert Tuesday. Back in January the Shakes were invited to play their tunes in the Seattle studio of KEXP, and they chose my favorites from the album. If you want to skip right to the heart of this band's music, jump to 14:45 for the start of "Hold On," their lead single and the song they've been shopping everywhere from Letterman to Conan. (They skipped Leno, which makes me happy for silly, spiteful reasons.) Listen to it, and then rewind and start from the beginning. Trust me.
The video also includes a mini-interview in the middle, where the band talks about how they came together just a few short years ago in -- where else? -- Alabama.
I'm also SUPER EXCITED because I've been granted a second year of volunteering for Lollapalooza, Chicago's famed music festival, held the first weekend of August. There are 125 bands performing at Lolla, including the Shakes, and if I can't see them all live, I can at least try my darndest to give the line-up its proper due before I fall to pieces in front of Jack White (Sunday's headliner, oh. my. god.).
I hereby dedicate the summer to artists who will be performing at Lolla, from the well-known -- like the Black Keys, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Jack, the Shins, and the back-from-the-dead Black Sabbath -- to the lesser known, such as artists Juke Box Hero told us about months ago, like First Aid Kit and The Tallest Man On Earth. It's going to be fun.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Alabama Shakes: "You Ain't Alone"
Welcome Juke Box Hero with my new favorite band, Alabama Shakes. This one'll send chills down your spine.
A brief note to the editor: Brittany, meet Brittany. Singer Brittany Howard and her band, the Athens, Alabama-based Alabama Shakes, haven’t appeared on this blog before, and if they’ve escaped your radar up till now, allow me to introduce you (without hyperbole) to your new favorite singer/band. I know you’re a sucker for strong, bluesy lead female vocalists, and they don’t come much more any of those than her; she’s the total package.
Already darling(s) in the eyes of Adele, Jack White, Bon Iver's Justin Vernon, and a host of other musicians and music journalists -- NPR music had nothing but great things to say after their SXSW set last week -- Howard and the up-and-coming Shakes are, ironically, on a roll. The group’s super-tight live performances and solid, if not wholly unique, brand of classic Southern rock have arrived at a time when more and more American and international listeners are gobbling up roots-inspired music (Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, First Aid Kit, Conor Oberst, etc.) like hot johnnycakes of sound. Add to that the fact that Howard sounds like Robert Plant and Janis Joplin made a voice-baby, and the Shakes are about as hot as the unseasonably balmy spring the U.S. appears to be having. [Editor's Note: Chicago is confirmed as such.]
On its own, this scintillating performance of the love/lust/companionship ballad "You Ain’t Alone" oozes cool, yet ecstatic sentiment -- the visible beads of sweat might as well be liquid blues -- but give at least some credit to the filmmaker/editor here, who may or may not be the credited NowWaveManchester. Don’t get me wrong: firsthand, the set at Stubb’s in Austin, TX must’ve been other-worldly, but the fact that there’s a clear, compelling re-creation of the experience available for free online shouldn’t be taken for granted.
Who knows the specific circumstances and methods employed to film and create this stellar video, but I’m guessing it wasn’t example of the developing live show epidemic whereby listeners stick smart phones in the air to record as much of the concert as possible. I suppose bootleggers have been doing it in movie theaters for decades, but at least they’re discreet. These modern descendants have no shame – it used to be that people would periodically raise their phone for a snapshot. Now it seems everyone is shamelessly striving to become the next famous YouTube director. Do they give Oscars for that now?
Filmed or not, Howard & co. kill it on this track. I know, it takes some time to build, but boy, once you hit about 3:40, they’re going at it hot and heavy -- yes, those are your knees quivering. Howard, at one point, displays the outline of her beloved state of Alabama tattooed on her shoulder ("my heart on my sleeve"), but that’s nothing; she’s radiating some deep-seated emotions head to toe. And somehow, you get the feeling with this young a group, we in the audience have only heard the tip of the iceberg.
[Editor's Note: I watched the video and wrote the intro to this post before reading JBH's cute little opener about this being my new favorite band. He's got me pegged.]
A brief note to the editor: Brittany, meet Brittany. Singer Brittany Howard and her band, the Athens, Alabama-based Alabama Shakes, haven’t appeared on this blog before, and if they’ve escaped your radar up till now, allow me to introduce you (without hyperbole) to your new favorite singer/band. I know you’re a sucker for strong, bluesy lead female vocalists, and they don’t come much more any of those than her; she’s the total package.
Already darling(s) in the eyes of Adele, Jack White, Bon Iver's Justin Vernon, and a host of other musicians and music journalists -- NPR music had nothing but great things to say after their SXSW set last week -- Howard and the up-and-coming Shakes are, ironically, on a roll. The group’s super-tight live performances and solid, if not wholly unique, brand of classic Southern rock have arrived at a time when more and more American and international listeners are gobbling up roots-inspired music (Fleet Foxes, Bon Iver, First Aid Kit, Conor Oberst, etc.) like hot johnnycakes of sound. Add to that the fact that Howard sounds like Robert Plant and Janis Joplin made a voice-baby, and the Shakes are about as hot as the unseasonably balmy spring the U.S. appears to be having. [Editor's Note: Chicago is confirmed as such.]
On its own, this scintillating performance of the love/lust/companionship ballad "You Ain’t Alone" oozes cool, yet ecstatic sentiment -- the visible beads of sweat might as well be liquid blues -- but give at least some credit to the filmmaker/editor here, who may or may not be the credited NowWaveManchester. Don’t get me wrong: firsthand, the set at Stubb’s in Austin, TX must’ve been other-worldly, but the fact that there’s a clear, compelling re-creation of the experience available for free online shouldn’t be taken for granted.
Who knows the specific circumstances and methods employed to film and create this stellar video, but I’m guessing it wasn’t example of the developing live show epidemic whereby listeners stick smart phones in the air to record as much of the concert as possible. I suppose bootleggers have been doing it in movie theaters for decades, but at least they’re discreet. These modern descendants have no shame – it used to be that people would periodically raise their phone for a snapshot. Now it seems everyone is shamelessly striving to become the next famous YouTube director. Do they give Oscars for that now?
Filmed or not, Howard & co. kill it on this track. I know, it takes some time to build, but boy, once you hit about 3:40, they’re going at it hot and heavy -- yes, those are your knees quivering. Howard, at one point, displays the outline of her beloved state of Alabama tattooed on her shoulder ("my heart on my sleeve"), but that’s nothing; she’s radiating some deep-seated emotions head to toe. And somehow, you get the feeling with this young a group, we in the audience have only heard the tip of the iceberg.
[Editor's Note: I watched the video and wrote the intro to this post before reading JBH's cute little opener about this being my new favorite band. He's got me pegged.]
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