Come around
Though six weeks away from playing Lollapalooza, My Morning Jacket traipse into town with Circuital (ATO), and the broken record criticism comes with it. The Globes and Postelles also play Friday.
To paraphrase Mary Gauthier, Fish swim, birds fly, and MMJ make inconsistent records. Circuital isn’t actually that much of a shocker, because they made a move similar to “Holdin’ On To Black Metal” on their last album. The reason for these garish cuts — this round includes James Bond horns and a comically arranged women’s chorus — is to highlight the eccentricities in the other tracks. “Outta My System” channels The Beach Boys, and “You Wanna Freak Out” invokes something that either hits Pete Townshend at the keyboards or dainty Anglo-folk. The band dangle spliffs from their lips in their sleep; they have the laidback classic-rock thang down pat. (And, for your delicate sensibilities, “Victory Dance” and the title track kick things off.) There were other elements in ’60s and ’70s pop, and they’re not the sole province of Vampire Weekend and Radiohead to explore. (Friday@Auditorium Theatre with Daniel Martin Moore.)
Were you next to me when someone compared The Globes to Built To Spill or Death Cab? It’s not that they aren’t on the same level or some jive, just that the moody Future Self sounds more akin to something labelmates Menomena would construct. With more compressed distortion, the riff underlying “Stay Awake”‘s verses would sound like a Slayer sample. “Pretty Birds Above Our Heads” piles on dissonance and tension without ever getting loud, and waits 150 seconds before finding a vocal release. One of The Globes most notable tendencies is taking their capacity for beautiful passages and dumping them on the floor. That’s not a dis, but other than the breeze that blows through opener “Haunted By Bears” — which is responsible for any mention of DCFC — these guys seem happiest with their worlds on edge. (Friday@Empty Bottle with All Tiny Creatures and Chatty Cathy.)
Finally, a really weird thing happens as The Postelles’ self-titled record nears its conclusion. After a half hour of barebones, upbeat semi-hipsterness (that sounds an awful lot like The Kooks), darkness sets in the form of the Libertines. “Whisper Whisper” opens with “He slapped you right across the face” in a slight accent that wasn’t there the previous eight cuts. The mix gets dirty and Strokesy on “Sound The Alarms,” and, well, it’s just different. Good different. (Friday@Schubas with The Dig and The Kickback.)
— Steve Forstneger
Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly
