April 29, 2012 8:00 PM
Outland Live
95 Liberty Street
(614) 744-0100
$12 advance / $14 day of show
All ages
We Were Promised Jetpacks
http://www.myspace.com/wewerepromisedjetpacks
When a band’s debut album is both impressive and hugely successful, it’s not often that their sophomore effort makes it seem almost average in comparison. But In The Pit Of The Stomach – We Were Promised Jetpacks’ grand, accomplished follow-up to 2009’s These Four Walls – is precisely this rare exception.
We Were Promised Jetpacks spent 2009 and 2010 touring tirelessly on their debut, including a run with Frightened Rabbit and shows supporting Passion Pit and Tokyo Police Club; the band’s second set of US appearances, their first headlining tour, sold out across the board; and they closed out 2010 supporting pop-punk legends Jimmy Eat World on a huge sold-out theater tour.
Armed with the confidence of all that touring, a batch of new, road-tested songs, and a muscular vision for a new record, the band decamped to Sigur Rós’s studio retreat in the frozen wilds of Iceland.
Explains singer Adam Thompson: “We recorded the debut album in 8 days with one short tour under our belts - this time around we spent a full three weeks in the studio recording with [live sound engineer] Andrew Bush and made an album that both captured the sound of our live show and that is strong start to finish.” Peter Katis (Frightened Rabbit, The National) was also on hand for additional mixing and production.
The result, In The Pit Of The Stomach, is a huge leap forward from their debut – full of prickly ambition and grand-scale vision, sure, but with no shortage of the hooks and personal engagement that have earned their debut – and, indeed, their powerful, wrenching live shows – such a wide and devoted following.
From the thundering first attack of lead-off track “Circles & Squares,” to the album’s first single, the dark, driving anthem “Medicine”, to slow-burning, triumphant “Sore Thumb” and the whip-smart, angular “Human Error” – In The Pit Of The Stomach is a fiery, atmospheric listen.
With their sophomore LP, We Were Promised Jetpacks have transcended even the very high expectations created by their beloved debut and subsequent tireless, much-buzzed touring; In The Pit Of The Stomach is, quite simply, a brilliant achievement from this young, exceptional group.
Breton
http://bretonbretonbreton.blogspot.com/
Breton is film. Breton is sound.
Breton is about audio and audio-visual autopsy; deconstructing and re-assembling popular culture.
Borne from the squat party scene and band mastermind Roman Rappak’s formative musical experiences of post-Communist Poland pirate cassette kiosks where compilations of Portishead, NWA, Guns ‘N’ Roses and Michael Jackson were the norm, Breton initially formed to make films. But they couldn’t find easily accessible places to show them that would allow the collective to incorporate their added elements of tightly synched soundscapes and live performance. DIY New Cross club nights run by promoters with a thrillingly, anything goes attitude to booking seemed the only suitable home for what they were attempting to do, and pretty soon as their 3am slots swelled, Breton were being encouraged to release their accompanying soundtracks.
Based in The Lab, a converted Kennington bank turned creative hub where the five members now live and work, Breton are a full-time music and film-making outfit. BretonLABS is the band’s remix and music video-making moniker that has seen them work with the likes of Local Natives, Tricky, Maps & Atlases, Esben and the Witch, Temper Trap, Penguin Prison, Tom Vek, 80’s Matchbox B Line Disaster and Flats.
Breton’s short films have been nominated for awards in the London Film Festival and the East London Film Festival and they have been invited by the curator of the London Film Festival to submit a 15 minute film incorporating the shorts they have made over the course of a year that document the making of their debut album, ‘Other People’s Problems’. The band will also release a music documentary ‘Naming No Names’ in 2012, for consideration in next year’s Short Film Festivals.
Breton live is an intense, hypnotic experience, as the band clad in black hoods perform to a backdrop of their films – the perfect marriage of sound and timing and rhythm and visuals – influenced by such heroes as Jonathan Glazer, Mike Leigh and Chris Cunningham.
When writing, the quintet shy away from traditional methods; preferring instead to use the sounds from their surroundings as a starting point. Creaks, squeaks, sirens, tube trains, café chatter and the hum of knackered old instruments all make it into their music. “We are interested in breaking those cycles and not to make the same sounds and chords that a million other people have made,” says Roman Rappak. “So we avoid the sounds, loops and presets that everyone else is using and go for the more unique organic sounds we can…recording in different rooms, putting things in bits of glass, mic-ing them up from different sides of the room, rough human errors and hiss and hum.”
To achieve this for self-produced debut album ‘Other People’s Problems’- a compelling mix of chopped up pop songs, unsettling hip-hop and heavy electronica – the band took their brittle, digital Lab-recordings and ran them through vintage, valved equipment in Sigur Ros’ idyllic Icelandic studios to give the record warmth and weight. Hauschka has recorded the strings and These New Puritans’ Thomas Hein and hip hop legend Harry Love have been brought in on mixing duties for three of the tracks.
The result is a technically complex but incredibly infectious record, that like Rappak’s cited influences Portishead and Quincy Jones, will speak to the masses as well as the musically cerebral and savvy. “It’s all about balance and counter-balance. We’re all used to electronic music being regimented and methodical, so being able to use these machines and make them sound organic and human really unsettles people in an interesting way. It’s the most punk thing you can do in music. “We expect machines to sound like this,” says Rappak as he continuously taps the table to a beat, “but what if we make it do this?” Irregular taps ensue. “It’s like someone threw a load of ketamine at you.”
Breton are: Roman Rappak, Adam Ainger, Ian Patterson, Daniel McIlvenny and Ryan McClarnon.
Fort Lean
http://fortlean.com/
A wise man said: Pick your tenants wisely. Fort Lean, the New York rock band you apparently like so much that you sought out the official literature, are a tenant of mine. This is not poetry. I am their landlord. The first of every month, with remarkable diligence, the Fort wires 200 American into my bank account for the use of a cramped and water-damaged rehearsal space I still haven’t gotten around to soundproofing. I like these guys. They’re respectful of other people’s belongings. They clean up after themselves, usually. I have my suspicions that Keenan Mitchell, the band’s wild-eyed singer, has slept in the space without my permission, maybe even with women–but it’s all good. The band owns expensive vintage amplifiers. They’re open to sharing (usually). As far as tenant/landlord relationships go, ours is copacetic.
As for their music? You’ve heard it. Fort Lean write big, anthemic rock songs, and they play the hell out of them. Stakes are high. They want to be Oasis. They want to be Springsteen. They want to be U2. My guess is they will be, and here’s why: Fort Lean don’t want people to “kinda like” them. They want to be a girl’s first crush. They want college kids to make bad life decisions based on misinterpretations of their lyrics. They want to write the song you dance to with your second wife on the night of your wedding to your first wife. When your son moves to whatever the new Bushwick is in twenty years, and when he calls you, crying, to report he just got shook down by a bunch of punk kids, Fort Lean want you to smile to yourself and think of that line from “Sunsick”: “Get-tin’ mugged by chil-drennn!!”
You would think this is every band’s wish–to be The Biggest Band In The World. But it turns out that’s a lot of work! It turns out that most musicians are self-absorbed fuck-ups who haven’t earned the right to be either. Most importantly, it turns out, 99.9% of bands just don’t have the chops or the songbook. Fort Lean somehow have both–which is why they stuck out like a sore thumb this past CMJ. They’re writing choruses you wish you had written, and playing tighter than your band ever could. They’re only going to get better too. Mark my words: the world will get at least five great albums from this band before the singer cracks and decides he wants to be a doctor after all.
Look. I could write thousands of words about keyboardist Will Runge’s impeccable style (great face, great denim). I could rap on drummer Sam Ubl’s tasty hi-hat work, or bassist Jake Aron’s smart use of space. I could tell you about the first time I heard Keenan’s voice–an oaky, siren-like tenor that proves once and for all that nature does in fact trump nurture. Or how about this: Zach Fried routinely wears tight red pants, plays a Telecaster, and insists on using an enormous eighty-pound pedalboard even though he only has like two pedals–and somehow gets away with it all! There’s just so much to like about this band in the particular. But right now, the thing I like most about Fort Lean is quite simple. They pay their rent on time. They chip in when equipment gets broken. They let me use their Twin Reverb, and the Peavy Bandit (great for leads). I didn’t have to tell them twice about not leaving bikes in the hallway. It’s hard to find bands like this. I will miss them when they’re gone.