REVIEW: Bon Iver "Bon Iver"

At my sink, emptying out the half full wine glasses that sat stale from where they were placed the night before, running the cool water to wash the lip prints away; as though they’d never been kissed at all. A half dozen maple logs ban together and burn themselves in the fireplace, protesting this early morning chill. Their roar, along with the slow perk of my morning coffee, accompanies the lazy summer tree tops in lifting the heavy sun. Another day, here on earth, readies for all our attention.

Bon Iver’s sophomore LP Bon Iver has been upon us for most of the summer with its Neapolitan triumph of originality, folk, and easy-listening flavors. Bon Iver is weighty with Justin Vernon’s ability to layer a composition both instrumentally and vocally. As heavy as each song hits on this record, every moment floats over the listener; notes dancing in the ether between your head and the ceiling fan.

Much thicker than their debut, For Emma, Forever Ago, Bon Iver adds strings and horns as well as a much fuller drum track throughout. Vocally, the layered falsetto brilliantly continues the choir feel on this record that has become synonymous with the Bon Iver sound. Unlike so many (I want to say Hip Hop artists, but I do not consider current pop rap as Hip Hop nor do I consider any of them artists) people that write about rims, riding dirty, hoes, etc., auto-tune is used by Vernon to once again convey a creative vision. At no time throughout Bon Iver does it come across as abrasive or annoying; which it seems to do nearly ninety-eight percent of the time on the work of others.

Though this is nine songs and one interlude of magic, the only song I’d really like to talk about is “Beth/Rest”. I’m not sure how it fits on this record, yet without batting an eye it does. Separated from “Calgary” by a short interlude, the song brings an easy, almost theatrical, finally to Bon Iver. “Beth/Rest” takes everything you loved about 1980’s soft rock and miss it. It takes everything you hated about 1980’s synth soft rock and make you regret not owning three copies of Can’t Slow Down.

In fact, upon the release of Bon Iver, I heard that Lionel Richie regularly calls Justin Vernon and cries into his voice mail.

Enjoy Bon Iver by Bon Iver! I hope you already own it. If not, buy it.

ON TOUR:

08-08 Toronto, Ontario - The Sound Academy
08-09 New York, NY - The United Palace Theatre
08-10 Brooklyn, NY - Prospect Park Bandshell
09-07 Minneapolis, MN Orpheum Theatre
09-08 Council Bluffs, IA - Stir Cove
09-09 Kansas City, MO - Uptown Theater
09-11 St. Louis, MO - The Pageant
09-12 Dallas, TX - Winspear Opera House
09-13 Austin, TX - The Long Center for the Performing Arts
09-15 Phoenix, AZ - Comerica Theatre
09-16 San Diego, CA - Spreckels Theatre
09-19 Los Angeles, CA - Shrine Auditorium
09-22 Berkeley, CA - Greek Theatre Berkeley
09-24 Troutdale, OR - Edgefield Ampitheater
09-25 Vancouver, British Columbia - Orpheum Theatre
09-26 Seattle, WA - The Paramount Theatre
10-19 Manchester, England - O2 Apollo
10-20 Dublin, Ireland - The Canal Theater
10-22 Edinburgh, Scotland - Usher Hall
10-24 London, England - HMV Hammersmith Apollo
10-26 Utrecht, Netherlands - MCV
10-27 Brussels, Belgium - AB
10-29 Paris, France - Trianon Palace
10-30 Cologne, Germany - E-Werk
11-01 Berlin, Germany - Columbiahalle
11-03 Oslo, Norway - Sentrum Scene
11-04 Stockholm, Sweden - Globen Annexet
11-05 Copenhagen, Denmark - Falkoner
11-06 Hamburg, Germany - Docks
11-09 Birmingham, England - O2 Academy
11-10 Leeds, England - O2 Academy
11-11 Bristol, England - Colston Hall

REVIEW: City and Colour "Little Hell"

You’re on a rural two lane highway. In front and behind, the only two things you know for certain weigh on the horizon just out of site, where you are going and where you came from. Just below your visor, the sky creates shades and shapes you swear you saw in a painting; and the only thing that can take your eyes from it is the way the sinking sun paints its colour across the rural hills before you. Leaving an easy life, some might call mundane, it had been your life for every minute you weren’t too stoned to live it. With it now all but erased, not shy to admit to being a little bit scared about the future, it’ll take hell before you cry about it.

The road, bathed in dusk’s pinks and purples, politely asks that you make those effortless tilts of the wheel to follow its shallow lazy curves. You oblige as it guilds you around the elderly oaks littered just to the greener side of the guardrails.

Where will this night take you? Where will the morning find you?


The mood of Little Hell, the third solo LP released by Alexisonfire’s Dallas Green, is rolling and crisp. As he gets ever more electric with each of his releases, this album covers rich layers of instrumentation with the reverb touched blanket of Dallas’ vocals.

Far and away from his debut LP Sometimes, Little Hell brings a full band along through its duration. Where I do appreciate his ability to hold an entire record up with little more than a single guitar and vocal track, this record demonstrates a different range of his energy and writing strength.

After listening several times though, Little Hell keeps listeners interested in every track. Not wanting to skip over any of Dallas' foolishly clever lyrics, as much as you want to replay each song as soon as it finishes, you can't help but keep your hands off the stereo in anticipation of the tracks that follow.

The weakest point on this album may be its first single, “Fragile Bird.” While a solid track on its own, it doesn’t meld together with what surrounds it. On the overall soothing, flowing ride this album takes you on, "Fragile Bird” enters and exits jarringly. Again, as a stand alone song, it is not in any way poor. Rather, it doesn’t seem to belong where it sits on Little Hell.

A driving mood is kept through the Little Hell’s entirety only to let you down softly with "Silver and Gold." “Hope for Now” was a bit of a disappointing way to end, however. Beginning with only Dallas’ voice and a piano, you drift off in the song. Midway through a complete band joins in, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, however the song ends with a fade out. Come on! The fade out is the weakest way to end a song let alone an entire record. How about a return back to the solo piano?

All in all, if you enjoyed Bring Me Your Love, you will enjoy Little Hell. If you are still upset that City and Colour grew to be more than just solo acoustic doodling, then you’ve probably also got a picture of Chris Carrabba under your bed with a red “X” through his face ever since you heard “Hands Down” off of A Mark, a Mission, a Brand, a Scar.

Get over it. BUY THIS RECORD

"Cobra Wolf" by Cory Branan and Jon Snodgrass

“Cobra Wolf”, a tag-team effort by Cory Branan and Jon Snodgrass, isn’t a new release; however, I think it has its place being reviewed. I’m not sure that “Cobra Wolf” is even the title of this record… I’m also not sure it isn’t. But I digress…

Jon and Cory, with their lyrical depth and openly honest style, fit together like whiskey and bacon. The one-two punch delivered across your ears by Jon’s “So Excitable” and Cory’s “The Corner” assures you you’ve found your new favorite record.

There’s enough smoky rasp on this record to give a person throat cancer. The two men weave an acoustic quilt that puts you front and center for this stripped down collaboration. Having seen both performers several times, a turn-flip-turn of this album is as close to their live show as you could. If there is a flaw to be found on this album it’s that it isn’t a double LP.

“Cobra Wolf” by Cory Branan and Jon Snodgrass is a COMPLETE BUY for any general fans of Folk, Country, Singer / Songwriter.

NOTE: don’t search “Cobra Wolf” because you probably won’t find the record. But you’ll know which record it is by the cover art.

Win a trip to see Bon Iver w/ Chase Hammerton

The “Win a trip to see Bon Iver w/ Chase Hammerton” CONTEST

WHEN: Wed. 8/10/11
WHERE: @ Prospect Park, NYC

WHAT: See Bon Iver’s only area performance (one of two dates announced in the US) along side one of the greatest visionaries (and snappy dresser)

of our time, Chase Hammerton.

HOW: TO ENTER, answer the following question in your own way (Creativity Counts): WHY WOULD CHASE HAMMERTON WANT TO… GO SEE BON IVER / VISIT BARS1 / BE FORCED TO MAKE CONVERSATION FOR AN EVENING….WITH YOU?

All entries must be emailed to chasehammerton@gmail.com by 6/7/11. The winner will be announced via The Cause Blog on 6/21/11. Late entries will be accepted (Late entries had better include an AMAZING excuse (raptors, aliens, an incident involving a poorly packed parachute…etc.) as to why they are late.) MUST BE RECEIVED BY 11:59pm 6/20/11. GOOD LUCK!



*must be 21 years of age or older to enter

The Cause Covers SXSW in Review: part 2

A little about myself: Anyone that knows me will tell you with the most serious of tone that I am an early riser. Regardless of the exponential terrors I forced upon and within my body the night before, I will be up early. Most likely before eight AM.

Day two of SXSW: I awake somewhere in the cloudy space between eleven and noon. This would be the case for the remainder of the festival for us all. We road night one hard and none of us were about to slow down. With that, we got ourselves some coffee from the lobby and made it to the Convention Center. The promise of free beer and giveaways was a great way to start any day.

Sunset never comes faster than it does on days when you don’t get out of the hotel until two PM. That being said, after meeting up with our friends we shared a few pints outside the artist lounge. However, our let start cut the good time short and the Convention Center was kicking us out promptly at six. PERFECT TIMING for us to hustle to Habana Bar and see Shit Horse!

Shit Horse is a gritty rock band that plays in front of you just as much as they attack you. The singer of Shit Horse, a man easily in his forties, is one interesting character. In his 1980’s style UNC marching band uniform he doesn’t seem to fit with this collective of twenty-something year old “kids”. But somehow it works. While I wasn’t dazzled at all by Shit Horse, they were a must see if for no other reason than their anthem, “Shit Horse (Is Gonna Ride)” which they played at the opening and closing of their set.

While this band’s sound isn’t going to see them headlining MSG anytime soon, I don’t think they care, and neither do I. Shit Horse isn’t the prettiest girl in school, but she’s the one that you’ll be in bed with after you polish off your eighth tallboy. All in all, if Shit Horse is going to ride…we’ll all be there! RECOMMENDED!

Post Shit Horse, there aren’t many places your night can go but down. I made my way over to Prague for Innerpartysystem. Having seen this band in Manhattan just before their debut dropped I was interested to see them again. Having shed a few members, slimming down to a three piece, I wondered if their show had taken a turn for the worse. Not that Innerpartysystem have altered their sound, but their live performance has gone from the feeling of watching a band to that of watching a DJ. The singer now sings behind midi controllers and keyboards and the guitarist traded what I remember being an SG(?) for another set of midi controllers and keyboards. Live drums, drum tracks, samples, and vocal effects have Innerpartysystem sounding just as crisp as they did years back. Fog machines and neon stage lights pushed the set over the edge. I was very impressed with some of their newer material live which I thought fell flat on the record.

The rest of the evening was spent at the Chugging Monkey with some friends, catching up. See you on day three!

www.innerpartysystem.com/
www.shithorse.com

The Cause Covers SXSW in Review: part 1

I don't feel it's appropriate or fair to fully digest an event (especially one as expansive as SXSW) until you have properly removed yourself from it and decompressed. How long does that take? Until all of your dirty laundry is washed, put away, and you've received at least one paycheck from work you are not fully decompressed from any trip.

You may have noticed there was only one ACTUAL update from within SXSW. It became hard to piece together what was happening without taking a step back so i resigned my coverage to constant steady posts on @chasehammerton during the last couple weeks. I hope you've been following. For those of you that were, thank you and welcome back to The Cause. Over the next few days I will be posting unrolling pieces of our SXSW coverage. From what lived up to our excitement to what fell flat, you can read about it here. Check back often this week for our The Cause Covers SXSW In Review.

What we wanted to see and the content we ended up actually catching was a bit different due to over crowded venues, hustling from one stage to the next, lack of communication (spiking of cell phones), the loss of a drivers license (which led to explaining to Kevin Devine about a sexual encounter I had during his set at the South Paw in Brooklyn back in 2007). From a Chase Hammerton perspective, here’s what happened…

On Tuesday the fifteenth of March, three friends arrived in Austin, wet behind the ears, stupid with confidence. Confidence in that they had a plan, one which they knew to be a loose, but a plan none the less. Confidence that they were ready for this conference. I was one of those three friends. We were a bunch of dumb assholes.

Our first real taste of anything was the Nerdcore showcase at the Flamingo Cantina. I only stayed for Dual Core but the rest of the group stayed for Mega Ran and Wordburglar and had nothing but high marks to give both. The general theme of this showcase was videogame fueled hip hop. All of which was very refreshing and interesting in an industry where the top earners seem to have traded in the genre’s inventive roots for another record about spinning rims and auto tuners.

After Dual Core, I left Flamingo Cantina for the Bat Bar to see Admiral Fallow. A Scottish band who fall into the vein of Mumford and Sons and River City Extension, they are very tight and enjoyable but lack that one song that sticks in your head for days; which is why, sadly, they were lost and possibly forgotten by many in the crowd. The potential is there for Admiral Fallow to put out a great collection of songs but I don’t see them being there yet. That being said, it would definitely be worth your time to take a listen to them.

This brings us to the Latitude 30 showcase. A showcase comprised of bands from the UK, we were able to catch Pulled Apart By Horses (American influenced lead laced chunky rock), The Boxer Rebellion (Echo-y Indie shoe shuffle), and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs (digital dance pop). Although massively different styles of music, all three bands were good yet their sounds all played it remotely safe. Pulled Apart By Horses and the Boxer Rebellion put together great live performances. I wouldn’t buy a ticket to see either band; however if they were to mount the stage before the headliner at Bowery Ballroom, you would find me on the main floor and not in the basement lounge.

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. There are two places you should never apologize. One place is in bed. The other is on a stage. TEED was one of the artists we selected as something to be excited about; and live he was a bit of a letdown. Between his gimmicky dinosaur costume, pheasant feather head dress and his awkward song transitions, it was sort of a dead end to the night. At the onset of every track I wanted to dance and I did dance. His beat transitions between songs were jerky, at best, and left me feeling he’d be less offensive to the dance floor if he simply stopped at the end of one song, paused, and then started fresh with a completely new song. All in all, the content within the songs was solid, fun, and can shock any party’s hips and feet into moving along. Live however, he needs more time and practice to get his performance down. I’m going to give him a bit of room here as he’s still a quite young.

www.dualcoremusic.com
www.megaran.com
www.wordburglar.com
www.pulledapartbyhorses.com
www.theboxerrebellion.com
www.myspace.com/totallyenormousextinctdinosaurs
www.admiralfallow.com

"Is the coffee downstairs free, or just for Breakfasters": SXSW DAY 1

We arrived at the airport in Austin, Texas a bit after 11am. I lost the jet race, for anyone that's interested in how that turned out. Our hotel is clearly not as close to downtown as advertised which is going to be a bit of a pain for coming and going. But it does have a great fried seafood eatery right next door named Captain Benny's.

Stepping into the Convention Center, which houses the SXSW trade show, it looked every bit the part of an adult film convention with people drooling over picture disk vinyl and industry networking booths rather than slender / half nude starlets. One welcome difference: Since the companies didn't have porn to help attract you to their booth what could they use? FREE BEER! The Convention center is a fantastic way to pre-game/day-drink your way through until the showcases start that night.

Here's what's about to happen...my spicy chicken is getting cold so I'm going to skip to the first night of music...

First up was Flamingo's where we caught a great nerdcore hip-hop showcase. Duel Core was our first experience here and it was a good one. His speed and flow were krysp as he hit the crowd with "Hostage Down" an ode to Counter Strike. Some stayed behind to continue the rhythm lesson while I hopped up the block to The Bat Bar to catch a folk band from scotland Admiral Fallow. They were worth the walk. Wonderfully layered vocals over top of full guitar work, a driving drum line, and a flute move the crowd.

After Admiral Fallow, we headed over to Emo's to see Surfer Blood and Gold Panda at the Pitchfork showcase. The line was all kinds of retarded so we passed. We changed the game and made the place to be Latitude 30 for Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. On our way there, however, my dream of a friend passed on the inside info that across town....the Foo Fighters were playing a secret show. It was obvious not many knew, while this was happening, as we were seemingly the only people hustling over there. But the walk was too far...and we were unable to make it in. SO...now TEED was soon to play and here we were on the other side of town.

Enter my angel, Maranda (hot name right?). Maranda rides up to us like on her shiny chrome steed (a 10 speed). She is a rickshaw driver and was brave enough to take the three of us clear across town. With her beauty and skill she peddled us up hills at speed I've never been a party to. She made it to Latitude 30 so fast that not only had we not missed TEED, but we were there to see Pulled Apart By Horses. Needless to say, they were great.

TEED takes the stage in a full body dinosaur overall...thing. He claims his stance behind his table of midi controllers and wires and places a native american headdress, fashioned of pheasant and crow feathers. His samples and tones were krysp and got everyone in full dance party club mode. It was enough beat to fall in love, but just for one night. What he was doing wrong? He kept apologizing if he messed up and his flow between songs needs work. There are two places you never apologize, on stage and in bed. The artist needs to let things go. We're here, we're dancing...what happens happens. Move on and keep the beat going. His transition between songs was caught somewhere in between being a continuous DJ mix and fully stopping a song at its end, pausing, and starting the next song. That being said, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaur was great. HIGHLY recommended. As well as all the bands I've mentioned in this post.

Follow me on twitter @chasehammerton for all the up to the minute data and PHOTOS!!!!!!

Email me @ chasehammerton@gmail.com if you'd like to see us cover anything. I've looked at all the artists you've all already sent in and we will do our best to see what we can see...if they were any good. Most of the bands you want me to check out suck. Go listen to Duel Core and Pulled Apart By Horses and come back with a revamped list of what you want me to check out.

If you're in town, buy me a drink. I'll be the one in a suit, playing guitar, in the back of a rickshaw piloted by a beautiful blonde.

xoxo see you later.