AMPophasis goes to the Outback Lodge: Roslyn and Conshafter

The Outback Lodge: sketchy to some, a cozy haven where PBR’s cost 1-2 dollars depending on the bartender to others.

No matter which way you swing, The OL makes for an undeniably intimate show. That’s what we found as we watched Roslyn and Consafter rock out last night.

Roslyn was not your average smattering of geeky instrumentalists. In other words, these guys looked like they could take you. While the lead vocals sounded at times reminiscent of the stylings of Mr. Claudio Sanchez, the overall sound was something new. They rocked in a way that was as hard as it was pretty. They left us with epic breakdown that included a dive-roll across the stage.

Conshafter, named by band members after a kid on their rowing team with a funny last name, was an energetic voyage. The four-part Richmond band owned the tiny crowd’s attention in the same way Red Hot Chili Peppers would in JPJ. Lead singer Chris Konstantinos seemed as if he was born to gallivant across a stage in an enormous venue while having underwear thrown at him. His duo of groupies seemed to affirm this notion. He was backed by Dave Cykert and the irresistibly cute Sarah McCalla. McCalla was dressed head to toe in a flapper costume, and her enthusiasm did not waver the entire time. Austin Tevis more than took care of drums while wearing an earnest expression and a 1996 Barack Obama for Senate shirt.

Many of the songs were marked by intense, over-the-top lyrics and entertaining overdramatics, namely “Drop Dead on the Dance Floor.” “Going Down” was a confrontational joyride of a song. McCalla’s backings were on point, and something about her smile and head-bob made the threat of a beatdown seem even more tangible. “So Long Sweet Dreams” overcame the OL with emo. AMPophasis held real tears back.

All-in-all, it’s not so bad that local shows are all C-ville has left. Richmond bands are only an hour away and ready to rock.

Dark Was The Night: all causes should have a two-disc set

It’s amazing how many people crawl out of the woodwork for a cause.

Last month, The National produced quite a compilation—entitled “Dark Was The Night.” Proceeds benefit the Red Hot Foundation, a group committed to raising awareness and funds for AIDS. It’s a two-disc set (that makes a triple vinyl set), and it probably has at least a few of your favorite artists. The entire list of collaborators exists here.

The National make a memorable appearance on the compilation with the inevitably catchy “So Far Around The Bend.” We get to hear Matt Berninger’s distinctive baritone (once described perfectly as “chocolate and wool”) mesh with his random, matter-of-fact lyrics: “I know you’re a serious lady, living off a teacup full of cherries.” Songs like this are a true indulgence.

Andrew Bird’s “Giant of Illinois” is slow and staccato. It employs Bird’s trademark instruments—slowly plucked guitars, violins (sorry, no whistling this time—it’s a little too slow, and that would take some serious breath control). It’s very poignant in its simplicity, and the playful lyrics are covering Handsome Family’s sweet tall tale jam.

Conor Oberst and Gillian Welch turn Oberst’s “Lua” into a lovely duet. As aspiring-folksy as I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning already was, Welch’s voice adds its own inherent twang, making this a true campfire hit.

“Train Song” brings together the interesting mix of Ben Gibbard and Feist. The artsy-woman-noise of Feist easily compliments Gibbard’s smooth, intellectual sound. While its sound is completely new, it’s actually a cover or Vashiti Bunyan.

“Brackett, WI” is intense and simultaneously chill—something only Bon Iver can accomplish. It is named for an “unincorporated area” near Justin Vernon’s hometown. It has arguably more sparkle than anything on For Emma, Forever Ago—a deep, recurring guitar riff ties the subtle mumbles with the giant proclamations.

“Lenin” sounds like it could be an Arcade Fire classic—it’s comprised mostly of a driving bassline, simplistic piano work, and far-away sounding shouted vocals. It used to gather dust as an AF unreleased track, titled “When Lenin Was Little.” It’s certainly doing more work on this compilation, for activists and indie fans alike.

While some tracks sound like typical, others really branch out. Justin Vernon of Bon Iver and Aaron Dressner of The National are together on “Big Red Machine;” Canadian Hip-hop artists Buck 65 features both Sufjan Stevens and Serengeti on “Blood Pt 2.”

If you like Dark Was The Night, you’re in luck. Many of the artists are performing at Radio City Music Hall on May 3^rd. Deets on who is showing up so far are here.

Canadian stars just have more time

The wikipedia article says it all:

Aubrey Drake Graham (born October 24, 1986) is a Canadian actor, rapper and singer. He is known for playing Jimmy Brooks, the physically disabled character on Degrassi: The Next Generation.

Somehow, the fact had escaped our attention up until now: violence-quelling, b-ball coaching, wheelchair-bound Jimmy of Degrassi spits some mad game on the microphone under the stage name "Drake" (or, Drizzy Drake, if you wish).

"Ransom" (featuring Lil Wayne, WHAT!) starts with about a minute of self-shout-outs, ending with a chuckle-inducing, "Toronto I got you! I got us." The song goes on to have very standard second-rate rapping, and not much of a beat. Weezy's introduction doesn't bring much of a change except in level of nasal-ness and ego-mania. We hear him proudly tout "I get paid by the letter" followed by a lovely one-of-a-kind performance of the alphabet.

"Money to Blow" employs voice-warping usually reserved for Lil Wayne, but we're guessing that's cool, since they're apparently tight. What follows is a lazy chorus of "Money to blow-oh-oh." But remember. the only reason he's got more than us is that it's in Canadian dollars.

So what will happen? Will this Canadian (poorly scripted) teen drama star follow the footsteps of the greatest actor-turned-singer heartthrobs (Hilary Duff, Miley Cyrus, Jared Leto...)? Or will he Jennifer Love Hewitt his way out of pop-culture relevence and the Canadian limelight?

Guess we'll find oot.

Served Fresh: M. Ward hold time long enough to make us sigh

Here at AMPophasis, we were able to hear M. Ward's new album, Hold Time, early enough to serve it up fresh. Here's what you need to know before you rush out to grab it on Tuesday:

The entire album is reminiscent of a sixties record in its instrumentation. It starts of with "For Beginners," a preachy folk number proclaiming, "When you're absolute beginners/It's a panoramic view/From her majesty Mount Zion/And the kingdom is for you." Ward's sense of enlightenment makes it no surprise that Bright Eyes would endorse him as a presidential candidate.

"Never Had Nobody Like You" is a sing-song, uptempo duet with his former collaborator and love interest Zooey Deschanel. It's pretty percussion-heavy for Ward's standards. The simple, cutesie chorus declares, "Now it's just like A B C/Life's like one, two, three/Yeah yeah." Fun that even you can enjoy.

Even behind driving campfire-like folk guitar, most of the album displays a subdued sadness to his voice. (Maybe he's just distraught by the fact that his former girl got snagged by indie rock's favorite sad boy.) The melancholy is exacerbated in "Oh Lonesome me," a six-minute twangy, wailing cover (famously sung by both Johnny Cash and Neil Young) featuring folk legend Lucinda Williams. We get to endure him making the "aww"-inducing lyrics, "Everybody's going out, having fun/I'm a fool for staying home and having none," his own. Williams' now crackly voice of desperation makes whole thing sound even more "If You Leave Me Now."

Over all, we think Ward has done it again. We just hope in the indie world where the ugly but complex boys score the pretty actresses, there is another unsuspecting actress waiting around the corner for Ward in all of his glory.

Things that sound good in theory but are terrible in reality

1. Indie rock for the Ivy League. Cheeky rejection of debatable literary conventions (for example, the Oxford Comma). Somehow, the Columbia grads of Vampire Weekend have still found a way to mess it up, sounding all too Amish.

2. Panic! At the Disco sans exclamation point. You’d think it would take out the whole myspace boys wearing eyeliner appeal, but really it just takes away everything that was ever remotely exciting about this band. It’s like dance music that has been slowed down and had all electric parts removed. Like the original Total Eclipse of the Heart.

3. Music that is born out Of A Revolution. This music sounds more like second-rate Pearl Jam mixed with Dave Matthews Band. Gross. Can’t spell overrated without OAR.

4. Creating an album for each of the 50 states. Baby steps, Sufjan. I’d like to be able to run a marathon someday, but do I let on to this desire? No. Instead, I expect congratulation for my completion of the Kids’ I-Did-It run, one long and strenuous mile in length. Why couldn’t you have done 50 songs, Sufie, and perhaps made an album for each region? The Midwest. The Northeast. That sounds like a more attainable goal.

5. Imogen Heap plus background music. While this makes her sound a bit less like a horror movie soundtrack, Frou Frou has a soft-rock you can play at work feel.

The Birds and the Beasts

Singer-songwriter, scientist, whistler, and remaster-er of English Andrew Bird is back. The artist who AMPophasis nominates Most Likely to Make English Sound Like a Foreign Language has created a new masterpiece, Noble Beast. His melodic mumbling set to your typical indie backing (violin, guitar, mandolin, etc) is enough to make the word "nomenclature" sound like fodder for a pick-up line.

As always, the man is heavy on the headroom--one string of notes will be delicate and barely audible, but by the time you've turned up the volume, your ears are being blasted out. Exemplifying this style, "Oh No" opens the album up. First, we hear whistling. Next, insightful scholarly phrases carefully arranged and beautifully composed: "In the salsify mains of what was thought but unsaid/All the calcified arythmatists were doing the math/it would take a calculated blow to the head/To light the eyes of all the harmless sociopaths." This is the kind of stuff you could spend all night writing a paper on.

On "The Privateers," Bird's desire to evoke an "otherness" surrounding his music becomes evident. He puts on a thick accent we haven't heard him use before: "Cause I can see your house from here (he-yah)/Now the leaves have fallen, dear (de-yah)..." Along with the strange manner of speaking (aren't you supposed to be from Chicago, Mr. Bird?) we also get to hear a resounding indie theme of don't-sell-me-anything, all-I-care-about-is-the-music, man.

While "Fitz and Dizzyspells" and "Oh No" are driving, "Anonanimal" is one of is slower, more droning tracks. If you can decipher it, you will be slightly bemused by Bird's villainy of a sea anemone.

"Effigy" sounds like an almost medieval accompaniment to a swaying piano-bar hit. It's a pretty duet that partly sounds like Bright Eyes' "We Are Nowhere and It's Now," proclaiming to a waltz beat, "It could be you, it could be me/Working the door, drinking for free." It's something a little different for this album, but it works in nicely.

Noble Beast is yet another work completed by a man who truly has a way with words. Though lagging at times (especially in the Deluxe Edition's Disc Two, Useless Creatures) it's no less picturesque than anything else Bird has soared on.

Lullaby(z)

As Yet Another Cure Tribute Album was just released, softly titled Just Like Heaven, we were bothered to see that "Lullaby," the most perfect anthem of creepiness, was omitted from the track listing.

In our scouring of blogs and downloads, we’ve managed to find several covers of “Lullaby” from all walks of musical life, from Hard-core to symphonies. So, who needs you, new tribute album, when we’ve already been so graciously endowed with millions of bands just dying to cover someone as epic as the Cure?

Editors: Tom Smith celebrates his possible shared heritage with Robert, putting quite a stamp on the original with his insanely distinctive voice.

The String Quartet: Vitamin Records’ String Quartet has been known to actively seek out cool tunes to cover outside the realm of classical to cover—everything from Dashboard to 2pac. So it’s no surprise that the Cure would be left out or their discography. Their version of “Lullaby” sounds a bit too dignified, however, and they make barely audible the whisper-whined lines of the verses.

Cabezones: Argentine alternative band masters the beats and the stalkerish whisper. . Our only grievance is that it was not translated for the occasion, but perhaps they couldn’t find a Spanish word for Spiderman.

Voice of Reason: A completely screamed, hard-core version of the classic. It leaves out most of the components of the original tune, but the essence remains. In our internet-wide our internet-wide quest for the search terms "cover" and "Lullaby," we also found another treat we'd like to share with you. Move over, Britney. We think A Static Lullaby's screaming is more in tune than your singing.

Mountains aren't the only thing iced out in Colorado: Look out for 3Oh!3

Over the years, the Boulder/Denver area has proven to be, sadly, un-gangsta. The 303 doesn’t even receive a shout-out in Ludacris’ “Area Codes,” and even dreary Seattle in the 206 gets that much. But two white-boy grads of the University of Colorado are iced-out and ready to change these stats.

While their single “Don’t Trust Me” of their latest album, Want, may have you fooled with its seemingly new age feel, these boys mean business. From their band’s logo (two hands making a circle with thumbs and forefingers, other fingers outstretched: cleverly forming a 303) to their rough-around-the-edges lyrics (“I got yo' dogs on a collar, balla/So how you like that?”), everything about 3Oh!3 screams ‘this some real shit.’

“I’m Not Your Boyfriend Baby” mixes turn-tables with slow, heavy beats and screamed lyrics (dare I say, much like Trick Daddy’s “Let’s Go”?). We also get to hear a slow interlude, perhaps more akin to the histrionics of Panic! At the Disco, claiming “Kill the lights/These children learn from cigarette burns, fast cars, fast women, and cheap drinks.” So begins the plot of Fast, Furious and Icey: Colorado Nitez.

“Starstrukk” offers electric beats and chant-appeal, giving it the potential to eventually take over a club near you. The beat of the hook is repetitive and simple enough to get stuck in your head: “Nice legs, daisy dukes, makes a man go [cat-call whistle].”

3Oh!3 constructs a catchy shout-out to their record label, Photo Finish, in “Photofinnish.” They attribute “gettin women like we hire em” and “when they see them glimmerin they buy them” to allegiance to their record label. Once again, 3Oh!3 proves to be surprisingly ghetto-fab.

The album comes to close with “Colorado Sunshine,” an overly honest acoustic-turns-electric number. For a minute, you find yourself saying, “This is what Colorado music should sound like, I guess,” but as always, they break it down again for you.

3Oh!3 consists of two eccentric boys side-by-side, but they’re certainly not the next MGMT. If anything, they’re the next Ying Yang Twins.

Many new singers, same old song: Folie a Deux is surprisingly nothing new

It’s a sign of the times when Fall Out Boy commissions Elvis Costello to sing on a track and he doesn’t laugh in their face.

Replace Elvis Costello’s name in the previous sentence with Lil Wayne’s. Also frightening.

Fall Out Boy has created a boy-next-door empire of angst, and everyone is ready to join in this time. The same band that once bragged of crafting their ever-original metaphor-filled lyrics on sidekick phones whenever inspiration struck, they’re coming back so hard on Folie a Deux that their thumbs must be sore.

Other than the influx of “Featuring” to their track listing, Folie a Deux brings very strange song transitions. We see one song end with a symphony; we see another end with what sounds like a stripped-down prisoner spiritual.

“I Don’t Care,” is the first single off the band’s fifth studio album. While its level of arrogance mixed with self-loathing is typical of any FOB song, it sounds a bit too much like a former Shania Twain hit to achieve bad-ass status.

“(Coffee’s for Closers)” will certainly be the Most Likely Song to Be Sung at The Next Fall Out Boy Show. How could it not be, with action and thought provoking lyrics like, “Throw your cameras in the air/And wave them like you just don’t care/I will never believe in anything again.”

“What a Catch, Donnie” (that would be Donny Hathaway, while FOB’s fan-base would be more likely to jump to Donnie Darko) is a bit of a ballad-y bore, and unfortunately, FOB overestimated its charm. Not only did they choose this track to insert a melee of guest vocalists (Elvis Costello, Brendon Urie of Panic at the Disco, Travis McCoy of Gym Class Heroes, etc.) but their self-perceived epic status becomes evident at the end of the song when they call out lines from their former singles (much akin to the way Paul and John sing “She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah” at the end of “All You Need is Love.”)

While “Tiffany Blews” is a nice attempt at hip-hop-ish pop-punk, Lil Wayne ends up sounding more like a scratchy Patrick Stump than lending his own unique style to the song. Plus, would a hip-hop track ever begin by clarifying that the lead singer is not a crybaby, but rather the crybaby? The song continues with not-too-figurative language that offers us unnecessary images: “Oh, baby you’re a classic/Like a little black dress/You’re a faded moon/Stuck on a little hot mess.” Fall Out Boy is like old women’s fashion. They never change.

The album closes with “West Coast Smoker,” an edgier, slightly harder version of FOB that appropriately features Debbie Harry of Blondie. But once again, Harry’s voice mixes pretty seamlessly with Stump’s, and the guest vocals would not be obvious if you were not told they were there beforehand.

All in all, Folie a Deux is not a bad addition to Fall Out Boy’s resume. But even with the addition of eight guest vocalists, Fall Out Boy isn’t evolving, it’s going in a straight line.

Hey Ya!

Happy holidays from AMPophasis!

As a nice little mid-afternoon Christmas treat, we'd like to share our top five covers of Outkast's epic masterpiece, "Hey Ya!" with you. This will definitely get your through the midday eggnog hangover or the setup of your father's new mp3 player. Additionally, its denouncement of in-laws ("Don't want to meet your mama"..."Don't want to meet your daddy") should surely gear you up to go meet your own for dinner. Enjoy.

5. Supersuckers - sounds a bit like dirty nineties rock. They get pretty creative with warped guitar work, and they're much more than just white dudes singing Outkast. Not bad at all.

4. Cocoon - a bizarre, softer version of Outkast's danceable hit done by a French band. The accent is clear, and the woman's voice is sweet. It somehow works.

3. Shawn Lee's Ping Pong Orchestra - A completely instrumental jam session that really breaks it down fo nothin.

2. Razorlight - Sounds a bit like garage rock in the style of early Strokes. Plus a full gospel choir. Check it out.

1. Obadiah Parker - A folk-pop band slows things down a bit searches for the inner meaning of statements like "lend me some sugar, I am your neighbor." Beautifully executed.

Now for the worst...

Will Young - Sorry, American Idol, but Hey Ya's rough demeanor is not meant for such a pretty-boy. I mean, this guy doesn't know a thing about what's cooler than being cool.

The New Amsterdams - Similarly, it is not meant for Get Up Kids side projects. Stick to songs about alcoholism and heartbreak, Matt Pryor, and you'll be just fine.

Have a very down to Mars holiday!