April: the most brutal month

April has been quite the month for metal at the Granada. We Came as Romans, the Metal Alliance Tour, and the Decibel Magazine Tour all delivered their quota of shredding riffs, vocals from the gut, and most certainly a breakdown or two. All good things must come to an end though, as the April metal season comes to a close tomorrow night; the good news is, however, that All Shall Perish, The Contortionist, and Fleshgod Apocalypse are seeing the series to a close.

For those not in the know, All Shall Perish is a deathcore perennial, having been active since their 2002 signing with Nuclear Blast Records. If you don’t understand the difference between regular metal and anything with the suffix “-core” on the end, then take a detour to this link and get educated.

Why? Because knowing is half the battle.

ASP’s 2011 release, This is Where it Ends, topped numerous polls for the best metal album of 2011 when MetalSucks surveyed some other musicians on the international scene. If the whole world believing in you isn’t credibility, then I don’t know what is.

The supporting acts for this show are nothing to balk at either. One can never forget two things about metal shows: 1) they will always be far too loud for modest consumption and 2) there are always more bands on the bill. The “other bands” in this case are Italy’s Fleshgod Apocalypse and Indianapolis’s own The Contortionist.

If All Shall Perish is Budweiser, then Fleshgod Apocalypse is Stella Artois—they’re both lagers, but one is simply classier than the other. In that regard, Fleshgod dwells on a whole different level. Symphonic arrangements lead into blistering shredding and music that is, in the simplest terms possible, totally epic. Their sound is distinctly different from the rest of the bands which share this bill, which lends some enrichment to the whole experience of seeing a metal show. Repetitive metal shows are no fun. Why not get some operatic theatrics, too?

By the way, remember how We Came as Romans came as Romans earlier this month? They’ve officially been trumped. Fleshgod is actually from Rome, and that’s another goal for the Azzuri.

Finally, The Contortionist rounds out this motley line-up with a bit of progressive metal. The Indiana natives are probably not the most well-known group on this bill, but that doesn’t stop them from offering a hefty dose of thoughtful, carefully crafted progressive songwriting. Think of it as a break from the brutality. It’s bob, not bang, your head music.

Follow this link to watch some footage of their live show for this tour.

See April off right. Though May 18 is the Origin show, three weeks at the Granada without metal doesn’t make the house feel like a home. Thus, make it a mosh-pit Monday and take a gander at some of this metal crashing into our stage.

All Shall Perish, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Carnifex, The Contortionist and Renouncer perform at the Granada Tuesday, April 23. Doors open at 6:00pm. This is an all ages show.

Go ahead and drink the Kool-Aid

Get ready to line up and drink the Kool-Aid. No sense in asking what’s in it or where it’s been—just know that Cults is coming to the Granada this Saturday, and you will miss the comet if you don’t go.

Despite the fact that the name of the band opens itself to a slew of entertaining puns, the advent of the indie-pop San Dieguns by-way-of-New York to our quiet little blue speck in a red sea is nothing short of musical awesomeness. I feel like I say this a lot, and that, in many ways, I am a broken record, but this is one of the many shows the Granada has and will continue to offer that any self-respecting music fan will kick themselves for not going to see.

Cults began in earnest as the collaborative project of Brian Oblivion (guitars, percussion, keyboards) and Madeline Follin (vocals) in 2010 with what has become known as the Cults 7”, a collection of three songs posted to their Bandcamp page with intentions no greater than exposing their music to a wider audience and, you know, just putting it online.

(Here is an interview with Follin about, well, all sorts of stuff.)

Their paltry offerings did more than that, however, as the duo’s exhibition burned through the web like a fever. The question for listeners rapidly changed from “Who is this” to “Where can I get more?”

Fast forward to June of last year; Oblivion and Follin released their 11-song, 34-minute debut, also titled Cults. The full-length record received much of the same gratuity that their 7” release did. It was an eclectic mix of late-50s and early-60s doo wop, some Motown, a little bit of punk, 80s pop, and ambient noise and samples that, according to Metacritic, garnered generally positive reviews.

Reviewers favored the album for many of the same reasons they favored the 7”; Cults paid homage to a sound which, though overdone by many in their scene, they happen to execute with equal parts earnestness and precision.

Reviewers also stated the band made the most of their sampling, which serve to only augment the music, not overpower it or hide bad songwriting. Take, for example, the sample of Jim Jones (get it, cults?) talking about the treachery of life. It doesn’t own the song, but it makes it a whole lot more interesting.

The songwriting on their debut, however, claimed widespread attention as well. The apparent romance between Oblivion and Follin didn’t prohibit the duo’s drawing upon love—with all its faults—as a major source of inspiration. Follin demonstrates the airy, wistfulness of love in “You Know What I Mean” when she says, (as quoted by many a music reviewer) “Tell me what’s wrong with my brain/’cause I seem to have lost it.”

Three things: one, that’s an excellent song title; two, that’s some wordsmithery right there; three, did I mention I’m in love?

Lyrics such as this are rife in Cults, along with enough studio sleight of hand to make David Blaine blush. But what about the live show? Well, being the enterprising young musicians that they are, Cults are touring with a five-piece band, including a drummer, a second guitarist, and a bassist.

As for the live execution, a review from the Orange County Register called a show they played at the Observatory in O.C. a “triumph”. You know who gets triumphs? Roman emperors and top-notch musicians, that’s who. The review stated that the band picked a sort of “best-of” for their set list, and that the addition of a full band gave the two founders a more stable rhythmic base from which the audience could better feel their charming and dreamy songwriting. Cults also treated the audience to some covers (Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows”) and tracks not on the album—“The Curse” and “Slow Song”.

By all accounts, the transition from album to auditorium seems an easy one for Cults, thus making their show all the more worth it to see. Seriously, here goes the broken record again, but don’t miss this show. The promise evident in an act like Cults, going from internet obscurity to legitimate musical force and minor fame, is one not taken lightly. So long as they don’t blow their collective musical load  they could be around for a long time. And your friends will ask you, “Where were you when Cults came? I heard that was an awesome show.” And you should appropriately respond “Front row center, getting doused in sweat and glory.”

Cults performs at the Granada Saturday, April 14. Doors open at 8:30 pm. Advance tickets are $12. Door tickets are $14. This is an all ages show.

–Brian Sisk

You just Ott to do it.

Staying home for spring break is far from ideal. First you have to bid your friends farewell as they fly (or drive) off to go hike Machu Picchu or drink on a beach for a week, and then they post all the pictures on Facebook and show you how much fun you weren’t having over break. It’s the eternal plight of the staycationer.

For those of us (including myself) who are staycationing for spring break in Lawrence, however, there is a solution: a free show at the Granada March 18 featuring one of the UK’s finest trance DJs: Ott.

A longstanding yet under-appreciated member of the UK’s illustrious electronic scene, Ott (pronounced ought­) began producing records for several studios in North London in the 1980s and 1990s. During this time, he worked with seemingly inexhaustible ambition, becoming a record producer of some magnitude in London’s dub scene. In 2002, Ott released his own album on Twisted Records. Entitled Hallucinogen—In Dub, it was a collection of remixes of Hallucinogen’s (of Shpongle fame)  classic tracks produced to sound more dub friendly—that is, slower, mellower, and a whole lot fatter.

Since the 2002 release of Hallucinogen—In Dub, Ott has been making music and travelling the world, electrifying crowds in a whirlwind of dub, spacey timeless melodies, as well as getting married and welcoming his daughter Daisy into the world. Kudos for procreation, Mr. Ott. Kudos.

All progeny aside, It’s his tracks skill as a musician with which we concern ourselves now. In addition to his extensive résumé  as a producer (in which time he worked with the likes of Brian Eno, Sinead O’Connor and a host of other dub and electronic musicians), Ott has released three albums of his own material. After winning the resounding endorsement of electronic musicians worldwide for his 2003 sophomore effort, Blumenkraft, Ott has released two other albums: 2008’s Skylon and his latest labor, 2011’s Mir.

Given that I am certainly no expert when it comes to the intricacies of electronic music, my own opinion of Ott’s sound harkens back to my love for Aphex Twin. And while Ott doesn’t approach his music in the way Richard D. James does—that is to say it’s certainly no mathematically based electronic house frenzy—Ott contributes . Light melodies, sampled vocals, sometimes an almost complete lack of rhythm and general spacey weirdness punctuate his specific sound. Ott’s music is nothing if not different, and he wouldn’t be doing his job well if you weren’t out of your comfort zone a little bit while listening to his music. It is ambient music, after all; sometimes the ambience is a little weird.

But, for all intents and purposes, Ott’s show at the Granada is a major opportunity for listeners who don’t consider themselves fans of dub, electronic, trance or ambient music to see what the hubbub is all about. Though the genre itself admittedly produces a sound best heard through headphones, seeing the live show takes it to a whole different level from passive listening to active experience. If you think about it, you don’t passively feel ambience. Rather, you actively live it, in person. Ambience is more than simply the atmosphere pumping out of your headphones; it’s the feeling you get when the sound surrounds you in a club, with other listeners on the same wavelength. Hell, it’s almost religious.

Ott performs at the Granada Theater March 18. This is a free, all ages show. Doors open at 9:00 pm.

– Brian Sisk