Hip To Be Square

So I made it to the Jack Daniels Studio No. 7 concert last night for The New Pornographers - Thanks to Brad over at the Alamanac for the heads on the show (check out the JD site above to see if there is a free show being held in your town). I had seen them back in the fall when they were on tour for their Pitchfork hyped album, Twin Cinemas. Great album but I don't think it deserved as high a rating as it was given.

Not too much to report on but that they were missing one of their red haired musicians - Neko Case - who is currently on tour supporting her new album "Fox Confessor Brings the Flood" . I personally think that this is a huge hole in the band. They seemed like a band that was pulled out of their comfort zone and thrown in to a situation that they didn't really want to be in but ended up giving in to the man anyway because, hey, who really gives a crap - it's just Jack Daniels. I mean, I'd be hipocrit as well bashing them since as we speak-read, I am promoting them. But A.C. Newman first asked if everyone was getting free drinks. The crowd yelled back, "No!!", and A.C. responded by saying, "Oh, well, we are. I was hoping you would be drunk." Then later in the show he said, "Whose idea was it to come out here?". Whether that meant coming out of for an encore or coming out to Boston in general doesn't really matter. What matters is that the band sounded a little off. But towards the end they seemed to loosen up. During the encore they were taking requests from the few passionate Porno fans that were in the crowd so that was pretty cool. I don't consider myself a die hard fan but I respect their sound and think they are great band worth the praise they have been getting.

The only other thing to report on last night was the opening band, Frank Smith, which hales from the South Shore town of Scituate, MA. They've got the alternative country rock sound going and a singer that has a tendency to sound a bit cheasy. But when he goes in for the scream he envokes a Kurt Cobain sound. This band is up for a Best of 2006 award from the local Boston liberal journal, Phoenix. I enjoyed them but their songs were a bit inconsistent. Go check out their myspace here to give a couple tracks a listen. They will also be opening for the Two Gallants at the Middle East Upstairs on April 29th.

As for new albums. I've recently purchased the new Ghostface Killah album - "FishScale" - and a band from Brooklyn, Dopo Yume and their new album - "The Secret Show". I'll have reviews and mp3's from those albums in the next few days.