Live: Youth Lagoon/Majical Cloudz @ The Mohawk 4/24/13

The Youth Lagoon/Majical Cloudz show was a testament to the power of intimacy. The different forms it can take, and how one artist can use it in the grandest sense, while another can channel it in its most reduced form. Youth Lagoon and Majical Cloudz operate on opposite sides of the spectrum with their music, so it was a bit of a surprise how well their sets worked together. Their sounds complemented one another in the oddest ways, the straight faced honesty of Majical Cloudz's electronica serving an adequate contrast to Youth Lagoon's blooming neo-psychedlia. All those difference, though lead to a deeply, deeply spellbinding night.

Majical Cloudz



Looking back on it, Majical Cloudz's set should not have worked as well as it did. Majical Cloudz live is just Matthew Otto recreating the band's atmospheric beats with a small amount of electronics, while Devon Welsh sings into a microphone. There are no flourishes to what either of them were doing; it was a completely minimal set up to match their completely minimal music, in a completely outdoor venue. And yet together they pulled off a completely memorizing set, possibly one that was even greater than Youth Lagoon's. Majical Cloudz have this incredible ability to pluck atmosphere and intensity out of thin air and broadcast it out to everyone in attendance, forcing everyone to hush themselves and pay attention. A hush fell over the crowd as Majical Cloudz performed, so much so that by the time "Childhood's End" just three songs in, there was a near silence through out. Just quiet, powerful electronica that echoed in the chest.

Youth Lagoon



At the very least, Youth Lagoon's set Wednesday night showed how much the band has improved with their live performance. Wondrous Bughouse's opening cut "Through Mind and Back" poured out the speakers before anyone was on stage, while tempered neon lighting started going off, both of which set the tone for the night. Right on cue everyone came on stage, and Trevor Power and Co. blasted into "Mute", capturing every musical shade and bleep on stage that they had crafted on record. This was in large part thanks to the full band configuration, which was able to do so much more in comparison to when I saw Youth Lagoon perform as beat-triggering duo more than a year ago. There was little communication with the crowd, with Youth Lagoon instead crafting a set that was made in every sense for the audience to lose themselves in.

At times it was almost too much, with the heavy, pure instrumental sections of Wondrous Bughouse's songs becoming much more pronounced on stage then on record. However, the monetary punctuations of choice cuts from The Year of Hibernation, reworked perfectly as to not lose their intimacy but still work within the set, gave the show life just when it needed it. There was something truly special when the crowd started not only moving, but singing along to the entirety of "17". The length of the new songs made the set fly by, letting them only perform what felt like 10 songs during their 50 minute set. However, when they stepped back on stage for the encore, they elevated the set. They closed with "July", possibly the most intimate song within their discography, and more than likely the first taste anyone had with Youth Lagoon, and turned it into a reverb smothered anthem, one that rang and chimed and eventually drifted into the night.

Album Review: Youth Lagoon: Wondrous Bughouse

There was such a degree of intimacy to Youth Lagoon’s debut The Year of Hibernation, it was almost overwhelming at times. Over the album’s eight songs, bandmaster mind Trevor Power painted sonic landscapes that at times felt like you were peering into his journal and soul; hushed coos of pain or sadness that gave way every song to floods of aching emotion and bombast. There was such a poignancy and intimacy to the songs one had to ask how Power would be able to capture that again.

With Wondrous Bughouse, Youth Lagoon succeeds by not even attempting to do that. The album is not so much a “next step” as it is a complete rehaul of the band in terms of not only sound but scope. The hum and buzz of the intro track “Through Mind and Back” should be the first warning, but one isn’t given enough time to get lost in it before the album bursts, not builds, to life with “Mute”. “Mute” lays the foundation for the rest of Wondrous Bughouse; it’s a sprawling slice of experimental pop, filled with dense production and piano & effects that just pop in and out, making the music instantly much more fleshed out than most of the tracks on Hibernation. Power’s vocals are now no longer the quite whisper they once were. While not necessarily “powerful”, they are no longer buried, and are treated like the expressive tool they can be. In fact, the few songs that do mimic Youth Lagoon’s old style, like the acid-tinged trudge of “The Bath”, are still warped and twisted in their sound (like the echo-drenched vocal effects) so they don’t feel detached from the rest of the album.

Animal Collective also seems to cast a large, positive shadow over the album. How else to explain the off-kilter hop-scotch that is “Attic Doctor”, with its staccato piano lines and myriad of seemingly random samples that fill every crack of the song. Or the cascading builds and falls of “Sleeping Paralysis”? Elsewhere the influence is less prominent and direct, but still leads to the same effect; Power’s is truly experimenting with his sound, and it leads Wondrous Bughouse down some kooky and sublime roads. I doubt something as bizarre or wonderful as the prog-like build and climax in “Pelican Man”, which doubles as the album’s center as well, could have been imagined to exist on any Youth Lagoon album ever, but here it makes perfect sense. Same goes for “Third Dystopia” and its swelling brand of fuzzy, indie pop, or the fractured and dark psych-swirl of album closer "Daisyphobia". Every track defeats a previous expectation of what was expected from a Youth Lagoon song, and show the true scope of the album. The fact that nearly all of the work in the weird, askew ways is just all the better.

If The Year of Hibernation was like a blanket to wrap yourself with, then Wondrous Bughouse is the album for when you open the door and step back into the world. In an alternate reality, the album would be the soundtrack to a more adult-version of the Alice in Wonderland cartoon. Wondrous Bughouse is an album you fall into, one that swirls around you and takes hold of every senses. The damaged psychosis is felt, from the new instrumentation to the cover art, but just as the album title exclaims, there can be something great within that as well. And Youth Lagoon truly found it here.





Links:

Youth Lagoon's Facebook
Buy Wondrous Bughouse here, from Fat Possum

SXSW 2013: Thursday (Part 2)

Delorean @ 1100 Warehouse



It's always weird to remember that Delorean are an actual band rather than one lone guy manipulating sample tracks and beats on his laptop. Weirder still is seeing those same producer influenced club jams being reproduced live, by the same band member, without a laptop or computer in sight. Delorean haven't released any music since 2010, so it's nice to see they could get a placid of South By Southwest concert goes (at a Pitchfork showcase no less) to dance a little. Delorean's songs tended to blur together after a while, but that's OK because it was a nice soundtrack for the afternoon, and an even better change of pace from the magnitude of guitar bands I had been drenching my ears in for the past day and a half.     

Youth Lagoon @ 1100 Warehouse



Two songs; that's all the outside crowd got of Youth Lagoon for the final performance at the Pitchfork day show. Due to the entire showcase running 20 minutes behind, and a far too long sound check that caused the whole crowd to grow angsty, Youth Lagoon stated 30 minutes later then they should have. To be fair, the songs the band did perform sounded incredible; frontman Trevor Power voice sounded impeccable and had a new confidence that wasn't there when I saw him last year. His bandmates were stellar, and together they managed to reproduce point by point every tone and weird sound that is embedded into Wondrous Bughouse. However, only getting two songs was still horrible, and needless to say the entire crowd almost immediately started booing and begging for just one more song once Powers's announced that their just finished "Attic Doctor" was it. However, the cries feel on deaf ears and the 6:00 P.M. outdoors curfew. The Youth Lagoon set was probably my most disappointing set of SXSW; if just because of circumstance alone.

Night Beds @ Red 7



Night Beds caught me completely by surprise, mainly because I came into their set with one of the worst mindsets imaginable during a SXSW; knowing in advance how a band would sound and what they would be like live. Night Beds are cut from the same cloth as much of their indie folk contemporaries: twangy-falsetto from the frontman, slow-burning and tons of passion in every song, a hints of some sort of a country influence, here courtesy of the lap-steel playing band member onstage. However, Night Beds raised so much higher than those similarities while performing; every track had a soaring quality to it, so even when it just began with Winston Yellen's hushed vocals and quiet strumming, by the end the song closed with crashing drums and all three guitarist ringing thunderously. Even with the five members and all their equipment looking claustrophobic on stage, their energy was never contained, so much so that by the end of the set Yellen smashed his guitar into his mic stand, sending it flying. And it wound up being the most appropriate ending to a set that was just bursting with energy.  

Bleached @ Red 7



I wanted this to be the set that converted me into a Bleached fan. Their sunny garage-pop has been the talk of the blogosphere for nearly a year and a half, and for the life of me I can't get into them like everyone else. And unfortunately, their just cemented the fact for me. There was nothing wrong with the set per se; the Clavin sisters and co. were tight and lively, the band's harmonies never faltering, and the songs were all less than three minutes bursts of pop hooks and pure energy. And I think that was the problem. Nothing about their sound grabs me like it should, as if their music was filling out the "new garage rock band" Madlib, even if this set was filled with brand new material. Their is a soul lacking in their music that stops me from connecting to it like I want to. Although "Searching Through the Past" was awesome live, so maybe there is hope.

Youth Lagoon-Mute

"Wow" were the words I think that must have lit up in everyone's mind when they heard the new Youth Lagoon tune "Mute", first as in "Wow, is this really Youth Lagoon?" then "Wow, this track is unbelievably incredible". "Mute" really is that incredible. It comes barreling out of the gate, the guitar chords soaring, hymn like synths swirling around, and powerfully reverb soaked drums that make "Mute" ascend even higher. And this is the intro of the song, as "Mute" dives into its sprawling core, composed of firefly-like synth beeps layered over My Bloody Valentine's "Touched" before the extended guitar solo starts ringing and plays the rest of the song out. "Mute" works so well not only because it shows how will Youth Lagoon is now to experiment with their sound, but by throwing every precedent for how they normally do out the window. The only constant is Trevor Power's airy vocals, but even those fall by the way side half way through the song, letting "Mute" sustain on the creativity swirling inside of it. "Mute" is an utterly lush, gorgeous track that also demonstrates how a band can properly expand stylistically without missing a beat.



Links:

Youth Lagoon's Facebook
Pre-order Wondrous Bughouse here, from Fat Possum Records

Youth Lagoon-Dropla

Youth Lagoon's The Year of Hibernation was easily one of my favorite albums of 2011, eight tracks of overwhelming melancholy and beauty that at it felt at times like the most emotional gut punch in the world. Band master mind Trevor Powers just has a win being able to capture pure emotional heft with a hazy piano, warbly vocals, and slow cascading build. And now that has all that has returned with "Dropla" from Youth Lagoon's upcoming Wondrous Bughouse. From it's first moments "Dropla" is just as dreamy and lovely as anything on The Year of Hibernation, but within those moments too are the new dimensions Youth Lagoon has evolved. The percussion is real and not beat made, giving the track a much more organic dimension compared to their previous fractured sound. Powers' has grown-up as well, with his vocals no longer the quiet echo in the background, but now the pained, driving center of the song. "Dropla" whirls and buzzes, never crescendoing like Youth Lagoon's previously did, but instead rising and falling slowly with subtle, expansive sweeps that more accurately parallel the emotions of the song. Even when the song reaches its peak with the Powers' repeating the last line of "You'll never die" over and over, it doesn't just crash but follows into a quiet, spacy outro that personifies "Dropla"'s reflective nature perfectly.



Links:

Youth Lagoon's Facebook
Pre-order Wondrous Bughouse here, from Fat Possum

Video: Youth Lagoon-July

This is Youth Lagoon's second video to accompany a song off their astounding debut The Year of Hibernation. The second to have the genius of Tyler T. Williams create it. And the second to be utterly visually and emotionally stunning. There's something to using nose bleeds as an abstract metaphor for one's entire world falling apart. Just watch it and be amazed, and try to avoid making to many Melancolia connections while you are.

Links:

Youth Lagoon on Facebook

Album Review: Youth Lagoon-The Year of Hibernation

I was beyond excited about The Year of Hibernation. After being exposed to the tear jerking beauty of "Montana" (more on that song in a second), I jumped on my computer as quickly as possible to pre-order it. When The Year of Hibernation finally arrived, I tour into the packaging as quickly as possible and threw it on my turntable. As the album began to engulf me I noticed something old. For some reason there were no lyrics to be found anywhere within the packaging, surprising due to Youth Lagoon's Trevor Powers' singing style leads to an obscured sense to what is being sung. Normally this isn't a problem for me; as the large connoisseur of lo-fi pop it's just another wonderful quality and characteristic. But I did something out of character. I jumped on my computer, found all the lyrics, and compiled my own personal lyric book to accompany my listening of the album.

That I feel speaks volumes about the music we are dealing with here. In a time when it takes monumental effort to just listen to 4 song EP all the way through, to be willing (me at least) to want to engage with every aspect of the music is saying something. In this case, how utterly emotionally beautiful this album is. I know that is probably the biggest thing whenever Youth Lagoon is brought up, but that's because of how good they are at it. I think that's mostly to their ability to sidestep nostalgia in the traditional sense, and the way a lot of modern bands trigger it. This is an album completely built around keys and synth, possibly the most used instrument in modern indie music, yet manages to be so much more original with it than others. This is especially true in the way all the songs build to big, cinematic endings. From the moment "Posters" evolves from simple piano tinkering toward beat blasts and perfectly placed guitar work, it's obvious The Year of Hibernation is bigger than just the eight songs contained would have you think. By the time the album reaches it's climax with "Montana", a song so powerful and beyond words that morphs from haunting piano lines toward thunderous piano lines that sound like Powers' might wind up destroying his instrument, the entire magic of the album has sunk in.

Equal parts beautiful and dark, The Year of Hibernation is one the best records, never mind debuts, of the the year. It's subtly majestic in all the right ways, quite when it needs to be, and loud and bombastic when it needs to be as well. It engulf your body for 35 minutes once it starts, and lasts for days after. And you will appreciate every moment of it.


(mp3) Youth Lagoon-Cannons
(mp3) Youth Lagoon-July
(mp3) Youth Lagoon-Montana

Links:

Youth Lagoon's Blog
Buy The Year of Hibernation here, from Fat Possum Records

Video: Youth Lagoon-Montana

Permit me to descend into honest hyperbole for a second. This is Youth Lagoon. For the past few months they (or he, it's the project of one Trevor Power) have been getting a lot of attention for creating songs that morph from simple, quiet gems into huge, larger than life reflections, distilled in just a few minutes. And for a while, I wasn't on board. That's not to say I didn't like Youth Lagoon, but more that I thought the hype wasn't living up to the sound.

Then I saw and heard "Montana". In less absolute words, holy fuck! This video, as well as the song, are absolutely incredible in every way, and made everything about Youth Lagoon click for me. The song has the quiet to loud element that seems to bases of every Youth Lagoon song, but the way the piano melts so effortlessly into the drum beat, and then into the hidden then gorgeous guitar lines just explodes the mind. And the video; the painful, powerful, beautiful, heart touching video is something to behold. If you do not like any of this I question whether you truly have a soul.

The Year of Hibernation, Youth Lagoon's debut is coming out in a few weeks, on September 27 thanks to Fat Possum. I can't wait for it to come out and cause everyone to go even more crazy over Youth Lagoon then they already are.

Links: 

Youth Lagoon on Facebook
Pre-order The Year of Hibernation here, from Fat Possum