Sometime after SXSW I was browsing through Babelgum’s archive of live performances from Austin and stumbled upon Tune Yards. The first thing that grabbed me was that it was filmed at Sam’s BBQ by Vincent Moon from Take-Away Shows fame. It’s a beautiful film and the quirky song titled “Hatori” played solo on ukulele caught my attention. I was happy that 4AD picked up Tune Yards and released Bird-Brains late last year. I’m always amazed at how well they book the First Friday’s at the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles and to kick off the new season they paired Tune Yards with Atlas Sound and packed the museum with hundreds of fans…. Many who couldn’t get into the hall to actually see the performances.
I’ve been on extended vacation for some time now and was trying to talk myself out of going to LA but I couldn’t pass up this awesome double bill, especially since a bunch of my friends were going. I’m happy I made it, there’s something about drinking a beer while walking around a natural history museum and listening to great DJs and bands. The cigar break outside next to a giant glowing spider was nice too.
To make up for the limited space inside the hall where the bands were playing, the organizers had two screens in the middle of the museum that were broadcasting the video and music from inside. I was bummed I wasn’t inside but was happy to be rocking out regardless. Tune Yards is not your normal artist, or band. Merrill Garbus and her ukulele are pretty much the ‘band’ but for this show she brought along a bass player to help on a bunch of songs and some gal pals to beat some drums. The mix worked perfect and people slowly warmed up to her music throughout the set.
Atlas Sound, the one-man project by Deerhunter’s front man Bradford Cox was up next and if you weren’t already in the hall, you weren’t getting in. Since Bradford was sitting most of the time and the stage was only a smidge off the ground, it wasn’t so bad to be listening outside or watching the video screen, which hundreds of people were doing. I dig his solo sets that are filled with vocal and instrument loops and are generally more on the slower side. Some people wanted more of a dance party (listening to “Walkabout” with Panda Bear’s Noah Lennox makes that understandable) but generally that’s not his vibe. Even the few upbeat songs from Logos or Let the Blind Lead…. were more chill and mellow.
While at ATP in New York we caught up with Bradford and he played one of the stand-out tracks off Logos, “Shelia.” The acoustic version he played was quite different than the version at NHM which is quite different than the album version. I appreciate that, even though I understand people often want to hear the songs they’re familiar with. Either way, it didn’t stop Alex, Cat and I from dancing around to “Shelia.” It felt great to be out on the town in LA with friends and a great show, smiling and dancing.
Next month Yeasayer will be headlining. Their album that’s due soon is super-dooper-awesome and I’m sure they’ll be playing tracks off that. In March, Deertick will be there. All events are all-ages and the price of admission gets you entrance to the museum as well as talks about dinosaurs and such.
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