Taking Cincinnati By Storm... Here's To The Future!

I could rattle off a few dozen things I'm looking forward to in the coming months in Cincinnati, both in my personal life and in my professional life.

I'm looking forward to becoming less of a transient adult-failure and more of a real adult, settling into my new home in Northside and acquiring some, you know, couches and stuff. I'm looking forward to freelancing up a storm, writing about anything and everything to anyone that'll have me. I'm looking forward to watching local darlings like You, You're Awesome and The Guitars release full length albums and grow in fame, helping put Cincinnati on the map the way it deserves to be put on the map. I'm looking forward to MPMF. Dance MF. More Wednesday Bingo nights at my favorite bar, Mayday. I'm looking forward to eating more Skyline. And I'm really looking forward to MusicNOW.

MusicNOW is an amazing Cincinnati music fest that spans three days and has, in the past, featured the likes of My Brightest Diamond, Grizzly Bear, Andrew Bird (from my old hood!), and Sufjan Stevens (from my even older hood!). This year, the lineup is significantly more ambitious, so ambitious that MusicNOW and Cincinnati actually got mentioned on the behemoth that is Pitchfork. If you want to pause for a moment and marvel at that, feel free. I know I did.

St. Vincent, Joanna Newsom, and Bon Iver will be trekking to my hometown and while it's doubtless that Bon Iver will be taking most of the buzz as Justin Vernon's shows under the moniker are sporadic and few since the "indefinite hiatus" he proposed late last year, what I'm here to talk about today is Joanna Newsom and her new album.

One thing Newsom has never seemed to lack is spunk - People said a harpist who sings sort of like a talking cat might could never have a career. Newsom, in turn, released The Milk Eyed Mender to much critical acclaim. People said an album can't consist of five seven-to-seventeen minute long songs. Newsom then released her sophomore disc, Ys, comprised of just that. People then said that just because you managed to successfully pull off a disc as wacky and conceptual as Ys doesn't mean you should press your luck and release a triple album for your third release. Naturally, Newsom is doing just that.

Before she hits Cincy for MusicNOW, Newsom will release Have One On Me, a three disc album. The first track, "'81", is now available for your listening pleasure. Here's where I would say "or displeasure" but to be quite honest, Newsom's grown as a vocalist quite a bit. Gone is the girl who screeched and wailed her way through the alarmingly gorgeous "Cassiopeia" and "Swansea". Now, Newsom bears more of a resemblance vocally to Sara Lov or one of the Eisley gals than her former self.

Joanna Newsom - '81

The lyrics are still lovely, ethereal, and dreamy but the fact of the matter is that I miss the (relatively) simple Joanna Newsom. The Joanna Newsom that had a warbling, untrained voice. The Joanna Newsom that dated and collaborated with Bill Callahan of Smog and wasn't pictured on gossip sites, hand in hand with Andy Samberg. (Can we just pause for a second and mention how strange it is that Newsom and Natalie Portman traded boyfriends with Devendra Banhart and Samberg? Strange.) I miss the Joanna Newsom that wrote three minute songs and mentioned Narnia in her lyrics. The Joanna Newsom that didn't wear couture and certainly didn't own any Chanel. The Joanna Newsom that had her hair in messy braids in press photos and wore tee shirts and looked like less of an elfin supermodel and more of a strange, hipster girl I'd encounter at my aforementioned favorite bar, Mayday, ordering a vegan hot dog on a pretzel bun. (Yep, bars in Cincinnati have vegan dogs. And hot dogs. And brat dogs. On pretzel buns. Why aren't you living here yet?!) Or quite honestly, it's simply possible that I miss her bangs. I am, after all, quite a bang connoisseur and am heavily considering starting a feature on my blog that admires beautiful female musician's stellar bangs.

Regardless, I'm still fond of Miss Newsom and I find her to be charming and lovely. Ys was a great record in my opinion. For a very long time, much to my friend's dismay, it was lodged in my CD player as I had dubbed it "perfect driving music". The album had some truly wonderful moments but some of the best parts seemed to be buried underneath a concept that wasn't always fully in grasp. I maintain that I think I would have liked both "Only Skin" and the brief interlude that's found inside it of "Be A Woman" better as separate, shorter songs but I also maintain that "Cosmia" is a gorgeous, if overarching, mammoth of a devastatingly sad track and Newsom's lyrics do really get the chance to shine when less constraints are given.

That being said, a triple album is still a bit much. There's ambition and then there's ambition. And Joanna Newsom seems to have the latter.

EP Review: Kevin Devine and Manchester Orchestra: "I Could Be The Only One".

I heard about the split Kevin Devine/Manchester Orchestra EP quite a few months back, from Mister Devine during an interview that will be hitting TRACER Magazine shortly. To be completely honest, while the prospect of a new tune by Kevin (Especially a cover, as that, in my opinion, is one of his strongest points) was exciting, I wasn't anticipating the release as eagerly as one might think and here's a breakdown of why:

I'm just not crazy about Manchester Orchestra. While their song "I Can Feel A Hot One" remains one of my favorite songs of '09, when the subject of Manchester comes up, I often find myself perfecting the most well known hipster mating call of "The first album was better!" or the even more pretentiously obscure hipster mating call of "The acoustic side project is better!" Both of those opinions are not only painfully, stereotypically "hip" of me but they're also true. While the vast majority of the songs off Like A Virgin Losing a Child made me feel empassioned, painting vibrant pictures of what my own life could be like or simply daydreams of what I wanted out of life, a mere two songs from Manchester's sophomore effort were anything more than vaguely memorable and the beauty of "I Can Feel A Hot One" just doesn't make up for the lackluster rest of the record.

That's just my opinion, don't hold it against me, but that very opinion was the reason that I wasn't exactly thrilled to hear Manchester Orchestra cover a song I love by an artist I sort of adore or hear Kevin Devine cover a song I don't like by a band I feel lukewarmly about. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to hear both of these songs. I just wasn't super excited to. Both the tracks that compose the cleverly titled I Could Be The Only One, however, are far more solid than I expected, each one reinventing the original song to turn it on it's side, into something unexpected and remarkably beautiful.

If you'd asked me what I thought Manchester Orchestra's version of "I Could Be With Anyone" would sound like, I would say that it would remove the pop ele

ments from the song, add layers of noise and fuzz, and utilize lead singer Andy Hull's occasional penchant for yelling to turn the song into a raucous track that wouldn't sound out of place on Mean Everything To Nothing, the band's latest release. I couldn't have been more off base with that surmisation, however, as Manchester Orchestra takes the upbeat, tongue-in-cheek pop of the original and instead of adding noise, takes it away. Capitolizing on the beauty of Andy Hull's voice, the song is turned into a deceptively sensitive sounding ballad and when Hull sings that he's not saying that his actions are right, you believe his sincerity and feel bad for him, instead of the girls that he's singing about using. Where Kevin's version of the song makes me feel strangely empowered (or at least less ashamed about my commitment-phobia), Manchester Orchestra's makes me, oddly enough, want to cuddle Andy Hull and tell him that it'll be okay because he and I can date and everything will be perfect. The only fault in the loveliness of the song, perhaps, is the grating and off key "la's" that compose the bridge.

The second and final track on I Could Be The Only One features Kevin Devine giving a make over to Manchester Orchestra's "The Only One", a noisy bit of caterwauling grunge rock off Mean Everything To Nothing. Much like the band's take on Devine's "I Could Be With Anyone", I had a strong idea in my head of what "The Only One" would sound like and, just like "I Could Be With Anyone", I was completely off base with my thoughts. Sure, "The Only One" is calmed to a slower pace and a softer melody but instead of relying simply of Devine's acoustic guitar, the song is given a vague electronic backbone, one that's not entirely dissimilar to that heard on Devine's version of "I Could Be With Anyone", only much more subdued. Whereas "I Could Be With Anyone" is poppy and dancable, "The Only One" is dreamy and atmospheric and the track, honestly, seems to take more from Broken Social Scene's Kevin Drew than Mister Devine's back catalog. And that's not a bad thing.

Perhaps the EP's most charming moment comes at the beginning of Devine's "The Only One". Hull might sing that he's the only son of a pastor who does the things he does but Devine's father wasn't any pastor so the lyrics are changed to suit the current singer - "I am the only son of an officer," Devine sings. "Who does the things I do."

You might be, Kevin, but please don't let that deter you from continuing to do them. Unless, you know, those things are drugs and hookers. Please stop doing those. It's frowned upon in society and just plain unhealthy.

Stream both songs here and if you've got a spare $1.50, you should probably just shell it out to iTunes here.

I'm Not Gonna Live My Life On One Side Of An Ampersand.

It takes a lot for me to appreciate a ballad. Usually, something slow and meaningful doesn't strike a chord (no pun intended) with me, particularly if it's on piano and especially if it's sung by a lady. So when I say "Ampersand" by Amanda Palmer holds a special place in my heart, you have to take me seriously.

I recently blogged about my fairly new found adoration for Palmer over on Boil It First but the more my insomnia plagues me, the more I gravitate towards her music and lately, that insomnia's been a bitch so many-a sleepless night has been orchestrated by not only Palmer but her former band, The Dresden Dolls as well.

It's not that I have something against pianos or women - The solo Emily Haines record was quite lovely and affecting if a bit downtrodden but to quote myself from that aforementioned Boil It First blog, "What it comes down to is the fact that the artists I relate to, lyrically, are men and the voices that appeal to me are in a lower register. It just sounds good to me. There are female artists I've grown fond of over the years: I used to rock the album Haunted by Poe back in high school and I had an intense, burning love affair with Cat Power back before she went honky tonk and regurgitated the same exact story, word for word, of her sobriety in the press (The fact that it sounded so rehearsed made me doubt her sincerity and just feel put-off, to be honest). But in the recent years, no female musician has affected me half as much as that Will Sheff fellow." That being said, however, I've taken a recent shine to Miss Palmer for a few reasons in recent weeks:

1 - The girl loves Netural Milk Hotel as much as me. She also loves creepy photography and corpses as much as me, making an entire book featuring pictures of herself dead. That makes her seem like just the type of weirdo I could hang out with without being judged for my strangeness. (While my love of Neutral Milk Hotel doesn't get me judged, my love of spiders and my interest in the macabre does. Loose? Win? Maybe that can be the subject of debate when I'm being a "sober blogger".)

2 - Also quite the spitfire, wearing a gorgeous, see through dress to the most recent Golden Globes without shame. If it weren't for the fact that I can visibly tell she doesn't, I would place money that the lady's got some real balls.

3 - Yeah, she's a woman. Yeah, she's got a piano. But that doesn't stop her lyrics from being amazing. There's nothing remotely reminiscent of half-sane Tori Amos ramblings or late '90's, Lillith Fair treacle here. Instead, Palmer pens incredibly relatable lines like "Who needs love when there's Southern Comfort?" and writes graphic yet incredibly catchy songs about rape and abortion. Like I said, quite the spitfire.

Palmer, it seems, is the type of artist I have a new favorite song by every other day. Earlier this week, I was obsessing over "Leeds United". Before that, it was "Oasis". Now, however, it's "Ampersand".

Like I mentioned earlier, I'm not fond of lady-sung piano ballads but something about "Ampersand" has appealed to my better nature. Maybe it's the fact that Palmer seems to have the same views on romance as I do - She might be a romantic, underneath her hard exterior of quit wit and brutally self-deprecating honesty, but she's not going to die for you in some grand, Shakespearean gesture. And while she won't watch you destroy yourself over her, she won't risk her own skin to save you. Self-preservation and independence is what Palmer seems to be all about and that is something I understand.

Amanda Palmer - Ampersand

To quote and then paraphrase, I'm not going to live my life on one side of an ampersand because I'd rather be independent and alone than controlled and miserable with a hand to constantly hold.

Come to mention it, I don't even like holding hands. It makes me feel uncomfortable.

Maybe one day my opinion on hand holding, and romance for that matter, will change. Maybe one day I'll find someone that aids and abets my independent nature and understands my flighty moodswings and my problems with food and family and doesn't so much mind the fact that my brutal insomnia is really just a sadistic ploy by my brain, sabotaging my sleep schedule so I can stay up late when it's lonely and quiet and write novels and comic books panels because without writing, I'm truly suffocated. That person will be smart and witty and creative and will inspire me to be... More than I am. Love's all about finding the qualities in another person that you want to see reflected in yourself so really, all I need is an incredibly creative, fantastically witty, cohesive fellow who wants to write more, be more whimsical and dance up a storm. Preferably in Cincinnati because, let's face it, I'll die in this city. Not because it will be the death of me but because I never want to leave.

I reached a point in my life briefly where writing stopped being fun. Recently, however, I realized that my words can make a difference, no matter how small, and that they matter, even if they only matter a little bit and I found my passion for it again. Professionally, my life is dang near perfect. Personally, it's still a bit of a mess. But at least I realize it.

I mean, hey, even Amanda Palmer found Neil Gaiman.

I'm just waiting for that Jonathan Meiburg fellow to come around.

Taking Cincinnati By Storm... And Suceeding!

It's pretty remarkable to me that I've been in Cincinnati all ofthree months. For one, I feel as if I've been here quite a bit longer. Couple how much I love it here with the fact that I've seamlessly become a part of the "scene", making friends more easily now than I ever have before, makes it seem as though my short tenure has been that of at least a year, maybe more. The fact of the matter is that for the first time in my life, I feel at home. I feel as if I'm in the right place to be doing what I'm doing and things here in Cincy, well, they're gonna get real big real fact.

Another reason that I feel that it's remarkable that I've only been here three months is because not only do people already know who I am, but I'm already getting all sorts of recognition.

This morning, I logged on to The Best of Cincinnati Awards to cast my vote for a few pals, including Dance MF, Ken Wright, and Supermandy (Not that I'm hinting you should vote for them too or anything...) and to my surprise, under "Best Journalist" was... Me.

At first I was puzzled - When you're nominated for something, shouldn't you be alerted that you're up for it? - and then I was just elated, calling my parents and texting my friends and, of course, plastering the news all over Facebook.

My home away from home, TRACER, is up for Best Blog, Best Website, and Best Twitterfeed but most importantly, I'm up for that Best Journalist business, which validates me so much that I really do believe the phrase "It's an honor just to be nominated". However, if I win, I'll be throwing quite the crazy bash. If that's not motivation for you to cast your vote, perhaps this'll assist:

I'm offering kisses in exchange for votes. So what are you waiting for?! Cast your vote, tell me you did as much, as you just might get some tongue action! (If, you know, you're single and good lookin'. I'm no home wrecker and I might wanna win this, but a girl's still gotta have standards. It's just a fact.)

Indie Rock Round Up... Sort Of.

Well, blog, I must say, I feel slightly guilty. I've been cheating on you, you see. You've known since the inception of our relationship that I can't commit to just one website and I've been freelancing and contributing elsewhere for a while now. But I always come back to you. You're always my priority. Or at least you used to be... Lately, I've been dabbling in film reviews over at Boil It First, a collective of some of Ohio's coolest and hippest bloggers. It's fun for me because it's different. But we all know where my heart really lies, don't we? Music.

Recently, I realized I haven't given nearly enough attention to Okkervil River and their front man, Will Sheff. That's been remedied over on Boil It First with a post entitled "Amber Valentine: One Woman Will Sheff Appreciation Society. Boil It First on the Importance of Okkervil River". I meant for the blog to be about Okkervil River's forthcoming appearance as the backing band for psych rock legend Roky Erikson on his latest LP, due out April 20th, but naturally, just went on a tangent about how affecting Sheff's lyrics are.

A noteworthy blog not written by me comes courtesy of Chad over at Everybody Cares, who has written a blog masterpiece on the death of Vic Chesnutt. Whereas I could only rant angrily, Chad actually produced something heartfelt, informative, and sort of beautiful, making me thankful the fella's decided to come back around to the blogging world after his brief absence.

It's Been A Bad Month For Indie Music.

Sometime during the summer of 2009, heretofore referred to as my "Summer of Interviews" because I got near sixty interviews under my belt in a three month period, I rejected an interview with a gentleman named Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr., better known as Jay Reatard. It wasn't because I didn't want to interview Jay Reatard but rather because I had heard far too many stories from friends about "that time Jay Reatard spit in their face". Granted, most of these stories ended with "and it was awesome!" but still. Being spit at is something I'm not fond of, particularly when it invovles said spit being spat in my face. My face is what I refer to as "the moneymaker' - I need that to be clean and spit free!

Now, Jay Reatard's dead and to be honest, I kind of regret the fact that I can't add to "in memorium of Jay Reatard" posts now flooding the blogosphere with a story about "that one time Jay Reatard spit in my face".

Check out Jay's official site for a pretty fantastic cover of Nirvana's "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle" & Elbows for an onslaught of mp3's. So far as a jumping off point for the uninitiated, The Matador Singles is a good place to start.

First Vic Chesnutt, now Jay Reatard. It's been a strange, sad twenty days.

Taking Cincinnati By Storm... Part 6: New Year's Eve Edition!

So while sitting down to write about my New Year's Eve shenanigans, a few things came to mind:

1 - Coming out of 2009 feels like coming out of a year long hangover. Not because I spent every day of 2009 in various states of sobriety but rather because 2009 was crazy, arduous, and surreal. I've had some crazy years but considering what exactly I went through and accomplished in the past twelve months, I think '09 tops them all. I learned alot, about life, about myself, about my career, but memories of the whole ordeal, frankly, are fuzzy. Maybe I actually AM coming out of year long hangover...

2 - That fuzzy feeling? It definitely describes by experience on December 31st at Northside Tavern. Coming up with enough recollections to actually form into anything so much as resembling a cohesive interview is proving alot trickier than I thought.

3 - The last time I was at theTavern was for You You're Awesome's EP release show on the 18th! I wrote a really sweet review of that... And never posted it. Oops? I guess my Cincinnati Livin' series is going to go back in time shortly.

New Year's Eve (Heretofore to be referred to as NYE to save me a good eight seconds of typing) brought to fruition a few noteworthy things:

1 - I got to interview Lightning Love, a band I wrote about in the last blog, who are from my old stomping grounds. It's actually been a while since I interviewed a band that wasn't either from Cincinnati or a bigger band I felt like I had to interview for the sake of the job. Getting to choose a non-local band that I wanted to talk to because I like them was a nice reminder of why exactly I do what I do. Couple that with getting to see a band I adore play for the first time (Something else that hasn't happened in a while), I was as happy as a clam.

2 - Seeing Bad Veins in Cincinnati as a Cincinnati resident. My first experience with local darlings The Seedy Seeds was at Northern Kentucky (which, for all intents and purposes, is part of Cincinnati) The Southgate House, making it all the more endearing and enjoyable. Seeing how much the people at the show cared about the Seeds was a little heartwarming and seeing as I've seen the Bad Veins guys more times than I can count at various venues through out the Midwest with varying amounts of people that, for the most part, seemed to be slightly ambivilant to the fellas made the prospect of seeing them on their (and now my) hometurf is something I've been looking forward to since I moved to Cincy.

3 - My first official DMF experience! For those not in the know, DMF (or "Dance MF" if you prefer) is easily the coolest dance party in the Midwest and very well might be the coolest dance party anywhere. Presented by Cincinnati's Project Mill, DMF consists of wall to wall hipsters, dancing, drinking, and having an all around blast. Some of the city's finest DJ's orchestrate DMF, which usually takes place on the first Saturday of every month. This month, however, DMF took place before Lightning Love and after Bad Veins, making it the bread in a damn cool sandwich of drunk hipster fun.

Lightning Love was everything I hoped that they'd be and more - I don't remember the last time I danced that much at a concert which leads me to believe I'd never danced that much at a concert. After months of going to shows multiple times a week, the fact that a band can still get me excited enough to sing along and dance up on whatever stranger just so happens to be near me (Not because i want to mack on said stranger but just because the music has me so excited that I just want to move) is slightly amazing and very refreshing. Combine that with the band's catchiness, their relatable sentiments, and a sense of strange familiarity and this blogger's got herself a new favorite band to listen to when getting ready for a night out. Priot to this experience, I was so weary of seeing live music that the last concert I went to was spent standing in the corner looking so bored that multiple people asked me what was wrong with me. Yet a mere couple days later, here I was at the Tavern, having quite possibly the best time I've had since I moved to Cincinnati... And considering what a blast I've had in the past two months, that's saying something.

As for Bad Veins, well, reportedly, drummer Sebastien Schultz was inebriated to the point of missing cues. This girl, however, was too drunk by that point to take note and I thought everything sounded great. NYE might have been the least solid Bad Veins performance I've been in attendance for but, in my opinion, it might have been the best. Sure, that opinion might be tainted by my state of drunkeness but what it comes down to is that I've seen Bad Veins more than a few times throughout the Midwest over the past year and now, I'm a resident in their hometown. Seeing the guys play a show on such a special night of the year to a room full of people who have known the band since they started was really the high point of my life with Bad Veins.

I danced until my feet blistered then drank until I couldn't feel how bad they hurt before continuing to dance. I got various alcoholic beverages spilled all over me which may have resulted in the ruining of a borrowed pair of tights. I had my first meal of 2010 (Fittingly, it was Skyline). I took off my shoes and managed to not loose them. I made it home despite the fact that my ride had left the Tavern hours beforehand (It seemed like a good idea at the time for me to tell her to leave and that I'd find my way back to her house). And to top it all off, I got the first midnight kiss of my life. Everyone at the Tavern knows what transpired as Bad Veins' Ben Davis may have announced it on stage. If you weren't there, however, you'll just have to speculate.

Welcome to Cincinnati, indeed.