Straight Deja Vu-in'.

Edited to add: Yes, people, I know Kevin Devine's newly released "Ballad of St. Fred" is a mashed up cover of Fred Durst songs. (Thus the actual meaning behind the blog title) You don't need to tell me. I thought it painfully obvious to write a blog about how hilarious yet actually good the track was so I decided to write this instead. But no one seems to understand that I was trying to be funny. Blogging FAIL.

According to Kevin Devine, his latest track, "The Ballad of St. Fred", is an experiment of sorts. As Mr. Devine didn't elaborate, I'm not entirely sure what type of experiment it's supposed to be but not fifteen seconds into my first listen of the song, I felt an incredibly strong sense of exaclty what the title of this blog implies because to me, the four-point-five minute track is incredibly reminiscent of the work of my hero, Elliott Smith.

Available for free download over at ilike, the lyrically melancholy, understated track finds the prettiness of Devine's voice reduced as his layered vocals remain for the majority of the song at a strained whisper. Perhaps after repeated listens, more of Devine's sound will shine through but to me, save "All Of Everything Erased", the opening track of his last full length, last year's Brother's Blood, the song would sound completely in step with Smith's comprehensive and near flawless back catalog, save the song's only misstep of a backing track of snaps. (Nothing against snaps - I like them alright but they just don't work for me here.) That isn't to say that the song sounds like a "rip off" of anything Smith had done. I've heard many artists try to blatantly imitate Elliott Smith and the results are usually unlistenably derivative. To me, Devine pays homage to Smith in a very real way that is completely his own while showing the utmost respect for what Smith accomplished in his career. That's probably the biggest compliment I can pay to someone and believe me, I am feeling incredibly foolish for missing the house show Devine played not an hour away from my apartment earlier in the month. (In my defense, the alternator in my car died and I wasn't able to get it fixed in time so it's totally not my fault!)

Showcasing Devine's increasingly strong song writing against hushed instrumentation that shows off some incredibly talented guitar playing, I've long been of the opinion that Kevin Devine shines the most when he lets his folk influences shine through and while there's no official word from K.D. himself whether or not he'll still be accompanied by the Goddamn Band on his forthcoming release, if "The Ballad of St. Fred" and a song I've nothing short of fallen head over heels in love with, "You Wouldn't Have To Ask", are any indication, it looks like a near-acoustic Devine album is a better possibility now than it has been since the release of his solo debut, Circle Gets The Square.

Later this spring, Devine will surely be testing out his new tracks as he hits the road opening for Thrice with other Hot Half favorites, Bad Veins, making for what's going to be a pretty dang surreal tour for this roving reporter.

Detroit Rock City: OK Go at the Magic Stick

When this here blogger was a young, fresh faced thing, nearly ten years ago, she found herself at one of the finest venues in Detroit, The Magic Stick, a pool bar-slash-concert hall located above the Majestic Theater's Garden Bowl, to see a pre-O.C.-theme-song Phantom Planet (with Jason Schwartzman in tow). Opening for the once-relevant California quartet was a band from Chicago that hadn't yet cut their debut LP but it wasn't ten minutes into their set that I realized their penchant for pop hooks and clever, wordy lyrics made them something quite irresistible and special. I bought their demo, turned a number of my friends on to the edgy, saccharine, catchiness, and rocked the tee shirt I picked up at the merch booth with pride. That band? It was totally Ok Go.

In the years between then and now, my like to the indie power poppers had gone by the wayside. I saw the viral videos, I enjoyed the hook-ladden choruses of their singles when they made appearances in movies or on mixtapes, but I didn't go out of my way to peruse an interest in Ok Go. What that translates to is "Amber was being too much of a stuck up indie snob to like anything that wasn't sad and acoustic". And I was missing out.

I didn't have much of an interest in repeating me "Ok Go at the Magic Stick" experience for anything other than the sake of nostalgia but my photographer pal Sarah wanted to go so, hey, I figured, why not? It would be trippy after all to repeat one of my first concert going experiences although, to be honest, I think if Phantom Planet had been in tow this time around, they'd be the openers.

Somewhat ironically, Sarah had to bail but I forged ahead, with a Heidi in tow, and made my way to the Magic Stick, parking in my usual "down the street" spot and witnessing something I'd never witnessed outside of Chicago: An actual line to get into the venue. And not just any line, but a line that went far down the street and ended up curling around the block. Color me shocked - If any concert on my upcoming calendar was going to have a line, I was certain it would have been The Hold Steady, not Ok Go. The anticipation of the teens and the twenty somethings (and that one 8 year old boy rocking an Ok Go shirt who seemed to be at his first concert - That's why I love all ages shows, kids.) was just a sign of things to come.

The band took the stage and before the end of the first song, the crowd was showered in the first of many rounds of confetti, making it clear to even the most skeptic of indie kids that this show was not a place for self-seriousness. Ok Go was going to make you dance and make you smile and they weren't going to feel sorry about it as they plowed through the type of set that most musicians don't have the gusto to pull off. If you imagine getting punched pleasantly in the gut repeatedly by the catchiest of catchy songs at the best super-fun-time New Year's eve party you can imagine, you might have an idea of how awesome Ok Go's set was. Only it wasn't New Year's! I just associate that holiday with confetti. What else do I associate with New Year's? Making out with a drink in your hand and barely remembering the whole thing come morning. But enough about me.

Sparing no expense in theatrics, the band busted out fur covered guitars with lasers and suit jackets that lit up, poking fun at the band's own internet fame with a stream of emoticons as well as an O, a K, a G, and another O, but the appeal wasn't only in kitsch, although the band clearly does excel at such. Lead singer Damian Kulash bantered on stage like an engaging pro, led the packed Detroit crowd in a sing along of latest viral phenom "This Too Shall Pass", and even took to the crowd with his acoustic guitar, singing a heartwrenchingly perfect rendition of Of The Blue Colored Sky's shockingly beautiful "Last Leaf".

Ok Go - Last Leaf

I have this habit of associating nearly every song I hear with a potential themed mix cd. If I were to compose a cd whose theme was loosely "I love you and even though we can't be together right now, I will wait for you so we can hold each other someday" (Yeah, talk about some cliche-indie-flick nonsense right there. Naturally, that self-referentially over dramatic "Garden State" crap is right up my alley.), "Last Leaf" would have a featured spot. Not that I cried while listening to it the other night or anything. Okay, honestly, I totally did cry while listening to it. I can't help it, it's affecting, and I can sort of relate to it's sentiments at the moment. What did I tell you? My life's some Focus Features bullshit.



Playing a perfectly pop mix of songs off their three albums, Ok Go didn't spare the "hits" even though I'm sure their sick of playing "Here It Goes Again", even busting out songs I still remembered after after nearly ten years like "Don't Ask Me" and the band's first "hit", "Get Over It" but the highlights of the set for me were my "circa six years ago" jam "The Fix Is In" (complete with the lyric about Boston changed to Detroit, of course), a clever version of the debut album standout "What To Do" played entirely on - No joke - handbells and a searing cover of the Pixies "Debaser".

Ok Go - What To Do

To say Ok Go impressed is an understatement. There's nothing I love more, after seeing literally hundreds of bored bands with a severe lack in stage presence, than a man who knows how to own the stage, who clearly loves what he does. After seeing Ok Go's passion and adoration for their finely crafted songs, frontman Kulash joins the Hot Half Awesome Concert Hall of Fame with Cursive's engaging singer Tim Kasher and a true bucket of joy, Josh Ritter.


The band's currently on a eight week tour across the country and will surely be hitting your area before the summer's over. I can't endorse the purchase of a ticket to see these fellas enough. If you like awesome things, you'll love Ok Go live. But if you can't, for some ungodly reason, shell out the $15 to support the little indie band that could, check out Ok Go's official site for details on this Thursday's live streaming concert to see the spectacle for yourself.



Photos by Heidi Gharbeiah for The Hot Half Life.

She asks "Are you cursed?" He says "I think that I'm cured."

I'm not afraid of a lot of things. Spiders? Nope. The dark? Well, a little. But not that much. Storms? Not really. I'm not afraid of death, either. But one thing that has always made my insides feel uncomfortably tight is love. I understand the way my brain works and I know why I'm afraid of love but this isn't livejournal so I won't delve into it. When I was little, I never daydreamed of getting married and I didn't date until far after high school and, to be honest, I didn't even have my first boyfriend until recently. I never longed for a prince charming or desperately wondered what it would be like to be held by someone who made me feel like no one ever has before: Whole.

It's natural as a human, I think, to feel slightly fragmented. And yeah, I do think there's someone in the world that will make me feel less so but nothing has ever made me long for that sensation of wholeness except for the songs of Josh Ritter.

It's a combination of the tenderness in his voice, the gentle intricacies of his folk guitar chord progressions, and the fact that he is an incredible lyricist. All of those things combined make him frighteningly good. Good enough, in fact, to make this heart-hardened career gal pause, close her eyes, and wonder what it would be like to be in the sort of love that Ritter sings about on more than a few occasions.

After the career making beauty of Ritter's last cd, The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter, I felt a mixture of severe anticipation and complete trepidation for his newest effort, So Runs The World Away. Where, after all, could Ritter go after such a triumphant last LP? Particularly, where could he go, as a storyteller, that he hadn't already valiantly conquered on The Historical Conquests?

I've heard a lot of love songs and there are a few that are near and dear me. "In The Aeroplane Over The Sea" by Neutral Milk Hotel, and "The Gambler" by fun. (Take note, potential suitors: If the unthinkable happens and for some ungodly reason I do get married, I am dancing to that song at my wedding. So if aren't affected by that tune, you need not apply to become Mr. Valentine.) are just a couple favorites, but none of them are remotely as moving as Ritter's "The Temptation of Adam", a song that in just a few minutes manages to tell the detailed story of Adam and Marie, two nuclear scientists who are engineering a bomb that could bring about the end of the world. From inside their bunker, they fall in love, and from the opening line, from Adam's perspective, of "If this was the cold war, we could keep each other warm", I found myself incredibly infatuated with the type of love Josh was singing about, the type of love I had never even got close to experiencing, which is also the type of love that I'd never been particularly interested in experiencing, until Ritter managed to turn me into a sap with his acoustic guitar and a few crushingly beautiful lines about the fairy tale kind of adoration that I didn't think existed in real life.

I'd heard bits and pieces of Ritter's So Runs The World Away and while it was all just as stellar as the catchiest bits of The Historical Conquests, none of it came close to being as heart wrenchingly affecting as "The Temptation of Adam". That is, until I heard the third track on the May release, "The Curse".

It's beauty is undeniable, as was noted by both myself and my stepmom, an avid Ritter fan thanks to yours truly. She and I were sitting in her living room when I started playing the album and not one minute into "The Curse", Laura turned to me and said "Oh, I like this." I agreed, feeling the same tightening in my chest that "The Temptation of Adam" had stirred so many times before. After repeated listenings, I began to take in the lyrics and found something as pleasantly surprising as it was hopelessly romantic. The song is a story, rich with parallels to being in love with a traveling musician, about a mummy, awoken from his enchanted sleep when his tomb is excavated. He falls in love with the archeologist who finds him in a sort of reverse take on Sleeping Beauty, but of course, he doesn't age, he doesn't change, and his lover grows old and eventually dies. It's sad but it's real and the bittersweetness of it all is classic Ritter for you: He makes you fall in love and then breaks your heart within a five minute time span.

Josh Ritter - The Curse

I haven't had the time to digest all of Ritter's forthcoming album. It's a shame and it's something I've been meaning to do but every time I hear "The Curse", I get stuck. Just as beautiful as, if not more than, "The Temptation of Adam", Josh Ritter has cemented himself as my favorite songwriter of this generation. I'm an optimist but I've never been a romantic but Ritter's songs excavate a sort of longing buried deep under the fear, ruthlessness, and sarcasm that keep me from getting close to people.

It's unsurprising that longtime friends of The Hot Half Life, Daytrotter, have produced an amazing session with Josh Ritter and really, it's something you need to hear, not only because both songs that I lavishly applauded here are a part of it but also because of Ritter's amazing cover of "Moon River", a Hot Half favorite for many years, up there with "Somewhere Over The Rainbow". Yeah, I'm a sucker. But if it makes me lame to still harbor fantasies of being swept away to Oz and don some ruby slippers, well then I don't want to be cool.

Detroit Rock City Part One: Miniature Tigers @ The Majestic Cafe

Well, blog, it's been a while. I could go on a soliloquy regarding what this here gal has been doing with her Hot Half Life over the past month or so but instead, I think I'll just plow right into things.

As you may gather from the title of this particular entry, I appear to be back in my hometown, Detroit, Michigan for the time being. Upon my return, I may have got kinda tipsy and teary, going on and on about how much I love this city. It's funny, Detroit never felt remotely like "home" to me growing up. It felt more like an unfortunate, sad locale that I had the terrible luck of being born into it. However, after spending a good couple years in Chicago and Cincinnati before my return, trying desperately to find my place in the world, returning to the Motor City (or "Hockeytown", if you will) felt more natural than it ever had in my 20 year tenure as a Michigander. It's something about the skyline of the city as seen from downtown Hamtramck, the sight of the DIA or the Science Center as you get off the freeway, and, of course, the grungy, real, unpretentious music scene that I grew up with. This is my home. You can take the girl out of Detroit but no matter what, the moment a White Stripes tune comes on the ol' iPod shuffle, her roots shine through.

Home, however, is really where "the heart is". Yeah, yeah, it's cliche and it's kind of lame to say it but it's cliche for a reason: Because it's true. Right now, a good piece of my heart is in this awful mitten shaped state but I doubt it'll always be like that. A good portion of this blog has dealt with those terrible things called "emotions" and how "feelings" affect me. One day, hopefully soon, I'm gonna find where my heart really is. And I'll go there. Hopefully with a good paying writing job in tow. But until then, I'm back in Detroit, doing what I do best: Rocking and rolling.


Miniature Tigers aren't exactly a "Detroit" band. In fact, they aren't a "Detroit" band at all. They're a Phoenix-L.A.-New-York hybrid of sunny pop melodies and indie sensibilities and this blog is no stranger to the foursome. First seeing them all the way back in the beginning of 2009 on the Kevin Devine Brother's Blood Tour and seeing them since with fun. and later solo, Mini T's have quickly risen to the ranks of one of the few bands I get genuinely excited for when they hit the Midwest. They're not "Detroit" by any means but seeing as I popped my Detroit-concert-re-virginized-cherry at the Majestic Cafe seeing them, I figure this review is as good as any to start off my new series of show reviews around the great state of Michigan.

The first time I saw Miniature Tigers, I had never heard them and was taken aback by the pure catchiness and dancability of their tunes. They have an immediate appeal that's hard to deny and their songs don't tire after repeated listenings. However, the one thing that was severely lacking live was lead singer Charlie Brand's stage presence. Lackadaisical and occasionally stiff, Brand's lack of enthusiasm didn't hinder the band (the songs were still damn good) but it certainly didn't help with their appeal. In the past year, though, I've seen the Tigers somewhere around 7 times and with each performance, Brand has gotten more confident, more natural, and all around more likable. How can I fella wearing a vintage sweater covered in teddy bears not be likable, after all? (Side note: That really is a damn fine sweater. Many, myself and my old roommate included, have offered to take it off of his hands to no avail. I can say with confidence that anyone who wears that sweater probably gets much attractive ladies.) Brand's upwards trajectory of awesome seems to have culminated with the April 13th Majestic Cafe performance when Charlie took his mic into the crowd and danced with the audience during one of the band's new songs, off the forthcoming LP Fortress. I've said before that nothing builds likability more than audience interaction and I stand by that. If I hadn't been won over by the Tigers charm about a year ago, this performance would have certainly sealed the deal.


Playing a few catchy favorites off debut LP Tell It To The Volcano, including the title track and the mood-brightening "Cannibal Queen", the band's set relied mostly on new material and while it wasn't my first time hearing songs destined to become sing-alongs after Fortress is released in July, it was definitely the most enjoyable. Hearing the progression of songs like "Coyote Enchantment" had perhaps been the coolest thing about seeing Miniature Tigers so many times.

The new material seems slightly less organic, as you can hear in the aforementioned "Coyote Enchantment", snagged off every blogger's best friend, youtube, below, and while it's a common argument here in Hot Half Headquarters that organic is better, Miniature Tigers sound seems to have progressed while staying true to it's origins, become something bigger than before without changing the Tigers overall sound, making the new material just as pristine and all-around fun as every track off the band's debut.

Something also has to be said for the fact that the band's lineup, after seeing more than a few shakeups since Miniature Tigers inception, has evolved into something just about perfect. Original Tigers Brand and Rick Schaier (also of the fantastic Alvin Band) have been joined by Algernon Quashie and Alex Gerber to create not only an amazing lineup but an all around amazing group of guys. You'd be hard pressed to find a sweeter, funnier foursome in indie rock and niceness goes a long way. I'm willing to bet everyone that got to brush shoulders with the band during their brief Detroit tenure is going to remember them for quite a while as amazing fellas that deserve your $8 for a concert ticket next time they make the Midwest rounds.

It seems like Fortress is going to take the Tigers to a new level, moving them more to towards the indie mainstream and into the collective consciousness of every hip kid in Detroit, Northside, Logan Square, and, you know, all those hipster caches outside of the Midwest.



Photos by Regina Prager and Sarah Kelly for The Hot Half Life.