Live: Frank Turner and Sleeping Souls @ Knitting Factory 3.13.12

I really liked the song Turner did with the estimable Jon Snodgrass, but hadn't investigated too much past that until I saw him on Kimmel a couple months back. I picked up England Keep My Bones soon after and fell for it like a short haired brunette, just in time to miss out on the sold out Bowery show with Andrew Jackson Jihad. I was quicker on the draw for the Knitting Factory show, which seems prudent as he's evidently playing Wembley in the next couple weeks. While I like me some Turner, I was pretty flabbergasted to hear that he was that big overseas. Further investigation revealed that there is a Wembley Arena across the street from ginormous stadium. 12,500 seems reasonable, given last year's ridiculously strong England Keep My Bones, but it doesn't make me look any more forward to having to see him in the big rooms over here.

Turner and Co put in work for a little over an hour, hitting most of the high points of England Keep My Bones and dipping back for favorites like I Knew Prufrock Before He Was Famous. He's charismatic as hell and the band is pretty damn tight as well. They are pretty much the perfect band for a room the size of The Knit (although I still wish it was on Leonard, or Houston even) and the wall to wall people seemed to feel the same. See Frank Turner in the small(er) rooms while you can. I see a lot of Terminal 5 in his future and me very cranky and in attendance.

R

Jaded Scenester NYC: Top 11 Records of 2011

Ok All:

The TBs are back in full effect, courtesy of Time Machine, so without further ado, let's start the recappery for 2011.

Day One: 


Top 11 Records Of 2011

1.  Banner Pilot – Heart Beats Pacific

Longtime readers know that Banner Pilot gets much love at JS-NYC HQ, but even I was a little surprised that they took the top honors for 2011.  I think the CMJ live shows sealed the deal for me, The Fat Wreck deal getting the gents to the East Coast more than in years previously. The gents tore up the Reload store and followed up with a pretty aces set in Brooklyn later that night. Heart Beats Pacific has the same relentless amount of hooks, changing things up on the vocals but still with the bass mixed up front. Eleven songs, and not a bad track on the record. I'm pretty sure the gents are already in pre-production for the next one, plus they are letting the punters pick the set list for the spring tour, so get on over to the Banner Pilot web presence and ruin the spring for me. Get Heart Beats Pacific here.

2.  Centro-Matic – Candidate Waltz

Said it the first time and am now saying it again: Why Centro-matic aren't gargantuanally huge boggles what little faculties I still maintain. Centro-matic are everything that I don't see why people like about My Morning Jacket and The National (who, truth be told, seem like fine people, exclusive of their profoundly unremarkable records). I dare not contemplate what a four hour MMJ set would be like, but every time I see Centro-matic live I wish it would never end. The last show at Mercury was no exception, unsurprising as Candidate Waltz is the finest record to date from a band that continually releases amazing records. Bookmark their web presence here.

3.  Tenement – Napalm Dream

The fact that 2011 brought a new Tenement record was a personal high point. They were top fucking notch a couple years ago in Greenpoint and I've been salivating at the prospect at seeing them again ever since. There are only two solid members in the line-up, which hampers the whole touring thing. It's a shame, as Napalm Dream has some of the best indie rock tracks you'll hear this year. Shades of 90s Boston and America's Finest Rock BandTM The Figgs abound, with the breakdown of Stupid World ranking as perhaps my favorite recorded moment of this year. Keep track of Wisconsin's finest and all things Napalm Dream here.

4.   Restorations – s/t

Restorations are definitely my favorite new discovery of 2011, although sadly my favorite track is from their first EP. Lack of Linear Notes aside, and despite a curious tendency toward black metal in their artwork choices, this fearsome Philly fivesome get high marks from JS-NYC. Now lets see a lot more NYC shows please.

5.  Glossary – Long Live All Of Us

My review is coming up at PopMatters soon, but much like Centro-matic, you cannot go wrong with any release with the Glossary name on it. I generally loathe bands with singers who both live and rock together (see the utterly execrable Mates Of State), but Joey and Kelly make it more than worth your while with Long Live All Of Us.

6.   Bridge & Tunnel – Rebuilding Year

The time Bridge & Tunnel lay fallow has fostered a bumper crop of great music. Rebuilding Year features great J. Robbins-y vocals from Jeff and top-fucking-notch guitar work from Rachel. Along with Iron Chic, there is rarely a safer bet in a local show.

7.  Frank Turner – England Keep My Bones

A close second behind Restorations in the new discovery queue, Frank Turner grabbed my attention on Kimmel and England Keep My Bones quickly racked up neighbor maddening levels of rotation at JS-NYC HQ. I Am Disappeared ranks just as high in singles of the year. FT is going to be a very big deal, very soon.

8.  Samiam - Trips

I think Samiam may have actually deposed the mighty Jawbreaker as my all-time favorite East Bay band. They have made pretty regular appearances out East Coast way this year and been pretty damn great every time. Trips has a gang of great songs and hopefully will usher in a new era of Samiam dominance.

9.  Gateway District – Perfect’s Gonna Fail

Without disparaging Maren and Carrie's significant contributions to Gateway, the idea that Nate could write two amazing records worth of music (see #1) deserves notice. I really need to get to Minneapolis.

10.  Direct Hit! – Domesplitter

Got this one cold in the mail, maybe through the good folk of Southern Lovin' and the terrible cover art kept me off listening for a bit, but once I did I was more that stoked at what I heard. Obvious D4 and Screeching Weasel earmarks, but with enough personality to not get lost in the shuffle. 

11.  Money Making Jam Boys – The Prestige
2011 has been a terrible year for hip-hop, but this Philly all-star team fucking kills it on their debut mix tape. P.O.R.N, Truck North, Dice Raw and STS rhyme hard but MC juggernaut Black Thought is the hero here, asserting himself as one of the pre-eminent mic stylists of our generation and saving this year from being over-saturarted with Odd Future fomented Asbergers Rap.

Andrew Jackson Jihad - Knife Man

Andrew Jackson Jihad hail from the arid land of Arizona. AZ has been representing pretty hard in recent years, starting with Jimmy Eat World and Pollen and continuing with the late Shang-a-Lang and more currently with Andrew Jackson Jihad.

I really like a bunch of Andrew Jackson Jihad songs and feel the same way about a good bid of Knife Man, but the inner asshole in me does tell me that if AJJ were from Brooklyn and/or played Sidewalk with any regularity, I would be ever so quick to swig me some hater-ade and then shit all over them and Knife Man for a myriad of reactionary short-sighted reasons.

To start, AJJ are billed as folk-punk, which is a bit of a hackle raiser, if not a redundancy really. A second is the anti-establishment slash populist thing they've got going on that I'm pretty much on board with, although safe money is on the team drawing a crowd that will flare my inner cranky old guy intolerant tendencies. I don't normally stand on pretense and expect that my favorite bands have a singer who can really sing. Those looking for irish tenors would do well to look otherwise, as AJJ is not blessed with a young Sam Cooke as a frontman, but the songs on Knife Man are pretty uniformly strong, and definitely deeper than the titles like Hate, Rain On Me and The Michael Jordan Of Drunk Driving might belie. The duo seem to be investigating more of a full band thing rather than the duo thing I had believed them to have been purveying previously but it seems pretty unforced here, proving especially effective on tracks like the soaring closer Big Bird. I'd pick it up.

I believe AJJ are overseas currently, but keep track of all their current goings-on here. Get Knife Man here from The House That Park built.

R

Frank Turner - England Keep My Bones

 Damn!

Since my antipathy for all things Time Warner forced me to finally get rid of cable, I don't see as much late night TV as I used to, but I caught Turner on Kimmel the other night and he and that Limey lot  promptly handed my ass to me.

I say again: Damn!

Kudos to Epitaph for snapping up Mr. Turner. He had been on my radar with his collabo with the mighty Jon Snodgrass and while Old Fast Songs is a great fucking tune, I didn't think I'd fall as quick and hard for England Keep My Bones as I did. My Irish affections aside, as you might surmise this is quite an English record. Turner has heard himself a Billy Bragg or two, but he's far from a carbon copy. Whether keeping it traditional with English Curse, upping the punks and skins in I Still Believe or taking it to the open road with I Am Disappeared, Turner gives it the business. You should give him yours and snap up England Keep My Bones in whatever format works for you here from Mr. Brett & Co. 

Up the punks!

R

Frank Turner and Jon Snodgrass - Buddies

The JS-NYC love for Jon Snodgrass is well documented, and he's been playing straight into our hands with a slew of collabo records over the last couple years. Everybody seems to want a piece of our hero, and the most recent collaboration to come down the pike is with Brit indie-punk minstrel Frank Turner. Called Buddies, the record is a ten track song cycle (with companion drunken studio banter) of quasi-extemporaneous documentation of the Turner/Snodgrass buddydom. If I could hang out with Snodgrass, I'd probably write a record too, but for the most part, the songs on Buddies are ok at best. I can't say I'm especially crazy about Frank Turner, but he does knock one out of the park with Old Fast Songs, a humdinger of a track that will definitely make the JS-NYC Best of 2010 comp that should be available by the turning of the year. That is reason enough to pony up some dough, but I'm pretty sure that Buddies is only available in a short run of green vinyl from UK indie Xtra Mile Recordings, and for that reason may not be the first record you should snatch up. There are rumors of iTunes availability after the 1st of the year. Keep an eye out, if only to snag that Old Fast Songs track. If you are already a fan, or just intrigued by JS-NYC sycophanty, Turner is here and Snodgrass HQ can be found here.

R