The Twilight Sad - No One Can Ever Know

As I mentioned in my review of the recent live show in Colonial Williamsburg, I remain ambivalent at the idea of being a man (sic) my age who is as into a record called No One Can Ever Know from a band called The Twilight Sad. And while I'm self-flagellating: I love the cover, it doesn't really help. My raft of issues aside, I've been a pretty big TTS fan for a while now. A chewy Glaswegian accent always gets props at JS-NYC and if you'll do it in a dark Aereogramme sort of way, you can count on JS-NYC being down for the duration. The Twilight Sad have done just that for eight or so releases of varying lengths and volume, plying a post-Joy Division guitar meets electronics sound with harrowing angst-ridden (sung) vocals.

Despite intimations to the contrary, No One Can Ever Know continues in the same vein The Twilight Sad has previously, bringing some Scottish rain and grey to your earholes by way of a bleakly beautiful background of synth and guitar noise. This may very well be the most cohesive The Twilight Sad record to date, opening with the dark and driving Alphabet and bristling with solid tracks like Nil and Don't Look At Me. Nine tracks in total, ten if you get the version with the bonus A Million Ignorants closing the proceedings. Either way, unless you've recently decided to eschew your med cold turkey and are perseverating, No One Can Ever Know comes highly recommended. Get it and all your other The Twilight Sad needs here.

R

Live: Twilight Sad @ Bowery Ballroom 11.6.9

I'm an Irishman, but dammit if I don't have a weakness for the current Glasgow sound. I recently came into a wealth of Aereogramme esoterica and it brought back a wealth of personal memories that have been soundtracked by Glaswegians. Falling in love with a lesbian while dating a woman married to a gay man to Belle and Sebastian, riding out the crash and burn of both those eventualities with Teenage Fanclub, a weekend with a sexual compulsive and Aereogramme, the list goes on and on.

I'm pretty sure that I first heard The Twilight Sad through Andrew from Skyscraper. I'm much more sure that I fell for them hard and recall it being on the heels of their playing a residency at some place on Ludlow St. and my having missed them all. Good times. Ok, from the hazy depth comes a memory of having seen them for the first time on the last Aereogramme tour, but it only emphasizes the fact that it had been a shit-long time since I had seen The Twilight Sad live. I've been trying to save money for the So Hideous recordings, but allocated accordingly for this show. I swanned in just as things were about to jump off, and as The Twilight Sad too the stage, it became obvious that there is evidently some head-shaving thing going on during the tour, with Graham being one of the newer converts. Given the Gitmo-esque quality of its styling, there was some question of tonsorial intent in my mind, especially when Graham seemed far too effusive about the crowd. I gave up watching bands have nervous breakdowns on stage a while ago (at least ones I like) but The Twilight Sad was firing on all cylinders, regardless of possibly precarious mental states. Here's the set list, stolen (with the photo) from Brooklyn Vegan:

Reflection of the Television
That Summer, at home I had become the invisible boy
I Became a Prostitute
Talking with Fireworks
Seven Years of Letters
Made to Disappear
The Room
That Birthday Present
Cold Days From The Birdhouse
And She Would Darken the Memory
I'm Taking the Train Home

Like I rambled before, I love The Twilight Sad. There's something wonderfully heartbreaking about the Scottish accent that goes wonderfully with the textured rock. Graham came down into the audience for Cold Days, a move that is popular and one that I hate almost as much as the 'band plays on the floor' aesthetic. I have no quarrel with how the songs sounded, but I am of the firm opinion that we pay to see as well as hear our live artists, so that fourth wall breach is one that I wish would go far away, unless it's some old school Axl Rose I'ma kick your ass shit. My issues aside, The Twilight Sad sound good on or off the stage. They aren't the most effusive bunch, but they sound great together. The new record is called Forget The Night Ahead and it, too, is pretty great. The live show is wonderful, too. You would do well to enjoy both often.

R

A Twilight Sad - Forget The Night Ahead

I'm not sure what's in the water in Scotland (I guess safe money is on the whiskey) but the verdant plains have fostered a host of fabulous bands in the last 20 years. I'm not dying to hear The Proclaimers anytime soon, but Mogwai, Aereogramme and Glasvegas do yeoman duty in keeping me from hating most of the bands that deign to release material today.

Much like the delightful Teenage Fanclub, The Twilight Sad are all about the hooks, but have no problem adding some noise to the proceeding to keep it interesting. The tour EP they dropped last Christmas was pretty stellar, if a little cover-heavy, and did little to diminish my anticipation for a new full-length. Thankfully, that full-length is now here. Forget The Night Ahead varies little from the band's time-honored plan of beautifully noisy rock songs. The dear-departed Aereogramme remains a touchstone, but that is very far from a bad thing and The Twilight Sad are far from unoriginal, even if Dok from Aereogramme is playing keys on tour. The theme for Forget The Night Ahead is the problem acclimating to real life after touring on the level the band does. Made To Disappear and Reflection Of The Television capture that vibe nicely without degenerating into maudlin "The Load-Out" introspection. A Twilight Sad will make sweet love to your ears in a noisy way and you'll like it. Pick up Forget The Night Ahead from Fat Cat here and look for them on tour in NYC soon.

R

Glasvegas - Glasvegas

Hell-o! This is one hell of a great record. Glasvegas are from Scotland, which seems more and more to be a seal of quality when it comes to the rock music.  Teenage Fanclub, Jesus and Mary Chain and Aereogramme are only a few of the great bands that have all come from that rainy neck of the Isles in recent years. Lest you think our Scottish friends have fallen off, be aware that new bands like The Twilight Sad and, now, the quartet known as Glasvegas are carrying the torch quite admirably, thank you very much. I had passing knowledge of the lady and gents via something in Q and liked them when they played one of the late night programs. I made a note to check them out and grabbed Glasvegas when I had the chance, but hadn't gotten around to throwing it on until recently. Boy, am I kicking myself. The record has been blowing up in the British Isles since it dropped in September of last year and seems poised to do the same stateside.

Glasvegas the band and Glasvegas the album display a pronounced love of reverb and big soaring choruses. I'll be the first to question what the deal is with all these reverb bands like Fleet Foxes and My Morning Jacket. I'm not sure whether it's coincident with the grade of weed going through the roof in recent years, or if the prescription drugs that all the kids like these days just cater to this kind of stuff, but it's a little over the top in this day and age. It's becoming the Antares sound of the Rock Underground and it's in danger of getting way played out. That said, Glasvegas have reverb on every damn thing they can get a noise out of here and it's absolutely wonderful.  Think Jesus and Mary Chain covering Motown tunes with Mike Peters on lead vocals.  Trust me, it's a pretty magical combination.

There is the weird spoken word piece over an interpolation of The Moonlight Sonata, but I'll ignore that and aver that the nine other tracks on Glasvegas are some of the best that I've heard this year. If Columbia can't sell this record in the States, the US record industry is well and truly in the shitter, as Glasvegas are everything good about U2 and The Killers with half the pretension.  You need to buy this record. There, I said it.  Here's a link. You can keep tabs on them through their awesomely Scottish website. Check it out here and thank me later.

Slainte!

R