We're Safe and Sound

Friday night at the Granada Theater provided my fourth chance at seeing indie phenoms, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. I first saw them live last year when they played in Dallas at the Gypsy Tea Room, and then caught them twice at SXSW 2006. The band caused a stir in the indie scene with their late 2005 self released eponymous debut. Set around lead singer Alec Ounsworth's warbly vocals (reminiscent of David Bryne), the band adds a lively mixture of keyboards, drums, and great hooks to provide an enjoyable, fun ride through their musical world.

Their set on Friday provided a fairly even mix of songs from their debut and second release, Some Loud Thunder which was released this past January. They started with the playful, carnival-esque song Clap Your Hands! which marked the first time I'd seen them play it live. From the start I noticed the improvement the band showed in stage presence and how well the instruments sounded. The constant touring over the past year definitely showed off the growing maturity in their playing.

Although most of the songs on their second release fail to reach the joyous or trippy highs of the debut, the release in no way should be considered a sophomore slump. CYHSY played several of the stronger tracks like Love Song No. 7 and Emily Jean Stock. The song Satan Said Dance has been in their live routine since I saw them last year, and sounded really solid this time. I was happy to hear In This Home on Ice and Is This Love? off their debut. The best part of the night was the surprise second encore which featured a strong performance of The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth. The down side of the show for me was a weakness in the vocals. Now Mr. Ounsworth does have a unique style, but in the past I've been able to understand and follow his lyrics when seeing them live. This was not the case for several of the songs on Friday. That being said, CYHSY is definitely a band I recommend seeing for a fun night of live music.

Radiant Blue

It seems so long ago when Clap Your Hands Say Yeah stormed the indie world with their self-titled, self-released debut album. That was less than two years ago. Since then Brooklyn based band been on countless tours and self-released their sophomore album, Some Loud Thunder. In that time, I've been able to see them a total of four times, including the show at the Granada in Dallas on Friday night. It was great to see the band again and they were every bit as good as I remember them. They played about an hour long set mixing songs from each of the albums. I though the highlight of the set came towards the end when they threw down perhaps the best live version of In This Home On Ice. The band then gave the crowd two electrifying encores including the song I had been waiting for the entire night, The Skin of Yellow Country Teeth. The band has a few U.S. dates scheduled before going to Australia and then on to Europe.

If you aren't familiar with Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, their sound is a modern version of early Talking Heads. I'm sure their probably tired of those comparisons, but I will say that there is nobody else around today whose music sounds like theirs. It's a quirky, electic mix of keyboards and guitars with some excellent base lines. The voice of singer Alec Ounsworth certainly adds a unique dimension to their music.

The opening act was Elvis Perkins in Dearland. I arrived at the Granada a little too late to catch the entire show, but most of what I heard was good. I recall seeing this band at this years SXSW and not being terribly impressed. I have not really determined what about the band's indie folk rock really distinguishes them. But I'd by lying if I said I cannot get their song All The Night Without Love out of my head.

I'll Be Your Badger

If I could use one word to describe my relationship with the Minneapolis band Tapes 'N Tapes it would have to be "elusive". It was around a year ago, somewhere post-SXSW, that I discovered them from their self-released debut LP The Loon. It seemed like for the next few months that this album was all I listened to on my iPod. And in the last year, try as I might, I missed every opportunity to see them live. That was true until Friday night rolled around and I had a ticket to see them at the Granada. Truth be told, I was in a rather sluggish mood from the drinking I had still not recovered from two nights before. But if there is one that you can count on from Tapes 'N Tapes is a high energy live show. They played many of the songs I grew to love from their first album as well as some highly anticipated songs from an upcoming release. One of the unique things I found out about the band that night is that their drummer, Karl Schweitz, seem to give the band's sound that added depth that makes them unique. I left that show full of energy and feeling great.

The first opening band was local band Red Monroe. While I found the band to alright, the vocalist was not at all appealing to me. Next up was the New York band Harlem Shakes. My first exposure to these guys was quite positive. To be honest, B and I were playing some impossible baseball games on the XBox (or whatever) during the opening bands. I'm not much for video games and this baseball game proved it to me once again as B beat me in every match. I'm going back to reviewing concerts.

The Start of Something

We have arrived. This idea that spawned over this years SXSW has finally come to fruition. I, a veteran of the blogosphere, have had an itch to start writing again for some time and that itch was only making itself more apparent as great experiences have been plenty of late. B and I decided to start writing about all of our interests in things like music, movies, books, or whatever. Those that know us know that not only are our interest to be vast, but that we usually tend to be rather trailblazing.

We wanted to give this blog a name that represented us both. We each chose a word that has some meaning to us. Mine (Indigo) has been one of my favorite words as long as I can remember. Some of you reading might remember reading the child of the first project that this word inspired. For B, the word (Blvd.) comes from the title his favorite movie, Sunset Blvd. This ought to prove to be an interesting endeavor. The blog description comes from one our favorite movies.

I hope you all enjoy reading this as much as we will enjoy writing it.