Dead Weather @ the Pageant 4/24/10

After a day of tornado sirens, the Dead Weather energized the audience as they took the stage last weekend at the Pageant in St. Louis, MO. The supergroup is the newest Jack White musical experiment (this time he's on the drums) and brings together past Raconteurs band-mates Dean Fertia and Jack "little Jack" Lawrence. The band is fronted by non-other than Kills singer Alison Mosshart, who White introduced as "The raven-haired beauty from the deep, deep South: Baby Ruthless." Mosshart hypnotized the crowd as she stood on the monitors writhing with the music. "I can take the trouble," she sang before leaning over the crowd and screaming, "I'm 60 feet tall!"


The band ran through a mix of old and new material including new tracks "Jawbreaker," "Blue Blood Blues," "Gasoline" and the amazing "Hustle and Cuss." As great as the show was the true highlights were the few songs were Jack White stepped in front of the drums and picked up a guitar. You could sense the energy rise in the already excited crowd as the string-master cut through a cover of Van Morrison's "You Just Can't Win" from his early years in the band Them. White again took up the guitar during "I Can't Hear You," the second of a scorching three song encore. Mosshart danced around on stage casually smoking a cigarette before jumping into the last song of the night, "Treat Me Like Your Mother."

Setlist:

1. 60 Feet Tall

2. Hang You From the Heavens

3. You Just Can't Win (Them cover)

4. So Far From Your Weapon

5. I Cut Like a Buffalo

6. No Horse

7. Jawbreaker
8. Blue Blood Blues

9. Gasoline

10. Rocking Horse

11. Hustle and Cuss

12. New Pony

13. Will There Be Enough Water?

Encore:

14. Die by the Drop

15. I Can't Hear You

16. Treat Me Like Your Mother
Thanks to RFT.com for the set list!



If you are unfamiliar with the Dead Weather I highly recommend you do a little research. This is one amazing group, formed almost by accident during one fateful Kills/Raconteurs show where Mosshart was asked to fill in for a voice-less White on a few songs. The band had its first live performance before even putting out its first single and booked its first tour before releasing its first album. Music critics everywhere have been hailing the Dead Weather as the next 'big thing' for awhile now... so if your not already, its time to jump on the Dead Weather band wagon. Their second album, Sea of Cowards, drops May 11 and I for one will be picking it up the day it's released.

Arctic Monkeys - Humbug

In 2008 Arctic Monkeys' frontman Alex Turner got together with The Rascals' Miles Kane and the Simian Mobile Discos' James Ford to form an awesome side-project called The Last Shadow Puppets. Haven't heard of them? Go download their album The Age of the Understatement. No seriously, if you haven't heard the album you can't read the rest of the review. It's Ok, I'll wait...

Heard it? Loved it? Ok, then we can move on. The album went straight to number one in the UK album charts with the help of Owen Pallett (Final Fantasy, the band not the video game) who was brought in to arrange strings, brass and percussion for the album. You may be thinking to yourself "Why do I care about the Last Shadow Puppets or this Final Fantasy guy?", well smart guy its because this side project ends up being very important to the evolution to the Arctic Monkeys sound.

I'll be honest, when the Arctic Monkeys first exploded onto the scene I didn't really understand what all the fuss was about. Sure they had some catchy songs but they were nothing extraordinary, just an extension of the cookie cutter alt-rock sound that was all the rage. To a degree the Monkeys started to drown in the deep waters already flooded with more distinctive bands such as Franz Ferdinand. They really didn't catch my attention till the release of their second album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, where they started to experiment with a slightly harder edge to their song writing.

With the release of their new album, Humbug, the Monkeys sound has matured into something more experimental, with a darker sound and bleaker subject matter. Produced by Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme, Humbug is an ambitious album that borrows more from The Last Shadow Puppets and Queens of the Stone Age than their previous albums. The album opener "My Propeller" has Hommes' fingerprint all over it and would be perfectly at home on the Queens last album along side "Turning the Screw".



There are some great tracks on the new album, pay close attention to the sleazy bass lines and fuzzy guitars of "Secret Door" and "Fire and the Thud," the second of which has backing vocals from sultry Alison Mosshart (The Kills/Dead Weather). Both tracks sound right at home with the new blues/indie rock sound spreading with such bands as Band of Skulls and IO Echo. Mosshart and Turner, who are both signed to Domino, have worked together before when she performed with The Last Shadow Puppets on "Paris Summer" for their EP My Mistakes Were Made for You.

The album ends with "The Jeweler's Hands," a slow burning song that echos with Turner's more orchestral sound found in Last Shadow Puppets albums. Arctic Monkey fans may be disappointed at the lack of radio friendly songs on Humbug, with "Potion Approaching" and maybe "Pretty Visitors" being the closest to the old albums sound. However in many ways Humbug is a stronger album than their previous efforts, delivering a richer and more complex music experience. Turner has evolved as a singer while Jamie Cook (guitar), Matt Helders (drums) and Nick O'Malley (bass) all give solid performances. It's obvious that maturity has spread through the band, taking them to new and darker places that get better with repeated plays.

www.arcticmonkeys.com
www.myspace.com/arcticmonkeys

And in case you still don't know who The Last Shadow Puppets or Alison Mosshart are...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5_c8qH9cZo

IO Echo - Self-titled EP

You may not recognize the name but odds are you have heard at least one song by newcomers IO Echo. Their song "Doorway" was featured in the new Palm Pre commercial that has been all over television screens for the past few months, not to mention being shown in theaters before several summer blockbusters such as Star Trek and Harry Potter.

When I tell most people about a new band the first response I hear is "Who do they sound like?". First off, I hate this question. New music should be evaluated on its own merit and not on the random comparison to another band you may or may not like/love/hate. Second, it's really hard to answer... how do you label a band like IO Echo? Indie rock? Goth rock? Experimental Rock? In the end all you have to know is that they are an amazing blend of catchy guitar riffs and thumping bass lines.

The driving force behind the music is the bands vocalist, IO (a.k.a. Joanna Gikas), who composed the majority of the songs that make up the bands self-titled EP released back in May. The bands name is derived from the Greek translation of her name, Joanna, combined with the word Echo. It's hard not to make comparisons to Alison Mosshart (from the Kills) or Siouxie (from Siouxsie and the Banshees) when you listen to the lyrics of songs such as "Addicted" or my personal favorite the cover of the Beatles "I Want You(She's So Heavy". In addition to singing, IO also plays rhythm guitar and keyboards. The rest of IO Echo is comprised of Leopold Ross on lead guitar, Paul Rinis on drums and Salvatore Romano on tambourine and keyboards.

Originally from Washington, D.C., IO came to Los Angeles to form IO Echo. While they are still unsigned the band has been gaining momentum collaborating with The Von Bondies and She Wants Revenge as well as touring with OK Go and opening for Nine Inch Nails.

According to a interview on rebellezine.blogspot.com IO Echo describe their sound like:

"being in a motel room at 4am and the people in the room to your left are having loud sex while the people in the room on your right are listening to songs of praise on a transistor radio"

Anyone who knows me well will tell you that the one thing that gets my attention is a smart, sassy indie rock female singer/songwriter. One thing is for sure IO will have my attention for the foreseeable future.

http://www.io-echo.com/
http://www.last.fm/music/io+echo
http://www.myspace.com/ioecho
http://twitter.com/ioecho