Even though I just saw Travis Morrison there a couple months ago (which I believe was his first show with his new backing band, or at least the first official club show), I'm looking forward to seeing him again at the Talking Head next week mainly because it'll be a chance for me to finally pick up a copy of his album. I've looked in a couple stores that I thought would be sure to have it, with no success (and I'm kind of a luddite in that I still regard ordering music online as a last resort if there's a chance I can find it in a record store). Is it possible that the indie backlash against Travistan is so severe that even stores that stock other Barsuk releases and every Dismemberment Plan album aren't bothering with it? Or do I just keep looking in the Sound Garden when they don't happen to have any copies out? In any event, I'm looking forward to finally getting the record proper after all the teaser MP3's and hearing the songs in different live incarnations at the solo show and in the Plan's sets in the months before they decided to break up (I doubt the Travis version of "Angry Angel" will be able to touch the Plan version, which had a georgeous bassline). Plus, Miccio's review was a really articulate voice of dissent to the general reactions to the record, and much of what he wrote rang true enough for me that I'm thinking I'll like the same things about it.

Plus, Beauty Pill is also on the bill, which is added incentive for me to go to the show. When their first full-length, The Unsustainable Lifestyle dropped a few months ago, it was pretty underwhelming, especially after the long wait, 3 years since their first EP (with another EP in between), and almost 7 years since the last album by Chad Clark's previous band, Smart Went Crazy. But, while still a disappointment overall, Lifestyle has become a good go-to record for late nights when I want something that isn't too loud but isn't too sleepy. I think Clark's lyrics are a bit too self-consciously 'clever' sometimes, but when he actually manages to express some righteous anger and outrage, as opposed to just cynicism, as on "Terrible Things" and "Won't You Be Mine?" (which is a deceptively silly and cheerful-sounding diatribe about racism punctuated with samples of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood), that's when the record really engages me. And BP now have a new co-lead singer (their 3rd in as many years), so I'm looking forward to checking out the new lineup, which will hopefully get them back on the track of the promising early EP's, or possibly a different direction entirely.

(Breihan, are you gonna be there? Get at me, maybe we can trade those articles we were reccomending to each other a while back.)

Labels: concerts, music, Travis Morrison

This entry was posted on Friday, November 05, 2004 at 12:02 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.