BLANCHE DUBOIS AND IT STARTED TO SEEM LIKE THE ONLY THINGS THAT HAPPENED HAPPENED IN MY DREAMS

Dear Chuck aka Chet,

I have decided to write this blog post in the form of an apology letter to you, because you're the one person I know of who said you have been refreshing this page every now and then for the however-ridiculously-many weeks it has been since my last update, only to glance at the first post and go, "Headlights?! Still?!!!" Sorry, sorry, sorry. A hundred times, sorry. I still can't believe you're taking the time to visit this page regularly, anyway.

Despite my blog silence-- which I realize is pretty much the most trite thing ever for a blog, next to writing apologies for how your blog has been silent-- I've actually seen a pretty good amount of music in Des Moines in the past month or so. As you already know, I guess, since I just talked to you last week. Whatever.

Let's go in reverse order:

Last night, I wrangled a photo pass to see the Black Eyed Peas at Wells Fargo Arena. I had an idea of writing about the show as part of a feature somewhere, but I didn't e-mail anybody in time to get actual tickets. So this meant I missed Ludacris (well, I could've gone, but only for three songs). And, in keeping with that three-song rule, it meant I saw only three songs of the Black Eyed Peas' set (well, make that two and a half). But-- it was a scene, man!!! I entered at the wrong entrance-- apologies to Adam and the great Wells Fargo Arena personnel for creating extra work; thanks for being cool about it, won't happen again-- and I had a hard time keeping up with the person who let me into the show for all the hyped/dolled-up masses going back for more beer as she led me toward the photo area. As a critic and a fan, I've seen lots of future stars on the way up, but I don't think I've ever been to a show quite this big, at least not an arena show. My 2.5 songs were well worth the effort: The photo pit was right next to the enormous stage, which had sort of a peninsula jutting out into the audience. The weirdest thing, which I hadn't expected, was seeing Fergie up close-- I should admit I'd never really thought much about the Black Eyed Peas until last year's The E.N.D., though I did really like Fergie's "Clumsy" and "Glamorous," but I used to watch the Disney Channel show KIDS Incorporated basically every afternoon for a little while there when I was a kid and she was a kid named Stacey Ferguson. All the sudden I had this odd sensation that this silver-suited fembot standing a few feet away from me should recognize me, because I had this vague memory of her from childhood or something. Like I said, it was weird. Will.I.Am flew around suspended from the ceiling by strings, Broadway-style. Dancers in boxy chrome-colored marched out onto the little peninsula like futuristic Tin Man Oompa Loompas. I heard "Get It Started," "Rock That Body," and half of one other song before I had to leave. Wanna know the rest? Hey, buy the rights. (Oh I also had to use a film camera because our digital camera is broken and my regular iPhone stylee would have made me look like a fake photographer, so I don't have the pictures yet. But I will. If they're any good, I'll save them for that prospective feature.)

Not alone in the new pollution: "Good Feelings."

Chicago band Light Pollution worked in an early set at Vaudeville Mews March 10. They've played here a number of times, apparently, but now they had a big booking agent and a track on Pitchfork's Forkcast blog (full disclosure, if you don't know me by now: I write for Pitchfork and used to write for Forkcast when it was in a more text-intensive format). Light Pollution didn't headline or anything because they had to drive up to the Ames Progressive for another set, but they played some promising if indistinct wavy electronic indie rock, in an Animal Collective-meets-Passion Pit way but with a way more subdued vocalist and bigger rock-style drumming.
 

 Passionate introverts.

Philadelphia sextet A Sunny Day in Glasgow were exactly the early highlight to spring concert season I had hoped, and not only because my good friend Brendan from Brooklyn, now of Madison, was in attendance. They played with the always excellent local band Wolves in the Attic, possibly (say it ain't so!) that group's final show, at Vaudeville Mews. But Chet, you were there! So I don't need to tell you: It was beautifully textured, ambient-pop stuff, with plenty from new EP Nitetime Rainbows (which I scored on vinyl) and fantastic 2009 album Ashes Grammar. Really great turnout for a somewhat challenging, harmonically complex (I think I know what that actually means?) band making their first appearance in town, even if the crowd seemed to dwindle a bit before the encore. Their fairly recently added female lead singers add some good on-stage charisma to the dense musicality (see previous parenthetical) on display. Sorry about calling them "tweegaze" that one time on Pitchfork-- I meant it in the nicest possible way, and anyway I stole the phrase from Eric Marathonpacks!

Blame this man for John Mayer's "Neon."

Jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter was at the Vaud on Feb. 28 with a drummer and a trumpet player, as I recall. He played bass lines and solos at the same time on a seven-string guitar. It was strange seeing the Mews with seats in it, and I'm guessing a lot of the crowd was made up of guitar students looking to watch a master, but then, Hunter and his band really did put on a clinic. The pieces were basically structured around your standard pre-free-jazz lines, with everybody getting a solo and everything really nice and tuneful and bluesy, but within that realm (in which I'm really not an expert) Hunter's playing would seem pretty tough to top. Only complaint: No CDs to buy!

Grab the CD May 18 and it all comes into focus. Magic Eye!

Ames' own the Poison Control Center were at the same venue on Feb. 26-- you were there, too, Chet! Which is good, because I don't know how else to keep saying how impressive I think these guys are. If there's only one Iowa band that I think deserves national acclaim, it's the PCC. They played songs from their forthcoming album, Sad Sour Future (apparently a pun on Stereolab's Fab Four Suture, because the PCC think of this record, like that one, as four EPs). Keep an eye out for their upcoming video, featuring the poppy "Being Gone", written and sung by drummer Donald Curtis (who really will be gone, unfortunately, on the band's upcoming tour, due to Ph.D. work).

So anyway, Chuck, see you soon, probably at Fong's Pizza! Maybe at GDP? Hope you and Angela are both great.

Best,
Marc

P.S. COMING UP:

- the fifth annual Gross Domestic Product at All Play March 27
- Red Pony Clock w/ Zoos of Berlin and Child Bite at Vaudeville Mews March 28
- Pocahaunted at Mission Creek Festival in Iowa City March 29
- Electric Six at Vaudeville Mews March 31
- Booker T of the MGs at Mission Creek Festival March 31
- Xiu Xiu and tUnE-yArDs at Mission Creek Festival March 31
- David Bazan, Headlights, and the Poison Control Center at Mission Creek Festival April 1
- Chuck D, Bomb Squad, Harry Allen: A Discussion on the Making of Public Enemy's Fear of a Black Planet at Mission Creek Festival April 1
- Acid Mothers Temple at Mission Creek Festival April 1
- Bomb Squad with the Hood Internet at Mission Creek Festival April 1
- Christopher the Conquered at Mission Creek Festival April2
- Tim Hecker at Mission Creek Festival April 2
- Little Dragon at Mission Creek Festival April 2
- Meat Puppets with Joe Jack Talcum of Dead Milkmen at Mission Creek Festival April 2
- Camera Obscura with Princeton at Mission Creek Festival April 3
- Grant Hart of Husker Du at Mission Creek Festival April 3
- Love Is All at Vaudeville Mews April 8
- the Morning Benders at Vaudeville Mews April 9
- Dum Dum Girls at Vaudeville Mews April 12
- Cowboy Mouth at Vaudeville Mews April 14
- Julian Casablancas at People's April 23
- Manchester Orchestra and Thrice at People's April 25
- Poison Control Center's Record Release Party at Vaudeville Mews April 30
- Brother Ali at Vaudeville Mews May 2
- MONO and the Twilight Sad at Vaudeville Mews May 18
- Mark Mallman at Vaudeville Mews May 19
- Damien Jurado at Vaudeville Mews June 6
- Keith Urban at Iowa State Fair Aug. 13
- Pat Benatar and REO Speedwagon at Iowa State Fair Aug. 17
- Darius Rucker at Iowa State Fair Aug. 19
- Sugarland at Iowa State Fair Aug. 21
- Sheryl Crow at Iowa State Fair Aug. 22

COULD YOU TELL ME? COULD YOU TELL ME 'BOUT IT?

Headlights? Nah, iPhones don't even have a flash.

Headlights are a four-piece band from Champaign, Illinois, with guitars, keyboard, bass, drums, and both male and female vocals. Ordinarily I would say an "indie pop" band, for whatever that phrase is worth anymore, but I'm worried I've been misrepresenting them. Can we still say "dream pop," or is that phrase meaningless by now, too? Because Headlights' sound, especially live, is a lot more textured and hypnotic than the type of cute directness that "indie pop" probably connotes most of the time. Anyway, enough about sub-genres. They've never really been my thing. I'm no good at them!

"Cherry Tulips" was the song that stood out for me from Headlights' 2008 album, Some Racing, Some Stopping. I wrote one of those bummers of reviews, where you basically like the record but you realize you can't remember that many of the songs, and you don't wanna strongly recommend something to people if you apparently don't like it enough to remember many of the songs, so instead you go for faint praise. I listened a couple of times to their latest, Wildlife, but I had a similar kind of feeling about it and didn't want to pitch them again to say only semi-nice things when maybe somebody else would be nicer-- I liked the overall vibe, though (busting out every over-used word here today, sorry). After Tuesday night's show at the Vaudeville Mews, however, I realize the reason I didn't remember the songs wasn't because they weren't memorable; it's because they were more about prettiness and atmosphere than I was realizing, sort of like how people sometimes ask what's the big deal about Atlas Sound-- the lyrics are so repetitive, the tunes so simple, whatever-- and you just want to grab them and make them see how pretty everything is, his voice, the choice of instruments, the delay-pedal mind games. "Pretty" isn't a word that carries much weight, but it's a nice sound to have rushing across you from the stage, with those Spector-sweet melodies that made me mentally categorize Headlights as indie-pop but also the polished tightness (this on the first night of their tour!) of a skilled rock band and the atmospheric effects of other, more pretentious bands nowhere near as fun as these dudes.

The vocal duties are more evenly divided than I remembered, with moments of three-part harmony between keyboard player Erin Fein, guitarist Tristan Wraight, and bassist Nick Sanborn. I also had forgotten Sanborn's involvement-- he's a member of Polyvinyl labelmates Decibully, a Milwaukee band I have liked since before first seeing them at Chicago's Schubas in, like, January 2003 (I was also digging on related bands Camden, who were sort of emo-rock parallel to-- but artier and probably more British-inspired than-- Death Cab for Cutie, and New Sense, an underrated synth-pop combo... really need to get out those CDs again). I see now Headlights have billed themselves as "Indie Rock for People Who Love Pop", and that's really more on the mark than you might think; they filter well-played catchiness through the slightly abstract distance that artists like Deerhunter or Cass McCombs, say, might bring to Everly Brothers or Roy Orbison stylings. And when you do notice the lyrics behind the mesmerizing guitar repetitions, you stumble across everyday torments and grand concepts, presented with quietly devastating minimalism. Ooooh oooh oooh.

They played "Cherry Tulips". And, despite worries about running past their early set's 9 p.m. ending time, they played a few more, too. I may still not remember that many of the songs until I revisit the CDs again, but now I know why. I was impressed, pleased, and humbled, and I had a good time. This was Headlights' third show in Des Moines, I'm told, and I hope they'll come back-- it's probably also a good sign that the quality bands I've seen make return trips here always seem to keep attracting larger and larger audiences with each visit.

I missed Hanwell because of dinner-- I'll be seeing them again at their CD release party March 13-- but opener Canby was also a nice surprise. I didn't realize that was the Envy Corps' Scott Yoshimura, playing some of the songs I saw him do at Dogtown Fest in Des Moines' Drake area this summer, when he was calling the project Menlo. That time Yoshimura had a band, but the other night he was just solo with a guitar. The super-sincere "With the World on a Stick" caught my ear at Dogtown Fest, as a lovely folk-pop ballad that could appeal to fans of anything from Bright Eyes' I'm Wide Awake It's Morning to Jose Gonzalez, and it struck me as a highlight again at the Vaudeville Mews. "I'm like every other guy who can play the guitar," Yoshimura acknowleges. "I'll write a song for you, even if it's no good/ 'Cause for once I know what I'm doing." If you can't relate to that, you're probably over-confident. Or I guess maybe you just don't write songs for people on the guitar. But anyway, good local music.

One for the Team: good at the Vaud lately, too.

Coming up: Poison Control Center at Vaudeville Mews Feb. 26, Cloud Cult at Grinnell Feb. 27, Charlie Hunter at Vaudeville Mews Feb. 28,  A Sunny Day in Glasgow w/ Wolves in the Attic at Vaudeville Mews March 4, Heligoats at Vaudeville Mews March 5, We All Have Hooks for Hands w/ One for the Team at Vaudeville Mews March 8, Vivian Girls at Grinnell March 13, Hanwell's EP release show with Patrick Fleming and Ely Falls at Vaudeville Mews also March 13 (so I won't be at Vivian Girls, this means... but just FYI!), the fifth annual Gross Domestic Product at All Play March 27, Red Pony Clock w/ Zoos of Berlin and Child Bite at Vaudeville Mews March 28 (awesome poster btw, guys!), Electric Six at Vaudeville Mews March 31, Love Is All at Vaudeville Mews April 8, the Morning Benders at Vaudeville Mews April 9, Dum Dum Girls at Vaudeville Mews April 12 (not 11 as I previously posted), Poison Control Center's Record Release Party at Vaudeville Mews April 30, Brother Ali at Vaudeville Mews May 2, MONO and the Twilight Sad at Vaudeville Mews May 18

C30, C60, C90, Go!

Between proper, Des Moines-focused updates, would you please indulge me in a little bit of self-promotion? Pitchfork ran a feature of mine today examining the current underground cassette culture: "This Is Not a Mixtape." I've already been posting about it on my Twitter account, and I'm publishing extended comments from most of the interview sources on my Tumblr blog for the truly adventurous-- so I'm sorry if you're seeing this for the second (or third!) time. But I'm really happy with how the piece turned out, and I definitely wanted to bring it to the attention to anybody who might be a casual reader of this blog.

Headlights show tomorrow at Vaudeville Mews -- more show reviews soon (possibly including quick recaps of Patrick Fleming, One for the Team, and the Rugbies at Ames Progressive and the Vaud in the past couple of weeks-- sadly missed most of Christopher the Conquered's Ames Progressive set because my lovely driver had to get to sleep to teach the next morning). (Speaking of Christopher the Conquered, check out this tour blog by new drummer and all-around good dude Derek Lambert-- they played Mercury Lounge in NYC on Friday night!!!)