Zulu Report: Loving Fan Death & Waiting For Devendra Banhart

Our friends over at Kitsilano’s Zulu Records once again present their weekly Scout feature, the Zulu Report. Within, staff from the West 4th music store provide The Track, the song that is on heavy rotation that week; The Playlist, which is pretty self-explanatory; The Gig, the must see show of the week; and The Glance, a view ahead to music on the horizon. From their ears to yours, enjoy…

The Track

The tune currently on heavy rotation…

BROKEN BELLS | “The High Road” from the album Broken Bells on Sony Music.

Broken Bells – heard of them? They’re what you’d call an Indie Rock Super Group, except there’s only two of them, so maybe their more of a Dynamic Duo. The Bells consist of the ever dynamic, chameleon-like musician-producer Danger Mouse and James Mercer, frontman for Aughties powerhouse indie rock band The Shins. Seems like kind of an unlikely pairing at first, but upon listening to a few of these jams I’m totally convinced of their intentions. It’s just good, morose, spacey pop. And really, looking back over the Mouse’s career, it’s clear that he never intended to stick strictly within the hip-hop world. Wasn’t his Gray Album mash-up of Jay Z and the White Album essentially a premonition of the po-mo flattening of musical genres, the gray washout that bleaches over all western facets of culture and practice? Rolling Stone calls this “wistful space-pop gorgeousness,” but I call it Fredric Jameson theory-rock. Either way you cut it, it’s good.

The Playlist

TAKEN FROM ZULU STAFF TOP 10 of 2009

Click the links for some audible flavour…

FAN DEATH A Coin For The Well (Last Gang)
Vancouver by way of NY sex-disco for sweaty Saturday night romps and adventures.

BARDO POND Bufo Alvarious (Fire)
Philly’s finest drugged out, hazy-eyed dreamers wake from a hash-nap to boil some tea and delve into some heavy electro-astral investigations.

CLOGS The Creatures In The Garden Of Lady Walton (Brassland)
Instrumental, almost classical sound greatness from members of The National, sounding fresh and inventive.

ROGUE WAVE Permalight (Brushfire)
Rogue Waves’ much anticipated return to the public eye finds them older, wiser, and ready to teach the kids something about the human condition.

SHOUT OUT LOUDS Work (Merge)
Merge delivers another commodity destined to rise to the top of the indie rock stock exchange and make their shareholders very happy.

REAL ESTATE s/t (Woodsist)
New Jersey nice boys jingle-jangle the soul of Malkmus back into working order.

SADE Soldier Of Love (Sony)
Hot damn, the high priestess of soul-jazz-pop returns to claim her rightful place: the throne of pop. Sade, you melt me.

SMITH WESTERNS S/t (Hozac)
A couple of dudes barely out of their teens strike upon the a delightful blend of T-Rex strut and Count Five skronk.

YELLOW SWANS Going Places (Type)
The final offering from PDX’s mighty Yellow Swans is a glorious, almost devotional bliss-out of warm, blue gray astral skree. Very necessary.

For more ZULU STAFF TOP 10 of 2009 check http://www.zulurecords.com/

The Gig

Devendra Banhart and the Grogs Friday March 19th at The Commodore.

When Banhart rolls into town it’s always worth your while to check it out if for no other reason than that you don’t know if the show is going to be a night of spectacular music or a spectacular disaster. The last time Banhart and his gang of merry, hairy pranksters rolled into town it was a bit of both. I recall at one point how an audience member was invited to get up on stage and play his own song, while Banhart and the gang took a smoke break?! Hippydippy-ness aside, Banhart can be relied on to bring the WTF-factor that so many live shows sorely lack. To see that kind of drama unfold at the Cobalt or Pat’s is expected, but in a Commodore setting it becomes something really special. Trust me.

The Glance

Fine local shows on the immediate horizon…

Wed MAR 17

DRAGONETTE – COMMODORE

Thu MAR 18

JAY MALINOWSKI + KINNIE STAR – BILTMORE
FREESTYLERS – SHINE
JIMPSTER – FORTUNE

Fri MAR 19

JOHN DIGWEED – CELEBRITIES

Sat MAR 20

RAPHAEL SAADIQ & INDIA AIRE – ORPHEUM
DEVENDRA BANHART + The Grogs – COMMODORE
IMMACULATE MACHINES w/ Sun Wizard + A Pale Blue – BILTMORE
KREATOR – RICKSHAW