Duran Duran – The Mann Center, Philadelphia

It is 2008, so I guess the reaction I got for this was to be expected, even if it would’ve made me the coolest kid I know in 1983. Thursday night I got to see the pop rock legends known as Duran Duran play at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia. When I told people about my attendance beforehand, the typical reaction was a confused look followed by giggling. I’m OK with that, though, because I get the last laugh: Duran Duran put on an incredible show.

Openers Your Vegas got the crowd, mostly those d’un certain âge, pumped with their dreamlike rock sound and incredible energy, despite a fracture heel suffered by front man Coyle Girelli. Anticipation was high enough that in between sets, the audience screamed at the change of a light on stage, believing it a sign that Duran Duran was set to come out and begin their set. Simon Le Bon, Nick Rhodes, Jon Taylor and Roger Taylor came on stage to an explosion of sound from the crowd. The beginning of the set featured the namesake of both the current tour and the band’s latest album, “Red Carpet Massacre” as well as notable hit “Hungry Like The Wolf.”

Throughout Duran Duran’s first set, the audience danced non-stop. Le Bon performed high kicks in the air like a champ and bassist Taylor constantly moved about the stage. The energy exhibited by Duran Duran was phenomenal, but the audience gave the band a run for their money. An hour-long dance fest ensued to the utmost pleasure of every single person in attendance; there was no better place to be and no better people to be with.

Before launching into “Save A Prayer,” Le Bon encouraged the audience to pull out and open their cell phones to see “that square of light” so that they could create their own stars within the Mann Center. The venue became its own miniature galaxy for the five and a half minutes of “Save A Prayer.” The remainder of the instrumental set rocked hard, keeping the audience 100% energized for the electronic set, complete with dual turntables with large lit up D’s, that followed. The beats were fierce and the crowd managed to keep moving to them, despite having had only a 3 minute rest in between sets.

Duran Duran’s 27 year history only plays in their favor. They’ve mastered an array of musical styles and tightly pull them all off during their live show. Le Bon, Rhodes, and the Taylors still possess the energy, intensity and enthusiasm they began their career with in 1980. The 22 date North American stint ends at the end of this month, with two shows at Central Park’s Summer Stage in New York City. The band will then head across the pond to Europe for a slew of dates in Europe.

If Duran Duran is headed your way, do not pass up the chance to see them live, especially if you like to dance. Relive the best of what the 80s had to offer, as well as amazing music from the 90s through today, with Duran Duran.

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Tour Dates:
May 24 – Atlantis/Paradise Island (Bahamas)
May 27 – Merriweather Post Pavilion/Columbia, Maryland
May 28 – Agganis Arena/Boston, Massachusetts
May 30 – Central Park Summerstage/New York City, New York
May 31 – Central Park Summerstage/New York City, New York
Jun 12 – Palais Nikaia/Nice
Jun 18 – Cirque Royal/Brussels
Jun 19 – Heineken Music Hall/Amsterdam
Jun 21 – Folkeparken/Hjørring, Nordjylland
Jun 22 – KB Hall/Copenhagen
Jul 03 – O2 Arena/London
Jul 05 – Liverpool Echo Arena/Liverpool
Jul 06 – Nottingham Arena/Nottingham
Jul 07 – NIA/Birmingham
Jul 10 – Super Bock Super Rock Festival/Lisbon
Jul 12 – Maag Music Hall/Zurich
Jul 13 – The Gasometer/Vienna
Jul 15 – Esedra – Palazzo Tè/Mantova
Jul 16 – Roma Rock Festival/Roma
Jul 18 – Pala de André/Ravenna
Jul 19 – Idr O Scalo/Milano
Jul 20 – Spiaggia Del Faro/Jesolo
Jul 22 – Arena Flegrea/Napoli
Jul 23 – Piazza Indipendenza/Reggio Calabria
Jul 26 – Luxol Parade Ground/Pembroke

Duran Duran: website | myspace

Joan of Arc – Boo!Human

Tim, Mike and Nate Kinsella are musical chameleons. Their resumes boast many of your favorite bands or, if you’re not old enough, your favorite bands’ influences. The brothers, having fully matured, have decidedly created their own pace with creating music and are now offering a new album through their classic project Joan of Arc on Polyvinyl Records. This record, Boo Human, is a creation of the Kinsellas, fellow bandmates Bobby Burg and Sam Zurick and a slew of musician friends.

Joan of Arc took a stack of songs and fashioned a sign-up sheet allowing the album’s participants to drop into the recording studio whenever they could over the course of a week to collaborate on Boo!Human. Fourteen contributors to the album include musicians who have previously collaborated with Wilco, Iron & Wine, Beth Orton and more, making each track on the album wonderfully unique while maintaining classic Joan of Arc appeal.

Much of Boo!Human is rather lo-fi and sounds a great deal like another Kinsella project, American Football, exemplified in “Laughter Reflected Back,” “A Tell-Tale Penis” (download) and “If There Was A Time #1.” The vocals on the album are often very lo-fi or stressed, turning into a falsetto in which notes attempted aren’t always reached. The lo-fi quality of the vocals works best in “Just Pack or Unpack” as a contrast to the hi-fi electric music underneath. Warbled and warped guitar riffs begin the song then slow down becoming staccato then syncopated until no actual beat is discernible. Snare drum and cymbal crashes join in with the muddied guitar and the song ends as a barrage of noise.

As in “Just Pack or Unpack,” a warping effect takes over the keys in “Lying and Cheating Mind,” which also features random static, distortion and computer-like beeps, “Vine On A Wire,” “If There Was A Time #1” and “The Surrender #1.” The latter three also contain instrumentation that is far too repetitive, taking the songs from interesting to boring within the first two minutes. Venturing into more interesting territory is “Everywhere I Go” with its zillion different percussion instruments, plucky guitar and finger snaps. The haunting seriousness and poetry of “9/11 2” and the twinkling percussion in “Insects Don’t Eat Bananas” also veers away from tiresome repetition.

Joan of Arc has put together an extremely unique album that shies away from conventional recording methods lending to itself to a lack of cohesiveness, yet it manages to work for Kinsella and company. Boo!Human will be available on Polyvinyl Records May 20, 2008.

Tracklisting:
01. Shown and Told
02. Laughter Reflected Back
03. Just Pack or Unpack
04. 9/11 2
05. A Tell-Tale Penis
06. Everywhere I Go
07. Vine on a Wire
08. Insects Don’t Eat Bananas
09. Lying and Cheating Mind
10. If There Was a Time #1
11. The Surrender #1
12. If There Was a Time #2
13. The Surrender #2
14. So-And-So

Joan of Arc: website | myspace | download “A Tell-Tale Penis”
Polyvinyl Records: website | myspace

Liz Phair Remastered

To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the acclaimed Exile in Guyville, Liz Phair will be reissuing a special edition of the disc on ATO Records on June 24th. You can preview the remastered material by downloading “Fuck and Run” here! The special edition will feature 4 never before released B sides and the exclusive DVD Guyville Redux. This reissue will be followed by a brand new studio album to drop this fall, also on ATO Records.

The previously out of print Exit in Guyville will be available on CD, vinyl and (for the first time!) in a digital format come June 24th. The special B sides on this re-release will be “Ant in Alaska,” with Phair simply accompanying herself on guitar, “Wild Thing,” wherein she uses the melody and central line of The Troggs‘ 1966 #1 hit as a jumping off point for an otherwise all-original song, “Say You,” which features Phair and a full band, and an untitled instrumental with Liz on guitar.

The special release DVD, included with the reissued album, Guyville Redux, features an introduction by Dave Matthews, founder/co-owner of ATO Records. Liz and the “guys” of Guyville take us back to the making of the album, the male-dominated, Chicago independent music scene of the early 1990’s (which included Urge Overkill, Material Issue, and Smashing Pumpkins), and the Wicker Park neighborhood where it all happened. Phair interviews Gerard Cosloy and Chris Lombardi of Matador Records, which originally released the record, famed indie producer Steve Albini, Ira Glass of NPR‘s “This American Life,” John Henderson of the elusive indie label Feel Good All Over, Brad Wood (producer of Exile In Guyville), John Cusack (who founded the Chicago avant-garde theater group New Crime Productions), Urge Overkill, and more.

Conceived as a song-by-song response to the Rolling Stones‘ Exile on Main Street, Exile in Guyville was released in 1993, and ranked #1 that year on both the Village Voice “Pazz & Jop” critics poll and Spin magazine’s year-end critics poll. Incredibly influential to this day, its place as a seminal rock album has been reaffirmed by its inclusion in countless historical “best of” lists over the past 15 years, including: “Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time,” Spin’s “100 Greatest Albums, 1985-2005,” Rolling Stone’s “Women in Rock (the 50 essential albums),” Blender’s “Best Indie Rock Albums of All Time,” Pitchfork’s “Top 100 Albums of the 1990’s,” and VH1’s “Greatest Albums Of All Time,” to name just a few.

Original tracklist:
01. 6’1″
02. Help Me Mary
03. Glory
04. Dance of the Seven Veils
05. Never Said
06. Soap Star Joe
07. Explain It to Me
08. Canary
09. Mesmerizing
10. Fuck and Run // stream!
11. Girls! Girls! Girls!
12. Divorce Song
13. Shatter
14. Flower
15. Johnny Sunshine
16. Gunshy
17. Stratford-on-Guy
18. Strange Loop

Bonus tracks:
19. Ant in Alaska
20. Wild Thing
21. Say You
22. [Untitled instrumental]

Liz Phair: website | myspace | download “Fuck and Run” remastered

Jimmy Eat World Summer Tour, Reissue "Bleed American"

Jimmy Eat World, despite only recently completing an extensive co-headline tour with Paramore, is planning a European tour for June (having already toured Europe and Japan earlier this year), and a special hometown show at Phoenix’s Dodge Theater on June 18th. In addition, the band has announced a new string of July tour dates (below) in the US and Canada. All in the name of supporting their latest album Chase This Light.

All shows go on sale this weekend. Check the band’s official site for ticket info.

Jimmy Eat World has also just released a new two-disc deluxe edition of their breakthrough album Bleed American. Originally released in 2001, the album features the smash hits “The Middle”, “Sweetness”, and “A Praise Chorus”. Bleed American catapulted the band to international stardom and is undoubtedly one of the decade’s landmark rock albums. The new deluxe edition of Bleed American features a wide range of b-sides and bonus tracks, as well “Your House 2007”, a new recording and re-imagining of the Bleed American track.

Tour Dates:
June 18 – Phoenix, AZ – Dodge Theater
July 01 – Montreal, QC – Le Medley
July 03 – Kitchener, ON – Elements
July 04 – Toronto, ON – Sound Academy
July 05 – Pontiac, MI – The Crofoot
July 07 – Minneapolis, MN – First Avenue
July 08 – Winnipeg, MB – Burton Cummings Theatre
July 09 – Saskatoon, SK – Odeon Events Centre
July 11 – Edmonton, AB – Edmonton Events Centre
July 12 – Calgary, AB – Flames Central
July 14 – Vancouver, BC – Croation Cultural Center
July 15 – Seattle, WA – Showbox
July 16 – Portland, OR – Roseland Theatre
July 18 – San Francisco, CA – Fillmore

Jimmy Eat World: website | myspace