Watch: David Byrne & St. Vincent - "Who"

With David Byrne and St. Vincent's collaborative album Love This Giant out next week and an album stream already up, it's certainly about time we got a video for the thing. And if case you weren't sure their partnership would churn out something both massively quirky but all together stunning, well clearly you don't know the two of them. Their video for "Who" is no exception.

Beginning with what looks like a car accident, David Byrne encounters Annie Clark lying face up in front of his car. After checking to see if she's alright, he moves her closer to his car while he appears to be pondering what to do. And then things start to spiral a little into absurdity. There's a good old dance party as David Byrne starts dancing and Annie Clark mimics him at a safe space. And then several different versions of the accident in question begin to play out so that you're not too sure what actually happened. It's kind of a trip made all the more wonderful and confoundingly amazing by the brass-laden "Who" soundtracking the whole thing.

Watch David Byrne and St. Vincent's video for "Who" directed by Martin de Thurah:

Pitstop: Basia Bulat

I'm a little ashamed that it took me about 2 years to even mention Canadian singer/songwriter Basia Bulat. I was reintroduced to her Saturday night as she was one of the two splendid openers at Bowerbirds Music Hall of Williamburg show. Before having watched her play a Tiny Desk concert on NPR and before that randomly stumbling upon her at Central Park Summerstage as she opened up for St. Vincent along with tUnE-yArDs. And while I more or less missed her whole set at Summerstage due to getting lost and being unable to find the stage for an embarrassingly length of time, the sounds of her autoharp are ultimately what led me and a friend safely to the show.

While Basia has two albums out at present, Oh, My Darling and Heart of My Own, Basia is probably best experienced live. There you'll witness her skill with a variety of folk instruments; the aforementioned autoharp, hammered dulcimer, guitar, and even a small lute/ukulele-like instrument called the charango. All of these Basia plays with nimble fingers you have to see to believe all the while belting out an utterly captivating array of tunes with an absolutely demolishing amount of vocal power. While Bulat normally plays with a band, this time she went solo and the result were far more impressive I'm sure. More than holding her own as she accompanied herself flawlessly. 

Basia Bulat's live set is transportive, magical, and awe-inspiring as she proves herself a more than competent storyteller, spinning tales which whether real or not carry a deeply emotional resonance. While this feat is also achieved quite masterfully on her albums, it's the unbridled energy unleashed at just the right moments that hit you sorely in the heart and make you weak in the knees.   

Basia Bulat is currently putting the finish touches on her latest full-length record and I for one couldn't be more excited. Whether or not it incorporates more of her live energy, throws in an even more eclectic mix of instruments, or is even just more of the same, it's bound to be a good. And will be more of a reason for her to bring her enchanting live show to a city near you so do yourself a favor an start acquainting yourself now so you don't regret missing out. 

Until then you can listen to her two previous albums Oh, My Darling and Heart of My Own on Spotify.

David Byrne & St. Vincent - "Who"

It's really hard to imagine a time when St. Vincent wasn't utterly knocking my socks off but there was indeed a time when that was true. Purely because I hadn't found her yet. And after subduing  string ensembles for Actor and taming newly minted eclectic chamber group yMusic for "Proven Badlands", a extrapolation of Actor's "The Sequel" on yMusic's debut Beautiful Mechanical, Annie Clark has set her sights on the wily brass band on her collaboration with the legendary David Byrne for Love This Giant.

What started a simple collaboration and act of charity for Housing Works has turned into a full-fledged album and I'm sure every fan of good music is currently fan-girl/boy-ing out right now. It's almost a given that the album is going to be a work of art and pop goodness but we don't even have to wait for see. Not entirely anyway. Today, the first peek at the album went live so we can all hear it.

Feast your ears on "Who", an outrageous almost offensively awesome pop jam from the staggeringly brilliant minds of David Byrne and St. Vincent.




David Byrne & St. Vincent's Love This Giant is out September 11th on 4AD/Todo Mundo.

Watch: St. Vincent - "Cheerleader"

I have no idea who comes of up with all the concepts behind all of St. Vincent's video but they deserve all the money they are probably getting paid. The latest cut from St. Vincent's Strange Mercy, "Cheerleader" places Clark's bare bones ballad in an appropriate venue - an art gallery. Annie Clark is one of the installations, put on display for people to watch and marvel until she decides she's had enough of that and attempts to leave when chaos ensues. It's also a play on her rather diminutive stature as she gets to be literally larger than life. Beautifully shot and wonderfully executed, "Cheerleader" just makes me all the more excited to see what St. Vincent's planning next.

Watch the video for "Cheerleader":
  

All Around Sound's Favorite Tracks of 2011

Strangely enough, I remember when a year ago when I swore I would never do a Best Of list. At least not in the way that some blogs do there. Rehashing old reviews and offering nothing new - that might work for some but it's not my style. And yet, Best Of lists are a great way to discover some great music you might've missed throughout the year or might've forgotten about. So my hope is that by throwing my own hat into the Best Of ring I can help do one of those things for you. Enjoy my first Best Of list or more aptly put, my favorite 15 tracks of 2011.

15) The Deloreans - "Buffalo", "American Craze"
Before Sam at MiddleClassWhiteNoise introduced me to The Deloreans, I wasn't aware there was anything of note in Kentucky. Let alone the three stellar bands I was later introduced to from Louisville. An ode to old-fashioned American decadence and a hodge-podge of different styles, practically any song on the album is worthy of a slot and definitely necessary listening but what set "Buffalo" apart is its multi-faceted nature. Fun and frenetic for the choruses but subtle and restrained for the verses, the track utilizes the intense energy of "American Craze" without sacrificing any of the thematic content.



14) North Highlands - "Roundhouse", Wild One
For an album named Wild One, there's actually a shortage of songs that are actually all that unchained and yet that works for North Highlands. Brenda Malvini's soft, delicate vocals are inviting and the band, broad and sweeping around her, pull you in like ocean waves. Malvini quiet coo in "Roundhouse" "If I was wild, if I was brave..." explains a bit, and ends up far more effective than a roar. The track pulses with an infectious energy while maintaining an almost stoic control before there's an unexpected rush, the opening of the floodgates and you're smacked with feeling. The track tells a story but is also intensely danceable. The best of both worlds.



13) The Dodos - "Good", No Color
When I first read that Neko Case would be contributing vocals to the new Dodos album I regarded it with a great deal of surprise and confusion. Meric Long's voice somehow fits the percussion-heavy folk realm the two inhabit but how would Neko Case's translate? Incredibly well. And yet, the tracks where she was barely there- a mostly quiet spectre in the background were the tracks I enjoyed most. When she shouts and harmonizes on "Good" it's almost too much good to bear. "Good" is great because it's driving, hard-hitting, with an astonishing amount of simplicity but effortless precise and no doubt memorable. It's 6 minutes long but far from monotonous - something always catching your ear to keep you from just drifting off.
Good by The Dodos by Mute-Song

12) Hello MTN - "Suitcase Song", Tour EP
Portland folk duo Hello MTN have been working on an album for better part of the year, taking breaks pretty much solely to tour. Luckily, the duo decided to make a four song EP so concertgoers would have something tangible to hold onto and things just kind of spiraled from there. "Suitcase Song" might seem like a bit of a novelty (being that the song features an actual suitcase as the percussion) but the song is positively awash with emotion. The song makes use of the duo's seemingly endless array of talents and features remarkable musical interludes between verses.



11) Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers - "We Are Everything", On Being
It's hard to fathom the possibility of not seeing Joe Hertler and his band in that small mostly empty bar at the start of my CMJ but I did and for that I'm exceedingly glad. On Being shows off Joe Hertler's deft songwriting chops and a wisdom far beyond his years with "We Are Everything" functioning as a delightfully enjoyable cog in Joe Hertler's conceptualized vision. While songs on On Being wrestles with bigger picture ideas and pseudo-religious themes, "We Are Everything" notes how tiny humans are in the grand scheme of things when compared to the limitless wonders of the universe and yet, does so with nary a heavy-hand. Instead with his rich imagery and patience, Joe Hertler creates something truly soul-stirring.




10) Left With Pictures, "June", In Time
Last year, British chamber pop quintet Left With Pictures challenged themselves to the great songwriting feat of writing a song a month as part of their In Time project. Not only did they have to have a fully developed song that would be premiered by Gideon Coe on BBC 6Music on the last Monday of each month but they also had to have a finished video which they would post the next day. For 2010, I had no greater joy than when a brand new Left With Pictures track was revealed as each month their songwriting seemed to get better and better especially when they reached months without an obvious inspiration. One of my favorite tracks from this was "June", inspired in part by the advent of summer but with no obvious references to it. Instead "June", the month it was composed for, is personified as a beautiful girl whom has utterly enchanted the narrator. The song is as big as it's claims that a thousand battle ships would launch for her - the band pulling out all their songwriting chops to brilliant effect to create an upbeat romp full of positively delightful musical moments.


9) tUnE-yArDs - "Bizness", W H O K I L L
My introduction to "Bizness" happened live at tUnE-yArDs' concert in Central Park about a year and a half ago. There she performed almost all the sounds that weren't created by bassist Nate Brenner or with her own drums sticks with her own mouth (besides the brass band she had join her for a couple songs). It was exceptionally impressive. So when I heard the new version where those vocal effects were replaced with studio-processed machine sounds I was a little disappointed. And yet, even with that little let down, the infectiously catch nature of "Bizness" won out. It takes some of the best moments of her 2009 debut and amplifies them about tenfold. Garbus' decision to studio record affords the track with increased accessibility but also allowed her to throw some great things onto it (like the aforementioned brass band).
tUnE-yArDs - Bizness (4AD) by Ragged Words

8) The Head and the Heart - "Rivers and Roads", The Head and the Heart
During an intimately live show at Pianos in September, I had an epiphany: Spunky Seattle folk sextet The Head and the Heart write some pretty sad songs. This might seem like a no-brainer or even downright wrong to you but underneath their fun, poppy arrangements are lyrics about feeling out of place and alone whether you're far from from or stuck in your hometown. And yet there's a shortage songs on the album where this emotion is just left to its own devices - not played with by the groups various band members and their skilled arrangements. "Rivers and Road" is one of those rare songs that's not upbeat and makes no attempts to be. You don't get rapped up in the feel of the song and think it's about something else entirely - no, instead you get this wonderful moment of heart-on-your-sleeve confession carried from a purely vocal standpoint. Guitarist/vocalist Josiah Johnson gets his moment to shine while the rest of the band helpfully keep tempo and Jonathan Russell and Charity Rose Thielen add backup harmonies. And it's all quite lovely and good and makes for a nice song and then in an utterly unexpected moment Charity takes the helm with powerhouse vocals radiating with soul and you're a puddle on the floor. It elevates the already good song to an absolutely other plane of greatness and tugs at each and every one of your heartstrings.
Rivers and Roads by ImpressYourPeers

7) Carter Tanton - "Murderous Joy", Freeclouds
It strangely alright that, like a lot of my musical discoveries, Carter Tanton was a case of being at the right place at the right time. Because Tanton's "Murderous Joy" might just be one of the best songs I've heard in awhile and especially was about a month ago when I was introduced to it. It's catchy in an excitedly nonchalant way - a brilliant masterpiece of a song that single-handedly proved Carter Tanton and an able songwriter to me. There's an ineffable greatness about it - it ebbs and flows at precisely the right moments; its simple with unassumingly intelligent turns of phrase and a pervading sense of calm nostalgia.
01 MURDEROUS JOY by NYLONmag

6) Tallest Man on Earth - "Weather of A Killing Kind", Adult Swim Singles Program 2011
After the release of The Tallest Man on Earth's sophomore album The Wild Hunt and subsequent Sometimes The Blues Is Just A Passing Bird EP just a couple months after last year I figured we'd be done with any new Tallest Man for awhile. So when Adult Swim released a brand new Tallest Man track as part of its Single Program this summer I was incredibly surprised and equally as appreciative. It's quintessential Tallest Man with his trademark rasp and complex fingerpicking but also with beautiful melodies.
The Tallest Man on Earth - Weather of a Killing Kind by All Around Sound Blog

5) St. Vincent - "Cruel", Strange Mercy
When I first heard St. Vincent's music, I remember being strangely neutral about it. Albeit my first foray was at a live show that Annie Clark herself was disappointed in. But earlier this year when Annie Clark teased Strange Mercy via Twitter-fueled Youtube videos, color me intrigued. I revisted her older stuff and found myself actually really liking it. When "Surgeon" dropped, I ate it up and asked immediately for more. Then "Cruel" came out. This track took the big rock licks that were my favorite part of "Surgeon" and made a whole song of it. It's big, bold, and strangely enough not in your face. Annie Clark knows subtlety. She's made a career of wink-wink nudge-nudge moments and yet, "Cruel" is subtle in a brand new way. It's vunerable and open with a shouted from the mountaintops vibe that she tones down into something far more marvelous. It's catchy without trading in any of the necessary emotion and virtuosic without being overly showy.
St. Vincent - Cruel by Posh Magazine

4) Fleet Foxes - "Grown Ocean", Helplessness Blues
Fleet Foxes' Helplessness Blues is arguably one of the best things to come out of this year. Especially when you realize it almost didn't. But Robin Pecknold's musical perfectionism ended up creating one of the greatest albums of the year - one that tackles an important theme of growing up. One of the best songs on Helplessness Blues is no doubt "Grown Ocean", with it's driving drums and bass, not to mention it's place as the cathartic end to an album with heaps to say and even more questions to ask. Everything you love about Fleet Foxes spills out in this track - Robin Pecknold and the band's lovely songcraft, everpresent nature imagery, soul-gripping vocal harmonies. The whole thing is utterly magical, even the wonderfully little ellipses that ends the track (and album).
Fleet Foxes - Grown Ocean by subpop

3) Marissa Nadler - "In Your Lair, Bear", Marissa Nadler
If I had made this list about a week ago, this track wouldn't be here. But since sitting down with Marissa Nadler's self-titled I've found this song has completely taken over my life. Since I heard the opening strains of the album's opening track, I've hardly been able to listen to much else. It's slowly but surely consuming me. And yet, isn't that exactly what our favorite songs do? With her slow, lilting siren song Marissa Nadler has charmed her way not only onto the list but also pretty high on my favorites list. "In Your Lair, Bear", with it's supple melodic lines and yawny unraveling narrative is bewilderingly beautiful. Not a bad song to have utterly take over your life, actually.



2) Laura Marling - "Flicker and Fail", A Creature I Don't Know (Bonus Version)
I was first introduced to the live version of this song which Laura Marling debuted at the Radio 2 Folk Awards early this year and I was struck by how good it is. When describing Laura Marling's music calling it "good" seems kind of like kind of a moot point but considering that half the song is an old song her father wrote and the rest is just things she fixed around it, I was surprised by how well it all seemed to go together. Laura Marling has always been described as being a mature songwriter but this song left me completely floored. Still does. For all the conceptualizing on I Speak Because I Can and A Creature I Don't Know, this track hit me square in the heart. Not only did it sound amazing, like all of Marling songs, but it captured all the elements I loved about Marling and elevated them to the next level - her witty turns of phrase? Present. Her intricate guitar melodies? Present. It contains the emotional side-stepping Marling has started to make her songwriting staple and yet, does in a manner that doesn't make you question it. "Flicker and Fail" shows a decidedly better Laura Marling that was hinted at in some of the best tracks on A Creature I Don't Know and her decision to include it (albeit as a bonus track) shows that she knows this too.


1) ARMS - "Heat & Hot Water", Summer Skills
"Heat & Hot Water" might not have been the first song I heard from ARMS (that slot is reserved for "Emily Sue, Cont'd") but it was the song that launched my year-long obsession with all things ARMS related. So much storytelling is packed into 4 minutes of vibrant, visceral songwriting not to mention so many delicate musical ornaments and intricate textural strokes. While practically any song from Summer Skills could've made it on this list, "Heat & Hot Water" is my definitive ARMS song. The moment on their 2010 EP where I realized I needed to know more, and probably my most listened to track of the whole entire year of 2011. Not to mention a surefire contender for one of my favorite songs ever written ever.



Honorable Mentions:
Conveyor - Sun Ray, Sun Ray EP
The Middle East - "Hunger Song", I Want That You Are Always Happy
Laura Marling - "Don't Ask Me Why"/"Salinas" A Creature I Don't Know
Sondre Lerche - "When the River", Sondre Lerche
The Voluntary Butler Scheme - "Don't Rely On It, Don't Count on It", The Grandad Galaxy

St. Vincent - Strange Mercy (2011)

I became acquainted with St. Vincent about a year ago when I went to see tUnE-yArDs at Central Park Summerstage; completely indifferent to the fact that St. Vincent was the headliner. After witnessing her rousing live show, I decided to give her a real shot and have since bonded with 2009’s Actor after many extensive listens. So when news of a new album started to emerge I got incredibly excited; couple that with a pretty awesome promo campaign via Twitter, the revealing of the brilliant first single “Surgeon”, and an absolutely incredible article in Under the Radar and I was expecting the best album of the year in Strange Mercy.

For me, Strange Mercy was a definite grower. There are enough great ideas that it’s not quite a disappointment but the strongest songs on the album are those that we’ve already been introduced to before i.e. “Surgeon” and “Cruel”. The other songs require a certain amount of patient listening before you realize they're not just random throwaway songs. It would be easy for Clark to hide behind her big guitar licks or her pretty, shimmering vocals but this time out they’re tinged with enough real emotion – real hurt and real feeling – that you want to put in the work to understand them and that’s where the random line that makes it all make sense presents itself. In this Clark has created an album that compelling enough for multiple listens, despite the fact that not all the songs merit endless replays. Clark’s more emotionally intense tracks “Cheerleader” and “Strange Mercy” require way more effort than fast-paced jaunts “Chloe in the Afternoon”, “Northern Lights”, and “Hysterical Strength” while “Neutered Fruit” and “Year of the Tiger” only need about one focused listen before you get the point.

While Strange Mercy disposes of some of the aspects listeners might have loved about Annie Clark, it also introduces them to a side of her they’ve never seen before. Gone is the grand cinematic scope of Actor, the wry lyrical wit of Marry Me, and Clark’s flippant presentation of some rather dark subjects. Instead we gain a newfound intimacy that’s personal but not claustrophobic juxtaposed with the lovely melodies and coarse musical moments of St. Vincent past all contained within one complex, intricate tangle. Though every song on Strange Mercy isn’t exactly a masterpiece, they all stick to the overall idea of displaying a rawer, open Clark and the album as a whole definitely benefits from it.

St. Vincent premieres new song and video "Cruel"

With only two and a half weeks until the release of her new album Strange Mercy, St. Vincent gives us a further glance into the new album and her psyche with the video for "Cruel". In it, St. Vincent is just a regular gas station customer who encounters a little girl in a wheelchair. Any "aw"-inspiring cuteness is destroyed when you realize it's all just a ploy to distract Annie Clark so she can be abducted. A sack thrown over her head, Clark is brought to a random house and forced to be their mother figure. However, in true St. Vincent fashion all is not sunshine and daisies. Clark is forced to suffer indignation after indignation as the kids torment her in a variety of ways (the most jarring of which is holding her head underwater while she bathes) and proves to be quite the bad homemaker. Deciding to cut it's loses, the family then buries Clark alive and goes about its business.

Annie Clark's videos have always been artfully cinematic and kind of dark but this one takes it to a new level. Add in Clark's little wink-wink nudge-nudge moment of comic relief as she plays the guitar in the trunk of the car while tied up with a sack over her head and you have a very enjoyable video. The track itself, with it's jazzy saxophone and it's big drum beats is swaggeringly sexy despite lyrics about desertion and abandonment after use.



Strange Mercy is out September 13th.

St. Vincent releases new album track "Surgeon"

After days of waiting and having to tweet #strangemercy, St. Vincent's new track off her upcoming album Strange Mercy is finally available for listening. Annie Clark hinted at the subject matter of the track (and possibly the album?) with four short videos featuring different kinds of "strange" mercies like white lies your best friend will tell you or lies your parents tell you when you're a child. Watch the four teaser videos below









And you can listen to the much anticipated new track "Surgeon":


(via NPR)

St. Vincent to release new album

2011 is the year of follow up albums. There was brand new Sondre Lerche, Cake, and Bon Iver (to name a few) and Laura Marling Beirut, and Megafaun on the horizon, St. Vincent has announced the release of her follow up to 2009's Actor, Strange Mercy.


- Chloe in the Afternoon
- Cruel
- Cheerleader
- Surgeon
- Northern Lights
- Neutered Fruit
- Champagne Year
- Dilettante
- Hysterical Strength
- Year of the Tiger

The album will be release September 13th (alongside some of those other follow ups) and St. Vincent will be embarking on an extensive fall tour in support. Here are the dates:

8/25 Metropolitan Museum of Art - New York, New York
10/2 McGuire Theater - Minneapolis, Minnesota
10/3 Pabst Theater - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
10/5 Metro - Chicago, Illinois
10/6 Old Rock House - St. Louis, Missouri
10/7 Liberty Hall - Lawrence, Kansas
10/8 Boulder Theater - Boulder, Colorado
10/10 Urban Lounge - Salt Lake City, Utah
10/12 Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada
10/13 Neptune Theatre - Seattle, Washington
10/14 Crystal Ballroom - Portland, Oregon
10/18 Music Box - Los Angeles, California
10/20 Crescent Ballroom - Phoenix, Arizona
10/23 Kessler Theater - Dallas, Texas
10/24 Moody Theater at ACL Live - Austin, Texas
10/25 Fitzgerald's - Houston, Texas
10/28 The EARL - Atlanta, Georgia
10/30 Jefferson Theater - Charlottesville, Virginia
11/1 9:30 Club - Washington, DC
11/2 Union Transfer - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
11/3 Webster Hall - New York, New York
11/4 Royale - Boston, Massachusetts

And in an intriguing bit of promotion, if you have a twitter and tweet #strangemercy you'll get access to a song off the upcoming album.

Live!: tUnE-yArDs and St. Vincent at Central Park Summerstage

Yesterday I had the immense pleasure of catching tUnE-yArDs and St. Vincent at the Central Park Summerstage in Manhattan. The concert was part of a series of free concerts put on in Central Park and actually featured one other artist by the name of Basia Bulat but me and my friend missed it in our efforts to navigate through the city and to find the Summerstage which we had never been to before. tUnE-yArDs (aka Merill Garbus) and bassist Nate Brenner, took the stage and started with an audience partipation song which had the crowd screaming "Yeah" each time she asked "Do you want to love?" and then asking everyone to jump out and down. Following her first song was another song I hadn't heard before, followed by another new song about lullabies that sizzled with Marvin Gaye-like steaminess. She invited a slew of musicians from all over to join her onstage to perform the energetic "Gangsta" (another new song but a live favorite of hers) which had the audience cheering practically from start to finish. The musicians helped to replicate the layering effects off her album (one song required two guys to play the drums). She also played "Fiya", "Real Live Flesh" and "Hatari" before finishing up with another new song. Seeing tUnE-yArDs live you get to more or less see her music making process as you watch her sing and drum into her mics that capture all the sounds into the looping petals and get to see her experiment with what kinds of sounds she wants (hitting different parts of her mic stand before deciding on which one she liked best). In addition to being an amazing performer with a gigantic voice, she also had a remarkable stage presence regaling the audience with little anecdotes when time allowed and inspiring even the most steadfast of buzzkills to dance along with her.

I had gone into the concert without actually listening to that much St. Vincent. I had listened to Actor about once all the way through and never really listened to it again but had heard she was amazing live. What St. Vincent's music is like is hard to explain: Sort of quirky indie pop music with experimental electronic effects and distortion. She had a full array of instruments of stage and all of her band-mates proved to be skilled multi-instrumentalists. Her violinist was also a guitarist, her flautist also playing synthesizer when needed, her bassist occasionally whipping out a clarinet and also some strange instrument I couldn't see but still managed to vibrate your organs when he played it. On that note, I should mention there was so much bass power during her set that every time he played, the audience was shaken to their very core and despite audience requests to "Turn down the bass", this continued for the whole set. Not being familiar with St. Vincent's music and albums I can't provide a setlist but I do know she performed a track from Actor called "The Party" live for the first time at this concert. In order to execute it, she had another set of musicians come onstage to assist: another violinist, violist, cellist, french horn, even a bass clarinet made an appearance. Her set was for the most part pretty mellow and Annie Clark said practically nothing except to ask for her mic to be turned up, to introduce her band-mates and guest musicians, to thank everyone and wish them a fond farewell but there was something awe-inspiring about her performance. How each little thing fit together to form this grand tapestry of sound and how Annie could start and stop it all with just so much as a laser-focused glance in any one direction. While not as energetic and dance-inspiring as tUnE-yArDs, there was totally a sort of magical mystique to St. Vincent's set and in Annie Clark's overall demeanor and to say I didn't enjoy it would be a boldfaced lie. I know I plan on revisiting her albums and giving them another focused listen.

The concert as a whole was pretty interesting in only for the juxtaposition of the loud, energetic, skillful banging and crashing tUnE-yArDs and the calm, tranquil yet foreboding St. Vincent. It was obvious that those who hadn't heard of tUnE-yArDs before were certainly hooked but concert-goers might've been a bit disappointed by St. Vincent. One friend claimed to be underwhelmed by her performance but my theory is that St. Vincent meant to neither overwhelm nor underwhelm but merely create and capture a magical moment, to make you really listen and pay attention to what was occurring on stage and if that was in fact her goal, she succeeded in the most artful manner I've seen thus far.