The Hippodrome

In hardly four years, The Wailing Wall has made its way through more than thirty musicians, numerous tours, and several carefully constructed records of songs that took years to perfect. Jesse Rifkin, the leader and lifeblood of the group, has graciously permitted The Hippodrome to release not one, not two, not fifteen, but three exclusive tracks for your downloading pleasure. All are from his forthcoming record, Hospital Blossoms, and judging from these prereleases and his past history, I don’t think he’s going to remain unsigned much longer.

As you’ll guess from the quality of the recordings, Rifkin’s musical history is filled with collaborations with contemporary visionaries. He’s played or recorded with the likes of Jason Anderson, Adrian Orange, and The Castanets, to name just a few. On the latest record, he’s joined by six good pals, including engineer and co-producer Chris Roush, who is Rifkin’s upcoming tourmate.

Influentially, The Wailing Wall has always taken careful stock of its predecessors. Leonard Cohen infused lyrics, Nick Drake’s Bryter Layter-era piano chords, and Microphones rhythmic intensity have made the band’s live show a spectacle to behold.

On how the record is different from past work, Rifkin tells me that “it’s the first release of mine that I didn’t record, which was kind of a big deal. In the past everything was just sort of patched together — I would play everything. This was us playing the songs as we played them live. Chris [Roush] and I took more liberties with the production… but the performances are as they were on stage.”

This is an interesting approach considering the stark mood shift from Rifkin’s past work. “It’s a much darker record, all the songs were written during a pretty horrible period of my life. They were definitely a coping mechanism, and they helped me work out what was going on in my head… it was six months, probably actually eight or nine where things were just the worst they’d ever been. I don’t know that it’s more honest, but it’s differently honest than the other stuff because everything that I wrote during that period is on the record. I did my best to cut out the whiny, indulgent parts.”

Rifkin adds “that the record gets sort of increasingly hopeful toward the end because I did come out of that awful period… it’s not just this one big dark miserable Cure record, you know?”

It’s precisely this energy of the live band that carries even the melancholic sections into an energetic and inspiring place. Not surprisingly, the record is much like Rifkin’s live performance. The method The Wailing Wall uses live never gets flaky or lurid, as Rifkin utilizes the Akron/Family “vibrational energies” strategy to tailor each show to the audience. This strategy will undoubtedly help Rifkin, who is touring just with a guitar, a loop pedal, and his incisors across the northeast, beginning on March 14.

While performing Hospital Blossoms without the assuring support of his former live band will be a challenge, time has proven that The Wailing Wall can do it.

Audio: Sister, I
Audio: Hospital Blossom
Audio: Morning

Forget “indie”, bands that aren’t signed are the way to go! These are really painful.

Imagine yourself in an Animal Collective cover band. Most people look down on cover bands but it’d still be bad ass ’cause it’s an Animal Collective cover band, right? Right. The Netherfriends are kind of like that except they aren’t a cover band or identical to Animal Collective. The first time you hear the Netherfriends you’ll make the Animal Collective comparison but eventually realize that this trio is awesome in their own right. Did I mention they attend three different colleges in Chicago? Yep it’s true!

Silly facts aside, one of my favorite things about The Netherfriends is their emphasis on vocals. The group really knows how to sing and uses this to add to the music rather than detract from it. Often their sound is psychedelic tribal magic, but they occasionally slip into other genres which is never a bad thing since they do it well. Their chanting, “yeah yeahs”, and “ahhhhhs” are very welcome on top or beneath their instrumentals.

The band is so very young too; they just started last August! Their age doesn’t show through a bit thanks to the seasoned sound that takes careful stock of the current scene. If they’re able to achieve this kind of polished sound in less than a year, what magic will they brew given more time?

Audio: TAC TAC
Audio: Stop Smoking A$$hole, Cigarettes

Music criticism. Who needs it? This is what Fingertips is all about. It’s also about providing some of the best free and legal music on the internet. The site is like a lo-fi internet radio show where the DJ is intelligent and he never criticizes anything, only playing amazing music that you immediately download after hearing and/or reading about the track. The guy who runs the site has incredible taste in music and has created a huge archive of free work. He only posts three times a week with three songs since he feels his time should be spent elsewhere. The editor of Fingertips sincerely believes that music criticism is a waste of time and energy and that if it’s not something you like, you shouldn’t listen to it.

I almost agree with him — I’ve been too caught up in music criticism before but I’m not sure of his stance on its absolute irrelevance. Which is fine, we’re all definitely entitled to our own opinions and even the suppression of them in his case. Fingertips brings up such interesting points about the way people find out about music; it’s passionate in its stance against music criticism. Though possibly too extreme, it’s a wonderful sanctuary away from the elitism in music journalism and a great place to find some free and legal tracks.

I’m lucky to go to a school with alot of creative people. Which is why I just started The Wesleyan Art Post, a blog that showcases the creations of any Wesleyan University community member.

Although I’ll only be posting work sent from Wesleyan email addresses, I’m hoping this site will be a valuable companion for The Hippodrome in helping others find good unsigned music, because they are some really talented musicians here.

I encourage you to frequent the blog, and let me know if you see any musician up there that you’d like to hear in greater depth on The Hippodrome. Thanks!