The Features present the features…

There was a time I used The Features’ merch booth as a dressing room. You may not know this — nor should you, really — but a band is more than willing for you to try on their t-shirts to find the right size. Maybe it’s my age or my rather particular taste, rarely do I rock band t-shirts anymore. I know my favorite act is better than yours, so why strut?

Since the Features warrant it. If there was anyone doing it right, with more energy and sincerity than most all, it’s the quartet outta Sparta/Nashville, TN. On their 4th record, themes of aging and what comes with it permeate throughout, the foot stomping inevitably should continue care of swirling keys, perfect melodies, and rhythmic hits creating another well fitting record from the best band that might not be in your rotation.

His Royal Badness…

My music collection and arsenal of artists could be substantially greater. For artists I dig, ones I really follow, have their whole catalog, know more about them than my siblings, I should back track and look into their influences. What was artist A spinning before they concocted their masterpiece. Ignorance, perhaps? Apathy? Regardless of my reasons, it hasn’t happened except with one artist: sElf. Matt proudly wears Prince on his sleeve. As recently as April, MM stated how he still yearns to work with the Purple One. Thanks to sElf’s output and Matt’s adoration for the little funkster, I followed suit.

Thankfully, I backtracked, listened, hit repeat, danced, of course in my kitchen, and like Matt, wanted to share the same room with the legend. Tonight, thanks to his West Coast club tour, I will.

sElf :: Let’s Pretend We’re Married

Mahaffey, a stage, and a TED talk…

Matt Mahaffey, the suped up beat dropper, meets sweet pop mastermind, gave a talk. It wasn’t one I totally predicted, nor was it one where he made a proclamation of a completed sElf record. But shit, the man got me live in my swivel chair. He engaged me more than most of these talks — spare me your intellectual bullshit; this is Mahaffey.

His weapons of choice as he engaged the audience: drum set, omnichord, grand piano, and an electric guitar. And this quote:

I always wanted to work with Prince; because Prince can play guitar like Jimi Hendrix, can play piano like the Loneliest Monk, and can squel like James Brown. But still in a Prince song; all musicians are thieves but the good ones make it untraceable.

This talk’s setlist:

NEW ONE

Better Than Aliens

This Is Love

Self’s Microchip Girl…

Yea, in this day and age, I might step online to find a gal. Matt Mahaffey was forward thinking back in 1997 with his ill tipped “Microchip Girl”. A light-hearted, lyrically witty track, laced over an easy honky tonk melody  intertwined with feathery strumming; Matt’s girl is in the background barking about something via bleeps, blips, and ZEROES and ONES.  According to Matt, his tasty sports 32-bit curls; maybe if I play my cards right, I can stick my modem into her…

Robots in the Garden…

 

This blog was nonexistent in 2004. What was on my radar was Future Perfect, a riff heavy, distorted noise-pop masterpiece. So infused with noisy melody and digestible cacophony that nine years later, it’s still played regularly. Autolux, a formidable trio creating walls and walls of decimating eardrum sound while simultaneously melting your face. “Robots In the Garden”, a 125 second whirlwind of chugging bass, slow and deliberately faint vocals, rhythmic precision, and a rusty reverberated grind, one that warrants only one thing: dialed to an ear-deafening volume. I never said I was a good neighbor…

Hawksley suggests you put on your headphones…

If I were forming a band, I’d keep it local. Those members would be friends, ones who share my interests and overall love of a sound. They’d be invested in the music, a movement that only so many can understand. My ‘mates would surround themselves in aural pleasures. If the option presented itself, they wouldn’t turn off the soundtrack to their lives. Ever.

Take the Ontarioan Hawksley Workman, a man capable of creating sexed up glam, chamber pop, celestial hymns, or countless other wonders, Steve Bays from British Columbia’s Hot Hot Heat, and Ryan Dahley from Vancouver’s Limblifter to form Mounties. Fittingly, they’re Canadian. ‘Headphones’, with its driving guitar line, perfect pop pleasantries, and anthemic sing along, is the equivalent of a date with your favorite record: one where it’s you, a favorite piece of vinyl, and your headphones to take in the aural experience. Get lost in the sound…

Divine Fit’s Hungry Heart…

Not necessary, but most live gigs would benefit from a cover thrown into a set. An opportunity to flex, a chance to reinterpret the original, take a minute idea one hears and run with it; or for some, strip away anything nonessential.

Courtesy of Triple J‘s down under national radio, Divine Fits further corroborate why they ended up on my 2012 list. This time around, they’re seated, and for the most part, unplugged. With Britt’s powerful, throaty delivery, the formidable quartet reinterpret Bruce Springstein’s Heavy Heart, a track originally heard on his 1980 record The River.

And their original in the studio:

Would That Not Be Nice