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$WINTER WARBLERSPublished: Broadsheet Winter Print Edition, June/July 2010. As the cold begins to bite, we preview five touring acts that won’t give you the chills this winter. By Dan Rule. Grizzly Bear July 27, Palais Theatre$67, ticketmaster.com.au The line between in revision and straight revivalism can seem a fine one in the contemporary musical landscape. Not so, however, when you spend time with the sweeping melodic and textural scapes of Brooklyn coterie Grizzly Bear. Astutely referential yet painstakingly original, the quartet’s sound has morphed from the murky, narcotic atmospheres of 2004 debut Horn of Plenty and vast, experimental folk-rock of 2006’s Yellow House, to the widescreen psychedelia and vintage symphonic pop tropes of last year’s world-beating Veckatimest, recasting and reinventing about three decades worth of influences and references in the process. In a time in which pastiche so often passes for originality, Grizzly Bear are a group that summon and deconstruct pop’s past to forge their own way forward. Not to be missed. JonsiAugust 4, Palace Theatre$69, ticketek.com.au When enigmatic Sigur Ros frontman Jonsi released his debut solo effort Go in April, you could have been forgiven for believing you were listening to a completely different artist. While his signature vocals were as weightless and delicate as ever, the storm of schizophrenic percussion (courtesy of Finnish drummer Samulia Kosminen) and ecstatic, colour-drenched arrangements (from Nico Muhly) couldn’t have been further removed from Sigur Ros’s slow moving, heavily tonal sound. With his group on indefinite hiatus, the Reykjavik songwriter is going through nothing short of a reinvention, and a joyous one at that. His band may be known for their glacial, cinematic aesthetic, but Jonsi’s show at the Palace will glow with radiant colour. Sally SeltmannJuly 10, Corner Hotel$20, cornerhotel.com There’s very little not to like about Sally Seltmann. Known more widely by her once moniker New Buffalo, the Sydney songstress writes the kind of gorgeous, sweet-as-a-pea pop tunes that could melt even the coldest of hearts. But there are more strings to the young artist’s bow than sweetness and delight. The lo-fi pop vistas of New Buffalo debut The Last Beautiful Day (2004), the tender, elegiac piano balladry of follow-up Somewhere, Anywhere (2007) and self-assured pop-craft of her brand new record – and first under her own name – Heart That’s Pounding all point to a songwriter at the height of her intimate, evocative, highly emotive powers. It was no fluke that the song she penned for her friend and label-mate Leslie Feist, the flourishing 1234, became an international phenomenon. Featuring several of Melbourne’s finest indie musical sorts, this belated record launch at The Corner will warm the winter night. YeasayerJuly 29, Prince of Wales$45, ticketek.com.au While there’s a surplus of generic, archetypal indie outfits amid music’s current crop, there are also plenty of groups willing to bend, stretch and breach the genre’s formal, stylistic and geographic peripheries. Yeasayer – who infamously tagged themselves “ENYA with bounce” – is one such band. Another bunch of Brooklyn’s minions, the four-piece mine a swathe of cross-cultural, trans-genre flavours and inflections, crafting a melange of worldly intonation and electronically altered pop inflections. Their show at the Prince will prove one of winter’s weirdest and most wonderful. K-osAugust 3, Prince of Wales$35, ticketek.com.au To describe Trinidad and Toronto-raised MC, vocalist, musician and producer K-os in terms of hip-hop would only tell a fraction of the story. The young Canadian artist’s work toes a thoroughly unconventional line between songwriterly smarts, bouncing southern rap and a near obsessive whim for shrewd pop-cultural reference. With his disparate new album Yes! in his rucksack, he makes his debut Melbourne performance at the Prince in what will enthral refined rap-heads, folkies and indie types alike.$

WINTER WARBLERS
Published: Broadsheet Winter Print Edition, June/July 2010.

As the cold begins to bite, we preview five touring acts that won’t give you the chills this winter. By Dan Rule.

Grizzly Bear
July 27, Palais Theatre
$67, ticketmaster.com.au

The line between in revision and straight revivalism can seem a fine one in the contemporary musical landscape. Not so, however, when you spend time with the sweeping melodic and textural scapes of Brooklyn coterie Grizzly Bear. Astutely referential yet painstakingly original, the quartet’s sound has morphed from the murky, narcotic atmospheres of 2004 debut Horn of Plenty and vast, experimental folk-rock of 2006’s Yellow House, to the widescreen psychedelia and vintage symphonic pop tropes of last year’s world-beating Veckatimest, recasting and reinventing about three decades worth of influences and references in the process. In a time in which pastiche so often passes for originality, Grizzly Bear are a group that summon and deconstruct pop’s past to forge their own way forward. Not to be missed.

Jonsi
August 4, Palace Theatre
$69, ticketek.com.au

When enigmatic Sigur Ros frontman Jonsi released his debut solo effort Go in April, you could have been forgiven for believing you were listening to a completely different artist. While his signature vocals were as weightless and delicate as ever, the storm of schizophrenic percussion (courtesy of Finnish drummer Samulia Kosminen) and ecstatic, colour-drenched arrangements (from Nico Muhly) couldn’t have been further removed from Sigur Ros’s slow moving, heavily tonal sound. With his group on indefinite hiatus, the Reykjavik songwriter is going through nothing short of a reinvention, and a joyous one at that. His band may be known for their glacial, cinematic aesthetic, but Jonsi’s show at the Palace will glow with radiant colour.

Sally Seltmann
July 10, Corner Hotel
$20, cornerhotel.com

There’s very little not to like about Sally Seltmann. Known more widely by her once moniker New Buffalo, the Sydney songstress writes the kind of gorgeous, sweet-as-a-pea pop tunes that could melt even the coldest of hearts. But there are more strings to the young artist’s bow than sweetness and delight. The lo-fi pop vistas of New Buffalo debut The Last Beautiful Day (2004), the tender, elegiac piano balladry of follow-up Somewhere, Anywhere (2007) and self-assured pop-craft of her brand new record – and first under her own name – Heart That’s Pounding all point to a songwriter at the height of her intimate, evocative, highly emotive powers. It was no fluke that the song she penned for her friend and label-mate Leslie Feist, the flourishing 1234, became an international phenomenon. Featuring several of Melbourne’s finest indie musical sorts, this belated record launch at The Corner will warm the winter night.

Yeasayer
July 29, Prince of Wales
$45, ticketek.com.au

While there’s a surplus of generic, archetypal indie outfits amid music’s current crop, there are also plenty of groups willing to bend, stretch and breach the genre’s formal, stylistic and geographic peripheries. Yeasayer – who infamously tagged themselves “ENYA with bounce” – is one such band. Another bunch of Brooklyn’s minions, the four-piece mine a swathe of cross-cultural, trans-genre flavours and inflections, crafting a melange of worldly intonation and electronically altered pop inflections. Their show at the Prince will prove one of winter’s weirdest and most wonderful.

K-os
August 3, Prince of Wales
$35, ticketek.com.au

To describe Trinidad and Toronto-raised MC, vocalist, musician and producer K-os in terms of hip-hop would only tell a fraction of the story. The young Canadian artist’s work toes a thoroughly unconventional line between songwriterly smarts, bouncing southern rap and a near obsessive whim for shrewd pop-cultural reference. With his disparate new album Yes! in his rucksack, he makes his debut Melbourne performance at the Prince in what will enthral refined rap-heads, folkies and indie types alike.

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