My Bay to Breakers 2012 Playlist

I’m more than 20 pounds heavier than I was last year at this time, and have no chance of beating my time of 60 minutes and 30 seconds. This means I will burn through at least one more song than last year. Here’s the breakdown.

“Do It Anyway” - Ben Folds Five

“Content” - The Features

“Summer Lawns” - The Child Actors

“Midnight City” - M83

“Kids” - The Features

“Devil’s Work” - Miike Snow

“Need Your Love” - The Temper Trap

“Headlong Into the Abyss” - We Are Augustines

“Sunday Drive (Gigamesh mix)” - Ladyhawke

“As Fast As You Can” - Our Lady Peace

“Another One” - The Features

“Talk Like That” - The Presets

“California Sunrise” - Dirty Gold

“Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)” - Arcade Fire

“California” - Delta Spirit

“Charlie Brown” - Coldplay

“The Only Place” - Best Coast

“How It Starts” - The Features

“The Fly (U2 cover) - Gavin Friday

The goal here was not to start with something to powerful that I blow all my energy int he first mile, a block of “power” songs toward the beginning to power through the 12-percent-incline Hayes Street Hill toward the beginning, and some mellower pop toward the end to cruise through the second half of Golden Gate Park.

Why so many songs by The Features, you ask? For one, they are really good. For another, I’ve been taking mental notes about which songs make me take bigger strides and not tire, and The Features are it. Check them out.

Bay to Breakers 2012 logo

Jack White to attempt (asinine) world record

from the press release:

Jack White has again decided to take on the tremendous challenge of making it into the Guinness Book of World Records.

During the rest of the performances on his current tour supporting his new album “Blunderbuss” (which incidentally is currently in the running for the world record of “the fastest named album in history” *pending), Jack White will every night on stage attempt to break the world record for most metaphors in a single concert.

The attempt may prove very exhausting and at times even dangerous, but the results could prove to be glorious and possibly even vainglorious. White and Third Man Records are certain that the extremely scientific and intricate analysis of the metaphors that occur will be examined in accordance with Guinness’ usually very thorough methods probably, or at the very least if somebody answers the phone at the pub.

Third Man Records encourages all attendees of said concerts to please not interfere or interject with any metaphors that they witness occur during the show as to not disqualify or worse yet, trivialize the metaphor in question. In addition all concert attendees are encouraged to entice as many metaphors to occur during the show that they possibly can as long as they don’t endanger themselves or Mr. White.

Recording Academy statement about the death of Donna Summer

Black Keys and Arctic Monkeys (text for archiving)

Review, Photos & Video: The Black Keys, Arctic Monkeys @ Oracle Arena, 5/4/12

May 7, 2012

The Black Keys at Oracle Arena 5-4-12 - photo by Roman Gokhman 2

How could a garage band – a duo, no less – rise from basement shows to stadiums? In the case of The Black Keys, who sold out Oracle Arena Friday, it’s the blues.

For many of the young pop and rock-bred fans who bought tickets, the blues is not a very familiar concept. While the music of vocalist-guitarist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney is not innovative – even the similar White Stripes came first – many in the audience no doubt felt like they had discovered something new when they first heard The Black Keys.

“There’s so many of you here, it’s kind of crazy,” Auerbach said early in the show before launching into “I’ll Be Your Man.,” a track off their 2002 debut album The Big Come Up.

Pretty much any of the Keys’ songs have the sound that can be heard in a Chicago blues club. That this was being played at a basketball arena is what makes this band interesting. Are the Black Keys an arena act? Judging by the crowd’s reaction, the answer is a resounding yes.

Here’s what hasn’t changed about the band since it began its ascent: The presentation. At last year’s Outside Lands Music Festival, the most exciting thing the Keys had on stage were some inflatable props. This time around, they performed with the assistance of a rudimentary projection screen and some well-placed lamps – the same set-up a band playing in a garage might use.

Auerbach and Carney walked on-stage without any fanfare, along with a back-up organist and bassist, and launched right into “Howlin’ For You,” off 2010’s Brothers, the album that launched them to new heights.

After a handful of songs with the backing musicians, such as “Gold on the Ceiling,” a track off this year’s El Camino, the duo handled the majority of the show by itself.

Older songs like “Tighten Up” and “Ten Cent Pistol” fit right in with new material like “Gold on the Ceiling” and “Money Maker.” They fit so well together, however, that they might not have been discernable to the casual fan.

One of a handful of songs that clearly stood out was El Camino’s “Little Black Submarines.” Auerbach and Carney began it acoustically as a duo and brought the other musicians back a third of the way through, for a straight-up rock tune reminiscent of Tom Petty’s “Last Dance with Mary Jane.”

New track “Lonely Boy,” which closed out the main set, included a brief but effective tribute to the Beastie Boys’ Adam Yauch, who passed away earlier Friday from cancer.

Attendees to last year’s Outside Lands recall that the band performing on the main stage prior to the Black Keys was the Arctic Monkeys. They were the “openers” Friday. I use the term openers lightly because the arena was packed midway through their set, and many probably viewed the show as a double-bill.

The Arctic Monkeys performed their angular, posturing punk rock for nearly an hour. Highlights included “Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair,” off last year’s Suck It and See, and “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor,” from the band’s 2005 debut Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not.

Follow writer Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter and RomiTheWriter.Tumblr.com

Review: Yukon Blonde, Together, We Can Rule the Galaxy, The Wild Kindness @ Cafe Du Nord, 5/1/12

May 4, 2012

Yukon Blonde

Doing his best to ignite a thinning Tuesday night crowd at Café Du Nord, shaggy Yukon Blonde frontman Jeff Innes turned to one of the few good things about the day following the one with the worst reputation (Mondays): Cheap fast food.

That didn’t seem to reawaken the few dozen people who remained close to midnight, but luckily, the Vancouver, B.C., band’s music should convince fans to come out when the band returns; preferably on a weekend.

Yukon Blonde is a dance-rock band in the vein of the Killers, but with a Southern twist when Innes harmonizes with one of his other bandmates, on songs like “Stairway.” There are also elements of Afropop on songs like “Iron Fist,” as well as ‘60s garage-pop. They definitely have the “ooh-oohs” and “woah-ohs” down on tracks like “My Girl,” which translate well from album to the stage.

Probably due to earlier stage slots, two San Francisco openers had a significantly larger crowd than the headliners.

Together, We Can Rule the Galaxy, a ragtag pop-punk bunch ranging in age by at least 15 years, featured complimentary guitarists who more often than not drowned out the vocals, and Summer Glau-lookalike on bass. It was difficult not to picture Terminator Jr. shooting steely glares from the stage.

Breezy surf pop band The Wild Kindness, along the lines of Beach House and Young the Giant, finished their short set with a song based on the plot of the film, ‘Melancholia,” telling the story much better in four minutes than the film did in two hours.

Follow writer Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter and RomiTheWriter.tumblr.com.

Interview: Snow Patrol battle to smash image as balladeers

May 2, 2012

snow patrol

Snow Patrol is still best known in the U.S. for “Chasing Cars,” which played over a tearjerker moment on “Grey’s Anatomy” a half-decade ago.

That’s why the Irish-Scottish band made a purposeful attempt to prove Gary Lightbody and Co. can create more than the masterful ballad on their newest release, Fallen Empires. And that’s partly the reason they invited two choirs, string and horn sections, and cameos from Michael Stipe, Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen and American folkie Lissie to help out.

“We suffered from ‘Chasing Cars’ being such a big hit that I think that people that came to the gigs were quite shocked that we’re quite a rockin’ band live; there’s not just ballads,” drummer Jonny Quinn said in a recent conversation from Boston, where Snow Patrol were in the midst of a tour that stops with two shows at the Fox Theater in Oakland this week. “We also love a lot of dance music: electro, house, hip hop. We DJ. We like to play with drum machines.”

The quintet, which includes guitarist Nathan Connolly, bassist Paul Wilson and keyboardist Tom Simpson, didn’t want to rest on its laurels because it has more to prove, Quinn said.

“There’s definitely more to do,” he said.

The inception of Snow Patrol’s sixth album began in late fall 2010 with a thud: Singer-guitarist Lightbody suffering from writer’s block for the first time.

“He’s always been really prolific, and this time he couldn’t find any words,” Quinn said. “The harder he tried, the harder it got.”

The band previously wrote and recorded albums within a few months. Fallen Empires ended up taking more than a year.

The first mistake, Quinn said, was creating a deadline to finish the album. The band gave itself until March 2011. In October 2010, Lightbody was already struggling to come up with lyrics, when the rest of the band drove out into the southern California desert to record demos at Rancho De La Luna Studios, where Queens of the Stone Age and the Arctic Monkeys had recorded recently.

“We kind of left Gary to get lyrics on his own at that point,” Quinn said. The rest of the band needed some inspiration as well. “(It was an) experience that was just far away from what we were used to.”

During the day, the band worked on recordings, was pampered by on-site chefs at the studio, and went exploring in the desert.

“It was like a Salvador Dali painting, seeing the rocks melt into the ground like that,” Quinn said. At night they would watch the stars and jam with guitars and mandolins.

There was no magical breakthrough, but the song that eventually helped Snow Patrol bust out of its slump was the synthy album opener “I’ll Never Let Go.” This is the kind of upbeat, electronic tune this band is not known for. While record label managers began to wonder how long it would take and when Snow Patrol would be ready to tour, the band members began to pick up steam.

“I suppose it was just taking it one step at a time and just not picking a deadline,” Quinn said.

Fallen Empires is evenly split between the up-tempo, electronic sound of the band’s new direction and the ballads that initially drew fans. “Called Out in the Dark” evokes Flock-era Bell X1, another Irish band.

Quinn said the main theme of the album is remembrance: “Where we come from and where we’ve gone to and sort of remembering that family is important.”

“The Garden Rules,” a ballad layered with strings, horns, piano and choirs, is about the innocence of being a child. Lightbody wrote “New York” about the missed opportunities of a relationship that didn’t work out. Many of the lyrics reflect not just Lightbody’s memories but also those of the others, Quinn said.

When it came time to record and produce the album, the band brought in frequent producer/contributor Garrett “Jackknife” Lee, who moved the band members into a Los Angeles studio; it was their first time recording in a sunlit locale. Quinn said that contributed to the positive vibe of the album. That’s when the extra production elements were added: one Lissie vocal, choir and string section swelling at a time.

“We wanted to give the album some really strong flavors (because) we were just in a really sunny place,” Quinn said.

Follow writer Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter and RomiTheWriter.tumblr.com.

Interview: How The Pierces broke up for a day, then found international success

May 1, 2012

The Pierces at HP Pavilion, 4:27:12 - photo by Roman Gokhman

Following three commercially unsuccessful albums, Alabama-born and raised sisters Allison and Catherine Pierce had decided that a joint music career might not be in-store. The following day Coldplay bassist Guy Berryman called them and said he wanted to co-produce their next album. And just like that, the band was back together.

Following the successful release of You & I in the U.K. last year, the album received a proper U.S. release last month.

Friday, The Pierces were opening for Coldplay at the HP Pavilion in San Jose. While the building was not halfway full yet, those who weren’t there missed out an exciting set by the sisters, whose sound fits somewhere amongst pop, folk, rock and country, but is not solely any of those genres.

Backed by four musicians, Allison (36) and Catherine’s (34) dual harmonies and sometimes dark and mischievous edge was an early highlight to Friday’s show.

A few hours beforehand, The Bay Bridged met up with the ladies at a park across the street from the arena. They were lounging on the grass before we moved to a picnic table that was home to some furry and colorful caterpillars. As one of them went for each lady, we fired off some questions before being attacked myself.

The Bay Bridged: Lets talk influences; there’s definitely Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac. I got a Mamas and the Papas vibe as well. Who else?

Catherine: We grew up on The Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel. Not really the Mamas and The Papas so much. A lot of people really point to that. We do acknowledge that one of our songs (“Kissing You Goodbye”) sounds like one of their songs (“California Dreaming”), but it was a fluke.

How about modern artists?

Catherine: Fiona Apple was very inspiring for me when I was younger. Rufus Wainwright, and I love Fleet Foxes.

How would you categorize your sound? Indie? Folk? Pop? Do you even try to give your sound a name?

Catherine: No. We’ve been trying for years.

Allison: We only try because people ask. (both laugh).

I take it back then. You’re from Alabama but you’ve been based in New York, right?

Catherine: I just moved to L.A., but Allison is in New York.

Allison: I’m kind of homeless, actually. We moved to London for a year to work on our record, so I gave up my apartment in New York. I didn’t really want to move back there and I hardly have any free time. I’m not sure where I want to live yet.

When you were first starting out, one of your friends sent a demo to a label in Nashville. (This led to their debut album, The Pierces, in 2000. The album did not sell well). How would your lives be different had you succeeded on that first attempt?

Catherine: We probably would have made money! (laughs) That’s when people were still selling records. It’s a mystery. Do you want us to imagine?

Can you?

Allison: I can’t.

Catherine: I bet we’d probably have done solo albums at this point.

Do you two ever butt heads in this band?

(They look at each other and laugh)

Allison: Uh, yes.

What’s a typical argument about?

Catherine: It’s usually ego or power struggles.

Allison: “Who’s going to sing lead on a song we both wrote. Usually we write separately. When we write together, we argue who’s going to sing lead. We argue over who’s going to wear this dress, or that dress. That kind of thing. Silly stuff, but it seems important when it’s happening.

And how do resolve something like that?

Both: Fist fight. (laugh)

Catherine: We usually argue it out over email or text.

That’s much more civil! OK, I’ve read you both had ballerina training.

Allison: We quit that a long time ago. We both trained to a professional level. Then I had a hip injury and we were both burned out. So we decided to start a band.

You are on tour with Coldplay because you got to know the (band) through Guy. He co-produced your new record (along with Coldplay producer Rik Simpson). How did that arrangement come about?

Catherine: I met Guy in New York years ago and I gave him a demo of our last record (2007’s Thirteen Tales of Love and Revenge). Allison and I decided to split up because nothing was happening with our music at the time. We thought we would both make solo records and see what happens. Then he called the next day and said, “Hey, I want to make a record with you guys.”

Literally the next day?

Catherine: Yup. So I called Allison up and said we’re back together. (they both laugh).

Allison: We didn’t really want to quit, we just didn’t know what else to do. We felt there was no energy left. We had put out an album and had great critical acclaim; we’ve had tons of songs in TV shows, but we didn’t have a label that was committed to taking us to the next level.

What did Guy and Rik bring to your music?

Allison: They brought a lot of vision and insight, I think. They are both so talented; this is their life.

[The caterpillars are now trying to climb on to the ladies more aggressively. The girls squirm down the picnic table bench to get away]

Catherine: I used to let them crawl all over me when I was little. Now I’m scared.

Allison: It looks like it might bite you or spit venom.

Did Guy and Rik try to influence your sound?

Allison: We had recorded a bunch of demos on Garage Band. It was acoustic guitar and vocals. We were banging on desks for drum beats. They heard those and loved the thought. So they used those as the basis of the sounds.

The jumping-off point.

Allison: Yeah.

Your new album is new in the U.S. It’s been out in the U.K. for almost a year. What was the reason for the delay?

Catherine: We had put out three records in the U.S. and none of them sold that many (copies). So no U.S. label really wanted to touch us. Once we got signed in the U.K., they were all kind of waiting to see how well the album did before they signed us, I think. (The album debuted at No. 4 on the U.K. charts.) When they saw it was successful, they were like, “Of course we want to sign you girls!”

[The caterpillars return yet again]

Catherine: Some of them are poisonous. I thought when they were really colorful and pretty they were.

I doubt they are. There would probably be a lot of dead kids in this park if they were. (All laughing)

This is a question you’ve probably been asked many times. This is a very big stage; opening for Coldplay. How do you intend to fill it?

Catherine: The sound we have right now is pretty big and it seems to work well in arenas, we were excited to discover. You never know until you play. We’ve tried to make it sound like the record, so it’s very full and big. They put us up on the jumbo screens, so you just try to put your energy out there as big as you can.

How do you get the attention of fans who may not have necessarily heard of you before tonight?

Allison: [deadpans] Flash our boobs. We just play. These crowds have been great. You never know If another person’s audience is going to like you or not. But they have been attentive and into it.

How often have you been through San Francisco before?

Allison: Quite a few times. Our sister is married to a guy that’s from here. His mother lives here so we visit her a lot.

What is your favorite memory of the area?

Allison: I love driving through San Francisco and seeing the architecture. It’s such a beautiful city. I love crossing the Golden Gate Bridge.

You mentioned your music had been in several TV shows before. (They have performed on Gossip Girl and have had their songs featured on Dexter and Pretty Little Liars.) If you could pick your favorite show right now and have one of your songs be incorporated into it, what would that be?

Catherine: Neither one of the two shows we love would suit out music; Mad Men and Game of Thrones. I don’t think our music would work on either one of those. They don’t really use modern music; do they.

Allison: No.

Catherine: What about, like, The New Girl?

Allison: The New Girl?

Catherine: I’ve watched it on the plane a few times and thought it was kind of cute.

I watch it.

Allison: Oh, you do? [both laugh]

Catherine: It’s cute.

Just one more question. What are you girls like outside of the band? What do you do for fun? Are you in to sports, or…

Catherine: We’re not really in to sports. We both like to eat. We like to cook. We like to read, I like to paint.

Allison: We both like movies. We like to take long walks on the beach. [laughs] We like to enjoy life and figure out who we are.

[The ladies pause, and then point at my chest, where a large caterpillar has climbed almost up to my collar]

Catherine: Ahhhhhh!

Thanks for giving me a warning!

Allison: We just saw it!

Follow writer Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter and RomiTheWriter.Tumblr.com

Review: Coldplay @ HP Pavilion, 4/27/12

April 30, 2012

There is nothing subtle about Coldplay. Every move is exaggerated. From frontman Chris Martin’s strut and “someone take a picture while I’m in mid-air” jumps, to Will Champion’s animistic assault on his drum set, to the confetti cannons that dropped a small forest on the HP Pavilion crowd Friday night, it was clear Coldplay wanted to give their fans the most extravagant show possible.

And for a majority of the show, it worked wonderfully. When a few over-the-top moments distracted from the band’s performance, it didn’t.

Coldplay long ago stopped listening to critics who accused them of making over-the-top, grandiose pop. What they care about most is pleasing their fans; making them “ooh and aah” as often as possible. That’s why their Joel Schumaker-inspired stage was slathered in enough neon graffiti and lasers to make ‘90s Batman, the one with the nipple-suit, blush.

See-through hoops that would later light up with neon colors were scattered on the stage, and a large circular video screen was suspended from the rafters in the middle. A catwalk reached halfway from the stage down the floor and ended at an X-shaped platform; for Mylo Xyloto, the new album the band is touring for. Following along? There’s more.

All concertgoers were handed a radio transponder wristband, called a “Xyloband,” that not only lit up on the band’s production crew’s command, but flashed in-sync with the songs being performed. This was by far the best production element of the show and lit up the building like a sparkling Christmas Tree.

Taking the stage to the Back to the Future theme, Coldplay launched in to two new songs, “Mylo Xyloto” and “Hurts Like Heaven.”

And the confetti cannons begin going off. And going off and going off. The confetti was cut in the shape of band branded “M” “X,” butterflies, hearts and other cutesy symbols. As much of it as was pummeled on the fans on the floor, it wasn’t used as well as the Flaming Lips tend to do at the start of their shows, or Mika, who filled the Warfield with flying strips of paper a few years ago.

There was so much of the stuff centered over the stage that it became difficult to make out the band.

A couple songs later, during “Lovers in Japan,” large confetti-filled balloons were tossed from above. At this point, it became a distraction from a really good song. Most of the songs, in fact, were performed very well.

I may quibble about the set list lacking personal favorites like “Moses” or “Politik,” the band’s performance was nearly spot-on. It was, however, very easy to get distracted from it on several occasions. When the band abruptly switched gears to the melancholy “The Scientist,” for example, confetti was still raining down from the previous song.

Two songs got the mellow-intro treatment. On “Yellow” it worked great, with Chris Martin performing the first verse alone on piano and the audience singing along. On “God Put a Smile Upon Your Face,” it didn’t. While the band played in one key, Martin sang in another. The song then went full-throttle rick ‘n’ roll with Martin and guitarist Jonny Buckland squaring off on the catwalk.

Following a trio of crowd favorites, “Viva La Vida,” “Charlie Brown” and “Paradise,” to round out the main set, Coldplay took to a small platform hidden amongst the seats in the middle level at the back of the arena – just as they did their last time through San Jose a few years ago – to perform “Us Against the World” while surrounded by fans thrilled to have the band so close to them.

The British quartet did not let up for any part of the show, putting all its efforts in to every song; be it the slow burner “Fix You,” off 2005’s X&Y, or 2011 single “Every Teardrop is a Waterfall.” Once again, they gave the audience what it wanted.

Follow writer Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter and RomiTheWriter.Tumblr.com.

Interview: Edward Sharpe’s Nora Kirkpatrick discusses ‘Here,’ touring, and the album after the new one

April 27, 2012

Edward Sharpe

A 1,500-foot-long vintage streamlined 1948 California Zephyr train. Two weeks. Three bands with their own unique sounds, riding the rails. Jamming, recording, playing a concert here and there.

That was the idea behind the Railroad Revival Tour. Last spring, Los Angeles indie collective Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, London folk group Mumford & Sons and Nashville bluegrass ensemble Old Crow Medicine Show embarked on a trek from Oakland through the Southwest and Texas, before coming to an end in New Orleans.

As the members of the three bands mingled, their bonding was recorded for a now-critically lauded documentary, Big Easy Express, which was first screened at this year’s South By Southwest music, film and technology festival. The bands were also inspired musically as they began work on new albums. The first of these is Edward Sharpe’s Here, which will be released May 29. Fans of the band will get a preview of the album at Wednesday’s show at the Fox Theater in Oakland.

“Getting to do what you love for 24 hours a day with amazing people – to have that be your job for two weeks – is such an experience,” Edward Sharpe accordionist and backup vocalist Nora Kirkpatrick said in a recent phone conversation from Los Angeles, where the band was in the midst of rehearsing for its tour. “We felt a sense of responsibility and thought, ‘We’d better be writing some music; we’d better be making the most of this so we could show it to people.’ It was probably the best time of my life.”

There is no Edward Sharpe in the Magnetic Zeros. The persona is the creation of vocalist and bandleader Alex Ebert. He formed the band after meeting vocalist Jade Castrinos in 2009 during a transitional phase in his life, after breaking up with a girlfriend. Kirkpatrick joined after meeting Ebert and Castrinos through mutual friends at Burning Man that year.

“I had just graduated from UCLA and figuring out what it was to be on my own in this world,” she said.

The rest of the lineup includes trumpet player Stewart Cole, guitarist Christian Letts, drummer Josh Collazo, percussionist Orpheo McCord, bassist Seth Ford-Young, and the two newest band members: Guitarist Mark Noseworthy and keyboard player Aaron Arntz.

Edward Sharpe released its first album, Up From Below, that same year. Buoyed by surprise hit “Home,” the album climbed to No. 76 on the Billboard 200 chart. The song was covered many times over, including the charming take by a man and his daughter that became a YouTube smash that was later turned into a car commercial.

“The great thing about that song is that everyone who hears it is thinking of their own story,” Kirkpatrick said. “It’s a story about friendship, and it’s a story about love. Be it a father and a daughter, or two best friends, or lovers, it can be so many things. That’s what makes it a great song. Wherever you feel great is where your home is.”

It was Ebert who got the idea of a train tour, although the documentary was a collective idea, according to Letts and Cole. Director Emmett Malloy and a small film crew rode along with the bands.

“They didn’t make their own experience; they filmed us and tried to make a narrative,” said Kirkpatrick, who has plenty of experience in front of the camera. As an actress, she has played roles varied from a regular stint on “Greek,” to an appearance opposite Laurence Fishburne on “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”

“A lot of artists have the urge to express themselves in different mediums, so I think it’s great for people to embrace that as opposed to shutting themselves off in one corner,” Kirkpatrick said. “It enriches your life if you are always trying to make something.”

When it came time to record a follow-up album, the folk and roots elements of Mumford & Sons and Old Crow Medicine Show seeped into Edward Sharpe’s musical vocabulary. The band went in to the studio with new instruments such as organs and an Ominichord and recorded 40 songs. Yet only nine songs made it on to Here.

“We were thinking of doing a double album, but we felt we didn’t want to rush and some of them are not done, so we are going to release some of them later in the year,” Kirkpatrick said.

The nine songs on Here are a more somber collection than the debut album. While the album builds, there is not euphoric crescendo like “Home.” The overriding theme is religion, a topic in “Dear Believer,” “Child,” “That’s What’s Up” and “I Don’t Want to Pray.”

“There are a lot of questions posed by us to challenge our own beliefs,” Kirkpatrick said. “We broke the songs out that way on purpose,” she said. “(Here is) a little more mellow, and the second (album will be) more upbeat and raucous.”

Follow writer Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter and RomiTheWriter.Tumblr.com.

Review, Photos & Video: The Black Keys, Arctic Monkeys @ Oracle Arena, 5/4/12

Related Posts:

Review: Yukon Blonde, Together, We Can Rule the Galaxy, The Wild Kindness @ Cafe Du Nord, 5/1/12

Related Posts:

Interview: Snow Patrol battle to smash image as balladeers

Related Posts:

Interview: How The Pierces broke up for a day, then found international success

Related Posts:

Review: Coldplay @ HP Pavilion, 4/27/12

Related Posts:

Interview: Edward Sharpe’s Nora Kirkpatrick discusses ‘Here,’ touring, and the album after the new one

Related Posts: