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Phoenix @ Museum Of Television & Radio (KEXP Session)
Too Young / Run Run Run / Everything Is Everything / Alphabetical

The Fiery Furnaces @ Museum Of Television & Radio (KEXP Session)
Teach Me, Sweetheart / Here Comes The Summer / I’m Waiting To Know You / Police Sweater Blood Vow

The Fiery Furnaces “Police Sweater Blood Vow” – KEXP record their sessions at the Museum of Television and Radio in a room the size of a small office. It looks and feels like one too – I kept thinking of that scene in The Office when David Brent plays “Free Love On The Free Love Freeway” in the conference room. Phoenix played as a full band, though a couple members sat out when they weren’t needed. They are a remarkably clean and precise band (even when the drummer suddenly has no kick pedal and is forced to improvise and play the kick like a tom), and coupled with the immaculate sound in the room, it was rather easy to close your eyes and imagine that you were just listening to a cd. I was particularly pleased that they played “Alphabetical,” which is a personal favorite of mine and was not part of the set when I saw them at the Bowery Ballroom last year.

The Fiery Furnaces performed as an acoustic duo, and only played songs that they had never played live before. Being a huge Furnaces fanboy, this was a great thrill for me, sort of like being there when Pavement did those great old Peel Sessions. The first two new songs will appear on Bitter Tea, which is intended to be the proper Furnaces record packaged with their “grandmother album” Lake Train to My Lost Love, due out by the end of the summer. “Police Sweater Blood Vow” is a brand new song that they say will end up on the record after that (album six if you count EP). All three of the new songs are immediately catchy and loveable, owing more to the simple pop songs of Gallowsbird’s Bark than the epics from Blueberry Boat. The emphasis of the lyrics have changed considerably, allowing for more directness and less obscurity while keeping the wordplay sharp and intriguing. (Click here for the KEXP website – full archives of both sessions will be available shortly, until then go to “archived streams,” go to April 6 2005, and listen around 7 AM for Phoenix and 11 AM or the Fiery Furnaces.)

Fannypack “Seven One Eight” – Well, it’s good to see someone do something fresh with the Beastie Boys’ vocal style. Fannypack play up the Boys’ NYC obsession, catholic taste and self-assured cool; so unlike fellow female Beastie biters Northern State, who only ever seem to ape their worst qualities – an eagerness to stick to the same old rhyme schemes as though they are filling out mad libs, and their ability to taint essentially positive political messages with toxic levels of smugness. At their best, Fannypack sound like sassy cartoon hipsters attempting to fuse their love of hip hop and Bring It On with some oddball arrangements. For example: vamping ska guitar, harmonica, and percussion limited to processed kick downbeats. (Click here to visit the Fannypack MySpace page.)