Take a moment to watch this excellent video for “The Fall,” the second track off of Rhye’s debut album, Woman (Polydor), out today. Try to guess how many female voices there are in the song.

Let’s see how you did. Girls on track: 0 (Got me, too).

While I’m late to the party on this song, its video (fantastically compelling, isn’t it?), and the fact that Rhye is made up of two guys by the names of Mike Milosh and Robin Hannibal, I’ve listened to Woman enough times in the past few days to know I’m smitten. There’s a soulful, feminine sensuality to every song that makes the entire album quite captivating. Check it out for yourself.

Key Tracks- “Open,” “The Fall,” “Last Dance,” “3 Days,” “Woman.”

Yes, that is half the album.

A number of things can be said about the tune that closes out Wilco’s The Whole Love (dBpm, 2011). There’s the riff, the call and response guitar-piano shindig, and the story of a conflicted father-son relationship that, among other qualities, make this song both beautiful and fraught with sorrow.

Clocking in at 12:04, “Morning” seems a little long, but more often than not I find myself hitting repeat immediately after it’s over. Put it in your AM playlist, even if it isn’t Sunday, and enjoy.

Valentine’s day music selections can be tricky. Sometimes, you have to learn the hard way that the special song you selected to soundtrack a tender moment with yo girl is actually about a bitter divorce (we’ve all been there, don’t sweat it).

In honor of today, here are 14 excellent relationship-related songs that you probably shouldn’t be putting on a mix today.

Unless you’ve lost all faith. Or are addicted to heroin.

Best of luck.

1) The Pains of Being Pure At Heart- “A Teenager In Love”

“…you don’t need a friend when you’re a teenager in love with Christ and heroin…”

2) Black Kids- “You Only Call Me When You’re Crying”

pretty straight-forward

3) Amy Winehouse- “Just Friends”

in which Amy recounts an affair with a married man

4) Local Natives- “You & I”

“when did your love go cold?”

5) Misfits- “Helena”

“if I cut off your arms and I cut off your legs, would you still love me anyway?”  

addendum: no, probably not.

6) Lily Allen- “Littlest Things”

don’t let that Celeste and Jesse Forever scene fool you, this song is nothing happy.

7) The Mountain Goats- “The Mess Inside”

abandon ‘ship! 

8) Jeff Buckley- “Lilac Wine”

alcohol-fueled yearning for better times.

9) The National- “American Mary”

“your arms around my shoulder blades are useless”

10) Regina Spektor- “Bartender”

“love is so fickle/ it starts with a flood and ends with a trickle”

11) 2pac feat. Tyrese- “Never Call U Bitch Again”

applaud the resolve, but you really put yourself in a hole there

12) Elliott Smith- “Don’t Go Down”

a toxic bond, doomed

13) The xx- “Sunset”

a great re-mix by Jamie xx, but 

14) 50 Cent feat. Tony Yayo- “I Just Wanna”

a bit too up-front, nah mean

December 9, 2012 @ Metro

Opening for Wild Belle and of Montreal

“anach-ro-nism- n. \ə-ˈna-krə-ˌni-zəm\ : an error in chronology; especially: a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other. “

There’s a lady with a moustache across from me at the moment, and I can’t help but overhear that she’s getting directions to a certain destination. I don’t know if or when there was a “time” for lady moustaches, but the concept of asking for directions is definitely from another time. It’s unusual, and incongruent in the days of “ohmygod Google Maps is back #google #maps.” It’s probably not a bad thing though. It’s comforting to know some people still get familiar with their locations and employ cognitive skills to remember when to turn left, right, stop at a red light, etc.

Similarly, when a band takes the stage and the oversized coat-laden frontman’s first utterance is “Peace, man,” you can’t help but find it a bit jarring and wonder if you’re in the right decade…

I first heard about Foxygen over the summer, when they released their Take The Kids Off Broadway EP (Jagjaguwar). I loved it. It was messy, hectic, and unstable in the best sense. I found it damn near impossible to keep up with the onslaught of tempo and drum pattern changes that occurs in every song, but it was so much fun to try. At times, frontman Sam France sounded like the spawn of Jagger and Bowie, and this is, I believe, universally accepted to be a “good thing.” In the midst of synth fuzz and endless reverb I sensed a couple of things that one tends to appreciate in musical acts: daring and talent. Something about this band sounded, at least to me, out of (chronological) time. I was looking forward to a chance to see them live.

I recently finished reading Patti Smith’s Just Kids, and, as they took the stage at the Metro, Foxygen looked like a band out of Smith’s memoirs- Dylan haircuts, huge coat, and all. Then there was the actual performance. Sam France was out of control. He jittered, he spun, he turned his back to the audience, and he jumped off stage, all before the first couple of songs were over. When they played the songs I recognized from Broadway, the incredibly persistent reverb was still there (France left it on in between songs, making it so hard to hear what he was saying), but more importantly, so was the talent. This isn’t a band that just learned how to play, nor is it one that abuses effects to hide lack of skill. The band was in sync. France can sing his tunes, and guitarist/keysman Jonathan Rado can play (as can the rest of the five-piecer).

This is what was the off-Broadway kids were listening to in 1972. At least that’s how I felt the other Sunday night at the Metro, for about 30 minutes.

Foxygen is a band from Los Angeles, by way of New York. Their debut LP, We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic is out next month on Jagjaguwar. They’ll be back in Chicago in March, opening for Unknown Mortal Orchestra.

October 20, 2012 at The Congress Theater with John Talabot and 2:54

Romy, Oliver, and Jamie, the trio better known as The xx, stopped in Chicago to create an hour and a half of ethereal, melodic melancholy for 4000 humans. It was revealed to all in attendance that the bare-bones nature of their new album, Coexist (Young Turks), is no accident, but rather the foundation upon which the live performance builds. You probably heard about this, but you don’t really understand it until you’re there, physically and emotionally experiencing the negative space in songs like “Fiction.” The same held true in songs from their eponymous debut, of which they performed plenty. I’m getting too worked up thinking about this show; I have to stop here.

Go see The xx live.

Also, Spanish DJ John Talabot was terrific and 2:54 sound exactly like what you think a rock band that opens for The xx sounds like.

Setlist after some pics of a big X in the dark. (In all fairness, that was pretty much all that the eye could see.)

Click to view slideshow.

Setlist:

Angels
Heart Skipped a Beat
Fiction
Crystalised
Fantasy
Basic Space
Missing
Reunion
Sunset
Night Time
Swept Away
Shelter
VCR
Islands
Chained
Infinity
Encore:
Intro (sidenote: amazing)
Tides
Stars

October 9, 2012 at The Riviera Theatre

After the success of their 2010 debut Tourist History (Kitsune/Glassnote), the three Irishmen known as Two Door Cinema Club had one main goal- maintaining relevance. It was easy to listen to History over and over, but slightly more difficult to differentiate between songs. One could have reasonably expected Beacon, the band’s sophomore release, to instead be titled Tourist History 2. That’s not the way the cookie crumbled, however, and when Beacon came out last month it did the job of showcasing a band grown. It’s no surprise, then, that the band I saw play to a crowd of 18 plussers at Lincoln Hall last summer played to a packed, all-ages crowd at The Riv last Tuesday night.

With an elaborate, new light show and a refreshingly more confident stage presence (they cracked a few smiles!), Two Door put on quite the performance. But you knew that. Here’s a short bit about their openers:

- Guards: From New York, the band’s lead singer is the brother of Madeline Follin, singer for a little band named Cults that we really like a lot. Guards is good, and they have this new single out that’s particularly pleasant. Check out “Silver Lining” below. If you’re on the East Coast, you can catch them opening for Ra Ra Riot in December.

-Friends: Also from NY, this five piece kinda scared me with their super funky, exotic sound, but you may be into them, and that’s totally cool.

Anywho, Two Door was great, I got some decent pictures, and even though they didn’t play “Cigarettes in the Theatre” (much to my chagrin), everyone wins. Especially the pre-teen who kept shouting about how excited she was to be at her first concert with her two BFFs <3! Setlist after the jump.

Setlist:

Sleep Alone
Undercover Martyn
Do You Want It All?
This Is The Life
Wake Up
You’re Not Stubborn
Sun
Spring
I Can Talk
Costume Party
Next Year
Something Good Can Work
Handshake
Eat That Up, It’s Good For You
Encore:
Someday
Come Back Home
What You Know

Monday October 8, 2012 at Bottom Lounge

On a chilly Monday night, a modest crowd of Chicagoans (I presume) gathered at the Bottom Lounge. Some where there to see The Features, the headliners from Tennessee, while others came out to cheer on Army Navy, the indie-pop trio from Los Angeles. At any rate, all were entertained. Army Navy were pleasant in spite of the room’s acoustics, and a particular song stood out to yours truly. As it turns out, they have a video for it. Watch “Ode to Janice Melt” below.

Shortly after Army Navy’s set, The Features came out and rocked the joint. They opened the way their 2009 release, Some Kind of Salvation (SLG), begins, with “Whatever Gets You By” segueing into “The Drawing Board.” Their brand of hard, Southern indie rock (think something in the vein of The Black Keys) was a consistent sound through the night, and it was fun.

Sunday September 30, 2012 at The Chicago Theatre

Famed piano- and witty-man Ben Folds dumped the gimmicks, got together with his old buds, and started making three person harmonies again. As if they hadn’t missed a beat, Ben Folds, Robert Sledge, and Darren Jessee showed up at The Chicago Theatre and played an awesomely long set that showcased tunes from the new The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind, and showed off the music that made them remarkable in the 90s . Opener Kate Miller-Heidke, who’s collaborated with Folds in the past, won the audience over with her opera chops, charming banter, and a terribly well-played rendition of “The Real Slim Shady.”

Highlights of the night included: the aforementioned Eminem cover, Ben Folds nonchalantly replacing “Chick-Fil-A” with “Anti-Gay” during “Army,” Robert Sledge’s Falsetto, and of course, the 5 minutes during which Folds acquiesced to the fans and performed an incredibly rare “Rock This Bitch” improvisation.

It was about the audience being insincere people-pleasers. It was in the key of C. You can watch below:

Here are some mediocre pictures and the setlist is right under:

Click to view slideshow.

Setlist:

• Michael Praytor, Five Years Later
• Missing the War
• Hold That Thought
• Jackson Cannery
• Selfless, Cold and Composed
• Erase Me
• Alice Childress
• Sky High
• Landed
• Magic
• Battle of Who Could Care Less
• Do It Anyway
• Rock This Bitch
• Brick
• Draw a Crowd
• Emaline
• Song for the Dumped
• Kate
• Army

Encore:

• Best Imitation of Myself
• Underground
• One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces

It’s come to my attention that there are few things you need to know. First, I don’t know how to swim. Secondly, there’s a ton of good, new music out right now and I’m really excited and I think you should be too and I’m holding off on breakfast just to tell you.

If you haven’t already:

Dan Deacon, “America”

A friend described Deacon as the modern-day Aaron Copland, and that just about sums it up. Inventive, free-flowing, and straight-up awesome, America is the quintessential homage to the proverbial frontier.

Divine Fits, “A Thing Called Divine Fits”

Take the dude from Spoon and Wolf Parade’s Dan Boeckner and you get new-wavey fun times!

Two Door Cinema Club, “Beacon”

As enjoyable as Tourist History was, all songs on that album sounded a bit (a lot) like each other, and it was hard to imagine TDCC would be anything but the next buzz band of yesterday. Luckily for them (and us), Beacon has the fellows from Ireland exploring in the right directions. On the whole, it’s slower than History, but if you were a fan of tunes like “Cigarettes In The Theatre” and “Something Good Can Work,” odds are that you’ll enjoy this.

NEW STUFF:

(click cover art for tunez)

The xx, “Coexist”

Lil Wayne, “Dedication 4″

Cat Power, “Sun”

Animal Collective, “Centipede Hz”

St Vincent and David Byrne, “Love This Giant”

Talib Kweli & Z-Trip, “Attack The Block”

One, Two, Three, It’s Z-Trip and Talib Kweli-i-i…

BONUS: Ruby Isle, “Appetite for Destruction”

I just discovered this. If you’re into the seminal 1987 album, and/or also enjoy electronic tunes, what a treat this is! Ruby Isle, film composer Mark Mallman’s project, did a front to back cover of Appetite. “It combines the best of the 80s with the, um… best of the 80s?”

Closing Thought: Does anyone remember Mike Jones’ phone number and/or what he’s up to these days?

I’m biased towards the Chicago stop, as it has Kid Color opening. 

According to clubtix, costumes are encouraged. Unfortunately for me, I dressed up as a plane just last year.  Thoughts on whether it’s in good taste to repeat so soon?

At any rate, let’s get tickets and go.