c/d: akron/family

Classic for the time I saw them play and they got around thirty members of the audience on stage, handed them random instruments and made the whole crowd sing "Circle Triangle Square! Yeahyeahyeahyeahyeah!"

Finally got a chance to see these fellers last night at a secret pre-Coachella show up in LA. Brought down the house, all the claims for them as being genius live are fully justified. Getting the crowd going is part of it all of course but the way they were able to constantly turn things on a dime almost minute by minute, pretty damn incredible. A lot of murky but a few good photos by me here; I do like this one:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3134/2442895648_931b358f3f.jpg

they are an awesome live band. also, if you've passed on them so far, the first self-titled album, and their first split with michael gira, are both worth a listen or two. on both those, they walk a fine line between epic/transcendent and hokey/jammy. since then, from my perspective at least, they seem to have succumbed a bit to the hokey/jammy, the exception being their backing work on gira's album last year

Oh I've got their stuff (in a happy circumstance, I'm on the Young God promo list). I'd just not seen them in the flesh before.

damn, that is a pretty happy circumstance!

they are so rad live

future myth is pretty rad - that whole album is great but the song is just :D

new album

it's kinda alright but I'm just looking forward to the live show

I was going to start a thread for the new album (because it's awesome), but I figured I'd start here instead. I didn't care too much about these guys before this evening.

always blown away by the drummer

^^^^ still think love is simple is their best tho

this is really good. maybe being free of michael gira is liberating. the first song sounds almost like yes

but they already sounded like Yes on the second song of the split with Angels of Light!

"moment"? it's an awesome jam, maybe an impressionistic version of yes. i hear more dead in it myself. on "everyone is guilty" there are stretches of straight up "yours is no disgrace" intricacy. but who cares. it's all good. can't wait to see these guys again

well, I was thinkin' specifically of the weird proggy riff thing they go into for a little while right before the song gets all twangy and quiet.

haven't heard the new one yet, but if it rocks harder then I am down with that.

there's an instrumental called "mbf" you might like then that's a little like when "raising the sparks" gets really going

Friendly dudes.

gira is going to be playing in LA when these dudes are going to be in town so hopefully they show up for that.

also they have a mind freak magician opening up for them on one day or something. I hope he comes out and jams w/ them

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51WN5rn3vZL._SS500_.jpg

Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free is the fourth album by Akron/Family. It was released on May 5, 2009 by Dead Oceans Records (and in Europe by Crammed Discs).

"Everyone Is Guilty" - 5:58
"River" - 4:46
"Creatures" - 4:13
"The Alps & Their Orange Evergreen" - 3:51
"Set 'Em Free, Pt.1" - 2:37
"Gravelly Mountains of the Moon" - 7:41
"Many Ghosts" - 4:05
"MBF" - 3:14
"They Will Appear" - 6:28
"Sun Will Shine (Warmth of the Sunship version)" - 5:13
"Last Year" - 1:40

sorry i posted the wrong album:

(from Akron/Family newsletter)
"We’re super excited to announce the inception of Family Tree Records — our very own imprint designed to bring you rare & unreleased Ak/Fam material, our own side projects and eventually, a few brand new artists we think you’ll love.

So, to officially induct Family Tree, we’re beginning with what will be the first entry in our Improv Series — a set of releases devoted to the AkAk fringe, experiments pointed towards the outermost cosmos.

That said, we present you with Totem (Improv Series 1) — the results of us hopping onto WFMU’s Frow Show and laying a 70-minute freakout to tape

After bringing the Totem discs out on our Winter tour through the south, they were gone before we knew what to do. So we’ve decided to make it available in the digital realm."

Available at http://akronfamily.bandcamp.com/

1. Totem 1 02:05
2. Totem 2 03:54
3. Totem 3 02:26
4. Totem 4 02:00
5. Totem 5 02:18
6. Totem 6 04:26
7. Changing Positions of the Sun 16:42
8. Village Awareness 07:26
9. Totemic 00:59
10. Planing Sideways. Graphical 09:05
11. Fixation Star Grid 09:42
12. Numbers Growing 07:14
13. Always Been Ways To Here 10:45
14. And In The 00:21

Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free

this is such a great album

http://pitchfork.com/news/41419-listen-to-the-new-akronfamily-album-now/

link 2 the stream: http://3voor12.vpro.nl/speler/luisterpaal/44427006

this album doesn't really have any surprises (except that one part where I think the dude goes on and on about walking out of a Safeway) and makes me kind of sad, but I don't really care because their live show is still going to be great

a while ago I downloaded this session they did where they basically recorded an album demo on a radio show, and it was all pretty alright. Nothing really stood out except this one track they did called Sophia (or something like it, it sounds like a country song and they all just keep shouting Sohpiaaaaaa over it). I don't have it anymore, so if anyone does please leonardo it.

I have the song "Sophia", I think you sent it to me actually

(assuming you are the person I am pretty sure you are!)

Yeah, i just can't bring myself to care about A/F's albums anymore for some reason. I would dearly love to see them live again but they've never toured Ireland to the best of my knowledge.

bernard I am, upload the track, give me a call, moms asking about you

probably another of their fake leaks

They're probably cool people, but the music is DUD to my ears.

yeah i'm not overly impressed with their stuff. i think i keep revisiting their work because i figure that if michael gira loves them, there must be something i'm not getting.

http://ifile.it/0twsfhm
zoom zoom zoom!

These guys are such hippies, but I love 'em. I mean, come on, lyrics about saving a $1.80 on ice cream at Safeway only to give same $1.80 to a woman outside the store? So hilariously great. Love the new album.

http://cache0.bigcartel.com/product_images/50313451/soitgoes.jpg http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8N-4vHUiQ64/S6y4E7XEJ7I/AAAAAAAAC5I/TMJXGtSp6zo/s1600/cover.jpeg

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/405880_10150552105488114_553603113_8745855_1361657181_n.jpg

like are these guys famously not very bright or something

It's Crystal Castles all over again

Not that this excuses the theft but is that skull that guy's own design? Cos it does look like something he just found anyway tbh.

the lettering is nicked from Crass

don't know the exact origins off the top of my head but MITB have been using it for like 20 years

Ah okay, so it's pretty much their logo by now.

the lettering is nicked from Crass

I thought Crass famously encouraged the use of their font?

yeah no-one'll go after you for that, except maybe for being played out

Well, yeah, thats another issue.

I don't know enough about MITB, but I feel like I've seen that skull around lots of places.

that guy hates me too!

i think i deleted the email he sent me though. it was pretty mean! and pissed off! but, you know, i guess it should be given the source.

why was he mad at you?

yeah, scott! do tell!

saw an akron/family lp w/the mitb skulls plastered all over it a couple weeks ago. thought it might be a collabo lp and was like, 'what the hell?'

and that skull is a big part of their design sensibility. a bunch of bands splintered out from mitb and there have probably been hundreds of releases with em used prominently.

I think the story is that one of them photocopied it from a medical textbook and they just went with it.