c/d: akron/family

The first record was pretty good but sleepy. I didn't like the songs from the split at all until I saw them live. I would like for them to do great things with the next one.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Though I did have a feeling they might have jazzbo roots -- at least the drummer, judging from the way he was playing.

if that's to me, don't get me wrong..its not the folks coming round that bother me, its that the last few shows i saw featured some basting off that was abit hokey and gooney than interstellar. frankly, i just don't go in for that variety of jamming.

my roommate hated them, which is usually a good sign.

"Thinking of you
There's lightning bolts in my chest
I know you know
I think our love is the best

If you have to stay
I'll be on the water
Catching the next wave
You can meet me where it breaks

Dream, dream, dream
Dream, dream, dream"

Such lyrics would be excusable in a good dance track (I forgive New Order many of their lyrical sins, for example), but not here.

But with that crowd comes inflated ticket prices for outdoor festivals, two things I try to avoid.
Although I guess this could be said for others beyond the 'jamband' scene.

they're a bunch of really great guys with chops and ideas. they should go a long way. i have said (and will stand by the statement) that they are the best rock band in america right now (gira seems to agree -- he managed to say a bunch things in the one-sheet for the split record that i had been scribling on scraps for a never-written profile before i could get them into my computer).

Yeah, I was there. Boxstep was pretty good! I nearly fell asleep during the secondband. Part of the reason they're so "perfect": two of the guys in it are music teachers at the Old Town School of Music. Not entirely sure why that's relevant, but I'm pretty sure it is.

bb: I don't know if I'd say BEST, but i could be swayed. Seriously the best live show I've seen in very long time.

If anyone has tickets for the 8pm set and would be willing to exchange for the 11:30 please let me know. I ordered the later ones by mistake and now can't get the early ones, and my wife can't go to the late set.

but still, check them out live!

But yeah, good live show.

BTW, we decided to just go to the 11:30 - anyone else going?

yes. and i love hamid drake. disappointment of the year. :(

however, even comparing the two is sort of insulting as that aside from some banjo/vocal harmonies and an acoustic guitar or two, they don't seem all that much alike

Parker/Drake are phenomenal though. Hearing them for 30 minutes made everything afterward seem all the more trite and pointless.

normally I think they are pretty good live--sometimes their whole shtick gets to me though. did they take off their shirsts and dance around like it was tribal and "real" and shit?

Drake and Parker already had the audience doing some pretty great clapping and chanting stuff and getting into it in a totally sincere way, and after that the whole Family thing of trying to get everyone to lose their irony (while maintaining a healthy irony about it) seemed stupid.

Moreover, after spending some time with their last album, and listening to their set, I realized they just don't really have good songs. They've got guns but no bullets, to use a phrase a drunk music industry guy once told me at a show.

My favorite track of theirs was always "raising the sparks"

I like these dudes.

"LOVE IS SIMPLE"
http://www.stereogum.com/img/akronfamily_loveissimple_cover.jpg

^that's a cool album cover, isn't it?

i don't know what to make of the new album yet in terms of songs--

what i do know is that they are such amazing musicians, really adept at everything they do

they have to cut down a little on the "ok, whole band sing" parts

yuh, I know what you mean.

I've acquired it, but I haven't had a chance to listen and no nothing about it really. Are there some good freakings out on it? Hope so.

*know

cutty, further on the "ok, whole band sing" parts, have you heard "Sunflower's Here to Stay" off the new Angels of Light album?
A/F kind of ruin that song.

<I>they have to cut down a little on the "ok, whole band sing" parts</I>

No way! That loose group singing really makes a lot of their songs. I can't imagine "Future Myth" without it.

Okay. I need to learn how to use the "convert simple html to bbcode" button.

love this new album

No way! That loose group singing really makes a lot of their songs. I can't imagine "Future Myth" without it.

i didn't say get rid of it. i said cut down. overkill.

i like it.

Listening to this for the first time right now and the "ok, whole band sing" part of "Ed is a Portal" really really reminds me of Phish.

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

Ha, that man actually is a bastard.

A stupid one.

Well its horribly written, but I think A/F dude kinda has a point and it genuinely doesn't seem like he was trying to pull one over on MITB.

Should have asked them first basically.

Well, yeah, I don't know, I'm torn on this. As someone more familiar with MITB pointed out, its pretty widely regarded as their "logo", but considering they took it from a medical textbook in the first place I don't think its really their original design where they get to dictate its use. Dick move? Yeah, probably, but I don't think they "stole" a trademarked design or anything.

some other dude from mitb

"Well im certainly happy to hear that it was coming from that direction. Look I get it, I really do. I'm totally into reference and homage, I love the underground nods. I've been thinking about this all morning and I'm all for free use and everything, and I tend to be of the opinion that coyright is bullshit...but you got understand that this just hit all of us out of the blue. With no warning or communication you have something that is very personal to all of us plastered all over several items you have for sale. I even stood back for a few minutes and wondered to myself: "they couldn't really just co-opt something so recognizable and expect this to pass could they? This has to be a nod, right?"

so basically he's all for free use, unless it's something that he has used in the past but doesn't actually own.

^^^

this is stupid

kinda wishing ghost of whoever's skull that was comes back from the dead and lectures them both

also A/K is great one of the few indie rock bands I care about/return to these days

I like these guys too for some reason. Maybe cos they can really jam? Moment is my jam.

I like A/F a lot. Particularly for not hiding the Dead influence.

haha that guy also accuses a/f of avoiding the issue by diabling comments on their facebook page, cause you can see how eric wood up there really wanted to discuss the issue.

considering they took it from a medical textbook in the first place I don't think its really their original design where they get to dictate its use

well yeah that's probably why they're just insulting them rather than making a noise about lawsuits or w/e

A/F are or can be p interesting musically I think but I've never heard a thing by them that suggested the influence of MITB or anything in that sphere, so it's a bit much to expect everyone to get the reference in the context they intended

kinda wishing ghost of whoever's skull that was comes back from the dead and lectures them both

― Full Frontal Newtity (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, January 24, 2012 5:47 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^^just reminded me why I miss ILM

I don't think MITB is claiming to "own" the image. However it's been used on pretty much everything they've done for the last 20 years, including the still-functioning Bastard Noise offshoot.

Two guys from MITB had very different responses--one laughable, one a bit more measured. Isreal (who is a friend of mine) was pretty clear that they weren't shouting lawsuit. However, considering their hardcore background, I think they were legitimately irritated to see something so closely identified with their band all over someone else's merchandise. Given the A/F dude's love of the band, a simple ask might not have been out of the question--especially since BN is still using the damned skull on his shit.

However, considering their hardcore background, I think they were legitimately irritated to see something so closely identified with their band all over someone else's merchandise

See this is the part that I'm not really following in their argument. Wasn't the early hardcore aestehtic, particularly when it came to fliers, all about "borrowing" images that could be copied and pasted on fliers for an easy and consistent design? I mean, if anything, I kind of feel like "reappropriating" the skull is particularly in line with hardocre values. Which isn't to say I don't think it was kind of a dick move and I agree an ask would have been the right thing to do.

Not to speak for the band but I think that's the conflict Isreal is wrestling with in the quote Mizzel pasted above. It seems like the reappropriation/homage is less of an issue than the fact that it was used on saleable merch. A/F didn't need "permission" but it was still lame.

i don't get that at all. it was saleble merch, sure, but to support a band, not a giant corporation (like the disney joy division thing).

yeah but compared to mitb ak is pretty much a giant corporation

A third MITB member speaks out... pro-Akron/Family.

I'm w/ akfam

I'm w/MITB but largely because I grew up w/Wood. Hidden in Israel's measured response is a sort of "if you knew Wood, you'd understand that this is sort of an 'it's in the scorpion's nature to sting the frog'" deal

SCAB SUCKING MAGGOTS

yeah but compared to mitb ak is pretty much a giant corporation

― bear, bear, bear, Thursday, 26 January 2012 01:08 (20 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

hahahahahahahahaahahahahahahaha no

glad some lil spat started so I can post again about how great ak/fam are live what nice dudes

they really are incredibly good live

otm

The tie-dyed freak flag is a way better look for them than the skull anyway.

this issue is all about... communication.

signed,
your girlfriend

hahahahahahahahaahahahahahahaha no

― dave cool it (stevie), Thursday, January 26, 2012 9:27 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

ha yeah I was on my way out when I read this earlier but that's a leeeeetle overcooked

don't think it's the issue in any case

man, this sounds like some blink 182 shit

http://soundcloud.com/danabuoy/

lol these dudes what happened

this is prob the first band whose career I've followed closely enough that I've been able to see their descending arc in realtime

Seeing on Twitter that Miles Seaton passed away, sadly. These guys could be really good and I was holding out hope for a comeback.

RIP. They had a few fantastic songs and I will forever be jealous of my friends who saw them during the Angels of Light split era, where, iirc, a performance of "Raising the Sparks" literally spilled out of the venue and into the street. (I assume this was more or less standard practice on that tour.)

I never really warmed to their later stuff (and they were sadly not very exciting when I finally did catch them in the mid-2010s) but back in the self-titled/Angels of Light split era it really did seem like the sky was their limit for a little while

The one time I saw them was phenomenal, small club show and one of the few concerts I've been at where everyone was dancing start to stop.

This is really wretched news because two months ago a dear friend who was plagued with severe depression ended her struggle, and her last message to us all the day before (one of those ones that reads a little different now) included a link to her own favorite Akron/Family song, "Last Year." Heavy, heavy time.

Oh wow, I'm sorry Ned.

Sadly I never got to see them live, but I always hoped I'd get the chance. I know the latter stuff was a little more spotty, but I still like a lot of their material. In fact I had finally replaced my burned CD copy of the S/T album with an actual copy last summer.

very sorry to hear that ned

Thanks very kindly. There's lots more to say about her but we're all still feeling the loss. A real light.

Absolutely lovely thread about Seaton from another friend of mine.

In the mid 2000s until the early twentyteens Akron/Family was my absolute favorite live rock band. Life-affirming music. When they played on my radio show in college, Miles and I talked endlessly about music and he offered to dump his his entire external hard drive full of tunes

— Sam (@fax_me) February 19, 2021

akron family was one of the best live bands in the mid-00s, saw them quite a few times, first was during the angels of light split tour. After that one member left to be a monk they were not really up to that level live but man they were so special when they were. The last time I saw miles play was 6-7 years ago, it was in a large warehouse space and it was a duo of him and a cellist, with a choir diffusing out throughout the warehouse, walking around and singing at various levels to make this 3D surround sound experience. Not really sure what to think or say