Isis

w/ Intronaut and Torche

Thursday, March 8 @ 40 Watt Club

originally published March 7, 2007

Although stylistically indebted to forerunners such as Melvins and Neurosis, the 10-year-old Isis has always maintained a distinct persona. Perhaps this is because Isis, unlike many bands currently playing its type of “avant-metal,” comes by its sound honestly and through years of craft-honing rather than bandwagon-jumping. Admittedly, I'm being a little accusatory, and it’s not to say there aren’t genuinely inspired, newer acts that played this music from their inception. It’s just that I have a special affection for bands that I’ve been able to see grow, change and maintain artistic integrity while also finding an expanded audience that has come to them rather than the bands shifting for audience approval.

The idea of compositionally thoughtful and complex heavy metal is an oxymoron for some folks. Indeed, when seeing those words written down, they seem both ambitious and pretentious, and bands like Isis often are accused of each. While not entirely unfounded, it’s ultimately unfair. Although so much of the heavy scene is beginning to show the same level of pathetic overindulgence that gave the world such abominations as Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Isis still seems creatively in check, with ears finely tuned away from the bloated messes that success and nearly universal praise can readily accommodate.

The band's latest album, In the Absence of Truth, is slow-moving and murderously heavy by way of psychical impact rather than overt bludgeoning. Although the band has been around long enough to have produced one truly classic album (2002’s Oceanic ), it also seems that Isis suffers from unfair comparisons to its own work. Whether the group will continue to inspire new legions of bands - as it is currently doing - remains to be seen, but if Isis sounds tired to those who know its sound, perhaps it’s just because there are so many bands aping Isis' sound.

Gordon Lamb

Maria Taylor

w/ Fabulous Bird

Friday, March 9 @ Caledonia Lounge

originally published March 7, 2007

When you grow up watching your dad play in bands, making his living writing jingles for ads, and your house has its own studio, becoming a musician is natural. That's especially true if you're gifted with pure pipes like those of Maria Taylor. Taylor got her start in music young, recording her first compositions as a toddler. One of them, "Lynn Teeter Flower," even shows up as a track on her new album of the same name.

It was to Athens that Little Red Rocket - Taylor's band with fellow Alabaman Orenda Fink - moved, and here that it disbanded and then the duo debuted the sad sounds of Azure Ray on Athens’WARM Electronic Recordings. 2002 saw the duo relocate for Omaha, NE, and Saddle Creek Records. While there, Taylor collaborated with an impressive roster of musicians, lending her voice and multi-instrumentalist talents to Crooked Fingers, Moby, Bright Eyes, The Bruces and The Faint and continuing her long-distance work with Now It’s Overhead. Taylor released her critically acclaimed debut 11:11 in 2005, collaborating with former Cursive cellist Greta Cohn, Now It’s Overhead’s Andy LeMaster and Bright Eyes’Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis. On the new Lynn Teeter Flower , out this week, Taylor joins up with Spoon’s Jim Eno, LeMaster, Oberst and her brother and sister, bassist Macey and keyboardist Kate Taylor, both of whom play in her live band. Lynn Teeter Flower is a mix of soaring guitars, bubbly electronics, feathery Farfisa organs and sugary layers of vocals, but it's also an example of what Taylor does best: transforming private pain into heartfelt pop masterpieces. Lost friendships, lost romance and lost homes all make an appearance, lightened by her arrangements, some of which are incredibly hook-oriented. At the end of the album's final track, recorded in 1981, one can hear Taylor’s dad boast, “I think Maria’s got the makings of a real blues singer.” It’s a prediction that has come to fruition, though on Taylor’s own terms.

Deirdre Sayre

Castanets

w/ Shapes & Sizes

Saturday, March 10 @ Caledonia Lounge

originally published March 7, 2007

First Light’s Freeze , Castanets' sophomore release on Asthmatic Kitty Records (known most prominently for Sufjan Stevens, but also Shapes and Sizes, and The Curtains), feels like a compilation of echoing ambient Americana songs from a smattering of musicians each with a unique voice. Each track catches different pieces of an intimate and extremely complex puzzle that Ray Raposa, the brain and energy behind Castanets, hopes to piece together.

“Into the Night” starts the album’s lyrical base with “let’s go outside dear / into the murderous night,” pointing forward with a foreboding tone. However, directly following, “A Song Is Not The Song Of The World” clicks off with upbeat defiance, trading the haunting expression from only seconds earlier for droning lyricism and brash guitar riffs. This juxtaposition continues with the most pleasing melody of “Good Friend, Yr Hunger,” a 1960s throwback that chants “I will not be a hungry ghost.” First Light’s Freeze ’s winding path eventually climaxes at a wryly candid yet light song called “Dancing With Someone.” Here, Raposa drops a lot of the artsy intensity for simple honesty, saying “I do not want to explain / And I’m not going to / I want to get high on something / Go dancing with someone / Turn our backs to the battle.” Raposa was last in Athens this past fall, when he was touring with and playing in Phosphorescent. His songs beg for the same intensity in listening that he puts into creating, and that’s what it takes to even begin to realize the potential of First Light’s Freeze . It takes more than three listens, and probably will continue to bloom with 30. It can only be assumed that looking forward, any of Raposa's upcoming releases will develop this dedication and engagement as well. Looking forward to it.

Lia Brunelle