Getting worldly with Ecos de Portoalegre

Bonjour, hi! I go by the username of iWoo on T61, and this is my first actual post on Max Bumps. AnnieB posted my "Get to know..." entry back on April 26th, if you'd like to see some recommends. Of course, you can always visit my somewhat neglected playlists on T61.

I recently moved to Montreal, in part because of all that is going on with the music and art scene. Summer here is known as festival season, and I've already found that there is so much going on that it can be hard to keep up. Last month saw the completion of the 29th annual Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, aka simply the jazz fest". I was too slow on getting tickets to Ladytron and TV On The Radio, but I was able to see Bran Van 3000 play a free show downtown as part of the admittedly low-key Canada Day celebrations. I had just moved into my apartment that day, and I was so busy (and stressed) the next few days that I didn't catch anything else at the Jazz Fest.

About two weeks later, I was walking through the splendid Parc La Fontaine on the way home one afternoon. I saw a poster for a free show in the théâtre de Verdure, which is an open-air ampitheatre with a covered stage, situated in the park. The group was Ecos de Portoalegre, a Latin-American band that was part of the jazz festival lineup. I'd heard from a few people that I missed out on a very good thing by not catching them at the jazz fest. After groceries and making a quick dinner I walked back to the park, just in time for the concert.

I was very impressed. Even though it had rained ten minutes prior to the show, the band was on time, and the seats were more than three-quarters full. They played an hour and a half set that had people clapping along and standing at their seats to dance. A few couples were brave enough to salsa just below the stage. The crowd was very diverse, and quite appreciative despite the wet benches.

Anyway, I am not too familiar with Latin-American music in general, but here's what I've learned about Ecos de Portoalegre.

This 7-piece Montreal band has two members hailing from Canada, and the rest from Colombia, Ecuador, Argentina, Mexico and Bolivia. They have only been together as a band for three years, but their Latin-American rhythms are very popular in this city. Their style is a blend of different traditional Latin styles, and they mix together salsa and jazz with the sultry vocals of Anamaría Gonzalez (pictured right). The musicians have all been playing for a much longer time than the band has been around, and their skill is evident, with a very crisp and full sound.

The latter part of the group's name is Porto Alegre, a city in Brasil. The meaning of their name relates to the fact that the city has hosted the World Social Forum four times. The WSF is an annual meeting of activists and academics getting together to discuss issues and share ideas. Pablo Castro--guitar and piano player for Ecos--said their mission is to create "music that people can listen to and dance to, but also to say something about what's going on in the world. We're trying to echo everything that the forum was for."

Their website paraphrases this well: Ecos de Portoalegro is "making audiences dance, think and dream." Their music represents a diverse group of individuals able to share and celebrate their respective backgrounds rather than point out their differences. The result is a statement of anti or alter-globalization that just happens to have infectious rhythms and a spicy summer vibe.

Listen to four of their songs off their website.

So far they only have these four tracks available on a demo CD available at their shows, but they are apparently working on their album. If you happen to be in Montreal in August, they have another show on the 10th and 23rd. (Details at the site linked above.)

Anj Granieri Concert Review by Raine

Review by Raine.
Photograhy by Toni Agosta, Shutterbox Photography.

The Tin Angel is a small club located on 2nd Street in the Olde City section of Philadelphia, It is upstairs from an eclectic restaurant called Serrano, and both are welcoming and cozy. There's no place better to head on a sultry summer night to hear Anj Granieri perform her captivating music.

As we entered and decided on a table, we noticed Anj immediately. She's a tall, striking girl with that great hair! I introduced myself and my husband and she immediately started a conversation with us. We had lots to talk about since, like Anj, my husband is from the Atlantic City area. Anj is hoping to branch out from that area, and after spending time in New York, she is booking gigs in Philadelphia. She is also collaborating with some other artists (a few from thesixtyone) on live music ventures.

Now to the best part – the music! There were four performers on the bill and Anj was first. She is the kind of performer who gets the audience involved in the show by explaining how she comes by the ideas for the songs she writes and performs. We heard Bright Winter (you can feel the wind on the beach while listening to this one - a good way to cool off in June), Michelle (my personal favorite about the foster child her parents took in for a year), View of the Few (a song inspired by her family), The End of Love (that fabulous instrumental that just conjures up all kinds of emotions before you even realize what's happening), The Rest of Me (written while Anj was living in New York) and The Mark. The Mark is such a powerful song, and performed live just brought tears to my eyes, which is no easy feat.

She ended the show with her own version of God Bless America which was jazzy, distinctive, and respectful all at the same time.

I will definitely see Anj perform again. Her voice is one of a kind, and her personality shines through her compositions

Anj's music is available at cdbaby.

AnnieB's Detour: Thao Nguyen (t61 Reflections and Concert)

One of the early artists I learned about from t61 was Thao Nguyen. This may be strange, but I vividly remember "Beat (Health, Life, and Fire)" being the first song I ever double-bumped, and it was a rather costly, early bump too. However, it was well worth it when I was “poor” since I had listened to the song over and over again. What’s kind of interesting is that the listener who had “discovered” the song was my first-ever subscriber, which in turn ended up being the first listener I subscribed to (both cases excluding Sam and James, of course), and is now the first fellow 61er that I’ve met in real life…and out of all things, we caught Thao Nguyen in concert. Sort of brought things in full circle for me.

While temporarily sitting on a side bench inside The Echo (a hip, low-key, small venue in Los Angeles) before the show started, I looked down and about five or six feet in front me, I see these cowboys boots, which I knew was a signature of Thao’s…and long and behold, it was her standing and selling her merchandise at a table. I didn’t have the guts to talk to her or anything, but from what I observed, she seems really cool, charismatic, and down to earth.

It was almost inevitable for me to see Thao with the Get Down Stay Down perform. There was quite a bit of handclapping and stomping involved, and you guys know how much I like the handclapping. It was even syncopated too. They certainly brought the energy on the little stage. It also helped knowing her songs beforehand too because I don’t think these guys in front of me really knew who she was since they were pretty stoic and one kept checking his phone. On the other hand, I had these two girls right next to me who were upbeat and excited to see Thao, which made up for them initially trying to push me over to the side in attempts to move closer to the stage.

Occasionally in between songs, Thao would just say whatever came to mind. One was mentioning how she wanted to shop for some vintage clothing to wear for the show (there’s lots of vintage stores around the Silverlake/Echo Park area) but ended up wearing an outfit she’s been wearing for much of the tour, so she joked, “Don’t come any closer, really, don’t.” I wish I had pictures to share since I had a really good view, but unfortunately the few that I took came out all blurry since I hadn’t taken the time to learn the different functions on my relatively new digital camera. I’ll figure it out someday, but at least I found a picture on her myspace where she's wearing the same shirt dress, so that works.

All in all, I liked it. From what I can tell, most of the songs came from her latest album We Brave Bee Stings and All. Would've been nice to hear "Chivalry" but they ended up playing another song called "Tallymarks" off her previous album, Like the Linen. Anyway, being Vietnamese myself, it’s nice to see an artist like Thao break the conventional mold of indie folk rock. Too bad I couldn’t bring my friend who is also named Thao Nguyen (yes, it’s a very common Vietnamese name). Unfortunately that Thao has different taste in music and went to see Leona Lewis perform at the Jimmy Kimmel show.

Though you won’t get the same energy as from a live show, you can check out her studio performance on KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic by clicking here. Below is a video clip of "Big Kid Table" from the live session.


Excerpt from an interview conducted by The Guide: Los Angeles Times:
Q:What do you want for yourself 10 years down the road?
A: I think I have very realistic goals. To be honest, I’d like to get a salad spinner…

Thao’s website
Thao’s myspace

Apoc Rock - Tokyo Police Club Concert Review by Apocalypse

Friday April 04, 2008, Miami, Florida

Tonight I got a chance to see Tokyo Police Club live at Studio-A in Miami, a small, intimate, beautiful venue that regularly features new Artists and is one of the only remaining bastions of Indie music in South Florida. From the line outside, it was evident that this band is more popular than I had expected, with a looong line of people of all ages, dressed in various shades of black. The opening bands for this show were the Miami-based The Jean Marie and the Minneapolis band, Eagle Seagull.

Woo! What a show. By the time this relatively young band stepped on stage, the venue was filled to the rim with anxious fans, packed in so deep and so tight that I doubt a dropped penny would even hit the floor. TPC (to us fans, that is) came in rocking and didn't let up. The intensity of their play was evident in the energy that the crowd reveled in, singing along to every syllable and jumping up and down, electrifying the tiny venue. It was, quite a sight.





Tokyo Police Club jumped from one song to another song to another, with the slightest pause in between. There was no usual, pointless, inarticulate banter that most bands engage in, following each song, trying to engage the crowd (and other than Bruce Spingsteen) failing miserably nearly every time. Nope. This was Rock time. I joined the crowd center stage and in that hot, sweaty bathhouse of perspiration, heat and energy, I joined them in singing along, arms raised in rockin' reverie and feeding off the vibe of the band/fan perfect storm. A small mosh pit even broke out beside me, and being the aging man who is desperately trying to retain grasp on his youth, I joined in. All good fun and although not much of a mosh pit, I still managed to bruise a rib.







Tokyo Police Club played hard and they played with heart. Crisp chords and organized songplay with little (if any) jamming. They covered every song on their current album and even played a few from their upcoming album, Elephant Shell (available on April 25th on iTunes). It was a roaring good time and the band proved that they can handle a concert with energy and intensity. One thing I noticed was that they did not deviate from the recorded version of their songs, so it was a live version of what they have already recorded. As a fan, I like to see the band reinterpret their music when playing live, just to give those who came all the way out to see them a bonus above and beyond what they can get on their car stereo. The night was closed out by that all important song by Tokyo Police Club, Tokyo Police Club, which nearly brought the roof down on the small club

By most measures, it was well worth the time to go out and see TPC play. I am looking forward to the new album and who knows, maybe they'll make their way back all the way to South Florida once again soon.

Dead To Me & Teenage Bottlerocket Review

I caught Dead to Me and Teenage Bottlerocket tonight at Bottom Of The Hill in San Francisco. These are both punk pop bands that all the punker kiddies seem to dig. Actually, I was surprised that the crowd wasn't a little younger, but this punk pop sound hasn't changed much since the 80s (since the days of Husker Du and The Ramones), so maybe it suits the older crowd just fine.

As soon as we walked in the door, Jason, my company's president, introduced me to Chicken from Dead to Me. Yes, Chicken. I guess his real name is Tyson, so everyone just calls him Chicken.

When we came in a band was playing but I can't remember the name. The Femurs? Possibly. They sound like your average punk band with a yelling front man and lots of fast 3 chord guitar. Not bad music, but nothing to distinguish them from the herd of bands with this sound, but fun to listen to.

Teenage Bottlerocket was up next. They have two singers and when one of the guys sings, it totally reminds me of The Ramones. They were pretty awesome because they could play seamlessly between songs and were ending on the same note the next song began. The guy with The Ramone's voice was in this other band called the Wellingtons and I hear they'd do their whole show in this manner. I would think that would be tough on the forearms and neck, since they do a lot of headbanging. Teenage Bottle Rockets are out of Wyoming. It was a fun show but really loud. Maybe I'm just getting old.

Dead to Me was the headliner. The singer was very talkative and entertaining (like he might have been on speed, but I heard he's clean and sober - he's probably just one of those really hyper people). They put on a very energetic show.

It was a rockin good time. They have a really good sound system in the club, but man, was it loud.

The pictures in the post are ripped from the band's MySpace pages. I took some photos but they turned out really crappy. The Dead to Me photo is by Patrick J Stefano. Nice photo, Patrick.