Preview: Murder By Death at the Vogue Theatre, Indianapolis



Murder By Death (photo credit: Greg Whitaker)

The music of Murder By Death has always struck me as best-suited for autumn, especially here in the Midwest. The swings in tone between fluid, ornate melody and thunderous discord evokes an atmosphere of days shortening, nights encroaching to demarcate boundaries deeper into the mornings and earlier into the quickly-dwindling evenings, the oppressive weight of several months of winter on the horizon.

Murder By Death (originally formed in Bloomington) seems to thrive in this atmosphere, marrying the portentous and the cathartic to chilling effect. Mixing gritty folk and orchestral chamber-rock wrapped around murder ballads, gothic lore and plots of scorched earth between some heaven and some worldly purgatory, they are songs of the nature of man, mostly bleak and draped in poignant flourishes.

And what better night for a Murder By Death show than the lone Saturday night between Halloween and Election Day? Few bands can capture such spirit for a week bookended by a celebration of all things ghoulish and the consuming dread of potential end times quite so majestically. Perhaps, the only way the band could top such ripe fodder for a memorable set would be to perform the set at the Stanley Hotel (home of the infamous Overlook Hotel from Kubrick’s The Shining), which Murder by Death has done annually to rabid fanfare for years now.

The band is currently touring in support of the excellent, seventh full-length album, Big Dark Love (Bloodshot Records), a record I’ve lived with for most of the past two years. In recent weeks, I’ve found myself eagerly revisiting the 2012 knockout, Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon, and Good Morning, Magpie along with MBD’s deep catalog of darkly tinged arrangements and anthems to prepare for the anticipated Indy date.

Even with a stacked roster of solid bets for a Saturday night in Indianapolis (Band of Horses at Old National Centre and Marshall Crenshaw with the Bottle Rockets at the Hi-Fi come to mind, among others), my money is on Murder By Death at the Vogue. Fellow Louisville-based trio Twin Limb will open the show in support.

Tickets for the show are $18.50 in advance or $21 at the door.

Listen:
"Send Me Home" from Big Dark Love



Video:
"Lost River" from Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon
 

Fort Frances - Alio

 

Sometimes it takes discerning ears to pinpoint what accounts for the greatness of a rather traditional band and separates them from the ultramodern slush pile that makes up the typical listening experience in this streaming age. Click, listen, copy into playlist, then move on to the next few minutes of music discovery and/or following hype-assisted crowds.

To me, Fort Frances’ Alio is a sort of record that breathes and exists somewhat outside of the sphere of the horizon-less Spotify shuffle. These are, pound for pound, the Chicago-based trio’s catchiest songs to date. That probably doesn’t mean much to those uninitiated with the band, but they’ve taken the yearning, red-blooded core of Atlas, Harbour, and Breathing Room - good songs worth revisiting over time - and they have created a bona fide rock album that not only ceases to forfeit the roots of where they come from but ramps up the urgency, musicianship and sense of adventurousness across the board. The production of Sam Kassirer (previous Fort Frances outings, as well as Josh Ritter and Langhorne Slim) impresses throughout the album, coaxing muscular arrangements and crispness while steering clear of commercial grandstanding. Fort Frances and Kassirer have a perceptive understanding of what best suits a song, and the songs of Alio are outstanding.

Writing about the album is a pleasure for me, because I’ve been fortunate enough to have been living with many of these songs for more than a year. “Days Get Heavy,” “These Are the Mountains Moving,” “Best of Luck,” “Anonymous,” and “This Year Is Yours” all compromised the band’s 2015 EP, No One Needs to Know Our Name, a collection of songs that was in as frequent of a rotation as anything else I listened to over the past year. I begrudgingly held off writing much about that EP because I (*full disclosure) contributed to Fort Frances’ bio ahead of that release. Come year end, I regretted not finding the proper outlet for attempting to share my two cents for how much I loved No One Needs to Know Our Name.

Cue the glory of second chances. When frontman and songwriter David McMillin sent Alio my way earlier this year, I was thrilled to discover the record consists of all of those songs and a handful of new ones that retain all of their spirit and depth, each one worthy of being a standalone single and each one intertwined in the fabric of the album as a whole. McMillin, Aaron Kiser and Jeff Piper have been working on bringing this album into the world for a few years now, and I can only imagine how tough it has been going day to day for all that time sitting on songs this great, just waiting on the opportunity for others to hear them.

Vonnegut would say “so it goes.” And so it does.

Such is the reality of the striving artist now more than perhaps ever before, especially for musicians in this age of the streaming content blitzkrieg.

 

It shouldn’t be all that surprising that this was the perspective Fort Frances came from when writing and composing Alio. It is scrawled right there in the modest manifesto of No One Needs to Know Our Name. It’s evoked in the nostalgic Polaroid Alio cover art: a boy in sunglasses, blue sweats and cowboy boots, a nondescript patrol car, a suburban driveway, all the not-yet-vanquished dreams and all the weight of the adult world just out of frame, all the ways our senses and sense of self are spinning in the opaque cyclone of the Cloud. Much of that may not be overt on first listen to any of these songs, but it’s almost impossible to miss in McMillin’s songwriting, his callbacks to lyrics from other songs, his expeditions into the caverns of his being while the modern world keeps on spinning on a digital axis that gets easier and easier to get lost in but harder to define in terms of what makes each of us a human, a lover, an artist, or a salvageable individual.

“You will be born anew before these mountains move

There’s a record spinning in the distance over and over and over and over again…

Can you feel the army in your bones?

It sings of love and sex and loneliness and faith and truth and absolutes” – “This Year Is Yours”

The coup that Fort Frances pulls on Alio is an achievement that many bands strive for but usually come up short. The trio build upon an already solid foundation of melodic songwriting, channel an earned chemistry from years playing alongside in intimate clubs and tap into that shared language in the studio, and patiently plunder the catalog and hone the sound of ten cohesive songs that soar beyond perhaps even conservative expectations. Compared to the more folk-minded compositions of Atlas and Harbour, Alio is a huge sounding rock record with a steady barrage of indelible, rousing pop hooks. The drums hammer staccato march formations (“You Got the Wrong Man”) and accelerate to climactic bombast (“Building a Wall”), they crib Moon and Antarctica-esque angles and coolness (“Sigh of Relief”), jubilant horns propel the introspective mission statement of “Anonymous,” a cathartic shout-along chorus anchors the unpredictability of “Days Get Heavy,” and steady streams of crescendos and harmonious, elegantly-layered bridges keep the songs unapologetically alive. At the beating heart of it all is McMillin’s world-weary yet idealistic outlook, an irreplaceable asset that allows all of his mediations on traveling, loves lost, mountains moving, and unframed memories to come through the speakers with equal parts rugged beauty and vulnerability while keeping the narrative moving towards each chorus in winsome and wistful rock songs.

Throughout Alio, Fort Frances construct songs with a classicist pop-rock verse-chorus-verse-chorus that, on paper or first listen, may make it tough to decipher what makes this trio special. But, when taken as a whole and given the chance to be absorbed into the surroundings of one’s day, it can become something more of a concentrated challenge not to take for granted just how great and special these songs are. That, after all, is what strikes me as the overriding goal Fort Frances has set out to bring to life: to make songs that have the potential to galvanize and be popular, but also say something – make empathetic observations about some not necessarily young (but not necessarily old) way of American life, and make it sound not terribly out of place with some of the good stuff that has stood the test of time on rock radio, while also not being fashionably in place alongside the majority of music being streamed into the millions. The goal is simply to have a relationship with and, perhaps, fall in love with the songs and promise not take them for granted should they hit you in the sweet spot.

 

Fort Frances' Alio is out April 22. Visit the band's website for more info, album presale, and upcoming tour dates (including the album release show Friday, April 22 at the Hi-Fi in Indianapolis).

Favorite Films of 2015

1. Spotlight

Workmanlike and morally complex with razor-sharp focus on the details, Spotlight is one of the finest, if not the absolute best, films ever produced about American journalism. It is devastating and quietly heroic with consummate integrity and honesty, and Tom McCarthy has crafted nothing short of an instant American classic. Featuring perhaps the best ensemble in a film this year and dealing with some seriously uncomfortable and tumultuous subject matter, Spotlight excels by refusing to sensationalize or become a spectacle. Nothing this year has had quite the breathtaking effect as the moments after Spotlight's end credits begin to roll.

2. Mad Max: Fury Road

 A gonzo, ultra-octane high-wire juggernaut of chrome-and-diesel genius that throws the rule book for summer blockbuster action flicks into the dumpster fire and gleefully rip roars into uncharted territory. That Miller has the balls to make it a badass feminist manifesto both honors the heart of the series and only makes Mad Max: Fury Road greater. 

3. Sicario

A gorgeously shot, chillingly scored, viscerally wrenching descent into internal and worldly hell centered around the invisible border trenches of the modern drug war and the inscrutable, sinister forces moving the pawns and shaping the narrative.

 

4. It Follows

Starting with conceit so great that it's almost unthinkable it hadn't been done before, It Follows proves from the opening frames alone that second-time writer-director David Robert Mitchell has something more amazing up his sleeve than merely a clever gimmick in an independent horror film. It's a work of sublime beauty, technical perfection, and relentless, masterfully earned suspense that delves into damning chasm separating innocence and adulthood while setting the action in the Anywhere, U.S.A. suburbs of Detroit before crossing 8 Mile into the city for the climax. Watch it first for the heart palpitations and unease set against Disasterpeace's brilliant score, and revisit It Follows time and again for Mitchell's filmmaking bravado and the sumptuously shot sequences that linger in your head long after the credits roll.

 

5. The End of the Tour

A two character road film that stirs the soul and tackles the spectrum of what it means to be human with towering intelligence, wit, generosity and empathy. A celebration of the greatest writer of his generation that gets to the heart of the man to the core by putting him face to face with a deserving foil and conversationalist in a whirlwind trek through middle America in the dead of winter while a darling in the literary world.

 

6. The Hateful Eight

The Hateful Eight delivers everything I could desire from a new Tarantino film - devilish, hilarious dialogue, carnage, irreverence, majestic cinematography (credit Robert Richardson yet again), an elegant, original Morricone score, and an exceptional ensemble that is collectively silver-tongued, brilliant and fiery - and it's simultaneously a sprawling and claustrophobic western that is unlike any other and unapologetically a Quentin entertainment. It's yet another masterwork in his unparalleled filmography, and it's arguably his best overall film since Jackie Brown, if not Pulp Fiction.

 

7. Steve Jobs

Yet another brazen, crackling screenplay in anti-biopic, three-act structure by Aaron Sorkin, energetically brought to life by Danny Boyle, centered upon Fassbender's dazzling portrayal (in my opinion, the most outstanding performance by a lead actor this year) of Jobs, a cultural titan with inexhaustible ambition, hubris, and contradictions. Uniformly excellent performances from Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels, Katherine Waterston and Michael Stuhlbarg match the greatness of Sorkin's writing and flesh out the Shakespearean wit and wickedness at its core.

 

8. The Big Short

 

Not just a good film that does justice to Michael Lewis' fantastic book about the band of eccentric outsiders who saw the writing on the wall and bet on the economy tanking in 2008, The Big Short is a wildly entertaining, frequently hilarious, and righteously pissed off movie that proves director Adam McKay can be even more inventive and proficient than just with Will Ferrell vehicles. It gets under your skin and tackles dense material, but it's doesn't fall into the trap of being an econ or history lecture; instead, it's a hell of a good time.

 

9. Mississippi Grind

The writing and directing team of Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden (Half Nelson, Sugar, It's Kind of a Funny Story) coax a terrific, charismatic performance from Ryan Reynolds that is crucial for keeping up with the brilliance Ben Mendelsohn brings to the table (as per usual) as Gerry, a downtrodden gambler seeking the next big score with no will to cash out. It's a beautiful American road movie down the Mississippi with the spirit of Hal Ashby, lush cinematography, a killer soundtrack and hefty doses of guileless charm, grifting, and heartache.

 

10. Ex Machina

Alex Garland (frequent Danny Boyle screenwriter for 28 Days Later, The Beach, Sunshine) makes his directorial debut working from his own stellar script that contemplates loaded questions of ethics and identity in what is essentially a three-character play of artificial intelligence and mental cat-and-mouse games in a sterilized fortress of isolation. Indebted to Kubrick and refined with 21st century innovations, it's a mesmerizing sci-fi thriller with captivating performances by the always great Oscar Isaac, Domnhall Gleeson, and a breakout Alicia Vikander.

 

11. Room

An unthinkable story rendered in wholly original, harrowing fashion, in lesser hands Room would be a cross to bear just to sit through - or, even worse, Lifetime-ready melodrama. Instead, Irish filmmaker Lenny Abrahamson's (Frank) breathtaking direction and script lay the foundation for two utterly amazing performances from Brie Larson (Academy, give her the Best Actress statue already) and Jacob Tremblay as the young son who has never seen the outside world. Full of despair, hope, suspense, and raw emotion, Room is a work of unspeakable beauty that hangs with you.

 

12. 99 Homes

Michael Shannon is one of our greatest actors, and I will happily spend two hours watching him in just about anything. Ramin Bahrani (At Any Price) gives Shannon one of the best roles of his already tremendous career, and Spider-Man Andrew Garfield keeps up with him with conflicted humanity as his near-hopeless circumstances sway his sense of ethics. 99 Homes is a devastating morality tale set against the modern American backdrop of one percenters, fraud and foreclosures, and it hits bone deep.

 

13. The Gift

Credit strong character-actor and writer-director Nash Edgerton for having the guts to go all in and see this drama-thriller all the way through to its seriously nasty conclusion without compromising. Even if the plot and genre beats seem modest and straightforward, Edgerton's execution of them and the savage twists in store are anything but. Bonus points for successfully rebranding Jason Bateman in uncertain territory and fully utilizing the consistently good Rebecca Hall, not to mention Edgerton's own knockout turn.

 

 

13. Crimson Peak

Crimson Peak may not be a masterpiece on par with del Toro's own Pan's Labyrinth, but very few films are. However, it is unmistakably a Guillermo del Toro flick, and it's like nothing else out there today. It unfolds as a lush period piece with impeccable set designs and creepy atmosphere while also serving as a chilling haunted house flick and supremely bloody love triangle drama with excellent lead performances.

 

14. Bone Tomahawk

I'm thrilled I knew as little about Bone Tomahawk as possible going into it, beyond knowing it would be a Kurt Russell-led period western that may or may not involve cannibals. I expected an entertaining and bloody, yet ultimately forgettable, B-movie. What I got was an outstanding, suspenseful slow-burn that plays out more closely to a classic western with an inspired ensemble of fully-fledged characters, terrific performances, sharp writing, memorable cinematography and production design, and a few of the more unflinchingly brutal and terrifying moments I've seen in a movie in recent years along with all of its other riches.

 

15. Slow West

Slow West plays almost like a hybrid of a Mark Twain novel and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (maybe with flashes of Unforgiven for good measure). It's immaculately staged with fine-tuned direction, lovely set pieces and landscapes, and it features both Michael Fassbender and Ben Mendelsohn. Needless to say, I was sold on that alone, and it ended up surprising me even more by becoming one of my favorite westerns in recent years.

 

16. Mistress America

Noah Baumbach films aren't for some moviegoers (i.e. the casual mainstream audiences), but his work is almost peerless these days for those who enjoy him. Riding their streak together on the heels of the fantastic Frances Ha and, previously, Greenberg, Baumbach and Greta Gerwig tap into the pulse, insecurity, and delusions of a certain strain of not-fully-formed adults of modern metropolitan America with finesse, comic verve, charm and genuine drama. Gerwig wrote a hell of a script, and her performance blissfully matches it.

17. Love and Mercy

This biopic of Brian Wilson is a love letter to the tortured man, his mind, the unparalleled beauty of his music, and its lasting greatness. Intertwining two excellent lead performances by Paul Dano and John Cusack as Wilson, the end product is a fascinating examination of the creative process, a heartbreaking love story, a meditation on mental illness and submission, and a spectacularly vibrant mix of Beach Boys songs, superb sound design and acting.

 

 

18. The Revenant

By this point, there's not much to say about The Revenant that hasn't already been said. The frontrunner to win Best Picture, Best Actor and a slew of other Academy Awards has become somewhat polarizing as it has become a commercial hit and has kept generating buzz, not to mention Alejandro González Iñárritu took home the grand prize last year for Birdman. Many people love The Revenant, and many don't and have started a backlash. I've been a big fan of Iñárritu, but I fully understand why some people don't enjoy his films. Personally, I love Amores Perros, 21 Grams, and Babel. I liked Biutiful and thoroughly enjoyed Birdman, if I wasn't quite as blown away by it as the Academy was. What The Revenant lacks in meaningful dialogue, character arcs beyond revenge and survival, or any kind of optimism, it makes up for in breathtaking cinematography, atmosphere and acting. That may not be enough for some folks, but I appreciate it.

 

19. Bridge of Spies

An old school spy story from the Cold War era told with immense humanity and empathy, Bridge of Spies is an unmistakable Steven Spielberg film, written by Joel and Ethan Coen, starring Tom Hanks. It hinges on a genius conceit of an in-over-his-head insurance lawyer who gets caught up in political intrigue and takes a stand to treat an extremely high-profile espionage case like he would an insurance claim. The stakes are high throughout and plenty of suspense and sharp writing are abound to mix with Spielberg's exquisite eye for period details, and the film plays out as a cerebral, heartfelt meditation on what the American justice system stands for and how quiet heroes are sometimes the most necessary ones.

 

20. The Martian

 The Martian is a big Ridley Scott-helmed summer blockbuster and space epic staring an outstanding Matt Damon as the lead, and he's remotely flanked by big names in every frame like almost any other Ridley Scott epic. The film gets the blood pumping often, usually bringing some goosebumps to the surface along the way. There are big speeches, hordes of people watching in awe at screens and towering Times Square monitors, and the usual mix of sci-fi terminology and built-in comic relief. Even hitting all those usual beats we've come to expect from such broad blockbuster entertainments, The Martian is still Ridley Scott's finest two and a half hours in years, and it's a grand celebration of science and brainpower in lieu of the usual instances of explosions and firepower.

 

 

Favorite Albums of 2015

 

Combing through the hundred-plus albums I listen to and buy in any year and then narrowing them down to the few dozen I have fallen in love with most and still can't stop playing always proves to be both a challenge and a zealous endeavor full of rekindled enthusiasm - although marked by some sacrifices (those albums that I have liked enough to listen to several times but never loved to the point of near delirium) - and gusto for music that holds power over me and makes me more excited for any part of life.

 

Every year when I spend the better part of a week shaping and finalizing such a list, and almost every time I sit down to write about an artist or album in any manner, I often second-guess myself. I second-guess not because I have any reservations about the things I love or how my tastes may differ from those of anyone else, but I question why my opinions matter more or less than those of anyone else and whether anybody cares.

 

Eventually, I remember I chose to be a writer and the music I am most fond of fulfills me in myriad ways every day. I convince myself somebody may give a damn and be curious to discover something I've been enamored with this year that she has yet to hear. Maybe others enjoy seeing which artists have struck chords with me, may disagree, and will want to remind me what I'm missing and debate the merits of what is here and not here. I'm always eager for any lively discourse about music, especially the music that has meant the most to me.

 

I started my own blog (this one and, previously, Division St. Harmony) as an outlet to write however I want, about what I want, and share what I love, because I can be honest to myself and unrepentant about never having to cave to trends or satisfy anyone else's opinion. Not being beholden to advertisers and being the sole writer, editor and publisher of this blog grants me that freedom no matter how modest the audience.

With all of that said, the albums listed below were my 30 favorite records of 2015.

 

 

Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear

 

Jason Isbell - Something More Than Free 

 

Dawes - All Your Favorite Bands 

 

The Yawpers - American Man

 

Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit.

Desaparecidos - Payola

 

Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell

 

JD McPherson - Let the Good Times Roll

 

Hop Along - Painted Shut

 

EL VY - Return to the Moon

 

 

Tobias Jesso Jr. - Goon

 

Joanna Newsom - Divers

 

Sleater - Kinney - No Cities to Love

 

The Tallest Man on Earth - Dark Bird Is Home

 

Jesse Malin - New York Before the War

Protomartyr - The Agent Intellect

S.M. Wolf - Neon Debris

 

Lucero - All a Man Should Do

 

Titus Andronicus - The Most Lamentable Tragedy

 

 

Leon Bridges - Coming Home

 

Dave Rawlings Machine - Nashville Obsolete

 

Bully - Feels Like

 

Craig Finn - Faith in the Future

 

Torres - Sprinter

 

She Does Is Magic - Strangers

 

Murder By Death - Big Dark Love

 

Beach House - Depression Cherry

 

 Natalie Prass - Natalie Prass

 

 Wilco - Star Wars

 

Kurt Vile - b'lieve i'm goin down