Unknown Mortal Orchestra

This is a challenging band to write about. You could start with the amazing musicianship. You could unpack the deeply complicated subject matter in the lyrics. There's certainly a "troubled one-man-band in a basement" profile of lead singer Ruban Nielsen. Or you could discuss the masterful union of funky dance music and heroin den psychedelia where you lose yourself in a black hole of self-absorption. 

And maybe that black hole is the key to understanding Unknown Mortal Orchestra. The music's danceable pop melodies lodge inside of your head for days. It pulls you closer and closer until finally you notice that something is off, that things aren't what they appear to be. But it's already too late. Like a lost astronaut pulled into a wormhole, you're already on a rollercoaster of exhilarating light, terrifying dark shapes, and waves of feelings you don't understand. It's a dream-state world hung together with a thin webbing of untrustworthy narratives that change before you like multi-stable shapes.

If this sounds like me projecting my own weirdness onto UMO lyrics, here's an excerpt of a recent interview with Ruban:

STEREOGUM: What is inspiring you right now? What is bumming you out?

NIELSON: I’ve been reading about this Biocentrism thing. I’m actually kind of dumb, but I like reading stuff that is over my head. Like I’ll read some Hegel just to get inspired by how confused I get. Robert Lanza is a genetic engineer by trade I think, and he’s got this theory that consciousness is the center of reality. I’ve been reading about Artificial Intelligence as well and between biocentrism and reading about A.I. I became convinced that the universe is a sandbox simulation. I figure maybe we’re being tested. That’s why atheists have become so boring, because what if our consciousness is engaged in a simulated sandbox reality and we reincarnate into the simulation over and over just like a video game, and the landscapes around us spawn just like video game landscapes do, only the resolution is on a particle level? As for being bummed out, I’m bummed out by the obvious stuff. I want cybernetic IQ enhancements and free energy and modular gender. I don’t know what modular gender is but those two words together seem cool. The species feels so held back. I can’t be the only one who feels this way. Oh well, why waste any more bandwidth on that.

Good for: pool parties, tailgating, BBQs, hipster dance parties, roadtrips to another dimension.

 

 

Live

I've seen UMO live twice. First at Warsaw in Greenpoint BK, then... I actually can't remember where the second show was. What impressed me most is the incredible musicianship and energy these guys bring to the table. It really doesn't come through in the KEXP video (below), I suspect due to the relatively tame enironment. These guys go absolutely nuts live. 

The below video is from their show at Warsaw. Warning: I was bouncing around a lot. It was that kind of show. 

Necessary Evil 

"I wanna be your friend but don’t have the self-control
We’re in love
But I don’t get what you see in me

Lovin' me could be your fatal flaw
Just hangin in here trying to be your
Necessary evil, necessary evil"

Multi-Love, live on KEXP

A song about a very complicated topic.

Enjoy

Caveman

Caveman elicits nostalgia for 80s hair, Mead Composition Notebooks filled with teenage poetry, and tattered VHS cardboard sleeves protecting the magnetic-tape treasures within. 

Borrowing from the sensibilities and affectations of the past is a risky move. The result can be hackneyed, derivative, and flat. But Caveman manages to create something familiar while maintaining their own voice and perspective. The result is a spaghetti western space opera set on the cyber-punk version of Tatooine. It’s a world filled with traveling space carnies, storm troopers, hover boards, and dusty high top sneakers. It’s music played on a stage where lasers flitter across the performers like buggy robotic fireflies while a holographic marquee flickers overhead in a way that makes you think it could short out and take down the entire PA system with it. 

Caveman is fundamentally insecure music, mixing wistfulness with a foreboding sense of rejection and loss. It is fitting then, that 2016's Otero War was the soundtrack to a pretty shitty breakup. From subway platforms to windows-down car rides, Caveman both soothed and discomfited me through one of the more challenging times in recent memory. 

Best for: driving with the windows down, dive bar jukeboxes, hipster running playlists, drunk texting your ex (not condoned and never happened, but still).

 

 

Live

I saw Caveman at Music Hall of Williamsburg in October 2016 with my buddy Paul. It's one of my favorite venues and they delivered the goods. Short video below is from that show, filmed by yours truly. 

 

 

Enjoy

Lord Huron

Lord Huron takes me to a distant place, a place from my strangest high-altitude dreams. 

It’s a world of desert nights, where men in wool ponchos and cowboy hats sit on cold stones and share whiskey from dented tin flasks

a world of vertigo-inducing star spattered skies and all-too-close howls and yapping of beasts unknown 

filled with moonlit apparitions from past lives

and lonely souls who banished themselves to rolling waves of sand.

It’s a world filled with naive but abiding hope

where the good die young

and you’re one of the good ones. 

Best for: driving with all the windows rolled down, folky dance parties, drinking with friends, drinking by yourself (not condoned).

Live

I've seen Lord Huron three times now. The first time in Seattle's best live music venue, Neumos. The second two times in my least favorite venue in NYC, Terminal 5. The fact that I went to Terminal 5 twice to see Lord Huron is a testament to my affection for this band. 

The Seattle show was the most intimate and my favorite. Part of that was due to the venue - I have a relationship with Neumos that extends back to 2004, before the venue was even called Neumos. Part of it was that it was my first time seeing Lord Huron live, and they put on an incredible and passionate performance. And part of that is because Terminal 5 is kind of lame. (Thank god we now have an alternative.)

The below footage is from the show at Neumos in 2013, part of their Lonesome Dreams tour. Filmed by yours truly. 

 

 

Enjoy