This past weekend, I had the pleasure of riding down to Allston for a day of adventure and an evening of melancholy acoustic sets. The primary objective and cause for our trek was to catch the charming Mike Kinsella, performing as Owen on tour for his latest album New Leaves. My companions and I had seen Owen around this time last year at one of my favorite New England venues, The Middle East Upstairs. Not only am I a sucker for any remnant of the 90′s Midwestern music scene, Kinsella’s nonchalant manner and witty banter were enough to make the chance of seeing him again irresistible. To make my Sunday all the better, my roommate and sad girl songstress Jess McDermott (www.myspace.com/thenewandverywelcome) scheduled an acoustic appearance before the show in an Allston basement around the block from our destined venue, Great Scott.

And so, after a day of vegan restaurant sampling, romping around the greater Boston area during Harvard’s Octoberfest, and briefly playing audience to a basement stage of fine young minds with guitars, it was time to walk over to Great Scott to hear what Owen had in store for us this year. We showed up towards the end of the Finnish opening band Rubik’s set. They struck me as a Nordic version of The Format with a horn section and a bit of multitasking between floor toms and keyboards. The singer actually bore a striking resemblance to The Format front man, down to his hand claps and swagger.

Rubik’s rowdiness was fitting for the mixed climate of quiet music fans and bar goers alike, but by the time they exited the stage it was becoming apparent that even on a Sunday, a bar in Boston is a bold venue for the nature of the next two acts on the bill. I was becoming a bit nervous over how The One AM Radio would fare over the chatter in the back. The project composer Hrishikesh Hirway and his accompanying trio set up their minimal equipment up quickly, and were sitting behind their respective accordion, guitars and computer in no time. They twinkled through a beautiful set,  harmonies only slightly marred by the mob at the bar. I was especially impressed by clean and catchy folk influence of the songs they offered off their latest release “Here Anonymous.”

After a brief pause, Mike Kinsella took the stage, posing his characteristic question, “is there anything you want to talk about tonight?” The response was sheepish, so he dove humbly into the title track from New Leaves. The next time he posed the question of what to talk about though, the topic of his baby girl came up. When asked what she was going as for Halloween, Kinsella proudly explained that even though they would never pull it off in public, his daughter has a Hitler-esque mop of hair when combed over, and that he and his wife were planning on having a baby Hitler photo shoot. He also spoke about wanting to dress her up like baby Jesus to go trick or treating, but his wife already bought her a monkey costume.

Other questions posed by concert goers:

cg: What kind of shoes are you wearing?

mk: Brown.

cg: What kind of dog do you have?

mk: Brown.

cg: Is this your last tour?

mk: This isn’t really a tour, this is just hanging out.

As Mike played the rest of his painfully relatable tunes about the struggles and triumphs of average twenty somethings, it began to feel more and more like we were back in that comfortable basement around the corner. Most of the audience murmured along, snickering when the lyric “I’m tired of speaking up and speaking clearly so the idiots in the back can hear me” came along. In all, it was an enjoyable night and Mike was as charming and talented as ever. My only disappointment is that although New Leaves was recorded with a full band, the band only played at the release party. When the texture represented on the album was lost, there wasn’t much more than lyrical content to distinguish the new songs from old. It was just a guy, his guitar, and his songs. It wasn’t a tour, it was just hanging out. And although that may have disappointed my expectations of some sort of added grandeur to Owen’s performance of the year before, I wish more musicians wanted to just hang out with me.

Some of you may have caught the interview we ran with Nesey Gallons in July. While that interview focused mainly on Nesey’s influences for his new solo album Eyes & Eyes & Eyes ago, it briefly mentioned the comeback of the Elephant Six Collective. This comeback is marked with tours from the Music Tapes and last year’s Holiday Surprise Tour, but mostly by the September 8th release of the new Circulatory System album, Signal Morning. E6 is known for the way its members shuffle themselves into different line-ups within the collective, each with a unique sound, but all adhering to the characteristic E6 psych rock aesthetic.  Signal Morning is a collaborative project featuring members of The Olivia Tremor Control and Neutral Milk Hotel.

In Nesey’s interview, he mentioned “the idea of songs and sound world coming together.” From the start of the album, the Circulatory System starts to neatly stitch together the chaos and unpredictability of their subconscious soundscapes with the psych pop song structure. Signal Morning is split into two sides. The first side is a dreamlike flow between catchy riffs and pleasantly disorienting, distorted experimentation. Where side one leans toward classic psych-rock influence with a bit of an aversion to clean production, side two floats farther away from reality on a cloud of bells, tape manipulation, rhodes piano, and a chorus of spaced out voices. The lyrical themes of the album are appropriately of escapism and contemplation of universal oneness. The Breathing Universe asks “why not try breathing along with the universe?” and follows up the question with the supposition that “if enough want to move on/ this world will lift us up/ untangled from the trees.”

While the Circulatory System aren’t exactly doing anything new on Signal Morning, E6 fans will be pleased to hear a continuation of the collective’s experimentation in developing and expressing the sound land they know and love. Although the disc dropped on the 8th, fans will have to wait until October for the vinyl. It may be well worth it though, the first 300 shipped will be accompained by a bonus LP full of demo versions and alternative mixes.

Ambivalence Avenue is the latest offering from British music producer Stephen Wilkinson, the brains and brawn behind Bibio’s unique brand of electronica. While studying “sonic arts” at Middlesex University in London, Wilkinson developed a style of intelligent dance music that weaves found and field recordings with traditional folk influence. This approach creates a softly textured sound that is comforting and yet contemplatively other worldly.

Ambivalence Avenue opens with an ethereal lounge folk number reminiscent of a flower child romp through the countryside. Just when you’ve settled into this comfortable reminder of days past, Bibio reminds you that synthesizers are the instruments of the future, and hey, we’re living three years away from 2012. This IS the future. But this future isn’t exactly the world of pristine, man-made landscapes and ultimate human control that our oh so ambitious forefathers envisioned. The future living in Ambivalence Avenue is one thatt seems to be an intelligent and reflective update on the new horizon.

The skillful recycling of Wilkison’s library of found sound layered with resourceful field sampling and mastery of current synth technology is parallel to the contemporary vision of humans relying on utilizing the mounds of scraps leftover by past cultures to sustain our current society. Because of the variety of scraps Bibio works with, each song retains a coherent individuality. “Haikuesque (When She Laughs)” offers a soothing laid-back intelligent dance sound, while the following song “Sugarette” incorporates bubbly pop. Then, “Lover’s Carvings” pulls you back into the meandering folk influence of the album opening. The rest of the album follows and develops this same formula of ebb and flow between traditional future folk to spaced out dance. The way that Ambivalence Avenue consumes and reconstructs these choice scraps has resulted in a sound that is young and relevant rather than tired and predictable. This album is a welcome and well reasoned step forward in terms of Bibio’s past releases and in the current climate of folk revival in the music market. I’ll be relying on this album to get me through the rough transition to fall ahead of us.

Sunday nights don’t usually hold much magic in Burlington. On Sunday nights, I can usually be found throwing in a load of laundry and watching animal videos on YouTube with my cat. In fact, by the time last Sunday rolled around, the magnitude of what these Wu-Tang allstars had in store for me caught me quite off guard. In my Sunday laziness, I neglected to shower for the occasion, and strode up to the throng of fans still filtering through the doors feeling grimy compared to fresh and Listerine clean kids in crisp jeans and tight dresses. While waiting my turn to be shuffled through the tight security, I reminded myself that Mef and Red respect every lady as Miss International, and I entered the ballroom with a little more swagger in my step.

I arrived at the end of Duo Live’s opening set. There was already a crowd of every variety of hip hop fan New England has to offer packed against the stage. I sneaked my way around three massive dudes standing stoically in front of me to get a better view of what every one was making a ruckus over. There was an uncommonly cute lady of diminutive stature working the stage with The Duo’s Mcs, asking the audience if they thought she looked like she could pound a 40 oz. As the crowd egged her on, she busted out a 40 of Old English and chugged it. I joined the chorus of  “HELL YEAH” and couldn’t help but grin from ear to ear and shake what my momma gave me as the DJ laid one down.

Ghostface was up next, with intent to satisfy our appetites for some Wu Tang favorites. I’ve got to admit I was a little star struck, hell,  I could tell that at least half the crowd was right there with me. During the break, I heard a few dudes in front of my talking about how far they had driven to be there. Mass, Maine, Upstate New York,  and New Hampshire, and all of them were working the next morning. The fact is, Burlington is one of the only places where it’s even possible to see a line-up like this in a venue as intimate as Higher Ground with out needing some sort of  V.I.P. staus. If that weren’t enough to ensure a dedicated turn-out, they made it all ages. You can say what you want about the younger generation, but after you’ve begged your mom everyday to let you go to a rap show with your best buds and she finally gives in because it’s summer vacation, you’re going to party like it’s 1994.  Ghost worked this rag-tag bunch like the champ he is, calling out the true hip hop fans from the crowd, daring Burlington to prove itself worthy. After a somewhat impressive sing along of “Wu-Tang Clan ain’t nothin’ to f*** with,”  Ghost capped it off with a tribute to Ol’ Dirty Bastard and was outta there.

I only had time to gulp a glass of water and high five a former schoolmate I bumped into before Mef and Red burst onto the stage. I’ve got to admit that I’ve had a huge crush on Method Man ever since I watched the music video for “What’s Happenin’ ” where he wrestles with a bunch of honies on a bed. So when he came out rapping in a pair of nerd glasses held together with tape and a tshirt bearing his own name, I felt my body do a little more than blush.

The charisma of the pair was infectious. I didn’t see a stationary body in the place, save maybe the suspected plain clothes cops in the back. They blasted through a practically perfect set of choice track from their latest disc “Blackout! 2″  and every classic that we could have hoped for with ease. And rightly so, as they’ve been two of the most successful masters of the genre since the early ninties.  They also spared no chance to remind us that they chose to come here because they know that Burlington can get down, and that they wouldn’t be back soon, so we had better act accordingly. After song after song of non-stop head bobbing, bumping and grinding, hands in the air, and enthusiam over the pending release of How High 2, Mef and Red finaled with another tribute to fallen members of the hip hop elite and called it a night.

To cap off the intimacy of the whole event, my sister was asked to pose with Ghostface for a photo while holding his new single at the merch table. And as a small town kid, I’m not ashamed to say I had a fit of school girl giggles over the matter.

Fang Island like to describe their sound as “everyone high-fiving everyone.” After a long week of damp and dismal days here in Burlington, we could all use a double high-five to the ear drums.

This group’s second release, Sky Gardens EP, delivers an epic pump-up soundtrack like none other. The effortlessly complex string arrangements and organized group vocals give the EP an adventurous and uplifting sound.  Sky Gardens isn’t just a high-five, it’s a high five from the king of a magical land after saving his daughter from certain peril at the hands of an evil sorcerer. Not only that, but you were probably transported to this world after doing a kindly favor for some bum on the street that turned out to be a wizard in disguise. He gives you some crumby VHS tape and tells you watching it will change your life. When you get home from school, you pop the tape in out of curiosity and suddenly you’ve got a badass sword in your hand and you aren’t in Kansas anymore. I am certain the adventure will continue with the release of their self-titled album this August.

I had the opportunity to see these guys play last winter at 242 Main. I was pleasantly surprised when the band stayed rather motionless, and projected scenes of cartoon wizards shooting fireballs at each other on a sheet in the background. Although the turn out was small due to snow, Fang Island gave an intensely energetic and tight set. I just can’t help but get stoked on this band.

Plus, they make Kindergartener’s go CRAZY.