Jeff the Brotherhood Rocks My Hood at the Fillmore

The Fillmore has been a few blocks from my home in Silver Spring, Maryland for a while now, but the place has never featured any concerts I've wanted to see. That's pretty amazing, especially if you know about the expansiveness of my music collection.

But I think Jeff the Brotherhood has one of the best releases of the year, and they rolled into the Fillmore Saturday night with another group that has a few albums in my collection, Delta Spirit (and their arguably better side project Middle Brother). So Rachel, Lori, and I decided to go.

Further, the show was reasonably priced at $22 per ticket (check), it was great to finally get to see what turned out to be a pretty decent venue (check), and I was psyched about Jeff the Brotherhood (check).

Jeff the Brotherhood

The band is a duo from Nashville, who play what I would call laid-back stoner rock, with basic but enjoyable lyrics. The whole thing borders on a punkier version of Weezer.

Then came headliners Delta Spirit, which has a "whole thing" as well. That whole thing equated in the three of us walking out five songs in. Everything was just wrong about this band. Its performance style just didn't add up, even though the cult-following looks on the audience's faces appeared to be approving enough.

They began with a pretentious light show and some sort of piped-in music designed to build the drama before they honored us with their stage entrance (a stark contrast to Jeff the Brotherhood, which set up its own instruments and ran a sound check before their set, all the while with their butts hanging out like plumbers).

Delta Spirit

Delta Spirit, from San Diego, entered the stage like they were U2 and proceeded to immediately creep my group out. With an Uncle Jesse (John Stamos) from Full House lookalike on vocals wasting no time in encouraging the crowd to lift our hands and clap along, the band proceeded to sound nothing like the mildly pleasurable alt-country of their albums. They had a hippie on bass and a spazzy Radiohead-wannabe on lead guitar. The singer screamed a lot, lacking any sense of likableness or bluesy-ness (which I think they were going for), and sent us away a little disgruntled from our first Fillmore experience.

Jeff the Brotherhood: **** out of ***** stars
Delta Spirit: 1/2 out of ***** stars

Best New Albums: August 2012

This is a new monthly feature recently introduced. You can stream all the albums mentioned here for free at this Spotify link, which I keep updated.

Best Album of the Month:
Jeff the Brotherhood - Hypnotic Nights
Wanna be able to play something poolside this summer that your one or other two friends with good taste in rock music will dig alongside all the others who consider Weezer way out on the edge? Look no further.

Best of the Rest:
Foxygen - Take the Kids Off Broadway
A weird little discovery that is actually quiet epic with its 6-minute songs that shift frequently musically from Pink Floyd to Neutral Milk Hotel and other innumerable acts. The band is able to remain completely original, and even includes a vocalist who sometimes sounds more like Mick Jagger than anyone not in The Rolling Stones.

JJAMZ - Suicide Pact
Please don't hate me for suggesting you should listen to an album like this. Call it my guilty summer alternative to Carly Rae Jepsen. It's super catchy, and perhaps not even disposable!

Soul Asylum - Delayed Reaction
I loved this Minneapolis band in the 90s (two of my favorite concerts were their And the Horse They Rode In On shows in St. Louis and at the University of Missouri), and this is a return to form. Half of the album recalls Soul Asylum's more rowdy early days and the rest hints at the poppier side from their "Runaway Train" mainstream era.

Lee Ranaldo - Between the Times and the Tides
Sonic Youth's guitar player shows why his main band is so good. It's not all Thurston Moore after all. This solo LP is laced with great riffs and CBGB New York attitude in the vocals throughout. He was also great in concert last month opening for Wilco.

Beachwood Sparks - The Tarnished Gold
Has it really been 10 years since these sun-drenched beach bums released anything? This is drippingly and soothingly, simply, beautiful. It makes me want to sit in a hammock and just listen every time.

Donnie & Joe Emerson - Dreamin' Wild
These two kid brothers recorded this in their basement back when classic rock was still classic. If you can get past the ridiculously cheesy cover art of them rockin' out in leisure suits, it's very groovy rock n' roll.