Tag: Methyl Ethel

Checked into https://www.moshtix.com.au/v2/event/methyl-ethel-new-old-australian-tour/157735

Methyl Ethel New & Old Australian Tour
7:30pm, Thu 7 December, 2023
Northcote Theatre

I am not sure if the story about Picasso charging 1 millions dollars for a sketch on a napkin due to the years put into the skills prior, but I feel there is something in this when it comes to the work of Jake Webb and Methyl Ethel. I vaguely remember listening to an interview with Webb during the lockdown years of COVID, where he spoke about how the time had allowed him cram a few years of learning into a shorter amount of time. I am guessing that this new live setup is the culmination of this.

I had expectations about what this concert would be like. I had read reviews from The Night Cat and watched various live performances captured on YouTube with the full band. I was wrong. Webb mentioned the addition of cello in Take 5 podcast earlier this year. However, I did not expect that this would be at the expense of the drums, bass and guitars. However, in some ways this pivot was not a pivot, a part from the addition of the two celloists on stage, there are a number of solo recordings which capture Methyl Ethel as a one-man band, including the performance of Castigat Ridendo Mores amoungst the grass trees. So having two synth stations should not have been a huge surprise.

The tour was billed as ‘New & Old’. I assumed that this meant some new songs and some old songs. Wrong again. The whole performance was framed around the new setup and the affordances that this provided. This meant that the old songs became in their own way new songs. Although this was a natural fit for some Methyl Ethel songs, it was definitely a change for some of the older more guitar laden tracks. I was left thinking about a comment by Mark Mothersbaugh regarding the balance to playing the new and old:

If the ghost of David [Bowie] came up to me tonight and went “Mark, I’m going to do a concert for you and you only. It’s going to be a brand new album, nobody’s ever heard these songs. It’s all about everything that’s going on in the world now, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Ukraine or it’s going to be Spiders of Mars, the live show that blew your mind. You’re going to see that exact absolute same show
and you can sit anywhere in the audience you want.” I go, “I’ll take Spiders from Mars and you can save your brand news stuff for somebody else.”

…

Well you know what, we did choose a weird life for ourselves, because that’s what I’m going to be doing you know until we end up stop touring. We’ll play new songs and people will be polite and sit through them and then they’ll get to the stuff that that they wanted to hear, you know you’ll play Uncontrollable Urge or you’ll play Satisfaction and they’re they’ll lose their minds.

Source: Mark Mothersbaugh – Broken Record by @pushkinpods

Maybe the children are just growing up? The reimagining that I thought was most interesting was Twilight Driving. Gone was the ethereal arpeggiated guitars, instead there was a driving beat throughout. It was still the hits and they still hit, but the changes helped highlight what makes the music work. Often songs were stripped back to their beats, hooks and vocals. I hope that a recording of one of these tracks is realised in some shape or form, although I also wonder if the joy is in being there. (Thought, this has me thinking about an MTV unplugged style gig?) In the end, this has me intrigued about the new album. I wonder if it will be as lush and theatrical as the sound live?

Just a few funny things to note. This was the first concert I had ever been to where people were seemingly laying bets on whose songs would be play, after there was a request field when booking the tickets. Sadly, One and Beat was not played, guess iy did not fit the new sound, maybe? Also, Jake helped Armlock, the support act, pack up and then setup himself. I am sure that it is nothing, but there is something to me about the artist setting things up themselves. However, that may also relate to the size of Webb’s additional equipment on the side of the stage. I personally had not seen so much gear since Radiohead in 2004, although maybe I need to get out more. I would love to have a walkthrough of the setup to not only see what gear Webb uses, but how he uses it too, like Dadi Freyr’s rig rundown. For example, I was intrigued how he was controlling the other synth station through some sort of looper. I was also left wondering where the cellos actually sat in the whole mix.

—

Rough list of tracks from memory:

Set 1
All the Elements
Twilight Driving
Real Tight
Castigat Ridendo Mores
Neon Cheap

Set 2
Ruiner
Proof with a guest appearance from Stella Donnelly
Something in the Water
Ubu
No. 28

Listened Methyl Ethel’s metamorphosis from abc.net.au

This is an extraordinary Take 5. There’s something a bit different about capturing an artist at a particular moment in their creative life. Not talking with me to promote an album or to spruik a tour… but in the midst of creating something new. And following a curiosity that will take them to this unknown end. This is where I found Jake Webb – better known as Methyl Ethel. The Fremantle based muso has made textured, leftfield pop for years now. And across four albums has shapeshifted what he does and how he thinks about sound.

For his Take 5, I gave Jake the theme of metamorphosis. And asked him to choose five songs that have marked chapters and change in his life. From The Supremes to Bjork to Deerhunter, this is deep conversation about art, and finding new ways every day to make something new.

The Supremes – Keep Me Hangin’ On
The White Stripes – Fell In Love With A Girl
Antony and the Johnsons – Swanlights
Bjork – Hunter
Deerhunter – Helicopter

Jake Webb provides an insight into his thoughts on music through five tracks. This included talking about his fascination with guitar and drums via The White Stripes, as well as his new fascination with cello. Personally, I could not imagine Methyl Ethel without bass, for me it is the ingredient to Webb’s music that ties everything together.

It was also an intriguing conversation for the insight it provided into the creative process. Webb spoke about the importance of process (coffee in the morning) and turning up. He also talked about splitting up his days into 45 minute blocks to prevent from falling down the rabbit hole, especially when working alone.

I was left with so many questions. For example, what has he learnt over the years? Is there anything that he would possibly do differently now, compared with the past? What does he do in-between each of the blocks of time? Has he always started with piano or is this a new thing?

Listened Methyl Ethel Live At The Wireless from abc.net.au

triple j headed along to UNSW’s Roundhouse to hear a hypnotic live show from Jake Webb and his white jumpsuit wearing band.

Recorded for Live At The Wireless in April, the show is a trip through their fourth album Are You Haunted? and their complex pop oeuvre.

Venue: UNSW Roundhouse, Sydney
Recorded:
First broadcast: Monday 30th May 2022

This live recording of Methyl Ethel is another reminder of what I missed out on earlier this year.
Watched
Jake Webb has posted some interesting one man takes of his music, including a performance of Post Blue in the Perth Concert Hall and Real Tight while real tight on a windowsill. However, his performance of Castigat Ridendo Mores amongst the grass trees feels next level, especially the interlude with the lights. Love the comment:

Imagine walking through the bush then randomly hearing Jake playing

For me though, still does not trump Twinkle Digitz’s recording of Boogyin’ with my Baby-o.

Watched Are You Haunted?, by METHYL ETHEL from METHYL ETHEL

9 track album

Are You Haunted? is something of a haunting experience in itself. On the surface, it is an infectious album with beautiful production and rich hooks. However, the more you listen, the more the deeper messages within come out. There are plenty of anchovies to be had.

The references to memories and ghosts reminded me of The Avalances’ We Will Always Love You. I am left wondering if one of the general consequences of the pandemic will be a dive into memories and the haunting past seemingly taken from us?

I also enjoyed the love performance of the album shared on Youtube.

Place between Talking Heads and Beach House.

Marginalia

“What I’m interested in when it comes to writing music are ideas of memory – how you split as a person and live parallel lives,” he says. “Your past, present and future selves are like ghosts of ourselves – somehow you are this already long dead person, walking through a world that you are not really materially even present in at the time.”
…
“To me, the record is this one solitary person sitting down at a piano and all of the songs are played out in this person’s head,” he says. “But I thought of all the chorus for all these songs being sung quite literally by a chorus, like in those old ancient Greek plays, [where] there is quite literally a chorus of people who are the moral compass. I tried to make most of the chorus have this ‘big group’ sound to them.”

Some tracks compel introspection, others make you prance around the room, while still others encourage intimate activities. It’s goth without the glower, and it can be spooky but never spectral. That’s a hard line to walk, especially when your art rejoices in creating emotional connections with its listeners.

But from the beginning of the album to the sweeping instrumental epics of “In a Minute, Sublime” in the album’s final moments, the message of Are You Haunted? is clear: In the face of your ghosts, dance them away.

Combining (often) dark and (always) thoughtful lyrics with unexpected instrumentation or obscure samples, Methyl Ethel’s music reflects the claustrophobic experience of our contemporary living. Notably, “Neon Cheap” sees richly textured ear-wormy melodies hint at the rife restlessness and angst of the modern, overstimulated world. 

Listened Methyl Ethel – Triage from triple j

Two years on from their breakthrough hit ‘Ubu’, Methyl Ethel return with their third album, Triage.

I love stumbling upon an artist by chance and just diving in. I did this over summer with Client Liaison and I have done this recently with Methyl Ethel. I came upon the music while watching Rage one night and was hooked. There is a slickness to the production, whilst still maintaining space to move. I would place Triage somewhere between Twin Shadow, Sarah Blasko and Miike Snow.