Gonna teach you tricks that’ll blow your mind

One thing that stayed with me from my misspent youth at the Royal Conservatory of Music is the tierce de Picardie, or Picardy third. You’re happily trundling along in a minor key, and you think you know what the next chord is going to be, but -- surprise! The third’s been raised a semitone, making it a major chord.

Grizzly Bear likes their Picardy thirds. I’m afraid that’s all I remember of their opening set last night at the Opera House -- other than their trippy psychedelic noodling -- because afterward headliners TV on the Radio took the stage.

I didn’t know anything about TV on the Radio until a co-worker lent me Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes. I liked it immediately. It sounded as if Iggy Pop had co-written songs with David Bowie in the '80s and '90s instead of the '70s, and then the songs were covered by Peter Gabriel. So...rich, textural chameleon rock with raw edges, and a frontman who really does sound like a smouldering Peter Gabriel.

Within the week I’d bought tickets to their show at the Opera House, and a short time after bought their recently released album, Return to Cookie Mountain. I’m still waiting for it to grow on me as much as Desperate Youth. It’s an excellent album, but less raw, and the only track that stands out so far (but rightly so) is the catchy “Wolf Like Me”. I’m thinking that it stands out too much, and overshadows the rest of the album, because every song they played last night was a knockout. I was not disappointed by their live performance. It's just a pity that I had the misfortune of being directly behind that one guy -- and there's always one in every audience -- who was drunkenly dancing like an idiot without any regard for others' personal space.

Grizzly Bear website
Grizzly Bear on MySpace
TV on the Radio website
TV on the Radio on MySpace
“Wolf Like Me” on YouTube