Sleigh Bells live act rattle concert venues down to their foundations

Let's admit something. Sleigh Bells' latest album, Bitter Rivals, is easily their least successful to date. In comparison with their first two records, the reviews were worse, the buzz was negligible, and it seemed most listeners have already forgotten about it.  Seeing that Sleigh Bells stock is at a low ebb, it naturally cast a shadow of doubt as to just what could be expected from their latest tour. It was a fair question going in, but if there are any doubters left after their demolition of Nashville's Marathon Music Works Friday night, be ashamed of yourselves. The studio albums (outside of Treats) may bear their fair share of dank tracks, but the Brooklyn noise/hardcore/pop duo have been regarded as a killer live act since their inception, and nothing about that appears to be changing anytime soon.

Alexis Krauss's infectious intensity spread through the crowd like a disease.

Intensity and badassery are two buzzwords that get thrown around a bit when discussing Sleigh Bells live shows, but let's expound on that. Guitarist Derek Miller spent time in a hardcore band, and being that he's the chief influence on the band's sound you can expect a hammering assault of guitar riffery along with an level of energy comparable to, if not on par with, a hardcore show. The other half of the equation, singer Alexis Krauss, has pedigree as the frontwoman of a girlpop group, and as such she knows how to play to a crowd.

Guitarist Derek Miller lays a smackdown.

She kicks, yells, jumps, screams, drops to her knees, lifts the mic stand, and does generally whatever to get the crowd into a frothing frenzy. She even hit the stage in style, donning a dazzling tiger print robe for the first couple of songs. On initial blush, Joan Jett and Brody Dalle of The Distillers seem apt comparisons in terms of their charm and magnetism, but whereas they championed rough, motor oil style vocal deliveries, Krauss has a voice that is much smoother and cleaner.

The setlist showed off the best material from Bitter Rivals, but also made sure to show proper respect for Treats, their 2010 debut and still their most successful album to date."Riot Rhythm" and "Infinity Guitars" were ultimate headbanging moshing anthems covered by plenty of fuzz, while the heavy, plodding rhythms of "Born to Lose" represented a somewhat slower paced approach for the band -- at least by their standards. The new material continues in the same hard hitting vein they've always been known for.

"Sing Like a Wire," "Minnie," and "Bitter Rivals" felt perfectly natural being played alongside their older material. The biggest deviation took place on "Young Legends," which comes across as their take on a Disney pop song, and is covered in Krauss's distinctive fingerprints. She ended the night by diving over the railing and crowd surfing during the final song, "A/B Machines." Sleigh Bells hit like a bottle rocket, and never let up for the duration of their set. They played just long enough to cover the essential tunes in their catalog, yet short enough to leave the crowd screaming for more.
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Related posts:

Sleigh Bells - Bitter Rivals album review
Sleigh Bells - Reign of Terror album review 

Bitter Rivals sees noise/pop duo Sleigh Bells return to fine form

After delivering an attention grabbing opus with their 2010 debut, Treats, Brookyln indie/noise rock duo Sleigh Bells ran into an identity crisis on the followup. Their sophomore release, Reign of Terror, was a hardcore noise rock album that was trying to be a mainstream pop album, and sounded like it couldn't decide what it wanted to be. It got stuck in an awkward gap between noise and pop, without suitably satisfying either side of the aisle. To make matters worse, the band had seemingly lost the edge that had turned so many heads on their debut, not to mention the fact that Krauss's continual cheerleader shouts added an air of superficiality to the whole affair.

Now re-energized for their third go around, Sleigh Bells sound like a band intent on dominating the globe all over again. Bitter Rivals captures the sound of Sleigh Bells not messing around. The first four tracks all hit like laser guided torpedoes, guaranteed to get you fired up. "Sugarcane" hits like a jack knife with Derek Miller's buzzsaw guitar, while Alexis Krauss's lighter than air vocals provide a compelling contrast. The title track, meanwhile, sees Krauss's vocals hitting like a jackhammer in the verses, while still managing to toss in an oh so infectious chorus riff. The song's lyrics are also packed with attitude, as Krauss tells about her victorious confrontation with the town sheriff. Lyrically, the album still tends to be incoherent/scatterbrained in terms of lyrics, but it is clear they are meant to get the listener pumped up even if they tend to lack cohesion.

"Sing Like a Wire" is the hardest hitting track the album has to offer. It sounds like a stadium/arena rock anthem that recalls shades of Treats with its pulsing and pounding electronic work and percussion. The album begins to slow down as it progresses, however. "Young Legends" and "To Hell With You" flash of heavy dose of girlpop vocal melodies, with the latter sounding like it literally could have been a Disney song if not for the loud, crashing guitars. "Tiger Kit" and "You Don't Get Me Twice" showcase the most successful blending of the band's pop and hardcore rock elements. "Tiger Kit" is one of the busiest tracks on disc, tossing in blaring electronics along with what sounds like disc scratching sounds to forge a pure adrenaline stomper.

Softer pieces near the album's close turn to some elements rarely employed by the band. "24" has a high pitched guitar line that noodles and caroms all over the place, sounding not entirely unlike circus music. During the chorus, Miller switches over to some clean strumming that wouldn't sound out of place in an 80s hair metal ballad, but it manages to work when backed by Krauss's exuberant girlpop delivery. Sleigh Bells demonstrate the harder edged numbers are still their forte, but prove they can detour into softer material and pull out fine results most of the time.

Bitter Rivals may not satisfy from start to finish, yet it is still a successful outing for this Brooklyn noise/pop outfit. It's filled with plenty of attitude and a hodgepodge of various far flung elements that seem like they should conflict but mostly don't. It won't overtake Treats as the crown jewel in their catalog, but will give it a good run for its money.

Score: 81/100
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Related post:

Sleigh Bells - Reign of Terror review 

Sleigh Bells' demented Christmas jingles ring like carols from Hell

What has four legs, jingles, and has steadily been gaining hype in the indie community? Brooklyn duo Sleigh Bells raised eyebrows a couple years back with their debut album Treats, which combined heavy metal guitar riffing with sugary sweet vocals backed by infectious indie dance pop.

Unfortunately, the followup, Reign of Terror, fails to live up to the potential of the debut. Once you look past the wigged out song structures, you'll realize Sleigh Bells are still guilty of blinding us with too much flashy pop and not enough substance.

But first, let's try to explain exactly what it is Sleigh Bells do. On initial listen, this music will likely sound chaotic. Imagine looking at a great piece of artwork. Perhaps a watercolor painting, or a pencil sketching done on notebook paper. Now picture someone crumpling it up. As you're eying this crumpled ball, you can see all the lines, shapes and textures are all bent back onto one another and have collapsed together into a big jumbled pile.

That's kind of how this is. Alexis Krauss's airy vocals tend to overlap the background cheerleader shouts in ways that may seem awkward, while the various electronic effects mesh with the guitar parts in a seemingly clumsy manner. With repeated listens your mind will slowly begin to untangle the hodgepodge. At that point it becomes clear how heavily the record relies on strong pop elements, in spite of all the experimentation.

It could be argued that Reign of Terror is little more than Top 40 pop marketed to a hipster audience. Indeed, many of the hooks themselves are strong enough to be featured on mainstream radio. In their defense, this is certainly one of the most unique, and perhaps on initial listens one of the most perplexing albums you'll you'll hear this year. However, Reign of Terror also commits several of mainstream pop's worst tropes. Namely, the album is horribly, horribly repetitive on virtually every track.

I'm not going to be signing up for Krauss's fanclub anytime soon; they should have been left her in whatever girl pop group she was plucked from. Krauss is responsible for overloading the music with bubblegum. And this isn't good girlpop either, ala Best Coast or Dumdum Girls. Everything from her "sha-la-la" girl group delivery on "You Lost Me" to her continual ah-ah's and oohs and ahhs are straight out of the deepest recesses of the girlpop textbook. Every so often she'll actually sound ominous, or mysterious. But again, the music itself is just too bloody repetitive for my taste.

I know. Sleigh Bells are an experimental noise group. Cutting edge, it's said. They're supposed to be above such reproach. But if you listen closely, you'll see that it really isn't as artsy as some would have you believe. Guitarist Derek Miller had a chance to produce truly outstanding instrumental work on this record. Treats was packed with tracks like "Riot Rhythm" and "Straight A's" that conjured a very dark and exotic feel by cleverly making use of their industrial/noise/electronic influences. But this time around they didn't even get that right. The overall production was massively cleaned up, which was probably necessary. But it had the added effect of making the music feel safe and sterile. It's certainly unique, but it lacks the punch that Treats had. 

The lyrics are pretty scatterbrained. Every now and then you'll get a song like "Comeback Kid," which speaks of pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. But more often you get songs like "You Lost Me," which seems to glorify death, or "Never Say Die," where she keeps repeating random words. Is it supposed to be deep? What exactly does she mean? Nobody really knows, on any of these songs. It's all just such an incoherent jumble. On the first album that worked to some extent, as the bizarre nature of the music lent itself to having equally bizarre lyrics. Now that the sound has been cleaned up, that approach doesn't make as much sense.

When she's actually writing something coherent, her lyrics have a viscous tendency to play on our deepest fears and insecurities. Observe this passage from "Born to Lose;"

Heard you say
Suicide
In your sleep
Just get on with it 
You were born to lose

She certainly isn't coy. There are moments that make you think Krauss and Miller are capable of writing worthwhile lyrics, but it just doesn't usually come through. 

Some of the better tracks include "Comeback Kid," whose hooks are minor variations of one another, yet play off each other very well. The foot stomping "Demons" is also a pretty nice find, which contains high energy pep rally chants which might make this track a perfect fit for Zumba classes.

You'll be humming the riffs of these songs for the rest of the night, and they'll be stuck in your head all through the workday the next day on a neverending, repeating loop. That gets annoying after awhile.

Ultimately, I can't help but view Reign of Terror  as a watering down of the band's sound. I can see the need to clean up some of the muddiness from Treats, but it feels like an overcorrection and a push towards commercialization. The result is that I can no longer listen to this record. The constant jingling of Sleigh Bells in my head gets to be too much sometimes.

Score: 61/100