Live Photos, Videos, And Review: Yeasayer, MGMT, Morning State (1/18/2008) The Earl

Before throwing down at 1084 for our party last week, we went down to The Earl to catch this great show. First up was Atlanta's own Morning State. They had just recently recorded their first full-length album and the label they had just signed to went under, so they had to go and re-record the entire album with Asa Leffert (Dark Meat, The Pendletons, The Whigs) in Athens, Ga so they could release it. Recording an album is a big undertaking, so I'm sure having to do the whole thing again would be frustrating, but it looks like they've made the most of it:

“The whole label thing sucked. It was really nice to have someone tell us that they were going to front the money for our album and release it and spend a bunch of cash on marketing it. When the label folded we had hoped to keep what we recorded but in order to do that we would have had to sign another contract and we decided it was best to walk away from that whole mess and just do it all over,” says frontman Russ Ledford. “We’re really excited to have a chance to re-make the album though and create something even better. We also have a lot of energy because of this whole situation, and I think that’ll really come out in the recordings.”

This recent show they brought it hard and I think they were the best I've seen them live yet:




Photo by Biggie C





Next up was Yeasayer, whose album All Hour Cymbals I've been jamming hard since I discovered it. The four-piece were incredible live and had so much energy on stage. The lead singer somehow cut his hand when he was jumping on his monitor and had blood running down his arm for half of the show, but it didn't seem to phase him too much. Biggie C took some photos:





See the blood:







"Wait For the Summer":



You'll notice in this second video that the crowd was a bit fratty. Others noticed as well:



The final act of the show was the other New York band, MGMT. I had seen them open for Of Montreal on Halloween last year and enjoyed them. They played another good show, but I think Yeasayer's complete awesomeness kind of overshadowed them a bit. I found myself really digging some parts and not really into others. I bought the album, Oracular Spectacular, at the show and I think it is pretty great. This band certainly has potential to be something special. Biggie C got some nice shots:











Since I had technical issues and couldn't get a video, here are some MGMT goodies:

MGMT : Oracular Spectacular : Weekend Wars


"Time to Pretend":