ARTICLE BY JONATHAN BUCHANAN
OCT. 29 | SILVER LAKE—It has been two years since Land of Talk last performed at Spaceland and one year since the Canadian trio released their first full length, the unabashedly candid Some Are Lakes. Creative focal point Elizabeth Powell was alluring as ever as she squealed and slashed her way through a relaxed set of her most signature material.
Hailing from Montreal, Powell has recently acquired the obligatory Broken Social Scene ties that have bolstered other, talented young women to much stateside success. Powell, however, is a very atypical indie siren, especially when lined up against her Canadian counterparts. There has been relatively little packaging or polishing of Powell or her music so far. Some Are Lakes was recorded under the auspices of the amazing Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, an artist with a recent fascination for creating music rich with despondency through minimalist recording techniques.
During tonight’s performance, Powell routinely appeared to be physically taxing herself onstage while creating her signature drowned vocals. She was even forced to cancel several shows last September due to blowing out her voice. The night began with the manic depressive “Give Me Back My Heart Attack,” and Powell’s tiny voice went from slow croon to pointed rant according to the instrumentals behind her. The urgent and controlled percussion of Joe Yarmush and Andrew Barr momentarily engulfed Powell’s lazy strumming, before everyone suddenly accelerated and blended into a common, melodic thought. This was repeated several times to the great delight of the audience.
Powell’s amiable stage presence quietly commands your attention. When she whispered, “we’re gonna take it down a notch here,” everyone knew “It’s Okay” was up next. Land of Talk’s best-known tune from Some Are Lakes is probably “It’s Okay,” which is a disheartened attempt to self-sooth, and the perfect song to accompany a late-night drive home from Vegas. Powell conjures Beth Gibbons and Natalie Merchant as she languidly drags out each syllable.
When watching Land of Talk perform “Summer Special,” you get the sense that Ms. Powell has yet to escape the torment her breathy murmur and tired tone allude to. She holds eye contact with those in the front row while delivering such resonant lyrical gems as “look at those girls, so young so young, still piss their pants.” “Summer Special” is a track from the group’s 2006 debut EP Applause Cheer Boo Hiss.
Almost apologetically, Powell announced the encore will be “a soft one ’cause my ears are fucked,” which began the heavy strumming of “Troubled.” It’s difficult to explain how exactly the bubbly, charming Powell manages to descend her audience to such depths of sadness, but it’s a very enjoyable experience nonetheless. A verse sung in French seems to provide enough camouflage for Powell to be even more straightforward with her account, “Avec moi, avec toi, avec coeur, Avec un et c’est pris.”
“Trouble” almost cruelly seems to build up momentum to tease and confuse before disintegrating back into a naive search for answers. Land of Talk has a few more West Coast dates before heading East for a month or so. But Powell promised, “We’ll be back sooner than later,” so I took that to mean the long awaited second full-length is somewhere on the horizon, and hopefully it will be less than two years before her return to Silver Lake.
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