Upcoming Shows: The Styrenes!!!!!!! + more

[Upcoming Shows Playlist]

Thursday, April 29

Cold Cave @ Le Poisson Rouge * Greenwich Village, Manhattan * $12
Cold Cave effortlessly combine the sweeping dramatics of early 80's New Wave with icy nihilism. Its a distillation of all that's good about synth-based music. [myspace]

Fiasco, Total Slacker @ Death By Audio * Williamsburg, Brooklyn
These are two punky DIY bands who have been slightly outstripped by the hype but are still worth checking out. They're pretty loud. [fiasco myspace] [slacker myspace]


Friday, April 30

The Styrenes @ Death By Audio * Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Some strange things happened deep in the Midwest, deep in the mid 70's and at least in the world of rock music, Cleveland was at the center of the strangeness. There were only about a half dozen bands in the movement, and inbred bands at that, but they changed the course of music, opening the door to post-punk before the rest of the world had caught on to the Ramones and the Sex Pistols.

The Cleveland bands can be divided roughly into to cliques - on one side, you've got Rocket From the Tombs whose core members split to form Pere Ubu and Dead Boys. On the other hand, there was a wildly experimental noisefuck called Electric Eels and the slightly more pop-angled Mirrors, who would later morph into the Styrenes. Paul Marotta played with all three of these and when he and his bandmates decided to reunite, they rounded out the band's most well-known four-piece line-up of yore with the Electric Eels' notorious John Morton and original Mirrors/Styrenes founder Jamie Klimek.

So, six of the most insane, daring and violent minds in punk history will take the stage at New York's best DIY venue, the intimate Death by Audio. According to Cleveland.com, they will play a few Mirrors and Electric Eels songs as well as the Styrenes' material. I think I might die. [myspace]


Saturday, May 1

Styrenes + Tyvek @ Cake Shop * LES, Manhattan * $10
See above. And this time, no DIY, but a great venue nevertheless and with the lovable mad Detroit punks Tyvek warming up the stage. [tyvek myspace]


Sunday, May 2

Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers @ Mercury Lounge * LES, Manhattan * $10
Acclaimed and adored by critics everywhere and with one of the loyalest fan bases around, Shilpa Ray could school all of Brooklyn when it comes to rock. Her soulful, bluesy rock builds around a hand-powered harmonium and her punk rock energy and the fact that she's legitimately totally insane makes for one of the most fun live shows you can find in the New York scene. I mean, seriously, the woman is bonkers. [myspace]


Monday, May 3

Chapterhouse, Ulrich Schnauss, Mahogany @ Bell House
Just to keep you posted, this show has been postponed, apparently due to visa issues rather than the volcano. When it happens, you should be there cause this is shoegaze at its finest.


Tuesday, May 4

Chapterhouse, Ulrich Schnauss, Soundpool @ Bell House
See above.

[Upcoming Shows Playlist]
The long view...

May
6
Yo La Tengo, Jeff Mangum, Kyp Malone, Portastic, the Clean, Claudia Gonson (Magnetic Fields), Sharon van Etten @ LPR ($75 and way SOLD OUT - I'm only listing it to make you cry cause I'm a mean person.)

7
The Clean @ Bell House (Advanced Tix SOLD OUT)

11
Sleigh Bells + secret guests @ Ridgewood Temple

13
The Buzzcocks @ The Fillmore

15
Parts & Labor, Talk Normal @ Knitting Factory

18
Public Image Ltd @ Terminal 5
Woven Bones @ Mercury Lounge

19
Public Image Ltd @ Terminal 5
Diana Ross @ Radio City Music Hall

21
Fuck Buttons @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

22
Fuck Buttons @ Le Poisson Rouge
New York Dolls @ Warsaw
NYC PopFest: Wake, Boat, My Teenage Stride + more @ Bell House

27
Forgetters @ Bell House

28
Holy Fuck @ Le Poisson Rouge

29
Psych Fest: Weird Owl (yay), Hopewell (blech), Golden Triangle (blech), Psychic Ills (yay), Sunburned Hand of the Man (yay) + more @ Glasslands

June
4
Psychedelic Furs @ the Fillmore

6
Brian Jonestown Massacre @ Webster Hall

18
Melvins + Isis @ Webster Hall

24
Wavves @ Knitting Factory

July
24
M.I.A. @ Governors Island

30
Big Takeover: Springhouse @ Bell House

31
Big Takeover: Springhouse, For Against @ Bell House

Live: A Place to Bury Strangers, Big Pink

When: 3/30
Where: Webster Hall

I've never thought about A Place To Bury Strangers being a particularly tight band but that's only because they are so seamless, you don't even think about them stumbling. At least, I never had until I heard them in the craphole that is Webster Hall.

Turns out APTBS now have a friend doing their sound, and while friends are awesome for listening to your problems and buying you beer when you have a bad day, they aren't necessarily awesome for controlling a sound board in a way that sounds good. I know it's an uphill battle to sound anywhere near decent in Webster - the acoustics in that room are notoriously slushy. But the room and the untrained sound guy - well, with their forces combined, they nearly trainwrecked one of NYC's most unstoppable bands.

From the get-go, it sounded like the three musicians on stage could not hear each other. At times, the drums and guitar seemed to be in entirely different places. The bass was barely audible. The guitar noise was a mess, at once hollow and muddy - and then it cut out all together for quite a long time. In the middle of one song, guitarist Oliver Ackerman walked over to the bass amp and adjusted the sound from there. That's a sure sign the guy in the sound booth is failing.

Several times, I thought the band was going to lose it entirely, fall apart and end their set. Much to their credit, they hung on, plowed through and finished in style. For all it ravaged their sound, the venue did beef up the band's visuals, with some serious smoke machine action and some serious strobe lights. The band's visual intensity helped mask the sonic failings, Ackerman in flashing silhouettes abusing his weathered Fender Jag. The deafening noise jam near the end of the set finally managed to lock in the sound a bit and the band exited with their audience rapt.

Though this was by far the worst set I've ever seen from this band, I think the problems were only visible to loyal fans. Anyone seeing APTBS for the first time was bound to be impressed - how can you not? And for those of us who did notice the band struggling, it could only increase our admiration as well. Anyone else would have given up and left the stage, but this trio rode their intensity alone and put on a damn show.

Of course, adding to the problems was the fact that APTBS were opening. Opening bands usually have their volume capped ten or twenty decibels below the headliner, and since APTBS's sound is based on pure volume, the dimmed sound destroyed what little clarity they may have been able to achieve. The true power of the massive speakers hanging in front of the stage was immediately apparent, however, when The Big Pink appeared. The bass was loud enough to severely damage my eardrums despite my fairly heavy-duty earplugs. It was the kind of bass that rattles your bones to the point of physical discomfort.

But I could see why the band cranked up so loud - except for the phenomonally brain-shattering volume of their bass line, there was absolutely nothing going on. How did this band get so popular? Their songs have no substance at all. There were a few decent beats but not a tune, not a song, not cool guitar sound, not an emotion, just vapid showmanship.

And let's talk about the showmanship too. The front man has a rock star haircut and was sporting a tattered white t-shirt under a black leather jacket. Several metal chains hung from his neck. The other major force in the band, the DJ, was a stockier fellow in a black hoody, hood up. Um, could you get any more cliche? Please? Cause that's just not enough for me.

Meanwhile, the bass player was entirely unremarkable and the drummer, well, the drummer makes me sad. See, I hate to hate on a female drummer, but this girl, one Akiko Matsuura, is NOT a good drummer. Granted, she was scantily clad and flailed her arms pretty good, but as a drummer, she sucks. Luckily, about 80% of the beat was coming from the DJ, so her inabilities were well hidden. But seriously, folks.

Maybe if I did a lot of drugs, I might have enjoyed this band. But it would have to be a lot of drugs. As it is, the Big Pink is a waste of time and space. Wanna be ahead of the curve? Forget about them. Everyone else will have forgotten them in a year too. Thankfully.

Live: The Vandelles

When: 3/26
Where: Cameo Gallery

Just a quicky here, since I've reviewed the Vandelles more times than anyone should. I just can't help myself.

The Vandelles set at Cameo featured their usual musical onslaught of wall-to-wall feedback and their usual irresistible surf and rockabilly-esque ditties. The band is ferocious.

Among the many remarkable attributes of the Vandelles is the fact that they keep getting better. You can tell how hard these guys work and you can see exactly what they've been working on between each show.

Now, in one review of the Vandelles at Cameo, I remarked that guitarist Christo Buffam was "the least immediately captivating" member of the group. I didn't mean that as any insult then - the man is response for every nuance in the band's sonic attack - but in this round, he proved he's got the intense stage presence to match his intense noise. Brandishing his guitar as a weapon, he spent the show silhouetted in corporal battle with the pealing waves of sound.

The rest of the band were no less engaging. Jason Schwartz has a classic frontman's charisma while to his left, bassist Lisha Nadkarni dominates her instrument and her audience with a solid stance and cool focus. And in the back, the ever impressive Honey Pagliorola threatens to split every drum in half with each deadly stroke.

This band is about to catch on big time and all I can say is, it's about damn time.

[myspace]

Upcoming Shows: Pterodactyl, Liars + more

Tomorrow! Friday, April 16

Pterodactyl, Dinowalrus, Fiasco @ Death By Audio * Williamsburg, Brooklyn * $7
This is a fucking GREAT line-up, although the bands are playing the opposite order of what would be proper. Fiasco are young guys who play some mathy, lite-thrash, HARRRRDCORE post-hardcore with some sick riffs that are fast and loud and not made for parents or wusses. Dinowalrus play druggy, mathy music that merges electro, rock and punk into some crazy rhythms and madman sprawls. And Pterodactyl play mathy, highspeed noise rock that's insanely fast with crazy sixteenth-note guitar and jumpy drums and ecstatic, drawn out vocal melodies. All three are exceptional live bands. Do not miss. [fiasco myspace] [dino myspace] [ptero myspace]


Saturday, March 17

Sisters @ Death By Audio * Death By Audio * Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Sisters are two guys who are different in height but both enormously talented. They are a bit awkward and noisy, lo-fi pop and punk is absolutely bursting from them. They slam out perfect little songs with delicious imperfection. Death By Audio is their home base, so they should be at their best. [myspace]


Sunday, March 18

Liars @ Music Hall of Williamsburg * Williamsburg, Brooklyn * $16 adv./$18 dos.
Liars play spooky, fragmented dance punk. No one was surprised when they moved to Berlin because they seem all dark and icy and their music has that inhuman krautrock thing to it, krautrock combined with funk combined with a weird, paranoid rhythmic punk. They are one of the most creative bands to come out of the last decade. Go to see them play. [myspace]


Tuesday, April 20

The Thermals @ Brooklyn Bowl * Williamsburg, Brooklyn * $16 adv./$18 dos.
The Thermals are a punk band who play catchy, fun music. Yup. [myspace]

PC Worship @ Shea Stadium * Bushwick, Brooklyn
PC Worship make sonically experimental lo-fi music that slips deftly between sad songs and noise. They are one of the best emerging bands in Brooklyn. Get 'em while they're fresh. [myspace]



[Upcoming Shows Playlist]
The long view...

April
21
Apples in Stereo @ Bowery Ballroom
Killing Joke @ Fillmore at Irving Plaza
Thermals @ Brooklyn Bowl

22
Gang Gang Dance @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Los Campesinos! @ Fillmore at Irving Plaza
Quasi, Let’s Wrestle @ Bowery Ballroom

24
Don Giovanni presents: Screaming Females (I called it), Measure (SA) @ Mercury Lounge

25
Don Giovanni presents: Shellshag, Noun (Marissa Paternoster of Screaming Females), Black Wine, Pregnant @ Mercury Lounge

30
Styrenes (mems Mirrors, Electric Eels) @ Death by Audio

May
2
Echo & the Bunnymen @ Fillmore at Irving Plaza

3
Chapterhouse @ Bell House

7
Broken Social Scene @ Webster Hall
Caribou @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

8
Broken Social Scene @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Caribou @ Bowery Ballroom
Primitives, Frankie & the Outs @ Bell House

11
Sleigh Bells @ Market Hotel

15
Parts & Labor, Talk Normal @ Knitting Factory
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

16
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra @ Bowery Ballroom

19
Spectrum, Vacant Lots @ Knitting Factory

July
24
M.I.A. @ Governor’s Island


[Upcoming Shows Playlist]

Album: Sightings - City of Straw

Album: City of Straw
Brah, 2010
Rating: ******** (8/10)

I'm not one to put up with inaccessible crap that poses as art so from the start, I had my doubts about Sightings. The band's music is based on melodiless drones, harsh guitar noise and fragmented pulses. However, in the several live shows I've seen, Sightings prove their noise and drone is crafted and focused, smart, emotive and riveting. City of Straw is my first taste of Sightings on record and it's as much a controlled burn as the live show.

City of Straw opens with a crackling, shallow rhythm that seems to encrypt sheer horror in a broken morse code. A minute into the track, the popping and clicking is supplemented by heavy, relentless thud that has all of the inhuman finality of gunshots. A guitar scrapes hissing sheets of noise. Mark Morgan's vocals sound traumatized, their unemotional monotone a hinting at melody. Not that there is potential for melody but rather that there still stand some charred ruins where a melody once was.

The more challenging "Jabber Queens" follows, shuddering to life with a bass positively vomiting notes - far more notes than could fit comfortably in the space - while Morgan's rant slurs, consonants stretched unnaturally over pealing guitar like the vocal track had been jumbled by slow-attack and delay effects (but I don't think there are any effects on the vocals here).

The tightness established in the first track, however, doesn't completely unravel until the title track, a sprawling nine minutes of stuttering noise and murk with erratic, muttering vocal narration and metallic guitar effects that devolve into a sound like post-apocalyptic bowed strings. But just when the album risks losing us, it crashes back into focus with the concise rage of "Saccharine Traps." Morgan actually yells here, his voice laden with distortion and mixed far too low to permit any attempt to decipher lyrics. A short, asymmetrical beat loops as feedbacking guitar lines careen and clash in mid air. The bass knots into itself, a quiet, restless, cold-blooded rumble.

"We All Amplify" follows in the vein of the title track but with somewhat less success. While "City of Straw" seems pointed and controlled, "We All Amplify" becomes unspooled to the extent that it really does border on monotonous. Like "Saccharine Traps," "Weehawken" takes a more direct approach, but again falls short of the earlier track. Its noise fails to find its rhythmic underpinning, looping through a short circuit that is clearly not random, but honestly might as well be.

Unfortunately, the album never quite recovers. "Hush" does not have the urgency of earlier tracks while "Sky Above Mud Below" lacks emotional depth. That's not to say they are bad tracks - they aren't - but the opening half of the album sets a high bar, making the weaker points glaringly disappointing.

However, despite these shortcomings, City of Straw is richly satisfying and heck of a lot better than most of what's getting put on record today. Bold and original, engaging and masterful, City of Straw is what experimental music should be. There's no bullshit here. Every sound serves a purpose. Taken as a whole, City of Straw is the kind of record that should be remembered ten and twenty years from now. Born not only of sincerity but also necessity and crafted with artistic intelligence, it tastes like fresh air in the stale indie world. [myspace]

News: L Magainze Likes Mediocre Pop Bands

That L Magazine picked their "8 Bands You Need to Hear" for the year is kind of old news. But I just bothered to sit down and read it and then felt inspired to make some observations.

First of all, there are a handful of good picks. Miniboone, Asa Ransom and among runners up Led Er Est and Pet Ghost Project are all bands I told you to check out a long time ago, and L Magazine has finally realized that I am right.

But here's really what I want to get at. Combined, the eight bands selected by L Magazine have forty members. Of those forty, five are women, leaving a whooping 87% of slots for menfolk. And of those five women, one plays piano and sings, while the other four only sing. Proportions by race are similar to those by gender as well. I don't think this is entirely L Mag's fault, I think it's a sad reflection of what is actually happening in Brooklyn. In conjunction with indie music moving towards an ultraconservative folk/pop/baroque movement of non-confrontation and complacency, it seems to me that fewer women are playing indie/rock/pop than were a decade ago. Even if it's not worse than it was, it's certainly not better nor acceptable. Affluent white men are running the show like they always have. But indie used to be punk and that used to be about dissidence, progress and empowerment.

Am I the only person who's seeing this??

[l mag article]

Album: MGMT - Congratulations

Album: Congratulations
Sony/Columbia, 2009
Rating: **** (4/10)

In 2008, the trend of rich college kids making trashy hipster pop reached its zenith (though sadly, that sun has not yet set) and suddenly Wesleyan duo MGMT crashed on to the scene, a little too late. Their trashy hipster pop was unabashedly trash, throw-away psychedelic synth hits catchy enough to land the band on Sony/Columbia well before their full-length debut. But somehow, despite all of this, the band had some appeal, some hint of integrity that their fellow spoiled-East-Coat-collegiate-douchebag bands lacked.

I guess it's because MGMT seemed to be gaming the system. They were snagging serious bucks from the major label machinery on behalf, it seemed, of smart-ass indie kids everywhere. The whole thing had the air of a colossal prank. The band certainly reinforced this by doing things such as suing the president of France for unauthorized use of their songs, then donating the settlement monies to legal aid for artists (I'm getting this from Reuters).

But the band's attitude and ability to not take themselves at all seriously wasn't the only thing that made them worthy of note. None of use would have heard of them and they never would have had these opportunities if their songs weren't so damn catchy. Sure, they're cheap pop songs, but they are near-perfect cheap pop songs that dare you not to like them. If someone tells you they don't like "Kids," they are probably lying.

And this is where Congratulations fails. It explicitly forgoes any attempt at singles. Big mistake. Singles are exactly what MGMT did right. The new album lacks melodies and more generally, lacks focus. It's a random, half-assed jumble of psychedelic ideas. Selecting producer Pete "Sonic Boom" Kember can't have helped the band either - based on my encounters with Kember, I'm perpetually surprised he hasn't died of an O.D. yet. He's certainly not going help anyone make judgment calls or edit themselves.

MGMT are still cool guys and they still know their music is garbage - and for that, I will always respect them. However, bland and nebulous, Congratulations isn't even worth a listen. There are better ways to spend 45 minutes.

News: Malcolm McLaren Died

Malcolm McLaren died today at age 64. According to the NY Times, he had cancer and was in Switzerland when he died.

McLaren was the manager of the Sex Pistols and in many ways, the architect of British punk. He has received harsh criticism - much of it rightly - for using people around him simply as a medium for his own ambitions. But his ambitions were artistic - he saw the activities of youth like the Sex Pistols as part of a populist movement to live one's life as art and to make that a vehicle for social protest and ultimately social change. He recognized the potential of Johnny Rotten and London's other disaffected youth and helped nurture their genuine desire to create and express. Through his background in visual and performing arts, he contextualized punk and help it create a cohesive and lasting effect on British culture.

Sadly, as the story goes, McLaren's obsessive commitment to his artistic vision caused him to lose all perspective and forget he was dealing with human beings - and often teenage kids at that. If it weren't for McLaren, Sid Vicious might still be alive - but the man didn't introduce Vicious to heroin either. And just as true, if it weren't for McLaren, our own understanding of popular music would be radically different. With a handful of others, from Warhol to Sonic Youth, McLaren explored the intersection of fine art, popular culture and radical social protest, a nexus that has proved the source of the greatest artistic movements of the last half century.

McLaren may have departed the universe of UK punk, and eventually the universe itself, with for more enemies than admirers, but he made a mark in our cultural history and I, for one, believe we're the better for it.

If you're interested in learning more, read England's Dreaming by Jon Savage. For a good story about reading England's Dreaming, click here.

Upcoming Shows: Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon + more

[Upcoming Shows Playlist]

Wednesday, April 7

Beluga @ Glasslands * Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Incomprehensibly underrated lady punks Beluga are playing their "last show for a while" at Glasslands. This band is so damn good. There are four girls and guy and the singer is a blond, dolled-up Brazilian ex-model who screams and writhes on the floor while the others play excellent grunge-tinged punk anthems that pack a punch. [myspace]


Thursday, April 8

Unstoppable Death Machines @ Shea Stadium * Williamsburg, Brooklyn
UDM are two guys who make slabs of insane noise on bass and drums while shrieking into heavily distorted little microphones they keep in their mouths. Badass. [myspace]


Friday, April 9

Screaming Females (opening for Ted Leo) @ The Fillmore at Irving Plaza * Union Square, Manhattan * $16
I'm not a huge fan of Ted Leo or the Fillmore, but I am a huge fan of Screaming Females and neither the price ($16) nor the venue is bad enough to rule this concert out. Ted Leo won't be able to follow Screaming Females, but I think he knows that because he put Obits on the bill and he can definitely follow them - they rather suck. Anyway, Screaming Females are one screaming female and two males and they play the best guitar rock on earth right now and neither Ted Leo nor the Obits are fit to haul their gear - but they are way to nice to say that themselves. [sf myspace] [tl myspace]


Saturday, April 10

Mirror/Dash @ "Family Bookstore" * Tribeca, Manhattan * FREE!
Mirror/Dash is really Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore, the couple who have basically served as mom and dad to America's underground music and art scenes for several decades now. Known, of course, for their work in Sonic Youth, the pair could make any sort of music - from noise jams to tight rock songs. You won't know until you go, and why not - it's free! (The venue is some temporary art gallery, it sounds like - some artsy something or other that's going to be there for the next month.)

Shooting Spires @ Death by Audio * Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Shooting Spires overlap with Parts & Labor and from what I can tell, they sound pretty similar - and that's good thing! There are great, dramatic, sweeping pop songs jacked up on a constant flurry of electronic noises, massive bass and crashing drums. Check it aowt. [myspace]


After that run of awesome shows, there are a few days that are fairly uninspiring. Not for long though...

[Upcoming Shows Playlist]
The long view...

April
14
A.R.E. Weapons @ Death by Audio

15
Liars @ Bowery Ballroom

16
Kaki King @ Bowery Ballroom
Pterodactyl, Dinowalrus, Fiasco @ Death by Audio

18
Liars @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

19
Snoop Dogg @ Brooklyn Bowl

20
Snoop Dogg @ Fillmore at Irving Plaza
Sweet Apple (feat. J. Mascis) @ Mercury Lounge
Thermals @ Brooklyn Bowl

21
Apples in Stereo @ Bowery Ballroom
Killing Joke @ Fillmore at Irving Plaza
Thermals @ Brooklyn Bowl

22
Gang Gang Dance @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Los Campesinos! @ Fillmore at Irving Plaza
Quasi, Let’s Wrestle @ Bowery Ballroom

24
Don Giovanni presents: Screaming Females (I called it), Measure (SA) @ Mercury Lounge

25
Don Giovanni presents: Shellshag, Noun (Marissa Paternoster of Screaming Females), Black Wine, Pregnant @ Mercury Lounge

30
Styrenes (mems Mirrors, Electric Eels) @ Death by Audio

May
2
Echo & the Bunnymen @ Fillmore at Irving Plaza

3
Chapterhouse @ Bell House

7
Broken Social Scene @ Webster Hall
Caribou @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

8
Broken Social Scene @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Caribou @ Bowery Ballroom
Primitives, Frankie & the Outs @ Bell House

11
Sleigh Bells @ Market Hotel

15
Parts & Labor, Talk Normal @ Knitting Factory
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

16
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra @ Bowery Ballroom

19
Spectrum, Vacant Lots @ Knitting Factory

July
24
M.I.A. @ Governor’s Island


[Upcoming Shows Playlist]

Live: Sightings, Oneida

When: 3/19
Where: Knitting Factory

So a few weeks ago, I went to see Oneida at the new Knitting Factory in Brooklyn and Sightings were opening. I've seen the band before, but the night I know I saw them first is almost entirely missing from my memory, so it was pretty much like coming to the band fresh. And they proved my lack of memory of the last set I saw was not the fault of the band - love 'em or hate 'em, they are memorable.

I do love them! Their noise is like bulldozers razing your eardrums - if any band could challenge A Place To Bury Strangers for the spot of "loudest band in NYC," it's these guys. However, APTBS get you with cutting blasts of feedback, whereas Sightings pile sheer sonic weight on their audience. "Noise" is the only way to describe it, but unlike many "noise" bands, Sightings have meticulous control of their sound. They aren't just playing with shit and getting lucky, they have a vision - a bleak, skull-shattering vision - and they know how to get their instruments make the sounds to do it.

And through all of this massive guitar drone and woven into the heavy, mindless pulse of the bass are songs. There's a pop appeal here - most people probably wouldn't see it, but there are rhythms, structures and the faintest hint of melody that keep the band on point. (This was exemplified with even more clarity when I saw the band at Death by Audio last week.)

The indecipherable vocals, though in some contrast to the inhuman buzz and thud of the guitars and drums, never sound like an afterthought. Instead, delivered by the oddly appealing Mark Morgan, the words are marked with genuine desperation that has not yet turned to nihilism. Pronounced with flat restraint, they form a ominous conversation with band's erratic noise. The result is uneasy, cataclysmic and ultimately, deeply satisfying. [myspace]

Sadly, not so for Oneida, whom, despite my best efforts, I just can't really get into. I do respect the band - it's made up of talented musicians with some truly original ideas. But to my ears, it just doesn't quite come together. The band launched into an instrumental epic and by the time vocals came in, they did seem like an afterthought - they failed to blend with the music. The long passages - and they are all long - are a bit self-indulgent, with slight modulations on repetition after repetition. It's the kind of thing that could be amazing to someone on drugs. Less so to me.

What it comes down to is that, as far as I can understand the music, the whole is never more than the sum of its parts. Each song is a series of good ideas which the band slowly nurtures into robust sections, but they take too long to grow each part and that is all they do, over and over again. I hesitate to speak with definitive sentiment here, because I can tell the band has immense talent and creativity and I keep hoping there's something I'm not getting and once I get it, I'll love the band as much as many others seem to. But there seemed no logic to the sequencing of sections, no ultimate momentum or focus, just ideas fleshed out to the point of exhaustion. I like my music to be written, not just played, but if this was written, composed, it was done so poorly.

I was also irked by the band's stage presence. Guitarist "Hanoi Jane" proved a regular chatty Cathy not with the audience but with his bandmates. He repeatedly walked up to each one to exchange words. No doubt the exchanges were about the music, but there was something in them that seemed disaffected. Perhaps it's too much to ask that bands converse on stage only with great emotional intensity, but the little asides and laughs really gave me the feeling this is just a job for Oneida. I know that's not true, but c'mon, you gotta show us you want to be on stage, you want to be making this music - need to, even - and the way they presented themselves, they might have just as well gone to the beach.

Perhaps the pairing with Sightings was unfortunate for the band - where Sightings were bleeding with sincerity, Oneida were somewhat lackadaisical and aloof. Where Sightings were focused and restrained, Oneida were indulgent and scattered. I wouldn't write Oneida off - they are the real deal - but if given the choice, I'd go with Sightings every time. [myspace]

Live: Pygmy Shrews + TODD

When: 3/12/10
Where: Death By Audio

I've been trying to get out to see the Pygmy Shrews for ages and could barely stand waiting the hour and a half or so the band was late to this show. But damn was it worth it.

OK, so Pygmy Shrews are someone from Drunkdriver and another guy and a girl. The girl, Tia Vincent, plays bass and she looks like the last person you'd expect to see in a hardcore band - she's the extremely shy, slightly stout girl with the conservative haircut and conservative clothes who you see in the elevator sometimes and try to say hi to. Well, that's who she looks like. But instead, she friggin shreds the bass and unleashes melodic but definitely punk vocals over the racket. The guitarist, one Ben Greenburt, is phenomenal too, with lightning-fast post-hardcore riffs and his own even hardercore vocals.

For all their distorted, high-speed fury, the band never loses its focus on songs and melodies. Unfortunately, at Death by Audio, the vocals were a little too quite to fully convey the band's knack for writing, but even here, it's evident each song is as catchy as it is loud. Pygmy Shrews, simply put, are a damn good listen. [myspace]

A band called TODD also played. They live in the UK but their origins are in Texas and their defining feature is a frontman who viciously beats himself about the face and head and yells. He was very drunk and at one point, fell down on the floor and the exited while the rest of his band attempted to keep the set alive. He did come back, eventually. This is a guy who has broken at least one of at least one audience member in his career as a singer. Well, "singer."

As the violence clearly illustrates, TODD is as much performance art as it is music. But they are genuine - you can't fake that, not to that intensity. The only really offputting thing about the show was that I felt like the audience were all in on some inside joke I just did not know about. They kept laughing at things and there seemed to be some sort of ritual of heckling the frontman and dancing out dangerously close to him in the little semicircle in front of (not on) the stage where he performed. Sometimes he would go after these dancers/moshers/whatever with real malice.

Except for the feeling that there was some big joke I didn't know about the band, one that would probably make me like them much less if I knew it, I definitely enjoyed them. Of course, lots of noise plus a frontman who beats up himself and others is pretty much a recipe for success. Or am I giving them too much credit? [myspace]

Live: Pregnant, Men, Passive Aggressor

So ages ago, I went to Bruar Falls to see a band called Pregnant play and then I got really behind on my live reviews, so....

Passive Aggressor was playing when I showed up. I didn't see enough of their set to give a proper review, but they were a good poppy hardcore band with a female vocalist who went out into the audience and yelled like a serious mu'fucker. The band was tight and packed a punk and the show was spirited. [myspace]

They were actually the second band of the night. I missed the first act, called Zulus, but Shag of Shellshag was there and said they were really good. And if a recommendation from Shellshag isn't worth pursuing, I don't know what is. [myspace]

Next up, The Men had some good things going for them, but they don't seem to have worked out their sound yet. They're about 75% hardcore punk and 25% shoegaze, with massively loud guitar drones straight off Loveless. It's a great combination, but the effort seemed confused, particularly by the sequence of the set list, which started with pure shoegaze and then abruptly shifted to more straight-forward punk. The band also traded around instruments, which I always like - keeps things from getting too settled. But it's a delicate balance - variety and consistency, that is - the band has yet to really to strike the middle. Still, they combine some many of favorite things that I can't help but be excited - I'm going to keep an eye on these guys!

Pregnant were the highlight of the night for me. Cory from Stupid Party sent me an e-mail when he was drunk and told me they were his favorite band, and that's the best recommendation I can think of. At first, the awkward trio didn't strike me as special - good hardcore, but nothing to write home about.

But then, as their set went on, I began to notice the combination of complexity and tightness in their songs, the sweet riffs, the air-raid rumble of the bass, the chunky vocals and the wild way the band grappled and wrangled their instruments on stage. The best punk bands seem always to be fighting against their instruments rather than working with this. And here's an example in its finest form. Look out for Pregnant, there's something special about these kids. [myspace]