Upcoming Shows: Dan Deacon, Coltrane Motion + more

[Upcoming Shows Playlist]
TONIGHT! Thursday, May 27

Dan Deacon, Dustin Wong, Big Troubles @ Cake Shop * LES, Manhattan * $10
Dan Deacon is some sort of DIY/punk hero and I never really paid attention to him but a lot of people do. Dustin Wong is the insanely awesome, brilliant, superhuman guitarist of experimental, gleeful noise-rock quartet Ponytail. Big Troubles are from New Jersey and they play rock music that is LOUD LOUD LOUD and they have good songs and are extra awesome and will be famous soon, I think. [dd myspace] [dw myspace] [bt myspace]


TOMORROW! Friday, May 28

So So Glos, Grooms, Fiasco, Ava Luna @ Monster Island Basement * Williamsburg, Brooklyn * $7
In a typical Todd P line-up that is bound to leave everyone pissed off, four bands that have absoltutely nothing to do with each other - but three of the four are good. So So Glos are a melodic hardcore punk band and most similar to them, Fiasco play heavy, mathy, fast post-hardcore with screaming distortion. Grooms are plunked incongruously between these two. They play a dark, noisy, experimental post punk that's most easily compared to Sonic Youth. They are way slower and way quieter (or at least more restrained) than the other two. And then kicking it off is the shameful new face of anti-feminist backlash, Ava Luna - a band that features guys who play instruments and sing lead vocals (thank god for men) and girls who sing back-up vocals. There are seven of them and they get compared to Dirty Projectors which means they are probably the worst new band in Brooklyn (except Freelance Whales, maybe). They aren't very popular despite playing the game pretty well, so with any luck, they'll fizzle out and disappear of the music radar shortly. BUT the other three bands, despite being vastly different, are all awesome and since Ava Luna is playing before them, just go a little later. [ssg myspace] [grooms myspace] [fiasco myspace]

Darlings @ Death By Audio * Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Darlings are crazy. They sound like any other really good poppy indie rock band except like they are on crack. Their live show is the kind that keeps you on edge because the whole thing seems about to fall apart, but instead it all comes together and is awesome and makes you smile. They interrupt their sugary hooks and melodies with abrupt noise and teeter on the brink of chaos and remain one of Brooklyn's best. [myspace]


Saturday, May 29

PC Worship, Needle Gun (mems Teeth Mountain, Matmos) @ Death by Audio * Williamsburg, Brooklyn
PC Worship play sad, lo-fi tunes and sound experiments (alternately or at the same time). In a city full of throwbacks and copycats, PC Worship are original. Needle Gun, well, I have no idea what they sound like. But they have people from very talented, first-rate experimental bands Teeth Mountain and Matmos, so check it out. [pc myspace] [needle myspace]


Tuesday, June 1

Coltrane Motion @ Bruar Falls * Williamsburg, Brooklyn * FREE!
Coltrane Motion are one of my favorite favorite favorite unknown pop bands. They play a sort of electro indie pop that has got noise and out of tune notes and the best fucking melodies I've heard in ages. This show is free and you have to go, or we aren't friends any more.[myspace]


Wednesday, June 2

Sisters @ Death by Audio * Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Sisters are a duo who play in that new genre that's been christened "noise punk." They are highly recommended for fans of No Age, Male Bonding, Japanther, Japandroids and the like. Their songs are short and sweet with huggable riffs and melodies, but with crazy distortion and yelling and crashing and their live show is a sort of flailing, awkward affair and everyone, absolutely everyone, can love them. [myspace]

Led Er Est @ Bruar Falls * Williamsburg, Brooklyn * $8
Led Er Est play cold-hearted, post-punk electro that's experimental and fresh and new and people seem to be noticing them a bit more now. Another of Brooklyn's best rising bands, get 'em while they're hot. [myspace]

[Upcoming Shows Playlist]
The long view...

May
June
3
Lil Kim @ the Fillmore

4
Slingshot Dakota, The Measure SA, Black Wine @ Death By Audio
Grouper @ Issue Project Room
Psychedelic Furs @ the Fillmore

5
Brian Jonestown Massacre @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

6
Brian Jonestown Massacre @ Webster Hall

8
Here We Go Magic @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

11
Jeff the Brotherhood, PC Worship @ Death By Audio
Friendo @ Cake Shop

13
Friendo @ Glasslands

14
Coyote Eyes @ Cake Shop

15
Dan Deacon @ Red Hook Park

18
Marnie Stern, Anni Rossi, True Womahood @ Glasslands
Pissed Jeans @ Cake Shop

19
Pissed Jeans, Pop. 1280 @ Death by Audio
Melvins + Isis @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

24
Wavves @ Knitting Factory

25
Fiery Furnaces @ Brooklyn Bowl
Silversun Pickups, Against Me! @ Williamsburg Waterfront

26
Fiery Furnaces @ Mercury Lounge
Titus Andronicus @ Newtown Barge Park
Liars, Fucked Up, High Places @ Newtown Barge Park

27
Les Savy Fav, Polvo @ Newtown Barge Park

July
6
B-52s @ Highline Ballroom

11
The Roots, Talib Kweli @ Prospect Park

13
Cheap Trick @ Radio City Music Hall

16
Weezer @ Williamsburg Waterfront

17
Siren Fest: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Matt & Kim, Ted Leo, Surfer Blood @ Coney Island

22
Antlers, Dinosaur Feathers @ Pier 54

23
Modest Mouse @ Williamsburg Waterfront

24
M.I.A., Sleigh Bells @ Governors Island

26
Flaming Lips @ Central Park

27
Black Keys @ Central Park
The National, Beach House @ Prospect Park

28
Black Keys @ Central Park

30
Big Takeover: Springhouse @ Bell House

31
Sonic Youth, Grass Widow, Talk Normal @ Prospect Park
Big Takeover: Springhouse, For Against @ Bell House

August
12
Gang Gang Dance, Grizzly Bear, Walkmen @ Governors Island

15
Public Enemy @ Central Park

17
MGMT @ Radio City Music Hall

18
MGMT @ Radio City Music Hall

[Upcoming Shows Playlist]

Live: Lightning Bolt + Teeth Mountain

When: 8/31
Where: Broadway Backyard, Bushwick

On Sunday, while all the wussy kids (including Jay-Z and Beyonce, apparently) went to Williamsburg Waterfront to check out snooze-pop band Grizzly Bear, the cool kids hopped on the J train to Todd P's new vacant lot of choice, Broadway Backyard in Bushwick. It speaks to the quality of the bands playing that many of Brooklyn's best musicians turned out to see the show, including Shilpa Ray, Pterodactyl and some of the Death By Audio folks. Meanwhile, the Vivian Girls and the rest of the Woodsist/In the Red/whatever clan where nowhere to be seen. (I'll you decide whether or not that speaks to the quality of the music too.)

Since I attended the Woodsist/Captured Tracks festival at this space earlier this summer, I knew the acoustics to be surprisingly sound. Despite being outdoors, and therefore losing controlled resonance and instead gaining late, loud echos off the train tracks and buildings, the music is blasted loud enough to remain clear and full.

When I arrived, Todd P's ipod was playing in alphabetical order (Weezer, Wipers, Wipers, Woods, XTC) but before we got to find out if he owns any ZZ Top, Teeth Mountain took the stage. Teeth Mountain play repetitive, percussion-driven fusion music, which puts them definitively in a camp with the likes of Aa and Gang Gang Dance. It's not all drumming though (neither are those bands) but includes noise guitar, bass and saxophone as well as some electronics and homemade devices.

On the percussion end, the beats were pretty cool. One of the two drummers was a chick and I'm always happy to see lady drummers because there are so few. On an array of snares, tom-toms and roto-toms, the two percussionists overlaid some sweet, grooving polyrhythms. They did seem a little underrehearsed and definitely lost track of each other a few times, but they covered it up well - you'd only know it by their facial expressions.

The rest of the band were less notable in musicianship, but not half bad either. As I mentioned before, they played a pretty wide bunch of instruments, mostly in a noise-rock kind of way - I don't think I heard a single tuneful line. Despite my limited tolerance for this sort of "experimentalism" and my extremely limited tolerance for saxophones, I rather enjoyed the noise coming from the front half of the stage.

The band definitely drew from influences around the world. On one song, roto-toms resemble tabla drumming and as "Jasper" pointed out to me, one of the instruments in the front was making a sound like a heavily distorted sitar. While the beats remained largely in the realm of generic "tribal" (am I the only one who finds use of this term offensive?), there were hints of West African and Latin inspiration scattered in.

However, overall, the songs weren't much different from one another and within each song, repetition was the dominant force. That sort of repetition doesn't hold my attention, though I recognize some people are into it. I ended up feeling bored and disappointed, but if you do like hearing the same two bars over and over again (and trust me, I know a lot of people who do), this is one of the best bands you'll find in the scene today. [MySpace]

Of course, I, like everyone else, was really at the show to see the legendary Lightning Bolt, a drum and bass (not drum'n'bass!) duo from Rhode Island. Despite not having a proper guitar in their ranks, Lightning Bolt makes amazing guitar music. How? Well, quite simply by playing the SHIT out of a bass guitar.

Bassist Brian Gibson plays his guitar in an alternate tuning which allows for a greater range in pitch, and is known to string his high A (a G in normal tuning) with a banjo string. Everything Gibson plays is heavily distorted, which gives weight to overtones and further expands the range of frequencies blasting out of his amp. (I also thought he had an octaver, but I might just have been hearing that banjo string's tone. If anyone knows, I'm interested.)

Moving smoothly from riff to chord to bassline, Gibson never rests. He even often plays frenetic, crunch-metal guitar riffs in the highest registers while simultaneously hitting bass notes on beat one of each bar. I'd guess you'd need about three typical bass players at least to cover the ground Lightning Bolt covers with one.


Lightning Bolt (picture from myspace.com)
But that's not even the highlight. The drumming is. Brian Chippendale's noise drumming is relentless sixteenth and thirty-second notes, polyrhythms and fills at about 200 BPM (that's fast). If you're prone to headaches, I'd warn you to skip this band. Actually, Chippendale's incessant rimshots on a very, very tightly tuned snare were giving me a bit of a headache myself. I'd love that to drop a little in pitch, but it's not Lightning Bolt without that particular snap.

The band performed amazingly - given the sheer intensity of the music, they don't really have the option to be average. Chippendale appeared as usual in a mask holding a small microphone in place against his mouth. His yells into this microphone are then fed through some serious effects and the result is a series of unintelligible cries punctuating the music. At times the band seems to overuse their vocals when they are more distracting than productive, but if they insist on having vox, this is the way to do it.

The crowd went wild (obviously), with a mess of a pit in the front and a steady stream of stage divers taking particularly adventurous spinning leaps off the stage. The long set undoubtedly left the moshers exhausted, but well satisfied.

I've got some respect for Grizzly Bear, but c'mon, they couldn't hold a candle to these guys. Lightning Bolt is what rock music is meant to be. [MySpace]

I should also mention Lightning Bolt is coming out with an album this fall. I don't have a copy yet, but I'll definitely try to get one and write it up before the release. I'm pretty sure it's going to kick ass.