Live: Shellshag, Unstoppable Death Machines, Fiasco, Chicken & Whiskey

When: 7/2
Where: Silent Barn

There were so many things to be confused by upon walking into the latest Shellshag-curated show at Silent Barn, it's hard to know where to begin.  The band playing first (mid-set when I walked in) consisted of a couple of 250 lb, heavily tattooed, heavily tanned biker-ish dudes playing a bass guitar and a keyboard respectively (and their less noticeable but similarly presented drummer).  And when I say keyboard, I don't mean synthesizer.  I mean electric piano.  The gentleman on the bass had long hair and was wearing overalls with one side undone, and no shirt, while the keyboardist (and lead singer) sported a wife-beater and mullet.

Their small audience, who on average were about fifteen years their juniors, were jumping around enthusiastically when they suddenly plunged into a brief but surprisingly faithful cover of "A Whole New World."  The song from Aladdin.  Aside from the singer's gruff voice, it was pretty true to the Disney original, but somehow fit with the rest of their blue collar hair-punk (like hair-metal, get it?).  The band, as it happened, were called Chicken & Whiskey and it was one of their first ever shows (or so I was told).  And you know what?  They were good.  Everything about them was just right - their not-so-typical-for-the-Brooklyn-DIY-scene appearance, the balance of their masculine sound and look with their not-so-manly keyboard and cover song selection, effortlessly tight, effortlessly and subtly melodic.

It's no surprise that when they finished their set, the audience called out for more songs.  They're exactly the kind of songs you want to hear more of when you go to a place like Silent Barn.  Then several audience members began calling for the band to "freestyle."  And guess what!  They did, and they were good at that too.  [old video]

I've seen Fiasco many times and for all the band is impressive, the most enduring impression they made on me was as being a band of unequal skill.  Not unequaled, unequal.  While Jonathan Edelstein and Lucian Buscemi split guitar, bass and vocal duties, Edelstein's parts always outmatched Buscemi's.  The band was great but it was frustrating to think how much better they would sound with two Edelsteins.

I didn't really have that issue at Silent Barn.  Silent Barn is a stageless and equipment-strapped DIY space and while there are certainly worse acoustics to be found in the city, the audio isn't exactly pristine either.  As such, I couldn't hear the minutiae that revealed the band's lopsided skills and was free to simply enjoy their energy.

All that aside, Fiasco are good at what they do.  And what they do is awesome.  Their incredibly fast and complex parts (often involving finger-tapping on guitar) flip between time-signatures without losing their brutal force.  It's not the newest trick in the book, but it's a pretty good one.  And one that's beyond the technical prowess of most bands as young as Fiasco.

I've only seen Unstoppable Death Machines once, and that was also with Fiasco.  They are a duo with a setting that's nearly identical to Lightning Bolt - two guys, one bass, one drum kit, an echoey mic in the mouth and a whole lot of distortion.  For all that, though, they sound pretty different from Lightning Bolt, who thrive on sheer speed.  UDM's songs are more like, well, songs.  Their tempos are slower and their rhythms simpler.  Of course, they don't have the sheer originality of Lightning Bolt, but on the other hand, their music is easier to enjoy.  And regardless of who they're not, they are pretty fucking ferocious.

Amid the massive distortion and skull shattering feedback, an interesting thing happened - the audience lifted the drummer and drumkit in the air at the end of the set.  The drummer hopped on someone's shoulders while various other people lifted his snare and cymbals in reach.  It reminded me, oddly, of the dinosaur rock bands and their interminable drum solos, during which the drummer's platform would rise up above the stage for an unlistenable ten, fifteen or twenty minutes.  But while the drummer's levitation evoked such concerts, in a strange way, it was exactly the opposite.  This is DIY and it's the opposite of a Rock God solo.  Not only did the bass continue in its assault, but also those drums that could not be lifted were taken over by various audience members who pounded wildly on them for a good ten minutes.  While the aerial rock drummer rises above the audience a show of superiority and separation from mere mortals, UDM's altitude was a part of the absolute annihilation between performer and audience. [video of a previous show at the same venue]

Or, more to the point, it was fucking fun.

I have nothing new to say about Shellshag, having reviewed them 8,000,000 times before.  If they don't make you smile, your face is broken.

Album: Grooms - Prom

Album: Prom
Kanine Records
Release Date: July 12, 2011
Rating: ******** (8/10)

To cut to the chase, Grooms' sophomore full-length is startlingly great. The album oozes the professionalism and confidence of a band that - finally - knows exactly what they're trying to do. It is refreshingly original and strikingly mature.

Grooms still often evoke Sonic Youth in their odd dissonance, the guitar (and vocals) often transcending key signatures to create mysteriously, deliciously warped harmonies and scales. Still, compared to their first album, Prom owes relatively little to Sonic Youth or anyone else for that matter. It's not hard to name reference points (Sonic Youth, Radiohead, Microphones, My Bloody Valentine, the Notwist), but Prom could only have been made by Grooms.

The album announces its identity immediately - "Tiger Trees" opens with a foreboding military march, traced out not by the thud of drums but rather by shards of static, then explodes into a wash of noise. It's that rare sort of noise that doesn't depend on volume as its primary ingredient, the kind you can find in albums by Eric's Trip and the Microphones and very few others. It's a sort of quiet roar that evokes mountains and oceans. It doesn't sound murky but it's nearly impossible to figure out exactly what is going on.

That sort of masterful engineering is coupled with noticeably electrodance leaning elements such as the relentlessly elliptical acid house bass on the title track, the sputtering drums of "Imagining the Bodies" and the industrial beat in parts of "Into the Arms." These elements recall Radiohead, with their deep, post-dub, asymmetrical b-lines, but they are always balanced with organic elements. Likewise, when the guitar drifts off into space on the slow "Expression Of," the bass is at its most earthy.

The album is impressively consistent - none of the tracks feel like filler, either in that they are underdeveloped or in that they don't fit with the record overall. The explosive, melting-out-of-key "Aisha" balances the gentle, sad ambient-folk of "Psychics." In "Sharing," Grooms take a cue from My Bloody Valentine circa 1988 with bassist Emily Ambruso's only lead vocal, a sticky-sweet indie pop song swimming in blurry, underwater noise.

My only major complaint about the album is that the vocals are too far forward in many songs. Some of the middle tracks ("Imagining the Bodies," "Skating With Girl") are about right, but many songs, including the first two (otherwise, the album's strongest), simply seem to have vocals pasted over the top. While everything is a whirl of sound, Travis Johnson's vocals are bizarrely exposed - which might work if they were better but realistically, vocals are not the band's strongest suit. They aren't bad, by any means, but the melodies are a little underdeveloped and Johnson's voice just a little thin in contrast with the rich tapestry of the instrumentals.

Still, for an album as bold and original as this, you gotta hand it to these guys. Prom is a keeper.

Live: Pygmy Shrews, Pop. 1280

When: 6/11
Where: Death By Audio

I've reviewed White Suns recently, so I'll skip it except to say they're rad and I enjoyed them much.

I'd really like to get more into Pop. 1280.  They have a lot of elements I like - the nasty guitars and screaming of hardcore/post-hardcore and the foreboding tension of post-punk.  But Pop 1280's foreboding/gothic leanings overpower their punkier aspects.  Most songs are slow and drony, based around minimal, hypnotic drums and bass (or synth-generated b-lines).  Murky guitar and synth textures slide sharply between the pounding rhythms and Chris Bug rants over the top.

So far so good, or so you'd think.  But something is amiss.  Most of their songs are so alike in tone and tempo that they blend together and well, after ten or fifteen or twenty minutes, the repetitiveness and consistency becomes monotony.  Dark post-punk is often meant to be punishing, but there's a subtle difference between punishment and boredom and Pop. 1280 fall just slightly on the wrong side of that fence.  And I do mean slightly - there's a lot to love about the band.  If their ice stage presence doesn't warm your heart, their fat Suicide-esque synth riffs and harsh tones certainly will (if you're anything like me, anyway).  It's just that the impact and enjoyment become noticeably diluted as the length of the set exceeds its content, idea-wise.

In a way, the pieces of Pop. 1280 don't quite come together.  There's a disconnect between Bug, out front with the mic, and the rest of the band who are actually physically in the background.  Band members don't have to present themselves uniformly but they should have a unified vision of how they want to present the band as a whole.  Something about the gulf between the players and the frontman in Pop. 1280 makes it seem like you're watching two separate bands who each need the instrumentation of the other, so they tolerate (and mostly ignore) each other.  Musically, it's tight and it works together on paper, but in the delivery, it just doesn't gel. [video]

Of course, the juxtaposition with the Pygmy Shrews can't help - now there's a band who gel.  OK.  "Gel" may be the wrong word in as much as it evokes something smooth and translucent.  Pygmy Shrews are more like a blood clot, the physics remains the same - put the three shrews on a stage together and the result is monolithic.  They seem to share not only a sonic technique (loud) but also a sense of humor.  They're not a comedy act and they absolutely will fuck your shit up, but true to punk's dadaist roots, the Shrews know how to be fun and funny.

The Shrews are too cool for woords, but musically they are mostly "just" a punk band and their new material seems to be more straightforward than ever.  Of course, Ben Greenberg's aluminum guitar gives the band's sound a corrosive post-hardcore feel and Tia Vincent-Clark's bass has a knotted complexity you won't find in your average (or even above-average) hardcore band.  Greenberg has also been known to bust out a nasty, shredded solo.  It's these relatively small things - along with the band's absolutely perfect attitude - that set them apart from their punky peers.

What is the perfect attitude for a band like this?  Well, it's about striking a balance, caring and yet not giving a fuck, showing genuine affection for your audience while also telling them to fuck off and throwing beer cans at them (or whatever).  It's expressing real and urgent rage without taking that tongue out of your check. Too many bands take themselves too seriously and too many more don't take themselves seriously enough, failing to grasp the importance of punk and everything it stands for.  Pygmy Shrews are a rare breed, a band that's able to issue an equally big "fuck you" to folks on both sides.

But I doubt they'd put it quite that way.  I think they just like to play.  [video]

Live: Pterodactyl, Screens, Keepaway

When: 5/27
Where: Death By Audio

Another shamefully overdue review, but a couple of weeks ago, I caught Screens and Pterodactyl at Death By Audio.  I missed Zulus, who played first, but I did catch the second opener, Keepaway.

Keepaway is one of those bands that's so bad it transfixes you.  I couldn't look away.  If you are ever making a funny movie and you need a band to parody the worst side of parochial pop, Keepaway are the guys you want.  When the band started with their cheesy, tacky, unartful electronica, all over the worst canned beats imaginable, it was jawdropping.  "Jasper" theorized that they were the guys who got rejected by the Animal Collective cover band.  My own assessment was similar, but rather more harsh.

Unfortunately, as the set went on, the music got slightly better, which ruined the band's only appeal - the sheer awesomeness of how terrible it was.  If they'd managed to stay godawful the whole time, they'd be more worthy of note, but as their music reached regularly-crappy levels, they became less and less interesting.

However, one part never ceased to horrify - the lyrics.  It was like poetry by a 13-year-old.  A melodramatic and not very bright 13-year-old.  I cannot get over how bad these lyrics were.  It was PAINFUL to listen to.  Of course, it was made more painful by the nearly tone-deaf "singer."  You could tell there were supposed to be melodies, but his attempts at executing them were grating.

If the band didn't seem to take themselves seriously, I might be interested in them as a sort of "meta" critique.  But everything about how they conducted themselves indicated that they actually think this music is good.  They didn't even seem to be having that much fun, they just did a generic indie rock performance, head nodding to the rhythms, their "drummer" randomly tapping along to the programed rhythms like a talentless four-year-old.  The whole thing was self-indulgent, boring and embarrassing.  Please stop.  ["jam session" video]

Screens played next.  There was a time I was super excited about Screens and thought they were the second coming but I've been a bit disappointed with the band.  The problem with them is that they are tantalizingly close to something awesome, but they just keep missing the mark.  Their largely synth-driven music is fresh and smart, sheets of noise and danceable beats pasted together like a carefully crafted collage.  Their music stutters and veers but never at random - everything that's placed together in a song belongs together.

However, there are some very poor decisions in the mix.  Most glaringly, the vocals are laden with effects.  Most songs feature tremendous delay on the vocals, so every shout or scream is repeated in full several times after it's uttered.  Added to that is a gratuitous amount of reverb and often distortion.  There's absolutely no substance to the vocals themselves - they're entirely effects.  The band would be better off without vocals at all.  But better than that, even would be if the band could learn to use vocals as effectively as they use the other elements of their music.

The effects on the vocals thing would be silly regardless, especially given current trends towards doing this, it also has the effect of making the band sound generic.  The frontman is enthusiastic, but he seems a little disconnected from the band as well, both because he's sonically superfluous and because he doesn't seem to engage them or vice versa.  If the band learns how to incorporate its members with the same fluidity as they incorporate the components of their songs, they'll be genius.  But as it stands, they're frustrating.

I've seen Pterodactyl a bazillion times and reviewed them almost as many times.  The last two, they were a quartet, but at this show, they were back down to their core trio and it was the best set of theirs I've seen in a long time.  Perhaps it was the comfort of being a trio and on something close to home turf.  Their frenetic noise-rock folded more smoothly into their new, slower, syncopated sound.  Matt Marlin really is an outstanding drummer and really holds the reigns - with a flick of his wrist, he can quickly change a song from breakneck punk to relaxed calypso to deep blues and back.

There's not much else I can say without repeating my other reviews.  The band is exceptionally tight and their sound is bold, original and buoyant, bubbling with genuine joy.  So, basically, they still got it. [old ptero video]

Album: Boris - Attention Please

Album: Attention Please
Sargent House
Release date: May 24, 2011
Rating: ******* (8/10)

I think you'd be hard put to argue that Boris isn't one of the best bands on earth right now. And in 2011, it seems they are only surpassed in prolificacy, historically, by Bob Pollard and R. Stevie Moore, in terms of the sheer number of songs and albums one can possibly release in a year. On closer examination, you'll find a large number of songs here overlapping with other Boris releases - but any that have seen more than one release have been significantly reworked.

What makes this seventeenth LP unique in Boris's discography is that all lead vocals are sung by Wata, the band's female guitarist. If you've ever seen Wata play, you'll know she can shred like a motherfucker. Her singing is eerie and ethereal, making this Boris's most dreamy record to date (of the ones that I've heard, anyway - to be fair, I haven't listened to all seventeen).

Boris is a difficult band to explain. In one way, they wear their influences on their sleeve, but those influences are so diverse that the band never sounds like anyone else. And while a fair number of bands incorporate vastly different styles, few do it as seamlessly as this group. Sounds reminiscent of My Bloody Valentine or Brian Eno lock into doom metal drones. Industrial racket segues into a sort of demented folk music. Alt rock flare folds into chirping electronica. Nods to the wildman yelps of the Boredoms slip naturally into gaps between speed metal riffs. Attention Please is at once light and heavy, smooth and jagged, gentle and harsh. It's also - as all Boris albums are - simultaneously inviting and impenetrable, accessible on one level but entirely esoteric on another.

That said, Attention Please is more accessible and less esoteric than most Boris releases. That's not necessarily a good thing - this album just doesn't sound as original as most of the band's output. It's softer, more atmospheric and less metal than the last few LPs from the band. The restraint is interesting, especially on songs like the tense title track, with its pulsing house groove, creeping guitar textures and Wata's near-whisper. "Party Boy," with its thickly distorted guitar mixed low over another throbbing dance club beat is less immediately haunting, but also seems to boil just under the surface. Throughout the album, there seems to be a buried anxiety on the verge of exploding.

Attention Please suffers a little from the electronic aspects. Drummer Atsuo's playing is one of Boris's greatest strengths. His approach to drums is raw, animate, wild, vital in a way that is the antithesis of the mechanical beats on much of Attention Please. The mechanical beats have their own charm, and it's not the first time we've heard Boris dabble in electronics. In fact, they use these sort of robotic beats very well, creating a cold, industrial sense of alienation. But despite being effective, it just doesn't sound as fresh - other bands use these sorts of beats, but no other band has Atsuo behind an acoustic drumkit.

Between the foreboding electro ("Attention Please," "Party Boy," "Tokyo Wonder Land") and the hushed noisescapes ("See You Next Week," "You," "Hand In Hand") are some moments of pure pop. I mean, weird, scrambled pop that's juiced up and tripped out, but poppy rock'n'roll ragers nonetheless. "Spoon" is the obvious example, a soaring dream pop anthem, as lush and warm as anything the band has ever put out. In both this song and the similar "Hope" (the album's single), the guitar grows increasingly hard-edged as the song wears on and in the final minute, the band's metal influences seem to take over. But somehow it works, making sure the songs rock without weighing them down.

"Les Paul Custom '86" is an odder track, but hooky with a strange spluttering beat, a quirky and very Japanese (a la Boredoms, Shonen Knife) lead guitar line, and some strange coughing (again recalling the Boredoms). But there are warmer layers of sound here as well, something deeper and more solid than that would imply - it's a layer of low-register sound that prevents the song from drifting off as oddball songs are wont to do.

For a band with such high output, Boris do an exceptional job of keeping things fresh. This album isn't as good as their 2005 record Pink, but in many ways, it can be better to have an album that's not quite as good as, say, Pink, but that also doesn't sound exactly like Pink, or anything like Pink at all. This album is worth buying because you don't already have it. If you have one Boris album, you have one; the band is in a constant state of discovery and invention. That takes both courage and ingenuity and few bands could match Boris on either of those fronts.

Live: Pterodactyl, Lightning Bolt

When: 4/28
Where: Le Poisson Rouge

Pterodactyl opened for Lightning Bolt, which makes sense because even though Pterodactyl are less brutal than Lightning Bolt, they play guitars the way Brian Gibson plays his bass.  It's more than just pure speed, although that's a lot of it; it's got something to do with the guitar lines being somewhere between melody and arpeggio.  Pterodactyl has long been one of my favorite NYC bands and I was interested to see them on a big (or medium-sized) stage.  The band is fairly recently returned from a tour with another kindred band (and another favorite of mine), Parts & Labor.  Prior to the tour, Pterodactyl were already moving in vastly different directions, but nevertheless, it's hard not to see some of their recent changes as being at least partly influenced by their tourmates.

First and most noticeably, the band has added a fourth member.  Last time I saw them, they were also a quartet, with one of the members of Parts & Labor jumping in.  However, the fourth 'dactyl doesn't play synths and samplers like the guy from Parts & Labor did, he plays guitar (and occasionally bass).  Where keyboards were needed, Joe Kremer would set aside his guitar and whip out an amazing keyboard that folds in half so two people can play it.  (He said what it was called but the name is escaping me right now.)  As for the new guitarist, well, he plays well.  It's hard to jump into a band that's been around a while and not cramp their style, but he pulled it off.  On stage, though, he looked sullen and detached, even bored at times, which doesn't mesh well with the jumpy enthusiasm of the rest of the band.

Pterodactyl are also continuing to slow down their songs and play more with traditional rock and pop songforms. ("More" is a relative term, they're still out there, just more focused on vocal melody.)  I like their old stuff better, but that's just inevitable when you like a band and then they change.  Pterodactyl's new stuff is actually pretty rad, and it's great that they are pushing their boundaries instead of just making the same songs over and over again - which honestly, as much as I loved their old stuff, was on the brink of happening already.  Drummer Matt Marlin has changed his style and while his versatility is very impressive, there were times when he seemed to take a page from Parts & Labor's book and it didn't translate quite right.  Some of his big, building parts in the new songs just seemed to weigh down the guitars a bit and he overplayed at times.  Drummers, take note: never underestimate the value of simplicity.  Still, when he was on, he was amazing, with some jazzed up, chilled out polyrhythmic beats that the band's earlier breakneck pace didn't allow.  The band's first two albums showed Marlin to be a drummer of remarkable skill and control, but only now are we beginning to glimpse his full range.

I don't think the show went very well for the band though.  There were some problems with the sound on stage and off.  Le Poisson Rouge seems to like to pan the hell out of everything to create a nice stereo effect, which is cool up to a point, but if you are standing far to one side, as I was, you might only be able to hear half the band.  I could only hear the new guitarist and bassist/guitarist Jesse Hodges (and their vocals).  It did get better as the show went on, but it's frustrating that only a third of the audience could really hear the whole band in any sort of balance.  On stage, there were clearly issues as well, but the band held it together, playing tightly even in moments when they seemed unable to hear each other.  Their performance was a bit stiff though.  The band seemed to be struggling, but I think they hid it well (or I imagined it) because Jasper, who's as big a fan as I am didn't seem to notice them having much difficulty, and he was standing right next to me.

The band's new slower songs groove more and several feature more prominent vocals from Hodges.  (All members do vocals but Kremer has usually had the lead in the past.)  Hodges seemed unsteady in his singing at LPR, but I know he's got it in him.  I think it was just not an "on" night for the band.  At the beginning and end of their set, they hit some of their old high-speed songs like "First Daze," "Share the Shade" and "One with Everyone."  The band ultimately succeeded as much as anyone could reasonably hope to impress a 21+ audience of Lightning Bolt fans.  But because they're just not as brutal as Lightning Bolt, the band couldn't have won over that many people in the audience - not because they failed in any way but because certain fans of music like Lightning Bolt can be rather closeminded when it comes to anything that isn't, well, Lightning Bolt.

And what can I say about Lightning Bolt?  They are awesome.  Their avant-thrash noise is simultaneously heavier and faster than black metal - they are simply beyond comparison.  They never seem to miss a note, and they play a LOT of notes.

Live: Parts and Labor, Zulus, Hunters

When: April 8
Where: Cake Shop

Although many of my favorite NYC bands have gone belly up or at least M.I.A. in the last year, one of the groups still giving me hope is Hunters, an experimental quartet who look like a cool band if you run into them on the street (as I recently did).  They've got "the look" in that slightly scary post-punk mad-scientist-meets-futuristic-slick way, minus all the post-glam trappings of the 1980's British scene.  There's nothing put on about the way Hunters look - they don't seem like one of those bands that sits down to discuss their "image."  They just look cool because they are cool.

Of course, looking edgy, or even looking cohesive, does not make or break a band.  Or at least it shouldn't.  But it can help set the stage for an edgy sound, and that's what Hunters have.  Their music is contradictory: turbid and murky, but somehow not at all muddy; at once stagnant and anarchic.  There is a sort of gothic bleakness about the band, but the music itself is a breakneck jumble of noise.  Live, the band seems a bit standoffish but also driven with an intensity that inevitably sets co-fronters Isabel Ibsen and Derek Watson rolling on the floor in a pseudo-sexual, violent mass of body and guitar.

But at Cake Shop, what caught my attention most was not the band's frenzy (which I've come to expect) but their pop appeal.  The last song of the set was a hooky sing-along, albeit enmeshed in No Wave-inflected chaos and noise.  The genuineness with which the band merges these two conflicting impulses - the catchy, spirited pop and the arty noise freakout - shows a band on the edge of something original and important.  I don't think they're there yet; there's still something unfocused and unarticulated in Hunters' post-post-post-post-post-punk set.  But if they keep moving, they just might end up making music that really matters. [myspace]

Zulus played next.  The band's overall sound was very appealing - massively loud guitars, heavy but with tempos fast enough to keep them from feeling bogged down.  However, with no open space for their songs to breathe, the constant guitar and samey tempos made it hard to disinguish one song from the next after a little while.  Moreover, the band's vocals all sounded like an afterthought, tacked on at the last minute out of deference to convention.  If the band learns to shift their vocals more towards the core of their songwriting and branches out in terms of tempo, they could very easily become an exciting band.  But as of now, they are just "okay." [myspace]

I missed the next band, Puffy Areolas and I kind of regret that, because I am curious about them.  However, the so-so-picky Pepe, who stayed for their set, gave them a non-verbal review of "Eh" and a shrug.  Take that as you will.

While these opening bands don't seem the most obvious picks to open for headliners Parts and Labor, the unifying theme of the night seemed to be sheer volume, and that actually worked to give the line-up so coherence (especially in Cake Shop, which boasts a P.A. powerful enough to cram the basement bar with as much sound as it could possibly hold).

Unlike the previous bands, Parts and Labor are all about cheesy mid-tempo pop songs, with soaring, emotion-laden melodies.  But Parts and Labor doesn't just sound like cheesy love songs, they sound like cheesy love songs with a GIANT ROBOT destroying a major city in the background.  You can hear skyscrapers' steel girders twisting and buildings shattering over concrete.  This post-human aesthetic comes primarily from the electronic wizardry of Dan Friel, a tall bloke with sunny ginger curls and a perpetual smile, who is also responsible for half the band's lead vocals.  New guitarist Tom Martin, a pretty-boy if ever there was one, held his own in his first show with the group, lacing the band's sound with an appropriately processed sheen.

But against this electronic, mechanical atmosphere, drummer Joe Wong (who looks deceptively like a fifth grader with his comb-down haircut and thin-rimmed glasses) adds a far more organic quality to the music.  While the other instruments conjure the man-made structures of urban modernity, the drums evoke an expansive mountain range, with peaks of fills and erupting cymbals over an earthy mantle of deep bass drum and toms.  While unassuming, Wong is one of the best drummers in New York City right now, providing a muscular base for the band's massive sound.  But muscular doesn't mean overly weighty - despite the sheer power of his playing, Wong's fills are lightning quick and his rhythms are in dynamic conversation with the rest of the band, responding to every shift in sound.

The gap between the sci-fi electronics and earthy drums is bridged by B. J. Warshaw, whose bass lines dive as low as music can go - although I cannot figure out if this is accomplished with an octave pedal or if the richness of the tone alone makes the bass sound so deep.  Emerging behind a frizzy beard and thick glasses, Warshaw's vocals are of that strained timbre that's so in vogue in post-2000 indie music.  But in vogue doesn't mean bad, quite the contrary in this case - Warshaw pulls off the slightly high, slightly thin sounding style just as it should be pulled off, creating a sense of vulnerability without resorting to untunefulness.

Parts & Labor's weak spot is always their melodies, and last weekend's show proved no different.  While the band embraces the dramatic open melodies of midtempo pop, their attempts are hit and miss.  When they're on, as with their crowning pop achievement "Nowheres Nigh," which closed the Cake Shop set, they're very, very on.  The melody's simplicity is compelling, but many of the bands' other songs sound adrift and fail to hook the ear.  Of course, if the band always hit the mark, they might become too sappy to bear, but many of their weaker melodies sound more accidentally limp than purposefully slack.

Despite that gaping hole (or at least inconsistency) in their songwriting, Parts & Labor continues to impress.  Part of that undoubtedly comes from the band's own conviction - there is nothing aloof about their delivery.  Each line and each chord sounds deeply felt and that alone draws in the audience in the moment.  Meanwhile, the band's unique sonic landscape, a sort of warm-blooded machine that always seems to be the music's textural protagonist, sets them apart from other heartfelt indie rockers, pushing them from just being moving to being lasting.  [myspace]

Upcoming Shows: AIDS Wolf, Sleigh Bells + more

Friday, September 17

AIDS Wolf, An Albatross, Sightings, Vaz @ Death by Audio * Williamsburg, Brooklyn
This should only be, like, the best, nastiest noise show of the year. Just go. [AIDS MySpace] [Albatross MySpace] [Sightings MySpace] [Vaz MySpace]


Saturday, September 18

Superchunk, Let's Wrestle @ Bowery Ballroom * LES, Manhattan * SOLD OUT
The quintessential 90's American indie band, leaders of the illustrious Chapel Hill scene and founders and flagship band of the indie great Merge, Superchunk are, if nothing else, a piece of history. Let's Wrestle are their okay-but-not-amazing signees from the U.K. [Superchunk MySpace] [Wrestle MySpace]

No Age, Small Black @ Music Hall of Williamsburg * Williamsburg, Brooklyn * $15
Noise-punk duo No Age combine contemporary punk and indie, catchy melodies and shoegaze noise. Go. And jump in the pit. Do it. Small Black is opening, they're a pretty good synth-based poppy, noisy band. Worth checking out. [NA MySpace] [SB MySpace]


Sunday, September 19

Superchunk @ Music Hall of Williamsburg * Williamsburg, Brooklyn * SOLD OUT
See above, minus Let's Wrestle.

Dinowalrus @ Union Pool * Williamsburg, Brooklyn
If you want to go to a show that's not sold out, go see drug experimental trio Dinowalrus. They are weird but you can dance to their music, especially if you do a lot of drugs. Even if you don't, it's got a brilliant, unpredictable pop edge. Plus, Pitchfork called the frontman a "heartthrob" and I can see it. [MySpace]


Monday, September 20

Sleigh Bells @ Webster Sudio * East Village, Manhattan * SOLD OUT
Sleigh Bells are the band of 2010. Their hip-hop beats, razor-edged hardcore-style guitar and saccharine, girlish vocals combine to make a sound fully the band's own, without ripping anyone off and without drenching themselves in nostalgia for one or another bygone decade. Why they're playing a leeeettle venue like this one instead of upstairs, I don't know. The show's sold out but maybe if you're clever you can find a way to get in. You should try, it will be worth it. [MySpace]


Tuesday, September 21

Wavves, Babies @ Music Hall of Williamsburg * Williamsburg, Brooklyn * $15
Oh Nathan Williams, our mullethawked, baby-faced, drug addict crash-and-burn SoCal lo-fi surf punk star, your detractors say you're passe, but that's simply wishful thinking. Guys, this kid isn't done yet. He's got real skill and he may not have handled his rise to fame with maturity, but cut him some slack, he's barely old enough to drink legally. His tunes are simple, raw, youthful punk gems drenched in noise. Babies is an NYC scene supergroup feature members of Vivian Girls, Woods, Stupid Party and Bossy (one apiece). Not a shabby roster. [Wavves MySpace] [Babies MySpace]


The long view...

September
25
Titus Andronicus, Screaming Females @ Webster Hall
PC Worship, MV+EE @ Death by Audio

26
Xiu Xiu, Merzbow, Ecstatic Sunshine @ Le Poisson Rouge

27
M.I.A. @ Terminal 5

28
Schonen Knife, Grooms @ Knitting Factory
Forgetters (album release) @ Death by Audio

30
Film School, Depreciation Guild, Home Video @ Glasslands

October
1
Foals @ Bowery Ballroom (SOLD OUT)

2
Foals @ Music Hall of Williamsburg (SOLD OUT)

3
Chapterhouse, Ulrich Schnauss, Mahogany @ Bell House
Efterklang, Xylos @ Glasslands

4
Chapterhouse, Ulrich Schnauss, Soundpool @ Le Poisson Rouge

5
Marnie Stern @ Rock Shop

8
Swans @ Brooklyn Masonic Temple

9
Swans @ Bowery Ballroom

13
Deerhoof @ Le Poisson Rouge

23
AIDS Wolf, Heavy Cream, Screens @ Knitting Factory

26
Japandroids, A Place to Bury Stranger @ Death by Audio

27
Jeff the Brotherhood, Ninja Sonik, Elks @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

November
7
Guided by Voices (original line-up) @ Terminal 5 (SOLD OUT)

Upcoming Shows: Marnie Stern, Pissed Jeans + more

Sorry I’ve been away for a bit. I will get back on blogging schedule next week.

[Upcoming Shows Playlist]
TONIGHT! Friday, June 18

Marnie Stern + Anni Rossi, True Womanhood @ Glasslands * Williamsburg, Brooklyn * $12/$15
Marnie Fucking Stern, ladies and gentlemen, one of the greatest guitar heroes of our generation. At Glasslands, which is small and often has very good acoustics. This show cannot be beat. Marnie Stern isn’t quite metal and isn’t quite punk and isn’t quite anything else except awesome. Plus Anni Rossi, who’s pretty okay at violin and songs and True Womanhood, who sound like Radiohead - in a good way. GO TO THIS SHOW. [marnie myspace] [rossi myspace] [true myspace]


Saturday, June 19

Pissed Jeans, Pop. 1280 @ Death By Audio * Williamsburg, Brooklyn * $12
This will be one of the hardcore/post-hardcore/noise rock shows of the year. You might be seriously injured but it will be worth it. These bands play lurching, desperate anthems straight from the gut. They channel the collective underbelly of our world and let it out via amplifiers and hella distortion. [piss myspace] [pop myspace]


Sunday, June 20

Dinowalrus @ Cameo Gallery * Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Last time I talked to Dinowalrus, they pointed out that I should stop calling them "mathy" because they aren’t, and for once, a band was right about their own music (seriously) so let me just say they are not mathy, but are very rhythm driven, experimental music that’s clearly psychedelic and sometimes danceable. It’s not so experimental as to forgo a strong pop appeal as well. [myspace]

Knight School, Boy Genius @ Bruar Falls * Williamsburg, Brooklyn * $7
Knight School play fuzzy indie pop with the best tunez around. Boy Genius play less fuzzy indie pop and also have more than few good songs. [knight myspace] [boy myspace]


Monday, June 21

Miniboone, Gunfight!, Quiet Loudly, Pet Ghost Project @ Spike Hill * Williamsburg, Brooklyn
OK, this line up RULES. Miniboone are make big, dramatic pop with manic punk energy. Quiet Loudly are a bit more chill, with a sort of angular take on 60’s psychedelic music. Gunfight! make fun cow punk you can’t not enjoy and Pet Ghost Project do a bunch of stuff that swings between lo-fi pop and post-hardcore noise rock. I wouldn’t normally recommend Spike Hill, but this line up is SICK. [mini myspace] [ql myspace] [gun myspace] [pgp myspace]


Wednesday, June 23

Tortoise @ Le Poisson Rouge * Greenwich Village, Manhattan * $22
Electro kings of experimental music back in the 90’s, Tortoise were an influence on just about every worthwhile post rock band in the last decade or so. Their music draws on ambient, jazz, krautrock and post punk and sounds like no one else. [ myspace]

[Upcoming Shows Playlist]
The long view...

June
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]

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]

Upcoming Shows: Eye and Ear vs. PopFest (The Ultimate Indie Showdown) + more

[Upcoming Shows Playlist]
TOMORROW!!! Friday, May 21

Fuck Buttons @ Music Hall of Williamsburg * Williamsburg, Brooklyn * $16/$18
Fuck Buttons are a wack electronic duo that make highly experimental, loud, droning and pulsing noise. If you like that stuff, these guys are among the best. [myspace]


Saturday, May 22

Pterodactyl @ Cake Shop * LES, Manhattan * $10
High-speed, weightless, LOUD noise rock from some of Brooklyn's best musicians, Pterodactyl make music that's fascinating for your brain and endlessly ecstatic for your heart. They put on a GREAT live show. [myspace]

NYC PopFest: Wake, Boat, My Teenage Stride + more @ Bell House * Gowanus, Brooklyn * $15/$18
Interestingly, NY Eye and Ear Fest and NYC PopFest fall on the same weekend this year, and that's this coming weekend. Eye and Ear focuses on the strange, dark and experimental while PopFest focuses on, well, pop, of the indie variety. Despite having Blank Dogs on Saturday, Eye and Ear's line-up loses to PopFest for the night (they win on Sunday, though - see below). That seems unlikely, but the Wake and Boat are both a rare sight in this town. The Wake recently reformed after fifteen years off. Historically, they're less indie pop and more post punk and even goth. They lasted from the early 80's to the mid-nineties, several lifetimes for most twee projects. And they released music on Factory FUCKING Records. Boat are newer and from Seattle and are among the best indie poppers of this new generation. And then you've got NYC mainstay My Teenage Stride to add some bonus points to the line-up - their shouty indie pop will make you smile, I promise. [Note: Don't look at the PopFest website because that's from 2008.] [wake myspace] [boat myspace] [mts myspace]

New York Dolls @ Warsaw * Greenpoint, Brooklyn * $35
The New York Dolls, along with the Dictators, bridged the gap from sleazy glam rock to punk.

Fuck Buttons @ Le Poisson Rouge * Greenwich Village, Manhattan * $15
See above.


Sunday, May 23

NY Eye & Ear Fest: GDFX, Led Er Est, Freshkills, Hunters + many more @ Knitting Factory * Williamsburg, Brooklyn * $17
Yeah, Eye & Ear beats PopFest on Sunday with a killer line-up including the lovely and dark drones of GDFX, one Greg Fox, an NYC musicians' favorite. Freshkills kick out the JAMZ with nervous, sharp guitar-driven post-punk and some dramatic, melodic vocals. And of course, my personal favorites: for one, the ice cold, pitch black electro of Led Er Est, one of NYC's most promising and underrated bands. [canceled, or I hallucinated their name on the listing] And for two, Hunters, featuring Isabel Ibsen of Beluga and Odell Nails of Mahogany. The sound is much closer to the former - that is, insane punk rawk, but Hunters have more intense musicianship and more complex compositions that Ibsen's other project. Or that's what they were doing back when I heard them ages ago. Oh, and there's a whole lot more bands playing too. [gdfx myspace] [fresh myspace] [led myspace] [hunt myspace]


Tuesday, May 25

Werewolves, Soft Black @ Death By Audio * Williamsburg, Brooklyn
I love Werewolves. They net all the good things psychedelic music has been over the decades, from the Doors to Pink Floyd to Echo & the Bunnymen to My Bloody Valentine, and weave it all together to create something totally fresh and new. Soft Black plays more old school psych rock meets folk/country a la Neil Young and James Taylor (the vocals are definitely more James Taylor). [ww myspace] [sb myspace]

[Upcoming Shows Playlist]
The long view...

May
27
Dan Deacon, Big Trouble, Dustin Wong (Ponytail) @ Cake Shop
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
1
Coltrane Motion @ Bruar Falls

4
Grouper @ Issue Project Room
Psychedelic Furs @ the Fillmore

6
Brian Jonestown Massacre @ Webster Hall

11
Friendo @ Cake Shop

13
Friendo @ Glasslands

15
Dan Deacon @ Red Hook Park

18
Marnie Stern, Anni Rossi @ Glasslands

19
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

29
Passion Pit, Tokyo Police Club @ Prospect Park

30
Passion Pit, Tokyo Police Club @ Governors Island

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: Sleigh Bells + Cults

When: 5/11
Where: Ridgewood Temple

Let's just get this out of the way - M.I.A. was not at the Sleigh Bells concert last night. I take full responsibility, I totally jinxed it by boasting to my friends that I was going to see her. She was never announced, but a big enough deal was made of the promised "secret guests" that it was generally concluded she would make an appearance in one way or another. And for the record, this assumption was not actually incorrect. According to inside sources, M.I.A. was actually the intended "secret guest" but she got sick at the last minute so DJs Shirley Braha (New York Noise) and Peggy Wang (The Pains of Being Pure at Heart) were called in to take her place. I left after Sleigh Bells but there were meant to be other DJs, supposedly including M.I.A.'s assistant. Who is M.I.A.'s assistant? And does she know how to DJ? Weird.

I showed up in time to see Cults play. They are a band with a bunch of dudes with long hair playing instruments and one American Apparel-type hipster girl with long hair singing. I don't know how this band built so much hype on what's only their third show and only a few months into their existence. But however they got to be a buzz item, it wasn't through being a great band. To put it concisely, they sucked.

The band was originally and remains at its core a duo, Brian Oblivion and Madeline Follin. According to an interview with Pitchfork, Follin actually has a punk rock background, which makes the anticourageousness of Cults all the more maddening. The band sounds like 60's girl groups meet 80's indie pop, which is really not the most original or exciting combination, especially these days. The songs are well enough written and arranged but there are no surprises and nothing original. Worst of all was the singing. Now, it's never fair to judge a singer from a single live performance because it's always possible to have a situation where you can't hear yourself well, but this girl was way off key the whole time. I mean, it was painful.

Cults certainly didn't ask for their quick rise to fame and given that they aren't even prepared for that, they can't be prepared for the backlash that's about to start, especially from grumpy bloggers like me. Well, buckle up, kids, cause there's no stopping the hype train.

Sleigh Bells headlined. Now, I found out about M.I.A.'s absence upon arrival but there was no official announcement of her canceling because she was never on the bill in the first place. I expected awkwardness at the end of Sleigh Bells set while the crowd waited for the superstar that would never appear. But I underestimated Sleigh Bells. They blew the crowd away and didn't need any secret guests to make this one of the concerts of the year.

Although Sleigh Bells' rise to fame has been intensely fast, they seemed surprisingly comfortable handling a crowd that probably bordered on four digits. Alexis Krauss seems made for this. She stormed the stage, shaking off her hood, grabbing the mic with both hands and shouting "What's up Brooklyn!" to a cheering room. The band wasted no time, slamming into the opening bars of the opening track on their new album and only allowing the audience one deep breath before launching into each new song.

There were only two problems with the show. The first was that while the Ridgewood Temple is a very hip place for a show, they don't have even a fraction of the sound system it would take to do Sleigh Bells justice. The band did the best with the volume you had and the screaming crowd made up the difference. The second problem is a bit more damning. Not very much of Sleigh Bells' music is actually created live. They just hit play on each track and added guitar and lead vocals. This was first of all robbing the audience of the thrill of seeing the music actually created, and second of all, held the band to pretty much exactly replicating their album rather than branching out. I do wonder if there's more they could do - starting and stopping individual loops instead of the entire mixed track, for example - that would make this seem less like lip syncing. (To be clear, I'm not saying they were lip syncing. Not literally, anyway.)

Anyway, that may sound like a big problem, but this band is so good that even that can overlooked. Hooded and not at all reformed hardcore guitarist Derek Miller layed out shattering guitar while Krauss sang and shouted and screamed (she loves to throw in a good high-pitched scream), sometimes all at the same time. She's a crowd pleaser, squatting at the front of the stage, passing the mic into the audience for the better-known choruses and affectionally grabbing at the outreached hands in the front rows. Then, at the end of the last song, the ultra-awesome "Crown on the Ground," she launched herself into the audience with absolutely no warning. The fans barely caught her, so sudden was her leap, but they hoisted her up and passed her around. She was still out from the stage when the song ended and she was handed back to the front to an explosion of applause.

The band didn't indulge themselves at all, though many young bands in their position would have. They played a relatively short set (with an odd number of non-album tracks) and kept their encore to a single song, "Rill Rill," their answer to M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes." (And no, it's not as good as "Paper Planes" but it's getting there.)

The press presence at the show was insane. I heard folks from places like, say, MTV, were being booted from the guest list in favor of "higher priority" media. (No idea who is higher priority than MTV.) But even the small army of photographers running around on stage right were no distraction. Instead, they added to the feeling that this was something historic. And one look at the crowd could confirm this. Hundreds of hands in the air, hundreds of girls and boys jumping in unison with the floor bowing dangerously under them, strobe lights flashing, beach balls and bodies flying - this is it. Sleigh Bells are the future of music. Score one sick distortion.

Album: Sleigh Bells - Treats

Album: Treats
Mom & Pop, 2010
Rating: ********* (9/10)

What a week for new music! In case you were in a coma during CMJ last fall, Sleigh Bells are a LOUD electronic duo that were the surprise stars of the festival. Their debut album is finally out (today) and it definitely lives up to the hype.

Now, I spend a lot of time lamenting the lack of balls in indie music. And Treats, from the first note, seems to agree. "Tell Em" starts out with explosive hits and nasty, distortion-laden guitar. Alexis Krauss tops the rage with a surprisingly sweet, quick melody, even while amplifiers around her explode.

"Kids" follows, a jolting, static-thick beat and peeling guitars broken by girlish monologues about sunglasses and vacation. "Riot Rhythm" runs along similar lines, while "Infinity Guitars" starts with a rock'n'roll guitar hook and finds vocals more shouted than sung (though still with a certain girlishness) over a bare-bones, slappy beat. It sounds like the Kills - well, if the Kills did a whole lot of crack and then turned their amps up way past eleven. Then, two minutes in, the song suddenly lurches into overdrive with the loudest guitars this side of A Place to Bury Strangers, a sheer atom bomb of sound.

The next few tracks don't quite live up to the strong starters, but hold out to "Rill Rill." A sampled guitar and piano over deep, deliberate beats support Krauss's finest moment on the album. By far the most melodic and, well, prettiest track on the album, "Rill Rill" has the potential to be a left-field hit. The open arrangement allows the vocals to shine and prove that they need no sonic tricks to prop them up.

After the song's closing chime, the in-your-face roar of the rest of the album is back. "Crown on the Ground" opens with sneering guitar, then BAM, a whomping beat with hip-hop smarts threatens to bust your speakers entirely. Here again, Krauss's melody is nothing short of lovely, standing as always in juxtaposition to the ruthless instrumentals. "Straight As" comes on even stronger, with a twisting minor-key guitar riff that borders on metal, switching between gritty crunch and a sheer wave of distortion.

The album ends a little weak on a title track that really doesn't live up to its name. But at this point, if you're not begging for mercy, you don't have your stereo loud enough. Sleigh Bells are here to cause as much hearing damage as possible and I have to say, it's worth it.

But aside from competing with A Place to Bury Strangers and My Bloody Valentine for the Loudest Band Award, Sleigh Bells present something totally fresh. Yes, there are precursors to their sound - Germany's EC8OR comes close - but in the constant contrast between the vocals and the instrumentals, in the strange annihilation of the border between guitar rock and electronica, in the particularities of the distorted, trashed production, Sleigh Bells have got something that's entirely their own. It's about fucking time.

[myspace]

Live: Pissed Jeans

When: 4/9
Where: Knitting Factory

Last year, I got my hands on a copy of the album by Pissed Jeans that came out and I gave it a good old girl scout try. But I just couldn't get into it. It's a lot of shouting and heavy guitar - which I like - but lacking in melodies or unusual rhythms or most of the sort of things keep my attention.

But live, Pissed Jeans is another beast. Still no melody, no cool beats, none of that. But for two big differences - seeing the band and seeing the audience. The band themselves are not too tough looking. In fact, they look like totally normal (if extremely pale) guys - until the music starts.

Vocalist Matt Korvette is the quintessential anti-hero. He may thrash and headbang all hardcore-like, but he also busts out some extremely awkward and ill-fitting dance moves, grotesquely shaking his booty and gyrating, shirt off. Henry Rollins pops off his shirt because he's got scary muscles, but when guys like this do it, it seems almost a self-loathing gesture, inviting ridicule - which isn't to say Korvette is bad-looking, he's just not quite swimsuit model material. More to the point, it's like when you see some animal outside its usual shell or its usual subterranean environment. There's something almost fragile about it.

Although Korvette's unpredictable presence is enough to capture the audience's attention, the rest of the band is also laying it out like they mean it. And they keep it going even when Korvette molests them, even when audience members rush the stage, even when all hell breaks lose in the room. Focused and heavy, they make a (figurative) brick wall at which the vocalist and the audience can (figuratively) hurl themselves.

In the non-figurative world, though, there's plenty of collision going on. This audience came to brutalize their bodies as well as their ears. The mosh pit was good-natured but still scary as they joined in the band's violence and debasement. The bouncer did haul out a fighter or two and a few people seemed eager to really injure others, but there are always a few, huh? Mostly it was just nice kids come to let out some anger and some energy and I can think of few bands with as cathartic a live show as this.

I'm still not sold on the recordings. I respect the band, but I just can't find a thing to grasp. But as a physical experience to share with a roomful of people, this one not to miss. So don't: they play Death By Audio on June 19 and tickets are on sale now.

[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]

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: Drunkdriver + Blues Control

When: 1/9/10
Where: Death By Audio

It was a confusing night for me at Death By Audio, seeing bands I thought I knew and discovering they were not who I thought. First up, Blues Control. This duo uses synthesizers and guitar, but more of the former, which is certainly not what I expect from a band on the lo-fi, "shitgaze" label Siltbreeze. The band clearly has talent but their songs, which have no vocals, didn't really hold my attention - Blues Control's skills lie in sound-making and certainly not in composition. Their image was also off - I don't like when bands dress up all fancypants for gigs, but the baseball cap gave me the feeling the band would rather be home eating potato chips or something than playing a show. Maybe I was the only person to have that reaction, but it certainly threw off my enjoyment of the set.

"Jasper" thought the line-up pick didn't make sense, but I understood it to an extent. Blues Control may not be a guitar-based band or a punk band, but they have a similar aggressive artiness. Unfortunately, the band didn't live up to their potential or their reputation, instead meandering aimlessly through their way-too-long set. [myspace]

Now, I also thought I had seen Drunkdriver earlier this year but when they took the stage, I was pretty sure I'd never seen them before in my life. The three members are much younger than I thought and their music much more straightforward hardcore. Frontman ("singer" is not appropriate) Michael Berdan clearly follows in the tradition of great hardcore vocalists like Henry Rollins. Heavily tatooed, he paced the stage like a caged tiger, yelling "FUCK YOU" to hecklers (and some non-hecklers) and stage diving early and often. The audience seemed to know the routine, shouting insults between songs.


Drunkdriver
(photos from Parts Unknown Records myspace, not from this show)
And while Berdan is definitely the showman of the band, Kristy Greene (guitar) and Jeremy Villalobos (drums) are musicians. Greene's guitar was positively brutal, with sick, weighty riffs that your parents would hate. She and Villalobos locked in tightly, taking cues from noise, math rock, post hardcore and industrial music in their sheer sheet-metal sound and relentless complexity.

I like a band with a vocal melody, so I can't count Drunkdriver as a personal favorite. But they are masters at what they do and put on a classic live show for all your moshing needs. [myspace]

Album: Dinowalrus - %

Album: %
Kanine, 2009
Rating: ******** (8/10)

When I first heard Dinowalrus recorded, I wasn't taken with the music. I didn't understand it and I couldn't digest it. However, after seeing them live, I began to grasp what they're all about. And I decided with their album release this week, it was time for me to give their recordings another go.

From a relatively young band with a name like Dinowalrus, you'd certainly be justified not expecting a particularly mature album. But for a very indie Brooklyn band, Dinowalrus proves with % that they are as grown up as anyone. The record is sophisticated and polished and is certainly a serious and substantial undertaking. This isn't scene, it isn't attitude, it's music. And maybe that sounds obvious in a music review, but it's really not - most bands are at least partially about something other than the music - and there's nothing inherently wrong with that. But if Dinowalrus has another motive, it doesn't show here.

Peter Feigenbaum, Dinowalrus's frontman, told me he doesn't listen a whole lot of to contemporary music, partly "in order to maintain aesthetic sovereignty." And that clearly works for Dinowalrus, because % sounds like no one else. It's dense, spacey psychedelia with deep grooves, raging guitar riffs and a million noises you can't quite identify. The songs are epic and multidimensional but rock hard. Sounds here are clearly a medium, the album a collection of art pieces, but that makes this sound pretentious and burdensome. Instead, it's fun and beautiful and badass, all at the same time.

My main criticism of Dinowalrus in the past has come from a certain amorphousness and I still see that here to some extent. It's not defining of the entire album, but there are certain places where I wonder if a particular chorus or verse might work just as well in a different song. The large components of each song aren't always glued together as well as I'd like.

But on a smaller scale, it would be impossible to fault the band for their arrangements. Each song is a complex mesh of sounds, painstakingly engineered and carefully, dynamically mixed. The songs are at once wild and disciplined, improvisational and meticulously planned.

Though the band's sonic palate is uniquely their own, it sometimes seems to want for breadth - every song is slathered in a similar dark, reverbed haze. However, there is always a trade-off between cohesion and variety and % manages a better balance than most. From the tightly-wound half-kraut, half-punk "Electric Car, Gas Guitar" to the bluesy riff of "Cage Those Pythons" to the warm, dreamy "Haze on the Mobius Strip," the songs create their own rich space for the listener to crawl inside.

It's hard to pick highlights from the album. "BEAD" may be the big hit song (err...) but its psych-funk groove (think ESG, Liquid Liquid or Konk on acid) is matched by the monumental krautrock-influenced anthem "I Hate Numbers." "Nuke Duke 'Em" burns like a fuse to a block of TNT, twisting and turning as it consumes itself.

% is original to its core. Though you can spot plenty of reference points in it, you won't see anything resembling imitation. There is simply no substitute. If you like this, you better get your hands on it because it's one of a kind.

Live: Fiasco + Unstoppable Death Machines

When: 12/18
Where: Death By Audio

Upon entering Death By Audio for the Fiasco show, we were greeted by a delightful sludge-racket called The Unstoppable Death Machines, with a set-up basically equivalent to that of Lightning Bolt (drummer and bassist, effect-laden vocals through mics strapped right on/in the mouth). However, the music isn't so much Lightning Bolt-esque beyond that. Sure, it's heavy and blasted with distortion, but Unstoppable Death Machines rely far less on complexity and speed than their older Rhode Island counterparts. Instead, they base their music off of simple, crushing riffs. That's not to say there isn't a high level of musicianship, but just that these songs would be learnable to most bassists - Lightning Bolt's music, not so much. While not the greatest or most original band on earth, UDM were pretty delicious. They want to rip your face off. [MySpace]

The young Fiasco took the stage next. And "young" is the operative adjective when it comes to this band. Their mistakes are all characteristic of young players, but so is their particular brand of pure enthusiasm and concentration. Musically, the band plays an involved post-hardcore, with little focus on vocals and a whole lot on complex time signatures, technically difficult riffs and DISTORTION.

At times, their music seemed unnecessarily complicated. I've seen young bands do some crazy stuff just because they can. And I like technically sophisticated music, but only if all the time signature changes and high-speed riffing strengthen the songs instead of gumming them up. Fiasco were hit and miss in this regard.

They also made errors in stage presence. First of all, they allowed way too much downtime between songs - I don't know if this was a product of technical difficulties or just poor planning, but they need to work on closing those gaps - if you can't shorten them, fill them up with something, please! Otherwise, all that momentum that builds during the songs - and they are great songs! - gets lost. Second, the band apologized for being underrehearsed and messing up. They were clearly underrehearsed, but apologizing for it just drew attention to it. If you mess up, you just have to own that as part of the show, say "this is how we play, so fuck off." That's much more fun for the audience than being told they spent their time and money to see something subpar.

Jonathan Edelstein and Lucian Buscemi switch on guitar and bass and alternate vocals, and while I enjoy the variety that adds, it did highlight the discrepancy in skill between the two players. When Edelstein played guitar, guitar led the songs. When he played bass, bass led the songs. His vocals were strong and melodic, while Buscemi could only sing whatever note he was playing. Edelstein also had a more engaging stage presence, while Buscemi looked like he might rather hide behind an amp. Musicians in a band certainly don't have to be equal, and sometimes what a particular musician has brought to a band can't be seen on stage. However, I was a bit surprised at the difference and frustrated by Buscemi's many missed opportunities.

Don't get me wrong, the band is great. Their effort and focus on stage is clear and their music is explosive. They just have some growing up to do - and just think how good they'll be when they get there! [MySpace]

What I Missed in 2008

Gearing up for the year-end lists and decade-end lists, here's a list of the albums that should have been in my "Best of 2008" list but weren't.

First off, these should have at least been considered:

• Eat Skull - Sick to Death (Siltbreeze)
  
• Jay Reatard - Matador Singles (Matador)
  
• Parts & Labor - Receivers (Jagjaguar)

Now here's what's most glaringly missing:

4. No Age - Nouns (SubPop)
I had some misconceptions about No Age that caused my brain to subconsciously dislike whatever I heard by them. Then one day last spring, I was listening to Nouns and suddenly I got it. Noise pop/punk at its absolute best.

3. The Mae Shi - HLLLYH (Moshi Moshi)
This one I just totally missed. It's a ballsy noise rock album about bible stories and religion. I like to holler along.

2. TV on the Radio - Dear Science (Interscope)
I think I made up a rule for myself specifically to disqualify this album because I could not properly wrap my brain around it. Turns out the only problem was I was trying to hear it as a rock album. If you need to contextualize music you listen to, this is a tricky one because you have to think of it simultaneously as an indie rock album and as an R&B/soul album. When you do, it makes perfect sense why this album was #1 for so many people. It's stunning.

1. Fucked Up - The Chemistry of Common Life (Matador)
This one also came in totally under my radar. It takes hardcore punk to an entirely new level. It should have been my #1. (Sorry, Marnie!)

The great thing about blogging is that it's never too late to fix your mistakes! Lots more lists coming up soon!