Live: Ringo Deathstarr, Heaven, Dead Leaf Echo

When: July 3
Where: Shea Stadium

How do I get so far behind on these?!

So some shoegaze bands played a show.  The Vandelles played first which is weird because they never play first and are far too good to play first.  So anyway, I missed their set as did most people.  LAME.  Anyway, some of their badassery was captured on video, which is cool but may make you (me) regret missing it all the more.

The next band to play was called Heaven.  They're a sort of obscure shoegaze supergroup with a member of Ambulance Ltd and one from the Big Sleep/Snowden.  Someone was telling me they had a member of Swervedriver, but I don't think that's true.  It does look like two members played on Swervedriver's Adam Franklin's solo record so that's probably the origin of that story.  One of them has also played with Dean & Britta (of Galaxie 500/Luna) so basically, what this means is that in their niche genre, they're about as pedigree as you can git.

They're newish and they were pretty good.  Interestingly, they were by far their best when they were doing more ambient, hazy muzak than when they tried to get all songy.  And this is coming from someone who has absolutely no patience with that wishy washy stuff.  Which means two things: 1) they were really good at that wishy washy stuff and 2) they were really not great at more beat+plus+melody, faster paced songs.

At their subtler moments, though, the band was transcendent.  Really spiritual stuff.  Which is why I started like shoegaze in the first place (well, that and it's loud).  It was in these moments when the not-very-groove-centric drummer was at his best, laying down massive slabs o' drum.  Likewise, the vocals shined in these not-trying-to-be-catchy moments - there was something very genuine and natural about them.  [video]

I wrote up Dead Leaf Echo pretty recently and I don't really have anything to add.  It's just nice to finally see all their pieces fall into place.  By the way, if you were wondering where the awesome bass was coming from (as the people behind me during the set were), the band is sans bassist, but their stuff sounds way better than your average prerecorded bass line.  That's because they stacked several layers of properly studio-recorded bass on the track.  Then, they routed the recording through a proper bass amp in addition to the PA.  Which is freaking brilliant.  It was, in fact, the best prerecorded bass I think I've ever heard.  [video]

Of course, all of the bands were just building up to Austin-based shoegaze gods Ringo Deathstarr.  This band makes me swoon.  Their guitar can obliterate your speakers and ear drums.  (In the best possible way.)  This rich guitar, full of phantom melodies and shifting pitches, is straight out of Loveless, but the vocals are more tuneful that My Bloody Valentine's, a lot closer to the good old pop tunes of the Jesus & Mary Chain (who ripped them off the Beach Boys, but that's neither here nor there).

"Jasper" once asked an Austin shoegazer of his acquaintance about the band and was informed that everyone in Austin thought they were a joke and "that girl doesn't even play an instrument" or something like that.  If that was ever true, the joke's now on him.  "That girl," bassist Alex Gehring, is sick.  She's an absolutely great bassist - her lines simultaneously groove deeply and punch you in the chest.  As is typical in the genre, the bass carries a lot of melody while the guitar becomes sheer roar.  Meanwhile, electro/dance-derived icy beats from drummer Daniel Coburn make the whole thing sound a lot like "Soon" (you know, that last song on Loveless that's everyone's favorite MBV song ever).

But what's really great about Ringo Deathstarr isn't that they write amazing songs and get mindblowing sounds out of their instruments.  It's that they're genuinely insane.  Cracked.  Unhinged.  Pure batshit out of their mind nuts.  Which is what made this one of the most punk rock shoegaze shows of all time.  I mean, first of all, in direct defiance of the name of the genre, guitarist Elliot Frazier at several points leapt into the audience midsong.  Then at some point, they invited a bunch of people up on stage (primarily from the previous bands) and somehow things devolved such that both the guitar and drums had been seized by people who weren't in the band at all and the music fell apart in chaos.  But that's not the insane part.  The insane part is that after the song finally stopped breathing, Gehrig insisted that her two bandmates return to their instruments to finish the song (which had veered in the direction of crazytown before its as-recorded coda).  Coburn, I believe, thought the set was over and had gone to the bathroom so the band announced that they would wait (and therefore all of us would wait) for the drummer to return to the stage.  So everyone stood around awkwardly for a few minutes, and then Coburn showed up and they immediately launched into the song where they'd left off.  For about twenty seconds, until the song was over.

I mean, who does that?  Only a true genius.  And only by accident.  It was, obviously, one of the best endings to a show I've ever seen.  And I've seen a lot.  [video]....[more video]

Album + Live: Her Vanished Grace

Album: See the Moon
Athame Music, 2011
Rating: ******* (7/10)

I've more or less retired from reviewing local shoegaze and shoegaze-affiliated bands for a number of reasons, but against my better judgment, I'm temporarily suspending the moratorium to do a couple of reviews.

First against the wall is Her Vanished Grace, who are not really a shoegaze band but are a part of that scene. Their music is dream pop - a style that takes the processed layers of shoegaze but tones them down enough to make audible their concisely-written indieish pop tunes. At times, HVG sounds more like U2 than they do My Bloody Valentine.

Her Vanished Grace have been making music in NYC for about twenty years now. The core of the band are married couple Nance and Charlie Nieland who both play guitar and trade lead vocal roles. For quite a while now, the duo has been joined by a rhythm section of Maria Theodosiadou (bass) and Billy Loose (drums). The quartet cranks out a new album every year or two and despite the volume of output (it adds up after this many years), the quality of the band's LPs is impressively consistent.

There is a parallel consistency between the tracks of their latest release, See the Moon. None of the record's eleven tracks sound like filler; each seems to have been given the same level of attention. Rather than looking for a way to fill up 45 minutes, the band seems to have waited until they had 45 minutes of material, then released their record.

Just because the songs are given equal attention doesn't mean they are equally successful. There are some standout moments, like the second track, "Passenger," and the album's lush centerpiece "Beauty Lingers." There are some awesome bass lines ("Make It Lighter" is the best example of many) and strong melodies and drumming throughout.

If you have low tolerance for sappy pop cliches, there are plenty of points where this album will put you off, but that's the nature of the genre. The album is genuine and for music so "dreamy," it's strikingly down-to-earth. Although the sound is beautiful, the transitions can be charmingly un-smooth, a reminder that this band is indeed just regular folk in a modest Brooklyn studio, great soundsmiths and great songwriters but neither aloof nor pretentious. Even the processing on some of the vocals and all of the guitars reminds us of the music's humanity even as it gives aural polish.

Live
When: May 19
Where: Pianos

I love seeing HVG live mainly because the band loves playing live. Many bands are so mired in ambition, whether it be for major label deals or hipster cred or artistic revolution, that they seem to forget why most of us got into playing in the first place - it's fun. But every time they take the stage, HVG seem delighted just to play their songs for their friends and whoever happens to want to listen . That's not to say the band is without ambition - but whatever hopes they may have for their music, they enjoy the moment for what it is.

On stage, Charlie and Nance are one of those adorable couples that seems to still really, really like each other even though they've been together quite a while as bandmates and spouses, stealing admiring glances at each other across the stage. Meanwhile, unassuming badass Theodosiadou rocks out over on stage left, her face seldom visible from behind a curtain of hair. And Loose manages to find a technique that's surprisingly interesting for an oppressively mid-tempo, 4/4 genre, filling the sound with swelling fills and crashing cymbals without once overplaying.

HVG aren't out to shatter preconceived notions about art. They aren't out to be cooler than you or to get rich. They're day-job types who have spent years making music they love. And their sincerity (and no small amount of talent) makes them a refreshing, compelling and relevant band that will outlast trend and whim alike.

I also want to make a quick note about the other band I saw at Pianos on Thursday, one Dead Leaf Echo who, unlike HVG, are pretty clearly a shoegaze band. I shouldn't review them - after all, I quit reviewing shoegaze bands for a lot of reasons. Not the least of these reasons was that my general philosophy of supporting bands and scenes through criticism seemed to be in direct conflict with a prevalent attitude shoegaze circles which sees criticism (even its positive elements) as counterproductive and antithetical to the creation of music. There's validity in both viewpoints and not any chance of coming to a compromise, so I thought it best to bow out. (The other reason I stopped writing about shoegaze is that my own tastes shifted, but I never stopped loving the genre even as I came to love other styles more.)

So, allow me to keep this note very brief. To avoid any confusion, this is a positive review. The last time I reviewed DLE was ages ago and I panned them pretty severely for a lack of songwriting and momentum. But based on the show Thursday, it's a totally different story now. It was never in question that DLE could create beautiful layers of sound, but in their latest songs, they've sculpted those layers into exciting songs full of energy and momentum. It's not a matter of conforming to conventional pop structures, it's just a matter of crafting a musical arc instead of a stagnant pool of sound. And DLE have honed this skill in recent years. Their new material still has moments of sound collage, as it should, but they don't overstay their welcome, and there are moments where the band truly rocks a la kindred neo-psychedelics BRMC and A Place to Bury Strangers.

The band has forgone a live bassist and shockingly, doesn't seem to suffer one bit from the shift to prerecorded b-lines. Frontman Lloyd Galyon is now joined by Ana Breton (formerly of Mahogany) and Christo Buffam (of the Vandelles), both of whom complement Galyon's scintillating 12-string ambiance, Breton with thick, dreamy textures and Buffam with sheets of white noise. The greater contrast in textures actually makes the music more coherent - and more memorable - than ever before. Galyon's obvious talent for soundmaking is finally articulated in these new songs and lives up to its potential at last. Whether that's the new band members, personal evolution as a musician or most likely a combination of the two, DLE are out of a rut and on a roll. Check out their new EP, Verisimilitude, out now.

Live: Her Vanished Grace, 28 Degrees Taurus, The Soundscapes, Dead Leaf Echo

When: 12/19
Where: Vanishing Point

Her Vanished Grace - I've seen Her Vanished Grace before and I was a little nervous to see them at Vanishing Point. They are a great band, with excellent poppy songwriting and a nice noisy sound, but when I've heard them in the past, I noticed serious pitch issues when they can't hear one another properly. But this time, despite muddy acoustics, things went well. There were a few pitch issues, but for the most part, both singers (married pair Charlie and Nance Nieland) were right on. The set included some new tunes and a lot of old favorites, and the band delivered them with their usual enthusiasm.

In a world of shoegaze revivalists, it's important to remember that HVG put out their first album in 1991, making them a first-generation band. Since that time, they've had a steady low-profile career churning out a solid shoegazey pop album every year or so and playing great shows to a small but loyal fan base around the city.

And if you catch them live, you'll see why their fans brave blizzards and monsoons to make it to every show. Nance has a way of possessing the stage, the air of a professional frontwoman who knows exactly what she's doing. As a whole, the band strikes a perfect balance between the comfortable attitude of seasoned performers and the lovable excitement of a local indie band playing for a room full of friends. It's a pleasure to watch, and of course, a pleasure to hear.

Dead Leaf Echo - A five-piece shoegaze band that's been a staple in the Brooklyn shoegaze scene for a number of years, Dead Leaf Echo was by far the most disappointing act of the night - and I'm sorry to report these problems are not specific to this show.

As I see it, one can essentially critique music on two basic points. The first is the band's sound, and here, DLE does well enough. Their walls of sound are genuinely complex and interesting, and the parts blend together well. The second (and more important) element, however, is the music's momentum. This is in the songwriting but on a smaller scale, it's also in melodies, chord progressions, dynamic contrast and so on. These are the forces that drive music forward. And here, DLE fails. Their melodies are virtually non-existent, with uninteresting, wandering vocal lines and no guitar riffs to speak of. Their chord progressions don't have any of the really driving elements like suspension, dissonance or cadences that draw in the audience through the anticipation of resolution. Moreover, their songwriting is incoherent. The only thing I can say is that DLE does use dynamic contrast well, but that alone isn't enough to move the music forward or make it engaging.


Dead Leaf Echo
Interestingly, this weekend lead singer LG was ill and unable to sing most of the show, so bassist Mike DiLalla picked up the slack. DiLalla did such an admirable job delivering the songs on short notice that I thought the vocal switch had been planned and was permanent. And it would have been a good thing - the band might want to consider letting DiLalla sing more often in the future. He seems more melodically-inclined than LG and clearly has talent the band has yet to tap.

The Soundscapes - Who doesn't love the Soundscapes? Brooklyn-based brothers of Brazilian extraction, the Soundscapes could win audiences on their good looks alone, but they don't need to because they are also exceptionally gifted musicians. Their music is basically what it would sound like if Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore joined Yo La Tengo. Their noisy lo-fi pop has consistently excellent melodies, outstanding songwriting and beautiful moments of noise and dissonance. Their tunes are catchy but interesting, their music is loud but accessible and their live show is massively fun. Guitarist and singer Rodrigo Carvalho jumps up and down, swings his guitar around and genuinely loves every second, while brother Raphael Carvalho plays the drums with such speed and precision, you know he could out-drum most of us with one hand.


The Soundscapes
Most impressively, the Soundscapes have always sounded like much more than a duo. I've heard many four- and five-piece bands who didn't have the fullness and complexity of the Soundscapes. And since the summer, it seems they've turned their amps up even louder and started rocking even harder. They also played some material I haven't heard before and I was interested to hear that it is moving different, more rock'n'roll direction. I thought this band might fall into a rut, but from what I heard, they have it in them not only to keep playing great music, but to keep learning and growing as musicians and songwriters. Keep an eye on these two.

28 Degrees Taurus - I've been throwing the term "no-gaze" around a bit lately and 28 Degrees Taurus is another that fits it well. It's hard to describe their music - it's a shoegazey, guitar-heavy mess with rapid-fire drumming in the spirit of MBV's Colm O'Cosig. But over this, it has engaging, floating melodies and an air of rich mystery that pulls you in deep. The band keeps everything just a little off-kilter in terms of melodies, harmonies and rhythms, but they don't overdo it - the music is listenable but strange and can certainly hold attention.

The band is fun live, all delivering their parts with passion and skill. Though they ended up pausing too long between songs, they managed to keep the audience engaged through half-coherent dialogs and jokes. The members are both true musicians and true performers and I can't recommend them enough.