Upcoming Shows: Mission of Burma, Les Savy Fav + more

Tonight!!! Wednesday, January 27

El Medio @ Bruar Falls | Williamsburg, Brooklyn | $5
El Medio are an awesome lo-fi pop band who hardly ever play live, so go see this. They are sad and restrained and their songs are truly beautiful. [myspace]

Benefit for Haiti: The Walkmen, Ted Leo, Cold War Kids, the Wrens, Here We Go Magic, A.C. Newman, Rhett Miller, Freelance Whales (YUCK), Jimmy Fallon @ Bell House | Gowanus, Brooklyn | SOLD OUT!
This is some line-up! And for a good cause too - no wonder it's sold out. If you can make it, make it. But skip Freelance Whales. I first became aware of Freelance Whales this fall when I was on a subway car with them and eavesdropped long enough to find out their name. Even if the name weren't so stupid, though, I knew the music would be awful just from sitting near them on a train. Imagine my surprise when a few months later, their name started popping up all over the place! And everything we've learned from the blogger buzz deepens my disapproval of their existence. I don't even need to listen to them to know they suck. But anyway, I digress...the rest of this line-up is amazing. You should go.


Tomorrow!!! Thursday, January 28

Mattress, Weird Fantasy Band @ Shea Stadium | Bushwick, Brooklyn | $7
Mattress is a punk band from the New Brunswick scene, which means true, down-to-earth, old-school DIY American hardcore punk. Weird Fantasy Band is kinda the same thing - it seems to be one man backed by a variable collective out of that scene. I haven't enjoyed WFB's music all that much, but "Jasper" says they are amazing live. [mattress myspace] [wfb myspace]


Friday, January 29

Sounds Like Brooklyn: Les Savy Fav + Vivian Girls @ Brooklyn Academy of Music | Fort Greene, Brooklyn | $20-25
Les Savy Fav are one of the hardcore bands fronted a bald, bearded fat dude who strips to his underwear. They aren't the best of such bands, but might come in a respectable second. One of the Vivian Girls just e-mailed me and asked me why I keep taking cheap shots at her band. I take cheap shots because I don't think they are worth the hype and I find them boring. And boring music to me is like waterboarding to most people. But they have improved significantly over the last year and I'm warming up to them ever so slowly. So, I dunno what to say. They mostly still suck, but at least they are better than the Freelance fuckin Whales. [lsf myspace] [vg myspace]

Oneida @ Market Hotel | Bushwick, Brooklyn | $10
I like Oneida's older stuff better and they've changed a lot over the years, but they basically play pretty heavy music that jerks like metal, smiles like punk, bristles like industrial and most of all, breaks your head like krautrock, looping and trancing the hell out. So yeah, it's interesting. [myspace]

Mission of Burma @ Bowery Ballroom | LES, Manhattan | $20
Mission of Fucking Burma, folks. They were one of the first of the second generation of American punk bands, but their music was a bit slower and a lot more complex than the rest of the hardcore crowd - they brought musical sophistication back to punk. And they are still awesome. Go see them Saturday, though, because there are too many other shows going on Friday.

PC Worship @ Glasslands | Williamsburg, Brooklyn | $7
PC Worship is amazing lo-fi avant-rock with noise experiments and sadness. But there's too much else going on for me to recommend this show, especially since the rest of the line-up sucks. They are a Brooklyn band, so you'll get another chance. [myspace]

Drunkdriver @ Union Pool | Williamsburg, Brooklyn
One of NYC's most hateful hardcore bands, Drunkdriver put on an unforgettable live show. They seem like really nice people, but would definitely freak your parents out. [myspace]


Saturday, January 30

Mission of Burma @ Bowery Ballroom | LES, Manhattan | $20
See above.

Sisters, Fluffy Lumbers, Total Slacker @ Shea Stadium | Bushwick, Brooklyn | $7
Sisters are the BOMB. Among noise-punk/noise-pop duos, they are easily one of the best. See them now before they go the way of No Age and Japandroids and start playing fewer and bigger spaces. Fluffy Lumbers and Total Slacker are all the rage. I haven't listened yet, but they are probably worth at least checking out. [sisters myspace] [fl myspace] [ts myspace]

PC Worship @ Market Hotel | Bushwick, Brooklyn
See above.

Dinowalrus + Javelin @ House of Yes! | Bushwick, Brooklyn | $10
I've never heard of this place before, but my guys Dinowalrus are playing there Saturday, so if for some reason you skip the above shows, consider this one. Dinowalrus play art. Like Sonic Youth, but only in spirit. Javelin plays throw-away post-disco dance-pop, but I gotta admit, their whole amplification by radio broadcast (BYOB, bring your own boombox) is pretty cool. [dinowalrus myspace] [javelin myspace]


And then there are like no shows worth mentioning for several days...weird...

Upcoming Shows: Coin Under Tongue, Agent Orange, Beluga + more

[Upcoming Shows Playlist]

TONIGHT!!! Wednesday, January 6

Babies (mems. Woods, Vivian Girls), True Womanhood, Sundelles, Beach Fossils, Total Slacker @ Glasslands | Williamsburg, Brooklyn
I haven't heard Babies, they might be good or they might be awful. I have heard True Womanhood and the Sundelles and they are both great! True Womanhood play eerie, disorienting rock and the Sundelles play garage rock. Beach Fossils are okay and Total Slacker has been a buzz band lately, so all in all, it's a pretty sick line-up.
[Babies MySpace] [TW MySpace] [Sundelles MySpace] [BF MySpace] [TS MySpace]


TOMORROW!!! Thursday, January 7

Coin Under Tongue @ Death By Audio | Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Coin Under Tongue play sludgy, deliberate post-hardcore with a certain intangible indie pop sensibility.

Japanther @ Santos Party House | Chinatown, Manhattan
Japanther are an arty pop-punk duo with GREAT songs.
[MySpace]


Friday, January 8

Ex-Humans @ Don Pedro | Bushwick, Brooklyn
Don Pedro is a lousy place to hear bands - its stuffy and has poor sound. On the other hand, Ex-Humans are cooler than you and they make good punky music.
[MySpace]


Saturday, January 9

Drunkdriver + Blues Control @ Death By Audio | Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Drunkdriver are loud and not very friendly. Their noise/hardcore/punk is extreme and amazing. Check them out.
[MySpace]


Sunday, January 10

Agent Orange @ Mercury Lounge | LES, Manhattan | $10 adv. / $12 dos.
Original southern California hardcore, still at it.
[MySpace]


Tuesday, January 12

Beluga @ Cameo | Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Beluga are lady punks (and one guy). The singer is a Brazilian (ex-?) fashion model who screams and writhes on the floor. They are one of the best and most underrated bands in NYC. They are angry but also fun and their simple, Nirvana-influenced songs stick in your brain.
[MySpace]


[Upcoming Shows Playlist]
The long view...

January 2010
13
The Drums + Surfer Blood, Depreciation Guild @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

14
Coyote Eyes, Frozen Warnings @ Death By Audio

15
Gang Gang Dance, DJ/Rupture @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

16
Dinosaur Jr @ Bowery Ballroom (Sold Out)
Dinowalrus record release with Aa @ Cake Shop

17
Dinosaur Jr @ Music Hall of Williamsburg (Sold Out)
Mos Def @ Highline Ballroom

18
Dinosaur Jr @ Brooklyn Bowl

22
Bob Mould @ City Winery

23
Pterodactyl @ Issue Project Room

25
Cheap Trick @ The Fillmore

29
Asobi Seksu @ Le Poissson Rouge
Here We Go Magic @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
Mission of Burma @ Bowery Ballroom
Sounds Like Brooklyn: Les Savy Fav, Vivian Girls (yick) @ Brooklyn Academy of Music

30
Mission of Burma @ Bowery Ballroom

February
3
Atlas Sound @ Bell House

4
Atlas Sound, Neon Indian, Sisters @ NYU Kimmel
Cold Cave @ Mercury Lounge

5
Sounds Like Brooklyn: Ra Ra Riot, the Antlers @ Brooklyn Academy of Music

6
Don Giovanni showcase: Shellshag, Screaming Females, Jeff the Brotherhood + more @ Bowery Ballroom

9
The Residents @ Webster Hall

10
Harlem @ Mercury Lounge

12
Jonathan Richman @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

13
Jonathan Richman @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
The Magnetic Fields @ Brooklyn Academy of Music

14
Jonathan Richman @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

19
Fucked Up, Kurt Vile, Frankie Rose & the Outs @ Europa
Andrew W-K @ Santos Party House

20
Crystal Stilts, Beets, Beach Fossils, German Measles @ Music Hall of Williamsubrg

21
Dum Dum Girls, Frankie Rose & the Outs @ Mercury Lounge

26
Wild Beasts @ Bowery Ballroom

27
Glenn Branca record release @ Le Poisson Rouge

28
Wild Beasts @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

March
5
Muse, the Silversun Pickups @ Madison Square Garden

6
Titus Andronicus @ Bowery Ballroom

10-11
The Magnetic Fields @ Town Hall

12-13
Henry Rollins @ The Fillmore

18-19
Killswitch Engage @ The Fillmore

25
Nada Surf play Let Go + surprise guest @ Bowery Ballroom

26
Nada Surf play The Weight Is a Gift + surprise guest @ Bell House

27
Nada Surf play Lucky + surprise guest @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

[Upcoming Shows Playlist]

Live: Fucked Up + Titus Andronicus

When: November 5
Where: Brooklyn Masonic Temple

This is gonna be a long one...

Last night, I headed out to Fort Greene to hear experimental hardcore band Fucked Up perform their already-classic 2008 album The Chemistry of Common Life. I got to the venue just in time to catch the first notes of the opening set by Titus Andronicus, the band that restored my faith in punk a year ago.

But things have changed a lot for this band in the space of a year. They've been frequently hailed as one of the best hardcore bands of this generation, they've got some snazzy invites to play with rad bands (like Jesus Lizard and Bad Brains at the private Vice party on Halloween). They've toured extensively and saw their killer 2008 album The Airing of Grievances rereleased on XL records, part of the indie behemoth Beggars Group. They've also changed their line-up. The two guitarists I last saw them with are both gone, replaced by "indie heartthrob" Pete Feigenbaum.*

Being down one guitarist kept frontman Patrick Stickles tied to his guitar, curbing some of his previous antics and eliminating the harmonica from the set. However, I think it's a net positive - the band sounds more focused than ever before. The band's recent success also apparently afforded them enough for haircuts and a visit to the laundromat, maybe even for new t-shirts entirely. That sounds awfully snarky, but I love a good hardcore band no matter how dirty or clean their clothes, how scraggy or tidy their hair. It gave the show a slightly different feel from Titus shows I've been to in the past, not better or worse, just different.

Fitting with their slightly cleaned-up appearance, Titus Andronicus have polished up their sound. Don't think that takes off the edge, though. They are loud and fast and make me want to move to Ireland and go to a pub with people I will come to call "the lads" every night just so that we can stumble home shouting drunken renditions of every Titus Andronicus song we know. But Titus Andronicus has always been a technically sophisticated band and now their guitar-work can really shine. They've rearranged their songs to include some enormous, glittering walls of sound, some stunning embellishing riffs and some crazy, crazy noise. They are more loud and cool and fun than ever. [MySpace]

And then the headliner, the enigmatic Fucked Up, who are living proof that you can't judge a book (punk band) by its cover (appearance). There are six people in Fucked Up. The two of the left side of the stage are clean-cut young men that look like the guys your parents wish you brought home to meet them. The three on the right are slightly more unkempt, but they definitely look more like kids you'd expect to see working in your college library than ones you expect to run into at a seedy hardcore show. Meanwhile, the frontman is a heavy-set, bald, bearded guy who came out on stage last night in baggy athletic shorts, a big t-shirt and a baseball cap askew on his head. Even knowing the band, I half expected him to start rapping on the spot.

But this is neither nice-boy rock nor quirky indie, and it's certainly not gangsta rap. It's one of the most innovative, most confrontational hardcore bands on earth. Starting with the name, Fucked Up are in your face. They've generated a myriad of rumours about themselves, don't keep a myspace page (though fans keep a detailed one including concert dates) and don't really give a fuck what people think or say - they did little, for example, to quell rumours that they had an underhanded neo-Nazi message. (They don't.)

Calling Fucked Up a "hardcore" band can be a little misleading, however. With three guitarists, along with bass and drums, and songs on average clocking in well past the three-minute mark, their music has a complexity that seems the antithesis of punk. On recordings, they literally layer dozens of guitar tracks. Still, their music has the fast-loud punch of hardcore, the same thrash-style shouting vocals and the same "fuck off" attitude. Fucked Up are without a doubt a hardcore punk band, they've just redefined what that means.

But for all their aggression, Fucked Up is one of the most loving, lovely bands I've ever seen. Their music inspires such a sense of camaraderie that it inspires hundreds of attention-starved teenagers to take turns jumping on stage to hug or attack a band member, shout into a microphone or bang a cymbal (or in this case, gong). Now, if it were me, I'd lose my temper quickly and send the kids home with notes to their parents begging them to take some time out to spend with the lonely youths. But Fucked Up is bigger than me, and even when someone acts particularly inappropriately, they make the best of it, grabbing the offending kid to shout in the microphone for a few lines before hurling them good-naturedly back into the crowd. Meanwhile, frontman Pink Eyes is up front handing the microphone around, grabbing kids for high-fives, hugs, kisses and affectionate rough-housing.


Fucked Up
All evening, the crowd, though moshing and dancing wildly, seemed uninterested in helping crowd-surfers, so one kid after another bellyflopped off the stage onto the floor below. And not long after I thought to myself, "at least this band has a frontperson who can't stage dive" (I mentioned he's a heavy dude), Pink Eyes himself took the plunge. Even if the audience had been supporting people, I'm not sure they could have handled his mass and he dropped straight to the floor. After a bit of crawling and thrashing around, he climbed back on stage. "Thanks for catching me, guys," he said. "Real cool." He flashed a big thumbs-down and then chided the crowd, telling us that "little kids" in China had once carried him. Personally, I'd like to see some photographic evidence of this alleged occurrence.

Performing much of the material from their outstanding album The Chemistry of Common Life, the band brought special guests Andrew W-K, the Vivian Girls and singer Katie Stelmanis on stage. Though the Vivian Girls enraged me by unprofessionally peering out from behind the curtains at the wings when not on stage, I have to admit, I really liked their performance. This is definitely the first time I've said something positive about the band, and grudgingly so, but I gotta hand it to them - fingers jammed in their ears, they sang mostly the right notes (not an easy task in all that noise) and the songs they performed were definitely among my favorites in the set. Equally surprisingly, I highly disliked Andrew W-K's part in the set. The one guest who did not actually play on the album, his keyboard synth parts sounded clinky and didn't blend. I respect him immensely as a musician and maybe it was just bad mixing from the sound engineer, but I found him nothing more than distraction.

Watching kids go wild for the band, it dawned on me how powerful this band is. Just by their very existence, by the fact that they don't get outlandish haircuts and clothes, by the fact that they vary from wiry to overweight (and the overweight one ends the show nearly naked), by having a girl in the band who's there for musicianship and not at all for sex-appeal, Fucked Up are the essence of punk at its best - a refuge for anyone who has ever felt out of place in the mainstream. "Come as you are," a great punk band once said.

But it's more than that. These guys don't look like punks. They also all have stage names. Rumour or truth, part of the Fucked Up legend is that the band adopted these names to hide their association with the band from employers, colleagues and maybe even certain relatives. Fucked Up is the Superman of punk rock. Like Clark Kent, they could be some guy in the next cubicle over, some girl you run into at the grocery store, or even little ol' you. They're the everyman as rock hero. Punk is way more than a musical style, it's a powerful identity and an underground community that's served as a family to outcasts and freaks for decades. Just because we might not see a lot of mohawks and safety-pins when we walk down the street, doesn't mean we're alone. Punk isn't dead. It's as vibrant and strong as ever. And it's all over the place, if you know where to look. [MySpace (fan site)]


*I found Pitchfork's Dinowalrus review extremely amusing. That fact that Pitchfork's Ryan Dombal - a fan of people like Bon Iver, Dirty Projectors and St. Vincent - didn't care for them is probably a stronger recommendation than any I could offer. Dinowalrus fucking ROCKS.

Upcoming Shows: Fucked Up, Werewolves, Coyote Eyes + more

[Upcoming Shows Playlist]
Thursday, November 5

Fucked Up + Titus Andronicus @ Brooklyn Masonic Temple | Fort Greene, Brooklyn | $18
Hardcore band Fucked Up is performing their acclaimed album Chemistry of Common Life in its entirety. The bad news is that Vivian Girls (!!??) are singing back-up vocals and it costs $18. On the other hand, Titus Andronicus will be opening with their excellent less thrash/metal form of hardcore. [FU MySpace] [TA MySpace]


Friday, November 6

Girls + Real Estate | Bowery Ballroom | SOLD OUT!
I have mixed feelings about Girls, who have recently been determined to be the shit. The band's backstory is such that if I harsh on them, I'm afraid it will look like I'm in favor of creepy cults and against smiles. (In fact, I am against both cults and smiles.) But let's face it, Girls is anti-edgy, Beach Boys-inspired pop. And the lyrics are some of the most blatant, unoriginal attempts to get laid in the history of rock. From the words, we learn that Christopher Owens is a really nice guy who wants to innocently love and be friends with girls and smile and make the best of his terrible life, but he's just heartbroken and lonely. I'm mean, come on!!! (Note: if we discounted all music that was created for the purpose of the musician getting laid, we'd be without 98.5% of music, but at least you don't have to be so obvious and uncreative about it.) On the other hand, his voice is really interesting, not quirky at all but not like anyone else's, awkward but very rich and full. And the melodies and songwriting are unarguably Great - with a capital G. [MySpace]


Sunday, November 8

Werewolves, Coyote Eyes + Mary Onettes @ Mercury Lounge | LES, Manhattan | $10
It's no secret that my favorite two canine-related bands in New York City are Werewolves and Coyote Eyes. Werewolves play an amazing blend of psychedelic music, drawing from the Doors, My Bloody Valentine and everything in between for great melodies and thick, druggy noise. Coyote Eyes play rhythmically fascinating post-punk with unusual and entirely lovable melodies. Headlining are 80's-esque Swedes the Mary Onettes, who I've heard live before and can say are decent but nothing super special. [WW MySpace] [CE MySpace] [MO MySpace]

[Upcoming Shows Playlist]

Album: Vivian Girls - Everything Goes Wrong

Album: Everything Goes Wrong
In the Red, 2009
Rating: **** (4/10)

Shockingly, the new Vivian Girls album, out today, doesn't quite live up to its name, "Everything Goes Wrong." Several things go right, though not quite enough to push this album past a 4/10 score.

In general, Everything Goes Wrong follows very much in the minimalist vein of the band's earlier releases - distorted guitar played poorly, basic 4/4 beats and wannabe-endearing off-key melodies. However, simply by virtue of having to play a lot since their bizarrely ungrounded success last year, the Vivian Girls have got some much needed practice and have improved astronomically. They've started occasionally writing melodies with more than three notes and they even have a couple of real riffs!

The best song on the album is, far and away, "Double Vision," which features a simple but solid riff and a damn decent melody. Though the song does wear on significantly longer than it should, it actually doesn't grow completely stale - it picks up a bit near the end and thus propels itself forward. "The End" and "Before I Start to Cry" also have reasonable melodies and enough going on to maintain interest.

A number of other songs are more disappointing. "Desert" starts with a riff that sounds like, well, the first riff you might come up with when plunking around, possibly while watching TV - in other words, it doesn't seem to have had a lot of thought put into it. Then, the seong seems to redeem itself with a enticing vocal melody in the verse, only to launch into an unlistenable chorus a minute later.

As within this song, within the album as a whole, for every good moment, there are two rotten ones. Songs like "When I'm Gone" and "You're My Guy" feature melodies that make me want to jump in front of traffic to avoid ever hearing again. Despite ranging from tolerable to nauseous, the songs all basically sound the same and after listening to several in a row, I can feel my brain cells dying.

Of course, the lyrics are worst of all. Whether or not it's part of the band's highly affected aesthetic, writing lines that sound like the musings of a particularly not-bright fifteen-year-old is not excusable. It's best to try to tune the words out, or, as with nails on a chalkboard, best not to get within earshot in the first place.

Kudos to the Vivian Girls for putting out an album that has a several listenable tracks. Keep working and you'll be slightly above average before you know it! (And the funny thing is, I don't mean that nearly as meanly as it sounds.)

[MySpace]

Live: Lightning Bolt + Teeth Mountain

When: 8/31
Where: Broadway Backyard, Bushwick

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

Live: Woodsist Festival Recap (Day 2)

The second day of the Woodsist/Captured Tracks festival was moved outside to its originally-intended venue, a vacant lot down the block from Market Hotel, just under the train tracks. And despite the trains rumbling by overhead and the echos off the buildings, the space was great acoustically and aesthetically.

I arrived later than I'd planned to and missed Brilliant Colors, who I heard were outstanding. I'm really bummed about that, since they live way over the West Coast and there's no telling when they'll be back.

I did arrive in time for the Fresh & Onlys, a band whose name I've heard around a lot lately. I was disappointed - their music was generic and unmemorable, just your typical semi-sedated lo-fi punk with listenable but not catchy melodies and unchanging, standard guitar-drum-bass arrangements. There was a synth/sampler but it was often hard to pick out of the sound, since it often played exactly the same part as the guitar and bass. Yaaawn. [MySpace]

One thought that crossed my mind while watching the Fresh & Onlys: at least in the 90's, we let the girls play bass. Now, I understand that sometimes you want a female vocalist or find one who is good and the rest of the people in the band happen to be guys, and that's fine. But in this scene (beyond the scope of this festival) women are disproportionately relegated to backup or co-lead vocals and tambourine, and they're often not even good at that. It may not be anyone's fault, but it's still a bad sign that girls aren't encouraged to pick up instruments or aren't encouraged to join bands. Something is wrong.

Next up were Dum Dum Girls, who at first glance may appear to fall in that same troubling pattern. But there's a huge difference: in both Dum Dum Girls and the Mayfair Sect, Kristin "Dee Dee" Gundred is a phenomenal singer and a solid songwriter. And it seems she has creative control over the music in both bands, unlike many of the tambourine-shaking ladies around. Crystal Stilts' Frankie Rose also joined in on drums, but even if Gundred had been the only woman on stage, I couldn't fault the band. Strong melodies, well-delivered, with a masterful instrumental back-up from Rose, Crocodiles' Brandon Welchez (Gundred's husband, in fact) and Blank Dog/Mayfair Sect's Mike Sniper - definitely one of the highlights of the festival. [MySpace]

Sadly for all attendees, Michigan's excellent punks Tyvek were forced to cancel because (rumor has it) their bassist, Shelley Salant, landed in the hospital this weekend. The good news is that she's OK and that the band will be in New York on July 24 (@ Silent Barn) and July 25 (@ Cake Shop). [MySpace]

Both Woods and Kurt Vile played louder, more aggressive sets than I expected. Perhaps it was the acoustics, perhaps it was the spirit of the day, but both seemed to crank it up. This is really neither good nor bad - I like things loud and distorted but both these bands have such great songs that volume and distortion are irrelevant - their songwriting outshines everything else.

Woods played a thrilling set of many of their best songs, sounding, as always, like an oddly distant, distorted version of Neil Young or the Byrds. Their melodies are sweet folk pop, but their sounds are subtly unsettling. One of the best. [MySpace]

I can't get as into Kurt Vile - he has some good songs, but ultimately, I found the whole thing a little dull for my tastes. That said, if you're into folk and not looking for constant hooks and uptempos, you'll probably love him - he's doing a lot right, for sure. [MySpace]

My dislike of the Vivian Girls is no secret, despite how much I want to like them. Given my lowest of low expectations, I was pleasantly surprised. Their delivery was punkier than I'd anticipated and they have actually started moving when playing. The fast, loud, crashing drums helped immensely. However, after a couple songs, I did reach my usual state of boredom. The band's "melodies" are rarely more than three or four notes and their "solos" or "jams" or whatever they are meant to be usually consist of a single chord and go on way too long. If the Vivian Girls made songs clocking it at a minute or two instead of five, I might actually enjoy them. [MySpace]

I had high hopes for Thee Oh Sees, but my reaction was mixed. On the one hand, they followed the whole mediocre-female-singer-with-tambourine concept and there wasn't anything special about them to set them apart from the rest of the bands - they sounded kind of like a recap of the festival, but not in an interesting way.

On the other hand, their delivery was lively and engaging and their arrangements well-conceived. They put their heart into playing and it showed. They also had better vocal lines than many of the day's bands. Still, though, there wasn't enough substance to hold my attention for long. They were fun, but as far as I saw, nothing to write home about and certainly a big creative step down from Woods, Blank Dogs and even Crystal Stilts. [MySpace]

Upcoming Shows: Woodsist Festival, Germs + more

Wednesday, July 1

Jay Reatard @ Stuyvesant Oval | StuyTown, East Village, Manhattan | FREE
Punk/lo-fi master Jay Reatard has written so many mess little pop songs in the last few years it's hard to keep up. You should go to this show. But be advised it starts on the early side (officially 6 PM, though my guess is Jay goes on at 8 PM). TV Smith (see below) might be opening, that is not clear. [MySpace]

Hunters @ Cake Shop | LES, Manhattan | $6
I really liked Hunters last time I saw them. Aggressive, arty punk music that's surprisingly free of cliche. [MySpace]


Thursday, July 2

Jay Reatard, TV Smith (ex-Adverts) @ Music Hall of Williamsburg | Williamsburg, Brooklyn | $15
Well, I just told you about Jay Reatard (see above). TV Smith was one of the key founders of British punk. His band, the Adverts, were contemporaries of the Sex Pistols and certainly have a place alongside the Clash, X-Ray Spex, the Buzzcocks and a handful of others in the pantheon of pioneering English punks. [JR MySpace] [TVS MySpace]

Germs @ Mercury Lounge | LES, Manhattan | $14 adv/$16 doors
This week is Independence Day, so perhaps it's better not to support old British punks like TV Smith. A more patriotic option is to check out the Germs, one of LA's original punk bands, contemporaries of bands like X and Black Flag. The reunited Germs, however, are missing founder and singer Darby Crash, who committed suicide in 1980, at age 22. [MySpace]


Friday, July 3

Sonic Youth @ United Palace | Washington Heights, Manhattan | $38-$45
I don't think you should pay this much to see Sonic Youth. But if you really wanna...

Grooms @ Bruar Falls | Williamsburg, Brooklyn | $7
Grooms, fka Muggabears, are pretty awesome gloomy-but-melodic post punk. They follow the American tradition, sounding far more like Sonic Youth than Joy Division. They are one of NYC's best. [MySpace]

Woodsist/Captured Tracks Festival @ 979 Broadway Backyard | Bushwick, Brooklyn| $15
+ Crystal Stilts - Despite being lazy and self-entitled, this band sounds like Joy Division and I love their music. Like Joy Division, there are a lot of understated riffs in the bass line with repeating guitar over the top and morose, baritone vocals. [MySpace]
+ Blank Dogs - This lo-fi goth didn't impress me last time I saw it live, but I've become increasingly impressed by the recorded material. I'm hoping the show I saw live was just a fluke and that they will actually be awesome. [MySpace]
+ Psychedelic Horseshit - Not a personal favorite, due to their pretentiousness, but they have some merit, for sure. Their name describes their sound better than I could. [MySpace]
+ CAUSE co-MOTION! - C-86 revival with brilliant lo-fi pop numbers under two minutes. [MySpace]
+ Little Girls - Highly recommended. [MySpace]
+ more


Saturday, July 4

Woodsist/Captured Tracks Festival @ 979 Broadway Backyard | Bushwick, Brooklyn| $15
+ Thee Oh Sees - Shamefully, I'm not that familiar with this band's music, but they are considered to be one of the best of the recent noise punk movement. I have high hopes. [MySpace]
+ Vivian Girls - Yawwwwwn. This set will be a good time to go grab a bite. [MySpace]
+ Kurt Vile - Lo-fi folkster and recent signee to Matador. [MySpace]
+ Woods - One of the best bands around. Haunting psychedelic folk that I've written loads about already. [MySpace]
+ Tyvek - Awesome punks from Detroit. I liked them last I saw them. [MySpace]
+ Dum Dum Girls - These guys are a somewhat less boring version of the Vivian Girls. [MySpace]
+ Fresh & Onlys - Another band I have heard great things about but haven't had a chance to listen to properly yet. All I know is that they are psychedelic and people like them. [MySpace]
+ more

Frankie Rose, Fresh & Onlys, Pink Reason, Babies (members of Woods, Vivian Girls) @ Market Hotel | Bushwick, Brooklyn | $5 with Woodsist stamp / $8
Frankie Rose is the drummer of Crystal Stilts. I don't know what she does solo. Hopefully not just pound on a floor tom. Fresh & Onlys I described above. This show starts at midnight, well after the end of the Woodsist festival.


Monday, July 6

Peter Murphy @ Highline Ballroom | Chelsea, Manhattan | $35
Pete Murphy is the original goth, the frontman of Bauhaus.


Tuesday, July 7

Peter Murphy @ Highline Ballroom | Chelsea, Manhattan | $35
See above.

Five Most Overrated Bands of 2008

5. Chairlift - OK, I don't dislike this band, they are OK. So I feel a little bad putting them on this list. But I do think they are overrated. I was disappointed to no other songs in their repertoire to live up to the beautiful simplicity of "Bruises", the iPod commercial song that pushed them into the spotlight. They have potential, but the hype is just too much. Their compositions are incoherent and their melodies are mostly bland. For the record, "Bruises" is undeniably lovely, another great pick by Apple's marketing people.

4. Cut Copy - These guys were overrated before 2008 too. They are creative, sure, but does that make up for being dreadfully irritating? I believe pretty strongly that all music, even the fun stuff, should have an element of beauty - or at the very least, sincerity. I haven't found that here.

3. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago is an album made by its backstory. It's not a soul-baring masterpiece, it's a series of whiny cliches (starting with the album title), all lumped together into poorly-constructed melodies and mediocre-at-best guitar work. The lyrics are especially dreadful. And the backstory isn't even that great. Isolated in the woods of northern Wisconsin? Uh, this isn't Nunavut or something, the most isolated it gets in Wisconsin is like twenty minutes outside of town. Living his parents' cabin? Seriously? That's barely a step up from living in their basement, and if it were me, I wouldn't brag about it in an international press release.

2. Vampire Weekend - This reminds me of pseudo-ska music. Enough to make this the most obnoxious band of 2008. Please make it stop.

1. Vivian Girls - I get that they are supposed to be cute girls who are not very good at their instruments, like an indie pop / punkgaze version of the Shaggs. Which definitely sounds cool. But so far, I just don't like them. In records and in performance, they're tediously boring. I hate to rag on my fellow female musicians, but I really don't get it.

Five Unjustly Overlooked Albums of 2008 - Part 1

OK, I'm still trying to get my best of 2008 lists together, but here's a little something to tide you over. Five albums that didn't get the buzz they clearly deserve, in no particular order...


Tears Run Rings
Always, Sometimes, Seldom, Never
Clairecords, 2008

OK, I'm not ranking the albums on this list, but if I were, this would be #1. It's beyond disappointing that even though everyone and their grandmother is in a self-proclaimed "shoegaze" band these days, one of the very best actual shoegaze bands of the year has gone virtually unnoticed. Sure, they got some blog mentions around the time of the album's release this spring, but I haven't seen it on any year-end lists, even for top debut albums. Granted, it may not be in the top dozen or so records of the year, but on longer lists, the omission of TRR is glaring.

In terms of the actual music, the record is spine-tinglingly gorgeous shoegaze that follows more in the path of Pale Saints, Slowdive and Opal than that of My Bloody Valentine or the Jesus & Mary Chain. It's a long album and it may not hold your attention all the way through, but the best moments (and there are many) are some of the most profoundly beautiful in shoegaze music's past ten or fifteen years.

MySpace



Team Genius
Team Genius
Self-Released, 2008

I gave this record a pretty warm review not too long ago and since writing that, it's only continued to grow on me. Basically, Team Genius is like your mom's macaroni and cheese - maybe not your all time favorite food [album], but when you need comfort, it's the perfect thing to warm you up inside and make everything seem OK. NYC reviewers should have made more noise about this release instead of freaking out about the Vivian Girls all fall (barf), but at least you and I know better!

MySpace



Elika
Trying Got Us Nowhere
Fiercely Independent, 2008

Another album I wrote up recently, I can't believe I haven't heard more about Elika's debut LP, especially in the NYC-based blogs. Their shoegaze-inspired electronica is simply miles better in its execution than the overwhelming majority of the band's peers. I've said it before: this is, hands down, one of the best debut albums of the year. Wake up, people!

MySpace

Stay tuned for Part 2...

UPDATE: Here's part 2!