Showing posts with label Monthly. Show all posts
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On February 17th Hunted Creatures ended their week long residency at Future Tenant with a weird show there.  They ended up playing two sets, first with Burnout Warcry and second with D.S. Miller and Mike Kasunic.  The first one was pretty cool, but very short and everybody seemed sort of confused.  The second set was longish and worked pretty well.  Fogged Out, Mike Kasunic's new solo project, played next.  He was really great, recalling the glorious baritone of Tusk Lord, and going through a few different music styles.  Afterwards Ben Bowman appeared and did some offensive/ironic/annoying radio rap and stabbed a table with a big knife.


On the 24th of February I went to see Teenage Mysticism at Garfield Artworks.  Spencer Kingman, who was in the Dirty Projectors at some point, played first.  His songs were good, but his set was so long and they all sounded the same.  Next was Rose & Sara who were okay, but seemed distracted maybe.  They usually are a lot better.  Third was the touring band, Teenage Mysticism, who were like the New York Dolls and the Ramones.  They played romantic garage rock/punk with emotionally unstable vocals.  The vocalist put on makeup towards the start of the set.  They were super cool.  Last was the Octeoblasts who I had never heard of before, but they are apparently from Pittsburgh somewhere. They played fast, exciting punk music with dead pan vocals and sort of sounded like the Swell Maps song "New York."  I hope they play some more shows because I'd like to see them some more.

Here are sounds (really just Fogged Out because I forgot my recorder for the Teenage Mysticism show).
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December was a not as super busy as other months: I only saw two shows other than the ones already mentioned.


On December 5th Dire Wolves played their "last show."  I missed a lot of it, but I saw Stefano Pilia play a Noveller-esque set first which was really cool.  He used a bow and did lots of guitar drones.  Next Dire Wolves played a folk singalong set which was weird, possibly caused by unpreparedness (though this doesn't seem right either).  My friend Daphne played trumpet with them.  It was interesting, though unlike the sludge/noise/doom band I saw at Belvedere's opening for Lightning Bolt the year before; anyway, I think everybody had fun.


The other show was on December 7th at Fe Gallery, a new space that I think had only had one other show.  First D.S. Miller played a drone guitar set with computer loops.  He was alright, but went a little too long.  Next Ryley Walker played an amazing Dylan-ish folk set.  He was very, very quiet, his set is possibly the quietest recording I've made of a live show, but he was awesome.  I loved his songs.  White Reeves did some cool percussive space sounds.  It was a great set that was almost too long, but turned out fine.  Last was Quick Sails who did some similar stuff, sounding like an orbiting tribal kitchen.  The close quarters of Fe Gallery made the show very intimate, though audience members seemed to be coming and going all the time, but never exceeding ten.  There was also a great similarity to the first Roup show with Ryley Walker replacing Andrew Weathers, Quick Sails sort of replacing Quilt, and White Reeves replacing White Reeves.


Here's some audio.
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Here's two little shows from last November.


On November 14th locals White Reeves and Brother Ong played with Indian Jewelry, Prince Rama, and the Beets.  I didn't like White Reeves set at all, though they had special guest Mike Kasunic of Slices with them and their lighting made him look like cover art from a sci-fi novel.  Brother Ong was very spooky and mysterious; the sound of an ancient temple lost under the night and the desert.  Third was Indian Jewelry who were sort of like noise/post-punk/dance or something (Alien Sex Fiend).  They were really cool, but I remember them wearing me out after a while.  They also used a drum machine, but had a drummer who didn't seem to do much.  I'd totally seem them again if they came back though.  Fourth was the band that I had come to see: the Beets.  I last saw them in 2009 with Vivian Girls at the Andy Warhol Musem.  Instead of the loud and noisy garage rock of a clash between Jonathan Richman and the Velvet Underground the Beets were quiet and down to only two people.  The drummer was new from last time, but the guitarist was the same guy and still sounded like Lou Reed.  They played a short set with no setlist and finished with "Outsider" by the Ramones which seemed a perfect fit.  Last up was the strange Prince Rama who were basically a dance band with a keyboardist and a drummer.  They moved a lot and had a lot of energy.


On Novemer 18th I saw Slices play with Condominium from St. Paul, Minnesota.  First up was Ratface, but I missed them.  I guess they had some trouble because rouper Brian told me that the guitarist had gotten angry (because he or someone else has messed up during a song) and throown his guitar on the Shop's cement floor.  Then he tried to play it and was confused about why it wouldn't work.  At some point a case of beer was also thrown at the audience.  I like Ratface a lot, but seriously guys get yr shit together; it seems like they have so many band issues.  Next up was the awesome Slices who I only saw maybe half of.  They were great as always.  Finally Condominium took the stage and continued the awesome weirdo hardcore.  They had some old Japanese guitars and really played a killer set.  There were some post-punk and garage rock elements at extreme speeds.  After twenty minutes it was over, but it felt like maybe ten.

Here's some stuff from these shows.
Get the Beets new album here. This is the best purchase that you could ever make!
Next time we move on to December.
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Here's a smaller update to wrap up September stuff.


On the 11th Stare Case and Nautical Almanac played at the Shop with White Reeves opening.  Stare Case played a tense set with bass and brass/woodwind instruments.  Nate Young recited poetry/talked over the other sounds.  It had a very New York punk attitude.  Later Nautical Almanac made a tent in the darkness and projected videos onto it and another screen while they created dissonant synth sounds and played some found percussive instruments.  Nautical Almanac played for a while (half an hour seeming like even longer) and it got tiresome sometimes, but it was also like being transported to another dimension or something.


On the 14th Voltage Spooks, featuring Keith Rowe of AMM, played at the Shop.  The first local band to play was Host Skull, but I missed them because I got there late.  I'm sure it was some sort of dual guitar free jazz with Dave Bernabo.  Next up, and the first for me, was Michael Johnsen, who played a whole floor of hand-built electronic devices.  He made a lot of squishing/snot/squirming sounds for nearly half an hour.  Over all it was really interesting, but since his set was not very dynamic it could have been much shorter.  Finally Voltage Spooks set up opposite the stage and played even longer than Michael Johnsen!  Their set was 45 minutes, but everyone was glued to the Voltage Spooks the whole time.  The Voltage Spooks were composed of the hum of machinery, the static of the radio, and the crackle of electricity.  Gears turned and knives cut at other times.  It was really great and totally immersive.


The show the next day ended up being pretty similar to the show on the 14th, however the mood and music were completely different.  Dead Rider, famed for including the guitarist of US Maple, played at the Shop with Brown Angel, Oryx Horns, and Carousel.  Again I missed the first band (Carousel).  David Bernabo returned to play second as a member of Oryx Horns who sounded a lot like Gangwish used to.  Clean drums met with computer synthesizers to create some cool instrumental dance music.  It was awesome.  Next up was Dead Rider who were very chaotic and confused me a lot.  I kept thinking that the guitarist was staring at me or something and at some point they had some sort of band fight and walked off for like six seconds.  It was similar to the US Maple stuff I've heard, but with some different instruments (more synth stuff).  After Dead Rider shredded Beefheartily, Brown Angel st up in utter darkness.  A noisy doom metal band, they sounded a lot better than the previous time I had seen them at Gooski's.  Lots of chunky riffs and Melvins style sequences; occasionally the guitar turned into screechy feedback.  At other times the guitarist produced some really cool warbly/cavernous sounds that reminded me of the Art of Noise before quickly turning into monstrous growls.  It was really cool, but I think the guitarist got mad when I took a picture with the flash.  Too bad.


Finally on the 23rd I saw Viper and Wasp Nest Head Dress open for Horse Bladder and Weyes Blood at Garfield Artworks.  Wasp Nest Head Dress is Eric Ross, all the way from Washington, PA, playing circuit bent toys mostly and doing some distorted, unintelligible vocals.  Viper is Joe Roemer of the legendary Macronympha playing solo harsh guitar noise that can get sort of psychedelic at times.  He also slams his amp around for spring reverb sounds.  After each had played, Eric and Joe teamed up for a while until the touring acts got there.  Horse Bladder played some Nico type stuff.  It was a lot less druggy and droning and also more poetic; I like Nico better.  Joe Roemer kept asking her about Northampton, MA for the rest of the show.
"Hey how's Thurston?"
"J Mascis, is he still around"
Finally Weyes Blood played acoustic guitar through a bunch of effects and sang.  She looked super young.  Her vocals seemed really professional and her guitar playing was sort of like celtic/new age stuff.


Here are some September sounds as we slowly get back to the present.

NEXT TIME: ELECTROLUMINATI #7
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