Pitchfork Part III: Sunday

Sunday

Cave

Despite a lot of early rain that made the day unbearably muggy, Sunday got off to a good start with Chicago psychedelic rock group Cave. I hadn’t heard Cave or Alla, the band playing at the same time, but made the choice of Cave just because Best Coast was playing afterwards. After a humorous introduction by some guying in an army suit that was pretty much Borat these guys tore through a 50 minute set of aggressive psychedelic rock. The quartet utilized the motorik beat pretty often along with a bunch of post-punk melodies but after awhile into every song eventually entered into a massive krautrock crescendo. Perhaps the songs were a little too similar but these guys were a fantastic rock band and a pleasant surprise.

Grade: A

Psychedelic caveman rock

Best Coast

I’ve become a huge Best Coast fan this year and this was one of the sets I was most excited for. It was perhaps a tad disappointing, all the bros I was with left for Girls, but I still had a great time. As had become usual by this point the guitars were too quiet until the second half of the set, but had been loud enough for all of Cave?, and that was an initial turnoff. Bethany Consentino’s voice is in many ways the primary focus of the songs and that was definitely shown off without the guitars. Thankfully she was more than capable, unlike The Smith Westerns, of getting through the songs without having to resort to effects. A lot of people say the songs are all the same, certainly they are lyrically, but if you listened to all the singles and whatnot the set consisted of all the previous hits with a good chunk of the new album, which I thankfully listened to a few days before. And when they played “When I’m With You” all the men and I collectively expressed our undying love for her and Snacks.

Grade: B+

Bob just looks like the chillest guy ever

Girls

I arrived a little late due to Best Coast but I think the only song that I missed was probably “Laura”. I had really dug Album but Girls set consisted mainly of newer songs that were all on the sleepy side, bad buzzband mistake. The songs from Album faired better but even “Lust for Life” was played slower on the album. Thankfully they turned up the volume and kicked up some stellar feedback at the end but I don’t see why they couldn’t have been more exciting during their set. I really wish I had stuck around for Washed Out instead. Oh well.

Grade: C

Beach House

Although Victoria Legrand seemed particularly frigid, or perhaps overcome by heat, both her Alex Scally and the drummer seemed really grateful to be playing be again; buzzbands come and go but Beach House have remained, champions of their craft. While they’re unique spin on Dream Pop would seem to go better they still killed it. I was really getting bogged down by this point and Beach House were just so relaxing that all the lower back pain just seemed to drift away. Most of their set came from Teen Dream but each song was certainly a crowd pleaser. They finished up with “10 Mile Stereo”, the most guitar driven song from their latest album and boy was it a way to go.

Grade: A-

Lightning Bolt

Even stranger than Beach House succeeding at a summer festival was the abrupt transition from effervescent dream pop to the onslaught of noise from Lightning Bolt. Two bros, that really looked out of place, followed me over from Beach House, which was even stranger that they were seeing them of all bands, and had no idea who Lightning Bolt were. I merely told them that they “were in for it”. With a massive stack of amps and old stereo equipment backing the two Brians took the stage to uproarious applause. When Brian Chippendale donned his mask it was equivalent to Batman suiting up for the first time, and in some ways even more exciting. Then the onslaught started and never let up. While Brian Gibson was pretty stoic and didn’t move much, Brian Chippendale went wild; it’s improbably to think how he can keep playing with such intensity for that length of time. Totally insane but it would have been a lot cooler to see them playing on the ground at a house show.

Grade: A-

Surfer Blood

I skipped out a little early on Lightning Bolt, its not like I was waiting to hear a particular song, to check out another popular buzzband, Surfer Blood. When I got to the B stage, the smaller one, it was overflowing and Lightning Bolt was pretty much masking everything—one bro told me that he tried to get in later and was unsuccessful. I made my way closer to the point where I could actually here and proceeded to enjoy myself; I don’t know why anyone behind me stayed, they wouldn’t haven been able to hear anything really. Surfer Blood ran through pretty much their entire album, with one or two new ones, and managed to play everything exactly as they had on their guitar driven record, looking at you Smith Westerns, a definite buzzband advantage. I tend to forget that their album is pretty subdued and it would have been nice to have a couple more bangers like Swim to throw at the crowd. Really that’s not their fault, the show would have been awesome at a club, but they’ll definitely be better when they have another album to mix in. I was pleased overall; these guys have the chops to keep going for a long time.

Grade: B+

Neon Indian

Feeling very tired, and having not listened to any of the next couple bands, I took some time to check out the records— picked up Zola Jesus-The Spoils and a Christmas Island record— and chill out a bit before riding the chillwaves. Most other festival coverage I read raved about Washed Out but I didn’t see anyone covering Neon Indian. Major Lazer had a dragon?! Fuck dude that’s awesome! Personally I believe that live hip hop can never truly be anything less than disappointing, too bad most people had no idea what they were missing. In some ways, Neon Indian’s set was way more fun than LCD Soundsystem, with a smaller but more dedicated crowd ready to go crazy. LCD can make you dance a little but not quite the same effect as what riding the chillwaves can do to you. The big worry with electronic groups is how they’re going to replicate that sound live. The record might be great but no one wants to see four guys that don’t have anything to do after pushing play. Fortunately Neon Indian managed to replicate everything live, there was a theremin!, and do so with a tremendous amount of energy. While Alan Palomo was busy working his Menudo moves, their super cute keyboardist Leanne Macomber was jumping up and down, and the guitarist was having fun riding the chillwaves as well. At one point the drummer of Real Estate performed an epic stage dive and everyone had the best time ever. The end.

Grade: A+

Pavement

After Neon Indian, the bros and I rushed over to get a good spot for Pavement. A little further back than I was for LCD Soundsystem but at least much better than The Flaming Lips last year. Pavement already had Christmas lights strung across the stage the whole day but it was still just as exciting when they came out. Back that up a bit: first off the owner of Drag City came out and pretended to be an ex-Q101 DJ that was supposed to be introducing Pavement. While the whole thing was a joke, it was a little unclear at the time if he was serious, most people were incredibly pissed off and started throwing bottles. The next day all the journalist coverage was chiding the masses for not getting the joke. Here’s what they didn’t get: it wouldn’t have mattered if hipster comedian extraordinaire David Cross had come out, people wanted Pavement and that guy cut out 15 minutes of their set, which meant no Summer Babe. Fuck you guy and fuck you news media for not understanding that people enjoy music.

After a false start, they’re still sloppy but in an endearing kind of way, they busted out Cut Your Hair. From there they played a set of all the favorites, minus Summer Babe, and they looked like they had a great time out their together, especially Bob Nastanovich who spent a great deal of time bouncing around the stage, screaming into a microphone. They didn’t play all the songs perfectly (did you really expect them to?) but they made up for it with an enthusiasm that could easily bring a smile to anyone’s face. Big issue though was the sound. My friend sent me a text during their set that was something along the lines of Stephen Malkmus is being backed by SunnO))): the bass just fucking killed their sound. I could get past it but the incessant roar wasn’t too fitting for slacker anthems.

Grade: A-

Pitchfork Part II: Saturday

Saturday

Do to train delays I missed having to decide between Netherfriends and Free Energy, oh well.

Real Estate

Starting off an incredibly hot day, Real Estate’s ultra chill Galaxie 500 gone to the beach songs were just the ticket. All the pool, beach lyrics made me feel like I was actually getting cooler so props to them for that. One of the big issues with their set, and this happened the next day with Girls too, was that they were playing too many new songs. While it was my fault for not listening to the latest EP, they should have played some more songs from their only fucking album. Although all their songs sound pretty similar, playing recognizable songs at a festival is key especially during such a hot day when people were more than willing to skip sets to catch some shade or go to the water tent. These bros seemed really chill though and had an awesome guitar sound so it was still pretty good.

Grade: B

Some chill bros right there

Delorean

Ditching the bros that didn’t want to dance, and wanted a close spot for Titus, I wandered over to check out the Spanish Tough Alliance, Delorean. While with the heat the urge to dance wasn’t too great but these guys were having so much fun up on stage that it was hard not to get into it. What’s always the test for electronic bands is how they pull it off live and these guys managed to replicate everything off Subiza very well without having anyone standing their not playing anything while some prerecorded track plays. There were a few sound issues, and that guy is a pretty bad singer, but nothing that dampened the fun.

Grade: A-

Chill Spanish Bros

Titus Andronicus

The last time I saw Titus was at Reckless Records where I enjoyed myself but was mostly nonplussed. In particular, the set featured mainly songs from The Monitor, which I have mixed feelings about, and I was stuck behind a bunch of shelves. This time though they kicked some ass and took some names and all that business. The set was a good mix of songs from both albums and more importantly they played to the festival crowd. One of my issues is that on The Monitor there are just too many “boring” moments where Patrick is strumming his guitar and singing and all you really want him to do is rock out. Thankfully Titus kept such moments to a minimum throwing out banger after banger. And when the group did slow things down these moments were much more emotionally impactful amidst all the guitar chaos.

Grade: A

The Smith Westerns

Heard a little bit of Dam-Funk, didn’t sound too good, while I was waiting for Smith Westerns to start. On a whim I had picked up their debut at last year’s Pitchfork, loved it, and was quite excited to see them whip out some power pop jams. Too bad that they were one of the most disappointing acts of the festival. Part of that was their fault but the sound issues were all on Pitchfork. For the first half of their set the guitars were incredibly quite just leaving some mediocre singing and some drums. Thankfully the guitars were turned up just in time for the second half which featured quite a bit more guitar solos than the first half. What made everything much more disheartening was the lack of energy that guys displayed.

On record their power pop jams are so refreshing because of all the energy: the songs are speedy and there are plenty of gang vocals that pop up. It seemed like they must have seen Real Estate earlier in the day and decided to chill out during their set. They started off with Imagine, pt.3 and really fucked it up. During the “Love Will Never Die!” parts they didn’t crescendoe or do anything except for quickly rushing through the best parts to the song. Ugh. And the vocals were always too sleepy and laidback even during the chorus to “Be My Girl” which should be massive. I realize they’re a pretty new band but they’ve played a ton of shows and I expected more from that. Just because you’re playing at Pitchfork doesn’t mean you’ve made it.

Grade: C+

Wolf Parade

Not too much to say about these guys; they were a well oiled machine running through all the songs I wanted to hear and cranking out some new ones from Expo 86. Everything they played sounded good the only issue for me was just that they were too much like a machine. Having four guys take up a massive stage and not move around too much is kind of dull especially when I was not too close to the stage. I’m sure though that I would have enjoyed them much more in a club atmosphere but for a festival they need to do something that gives them a bigger presence.

Grade: A-

Panda Bear:

I had been excited to see Panda Bear but upon being informed that he had retired his old material I wisely skipped him to get a good spot for LCD Soundsystem. Panda Bear’s set was pretty sleepy, filled with a lot of droning songs that consisted mainly of him moaning over everything. I’m sure I would have enjoyed this at a house show but a festival crowd wants to hear the bangers: “Bros” and “Comfy in Nautica”.

Grade: N/A

LCD Soundsystem

Whatever your qualms regarding this band, all their songs are incredibly repetitive and too long, they know how to perform tightly and with energy yielding one of the best sets of the festival. As I waited the bros and I saw a massive disco ball being attached to the rafters. While I was mainly trying to figure out the best way to urinate into a beer cup without anyone noticing, I knew that I was in for it. Ripping through tracks from their newest This Is Happening, as well as their previous two albums, they knew how keep the crowd dancing throughout their 90 minute set. Perhaps the most exciting moment was the transition from “Daft Punk is Playing at My House” to “All My Friends.”

I don’t think anyone was preparing to get “All My Friends” that early in the set but whenever it was going to come it was still one of the most amazing musical moments I’ve been able to see. The gut wrenching sadness was intact but the track came off with more danceability than on record, however, witnessing a few thousand people singing along was jaw dropping. Too bad it was over before it even began. The set closed with "New York, I Love You but You're Bringing Me Down" which was a nice closer made even better with the addition of a bit of “Empire State of Mind” at the end. Everyone can get behind that business. Although that seemed to be a pretty definitive set closer people were upset that they didn’t bust out “North American Scum” but all I wanted was appropriately “All I Want.”

Grade: A

Pow Pow Pow Pow

I promise it won't be too long of a wait for Sunday. I'm too tired to upload all the photos and what not and got that unpaid internship and all that business tomorrow.

Incredibly Late Pitchfork Roundup: Friday

This is my fourth Pitchfork that I’ve attended and they’ve gotten better and better at getting the fest to run smoothly. This year there were no portable toilet issues and I never even really had to wait to use one. Plus even though it was sold out all three days I felt that it was somehow easier to manage maneuvering through all the people, except for the B Stage. What separates Pitchfork from Lollapalooza is that Pitchfork actually cares about its festival goers. On the first day water was reduced to $1, a free refill station was set up, and free water was passed out at nearly every set. I can’t ever see lolla doing something like that. However, the weekend was not its issues. The same sound problems still prevailed—many shows weren’t loud enough and the bass tended to rumble and muffle the guitars. Now if they could just fix that then Pitchfork would be nearly perfect.

Friday

Sharon Van Etten

Having received an email from her responding to a photo request I felt the need to at least check her out. There doesn’t seem to be too much buzz about her other than appearing on the latest Antlers album. She was a tiny figure on the stage pretty much playing the same chord over and over again. Not really my thing and didn’t seem too appropriate for a festival setting but I didn’t pay much attention so my opinion is only so valid.

The Tallest Man on Earth

I received his 2008 album “Shallow Grave” a week or so before the festival and quite enjoyed. A rather small man, the Swede gave it all he had furiously striking at his guitar and pouncing all over the stage despite saying he was jetlagged and hadn’t slept for two days. Normally guy with acoustic guitar doesn’t work well for a festival setting, especially on a main stage, but his songs were performed with so much energy that made everything sound larger than life. Watch out for this guy, he’s going to be huge.

Grade: B+

More like The Tallest Bro on Earth. Amiright?

Liars

Skipping El-P, sounded pretty lame, I stayed and picked up a good spot for Liars. The AV Club trashed this but this was definitely the best set of Friday. Keeping the energy up that Tallest Man started, Liars ripped through a set heavy on songs from this year’s “Sisterworld” and their previous self titled album. Even though “Sisterworld’s” songs are pretty odd they translated surprisingly well; they were able to keep the slow parts interesting, Angus Andrew’s voice was in spectacular form, and then tear through the faster parts. They got quite experimental at times but managed to keep up with enough bangers, “Scarecrows on a Killer Slant” and “Plaster Casts of Everything”, so that the set was balanced and always entertaining.

Grade: A-

Broken Social Scene

A lot of people skipped BSS for Michael Showalter, who bombed horribly I heard, and they missed a fun time filled with guitar solos and general merriment. Unfortunately, I unwisely decided to skip Robyn for a good spot up front. She sounded like a lot of fun and I regret not heading over. While BSS were not the penultimate live band, as I had been promised by many BSS devotees, they still were beyond competent showmen. Brendan Canning looked like a lesbian version of Paul McCartney and strutted around like Angus Young or a small child with ADD whilst Kevin Drew looked mainly like he would be an asshole if you spoke to him. There set consisted mainly of songs from Forgiveness Rock Record, which came off better live than the sub-par album, but the older “rock out” songs from past albums faired better. They skipped the slower songs, which was probably a wise decision for the festival crowd but it would have made the show a bit more emotionally impacting if they had.

Grade: B+

The two brains behind BSS. Sans beard, Brendan Canning looks like a lesbian Paul McCartney

Modest Mouse

I should have left BSS early but it didn’t really matter. When you’re so far away at a festival there gets to be a point where you would almost rather just go home and Modest Mouse didn’t do too much to keep my attention. They opened with Tiny Cities Made of Ashes, incredible, but the seven, I think, piece group quickly switched gears to songs from the newest album and that EP I never bothered to check out. They played a lot of songs from Good News so that was alright. That was the first album of there’s that I picked up; I was a freshman in High School and Float On was just starting to get noticed. Most of my friends that were there never “discovered” Modest Mouse like I did, instead got into them several years later and immediately started with their better albums. While I myself did that, I’ll always hold a special place for Good News. In terms of other “classic songs” they played Dramamine and encored with Gravity Rides Everything. Everyone was hoping for “Do the Cockroach” but that unfortunately did not happen. The band sounded great and played the songs well but I wish they would have ran through a couple more bangers.

Grade: B

Really shitty photo but I was miles away.

June Show Roundup: The Books, Alex Robinson, Zola Jesus

Hey! I'm a jackass!

I’ve been fortunate to attend three shows in the last two weeks so here is a round up of each:

The Books w/ Via Tania at Millenium Park June 21

This looks to be the first of a few great free shows this summer at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion; most of the good indie shows are Mondays which are days I work. The hipsters were in full force for this one, I was under the impression that The Books were a very niche group. I could see hipsters jumping on anything vaguely indie and free. While this blog does not support hipsterdom, there is some amount of joy to be taken from seeing a few hundred twentysomethings that look like homeless people congregating in one location (can’t wait for Pitchfork).

The bizarre part about shows at Millenium Park is that people always choose to sit in the grass first. This makes little sense if you are there to see a band so these people have to be awful summer festival goers that only appear in order to drink overpriced beer but its great for those actually wanting to see a band since it insures that seats will universally be available close to the stage.

Chicago group Via Tania, although the singer sounded like she was Australian, opened the show. The beards I was with did not enjoy this at all and I barely did. The group plays very sleepy music that once and awhile recalls Beach House but is more similar to generic “soulful” female singer/songwriter music. The quartet switched around instruments a lot and of course the singer played a ukulele at one point. It seems an unfortunate essentiality that indie bands have ukuleles these days. The style of music didn’t make a lot of sense for an early evening performance, if this had been at 2am in a smoky club and I wanted to go to sleep. What made the beards angry, and myself a little too, is that once and awhile the songs would start to crescendo a little but then stop before the song got anywhere. The worst was the last song, which was the best that Via Tania played. The singer strapped on an electric guitar and the group began to tear through a particularly bouncy song and then at the end started to kick up some Sonic Youth inspired noise rock. Things started to look up for Via Tania, at least they would be remembered for an awesome finish, but instead the noise stopped after ten seconds. What a tease.

Via Tania

The Books came on shortly after and quickly eased any misgivings that had arisen because of Via Tania. They played in front of a screen that was certainly not adequate for the size of a park but was perfect at my distance from the stage. To go along with their sample heavy songs are constructed VHS quality videos that are fairly choppy but often humorous. Since The Books play sitting down, the clips really help to improve their live performance. The three members were able to play the songs with the same technical precision as on the record but the samples were usually louder than the band so some times they were nearly drowned out.

Their set was a good mix consisting of some new songs from the forthcoming “The Way Out”, my personal favorite “The Lemon of Pink” and what I assume were from “Lost and Safe.” I don’t listen to The Books enough to know all of their songs but I’m pretty sure “Thought for Food” was neglected. Two personal highlights were “Time” from “The Lemon of Pink” and a new one “A Cold Freezin’ Night.” The latter song consists of samples from talkboy recorders that they found at some thrift store. Its incredibly funny and unlike the classical new age kind of stuff they usually do.

Towards the end of the show, the people in the seats collectively looked back to see hundreds of people dancing to minimal electronic beats and neo-classical music. Huh. This culminated with a few aborted attempts of hippy hipsters trying to dance at the front of the stage and being shooed away by security. During the last song, those same hipsters managed to bring a few dozen people, nowhere near the amount of people dancing in the back, to the front and eventually rushed the stage. As overweight police officers took the stage the situation seemed pretty grim but all the hipsters calmly left the stage. Still, the fact that there was a near riot at a Books show is pretty absurd. I can get behind the flagrant disregard for authority but no hippy bohemian bullshit will be supported by me.

Awful photo of people rushing the stage

Alex Robinson La Spiaza June 26

Former Plasmatonics front man Alex Robinson played his first solo show June 26 at La Spiaza in Wheaton exactly one year after the final Plasmatonics show. The show was partly in recognition of the release of Robinson’s solo debut. Less of a proper album, “Demonstrations” has acoustic versions of Plasmatonics songs as well as Robinson originals written during various periods. Expect a proper review soon.

Robinson was armed with a glittered acoustic and ran through nearly 90 minutes of material. As always his guitar playing was in top form and even on his acoustic, Alex killed it with his unique brand of punk inflected glam rock. In addition to the originals he ran through a few choice covers including The Replacements “Alex Chilton”, two Elliott Smith songs “Say Yes” and “Miss Misery” (he threw on the suit jacket during these two), and an impromptu run through of The La’s “There She Goes”, which was very well received by the audience.

Robinson playing to an engrossed crowd

Perhaps the most applause was given for Plasmatonics classic “No Expectations”, which Robinson dedicated to Plasmatonics drummer Mike Mazur. Robinson was very emotional during these moments but was excited that his long time creative foil would be moving back in early July. In attendance were many GE note worthies that are all seldom in the same place anymore; the show was a triumph not just for Robinson but for all who were there. Many of them have been through a great deal of turmoil and by being there it represented a big “fuck you I made it.”

Left: Helen Keller's Revenge member Jeff Klausner
Right: Former Necrosludge drummer Ross Maki
Both wave their lighters at an emotionally charged moment

Zola Jesus w/ Dada Trash Collective, Jabon Schubas June 27

I didn’t think I would get to go to this but I am glad a bearded friend decided to make the trip with me to Schubas. I had some initial resignations about going to this due to my having to work the next morning and having to take the 12:40am train home just to take the 8:40am in is just absurd. The AV Club recently posted a Q&A about shows they wished they had gone to so I didn’t want to regret this. I’ve fallen hard for Zola Jesus or rather Nika Danilova over the past few months and I didn’t want to miss this. Her Stridulum EP is one of my favorites this year and I knew I would be pretty disappointed if I didn’t get to hear those songs live.

We got there quite early and had to kill time just to wait for the doors to open so we got to witness this guy setting up this elaborate set up of numerous TVs stacked on top of each other connected to a couple VCR’s. It was a pretty complicated setup that I don’t need to get into but there were a bunch of bizarre and humorous images projected throughout the three sets. Seeing this one guy set up for most of the time we were sitting there I assumed he would be starting first but instead this guy dressed in an alien priest getup (with green mask) ran through the crowd and jumped on stage. This was apparently Jabon who as my bearded companion said was “the Andrew W.K. of Witch House.” I guess it was a lot like Witch House but his demented electronica was pretty hard to classify. The guy definitely had a sense of humor though; he would bust out some moves on stage and once ran into the audience in order to “act a fool.” The weirdest part came when some jazzy show tune came on and he started to sing along, at this point except for some weird box he talked into and looped he had not yet spoken. He then started doing a sort of demented stand up routine about how he had all these recordings of nobody celebrities’ stomach noises from when he used to record books on CASSETTE (he would randomly shout cassette rather frequently). Then he played some stomach noises (Kurt Douglas!) and got back to the music. Then in the middle of a song he ran off and the next guy came up and began to get ready.

Jabon strikes a pose

There’s not a lot to say about Dada Trash Collage. Pretty much a one man Animal Collective, Panda Bear, he turned some knobs and sang. His much was pretty fun if not really derivative.

At the very least he had awesome images

Then after clearing away the TVs and the gear from the first two bands, Zola Jesus took the stage. Looking around there were only about forty people there, twice as many as during the openers, and quite a few Goths. Pictures of a blonde Nika had popped up and there she was bleached blond; from what I’ve read she’s trying to move away from being associated with the Goth community. If only they knew. I had no idea she was so little, which makes it all the more astounding how that enormous voice is come from such a small body. Thankfully, if she had not died her hair she would have all but disappeared on the stage. She has a solidified back band now consisting of three keyboardists and a drummer who pounded the hell out of his toms the whole show. The band was great and really gave the Stridulum songs to life.

The best part of course was Nika; her voice was amazing and she definitely has quite a deal of stage presence. She prowled the stage and even the crowd during, I think, “Run Me Out” where she crouched down and threw her black shaw over her head. The band breezed through all six songs on Stridulum, awesome, Sea Talk from “Tsar Bomba,” nice, and one song I didn’t know. They only played for about 30 minutes, which was pretty strange. She’s recorded more songs for a European re-release and supposedly has two more in the can for a US EP coming up plus she didn’t even play Clay Bodies off of “The Spoils.” I was left craving more, which in some ways is a good thing. The show was not perfect by any means but it was incredibly exciting to see a band in its infancy when you knew they were only going up. Zola Jesus is going to be huge and I’m privileged to have seen them right at the turning point.

Afterwards, Nika was standing in the bar part of Schubas. I really wanted to get my copy of Stridulum autographed, or get a photo with her. I get too nervous to talk to musicians I admire even though she’s my age and a college student. Except for being super cool and a great musician, there’s not too much to separate us but the fear that I might blurt out “I just want to love you” or something was enough that I though it best just to leave.

May New Month Here New Music to Hear

Unfortunately I forgot to bring my camera. I was given it as a birthday present for a trip to Japan; its strange how after going without one for so long I cannot bear to have events undocumented anymore.

May’s New Month here was overall one of the best so far in the series. While it didn’t get going until ten I felt that for the most part all the people there were really supportive and a great part of the scene. Up first was Brian Feldcamp playing in the basement along with a keyboardist, who I had seen play with Greg Brown before, as well as Teaadora herself on drums. I had seen Brian a few times before and while his swampy blues covers are not really my thing I especially enjoyed this; Teaadora on the drums really helped to push the temp and make the songs more of an almost punk feel to them. A couple of times I felt like maybe Brian thought about trying to slow it all down but I’m glad he went with it, worked really well.

Moving back upstairs was Vince Aguilar who plays in local hardcore punk band Night Brigade who are pretty big around these parts and played at one of the Warp Tour dates last year. He was playing I guess what you might call folk punk, very impassioned but thankfully not really over the top.

After Vince, who I met and was a really nice guy, finished his set the keyboardist from earlier fucked around on Vince’s guitar and then played a broken Hammond organ that was sitting around. He then went back downstairs to play his keyboard. Teaadora started messing with the output on the mixer and began to rap and sing along. She then went back to the drums and laid down some pretty crazy breakdowns. By far one of the most entertaining and enjoyable sets of the night.

Back upstairs again for Fredericksburg, Virginia based Sacred Harp (Dan'l Bachman) who was making a stop on his tour with Telegraph: Solar Future. He played four songs that were pretty trippy. The first featured him with this pump accordion and a small microphone attached to his throat. Then he brought out a sitar and played that for awhile. I had never actually heard a live sitar before so that was interesting but I enjoyed the two guitar pieces that he played after it the most.

Next, in the kitchen was The Dirty Disaster or something like that which had a guy playing guitar (or was it a bass?), some dude playing random percussion, and a girl singing. The fun thing was that small percussive instruments were handed out, I was given a cowbell, and everyone got to be involved in their set. That way I wasn’t paying so much attention to their jammy music and was focused on hitting my bell.

From then it was back to the basement for Sacred Harp’s tour mate Telegraph: Solar Future (Bret Rushia) a New York based ambient/drone artist. He had a projector set up and played along to a twenty minute visual collage that focused on lots of trippy light effects. I always appreciate when artists do a little something extra. Similar to what Hastas have been doing lately with their videotape collages, it’s much more enjoyable to watch live ambient/noise/drone when there is something more to watch than just someone turning a knob. Some guy came down halfway through and proceeded to talk very loudly for the rest of it. Picked up a CDR, tape, and DVD of the video from Bret on my way out.

Finally, or at least the last set I watched before leaving at 2 AM, was an improvisational set with Kyle Riley, of Hastas, and Jeremy Ross, of Bo Knows. Completely amazing, one of the best of the night. Kyle had the keyboard he’s been playing lately attached to a ton of pedals and was making dreamy, layered noise while Jeremy attacked his guitar playing a jagged rhythmic pattern that eventually seemed to become dreamier as it went on. Similar to Hastas or when I saw My Bloody Valentine, the loudness of the music and the layering makes it all really mix to the point where you wonder if you’re making up the sounds or if they are actually occurring. Picked up a split from Jeremy with his project Bo Knows and The Rebel. Review to come at some point.

Kamikaze Girls

There’s a great Stuff White People Like feature on “yellow fever” or white men’s obsessive attraction to Asian women. Though the subject of my own bouts of yellow fever are the subject of another feature it is only part of what attracted me to Tatsuya Nakashima’s 2004 film Kamikaze Girls.

Browsing the decent collection of mostly foreign films at the library I stumbled upon this and was intrigued by the Asian girl on the cover but not just because of her status as a cute Asian girl, it was because she was dressed in the elegant gothic Lolita fashion (google it but specifically sweet Lolita for this film’s style). I may have some strange elevated arousal because of this but this has mainly to do with my curiosity in all things weird and bizarre and pretty much anything having to do with Japan is pretty bizarre.

This movie too was delightfully bizarre. The film follows Momoko a 17 year old girl into Lolita fashion and incredibly self aware of the complexities of human nature. Despite her fashion driven obsession with Rococo England she is the only one grounded in reality, albeit a very cute and candy colored one. This is an incredibly wacky film similar to something Takashi Miike might do (minus the sexual perversions). For instance, Momoko is walking to the train to Tokyo to go on a shopping trip. Her purpose is questioned by a local guy who then starts to talk about the merits of the Japanese version of Kohl’s to the point where it morphs into an advertisement where all the people standing around join in and prices flash on the screen. There’s also her ex-yakuza father who ran a clothing stall that sells fake Versace cloths.

This part is incredibly ridiculous; the Versace knockoffs sell so well that her father pretty much just puts Versace, which he misspells as Versach, and goes as far to put out fake Versace Universal Studio t-shirts. What made the film work so well is that this wackiness was matched by a variety of visual styles (fairytale, anime, biker movie, even a part that resembles the trippy Mardi Gras scenes in Easy Rider). It’s a testament to the director that these various stylistic changes never felt like too much and all were essential to telling the story.

Along the way she meets a “yanki” girl who is in a motorcycle gang, despite only have a scooter. The girl Ichigo acts like a greaser’s girlfriend but whose fashion resembles something like trench coat pantsuits. Most of the movie goes toward a rather traditional story of the developing bond between the two opposites but the wacky narrative and filmic devices help to ease this a little. I didn’t care as much for Ichigo because she was so over the top and wacky, like all the other characters, that it was difficult to see genuine feeling towards Momoko. Not being able to care about Ichigo made the film suffer but Momoko is such a great character that there is still some enjoyment to be had from Ichigo just by her putting Momoko in such strange situations.

Watching this I kept thinking who the hell is this movie for? Certainly it’s very cute but also quite violent and bloody. Apparently there’s a subgroup of gore Lolita, which further boggles my mind. What would a gore Lolita be interest in? I have no idea although I would certainly like to find out. If you’re a fan of weird cinema this is definitely one to check out though.

8/10

I would post the trailer but the narration makes it seem really stupid. Avoid at all costs. Also seeing Converge tomorrow, which will be the topic of my next blog post.

Jónsi was enjoyable

April 28, 2010
Chicago
The Vic Theatre
Opener: Death Vessel
7:30 PM

Set list:

1. stars in still water
2. hengilás
3. icicle sleeves
4. kolniður
5. tornado
6. saint naive
7. sinking friendships
8. go do
9. boy lilikoi
10. k12
11. new piano song
12. around us
13. animal arithmetic
14. grow till tall

This is my third time at The Vic and once again I was not disappointed; not the prettiest but good visibility and pristine sound that is never pointlessly too loud. Theatre was seconds from the Belmont CTA stop so it was incredibly easy to get to. I met up with a friend from college and took a survey of the stage setup. Several pianos, pump organs, xylophones littered the stage as well as a massive drum kit on one side and another set of more esoteric percussion, including a suitcase that, yes, was sound checked, lay at another end. On both sides of the stage there were these burnt out looking wardrobes and to the back a large, sandpaper colored screen covered the back of stage.

I had a vaguely heard of the name of the opener but had never heard anything by them. I had assumed it was a band but at 7:30 sharp a small Native American looking man came out carrying an acoustic guitar. I was expecting a husky voice to come out but Death Vessel sang beautifully with the voice of a woman. I’m sure that’s why he was selected to open for Jónsi because certainly nothing else was particularly interesting, he sang beautifully over fairly generic coffee house folk songs. He only played for thirty minutes but after awhile it felt like an eternity. For a guy that should be playing in a coffee house he didn’t say very much.

Death Vessel

After half an hour of waiting, Jónsi took the stage, alone in the spotlight with just an acoustic guitar with his percussionist in the back hitting the xylophone once and awhile. Once this new song was over, the set was a good mix of new songs and songs from Go, the rest of the band came out. There four out there with him and they went through an absurd amount of instruments though the majority of the time there was usually someone on guitar, bass, drums, and some key based instrument. Like the last time I saw Sigur Ros when they had no orchestral backing I was a bit apprehensive about the lack of live strings, however the Jónsiband faired much better; the group was still able to have a very full sound and showcased very engaging arrangements that still did justice to the album. In some ways by focusing more on the percussive, it really brought out the importance of drums on the album. Many around me seemed to be skeptical that the drummer would be able to pull of the intense percussion that the songs required but Jónsi’s drummer did not disappoint and played at insane speed throughout the show. They were often trading instruments between songs and what made part of it so great is that Jónsi and his band of effeminate Scandinavian men, except for the muscled drummer, looked like they were having a ton of fun; Jónsi was all smiles throughout the show. The album is incredibly fun and while Sigur Ros can be pretty serious I’m glad that the band was enjoying the evening too, certainly everyone in the audience was in a state of bliss for those wonderful 80 minutes.



What I enjoyed about the first Sigur Ros show, this didn’t apply to the second, was that they make the show an experience and Jónsi’s show upped the ante on the concert experience. Remember those screens and wardrobes I mentioned earlier? Well after the second song these “textbook” pictures of animals appeared but then the screen “caught on fire” and from there on various animations of animals hunting, moving filled the screen. These were projected on the wardrobes as well and the images were often so realistic that it looked like actual creatures were roaming around in there. During this part of the show there was a burnt out forest looking part that took up the right side of the screen and I couldn’t figure out if it was real, behind the screen or what. About halfway through the screen was dropped to reveal the burnt out forest part, which was attached to this warped, melted warehouse looking backdrop. Behind this was yet another screen but this time around images were projected both on the industrial metal backdrop and the screen behind it. The animations here were amazing as well, at one point it was “raining” and the water was rising on the metal screen. What I found especially mind blowing was that the “water” sloshed around while obeying the boundaries of the screen and that the projections were not visible over or through the holes/gashes in the metal. These images or whatever was projected provided a lot of the lighting and just made the show an extra special experience.



The whole performance was so flawless that it’s hard to pick favorite moments; I don’t think I’ve ever heard an audience clap that enthusiastically for any band before. One of the turning points was when they played “Go Do,” the first of the more energetic songs they played from the album. The crowd went insane. It’s hard to think of another time that I’ve been as happy as I was during that song; there’s nothing like that transcendent feeling of when seeing a band play can make all your stresses go away and fill you completely with joy. In a show filled with great moments, the best were the last three songs. The last before the encore was Around Us, which ended incredibly epically. Towards the end of the song Jónsi grabbed this thin mic that had been attached to the side of the mic stand, that he hadn’t touched during the show, and began singing into it. It’s hard to describe but it had some sort of compression on it maybe that gave his voice this faraway, gritty sound. As the Jónsi sang the final melody over and over again, his voice was manipulated and became more and more fractured till the song ended in a flurry of static.

After this the band came out for the encore with Jónsi wearing a headdress and still using the other mic. They jumped right into it with the hyperkinetic “Animal Arithmetic” which wasn’t as fast or manic as it is on the record but was still really enjoyable. Next came the closing song “Grow Till Tall.” Both times I’ve seen Sigur Ros they’ve closed with Untitled #8, one of their most epic songs. In my opinion, a band should always go out with something epic and “Grow Till Tall” fulfilled that role. Starting off with just Jónsi and his guitar the rest of the band lay in wait, obviously ready for the oncoming onslaught. As the drums began to build the onscreen scenery depicted a growing storm that continued to build with escalating levels from the band. This all coalesced into this massive storm of strobe lights and huge sheets of guitar noise that thoroughly decimated my eardrums. The noise ended and the guys returned from a brief retreated offstage and took a couple bows. For having very little audience interaction during the show this was a nice gesture that acknowledged just how special the evening was. They left the stage and Mike Czajkowski and I left with huge grins on our faces.