Field Trip! San Francisco- Apples in Stereo, Casper and the Cookies, and the Explorers Club @ the Independent Friday March 23, 2007

Right. I know. This is in San Francisco, however had I been in LA on Thursday night instead of driving the I-5 up North I would have been at Spaceland watching Apples in Stereo, but instead I saw them Friday night at the Independent up in San Francisco.

For all the differences made between Northern California and Los Angeles, I’ll admit that the crowds really were not that different from each other. Boys in faded old t-shirts with obscure band names and girls in footless tights with oversized cinched waist dresses packed themselves in a space made to feel larger by its high ceilings. The drinks pricey, and more ‘diet’ than ‘whiskey’ in mine. Also, I’ve found that I’ve become spoiled by The Echo and its smoking patio. Every time we wanted to step outside we had to maneuver through the incoming crowd out to the front of the club and then fish out ids on the way back in; thankfully by the fourth trip outside the door guys remembered our faces.

The Explorers Club, hyped by a friend of mine as sounding “like the Beach Boys” proved to be entertaining and sometimes did, in fact, resemble the musical stylings of their obvious musical influence. I believe there was six guys in the band and about five of them sang doing different harmonies at the same time, and pulled it off, which I would think should register as ‘hard to do’. They had energy and ended the set with a dancing frenzy rendition of “Johnny B. Goode”. However this level of enjoyment for the evening seemed to peter off right about here…

Casper and the Cookies. No, really that’s the name of the second band and yes, they realize it’s dumb, however “they don’t give a fuck”. To cope with the unnatural glam rock induced stream of hippie indie rock before us, it was decided that this band could be watchable if we pretended we were watching outtakes from This Is Spinal Tap 2. It worked for about 5 minutes then we walked away.

Apples in Stereo always came off to me as catchy, poppy fun songs you could drive around the country on a Sunday and listen to, or make cupcakes; something like that. Now I find that the music’s been stretched to try and fit into a very broad commercial category and that does not come off well live. The performance was a bit stiff and the songs, well, unfortunately the songs started to blend together and start to sound the same. I also miss the boy/girl harmony that is now lacking due to the departure of drummer Hilarie Sidney, who now resides in the band the High Water Marks. Sigh. Just not that exciting now.

Ah well. So, there may be future field trips planned for shows in Portland and possibly Tom Jones in Vegas. I know you are ALL interested to know about that.

You Can Never Have Enough Keyboards- Oh No! Oh My! @ the Echo Saturday February 24, 2007

Austin just keeps bringing the good music lately. If it wasn’t for Texas’ crazy “shoot trespassers at will” laws and no basement in the Alamo, I’d highly consider that a place to move to. Oh No! Oh My! are yet another band that confirms my jealousy of this town.

I’m only going to review ONOM due to the amount of time I let lapse between seeing the show and me forgetting all the other bands that played with them. (I seem to be confusing a Bodies of Water show’s opening acts with who actually appeared this night. But I’ve been super busy, so let’s just let this slip this one time.)

First, Oh No! Oh My! packed the stage with enough people and equipment that one got the feeling of the stage collapsing in on itself every time someone jumped up and down, which was a lot. From what I’ve gathered, there are only 3 people actually in the band, and when they tour they ask friends/musicians to come along and play with them. Just to give you a glimpse as to crazy amount of instruments on stage, here is a sampling: guitars, drums, banjos, accordions, tambourines, bells, stomping feet, and keyboards, HOLY MOTHER OF GOD so many keyboards. Myself and a fellow keyboard enthusiast (read: nerds) where almost drooling all of ourselves at the Farfisa.

Instantly when they started playing everyone began to bop along to the music. A few of their songs are pretty popular on the indie circuit (“Walk in the Park”, “I Have No Sister”), but even I’m not sure where I actually heard of them first. Anyways, these guys are so full of energy and are fun to watch perform. It seems like the crowd feeds off them and they feed off the crowd and it becomes one big feeding frenzy of energy and catchy melodies that make you want to throw your hands up and dance silly, which they also do on stage.

I couldn’t help beaming; my face was on the verge of splitting in two right where the TMJ in my jawbones resides. ONOM’s music is happy without being sugary, electronic without wanting you to kick the kid with the glow sticks, and hip enough to pack the Echo to capacity. Oh, but there is that slight discrepancy between their live and their recorded music. The album’s liner notes say that it was made in their bedroom, so I guess trying to fit all that equipment into someone’s boudoir is a feat best left up to a magician of some sorts. The album comes off sounding a bit quieter and more stripped down. But I’m not reviewing the album, I’m reviewing the concert. And the concert was good.

Anything But Scary: Grizzly Bear @ the Troubadour February 21, 2007

For some reason I was positive that Grizzly Bear actually came from the Great White North, but Brooklyn? Well, maybe I'll just pretend they're from Canada (please note that is NOT a knock on Brooklyn).

Tonight for whatever reason, the Troubadour decided that they were going to allow myself and a friend to grace the upstairs VIP room that overlooks the entire stage without toes being stepped on or sweaty hipster corduroy pressing against my back... This night was going to be awesome!

The first two bands we actually watched on tvs stationed around the bar between sips of whiskey while we lounged on couches. It was a bit disorienting to be watching tv when you could hear the music from the band you're watching come drifting up the dimly lit stairway in the corner. But why make the effort when you can kick back with your feet up.

The whole mood of the night was incredibly laid back. I would almost say lazy, except I think I would be doing the music of Grizzly Bear an injustice.

The performance bordered on trance-like melodies and howls that I swear you would only find out in the subzero tundras up to the north. The howls however were more than mere occurances. Whole songs rested solely from the gutteral oohs and ahhs that singers Edward Droste and Daniel Rossen (who is the other half in Department of Eagles, who you should check out after finishing this post) would moan out to the audience. Surprisingly enough, these translate well both live and recorded (check out Yellow House).

On another note, being the drum geek that I am, I couldn't help but notice the interesting set up. NO BASS DRUM. It took a good stare before I finally figured out what was different. It worked though; a bass may have broken the soft swells of percussion.

It's very rare that nights out at clubs make you want to curl up with some cocoa and go watch a snowfall illuminated by moonlight. Usually by the end of the night you're scrambling to locate where you've tossed your Motrin and possibly your phone. But Grizzly Bear creates a dreamy low-fi lullabye that you can't help but want them to sing to you as you drift off to sleep.

Did You See the Drummer's Hair? The Ettes @ Spaceland and the Scene, Jan. 27th and February 10th 2007

Technically this should be two posts, but I’m rushing and mainly I was only going to talk about this one band, The Ettes anyways, so there.

At Spaceland, January 27^th 2007, I arrived expecting to go sit in the backroom and wait through the usual opening bands (gross generalization here, but wait) until The Black Lips came on. I quite enjoy their mishmash of poppy rocky folky sing-a-longs and shout-a-longs, and I heard one time they pissed on each other on stage. However, once there, we were tipped to go and check out this one band, The Ettes- “Dude, you need to go see the drummer. Crazy.”

Hellfuckingyes.

This three piece female fronted garage band on Sympathy Records puts many a bands to shame right now. They capture the hard distorted sounds common with many bands in this genre, but add some 60’s chick rock to balance it all out. And you can dance to it. (At this point I’ll just mention that The Black Lips played a good set from what I saw, no pissing though, and we ended up leaving before they were done cause it was obvious no stage pranks were going to happen.)

The tip we received about going to see the drummer was dead on too, she’s fucking awesome. Her speed alone makes you hold your breath to see if a) she’ll lose tempo b) she’ll have a heart attack c) the drum kit will just go flying in 4 different directions OR d) all of the above.

They’re pretty consistent too. The second time I saw them, February 10^th at the Scene in Glendale, they were the headlining band that night. This was also the night of my first Burlesque show. I don’t know what I was expecting as far as half naked chicks shaking gold boobie tassels at me, but the bored looks on some of these girls’ faces was not it. Where were the giant bubbles and feathers?

Anyways, the first band to go on, Rocket, was…um. Well, if you pooled a bunch of 13 year old girls and let them run hog wild in Hot Topic and then gave them instruments and said, “Be punky”, then I think you would have this band. The highlight being that a joke was told by a friend that, “This is the type of band that would have a song called ‘Too Cool For School’..” and then shortly after they actually played a song with those words.

The second band, The Affair, were much more tolerable. For some reason I kept being reminded of Interpol, if Interpol was led by a girl. Or maybe I’m completely wrong cause then they switch to sounding kinda like Blondie and 60’s girl pop when I re-listen to them. Whatever, I liked them.

I’m realizing this post is starting to go incredibly long, so I’ll wrap it up. The Ettes played and rocked again. This time the crowd was much more focused on them, as opposed to the Spaceland show. AND there was even an encore.

The only down-ish side to them is the album, which is completely listenable except that when compared to their live set, it seems a bit overproduced, which is sad. To experience them one must go to a show… and they’re massively touring right now so there’s no excuse NOT to see them. They’ll be back in L.A. on March 30^th, I think it might be a retirement party for someone at Sympathy but I’m not sure. Regardless, go see them.

The Good, the Bad, and the Reatarded: Jay Reatard, Tokyo Electron, the Lamps and the Guilty Hearts @ the Scene January 18, 2007

When did the black leather studded belt, so ferociously worn by young punks decades ago, become a fashion statement slung on the hips of a young blonde possibly with Hot Topic tags still on the floor of her car? Going to the Scene bar amuses me sometimes. Such was the case at the Scene on January 18^th, the night of the Jay Reatard show.

This show was amusing and yet sad at the same time. However, my original rant from which this post was spawning has thankfully been given some rest time and will not be as harsh as originally planned. Let me explain if you will…

Four bands played tonight: The Guilty Hearts (I’m almost positive this was the name of the first band- only because another band was going to play and then couldn’t and I can’t be held responsible for remembering these things), the Lamps, Tokyo Electron, and Jay Reatard. The first band had a decent performance, but I will admit to losing attention and wandering off. But, I would give them a second listen to because they did have some elements of garage that I like.

The second band, the Lamps, I thought would be great due to the hype of their following here in Los Angeles. When one speaks of garage music and L.A., inevitably everyone mentions this band. But why? There are singers who have weird voices and that is what makes them, but then there are those that are just not good. I could not listen to this band because I could not stand his voice. And unfortunately the music just was not there for me either. Sigh. I thought to myself that the scene is doomed if people were going to be hyped for this, but thankfully I was able to catch another band (The Ettes) shortly after this show that challenged the dull constant drone that I thought the scene around here was to become. [They’ll get a decent write up in one of the 2 shows I’ve caught them at recently. Soon, I promise.]

Tokyo Electron was third. They make more of the faster tempo punk-garage music that was a good lead into the Jay Reatard set. They were satisfying. I’m not going to rant on about them because they came, did an awesome job and convinced me that I need to go buy some of their records.

Jay Reatard stole the show, although, I guess if you are headlining then it IS your show, but whatever, you get my point. Loud, fast and cussing through spit, he sped his way through many of the songs off his newest album, Blood Visions- opening with the song of the same name. The set was relatively short but packed so much into so short a time that it was almost exhausting.

If there was one thing I’d like to do after seeing this show, it would be to kidnap a good number of the garage bands coming out of Memphis and stick them here in LA. Once can only hope that this influence will spread here, and quickly.

Shut Up and Rock! The Fucking Champs @ Spaceland, January 13, 2007

Interspersed between the usual crowd of young hipsters at Spaceland Saturday night loomed patches of another type of audience: black jeans, long hair, wait! Was that an Iron Maiden t-shirt? Very rarely do the metal kids come together alongside their polar opposites, the hip kids, to enjoy a band. At least not without a possible fight or two. But this was not the case as one of the strangest varieties of audience members, and performers piled into Spaceland Saturday January 13.

And who were they all waiting to see? Well according to the L.A. Times it was the opening band, Citay, but really, it was in fact, The Fucking Champs.

Being the excellent reporting person that I am, I not only did NOT read said Times article, I am stating this purely on hearsay. Citay, for an opening band, was not bad. They would probably have been better if there charming folky pop songs sung by several men and women in harmony complete with flute, keys, tambourines, and several other band members had been followed by several other bands with similar tastes in music. But opening for semi-instrumental metal music bands? Who decided to book them?

This odd choice on behalf of the booking people subsequently led me to go sit in the other room at Spaceland pretty much till the Fucking Champs took the stage. My ears would need the rest considering the sheer volume that was to be put out by the main band.

Three nondescript guys take the stage. They possibly could have been your stoner friends in college, or now perform in some kind of jazz fusion ensemble; anything but the sounds that were about to come out from the amplifiers. The sounds are loud and harsh. The kind of sweaty rock that, being a girl, should intimidate me, and yet I find myself quite compelled to stare and watch.

One factor that separates T.F.C’s from your run of the mill metal band is their use of double lead guitars- no bass, no vocals, just two leads, and inspiration in part from Thin Lizzy, a known influence for them, which also makes me appreciate them even more.

There is no point trying to recall names of songs- they do stop and start, change tempo, change key, but other than the two songs that actually do have lyrics (Extra Man and Some Swords) The Fucking Champs’ simply throw out a tornado of sound that you need to just take in and try not to let your ear drums burst. The structures of the songs though seem very calculated. It might have to do with the very little moving on their part during the show. Or, perhaps they are able to simplify such complex tunes by looking like it is nothing to them. They simply flick their wrists- and out comes rock.

Wind and Chains: Peter and the Wolf @ The Echo, December 14, 2007

Hunched over amongst the sparse crowd stands a man. Average size, common brown thread jacket. He could be any Silverlake/ Echo Park hipster out on a Thursday evening. His relaxed air talking in the crowd shows no signs of pre-stage jitters, or a need to chain smoke or throw back shots. His name is Red, and he is “Peter and the Wolf”.

Tonight the Echo was dead. You could hold your arms out as far as they could go on either side and spin in circles without fear of hitting anyone. I love it like this.

Sharing the stage with Red tonight Thursday December 14, 2006, was The New Motherfuckers and The Lottery. The New Motherfuckers were pretty interesting but we opted to stand out back through their set. Coming back in for The Lottery was a nice surprise. My friend referred to them as “a garage band that doesn’t know they’re a garage band”, which I can agree with until I hear the recorded songs (hmmm, *shrugs*). However, the dual female/male lead vocals and crunchy loud sounds were enough to keep our interest while playing live.

I hate to say that the Peter and the Wolf set up was amateurish, perhaps a better term would be stripped down. It’s just him with a guitar and bass drum, while two members from the Lottery accompany him on drums and, this is perfect, a standup wash bin bass. It’s the kind of stripped down arrangement one might find out on a back porch deep in the Ozarks. While he is traveling Red keeps it simple. He told me that in every town he plays he just asks friends who are in bands to play backup. Which would make for interesting live shows when your backing band is practically making up noise on the spot. Tonight though, the music was knocked down into a deeper, slower pace as he opened with Strange Machines and went into tracks found on his release Experiments in Junk.

Peter and the Wolf prove that even from the simplest of births, music can take on far more complex structures. In his case, all you need is a voice, a stamping foot and a rubber band, and there you have a show.