Last night was an awesome show at Backspace. Tragos Amargos had our first official show. You may recall that Tragos Amargos is new project featuring several members of Y La Bamba. I think it went really well. The band is a an experiment to see what you can do with only one stringed instrument at a time when backed by several voices and percussive instruments. Then Key Lovers played. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that this was the new band of Katy Davidson (most famous for being in Dear Nora). She had a bass player and another guitarist, drummer, and a percussionist. They had a lot of cool vocal arrangements and cool percussion parts. I am a fan. And lastly Casiotone for The Painfully Alone took stage. I love his songs. The songs on a basic level are little stories. They are good stories and some how draw you in with very sympathetic characters. They best part though, is how they are set to very cool lo-fi beats. It was so awesome. Anyway here is what looks good to me:
Thursday, January 7th
Ella Street Social Club is having a show with Brainstorm, Arrington de Dionyso, and Soriah (Cascadia). Brainstorm is an excellent band they play pop music cut with a bit of math or prog and sometimes odd instrumentation (like their excellent song with tuba as the main instrument). I have not seen them despite my better judgement. Arrington de Dionyso is most famous for fronting the band Old Time Relijun. His stuff is just nuts. He yelps or sings very passionately and then plays on his bass clarinet in a mixture of chanting backed by a rock and roll band. The show is $5 and starts at 9 PM.
The Artistery is having a show with Grass Widow (San Francisco), White Fang, and Hornet Leg. Grass Widow is a pop band that has very pretty female two part harmonies and a lot of crazy psychedelic freak outs mixed in their music. Kind of like if Deerhoof were not fronted by child like singer. White Fang play really fun art party punk music. Hornet leg play music that is punk and something else. You know when punk bands also say they are soul bands or whatever. It is one of those type of situations. The ALL AGES show is $6 and starts at 7:30 PM.
Laurelthirst is having a show with Leonard Mynx, Kelly Blair Bauman, and James Guffee. Leonard Mynx has been reminding me of that Bob Dylan fellow when he had that Band. It is good and very lyrical. Kelly Blair Bauman is a guy who I still have not seen but I have his album and think its aces. You guys remember when people talked about alternative country? Well I could see Kelly gracing the cover of No Depression Magazine (RIP). His songs are really good and the record is really well recorded and arranged with all the nice fixing's of a good alternative album, pedal steel, harmonica, banjo, and whatever. James Guffee plays "modern rock" or "power pop". The show is $4 and starts at 9:30 PM.
Doug Fir is having a Logan Lynn, Cars & Trains, and The Gentry. Logan Lynn added Emotronic to his list on genres on his myspace (along with indie and pop). This is a pretty good description. Mind you this is way better than Owl City. It reminds me kind of Morr recording artist Styrofoam and then later discovered that Styrofoam did a remix of one of Logan's songs (thought that remix doesn't sound like I remember Styrofoam sounding like). Cars and Trains is awesome. He mixes elements of acoustic folk instruments with layers of looped and live electronic elements and then adds good melodies and song structures to make a very unique sound. He has worked with a few Anticon related folks which makes sense given their tendency to make interesting amalgamations of music. His new album is coming out very soon. Keep an eye out for that one. The Gentry sounds like an updated Depeche Mode. But I guess a little less dark. The show is $6 and starts at 9 PM.
Rotture is having a show with DoublePlusGood, Very International Love, and Mnemonic. DoublePlusGoode makes music that sounds like someone is crooning over remixed video game music. Which is awesome. I think it is fun and good to get you groove on to. Live it is Eric Carlson singing behind a mess of keyboards and live drummer A Nelson. Very International Love make techno pop music that manages somehow to be good. Mnemonic is one of those projects where a person is like "hey, I have a lot of music. Would you like to write some lyrics and sing over the music" and the the other person is like "okay" and before you know it they have an album. The song for the Mnemonic is who has a habit of using a lot of auto-tune on her voice. The show is $5 and starts at 9 PM.
Ducketts Public House is having a show with The Woolen Men, The Small Arms, and Steak Knife. Viva la Indie-rock. The Woolen Men put the rock back in the genre that seems to have mostly lost that element. I only saw them once and enjoyed it. But it was the end of their set which means I missed the other songwriters songs. Props to bands with more than one songwriter. The other bands are rock bands that also bring quite a bit of rock. The Small Arms have a bit of punk element. Streak Knife are a rock band that don't take its songs too seriously and are probably really fun. I won over immediately by their sing "You're gonna die a horrible death". The show is FREE and starts at 9 PM.
Alberta Street Pub will have fellow CIMTB blogger Dr. Something minus her Pipin' Hot Love Engines play a show with Quality Shine. Dr. Something is playing a rare solo show probably showcasing tunes about robots in love and a number of imaginative things. Quality Shine is a jug band. On their website it is said that, "Quality Shine reaches back into the 20s and 30s, playing early Blues, Jazz, and Jug Band tunes with an authentic style! Drawing on various sources from the historical hotbeds of the genre like Memphis, New Orleans, and St. Louis, Quality Shine captures the infectious fun of the music!". The show is $5 and starts at 7 PM.
If you see me at these shows please say, "Hi". I am the bearded dude drinking water.
-Ben
Rivers May Rise from DoublePlusGood on Vimeo
DoublePlusGood do their thing tonight at Rotture
6 comments:
In addition to Robot Love (an analogy that utilizes our culture's pervasive romance trope to illustrate humankind's deep, enthralling and tumultous relationship with its own technological creations), here are some themes that will be covered in my show tonight:
Physical illness
Suburban transit routes
What if the mysterious Hollow Earth were bike accessible?
Frozen boogers
Right now I am a frozen blogger
Remember in "The Golden Child" when he tells the monk to be careful or the frozen booger would scratch him?
I've never seen that movie, Jess, but now I think I have to.
And Ben, I'm astounded by your commitment to blogging even when frozen as well as your ability to type so well in such a state.
What can I say? I'm a pro.
Wait, what? How come you're getting paid for this and I'm not?
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