There are so many things I should be working on right this very minute but I wanted to babble about some shows for a little bit, since last week was a pretty good one for shows. Last Tuesday, a lady friend and I hiked up to Cornell's Risley Hall for the latest Fanclub offering. I was pretty psyched thinking the show was in Tammany, a little coffeespace with a proper stage and such where in Fanclub days of old we caught Portland IDMers Badger King and Bobby Birdman, but for reasons which passeth understanding, the show was in Risley's dining hall, which lady friend informs me is a reproduction of a dining hall at Oxford. Very Harry Potter, without the pointy hats. Muddy accoustics and no stage, but about seventysome kids packed up at the front.
Titus Andronicus started off the night with a pretty straight-up Clash homage. I believe the case has been made elsewhere, if you're going to steal, steal from the best. Mostly London Calling-era sound, letting my mind drift off to the copy of the Joe Strummer bio I'm waiting to borrow from Mr. Excitement. The fact I was more interested in thinking about reading about the Clash than paying attention to the band was more my fault than theirs.
The next band up was the unfortunately named Midnight Prayers (who we thought for a while was called Midnight Cruise. Not much better). A couple songs in I got to thinking how neat it is when new possibilities pop up on the menu of what kind of band you can be. These guys started off sounding a little like Deer Tick or O'Death: pseudo-old-timey ramshackle playing with high nasally vocals, a sound which is kind of popular with the kids these days. Not much new until they ripped into a garage cover of The McCoys' "Hang On, Sloopy" (the official rock song of the state of Ohio, apparently). Let it be known that I heart me some sixties pop, especially songs that seem irredeemably silly in retrospect, so these guys set the hook in my heart with this one, but the garage translation was a perfect way to combat some of the silliness in the original. From there on out, it was garage all the way, up to and sort of including a slightly draggy cover of the second half of "Shout!". Err...unless you can play wicked fast and have a pretty firm grasp on your loud/soft dynamics, this one's best to be avoided.
On the plus side, let's cast a vote right now for sixties garage pop and Phil Spector girl groups to be the next big thing. It makes sense! Interpol gets into Joy Division and Television and bam, a whole bunch of bands go Ian Curtis. Arcade Fire and Clap Your Hands evoke the spirit of the Talking Heads and whoosh, bunch of Talking Heads bands. My Morning Jacket attempts to redeem southern rock and we get the Black Mountain family of bands. Time has come to move a little further back. The Black Lips have the garage sound knocked down but even cooler is the girl group sound, not of the Pipettes but of Grizzly Bear. Recommended three in a row: "Knife" by Griz, "Putty in Your Hands" by the Shirelles, "Veni Vidi Vici" by the Black Lips. Oh, and also, more bands need to include baritone sax.
(At some point I'll figure out/remember how to put songs up here, I really will.)
Matt+Kim finished out the show and they were just cuter than two little hamsters driving a toy car! Giggling in a skeleton teeshirt as he stood up on his chair to see the audience, Matt was like an amphetemine-fueled QVC host, telling the audience how EXCITED they were to get the OPPORTUNITY to play here, and how AMAZING it all was. I know I sound snarky, but in fact it was pretty goddam adorable. Oh, and also they played music. M+K sound like a more muscular Mates of State (who are equally adorable, substituting googly for giggly), with hints of the aforementioned Portland IDM sound. They let the audience surround them, to the chagrin of the sound guys and the kids were pretty boppy into it, lot of cheery pogoing, sweaty undergrads, crowd-surfing opening band.
Which brings me to the main point here. In addition for a call to garage rock, I think the time has come for Ithaca's answer to Chic-a-Go-Go. All we need is a room, a bouncy band, a bunch of the kids and a couple cameras. Oh, and a slot on public access. Come on, who's in?
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
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