ATM + Yvette at Death By Audio

Went to check out both of these guys at DBA last night, Ted from ATM had sent me his latest cassette and I had been listening to it for past few days, so when I noticed he was on a bill with Yvette I had to go catch both of these guys at my favorite venue...that refuses to change, the last holdout, surrounded by vespa's and condo's.
ATM set up a semicircle on the floor with tiers of effects, and tom drums, from the shows I remember with him drumming for These are Powers, the heavy submissive beat is key, and the hit of a real booming tom is the cornerstone to being beat-notized. The effects come on heavy and thick, a repetitive echo-y sludge bounces around the concrete walls and Ted put on his sunglasses for Suicide effect. He's got the same kind of mechanical menace, combined with primitive rhythms pounded out occasionally on the cluster of raised drums beside him. It's a frightening version of Dirty Beaches, take away that twisted attempt at soul, the classy yesteryear vibe, or Handsome Furs neo-springsteen pop, you have this utilitarian unglamorous future. Like Mattress opening for the Liars, Ted's got an impressive master plan and is singlehandedly pulling it off.


Yvette set up in the same way, right there on the floor in front of the stage, facing each other with cases of pedals at their feet. You don't realize from the single the elaborate footwork required to create the dense layer of electronics that come out that guitar amp and the amount of control Noah has over that blinking mess...bursts of ringtoned chords, swapping between a high pitch bell feedback and a sweeping crunch. Rick is pounding away in precise polyrhythms, from hitting the metal edge of the toms to some kind of trigger attached to the top of the drum head. Just when you thought this overwhelming rhythm can't possibly get bigger, all kinds of alien rumblings come in on every hit. They are wizards at incorporating these kinds of technical possibilites without it ever being a crutch of complication, losing momentum live. They're capable of crafting an impressive collection of sound that doesn't even seem like it's possibly happening with guitar and drums, even though I'm standing two feet away. It's being done on an incredibly high level of established groups and you're lucky to catch them at a small venue like this, not that it's going to help you figure out what exactly is making these sounds. Go pick up their great single and then get creeped/chilled out with ATM.

**Northside Fest** These are Powers at Death by Audio -6-12-09

These are Powers are evolving.

They also screened their video last night for 'Easy Answers' from All Aboard Future. It was full of forest, candlelight ritual and symbols of consumption. Anna is dressed in a jumpsuit and sunglasses holding a boombox crouched down singing into the camera....looking very hip hop. She's singing now, in the classical sense, snarling more...getting sexy.

There's a different feel for this band compared to a year ago, Anna's dressed in sequins, clearly comfortable with her lead position in the Powers, talking with the crowd and throwing balls of tin foil and coiled cables. It's a confident TAP, they mentioned their recent tour through China and I have to imagine this has something to do with their more dance centric performance. Everything performed was from All Aboard Future (which is missing Cockles, their greatest song) which is more electronic, less experimental. On a purely musical level it's a different direction...embracing the 4/4 rhythms, the handclap and leaving the sinister ghost-punk behind. There's a heavier focus on the live performance, the bass beats and Anna's vocals, which used to be another instrument, tribal and dangerous, not breathy dance phrasing... nearly hip hop.

Bill Salas is amazing at managing to achieve a balance between the electronic and analog. Bringing the thunderous bass shaking machine kicks with cymbals, or conga. They undeniably move the crowd and Powers are clearly loving the reaction... Anna is a force, a real presence....but it felt friendlier and more accessible. They are an impressive live band, and have come up with a compelling composite of experimental primitive dance, but they've changed up their own rules, nearly thrown out the old formula and are on to moving more and more crowds.

Vivian Girls at Death by Audio

I came across the Vivian Girls after seeing that they were opening for Love is all at Market Hotel and looked up their myspace. I missed them that time, but the tracks on myspace were so great I ordered the singles still available immediately.

Then an email came through from ToddP about a last minute show at DBA supporting The Woods and Meneguars record release. After a walk around the block, and some confusion with the nights lineup, they were just finishing setting up.
I never get over how much I love this space. It's falling apart, the graphitti is ever changing on the walls, the ceiling tiles are more broken every time. Who's jumping up there and punching them? What guitars/mics have been thrown into the air?


They soundchecked the essential echo/chorus effects on all three mics, which was feedbacking along with the high range vocals, blending into a long screeching wail after the vocals faded. This part doesn't come through as much on the recorded material. The feedbacked endless echo is so much a part of this upper harmony/ethereal sound. It completely becomes another instrument taken to this endpoint, so completely pushed to the limit of possible echo that gives up coherence for pure harmonized vocals. They really use to their voices as women to their advantage, 3 high part girl harmonies working with the range of the intentional feedback... I just kept thinking 3 guys could not get away with this, it just wouldn't work.

The lyrics are so completely an afterthought live, they work completely... recorded, here it's the wall of harmony sound, all hiss and feedback. You reach for a little of the melody peeking through a punk rhythm, and jangly treble twee guitar.
I think that's the key to this sound that I love so much, the contrast between the usual moodiness tempo of this genre's sound. The My Bloody Valentine effect....with the echo set to '11' the first instinct is to slow down the tempo and draw out everything from the chords to the syllables. It turn's syrupy slow fall asleep town. Every track here live was probably faster than the stuff on their sold out self titled LP, the double snare hits are punked out, the chord strumming trying to keep up. The crowd was definitely bouncing around to the girl trio punk-gaze-a-thon.

They are living up to whatever kind of hype is already coming their way, it's an impressive debut album and the singles are so great. the way it's reworking a lot of elements: like mod/50's girl Phil Spector groups all the way through to Ramones punk to Shoegaze Jesus and Mary Chain and twee Swirlies, taking the best elements of all of that and keeping it fast and sounding new the whole time.


Tomorrow they play the Yard which is just a bad ass amazing space/venue, I'm sorry I'll miss it, this band is worth it... but there is a ridiculous lineup there anyway, I'm insane and you're insane not to go.


Here's a single still available from Woodsist (after July28th): VIVIAN GIRLS- "Tell The World" 7" (WOODSIST016) irresistible mix of shoegaze, punk, and 60's girl-group sounds with beautiful reverb drenched vocals. features three self recorded tracks of lo-fi goodness. first press of 1,000 on black vinyl.

7"= USA = $ 7.75 ppd Canada / Mexico = $ 10.75 ppd World Airmail = $ 12.75 ppd

price includes S&H and paypal fee paypal to cassettes( @ )gmail.com

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