Minks at Mercury Lounge 11-21-13

If the success of The Minks debut, By The Hedge was a result of the collaboration between Amalie Bruun and Sonny Kilfoyle then Tides End, his new record on Captured Tracks can be attributed squarely to the singular vision of Sonny who’s not only managed to push through the burden of a sophomore release but has done it solo.
Not that it was easy, he banished himself to the far end of eastern Long Island where he discovered his own kind of Grey Gardens where he wrote from the perspective of those forgotten Gatsby’s in concise, nostalgic dance sounds. This is especially true in his matured vocal. On “Funeral Song” Sonny buried himself under an electronic warble but everything on Tides End finds Sonny clearly confident and qualified to deliver on these optimistic melodies. The record ends up as something of contradiction; a romantic electronic album that’s comfortable sounding immediately dated in it's analog synth sounds and their digital approximation of strings or harsh square sine waves. It's these unnatural sounds he's attempting to overcome through thoughtful, organic pop like the sweet spot of New Order melancholy. But in the end the machines don’t matter, these are great songs thanks to a human slant.
But how comfortable can you make tracks built with rigid machines? The Minks avoid the pitfalls of a static show behind laptops because these tracks are after all guitar based pop songs at their core. In their synth and bass live setup which they debuted the end of this summer, Sonny is unassuming and familiar, joking with the audience before continuing to nail nearly every track from Tides. It’s not often that the entire front row of the audience spontaneously starts dancing, but the epic opening bursts of "Painted Indian" compels most everyone and that’s the kind of record this is, balancing sentimentality and abandoning irony while referencing The Pet Shop Boys and Soft Cell. But unlike those bands there isn't an ounce of futuristic posturing, it's a sincere performance that relies on the strength of the songwriting.

He manages to get away with reclaiming those ‘80s sounds while walking the listener through a conceptual album, an impossible handicap. It’s a perfect marriage in spite of everything working against him; having writers block and recording in an uninspiring utility room at the base of the Williamsburg Bridge but finally proving to himself and an audience that he’s capable of a lot more great records.

Pick up Tides End direct from Captured Tracks

Arc in Round at Mercury Lounge 12-8-10

Anytime a band goes from a controlled studio setting to recreating those recordings live, it can be a tricky proposition. Especially for the dense, hazy fog of shoegaze which can notoriously be a technically unpredictable animal.
But guitarist, Jeff Zeigler wrangles sound for a living, producing various Philly bands including the headliners at last night show, War on Drugs at his own Uniform Recording Studios.
So it makes perfect sense that given his technical prowess, Arc in Round would easily be able to tame the layers of atmospherics that make up the tracks from their EP. It also helps they've been playing together for years...initially under the name 'Relay' before renaming themselves after a Disco Inferno track. The sound is influenced heavily by the shoegaze heyday, but they seem to walk a line between experimental drone and dream-pop, they have no problem unpacking the melody into noise and vice versa.
But what compels a contemporary band to continue to explore this genre? It has to be that element of surprise that comes from building that pile of sounds and attempting to keep it together during the breaks and changes. Sounds start to appear you had nothing to do with, a harmonic, or combination of elements you couldn't have hoped to plan turns into something greater than the sum of it's parts. That has to be part of the attraction for a band even with the technical challenges...and that's what makes it a great thing live. it forces the audience to stop trying to pick apart the individual pieces and just give in to the work as a whole.


The vocals from Mikele and Jeff are almost indistinguishable as a lyric, they function completely as another instrument. Buried under an echo they're a humanizing element in the otherwise foreign sounds that come out of the chains of pedals and synths.

But for the sound, their setup actually seemed relatively simple. That's the smartest thing to do with this sound, and in the end allows for the most possibilities... after all it’s not even about reverb if you believe Kevin Sheilds. They made it look pretty effortless and for me it especially works when I honestly have no idea who is creating a particular noise, between Jeff and Mikele, the upper register sounds turning into melody have to coming from one of the pair but neither of their playing is giving it away. Ian and Matt on bass and drums keep the tracks driving ahead always poppy and consistently changing while keeping the haze grounded in catchy consistent rhythms.



They create those epic swells that creep up like EITS, but without the massively changing dynamics, the stops and starts...once the the wall starts, the rising tides are subtle...next thing you know, you can't reach the bottom.

They're more than carrying a torch for the genre, they're taking the conceptual idea's of this overwhelming sound past it's early endpoint. They are probably the best example I've heard of current shoegaze, (for lack of a better term), and like their contemporaries, earplugs are highly recommended.

Bowerbirds at Mercury lounge 4-28-09

I was really looking forward to this show, The last time I saw the Bowerbirds they were great, they had a minimal setup and the audience so quiet you could hear the pump of the accordion. They didn't even need mics, Phil was singing into the space, punctuating louder parts, stepping away slightly and belting out vocals.
Now I'm sure I'm romanticizing, that's the curse of a new album, a new band, the first show I see
Are they doomed to suck after a show like that? But they're still touring with their first album, so I expected something of a repeat performance, the audience has had an extra year to listen to their material and sing it by heart. Which someone next to me managed to do for a few verses of every song. It was fucking maddening.

That brings me to my next problem/question. Can an audience ruin a band?
Can they be such douche's that they can ruin not only the experience that night but then reflect badly on the band itself and retroactively change the way you feel?
I'm leaning towards yes.
There was a group of dicks literally talking through the entire show like no one else was there. Do you think you earned the right to fucking have a little party because you bought a ticket? Should everyone else just be lucky to have you there? You missed the whole show...what were you doing there? Sometimes you just get the feeling the crowd is just weird and full of first dates or people looking to like cool music, this band was in Elle magazine or something?
And I really debated if I'm just getting old, which again the answer is yes.
But were they promoted in certain ways, to a certain audience? An audience that I don't agree with and this makes them ruin the band?

And their new material.... it's bordering on alt country like Band of Horses or god forbid...Wilco. It's that middle of the road, just boring instrumentation. Slow rock, no chorus...even if I could pay attention, I just didn't care...at least it stopped the singing along.

So what specifically went wrong?
I think they took their formula, which I would never think of putting into an Alt-country category, that middle of the road slow rock. and expanded it in the most obvious way. They added a bass player, and new drummer who was playing with a standard kit, and it just sounded louder and muddy, too much going on, layers not adding anything. Was that just because they wanted to tour with these musicians specifically? Were they friends from an opening band? I'm not quite sure what was going on, except the old drummer left I guess, and took a lot with him.

I'm a huge fan of their album Hymns for a Dark Horse. Lyrically it's genius, it's really beautiful sounding, the melodies never match in obvious ways. The guitar is going completely other places. Every chorus you want to sing along to, it's hushed like a bedroom recording, it's really intimate. So I'll always have that, I just won't want to pay money to see them.

Was I ruined because I had seen them under better circumstances? And was I partially an idiot not to move somewhere else?

I think Yes to both.

Here's the show EP 51, Bowerbirds at Mercury Lounge.

If anyone knows more than me about podcast rss feeds, I am having a bitch of a time getting mine to work with itunes...send me an email or something...or comment. Thanks.

The Swirlies - Mercury lounge - 2-27-09

photo courtesy two cups of tea

It's been way too long since the Swirlies played their last show.

I was really shocked to see tickets available from oh my rockness one email. I admit I had to check around and make sure they were talking about the same Swirlies...insanely it was, and I bought tickets as soon as they were available.

I bonded with someone at a party once when I brought up the Swirlies, somehow she knew them and we couldn't believe we found someone else that even knew who they were. It really shocked her...I wasn't convinced we were still talking about the same band in the end, she was so sure she was the only one.

They were one of the first singles I ever bought, lost to someone and then years later I found it again at Eat records...the Brokedick Car EP, on blue vinyl. I've since pretty much picked up all the rest that exist...within reason. They seemed like one of those bands I could always listen to when I wasn't sure what to put on, what I was in the mood for. They ended up on mix tapes for roadtrips for jaded music friends. I had 'They spent their wild youthful days....' and it was such a range of music, from short french sound collages, to never ending blown out shoegaze riffs with all kinds of off tune guitar chords, trading off vocals...real indie...that was indie rock to me, east coast boston based smart complex indie rock.

All this being said, maybe I had the bar set pretty high for a band that doesn't seem to have performed live in like 10 years....and it showed. The tracks are technical, the amount of layers, effects pedals, multiple vocals, real analog keyboards. I could hear the hours of finding these perfect sounds that complemented a blown out chord progression....so no wonder there were so many problems. Recreating this material must have been a nightmare even when it was barely created, let alone by now when literally the machines are way past their prime.
It took forever to set up and it takes a lot to say that, I can tolerate a lot...I mean I think it's obvious I have a serious love for this band that kind of existed in this little bubble of not knowing too much about them, forever being mythologized. They didn't end up in other music projects...it just seemed like life took over and there wasn't the hype machine raging like today or something.
It was good, listening back, they started really strong...but wasn't amazing....they seemed a little like they were out of their element and a bunch of separate musicians trying to keep it together, not communicating, not really excited to be there. I really have to wonder what this whole thing is about for them...a reunion tour? Because they could? The crowd was completely supportive it seemed, through the tangents and sound trouble...we wanted them not to fail.

So here's the live show to examine for yourself....complete with huge periods of time in between songs...for me it completely fell apart around 21 minutes, and I had to leave after just feeling a little let down. Swirlies (44min).

shapes and sizes - weird weeds split

My friend Mike has been waaayyy into asthmatic kitty lately, and has been recommending shapes and sizes and my brightest diamond. I wasn't able to give this a proper listen but just breifly checking it out on their myspace there's a lot of things going on here, like firey furnaces, they are changing like crazy, all kinds of sounds, really clearly arranged.

Clap your hands and say yeah! played at mercury lounge last night, I am tired as hell, they played a random last minute show at 1AM, they played a lot of stuff from the new album. It was 10$ and I never thought I'd see them like that, I had given up after I missed out on arcade fire. I'm just glad I payed attention to that email I got that morning, and that Mike pointed out it was tonight and not the next day since it was at 12:30AM.
I recorded it with my ipod but the belkin microphone or the ipod, (I have to research) skips? Maybe because it's saving tracks over 30 minutes, anyway my first attempt at taping a show was almost perfect except for random skips here and there...kind of sucks.

Scroll down to find this seven inch on sc distribution. This looks like it is part of a series, so I will keep an eye out on asthmatic.

Shapes and Sizes / Weird Weeds
Unusual Animals, Vol. 1
Format: 7" Price: $4.25
(AKR401, Asthmatic Kitty)

On Unusual Animals Volume 1, Shapes and Sizes (in the process of relocating to Montreal from Vancouver) present "Jinker / that Fat Hand," an anthem of defiance and struggle that displays the ongoing maturation of this exciting young band since their self-titled debut, released on Asthmatic Kitty in July, 2006. The Weird Weeds' "Hold in the Light" highlights the genre-breaking minimalist pop songwriting that sets them apart from current trends in avant-folk and pop circles.

RELEASED: 2007-01-23

I really liked this MP3 - Island's gone bad.