1) https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/aliens-are-more-likely-than-god
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
25-11-2015: the vampire diaries
tracks worked on in this vlog:
1) https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/aliens-are-more-likely-than-god
1) https://jasonparent.bandcamp.com/track/aliens-are-more-likely-than-god
Sunday, November 22, 2015
one last night out before the major detox
so, i will fully acknowledge - despite rationalizations otherwise - that the reason i went to the show on friday night was to get a last night of smoking in. which, on the bright side, at least suggests i'm serious about stopping. i think i have to be.
that said, i also felt the headliner was worth documenting. to an extent, this is partly what a lot of these show reviews have always been about. now that i have the camera (however low quality it may be....), i feel an added sense of responsibility to be curating. because my taste is superior. of course.
--
i wasn't sure if i was going to miss the opening act or not, and wasn't really concerned about it if i did. i kind of expected the show to start late, but not quite as late as it started - i did catch the opening act, and snapped a little bit of footage.
it very mildly piqued my interest in what it was, namely a splice of mathy indie rock with alt-country-pop-whatever. i don't know who to blame for it (wilco?), but indie rock turned into country music at some point a little over ten years ago and has basically been tedious and boring ever since. this act certainly demonstrated tedium and boredom, but the mathier aspects almost saved it...
i said almost. not quite. i'd say the rhythm section should drop the singer, if it can't convince her to drop the alt-country-pop-whatever schtick. there's nothing interesting going on there.
between sets i went out and had a smoke; i was feeling a little light-headed when i came back. probably the weather. but, it meant i watched most of the next set sitting down, and didn't get a chance to catch any footage.
the name of the band is exceedingly relevant: this is creepy shit. in an unsettling way. i think i'll leave it at that.
while it was meant to be comical, my general reaction was more that i felt embarrassed for them. which is no doubt in the range of intended reactions.
however, there was one song that had me doubled over laughing, and nearly crying. it may have been because i was feeling a little light-headed from the weather, but it was still one of the best laughs i've had in a while. i've found old footage of this track:
here is a full set:
the next band up was called nudie suits, and they seemed to be defined by a conflict: the violin player wants to do loop-heavy, post-gaze drone stuff whereas the keyboard player wants to do more conventional noir pop. the end result was that they were trying to play over each other. not always. they stopped and listened to each other a few times. but it was that conflict that overpowered.
i'm not entirely adverse to the idea of a riff-off in the context of gaze/drone vs. noir pop, but the truth is that neither had the chops to do it. the violin parts often just fizzled out into static feedback loops or two note patterns, and flopped on the builds. and the keyboard player often cycled around simple progressions, bent entirely on rooting herself in dynamics that were being completely paved over by the electronics.
the lack of footage was a conscious choice.
--
it was the material on valley hush' bandcamp page that drew me out (and made the smoking night worthwhile). While certainly pop, and maybe operating somewhere close to a successful and critically acclaimed contemporary act like tune yards, the overall songwriting struck me as worth documenting.
i only film one song and tend to pull it from between the second and fourth track. there's always the nightmare that you screw up the first track, which is also often going to be chosen to let the scragglers in. two-four is usually the meat of the set.
i pulled the third track, which meant i got one of the poppier numbers. overall, the set was a bit more developed than this, with more extended tracks that leaned into the realm of psychedelic rock without really falling into it.
it's pop. i know not everybody likes pop. i actually have a pretty hefty soft spot for it. but, realize i'm very picky about it, too. i'm only going to bite at a pop band if it's a really good one.
the show was late, as expected, but far more so than i realized. the last band was slotted for 11:15 - meaning they should have been done around 11:45. i knew it was later than that, but wasn't checking the time. the show wasn't done until 12:40; i would have guessed it was more like 12:15. but, had i been checking the clock more closely, i would have left a few minutes earlier.
while i do believe i got to rosa parks on time and should have been able to cut the bus off at the pass, i ended up missing it (unless it came out of customs well after 2:00, which is unlikely) by what could not have been more than a few minutes. i can only understand how this could happen by concluding that the bus left early.
you can imagine why this should not happen. there's more on this topic in the day's vlog:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2015/11/20.html
that said, i also felt the headliner was worth documenting. to an extent, this is partly what a lot of these show reviews have always been about. now that i have the camera (however low quality it may be....), i feel an added sense of responsibility to be curating. because my taste is superior. of course.
--
i wasn't sure if i was going to miss the opening act or not, and wasn't really concerned about it if i did. i kind of expected the show to start late, but not quite as late as it started - i did catch the opening act, and snapped a little bit of footage.
it very mildly piqued my interest in what it was, namely a splice of mathy indie rock with alt-country-pop-whatever. i don't know who to blame for it (wilco?), but indie rock turned into country music at some point a little over ten years ago and has basically been tedious and boring ever since. this act certainly demonstrated tedium and boredom, but the mathier aspects almost saved it...
i said almost. not quite. i'd say the rhythm section should drop the singer, if it can't convince her to drop the alt-country-pop-whatever schtick. there's nothing interesting going on there.
between sets i went out and had a smoke; i was feeling a little light-headed when i came back. probably the weather. but, it meant i watched most of the next set sitting down, and didn't get a chance to catch any footage.
the name of the band is exceedingly relevant: this is creepy shit. in an unsettling way. i think i'll leave it at that.
while it was meant to be comical, my general reaction was more that i felt embarrassed for them. which is no doubt in the range of intended reactions.
however, there was one song that had me doubled over laughing, and nearly crying. it may have been because i was feeling a little light-headed from the weather, but it was still one of the best laughs i've had in a while. i've found old footage of this track:
here is a full set:
the next band up was called nudie suits, and they seemed to be defined by a conflict: the violin player wants to do loop-heavy, post-gaze drone stuff whereas the keyboard player wants to do more conventional noir pop. the end result was that they were trying to play over each other. not always. they stopped and listened to each other a few times. but it was that conflict that overpowered.
i'm not entirely adverse to the idea of a riff-off in the context of gaze/drone vs. noir pop, but the truth is that neither had the chops to do it. the violin parts often just fizzled out into static feedback loops or two note patterns, and flopped on the builds. and the keyboard player often cycled around simple progressions, bent entirely on rooting herself in dynamics that were being completely paved over by the electronics.
the lack of footage was a conscious choice.
--
it was the material on valley hush' bandcamp page that drew me out (and made the smoking night worthwhile). While certainly pop, and maybe operating somewhere close to a successful and critically acclaimed contemporary act like tune yards, the overall songwriting struck me as worth documenting.
i only film one song and tend to pull it from between the second and fourth track. there's always the nightmare that you screw up the first track, which is also often going to be chosen to let the scragglers in. two-four is usually the meat of the set.
i pulled the third track, which meant i got one of the poppier numbers. overall, the set was a bit more developed than this, with more extended tracks that leaned into the realm of psychedelic rock without really falling into it.
it's pop. i know not everybody likes pop. i actually have a pretty hefty soft spot for it. but, realize i'm very picky about it, too. i'm only going to bite at a pop band if it's a really good one.
the show was late, as expected, but far more so than i realized. the last band was slotted for 11:15 - meaning they should have been done around 11:45. i knew it was later than that, but wasn't checking the time. the show wasn't done until 12:40; i would have guessed it was more like 12:15. but, had i been checking the clock more closely, i would have left a few minutes earlier.
while i do believe i got to rosa parks on time and should have been able to cut the bus off at the pass, i ended up missing it (unless it came out of customs well after 2:00, which is unlikely) by what could not have been more than a few minutes. i can only understand how this could happen by concluding that the bus left early.
you can imagine why this should not happen. there's more on this topic in the day's vlog:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2015/11/20.html
Saturday, November 21, 2015
20-11-2015: why the detroit/windsor area needs a pedestrian crossing option
concert footage:
river spirit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btunBJsfq38
the creepers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZforNU_VKY (old footage)
nudie suits (none taken)
valley hush: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmU8iOhObz8
review:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2015/11/20.html
river spirit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btunBJsfq38
the creepers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZforNU_VKY (old footage)
nudie suits (none taken)
valley hush: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmU8iOhObz8
review:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2015/11/20.html
Friday, November 20, 2015
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
travelling to pontiac, michigan to see skinny puppy
if you're a really serious music fan, you can likely point to a handful of acts over the course of your life that have acted as epiphanies for you, that have really made you see the world differently. my list begins when i was pretty young and runs through a number of successful alternative rock bands [REM (89-91), nirvana (91-93), the smashing pumpkins (93-95), nine inch nails (94-96)] before absolutely plateauing with skinny puppy, over about 96-99. the next thing that slapped me upside the head was gybe's moya in early '99. but, skinny puppy were the band as i was going through the portal of mid adolescence and entering into adulthood. before puppy, music was formative; after puppy, it was more of a process of identification. it's very much the pivot point between when i was figuring out who i was and when i was pretty sure i knew who i was. as such, there's quite a lot of this band in the core of my being - both musically speaking and ideologically speaking.
while i would have been too young to see them anywhere anyways, the reality is that skinny puppy did not exist during this period. they have toured sporadically since 2000, but i had yet to have an opportunity to see them until now. so, this show was sort of a big deal for me.
they had a guitarist and a drummer with them and consequently focused the setlist around this. this meant that the material was largely from records like rabies and the process, which feature more prominent guitar work than some of the other records. while this is only one facet of a band that has several facets, one can only facilitate so many facets at one time. i'd have loved to sit there for six hours as they ran through everything they ever did, and maybe the odd tear garden & download tune, but that's not reasonable. the truth is that focusing on the drums/guitar aspect is maximizing their appeal as a live rock band, and that's perfectly understandable. it would have maybe been nice to see something like the center bullet, circustance or jackhammer mixed up in there somewhere, but i had a great time nonetheless.
here is an actual complete show:
it's less that the show was over earlier than i expected and more that it started earlier than i expected. it was doors at 7:00, and the band was on some time around 9:00. they actually played for close to two hours. but, the bar closed down and started pushing people out around 11:00, which left me stuck outside in pontiac for five and a half hours. if they had come on at 11:00 and finished around 1:00, as i was expecting, and then left the bar open until at least 2:30, maybe pushing 3:00, i would have only really needed to procrastinate for about an hour.
as it is, i hung around outside for a bit, went to a gay bar for a few hours and then just hung out with some random kids sitting around smoking in the parking lot. i was starting to freeze over by the time the bus finally showed up, and ready to collapse when i finally got back to canada at about 7:00 am.
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2015/11/15.html
while i would have been too young to see them anywhere anyways, the reality is that skinny puppy did not exist during this period. they have toured sporadically since 2000, but i had yet to have an opportunity to see them until now. so, this show was sort of a big deal for me.
they had a guitarist and a drummer with them and consequently focused the setlist around this. this meant that the material was largely from records like rabies and the process, which feature more prominent guitar work than some of the other records. while this is only one facet of a band that has several facets, one can only facilitate so many facets at one time. i'd have loved to sit there for six hours as they ran through everything they ever did, and maybe the odd tear garden & download tune, but that's not reasonable. the truth is that focusing on the drums/guitar aspect is maximizing their appeal as a live rock band, and that's perfectly understandable. it would have maybe been nice to see something like the center bullet, circustance or jackhammer mixed up in there somewhere, but i had a great time nonetheless.
here is an actual complete show:
it's less that the show was over earlier than i expected and more that it started earlier than i expected. it was doors at 7:00, and the band was on some time around 9:00. they actually played for close to two hours. but, the bar closed down and started pushing people out around 11:00, which left me stuck outside in pontiac for five and a half hours. if they had come on at 11:00 and finished around 1:00, as i was expecting, and then left the bar open until at least 2:30, maybe pushing 3:00, i would have only really needed to procrastinate for about an hour.
as it is, i hung around outside for a bit, went to a gay bar for a few hours and then just hung out with some random kids sitting around smoking in the parking lot. i was starting to freeze over by the time the bus finally showed up, and ready to collapse when i finally got back to canada at about 7:00 am.
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2015/11/15.html
vampire belt & absinthe bust
attending this concert was a last minute decision that i played over in my mind repeatedly. did i really want to go? was it worth the walk? customs? should i stay in and work instead?
i decided to go because i wasn't going to get any meaningful mixing done that night anyways and i felt it should be in the list of shows i've seen. i also decided that i had an obligation to stop by at the christopher bissonnette release party in windsor because release parties for kranky artists don't happen in windsor every day. so, the plan was to stop at the release show for a few minutes, see what it was about and probably catch the 9:30 bus across to detroit. i was expecting to miss the opening act, and maybe some of the second set.
when i got to the release show, i noticed something i hadn't seen before: this bar sells absinthe. i'll acknowledge that my understanding of absinthe was somewhat vague. well, it's not necessary working knowledge on a day-to-day basis, right? i'd heard it was a hallucinogen. i hadn't really looked it up, because i hadn't really been in the opportunity to need to know about it. but, i figure i'm standing in the bar, i should try it...
i asked the bartender what, in hindsight, seem like ridiculous questions.
"i've never done absinthe before, but i've done plenty of mushrooms..."
"....will i be ok to go through customs on the stuff?"
i decide that i'll take a "strong" shot and see how i feel. by the time i'm done, it's clear to me that the release party is just a dj set (which is not my thing....), so i'm out to the noise show.
i must have missed the bus by three minutes; i'm stuck waiting for the 10:00 bus. but, i'm thinking i still have plenty of time to get there, because they'll be on third.
as i'm waiting, i can feel the burn of the vodka, but i'm not feeling any hallucinogenic effects. i do start to feel some waves as i'm walking up gratiot, but they're gone by the time i get to trinosophes....
...where the band is halfway through their set. they played second. fuckers...
i did catch about twenty minutes of what i'm guessing was probably a 30-40 minute set, and the above shot of noise is a decent representation of it. i mean, it's exactly what one would expect, whether they are familiar with vampire belt or merely with corsano and/or nace. it's just raw, unsculpted, jagged sound.
some people were complaining after the show. "that was fucking terrible", one person said. i had to agree, actually. but, see, that's the point. i guess there's a sort of least upper bound on noise, where you don't get more offensive with increasing intensity. this was achieved some time in the 90s; it really hasn't evolved much since. however extreme extreme music gets in the upcoming decades, what the collection of mostly east coast bands that sound similar to vampire belt did then, do now and will do in the future will never lose it's edge in the realm of irritating the uninitiated. it's just past the limit. some people claim it's the most pure form of contemporary punk; i think that this idea is absolute fucking bollocks, but the sentiment has something to it in the sense that it's a "fuck you" that will never lose it's sting. so, you go to the show expecting to enjoy a half hour of absolutely incoherent nonsense. at the same time, you expect that almost nobody else in the audience will enjoy it.
here's a full set, if you dare:
i stayed a few minutes into the next act, mostly because my stomach was hurting from the absinthe, but left fairly briefly in order to go get another shot. understand that i'm still operating under the idea that this is a hallucinogen. i'm feeling like i didn't get enough to get to a peak and need to take another shot before i can come to any conclusions on the value of the drug. the act was mixing horns with theremins; you've heard this before, and you weren't excited when you did.
i didn't even get a vodka buzz off of the second shot. it was just entirely unfelt.
it wasn't until i woke up in the morning that i realized i was operating on bad information. it turns out that absinthe has a chemical called thujone in it that can cause muscle spasms at high doses but is not hallucinogenic. that is, absinthe does not have hallucinogenic properties. it's really just very potent alcohol.
oops.
vlog for the day:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2015/11/14.html
i decided to go because i wasn't going to get any meaningful mixing done that night anyways and i felt it should be in the list of shows i've seen. i also decided that i had an obligation to stop by at the christopher bissonnette release party in windsor because release parties for kranky artists don't happen in windsor every day. so, the plan was to stop at the release show for a few minutes, see what it was about and probably catch the 9:30 bus across to detroit. i was expecting to miss the opening act, and maybe some of the second set.
when i got to the release show, i noticed something i hadn't seen before: this bar sells absinthe. i'll acknowledge that my understanding of absinthe was somewhat vague. well, it's not necessary working knowledge on a day-to-day basis, right? i'd heard it was a hallucinogen. i hadn't really looked it up, because i hadn't really been in the opportunity to need to know about it. but, i figure i'm standing in the bar, i should try it...
i asked the bartender what, in hindsight, seem like ridiculous questions.
"i've never done absinthe before, but i've done plenty of mushrooms..."
"....will i be ok to go through customs on the stuff?"
i decide that i'll take a "strong" shot and see how i feel. by the time i'm done, it's clear to me that the release party is just a dj set (which is not my thing....), so i'm out to the noise show.
i must have missed the bus by three minutes; i'm stuck waiting for the 10:00 bus. but, i'm thinking i still have plenty of time to get there, because they'll be on third.
as i'm waiting, i can feel the burn of the vodka, but i'm not feeling any hallucinogenic effects. i do start to feel some waves as i'm walking up gratiot, but they're gone by the time i get to trinosophes....
...where the band is halfway through their set. they played second. fuckers...
i did catch about twenty minutes of what i'm guessing was probably a 30-40 minute set, and the above shot of noise is a decent representation of it. i mean, it's exactly what one would expect, whether they are familiar with vampire belt or merely with corsano and/or nace. it's just raw, unsculpted, jagged sound.
some people were complaining after the show. "that was fucking terrible", one person said. i had to agree, actually. but, see, that's the point. i guess there's a sort of least upper bound on noise, where you don't get more offensive with increasing intensity. this was achieved some time in the 90s; it really hasn't evolved much since. however extreme extreme music gets in the upcoming decades, what the collection of mostly east coast bands that sound similar to vampire belt did then, do now and will do in the future will never lose it's edge in the realm of irritating the uninitiated. it's just past the limit. some people claim it's the most pure form of contemporary punk; i think that this idea is absolute fucking bollocks, but the sentiment has something to it in the sense that it's a "fuck you" that will never lose it's sting. so, you go to the show expecting to enjoy a half hour of absolutely incoherent nonsense. at the same time, you expect that almost nobody else in the audience will enjoy it.
here's a full set, if you dare:
i stayed a few minutes into the next act, mostly because my stomach was hurting from the absinthe, but left fairly briefly in order to go get another shot. understand that i'm still operating under the idea that this is a hallucinogen. i'm feeling like i didn't get enough to get to a peak and need to take another shot before i can come to any conclusions on the value of the drug. the act was mixing horns with theremins; you've heard this before, and you weren't excited when you did.
i didn't even get a vodka buzz off of the second shot. it was just entirely unfelt.
it wasn't until i woke up in the morning that i realized i was operating on bad information. it turns out that absinthe has a chemical called thujone in it that can cause muscle spasms at high doses but is not hallucinogenic. that is, absinthe does not have hallucinogenic properties. it's really just very potent alcohol.
oops.
vlog for the day:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2015/11/14.html
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Monday, November 16, 2015
Sunday, November 15, 2015
14-11-2015: vampire belt & absinthe bust
concert footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCI5CRdMB4c
review:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2015/11/14.html
i seem to have been taken in on an urban legend regarding the absinthe....
"Absinthe has been frequently and improperly described in modern times as being hallucinogenic. No peer-reviewed scientific study has demonstrated absinthe to possess hallucinogenic properties."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absinthe#Effects
that would explain why i didn't feel anything. the initial waves may have been psychosomatic and a consequence of expectation.
also note that i had to reupload this video to remove an approximately one minute section (beginning around 18:40) where the bar i was walking by happened to be playing a michael jackson song. sony claimed copyright over the entire vlog, the right to place ads of it's choosing on it and total control over revenue to those ads. to put it mildly, this is absolute bullshit. i have no intention of profiting directly from these vlogs (please visit my bandcamp site to support me financially), but the idea that i'd be allowing sony to profit from it because the bar i was walking by for forty seconds was playing a michael jackson song makes me want to vomit.
in order to prevent these kinds of absolutely frivolous claims, youtube should have an independent arbitration process in place that takes power away from claimants and puts it in the hand of a neutral third party.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCI5CRdMB4c
review:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2015/11/14.html
i seem to have been taken in on an urban legend regarding the absinthe....
"Absinthe has been frequently and improperly described in modern times as being hallucinogenic. No peer-reviewed scientific study has demonstrated absinthe to possess hallucinogenic properties."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absinthe#Effects
that would explain why i didn't feel anything. the initial waves may have been psychosomatic and a consequence of expectation.
also note that i had to reupload this video to remove an approximately one minute section (beginning around 18:40) where the bar i was walking by happened to be playing a michael jackson song. sony claimed copyright over the entire vlog, the right to place ads of it's choosing on it and total control over revenue to those ads. to put it mildly, this is absolute bullshit. i have no intention of profiting directly from these vlogs (please visit my bandcamp site to support me financially), but the idea that i'd be allowing sony to profit from it because the bar i was walking by for forty seconds was playing a michael jackson song makes me want to vomit.
in order to prevent these kinds of absolutely frivolous claims, youtube should have an independent arbitration process in place that takes power away from claimants and puts it in the hand of a neutral third party.
Saturday, November 14, 2015
Sunday, November 8, 2015
an early show in ferndale on a cool november evening
going to ferndale for a show is always somewhat of an adventure. it's a 40 minute bus ride from the tunnel, which means it's a 40 minute bus ride back, and the last tunnel bus is far too early - it's at 1:09, which isn't even after last call. that means the show would have to end by 11:30 to get back, and that had yet to happen. i can understand why they don't want to run all night, but they should run until at least 2:15 to give people a chance to get back from right downtown around last call. the thing is this: i'm not going to take a 40 minute bus ride out to ferndale and then leave early to catch the bus. if i'm going to go that far, i'm going to stay for what i'm there for, even if it means having to wait until the morning to get home. but, tonight i went specifically to see the opening band, and so expected to get home by leaving halfway through the headliner. as it happened, the headliner was done by a quarter after eleven, so i got to see the whole show and then get home. but, i shouldn't get used to that.
i was perusing the gear on stage, and just about ready to take some camera shots of it, when pinkish black came on a little earlier than i expected - pretty much 9:00 sharp. the set was exactly an hour, too. no sound check, and that was decisive. i started off a foot from the drummer, dead center, but realized quickly that the bass was coming straight at me and i'd need to move a little bit away to avoid the mic in the camera from distorting. so, that's why i shifted to where the camera shot is. but, i went back to the place i started at after i got my shot in and spent the rest of the show there.
the set was interesting, but i'm not sure exactly what to make of it. i spoke to the band after the set, and they acknowledged the mix was poor - that the synths and vocals were not loud enough to compete with the drums. but, it seemed to me that what was coming at me was more than just a mix issue. i'm fairly familiar with their previous work, and it really seemed like the drumming in the tunes had evolved dramatically in ways that often seemed rather off kilter. in multiple spots in the show, the drums fell into what were simple patterns that were punctuated by strange dynamics in volume and syncopation. overall, that converted the aesthetic from the claustrophobic pop sound that they're known for into something more schizophrenic that brought to mind acts like swans and skinny puppy.
because i'm familiar with the material, it kind of threw me a bit but i can't say i didn't enjoy it. what i'm just not clear on is whether turning the synths down focused more attention on the nature of the drumming, whether the songs have evolved over several years and this is some indication of where they're pivoting to or whether it was even just a tactic to compensate for the low volume on the synths (i.e. that the drummer couldn't really hear what was happening, and had to adjust). regardless, it certainly made the sound a bit more raw in converting the material out of headphone music and into something more live. they're worth checking out, but maybe don't expect the tracks to sound the same way they do on record.
here's a full set:
i got to see zombi as well, but i really wasn't expecting a lot from the set and wasn't particularly impressed by it. so, at least i wasn't let down - but i wasn't turned around, either. i'll give the drummer credit on the basis of pure talent even if a lot of it was derivative - it was easy to tell when he was trying to sound like phil collins or trying to sound like neal peart. but, the songwriting was mostly limp and repetitive post-rock, punctuated only by horrifically cheesy delves into the worst kinds of 70s prog. i'm a fan of the more creative sides of both of these genres, but the way they mix it up is just about the worst formula possible. i mean, tortoise spliced with floyd, or gybe! spliced with genesis, sounds like a great idea. that's awesome*awesome, which would have to compute to awesome. but, yes spliced with and so i watch you from afar is cheese spliced with cheese, and could only possibly produce cheese.
for example, there was one track where the drummer was playing something very reminiscent of a trick of the tail era collins (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBcnjx05a1s), while the bassist/synth guy was moping out a two chord minor progression. i may have been heard thinking out loud that it sounded like what phil collins must have felt like the day that his dog died, which is not the thing of compelling music. there was another track where the drummer was literally playing the pattern to tom sawyer, while the synth guy did some kind of slow motion krautrock thing. i may have been heard thinking out loud that this was the chapter twain could never get published, where tom got baked and passed out near the creek.
silliness aside, they were also very tense. when people yelled in excitement "keep it going!", they defensively pointed out that it's only the second set of the show. i mean, shit. imagine somebody getting excited to see their favourite band at a show. clearly disrespectful!
but, i think that serves to explain what's wrong, here. these guys need to chill out a little. if they were to breathe a little, maybe the song structures would open up a bit, which would lead them to more compelling arrangements. it may not be sufficient, but i claim it is a necessary condition to get them to turn the corner on what they're doing.
vlog for the day is here:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2015/11/06.html
i was perusing the gear on stage, and just about ready to take some camera shots of it, when pinkish black came on a little earlier than i expected - pretty much 9:00 sharp. the set was exactly an hour, too. no sound check, and that was decisive. i started off a foot from the drummer, dead center, but realized quickly that the bass was coming straight at me and i'd need to move a little bit away to avoid the mic in the camera from distorting. so, that's why i shifted to where the camera shot is. but, i went back to the place i started at after i got my shot in and spent the rest of the show there.
the set was interesting, but i'm not sure exactly what to make of it. i spoke to the band after the set, and they acknowledged the mix was poor - that the synths and vocals were not loud enough to compete with the drums. but, it seemed to me that what was coming at me was more than just a mix issue. i'm fairly familiar with their previous work, and it really seemed like the drumming in the tunes had evolved dramatically in ways that often seemed rather off kilter. in multiple spots in the show, the drums fell into what were simple patterns that were punctuated by strange dynamics in volume and syncopation. overall, that converted the aesthetic from the claustrophobic pop sound that they're known for into something more schizophrenic that brought to mind acts like swans and skinny puppy.
because i'm familiar with the material, it kind of threw me a bit but i can't say i didn't enjoy it. what i'm just not clear on is whether turning the synths down focused more attention on the nature of the drumming, whether the songs have evolved over several years and this is some indication of where they're pivoting to or whether it was even just a tactic to compensate for the low volume on the synths (i.e. that the drummer couldn't really hear what was happening, and had to adjust). regardless, it certainly made the sound a bit more raw in converting the material out of headphone music and into something more live. they're worth checking out, but maybe don't expect the tracks to sound the same way they do on record.
here's a full set:
i got to see zombi as well, but i really wasn't expecting a lot from the set and wasn't particularly impressed by it. so, at least i wasn't let down - but i wasn't turned around, either. i'll give the drummer credit on the basis of pure talent even if a lot of it was derivative - it was easy to tell when he was trying to sound like phil collins or trying to sound like neal peart. but, the songwriting was mostly limp and repetitive post-rock, punctuated only by horrifically cheesy delves into the worst kinds of 70s prog. i'm a fan of the more creative sides of both of these genres, but the way they mix it up is just about the worst formula possible. i mean, tortoise spliced with floyd, or gybe! spliced with genesis, sounds like a great idea. that's awesome*awesome, which would have to compute to awesome. but, yes spliced with and so i watch you from afar is cheese spliced with cheese, and could only possibly produce cheese.
for example, there was one track where the drummer was playing something very reminiscent of a trick of the tail era collins (see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBcnjx05a1s), while the bassist/synth guy was moping out a two chord minor progression. i may have been heard thinking out loud that it sounded like what phil collins must have felt like the day that his dog died, which is not the thing of compelling music. there was another track where the drummer was literally playing the pattern to tom sawyer, while the synth guy did some kind of slow motion krautrock thing. i may have been heard thinking out loud that this was the chapter twain could never get published, where tom got baked and passed out near the creek.
silliness aside, they were also very tense. when people yelled in excitement "keep it going!", they defensively pointed out that it's only the second set of the show. i mean, shit. imagine somebody getting excited to see their favourite band at a show. clearly disrespectful!
but, i think that serves to explain what's wrong, here. these guys need to chill out a little. if they were to breathe a little, maybe the song structures would open up a bit, which would lead them to more compelling arrangements. it may not be sufficient, but i claim it is a necessary condition to get them to turn the corner on what they're doing.
vlog for the day is here:
http://dghjdfsghkrdghdgja.appspot.com/categories/shows/2015/11/06.html
Saturday, November 7, 2015
Friday, November 6, 2015
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