Pleasure Leftists

  I missed Population but I caught Pleasure Leftists. They headlined Cole's on Thursday 25 October. They are from Cleveland. The music without Haley's voice immediately reminded me of live Joy Division. It was basic, rough, lead guitar, bass and drums. The bass was aggressive and under the impression that it was front and center. In appearing to compete they actually play off each other. The lead guitar answering the primitive viking bass.  They race each other like muscle cars on a long stretch of highway. You can say the songs are different episodes of this clash of guitars. I love this because in seeming to compete they create a separate thing to appreciate on top of Haley's power-wailing. Imagine this, two drunken belligerent uncles arguing over shit at their nieces birthday party. That's the conversation between bass and lead guitar. The two usual tios, and tia Haley is the only one ballsy enough to control them, 'cause they respect her authority. That's the voice of Haley. This Factory 70's English punk influence becomes more pronounced as the show went on. It could be just my own mind seeking out patterns where none exist. But damn it,  even Haley wore vintage 70's second hand clothes. Seriously, what she wore reminded me of a young tia of mine in some old 70's birthday photo, a relative visiting from Queretaro, Mexico in '78, Queretaro....'cause from there they are lighter skinned.  There was always something to suggest that certain period... 70's from Ms Haley's clothes to the music, the bass, .....and reading Pitchfork, and I didn't want to read them. They don't help.
  Anyway back to the moment, their moment, and all that got me there was the word of the lead singer to Population. No research, no nothing. So when I walk into Cole's you search for the tells among the porous but heavy crowd. The first to greet me at the door is Philly Peroxide, and a member of the brief but wonderful Rosen Association. These are friends with very similar tastes in music. If they are there, that means something. Oh, I just missed Population....oh, but Pleasure Leftists are next! Cool, at least I'll know what they are like. Then as I walk in, more tells. There's Aimee! And then in the middle of the show, there's Corey from Lightfoils/Panda Riot. Oh, and Lightfoils are playing early this May! And he really noticed the bass playing. I think he liked it. It's great to see these bands with other musicians, for they will observe things differently from myself. I don't play an instrument, so I try to listen to how a musician observes. Having said this, I wish not to alarm my friends into thinking that I am "taking notes with my eyes". Now that I've stumbled onto this Almost Famous movie reference, here is another......just follow. And next time watch the movie.
  Remember this scene in Almost Famous, when William is about to kiss Penny Lane, going where many have gone before. You run the risk of sounding like its been tried. This does not happen here with Pleasure Leftists.

  http://epicureme.com/tv-film-music/pleasure-leftists-fan-death-records/And so it comes down to how original can you sound when part of what resonates feels coming since the late 70's English punk.  Anyway, I was not coldly analyzing the performance. I was too busy being into it, and wondering where the fuck was I when they were playing in 2011? I was liking it so much that I wished I was present in all of Pleasure Leftists gigs. So good that it hurts. So I'm going to use another metaphor. Lets not confuse trying to be Bruce Lee with with mastering Jeet Kune Do. This is what Pleasure Leftists strike me as masters of. Besides, a diamond is a diamond no matter when you discover it, no matter how many you have found. PL make me happy to be in the here and now to see them in Cole's and not wishing I was in the past seeing the old punk and post-punk originals. After their shows, they still had to live in Thatcher's England, we don't. We have our own problems that inspire some to write and perform their music that the rest of us....it's a mirror to our own experiences. Anyway, now I must listen to them more. I write this to remember the experience, to not let it slip. PL have it in them to inspire now and a shelf-life that will inspire far later. However....I will not allow my niece who is ten now, discover this in her twenties before me. I am not having it. My finger prints will be all over it first.
Zig

architecture

architecture finished their set at Burlington with a cover of R. Kelly track "Pregnant". It so works. I had to listen to the original and its so hilarious.  They do far better justice to it by taking the complete piss out ...... "put that girl in my kitchen".  There is something about having a female shoegaze band covering R. Kelly. They were here to release tracks I've been waiting since seeing them performed late last year at Empty Bottle, and I believe with Agent Ribbons. I was just starting to get into bb beware.  It was the last song they played, Rebecca smacking the cymbals with her bare hand to add to the effect of Jose's drums was the last image until Burlington.  Diamond Mind is a two song Ep released on vinyl under Notes+Bolts. This CD release was at Burlington on a Wednesday and the first since the debut when we were young. They are Melissa Harris and Rebecca Scott. Yeah, the same one with Panda Riot. If you are already familiar with Panda Riot and I have gone on about them, well then architecture is Rebecca Scott's other active project. Both of these bands are releasing new work for this year. This one is the road not taken with her usual PR bandmates but with partner Melissa Harris. 
  I'm mousy as shit. So when I arrive it was nice to be recognized by the band as all are milling about between the two rooms of the Burlington. I notice that Chicago is almost peppered with small venues. I have not been to a place the size of Metro....well, only for Scary Lady Sarah's Nocturna. Anyway Burlington.....Venue small, parking good. Zig on time. The front room has a DJ and the back has the live music. No I don't recall the name of the band that played after. I did like them. I recall a good crowd for them at Burlington, very enthusiastic. No, I did not count. I only do that to highlight how few went. This is not the case. They got the kind of crowd a middle act gets. You get the people that are for the headliner as well as your own. I like seeing when the acclaim one sees on paper in reviews and such is briefly reflected in spontaneous moments with your audience. And I do read a good amount of acclaim for Northern Automatic Music, the Pandas most recent. Its a little harder to find print on architecture, as well deserved as I believe it is. OK, they are separate bands but are you seriously going to like one thing and not even look up the other, to be willfully ignorant? 
  Hmm, that first album, I gotta say in the morning brings out fondly the memory of waking to a Saturday morning with darkening clouds gently tapping your window with the promise of a rain and thunder show. You can kind of enjoy the grey-ness and how perky it can still look, and beautiful. You don't care if it rains or pours. And lets make it summer so that its not cold. You marvel and ponder safely inside. If it helps to approach this as two projects from one person, Rebecca Scott. On her right hand is Brian, Cory and Jose and on her left since 2011 at least is dream pop sister Melissa. Whatever changes the band has seen Melissa and Rebecca have always been the constant dream pop duo. I mean I've seen different people play in the band. Jose was briefly drumming with them. At first this did not strike me as that much different from Panda Riot.  A lot of what I can say about PR I can say here, they are both dark shoegaze that is easy to dance to. And thats short hand for saying they know how to keep your attention to the music as your own experience.  In PR you are exploring outdoors, a landscape, an urban environment, the streets in whatever car you want to be seen in. Well, there is more to exploring than that, like kids in a Frank Lloyd Wright house in the middle of the night. The interior, detailed texture needs that extra time, slower beats, as if walking. Even your meandering has purpose. And there is more to see from architecture. The EP is great on it's own and you can't help but anticipate great things from them.
Zig

moritat

This feels so long ago....well actually it is. My glasses broke before seeing Moritat and it almost kept me from driving to the venue. I had to figure out how to suspend the lenses in this creative way so I can make it to Township. You know what....I'll be honest. I'm glad everyone else is having a hard time pinning them down. I figure reading about how others see them. We can't even agree on what to call the 800 pound gorilla in the room....sometimes its a pink elephant. Moritat, I just love this band. I see them a lot, and its a great mystery to me how to describe them in fewest words. I didn't have the balls to call them avant rock first. Someone else has and I can use that. Clearly what they do is rock music but thats so woefully insufficient. Just...rock? That's so boring. Because their rock without even trying demands a different name. I tried calling them trip hop, once and that barely covers two minutes, and in calling them trip hop, that also whispers jazz. And their song Yellow House  from their debut reminded me of the Peanuts theme song...that's piano jazz....right? I can't remember the song but it's on their newest Clill Blanzin. My ipod played it on random. I thought it was PJ Harvey. Even when you see one entire gig there is something that you liked but cannot identify what it is. You see flashes of what already resonates with you and that keeps you coming back. They don't just sound like something on the surface. The resonance goes beyond to nameless root. Here I've made all these piano references must mean that Venus commands attention on the keys even when not trying. Thats what got me with Yellow House. It struck me as casual and in no great need of ones attention. I know at this point I'm projecting a lot of my own bullshit embellishments. Yellow House is very long ride away from Blanzin but it always matters what Venus plays. I know there's three of 'em. They all matter. Cory's drums also played into me calling them trip hop. I've gone on about Venus voice. I like Constantine's as well in Snowpusher. Let it not be said that I dislike the male voice. Indeed I do. And Constantine sings in the song they have a video for I Forgot To Kiss Her, in fact. There is no lead guitar most of the time. The better to bring out the keys, the bass and the drums. As great as their recorded work is. The thing is to see them play live. Noise is brilliant. No lead guitar to interrupt the bass of Constantine. Aptly named, Noise does seem to harness random sounds to one purpose, is flexible enough to jam session. I notice this is done with some of their tracks, a moment where its right to just let the three instruments speak to each other, no voice.  This is something the band does live that I have only noticed recently. Its what keeps bringing me back. Its great to see each track in its own way race for that peak and crash back to earth. You feel a deepening relationship with the music because you soaked up what cannot be explained in words but sounds. So there is something to enjoy about the music live as well as...while you are driving from A to B. They will be playing Sunday 21 April at Strobe Studios on 2631 w Division St.
Zig

Videotape

This is one I've been meaning to do for so long. Videotape is one I've been hearing good things about for what feels like a year. No deliberate research and never really catching a show until most recently with Blackstone Rangers and Panda Riot at Township. Sophie Leigh sings. Her voice is dreamy capable of both intimacy, distance and sneering aggression. I should say it begins with her voice. In Walking In Circles you start off small with twangy guitar, that you follow without noticing you being lead into a room with a massive chandelier . But your focus begins and is sustained briefly one candle at a time.  Candles blow out if you move fast right? You keep to a slow but urgent pace. And the song builds behind you until its ready to crash around you. Pulling Teeth is more persuasive than the name suggests. It sells like shoegaze girl scout cookies. It has the forward drive with the guitars while staying pillowy soft. That word is no where near The Creeps. Here resides the sneers, the jagged aggressive swagger. Who are you calling soft? So it feels like I'm late for this train. I forgot how many songs I caught, maybe three, so most of my impression is of hearing their CD This Is Disconnect later, and I'm so glad I bought it. I do recall almost not buying it. Now I'm feeling the shows I missed. I could have seen them at fucking Cole's!!! Here we have a self-identified shoegaze band that does all kinds of things non shoegazy. With Videotape that word is a crossroad. In Chicago shoegaze brings to mind an actively playing loosely woven scene, bands that play around often. And as they define the local scene, Videotape also finds its many ways outside that box. Before you can finish uttering the word, they are out the door sounding in ways resonant and unexpected. Shoegaze is the road that lead me to them, and once past the threshold you get to see how far away they can take you from there. I find myself forgetting that Videotape self-identifies as shoegaze. This both reinforces why I like the sub genre as a whole while not burning me out. I don't feel like I over-indulged in something, like when you eat too much Baker Square pie. One piece too many. They got more shows coming up, including Saturday 13 April at Multi Kulti on 1000 N Milwaukee....I think. And late July with Walking Bicycles at Empty Bottle and Coles Friday 26 April and I want to go to them all.
Zig

The Walking Bicycles....at long last!!!

Some very dear friends of mine I believe went to see Nick Cave. I love Nick Cave. I always make references to him. I always mention the bands I write about as having "Nick Cave coolness".  I'm happy that they got to see this great living icon of ours. Yet I do not envy them their experience, not in the least. My earliest impacting memories of Empty Bottle are when Walking Bicycles played there. A lot of the right moments lined up like stars to allow me to see them live three times. Expressionist flashbulb memory eventually molds into one continuum with costume changes. Every song that I hear be it on ipod or driving naturally drifts to those visuals. You recall the efforts to get you there as blue prints for how to get away with seeing them. For me I liked their music for its casual Amelie-esque awareness of the dark. Defiant, post punk with perhaps incidental goth cred. In other words goth-leaning, unpasteurized post punk. The visuals in this episode's  music describe a grey decaying urban landscape that is living its post-glory period only its Amelie living there. She sees things a certain way. Your gonna find the bright moments, and even before the moment reaches its end it is already missed. You know it has to end. Nostalgia hits early. Well, these are just some impressions I get from going over Killing Time. A scene in a cold beach as lets say enjoyed by our French heroine finishing with the reassuring "I'm still with you". Coolness with just a hint of sweet. Going from that reassurance their pendulum naturally swings to Worthless....hmm. You know this is about me seeing the Bicycles last Monday 1 April and here I am taking the fucking scenic route. Sorry, I can't help but load up the moment.
  Their old defiant streak is natural and expected. Then I saw and heard So. Pow!!! Imagine compressing the Brad Pitt fight scenes from Snatch into one track. This is the impression that was washing over me as I bounced away. Joselyn has the right voice for this, with a slight husk because she smokes.....you know I shouldn't just conclude like that. Anyway her voice carries a natural authority and it was a rare wonder to see this new song. It was cool, it was pissed, ready and fearless. They were my favorite band all over again. It was not the only song that had lasting impact. Its just the only one I can name at the moment.
  Their music I have not stopped listening to, and they have three releases. Disconnected and their self-titled debut are both now available on CD and vinyl. Go, their most recent is on CD. Their first performance since December 2008 and they got new music to perform. Went ahead and trusted their new untested work on old fans. That was OK with me. In fact I find that immensely admirable. Those are balls, and who am I kidding I was sold before I left the house. Still you form expectations, invisible parameters.  I was expecting fireworks they came with a cannon. The subtext being real suffering that brings you to such wisdom. They kind of were already there for me as most post-punk is. And then something happened. And they survived it. So heavily loaded is the Empty Bottle air before they even set up on stage, or ok, just in my head where expressionism grows wild.  Members of the various bands that I've written about before are present, My Gold Mask, Panda Riot, and Lightfoils. All these bands that have new work coming out.......

Yes, Cory counts for two bands....and anyway we warmly greet.  Then Joselyn and Julius. I feel most at ease around them. Then I saw TJ, him too a fellow south-sider. The Bicycles played to good Monday night audience. So there is a new big something to anticipate from 2013. Imagine adding to that on top of what's already out this year. This is crazy.
Zig