Panda Riot at Cole's

After CaveofswordS played this local workhorse, Panda Riot. I'm so glad to still see them. Its hard to keep a band together. You have to appreciate them while you have them. Following the Pandas I've been exposed to all kinds of brilliant music. Through them I've been lead to Warpaint, School Of Seven Bells, Videotape, Blackstone Rangers, Sister Crystals, Ringo Death Starr....its just fun to find an excuse to drop them all on top of each other like that. Well, there is a point here. Some of these mentioned bands have toured internationally multiple times. I presume success here and I wish for the same recognition for this local shoegaze distance runner. Here and there the Pandas do venture out beyond the city. I want people outside Chicago to know what plays regularly and often and in that way represents well this town. I think I've been aware of them since 2006? Their live work leans forward from their recorded work. When they were playing from Northern Automatic Music, all they had available recorded was She Dares All Things, work they were slowly leaning away from. There was always the next thing to want from them. For a long time they had not shirts. Now they do. The inclusion of Cory and Jose lit a fire under that ass. They sound leaner, faster. As the band ages, their sound concentrates. Sometimes in talking to you they throw in a bands name to short-hand a sound they captured, and that keeps me interested.  Good Night, Rich Kids , I can listen to without burning me out for Black Pyramids and so forth. They still play these live. And they continue to play new work that I presume they will formally record. I'm glad they are still together with a living evolving sound.

The intangible signatures become bolder. As they move faster, their beats hit harder. Their sense of wonder that is weathered with experience but not corrupted by it. These signatures allow for tracks to leave individual imprints.
Zig

Coins

Coins....Angela's other band besides Sybris ......is quite the departure from it at first. To the outside it looks like a cold switch to intimate as well as powerful....dark, minimalist folk. Dark pop before being self-aware. I'm less familiar with Ellen's previous work Reds And Blue. The few times I've caught them its just them two. Their songs all share this haunting-without-intending-to-be-scary vibe. The ghosts of twins that wish you to have a nice innocent memory of their music, and not the vicious scar a proper haunting would be. I mean play this shit to the Ghost Adventures crew in one of them asylums and Zak will probably shit himself as his first reaction sure. But don't this sound beautiful.......like once your eyes get used to the dark and less afraid, more in wonder? Their voices depart and weave different structures with each track, and its great to just have the voices sometimes with a bare minimum of instruments. Some of these tracks evoke a beach camp fire, or intimate club performance.  Innocent haunting vibe that is just the air they breathe. If you like Ruby Throat, Coins can be for you. Yeah....you, lay off Katie Jane for a bit. Even her weirdness needs a break. Alien song is typical in how it weaves easily into the present mind feeling like a single traveling thought, a comet observed across the mental sky expanse. The whisper has a way of focusing attention. The mind quiets to see across the sky. I like how differently each song imprints. The first one to stop me cold was Cave Life. These are all on Recital Pressures. The songs stop you not to focus sudden light on the music themselves but often the captured together random racing thoughts. If you play take in the entire album. Well it just sneaks up on you. Town Below barely let me stop at a rest area to see that I already took in half of the awesome. Here's a random thought as I was hearing Bullghost..... If you are fan of Coins first, its reasonable to assume that you may like Sybris. I think if you follow an artists work, its great to see their other projects. Damn it....Forgive....please forgive. I don't want to sound like some sort of snob. To show the other sheds lights on the greater whole.  And I think its an interesting thing to see this in Angela with Coins/Sybris.
Zig

CaveofswordS

  When you are broke that's when things you like reveal themselves and that last twenty dollar bill you were responsibly clinging to....well just like that, there it goes. I was not expecting to spend much this past Friday when Panda Riot shared the Cole's stage with CaveofswordS. I think I only caught the last two or three songs and that's it. They left an impression that compelled me to pursue. Kill It With Fire commands attention like a movie trailer, something thats gonna tell you a story. I swear if only they did not fucking make Machete such a fucking parody of himself. Glowing reminds me of the best moments of hearing Love Spirals Downwards, and that is just one end of a wide spectrum. The Valley gives me these light Spanish guitar/Pulp Fiction vibes. I could not be responsible and just saved my money. It would mean letting this pass through with not a means of capturing the experience. So I bought the CD Silverwalks.  Its these irresponsible acts of spending that lead me to some of the bands I like. The images I capture are few and crude. Its to paint the image with listening to Orson. There was a good crowd for them, barely porous enough for me to get to the front. Cole's is long with the stage all the way in the back, there was actually a lot more people where the bar and tables are, a long and separate room which feels narrow when you are walking past people standing or sitting with their drinks. CaveofswordS are from St. Louis, Missouri. I still don't know which songs caught my ear. The last song really got me and I was wondering how far the nearest Chase ATM was. So this here is my document of the first impression of this band. The beginning of a longer continuum. A new thread created.
Zig

Lightfoils at Double Door.

  I was half bummed because I missed Girl In A Coma at Market Days the same Saturday night. However the other band I intended to see I did catch. Lightfoils is a band that shares Cory on bass with Panda Riot. I don't really have it so bad at all. I was well on time. Right now this feels so long ago. Nationally so much has happened since, ....I mean so much tragedy. Multiple shadows cast over the little stories. Big things happen while I pout and whine about missing GIAC while entering Double Door to see Lightfoils. They have a full LP they will tour for. I have not bought it yet....you reach a point where you're just pre-sold. Whatever it is yeah. I take the long road in listening to them.  What do I recall at this point at the concert? There was this one girl that insisted on a shout-out to her girl's birthday. The singer obliged with a micro-expression of annoyance. I recall hanging with the band afterwards in the green room....or one of them anyway. It was my first time there and I think my eyes betrayed that. The rest of me held it in and was chill listening to what they do on their iphones. They got speakers and chargers. And that is one set of images, another is outside Double Door. They are playing again at Coles, this Thursday. I look forward to that and to listening to their new work. Lightfoils in my own bubble plays in my head all the time, re enforced by local DJs that are also friends.  Its like a wall of cool falling over you. There are a set of brain cells going mad like an irritating MTV interviewer. That scenario is kept locked and away from conscience. But here in there I must stare at the sun, and see that here is a band that I listen to regularly, they are friends and I'm in the fucking green room with them....and now my retinas are burning out. Going over songs again after a casual conversation about it

in a new breath of life. But you know none of it has to happen and all  at once. I am fortunate and grateful. Now its October and its after a tour I believe. I'm glad this is what goes out and represents Chicago.
Zig