Coins/Moritat at Township

  I went to this show way, way on time......I know, right? Weird. Anyway. It was going to be the one show of Moritat's for this year that I can make and after that they have to record their new album which they played one song from and it was fabulous. And they played with Coins, Angela's other active project besides Touched By Ghoul.
  I was first introduced to her music with her first band Sybris. I think she really gathered a following with Sybris. The crowds were always relatively big when under that name. She recently played under Touched By Ghoul at Slippery Slope. I gotta write a post on that soon but here's something. When I saw that show Touched By Ghoul I did not know if Angela was still active with Coins. So this show at Township was a nice surprise.
  It feels kinda nice to be on time to a show. I drove more relaxed. I know where to park. Walking to the place and still relaxed. When you are on time, you are relaxed. You fucking stroll. I know Kon and I know Venus. They are married. I feel stupid lucky to have them as friends and be this at ease around them before they go on. Kon speaks spanish very well. He dj's rare vintage music. I really like that he does that because music deserves to have an audience even beyond the lifetime of the musicians. I like that he plays all kinds of vintage music. Township in the front is a restaurant. I sat with them.  For them, it was a rip in time-space impossible for me to be that early.  I recall The Runnies opened. Its coming back to me. I walk in and the restaurant does not have the usual bassy vibrations. I was that early, before Runnies. And they were awesome as well. It was my first time seeing them. But I have always come across their name. I've known of them for a long time. A friend once told me that I would like The Runnies. They have a raw energy. Its a muscle car, its a live wire writhing on the highway. And let's finish the metaphor by having the wire and muscle car meet. They're already on the fucking highway. And now I have seen them. And I will make efforts to see them again.
   It feels good to arrive on time and to call Moritat friends and sit down. Oh look there's Donna from Beat Drun Juel who just walked in. I fucking feel like Amelie in seeing this. All this shit spinning in my head on the one side of my eyes. On the outside I'm chill and catch up with them. In researching for this post I download and listened to Coins and also listen to my friends, Moritat. And its hitting me like a ton, how much I like the music I have of them both.
   Mysterious sounds are thought provoking. They can force an in inward glance. Without drums Coins shadow is distorted and out-sized. Psychic Orchid takes its time. Its tense, haunted memory imprinted where you can't erase it, only distort it. Minimal voices and instruments. Its other-world is tenderly constructed. Intimate like from a campfire. Balancing that and mystery in multi-layers. After a while they begin to slowly show their imprints. They begin to be....catchy in a minimal Twin Peaks style mysterious. As I said that The Dark gets sweeter.  I sometimes pause and marvel at how far and away different Coins is from Angela's other projects. Here she separates loud urgency, with seething quiet tension. Scuba is a ghostly tour of a childhood memory. Lightning Song has some fucking balls. That one seethes. Blood is butchy as hell too. Noteworthy for me is their cover of Watching The Wheels. That takes me back. The song disarms me all over again.
  I let my itunes loose and I was hit with the classics. Their whole catalogue over the years has really grown on me. I really like  High Plus Tight .We'd has Kon mostly on vocals. Actually I hear him on most of the CD. He makes me like the male voice all over again. The Lips They Move!  Clill Blanzin still slow burning them all over again. They are very elusive to describe. If you like Portishead... Moritat is an easy sell. That's one fleeting angle. The way Venus keyboard work with Cory's drums sometimes makes me think trip hop, and that's another fleeting angle. I think I know a possible source of the Portishead trip hop comparison. The back end of is that the music is clear and not shoegaze fuzzy. Borders are sharper....Keep that fucking crayon in the box. That's when you're hit with Money from Blanzin. The first time I heard this I thought it was PJ Harvey. This for me was unexpected from Moritat. From them I've learned to expect keyboards and not guitar. On Money I don't hear keyboards so much, but heavy wielding, swerving guitar. I took fewer pictures of Moritat this time. So the picture I have of Venus here is one from before. 
Zig