Wyys

 

 
  I start this ahead of seeing them tonight at Whistler. Friends of mine I have met while seeing them in other bands are in Wyys. Venus from Moritat sings and plays keys, Donna from Beat Drun Juel plays guitar. Cory from Moritat recorded and mixed the two demos that are on Bandcamp, Glimpse, and Wildfire. Anna Friedman plays bass and I remember her from the night BDJ played Whistler.....what? I took a picture that had her with Donna and Venus, that's how come I remember. And Beat Drun Juel playing that fucking closet is memorable. That's kind of why I like Whistler, its a fucking phone booth. Kon from Moritat once told me I can have an entire separate blog about the shows I intended to see but was late for. Hmmm, so this is one of them posts. Wyys played real early and had only about 5 songs including a Cure cover. The night was not an entire loss. I went to Berlin's where my friends Philly Peroxide, Sarah and William were DJ's. That salvaged the night, going there. I saw friends that I feel comfortable around and they were all dancing. I even noticed the two main members of My Gold Mask. Which reminds me....they got a show coming with Austra at Thalia Hall. That one is a mission. Yeah....I did not have it so bad.
  So, I love the spelling of their band name, ......Wyys. I should stop repeating it so many times, I'll sound like Own Wilson in that movie The Royal Tenenbaums when he gets interviewed. I don't want to weird people out more than normal. So there are two demos already on bandcamp and I truly like them. Perhaps its already knowing the teacher's edition, but I can sense where does who fit in it. There's this one point in Wildfire where....yeah that's all Donna. I did not actually see it, but it sounds like that's her kind of damage.

And the history of Wyys stretches back. Actually at this point they have a longer back-history. Moritat I feel a real and aging-like-wine, comfort zone with. I have seen through them so many other musicians. A casual word from Venus had me stay at Whistler to see The Eternals, when I was just about to leave. Julie Meckler I have seen play because of them. From Venus I know Donna, from BDJ....its knowing this and carrying this is all I got......... I got there fucking late. 
 
 So I walk into Whistler and already the main act is playing. And they are good....but that is not what is on my mind. I glance around to see if either Venus or Donna are around to ask them with my eyes what I already kinda know. A friend that I see at many of Moritat's shows is there, he is wearing a Cure shirt. We nod. The place is quite full and I can't see behind the crowd where the bar is at. Eventually I do see both Venus and Donna and they confirm what I suspected. What followed were the little moments that salvaged the night for me. I've seen Donna play and I have seen Venus play.  And I will compile pictures from both here. BDJ and Moritat, separate pictures that in this context they are of Wyys. And its hard to imagine Donna not in front, her stage presence is fucking powerful. That friend with a Cure shirt noticed the expressions on Donna wanting to unleash that guitar fury on the stage. It was an interesting observation to note, he has not seen Beat Drun Juel and yet can see something of that in how Donna plays for Wyys. There will be another time to see them. I wanted here to recall what I know of the paths that lead to them being a band.
Zig

Grun Wasser

 
  I must first apologize to the band for not knowing how to properly punctuate the "u" with the two dots on top. I did not know how to do that with my keyboard. Grun Wasser was second to last. The headliner was Drab Majesty. They were brilliant as well. And I stayed for them. Empty Bottle on that Tuesday 17 Jan I saw more goths than normal. I saw a whole lot of people deliberately dressed in black. Lots of friends of mine in that group that I can just name drop. I was very happy to see that. New Canyons played that night. So there was a lot of reasons to see so many familiar faces. I was there for GW. I perhaps caught 3 or 4 of their songs. Simmering and seething, with the fog of mystery, and breathy female voice. I don't recall which tracks I heard live. 
  To me the dramatic and understated occupy the same space within them. There's a signature tension with each track, that floats then slowly fades and always with a frozen tension. Her voice, so robotic, music bordering weird, organic and ambient. Like dancing while also deep, and lost in thought with barely an awareness of the light that leads out of the tunnel. No, no, no....I wasn't taking out the piss. I mean all this positively. I went to this show already sold. And the background to all this was having the friends that I do milling about the place, some there....alright mostly there for New Canyons and then Drab Majesty. Having said that there was a good size crowd for GW, attentive.  I came specifically for them, having already days before heard their music from their website. They had me with Out To Lunch and after that the train took off, and I was riding the roof. The Deep builds on this tension that just trails off instead of witnessing its end and from the fog, the girly robotic voice skipping along only to fade to black as well.   Lines feels to me like a hypnotic steady ascent from under water, a march from below, a march that reveals. And then, I'm suddenly reminded of Linea Aspera. This is music that evokes the cold, the robotic with it's own organic mystery. Limits for Limits has its haunted corners. Nein/9 is the name of the album and I think the band is from Chicago, the more I hear it, the more I like it. This might be too slow and meandering for some and so this is not a sell for everyone, but I am into this. And I did see it, and I was into it. I hear the downloaded tracks and they still hold me. Rhythmic, dance floor sounds rise and reveal without warning, and seem to hold delicately and fade back or scare off the next corner. The more I hear this, the more it holds me.
Zig

NOTS

  A comment from Aimee Mann when asked why her music is so depressing got me thinking about how I can write this thing on Nots. What? Aimee Mann is way fucking cool and a bad ass. Did y'all know she trained in boxing. Not to be a professional, just so that she can have more confidence and perform better on stage. She can knock your ass out before Samuel Jackson can say "mother fucker". A comment about how conflict figures in creating her music, sparked a much needed inspiration to write this. 
 
  Alright, I gotta keep this with Nots. I forgot when exactly I saw them. I do recall.  I went with a purpose of bringing something back. The first time I saw them, I had no money to buy their latest then We Are Nots. But they left their mark. So it was a mission to see them again when they came back.  And so this second time I came home with Cosmetic, their second release. If they returned a third time, I'd be so there. So a lot of time has passed since seeing them at Empty Bottle. A lot of time getting to know the individual songs like Rat King, Blank Reflection.
Those are not the only songs, just the names that are on the surface. During the performance I did not notice so much difference between each track. The variations seemed slight. But I was into everything they dished. I cannot recall which track I heard first.  A lot of time has passed to see, and get to know the engine. As I listen, I also read and observe the interviews. And they are insightful. Its perfect music for driving. And it leaves you thinking as well. I don't mean to reduce what they do to just music to distract myself as I drive from one place to another. If they sound angry, well, there is plenty to be angry about.  For me music that calls to me, and I identify with its usually because I like how they deal with conflict. So that's why ...even music that sounds happy only exists because it survives conflict.
 
  Abrasive, fast and powerful...Nots is a pitbull thrashing a ragdoll toy around mercilessly. When is thrashing ever merciful, right.? Not here, and not with this band.....and they are called NOTS and they are from Memphis. They are signed to Goner Records. Natalie Hoffman is as merciless on her guitar as she is skillful on it. I think she even busted a string on it. And she used the mic stand to play that guitar. I'm not a musician, so all this looks extremely skillful to me. Like when you know an instrument so well, that you gotta hotdog it like Amadeus playing Salieri. I tried mentally noting which songs I liked. As one imprinted, the next impatiently took the center. And they are all fast, like a long combined sustained sprint over rough terrain. And its not just raw power, there is a layer of psyche, experimental sounding weirdness thanks to Alexandra Eastburn's synth. So lets just add an acid trip to that sprint across that forest preserve, and you are chasing a monster that is now afraid of you. And this is what I feel is a component in their muscle car engine, a righteous anger,  the good fight if you will.
 
 
  All the members of the band are feminists and observant of the world around them. According to their interview with Bust Magazine. Cosmetic I think was partly written on the road. Natalie Hoffman writes the songs. When asked about what inspired the music, what stuck out to me was her mentioning Trump and all the hate and violence heard in the news. This just makes me want to have lyrics to read in front of me. I don't know that Cosmetic is a direct, pointed response to all that, at the same time as feminists, hell as observant human beings how can the music not be affected. It makes me happier to know its these warriors that I am supporting. I hope they run that monster down.
Zig


Alexandra Eastburn synths
Natalie Hoffman vocals, lead guitar
Charlotte Watson, drums
Meredith Lones, bass

Shana Falana, Here Comes The Waves

  A vicious accident on I 55 delayed me long enough to miss Shana Falana's entire set so this here will be about hearing Here Comes  The Waves after. It was nice to see Airiel while I talked to Shana at the merch table. I bought the CD straight away. And I got a nagging question out of the way. There was a scene on American Horror Story, Hotel, where I heard for a brief instant a track from Shana. As soon as I heard it. Hmm. I'm hearing things, mixing things up. What I hear in the car, the CDs....how the fuck is that on TV.  That's like Captain Kirk making a cameo appearance on Mork And Mindy....oh wait that was actually just Shatner. Hmmm, how about this....That's like Han Solo making a cameo on Deep Space Nine. Damn, what was this in reference to? Oh right, Shana on AHS or at least her music, for like seconds. Alright back to Schuba's. So, here's  Shana, and so I absolutely had to ask. And indeed they did use a song of hers! I think it was .... Go. So at least I get to hear the CD in the car on the way home. And I got to talk to her as well.
 
  Cool Kids is all kinds of ........coolness. Shana was way nice talking to me as I struggled to figure out what else to say to her. I mean once the AHS thing was out of the way and then the fucking accident on I-55, I had nothing....I was fucking Charlie Brown auditioning for Charlie Brown. Hmm, well, it was cool that she even remembered me at all. Cool Kids is ambitious and hopeful and mindful. Its aggressive forward driving dream pop engine runs as Shana reassures with confidence. I think I already heard Philly play this on Shimmer at Slippery Slope. Everything on Her Come The Waves is dance-floor worthy in the best dream pop/shoegaze tradition. I was barely feeling Ocean when here comes You Did. I notice she continues her practice of reworking and reissuing older work. I don't mind it, at all. Those songs mean something to her, and that makes me listen more. I'll go listen both versions of Brainy Fox, hmmm Lie 2 Me, Where R U....because its interesting. Why these songs? She couldn't just let them go. She changed and they had to change with her perhaps. Actually, she is very open and insightful about how and why individual tracks were created. It makes for more mindful listening. She is now many years sober. And her music makes references to the struggle to reach that sobriety as well as the triumph of being in it. Music is often created through real struggle with real inner demons. So as cheery and sweet as her music can sound,
  There is a dark side to it, vanquished but still present. Velvet Pop is a brilliant album and now so is Here Comes The Waves.  Some tracks can't stay as is, and that is fascinating about Shana Falana. There is something new that she can pull out of old tracks. As for me, I'm glad to have both versions of a great track. The why is for what you read about in their interviews.
Zig

Touched By Ghoul

 
   I would see Touched By Ghoul a few times before I could write about them. The last time my mac was already repaired(Thank You Lionel and Gladys!) and so writing about seeing them was less a remote possibility, and I can just enjoy the show knowing that eventually the words will follow. One of the times I saw them was at Empty Bottle and most recently and out of nowhere Slippery Slope on a Monday, I don't even remember which day or what month. Anytime a band that I really like plays outside the usual comfort venues I make a special effort to go. And  I've never been to Slippery Slope for anything other than Philly's Shoegaze night there. Makes a live performance there unusual and special. The place has four washrooms....Four!!! Neo's toilets were a cruel, disgusting joke. So at this new place, one feels positively spoiled. And even as the band set up was near the hallway to the toilets, Angela made it clear to the audience that they should feel free to go without feeling like they have to walk through the band space. It was ok, and that was really cool of her to say.  I don't think she needed any introduction to the audience. They seemed to know who this was. And she seemed to be at ease with us. "Thanks doggies!", she said after the crowd roared in appreciation. That's when you know we all cool.
  Touched By Ghoul happens to be the third project that I know from Angela Mullenhour.....arrrrghh, fucking hell. Yes that one, from Sybris and Coins. I don't know her, but I often notice her in shows from other bands. So she does support them by showing up and I think that is really cool of her. I saw her at the Pale Dian show this past summer. Ahhhhh....That show was a psychedelic summer highlight. That is still a separate thing. The point....Ms Angela M is both a fan of and creator of awesome music, and different types of music, seemingly unrelated. Touched By Ghoul,   Sybris, Coins.....I'm like a prisoner lining up all his most precious cigarettes....none of them kids look alike. Coins is like slow, dark mysterious psych. Sybris is what first came to my attention. Has the bounce, the forward drive, rounded edged aggression of shoegaze. It is odd to put the words shoegaze and aggression in the same train of thought but it happens more than ya' think.  Burn Out Babies kind of saw me through some uncertain times. That leaves us with TBG. For that you got to plug your ears 'cause that's where they get loud with some metal style abrasiveness.
  Murder Circus at some point, what I have at the moment to hold onto the band is Touched By Ghoul at Phantom Manor and the shirt....almost forgot about that. Oh, yeah.... something curious. A track I like on Manor ( Its My Body) is named differently and a bit faster on Circus (Rapevan). Oh the discomfort I would feel if this was a conversation. "Hey Zig, which songs are awesome?"  "Too Many Whores, Rapevan..." "Oh my....what time is it? I gotta go....see ya' Zig". END SCENE. That song is so damn cheery and I like it, but that bloody name.....but yeah the band is still great and so is Ms Angela.

You can totally head bang to TGB, where that thought does not occur with Ms Angela's other projects. Each project.....hmmm projects a different landscape in the mind. You want to dance to Sybris at Philly's shoegaze night Shimmer at Slippery Slope and its safe to say you will not pass the drug test after hearing Coins. Did I say head bang to TBG....oh I did. Checking. So three separate worlds, One traveler in between them. But I'm here to go on about just the one. At some point I will buy the whole LP.

Zig