So forever I get to link these two separate shows into one event. I saw a good last part of
Ruby Fray's set at Schubas before also seeing I think the full Vail set at Empty Bottle. These moments are linked but they will have separate posts, and here is Ruby Fray's. I probably caught like the last three songs of Ruby Fray, this time at Schubas. I got to talk with her, she was way cool. Before this show I did not know her previous Chicago connection. She is from Illinois and she is moving back here and so I was way thrilled. I'm always hearing of people moving out of Chicago. Cross Record moved to Austin. And that made me sad. And now here is Emily moving to Chicago, and that cool. There is a thriving scene here and, and now its hers. I look forward to seeing her in all the small venues Chicago has. When last I saw her it was at Empty Bottle with Circuit Des Yeux. Emily Beanblossom had her full band then, a long time ago it feels. We came back home with
Pith, released 2012. Pith was awesome! It was mysterious dark, minimal, period exploration. It was a different experience to take in. Emily's recorded voice just carries well old dark sounding tales. The live show was a different side of that impression. Ruby Fray was intense, steady psychedelic. There was something elusive that I liked about this band that I would continue to like for years. Pith at times sounded to me like they came from a different period, between the modern and the frontier, when there was color in paintings but not yet in photographs.
Mint Ice Cream puts me in a time when frozen shit like ice cream was barely a thing. I can almost see costumes, when pictures barely can move. Damn it! And now I can see Christopher Reeves and Jane Seymour in
Somewhere In Time. Perhaps I should not have lingered around turn-of-the-century images. Still, Emily's voice haunts like a fucking ghost from The Others. Evoking a certain time period I do not think is her intention. Its just what pops up in my path, a runaway Model T coming straight for me. The
costumes, the sets, perhaps I am not the guy to talk to. A fucking Model T Ford just came at me.
Northern Washington leaves Katie Jane Garside asking for directions its so fucking sweet and dark. The live set was very different from the recordings and I was left fascinated by both. Fucking hell that show is a long time ago. This time at Shubas, 1st November Wednesday, Emily is Ruby Fray's lone representative. I went to Schubas first. Their shows always go on early, and this one was fucking free so hellz yeah. The songs I heard live years ago, was from the CD
Grackle. The one track I recorded from Empty Bottle and uploaded to YouTube is
Photograph. This is what got me into RF and eventually Pith. Grackle is different. Her voice has such tension. Well, its present in both CD's. Its what gets you to listen. What's she tense about, now the mystery has you. Right....maybe not you. But she got me. I bought Grackle from Emily at Schubas, a few years after the Empty Bottle show. I don't recall Grackle being available so I got Pith and was still massively impressed. Pith casts a clear light on Emily's beautiful lilting voice. Let me get back to Photograph first, that track strikes me as dramatic, mysterious and dangerous like a winding, sentient churning road that can kick you off a steep cliff at slightest. What a strange and wonderful soundtrack to have while driving home. This was far and away different from Pith. The fog feels contemporaneous, and I am driving on I-55 something a Model T could not even catch up to while simultaneously listening to music. Model T's could not do that either. Tension spills into
Barbara. I so wish I had lyrics to read. I can catch Emily say "I don't care if you've been married 16 years...." The drums seem to march you to something, a conclusive moment and Emily don't give a fuck how long you've been married. Its a delicate situation, the cop you call better have some special training, Emily's got a fucking gun. You get like forty seconds of build up and it starts with the drums that reminded me so slightly of Bela Lugosi. There's a video for Barbara that is really cool. It has Emily and her friends.
Carry Me Down took me by surprise, it picks up almost two minutes in. Its actually the first song to break Ruby Fray from this vague costumed other-world that I put her in. Hey, Winona Ryder did her time in all kinds of costumed dramas and now she's in
Stranger Things. I felt reunited with what I heard a few years ago. It was a Friday drive going to and from a Panda Riot show at Resistor when I played Grackle, and what a sweet drive that was. Finally, this post is done. Zig
I got the Black Flame EP on Vinyl and so as I hear it, I eventually run into the chilling story of this poor Iranian girl....her execution. And it can kinda fuck with you, as well it should. There is a picture on the bottom right corner of the other side of the lyric sheet. There is a whole text next to her picture. I believe she was executed for defending herself from being raped. And so it just fucks with you. No time given to process the haunting weight of the picture of this girl on the vinyl and then in comes Heather's dark howl for the mechanized Painkiller. The fog machine barely veils Heather as she writhes and twists away. Its coming back the heavily German Expressionist memories of those other shows half veiled in soft fog and strobe lights. Its in this interior space where she retreats to writhe about almost angrily. She brings the spooky, mysterious edge back to industrial by making it primitive again. Just the music alone sounds like.....sounds and noise collected and harvested and harnessed, and still raw and unpredictable with Heather's voice. The Bleeding Heart had some of us dancing. It just takes you back to that primal industrial, rhythmic almost as a by product of the machine, and harnessed by the weirdos that heard and saw patterns. HIDE is a Chicago band. When Ritual Howls played Empty Bottle, Heather was the DJ and days later I would see her on the stage. This is a very active local act. I have specific memories with The Owl. I saw friends there. The stage was small and the crowd around her was tight. I stayed back. The shirt and EP on Vinyl are tangible treasures that I don't recall which shows they came from. I know I saw her at Smart Bar. Anyway, I'm glad that I am part of this following. Glad to be perpetuating the music.
