Tambourina/Whimsical/Panda Riot/Lightfoils/New Canyons

  Well, who I saw was Tambourina, April the lead singer. She had no merch for her new band, and so what I took home was from her old band Glowfriends.  So that is where I flash back to as I recall the memory of seeing her as Tambourina. This was at Chop Shop on North Ave.  It was during Windy City Crash Pop on Saturday 29th Sept. Cory from Panda Riot and Lightfoils I think organized this whole event. Steve went with me. Well, he drove. Right. I went with him.  He picked me up and met my sisters as I got ready. We had a nice drive listening to music we both have collected. We were still going on about the Still Corners show we saw at Beat Kitchen.  Alright...so we were fucking there at Chop Shop...., and Tambourina plays and she was generous with the merch we bought from her. I cam home with I think 4 CDs. Two comps and two Glowfriends. She invited us to Kalamashoegazer.  Hmm...well she was handing out flyers and we struck a conversation about it. This next one, Ringo Deathstarr headlines and Ariel from Chicago is playing there too. Kalamashoegazer, I've known if it. I think Panda Riot played there. I hear their crowd reacts well, not stoic as Chicago. This was my first time seeing Tambourina. I forgot what order the bands played. It was a fucking marathon that started early and yet it felt well paced. The security guy said the bands were each running around 15 minutes late, but it did not feel long, laborious.  Maybe it's just my shoegaze legs. We caught most of the acts. I think I missed Ariel. Its been long enough for me to forget the order of who played when. I just know that Lightfoils played last.  Whimsical was there...oh, and New Canyons!  It was during a show at Smart Bar that finally broke my filter and made me a fan of them. And on CD I really got into End Color. So Tambourina is now on the radar and it will have me backtrack into their Glowfriends era and listen to that more and the two CDs Gather Us Together and To Have And To Hold.  I already found songs that I like there. The Pandas I think played some new music (along with their latest Infinity Maps) as did Lighfoils.....they got the new music coming out soon if not already.

Whimsical, Tambourina and New Canyons have new work on the way as well. I am familiar enough with the Panda's latest, that when they play something barely new, I notice. They were great songs is all I can recall about them. The same with Lightfoils.

   Krissy Vanderwoude I see all the time at Sarah and Philly's Shimmer. Hell, all the Chicago bands have gone there just to hang. It started to dawn on me at some point she was in a band and which one. I did not explore it, I figured this would fully reveal itself in time and seeing Krissy on stage was a big reveal, a big deal, because all the band members live apart I think. So to get them together like this when they are all are adults living separate lives, its like booking the fucking sun and moon to eclipse.....oh and that comet better streak across the sky on cue and fuck it up like in rehearsal.  I think they practiced once before playing for real this one time, and they sounded so fucking cool.  
  It really is incredible that we have a night for so specialized in music and we got the people that play in that very kind of music.  Right now I am speaking about hanging around in Shimmer. They hang out in that very bar. Those are a lot of things that do not necessarily happen together and so it's cool that it does. Its that fucking small a world sometimes. I came about shoegaze and dream pop by way of my goth friends. This connection may not exist for many. But for some this is part of a related continuum. It becomes apparent when you see the same core group of people at the industrial shows, darkwave, coldwave, goth, and shoegaze gigs. There are tethers connecting all of these. Its no accident the friends that do club nights like Nocturna, La Petite Mort, Bittersweet also do Shimmer.  They see and perhaps even create and nurture these connections. And there are also barriers and filters between them.  Shoegaze music tends to have a sedative effect on some of my industrial friends.  I am glad for those that walked me through those filters.  And perhaps that was.....all very subjective.
   I bought Steve a Panda Riot shirt.  I felt I had to make it up for not making it to Beach House, he already bought that ticket. We looked through them and discovered the last of the first batch of shirts they made for the second CD Black Pyramid. It's charcoal gray almost black. Its the first shirt they made period, and so for me it was a favorite.  I hope we don't walk into Shimmer wearing that same damn shirt. These are going to be our relics as we age I believe. The shirts we collect from the bands we see. These shirts are part of that tangible culture, that I wish to preserve....and wear 'cause they are fucking cool as shit. Perhaps I will have more to say on this event but I need to post before this month ends and lose myself in another rant.
Zig

Ships In The Night

  30th Sept Sunday Bittersweet at Berlin, Ships In The Night  live.  Philly's night. The night before was Crash Pop. Wonderful, and exhausting. And that's another fucking post. All that fucking shoegaze...in one night...from 6:30pm. It was a fucking marathon. Oh...whatever....I was into it....I was.  And its so weird that I can be into shoegaze like this but baseball can't really hold my attention. The Sunday after, is this one show at Philly's night. Here I gather my piss poor memories of seeing Ships. I hear the CD now a lot, and have since seen the videos on YouTube.
  So I caught the last song, and a piece of the one before. Enough for me to dance and take pictures. I hope she comes back.  Came home with the CD Myriologues and shirt.....a medium. I know....it will motivate me to work out....it will be one of those.  Ships In The Night does with Killing Moon what Hungry Lucy did with Blue Dress. Now, that got me all thinking about what happened to them...Hungry Lucy. They were great! And Ships In The Night reminds me a lot about them. Multi instrumentalist Alethea Leventhal SITN. She can play a harp....did I really see that. I don't want....to chase that video down.  She comes from Virginia.  From that last song I had to extract whatever impression I could of the whole show. It had to be everything.  That last song that struck me as dark, sweet and mysterious.....but that's kind of the whole fucking point of being here, soaking it all up. Even now I can't recall which song was last. This memory has all the right conditions for that German Expressionist treatment. I mean the fucking club is called Berlin...green skies over tornado ally.  So what did I see as she played? I recalled a group of about 8 dancing to the left of the stage.  They were dancing to Ships. I really did not look beyond that. I just pondered on her being here before Philly took his night the normal way he does. A small band, I was lucky to find when they orbited around from so far away, played before and made it the first awesome song I would hear that night.
  Philly's Bittersweet continued on after her set was done, and that whole set was great. I requested Ritual Howls and got it! From then on it was this cascading set of all shades of dark music, some that I am familiar and a lot that I am not.  All of it kept me on the floor.  I had the CD at this point and could have left it there, but managed to find enough for the shirt...a medium.  That German Expressionist self distortion allows for me to believe I will look good in medium. ....For me, its one of those rare finds. ....the shirt, the CD...and the poster....wow, right?  And how rare is it to catch the gig. I almost didn't so I went for whatever relic I could find and take home to definitively in stone remind me of this show, in defiance of the near miss. 
  Another legendary goth band they remind me of....early Switchblade Symphony.  No....no, I'm not just fucking saying that...... 'cause so what if Philly played Switchblade later that night....not relevant. Yeah....their beats....with the nursery rhymes....That's what separated them.  Innocence walking on dark waters, just like here with Ships.  Her plainspoken words glide and land effectively. The music is restrained, minimal but with a dancers mid tempo pulse. Minimal, dark dance, synth pop. I think that is more crayons than I am used to using. In Dark Places when she hits you square with that clear voice, you are a deer staring into the lights. But that dancers pulse moves you along.  There was a reason why we had this at Bittersweet. You can dance to this shit like its your favorite Book Of Love track. Myriologues broods over ripples of water and looks for a fuse that Alethea steps on. Her songs are simultaneously intimate enough for a bedroom, and dance floor worthy for....well goth clubs.
  Her set finished and I somehow not as bitter for missing most of it. Instead,

feeling good that I caught what I did and I still can buy her music. There was no fucking way I was just gonna hear this shit on YouTube. I gotta have the fucking physical CD.
  After time I can think about this show I caught on the after end of Crash Pop. Me and Philly went to that as well. Philly had me stay longer with each song on his set list. So as much as it is about her....its also about Bittersweet on the last Sunday of the month. It was a good time there, as fleeting times tend to be, too brief. Writing it down extends it for me. Serves as the building blocks for a more accurate collective memory. There is video, music, and this text, this culture matters to me and it should be enjoyed now and remembered later. 

 My impression of her music evolves and deepens.  I want to go back and say, revise what I wrote about the tracks I already mentioned, and ramble about further about the rest.  Deathless reminds me of some Zola Jesus tracks that specifically are about suicide.  And like those tracks there is no escaping clearly spoken words.  The video kind of seems to be about some one preparing herself to take her own life.....she takes a vial of something.  Another reason why I have to say the word dark over and over again. Its blacker than a long power outage.  World Turned Cold takes me back to and has the sweetness of The Never Ending Story. The entire album retains this feeling of smallness, intimacy. That makes the impact of clear words more resonant.  The songs don't telegraph each other. Each carves its own path in my head. They are different enough from each other that you don't tire of the artist.  I can hear the whole album. It makes seeing her more special. It makes fitting into this fucking Medium a mission that includes cardio, push-ups, and pull-ups.  When she comes back I'll get the big XXL. Zig

Still Corners

     Still Corners I only recall seeing one other time.  The gifts the universe leaves for you does so with a reminder that it almost did not happen, nor was it obliged to.  My friends Sarah and William they had an extra ticket and went out of their way to tell me to come on down.  Never do I forget the kindness, for I feel unworthy of it. Creatures of An Hour, I have never stopped listening to. Its something that always orbits back in my ipod, or I always look for the CD to play it in the car.  My favorite aunt even liked a track that I played while taking her to visit us in my house, I think it was Cuckoo,  or Endless Summer....yet for music so sweet it also has the relentless and steady forward engine of a train, and this heartbeat helps the sweetness sound great.  You are not lost in a fog, you are being driven in a convertible with the gentle wind blowing your hair back. ...I just jumped ahead. It would be so indulgent to continue this image further, but I would just be sounding like a car commercial. 
  Just play anything from Still Corners and the happiest memories or moods will effortlessly conjure themselves.  And if you can drive to it, you can dance to it. I'm into just about all of Creatures of An Hour.  When I think about Still Corners, Creatures is what instantly comes to mind. I bought it from them at their show at Schubas.  That was the show that Sarah and William got me inside of, and I think it was 8 years ago.  So when they played some from that album, I certainly was way happy. The first time seeing them, I was barely getting to know them. Now since knowing of them, they are pillars in the internal, mental shrine to music. The second time around at Beat Kichen....I was already sold.  I met up with my friend Steve this time. Miraculously I made their whole part of the show. Beat Kitchen was not going to fuck around.  At this point beyond Creatures, I knew nothing. Did not pursue it. I let it drift.  Steve's enthusiasm brought the show to my radar and now there we are, on the threshold of seeing Still Corners live.

 I am behind when it comes to Still Corners.  I will slowly familiarize with Dead Blue because I like Lost Boys. That was not their latest and not what I think they were touring for. Slow Air is their newest. I'm sure it was Black Lagoon I was dancing to. There's a video to it to binge on.  There she is driving a convertible and then on a beach. Ohhh....So there is where I got those images from.  So Black Lagoon establishes this beat, this pace that it never blinks from, an easy runners pace.  Its sweet enough and dark enough.  Its black enough for Sarah and William. I can see this in Shimmer and Bittersweet. Its synth pop bass gives the guitar the right habitat to thrive. 
   I remember how enthusiastic was their performance.  They were all into it, drummer, guitarist, and Ms Tessa. Attention and applause was shown for them for peak moments. When the guitarist was wailing away the way people play air guitar.  That's his stolen moment and the crowd reacted.  Him and the drummer were that machine Tessa drove with her whispery voice. 
  Four albums, but...I'm taking my time and let the memory of the show imprint with the two CDs that I have.  If I had it, I would have bought all the fucking merch....shirts, CDs. I was fortunate to have enough to bring something back. 

   Tessa Murray's angelic pretty whisper voice holds her place well between the drummer and guitarist....she also plays keyboard.  Tessa was so nice afterwards talking to everyone at the merch table and taking pictures with them for a good while afterwards.  That reminds me of why I am so fucking into them.  It brings me back to the first album.  Looking back I believe they also played The Trip.  Dead Blue is what I will be thinking about and playing.  Slowly songs from there sink in beyond Lost Boys.  Textures marked with sound are these fascinating paths I take, familiar and new. As it dawns on me how awesome The Fixer is, Dreamhorse grabs you.  The delayed reaction works well for me as I am now overwhelmed by two great tracks. For me they are like Bel Canto, the way they without intending to, being this goth music candy. Bel Canto is a goth club favorite and I think this can be for Still Corners sending the bat friendly signals.
   For music that sounds so chill, sweet and rhythmic, live its not meek. Its powerful, the bass gently surrounds....but still you are compelled to dance.   Music sounds clean not awash in fuzz that only the musicians can navigate.  I was watching the drummer and guitarist playing off each other. The theater of seeing that made the show for me too. When they are sold, taken in by their own performance, that fire resonated with the audience. There were them moments when you know it was just him and the drummer and the crowd reacted.  At this point, now I don't remember exactly which songs I heard. But theirs is a show that is an awesome thing to see live.  Their shyest songs really come to life as the coolest fucking thing.  Zig