Ruby Frey

Last Friday 10 August We went to Empty Bottle to go see Circuit De Yeux, more on her on a separate post. Ruby Fray owned this place as well. I looked up one video of the headliner but we were totally unprepared for Ruby Fray. They were fucking crazy. Feels like the impact of seeing School Of Seven Bells and Warpaint under the same tiny roof. The live show hit differently than the CD later.....wait. It totally works for me. I feel fortunate for knowing the music this way. I have not been out much so I was wanting for something to imprint on me. We parked next to the Church on Augusta. Ruby Fray pretty much had me from the first song. I did no research on them until now, well after the gig. You know with me the hurricane has to hit first, then I figure out what hit me and try to catch up. Before I could hold the moment with words the intense weirdness has to hold me before I can name it. I walk in not knowing shit and so for a moment....ok longer than that, I thought RF was CDY. My pictures mostly focus on Emily Beanblossom the guitarist/lead singer. I don't know if it was pure laziness to not move from my spot but the center of the moment was Emily. The crowd seemed modest in size the whole night. Oh, but guess who I saw....Dan The Fan! We usually like the same local bands and so when I see him I know I'm in for something I will like, if not yet. Ruby Fray were like fixers in this haunted, enchanted Otherworld that I wandered into, and kind enough they were to guide me through it. There is no getting away from calling them psychedelic. On CD the songs also have that rural darkness that I found in Man Is Man, Roma Di Luna, but y'all haven't looked them up neither. Rural, and psychedelic is how I can begin to describe Pith, the CD. Like they got no problem taking mushrooms and going where there's little indoor plumbing. If Julee Cruise kept your attention even with The Voice Of Love. It's easy to like the Twin Peaks related Floating Into The Night. So talk to me after you familiarize with Kool Kat Walk....alright where's that fucking map. I'm lost. Hmm oh, yeah. Julee is urban, sophisticated and mysterious. Ruby Fray is who she rents the cabin from. My parents, when I was a kid they would take me to go see relatives that worked far into the farmlands of Illinois. I never liked going as fondly as I remember now. The air smelled different, these relatives seemed so at ease with the quicker country darkness. Their work on the white farmers land kept me safely within the margins of city life, their work. Where was I taking this? Oh....with Ruby Fray, the voice to me wise and womanly at ease with this rural other-world. Live it was more of a full band sound. The music is different....more intimate on CD but no less striking, yet still for that reason I cannot say which ones I heard live first. So which songs sold me again on CD? Northern Washington, Closed Eye, Penny, Barren Hill bring me to a campfire where I go to warm my hands. These are cold, bad lands RF bring you to, but wiser you will feel when familiar to it. I wish I had lyrics to read. On stage you see and hear the whole band and on CD it feels more intimate, but still very intense. So if you bought the CD on the belief that what you hear live will be the same....keep the CD. Give it the chance to see where it takes you.
Zig

Staring Problem

A Thursday night at Latebar I saw Staring Problem. It was for a CD release and tour. I could not get anything for it yet....I barely had enough to get past the door. They got shirts now too. There will be another time, they are local. I like bands that work their town a lot and they are now fully local having to be originally from Carbondale, Il. So I see Staring Problem with Lauren's full blonde hair. On this one gig at Ultra Lounge when she had the Depeche Mode shirt I think the black was still hanging on....what was the relevance of that anyway? Hmmm....a random memory sparked from the present moment of seeing them live. And they pile on from there....the Township gig, the Township gig you missed, the Whistler show....you missed. And now Latebar with like minded friends like Philly Peroxide and Scary Lady Sarah. I'm not sure I saw William there. Any way, each show is different and this one has me sharing this moment with all these friends. And the venue is just the right place to welcome them. I know they are playing their new songs. They played the one they ended their Township night. In the coolest of bass solos a string breaks on the bass and thats how I remember the song but I don't know the name of it....and it's awesome...longer than two minutes. I would love for longer Staring Problem songs. I'm happy to see them play and tour around. Their dark aesthetic emits casually, without effort. Music that does not wear the corset so much as they make you wear it for them. Staring Problem is not "beach goth" but Lake Michigan goths go see them. They have an effortless subcultural appeal. Perhaps it's just me, but I think they can see fans across many subcultures. It's like they can walk into Costco without showing the card. So back to this dark aesthetic lean they got. They don't make it scary sounding. They are cool and comfortable and you do the moving. They make you at ease in expressing what you are. And so here they were in front of a heavily goth crowd at Latebar. They fit right in.

Ego Likeness

Here is one I have not seen in a long time. I remember Ego Likeness before I even started this here blog, and before my digital camera. I still got pictures of them in film from disposable cameras. The last time I saw them I bought Donna's novel Isabel Burning which I'm still reading. You want to support the artist that you like in whatever they do. As EG I see them as goth-industrial, in the same neighborhood as I:Scintilla, Ayria, very dance floor friendly in that way. Very likely if you know those last two mentioned bands you also may know of Ego Likeness. I saw them on a Saturday night. I think the place was called Livewire Lounge. I don't know the size of venues they play outside of Chicago but here I always they seem to play small places and that works for me. Yeah, they've played Metro too but that takes the smallness from the equation. Small concentrates the energy flowing from performer to audience and back. The really cool thing about an industrial audience is that they go to see a band to dance not just observe like a hipster. We want to dance! We want to show our love for the band. And Donna had her people down. In their PVC they sweated, the corsets, the make-up. In their black clothes they perspired for Donna like there was no AC.  When you wear black clothes in hot weather....thats when it counts. Inside this place was sweaty hot, and we still danced. I parked my barely reliable vehicle and ran to the venue where there were people standing and chatting outside. It was around 11pm, well into the night and it was still humid like the sun was still out. I was ready to pay the cover but as I walked through the crowd and threshold...... no one challenged me, asked for id...nothing. So I drifted further inside this hot sauna of a club. Cool, now I got money to perhaps buy a CD which I needed to catch up to Ego Likeness, and how they made me dance. It all came back, what got me into them to begin with. It was wonderful to bask in that collective vibe of open display. The great thing about industrial music is that dancing is so woven into it. You can move to anything sure but it's something else when it's everyone.  And so it was with Ego Likeness in this tight narrow venue. Donna had her crowd moving. There was new music that the band played that I will one day have to get, but for now I must just document here a band that predates the blog. Yes, there were those in the back, and in the margins, but the venue was narrow. You only needed a few in the front to dance. You can still see the two drummers sweat in the back of the stage. Before leaving I got the Geist picture disc.  Now I must take the time to re acquaint with Ego Likeness.

LOZEN

I have not seen Lozen in years since Ronny's. That place was so nasty it borders on embarrassing and now it's closed. I recall getting their poster so as to not forget that I saw this band. They did not have CDs or vinyl or even cassettes for sale.....yes some bands are selling cassettes but with a download code. But this one time at Ronny's I wanted to remember that I liked Lozen especially for this last song. So I took a poster with me and took pictures. I could not form an opinion on the rest of their set at the time. The name Lozen just stuck to my head for no reason at all. Why would two girls call their band like that? The name must have a special significance. The question kept the band in mind as well as the last song in their set. To my embarrassment it was someone I should have known of all along. The Apache warrior/medicine woman Lozen that fought along side Geronimo and was so invaluable to him with his struggles with the US. Hmm, hmm, a real life badass, and it's Xena who told me on Youtube. I did not know that the first time seeing them. But the name stuck and so I came around. This second time  is when I tripped over this wall of knowledge while finally getting to know and like this awesome band....named after her.
  I got the CD Enemies Against Power and so here I am exploring that. There was more the id wanted..the shirt...the vinyl. Lozen were here this time to support Para Vida, their latest, but I could not get it. I was drooling like Homer. I don't even remember knowing this walking into Ultra Lounge. I barely caught Sentinels play their last two songs. I recall liking their last one. You barely have enough to walk in the door and so you kinda don't want to like anything, 'cause you're too broke. But you gotta get something. Its been a long time, and many bands. I recall the unavoidable familiarity with them, Lozen, like I can speak spanish to them, daughters of fellow paisas. At Ronny's the audience was thin. I took pictures of them after and in showing them I recall Justine the drummer remarking on the visible arm-pit sweat caught in the pics. I was too shy to speak to them this time at Ultra. I stuck to catching the pictures during the performance.
  Hearing them now on CD I feel introduced in part to a world of music I normally avoid. Lets say thats metal and it was the first identity I saw in this two person band, but not the only one. I don't think it's exclusively the female voice that draws me. How do I say this...I find in Metal precision skill with the guitar but in the service of juvenile testosterone. Or at least there's always something turning me off from what sounds lean in that direction. With Lozen I saw the metal skills in the service of wiser minds, even in it's aggressive delivery. It has...an old coolness. What normally turns me off about metal was mysteriously not present with this band. Well, for right now, this interest only focuses on them rather than on what else after.
  My admiration for them begins with Enemies Against Power. Many of the songs are long. Their shortest is around 4 minutes, but in giving them a chance you will not feel it. In Unspeakable Truths you see how well they separate the choppy guitars with space enough to admire the view from the mountain you are climbing, the sound riffs you are riding. A friend of mine in admiring the Chicago skyline  once told me it's because there is space between the buildings. The same here. There are spaces of time between the massive structures of sound. And these structures build to a crash before you realize. In no rush, the slow to mid-tempo cool walks prep you for the slow-motion coolness of Erieichda! When you hear these songs you will not feel the length. Their pace commands attention. Its...butchy enough for metal heads to like....yet not enough to alienate the PJ Harvey fan in you. There I go speaking PJ when I promised myself not to. At least I did not use my shoegaze crayon. You're into it the whole time and I wish I had lyrics but their voices come out clearly enough for me to follow. I'm glad I don't have to pronounce that song here, just try to spell it right.

  They are Hozoji Matheson-Margullis on guitar and Justine Maria Valdez on drums. They are from the state of Washington. Their label is Silent Queef. The CD they are actually promoting is Para Vida. I could always download that from their bandcamp site. Right now, I'm on Enemies and it's brilliant.

MOritat

Moritat did their first CD release for Clill Blanzin at Whistler this past Monday 25 June.  The Friday of that week they played Subt's I think with Sister Crystals but I couldn't make it. So this will be roughly a recollection of that Whistler gig while going on about Blanzin. And all these songs that I heard live are now in a more tangible form.....the CD, right. Before anything is recorded, it feels elusive to me and so I follow. The only way to see it....hmm is to see it. The window of time that I had on that Monday night was short. I had to be somewhere else soon. Every little thing cost time, from parking the car to the stop lights on Fullerton Ave. In many ways this gig will be no different from others I've seen of Moritat. So for this post I got all these pictures that go like way back. They've done Whistler many times before. Doesn't take the edge off the urgency to arrive on time. What a swelling crowd for a Monday night. With all the pictures I have I can just take a few less and just enjoy the performance. There's Julie....of course.
  I rarely go to Whistler on weekends. All live shows are on weekdays and so a packed Whistler is not unusual, no cover. That also means that people can wander out. This place can be brutally indifferent if it wants to, and I hate that. And yes there were people in and out, but also there were many that stayed and listened. So its a wonder to behold when people don't leave, and on a Monday. This was the audience that Moritat held at attention. And I gotta say this....they played Yellow House, from their first demo CD, and the song that first hooked me.
  The first time I saw Moritat (and for some reason I always start with that) something with how Venus played her keyboard in relation with the drums made me identify them as trip hop, not in every song, but enough for me to use that crayon...more than once. And we all bring our box of 64 crayons. Meanwhile they evolve faster than my slow motion pondering. I figured out why I say trip hop. I like the bass, keyboard, drums that always have that burst of urgency around the corner. Every instrument has its own clear imprint with its own separate space. You see and feel every instrument separately as if just jamming.  Noise, the second song on Clill Blazin has this.
  I kept coming back for Noise, they did live a lot. Starts with this bass that plays long just enough. It plays like it's just minding it's coolness, not directly seek attention, but the undercurrent takes you.  They can really sell a jam session, without boring you. You get segments where they are just instruments talking and I close my eyes to jam with them. I don't flop my arms about like in Nocturna but Moritat makes me move.
  Just when you think they sound a certain way, out comes Money to fuck it all up. And it's like Cindy Lauper says. No, wait. I love the song because it seemed so unexpected for me. I do vaguely remember hearing it now 'cause I think its where they make Venus play guitar live. I recall casually holding it down with a PJ Harvey post-it. When you hear the song it dawns the many worlds within Moritat. It makes for a lot of procrastination when writing about them. The first time I heard Money on the CD I thought it was PJ Harvey.  So here we have two different .....hmm sounds that Moritat completely own and project.

  So I'm trying to say with all this is that I like Clill Blanzin in ways I did not anticipate in relation to One Minute Fade or Yellow House. So I'm left with this impression that they are not done evolving and expressing. I did find common threads that span their entire work like with Blind, Yellow House, Noise, Wheelin'. And then theirs Money.....and so you don't see coming their  killer cover of Joy Division's Heart and Soul. I'm not a musician so from my blunt ears they don't do anything different aside from just playing it, and it works!

Sister Crystals

I went to the Panda Riot thing last Saturday 9 June with a weight of guilt attached to the usual belief that I'm late to something. Friends that I feel close to invited me elsewhere. I'm sorry guys I could not go. So this slight weight of guilt was my companion. Don't trust guilt to give you good directions. I thought I passed Kedzie when I thought I didn't. Circled back to heavy Cicero traffic, start over. Indeed I missed the band before Sister Crystals were scheduled to play and that is who I wanted to see. A little facebook research may lead you to the free downloads. You see how that puts an edge to the urgency to see them? Well, it makes the driving stop and go on Cicero somewhat fucking unpleasant. So I listen to NPR and see how bad everyone else has it. Fuck!!
  So finally I find the street where Panda Riot were releasing their EP....I just have to circle back again. As I park I notice a swarm of people casually head in. This is my second visit to the Pandas practice spot. They were releasing new work on vinyl. As near definite as seeing them was, Sister Crystals were the main wonder.  There's Rebecca with the crowd...go pay her...she's talking....oh, there go the Crystals. Pay later....I did....no bullshit.
  So I recall really liking the downloaded songs. In awe that I can discover this and then download it right there. How in the veins is that? The only main line left to do is to see them live, and pay. They deserve to be paid. Its important to do that. I believe the event just broke even. To see it pays me back for ever. This is how the music gasps for air, to see it, to go after it is to be...that child discovering his favorite bands. Now you go after the events.
  I saw the whole thing. I was way impressed with SC.  They more than reenforce what I downloaded. Live, they have these moments when they build, build, build almost to anticipate the voice of Lauren Whitacre around the corner.  That makes for a good 5 minutes in one song, 2 minutes of which is jam session but you feel like you are running a sprint with them on a hill. And they get into it, like Ringo Death Starr...only they don't run into the crowd and offer to let you play bass...was it bass? Hmm, so with SC you are not tired or bored. Many times I just.... danced. They create the fire and give it space and time. And you can dance and ride the moment, and they do as well. I remember for how in awe I was in seeing how they played their instruments, jamming for themselves almost without an awareness of the crowd which seemed big during their set.
  I cannot recall which songs did what, and perhaps this will not help in what others find or not find in Crystals. I felt placed in rooms that previously John Lennon placed me in. A similar nostalgic kick, familiar laced wonder like something you should have been listening since forever. It's not saying that is how they sound. But their sweetness sparked easily the feeling of discovering Lennon for the first time in my uncles car. Awh...how we give a shit, and does not help, right. Oh, so how do they sound? Hmm, like Secret Colours with the cardio engine of Sybris. What? You got to look them up too? Fuck!! So don't look that way when I want to use the Warpaint spray can!

  SC at times felt like they can effortlessly create this heavy dense fog and charge into it with you in a shopping cart. The wizened sweetness comes with the voice of Lauren Whitacre. Provokes wonder and claims authority. Sure I notice all the the ink too between the camera flashes, it adds to the authority like with Jilly from We Are Hex. You feel that what ever happens in the span of the six songs occurs near a beach, and for me far too close to childhood memories of Calumet Park on the South Side. Lauren's voice is clear yet I still base everything primarily on how things sounded and only occasionally what clearly comes out like in She's Gone. And you already have the marble stones where the words will write themselves. I might as well go see Calumet Park....or a real fucking beach, but currently I could only afford the metaphor, and Calumet. I didn't speak to the band  at all after they played, my awkwardness would scare Ms Lauren off I thought. I am happy and grateful to Panda Riot for having them.

Panda Riot

Panda Riot, I post on them a lot but really fuck it.  In the attempt at saying different things about them with each new performance, I suppose I must say the same fucking thing. I don't even recall which Saturday I saw them. It was at Bottom Lounge. I especially went to see Elika. They played first and PR were next. Oh.... why do I go see them so damn often? Hmm ...fuck. Through them I've seen so many others. Lets see. Over the years there is a list of who I can tether Panda Riot to. Magnetars....haven't seen them in a very long time. Lightfoils, Kodacrome, Eula, b.c.e.. OK that's a small list...wait. I can throw in Magic Key, School Of Seven Bells and Warpaint. So it's always an evolving education with the Pandas.  Oh yeah, and they are playing more and more new music.
  They have a new EP coming out. It's called Serious Radical Girls. I suppose that does not save me still from repeating the same old fucking praise. For this release that they will do this weekend they will perform with other bands that I am very curious about. I made it late to Lightfoils/MGM at Hideout. The redeeming value in this is talking to friends that made it on time were outside on the Hideout patio. It made me anticipate this coming weekend with Panda Riot, and many other things further in the horizon. I want to say, yes what those specific things are that came about in the course of conversations, casual yes, but I keep it to me for now. It feels not right at the moment.....Oh look Panda Riot! Yeah, this was about them anyway.
  There is more and more new work from them that still have yet to be recorded or available just like that at Reckless. You can only see it when they play it. Ye Old Fashion way. That very line I can apply to a lot of bands I see and just like here, its part of the fuel that drives me to see them. I'm grabbing at sand and I can only hold on to so much. Then you start to describe it but really you are describing the memory of it. So there is a lot that PR perform that is not recorded.... right. You know, I'm still in delight that they have a live drummer Jose'. He's awesome, there is this expression on his face that betrays his joy for performing. For me it's an honest barometer. It's no show. His glances are to his bandmates, if he looks up at all. PR did not always have a drummer. Jose' has been with the band for...I think over a year. I had a nice conversation with him about our common roots in Mexico, mutual appreciation of Alla'...we went on.

  The following is how I describe the performances of new work, my memory of it. Right, so PR have this lean into the darkness, hmm. Maybe you will eventually disagree with how I describe it, but follow me anyway. Their type of wonder to me was sweet sounding and not dark or spooky until now. Depth, but no sadness. "Suddenly I'm happy just to be!" is hmmm, bright-sided wonder. Happy on the inside and outside. These new songs still have that happy vibe to them but now innocently describe the darkening shadows. There is a Songs Of Innocence, Songs Of Experience lean on it. What you don't say casts a long shadow....like a child describing a darker world. You know it's worse than a child can imagine. This is what I kinda get when I hear the new dark rose oil wonder of PR. What does Blake have to do with it? Hmmm. I keep thinking of The Chimney Sweeper whenever I hear the new stuff. Yeah, really. And then I plastered them together here and it kinda works for me.