Sister Crystals

  I run an errand and I deliberately cue up You Won't Let Go. This one live is a killer. This one is the encore song or the one that made you want more. I have yet to really take in lyrics aside from what clearly pops out, but this is one that hits you before words even start to make sense. It hits me like it belongs in some indy cult film that without intending speaks for an age. A car that is so cool, you wanna buy a new house for it. Its already awesome after just over 3 minutes and then it drops the house on you. Six minutes and I wanted it to go longer. This hits me like a Warpaint jam session with John Lennon. This is actually a signature feeling Sister Crystals has on me with their music. First Time....that name is no bullshit, its that awesome. Their storytelling is not just in the words but in the hands, in the guitars. So these long intros or segments of just their guitar playing is great, I feel like I'm in the middle of this awesome jam session. This Emporium show I decided to go see instead of Ruby Fray/Coins at Burlington. I have to say I do regret missing that. And its not the same as saying I wish I did not catch Sister Crystals at Emporium with the last Videotape show. I just wish the shows did not conflict.  You Won't Let Go is the song I would recall best from the shows before finally buying the LP. But really every track is brilliant. My Ghost, From Our Room...You feel like you have climbed a cathartic hill. You wanna connect it to something greater because it already is on its own. Its the last track on their self-titled LP. Its on vinyl, its the exclamation. And can you believe it, they live in Chicago, local awesomeness! I noticed a good heavy crowd behind me for them at Emporium, so that was nice, I got the feeling they knew what they came for. For going on about them like I do, you'd think I would recall with tremendous precision which songs they played, but I do not recall, and I was there on time for their whole set. Oh look, and I just had to marvel at nearly this whole post without saying shoegaze. Chicago does seem to have this active, churning shoegaze scene, or at least bands that have had that crayon used to describe them....me included. Well....its just a fucking crayon and I just so happen to like to use it.
Zig

Panda Riot at Cole's

After CaveofswordS played this local workhorse, Panda Riot. I'm so glad to still see them. Its hard to keep a band together. You have to appreciate them while you have them. Following the Pandas I've been exposed to all kinds of brilliant music. Through them I've been lead to Warpaint, School Of Seven Bells, Videotape, Blackstone Rangers, Sister Crystals, Ringo Death Starr....its just fun to find an excuse to drop them all on top of each other like that. Well, there is a point here. Some of these mentioned bands have toured internationally multiple times. I presume success here and I wish for the same recognition for this local shoegaze distance runner. Here and there the Pandas do venture out beyond the city. I want people outside Chicago to know what plays regularly and often and in that way represents well this town. I think I've been aware of them since 2006? Their live work leans forward from their recorded work. When they were playing from Northern Automatic Music, all they had available recorded was She Dares All Things, work they were slowly leaning away from. There was always the next thing to want from them. For a long time they had not shirts. Now they do. The inclusion of Cory and Jose lit a fire under that ass. They sound leaner, faster. As the band ages, their sound concentrates. Sometimes in talking to you they throw in a bands name to short-hand a sound they captured, and that keeps me interested.  Good Night, Rich Kids , I can listen to without burning me out for Black Pyramids and so forth. They still play these live. And they continue to play new work that I presume they will formally record. I'm glad they are still together with a living evolving sound.

The intangible signatures become bolder. As they move faster, their beats hit harder. Their sense of wonder that is weathered with experience but not corrupted by it. These signatures allow for tracks to leave individual imprints.
Zig

Coins

Coins....Angela's other band besides Sybris ......is quite the departure from it at first. To the outside it looks like a cold switch to intimate as well as powerful....dark, minimalist folk. Dark pop before being self-aware. I'm less familiar with Ellen's previous work Reds And Blue. The few times I've caught them its just them two. Their songs all share this haunting-without-intending-to-be-scary vibe. The ghosts of twins that wish you to have a nice innocent memory of their music, and not the vicious scar a proper haunting would be. I mean play this shit to the Ghost Adventures crew in one of them asylums and Zak will probably shit himself as his first reaction sure. But don't this sound beautiful.......like once your eyes get used to the dark and less afraid, more in wonder? Their voices depart and weave different structures with each track, and its great to just have the voices sometimes with a bare minimum of instruments. Some of these tracks evoke a beach camp fire, or intimate club performance.  Innocent haunting vibe that is just the air they breathe. If you like Ruby Throat, Coins can be for you. Yeah....you, lay off Katie Jane for a bit. Even her weirdness needs a break. Alien song is typical in how it weaves easily into the present mind feeling like a single traveling thought, a comet observed across the mental sky expanse. The whisper has a way of focusing attention. The mind quiets to see across the sky. I like how differently each song imprints. The first one to stop me cold was Cave Life. These are all on Recital Pressures. The songs stop you not to focus sudden light on the music themselves but often the captured together random racing thoughts. If you play take in the entire album. Well it just sneaks up on you. Town Below barely let me stop at a rest area to see that I already took in half of the awesome. Here's a random thought as I was hearing Bullghost..... If you are fan of Coins first, its reasonable to assume that you may like Sybris. I think if you follow an artists work, its great to see their other projects. Damn it....Forgive....please forgive. I don't want to sound like some sort of snob. To show the other sheds lights on the greater whole.  And I think its an interesting thing to see this in Angela with Coins/Sybris.
Zig

CaveofswordS

  When you are broke that's when things you like reveal themselves and that last twenty dollar bill you were responsibly clinging to....well just like that, there it goes. I was not expecting to spend much this past Friday when Panda Riot shared the Cole's stage with CaveofswordS. I think I only caught the last two or three songs and that's it. They left an impression that compelled me to pursue. Kill It With Fire commands attention like a movie trailer, something thats gonna tell you a story. I swear if only they did not fucking make Machete such a fucking parody of himself. Glowing reminds me of the best moments of hearing Love Spirals Downwards, and that is just one end of a wide spectrum. The Valley gives me these light Spanish guitar/Pulp Fiction vibes. I could not be responsible and just saved my money. It would mean letting this pass through with not a means of capturing the experience. So I bought the CD Silverwalks.  Its these irresponsible acts of spending that lead me to some of the bands I like. The images I capture are few and crude. Its to paint the image with listening to Orson. There was a good crowd for them, barely porous enough for me to get to the front. Cole's is long with the stage all the way in the back, there was actually a lot more people where the bar and tables are, a long and separate room which feels narrow when you are walking past people standing or sitting with their drinks. CaveofswordS are from St. Louis, Missouri. I still don't know which songs caught my ear. The last song really got me and I was wondering how far the nearest Chase ATM was. So this here is my document of the first impression of this band. The beginning of a longer continuum. A new thread created.
Zig

Lightfoils at Double Door.

  I was half bummed because I missed Girl In A Coma at Market Days the same Saturday night. However the other band I intended to see I did catch. Lightfoils is a band that shares Cory on bass with Panda Riot. I don't really have it so bad at all. I was well on time. Right now this feels so long ago. Nationally so much has happened since, ....I mean so much tragedy. Multiple shadows cast over the little stories. Big things happen while I pout and whine about missing GIAC while entering Double Door to see Lightfoils. They have a full LP they will tour for. I have not bought it yet....you reach a point where you're just pre-sold. Whatever it is yeah. I take the long road in listening to them.  What do I recall at this point at the concert? There was this one girl that insisted on a shout-out to her girl's birthday. The singer obliged with a micro-expression of annoyance. I recall hanging with the band afterwards in the green room....or one of them anyway. It was my first time there and I think my eyes betrayed that. The rest of me held it in and was chill listening to what they do on their iphones. They got speakers and chargers. And that is one set of images, another is outside Double Door. They are playing again at Coles, this Thursday. I look forward to that and to listening to their new work. Lightfoils in my own bubble plays in my head all the time, re enforced by local DJs that are also friends.  Its like a wall of cool falling over you. There are a set of brain cells going mad like an irritating MTV interviewer. That scenario is kept locked and away from conscience. But here in there I must stare at the sun, and see that here is a band that I listen to regularly, they are friends and I'm in the fucking green room with them....and now my retinas are burning out. Going over songs again after a casual conversation about it

in a new breath of life. But you know none of it has to happen and all  at once. I am fortunate and grateful. Now its October and its after a tour I believe. I'm glad this is what goes out and represents Chicago.
Zig

The Spiritual Bat 2014

  At this point I can call them friends, and so their success, their struggle for it, matters to me. The Spiritual Bat come all the way from Italy. I go see them for the same reason I go see a lot of bands. There is something in their music that I identify with and so I support it when I can. A little something else comes with them. They bring with them the identity of the goth rock subculture. It fascinates how transnational their act is and small enough for them to remember you from town to town. It so fascinates me the distance they travel.  By the time I see them they have done all their European gigs and a portion of the US. I see them after lots of mileage. Goth rock is international, its trans local.  They carry the bloody torch. That identifiable energy is evident from the first track of the new CD. They are touring for what I believe is their third release, Mosaic.  I bought it on blind faith. And wow! I'm all into it. The blood does not pulse slowly for someone that likes goth rock. We in the shadows like to dance. Movement, tension and contemplation. Thinking shit through as you move. Its not the primary purpose if you will of dark music, but its one of those irresistible by products that make the subculture so attractive, and The Bats have this down.  Basically "you can dance to this" is saying they know how to keep your attention, without pandering to you. They are basically themselves in naturally appealing to that narrow passionate dark clad audience.  That title track just takes off and wakes you up with that dark muscle car engine.  If you are tired and winded after dancing, then you need to do more cardio because here comes We Are Born We Live We Die. Suddenly I'm back to one of those club nights that are exclusively devoted to goth rock.  You are not going to sit to So Proud there is that tension that makes you do those long slow dance movements. Tension is the thing that keeps even the slower tracks in my radar. At the moment I am currently all about Linfo! And it continues to rain on you after that. And let me stress that to me this genre....my appreciation for it is not out of nostalgia. This music lives in the present day for me and in part because of The Bats. They keep it in my head, and they keep me pursuing it.
  Well...2009 does feel like a long time ago. Much has passed since then. This was the second time at Live Wire Lounge. Seeing them was a much needed oasis for me. Oh...and Sarah and William were there. A good gathering of some of the friends of the local dark/goth-industrial subculture. Before that night I was such a fucking miserable bastard with no internet for a month. and then a 3 day migraine. I was probably unpleasant to be around. Just before blackout I wrote the show down......I knew this here comet was on its way and so I made arrangements to be where it hits. Hmmm, by the way, by black out I meant internet. I didn't black out from the migraine.....just to get that out. Anyway....This show was significant. Yet all day the night of the show I felt no anticipation. I dared not feel it, or something will swoop down and deny it the second they see me salivating. Something internally switched it off. Without internet like a fucking cave man you don't know if they changed venue or if something else happened. The relative isolation makes you think shit. Anyway....I'm glad I made it to this show where I got to see old friends, see old friends on stage. And I felt internally replenished for it.
Zig

Lykanthea

  My friend Diane and I went to see Scott Cortez at Burlington. I think it was late spring or something. It was on a Monday. It was her idea and I didn't say no. It was a lazy Monday. Expectations are low and so I feel...lazy. Along calls Diane.....why not. This can be like a training exercise on being on time since now I have another person to consider.....and its Diane. I pick her up from work. We both go on and bemoan whatever bullshit happens to us. We both have nieces from hell and so forth. Scott Cortez is spoken about a lot among the friends I share a thread of common musical taste. I know his work from his band Star. I wrote about them long ago. Once inside Burlington, there was Rebecca and Brian from Panda Riot. This turned out to be my first time seeing the local solo, ambient Lykanthea. Turns out she was about to release her EP Migration. I was fascinated first by her arranging of her instruments on the floor where she will kneel or sit. This intimacy draws you in. I mean who fucking does that? She has enough gear and instruments that would make other people by instinct naturally play standing up, like her guitar. So sitting on the floor is a deliberate and interesting act. Telos in moments reminded me of being introduced to Eno by my cousin years ago. Music For Airports.....We got stoned and...anyway I better like Telos at 8 minutes to Enos at 28.  I had to cue it up to that part. I don't got 28 minutes like that! So Lykanthea show....Burlington...oh and no camera. Monday night hanging with Diane. The lighting is candlelight minimal. This kind of performance invites, requires silence from the audience and there were two girls yammering away in the back. Diane would turn and stare them down. If they were flies she would have swat them. The sound guy eventually asked them to leave I think. So she is who I thank for introducing me to Lykanthea. I don't recall which songs I heard and which songs are impacting later when you hear it at home. It was real nice and unexpected to catch this on a Monday night. Not having a camera to record flashes of the moment had me absorb and recall as much as possible. I were to see her once more before moving of to Rome.
  Saturday August....don't fucking ask. On this night I caught two shows and this was the second. Researching Lakshmi Ramgopal's Lykanthea, later is to enter a labyrinth of other topics to research. To better and more fully appreciate Migration I shall research the goddess Inanna for example. First, I saw an amazing haunting one time performance of Lykanthea at Hideout with a chorus local performers from other bands behind her. An ideal ambient audience is tense silent and respectful as was Hideout.  My Sisters is crazy intense, dark and fragile! I'm so happy I did not miss it. That song and Telos are inspired by Lakshmi living for a week in the Greek island of Delos with no internet, isolated from the few people the island had and the roar of the ocean the only other constant. Sisters was written as a funeral song.            

  For the Hideout gig it was dark and they were hooded. If ritual it was, no commoners performed.
Clergy only, and for only one night, after this Lykanthea moves to Rome, and this moment is never to be again. This was not going to be on the list of fabulous shit I missed. I recognized most of the chorus. Sophie from Videotape, Melissa from architecture. Looked and sounded like I was witnessing an ancient ritual that I was not supposed to witness. Lakshmi is on the floor where she arranges her instruments. This gives texture to that ritual feel, intimate as only Hideout does.  The performance space was cold in relation to outside. It was probably 89 that August Saturday night and inside you can almost see your breath. You didn't go inside to get cool, you got outside to where its nice and warm. I keep in mind and stress that impressions I write down here

are just first impressions. Lykanthea's music is ambient and dense with thought. Easily slips you into deep dark introspection. More it will reveal about myself over time. Its just that dense. I look forward to the long imprint from Lykanthea.
Zig