Sister Crystals

Sister Crystals. I saw their free show at the Bottle. Finally got the vinyl. Come to think of it I recall seeing them too at the Hideout with Blackstone Rangers. I get a wave of euphoria when I hear them live, and now having finally bought the self-titled vinyl release, this euphoric feeling will come from having that tangible product and hearing it whenever. I just felt that this is the right thing to have on vinyl. They are fuzzier than Rangers, not as electronic.....hell all I recall are guitars and lots of them, but their fog does not disturb their purposeful forward motion. There's just this sweetness out of them. And this is a very personal description that can only make sense to me....they provoke this powerful iconic memory of hearing certain Beatles songs, and then later John Lennon songs for the first time. I'm just taken back to that place. It only makes sense to me. I know. I write it down here mostly for myself, but perhaps there is something to take from that....or not, ok. They got this happy, hopeful alert forward energy. Lauren Whitacre's voice has a slight husk to smoke the sweetness,  so its not intense. For a while the only way to hear their latest work was to go see them live, and their previous work under Magic City. I mean its all I had. And so I saw them a lot. Hard to Imagine is a stroll in the park that still has its dramatic peaks and brief intimate moments with just the voice, the lead guitar is what takes over the story's dramatic and long conclusion. White establishes this strolling pace that continues for me into For So Long, From Our Room. And forgive this primitive use of the crayons but they make me feel like the protagonist at the end of the movie with the credits rolling behind me. Like I've done something that has some kind of subcultural worth....enough to write a movie. I guess its an intense way of saying this music has this ability to make you feel back into your personal narrative with a euphoria, hope, or balm that things are cool. If not they will be or can be. I'm not going on words specific. Just.....This here rant is stream of.....kinda. In White I like how they have those intimate moments when its almost just the voice, a few beats and then the rest of the music cascading around you. Its like another sort of peak. The chime of music behind you feels like back up, validation. I wanted to have new pictures from the most recent show I saw, I did not take my camera so here are pictures from the first time I saw them.
Zig

Blackstone Rangers

I saw them at The Hideout. Got the shirt. Got the CD Descendant Of, and all of it goes into the veins. I mean who doesn't want that on a fucking shirt. In Chicago, well, one must be careful, but we will get to that. This music will continue to kick out new doses well into the years when other bands emerge into the foreground. As always I gotta go on about the detours I took and took me before finally arriving at the show. I had to run an errand, that was ok. What was not ok was the bloody spider that made me stop, park and kill it....and then compose myself before driving off again. I made it to more than I thought I would. Strolled in....was not challenged and so....slowly...melted into the crowd. What? It means I could buy more merch! I did, but I left my camera in the car. So these pictures are from the Township gig. I am happy and fortunate to have these modern methods of preserving the moment and music. I'm glad to see their tour finds them orbiting with other bands that seem trending upwards like Ringo Deathstarr. The Rangers capture attention....hell each song demands it until you have 6 tracks all screaming for it at once. I'm barely reaching Judas Tree and I was already hit by Descendant. I love the shirt. Can't wear it absolutely everywhere in Chicago. Blackstone is a word, heavy with baggage from old Chicago gangs. Just to reach Youtube videos of the band Blackstone Rangers I first have to sift through gang videos. I mean fucking really. Its not on them at all of course. The search was still worth it. I saw and interview with Ruth and a blunt smoking rapper, Tunk. Which had me recall I did talk to Ruth briefly after the Hideout gig. The interview is worth a look.  When pressed to describe her music Ruth settled on distorted pop and shoegaze. I understand the hesitation to use those words generally. They carry baggage that slowly overshadow their face-value meaning. So we struggle to avoid saying the words 'cause of the baggage.....no?....ok...I'm just giving new names to the constellations, don't mind me. I would say their shoegaze is distorted as well. No...I'm not taking the piss. Its Pop sharpened and cleared the fog. "Pop" is a tell for saying they know how to keep your attention. I mean how many times did I hear "Into the sea", and I'm still into that track. Their sound has always moved with a purpose and held attention. You never get that lazy feeling that makes you that slow moving tourist all full of wonder, taking your sweet time and all that. You are woken up yes but to night-time club music that feels right always. Basically they know how to hold your attention to something weird. Somehow shoegaze is earning that couch.   Their interview is very insightful. They are just having a conversation that reveals casually their thoughts on, the importance of being self-critical as musicians, ....Dallas. I understand you have to say something ....... anything after or before you use pop to describe your sound, no...no....it's plain fucking white rice at this point. You gotta call your kind of weirdness something. And shoegaze is getting kicked out of a lot of couches as of late, and someone stole her last copy of the Reality Bites soundtrack. By the time I saw them, its like shoegaze has been living in the Ranger practice spot. At one point I think Tunk asked about a song, Frozen Echo.  Her explanation includes references to David Lynch and Twin Peaks. I see Twin Peaks in just about everything. I see through Twin Peaks tinted lenses. The Artist To Artist interview helps to keep the music in the present mind. It makes hearing Nights/Days on the road a real joy. Its a highway song. Endless Sky is more for meandering around a happy tourist of the everyday.....alright so they do one of those, so what. I like it.

   The more distorted their pop sound is, the more compelling it naturally becomes. And the shoegaze can use the distortion as well.    So within one band we have the two ends of the continuum....lets say (at 3am). As I hear their new release I go back to their older work with refreshed ears. Everyone does this to some degree I suppose. It just gets easier now. Its no longer the grand physical task of looking up the vinyl to play...or the CD to play...its a matter of looking for it in your ipod. Hell, we can do all three. I just hate it when the vinyl, or cassette does not come with out the bloody download code. Jezuz, I fucking went on. Alright, I'm putting the crayons down....now. Sorry.
Zig

AXONS

 They always fascinate me these one member bands. Its always something to see a person just be vulnerable like that on stage with no bandmates to share the potential scrutiny of a crowd. Listening later does a set of things. Seeing the live performance and allowing for that to be the first imprint starts a chain of events, small to all but myself. So I saw Axons at Township. I was fortunate to be on time for her whole set. This was who played before the headliner Videotape. It was my first show with Axons. She is local. Her name is Adele Nicholas. The coolness of this show is barely washing over me. I was so concerned with capturing these few images. In between these, I did enjoy the performance. As she set up, Adele heard rude comments coming from some people.  It wasn't just rude, it was some sexist cave man shit, that I found out later from reading a post from her. It broke the fourth wall in this uncomfortable way even before the gig starts. So she let the crowd know and so that prompted everyone to swell closer to her gently and protectively. But that fourth wall, and its comfort, gone.  It would radioactive embarrass me to know this guy who had to say something to her. When Adele was setting up there were not that many people near her. So I can see who it was that just said his toxic, stupid observation. He could not have dressed more the part if he tried. I don't think they stayed much longer.
  Its a different set of braincells you line up to capture than to experience. So having now seen her live, I bought the cassette and downloaded and listened. This is why I hustled over on time for. Its coming back to me now. I saw her play guitar. I saw her assemble her songs. Layering her voice, layering guitar, watching this is a theater. Singular things happen. Oh, and her voice, its beautiful and always clearly heard. So phrases like "One by one you're gonna watch those bastards fall.." come out with full anthemic impact. As Adele tries to layer her voice cleanly to repeat a segment, she accidentally records the fading "yeah" of a fan in the crowd. It totally worked! She can write a dance track in her sleep. The wonder is how unorthodox the end results feel. Can you really telegraph Bastards after Barrel of a Gun They sound like the come from different bands. With Bastards I'm reminded of The Kills, perhaps Sons And Daughters......angry, messy, defiant garage rock. In a flash of one song Axons projects what a band does with its whole identity.  I think she did play this one, and if so she would have to build it, one thing at a time. I wish it was longer than two minutes.
 Gadolinuim is sweet minimal wonder, reminds me of Still Corners. Her voice is slightly higher. There's a charm in the artifice of the drum machine. A live drummer would spoil the intimacy of this sweet shuffle. I don't know if I heard this one but I'm so happy to have heard now as I research the band.
   I'm too focused on each song to see what the other has coming and so when they hit, its hard. So I don't know what Bastards has coming because Gun has me in that moment. Gun sounds just right for a dance floor. This is worlds away from the next track. And this is the effort, performance, creation of a single mind sounding like many. In one show you begin to see the depth and breath of her music, her vast range. Each track sounds almost from a different band.....hmmm how do I say it. Its not to say "this track sounds like this band....or that band", no. Each track suggests the faint signature of its own band. Not so deliberately as Prince Rama, but indeed that is the effect to me.
Zig

Tiny Concept

This is who I've only seen once in a near empty Empty Bottle on a Tuesday. It was just this one girl solo act stage named Tiny Concept. Her name is Letty and she's from France. Her work is described as minimal, lo fi post punk......yeah. I remember being completely sold on her cover of Devo's Mongoloid. She put it together, looped and performed all the guitars. She turned this fun song into a deep, thought-provoking meditation. I'm sure it hurt to see a fucking near empty place with just me like a deer in the headlights gawking at her.  I bought her CD before she left. This was one of them shows you recall for knowing how few went. A hollow place has a specific sound, you can't just get it from a silent audience. Its one of them performers you see once and you think about a lot here and there. That was years ago, and now forward to roughly April 2014, I check out a link shared from a youtube video of her. Its one of them times I needed to hear that cover of Mongoloid. I can just lose myself to the daydream to it. I downloaded another 6 track Ep Proof Of Concept! And its fabulous! And it brings it all back, that one iconic show that almost no one else saw that night in Chicago. TC seems to have a smoke treated husk to her voice. It throws a shock of weirdness on top of the lo-fi minimalism. Henry Barnes has this odd bouncy energy, that begins at Good Night Blue Moon. I just picture Charlie Brown and The Peanuts all dancing to this. It just has this odd sweetness. You just have to take the songs together because by themselves they are short. She slows down the weirdness to almost sound blusey with Dreamland. Then you're hit with the Mongoloid/Allez Tous Crever combo. Somehow it just makes me bounce around like a muppet. Tiny Concept deconstructs this Devo classic and makes it into this deep meditation. Live she must build one piece at a time, stretching the track but completely making it worth it. I hope she gives Chicago another chance. And yeah I checked. These are the only pictures I have of her. And aside from youtube videos and their links. Information on this band seems hard to come by which makes her all the more mysterious.
Zig