I maybe caught like the last 3 songs and then I bought the CD Black Magic Moments. Its 9 tracks of fucking wow! The Bad Signs came with Ringo Deathstarr. Lightfoils opened the show at Chop Shop. They are from Nashville. They have already been featured in Noisy. They were founded by members of the punk band the Blacklist Royals and fronted by country singer Samantha Harlow. All the crayons that I was going to use on my coloring book of original and spot on descriptions are pretty much used. The store shelves are empty but everything but the most generic black. All the brands with references to Tarantino, Nick Cave, and I think David Lynch were used to describing The Bad Signs. Hmm, so I guess here I can chew on why. They are the three fucking kings of cool...with very different signatures of it that are present in the music of The Bad Signs. Its no accident that two of these names are film directors. The songs are perfect for storytelling, being in a soundtrack for some kind of Nick Cage cult movie. It was a matter of seconds that while reading and researching for this great band that I saw all three of these names used to describe them. And I absolutely agree. I'm suddenly wanting to see Wild at Heart, Blue Velvet in one end of the spectrum and Pulp Fiction, True Romance and Death Proof. There may not ever be films with music from this band, I mean what are the odds. Imagine discovering the soundtrack to Grease without ever seeing the movie, or knowing there was a movie with it. Such is
that noir gravitational pull. Immediately they evoke in strong American noir colors, they paint you the picture you want to be in. They paint for you in sound the sequence of your best moments. They romanticize without being sappy. You want to be Fonz, but not when he jumped the shark. They are the Fonz after the show was picked up by HBO. When I researched them before seeing them my impression was indifferent to warm. It was actually unfair of me. I was just checking fast enough to dismiss them. That half-ass impression made me just on time to when I was fully ready. Now I can't get enough and marvel that the universe almost let me miss them. Almost....
Zig
Thursday, December 27, 2018
Tuesday, December 18, 2018
Eve Black, Fauvely, Hobbyist...and then Shimmer
I planned it like this.......yet even in this plan you must accept that it can all go south. Go to Tonic Room early enough to see Fauvely and then from there go see Rani's new band Eve Black at Martyrs, and then from there bask and finish the night at Shimmer. The venues were a short drive away in the same fucking North side. Seeing Hobbyist in between them was completely accidental. And I need time with them....but wow were they crazy! As soon as Fauvely was done and I can say hi and talk with them, then I would be on my marry fucking way to see Eve Black. And so it almost happened.
To my warped German Expressionist memory I was going dump all these fucking events and make sense..... Yeah...that Rani.....from Resistor... Dream House...Girl Detective. I fascinates me to no fucking end that I can call Rani and Sophie friends. Seriously? Let me just stay in this fucking universe as a stray black cat. And in this German Expressionist world of course Rani and Sophie are friends. Let me tell you how small the fucking world is. Its gonna shrink to a familiar neighborhood. Resistor's last performance was Fauvely with Dorsia!
Eve Black is her new band...Rani's. I've been a Siouxsie fan since high school, but I was not familiar with all her music. I did not explore any further than what I knew and was familiar with. I was not into seeing cover bands. In comes Rani, she starts Dream House and it was impacting. I had to confront this dislike for Cover bands. I mean here comes this friend, I'm a fan of ......hers and she's crossing all these wires that I kept apart, and its fascinating...... I was reintroduced to Siouxsie and all her music that I knew and did not know as much about. It was fascinating because her own voice for Girl Detective is different from her Siouxsie voice and yet they are both authentically hers.
Martyrs is a venue I rarely see myself go. Its not deliberate. I actually don't know why. Its way up there on Lincoln Ave. There is a band still playing before Rani. Damn, I was real lucky to stay at Tonic. So now I actually have time to wander around... hi, Rani! Guess who else I just saw.....and now finally.....wait, washroom first. Alright now, we are ready for Eve Black.
Zig
Wednesday, December 12, 2018
Spaces Of Disappearance
Zig
Thursday, December 6, 2018
Ringo Deathstarr
It is never lost on me who I see when this band plays Chicago. Its always cool because that field is
usually within my own parameters. Its usually someone I already like or have a curiosity about. This bubble is small. That is so cool that you have to snort it like blow, is this. Sometimes its people that I am friends with. I'm sorry...that was a fat line I snorted. I need a minute, this shit hits the head first. Numbs the gums, right? Well, you know you can't let it stay in your head. You can make a total ass of yourself. Anyway....I saw the Pandas, Scott Cortez, Sophie from Fauvely. Lightfoils...Lightfoils. This show at Chop...I am lucky that I can be at relative ease in this environment, that I can be an accepted animal in this ecosystem. Ringo Deathstarr are made people, in the shoegaze world, they are made, like five fucking families made. They are from Austin, Texas. They brought someone way fucking cool with them, The Bad Signs! They are getting their own post, but the experience was together. Their CD Black Magic Moments was fucking crazy! But once again, they are getting their own post. Back to Ringo Deathstarr.
They play loud and aggressively. You need ear plugs to be near them, something, rolled up napkin, or you are fucked! They will blow you fucking ear drums out . They will raw dog your ears like you is something special. The album I bought from them this time was Mauve, from 2012. It is now 2018 and that year, anything past 2016 really strikes me with such innocence. This specific album I have will imprint starting now. I know its a product of a certain place in time. God's Dream I heard before and so shit will strike according to what imprinted first. And out of that fog I got Pure Mood somehow. Oh, and Colour Trip ....and all this because I like the track Summertime, not even the whole album. Well, yeah...the whole album, but not until way way later. That one song, days before the first concert I saw them. As well as I can recall, that was Darkroom on Chicago Ave. So I bought that one when I could not find Summertime. Every thing I got from this band was from their merch table.
Its always individual songs on their albums that hook me from this band. Sometimes its one song that holds me to an album until the rest sink in, like with Summertime. On Pure Mood Stare At The Sun and Dream Again have the main gravitational pull. I let the others bloom at their time. Sometimes they sneak up on you when they decide to play it. Also they are so abrasively fuzzy, that I can sometimes get lost in it. The songs kind of reveal when they are ready. That is how the shoegaze fog keeps its mysterious edge. Live, they kill it all the time. They are masters at harnessing the aggressive fuzz and swirls of their guitars. Elliot Frazier's breathy voice is chill and relaxed like on a couch, while his guitar wails away.
Ms Alex Gehring with her bass blunts the sharper edges of Elliot's tornado swirls. It was a cool show at Chop Shop. The band seemed to be at ease with the Chicago crowd, revealing stories about their travels, acid trips, places they hate....They are well traveled. They've played Japan and Europe. When I see them here, its always to a big crowd that is already sold on them. I don't know if I would introduce someone new to them. They are not for a beginner. I don't got time to be looking over and seeing if they is into it. That's why it makes me happy to see the friends that I noted earlier. These are musicians seeing other musicians. Preachers and choirs and lowly ushers, and they are all from the same fucking denomination. We are the best possible audience for Ringo Deathstarr. Outside of that bubble, they get murdered for the name alone. For me, to a beginner they are the canary in a hungry coal mine. If you do not like shoegaze, or at least something like it, this may fall flat. And that's cool, more parking for me. I'm sold on them. Zig
usually within my own parameters. Its usually someone I already like or have a curiosity about. This bubble is small. That is so cool that you have to snort it like blow, is this. Sometimes its people that I am friends with. I'm sorry...that was a fat line I snorted. I need a minute, this shit hits the head first. Numbs the gums, right? Well, you know you can't let it stay in your head. You can make a total ass of yourself. Anyway....I saw the Pandas, Scott Cortez, Sophie from Fauvely. Lightfoils...Lightfoils. This show at Chop...I am lucky that I can be at relative ease in this environment, that I can be an accepted animal in this ecosystem. Ringo Deathstarr are made people, in the shoegaze world, they are made, like five fucking families made. They are from Austin, Texas. They brought someone way fucking cool with them, The Bad Signs! They are getting their own post, but the experience was together. Their CD Black Magic Moments was fucking crazy! But once again, they are getting their own post. Back to Ringo Deathstarr.
Its always individual songs on their albums that hook me from this band. Sometimes its one song that holds me to an album until the rest sink in, like with Summertime. On Pure Mood Stare At The Sun and Dream Again have the main gravitational pull. I let the others bloom at their time. Sometimes they sneak up on you when they decide to play it. Also they are so abrasively fuzzy, that I can sometimes get lost in it. The songs kind of reveal when they are ready. That is how the shoegaze fog keeps its mysterious edge. Live, they kill it all the time. They are masters at harnessing the aggressive fuzz and swirls of their guitars. Elliot Frazier's breathy voice is chill and relaxed like on a couch, while his guitar wails away.
Ms Alex Gehring with her bass blunts the sharper edges of Elliot's tornado swirls. It was a cool show at Chop Shop. The band seemed to be at ease with the Chicago crowd, revealing stories about their travels, acid trips, places they hate....They are well traveled. They've played Japan and Europe. When I see them here, its always to a big crowd that is already sold on them. I don't know if I would introduce someone new to them. They are not for a beginner. I don't got time to be looking over and seeing if they is into it. That's why it makes me happy to see the friends that I noted earlier. These are musicians seeing other musicians. Preachers and choirs and lowly ushers, and they are all from the same fucking denomination. We are the best possible audience for Ringo Deathstarr. Outside of that bubble, they get murdered for the name alone. For me, to a beginner they are the canary in a hungry coal mine. If you do not like shoegaze, or at least something like it, this may fall flat. And that's cool, more parking for me. I'm sold on them. Zig
Sunday, December 2, 2018
Lightfoils
Zig
Monday, November 26, 2018
Exploded View/Gentle Leader XIV
This show once I knew of it, the anticipation made the passing of time feel slow. Meanwhile I familiarize with videos from YouTube. No More Parties In The Attic I played regularly. I hear that song and its like the soul train image in my head begins to dance in its tracks. It just has that relentless, hypnotizing forward motion of a train, with the urgency of a fucking ambulance right behind you. Now, in hindsight I try to write down, reconstruct from fading memory. Its almost like trying to write down a dream. Did I really dream that? The songs that are slows haunt, like a sad old abandoned building you is re-purpose. Oh look, its been a neighborhood bar once. Old noises you notice....any movement you notice...on a house...we are still on the house metaphor....I use the old muscle car metaphor too many times...When they move slow its not boring, listless. Its Uncle Pauly moving slow because he wants to. Depression is an old house, a near impossible to destroy structure of your interior castle. You try to re-purpose that shit, because it ain't going anywhere. So this music that conjures up grey, late fall depressive images....perhaps they frame what is already there. You contain what would otherwise run around wild inside of your mind, or make it work. Go see something that frames it in some shit that may at first sound down, but actually is not.
On top of being deep, Annika's voice is also kind of robotic steady. Its not a complaint. I am a fan of Annika and Exploded View. I am trying to describe her voice. She is almost the anchor to all the rest of the moving parts. Her voice usually emerges clear. For the encore, she decided to wander about the Empty Bottle crowd as she played I think Disco Glove. That one starts a fire under your ass. Its a sprint down the block and down some long stairs. The bass fills the room with a vibrating cloud similar in potency to let's say......Fee Lion, only messier....if that makes sense. This was a constant during their entire set, that vibrating bass.
Not one mother fucker on their phones. Hmmm, well.... perhaps I was too damn concentrated on her. Letting Go Of Childhood Dreams hits close to that Katie Jane spot, sweet sad and dark. Like something that you wish you had more than once. It makes a difference where this first imprint began. It's possible this was played at the show but I recall it best driving home from a friends house finally clearing that space in time to hear this along the way. Besides the title which I can clearly hear her say...there is nothing else I can make out, but the song is mesmerizing and makes you think.
Zig
Fauvely at DC Torium
The track Break really stood out for me when she played it live at The Hideout. The crowd seemed to know it and cheered her on.. they seemed to know her music. She belted out the track like a drinking song. It just came to life in this unexpected way. All of Watch Me works for small intimate rooms, but those same tracks can assert a bigger space, especially live. And now Tides begins already owning that bigger space, and still being so fucking cool about it. She makes being pensive sound cool. Savannah, Georgia is where she is originally from, and so to name a track Savannah is significant. I am already a fan. It comes loaded, yeah. I guess its Alice's violin in the video that slightly pulls towards a rural setting. From there Sophie's voice haunts the fucking swamp. Do they got swamps in Georgia? The guys from Ghost Adventures would fucking shit themselves if they heard this from their little spirit box. The violin alone? Someone is pissing themselves. So its dark and pensive and slightly places you near PJ Harvey's White Chalk. Hmmm, alright....not quite as scary, but just as serious. The pensive tension gives it the weight of something more dramatic like a movie score.
Zig
Monday, October 29, 2018
Tambourina/Whimsical/Panda Riot/Lightfoils/New Canyons
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
Sunday, October 14, 2018
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. ![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi54znmQlff7Vu0QkI8AN9ebr9p9IKX_MntOJsLwy8wlTiCsONAWB8q-jwTYHHDg8_sXD8zn0l_b7JwHQGhL3Ysq1PNxmQTt-Qqb8KhRjrU9RzxxAEERN_eybq5OnmqNstNvs8mxbogVN9d/s640/CIMG1028.JPG)
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.![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_1b9UstVUfODhfmVDJU0_plVFomAw2cj7KUWb2uGGPVy6nkZLGVPcpLHozadBPthVsmHIGXUEv18q911P9ydq2Qtdumd9ynjeP-w4-9hrxFQQambe4D3jNTU9DKqwzeeUiOvMcG8pzEeP/s640/CIMG0897.JPG)
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.![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXRmQiPdr3wKe6tZYSMKr8IQbcDetexXhnAma9Hbb5BD6I-kiiTseLOmwsK0Pj-qZ8gyXBvhYbriZPUZf8xRR2076fLqpos59n54kZyLM5FKFXBDn_fkFZfgy11KwsuPnDIX92T5tMmDfB/s640/CIMG1019.JPG)
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
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
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