Property Of Saints

Property Of Saints I saw last Wednesday. They were awesome. Natalie Grace Alford opened but I missed her set completely. So I was pissed about that. Still I have to balance that with seeing P O S. I have yet to find the right words to describe them. They were curious fun to watch and hear. They will play again I believe 12 May at Elbo Room and 31 May at Empty Bottle. They are Abby on guitar, Christie on bass and Carlos Zapata on drums. Ms Christie did her best to not look like Amelia Earhart, bouncing around with her bass and all. Someone I think told her about the resemblance and she announced this on stage. So now I gotta stop myself from saying Amelia instead of Christie. Take the aviation goggles and run with them, Ms Christie. That would be so steam-punk! While I ponder on how to describe them, here they are. Look them up.

Bands I saw

Normally I wait so long to write my experience with each band, how they sounded live and how they sound on CD/ipod. It urges me to write about the bands because its my way of acknowledging their existence. A lot of the human experience is captured in music. It's the amber that captures our timely reaction to the contemporary, and local. What we were about then and what we can still be is captured in the music we listen to and identify with. All music starts local, it is about the world within your horizon. Sometimes it resonates across to others. Takes a life of its own while putting your local culture on the map. We identify with what we listen to. If you are a fan and not a musician it's about finding what resonates......anyway so these following bands I saw deserve a huge write up, a proper document of seeing them, and pondering on them later. With the speed in which I write, that is a fucking bottle neck that takes for ever and takes away some of the edge of writing with that urgency. Anyway here are some of the bands that I saw and deserve more attention than you know just me. The girl at the top with the guitar is Mckenzie Toma. She headlined Beat Kitchen Thursday 28th April and the show included Girls Of The New South. The audience was small, less than 20. I was fascinated with Ms Toma, just her and her guitar. Next is Lindsey who goes by her band name Fielded . Her contemporaries include Ryat Phantogram and Telepathe because of her own organic weaving of beats, keyboard and vocal effects. She just headlined a show at The Hideout Friday 29th April. The audience for Fielded was large and attentive. I will write more on these, and post more pictures.

Staring Problem

I caught this band at Whistler......ok not really. I missed their entire set but I bought their cassette and downloaded the songs from their band camp site . I took two pictures of the whole band. Lauren was kind in gathering her bandmates Alix and Jake. The following subjective impressions of the 8 song self-titled debut I hesitate to call a review. I don't presume that kind of authority. I just got all kinds of praise for this band. Staring Problem are from Carbondale, Il.. Upon hearing them they sunk in effortlessly and casually. There was this parking spot right there in the id waiting. They are this casual post-punk muscle car. They just kind of cruise. There is this casual attitude carried along with the urgency. I liked the songs so much it really hurt not seeing them perform. I was sold on them before even entering Whistler. But I downloaded the songs after I met them.....alright, so I become familiar with their debut later in the car, ipod. I like the voice immediately as if part of my mind can speak with it. I know Whistler and so this picture cannot help but impose itself. I did not catch the live show, and so I'll assume the voice is Lauren's . I don't always follow what she says, that's actually hard to do. And to really listen to what is said turns on the analytical part of the brain. I want to enjoy this band first, blindly identify with them. The words will mean something in time. For now the voice is just another instrument, but one that represents you negotiating between the guitar and the bass. They have this casual bass-heavy, dark, post-punk delivery, but not the gloomy depressing baggage that gets people from liking post-punk, goth sounding bands. What I mean with that is, if it's not in you to dress in black, you can still like Staring Problem. And if black is still your thing then so is Staring Problem. They list as part of who they thank Christian Death, and Robert Smith, and that's awesome 'cause those names also resonate with me. And it got me to listen. Damn it! I so would love to have seen them at Whistler, just to see how that audience reacted. Christian Death, The Cure, these subcultural bands were often discovered on dance floors, between friends, and as time passes your chance to see them live become more and more remote and the live experience itself will be remote from you. I mean, you are not just gonna stroll into a small venue and to your left is Robert Smith manning his own merch table. The intimacy is gone. Parking is bad. Lets find our icons in the music we listen to in the small venues.

Spiritual Bat

So I got a Facebook message saying that Spiritual Bats are going to release a new CD. Rosetta and Dario are just the sweetest people and an awesome goth rock band. These pictures are when they played Darkroom last year. I assume they will tour with this new CD. It's a little different when you are friends with the band. You feel a personal stake in their success, you identify with them somehow. I don't know exactly when they will tour. I assume it will be the summer. That message was the excuse I needed to post these pictures.

Ami Saraiya at Hungry Brain

Originally I intended to go see her with Julie Meckler at Schubas, but I could not. I don't like missing combos like that. Julie fucking rocks. So I find out nearly on the day that Ami is playing Hungry Brain Tuesday 15 March. I know I go on about her a lot. Perhaps I repeat a lot of shit just to fluff up the mention of seeing Ami here and there. I do that with everyone. And these gigs are indeed different from one another as Schubas is distinct from Hungry Brain. Schubas can seem small and cramped for a mid-size venue depending on who....yes depending on who. I did not go to the Schubas event, but I know Ami, and Schubas. I can calculate something from there. Hungry Brain is an easy to miss cafe on Belmont and it's a Tuesday. It's only going to magically appear if you are actually looking for it. That night it was host to a stand-up comedy event. Ami was to sing in the end. Given all the, you know, real venues she's played(Empty Bottle, Hideout, Subt's, and Schubas), it's really cool that you can still see her in all the smaller places. I don't say real just to sound like an asshole. But Hungry Brain has indeed a smaller profile than say Empty Bottle, and for that reason the more singular, intimate performance. For one you see the massive shift in audience. One can reasonably expect a good crowd at Hideout. But what is preventing that same crowd from Hungry Brain? Yet, at the Brain all I saw were perhaps friends of the previously performing comics, barely populated. Well, her drummer from The Outcome was there. I think the fact that Ami Saraiya does this is way fucking cool, and worth the mention. And that makes Hungry Brain awesome! So Ami is there to promote the new EP Ami Saraiya & The Outcome. It has three songs, Hanging By A Thread, Purging Purging, and Cattle Prod Hands. They all got Ami's usual sweetness. She's been circulating them around for some time now. And I've been waiting for them to release the last one forever. The accordion on it makes you feel like you're in the movie Amelie. It's like in the midst of no reason for feeling good, comes wonder and that slight euphoria leads to feeling good in the middle of an other wise boring Tuesday night. Ami finished her set with an as yet unreleased "Automatic". She had the small audience participate with her. That Amelie feeling lasted me the whole drive back to the south side.

Zig

Wanton Looks

Saturday 5 March, at Quenchers. How perfect would have been if I had made it for all the bands, right. I wanted to see Maybenauts, and The Handcuffs, as well as The Wanton Looks. The infamous Traci Trouble fronts this band. For a start lets say they are kind of like Joan Jett. Imagine The Fabulous Miss Wendy with an all girl wolf pack to back her, to sight a recent approximation. I say wolf pack because you see immediately all their individual identities as well as how good they fit together as a band. They all appeared to have fun. I bought their CD so long ago when they opened for The Dials at Double Door. So right now I have to lean on the memory of this performance to go on about them. And there's youtube as well. They are just straight ahead abrasive and cool, too impatient to be mysterious. Its fast, its punk....I think. Here and there Traci would say shit, and banter with the crowd. Quenchers is so small. Its a bar with a back stage. Having this close in this tiny space spoils you 'cause you get used to that kind of closeness to the moment. From this performance Traci seemed to be unpredictable, spontaneous. There's no fourth wall between Traci and her crowd. Indeed she would get off stage and play her guitar inside the crowd as far as the cord allowed. I nearly got whacked with it, when she would violently turn and swing around. The Wanton Looks finished their set with Electromagnetic Force. I seem to know many friends that know her. I mean she's infamous. I don't intend for it to sound so lewd. It's just to sight examples of how close one can be to these awesome local bands. You know them just a little, and you see the human fragility that we share with them. You identify with them beyond this rock star shell. I learn to enjoy the live performances because they are not rock stars. They are like me.

Zig

So this is Sarah Pedinotti of Railbird. They performed at Reggies Music Joint, the side with the tables Last Saturday 12 March. I'm gonna take my time writing the whole review of them performing, they are hard to describe but are easy to like. Every show of theirs is different from the last. Well, I've only been to this one, but they play with the energy like it's the last show they will do. They just seem to be that kind of band. They play like they've been together for years. I was especially impressed with their drummer.....anyway. Railbird is awesome, and their CD No One is awesome. I've read somewhere that they kind of call themselves (in part) roots music of some kind. I'll go with it. It's a matter of figuring out which roots, because in this original creation there are derivatives of other styles that they fuse organically with beats and electronics.