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The Oblivians/Andre Ethier at The Knitting Factory
Just in case you missed it, The Oblivians, supported by Andre Ethier, put on a free concert Thursday night at the Knitting Factory. Although I’m not a big fan of corporate involvement in music, I guess I should show some appreciation to Scion for sponsoring the event, not only because I didn’t have to pay money to go, but also because they were giving out free Black Lips/Pierced Arrows splits, and I snagged two of them. So, that was cool of them. But enough shilling. Let’s talk about rock.
Andre Ethier, photo courtesy of my crappy phone camera.
Opening up the night was Andre Ethier, with whom I was pleasantly surprised. To me, his set sounded like the psychedelic sounds of Bob Dylan. Ethier had the kind of stream of consciousness vocals that few people can really pull off, and when you hear someone do it right, it’s really something special. Whoever was on lead guitar duty that night was really driving it home. I’m hoping that’s not the last I’ll hear from Andre Ethier.
The Oblivians - another picture taken with my phone camera. Anyone want to be my photographer?
The fucking Oblivians. If you’re not with it, the Oblivians fucking rock. That’s all you should need to know in order to be caught up with what’s going on. They hit the stage, and annihilated for an hour and fifteen minutes before taking a couple of minutes off before the encore. I lost count of how many songs they played (can you blame me? they’re all a minute and a half long) but I did manage to keep track of how many fights broke out: three and a half. That half fight was when a girl poured her beer out on a guy’s head… it would have been a fight, but they were both too scared to hit someone of the opposite gender. Of course, things never got past a bro-style “hold me back!” exchange, as the crowd seemed to be able to completely separate aggressive-types, so things only seemed energetic, not dangerous. Exactly what you want at a punk rock show.
Each member of the group got to have several turns leading things, and everyone seemed to know exactly what’s up. After their reunion tour last year, they seem to be in fantastic shape; the band rocked exactly as hard as I’d always hoped they would. When Greg Oblivian sat behind the drum kit so Jack O could have a turn on the mic, things got both sloppier and cleaner, somehow at the same time. Greg’s drunken southpaw style on the drums was loads of fun to watch, and Jack’s songs had their own unique punch to them that I really appreciated; “Strong Come On” might be the best minute-and-thirty seconds of music of all time. For the encore, the guys brought up a friend to play some organ, and, of course, they continued to kick everyone’s asses.
If you ever get the chance, you need to see the Oblivians. They did mention they’d all just moved up to Queens, by the way… I’m hoping we’ll be seeing them around more in the future.
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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Shai Erlichman - Mornings When
Season of Increasing Light
A couple of weeks back, I did a write-up for the Whitehaus Family Record Family Record. Shai Erlichman had one of the standout cuts on the compilation, “Brains for Blood,” a heavily distorted piece of drone, which you can also hear on MySpace. He’s also recently put out an EP called Season of Increasing Light, a different kind of piece, still in the lo-fi fuzz style of things, but this time more relaxed. It’s tuneful and soothing, and I’m hoping it’ll calm my nerves later, when it’s time for sleep. The town put in a traffic counter right outside my fucking window, and now every time a car goes by, it sounds like someone throwing a basketball against the house. But how can you maintain irritability when this kind of vibration’s backing you up?
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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Rene - Destination: Mars
Whitehaus Family Record Family Record (Whitehaus Family Record)
The above track by Rene, “Destination: Mars,” sounds like a Sublime Frequencies collage of 80’s children’s television. But that’s just one of the many oddities found on the Whitehaus Family Record Family Record, a compilation of music from people affiliated with the venue/record label/artists’ collective based out of Boston. In addition to this aggressive experimental sound, you’ll also find ambient music, gypsy folk, and some good old dirty garage rock, to mention just a few styles these types dabble in. You might already know Whitehaus Family Record from their previous output involving folks like Truman Peyote, Many Mansions, or Prince Rama, and if you don’t, get on it.
You can stream and/or buy the LP here. I recommend you do. I’d also suggest you check out the song “Brains for Blood” by Shai Erlichman, an exciting discovery brought to me by this comp.
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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Jumpiter - Overborn
Trucks
This week’s turned into much more of a retrospective than I’d have guessed, but I’m alright with that. Here’s the latest from Jumpiter, whose record Alone was featured here a few months back. If you remembered some sweet guitar tone and nasty riffs, you remembered right.
The new record Trucks has got the same things going for it, and you can find it over at the MySpace. The rockin’-est cut, in my opinion, is “Overborn.” It’s got some sweet breaks and everything’s tight. If it wasn’t one guy, I’d say everyone was playing real in-the-pocket and all that.
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Flywheel Grand Re-Opening this weekend!
So much awesome stuff goin’ down! Tomorrow night, while you’re sitting there, just waiting for Thursday to show up, you could check out the interview I did with Dan Friel from Parts and Labor on my radio program, An Uncontrollable Urge, 10 p.m. until midnight on WMUA. He was a way cool guy and Parts and Labor is great!
More info on this event and on the valuable resource that is Flywheel here.
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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Gray Goods - Color Divide
The Singles EP (1928 Recordings)
You might remember Gray Goods from that Golden Hour Box Set that came out last year on 1928 Recordings. Well, they’ve got more stuff coming out: two seven-inches and an EP which includes the tracks from those vinyls. The EP arrived at An Uncontrollable Urge earlier this week, and I’ve been spinning it ever since. Fans of their previous stripped-down approach of clean guitars, punchy bass and simple percussion will definitely get behind this batch of tracks. My favorite cuts are “Saturated,” “Fallen,” and “Color Divide.” The record’s pretty much elemental rock and roll, so if you’re a person, you should like it.
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Been reading Our Band Could Be Your Life. Needless to say this group has been the only thing I’ve listened to all weekend.
… okay, and Mission of Burma.
