THIS WEEK IN SHOWS

Alright, I usually write a little blurb about each show I’m recommending, you know, arguing for why you should check it out. But this week I’m recommending these shows all for the same reason: each of them is a benefit for the relief efforts in Haiti. Hopefully you see something you like here, but if not, why not check out something new? Please help us show these artists and venues some love, but more importantly, let’s show a little love to the world outside our little pocket of the city.

MON, JAN. 25
Amber Rubarth, Ian Axel, Vienna Teng, Wes Hutchinson, Ari Hest and more
City Winery
8:00, $20, 21+

WEDS, JAN. 27
Cold War Kids, Ted Leo, The Wrens, Sondre Lerche, Eugene Mirman, AC Newman
The Bell House
6:00 PM, $50, 21+

El Medio, No Eye Contact, Breakfast in Fur, Drew Citron
Bruar Falls
8:00 PM, $5 with can of food / $6 without, 21+

The Roots, Kaki King, Eric Krasno & Chapter 2 with John Scofield, Matisyahu
Music Hall of Williamsburg
8:00 PM, $35adv/$40do, 18+

THURS, JAN. 28
Flanagan Smith, Matt Jones, Alyson Greenfield, Charlene Kaye, Outernational, Automa
Public Assembly Back Room
8:00 PM, $10, 21+

SAT, JAN. 30
Blag’ard, The Barrens, Sing With Voices,
Fontana’s
7:00 PM, $8, 21+

compiled by Erin Sheehy

LOCAL SPOTLIGHT NYC
At the risk of relinquishing my last shred of dignity, I sat down to interview the core members of No Eye Contact. To say that I am a groupie is an understatement. No Eye Contact – whose ever-shifting members have finally united to tour – is one of the best bands to have emerged from our humble hood last year. In spite of – or perhaps because of – my bias toward classic folk songwriting, I appreciate how precarious it is to do it, and how narrowly one must carve his delicate, original path. The band’s wholly refreshing brand of fuzz-garage folk recalls the best of Neutral Milk Hotel, while sifting in perfect percussive elements, found objects, and untampered mixing. The album is certainly al dente, or as Sastri describes it, “handmade, imperfect, and rough;” curious to see them live? Check No Eye Contact out tonight at the Jezebel Music Feature Show.

JM.com: How did you guys come together?

Raky: Josh and I went to high school together. He is three years my junior, so we met my senior year, in the theater department. We did a play together.

Josh: My Favorite Year. It’s really bad. We did that and we played in a Jeff Buckley cover band together. Although I couldn’t really play guitar very well at that point.

JM.com: What was it called?

Raky: Buckley Band. I played drums in that and Josh played silent guitar.

Josh: I didn’t know the chords so…

Raky: We turned his volume down and he just strummed a lot.
More on No Eye Contact

THIS WEEK IN SHOWS

TUES, JAN 12

Led Er Est, Light Asylum
Glasslands
9:00 PM, $7, 21+
Todd Pendu’s throwing a new Tuesday Nite Disco party at Glasslands, but it’s not so much disco as “dark-electro-synth-pop.” If this lineup is any indication, these parties are going to be pretty cool. Both bands are super synthy, but Led Er Est is colder, darker, more elemental (more weird?) whereas Light Asylum plays more throwback romantic synth pop.

WED, JAN 13

The Drums, Surfer Blood, The Depreciation Guild
Bowery Ballroom
7:30 PM, $12a/$15d, 18+
Okay, another post about the weather. I’ve been thinking of this show as something like Wii surfing or like… O’Doul’s for summer? You sure won’t be capturing the real thing, but the feeling’s there. Total beach party.
More on This Week In Shows

Photo by Jen McManus

RESONANCE PREVIEW
Holy musician, Batman! Tomorrow night’s Resonance is jam packed with talent! This Wednesday at Bar Matchless, James Armata, Matt Jones, JP Gilbert, and No Eye Contact (pictured) perform at Resonance, for FREE.

Did you miss No Eye Contact’s CD Release Party at Cameo Gallery? Pictures aren’t as good as the real thing? Well here’s your chance to redeem yourself! Aside from being featured on NPR’s All Songs Considered, the “stunning and utterly surprising” acoustic ensemble comes to Matchless, Wednesday July 29 for $0.

For show details, click HERE.

FRESH BAKED
in NYC
No Eye Contact
You And Me And Other Fables
2009 | Unsigned
A-

You would never know from listening to You And Me And Other Fables that No Eye Contact started as Raky Sastri’s personal recording project. He invites you into the album with “Sing Children Sing” – an ardent exercise in Appalachian throat singing – poising you to revel in the next half hour of lo-fi joy and togetherness.

The album moves seamlessly between a sunny, driving Graham Smith and a disheartened, life-worn Neutral Milk Hotel. Thanks to some clever instrumentation (singing saw, glockenspiel, celestaphone) and barely-discernable female harmonies, the record stands on its own. Unfortunately (or fortunately) for these guys, Animal Collective already perfected the droning soundscape – and, thus, even though they do it pretty well themselves, No Eye Contact’s most successful songs are those more heavily laden with lyrics, melody, and experimentally timbred vocals.

Take “Forking Roads,” for example. The organ’s breathing is mirrored in exhalations of beautiful, wavering harmonies. The song is replete with folk mantras like “o foreign shores and mountains unexplored, bother me no more” that could send Neil Young back to Canada. Perhaps paradoxically, it is these sparser, instrumental pieces that really allow No Eye Contact’s sound to flourish – and somehow manage to pay homage to Appalachian, Irish, and Bluegrass music all at once.

My personal favorites on the album are “Rainbows,” “You And Me,” and “Magnificat,” all of which serve as uplifting platforms for soaring, poetic lyrics, impossibly syncopated guitars and mandolins, and sweetly resounding chime and organ solos. Sastri delivers insight with surprising brevity, by glossing over rather than harping on such cheeky rhymes as, “soon we’re claiming ownership and sharpening our knives, I cut you all up into pieces and decide which ones I like.” He definitely understands that, if you’re in the market for a hoedown, you can’t get carried away in sentiment. That’s ultimately what I like about the album – its short-and-sweet, cut-to-the-chase lack of pretension, and its danceable heartbeat.

No Eye Contact will be releasing their new album on June 20th at Cameo Gallery in Williamsburg. Save the date and stay tuned for more show details!

by Drew Citron

SEE IT LIVE
Jezebel Music January Feature Show
January 29, 2009 @ Union Pool
w/ No Eye Contact, Spanish Prisoners, Worst Case Ontario, and Falcon

[All images copyright 2009 Jen McManus]

No Eye Contact

More on JezebelMusic.com January 2009 Feature Show @ Union Pool | 01.29.09

SEE IT
Jezebel Music January Feature Show
January 29, 2009 @ Union Pool
w/ No Eye Contact, Spanish Prisoners, Worst Case Ontario, and Falcon

[All images copyright 2009 Jen McManus]

No Eye Contact

More on Jezebel Music January 2009 Feature Show @ Union Pool | 01.29.09