LIVE JOURNAL
JezebelMusic.com @ Union Pool
April 20, 2010 | Ava Luna, Air Waves, Total Slacker, Your Nature

Aside from Ava Luna, who’d sparked my interest in the first place, I’d purposefully gone into Tuesday night’s Union Pool show blind so as to keep myself from harshly prejudging bands based on the first ten seconds of the first song on their Myspace page, as we are all wont to do in this internet age. So, while openers Your Nature set up a forest of guitar pedals and tweaked their vocal mic echo effects, I eyed their tie-dye and wide open collars (like, wisps-of-chest-hair open) and began to worry about the next 40 minutes of my life. After a minute of guitar-pedal noises and nearly inaudible, reverb-soaked vocals I was ready to call it a loss, and then they blindsided me with an entire set of fantastic, well-written 1970s-heavy rock songs, loaded with buoyant high vocal harmonies, agile guitar leads, and even some prog rock touches like long forms, odd meters and non-diatonic harmony, which they pulled off effortlessly. The tightness and skill with which they executed their songs was a perfect contrast to their low-key, silly stage presence (they looked like your little brother’s high school band circa 1973 and had stage banter to match, complete with 4/20 jokes and a Hawkwind mention), and the room warmed up instantly in their capable hands.

More on Ava Luna, Air Waves, Total Slacker, Your Nature @ Union Pool | 4.20.10

THIS WEEK IN SHOWS

Our top picks. Sorry it’s a little Saturday-heavy this week.

THURS, JAN. 21

Darlings, Lonnie Walker, Motel Motel, Gunfight
Union Pool
9:00 PM, TBA, 21+
When I think garage pop in 2010, I immediately think drunk and rowdy, but Darlings are sweet; their songs remind me of early sixties California beachy stuff, except they sing about eviction and TV. Darlings also stand out from other summertimey garage out of Brooklyn because they eschew that veil of fuzz that everyone’s been wearing. Don’t crap out yet if you think they sound too saccharine for you – Darlings let themselves get hoarse-voiced and even a little angry with songs like “If This Is Love,” and the contrast is fun.

SAT, JAN. 23

viBe Songmakers, Christy & Emily, DJ Marcelle & Kid Millions, Pterodactyl
ISSUE Project Room
8:30 PM, $15, ALL AGES
ISSUE Project Room has an awesome program where Brooklyn teenagers learn the skills they need to become successful musicians. Only four to six girls are accepted each year, and Christy & Emily are mentoring this program’s group of girls. They take music lessons, business classes, and video editing courses, besides of course writing and recording their own music, which they’ll be performing. And man, they’re performing alongside quite the lineup!
More on This Week In Shows

THIS WEEK IN SHOWS

WEDS, DEC. 2

Jaguar Love, The King Left, Yes Giantess, Violent Soho
Mercury Lounge
8:00 PM, $10 adv/$12 do, 21+
People have said that Johnny Whitney of Jaguar Love sounds like “Robert Plant on steroids.” I was gonna say he sort of reminds me of Jay Reatard in a higher register. Either way, we’re talking shrieky, jolting energy. These guys make some catchy, noisy, uptempo pop with y’know, canned beats. Enjoy!

Werewolves, Strange Rivals, Heliotropes
Glasslands
8:00, $5, 21+
Never underestimate the power of the keys to take something dramatic and make it cinematic. I’m using the term “cinematic” very liberally to mean that you might find yourself playing out long scenes in your head while listening to Werewolves. Or maybe it’s their sneering vocals that do it, I don’t know yet. What I do know is that they’re dynamic performers and they’re playing Glasslands this Wedsnesday…

SAT, DEC. 5

Bowerbirds
Union Pool
8:00, $10, 21+
Did you know that the male bowerbird hops around with a flower in his beak in an attempt to woo a mate? How sweet! On the other hand, the male angler fish sniffs out the female, bites her, releases an enzyme that fuses the two at the blood-vessel level, and then atrophies until he is no more than a pair of parasitic gonads. The world is ugly, but if you want to linger on the more poignant aspects of life, why not get all acoustic and snuggly with Bowerbirds for the night? They’re also playing Bowery Ballroom with Elvis Perkins on Thursday, but I like to promote the more intimate, boozier, cheaper shows…

Or you can just head towards Kent Ave. and then decide…
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THIS WEEK IN SHOWS

It’s time for CMJ again, which means the same New York bands you can see all the time in will be playing alongside some touring bands – who would’ve all come to New York at some point anyway – in marathon-length shows full of semi-interested badge-holders and grumpy photographers who get angry when you accidentally bump into them while rocking out in the front row. (Except our photographers, who are very cool and friendly.) We tend to complain about CMJ, but since it’s here, we might as well embrace it. It IS really fun to see ten of your favorite bands in one night, and, exhausting as it may be, it’s fun to do that five nights in a row! As usual, these are my totally subjective and incomplete recommendations for the coming week. You can flesh this out by telling us who you’re going to see… Send us some photos if you go. Or boycott CMJ; that’s totally respectable too. As for us, we’re just excited for a reason to shirk our other responsibilities for a week and rock out in the name of journalism.

TUES, OCT. 20

PANACHE/NEW YORK NIGHT TRAIN CMJ SHOWCASE
Upstairs: Heavy Trash, Golden Triangle, Lovvers, Harlem, Surfer Blood, K-Holes
Downstairs: The Stalkers, Unnatural Helpers, Flexions Dinowalrus, Julianna Barwick, SCREENS
Santos Party House
7:00 PM, $10/$12, 18+
It seems that every other show I get excited about is somehow connected to Panache Booking or New York Night Train (or both), and Tuesday night’s bigass blowout is no exception – just check out the lineup!!! I just need to figure out how to be upstairs and downstairs at the same time. I’ve yet to see Heavy Trash, though I’ve heard good things about their show, but Stalkers deserve some props too. They don’t seem to get much press, but they’re one of my favorite live bands: their songs are totally fun and anthemic, and besides, I’ve seen them throw cymbals, get naked, dribble vomit, and last time I caught their show, lead singer Andy Animal was tossing firecrackers into the crowd with a menacing glee. Alright!
More on This Week In Shows: CMJ EDITION!

LOCAL SPOTLIGHT NYC
It’s Friday night in Greenpoint and I’ve just walked into an apartment that reminds me of an archetypal grandma’s house, albeit cooler: paintings and sketches in ornate gold frames hang on the dark red walls, there’s a Persian style carpet on the floor, and the curtain in the corner has a pattern that looks like it belongs on a porcelain tea set. But no Dave Mustaine look-alike in a Mark Bolan outfit ever answered my grandmother’s door and offered to play me a new cut of a song called “Cum In My Kitchen.” Tonight I’m meeting up with local glam band Sorceress at their lead singer Ian’s apartment, and we’re talking about the tracks they just recorded with Sean and Daniel of The Phenomenal Handclap Band as producers. “Disco production with rock music,” is how Ian describes his ideal recording aesthetic, but you could describe a live show from Ian, bassist Dave, guitarist Gregg and new drummer Josh as straight-up, blues-inspired glam rock. And for now, at least, Sorceress is solely a live band – these new recordings are the embryo of Sorceress’ very first single, though you can hear some previously recorded tracks on their Myspace.

JM.com: Obviously you guys listen to T. Rex and the likes. Are there any influences that might be surprising?

Gregg: From the outset, we were also into psychedelic elements, and prog elements too, but when the band was evolving we wanted it more stripped-down.

Dave: I have a bunch of disco and soul and funk and that has definitely influenced my bass playing.

Gregg: I mean [with this recording] it’s coming full circle, because Sean and Daniel are notorious soul and funk DJs, also rare groove especially. There’s this natural progression when you DJ. You start with soul, want it a little bit dirtier and you head to funk, and then you want more production and you head to rare groove. And then if you want to get even sassier: disco.

Dave: And I love the rock bands that put that all together like Rare Earth.

Ian: Or even some stuff that you wouldn’t think of as funk influenced, like Nazareth’s “Hair of the Dog,” that even has that nyeer-nyungh-nyang, that thing? Talk box?

Dave: Vocoder.

Ian: It’s got that really funky rhythm. I love that song. It’s got this really funky bluesy riff to it that we try to go after – with a lot of twang. And that’s something also that’s really important to us. Where we see us trying to stand out is more on the funkier side of rock ’n roll and the blues.
More on Sorceress

THIS WEEK IN SHOWS

TUES, SEPT. 15

Deerhoof, Wildbirds & Peacedrums, Serengeti & Polyphonic
(le) poisson rouge
8:00 PM, $15, 18+
Deerhoof have been confusing audiences for over a decade now, but their brand of noise-infused indie-prog has only become more potent with time.  The combination of Greg Saunier’s seemingly ‘roid-rage-induced drumming with singer/bassist Satomi Matsuzaki’s infectiously cute (albeit often nonsensical) vocal hooks consistently make for a captivating, if not bewildering, live show. Plus, who wouldn’t want to see Satomi belting out lines like “choo choo choo choo beep beep” while performing improvisational pseudo-Tai Chi?
- Sean Hallarman

FRI, SEPT. 18

Ty Segall, The Mantles, The Holy Experiment, Dome Theater
Death By Audio
8:00 PM, $8, all ages
Uh, the maze at Death By Audio is a little nuts. You may feel like you’re being corralled and you might have a hard time seeing the bands, but just squish to the front or find yourself a little corridor or dead-end to rock out in, and enjoy the San Francisco treat that is Ty Segall. He’s mastered that brutally distorted garage punk better than most, because the personality of his songs doesn’t get lost beneath all that noise. And he kicked ass last time he played Death By Audio. If you want a more traditional show format and a sexy, disorienting, frenzy of a double bill, check out Ty at Mercury Lounge with Golden Triangle on Sunday.
- Erin Sheehy

BM Linx, Township, Sorceress
Union Pool
9:00 PM, $8, 21+
If you’re looking for some bluesy glam played by guys with excellent hair, check out Sorceress on Friday at Union Pool. That twangy sound and those fancy boots may hearken back to early seventies glitter, but this isn’t just some retro shtick – seriously, these guys dress like this every day, and a variety of other influences sneak into songs like “Suffer Childe” and “Cum In My Kitchen.” You can read JM.com’s Local Spotlight on Sorceress tomorrow.
- Erin Sheehy

SAT, SEPT. 19

…And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, The Secret Machines, Freshkills, Sleigh Bells
Music Hall Of Williamsburg
9:00 PM, $20, 18+
I don’t know what to say about this one. It’s …Trail Of Dead. And this time you/they won’t have to contend with an electrical storm.
- Erin Sheehy

JEZEBEL MUSIC FEATURE
Falcon (pictured) is Jezebel Music’s Feature Artist for January 2009. With openers Worst Case Ontario, Spanish Prisoners, and No Eye Contact, Falcon will headline the January Feature Show at Union Pool on Thursday, January 29.

The wait is almost over! Tomorrow night (Thursday January 29), Falcon will be transforming the stage at Union Pool into a hard rock arena, daring those brave enough to risk loss of limb in the breakneck pit!

No, as you should know by now, this is not true. It’s unlikely that anyone will mosh or headbang or jitterbug at the show, but Falcon does indeed rock live. How else would they have played NYC’s best rock venues and toured Europe? A final bit of trivia about Falcon: two of the bands’ members – Shannon Ferguson (guitar) and Jason Molina (drums) – can also be found behind the wheel of the popular NYC rock band Longwave, for whom performing awesome shows in front of big crowds is a regularity.

See you Thursday at Union Pool!

JEZEBEL MUSIC FEATURE

Photo by Mayumi Nashida

Falcon (pictured) is Jezebel Music’s Feature Artist for January 2009. With openers Worst Case Ontario, Spanish Prisoners, and No Eye Contact, Falcon will headline the January Feature Show at Union Pool on Thursday, January 29.

Only one more week before Falcon takes the stage at Union Pool. Until then, all we can do is wait and wonder at the wonders and weight of the show to come.

So far we’ve learned that although Falcon has not written any of the songs they perform, they are not a cover band (and we’ve also learned that this is not exactly true). And we’ve also learned that all of Falcon’s songs were written by a teenage boy named Jared Falcon, who attended junior high school with two members of Falcon in the late 80’s. Jared recorded over 300 songs on a Fisher Price tape recorder, which Neil Rosen (vocals, guitar) and Shannon Ferguson (guitar) would uncover years later while helping Jared’s mother clean out a storage space.

Depending on when you were born, you may or may not know what a Fisher Price tape recorder (pictured) is or looks like. Though there have been many new-fangled redesigns, the old version was as simple as simple could be. One can only imagine that the recordings Jared made were not of stunning sound quality, and in particular that the lyrics might have been hard to decipher. It turns out, they were:

“Lyrics are always hard to decipher,” says Rosen. “Liberties are always taken to make the songs work for us.” Falcon’s lyrics are often introspective and observational. Listening to lines such as “People always tell me that I’m wrong, but maybe I’m right” and “You only feel right when you’re alone,” it’s difficult not to imagine that these are reflections of the author’s frustrations and insecurities. It’s clear from the lyrics, “Singing a tune in the late afternoon, until the record stops / Then it’s back to my thoughts,” that for Jared Falcon, like so many great songwriters, music was a wonderful escape.

Dan D’Ippolito