First Single from Auckland's Wax Chattels

Wax Chattels by Guillaume Beaubatwix 

"Stay Disappointed"

Brooklyn label Captured Tracks and New Zealand's Flying Nun have had a label partnership for the last five years. On the fifth anniversary of that partnership, the labels finally came together to jointly sign Auckland, New Zealand trio Wax Chattels.

Captured Tracks' Mike Sniper saw just three songs from a Wax Chattels festival set; and, after agreeing with Flying Nun's Ben Howe that Wax Chattels were "the band," the labels had their first joint signing less than 24 hours later.

Wax Chattels don't have a guitar. The band combine keys, bass, and a two-piece drum set to produce dark, rhythmic post-punk. They just released their first single in the form of "Stay Disappointed," and it is jittery and jagged with the keyboards lending a kind of foreboding feel to the whole thing. Wax Chattels are something new for those of us who associate New Zealand and, especially, Flying Nun, with pristine and jangly guitar pop.

Northside Festival, Night 2: Donovan Blanc, Sharkmuffin, Tweens, Marnie Stern

Tweens were impressive during their set at Rough Trade NYC on Friday night.

Warsaw / Bar Matchless / Rough Trade NYC

Yesterday was a typically busy Saturday for us. CoolDaughter #1 had her 7:30-9 AM swim practice. CoolDaughter #2 had her 9:30-10:15 AM swim lesson and a softball game at 11. Their summer camp had its annual pre-camp "Day of Fun" yesterday afternoon, and CD1 had a birthday party from 6-8 PM.

I had some driving / breakfast-getting duties for CD1's swimming, and I like to help out at CD2's games. I love pitching and coaching at the softball games, and CD2 is definitely getting better. There was no way that I'd miss it so that I could wander around Brooklyn alone in the early part of the day. I did want to get there in time for The Blind Shake, though. That meant squeezing in some photo editing before I had to leave and no writing about the events of Friday night at Northside.

So, I'm doing this thing today where I'm writing about two nights ago. Then, one day from now, I'll write about two nights before that. Let's see if I can keep things straight.

Just as I pulled up to my parking spot next to McCarren Park on Friday night, the skies let loose with a biblical downpour. Little kids playing baseball and soccer in the park scattered, along with their parents, to their own cars; and the gutter quickly flooded with several inches of water. Scary thunder and lightning, too.

Never good at preparation, I hadn't brought an umbrella or a camera bag; so I moved the car closer to Warsaw where I'd spend the first part of the night at the Captured Tracks showcase. Things let up enough that it wasn't so bad standing out front in the drizzle with all the mindie kids there to see Craft Spells and Beach Fossils in about three or four hours. I'd come to see openers Donovan Blanc (pronounced "blahnk"), the new-fangled version of New Brunswick's Honeydrum, who will be releasing their debut LP for Captured Tracks on June 24th.

Warsaw is a big performance space in Greenpoint's Polish National Home: "Where pierogies meet punk." You can get pierogies, kielbasa, and bottles of Żywiec from a lady behind a plastic, checkered tablecloth-covered folding table in the "Warsaw Bistro." The venue holds about 800.

Donovan Blanc did a set of easy-going, laid back, quiet pop. As with Honeydrum, there were similarities to the hook-filled, lo-fi pop of Ariel Pink; but things weren't lo-fi anymore. Frontman Joseph Black put out kind of a chill and lounge-y vibe. The group concocted a drink for the evening called "Summerly Heaven," which should give you an idea of their whole schtick.

I left after the set -- to the incredulous "No Re-entry!" exclamations from the door people -- so that I could head down the block to catch Sharkmuffin at Bar Matchless. Fronted by Holmdel native Tarra Thiessen, Brooklyn's Sharkmuffin are a band I've been following for a while. Their short set of garage pop provided a nice jolt of energy following all the chill vibes from up the block. The band room at Matchless is a wonderfully small and tomblike space where no phone reception shall enter; and Thiessen's coffin-shaped, rose-topped guitar case at the foot of the stage was just right.

It is my new mission to bridge the divide that exists between our own local scene and the other thriving metropolitan area scenes like Jersey City and Brooklyn. As I'd been doing at every show where I got the chance, I told Thiessen that we'd love to see her and her band down in Asbury Park soon. She was more than receptive. Baby steps.

From there it was off to Williamsburg to catch Tweens and Marnie Stern at Rough Trade NYC. After a bit of an ordeal trying to find parking, I made it into the really nice performance space at the back of the huge record store just in time for Tweens. I loved them.

Featuring Peyton Copes (bass) and Jerri Queen (drums) of Vacation and fronted by Bridget Battle (guitar / vocals), the Cincinnati trio play high-energy, snotty, 60s girl group-inspired pop punk. Single "Be Mean" had the whole place screaming the chorus.

Guitar shredder extraordinaire, Marnie Stern, followed. She played solo, accompanied only by backing tracks from her Mac. Stern said the performance was a first for her; but after a few initial hiccups, she got into the groove and mesmerized those who remained with her unique combination of experimental guitar riffage and pop rock.

When it was done, I headed back to my car and drove home to get what rest I could for the full day that would start early the next morning. Words and pics on that one on Monday, I guess.

I won't be heading back up to the festival today. That means I'll miss some bands like Ovlov, Creepoid, Alvvays, and Hey Anna. But in order to be a cooldad, you've first gotta be a dad. I'll be reveling in that with my lovely girls today.

Here are some shots from Friday. Flickr for more... blah, blah...

Perfect Pussy, Say Yes To Love, 2014

Album Review

Over the years, on my work performance reviews or even in conversations with co-workers and other people who may not really know me that well, I've gotten the same comment over and over again: "You're so calm. Nothing ever seems to bother you." I'm mystified by this. My family and closest friends would probably be mystified by this as well. While I may present a calm and collected exterior to the outside world, I often feel like my insides are one big ball of nervous energy and, sometimes, even rage. That feeling has only grown as I've gotten older.

That probably explains my growing attraction to noisier, messier music. I still love a lyrically dense, interesting, jangly indie-pop song. Those songs satisfy my mind. They can make me laugh, tear up, or nod my head with recognition. But, lately, I've found that there's just something great about getting punched in the gut once in a while.

On their debut full-length, Say Yes To Love, Syracuse noise punk five-piece, Perfect Pussy, deliver a 23-minute gut punch (Well, maybe not quite a full 23 minutes, but we'll get to that.) that, every time it ends, has me pressing play for just one more shot. The record opens with tape hiss, followed by the jackhammer ice pick of Ray McAndrew's guitar on "Driver." Singer / lyricist Meredith Graves comes in, her talk / shout singing heavily distorted and barely discernible above the storm generated by the rest of the band.

Perfect Pussy follow that template through the record's first four songs. There are snippets of lyrics that come through clearly:  "I have a history of surrender!" "...everything I want before I die." "I can be strong and I can be kind and I can be good to myself..." "I know where I stand." But Graves's voice is more like another instrument in the torrent of noise.

Say Yes To Love's fifth track, "Interference Fits," is the standout. It throws a pretty guitar riff into the mix and recalls Sonic Youth. Again, only fragments of the lyrics are intelligible: "It was amazing, and I almost cried." "Since when did we say yes to love?" The song trails off into something that sounds like tinnitus and flows into "Dig," which -- along with the first incendiary minute and a half of "Advance Upon The Real" -- constitutes one of the record's last two proper songs.

The last three and a half minutes of "Advance Upon The Real" are a respite, just tape hiss or some other white noise. Album-closer "Vii" layers synths, some Graves spoken word, and maybe a jet engine on top of that white noise. For a moment, it's an ear-splitting radio broadcast from somewhere whose signal we eventually lose.

I read something recently lamenting the fact that a great deal of current music writing ignores lyrics, even going so far as to give a pass to terrible ones. I've been guilty of that, I guess. Say Yes To Love is an example, though, of how lyrics are just one part of the overall emotion conveyed by a song. Graves gives away just enough of her words to provide some context, while the band's ferocity lets you know that whatever she's saying isn't coming easily.

It's healthy to get that stuff out, though -- whether you're an artist pouring it out into your own music or a listener having it pulled out of you in album-sized chunks.

Say Yes To Love comes out on March 18th via Captured Tracks.

Beach Fossils' Latest Single

"Careless"

I've detected a bit of a backlash in the mindiesphere against bands with "Beach" in their name.  If you've been reading this blog for any length of time, though, then you know I love some shoegazey, surfy sounding music.  Earlier this month, Beach Fossils released "Careless" from their upcoming Clash the Truth (February 19th on modern bastion of shoegaze and dream pop, Captured Tracks).

I really enjoyed Beach Fossils' 2010 self-titled debut, especially single "Youth."  Back then, Beach Fossils was the solo recording project of Dustin Payseur.  Payseur put together a band for the tour that included Zachary Cole Smith of DIIV.

For Clash the Truth, he's added a full-time drummer and enlisted Ben Greenberg of The Men to produce.  Greenberg had a hand in two of my favorite records of 2012 (The Men's Open Your Heart and as producer on Sleepies' Weird Wild World), and I'd guess that his presence on Clash the Truth would bring more of an edge to Payseur's sound.  I think it's there on "Careless."