Awhile back, I shared a new comic with you about going to The Bell House with my friend Meredith.  We posted another installment last week, this time at The Bell House.  We saw some really excellent talented new bands, including Grand Rapids and Balkans.  Both definitely worth checking out.  And, of course, The So So Glos ruled.  Check out our interpretation of the whole night over at Impose.

MP3: “Edita V” – Balkans

From the moment Dirty Beaches took to the stage at Glasslands last Thursday, I was so ready to hate him.  ”Oh great,” I thought to myself, “yet another electronic buzz band type of thing that’s actually just one guy doing karaoke over super fuzzed out guitar wales and an expensive microphone.”  So. ready. to. hate. him.  And I will say that I still don’t know if the music has any inherent value, but I can’t blame any other blogs for hyping this guy up.  He’s interesting.  He’s got a good singing voice.  And he is a fantastically charismatic performer.  He has the ability to dance on the border of annoying and amazing, making it impossible to look away from what you keep expecting to be a terrible performance.  He’s clearly studied Johnny Cash and Elvis in depth.  So much so, that I kept wondering if he was serious about music, or if he was a performance artist.  He combed his hair, Elvis style, between almost every song.  I know some people will hate him right away, but I thought he was a good enough performer to take serious note of.  Plus, the improvised freak out at the end with the Dum Dum Girls was pretty fun.

YellowFever were, of course, excellent as always.  Twitching melodies and tight but subtle vocal harmonies had the crowd at Glasslands singing along.  People were even shouting out requests, which is so great to see happening for such a nice band.  Widowspeak were far better than the time I saw them at Monster Island Basement.  The singer has a very strong voice, but the band needs to develop a bit more before they really get good.  I only hope the Internet buzz machine leaves them room to do that.  Pictures and MP3s below.

Widowspeak:

YellowFever:

Dirty Beaches:

MP3: “Shangri-la” – Dirty Beaches

These pictures are almost already a week old, so I’ll be brief.  I was so pleased to find out that Lower Dens was headlining a show at MHOW, and even more pleased when I saw that the venue was almost nearly full for them.  I’m not even sure how it happened.  It was only two years ago that I saw Jana Hunter for the first time, by accident, in the back yard of Beauty Bar at SXSW.  I was IMMEDIATELY captivated and I remember very clearly making a frantic trip to the ATM, paying a $4 surcharge, and just making it back in time to buy her album before she headed off to another show.  Then, she and her new band, Lower Dens, were opening a couple shows here and there at places like Death By Audio.  Suddenly, and to me, seemingly without any precedent, they’re playing this fantastic show at MHOW.  I guess they got a pretty good Pitchfork review (though not best new music), but that doesn’t really explain it to me.  What this really signals to me is that at the bottom of everything, people really do have pretty good taste.

The foursome put on a good show- the climbing, spiderweb guitar parts are beautiful to hear executed live.  Still, the overall performance didn’t have as much of an emotional effect on me as I thought it would.  A little something was left to be desired from Lower Dens on such a large stage.  I saw Ducktails open for what seemed like the millionth time this year, and their set was good as always, if not a bit more drunken.  Photos below.

Glory Girls:

Ducktails:

Lower Dens:

MP3: “A Dog’s Dick” – Lower Dens

You may recognize the name Meredith Leich if you’ve been around here before.  Occasionally, one of her awesome drawings of a live band will make its way onto this page.  I always consider myself lucky when I’m able to post one of those, and now I consider myself the luckiest, because she and I are collaborating on a new web comic.  She draws, I take pictures, we put it all together and mostly talk about boys.  It’s a great combination, if you ask me.  I’m very excited about it, and we’re hoping to make it a semi-regular thing.  You can check out the first installation of a trip we recently took to The Bell House to see Reigning Sound right here on Impose.  I was disappointed by Reigning Sound- none of the brashness of their recordings translated to their boring live show, but I was excited by the surprise opener, Guitar Lightnin’ Lee.  He’s from New Orleans and played a fantastic, spirited blues set.

MP3: “Time Bomb High School” – Reigning Sound

I was so happy at this show last Friday night.  I walked in right when Dirty Fences started playing, and was immediately exhilarated.  They were very tight and fast, and also very young.  I don’t know much about them, but this is what the message on their Facebook says: “LISTEN UP, YOUNGBLOOD, FENCES IS SOME SERIOUS SHIT B U C K W I L D ENOUGH TO MAKE ANY CREATURE CUM, CROSS THE GLOBE IN ANY ZIP CODE, SINCERELY, THE WHOLE GROOP.”  So…yeah.  I don’t know about them, but I definitely liked what I heard.

Landlady are a really promising group.  Beautiful vocal harmonies with intricate song constructions, sometimes about ghosts on tv.  It’s the same guy behind Previously On Lost, so imagine the humour and whimsy in that group transposed into some serious songwriting chops.  Golden Girls were sloppy and loud, and so fun.  I wish Worcester were a little bit closer to Brooklyn.  Pictures on Impose here.

MP3: “Newports” – Golden Girls

Another post about a show that happened over a week ago.  C’est la vie.  At least I Guess I’m Floating only got photos up on their blog today, too.  Really, though, these deserved to go up last Monday, because this show was, for the most part, excellent.  A Place To Bury Strangers is a Brooklyn institution.  I don’t know if they ever have a bad show, what with their lights and fog machines and incredible heavy energy, but I think last Saturday at Glasslands must have been particularly extra good.  When their bass lines get going and the three of them just rock the fuck out together on some heavy jam, it’s impossible to look away.  You can feel it reverberating up your stomach and into your throat.  Kind of like throwing up, I guess, but in an awesome rock and roll kind of way.

I was pleasantly surprised by Guards.  I don’t know why, but after all the blog coverage of them I was expecting to be unimpressed. Their jangly, easy going tunes are awash in a layer of haze, but still keep the melodies and guitar lines strong.  I liked them quite a lot, and I imagine most people who have found their way to this blog will like them, too, if they haven’t already discovered them.  I missed Beach Fossils; I thought Cavemen were terrible (boring, boring, boring MOR songwriting); and ARMS are extremely skilled musicians, with beautiful, precise songs- though the parts of their sounds don’t seem to add up to a proper whole.  All in all, a fantastic night for I Guess I’m Floating.  All of the bands profusely thanked the blog several times, and the whole venue had an air of well-earned celebration.  Photos at Impose.

MP3: “Resolution Of One” – Guards

Ugh.  Sorry for the complete lack of posting the last few days.  Wordpress did some weird update thing and froze me out.  I’ve actually written this post up twice and had it somehow deleted, so I’m feeling a bit down on it (plus this show happened over a week ago at this point).  Here’s the summary: Fergus & Geronimo are old-timey yet new-timey rock awesome, and I am so glad they moved to Brooklyn.  Mr. Dream was a total surprise; I loved their straight-forward rock and all of them were very handsome.  I did not think The Honey Dos were interesting or good, but at least they seemed like they were having a good time.  Okay, that’s it.  Check out the photos at Impose.  I promise to be less cranky tomorrow.

MP3: “Crime” – Mr. Dream

Those Smith Westerns kids are good.  They’re good at guitar, they’ve got that rock and roll sound, they’re total teen heartthrobs, and they’re just a little bit obnoxious.  They’re all the things we always knew they were, and now they’re going to get huge.  I wasn’t sure if the band was going to really get big, but I’m glad they will now.  Their sold out show at Glasslands last Tuesday will surely be just one of their first stints in New York selling out better and bigger venues.  How were they actually?  Good.  They were good.  Kid with the curly hair can really, really play guitar.  I wouldn’t be surprised, if the band can hold it together for a couple of years, if he becomes known as one of the better players out there.  Give Dye It Blonde a couple listens if you haven’t already.  Ducktails were hazily excellent, obviously, and Bass Drum Of Death are a poor man’s JEFF the Brotherhood.  They’re still playing good guitar and drums garage rock, but I kinda just wished I was watching JEFF.  Check out pictures over at Impose here.

MP3: “Weekend” – Smith Westerns

Both King Tuff and Frankie Rose seemed like they were having a lot of fun on Thursday.  Nobody was taking themselves too seriously (sometimes I think Frankie is accused of this, because of all her band-switching), there was pretty good stage banter from both parties, and everyone at The Knitting Factory was putting out the most positive of vibes.  Frankie Rose & The Outs have improved markedly since I saw them last.  Frankie is definitely finding her singing voice, and when she’s confident, it comes as very cool and unique.  High and throaty and weird.  The band is at their best when they’re being loud and noisy.  They created a pretty mighty ruckus during some of the songs, and you could tell that all four of them felt sort of silly about it.  They were pulling some pretty great rock and roll moves, but laughing sheepishly at the same time.  It translated really well; it seemed like the band was having a good time, and so I felt like I was having a good time, too.  They should ditch some of their music’s precious moments for more of  these hilariously badass ones.

I have nothing to say about King Tuff other than things like, “Awesome,” and “Amazing,” and “Totally sweet!”  I like them so much!  They, too, seemed like they were having a phenomenally fun time on stage.  Beer bottles were being thrown and slick guitar solos were being executed with just enough sloppiness.  I can imagine them all hanging out in Vermont with not a lot to do except get really good at guitar all day long.  I mean, I’m sure there’s actually a lot to do in Vermont, that’s just how I’m picturing it.  They played a very quick thirty five minute or so set, and it was just right, from beginning to end.  I especially loved the song below.  I definitely wanna put it on a mix tape for someone some day.

Frankie Rose & The Outs:

King Tuff:

MP3: “Lady” – King Tuff

Last Thursday was a weird night.  A fight broke out, I received some really good news, there was some sort of a police raid in a bar I went to, and I kept running into people I used to know.  The weirdness kept on coming and coming.  Luckily, so did the good bands at The Delancey, for the most part.  Eola is Edwin from Tonstartssbandht.  He played a few unreleased songs, and I can tell you now that when he decides to release them into the world, the blogs are going to go nuts for them.  Mark my words.  They’re delightfully dancey and creatively confusing all at the same time.  Harpoon Forever are young and need a lot of work, but they’ve got some solid musicians and I think if they keep at it they could come up with some very good 90s college rock-ish songs.  Cool World is friends with Tonstartssbandht, and are definitely a band to keep your eye on, especially if you like loud and fast garage music.

Speaking of very good 90s college rock, Lame Drivers are an interesting band.  No doubt, they are good.  Their live show is tight, concise, and churns out alt rock that would make Robert Pollard smile.  They’ve been around on the scene for so long, they’re friends with cool bloggers, and generally seem to have friends all over the music scene.  I really feel that they have not received the recognition they deserve from the Internet music world at large.  It’s almost as if they came along ten years too late.  I can only imagine that if this were 1995 they’d have a pretty big record deal and be getting interviewed by Matt Pinfield on MTV.  But they’re not.  Did anyone watch the new Fred Armisen sketch show, Portlandia?  It opens with a hilarious sketch about a place where the 90s are still alive: Portland.  That sketch is EXACTLY how Lame Drivers feels to me.  It’s a subtle change in how cool is perceived since then that’s difficult to articulate, but Armisen hits the nail on the head.  Watch it here, and tell me if you agree.

Eola:

Harpoon Forever:

Cool World:

Lame Drivers:

MP3: “Excess” – Lamedrivers