Indie Band Guru

It was a tough choice after seeing almost too many shows but my favorite show of CMJ 2010 was The Drums at Webster Hall.  Obviously I had heard The Drums record after all the buzz they had been getting but never saw any video of their live show.  Not knowing exactly what to expect I decided to check out their show on Wednesday, Oct 20th.  Let me tell you the full story….

Wednesday started with some CMJ panels and then the official press mixer at Hotel On Rivington.  Good party, but I didn’t really know anyone so it was a little strange.  Soon enough I met two other “lost souls” that seemed to not know anyone either.  Alex, a writer for AOL Spinner, and Melissa, A DJ/writer from California.

The music snob crew

It is great to meet other music snobs.  We all wanted to check out The Drums/Surfer Blood show so off we went.  We all assumed our press badges would get us into Webster Hall without a problem.  Wrong! Seems we needed a seperate ticket to get upstairs to the main show.  There were some lesser showcases that we got into on the lower floors but decided we must get into the show we wanted to see.  We scoped out different ways to get upstairs but all were guarded by large security man.  Until we discovered a back staircase with a velvet rope in front of it, but no guard.  We went for it and made it, even strolling past some security as we got to the top of the stairs.  Remember, just act like you belong!  We were in and climbed to the balcony to get a better view right behind the sound board.

Now for the show.  The Drums came out and the crowd erupted.  The influence of 80′s new wave was immediate, as the band came out wearing satin jackets, converse Chuck Taylors, and rolled up jeans.   Then they burst into music and the image was complete.  Lead singer, Jonathan Pierce, slithered all over the stage, swinging the mic and singing on his tippy-toes.  He made it hard for the audience to look away from him.  Very engaging.  He introduced the song It Will All End In Tears by saying “this is a song about a girl I hate very, very,very much.”  I got a very ‘Joy Division’ feel from them, which is a very good thing in my opinion.  Fun, upbeat dance music with semi-depressing lyrics.   I recommend you go out and get their self titled album immediately and get to a live performance the next time they are within 100 miles of your hometown.

Here is a video of them performing their hit “Let’s Go Surfing”at KEXP’s day stage at the Ace Hotel, New York, as part of the CMJ music marathon 2010.  Small stage with no room to move but hopefully you get the idea.

Nowadays, music fans have become strange, uncategorizable beasts; to paraphrase Mr. Gump, you never know what you gonna get, especially at a music festival such as The Royal Flush Fest. When considering a prospective audience coming to see a three year old Icelandic indie-folk band, one might expect a small turnout of hardcore fans, maybe a handful of in-the-know bloggers tweeting as they sway to the rhythm of the music – I, for one, didn’t expect a full-capacity Highline Ballroom shouting back obscure song titles at frontman Sindri Már Sigfússon when, at the end of an exhilarating encore, he asked if there are any requests.

But that’s just the thing about Seabear. For whatever mysterious reason, there is something undeniably attractive in the kind of music they play. In fact, there is something almost too at home in their music: with prevalent 2/4 shuffles, sweeping violins and several traditional sounding song arrangements, they do Americana more easily and convincingly than many of their American equivalents.

This doesn’t go to say that Seabear are trying to be the next Byrds or Decemberists. In fact, it doesn’t seem that they’re trying to be the next anything at all. While it may be tempting to compare a song such as “Softship” to early Arcade Fire (what with the trumpet and violin, the chiming piano octaves, and the fact that there are seven people on stage, all of whom playing an instrument, most of whom singing as well) – other songs were just as prone to having entirely different arrangements, borrowing ideas from an entirely different source of inspiration. Sure, the occasional meandering, lulling xylophone sample was somewhat reminiscent of fellow Icelanders Múm. Sure, the dramatic soft-loud dynamic changes in “Warm Blood” endowed it with a poppier, less demented Pixie-esque quality. But none of that felt like copycatting; no influence was prevalent enough to easily pigeonhole Seabear.

Throughout the show – which was preceded by a well-received set from the spacier, slightly more energetic North Highlands – there was an air of expectation and engagement in the audience; it seemed peculiar because the band itself did not exude a particularly engaging atmosphere. Sigfússon joked around a bit (he has a marvelous Icelandic accent, which even more marvelously disappears when he beings to sing), and everybody else seemed intent on doing their job the best way they could; but as far as audience interaction goes, Seabear gave off a slight sense of arctic coolness (no pun intended). Regardless, they had the audience eating out of the palm of their collective hand. Perhaps the traces of Bluegrass in songs like “Wooden Teeth” felt instantly familiar; maybe “Cold Summer” brought back memories of the Gray’s Anatomy episode that ended with it; perhaps it was simply something in the air. Whatever it was, Seabear certainly delivered, giving the audience a long, enjoyable set of songs ranging from the notable to the obscure, the loud and indie to the hushed and unplugged, from the otherworldly to the band-next-door. And while their musical direction does not seem particularly set in stone at the moment, the songs themselves get the job done with flying colors.

-review and photos by Michael Hazani of Indie Band Guru

Bronze is a new band, with a new EP and it’s fucking fantastic. A must have for indie pop rock lovers. Formed from remains of post-punk band Detachment Kit, out of Chicago, Charlie H. Davis and Ian Menard assembled Bronze in Brooklyn along with Jeff Birch and Ian MacDermut. Their debut show was at Brooklyn Bowl in early January of 2010 with Free Energy, who recently told Pitchfork Bronze was their “favorite new band”.

Get a copy of the new Bronze EP free. Just click the pic

This five song self-titled EP has a tasteful balance of fleshed out electronic loops and live rock instrumentation. Influences range from New Order, Brian Eno and T. Rex- but their sound comes together in their own well-thought, multi-dimensional pop arrangements. With consistently strong vocal hooks and compelling harmonies on every track this is a no-skip recording.

Bronze opens with the track “Horses”, an enticing delayed electric guitar intro leading to the entrance of the ‘take action’ drumbeats. Another solid track, “Sunny Day,” has a wistful vocal break that seems to fade out down an empty urban street. “Count To Two” stands out on it’s own, containing more of a standard rock band format in the vain of the late Detachment Kit, but with some fresh, smart background ooohs and awwhs intertwined with lead vocals. The song ends and your body lingers, dangles between tracks, waiting for the next song to kick in so you can keep moving.

Bronze delivers a solid release here and the best thing about it is that you can down load it for free at www.bronze.bandcamp.com. Get some new music into your shuffle, you wont regret this one, Bronze also has some cool shows coming up at CMJ this year. You can see them live OCT 20 @ Public Assembly, OCT 21 @ Pianos or OCT 23 at the Deli Magazine Showcase @ Spike Hill. This is a great new band to follow, stay up to date here: www.myspace.com/bronzemusic or on Facebook.

And don’t forget to tell everyone you heard about Bronze from Indie Band Guru first!

Neon Dynamite Live at The Knitting Factory

“Never judge a band by its Myspace”, goes the adage– and rarely does it ring as true as it does in the case of Neon Dynamite. A quick online lookup promised a run-of-the-mill indie-rock-soul-funk outfit; not particularly sucky, mind you, but nothing to write home about.

I realized how sorely wrong I was about two seconds into their first song – by then they were already the taking venue by storm: with their undeniably charismatic stage presence and airtight, four-on-the-floor grooves, Neon Dynamite commanded an in-your-face stage presence, their music imploring a (somewhat nonexistent, this being a Tuesday night) audience to get on their feet and party. You could instantly see that this band is all about those live moments, about going on stage and laying a beat tighter than you-know-who’s-you-know-what. Here, at last, was an indie band that’s all about giving people a good time, damn it. Scott Laughlin’s drumming and Dave “Boxcar” Smith’s bass playing was masterfully glued together, and sprinkled with healthy doses of groove for good measure. Anthony Rubbo’s guitar chops and Kurt Thum’s synth wizardry did what audiences always wish for but rarely ever get – that is, they complemented the songs perfectly with killer riffs, syncopated hits and endless energy that served the music, rather than tried to take over. And as far as lead singers go, Nathan Lacy (the only band member who displayed a genre-appropriate fashion sense) is as energetic, committed, and engaging as they come; he lives inside his songs, and it seems that for him, every show is his chance of inviting the audience to come over and check out his awesome crib.

There are two things one needs to keep in mind in order to understand why Neon Dynamite are startlingly unique even at such an early point in their career. First, the nature of the music they play requires a seamless cohesion between all the members – and while it sounds as if they’ve been playing together for longer than their lifetimes combined, the current incarnation of the band is, impressively enough, only less than a year old.

The second point – and this is a touchy subject when it comes to indie bands’ live performances – has to do with the way they viewed the audience and the gig.

Imagine going on stage for soundcheck, taking a quick look at the room and realizing there are more people on stage than in the audience. What do you do?

For Neon Dynamite, the answer was clear: you plug in, tune up, and play the best damn show of your life. Even in a midweek, low-attendance gig, they’re fully aware of who they are, and more importantly, where they are going; and thus, they rocked a virtually empty Knitting Factory as hard as they would have rocked a full Yankee Stadium. Playing your heart out to empty venues is a clichéd rite of passage for new musicians; and yet, few are the groups who actually take it to heart and make the best out of every live situation. Neon Dynamite is one of those groups.

By the end of their set the place filled up a bit (good vibes have magnetic powers, apparently), and with a few dozen hipsters in the audience, Lacy saw fit to leave the stage and serenade an unsuspecting audience member, following with a short nap(!) on the probably-filthy floor. You could almost sense his itching for wilder stage antics, given a larger audience. I don’t think he’ll have to wait too long before he gets his wish; with their trustworthy grooves, musical cohesion and take-no-prisoners approach to live performance, Neon Dynamite is definitely a band to keep on your watch list. Catch a show while tickets are still cheap – there’s a good chance their relative anonymity will not last long.

-Reviewed by Indie Band Guru writer – Michael Hazani

In the past two decades – even before the time of John Mayer’s debut – there has been a slew of indie rock coming out of Atlanta, GA. In recent years especially, the genre of “indie” music has gotten a huge boost of talent from the Peach state. The city has most recently produced bands like Jackyl, Kaki King, and indie darlings Deerhunter (hipsterdom has indeed been on the rise in the South, largely due to the indispensable indie mecca SXSW). So we welcome the latest addition to Atlanta’s indie music scene, Future Self.
 

Future Self is one hungry band

Don’t let the name fool you. Future Self isn’t a ‘80s-inspired, post- (or Neo- ) New Wave band, although there is a good (but subtle) amount of synths and shoegaze on display. The music is firmly rooted in classic songwriting styles, such as Billy Joel, Nick Drake, and even a little bit of Captain Beefheart. Appropriately enough, Nick Drake and Randy Newman are high on Future Self’s  Top 20 friends on Myspace.
 
To this mix of ‘60s and ‘70s singer-songwriter heart-and-soul, the band brings electric guitars, a bit of musical theater, and most distinctly, a very ‘00s approach to the beats and rhythms that update the classic pop genre for the twenty-first century (a little bit like putting Barry Manilow in skinny jeans and converses, and sticking a Blue Moon in his hand). The band even claims to have a certain bit of bluegrass in their music that can also easily be called Americana.
 
Future Self, co-founded in 2008 by singer-pianist Will Mitchell, showcases their music in a 6-song debut LP Debt to a Muse. The result is a dreamy collection of feverishly gentle romantic yearnings that has all the aforementioned influences injected with healthy amounts of Death Cab for Cutie. The Ben Gibbard in Mitchell’s vocals is most apparent in the Pink Floyd-flavored “A Certain Fool.” It’s a world-weary Ben Gibbard that he channels here (and a little bit of  Brandon Flowers in the Killers’ “Read My Mind”) singing a story of a love that’ll probably go unrequited. It’s also a decent entry into the stalker-rock genre popularized by the Police’s “Roxanne.” Watch out for this song though – the “La-da-dee-da” part is infectious.
 
The disc opener “Admit” has a little bit of Peter Schilling’s “Major Tom” in the verse that betrays the loneliness in Mitchell’s voice. Which brings to mind Mitchell’s voice: he is indeed a competent singer (the entire band seems to be doubling almost every line, which is interesting at the best of times but eventually gets grating), but the question isn’t “Is his singing good?” as much as it is “Will his performance here stop the object of his affection from leaving?” It might, but it will definitely buy him time (at the very least a lunch on a beautiful fall afternoon).
 
Mitchell’s voice falters a bit in the exciting bluegrass (but what I call Americana) tribute “Wasn’t Your Fault,” but the song lets lead guitarist Shim Gartner shine whereas in other songs he’s buried in the mix. The shoegaze-y hipster waltz of “Looked for You” similarly betrays Mitchell’s shortcomings (only in the chorus), but also gives his lyrics a chance to take center stage: playful in character, but also gently biting when they have to be. There’s honesty when he says he “looked for you…like an original sound.”
 
“Some Things” – along with “Admit” – is a decent piece of chugging piano-rock that showcases what drummer Jason Pearlman brings to the band: a little bit of Ringo and the Dresden Dolls’ Brian Viglione, but a lot of Nathan Followill from Kings of Leon. It works well, giving the songs the thunder that nudge them closer to the swelling fever-pitch that the band seems to strive for but never quite reaches.
 
“Hung Up On You” is the album’s Beatles song, where Mitchell and the rest of the band work on “Fixin’ a Hole” in his love life.
 
The production is competent, with the impressive mixing of Mitchell’s voice in with the rest of the band, but the focus on Ben Williams’ bass – and the low end overall –  leaves much to be desired.
 
While in Georgia some years ago, I remember driving past woods (that I later camped in), watching the sun come up on nondescript highways, and then arriving at the green fields of Emory University. Future Self’s debut brings to mind a feeling of the calm and serenity I felt that morning, similar to cracking open a bottle of pinot grigio or pinot noir and leaning back in your favorite lawn chair as you watch the sun set. What Debt to a Muse doesn’t do is reach the swelling energy that the music calls for. As gorgeous as it is, the music constantly simmers and shivers, but never explodes. Mitchell and co. long for love, but they don’t yearn hard enough to win the girl. It’s difficult to see how the material would transfer live, or even if you would want it to. So until Future Self can turn up the fire underneath their pot of emotion, they are best experienced next to a slow-burning campfire as you hold hands and reconcile with the one you love. Who knows? Maybe the band can help you patch things up and give you and your loved one a chance at a brilliant future…Future Self, that is!

Find out more and hear them for yourself at:

www.futureselfmusic.com

www.myspace.com/futureselfband