Narwhalz, Dogs and Leather

On April 23rd I arrived around at Soundlab around 11pm, right after Jack Topht and Lindey's set. I was a little disappointed, as I'm a pretty huge fan of theirs, but I'll catch them again the next time he plays around town. I chatted a bit with Mr. Topht about the music scene in Buffalo the mind boggling decision to put UB as far a way from the city as possible, leading to a downtown area that is struggling to survive and yet still vibrant with creative musical acts and visual artists. I can only imagine what it would be like if there was a steady stream of college students frequenting the many unique venues in the city.

First up was Narwhalz of Sound. Right way bonus points are awarded for Awesome Pun Based Name. He sat on the ground in front of three generations of Nintendo Gameboys - a classic brick, a color and an Advance - all of which were hooked into a mixer and run through a distortion pedal. After enthusiastically and cheerfully greeting the audience, he started declaring the wonders of "Indie Rock" and Saddle Creek. "Check out this fucking Saddle Creek Indie Bass Line about to hit!" he exclaimed as he started up one of the Gameboys and cheerful 8-Bit loop shot out from the speakers. He paused the music briefly and addressed the audience, "You feel that? I'm about to let that ride out for a second so you can all feel the independence..." Soon an array of lurching, grinding noises joined in and layed on top of the original loop. His set was great, it was essentially heavy ambient drone, but played with just the Gameboys all looping various tones. (It looked like he was using cartridges with music program ROM's.)



I was enthused and impressed, and the crowd behind me was jamming to the bouncy noise. You can always count on the Sugar City kids to bring the party, and they fucking brought it with a basket of gusto. People were jamming to the beat, rocking out and busting crazy dance moves that were in no way in sync with the improvised music, but somehow meshed perfectly and created a great atmosphere. As the clusterfuck of 8-bit noise ground to it's climax, Narwhalz angrily threw the Gameboys, propelling them across the stage and declaring, "Fuck this shit! I don't even need any of this! I'm going home and I'm gonna learn how to play acoustic guitar! Because that's what indie rock is all about, guitars! And Piano! This isn't indie, I just fucking wasted all your time! " He then launched into a stream of consciousness satirical rant about the music industry, covering everything from K records ("I live at that guys old address, man, and soon enough I'm gonna start getting demos and cds in the mail! Yeah! I'll start my own label!") to how Belle and Sebastian suck even though Amazon.com recommends it when he's searching for Pavement records because he heard they were cool. The crowd was engaging him enthusiastically, laughing their asses off and throwing quips back his way. Russel and Zack, two regulars at any noise/experimental show, were particularly involved. There were discussions of the perils of the music industry and the responsibility of music critics, and upon discovering that Russel was a music critic he shouted "This guys a fucking writer! You're perpetuating the culture man!" This went on for a good ten minutes, at least.



Next up was DJ DogDick, who I had seen once before at the Baltimore Round Robin. His set there was much shorter and limited to some distorted noisy hipster experimental hiphop. At this show however, he had a chance to show some more range and get deeper into some soundscapes and really noisy shit. The first portion of his set was a sublime ocean of drone, he stood in front of a sampler and an array of electronics, carefully controlling the wide pulses and sparsely placed blips, all the while drifting his mic in front of a massive speaker cone (it looked like it was ripped form a gigantic amp wired it to be used separately). Each wave of the mic produced a sweeping roar of crunchy feedback, like an irate robot lion guarding it's territory. It was awesome and if I had a recording of it I'd listen to it every night.

From there he jumped into his more familiar style of fucked-up-indie-noise-hip-hop. Low-fi warbling tones danced over fat distorted beats while he rhymed into the mic. He faced away from the audience and awkwardly shifted on his feet, concentrating on working his sampler and gear. Occasionally, he'd find a moment to break from this monitoring and suddenly he would face the crowd and sway into a smooth rhythmic dance, only to shift his attention back to his gear moments later. This was by far the most danceable music all night, with the bass kicks hitting hard and loud, everyone was dancing as hard as they could. It was quite a sight to see as I nodded my head to the beat with a big grin on my face.

Sewn Leather was up last, and he just straight-up blew me the fuck away. I was dumbfounded by the intensity of his crunk/punk dance style and catchy hardcore rhymes over jacked up synth trash beats. He moved with the finesse of a backup dancer in a Madonna video and the sheer anger and intensity of a punk kid at a hardcore show. It was an amazing display of dancing, thrashing, jumping, and just plain FUN music. He had all the house lights turned off, so the venue was totally dark except for just enough ambient lighting to see the people around you and vaguely what was happening on stage. It created a great atmosphere, and made his crazy movements and mysterious dance style all the more intriguing.



At one point he ended up in the crowd, riding on the shoulders of an audience member (who I later realized was Narwhalz of Sound). He didn't just get down though, the crowd gathered around him to add support and carried him around a bit, as best as their crowd surfing abilities would allow. Later on a bunch of people jumped on stage and started dance-thrashing right along with him, creating a perfect moment of noise and chaos. This is why I go to shows. To witness music as art and just plain sheer sonic insanity. An amazing night.

"What's Good" at Soundlab

On April 15th, Alicia and I once again ventured out to Soundlab for a show featuring two of my favorite local artists. I've already written about both Cages and Sonorous Gale a few times, and I don't have much to add this time. They are both consistently awesome, and if you live in the Buffalo area I highly encourage you to check them out. Sonorous Gale will shatter your skull with pure rock brutality and Cages will change your life. Just ask the drummer for the North Carolina band What's Good, who said just that after seeing the versatile vocalist perform.

Her set this time was possibly my favorite, it was the perfect balance of fragile beauty and relentless chaos. She teamed up with Steve Baczkowski, who alternated between creating abstract sound textures using two turntables playing "Frankenstein" records (vinyl that has been cut into pie pieces, then glued back together to create a single record composed of 5 or more different albums) and blaring away on his saxophone. My favorite moments occurred when they both intensified their wailing in a battle to create a greater cacophony, before lapsing back into a quiet croon.





The previously mentioned "What's Good" played an excellent set of upbeat instrumental rock, overflowing with complex riffs, lightning fast solos and furiously dynamic drumming. Every so often the lead guitarist would suddenly dance across the stage, as if his feet were possessed by demons of funk. At one point he got so wrapped up in his playing that he collapsed backwards into the drum set! I've seen many guitarists intentionally catapult themselves into the drums at the end of a show, but I've never seen one who was just so focused on rocking out as hard and fast as he could that he completely lost his balance. Seriously awesome.

A band called Skeleton Breath also played that night, and while they were fun, (they had a guy rocking an electric violin who knew what he was doing) they didn't leave much of an impression on me. I've found that I don't really appreciate bands that have a technical excellence if they're lacking passion. You could be the best damn guitar based trio on the planet, but if you're not having a blast playing live and completely in love with performing, then it's just not going to be an interesting show. My favorite bands are the ones that enthusiastically enjoy what they do, it always shows and it's always inspiring. God damn I fucking love live music.

Sonorous Gale Record Release Show

On March 21st Alicia and I ventured out to see Sonorous Gale play at Soundlab. I've seen them play several times before, they're one of my favorite local bands, with only the mighty Jack Topht above them. Their sound is one of thunderous bass and distortion, with heavy vocals over on alternately frantic riffs and painfully slow metal dirges. For a duo of a bassist/vocalist and drummer, they make one hell of a racket. Tonight was special because it was their album release party, so I could FINALLY get their songs in a form that could be listened to in the comfort of my own home.

The opening band was a guy with a huge beard playing soft songs on an acoustic guitar. That's really all I can say...it was some harmless forgettable folk music with a twist of uppity poet. The second act was a comedian, who despite trying his best, fell a bit flat with most of his set. I give him major credit for giving it a shot though, plus there was a small group of people that were enjoying it and chuckling along, so there you go.

Sonorous Gale was great, as always. They played their familiar set of songs, many of which I know pretty well after having seen them several times. Midway through the set they were joined by local female vocalist Cages, who I've often described as sounding a bit like Bjork having a mental breakdown/total freakout on stage. (That's meant as a major compliment, she's awesome.) She was a lot of fun to watch during their cover of "Army of Me" (validating my Bjork comparisons)as she writhed and convulsed to the music while belting out the vocals in her unique, tortured style.

AIDS Wolf at Soundlab

I missed them the last time they stopped in Buffalo, so I made sure to make my way out to Soundlab on March 8th to see AIDS Wolf. I was worried I'd be late, but when I arrived at 11 it was just in time to catch the end of the opening act, US Girls. Kind of like my noise moniker, this was a plural name representing one person.

The audience of roughly fifteen people stood around the front of the stage intently watching a shorthaired girl with massive hipster glasses and an over sized orange winter jacket as she hunched over an array of distortion pedals and sound gear. She would occasionally sing long, droning notes into a mic that would altering her voice while a wall of noise fought with looping guitar and piano samples. At first listen it sounded completely random, but soon I noticed the structure of the songs as she changed the loops and manipulated the gradually shifting tones being produced by her voice and equipment. It was pretty good stuff, right down my alley. I picked up her CD-R at the end of the show, mostly because I just like supporting artists that do this kind of thing...especially since I'm kind of attempting to make a name for myself by doing something very similar.

AIDS Wolf came out and proceeded to rock the house, decked in their matching brown shirts and slacks that resembled a repairman's uniform with a touch of the Ghostbuster getup. The lead singer, Claudia Deluxx, was decked out in a powerfully gaudy gem sweater and a flowing fluorescent green cape. The busted right into things, and played straight through their set, pausing only briefly between songs before exploding into the next one.

Their sound is an unclassifiable one...but I'm going to try anyway. If you take the ferocity of grind core, cross breed it with the focused and ungodly complicated atonal riffs of math metal, then blend the whole thing with a healthy dose of improvisational noise, you get pretty close to their sound. Throw in some warbling, indistinguishable vocals that sound like an oceanic siren having an aneurysm and you've got AIDS Wolf. To many, this is not something you'd listen to voluntarily. To me and the small group at Soundlab, it was a great show. It wasn't even the noisiest or harshest band performance I've seen, and I have to admit I was a tiny bit disappointed...I was expecting to be blown away by their insanity, yet they were a bit tamer than I had imagined.





It was interesting to watch the dual guitarists (the band has no bassist, two guitars plus drums and vocals) as they shredded away. The drummer was awesome, and as far as I've witnessed only Melt Banana's drummer rivals the intensity and speed that this guy had. They all had a very technical precision to their playing that resulted in the most discordant sound possible, just one of the reasons I admire them. The lead singer spent most of the show wandering through the audience as if entranced by her own howling, bumping into individuals and flailing in slow motion. With her hooded cape it almost looked like she was casting a long, complicated spell, as she waved her arms mysteriously and stared intently into the distance. Along with old school Boredoms (back when they were a straightup noise rock band) these guys are a favorite when it comes to ridiculous, noisy fun. I resisted the urge to buy any vinyl this time, but I did grab a $1 button. It's silver and black, with a drawing of a nerdy R.Crumb looking guy in thick glasses giving an unenthusiastic thumbs up. It's kind of awesome.

Bev-Beverly

Headed out last night to go support Sherri, one of the bartenders at Soundlab, as she opened the show for Icy Demons. When I was paying the cover, the doorman remarked to his buddy, "Man, this guys is devout! He's always here. We should start giving him a discount or something." I just smiled and said, "Ah, you know it, I'm a regular." I joke all the time about how Soundlab is my home away from home. It really is the place in Buffalo that's kept me sane.

Sherri put on a great show, she plays this old school style of electro off of an MPC and a keyboard. I saw her once before at a little house party, but she always said that it wasn't really a good performance and that I should check out a more proper show. Her stage name is "Bev-Beverly" (I have no idea why) and her style is sort of a cross between modern house/dance and 8-Bit Nintendo sounds. What really makes it fun though, is her energy. She was really adorable paying, bouncing around, occasionally stopping to throw balloons into the air or a roll of streamers into the crowd (which nailed me right in the shoulder. I kept it going though, by launching it towards some unenthusiastic hipsters that just watched it hit the floor...) She even had a little machine pouring a sea of bubbles into the air, which provided the perfect atmosphere for the small group of dancing girls nearby. There was a companion video being projected in the background while she played, a colorful mix of random images and animations. At one point there was a cluster of cute hamster photos, animated to be dancing and shooting rainbows out of their mouths. Sherri's hard to describe, but that little sequence represents this girl better than I could ever explain.

I was really excited to see Icy Demons, I'd heard a lot of good things, and I liked what I heard on their myspace page. I even really liked the crazy insane pink and black tiger t-shirt they had for sale. I do this all the time, I'll just randomly go to a show and 9 times out of 10, it turns out to be awesome. Well, this was the 1 time out of 10 where it just sucked. They weren't really bad, I guess, but I just wasn't into it at all...maybe it was the fact that they kept going a little off key, maybe it was that the music was too "jam band" for me, or maybe it was that 3 out of the 6 members were wearing different versions of that tiger t-shirt. I'm sorry, but no band member should ever, ever wear their own bands t-shirt on stage. Or off stage, for that matter. I mean...come on. Lame. So I bailed early, mid performance at around 12:30. I had been bugging Kendra to come to the show with me all night, and now I'm kind of glad that she opted to stay home instead. Turned out to be a wise decision. I've brought Laura and Andy to a few shows that turned out to be horrible, and now I have a bit of a reputation with them for picking awful bands out. I'd like to have a better track record, but the way I go to shows there's always the random element, it's a gamble for quality.

Despite the lame main act, I'm still totally glad that I made it out. I haven't been getting a lot of sleep lately and my brain has just been feeling like it's slowly melting into a pile of goo. You'd think I would just go to bed earlier, or stay in more. You'd think that...and yet I'm going out anyway. There are shows for the next two nights, then my High School Reunion is on Saturday, followed by a dance party, which means I'll be drinking A LOT. A whoooole lot of a lot.

Fuck Yeah Fest 2008

I can't even come close to describing how good this show was. It will do it no justice, you have to go watch the video, here, www.videothing.com (click on the "Buffalo is Great" vhs.) Every band was amazing, but what really made the night was the performance by Monotonix.

I'd heard a lot of hype about them, I'd seen the crazy photos and I'd heard the stories. Yet none of that prepared me for the real thing. I have a new standard by which to judge shows now. The drummer was set up right in the middle of the floor, with the crowd surrounding him, and the vocalist just came rocketing in spraying bottles of water everywhere as the guitarist tore up the most ridiculous riff I've ever heard...from that point it just became a straight up rock riot. If there was a surface to climb onto, the singer would leap from it into the crowd, people started climbing up on the tables and bar to get a better view as most of us were banging out heads and moshing right next to and into the band. After each song they would pick up the drum set and move it further into the venue, at one point half the band was on the bar itself (along with the bass drum, which the vocalist was playing with the kick pedal, right along with the beat) while kids crowd surfed and crashed into each other, the singer kept grabbing random peoples drinks and pouring them on the drummer/himself/the crowd, and all of this while the music never stopped, and he never stopped singing...it was the most insane and impressive performance I have ever seen. Not only were they going ballistic, but they still were really fucking good...I'm amazed they were able to produce the sounds they did while running all over the place.

Eventually the drum set moved close enough to the door that they just picked it up and brought it outside, so we all followed, and by some bizarre coincidence in the universe, there just happened to be a passing jam band out there, a saxophone player, along with a few friends of his that played other brass instruments. So now we're all outside, with the drummer still going full speed, accompanied by saxophones and trumpets, as the vocalist is singing and dancing and we're all clapping along with him. So then they pick up the drums again, and run across the street closer to a little park area where they set up again. At one point a guy was crowd surfing while playing a piece of the drum set...outside Soundlab at 2 in the morning. I tried to snap a few quick photos but my phone couldn't handle the pure rock fury. What I have are manic, blurred pictures that are indistinguishable yet full of movement. They're actually a pretty damn accurate representation of the night. I don't think anything will ever top this show. (Not unless I see this band again.) Fucking EPIC.

"Wednesday Night Rock Show"

When I arrived at Soundlab Wednesday night for the Times New Viking show, Sleeping Kings of Iona were once again on stage as the first opening act. That makes it my third time seeing them open in...about 11 days. They've just been consistently awesome each time, and I'll definitely be making it a point to seek them out when I can, instead of only randomly stumbling onto them at other shows. During their set I couldn't help but watch this one girl in the audience dance her little heart out. She always has her boyfriend in tow, who stands next to her and bobs up and down awkwardly. It's in that way that all guys will half-dance when they feel they need to participate with their girl, but they don't want to go all out because no one else is dancing. What made it so adorable was that she was dancing like a little kid who was excited about going to an amusement park. It was this bouncy, jumpy, bopping all over kind of jig. Normally when a girl dances, it's all, you know, hot. This was just really cute, like a puppy hugging a kitten.

The next opening act was a rapper from Ohio called Envelope. He was an average looking white guy, but he managed to pull off the hip-hop act by being humorously self deprecating and completely humble. He was actually really good, the guy knew how to rhyme and had this funny and endearing style. My favorite line of the night was 'building my body like Homer J, drinking vodka mixed with ocean spray" After the show, I picked up his album and he gave me a free 7" and... a pint glass. That may be the most original (and useful) piece of merch I've ever gotten at a show.



Times New Viking were good, blasting through a set of their signature distorted noise-pop-punk. For a drummer, guitarist and keyboardist, they sure managed to make an impressive racket. Their albums are recorded on old-school reel to reel tape, so they have this texture of noise that musicians normally spend thousands of dollars trying to remove. Not these guys, they've embraced it...and not only that, they found a way to recreate it live. (At one point the drummer summed this up when he was mocking the guitarist for spending so long tuning, "if you've ever heard any of our records, you know we're perfectionists.") I can't remember the reason, but they also opened a bottle of champagne to pass between them and through the crowd. A few brave souls actually drank form it, but the rest of us were a bit too sober to go near that cauldron of backwash.

After people watching for a while, I started to think about the different types of people that show up to these mid-week rock shows. The only girls there are always part of a couple. Any time I've ever seen a lone female, she was either dating a guy in one of the bands, or was actually in one of the bands. That's the second component of the crowd, the band members who aren't actually on stage yet. Of the 30 people there for this show, 10 where band members. The rest of the crowd is made of of the guys like me. We're there to see the show, so we stand right up front with rapt attention during the performance, but inbetween bands we sit quietly by and nurse a beer, listening to the mix CD being played on the house speakers and waiting patiently for the next group to finish setting up. Occasionally we'll chat with each other or the bartender, but I think we all prefer to just chill. I don't mind too much, though I wouldn't mind having some company. The trick is finding someone that will stay all the way to the end, through every band and then hang out long enough to say "hi" to the musicians and buy merch. I used to drag The Ex to these shows, and she'd always make a fuss and complain enough to get us out of there early. Or, if we did stay, she'd make sure I knew how bored she was by sitting in a corner and knitting while the band performed. It put a sour note on some great shows. So, compared to that bullshit, I really don't mind occasionally going by myself. In fact, since I started going alone again, I've rediscovered how much I abso-fucking-lutely love live music. Ah, good times.