Tweens at Pianos
Sometimes I hate writing about bands. Not because I hate the bands, mind you. Tweens are totally awesome. No, the problem is that I know what I want to write but something is missing. In this case I just can't think of a band which sounds like Tweens even though I'm sure there are plenty of 'em. See, Tweens are an actual garage rock band, which is to say an intense, slightly sloppy rock band with lots of attitude. The problem is that they just happen to be female-fronted.
Now, there are plenty of female-fronted bands under the garage rock umbrella but many of them are the reverb-heavy girl-group inspired type (a la Veronica Falls or Dum Dum Girls). Others are too low-key, only rocking out at times (The Ettes, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang) or are more like a retro act (Shannon and the Clams, Cudzoo and the Fagettes) who don't exactly sound like a rock band. The Love Me Nots are close but the keyboard is such a huge part of their sound that it's just not the same. I know that I have heard music which sounds like this before, I just can't put a name to it.
I guess I just don't know enough about music. Clearly you should stop reading this website right now!
Seriously though, I like my garage rock with some punk attitude and and rawness to it. There should be more bands like Tweens and I should be hearing them more often. And I will definitely keep writing about things I know too little about because this website is about the photography. The writing is really just a little window dressing which I spend far too much time on...
The Sights at Don Pedro
The Sights headlined the very first show I reviewed for this website. I believe it was also the first show I ever shot with a DSLR. I really sucked back then, but The Sights did not and still don't.
I admit that I showed up late and missed half of their set. From what I heard in the second half they seem to have shifted away from rock and towards soul. They were always a somewhat soulful band so this isn't way out of character for them, but boy did they ever change their lineup. Adding a keyboard, saxophone and two backing singers is not a small change! They haven't become just a straight soul act, though. For one thing the vocals don't dominate the instruments (which makes sense considering how many of them there are!) It's still a lot like rock-n-roll, just with a strong flavor of something more bluesy.
Perhaps I should apologize to the keyboardist and backing singers. I don't think you can really see them in these photos. The new lighting at Don Pedro isn't bad, but the corners of the stage are still pretty dark. It's more appropriate to a smaller band, or one which moves around a little more.
Posted: 5/5/2013 at 7:07pm Tags: Cavestomp Don Pedro The Sights
Ken Boothe at Littlefield
Ken Boothe is one of the legends of Jamaican music and has been performing for more than fifty years. Of course I was impressed by his singing and showmanship, just as I expected to be. What really surprised me is how high he could jump. I guess performing helps keep you in shape! Perhaps I should have seen it coming, though. His former recording partner (and former neighbor) Stranger Cole gave an energetic performance at a Dig Deeper show just a year and a half ago. Music doesn't fade I guess.
I hadn't realized at first that I had seen the backing band before. Their name is Crazy Baldhead and they are sort of a ska supergroup with members of The Slackers, The Scofflaws, and a bunch of other bands (including Leftöver Crack, yes really). Sure enough, they backed Stranger Cole too. I thought those guys looked familiar!
Posted: 5/4/2013 at 7:13pm Tags: Crazy Baldhead Dig Deeper Ken Boothe Littlefield
A Review Of The Newly Renovated Glasslands Gallery
(Better than before, but with one major flaw)
"In the early days of the Glasslands Gallery the place was constantly changing. Not only would the art installations change every month or two but the place was often literally under construction. Did you know there used to be a ladder behind stage right which you could climb to get to a little loft? They eventually filled that in. Remember the art room in the loft where you could literally go paint on the walls between sets? Those were the older, more experimental days of Glasslands Gallery. Back in the days when warehouse art spaces in that part of town were a new thing. Now there are what, five on that block alone?!"
Disappears at The Knitting Factory
In a previous review I referred to Disappears as a shoegaze band. This is not an entirely accurate description because it misses out on a few things. While some of their music qualifies as the sort of trippy but toothless psych which I at least associate with "shoegaze" they also churn out plenty of actual substantial psychedelic rock, seemingly with an emphasis on the rock. In fact I almost hate to call them "psych" because they seem to be missing the gaudier aspects of psych rock such as atonal bits and extended drones. Yet I think that it is an apt description. Instead of focusing on the darker, heavier, perhaps wannabe-spiritial aspects of the music they focus on the lighter, trippier bits. That's still a sort of psych-rock, right?
At different times Disappears reminded me of many different bands such as the Velvet Underground (especially on tracks like this one), Bauhaus, A Place to Bury Strangers and even Massive Attack (despite the lack of samples or electronica paraphernalia). Yet Disappears always seemed like a lighter version of that music, not quite as "heavy", or perhaps not quite as pessimistic? That's also why I didn't think the hardcore band which opened the show was a good fit to this bill. They were more visceral while Disappears was more heady. Not quite a good match.
Posted: 4/28/2013 at 1:03pm Tags: Disappears The Knitting Factory
