Screamin' Rebel Angels at The Knitting Factory

Screamin' Rebel Angels don't consider themselves a rockabilly band but they forgot to tell their bassist. He's pretty much the poster boy for greasers everywhere.

The band themselves do play some rockabilly but definitely like to stretch their boundaries. They slow it down sometimes and get into lounge and surf territory, then hit the accelerator and crash right into some punk or straight-up rock-n-roll. Or rockabilly. Honestly, yeah, they play a lot of rockabilly. Then they play some swing, or some blues, or just something which is a little bit of all of those things and very, very cool.

Posted: 4/10/2013 at 8:01pm     Tags: Screamin' Rebel Angels  The Knitting Factory 

The Goddamn Gallows at The Knitting Factory

You really don't need me to review this band for you. Seriously, there's a silver skull with devil horns attached to the lead singer's mic stand. All you need to know is "Not metal, psychobilly". Now just enjoy the pretty pictures.

Posted: 4/10/2013 at 2:09pm     Tags: The Goddamn Gallows  The Knitting Factory 

Bleeding Rainbow at Music Hall of Williamsburg

The last time I saw these guys they were a two-piece with a name which must have gotten them sued or something. Now they're called Bleeding Rainbow (who wants to guess the old name?) and play as a four-piece, apparently with a rotating cast of drummers.

I have no clue why they were on the bill with one of those modern folk-rock bands. Bleeding Rainbow are an more of an... actual rock band? As a two-piece they were pretty clearly a garage rock band which was notable for their vocal harmonizing. Adding two members brought up their intensity level, though they have also started showing some shoegaze influences. They may be somewhere between Dum Dum Girls and Xray Eyeballs, but definitely not somewhere between folk and rock!

Posted: 4/7/2013 at 2:37pm     Tags: Bleeding Rainbow  Music Hall of Williamsburg 

Boring Portals at Death By Audio

Another band which fails to live up to its name. Boring Portals are not in fact the least bit boring. Nor are they portals, though fortunately I had no need for that as I brought an aperture or two of my own. They did however bring a rag doll (wtf?!)

Boring Portals are a garage rock band from Charleston. That may seem like a safe thing to say about them but it's actually a bit of a loaded claim. Bands have been known to start out as "garage" and end up going in a totally different direction. A band like this which is less than a year old just might sound totally different a year from now. Sure enough towards the end of their set (when everyone switched up instruments) the songs got a bit more experimental, maybe bringing out their VU influences a bit.

So perhaps I should say that Boring Portals are currently a garage rock band who have all of the energy and attitude and the occasional sloppiness which goes along being a good garage rock band. Here's hoping they play another gig in town soon! And that they don't sound like Kraftwerk by the time they get around to it.

Posted: 4/2/2013 at 10:51pm     Tags: Boring Portals  Death By Audio 

Monogold at The Knitting Factory

You know how some bands name themselves after a song by a more famous band? For some reason I thought Monogold were actually named "Mongoloid", like the Devo song. Not that Monogold sound like Devo, but they use electronic samples and are a bit experimental so I figured it was a possibility.

The most distinctive quality of Monogold's music is the falsetto singing on almost every song. This along with their treble-heavy choice of samples add an airy quality to the music. They might not be a synthpop band but they could at least play on the same bill. The beats are a bit heavier due to the presence of a bassist and drummer but hey, all the better to dance to, right?

Despite this you may notice from the photos above there is no keyboard player in the band. There is no laptop running iBandMember. Instead they look just like a rock band: guitar, bass and drums with the guitarist singing lead. Even better, they actually put on a show like a rock band. In particular bassist Mike Falotico flung his hair around, played on the lip of the stage, and even poured a drink for the drummer (the show was sponsored by Jameson so they had plenty of that!) It seems like they aren't trying to be a dance band but somehow the pop music they make just happens to be good dance music too.

Posted: 3/31/2013 at 6:42pm     Tags: Monogold  The Knitting Factory