Man Forever at The Knitting Factory

I sure hope you like drums. Man Forever has been known to play in many configurations including one with drums plus two keyboards and one with about ten drummers plus one bassist. This time everyone played drums. Aside from that there were some wailing vocals with no lyrics which I could make out. Man Forever may not always be entirely about drums, but this time they sure were.

It is really an odd thing reviewing a band like this along with punk and gospel acts and the like. Those bands pretty much sound the same from show to show. Man Forever can change so much from show to show that it's hard to claim that they are a certain way. At their next show they may have five members, or two, or eleven as they have had in the past. So take what you are about to read with a grain of salt.

At this particular show they played exactly two songs in their half-hour set, or they only took one break between songs, one of those two things. The music wasn't quite catchy or danceable but also wasn't overwhelmingly complex (as it has been in the past). It was more of an evocative thing, like they were telling an epic story. Although they didn't mention an affiliation with any particular tradition I think they were influenced primarily by the drum circle style, with its vaguely Native American and psychedelic roots. The wailing vocals reminded me of a sort of call-and-response where the response never came. Perhaps that epic story is a search for someone who is lost?

Overall this sort of thing is interesting, but very much an art project. It's the sort of thing which I would go to see one time but not on a regular basis. Of course they change lineups so often that the experience may be very different next time... so who knows? I just figure that they're one of those band who I wouldn't mind seeing on a bill, but wouldn't go out of my way to see.

Posted: 4/27/2013 at 11:50am     Tags: Man Forever  The Knitting Factory 

Violent Bullshit at The Knitting Factory

Violent Bullshit sound just as agressive as their name suggests. Their songs are 1-2 minute bursts of pulsing guitars and screamed vocals. Lead singer Jayson Green flew around the stage with a suprising amount of energy. I remember seeing him fronting Cheeseburger in a suit. Is this the same guy? And their guitarist leapt off the drum kit a couple of times too.

Not sure why they were opening for a shoegaze band.

See, if this were a punk show at the Acheron the crowd would have gone nuts. I mean, this is exactly the sort of thing that crowd wants: high-energy insanity, quick break, repeat until bloody. Great band, wrong bill.

Posted: 4/26/2013 at 10:41pm     Tags: The Knitting Factory  Violent Bullshit 

LODRO at The Knitting Factory

Back when they were Royal Baths one of the members of LODRO told me the band preferred the stage to be nice and dark. Somewhere along the line they must have decided that they preferred their music to be nice and dark as well. That plus a partial lineup change and now we have LODRO, a band whose name I can never spell correctly. I keep wanting to type "LORDO", though the all-caps spelling makes me think of "MORBO" too.

LORDO have labeled themselves neo-noir punk. The first half of that label is indisputable. Their music has a strong flavor of Western noir, of inspiration from the chords and distortions and underlying sense of menace of Morricone's soundtracks. I assume that is why their electric guitar sounds like a slide guitar so often. On the other hand the sheer edginess of their sound, the incorporation of more modern psych elements like dissonant guitar solos, and song titles like "Big Sleep for Alice" suggest a more urban noir flavor. The singing is cool and in control like a classic anti-hero. The instruments tell a more sinister story, with guitar twangs which pierce like bullets and drumbeats like cars colliding, the sounds of a threatening world. It's a compelling contrast.

I'm not so sure that LODRO are "punk". Their music is aggressive in a sense but that alone doesn't make it punk. They certainly aren't sloppy or political or anti-anything. So what's with the "punk" label? I get the feeling that they're trying to avoid the "psych-rock" label. Yes, that is the same label applied to 13-minute heavy drones with four lines of lyrics and similar bores of that nature. Trust me, noone is going to confuse LODRO's vicious sonic attack with a snoozer like that. Plus their songs are relatively short and I can prove it... their SoundCloud site is here.

Posted: 4/21/2013 at 3:19pm     Tags: LODRO  The Knitting Factory 

Amour Obscur at The Knitting Factory

I always appreciate it when a band has special guests on stage who actually do something. It leads to more interesting photos of course, but it also shows that the band understands that they are putting on a performance, not just playing music. After all, I can simply listen to their album if I just want to listen to their music.

Amour Obscur definitely know that they're putting on a show. They dance with the audience and then shoot confetti at them. Now that's what I call effort! Amour Obscur are the whole cabaret experience, not just the music, and are a total blast.

Posted: 4/10/2013 at 8:02pm     Tags: Amour Obscur  The Knitting Factory 

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 

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