Lilac Shadows - Back from the Dead (Fellowship Hall, Durham, 11/1/13)

Lilac Shadows popped up for the first time in quite a while, with a new line-up and a series of three small shows around Halloween, fittingly billed as Lilac Shadows Back from the Dead!  I caught the one in Durham, where some of the band have re-located.

Fellowship Hall is an intimate little community space which kind of reminds me of Pensacola's old Mystic Garage.  BYOB, cozy (read, curb-rescued) couches, funky painted walls.  You'd never know it was there if Lilac's Nathan Price (and DiggUp Tapes impresario) wasn't hanging out at the door.  Durham (and the Triangle) need more spaces like this.

Besides the constants of Price and frontman Sam Logan on guitars, Lilac's new line-up includes Reed Benjamin (ex-Jenny Besetzt) on drums, Brian Corum (Lonnie Walker) on bass.  They've talked about a change in sound from the more atmospheric material on the EP A Shallow Madness.  Well, based on this show, they're still "atmospheric"...  a hurricane is part of the atmosphere, right?  A more appropriate word would perhaps be "onslaught".

The first song was like New Order devolving back to Joy Division as it progressed.  Lilac has been compared to both of those bands in the past, but this new sound was more rhythm-driven.  I swear Reed almost broke the drumkit once or twice, and as good as he is fronting Lonnie Walker, Corum seemed to relish his role as sideman, kicking in the bass.

Oh yeah, and they're now noisier.  Much, much, noisier.  Much.  Maybe the small venue intensified the effect, but at times the dual guitars drove so hard you would just get swept up in a tornado of over-stimulation.

So the new Lilac Shadows?  Still atmospheric, but feeling the effects of global climate change.

Never Say Goodbye - T0W3RS and Lilac Shadows Send Off a Friend (Local 506, 6/28/13)

A couple of weeks back, two of the better local bands, T0W3RS and Lilac Shadows, preformed a farewell show for (and with) one of their 3 shared members, Karen Blanco.  Karen has tickled the keys for both bands for a couple of years now, in a more psychedelic, atmospheric way for Lilac and a jumpier, more experimental way for T0W3RS (as befitting each of those bands' styles).  Her presence will be missed, but she's off to Europe and points beyond.

It was a great send-off.  Zack Mexico came from way out in Kill Devil Hills to open up.  It was only my second time seeing them, and i loved the first.  I was trying to think of a way to define their sound before the show, and the best I could come up with was... well... weird.  I know, very creative.  They have a song called "Weird Reef".  They're sorta surfy, sorta jammy, sorta indie, but they're not really any of the above.  So I asked singer John Saturley how HE would define their sound, and he replied "Weird."  Guess I pegged it.  Surf music can get boring.  Jam bands are definitely boring.  But when Zack Mexico get into a long, droney, surfy jam that goes on and on, you don't want it to stop.  Definitely NOT boring.

Zack Mexico...

As for T0W3RS and Lilac Shadows, I've written about them plenty in the past here, so I'll let a few photos do the talking.  Suffice it to say Lilac is moving in a more straight-ahead rock direction, while T0W3RS is moving perhaps in a more electronic, dancey direction.  Good moves for both... for truly sucky is the band that stands still (I think it was Confucius that said that).  But I hope Derek keeps the twangy edge going... that edge in contrast with the various influences he pulls from are one of the things that makes T0W3RS such a great band.

Lilac Shadows...

T0W3RS....

Good luck, Karen!  I'm sure you'll pop up moonlighting in a techno/cabaret/shoegaze act in Prague (or perhaps wrangling goats in Hamburg).

WKNC Double Barrel Benefit X (Raleigh, NC, 2/1/13-2/2/13)

NC State's WKNC held their 10th Double Barrel Benefit (DBBX) last weekend in downtown Raleigh.  The annual fundraiser has featured some of the best & brightest in local talent over the years, including Polvo, Bowerbirds, Annuals, the Mountain Goats, and Future Islands.  This year was no different.

I only attended the first night and the day party and market on Saturday, but that was enough to see some of the best that NC has to offer.  Friday night began at the Pour House with the frenetic & fun pop of Raleigh's Lollipops.  Iggy seems to record so fast I'm already a couple of albums behind on his (maybe?) year-old band.

Greensboro's Jenny Besetzt followed with their dream-like guitar buzz.  Oh, but they're frenetic enough in their own right... I think I saw at least 2 drumsticks fly across the stage.  But I also really liked the slow, celtic-tinged number singer John Wollaber broke into in the middle of the set somewhere.  Hadn't heard that one before.

Lilac Shadows followed with what was their first show in several months.  They've returned with a more straight-ahead rock sound.  I still hear the same thread of shoegaze and early Manchester in there, but it sounds more "in your face" than before.

The night closed with the definitely more straight-ahead, rootsy rock of JKutchma and the Five Fifths. The crowd was ready for J, enraptured as he preached about playing his music as a struggling small-time artist, just for the love of it, and then hearing it played on the radio... on WKNC.  Now the crowd could sing along to his music.  And they did.  That's what DBB (and WKNC) is all about.

The next day, I stopped by the DBBX Day Party and Market, held at both the Pour House and the neighboring Tir Na Nog.  I really just wanted to take my kids to a show, and to see Organos again (whom I had seen but once, at last years DBB).  But first, I caught Winston-Salem's great Estrangers, who belted out their brand of 60s/California-flavored fuzzpop.  It was a pretty good crowd for an early afternoon show, and the kids loved it! (as did everyone else)

Meanwhile, I want to mention one of the booths I checked out.  Silber Mini-Comics are tiny matchbook-sized comics sold by Silber Records, based here in Raleigh.  I bought a sci-fi/horror series called Worms for my kid.  But we both liked it.  Pleasantly weird.  Weirdly disturbing.  Disturbingly pleasant.

After a break, I went over to Pour House to catch Organos.  They were as good as I remember.  I love that this band is so vocal and rhythm-driven.  Side Girl, from their CD Concha, sounded great live, despite that it's just voices and clapping.

Organos have a way with a minimal, sometimes dark flavor of pop.Here's a video of Organos doing Lazy Lessons.

I'm sure I missed great sets by the other Day Party bands, as well as Saturday night shows by Oulipo, Some Army, Wesley Wolfe, and Spider Bags.  But still, it was a great weekend of music.  Many thanks to WKNC for bringing us this music every day, and for an annual event that, though a fundraiser, consistently stands on its own as a loaded bill that's well worth your bucks.

More photos to be posted soon on the HSIITBAAA Facebook page...

The Great Cover Up 2012 - Night 3 (Kings, 12/15/12)

I couldn't make the first 2 nights of this year's Great Cover Up at Kings.  That's too bad, because I apparently missed Iggy (Cosky) doing Iggy (Pop), Janice Joplin, and E. L. muthafuggin' O!  Damn!  That must've been great.  Video, anyone?

But Night 3 was pretty impressive as it was.  Luckily, I didn't show up 10 minutes later, or I would have totally missed Joy Division.  Sam Logan, Nathan Price (Lilac Shadows, etc...), and Reed Benjamin (Jenny Besetzt) had us momentarily transported back to the Factory in 1979 Manchester.  I caught fairly authentic versions of Transmission and Love Will Tear Us Apart.  Sam did his best detached Ian Curtis onstage...

Jumping up a few years, Thom Yorke & Co. took the stage as Radiohead played... well, I don't listen much to Radiohead (although I'm told I'm supposed to), so I don't really know what they played.   Actually, Ari Picker (Lost in the Trees) and Alex Maiolo (Fan Modine) made me think "maybe I AM supposed to listen to Radiohead!"  

Then the roof blew off the joint.  It was an old-fashioned rhythm and blues revue, featuring the Queen of Soul herself, Aretha Franklin!!  Well, Reese McHenry (ex-of she and the Dirty Little Heaters).  Reese did a pretty good approximation, which is saying a lot.  She also had a BIG band of 10 backing her up!  Killer keyboards (that guy was wailing), backup singers, horns, the works.  R.E.S..P.E.C.T., You Make Me Feel..., Think, etc.  Reese was the best moment of a great show I saw a few months back when she got up and sang the opening number for Spider Bags.  I had never seen Dirty Little Heaters, but I wondered what I would hear again from her and when.  This was exactly the type of thing I was hoping for.  

Then the Yeah Yeah Yeahs took the stage, featuring two members of Cellar Seas and Zeke Krautwurst from T0W3RS.  Chelley Godwin WAS Karen O!  I mean, you tell me...

Though she only sings backup with Seas, she owned the stage here. This was also one tight band, if only for a one-off gig, and she and the guitar player made for a helluva dynamic pair.  It was stripped down and spare, but loud and garage-y in that sweetly dangerous way the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are.  I don't really remember the set list... I think they did Maps? 

Speaking of garage, the Sonics followed.  I'd heard of them.  But Ian told me they invented garage.  And he was probably way influenced by them.  You know....  back in Manchester...  in the '70s..  when he was alive.  Anyway, this band was made up of The Infamous Sugar and members of Savage Knights and Black Zinfandel.  "Suge" preached over the keyboards and the crowd, while the rest of the band had that '60s proto-grunge thing going full force. 

Closing the night, Swedish death metal progenitors At the Gates performed most of one of their albums (Slaughter of the Soul?  Sorry, not a metal guy). This incarnation of ATG was composed of members of locals Morose Vitality, and they were pretty tight and intense.

A perfect closer to a diverse evening's music.  What I can't figure out is just how Kings gets all these famous (sometimes dead) acts to play such a small room.

Hopscotch - Jenny Besetzt, Lilac Shadows, Deerhoof (8/6/12)

Raleigh's annual music festival, Hopscotch, began with a bang last night.  175 bands and 15 venues this year!  (not even counting the day parties)  I scheduled a full slate for the first night (Thursday), seeing 7 bands at 4 venues.  I've got to miss Friday night.  It's just as well, I need sleep!  And I've got another (more) full slate Saturday -- from day parties to night shows.

So, Part 1 of Thursday...  I started at White Collar Crime, seeing Greensboro's Jenny Besetzt.  Their swirling, driving guitar-and-keys attack swept me in.  I was gonna head over to Lilac Shadows earlier, but these guys are just so good (and I'd only seen them once), that I stayed for all but one song.  The sacrifices and on-the-fly decisions that Hopscotch presents began already.  TOO MUCH good music!  But the night was off to a great start.  

Jenny Besetzt...

Then I skipped down to Kings for Lilac Shadows.  They continue to get tighter and better (if that's possible).   Their atmospheric, sprawling splendor was a good follow-up to the first show down the street (they've shared bills, as well they should), and projectionist Adam Graetz's accompaniment -- as always -- added a lot to the show (and to my photos).  

Lilac Shadows...

What's a Lilac show without the blur that is Derek Torres covering a few hundred yards on stage? 

So as Lilac Shadows is about to finish, I hike down to Memorial Auditorium.  Deerhoof is about to start!!  I'd never seen them, but this band is just so pleasantly weird, I know this show will HAVE to be good.  It did, and it was.  HOW the fuck can a band be at once punk, indie-pop, hardcore, jazz, math-rock, and metal?!  And while doing so, pretty much eliminate the need for any of those genres by force of sheer humiliation?

Deerhoof is somehow both cute/quirky and heavy/thunderous.  The former comes from Satomi Matsuzaki's sweet vocals and wordplay.  The latter, from the mega-aggressive, hyper-synchronized chaos of guitar and drums from Greg Saunier drums), John Dieterich, and Ed Rodriguez (the hair in the middle below).  Yes, I know synchronized chaos is an oxymoron.  But so is this band.  And that oxymoron was on fire.

Deerhoof...

This Deerhoof show alone would have made my Hopscotch.  It's already made my list of Top 10 shows in my life (Top 5?), and I didn't even stay for the whole thing (again, too many good bands!).  They simply blew the lid off the joint... and it was a rather large joint.  It'll be hard to beat this show.  But there was more to come.  See Thursday Part 2 next, plus I've still got Saturday.  Now, to get some of that sleep.