Hopscotch Saturday Day Parties - Hi Ho Silver Oh, Cassis Orange, Judy Barnes, Estrangers, Lonnie Walker, Boykiller (8/8/12)

After a "day off" (only seeing the Love Language Friday afternoon; see Facebook page for photos), I returned to downtown Raleigh Saturday, and the last day of Hopscotch 2012, for a day-long slog of day parties and night shows. 

First, the day parties.  I started slow, heading to Trekky Records' day party at the Pour House at noon (largely for the promise of free iced coffee from 3 Cups, which really hit the spot).  Wanting to see Cassis Orange, I showed up early enough to see Hi Ho Silver Oh.  This was Casey Trela from that LA band solo; he has local roots so he stopped by for Hopscotch.  His sincere, twangy, almost-falsetto was accompanied by spare electric guitar and a little live looping.  Towards the end, members of Midtown Dickens sat in with him. 

Hi Ho Silver Oh (w/ Midtown Dickens)...

 

Cassis Orange was next.  This is Autumn Ehinger's project; sometimes as a band, sometimes solo (as on this day).  Her music was sparse but not insubstantial.  Feelings of heartache and longing filled the air of the big room, pretty full for such an early set.  Performing solo, her voice was quieter than usual, with a slight waver that perfectly captured the tone and feeling of the music.  All alone on stage, hidden behind dual keyboards, putting her heart in her sleeve, Autumn's soft, dark, pop is as fearsome a solo set as there was at Hopscotch.  Color me impressed, and pick up her excellent self-titled EP on the Bandcamp site (that is, until she records more; please record more!?). 

Cassis Orange...

Then it was around the block to the Hive for the Phuzz Phest day party. I was hoping to catch Ramps, but Judy Barnes was still playing. I only caught a couple of songs, but their rolling piano and 1920's-inflected pop made for a perfect segue (and, ultimately, a necessary one -- sometimes a festival needs to be approached like a good mix tape) from the subdued, introspective pop of the Trekky party to the noise that was to come.  Singer Jodi Burns' strong (no wonder, she sings opera professionally) and playful vocals and piano were teamed with with electric guitar and drums, for a welcome and different combination. 

Judy Barnes...

Then, well... okay, I just had to get lunch.  I missed Ramps (sorry, too much to see!).  But the New Orleans-style roast beef Po-Boy was worth it.  Thanks, Jenna and Battistella's!

So back to the Hive, for Winston-Salem's Estrangers. Only my second time to see them, but a set I was looking forward to as much as any at the festival.  And the Phuzz kicked in.  Their ebullient, California-inflected pop had this packed little rooftop bar bouncing.  They put on a very, very fun, live show with one foot in the "big sound" sixties and another in the latest indie-guitar-pop.  Estrangers are very tight, yet still sound properly ragged.  The addition of keyboards this time around really filled out their (already pretty full) sound. 

Estrangers...

 

 

The Phuzz Phest party then kicked into even higher gear with Lonnie Walker.  Frontman Brian Corum was tense and intense as always.  Given the music Lonnie Walker plays, he's really rather restrained.  You just feel like he could explode at any moment, like he's walking a tightrope.  And the band is becoming an oiled machine, better and better every time I see them.  This all comes out in their sound.  A smokin' set.  I will try to post video soon. 

Lonnie Walker... 

 

The rapid-fire progression of bands at Hopscotch required a lot of in-set tuning.

Then, it was across to the fringes of downtown, and of Hopscotch, to the Minus Sound Research 7 day party at Rebus Works. There was too much to go to in downtown proper, but I really wish I had made this earlier.  I just wanted to at least see Boykiller; another band I had seen once (quite awhile ago) and have been trying to get to again.  Boykiller gets a lot of press for being 3 girls who sing unapologetically about sex (bay-BEE!), wear playful costumes and outfits, and adorn the stage with various props.  That's all great fun, but it wouldn't go far without great songs.  And Boykiller write, and play, great songs.  Theresa Stone's vocals and usually ukelele are backed simply by drums (Ginger Wagg, ex Veelee), and keyboards (Catherine Steele, Animal Alphabet), with the occassional bass.  The noise made is simple, ragged, complex, and and sublime.  And it rocks.  Great backing vocals too. 

This set seemed a little less playful, \more serious, than last time I saw them.  Sure, they still did Salt'n'Pepa, and Get Get ("naked naked naked all the time!").  But it sounds like they've been writing more songs.  And I don't know if it was the intense heat of what it looks like will have been the last "summer day" around here, but I was pleasantly swimming in the humidity and the vibe.  At this set, Boykiller struck me as the most punk rock act I had seen at Hopscotch.  Punk rock as I was weaned on the term:  no expectations, no real influence per se other that what you want to do, simply playing your music for fun, and sharing it in a communal setting with friends (big music fest or no).  There was also much art and other wares available.  The Saturday Market is apparently a regular thing at Rebus Works.  I don't know how I've never caught it before, but I will have to again soon. 

Boykiller...

 

Boykiller is another band that needs to record more, and they say they are, so stay tuned. I will try to post a video from this set later, as well. 

Next up, the Saturday night shows... 



Hopscotch - Free Electric State, Hume, Liars, Thee Oh Sees (8/6/12 - Part 2)

Thursday Part 2.  Not as good as Part 1, but really.  Deerhoof.

However, when I made the hard choice to walk out on that show before it was over to trek back to Kings to catch now-half Triangle expats Free Electric State, I was not disappointed.  And that says a lot considering what I just walked away from.  But Hopscotch is all about variety, and taking it all in.  HOPPING around from show to show... guess that's why it's named that?  I only caught their last 3 songs or so, but they were tight as ever, burning up the Kings stage with new material from their recent release, Monumental Life.  When half the band opted to head back to Baltimore, their shows hear became more of a rarity.  So this was a welcome return.  They were clearly enjoying it, as was the crowd.  If they play a non-Hopscotch show soon, I'll be sure to check out the whole set.

Free Electric State...

I decided to stay put for the next band at Kings for two reasons.  (1) To see an act I knew nothing about (something I think you should do at least once a night at Hopscotch), and (2) Because I had just walked to and from Memorial Auditorium in pretty damn high humidity (for the Triangle anyway) and just wanted to sit down and have a cold beer.  I'm glad I did.

Hume came on with two drummers, a guitarist-singer, and a guy operating the most voluminous board of pedals, switches, and sundry gadgets I've ever seen.  The effect was like an Animal Collective for rockers, an effect further emphasized by the vocal similarities to Noah (Panda Bear) Lennox.  You could do worse; those vocals I think are really an underrated part of that band's sound.  Hume's singer has a really good voice.  Overall, a very enjoyable show, with little in the way of expectations and a rather high bar having already been set.

Hume...

Next, on the recommendation of 2 or 3 people, I headed back to Memorial to see Liars.  Where's a bicycle rickshaw when you need one?  Adam?  (he of local band Rooster for the Masses and, more importantly here, Crank Arm Rickshaws)  Seriously, that's a great way to get around during Hopscotch and any other day/night in Raleigh; I just couldn't catch one just then.

Liars were good; but again, the bar was high.  I knew nothing about them either, and they lean a bit heavy-dance for my taste.  And if you're going to be heavy on this stage this night, again... high bar (do I keep going on about Deerhoof?  Well, you weren't there; or if you were...)  But they had their audience in the palm of their hands.  Three Men In Black, multiple panels of varied instrumentation, spare drums, a whole LOTTA thud.  Between Deerhoof and Liars, Memorial Auditorium has probably exceeded its cumulative decibel limit for the year.

Liars...

So it's after midnight, and I read Thee Oh Sees were about scheduled to go on down at Raleigh CAM (Contemporary Art Museum).  Take the car down there (enough walkin', last show of the night).  It's packed.  Lines for beer.  Lines for (guys'!) bathroom.  Sardines up front.  Crowd-surfing (it's 2012, folks).  Buncha shirtless guys -- their shirts must've been up on this wall...

#ExplodedHipsterArtInstallation (stage was to left)

But Thee Oh Sees were good, in a drunken, garage-y fun way.  Don't get the mega-crowd, though.  I guess they're a good band for topping off the first night at a great festival.  Again, Hopscotch is all about variety -- something for everyone -- and there was definitely that this first night.  The massive crowd successfully avoided the flood downstairs, and CAM will be open for shows the last 2 nights of Hopscotch (well, Friday night's last band is probably just about winding up there now).  

Thee Oh Sees...

CAM is set up well for a big show, and I can't wait to see T0W3RS there Saturday.  I keep catching their brother/sister band, Lilac Shadows, but keep missing T0W3RS shows lately due to extenuating circumstances.  Not tomorrow -- fingers crossed.  I have, however, already found 2 of the 5 "cassingles" they're hiding around downtown, making up their new EP, Wyatt.  B-sides by Lollipops and Jenny Besetzt (so far, still looking, Derek...).

What did I say after the Part 1 post about getting some sleep?  It's been a LONG week; but here's to a fun weekend of more good music.  

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.

On the Anniversary of Katrina, and the Birthday of Isaac

As my hometown New Orleans gets it's most direct hit since "the Thing" (as NOLA Pulitzer Prize-winning NOLA author Chris Rose called Katrina), ironically on that event's 7th anniversary, I find myself contemplating my own history as a hurricane survivor. 

I'm just realizing that I've had direct experience with several of the very worst hurricanes in US history.  I've felt the only two Category 5 hurricanes to ever hit:  Camille from a distance in NOLA as it slammed Mississippi with 190mph winds, and Andrew when it came up to Louisiana, still packing Cat 2 winds at my house in Baton Rouge, 100 miles inland.  I visited both the Mississippi Gulf Coast and Miami days after each of those storms wiped communities off the map.  I still remember the pile of debris in Homestead that seemed 10 stories tall.  I remember driving through Mississippi pine forests -- whole forests -- where every tree was bent at a 45-degree angle... a Seussian nightmare. 

I was rescued by boat from my home in the 9th Ward when I was only 3, by a young boy/guardian angel who took us to the local school.  No, I'm not 10 years old!  I'm talking Cat 4 Betsy, the worst in NOLA until K.  Here are my very earliest memories:  falling down in the stairs from the attic into the floodwater on the first floor, and looking out the attic window at the ocean in our neighborhood.  This is the history that informed who I was to become, as is the case with everyone else from a Gulf Coast town. 

The education continued into adulthood.  My first hospitalization resulted from surgery made necessary by the clearing of tree debris (chunks of giant oaks) that had "settled" onto my front yard after category 3-4 Ivan landed a direct hit to my home of Pensacola.  That was the first time I saw an interstate taken out by a storm, the I-10 bridge blocks from my house (a feat Katrina would repeat in NOLA a year later).  Now, that long, nervous night in the closet will probably serve as my son's earliest memories, informing who he becomes. 

We were smart and left for Dennis, which graciously provided us with a second direct hit from a Cat 3 in less than 10 months.  No one remembers Dennis, since he was so small, but CNN repeatedly re-broadcast Anderson Cooper watching the sign at my neighborhood Holiday Inn collapsing in front of him.  Then, just a month and a half later, came Katrina.  I felt in in Pensacola, but nothing like my family and countless others just to the west.  My brother lived -- still lives -- 4 houses from the big levee breech in Lakeview.  Luckily, they evacuated, as did the vast majority of New Orleanians.  But a flash flood made its home in their living room, and relegated them to the impromptu diaspora of scattered WhoDats, only to return to the comforts of a FEMA trailer after months in exile.  I resumed my tree removal service weeks after the storm, for my father, as he moved back to NOLA a widower.  My mother had died as an evacuee in Shreveport, never able to return to her beloved home.  We couldn't hold a proper funeral for her.  We held a memorial service many months later, when the city was safe and most had returned, and interred her ashes at historic St. Louis Cemetery No. 2.  Literally and figuratively, she now rests as part of New Orleans' history.

It is with no sense of narcissism that I relate these events.  That horrible fall 7 years ago, hundreds of thousands went through worse than the sum total of my experiences.  If anything, this is simply a cheap therapy for what is a sort of "barometrically-induced PTSD".  But these experiences have fostered in me an even greater appreciation for the capriciousness of life, and the awesomeness of nature, which I already had.  While they were a source of some excitement in my youth, they have since since revealed their true faces to me: tragedy and history and resilience.  This night, as little Isaac continues to batter NOLA with high winds and rain (and taking its good ole' damned time about it, I might add!), those in the path are calm, collected, and even better prepared than the last time.  And contrary to some opinion, they were very prepared for Katrina, and handled one of the worst man-made* catastrophes in US history with fierce determination and self-sufficience. 

Tonight, those in New Orleans are steeling themselves, protecting their children, rolling with the punches, and planning to pick up the pieces.  I guess that really sums up how we should all live our lives.  Perhaps that's what my own hurricane experiences have taught me. 

(photos by Mario Tama)

* Yes, man-made, not natural.  Most of the flooding has been unequivocally shown to be the result of catastrophic design failure of the floodwalls, a fact to which the Army Corps of Engineers has admitted.  To those who say "But why live below sea level?"  I would respond "Why live in the air?  Engineers design and build skyscrapers so that you can.  If they fall, you don't blame gravity."

Lollipops (the Pinhook, 8/3/12)

Here's a few photos of the Lollipops from the Pinhook two weeks back.  Iggy Cosky is onto something here.  Lollipops are very fun:  pop-rock-dance-indie... a regular festival of genre-bending.  Their new CD, Pop Narcotics, ranges from Stooges-swagger to 60's Wall-of-Sound to Elephant 6 weirdness...  and that's just in the first 6 minutes. 

I had hoped to write more now, but it's been a hella couple of weeks (auto accident, autistic son struggling).  I really hope to make their show next Thursday at Local Beer Local Bands night (Tir Na Nog, 8/23/12).  But if I don't, at least you should.  They're playing with Greensboro's Estrangers and John Lindsay.  It should be a great show. 

Lollipops - "You're Too Young" Live (The Pinhook, Durham, NC, 8/3/12)

This is a video of Lollipops.  They are, unequivocally, my favorite new local band.  I will be writing about them more (and posting some show photos soon). But for now, here's You're Too Young...

(and DAMN! DiggUp Tapes knows how to find them some good music!)

Future Islands, Lilac Shadows (Local 506, 7/20/12)

Future Islands scheduled a last-minute show at Local 506 a couple of weeks back.  They asked locals Lilac Shadows to join them... a very appropriate opener.  I've written a couple of times about Lilac Shadows and their great EP, A Shallow Madness.  Suffice it to say their dark, dreamy pop is getting better and better live.  I heard a few new songs in there, and hopefully, they'll be recorded soon.  Here's a few shots of them, and more on Future Islands below.  Thanks to Adam Graetz for the great projection, which has made for some of my best photos in the past (Lilac Shadows, T0W3RS, Jenny Besetzt).  

I hadn't gotten around to seeing Future Islands live.  This band with coastal NC roots now resides in Baltimore, and are usually bunched in with the techno/dance/pop crowd.  Not my usual thing, which probably explains my neglect.  But live, they are some other kind of animal altogether.  Heavy, emotional, almost sinister.  Harsh white floodlights from below added to this effect (as did singer Samuel T. Herring's choice of outfit, intentionally I'm sure). 

Herring's vocals are operatic, romantic, and sad... a Pagliacci for the indie masses.  They're an acquired taste to be sure.  I hated Morrissey once upon a time, and only gave the Smiths a chance because of Johnny Marr's inventive and catchy guitar.  But it didn't take long before I couldn't see one without the other.  And Herring's voice has already grown on me. 

In this setting -- despite minimal instrumentation of bass and electronic miscellany -- he is undoubtendly a ROCK singer in a ROCK band.  This is hard, heady stuff.  He speaks... nay, preaches to the audience, in between hyper-energetic, somewhat awkward jumps and dance moves.  It's an aggressive performance, almost with the feel (though not sound) of hardcore.  Future Islands have a big sound, for sure.  All the more unexpected considering the recent, rather muted, On the Water.  But I LOVE the ocean sounds and overall atmosphere of that album. 

Anyway, here are some photos of Future Islands.  Shades of Joy Division on the last one (well, for the whole show).