Meet the New School. Same as the Old School.

Within the span of four days in the past week, I attended what were -- on the surface -- two of the most diametrically opposite shows that could reasonably both be classified under the broad umbrella of “indie/punk”.  Saturday night had me crunched among sweaty bodies and sweatier walls at the Mattress Fort’s final show in Raleigh, while Wednesday evening, I was lounging among children and families in the idyllic setting of Duke Gardens for a Merge 25 concert.  The former featured Ok McQueen, Black Santa, FS, GHOSTT BLLONDE, and Naked Naps (billed as CuddleFest 2014).  The latter line-up included, only, Portastatic.  

The Mattress Fort is – was, *sniff!* – an abode in the NC State area (with apparently incredibly understanding neighbors) that periodically held house shows of the punky variety.  Members of some of the bands live/lived there, the vibe was right, the circles converged, and what you got was one of the best little venues in the Triangle.  GHOSTT BLLONDE and Naked Naps of course were regulars, as were the Lollipops, Wilmington’s Free Clinic, and a host other in and out-of-town bands.  The place was becoming a local institution.  It was beginning to pop up on touring websites, for crissakes.  Which probably means it’s as good a time as any for a house venue to call it quits.  I had never been, so this was my last shot.

Merge Records and Portastatic… well, we all know about the big Merge 25th anniversary festival and celebration going on this month.  Merge is a local institution of a somewhat larger scale, the envy of indie labels the world over, celebrating a quarter of a damned century this summer.  Portastatic started as Merge/Superchunk co-founder Mac McCaughan’s “other” band, but they’ve developed a formidable catalog of their own.  I had always wanted to but never seen them, so I made a point of making this show, their first full-band set in years.

Despite the obvious differences between these two shows, they had much in common.  First, the level of unabashed rock’n’roll excellence was off the charts.  Second, the mean age of each crowd was around 20.  Of course at Duke Gardens, that was made up of two distinct groups… clustering around ages 2 and 38.

  

But what these 2 shows really had in common was that they were each a celebration of the DIY ethic.  The Mattress Fort demonstrated that ethic in its most raw and elemental way:  just grab a guitar, start a band, open a venue, publish a zine.  MAKE a scene.  They did that.  Much as Merge and Superchunk did a quarter century ago, which is what we’re celebrating (many of us with our kids) this month.  

As far as the shows themselves, the Mattress Fort show was incredible.  I missed the first band, but the next -- Greensboro’s Black Santa -- blew me away.  They swerved between sort of a math-y feel and looser, poppier melodies.  Much fun.  So wow.  Then FS, from Greenville, NC, was a crowd favorite.  Also kinda mathematical, they kept it tighter, but delved into some open-ended explorations and instrumental tangents.  I was of course more familiar with the music of Raleigh’s GHOSTT BLLONDE and Naked Naps, though I had yet to see the latter play.  GHOSTT BLLONDE had the place exploding with their 50s-scented indie-pop, Marc Kuzio’s exuberance filling whatever gaps and crevices remained in the overcrowded room.  By the time Naked Naps played late in the night, their more melancholic, K-Records-style punk lent to the feel that the end was near.  Singer Catie Yerkes immediate, emotional vocals and their stripped down-yet-complex melodies made for an appropriate closer to this show, and this house.  I will have to see them play again (and again).  GHOSTT BLLONDE and Naked Naps are two of the very best young bands in a crowded Triangle scene, so it’s no wonder that the scene they created was special.  I hope the photos capture at least the feel of the place.  It seemed to get progressively darker with each show (I'll post more on Facebook later).

Black Santa...

 FS...

GHOSTT BLLONDE...

 Naked Naps...

Meanwhile, back at the Gardens, it was one of those shows where I never realized how much of the band’s music I knew, and enjoyed.  I nearly wore out my copy of their second album, Slow Notes from a Sinking Ship, and went in wanting them to play as much from it as possible.  But I had forgotten that I somehow accumulated nearly the entire formidable catalogue mentioned above over the years (just never put it all on my iPod!).  They drew widely from all of it, including several which made me remember how good of a straight-up ROCK band they were: “Drill Me”, “San Andreas”, “A Cunning Latch”.  When they’d play some of the more sedate stuff, the kids in the audience (like, 5-yr-old kids) would yell “MORE ROCK GUITAR!”  But I’m glad they played the relatively quiet, and beautiful, “"Oh, Come Down" from Summer of the Shark.  It was one I was hoping for.  Near the end, as if to please the “kids”, they paid homage to Tommy Ramone (the last surviving Ramone who just passed away) by covering “Rockaway Beach” (which they just learned that morning; see video below).  

Portastatic...

I guess this piece is about looking back, and looking forward.  A look back at the success and contributions of Merge, which has arguably lit a fire under a generation of musicians, with reverberations that will be felt for generations to come (and has, despite the pressures, remarkably held onto and championed the DIY ethic).  But moving forward, and in a sense no less important, is what those behind the Mattress Fort have accomplished.  They’ve stoked the coals and kept the fire burning for kids to come.

Someone asked me at the Fort if I thought this could happen again, if someone else would start up a good “unofficial” music venue.  Of course they will.  They always do.  It may not look and feel the same, and would be hard-pressed to capture what they did.  But there will always be somewhere else, someone else to pick up the torch.  It’s irrepressible.  Thanks to what they’ve done at the Mattress Fort, and what other DIY clubs and venues have done, and what the zines and record stores have done and are doing, and what Merge did 25 years ago.

Perhaps in 2039, a certain Dr. McCaughan (Professor Emeritus of Music Studies, Duke University) will be heading a panel on music publishing at Merge 50.  Marc and Catie will be heading the next great Triangle indie imprint, Brent Road Records.  And little Lucy or Timmy – you know, the one dancing up front at the Gardens yesterday – will be lining their walls with mattresses and asking their friends to keep the doors closed so the neighbors don’t complain.

Keep an eye on the facebook page later for more photos and video from both shows.  But for now, here's that vid of Portastatic doing the Ramones...

Ocracoke Anthology - A Summer NC Mixtape

Here's a little summery mix of NC-based music I put together for my own personal listening pleasure on an upcoming weekend out on the OBX. But thanks to the wonders of modern technology, you can enjoy it too! Don't be fooled by the start of the first cut (from Trevor Old Brown courtesy Wilmington's MixGrotto collective). It begins rather slowly, but soon builds to a reverb-laden, Walker Brothers-style, blue-eyed smoulder of soul. Which, to me, is very beachy. We also have the obvious summeriness (is that a word? no? tough) of coastal natives Free Clinic (Wilmington) and Zack Mexico (Kill Devil Hills) as anchors, two bands that simply need to be included on such a comp. Twice each. These bands bracket the poppy punkiness of Naked Naps and See Gulls near the beginning and end. The soaring indie edges of Wichita Falls, Love Language, North Elementary, and Lilac Shadows transition in and out of a middle which features a detour into the more electronic: T0W3RS, Wild Fur, Future Islands, and Slyvan Esso.

It's amazing to me that all this great music came out of this state. I hope it all works together. Anyway, it's all beachy to me... mainly 'cuz it's what I'm going to be spending breezy nights on an island harborfront listening to in a few days. If you like any of these tunes, please go to the respective band pages, and do your part to support local/regional music by buying them. Instead of just sponging free tunes via Spotify or my low-tech version, ya big... uh... sponge? BTW, I still count Future Islands as local by virtue of their Greenville roots. Go Pirates, Arrgghhhh! And I think Brown has settled in my own NOLA (go Jean Lafitte, Arrgghhhh!). Now I gotta go say hi to Blackbeard's ghost.
 

Wichita Falls - ...and the Dark Vibrations (etc)

I’ve been trying to get up to speed on Chapel Hill’s Wichita Falls lately.  I already had a couple of EPs released last year (…and the Bad Blood, …and the Tiny Strings), but hadn’t listened to them much until recently, or seen them play.  Then they released …and the Dark Vibrations a few weeks ago.  Maybe it’s the titles, maybe the timing, but I view them as a sort of package release (though I think there was even another one in between, prolific is this band, apparently).  But little gems like Illiteracy and All My Dreams from the two EPs began to pop up as my iPod shuffled through its paces, and I started to think that maybe I really need to check these guys out.

“These guys” are primarily Will Clinton, with a revolving cast sometimes including members of Some Army, North Elementary, and Rogue Band of Youth (a band who’s recent LP Clinton engineered).  Those bands give you a hint of Wichita Falls’ general habitat… they haunt those badlands between indie rock and Americana.  But this band also has a garage-y and warped-Beatles feel to it, a poppiness that perhaps makes them step-brothers with locals like GHOSTTE BLLONDE or Lollipops (RIP L).  That sound makes a nice contrast with a sometimes very darkly humorous edge.  In short, they wander those badlands with a certain je ne sais what the fuck. 

The first two songs set the tone, musically and lyrically, for Dark Vibrations.  Straight Down kicks off with a heavy/slow organ wafting over the pragmatic message of “some find flowers, some find a storm / it’s really just a matter of what your eyes are looking for.”  Then the freewheeling Lose It crashes in, simultaneously expressing resignation and defiance, pledging “I’m gonna lose it one more time before I let you save me.”  Besides the lyrical and melodic hooks, the driving rhythm and crunching and sliding guitars make this song a real pop gem. 

The bulk of the rest of the album isn’t as upbeat, but is no less compelling.  The hard-driving It Was Me is simply – always -- stuck in my head.  I don’t know why; it’s not my typical fare.  It’s somewhat southern rock-y.  It’s heavy.  It’s repetitive.  But there’s something thunderous and epic about it.  The irregular, intentionally mis-timed, vocal crescendos at the end of every line just set you on edge (in a good way).  Then that’s followed by the last upbeat pop-rocker of the LP, the optimistic-sounding Out for Love.  It’s a sweet little ditty with twinkling rhythm guitar and a main guitar hook that almost sounds like a sax (in that 70s Gerry Rafferty way), due to some creative mixing.  Well, as sweet as a song can be that opens with “Take some time, bury her in a snowy town / live your life out for love.  Take some time, bury her in a snowy town / love your life on the run.”  Dreams Out Different continues with a 70’s pop-jazzy feel.  It’s the kind of song you can sink into on the back porch on a summer’s night. 

The production here has what I always like:  a deceptively simple surface with lots going on under it, barely audible echoes and layers.  Clever, sardonic lyrics abound:  “No consequence as a rule / you know consequence,”  “What I want to know’s what I’m doing here / in a nursing home waiting all alone / from what I thought I’d known / last thing I remember I was only twenty-something years old!”  Okay, those are both from the EP …and the Bad Blood.  But I like them, and like I said, package deal.

The LP winds down into mellower, more country-rock-ish terrain…  how can you not with song titles like Blood on the Dirt?  When Friends and Family starts, I try to suppress what seems to be a deeply buried inner-Deadhead that might be living inside of me (under years of indie/punk/post-everything).   I might be fighting a losing battle.  I don’t know, I’ve always liked twangy.  But like, “X-twangy”, “Dumptruck-twangy”.   Really, Wichita Falls has a bit of those and other country-influenced punk bands in their DNA.  But also a hefty dose of indie and pop.

Wichita Falls seems to be playing around a bit more often lately, so go see ‘em when you get a chance.  The new LP is …and the Dark Vibrations.  But the earlier stuff is pretty darned good too, and you can get it all here.  Below are a few photos of them at the Cave and at OC7 in downtown Raleigh (opening for Atlanta Rhythm Section!)...

Phuzz Phest Phriday Night - Winston-Salem, NC (4/4/14)

This post is long overdue (Do I ever post anything lately without mentioning how busy I've been?  Answer:  No.)  Anyway, I still want to give my propers to Winston-Salem's excellent festival, Phuzz Phest, which happened about a month ago.  Phuzz Phest is run by Philip Pledger and Drew Bladen, members of the Winston-Salem band Estrangers (translation for hipsters: "is curated by").  This was my first time attending, and only for the Friday night shows.  But if that night was indicative, I'd say Phuzz Phest is sort of a scaled-down version of Raleigh's Hopscotch; equal in both quality and style, but with fewer venues.  

Phuzz Phest also has you popping around town, mostly to venues within walking distance, and trying to choose between overlapping good shows.  It's held in various clubs, coffee shops, record stores, etc.  Given the nature of this type of fest, your experience is contingent upon how you plan and which shows you are actually able to make.  Whether there are 5 venues or 15 and a big stage, you can still only go to one show at a time.  In this case, my Phuzz Phest experience was every bit as entertaining as a typical night at Hopscotch.

I spent most of the night at Krankie's Coffee, which had a pretty good slate lined up.  It started with the above-mentioned local heroes, Estrangers.  They're a favorite of mine, but I hadn't seen them in a while.  I heard a lot of newer material, maybe with a harder edge moving away a little from the phuzz-y, beach-y flavor of their recent release, Season of 1000 Colors.  But it was just as fun.  

Estrangers...

The Tills, from Asheville, followed. They were sort of a mix of Beach Boys and Beatles influences, which you surprisingly don't hear more of.  Oh, maybe if Brian Wilson convinced Paul & John to move into a SoCal garage somewhere, stripped it down a bit, and brought in the Troggs' lead singer to occasionally sit in.  The Tills will also be playing Hopscotch this year, definitely on my to-do list.

The Tills...

Memphis' Ex-Cult followed, and I gotta say, they rocked my world. It's like I was watching the Tills in their garage, a wormhole opened up, and I walked though to the "other" garage.  They rocked extremely hard, but they were still garage-y and poppy.  I'd compare them favorably to locals Flesh Wounds (the singer is even a bit of a lookalike with that band's Montgomery Morris), but Ex-Cult is heavier and less garage-ier.  

Ex-Cult...

Then the garage moved back across the pond, with the more Brit pop influences of White Fence, a project of Tim Presley, who has worked extensively with Ty Segall (Segall produced his latest album).  A little more experimental, a little more electronic, bowing of the guitar (see below), interesting.

White Fence...

All that was at Krankie's.  I finally moved on over to the Garage to catch a bit of local Merge faves Mount Moriah.  I had (criminally) only seen them once before, and recently, at WKNC's Double Barrel Benefit 11.  That was on the big stage of the Lincoln Theater, but the Garage's more intimate environs only intensified what is already a deeply intense vibe.  I wished I had shown up early enough to see the whole show (again; a festival of choices). 

Mount Moriah... 

I closed out the night (as did most of the festival attendees, it seemed) at Single Brothers.  T0W3RS played a great set of their (his; Derek Torres) usual danceable electro-pop.  Everyone there really, really enjoyed it, from the guy with the hair from the last Ex-Cult photo (see above), and the great Mitch Easter (who was head-bobbing the whole show right next to me, and spoke to Derek for some time after).  

T0W3RS (and hair guy)...

Phuzz Phest is the perfect thing to do on a spring weekend if you just can't wait for September and Hopscotch.  So next year, head over to Wintson-Salem.

Rogue Band of Youth - Rogue Band of Youth

I haven't reviewed many local releases lately...  this despite the fact that there have been an ungodly number of great releases by local bands in the past several months.  It's time consuming, I'm at a sort of bottleneck in my writing stream, and I've been ridiculously busy of late.  But sometimes, the music demands it.

I didn't think I'd like Rogue Band of Youth's debut release this much.  They're the project fronted by Patrick O'Neill, who also frequents local stages as a member or Schooner and Some Army.  It's folky, rootsy, country-tinged rock.  It's very well played.  I enjoyed their live show a lot.  But I can usually take or leave this kind of music.  Sitting here, however, up later than I should be after a stressful evening trying to derail an autistic meltdown from my beautiful progeny, listening to this record for the fifth or sixth time... this is heart-just rendingly beautiful stuff.

It starts with a little Dodos-flavored guitar on Fair Shake, a song of trying to back out of a life of repeated failures.  Bittersweet, beautiful harmonies and violin kick in, elements which repeat throughout, setting the tone of the record.  Jazz-tinged guitar & keys anchor the more forward-looking The West In My Eyes, which musically and lyrically takes you from coast to coast, but on a journey perhaps born more of necessity than pleasure.  Daedalus follows, echoing, maybe, Bowerbirds?

Slow Down has the album hitting stride, with harmonies that are almost CSNY-reincarnated, and ... is that a theremin?  And the violin.  Georgeous notes alternate with this beautiful, squeaky, tonal chaos that I'm sure has a classical term, but I'm too uneducated to know it.  I say "violin" despite this band having country-ish roots and you expecting me to say "fiddle".  This is VIOLIN.  What I know must be the classical roots of violinist Chloe Gude show.  This sublimeness is balanced by a dark, minor-key bridge and a rebellious shouted chorus.  Frogs and crickets back the instrumental intermission, ...And the Tiny Strings, leading into the more optimistic (sounding anyway) Smoke Screens and Blind.

Sharp and wonderful lyrics abound. "Ink has a funny way of taking away everything we know"... "All messed up, never got a fair shake / All fucked up, no one left to blame"... "Silently falling from the heights of my desire."  The use of the lyrics with the music is often exceptional as well.  When O'Neill sings "I've got the west in my eyes", it's done in a way that beckons an escape across the country; then the wide-open guitar that follows almost physically pulls you there. 

There seemed to be some anticipation in the local music community to this release.  The more I listen to it, the more I can see why.  I wasn't planning on writing anything at all tonight, and probably never a review of this record.  But like I said, sometimes the music demands it. 

After a brief tour of the region to promote their album, Rogue Band of Youth returns to the Triangle to play  Slim's in downtown Raleigh Friday night, with Prypyat and Woolens.

North Elementary - Honcho Poncho (and "Albums Release" Show with Lud)

North Elementary and Lud held a sort of joint "albums release" show for their respective new releases, Honcho Poncho and Defenestration Boulevard, last Friday.  Lakes&Woods opened, but I missed them (sorry!).

It was kind of an early show, which promted Lud frontman Kirk Ross to wonder why the fuck they ever went on at 1:00am back in the day?  Maybe starting relatively early was more conducive to the slow build of this night.  Lud's first few numbers were a kind of mellow-but-intense brand of Americana, and it was a nice way to begin. Then, gradually, the intensity turned less mellow, and by the end, they were burning down the newly-constructed Cat's Cradle Back Room (shame on them).  Not being from these parts, I'd only seen Lud, I think, once before.  I remember that entire show being heavy and fast... but it was the Cave, and I'd had a few.  The slow-to-fast burn of this show, however, really worked.

I'd also only seen North Elementary once or twice, and a while ago.  Listening to Honcho Poncho, I'm starting to realize how much variety they have within their sound.  This is a trait shared by frontman John Harrison's solo music (as Jphono1).  On it's face, their sound is your basic, mid-tempo indie-pop-rock.  But as you listen, all manner of detail reveals itself.  Mid-90's (Sebadoh-esque?) guitars are complemented by rolling organ, and sometimes a quieter, more pleasantly tinkling piano.  Male/female vocal harmonies courtesy Harrison and keyboardist Betty Rupp give the crunchier songs a soft edge.  While there isn't as much of the technology-assisted trickery and layering providing the variety as on a Jphono1 record, the guitars and rhythm section pull from the styles of decades ranging from the 60's until now (Decade Styling, I guess, to lift a song title from one of their earlier releases). The farfisa of Way Out (Happy Here) sounds almost Mersey, while the House Your Home could be a Pink Floyd/midnight movie soundtrack.  Then there are the songs by (new?) member Sean Parker:  Hi-Lo and Left Doubt.  These are unmistakably cut from 80s cloth... I personally hear Modern English in both Parker's vocals and the meld of new (but not too) wave and harder post-punk, and the keyboards.

There are a lot of songs that grow on you in this collection:  the 80's vibe of those two, the summer breeziness of Eventually Everything Connects and the opener, Return to Couches, and the barroom rocker Undressed and a Place to Go.  Again with the variety.

So good album, and good show.  Oh, and, um, not to take anything away from the band -- but if they had pulled the plug on the music when the cat videos started playing, I would have still been plenty entertained.

Buy one (or both!) of these bands' new CDs:  North Elementary's Honcho Poncho and Lud's Defenestration Boulevard.

Rogue Band of Youth - "Our Hunter" (Nightlight, Chapel Hill, NC, 3/29/14)

Here we have Chapel Hill's new-ish Rogue Band of Youth performing the song "Our Hunter", from their eponymous debut long-player.  This was from their record release show at Nighlight in Chapel Hill, NC.  The song was apparently Grateful Dead-inspired.  Lately, I've been having my musical tastes challenged quite a bit, which is a good thing.  At recent shows, it's been the dance-y vibe of T0W3RS, Body Games and the like.  Now, it's the opposite extreme: the Deadhead vibe of RBOY (at least on this song).  I thought I hated these things!  Turns out, even my jaded ol' musical ears have room for expansion.

Anyway, this is a beautiful song, and it was a great show... I'll try to post photos later.  Apologies if the distortion provided courtesy the "great" audio of my DSLR takes away from the wonderful harmonies.  If you want to hear the original in its pristine state, buy the album at their bandcamp page.