(Flyer via Aviv/ Facebook)
Guido, Ritual Humor, Lover’s Touch, Rubber, Decorum
Monday January 18, 8 pm at Aviv: $8
Late notice, but we know you’re looking for something to do on what’s sure to be a cold-as-hell Monday night anyway. We’re talking something that doesn’t involve drinking a bottle of wine to the face in front of How to Make a Murderer and passing out, mid-text message while you’re attempting to convince your friend that Steven Avery did do it. Rest assured this one’s not going to be outside, but last we checked it’s a good idea to wear a lil cardi and a beanie to Aviv– industrial spaces can be tres drafty, y’all. But even if you’ve got the chills, count on em being long banished by the time the second opener, Rubber, takes the stage.
Rubber is a newish Brooklyn band with loads of built-in tude but already adept at blasting through punk bangers, fully lined with rotten guitar riffs and bass lines crackled well beyond having any sort of tonality.
The frontslady, Lauren Keils (full disclosure, she’s my good pal and one of a couple of people who share toilet paper and a refrigerator with me) steals the show, leading a pair of siblings on bass and guitar and backed by a drummer from local hardcore outfit Slav. She’s a force to be tamed, and despite a ferocious stage disposition and a unique ability to turn a soft gaze to crazy eyes at the drop of a pin, I’ve witnessed Keils instantly inspire a sullen crowd to amalgamate into a single, gyrating mass. The band is knee deep in their post-recording process at the moment, but stay tuned for their forthcoming tape.
Headliners Ritual Humor will provide an opposing sonic experience, and are definitely the ideal act to close out a Monday night show. The NYC-based band recorded their demos in Glasgow– which is fitting, because picturing them slow-motion traversing the rain-covered streets of foggy Scotland is maybe the best way to visualize their sound. Think: meditative, hypnotic, and witchy without being too Bushwick about it.
(Via the Silent Barn / Facebook)
Jobs, Unnatural Ways, Needle Driver, Reina Terror
Wednesday January 20, 8 pm at the Silent Barn: $7
Embracing a new ambient, somewhat more accessible piano-rock sound, the Brooklyn band formerly known as Killer Bob has, well, killed Bob and replaced him with Jobs. Which might be a wise move, given that “Killer Bob” sounds less like music you’d pay to listen to that an Adult Swim show you’d pay to not. But it’s music we care about, not quibbling over names! And so, we’re intrigued by this Jobs, especially since the Jobs’ crew members appear to have a sense of humor– a rarity in experimental music.
But the rest of the lineup is just bleak, all bleak– which is something else I’d rather not have my experimental / noise shows be completely bereft of, either. Call me a cake eater and haver, what have you, I want both.
Expect supernatural guitar skills at the hands of Unnatural Ways‘ Ava Mendoza. Speaking of skills, even after listening closely to Brandon Seabrook’s work, it’s impossible for me to tell you in confidence what instrument he’s actually playing, though I’ve been told it’s sometimes the banjo, but most often the guitar. Gaze in wonder at Mr. Seabrook and his band, Needle Driver, and find out for yourself. Given that Brooklyn Vegan described one recent show as a presentation of “no wave-ish, art damanged skronk, which included their guitarist slicing open a blister and splattering his guitar with blood,” there’s no way you should miss this.
Flyer of the year (via Palisades / Facebook)
Washer, Stove, Lost Boy, Yazan, Dan Licata
Friday January 22, 8 pm at Palisades: $7
Aw, sometimes we all wanna go back to a simpler time, when 90’s college-radio rock was all we knew (er, even if it was already way old by the time we made it there– but, shit, what else were we left with in the early aughts? Brand New?), and Washer helps get us there.
These perfectly endearing, albeit lonely boys sing songs about being, huh, lonely boys and can OK-play their instruments– which is usually how I– and a small, weird portion of the population–prefer it. These Washer boys sometimes even do a pretty damn good impression of Mr. Malkmus– which, who can argue with that? Washer songs are just what you might expect them to be– post washed-out, with patches of bleeding colors, and sufficiently dry without being totally coarse or starched. And bless them, they’re releasing a new album, aptly named Here Comes Washer (January 22, you can preorder here), coz lol here they come!
From the rest of the lineup, expect acceptable pop rock with the same deep nod to the golden days of indie. There’s Stove, who are much more exciting than their name implies, and have an interesting mix of influences (metal? pop punk?) that bubble beneath the surface but never overpower their indie gaze.
Lost Boy?– question mark totally sic– also fit the bill, even if they’ve covered said bill in sticky sweet du-wop goop, thankfully tampered by an intuitive psych bent (I couldn’t help but think Of Montreal, at moments).
Pop. 1280 (Via Alphaville/ Facebook)
Pop. 1280, Sediment Club, Bambara
Saturday January 23, 8 pm at Alphaville: $10
Tis the season for record releases apparently– Sacred Bones bbs, Pop. 1280, are dropping their very own hard-won doo doo baby, aka Paradise on January 22. (Catch a streaming preview over at The Drone.) And the thank heavens it is so, coz seriously things are looking bleak outside right now, are they not? This Friday night show at Alphaville is just what the doctor ordered– something new and something blue. If you’re not a friend of Pop.1280 just yet, think a futuro-industrial Birthday Party if Nick Cave had gone deeper down the dark spiral.
Their new release Paradise appears to be no exception to this trend, though Pop. 1280 has moved away from the traditional trappings of post-punk that everyone and their damn grandma was all over last year, and moved a bit more left of cyber, and dare I say harking a bit of Marilyn Manson (if he was a convincing bad guy).