Hopscotch day one

http://3dotmag.com/hopscotch-day-one-raleigh-n-c/

I think the hipster gods in the sky had decided that I was not worthy of seeing North Carolina’s biggest indie rock event of the year, Hopscotch. Hopscotch is a three-day event with tons of bands, and is run similar to SXSW. The Roots, Jesus and Mary Chain, and Built to Spill headlined this year’s event. The first day included no headliners, but a ton of smaller and upcoming bands. My plan was to go to all three days, and so I hopped in my car (Raleigh is only a 30-minute drive from where I live) and headed that way. Ten minutes into my drive, it started to rain. So, I went to turn on my windshield wipers, and nothing happened. They were broken. Well, I was ready to eat anyway so I pulled over and found shelter and food at Panera Bread. After some yummy mac ‘n’ cheese and a beverage, I was ready to continue my trip, but the hipster gods were not. Since my windshield wipers were broken, I had to wait out the storm, which ended up lasting five hours. By the time the rain slowed down I had a bad feeling, but was determined to get there. I headed that way, and the whole way, my car was acting like the little engine that could, grunting and grumbling. But, it made it. I found a parking spot with no   problem, and was off to get my indie rock on.

My first stop of the evening was Kings, where Llilac Shadows would be playing. When I arrived there were not many people there, but the place filled quickly as the band hit the stage. I was surprised to hear that this band was from Chapel Hill, as I’d never heard of them. However, they had a professionalism about them that would make one think they’d been around for quite some time. They played well-rounded dream pop. One guitarist, who happened to look like a thinner version of Farva from Super Troopers, played shoegazey and noisy while the other played pop melodies. Their keyboardist played the occasional solo, but mostly added accents to their lush sound. While remaining on the poppy side, somewhere between The Ocean Blue and The Smiths, they did delve into a number of heavy breakdowns, and with the way the singer’s gentle voice accompanied the heavy sound, it reminded me of Mew. They had lights and background visuals that went really well with their music, and definitely added to their performance.

The next stop was CAM. It’s a rather large art space, and they don’t usually do shows, except for special events like Hopscotch. There was a huge wall filled up with t-shirts: ironic slogan shirts and every indie rock band shirt you can think of. It was an art piece called “A Hipster Exploded.” After chuckling at the art piece, I grabbed a beer and found a spot right in front of the stage. I was rather excited to see Holograms from Sweden. I’d heard a few songs online, which I enjoyed. They seemed to be in a  very dark wave/post punk vain, sounding like Joy Division but with more reverb, effects, and quirky keyboards. When I saw four young guys no older than 21 decked out in punk rock gear get on stage, I was very surprised. The bassist came up to the mic, screamed “en två tre fyra” (Swedish for “one, two, three, four”) and they pounced into their first song. While they still had elements of the dark wave, moody vibe I had detected on record, live they were gritty, loud, and snotty. They had the crowd very worked up and there was a mosh pit throughout the whole set. I was very surprised, but also impressed.

I intended to see Liars, but by this time, it was   already getting late, and up next at CAM was Thee Oh Sees, which I had heard great things about. So, rather than downing my beer as fast as I could and walking around Raleigh with a map, I decided to stay at CAM. I was a little thrown off to see a skinhead in Doc Martens and suspenders tuning up a guitar, and then seeing that his guitar was rigged up as a bass. Then the guitarist, with messy long hair and wearing cut-off jeans and looking nothing like the skinhead, straps on his guitar, almost all the way up to his neck. Moreover, the drummer, who looks just like Bill Hader from SNL, sets up his kit at the front of the stage. Then I knew this was a band of misfits with a special something worth seeing. As soon as Thee Oh Sees started, beer was being thrown everywhere, from the pit that had started. Already soaked with beer and sweat, and it is only their first song! They continued to play a high-energy set of punked up tunes, but with heavy reverb, psychedelic undertones, and garage rock-ish organ. They were a great way to end the first night of Hopscotch.

I was disappointed the next day, however, when the hipster gods in the sky decided to continue pouring rain upon my windshield wiper-less car (I tried that Rain-X® stuff, it did not work), and my car continued to grunt like a grumpy old man, begging me not to take him into hipsterville. So for me, Hopscotch ended on Day One.

Written by Michael Wood | Photography by Scott Smallin

Yeasayer review

http://3dotmag.com/yeasayer-and-sinkane-at-the-cats-cradle/

Yeasayer and Sinkane at the Cats Cradle

Yeasayer is an interesting band to follow.  They rarely stay in one caliber, changing significantly each album.  They gained recognition on their album, “Odd Blood”, released in 2010, and more notably for their anthem-like and overly danceable single, “Ampling Limb”.  While their newest record, “Fragrant World” was more experimental than “Odd Blood”, it was within the realms of pop, and was sure to ad ire to art music geeks and indie hipsters equally.  But it didn’t seem to go over to well with critics, being too pop for indie, and too weird for radio.  Which, what critics don’t seem to understand, is actually unbelievably refreshing.

So, I was excited to see these guys.  And after I read that the band would be accompanied by an art project, and they would be having some sort of weird light show with it, I was even more interested.

We arrive to Cats Cradle before the opener, Sinkane started, and the place was already packed.  Turns out it was actually sold out.  This show was a rescheduled event because the first show was canceled, due to the guitarist Anand Wilder having a baby.  Well, he didn’t actually have a baby, but his wife did.  It seems the rescheduling actually did well for ticket sales.

Yeasayer band member, Ahmed Gallab, conveniently enough, fronted the opening band, Sinkane. Right off the bat I noticed that, like Yeasayer, they had a knack for genre blending. And not unlike bands like Medeski, Martin, and Wood, Ween, and Built To Spill, I could see both indie rockers and hippies enjoying this equally. Then I looked around.  There were people with painted faces doing noodle dancing.  If you are not familiar with noodle dancing, it’s a hippy dance, where they fling themselves about as if someone was shaking around a wet noodle. Unlike Yeasayer, they seemed to lack the knack for truly blending genres, exploring one at a time, going from psychedelic rock that sounded way too much like Grateful Dead and Steve Miller Band, to Kool and The gang-esque dance offs. While Sinkane was full of talented musicians, they ultimately came off looking like a wedding reception band.  The most annoying part of their show for me was at one point the guitarist said, “It’s good to be here.  This very venue changed my life four years ago…” and then never finished his story!!  They just went into another song.   How the hell did Cat’s Cradle change his life?

In between bands the venue played Bobby Brown, which is ironic because I remember saying to my girlfriend earlier that while most indie bands bring back the new wave 80s’ there seems to be an 80s’ influence that is just ridiculous, and I mentioned Bobby Brown.  So I’m thinking there is a connection.

As the lights dimmed, a computer voice came over the PA saying “Chapel Hill let’s make some noise” and we did.  Yeasayer hit the stage and started the show with “Blue Paper”, off of “Fragrant World”, which worked well as an opener, with the end of the song being much more immediate and dance-y live, whereas on record the ending seems to be mostly bleeps and blips.  At this point I’m noticing the lighting, and the fact that, that’s its mostly mirrors, and very little light work, or projection.  It was basically as if they built a mini- dance club on stage, which was equally ridiculous and awesome, and reminded me once again of the Bobby Brown era.  Their second song, Henrietta, also off of “Fragrant World”, was also another dance for pleaser.  At this time singer, moved up front, and acted as a front man for most of the show, adding to their appearance a more rock feel and taking them out of the overly self important art rock realm.  From this point on the started playing a pretty even mix of all three of their albums, starting with “2080”, from their 2007 release, “All Hour Cymbals”, and “O.N.E.” from “Odd Blood”, which sounded more playful live.  By this point the mirrors were all lit up with neon surroundings.  It looked very similar to Tron, which was bizarre, and a little bit awesome.

During “Wait for the summer” two girls jumped up on stage and danced around.  The band didn’t really react to it.  Then after the song was over, singer Chris Keating said, “Was there just some girls up here?  I’m used to smelling dude all the time and suddenly it smelt really nice up here”.  Then they ended their set with “Ambling Alp”, which was very well received.  They left the stage for a few minutes and came back for an encore.  They played “Tight Rope” and “Folk Hero”.

While listening to Yeasayer’s recordings, you pick up random instruments here and there, but the interesting thing about seeing them live is seeing that most of those sounds are actually done on guitar.  It was interesting to see how they portrayed what seems to be made for album songs.  Seeing Yeasayer live and hearing them on record, are two vastly different things, but seeing them live is highly recommended.

Written by Michael Wood

Cloud Nothings Review

http://3dotmag.com/cloud-nothings-and-ryley-walker/

April 17, 2013 @ Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro NC

Review by Michael Wood  |  Photo by Pooneh Ghana

I’ve been addicted to a game called Song Pop.  It’s taken many hours out of my life, sitting on my cell phone, playing this mindless, yet fun for any music geek game.  Basically, they just play a few seconds of a song and you guess the song or artist as quick as you can, and you go up against people.  One of the categories is “2013 Grammy Nominees”.  I’m playing it, and it’s all the typical garbage: Bruno Mars, Robin Thicke, Taylor Swift, etc. but then I hear “Stay Useless” by Cloud Nothings.  What?  When and how did they make it to the Grammy’s?  So, this band, that I thought was a smaller, unknown band, is on this playlist.  Shows how much my finger is off the pulse.  Point is, this small band, since its birth in 2009, has made a splash in territory you wouldn’t think would be available to them.  Their sound is unpretentious, loud and emotive, and would have sounded perfect on that mix tape I used to make girls in the 90s with Superchunk, Dinosaur Jr., and Archers of Loaf.

On April 17, Cloud Nothings made it to Cat’s Cradle.  Although they seemed to have made a splash in the media world, there was still some confusion as to rather they were actually big enough to be headlining the main stage at the cradle.  There is a smaller room, and as I was looking around the room in the beginning of the night, I was wondering if maybe they should have taken that room.

At nine, the opener, Ryley Walker started.  Though this was a full band, it was obvious that this project was really just the one guy, Walker.  His voice was whiskey warm, and the songs were atmospheric yet based on raw blues tradition.  My first thought was that this guy loves Jeff Buckley.  The decision to pair Walker with Cloud Nothings was odd.  Very odd.  So, I had a beer or two, and waited out this set of long winded stoner folk anthems to get to Cloud Nothings.

By the time Walker finished, the room was filling up, and my pondering question as to if this show should have even been in the main room was answered (the answer was yes, and to never doubt the fine promoters at Cat’s Cradle again).  Cloud Nothings casually hit the stage in no rock star fashion.  Tonight they a three-piece.  While they have often been a four-piece band, there seemed to be no missing piece.  Actually, they were so loud that I would have thought a fourth member would have been too much, using the Sebadoh and Dinosaur Jr. school of thought on bass (being as loud and distorted as the guitar). They blistered through a no frills, straight forward set of rock songs, with very little banter.  They played a bit from their entire catalog, throwing in a few tunes from their new record, Here and Nowhere Else.  But the highlight of their set were the songs off of Attack on Memory, being the catchiest, and most anthem-like of their material.

For their encore, they brought out the three members of Walker’s band, and played a very long-winded but energetic song that seemed to get into psych rock territory.  Walker did not play guitar, rather, seemed to have some sort of harmonica.  But there was so much noise, that whatever he was doing was inaudible.  After about a ten minute sweat fueled jam, they left the stage, and the audience talked to each other way too loud, because we were all partially deaf.  Good times!

https://www.facebook.com/cloudnothings

http://cloudnothings.com

B-52s review

http://3dotmag.com/review-b-52s-oh-i-love-ethiopian-food/

REVIEW B-52s. Oh, I love Ethiopian food

Oh, I love Ethiopian food!” were the five words directed at me from the one and only Fred Schneider, co-founder of infamous new wave party rockers, B-52s.

I was working my day job in the kitchen at local health food store, Bay Naturals, and we were closing up. I noticed a group of four men talking to a fellow employee, politely being thrown out due to the fact we had already closed. They were asking about other healthy eating options around town so I interjected to help. I then looked up in shock to see that I was talking to the male portion of the B-52s! I told them how to get to a restaurant, and politely sent them on their way. Then I said to myself, “Wait! I could have just re-opened the kitchen! After all, it is the B-freaking-52s!” But they were long gone. Not only that, I realized I sent them to a place that was a good 20 miles away from the venue they were playing, and it was only about two hours before show time. Duh!

I got off work soon after and headed to the show, while kicking myself for not engaging more and thinking: I should have pitched him my television show idea, ‘Hangin’ With Fred.’ I should have asked them to hang out after the show. I should have cooked them food, etc. Even though I was too star-struck to converse, I was still very happy to see the show.

I arrived at the House of Blues and there was already a good crowd there. Minutes later the opening band, IAMDYNAMITE, a power pop two-piece from Cary, North Carolina (originally from Detroit) took the stage. They were surprisingly heavy for a two-piece, but catchy and quirky enough to feel at home playing with the B-52s. IAMDYNAMITE is definitely enjoying some success, having done tours with Bush and Blue October, but this seemed to be a better setting for them. Their style seemed to teeter between 90s alt rock and blues influenced garage rock, but more amped up, ending up like The Pixies and The White Stripes doing blow together. They put on a rather explosive show full of audience participation (mid song handclap breakdowns and sing-alongs). They definitely got the audience warmed up.

Between bands, I’m noticing that B-52s are now 10 minutes late. I’m instantly reminded that I sent them to a place to eat that usually takes about 2 hours and was 20 miles away. So I’m thinking I made them late for the show. Great! Ten minutes later they rushed the stage and jumped straight into “Wig,” Schneider yelping, “What’s that on your head!” Instantly the place turned into a light-hearted party and everyone there synced into dance mode. Everyone on stage was armed with bright colors and glitter. They kept the theme with their early material and Schneider took a step back and the girls took the lead with “Mesopotamia” and “Give Me Back My Man,” and both Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson shined.

As Schneider returned to the stage they made some hilarious banter making fun of Myrtle Beach, commenting on all the beach wear stores and their love of taffy. They then went into the title track of their newest album, “Funplex,” where there is a shout along chorus of “Too much sex!” At this point, the constant party that seemed to be happening on stage was just near anarchy. They went on to do a few more new songs before performing hits like “Roam” and “52 Girls.” Of course, the crowd loved the hits but the impressive thing about the B-52s is that their new material is just as powerful as their early material. They had a stirring ending with a rambunctious version of “Love Shack.” A near perfect encore, “Planet Claire” and “Rock Lobster” ended the night.
B-52s still have it. And, they aren’t just a nostalgia act. Having new hip bands like IAMDYNAMITE open, and having new material that doesn’t scream “it’s time to go get a drink” proves them to be a thriving and notable band, and they are doing a great job at keeping the party going, and show no signs of slowing “down, dowwwn, dowwwn.”

Written by Michael Wood | Photography by Scott Smallin.