I'm always trying to get turned on to new shit. Here is some of said new shit.
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The Netherlands - My new year's pledge this year was to not waste any time on bands with stupid names. C'mon, you know exactly what I'm talking about... think about all the unoriginal bastards that have come to prominence over the last few years: Girls, Grizzly Bear, Babies, The Beets, Women, Real Estate, Harlem, The Muslims/The Soft Pack and it goes on and on and on. All stupid names and all terrible bands. [Why can't every band be called Kolostomy Fag?!] How, then, did The (moronically named) Netherlands make it around my (admittedly arbitrary) self-imposed name standard? By being AWESOME.
First time I'd ever heard of these guys was at a show at a show in late March, when they were opening for Liquor Store at Coco 66. I arrived reasonably late, but with a good beer/weed buzz going. Bartender was a cunt, but what can you do... several shots n' beerz later The Netherlands took the stage, and the first thing I noticed was a definite Melvins influence, likely because 1.) the guitarist had a killer Buzz-esque live tone, 2.) the drummer is a Dale Crover clone, a heavy hitter able to deftly maneuver thru unexpected tempo shifts/time changes with bull/china shop subtletly, 3.) riffsriffsriffsriffs, and 4.) um, I listen to Melvins pretty much constantly so it only makes sense that I'm going to hear Melvins influences everywhere. Overall a great grungy riff-fest with fine musicianship and goofy lyrics. (Yes, the vocals at times sound kind of like Weird Al fronting an '80s hardcore band, but whatever.)
I was fortunate enough to catch these guys again a week and a half ago at Knitting Factory. Again they brought the RAWK and this time post-set they handed out copies of their new album, which is pretty rad. Their next show is at Charleston on May 13th, so check 'em out. Here's a few tracks to whet your a(zz)ppetite:
The Netherlands - Architeuthis Vs. Terducken
The Netherlands - Smash, Crash
The Netherlands - The Gogo Dancer
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La Strada - Can I tell you what a relief it is when it turns out that your roommate's band not only doesn't suck, but, in fact, that they're kind of awesome? How awkward would it be for me to have to bullshit the guy who 1.) I see nearly every day and 2.) who knows that I enjoy listening to music almost as much as I enjoy McGangbangs? And how exactly would that work? "Yeah... um... your band is... kinda... umm...grzblnhkwr..." "Gee Tuddd, you kinda trailed off there." "Yeah, I kinda did, didn't I..."
First time I heard these guys play was at Knitting Factory Brooklyn during CMJ last year. Love love loved every minute of their set, which was characterized by tuneful, upbeat full-band (including a string section) folk rock tunes with clever instrumentation. Caught 'em again at the Knit last Friday, with their rousing set providing the springboard for an appropriately weird Friday evening/Saturday morning. Stylistically, there's some Arcade Fire in there (without the overbearing self-importance), some Neutral Milk Hotel (except way more proficient musically), and plenty of Graceland. Me likey. And these guys have a new record out on the Ernest Jenning label which you should buy.
I have to say that in this era of monotonous, talentless shitgaze-dominated Brooklyn bills, where bands seemingly get signed to Woodsist or Captured Tracks before then can even tune their fucking guitars, it's nice every now and then to see a band that can actually play their instruments (and well at that). And it's not easy to play ornate, florid acoustic folk without coming off as super-pretentious, but La Strada manages to pull it off with deft, uncanny aplomb. Their next area show looks to be May 29th at The Bell House so acquaint yourself with these guys and their music toot sweet!
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Liquor Store - Of course, I'm a huge fan of old-school, slovenly punk rawk, and any time somebody brings a new twist to the table I'm pretty much game. In Liquor Store's case, their wrinkle is that they play with up to 5 guitarists simultaneously, which may sound like a dumb gimmick, but I'm not about to pretend I'm too good for dumb gimmicks. I mean, AC/DC have two guitarists playing the EXACT SAME FUCKING THING AT THE EXACT SAME FUCKING TIME and they rule, no?
First time I saw these guys was opening for the now defunct LiveFastDie (Liquor Store's frontdude was also in LiveFastDie) at Union Pool a little over a year ago. Again, it may sound stupid with me describing it, but man, there's something awesome about the sound of several guitars rocking the fuck out to the same few simple chords: almost like a hypnotic, calming effect totally different from what you get from other muscular Stooges-influenced punk bands.
Anyway, I've had the pleasure of catching these guys twice this year, once at Coco 66 (as documented here by my buddy Devin) and once across the street at Lulu (I think that's what it's called). As far as I can tell these guys don't have any actual music available for purchase anywhere (if anyone knows otherwise, please let me know) so catch them live this summer - and bring your moshin' shoes.
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Cheeseburger -Yeah, yeah, I know, Cheeseburger ain't exactly "new stuff" here at The Muddd. [Just click on the "Cheeseburger" tab at the left to see how many keystrokes I've devoted to this band's awesomeness.] But for those who don't know, there's some pretty significant news in the Cheeseburger camp, namely that singer Joe Bradley isn't in the band anymore, having been replaced by former Panthers/Orchid (and current Violent Bullshit) frontdude Jayson Greene. And to boot, apparently they have a whole new album of material recorded (presumably with Joe's vocals) and ready for release at some point, so that's awesome. I heard many of the new songs at their mid-March show at Bell House, and they're fucking fantastic (as certainly befitting a band that placed an album on my favorite albums of the '00s list).
All this being said, come out tonight to Knitting Factory to see Cheeseburger v. 2.0 (hmmm, maybe 3.0 considering Cheeseburger 2.0 was probably when they added the second guitarist).
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