Tuddd's Muddd

7 Shows, 6 Days, 100+ Alcoholic Beverages, Edibles Galore, a Zip of Insane Upstate Outdoor, and Yes [drumroll pls], A FUCKING SPALDING. [PART I]

   

    [^heheheheh]

    So, recently, I attended 7 show in 6 days, as mentioned above.  Not too shabby a showing, if I do say so myself... in fact, that might actually be a personal record of some sort.  [On that tip, who th' fuck knows / cares.]  Over said 7 shows and 6 days, a ton of bands were seen (including Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Colin Stetson, Harvey Milk, Occultation, Fang Island, Hollerado, Monogold, Goes Cube, Austerity Program, Rosetta, Naam, Liquor Store, Wild Yaks), dangerous amounts of substances were consumed, acquaintances were renewed with old friends, and an unfair amount of fun was had.  Frankly, I have no clue how I managed to avoid getting really sick / throwing my back out / collapsing due to sheer exhaustion throughout this whole debacle because I'M REALLY FUCKING OLD.

    Anyway, deets onward: 

Goes Cube, Austerity Program, Rosetta and Naam at Studio at Webster Hall, Wednesday March 9, 2011

 

• Met up with my buddy Jimmy Dogshit for some booze (including appletinis, an unfortunate tradition of ours) and mediocre burgers at the Pour House.  Our waitress resembled a wholesomer version of British pornstar McKenzie Lee, whose work, coincidentally, I had, er, "enjoyed" just minutes before arriving at the Pour House.  SCHWING!
• Rolled up to Studio towards the end of Naam's set.  Wish I had more to report on these guys (because I've been told they're worthwhile), but sadly I don't.
• Rosetta was up next, and they underscored their reputation as being "the hardest band in the world to mic."  Their set at Santos in January opening up for Kylesa during one of the blizzards really converted me from "casual fan" to "ardent admirer who has no qualms shirking responsibilities to go out and see 'em on a random weeknight."  The sound sucked ass (I know, unusual for a Studio show) but the sweaty performance made up for it.
• Let me tell you, considering this was the first night of a planned HUGE fucking binge, you would think that I would've had the brains to actually take it easy on Night #1 instead of going balls to the wall.  But, as I have terrible judgment and generally do things ass-backwards, I wound up getting fucking SHITFACED.  Greyed out, and although I have no idea exactly how much booze I drank, I do know for a fact that I spent all $100 cash I had on me on booze at the show (mixed drinks were $6, beers were $4, and rock-bottom whiskey shots were also $4, so you do the fucking math), and wound up having to actually card my last two rock-bottom whiskey shots and beers.  And when I got home for some reason I had 7 empty plastic shot glasses in my pocket.  "THESE'LL COME IN HANDY!"  As mentioned earlier, a shabby performance by me this was not. 
• Austerity Program's set was next, and allow me to report (it ain't no secret): the house was thoroughly ROCKED.  They played the entirety of their fucking stellar EP from last year (#9 on last year's Best Albums list) as well as "Song 20" and... uhhhh... was that it?  Fuck, I don't remember, but let me tell ya, it sure makes for great drunken thrashing around.
• Goes Cube finished off the evening with exactly the type of skullfuckingly brutal performance that I've come to expect since I started seeing them live 5 years ago.  [Goddamn, how many times have I seen these guys live?  15?  20?  I'm not in Brooklyn at the time of this writing so I can't consult Tuddd Archives for the answer, but it's somewhere up there.  [edit: apparently it's 15 times, although that assumes that Tuddd Archives is actually accurate, which is highly unlikely.] Shee-itt.]  Anyway, their set drew liberally from what seemed like all of their most recent releases: 2009's Another Day Has Passed LP, last year's 7", the digital recording from Coextinction Recordings, and, of course, their forthcoming LP, In Tides and Drifts (which ain't out yet, but which, of course, I dorkily pre-ordered).  Since Goes Cube singer / guitarist David no longer lives in NYC, I was surprised at how insanely tight their set was, and the great sonics of the Studio space really highlighted Kenny's superb drumming and Matt's nimbly holding down the low end.  Obviously I'm a huge fan of these guys' music, and it was great to hear that this was the brand of fury they'd be truckin' down to SXSW.  RAWK.
• Anyway, tried to spit game with two Norwegian (uh, I think?) chicks post-show / failed miserably / wound up drinking Heinekens in the back of a cab during the ride home.  Woo Fucking Hoo.  Woke up the next morning with a head-splitting hangover (and a vexing case of bangover ta boot). 

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Liquor Store at Death by Audio, Thursday, March 10, 2011

 

Nuff.  Fucking.  Said.

Friday, March 11th: Monogold at Glasslands AND Fang Island at Bowery Ballroom.

--and--

 

    Two shows in one night?!?  Why, that's just FUCKING BONKERS!!!!! 

    Well, not really.  Actually it's more about the combination of lucky scheduling and way too much time on my hands than anything else.  But nonetheless, I'm not exactly sure when was the last time that I pulled off two shows in one day.  Hmmmm.  Possibly it might have been in September '06 when I saw Mastodon at Webster Hall early, then Comets on Fire at Knitting Factory late.  Not gonna lie, that was pretty fucking badass.  ('Twas a good day indeed.)  Anyhow, the way this night shook out, I already had tix for Fang Island at Bowery, but I figured out I'd check out Monogold's early opening set at Glasslands before heading in to Manhattan, knowing that Monogold would be setting out in the van and driving down towards South by Southwest literally the moment their set was over.  Good shit.

    I first saw Monogold's live show at their Public Assembly record release show in mid-January - holy shitballs are they a good band, and man, was that a fun night.  They have a "current"-ish Williamsburg indie pop sound without the gayness of The Pains of Being Pure at Heart or Grizzly Bear or whoever,  while creating well-crafted, tuneful music that makes the kids want to shake they shit.  I've also been enjoying the bejeezus out of their newest album, The Softest Glow, as a nice change of pace from the usual steady diet of Melvins>Sleep>Melvins>Sleep>Melvins>Sleep playlist that more often than not can be found blaring out of my car stereo. 

    Monogold's set on this night was great, as it was the first time I saw 'em.  Frankly, they're another band that proves that I Don't Know Jack Shit About What Makes Music Popular, because they should be fucking huge.  My personal favorites from the set were "Dead Sea Minerals" and "Ivory Tusk, Golden Teeth"... check below for studio versions of these two sick motherfuckin' jams:

 

 

    I wished the gents my best on their SXSW journey and basically ran the fuck out of Glasslands the moment their set was done, heading southward back to my apartment briefly to crush a couple bowls of dank.  Sadly, this brief (yet hyper-necessary) dalliance meant that I'd get to Bowery towards the end of opening band Hollerado's set, which I regretted; I'd seen them open up for (and blow away) Black Lips (who fucking blow) in this same room in September '07.  Anyway, by the time I stumbled into Bowery, Hollerado was in the middle of a positively rippin' jam based on ZZ Top's "La Grange," and they looked to be having a great fucking time... again, I wish I had made it there a bit earlier, goddamn it. 

    Snuck way up front amongst the assembled 12 year-olds for Fang Island's set.  Of course, I'm on record as being a Fang Island booster from way back in the day.  Don't believe me?  Here's a short, sweet, and to the the point list of accolades I've heaped on these guys:

• First time I saw them live, in December '08, I wrote a glowing review.  [Read that shit.]
• Second time I saw them live, in April '10 at Maxwell's, uhhhhh... looks like I didn't write them up or anything that time around, but my buddy Devin shot this video of "Daisy" at the show.  Honest Injun.
• When it came time compile a list of my favorite songs of oh ten, Fang Island scored the year's top slot, with an unprecendented *four* songs in the Top 25.  Impressive!
• And, as befitting an album with so many fantastic songs, Fang Island's Fang Island topped my "Best Albums of 2010" list.   

Right on cue, this night's Fang Island set did not disappoint.  In fact, my only real complaint about the previous two times I'd seen them -- sour vocals -- seems to have been largely remedied.  And the larger Bowery stage allowed the three guitarists to bust out some hilariously over the top ARENA RAWK stage moves.  The setlist consted of most of Fang Island (YAY!), with few older ones and one new one thrown in... I was hoping they'd have six Andrew W.K.s come out to reprise his glorious operatic vocal coda from "Patterns on the Wall" but alas it wasn't to be... but even without that highly unlikely occurrence going down, this was one of the finest sets that I've seen all year. 

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OK, dank-time.  I will try to get a post up about Saturday / Sunday / Monday's shows and goings on but I can't promise anything... heading to Costa Rica on Wednesday for what's sure to be the Douchiest Bachelor Party Ever With the Douchiest Group of Douches That Ever Douched.  Tuddd out.

 

Video from Liquor Store at Death by Audio October 16, 2010 [with Patrick Stickles]

 

I shot this at tonight's show... another great Liquor Store set.  Patrick Stickles from Titus Andronicus hopped up onstage for guest vocals. 

Pontiak and Bloody Panda at Death by Audio, May 2 2009 [May Daze day 2]

   

Above pic: Bloody Panda (photo not from this show)

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    Had a reasonably productive day, which is weird for a Saturday.  After being inconvenienced/misled by a procession of semi-literate lazy pieces of fucking shit employed by two (2) separate Targets, I finally wound up with... drumroll, please... A VACUUM!!! VICTORY IS MINE!!!  Ugh.  Tried out the newish Vietnamese sandwich place on Havemeyer (decent, but I wasn't terribly impressed) before watching a truly awful, poorly done, idiotic movie.  Yes I'm only a couple days into "May Daze" (aka my attempt at going out every night this month) but the idea of staying in is mighty tempting when there are so few interesting concerts on the docket, and I can't find anyone who wants to see either of the Anvil or Tyson documentaries with me.  Yes, my journey of frivolous leisure over the next month shall be a tumultuous (read: excruciatingly boring) one. 

    (You know what? After some initial apprehension, I'm getting more and more okay with the "May Daze" name, mainly because I'm usually lumbering around in a sleep-deprived, stoned "stupor," or "daze."  Also, I was considering an attempt at timeliness and, as, such, maybe calling it "Fuck the Swine Flu" or perhaps the rhymier/less personable "Fuck You, Swine Flu."  But fear not, timeliness is for people with paying jobs.)  

    After puffing a few bowls I finally got motivated at about 9:45 or so and walked over to Death by Audio only to be told that the show wasn't going to start for awhile, which kind of blows.  See, in NYC when a show is advertised as starting at 8, that usually means that the first act takes the stage at 9, and so forth.  Maybe there were some extenuating circumstances further delaying the show's start, who cares.  I used this opportunity to head over to Oasis and eat a shawarma.  Not too shabby, but by the time I got back to Death by Audio  it didn't look like anyone was any closer to, you know, performing music.  Sat around for another long while.

    Eventually, Bloody Panda took the stage, and I dug their shit good 'nuff.  Elements of black metal, doom and stoner stuff which is always a good combo.  Their stage presence was kind of fucked up, with all 5 members of the band wearing black hoods covering their entire heads, and with the keyboard player and vocalist standing in front of the stage (as opposed to on it).  Because I had no idea what was going on, for much of the set I was under the mistaken impression that the female vox were canned only to eventually discover that the vocalist was standing about fifteen feet to the left of me.  Huh.

    Pontiak was up next and they had kind of a slow stonery vibe which I also enjoyed, alternating between more traditional chunky riffing and quieter strumming.  At one point the guitarist/vocalist came offstage and began smacking shit around on a drumset that was against the front of the stage, facing the rest of the band.  Neat-o.

    At least one other band played after Bloody Panda and Pontiak, although by this point it was 1:30 AM, my back was killing me and I didn't feel like sitting on the floor, my cell phone and iPod were both dying, and I had places to go (my room), people to see (HAHAHAHA good one) and things to do (smoke more weed, watch porn).  So if you're one of the bands I missed and you're Googling yourself expecting to find a review of your set, next time try taking the fucking stage at a reasonable hour.  Thanks!

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King Khan tonight (probably).  Muddd onward and such. 

Liturgy et al, at Death by Audio, May 1, 2009 [May Daze night 1]

   

    So I'm going to try to go out every night this month.  (That's what the whole "May Daze night 1" thing above means.  Yes, that's a super-lame name but I'm tired and cranky.  If you can think of a better name send that shit along, thx k bai.)  This may sound absurd, but fuck it.  This is the type of meaningless, hollow gesture that most folks my age gave up on long ago, but if there's anywhere an asshole like me should be trying to act younger than he is, Williamsburg's probably as good a place as any.  Yes, my back will probably give out at some point, but by now with me never really knowing whether or not I'm actually getting any rest while I'm "sleeping"/waking myself up while snoring/randomly stopping breathing every 2 minutes or so in the middle of the night, getting adequate sleep isn't really too big of a consideration these days/ever. 

    Was considering going to the King Khan show at MHOW, but 1.) I've already seen them twice and 2.) I really didn't feel like drinking, and seeing King Khan live without being hammered is a fool's errand, and 3.) they're playing Santos Party House Sunday night, and I still haven't seen a show there so in all likelihood I'll get out to that instead.  Also was considering seeing A Place to Bury Strangers but I didn't feel like getting all stoned just to ride the train into Manhattan.  Plus, APTBS' live show is fucking insanely amazing, but I've seen them at least six times over the past couple of years and I'll be catching them at least once later this month with Holy Fuck.  So this left me with the option of seeing Liturgy, who I'd caught at Market Hotel about a month ago opening for Future Islands, and who I remembered enjoying quite a bit.  (Another fine band that played that same show: Double Dagger.) Taxed a bowl and headed out.

    I really don't know what to say about the openers, because since I got to the show a bit late I have no idea who was who.  First group was a drums/guitar duo which to me sounded like Mouthus mixed with Harvey Milk.  Kinda cool.  The next two acts (I have no idea what order they performed in was) were a dude with a guitar kneeling down in front of his amp and creating some meditation-tastic single-tone feedback (yes, that description blows) and another duo that added candles and a wall projection to the usual noisy/electronic stuff you hear at a lot of Todd P shows.  Meh.

    Liturgy closed the show with a set of blistering black metal.  This time they were without their drummer, replacing live beats with an iPod full of doomy metronome beats which shifted speed and tempo seemingly randomly.  Also, they did a sort of Gregorian chant type thing with looped vocals, which was pretty rad.  Not that I'm a huge authority on black metal but compared to other stuff I've heard these two aspects of their music would probably distinguish them from other black metal wannabes.  Last time I saw these guys I labeled them "kiddie Krallice" in my notes and for lack of a better idea (and lack of ambition to make this post more clever) I'm going to stick with that.  Good shit.  Post show: $3 falafel at Oasis (kiiiiiid!) and multiple listens of Spiderland.

    Naptime.  Not sure what the fuck I'm doing tonight, but I'm going to take a wild stab in the dark and guess that it will involve weed and live music.  Muddd ya later. 

Catchin' Up With the Blog: Shows I've Seen So Far in '09

    I pussied out and didn't head out last night, so my grand total of shows seen this year is 5.  A decent pace, yes, but it's still slightly behind that of last year (93 total shows attended in '08, thankyouverymuch).  I'm still trying to narrow down what I'm doing tonight; maybe Freshkills, maybe a bunch of bands at Don Pedros, maybe barracading myself in my room/smoking weed/listening to the new These Arms Are Snakes record on repeat. 

    Anyway, here's the low-down on the first two shows I saw this year, in chronological order:

Free Blood at Death by Audio, January 6, 2009

    I dragged a friend to this show based on my having seen and really enjoyed Free Blood before (about 2 years ago at this largely disastrous show).  At that point, the band consisted of the tall gangly dude (apparently at the time a member of !!!) and the notably well-dressed chick on vocals, and a balding middle-age lookin' dude on bass.  The music and vibe were fucking fantastic, basically dorky/awesome hipster funk that had asses movin', heads bobbin', boners poppin', and sweat glands secretin'.  I remembered writing at the time (somewhere, apparently not on this blog) that their aesthetic reminded me of what might go on in the teachers lounge at your junior high school around 4:30 PM on a Friday: the dude reminded me of my 8th grade Science teacher, the chick looked a lot like my 6th grade Math teacher, and you just knew that they were gonna push aside the stack of ungraded exams and get down once the snotnose brats had filed out.  What's more, the bassist reminded me of a 7th grade assistant computer teacher who always seemed just a little too into technology; you just knew the dude had jury rigged his Gyromite robot somehow with one of these bad boys, and he was definitely fucking it. 

    But I digress.  I bought/enjoyed the CD Free Blood put out in '08, which was mainly in the same vein as the live set I had seen.  Imagine my surprise when, on this evening, I learned that they've apparently been trying to transform themselves (at least the live show) into a kinda rougher garagey deal, totally grooveless and unsuitable for the type of hiney-waving I had in mind.  Booooo. 

Doug Gillard with Regal Standard and Graham Smith at Pianos, January 9th, 2009

    GbV was (and is) my favorite band of all time, and I have many fond memories of following the band during their swan song in late '04 (I caught 5 of the band's final 6 shows).  At that point and for the five or six years that preceded it, lead guitarist Doug Gillard served as the band's musical quarterback, adding an air of professionalism (and superb chops) to what could at times be a ramshackle drunken disaster.  Late last year I randomly ran into him and his wife at a diner in Sunnyside, and stammered my way through some variation of "y-you're awesome, man," which he seemed to appreciate.  Good dude.

    All this January, Mr. Gillard has had a Wednesday night residency at Pianos, joined by friends and special guests as openers, and this was the first such concert.  First up was Graham Smith, he of the witty lyrics and tuneful songs, on solo acoustic.  Much of the crowd seemed to be familiar with his back catalog, which gave the set a kind of informal, living room-esque feel.  Up next was Regal Standard, from Chicago, featuring Jason Narducy (touring member of GbV main man Robert Pollard's solo band circa 2006 and Pollard's new band, Boston Spaceships) and some other dude on acoustic guitars.  How to describe their sound... kind of a Toad the Wet Sprocket thing going on there, maybe?  Meh, who cares. 

    Doug Gillard's band was up next, and although the music was fine, I'll forever remember this set as "the one ruined by the drunken Irish dude that for some reason befriended me and wouldn't shut the fuck up."  Believe me, that's not a terribly interesting story -- it goes pretty much as one would imagine, including him heckling the band and, at one point actually being gently heckled back -- so let me try instead to focus on the music, which was drawn primarily from Gillard's first solo album, Salamander, and his recently-released Call from Restricted, which by the sound of things contains some bona fide rockers.  (I'll check that shit out if/when it hits eMusic.)  For me, the set highlights were "Pop Zeus" (from the criminally underrated Gillard/Pollard Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department collaboration), with Narducy on vocals, and the Gillard-penned GbV classic "I Am a Tree." 

    So yeah, if yer in the mood for some nifty power poppage, check out Gillard's set this Wednesday (the 28th if my math is right) at Pianos. 

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Have to hit up Frenchies but I'll be back tomorrow with more show reports from early '09 including sets from The Raveonettes, Pissed Jeans, Fucked Up, and Endless Boogie.  Tuddd out.

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Now Listening:

These Arms Are Snakes - Tail Swallower

Easily the best album I've heard thru '09's opening weeks.  Mathy, precise and brutal yet oozing with emotion at the same time, not unlike Tuddd's Muddd fave Goes Cube.  Just try listening to the last 3 minutes of "Ethric Double" without breaking into full-on headbang mode.  I dare ya. 

Monotonix with Knyfe Hyts at Death By Audio, September 8, 2008

   

    So I'm feeling content and rested after a weekend trip to Charlotte for a buddy's combination birthday/engagement/finished law school/passed-the-bar party.  What better way to celebrate returning to blue state territory than going to see some good ol' fashioned performance art?

    I caught Monotonix' set in late July at Bowery Ballroom when they played with Early Man, and even though I left before the headliner (Violent Thorr)'s set, that was easily one of the top 15 shows I've seen this year.  If you're in the market for insane stage antics (more on this later), then I'd highly suggest checking these bastards out before they get deported for severely injuring themselves/crowdmembers or burning an underground venue down.   

    I'm a bit ashamed to admit that this was my first time at Death by Audio, considering that I've lived less than 10 blocks away from it for the last four months.  This means that my only real previous exposure to DbA was the Pitchfork.tv piece on A Place to Bury Strangers (Death by Audio is also the name of APTBS frontdude Oliver Ackermann's distortion pedal business).  When I showed up 9ish, there were few signs of what was to come; the performance space was largely empty and the "back room" (slightly smaller than the performance area) was populated by 12 or so bored looking hipsters watching an inscrutably arty film which was projected on the wall.  I bought a coupla cans of Busch and settled in.

    Apparently one of the evening's bands had cancelled, so I have to presume that the first band that actually played was a last minute fill-in.  Didn't catch their name, but they were a two-piece with kind of a typical early hardcore sound with superfast drumming/riffs and barked vocals, but with a more muddled guitar sound than I'm used to with shouty hardcore stuff.  Kinda generic fare to be honest.

    I got hungry (and gassy) so I walked down to the shitty Chinese place at the corner of Bedford and South 2nd.  Upon ordering curry chicken, I was handed a box of something covered with a brown sauce.  I pointed out to the woman behind the counter that there was no way that what she had given me was actually curry chicken, but she disagreed.  Fair enough.  Didn't feel like making a stink so I ate up and got the fuck out of dodge.

    Before the show I had noticed at least one of the dudes from Ex Models walking around, and by the time I got back to DbA after polishing off the fake curry, I noticed said dude was onstage, and his band was halfway through their set.  As it turned out these guys were called Knyfe Hyts and they're apparently an Ex Models side project.  I enjoyed the Ex Models set I caught when they opened up for Deerhunter last July, and I must say I liked what I heard of Knyfe Hyts even better: they've abandoned the hardcore-ish tendencies of Ex Models, replacing it with somewhat kinda garagey stoner metal type stuff, while retaining Ex Models' krautrockish persistence and no wave artiness.  Highlight for me was the loooooong set closer which consisted of basically one note repeated for about 10 minutes with some discoish high hat shit going on.  Very danceable and kinda awesome.  As tokers around me began firing up, I wish I had partaken pre show. 

    Monotonix was up next, and these guys fuckin' know how to party.  The set itself, like any great/terrible blackout, is a bit hazy as to the actual order in which stuff happened.  Suffice it to say that the actual music is merely incidental; even if the tunes were great -- which they're definitely not -- it would be tough to concentrate on the music when you're actually fearing for your own safety.  If you haven't seen them live and don't want spoilers, DON'T READ THE RED INK BELOW. 

   

Okay.  I feel bullet points are in order.  The following happened:

• Pre set, it was announced that "these guys set a lot of fires so be careful."  Sure enough, the drummer dude began the set by setting his cymbals and sticks ablaze and thrashing about.
• I should mention that like Lightning Bolt, Monotonix refuses to perform onstage.  Unlike Lightning Bolt, Monotonix' singer spends a good part of the set dumping garbage cans over the drummer's head. 
  
• Said garbage cans had many uses, with my favorite being when the singer actually got in one and crowdsurfed about the room.  My least favorite was when the crowd began chucking the cans across the room.  Normally repelling a giant garbage can isn't too big of a chore, but with the number of flashes going off in the room I could barely tell what the fuck was going on.
• The drummer seems to endure the most abuse but manages to maintain a reasonably steady beat despite being pretty much defenseless against the onslaughts of the crowd and his bandmembers.  Several times actual pieces of his kit were dragged across the room, necessitating several impromptu changes of scenery during the set.
  
• At one point, the crowd wrestled the bass drum away, and next thing I know the drummer (who has to be about 6'4") is sailing over the crowd while sitting on the bass drum, and still somehow keeping the beat. 
  
• By the end of the set, the band had been carried off along with their equipment into the smaller room before leading the crowd in an a capella rendition of Queen's "We Will Rock You."  Frickin' hilarious.

    Well, there you have it.  If you think any of the antics described above are hilarious, then I have at least one thing in common with you.  See you tonight at (le) poisson rouge for Deerhunter.

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Now Listening: Mogwai's new Batcat EP, available today digitally and on vinyl.  First impressions: title track is fucking awesome, recalling Mr Beast standout "Glasgow Mega-Snake."  Second track, the fancifully titled "Stupid Prick Gets Chased by the Police and Loses His Slut Girlfriend," is kinda average-good brooding Mogwai, and the third track, which has vocals by Roky Erickson (!), is fucking terrible.  Roky sounds like he just finished gargling Dran-o.