Williamsburg that is, home of the affected hipster. Dean and I went to Snacky. Jimbo from Uncle Morty's Dub Shack was sitting in the same seat as last time I was there. Maybe he has a share in the place. They were showing the Jackie Chan classic Young Master. We had the Zatoichi special: $4 sake shot with a Tsingtao chaser. Dean, who is the mayor of coolsville ran into about 5 people he knew while we drank and chomped down on fried rice and shoyu ramen. Then we made our way down the street to Trash Bar. We got there just in time for the Imaginary Icons, Tom and Ted's band (I don't know the other two guys). They are reviving a genre that barely ever existed: neo British post punk. Think heavy influences of Wire, Swell Maps, etc. Maybe Mission of Burma was influenced by some of that stuff or had similar sensibilities but they remained fairly original. That was the thing with the first wave of post punk bands: the originality in an era of stale music. By stripping things down those early British bands allowed other complexities to emerge. Imaginary Icons are pretty good, and have interesting parts but I'm still waiting for that one hit song. It does seem like their almost putting on English accents. Maybe it's the familiar phrasing of their vocal lines and arrangements, I'm not sure. The Big Boys "Heartbeat" popped up on my ipod the following day and I realized that they were also playing with weird staccato rhythms while mixing musical genres, though their influences seemed more disparate, namely punk rock and funk/r & b. Next up was The Golden Boys from Austin (pictured above). Don't know how to describe them exactly, somewhere between underground rock, country and a little bit of singer songwriter in a very disheveled sense (that's a good thing). They had a great, chaotic energy but managed to keep everything together despite the lead guitar struggling with his strap through the first two numbers. They had a keyboard player with a curly mustache and all four of the upright musicians assaulted the front of the stage in a happy melee of flailing limbs and twangy sounds while the drummer slammed hard and thrilled the audience at one point with a one armed passage, brandishing a beer in the other hand. I left early so I missed The Spider Bags, who Dean said were great, and the self-proclaimed country rock of Puddin' Tang. So much for me and the scene.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
GOLDEN NIGHTS
Friday night out on the town. Well, Williamsburg that is, home of the affected hipster. Dean and I went to Snacky. Jimbo from Uncle Morty's Dub Shack was sitting in the same seat as last time I was there. Maybe he has a share in the place. They were showing the Jackie Chan classic Young Master. We had the Zatoichi special: $4 sake shot with a Tsingtao chaser. Dean, who is the mayor of coolsville ran into about 5 people he knew while we drank and chomped down on fried rice and shoyu ramen. Then we made our way down the street to Trash Bar. We got there just in time for the Imaginary Icons, Tom and Ted's band (I don't know the other two guys). They are reviving a genre that barely ever existed: neo British post punk. Think heavy influences of Wire, Swell Maps, etc. Maybe Mission of Burma was influenced by some of that stuff or had similar sensibilities but they remained fairly original. That was the thing with the first wave of post punk bands: the originality in an era of stale music. By stripping things down those early British bands allowed other complexities to emerge. Imaginary Icons are pretty good, and have interesting parts but I'm still waiting for that one hit song. It does seem like their almost putting on English accents. Maybe it's the familiar phrasing of their vocal lines and arrangements, I'm not sure. The Big Boys "Heartbeat" popped up on my ipod the following day and I realized that they were also playing with weird staccato rhythms while mixing musical genres, though their influences seemed more disparate, namely punk rock and funk/r & b. Next up was The Golden Boys from Austin (pictured above). Don't know how to describe them exactly, somewhere between underground rock, country and a little bit of singer songwriter in a very disheveled sense (that's a good thing). They had a great, chaotic energy but managed to keep everything together despite the lead guitar struggling with his strap through the first two numbers. They had a keyboard player with a curly mustache and all four of the upright musicians assaulted the front of the stage in a happy melee of flailing limbs and twangy sounds while the drummer slammed hard and thrilled the audience at one point with a one armed passage, brandishing a beer in the other hand. I left early so I missed The Spider Bags, who Dean said were great, and the self-proclaimed country rock of Puddin' Tang. So much for me and the scene.
Williamsburg that is, home of the affected hipster. Dean and I went to Snacky. Jimbo from Uncle Morty's Dub Shack was sitting in the same seat as last time I was there. Maybe he has a share in the place. They were showing the Jackie Chan classic Young Master. We had the Zatoichi special: $4 sake shot with a Tsingtao chaser. Dean, who is the mayor of coolsville ran into about 5 people he knew while we drank and chomped down on fried rice and shoyu ramen. Then we made our way down the street to Trash Bar. We got there just in time for the Imaginary Icons, Tom and Ted's band (I don't know the other two guys). They are reviving a genre that barely ever existed: neo British post punk. Think heavy influences of Wire, Swell Maps, etc. Maybe Mission of Burma was influenced by some of that stuff or had similar sensibilities but they remained fairly original. That was the thing with the first wave of post punk bands: the originality in an era of stale music. By stripping things down those early British bands allowed other complexities to emerge. Imaginary Icons are pretty good, and have interesting parts but I'm still waiting for that one hit song. It does seem like their almost putting on English accents. Maybe it's the familiar phrasing of their vocal lines and arrangements, I'm not sure. The Big Boys "Heartbeat" popped up on my ipod the following day and I realized that they were also playing with weird staccato rhythms while mixing musical genres, though their influences seemed more disparate, namely punk rock and funk/r & b. Next up was The Golden Boys from Austin (pictured above). Don't know how to describe them exactly, somewhere between underground rock, country and a little bit of singer songwriter in a very disheveled sense (that's a good thing). They had a great, chaotic energy but managed to keep everything together despite the lead guitar struggling with his strap through the first two numbers. They had a keyboard player with a curly mustache and all four of the upright musicians assaulted the front of the stage in a happy melee of flailing limbs and twangy sounds while the drummer slammed hard and thrilled the audience at one point with a one armed passage, brandishing a beer in the other hand. I left early so I missed The Spider Bags, who Dean said were great, and the self-proclaimed country rock of Puddin' Tang. So much for me and the scene.
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1 comment:
Squeaky pretty much nailed this review right on. I do have to say that Imaginary Icons were so much better than their recorded output. The new drummer is really good and the difference in sound is like night and day. Spider Bags were absolutely great - like a punk rock Crazy Horse (though Crazy Horse was almost punk rock at times), they tore through their set with wild abandon. Great slide guitar playing and super-solid drumming. I got so drunk at the end of the set that I had to leave before Puddin' Tang. I also neglected to say goodbye to anyone. I apologize.
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