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May 27, 2005
Stereo Total, The Gossip, Hawnay Troof, Berbati's Pan, 5/25
I tried to get some nascent Team T'ers to blog this one but both of them wussed out. WUSSES! So the burden falls to me, and lo it is a heavy one, as heavy as 15 minutes spent running my mouth into this text box. But I digress.
This show was good, if a little long for me. The Gossip were outstanding. I saw them a couple nights before at Dunes. They were a little rusty, which makes sense given that was their first time performing the new songs off their forthcoming album, which they had just finished recording a couple days before. The Berbati's show was tight though. Beth Ditto sings with bale force, knocking all cynicism to the walls, barelling down on your very soul. She is one of the best performers in indie rock, hands down. Seeing her makes you wonder if there even are any other real performers out there, such is the order of magnitude by which she breathes fire and screams dirt on the skinny-tie masses (what?). Ironically, The Gossip seem to be moving towards the least soulful corner of that crowded room, that of "dancepunk" or whatever we're calling the Rapture now. Yeah, there's neo-disco riffs now, some of which I'm betting Nathan (the guitarist) picked up at his killer Suicide Club DJ nights at the aforementioned Dunes (that other Gossip show was actually part of Suicide Club, come to think of it). Mostly it works - transforming Ditto from the swamp blues mama we know to the classy disco diva she might be - but sometimes it sounds lite and unfunky. Oh yeah, and the new drummer is great. She bangs the living shit out of those drums and looks stoked to be there.
I saw Stereo Total two times in close succession a couple years ago, both very very fun shows. This show was fun, but the crowd was less excited, and I got tired towards the end of it. The songs started sounding a little samey, which I don't remember happening before. I think maybe it was a longer set. Also the other times I saw them they built up slowly from purely synth songs to more rock performance style, which lent a nice little story-arc to the whole thing. This time the songs were more mixed up. They're still wonderful tho, and I'll def be seeing them next time they're in town.
Posted by TRMW at 05:16 PM | Comments (2)
May 20, 2005
Introduction
Hey everyone, thought it might be a good idea to post a little intro to the Team Tinnitus now that we are officially up and running on UrHo. Team Tinnitus is a blog about concerts (a "concert blog" if you won't) based out of Portland, Oregon. It was started up by Mark Baumgarten a while ago on Blogspot. Mark ditched out on the whole blog thing a while ago, so now I'm running this ship (and you say: "who the hell are you?" and the Internet says this guy). Mike Merril graciously offered to host this thing, and now we are here. Thanks Mike! We're always looking for new blood in here, so if you're interested please get in touch and we can chat about this thang.
OK, that's enough of that, on with the show(s)!
oh yeah...
FULL DISCLOSURE: I promote shows for Berbati's Pan and Holocene, so I have an obvious conflict of interest when I write about shows at those venues, or any venue in Portland really. This is why I no longer write listings for print publications. So take everything I say with a grain/boulder of salt, ok? NOW, let's do this.
Posted by TRMW at 03:20 PM | Comments (3)
A-Frames, Towne Lounge, 5/18
You might be thinking, "Where the hell is the Towne Lounge?". You think that because it's a very new venue and it's hard to find. It's right by PGE Park on a little side street kinda and until recently there was no sign, just a small green lite on a post telling you you'd found it (now there's a sign that simply says "Lounge" which is probably still mysterious enough to retain cred).
The inside of the place is pretty awesome. It has a kind of dark and musty feeling that reminds of the ever-more-dearly departed Blackbird. There walls are gree and the ceiling is gold, which is a very decadent and weird combination that somehow works. There's tables and a very small stage. I really like the feel of this place, so when I found out the A-Frames were playing there I pee'd a little.
I pee'd because the A-Frames' new album, Black Forest, is one of the coolest things I've heard this year. It gets me all pumped up in the same way I got pumped up singing "You're God is dead" etc with Trent Reznor in high school. That pump comes from the deep deep post-apocalyptic pessimism running through the lyrics and the death-knell machine-punk that backs it up. Part of me also wants to see all of humanity erased, and the A-Frames let me release that beast while simultaneously bopping around my living room.
I saw them live a while ago, opening for Country Teasers (awesome band) at Dante's. I hadn't heard any of their albums at that point, and was kind of interested in the live show, but not super impressed. My friend thinks their live show sounds like "just another punk band" and I can see how one might. Maybe it takes the solitude of home listening to understand this band's icy brilliance, or maybe their new stuff is just significantly better than the old. Both probably.
Anyway, this show was really fun. The sound system seriously sucked - you couldn't hear the vocals at all, turning up the level let to feedback = LAME - but no one really cared. The drummer smacks the living bejeezus out his drums, sometimes laying down a cymbal over the tom for added industrial krrrang. The singer/guitarist guy can whip out some lazer-sharp anti-riffs. They played mostly older songs that I didn't know and wasn't as into, but which were still fun to move around to. People were drunk and some people were being loud and the singer smiled at all of it, so I guess they're not total death-to-humanity assholes. Whatever they are, they're awesome. See? Woop woop A-Frames, my death-disco release since 2005.
Drinks drunk: 2 beers (read: hella trashed)
Posted by TRMW at 02:24 PM | Comments (0)
May 09, 2005
LIBRETTO/SIREN'S ECHO/LYRICS BORN 4/29
ICE GORILLA:
I saw Atmosphere a week ago (you can read the review right here), not just Atmosphere though, Atmosphere with a full live band rocking out behind him. And you know what? It made a show full of middle-schoolers moshing and crowd-surfing, one of the better musical experiences I've had. A show that I had been expecting to sound like monkey poop smeared on a stick and beat against a drum, was innovative, entertaining, and downright inspiring. Not to downplay Slug's incredible performance, but the live band made the show, they transformed old songs in to new masterpieces, created a cohesive sound that permeated throughout the entire show, and really built the energy that pulsed from that audience.
So, when I heard that Lyrics Born was once again making his way to Berbati’s Pan, but this time with a live band in tow, my interest was peaked. Not only was I hoping for an experience like the Atmosphere spectacle, but I wanted to know if this was the new direction of hip-hop. Had the days of DJs and emcees banging out beats and freestyling finally fizzled to their dreary end?
Heading into the show last Friday night, I was hoping to find out.
Libretto’s a name I see all over the telephone poles of Portland, opening for someone or headlining his own show at some dive bar, but surprisingly I’ve never actually seen him perform. His set started and Husticious quickly excused himself to the bar side of Berbati’s, leaving me to hash out my opinions on my own. I stayed for two songs because of the obnoxious man standing besides Libretto - I believe you call them the hip-hop hype man. Their purpose? To get the crowd "hyped" enough that they can start the ass shake shuffle. Their actual role? To stand behind the real deal performer, apeing about, looking mean, and completely ruining the performance by screaming out lines they memorized when wacking off during a studio session. It makes me want to staple my genitalia to a moving vehicle.
I mean for fuck’s sake, Libretto is a solo artist. Buy a CD of his, if they exist, and listen to it and nowhere will you hear Captain Tag-A-Long. Never. They just bring this shmuck to the show and let him hold a microphone and obliterate the possibility of actually hearing the talents of the emcee you paid money to hear.
Cutting this tirade short, Libretto had a chum up there doing just this, and it made my stomach seethe with anger, so I followed Husticious to the bar-area and soothed it with several Jack and Cokes and half a pack of cigarettes. Thus, my opinion of Libretto is meaningless, but at least I still know I hate hype men and their show-ruining antics.
Half-an-hour later I had imbibed enough liquid courage to return to the concert area and catch an earful of Siren’s Echo, a girl-group I’d never heard of but Husticious had promised were “alright.” And alright they were. Even if they weren’t backed by a group of uber-talented musicians - which they were - the pure braggadocio and bravado these seemingly tough-as-nails broads (and I say broads in only the most complimentary fashion) exuded would’ve had me locked on to the stage. But with the help of the coolest bassist since Bootsy, strumming out huge bass solos and then lifting his hands all Jesus-on-the-cross stlye, they managed to find a nice balance between good ole crowd-rockin’ hip-hop and soothing, almost dangerous sounding R & B.
On a side note, neither of these girls were attractive to me whatsoever, but the aforementioned tough-girl swagger had both Husticious and I wiping the drool from the corners of our mouths for the entirety of their act.
And then it was show time. Time for Lyrics Born, one of the first five rap CDs I ever purchased to step on stage and prove to me that live band hip-hop was the proverbial "next shit".
But he didn’t.
Lyrics Born is an exceptional entertainer. I couldn’t help throughout the set thinking I was watching a fire-and-brimstone preacher spouting the virtues of Lord Jesus. He’d throw his hands up in the air as if he was channeling the very essence of hip-hop into the deep, dark of his soul. His voice was a strange combination of this beat-riding monotone and a gravelly almost-yell that tugged at your arms and legs, seducing them to shake and swagger. I was transported to a deep-South pew and I was clappin' mah hands and shakin' my groove thang. Add to the mix an exceptional band - highlights being his back-up singer’s Arethaesque arm pivots and a ridiculous solo by the Bono-looking bassist - and you should have a repeat of last week's Atmosphere show. But Lyrics Born dropped the ball and let it roll of the stage were a tight sweater wearing hipster picked it up and ran home to Hawthorne.
Because Lyrics Born's energy was as scripted as last week's episode of Hope and Faith without the delightful chitter-chatter of Kelly Ripa.
Throughout Lyric's surprisingly short show, though it may have seemed shorter because I was little drunk, I imagined Lyrics Born had sat in front of a mirror for two months, whispering to himself, “must be energetic, must make crazy arm movements, must seem like the live music makes me insane” and practicing the exact arm thrust he would throw up on the exact beat. Every word he spoke, “Bridge City, if you’re feeling me…blah blah blah” felt like he was reading them off a high school crib sheet. Nothing felt inspired by the music, nothing felt new, rather it all felt directed to squeeze Lyrics Born somewhere between hip-hop and hipster.
And the full out problem exists in the mashing of the live band aesthetic with hip-hop. All of sudden these hip-hop artists realize that cities like Portland and Seattle have these huge hipster populations that are becoming interested in rap music, and they feel like they can connect by adding the more "experimental" live sound. But with Lyrics Born, and to some degree Siren’s Echo, trying so hard to bridge this gap, they lose what was so entertaining in the first place - the liveness of the live show. All of sudden it just feels like I'm watching a production of Bye Bye Birdie with Lyrics Born as Conrad Birdie and some director telling him to move that arm, or shake that leg. Bore. Ing.
To Lyric's credit, the crowd was in, to, it. Not a person actually on the dance floor wasn't seizuring in bouts of ass shaking and hip grinding. Unfortunately, I left the show feeling as if I had spent an hour in a meat locker - cold and uninspired.
The original question: is this the new direction of hip-hop? I doubt it. I think as soon as the hipster's and MTV kids stop giving a damn about hip-hop, as I personally believe is bound to happen, rap artists will take a "nostalgic" bent and return to the live shows of yore - just two turn tables and a microphone. The live band aesthetic will exist on occasion, perhaps at live festivals, or during hometown performances. But eventually the influx of this, excuse my French, experimental shit is going to fade out and away, and the hip-hop community will rejoice in getting back to way it used to be.
Drinks consumed: Hmmmmmmmmm...I'd say, quite a few...
HUSTICIOUS:
Maybe he's too embarrassed to say it, so I guess I will: Goodbye, sweet Ice Gorilla, we knew you well. Well, he might be back, but for now he's off to Arizona for the summer to work at a gay horse camp (not a camp for gay horses, though that would be cool). Hopefully the blistering hot desert sun kicks his ass back to P-Town so we can cover more shows together for your reading bliss. This Lyrics Born show is gonna be the last one for a while.
This was a packed show playing to a packed house. Libretto came on first, who I missed because I was too busy socializing in the part of Berbati's that still lets you smoke. I went back into the music area with Ice Gorilla in time to catch the second half of Siren's Echo's set: two ladies who work it pretty good. I found them incredibly endearing because they looked and strutted like the kind of girls I used to sit next to in my Calculus class. The shorter one (and better rapper of the two) stood sheepishly, as if shy, but when she opened her mouth rhymes spewed forth relentlessly and sharply. The bigger, hotter half of the duo was the party starter, and she moved with a bit more confidence and got the crowd pumped up pretty good. Even she, though, had a funny haircut and was wearing a denim skirt. A denim skirt! What is this, 1993? Simply put, these chicks are nerds, but they're cool nerds, and their backing band, which consisted of a rad guitar player with dreads and this funky, 60-year-old black bassist, knew how to rock. I'm into this trend of mixing rap with really stellar instrumental accompaniment. Atmosphere had it going on last week to stunning effect, and Lyrics Born had it tonight as well.
Lyrics Born is a charismatic emcee from the Bay Area whose recordings have really interesting, layered beats. Live, he had this stunning female backup vocalist and the aforementioned good band; that combination ended up stealing the show from him. LB got off to a great start with his raspy delivery and broad, expressive face, but it became quickly apparent that he was phoning the performance in. Perhaps it's because his raps are written more as songs than samples of verbal dexterity, but LB seemed like he was reciting memorized lines. Even his physical movements--throwing his hands up in the air, clapping, vamping--seemed rehearsed, and became downright annoying as he came back to them again and again. I spent the first encore sucking down water in the corner with my girlfriend. I spent the second encore walking down the street back to the car. I think Lyrics Born is a great songwriter with a great voice, but a huge part of overall "hiphop ability" is the live performance, the ability to be spontaneous and to spit rhymes like a demon... and on that level, he is mediocre at best.
Drinks consumed: Lots of Jack and Coke.
ICE GORILLA:
Don't listen to Husticious, he's been ripping whip-its in the bathroom of Taco Bell for the last two days.
Ice Gorilla may have left P-Town but somehow, someway he's staying on this whole Team Tinnitus tip. Alliterations and all. Hah, two of 'em in a row, I'm a lyrical genius!
No, but for serious, I'm going to try and put a certain amount of input into this blog still. I don't know who, but Husticious and I will figure it out and then I'll come back swinging hard than Apollo Creed after seeing Rocky in the locker room.
Not that any of you probably care all that much...
Posted by H & IG at 12:41 PM | Comments (2)