Blood

Best Fwends

Eric Hnatow






So like I said, last night I went to the Iron Horse for a night of silly bands. Turns out I left for a different show before Matt & Kim played, but that's not much of a loss.

Eric Hnatow opened, his table of sequencers and wires and electronics on the floor. He's a whirlwind to say the least, jumping around and convulsing to his slew of heavy beats. Not exactly sure what he reminds me of.. it sure sounds amateur, but he seems to have honed it at least a bit since I saw him for the first time in May when he opened for Dan Deacon. He's a party wrapped within a small bearded man, especially once he donned the Christmas light hoodie, which restricted his movement to a couple feet around his table cos he had to stay plugged in. He ended the night with a different sort of number with some guy whose name escapes me, both hunched over, twisting knobs to create some ambient textures and mild backbeats. He's playing the WMUA Record Sale in December (the 6th I believe) and apparently touring in early 2009. Good Luck Eric.

I've never seen Best Fwends before, but my friend Gabe said it was the best thing he saw at CMJ so I figured it couldn't be bad. Quite the contrary, it was awful and obnoxious and stupid, yet endlessly entertaining. They did a song called "Blood" about blood, a song called "Hail" about Satan, and a song called "Birdchirps" (self-promoted as the worst song ever) which featured... warped bird chirps. None of their songs really lasted more than a minute. Their stage set included a wild banner with numerous multicolored, silly faces and two gigantic inflatable gargoyles which they most likely got on sale from CVS the day after Halloween. Oh, and they didn't play instruments. They just flailed around and played hyperactive, dweeby electronic noise from an iPod.

The other deal was over at this place called Purple House, who put on shows about once a month in their basement. I saw this guy Saul Feathers (also named Ian) there a while ago and it was interesting. Last night I was there for about three acts, starting with Purpleman. Purpleman was Ben Daly playing guitar, a gentleman who lived in back of our apartment in a converted garage last summer, another guitar, and a drummer. They produced some level of black metal meets scattered noise. Quite loud. Next was Hume, a guitar ripping echoed tones while the drummer crashed away. Not tight at all, but it was pretty good stuff. They're playing with Relics at Earthfoods Cafe at UMass in the Student Union building this coming Sunday. The last dudes I stayed for was Snakes Say Hisss! whom I miraculously remembered seeing open for YACHT at Clark University. They're not quite my cup of tea, just some Skidmore College grads, one with a guitar (Miles) one with a microphone (Jamie) playing & singing to programmed iPod electronics. They're touring around together with Boogie Boarder.

About to head over to Northampton again to catch Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band with Ben Kweller and Rig 1 (Team-Love) at the Northampton Academy of Music. Check the preview here.