Franken-Disco

Last night Nite Jewel, Eric Hnatow, and Triangle Forest played at Smith's Davis Ballroom (not in the campus center as I had thought) to about forty or fifty people, maximum. By the end there weren't even two dozen left standing. It's really a shame that a) people didn't know about the show (due to hyper-individualism or low publicity on the part of WOZQ) or b) the show was scheduled during Smith midterm exams. There was far more space in that room, and certainly far, far more students at Smith and in the area that would have had a blast if they forked over the mere $5 for entry.


Triangle Forest opened, but honestly I wish they hadn't even played. It was embarrassing watching the trio churn out song after song, each sounding exactly like the one preceding. To top it off, there was no drum set, just a man sitting behind a drum-pad and a kick-drum-pad clicking out what could have easily been pounded out on an actual set. This faux-instrumentation was supplemented by some sort of robot guitar, as well as a robotic vocal manipulation. At least the Chromeo-sounding voice was a break from the singer's grating whine, which resembled the pompous sneer of Spoon's Britt Daniel. All this boredom wasn't helped by the two keyboard players just standing there like manikins. Also, you'd think these electronics buffs would have all their shit down, but there were multiple malfunctions that they blatantly let everyone know about.


Mr. Hnatow, our savior, went on next. "I don't want to be the main feature," Eric said, and, while he wasn't, he sure was a hell of a lot better than the first act. He played stuff from his newest EP, none of which I know the names of, but it was all fun, glitchy, heavy, and spacey. He donned the light jacket and reached for the ceiling. The jacket's coming to be a real trademark even though he only wears it for one song. Last night he busted out a rap that his brother Tim wrote, which he delivered whilst running and place and generally flailing. He honestly keeps getting better, and what's not to love when the guy keeps all his hand-made posters and gives them out for free (still) at each show, along with stickers and glow-in-the-dark patches.


By the time Nite Jewel went on, it didn't seem like anyone was there anymore. It wasn't even really that late, but everyone was sleeping. Nite Jewel would have put dreams in their heads if they had attended, but they did not, so we can assume they were consumed by nite-mares. Ramona the short, along with her tall companion (whose name is escaping me), did her thing and, while the two just stood and rocked back and forth (one of my issues with Triangle Forest), they were endlessly mesmerizing. After their first song Ramona prematurely blurted out "I'm gonna play a few more songs," a dry take on bands' tendency to stick around on stage for too long after saying they're almost done (which Triangle Forest definitely did). They did do more, many more, including new tracks appearing on an upcoming or newly released 12" as well as my favorites from Good Evening (Human Ear Music) "Weak For Me," "Chimera," and "Lover," which ended the set.

I'm coming to realize that a lot of Nite Jewel songs remind me of something I cannot recall, but the thought materializes itself as a 70s TV jingle with period-appropriate fonts and animations. One more thing to mention: Ramona has to go back to L.A. to finish her last semester at Occidental. Hopefully after school she keeps on with the sleepy dance jams cos, honestly, everyone can use a soundtrack to a warm, streetlamp-lit summer night and the sounds of Good Evening are perfect for such an instance.

MORE:

Drum pad man gets funky

Eric

Eric

Keyboard made entirely of walrus tusk ivory, for sure

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Unrelated:


So this guy was on the bus on the way to Northampton (I'm not a creep, I swear) and I couldn't help but be hypnotized by his paper folding. When I first got on the bus, he was sitting there with a circular piece of paper, creased many, many times in beautiful geometric patterns, like one of those snowflakes you make in elementary school but with no (safety) scissors. He proceeded to fold the sheet into a small box, triangles repeating and spiraling into each other to close the box at its top. He did this once, put it away, and took out another sheet, which he halved, folding both pieces into similar kinked strips, which he interlocked into a sort of crown. He put this away and took out the circle paper box again, folding and refolding each and every crease therapeutically, all the while completely enveloped in himself and his incessant folding. I'd like a lesson someday, paper folding man, wherever you are.

Nite Hnatow

Tomorrow is finally just a few hours away, so that means the Nite Jewel/Eric Hnatow/Triangle Forest show is too. You can still get your tickets in advance at the Smith Campus Center for $3 from 11AM-2PM tomorrow, or you can wait til the show, but you'll have to pay $5. Doors at 7PM, show's supposed to start at 7:30. I managed to get in touch with Eric via email while he was on the road and got a bit of an interview whose text you can read below. Speaking of which, check out the end of his tour blog here and I suppose it wouldn't hurt to click here and read my article from today's paper, which is essentially the interview + a little blurb on Nite Jewel.

Interview

Friendship Bracelet: With regards to the recent tour, how necessary is it for an artist to walk out of their comfort zone – zone meaning either a geographical area or style?

Eric Hnatow: I have never done an official tour before. A few of the shows were a bit strange, but for the most part I had an awesome time playing most of the places I went to. At one show I played to about six people all sitting on bar stools in a huge room and all of them bought every piece of [merchandise] I had. At other shows I would play for 60 people and sell nothing at all. It really helps drive home the notion that you should do what you are doing as best as you can all the time, no matter who is watching.

FB: You must be absorbing a whole lot of stimuli traveling around and getting lots of feedback. How are your shows abroad going to inform your upcoming shows in the area?

EH: How well I am received is always different. The show in Atlanta was particularly awesome due to the fact that my pal, Witt, who used to go to Hampshire [College], set it up. He started a killer community arts space down there called WonderRoot, so he put together a really great show for me. I guess that is a huge part of the success of any show – attention to detail from both the performers as well as the person curating the event. That said, I did roll up into an impromptu show in Asheville, N.C., and drop two songs, like a six-minute assault. That was great. I brought this light jacket on tour with me that I have been using in my set for a bit around here. That night I ended up jumping up on the bar with the light jacket going and people totally lost it. I didn’t pay for any drinks after that stunt.

FB: There’s always people getting into your sets around here, though I’m always suspicious that it’s because you play so much it’s like people know you and humans love what they’re familiar and comfortable with. While this may be true, my fascination with your shows is how unfamiliar each set truly is, since it is forever changing and moving beyond what I saw and heard the last time. What’s the philosophy behind it all?

EH: Yeah, I am always suspicious of any success I have with my music. I don’t really have a specific musical idea of what I am doing. I don’t make music to fulfill any sort of musical goals I have. It is more to move people to think differently about stuff. When I make music to be performed in a live setting, the first thought I have is usually: ‘How will people react to this?’ I enjoy embracing the effect that other people have on the process of creation. This is why I say the music I make is for you, not me. Of course, I am getting some stupid ego trip from the whole thing, but I am not one of those folks who say things like ‘I do this for me, and don’t care what you think about it.’ I totally care what you think. Maybe that is why people are so reactive to what I have been doing lately. It is familiar to them because, in a way, they helped make it.

FB: I’d like to know how you feel your evolution as an artist has gone, whether it’s encapsulated within your music strictly, or whether it stretched further back into, say, visual mediums.

EH: I don’t really separate it all that much. To me all the stuff that I do links back to sound. That is just the language I began speaking through. Whether it is fliers, album artwork, movement, food or whatever, I always start with sound ... even if the sound is silence. I took lots of art classes in high school and stuff, but still don’t really consider myself an ‘artist.’ I just work on stuff, that’s all. I think of it all as work, not art.

FB: Surely you started playing house shows, or something similar to that, and now you’re playing named venues with more well-known artists. What’s that shift like?

EH: Playing with bigger names is always cool, mostly because I get to be in a show that I would otherwise probably be at anyway. As far as the venues go, I don’t really think there are any true music venues around this area, especially in Northampton. Aside from The Elevens and Sierra Grille, there are no other venues that care about the most important thing – music! Unfortunately, they all care about the other word that starts with ‘M.’ I actually much prefer to perform in alternative venues like houses, cafés, art spaces, warehouses and, of course, colleges. The college shows around here are my absolute favorite shows at the moment. Talk to me after Flywheel opens again and I might change my tune on that.

FB: Who’s your favorite band or artist you’ve played with this tour?

EH: My favorite band that I have played with on tour would probably be this band called Maple Kitten, from Philly. They are an all-Casio-keyboard band who make video projections and play on the floor.

FB: Who’s your favorite artist you’ve ever performed with? Anyone you’d be eying to play with in the future?

EH: Best yet ... Crush Cloud. Future ... Pink Floyd.

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Unrelated:


I mentioned Lil' Wayne's not-so-new-anymore mixtape The Hottest Nigga Under the Sun recently and, up until a couple days ago, I still couldn't get enough of the very first, minute-long track titled "My Name Is." Now it doesn't matter whether I can get enough of it or not, cos a full version is available on Drake's new mixtape So Far Gone which dropped Feb 13. The track's called "Unstoppable" here, and features an opening verse from Drake (who is actually Toronto's Aubrey Drake Graham, who played Jimmy Brooks on Degrassi: The Next Generation), the same verse from Weezy, and that super-catchy vocal hook in the chorus, which turns out is Santogold. This track doesn't stop getting play around here (hence the song title - download it here via RCRDLBL), and the rest of the mixtape is worth listening to as well with all the guest spots, including another from Wayne, Bun B, Trey Songz, and a little promo from #3 Chris Paul.

Drake - So Far Gone Mixtape

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Also:

What a combo.

Les Livres

Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong, a.k.a. The Books, were pretty brilliant last night at MASS MoCA in North Adams. Zammuto sang plainly, strummed acoustic guitar, both played electric bass thumps, and de Jong added the necessary melody and power with the cello. While sound samples pumped out of speakers as well, the organic instrumentation prevailed. The real story was the video work, a bizarre combination of nature scenes, self-help tapes, and home movies set to the frantic audio component. One of my favorite pieces, which I believe was called "A Cold Freezin' Night," featured awkward samples strictly taken from old Talkboy tapes. They performed the video I posted, "Classy Penguin," pretty flawlessly, as well as an encore of Nick Drake's "Cello Song" (found on that Dark Was the Night compilation with Jose Gonzalez vocals - listen here) and a creepy ABC song Zammuto wrote for his kid, which Zammuto admitted he was terrified of. It was great to see them play their first show in two years in their hometown where they knew people in the crowd, the whole show very relaxed. They've got a few more shows coming up in April, including two in one night at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. Also of note: they are certainly releasing a new full-length later this year. This show at MASS MoCA was a trial run of sorts, getting them used to performing their new work (they worked with five new numbers along with older pieces).

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Completely Unrelated:

Heard this on the radio at work today and freaked out.

Sweet Leaf - Black Sabbath

Sad City

Thank you Julian Lynch's Myspace page (and effectively Julian Lynch) for exposing me to Sad City. It seems as though it's just one dude, Gary Caruth, and he's got three tracks up on his Myspace, "Jumy or Daylily," "Sad City Girls," and "Girl Got Curves."

The first, "Jumy of Daylily," drones, pulsates, then clatters out, brimming with frantic strings, rumbles of doom, and a sense of claustrophobia, almost recalling the internal chaos of a fever taking a turn for the worse. Luckily these feelings are artificial. "Sad City Girls" is seven minutes of dancey decay, coming up crystal clear with a minute remaining. "Girl Got Curves" is certainly quicker, vocoder breaths and drums one might hear in a Sharon Jones song.

Orange You Glad/Birthday

About a week ago I was strolling through Real Estate's Myspace page and I happened upon a gentleman by the name of Julian Lynch in their top friends, so I clicked. Lucky for me that I did. Lynch summons some hypnotic sounds on the two CD-Rs he sent me, Orange You Glad and Birthday. The former came packaged in a heavier stock paper with some owls on it, while the latter, the second release on Buffalo Songs, depicts what I believe to be one man in an orange robe giving a second nude man an anal enema with what appears to be a neti pot.

I've got no track listing to work with (EDIT: NOW I DO), but it's not hard to talk on the sound as a whole. We find light drumming and deep, yet subtle bass rhythms accompanied by a golden haze, comprised of Lynch's lazy vocalizations, ethereal electronic swirls, and meandering guitar noodles. I'm compelled to liken the sound to a way looser Galaxie 500, with a definite similarity to Matthew Mondanile's Ducktails in its seeming attempt to recreate the season of Summer as sound. While Lynch produces a bit more dark and powerful effect than Ducktails at times, and doesn't embrace repetition to such an extent, the comparisons rest in the layering of gauzy tracks over each other to create a single fabric.

"Venom," the first track on Orange You Glad, rotates, suspended in air, until sharp guitar stabs dominate, recede, then return triumphantly after a spell of pulsations. "Winterer One" follows, five minutes of swirling mellow. The best piece is probably "Andaza," which could be a completely soothing Deerhunter song with Lynch flexing the falsetto while guitars drone, rising from the back to the foreground. The sound is underneath briny water with shards of light permeating, though at the same time we're miles from the beach on a back porch, willows swaying in the yard. It's a shame I received this in the muddy slog of late winter (ALSO EDIT: IT'S NOW 60°), for this will potentially be best enjoyed in the breeze on the balcony, hoping the train doesn't screech by.

Listen to streaming tracks ("Venom," "Andaza," more) and support the man by picking up his CDs all right here.

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Related:

Speaking of those Real Estate dudes, they've got a new track up on their Myspace, which seems to be just about a weekly venture. Sticking with the summer theme, this one's called "Beach Comber," more Grateful Dead dust.