Noise Pop 2008: The Mountain Goats, So Many Dynamos, Caves
March 9, 2008
Caves
Arrrgh, every year Noise Pop does this to me. Every year they put on a great Sunday afternoon show at Bottom of the Hill that only serves to remind me how BotH used to put on regular Sunday afternoon shows with free BBQ and how awesome they were. Why don’t they do that anymore? I don’t even care if they have free BBQ (and I say that as a person for whom “free” and “BBQ” are two of the most delicious words in the English language), just let me be able to drink beer and see bands on a Sunday afternoon without feeling guilty that I’m not outside “enjoying” the “nice weather”.
So I remember checking out Caves‘ myspace page when they played last year’s Mission Creek, and I could have sworn that they had kind of a droney freak-folk thing going on at the time, but the trio that showed up to the Bottom of the Hill was… well, not completely different, but I suspect that singer/guitarist Zach Brewer has been listening to a whole lot of Black Mountain recently, given all the 70’s wastoid fuzz-rock flavor he was bringing. And yet, keyboardist Kevin Price was still holding down the warm drone end of things. It kind of makes sense, since there’s always been kinship between the back-to-nature psych-folkies and the bad-trip stoner-rockers around here. But it was hard to tell from their set whether Caves were making a concerted effort to bridge the two genres, or whether they were transitioning into one from the other, or just making a brief stylistic detour. Whatever way, it’ll be interesting to see how their next album turns out. [More...]
Noise Pop 2008: Helio Sequence, Film School, The Builders and the Butchers, Built for the Sea
March 9, 2008
Photos by: Reid Williams
Helio Sequence
Film School
Noise Pop 2008: Kelley Stoltz, Grand Archives, The Morning Benders, The Weather Underground
March 8, 2008
Kelley Stoltz
The night began with The Weather Underground (LA) taking the stage to create a swell of cymbals and everlasting sustain. Eventually the song burst into something like U2 if they made The Joshua Tree in 2008. As the set continued I saw less U2 though and more Prince, especially with the lead singer’s matador-like movements and soulful vocals. Their cover of “Something’s Gotta Give” was a high point as was their mariachi send off.
The Berkeley quartet The Morning Benders were up next. These boys have the unthreatening good looks to sell a lot of t-shirts to 14-year old girls at a Hot Topic. Even though they look like they are in the 10th grade, their sound is not sophomoric at all. Three-minute pop songs complete with some Bluesy riffs, a little Rhodes piano, and thoughtful lyrics kept me entertained throughout their set. Fans of The Shins and Phantom Planet should check out The Morning Benders.
Click to listen to our feature episode on The Morning Benders!
For those of you that have heard of Carissa’s Wierd (the “i” is supposed to come before the “e”), you are familiar with Mat Brooke’s haunting and beautifully whispered vocals. If you have never heard of Carissa’s Wierd, or Brooke’s more recent collaboration with fellow Carissa’s Wierd alum Ben Bridwell, then I highly recommend checking them out. Although The Grand Archives have a similar whispery sound as Brooke’s previous outfits, the melancholic attitude seems to have shifted to one of optimism. The result is still reminiscent of Carissa’s Weird, only if they listened to the Beach Boys.
Noise Pop 2008: Birdmonster, Throw Me The Statue, The Hundred Days
March 8, 2008
Noise Pop 2008: February 28th @ Great American Music Hall
Photos by: Muhammad Asranur
Birdmonster
Throw Me The Statue
The Hundred Days
Noise Pop 2008: Cursive at the Great American Music Hall Friday
March 6, 2008
Known for his drunken slurs and stumbling on stage, Tim Kasher, lead singer of Saddle Creek’s Cursive, gave a soberly stunning performance at the Great American Music Hall last Friday.
The indie rock and roll band opened with a brand new song and played a mixture of new tunes throughout the set. They also included hits off popular Cursive records such as Domestica, The Ugly Organ, and Happy Hollow. All five gentlemen were very energetic on stage, especially Tim who kept waving his left arm over his head like he was doing the wave at a sports game.
Singing about religious skepticism, break-ups, divorce, and writer’s block, Cursive’s set showed the growth of the band over the past decade and gave a sneak peak of the new album they are currently recording in Los Angeles.
Musically, the band was without their cellist or any type of horn section at this Noise Pop performance. To make up for this missing component of their sound, a sax player guest starred and gave “Dorothy at Forty” and other Happy Hollow tunes the brass edge they needed. Toward the end of the set, Kasher told the audience that he was always a little nervous to play San Francisco but that now he felt like he was great friends with everyone at the Great American and was going to put them “on speed dial.”
Noise Pop 2008: Magic Bullets, Human Giant, Voxhaul Broadcast
March 5, 2008
Magic Bullets
Photo by: Matt Mayott
A large number of comedy and music fans gathered at the Mezzanine for the SF performance of Human Giant last Thursday as part of Noise Pop. The sketch trio made the leap from Internet videos to a successful MTV series whose second season begins next week. Don’t let the fact that it’s on MTV scare you away; the first season was an island of hilarity in the network’s sea of mediocrity and self-degradation, featuring guest appearances and writing contributions by some of the best comedians around.
The mostly-seated show featured a mix of sketches from the new season and live bits from members Aziz Ansari and Rob Huebel; Paul Scheer had left the tour to film a movie role and all of the group’s post-SF dates had been canceled. Thankfully, though, the show continued on without him, and featured some funny segments, including a live performance by the popular Illusionators, and a man who becomes famous by doing something horrible to his genitals. The group excels at setting up relatively straightforward concepts, where an easy punchline might seem apparent, and veering somewhere extremely bizarre, unexpected, and very funny.
Although a majority of folks left as the Mezzanine staff cleared out the seats, a dedicated seventy or eighty stuck around for a great-but-short set from San Francisco’s Magic Bullets. As they told us in their interview, the band’s live set was noticeably more amplified than the jangly pop of their debut album. Still, the arrangements retained a certain minimal elegance, setting up a bed of tones upon which singer Philip Benson projected his signature Brit-reminiscent blend of emotive crooning and yelping.
Noise Pop 2008: Rosebuds, Foxtail Somersault - Photos
March 3, 2008
Photos by: Muhammad Asranur
Rosebuds
Foxtail Somersault
Noise Pop 2008: The Walkmen, Broken West, Nyles Lannon - Photos
March 2, 2008
Photos by: Reid Williams
The Walkmen
Broken West
Nyles Lannon
