A week in gigs

I'm behind in posts, so let's wrap up this week in shows:


Mon., Jan. 21st - 40W
Tin Cup Prophette + Murder Mystery + Little Francis

Despite one of the coldest nights of the winter so far in Athens, and... a Monday (glad you follow), there was a non negligible audience (understand about 40, 50 people) for that show. I assume that the Hillary's laudative review of Murder Mystery in the Flagpole and Gordon's plug helped, or maybe was it just the presence of Tin Cup Prophette, or the debut of Little Francis who brought their friends as support.

I caught only a few songs of TCP, but was still impressed. Amanda Kapousouz had definitely a huge stage presence, huge like in 8.5 months pregnant. Nevertheless, that didn't prevent her to give us a nice soothing dose of her folksy trip-hop. Highly recommended to fans of Portishead.

Murder Mystery is a quartet (3 guys, one gal) from NYC, currently promoting their first album "Are you ready for the heartache cause here it comes". They play what would be lazily described as indie pop with slight country western overtones, or a musical equivalent of sherbet: it's refreshing, quite enjoyable, but not filling. The show itself was fairly OK. They lost some points for complaining about the lack of dancers (only a couple of people were actually dancing, while the rest of us were cosily sitting on their chair), and for trying to play games with the Athenians: "Athens is a hip town, right ? So you'll know what cover we're about to play...". FYI, that was an Orange Juice song, "Poor Old Soul" if I remember correctly. All in all, a good show, but nothing extraordinary. Their album is definitely worth listening a couple of times. Of the two MP3s linked with this post, "Honey Come Home" is the most representative.

Little Francis are four dudes, three on acoustic guitars and the last one banging on some stuffs. Don't ask me more, I was not paying attention and left in the middle of their song, it was cold.

MP3: Tin Cup Prophette:Going Numb
MP3: Tin Cup Prophette:Speak or Spill Down
MP3: Murder Mystery: Love Astronaut
MP3: Murder Mystery: Honey Come Home


Thu., Jan 24th - Flicker Bar
Joe Rowe's Coming Out Party

First show of Joe Rowe's (of The Glands and Casper and the Cookies fame) new band. Joe sings and plays keyboards, along with fellow Cookie Jim H. on drums, Eli on guitar and Adam on bass. Good solid indie-rock, great first show (sounding even better when you know they practiced only four times as a 4 piece), with a cover of Echo and the Bunnymen as a bonus ("Villiers Terrace"? "Do it clean"? I'm not sure. Correct me in the comments). Most (all) of the songs were actually written for Joe's other, semi-aborted projects, The Ice Caps and The Goons. Guys, congrats again, and we want another show very very soon!
MP3: JRCOP: Green Umbrella



Thu., Jan 24th - Caledonia Lounge
Attached Hands - Caledonia Social Club

Attached Hands are a duo playing live keyboards on pre-recorded samples, with some psychedelic animations in the background. Boards of Canada, anyone ?

Caledonia Social Club is a shoegaze jam experiment involving members of Local bands such as Maserati, A. Armada and others. Fairly efficient, but you definitely have to be in the mood. It took me 15 min. to realize that in fact, no, not that night...



Fri., Jan 25th - Go bar
The Buddy System - Pegasuses XL

The Go Bar was packed for the third Buddy System show, so packed that it was easier to brave the cold and watch the animations from the outside patio than trying to peep through the crowd. If you still don't know anything about the Buddy System, I can't really do anything for you: check some previous posts, and go and see their coming fourth show on Sat., Feb. 2nd at the Caledonia Lounge, where they'll support 63 Crayons and an exciting band of Roenoke, VA, The Young Sinclairs . Note that Friday was the premiere of the Buddies' new animation,"Nature's Tiny Realm".

Because of conflicting schedules, I missed Pegasuses XL. Shame, shame, shame on me.


Fri., Jan 25th - Farm 255
The Ice Cream Socialists - Casper and the Cookies

Because of conflicting schedules, I missed the Ice Cream Socialists, but frankly... Casper and the Cookies delivered us an strong, honest show, mostly consisting of songs from the "Optimist Club". After all, that show was more a live practice before their Japan tour than anything. No big surprises here, a good time for all the family.


And that's all for this week. Stay tuned for more goodies.

Gossips

And now for some random gossips:
Casper and the Cookies will play their last show Athens show of the winter on Fri. Jan 25th at Farm 255 (of all places...). They'll be hitting Japan like a power-pop tsunami on Feb. 5th for a 9-day tour promoting the release of "Optimist Club" on Waikiki records.

Talking about Cookies, on Thu. Jan. 24th, Flicker will host the premiere of a new band composed of Joe R. (guitar), Jim H. (drums) and two other guys whose name I forgot (sorry). The name of the band isn't cast in stone as I write this line, but expect something along the lines of "Joe Rowe's Coming-Out Party". Or maybe not.

Sat. 24th Andy from Denver / The Lolligags was short (4 songs for Andy, 5 for the Lolligags), but really excellent. Andy played a slightly more subdued set than the day before at Flicker, without suggestive dances nor powerglove, but endearing nevertheless. The Lolligags quickly won over the part of the audience who were only discovering them, and Leslie overcame her natural shyness to give us some sweet moves.

Andy will spent 21 days at the end of March, beginning of April on the road for a East Coast/ MidWest show with Keith John Adams. More about that when we'll get closer to the dates.

The Lolligags just spent the week-end recording two new songs with Jason NeSmith at his Bel-Air studio. "Best behavior" isn't fully mixed yet, but amateurs of English education will be pleased. "Carnival" is also still in draft, but we have a hit here already: think Siouxsie meets DM meets Goldfrapp meets the Cure, with a killer groove. 2008, the year of twoth, remember ? By far the most exciting song I've heard all year. Sorry, I can't post anything now, so go and visit their myspace page. Oh, and there are rumors of remixes...

And... That's all for today. Stay warm, I'll be near the carousel.

Pub notes #2

Last Tuesday, I accompanied a friend to a famous DIY venue downtown, to catch Everybody Everybody, the new project of Nate CCBB Mitchell (on bass) and Laura Swindall from Christopher's Liver (on drums), and a third member whose name eludes me for the moment. Interesting rhythmic section, heavily influenced by Pylon, but disappointing show overall. Some ideas deserve a longer cooking time.

Maybe I'm getting old, but I'm certainly getting weary of the kids gathering over the keg and not really giving any hear to what's playing. The tiredness lowered my patience level as well, and I spent a good part of Wednesday ruminating.

However, that Wednesday saw an awesome gig at Caledonia: Poison Control Center were opening for Casper and the Cookies, which brought me back faith in humanity (or at least indie pop).

So it was a Wednesday, the total attendance was less than 30 people (among them, Vanessa B-H. and Michael L. from Pylon, and Bryan P. from the Late BP Helium and that other band, you see what I mean, whose new haircut a la Robyn Hitchcock was the subject of a 15-minute conversation). The name-dropping isn't entirely gratuitous, as it should help you get a feel of the atmosphere: far more mature than the day before, connoisseurs (I hate this word), in one word, the indie family.

PCC is a quartet (Patrick, Devin, Joe and Don) from Ames, IO. It was my second? third? show with the full band. They played Athens Popfest regularly, last year being a notable exception, but they were here to promote "A Collage of Impressions", their latest album released last September on Afternoon Records. Their live is an experience, just pure rock energy, guitar acrobatics, ripped pants, and usually a lot of people on stage for their now classical encore, "Magic Circle Symphony". Remember the Bunnygrunt cover last Popfest ? Voila.

The Cookies show was pretty amazing. Three brand new songs made their premiere, along classics from the Optimist Club, "Marcel Marsalis", and many more (14 songs total). The songs fitted really well: the upcoming album they are currently composing and recording should be awesome. No I'm not partial.

With evenings like that, I'm not ready to give up the scene. Thanks guys.

"Love, love is the answer, until you get cancer, then you're lying, dying, dead..."

(Props to Daytrotter for the PCC MP3)

(Dang. Just started and late already...)
So, last Friday saw me attending a Casper and the Cookies show at Club TSI, in Jacksonville, FL. The Caspers were playing with initially local and now worldwide new stars Black Kids, and as it was on a week-end night close to the break, I offered to do merch' for them, which they gracefully accepted. Thanks again for welcoming me, guys.

I like doing merch'. It's the best to meet people, see some shows, have nice chats, push product you care for. The setup at TSI isn't the best however, as the merch' table is close to the entrance, and you can't really see the stage at the other side of the club. Ecco. They usually have penny PBRs at the beginning of the evening though, so after a few you don't really mind.

The show was great, the house was packed. Casper mixed some old favorites ("Sid from Central Park", "Barking in the Garden of Ill Repute", "Hey Mr Superstar", among others) with some of their new songs such as "Marcel Marsalis", "Little Lady Larva", the now standard "Kiss me beneath the Christmas Tree" (don't forget to check the X-rated version on Daytrotter), and a surprise. And what a surprise ! The very last song was a cover of Pixies' "Hey", with Jim on lead vocals. Very impressive cover, the guitars were maybe a bit too shy, but Kay and Joe really nailed the rhythmic session.
The Black Kids played a short show, barely eight songs, but their repertoire counts only 11 songs, so... They were tight, far tighter than I ever saw them so far, which is hardly a surprise with the intense several-hours-a-day practice regimen they've been following for their upcoming UK tour. OK, the transitions are not really up to it, but that's easy to fix.
I'm glad for the Black Kids. I was at their Athens Popfest show, this famous Saturday early afternoon at Little Kings, right during the heatwave, where they blew the audience's mind. Nobody was expecting them, and they delivered the most danceable, clap-your-hands-and-cheer pop songs. The rest is history: they got picked up by some reputable blogs, then the buzz got sent to the NME, and there they went. Let's touch wood that they keep the spirits high and the heads cold.

Links:
Casper and the Cookies
Black Kids