Live Review: Dirty Projectors at the Independent

Dirty Projectors at The Independent
By Oscar Medina
Photos by Christopher Musgrave
April 11, 2008

The Brooklyn avant-pop outfit Dirty Projectors brought their art damaged pop tomes to the Independent last night to promote their latest record “Rise Above,” an album that has confounded critics and listeners alike with it’s oblique combination of disparate strands of musical DNA, referencing everything from Congolese pop to the work of Gustav Mahler to early R n’ B and Soul.

What began for lead singer/guitarist David Longstreth as an encounter with an empty cassette case of Black Flag’s classic “Damaged” record turned into the basic building blocks of “Rise Above.”

On stage, The Dirty Projectors emanate an affable, casual simplicity that in no way resembles the music they make. Playing a set culled largely from “Rise Above” and the earlier EPs, their songs veered from operatic-tinged math rock, to afro-pop, to a wildly skewed take on indie-rock.

The Dirty Projectors, for all their musical cross-referencing that can easily come across to many as simply post-modern posturing, actually do in fact ROCK. In listening to the record one can be easily deceived into believing that their live show would be the equivalent of an soporific art school exhibit but it is quite the opposite.

For the unabashed mess that many may call their music, their live show is an exhilarating exercise of balance and proportion, pathos and energy. Songs careen forward and sideways, tease out subtle movements between the vocal counterpoint of Amber Coffman and Angel Deradoorian, and the latticed guitar work of Longstreth. Longstreth resembles a young wiry David Byrne, clad in a black hoodie and dark jeans, his left hand would spasmodically work up and down the neck of his guitar, emanating modal guitar squalls that intersected with Brian McComber’s frantic drum rhythms.

The crowd responded well to the Projectors’ sudden and wild explorations into the less structured side of their songs. Why ? Well, for all their forays into post-punk avant garde jam suites they would return to form with plaintive pop harmonies and structured melodic hooks.

The impressive part of their process is that the music remains staunchly inventive, their curiosity is palpable as evinced by the fact that you can never really predict where the songs will go. What may start off as pleasant gossamer indie-pop, will suddenly move into clanging industrial no-wave yelps, all within the same song and done in a way that sounded as if mixing these things were the most natural thing in the world. Usually bands that play the genre-bending card either compromise the original sources, or fall into the trap of xeroxing their influences so that it prevents any form of original musical expression. The Dirty Projectors have found a way to eschew both traps by simply not caring; but by simply allowing the songs to breathe naturally and take themselves where they need to be taken.

Live Review: Autolux with Wooden Shjips at the Independent

By Oscar Medina

Autolux, a rock trio from Los Angeles whose meteoric rise in the music community has been an oddly puzzling one, played to a sold out crowd at The Independent on Thursday. Autolux started as a couple friends who holed up in their rehearsal space, record an EP of fuzzy shoegaze pop that harkens back to ’90’s’ bands like Ride and Sonic Youth, get notice from famous producer T- Bone Burnett and record an album to critical acclaim. It’s been over three years since Autolux released Future Perfect, an album that in spite of its overtly retro underpinnings and not immediately noticeable qualities, compel everyone from NIN to The White Stripes to ask them on tour. The sold out show at The Independent implied that many in attendance on Thursday were anticipating new material, and on this Autolux delivered last night. Diminishing returns ? Maybe.

Autolux came out on stage, and delivered a set that was largely taken from their Future Perfect record with five new songs from their next record slated for this year. The one thing that you cannot pass over in talking about Autolux live is female drummer Carla Azar. First off, she is one very hot lady who can wear a low slung silver dress, sing and simultaneously out play any of your favorite rock drummers. Her presence is an obvious asset to the band, not just because she is a girl who can play drums, but because she plays the drums with the graceful precision of a veteran.

The interplay of vocal harmonies between the different members added a nice touch to a band that is very much focused on the instrumental qualities of their sound. The fuzzy rumbling bass lines of Eugene Goreshter and the feedback drone of Greg Edwards combined, are much louder than one would think from a three piece. They played many crowd favorites, including “Here Comes Everybody”, “Turnstile Blues” and “Sub- Zero Fun” but it was the new tracks that everyone was excited to hear. They played five new songs that to my ears sounded much like their old material, but was more vocal driven and relied less on the more experimental aspects of their work. It was a competent set that rocked in all the right places, but there was no encore, which did make you leave feeling something was amiss.

Local psych rockers Wooden Shjips who have received some recent notice over their self titled record and some obscure 7’s flying around the record sphere, treated the crowd to an infectious kraut- psych assault that threatened to knock out eardrums. The band’s set up was a basic one; bass/drums/keys/guitars, but there was nothing basic about how they used their instruments. Drummer Omar Ahsanuddin and bassist Dusty Jermier would lock into a motorik groove that teetered on the edges while guitarist Ripley Johnson and organist Nash Whalen added splashes of paint onto the sonic palette. The band looked the part of the music; long shaggy hair, beards, old boots and ’60’s’ attire that made them look like they walked out of a desert after a vision quest. Much of their set was instrumental and jam-oriented, this can play itself both ways in two different types of people. Speaking with local band The Cemetery Party one of the members called out their set as “too jammy” while the other member in the band said ” I really like what they are doing with the long form groove”. The Wooden Shjips live are trying to recreate to a certain degree the experimental sets of The Velvet Underground and they succeeded much of the time. However, their set did have some missteps, especially at the beginning and at the end of their set, where there was a certain lull on the part of the players and it felt like they were playing by numbers.

Overall, in spite of both bands competent to even above average sets, they could not convince the crowd to move very much. Rock shows are not operas but from the crowd’s response I might as well have been watching Don Giovanni. Which goes to show that music alone does not make for a compelling performance.

SF Weekly

February 4th, 2008

Live Review: Corneluis at Fillmore SF

By Oscar Medina

Photos by Christopher Musgrave

Think of Daft Punk’s live visual and auditory performance and you have an inkling of what you missed in not seeing Cornelius at The Fillmore this weekend. Cornelius, aka Keigo Oyamada, is an avant-garde/electro rock band from Japan that has been making experimental, lush, exploratory rock for more than a decade. They have been a stalwart centerpiece of the thriving Japanese avant-rock scene, and Friday’s night’s mind-blowing audiovisual performance proved why a genre as misunderstood and maligned by the masses can convert even those with the most populist taste in music.

A massive curtain shrouded the band’s presence as Cornelius hit the stage and playfully began a set that drew hollers from the crowd and an unveiling of a light and video stage that looked like something from Pink Floyd’s The Wall Tour. A gigantic video projector, chimes, bells, so many electronic synths and gadgets that someone must’ve run up a large tab on their Guitar Center account, and light beams emanated from the back of the stage.

Light and video shows have been done in rock ‘n’ roll since someone first took a hit of LSD and listened to his favorite band. The difference in Cornelius’ case is that the videos themselves work as a necessary counterpoint to the performance. The video content consisted of everything from migratory birds flying over a city, stop-motion animation graphics, walking fingers that look like humans, and mash-ups of every imaginable pop culture reference from Sesame Street to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It’s no wonder Cornelius mentioned that his inspiration on this tour was to create a rock performance of Disney’s Fantasia.

The band members were all dressed in dark pants, white button-ups, and skinny ties that made them look like Japanese exports at a 1970s Downtown NYC art show. We were treated to a 90 minute set that drew largely from his latest record, Sensuous. For being tagged as experimental rock, Cornelius definitely has a pop sensibility that has gained new fans while still retaining the atonal dissonance that keeps hardcore devotees around.

After what had obviously been an amazing performance, the band’s encore brought the house with a classic from their early discography, “Point-Counter-Point”, a chugging indie-Kraut hybrid. As we walked into the crisp SF night, the satisfaction palpable in the air, and the knowing glances from other attendees just confirmed what had obviously been a special night.

Live Review : Rza at the Independent

By Oscar Medina

An embattled RZA celebrated the release of the new Wu Tang 8 Diagrams record with a sold-out performance last night at the Independent that proved to some that RZA has gone straight crazy while to others that he is and and will remain an innovative force in hip-hop. With the recent scathing remarks by fellow hustler Raekwon calling RZA “a hip-hop hippie” and Ghostface’s equally disgruntled “he’s fumbling the ball”, you could tell after last night’s performance that the RZA is no longer holding back, for better or for worse.

Walking into the Independent last night you’d think you just walked into the Cannabis Cup because the clouds of smoke emitting from that place was enough to give anyone permabake. Ren the Vinyl Archaeologist was dropping classic hip-hop jointz, getting people riled up for RZA’s imminent appearance. What he had in store for them was not what many had expected.

Donning a khaki suit with Japanese designs and a white tennis headband, the RZA came full force with a band that consisted of a live drummer, bass, guitar, percussion, and a DJ who held it down for the rest of the night. Launching into a set that began with sound effects from an Ennio Morricone score, the RZA’s group played a medley of tracks from his Bobby Digital alter ego to classic Wu Tang material.

What impressed and shocked many was his liberal use of guitar in the performance, at times sounding like a funky mix of Hendrix and Maggot Brain-era P- Funk. Local promoter Damon Johnson called it “a betrayal of everything hip-hop stands for” and said that the RZA has “gone white,” while drummer Terence Howard said “that’s the reason I’ve always respected RZA, because he always reinvents himself.” Whatever your view may be of RZA’s new-found love for rock and psychedelia, this is not the first time a prominent hip-hop artist has flirted with a rock band set up, Mos has done it, and Run-DMC practically laid the groundwork for this template.

By the middle of the set, it was obvious that some didn’t feel the whole rock/jamming element of RZA’s band and slowly filed out of what for them was a disappointing show. As I talked with a few of those early casualties, they all echoed the same sentiment, basically that they expected a traditional DJ and mic setup and a hope that a few Wu members would show up for an impromptu appearance; instead what they got was a full-on arsenal of blues-funk-rock-tinged versions of RZA’s discography.

To those haters, I have to ask: What else do you expect from a man who mastered the whole soul-funk-samples-with-gritty-breaks paradigm a decade ago? You’d have to be crazy to believe that someone who has successfully composed film scores, was a mastermind behind some of the most lauded solo hip-hop records ( Liquid Swords, Only Built for Cuban Linx, Tical) not to mention the Wu’s output, makes haphazard artistic decisions. No, everything with this man is calculated down to the last detail, and last night was no different.

For those in the other camp, the show was exactly the reason that they will continue to support RZA’s vision, namely because it breaks with hip-hop purism and envisions something broader. The crowd who stuck around was treated to an unhinged RZA as he marauded across the stage, singing and rapping. At one point he busted open a bottle of champagne and sprayed the people around him while later pouring whiskey from his bottle into some of the audience’s cups. As the set closed with “Wu Tang Clan Ain’t Nuthing ta Fuck Wit” the mood was bittersweet, as you just knew the record released yesterday is the last we will get to hear of the WU.

SF Weekly

December 12, 2007.

Live Review: Prefuse 73 Glitches Out

By Oscar Medina

Prefuse 73 just can’t seem to please anyone these days. Remeber back in 2001 when Scott Herren dropped Vocal Studies and Uprock Narratives? Soon to be followed by the now classic One Word Extinguisher? Ink gushed for this wonderkid from Atlanta with an MPC 2000. Here was a guy who singlehandedly put experimental hip hop on the map with just two records; his schizophrenic mix of skitterish, stutter-step drum editing, samples from obscure psych and found sounds, not to mention the drum programming skills of a mad scientist appealed to indie rockers, hip hop headz, noise avatarz, and yes, the critics. A few years passed, a few albums were made that criticized Prefuse for either moving too far away from his roots or working with too many guests as evinced by the problematic release “em>Surrounded by Silence, and just like that the smug naysayers seemed to have been right.

Well, it’s 2007 and Prefuse 73 is touring on the heels of his new release Preparations, and prepared is what you need to be because the man showed us Saturday night that he is in top form.

Comrade DJ Nobody’s Blank Blue project opened of beats, shoegazy atmospherics and introspective guitar work. Elvin aka Nobody worked the synthesizers, vintage gear, guitar and drum programming while singer Nikki Randa crooned like a lost extra from a Mazzy Star rehearsal. Nobody kept his face shielded from the audience a la Jim Morrison, while the singer stationed herself like an English royal guard, with the drummer providing most of the spectacle. The music was excellent and set the mood for the rest of the night, but the performance — mehh.

Well, I would’ve taken great music/lackluster performance any day of the week over what the next group School of Seven Bells subjected me to. A group that consisted of synthesizers, guitar/singer, and two female vocalists, their set was by far the worst I’ve seen in a long time. A sound that equal was parts, electro, rock, and hippie jam band noise nonsense, the whole set was a walking clique, with bad maraca playing to some laughable rock posturing on the part of the singer. The predictability of their songs was by far their most defining trait, every song started off with a preset drum loop, added noise by the guy on synthesizer that didn’t add texture to the song, it just added, well, more noise, and then two female singers with zero harmonizing skills. These songs may have worked in Britain in the late ’90’s, but in 2007 they just sounded like a clusterfuck sub par version of Primal Scream, Massive Attack and Portishead, without even licking the bootstraps of any of these bands.

By the time their set ended Slim’s was completely packed to the gills with people. Let’s face it, an avant experimental hip hop artist like Prefuse 73 doesn’t exactly get the girls to come out in droves and last night was no different as the crowd consisted mainly of dudes with beards, hip hop nerdz in American Apparel hoodies, suave record collectors in Fedora’s, and even a few older cougars who were chatting it up with the bartenders. When Prefuse got on stage he wanted you to know it as he began with a noise prelude that threatened to bust out the audience’s eardrums. From there on out, Prefuse 73 clad in a black Members Only jacket, snakeskin shoes, and Run DMC frames rocked the night with a best of medley that liberally played tracks from his deep discography. There was the wonderkid from Atlanta. The. MPC 2000. The arsenal of synthesizers, plus a drummer, and an extra member to help out with the beats. The crowd nodded back and forth in the blend of ADD editing and avant noise experimentation.

Watching electronic musicians is usually a snoozefest but Prefuse has always been an exception to this rule. Watching him work the MPC, guitar, electronic gadgets and live drum programming is like watching Bobby Fischer playing speed chess.The man programs beats at a moments notice, adds textures and layers spontaneously, fucks with echo and delay, flanges voices and guitar while going back to the MPC to add more breaks, makes signals to the drummer who adds a solid foundation to what an unversed listener would call a total mess. Needless to say the performance was a whirlwind and nothing short of awe inspiring. Towards the end of the set the visibly intoxicated crowd bobbed and weaved, clamoring for more when Prefuse played the classic “Busy Signal”, a track that is glitch funk at it’s best, and has been a crowd favorite ever since it’s release on Extinguisher. The encore consisted of a loose jam session that gracefully came to a close, and as everyone filed out it was obvious that Scott Herren aka Prefuse 73 is far from over.

SF Weekly

December 9, 2007

Live Review: The Coup at Mezzanine SF

By Oscar Medina

Oakland hip-hop veterans The Coup played an exclusive engagement last night at the Mezzanine in celebration of the SF Weekly’s and GoGame’s scavenger hunt extravaganza.

The Coup, one of the more controversial Bay Area hip hop acts due to their overt communist leanings, delivered a massive set of old classics along with material from their latest record, “ Pick A Bigger Weapon”.

The Coup is known for its politically aggressive stance, but in spite of the serious tone of the group’s content, it was obvious from the moment Boots bolted on stage with his three piece band (bass/drums/guitar), that he was here to jump start a party and not a political rally. Clad in his signature 70’s afro; Boots didn’t waste any time in getting the crowd going by launching right into, “We are the Ones”, an anthemic track that reminds us of some of the best work by Cody Chestnutt. The crowd included everyone from hip-hop backpackers, scavenger hunt nerds and even dancing Burning Man casualties. In spite of the heterogeneity of the crowd, most everyone knew the lyrics to many of the songs and pumped their fists in the air while Boots ran around the stage, dancing and amping up the crowd by letting the musicians let loose; especially the drummer who was straight up bad ass.

Boots deft lyrical delivery ran the gamut from political satire, humor, sexual innuendo to straight up party lyrics. Although Pam the Funkstress was absent from the usual Coup lineup, that did not detract from her fill in, Silk- E, a female dancer/ singer that sung one of her own songs that drew laughter from the crowd because of the lyrics, “BabyLet’sHaveABabyBeforeBushDoSomethin’Crazy”.

Throughout the night, the live band leaned towards a more rock/funk/hip hop approach, a combination that has not always worked well for hip hop artists, one has only to remember the disastrous results of such an experiment with rock that has produced the worst from Mos Def and Saul Williams. The Coup however, did make it work and this was in large part due to a more decidedly funk approach to an otherwise rock formatted group. One onlooker called it “Jimi Hendrix hip- hop “. Although the show was about 150 people deep, (relatively small for the Mezzanine), this just added to the solidarity of the small crowd who at the end of their set clamored to what is obvious: The Coup is one of the most consistent, innovative and relevant hip hop acts the Bay Area has to offer.

SF Weekly

November 12, 2007