Blouse >> You're a strike of lightning

Blouse - "Into Black"

(Captured Tracks, 2011)

Note: I started writing this in June but never got around to posting it.  I noticed the outdated R.I.P.'s at the bottom and decided to keep them in.

As you have probably already gathered, most good band names are taken by now.  I mentioned in the last post that Portland is a hotbed of talent, and Blouse is another great example.  I think Johnny Marr or Robert Smith would be proud of this song's loping, serpentine guitar riff.  There's something sexy and funky and very New Orleans about that jazzy, off-beat stutter in it.  And the singer is the one who plays that guitar part, as you can see in the video clip embedded below.  This song is almost impossible for me to get out of my head.  If I heard the line "And you're a strike of lightning, making up a sky for the gods to kiss with" correctly, then I'd have to say that's one of the coolest lyrics I've heard in the past few years.  (You can actually hear the lyrics better in the live clip.)  There's some line about a stained glass window near the middle, and the intensity ramps up subtly in the song's final minute.

"Fade to black" is of course a cinematography term, and this song has a very cinematic feel.  A convenient way to describe Blouse would be "The XX meets Joy Division," and it wouldn't be far off from the truth.  The sound quality of this song is awfully murky and "dark" (bass-y), in production lingo, but I guess it suits the music well.  One expects this kind of jangle-pop stuff to be trebly and shimmery, so it sort of surprises the ears to hear something so sludgy.  The synth near the end of the song does brighten it up and adds some extra edge.  This song was released as a 7" single in early 2011, with striking cover art that was a clear homage to Joy Division's Closer.  It then appeared on their self-titled debut album near the end of the year.  Their song "They Always Fly Away" is their other clear standout, with a truly badass bassline, showing that this band is much more than a one-trick pony.  AllMusic Guide said "There's a tingling chill running through Blouse's self-titled debut album that suggests both erotic reverie and nervous foreboding.  Blouse seems to be a work in progress, but this provocative first effort shows the band is heading for fascinating territory."
I'd have to say Captured Tracks, also home of dreamy retro janglers Wild Nothing, is my favorite up-and-coming record label right now.

Amazingly, I just went and checked out the song on YouTube and noticed lots of people saying that the MTV teen ho dramedy Awkward. (yes, the show's name has a period at the end) "brought me here."  So I guess MTV scooped Blowtorch Baby for the first time, but only due to my procrastination.

Wed. Oct. 31: I went in to N.O. to see the Jezabels at Circle Bar.  I had a weird feeling that it would be cancelled, but I didn't call ahead of time for some reason.  Sure enough, I walk into the near-empty club in my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirt and green wristbands only to find out they had cancelled, due to their singer's alleged throat problems.

So this pic sums up my two dismal trips to the Circle Bar in late October... Two headlining bands, one of which played for 10 minutes and the other of which didn't show up.  When I took this pic next to the club's jukebox on the 24th, a few minutes before Exitmusic went on, things seemed so promising:

(Look at the size of the crowd in that Jezabels poster, and then think about the fact that the Circle Bar holds about 50 people.)

Thu., Nov. 1: Took a pic of some random CDs in my car:

I originally bought the N.W.A EP on cassingle in 1991 (at age 14... sorry, PMRC!), the PJ Harvey album on cassette in '95, and the MBV album on cassette in '96.  Sensing a trend?  Lesson to record industry: If people buy or obtain a musical item cheaply or for free, e.g. on cassette or as free mp3s, they will end up later buying it on CD if they like it enough.  So if you record labels sign good bands and put out good albums, people will continue to buy them in multiple formats over the years.  Anyway... I bought the Nudeswirl CD in '96 in Richmond, VA, and the Pale Saints and Six By Seven CDs in '02.  The Twin Peaks soundtrack was bought by one of my parents when it came out; I later borrowed it & decided to keep it.  I added a clear red tray to the Lush CD's case in order to match the cover art.  Those of you who don't own early Mercury Rev on CD are missing out, since the spines say STEREO PATHIC, STEREO PHOBIC, STEREO FUCKED, etc.

I was so bummed by the Circle Bar shows that I didn't go to see the Psychedelic Furs on Nov. 2 with my sister and Damion.  She said it was a great show, and they even played one of my favorites, "All Of This And Nothing."  (But no "Highwire Days" or "Dumb Waiters.")  And she said Richard Butler was dancing around as crazily as !!!'s singer, which is pretty impressive for a guy of his age.

So the promising month ended with a whimper, but I still saw over a dozen bands, the best of which were Godspeed You Black Emperor, Merchandise, MONO, and Meta The Man.  And locals Glish, the Tarik Hassan Group, Miss Mec, and I, Octopus.  The two songs that Exitmusic played before quitting were good.  In fact, the bands that I skipped last month would constitute a best-ever month of concertgoing for a normal Pitchfork-focused indie-vidual: Dinosaur Jr., M83, P-Furs, Silversun Pickups, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Kendrick Lamar, Dum Dum Girls, Cold Cave, Diamond Rings, Trust, etc.

I'm not bragging whatsoever, just trying to start a dialogue about how one decides which shows to attend and which shows to skip.  I've been wanting to do this for a long time now, so this seems like a good time to do it.  For me, going to a show a very complex form of calculus that factors in obvious things such as "Does the band kick ass?" with more nebulous ones like "Is their career on the downswing or is it still on the upswing?," "Have I missed them in concert before?," and "Could this be their last-ever tour?"  (If the band members hate each other, any show could be their last.)  Ticket cost, opening act(s), venue, etc. also factor in.  How many original members, or members from the band's "golden era," are still in the band?  It of course helps to find out whether or not the band is playing your favorite songs on this particular tour, or if they've decided to move on to "the new stuff," or if they're doing one of those stupid "Play an entire album all the way through" things.  However, this only applies to "song"-based bands & solo artists.  There's of course a whole other category of experimental music in which the avant-gardeness of the music is the only thing that matters, and you're surely not going to recognize anything in terms of a lyric or a melody.  You're going just to hear them try to play something you've never heard before and may never want to hear again.  Sometimes a band that hardly ever tours is hitting the road; in this case, it's more important to see them then to see some band that tours constantly.  If it's a hip hop or electronic / DJ act, how much of their music do they actually perform live and how much of it is pre-recorded samples?  Are you under the weather, and if so, just how devoted of a fan are you?  One of the toughest things for me to decide on is seeing a local band, since you can probably see them any old time, but what if they break up and you never got to see them, or only saw them once?  (E.g., the fact that I only saw my favorite-ever local band, The Universal Chrome, once.  And I never saw Falling Janus, Dead Hand System, Burnversion, Evil Nurse Sheila!, etc.)  When in doubt about seeing ANY concert, even if it's "just" a local band, it's always best to just go, because otherwise, you might be wondering for the rest of your life if you missed a great show.  If the show was mediocre, at least you saw it, and you know that you don't have to wonder for the next 50 years if it was great or not.  And you supported the band and supported the music club.  The turnout may influence the band's decision to come back to your town again, and may influence the club's decision to book the band again.  And you might meet an interesting person, or see a flyer at the club informing you about an upcoming concert that you didn't know about.

As examples, here are some recent & upcoming concert dilemmas spanning early October to early November:
1.) The P-Furs only had two original members, the Butler brothers.  But they are the main driving forces of the band, and the lineup also has fiery saxophonist Mars Williams, who joined ca. 1983.  (Did not go, and regret it.)
2.) In a few days a fairly lame synth-pop band called Future Islands is playing at the Spanish Moon.  I have no desire to see them, but the opening act is an uncompromisingly brutal female noise-rock band called Talk Normal.  Do I go just to see the opening act?  What if the opening act cancels or is replaced?  (Will probably go.)
3.) Voodoo Fest every October: Lots of bands, but most are lame or washed-up, and tickets are like $90 per day.  (Solution: Went to the free local band festival Houmapalooza.)
4.) MONO at the Spanish Moon.  Yes, they're great live, but I had already seen them there 3 times.  Do I go yet again?  (Went & was glad I did.)
5.) Mercurial band Merchandise playing at a club with barely any air conditioning, right as I was getting over a cold and hence was pretty feverish.  (Went, because they could be legitimate stars soon, and I had missed them in April at an even smaller club called United Bakery.)

If you have anything to add about concert dilemmas you have valiantly faced and overcome, let Blowtorch Baby know.  I'm currently wrestling over whether to see DJ Shadow next month at Republic...  The dude's first album kinda changed my life in 1997, but do I owe him the favor of buying a ticket to one of his shows 15 years later?  He played at House Of Blues as the opening act for rapper Jeru The Damaja in '97, and I bet tons of underground music heads went to that show just to see Shadow do his magic.  Then again, what if he still "has it" in 2012?  The interesting thing about a DJ is that his music never "ages," since he's spinning samples, and those samples will still sound literally identical to how they sounded x amount of years ago, and you're not gonna see some aging guy on guitar.

R.I.P. Ray Bradbury, a genius.
R.I.P. Tim Mooney of American Music Club, Sun Kil Moon, and other San Fran bands.

Brilliant retort I observed on June 23, in the AOL chatroom The Crash Pad:

Murrican:  i've got a nickname among a certain group of females.

SpudMakenzie:  heart attack while havin sex with a hooker/?

Why Romney's not talking about Benghazi anymore

Atlantic City faces long recovery before it can start destroying lives again

Planets with similar climates: The Organ - "Brother" (2004), Sonic Youth - "Becuz" (1995), Siouxsie & The Banshees - "Christine" (1980), The Cure - "Lullaby" (1989), Bell Hollow - "Eyes Like Planets" (2007), The Lucy Show - "Ephemeral (This Is No Heaven)" (1985), Tamaryn - "Love Fade" (2010), Lush - "Take" (1992).