Brainfreeze | Heartbreaking Bravery

December 14, 2015

Watch This: Vol. 108

Once again, there’s been a brief interim since the last Watch This was posted but, as ever, a lot of great material has surfaced in that time. In this volume, there will be an emphasis on full sessions and artists who have made numerous appearances on the site over its two years of existence. All five of these artists have earned glowing reviews for their live shows and are, in a lot of ways, inextricably connected to Heartbreaking Bravery’s development. Only one of these clips is a performance of a standalone song and it’s one of the most gripping live captures of the year. So, as always, sit up, wind down, focus, adjust the settings, and Watch This.

1. All Dogs (Audiotree)

Watching All Dogs‘ exposure explode in 2015 thanks to the release of their extraordinary full-length debut, Kicking Every Day, felt genuinely gratifying. The songs in that collection, like any Maryn Jones-led project, feel brave and personal. Every song is relatable to an extent that’s almost painful; our own damage is reflected in Jones’ interior grappling, which suffuses every ounce of Kicking Every Day. In a live setting, those songs gain even more impact and Audiotree expertly captures that with this very worthy session.

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2. Bully (KEXP)

One of the first shows I saw after moving into an apartment in Brooklyn was thanks to a tweet that sent me sprinting towards Rough Trade. What followed was a whirlwind set by site favorites Bully, that largely pulled from their outstanding Feels Like. KEXP recently hosted the band for an in-studio session that once again finds the band nailing the seemingly paradoxical marriage between sounding polished and downright ragged. Exhilarating and fairly composed, it’s a fascinating look at one of 2015’s most deserving success stories.

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3. Waxahatchee (Ithaca Underground)

Katie Crutchfield has been one of the most consistently enthralling songwriters of the past 10 years, elevating a staggering number of projects that have managed to find a near-reverential status among their respective communities and beyond. Eventually, that devotion spread outward and expanded into national recognition only shortly after her first collection as Waxahatchee, American Weekend, was released. Crutchfield’s released two more records under that moniker (and a few as half of Great Thunder) in the time that’s followed, with both Cerulean Salt and Ivy Tripp finding spots in numerous best-of lists at high-profile publications. Here, Ithaca Underground presents Crutchfield performing an arresting (and beautifully shot) solo set that leaves the audience speechless. It’s a powerful document of an artist who continues to find new ways to impress.

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4. Dilly Dally (KEXP)

Dilly Dally came into 2015 riding a wave of buzz surrounding the staggering brilliance of their first few singles and capitalized on those early flashes of potential with ferocious abandon. Nearly every item the band released this year wound up inspiring several paragraphs worth of attention from this site and a few extremely strong reviews for their inspired (and, frankly, inspiring) live shows. Sore, their full-length debut, just served as the cherry on top of an already-appealing sundae. KEXP recently brought the band in for a full session and they responded in kind, gifting the studio an appropriately searing performance.

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5. Saintseneca – How Many Blankets Are In The Wolrd? (ANTI-)

Throughout 2015, ANTI- has produced some of the most beautiful live clips in recent memory (a handful of which have been prominently featured in this series) and that streak continues with this beautiful presentation of Saintseneca‘s Zac Little performing “How Many Blankets Are In The World?” while walking through what appears to be a drainpipe. Easily one of the year’s most gorgeous live captures, this is both a spellbinding performance and a masterclass in composition. Even when Little’s plunged into near-complete darkness, the song itself serves as the clip’s functioning heart, generating a thoughtful overall effect. When Little finally emerges back into the light, it’s a sequence that feels oddly moving, finalizing this as one of the year’s most complete offerings in this category.

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August 3, 2015

A Small Victory in 600 Moves (Video Mixtape)

Heartbreaking Bravery has never been an overtly traditional blog. Yes, some commonplace elements and recurring themes keep it from falling apart but its essentially come to operate as a living journal of the things that have piqued my interest. It’s allowed me a place to provide documentation of recent events that blend recap aesthetics with critical analysis while simultaneously operating as a platform to showcase lesser-known bands. When it was initially devised, its sole purpose was to grant me an outlet to be able to keep writing but- over time- it grew into something that eventually had a heavy impact on my life. Whether through enabling visits to Toronto or being one of the biggest root causes of the recent relocation to Brooklyn, it’s played an enormously active role in shaping some of the biggest decisions I’ve ever made- and it’s been directly responsible for linking me to a handful of genuinely invaluable people that I’d be twice as lost without.

Now on its 600th post- and with the blue moon just barely behind us- it felt appropriate to allow the rarest of overtly personal posts. Over the near-two months I’ve been residing in Brooklyn, I’ve had the privilege of both witnessing and playing a part in some genuinely unforgettable moments. For a large handful of them, I was fortunate enough to have the camera on and rolling. The 25 clips that are all contained in this sequence are videos I’ve shot personally since landing in New York. From a breathtaking acoustic rooftop performance overlooking the city’s industry-driven sprawl to an inexplicably perfect moment at a secret wedding to secret headliners to a slew of site favorites, there’s a lot of content here- all of which made me feel like I was in the exact right place. It’s an offering that acts both as a celebration of a small accomplishment in terms of longevity and as a sincere thanks to a part of the world that has so readily accepted- and celebrated- both myself and this site. I’m genuinely unsure of what the future holds but if it’s anything as exciting as the past few months have proven to be, I’ll consider myself fortunate to share it with both my friends and anyone kind enough to lend any attention to this site.

Below the video, you can find a tracklist of the sequencing and- as this is another 100 posts- there will be links to the preceding 100 posts. Click play and browse at will. Enjoy.

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1. Girlpool – Crowded Stranger (Live at Baby’s all Right)
2. Diet Cig – Dinner Date (Live at Shea Stadium)
3. Frankie Cosmos – On the Lips (Live at DBTS)
4. Radioactivity – World of Pleasure (Live at Baby’s All Right)
5. Dogs On Acid – Make It Easy (Live at DBTS)
6. PWR BTTM – Projection (Live at Palisades)
7. Slothrust – Crockpot (Live at Suburbia)
8. Charly Bliss – Dairy Queen (Live at Shea Stadium)
9. Told Slant – I Am Not (Live at Silent Barn)
10. Montana and the Marvelles – Stand By Me (Live at DBTS)
11. Lost Boy ? (ft. Patrick Stickles) – Big Business Monkey (Live at Shea Stadium)
12. Idle Bloom – Dust (Live at Alphaville)
13. Swirlies – Wait Forever (Live at Silent Barn)
14. Tenement – Crop Circle Nation + Dull Joy (Live at The Acheron)
15. Bully – Brainfreeze (Live at Rough Trade)
16. Rebecca Ryskalczyk – Other Otters (Live at DBTS)
17. Attic Abasement – Sorry About Your Dick (Live at Shea Stadium)
18. Eskimeaux – Folly (Live at Palisades)
19. Krill – Turd (Live at Silent Barn)
20. Littlefoot – Worrydoll (Live at DBTS)
21. Florist – 1914 (Live at Baby’s All Right)
22. Mitski – I Will (Live at Palisades)
22. Adir L.C. – Inside Out (Live at DBTS)
24. Johanna Warren – Survive (Live)
25. Benny The Jet Rodriguez – Alley Cat (Live at The Acheron)

June 15, 2015

Bully – Live at Rough Trade – 6/15/15 (Pictorial Review, Live Video)

Earlier today I wasn’t planning on seeing any shows and was committed to exploring the surroundings of my new apartment (and working on the Miscreant piece) instead. A single tweet changed my entire course of action. All thanks are due to Bella Union’s Sally Hedberg for unexpectedly alerting me to a free in-store set at Rough Trade. I’d meant to catch Bully at one of their several Northside shows after spending the previous weeks fawning over their incredible Feels Like, a viable Album of the Year candidate. While I wasn’t able to attend any of those, I was able to make the easy quarter-mile walk to Rough Trade and salvaged what just hours ago had seemed like an egregious misfire.

After making my way to the front, Bully set in on a ferocious set that showcased guitarist/vocalist’s Alicia Bognanno’s vocals as much as it did the impressive overall musicality of the entire group. The rhythm section was locked in and the guitar work was incendiary but Bognanno has the kind of weaponized voice that’s impossible to override with anything else. Front and center, she led her band through a tightly controlled set that never took its foot of the gas pedal. By the time the band had torn through a set of fiery highlights, it was abundantly clear that their aim’s higher- and far more specific- than most bands venturing into major label territory. By retaining their artistic integrity and firing on every conceivable cylinder, they’re among the most promising acts of today- something further enhanced by their live show. All that’s left is to hope more bands follow their lead.

Photos and videos of their Rough Trade set can be viewed below. Feels Like can (and should) be pre-ordered here or picked up at Rough Trade NYC.

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November 13, 2014

Band Practice – Bartending At Silent Barn (Stream)

The past few days have been incredibly kind for new releases. So much so that it seems criminal to attempt to contain them all in one post, which is why there will be several appearing throughout the night, each containing a few links to other very worthy items. For this round, that includes a scrappy lo-fi video from Bully for their wonderful “Brainfreeze“, Painted Zeros‘ cameo-heavy clip for their outstanding slacker pop anthem “Too Drunk to Function“, King of Cats‘ newest brilliant lo-fi basement pop outing “Ulcers” (which also features Joanna Gruesome’s Owen Williams behind the kit), and Illusion– a relentlessly spiky post-punk EP from Honduras. While, again, all of those were incredible releases, there was an inherent magic contained in Band Practice‘s slow-building indie pop triumph “Bartending At Silent Barn”.

Spearheaded by Miscreant Records mastermind Jeanette Wall, Band Practice takes Wall’s wealth of hard-won history and sculpts it into arresting presentations-with “Bartending At Silent Barn” being the finest to date. Starting off with nothing but a clean palm-muted guitar, a mid-tempo gait, and Wall’s narration of a rough show at the Brooklyn DIY staple, it slowly delves into inner thoughts and outward apologies as the show continues, always brought back by the refrain “sorry, here’s your beer; sorry i got weird”, making it painfully relatable for just about anyone who’s ever served drinks. It’s that keen eye on a semi-uncomfortable reality that transforms “Bartending At Silent Barn” into an oddly moving experience even before it blooms from a plaintive atmosphere into a towering- and obscenely gorgeous- falsetto-laden indie pop number at the close. Even better: that change is brought about by an inverted refrain- “you say, you say, keep the change” slowly progresses into “you say, you say, things will change”. That those words are brought to vivid life by the music itself is a warm final reassurance; Wall’s an extremely talented songwriter, Band Practice is worth a lot of excitement, and Make Nice– the release “Bartending At Silent Barn” is taken from- is a record that deserves an extraordinarily high level of anticipation.

Listen to “Bartending At Silent Barn” below and keep an eye on this site for updates on Make Nice.

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Tag: Brainfreeze