Chris Gethard | Heartbreaking Bravery

July 29, 2014

Watch This: Vol. 36

While today’s Watch This marathon still won’t be over with this installment, it is drawing to a close. Several of the very best performance clips were reserved for both the 36th and 37th installments of the series. A lot of site favorites are included, giving performances that completely validate their status as such. Everything from Marissa Paternoster’s outstanding solo project to Lydia Loveless’ first spot to PUP delivering a blistering take on the song that drives the best music video of the year-so-far, it’s a lot to celebrate. So sit back, refocus, and Watch This.

1. Noun – I Don’t Love Anybody (Don Giovanni)

Marissa Paternoster’s experienced no shortage of success with her main project, Screaming Females, but her finest album to date may very well be the debut full-length for her solo project, Noun. While that record, Holy Hell, isn’t as revered as Screaming Females’ most popular works, it stands up right alongside them as a full-bodied work. Here Paternoster strips back and takes an all-acoustic attic run through “Make Me”, solidifying her status as one of the most magnetic performers out there today.

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2. Beverly (BreakThruRadioTV)

Ex-Vivian Girls/Dum Dum Girls member Frankie Rose and Drew Citron teamed up earlier this year under the name Beverly and surprised just about everyone with one of the more definitive summer records, Careers. In this performance for BreakThruRadio, the pair have a full band backing them and prove to be much more than just a great studio act. Careers highlights “You Can’t Get It Right” and “Honey Do” (which also has a lovely music video) are featured here and sound as perfect as ever.

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3. Radical Dads – Know-It-All (TCGS)

Riff-happy trio Radical Dads were one of the last bands to earn a spot on The Chris Gethard Show and it’s easy to see how they wound up there; this is boldly aggressive and intriguing work along the lines of Sonic Youth while doing away with their particular strain of detached NYC cool. Bananas dance, rimshots ring out, guitars get thrashed on, and everyone gets into it- it’s just about impossible not to.

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4. Lydia Loveless (NPR)

Lydia Loveless has been making quite a name for herself these past few years and has continuously lived up to the attention she’s been given. Possessed with a gift of a voice and genre sensibilities that rival and recall both Neko Case and Gillian Welch, the young songwriter’s well on her way to leaving behind a legendary discography of her own. Loveless and her band recently took over NPR’s Tiny Desk Session and, more than likely, converted a whole lot of people while doing so.

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5. PUP – Guilt Trip (KEXP)

“Guilt Trip” already stands out for having one of the most stunning music videos to come out of this decade but, as great as that video was, the song really comes to life in a live setting. While the rest of the band’s KEXP session was admittedly outstanding, “Guilt Trip” was just a few levels above the rest of the batch. This is one of the best performances the station’s seen since Cloud Nothings’ towering Attack On Memory session (which still stands as KEXP’s high-water mark) and, just like the video, deserves to be seen by as many people as possible.

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July 29, 2014

Watch This: Vol. 35

Today’s Watch This posting spree is far from over. Months worth of neglect need to- and will- be made up for. Luckily, this has been made relatively easy thanks to a goldmine of live videos that surfaced over the festival-induced hiatus. In this 35th installment, there are full sets, standout performances, and an even spread among the outlets featuring them. Once again, this will be left at that because the 36th and 37th installments, respectively, are just around the corner, waiting to be posted. It might run the risk of over-saturation but great music is great music and great performances always deserve to be recognized. So lean back, turn up the volume, and Watch This.

1. Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires (KEXP)

Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires have built themselves one hell of a reputation and they’ve mostly got their shit-kicking live shows to thank for that. Playing a Southern-fried variation of the rock n’ soul genre, the band injects their sets with as much frantic energy as they can muster, sweating through their clothes and leaving everything on the floor. Impossibly, they pour that amount of dedication into this in-studio KEXP performance without a large audience to feed off of, solidifying their spot in this series.

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2. Field Mouse (BreakThruRadioTV)

Serious Business continues to be featured in Watch This thanks to their dedication to actively pursue exactly the type of band this site was built to celebrate. Additionally, their audio/visual presentation is among the best out there while the irreverent interviews offer some insight to the bands that they choose to feature. Their recent Field Mouse session encapsulates all of it, thanks in no small part to Field Mouse’s on-point performance of their excellent featured shoegaze-leaning post-punk song: “A Place You Return To When You Dream”.

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3. Nothing (unARTigNYC)

Nothing’s Guilty of Everything was one of 2014’s more formidable-sounding records, dark and dense in exactly the right way. Live, the band takes those two qualities to new extremes, as proven by this excellent full set from the band’s recent performance at the Brooklyn Night Bazaar. Turn up the volume then hold on to something- and hold onto it tightly. This is massive.

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4. Modern Hut – Moving On (TCGS)

Don Giovanni Records have built their success around making the right decisions- and their dedication to Modern Hut was one of them. Here, the band delivers a typically strong, wistful performance of “Moving On” during their recent appearance on the show of comedian Chris Gethard (also signed to Don Giovanni). It’s weird, it’s wonderful, and it’s more than a little worth watching.

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5. Young Man – Fate (Audiotree)

Colin Caulfield’s project Young Man released a criminally under-appreciated record in 2012 called Vol. 1 and the recent Audiotree videos that surfaced of a session to support that record only reaffirm that fact. It was one of the better pop records of the decade, heavily nuanced and delicately ornate, while being somewhat unassuming. Here, Caulfield & co. breeze through that record’s first single “Fate” with an easy confidence- finally giving people another chance to recognize a great record.

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July 29, 2014

Watch This: Vol. 33

Today’s marathon of Watch This continues with the 33rd installment of the series, a unique spread that features full performances, solo acoustic takes outdoors, and one last video from NXNE. There’ll be several more of these features to run after this one’s posted so please forgive what will mostly likely be atypically brief introductions. There’s a lot of ground to cover and even more material to get to. So, for now, lean back, enjoy the ride, and Watch This.

1. Army Girls – Quarantine State (Chart Attack)

Army Girls’ appearance at Sonic Boom during NXNE was a very welcome surprise and, paired with Courtney Barnett, wound up being one of the best (and most under-attended) 1-2 punches of the festival. Chart Attack, who hosted the showcase, were also on hand to film the band run through an excellent new song called “Quarantine State”.

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2. Laura Stevenson – Journey to the Center of the Earth (Don Giovanni)

There are very few things more arresting than a great solo performance, which just happens to be one of Laura Stevenson’s specialties. Here, the mastermind behind Wheel (one of last year’s finest releases) is captured with unfaltering honesty by her label, Don Giovanni. It’s a quiet, mesmerizing performance by the side of the road- and it feels perfect.

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3. Listener – There Are Wrecking Balls Inside Us (Audiotree)

“There Are Wrecking Balls Inside Us” proved to be a fascinating anomaly that shed light on a gray area; this is a video that recently resurfaced on a channel that promoted it as a new release, despite dating back to mid-2012. This caused some debate over whether or not it’d warrant inclusion but the performance itself spoke too strongly. Listener’s always been an engaging, unique presence and this is one of the most fully-realized examples of their intriguing eccentricity and immediately arresting manic delivery and, ultimately, it proved impossible to ignore.

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4. Lemuria – Oahu, Hawaii (TCGS)

Lemuria’s “Oahu, Hawaii” was given an entrancing and serene music video earlier this year that paid testament to The Distance Is So Big‘s longevity. That record’s lost very little of its staying power and their performances, as proven by this example from The Chris Gethard Show, continue to impress. Don’t miss them whenever they come around.

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5. White Lung (unARTigNYC)

At this point, White Lung have more than proven themselves to be a serious force in music. There have been very few records that felt as impassioned, or as necessary, as their rightfully-acclaimed Deep Fantasy. Fortunately, unARTigNYC was on hand to film the band’s set to celebrate the release of that record at Brooklyn’s famed St. Vitus, where the band delivered one hell of a performance that does more than a little justice to what’s easily one of this year’s strongest records. It won’t be long before this band’s even more widely recognized as an impressively intimidating powerhouse.

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May 6, 2014

Watch This: Vol. 23

Well, it’s certainly been a while since Watch This ran regular non-themed content. As such, there’s quite a bit of ground to cover for this volume, the series’ 23rd installment. This Watch This will feature both the familiar and the fresh; there are old standbys in terms of both bands and outlets and there are a few who have, somewhat inexplicably, never earned a mention on here before. It’s all worth watching and this collection, more than most, is a perfect summation of the type of music this place invests in most. So, sit back, stand up, kneel as if in prayer, assume literally any position- just make sure to Watch This.

1. Ovlov – Where’s My Dini (Elephant Room)

Ovlov’s 2013 record, am, was a nearly unclassifiable triumph. Since then, they’ve managed to grab a lot of people’s attention. This is in part thanks to a ferocious touring schedule that had them playing on stacked bills nearly every night. Through all of that, they’ve only managed to sharpen their craft, perfecting their cinematic shoegaze-heavy 90’s Midwestern-emo rambles. Here, they take to the Little Elephant to perform “Where’s My Dini”. If an introduction piece to the band was needed, it’d be close to impossible to improve on this video.

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2. Parquet Courts – Black and White (WNYC)

While this doesn’t have Fred Armisen augmenting their guitar attack, Parquet Courts’ WNYC performance of “Black and White” is as fierce as anything the band’s done. It’s performances like this one that have Sunbathing Animal creeping up on an outside radar. Parquet Courts aren’t messing around. Straight, to the point, almost abrasive in its minimalism yet weirdly cathartic, this is worth a few watches.

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3. Jeff Rosenstock – The Trash The Trash The Trash (TCGS)

What is there to be said? Jeff Rosenstock keeps doing things worth writing about. During this particular at-bat, he takes over Don Giovanni comedian Chris Gethard’s show to perform “The Trash The Trash The Trash” before it devolves into complete chant-a-long chaos. It’s a surreal spectacle that has an absolutely incendiary performance at its center. This is the best kind of weird.

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4. Kal Marks (BreakThruRadioTV)

Exploding in Sound recently took over BreakThruRadio for a stretch, offering the label a perfect platform to showcase their incredible roster. They wasted no time in getting Boston trio Kal Marks a featured spot on a performance and interview series (in a similar vein to KEXP). It’s a good thing they did, too. Kal Marks is an incredible live act who put out one of 2013’s very best records with their punishing masterwork Life is Murder. Their Serious Business episode is one of the most packed BreakThruRadio has ever done and is well worth carving out some time for.

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5. The Orwells – Let It Burn (KEXP)

It’s been a weird road for The Orwells following their infamous Letterman performance. In under five minutes, they became one of the most divisive young punk bands to court that much attention in who knows how long and then kept quiet for a while to let things play out. Now, with their sophomore effort, Disgraceland, nearing its release date, they’ve lined up a string of relatively high-profile stops and, as can be seen here, are making the most of it. If “Let It Burn” is an accurate indicator, they’ve got one hell of a record up their sleeves.

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