Heartbreaking Bravery

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Tag: St. Vitus

September 28, 2014

Watch This: Vol. 47

Welcome to the 47th installment of Watch This, the weekly series that celebrates five of the best live videos to emerge from the past seven days. These videos can be pulled from anywhere but need to have one unifying factor; they need to feature great performances. In the last full week of September, things were no different. This week’s entries cover a unique spread that reaches to the furthest corners of the genres that usually get covered on this site. From KEXP sessions to another outstanding take for Little Elephant, this week had quite a bit of material that warranted quite a bit of attention. Mining both the mainstays and the furthest reaches of various resources resulted in an eclectic mix of bands- and live videos- well worth the time. So, sit back, unwind, turn the volume up, lean in, and Watch This.

1. Cymbals Eat Guitars (KEXP)

2014 may not see a record more personal than Cymbals Eat Guitars’ LOSE. Their third full-length was directly informed by the loss of a close friend, something that’s heavily referenced throughout the course of the album. While it’s strange to say a record’s life-affirming in the face of such heavy subject matter, it’s equally difficult to argue against with songs like “Jackson” (easily one of the year’s best songs) and “Warning“. As exhilarating as those songs are on LOSE, they’re given new life in a live setting- with the emotional resonance firmly in tact.

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2. Little Big League – Deer Head (Little Elephant)

Over the past week, no band has earned more feature spots that Little Big League. After last week’s Watch This segment, they went ahead and released the stunning “Property Line” in advance of their upcoming record, Tropical Jinx. “Deer Head” is another take from their Little Elephant session and shows the band in fine form, navigating their way through the song’s transitions with no shortage of verve. Put simply, this is just another strong example of why Little Big League are one of today’s most exciting young bands.

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3. Free Cake For Every Creature (WKNC)

Skewed outsider pop can be a beautiful thing that brings out the best of the people that lend it any amount of investment. Free Cake For Every Creature have experienced an outpouring of support from people that have the power to bring them a staggering amount of recognition. It’s easy to see why; the band crafts music that’s relatable, endearingly fractured and absurdly catchy. Everyday problems ground the lyrics while a jittery nervousness propels the off-kilter arrangements. Packaged together, it becomes endlessly fascinating and rewards investment with a surprisingly assured ease. Their WKNC session confirms what an increasing number of people already know: this is music worth celebrating.

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4. Tycho (KEXP)

Tycho are an anomaly. They defy an easy convention, are defined by their no-wave and post-punk influences as much as they are by their tendencies towards electro and dance-punk. Here, KEXP invites them in for a session and the band quickly finds their way into impenetrable grooves, aided by the backdrop of a projection display of what appears to be random archival footage. While most bands operating in similar territories could easily coast on impressive music ability alone, what makes Tycho stand out is their music’s penchant for being engaging so instantaneously. This is a masterclass in compelling song dynamics, innate ability, and genre defiance.

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5. Earth (unARTigNYC)

Nearly everything that can be said about Earth has already been spoken, shouted, whispered, or printed. The doom-y ambient overlords have staked out a reputation as one of the most influential acts in music by virtue of an immensely impressive discography that touches on a variety of increasingly prominent genres. As mesmerizing as ever and more accessible than any point in their career, the trio recently stopped by St. Vitus to deliver a characteristically foreboding set as part of the David Lynch Foundation benefit. As always, t’s a fascinating exercise in tension and restraint, steadily building towards a climactic moment that never seems to come.

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February 19, 2014

Watch This: Vol. 13

Again, sincerest apologies on the delay involving this 13th installment of Watch This. What would regularly run on Sunday was pushed back this week due to an obscene overabundance of material that needed some serious navigation. When the realization of the source of last week’s excess of material could be traced back to two events, things became a little more manageable. Now, at least for this week, there will be three standalone videos and the final two spots will be occupied by video playlists; one being the Marked Men weekend, the other being the Don Giovanni showcase. Brooklyn, you had a surreal wealth of incredible music this week, worthy of anyone’s envy. For all of those videos, as well as a few more, watch everything posted below.

1. Dog Day – Sandwich (exclaim!)

Kicking off the series this week is Dog Day, a quartet whose sound is steeped in shoegaze aesthetics without ever crossing the line into that genre. Instead, they offer up a very singular take on brooding post-punk that carries a lot of noise and no wave heft. As for the band’s performance, it’s detached to the point of being eerie, effectively elevating the sense of unease. A very strong, very curious, introduction to a band that has a decent shot of gaining a very faithful following.

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2. Sandrider – Gorgon (KEXP)

HOLY FUCK.

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3. Porches.  ft. Frankie Cosmos – Fog Dog (Live at Woodbury)

Porches. continue to impress every time the project surfaces. This fan-shot performance clip of “Fog Dog” may actually be the most arresting material to come from Porches. to date. It helps that Frankie Cosmos vocals lend the whole thing an almost unbearable lightness. A genuinely gorgeous piece of entertainment- and the ending? One of the most endearing things to have shown up in any kind of film this year.

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4. The Marked Men Weekend (Live at St. Vitus)

So, the other weekend an enormous wealth of material consumed Brooklyn and lit the NYC punk community on fire three times over. A large, large, part of this was the three sets that reclusive basement punk icons The Marked Men graced the city with, bringing along an assortment of their friends to share the moment. All three of The Marked Men’s sets were captured in full by the always-reliable unARTigNYC, who also filmed single clips of the support acts; Tenement, Radiator Hospital, Worriers, Kim Phuc, Iron Chic, Future Punx, and Shellshag. Those clips appear in that order and are all worth watching (especially Tenement, who will get an emphasis on here whenever there’s an appropriate excuse, and Radiator Hospital, whose Something Wild was one of 2013’s very best).

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5. The Don Giovanni Showcase

While The Marked Men weekend was happening over at St. Vitus, the Don Giovanni showcase was going strong just a stones throw away. There were a few bands that made appearances at both (Tenement, Worriers, and Shellshag) and made sure the wealth was lovingly spread across the city. Now, Don Giovanni’s a record label that’s earned a lot of mentions here by virtue of their roster, one of the strongest in DIY music. While not being able to attend was painful, it’s easy to tell that it was an incredible time from the videos that were presented by Don Giovanni themselves. Curiously, sets/songs from the explosive combination of Screaming Females and Tenement  were left out (though a performance of “Doom 84” in Cleveland has been tacked onto the playlist- along with the previously-mentioned Shellshag medley– because as long as this video playlist cheating is taking place, why not cheat a little more?) along with a few others but there’s still a lot to love here.

Contained in the playlist are the following: Nude Beach (who absolutely lit Quarters Rock N Roll Palace up in Milwaukee last July with Midnight Reruns and Tenement), Black Wine, Groucho Marxists, Priests (especially Priests, who, as one of the most original and exciting bands in music, are going to be given a lot more words here in the very near future), Vacation (a few members of which have found growing success in their other incredible band, Tweens), Worriers, Nuclear Santa Claust, California X, and, as mentioned, both Screaming Females and Shellshag. Watch it all below and buy a goddamn guitar already.

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