Looks like Teeth Mountain is playing at Harrison Fort this Tuesday night with Boo and Boo Too, Gary War, and Terracide.
Yessssssss.
Here’s an idea of what’s going on:
teeth mountain - 4/24/08 @ Death by Audio
Here’s a late entry on the events calendar - David Byrne is scheduled to play the Uptown on October 19th as part of his tour celebrating the work he’s done with Brian Eno, both with the Talking Heads and as a solo artist.
The two have a new album, Everything that Happens will Happen Today, in a couple of weeks. Their last collaboration, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, is soon to be pushing thirty years old, and Eno’s work on the earlier Talking Heads’ releases is already well past the three-decade mark. Unfortunately, Eno’s not schedule to join Byrne on these dates - but all the same, it’s an opportunity to see the still-feisty frontman doing some of the classics of the no-wave/experimental/electronic movement of the late 70’s and early 80’s.
We missed the video of the Life & Times’ Japanese tour documentary unfortunately, since we arrived a few minutes after 10. Lawrence’s The Dactyls were setting up and getting ready to play, and by the time the first round had arrived, the four-piece had launched into their set.
These guys reminded me quite a bit of Pavement - intentionally slack, the sort of thing that makes drinking cheap beer on summer porches, initially talking about Eastern European poetry but ultimately discussing the merits of socks with toes sewn in them a worthy usage of time. We picked up copies of their “A Widow Knows” b/w “Space from Earth” 7in and the split they just put out with Bandit Teeth as well - and a huge thanks goes to these guys for including CD copies of the releases in the jacket.
Nueva Volcano did a split with the Life & Times awhile back, and joined them on the Japanese tour chronicled in the Life is Pleasure dvd mentioned earlier. The three-piece, who originally hail from Barcelona, Spain, was finishing up a tour of the States before coming through Kansas City this night.
Although the lyrics are entirely in Spanish, the spirit of what these guys were doing came through pretty easily. It’s refreshing to see a band playing with a sense of determination that’s not crippled by the self-awareness that plagues so many American/European bands. What we in the States are normally exposed to when it comes to music from any other continent is often hand-picked for best possible shot at marketing success or are so underground and avante garde that it’s often impossible to ever experience in a live setting. It was a treat to see what is surely a hard-working, self-financing, touring band from another country come through our town.
The Life & Times’ history with Kansas City goes way back. It’s been covered more than enough elsewhere, but it’s safe to say that the days of Shiner, Season to Risk, Outhouse, Molly McGuire, Kill Creek . . . those days hold a special place in the heart of any locally-born and bred indie rock fan. The mid-90’s were an amazing time to be a music fan in Kansas City and we still see the effects of this period today - look no further than the Record Bar and its management.
The last time we caught the trio was the first time I’d been able to see them. The band’s album and eps evoke not only the best of that by-gone era but continue to carry the torch for where so many by-gone acts weren’t able to go. Live, they are a different beast entirely. Allen Epley, drummer Chris Metcalf, and bassist Eric Abert (along with their ever-present industrial flood lighting) create space-sized atmospheres around their work. Metcalf and Abert provide the low-end and rhythms, while Epley works the type of emotions out of his guitar that are best identified with those who are seemingly emotionless. Lyrically, he follows suit - the stories are of dirt and disappointment and reserved indifference. It’s not art, but moreso extra-strength reality in four-minute capsules we can take a handful at a time.
The band has a few more scattered dates around the city and Lawrence in the next few months, including a free set on September 10th at the Power & Light at one of the Homegrown Buzz showcase nights. Check out thelifeandtimes.com for more information, and while you’re there grab the great Suburban Hymns album on clear vinyl for a very manageable $10.
Wake up wake up it’s the first of the month, which means an update to the upcoming calendar for Kansas City, now with some added Lawrence goodness thanks to somewhat more accomodating schedules for both the wife and I.
8/2 - The Life & Times, Nueva Volcano, & the Dactyls @ the Record Bar
8/7 - The Pitch Music Showcase @ all over town
8/8 - CHOMP WOMP Compilation release Party @ the Bottleneck
8/9 - Hatcha @ Crosstown Station
8/13 - Baby Birds don’t drink Milk @ the Record Bar
8/15 - Bark Bark Bark + Boo and Boo Too @ the Replay
8/20 - Bassline Pressure @ the Record Bar
8/27 - North @ the Record Bar
9/2 - The Show is the Rainbow @ the Record Bar
9/5 - Lymbyc System + This will Destroy You @ the Jackpot
9/7 - Mythical Beast + These are Powers @ the Pistol Social Club
9/14 - Vampire Hands @ the Brick
9/19 - namelessnumberheadman @ the Brick
9/22 - The Dead Science @ The Record Bar
9/23 - Robert Plant & Allison Krauss @ Starlight
10/10 - A Place to Bury Strangers @ the Record Bar
10/14 - Opeth, High on Fire, Baroness @ the Beaumont
10/16 - Broken Social Scene @ the Beaumont
10/19 - David Byrne @ the Uptown
10/23 - Toadies @ the Beaumont
11/1 - Magnolia Electric Company @ the Jackpot
This summer’s been full of rain. Torrential rain, at that. We left the house right as it started and we weren’t sure if our car was going to be where we left it when we finally made it down to the Pistol. It’s the lowest part of Kansas City after all. Things cleared up a short time later, and the at-first sparse crowd started filing in.
First up was the skronky-tonk of Witch & Hare, a local four-piece. They had a fairly decent amount of energy - there weren’t any slow songs that I can recall, and the dirty, semi-sloppiness of the whole thing seemed to be within their control. An interesting act for fans of the sound, but not so much my thing.
Sic Alps set up their tower of amps - you can see it there in the picture. We were pretty sure it was either going to fall over on them by the end of their set or they were going to destroy it.
This is easily a like-it-or-you-don’t act. I was into it, and have been for awhile, so when they started blasting their two-piece sludge-doom take on classic rock, it didn’t catch me by surprise. What did get me, though, was the force these two put out. Obviously, the guitar kept a strong presence in the low-end, while drums were pounded. Amplifier worship was in full effect - feedback squalls were manipulated into wails of sonic crush. Matt Hartman and Mike Donovan traded instruments a couple of times on the last show of their tour before heading back to San Francisco.
Also, I should mention I’m just now coming to grips with the fact that these guys played Kansas City - again, huge thanks to the Pistol for making this happen.
Here’s some very badly-lit but ultimately indicative footage of what these guys were up to:
Good times.
Foxtail Somersault posted a surprise announcement late Sunday night that the San Francisco band would be stopping in Kansas City on their way to Chicago this weekend, where they’ll be taking part in a five-way battle of the bands for a spot on this weekend’s Lollapalooza bill. I had to do a double-take to make sure the bulletin said Kansas City, but once it was confirmed by the Skinless (and my dates were straightened out – thanks David!) I started getting pretty excited. Here’s one of the best dreampop bands around right now, playing in Kansas City – in an art gallery – for free!
Admittedly, it had been awhile since we’d been to the Skinless – but the venue hasn’t held up its goal of becoming one of the city’s better intimate venues on our account. While most of the performances at the gallery have tended towards the acoustic side of things, recent developments have allowed the room to host more artists who are able to plug in.
Such is the case with Foxtail Somersault. The band builds its sound on a base of classic dreampop and shoegaze textures, paying equal amounts of homage to Robin Guthrie as to Kevin Shields or Slowdive. Obviously, this sound is built on volume – swells of chorus and delay are given dynamics when frequency presence is manipulated.
The five-piece seemed a little cramped on the Skinless’ stage, but once levels were set, everyone seemed to have enough room to move around as needed. Bassist Brian Anderson kept the low end of things subtle and elegantly simple throughout the set, while drummer Mark Dungey filled in rhythms with a light, jazzy touch. In dreampop and shoegaze, it’s very often these elements – bass and drums – that provide the grounding for the remainder of the piece to launch from, and both Anderson and Dungey provided the audience with touchpoints to hold on to once the walls of sound began.
James Spadaro serves in the capacity of “lead” guitarist – he’s the one doing the cleaner lines, dropping in fill notes, and working more along the lines of Robin Guthrie’s chiming, chorus-laden solo work. Within Foxtail Somersault, however, the work of Seiken Nakama is the focal point. The interplay between Spadaro and Nakama – and vocalist Cat Howland’s occasional third guitar – is a fantastic update of the classic dreampop sound. Spadaro and Howland would provide the “pop” sounds while Nakama worked his effects board to its fullest.
Nakama’s ability to expand the songs into a wider field of experience is vital to Foxtail Somersault – reverb, chorus, and delay are common effects in most modern music, but it takes an understanding of psycho-acoustics to shape guitar tones in such a way that creates a floating, out-of-body sensation inherent to the best of the genre. As the sonic kinesthetics of propulsion began driving through the swirling cloud, Nakama showed at every passage his ability to control the tension until he was ready for the movement to reach its peak.
The cohesion of other four members to ebb and then re-convene around Nakama’s playing is a highlight of Foxtail Somersault. Moving past simple re-interpretation of past acts, the band as a whole managed to find the balance between finely-crafted pop songs and the dense wall of sonics. Indeed, Cat Howland’s vocals are a key part of this equation. At times recalling The Sundays’ Harriet Wheeler and at other times Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval, Howland is not afraid to have her element buried in the building swirl of the song. At these points, her voice becomes an instrument more of sound and less of communication. Once her vocal breaks through the din, it’s an unmistakable, inviting ray buoyed lightly on the waves of sound occurring around her. She stays well away from the saccharine, vamp-chanteuse vocals often found in the genre, instead sticking with a mature, almost world-worn tone that makes for a much more enriching experience.
The five-piece worked its way through a roughly-hour long set to a rapt audience of about ten to fifteen who turned out for the free show. New songs mixed with tracks on their 2007 Vibraphone ep, Fathoms, and they closed on a great cover of the Church’s “Under the Milky Way”.
Everyone in the band was more than gracious to hang out and talk with those in attendance afterwards. Vehicle trouble throughout the journey from San Francisco to Chicago had presented the opportunity for the band to play in Kansas City, and, in fact, they were experiencing some tire issues just outside the venue. I was also surprised to find out that guitarist James Spadaro had spent time in Morning Spy with Jon Rooney of Virgin of the Birds and the great Abandoned Love label.
I was impressed with the venue again, and I want to send another set of thanks to Ben and Zac at the Skinless – and David for setting this particular show up. The guys at the gallery are dedicated to pushing the envelope in Kansas City, and it’s absolutely vital that the city – myself included – do what we can to support places like the Skinless. While the positive impact of the Record Bar and the Brick are undeniable, it’s taken us a long time to get back to the point where experimental, forward-thinking artists have a selection of venues like the Skinless, the Crossroads Infoshop, or the Pistol Social Club to play in Kansas City. We’re once again becoming an option as a stop again beyond Lawrence, Omaha, Columbia, or St. Louis. With the undeniable impact of the crassly commercial Power & Light District, and the rest of the city’s struggle to remain solvent in the face of this corporate monster, we’ve got to take the opportunities to show our support to those who aren’t necessarily concerned about the bottom line when they arise.
UPDATE - the band won the audience vote at the Empty Bottle competition, and ultimately played a set at Lollapalooza today (Friday 8/1) - well deserved and congratulations!
foxtailsomersault.com
foxtail somersault myspace
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