Live Review: A Place To Bury Strangers/Hooray For Earth @ Motorco, 3/11/2011

If there's one thing I love, my friends, it's hitting the road for an out of town show. It feels like a teensy vacation, venturing outside state lines to go see some music at a club outside your usual circle of venues. And Durham's Motorco might just be my favorite non-local spot within driving distance. So give me the chance to go see two amazing live bands at such a great venue and odds are good I'll make the trip. Even with all that hideous DC metro Friday evening traffic. But damned if Hooray for Earth and A Place to Bury Strangers weren't worth the trip and then some. I don't really know what else could be better on a Friday night.

Hooray for Earth, some of my new favorite New Yorkers, are definitely a special live band. They have this certain feel to them, a rush of breathless, frenetic yet totally chill energy. It's the sound of the promise of beautiful warm weather, and to my winter coat-wearing ears they sounded simply delightful. To me, they're at their best when bouncing all over the place sonically, buoyed by lively drums and an inescapable feeling of excitement. At times, the room lacked a little intensity, but I think a big part of that was the drunken, basketball-glutted Duke and UNC fans in attendance. Taking cues from their lovely noise, the accompanying background images were a collection of swirling, dizzying colors and shapes. Big, clunky riffs and an uneven, awesome drum beat hallmarked a lot of the songs from their upcoming LP. "The barbecue truck is fuckin' rad," they opined between killer songs that went by much too quickly. Initially, I wasn't quite sold on this tour pairing, but having seen Hooray for Earth again, and heard more of their great, great songs, I think it totally made sense. In a way, they're like the sunshine to the stormcloud of animalistic aggression that is A Place to Bury Strangers. They didn't even throw my jam ("Surrounded by Your Friends") into the set, and they were still daggum fantastic.

So too was A Place to Bury Strangers. They've been just about flawless each and every time I've seen them, and are without a doubt one of my favorite live bands. And I made damn sure to have myself some earplugs for this one. The crowd was still on the lackluster side for their set, but the band played like they didn't notice. One song in, Oliver was already going gangbusters with his guitar-playing contortions and herky jerky moves, a precursor of the awesomeness to come. They weren't, as usual, big on banter, but early on we were informed that drummer Jay Space had a broken collarbone. After their set, I'd have said I didn't believe it. He, and the rest of the band, carried out their industrialized shoegaze with gusto. "Deadbeat," one of my most-loved APTBS songs, sounded about as good as I've ever heard, with that growling bassline and Oliver's onslaught of vicious guitar noise. The guitar bore the brunt, too, ending up tossed across the stage before the song was over. My most favorite song came right after, an extra feedbacked and extra slinky rendition of "Ego Death." It was nothing short of ferocious. The trio gritted and grimed and fuzzed and tore their way through their set with much savage force. And I ate up every last minute. Also notable was "I Lived My Life to Stand in the Shadow of Your Heart," which might have been my favorite song of the night. The black and white ballerina projections were the perfect juxtaposition to the sheer brutality of the merciless fuzz. The instrumentation in this song in particular was nigh on epic. This is a band that taps into some amazing energy when they get together on a stage, and if you haven't yet seen them live, well, you'll want to amend that as soon as possible.

Despite the blase attitude of the basketball-hungover crowd, both of these bands killed it at Motorco. It was a great tour pairing, and both of these bands should be seen live whenever possible. Trust.

mp3: Comfortable, Comparable (Hooray for Earth from the Momo EP)

mp3: In Your Heart (A Place to Bury Strangers from Exploding Head)

[photo by Megan Petty - Philly, 2010]

Megan’s Top 70 of 2010: #59 - Hooray for Earth

Why I Decree it to Be So:

Yeah, I got suckered into putting another EP on my list, because it’s just too dang good to leave out. Momo is Hooray for Earth’s way of making you sit up and take notice. It’s a collection of six dandy ditties coated in jangly and floaty electrofrothy synth goodness. Damned if “Surrounded By Your Friends” isn’t one of the catchiest songs I heard all year, and “Comfortable, Comparable” nips close behind at its addictive heels. Based on this here fine EP, I’m beyond excited for their forthcoming long player.

mp3: Surrounded By Your Friends (Hooray for Earth from Momo)

100 Shows of 2010 - #54: Admiral Radley/Hooray For Earth @ DC9, 8/21/10

It’s a blue moon rare kinda thing when you get both of us Terribles in one room at one time, my little darlings. Given our mad crazy constantly conflicting schedules it had been many a month since we got together, and as you probably already noticed, Chris and I joined forces for what I’d call easily one of the best shows of the year. Put together an emerging band from the Big Apple and a supergroup of sorts and you’ve got a recipe for one heck of a night. And that’s exactly what it was.

MINI RECAP: Admiral Radley = California Love! Hooray For Earth = NYC Love! Overall score: A.

Hooray For Earth was up first. I was so very happy to see them, because I had managed to miss the vast majority of their set a couple months back. They sounded totally different than what I remembered, and I could have sworn they lost a few band members in the interlude between the last show and this one. And if that’s the case, it was a change for the better. Or it could just be my horrible memory. Either way, I was totally impressed with HFE, their live set more torn and frayed than they are on record, a little bit Pavement and a little bit shoegaze and a little bit dreampop (or, as I wrote in my notes, think of it like that kinda spacey vibe of Steve Miller meets synth meets the Jesus & Mary Chain). Their songs proved rather punchy and rather enjoyable, and I just can’t resist a band that successfully juxtaposes totally chaotic guitar distortion and bouncy, bubbly basslines. Apart from the vocals being a little muddy, their set was totally great. And I can’t not give a shoutout to the drummer for drumming with one hand and banging the tambourine with the other. Now that, friends, is skill. Definitely watch this space, because I really dig me some Hooray For Earth.

Up next was the awesome of Admiral Radley. And let me just go ahead and get my bad pun out of the way, but you really can’t spell Radley without rad. Think of it, won’t you? You take two members of the fantastic Earlimart and fuse them to two members of the equally fantastic Grandaddy. It’s a surefire formula for success if ever there was one. I loved them immediately, their sound pulling from both bands but not as such that it seemed like a crutch. The guitar play reminded me of the Grandaddy record The Sophtware Slump a whole lot, and the sound was very bouncy and atmospheric. The projections flanking the band on either side of natural and cosmic elements totally fit their overall vibe. “How come you’re so far away back there and I’m up here like Bono,” a cheeky Aaron Espinoza asked Jason Lyttle, causing ripples of giggles throughout the crowd. Their banter was even great. At one point Espinoza adapted the lyrics to fit his frame of mind, singing, “I forgot the words/but it doesn’t matter now/cuz I’m all fucked up on beer/I’m fucked up on beer”. It was, hands down, the best drunk lyric forgettal recovery ever. They might heart California, but I heart me some Admiral Radley.

And that was all she wrote. It was a doozy of a dandy show, and not even the late start or late finish could put a damper on the displays of musical prowess. If you’re not already smitten with both of these bands, I suggest you give it some serious consideration.

mp3: Surrounded By Your Friends (Hooray For Earth from Momo)

Live Review: Admiral Radley and Horray for Earth, DC9, 8-21-10

The uncommon happened this past Saturday night, and Ms. Meg and i actually got together in person to partake of the wonders offered by Admiral Radley and opener Hooray for Earth at DC9. It's OK, though, the Missus knew ahead of time. Expect her (Meg's, not the Missus') take on things in the next day or so. In the meantime, here's how things went down from my perspective.

i knew nothing about the openers, Hooray for Earth, ahead of time, but i can say they put on an enjoyable, though brief, slot to get things started. The acoustics at DC9 leave a little something to be desired, so i honestly couldn't make out a word the lead singer said, but i can say the boys are talented enough to keep the crowd humming for at least half an hour. Two things stuck out to me that had little to do with anything--the lead singer looked freakishly like Dent May, and i'm not sure if i've ever seen a more exuberant drummer; the guy literally looked like he might bounce off of his stool at any given moment, so into the beat was he. All in all, not a bad way to start the show, even if they did start nearly half an hour later than they were supposed to.

Sadly for the rest of you, by the time Admiral Radley took the stage at about 11:15, there still were only maybe 50 of us there to enjoy things. The show played almost like a backyard BBQ, with an easy camaraderie onstage and a lot of cheap beer flowing amongst performers and audience alike. Starting almost immediately after stepping on the riser that served as a stage, co-leads Jason Lytle and Aaron Espinoza were gabbing back and forth like a couple of high school buddies from back in the day. And let's be honest, Admiral Radley is a continuation of the Grandaddy and Earlimart sounds, essentially lazy stoner skateboarder tunes. You might worry that as nobody in the band is a teenager anymore, perhaps the band has overstayed its welcome in the genre. Instead, their additional years seem to add a bit of wit and wisdom to the lyrics that almost transcend the material. Don't get me wrong, "Sunburn Kids" and "Drunk on Beer" are two of my favorites on I Heart California, but even Lytle admitted the former was "silly." Of course, one of the highlights of the evening came when Espinoza, possibly somewhat besotted himself, started muffing the lyrics to "Drunk on Beer," claiming, however, that it was no problem, as he was, in fact, drunk on beer himself. Another high point clearly was Ariana Murray's solo, "The Thread." Any earlier complaints of bad mic-ing were gone for this song. Having a crowd quiet down, even partially, for the slow songs always is a Herculean task, but Ms. Murray kept the crowd enraptured with her straightforward performance. Of final note for me, Espinoza informed the crowd that for the encore, they'd be doing "kind of a cover" before launching into "Every Time I'm With You," one of Lytle's contributions to Dark Night of the Soul, and personally one of my two favorite tracks from that CD (the other being his second submission, "Jaykub").

Overall, Admiral Radley benefits greatly from the vocals of both Lytle and Espinoza, each sounding pretty damn close to the consistency of slightly heated honey burbling out of the plastic bear and into your teacup. The fact that Lytle still projects old home movie footage, though on a far smaller screen than the last time he played the 9:30 Club with Grandaddy, adds a layer of depth and shading you wouldn't expect at such a small location as DC9, which is nice. It would have been nice to hear more from Murray and perhaps at least an acknowledgement that Aaron Burtch was even on stage, steady on the skins all night, but they all seemed to be enjoying the hell out of the experience, so who am i to talk?

I'd like to note that for a band that's apparently only been together a handful of months, they sounded like they'd been playing together for years and years. As concerts for "new" bands are supposed to accomplish, i've been listening to their debut album pretty much non-stop since Saturday night, a true testament to the talent on-stage that night. i think it's pretty fair to say i heart Admiral Radley.

mp3: Every Time I'm With You (ft. Jason Lytle) (Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse from Dark Night of the Soul)

mp3: intro/jeez louise (Jack from Just Like The Fambly Cassette) (i.e., Jason Lytle's Just Like the Fambly Cat demos)

mp3: Pull the Curtains (Grandaddy from Excerpts from the Diary of Todd Zilla)

100 Shows of 2010 - #37: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart/Surfer Blood/Hooray For Earth @ Black Cat, 6/16/10

Once more during birthday week, I found myself at the Black Cat for another fabulous night of live music. This time, the shindig was totally sold out for LET faves The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, joined this time through by Surfer Blood and Hooray For Earth. It proved to be a night of very good vibrations, and was further sugary sweet icing on this girl’s birthday cake.

MINI RECAP: The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart = Pop Perfection! Surfer Blood = Worth Hypery! Hooray For Earth = Scandalously Shimmery! Overall score: A-.

Ridiculous traffic and even more ridiculous misadventures in street parking conspired against me when it came to seeing first band Hooray For Earth. I was only able to catch a couple songs, regretfully. However, what I did manage to see was pretty darned wonderful. The (large, large) band cranks out a really cute, really sweet synthy pop sound. I was a big fan of their forays into boy-girl vocals, along with the peppy percussion and the sassy, shimmery synths. And bless their hearts, they all looked so happy up there on the stage! I do so love a band that looks like they’re having themselves a mighty fine time. I can definitely say that Hooray For Earth warrant further observation, and hopefully they’ll swing back around this way soon.

Blog darlings Surfer Blood were up next in the sandwich, and while not quite totally in love with them after seeing them live, I found their set rather enjoyable. They piqued my interest with the interesting drummer tactics, one standing and one seated. I do love my drummers, especially when they exhibit a little attitude behind their respective kit. The band as a whole came across as a little sassy, and I liked it. I was definitely into their feisty guitar riffage and danceable licks, along with their overall straightforward powerpoppage. And they slightly melted my icy heart a wee bit when they proclaimed, “Let’s Do Hugs Onstage!” and started hugging each other in the middle of their set. Aww. Band love makes me feel all squishy inside. All told, I can kinda see what all the kerfuffle is about when it comes to Surfer Blood. However, as a friend (who was once in a Weezer cover band) and I agreed, their cover of the Weezer classic “Undone (The Sweater Song)” was a tad anticlimactic and not quite full of enough gusto.

And then, it was time for one of my very favorite live bands, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. Right away the New Yorkers were dazzling. “Contender” was up first, with Kip Berman's voice sounding even sweeter than I remembered. Seeing this band live just automatically puts a big smile on my face. The fantastic “Come Saturday” came next, all cuteness and fluffiness and inescapable catchiness. “Young Adult Friction” seems to be one of their strongest live songs, and I feel like I love it even more when it’s live. It’s got that extra saccharine bounce to it, without being cloying of course. More pop perfection followed, including the incomparable “A Teenager In Love”, showing off Kip’s breathy, excited vocals and their taut percussion. Something about this band captures the electric breathlessness of youth, and it’s so very beautiful to hear. “This is a song about love,” Kips muses, before launching into an utterly slaying version of “This Love Is Fucking Right” (my probable favorite TPOBPAH song, for right now anyway). It all sounded so very right, from older favorites “Stay Alive” and “Everything With You” to new songs (yay!) “The Heart In Your Heartbreak” and “Heaven’s Gonna Happen Now”. In my humble opinion, this band can do no wrong. They closed it all out with an unspeakably fabulous cover of “Be My Little Baby” with special guests from the two opening bands helping out. It was a total lovefest.

I’ve gotta give my local crowd a thumbs up for this show, because as the bands brought to our attention, this was the only sold out show of the entire tour (way to go, DC). Everyone left the show with smiles on their faces (because really, if you didn’t, you have no soul. It’s as simple as that). Friends, don’t hesitate to see any and all of these bands live when you can.

mp3: Come Saturday (The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart from The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart)