While on a short vacay I was stoked to go see some bands at the Mercury Lounge on the lower East side on my very last night in NYC. As someone who 19 months earlier moved from the indie and sun drenched sidewalks of California to the deeply wooded area and sweetly sleepy part of Georgia going to NYC provided the shot of adrenaline I have been craving. That is not to say that there isn't a lot of indie music in places like Athens and Atlanta but I have not fully dove in (except for the 40 Watt Club and Shakey Knees Fest). I did find "it" this past Tuesday night in droves in New York when it was my pleasure to personally discover three incredible bands.
Adult Dude out of Brooklyn churn out their own kind of celebratory post rock with the same kind of musical DNA of bands like Dinosaur Jr, Japandroids and Yuck. The feeling that stirs up deeply in your bones makes you want to dance as much as run down the street breaking windows. As I listened to their songs with lead vocals traded off between the two guitarists there is also an underbelly of romance to the melodies, a sense of sweetness to the clenched fist grit. Seeing them for the first time I was fully engaged and now checking out their latest album Adult Moods which you can hear here.
As I watched ManDancing out of New Jersey take the stage to set up their instruments, their lead singer went through a series of warm up exercises from core style push ups to leg stretches and more. I was a bit taken aback and thought, "man he better do some old school David Lee Roth kicks after all that" and yes, I was being a smart ass but after seeing their performance and how much emotional focus he put into his performance I take all of it back. I get the sense that this outfit is a band backing up a singer songwriter and in such a powerful way. The guitars accenting the rhythm and the drumming with a kind of jazz rock attack to what is ostensibly a type of big indie folk rock / folk art rock tone pulled me in right away. I thought of Death Cab for Cutie having a nervous breakdown. When the lead guitarist started making some Jonny Greenwood-esque type sounds I was sold. Very cool sounds you can check out more here.
Impossible Colors out of Nyack, New York are a band that plays a brand of emotional proggy garage rock that has culls a certain type of muscularity to their dynamic sound. It is not only that the lead singer / guitarist could (in another life) be a lumberjack it is that much of their music is cloaked in the kind of drama that feels part heavy metal, part art rock. In the heavy groove there is a gleam in the eye, a wanderlust to their stories. In this theater they create it also feels deeply American. I thought a little of Titus Andronicus for whatever reason one moment and Wires on Fire another. You need to see these guys and check out their music here.
NOTE: The Maisons also played this show but I was not able to catch their set.
More Videos Here: Mercury Lounge 3/15/16 Playlist
No comments:
Post a Comment