mars.'08 concert reviews
I like to generate informal reviews as an excuse to moan about the one thing I love the most in the world-- music.
the ex guitars meet nilssen-love /vandermark duo @ mono, 13 march 08
the first improvised collaboration i heard involving the ex- was the song "III" from wire tapper 08, with sonic youth + ICP. after coming back to this song having seen them (the ex’s two guitarists Andy Moor and Terrie Ex) live at mono the other week, I could immediately detect their particular imprint... but this time, it was the ex guitarists joined with and against one of Norway’s most notorious drummers Paal Nilssen, and American jazz composer Ken Vandermark. Nilssen-love/Vandermark were by far the driving force tho they didn’t set stage until the second song, and maybe some woulda interpreted them as just creating the background ’noise’ to the well-known Dutch punkers... but the nilssen-love/vandermark duo were very organic, making strange rhythms loosely anchoring it all... whereas the guitars were more sporadic, noisy... sometimes i don’t feel equipped to review these kinds of shows, since experimental-jazz-noise feels such an esoteric field limited to the horde of nerdy skinny white males that were crowding the place, regardless, (all but 1) of the 5 songs they played i found extremely palpable and fantastic, probably would have been honey to any musically-trained ears.
kambodsja, wolf eyes @ blå, 22 march 08
kambodsja- i haven’t made up my mind about them, hardcore to me is very 1999, or at least their brand, but maybe i was spoiled by having gone to countless american hardcore shows as an alienated high schooler... on the other hand, their last song and a few bits and pieces of their noisier songs leads me to believe they’ve got great potential, and its a good thing norway rat’s picked them up.
...i might be the only one who compared wolf eyes to the birthday party that night, though i did also hear a parade of names from throbbing gristle to einstürzende to other shit like that...maybe it was the singer’s demeanor, harsh, nihilistic and somewheres underneath still bits of some haunting melody... anyway, all us and the norway rat crew there (half the crowd) unanimously agreed, they put on a fucking good show. i am sick of hipster noise like the locust or DFA records; or pop or indie bands that ppl think are noise, like battles or xiu xiu-- but this is for real, a noise band, a noise band that’s done a bit of reading on "noise music", and i dig it. nerdishly, i dig.
www.tabaskoartists.com
the ex guitars meet nilssen-love /vandermark duo @ mono, 13 march 08
the first improvised collaboration i heard involving the ex- was the song "III" from wire tapper 08, with sonic youth + ICP. after coming back to this song having seen them (the ex’s two guitarists Andy Moor and Terrie Ex) live at mono the other week, I could immediately detect their particular imprint... but this time, it was the ex guitarists joined with and against one of Norway’s most notorious drummers Paal Nilssen, and American jazz composer Ken Vandermark. Nilssen-love/Vandermark were by far the driving force tho they didn’t set stage until the second song, and maybe some woulda interpreted them as just creating the background ’noise’ to the well-known Dutch punkers... but the nilssen-love/vandermark duo were very organic, making strange rhythms loosely anchoring it all... whereas the guitars were more sporadic, noisy... sometimes i don’t feel equipped to review these kinds of shows, since experimental-jazz-noise feels such an esoteric field limited to the horde of nerdy skinny white males that were crowding the place, regardless, (all but 1) of the 5 songs they played i found extremely palpable and fantastic, probably would have been honey to any musically-trained ears.
kambodsja, wolf eyes @ blå, 22 march 08
kambodsja- i haven’t made up my mind about them, hardcore to me is very 1999, or at least their brand, but maybe i was spoiled by having gone to countless american hardcore shows as an alienated high schooler... on the other hand, their last song and a few bits and pieces of their noisier songs leads me to believe they’ve got great potential, and its a good thing norway rat’s picked them up.
...i might be the only one who compared wolf eyes to the birthday party that night, though i did also hear a parade of names from throbbing gristle to einstürzende to other shit like that...maybe it was the singer’s demeanor, harsh, nihilistic and somewheres underneath still bits of some haunting melody... anyway, all us and the norway rat crew there (half the crowd) unanimously agreed, they put on a fucking good show. i am sick of hipster noise like the locust or DFA records; or pop or indie bands that ppl think are noise, like battles or xiu xiu-- but this is for real, a noise band, a noise band that’s done a bit of reading on "noise music", and i dig it. nerdishly, i dig.
www.tabaskoartists.com