Midnight Spin, Quintet, Mercury Lounge,
“Welcome to CMJ,” the leade singer said right before plunging us into the Brooklyn-based band’s brand of power pop and rock, riding on the heels of Fang Island’s ultra-concentrated layered sound, the kind of rock that would be comfortable on the playlist of either a 12-18 or 40-60 y/o (BIG selling point, as those seem to be the only age brackets buying records these days!). Pure viscera. As hard as these guys are trying to rock, they are actually quite controlled, with leading dynamics on the drums. It sounds like John Dolmayan on the drums with melodrama on the guitars, a cushy synth, driving bass lines and warm harmonies circling the entire fray.
Luluc, Duo, The Living Room
This black-clad genial pair do flawless harmonies that keep their lead performer in the spotlight through nuanced dynamics. Absolutely perfect tuning, which is worth note because of the old and beautiful, yet finicky instruments they choose. If I don't mention Simon and Garfunkel I'm ridiculous. Similar in both sound - nylon guitar ostinatos with complimenting lead – and lyrical approach. Sheer and soft harmonies. Her voice carries so much presence. His is perfect match by be unremarkable. Luluc would be good music for road trips in greenery, black clad. Dude gets a solo, with the same kind of subtly that this music seeps in. The New York based band (Austrailian transplants) take up the topic of travel quite a bit, telling tales of road trips next to the very serious metaphor of real poetry. Absolutely stunning voices. Sounds replicated. Sounds perfect. She makes it look so effortless. - Luluc will play at the CMJ after party on 10.24 at Cyber PR Headquarters (389, 12th Street) - be there.
Ill Ease, Solo, Cakeshop
Ill Ease is the one-man dance-loop-poppy-repetitive-minimalism project of Brooklyn’s own Elizabeth Sharp. Sharp gets down and dirty with a towering stack of loops she makes live. Melodic movement is limited - it comes with the order and manner in which the loops get stacked. "I don't know what I want, I don't know what I like." She sings during her opener. Well, maybe that's why she has to play everything. She makes a bass loop, puts that down, makes a guitar loop, puts that down, and then sits behind the kit while singing. It builds into this raucous guitar dude, then crashes back into this funk bass line, not exactly dependent on phrase... Although she probably knows exactly what's she's doing. Sassy vocals, relaxed, I don't give a fuck, this is how I am attitude. Classic metal riffs without being derivative, trying to get folky a little. She actually has good technique on all of it!! Tone and control and tempo. Exploits the limits of the loops by murdering linear notions of time on top of the loop. Wow. Exuberant. And then sure enough, during the awesome “New York London Paris: "I don't give a fuck." This made me smile and laugh and care about her a little bit too. Cause I think I gave a fuck.
This might sound kind of trite, but imagination is one of the most crucial deciding factors that makes us pay attention to music we get introduced to. This is a quality that is definitely not missing from Night Manager's music, lead singer Caitlin Seager's melodies in particular. The Brooklyn via Paris/San Francisco band offers some of the most refreshingly catchy pop lines we heard in a long time. The gorgeous single "Ghost" (streaming here) is a glorious melange of genres, somewhat reminiscent of the carefully constructed songs from The Throwing Muses' pop masterpiece "The Real Ramona" - one of the most underestimated pop album of the 90s. Unpredictable melodies blending Cocteau Twins' heavenly beauty and The Beach Boys' harmonizing mastery, float on top of what could be described as a grunge-style track, although drenched in reverb and filtered through the NYC DIY sound of the new millennium, with all its homages to the new wave and the garage sound of the 60s. But the sonic character of the track is kind of contingent here, because the actual song is so good that it would work in any instrumental context. The other two tracks on the 7" (the band's third release), present a similar recipe, with a heavier influence of the 60's surf pop element, which awakens comparisons to west coast breakout band Best Coast.- PDG
