Comfest!

All the complaining from bands and bruised egos leading up to Comfest is a little too much for me. The band submission process is an imperfect system, but if you didn't get picked, I say suck it up, try again next year, go see some other bands and have fun anyway.

That said, The Other Paper did a good job breaking down the selection process in its cover story this week. And that forum thread the story mentions? It's right here, but I wouldn't recommend wading through all 27 pages. Immaturity abounds.

None of that really matters now, though. Comfest is here, and I'm specifically looking forward to Two Cow Garage, Brainbow, Miranda Sound and Moon High. What about you?

Gentleman Auction House - High Five, 6/19

The original plan last Thursday night was to see Headlights at Cafe Bourbon St. But because of the ongoing renovations/ownership changes/legal stalemate/whatever at Bobo, the show was moved to the High Five to be combined with Gentleman Auction House, which sounded like a good idea. Then Headlights canceled completely, and I had to decide if it was worth covering only Gentleman Auction House, a band out of St. Louis on Emergency Umbrella Records (also home to local up-and-comer Sinkane).

I decided to go, and in one sense, it probably wasn’t the best call journalistically because the place was mostly empty (apparently word got around quickly that Headlights canceled). But in another sense, it was the exact right call because this band was absolutely terrific, putting on one of the best performances I’ve seen this year. Had I not gone, I never would have known about this fantastic band, and you, dear reader, wouldn’t either.

Gentleman Auction House’s seven members just barely squeezed onto the stage, and judging by their exuberance, you would have thought they were playing to a packed house. The two drummers pounded their simple, propulsive beats in unison as keyboard, guitar, trumpet, xylophone, synth and one more floor tom (for good measure) fell in line around the beat. It was as if the musicians couldn’t contain the energy in the songs and had to let it all out, if not with an instrument than by dancing or flailing. How refreshing to see a band that realizes it’s OK to love what you’re doing and show it.

GAH is best described generally as indie pop, but there’s an insatiable fire behind it. Think of the pop sensibilities of a less-precious Belle and Sebastian, the bombast of Arcade Fire and the eccentricities of Danielson all rolled into one. It could very well be the sound of your new favorite band.

Taking center stage was singer/songwriter/guitarist Eric Enger, whose voice is like a thicker, less tortured Conor Oberst. Others joined in on the vocals when a raucous chorus was needed, but ebullient keyboardist Kiley Lewis’s backing contributions were the most complementary and crucial--almost as crucial as her phrenetic, perma-grin dancing. It all got me excited and energized, which is quite a feat for 12:45 on a Thursday night when the headliner canceled.

“ABCDEFGraveyard” kicked off the set, a hand-clap anthem with an irresistible start-stop beat and some cowbell. “The Book of Matches,” also the title of the band’s recently released EP, found most of the band frantically shouting the damn-the-man chorus: “We’re shot like cannonballs off a mountaintop into oceans of our history, and we won’t stay down.” “New Moon” revealed Enger at his most desperate, pleading, “If you don’t think you can love me just be kind with the proof/ ‘Cuz I got a delicate heart and I’m under a new moon.” Uber-intellectual indie rockers take note: It’s OK to wear your heart on your sleeve every now and then.

It’s hard to pick a favorite among the infectious tunes; I just felt privileged to be one of the few in attendance for what felt like a private concert. Gentleman Auction House is supposedly coming back to town before too long, and the band’s full-length, Alphabet Graveyard, hits shelves July 22. I’ll be paying close attention to these guys in the coming months. You should too.

mp3: Gentleman Auction House - The Book of Matches

Sinkane strikes again

I saw Ahmed Gallab of Sinkane last night at the Gentleman Auction House show (which was terrific--review coming soon), and he said he'll be touring with Of Montreal in the fall. Apparently they saw him filling in for Caribou's drummer, loved what he did, and are bringing him on tour. Nobody even broke a wrist or anything. He's just that good. Ahmed = indie rock's new drummer-in-demand.

He also hinted that a Color Voice DVD might be in the works. Here's hoping it comes together.

Columbus albums

This week Columbus Alive (the competitor to the alt-weekly I write for) published a list of the "Top 100 Columbus Albums of the Past 30 Years." Pretty darn interesting. Being a Columbus resident for just four years now, I'm probably not the guy to lodge complaints about who should have ended up where.

Kudos to Deville for undertaking such a monumental task while knowing that everyone who has ever been to a show in Columbus will now vehemently disagree with choices and placement.

*edit: OK, I can't help myself, just a couple quick gripes: The decision to not allow a band to have more than one album represented on the list really throws off the whole "Top 100" aspect. And O.A.R. is horrible. That's all.

Miranda Sound

Miranda Sound’s new album is self-titled, which is always a statement of sorts for a band, a way to say, “This album is exactly who we are.” It was a good move for Miranda Sound, because this is the Columbus indie pop band at its best. But it’s also a bit tragic, because this is the last we’ll hear from this band. Miranda Sound is calling it quits after this album and a brief spate of shows, kicking off with a record release show at the Ravari Room on Friday.

There’s always been something vaguely familiar about Miranda’s sound, but not because it mimics any one band in particular. The band incorporates all its various influences in a way that’s entirely original and addictive. This new album calls to mind bands such as R.E.M., Pinback and Death Cab for Cutie, but with edges more jagged and punky than those bands--that’s why you may have heard Fugazi or Jawbox references before. And then there’s those confessional lyrics, which conjure early emo torchbearers Sunny Day Real Estate much more than the cringe-inducing current brand of pop-punk emo.

Miranda Sound was recorded with Jon Chinn at Central City Recording in Clintonville, the band’s second full-length on Robert Duffy’s (donewaiting.com) Sunken Treasure label after migrating from Standard Recording Company. The production is nice and crisp (other than a couple audible computer hiccups on the final track) with an overall softer, smoother and more mature feel than the 2006 release, Western Reserve.

The songs often veer into unexpected directions, still remaining pop songs at the core but not necessarily following the verse-chorus-verse mandate. Guitars go from straightforward power chords and peel off into inventive riffs that are sometimes in weird time signatures, like the 5/4 time of “Kaleidoscope.” Billy Peake and Dan Gerken’s double vocal attack works just as well as the double guitars, complementing each other and adding layers of interest and intensity to the tunes.

It’s an album about growing up and the inevitable pains that come along with that. “Leave Everyone Behind” is a companion to Reserve’s “The Lull of Youngstown,” as Peake looks back at a sixth-grade picture from a soccer field in Youngstown: “The kid inside that picture filled my head with expectations/ I’m fighting for the kid’s approval, but approval never comes.” But aging also has apparently brought some perspective as Peake sings of the “certainty in older years with the clarity of truth.”

“Sleepfighting” finds the Ohio boys reminiscing back to the time when they were fresh on the Columbus scene: “Can’t wait … for Sunken Treasure to come along/ Can’t wait … for Little Brother’s to come along.” “Ugly Elevator” delves into the political realm, but only briefly--the song’s only a minute long. “Quilt Therapy” is probably the best track on the record, though I anticipate it’s one of those albums where the favorite changes each week. The song equates a relationship breakdown with a physical collapse (“When you’re done, you know it all at once/ Your muscles tearing out, you’re so limp”), a painfully accurate analogy.

There’s really no dross or dregs on Miranda Sound, just 10 songs that go by in 30 minutes. Yet the album as a whole feels complete and concise rather than abridged. For a band that’s been one of the gems of the scene for the past few years, it’s not a bad way to go out.

mp3: Miranda Sound - Falling Man
mp3: Miranda Sound - Leave Everyone Behind

These New Puritans w/ El Jesus de Magico, Wexner Center

There have been quite a few good shows around town recently, so maybe that explains why the Wexner Center was so empty for These New Puritans on Friday. Whatever the reason, those who were absent missed a brief but exhilarating performance.

These New Puritans are all the buzz in the UK, taking post-punk cues from likely sources such as the Fall and Gang of Four. With bands like Bloc Party cropping up all over the place the past few years, it seems like the whole post-punk revival thing has been done to death. But these youngsters draw on their influences while managing to sound fresh as ever.

Musically, TNP (or TNPS, as they’re sometimes called) were all about the beat. Singer Jack Barnett’s twin brother George kept the pounding rhythm with a huge bass and floor tom sound, spanking those skins as hard as he could while keeping perfect time. Jack’s vocal delivery was equally rhythmic, delivered in quick, emphatic cadences. In “Swords of Truth” he sang, “This music is weightless,” but it felt as bottom-heavy as ever.

The vocalist also performed in some sort of chain-mail outfit, which made him look pretty silly--like a cross between a small bird and an underfed, teenage Julius Caesar. To complicate matters, Barnett assumed something akin to a hip-hop persona, gesturing wildly with his hands and constantly reminding the audience of his band’s name and the current year.

But the rhythmic nature of the vocals actually wasn’t too far removed from rap. Barnett would often put his guitar aside to slam the words down your throat without distraction. And how odd those words were, waxing philosophical on the meaning of numbers in “Numbers,” and doing the same for colors in “Colours.” On “Elvis” he revealed his paranoia: “We’re being watched by experts, and what will happen next, we hold the clues.” Honestly, the stuff is cryptic to the point that I can’t tell if it holds weight or if it’s a bunch of faux-intelligent college-freshman observations, but it worked well with the music nonetheless.

Just a couple complaints: The bassist needs to stick to bass and stay away from vocals; Barnett does it best. But at least he was obviously into the music, whereas the woman at the Macbook, while easy on the eyes, barely moved and had a permanent look of boredom and gloom on her face. If you can’t muster up the energy to move to those beats, it’s time to man your computer from the sound table.

Opener El Jesus de Magico has become a big name in Columbus in the last year or two, second only to Times New Viking and the rest of the shitgaze trifecta (Psychedelic Horseshit, Pink Reason). El Jesus’s sound is really just a stone’s throw away from that crew, but I must have been absent when they passed the El Jesus Kool-Aid around. To my ears, everything El Jesus does the aforementioned Columbus bands do better. TNV has better pop hooks, Horseshit’s experiments with noise are more interesting, and Pink Reason’s use of heavy reverb and delay come off as a stylistic preference instead of a crutch. On Friday, singer Jon Witzky’s ultra-spaced-out vocals were delayed past the point of art-rock and into the comic realm. Trying to discern a single word, even when Witzky spoke in between songs with no other instruments playing, was utterly pointless.

To be fair, I didn’t mind the band’s Funeral Home Session seven-inch, and drummer Michael O’Shaughnessy (of the funeral home family) is entertaining to watch live. The band also had a few things going against it on Friday. The somewhat intimate performance space felt cavernous with only 30 or so people in the room--the smallest crowd I’ve ever seen in that space--but the same crowd in a smaller dive bar probably would have created more energy. Plus, the volume was up so loud that all the instruments combined to make a giant ear-bleeding noise. I know, it sounds like a whiny rock critic thing to say. Rock shows are supposed to be loud. But this was in the painfully loud category where it takes away from the enjoyment rather than adding to it.

I can respect a band for creating a distinct, consistent sound and aesthetic--one the band obviously believes in. It just didn’t make a believer out of me.

mp3: These New Puritans - Numerology AKA Numbers

Digital Spin

Spin has a pretty cool digital version of its magazine. It just debuted with the May issue, and I have to say I'm impressed. You can look through an exact replica of the print magazine, with different bands, etc. highlighted with links. Pretty impressive. Having that magazine-style layout is something I miss on other publications' websites.

And yes, if you haven't picked up the June issue, you can read that sh*tgaze article I wrote here.