Jonathan Wilson & The Blank Tapes at Terminal West, Atlanta, Feb. 20, 2014

Last night's show left me wondering, "WTF?  Where the hell did that come from?"  I mean that in a good way. Black metal, bluegrass, reggae, Scandinavian choral folk songs - those are about the only genres not heard last night.  What we did get was a lot of psychedelic rock, epic guitar jams, blues rock, space jazz, country rock, and Laurel Canyon folk rock.    

The set, at Atlanta's beautiful Terminal West, started with a set by LA's The Blank Tapes. 

The Blank Tapes may be from LA, but they sounded like Height Ashbury, circa Summer of Love.  They played a wonderful, retro brand of psychedelic rock that would not have sounded out of place in 1967 at the Fillmore West.  Last night, they sounded every bit as groovy as this video performance. 

I have to give bonus points to the band for the mini-skirt and for having a tambourine/maracas player.

It was a fun, almost 45-minute opener, but barely prepared us for what came next.

Now, my sole aspiration for the night was to go hear some good music and then get back home at an early enough hour that I could get some sleep before work this morning.  The doors opened at Terminal West at 8:00, and the show was advertised to start at 8:45.  Since Terminal West tends to keep their shows running on time, I figured that with only two bands on the bill, I'd get home by 11:00.

No such luck.  Jonathan Wilson not only played a wonderful set of near perfect, guitar-driven rock, he played for a full, solid two-and-a-quarter hours, and I didn't get home until after 12:30 am.

But it was worth it.

In case you need an introduction (and you probably do, as there appeared to be less than 100 people in the audience), Jonathan Wilson "is a musician’s musician. When artists are in Southern California they invariably visit Jonathan’s studio, which was founded in Laurel Canyon, moved to a larger space in LA, and is credited with rejuvenating the music genre named after the region. Jonathan has produced albums from a variety of artists including Dawes, Father John Misty, Bonnie Prince Billy and Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes. His studio has also hosted studio jam sessions with an even wider variety of artists . . . So it comes as no surprise that Jonathan Wilson’s solo albums often contain a who’s-who of special guests along with the best available studio musicians. Jonathan’s most recent album Fanfare (Downtown Records) has been hailed as one of the best of 2013, and rightfully so" (NYC Taper). 

NYC Taper was also kind enough to post these samples from his show last week at The Bowery Ballroom, which gives a pretty good impression of just how eclectic last night's performance was.

This was one of those performances where you kept thinking each song was the finale, only to find he had even more still up his sleeve.  Wilson admitted at one point that they were deviating from their set list and being more rebellious than usual, much to the delight of the audience.  When be bought The Blank Tapes' Pearl Charles onto the stage to accompany him on percussion while his other guitarist led the band through the umpteenth, extended guitar jam, you had to think that was the climax, but in retrospect, that wasn't even the three-quarter mark.  It was that kind of night.

I didn't get nearly as much sleep last night as I had planned, but as I said at the top of this post, it was totally worth it.  Two terrific sets by two terrific bands, each giving the small audience their all-out effort.  

Julianna Barwick at the Goat Farm, Atlanta, February 18, 2014

I could simply say that the show was beautiful beyond words, but then maybe I'm just being lazy.
 

Cibo Matto at The Earl, February 17, 2014

After a 15-year hiatus, New York's Cibo Matto are recording and touring again, and on Monday night their tour brought them to Atlanta.  There was a time back in the 90s when my favorite bands were those genre-bending groups like Soul Coughing, Cibo Matto, and of course, Massive Attack, and now I've finally seen all three live.

Brooklyn's Salt Cathedral opened.

It being Monday night and all, I got there a little late, and Salt Cathedral were already playing when I arrived, although I think I still managed to catch most of their set.  The Earl was packed, especially for a Monday night and especially that early (9:45 or so), but I still managed to get reasonably close to the stage without too many people in front of me.

Salt Cathedral are a really good band with a great sound.  Unfortunately, that sound is a lot like Polica's. There are far worse bands to sound like, and Salt Cathedral doesn't sound imitative - they don't share Polica's two-drummer assault, for starters, and Salt Cathedrals' lead singer might even have more range than Polica's  Channy Leaneagh.  But after their fine set was over, The Earl played Polica over the PA and the sound was almost identical.  I don't mean to be critical - I really like Salt Cathedral and wish them the best - but they need to find something distinctive in their sound to set them apart from Polica, or they might otherwise get overlooked, and they deserve wider recognition. 

Photo by Alex Weiss

If anything, I was sorry to hear their set end when it did, even though I had been waiting 15 years to hear Cibo Matto.

Photo by Alex Weiss

They opened their set right where they had left off, as if those intervening 15 years hadn't happened, opening with three of the deliriously lovely trip-hop songs (Sugar Water, Beef Jerky, and Pain du Perdu) from their 1996 debut, Viva La Woman.  These songs were performed with just the two original members, Yuka and Miho, on stage, singing over recorded clips of these early hits. 

A drummer and a guitarist/bassist joined the girls on stage after the first three songs, taking the band through selections from their 1999 follow-up album, Stereo Type A, and their new record, Hotel Valentine. Highlights included Moonchild, Deja Vu, MFN, and Empty Pool. To close their set, they played their new 10th Floor Ghost Girl, and for their encore they performed House Keeping from the new album, followed by the crowd-pleasing Birthday Cake from Viva La Woman.  

Despite some earnest requests form the audience, they never got around to White Pepper Ice Cream.

In all, it was a wonderful night, discovering a terrific new band (Salt Cathedral) and hearing an old favorite (Cibo Matto) I thought I'd never experience live.

Julianna Barwick

At The Goat Farm tonight.

Cibo Matto

One of the happier reunions of 90s bands includes the return of New York's Cibo Matto.  Below, they get the Gasland treatment from director Josh Fox, showing they're still obsessed with food and, apparently, now ghosts as well.

Cibo Matto play The Earl tonight.  Brooklyn's Salt Cathedral opens.  Doors at 8:30, but the show is very nearly sold out (or so I'm told) so you might want to get there early.

Little Dragon

Little Dragon at Doug Fir Lounge, MFNW (RIP), 2011

Here's some welcome news: Sweden's Little Dragon have a new album, Nabuma Rubberband (whatever that means), coming out in May.  They've already released one new song from the album, Klapp Klapp (below), and announced a few tour dates, mostly in Europe but also some American festivals, including SXSW, Coachella, and Portland's Soul'd Out (although the Soul'd Out web site doesn't seem to know anything about this). More American dates will doubtlessly be announced, and here's hoping they include at least one date in Atlanta. 

Here's Little Dragon at Bumbershoot back in 2011.  Dude, I was there!

Update:  An Atlanta date has been announced - June 14 at Variety Playhouse

The Casket Girls, 529, Atlanta, February 14, 2014

I reminded myself about last night's show last year yet still very nearly forgot about it, only noticing the listing on the Creative Loafing's Things To Do post yesterday afternoon.  I'm glad I made it, though, as it turned out to be one of the more interesting shows I'm likely to see this year.

Before the show even started, though, there was a Magnitude 4.1 earthquake centered near Edgefield, South Carolina at 10:23 pm.  Shaking was reportedly felt here in Atlanta, although I didn't notice and no one in 529 showed any reaction. This was the first night of the Graveface Roadshow tour, though, and it's appropriate that it kicked off with a literal earthquake, even if a minor, non-damaging one.

Opener Dreamend is the musical project of Graveface Records founder Ryan Graveface.  Graveface performs with his face concealed by a black-and-white-striped balaclava with a built-in microphone, possibly the first electric balaclava in rock music, and was backed by drummer Peter Seeba and by J Cep of The Stargazer Lillies on bass.  Together, they play loud shoegaze bordering on post-rock that sounds very little like the acoustic-based music in the video above.  By the second song, Graveface had broke the D string on his guitar but gamely carried on, noting after the first post-D-string song, "As it turns out, the D string isn't all that important after all."  Despite the technical mishap, it was a good set to start the night.      

Drummer Peter Seeba stayed on for the next band, The Stargazer Lillies, while J Cep switched from bass to a heavily processed guitar and K Field took over the bass and vocal roles.  I wouldn't go so far as to say Cep looks like actor Jason Schwartzman, but he does look like a character Schwartzman could easily play, while Field has the glam look of a Deheza sister (School of Seven Bells).

As their name implies, The Stargazer Lillies play a dreamier brand of shoegaze post-rock, with Cep creating wall-of-sound textures with his expansive pedal boards and loop effects, even bowing the guitar at times.  It was hard to hear Field's vocals at times over the loud guitar, but Cep's outstanding guitar showcase was really quite impressive in its own right.    

By 12:30, the two opening bands virtually merged to back headliners The Casket Girls.  Peter Seeba stayed on drums, pulling triple duty and playing the entire bill, while Ryan Graveface returned to the stage to play keyboards.  J Cep and K Fields of The Stargazer Lillies took turns on bass for those songs that had bass lines (on other songs, the bass parts were covered by the low end on Graveface's keys). 

Which brings us to The Casket Girls themselves.  Sisters Phaedra and Elsa Greene stayed in character all night, preserving their aura of mystery by wearing sunglasses and leather jackets all evening, even while mingling in the audience before their set.

On stage, they put on a terrifically entertaining performance, matching their beautiful and haunting melodies with at times hilarious choreographed girl-band dance moves. For I've Got A Secret, they put on elbow-length black gloves and covered each other faces like in their video for the song.  The video for Heartless captures their choreographed moves, as well as their odd and distinct sense of humor.

They opened their set with Same Side, probably my favorite of their songs, and played a 45-or-so-minute set.  Graveface's keyboards provided a gritty, edgy backdrop to their melodies, annihilating pop sentimentalities and moving the sound into its own spooky realm.  If you're a fan of bands like Azure Ray or Lucius, but want a little more David Lynchian, deadpan Twin Peaks humor in your songs and a little more bite to the sound, The Casket Girls might be the band for you.  They certainly work for me.