So what's going on? Been to any good shows lately? What's up with your band?
Your friend's band? Your mom's band? If anything's going on, make sure you let
me know. If there's a place to start your publicity mission, where you can grab
some words on your band pretty easily, it's right here. Don't squander a good
opportunity. If you're wondering why your band never gets any ink, well, no
matter how good you are, if you don't reach out you won't get much in return.
You don't get jobs without sending out a resume, right? If you want publicity,
don't complain about not getting any handed to you. Go out and get it. Efforts
are largely rewarded. Here are some bands that have reached out lately.
V for Vendetta: Beneath This Mask Another Mask (Mr. Lady
Records)
OK, so I really screwed up a couple of weeks back by neglecting to mention V
for Vendetta's anticipated record release party. A serious oversight on my
part. Just when we're trying to rebuild here, I failed to cement a cornerstone
of the edifice and risked the whole thing falling down. Anyway, I'm bringing up
the rear -- playing catch-up -- so I've got some damage to repair. Not to say
that attitude will influence my review . . . .
Cara Hyde and Michelle Marchese make up V for Vendetta, a Providence-based
band pivoting around drums and guitar. To insiders, they're known as math
rockers -- independent, abstract expressionists who feel their way across a
song often without a map, laying into a groove when it presents itself,
shifting gears when the terrain gets a little bumpy. The risk in this approach,
or in any so-called math rock approach, is that the musicians get so caught up
in their random progressions that they leave the listener -- many trying like
hell to decipher it all -- with a mouthful of dust. Lost in the noise of
someone else's "fun."
Fortunately, on Beneath This Mask Another Mask, the band's full-length
debut, that doesn't happen. Hyde and Marchese make sure that when they escape
the already lax confines of their song structures, in most cases they take
their listeners with them. It helps that their approach is simple. It's hard to
get lost in a sonic thicket comprised of only two instruments. Marchese's
guitar work, is twangy, almost folk-derived -- that is, before she unleashes
some patented ham-fisted scrubbing at crucial moments. Hyde's drumming is there
as a propeller, underscoring the unpredictable time changes without stepping on
Marchese's six-string. On songs like "Smatasmorismal . . . ," their dynamics
take on an almost King Crimson-ish (Lark's Tongue-era) feel; on the
"Means Matters . . . ," Marchese's slashing recalls the angular riffage of Gang
of Four. There's also some cool A-B-ing going on in "The Jester . . . (all of
these songs have much longer titles, but I'd rather spend the words talking
music). Lyrically, the band fares a little less well. They often vie for a
definitive adage. The first line of the album is: "I will not be fooled by the
moral imperative given to me by the exception to the rule." "I know the rules
and I don't accept them" is another. There are lots of attempted Big Statements
that come across a little awkwardly, especially given the narrow conventions of
math rock, which I feel lends itself better to more elementary sentiments in
that it balances the abstract musical geometry.
Still, there's some impressive stuff going on all across the disc. Put on your
thinking cap and take it upon yourself to follow the bouncing ball.
Miniwatt: Assimilated
Recorded and mixed in three long days last year by Keith Souza,
Assimilated is an explosion of post-hardcore, quasi-experimental guitar
rock, full of scalding shocks of accessible dissonance and teeth gnashing
propulsion. There are some obvious touchstones in the Miniwatt sound, from
Sonic Youth, Gang of Four (again?), and Steve Albini-related projects (Rapeman,
Big Black, etc.), to more indie-rock style stuff (Green Magnet School, Six
Finger Satellite). And while Miniwatt hasn't reached the formidable
expressionism of those sorely missed bands, they do possess the same kind of
far-reaching ambition. Songs like "Terrible Things" and the creepy
"Overwhelming" are, like all the selections on the album, short, concise bursts
of awkward crunch. Most, because they are so concise, work beautifully, and if
they don't they're over in less than two minutes anyway. Assimilated is
the trio's second full-length album, following Rectifiers, which was
released two years ago. Assimilated is more fully focused, more
impacting than its predecessor, probably because the band has dialed into its
vision with greater clarity. That's a good thing, and so is this record.
Bill Petterson: Parts and Labor (Wire Records)
For many years, Bill Petterson has been one of the area's underappreciated
acoustic singer-songwriters. For starters, he's a powerful singer, in the mold
of early John Prine or Cliff Eberhardt. His guitar playing is interesting
enough to hold up under a barrage of potent, often heavy lyrics, and he knows
folk music well enough to understand what subject matter makes a compelling
song. Parts and Labor, Petterson's third recording, encompasses all that
this artist is. His songs, especially the understated "When the Evening Comes,"
and his inspired cover of Robert Earl Keen's "The Road Goes On Forever," are
prototypes of the genre. Petterson slips on occasion lyrically, a problem that
obscures a few tracks. The opening "Romeo and Me" runs through a variety of
less than comprehensible, almost Keatsian lines, including "Once beneath the
surface, my heart beheld its fate/Not waking revelation, just a beautiful
mistake." That said, when Petterson stays in the here and now and doesn't speak
in ultra-poetic tongues, few in the local area can hold a candle to his
presentation. On "Might Be You," for example, Petterson's voice, his playing,
and his words all come together, holding the kind of meaning folk fans pay good
money to hear. More of that and Petterson may not be able to limit himself to
the local area.
WANDERING EYE. Grand Evolution will be at the New Wave Cafe in
New Bedford tonight (the 7th) with Optic Lock. On Saturday (the 9th),
WHJY and Rattlehead Records will host a night at the Blackstone with the
Amazing Mudshark, Jiya, and Comic Book Super Heroes. Six
dollars gets you admission. It's part of a series of "Listener Appreciation"
shows from WHJY's Soundcheck and will be recorded live, broadcast on
Soundcheck and on the Rattlehead Records website
(www.rattlehead.com/audio). All only eight minutes from Providence -- shorter
than the time it took me to find a parking place last weekend. Word from the
Motormags is that they'll be opening for Nashville Pussy at the
Green Room this Sunday (the 10th). Midnight Creeps play the middle
child.
E-mail me with music news at big.daddy1@cox.net.
Issue Date: March 8 - 14, 2002
