Here We Go Magic/Caveman (Club Dada): After seeing a couple of ads for this show, I was reminded of quainter times: those innocent days of early 2009 when it was anyone’s game in the world of indie pop. A We Shot JR associate that lived in New York told us about this hot new band that we needed to get the scoop on. So she did. In fact, she caught the newly-formed act this early:
Luke Temple: …this is our fourth show ever as a band. And actually the first show with the current lineup…
Wow, a lot has happened since then, obviously, and let me be the first to tell you: there is no glory in being first at most things. Temple goes on to mention how Krautrock act Popol Vuh, New York anomaly Arthur Russell and Boston proto-punks The Modern Lovers all influenced him. However, when I hear his music I am much more likely to recall Graham Nash’s “Just A Song Before I Go,” if it were run through a lot of modern effects. Turns out you can go pretty far with that sound, and in the music biz eternity that has passed since February of ’09, Here We Go Magic certainly has.
Wolverspent/A Story Of Rats (Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studio): These are two related acts that released a joint effort on the fantastic Olde English Spelling Bee label, when Wolverspent had a name so terrible I won’t even bother typing it here. Thankfully they changed it and continued to make compelling music, specifically a brand of metal that was recently described as, well, too many micro-genres to list here. You can scan through the potential descriptors in this very informative piece on the group from their hometown paper, The Boise Weekly. Also included is a very charming aside about a member of Wolverspent working for the weekly.
I would simply say that they are a metal band, and perhaps one that is in a purer form than we’re used to when compared to some of the media-endorsed style metal that we’ve been told is cool these past few years. There are vocals, but nothing that could really be described as lyrics. Lyrics would only get in the way of the overall effect the band achieves through a setup of guitars, violin, drums, and screaming, along with random samples and assorted other instruments. It is quite the accomplishment when you consider this is a duo and not the two guitar/one bass/drummer/vocalist small army attack.
A Story Of Rats is the work of artist Garek J. Druss, whose multimedia work seems just as worthy of your time as his audio releases. This piece in particular entitled, Speaker with Foot Switch and 3 Minute Audio Loop, left me wishing that more musicians that do visual work could tour with their pieces, however cumbersome a process that might be. His music is very drone-heavy and formless, especially compared with his tour-mates and collaborators in Wolverspent, who quite contrastingly are more climax-intense. This is the sort of stuff championed by San Francisco’s Aquarius Records, and while they often have decent-to-great taste, the whole predictability of their praise for anything that could be described as “doom” or “drone” can be a little tiresome. You could apply this same complaint with other enterprises and Garage Rock. All tangents aside, this is a quality show.
Image from a 2008 piece by Garek Druss’ “Monosynth.” Watercolor, pen, and graphite. Druss performs tonight under the name A Story of Rats.
