6 Bands Worth Listening To

This was going to be my “Blowout wrap up article,” but schedules have been tight and the editing process has been stalled. So instead, this is about six bands that I think are pretty fucking sweet who also happened to play at blowout. These aren’t my favorite bands, or the best bands or whatever – I don’t even really know what the guidelines are for that kind of arbitrary evaluation. But, these were the six bands I thought of from blowout before my fingers got tired.

The Beekeepers

These guys have been kicking it for a few years now. At one point, I actually played bass for them (badly). In the past, they’ve kind of been the odd man out; with a huge lineup, song structure that other bands wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole, and instrumentation that includes a Rhodes Electric Piano, saxophone, clarinet, and synthesizer. That’s all still the case, but the main difference is that they’ve gotten really tight at doing what they do. And what they do is not like anything else I’ve ever heard. It sounds like they take popular music from every decade from the last hundred years and build a frightening collage. Matt Smith from Outrageous Cherry once turned to me during a Beekeepers set and said ,“This music is truly insane,” which I think is a fair description. But beneath the screeching saxophone and synth harmonies, the labyrinth of familiar chords in unfamiliar places, and darkly humorous poetics is a music that genuinely and awkwardly reminds us of our own craziness. It’s a feat not easily accomplished, and one that I think won’t go underappreciated for long. On a side note, they’re currently shopping around for someone to release their new record. To those with labels, I’d call them sooner than later.

Marco Polio & The New Vaccines

Marco Polio’s blend of synth rock and performance art has always been kind of a double edged sword. You could never tell if they wanted the audience to participate or be frightened, and their music was downright painful to listen to. They were like an exploding Nintendo that you wanted to watch, but not get too close too for fear of shrapnel. One thing that’s changed is that their music is now really good. It’s still dirty, distorted, imaginative, and full of unconventional transitions and chord changes, but they seem to have decided that they want us to dance. Meanwhile, their front man is electric. At Blowout he was stripped to a pair of tights and covered in neon pain in the shape of runic designs. He danced through the crowd with his ridiculously long microphone chord, he climbed things he probably wasn’t allowed to, and he demanded that a single green olive be brought to him from the bar. Clearly, the performance still wants to push boundaries, but the emphasis is more on fun than creepy, and he really knows how to work an audience. They also love props. They brought stacks of cardboard boxes covered in similar paint markings as their lead singer. They were, of course, quickly implemented by the audience as projectiles, much to the bar owners dismay. Umbrellas were handed out as well, which were filled with glitter and somehow managed to be opened in unison. It was a moment of surreal beauty that left me wondering if, perhaps, the reality based portals, which the band claims to harness the power of, do indeed exist.

Prussia

Here’s a band that really went to work with touring writing and playing. The results are clear; Prussia has gotten really fucking good. They’ve still got the distinct, asymmetrical pop style that made them interesting in the first place. However, their new material comes alive on stage in a way that their old material never quite did. The old songs tended to be very dense, with lots of harmonies, instrumentations, lots of lyrics -- just lots of everything. When I see them play now, they have a great sense of what needs to happen when in order to a make a song work. A lot of their songs are built around rhythm vamps that leave a lot of breathing room, which gives each component of the music an opportunity to shine. When Prussia came together, they found a unique style of music. Now they’ve figured out how to write really good songs in that style of music.

The Ruggs

Man talk about chops – these guys have chops. They’re a guitar, bass, and drum trio and every single one of them is a monster on his respective instrument. And these guys are relatively young, so it’s kind of crazy that they’re all such talented musicians. They are also funky as hell. Under normal conditions, very young very skilled instrumentalists playing very funky music could be a very bad combination with lots of solos and little eye towards structure or song writing. But The Ruggs also have mad wicked taste. They write awesome rock songs with great lyrics and they know when a song needs a funky jam and when it doesn’t. I mean, I’m not trying to hate on funk music, that’s actually what I grew up mostly listening to and mostly learning how to play. In fact, I’ve been trying to write funk jams that don’t sound completely dated for years, and I pretty much just concluded that it couldn’t be done. Then The Ruggs show up and they can take a funk beat, a slap bass line, and some fuzz guitar and write a contemporary sounding rock jam. I don’t even know how they can accomplish this -- they are frustratingly good. They’re like the Planeteers, but instead of Captain Planet, they summon Prince. Sadly, these guys had a poor turnout at Blowout due to the snow storm, and being scheduled at Jean’s, which is the furthest away bar in all of Hamtramck. But, go see these guys soon, and get their 18(!) track album that somehow only has good songs on it in spite of how massive it is.

Crappy Future

They remind me a little bit of the Beekeepers in that both bands play with instruments other musicians would consider toys, use chord changes that other musicians would consider jokes, and end up with absolutely brilliant material. Sometimes Crappy Future sounds like they are in one of the Muppets musicals, and sometimes they sound like they are breaking a Sega Genesis, and sometimes they are doing something completely different, and somehow they make it all sound consistently good. Their sheer unpredictability coupled with a great sense of timing allows them to perform some truly awe inspiring transitions and legitimately sublime moments. When you look at some of the bands they’re members have played with in the past (the likes of Wildcatting, Pigeon, and Red China) the level of musicianship they have is slightly less of a shock. This is the kind of band where musicians who’ve been playing for a long time get together to make something that’s distinctly great. It’s awesome for us that we get to see a band like that succeed and make such interesting music right in our backyard.

Winter Ruby

I love this band. I used to be in a band called Rootbear with their singer, Sammy Lewis, but that’s not the reason I like them. It’s no secret to me that Sammy’s beautiful singing voice pretty much single handedly made our band not suck, and she’s equally great here. The thing is, Winter Ruby would still be good without an amazing vocalist, so they’re just that much better for having her. Guitarist Dan Dlugosielski has been a figure in the Detroit noise scene for more than a few years and probably less than a decade. However, he’s also been in a number of bands with a rock approach to song structure, and every single one has been awesome. He and Sammy double to create guitar lines that are equal parts raw power and kaleidoscopic beauty. One way they achieve that juxtaposition is by building songs on bass lines off the lower strings with lots of textured harmony and dissonance off the higher strings. There’s also Adam (his last name eludes me) on a bare bones drum kit consisting of snare, floor tom, and cymbal. Sure, he’s not impressing anyone with sweet technical skills, but his minimalist drum beats are tasteful and demonstrate a great ear. Right now, these guys sound kind of like a punk version of My Bloody Valentine, but they’ve only written maybe 12 minutes of material. If they keep playing, then in eight months to a year they will probably be one of the best bands in the city. Sadly, much like Dan’s other rock projects, Winter Ruby seems slated for an early demise when Sammy moves out of state in August. Hopefully that doesn’t spell the end of Winter Ruby, but go see them soon in case it does.

That's all for today, folks. Since a few people have asked us about this -- We have not given up on recording more podcasts. As I mentioned above, schedules have been a little bit tight lately, but we plan to provide you with some quality radio hours in the next in the next couple weeks.

-Keith

The Burgundy Demos

If you haven’t listened to Legendary Creatures yet, you need to. I had the pleasure of both listening to and playing with them this past Saturday during the Metrotimes Blowout at Kellys. I also now have the pleasure of checking out their CD, The Burgundy Demos, which I was given at the show. Consisting of Sarah Vaughn, Matt Luke, Jesse Ramsey, Andrew Davis, and Nathan Burgundy IV, Legendary Creatures play a sort of trippy, electric-folk music complete with mandolin and incredible vocal melodies/harmonies. Not only do they play good tunes, but they are all-around lovely people.

The Burgundy Demos (available as a physical CD or as a digital download on their Bandcamp page) can take you from lovely harmonies and up-beat chord progressions to kind of spooky (but in a pretty way). Much like the cover, the listening experience is kind of like a leisurely stroll through a fairytale forest, complete with wrong turns and gnomes. For example, during the opening track “Guess I’m Not Good Enough,” there is a clear break from the up-beat feel of the music to a gloomier, ethereal mood more reflective of the lyrics. The entire album has subtle twists and turns that always seem to go opposite of where I thought they would.

The entire disc just sounds cool. Everything is wrapped in a warm reverb giving it a moody, dream-like quality that I really dig. The interplay between the mandolin and keyboards is as delicate as the vocal harmonies. All this comes to a grand conclusion with “We Are The Ones,” which also happens to be my favorite track. The driving rhythm of the drums and bass combine with the slower feel of the guitar and vocals in a real cool way.

I should have prefaced at the beginning, that I’m not much of a writer. Despite this being an inadequate write-up which borders on the non-sensible, I can say with certainty is that this is an infectious and charming CD which will not be leaving my player for some time. From what Matt was telling me, they are currently working on additional recordings and finishing overdubs. Hopefully I can get my hands on them as soon.
Enough of my yapping.

Download The Burgundy Demos here: legendarycreatures.bandcamp.com

You can also catch Legendary Creatures April 13 at The Loving Touch in Ferndale for Jeff Milo’s Birthday Bash with The Satin Peaches and Electric Fire Babies.

Hunky Dory Blowout

A short, blurry retrospective of my Blowout 14