In Waves @ Silverlake Lounge, 1/28/08

I fucking love this band. If I could describe them in one word, it would be "sprawling". With a tsunami of post-punk revival bands flooding the music scene, for some damn reason, In Waves really rise above and drown the whole lot of them. They'll drown you in their music, too. Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen are definitely recalled in their sound, but who isn't these days? Where this band stands out and totally kills the most recent wannabe acts (I won't say any names) is in their deeply lush and organic soundscapes.

A band like this, in my opinion, has too big of a presence for a small venue like Silverlake Lounge. I saw them play with A Place to Bury Strangers at the Viper Room on December 3rd (check my review on that show as well!), and I thought the same thing. But that doesn't mean they don't sound fucking HUGE.

On this particular night, In Waves barely tested their instruments and just started playing suddenly. No unnecessary long intro jamming sessions. Just pure immediate bliss. Dreamy ambient music, and from only three musicians! The vocals echoed with a deep lush reverb as if they were sung by frontman Jimmy Vincent in a giant empty church. Drummer Dean Cooper fucking pounds the shit out of the drums, and the bassist Tim Gregorio especially thumps through well structured basslines and rocks out more than most bassists I've seen in recent times. Dancing, moving around, and stomping his feet without looking awkward or out of place.

Not only are they great on stage, but Jimmy Vincent is a very nice guy. When I gave him a $20 bill to buy a demo, he said he didn't have change, and when I said I'd come back with it, he insisted on me taking the CD for free. I know how hard it is to make it in today's music scene. Excessive touring to get your name out there can be very tough, not to mention the very little money that bands actually make when playing many smaller shows...not trying to brag, but of course I came back with the money. After all, I started this blog with the primary focus of helping to promote the music scene, not to take from them.

On a closing note, some bands struggle live and have too many damn people on stage. Some peer into the audience to see if people actually give a damn. These guys don't seem to worry about that, and I don't think they have to. Not all bands have got it. In Waves do.

White Williams @ the Echo, 1/27/08

White Williams played the Part Time Punks night last night at the Echo. According to parttimepunks.com, "PART TIME PUNKS is a club that takes over noted Echo Park live music venue, The Echo on 1822 Sunset, every Sunday night. The night focuses heavily on obscure and classic music coming out of America, the UK and Europe in 1978 to the present: Punk, Post-punk, Punk-funk, New Wave, No Wave, Hardcore, Indie-Pop, Twee, Grunge, Electro, Minimal-Synth, Shoegaze, Baggy."

Okay, so I don't really get it either. Seemed like yet another night at the Echo. There always seems to be bands playing one of those genres anyway, but whatever. Everybody wants their name on something I guess.

White Williams is the name for the music project of 23-year old Cleveland-based musician Joe Williams. His debut LP Smoke is as good as it gets for slower tempo dance music. He plays live with bassist Tyler and guitarist Hayes O Crypt. Tyler plays a black Fender Musicmaster and O Crypt plays an awesome white Japanese Fender Mustang, and he's pretty damn good at it too. It's a sharp yet non-piercing sound he's got setup, and he's got the riffs down very fucking tightly.

White Williams is young and small and skinny. His haircut is totally 80's Gahan. At the Echo, he wore a thrift store jacket that looked like he picked it with his eyes closed, a black vest, skinny jeans, and ultra-padded and overly gaudy high-top black sneakers. Anyway, he walked out onto the stage just after 11 PM...he had a mixing board and too many knobs to adjust and a MacBook on one table, and a keyboard that I didn't recognize right across from it. Also, to my surprise, he had a Hohner 32-key melodica (yes I counted in the pictures), which he used on many of the songs! Fucking rad! I was in San Francisco just last week and was looking to buy one until my sister told me I could have hers.

The guitarist and bassist both serve the band well and fit perfectly with the electronics coming from Joe, who goes back and forth from the keys to the controls to the drum beats inside his MacBook to melodica to vocals. He's a smooth operator; he doesn't freeze up, he doesn't fall down, and he doesn't fuck up. He glides effortlessly from instrument to instrument, and rarely makes eye contact with the audience while he steps through his songs. But the lack of eye contact is not one of shyness, instead, it appears to be one of confidence and carelessness; you'd swear he's been doing this for decades. He loosely wraps the mic cord around his hand to prevent himself from tripping over it while he slowly dances through his loungy beats.

There was a petite little brunette in the audience, maybe 21. She was walking around the Echo picking up mostly empty drinks that people had left behind and drinking them down in a hurry. I think in the 15 minutes that she was scourging the stage and bar for leftover icy ass-sips, she MAYBE got a whole drink down her throat. Maybe. Maybe next time the guy she was with could've just bought her a fucking drink, for god's sakes. Making out with that chick must be real delicious. Anyway, point being, she was dancing like crazy, front row, to my side, arms flailing to the point of almost hitting people. Totally into the show, and believe me, this didn't go unnoticed. Joe Williams put the microphone up to her screaming mouth, and turned some knobs to twist her voice up with delay. Didn't really work in the song, but fun nonetheless.

I really liked White Williams live. It was a fun show! I didn't find myself waiting for the next song, and I recognized every album track after only listening to the album a handful of times. It's great fucking music. Think Beck, Hot Chip, and Devo but with a more warm and chill foggy vibe. The only thing I would've added to this show was maybe a fog machine and some colored light beams.

I only paid $10 to get in but I highly recommend seeing him live even if it costs more. Don't trust your instinct, trust mine. Who the fuck am I? Just another blogger. But if you like the bands I listed as sounding similar in style, check out Smoke ASAP. I get the feeling White Williams is going to be huge.

Set List:

1. INTRO
2. HEADLINES
3. IN THE CLUB
4. VIOLATOR
5. NEW VIOLENCE
6. FLEETWOOD CRACK
7. GOING DOWN
8. SHADOW
9. ROUTE TO PALM



Spotted at the show:
Tim Presley of Darker My Love/The Fall
Matt Popieluch, lead singer of Foreign Born

A Place to Bury Strangers Interview

Here is a brief interview that I conducted with A Place To Bury Strangers' singer Oliver Ackermann, bassist Jono MOFO and drummer Jay Space.

B-Ex: There's been lots of shoegaze bands out there in the past 20 years…what makes you guys so special?

Oliver: We are not so special as far as I can tell, we are just doing what we do. I was not anybody else in any of those bands so I couldn't tell you how their experience was different.

Jono: We're not a shoegaze band. That's what makes us special.

Jay: if you listen to those older bands and then listen to us you can see we're louder and more ferocious!

B-Ex: " A Place To Bury Strangers". What an amazing name. Where do you think the best place would be to bury a stranger?

Oliver: Thanks, it all depends on your thrill, maybe in their own backyard.

B-Ex: The album has a real timeless sound. How long did it take to record, and did you guys use any impractical recording techniques?

Jono: You'd have to ask Oliver.

Jay: again that's a question for oliver.

Oliver: It was recorded over the past few years and is just a collection of songs, it was not intended to be released as a record. To others there would seem to be lots of impractical recording techniques but we are just trying to get the best sounds. Amps were put in the oven, down the hall, 2 faced together, ran through bad speakers etc. Microphones were sometimes crappy, had spoons taped on them, caught sounds reflected off of cymbals, stuck on speaker magnets, headphones as mics and just about anything else that seemed like it got a good sound. It is just a lot of experimentation and then decisions based upon how well different ideas worked.

B-Ex: Nice! I like the idea of using headphones as microphones. I once placed some cheap earphones into a piano at my church when I was growing up. The results were haunting. Sounds like music from a machine that is picking up interference from ghosts...

Oliver: I know what you mean about getting some creepy sounds in church, there is something even about the atmosphere, maybe ghosts?

B-Ex: Who would you cite as your most unlikely influence? To clarify, who has been a big influence in your music that wouldn't be obvious to listeners?

Oliver: Six Finger Satellite?

Jono: Adam Clayton. Linear basslines.

Jay: dead ho... you'll see...

B-Ex: What has been your favorite city touring in, and why?

Oliver: I like the Midwest and small towns but it is hard to say, I just like to travel around and see lots of different places.

Jono: Chicago is nice. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere. It's big, beautiful and lots of fun. And of course there's LA. I find it very exotic. Sun, mountains, palm trees. And a lot of good friends.

Jay: L.A. has always been a place i love to go to because we have so many friends there... also Philadelphia cause that's where i'm from.

B-Ex: Tell me, what newer band should I be listening to right now? Something that rocks as much as you guys do.

Oliver: The Vandelles, Ceremony, Ringo Deathstarr.

Jono: Holy Fuck.

Jay: My best friend, Holy Fuck, and wait for the new Secret Machines' record it's wicked... also Ripcord they are the shit!!!

B-Ex: What is the last great movie you saw?

Oliver: I saw Vertigo last night, very good.

B-Ex: Nice. I recently saw North By Northwest for the first time and it was great. Hitchcock has so many fucking great movies it's hard to keep up. They're all so funny to me because the characters are sometimes so ridiculous and over-the-top...

If any, who was your biggest celebrity crush growing up?

Oliver: Madonna

B-Ex: Are you a fan of horror films?

Oliver: Sure, I like all kinds of movies, if it is good why not watch.

B-Ex: What is your biggest pet peeve about people?

Oliver: When people are stubborn and can't change their mind.

B-Ex: Can you guys PLEASE make a live DVD? The December 3rd Viper Room show was fucking epic! The strobe lights especially almost made me shit my pants.

Jono: We're making a live record. Will that do for now? Maybe we can distribute it with a free strobe light.

Jay: We're working on a live beta max first.

B-Ex: Thank you so much for allowing me to take up your time. Is there anything else you'd like to say to our readers? Something inspirational, haha.

Oliver: Do what you love.

Jono: God is a vengeful fuck. Seek solace elsewhere.

Jay: Jono is dead... seek inspiration elsewhere!!!