Photo credit (The Thermals, Point Juncture): Greg Szeto

Photo credit (The Shaky Hands): Shantel Mitchell

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MP3: The Thermals – When I Was Afraid from Now We Can See (2009)

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MP3: The Shaky Hands – Whales Sing from The Shaky Hands (2006)

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MP3: The Shaky Hands – We Are Young from Lunglight (2008)

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MP3: Point Juncture, WA – Sioux Arrow from Heart to Elk (2008)

The modestly-filled Black Cat enjoyed a good-to-great Wednesday night of rock from three Portland exports.   Read the rest…

All photos: Jane Briggs

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MP3: True Womanhood – The Monk

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MP3: True Womanhood – Five-Colored Hands

Live performances are one of the most lucid windows into someone’s heart and soul.  Tons of choreography, pretension and rehearsed spontaneity suggest an egomaniacal fiend.  A stripped down acoustic set suggests the performer is intimately associated with his/her craft, material and audience.

In the case of True Womanhood, I see their youthful naivete on display on multiple fronts.  The borderline giddy exuberance with which bassist Melissa Beattie visibly anticipates each song in the set is probably the most endearing and genuine.  Their overwrought theatrics of deconstruction and brooding are a bit excessive and make it immediately apparent they have been weaned, like myself, on the public catharsis, self-destruction and breakdown so prevalent in the 90s heyday of modern rock.  The giants of grunge and garage are channeled, and in this fashion, True Womanhood wears their influences lovingly on their collective sleeves.  This is a natural out-growth of the youthful artist, one still enamored with idols and inspirations and only beginning to find their own voice.  They still bear the marks of disbelief at what they are accomplishing and a hint of insecurity with how they portray themselves live, opting more often than not to showcasing tried-and-true rock cliches.

But their youthful melodramatics and over-born airs can be forgiven, as they seem to display few of those insecurities in their music.  Read the rest…

All photos: Klea Scharberg

My take:

I mention something about The Rumble Strips sounding like “British indie-rock” and drummer Matthew Wheeler sticks up his nose. “I wouldn’t say that”, he protests. I throw a few more titles at him, but still, he shakes his head. “We are nothing.” (Ed note: NIHILISTS!)

Well, for the sake of description, genre seems almost imperative. The English tongue of vocalist Charlie Waller sure sounds indie-rock like that of Jon Fratelli or Alex Turner, but Wheeler’s on point- they really aren’t that one-dimensional.

The poppy lyrical melodies collide with an erratic progression that is anything but lackluster. Playing tracks from their one and only release, Girls and Weather, a theme is carried out throughout their set, but doesn’t bore. It never feels repetitive or unoriginal. The band stops, leaving wide-eyed Waller singing in between Sam Mansbridge’s bang on the orange drum. Its good clean sound is almost “simple”, with the common instrumentation of a multi-member group- drums, bass, keys…the usual. The lack of electronica, I find, is relieving in a year that loves dance and experimental noise. You can’t help but tap your feet to its undemanding sound.

It has been a long while since Mighty Mighty Bosstones have even come into my thought process, but thanks to Tom Gorbutt on the sax, it’s hard not to. “Time” was absolutely my favorite song of the night. The element of ska is just distinct enough to give The Rumble Strips that beat you can dance to. On tracks like “Oh Creole” and “Cowboy”, the Vampire Weekend soulful pop is pleasing to the ears, belting out an anthem of a broken heart, as the intensity builds and relaxes with their harmonies.

Greg’s take:

So I went into this show excited, high off the fumes of Nick Cave’s impressive stage presence and charisma.  A polished veteran character, delivering highly theatrical, yet extremely engaging rock in the grand sense of things.  To completely flip-flop, the Rumble Strips were touring on the heels of their first release, yet to be truly vetted in the Americas, yet certainly up-and-comers in the UK. Read the rest…

If you haven’t heard of Caverns (not likely if you read Aural States often), or Cal Robbins, then you must at least be familiar with J Robbins, former bassist for Government Issue, and producer and engineer for bands like Dismemberment Plan, Clutch, Against Me!, etc.

Unfortunately, what should have been the highlight of both his, and wife Janet Morgan’s life, has turned to tragedy. Their son Callum was diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA-Type 1), an incurable nerve disorder that kills, often before the patient has reached his second birthday.

No parent wants to go through this, but this is what J. and Janet must face. As expected the health care costs are ridiculous, and there is no company heath plan for being a musician.

Members of the music community have come together for benefit compilations, and live show, most notably a Dismemberment Plan reunion.

This Friday (6/13) Caverns, along with headliners The Bakerton Group (featuring members of Clutch), The Deleted Scenes, and Hammer No More The Fingers will perform a benefit concert at DC’s Black Cat.

More information on Cal and donations can be found at his blog, For Callum. If you can’t make it, then buy a ticket anyway. As Kevin from Caverns–and by extension J, Janet, and Cal– said, whatever support you can provide “We’d appreciate the shit out of it.”

No ticket giveaway for this one folks. This show is about a little more than rocking-the-fuck-out, though Caverns still do that amazingly well.

While reading, enjoy these Autechre tracks, “Flutter” from Anti EP and the others from Quaristice. If you like what you hear and read, support the artist and pick up their material.

Autechre – Flutter

Autechre – Simmm

Autechre – Notwo

When Kandinsky developed abstract art he looked toward music, and intense aural experiences. The result was totally organic expressions of form and color, paintings with no reference to a figurative world. In a similar way Autechre’s music has always been about total abstraction, about pure sensory experience.
Read the rest…

There isn’t much more to be said about Say Hi. Eric Elbogen is an excellent songsmith. You will never find anything too technically complex or musically challenging to listen to. What you will find, is carefully crafted and enjoyable indie-pop.

The value of his live show, other than the promise of another live member or two to fill out the band, is that he adds another dimension to the music and provides a heightened sense of immediacy to every song. So much so that each song feels like a musical kamikaze-run that starts with often timid beginnings, crescendoing over the course of the song into near-explosive whirls of Eric’s guitar hook of choice, loaded with tension. Highlights of the night included a soaring performance of “Snowcones and Puppies,” “Toil and Trouble,” and the endearing, set-closing rally-cry for the shy kid in all of us “Let’s Talk About Spaceships.”

But the best part of the night for me was the discovery of DC’s Caverns. Now I must preface this with some disclosure: I have an affinity for progressive metal, post-hardcore, hardcore, metalcore, all those sub-genres with oft-screaming vocalists and blistering instrumental work. Damn if I don’t love a good breakdown. Too bad that more often than not, talented and creative musicians are undercut by a vocalist with a cookie-monster scream/growl that just ruins everything.

Caverns seemed to read my mind on that point, forgoing vocals and just steaming straight ahead with instrumental breakdown tracks. Drummer, shred-and-chug math-guitarist, electronics guy and pianist. Guitar work trudges all around the hard rock gamut, at times having the chug of metalcore, then switching over to prog/math mode with runs that melt your face. Their balance places the piano to the fore giving their sound a more dramatic, operatic feel.

Most direct influences seem to be Converge (a few tracks probably could have fit right on a Converge album) and Dillinger Escape Plan, or basically any math-core band. I’m pretty sure I heard a re-tuned Deftones riff in there somewhere and I’d like to think King Diamond and Dream Theater informed their sound a bit too.

More to come on them in the future…they play Lo-Fi on March 21 with Imperial China. Not to be missed.