I'll come out and say it, Abe Vigoda is my favorite band currently making music.
TheReviver EP is the latest release from Los Angeles band, Abe Vigoda and it's their strongest yet. Following up on the messier, more visceral Skeleton, Reviver unveils new dimensions of Abe Vigoda's singular sound. Few bands in recent memory have been able to coax such appealing sounds form their instruments. Guitarists Mike Vidal and Juan Velasquez have their short delay dual guitar interplay down to a science, going somewhat less pointilistic and embracing My Bloody Valentine noise dynamics while drummer and bassist, Reggie Guerrero and David Reichardt hold down tricky rhythms.
The band is pretty good about their name always conjuring references to the term "tropical punk" which honestly probably got them a good deal of their popularity, but they're definitely intent on refusing to be pigenholed. They cover Fleetwood Mac's "Wildheart" and totally deconstruct "Endless Sleeper" which appeared on Skeleton. Rounding out the EP are a handful of great songs which pull out all the tools in the Abe Vigoda arsenal. "Don't Lie," "House" and "Reaper are some of their strongest selections yet.
Abe Vigoda is playing tomorrow night with new drummer Dane Chadwick at the PAPER magazine party in Hollywood, but you've got to RSVP if you want to go. Otherwise, you can see them play with In the Red band, The Intelligence at Spaceland on April 18th, or in Palm Springs (suspciously close to Indio, where friends No Ageand Vivian Girls are playing Coachella) on the 19th.
Kawabata Makoto is the ringleader behind one of the most prolific purveyors of interdimensional face melting psychedelia, Acid Mothers Temple. They've been putting out records under different cosmic incarnations for about 12 years now and have well more than 70 releases under their collective hippie belts.
Makoto's been busy lately, releasing collaborations with like minded Croatian psych-prog weirdos, Seven that Spells and the manifestation of Syd Barret's film scoring ghost in the form of the Italian five piece, Jennifer Gentle. In keeping with the Acid Mothers aesthetic, Makoto has recently released a new solo effort entitled Rainbow of Love and is embarking on a US tour, the first stop of which happens to be in Riverside, California at the aptly name Pharaoh's Den Cultural Space Center (who are clearly Makoto's spiritual cousins). Rainbow of Love's format is in keeping with the Mother's penchant for unreasonably long tracks, consisting of two monstrous blisscapes, but unlike much of Acid Mother's analog delay twiddling, birds of paradise in outer space, full on aural assault, Rainbow is serenity made manifest. Layers of strings lull us peacefully, but never boringly, to meditative bliss carried on strains of Makoto's sarangi. Imagine Gavin Bryar's Sinking of the Titanic as scored by Arnold Dreyblatt and processed by Brian Eno while all three of them made love and were lifted to the heavens on DMT.
Also playing the Pharoah's Den are Bruce McKenzie (who it appears as though Kawabata will be performing with), Pegasissy (who I'll probably be playing with), the Antarcticans (postapocalypticrock from Los Angeles), Bill Wesley (the mad scientist from the Vaginals), and White Marsh (Kenn from KSPC). Seems like a lot for one night, but it can only be fantastic.
The Pharaoh's Den Cultural Space Center is located at 3579 University Ave, Riverside CA and the show starts at 8 pm.
Twin Lion is the totally blown out project of Rapid Youth's Tyler Haran and it's probably the best music I've heard all year. Family Time Records is helming the release of Haran's self titled cassette and very quickly proving itself to be one of the most exciting new labels around. I've played Safest in Bearhugs on my radio show several times, but I need to start playing Boring Ghosts and White Fur, both of which are just as deserving of plays. For whatever reason, after Rapid Youth changed their name from the questionable at best 'Hey Buddy and the Pals,' these guys and their various other side projects (also including Ancient Crux and Trudgers, which you can expect to be blogged about later) have had no shortage of genius names for bands, songs, albums, and everything else. Luckily the songs are even better.
Anni Rossi has been releasing records since 2005, but I first saw her perform in Riverside, California in February of 2006 when she played viola Carla Bozulich's band. Bozulich created washes of sound with her looper pedal as Rossi and a drummer playing a synth kit followed along. Rossi however performs best alone, plucking and bowing her viola while stomping along to her songs. By the time she's played one or two songs, the space belongs to her. It struck me when on another occasion she played in a not so ideal location in Upland, the too loud jukebox pumping out Disturbed and Nickelback wasn't a distraction to her at all. When Radiohead's "Creep" happened to be next she stopped her song, said, "Wanna hear something funny?" and started playing along in what turned out to be a far more convincing rendition than Radiohead could manage to pull off. We know Thom Yorke's a weirdo, but he can afford it.
Anni Rossi's new full length, Rockwell, marks her major label debut. After releasing a number of albums in varying formats on independent labels, including the excellent Folktale and the well established Too Pure label, Anni is releasing Rockwell with 4AD. The association serves her well as it afforded her the opportunity to record with Steve Albini. Most of the song on Rockwell have been recorded before. Both the Folktale release, Scandia and the more recent Afton EP featured several of the songs present on Rockwell replete with dense arrangements for bass clarinet, bass, electric piano, and Rossi's own distinctive viola playing, but Rossi has been been honing many of these songs for years and here she takes a more stripped down approach: viola, upright bass and drums, the viola being substituted for keyboards and guitar on "Ecology" and "Air is Nothing." Albini's recording sounds excellent and - this being Steve Albini - Rossi leaves behind the lo-fi sound of many of her earlier recordings. I miss the distinctive presence of the bass clarinet on songs like "Machine" and "Venice" and some of her vocal embellishments seem to be marginally toned down, but the strength of Rossi's songcraft comes through unobscured in this recording.
"The West Coast" highlights everything there is to like about Rossi, featuring a plucked chord progression which quickly blossoms into progressively more frantic bowing of swirling arpeggios well informed by the rhythmic language codified by Philip Glass in his glory days, before abruptly settling into a final verse that embodies a kind of ambivalence to a nomadic lifestyle. Anni's evocative viola playing is a big part of the enjoyment of this record, allowing her instrument to squelch and screech with measured precision. In "Glaciers" Rossi's slowly bowed viola suggests the sluggish movement of giant masses of ice and "Venice", which features aggressive avant-classical rhythmic patterns that you might expect to have heard on something from a Contellation release - Hanged'Up maybe.
All of her strengths are again evident on the album's strongest and most dynamic song, "Wheelpusher," which Too Pure released last year as a 7" single. Seemingly about Himalayan beekeepers and nomadism - a common theme in this collection of songs - "Wheelpusher" is an excellently formed pop gem. Check the video below for an alternate version. Anni Rossi's proved herself to be both incredibly prolific and patient with her songs, trying new approaches to things until they're right. It's rewarding to see that her dedication has yielded such enjoyable results.
Check out this video of Anni Rossi playing her song Wheelpusher in Minesota and listen to her new songs.
