music
come from his life but leaving just the right
details out and letting his listeners in. Boy in
Static, Trufl e Hunter and The Blast Majesty
play at 9 pm Wednesday, Aug. 19, at Joe’s
Bar and Grill. 21+. — Molly Templeton
B&B’s Folksy
Americana
Boy In Static
Coming Through Clearly
Alexander Chen’s choirboy voice — sweet
and clear, occasionally touched with vibrato
— is impossibly well-suited to his sometimes
dizzy, sometimes melancholic pop songs,
which are spare enough to show their
carefully composed framework but lush
enough to dip and rise with heart-swelling
urgency. Chen is half of Boy in Static, which
used to be a one-man band but has added
touring player Kenji Ross to the permanent
lineup. The now-duo’s new album, Candy
Cigarette, suggests infl uences from the
Magnetic Fields to ’80s pop to Stars to a
certain sort of self-aware, accessible and
cinematic rock; were John Hughes (RIP!) still
making movies, songs like “Half-Lives” and
the handclap-decorated, male/female duet
“Toy Baby Grands” would fi t right into those
soundtracks. Chen told tinymixtapes.com
recently that his songwriting approach is to
“take things and exaggerate them,” and you
can feel the kernels of everyday life from
which his songs burst. There’s sunniness
and shadow in the melodies, which play out
in violins, toy pianos, drum machines, synths
and loops that share space with restless rock
guitars. Boy in Static’s airy bedroom pop
manages to suggest the intimacy of journal
pages without ever feeling claustrophobic
or self-indulgent; Chen is telling stories that
At fi rst listen, the only thing that seems
to unify the music of Birds & Batteries,
stylistically speaking, is the voice of
singer-songwriter Mike Sempert, a nasally,
slightly narcoleptic croon that registers
somewhere between Neil Young and Randy
Newman. Like a hippie on Halcion, this Bay
Area band’s music wanders all over the
place, traipsing from languid backwater
folk to synthesized space jam to a kind
of ’70s-infl ected mellow rock that isn’t
afraid to stretch out in sleepy backbeats
and sustained chords that occasionally go
crunchy with fuzz. As earlier generations
of young musicians tapped everything
from The White Album to Loaded, Birds
& Batteries rummage the best of their
parent’s record collection — from Steely
Dan and Fleetwood Mac to Dylan and Neil
Young (witness their lilting cover of “Heart
of Gold” on YouTube).
Formed in 2005 when Sempert, hauling
an 18-song demo, relocated to San Francisco
from Boston, the band — currently including
drummer
Brian
Michelson,
bassist/
keyboardist Jill Heinke and pedal steel
guitarist Christopher Walsh — achieved indie-
crit success with their albums Nature Vs.
Nature and I’ll Never Sleep Again. The latter
was as praised for its genre-defying spirit
as the exotic experimentalism it exhibited.
And yet, for all their shambolic shimmying
around styles, there is an undercurrent of
folksy Americana to this outfi t’s music. Call
it trip hillbilly or Crazy Horse-ing around,
quirked up by a heavy, staticky, latter-day
dose of the DIY ethic that gave us everything
from Daniel Johnston to Magnetic Fields.
Birds & Batteries and Baitball play at 9 pm
Thursday, Aug. 20, at Sam Bond’s Garage.
21+. $5. — Rick Levin
Birds and Batteries
Danny
Barnes
Noise and Roll
Thee Oh Sees are the kind of group who’ll assault your eardrums with a song
constructed of static and cacophony and then follow it up with a bouncy surf punk
love song made for the mosh pit. Lurking somewhere in the sludgy swamp between
the Kinks and No Age, Thee Oh Sees brew their ’60s mod rock, basement punk and
white noise into a kind of aural moonshine. It might burn your nostrils, but ultimately
it goes down smooth enough to keep you listening for more than a few minutes.
Sometimes the guitar melodies bounce and snap like a Chuck Berry ditty; other times,
like a true noise outfi t, the band’s songs screech and squawk to make any melody
seem almost indecipherable. All of it sounds so-low-it’s-subterranean, a sound quality
that in 2009 is almost always an aesthetic choice, not the result of a small recording
budget. Still, it’s as important a contributor to Thee Oh Sees’ gleeful cacophony as
the choppy vintage rock and roll guitar riffs are. And it’s the combination of the
two sounds that render Thee Oh Sees both innovative and listenable — something
most noise bands fail to achieve. Pure noise is basically conceptual art: fascinating
to check out for a few minutes in a museum, but too grating to endure as a regular
fi xture in your home. Bands who ape the ’60s punk sound, on the other hand, often
come off as overly derivative. But Thee Oh Sees bridge the gap between melodic,
tried-and-true rock tunes and the intriguing experimentalism of a noise act. Thee Oh
Sees avoid both these pitfalls, and that’s what makes them such a fascinating — and
important — band to watch. Thee Oh Sees and Leo London play at 9 pm Wednesday,
Aug. 19, at Sam Bond’s Garage. 21+. $5. — Sara Brickner
What We Do is Secret
Subrosa’s press material describes the
band as “PJ Harvey + Kyuss + Appalachian
murder ballads + Coven.” The fi rst two
references are the ones most apparent to
me. Listening to Subrosa (Latin for “under
the rose,” meaning “in secret”) forced
me to try to identify what it is that I like
about Kyuss. I always assumed it was the
heat and wide-open spaces of Palm Desert,
Calif., that gave their music a sludgy, too-
stoned-and-hot-to-move vibe. I’ve heard
a few bands over the years that claimed
to be infl uenced by Kyuss, but none that
pulled it off as well, or as obviously, as
Subrosa. Yet here’s this band that came
out of nowhere, from Salt Lake City, and
they have managed to combine two of my
favorite touchstones in rock, and pretty
well, too. Utah’s not much different than
the California desert, so maybe dust and
the sun’s anvil are the best explanation.
Listening for the Kyuss-y riffs on their
debut album, Strega, though, is like looking
through the jailhouse bars at old friends
who did something and now you just don’t
recognize them anymore. Though the
doominess and feedback fuzz of Kyuss is
always present with Subrosa, it’s not as up
front. One unique aspect of Subrosa is the
electric violin; it gives an air of eeriness
to their songs. And things get weird fast,
starting on track three. “Christine” conjoins
a massively heavy riff with tinkling sounds
that may have come from a haunted music
box. In between every down-tuned guitar
line are singer Rebecca Vernon’s desolate
howling vocals … as Polly Jean-ish as you’re
likely to fi nd in any camp, either indie or
metal. Subrosa is signed to Sweden’s ever-
heavy label I Hate Records. Strega was
remixed by Devo “Magnus” Andersson,
bassist for Marduk. Subrosa, The Ax and
Rollie Fingers play at 8 pm Thursday, Aug.
20, at Epic Space. $5. — Vanessa Salvia
Old-Time Music Jubilee
Any chance to see Danny Barnes play is a good time in my book, and he’s just one of many performers worth getting excited
about at the upcoming Jug-R-Not Music Festival. Jug-R-Not is held at Trailhead Park in Cottage Grove and is a benefi t for
Bohemia Park. Last year’s inaugural Jug-R-Not festival was made possible by anonymous donors who wanted to celebrate the
opening of the new Bohemia Park in the heart of downtown Cottage Grove. This year’s proceeds will hopefully enable next year’s
Jug-R-Not festival to be held in the new amphitheater being built in the park.
These anonymous donors appreciate good fun and old-timey style music, apparently. Music kicks off right after the lunch hour
with The Huckleberries. I can’t tell from the press material if this is the English band that plays jigs and reels and other global
stompin’ rhythms or a more local band by the same name, but either way the band promises to be an
excellent kicker-offer to the day. Closing out the festivities is Hillstomp, a band that will take all of the
energy of the day’s previous shows, throw in some punk rebellion for good measure and wrap it all up in a
sweaty, danceable package. Prior to that is Danny Barnes’ “banjo madness.” If the appeal were just Barnes’ hellfi re
playing, that would be one thing, but he’s lived a lifetime as a Bad Liver (his former band), solo performer and collaborator with the
likes of Laura Veirs, Pete Krebs, Dave Matthews, Jeff Pinkus (Butthole Surfers) and Bill Frisell. There’s nothing Barnes can’t do with
a banjo or with his unstoppable songwriting imagination. Great fun, for sure. Jug-R-Not Music Festival begins at 1 pm Saturday,
Aug. 15, at Trailhead Park (10th and Main), Cottage Grove. $3. For more info, see www.jugrnot.org — Vanessa Salvia
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