Casbah Presents: Wye Oak at the Belly Up tonight

Wye Oak (Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack) Photo courtesy of Grandstand Media

I remember a musician tweeting a withering assessment of the Arcade Fire some years ago.  They charged that having 10 people on stage doing the work of four musicians is the opposite of a magic trick.  This 140-character piece of snark stuck with me longer than I would have thought, only because of Wye Oak's opposite effect.  Despite consisting only of Jenn Wassner on guitars (electric and bass) and Andy Stack on the drums and keys, Wye Oak has never failed to leave their audience viscerally-aware of their presence on stage.  Shriek is such a confident and wonderfully composed album that found both musicians not only drifting far from eachother geographically, but musically as well with Wasner teaching herself bass for this album and Stack's evolving use of keys.  What they produced is an album that dives into jagged rhythms and winding bass-led grooves before stitching together lush tapestries out of gnarled musical threads.  Their 2011 album, Civilian, is a masterpiece (and in near constant rotation in my car) that finds Wasner and Stack deploying volume in a way that engrosses listeners the same way footage of avalanches or tidals waves do: we are simultaneously terrified and awed by the immense power and beauty being witnessed.

Pattern is Movement opens, tickets are $18, and doors are at 9pm.  Check out one of the stand out tracks from their newest album Shriek, "Glory", after the jump.

Overdue Recap: Pattern Is Movement, Cave Singers, Swim Party @ Casbah 9.30.08

Last week, for the third night in a row, I headed down to the Casbah, this time for Pattern Is Movement, The Cave Singers, and Swim Party. In case you're unaware, Swim Party is taking some time off for the rest of the year, so between this particular show and the one coming up this Saturday night with Writer at the Ken Club, you won't have much of a chance to see them for a while.

With that in mind, I made sure to get to the Casbah very early. It was also Natalie's third time playing with Swim Party, but it would be my first time seeing her, so I had no excuse to miss it. Let me say from the get go that I had a really fun night this night. Swim Party is a great band as I've mentioned a gazillion times, but by the amount of other bands in the crowd, they're definitely beloved by their musical peers, and it was nice to see so many good people in the room.



The Cave Singers followed and sounded incredible, though admittedly I listened to part of their set from the patio because I was catching up with Chris from Pattern Is Movement. I guess lately, since there are so many dancey bands out there, I've really been partial to bands that lean with more of a country/folk/Americana bent to balance myself out. The Cave Singers delivered on that count.

Last up for the night was Pattern Is Movement, and between Chris' phrenetic drums and Andrew's tenor over his Rhodes and assorted keyboards, despite being out, it was like transporting to a lodge in the woods, cuddling up to a fireplace, and just taking in my surroundings and being completely and utterly relaxed, which is something I need to be more often. Pictures and video if you 'keep on reading'.


Swim Party (with Natalie on keys)


The Cave Singers


Pattern Is Movement


Pattern Is Movement "Everything In Its Right Place" (Radiohead Cover)

Pattern Is Movement, Beauty Bar, 3.28.08

An old friend of mine e-mailed and said I haven't been posting as many pictures on my site of late, and I suppose it's true. It takes so much time to upload them and sometimes I just know the results aren't that great, or it's a band I've posted so many times that I just deem it an unnecessary task. But he's right, and I have some pics from the last few weeks that I was too lazy to get around to posting. So the next few posts will be of some of those shows that I've mentioned but failed to really post.

First, there was that amazing band at the Beauty Bar a few weeks ago. They're called Pattern Is Movement and I think like most people at the show that night, my jaw hit the floor by how great they were. Their music was beautiful and the crowd was mesmerized. I wrote about it briefly here, but CityBeat also covered it here.



I don't think I mentioned it, but we invited them over for an after party but they had to get on the road early the next morning and sent me a sweet text message to tell me so. They were two of the nicest guys one can imagine, and further distanced me from my fear of beards. I really look forward to these guys coming back through our town soon.

Too Many Plans, Too Little Time: the rest of my weekend

I completely overbooked my weekend, so much so that when it came to it, I ended up at only two of the seven or so things I'd planned. After getting sick, I realized I had to listen to my body and needed to take it easy.

Friday night, I had miscommunicated with a friend and we ended up missing Tokyo Police Club at Soma, but when Abraham called, he and Dan swung by and picked me up to go to the Beauty Bar. Since Sarah has been there, there are some noticeable changes to the bar. I liked it when Erika was the manager there, but even then, I sometimes felt like a fish out of water; I would go for the bands and when they'd finish, I'd leave to someplace where I felt a little more comfortable in a hoodie and jeans. Some of the staff has changed, the booking is a little different, and there's less a focus on pleasing the hipsters, and I think a different crowd is feeling more comfortable there than before.

Swim Party was awesome as ever, but I was absolutely blown away by Pattern is Movement. Two guys, one on drums and one on keys, just killing it. They did a Radiohead cover that was amazing and they were really nice guys to boot. I highly recommend checking out their MySpace page here.

After the show, Dan dropped Abraham and I off at the Ken Club and we had a couple unnecessary shots and when the bar closed, Abraham crashed out while I caught up on my week's worth of In Treatment.

In the morning my dog was going nuts and I let her out and she had "e.d." (explosive diarrhea) so I set up my lawn chair to stay outside with her and fell asleep in the sun for a couple hours. By noon, it was hot and we decided to get lunch. We headed for El Comal in Grant Hill, but it appears to have changed owners and is now called "Caffe de Pepe" or something. We still ate there, and our food was pretty damn good, though I miss El Comal's salsa trio and their chilaquiles were to die for. Dan came and met us, as did my sister and Johanna, so it was a fun time to chill out.

After lunch, I really wanted to check out the show at Planet Rooth, but I was kinda tired, so I napped instead, and ended up missing a house crawl that I should've been at as well. I did some evening grocery shopping and when Abraham and Daniel showed up again, we walked to the Ken. I was really mellow, and didn't go into the band room until Red Feathers played. I guess I was pacing myself since I kinda knew there was gonna be an after party, and there was. A bunch of us went back to my house, listened to music, watched some shit on YouTube and chilled out for a while until everyone bailed in the wee hours of the morning.

That lead to Sunday, where it was a lazy day and I spent most of it with my family for a BBQ. We watched Enchanted, which I actually thought was a pretty funny spoof of all the Disney princess movies until it turned into one in the end. And of course, I spent some Q.T. with my niece. Petro commented that I haven't posted a picture of her in a couple weeks, so this one is for him.



Anyway, by the time I got home from my parents' house, it was almost 9 and I realized I'd not posted about any of last week's shows, so I decided not to go to the Casbah. I do plan on being there tomorrow for Musee Mechanique and if you haven't heard them, check them out here or here. Hopefully someone will be kind enough to get me a copy of Staring At The Sun. I'm looking forward to the week ahead, but it's finally time for me to get some sleep. I'll try to get some listings up in the morning. night-night.