The Rosebuds are at Black Cat backstage tomorrow (Tuesday). I'm there; show probably starts 9:30, with Rosebuds on by 10:30. Note below, they'll be back at Iota in August.
08.02 * Arlington, VA @ Iota w/ Camera Obscura
07.13 * The Rosebuds, Alcian Blue $7 doors 9:00
The Rosebuds are a hook-laden, energetic indie group from North Carolina plucked right out of Merge's backyard. Their debut long-player, The Rosebuds Make Out, is a strong and memorable record that sounds fresh on repeated listens. The disc is split between up-tempo rockers and weepy ballads. The rockers are what reach out and grab you on initial listens. Tracks like the goofy "My Downtown Friends," "What Can I Do?," and the buoyant "Kicks in the Schoolyard" are pop songs with sharp-as-roses hooks. Ivan Howard has a perfect rock voice, elastic and sharp, able to carry the tunes easily and with verve. For the most part the instrumentation on the record is spare, with guitars leading the way, but the occasional use of big, clunky, unironic synths make ballads like "Wishes for Kisses" and "Back to Boston" sound like a cross between the Cure and the Anniversary. Which is not a sound too many bands have these days. You can also hear bits of the Pixies, Yo La Tengo, and an old-school Merge band, Spent, in there too; all bands that combine energy with melody and end up right square in classic indie rockville. The only track that lets the side down a bit is the last track on the record, the overly long and repetitive "Make Out Song." Despite that minor hiccup, Merge has really picked a winner here; The Rosebuds Make Out is a sweet smelling bunch of songs by a very promising new band. â?? Tim Sendra [All Music Guide]
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Alcian Blue is a psychedelic, shoegazer band from Washington DC. The group has played with the current line up of Sam Chintha, Jacob Reid, Clark Stacy and Matt Welch since the summer of 1999. Following a 4-track demo and a string of shows, the band began to work on an ongoing recording project in the spring of 2000. The culmination of these sessions was released in late 2001 as Slow Colorless Stare on the band's own Safranin Records. Alcian Blue's sound is derived from a mix of artists such as My Bloody Valentine, The Cocteau Twins, Sonic Youth, Aphex Twin, Steve Reich, and Brian Eno.
[From Splendid e-zine]: With My Bloody Valentine now long gone and with Sonic Youth sounding a bit too tempered and careful on Murray Street, Alcian Blue fill a badly-needed niche for lovers of pure, unfiltered guitar noise and long, drug-induced jams. Like many shoegazer bands, Alcian Blue's guitar-based music runs thick and syrupy, oozing without pause for entire song stretches, obscuring the minimal vocals. However, the influence of Sonic Youth cannot be escaped. Beyond the mere fact that these guys love to scrape their guitar strings, make chiming sounds and let their guitars wail with delicately pulsating feedback figures, Alcian Blue regularly calls upon the melodic phrasing and even the beats of the Youths. And yet, in mixing their influences, Alcian Blue have created quite a few textures of their own. From the disc's quieter moments, like the opening of "Opaque", to more jarring cuts like "Faded Song", the band proves that they're more than just a second-rate stoner act. Ultimately, however, while Alcian Blue is pretty good at what they do, they offer little or nothing to attract listeners who aren't already into their basic sound.
