Thursday, September 23
$5, all ages
doors at 8:30, show at 9:15
Ostinato (Exile on Mainstream/Southern Records, featuring Dave Hennessy of The Hidden Hand)
The Mensa Select (Richmond)
The Mother's Anger (NYC via Israel, guitar/drums duo produced by Michael Davis of MC5)
Ostinato Atmospheric post-punk, like a hybrid of Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, Unwound, and The Shipping News
My pop always told me to look it up if I didn't know what it meant. In Ostinato's case, though, you glean more of their sound if you look at the context within which the term is usually employed: namely, classical, instrumental art music.
But don't go to sleep on me yet. Ostinato rock's harder than Beethoven could have even if he'd had a Roland instead of a harpsichord, or whatever kind of proto piano he'd supposed to have had. Yes, even harder than the temporally transplanted Beethoven in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. ( Or was that Mozart? whatever). But this is instrumental music, and patterns of sound are its bag. Sure, guitarist Dave Hennessy sings, but the vocals get buried in the mix and don't hit your ears so much as collect like mist on your windshield on a foggy night. Like their more well known music kin, Mogwai, and my Bloody Valentine, the voice is just another instrument, another piece of sound.
All of which begs the question, what is this music about? Unlike the more classical minded, real rock fans like to have some associations to hang on our music. Art for Arts sake'll get you a boot in the face, or at least written off as art rock wankers. We are a practical bunch. What can I do with the music?
That's the upshot to Ostinato's classical Rock: you can go places with it. You have to; if you don't mad lib your way through it, you don't have the lyrically preprogrammed sentiments (i.e. I am in Love, I want to be in Love, I wish he/she loved me, why does nobody love me, i am so lonely etc, etc,.) to fall back on. Sometimes we need a rock star to speak the words we feel in side. Sometimes, though, we just need a soundtrack to our own movies.
This soundtrack's all sharp uphill angles and calm, echo-heavy revelry. Hennessy's schizo guitar goes from thumping metal chords to languorous atmospherics in the blink of an eyeâ?? its at its best when its doing a little bit of both. If it is putting your head in the clouds, Jeremy Ramirez's narcotically head bobbing bass and Mathew Clark's soliddly restrained drumming keep your feet on the ground.
Or at least bouncing up and down. Their live energy's has got the heft to submerge the cereberal whithin the physicalâ?? the wall of sound can push you over, to, But then again, its all kinda paint-by-number if it doesn't make you move. --Mike Parisi
The Mensa Select Richmond math-rock/post-punk quartet; think June of 44 and Slint
The Mother's Anger Debut album out in September on Dionysus Records, produced by Mike Davis from the MC5; guitar/drums noise-rock
THE MOTHERS ANGER is a two-piece band from Israel that sounds like a five piece band from Detroit. Could this be because the debut full-length by drummer/vocalist Jimi and guitarist/vocalist Stitch was produced by bassist Michael Davis of legendary Detroit rockers the MC5? You read that right, a two-piece band in which the guitarist tunes a few strings to play the bass and guitar parts simultaneously, and enters the studio with a producer who happens to be a famous bass player (and also plays on a track!). THE MOTHERS ANGER tours in traditional Wandering Jew fashion:Â two guys, an old gutted out van, some cool vintage equipment, and a burning desire to rock your world. Think NIRVANA meets BLACK SABBATH at a STOOGES Fun House rent party and brace yourself for some of the most full-bodied, raw guts and emotion, dead-ahead rock and roll this side of Jerusalem. Cover art by Seattle based cartoon art hero Jim Blanchard makes this release by THE MOTHERS ANGER grab the eyes as well as the ears.
