Filed under: Shows, Videos | Tags: 2011, birthday cake, cibo matto, dates, music that changed my life, reunion, tour, vive la woman, yeah basically
Cibo Matto – “Birthday Cake”
Not to sound too dramatic, but this was the song (and the band) that forever changed the way that I look at music. I was about 16 when my friend Tonia Poobczyk popped Cibo Matto’s “Vive La Woman” album into the CD player and skipped to this track. The album was all about food (a universal language, according to the band), the lyrics were nonsense, and the music was pure discordance. So of course, I fell in love with them.
I was pretty stoked today to find out (thanks O’Reilly) that the kids have finally reunited (Yuka Hondo and Mito Hatori split for a while to work on solo projects). And it is, rather aptly, called the 2011 “Yeah, Basically” Tour. Check out tour dates here. For you folks in DC, they’ve got a mid-July date booked at the Rock n’ Roll Hotel. Tickets on sale starting this Saturday.
Filed under: Musings, Shows | Tags: concert dates, google, music, myspace, myspace losing users, new york times, news corp, songkick
There were several articles in recent months about MySpace’s struggle for survival. Bought by News Corp, a Rupert Murdoch company in 2005, they struck a $300 million advertising deal with Google, and from then on, it seemed like they just let advertising trump everything (and even more so now as they scramble to regain users). Worse, they seemed to ignore the fact that, while individuals were migrating to other sites like Facebook (which now has twice as many users as MySpace), there were still musicians that found the website useful. Quite simply, MySpace offered a cheap and easy way to self-promote. And, while you’ll still find bands that have MySpace pages, you’ll find a lot more that no long will or no longer do. Logging in recently, I read a comment from British band Almost Free who’s comment in the news feed read: “Thank you MySpace for changing our profile. I wonder how many bands pay to be ‘recommended.'” Needless to say, stripping away in-depth searching capabilities, and then giving priority to bands that already receive widespread publicity pissed a lot of people off, leaving a vacuum for someone to come along and make a new central website for musicians to self-promote. Facebook could have, but didn’t (or may not consider it a priority), only recently having added media player functions. Band Camp may, but it doesn’t appear as though many local bands that need a free resource will use it.
For those that enjoy going to shows, the New York Times had an article yesterday about a website called Songkick, which is designed to help you keep track of shows (including music festivals) scheduled in your area on any given day, with the option to filter and receive notifications for specific performers. Best of all, it lists upcoming shows for even the smaller venues. However, I’m not sure what the point is of the “I’m Going” or “I May Be Going” buttons under the show listings (it would be great if it took you right to the appropriate ticketing site so you can be tickets, if possible), but I guess maybe that is a way for the venue or the artists to keep a rough count of attendees. In any event, it’s a useful site for the fervent show-goer.
Filed under: Shows | Tags: 9:30 club, brighton, dc, dc9, district of columbia, empire of dirt, go! team, indie, reviews, shows, the black cat, the go! team, the velvet lounge, washington
“Grip Like a Vice” by the Go! Team
Following a rather dismal year in music, DC looks like it will be firing up the summer with worthy lineups all over. And joining in the kick-off to the concert season, the kids from Brighton who returned on Wednesday to the 9:30 Club after a four year absence.
It’s hard to pinpoint the Go! Team, exactly. To me, they are simply an array of sound experimentation awash in fluorescent. The whole persona is a little spastic. A little childish. And, a little tough. Naturally, I expected a much different crowd than the dumpy, black-clad indie devotees that seemed to dominate Wednesday night’s audience (I was expecting it to be less male, less white, and a hell of a lot more stylish).
Frontwoman Ninja takes the stage.
Ninja, giving language lessons for the equivalent of “booty” while the band tunes up.
Ian Parton rocking out somewhat awkwardly on the harmonica.
The show was part of their brief U.S. Tour before they embark for summer dates overseas to promote their recently-released third album, Rolling Blackouts. The album that a review in a recent issue of Under the Radar criticized for being little more than a noisy circus, as though a tried and true sound had no way of being improved upon except to be amped up and sped up to an unpleasant degree. I’ve only heard the album in as much as they performed it at the show, though I wondered whether two full drum kits was part of the change.
The co-ed six piece can be a dizzying spectacle, that’s for sure. The line-up constantly changes from one song to the next as band members switch to one of a dozen other instruments. And, even the lead singer occasionally changes. It sounds exhausting, but the initial vision for the band was to incorporate a lot of vibrant sound from a variety of oddball genres like Bollywood soundtracks and Double-Dutch raps. And it’s the sound that earned them a reputation for being the cool kids on the indie rock block.
If you’re not too familiar with the Go! Team, I’d recommend putting down the recorded stuff and going to see them live (assuming you can, especially since US Tour dates are rare when SXSW isn’t going on). And, unless you’re the catatonic type at shows, get close to the stage. These kids obviously love what they’re doing and the energy is remarkably infectious. Frontwoman Ninja came to the stage dressed in aerobics’s gear — a sports bra, spandex capris, and fresh white L.A. Gears — as though she gets her best workout when she’s performing. The between-song banter is adorably British (she taught us what “step dancing”), although most was unfortunately lost to shitty mic levels, along with some of the better punctuating elements in songs like “Keys to the City” and “Ladyflash.” Still, you can’t help but play along, and by nights end, the whole first floor had their hands in the air, breaking a sweat.
Well done, kids.
Audiologue 