Boom Goes the Night

Toronto's jet-engine punk rockers METZ storm the Biltmore tonight with White Lung and Cindy Lee in tow as support:

Homesick #9: White Lung - "Saint Dad"

Opening for METZ on Friday at the Biltmore. Always a great show:
  Homesick #9: White Lung - "Saint Dad" from INTOTHEWOODS.TV on Vimeo.

Musicians Writing About Musicians, Eh?

http://thetalkhouse.com/about

And unlike the 33 1/3 series, it's mostly musicians I care about including Andrew W.K., Robert Pollard, Melissa Auf der Maur, Flying Lotus, Richard Hell and Bowie. Duff McKagan also writes about KISS which appeals to at least a few people I know ... Check out the latest read which is by White Lung's Mish Way on Waxahatchee.

Punk Music and Barbecue

With the exception of Cult of Youth, this must have been one of the most skull-crushingly awesome shows in a LOOONG-assed time. Scarcely a more stacked line-up than this. Don't know how I missed this one.

Van Rules Pitchfork

White Lung is the latest band to be profiled in Pitchfork's weekly(?) "Rising" feature. Also, today, the Fork reviewed Nü Sensae's new album Sundowning (Suicide Squeeze), giving it the same score as White Lung's new LP Sorry (Deranged Records). The two best Van bands considered on equal footing by the greater masses? Pretty fucking sweet! Click here to read PF's article/interview with White Lung.

The Men at Work

All photo credits: steve louie

Sept. 5, 2012
The Waldorf Hotel
Vancouver, British Columbia

I admit I don't know much about Vancouver quartet Sex Church. I don't know their history. I don't know the names of their releases. I don't even know what to call the music they play. After the first time I saw them (the only time I saw them), I always referred to them as shoegaze. And although I didn't hate them, they didn't impress me either. I never thought that a little over a year later, Sex Church would steal the show even as the first of three bands on the bill, especially a bill shared by the likes of White Lung and the Men. Maybe "stealing the show" is a bit of an overstatement, but Sex Church were unquestionably the surprise of the night, delivering scorching 80s/90s alt-rock à la Dinosaur Jr. and blustering indie rock à la Dinosaur Jr. offshoot Sebadoh, all with a spaced out twist.

I hesitate ever so slightly to say Sex Church stole the show because White Lung was also fucking fantastic - worlds better than the last time I saw them; a superior sound system goes a long way, particularly in amplifying Mish Way's voice into a building-razing roar from the deepest recess of Hell. I decided that night, unable to take my eyes off of Kenneth William as I soaked in the fury with which he unleashed his coarse, chunky guitar lines, that he is one of my favourite guitarists to watch. The fact that he is White Lung's sole guitarist and carries the band's blazing fast rhythms while shooting out white-hot solos, with impeccable precision, no less, is simply amazing. Also pretty cool was seeing Nü Sensae drum-machine Daniel Pitout rocking out in the front row, cheering on his Van-punk besties.

"That's really original. I like it," Mish Way complimented with dry sarcasm before tossing the sign into the crowd.

 
Unfortunately, any interest I had in the show left in tandem with White Lung. As an indie "it" band that is really just starting to break out now despite having just released their third full-length, this past spring's Open Your Heart on Brooklyn imprint Sacred Bones Records, I'd expected quite a bit more from New York's genre-blurring Men. I had looked forward to frantic, noisy, (possibly post-)punky mayhem delivered with manic desperation amidst searing, driving drone that billowed and loomed like smog in a house-fire, but what I received instead more closely resembled psych-tinged hard rock, more streamlined and high in positive rather than depressive, stifling energy. As well, loud as the Men were, two of the band's vocal mics were almost inaudible, even after one of the Waldorf's sound-people in the audience instructed the house-crew to turn up the mics. With only two songs I really enjoyed, the names of which I don't even know, I was unfortunately relieved when the Men finished their set.

One may assume I would never see the Men again. While I thought as much up until this very sentence's writing, I've since reconsidered: Perhaps the unpredictable(-to-me) nature of the Men's show is simply characteristic of the band's uncategorizeable temperament (they've also delved into sunny 60s/70s open road pop on their latest album). If such is the case, perhaps the Men still have enough allure to keep me returning to their shows, despite this unfavourable first live impression.

Click here to view a very few more photos of White Lung and the Men at the Waldorf.

Free Concert Tickets = As Easy As Joining Twitter? Apparently So.

I still don't know how to use or read Twitter, but despite my social media illiteracy, I was still able to win two tickets to the Men with White Lung and Sex Church at the Waldorf tonight by retweeting @justshowsVAN. How lucky, as retweeting is all I know how to do on Twitter. That's like, 50% of Twitter anyway, isn't it? And to think, I was going to buy my ticket today ...

Twitter has also already begun paying dividends in other ways. Check out American Snakeskin, awesome New Orleans psychy-pop fuzz-punk-rock, at http://soundcloud.com/janitors_closet. Thanks, @myszkaway (Mish Way, lead-singer of Vancouver punk band White Lung and writer for Vice and hearty magazines).

The Second Best Five Bucks I've Ever Spent

August 3, 2012
Antisocial Skateshop
Vancouver, British Columbia

The best being my leather jacket.

Last night was Nü Sensae's record-release show at the Antisocial Skateshop celebrating their new LP Sundowning (Suicide Squeeze, 2012). Also featured on the bill were Nü Sensae's good friends White Lung who themselves recently released a new album titled Sorry (Deranged Records, 2012) which you can listen to in full here. 

Despite "strict" time-constraints (the bands stressed on their Facebook event page that the set times were rigid due to the 11 P.M. curfew), White Lung took their time taking the stage, or floor, rather. Had they known they were in store for the bass amp's power cutting off two or three times at the beginning of their set (the first time within seconds of their first song), perhaps they would have been more punctual. Even by the second power-failure, the treat of free booze (while quantities lasted) seemed to have been inadequate in quenching the growing audience's thirst for high-velocity punk rawk, especially after White Lung teased the audience by having appeared to have launched into their first ripper ... as a soundcheck.

Although lead-singer Mish Way's mic could have been louder, the band sounded great. They tore straight ahead through their thirty-ish-minute set with everyone in the band sounding bold and clear on their way to the finish line: Kenneth Williams' jagged guitars punctured through the destructive maelstrom of sound while Grady MacIntosh fired relentless volleys of thuddily palpable bass notes, and Anne-Marie Vassiliou tamed the chaos into some kind of order as best as she could with her merciless, thunderous, mechanically precise drumming.

Having been my first "real" punk show where all of the focus was on Nü Sensae and White Lung (rather than on them merely as openers or parts of a festival line-up), I was slightly disenchanted by the crowd's docility during White Lung. I'd expected the crowd to have been pretty crazy, given that most of the people there, I assumed, were going to have been the bands' equally rowdy punk friends and the "real" punks who go to these sorts of shows as a religion. Admittedly, I was a part of the "problem," as I didn't move much during White Lung either, as much as I liked them.

The mood totally changed when Nü Sensae came on, however. I and pretty much everyone else who was into it got into it. Before I knew it, without even having been really conscious of the fact, I'd somehow found myself standing right in front of singer/bassist Andrea Lukic. I stood so close to her, I could have sang into her mic without leaning in, and believe me, the temptation was almost overpowering. More than a few times, I and the people around me nearly knocked over her mic-stand. I, or more likely one of the guys next to me, actually unplugged her peddle by kicking it, an accident unrelated to a handful of us slipping on beer and falling onto the floor; yeah, there were more than a few cans of beer flying and spraying around last night; I caught a few on the shoulder and chest but remained unscathed thanks to the moderate protection afforded me by the carapace that was my jacket.

Nü Sensae get better every time I see them. Even more than at the Khatsahlano Music + Arts Festival did their songs sound more developed and progressive, with the inclusion of some extended jams, instead of just like relentless deluges of sound. Unfortunately, unlike last time at Khats, Andrea's vocals did not soar above the rest of the band and carpet-bomb us with shrill cries, feral growls or Serengeti-an roars. I guess the complaint is somewhat moot, though: when one stood as close to Andrea as I did, I guess her mic volume didn't matter that much.

Though I escaped the show without any cuts, bruises or scrapes this time, I hadn't moshed that hard since Les Savy Fav or maybe Andrew W.K., although I'm reluctant to count Andrew W.K., because that was more like fighting for my life rather than having a good time. That said, it was a total mistake to have worn my aforementioned leather jacket, as I sweltered, stuck, dripped and soaked with sweat (and a little booze) like never before; who'd have thought, on a hot summer night, crammed amongst a hundred or so living bodies in a relatively tiny skateshop? I probably would have had more ease escaping a straight-jacket than taking off my leather jacket.

And that was the night I vowed to never miss either Nü Sensae or White Lung again - unless they're supporting some crappy, over-priced bands.

Also, I'm starting to recognize too many people at shows ...

It's the Evil

It's no wonder why Exclaim! named Vancouver's own White Lung's It's the Evil punk album of the year (in 2010). So devastatingly good. It's like auditory evisceration.

Mish Way Quote

"Of all the things that piss me off, nothing pisses me off more than the term 'rock chick.' Why? Because it's 2012, that's why. The whole women-playing-in-bands thing is not shocking anymore. I hate it when people ask me what it's like to be a girl who plays 'punk' music. You want to know what it's like? ... The only difference about being a girl who plays 'punk' music is that people ask you that stupid question."

 - Mish Way, lead-singer of Vancouver punk band White Lung. More is contained in her mini-article for Vice Magazine in which she takes aim at Alanis Morissette and praises Courtney Love.