Talked to my grandfather on the phone before the show and he started choking on a peppermint but I was in North Carolina and he was in Indiana so I couldn't do anything but call him back 5 minutes later not knowing if he would pick up or not.He picked up. He told me Indiana had lost their basketball game. I told him North Carolina and Duke were going to play and he asked if I was going to watch it, I said yes, but I knew that might be a lie because I was going to see Mount Righteous and didn't know how much I would see. Luckily, this is North Carolina and the bar had the game on, they were playing Duke and I'm a fan of Duke, not North Carolina but I understand their pain in such a sucky season.
I sat through one alt-country singer, Andy Bilinski who I like well enough and he told a story about the Loretta Lynn cafe, this story I had heard before, the last time I heard Andy play, but I didn't mind much. Then the lead singer of One Wolf had said he had also been to the Loretta Lynn cafe and they talked in front of us and everyone and God about how bad the coffee was at the Loretta Lynn cafe. Meanwhile while listening to all of this, members of Mount Righteous were sitting at a table near me, and I wanted to ask them about their stolen trailer but I heard nothing and they said nothing. So we waited.
On the Duke game and John Scheyer, their point guard three point specialist was making mad three pointers. Kyle Singler was making mad inside-point forward type plays.
One Wolf got on the stage with something like slow-core stuff, then they pulled out a banjo on their next to last and then played a country song and me and my friend Bill decided they would be a better country band than alt-rock band. They were from Lubbock, TX and the guitarist talked a lot but then the bassist said, "What is a frog with no legs?" "Not hoppy." HA!
Duke center Brian Zoubek made this pass to a cutting Singler. Duke won by 10 points.
During One Wolf's set, this girl with short frizzy hair was mad scribbling, making what turned out to be a set list. She then put on some gloves and started stretching. She was Z, Zi, or Zicole from Mount Righteous. Bass drum Joey was hopping and bouncing during the One Wolf show, even though One Wolf wasn't all that great.
And now I have a new rule: if you see the band stretching before the set, the gauntlet of goodness will be thrown down.
And so it was here as the Mount Righteous 9 gathered all their tuba/ trumpet/melodica stuff and there was bouncy Joey establishing what will be the corollary to the above gauntlet goodness rule: if a band sets up a megaphone instead of a microphone then a double helping of goodness will be thrown down.
Here it goes.
Joey bangs the drum, and Z's cymbals clang and there's Kendall hunched over the bells and the trumpets zoom and the tuba roars, the whole thing buoyed only by Laura's confident melodica playing. Yes, confident melodica playing, and in between Z takes breaks to sing and sing (she probably did musical theater) and sings the most appropriate words for a band that not many people know, from the song "Shake The Rafters Loose":
"You are my favorite band/you write my favorite songs/I come to all your shows to sing along/what you do really agrees with me/we're part of the same scene/it's like it's destiny."
Those words--cursed, stomp and stammer, curse--if I had been eating a peppermint I would have choked--they know my mind and soul our collective mind and soul beyond all gimmicks but HONEST TRUTH with the most ironic knowing wink and nods it all makes me so sick, and they know it makes me sick, they know me, though we didn't meet when our tables were near one another, but those words-- simultaneous genius and snottiness and friendly condescension that we all know and have been apart of---those words.
Mount Righteous doesn't care about those words, they just got all the pretenses out of the way, all the scene posturing, like letting the air out of a balloon, we can just relax instead of being tight.
Mount Righteous says they usually open for One Wolf in Lubbock, TX, but I don't believe them, it's kind of like Kyle Singler starring in that movie while no one looked at John Scheyer and now Scheyer is more important no matter where Singler starred. Mount Righteous is the star, the star being overlooked.
They're off with many creative first person plurals and second person you understood lyrics and at one time Z does this rap/sing with something about turning an elephant into a cow, then this new unreleased "Suburban" song that continues the feeling of the EP more than the polka-dotted inflections of the first album. Then there was "Circle Yes and No" more of that scene-deflating, something else with "uh-oh, uh-ohs." These kids are schooled in the ways of the scene and have thrown if off and thrown it on at the same time.
At the end there's a party on the floor. I came into that place in one condition and came out in an entirely different way. More after the jump...
These bands have played a few shows in the South and I hesitated to write anything about them because...really, I don't get it. I don't get how this band is not castigated up & down for having the most pretentious emo-sounding name in history of emo-sounding names. I guess it's because they play the music the indie-rock bloggers like, instead of easily dismissed power pop-punk. But they can write some freakin' awesome melodies and look like lil' Ivy-League kittens in all their pictures.
Oh yeah and I guess they release an EP like every 3 months that keeps the blogosphere churning and spinning right round.(Is this the "blogger backlash" that so many critics are quick to find, in the vein of the rise and fall of CYHSY or Tapes N Tapes? Make note to self).
"...I found myself in desperate need of the bathroom. I found it in the bar in the other room while also realizing that it’s a unisex, one-toilet rest area. This brought about long lines and strange conversations as the Pabst was waiting to evacuate like second graders five minutes before recess. After my business was done I sidled up to the bar and grabbed another can to await the coming of The Paper Chase."
Yeah, this first-person is by Josh Rank of Atlanta, who surveyed the scene at The Paper Chase show on June 20 at Atlanta's Drunken Unicorn. Here was our preview and read the rest of Josh's experience after the jump...
At first glance The Drunken Unicorn looks like a barn that should have been demolished eight years ago. Once you go inside, however, you find an underground world almost as expansive as the second level in Super Mario Brothers. To the left you find the concert area, merch booths set up in back. To the right you find a dive bar with a minimal beer selection, which doesn’t really matter since they serve Pabst. Walk a little further and you find MJQ’s, which feels like you found another underground world altogether. One with dance music and breakdancers.
We showed up to the show “fashionably late,” and I’ll blame root beer flavored vodka for that. We only caught the last song of the opening band The Piano Plays Itself, but that was all it took to be impressed. They were a solid indie-rock outfit that I plan on actually seeing in full at one point or another.
A few beers later Attention System began playing. The entire time I watched them I couldn’t stop thinking of Orgy mixed with The Killers. They are one of those bands that are fun to see live but I doubt I would ever be sitting around my living and thinking, “Man, it would be hella sweet to listen to Attention System right now.” The singer kept the show interesting by playing the synthesizer here and there while the Mac laptop provided background noise. I’ve always thought that any band that has synchronized lights either is trying to create ambiance or trying to make up for a lack of creativity. I think they were going for ambiance, but it came across as the latter. The drumming was solid. However, he held to the syncopated hi-hat like he met her in high school and didn’t have the self confidence to think he could find anyone better.
As they left the stage I found myself in desperate need of the bathroom. I found it in the bar in the other room while also realizing that it’s a unisex, one-toilet rest area. This brought about long lines and strange conversations as the Pabst was waiting to evacuate like second graders five minutes before recess. After my business was done I sidled up to the bar and grabbed another can to await the coming of The Paper Chase.
I have seen the band four times before and knew exactly what I was in for. I had brought two Paper Chase virgins with me and had been filling their ears with prophecies of the experience they were about to embark on. Give me a handful of drinks, bring up The Paper Chase, and get ready for non-stop ass kissing for the rest of the night. One might think I wanted to have sex with the entire band from the many conversations I’ve had. “You’ve never heard The Paper Chase? Oh my god. They’re, like, the best band ever! You gotta listen to this…”
We walked into the concert hall moments before they started playing. My face was already smeared with a shitty grin and would remain that way for the rest of the show. They opened with a couple tracks from the new album, “Someday This Will All Be Yours.” I was a little skeptical of the disc my first listen through. After another thirty or so listens I began warming up to it. My high expectations of the band were solidified upon seeing the songs live. The string arrangements on the CD were wonderfully translated into keyboard and guitar arrangements in concert. The cartoon antics of the lead singer John Congleton didn’t fail to meet up with the “You gotta watch when…” I had told my friends beforehand. Throughout the show I continually looked back at my friends with the “Did you see that?” look on my face. They responded with a “Hell yes I did,” expression. Drummer Jason Garner looked as though he hated his drum set and couldn’t wait to beat the hell out of it. This culminated in a piece of drumstick flying past my face before he broke the stick over his knee between songs.
The set list leaned heavily toward new songs. The throwback tracks covered every album besides “Cntrl-Alt-Delete-U.” This even includes the final track from “Young Bodies Heal Quickly,” which I had never seen performed live. The addition of another keyboard/acoustic guitar player added new layers to these old songs while also helping the new songs translate into a live performance. The horror movie sound effects and rubber-fingered guitar parts flew out in abundance, only making my shitty grin grow wider.
Whenever you see a band that you hadn’t listened to before, the most you can hope for after the show is a, “Yeah that was good, I should listen to them sometime.” However, after leaving The Paper Chase, both friends were firm believers in the power of the band. After getting back home, I couldn’t wait to rip back into the root beer vodka and celebrate a night well spent.
Hit up Josh Rank in the ATL (or anywhere else for that matter) at joshrank [at] yahoo.com More after the jump...
For the uninitiated, Nashville's We Own This Town is one of the premier radio shows/blogs for finding new independent music in the Music City and the southeast. They've started putting up local shows at Nashville's Mercy Lounge on Tuesday nights for free (that would be uh, nothing) and this one is sure to be a rip-roarin' rockin' time:
Mean Tambourines embodies that 80's synth-dance-indie pop thing really well, but with more polish. Their new EP War drops this July.
Joining the mayhem is Cactus's, and misplaced apostrophes aside, Cactus's wears their thrash math rock moniker well, like a couple of loose bears fighting over a calculator. Raw without being excruciating, the trio of Jru, Sam and Asher are soon bringing their dirty rock to the Northeast. Also on the bill is Nashville's Bad Cop. Vid for Cactus's is below--
