Musing on 'Noise,' Plus Saturday Night at My Favorite Things

It's been a couple of days. Things have been busy, with working, cooking, going to shows and promoting the one that I'm...well, obviously, promoting. I met up with my soon-to-be new roommate Sunday, and we squealed like little girls over all the interior design projects we want to work on. I have spent the last hour looking at digital cameras on eBay, and I'm about ready to sell my soul for one at this point.

So, our show on Friday night was just as I predicted--good, fine, fun, with about 8 people there, maybe four of whom did not play at some point. Sometimes I guess you just have to have group band practice. It's like watching porn. Sortof. Andy did figure out that the best place to mic a bicycle is on the rear quick-release handle, which is some kind of progress. Rocket Science sounded ten times better than they did at their first show, and we met a really nice guy named Marvin who seems to be fairly enthusiastic about making noise.

Speaking of which, check out the two pieces from Ex.Tempo that David has finished mixing here.

David cringes every time I call his music 'noise,' but it's just not an insult, see. Certainly not all that he does by himself or with Andy falls into the category, but anything I've heard him do in collaboration with others has mostly fit that description. Much of it is cacophonous noise (music) made by non-musicians, which is at least partly the point. I think I've decided I need to use the term 'noise' more often after realizing that many, many people expect particular things when they hear 'free improv music,' like rhythms and melodies. They often think of 'jam' music or jazz or something else they've already heard. In the interest of accurately describing what other people are likely to hear--people who, undeniably, will probably hate it in the first place and who would probably rather know so they can show up late, and who we'd probably also rather do just that--it seems to me that putting a crudely descriptive name on what only a few consider to be 'music' per se is an acceptable concession.

But holy crap, Saturday night at My Favorite Things! That show was on par with some of the best combo local + touring band shows shows I ever saw in Asheville, which is saying something.

First up was Pinche Gringo, which you can find on Myspace here. I had never seen them before, and I was really impressed with Josh's charisma as a songwriter and vocalist. I mean, the guy plays drums with his feet, plays guitar, and sings his guts out at the same time. I have had a crush on the older guy who played guitar with him since I saw him play with his other band, which I can'tfuckingremember the name of...something 'Charmers?' Anyhow, he's a badass with old school rock and roll chops. I hear a wide streak of Stooges reminiscent punk in Pinche Gringo. Love it, love it, love it.

Next (who knows why so early) was The Lovely Eggs from Lancaster, England. Their Myspace is here. I can't get these super-catchy, occasionally punk-as-fuck candy pop songs or the frontwoman's (Holly Ross) adorable face out of my head. "Have you ever heard a digital accordion?...Have you ever read Richard Brautigan?...Have you ever fought a deadly scorpion?" They are the only band I've seen in a long time that could get away with long sessions of banter between songs--everything that came out of this woman's mouth was hilarious, like her description of her bandmate/partner David's compulsive collecting.

Athens, Georgia-based indie shock-pop freaks Cars Can Be Blue (Myspace here) were touring along with the Eggs. They started off with a song whose chorus spelled out D-E-E-P-D-I-C-K-I-N-G. Hilarious shit. Others were "Hey Hippie" and the dangerously catchy "Dirty Song": "We've been holding hands now for quite long enough...You can sodomize me, get behind and ride me, stuff your cock inside me, proceed to fuck me blindly," etc. ...and this girl (Becky Brooks) looks like a nerdy librarian. Ha! Brilliant.

(Photo of Cars Can Be Blue by Richard Hamm. See his website here.)


The last band to play was Greensboro's Rough Hands (Myspace here), who are somewhat similar and perfectly complementary to Pinche Gringo, but a bit more polished and, of course, more like a band than a guy who can do three things at once. Although they rule, by the time they started playing, we felt rather glutted on good music and were tired. So, after two songs or so, it was off to bed with us.

Anyhow, you should check out all of these bands. For your listening pleasure, I have added songs by some of them (along with a track by Ahleuchatistas, yee haw) posted up in the widget on the top right. They will live there for the next few days/weeks.