Stoned Men | Kampfgrounds | Geistheistler | Lechugillas | Drink To Victory | Modern History Duet | Forbes Young Gonzalez/Billington Hart | Zanzibar Snails (Little Guys Warehouse) Since moving to Chicago about eight months ago, I've seen more shows than I can possibly count, and most of them have consisted of bands I'm either not familiar with or barely familiar with playing at DIY spaces for free. It's been pretty fantastic-- off the top of my head, I could probably name 10-20 excellent bands that I hadn't ever heard before seeing them at this or that venue in Chicago, and I can honestly say that I've been more pleasantly surprised by music more often since I've been here than I had in quite a long time back in Texas. In fact, I've seen so much that the thought of writing about some of it has been a bit daunting due to the fact that I still feel like I have a bit to learn about some of these groups before I can speak about them with any kind of intelligence or insight.
The place I've probably frequented the most over the past several months has the Mopery, a cavernous warehouse spot on Milwaukee Ave. in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood. Inhabited by a group of (mostly) ex-Dentonites, including Mike Forbes and Andrew Young, the place has become one of my favorite places to see a show, perhaps ever, and a lot of people in the area seem to agree with me-- at just about any given performance, no matter who is playing, a few hundred people always seem to turn up to see everything from local noisepop girl groups to out of town cold wave to Wolf Eyes side projects. This evening, in addition to an extraordinarily solid Metroplex line up at Little Guys, two Chicago bands consisting of Mopery residents and their close friends will be in the house. Many of you are obviously familiar with the arrestingly intense work of Mike Forbes and Andrew Young from their various Texas based projects, but seeing them develop as Tiger Hatchery, featuring Chicago's Ben Billington on drums, has been quite a treat. Whether blowing your fucking ear drums out with screaching sax and thundering bass or confusing the shit out of punk rock kids with quiet, abstract percussion heavy pieces, Tiger Hatchery is one of the most exciting bands in a city with a lot of exciting bands, and you can catch its various memebers playing in several different projects this evening. Lechugillas, which features former Dentonites Mike Hart and Jason Camacho (as well as Chicago's Bill Satek), is a relatively new group that has quickly developed into a live force-- I caught them at their tour kick off show here in Chicago last week, and they put on one of the loudest and nastiest performances I've seen from anyone in quite some time. With songs that always seem to teeter on the brink of falling apart all together, Lechugillas's rhythm section always keeps you guessing as the group pummels the audience with overwhelming harshness and Hart's fierce vocals. It all works so well together as a whole that it just has to be seen. So stop by this show this evening and/or their performance at Hailey's tomorrow and decide for yourself. This is starting at 7PM roughly, so get over there!
Since we here at WSJR HQ are generally too busy knocking back one dollar buttery nipples at Applebee's happy hour to get the It List up before 6 we decided to do an early post to give you the 411 on an early show happening tonight. If you were lucky enough to make it to the last show held at Little Guys you know it was a not for profit blast, but if you did miss it we have provided a link to a live performance from Denton's own Kampfgrounds . We also sent the guys a couple of questions about the nature of existence to get you all hot and bothered. Hope you enjoy.
FP: Who plays what and who have you played with previous to Kampfgrounds?
Matt: Lucas Dayton plays guitar and sings most of the songs, Thomas Little plays bass and sings the others, and I play the hard-hard drums. Luke was in a free-form-agressive-rock band called Mexican Cops and the vocalist for Last Men. Tom was in a "shitty" scream-o band in highschool and played shadow bass for the Boatlights and said "it was pretty uninspired but the lead singer said we were indie." He also plays bass and guitar in Piccline (coke-rock.) I used to play in a Grateful Dead cover band and with a group called Doyen.
Why don't you ever play real venues? Does no one ask you or do you not care about being famous or making money?
Lucas: We have played almost every show we have been offered. It happens to be that most are in residences, warehouses and basements. People stumble across fame and money like accidents, so if you are going to make a consistent effort at something, you might as well not set limits and expectations that just get in the way. We like to play shows. We will play anywhere. I hope RBar reads this.
What role do you feel the press plays in your success/failure as a band?
Tom: well, not too much, i guess. we got a writeup once from some people at impose magazine (not even sure where exactly they're located, but not here) and they called our demo our "self titled debut ep" , and i guess some people read it. so yeah, basically no impact, aside from our shows getting listed on wsjr, and then reposted on the observer and such. we have good friends that have granted us more "success" than any media thus far. specifically paperstain. them are ƚ ƚ ƚ good god fearin people ƚ ƚ ƚ like you n me.
Tell us about the lineup for Thursday. How did the booking of Little Guys come about?
Matt: Shows at the warehouse are only possible because David works for Little Guys movers. Tiger Hatchery and Lechuguillas are touring from Chicago and they are playing a show at Hailey's on Friday. Members from those groups are playing with us Thursday in Modern History Duet and Forbes Young Gonzales. Luke was in Mexican Cops with Michael Hart who's in Lechuguillas now with some random city boys. David and Justin from Drink to Victory are old friends with those guys too. Forbes, Gonzales, and Young have a release on Paperstain (David and Justin's label). Stoned Men are playing with us too, they are some real down dudes.
How have you seen the DIY scene in Denton change, if at all, these past few years.
Lucas: The house venues have changed addresses or shut down and a new breed of scenester has arrived, one i like to call "the sensitive folkster". I don't know if these types like to rock so much. the jury is deliberating. maybe i would say it is a demographic bifurcation.
Not that we give any validity to the haters, but do you have anything you would like to say to them?
Lucas: Mostly, people have been really nice to us. At least to our faces. We could use some haters and hecklers.
Matt: We had some trouble with a stiff local booking entity some time ago but shows keep falling into our laps. People in bands I have always loved seem to really like our stuff like we were born with a silver spune in our mouth.
Tom: In the case of said stiff local booking entity, the way that it was conveyed back to me indicated that we upset them, with specific mention of feelings being hurt. this would, in fact, make us haters, i suppose. what about that? :/ we've got Sloan our side i think.
Check out Kamfgrounds along with Stoned Men / Drink to Victory / Akkolyte / Modern History Duet /Forbes, Young, and Gonzalez / Gonzalez, Billington, and Hart / Zanzibar Snails today starting at 5pm at Little Guys Movers in Denton. RSVP
Distances (Billy Hassell) This is Where You Live, This is Where I Live, This is Where We Live (Leticia Gomez) Conduit Gallery 1626 C Hi Line Drive, Dallas, TX 75207 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM
This week's main feature is the Anna Nicole Smith's Skyscraper Unfortunately it is not the 4 hour director's cut so to fill the rest of the night out there will be clips from other "bimbo" films.
I am a fan of all incarnations of Human Leauge, even the bizarrely instrumental heavy 2001 comeback Secrets. Without a doubt though my favorite stage in the synth pop giants career is the original Martin Ware, Ian Marsh and of course Phil Oakey lineup. Which just so happens to be finely represented here by this live recording made in 1980 right before the band broke up because of Oakey's handsomeness.
Before recruiting the two femme fatales that would come to define the Human Leauge sound and look, the Leauge was a decidedly darker affair. If you have never heard heir debut Reproduction with it's amazing cover and equally skewed out look on the future of the world's discos you should do so immediately. This collection of songs draws from that album plus the lesser but still danceably harrowing Travelogue. The set also has some rarities/oddities like the cover of Judas Priest's Together we Will Take on the World and the Adrian Wright penned Boys and Girls which was only released much later on a Travelouge re-issue.
I had another album planned for this week but I was reminded of this little gem after thinking about one of my local favorites DarktownStrutters. They both share a dark and menacing take on dance pop that I wish more artist would explore. Grooving is much more fun when it's to the optimistic back beat of the apocalypse.
