Dem Passwords, a sort of underground contemporary art space I had a hard time to find (the address says Santa Monica boulevard but there is no entrance on Santa Monica) hosts live shows, and Saturday night, 4 bands played short sets at this intriguing new venue. Things were supposed to start around 8 pm, although there was almost nobody at that time when I finally found the entrance in a back alley, downstairs of some building.
The first band was the collaborating duo between Bridgetown Records label owner Kevin Greenspon and Nicole Kidman, who had, of course, nothing to do with Tom Cruise’s ex, since this Nicole is not even a girl.
http://www.myspace.com/jonbarba
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DwXzdMHdic
Their set was very short but they had spread on the floor for the occasion balloons, lights and candies giving a sort of party ambiance. Nicole Kidman (Jon Barba) played a wobbling Yahama organ while singing with a hurting and high-pitched voice while Kevin’s fuzzy and atmospheric guitar filled the space left over.
The result made me think right away about Daniel Johnston, because of some sort of innocence coming from the music, but especially because of Kidman’s fragile, shaky and crying voice, there was something so unusual and a little silly at the same time, but moving nevertheless. Too bad it was so short.
On a side note, Jon Barba is curiously a huge fan of Miley Cirus, so why the Nicole Kidman thing?
You can listen to ‘Already dead’ here:
The next set was by Batwings Catwings, a sort of psychedelic punk band energized by Dana’s shouted monochord vocals. They played in complete darkness and rocked out the crowd, which began to feel completely unrestrained, started moving, dancing, and began to heat up tremendously this basement room. It is jumping-dancing new-wave music, very chaotic live, with a punk attitude and dark bass lines. People seemed to enjoy them a lot, and I actually did too.
Then came Cloud Nothings from Cleveland, signed on Bridgetown Records, a very young band (they are around 19) consisting of Dylan Baldi, TJ Duke, Jayson Gerycz, and Joe Boyer, four cool kids, as one of their songs says, who played a very energetic set of power pop songs, with a punk twist. They had loud guitars but you could still listen to some gentle and poppy hooks buried in the big sounds the four of them were making in this relatively small space.
‘Didn’t You’ had this catchy fast echoic oo-oo-oo-oo chorus, impossible to describe, but instantaneously in your head for the rest of the day as soon as you hear it. They played as fast as they were young, injecting harmonies and hooks in their punk-pop.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjHsQLEro1o
The evening ended up with Kilt, a noise electronic duo who was making eardrum-piercing noises and abrasive sounds with layers and layers of what it seems to be industrial or unknown aircraft vibrations, sometimes accompanied by light flute completely buried in this density of improvised (are they?) cacophonic detonations. I left before the end of their set since I did not want to become deafer than I am already.
Editor’s Note: It was me who sicced Alyson onto this gig. I have been a huge fan of Bridgetown Records after watching Cloud Nothings being first on a four band bill opening for Titus Andronicus. The other two in the middle while cooler at the time (one was a Vivian Girls other band) they weren’t very good. This summer they opened for Wavves -another band i love. Anyway, Kevin Greenspon, the owner of Bridgetown records, thanked me for the post and he has sent me his solo stuff from time to time since…. sometimes in demo form!! I first heard the great “Post Life” in demo form. So I am sick as dog to be in nyc and Alyson got to see what sounds like a great night. Plus, Alyson immediately goes to the top of the class of hippest High School teachers .
