Record Store Day is not complete without some live music, so Amoeba had organized a free show with two bands, E V Kain and Mike Watt and the Secondmen at Space 15Twenty.
E V Kain was a very intense trio with shout-out harmonies and lot of energy especially coming from drummer Jon Sortland. It was a very unexpected trip, complex and dynamic, producing an atypical sound, which looked super complex, going in many directions. The vocals were probably the most familiar part of their very organized and methodical chaos, which seemed to blend math rock with experimentation, jazz, prog rock, and I even got a vague reggae feeling at one point, although it was clear that these guys did not want to belong to any category.
This eclectic trio comes from very diverse horizons, as guitar electrifying Brian Belier is also an hair stylist in San Francisco, and his Population salons promise you to ‘experience the Population lifestyle of music, style, and beauty,… I would say this could explain his great mane of hair. Bassist Jonathan Hischke was in Hella, a noise-math-rock-avant-garde band from Sacramento, whereas drummer Jon Sortland plays drums, bass, keyboard in Broken Bells, with Danger Mouse and James Mercer. And this fascinating combination was producing this moody and propulsive music, poly-rhythmic and even thunderous at times.
Nevertheless, I understood right away why EV Kain had a split EP with Mike Watt, another exclusive split 7” vinyl release for Record Store Day limited to 1,500 copies worldwide, since they seem to follow to the same chaotic experience than bass legend Mike Watt (Minutemen, Firehose, The Stooges)
Mike Watt with his Secondmen precisely started their set with ‘Shit On Me’, the track featured on this 7” split, and then embarked in a unruly set. I have seen him before and I always want to add an S at the end of his last name because of his electrifying energy, and at the same time, he always gives me the impression to be a free man, doing whatever he wants while having the time of his life. Wearing a flannel shirt and a marine anchor around his neck, Mike Watt looks like a man coming from another part of the world,… he told us he had driven from his home in San Pedro, which is certainly another world compared to Hollywood.
The Secondmen have a truly original sound, a bass-organ-drums trio, where do you have heard this before? Their music keeps a punk energy all set-long, with a chaotic structure, borrowing from hardcore, math rock, jazz or whatever they want, following their own rules, or do they even have rules? Organist Pete Mazich was sharing the vocals with Mike and they both had their own screaming-spoken-words style, sometimes going to a very Black-Flag-singer delivery, sometimes more melodic. The sound of the Hammond organ could lead you to think you are going to listen to a soul-R&B revival review but it sure ain’t one, Mazich made the organ howl, Jerry Trebotic displayed his rhythmic drumming and Mike Watt rumbled his bass while making the most comical grins. Pulling his tongue out or making a drunk face, he certainly had the most expressive facial expressions you can see on a musician, as they were almost as wild as the band’s sonic assaults.
At this point, I could tell the audience was mixed, made of old timers punks, probably following Mike’s career since the good old days, and young lookers, part of the usual crowd at Space 15Twenty, the mini-mall which harbors stores like Free People and Urban Outfitters, selling the Bohemian-Coachella look to hipsters. With songs like ‘Shit On Me’, ‘Genius or Lunatic’, ‘Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs’, or ‘Life as a Rehearsal’, Mike Watt and his Secondmen certainly don’t belong to this crowd, or to any crowd as a matter of fact, they are their own chaotic force and play their instruments as if it was their true nature, they were as disarming as Watt’s facial grins, and as free as punk can be.
