Blonde Redhead: Still Noisy After All These Years

BLONDE REDHEAD

THE MAST

SOHO, SANTA BARBARA

05 SEPTEMBER, 2013

Tuning up for the inaugural LaunchFest in Sacramento, NY experimental indie-rock vets Blonde Redhead found time to visit Santa Barbara, fitting in a night at Soho. Hard to believe that it's coming up on 20 years for the band, the core trio of Kazu Mikino, Simone and Amedeo Pace still sound as playful and lively as ever. Even as their albums have gotten more sophisticated, the live show remains a rocking affair, with keyboards present on the stage, but more often they just fall back on guitar, bass, and drums. They gave a whirlwind tour through their catalogue, and thrilled a standing-room crowd.
For the uninitiated, their back catalogue is an embarassment of riches, and where to jump in depends firmly on your sonic leanings, given their evolution. Penny Sparkle is their most recent, but 23 or Misery Is A Butterfly will prove equally valid places to jump in for their more polished work. If noise is your game, start back with Fake Can Be Just As Good.

The Mast, an electro duo from NYC, brought along by Blonde Redhead for the west coast dates, acquitted themselves well with an intoxicating combination of beats and trippily layered vocals. "Temptation", and the tunes immediately before and after were the heart of the set. Their forthcoming album will be entitled Pleasure Island, and it's set for release as soon as they finalize label details.

Surfer Blood at Muddy Waters

SURFER BLOOD/GRAND RAPIDS

MUDDY WATERS, SANTA BARBARA, CA

27 FEBRUARY, 2013

Surfer Blood

Every now and then the stars align,and you stumble into a show that's too good to be true. In this case, the blessed event was Florida's Surfer Blood, supported by NY's Grand Rapids, in the cozy confines of Muddy Waters in Santa Barbara. Don't even want to guess at capacity, but the coffeehouse on Haley St. was packed to the gills for this sold out show, and Surfer Blood went above and beyond the call of duty, shrugging off a recent equipment heist to deliver the goods. Grand Rapids kicked things off with a thoroughly charming set, making plenty of new friends along the way. Surfer Blood then proceeded to slam their way through a raucous set, enlivened by frontman John Paul Pitts mid-set relocation on and behind the bar. Top flight band in a tiny venue-truly a memorable night.

Surfer Blood

Surfer Blood

Surfer Blood

Surfer Blood

Surfer Blood

working the bar...(Surfer Blood)

sing along time...(Surfer Blood)

sharing with the bartender (Surfer Blood)

Grand Rapids

Grand Rapids

Grand Rapids

Graduation Time: Other Lives Headlines

OTHER LIVES

INDIANS

SOHO, SANTA BARBARA

02 NOVEMBER, 2012

 After a series of high profile opening slots for Bon Iver and Radiohead, Other Lives has hit the road for their first headlining tour.  Through the good offices of Club Mercy, they ended up at Soho in Santa Barbara, and delivered a winning performance, despite technical issues.  The Mac that they ran all their effects through picked this, of all evenings, to go south after seeing them through 200 gigs. 
They seemed to take it harder than the audience, and more than made up for it in the energy department.  To go forward, they ended up throwing over a very distinctive lighting setup of bare bulbs.  The lighting can be seen in the video of "Dark Horse", (below), from their 2011 LP, Tamer Animals.  As well as that album, they mined their brand new EP, Mind The Gap, released just weeks ago, and featuring an Atoms For Peace remix, as well as "Take Us Alive", one of the strongest performances of the evening.  Marking their tenth anniversary of making music together, the band will be mostly sequestered in the studio making their next move, aside from a few one-off dates.

Soren Lokke Juul from Copenhagen performs under the name of Indians, and he established a moody ambience with keyboards in the first few tunes before switching over to guitar.  Hushing the usually noisy Soho, (especially on a weekend evening), is no small feat for a headliner, let alone an opener.  While Indians is a band, tonight it was him, and having just signed with 4AD, the debut LP, Somewhere Else, is scheduled for early 2013.  Charming first single, "Cakelakers", is due out in a few weeks, and can be viewed below.

(more Other Lives photos)

Cleared For Takeoff: Jason Lytle live

JASON LYTLE

SEA OF BEES

SOHO, SANTA BARBARA

21 OCTOBER, 2012

 Soho Santa Barbara, in conjunction with Club Mercy, rose to the occasion for a second straight night, with the appearance of Jason Lytle.  After a packed, and rather vocal, house for Beth Orton the previous night, this show was criminally ill-attended, and it was totally their loss.  Lytle seemed to dispense with a set list, making it up as he went, and pulled off what turned out to be a very special night.  The maximum number of people I counted over the course of the night was 18, but they were blessed, as Lytle gave stunning renditions of tracks from his brand new LP, Dept. Of Disappearance, the previous Yours Truly, The Commuter, as well as grabbing Grandaddy tracks from his past, and throwing in a breathtaking, (and relevant), cover of the Beach Boys "In My Room".  It was nice to finally see Grandaddy back in August, and lay that particular ghost to rest.  Grandaddy favorites included "Jed's Other Poem (Beautiful Ground)" and "Underneath The Weeping Willow" from Sophtware Slump, as well as "I'm On Standby" from Sumday.  Working with only one other player, he worked on guitar and keyboards, occasionally switching off to a piano.
To see Lytle unleash one of his finest works, and then see it performed in a small club is the veritable frosting on the cake.  Rather then dwell on the town folk who couldn't get up off it for this show, I'd rather shine a light on the two youngsters who drove all the way up from LA just for this!  Hopefully, their memories of the show rival mine.  One of the benefits of the sparse turnout, however, was the ability to curl up at the foot of the stage, and when Lytle's keyboards were at full burble, it was like being inside your own spaceship. 

Opening the show, and setting the tone for the whole evening with a heartfelt performance in front of even less people, was Sea Of Bees.  The Sacramento based project is masterminded by multi-instrumentalist Jules, and onstage was joined by Amber for thrilling harmonies.  "Gone" and "Take" from the current LP, Orangefarben were the highlights of the night.  Next up for them is a trip to the U.K.

 Jason Lytle: Dept. Of Disappearance-out now on Anti-

Sea Of Bees: Orangefarben-out now on Team Love

Lytle/Sea Of Bees split 45 is available for pre-order here

It will be released 11/23 for Record Store Day's 2012 Black Friday Celebration-

There's only 500, so you might not want to sleep on it