No Age, live @ Six D.O.G.S (Athens, April 28, 2011)

As the buzzing in my ears finally subsides, let’s take a look at some of the best photos we were able to capture right at the forefront of the mosh pit of the packed Six D.O.G.S club where No Age played their first ever Athens show on Thursday with support from local acts Monovine and Zebra Tracks.

The LA noisemakers brought the house down with an ear-splittingly loud 80-minute set which was based mainly on their last two albums, "Nouns" and "Everything In Between". The mustache-sporting punk duo of guitarist Randy Randall and drummer/vocalist Dean Allen Spunt was augmented to a trio with the addition of another mustachioed member handling the samplers and adding a third layer of noise to the proceedings. Dean’s voice was almost inaudible, buried beneath Randy’s thick guitar fuzz and his own thunderous drumming, but what was lost in sound subtlety was more than made up for through the euphoric energy that the band emitted from the tiny stage. No Age is channeling the original punk spirit of great bands of the '80s US underground like Husker Du and Black Flag (a cover of the latter’s "Six Pack" was the highlight of the set’s encore while, if I’m not mistaken, they also performed the former’s "Green Eyes" or something that sounds a lot like it) and as last year’s "Everything In Between" proved, they are perfectly capable of creating their own future classics that could serve as an inspiration for the next generations of punk disciples. The explosive live renditions of tracks like "Fever Dreaming", "Depletion" or "Glitter" just adds more weight to this theory.

 

 

Set list: Life Prowler, Teen Creeps, You're A Target, Every Artist Needs a Tragedy, Fever Dreaming, Depletion, Common Heat, Losing Feeling, Cappo, Glitter, Valley Hump Crash, Eraser, Brain Burner, Chem Trais, Sleeper Hold, Shed and Transcend, Miner, Six Pack, Ripped Knees

No Age and loyal dog fan on the stage of 6 D.O.G.S (Athens, April 28, 2011)

The night of blissful guitar shredding and punk noise started with energetic sets by Zebra Tracks and Monovine.

Zebra Tracks, live@6 D.O.G.S (Athens, April 28, 2011)

Zebra Tracks, who recently stirred international interest with their free new EP featuring "Bicycles" and "Isabelle Creeps", the two tracks that bookended their performance (which you can download from here), are influenced by the funk-punk of Gang Of Four and like to spike their pop melodies with copious amounts of guitar distortion. Despite the shoegaze elements of their sound, their on-stage presence was very animated (no staring of the shoes whatsoever) despite the fact that it's not easy to fit five guys on the tiny stage of Six D.O.G.S.

Monovine, live@6 D.O.G.S (Athens, April 28, 2011)

Monovine sounds like the type of band who could be discussing backstage with No Age about their favorite North-West American groups from the late '80s - early '90s. The grunge era has certainly left its mark to the power trio’s music while the genre’s loud-quiet-loud dynamic is put to good use in several of their tracks (listen to them here). Certainly a good fit to a night of loud guitar noise and thunderous drum bashing!

No Age - Depletion, live @6 D.O.G.S (Athens, April 28, 2011)

R.I.P. Poly Styrene

A truly unique talent is no longer with us - Poly Styrene, aka Marianne Elliot-Said, has moved on to higher places this Monday. Let's remember one of the highlights of her music career, the single "Oh Bondage! Up Yours!" by the legendary X-Ray Spex - one of the greatest tracks of the punk era. It is followed by the recent single "Virtual Boyfriend" from her last album "Generation Indigo".

X-Ray Spex - Oh Bondage! Up Yours!

Poly Styrene - Virtual Boyfriend

1981: Top 50 Singles

After completing the presentation of the lists with all of our favorite albums from the late '70s to the present date in Cool Music Database, I have recently started a new monthly series of posts there with our Top 50 Singles from each year, starting with 1980 last month. The latest list with our selections for 1981 can be found here and, thanks to this nifty Grooveshark widget, can also be streamed below:

Check out also below The Gun Glub giving a killer performance of our Top 1981 tune "Sex Beat", taken from the Cherry Red "Psycho Cats" DVD: 

The Gun Club - Sex Beat (live)

And since Blurt's obscure but excellent single "The Fish Needs a Bike" is the only track missing from the widget (it's replaced by The Replacement's first 7" "I'm in Trouble", a perfectly formed punk ditty that prepared us for the greater things that were to come from them), hear it below in all its glorious madness:

 Blurt - The Fish Needs A Bike

Stream Anna Calvi's show at Le Trianon, Paris

An Easter present for Anna Calvi's fans - her amazing performance at Le Trianon in Paris on April 22 is streaming in its entirety on Arte Live Web - check it out here:

The Twilight Singers, live @ Gagarin 205 (Athens, April 15, 2011)

As I've mentioned before, April is shaping up to be a pretty great month for live music in Athens. After fine shows from Black Mountain, Motorama and Swans, last Friday we had the opportunity to catch up with Greg Dulli, a frequent visitor to our city in recent years. In the three years of the C.M.C. blog, we have covered his two previous visits here - the electrifying 2008 gig with The Gutter Twins as well as the fine acoustic evening with Mark Lanegan the following year (check 'em out here and here respectively). Now it was the turn of The Twilight Singers to roll into town and offer an 80-minute "best of" performance with a slight emphasis on their latest effort, "Dynamite Steps".

For a full review of the night, you can click here to read alegra's recollections. Check out below a few more of our photos, the video for "Teenage Wristband" plus the full set list:

Last Night In Town, Fat City, Beginning Of The End, I'm Ready, She Was Stolen, Don't Call (Desire cover), Too Tough To Die (Martina Topley-Bird cover), All of the Lights (Kanye West cover), Love, Annie Mae, King Only, Bonnie Brae, Teenage Wristband, Candy Cane Crawl, Never Seen No Devil, On The Corner.

Encore: The Killer, Gunshots, Underneath the Waves.

The Twilight Singers - Teenage Wristband, live @ Gagarin 205 (Athens, April 15, 2011)

Swans, live @ Gagarin 205 (Athens, April 14, 2011)

After the declaration at the start of last year that “Swans are not dead”, Michael Gira proceeded with the resurrection of his legendary no-wave outfit and released the excellent “My Father Will Guide Me up a Rope to the Sky”, Swans’ first studio album in 14 years. The resulting tour brought Gira’s avant-garde noise orchestra for the first time in Athens and for two-hours last Thursday we were too guided up to the Sky by the power of their sweeping, body- destroying sound.

Swans’ wall of uplifting noise is built methodically, layer upon layer, and the live presentation of the epic “No Words/No Thoughts”, the 10-minute opening track of their new album which transforms into an astonishing 30-minute plus noise saga in their live set, is a good example of how the band operates. An insistent drone kicked off before any of the band members took to the stage, laying the foundations of the sonic structure. As each musician came on, a new layer of sound was introduced and the noise wave started to build momentum. Philip Puleo provided the thunderous drums, Thor Harris added bells and all kinds of crushing percussive noise, Cristoph Hahn made his lap steel sound like an air-raid siren,  Chris Pavdica put in the ominous bass layers and finally Norman Westberg (the longest serving Swans crew member) and the band’s conductor, Michael Gira, came onstage adding their howling guitars to the mix. When Gira eventually stepped up to the mic and started intoning the first verses of the track (“See that man - ego, inner man - hollow…”), the over-wound spring finally uncoiled and all the built-up tension was released in an all-consuming rock explosion.

The ritual continued in a similar pattern, with walls of intricate white noise giving way to dark, ominous melodies as Gira’s imposing voice recited his ferocious gospel. The set was based on new material including the unreleased “Avatar”, along with a few necessary additions from the band’s influential past (“Sex, God, Sex”, “I Crawled”). From their last album, Swans also performed “Jim” and “Eden Prison”, while “Little Mouth” was kept for the encore, with Gira’s naked, thunderous voice providing the catharsis of the show.

 

Swans, live@Gagarin 205, Athens (April 14, 2011)

Motorama, live @ An Club (Athens, April 4, 2011)

25 years on, the spirit of C86 is alive and well and is spreading among the Russian youth as well. Motorama is a five-piece from Rostov-on-Don, Russia that excels in '80s-influenced post-punk and twee-pop music. Last year they released their debut album "Alps", a record that made quite an impression to the Greek alternative crowd, resulting in their first ever visit to these parts for a brief tour that started in Athens and also included gigs in Patra and Thessaloniki. The photos and the video of "Lantern" that you can check out below are from their pleasurable Athens show with Victory Collapse at An Club last Monday - nostalgic indie-pop guitar fun '80s style with a brief foray into the '90s for a cover of The Flaming Lips' "Race For The Prize":

Motorama - Lantern, live @ An Club (Athens, April 4, 2011)

Set list (as seen here): Normandy, Ghost, Warm Eyelids, Lantern, Compass, Wind In Her Hair, One Moment, Echoes, Alps, There's No Hunters, Seventeen, Bear, Race For The Prize

Find out more about Motorama here.

New Releases : March 2011

Round up of the most interesting albums and singles released in March 2011:

Albums

THE STROKES - Angles
THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART - Belong
R.E.M. - Collapse Into Now
THE DEARS - Degeneration Street
RELIGIOUS TO DAMN - Glass Prayer
ELEVENTH DREAM DAY - Riot Now!
OBITS - Moody Standard and Poor
KURT VILE - Smoke Ring for My Halo
DIRTY BEACHES - Badlands
THE NAKED AND FAMOUS - Passive Me, Aggressive You
THE VACCINES - What Did You Expect From The Vaccines
BUFFALO TOM - Skins
J MASCIS - Several Shades Of Why
MIKE WATT - Hyphenated-Man
POLY STYRENE - Generation Indigo
RIVAL SCHOOLS - Pedals
RAEKWON - Shaolin vs Wu Tang
LUPE FIASCO - Lasers
ELBOW - Build A Rocket Boys!
NOAH & THE WHALE - Last Night On Earth
ERLAND & THE CARNIVAL - Nightingale
PETER BJORN AND JOHN - Gimme Some
THE DODOS - No Color
MOUNTAIN GOATS - All Eternals Deck
THE BASEBALL PROJECT - Volume 2: High and Inside
MATTHEW FRIEDBERGER - Meet Me in Miramas
CORNERSHOP feat. BUBBLEY KAUR - Cornershop And The Double 'O' Groove
RISE AGAINST - Endgame
THE BELLRAYS - Black Lightning
EXENE CERNENKA - The Excitement Of Maybe
DAVID DONDERO - A Pre-Existing Condition
MORNING TELEPORTATION - Expanding Anyway
PARTS & LABOR - Constant Future
HYGIENE - Public Sector
TEEPEE - Morals (free download)
SAY HI - Um, uh oh
DATAROCK - Music for Synchronization
MUSHY - Faded Heart
THE RURAL ALBERTA ADVANTAGE - Departing
THOSE DANCING DAYS - Daydreams and Nightmares

Singles & EPs

ANNA CALVI - Blackout
R.E.M. - Uberlin
THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART - Belong
CRYSTAL STILTS - Through The Floor
THOM YORKE / BURIAL / FOUR TET - Ego / Mirror
THE NATIONAL - Conversation 16
ARCADE FIRE - City With No Children
GRINDERMAN - Palaces of Montezuma
FOO FIGHTERS - Rope
THE VACCINES - If You Wanna
ALEX TURNER - Submarine EP
BROKEN BELLS - Meyrin Fields EP
THE NAKED AND FAMOUS - Young Blood
BURIAL - Street halo
FUJIYA & MIYAGI - Sixteen Shades Of Black & Blue
LADYTRON - Ace Of Hz
PANDA BEAR - Surfer's Hymn
CROCODILES - Mirrors
TAME IMPALA - Why Won't You Make Up Your Mind
FRIENDS - Friend crush
CLOUD CONTROL - There’s Nothing In The Water We Can’t Fight
BONNIE "PRINCE" BILLY & THE CAIRO GANG - Island Brothers
OKKERVIL RIVER - Wake & Be Fine / Weave Room Blues
PAPERCUTS - Do What You Will
STANDARD FARE - Suitcase
RIVAL SCHOOLS - Wring It Out
CAGE THE ELEPHANT - Shake Me Down
THE PRIMITIVES - Never Kill A Secret EP
EDWYN COLLINS feat. THE DRUMS - In Your Eyes
ELBOW - Neat Little Rows
GLASVEGAS - Euphoria, Take My Hand
CUT COPY - Sun God
ACTRESS - Harrier Attk / Gershwin
TERROR BIRD - Outside / When I Woke Up
JAMES BLAKE - The Wilhelm Scream
DIMBLEBY AND CAPPER - Let You Go
ANOMIE BELLE - How Can I Be Sure
THOSE DANCING DAYS - I'll Be Yours
PATRICK WOLF - The City 
DATAROCK - Catcher in the Rye
SCUMBAG PHILOSOPHER - Scumbag Philosopher
EXPOSED BY OBSERVERS - Fake Stories 3

And here’s one of the most enjoyable (and naughty) videos that made its premier in March: "Two Girls" is taken from the recently released album "Colour Trip" by Texan neo-shoegazers Ringo Deathstarr and makes the sort of sexy noise that will make My Bloody Valentine proud - a bit like Lush used to sound circa 1990.

Ringo Deathstarr - Two Girls (NSFW)

Black Mountain, live @ Gagarin 205 (Athens, April 1st, 2011)

After a dry spell, April looks like it’s going to be a great month for live music in Athens. In the next few weeks we’re expecting shows by Swans, Twilight Singers and No Age among others, while the month started spectacularly with the first ever Black Mountain gig in Greece.

The Canadian psychedelic rockers took over the controls of the Gagarin 205 sound-ship and led us on a journey beyond time, in a land where the spirit of pure rock reigns supreme. Their last two albums, 2010’s "Wilderness Heart" which expertly mixed heavy '70s rock with folk and blues influences and 2008’s more psychedelic and spaced-out "In the Future", had an equal share in shaping up the evening’s terrific set list.

Black Mountain's Amber Webber and Stephen McBean (Athens, April 1st, 2011)

The trip started out with the driving, heavy grooves of "Wilderness Heart"’s title track and "In the Future"’s "Evil Ways", and hit an early high with two of the band’s best tracks played back-to-back, the majestic "Old Fangs" and the entrancing space-rock of "Wucan". Other highlights of Black Mountain’s dynamic 90-minute set included Amber Webber’s imposing vocal performance in "Queens Will Play", Stephen McBean’s raging guitar in the astonishing "Let Spirits Ride", the storming "Stormy High", the roller-coaster ride of new single "Rollercoaster" and "The Hair Song" with its great vocal interplay between Amber and Stephen. The band’s eponymous debut album from 2005 was not forgotten and it provided no less than three of its outstanding tracks, the anti-war "Set Us Free", the playfully funky, mind-freeing "Druganaut" and the show’s epic closer "Don't Run Our Hearts Around".

This definitely wasn’t an April Fools’ Day joke but one of the best rock shows we’ve seen here for quite a while - a truly great performance that both the audience and the band hope it will be repeated sometime in the near future.

Black Mountain, live @ Gagarin 205

Black Mountain - Old Fangs, live@Gagarin 205 (April 1st, 2011)

Black Mountain - Druganaut, live@Gagarin 205 (April 1st, 2011)