Esben And The Witch, live @ Six D.O.G.S (Athens, September 27, 2013)

If you're familiar with the two albums released so far by the Brighton, UK, trio Esben And The Witch you might expect an ethereal, gothic atmosphere to their live shows. Surprisingly, as we found out at their first ever Athens gig on Friday, the band favors an all-out sonic attack on stage, bringing their live sound closer to the guitar wall-of-noise of shoegaze.

The dark, chilling melodies of "Wash the Sins Not Only the Face" and "Violet Cries" are still the center of the band's sonic universe, of course, but the guitar takes a much more prominent role on stage, giving tracks like "Marching Song" or "Deathwaltz" a heavier, more rocking live presence.

The harder live sound, however, cannot upstage the band's greatest strength, Rachel Davies' magnificent voice. Alternating between guitar and bass, Davies adds to the sonic mayhem created by guitarist Thomas Fisher and drummer Daniel Copeman, while maintaining a  crystal clear voice, a siren's call that enchants in the midst of Esben And The Witch's sonic tempest.

So, after a shaky start on Wednesday with Iceage who left us wanting for more, the week's unofficial Matador fest came to an end on Friday on a high note. Esben And The Witch's hour-long set also finished without an encore, but as the impressive "Smashed to Pieces in the Still of the Night" was coming to an end, it was obvious that it would be very hard to top it with something else. Check it out below, along with another of the evening's highlights, the band's Matador debut "Marching Song":

Esben and the Witch - Marching Song (live @ Six D.O.G.S)


Esben and the Witch - Smashed To Pieces In The Still Of The Night  (live @ Six D.O.G.S)

Iceage, live @ An Club (Athens, September 25, 2013)

Finale of September's live, indie-rock music marathon of Athens with an unofficial Matador Records' fest. After the Parquet Courts and Beach Fossils well-attended gigs that kicked off this month's unusually busy live schedule, two very different bands that both belong to the current Matador roster paid us a visit and played their first ever gigs in Greece.

The beginning was on Wednesday night at An Club, where Danish hardcore punks Iceage made their Athens' live debut with support from like-minded locals Ruined Families, and the ending, a couple of days later, at Six D.O.G.S with the gothic shoegaze of Esben And The Witch (more on that in our next post).

The sparsely attended Wednesday gig, perhaps the result of the fact that the true punk happenings of the day were happening in the streets of Athens where a huge antifascist demonstration was going on, meant that the atmosphere inside of An Club never got really heated up. Iceage might sound formidable on this year's excellent album "You're Nothing", but on Wednesday night they didn't seem able to reach the same levels of intensity on stage.

"Awake", one of the album's best tracks, is in theory a great choice as a gig opener, but the take-off we were expecting never came and the lack of reaction from the crowd (except for a few at the front) didn't help things either. Forty minutes later, it was all over with "Ecstasy", another "You're Nothing" highlight, but I doubt that anyone was feeling anywhere close to ecstatic at the end of it.

No encore followed, but, thankfully, Wednesday's anticlimax was followed by a very rewarding Friday gig by Esben And The Witch to end this unofficial Matador fest on a high note.

Here's "Awake", the start of Iceage's performance at An Club, as captured by C.M.C.'s camera:

Iceage - Awake, live @ An Club

Beach Fossils, live @ An Club (Athens, September 15, 2013)

And our September live music marathon continues... A week and a half after the frantic, garage-punk grooves of Parquet Courts, An Club was once again filled with some fine, New York guitar noise, this time courtesy of Brooklyn's Beach Fossils who certainly prefer a more melodic, pop-friendly approach. 

Dustin Payseur's songwriting is mainly indebted to '80s UK indiepop and new wave, but on stage his songs take a wilder, more noisy character, closer to punk than the dreamy, lo-fi sound of his recordings.

The highly energetic, 65-minute set with which Beach Fossils made their Athens debut, offered plenty of guitar mayhem and culminated with a passionate, verging on chaotic, extended version of "12 Roses" from their self-titled debut LP. Before the climactic encore, the band presented us a large chunk of "Clash the Truth", their latest album, as well as a few choice cuts from their past including three tracks from the EP "What a Pleasure". It goes without saying... the pleasure was certainly ours!

Beach Fossils, live @ An Club

Beach Fossils - Crashed Out (live @ An Club, Athens)

Beach Fossils played: Calyer, Moments, What a Pleasure, Daydream, Shallow, Generational Synthetic, Taking Off, Youth, The Horse, Careless, Clash The Truth, Burn You Down, Birthday. Encore: Crashed Out, 12 Roses.

Lumiere Brother, live @ An Club

The evening's entertainment started with the enjoyable pop of Lumiere Brother. Playing as a quartet, they started their set with tracks that relied on keyboards, but for the second part Thanasis Christodoulou switched to guitar, taking their sound to a noisier path. Check out Lumiere Brother's new album, "Twenty One", here.

Parquet Courts, live @ An Club (Athens, September 4, 2013)

After a summer without much to report on the live music front, we are expecting quite a lot of action in the coming months in Athens. For the start of this very promising new season, we had the opportunity to enjoy a gig from one of the most exciting new guitar bands to emerge from the New York scene in the last year.

Despite a very limited, vinyl only, release in 2012, the album "Light Up Gold" made Parquet Courts one of the most talked about new bands for indie rock fans who got tired of waiting for The Strokes to get back in shape. With the album's wider release early this year, Parquet Courts' following  began to grow and, as their well-attended Athens gig proved, their name has become known quite far and wide at this moment.

After a rather laid-back start to the proceedings, the four-piece upped their game and very soon almost everybody in the sweaty An Club was in the mood for dancing. Tracks like "Master Of My Craft", "Borrowed Time" (check them out both here), "Careers in Combat" or the epic "Stoned and Starving" that closed their main set, showcased the band's ability to unleash frantic, garage-punk grooves that bring to mind several of our favorite names from the past, but have their own, uniquely idiosyncratic personality.

The over an hour main set was followed by an impromptu encore, but since all their best material was already played, the bonus ten minutes didn't have anything substantial to add to an otherwise excellent performance. Give them time, though, and I'm certain that this band has the chops to build a set list that will slay from start to finish.

Here's perhaps the top moment of Parquet Courts' current set list, the fired up, extended version of "Stoned and Starving":

Parquet Courts - Stoned and Starving (live @ An Club, Athens)

New Releases: July - August 2013

Time for some virtual crate diggin' - here's what you might find if you look in the "New Releases" section of a good record store:

Albums

Loud City Song

JULIA HOLTER - Loud City Song
SPEEDY ORTIZ - Major Arcana
SUPERCHUNK - I Hate Music
GRANT HART - The Argument
NO AGE - An Object
FUCK BUTTONS - Slow Focus
FOREST SWORDS - Engravings
FRANZ FERDINAND - Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action
LAURA VEIRS - Warp and Weft
ALELA DIANE - About Farewell 
CROCODILES - Crimes of Passion 
POP. 1280 - Imps of Perversion
WEEKEND - Jinx
DRENGE - Drenge
THE ICARUS LINE - Slave Vows
TY SEGALL - Sleeper
ROBERT POLLARD - Honey Locust Honky Tonk
JULIANNA BARWICK - Nepenthe
ZOLA JESUS - Versions
SOFT METALS - Lenses
RUN THE JEWELS - Run the Jewels
KANYE WEST - Yeezus
ALUNAGEORGE - Body Music
EDITORS - The Weight Of Your Love
SIX BY SEVEN - Love And Peace And Sympathy
DAVID YOW - Tonight You Look Like A Spider
POND - Hobo Rocket
WHITE HILLS - So You Are... So You'll Be
MEDICINE - To The Happy Few
SCUD MOUNTAIN BOYS - Do You Love The Sun
THE PROPER ORNAMENTS - Waiting For The Summer
THE DODOS - Carrier
DISAPPEARS - Era
DIARRHEA PLANET - I'm Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dreams
DESTRUCTION UNIT - Deep Trip
GOLDEN SUITS - Golden Suits
KING KRULE - 6 Feet Beneath the Moon
EARL SWEATSHIRT - Doris
WASHED OUT - Paracosm
PURE BATHING CULTURE - Moon Tides
IKONIKA - Aerotropolis
MAPS - Vicissitude
LAWRENCE LINDELL - Life is Intelligent

Singles & EPs

Eliza

ANNA CALVI - Eliza
ARCTIC MONKEYS - Do I Wanna Know?
FRANZ FERDINAND - Right Action / Love Illumination
PRIMAL SCREAM - Invisible City
SPEEDY ORTIZ - Tiger Tank (mp3 via stereogum)
P.J. HARVEY - Shaker Aamer (mp3 via soundcloud)
HANNI EL KHATIB - Family / Penny
WIDOWSPEAK - True Believer
PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING - Theme From PSB
THE KNIFE - A Tooth For An Eye
KANYE WEST - Black Skinhead
BLOC PARTY - The Nextwave Sessions EP (Ratchet video)
DRENGE - Backwaters
WEEKEND - Mirror
FIDLAR - Awkward
WOODS - Be All, Be Easy (mp3 via kexp blog)
MAJOR LEAGUES - Endless Drain
SUMMER CAMP - Fresh
ALUNAGEORGE - You Know You Like It
DISCLOSURE - F For You
MAPS - A.M.A.
LOCAL NATIVES - You and I
DEAN WAREHAM - Love is Colder Than death
JOHNNY MARR - New Town Velocity
MILES KANE - Taking Over
DAUGHTER - Youth
ATOMS FOR PEACE - Before Your Very Eyes
ANNIE - The A&R EP
THE BUG - Filthy EP
FUTURE OF THE LEFT - Love Songs For Our Husbands EP
CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH - Little Moments EP
VIVA VIVA - Dead In Yr Tracks EP

Anna Calvi - Eliza