You never know what you’re going to get with Canadians.
Sometimes you’ll get surprises in the form of the Japandroids, Crystal Castles,
and yes even Drake; I’m sorry Snow but you only get honorable mention at this
point. But then you also get terrible bands like The Tea Party and the Doldrums. Or you're stuck watching Owen
Pallett make out with the lead singer of Grizzly Bear on stage. I wasn’t
quite prepared for this but my friend informed me that the Bear lead had
officially come out and that Pallett may be his lover. I guess it’s possible, Pallett has been known to play Final Fantasy and dress in character for said game. I
just wish I was given a heads up so I could be prepared to see male on male
action while drinking my tall boy of Tecate. It was like being exposed to Peter
North’s earlier work for the first time all over again. (shuttering) Let’s just
move on.
So I show up early for the rave that is a Crystal Castles
show in order to finally check out the Doldrums. I kept hearing about them
during SXSW and wanted to see if they had more than the two OK songs I heard
online. Thankfully I never got around to seeing them because they ended up
being like the poor girls in Peter North’s movies; just an awful awful white mess!
They are the quintessential “we got
drunk in college one night and decided to form an awful band” band that somehow
got lucky and ended up opening for the Castles. Their lead singer was wearing an
oversized pseudo pirate shirt that the curly haired scrub in Color Me Badd wore
(how many 90’s references can I fit in this post?). They have no concept of
timing and this is mainly because their drummer was quite possibly the worst
drummer I have ever seen. Even when they
would luck up with a good beat, they would screw it up and totally kill
the momentum they had built. And I don’t know if the lead singer was supposed to
sound like an orca when he sang but…Anyway, these guys are really WEAK and if
you decide that you like them in spite of this rating, do yourself a favor and
stick to their recorded stuff as it covers up their flaws.
If you are 50 years old and have never heard of Crystal
Castles, check out my preview here.
But if you are still a part of the land of the living, then
you know that Alice is crazy and this suits their style of music perfectly. They
opened up with Plague, Baptism, and Suffocation; wasting absolutely no time in
getting the party started. They had an excellent light show but nothing too
over the top to distract you from the music or kept you from dancing. Alice brought
her normal crazy energy and repeatedly jumped in the crowd screaming her lyrics
as she stood on the waiting hands of her fans. They played close to a two hour
set and everyone seemed to be hooking up with someone by the time they played
Not In Love, quite fitting actually. I rate this show as TIGHT and definitely suggest
that you pop in.
The band I want to preview today is Diiv. They are four 8
year olds who play dream pop/indie music. I keep wanting to hate on them
because I don’t think that this retro eighties gender bending music has staying
power but the more I listen to it, the more I find myself dancing. I don’t know if that’s my strange love for
Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs or if they are really that good. They
are Zach Smith’s (Beach Fossils) side
project and are quickly making a name
for themselves. If this is the first time you've ever heard anything about them, check out their song Doused as it reminds me of a few Bloc Party cuts. Home and Wait are few additional songs that will have you tucking your male genitalia in no time as well. There was a quite a bit buzz about these kids from their shows
at SXSW and I definitely plan on checking them out next time they roll through.
I can’t rate them as fresh because if I told some dude in the hood about them, the
chances of me getting pimp slapped with baby powder are pretty high! So based
off of that, they get a rating of barely WEAK but I like them.
Late to this party but YES!! I love Diiv so much - Oshin was one of my top ten albums of 2012. And I think we might be disagreeing on the 80s retro gender bending thing because Cold Cave, A Place to Bury Strangers and Foals..just to name a few. They're all bringing the 80s back, baby.
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