cmj: yeasayer, papercuts, black kids

My CMJ Friday was Buzz Band Day, with very mixed results.

Health | Brooklyn Vegan Party | R-Bar

Noise rock that’s musically reminiscent of early Black Dice, only with an exceptional metal drummer, Los Angeles’ Health weren’t anything all that special — they’re exactly what most noise bands sound like/do in this post-Liars/Lightning Bolt/Load Records world, which is mooted all the more by the existence of Battles. Please note that the self-titled album on the site (which is not half-bad) is the only one by these cats; the other is generic indie rock by some other band.

Mika Miko | Brooklyn Vegan Party | R-Bar

Listened rather than saw Mika Miko (the stage area at R-Bar is ridiculously tight), and came away not at all impressed. Started off sounding a bit like the Delta 5 (thumbs up!), but it all got kinda same-y and un-fun.

Photo by Sam Horine

Yeasayer | Brooklyn Vegan Party | R-Bar

One of the primary reasons I went to the BV party was to see Yeasayer, who my pals at Pitchfork had been talking up all week, with weird allusions to Vampire Weekend and 4AD; you could absolutely say I was intrigued. In terms of looks, the band is a weird mix: the singer a mustachioed and handsome hipster; the bassist a big lug in a wife-beater with long hair; the guitarist an Indian dude with long, flowing, Fabio-like locks; the drummer a white dude in a dashiki-kinda shirt.

That same mish-mash of personalities (I only judge books by their covers) is a constant in the music, too. They play an oddball concoction of world beat, indie rock, Genesis and I don’t even know what else. Seeing them in person, I actively disliked it. The drums were too big and hollow sounding, the guitars too clean. But I also seemed to be the only one who wasn’t in love: the crowd was very much with them.

I’ve been listening to their debut single ever since, and I have to admit that I really like it. The album comes out tomorrow, and I’m reluctant to admit that I’m really looking forward to it.

Black Kids | Brooklyn Vegan Party | R-Bar

I didn’t even try to get into the performance room for these guys. The previous night, they played a gig at the Annex on Orchard St., and there was a line running a half-block long to get in to see them. The same was true at R-Bar — throughout the day, R-Bar had been fairly empty, but as 4:30 came closer, it started to get more and more packed with fewer hipsters/CMJ kids and more Industry Muscle. Reports from the Black Kids’ Annex show the night before were pretty poor: not tight, not put together, big disappointment, which seems awfully unfair for a band no one cared enough about to be disappointed by only one week before, but that’s just soooooooo internet, isn’t it? Anyway, I stuck around for three Black Kids songs, and they sounded, well, not-good. All of the reports from the previous gig seemed on point, although the caveat times 100,000,000 is that I wasn’t in the best spot to hear them at all. The EP is still fun regardless, though.

Papercuts | Cakeshop

I ditched Black Kids to catch the Papercuts, who I had been looking forward to all week, at the Cakeshop. Instrumentally, the band did not disappoint: the soft and luscious dreamy feel with more of a country tinge than I had expected. I was with them all the way. But — you could just feel that coming, couldn’t you? — there were problems:

01 On the records, frontman Jason Quever is able to sing very delicately, really coo his songs in an androgynous voice that only heightens the moodiness of his songs. Live, he doesn’t sing that way at all. His voice was pushed and strained, and so much of the texture that makes his songs great was lost; the songs just settled into a generic country-rock feel.

02 There were serious performance issues. Between every song — EVERY SONG — the band (and by the band I primarily mean Quever) tuned, adjusted instruments, etc. It completely killed any and all momentum, as you knew the end of a song meant you’d stand around for a couple of minutes while the band got ready and talked with each other solemnly on stage. And it’s not like anyone was playing hard: it was slow strumming on reverbed guitars! Very frustrating.

And that wrapped up my CMJ. I saw around 30 bands, and of them I would say only three or four were good or better. Not the average I was hoping for, but the effort was worth it.