Day2

Valley of Ashes
2/5 BZ
Cat Power
Double Leopards
DJ Brian Turner

Who said Avant-Garde is French for shit? I think it was that surely old cuss named Johnny Rotten. Anyway, no one here today told these bands. And that is a good thing. Dissonant hubbub does not annoy, even when it is out of tune. You just don’t understand artistic expression.

Today’s line up consisted of three diversified noisemakers that made a lot of pretty racket to varying degrees with instruments of varying degrees, and Cat Power, the singer songwriter who is so feline she couldn’t make a racket if she were a bull in a china shop.

Valley of Ashes

Valley of Ashes started things off. They have about ten members, some who blow on brass instruments and others who play strings and a stand up cello, and still others who fiddle with flutes and stuff. One of the percussionists was worryingly banging on one of those metal gas tanks that attach to an outdoor grill. I hoped it wasn’t loaded.

It was cool how they went from their tune up right into the first tune. It was like having the brown acid at a Phish concert. And right when the trip was becoming unbearable, the song changed shape without stopping and went into the best/worst of the Fugs/Godz.

Serhat Köksal of 2/5 BZ

2/5 B2 was next. He is a one-man gadget technician bringing the sounds of Sonic Boom’s less commercial experiments. When it got going, and it took a while to get there, it was a mish mash of Talvin Singh’s spiritual Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (with lion roars) and Squarepusher’s dark thunderclouds hovering over the Dead Sea.

Cat Power

Cat Power played covers and asked the audience for suggestions. The most memorable were songs by the Stones and the White Stripes. It doesn’t matter that the originals are far superior because Cat Power makes the songs all her own.

The best bit was when Chan leapt from her stool, dropped the guitar and started dancing around like Brittany et al. She was overtly lip-synching to a pre recorded pop song she might or might not have written. Even I couldn’t miss the irony and humor. It was either that, or God forbid, it was a dance remix of one of her tracks and her timing was off.

Double Leopards

Double Leopards = Metal Machine Music. It’s good to see that the spirit of drugged out middle era Lou Reed is still alive in New York City. And I liked the guy with the tie dyed T-shirt and baseball cap who played the cymbal by biting into it.

In between the acts DJ Brian Turner from WFMU filled the voids and more than once I found myself asking, hmm, what is that song? And that is always a good sign of a great DJ. Thanks for keeping us entertained.

This was a day to drop pretensions and give into SOUND. It’s good to hear New York is still dancing to the nefarious noise of its own making.

-McCutcheon
PaxAcidus.com