More like The Awesome! Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get down to business. I recognized at least a couple of these guys from Harry & The Hitmen, the most technically accomplished and interesting Santa Cruz jam band that I never really cared for. I’ve never been a jam band kind of guy, I’m more interested in what would it would sound like if you tried to play the Fibonacci sequence on a Guitar Hero controller, but that’s my personal struggle. In fact, why am I even writing about music?!?

The Terrible! carries over a lot of the, well, the cred from H&TH, the precision and the fluidity and the soul, and then makes it more… apocalyptic. It’s still precise but it’s extremely discordant at the same time, with a healthy smattering of epic guitar wheedling over a nice solid doom-y bass line. I think it’s how the Pixies would sound if they all at the same time discovered that their families had been murdered. It’s the kind of music I would want to be listening to on an elevator on the way to the 88th floor of an office building to face off with my arch-nemesis who has made a name for himself in the world of organized crime and is also quite good with throwing knives. I back it.

Ethan James

My first thought when Nan Miller started singing was “Oh my God! That guy has a setting on his microphone that makes him sound like M. Ward!” It was just one of those little half-egg-shaped deals, but I thought what with technology being what it is and all that I just might have stumbled onto something ground-breaking. I still think that would be a good idea (patent pending, motherfuckers) but once the song was over and he paused to say something cute back to the giggling audience sitting cross-legged in a semi-circle around him, I realized that it was just a normal mike. There was a little reverb on it or whatever, but it was really all his doing.

This turn of events inspired dueling emotions. On the one hand, I was excited that his voice really is that silky and ethereal and nuanced. On the other, I was pretty bummed because my dreams of sounding like M. Ward are apparently much farther away than a special order at The Starving Musician. Nan went on to give us several more soulful, heart-string-intensive ballads in addition to a very nice Leonard Cohen cover that I didn’t recognize. Make yourselves easier to find on Myspace, people, all of this arduous fact-finding has delayed my trip to Safeway too long already. I found myself quite entranced, and the crowd gobbled it right up. They did, however, call out several songs by name, not to mention some anecdote from Nan’s past, so I’m going to go ahead and file them under “biased”.

In summation, I can’t be 100% sure who Nan Miller looks to for influence, once again because of the no Myspace thing, but I’d wager we’re looking at a roster of folk-rock legends and iconic singer/songwriters like Cohen and Dylan and all the usual suspects. Presupposing this, I’d say he’s done a very studious and successful job of emulating these heroes. That’s both a compliment and a criticism in a sense, but it’s a lot more of the former.

Ethan James

two shows. one street. one night.

On October 25th at around 8:00 PM two shows started. One at 418 Cedar St. and the other at 320 Cedar. At 418 Cedar stands the cafe we all know too well, Pergolesi. And at 320 Cedar the best vinyl shop in the county, Metamusic. Because some of us here at VITAMINC4 can never make up our minds and are incapable of doing anything alone, both Ethan and I decided we would cover the two shows at the same time, together. Here’s my take on the two very different shows- One being a sort of casio-drone-folky-improv-noise show and the other, well i guess a rock show. That sounds so cheesy though, “So we went to this rock show.” Saying that kind of makes me cringe. Eh.

So I went to this rock show as well. Parts of it, anyway. Together, Hiram and I will weave for you a tapestry of words more intricate and beautiful than the finest-spun threads of a silkworm’s chrysalis.

Quantum Visionary @ Pergolesi

Okay, let’s get bunch of kids together that all hate each others taste in music. Let’s make them agree to start a band and find some sort of common ground where every band that any of these kids ever liked, would wage war against one another in an epic battle for glory in the context of one song. Whoa. These guys have no filter. Awesome. Imagine taking a song from every genre in your iTunes library, burning a mix cd of it, then throwing it a blender, hitting the button that’s labeled “LIQUIFY” and screaming over the loud crunching noise of your (or your house mate’s) blender breaking. I thought it was pretty good.

When your common ground is “rocking the fuck out” it’s kind of hard to go wrong. I think Hiram put this much better than I every could, as I spent at least half of their set trying to figure out who was a bigger moron: me, or the person who designed my new camera. The hearty helping of Coheed & Cambria folded into their omelet is grounded really well by some spontaneous metal licks and a commitment to dance-y how-do-you-like-this-then fun times.

Young Fiction @ METAMUSIC

There’s a lot one can do with six small keyboards, a small selection of electronic children’s toys, a grip of pedals, a guitar and a mic. But it’s the person who decides to do next to nothing with this setup that’s really hot shit. Taking a minimalist approach to overkill, Young Fiction produces a fantastic blend of ambient noise, bright casiotone key notes and coherent vocals and guitar. After he finished his set i booked it over to Pergolesi to catch the next band.

Desa @ Pergolesi
Maybe Ethan has something good to say about this band. I certainly don’t.

So I went on Myspace to get a little refresher on Desa, and ended up hearing a completely different band. Mad props to whoever made those recordings – you have managed to produce a very polished, professional, melodic paint-by-numbers wankfest. As it was, the PBNWF presented to my ears was much less coherent. I would like to give them a second chance, though, as the singer had Bradley Nowell caught in his throat on this particular evening. I’m going to assume he partied too hard the night before.

PC Load Letter @ METAMUSIC

Take Young Fiction’s setup and add a second member and you get something new entirely. I was told that it was all improvised which made it fairly impressive. I even found myself tapping my foot along to nice even tempo, casio drum lines and pretty melodies. I am glad to see someone is picking up where Storm&Stress (the band not the German literary movement Sturm und Drang.) left off. Ian Williams would be proud. But probably not actually. Next!

Desa @ Pergolesi

They are still playing. Seriously, i know most of you used to be in Link 80, but that does not give you the right to annoy the shit out of everyone. You already did that like eight years ago.

I guess my general attitude is that if you’re playing in the back room of a coffee house that doesn’t have anything even resembling a stage, you kind of have to ditch the idea that the show is about YOU. I’m sure Desa is used to playing waaaaaaay bigger gigs, but every one of the other bands that I saw tonight did a much better job of creating an atmosphere where they were sharing their music with the audience, and the audience was happy to host the band as guests in their space. I think this is the sort of give-and-take attitude that kept me from getting tarred & feathered even once while in Supersect, despite the fact that my primary job function was to sweat all over anyone too slow to get out of my way. As it was, power-chord lunges and soulful face-scrunching were not enough to win the heart of this audience member, even after I realized that they had turned the bright blue light enough so that I could take pictures even on “Auto”, which is apparently the most confidence my camera will place in my photographic skills. I guess I can’t really blame it.

Anomie @ METAMUSIC

Drone-tastic! To tell you the truth i don’t really know what happened. I think the wall of tape loops hit me a little harder than i expected and i blacked out. When i woke up i had Cole/Anomie standing over me waving around a homemade bass constructed of cardboard and duct tape, probably thinking about different ways to strategically place himself and his “bass” to get the maximum amount of feedback out of a 10″ by 10″ amp. Did i get it? No. Did i think it was awesome? yes.

This is exactly what I’m talking about. A bunch of folks hanging out while Cole & his deputies scurry around trying to find the scientific combination of loops and noises run through pedals that most effectively sends everyone to their happy place. My favorite part was when he handed two of his cardboard instruments to Matt & Peter so they could noodle with him. I’m not sure whether they knew they would be part of the band beforehand. I like to think not.

This is kind of what it sounded like:

Mtn. Animal Hospital @ Pergolesi

I like these guys more and more every time i see them. Not only are they the biggest bunch of sweet hearts, they are all really good looking. Like “stuck on a desert island and you can pick one band to take with you to keep you company” good looking. Mtn Animal Hospital is soooo cute! I want to squeeze them and never ever stop.

Yeah, I don’t even know what I need to say about Mountain Animal Hospital. They keep writing songs, keep playing tons of shows, and keep getting better and better. They always manage to sound solid no matter what surreal tangent they’re off on. That’s the main thing: each song is fresh and interesting without ever straying into I-guess-I’ll-put-up-with-this-to-hear-that-one-I-like territory. And they had great Christmas lights on the keyboard and stuff. It was really fun.

Yeah, i would do it again…

Hiram Coffee
Ethan James