The Rosebuds W/ Ladybug Transistor@ Bowery Ballroom, May 24th, 2007

Dammit! I forgot my camera... again. It's not like my pictures are that fabulous. But it helps to tell the story and make the reader feel like he/she's really there. Anyway, I'd never seen The Rosebuds before, but I love with their album "Birds Make Good Neighbors" so I thought I would give them a shot live. Also, they were playing with Ladybug Transistor , a band I used to see back in college, and I wanted to see how they've progressed. They used to play a very 60s-ish style of summer pop, and given their line-up change since I've last seen them (less one female organist), they've definitely modernized their style a bit. They had one or two songs that I liked, but a couple of the others failed to capture my interest. Still, if you're a fan of early Of Montreal, The Essex Greene, or The Clientele, you might want to check them out.
Now, with The Rosebuds, I had only heard one album of theirs and so I expected a very lush set of guitar based love songs in the style of Band of Horses, but what i got was completely different. Where did all that disco-pop come from? Apparantly, it's on the new album, which, according to my friend Johnny Beach, is quite excellent. That, and the fact that one of the best songs which they played that night was "off of their first album," proved that I needed to get versed with the full Rosebuds catalog, which I did, by purchasing their first and latest albums after the show. The results: Johnny was right, "Night of the Furies," their latest, is quite a nice record and I recommend it (after 'Birds Make Good Neighbors') as a worthy purchase. I really hope they keep making records and touring, because they definitely have a fun time up there and make good lps.

Incapacitants @ No Fun Fest - The Hook - Brooklyn, May 15th, 2007

Incapacitants, are two bankers from Japan who are regarded as legends in the Noise community. I read an interview with Carlos Giffoni (who booked the fest) and he said that his main goal for this years Festival was to have Incapacitants play, and the entire 4 day Festival was booked around their schedule. They did not disappoint. Their set really began during the 25 minutes while they were setting up their gear. In the background they played an old Japanese movie soundtrack at high volume which really pumped up the crowd and said, "Yes, we are from Japan. And yes, we are about to rock your face off!" It was quite incendiary. When they finally began, you couldn't really tell how they were making those kamikaze sounds (kinda like two guys screaming into their mics, into distortion, into a tape-delay and then fucking with it) but it was driving the crowd crazy... I was talking to Thurston Moore after the show (i bought like 4 records from his merch table) and he said he was blown away by the Incapacitants. Holy shit, that was awesome.

Sissy Spacek @ No Fun Fest - The Hook - Brooklyn, May 15th 2007

Sissy Spacek, is a band from L.A. (and also a hollywood actress) that plays like minute long scream-o punk songs in-between a few minutes of sort of gurgling ambient sounds. They played what seemed like the shortest set of the night, and ended it by just pushing their way through the crowd and walking out of the club (maybe they weren't feeling the vibe of the crowd-- New Yorkers can be tough on LA folk).

Carlos Giffoni @ No Fun Fest - The Hook - Brooklyn, May 15, 2007

Carlos Giffoni actually organized the whole No Fun Fest and I must admit (even though I am only going to the first 2 days of 4) that it has been a remarkable success. I really like the vibe of this festival. First off, there are no corporate banners anywhere to be seen. And all of the merch tables are small, independent record labels, usually run by the artists themselves. Also, no one was there to see just one particular band, and it was packed (sold out all 4 nights) for every performance. Very special indeed. Anyway, Carlos had a whole table full of custom effects running directly into the sound board for a clean, loud, and intense aural experience. He would build layers of sounds, distorted at certain frequencies, then mess with them with the flick of a dial. After his set he opened a very expensive bottle of rum on stage and took a swig to celebrate his success. He earned it.

Raionbashi & Kutzkelina @ No Fun Fest - The Hook - Brooklyn, May 18th 2007

Raionbashi & Kutzkelina, who I think are from Germany, opened their set with this sort of mellow, atmospheric music, and the whole audience couldn't see the band at all because the dude who was making the noise (who had a rad haircut) was on the floor messing with his equipment. Then... TWANG! He hits a switch and the whole room is blanketed with some beautiful screaming fuzz. Then he turns it off, and it's back to the quiet ambient stuff for a little while. Then... TWANG! and back and forth for a little while, fuzz, quiet, fuzz, quiet. And then she (kutzekelina?) steps up to the mic, blows a whistle and the song is over. The rest of the set consisted of her yodeling into the mic (which was different), over the Raionbashi's noise experiments, and it was great, because it's unlike any other music out there.

Anti-freedom @ No Fun Fest - The Hook - Brooklyn, March

Anti-Freedom is more of a punk band than a noise band (although they were making a lot noise, to be accurate). They definitely had more fun on stage than any other band I've seen in a while, and were a joy to watch, very entertaining. My favorite part was when they asked the audience to "Raise your hands if you don't like Freedom!" And of course everybody did.

Mouthus+Axolotl @ No Fun Fest - The Hook - Brooklyn, May 18th, 2007

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One of the best bands of a stellar second night at the No Fun Fest, Mouthus+Axolotl is actually a collaboration of two talented noise heads. Before going on, they all passed around the peace pipe just off stage, so that you knew it was going to be one of those kinds of noise sets. They started off pretty quiet and ambient, but really built up their noise in layers so that there was this huge wall of sound by the end, which was great. If electronic drums, circuit bent keyboards, guitars that sound like basses, and noise-effected violins are your thing, you might like this band... actually, you'll probably like them regardless, if you are stoned.