Plum City Jerks

Rough and Gruff music reviews of Cleveland's best bands, some shitty ones people like anyway, and the acts they open for.

[plumcityjerks]

Why Did No One Listen to Wombs?

Seriously though, what the hell? Wombs is one of the weirdest and best bands to come out of this town, but no one really remembers them. Was it because they were overshadowed by Cloud Nothings, since half the band was in that band too? Did the main auteur decide he was going to give up music and pursue making videos? Does Cleveland just not like weird stuff as much as it says? The answer to all three is yes.

Rewind back about 5 years in the Cleveland music scene and you still have Herzog, Shitbox Jimmy, Cloud Nothings, etc. but you also had a smattering of li’l weird bands and side projects that were more specific and also more interesting; or more accurately, better. You also had an odd collective coming out of Medina called Animal Management, which is most likely one of those Odd Future type collectives where is a bunch of gradeschool friends who all like the same stuff. And it showed. Half of the roster basically equated to “also Cloud Nothings” either by virtue of sound, or by literally being half of Cloud Nothings. Wombs was the latter, which often ended up being more interesting, because while the members were the same, the music was completely different(Swindlella being another example).

Ryan Manning helmed the project, with way-more-talented-than-his-main-gig drummer Jason (don’t care to spell his last name), violinist Ana Vasquez and guitarist Chris Brown with friends who played orchestral instruments added as needed. The result was self described “big pop” which warped the notion of pop music in a variety of ways. Each song highlights Manning’s wailing or falsetto which puts him in the running for creepiest-sounding-singer up there with Tiny Tim. This is a good thing, especially for the smartly done stop-start style of songwriting. Tracks run the gamut between evangelical choirs, noise freakouts, and Theres a cinematic sensibility about the music here, and a brooding darkness behind their choice aesthetic of faded 50′s americana. It is reminiscent of the movie Frank with its surface weirdness being unsettling but not nearly as disturbing as the real disturbed core simmering underneath.

While they most definitely dissolved down paths that were more lucrative (Manning now works for the Verge, and everyone else is still in Cloud Nothings) ending this dark and broodingly psychotic and tuneful project far before it’s time, they didn’t end before putting out a hidden gem of a masterpiece album, Unitopians. And yes, in 2010 you could toss out comparisons to every big name artsy-kids-who-do-drugs band around, and they would stick for a bit, the sum total of the album is more puritain by nature and instead of freewheeling wackiness, everything feels purposeful and rehearsed until the screams finally bubble to the top.

Listen and download here.

[plumcityjerks]

Why Megachurch Kicks So Much Ass

Megachurch kicks so much fucking ass. Thats all you need to know.

But they also started as a pet project of making a stoney mathy doomy metal band from a dude that used to front a twee pop group who made songs about becoming the worlds most famous kazoo player. He rounded up a couple of the shreddin’est dudes he know and thought “lets make it about preachers and baptists too.” and thats basically how it happened.

What makes them kick so much ass is a multitude of reasons that all relate to just HOW they kick out the jams, and which jams get the punt in the keister. For starters, the tunes themselves just fucking rip. Rhythmically interesting riff driven songs from dudes who have more experience writing tight songs than wanky shredfests. This means optimum riffage is achieved while maintaining total listenability and headbanging levels at 120%. Musicianship is always present but its never banging you over the head and is expressed in more interesting ways than who can shred the hardest on whose Squier jazz bass (the instrument of choice because fuck guitars if you wanna get heavy). Soundwise, they take pages from all the right genres and bands to do what they do. Acid Bath, Pantera (non-glam era), Iron Maiden (a touch) Black Tusk and all those dudes stew in a pot and are blessed by the lord of metal.

The other, and arguably more important part, about why they rock with an “aw” instead of an “o” is how they position the use of right wing televangelical samples and themes. These folks are fucking bonkers batshit barbarians worshipping a vision of god that is basically Crom. This is metal as shit, as exemplified by all the samples about hellfire and junk and talking in tongues. These people are made to contextually sound like what so many metal lyrics are about, which is genius. Positioning them in such a way against metal, a genre they consider to be “devils music”, renders them to be of the devil rather than whatever christian god they claim to worship. An ironic twist like this is done incredibly smart, utilizing methods of their media (music) to express the idea that right wing baptist types are Literal Demon People, as opposed to hackneyed use of lyrics or banal imagery people should have grown out of during high school. Instead, its a genius application of sound and aesthetic against sound and aesthetic to brew up a caldera of jams that exist beyond the comedy of the band. But oh is it sweet. This irony is just so delicious, and the cherry on top is the fact that all the guys in the band look like that creepy deacon who hosts religious retreats, the weird overly aggressive looking Jehovah’s Witness guy, and a kid in catholic school church band, all in (sort of) matching khakis/slacks and the classic half-ass-dress-up staple of a button down shirt and a tie.

Beyond being a clever idea that (as of now) has not worn out it’s welcome with too much of the musical equivalent of still suckin’ after a nut (aka literally every other comedy/gimmicky band ever), Megachurch has crafted a legacy of totally classic jams of amazing calibur. But thats enough gushing, just shut up and listen to Exorcism and go wreck shit for the lord with a flaming sword on the back of a dragon hord.

[plumcityjerks]

In Training: May Edition @ Now Thats Class

So for those complaining about how Clevo doesn’t have a lot of dance, contemporary dance, or interesting lo-fi/noise stuff going on, first off thats our job. Second, if you ARE whinging about a lack of creativity, you’ve probably never heard of or gone to the monthly In Training shows at Now Thats Class. To summarize for the unfamiliar, In Training is a monthly queer music/noise/art growed-up-open-mic type dealy that seeks to be a safe space and place of expression for anyone in the acronym QUILTBAG that isn’t too keen on how the mainstream handles representation. Straight and cis folks welcome too but the real focus here is the plethora of uber creative queer musicians in Cleveland and a rotating line-up of some big and interesting names in noise and EDM from across the nation. 

Starting off the night with a tight techno set, DJ Father Of Two heats things up and puts a li’l gristle in the groove to make everything pop. A Well curated lineup of choonz stays dark, but with a good sense of the fact that maybe dance music should be fun to dance to. Theres a definite finger on the pulse of whats good in electronic music here, because this set would soar on popular online platforms like The Boiler Room or ecchiparty etc. A real versatile mix for drivin’ cookin’ or just loungin’ https://soundcloud.com/in-training/itmix002

Next up is the local hierophant of rusted mechanical holy death noise, Nyodene D showing off some excellent new material. It has a real spooky sense of rhythm and melody about it that gels really well with his back-to-the-audience performance style. If you haven’t seen one of his sets and like noise music, its hard to find a more visceral performer. If you end up wondering “wait am I supposed to be bobbing my head to this?” the answer is probably yes.

Ora Iso comes to plum city from Brooklyn with a sound describable as “if those early James Ferraro rekkids had like 3 more metric tons of musicality.” Keyboards, synthetic and authentic percussion meld with madman guitars and stark vocals to make the soundtrack to some forgotten 80′s biotic cyborg cult hit. Theres occasionally some really interesting flecks of melancholy and genuinely pretty melodies woven into this sonic fabric.

From Providence Rhode Island we’ve got the electric wizard Timeghost putting off some hella techno-disassociative vibes. If there is a word thats the synth version of aleatoric music, this definitely hits that blip and squeak of a note. Organic and spacious, there is a lot of “sonic space” approach to music making here which isn’t necessarily new, but he pulls it off more effectively than most folks.

Closing the night with another DJ set is a one two punch from Alloy-X, Heaven Is In You. Bumpin’ jungle jams with some fog machine to perfectly complement the glitched found footage and drapes of black mesh in the space.

http://chondriticsound.bandcamp.com/album/witness-to-the-flood

https://soundcloud.com/ora-iso

http://chondriticsound.bandcamp.com/album/cellular

https://soundcloud.com/dj-geauga-lake

https://soundcloud.com/adab

[plumcityjerks]

p.stoops, Max Stern, Fred Thomas @ The Lockerroom

Sort of a last minute “eh fuckit, every other show is another boring garage band” choice, but then again, most of these reviews are last minute only-show-thats-actually-interesting-tonight things that are total crapshoot decisions. The way you SHOULD decide which show to see.

Speaking of last minute things, this show was pretty last minute as mentioned by Max Stern during his set which explains why we’ve got turntablist p.stoops opening for two singer-songwriter dudes. In the Clevo hip-hop landscape its not hard to stand out, and yet somehow most folks find that really difficult to do. Theres dudes that are less interesting that p.stoops (a good chunk of Alloy-X for example) but also dudes that are making more interesting stuff, or at least more “””””contemporary””””” tunes. This dude is a semi-familiar mix of Dan the Automator and early 00′s alternative hip-hop but with a splash of vaporwave-y stuff. He’s definitely aware of whats hip and hot and happenin’ but he doesn’t cater to it, only sprinkling it on his tracks when it suits his tastes. Instead he focuses on making tuneful if slightly dated hip-hop with some really savvy turntable work. 

Max Stern is up next for a solo set, and its pretty much like seeing Meridian but only hearing him and his guitar, and since he’s basically already been reviewed, heres that review.

Headlining this basement show of literally 9 people is Michigan indie music legend Fred Thomas. His music is basically a love letter to every 90s and early 00s indie collective and cult favorites, which is to say he’s a mishmash of Elephant-6, K Recs, Life Without Buildings, and Guided By Voices. These are all things jerky music critics like a whole bunch, and in turn Fred was pretty dang good. Stripped down guitar and voice arrangements accompanied by a loop pedal made for some really tight guitar work and vocals that are a mishmash of Mark E. Smith, Sue Tompkins and Karl Blau. His presence is a deliberately nondescript guy-at-an-indie show, or to elaborate; a dirtyclean looking Brian Wilson who doesn’t look like he’s crazy yet. Getting back to the Tompkins/E. Smith comparison, his ultra dense and verbose lyrics give good momentum to relatively slow songs, and had a nice effect. Taking a more poetic vocal approach felt like he was embracing all the faults and idiosyncrasies of himself, which mirrors the lyrical content very well. Its a technically dated style but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t still sound fresh at least in relation to the other genres warmed over that are more popular these days.

https://soundcloud.com/pstoops

http://fredthomasmusic.com/

[plumcityjerks]

Captain January, Blaka Watra, Gypsy Spyt @ The Happy Dog

Its a rare show at the Happy Dog that doesn’t have a 100% rock lineup, and pair that with a cover charge of $0 you’ve got yourself a night of tunes AND two more Genny Creams.

For a while in the mid 00′s there was a time when dubstep meant you were a quiet loner instead of a loud party monster or a well meaning former scenester with a regrettable phase in his electronic music career. Captain January wants to remind you of that. He also wants to remind you that Tobacco exists, and so do The Flaming Lips. Much like Tobacco, he pairs his 80′s scifi movie background tunes with equally familiar movie clips. Everything felt like a cleaner version of the stuff he’s clearly a fan of, but it worked even though you could basically guess the titles of his tracks to be “The X-Files Themesong” or “Requiem for Basil Poledouris.” Its hard to tell when the Happy Dog is digging music that isn’t made by former/current staff, but there were a few big time end credit-sounding jams that hit pretty well even though the music was by and large really same-y.

Blaka Watra is part of a nice little undercurrent of goth-y post-punk in Cleveland that goes all the way back to Morticia’s Chair. Unfortunately there are few bands carrying the torch, but those that do aren’t the worst. Blacka Watra somehow came off as very appropriate bar music on the whole, despite being in a genre that really isn’t bar music. The more enjoyable tracks were the anthemic basic punk songs that felt like early Banshees but with a better drummer and weird synth bass.

Gypsy Spyt is basically no-wave noisey riot grrrl and real damn good. I’ve seen them too often to write all that much, but the bottom line is check ‘em out whenever they decide to actually release something.

http://captainjanuary.bandcamp.com/

https://blakawatra.bandcamp.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Gypsyspyt

[plumcityjerks]

The Stereo Workers Union, New Planet Trampoline @ The Locker Room

The Mahall’s basement is the best simulacrum of a basement show you’re gonna find, and it has the Mahalls bar that isn’t a shitshow 90% of the time.

First act is a prime example of the chuck meat of Cleveland bands at all social trophic levels; a garage band that also likes dad rock. Their bio tries to gussy it up, but really its just 4 dudes playing music that essentially sounds like leftover Foo Fighters tracks, like a good chunk of other bands here. Unpretentious, yeah sure whatever, but ultimately this trend in town just equates to background music that is slightly edgier. How something can be edgy because its popular and trendy, I’ll never know. Its a bit unfair to use these guys as a soapbox to tell Cleveland to stop humping the leg of trends that California got bored with 2 years ago, but they’re also the least offensive/snotty/garage-y of the trend, so while they’re by no means the worst they’re the most forgettable.

After a set of incidental music by some dude repairing a Farfisa organ, New Planet Trampoline rounds out the night because Paperhead was apparently too cool to actually show up. Filter 70′s arena rock through 60′s shit and you get these guys. Props for the mildly interesting line-up but its still by definition and design Stale Sounds Done Well. Really looking forward to their double album which will cement the fact that bands like these are creatively a step above cover bands sort of. In light of sounding needlessly surly all the time about boring bands, we’re gonna add a shorthand acronym as not to piss off any potential musicians reading this if people actually start reading this blog, so they are Decent For What They Are, DFWTA, which conveniently also stands for Dont Fuck With These Assholes.

https://www.facebook.com/stereoworkersunion

http://newplanettrampoline.com/

Paperhead doesn’t get a link. Fuck ‘em if they don’t show

[plumcityjerks]

Meteor Moves, Ghost Mice, Pat The Bunny, All Over The Place @ Casa de Wes

After a bit of a vacation and a few days coughing up enough snot and phlem to make a cocoon and become a literal crust punk, it was finally looking like a good time to go to a show again. Luckily there was word of Ghost Mice and Pat the Bunny coming through town, which would be a great li’l pick me up from hawking up enough shit to make a scale model of Scum City. The show took place at some nice old parents-of-someone-in-the-ska-band’s house with a big ol’ yard, a be-christmaslighted garage, a fire pit, and a variety of foodstuffs brought by the showgoers, 50% of whom were also at the AJJ and Defiance Ohio shows earlier in the year.

The opener, as usual is the local flavor of one of the bigger dudes. Meteor Moves is an earnest kid with shaky unpolished lyrics and voice, but a killer ear for chords and an ability to not write a song with one of the 3 primary folk punk chord tropes. He threw in a few big name covers, but the biggest applause came for his own songs. The Woodie Guthrie inspired nail polish message on his guitar was obscured and roughed by his strumming on it, which really reflected his overal vibe. Right now he’s a lil sprout that needs a bit of TLC but he’ll probably become a nice big ol’ tree one day.

Ghost Mice takes the stage/garage next and makes everything feel like more of a family. This reminded me of a concert I was invited to out in Ashtabula, nearly a decade ago. Everyone brought snacks, it was family friendly, there were dogs and kids and a big ol’ bonfire. The entire set was a nice nostalgia trip scattered with old favorites, and new songs, and songs in remembrance of Plan-It-X founder, Samantha Dorsett. The sun started to set by this time casting an appropriately golden hue.

Riding on the wave of community and caring for everyone and all that good stuff, Pat the Bunny begins. As he’s aged and calmed down and stopped taking drugs, he still has a fire in his gut and that always connects with the crowd who tried their damnedest to mosh as hard as possible while still not knocking down the canopy. It starts to get difficult to think purely about the music rather than the community with guys like Pat and a house show where people are trying to NOT fuck shit up (wanananana) and brought snacks for everyone. It deglazes any homeskillet who thinks that music can’t change people. The sun went down after his set just as someone squeezed out half a bottle of lighter fluid onto the bonfire.

The band that pretty much put this show together, and whose house we were grateful for, closed out the night for their 5th anniversary. A ska band I’ve never heard of at all, but everyone else clearly dug immensely, All Over The Place. Ska in some parts, but also just one of those punk bands with a horn section like Pain. We need more of that. Clearly good for what they are, I moseyed over to the bonfire to hang out with folks, and to see Chris Clavin pull a Jesus pose atop the fire ring then help a prospective campfire-song-guy tune his guitar. Folks had some marshmallows, shmoozed, the cops told the band to keep it down, so they went acoustic, and the night ended really smoothly just as everyone began to disperse, clean up just as the rain came to put out the fire and put everyone on the road home.

https://meteormoves.bandcamp.com/

https://ghostmice.bandcamp.com/

https://patthebunny.bandcamp.com/

https://allovertheplace.bandcamp.com/

[plumcityjerks]

Chumped, Jeff Rosenstock, The Smith Street Band, Andrew Jackson Jihad @ The Grog Shop

This show was one I was looking forward to and I know AJJ has a fanbase made entirely of 17 year olds who buy tickets 5 months in advance, so I did the same. I knew it was gonna be one of those shows where I want to like it but just end up feeling way too old to enj- 

PIZZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDE

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAHHH

AWESOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOME

http://chumped.bandcamp.com/

http://jeffrosenstock.bandcamp.com/

http://thesmithstreetband.com/

http://www.andrewjacksonjihad.com/

[plumcityjerks]

Kenmore, A S U S, Ariel Adriana @ The Greenhouse

The greenhouse is a lowkey house venue on the near east side with cracked white walls and a carpet with a wider variety of organisms living in it than most rainforests. The sound was at least serviceable but it was really small for even a house show. 

Always a pleasure to hear right off the bat, hours of low frequency drones with intermittent silence by Kenmore. There was a really chill vibe throughout the room that was keeping everyone fresh for longer than they would outside. Really sleek and steely but kinda mediocre on the whole. There was something kind of rotten at the heart of the set, but I couldn’t figure out what the hell it was.

Lowercase is a trend of quote unquote avant-garde music that was supposed to have died off like a decade ago, but here we have the ironically all caps A S U S keeping the tradition alive and well with slow lilting acoustic-electric fan noises (shoutout to Luigi Russolo) and oddly soft mechanical noises a-la Ryuchi Sakamoto that would sound better in an ASMR video you fall asleep halfway through. Occasional synth blips woke people up every so often.

More of a soundscape than anything, Ariel Adriana’s work was very round and aquatic. Soothing rushes and swoops punctuated by swirling tidal crashes and “silent” hisses almost like low frequency tinnitus. If I had synesthesia, this shit would look very white, with a streak of some kind of unsettling yellow, or something more earthy. Definitely something to think on.

[plumcityjerks]

Meridian, Purple 7, High Dive, Defiance Ohio @ Mahalls

Mahalls is a good venue where you can go bowling, see a show, get some piping hot fried chicken, and wait half an hour for one beer. I frequent it a lot (the secret is to buy two at once). And lately the joint has had the most consistently good and diverse swathe of concerts up here on the north coast. This show was essentially 2 bands doing 4 sets; Meridian, and the group of posi punks from Bloomington. This now means I am only like 3 degrees separated from Lil Bub.

Meridian starts off the night like most other bands on tours for bands like these: the local interpretation of the headliner. Just a buncha dudes who dug Jawbreaker and Hot Water Music then decided to add folk or whatever around the same time as everyone else. Same ingredients, different souffle. The main dude is in a bunch of bands I dig, so the energy was real good despite being the lunch portion of the main course.

Purple 7 is a rock band made of skater dads.

Next is another recobbled bloomington-scene-band that pretty much sounds like all the rest in one way or another, but everyone who is a part of it does WAY more interesting music than run of the mill stuff you expect from the town (except Toby who is basically secretly the best songwriter in the town). While the individuals do weirder chit, ranging from avant garde poetry to math-pop, the whole is more generic than the sum of its parts, but they’re kind of... “quality vanilla”. Exactly what you’d expect from a one-or-two-album-band-from-bloomington, but REALLY good at it. They recaptured the energy of the crowd who was totally not feeling Purple 7. This band’s name is High Dive bee tee dubs.

So as a youngin’ I basically grew up on folk punk so instead of going to Now Thats Class to see one of the most interesting bands in Cleveland, Cereal Banter, my inner disaffected yet earnest 17 year old got the best of me. Can’t say a bad word about defiance, Ohio, so this is a Zero Snark Zone from here on out. The show was exactly what you want from a band you grew up on; the hits, the fan favorites, the deep cuts, and a heartfelt and touching speech about how folks not affected by oppression should help those that are (in reference and solidarity with Tamir Rice), finishing on “the big song” that everyone loves. People in the crowd were a wave of joy and noun-that-means-being-stoked battering against the stage and it finally broke with Oh, Susquehanna!, the last song, ending the night completely summing up why folk punk is just so fucking good. Concern, Honestly, Introspection, Joy, Community, and each other.

http://meridianohio.bandcamp.com/

http://highdivetheband.bandcamp.com/

https://basementpop.bandcamp.com/album/jewel-finger

http://defianceohio.bandcamp.com/

[plumcityjerks]

Sundance Kings, Christines, Bill Fox, Phases @ Happy Dog @ The Euc

Got to the show late because I’m Cool As Shit and only go to shows for headliners. Missed the first band Sundance Kings so they’re objectively the best band that played to the 12 people that showed up. Anyways, Happy Dog at The Euc is the best thing that could have happened to the joint whether or not people realize it. Good food, good beer, good service, same awful ear wrecking sound-guy-manship as the original Happy Dog.

Luckily thats well suited to Christines who is A Shoegaze Band. Thats all you NEED to know, but they’re also from New York. The band comprises of 4 guys who you would expect to be in a shoegaze band. MBV meets The Church, which sounds better in a snide review than an undersold bar show. If it weren’t for the reverb, they would sound like a poppier version of Cleveland’s only tolerable dude-rock band, Herzog. In fact, one of their songs sounds almost exactly like select parts from Satan Is Real by the aforementioned Only Good Garage Rock Band In Town.

Next on stage, after I order my disgusting sounding hotdog (pulled pork, peanut butter, and Yum Yum sauce if you need to know. you probably don’t) is Bill Fox who is perhaps the most underrated WIGWAG ever. This stands for White Introspective Guy With A Guitar, for those uninitiated with mediocre, yet sometimes entertaining beshadowed pop music critics from Channel Awesome. In essence, he’s a coffee shop open mic dad-who-has-a-guitar with the heart of a poet. He was part of the legendary lo-fi compilation I Stayed Up All Night Listening To Records, so forgive any lack of forced snark for a dude who is a secret hero to me. He has a penchant for domesticity, encyclopedic knowledge of americana (covering some cheeky prohibition era salon tunes) and electricity. As a fan of the compilation referenced before, I was expecting a little Electricution, but as I don’t know what he looks like (despite seeing him before Francis Black’s 3 hour acoustic set like 5 years ago) I couldn’t get the chance to request it, assuming he even remembered a 20 year old track recorded in one take. Instead of electricity, it was a performance of a simmering crock pot. Wholly midwest, middle class, tinged with slight failure in the best way possible.

After the reason I went to the show played, Phases is up. These dudes have jealousy inducing pawn shop guitars and know how they’re supposed to be used. Twinkles straight outta 2010. The drummer had way too much oomph for the rest of the guys and sounded like he was playing for a band he isn’t in. This led to a hiccup in the set where the dude needed to borrow a drum key. He was distinctively less Moon-esque afterwards. These guys were like the Target t-shirt version of indie rock, and to be fair I have owned PLENTY of Target shirts in my day. Or rather, these guys REALLY want you to know how much they like Tame Impala. Though on a less derisive note one track felt like equal parts Joy Division and Talk Talk and it sounded as cool as dropping both those names at once possibly could. Its hard to get too upset about boring-ish music done well though, but then again, thats what we’re all about at PCJ. Checking out their recorded stuff after having a hell of a time sifting through the bajillion other bands named Phases, I gotta say the recorded shit is more interesting than the live show. More of a bossa nova-ish vibe to the chord structures and less loud that added a lot of depth to the songs that a blown out half-hearted live show couldn’t do.

https://www.facebook.com/TheSundanceKings

https://soundcloud.com/christines_nyc

Bill Fox: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97Jz8QkF5ew

http://phases666.bandcamp.com/releases

[plumcityjerks]

Bleed the Pigs, Ghost Noises, Nyodene D, Greg Rasp @ The Nunnery

Any jerk with the plums to have a music blog specifically about their city will probably tell you about their fawning love of basement shows, myself included. This joint is quintessential basement venue; washing machines, stashed gear, spray painted walls, tortured stuffed animal, stairwell where you crack your skull if you're taller than 5'8", BYOB and everyone with the same undercut, leather jacket, and shiny shoe getup. My kind of place. Also props to the between show DJ for being the only Cleveland DJ with their finger on the pulse of whats good and whats new in electronic music. Pretty sure there was some stuff from the homies at Zoom Lense and Activia Benz being spun, as well as some Le1f. Really chill vibe tingling with people who care about the scene.

Starting off, we have Greg Rasp who is from a midwest techno collective 4NPLCY starting off with some early 90s "The System. Is Down" sbemail45 style techno. Donk without any donk, but it evolved into something real slick as the set went on. Its not that it didn't go anywhere but it just didn't arrive anywhere, and didn't really need to. Its a throwback thing in a more direct way than PC Music's post-modern rehash of blip trends. After his set, some lanky Soybomb lookin' dude told the crowd about an anti-cop flash mob goin' down the next day. Which was p cool in principle because fuck cops, but folks don't go to house shows to be told by an interpretive dancer about sanitary protests.

Ghost Noises is on deck next, and having seen them so many times before starting this blog, idk if theres really anything left to write, or that i care to write. Solid mid-00's style hip-hop from the medium sized fish in Cleveland's fairly small pool of local hip hop. Li'l dark, Li'l Aesop, li'l this, li'l that. The deep cuts from their early work was nice to hear.

The headliners from The Nashty, Bleed the Pigs are a primo thrash/sludge act with a frontwoman who knows how to work a crowd, and also isn't afraid to just jump around at her favorite songs because singing in this band has GOT to be fun as hell. I'd hate to see this band on a stage, some bands need to be on your level to completely decimate you and cover you in a big ol' pile of porcine entrails. The first half of the set was pure hardcore thrash-y goodness fading to a second half of rhythmic feedback and sludge. Extra points for having a mystery pedal and giving off the vibe that the bandmates have known each other for over half their lifetimes, and extra props to the dude in charge of the show for some masterful unobtrusive crowd control when some kids got too rowdy for the space.

Rounding out the night is Nyodene D aka DJ Sweet D aka the dude calling the shots tonight. He set up his tabletop facing away from the audience like a holy altar and he's our priest of noise. Dudes got hella reverence for the medium and the scene and he wears his seemigly carefully selected outfit as a man of the cloth. An easy comparison to make, and one that I'll do anyway, is to say that the set was like a more violent, less melodic and tidal form of Prurient. It has more immediate energy than his recorded material, and kinda felt like a different beast entirely. Power electronics you don't need to contemplate. Wild Turkey for the bars, but Pappy Van Winkle for the den snifter.

https://soundcloud.com/4nplcy/21-greg-rasp-stasis

https://soundcloud.com/ghost-noises

http://bleedthepigs.bandcamp.com/

http://nyodened.bandcamp.com/

[plumcityjerks]

Pharmakon & Aaron Dilloway @ The 'Sco

The 'Sco is pretty much Oberlin summed up; uniquely on point in it's adherence to trends popular with quote unquote the kids, but still very clearly a college thing run by students supervised by a couple faculty members or whatever. Art moms bringing their teens to gallery openings so they absorb culture. Anyways, this ratskeller slash bad-Cleveland-night-club-that-will-probably-be-remade-yet-again-in-5-years has all the dry chillwave and IDM you would expect from folks putting on a show for Pharmakon and a former member of Wolf Eyes. "Hey check out my mix i made for SPF420/The Boiler Room" and no one cared about their peak taste in minimal dance music ever again. The beer is cheap as shit which was pretty great. Good vibe overall, but still very Oberlin. Its funny if you know what this means.

Anyways, Aaron Dilloway, former member of a band that championed quantity over quality, starts off the show with some hella dope Mothra drones, then scoots his foot around in this dumbass box of a rollerskate with a contact mic on it. A pretty funny bit of adding physicality to a performance, especially considering who he's opening for. He proceeds to scoot and wiggle around vaguely rhythmically checking every box for "Noise artist 101", grunting around like a goofy combo of Lurch and Gomez. Now some folks might dig this shit, but to me it just screams of staleness and sterility and the utter hypocrisy of most directionless experimental music. All the same tools as in everyone else's toolbox and by god does it sure sound like it. Good shit for what it was, I guess.

Next to the stage was Pharmakon who is way to small to sound like the archetypal gestalt of a charging elephant as accurately as she does. In addition to channeling the entire genus of Loxodonta, she plays a mean duct tape washboard too. The sound was mixed so that the speakers moved enough air to transport BO from the person in front of you right up your nose. Apropos and visceral, I embraced the shit out of it, along with my stank buddies around me. Whats really dope about her music is how corpulent it is. Its fat. Its grey. Its loud. Its dead. And stomps the shit out of your eardrums. And she tries her damnedest to express that on stage and off doing some slightly above part crowd walks which were pretty engaging until she accidentally wrapped the mic cable around a pillar and had to untie it mid-bellow. A tight set much more rehearsed than Dilloway's though less free, but who gives a shit about freedom in noise if it all sounds like everyone else?