#meah pace

[nofatclips]

Tambores Serbia (spanish version of Serbia Drums) by !!! (CHK CHK CHK) from the Tambores Serbia / No Podría Haber Sabido single

[sinceileftyoublog]

!!! Live Show Review: 6/16, Sleeping Village, Chicago

BY JORDAN MAINZER

“You guys act like you’ve never heard someone mix dance and punk before,” Nic Offer of !!! said to the crowd at Sleeping Village on Wednesday night. He said it because the crowd was dancing their asses off, Offer’s suggestion that we were witnessing something enrapturing and novel like The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. Really, these days, !!! are the closest thing we have to a mainstream disco band more than dance or punk. While they started out with just Offer on stage singing “This Is Pop 2″, the bouncy closer from their new album Let It Be Blue (Warp), as soon as the rest of the band filled out and replaced the backing track, they became the !!! we’ve become accustomed to over the past decade. 

Except there was one thing missing: Meah Pace, who came out starting at the second track, “A Little Bit (More)”, and thankfully never left the stage. The one-time touring member and backing vocalist has now firmly implanted her influence on !!!, co-writing some of the songs on Let It Be Blue. Of course, what she offers in contrast to Offer’s goofiness--forceful dance moves, powerhouse vocals--is what’s made the band an essential live act. Yes, it’s fun when Offer comes into the crowd and dances. But I’ve never seen a live singer like Pace, especially in a dance context, who can emulate the way a producer samples a vocal and repeats it over and over at slightly lesser volume. Her control is immaculate, whether ping-ponging in harmony with the rest of the band on “Panama Canal” or admirably subbing in for Maria Uzor on a slower funk jam like “Storm Around The World”.

And if you could measure the energy Offer and Pace bring by the amount of water bottles they go through on stage, the rest of the band’s contributions are less tangible but no less important. They’re the reason “Here’s What I Need To Know”’s dark arpeggios blossom into propulsive house, and they give the peaks and valleys to back catalog highlights like “All U Writers”, “NRGQ”, and “Freedom! ‘15″. Overall, if !!!’s one-time contemporaries like LCD Soundsystem, The Rapture, and Les Savy Fav come and go in terms of hype factor, popularity, and critical acclaim, the NYC-based disco-dance-punk band--or whatever you want to call them--show that there’s always an audience for a mix of technical proficiency and straight up fun.

[sinceileftyoublog]

!!! Live Show Preview: 6/15, Sleeping Village, Chicago

BY JORDAN MAINZER

!!!’s 9th album Let It Be Blue (Warp) starts out melancholy. “Normal people tell themselves what they wanna believe,” sighs Nic Offer over plaintive acoustic guitar. Constantly surrounded by the giddy euphoria of disco-inspired dance-punk, is the band finally reaching their limit, feeling crushed by blind optimism? Of course not. By the end, Offer’s chanting, “This is pop music, and it feels like summer.” Truth be told, Let It Be Blue is one of !!!’s most varied records to date. While the second track “A Little Bit (More)” offers a slight return to expectation--propulsive house beats, vocal chants and samples, scratchy funk guitar--much of the album sees the collective hopping around the world, trying to find what makes you move.

And as groovy as the songs are, the vocalists stand out on Let It Be Blue. While band member Meah Pace shines as usual on the goofy but undoubtedly catchy “Panama Canal” and unexpectedly effective R.E.M. cover “Man On The Moon” (minus the “yeah yeah yeah yeah”s in the verses), the guests do work, too. Maria Uzor (of UK post-punk duo Sink Ya Teeth) drives the minimalist, handclapped house of “Storm Around The World”, repeating, “We’ll make a storm around the world” over subdued drums. Meanwhile, Angelia Garcia alternates between an autotuned croon and percussive, chopped vocal samples on the dembow-inspired “Un Puente”. Even Offer is at his best on “Here’s What I Need To Know”. Atop a bed of bubbling arpeggios, he’s wistful like he is on “Normal People”, but it’s not so out of nowhere because the textured instrumentation builds up along with his story. “I had gone to see you / Out in San Francisco / Are you that somebody / On my rental car radio?” he sings, setting the stage for a tale of longing and heartbreak.

If there’s a statement of purpose for !!!, it’s the album closer, “This Is Pop 2″. “This is pop and there’s no defense / Silly, it’s stupid, it’s just pretend,” Offer chants around a synth hue and drum machines. This isn’t to say !!!’s music is, as described, “stupid”--it’s a double-down on the ear candy that the band evades on the opening track. “I don’t understand, do you understand?” Offer asks before the song slows down and explodes into a wincing, scuzzy guitar jam. We don’t understand, but we know we like it.

!!! headlines Sleeping Village tonight. Doors at 8 PM, show at 9 PM. Tickets still available as of publication. Local six-piece art pop band Glad Rags opens.

[rustisjustright]

!!! (Chk Chk Chk), Live at the Doug Fir

!!! (Chk Chk Chk), Live at the Doug Fir

If you have never been to a !!! show, then you are truly missing out on one of the best live acts of the past fifteen years, and should take immediate steps to correct this oversight.  Every performance is a blast, and Wednesday night at the Doug Fir was no exception, as !!! turned the basement lounge into a bumping dance club.

View On WordPress

[moistpaulaprefers]

Aretha Franklin Queen of Soul at Radio City June 14, 2014

Yesterday I received a wonderful text message from my girlfriend/bandleader/bandmate in various projects, Meah Pace.  

I jumped for joy through the remainder of my studio session with Burnt Sugar  and am bound to hear my excitement at the prospect of my big night out with Meah in BS's rendition of Blue Monk over a lifetime of listens.  

I hurried home from the studio, decided on the fuscia, red, gold, black and turquoise striped silk jumpsuit I got at the thrift store in Joshua Tree and headed out to The London Hotel in Manhattan where Meah and I enjoyed a fancy pre-show light dinner.  

Radio City itself was of course spectacular and we settled into our surroundings and nibbled on M&Ms during the opening act.  

The curtain went down and after a teasingly longish intermission finally arose on an orchestra comprising 11 horns, five backing vocalists, grand piano, organ and keys, a percussionist with an elaborate set up including vibes, drums, bass, guitar and a heavily featured tambourinista.  The conductor led the orchestra through a brisk overture, a medley of some familiar Aretha tunes intermingled with some generic sounding festive showtunes and circus numbers, culminating in a dramatic pentatonic climb and a fittingly fabulous fanfare and drum roll springboarding into the intro to Higher and Higher as The Queen made her entrance to a cheering standing ovation, bowing at the top of her performance before launching her full voiced rendition of the Jackie Wilson hit.  The version was brief and rolled into the intro of Say A Little Prayer over which she spoke.  Her speaking voice seemed completely familiar and all the way present.  Her weight loss was remarkable and she pranced gracefully in an off the shoulder scarlet gown, acknowledging Burt Bacharach before effortlessly singing the song just like on the Aretha's Golden Greats record I loved as a teenager.  

The next song, Angel, was dedicated to her sister Carolyn, who was also acknowledged by Aretha as the writer of the song.  Throughout the two sets and the encore, songwriters including Curtis Mayfield and  Luther Vandross were called out before being honored by Aretha's treatment of their material.  

The concert was long and joyous and I got to hear and see Aretha perform much of her pop canon as well as some gospel material accompanied by a sermon concerning the miracle of her recovery from a near death illness three years ago, as well as enjoying a costume change and so much intimate chat between numbers.  There were also some very sweet slideshows projected on screens either side of the stage with some great shots of Aretha herself from various eras in her life, including a repeated recent image which was clearly a triumphant post weight loss shot of Aretha in sneakers and glamorous exercise wear and a flattering cropped, natural hairdo.  She also squeezed into the satisfyingly well fleshed out show a moving tribute to Whitney Houston with accompanying slides.  

The Queen seemed genuinely happy to be holding court with a packed house of New Yorkers at Radio City and I left with the hope that she had as much of a good time as I did.  

Aretha Franklin is truly an earthly treasure and I recommend anyone who loves music with the opportunity to see her live in concert to snatch it.  

I spend a lot of my life feeling very lucky, but last night I felt outstandingly lucky and will be grateful to Meah forever for showing me the time of my life.  

[blackrockandrollmusic-blog]

Meah Pace & The MAP Legends - The Weight