August 8, 2009 8:00pm
The Summit
2210 Summit St.
(614) 268-9377
$8 in advance / $10 at door
Ages 18+, under 21 pay $2 surcharge at the door
Modey Lemon
http://www.myspace.com/modeylemon1
Inspired by the proto-punk Stooges and the post-garage Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, and informed by the late ’60s and ’70s rock so prevalent in their middle-American hometowns, Modey Lemon was the most successful of the new wave of Pittsburgh bands born in the years following the mid-’90s peak of the indie and math rock scenes. Formed in the city’s Oakland neighborhood in the summer of 1999 by Philander Boyd (guitar and vocals) and Paul Quattrone (drums), Modey Lemon was originally a side project to the similar three-piece Dean Swagger. The duo cut its chops on summer evenings in Pittsburgh’s Strip District, playing largely improvised blues in front of a closed-for-the-night fruit stand. Over the course of the following year, the increasingly tight Modey Lemon gained priority from Boyd and Quattrone and honed its sound, emphasizing a rolling, sped-up Keith Moon-style approach to the drums; muddy, rollicking guitar; and a maniacal vocal delivery by Boyd, supplemented in places by bursts of Moog and harmonica. The House on the Hill CD-R and the “You Bug Me” single, issued in the summer of 2000 and spring of 2001 respectively, consolidated Modey Lemon’s local gains; and with the release of its self-titled debut for Anti-Flag’s A-F Records in February 2002, the group began to gain a national audience.The Modey buzz heightened a year later with the band’s signing to Birdman Records and the release of the likeably scuzzy Thunder & Lightning. Things continued to look up for Modey Lemon. In spring 2005 Dinosaur Jr tapped the duo to open the European leg of their reunion tour. Then Curious City was issued (again through Birdman) to critical acclaim and a US tour. - ©1992-2009 All Media Guide, LLC
Grafton
http://myspace.com/Grafton
Formed in Columbus, OH, in the mid-’90s, Grafton spent their first few years playing smoky dives as a drums-and-guitar two-piece. With the release of their 2001 self-titled Derailleur debut, the band emerged as a three-piece, having enlisted bassist Donovan Roth, also of the on-again-off-again ’70s-inspired riff rock outfit Bob City. The addition of a bassist helped flesh out the band’s rhythm-heavy, dirty rock sound. Raucous and energetic, Grafton’s grimy garage rock sound is dominated by jagged, frenzied guitars — indie rock with a Southern drawl — led by Lou Poster’s ultra-gritty, vaguely J. Robbins-cadenced sing/speak vocals. The band is a fine addition to the diverse stable of strong acts on the Derailleur label, which includes the now-defunct alt-country rockers Bigfoot, as well as gloriously Stones-y Bygones (whose drummer also serves in Grafton) and indie-glamsters Templeton. While their 13-songs-in-26-minutes attack may seem a bit abbreviated, it actually works perfectly because, in the tradition of many great performers, they keep it short, sweet, and to the point, thus leaving the listener ready for more rather than eyeing their watch to see when it’ll end. Despite having misspelled the title, “Tom Sellek” is one of the album’s standout tracks, with a restrained verse arrangement building tension throughout the song and erupting into the chorus. “The Bet” is simply ferocious with its huge cyclical guitar riff, Roth’s manic bass pounding, Jason McKiernan’s brutal drumming, and Poster’s raw-throated yelling. Though the rest of the album possesses a dirty rock charm, with “The Best Part of La Grange,” the boys offer up a downright catchy tune — a pop song by Grafton’s standards — and without question the most accessible track on the album. Perfectly suited for college alt-rock radio, “La Grange” is the most singsongy; the normally gruff Poster gets on the record, and it proves to be a pleasant turn, but don’t bank on Grafton to turn alt-pop anytime soon. Clocking in at 38 seconds, “A Toast to Gravity” surely beats any short-song record held by the Ramones and, in keeping with the long-standing tradition of Ohio acts (including Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments, Them Wranch, and Guinea Worms) writing songs about their dear old Buckeye state, the song features the line, “Thank you for sticking me in Ohio.”
Psychedelic Horseshit
http://www.myspace.com/PsychedelicHorseshit
I never thought I would find the courage to disgrace a complete scene of music, but shitgaze really is abysmal. Another of these silhouettes of shite is ‘Psychedelic Horseshit’, I mean seriously which member of the band was drunk when that name was conjured up. ‘New Wave Hippies’ sounds like a toddler playing with something that has thousands of buttons. The guitars are scratchy, and deliberately out of tune. It’s almost as if this band has gone out of its way to completely undermine every musical convention every proposed. This band is either a load of idiots on speed who suddenly thought they could play music while tripping, and sounds like a very massive pile of utter drunken shit, or it’s just some very clever chimpanzee’s who’ve evolved and suddenly realise they ‘might’ be able to play some music. In one song, ‘Bad Vibrations’ the vocalist literally says over and over again ‘ahhoooowaaaooo oooo oooo oooooooo’. I’ve actually given up on summing up this utterly pointless way of life. I would rather shave all of the hair off on my body and commit myself to a life of celibacy and become a neo-Nazi. My flat mate has put this review out of its misery and very kindly summed up this entire music scene in two words, ‘utter bollocks’.
Invisible Circle
http://www.myspace.com/invisiblecircle