August 28, 2009 8pm
The Summit
2210 Summit St.
(614) 268-9377
$10
Ages 18+, under 21 pay $2 surcharge at door
in association with Donewaiting.com
Vivian Girls
http://www.myspace.com/viviangirlsnyc
Deriving their name from the ill-fated characters featured in the work of writer/illustrator Henry Darger, the Vivian Girls (not to be confused with the “craft pop” duo of the same name) are a Brooklyn-based trio whose gritty lo-fi tunes nod to seminal indie pop acts like Black Tambourine, Talulah Gosh, and Tiger Trap. Comprised of Cassie Ramone, Kickball Katy, and Ali, the Vivian Girls sprang into the indie circuit in 2008 with a handful of 7″ singles released on a passel of small labels, including Wild Eyes (Plays with Dolls Records), Orphanage (Woodsist Records), and I Can’t Stay (In the Red Records). Their self-titled debut full-length was released on Mauled by Tigers Records and In the Red in September that same year. - ©1992-2009 All Media Guide, LLC
The Beets
http://www.myspace.com/thebeetsrock
Hot Cha Cha
http://www.myspace.com/hotchachahotchacha
Cleveland, Ohio, may be mired in perhaps it’s worst recession ever, but when life hands Clevelanders a lemon, they tend to squeeze it into a Budweiser and call it a fancy drink. On this 4-song debut EP, this all-femme foursome squeeze late ’80s 4AD into today’s A.D.D. indie subset, with little regard for lilting over-reverbed soundscapes, but lots of chiming ’80s chorus pedals that take dead horse post-punk riffs out of the glue factory for a spell. The German lyrics in “Heidi Was Never Good” come less from trolling for a Euro-trash ‘tude, but more likely are a product of one of these gals filling a freshman requirement so she can chat with her grandma after church. Actually, singer Jovana Batkovic was born in Bosnia and lived in Germany ’til her teens. Cleveland’s ethnic like that. Supposedly Hotchacha use a garbage can to relieve themselves at their practice space, and from the sounds of it they also utilized that kind of determination to actually buy records along the way, rather than relying on Vice to tell them what post-punk is. (Though they would totally sound at home on Vice.) The vibe here is art-school dropout, the look approachable punk-gal, but the songwriting simmers out of Ohio’s femme-forged, rustic alt-rock past (Heartless Bastards, Scrawl). - Eric Davidson, CMJ