Best New Bands of 2008 fe: Lookbook, Caroline Smith and the Good Night Sleeps, Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lapelles and more at First Avenue on 1/14/09
By: David de Young, Pat O'Brien
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| Caroline Smith - Photo by Jenn Barnett |
Bouncer Fighter
The night started with Bouncer Fighter, a noisy outfit that sounded all over the place at first but became more cohesive as the set rolled along. They have taken their cues, it seems, from artists like Bowie and Devo but also no-fi bands like Sebadoh. Everything sounded broken and directionless but once it was apparent that the disjointedness was intentional it was more fun to watch and listen. It was early in the night and it seemed that many in attendance at that point were there specifically there for them. One fan/friend even encouraged keyboardist Evan Malone to remove his shirt, then simply grabbed it off of him amidst joking catcalls from the crowd. Were they a best new band? Maybe, maybe not, but they are definitely one of the better new bands of late. [P.O.]
Lookbook, comprised of Digitata’s Maggie Morrison, TOMHANKS’s Grant Cutler and a storage locker full of sequencers and other equipment were next and were by far the most relaxing band of the evening. A fellow concertgoer commented “I keep picturing robots in black lingerie marching along in the distance.” Somehow, this was a completely accurate statement. Morrison’s voice was swathed in reverb and rivaled Annie Lennox’s in its heart-wrenching soul. The songs built slowly and often stayed there, it played out like a Sigur Ros set without the meandering wonderment that is sometimes to that band detriment. The spare, at times organic, sounds brought an intimacy to the room - no small feat in cavernous First Avenue. Cutler’s semi-falsetto backing vocals lent depth to many of the songs and overall it was just plain beautiful. I felt sort of drunk, like I had ingested three or four glasses of expensive red wine by the end of their set, despite the fact I had nothing but water to drink all night. [P.O.]
Some of my friends found it hard to believe that this was my first time seeing Caroline Smith and the Good Night Sleeps live, but I can assure you they hadn’t been completely off my radar. HWTS interviewed Smith prior to her band’s August, 2008 CD Release show for Backyard Tent Set and we’d also featured “Tying My Shoes” on our December, 2008 podcast.
Smith opened with the bouncy and simple piano-based tune, “Where Has Sally Gone?” Gazing out at the large crowd (quite respectably sized considering the sub zero temps) which had gathered to see her play, the perfectly dimpled, red-headed songstress said, “This is so weird,” and seemed surprised. She shouldn’t have been. Buzz about her and her band had already been on an upswing even before her show in the Entry with Jeremy Messermith this past weekend sold out. Her set Wednesday, which included a diverse selection of songs from her disc as well as new material, had many in the audience singing along and a line of young women swaying and dancing in the front row. Some people had questioned putting Smith back to back on a bill with Lucy Michelle, as Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lappelles is the local band they are most frequently compared to musically. But putting the two bands back to back actually emphasized their differences more than similarities. Plus they share a bass player. Smith’s set included “Closing the Door,” a song Smith considers one of the most representative songs on their album, and the powerful and building, “Lack of Height.” [D.D.]
I saw Lucy Michelle and the Velvet Lappelles several times in 2008 and along with many of my peers in the music writing profession helped cheer her victory in the City Pages annual Picked to Click poll. Michelle is a performer who is easy to experience multiple times and enjoy for the nuances of personality she and her band bring to their music and performance. Michelle is a natural entertainer, and in the true sense of the word, adorable, and as such audiences typically react adoringly. Co-host Dave Campbell even admitted to Lucy having been the apple of his musical eye in 2008. After her first song, Michelle also admitted her surprise at seeing so many people out saying, “Sooo many people here! Whooaah!” in such a cute way that I couldn’t help but laugh. She was clearly having fun and it was contagious. We got two new songs in what felt like a full-length set, including one song with the line “Don’t have to sleep along,” which made me note how much I love it when Lucy gets powerful and puts oomph into her songs. I felt like she was a little rushed Wednesday night, but nonetheless, it was a great set for those who knew her music already and those who may have been introduced to her at this performance. [D.D.]
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David Gardner, bass player for The Dynamiters - Photo by Jenn Barnett
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The Dynamiters currently have the best band logo in Minneapolis. It resembles a motorcycle gang’s logo a bit, round with a lit stick of TNT in the middle with “DYNAMITERS, MPLS., MN” around it. A great logo doesn’t always make a great band, however. (Take Yes, for instance.) But The Dynamiters backed it up in spades. We talk about various facets of 1981 at HWTS often, and here again it applies. The sound doesn’t specifically recall anything in particular about that year but they would have been right at home on a bill with several bands (Minneapolis-based or otherwise) that were active then. It was raw, dirty, loud, loud, loud punk rock without the pretentious holier-than-thou attitude displayed in ‘81 Orange County nor the “We couldn’t give a shit how this sounds” attitude being displayed here at the time. The stage banter was stellar “That one was for my baby sister!” guitarist Brian Shuey exclaimed at one point after they finished a song that seemed to be mostly about a down-and-dirty sexual encounter. The willful inappropriateness was hilarious and welcome, it was endearing, really, against all odds. We had heard exactly zero songs from them previous to this, but count ourselves among what is sure to be a growing legion of fans now.
Yer Cronies started the measured comedown from the long night with their decidedly languid, dreamy Neil Young influenced-sound. There are a lot of bands like them (Band Of Horses, My Morning Jacket, etc.) but none reside here, making Yer Cronies stand out in the increasingly crowded Minneapolis scene. Their debut album, When I Grow Up, is almost ridiculous in its perfection (especially for a band’s first offering), and in my opinion they are indeed the best new band in Minneapolis for 2008. They didn’t own the stage as much as could be hoped for but the main room is deceptively intimidating, and they can hardly be blamed for what may have been a small case of stage fright. It was an otherwise tight, imminently enjoyable set at the perfect time of the night as everyone was starting to wind down. If they weren’t on peoples’ radar before, they certainly should be now. [P.O.]
During Yer Cronies’ set people started to clear out, it was late and the downright awful cold outside the front doors had people wanting to pack it in. That was too bad as there were only about 100 people left to see Kristoff Krane. A mix of spoken-word and hip-hop with an acoustic ballad here and there, it proved to be one of the more rewarding sets of the night. He built one beat from the ground up as the crowd looked on and told one heartbreaking story after another about his family and what seems like was a fairly hardscrabble childhood on St. Paul’s West Side. (He mentioned that neighborhood’s Cherokee Park more than once.) The lyrics were dense like Jay-Z’s and ultra-literate like Aesop Rock’s, which was a lot to digest all at once and coupled with the subject matter was a fairly bitter pill to swallow, but his between-song banter lightened the mood a bit and put the remaining concertgoers at ease. It was just him, pre-recorded backing tracks and a sparingly-used keyboard, but he commanded the stage and seemed fearless, but owning up to and exposing your sometimes ugly past in a public forum to be judged would most likely remove all fear you have of anything that could come after that. [P.O.]
Location Info:
First Avenue
Artist Info: Bouncer Fighter, Caroline Smith, Dynamiters, Kristoff Krane, Lookbook, Lucy Michelle, Yer Cronies
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