Thurs, Jan 22


The Orion Experience positively delighted the crowd packed inside Mercury Lounge Thursday night, inspiring them all with sparkly, sonic élan.  The band had its visual sparkle too, particularly the two lead singers: one pulling shapes in a white cape and wearing her hair in a blond faux-hawk, and the other (also playing rhythm guitar) in his white suit looking like Donny Osmond as impersonated by Noel Fielding. 

The band’s songs were catchy and tightly-knit, a blend of rock guitar, agile bass lines, danceable drumbeats, and over-the-top pop singing.  Many of the songs brought together different and distinct styles, as in the rock verses and pop choruses of “Sugar,” and the disco verses and rock choruses of the newer song, “New York City Girl.”  This song was particularly danceable, with the bassist and lead guitarist singing backup, and definitely captured the attention of the audience.

 

Catch The Orion Experience at Santos Party House on Wednesday, Feb. 25th.

 

Sunday, 18 Jan


Imagine a punk band and an indie-rock band engaged in an Ultimate Fighting-esque tournament, and you’ll come close to the sound of New York’s No One and the Somebodies.  Loud and quasi-chaotic, the four played an impassioned set at Cake Shop Sunday night, inspiring a handful of audience members (all male) to dance, improv style, in front of the stage. 

“This one will be an instrumental.  It’s a waltz.  So…think about that,” the guitarist commanded before the third song.  He danced while playing, the keyboardist moved to the drums after a minute or so of the song had elapsed, and the drummer moved to the front of the stage to hit a metal plate lying on the floor with drumsticks in rapid-fire rhythms.  After the song ended, the band discussed Kenny Loggins lyrics.

“This song is about adopting two underprivileged children and inviting them to live with you in the lap of luxury…in the ‘70’s,” was the bassist’s introduction to a song called “Mr. Drummond”; a veritable cavalcade of varying rhythmic configurations, with the keyboardist singing/shouting “Oh(!)” for the last half of the song.

NOatS songs came across as completed entities that had been smashed about a bit, and often they ended in noisy chaos.

Their last song, the epic “Bike,” combined tuneful keyboard moments with distorted guitars and fast drums, and featured a dramatic meter shift into six-eight towards the end.

Check out No One and the Somebodies at Alphabet Lounge February 13th.

Friday, 9 Jan


Atarah Valentine brought his brand of pop-goth and bravado to a full Studio Friday night.  The music was engaging with its big, theatrical sound; irresistibly drawing both ear and eye were young Atarah’s warm, skilled voice and his fetching style.  Performing with two other musicians—a somber-faced cellist and a laptop/various-other-machines player—Atarah Valentine’s deepest wish seemed to be to connect with his audience. 

An expansive sound and danceable beats back up AV’s assertion that his music is “the darker side of pop,” as in the catchy tunes and somewhat morbid lyrics of “End It All.”   “This is a very sad song, but we’re gonna fool you, ‘cause it sounds like a dance song,” Atarah informed his audience before the fifth song, called “Constant Guardians.”  The only detail AV’s stage presence lacked was more live execution (a drummer, for instance), something that will hopefully come in the future. 

Wed, 31 Dec


Maudlin as Joy Division, loud as My Bloody Valentine, with the driving, relentless drum beats of an industrial band, A Place to Bury Strangers blasted right past the midnight hour at Mercury Lounge Wednesday night.  “We’re not only the loudest band in New York, we’re the band who f---ed up the new year’s eve countdown,” proclaimed the guitarist at about 12:05am, after their third song.  From start to finish, the set did indeed grow progressively louder with unflinching intensity, and even the video art being projected onto the band intensified from morphing shapes to flashing grids.  The fifth song dissolved into unbridled din from the musicians and unceasing strobe effects from the projector, holding captive a—by now—partially debilitated audience, curious to know how far the band would go.