Dots to Connect

Dots to Connect

Would you ever buy a tribute to a band you’ve never heard of? For the first time in music history, that may actually be advisable. Dots to Connect is a tribute to The Prids, a criminally underrated (and under-covered) band that has channeled the gods of post punk to create some of the most intriguing indie pop of the decade.

During their 2008 summer tour, the Portland quartet’s van was in a crash far less erotic than J.G. Ballard would probably like to believe. The van and all of the band’s equipment was totaled, while the band was severely injured. Although they managed to raise enough money for new gear, they still have an epic pile of medical bills to pay, so Prids producer, Hillary Johnson, has put together this benefit tribute album in hopes of helping to raise the money to pay off those bills and give the band a little more exposure.

Despite Henry Rollins and members of Built to Spill and The Pains of Being Pure at Heart confessing to Prids fandom, the artists found on Dots to Connect aren’t likely household names, although a handful of them should be. A bit surprisingly, it’s not fellow PDXers who highlight the release (although Dandy Warhols protégé’s The Upsidedown’s take on “Glide, Screamer” is quite a fetching piece of space-age musical synthetics), but a trio of California bands. San Francisco’s Veil Veil Vanish’s “Forever Again” is even more hypnotically haunting than the original, LA post riot grrrls We Float give “Persona Solara” a pleasantly simplistic and playful sass, and Oakland’s brilliant Swann Danger turn “Artificial Heart Designer” into a gothic lullaby. Also noteworthy is Autodrone’s cover of “Let It Go.”

Even the contributing artists who should never become household names (Charmparticles, The Wendys, Bell Hollow, Me You Us Them, The Suffocation Keep) manage to sound chicly intriguing when doing Prids tunes. So if you’re one of those people who cringes at the thought of doing a “good deed” or helping others in any way, just pretend that your purchase of Dots to Connect is purely to make your iPod that much more “indie” than your best friend’s. Izzy Cihak

The Dead Weather @ 9:30 Club

The Dead Weather
@ 9:30 Club
7/14/09
www.thedeadweather.com

Drumming for the Dead Weather seems to be Jack White’s best role since 2003’s Coffee & Cigarettes. Like a Jim Jarmusch film, White’s latest project is derivative, satirically melancholy, and abrasively gratifying. While his gigs as a frontman usually have him offering a suburban-friendly take on a once-intriguing musical trend, the Dead Weather proves that his Detroit rhythm is perfectly suited for keeping this supergroup of endearing misfits in time and in line. If anyone seems to be the band’s driving force, it is NYC anti-chanteuse, vocalist Alison Mosshart. Regularly found in The Kills, Mosshart has proven to be the decade’s most brashly alluring frontwoman, at times resembling Patti Smith as Joey Ramone for Halloween, and at times as an ineffably chic and dopesick star of the runway. With star of stage and screen Jack White gaining the majority of the project it’s notoriety, it is surprisingly Mosshart’s The Kills who have provided the majority of the project’s immediate inspiration. White, along with guitarist Dean Fertita (of Queens of the Stone Age) and bassist Jack Lawrence (of The Raconteurs and The Greenhornes) add a coating of Delta blues and garage Americana to Mosshart’s noisy brand of Post Punk.

On July 14th, the day the band’s debut (Horehound) dropped, the quartet found themselves at Washington DC’s 9:30 Club for an hour-long performance starring Ms. Mosshart. As she spastically convulsed across the stage and pensively dragged on seemingly inspirational cigarettes in her V.I.P.-dibbed thrift store garb the post-Warhol Icon seemed as though she were fronting the houseband at a bayou-front saloon.

In front of a sold out crowd in the country’s premiere concert venue, never before did grimy sound so epic as the band tore through a set fit to be played behind chicken wire, under copious amounts of moonshine. The mysterious twangy blues that began the evening quickly turned into splendidly sloppy, reefer-inspired riffage all in the course of the night’s opener, “60 Feet Tall.” “So Far From Your Weapon” managed to haunt the audience with mystical Southern balladry. Mosshart, however, sounded most at-home on tracks like “Bone House,” “Rocking Horse,” and “No Hassle Night,” which more or less sound like The Kills with an inflated, Southern-fried rhythm section.

Despite being a supergroup with only one album, the Dead Weather, thankfully, didn’t attempt to beef up their set with an abundance of generic covers. They did, however, include their take on Dylan’s “New Pony,” imbuing it with the grit that was always lacking in the original, along with a surprisingly enjoyable rendition of “Forever My Queen,” from Doom Metallers Pentagram.

Not surprisingly, the audience (largely clad in shorts and not-exactly-impressive tour shirts) had not come to see the Dead Weather, but to simply see Mr. White, whose vocal performances gained the evening’s most eruptive responses. His first appearance on lead vocals was on the bordering-on-brilliant “I Cut Like a Buffalo” where White’s phat beats and sincerely fresh flow could gain him the current title of music’s funkiest white boy. His second time up to the mic, however, was not quite so lively, yet gained the most camera phone snaps of the evening. To close out the main portion of their set White finally wandered from behind the drums to strum an acoustic guitar and share vocal duties with Mosshart for “Will There Be Enough Water?” a lazy and boggy folk ditty to cap off the chaos that had just taken place upon the very same stage.

So Mr. White has done it. He has managed to impress the last remaining naysayers and given them something to crank in their stereos. However, if this band manages to break up The Kills, for generations of hipsters to come, the phrase “Jack White” will come be the equivalent to “Yoko Ono.” Izzy Cihak

Emily Wells - Dirty

Emily Wells
Dirty

Emily Wells’ Dirty is the most pleasant pastiche of classical symphonics and gangsta rap you’re likely to hear all year… or ever. Her six song EP blends her love of silky strings and phat beats in a manner both seamless and sincere. Her brand of singer/songwriter can be both enthrallingly danceable and deeply haunting, often times all at once (“Symphony 6: Fair Thee Well & the Requiem Mix”). At other times she’s playing the part of the playful folk chanteuse (“Whiskey & Rags”). It is, however, her cover of the Notorious B.I.G.’s “Juicy” that is the most enchanting (and shockingly far from laughable) track on her latest release. There’s just something about hearing a white girl from Texas spout “I never thought it could happen, this rappin’ stuff. I was too used to packin’ gats and stuff.” Izzy Cihak

MUSIC REVIEW: The Silence Kit "A Strange Labor"

The Silence Kit
A Strange Labor

COMPLETELY INTOLERABLE

A dark journey is being taken by The Silence Kit out of Conshohocken. “A New Disappointment” is a slow, gritty alt-rock about a person who is distraught over a breakup. A Stranger Labor has a depressing vibe along with incomprehensible vocals. It will definitely lull a person to sleep after listening. -Leslie Snyder

MUSIC REVIEW: Bishop the Overseer "Commitment to a Positive Change"

Bishop the Overseer
Commitment to a Positive Change: National AD Campaign VOL 2
2008
bishopenterprises99.com

BAD ASS

What makes Bishop the Overseer's single EP, Commitment to a Positive Change: National AD Campaign VOL 2 "bad ass" is not the solid production work, cool flow or down-tempo beats of the featured single "B.I.S.H.O.P" (guest staring Grammy Award-winning songwriter/composer Gordon Chambers) - it's the message behind it. With Bishop the Overseer, there is no glorification of unrealistic, glamorous worlds - instead, he is conscientious of his surroundings and looking to make a "positive change," providing a DIY feel lyrically and spiritually. Overall, it's powerful and worth the listen - Annamarya Scaccia