Rubedo, Sun Blood Stories and Milo Duke @ Neurolux (10/16/12)

This show excited me because it gave me the chance to see Rubedo again.  This Denver-based group's show back in June was, to put it mildly, rough: their van broke down on their way to the Shredder, and they wound up playing at 1:30 in the morning to nine people.  I hoped that this show went better for them.  At the very least, maybe the fuses wouldn't blow out this time around.

 

I counted thirty-five people at Neurolux when I arrived around 8 pm.  The show was off to a better start and the music hadn't even begun.

Portland-based musician Milo Duke kicked off the show.  His clean, high tenor, his sturdy folk melodies and his funny, twisted lyrics went over very nicely.  Highlights included the most heartwarming love song to a zombie I've ever heard and an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's The Road.  "If you like the song, you should read the book," Duke said after playing the latter.  "It's really good... So I'm told."

Next up was Sun Blood Stories.  This night's lineup featured Andy Rayborn and Brett Hawkins, both of whom had backed up Ben Kirby at the show with Brother Dan last month.  Rayborn's trotting basslines and Coltrane-esque sax bleats, Hawkins's steady drumming and Kirby's scorching slide guitar fell into such an easy, relaxed groove that I hope that they'll keep playing together.  I imagine that the ladies in the crowd felt the same way: they swayed like tall grass in the breeze to the loose, brooding funk.

Blessedly, Rubedo's headlining set had much fewer difficulties than their Shredder show did.  Kyle Gray's soulful, slightly pained vocals and otherworldly synthesizer noises, Alex Trujillo's quicksilver guitar and Gregg Ziemba's Industrial-strength drums all sounded in excellent form.  A new song, "Ain't It Funny," sounded as if it could've come off a Tom Waits album (Gray even sang through a megaphone).  That cast a new and welcome light, I thought, on the roots of this group's genre mashup (funk, metal, dub, etc.).  It also said good things about their warmth, earthiness and potential longevity.  Meanwhile, the crowd got rewarded for their dancing and warm applause with what Rubedo claimed was their first encore in a year.

You can find info on these acts on Facebook and elsewhere online.  Special thanks to Eric Gilbert and Radio Boise.

Deaf Kid, The Gunfighters, Annex Madly and Rubedo @ the Shredder (6/8/12)

A couple of brief coming attractions.

Just last week, I received a request to review the latest album by a band I wrote about not long ago.  It's a little outside the standard scope of this blog--the band's from Utah, not Idaho--but they did play here in Boise recently, and in any case, I like their music so much that I couldn't refuse.  I'll get my post on the album written and published soon.

In addition to this, I just conducted my first email interview with a local band!  You'll likewise get to read that very soon (just need to get it typed up).  It'll be the first of what I hope will be several interviews with local up-and-coming bands/musicians whose work has caught my attention.  Hope y'all enjoy them!

Keesha Renna's Vagabond Promotions set this show up, so I wanted to go down and show my support.  Also, I'd heard good things about Deaf Kid from quite a few people and wanted to see/hear for myself.  The night was not without its hitches: not many people showed up, one scheduled band never appeared, and Rubedo's van broke down a few miles out of town and kept them from reaching the Shredder until 11:30.  So that goes, I guess.  Music-wise, however, the night went over just fine.

Four-man Caldwell group Deaf Kid started off the night.  I took it as a good sign when they played parts of Joy Division's "Disorder" and Black Flag's "Nervous Breakdown" during their soundcheck.  Their set proved me right: energetic post-punk/surf-rock beat, trebly guitar lines, solid tunes and, best of all, intelligible lyrics.  My favorite of the three bands that I've seen Jacob Milburn in so far and the two bands that I've seen Dominic Munoz in.  As for drummer Matt Stone, I'd rank this group as on par with his other group, Fountains.

Six-person Boise band The Gunfighters followed Deaf Kid.  Seeing them a second time confirmed my first impression that the traces of blues and country in their music add seasoning to what is basically a good pop band: catchy tunes, swinging rhythm section, bad-ass guitars, pleasant harmonies, decent lyrics (although I'm not entirely sure what "We are the founding fathers of the watchmakers" means).  They played to the two handfuls of people at the Shredder with no discernible flagging in their good spirits.  They'd get my respect just for that.

After The Gunfighters came local electronica trio Annex Madly.  Their performance this night demolished my reservations about this group's vocals.  While I found them obtrusive the first time around, they struck me the second time around as humanizing in the manner of, say, Bernard Sumner or Gary Numan.  This left me free to ride on their waves of beats, tunes, riffs and textures.  Purely enjoyable.

Denver art-rock trio Rubedo closed out the night.  Their set didn't start until 1:30 a.m., but their tough, playfully psychedelic music definitely kept the nine people in their audience awake.  They shifted effortlessly between straight-ahead rock, stomping metal, reggae and jazz.  Alex Raymond's guitar sang and shrieked where appropriate.  Synth player Kyle Gray belted out the smart, funny lyrics in his high voice and stomped and gyrated like a wild man.  Greg Ziemba's drums kept everyone on their toes.  Everything went swimmingly until some blown fuses forced Rubedo to cut their set short.  Geez--these poor guys just couldn't get a break this night.

You can find info about all of these groups on Facebook and elsewhere online.