All photos by David Greenwald

Before we go any further — please note the prominent Oprah sticker on Matthew Flegel’s bass. Props. Anyway, in their opening performance for Chad VanGaalen, Women might have outdone him in sheer fireworks — as on record, their songs balance drone textures and Krautrock-inspired rhythms with, ahem, songs. And unlike many of their peers in the recent wav(v)e of garage worship, their brevity doesn’t mask half-written songs and their guitar pedals don’t hide milquetoast musicianship. But this is a review of Women, and they killed it. The packed Spaceland house seemed to agree, but if the act is new to you, dear reader, I reviewed their thoroughly excellent self-titled debut here. More photos after the jump; as always, click any photo to open a hi-res gallery. Read the rest of this entry »

All photos by David Greenwald

Having heavily anticipated the epic double bill of Women and Chad VanGaalen at Spaceland for weeks, you can imagine my one-way trip to Bummerville upon learning that Chad had missed his flight and was coming in late — but despite that and troubles at the Canadian border which left him merch-less, Chad arrived before the witching hour and managed to play a set of Soft Airplane-centric jams and opine about watching hardcore porn on Cakefarts.com (don’t click that) with his 18-month-old daughter. (Chad has an 18-month old daughter!) As you may have gathered from my interview with him, Chad’s worldview goes through some different filters than the average bear, but you may have missed his quiet, absurdist sense of humor, which was both charming and abundantly evident in person. And as for songs, “TMNT Mask” and “Rabid Bits of Time” were highlights; I wouldn’t have minded hearing more older material, but he did grace us with oddball Infiniheart song “Cronograph #1.” Many more photos after the jump; as usual, click any one to open a hi-res gallery. Read the rest of this entry »

Interviews: Chad VanGaalen (pictured at left; photo by David Greenwald) in advance of his Saturday night performance at Spaceland.

Jamz: A rare, glorious Softies bootleg from 2000; a First Look at Telekinesis‘ fantastic debut.

News: Some pre-Coachella rumor-mongering.

Camera Obscurist: Goodnight, Hollywood Boulevard, goodnight.

And, random: R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe was captured by The Sartorialist today. His outfit’s not spectacular but he is wearing some sweet shoes.

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The Week In Rawk: Last week’s finest hour (or so). Click below for more.

Photo by David Greenwald

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Camera Obscurist is an occasional photography column. Click below for more.

Photo by David Greenwald

Perhaps no single musician in indie rock has emerged as intriguingly over the past few years as Chad VanGaalen. While many a band would be happy to fill their press release with his backstory’s highlights — building his own instruments, quietly amassing hundreds of recordings, doing for Asimov and Dick what Led Zeppelin once did for Tolkien — it’s his music that stands front, center and mysterious. With a voice like a choirboy Neil Young and songs that merge vintage folk with drum machines and lo-fi fireworks, VanGaalen’s self-produced recordings stand apart from time or trends. He’s set to perform on Saturday at Spaceland with Women, a stellar young act whose Chad-produced self-titled debut was released last year, as was his own third full-length, Soft Airplane. In an interview conducted late last year, we talked about how his sophomore album was a “disaster,” building octopus-armed drum robots and how the hell he wound up with a dude crawling on him on Letterman — all after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

The Softies reunited in Seattle, 2006 / photo by Photophonic

What a wonderful show. Softies bootlegs are few and far between, and this 2000 show is only the second I’ve seen. Main Softie Rose Melberg remains an active artist, releasing Cast Away The Clouds in 2006, but given that she tours about as much as Leonard Cohen, we’re left with recordings like this one if we want to hear live takes on these songs — and what takes they are. Rose and Jen Sbragia’s treble-weighted electric guitars and crystalline harmonies intertwine beautifully on songs such as “Sleep Away Your Troubles” and serious best song ever candidate “You And Only You,” and while they also had a stronger catalog to draw from at this point, the girls sound more confident and at ease than they do on the only other Softies bootleg I’ve heard, a show from March 1996. Another highlight: “As Skittish As Me,” a “The Best Days” b-side I didn’t know existed until now. There’s a little crowd noise to contend with, but with the band’s last album released just a month beforehand and their split imminent, this is an essential document of a group that left us far too soon. [Via Skatterbrain] Read the rest of this entry »

Aquarium Drunkard Interviews Telekinesis’ Michael Lerner: Right here. I reviewed Telekinesis’ tremendous debut yesterday.

You can see why Chris Walla likes Telekinesis. The Death Cab For Cutie boards-manner has surely noticed frontman Michael Benjamin Lerner’s vocal (and sartorial) similarities to one Ben Gibbard, as well as his gold mine of power-pop potential — and thus has done his best to plug the guy, from big-upping him on Stereogum to writing his press release to producing his debut album, Telekinesis! The good news for those not so hot on recent Death Cab is that Walla seems to have taken the opportunity to produce Telekinesis! as he would have a decade ago, returning to the no-frills mid-fi of The Photo Album and largely eschewing the post-Loudness Wars sheen that’s plagued his work on the Decemberists’ major label output. Read the rest of this entry »