Live: The Figgs @ Fontanas 12.4.10

It's always a pleasure when Americas Finest Rock Bandtm The Figgs trot out their holiday shows for the good boys and girls of the Eastern Seaboard. As has been the norm of late, the Manhattan show was at Fontana's. It's a decent room, although it reeked mightily of ass for the early part of the evening. Literally. That is not a reflection of Nancy, who opened the proceedings. I wasn't crazy about them, and all things being equal would have been more than happy to miss them, but there were enough Ben Deilly-era Lemonheadsy guitar parts to keep it interesting-ish.

Colleen showed up and The Figgs were on in short order, as there were a million other bands shoehorned on to the bill and maybe even a couple unlucky franchises after them. While these were holiday shows, they also celebrate the 10th Anniversary (ouch) of the release of Sucking In Stereo. To commemorate the event, Peterwalkee Records is re-releasing SIS in remastered vinyl form. Early purchasers also get a copy (on CD) of a live set from Kansas City, MO from that tour. The Figgs are doing their part in marketing the new product by playing (most of?) the record on these dates. This short set didn't really allow for that to entirely come off, but know that there was much ass-rocking dispensed and that non-owners of Sucking In Stereo would be advised to rectify that situation stat. Non-musical highlights included the terrible trio standing on their respective amplification, culminating the feat with Mr. Hayes taking quite a spill from atop the snare drum and Keith Mooning his kit in the process (to much crowd mirth). Not a set-ender, nor were there any injuries, save for perhaps the egos of the bands that followed. Poor dears.

Were you to have been foolish enough to miss the show(s), you can get your dose of Figgs for the holidaze via this link.

R

Live: The Figgs @ Fontanas 6.14.10

Springtime, a Friday and The Figgs at 8pm are a pretty unbeatable combination. I went straight from work to find a surprisingly large crowd present to see America's Finest Rock Band. Not a lot of spring chickens (or hens for that matter) but I was able to grab a couple minutes with Casino Hayes before things jumped off. The Brothers Johnson arrived in short order and things could easily said to be on.

The reason for the show was that there's a new Figgs record called The Man Who Fights Himself. Given the short lead-off set, they played the record in it's entirety, with only two dips into the back catalog, but please be informed that your Figgs brought it and the crowd gave it right back. The new songs sounded good and it seemed like they almost knew them, with Gent managed to play some serious clammage into an interpolation of Big Log that was almost a set-stealer. I think I like Happy Hour Figgs shows and the rest of the rooms sure seemed to as well. It was definitely one of the bigger shows I've seen the boys do in recent years. Hopefully they can also tag onto some of the Soul Asylum dates now that Donnelly is playing with them. 400 years in, The Figgs will still rock your ass in a pronounced fashion if you let them. Pick up The Man Who Fights Himself here and have the good sense to check here regularly to see where you can get your dose of their live show.

R

Live: The Copyrights @ Fontana's 11.7.9

If there's any band worth seeing a bunch of nights in a row, it's The Copyrights. Fontanas was the venue for one of the best shows of the year last June with House Boat, Dear Landlord and The Unlovables and our heroes, so it seemed promising that the boys would return, albeit with a hodge-podge of random crappy bands.

They were second, listed as going on at 10, so it seemed to make sense
that I showed up at five of to find them halfway through their set and playing to maybe 10 people. When they drew easily 50 heavy drinkers the last time and played to a rabid crowd the night before, it confounds me that Fontana's would put them on early. The seven or eight songs I did catch were as awesome as you might expect, but fuck Fontana's anyway. Keep track of where The Copyrights are here and pick up the new 7" from No Idea.

R

Live: The Copyrights, The Unlovables, Dear Landlord & House Boat @ Fontana's 6.22.9

I had been saying for a couple weeks now that this show was the NYC show of the year (thus far) and now that it's done, you'd be hard-pressed to get me to say otherwise.

I showed up at Fontana's a couple songs into the House Boat set. Wonderfully enough, the listing of the bands was woefully inaccurate, listing The Copyrights as going on first, an eventuality that was rapidly rushing me towards apoplexy. I was pleased to find that someone was just an idiot. House Boat features the ubiquitous Mikey Erg on drums, along with Grath and Ace from the The Steinways. Zack Rivethead fills out the lineup on guitars and vocals. It's better on paper, at least at this juncture, but it was only their second show. Don't get me wrong, it was real good, but I think I'd like it a lot more with more time to marinate on the songs. There's evidently a record coming soon, recorded at Sonic Iguana with Luke from The Copyrights. Somebody would do well to hook a brother up. Hint, Hint.

Next up was Dear Landlord, who are simply awesome. Featuring half of The Copyrights and half of Rivethead (R.I.P), they have finally gotten around to recording a full-length that's coming out this Tuesday on No Idea. It is staggeringly awesome. Pick it up immediately. We got most, if not all of their canon and the room got real frisky real quick. Every song is a slice of some post-Weasel pop punk goodness that should be played as much as possible. See them live, buy their records, name your children and bands after them.

The Unlovables made one of their increasingly frequent live appearances next. They had a couple of new songs and sounded pretty great. Hallie has not gotten any less lovely, I will tell you, and the older songs still hold up nicely. The local kids were out in force and loving said Unlovables (aided and abetted by liberal amounts of Rolling Rock). They are an awesome time live and the Archers Of Loaf cover doesn't hurt one damn bit. Here's hoping we get some new stuff out quick, and some more live shows soon.

The Copyrights closed the evening in righteous fashion, churning out banger after banger that would make lesser bands hang it up stat. The well-lubricated crowd was chomping at the bit to see the Kings of Carbondale and the gents did not disappoint. If there is a better punk sing-a-long than Cashiers, I have yet to hear it. Luke didn't make it on this trip and Ronnie from The Arrivals has stepped into the breach to savage the drum kit, but that was the only thing close to disappointing. For the record, Ronnie was awesome, as was everything about their set.
How four of the best punk bands in America could play for $8 and not sell out is beyond me. I heard the next night in Brooklyn had a lot more bodies in the room, but there is no reason why a show this good shouldn't have been better attended. You punks need to get off your lazy asses.

R

Aldenbarton debut a gang of new songs at Fontana's

I'm still waiting on photographic proof, but I saw Aldenbarton play with Spray Paint Star at Fontana's last night. I only caught the end of the SPS set, but suffice to say they are representing the Spirit Of '88 in a way that only H20 has in recent years. They aren't hardcore, but the sure love themselves the pop from that era. It was ok, made more notable by the presence of my ex-bass teacher (and Springsteen Seeger band player) Jeremy Chatsky and sometime Sandusky  fill-in drummer Timmy in their ranks. Good guys, and I guess they are opening for They Might Be Giants tonight in Rhode Island, so good on 'em.

Aldenbarton played next, as sort of unknowing openers to a surprise performance from what appeared to be Joe and the Hot Dogs in their Mott The Stupid incarnation. Aldenbarton heated up the room with a couple songs from their I-tunes debut Exodus Of The Eldest, then proceeded to floor everyone in attendance with a gang of new tunes that they've been cooking up in the studio. Good stuff, especially that New England song (not a Billy Bragg cover, douchenozzle). They are back in the studio next month, hopefully we'll get those tracks out and in our earhole soon. In the meantime, check them out next Tuesday (2/3) at temporal wormhole Cake Shop with The Visitations and get the Exodus EP on I-tunes..

for your consideration...Batillus MP3

Greetings JS-NYC readers (and I do mean both of you). As I threatened, I bring you both MP3 goodness and Batillus news for your pleasure.

The first of what I hope to be many MP3s on JS-NYC is from the outer borough purveyors of doom called Batillus. You might remember them from a previous posting.

Batillus recorded last month at Black Box in Hanson, MA and walked away with five songs put to tape. Total time? 58 minutes. Yeah, you did the math right. Even if you don't like the doomier end of things, you sure do get some bang (or boom, really) for your buck. It's not long for the sake of wasting tape either. Trust me, you'll be wanting more. Check out the MP3 of Gravel Chime below. A second track is at the Myspace. Go There.

Might I suggest lowering your speaker volume in the workplace....

Batillus - Gravel Chime

http://www.javelinpr.com/batillus/Gravel_Chime.mp3

Batillus are playing at Fontana's on September 19 with Unearthly Trance, Aun and Subarachnoid Space. Check the appropriate links as you see fit and keep an eye on their Myspace for updates as to who might be releasing the rest of the recordings.

R