Ceremony - Zoo

Ah, Ceremony. Always liked the gents, and sure have seen a lot of them recently. Much like their new label mates Fucked Up, it continues to be a little weird to see them on Matador. I've always admired the Gotham toreadors thinking outside the box (i.e. signing Large Professor), harder for me is wrapping my head around their aesthetic post-Superchunk. The move has certainly precipitated a less hardcore Ceremony record than we had encountered previously on their Bridge 9 tenure. Not shocking, as Ceremony are definitely a weird bunch of dudes (meant in the best possible way). It's not every band that has a jailbird and a make-up artist in the same band, but Rohnert Park's finest are not your average bunch of crucial dudes.

Zoo definitely reps the West Coast, sporting some serious Rollins/Morris vocal action, backed with an interesting Agent Orange meets garage rock vibe. Production is a little spartan and reserved, but the Zoo tracks get a lot more teeth to them live. I get the impression the hardcore kids have their boxer briefs in a bit of a bunch over the direction of this record, but it definitely stands to garner them two fans for every one they have lost. Perhaps not the best first record to get into Ceremony with, but definitely one of the best this year.

R

Live: Mission Of Burma, Fucked Up! & Ponytail @ Brooklyn Waterfront 7.12.9

If Brooklyn is good for one thing in the Summertime, it's the free shows. The McCarren pool shows were always a good time, although much the SummerStage benefit shows, the pay shows were way too over-priced to see Ween or Wilco in 2009. JellyNYC has taken the reins for the pool parties that aren't and kicked off a series of pretty decent shows on the East River on Sunday afternoons.

I rolled over in the late afternoon, unfortunately in time to see the end of the Ponytail set. I am rapidly losing faith in the young people and their taste in music. Luckily, while most of the stuff is twice as crappy, it's three times as disposable, making for easy forgetting of the ear-rape that takes place when you have to listen to/watch them. Same old story, no bass, two guitars, sequencing, impish frontwoman of ambiguous sexual orientation/ethnicity, lots of 80s references. Not a fan. Please make it stop.

As the universe works in strange and mysterious ways, Fucked Up! were batting in the middle slot. Cue the reason for my trip across the water. The gents (and lady) were fresh from a Serbian Festival (where the headlined with Korn -- no shit!) and set to removing the specter of retro synth-pop in short order. Pink Eyes was stripped to his boxers and in the crowd by the second song, talking shit and talking about his kid. And there was much rejoicing. Got some quality real estate on the wall next to the stage and had a blast. Man, do Fucked Up! bring it. Was nice to see Lucien of Fiasco taking in the proceedings, too. Hope the acoustic show went smooth.

So even more bizarrely, Mission Of Burma closed the afternoon's proceedings. No Swopes, and I've yet to ascertain whether Bob Weston was doing loops and such, but they were still pretty great. Their set was coincident with my finally hooking up with The Brothers Johnson (not these guys) and their lovely friend Heatherrr. You can't do much better than Burma and the Bros. Prescott still has the most beautiful bass ever and Manning still looks silly with the ear protection, but Burma still have it. I would have preferred to enjoy them in the warm Summer twilight, but it was still a hell of a nice day. Brooklyn people (that aren't EJ) are still very silly though.

R

Fucked Up - The Chemistry Of Common Life

I've seen a lot of Fucked Up shows in recent years. It's harder not to really, what with their playing twelve hour shows or maybe just the usual six or seven shows in two days they churn out whenever they are in town. The shows are great, ranging from mild free for alls at the Knit to basement and loft shows in Brooklyn where Cro-Mags covers would cause the decimation of anything the crowd could get its hands, legs or teeth on. After you see a show like that, it's kind of hard to listen to the record. 

I'm not sure how Gerard does it, but he's nabbed Fucked Up for Team Matador. They've dropped the Year Of The Pig EP for the gents and now have seen fit to release The Chemistry Of Common Man.  Nice move. I'd say it's the best recorded Fucked Up yet. The band has celebrated their union with Matador by expanding to include three obliquely named guitarists. They make quite a racket in the Black Flag end of things, but when they explode the sound stratosphere that is Crooked Head, it's pure Who bliss. 

It's kind of hard to articulate how freaky and wonderful this record is. It's no surprise that its title alludes to a mushroom tome. Hearing Pink Eyes shout over weird synths or paired with members of Vivian Girls is disquieting at first, but trust me, you'll take to it in short order. For every screaming rant, there is a companion plaintively ominous soundscape like Looking For God. It seems like this record may cross over for Fucked Up. We can only hope that it's too smart for the rabble, but I think we'll have to embrace the inevitable. That said, I'm totally intrigued to see how the new jacks take to the foul smelling, beer soaked maelstrom that is the average Fucked Up crowd. That should be an eye opener for the Hot Topic set. If you do make a foray, there's been a disturbing trend of balcony jumping at recent shows that should definitely prompt more awareness than the average show.

Much of the Fucked Up canon is so esoterically released that it's almost impossible to come by unless you live next door to a band member, so go for the easy gratification of snapping up The Chemistry Of Common Life here. If you're feeling ambitious, check out their relentlessly disingenuous blog here. 

R

Fucked Up - Year Of The Pig EP

It's been a good year to be Fucked Up. Success was never their primary intention, but after near riots (and/or a bridge collapse) at SXSW and more and more buzz building, Fucked Up signed to a larger label in the States after releasing a full-length last year on Jade Tree. While it wasn't a surprise that they moved to a larger company, I never thought in a million years it would be on Matador. Not that Matador wasn't the first label (ok, after Twin Tone) that I became a catalog fan of, but after Pavement became the big deal over there, I lost interest for a bunch of years, but it seems like George and I are liking the same stuff again.

Fucked Up are no stranger to esoterica, releasing a slew of releases in odd formats that seemed to simultaneously evaporate and be deleted. The CD version of Year Of The Pig reviewed here has four versions: the album version (in all of it's eighteen-minute glory), US, UK and Japanese edits, plus three b-sides and a cover. Year Of The Pig is the second of their tributes to the Chinese Zodiac and weighs in heavily on the Keith Morris-era Black Flag end of things. It starts with a bit of a red herring in the pretty female vocals but Pink Eyes soon brays his way into the fray and it's off to the races for the next fourteen or so minutes. The b-sides are good and the cover is a song by Castlemusic, whose singer Jennifer Castle provides the aforementioned female vocals on the single.

This EP is the predecessor to the first Fucked Up full-length on Matador, a record alleged to be called The Chemistry Of Common Life. It's due out in October. This EP is available now on the Matador site for $7. I think there's a pre-order for the vinyl of Chemistry, too.

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