RVIVR with Iron Chic @ Death By Audio 5.20.10

This show was up there with the Unlovables / House Boat / Dear Landlord / Copyrights show at Fontana's last year when it came to spiking the anticipation meter. You may remember that I had loved the Shorebirds record and lamented that they had never made it out East before imploding. The RVIVR 7"s and full-length were just as awesome, so I was looking forward to taking in a good number of the four local shows on this tour, especially as they were with local powerhouse Iron Chic.

I hit the bike and rolled into Death By Audio just as Slingshot Dakota were finishing. The room was full enough to make me paranoid that the perennial unnannounced lineup change had occurred, but it appears that it was merely SD and their remarkable local draw. The show proved a fine opportunity to assert myself as the weird old guy who shows up by himself and might be a narc. While I was at it, I made a sideline of seeing the hot bike girl I always think is gay at the shows, not being able to stop looking at her, then garnering the glares of the boyfriend I always forget she has. These things are comfortable in their familiarity.

Iron Chic were up next, seemingly hell-bent on knocking back as much cheap canned beer as possible before they went on. It didn't seem to hamper the proceedings that much, save for the interesting pawing of some dude in the front by the bear (ahem) ish frontguy. Either way, Iron Chic are pretty fucking great. A motley looking crew, but there's really nothing pretty about punk rock, is there? Not the longest set in the world, but a good one with a decent response from the kids up front.

RVIVR took the stage in short order, perhaps owing to a curfew? No arguments here. The crowd seemed to swell again and I found myself in the middle of a curious bunch of scruffy gay indie rock dudes. Not that it swayed me either way, but it was a pretty gay vibe throughout the evening, in the young and in your face sort of way. Meaning that there was open man to manual stimulation going on way to close to me, part and parcel with a gang of bike dykes sporting thrash caps and very much feeling the female 50% of the RVIVR franchise. While I'm dwelling on questionable fashion trends instead of music, let me say, Canino: cut the mullet, and let's move on.

RVIVR played kind of a short set, although they were pretty tight for the most part. The band was both grateful and surprised at the turnout and the response, although evidently not to the point where they had learned any encores. It's a bummer that they are so far away, as there were more than a couple songs I would have like to have heard. I was stupid enough to miss the Tomkins show the next day and not plan properly for the East Rockaway show that closed the proceedings. I continue to be plenty bummed about that. Don't make the mistake I did. Head over to the RVIVR and Rumbletowne web presences and support this awesome crew.

R

Jaded Scenester NYC Top Ten Singles of 2009

It was tough for me to come up with this list for a couple of reasons. One reason is that technology hates me. It's one of the many reasons that I'm happy to just be a dumb bass player. When I initially tried to figure out the tracks, it seemed prudent to just use the counter in my iTunes. Makes sense, right. In consulting said oracle I was surprised to find that there was one track that really was head and shoulders above any others playwise. I was most surprised to find said track was The Northside, The L&L, And Any Number Of Crappy Apartments by The Lawrence Arms. While that is a solid track, I can't see having played it 285 times, despite what the good folk of Apple might have me think. As a result, I'm going to throw empiricism to the wind. Additionally, I'm not going to limit this list to songs actually released in 2009. Mostly because I can. I bet a bunch of them are from 2009, but hey let's keep it interesting, shall we?

Ok, here we go.

Jaded Scenester NYC Top Ten Singles of 2009

1. Lifter Puller - Star Wars Hips (7" version)

from Slips Backwards

2. Kith n' Kin - Austin Lucas

from The Common Cold

3. Lonesome Dogtown Nights - Lucero

inexplicably not released on 1372 Overton Place

4. The Ballad Of Marvin Heemeyer - Shorebirds

from It's Gonna Get Ugly

5. Calloused Heart #2 - Drag The River

from Bad At Breaking Up

6. Darlin' - Austin Lucas

from Somebody Loves You

7. Jessica's Suicide - Jon Snodgrass

live with Joey Cape or Cory Branan

8. Geraldine - Glasvegas

from Glasvegas

9. Magazines - The Hold Steady

from Stay Positive

10. Sherman City - Lifter Puller

from Half Dead And Dynamite reissue

Rvivr - LIfe Moves EP

If you've been unlucky enough to talk about music with me in the last year or so, if we weren't talking about Austin Lucas, I was probably raving about Shorebirds. Man, am I a mark for It's Gonna Get Ugly. With all due respect to them, I never really fell for Latterman, but I'm damn well going to check out any band that's got anybody from Jawbreaker within a mile of their ranks. Shorebirds featured bass ridiculoso Chris Bauermeister, along with Matt Canino from the aforementioned Latterman and operated in the time-honored punk paradigm that is the power trio. When done right, there is nothing better. Believe me, Shorebirds handled themselves just fine, but as my god is a cruel god, the band broke up before they made it out East.

Bauermeister still plays with Canino in the new project called Mutoid Men, but they have yet to release anything. In the interim, there is Rvivr, which has Canino and his lady Erica, who is also his partner in Rumbletowne Records, in the fold. I'm not sure whether it's a trio, but it's pretty fucking good. I am pretty against the couples that push the 7Seconds credo too far and live and rock together (see: dreck like Mates Of State) but I'm waiving that for Life Moves. Four songs, all of which fucking rip, if I might get all William F. Buckley with my flowery prose. Think Bridge and Tunnel (who are great, too) times ten with a big Jawbreaker fixation. Erica's got a set of pipes on her, like Chris Wollard meets Tim Armstrong's ex and it suits Canino's rasp just fine. The opener Can't Stand It is probably my favorite of the four tracks on Life Moves, but it's one hell of a tight race, with Scrooged an almost imperceptible second. I can't recommend this enough. Pick it up immediately from Rumbletowne here.

R

Dear Landlord - Dream Homes

Not since the release of the Shorebirds record last year has there been rejoicing on a level comparable to the elation shown at JS-NYC HQ with the arrival of the Dear Landlord full-length. Comprised of half of the dear departed Twin Cities punk stalwarts Rivethead, along with a couple of Copyrights, Dear Landlord are one of the few bands that is just as good as their predecessors.

Above and beyond their previous bands, you can discern the Screeching Weasel influence pretty easily. No slow songs, no ballads and one cover. All pretty bad-ass. They have re-recorded Three To The Beach in a not altogether displeasing manner, but from where I'm sitting, it's better on the split with Chinese Telephones. Quibbling aside, Dream Homes is out today via the lovable Floridians of No Idea Records. If you don't already have it, you may purchase via this handy link.

R

Shorebirds - It's Gonna Get Ugly pt. II: the review

It's been deposed of late by The Hold Steady, but in past years the heights of my obsessions in the rock world have revolved around my dear departed Jawbreaker. I heard a lot of the first Jawbreaker record quasi-osmotically by living next door to (the only JS-NYC follower) David's then-girlfriend my freshman year of college and was re-introduced to Unfun (and the Whack and Blite EP) by whatever member of Stigmata sold the Shredder reissue to me by mistake instead of the first Jawbox record at Music Shack. How any ear-possessing humanoid could hear the opening Want and not fall in love with Jawbreaker or Chris Bauermeister's bass playing is beyond me.

My love for all the post-Jawbreaker projects has lead me down a lot of paths (Jets To Brazil, Horace Pinker, Whysall Lane) but the most satisfying of late has been Olympia, Washington's Shorebirds. They have split already, leaving a couple 7"s and this full-length It's Gonna Get Ugly. Christ, is this a good fucking record. This is Top 10 for 2008 for sure over at JS-NYC. The band featured Jawbreaker bassist Chris Bauermeister and was helmed by ex-Latterman guitarist Matt Canino, who also released it on his own Rumbletown label. He also appears to be a bike punk, which will never detract from a band in my eyes. I need to go back and check out the Latterman stuff, but between this record and the Iron Chic demo, I haven't had a chance to look back. If both Matt and Phil were bringing their A game like they seem to on these releases, I can see why kids were so bummed when Latterman split up.

So about It's Gonna Get Ugly. It's 12 songs in 27 minutes and all of it, if I may use technical jargon, fucking rips. Bauermeister is mixed way up front, barrelling through the tracks like a freight train. Canino's got a good Wollard meets Smalley voice that suits the gritty music nicely. Frankly, I found most of the Oly kids back in the day to be pretty fucking irritating, but if this is the kind of punk rock that's coming out of the deciduous rain forests these days, you can sign me up. I'd put them up there with Banner Pilot and the late Cardinal Sin.

From where I'm sitting, the best track (and, believe me, that is saying something) on It's Gonna Get Ugly is The Ballad of Marvin Heemeyer, a man who was probably on Andrew's radar from the get-go, but is new to me. Either way, props to the late Mr. Heemeyer and his family. That's a hell of a way to go out. It's a bummer that Heemeyer and Shorebirds are gone, both parties were formidable juggernauts. You can see footage of Heemeyer here. Check it out, then pick up the musical equivalent from the good folk of Rumbletowne here. Vinyl only, which is a silly is it is admirable. I can see going the Shellac route of releasing the vinyl before the cd, but this is a record that really needs to be heard, even if it is posthumously.

Canino has hit the ground running and already formed a new band called Reviver that I'm pretty eager to check out. Sadly, they appear to be so DIY as to not have a web presence, but if anyone tracks it down, dash off a missive, will ya?

R