Live: MiniBoone with Pretty & Nice at Mercury Lounge 1.11.13

While the love from JS-NYC for Mercury Lounge is both longstanding and unabashed, an early show on a Friday night at 217 Houston is frosting on the rock and roll beater. It's always a pleasure not to have to ride over the bridge to Brooklyn in winter months, but more importantly, I like me some MiniBoone and the drummer has moved his sartorial and tonsorial tendencies from Let It Be to House Of The Holy, making it that much easier to look at him/attend his shows. The band has a new face in the bass slot and has a lot of potential goodness in the breach for 2013, including a new record with the good folk of Ernest Jennings.

I rolled up and got some quality beer time in with said MB skinsman and estimable drummer about town Jim Wood before we caught the Pretty & Nice set. The gents are from Boston and have a sort of Talking Heads/Modern Lovers thing going on that didn't really rock my world, but I am old and cranky and they definitely drew, so take that with a grain of salt. The lovely Marta de The Meaning Of Live showed and indulged me a healthy amount of bass nerdery and we all posted up front and center for the MiniBoone extravaganza. The set was tight as per usual, yet surprising bereft of side kicking from the crew, but asses were a-shaking and good times seem to be had by most. I'm excited to hear what the discriminating rockers about this fair country think about the boys. I understand there is a fairly ambitious touring schedule in the offing, including SXSW, so look out for the record and this merry band of miscreants in a town near you very soon.

Keep track of Mini-Boone here.

R

Live: MiniBoone and The Meaning Of Life at Cake Shop 9.6.12

MiniBoone have been on the JS-NYC radar for a bit. Drew had got me out to a show a couple years ago that I was really not into, an unfortunate eventuality only complicated when he upped the ante and joined the band recently. This Cake Shop show found our hero playing for the openers The Meaning Of Life as well, so I posted up early-ish to catch their set as well.

The Meaning Of Life are actually pretty damn good. They are a three-piece, with a lady singer that also plays bass. They have 80s Brit thing going on, like many of their Brooklyn contemporaries, but they are good with it. Some signal chain issues on the guitar expressionist's part hampered things a bit, but I was pretty impressed with them musically. Hot ladies with Rickerbacker basses never hurt either. Check them out here.

I bailed on the band in-between and showed up just as MiniBoone jumped off with their last set with their current bass player. Once I acclimated to the sheer magnitude of the white-guy dancing that erupted in front of me upon their first downbeat, I was pretty pleased (read: relieved) that Mini-Boone kind of brought it. The pronounced volume of curious side kicks dispensed at pertinent points during the set by the various standing members may have asserted the point. Mini-Boone have a Talking Heads meets Soul Coughing absurdist NYC pop thing going on that is pretty engaging, with a tight rhythm section and catchy Africa by way of Brooklyn guitar interplay that do get the asses shaking. I'm not crazy about the three different vocalist thing they have going, nor the instrument swapping, but it should be pointed out that I am a cranky intolerant old man and also seemed to be very much in the minority in the Cake Shop basement.

Scuttlebutt is that there is a new MiniBoone record looming ominously in our future. Go here to keep track of when you might see/hear it and with the help of whom.

R

Live: Boy King Island @ Pianos 11.3.11 early

Drew was playing a(nother) new band and was pretty big on it, but I had been lazy as hell in checking them out. This show rolled around and was in the neighborhood, plus Jim had sent me a link and I was pretty enthused at the prospect of seeing a little bearded guy pound the hell out of vintage drum kit before I ran down the block to catch a big bearded guy pound the skins with Vagina Panther.

More on that later. I rolled into Pianos and immediately ran into one of the staggering number of Moms I meet at 1 year old birthday parties in this day and age, exchanged pleasantries and then hit the main room as the rest of Boy King Island (heretofore to be referred to as BKI, as the name reminds me much of Davey Von Boehlen and his Boys Who Climb Trees emo extravaganza) were setting up. I'm not too familiar with Jesse Rifkin the guy who leads BKI and half-think he had a solo thing on under a band name previously, but he's evidently got a little bit of a name for himself. He's got a Jay Reatard look going on and is evidently no stranger to a Nudie Suit.

Nudie wear is rarely a bad idea, and let's say from the jump that Boy King Island are a really fucking strong band, but there's a weird costume thing going on with the band. Perhaps wearing a Road Warrior vest is what enables the ridiculous guitar-osity that Ben Seretan served hot for the duration, and if that is the case so be it, cause its fucking working, but the songs are all way too solid to be distracted by overt costumery. They are part of a larger psychedelic vibe BKI are putting out, with tape loops and visual stuff going on. Now that I think about it, its kind of a Flaming Lips aesthetic, without the frat-douche vibe or silly Pink Floyd wankery. Rifkin is no Pavoratti, but the voice matches the sound and the sound is well worth hearing. A bit jammy at times, but with song structure (and chops) to back it up, Boy King Island are a band to see. Keep track of BKI here and look for a record soon.

R