Ohmpark.com > Reviews

I Heart Lake Trout


Photo by Laura Germida

If i had to pick the most underrated band of the last decade, I would probably go with Lake Trout. I first got exposed to them near the end of my short raver phase. I was getting bored with the way most electronic music held so rigidly to sub-genre definitions, and I wanted to find people who were taking those sounds, especially the rhythms of Drum ‘n’ Bass, and applying them in more dynamic music. I stumbled across this Baltimore, Maryland outfit who combined DMB dance music with a free-jazz jamband sort of approach, and loved what I heard. I picked up their live record, featuring DJ WHO called Alone At Last, saw some live shows, and became a fan.

After a while i moved on to new music and forgot all about Lake Trout until I caught them at Voodoo Fest in 2004. During the time I wasn’t paying attention to them, they completely retooled their sound from their previous primarily instrumental, long songs, to a Radiohead influenced brand of indie rock. This stark departure seemed to alienate their hippie/raver-centric fanbase, but the change of direction helped them go from a good band to a truly great band. Their last two albums, Another One Lost (2003) and Not Them, You (2005) are two of the best records to come out in their respective years. Had they released these instant classics in today’s super-hype-blog days, they would probably have blown up, but they were a band just a few years before their time and have remained a hidden gem for lucky listeners like myself. For those of you not familiar, jump on the bandwagon:

Lake Trout : Not Them, You : Riddle

Lake Trout : Not Them, You : King

Lake Trout : Another One Lost : Another One Lost

Lake Trout : Another One Lost : Bliss

Without a recent album or tour, I had sort of forgotten about these guys again, but I just learned they have been rather busy. They have all been working on side projects, and three of the members have been part of UK based UNKLE’s touring band. Lake Trout’s James Griffith actually co-wrote most of UNKLE’s last album, End Titles…Stories For Film.

Also, coming early next year, Lake Trout will be a releasing a live album complete with unreleased songs and golden oldies. They will be releasing the album through an experimental distribution method via The Biggest Label Ever. It is a record label centered around a website consisting of free music supported by advertising, and Lake Trout’s record will be the first they release when they launch next year. Until then, they have other free music available on their website, including a new song, and they are streaming both of their most recent albums there as well, so go soak it up:

Lake Trout website

What Up In The ATL?

This is one of the last big weeks for shows this year, and the biggest show is Broken Social Scene Wednesday night at Variety Plahouse. Tickets were still available at the time of this post, but I would suspect this will sell out at any moment. Friday has a ton of great concerts, but I highly recommend catching Castanets at The Drunken Unicorn. And while I rarely mention Athens shows in my listings, the Danielson show at the 40 Watt eclipses anything else going on in this state Saturday night.

Best Shows in Atlanta November 17 - 23:

Tuesday:

Fag Static, The Sunglasses, Drunkdriver, Skin Problems, High Marks @ WonderRoot

Wednesday:

Broken Social Scene, Land Of Talk @ Variety Playhouse

Thursday:

Neil Halstead (Slowdive, Mojave 3), Long Knives @ The Earl

Friday:

Miles Benjamin Anthony Johnson, Castanets, The Meeks Family @ Drunken Unicorn

Noot D’ Noot, All The Saints, Coathangers @ The Earl

Dropsonic, Lay Down Mains, Whores @ Star Bar

Dragonforce @ The Tabernacle

King Khan & BBQ Show, The N.E.C., Barberries @ Lenny’s

Saturday:

Quintron And Miss Pussycat, Carbonas, Hawks @ Eyedrum

Danielson @ 40 Watt (Athens, GA)

Sunday:

Subtle, Zach Hill (Hella, Marnie Stern), Lyonnais @ The Earl


Kevin Drew (Broken Social Scene) : Cocaine Skin
Brendan Canning (Broken Social Scene) : Love Is New
Danielson : Animal In Every Corner
Castanets : Glory B
Zach Hill : Toll Road
Neil Halstead : Oh Mighty Engine

The Fest 7: On The Road With Sorry No Ferrari

Gainesville, FL. November 1st-2nd, 2008

The weekend before last, I rode along with Atlanta instrumental rockers Sorry No Ferrari for their performance at The Fest, a punk music festival in Gainesville, Florida. I woke up very early Saturday morning after a long Halloween night to ride along with the three fourths of the band I didn’t really know, but between naps I had plenty of conversation with them about things including music, the history of the band, and barbecue. This was actually the first show with their new drummer, Jonathan Balsamo, so there was lots of getting to know each other between the band as well. We were trying to get to The Fest in time to catch fellow ATLiens Benard, but we got there a few moments too late. So we went to the biggest venue of the fest, which was a bit smaller than Variety Playhouse, to catch Atom & His Package. It was a one-man-punk-band who seems to be a pretty big deal in the punk universe, but very much not my thing.

After that we headed to a tiny venue called 1982 to catch the local Gainesville band whose house we were staying at, Giuseppe. The venue had lots of very old gaming systems hooked up to the TVs on the bar, so I played some Dr. Mario and drink PBRs with the SNF folks for a bit. Giuseppe took the small stage and rocked the house:

After that I jumped around to different venues to see some shows, but didn’t see anything too special. So I joined SNF for some food and drinks and drunken music discussions/debates. The band I was most excited about catching down here was Pegasuses XL, an Athens outfit with ties to We Versus The Shark, and they did not disappoint. I’ve really been enjoying their album, The Antiphon, and I will have more on that in a future post, but here is some eye candy from their epic live set:

Click here to read the entire post…

Live Videos: Deerhoof, Experimental Dental School (10/29/08) Asheville, NC

Last week I drove up to Asheville, NC to catch Deerhoof at the Grey Eagle since they weren’t coming to Atlanta. I left in prime time rush hour but was able to make it into the venue and right in front of the stage moments before the first band played. Flying, who was originally on the bill, couldn’t make it because of troubles with their transportation or something, so they had a different opening band along for this tour called Fertile Crescent. They were a guy on guitar and girl on drums, and they were good for an opening band, but there wasn’t much to it. As I was waiting for the next band, I noticed that the crowd in Asheville was extremely young. I don’t think I saw one person other than me without X’s on their hands. Also the style everyone was kicking was a weird hipster/hippie hybrid, lots of dreads and tight pants.

Experimental Dental School came on utilizing the same duo format as Fertile Crescent, except they pulled it of much more impressively. The guitarist had three outputs coming out of his guitar all running to different sets of pedals and what looked like home made amps built in suitcases. You’ll notice in the last video below, some of the members of Deerhoof came out and joined them for their final number.

Deerhoof finished out the show with maybe one of the best shows I’ve seen all year. First, they had smaller and less equipment than any 4-piece band I’ve seen. You could fit everything they brought on stage in the trunk of a hatchback. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a drummer using a minimalistic setup be so impressive. Frontwoman Satomi Matsuzak couldn’t be taller than 4 feet tall, but was full of energy jumping around and dancing while ripping some awesome bass lines. The entire band had such personality on stage, and they played everything flawlessly. Deerhoof is quickly becoming one of my favourite bands, check out some vids:

Deerhoof:


Click here to read the entire post…

Voodoo Music Experince 2008: Nine inch Nails, The Mars Volta, Lil Wayne

Last week we made a last minute decision to go to New Orleans and catch the Voodoo Music Experience this year. We spent most of the trip on Bourbon Street and in the casino, but we did attend Voodoo last Saturday to catch Lil Wayne, The Mars Volta, and Nine Inch Nails consecutively on the main stage, and it was a ton of fun. We arrived a bit late for Lil Wayne’s scheduled time, but luckily he was running behind too. I will say that I did enjoy hearing the songs live, but Lil Wayne was rather unimpressive in person. He seemed like he was stoned out of his gourd, it felt like most of the vocals were pre-recorded, and the set was filled with predictable events like a prayer session and a taking off of the shirt. I rarely enjoy hip-hop live, so I’ll chalk a lot of this up to that, but to sing a song sitting down holding a guitar, and then to never actually do anything with the guitar but let it sit in your lap seems pretty lame

It appeared most of the crowd was there on Saturday to see the hometown acts, and as soon Lil Wayne finally got his mic shut off, most of the crowd took off enabling us to get very close for The Mars Volta. TMV were their typical amazing selves playing mostly newer stuff, and in long, extended jam versions. Cedric seemed angry about something and was taking on-stage lights, his mic stands, and whatever else he could find and smashing them, and even tried to mess up Nine Inch Nails‘ lighting system that hung above the stage for the entire day. While that spectacle is fun to watch, I find myself being fascinated much more by Omar’s forceful conducting through the jam sections. I keep trying to decipher what all of his hand signals denote. It’s unbelievable to me that there are still so many people out there who hate this band because I can’t get enough of them:


Click here to read the entire post…

All Tomorrow’s Parties NY Day 3 (Sunday & Wrap-Up): I Think I’m Gonna Need A Bigger Set Of Earplugs

All Photos by Abbey Braden courtesy of ATP.

Saturday night we got back very late to our hotel so I proceeded to order vodka and cranberries by the handful and shoot as many as possible before the looming last call at the bar. I clearly overshot my target and ended up waking up Sunday with a ludicrously painful hangover to start off the day. Most of the afternoon consisted of me trying recover. It finally subsided and I was able to make it to the very end of the Mercury Rev show. As soon a I walked in the backdoor of the venue, there was like a sonic boom blast of sound from a particularly epic part of their set, and you could tell they had this soundsystem at full blast in anticipation of My Bloody Valentine. I wish I could have seen more of Mercury Rev, because the last few minutes I caught were amazing. I’m about to dig deep into their new CD and their old stuff because i wasn’t familiar with them until now.

We stuck around up front to wait for Yo La Tengo, a favourite for all of our ATP crew. The guards or somebody decided starting on Sunday that they would make everyone leave the venue between each performance and have everyone wait outside, which really seemed rather purposeless. At one point a security guard unsuccessfully tried to get the massive crowd filling an entire room to form two lines to go in and it was hilarious. The guards never cleared out the venue area again after that.

We still managed to get front row, and enjoy their top notch set. I was hoping for a full on noise jam set from Ira Kaplan, and while it ended up being a rather balanced sort of set, full of soft, pretty parts and loud, psychedelic stuff, Ira still shredded plenty enough for me. Yo La Tengo is just one of the best bands of alltime in my opinion, to still be writing relevant, amazing music and playing such impressive live shows after 24 years. Here’s video from their set:

After that, we literally ran across Kutcher’s to the second stage to catch …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead. We missed only a little bit of their great set, and I’m glad I finally caught these guys. In comparison to the rest of the mindblowing shows of Sunday, Trail Of Dead might have seemed a bit less enjoyable, but still could have been the highlight of lesser festival.


Click here to read the entire post…

Live Review: Sigur Ros (9/17/2008) United Palace Theater, New York, NY

Last Wednesday while we were still in New York we headed up to the northwest corner of Manhattan for me to finally see Sigur Ros. The venue was situated in a Spanish speaking neighborhood where all of us Sigur Ros fans stuck out. The venue itself was very cool, it combined the ornateness of The Fox Theater with the massive churchiness of The Tabernacle. We made sure to get in our seats way in the back of the top balcony just in time for the show to start.

We were absolutely positive there was no opener for the show, and being so far back it was hard to tell who was on stage, so when the band started up right after 8pm, we thought it was Sigur Ros. Everyone around us was talking, the band was playing really low key, quiet stuff, way more low key than Sigur Ros, but sounded really similar. Finally near the end of the 35 minute opening set after not being able to recognize a single song, we did some iphone research and realized that it wasn’t a set break for Sigur Ros, but in fact a band called Parachutes had opened for them. We had totally punked ourselves. Parachutes weren’t bad, but they sounded like a watered down version of the headliner.

So then Sigur Ros came out as a 4 piece. Apparently this tour is the first time in a very long time they performed without other musicians on stage. Despite being without the other instrumentation, it didn’t feel like their sound was too thin or minimalistic or anything. They blasted the room loudly at all of their many climaxes, and it sounded great. The show was pretty much everything I thought it would be. They played a great set that included almost everything I could have asked for, and it all sounded flawless. I would like to see them again in the future with the added strings and marching band and all of that spectacle, but none of that took away from this brilliant performance.

Setlist:
[Total Time 1:55:40]
01 Svefn-G-Englar
02 Glósóli
03 Ny Batteri
04 Fljótavík
05 Við Spilum Endalaust
06 Hoppípolla
07 Með Blóðnasir / Svo Hljótt
08 Heysátan
09 Viðrar Vel Til Loftárása
10 Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur
11 Sæglópur
12 Hafsól
13 Gobbledigook
14 [encore break]
15 All Alright
16 Popplagið

You can get the entire show in mp3 or FLAC here.

Awesome photos here

All Tomorrow’s Parties NY Day 2 (Saturday): This Festival Is Cool And All, But I Sure Wish Jack Johnson Was Here

Just Kidding. I noticed in the programs/schedules we got that they joked about a big thing that set ATP apart from other festivals being “that no one selected or even wanted Jack Johnson“, and if you read this blog regularly, you know I can appreciate that sentiment.

We stuck around until last call at the bar at The Raleigh Friday night, so the first band I was able to catch on Saturday was the end of Growing’s set. The 10 minutes or so I saw, I thought sounded great. I’ll be looking hard into this noise jamming duo now. After that I gave a short listen to The Drones and Wooden Shjips, but neither was really up my alley. I watched Fuck Buttons next, and damn their set was serious. I listened to their album and thought it was decent but it didn’t really hit me as something special, but catching them in a live setting totally sold me on these guys. The two dudes used all sorts of cool devices stacked on a table including a toy mic audio recorder sent through some interesting effects resulting in sweet distorted vocals. Their sound came off to me somewhere between Holy Fuck and Indian Jewelry, which is a great place to be.

After that I decided to start partying and enjoying the facilities. The resort ATP was being held on was kitschy and weird, and at first seemed like sort of a dump. But around the second day we were starting to appreciate how cool a venue this actually was. It was really nice to have an entire resort completely to ourselves, and often times you would see the artists walking around, catching shows, and hanging. We hung out in their children’s playground for a bit and tried out some strange playground equipment I had never seen before. We hung out by the pond with all of the drinkers and smokers and chilled. The place had a lot of amenities, but was crappy enough that a festival crowd couldn’t do too much damage to it. Well, they probably could.

Anyways, I checked out about half of Edan’s set, and that was really good. I’ve found myself getting really bored of hip-hop these days, a genre I used to love. I mean, the new Lil’ Wayne is incredible and all, but it is still pretty much the same old thing rappers have been doing for 20 years. But Edan and his partner for this show Dagha brought some originality to the game. I particularly liked how they utilized a delay pedal to accent certain syllables instead of having a “hype man” yell the last word of every line. Another trick I enjoyed was when Edan did a rap referencing all types of classic records while Dagha would shuffle through them and display each record he was referencing. I love a show that can be fun to watch and exhibit feats of musicianship and skill at the same time.

I did some more partying, caught a little bit of OM, thought it was cool but I wasn’t really in the mood for it, then did some more partying. Next up for me was Low. They really impressed me because I only liked a few of the songs from their last record, but they were making me love absolutely every minute of their “slowcore” set (which is a funny yet accurate for this band genre title). The amount of intensity they can can pack inside of such downbeat, soft, and pretty sounding stuff just dazzled me.

By the time Thee Silver Mount Zion Orchestra began their set, I realized I had been partying too hard and could not properly appreciate it. I went and grabbed some food and drink some water, and got myself back to a manageable level of intoxication. I then returned back to the second stage, laid down in the back, and just let the rest Mount Zion’s epic two hour set wash across me. This may have been the show I enjoyed most all weekend. I am about to obtain every bit of material from this project I possibly can and get obsessed for a while, so expect more of that around here. In addition to their top notch music, I loved how the dude would respond to every single bit of crowd heckling and yelling and call people out and talk smack . All around, this show was just: Wow!

I caught the last part of Shellac’s set and felt the same way about it that I did when trying out their records: it wasn’t bad, but nothing amazing. Among many other basic indie rock facts I learned over the weekend, I hadn’t realized this was Steve Albini’s band, and they did a little question and answer part at one point that was interesting. After that Lighting Bolt set up on the ground to the right of the stage with a big circular mirror hanging above them so everyone could see the chaos going on at the center of that sonic tornado. What a day!

I’ll have my Day 3/Wrap-Up post as soon as Biggie C gets all of his photos posted, probably around the end of the week.

Here’s a video of Shellac from ATP NY:

Older Posts »