There Was No Sound

Deerhunter @ Mercury Lounge 4/26/2007
(drone) / Cryptograms / (drone) / Wash Off / Dr. Glass / Fluorescent Grey / Spring Hall Convert / Hazel Street / Octet (with vocals) / Strange Lights

Deerhunter “Cryptograms” – Deerhunter’s album Cryptograms has one of the more fascinating sequences in recent memory. Side A alternates between ethereal drones and intense Kraut-punk-shoegazer hybrids before culminating in a cut that seamlessly combines both extremes, and Side B is mostly comprised of songs that sound like they might have been one of the last few tracks on a CMJ New Music Monthly cd back in the early 90s. (Surely I’m not the only one who has noticed that “Strange Lights” sounds a LOT like Guided By Voices circa Alien Lanes.) Whereas Cryptograms wanders around in search of itself, the new Fluorescent Grey EP follows a tight, deliberate trajectory that begins with a state of eerie calmness and ends with a headlong rush into oblivion. It’s a more focused recording, and does more to establish the band’s identity than its eclectic predecessor.

Actually, that’s not quite right. If you want to get an accurate sense of who Deerhunter are, you kinda have to see them play live. The band nail their dynamics in live performance, but they also have an appealing looseness to their interaction that adds a sense of unpredictability to their set. It’s not a shock that the songs from the EP work just as well with the piano parts transposed to guitar, but it is somewhat surprising that the sort of beatless drones that drag on Cryptograms‘ momentum are actually quite compelling in person.

The band themselves have a curious dynamic — the bassist and guitarist on the right side of the stage are both a bit silly and playful, but the singer Bradford Cox is severe, creepy, and theatrical. Cox is very tall and extremely skinny, and he spent most of the show with his face smeared with fake blood and dressed in a white babydoll dress, like a giant undead grandma. He seemed like something David Bowie might have come up with during his coke psychosis phase, and some patient handler would have had to explain to him “No, David, you can’t elongate your body and eliminate all of your fat and muscle mass.” It was hard not to watch him; he seemed totally unreal. (Click here to buy it from AmpCamp.)

Pterodactyl @ Mercury Lounge 4/26/2007
Safe Like A Train / Ask Me Nicely / I Can See A River / Astros / Verbal / Three Succeed / Esses / New / Polio

Pterodactyl “Three Succeed” – It occurred to me about a week ago that the sort of shrieking guitar noises that the band Pterodactyl makes actually come close to the sounds we commonly associate with pterodactyls from cartoons and movies. The group recreate their melodic noise-punk songs very effectively in person, or at least well enough to leave my ears ringing twelve hours later. Though watching them play demystified their playing somewhat by revealing their techniques (ah, that sound in “Three Succeed” is made by sticking a drumstick under the strings above the pickups on the bass, okay…), it’s always a thrill to see a band manhandle their instruments in a way that it seems like there is no way they are actually playing them, and yet very specific sounds are produced. (Click here to pre-order it from Cardboard Records.)

First Nation played a set of what seemed to be entirely new material between Pterodactyl and Deerhunter. I’d never seen First Nation before last night, and so I didn’t really know what to expect; I just knew that I liked a couple songs from their first record. I was pretty down with the first three or four songs, but then their set just kept going and going, and the things that worked well at the start became very grating. They make the best of their technical limitations by settling into simple, mesmerizing rhythms and melodies, but not every song was strong enough to compensate for their flaws as musicians. They are definitely on the right track, though.

Also: Kinda last minute, but I’m DJing with LadyByrd at the Lotus Lounge on Clinton and Stanton tonight.