Show Worthy 7/27 - 8/2

Benjamin Nelson on Rare Frequency via
Monday, July 27
Benjamin Nelson & Brandon Terzakis at Weirdo Records (donate, 8:00, all ages)
Nelson + Terzakis = prepared guitar + chord organ = sign me the fuck up


Quits
Friday, July 31
Magic People, Life Partners, Quits at Jacques Cabaret ($10, 8:30, 21+)
Magic People are fucking weird. But in a totally awesome way. Industrial minimal punk doom with a dose of hilariously absurd lyrics. Not too sure about Life Partners... But Quits are Wayne Rogers and Kate Village from Major Stars plus some crazy man on drums and they just fucking shred. No songs. Just insane psych meltdowns. Also, Kim Phuc might be playing?



Andrew Eckel via
Saturday, August 1
Andrew Eckel, Steve Walther at Lilypad ($10, 7:00, all ages)
Remember Eckel? The guy that did the crazy ass Make A Laser Sound? Now you can see that wacky shit live and I can pretty much guarantee that his live show will be just as awesome as the record. He'll be playing piano and joined by Jonah Sacks on cello and Louisson playing bass.



Max Lord by Jane Wang via
Saturday, August 1
Graveyards, Greg Kelley & Jason Lescalleet, Ghost Grass at Wire Sounds (donate?, 8:00, all ages)
I think Graveyards is normally John Olson, Chris Riggs, and Ben Hall but this incarnation includes Vic Rawlings on cello/electronics. Kelley & Lescalleet do amazing trumpet/tape stuff. And Ghost Grass is Max Lord, who's hosting the show at his loft in Downtown Crossing. He does awesome electronics shit with all sorts of crazy synthesizers and whatnot. This show is going to be killer. I know there's a lot of other things going on Saturday night but I think this one is where all the cool kids will be.




Saturday, August 1
Friends Forever Fest at Chatham Village Hall ($5, 4:00, all ages)
If you're going to be anywhere near South Chatham on Saturday, there's an awesome little fest going down with a bunch of cool bands. Totally worth it just for Animal Hopistal and Peace, Loving but there's also Total Bolsheviks (ambient coolness), Dead Rambler (folk/haunting/acoustic/etc), Brava Spectre (screechy psych nasty tribal stuff), Western Syndrome (high speed brutal punk metal), and The Zookeepers (totally awesome catchy indie pop with a free album). Lots of fun should be had. 3 rules though. "No drinks. No dope. No bad vibes." Easy enough, right?



Sore Eros via
Sunday, August 2
Sore Eros, Eat Cloud, Youngest at Great Scott ($8, 9:00, 18+)
Ducktails and Oneohtrix Point Never were originally scheduled for this show which would have made it 100% epic. They hand to cancel for whatever reason but this show is still mostly epic. All the info for the new lineup is somewhere on Lemmingtrail which at the moment is switching servers so I can't give you all the details. I know a Prince Rama side project is supposed to play, and that may or may not be Youngest. But Sore Eros is super great chill stuff from CT and Eat Cloud does hypnotic poppy electronics from Providence. So this show is still gonna rule. And there's also a little daytime thing happening around the corner at O'Brien's with Station Wagon and Kilojoule around 2:00 for $5. I think they're trying to incorporate both shows into one "event." Kinda weird but whatever. That just means more good tunes.
Update: Prince Rama side project is Prince Llama, features members of Prince Rama, Concord Ballet Orchestra Players, more. Also, Coralcola has been added. Fuck yeah dude. This shit just got real.

Andrew Eckel - Make A Laser Sound (self released, 2009)

Andrew Eckel - Scene On A Beach


This Andrew Eckel character is special. I can honestly say I've never heard anything like Make A Laser Sound. Ever. It's got me thinking Beck at his weirdest, mixed with some Ben Folds, and lots of Barr. The craziness and absurdity found in Barr's songs are definitely shining through on Laser Sound. It's like fucked up funky trip hop with spoken word and a million outrageous sounds packed into a single song.

I feel about this record the way I did when I first listened to Barr. I kinda didn't like it because it's not easily recognizable as "good" music. It sounds like some 15 year old just grabbed every instrument he could get his hands on and had fun in Garageband. And I actually wondered whether or not Eckel was serious. Could Make A Laser Sound just be a huge joke?

But again, as the same as it was with Barr, multiple listens revealed the genius. And it's not the type of genius that can be easily explained. The only thing that can be said about it is it's sincerity. Eckel had a vision and went with it, disregarding any and all rules. I have no idea what his vision was but I can tell you the end result is a great piece of work. I gotta say, I'm really glad Laser Sound exists. For some reason, it just makes me really happy.