Long Legged Woman
w/ Gasmask & Matchsticks, Hibernation & Swamp Ape
Thursday, February 8 @ Caledonia Lounge
originally published February 7, 2007
Long Legged Woman
Improvised music, from the sublime to the truly awful, is never a haven for the soulless. Lately, there have been multiple improvisers in our scene that come from a rock background, as opposed to, say, a highly trained or classical music background. The crucial difference, formal training aside, seems to be that those coming from rock music are able to take the music seriously without taking themselves seriously. Case in point: Long Legged Woman.
The duo of Gabe Vodicka and Justin Flowers, who released the debut EP 1 several months back, has its Athens roots in the band American Erutrevo, but continuing, musically speaking, in that vein held little interest for both of them. “I think we basically had been getting more and more interested in improvised music," says Vodicka, "through both listening to it and playing it on our own. It's almost an accident we decided to play together one day, and that was around the time when we made that EP. We intended it to be noisy, but didn’t really want to define any parameters for it." Vodicka says that currently the group's music represents half-compositions and half-improvisation. “The EP 1 was completely improvised and we did that live for a little while and then completely improvised. We had a basic structure we wanted to follow. Lately though, we’ve been writing songs. Right now, it’s probably 50/50.”
The pair plans to release another EP this year on the new label Thor's Rubber Hammer, run by former Athenian Lars Gotrich. The record has two tracks, which run approximately 20 minutes each, that Vodicka describes as “noisy, droney and spacey.” The first time I saw Long Legged Woman, the group was performing a creative filleting of John Lennon’s “Working Class Hero.” If I may twist a phrase, Long Legged Woman is something to see.
Zoroaster
w/ Music Hates You & Christine
Saturday, February 10 @ Caledonia Lounge
originally published February 7, 2007
Zoroaster
If metal is a dish best served loud, then Atlanta’s Zoroaster is a guitar-shaped turkey fresh out of the amplifier oven, basted with drum sauce and served too-hot-to-handle on a Tolex platter. While Zoroaster's members are clearly students of the Sleep school of heavy metal cuisine (the members of Sleep having been ardent disciples of the methods of Black Sabbath), the rattling of eye and teeth that Zoroaster delivers to those standing in the right spot in the audience is an experience that merits the short trip away from your home stereo.
Expect repetition of detuned, super-slow and cranked-up blues-rock riffs in the style of the ancient masters. This is music that is as much for blissing out in the corner as it is for headbanging. “Stoner” rock, some call it, but the effect of the music can be druggy enough on its own. As evidenced at a show last November at Repent, new drummer Dan Scanlan gives the songs a much greater propulsion in the live setting than what they achieve on Zoroaster’s self-titled debut EP, which was recorded before Scanlan joined. Almost in spite of the fact that I’ve personally declared that volume, on its own, should no longer be considered a virtue, I found my hair swinging and my air guitar blazing throughout much of that show.
In the old days, Metallica was known for being an excessively loud band, and it attributed this loudness to a desire to keep people from talking over the band's music. I can’t say for sure if Zoroaster shares this aspiration, but be forewarned that this is not a show for the idle socialite, and these guys do not have swoopy haircuts or dreams of MTV2. Bring earplugs, or you bring infernal death upon your pillaged ears!
Tiger! Tiger!
w/ Dan Melchior und Das Menace, 8-Track Gorilla & the Love Handles
Saturday, February 10 @ Little Kings
originally published February 7, 2007
Tiger! Tiger!
The prolific and richly charismatic Buffi Aguero brings Tiger! Tiger! to Little Kings on Saturday, Feb. 10. Known for a long time mainly as that deadly cool Atlanta drummer chick from the Subsonics, over the years she has driven various projects, including the White Lights and the Vendettas, all of which were heavily influenced by '60s girl groups and rock-and-rollers. These bands have always been interesting, if sometimes more fun to watch than listen to. However, with Tiger! Tiger!, Aguero hits her stride.
With a refreshing dollop of confident restraint, Tiger! Tiger! hurls a cohesive sonic menace that equals Aguero's tough-girl image (one that looks as if this chica could cut ya just as easily as flash ya that infectious ruby-red smile). Joined onstage by Shane Pringle on lead guitar, sax and vocals, Susanne Gibboney on bass and vocals, Sam Leyja on organ and Mario Colangelo on drums and vocals, Aguero snarls her vocals and phrases her lyrics in a sparse manner reminiscent of both Lou Reed's Velvet days and the style of modern U.K. garage-punk doyenne Holly Golightly. With one album on the shelves - 2005's Collisions - and another in the can for release later this year (both courtesy of Texas-based Chicken Ranch Records), Tiger! Tiger! rocks hard in a darkly bouncy way.
Raising the difficult question of just who should headline, Dan Melchior und Das Menace also joins the fray. A U.K. transplant residing in Durham, NC, he emerges from the loins of the Medway scene made most recently famous by Jack White's fandom. Melchior has played with both Golightly and Billy Childish, and he infuses his own sound with hypnotic, primal blues; his appearance is a rare treat, and well worth a Saturday night.
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