Friday.7.September.2007

Fernandina, Citified, The Yum Yum Tree, The Press, Lay Down Mains, All Night Drug Prowling Wolves

Review

Of all nights for The Other Sounds Festival, Friday night was the evening with the lowest expectations. It's not that I really expected any particular badness. Rather, outside of The Yum Yum Tree, I had not seen any of the acts featured. Nevertheless, I had heard good things about several of the bands, so I was a bit psyched to see how it all turned out.

Shortly after we got to the EARL, the four piece Fernandina took the stage. Fronted by a female vocalist with an acoustic guitar, they played a Sugarland-influenced type of country. By this, I mean that the twang was at a minimum and the lead singer, who apparently was new to Atlanta , sang forcefully about subjects outside of hounds, whiskey, and her cheating boyfriend. Of course, some of this smoothness may have been due to the fact that the three backing musicians were apparently not usually part of the band. Still, they all blended together well. And I was quite impressed by the backing guitarwork, which added a nice flavor to what could have seemed obvious. Truly, this was not my thing, but it wasn't hard to listen to and, with the shortish set, I didn't grow bored with what Fernandina had to offer.

Fernandina: country in red leather.

I found Fernandina to be something i had to tolerate. Ugh. Why do people still make this kind of music? Tracers was able to predict the subject matter of each song from the first few lyrics. That kind of annoyed me -- not her predictions, but the fact that the music was so predictable.

In fairly short order, another band, Greensboro North Carolina's Citified, came out. They were another four piece, with guitar/vocals, bass, drums, and another guitarist who occasional played a moog-like keyboard setup. This band had a nice heavy low-end sound, which could probably be attributed some interesting basswork and thudding drumming. Over it all, the vocalist had a gentleness about his higher-pitched voice, which belied his look. Seriously, his vocals were absolutely delicate, with slightly Stipe-ish air. Taken together, the music had a bit of Death Cab for Cutie (circa Something About Airplanes) in its sound, but without the underlying mope that always has characterized that band. I mean, by the end of their set, I was thinking that Citified was so very happy that I couldn't criticize them. It'd be like kicking a puppy or something.

Citified played well enough to earn a biscuit.

This band was an inoffensive pop act. A few of their tunes were interesting, and in general it was well played. Not exciting, but not bad.

Truth be told, though, after all that sweetness and light, I was quite pleased to see The Yum Yum Tree take the side stage. A three-piece band that seems like it's been around forever, on this evening they had a newly added fourth member. Believe it or not, this made a huge difference to their sound. Previously, with the hard basswork of vocalist Andy Gish and the heavy guitar/drum backing it all, The Yum Yum Tree has always felt a little on the intense side. On this evening, though, with new fourth member Michelle Friedman adding some guitarwork and backing vocals, their sound seemed fuller and richer than I've ever heard previously. More specifically, Friedman's occasional accents with acoustic guitar gave The Yum Yum Tree a true middle range which played against their usual heavy sound. If this trend continues as the band releases its forthcoming album (and I've heard that it will), I'll certainly listen and enjoy The Yum Yum Tree's growth and evolution.

Gish and Friedman duet in The Yum Yum Tree.

Ms. Friedman is everywhere these days -- she also played with Mary O. Harrison on the previous night of the festival. I have to agree with Tracers -- the addition of a second guitar and female backing vocals has fleshed out Yum Yum Trees sound in a very delightful manner. Tonight, they rocked the side stage at The EARL, and they rocked it well.

It was around this point that I noticed something odd going on around us. As we stood against the side wall of The EARL, still enjoying The Yum Yum Tree, a group of older people came in and gathered towards the front of stage. As far as I could tell, at least one of them was a parent of a member of the upcoming band. In and of itself, this is not that remarkable.

That is, not that remarkable until The Press came on stage. You see, The Press came out shirtless, with various things scrawled on each person's respective chest. I couldn't read the message, but then again I have notoriously bad eyesight. Furthermore, each man had a hot pink hair band, and two of the members wore cheesy, fake moustaches (think Freddie Mercury).

A shirtless Press.

I think there was a schtick going on, but I'll be damned if I can figure it out. Additionally, the music of this four piece was a little hard to describe. My original notes (written maybe two songs in) said they played fairly straight-up indie pop, with a catchy quirkiness about it. Yet later on, I thought I heard a little bit of Queen (there's the Freddie Mercury thing again) with a wee touch of Gringo Starr. At other times, they was a little bit of a rockabilly in the air, with some of the lyrical humor of Pain to boot. Still, any way you look at it, I thought they were quite entertaining and fun. In retrospect, I'm still not sure how you would describe The Press, outside of saying they were really good and I certainly would go see them again, if only to try to figure out exactly what I think of them.

I could see the things they had scrawled on their chests with sharpies, and it didn't make any more sense. (For example, the bassist had a picture of a gun, that ended in a knife, and had a Unicorn Horn on it. The thing was titled "Knifegun" and i only know it was a Unicorn Horn because text pointed that out.

So they were strange. But the music was generally catchy and enjoyable.

After The Press finished, and they played to a quite full crowd, people began to leave. And this was a shame, as Lay Down Mains came on to the side stage. I couldn't get through the crowd to see them, but from where I stood, it was clear that they played Punk! Rock! Hardcore! Now, I don't know about you, but I do like me a good hardcore band. And I'll tell you up front, Lay Down Mains are a good hardcore band. They were loud, fast, a little math-y, and a heck of a lot of fun. Admittedly, my frame of reference goes back (mumble, mumble)…ahem…years, but I don't think I've had that cathartic of an experience since the last time I saw Hex Error play. More than any other band on this evening, when Lay Down Mains left the stage, I wanted them to come back and play some more.

Lay Down Mains in action.

When Lay Down Mains started, Tracers and i were standing at the wall furthest from the side stage. A few seconds in, i grabbed my camera and headed off to get some photos. I snuck to the front and noticed a strange thing: Ben Davis (ex - Purkinje Shift, Moreland Audio, Home of the Wildcats) had a mic and was screaming out some lyrics while a three piece band thrashed around him. Hell yeah! Davis only sang on that first song, but he stood to the side nodding and tapping his feet for the rest of their performance.

Ben Davis rocks the mic for Lay Down Mains.

Finally it was the time for the headliner: All Night Drug Prowling Wolves. Now, I don't know about you, but even though I had never seen them previously, I was already kindly disposed toward a band that takes it names from my absolute favorite song by The Clash, White Man in Hammersmith Palais. Seriously, they probably could have come out and played Styx covers and I'd still be happy.

I would like to second the call for a Styx Tribute Band. What the world needs now is more Mr. Roboto!

Luckily for me, they were not a Styx tribute band. Instead, not surprisingly, All Night Drug Prowling Wolves (See? Doesn't it just trip off the tongue?) played old school punk rock with a bit of a reggae twinge. Admittedly, to my ears, they were less like The Clash and more like Social Distortion. But, that's not a criticism in my world, by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, with the lead singer's gravelly voice and dominating stage presence, I was happy as a clam to bounce and dance and just simply enjoy their music. For the first time in the entire evening, I stopped being a writer for EvilSponge and just became a fan, listening to good music and enjoying watching the musicians having fun playing. In my mind, that's pretty much the definition of a good time, and I was really happy to be a part of it.

"Im the all night, drug prowling wolf ...

... who looks so sick in the sun."

When All Night Drug Prowling Wolves finished, I glanced down at my watch, totally surprised that the night had ended and I hadn't looked at the time once. For an evening that started with such a lack of expectation, the second night of The Other Sounds turned out to be definitely worthwhile.

This night started rather sketchily with some derivative country and some lite pop, but then got hard, fast, noisy, and good. I was very pleased with this evening, and would go see most of these bands again.

Read the entire Other Sound 2007 review:
    Day 1 featuring: Envie, Mary O. Harrison, Pistolero, Moresight
    Day 2 featuring: Fernandina, Citified, The Yum Yum Tree, The Press, Lay Down Mains, All Night Drug Prowling Wolves
    Day 3 featuring: No Disassemble, Silent Kids, Novelift, Jupiter Watts, The Orphins, One Hand Loves the Other, Club Awesome, Luigi
    Day 4 featuring: Chickens and Pigs, Batata Doce, Tenth to the Moon, and Untied States

Band Links:
  Fernandina MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/gowestrock
  Citified MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/citified  
  Yum Yum Tree Website: http://www.theyumyumtree.org/
  Yum Yum Tree MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/theyumyumtree
  The Press Website: http://www.the-press.net/
  The Press MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/thepress  
  May Down Mains MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/laydownmains
  All Night Drug Prowling Wolves MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/allnightdrugprowlingwolves

In addition, some of these acts have been reviewed before. Links within the review point you to the appropriate places.