Anyone who has ever been below the Brooklyn Bridge on the Manhattan side has at least passed through the South Street Seaport. Though it used to be a highly active center of harbor happenings, and also served as the backdrop to one of my favorite scenes from Annie Hall, nowadays, besides the awesome South Street Seaport Museum and a few inspiring tall ships, the Seaport exists mainly, as a nifty looking mall.
As I approached the Seaport for the first time, I was greeted by the dozens of kids on leashes and at least fifteen fanny pack and/or khaki parades, streaming through this once essential New York port, on their way to stuff their faces (as they probably would at home) with eats from Uno’s Chicago Grill, and Haggen Dazs Ice Cream.
When embarking as a tourist, one must be ready for surprises and to an unsuspecting soul, the fifth year anniversary party thrown by super amazing East Village Radio must have come as quite a shock. In the past five years that EVR has been broadcasting for free via the internet, it has come to represent something essential to the idea and ideals of not only New York City, but of communitarian urban life everywhere. In a time of mass gentrification not only here in this city, but everywhere, they have managed to not only survive but thrive, broadcasting 24 hours a day from a tiny storefront on Manhattan’s First Avenue. EVR represents all that can and should be right with radio today and the diversity of the line up at the Seaport show serves as a perfect example of what the station has to offer. You won’t find this stuff playing on a Clear Channel station folks.
Though i could write for at least a Blog’s length about any of the bands that played the Seaport, I will spend this time briefly gushing about my two favorites, not very surprisingly the two bands i came to see;
High Places and Boris.
High Places hail from Brooklyn, New York (as more and more bands I’m digging seem to nowadays) and this was my third time seeing them. The band’s sounds are full of lovely contradictions. The music that they write feels like summertime, but not in a loud, beach party sort of way as on the albums by The Ruby Suns and El Guincho that dropped earlier this year. High Places music is more like a summer you have likely had or are having. Summer to me has always seemed distant, even while I’m in the middle of it. Only as I reach its conclusion do I realize how much has really happened. The music that High Places makes, seems to take hold of this feeling and shape it as their own. As Rob Barber tends childlike, tempest storms of burping and jingling percussion and Mary Pearson sings in her sweet and distanced little voice, you find yourself caught somewhere between a tapping of your feet and an actual swaying of your body. Hooks come and go with the tide and these little re-verb laden songs leave their lines in the sand. As with the other two shows of theirs I’ve been to, only as High Places announced their last song did I realize how long I had been smiling.
The Duo release their first full length album on the 23rd of September and from what i have heard of it, we are in for a treat, however, a compilation of their singles has been available for a while and should be picked up at once to tie you over for the next week or so. I also recommend checking out their BLOGSPOT, since it’s updated often and gives you lots of insight to cool things that you may want to know about Rob Barber, Mary Pearson and the pretty sounds they make together.
Here is some of those sounds for you. Sample and cherish:
High Places-Shared Islands
High Places-From Stardust to Sentience
High Places/Hawnay Troof Remix-Head Spinz
Thank God for Boris. Hearing this band play live makes my bones vibrate in exactly the right way. Hailing from Japan and just getting ready to set out on tour with Nine Inch Nails, Boris’ music is hard to pin down. Their styles swing often violently from mood to mood, stopping to play around with sounds of metal, drone, shoegaze, punk, and very loud psychedelic rock. Their newest album, Smile ( like the Brian Wilson Album in name only ) dropped a few short months ago and effortlessly shows off a great deal of the diversity that Boris is constantly expanding upon. The men in the band; ridiculously awesome drummer Atsuo and no less awesome bass guitar/lead vocalist Takeshi bring a raw energy to the stage that is a force to be reckoned with, but it’s electric guitarist Wata (the only female in the band) who keeps things from falling into the abyss. When the band took things down about 10 notches in the middle of their set to play “Rainbow,” the only song that Wata sings lead vocals on, you could feel the crowd and all of the Uno’s Pizza customers take their first breath in about thirty minutes. Even if loud music isn’t your thing, this is the kind of song that makes you stop and ask someone about who’s playing. “Rainbow” is sort of an extended hand from the band to the audience, a simplified introduction like a puzzle piece revealed, or at least it seems this way until the guitar solo from Takeshi comes screaming out its shoegazy, film noirish surroundings, reminding you once again of what you’re listening to. The song served as the eye of the storm, only giving us a brief chance to catch up with ourselves before quickly being swept away again by gong banging and writhing guitars. Here is a video of the song from a Knitting Factory show a bit earlier this year that I couldn’t get into.
Some Boris tracks that were short enough to upload:
Originally scheduled for the day before the festival ended up going down, but postponed by extremely heavy rains, it is amazing that things went off as smoothly as they did for EVR. With a great increase of historical areas like The Seaport becoming malls of their former selves, it is good to see that this one at least still has the taste and good intentions to bring an event like the East Village Radio station’s to their confines. Somewhere in the middle of the Boris set however, I glanced up to the outdoor dining patio of Uno’s Pizza and tried to imagine for a moment, what must have been running through the heads of all their customers. It is hard for me to think about going out to dine among chain restaurants and stores period, but it’s even harder to imagine someone who enjoys doing just that, being confronted with some of the loudest and least compromising music being played today. It’s nice that EVR still has the balls to shake things up in a city that seems to be settling more and more often for the mass produced and the mundane but ultimately the following day things will return to normal at The Seaport. More leashes on children, more deep dish pizza eaten with adult contemporary playing in the background, and only those marvelous tall ships to add any diversity or uniqueness to the landscape.
Bonus: Because I’m nice here is an mp3 of “Rainbow” as well. You’re welcome.
P.s. If you put this song on while trying to get into someones pants and they don’t let you, chances are you should look for lovin’ elsewhere.
Leave a Comment
No comments yet.
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
