Fake July

You may notice that we have a disproportionate number of posts about the Mae Shi. This is not because we are obsessed with the Mae Shi. I'm not, at least. Not sure about Jake. Anyway, this is only tangentially related, and I'll show you how in a minute.

Last night I was in my car, driving somewhere (we do this a lot in California), and listening to KFJC. It's one of the most worthwhile stations I know of, even though it gets boring sometimes since you pretty much NEVER hear anything you've ever heard before. They played a song by the Gowns, and I made sure to pay particular attention since the announcer mentioned it included members of the Mae Shi. Gowns sound absolutely nothing like the Mae Shi, in case you were wondering, or in case you wanted me to say that name again. Maybe we should just name this blog "Gathering Evidence About the Mae Shi."

Here is a graphical representation of how the people in Gowns are related to other projects. Sorry, it is hard to read. I suggest clicking on the image:

Gowns are more whispering, less screaming than the Mae Shi. Luckily, they also use synthesizers occasionally. But not in an obvious way. This would make sense, as Ezra's dad pretty much invented the synthesizer. No shit! Check this Youtube video. That is all sort of besides the point because I think the Gowns are more folky than electronic-y.

I "acquired" the Gown's album, Red State, immediately upon returning home to further investigate. I love the internet. I say this everyday; that is how much I love it.

I think the first song on Red State kind of sucks. It's called "Fargo," as in North Dakota, and is that talk-singing that many people can't pull off well because it's sort of intimate in a bad way and reminds me of bad acting. It sounds to me like Erika Anderson (who is one third of the band) doing a bad impression of Kim Gordon reading a poem with a bit of music in the background. But don't worry, that song is short enough and then the rest of the songs come and you might like those ones better. I did.

I can't find a link to any of the songs I want you to hear, so maybe you should just go to their myspace page if you're interested.

Back

But not with the critical survey of polyrhythms in late-period Stereolab I know you’ve all been waiting for. More on that later.

For now, I’d like mention that if you can’t get to the Mae Shi, the album to hear is 2004’s Terrorbird. Hard to describe the music…spaz rock ? ADD-core? The songs are short & frenetic, constantly shifting meters, keys, styles, and played with a sort of athletic fervor that makes one feel slightly unhealthy at home in headphones. The only thing I can think to compare is Zorn's Naked City.

Pitchfork accuses the boys of posturing; I’m with Alice – I couldn’t imagine them doing anything else.

we love the mae shi

We do. Jake and I. Both of us. For good reason(s). That's one of the topics I can post about.

But first, in response to Jake's first post, I don't have anything "planned" and he knows it. This is technically his blog, not mine, and he just told me to post alongside him so his grammar looks better, his thoughts look more profound, and people think he's more popular than he is.

I will not write about music all the time. If you know us at all (and, as he mentioned, you do) you can rest assured such popular topics as pedophilia, suicide, my dog, and gay porn will all come up at some point too.

Back to The Mae Shi, I went to see them Sat. (6/2) at the Bottom of the Hill in San Francisco upon Jake's suggestion (as you'll see, all this gets pretty self-referential. I don't have that many friends. Not like Jake. Did you catch his use of the word "variedly"?).
They played before The Mall who went on before Matt and Kim. The Matt and Kim part seemed totally incongruous, but I can't comment on that because I left before they went on. More on being old and jaded in future entries. I mention the order because there were a ton of people there anyway. That sort of thing just reinforces my preference for San Francisco audiences over New York ones.

I will not spend too much time talking about how great the Mae Shi were, but they did a lot of things right. They just sort of emerged out of the audience for the first song, which they all sang while walking around us without mics or anything. I am a huge sucker for bands in which everyone sings (see Jake's upcoming post on Grizzly Bear), as well as for bands who appear to be having an incredible time when they're playing, like they couldn't possibly be doing anything else because it just wouldn't make sense. It was loud, and that felt good. People clapped during the songs without encouragement, and sometimes made weird loud noises (also a good sign). The transition to the new singer (who is called Jonathan) was fairly seamless as far as I could tell, being just a random audience member who never saw them with the old singer (who is called Ezra), but who has two of their records and was fairly curious to see how that would turn out.

Also of possible note: at some point Jonathan got to mess around with that synth they made that responds to bright lights. Cool. Plus, they changed into (and out of) all white outfits at some point during the set, making this the second time this weekend I've seen band members change on stage. What's the deal with that?
One concern though, are they making a lot of religious references? This makes me uncomfortable.

Thanks to Leslie Hampton for the photo. More can be found at her Flickr site