Planet Creature (Elk / Ohmno / Gentlemen... The King!)
The Piston. Saturday, March 19, 2011.
A return to The Piston's back room, where Planet Creature had celebrated the release of their EP a couple seasons previously. Like before, they invited out a series of like-minded bands to share the night.
The evening started with a quick, five-song set from Gentlemen... The King! that wasn't quite enough to leave an impression of the band's sound. Leading off with a bit of bluesy hullabaloo, there was just guitar and drums for that first song which didn't fit in with the broodier template the band otherwise employed. Joined by a bassist, the music took a darker turn for a couple songs, but the tone they were seeking was best captured in a pair of covers to close the set, including The Smiths' "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" and Echo & the Bunnymen's "The Killing Moon". The latter featured a flashy pair of matching red Epiphone guitars.
That's a different sound that the sleeker, keyboard-enriched tracks that one can find online. Whether this was a bit of a lark of a different direction, I'm not sure, and there's not too many signs of recent activity from the band.
Ohmno seemed unconcerned with grabbing the crowd's attention too much — they even self-effacingly introduced themselves "Crystal Meth on Meth" — and had a decidedly not-in-yr-face musical style. Leading off with instrumental "Fiero", the following "Blue Angels" was half-done before the vocal began. I recognized Tim Okura from Terror Lake — a band which uses a similar we'll-get-to-the-lyrics-eventually approach, though in a much more upbeat way — and some research tells me that the others were previously in Pacific Trash Vortex.
The band's sound is low-slung and locked-in: "we like being droney and minimal," is a fitting self-description. As they picked up steam, a couple of the songs, like "When Yer Dead" and "Chinatown" did have something more like downer-pop momentum. And closer "Beastman Sex Gang" broke from the template by including some stream-of-consciousness style lyrics about people not taking out the garbage and what's going to be for dinner — a bit more off-the-cuff and less laid-back than the rest of the set.
This is the sort of stuff whose goodness is more striking as a delayed reaction than immediate satisfaction, but this is definitely a band worth checking out. There's word of a forthcoming EP1 so keep an eye out for accompanying live dates.
Listen to a track from this set here.
It hadn't been long since I'd seen Niagara-region surf-rockers Elk, but there were signs here of some rapid development. Leading off with one of their best songs, "Sometime Together" had more of a swagger than I recall, stretching out its legs a bit more than it had previously. There's a canny division of labour in the way the vocals are switched off — not just from song to song, but often in the middle of a line.
That the band seemed more comfortable with some of the material underlined just how much new stuff they're incorporating. Some of it was obviously works-in-progress — at least one of the new tunes started off a little wobbly but ended up with a solid bit of musical interplay. Compared to the last time 'round, "Rock and Roll" was more open in its debt to Chuck Berry, and all the better for it. And maybe it had something to do with my disposition, but I was feeling less overwhelmed by the surf beat that has served as the band's default tempo, with songs like "Spin Me Around" showing a more pop/less surf feel.2
Listen to a track from this set here.
Headliners Planet Creature were also eager to show off some of their newer songs, and as they got going, they actually skipped over several older ones bunched at the start of their setlist to get right to the fresh, post-EP stuff. The band is successful at making any show feel like a party with their friends, so it was no surprise here that when they announced that it was Femke Berkout (of The Hoa Hoa's) birthday, they produced a maraca as a gift to entice her to join them on stage for "Das Pirates".
With all their just-go exuberance, it took the band a couple songs to really settle in, but things were sounding good by "Hymns". There was a big step up here with band's harmonies and everything clicked with "My Baby", Kristina Koski's insistent keyboards playing up against Katerina T's needling guitar, like an argument between two friends, constantly egging each other on.
After more of the newer ones (I have them down as "Soup" and "Dolby" – in fact, I think the latter is actually "Derby") the band wrapped things up after a too-quick half-dozen songs. Cajoled to do one more, they produced the brand new "Brand New Ball". Good stuff, but — spoiler alert! — just the first of several confident strides from the band in 2011. As they say, watch this space for further revelations.3
Listen to a track from this set here.
1 For now, you can check out some tracks on their soundcloud.
2 Elk will be in town tomorrow night (Thursday, January 12, 2012), playing with Iron Lungs at The Central.
3 Meanwhile, in 2012, a recent dispatch from the band notes the band has a new bassist on board, an album in the mixing stages, and promises more live dates are on the horizon.
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