recording: Peelander-Z

Artist: Peelander-Z

Songs: Ice Cream! + Ninja-High Schooool

Recorded at Comfort Zone (NXNE 2011), June 18, 2011.

Peelander-Z - Ice Cream! + Ninja-High Schooool

My notes for this set can be found here.

NXNE 2011: Saturday (Part 2)

NXNE — North by Northeast Festival, Toronto, 2011.

Saturday, June 18, 2011 – Part 2. Featuring: Peelander-Z, catl, Biblical, Bad Cop, B-17

N.B.: I had written some contemporaneous notes about the festival here. This redux version comes with a few additional observations as I have now had time to properly go through my recordings. Notes on the first part of this long night can be found here.

Midnight: Peelander-Z @ Comfort Zone

After the relatively sedate button-down orderliness I just left, this was a bit of a fun-aneurysm. Walking into a Peelander-Z set already in progress is like picking up volume seven of a manga series, leaving you wondering how the particularly strange scene in from of you came about. Stories of the band's gleefully absurd live shows are legion, so I thought I knew what I was going to get as I hustled down into the Comfort Zone — but this was more than I was expecting. Within the first couple minutes of my arrival there were on-stage costume changes and an invasion by inflatable monsters.

The band was formed and based in New York City, but it's easy to situate Peelander-Z in the trippy technicolour turbo-mindwarp pop culture of Japan, where all the members originally hail from. Or so one story goes. The band counters such facts with their own cosmic origin story, like a Saturday-morning cartoon version of Sun Ra.

And like a cartoon the songs were introduced with title cards, giving the notion that each segment was more of an excuse for madcap audience participation tactics. In that kind of environment, it's somewhat true that the music was secondary, or at least designed to facilitate the sensory overload. But there's no small amount of fun in their Ramones-y velocity rock, especially given how it could stop and spin off in any direction, from hardcore shout-along to bouncy jazz groove.

Audience participation was pretty much mandatory — but hardly something that had to be enforced. Besides singing along — the lyrics were pretty easy to pick up ("Mad Tiger!" "Ice Cream!") — there were tin bowls and sticks passed out to the crowd for percussion as well as a sort of limbo contest where a rope was passed over the crowd at about shoulder level, forcing everyone to duck. Oh, and there was human bowling.

There was so much going on that I couldn't even begin to account for it all here. The set ended with the band picking out members of the crowd to replace them on stage, and at the end, after all the brightly-uniformed members were introduced by their colour-names, the audience was declared to be "Peelander Toronto". This might sound goofy — and maybe it is — but there something so unself-consciously fun about the whole affair that it transcends any such limitations you might put on it. Next time they come around, don't doubt and don't get hung up on words like "gimmick" — just go.

Listen to a couple tracks from this set here.

12:40 a.m.: catl @ Comfort Zone

The sensory overload didn't end there, as catl's side-stage mini-set started as Peelander-Z's last notes were still fading. "Side-stage" is actually a rather generous description, as the trio were simply set up on the floor in the wing leading towards the bathrooms. So there'd be no separation from the audience here, and soon enough keyboardist/vocalist Sarah Kirkpatrick would be dancing in and with the crowd while Jamie "catl" Fleming plowed onward with his locked-in guitar grooves.

Dancing's an important element here. Always a sweaty celebration of the greasy get-down blues, catl succeed in that they re-invest the genre with propulsive hip-shaking energy, here provided by now-departed original drummer Johnny LaRue. And down in the Comfort Zone's dim blacklight depths, the band was in fine form. They'd already played a full set upstairs earlier in the night as well as three previous between-set quickies like this one. Concert promoter Dan Burke — who tends to run his venues more like semi-autonomous parallel events during NXNE — has had a fair few good idea in his time, but catl-powered festival showcases has to be right up near the top of the list.

Though a good chunk of the packed house fled after Peelander-Z finished, there was a good cohort of folks ready to boogie. With twenty minutes to fill between mainstage sets, the band had time for four songs, three of which were extended groovers — leading with the excellent loose-limbed swing of "Hold My Body Down" — plus the frenzied rush of Hasil Adkins' "Chicken Walk". Playing loose and ragged, this felt just superb, a rejuvenatin' burst that gave me a second (third?) wind that carried me through the rest of the night.

Listen to a track from this set here.

1:00 a.m.: Biblical @ Comfort Zone

The Illuminati was the sort of hard rock band that just wasn't on my radar, so it's unlikely that the merits of bassist/vocalist Nick Sewell would have brought me out to see successor band Biblical. I am, however, an enthusiast for all things Steamboat-related, so a band that includes Jay Anderson (drums), Matt McLaren (here on guit) and Andrew Scott (guit/organ) is going to intrigue me, even if they're working on something out of my musical comfort zone. But Biblical has no traces of Steamboat's feel-good soul groove, instead taking its cues from Sewell's propensity for chugging hard-rock. Local stoner-metal titans Quest For Fire come to mind, but take that amped up a couple notches and veering occasionally from Hawkwind-like drift (thanks to Scott's organ work) into Ace of Spaces velocity.

The talented lineup gives the band some room to deviate from mere heavy metal thunder. Musically, they were more than willing to stretch things out, such as on the more groovy/less menacing "Oubliette", which felt like it'd fit in a "no commercials for forty-five minutes!" extended set on the classic rock station. Also, McLaren's smooth lead vocals on a couple tracks (including "Eyes Of Lies") made for a contrast with Sewell's throaty growl. But it's his gruff voice and meaty bass-playing that really stood out here. He was clearly having fun with this, stepping down into the crowd in the slowed-down middle of closer "Nickel & Dime".

Splitting the difference between cough syrup and trucker-grade speed, this was a bad-news boogaloo that had just the right evil late-night lurch. Heavy music is going through one of its periodic critical re-appraisals right now, so there's no reason that this isn't as accessible to PBR-hoisting Pitchfork readers as unrepentant leather jacket-wearin', devil horn throwin' rawk fans.

Listen to a song from this set here.

2 a.m.: Bad Cop @ Silver Dollar

Headed back upstairs to close things out with the late-night rock'n'roll portion of the programme. I got up in time to catch the tail end of Crocodiles' final set of the weekend. There was a packed crowd for that, but as soon as they finished, a lot of people split, leaving plenty elbow room. At this point of the night, the floor was a sticky mess of spilled beer but the no man's land filled back up when Nashville's Bad Cop took the stage.

I had seen them before — well, sort of — but it was hard to really get the measure of the band that time, as lead singer Adam Anyone (who looked a bit like Paul Robinson in The Diodes' heyday) hadn't made it over the border, and the set consisted of instrumentals from the remaining pair. Making it across intact for NXNE, and bringing an adjusted four-piece lineup, this was a whole different story. Still, even after the first song, basically a garage-y rocker, I wasn't sure what I was going to be getting, but as the band got warmed up, the set leaned increasingly to no-frills punk. After a few songs, a paid of balding middle-aged dudes even tried to start their own pit in front of the stage.

They were definitely getting more exciting from song to song, mostly animated by Anyone's stage presence — as the vernacular goes, he gave good face, with animated eyes and constant motion. In fact, it was after he put down the guitar he'd been playing for the first few songs and went full-on frontman that things really took off.

He certainly brought an edge to the proceedings, presenting songs about being "young and stoned" and "doing everything you want, all the time". There was also, as banter, comments like, "this song is about spending most of your childhood in a Tennessee jail. It's called 'Fried by Lightning'". This would have been a perfect match with Teenanger, who'd played the same stage earlier in the night. It turned out to be an exciting and worthy set, so hopefully they'll be able to get back into the country again.

Listen to a song from this set here.

3 a.m.: B-17 @ Silver Dollar

Three in the morning and the bar was even emptier now, and as I walked around between sets bit of broken glass kept getting caught in the treads of my shoes. Given the length of the day, I didn't know if I'd have been able to maintain much enthusiasm for anyone playing a 3 a.m. timeslot, but this was one of my most-anticipated bands of the night. Perhaps a bit unusual for a band playing their debut performance, but B-17 were being billed as an Optical Sounds supergroup, with Action Makes vocalist Clint Rogerson on bass, alongside Nick Kervin (of the Easy Targets) on drums and a pair of Hoa Hoa's (Calvin Brown and Richard Gibson) on guitars.

Gibson handled some of the vox — the split would even up a bit more later on — but here mostly handled the more tuneful guitar parts while Brown threw down with some ace feedback-drenched wah-wah. In their nascent state, the band was well-formed, but not as honed as they'd get over the following year. One got the sense that the DNA of their influences were still being absorbed — a cover of "Real Cool Time" made sense, and there was otherwise a feeling that the songs were still closer to rewrites of covers that the quartet was surely jamming on together while getting their bearings.

There were a couple of the signature songs that would make it to their debut EP (which is now a thing), including set opener "Bad Situation". "Wishing Won't Make It So" at this point didn't have its title or chorus, but its skeleton was there in a set closer listed as "Sabbataph". Like that song, the project as a whole would become sharper and more focused over the months to come — especially as it became clearer that this was more than just a mere side-project — but this was absolutely an auspicious début.

And from there time to stagger home, exhausted, with another year's NXNE complete.

Listen to a song from this set here.

Currente calamo: NXNE 2011 (Saturday)

NXNE 2011 (Saturday, June 18, 2011)

While these shows are fresh in my mind I want to get some quick notes down. I'm a nerd for not wanting to throw my full reviews out of sequence, so there'll be a fuller accounting of the night by and by that'll include all the details on the boat cruise and the hallucinations.

8 p.m.: Cartoons @ Comfort Zone

Thought I'd check out a band called Mode Moderne at Supermarket, but it looked like the venue was running late. When I dropped in right on the hour, an unbilled previous act was still on stage. Not wanting to wait around, I ducked in to CZ to find Cartoons already on stage. As it would turn out, being five minutes late meant I missed about a third of their very brief set. Points for not overstaying their welcome. And while I found the local trio's abrasive, AmRep-styled guitar-skinning to be pretty invigorating stuff, a long set might have been too much of a muchness. On a similar path to METZ, if you're looking to situate the sound a little more. Overheard lyrics: "You're stupid!", "Kill the hostages!".

9 p.m.: Ivan & Alyosha @ Lee's Palace

With that set ending a little early, I figured I could enjoy the evening and walk a bit. I was also adjusting my plans on the fly — a couple things I was interested in were farther afield, and with all of the east-west streetcar lines being fairly unreliable due to downtown events, I wasn't sure I'd be able to get anywhere and back without missing something. I knew I would be headed to Lee's down the line, so I figured I might as well get in there while it was still quiet and see whatever was playing the early slot there.

That turned out to be Seattle's Ivan & Alyosha, a folksy combo that initially made me snidely think that this was the sort of earnest acoustic stuff that I was deliberately avoiding. Four guys lined up across the front of the stage, with an electric guitar, two acoustics and a single floor tom for percussion.¹ Musically, this would fit next to the northwestern rootsy, harmony-laden adult-alternative band of your choice.² That might sound like I'm consigning them to "generically bland" status, and yeah, that was kinda my feeling at first. But as the set went on, they mostly won me over on the strength of their likeable songs. There were some nice touches as well, like the echo-y ruffles during "Easy to Love". They were also genuinely gracious on stage, glad to be sharing their songs, even if it was to a thin early crowd.

10 p.m.: Guards @ Lee's Palace

There was a lot more of a crowd coming in for this NYC group as they set up for what looked to be a more theatrical set. There was a large backdrop with a freemason-ish logo, a lamp on stage topped by a stuffed bird and a smoke machine obscuring everything. The music had a similarly theatrical heft, dabbling in atmospherics of menacing gloom that were mixed with jaunty shots of light.

The most unique element of the band's sound were the little trills provided by an omnichord simmering under everything. It sounded so much like a key part of what the band was doing that I was surprised when vocalist/guitarist Richie Follin casually mentioned the player had never performed with the band before. Along the way, there was also a cover of MIA's "Born Free", and a closer that simmered along nicely, loping in place without becoming too static.

11 p.m.: Wild Nothing @ Lee's Palace

And then a really full house for Wild Nothing, showing how once again I'd missed the boat on a buzz-y band. Which is strange, as this was the sort of thing that I do enjoy — the jangly roll of The Smiths, but with its morose-y vibe replaced by a more upbeat, optimistic delivery. Conceptually not so far from, say, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Originating as a recording project from singer/guitarist Jack Tatum, he's now backed by a sympathetic three-piece band.

The pleasingly bouncy "Our Composition Book" won me over and from there I enjoyed the set pretty well. The music is mostly situated in a fairly narrow stylistic patch, but there were enough variations to keep things interesting. (Although that wasn't always to the good — "The Witching Hour"'s slower tempo dragged a bit and pushed Tatum a bit out of his natural range.)

The songs were all new to me, but the full-length Gemini album, out for more than a year, has apparently been around long enough that Tatum already had a couple new ones to mix into the set. The one that he closed with (key lyric: "she falls down, she falls down") was a keeper. On the whole, a good introduction, and I grabbed a copy of the album on the way out the door.

Listen to a song from this set here.

12 a.m.: Peelander-Z @ Comfort Zone

Walking into a Peelander-Z set already in progress is like picking up volume seven of a manga series, leaving you wondering how the particularly strange scene in from of you came about. Stories of the band's gleefully absurd live shows are legion, so I thought I knew what I was going to get as I hustled down into the Comfort Zone — but this was more than I was expecting. Within the first couple minutes of my arrival there were on-stage costume changes, an invasion by inflatable monsters, tin bowls and sticks passed out to the crowd for percussion and a sort of limbo contest where a rope was passed over the crowd at about shoulder level, forcing everyone to duck.

The band was formed and based in New York City, but all the players hail from Japan, and it's that antic pop-culture frenzy that informs the band as much as their no-hold-barred speed-punk tunes. In some sense the music was secondary, or at least designed to facilitate the sensory overload and participatory games. Oh, and there was human bowling.

The set ended with the band picking out members of the crowd to replace them on stage and there was so much going on that I couldn't even begin to account for it all here. But next time they come around, don't doubt and don't get hung up on words like "gimmick" — just go.

12:40 a.m.: catl @ Comfort Zone

And the sensory overload didn't end there, as catl's side-stage mini-set started as Peelander-Z's last notes were still fading. "Side-stage" is actually a rather generous description, as the trio were simply set up on the floor in the wing leading towards the bathrooms. Always a sweaty dancing celebration of the greasy get-down blues, the band was in fine form, having already played a full set upstairs earlier as well as three previous between-sets quickies. Though a good chunk of the packed house fled after Peelander-Z finished, there was a good cohort of folks ready to boogie. Playing loose and ragged, this felt just superb, a rejuvenatin' burst that gave me a second (third?) wind that carried me through the rest of the night.

1:00 a.m.: Biblical @ Comfort Zone

I'm an enthusiast for all things Steamboat-related, but I'm sure that even I can't claim to have seen all of the band's many offshoots. Because pretty much everything that these guys touch turns to musical gold, I'd been meaning to see Biblical, even if it's a bit outside my usual musical zone. Although the band includes Steamboat's Jay Anderson (drums), Matt McLaren (here on guit) and Andrew Scott (guit/organ) there's no traces of the feel-good soulful grooves that band brings. Instead, supplemented by Nick Sewell (of The Illuminati) on bass and most lead vocals, the band brings chugging hard-rock grooves, like local stoner-metal titans Quest For Fire amped up a couple notches and veering occasionally from Hawkwind-like drift (thanks to Scott's organ work) into Ace of Spaces velocity. That's intensified with Sewell's throaty growl and meaty bass-playing. Splitting the difference between cough syrup and trucker-grade speed, this was a bad-news boogaloo that had just the right evil late-night lurch.

Listen to a song from this set here.

2 a.m.: Bad Cop @ Silver Dollar

I had seen Nashville's Bad Cop before — well, sort of — but it was hard to really get the measure of the band that time, as lead singer Adam Anyone hadn't made it over the border, and the set consisted of instrumentals from the remaining pair. Making it across for NXNE, and bringing an adjusted four-piece lineup, this was a whole different story.

Even after the first song, basically a garage-y rocker, I wasn't sure what I was going to be getting, but as the band got warmed up, the set leaned increasingly to no-frills punk. And getting more exciting from song to song, mostly animated by Anyone's stage presence — as the vernacular goes, he gave good face, with animated eyes and constant motion. In fact, it was after he put down the guitar he'd been playing for the first few songs that things really took off. This would have been a perfect match with Teenanger, who'd played the same stage earlier in the night. It turned out to be an exciting and worthy set, so hopefully they'll be able to get back into the country again.

Listen to a song from this set here.

3 a.m.: B-17 @ Silver Dollar

Given the length of the day, I don't know if I'd have been able to maintain much enthusiasm for anyone playing a 3 a.m. timeslot, but this was one of my most-anticipated bands of the night. Perhaps a bit unusual for a band playing their debut performance, but these were all familiar musicians to me — Action Makes vocalist Clint Rogerson on bass, alongside Nick Kervin (of the Easy Targets) on drums and a pair of Hoa Hoa's (Calvin Brown and Richard Gibson) on guitars.

I got the impression here that instead of just getting together to jam out some covers, these guys decided to work out the fundamental building blocks of some of the bands that influenced them and come up with some new songs. The Stooges might be the key source — "Real Cool Time" was the one non-original the band tackled — but there was a lot of other ideas thrown in the mix (closer "Sabbataph" gives away where that one was leaning). Gibson handled some of the vox, but mostly handled the more tuneful guitar parts while Brown threw down with some ace feedback-drenched wah-wah.

Six originals, all told, and they all sounded pretty good. And well rehearsed — this was clearly done as more than just a whim. Let me be the first to close my review of this band with this all-too-obvious cliché, which, once used, can now be retired forever: let's hope that B-17 make another run over the Silver Dollar soon.³

Listen to a song from this set here.

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¹ It turned out that the usual drummer wasn't present (possibly due to those omnipresent border issues) so the bassist was covering.

² Number of beards on stage: 2. (There was also a moustache as well.)

³ And, in fact, it looks like this will be happening: B-17 will be closing out the night at The Silver Dollar with Rayon Beach, John Wesley Coleman and Odonis Odonis on Monday, July 11, 2011.