Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Private Eleanor - "Photocopy of a Photocopy of a Photograph" '05 (mp3)
I've written about Private Eleanor, my friend Chris's band, a few times here before. And ever since J.G. borrowed my copy of their last album she's become a fan herself, so when they played at a club right in our neighborhood, Fletchers, on Sunday, of course we had to go check it out. They were opening for the Starlight Mints and Dios (Malos), and were the first band on the bill, so we got there good and early, around 8. We ran into Chris outside the club as he was carrying cymbals from his car, and he said they'd be starting between 8:30 and 9. So we went down the street to the record store, Sound Garden, and got some food at the Indian place next door, and chilled. When we got into the club at 8:30, they were already playing, although I guess we didn't miss too much of their set.
Fletcher's has kind of crappy sound sometimes, it's a good small room, but I think maybe the weird shape of the room and ceiling and all the rafters fuck up the acoustics. So they could've sounded better, but Private Eleanor still played a good show. They played at least one or two new songs, one of which I really liked. Chris added some tasty hi-hat action to "Seventeen," and got to rock out a bit within the constraints of the band's Simon & Garfunkel soft rock style (which I do not say disparagingly, I've been way into Simon & Garfunkel lately, shit, I drive a car named Cecilia). "Photocopy of a Photocopy of a Photograph" is definitely one of their best and most popular songs, although it's a little uncharacteristic, being so short and kind of aggressive, and they seem to end every show with it. It originally appeared on one of their earlier albums, but the version above is a re-recording from the sessions for their last album that's available on the audio section of their website.
We didn't stay for the Starlight Mints or Dios (Malos), who I've never heard, but the next act were this band from Austin, The Octopus Project , who were kind of a pleasant surprise. As they prepared for their set, they were setting up all kinds of props and decorations, like these green tarps over their amps that had ears and eyes and made their amp stacks look like crude Gumby-shaped monsters. And just before they started playing, all four members of the band donned these masks that looked like three prong electrical outlets, which, when worn on a human head, kind of look like a face with a mouth and two eyes. The weirdest part, though, was that they wore the masks on the sides of their faces, so that they could still face each other and look at their instruments, which was kind of brilliant. But the guitarists headbanged a lot and by the end of the first song they had all shook off or taken off their masks. Usually a bunch of props and schtick like this are an instant turnoff for me (see Peelander Z), but in spite of it all I actually liked these guys. They played these chugging instrumentals with big, warm keyboard melodies, nothing that hasn't been in the musical vocabulary of hundreds of indie bands over the past ten years, but still pretty enjoyable. And the girl keyboardist was maybe the greatest theremin player I've ever seen. I mean, it's not exactly a traditional instrument where it's easy to measure the talent of how one plays it, but she really had some masterful hand control and in one particular song played a solo of sorts that was pretty amazing. I don't know if I'd buy another album, but I'd definitely see them again.
I've written about Private Eleanor, my friend Chris's band, a few times here before. And ever since J.G. borrowed my copy of their last album she's become a fan herself, so when they played at a club right in our neighborhood, Fletchers, on Sunday, of course we had to go check it out. They were opening for the Starlight Mints and Dios (Malos), and were the first band on the bill, so we got there good and early, around 8. We ran into Chris outside the club as he was carrying cymbals from his car, and he said they'd be starting between 8:30 and 9. So we went down the street to the record store, Sound Garden, and got some food at the Indian place next door, and chilled. When we got into the club at 8:30, they were already playing, although I guess we didn't miss too much of their set.
Fletcher's has kind of crappy sound sometimes, it's a good small room, but I think maybe the weird shape of the room and ceiling and all the rafters fuck up the acoustics. So they could've sounded better, but Private Eleanor still played a good show. They played at least one or two new songs, one of which I really liked. Chris added some tasty hi-hat action to "Seventeen," and got to rock out a bit within the constraints of the band's Simon & Garfunkel soft rock style (which I do not say disparagingly, I've been way into Simon & Garfunkel lately, shit, I drive a car named Cecilia). "Photocopy of a Photocopy of a Photograph" is definitely one of their best and most popular songs, although it's a little uncharacteristic, being so short and kind of aggressive, and they seem to end every show with it. It originally appeared on one of their earlier albums, but the version above is a re-recording from the sessions for their last album that's available on the audio section of their website.
We didn't stay for the Starlight Mints or Dios (Malos), who I've never heard, but the next act were this band from Austin, The Octopus Project , who were kind of a pleasant surprise. As they prepared for their set, they were setting up all kinds of props and decorations, like these green tarps over their amps that had ears and eyes and made their amp stacks look like crude Gumby-shaped monsters. And just before they started playing, all four members of the band donned these masks that looked like three prong electrical outlets, which, when worn on a human head, kind of look like a face with a mouth and two eyes. The weirdest part, though, was that they wore the masks on the sides of their faces, so that they could still face each other and look at their instruments, which was kind of brilliant. But the guitarists headbanged a lot and by the end of the first song they had all shook off or taken off their masks. Usually a bunch of props and schtick like this are an instant turnoff for me (see Peelander Z), but in spite of it all I actually liked these guys. They played these chugging instrumentals with big, warm keyboard melodies, nothing that hasn't been in the musical vocabulary of hundreds of indie bands over the past ten years, but still pretty enjoyable. And the girl keyboardist was maybe the greatest theremin player I've ever seen. I mean, it's not exactly a traditional instrument where it's easy to measure the talent of how one plays it, but she really had some masterful hand control and in one particular song played a solo of sorts that was pretty amazing. I don't know if I'd buy another album, but I'd definitely see them again.
Labels: Baltimore music, concerts, mp3, music babble
