My future co-host was playing a show an underground gutterpunk show last night so I dropped in to support him and get a taste of the scene.
I was only able to stay for the first two of the three bands, but his post-indie trio was up first. American Homes comprises my buddy on keyboard with a rack of analog modules, his bandmate beating the hell out of a floor tom, and a bassist with some impressive overdrive effects likely borrowed from Electric Wizard and well-suited for doom/drone/noise instrumental music. There was certainly some heavy influence from the stoner drone scene as well as some electronic minimalist oscillations a la Stereolab-gone-post-rock. It was great stuff. Between tracks a newcomer in the crowd asked,
“Do you guys like Sunn O)))?” The band's present name is American Homes, but they're thinkin' about changing it.
The other band I got to check out was Red Ground. The Buffalo-born duo consists of a bassist and drummer, with the bassist controlling various sound beds via laptop. Their web content is tagged with keywords like, “experimental”, “ambient”, “post-rock”, and “protest”, the last of which is evident from their use of field recordings captured from various regional Native American protest events archived on YouTube. Their site reveals the origins of some of these recordings, such as a 2013 protest staged by the Mi'kmaq nation of Elsipogtog against an energy company that was attempting to conduct fracking operations on and near their territory.
Their musical formula holds true to standard but effective post-rock tropes like dark, atmospheric intros, building to deafening crescendos of bass and drums, and then a return to the field recording material from the introduction. What Red Ground excels at is their fusing of elements from both ambient and metal genres, such as the minimal flute drones which open “We're Still Here” coupled with machine-gun-like attacks of a double bass drum in the live version from last night's show. They closed their set with an improve piece - all of it top notch.
Check out their music here on Bandcamp.
Despite my enjoyment of the music, I admit that I felt like an outsider at a gutterpunk show. (Judging from the 8 other bearded members of the audience, I was seriously lacking in the threadbare unwashed flannel department.) Cassettes were available for purchase, befitting of the ultra low-fi DIY culture of the event, but I’ll hold out for the 180g virgin vinyl Mo-Fi pressing to come out. Still, I’m definitely glad I attended. It was an eye-opener for sure, and I’m looking forward to the next show in February.
