Sound Bites

Crystal Stilts: New Single, Touring, Etc.

Following last year's fantastic debut Alight of Night (which nearly topped my Best of 2008 list) Crystal Stilts are back with a brand-new single. They've been playing "Love is a Wave" since last summer at least and is almost always in their set, so it should be familiar to anyone who's seen them play since then. But it does represent the bands first truly new material in a long time, certainly since they became a real band, as the album was supposedly recorded three years ago. Like a lot of their new songs, "Love is a Wave" really zooms along with Frankie's motorik drumming keeping the gas to the floor, and guitarist JB Townsend's Clean-esque lead line bouncing around. 

MP3: Crystal Stilts - Love is a Wave

"Love is a Wave," backed with "Sugar Baby" (not sure if I know it or not) is out at the end of the month on the red-hot Slumberland Records. Crystal Stilts headline a pretty stellar bill on Saturday at Music Hall of Williamsburg that includes Canada's Women and Blank Dogs who I have yet to see. Tickets are still available. It's a busy night, what with A Classic Education, Knight School, My Teenage Stride, We Have Band and Post War Years playing that night at various places, but there's a lot of value for the money. Crystal Stilts and Women are touring together pre-South by Southwest and here are the dates:

Mar-14 Brooklyn, NY Music Hall of Williamsburg
Mar-15 Washington, DC DC9
Mar-16 Lexington, KY Al's Bar
Mar-17 Jackson, MS 121 Milsaps
Mar-18 Houston, TX Rudyard's
Mar-19 - 21 Austin, TX SXSW 

CMJ 2008: Women | Cake Shop | 10.21.2008

I realized, about two songs into watching them, I realized I'd seen Women before. Maybe it was at SXSW or Glasslands, can't remember exactly where, but I'd definitely watched them play -- the singer was dressed exactly the same way. I think I didn't make the connection because Women are so much better live than on record. The album, while good, is a little too drenched in Animal Collective-style reverb, while onstage (or in Cake Shop's case, the floor) they hit pretty hard.

The Canadian band were playing at about 4PM, the first of about ten shows they're doing during CMJ -- most of them day parties. Singer Patrick Flegel remarked, "I'm not quite used to the afternoon thing, it feels very dark down here." Cake Shop does have a "always 2AM" feel to it, but Women's music is pretty dark, brittle and almost post-punky goth, with some amazing interplay between Flegel and second guitarist Christopher Reimer's instruments. There's also some '60s pysch-pop elements as well -- "Black Rice" has a definite Brian Wilson vibe to it. Some people I talked to didn't like the vocals (the only thing with reverb on it today) but I thought they fit Women's sound perfectly. I left very impressed.

MP3: Women - Black Rice (Buy)

Catch them this week if you can. Here's where they'll be:

OCT 22 3:45P TERRORBIRD PARTY - CAKE SHOP NEW YORK, NEW YORK

OCT 22 9:00P PASTE MAG PARTY - RED BULL SPACE NEW YORK, NEW YORK

OCT 22 11:00P SUBBACULTCHA! SHOWCASE - CAKE SHOP NEW YORK, NEW YORK

OCT 23 9:00P MYOPENBAR.COM PARTY - DON PEDRO’S BROOKLYN, NEW YORK

OCT 24 9:00P TODD P NYC / GROUND CONTROL PARTY - DANBRO STUDIOS BROOKLYN, NEW YORK

OCT 25 1:00P BOWERY PRESENTS PARTY - PIANOS NEW YORK, NEW YORK

OCT 25 3:00P AFTER THE JUMP PARTY - THE YARD NEW YORK, NEW YORK

OCT 25 6:00P BROOKLYN VEGAN PARTY - THE KNITTING FACTORY NEW YORK, NEW YORK

OCT 25 9:00P R5 PROMOTIONS AND PAST PARTY - GLASSLANDS BROOKLYN, NEW YORK