Go ahead - Punch yourself in the face...

You won't feel it!  Its been THAT cold outside! AM New York (sadly) is my main news source, and as a commuter I love the free resource.  Each day they announce the weather while giving a forecast for the following day, and this advice to hit yourself was the tagline one day last week.  I thought it was funny ‘cuz it was soooo true.  I often walk inside and feel like what I imagine Botox feels like!  I happen to love the cold weather much more then humid heat, but on some of these days, its really pretty damn cold.  I mentioned to a friend 2 weeks ago something that’s really weird about myself, and I figure why not share it in a public forum as well.  You know when you’re walking outside and its super frigid, so much so that your eyes start to tear a little and it feels as though your eye balls have been living in a freezer? I LOVE THAT!!! I know it weird, but when I’m walking and I’m crying because its cold, I like that feeling and I feel like it kinda looks cool (no pun intended).  To each their own, hey?

Anyway, I know this blog isn’t a music review, but for now, let’s pretend that it is.  Last night I went to what was supposed to be the last show from a group called As Tall As Lions (after last night’s show sold out a few weeks ago, they then posted a second “last show” for tonight – sadly, our tickets had already been boughten (that’s a Bring It On Parody reference)).  In summer of ’07 I believe, I met my very favorite concert Buddy – Tracey Patten.  We worked together at a PR internship and quickly formed a lovely friendship.  Tracey has been a big influence on musical taste and has introduced me to a number of new (to my repertoire) bands – one of which was ATAL.  We’ve since (as of last night) been to 4 of their shows but it seems as though it’s going to stop right thur because the band is dis-banding – hence the “last show” fiasco.  So we went to the Highline Ballroom yesterday evening to rock out once more to some of our ATAL favorites.  Unlike any other show we’ve been too, neither of us had any idea who was opening… boy were we in for a surprise. 

Doors opened at 7, and show was called for 8.  We got there shortly thereafter due to poor planning (on my behalf) and infrequent buses, hoping we wouldn’t be too late.  Much to our surprise the show wasn’t even close to starting, and after we wiggled our way into the relative front of the venue, we waited for at least half an hour until the first sign of performance.  Awkwardly this guys stumbles onto the stage, looking very much like a crew member and he lifts up this ghetto marching band drum and wraps it around his arms/shoulders with the string that its attached to – not straps, but string.  Being the lone man on stage, he lifts his 2 drumsticks in his hands, positions himself in front of the mic and starts to pound.  The beat sounded almost cult-like as if he was summoning spirits or at the very least his other band members.  While the latter didn’t come out just yet, it’s very possible the former entered his body.  He started singing, or rather chanting really, in this peculiar unique voice. (With my limited knowledge it sounded just a little bit like Neutral Milk Hotel).  Their MySpace page describes their style as “Alternative”, but to be honest, that doesn’t even begin to paint the picture.  Quirky and weird would be most accurate, although a little less tasteful. 

The band consisted of a saxophonist, a trumpet player, a drummer, a bassist and this eccentric singer who also played the guitar and sometimes the keyboard.  While listening to their sound, I couldn’t help but wonder, “What are they thinking when writing and composing this music? Do they actually think its good?”  The weird thing is that it wasn’t that it was just bad, rather it was really unlike anything else Ive ever really heard.  It was much more like a performance piece than it was a musical show.  In one “song” the lyrics were series of pronunciations of “we are____” and “we____”, again, not really singing but more so talking to the beat with a little inflection in the tone.  One of the re-occurring themes was making love either on the floor or in the streets, and somewhere thrown into the mix is a girl named Rebecca.  Love found its way into many of the songs, being measured “in bricks and mortar”, or having it in the street.  Some of the musical components were actually kind of good for about 10 second intervals, but they were abruptly interrupted with weird vocal noises or too many instruments playing disparate sounds at the same time. 

You may have noticed that I haven’t told you the name of the “band” or any of their songs yet but that is quite representative of how they introduced themselves to the audience.  It wasn’t until at least 2 or 3 “songs” in that they even told us who they were (oh yeh, they are called “Jive Grave” – it somehow sounds to me like it should be in the other order, the same way Lewy-Neuman would sound if it were Neuman-Lewy) and only for one song I believe did they tell us what it was called (I think it was something along the lines of “Some Sh*t Happened”).

The overall experience was kinda interesting and in a way thought provoking.  At the end of their set, I felt like I needed the time to reflect on what just happened and in its own kind of way that might have been what they were going for.  At some points during parts of the performance when I couldn't help but smile and even chuckle sometimes, I was checking out 2 of the band members – the bassist was feeling the music so hard (which is really cool) that he was making the most ridiculous faces to the point that I actually stopped at one point and said to Tracey “I actually would feel really bad if he has something wrong with him, like a tick of the mouth that makes him do that” – in the end we decided he didn’t because when he wasn’t playing, like in between songs, his face was totally normal  (actually sort of cute!) – also the trumpet player actually kept laughing a bit when the lead singer was doing his own thing and it was uber unusual, so it seemed as though he couldn’t contain himself either.  As a side note, by the way, As Tall As Lions was fantastic, and it was the best show of their that I had seen.  The energy both from the crowd and the band was amazing and even though it was technically their second to last show, they wanted to go out with a bang, and in my opinion they did!

So on that note, I leave you with the following:
Here is a link to the Jive Grave MySpace Music page: http://www.myspace.com/jivegravemusic

And here is a link to the Jive Grave Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=227927035381#!/jivegrave