THREE PIECE COMBO
The Starry Plough (Berkeley)
June 30, 2007

Drums front and center: That’s the way Three Piece Combo rolls. The bass and guitar provide the rhythmic background for the centerpiece of the band’s alluring sound. Other audience members at their June 30th show at the Starry Plough also took note of the novel stage setting:

Dude one: “Hey, drums right up front. I’ve never seen that before.”
Dude two: “Yeah.” ...

THREE PIECE COMBO
The Starry Plough (Berkeley)
June 30, 2007

Drums front and center: That’s the way Three Piece Combo rolls. The bass and guitar provide the rhythmic background for the centerpiece of the band’s alluring sound. Other audience members at their June 30th show at the Starry Plough also took note of the novel stage setting:

Dude one: “Hey, drums right up front. I’ve never seen that before.”
Dude two: “Yeah.”

Ok, one audience member and I took note. But that wasn’t the only thing unique about the all-instrumental drums-bass-guitar trio. In the opening song, Matt Lebofsky played his guitar with a pencil in place of a pick, thudding the strings as if he were holding a drumstick. Three Piece Combo’s sound is one part melodic and catchy riffs, one part funky bass lines, and some jarring tempos thrown in for good measure.

The band’s music is much harder than most of the indie rock music that is out there right now, which is a welcome change. Throughout their set, Alex de Soria delivered bass lines of death. Sometimes accenting the expressive thundering drums of John Curtis or, at other times, complimenting Matt’s melodic guitar riffs. It’s exciting to watch their intensity grow and change throughout each song even if, toward the end of their set, they had started to loose the audience a bit.

By and far the most engaging part of the show was watching the man who was front and center. John Curtis is definitely part of a phenomenon I’ve noticed more and more with every show I attend – the revival of the drummer – and I love it.

[nicole leigh]

[STREAM] Three Piece Combo: Various Tracks  

THE JASCHA EPHRAIM MEMORIAL LIBRARY
Thee Parkside
June 2, 2007

This band completely surprised me when I saw them, especially because I saw them by accident. That night, I was trying to get into The Bottom of the Hill to see Matt and Kim, The Mall, and The Mae Shi (great lineup eh?). But BotH was sold out. So me and a friend ended up going to Thee Parkside to eat our cold leftover vegetable kabobs with coconut rice.

Let’s just call the band we ended up seeing Jascha for short. There were about nine members in Jascha, all of whom dressed like sheep or raggedy Ann. They had three strings players, one keyboardist, a bassist, a drummer, a backup vocalist, and of course frontman Jascha himself onvocals and guitar, standing all of 7 feet tall.

THE JASCHA EPHRAIM MEMORIAL LIBRARY
Thee Parkside
June 2, 2007

This band completely surprised me when I saw them, especially because I saw them by accident. That night, I was trying to get into The Bottom of the Hill to see Matt and Kim, The Mall, and The Mae Shi (great lineup eh?). But BotH was sold out. So me and a friend ended up going to Thee Parkside to eat our cold leftover vegetable kabobs with coconut rice.

Let’s just call the band we ended up seeing Jascha for short. There were about nine members in Jascha, all of whom dressed like sheep or raggedy Ann. They had three strings players, one keyboardist, a bassist, a drummer, a backup vocalist, and of course frontman Jascha himself onvocals and guitar, standing all of 7 feet tall.

The music was like The Flaming Lips with strings, but that’s a bad comparison. I would also call it psychedelic experimental pop, which sounds better. I’m a sucker for violins and cellos, but the strings weren’t used all the time and hence not overdone. This was my first time at Thee Parkside and it was extremely in-your-face-loud, like a jackhammer pounding away at my eardrums, but Jascha used very good dynamics in their songs and still managed to convey their nuanced sound. I especially liked the way the female singer would sometimes sing by herself while the instruments slowly crept in.

By the end of the show, Jascha was no longer 7 feet tall. He had been standing on a stool wearing long, raggedy clothing that reached all the way to the ground. I talked to him after the show and he told me that, though they don’t play too many shows, they are working on a busier schedule for themselves. So go see them whenever you can find them, whether it’s for the music or their beautiful costumes.

[Alvin Chan]

[STREAM] The Jascha Ephraim Memorial Library: Various Tracks 

THE HERMS
THE MAY FIRE
THE PASSIONISTAS
Bottom of the Hill
July 12, 2007

I hadn’t planned on seeing the Passionistas but I caught their last three songs. Initially, I was repulsed by their lack of musical talent, but I dug the singer who was ranting like a boyish Mark E. Smith. It wasn’t until the last song, “Banana,” that it finally clicked for me. The singer picked up the guitar and, wishing humiliation on someone who let him down, I saw a new age Stephen Malkmus. Keep them on the radar.

THE HERMS
THE MAY FIRE
THE PASSIONISTAS
Bottom of the Hill
July 12, 2007

I hadn’t planned on seeing the Passionistas but I caught their last three songs. Initially, I was repulsed by their lack of musical talent, but I dug the singer who was ranting like a boyish Mark E. Smith. It wasn’t until the last song, “Banana,” that it finally clicked for me. The singer picked up the guitar and, wishing humiliation on someone who let him down, I saw a new age Stephen Malkmus. Keep them on the radar.

The May Fire’s set opened with a blast of noise and a vocal hook that the whole band shouted together. It gave me the feeling they should be playing at the wildest house party ever, or in a stadium full of fans singing along.

The band is fronted by singer Catty Tasso, who sings with a gruff alto and plays rhythm guitar. Nachito, the guitarist, thrills with his tangled blues, punk, and surf guitar riffs, but the real magic of the band is the drummer, El Pipe. His drumming is wild, precise, and so exciting his contribution to the band can’t be overstated.

I wished that the May Fire had slowed it down once or twice to let Tasso show the nuance to her voice more starkly. On the flip side, they could have ratcheted up the intensity by extending some of the noisy moments of rumbling, saturated bass and squalling guitar feedback. Seeing a live band push its sound to the outer limits is always more exciting than watching a tense but flawless performance. It will be fun to watch them continue developing their sound. Definitely check out the May Fire!

This was my first time seeing the Herms even though they’ve been around SF for several years. The lineup featured singer/guitarist Matt Lutz, bassist Alex Tuzin, El Pipe (from the May Fire) on drums, plus a keyboardist and another guitarist.

  The band played loose and easy, laughing and smiling throughout the set. They opened with two jangley tunes that were as smooth and poppy as early Beatles. They followed with a bossa nova track, and, with their electric piano and El Pipe’s Latin feel on the drums, the Herms really did sound like a 1960s bossa nova act. The next song, “Out of Hand,” was my favorite of the evening: a Television-inspired track with extended guitar melody lines over chopped up chords that created a fast and dark groove. Lutz cranked up the lyrical vitriol and pushed his voice to the point of rasping distortion. Later, when Lutz switched to acoustic guitar, the energy sank a bit, but things brightened when the Herms closed with a semi-improvised song about a future world full of music-playing robots.

Watching the Herms is great fun, but unfortunately, Matt Lutz is moving to L.A. and this show was a farewell. The band plans to stick together, so be sure to check out The Herms or Matt Lutz’s solo project whenever they come to town.

[Jeff Bissell]

[STREAM] The Herms: Various Tracks

[STREAM] The May Fire: "Late Song"

[STREAM] The Passionistas: Various Tracks  

Grayceon
(Vendlus Records; 2007)

Grayceon's self-titled debut clocks in at just over 45 minutes and consists of four tracks of classically-inspired art metal. It is a baroque post metal opus that, despite bearing some evidence of being a first album, heralds a promising new band on the San Francisco scene.

Grayceon
(Vendlus Records; 2007)

Grayceon's self-titled debut clocks in at just over 45 minutes and consists of four tracks of classically-inspired art metal. It is a baroque post metal opus that, despite bearing some evidence of being a first album, heralds a promising new band on the San Francisco scene.

Though this is Grayceon's first release, the band's members are all veterans: Drummer Zack Farwell and guitarist/vocalist Max Doyle are members of Walken, while cellist/vocalist Jackie Perez Gratz is a member of Amber Asylum, both bands that have been on the SF metal scene for years. Combining all the best parts of their respective bands—the shredding power riffs of Walken and the orchestral, ambient rock of Amber Asylum—Grayceon creates a sound that is at times heavy, thrashing, and brutal and at other times lush, symphonic and mesmerizing.

Opening track "Sounds Like Thunder" sets the mood right away with a lone cello playing a mournful melody that is quickly joined by a guitar harmony and thumping drums. The song rises and falls like the tide: gradually but inevitably, with the threat of total devastation looming over it all. The album's second track, "Song for You," is the shortest and most straightforward rocker as well as the most traditional tune on the album in the sense that it's the only track with the singing way out in the front of the mix. Most of the vocals are sung in a breathy, droning style and buried deeper in the mix in the manner of post rock/metal bands such as Isis or Mogwai. The last two movements of Grayceon, "Into the Deep" and "Ride," together comprise more than thirty minutes and, as their titles suggest, take the listener on a journey that covers an impressive amount of sonic territory.

Each track on Grayceon is a movement that ebbs and flows but ultimately builds to a crescendo in a more or less linear progression, which gives the compositions their distinctly classical feel. Though metal is the beast that stalks this entire album, there are just as many if not more low-key, tripped-out passages as there are monster riffs. Doyle's guitar and Gratz's cello share rhythm and lead duties pretty equally but always create intricate melodies by intertwining and playing off of each other in deep, complex arrangements that, at times, almost do evoke an entire symphony orchestra with just the two instruments. Meanwhile, Farwell's drumming is powerful and lightning-quick; he is by turns a heavy metal drummer with serious chops and a free jazz drummer banging on the kit with carefully-controlled reckless abandon. The end result is that even the artier, more classical-sounding passages are shot through with the gravitas and menace of pure metal.

The only thing that stops Grayceon from being an undeniable masterpiece is that at times it has a demo-like feel to it that makes me aware I'm listening to a mere mortal band and pulls me out of the spell Grayceon weaves. I'm not sure whether this is due to the production—the mastering of the album certainly seems as if it could and should have brought more nuance and vibrancy out of the instruments, to make the lows more abysmal and the highs more soaring—or the sparse instrumentation—there are few overdubs (and the only overdubs I can hear are vocals) and no instruments other than the drums, cello, and guitar are ever brought into the mix. But albums can always be re-mastered, and the fact that Grayceon doesn't hide behind a superfluity of layered sounds, but instead achieves a dense wall of sound with such minimal instrumentation, is impressive in its own right. Despite its minor technical shortcomings, Grayceon is a consistently surprising and refreshingly creative album.

 [Mike G.]

[STREAM] Grayceon: "Song For You"  

[STREAM] Grayceon: "Into the Deep"  

SILIAN RAIL
Stork Club (Oakland)
June 7, 2007

Silian Rail is a duo that creates instrumental music combining the sound of a dreamy guitar with intricate drum breaks, occasionally topped off with a glockenspiel for good measure.

Don’t be fooled by the seemingly gentle, barefoot drummer lightly tapping a mallet on the glockenspiel that hides behind the drum kit. Eric K. plays the drums hard and with such intensity that midway through the second song someone had to come by and place a cinderblock in front of the kit to keep it from slowly drifting away.

SILIAN RAIL
Stork Club (Oakland)
June 7, 2007

Silian Rail is a duo that creates instrumental music combining the sound of a dreamy guitar with intricate drum breaks, occasionally topped off with a glockenspiel for good measure.

Don’t be fooled by the seemingly gentle, barefoot drummer lightly tapping a mallet on the glockenspiel that hides behind the drum kit. Eric K. plays the drums hard and with such intensity that midway through the second song someone had to come by and place a cinderblock in front of the kit to keep it from slowly drifting away.

Robin L. on guitar and Eric K. on drums made their way through their performance at the Stork Club with some minimal synchronization issues.  The slightly off-tempo sound was only audible for a few songs, though, and by the time their half hour set was coming to a close they had found their groove, leaving me wanting a bit more.

[nicole leigh]

[STREAM ] Silian Rail: Various Tracks