Come's first gig ever?

Reviewing the reissue of Come's extraordinary debut, Eleven:Eleven I stumbled across this video of what may have been the first Come gig ever. (It's from 1991).

Now let's all think for a moment where we were in 1991. (Me, NYC, just starting my freelance business and newly married, no Sean yet, but still a pretty decent marathoner.)



Have a lovely weekend. It's supposed to rain here, pretty much nonstop.

Come again?

Matador is reissuing 11:11, the debut album from Come, a searingly powerful piece of work, described very ably by David Sprague in the band's Trouserpress entry:

Eleven: Eleven is very much a guitar tour de force, drenched as it is in the sweaty fluids that come forth when the six-strings of Zedek (a veteran of Boston's Dangerous Birds and New York's Live Skull) and Chris Brokaw (who served concurrently as Codeine's drummer until 1993) rub against each other. The guitarists seldom settle into standard lead/rhythm roles; rather, they hydroplane in roughly parallel arcs over the steadfast rhythms laid down by drummer Arthur Johnson (formerly a member of spazz-punk ensemble the Bar-B-Q Killers) and bassist Sean O'Brien (who played with the Kilkenny Cats). On tracks like "Brand New Vein" and "Submerge," the atmosphere verges on the oppressive, the air heavy and blue-black with a pharmacological ennui that only abates on the double-barreled windup of "Fast Piss Blues" and a cover of the Stones' "I Got the Blues."

Come has been playing a few shows (and has a tour planned). Here's video from a 2011 reunion show.



And dates, mostly Europe and very large American cities on both coasts (with Chicago in the middle).
5/17-19 Orange Blossom Special Festival Beverungen DM
5/20 Bitterzoet Amsterdam NL
5/22 The Ruby Lounge Manchester UK
5/23 Dingwalls London, UK
5/24 Instant Chavires, Paris FR
5/26 Primavera Sound Festival, Barcelona ES
5/27 Le Romandie Lausanne, Switzerland
5/28 Jubez Karlsruhe, Germany
5/30 Locomotiv, Bologna IT
5/31 Kino, Ebensee AT
6/01 Pilot, Prague CZ
6/02 Festaal Kruezberg, Berlin DE
6/19 Bootleg Theater Los Angeles CA
6/20 The Independent San Francisco CA
6/21 Mississippi Studios Portland OR
6/22 The Crocodile Seattle WA
6/27 The Sinclair Cambridge, MA
6/28 Bowery Ballroom New York NY
7/12 Empty Bottle Chicago, IL

Did I mention I went to see Bob Mould and Chris Brokaw

Yes, in fact, I went to shows TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW, and maybe will have to take the rest of the year off.

I'm still struggling with my Morning Benders, Twin Sister, Oberhofer review, but my report on Bob Mould and Chris Brokaw is up right now at Blurt.

"In 1985, I went to see Hüsker Dü at Maxwell's," says Chris Brokaw, on a break from his acoustic set. "And about eight years later, I was playing in a band called Come and Bob was playing in Sugar, and we toured together and hit it off." Since then Brokaw and Mould have played together intermittently, hitting Northampton last six years ago on Halloween, but it hasn't gotten old for Brokaw. "It is still a genuine thrill to play shows with Bob."

And more

Go see Clinic and tell me what it’s like

I once travelled to Boston for a Clinic show only to arrive and find that they had cancelled because of some sort of stomach issues. As I was getting ready to write the preview below, their website said that they had cancelled a UK tour, again because of illness. So, while I love the band, I’m only recommending the show to people who have a relatively short distance to travel and a good idea of what else to do if one of the Clinic guys feels unwell. Here’s my blurb for the Philly show over the weekend.

Clinic
9:30pm, $13-$14. Johnny Brenda’s.
On their landmark debut, Internal Wrangler, surgically masked Ade Blackburn and Jonathan Hartley did something that very few bands ever accomplish: create a wholly original and distinctive sound. How’d they do it? They polished junk-store keyboards to a finely reverbed gloss. They cranked spasmodically funky jitter-punk to “Voodoo Wop” proportions. They caught the pathos in a world paced by rickety drum machines and rife with mournful organs, but sadly, delicately “free of distortions.” Their sixth and latest album, Bubblegum, veers slightly into a vein of 1960s psychedelia, which should make the pairing with San Francisco’s trippy garage rockers the Fresh & Onlys all the more interesting. (Jennifer Kelly)

“I’m Aware” from Bubblegum

They’re touring with Fresh & Onlys, one of my very favorite new-ish bands. I haven’t really spent much time with their newest album Play It Strange yet, because now other people want to review it. (I had them on my Pazz and Jop ballot last year, along with maybe one or two other people, but that doesn’t count for anything this year.)

“Waterfall”

They’re done with the East Coast now, but you can still catch them in Canada and out west.
11.09.10 - Montreal, QC - La Sala Rossa
11.10.10 - Toronto, ON - Lee's Palace
11.11.10 - Chicago, IL - Lincoln Hall
11.12.10 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th St Entry
11.15.10 - Seattle, WA - Neumos
11.16.10 - Vancouver, BC - Biltmore Cabaret
11.17.10 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
11.19.10 - San Francisco, CA - The Independent
11.20.10 - Los Angeles, CA – Troubadour

I might be going to see Chris Brokaw and Bob Mould tonight, then also the Morning Benders on Wednesday, all while continuing to get up at 5:30 a.m. to get Sean ready for school. Don’t expect much clarity round about Thursday, okay?

Skeletons, Slaraffenland and Chris Brokaw (again) at Blurt

I’ve got three reviews up this week at Blurt, all pretty good records.

First Slaraffenland “five guys, from Denmark and Sweden, coax a warm, communal jazz-tinged vibe. They play a near orchestra’s worth of winds, percussion, brass and guitars, all with laid-back skill.”

“Love Potion”


Then Skeletons with their “dense, syncopated percussion, a body-moving groove, abstract, not-very-linear lyrics, and a deep, compelling strangeness.”
http://www.blurt-online.com/reviews/view/749/

“Things”


And finally Chris Brokaw, whose review also turned up in the digital almost-like-print edition, but it’s online now. I called it “a brief but wonderful exploration of the acoustic and electric, blues-traditional and experimental byways he and his guitar have travelled.”


His MySpace

Blurt Digizine

I’ve never had the bandwidth to check this out before (it’s 90 KBs), but Blurt does a digital magazine now that looks very much like the old Harp. It’s just that you have to print it out on your own paper.

Anyway, I have reviews of Christina Carter’s Original Darkness and Chris Brokaw’s Canaris, both very fine, in the current issue, as well as a short interview with the Wild Beasts.

Download the whole thing here:


Also, I’m not crazy about holiday music, except when it’s played on pipe organs and sung by boys whose voices haven’t changed yet, but 65 Days of Static has graced us with one called “I’m Dreaming of a White Noise Christmas.”


The combination of less to say (everything’s closed down now until 2009), Christmas and travel probably means that I’ll be posting infrequently for a while…have a nice holiday everyone!