I’ve seen Medications lots of times (and Faraquet lots of times before that), though the current version of the band is obviously significantly different from what came before. The last time I saw them was maybe a year and a half ago to two years ago, after Andrew Becker had left the band. Devin and Chad played a show at DC9 with someone else (maybe Mark Cisneros?) as a keyboard/utility man. I happened to end up chatting to Devin after that performance, and he said they were still working out how to continue as a band, and were doing a lot of recording. So basically that was a work-in-progress version of what is now the new Medications, including more singing by Chad, more keyboards, and an overall more-stripped-down sound.

At the totally-packed backstage of the Black Cat last week, they rolled out a quartet version of the band, and sounded pretty great. I think I am going to like this incarnation (if they stay very active… they are getting older, and busy in life). It took me a long time to start really loving Medications after I was such a huge Faraquet fan, and I think it will take me some more time to adjust to Medications version 2.0. But it was great.

The new Medications stuff is much poppier than their older music, with lots of nice duets and harmonies between Chad and Devin. I really like the singing in Medications songs, and now they are getting so melodic that you lose track of the impressive music. And without the powerhouse drumming that they used to have, they don’t seem nearly as challenging or hard-rock/math-rock. That’s cool though — I think they accomplished all that they needed to in that direction.

Devin’s guitar was often backed up with rhythm guitar from the other guitarist which left him free to play minimalistically, throwing in leads that sometimes sounded like Nels Cline. They played a couple of old Medications for good measure, including the encore (though I can never remember the names of their songs), so they haven’t entirely abandoned the old stuff. I am pretty happy with the whole thing, and was glad I made it, and even a little inspired by it.

I only caught about half of Imperial China‘s set. I like this band (and wish them only success) but got a little fatigued by them after promoting them to friends and listening to their new album so much when it came out a few months ago. At the backstage, they sounded awesome musically — it’s a good venue for them and it was fun to see them in front of a packed and attentive crowd. Again, I have a few caveats about this band (i.e., the singing). It is interesting to contrast to Medications, where the singing is not traditionally strong either, but somehow works a little better. Anyhow Imperial China seem to be experiencing some success and hopefully they can keep it up. But Medications is still a couple steps above them in the quality hierarchy.

PS there was a very interesting piece in the City Paper recently about DC bands booking shows and tours, relating to both of these bands. Check it out.

It was a solid show, all 5 bands were good, and the whole night had a lot of good vibes. There was a nice turnout and a lot of enthusiasm for the music. And I talked to members of several of the bands, discussed things with my friends… it was all that I hoped for, really.

(I didn’t take photos or anything, so I am borrowing/stealing a bunch of photos from flickr user Paul Frederiksen. You can see his photos of the showcase via flickr here.)

As for the bands, well, let’s see. Up first was Big Gold Belt. This was the band I knew the least about coming into the show. I thought they were pretty great, though. It was mostly electronic stuff, with a chick singing who dressed and pranced a little like a drag queen, and a dude playing guitar over the electronic noise, perhaps just to make it look a little more like live music. I was reminded vaguely of bands like Glass Candy & the Shattered Theatre, or ’80s electro stuff that I don’t know too well. I would listen to them more. I wasn’t sure they were locally based, but I said hello to the singer at some point in the night and she said they did live here. But then their myspace says Brooklyn. So who knows — they sound like they should be from Brooklyn, though. They were the least rocking band of the night but I think they went over pretty well, and it was nice to have them play as a change-up from the guitar rock. In some ways they were even the most interesting, but I am not a huge fan of watching electronic music live, even with an attractive/weird singer. So probably good that they were the opener.

Here are a couple of Frederksen’s photos of Big Gold Belt:

Second was Buildings, who were my favorite of the night. I think this is a pretty sweet band, though I didn’t think their performance was as good as the previous time I saw them. Also, they didn’t even play my favorite song of theirs that I know (it’s called “Now”). I’m definitely a fan. They are opening up for Magik Markers soon which would be a pretty rad show, though I think I’ll be out of town.

Buildings:

Then came Imperial China. They were playing for their record release, and they were all in the news around that time (and good reviews are still coming out for Phosphenes), so a lot of people were probably there to see them specifically. And they put on a good show. Since I had just been listening to their album a bunch of times that same week, I was comparing their live performance to the CD versions. Live, they seem a little more aggressive: the percussion is much more distinctive, and also fun to watch when different people would start pounding on drums. And live, the electronics were less prominent, and the vocals less problematic (live vocals get a lot more leeway than vocals on tape). So they were quite good. I think they deserve their hype and some success, and hope they continue to play a lot and get more press.

Imperial China:

After Imperial China came Hume, who were clearly the most divisive band among my friends. Actually, it was all my friends against me. I really like Hume! But all the friends I dragged along found them kind of boring pop music, and they kept saying the singing sounded just like Death Cab for Cutie. But doesn’t everybody besides me like Death Cab? Or didn’t they at one point? This is confusing. Maybe it also had something to do with singer/guitarist/mastermind Brit Powell’s perpetual grin. Anyhow, I thought it was a very cool performance. Hume remind me of other au courant bands like Real Estate, and it seems to me like they could ride the current “quirky beach pop” wave to some success if they wanted to. They were the only band of the night that I could really see fitting into the mainstream indie world of hip mp3 blogs and profiles on NPR. And sometimes that is ok. I like pop music.

Hume:

Finally, the headliners of the diverse night were the Cornel West Theory. These guys were fun, but I think fatigue was setting in by that point, and I’m not sure they held the audience’s attention. This was the first time I saw them and I thought they were good, with lots of different singers and rappers and guest musicians. I mean, not exactly like a Thievery Corporation show, but it was good to see their ambition, and crossover appeal. One wonders what their fanbase is like among DC’s hip-hop scene. I enjoyed their show but was ready for the performance to be over by the time they were done. It is a lot of work to try to pay attention to 5 performances in a row.

Cornel West Theory:

So overall — a resounding success. But a wearying one! Check out the Sockets website for links to some audio and video from the night. Let’s hope for another one in a year or so…

Of all the DC bands I’ve paid attention to over the years, Imperial China is my least-favorite name since Q and Not U (whose name I have complained about publically here). Much like their unfortunately-appellated predecessors, the band-name turn-off kept me from checking out Imperial China for a long time, though I started to hear things about them a while ago. I finally caught them live last summer, and in a way I’m sorry to have missed out on them over the past couple of years — but based on Phosphenes I don’t have to really worry about it, because they seem like a band that is just starting to gel.

Here’s the thing about the album (coming out in February via Sockets/Ruffian): it’s very good, but not very easy to get into. Nowadays it is hard to summon the patience to absorb a whole album by a band you don’t already know, let alone one like Phosphenes that comes with a few features likely to make too many listeners click the “next” button. Musically, things are only slightly difficult. Imperial China offer up a very good-sounding mix of basic rock instruments and electronics, reminiscent at times of bands like Battles or the electronica of recent tastemaker-faves Fuck Buttons. The songs are sinewy and tense, tight but short on hooks, rarely too concerned about rocking out. This isn’t NPR rock, but it isn’t really extreme, either. The recording sounds great, although, as a guitarist, I must say that the only instrument that really stands out is the guitar, which isn’t too technically complicated, but sure has awesome effects. The electronics are pretty solid, occasionally adding unexpected twists like Radiohead-esque chilly background drones in “Letter of a General” and unsettling chimes on “The Last Starfighter” that remind me of the weird “Lullaby version of Tool” that my brother once used as a rough soundtrack to a film. It’s also pretty well steeped in DC rock tradition, from Fugazi to Frodus, and bears a lot of hallmarks of producer Devin Ocampo (from Faraquet/Medications/etc.).

Musically and sonically, Phosphenes grabbed me right away, but the thing that took me a few listens to come around to was the vocals. It’s not that they’re bad at all, but I think they are an acquired taste. On my first listen to the album, my favorite song was an instrumental, “Mortal Wombat.” The singing is just trying to do way too much, and the songs depend too much on vocals that aren’t as good as the music. The singing sounds best at its most melodic, as on the other first-listen highlight, the pop song of the record, “Go Where Airplanes Go.” Whereas the vocals are at their worst when they are kind of spat-out and shouted, as on the opening track, “All That Is Shouted.”

But what I realized after a couple listens was that the singing, while not amazing, is actually doing a lot of very cool things. There is D. Boon-style patter on “Invincible,” Tim Harrington hollering on “Bananamite,” and creepy crooning on “A Modern Life” that sounds an awful lot like singer/winemaker Maynard James Keenan. It’s pretty fun to notice this stuff, and I gradually came around a bit to the vocals, on the whole. The lyrics seem about what you’d expect from this kind of music, all quite appropriate for a DC band. (And by the way it is nice to just think that there are “DC bands” in the heritage of the ’90s scene that I loved so much.)

I hope enough people can get past mildly-challenging music and mildly-weak vocals to listen to the whole record, because it is nicely arranged into a whole. The whole thing twists and teases, keeping you on a sinister edge, refusing to really lead you anywhere. It’s deliberately frustrating. Even the killer closer track, “Letter of a General,” starts to build up and build up in traditional rock and roll style, then — well — sort of deflates. This isn’t an album that is interested in just giving out rewards — you have to earn them through a little work of your own. I can appreciate that, and hopefully some other people will too, because this is one of the better albums by local bands to come out in the past few years.

Here are my favorite songs… enjoy, and go see this band when you can, and here is their myspace page where you can support them and buy stuff.

Download audio file (02MortalWombat.mp3)

Download audio file (07GoWhereAirplanesGo.mp3)

Download audio file (09LetterofaGeneral.mp3)

P.S. if you don’t know what “phosphenes” are, look it up. This is a cool word, and I wonder how long it’s been on the band’s radar. I kinda wish the band was called Phosphenes instead of the album…

There was a lot of stuff going on last Friday, an odd All-Hallow’s-Eve-Eve where some people were celebrating Halloween and some were not. But I wanted to check out Office of Future Plans, the newest project of J. Robbins, playing with Darren Zentek and a couple other guys.

This makes, let’s see, the fourth Robbins band I’ve seen play live, having seen Jawbox, Burning Airlines, and Channels once apiece. So now I’m wishing I’d been a little more sober, since based on the precedents, I’ll likely never see the Office of Future Plans again. Possibly I will never even be able to remember their unwieldy name in the future. Curse those Schlitz-and-shot combos at the Red Derby!

Anyway there was a solid DC line-up in this Buddyhead-affiliated show, but I was too busy to catch it all. I wouldn’t have minded seeing Imperial China again since I liked them the last time.

The band sounded good and Robbins’ singing was likable as ever. The sound was dense compared to Channels or Burning Airlines, with two guitars with guitar, bass, and cello, but overall it was also pretty pop-sounding. A friend that I dragged along compared them to Guided by Voices and once he mentioned it, I couldn’t help noticing the similarity. In ’90s terms, it was a little more “indie rock” and a little less “post-hardcore” than Robbins’ work in the past, though I guess those categorizations were pretty meaningless even 15 years ago.

I liked it, the bands were wearing goofy costumes, and I was pretty satisfied. Then at the end they startled me by breaking into Jawbox’s “Savory”! Unexpected! Maybe this was to make up for the Jawbox–Jimmy Fallon performance that isn’t gonna happen. It was pretty great and I was singing along, reliving hazy 120 Minutes memories.

I wanted to snap some pictures but my stupid phone has some annoying problem where I can’t clear the memory so I couldn’t do it. Searching the web I can’t find pictures or video (and it wasn’t too crowded of a show) but here is another quick review. I’ll keep my eyes open for more stuff from OoFP, awkward band name and all.

Stuck around briefly for Caverns — I’ve seen them before too and like them alright, though they were heavier than I remembered. But had places to go, things to see, drinks to consume. Wish there’d been a bigger crowd for a pretty great local line-up… I tried…

***

PS check out this excellent interview with J. Robbins at buddyhead.

***

Update:

Thanks to Gordon from the band, and to Alexis, for commenting below. I was embarrassed to reply to them because my own stupid drunk memories of the show totally skipped over the fact that there was cello (corrected above). You can see it pretty obviously in this video, in which you can also see me bopping my big head right in front of the camera. Of course when I saw the video, I was like “oh yeah! I remember the cello!” but feel totally dumb to have forgotten. But did they change their instruments at some point? I could have sworn there were parts with two guitars…

Anyway check out this excellent video:

I’d heard their name around this town before, but never was all that interested in checking them out, partly because I really don’t like the name at all. (Oddly, one of the people I went with, the other guitarist in my band, said the exact opposite.) Imperial China? It seems to violate all kinds of band-name rules: it’s kind of generic, it has no suggestions of anything, it has a geographical location in the name, it sounds like it is evoking history. I know it’s difficult to come up with band names but really I don’t like the name “Imperial China” at all.

Another thing that held me back from investigating them sooner is that I really soured on the DC “indie rock” scene over recent years. The younger generation of indie rockers — if you can call them that — seem to me to be really generic and dull. Somewhere in the early part of this decade it seemed like a flood of post-Death Cab, post-Shins, post-Bright Eyes kinds of bands emerged to kill indie rock via earnest dullness. They all just seem like uninteresting and generic pop-rock bands; like the Gin Blossoms without the hooks. (The flipside to that is the boring party/dance-rock indie scene, also pretty much humdrum.) So usually any band that gets a DCist “Three Stars” review makes me wanna hit snooze or maybe download some metal.

But I found Imperial China to be pretty good, definitely a step above the tepid-indie style so common lately. They grew on me during their set, and reminded me at least somewhat of some other interesting bands that I’ve seen in the past year or so, like Battles and Fuck Buttons. They were just rocking enough to not be an electronica act, but were electronicky enough to make it interesting. Pretty solid. In fact they were more interesting to watch than the much-hyped Battles, who make interesting music but weren’t really worth watching live. Other names my friends and I mentioned during their set included Tool, Nine Inch Nails, and Helmet. I’m always glad to hear Tool influence (even if it wasn’t the band’s intention).

I wouldn’t say that Imperial China are the salvation of the local scene, but they are at least doing something that feels both interesting and contemporary. I’ll see them again sometime. Here’s their myspace with some samples and videos (apparently they recorded a full-length album with Devin Ocampo, hope it gets a solid release).

And here’s a flickr photo from bozick: