Nite Nite - 'How to Touch the Moon'

At its best, Nite Nite recalls Siouxsie and the Banshees’ eerie grace and Blondie’s pop sensibilities. These moments are few on How to Touch the Moon. At their worst, well, they sound a lot like Dido.

Part of this problem comes from the production. Vocalist/guitarist Davis Chatfield does a really a good Debbie Harry impression, but just like Harry herself, those powerful pipes can be falter when not properly supported. I get that this record was self-released and all, but Andrija Tokic’s mix job here just doesn’t help the songs. Goth songs need atmosphere, but these tracks are too sterilized. At the same time, though, they don’t have the punch usually associated with clean production. The music is trapped in a weird midpoint production-wise.

Of course, Tokic can’t shoulder all the blame. The tunes themselves are a little lacking, a little repetitive and a little underwhelming. Yet there’s promise here. The best songs bear a Morrissey-esque bravado, like the maudlin “Hello, I’m Meloncholy.” Given time to grow, Nite Nite could pull out a really solid set of ethereal, moody dance music.

But that’s a big “what if.” As is, Nite Nite has yet to realize its potential. How to Touch the Moon isn’t particularly terrible, but it’s certainly not great. It’s just sort of… there.

Vinyl Vednesday 12/8/2010

[Vinyl Vednesday is a weekly feature about three favorite vinyl finds. It’s not meant to be a dick-measuring contest, but it usually turns out that way. This week’s installment celebrates the brief return of The Ergs!, a pop-punk act that may one day be just as revered as The Ramones or Screeching Weasel. Yeah, I said it. E-mail pelonej1@gmail.com with your own big finds!]

Records: The Ergs!’s 3 Guys, 12 Eyes seven-inch (2001) on black, “Blue” single (2007) on blue (a-doy), and That’s It… Bye (2008) on black.

Place of Purchase: 3 Guys came from Repo Records in m.f.-in’ Thrilladelphia. “Blue” was purchased at an Ergs! show, back when I still went to concerts. That’s It was mailordered, but I honestly don’t remember who I bought it from… I just remember leaving the country and, when I came back, there it was.

Thoughts: 3 Guys, 12 Eyes was my first physical Ergs! purchase. The Ben Kweller EP caught my attention; 3 Guys cemented my love. While they only released two proper full-lengths, The Ergs! wrote and recorded an insane amount of material, which is why I think they should be canonized as punk rock saints. I don’t listen to them quite as much as I used to, but I remember the glee I got from hearing each new seven-inch or attending a set. The Ergs! were a talented, generous band, and 3 Guys bears that out. It even comes with a comic! And how you could you not be moved by the emotional appeal of “If You Don’t,” or the guitarmageddon of “Bought a Copy?” Shit rules.

2007 was a great year for Ergs! fans. We got the fantastic full-length Upstairs/Downstairs, as well as a bevy of seven-inches: Splits with Lemuria and Grabass Charlestons, a single for “Books About Miles Davis,” and this little curio called “Blue.” The A-side is typical Ergs!. “Blue” is super catchy, pretty fast, and just generally great. But the song that makes the bigger impression for me is a cover of Nirvana’s “Blew.” They obviously did it as a joke, but it’s a great grunge cover. It reaffirms in my mind that The Ergs! were a great band, as they could take on a variety of styles with ease [Cue reference to that time people complained about Upstairs/Downstairs not having enough jazz references].

Yet for all my fandom, I have mixed feelings about That’s It… Bye. Maybe it’s because the band made a huge deal about it being their last recordings (While they’ve released other songs since their break-up, That’s It features the last three songs The Ergs! ever recorded). Maybe it’s because I never had a chance to bond with the recordings due to personal reasons. Maybe it’s because “Anthem For a New Amanda” is slightly slower. Whatever. Point is, this EP was slightly anti-climactic for me. While the members have gone on to other projects with varying success, I’ll always hold on to the years The Ergs! were together. That said, while I’ll probably never get to see them live again, I certainly look forward to hearing from their new projects. Whether or not they can rekindle that old Erg-y chemistry remains to be seen, but c’mon. Have you heard “Introducing Morrissey?”

The Hillstreet Stranglers - 'Imaginary Baggage EP'

Hailing from San Diego, Calif., the Hillstreet Stanglers love the shit out of Dead Kennedys and Circle Jerks. As evidenced by their EP Imaginary Baggage, the group does its best to ape California punk acts of yesteryear.

While a little too slow to truly run with Keith Morris, the band does a decent DK tribute. Vocalist/bassist Dick Strangler does a good Jello Biafra impression, warbles and all, and the band even sprinkles in a little bit of surf guitar on the title track. The best I can say about this EP is DK enthusiasts can finally get some new DK tunes.

But that just means Hillstreet Stranglers are a tribute band that doesn’t play the hits. They’re solid at what they do, but they don’t exactly leave much of an original impression. The EP’s five tracks slip by in 12 minutes without much differentiation. It’s all bash, crash and rehash. I’m not going to write the band off entirely, but the Hillstreet Stranglers need to find some new influences, or maybe even try to discover their own musical identity if they’re up to the task.

regarding The Hooters.

I interviewed Jeff Thomas and Eric Bazilian (of The Hooters) for Patch.com. WHAT UP.

Year Long Disaster - 'Black Magic: Mysteries Revealed'

It’s unfair to compare sons to their fathers, but I’m going to do it anyway. Sure, Daniel Davies and his band Year Long Disaster deserve a chance to carve out their own identity. But Daniel’s dad is Dave Davies of the Kinks, and YLD’s sound so deliberately avoids everything The Kinks did right that it becomes obnoxious.

Here’s a quick history of the Kinks: They wrote great, loud rock ‘n’ roll songs until the Who ripped them off. Then they wrote great concept albums until the Who ripped them off... again. Then they settled for making arena rock records in their twilight that were better than most bands’ output but still sad compared to Lola or Face to Face. They inspired punk rock, told great stories and left behind a discography that’s cluttered but smart and rewarding in places. They were better than Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and Rod Stewart, artists who punks pretty much hate (as well they should, aside from Every Picture Tells a Story).

I mention those three specific bands because they so clearly are YLD’s primary influences. It’s like some sort of youth rebellion where Daniel feels the need to act out against his dad, but he’s going about it all wrong by embracing acts that, while more popular than the Kinks, are way dumber, lamer and suckier. The Kinks wrote smart, catchy, rocking tunes. YLD has a handle on big riffs, but these songs lack depth.

To be fair, the band is at least good at what they do. For radio-ready cock-rock, Black Magic: All Mysteries Revealed is better than most entries in the genre. The players are technically accomplished. But the songs are of a lesser value, exacerbated by the fact that Daniel sings like a Davies. This stuff barely worked on Low Budget; it just hurts here. Still, I could this band cleaning up some lowest common denominator classic/hard rock format.

regarding the return of the revenge of Science Club.

I'm two-thirds of the way through my goals for my failure brigade that I lovingly call Science Club. That's right, I ate more ice cream. No wait, we're opening for The Next Big Thing! I just buried the lede! Our boys in NBT are dropping Tough as Nails, Sweet as Pie this week, the thrilling follow-up to last year's seminal punk rock dance-a-thon Condense the Nonsense, and they were kind/stupid enough to ask us to open the record release show.

Muahahahaha.

Here's the deets:

12/4/2010
6-10:30

The Next Big Thing
Run For It
A Bridge Too Far

Science Club

4638 Umbria Street
Manayunk, Pa.

In true punk fashion, this will be a basement show, so don't be a dick. Also, there's parking available Hermitage Street, so enjoy that.

Vinyl Vednesday 12/1/2010

[Vinyl Vednesday is a weekly feature about three favorite vinyl finds. It’s not meant to be a dick-measuring contest, but it usually turns out that way. This week’s installment is an epic yarn about Record Store Day, which came twice this year with the inclusion of a Black Friday celebration. Here are three vinyl finds from RSD 2010, Part Deux. Viva la vinyl and, as always, e-mail pelonej1@gmail.com with your own big finds!]

Records: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart’s Higher Than the Stars Remixes (2009) on black, Jimi Hendrix’s Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (2010) on clear green, and Bruce Springsteen’s “Save My Love” b/w “Because the Night” on black.

Place of Purchase: Higher Than the Stars came from a.k.a. music. Hendrix and Bruuuuuuuuuuce came from Repo Records.

Thoughts: a.k.a music…you will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy, at least as far as indie record obsessives go. Still, they hooked me up with that exclusive Bruce 10-inch back in April for Record Store Day proper. So I decided to stop there first, even though my loyalty lies with Repo. The clerks at a.k.a. tend to be wieners, but the selection is so good. It’s like hate-sex on black wax. I arrived right when they opened, hoping to beat the RSD crowd, only to find out that a.k.a., for whatever reason, wasn’t participating. I asked an employee if they had anything in stock. “Oh, we don’t do that,” he chortled. What a dick-bungler. Still, they had a pretty neat remix 12-inch from The Pains of Being Pure at Heart that had been discounted (T or F: The Pains sound even better with haunting dance beats? Discuss), so I bought that, went to Brave New Worlds Comics, because hell yeah I love comics, and then called up Repo.

“Hey, I was wondering if you guys still had any of the Record Store Exclusives in stock?” I asked, lips trembling.

“Hell’s yeah we do. Supplies are limited, but we actually care about customer service, so I’ll set aside whatever you need, Joe Pelone. You are one cool guy,” the voice on the other line said [NOTE: I’m paraphrasing. Capote did it!]. A quick drive to Sixth and South yielded like $70 in records and CDs, because that is how I do. Among my haul was a Christmas 10-inch from Jimi Hendrix. It’s a goofy curio to hear Hendrix play psychedelic versions of “Little Drummer Boy,” “Silent Night,” and “Auld Lang Syne.” Turns out he wanted to record some demos as reference track for a string of December shows he was playing. Ever the showman, Jimi tossed in some holiday goodies. The result is exactly what you think would be: Christmas standards mixed with Jimi’s psych-rock noodling. Dude would have hosted an awesome Christmas special. “Three Little Bears” is thrown in to, because why not? The tunes are good, but the back cover is priceless.

I also picked up a new single of old songs from Bruce Springsteen. “Save My Love” and “Because the Night” come from Springsteen’s new vault-clearing The Promise, which boasts two discs songs discarded during the recording of Darkness on the Edge of Town. I get why these songs didn’t make it on to the album, but the fact that Bruce just left “Save My Love” to rot is insane. It’s such a catchy, radio-ready anthem. At least “Because the Night” got to live on with Patti Smith (Who, let’s be honest, perfected the song). I can’t wait to hear The Promise based on these recordings, though. I mean, Springsteen basically dropped a double-album for the hell of it.

Post-script: After Repo, I ate victory falafel from Maoz on Second and South. It was delicious.