I’ve really only been a fan of the record label Moshi Moshi for the past few years. Their most popular successes are bands that are somewhat inescapable in certain circles, Lykke Li, Bloc Party, Hot Chip, and the like. Good music, but beyond Lykke Li, not really my thing.
My introduction to them was when I was trying to hunt down releases from Best Fwends, a two member spastic electronic pop band out of Texas. Moshi Moshi released their EPs and the compilation/album Alphabetically Arranged and their online store through Greedbag was the only way to get this music, rather frustrating considering they are an American band but thankfully it was easily downloaded.
This order got me placed on their mailing list, which introduced me to a whole host of new bands that I now enjoy. So the opportunity to see the 10th anniversary tour at The South Street Seaport as part of the 2009 River to River fest for free was very exciting.
The South Street Seaport stage is a great place to see shows. Tucked away between a mall which would rather you remember it as a fish market and a tall ship, the small area for music manages to fill the entire area with rich full sound. It’s a lot of fun and pretty singular in a city filled singular places to see music.
On the bill were Slow Club, a folk / pop band I have fell immediately in love with since I took a chance on their first single “Because We’re Dead” on a whim, The Wave Pictures, a band with which I was only nominally familiar, and Casiokids, a newer band who I had heard but never seen but had heard good things about live.
I got there fairly early and secured a good space and waited. Eventually, I was joined by Eatsdirt and then began the inevitable slog through time.
Slow Club
Slow Club is made up of Charles Watson and Rebecca Taylor. Charles plays guitar on most of the tracks and Rebecca is percussion and sometimes accompanying guitar. Their songs are your standard folk songs about love and loss and such but there is a pleasant uniqueness in their tone and a degree of playfulness and wit which seems to be missing from most dreary acoustic duos of this nature. Seeing them live was wonderful, they had good banter between each other and the audience and were very pleased to be there, happy with the turn out, the venue and quite pleased when people in the audience knew who they were.
Slow Club
Their album was just released and they played through a number of songs from it and the songs benefited from the pared down experience of a guy with a guitar and a girl with a drum set played live and loud. The live version of “Because We’re Dead” was compacted in some sections and expanded in others and it was truly a treat to hear live.
Slow Club
Wave Pictures is a three piece out of Whymeswold in the UK with the standard three piece configuration of Guitarist / Singer, Bassist and Drummer performing songs which have a kind of longing which seems to be rooted at the heart of a lot of music that comes from small towns. David Tattersall’s music draws from a number of various musical genres and traditions but in the music that was chosen last night there were quite a few which had guitar solos which went from a minimal melodic structure to a go for broke wall of jangly sound around which the bass walks and the drums roll.
Wave Pictures
As someone who was not really familiar with the music, they were very enjoyable. I think the stand out song that we heard from them was probably “Tiny Craters in the Sand” from their most recent album If You Leave It Alone which opens with “I cut my hair and you grew yours / there always has to be the same amount of hair in the world” and becomes a surreal love song which corrupts typical imagery in these types of songs. The title comes from growing old together to the point where you lose your marbles and as they roll to the sea, they leave perfect tiny craters in the sand.
Wave Pictures
All of their music was filled with this kind of marvelous metaphor including a holiday trip form hell whose name I didn’t catch.
Wave Pictures
The final act was the one I knew the least about, Casiokids an electronic funk outfit from Norway. The drummer came out wearing an enormous monkey head and then things got strange. Every other European band I’ve seen this year has looked miserable in the surprisingly mild summer here. Casiokids came out with members wearing a crushed velvet suit, a yellow sweatshirt and long sleeve shirts. Looking online their country’s average high is 69 degrees Fahrenheit in August. Add that to the high energy show, it’s really kind of impressive.
Casiokids
The music the band played was long drawn out funk stompers that had the whole pier dancing. A few members of the band shared the singing duties, but all of their voices were so fragile and crystalline when laid over the driving grooves underneath.
Casiokids
Around the midway point, Rebecca from Slow Club came out and added percussive duties and re-energized everyone in the crowd and in the band. Charles donned the full monkey suit and danced around with a tambourine to everyone’s enjoyment.
Rebecca of Slow Club performs with Casiokids
Casiokids were a lot of fun and I hope they tour more often so everyone who missed out can get a chance to see them.
Casiokids
And then Eatsdirt and I had gyro over rice and it was delicious.