- October 24th @ Caliente Pizza Bar - Satyr/Elfheim and 3 bands TBA
- October 30th @ The Mr. Roboto Project - SPECIAL DEVIL'S NIGHT SHOW - Satyr/Elfheim with Fins [CT], Ghosts of Chance [CT], and Pants
- November 4th @ Caliente Pizza Bar - Satyr/Elfheim with Grid of Pleiades [MD], Wake Project, and Buoyhood
- November 11th @ The Mr. Roboto Project - Red Ginger with Stella [OH], Dumplings, and 1 TBA
Curse is a duo composed of Jane Vincent and Logan Terkelsen. They are on tour for their new self-titled album and recently attempted to play at Caliente in Pittsburgh, but ultimately didn't. After listening to the album, I'm disappointed with the results of that show; it would have been really great to see them play live. Most, if not all, of the instrumentation seems to be keyboards and live drums with Jane Vincent's powerful vocals over top. The songs are atmospheric and dark with apocalyptic drama and occasional dance parts. It is noisy, but not without melodies and hooks.
Many of the songs reference Peter Pan and others deal with growing up but still staying youthful. Time and the juxtaposition between one point in time and another are the other big themes: the aforementioned themes of childhood vs. adulthood is related and other songs deal with the cyclic nature of time (seasons, tides) and that, though you have to live through the difficult times, you shouldn't despair because the good times will return. "Let's make the most of what we have". The song "Untitled" is a spooky atmospheric piece with no vocals. The last song, "Light Drinker", asks how much of reality is in our head and how much is concrete. How powerful is imagination? "Is there a dog that dreams in green? Is the thought of a unicorn a real thought?"
Curse receives a rating of Good.
The band Stella has asked me to review their album Vapid Rubs for the upcoming Pittsburgh show. They are a very noisy post-hardcore band similar to The Nation of Ulysses or Pittsburgh's own Relationships. Vapid Rubs is a short EP, a little over eight minutes, and all of the tracks are full-on heavy, loud, rock 'n' roll heart attacks. I don't understand a lot of the lyrics that bands like these produce. There are very few rhymes, odd meters, and strange metaphors that deal with personal problems that I don't know anything about. "Omega" is sort of like about a modern Romulus and Remus and involves a building being destroyed. "Fast Guy" uses video games as a metaphor for not dealing with society and not moving up to harder problems. "Let’s just place some landmines here yeah/And some hedgehogs because/I want you to be a lifetime playerKeep the yellow ring on". "The Man with the Chainsaw Leg" is a strange song; it is presented sort of like a play, but just seems like a weird joke. I like the strange imagery and "who-the-fuck-cares" vibe I get from it, but I also feel like it is kind of just a cliche.
Musically the album is pretty cool. Each song features a few different parts; it is stupid but complex which is cool. The vocalist screams a lot and sounds like he is gonna erupt; he sounds sort of like Ian Svenonius of The Nation of Ulysses. Everything is really lo-fi across the board, but there is a lot of energy. The cover has a weird ASCII tank on it with a white background. It should be fun to see this band live. I'm excited to play with them.
Vapid Rubs receives a rating of Good.
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