tuba city

Battle Me

Several months ago, I wrote a little blurb about the disappointing new incarnation of Don Caballero and claimed that I would soon follow it up with a live review of Battles, the exciting new band featuring ex-Don Cab guitarist Ian Williams. Heh, what is "soon"? Anyway, maybe now's as good a time as any to finally go off about Battles, seeing as how not one but two debut EPs have recently become available for public consumption. Battles is one of those "supergroup" bands that requires the boilerplate personnel listing...in addition to Williams, there's former Helmet drummer John Stanier (still pounding the skins loudly and precisely), experimental sound wiz Tyondai Braxton (son of a guy named Anthony), and Dave Konopka, formerly of a band called Lynx. Stanier is a fascinating drummer choice for Ian Williams, 'cause his militaristic restraint is so unlike the typical styles played by Kevin Shea (Storm and Stress) or Damon Che (Don Caballero). As a result, Ian Williams gets to do things like rhythmically noodle on top of the methodical beats in a minimal sorta way...and then hit that loop pedal and play a different part right on top of the one that he just finished looping. I think Ty Braxton must've turned Ian onto the loop pedal, 'cause during the live show it sometimes sounded like there were three Ian Williamses playing simultaneously!

If you're one of the small minority of people that is thrilled with the idea of multiple Ian Williams tracks going at the same time, then you probably want to pick up EP C, which I was able to order online from the quick folks at Monitor Records. The first track "B + T" is super-hot and almost Steve Reich-y with all of its shifting layers of repetitve glory. I won't describe the rest of the tracks here, but there are 5 fairly different-sounding tracks and the whole thing is a nice 24 minutes long. The Tras EP (out on the Cold Sweat label) only has two tracks at 12 minutes, but one of them is a nine-minute cut that sounds like drum machines jamming out at 115 BPM....and I really dig it. The shorter more Battles-like title cut is accompanied by its own enhanced CD video, which is really a humorous non-video take on a video (still image up top). Good to see that Ian's screwy sense of humor is still kickin'....I'm guessing that it was his idea to turn an online Battles audio sampler into a hilarious (albeit grating) parody of hip-hop mixtapes, complete with annoying voiceover shoutouts and the occasional gunshot. Take that, DJ Clue and DJ Kayslay!

While I'm on the avant-rock tip, I think I really messed up when I missed The Psychic Paramount at Go! last week. Arrgh, I didn't know that a band with two ex-Laddio Bolocko members would be opening up for Acid Mothers Temple, who I probably should have gone to see regardless. Oh well. At least I can listen to live mp3s and watch a live video....