Scissor Sisters

Not my favorite concert of the year--Muse and TCTC still rank one and two. But, this was the best live stage performance that I have seen in a lot of years. I've been hanging on to the belief that The Butthole Surfers were the best live show around since the early 80's (and I think they were). They have been de-throned. Scissor Sisters is the hardest working band in music today. I had heard about three songs and was interested in seeing the show. I bought tickets the day they went on sale in Chicago--mostly because I knew from the tracks that I had heard that my boyfriend would love them. They had just come off two previous dates (Detroit and Cleveland) where they had only drawn 15 people. Chicago didn't sell them out but probably had a good 400 show up in support (and many who had ordered the music via UK and really knew them -- unlike me). They were so thrilled at the size of the crowd. All their current hype is UK (but they did make US network television the last two days).

So a few hours later (after the show), Scissor Sisters are my favorite new band of the year they have been around for awhile, but they broke this year). I expected the disco-influenced sounds to bore me right away. Talk about misreading this band. The music, the musicians, the stage show, the lyrics, the versatility is beyond what anyone can really expect from a band in this most modern age.

A nearly two-hour show without a single weak moment or song. Jake is everything I want in a rock star. And his counterpart (Anna?) is so fucking hot, talented, and the perfect partner for their brilliant performance in front of a band that is as complete and tight and as exciting as any band I have seen since the early Strokes days. Watching Jake and his female counterpart—in sync at every second of the show, complimenting each others perfomances from start to finish—and I have to mention again—the sex, the sex in both appeal, eroticism and intimacy between them makes the show hypnotizing. This gorgeous (truly beautiful) man and this curvy woman that takes you back to the days (1950's and 1960's) when sex appeal was hips and tits and asses—in great proportion (Marilyn, Jayne, Mamie) is perhaps retro—but in the here and now—it is goddamn groundbreaking.

Universal Records has just signed the band and the US release is scheduled for July 27. I ordered it out of UK tonight and then downloaded it (after hours of figuring this I-music crap from those nasty Mac people). Substances added to much of what they did tonight--but 4 hours after the show (substances wearing off) I just keep cranking it. The last time I had a CD on random for this long was actually vinyl, after people would be crashing at my place for about a week (early 80's) and I wanted to get them out, I put on Buzzcocks and told everyone in my space that it was the only thing I wanted to hear over and over and over. In time, the crowd did thin.

Scissor Sisters has been presented as somewhat of a novelty act. They have the glitz, the glimmer and the glam--but they will knock you out with the substance. I can name at least 40-50 1970-1980 influences that they very openly cop from. But, every moment is completely their own. I never expected to leave this show loving their music so much. I hate disco, not a big Leo Sayer fan, Elton (liked the first three albums), Sylvester (well, I worshipped him) but the whole dance/disco 1970's bored me so much that I ended up a punk rocker (after glam had run its course) owning and running a punk club--the most legendary Chicago punk club—OZ.

So Scissor Sisters are the about polar opposites to what I was listening to or playing in my club. And pretty different from anything I have listened to since the 70's (and then it was usually because I was in a club playing disco crap) Yes, to me, Scissor Sisters have all the dreaded 1970 and 80's influences and more, and they fucking own it. And they present it in a way that is everything that it should have been 30 years ago. If Scissor Sisters had founded disco--it would have been such a different trip instead of the awful 128 bpms that it became (or pretty much always was).

There is not another band today doing what this band does. Since disco and techno took over every queer club's musical focus--there has been a real lack of innovative bands seeking to get gay bar play. SS are going for it. Scissor Sisters may, at last, get queers to return to the indie scene where they have fucking always belonged. New music, in terms of the US, still gets broken in the queer clubs. What a shame because gay clubs were once the trendsetters giving us Bowie, T. Rex, Jobriath, Wayne County, etc (and it was the only place to hear it). Unfortunately, they quickly buckled under to the Gloria Gaynor and any bitch with a syth and doing the beats per minute--only to turn it in to techno and live there for the last eternity. Queer club music has been basically stagnant since 1976--they can change the name--techno, bass and drums, etc--but Christ, it is just more shitty disco crap.

Scissor Sisters is going to force gay dance bars to reconsider some of their music. The crowd tonight was overwhelmingly hetero--but this bands target is obvious--people wanting to dance their ass off, enjoy some of the best retro, original music that is a soundtrack of some of our lives (even if we didn't really like the soundtrack the first time around).

This band is about some substances, tons of sex, recreating Warholian street people living and surviving in NYC. And doing it with fucking style. The trannies, the hos, the gender benders, the back seat blow jobs, the pretty boys, the country boys getting off the Greyhound, the totality of lower east side Manhattan in 1974 (and hopefully, a solid piece of that still exists there).

Instead of presenting it like Andy (Paul Morrissey did in Trash), Scissor Sisters present it like a big budget Broadway production. The show itself is so spectacular that I can't wait to see them in the bigger rooms, with a budget and creating a magical fantasyland for everybody (as they have done so well in their videos).

I'll shut up now. I fell in love with this band so unexpectedly. The music is fucking overpowering. Jake's voice is as brilliant to me as Jobriath, T. Roth, Marc Bolan. He can dance like a diva and break your heart with a song. The sexiest man I have seen on stage in so long—probably since T. Roth, Marc Bolin and Jobriath. Gay or straight, man or woman—try getting your eyes off this beautiful, talented, and totally-committed-to-entertaining-in-any-way-possible-on-stage, individual. And when the senses are overwhelmed—watch his female counterpart who is every bit as awesome. You can download the CD now for $9.99 through their web site which takes you to I-music (some horrible Mac crap with tons of sign ups and no part of anything making any sense.) But worth it—I needed the music now—and I did figure it all out in about 2 hours. Once I knew how to get it, it downloaded in about 10 minutes and burned really nice.

MAIN POINT: Chicago was the third stop on the Us tour--they have a lot of dates coming up. To miss this band at this stage in their development while they are working hard for their rep would really be a loss. This IS the tour that you want to see this band--because the next one is going to be hi-tech, flashy, and much larger rooms. This is seeing a band as they prepare to conquer. It is the warm-up for what will be all over MTV and in arenas--if there is any justice in the industry. Yeah, I hate MTV and all that shite but I want this band to conquer the tried, boring and true corporate controlled video channels. Seeing this band anywhere will pull people away from the belief that what is out there is obvious. If they see this band—maybe they will start to wonder and do a little work about finding other bands they like—instead of waiting for it to flow through Clear Channels. Scissor Sisters has the potential (like none out there right now) to reintroduce a stagnant music crowd to the value, diversity and the fucking reality--if you want good music, go fucking find it. Because the gay bar down the street has no interest in playing anything but what is popular--and that simply goes for the straight pubs too.

The band is taking the time to really relate to the crowds and they are amazingly generous in a comfortable shared conversation that never detracts from the stage show. This kind of band-audience intimacy happens so rarely, and really requires a club of certain size. These kids are giving of themselves in every way you could ask an artist to give. They will be known as the hardest working band in the biz, because from what I saw tonight, there is not a band that comes close for delivering the spectacle. This is the most fun show I have seen in years—but the substance of what they do will at times bring you to tears. Fun serious gay straight disco Sylvester Elton Bee Gees (as they may have imagined themselves) Broadway, sad songs occasionally (but always with the warning, "now, don't get too sad") and Jake going from falsetto to the wide eyed innocent with a voice of power and deepness and commitment and so quickly being able to bring you up to a whole new intensity. This band has the potential to slam down the doors of all types of clubs that keep feeding us crap music. Maybe the Strokes opened the door, but this band could really change the dynamic. JUST DON'T MISS THIS BAND. I guarantee it will rank among your best shows of the year.
--Dem

Magnus CD review in The Big Takeover

Magnus Sleepwalker
(on Nefarious Records)

One goes through a thoroughly depressing pile of 46 CDs by unknown artists utterly bereft of advanced talent and imagination, calling "Next!," hoping against hope there might be one like this hidden there. Wherefore art though, Cinderella trying to get noticed behind her wretched stepmom/sisters? But at last, here she is, not too late for the ball!

What they remind of is early 1990s (i.e. comeback) Comsat Angels, with some Adam and Eve Catherine Wheel too. It's that marvelous swirling guitar edge, bonded to hard pop tunes that slowly but forcefully unfold and then implode, the pensive touches (love the trumpets and bits of piano, like on "Drinking With Baron," and the feeding back cello on "Awake"), the clear and clear-eyed singing, the long languid passages that give way to building storms, and riffs that catch you from first play. Excellent!

This Chicago group won't fall in line with prevailing indie rock elements, putting up a false intensity. They just let the delighting, surprising turns in their tightly-written and executed music speak volumes. I can't remember the last time I heard such inventive guitar passages from an American band that doesn't ape Neil Young, yet seems like they might have heard Brian Eno's Here Come the Warm Jets or Radiohead's Ok Computer along the way, and understood the dynamic trichotomies of beauty, brain, and aggression inherent in both. I know next to nothing about Stephen and David Wade, George Patrick, or Scott Schaafsma (and Simon Hunt) other than that they had a 2002 debut EP I really need to get. But after playing their LP so much, I might write them a fan letter (and see if the slipper fits).

With music of this striking power right under our noses, the rest of America rock and its overwhelming mediocrity just lost its excuse.
--Jack Rabid

links:
http://www.magnusmusic.net
http://www.nefariousrecords.com

Busted at OZ: Effigies, Raygun, DOA, Strike Under, Silver Abuse

Check out http://www.ozbeatmusic.com for the latest on this one. Tracks will be uploaded in the future, but you've gotta sign upi for this one. Other great bands on the site, links, music news, early concert warnings, and archived reviews as well.

The Fuse

Saw this west coast hard-core band at the Empty Bottle. The place was empty because International Pop Overthrow is in town. The band's CD is very good and the live show even better. Makes me want to revisit the CD. But, the standout of the night was the drummer. He sat so high above the kit that you could see him from knees--up. The cymbols were so high up that he could just reach them -- or when needed--stand up and bash the fuck out of them. I assumed he was either 7 feet tall with no legs--or 4 feet tall with gorilla arms. In fact, he was human. The band left the stage after a great set--and I cornered the drummer. The dude was completely modest, somewhat taken aback, and so happy that I was asking him about every thing he did behind the drum kit. It turns out that it is simply the way he bangs the drums. You don't have to love this band--although I'm getting close--to fully appreciate an extraordinary drummer. Front man tries hard--drummer steals the show! I couldn't take my eyes off him--even when the front man was writhing on the floor at my feet.
--Dem

Weird War / The Rapture / BRMC

The set started strong with 3 cuts from the Scene Creamers CD but quickly turned into a bore. A band that one year ago did one of the most inspired sets I have ever seen, was disappointing last fall and kind of a wate of time last Friday. The new material is very weak and the band seems to be involving into a funk band. That would be just fine--if they could play funk. I love good funk but when it is bad (quite frequently it seems) it is torture. I'm also not getting much of a spark from Ian and his performance has to be at top-level or the band's show to come off. It probably wasn't as bad as I am making it out to be--it was the high expectations that I went to the club with that made the performance seem all that much more lackluster. However, Friday's dismal show was more than made up for last night by BRMC and The Rapture--both bands putting on high-energy tight shows and The Rapture turning in a perfect set from start to finish.
--Dem