For every hundred music blogs that launch to great ambitions only to lie abandoned just months later, there are only a handful of blogs that carve out genuine niches for themselves and discover their own voices. One of the successful ones is Seizure Chicken, a collaborative Milwaukee/Chicago blog with a focus on garage- and psychedelic-pop. Seizure Chicken celebrated its first birthday Monday night at Mad Planet with three bands the site has championed: the Austin trio Harlem and Milwaukeeans Jaill and Worrier, all of which play considerably breezier music than their stern band names suggest.
Harlem earlier this released its Matador Records debut, Hippies, a ramshackle record that contrasts the innocent melodies of Buddy Holly-era rock ’n’ roll with MC5/Stooges garage-rock sleaze. Their set was messy and spontaneous, and every bit the party their record suggested. Like the best parties, it grew more boisterous as the night wore on, as the crowd thinned and the alcohol kicked in for the remaining diehards. By the encore, much of the audience was dancing uninhibitedly, while a few particularly enthused fans took their chances surfing over the wobbly crowd.
On paper, Jaill and Harlem read mighty similar. Both play garage-pop set to the same, persistent 1960s jangle, both sing songs about being somebody’s or having somebody be their baby, both have the backing of a prestigious record label (Jaill is preparing their Sub Pop debut for summer release), and both kept the crowd twisting and shimmying Monday night. They’re very different performers, though. Where Harlem was content letting their guitars drift out of tune and hurried through their set with eyes on doing shots at the bar afterward, Jaill’s set was far cleaner and focused, their zippy songs tighter and more melodically complex, requiring a good bit more sobriety to nail.
Openers Worrier deviated from the Harlem and Jaill’s garage-pop mold, but their sweet-and-sour art-punkall twitchy guitars, shifty bass and yelped, staccato vocalswas just as danceable in its own way.
|
|
