Geoff Zimmerman |
• Uhhh, what are we supposed to make of GINLAB? It was more than a year ago that the quirky, high-energy rock band made their debut at the Big Easy, covering the entirety of Radiohead's Kid A along with a side dish of their own style of quirky electronic-rock action. It was a swaggerish move, starting your band's career as a stand-in for a band so popular its influence may as well spread by osmosis. But hey, nothing's sacred these days, and if that point needed underscoring, consider the band's next move: covering the entirety of Radiohead's Kid A — again. That's right, the local alt-rock five-top reprise that most self-conscious and famously evasive of contemporary British rock records at this week's Cover to Cover night at the Big Easy (December 18, 9 pm). The fact that they'll have EPs of their own printed up (see Sam Pfeifle's review of the EP here) moves the needle a little bit, but this is still one of the weirder and more obsessive ways to conduct your own band's identity we've seen in a while. Major points for originality, especially when it comes by way of stubbornly devotional reproduction. Visit ginlab.bandcamp.com for a sample.• After a year-long stint in Georgia, the multi-instrumentalist songwriter GEOFF ZIMMERMAN returns to us with a new EP of his ruminative, highly textured urban-folk. Titled Electropathy, it's available for pre-order at his bandcamp, and becomes the main cause of celebration January 3 at Blue, where Zimmerman will have hard copies for his 7 pm set time.
• Couple new projects we're excited about: one is CHRY, a melodic and spacey foursome whose members have played in such diverse acts as the one-man garage pop Saint Solitude, longstanding hardcore group Cruel Hand, electropop big band Sunset Hearts, and more. A three-song demo (chryme.bandcamp.com) situates them in the lineage of heavier, less ponderous British shoegaze groups like Slowdive, Placebo, and Chapterhouse while upholding a solidly American punk urgency. The other — about whom we know preciously little but can't help ourselves — is the complex and dissonantly beautiful art-rock ensemble called AN ANDERSON, which has members of post-punk groups Huak, Honey Clouds, Red Medicine, and Cuss. Looking forward to what 2013 will bring from them both.
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New England Music News
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