This week in The Bay Area we have music from across the Pacific Ocean, from across the Atlantic Ocean, and more. International travel is neat these days.
Melt-Banana are one of those bands that I consider to be a rite of passage for anyone that is a serious music listener. They essentially invented the genre of music known as “spazz.” At one point in time, a friend of mine referred to them as “Barely listenable. Which is why I insist in listening to them frequently.” They’ve recently released their 9th studio record, Fetch, their first record in five years. They are also about to embark on their first tour of the US as only the core duo: vocalist Yasuko Onuki and guitarist Ichirou Agata, which their breakneck drum parts being performed by a computer instead of a human. The band will be hitting The Oakland Metro Operahouse on November 16th. Tickets available here!
I have a live music bucket list. There are about a dozen or so musicians that I’d like to see before they call it quits. The number one band on that list is Melt-Banana. I first uncovered them working at the old Wherehouse Music on Geary in San Francisco. Somebody was selling back used CD’s, and there was a single loose disc left behind. It was Cell Scape by Melt-Banana. I put it on the overhead, and I was blown away. It was like nothing I’ve ever heard before. It was chaotic, weird, and beautiful. I instantly knew that I needed to see this band live. Sadly, it took almost 10 years before I was able to make that work.
This week was pretty much dominated by Puscifer, the traveling musical carnival and brainchild of Maynard James Keenan. A simple little tweet gave us a record traffic day on Friday, so there’s no surprise what will be at #1 on this week’s busiest posts. But why stop reading at number one when numbers two through five are also chock full of valuable musical information? Continue reading “Week in Review: Top 5 Posts from 10/30-11/5”
There were a great deal of shows to visit this All Hallows’ Eve’s Eve, ranging from electronica in arenas to punk rock in bars; despite the drastic number of shows involving bands that I’d seen on one-to-a-few occasions, it was Melt-Banana that I ended up seeing. It seemed rather appropriate; on the eve of the holiday most responsible for darkness, chaos and the warding off of evil spirits, what better occasion to see a trio of Japanese noise-punk musicians with their own sets of sonic banshee howls and thundering rhythms? Being an avid fan of experimental music and Japanese power noise, I had a feeling that this was going to be a rather exciting show; I was not prepared, however, for how wild it got inside.