Hello internet, we'd like to take a moment to let you all know that one week from tonight, KALPANA will be sharing a bill at the Knitting Factory New York's Tap Bar with FROM MONUMENT TO MASSES and GOLDEN CITY. The Tap Bar is located in the Knitting Factory at 74 Leonard Street and ten dollars will get you through the doors at 7pm. Complete show information can be found at this link
FROM MONUMENT TO MASSES:
Revolutionary. While it's become increasingly difficult to refrain from rolling one's eyes whenever one hears the word, it's even harder not to use it when describing From Monument To Masses. This San Francisco area three-piece, founded in late 2000, is constantly pushing the boundaries of instrumental post-rock--combining layers of guitar loops, driving polyrhythm and breakbeats, and sampled sound into emotional, ever-changing song structures. FMTM's music has always moved away from the pop music standards of lead vocals, verse-chorus-bridge song structures, and radio-friendly song lengths. But there is a conscious limit to their instrumental experimentation... a desire to stay away from the suffocating artsiness of highbrow indie wankery in favor of tunes that remain grounded in a driving rock sensibility.
Among FMTM's influences, stand out artists like Refused, Fugazi, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and DJ Shadow who are particularly inspirational for their ability to combine progressive sounds with equally progressive political ideas. Living in the Bay Area, it's no wonder that their music celebrates political activism and social change. The group has always held that art cannot exist independently from political struggle.
GOLDEN CITY:
First it was Christie Front Drive... then Antarctica... then The 101... and now comes Golden City (featuring not just Eric Richter, but also Jim Lehnhoff, Chris Peterson and Jeremy Jones). Granted, I've only got three of their songs, but I've played those three songs about thirty times already. And I started singing along to each of them at approximately listen number two. Listen and you'll see what I mean.
Like all of Richter's previous bands, Golden City rocks out in a most melodic way. They probably fall somewhere in-between indie-pop and indie-rock. The guitar lines are super pretty and Richter's vocals sound better (and higher) than ever. If you couldn't tell, I really, really like this band. -- Patrick McNamara
www.myspace.com/therealgoldencity
KALPANA:
The intensely varied tracks of Kalpana's debut record, Hors de Combat, find a young band of four alternating vocal and instrumental duties on 50-plus seamlessly flowing minutes of shifting combinations between guitars, keys, buttons, beats, and drums. These form melodies that shift perfectly into chaos, pulling you contentedly along.
Keyboards and guitars form either a solid groundwork or a heightened anarchic environment, depending on the song or even the moment. Melodic, beautifully repetitive basslines uproot as the complex drum pattern dreamily fades in and eventually builds to burst. Alternating vocal lines quietly calm or at times pull out into a cathartic guttural scream. Musical twists and reversals that are completely unexpected on first listen become the center of listeners' attention on subsequent encounters, as they come to love anticipating the inevitable.
DIRECTIONS:
You can take the 1 train to Franklin Street, walk one block south to Leonard, turn left and walk a block & a half to the club. You can take the A, C or E train to Canal Street, walk 4 blocks south and turn left on Leonard. You could also take the N or R train to Canal Street, walk down Broadway 4 blocks to Leonard, turn right, and see the club at the far end of the block.
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