The Unawares, 1.24.09

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The Unawares celebrated the release of their new album “Pinkie Greene” Saturday night with a set at The Whig. Everybody got a free copy with admission, and the band broke it in right by performing it live for the packed bar room.

There was never a dull moment in the 13-song set, which seemed to fly by. The Unawares make it impossible to get bored with two-minute songs that are blasts of raucous, quirky alt-rock. My immediate comparison was to Pixies (singer John Watkins even looks a bit like Black Francis), but with shorter songs and more accessible lyrics.

"He even created distortion the old fashioned way, cranking the gain to just the point where the tone starts to break up.”

The sound is built around Watkins’ big guitar tone and the impeccable bass playing of James Wallace. Most bass players are there to keep the rhythm and stay in the background, but Wallace’s lines are constantly moving, building an intricate framework for Watkins to lay his quirky chord voicings over. Wallace alone is a good reason to see these guys live -- hearing him on a recording does not capture the feeling of sitting in front of his cabinet as low notes vibrate the beer bottle in your hand. One thing I gotta ask though -- who wears their own band’s t-shirt on stage? I’ll give Wallace a pass though since it was a CD release party. Maybe the shirts just came out as well.

The band looks great on stage. Before they start playing, they appear to be mild-mannered middle-aged dudes. When they pick up instruments, you can tell they are long-time players that really enjoy what they do. Watkins had a music stand with a light set up in front of him, with a stack of papers that were presumably the lyrics to the songs. However, he kept his eyes squeezed tightly shut the whole time he was singing -- so what’s the music stand for?

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From a guitar standpoint, The Unawares were a big departure from opening act Bambara. John Watkins eschewed all effects pedals and plugged his guitar straight into an old Fender amp. He even created distortion the old fashioned way, cranking the gain to just the point where the tone starts to break up. His playing presents an interesting dichotomy compared to his songwriting: he writes the simplest two-minute songs that he can and matches them with the most complex chord-oriented guitar parts that he can. Wallace does the same thing on bass, using ever-shifting lines that could be songs in themselves.

The band tried to walk off stage after album finale “Is Everybody Goin Crazy?”, but the crowd would have none of it. Chants of “Howie Long! Howie Long!” filled the air as the crowd begged for the quirky tune about a football announcer that is unfamiliar with the concept of subtlety.

So basically, The Unawares make music that is short and catchy enough to hook any listener, but is complexly crafted enough to win over even the most jaded indie rock fan. To put it as Howie Long would: “These guys are good. If they sell at least a million records I predict they will go platinum. They will be the best band in America if they make better music than all the other bands.”

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For more info, visit: myspace.com/theunawares

Bambara, 1.25.09

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Here’s Bambara in a nutshell: frenetic drums, fuzzy bass and screeching guitar form a wall of sound. Singer Reid B. paints punkish vocal graffiti on the wall. The wall is illuminated at various times by a naked light bulb placed behind the drum kit, which is switched on at key moments of each song. It shines through the clear drum kit and makes for a sweet visual effect to match each song’s punked-out psychedelia.

Let’s talk about those frenetic drums first, because they are the first thing you will notice about Bambara. Drummer Blaze absolutely beats the shit out of his kit, which is clear and looks like it’s made out of plastic or something. Somewhere, John Bonham is smiling when he sees how hard this kid hits the drums. Bass player William actually had to help Blaze keep control of his kit, as the bass drum was moving under the force of punishing kicks. The drums provide the energy to balance the band’s otherwise psychedelic edge.

"... he struggled to get rid of horrible amp noise, which sounded approximately like putting your ear to a conch shell and hearing kittens being fed into a jet engine.”

William’s bass sound is heavily influenced by his “Big Muff Pi", the famous fuzz pedal from the 1970s. He keeps it right next to the footswitch that controls the lights, and generally stomps on both at the most intense section of each song.

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As a guitarist, Reid is definitely from the Kurt Cobain school of tone. He favors harsh distortion and oddball, pawnshop effects pedals. Unfortunately, equipment difficulties finally forced him to abandon the pedals and plug straight into the amp, abandoning the effects which make up a big part of Bambara’s psychedelic punk sound. I felt bad for Reid as he struggled to get rid of horrible amp noise, which sounded approximately like putting your ear to a conch shell and hearing kittens being fed into a jet engine.

As a singer, and Reid would probably kill me for saying this, but I would compare him to Jared Leto -- not on “My So Called Life”, but on his musical project 30 Seconds to Mars.

Despite their equipment struggles, Bambara finished the night strong with a crowd-pleasing cover of “Psycho Killer” by the Talking Heads. William thumped appropriately on the iconic bass line as the crowd sang along with this in-your-face version. When it comes to intensity, Bambara was clearly “fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-fa-far better” than the original.

For more info, visit: myspace.com/bambaraband