Rockness Recommends
Oh My Rockness & Oya Festival Present: Norway v.s. North America
October 10, 2007
If there is one show you shouldn't miss at this year's CMJ Festival, it's the one happening Wednesday night, October 17th at the Knitting Factory Tap Bar. Seriously, this line-up completely destroys from first (8pm) to last (midnight).
So who's playing, already? We were just getting to that. Come Wednesday and you'll get to see the exceptional electro-Canada-spazzers We Are Wolves! The blazing and boozy grrrrl punk of Norway's Ida Maria! The electric NYC party starters called Team Robespierre! The dynamo synth rock of Norway's Monomen! And ex-Christie Front Drive Eric Richter's amazing brand-new band who go as Golden City! Wow. That's like five of our very favorite bands all playing the same show. Whoever organized this show sure knows what's what!
Ok fine, full disclaimer. Oh My Rockness organized this show (along with our friends who founded the Oya Festival in Norway). And we really believe you will be slayed by the bands we picked to play our CMJ show, too. We love them, so why wouldn't you? In case you aren't familiar with these five bands, here's a brief recap of the ways they rule:
We are Wolves: They were simply one of the best bands we saw at SXSW2006, which is why we are delighted they are playing our show. We Are Wolves are on this bill for a reason. This badass band from Montreal plays insanely loud! We are Wolves are a full-out guitar/synth attack complete with staggering blasts of percussion. Feedback, danceable bass booms and lurching rhythmic fury are what make these guys so absolutely FUN to see live. You can dance if you want to. This is for fans of Les Savy Fav, Thunderbirds are Now! and Forward, Russia!. Be sure to check out their brand new album, Total Magique. Set that shit to eleven.
Ida Maria: Ida Maria is a twenty-three-year-old singer/songwriter who rocks out with plenty of unabashed sass. She brought down the thousands-deep house at this year's Oya Festival. They absolutely love her over there in Norway, and we think you'll love her over here, too. With her fine backing band, Ida Maria creates rousing drunken choruses about smoking cigarettes and being naked. And from the stage, she shows that elusive performer's ability to completely wrap the crowd around her little finger with her super-charged showmanship. Think Bjork meets Iggy Pop (?!). She's something to behold.
Team Robespierre: Brooklyn's Team Robespierre rock the super fun synth-punk, with an emphasis on the punk. Their raw, electric sound remind of (broken-up) bands like Q and Not U, El Guapo, and Fugazi (if Fugazi had keyboard players, that is). These five guys are the perfect band to ask to play when you want to turn your broken-down loft or vacant parking lot into an instant party space (or the Tap Bar!). Just have them plug in their guitar, bass and keys and watch them go for it. Team Robespierre utilizes a whole mess of both machine and man-made beats, and you can certainly dance to their thumps. Just don't confuse this with dance-punk. This is more like punk-dance.
Monomen: Another band that brought the packed Oya crowd to its knees in reverence were these hometown heroes. 1980's synth-pop-new-wave must be the hot new sound to replace black-metal in Scandinavia, because a lot of bands over there are rocking the style (start with the New Violators and move on to 120 Days). But perhaps none do it better than Monomen. These guys released a hard-to-find album in May of 2007 (only Insound has it for sale in the States) that I've had stuck on repeat since summer. Start with the song "Drum of Glass" and tell me you don't want to play it all day. We saw them play for a crowd of a few thousand other people, so we're really looking forward to seeing them in a smaller setting like the Tap Bar.
Golden City: You better come early for these guys or you'll miss something special. I tell you, Eric Richter keeps forming bands that totally rule. First it was Christie Front Drive... then Antarctica... then The 101... and now comes Golden City (featuring not just 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. 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.
It's an absolute honor to have five fine bands such as these suiting up and playing the Oh My Rockness CMJ show. We really hope to see you there. Like we said, we're biased. But we have a feeling this is going to be one we remember for a long time.
Get your tickets to the Oh My Rockness/Oya Fest CMJ show here!
We Are Wolves, Ida Maria, Team Robespierre, Monomen and Golden City play Knitting Factory Tap Bar, on Wednesday, October 17th.
So who's playing, already? We were just getting to that. Come Wednesday and you'll get to see the exceptional electro-Canada-spazzers We Are Wolves! The blazing and boozy grrrrl punk of Norway's Ida Maria! The electric NYC party starters called Team Robespierre! The dynamo synth rock of Norway's Monomen! And ex-Christie Front Drive Eric Richter's amazing brand-new band who go as Golden City! Wow. That's like five of our very favorite bands all playing the same show. Whoever organized this show sure knows what's what!
Ok fine, full disclaimer. Oh My Rockness organized this show (along with our friends who founded the Oya Festival in Norway). And we really believe you will be slayed by the bands we picked to play our CMJ show, too. We love them, so why wouldn't you? In case you aren't familiar with these five bands, here's a brief recap of the ways they rule:
We are Wolves: They were simply one of the best bands we saw at SXSW2006, which is why we are delighted they are playing our show. We Are Wolves are on this bill for a reason. This badass band from Montreal plays insanely loud! We are Wolves are a full-out guitar/synth attack complete with staggering blasts of percussion. Feedback, danceable bass booms and lurching rhythmic fury are what make these guys so absolutely FUN to see live. You can dance if you want to. This is for fans of Les Savy Fav, Thunderbirds are Now! and Forward, Russia!. Be sure to check out their brand new album, Total Magique. Set that shit to eleven.
Ida Maria: Ida Maria is a twenty-three-year-old singer/songwriter who rocks out with plenty of unabashed sass. She brought down the thousands-deep house at this year's Oya Festival. They absolutely love her over there in Norway, and we think you'll love her over here, too. With her fine backing band, Ida Maria creates rousing drunken choruses about smoking cigarettes and being naked. And from the stage, she shows that elusive performer's ability to completely wrap the crowd around her little finger with her super-charged showmanship. Think Bjork meets Iggy Pop (?!). She's something to behold.
Team Robespierre: Brooklyn's Team Robespierre rock the super fun synth-punk, with an emphasis on the punk. Their raw, electric sound remind of (broken-up) bands like Q and Not U, El Guapo, and Fugazi (if Fugazi had keyboard players, that is). These five guys are the perfect band to ask to play when you want to turn your broken-down loft or vacant parking lot into an instant party space (or the Tap Bar!). Just have them plug in their guitar, bass and keys and watch them go for it. Team Robespierre utilizes a whole mess of both machine and man-made beats, and you can certainly dance to their thumps. Just don't confuse this with dance-punk. This is more like punk-dance.
Monomen: Another band that brought the packed Oya crowd to its knees in reverence were these hometown heroes. 1980's synth-pop-new-wave must be the hot new sound to replace black-metal in Scandinavia, because a lot of bands over there are rocking the style (start with the New Violators and move on to 120 Days). But perhaps none do it better than Monomen. These guys released a hard-to-find album in May of 2007 (only Insound has it for sale in the States) that I've had stuck on repeat since summer. Start with the song "Drum of Glass" and tell me you don't want to play it all day. We saw them play for a crowd of a few thousand other people, so we're really looking forward to seeing them in a smaller setting like the Tap Bar.
Golden City: You better come early for these guys or you'll miss something special. I tell you, Eric Richter keeps forming bands that totally rule. First it was Christie Front Drive... then Antarctica... then The 101... and now comes Golden City (featuring not just 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. 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.
It's an absolute honor to have five fine bands such as these suiting up and playing the Oh My Rockness CMJ show. We really hope to see you there. Like we said, we're biased. But we have a feeling this is going to be one we remember for a long time.
Get your tickets to the Oh My Rockness/Oya Fest CMJ show here!
We Are Wolves, Ida Maria, Team Robespierre, Monomen and Golden City play Knitting Factory Tap Bar, on Wednesday, October 17th.
