CONCERT REVIEW: Catacombz, Dogs in Ecstasy & (ORB) (Riverwest Public House Cooperative, Milwaukee)

Saying goodbye after 10 long years, local psych rock staples Catacombz go out with a bang at the Riverwest Public House, sent off by some of their equally talented friends.

Read my full review here.

CONCERT REVIEW: Dogs in Ecstasy, Cave & Catacombz (Riverwest Public House, Milwaukee)

Dogs in Ecstasy, one of the best bands in the city, celebrates the release of their debut album, Dat Cruel God, with a little help from their equally talented friends.

Read my full review here.

CONCERT REVIEW: Prince Rama, Catacombz & Moss Folk (Mad Planet, Milwaukee)

Eccentric sister duo Prince Rama fittingly cap off a night of surreal psychedelic variations, including opening sets from Milwaukee's own Moss Folk and Catacombz.

Read my full review here.

ALBUM REVIEW: Catacombz - Mother Tongue 2

I check out Mother Tongue 2, the new album from local favorites Catacombz.  

Read my full review here.

CONCERT REVIEW: Quintron & Miss Pussycat w/ Cave and Catacombz (The Cactus Club, Milwaukee)

It's always a pleasure when Quintron & Miss Pussycat come to town. In addition to making some kick ass music, they seriously know how to put on a show. The New Orleans husband and wife duo seems incapable of phoning it in or keeping it simple, mixing up puppets, invented instruments, comedy and a whole lot of energy into one indescribably fun whole. On their own, they make for a memorable night out, but of course it's also a big bonus when there're some other good bands to fill out the bill, as was the case here.

I've covered local openers Catacombz several times in the past, and frankly I'm tired of writing nice things about them. It's all true of course, how they're spacey and loud and one of the best bands in the city, but it just gets tedious. I would try writing something bad about them, just for sport, but that sounds like a lot of work, and I don't like work.

Next up was Chicago's Cave, who've had a bit of a personnel shakeup with the recent departure of keys/synth player Rotten Milk. There's always been enough going on in Cave, so many dense, intricate layers, that the remaining parts still make for a totally rocking whole, but they do sound a bit less cosmic without Milk's serenely psychedelic overtones. His absence subtly shifts the focus to Rex McMurry's juggernaut drumming and the guitar attack, leading them to sound slightly more like shredding proto-metal than their classic psych (big leap, I know).

Then the lights went out and it was time for Miss Pussycat's puppet theatre. If you think you're too cool for a puppet show, then you've never seen a puppet show this cool. It's all so perfectly pitched: the skilled but charmingly DIY aesthetic, the splashes of Day-Glo color, and the mind-melting Adult Swim-style humor. This time out, she's performing the story of a plucky bear who goes to space in search of a planet him and his buddy can party on. It's great, my only complaint being that it's too short, but the end of that segment just gives way to the Mr. Quintron portion of the evening.  Banging out jumpy, rollicking dance rock on a Hammond Organ tricked out to look like the front end of a classic car, and flanked by his homemade drum machines, he creates a ruckus that sounds a bit like the B-52's only with more sweat and more sleaze.

After a satisfying run of great tunes, including such highlights as an extended, funky freakout on "Place Unknown" from 2003's Are You Ready for an Organ Solo?, technical problems cut the set a bit short, but if people wandered away lamenting the abrupt ending, no one had anything but praise for what had come before it. Hopefully they'll be making it back to Milwaukee before too long, and if they are coming to a theatre near you, do yourself a favor and go experience the spectacle for yourself.

CONCERT REVIEW: Bitchin' Bajas, Zath & Catacombz (Riverwest Public House, Milwaukee)

The nice thing about psychedelic music is that it provides so many avenues to explore, possessing a way of breaking down barriers between styles and modes of composition. Starting with psychedelia, you're only a step or two away from a whole range of sounds, from raga and gamelan to goth and metal. The sense of freedom and exploration it fosters is remarkable, and with out it, it's questionable that any of the bands playing here tonight would exist, even though that liberty takes them all to very different places.

Starting things off was Bitchin' Bajas a Chicago three piece who uses keys, synths and saxophone to slowly build insistent drones into reverberating masses of sound, gradually adding simple yet effective rhythms, partly via a laptop, that provide the shape and structure needed to stave off basic navel-gazing. The group shares a member, Cooper Crane, with Windy City psych staples Cave, who also make the most of similarly hypnotic tones, albeit as part of an altogether harder hitting whole.

Speaking of Cave, their bass player, Dan Browning, moonlights in Zath, whose lineup also features members of  Ga'an and Cacaw. Milwaukee has always been a hard-rock burg at heart, so it shouldn't be a shock to learn that the audience seemed to love every minute of Zath's pummeling, complex thrash. Though there's no shortage of head-banging riffage in their sound, it's fleshed out by a lot of intricate technical flourishes and ambitious, almost prog-y, elements that are actually quite challenging, assuming you can pick them out as they blaze by at bruising speed.

Local headliners Catacombz have recently added a few members, though, recently returned from a short tour, they're as tight as ever. The new members jive well, which is no surprise given that Catacombz has always felt more than the sum of its parts, born more of an adventurous approach than a specific group of people. Their set here featured a plethora of new material, which expands on their classic, krautrock-spiked psych with a new sense of swing and some treated vocals.

Though they all possess their own distinct styles, the common denominator between Bitchin' Baja's subdued experimentalism, Zath's crushing heaviness and Catacombz skillful navigation of the area in between, is that they're all outgrowths of psychedelia's mind-bending, boundary pushing ethos, the basic tenets of which (a varied sonic palette, repetition, unusual time signatures) can be taken in seemingly any direction, fast/slow, minimal/maximal, without losing their impact, and tonight was an ample, impressive demonstration of that flexibility.                

CONCERT REVIEW: Cave w/ Absolutely, Catacombz, Running and Trophy Wives (The Riverwest Public House, Milwaukee)

One of the good things about Milwaukee's proximity to Chicago is that it's easy for bands to meet and share the same stage, and of these frequent visitors, Cave is one of the bands worth checking in with time and time again. When in town, they usually play the Cactus Club, but this time they played the Riverwest Public House, which resulted in no discernible reduction in awesomeness.

Read my full review here.

ALBUM REVIEW: Catacombz - Catacombz

My review of the newest album by Milwaukee heavy-psych monsters Catacombz, their third overall and the first to be pressed up on sweet, sweet vinyl. You should check out the record, it's rad.

Read my full review here.