“What is post-rock?”
A lot of you already know the answer to this and know that it is kind of unsatisfactory to group bands this way, but I think Wikipedia has an okay explanation of it:
Post-rock is a music genre characterized by non-traditional use of rock instruments and high musical density. Although firmly rooted in the indie scene, post-rock’s style bears little resemblance musically to that of indie rock. However, as post-rock music is often recorded on independent labels, indie and post-rock often share the same level of obscurity.
That said, it is today in which I find myself and my head thrust headlong into the cymbal wash of Saturday night’s music at the bar. All of the bands were fantastic and as much as post-rock tends to be on the outskirts of music’s condescending avant-garde, there was not a drip of snobbery to be found that night. I was even amazed at how I found very little talking during the bands’ pauses between songs (with the exception of our intern, who never shuts up).
I believe my brother put it best: “Shut up! You’re invading my post-rock appreciation time!”
Oh, the bands?
Signal Hill (LA, CA)
North (Tucson, AZ)
Caspian (Boston, MA)
Beware of Safety (LA, CA)
And incidentally, they all have cool shirts to go along with it.
That plug aside, it is with an enamored heart that I sincerely emplore you find your way into one of their crescendos. You might think that sounds gay, but that would make you a homophobe, you judgmental bigot.
But seriously, Saturday was one of the best nights I’ve had at work. It was a bunch of musicians who are there to present music that isn’t designed to get your attention with those cheap and juvenile theatrics likened to “rocking out with your cock out.” And yet, they did rock out, and even more so than a lot of the groups that come through our bar with a chip on their shoulder and something to prove.
The bands even relied on only two local bands. Ordinarily, our bar only lets one band from out of town play so that we can afford to pay them gas money, but we trusted the local bands on this one and we made the right choice. Two bands supporting two other out of town bands, and they outdrew–no, simply dwarfed some of the booking and talent companies that we’ve let have an entire night. And these post-rock bands did it with pure word-of-mouth, and with just four bands to promote. 3rd party booking companies have brought in 7 bands on some nights and they didn’t even compare to the draw we got for this night. I even offered gas money to one of the local bands because we were able to give them a cut:
Me: Do you guys need gas money? Your audience has made it so that you can have some.
Rishi: Nah, we live down the street.
Me: Well, what about for good measure?
Rishi: No way! That’s for the venue!
And it was busy, but by far not our busiest at the bar. However, what really made the difference was that we had a well-behaved crowd–you know, that perfect median between fall-over obnoxious drunk and “I-stand-still-so-I-don’t-look-uncool”. Everyone was respectful, very much into the music being played, and because it looked like everyone knew each other pretty well, nobody did that lame “I’ll leave after I see that one band I was going to see” move that I see every damn week. Consistent and good crowd the entire night. All the musicians knew each others songs (even to the point of being able to quote each other within their own songs like the jazz days of yore), and for the first time in a long time, the audience actually engaged with the staff. I met some really funny kids that night, and to my surprise I wasn’t talking to just the musicians, which is usually the case if you’re an employee at a venue.
And this is where the little faith I have in the underground is restored. When a rag-tag group of kids goes DIY, puts on a great show, proves to out-of-town bands that LA is not wholly the music graveyard that everyone thinks it is, gets nearly all of their friends to come, gets those friends to stick around for bands they know nothing about, draws enough to completely blow established talent agencies and band managers out of the water making those seem like obsolete and antiquated roles. These bands stayed true to the underground ethic–the ideal has finally risen to the challenge of reality. And that night proved that, yes, we can have good music without all that business.
You know what it sounds like to learn to fall in love again?
Yeah. Post-rock.