There's always plenty to do on Halloween. Across the country, virtually every city has more than a handful of shows that are pretty hard to skip, and it seems the holiday boasts the sort of atmosphere made for an excellent rock'n'roll show. Maybe it's just the mysteriously fun chance for people to shed their everyday costumes to tog themselves in get-ups that more closely reflect their inner goblins, all the while drinking themselves silly and rocking out to their favorite tunage. Saturday at 171 Lombardy in Brooklyn, New York, Sacred Bones Records is hosting a party to bring awareness to Halloween arson packed with four great bands.
The San Fransisco act, Wooden Shjips headline the event tonight, closing their first tour on Americans East Coast. With the release of their second album on Holy Mountain Records early this year, the band continues their perfect stride of drone-dug hypnotic psychedelia. Their songs come off as a mind-altering exercise set to wipe your consciousness clean, leaving the shell of your body to rhythmically bob as their music takes you over like some kinda of Frisco voodoo. You can pick up their latest LP on Holy Mountain, Dos , along with an LP collection of their highly coveted early material here. And be sure to check out the new Wooden Shjips side-project, Moon Duo as well, with a new 12" released on Sacred Bones this month.
The Vivian Girls are a Brooklyn girl group that caused quite a raucous last year with their sugary, yet poisonous sound that landed them a deal with In The Red. Sounding off with songs that incur a production level of Phil Spector being smothered under a pillowcase, this 3-piece culminates a perfect blend of modern pop and a sub-fidelity sound that blissfully mummers spell-spinning songs. You can pick up their newly released sophomore LP, Everything Goes Wrong on In The Red here and their newest single released this past summer on Rough Trade.
Somehow, Crystal Stilts fall sonically between the headliners, Wooden Shjips and the Vivian Girls, with a sound that pulls as much from late 80s psyche as it does from early 80s post-punk. For example, check out their follow-up single, Love is a Wave, to their excellent debut last year on Slumberland Records, this past spring. Crystal Stilts mire in the wonderfully cloudy-headed ethos, cock-eyed drone musing and successfully ram Velvet Underground timing into a modern wall of subterranean twang with hollow self-assured vocals that ricochet around in your innards. You can pick up both their repackaged debut 12", their follow-up single and their LP on Woodsist compiling their earlier work all right here.
Opening the show are Religious Knives, who just came out with a 6-song LP on
Check out a video of Religious Knives performing live at Museo de Chiado, courtesy of catpowder, right here:
