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My Not-So-Secret Affairby Brian Klunk One of the flawed traditions in music critique is the comparison of any grrrl band to one or more of the following: The Go-Go’s, The Bangles, The Breeders, Sleater-Kinney, or The Donnas. Luckily The Kelly Affair sounds nothing like The Breeders, and the remaining bases of comparison are strong enough to keep a crowd (and a drunken critic) on their feet for a better part of 45 minutes. Friday the 13th at the Cutting Room brought The Kelly Affair, along with Mayflower Rats, Defective Skrew, and Klunk United, to Chris Noth’s posh palace of polished music. The venue is the kind of place you’d expect from the man who played “Big” on “Sex and the City”: on the thin line between hipness and pretentiousness. The Kelly Affair stood out that night because of a) their complete lack of stage banter and b) their simple but effective compositions. Like a Mondiran painting the group took a minimal amount of composition and presented it with the maximum amount of effectiveness. The “cooler than you” attitude of the band was lost on some ex-frat boys from Long Jersey that decided to yell misogynist, alcohol-slurred epithets. In those wasted 360 seconds we could have had two more songs, but the ladies of The Kelly Affair dutifully let the man-boys finish their rant. The band then proceeded to shove rock down the man-boys’ throats as the crowd erupted, and thankfully the stag party filled out. The band (Amanda on guitar and vocals, Rania on bass and vocals, and yet another Amanda on drums) contains no actual “Kelly” and are headed into the studio soon. Check them out on www.thekellyaffair.com and be sure to keep an ear out for some boot-stompin’ tunes like “Bite Yer Tongue” and “Last Song” which, on the 13th, appeared midway through the set (how artsy!) And at the show remember that their super power is to take your dipshit comments and magically convert them to rock, making you feel like a right douche for having opened your gob in the first place.
No longer just a Sparticle: Get Ready for the Quick. by Jen Brown One of the great things about music is that it is constantly changing. Genres frequently mix, the paths of musicians, some world-renowned, some underground, often cross. In their quest for self-expression, fueled by the need to find the absolute perfect means through which to convey their message, it is often the fans, who receive the greatest benefit. Recently, I was able to witness this first-hand as the opening band for Ok Go; The Quick took to the stage last week at the Knitting Factory…In the case of The Quick, formerly Sparticle, genres collide and evolve in the alt-blues rock version of the post-90’s super-group. Lead by the charismatic Royston Langdon (of SpaceHog fame) on bass and vocals, with Blind Melon’s Rogers Stevens harmonizing on guitar, The Quick has resurrected a few fundamental elements of rock from the post-grunge era in the hopes of additional greatness.Langdon’s whimsically vibrant vocals are still oddly alluring, paired with Stevens’ southern-blues infused riffs, and the solid back-beat percussion that is Rene Lopez, the overall appeal of the groups seems less, well--spacey (pardon the pun). Through their exuberant stage presence and dynamically likeable music, the boys in the Quick are living proof that while it is acceptable to look to the past for inspiration, it is truly only the present, and the future which really what the masses crave. Check out the Quick's new website www.the-quick.com For more info on Rene Lopez solo: http://renelopezmusic.com/
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CD Reviews by Jen Brown David Steel: Underneath the Ice Valerian: Intimations of Sorrow |
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Live Concert Picks of the month by Jen Brown : 9/1/04: Involver Presents: Q and Not U, Shy Child, Wrenches, Riffles, Hits @ the Knitting Factory On deck albumwise…
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