Thursday, March 03, 2005
the midwest duo
"i like your accents. you guys have accents, do you know that?" Kori spits out her comments about canada and throws a glance with a smile to Jason. Jason puts his wide grin looking straight to her eyes, and takes a few sips from his bottled water before Kori lets her fringe falls covering her right eye and starts the opening melody of the crazy tunes of a song that is ha ha. quoting what has been described by others about the song, what follows is 'three minutes of rollercoaster loops and ups and downs with sharp tempo twists and turns'. Kori plays her organ with the occasional robotic back-and-forth movement, while Jason never ceases to randomly look at her with amusement sparkling on his eyes and playing the drums plus singing on top of his lung at the same time. the audience naturally cannot resist the temptation to dance along with the duo's 'ooh ooh's and 'aah aah's all over the track.
the above scene happened halfway through their performance, which started as a really slow and laid-back night. i arrived half an hour after the door's opened and—i wasn't really surprised—hardly anyone was there. the opening band, kansas city's own the golden republic, was still doing soundcheck and the couple that i sacrificed my free time to be spared to watch was still arranging the band's merchandise near the front door.
"hello, how are you?" i was thrilled, really, when i realized that was Kori Gardner, the first half of mates of state, greeting me as i walked through the front door, to which i could only reply with a lame and boring "i'm good, thanks. how about you?" (but no doubt with a sheepish smile).
"great. excited about the show tonight?" she tentatively asked me. but before i could give her a decent answer, Jason Hammel—the other half of the band—urged for her help and when she did, i could only reply under my breath, "abso-freakin-lutely. can i have your autograph?" but of course, being a coward that i am, that never happened.
when finally the golden republic performed an hour later, there were only about half the audience of the last gig i watched at the same venue. their performance reminded me of the advantage's act, although i enjoy their music a whole lot more than their predecessors. around nine rockin' songs they played, with a hint of interpol and some splashes of modest mouse and david byrne (yes). it's amazing seeing them live and you'd never have guessed they have a pretty diverse music taste (from air and badly drawn boy to franz ferdinand and wilco). another plus point: they've been and continue touring with notably talented musicians; e.g. last year they toured with idlewild and sondre lerche, next month they're touring with graham coxon (damn, am i jealous or what!).
"you have a very nice city. and oh, we're so jealous with your free health care" was their first remark about canada they threw that night. "maybe we'll move here just for the health care. it's f*ckin expensive back home."
but the highlight of the night was, of course, the other midwesterners i'd been dying to see for a while.
mates of state.
and this extremely down-to-earth and talented pair was exactly what i had imagined them to be—fun and savvy couple who sing more to each other rather than to the audience. constant knowing glances in the midst of their organs and drums music; bizarrely beautiful, not-your-every-day radio pop yet force you to dance and sounds strangely familiar.
"where are you from?" a guy randomly asked Kori after they finished their first song of the night. by the time they started playing there were still only around 70 people comprising the audience. i'm not complaining at all, in fact the gig felt more personal to me with such a limited size of audience.
"where are we from?" Kori repeated the question and gave Jason the look. "uhm, i don't even know where we're from, we've moved a lot. do you really wanna hear the whole story of all the places we stayed?" she then continued, "we stayed in san fran and that's the best place we've ever lived," followed by some anonymous cheers from the audience. true, they're famously known as come from san francisco, despite the fact that they formed their band (and relationship) in lawrence, kansas and had now left california's sunshine to reside in new haven, connecticut.
proofs, the second track they played, almost made me jump up and down in excitement, knowing that ha ha would come in a matter of minutes. i couldn't help but smiled my goofy grin looking at Kori shouting to Jason, "it hardly matters, it does not matter," while Jason shouted back to her, "it doesn't matter, what might come through," and they together sing "but let's unravel the edge of time, where proofs and postulations rise." that reminded me of why mates of state stands out than your regular boy/girl duo indie band—they sing on top of each other with different lyrics, shout out as if nobody's there watching them and totally at ease to each other, without hiding their seem-to-be-perfect marriage but minus the cheesy 'i love you' whispers on stage as you might have guessed.
and their music of course. and boy, are they notorious of their unique sounds or what? frolicking vocals and edgy organs sounds harmonized with clinking drums (sometimes even undeniably off-key). with songs like fluke and whiner's bio, you might've mistaken them as kids gone berserk having fun in daddy's recording studio. although the imagery can be backed up as true for some degree, in the real world that's about as far an example as they are. Kori spent her pre-mates of state days as a grade school teacher, while Jason had a day job as a cancer researcher before they decided to give them up and released my solo project, the band's first full album, followed by our constant concern and tours with the strokes and death cab for cutie.
team boo (personal favourite for me) came next with better sound quality after they moved to their new home with their own basement studio. their first EP, all day, was released last november including a cover of bowie's starman and their first time utilizing a guitar. marriage, great recordings and then the baby came along. but that didn't discourage them to do the conquest tour last fall followed by the west coast tour on february (with victoria—and me lucky enough to be there—as the last city of the tour), thanks to the nanny who takes care of little Magnolia (the baby) while they're on stage.
the next 50 minutes was pure raucous indie pop without much bullshit but plenty of fun and good times as infectious as an honest laughter. goods (all in your heads) was amazingly performed, as was the somewhat melancholy hoarding it for home. the crowd cheered for more when they played gotta get a problem.
"your city is beautiful. town? whatever you call it." Kori noted last-minutely. 'maybe we'll move here too when we're old," she commented alluring to their nomad life and, well, victoria. no matter, they had fun, i had fun, everybody seemed to be happy. the gig was closed glamorously with the song these days they made for wicker park's soundtrack. the dim light supported the airy mood as Kori chimmed in keyboard melody from her organs and Jason stood leaving his drumset behind his back. next was only the melody, him and his microphone. and then it strucked me.
"i like your accents. you guys have accents, do you know that?" Kori spits out her comments about canada and throws a glance with a smile to Jason. Jason puts his wide grin looking straight to her eyes, and takes a few sips from his bottled water before Kori lets her fringe falls covering her right eye and starts the opening melody of the crazy tunes of a song that is ha ha. quoting what has been described by others about the song, what follows is 'three minutes of rollercoaster loops and ups and downs with sharp tempo twists and turns'. Kori plays her organ with the occasional robotic back-and-forth movement, while Jason never ceases to randomly look at her with amusement sparkling on his eyes and playing the drums plus singing on top of his lung at the same time. the audience naturally cannot resist the temptation to dance along with the duo's 'ooh ooh's and 'aah aah's all over the track.
the above scene happened halfway through their performance, which started as a really slow and laid-back night. i arrived half an hour after the door's opened and—i wasn't really surprised—hardly anyone was there. the opening band, kansas city's own the golden republic, was still doing soundcheck and the couple that i sacrificed my free time to be spared to watch was still arranging the band's merchandise near the front door.
"hello, how are you?" i was thrilled, really, when i realized that was Kori Gardner, the first half of mates of state, greeting me as i walked through the front door, to which i could only reply with a lame and boring "i'm good, thanks. how about you?" (but no doubt with a sheepish smile).
"great. excited about the show tonight?" she tentatively asked me. but before i could give her a decent answer, Jason Hammel—the other half of the band—urged for her help and when she did, i could only reply under my breath, "abso-freakin-lutely. can i have your autograph?" but of course, being a coward that i am, that never happened.
when finally the golden republic performed an hour later, there were only about half the audience of the last gig i watched at the same venue. their performance reminded me of the advantage's act, although i enjoy their music a whole lot more than their predecessors. around nine rockin' songs they played, with a hint of interpol and some splashes of modest mouse and david byrne (yes). it's amazing seeing them live and you'd never have guessed they have a pretty diverse music taste (from air and badly drawn boy to franz ferdinand and wilco). another plus point: they've been and continue touring with notably talented musicians; e.g. last year they toured with idlewild and sondre lerche, next month they're touring with graham coxon (damn, am i jealous or what!).
"you have a very nice city. and oh, we're so jealous with your free health care" was their first remark about canada they threw that night. "maybe we'll move here just for the health care. it's f*ckin expensive back home."
but the highlight of the night was, of course, the other midwesterners i'd been dying to see for a while.
mates of state.
and this extremely down-to-earth and talented pair was exactly what i had imagined them to be—fun and savvy couple who sing more to each other rather than to the audience. constant knowing glances in the midst of their organs and drums music; bizarrely beautiful, not-your-every-day radio pop yet force you to dance and sounds strangely familiar.
"where are you from?" a guy randomly asked Kori after they finished their first song of the night. by the time they started playing there were still only around 70 people comprising the audience. i'm not complaining at all, in fact the gig felt more personal to me with such a limited size of audience.
"where are we from?" Kori repeated the question and gave Jason the look. "uhm, i don't even know where we're from, we've moved a lot. do you really wanna hear the whole story of all the places we stayed?" she then continued, "we stayed in san fran and that's the best place we've ever lived," followed by some anonymous cheers from the audience. true, they're famously known as come from san francisco, despite the fact that they formed their band (and relationship) in lawrence, kansas and had now left california's sunshine to reside in new haven, connecticut.
proofs, the second track they played, almost made me jump up and down in excitement, knowing that ha ha would come in a matter of minutes. i couldn't help but smiled my goofy grin looking at Kori shouting to Jason, "it hardly matters, it does not matter," while Jason shouted back to her, "it doesn't matter, what might come through," and they together sing "but let's unravel the edge of time, where proofs and postulations rise." that reminded me of why mates of state stands out than your regular boy/girl duo indie band—they sing on top of each other with different lyrics, shout out as if nobody's there watching them and totally at ease to each other, without hiding their seem-to-be-perfect marriage but minus the cheesy 'i love you' whispers on stage as you might have guessed.
and their music of course. and boy, are they notorious of their unique sounds or what? frolicking vocals and edgy organs sounds harmonized with clinking drums (sometimes even undeniably off-key). with songs like fluke and whiner's bio, you might've mistaken them as kids gone berserk having fun in daddy's recording studio. although the imagery can be backed up as true for some degree, in the real world that's about as far an example as they are. Kori spent her pre-mates of state days as a grade school teacher, while Jason had a day job as a cancer researcher before they decided to give them up and released my solo project, the band's first full album, followed by our constant concern and tours with the strokes and death cab for cutie.
team boo (personal favourite for me) came next with better sound quality after they moved to their new home with their own basement studio. their first EP, all day, was released last november including a cover of bowie's starman and their first time utilizing a guitar. marriage, great recordings and then the baby came along. but that didn't discourage them to do the conquest tour last fall followed by the west coast tour on february (with victoria—and me lucky enough to be there—as the last city of the tour), thanks to the nanny who takes care of little Magnolia (the baby) while they're on stage.
the next 50 minutes was pure raucous indie pop without much bullshit but plenty of fun and good times as infectious as an honest laughter. goods (all in your heads) was amazingly performed, as was the somewhat melancholy hoarding it for home. the crowd cheered for more when they played gotta get a problem.
"your city is beautiful. town? whatever you call it." Kori noted last-minutely. 'maybe we'll move here too when we're old," she commented alluring to their nomad life and, well, victoria. no matter, they had fun, i had fun, everybody seemed to be happy. the gig was closed glamorously with the song these days they made for wicker park's soundtrack. the dim light supported the airy mood as Kori chimmed in keyboard melody from her organs and Jason stood leaving his drumset behind his back. next was only the melody, him and his microphone. and then it strucked me.
these days i seem to think a lotfor that, and making my day, i thank them.
about the things that i forgot to do
and all the times i had the chance to
...
these days i sit on corner stores
and count the time in quarter tones to ten
please don't confront me with my failures
cause i have not forgotten them
