Southern Fried and Super Sexy

Last Thursday was one of the best concerts I've been to in a long time. Courtesy of Volume Magazine and their massive endowment, with a chip in from WYBC, there was a free concert by The Whip and Late of the Pier here in New Haven as part of their American tour. Pretty ridiculous to get two of the best new electro rock bands of last year (or two of the best new bands, period, depending on your perspective) to come play a free show for a college.

The Whip had an amazing show. They didn't diverge too far from their studio sound, but I love their album X Marks Destination so much that I didn't need anything more. Lil Fee is a fantastic drummer live (and certainly not bad to look at), and Bruce Carter is a very charismatic singer. Seeing him sing 'Trash' and 'Blackout' live was awesome. I also love that Trash Menagerie had them listed as performing at the Afro-American Cultural Center here. If you haven't picked up their album yet, do so. It's great dance-rock, and will make you move your ass, and say "I wanna, I wanna, I wanna, I wanna be trash!"

Here's their set list that my friend snagged off the floor:




Late of the Pier was also excellent. They opened up with 'Space and the Woods,' which is one of my favorite songs off of 'Fantasy Black Channel,' and never stopped firing. A lot of friends asked me to describe their music, and the closest I could come up to based on their studio sound was "An electro version of Queen on crack." However, playing live they displayed their garage rock chops much more and their instrumental skills were much more on display. Some tracks that just aren't as good on the album were similarly shabby live (e.g. 'Whitesnake'), but overall it was a great show, and their energy was contagious.

I would very happily shell out to see either of these groups again, and would highly recommend them to anyone else. Friends of mine who are into jam bands, or classic rock, or hip hop all were into the show, because the music was undeniably good and the energy was infectious. Afterward there were DJ sets by Richard Galling, a.ka. The Kelly Green from The Glamour, who's here getting an art degree, and two other Yale DJs. A sweet night overall.

The Whip - Trash
Late of the Pier - Space and the Woods
Tracks removed by request.





And just for the hell of it, for one more Southern Fried Records artist, here's Shinichi Osawa's great song 'Push,' featuring Ania Chorabik. The Pompidou is my favorite museum in the world, so the whole time I was in Paris last month, I was trying to remember what song had the lyrics "Pump it up in Pompidou." And now I've found it again.