Chaos in Tejas 2013: Sunday

Screaming Females



There were these brief moments during Screaming Female sets when frontwoman _ _ would do what could be considered the equivalent of stage banter. In this incredibly small and mouse like voice she said hi to the crowd and said what the next song was. I bring this up because it was just shocking to hear her speak like this considering during every other moment of the set _ was an absolute monster, from the way she projected every lyric with the might of a jet engine to her unhinged guitar playing, which shoulder problems or not (the Steve Albini guitar waist guitar strap was the only testament to this fact) hadn’t lost an ounce of power or sheer face melting capabilities. The whole band was tight and intense as everyone before me had always said, and I could only imagine that a full set by would have knocked me back senseless.

Milk Music



You could tell to a certain degree that the members of Milk Music were a bit exhausted while playing. Which was fine really, it just meant they played a little looser than they did Thursday night. Which was ironic because they played more into the indie rock roar of their music then the Neil Young guitar burning they could have. The inclusion of more cuts from their Beyond Living EP probably contributed to this as well, which certainly got more heads in the crowd bopping. Milk Music was just as great as they were Thursday, and played with as much passion as they could muster, festival burnout or not. The fact that the guitar strap of the same guitarists fell off once again though served to this fact in a charming sort of way.

Merchandise



If Merchandise’s set on Saturday was bent around their emotional edge, then Sunday was all about the intensity that lurks underneath. The set was almost completely changed up, pulling both from their debut LP and more from the more risk-taking tunes on their most recent Totale Nite EP. The shifts in sound were nicely reflected thanks to whoever was in charge of lighting, who was having a field day bathing the band in dark red and blue lights, with some strobe thrown in for good measure. The damn really burst though when the band started playing _, and they had a member of the audience throw a beer bottle piñata into the crowd. At which point the stage diving started and a mini-mosh pit took hold of the front of the crowd for the rest of the show. It was nutty & chaotic, and noisy & utterly glorious in the best ways in those all too brief 30 minutes.

Puce Mary



I had no idea what to expect when I went into see Puce Mary. Being part of the Posh Isolation group (Iceage, VAR, Sexdrome), and having her material describe in the broad terms of “power electronica” I was expecting another emotional, cathartic, and dark set like the likes of Pharmakon. And while intense, Puce Mary’s music was nothing like Pharmakon’s. She leaned on ambience as much as noise, in fact make up almost half the set to slowly building up the pulse that was coming out of speakers with slight temp changes and pitch shifts. By the time she began to incorporate her vocals, in of course a twisted, purely instrumental way, her music had already enveloped the surroundings. It was a shame Puce Mary ended so briefly, the spooky intensity she had been crafting reaching its peak right when she turned it off.

Wolf Eyes



I know Wolf Eyes are noise legends, or at least a staple in modern noise music. But after four days of an absolute blistering attack on my senses, I could take nothing from the set. The moment they started playing, it just felt like an overload switch kicked in. I covered my ears, and left after the first song. I just couldn’t take it.

Lower



Lower thrived Sunday night in the dark space of Holy Mountain. Most impressive was the new material they debuted. Having only two singles to their names allows for a lot of material to appear “new”, yet you could tell how much more complex and powerful some of the material in the set was. They were even tighter than they were on Saturday, blasting through their material with this broken passion that I hadn’t noticed before. Frontman Adrian Toubro looked like he was aching at the microphone, as if the power of the songs was about to overtake him at any moment. The rest of Lower channeled all this, playing with a passive intensity that emphasized the darker parts of their intense post-punk. It was gloriously cathartic in the best possible ways.

Total Control



Take everything I said about Total Control on Saturday, and they were that, possibly even a little bit better. The set was made even better by the crowd, who was even more into Total Control then they were on Saturday, going absolutely berserk the moment they started. Not to say the crowd was in anyway static on Saturday, but here in the condensed space of Holy Mountain people were absolutely flying across the room in total disregard to anyone else. Having the frontman of Los Crudos and Carson Cox of Merchandise going jumping into the fray and going just as crazy made the show that much all that much greater. This set confirmed what I been thinking since Saturday; Total Control are without a doubt one of the best live bands I have ever seen perform.

Iceage



This was the Iceage show everyone wanted and everyone deserved. In no uncertain terms, Iceage were absolutely incredible, and their festival closing set might have been the best show I saw during the entirety of Chaos in Tejas. From the moment they began and the pure distortion of the beginning of “Ecstasy” rung out, it was obviously that this set was going to be nothing like the one on Thursday. Everything about Iceage on Sunday was more intense, more visceral, as if a band was channeling some mix of carnage and catharsis into musical form. All channeled through Elias Rønnenfelt, who prowled the stage, holding a steely glare that never faded as if everything deepened on this moment. His ability to collapse into the crowd allowed this intensity to be transferred into the crowd when need be, who were already going even crazier than they were during Total Control, a mix of people trying to match the fury of the music and those wanting to get as close to the band as possible in order to experience it in the most intimate/intense way possible. Even when the new songs were performed (a feat for a band who had just released a new record last February), not a drop of momentum was lost. Truly, a better band could not be asked to have closed Chaos in Tejas.

Chaos in Tejas 2013: Saturday

NASA Space University



After already been to Chaos in Tejas for two days, it seemed fitting that I finally saw an actual hardcore band at the festival. NASA Space University was that, a blast of twisted modern hardcore. At 5:00 in the afternoon, in broad daylight to an unresponsive crowd. Not in the sense that the crowd wasn’t into the music (they were), but that they simply did not want to go crazy. Which might have been worse. The band kept trying to goad the crowd, to stop being static and released themselves, to no avail. NASA Space University at least made the best of this situation, using the apathy to fuel their music and make it more intense.

Lower



Lower make this intense, heavy form of post-punk that feels like a hardcore band playing Joy Division. It’s brooding and hangs over you the longer it goes on. Live they are great; young, but like peers Iceage, knowing exactly what they are doing musically, balancing this sense of precision with the release that is contained in their songs. However, part of that was lost within this performance. Lower suffered from a semi-similar problem that NASA Space University suffered from; playing at the wrong time in the wrong setting. This is should not in any way be interpreted as saying Lower were bad in any part of their performance; they were great in their 25 minutes. It was just that something wasn’t there that should have been.

Destruction Unit



What Destruction Unit lost from performing in the day light: mystique, atmosphere, and the sense that they were swallowing you into a void of their creation. However, something unexpected was amplified during their set; the sense of evil that is contained in their songs. It was seeing the band twist around their instruments to make louder and louder noise. It was being able to see Ryan Rousseali’s eyes as they expanded to the size of coffee mugs like they saw something awful. It was the trashcan that came flying out of nowhere to crash into the band during the finale that had deformed into an ear bleeding (in a good way) of feedback. Destruction Unit might have succeeded in the light by the back drop of the burning sun that created them in Arizona them rather than the dark where they can escape into.

Total Control



Total Control are already intense on record, an incredibly precise mix of post-punk and synth-punk that is as creative as it is intense. Live, though that intensity became cracked up 100%. Total Control live was one of the most intense and tight bands I have ever seen, made all the more impressive by the fact that it was six people going at it at once. Six people who at every moment knew exactly what to do without a blink of the eye or sideways glance. Frontman DX was absolutely commanding, giving the songs this intense but contained fury that made them just that much more powerful. Even when the band played the (slightly) slower, synthier songs like “Carpet Rash”, not an ounce of energy or momentum was lost. Total Control live was like a precision steel bat to the head that released a burst post-punk fury with each impact.

Merchandise



Merchandise only played for about 28 minutes. Merchandise only played four songs. Merchandise also put on possible the best show of the night. For a band that had just flown in from their first and massive tour of Europe two days before, it was unnoticeable during their performance. They played with a certain amount of swagger, a confidence built around not caring what anyone thought about the music they were making, whether it was punk enough or not, whether it was or not good enough or not. Ironic enough though was the fact that the band that was so decidedly unhardcore, and so built around not meeting some sort of preconceived standard, were the act that finally got everyone to go absolutely crazy. Open with “Anxiety’s Door” got the awkward twisting to start, but the real motion started once “Time” kicked in. Actual moshing took place to these noisy, emotional ballads, it just intensified as the band went on. By the time they closed with the 10 minute epic that is “Become Who You Are”, the crowd had gone absolutely nuts, people smashing into each other, and jumping off and crowd surfing off the non-existent stage. It was pure euphoria in less than 30 minutes.

The Men



Yes, The Men went Neil Young on their new record. Yes, they are now touring with fifth member who plays acoustic guitar and piano. However, The Men live is entirely a different, monstrous beast then the one on record. Live, The Men burn with the exact same amount passion and intensity that has always driven them in the past. The five of them were unyielding ball of energy, perfectly in synch with one another, never letting falling out of step or fumbling a note. They beyond tight as a band; the interweaving vocals, guitar riffs that knew exactly when to floor it like crazy and then jump back, the manic drumming that worked as a glue to keep this altogether. Not that all these nuances were necessarily noticed under the three billion layers of distortion and noise the band was working under, but even on just that visceral level, The Men were excellent, evoking Hüsker Dü and Crazy Horse noisy sprawl going at it at the same time.

Marching Church



I don’t think anyone knew what to expect seeing Marching Church, Ellias Rønnenfelt’s solo project, would be like. There was no precedent, both in terms of material (a tape and 7” of incredible varying sound) or live show. The audience collectively knew this was more than likely their only chance ever to see Marching Church perform live. Thankfully it was good. Rønnenfelt, backed by two members of Lower on bass and drums, delivered a short but blistering set of jagged, noisy, and disjointed post-punk that felt sort of like seeing a set composed entirely of the breakdown parts of hardcore songs. It was off-putting, almost never following a straight path and feeling like the trio could collapse at any moment, but Rønnenfelt managed to keep it together and the blistering ruckus they created endured.

Los Crudos



I have a bad tendency to see living legends in regards to bands without having what should be the proper appreciation for the work. I saw Pavement on their sole Texas reunion show without having heard their entire discography. I got to see Godspeed You! Black Emperor without having heard one of their songs. And likewise, I saw Los Crudos without knowing their material at all, knowing only their reputation and that they had reunited for Chaos. And good god were they great. It was some of the best hardcore I’ve ever heard, blazing and ungodly passionate, with Martin Sorrondeguy’s banter between songs on everything from immigration to queer rights feeling just as important as the songs themselves. The literal warehouse they performed in, unventilated, massive with poor sound, made it feel like the world’s largest DIY show, the 700 people there going absolutely crazy in the best way possible.

Lower-Another Life

The last time Lower's were making music it was on "Someone's Got It In For Me/But There Has To Be More" 7", which showed them moving to a more gothic, drawn out sound that worked with their noisy-post hardcord sound and morose lyrics. However, that seems to have been only a phase because their new song "Another Life" is a massive kick of intense, bleak post-hardcore. It doesn't hit the same level of intensity that they did with the Walk On Heads EP, but that is intentional. "Another Life" is meant to draw from both dynamics of the band; it contains the same claustrophobic and murky post-hardcord instrumentation (which just the slightest hint of an added layer of melody), while giving Adrian Toubro's vocals and lyrics more room to deliver their cold and nihilistic message. "Another Life" is a dark and almost evil song, directed with intensity and anger to the person on the other end, but like their pals Iceage, there is nothing cartoonish or two dimensional about it. Instead, it feels real and visceral, something the band had no control over unleashing, and now can only channel as powerfully as possible.



Links:

Lower's Website

Top 15 Singles of 2012

The seven inch will always hold a special place in my heart. It is the perfect introduction to a band, an affordable way to acquire new music, and it’s a format that still manages to hold my attention span despite its rapid decrease thanks to modern life. This year’s crop for the most part either emerged from a darker area or pushed the artist into a darker path, though there are more than enough releases on here to contradict that thesis as well. My one rule was that every single must have been physically released in some fashion, so a few very worthy digital singles were unfortunately disqualified.

15. Pale Lights-EP: There are few things as wonderful a perfect pop single, and Pale Lights' EP was that in strides. Simple but oh so elegant airy pop from a handful of indie-pop veterans who haven’t lost their passion for the craft. Singles like this are almost a dime a dozen, but when done right as Pale Lights did, they just worm their way into the ear and heart and never leave.

14. King Tuff-"Wild Desire" 7": It is a testament to King Tuff that he could release a single as great as “Screaming Skull” and it could still come in second to another one of his singles. But the “Wild Desire” 7” is just that good. An exemplification of all of King Tuffs’ most addictive qualities (ungodly infectious jangly guitar lines, simple yet honest lyrics, and power-pop, garage, and pop-punk energy fused together), there was not one person (myself included) who was not singing along to this single after one listen.

13. WAR/VÅR-"At War for Youth" 7”: How many people were caught off guard when this synth project was announced, fronted by the two front men of Iceage and Sexdrome? How many people were caught off guard of how great it was? A single that was not only three tracks of very creative and intelligent lo-fi synth work, but introduced me to a whole genre of music that I wasn't really listening to beforehand. For that reason alone, it should be commended.

12. Heaven’s Gate-High Riser EP: Heaven’s Gate’s debut, just from the warped cover art alone gives you a solid hint of the distortion inside. Seven slices of decidedly modern shoegaze crammed onto one lathe, all but one song shorter than two minutes. High Riser twists and contorts, stops when you least expect it, screams and shouts out you over its sixteen minute duration. In other words, just utterly awesome indie rock.

11. Superchunk-"This Summer" 7”: Superchunk are a perfect single band in the sense that every time they decide to release a seven inch, it always winds up being a near indie rock classic (if it doesn't wind up being just a flat out indie rock classic). Case in point with the “This Summer” 7”; two tracks, one a upbeat yet melancholy infused yelper, the other a Bananarama cover of “Cruel Summer”. And not only do the two tracks complement each other perfectly, but I guarantee this single will be spinning every summer for years to come.