Secret Mountains: Rejoice
[audio:http://whatweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/01-Secret-Mountains-Rejoice.mp3]
Secret Mountains is one of my favorite Baltimore bands. Their recent ep “Rejoice” swirled around in my mind, creating my sound track for several weeks this winter. After a summer tour, this was going to be their first show in Baltimore since I found out about them. So I was psyched to go to MICA for the show, where they shared a bill with InEveryRoom and the pitchfork praised band Cults…even if there wasn’t any beer.
I’m something of an oldster and to the extent I am cool at all, it is an old-guy kind of way… at least that’s how I felt when I got to the show and realized that I was twice as old as almost everyone there. I teach college classes, and these were college kids. When Cults’ singer asked how do you like your school, the crowd roared.
“Ah, art school,” she remarked. Of course I’ve been around plenty of MICA students and have seen them at plenty of other shows. I had just never seen a room full of nothing but MICA students.
The bands, too, seemed exceedingly young and they shared a spirit with the audience. The whole night had a sort of sixties feel—but the sixties as it has come to the youngsters through rave and electronic music, punk and grunge. The room was full of flannel, long floral and lace dresses. They actually danced with each other. There were plenty of people swaying and bobbing by themselves, but there was a surprisingly large number of people who danced together in rather intricate patterns executed in strange loopy steps.
The music also seemed to share in this innocence. All three bands joyfully pilfered musical traditions—psychedelic, girl-pop, electronic music.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve found myself listening to a disproportionate number of bands with female vocalists. I’ve tried to figure out if there’s something behind this. I believe that when you’re young and listen to rock music you tend to identify with the singer. As you get older, this is less the case (except in country music, which is written primarily about the difficulties of middle age). Instead of identifying with the music, you are being sung to. I guess at this point in life, I would rather be sung to by a woman than by a man.
Which was a good thing, because all three bands at MICA had exceptionally talented female vocalists, and everyone in the large crowd seemed happy to be serenaded.
INEVERYROOM: em e gee
[audio:http://whatweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/02-Track-02-2.mp3]
INEVERYROOM are a rollicking, rocking, funky, noisy outfit with ethereal vocals that still manage to evoke a quieter strand of bedroom electronica. The sound is somewhere between Sun Ra and and what I remember of rave music. But the way the swooping vocals alternate with chants and whoops evoked the African blues band Tinawaren
Chase (also of Winks) played computer, keys, and on some songs guitar and shared singing duties with Amy who also played drums and keys. Chase shook, jumped, swung and danced as he manipulated the soundscape. Amy banged on the drums with a joyful precision. But in many ways it seemed to me like Rob on the bass was the key to the band. His funky bass lines that kept everything grooving forward and kept it from sinking into a textural morass. (It is a sign of their youth, perhaps, that Chase gave me only their first names, typed in all lower case letters and emoticons).
Secret Mountains has a different sound, but a similar spirit, and a similar drive forward. Rhythm guitarist Jeffry Silverstein told me that they had resolved not to play their slower songs anymore—even the ones, like “Dead Sea” from their new EP “Rejoice.” This is a fitting evolution considering that the band began as Silverstein and singer Kelly Laughlin playing quiet folky music. “We got bored” Silverstein said.
No one in the house was bored—again despite the lack of beer— as Secret Mountains took the stage. In some ways, Secret Mountains sound like the Heartless Bastards, the psych blues rock band on Fat Possum records. The similarity rests largely in the power of Kelly Laughlin’s voice. She is a small sort of elven looking woman, but she sings in a huge, beautiful voice that rises up from the psychedelic swirl created by the rest of the band. When she belts out the climactic words “Greet the sun!” and “keep pressing on” on the EP’s title track it is truly transcendent.
Perhaps that’s the best way to describe this band’s sound. It is transcendental music that hearkens back to Jefferson Airplane. But there are also similarities with Baltimore’s better known Beach House and Wye Oak.
The set was electric but most of the crowd was there to see Cults, a New York band with only a seven-inch out. But pitchfork, the online record review site, has been heavily praising them and I was astounded to see the MICA kids singing along with nearly every word and afterwards discussing intricacies of the setlist.
The good news is that Cults are not just hype. The rounded out the night’s sixties flavor with the currently popular girl-band sound. But it wasn’t just a throwback like the Pippettes. Cults also mix that girl band sound with heavy distortion and world rhythms and made beautiful songs.
I was going to leave before they played in order to go to the What Weekly potluck party. I figured I’d just stay and catch their first song. Once I did, I couldn’t leave.
