Lavis Blake - In Tandem

I got to see Lavis Blake last week, who are "taking Philly by storm." Their name, I learned, is a reference to the homeless woman that squatted next door to vocalist Kyle O'Neill.  I see, and am welcoming, a new trend! Bands named after homeless people: Omar, Lavis Blake. Who is next? Homeless Spare Some Change for Cup of Coffee outside Liacouras 711 guy? Omar and LB are great bands that both, I think, have come out of the Breakfast and Dessert scene (only verifying this by Myspace photos but that's just going to have to be how it works on Locavore.)

I was really bummed when Lavis took their old songs off their M-space in favor of some more Philly math-lite. It seemed weirdly self-conscious of them. This is another case of me reading way too far into the activity of a local band but I thought it was kind of drastic. And though the guitars got noodly and open tuned, I've determined this isn't a turn for the worse. 

Because the vocals are more Revolution Summer than "The Summer Ends," you can pretty much separate LB from the deluge of 90s-emo-revival/Get Rad groups. LB's place, now, (no longer outliers which, even though I know very little about the band past their Myspace page, I will declare them,) is somewhere between Spraynard's posi-stoke and Algernon's elated emoturity.

I hear some Dag Nasty-informed lyrics and annunciation in "On The Road" (which for some reason, conjures images of Fozzybear:) "We live and learn respect." "We live in library stacks," which is even better. They trade some motifs with the 'nard dogs: "As the sun goes down/across those hills," bassist Matt Manhire (a dead ringer for Teenage Cool Kids' Chris Pickering) chokes. "[something something] not tied to us/ANYMORE!" His voice kind of cracks or goes extra strained at "more" and it makes that song's coda. (And, uh, if ANYONE is reading this, please send me lyric corrections.)

Revessay: My on/off relationship with Spraynard's "Cut and Paste"

I loved Spraynard's first E.P.

I guess, like everyone else, I had a Latterman-sized hole in my eardrums that had to be filled? But you know those Latterman comparisons are just lazy so that's the last you'll hear of that.

I think I started listening to that demo during the January warm-spell of '09... or was it during late fall '08? Don't really remember. I remember trekking out to Cedar House, Sartaj in tow, hoping to catch them at an overcrowded shit show. Mimi had given them two thumbs up after seeing them play Fennario a week earlier. I guess we missed Spray, but thankfully got to see Factors of Four rock the kitchen before dealing awkwardly with a crackhead in some Baltimore Avenue Chinese restaurant. So the first time I saw Spraynard was probably at our house that following spring break... their sets haven't gotten much longer. They played the demo + a Plow cover.

A lot of time passed, from a local music standpoint. The buzz about "Cut and Paste" started, in my ears, mid-fall, when Mimi played me "Jay's Cafe," a C+P track that debuted on the "West Chester Nuclear Winter" compilation that Pat graciously burned and distributed around SEPA. I knew the song was an instant classic, but yeah dude, my interest in Spraynard had definitely waned by that point. I think I probably had some post-Pirouette fear of band commitment. Factors of Four had yet to fail me (well, actually, they were broken up by the summer's end,) but I just felt too tired to get attached to anyone else. And my ambivalence toward Spraynard continued, through downloading C + P, seeing them play my house one or two more times, and the laser tag show...

OK to be honest, I felt like they were stealing my sister away from me. She was going to see them play every weekend like, and was hanging out with them after school and had started a new band with them. I'm that insecure -- that I'm afraid of losing my sister to a really great punk band I had cold feet about.

I mean, how could bands just be so STOKED all of a sudden? I guess I was kind of suspicious. Spraynard were acting as these scene-movers. They started the message board and after that it seemed like there were twice as many bands doing decent stuff and Mimi and I weren't the only kids west of Philly doing house shows with a semblance of regularity. Actually, I was so ambivalent that I have to say it was just Mimi running the shows at our house. I was moping my way through winter and had a bad attitude about everything which didn't help my rep on the boards. Deleted my account after, like, 10 posts. I've always been a sore loser, dude.(1)

Not anymore, though. Two weekends ago, Mimi and Miles picked me up in Wilmington and we drove a few miles north, to Claymont, to see Spraynard play with some typically esoteric (never, ever crossing the Delaware line to play a show, it seems,) DE Bands. I've been talking about this show a lot since because it really put a smile on my face.(2) Spraynard played after a sludgy, redneck(3) metal band and a really skinny hardcore band in front of 10 or 12 people, only 1-3 of which I'm guessing had heard the 'nard disc(4), as this was Delaware and they don't seem to get out much down there.(5) Spraynard, as they say, "brought it." "It" was basement-filling, friendly-energy. Not defensive, like a band less at ease, nor showy, like a group of out of towners that felt a strong need to impress.

Locavore

I need to start writing again about something.
I used to loooooove writing about music! But music journalism just isn't exciting right now. It's all hype. People only want to read good reviews about Animal Collective and shit. I'm bored.

Lately, I've noticed my favorite bands, the ones I listen to most, are my friends bands. My friends, and me, duh, are all here, in Southeastern Pennsylvania (and then there's a few over in New Jersey and down there in Maryland.)

They're making the best music I've ever had a chance to experience. In my own garage. On a monthly basis, usually.

The "scene," I guess, the "scene" that exists here right now is something I dreamed about in freshman year. Basement shows with familiar faces, DIY releases, my friends going on tour, blahblahblah. You're here, you're experiencing it with me.

I talked about making a zine that was a snapshot of the "scene" right now. Honestly I'm too lazy to do that and I've always been good at the blogging thing.

So here it goes, this is Locavore.