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.)

The rest of the material on their M-space coexists on their new E.P., In Tandem. I'm glad to have them on disc... the thing has only left my CD player because I found an old Veruca Salt E.P. in my dad's cabinet. It opens with "Jazz Cigarette" which is the only kind of song I want to listen to when I drive on area back roads. "Jazz Cigarette" actually, in a weird way, reminds me a lot of the opening track of the Hell and High Tide E.P. There is bashing of open chords, prominent bass... and what I am going to call Lavis Blake's specialty: awesome codas/bridges featuring vocals from the whole band. "Era of Hopeful Monsters" seriously makes moves in its three minutes. Kyle's shuddering vocal is catchy and gives me chills. I listened to it immediately after the Community finale and it seemed to fit. Wouldn't sound out of place on Radio Free Roscoe which is the best kind of compliment I can give this time of year!

So yeah they played at my house last week. Mimi took these pictures and Pat (Spraynard) recapped the whole thing on his blog, Sweaty Kids.