Mercury Lounge

showview

Thu 5/22

$10

http://www.myspace.com/bearhandsband
http://www.bearhandsband.com/
"Golden EP’s tight four song set is a pitch-perfect pairing of post-punk and indie rock. The energetic guitars crunch with a touch of Ted Leo & the Pharmacists’ edge (particularly in upbeat opener "Long Lean Queen"), and Rau’s piercing vocals call up comparisons to another idiosyncratic ironist: Modest Mouse’s Isaac Brock. But far from being rote, Bear Hands adds complexity and rounds out the more straightforward rock with some melancholy minor chord unease...riveting, devil-may-care rock." -Spin.com (artist of the day)

http://www.myspace.com/actionpainters
http://actionpaintersband.com/
Action Painters do twinkly heartache with the best of them ("Cold Dead Corner"), and their up-tempo numbers ("Never Say I'm Sorry") are convincingly jagged. It's when they let the excitement of being young and romantic make them dizzy, though, that they excel. Album opener "Absolutely Clear" can't decide whether it wants to be classic rawk or post-punk, so Haslow lets his voice tremble and shake and splits the difference, landing somewhere frenetic and epic and sweet. It all sounds sort of tossed off, as if the band doesn't care, but buried beneath the artsy fury lies AM radio gold. Think the Replacements if they had given a damn more often. (Spin.com)

http://www.myspace.com/saintsandlovers
http://saintsandlovers.net
All the hype is warranted. I mean, who doesn’t love listening to effortless, falsetto vocals over pristinely layered guitars. We’re not talking Merzbow here. Think of their sound as Jeff Buckley (or that dude from The Velvet Teen) meets Jesus and Mary Chain’s wall of noise meets the crooning and dramatics of Bono and U2. - Oh My Rockness