TUESDAY, OCT. 30:
Battles. Fucking. Dominate. Period. For every shitty band you’ve seen, for every intolerable song you’ve been subjected to over the years—Battles come from pure sound and fury to war against the rampant mediocrity of music. Rocking two guitars, two laptops, a bass, a sampler, two keyboards, and a kick ass—yellow!—drum kit with the highest-set snare ever, the four came together from the first notes to refute the tedious and wearisome. The lineup seems to have been created by some brilliantly insane math-rock genius: guitarist/keyboardist/sampler Ian Williams (Don Caballero), guitarist Dave Konopa (Lynx) who seems to prefer facing his own amps and buttons, and brilliant vocalist/bassist/keyboardist Tyondai Braxton creating sounds through vocal sampler, like drum machine, beat box, falsetto vocals (harmonized to himself) and even tiny squirrel dwarves on the hit ‘Atlas.’ Which brings us to the drummer, John Stanier of Helmet fame. Yes, Helmet. If you like your kick drum to feel like your heart in your mouth and time signatures so tightly pounded out that you feel like a train chased by a tsunami straight toward Valhalla—and you’re on the front of that train—then this is the man who can take you there. Add melodies you could sing to if you could fix your voice like that, and three others that can keep up with him, and you’ve got Battles. Fighting the good fight against everything that’s bad in this world. (CH)