Dig ‘in: Mo Dotti, The Hard Quartet, Gut Health
Check out what the No Wristbands team is listening to and what’s in our show calendars this month on our latest Dig ‘in.
INCOMING
Mo Dotti – opaque (self-released LP)
Although shoegaze has taken a star turn as of late, LA’s Mo Dotti don’t come across as bandwagon-hoppers. Vocalist and guitarist Gina Negrini started the outfit—which took its name from photographer and political activist Tina Modotti who rose to prominence in Mexico in the 1920s—initially on her own by composing instrumentation loops. She would eventual team up with guitarist Guy Valdez to further the process and become a foursome with a pair of friends joining on bass and drums in advance of their debut EP, Blurring, in 2020. The group prefers to self-release its work and set its own timeframe for their creative process.
Opaque is dense like its title, with a particular affinity for ’90s-era British noise pop. The effort is diverse within its stylistic structure. There’s the anticipated thrilling guitar squalls of “pale blue afternoon” and “for anyone and you.” The shifting pace variance plays a key role in preserving the dynamic effect of Mo Dotti’s music. “Whirling sad” pushes the giddy-up with a top-down, lean-into-it accelerator joyride. “Dead to me” alternates between blissful stimuli and snarling counterpoints. Opaque is an enveloping piece of work; inviting you to immerse yourself in its embrace while also challenging you to wrap your head around its impressive reach. -Bruce Novak
The Hard Quartet - S/T (Matador Records LP)
When a supergroup is formulated there are always so many questions that fans have: How did they meet? Who’s leading the charge? Whose music is it going to resemble most closely? How long will this last? The interesting development for The Hard Quartet isn’t so much that they found each other, but perhaps it is how it took these indie lifers so long to join forces. I usually find myself overly enthusiastic at the prospect of musicians I like working together, but then find myself thinking that it doesn’t sound too dissimilar to their original material. I can honestly say with The Hard Quartet you can see some of the primordial ooze that they rose from, but this is a fresh sound for these super friends. You have the very Malkmus/later Pavement sounding (and I mean this as an extreme compliment as I count Pavement as one of my all-time favorite bands) “Heel Highway”.
The band is comprised of Stephen Malkmus (of Pavement, Jicks, and occasional Silver Jew guitar virtuoso), Matt Sweeney (guitarist of Chavez and the ill-fated prime example of my above thesis—Zwan), Jim White (drummer of Dirty Three), and Emmett Kelly (The Cairo Gang, The Double). The fun thing here is how loose it sounds; these songs are jammy but still focused. Don’t get me wrong, there is still the unmistakable incendiary guitar playing and elliptical lyrics of SM, but he, along with his compatriots are all just as happy to be complimentary players as they are to share lead vocals. A perfect case in point is “Rio’s Song” featuring Matt Sweeney on lead vocals and a very necessary Malkmus solo on the back half of the song. There are Chicago cross streets called out on “Our Hometown Boy” (shoutout to The Vic located at Sheffield and Belmont!). Our boys have range on their debut! They can do the punk thing with a song like “Renegade” and do the brushed drum work folkier jam on a song like “Killed By Death.” Fascinating times are ahead for The Hard Quartet, as of now they are doing a very limited tour in the U.S. before decamping to Australia early next year. Here’s hoping we get a full-blown U.S. tour next year, and hopefully they avoid the supergroup pitfall of only putting out one album since it feels like there are still a lot of ideas left to be explored. -Mark Joyner
Gut Health - Stiletto (Highly Contagious/AWAL LP)
Melbourne’s Gut Health believe activism begins with being both physically and mentally active. It’s why their punk-funk aims to inspire you to dance, feel free and experience “the healing qualities of consensual rage.” “Let fury have the hour, anger can be power,” the Clash proclaimed on “Clampdown,” and Gut Health want to channel that emotion to mobilize their listeners. On Stiletto’s title track, Athina “Uh oh” Wilson sings: “The resolution should fade to first language / The revolution is telephonised / Under pristine sheets / White Adidas.” The song explores how Australian’s Indigenous natives have been whitewashed from history to portray a contemporary sanitized nation of upwardly capitalists that “wear tailor fit suits,” not unlike the Burton suit brethren of “(White Man) in Hammersmith Palais.” At various points in “Separate States” and “Cool Moderator,” Gut Health start spiraling out of control before pulling up the nose and steadying the path. The rhythm section of Adam Markmann (bass), Myka Wallace (drums) and Angus Fletcher (percussion) provides the ballast and drive the songs with kinetic bounce and energy. At the center of the storm is Wilson, whose shrieks, snarls and shoutouts present a dynamo to be reckoned with. Stiletto stands tall in its ambitions—it’s both alluring and a bit dangerous and, yes, you can dance to it most definitely. -Bruce Novak
UPCOMING
Hello Mary
Where: Schubas Tavern / Directions
When: October 19, 8:00 PM
Helena Straight and Mikaela Oppenheimer met and became friends at age 12 in middle school in Brooklyn. Straight had already started playing rudimentary guitar by then and Oppenheimer had ditched piano lessons to play bass guitar in the school’s jazz band. A couple of years later the pair would enroll in a music program together with the end goal of being paired with other musicians in an arranged band. When that pairing failed to meet their aesthetic, they set off on their own and started documenting their efforts on Soundcloud as Hello Marry with Straight’s father lending a hand for the drum tracks. Drummer Stella Wave entered the picture when Hello Mary were offered a spot on a DIY house show with the caveat that only woman performers could participate.
Since that inception, Hello Mary has steadily grown in ability and execution. The 2019 debut EP, Ginger, covered the basics of a new band finding their footing with energetic songs that aimed to capture the excitement of their alt-rock ambitions. By time they returned with their self-titled LP last year, there was more of a swagger, but also a nuance with added layers of melody that produced a volume of a different measure. Emita Ox, Hello Mary’s newest LP arriving last month, is a wining distillation of the trio’s strengths; contrasting but complimentary harmonies between Straight and Wave, dynamic shifts in tempo and intensity and a cohesive mindset that’s locked into a shared affinity for meaningful expression. Their first headlining tour seems primed to capture the band at the top of their game. -Bruce Novak
Drop Nineteens
Where: Metro / Directions
When: October 23, 8:00 PM
Observing a band’s music change over time has the potential to be rewarding or frustrating. The circumstance has the potential to be especially fraught when the group comes fresh out of the gate with an acclaimed debut. Boston’s Drop Nineteens emerged in this fashion with their Delaware album in 1992. Their timing was prescient with the shoegaze scene then hitting its peak, particularly in the UK. Their success came at cost though, with three band members departing by the following year. Bandleader Greg Ackell grew tired of the shoegaze comparisons and sought out a different direction with their follow-up effort, National Coma. More departures followed and Ackell ended up pulling the plug on Drop Nineteens in 1995, considering it a closed chapter. With some encouragement from a friend of the band in 2021, Ackell resumed playing guitar, which lead him to contact Drop Nineteens’ bassist Steve Zimmerman for a songwriting session. Hard Light, released last year on Wharf Cat Records, is the culmination of those efforts and reunited the pair with former members Paula Kelley (vocals, guitar), Motohiro Yasue (guitar) and Pete Koeplin (drums). Rather than picking up where they left off, Hard Light represents a band whose members have evolved in their 50s; more measured and assured, but still enamored the dynamics of texture and melodics. It’s a second chapter wholly worth exploring. -Bruce Novak
The Go! Team
Where: Lincoln Hall / Directions
When: October 28, 8:00 PM
Brighton’s The Go! Team will be performing their incomparable debut album, Thunder, Lightning, Strike, in its entirety to celebrate its 20th anniversary. The brainchild of Ian Parton, who was disenchanted with conventional guitar-based bands of the time and aimed to marry clamoring noise elements with the frenetic rush of danceable grooves. Parton generated the record’s demos out of his parent’s garage by playing the live instrumentation and nicking samples from VHS recordings with production assistance from his brother Gareth. He was able to recruit local rapper Ninja to record a new vocal track for “Bottle Rocket” and a troupe of teenage girls were discovered performing at the Stoke Newington Festival and brought in for the Double Dutch chants in “Huddle Formation.” Parton’s mixture of shambolic drums and sample mash-ups for “Ladyflash” showcase his masterful arrangement skills. “Junior Kickstart” leads with a cyclonic guitar intro before giving way to exultant horns, and again is propelled throughout by Parton’s free and loose drumming.
After garnering buzzworthy attention for the record, the challenge became performing it live, which also required replicating some of the sample passages because of the prohibitive cost of licensing the snippets. A mixed gender/racial lineup of six performers traveled to Europe, Asia and the U.S., eventually making their way to Chicago for Pitchfork’s inaugural Intonation Festival in the summer of 2005. An indelible image I’ll forever remember is seeing The Go! Team usher on stage a group of local kids that they observed dancing beyond the property fence line. The unbridled exuberance they displayed shakin’ to the sounds of “Ladyflash” reinforced to me that this was music without boundaries; meant to be celebrated in its purest form. -Bruce Novak
UNCOVERED
Pulsars - S/T (Tiny Global Productions LP)
Inspired by their father’s eclectic vinyl singles collection, Dave and Harry Trumfio got an early education and start to their music journey, first playing in bands around the time that they were completing their initial decade on the planet. Drawn to the allure of New Wave and the video images of MTV growing up, the brothers decided to ditch their mid-’90s indie noise band Larry Cash Jr. for the synth-pop flavored Pulsars. John Henderson, the label head of Feel Good All Over in Chicago, had previously released Ashtray Boy’s The Honeymoon Suite that Dave Trumfio played on and encouraged the pair to record some of their work. While the Pulsars’ debut record was initially released in 1997 on Almo Sounds, a label launched by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss (the original owners of A&M Records), it was former band manager Henderson who handled the reissue/remastering of the work this September on his new Tiny Global Productions imprint.
Referring to Pulsars as “a guilty pleasure project” for them, there’s no shame associated with enjoying the undeniable charms of their music. Long before David Bowie’s “Heroes” became associated as the tunnel song in the movie The Perks of Being a Wallflower, they wrote “Tunnel Song” in appreciation of the iconic Pittsburgh throughway. Elsewhere, the dizzying effects of love (“Suffocation”), selling your soul (“Owed To a Devil”) and role-playing (“Submission Song’) are delivered in tongue-in-cheek fashion. “Silicon Teens” strikes me as self-referential with its celebration of drum machines and synthesizers. The Trumfios have been sifting through their song archives (a second album was shelved when Albert and Moss shut down Almo) and estimate that they have enough material for up to five additional releases. There were also plans to do an extended tour this fall (including an October date at the Burlington) that had to be postponed until next year when an anticipated multiple-day appearance at Risers Fest in Charleston, WV was put on hold. -Bruce Novak
We recommend listening along over at our Spotify page. Here’s this week’s content: