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The Mae Shi
(Note to Little Miss Rock'n'Roll, you will probably hate this band.)
The Mae Shi make hyperactive, post-punk collages that take more than a few pages from the book of Brainiac. They start with quirky, heavy pop songs with warped vocals and rip them to shreads, and then run at full speed to the next target. They are the kind of fragmented nightmare you would expect to emerge full-fledged from the minds of the more accessible Deerhoof or Erase Errata, or early Dismemberment Plan, or maybe Tim Harrington of Les Savy Fav. (Can anybody say "art school"?) But what is it really, you ask. Is is hardcore? Not really. Is it no wave? Not really that either. Is it dance-punk? Nope, not that, either.
The Mae Shi guys are nerdy, art students whose first EP's title is a reference to Dungeons and Dragons; the story also goes that they were signed to their record label via instant messager. They also appear to be quite insane, or, at least, that's what they'd like you to believe. Allegedly recorded on a budget of only $120, their debut album, Terrorbird, jumps around in a manic state of energy and you can almost see the four members of the band running around and tearing up walls in the process of recording.
There's jagged, angular guitar work, or even tracks of static-y, distorted vocals and sampled blips, all manner of sound textures rubbing up uncomfortably against each other. Songs are rarely more than one or two minutes long, and exist in a state of bizarre obsessive-compulsiveness, with repeated, screeching vocals and an endless cycle of spazz attacks. Once in a while, the Mae Shi will find an amazing hook, but then it self-destructs and the next song starts. Word of their impossibly schizophrenic and strange stage antics is also an indicator of their approach to good, old-fashioned noise-making, within dripping sweat and flying instruments and an uncontainable force of four on stage. (And I also believe togas are involved...somehow.)
You may be bewildered, and you may run screaming from their show, but you won't deny that when this strange formula works, the Mae Shi strike gold. Now, if they would only freaking sit still for a minute.
The Mae Shi - Power to the Power Bite Two
The Mae Shi - Hieronymus Bosch Is A Dead Man
The Mae Shi - One Mississippi, Two Mississippi, Three Mississippi
Official Mae Shi web site. Buy Terrorbird from 5 Rue Christine, Amazon, or iTunes Music Store.
Posted by Queen of the Front Row at 02.22.05 at 3:28 PM
Comments
No, I like them just fine! (:
Surprisingly, I like most of the 5RC bands which is shocking, I know, given my low tolerance for musical wankery!
Posted by: little miss rock'n'roll at 02.22.05 at 5:52 PM
I just saw them at a house party in San Francisco. They were ...loud. And ...colorful. And did I mention loud? I was socializing and didn't really pay much attention to them, to be honest. But I'll check out the links! Thank you!
Posted by: Andrea at 02.22.05 at 6:03 PM
I guess I'll have to search harder for a band that I like and you hate! This could take quite a while....
Posted by: Queen of the Front Row at 02.22.05 at 7:29 PM
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