It’s deep summer. Friends are coming and going. Family vacations are at an all-time high. Gas is absurd and beer is cheap. And, of course: Chicago’s synth-pop heroes, Roommate, roll into town on Saturday night. The receivers of much praise from various music sites, Roommate constructs songs from airy keyboard atmospheres, achieving both an otherworldly sound as well as an intimate one, courtesy of singer / mastermind, Kent Lambert’s poised delivery. Imagine K-Records in outer space and you’ll get an idea of Roommate’s effect. Perhaps Cokemachineglow’s Dom Sinacola says it best:
I can’t help but talk in epic swathes about [Roommate], because it’s been an interminable while since I’ve been so pleased by a band, so tickled to the apple core in my stomach by how a group of musicians could alter and hone their compositions into something that is, in every conceivable manner, a gratifying improvement – a fucking solid, fucking tight sharpening – on everything only hinted at before. I’m blushing, I’m addicted, I want more and I want better too.
Although Lambert is bringing his band from Chicago, this show is really an Iowa City shakedown (Lambert spent much time living here before heading to Chicago.) You’d think local openers, Dimas Lemus, were living in the ’90s with their hard-nosed and gritty indie guitar rock. The band is currently cutting their debut record with producer Luke Tweedy (Shadow Gov’t, Will Whitmore) so expect to hear lots of new songs. Support act, Swingers, will be playing their last (sniff sniff) gig in Iowa City as primary songwriter, Caleb Chao, will be taking off for a life in NYC quite shortly. Closing out this show will be the melodic IDM beats of Ex-Action Model. This guy’s so good he should be on tour with Daedelus.
Download: Roommate - Day After
Download: Roommate - New Steam
Let’s keep this simple: Stars of the Lid put out one of last year’s best records. Period. And Their Refinement of the Decline is an epic sprawl of ambient and lush textures, an album of numbing drones and glacial compositions, and a series of lengthy movements that both soothe and arrest the listener. In short: I wrote half of a book while listening to this album; I sat on my couch for days, contemplating life while listening to this album; I considered the meaning of music while staring at my computer speakers and listening to this album. Each synthesizer swell and every distant tinkling melody like a phantom organ ringing from a hidden chapel within a cathedral render this record into a choice collection of hues that are meant not only to represent our lives but to provide the paint with which we can change them. Oh my, I’ve gone off the deep end. Let me try this once more: this band kicks ass like the Giants kicked the Pats back to Beantown. Stars of the Lid are from Belgium but they’re playing for free (!) tomorrow night (Wednesday, April 23rd) at Grinnell College. The show starts at 9PM. So, your choices for Wednesday are to go get right with God (see the Half-handed Cloud post below) or to go get right with the universe. Some would say those are one in the same so go East or go West, but for Pete’s sake just go. And… I forgot to mention: Stars of the Lid’s performance will be accompanied by 16mm film projections.