The District Weekly - VOL. 1, ISSUE 48, March 5th, 2008
THE MODERN DANCE
BlowUpBlow's equations for a falling body
by Chris Ziegler
[click thumbnail to enlarge]
[photo by Barri York Hoover]
BlowUpBlow live together under humming power lines alongside a long bleak highway and next to a nursery behind a fence—little leaves poking under wire—and sometimes creepy people come walking silently along the top of their backyard wall, and if waking up to those kinds of horizons each morning doesn't mess with their music, it's only because they moved in with an amenable vibe already inside them.
"We were all already preoccupied with certain odd dark aspects of society anyway," says bassist Dennis Owens, familiar also to many as the co-founder of soul-funk club Good Foot or from behind the counter at Fingerprints.
"And now we're living the dream," says guitarist END, sitting with the rest of the band in a backyard circle under the power lines at twilight.
Their first show in seven months was last week at the Prospector—drummer Bob Kurthy took some time to explore a side project called fatherhood—and once they got everything turned back on, Long Beach's gravity increased massively. Owens and Kurthy are a rhythm section whose fossil footprints will be found in nuclear mud a million years from now—one unreleased song turns two notes into a boat about to roll over—and END and singer/guitarist Paul Zansler use particularly ruined rock guitar—riffs that could have been sold to girl groups, if they weren't turned inside out—to reanimate the troglodytic caveband ethos of the unsung late '60s. They're a dark, loud and nervous band with that power line electricity somewhere as inspiration—"The average person who likes indie would look at us and think, 'They're harshing my mellow!'" says Owens.
Zansler says Owens turned him on to Can, and drummer Kurthy's dedication to prog-rock is so noted that he's been specifically profiled in other papers, but Owens easily details the band overlaps anyway: "Ramones, Devo, AC/DC, Motorhead, Turbonegro's Apocalypse Dudes, James Brown, the Stooges, and '60s garage rock," he says, and certainly all those actual records rest ready for action not 20 feet away in the Blow house's album bunker. (Currently rolling: African wedding-band music from the '70s.)
A lot of that is rust-rock—not so clinical as "proto-punk," and alive with a specific dread that hovers between Pere Ubu's "vaporous dawn" (last phrase of their first liner notes) and Pere Ubu's "formless void." (Last phrase of their second liner notes, from the "Final Solution" 45 that lent BlowUpBlow a particularly ferocious cover.) Head down in the BlowUpBlow practice space, listening to stridently grimy live tapes recorded on Kurthy's little digital unit, it's easy to sense the menace. At the end of "It's Time," a seven-minute track nailed into Kurthy's rigid drum pattern, the song heaves and surges and Zansler looks up: "This is like when the tanks come over the trenches.
They're funny guys, too—END always has something ready—but as Behemoth once said: "It's just a joke, man!" (And as Zansler once sang: "I wanna laugh!") But what's Zansler's most cheerful lyric? Well, everyone gets a laugh about that as he wonders: "Pick out the prettiest worm in the can?" he says. "What a can of worms. 'Did Jesus let it happen? The devil ran wild / everybody got it / they put the fear back in style.' Doesn't that make you happy?"
They get to have the first song on the coming Fidotrust Long Beach compilation, and so their sound will introduce the city to the world: "Sunshine Part 1," a tight and tense riff, locked into repetition until the song cracks and hiss and wind sweep in—not so much a kick in a soft spot as a chilly finger tapped on the top of the spine. Maybe not cheerful either, but still: It's dark by the time we're done with the interview, but they're all around a lit little candle and laughing as I leave.
BlowUpBlow with The Pity Party and Softlightes tonight
February 26, 2008, inflightatnight.com in Music by reidIt’s been quite some time since we last heard from Long Beach’s BlowUpBlow, they haven’t played a show since last July and their last recorded output was the Supertonight 12″ single w/4-song bonus CD released last January. During their hibernation BlowUpBlow have been working on recording some new songs with Kevin Dean at Plyrz and The Compound, which should be released most likely as an EP sometime down the road. They also have contributed a track to the upcoming Fidotrust Records Long Beach bands compilation put together by Oscar and Jackie (Knives of the Official Disappointment, Bella Novela, Alex’s Bar) that will be released on April 15th.
Tonight marks the band’s return with their show at The Prospector with The Pity Party and Softlightes for Pull Your Pants Up! Expect a very full house
Goodfoot will have an art opening on Last Thurs, Nov. 29th. from 5-2:30. The Art of Musical Maintenance, in it's 4th year, is proud to display the newest installment of music posters from artists throughout the country. The artists in this show are as diverse as the music. Likewise, the artist's techniques vary as well (from hand drawn to computer generated design). There are over 50 artists, and around 300 posters.
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Bastinado (final show), Wax Edison, Sprinkle will be playing an after party in the downstairs starting around 10.
LA Record
July 24th, 2007
Live review
BLOWUPBLOW + MORE @ THE PROSPECTOR
TUESDAY, JULY 17:
"Tonight the Prospector erupts with some very awe-inspiring sounds that I think might have found a better reaction at an all age venue. It's been my opinion for years that explosive bands should play for explosive crowds—that would be the youngsters and not the old foolios complaining about beer prices. Nonetheless, it was there and it was brutal! They start me off with a violent little dish of Lipstick Terror—a Mexicali group of bandidos that ripped through a set of fine neo-hardcore without the floor punching, but fully loaded with synths, sexy violence and artistry. These uniformed boys know what they're doing and they do it better than most. Next to wash my beer down comes the badical beat of Arkansas representatives Attractive and Popular, also uniformed and throwing down some delicious noise. I found myself wanting to slip out of my pants and into some matching gold short shorts. Hypnotized for a second (Drummer is hot! Call me!) I quickly composed myself and let the wave of chaos hit me. Loud and beautiful, with no fill… this shit kicked my culo. ("Ass," for the non-Spanish speaking) Finally the main dish: having heard of but never seen BlowUpBlow was my stupid mistake (bad Chavo!) but tonight I was there and BlowUpBlow invaded, bombed, and destroyed my expectation of them. I couldn't move other than to lift my glass to my lips due to the attention I needed to pay. The rhythm alone could get you to drool—you'll lose yourself in the musical candyland that these dudes create. Everything done perfect. A new crush for me, and an awesome night at the Prospector." (CS)
