ML review by Rachel Kowal

DOWNLOAD: Brad Laner - Crawl Back In (Baths Remix) (MP3)

Baths @ Mercury Lounge on August 3rd (more by David Andrako)

It's kind of odd to go to an indoor show that starts when the sun is still up, but the Mercury Lounge's back room makes you lose your sense of time. The opener of the early show back in August was the one-man electro-pop act Baths, which is the project of 21-year-old Will Wiesenfeld. "Hi. Whoa! Sorry to scare you!" Wiesenfeld said as his voice suddenly broke through the soft chatter. "Hi New York. It's very sweaty here. I'm not used to it, but it's cool... I'm going to start playing music."

Baths consists of a laptop, a mixer, and vocals. Wiesenfeld projects the kind of lovable (but somewhat awkward) intensity you might expect from the 'hero' of a Judd Apatow movie. Though his work required him to be at arms length from the mass of knobs, dials, and buttons, he didn't let that stop him from some serious upper body dancing, and his energy was contagious.

After playing a handful of songs, Wiesenfeld began to talk over the concluding notes of a song. "This is going..." He stopped, and switched off the reverb. "This is going to be my last song. Stay tuned. Fol Chen is next... Oh!" he exclaimed, momentarily switching off his music. "And I'm Baths. B-A-T-H-S," he said excitedly, almost as an after thought.

When Fol Chen singer/guitarist Samuel Bing walked on stage in his bright red shirt and pants combo, the crowd snickered a little. But when the remaining four members of Fol Chen joined him - each wearing the same outfit (save Sinosa Loa, the sole female member who wore black tights to match the shiny black buttons of her red shirt), the reaction changed to something akin to amusement. "Matching outfits? Yes!" said one audience member toward the front of the room. Maybe I was just influenced by the White Stripes-like aesthetics, but the instrumental interludes seemed reminiscent of a tasteful soundtrack to an old sci-fi movie - playful, but definitely eerie as well.

In the studio, a significant portion of Fol Chen's music consists of samples, but their music translates well to a live setting. Their sheer weirdness mixes irresistibly with their alluring vocals, irrepressible beats, and 80s-tinged keyboard riffs. The frenzied drumming propelled the music and threatened to transform Fol Chen into a hypnotic martian marching band of sorts. (The brief addition of a trumpet for one of their songs only reinforced the image.) Everyone but the drummer - who was working up a real sweat - contributed backing vocals, but even he approached the mic for one song near the end of the set. Fol Chen was also joined on stage by Kárin Tatoyan whose cover of "In Ruins" appears on the band's "In Ruins" EP (as does a remix by Baths).

During the song "The Idiot," back-up singer (and recent New York-transplant) Patrick-Ian sang, "Everyone here thinks it's a joke," which seemed to be an interesting tag line for the evening given the borderline cult-like and somewhat ridiculous matching outfits, but joke or no joke, their music is worth a listen.

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We already posted pictures from that show (the above review got lost in my email) (until now). Baths, if you hadn't noticed or figured it out, are/is in fact playing NYC as part of his tour with Dosh and headliner El Ten Eleven. That takes place at Knitting Factory on Thursday, September 16th (tickets still on sale).

For an MP3, grab the free EP Baths appears on over at Heart Music Group's Bandcamp.

All dates below...

Continue reading "Baths - last here w/ Fol Chen (review), coming back w/ Dosh "

DOWNLOAD: Baths - Stupor (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Shlohmo - Post Atmosphere (Baths Remix) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: DJ STV SLV - Maximal Burns (R. Kelly vs Baths) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Baths - <3 (Daedelus remix) (MP3)

Baths

L.A. future-poppers Fol Chen have two NYC dates in August with electro/chill-out/pop act Will Wiesenfeld aka Baths (again, not to be confused with the Bay Area band now called Royal Baths)...

"In spite of his affinity for oddball pastiche, Baths' (née Will Wiesenfeld, all of 21) aesthetic is decidedly poppy. If you have ever expressed wishes that artists as disparate as Flying Lotus and Boards of Canada were "more hooky," well, bless your heart, you might like Cerulean a lot. Wiesenfeld deftly mixes buoyant beats, ambient tracks, and vocal-heavy pop numbers into an album that flows together seamlessly and makes for quite a few pleasant surprises. The quietly hypnotic "Rafting Starlit Everglades" follows "Aminals," a wide-eyed and bombastic ode to childhood wonder; the Go! Team are somewhere kicking themselves for not getting their hands on these samples first, or just for not writing this song." [Cokemachineglow]

Those NYC shows, presented by BrooklynVegan, happen on August 3rd at Mercury Lounge (tickets) and August 4th at Union Pool (tickets). They also have a gig in Philly August 5th.

Before that, Baths, whose excellent debut, Cerulean, just came out on Anticon, have West Coast dates with Memoryhouse (who are touring with Twin Sister this August. one of those dates is with Nite Jewel). They then tour across the continent first with Jogger, then with El Ten Eleven and Dosh.

El Ten Eleven and Dosh's NYC dates are settled - September 16th at Knitting Factory (tickets), September 18th at Mercury Lounge (tickets) - with the obvious absence of Baths on those shows (for now?).

The pictures below are from a July 6th hometown Fol Chen gig at the Echo in Los Angeles.

Non-album Baths track "Stupor" is posted above, along with some remixes including one by Daedelus who by the way is playing Santos Party House on August 15th.

Baths videos, Fol Chen pics and all tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Baths (not Royal Baths) touring w/ Fol Chen & then Dosh (dates, MP3s, Daedelus & stuff) "

DOWNLOAD: El Ten Eleven - Jumping Frenchmen of Maine (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Castanets - All That I Know (MP3)

El Ten Eleven is an instrumental/post-rock duo from LA "known for combining guitar/bass doubleneck or fretless bass, with heavy looping and effects pedaling, over acoustic or electric drumming."

"This weekend I had my face melted (a few times actually) down at the Larimer Lounge -- most completely by the duo El Ten Eleven, who were opening for Land of Talk on Saturday night. Kristian Dunn and Tim Fogarty make mindblowing sounds using just a drum set and fretless bass/double-necked guitar.

With the help of about 27 different pedal and whirlygig deals on the floor, they loop layers of sound to create some amazing(ly fun) music. From the initial stirrings of even something like Pachelbel's "Canon in D," I've always found the slow build and denouement in any song to be fascinating, especially ones that focus on adding the layers of sound or noise and then taking them back." [I am Fuel, You are Friends]

Kristian Dunn and Tim Fogarty are also members of the San Diego-based band SoftLightes (who put out an album on Modular). My friend said, "I like El Ten Eleven more than Ratatat!"

Listen to more of their songs at MySpace, including the one "I Like Van Halen Because My Sister Says They Are Cool" (and then compare that song to "Long Time Coming" by the Delays).

Check out El Ten Eleven, TONIGHT, Wednesday November 26th, Thanksgiving-Eve at The Bell House in Brooklyn. The show was originally supposed to be at Union Hall, but was moved so more people could have fun. Castanets, Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, and Happy Anarchy are also on the bill.

Asthmatic Kitty is now offering "the entire full-length history of Castanets, from Cathedral (2004), to the haunting First Lights Freeze (2006), to the mystic In the Vines (2007) for just $15. And while supplies last, this bundle also includes a limited edition tour EP split with Shapes and Sizes."

El Ten Eleven are also playing a NYC show on Friday at 927Tribeca with Abigail Warchild. All tour dates and a video below...

Continue reading "El Ten Eleven - 2008 Tour Dates, Castanets Wed. @ Bell Haus"