by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Professor Pez - The Perfect Test (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Professor Pez - Imperial Always (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Professor Pez - Looking at Stars (MP3)

Casiokids @ CMJ (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

Real Ones @ CMJ (more by Kyle Dean Reinford)

Professor Pez

I'm still in a post-CMJ fog and am not really feeling like heading to a rock club any time soon, but there are few things worth noting. As two of my favorite performances from last weekend's rock-a-thon were from Norway (Casiokids and Real Ones), I am inclined to go for the Nordic hat trick with Professor Pez, a six-piece from Bergen who have stuck around after CMJ to play two more shows here this week. With trumpet and violin, Professor Pez definitely fall into the twee / indiepop category, and if their videos are indication there's some theatricality going on there too. They play Union Hall tonight (10/29) and Public Assembly (previously known as Galapagos) tomorrow (10/30).

Fugu

Secondly, Saturday (11/1) at The Bell House is a rare U.S. performace from French pop maestro Fugu (real name Mehdi Zannad) a one-man-band who's been putting out records since the late '90s. On record Fugu makes highly-orchestrated pop akin to Stereolab, St. Etienne, Tahiti 80, or The High Llamas. (His '99 debut, Fugu 1, is one of the lost classics of the last ten years.) Fugu is an actual band in France these days but this will be a solo show so we'll see what that actually entails. But he plays the U.S. about as often as Scott Walker (I think he's only played here once before), this is a rare treat for pop fans.

Videos below...

Continue reading "Professor Pez from Norway & Fugu in this Week in Indie "

photos by Kyle Dean Reinford

"I was actually concerned that Fat Baby, which holds about 75 people at max, would sell out and showed up way early [to see Fanfarlo]. It was fortuitous as I got to see Norwegian group the Real Ones who turned out to be one of my favorite surprises of the week. (Norway did very well at CMJ if you ask me.) Real Ones, who hail from Bergen, are kind of Jens Lekman-y, but in a David Byrne-meets-CSNY sort of way. Just lovely stuff and I had a giant smile on my face the whole time and bought two CDs. Also, they had a sitar player. So do you cart your own sitar from Norway or just rent it here?" [Bill Pearis]

I didn't get to see Real Ones, but I did find out they share a drummer (for CMJ at least) with Casio Kids who are also from Norway. I found that out when I tried to add CasioKids to Saturday's show at Knitting Factory and they couldn't do it because Real Ones had a show. CasioKids and Real Ones both played Friday's Seaport show with Kirsten Ketsjer and Bearsuit. Kyle said, "I did not expect a band from Norway to come out looking like a southern rockabilly band.... they played a song that featured the sitar - it seemed like some weird psychadelic 60's jam-band tune and the singer sounded a bit like Jeff Tweedy." More RO pictures from that show below...

Continue reading "Real Ones @ 'On the Side' @ SSSeaport, NYC - pics "