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indie-snob>+!#
The unicorns @ the fireside (1-18-04)
with the countdown and pit er pat |
 I took this photo when the Unicorns played at the Logan Sq. Auditorium on April 4, 2004. Review coming soon(-ish) The Unicorns are one of those bands I discovered almost all on my own after Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone? came out. Immediately, I fell in love with them. It was quirky, witty, at times very tragic, at others, very funny. It's lo-fi pop music at its absolute finest, no way around it. See, after the end of the year, I had a difficult time placing my albums in a Top of list. For the past 4 years of my life, I had been completely and utterly infatuated with Radiohead, so once Hail to the Thief came out, it was difficult where to put in relation to the Postal Service debut I fell in love with so much. However, once I found this little number, I had even more of a difficult time. So, as it turns out, the Unicorns made it ahead of my Radiohead. Amazing? I think so. I started listening to their first EP, Unicorns are People, Too, and appreciating how stimulating they make lo-fi music, playing around with electronics, keyboards, melodies and even the structures themselves. Really, they're an amazing band. Once I found out they had added another show other than their spot at the 21 and over Empty Bottle, I was ecstatic, and gathered all my friends to come with me and enjoy the show. I dressed in a pink shirt (as I was told I would get something if I did, but I definitely did not… maybe because it was more of a coral?), and brought them along a unicorn pencil I had lying around and headed to the show. When I gave it to Nick, he was quite pleased, as he didn't have a pencil to complete the cover of their most recent 7-inch for "2014". So, when you stare lovingly at that pink cover, just remember that the lead used to make it was MINE. All MINE! Yes, I am part of Unicorn history. The Countdown came out and looked so ridiculously familiar. I bet that doesn't happen to many people where you think you've seen a band but can't remember where or when or with whom. And it turned out to be half true. Of the two-person Countdown (who has recently received some praise on the electroclash scene (is that still going?)), the man is of the Red-Eyed Legends, who I did indeed see with Q & Not U back in June of 2003. His erratic demeanor and tight pants certainly make him better equipped for fuzzed out dance music over gritty grunge rock. Even so, the band oozed sex. They brought an old sampler to play the beats and the guy played distorted guitar with sex-inspired female vocals. It was the transformation of art punk embodied in so many ways: sexy, sleek, dark and danceable. Yeah, and I fall for that stuff. Grade: B+ The next band introduced themselves as the Blackbirds and that they were breaking up. After the first song, they introduced themselves as Pit Er Pat, saying this was their first show. Truth is, the Blackbirds were a respected Chicago experimental pop outfit who found themselves in a bit of hot water for using one of Barbara Streisand or Celine Dion's copyrighted names. So, this was their first show as Pit Er Pat, who has since released their EP on an official indie (instead of the hand screen-printed covers I have with the Blackbirds release). The trio relies on perfectly arranged percussion and synthesizer and female vocals that sound almost foreign in they way that they are uncertain and hushed. The band represents a quiet paranoia about things that are lurking ("The Bog Man") or things in excess ("Too Many"). Some people I were with I think were turned off by some of the repetitiveness that the band uses during the longer instrumental sections (a lot of people aren't good with instrumental indie rock bands, and I guess that's okay), but personally, I thought they sounded excellent live. The actual performance left something to be desired, especially placed between a band as energetic as the Countdown and as playful as the Unicorns, but all things considered, I'd love to see them again and suggest you go and pick up the EP (I've seen it at Tower Records). Grade: B+ Just before the Unicorns went on, a 30 year old woman in a gorilla suit (with white briefs shoved full of socks) came up and began humping my back. Joining the Unicorns on-stage was their tour manager in a tight pink We Ragazzi shirt and a unicorn horn and tail as his hairy gut stuck out. Yes, it was indeed a spectacle. But the real magic of the Unicorns is far from a gimmick and doesn't need to rely on people dressed up in Unicorn costumes (although it did add to the magic of their live show). What I was most impressed with was the higher level of experimentation present in the Unicorns set. If anyone has heard any of the early Unicorns work, the synthesizer is not as "structured" or clearly defined as it is on the full-length. There's certainly more of an experimentation feeling. Personally, I love when bands change their songs around from the album, it not only gives something to remember, but at least you feel like your $8 was well spent. They went through a full set playing the standard material off of WWCOHWWG, including the all-too-good live numbers "Tuff Ghost," "The Clap," and "Jellybones." To be honest, there wasn't one song I didn't love during their set, I just remember these as being particularly amazing this time around. It was just so nice to see a band who made their live show an art-form on its own, reinventing what they had already created into something less rigid and more fun to be a part of. And in the same way the Flaming Lips or the Polyphonic Spree make you feel part of what they're doing, the Unicorns did, too, but in a very different way: as if you were their audience for something new. And, in-between the jokes (they are very funny guys), we did hear some new and unexpected tunes. One of the more unexpected ones was "2014", a track I had only heard on their website (that is, until it came out on 7-inch). They also played what has become a staple of their live show, "Haunted House", a number that starts off as witty anecdote about driving from their last stop until it quickly turns into a cryptic story about, well, none other than a haunted house. I do love the Unicorns. A lot. And I do love their live show. Overall, it was an amazing show and one that I am certainly proud to be a part of. Grade: A Related reviews: ***VERY IMPORTANT NOTE*** i wrote this yesterday (July 7) on the plane home from Italy, HOWEVER, today pitchfork released VERY similar statements about the Unicorns, but i GUARANTEE and ASSURE you without ANY doubt that i wrote these statements without the aid of pitchfork media.
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