This past Saturday, in a total spur of the moment decision after just learning about them, I checked out Young Galaxy at my neighborhood venue, Knitting Factory in Brooklyn. I was worried that tickets would sell out quick at the door, as they often do if not sooner, but when I arrived there was almost no one there. Into the second set, though, a crowd was starting to form front and center.
The first band to play was Peephole, a band that stems from the solo work of Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist Kent Odessa. The first song was immediately catchy. Odessa looked endearingly nervous and fidgety with the microphone, and his dancing was awkwardly jerky, but he had a good voice. After that first song, however, it all started to sound the same. The rest of the set melded together into one slightly repetitive, awkward, generic sounding song. I couldn’t figure out if they used very minimal guitar on purpose, or because Odessa couldn’t strum and do his jerk dances at the same time. He played some good lead licks, but maybe strumming rhythm just isn’t his thing. Nonetheless, people were into it, dancing and enjoying themselves. It’s been proven – if a band has a synth and some catchy beats, people will dance. They also seem like a newly formed collective that still need to hone their sound together as a live band. They have all the right elements, so there is definitely potential. Once they put the substance into their songs and loosen up just a little, they’ll really be on their way. Peephole currently has 3 EPs available for free download on their website.
If you’re a fan of Grizzly Bear or the like, you will probably be a fan of Winter Gloves. These guys are from Montreal, and they are carrying on the indie pop sound that is probably what you think of when you think of the Montreal music scene. They weren’t lacking in synthesizers either – they had three. They were fun to watch; especially the drummer. At first I was thinking that he was quite the showboat, but I’ll have to admit that his antics involving drumstick twirls, dramatic clapping, and silly grins totally grew on me. He was having just as much fun as anyone else, and he looked just as happy to be playing Knitting Factory as if he were playing Madison Square Garden. These guys aren’t Radiohead, but they have just as much confidence.
Winter Gloves also played an extremely energetic set. Frequently they busted out the indie claps that the kids love to follow along with, your standard guitar swells reaching towards epic sound proportions, and the lead singer showed off his jumping in a circle dance moves between switching off on pounding keys and banging on guitar. The crowd, appearing to be mostly in the high school age bracket, ate all of this up. This band knows their market well, and plays to them. The lead guitarist took note of the screaming teenage girls in the front and jumped to the front of the stage to play his guitar embellishments especially for them. A few of the band members also proudly sport their ironic moustaches (of which the drummer has the most impressive one). I found all of this greatly amusing, until the drummer smiled at me. Then suddenly I felt like I should be clapping too. When it comes down to it, this band is fun.
After Winter Gloves’ set ended, Broken Social Scene was immediately cued on the PA. Coincidence? Nah.
Young Galaxy is also based out of Montreal, and are based around the duo of Stephen Ramsay and Catherine McCandless. Their music has been described as “shimmering hypnotic space-pop.” They just released their 3rd album, Shapeshifting, last month, which is still hypnotic but in a darker new wave kind of way. All of the members wore white with hints of black, and McCandless had a large feather necklace as an added accent. I didn’t realize this at the time, but after the show it dawned on me that the wardrobe choice was probably a conscious effort to best render the projected images they had going during the set. These projections were perfectly timed with the music, bathing the members in bold and neutral colors while they swayed and played. McCandless had this punk snarl while singing, making her slightly menacing on stage, but maybe that also had to do with her being super pregnant. I have to say that she looked great – probably one of the most stylish pregnant women I’ve ever seen, and the first one I’ve seen to perform about an hour long set without looking like she broke a sweat.
Young Galaxy’s set was pretty entrancing in a danceable way. This was a band with original synth beats, intriguing rhythms with tempos speeding up to bursting breakdowns in the songs. McCandless and Ramsay trade off vocals – his being dreamy and melodic, and hers somewhat low and menacing. They balance each other out with these qualities, and it’s an interesting paradox their music has of somehow being haunting yet comforting at the same time. They also manage to throw in some socially aware commentary in their lyrics. In “Outside the City,” off their debut self-titled album, McCandless makes the observation, “You know, it looks to me / That I am you and you are me.” Maybe that really is what the power of the cosmos in a young galaxy sounds like – an aware and communal notion of noticing the details. The crowd had a communal call for an encore, but Ramsay came back to tell us “That’s all we have right now. We’ll come back with more next time!”
Young Galaxy have a couple tour dates in Pennsylvania before heading west to Ohio, and ending up in Chicago. You can check out the details of the four remaining dates and listen to tracks on their Myspace. Why only 4 more dates? Their Myspace also states that McCandless and Ramsay are expecting their first child on April 28.
