Get To The Chopper

There were a few things that I didn't get to see at the Murdervan/Haymarket Martyrs show on Saturday. I didn't get to see Humanoid, who were on the bill but didn't show up for whatever reason (Tombstone Minds were also listed on the bill at one point, but you knew that wasn't going to happen). I also didn't see BLudrum, who drew the last slot on the shortened bill and thus went on after I'd already decided to call it a night. What I did get to see earlier was someone scrawling "Join Us or Die!! --BLudrum" with a piece of chalk onto the sidewalk in front of Monkey Bar, which was part of the reason why I left early, since I didn't feel like doing either one at the time.

Haymarket Martyrs are not quite your standard three-piece jittery punk band, throwing into the equation a synthesizer guy who wore a "Science. It Works, Bitches" t-shirt while sending out a constant array of sometimes-funny electronic burps and samples. Their songs are built around jagged guitar riffs, which means they sound a bit like The Ex, I guess. I'm only guessing because I'm not really up on that sort of thing. I'm also not really up on heavily political bands that list "universal health care" as one of their influences, although Haymarket Martyrs were fairly entertaining, and their singer came up the best line of the night when he looked over the meager crowd and said, "Murdervan and Bludrum are up next. But you already knew that, because you're in 'em."





Since it's better that I not talk about bands just for the heck of it (as I'm sometimes so lousy at it, like right now) when instead I can give you something of theirs to listen to, here's a song that I cribbed from Haymarket Martyrs' MySpace page:

Haymarket Martyrs -

"The Arpegiattor"
(Live at Cherry St. Station 2007)

(this file is now listen-only)




Murdervan wasted no time after a brief 30-second soundcheck, saying "Can we just start playing now?", and then immediately tore into a shortened set that was fast and loud as hell. Like the guy from Beware The Hippie Menace said, Murdervan almost always sound like they're ready to fall apart. For a band that can build a pocket about as well as anybody, they have this way of playing extremely loose, while still sounding incredibly tight... yeah, whatever that means. If you go see 'em, you'll find out.

I'm going to hold off posting anything from the new "Jaundice" EP until sometime later, but here's another track from Murdervan's self-titled CD that came out in 2006:
Murdervan -

"Like a King"

(this file is now listen-only)