Friday, November 21, 2008

I've Been Thinking A Bit Too Much

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Not only is the Whitney House pretty close to becoming my favorite place to see a show, the show three nights ago with Cheap Time, Estrogen Highs, and Post-Modern Sounds is prety close to being my favorite show I've been to all year. Sure, Monotonix and Creepdust in Danbury back in July was a biggie (too bad I missed Tractor Flips), and when the singer from Pluto Gang passed out on stage at the Charter Oak it was fairly entertaining, but you can't beat three great bands playing a basement show not even two miles away from where you live.

I missed all but two songs from Post-Modern Sounds, but even then they sounded better than ever. It says somewhere that they're planning on recording a new record soon (sample lyric: "Hey guys, my name's Mark and this is Tom jammingalong, and in the back is Travis on the drums") -- yeah, should be great.

Going on last, Cheap Time almost got there late, driving straight up from Baltimore (I guess) in order to hop out of whatever it was they were driving and start playing in about five minutes. Their album is like the Rip-Offs doing Fastbacks covers ("Trip to the Zoo"), but underneath the lo-fi garage rock production of their records they're your basic awesome pop-punk band, and that's what comes out when they play live. Extra points for the Nigel Tufnel look the bass player was sporting, if only just this once.


Cheap Time -

"People Talk"
(Toys cover)

(this file is now listen-only)


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The Estrogen Highs ruled. Good, like Negative Approach '84 good, even though they sound nothing like 'em-- they just held that kind of power. I've been back and forth on these guys a lot; I saw Estrogen Highs twice last year, before all the buzz, which unfortunately included a set in Danbury that was probably the worst I've ever seen from a band that was theoretically "good". Then they opened for King Khan and BBQ, and that was more than okay, so as a dare I bought their two records over the summer and filed them away, just in case I ever felt a need to listen to them sometime. Well, that sometime is now for the Estrogen Highs, because their set on Tuesday night was near-perfect, right down to the last two words out of Stefan's mouth-- "Fuck off"-- before he unplugged his guitar and walked away.


Estrogen Highs -

"She's Gone Missing"

(this file is now listen-only)


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5 comments:

gsdgsd13 said...

Great songs. That Estrogen Highs sounds really Gun Clubby, at least to me, and that's a good thing.

Brushback said...

Estrogen Highs have added a Big Boys cover, too. Just throwing that out there.

Jere said...

Holy shit--I recognized Stefan right away! I had no idea. The kid used to come to my band's shows 8 years ago, and I remember he was a really nice guy--even hung out at my house a couple times, brought over by a mutual friend. Glad to see he's still rockin'. Actually, now that I think about it, I saw him at the Pist reunion show at El N Gee, but didn't get to say hi. I gotta get into this band of his... thanks.

Brushback said...

New Estrogen Highs stuff is coming out soon, too-- it's gonna be killer, based on the one song I heard.

Brushback said...

The mp3 files on this post are now listen-only (non-downloadable) files.

If anyone wants the original files, just look around. The Cheap Time CD is available just about everywhere on the internet (although the file that was posted here was my own vinyl rip), and the Estrogen Highs song can still be found on their MySpace.