I was most likely a little late in getting on board re: Lemuria, and then it took me another year and a half to finally go see them, which happened last Saturday at the Fucking Discovery Zone in New Haven. If you haven't heard Lemuria yet, think of '90s Dischord stuff like The Warmers combined with the measured response of a band like Titles or Soft Effects-era Spoon. Their recordings are all crafty stuff, though typically it's their singles compilation ("The First Collection") that I hit the most-- much like Chinese Telephones "Democracy", where the hodge-podge of odd early vinyl seems to stack up better than any of the regular full-lengths.
I kinda figured I'd just end up watching Alex's drumming the whole night, since he sounds pretty amazing on all of Lemuria's records, but I ended up leaving more impressed with Sheena's guitar playing, which in a lot of ways is the sort of playing that I can get myself square with the most: not overtly flashy, with a willingness to throw in some feedback here and there, alongside a hefty dose of chunky metal power-chording like those Texas is the Reason songs that I used to really like. When they kicked off with "Hours" I meant to watch the slick little part that Alex plays at the beginning, but I was still dicking around with my camera and forgot to pay attention, right up to when Sheena paused in mid-verse and a couple of burly-sounding dudes who were standing right behind me shouted out the "got your nose in, in my hair" part, which snapped me awake because it sounded so goofy. Along the way it became obvious that Alex's mic wasn't working, which sorta took "his" songs out of the equation (not to mention his backing vocals on all the other songs, which are usually pretty key), so I don't know if that affected the set list or not. They played two new songs; the first one was pretty straightforward, nothing special, but the second one (don't ask for any song titles) had an extended hard-rock instrumental part that sounded really cool.
The two songs I'm posting below can be found on "The First Collection", though these are my own vinyl rips from the original 7", recorded five years ago (so don't hold it against them).
"Home for the Holidays"
"Piranha"
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The mp3s on this post are now inactive.
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