United Sounds NYC Festival 2024 (Blonde Redhead/Les Savy Fav/Man Man/Monobloc/Peel Dream Magazine/Bec Lauder and the Noise) @ Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, NY 10/26/24

I won tickets a few weeks back to the second day of the United Sounds NYC Festival at the Pioneer Works. Pioneer is a big art loft space out in Red Hook. I took a bus to a bus over there taking over an hour, but I still arrived in time for all the music. I knew nothing about the first 4 bands on, so it was an education for me outside of the run of the mill.

The first band up was Bec Lauder and the Noise. They were a very young all female band with a smoking bass player and a guitar player that had good chops along with a singer that screamed atonally. It seemed to me like they might have been hired hands, then looking into it, the singer is a supermodel that essentially does her music stuff under her own name. I had a deep suspicion that some management company had a big idea of adding some new unestablished talent to a bill with established talent in an "art space" to create "buzz." All I can say is, yup, suspicion confirmed.

Next was Peel Dream Magazine. At first I thought they were annoying but their guy-girl harmonies grew on me and I liked the last few songs of the set. I thought they were an approximation of "twee-pop" then I decided that maybe they were indeed "twee-pop." After the fact, I discovered they had a considerable catalog since 2018 that included releases on the legendary twee-pop label Slumberland, so again, suspicion confirmed without really knowing anything.

Monobloc was next. At first I thought "Christ! some fucking poofs with tousled long hair and sport jackets." Again knowing nothing I tried to just focus on the band and actually thought they did a quality take on Echo and The Bunnymen/U2 style alternarock with a British persuasion. Sure enough, they are a new band with management and a video "gone viral" that don't have any physical releases or even a firm hold on their name (a long running German band has been using the moniker over a decade).

Man Man I had vaguely heard of but had no idea of anything about them despite the fact they are 20 years in and are on Sub Pop RIGHT NOW with a new album. Two drummers and bass player doing "funny" mistachioed cavorting. I didn't really think much of them and didn't feel like I missed anything.

Les Savy Fav I saw quite a bit in the 90's, although I was struggling to remember the last time, guessing in the 10-15 year ago range. I looked at old messages on my phone and found an email about a free gig at House of Vans, the departed free Summer party venue sponsored by the shoe company from 2013, so I guess that's the last time. Singer Tim Harrington was a friend of my friend Jimmy and I think he came to one of Jimmy's house parties. He has an amazing ability to run around the crowd with a microphone shirtless but I don't think he recognized me as he sweatly ran through a 1,000 deep crowd into my standing space. He also came back with a ladder he found and set it up in front of me and climbed it. He was still shirtless and sweaty but this time was on top of a ladder asking everyone to kneel as if he was delivering a sermon. I didn't feel like kneeling but everyone else did. I also notice that even though Tim was prematurely bald 20 years ago, now the whole front line of the band is bald with fringe benefits which I didn't remember being a thing the last half dozen times I saw this band. Maybe they are new members recruited for this. Does it matter?

Blonde Redhead I first saw at Maxwells in the mid-90's and thought they were kind've crappy couple rock but I bought most of their albums after that on Touch n' Go. Maybe I saw them another time, but now I think they have evolved into an excellent live band. Frontwoman Kazu Makino alternates keyboard and guitar with her vocals in dramatic but never melodramatic fashion. Bass player Amedeo Pace also seems more assured 30 years on with his counterpoint vocals. Maybe they've been this good for a while and I never noticed until now, but they've come a long way in terms of quality.

Had my friend Eric in tow from the horse trade for the two Baby's All Right shows he had plus ones for that I wrote about. Eric came later and managed to get a VIP wristband that I didn't get where the $11 IPA's were free. Eric knew about a great bar nearby that wasn't Sunny's called the Ice House, so we went there after. I didn't close the bar but I had to time leaving with the B61 back to downtown Brooklyn where instead of getting the B26 back home I did the A to the L back, so an hour plus journey for me either way, but worth free.