Singer: They Exhumed The Corpse of US Maple

…and kicked it a few blocks down the road.

That’s a very, very good thing.

This past Wednesday at the Paradise in Boston, Singer and Battles were on the bill.  Singer, a brand-new band featuring members of US Maple (among others), kicked off the evening.

Now, it’d be hard to overstate how much I loved and respected the music of US Maple.  They stood on the shoulders of giants such as Beefheart, and then took that music to the nth degree; they were unrepentantly difficult and unique.  Any follow-on project has to bear the expectations implied by those words, and I was afraid Singer would disappoint.

Thankfully, that wasn’t the case at all. Singer came onstage sporting a 2 guitars/bass/drums lineup, and from the word go they reminded me of US Maple v2.  The meandering, abstract guitar lines were there, if a bit bluesier than before, while the rhythm section held things down in a more concrete way.  The biggest change was the vocals: all four sang at times, and there was no clear lead vocalist as they all took a turn at the mic, with two or even three of them singing lead at the same time.

The last song was the most different.  It started with Todd Rittman switching to a small drum kit, with both him and regular drummer Adam Vida playing a drum roll on their snares.  Bassist Rob Lowe switched over to a mini-organ and played deep, droney bass notes while singing occasionally, and guitarist Ben Vida played a repeating line that sounded like a cross between shattering glass and a crackling campfire.  Over the next 8 or so minutes the piece evolved, sounding at times like a Neu-style Krautrock workout.  It was an excellent piece, and I definitely hope they do more like it in conjunction with their more conventional songs as they go forward.

They proceeded through a solid set of about 40 minutes, pretty impressive considering they’re a brand-new band with less than 10 shows under their belt.

Complaints?  I thought some of the songs lent themselves to a more abstract style of drumming, similar to Kevin Shea in Storm and Stress, instead of Adam Vida‘s more straight-ahead work.  Especially with the bass holding down the fort, there was room in the music for it.  To be fair, it’s a minor nitpick; Mr. Vida is certainly more than capable behind the kit.

Overall?  Two big thumbs up.  I can’t wait to hear more, and hopefully they return to Boston before too long.

As for Battles, they were simply awesome.  I gotta disagree with Will Spitz’s review of their set as “emotionally unaffecting”; from the minute Dave Konopka came out to start their set they had my attention, and they just killed it.  It was my first time seeing them live – I missed all of their earlier Boston shows, for various reasons – but I was really into it, and judging from the crowd’s reaction I wasn’t the only one.  Yes, the last third of their set dragged a bit, and I think they’d do well to add more vocals to their songs, but it certainly wasn’t “surgical”; they rocked, pure and simple.