Beg Yr Pardon #9 with The Vandelles, DraculaZombieUSA, and O'Death

Last night, at The Delancey, Beg Yr Pardon #9 was a festival of fun. Three excellent bands, some great DJ action, and an overall festive atmosphere made for a very fine celebration of D's birthday. Tiny Masters Of Today were set to be the first band of the evening but had to cancel at the last minute; therefore, DJ sets warmed up the crowd until it was time for The Vandelles to take the stage.

I had no idea what to expect from The Vandelles and I tend to like it that way. Of course I had a few preconceived notions, given that their name sounds like a band out of the '60s and that the music played before they took the stage was, well, mostly '60s dance music. So did they sound like a band from the '60s? Only in terms of wet reverb and vibrato, which is to say they certainly take cues from '60s surf rock (which was reinforced by footage of surfing being projected behind the band as they played). The Vandelles are more than that though. They don't sound strictly surf-revivalist like, say, Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet but rather take things upward and outward along the lines of Man or Astroman? mixed with Happy Mondays. One part this, another part that...never tells the whole story. Instead, let me suggest going to see The Vandelles live at one of their upcoming shows if you enjoy dark, moody, noisy, psychedelic surf-rock. Gnarly.

Listen: The Vandelles - "Lovely Weather"

DraculaZombieUSA has been on my list of bands to see for a while now. Sure, the members of the band are people from Man in Gray and The Unsacred Hearts and are people I'm friendly with but the fact is that it's the music and fun times I was after. I figured that the tangible joie de vivre present in the recorded DZUSA material would make for a fun fun live show, if the right people performed it. All along I've known that the members of the East Coast Annex (DZUSA is a franchise, more info HERE) are indeed the right people to kick out these jams. Have you ever seen Stop Making Sense...where the Talking Heads run around for like 2 hours straight while performing? It's as if the band is making an exercise video at times, right? Same exact kind of energy in a DraculaZombieUSA show. Gena literally never stopped the whole time, amazing. She's my hero. Tina brought her usual MiG excitement but everything seemed cranked up a notch within the frame of DZUSA. D appeared to blend in for a good portion of the show until she suddenly took center stage and took over for most of one song. Awesome. With Travis absolutely killing the kit and Bryan hanging from the ceiling, the show had a psycho circus pep rally kinda thing going on and I loved it. It was exactly what I was hoping for from them...the Spank Rock cover they played, well that was just a nice bonus.

Listen: Spank Rock - "Put That Pussy on Me" (DraculaZombieUSA + JAMF Remix)

O'Death is another band I tried my best to go into the show last night without having much prior knowledge of. They got in touch with me via MySpace (and have received much online love already) but I decided to wait to check them out since I'd be seeing them at Beg Yr Pardon #9. Still, I had a sense of what I was in for. Namely, some kind of bluegrass, folk, ragtime fun. And, given the name, potentially a touch of the macabre? I love those things. All of them. And O'Death delivered those things. But how do I really tell you so you get it? Explosive mountain music? Hm, well as a North Carolinian who appreciates good bluegrass I can tell you it's not really "bluegrass" per se but more like a rock take on traditional American music. In fact I'd go so far as to call these guys the US version of The Pogues. Sure there's a banjo, a fiddle, and an overt embracing of other things Appalachian (that's pronounced "apple atch in" if you were wondering) but there's also a purely punk kind of impulse to O'Death and their music. Do you know that Food TV show where Bobby Flay rolls up into some random town to challenge the local expert to a cook off? I'd do a show like that with these guys in a second. We'd all show up in someplace like Valdese, NC and challenge the baddest mountain band to a stomp-off (I'd be nothing more than along for the ride but that'd be more than enough). Once O'Death blew the other band out of the water we'd then steal their moonshine and party all night with their toothless women. Drunken sonic gypsy death pirates. If that ain't living, I don't know what is. O'Death: become a believer tonight at The Spiegeltent.

Listen: O'Death - "Adelita"

I've got pictures but I have no special cord to get them from my camera to my computer. What gives? It's always in my bag and now, now it's off somewhere else on its own. Probably huddled up in a corner shivering and crying and just wanting to be safe and sound and back in its usual spot. Whatever, who needs stupid pictures anyway?

--

Looking ahead, I'll be working with the fine folks from the Beg Yr Pardon team to bring you a very special show in October. You can read about it in the post below!