[NewMusic] Stiff Dead Cat 1/3/07

[Ava Mendoza]

this show killed it!
i was expecting Stiff Dead Cat to be a sort of bluegrass purist
acoustic thing but it was actually a pretty loud band of drums,
amplified mandolin and dobro, and amplified George. the mandolin
player had an effects rack, etc.. totally not what i expected but
awesome. all really badass players who had obviously been playing
bluegrass-related things for a long time.. but the music was somewhere
in a bluegrass meets captain beefheart/no neck blues band realm..
considerably weirder than what i had thought mountain men would be
playing, but i think maybe i am out of touch with mountain men in
general. hooray for George finally playing real music!

Sabot was kind of mind-blowing in a totally different way.. bass and
drums duo playing complex super mathy stuff. similar to Ruins i
guess... but Sabot was more like some sort of warped Olympic event
than like a band, their songs are sort of difficult phrase+incredibly
difficult phrase+really incredibly difficult phrase that deconstructs
the last one,etc.  definitely the most athletic drummer i have seen in
a while, and she was appropriately wearing jogging shorts. i am
sometimes not that into the "we are going to write the most difficult
music imaginable because difficult music is good. that is all" type of
rock band but these guys were just both such amazing players and
really pulled it off well. are they married that they have so much
time to practice?

it was a great night of music! i think sabot is playing more shows around here..


On 12/31/06, George Cremaschi <geocrem at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> hi folks,
>
> For any of you who have heard me talk about
> Stiff Dead Cat and wondered what the hell is
> that, or any of you who are tired of me making
> avant garde sounds and wished I would just
> play some real music, or any of you who like
> mandolins and dobros - this is your show!
>
> Though I am, of course, a city slicker, the
> rest of Stiff Dead Cat are the real deal -
> actual mountain men who raise chickens
> and pigs and shoot guns and drink hard.
> They've been listenin to and playin this music
> since they was knee high to grasshoppers.
> They show up to gigs with mud on their boots.
> They get into drunken brawls. Stiff Dead Cat
> have been harassed by PETA, and banned by the
> Sonoma County Folk Society.
> You get the picture.
>
> Also on the bill is Sabot - totally fabulous
> post punk post rock bass and drums duo
> from the Czech Republic, in the Bay Area
> for the first time in ten years, and currently
> on their Around the World in Eighty-One Days Tour!
>
> Wednesday January 3rd 9pm
> Stork Club
> 2330 Telegraph Ave
> Oakland
>
> www.storkcluboakland.com
> www.myspace.com/stiffdeadcat
> www.cesta.cz/sabot!.htm
>
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-- 
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www.myspace.com/avamendoza