A Night at the Ritz

It’s been a little over a year since I first listened to Office, and to finally catch them live was excellent. As I mentioned earlier this week, they’ve been one of those bands that I’ve been following peripherally for many months and to see that they are still out there creating great music, drawing crowds, and possibly getting some notice (i.e. releasing a record on a real label), it’s just nice—kind of like The Pipettes or The Magic Numbers, and unlike The Cloud Room.

Listening to ‘The Ritz’ compared to the first track I ever heard, ‘Wound Up’ that fun, dance-rock, feeling still exists but the music is definitely a little more polished, not necessarily more mainstream, because what isn’t mainstream about the lyrics “Let’s go to the beach with a bottle of wine.” I mean who wouldn’t want to do that? That sounds awesome.

I also want to add that the fact that Office has three female (instrument playing) members is incredibly cool, and I think it’s funny that so many bands I’ve been listening to lately have a girl or girls in them. I’m not sure what that means, but as long as the music still rocks, I’m okay with it—though I’ll throw in a metal show like Tool or Van Halen every now and then just to assert my masculinity. I mean, I don’t want to strictly be seeing Lily Allen, Amy Winehouse, The Pierces, The Pipettes, etc., (Wow that is a lot).

As for the actual set, for having such high expectations I definitely felt they delivered—maybe it was because I was like five feet from Alissa the bassist, and it’s tough to say anything negative when you get such incredible proximity. Though, Jessica does know how to give a guy more cow bell (this should be well documented by all the amateur photographers working for going.com or adding flickr photos to their blogs). I was standing next to three or four of these guys who just kept snapping all night, and although I understand the idea and I’m happy that there is documentation—it never ceases to be annoying.

I haven’t had the opportunity to hear the new album yet, but they did humor me with some tracks from there previous album, closing with ‘Oh My God’ and leaving the stage, and then coming back for an encore (something I rarely see at Mercury Lounge) to play ‘Wound Up’ –which really sealed the deal for me.

Overall, the general sound was there, and even though I didn’t know the words or the tunes by heart, I knew their music and I was happy to see that it hadn’t changed, especially when I had hyped up their style and performance so much to my friend.

Here are a few classics, enjoy until September 25 when the new album “drops.”

Wound Up
Oh My
The Big Bang Jump!
Ordinary Offices, Extraordinary Proposals

Official Site
Myspace

Beware of Wombats

The Annex is an establishment that’s name is directly comparable to its layout. When you walk in the door, it’s a sharp, semi-dark hallway that leads you to a second door, which upon opening it you see (when it’s crowded, and probably also when it’s not) a huddled mass of people more or less staring in your direction. There’s a bar and a balcony type thing—but no stage. Until you turn around and see, in what could be the kitchen of a restaurant with the walls knocked out, a performance area with a band, and lights, etc.

It caught me off guard and I immediately decided that I would limit my visits here.

Going to this show was a whimsical decision—having been invited a day earlier to “Come check out” this band. (An offer I could never turn down) So, I downloaded the few songs I could find because The Wombats have never actually released an album yet, and this was their first gig in the United States. It’s always interesting to attend those types of shows because you can just imagine what a big deal it is for the band and you know that they are going to attempt to play the best set of their lives.

I really enjoyed listening to their songs and it made me that much more excited to see them live. Since I don’t really buy CDs that much anymore, I make a honest commitment to seeing the bands I listen to live in concert, 1) because I love live music and can really see what the band is like 2) to compensate for me not actually buying the album 3) because some bands are horrible live and therefore I probably won’t spend much more time listening to their album.

The Wombats are really fun live and I anticipate their first release and potential to be a popular band in that British indie rock genre, like The Cribs or on a larger scale, Arctic Monkeys.

As for the set, it was short and to the point, and you could tell that the crowd was filled with the usual LES wanderers just looking for a good show and people that the promotional firm got to come out. For a Wednesday night, I thought it was a pretty good turnout for a band without a true album playing their first New York show.

They played some songs that I suppose you could classify as hits, mainly because I was able to find them on the internet, so someone out there thinks they’re catchy enough, and Wikipedia puts them on the tracklist to a mysterious LP released in Japan.

“Moving to New York” is definitely worth listening to, and “Let’s Dance to Joy Division” is definitely going to be on my rotating playlist this fall, but right now I have to settle for listening to it on their Myspace page, www.myspace.com/thewombatsuk, which really looks like The Wombats suck. (They don’t.)

All in all, an enjoyable midweek treat and a suitable prelude to another albumless unknown that I will seeing this weekend. Fun times. Can’t wait.

Office Space

I'll be going to Mercury Lounge on Saturday to check out a fun "new" band. I place new in quotations, because like any band starting on the journey to being discovered, it is a completely relative term. And while they are a new band to pretty much everyone listening to popular music right now, and chances are those people will never hear of them---I have been listening to every track I could get my hands on for over a year (which surprisingly aren't that many).

So I'm psyched.

Here is a new song: Office - The Ritz

Listen to These Now

Here is something I will be trying to do weekly. It's basically five songs that I'm listening to a lot and I think it would probably improve your life to be listening to them as well. It's not hard, just download them and play them whenever you're in the mood for something new. I guarantee no duds. This week, here is what's on my mind.

Architecture in Helsinki - Debbie
MIA - Paper Planes
Velvet Revolver- Psycho Killer
The White Stripes - Slowly Turning Into You
The Wombats - Moving to New York