Advanced Alternative Media Day Party
Habana Calle 6 Patio, Friday, March 20
With indoor and outdoor stages sporting acts every half-hour, Advanced Alternative Media’s day party had something for everyone. Parenthetical Girls and That Ghost started things slow. The former’s baroque-pop textures were outweighed by overly contrived hyperdrama; the latter’s melodic psych-pop was undermined by a preponderance of bass. The tent filled up for Health, a spazzy L.A. quartet that killed plenty of ear nerves with its tribal floor-tom- driven noise-rock assault. Riveting Los Campesinos! tourmates Titus Andronicus never slowed down as they bounced about with the fervor of a bar full of drunks screaming along to the Buzzcocks and Chuck Berry. The Mae Shi‘s dance/noise collision was an interesting proposition, but its material felt half-cooked. NYC hip-hop artist Charles Hamilton had solid mic skills but came up short on hooks, while buzz band Burke was all polish and no spit. Austin’s YellowFever kept it lo-fi and low-key before D.C. trio Mi Ami crashed junkyard rhythms into an avalanche of feedback and vocal outbursts recalling Andy Kaufman’s bongo routine. San Diego-based headliners Earthless performed with Dinosaur Jr.’s J Mascis guesting on second guitar. Going mano a mano with ex-Nebula guitarist Isaiah Mitchell, Mascis and the Earthless rhythm section delivered a free-form firestorm that reasserted the glory of late-1960s coliseum rock bombast and made nonsmokers wish they had a lighter to thrust skyward.
This article appears in March 20 • 2009.
