While I’m certainly trying to write about shows happening that take place at venues other than the Hi-tone, I have to admit that the Hi-tone isn’t making this task easy. They have some great shows lined up for the fall (including Asobi Seksu, The Meat Puppets, and Sebadoh) and tonight Brooklyn, New York’s Vivian Girls will be performing with Widowspeak and Bake Sale.
If you haven’t heard the Vivian Girls, I could best describe their sound as what would happen if The Ramones and The Shangri-las had a love child. While musically their sound is straight out of the garage hearkening back to early New York punk rock, the vocals are somewhat droney, but less in a dream pop way and more reminiscent of Mary Weiss or other 1960’s girl groups. They released their third album, Share the Joy, back in April on Polyvinyl.
Widowspeak, also from Brooklyn, released their debut self titled album back in August. Many reviewers are comparing singer Molly Hamilton’s voice to Mazzy Star’s Hope Sandoval (and if you’ve heard their record then you know this comparison isn’t far off). Musically, I find them reminiscent of the lo-fi sound from the late 80’s and early 90’s (particularly I think their sound is what would happen if David Lynch commissioned The Jesus and Mary Chain to do the soundtrack to one of his films). If you want to hear something really awesome from Widowspeak, check out their cover of Chris Isaac’s “Wicked Game” from the Gun Shy 7” they released during the summer.
Doors open at 9:00, and the cover is only $7!
