WaterCoolerGossip

I saw Baltimore's Celebration (4AD) at Rothko on February 16th. They were headlining a Productshop NYC show with The Hong Kong and the Baby Shakes also on the bill. This was a night of awesome female vocalists.




To start, the Baby Shakes play bubble-gum punk layered with rock-n-roll guitar soloing. And when I say rock-n-roll, I mean 1950s Chuck Berry style rock-n-roll, when there was only one word to describe that type of music. Check out Boys Talk (MP3). More at their myspace page.





Next up was The Hong Kong. This a very apt description of their music:

The Hong Kong taps the pure pop mainline and spits out electro fuzz that will have the kids jabbering for weeks. Ice-goddess vocals sit atop a Krautrock-y drone while noisy guitars and a pulsing bass take it all to the next level. The Hong Kong has arrived through the hole in your favorite psyche-pop 45s [1].

Finally, Celebration took the stage. I have seen them before in Williamsburg and the crowd was a bit limp comparatively, people were less inclined to go crazy to the music, but they still packed a punch. Sean Antanaitis plays all the instruments besides the drums, which are played by David Bergander. He is kind of like a one-man band of deep heavy sounds. In addition to the vintage electric organ, keyboard, and Moog bass pedals, Sean has also crafted a guitorgan, an electric guitar with only a back pick-up that makes analogue organ tones. My only complaint is that the placement of the organ forced him to have his back to the crowd the entire time. However, singer Katrina Ford was fun to watch. She was running around in the crowd and abusing a tambourine. David Sitek of TV on the Radio was also there, posing as gnome, to help out on a few songs (He did produce the album). It was lots of fun. Check out War (MP3). Also check out their myspace page.