By: David de Young
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| Askeleton - Photo by David de Young |
Barfly in downtown Minneapolis is a swank and cool place to throw a CD Release Party. The space feels like halfway between a New York nightclub and The Triple Rock (read that as lots of concrete, modular couches and a fair amount of mood lighting). The sound system is good. The staff is friendly. And the little $2 draft beers they sell at the full bar can be handy, even if you do have to head back more frequently for refills.
This was the environment that Askeleton chose for the digital release of their new album, The Personalization. (A code to download the disc was given away with each paid admission.) A vinyl (yup, vinyl) disc will follow on April 4 with a release party at the Triple Rock. No CD format disc will be officially released.
I arrived in time for openers Mystery Palace who set the mood for the night with their distinctive down-tempo and trippy electro-pop. Mystery Palace is Ryan Olcott (aka Foodteam) on vocals, keyboards and effects, James Buckley on bass and Joey Van Phillips on percussion. Unfortunately I had to duck out during a good portion of their set to retrieve a camera battery I’d left at home, but I did pick up their 2007 Flags Forward disc which I’ve been enjoying thoroughly. “This is the one you want,” Olcott told me after their show, and he was right. It serves as a great introduction to the band. If you are a fan of Halloween, Alaska or Estate, this disc is right up your alley.
Next up was Splinter Cells, and it was my first time seeing them. Splinter Cells are Joshua Syx on guitar and vocals, Steven Yasgar percussion and Julie Palm on guitar and vocals. Syx and Yasgar were previously members of The Swiss Army (Rich Horton of Rift Magazine’s favorite band, btw.) Yasgar has also played with Roma di Luna, and Julie Palm also plays in National Bird. They’ve only been performing locally since about November of 2007 but have already come into their own, clearly making an impression on many of the other people also seeing them for the first time. Splinter Cells played melodic rock that was characterized by its ability to get your attention, suck you in, and keep you listening. One way to describe it might be to say they played a dreamier, moodier, less poppy, but nonetheless still powerful version of a type of music that has made Foo Fighters international superstars.
Given that, I’d expect good things to happen here on the local level. Their debut CD was produced by Knol Tate of Askeleton and should be released in spring of 2008. They play next at the HowWasTheShow.com sponsored The Haves Have It CD release party at the Hexagon March 28.
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Askeleton - Photo by David de Young
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“Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain,” someone once said, but tonight, that was not to be the case. Emerging through the mesh curtains that cordoned off the stage from the bathroom hallway, Knol Tate dropped onto the stage already populated by his band, one eye blackened with stage makeup. Tate banged the mic several times as if to make sure it was working (theatrics, as obviously it was) and the band broke into “Move to Switzerland,” the lead off track off the new disc. They mixed up the songs off the new disc as they presented them, including “In the Basement We All Think The Same,” “This isn’t French” (to which Tate did a mime impression that fit a later lyric about Marcel Marceau), “Swearing Isn’t Very Becoming On You,” “Skunk Medicine” and more, closing out the set proper with “Kill Everyone Alive.” I mention all these songs because the album has so many good ones it’s hard to pick the standout track or two. The disc has grown on me with each listen and may well end up on my “best of” list for 2008. Like much of the music on previous Askeleton albums, there is a definite feel of The Soft Boys or Robyn Hitchcock to the song and lyric presentation in several of the songs, but without Hitchcock’s trademark nasality. Otherwise, their influences are all over the map.
Accessible at the pop music level, Askeleton is sometimes bizarre from the perspective of the concept of persona and the possible meaning of the songs (clearly, “Kill everyone alive” is not the prescribed advice of Knol Tate the songwriter), but to me that just makes the songs all the more interesting. Check out “Marry All the Women,” which I find subtly hilarious. The confidence Tate has as a musical performer is very important here as quirkiness when presented this way works in the same way that deadpan humor works in comedy – it works in the space between what it appears to be the case and what at closer inspection surely isn’t. (Or at least you hope not.)
Askeleton as been around since 2000 and has several well-received albums to their name already. They play next March 15 at the 7th Street Entry with Young Dudes and Lazer Forever, where again everyone will receive a code for a free download of their album with their paid admission.
Location Info:
Barfly
Artist Info: Askeleton, Mystery Palace, Splinter Cells
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