Date: Closing TBA
Location: Substrate Contemporary Fine Art Gallery
Street: 709 North Ridgewood Place
City/Town: Los Angeles, CA
Artist Natty Brooker, who is most known for the enduring imagery related to the music of Spacemen 3 and Spiritualized is debuting his body of work in the United States in October 2009 at Substrate Contemporary Fine Art Gallery in Los Angeles. Curated by Ramses and Will Carruthers.
Brooker’s body of work will be exhibited here first in a series of exhibitions to be shown nationally and internationally. Other cities include New York, London, Berlin and Amsterdam.
Prints of all the works are available as a signed and numbered set of 14 for $1600. Individual signed and numbered prints are available starting at $200. Inquire within.
photo : jeff forney
REVERBERATION
by Lady Godiva (France)
Ironically named, The Meek seems to be hailing straight from hell with its evil and nefarious soundscapes.
“You” perfectly epitomizes the quartet’s compulsive aura and its trademark wall of sound with hallucinogenic distortions. The Californians’ sound is compelling : oppressive and yet surprisingly feminine with Amy Lee’s sultry and mesmerizing vocals, the four-piece thus builds a sonic cathedral of evil reverb and striking fuzzy guitars and brings out a chiaroscuro of emotions, a blazing inferno that casts dark spells and arouses you with its raw, droning and haunting visuals.
While the band seems to be caught in a cave, its ethereal highlights foresee a guiding light that keeps you wandering in an astounding maze, a fever dream that will blow you away over and over again…
Have The Meek crossed Arthur Rimbaud’s path somewhere along the ride? This could have been the poison he mentioned in “Night In Hell” from A Season In Hell:
“I have just swallowed a terrific mouthful of poison. - Blessed, blessed, blessed the advice I was given! - My guts are on fire.”
Get a taste of that exquisite poison, The Meek is calling you!
LA ALTERNATIVE Side Stage Spotlighting the best of local music: The Meek by Max Read
Whatever else you can say about the late-80s shoegaze contingent, they made good music to take drugs to. Bands like Jesus and Mary Chain and Spacemen 3 drowned their listeners in feedback with songs built of giant, unredeemable, slow-moving noise; washes of barely inflected sound with subdued drums and hollow voices. In the process, the shoegazers, like almost no one else before them, were able to marry the unadulterated blare of White Light/White Heat with the simple pop melodies of Brian Wilson and Phil Spector, navigating the space between the shyness of their manner and the clamor of their music.
Its therefore good news for those of us who like music to accompany our drug usage that the Meek have taken up the shoegaze torch. Fronted by husband-and-wife team Jeff and Amy Lee, the Meek build swirling towers of distortion and feedback atop sturdy, well-worn drumbeats. Their noise-drubbed songs would come off as derivative if not for the consummate skill with which theyre written. The songs themselves are ominous and dark, captivatingly primitive in their minor-key melodies and steady drone; harking back to an older kind of rock and roll built on simple chord progressions and at the same time moving shudderingly into the future of pure, angry, mechanical sound. Wisely, the Meek never let the layers of fuzz entirely obscure the vocals; bathed in reverb, they drift from clarity to incomprehensibility as the song ebbs and flows. The band features two guitars, but neither can really be called lead, rather, they twist in and out, overlapping each other, slowing mapping each songs territory.
In fact, the constant drone of the Meeks songs demands your attention at all times. Each song is so arrestingly composed and phrased that it can be difficult not to get lost amidst its tunnels of fuzz and feedback-not that you dont want to. Just keep your dealers number on hand.
Want to set up a show at The Relax Bar or the Blue Café? Send me a message and lets set something up or even better, bring out a demo to one of the shows
hey heres something you guys should watch for Halloween. its about a Devil Record Compnay stole Winslow music for his musical play called "Paradise" and put him in jail but he broke free and a freak accident occur when he slip on couple of records on the floor and stumble upon the Vinyl pressing machine which melt half his face. and came to plagurized the Paradise.
Hey! I met you guys out at Pappy n Harriets. the meek sounds fucking killer, it was cool to meet you guys (jeff, ramses). keep rocking... hopefully i'll get to see you guys again eventually!
I’m also looking for bands for these shows: 9/1 Friar Tucks- Pomona: 9 and 1am 9/2 The Blue Café- Long Beach: 10 and 11PM 9/2 The Blue Café- Huntington Beach: 10 and 11PM 9/3 The Blue Café- Long Beach: 8 PM 9/3 The Blue Café – Huntington Beach: 8 and 10PM 9/8 Friar Tucks- Pomona9,10,11,12,1 9/9 The Blue Café- Long Beach: 11Pm 9/22 Friar Tucks Pomona: 10,11,12,1
