While many may know New Orleans as the birthplace of jazz, the funkiest city on earth, and the “chocolate city” (thanks to C. Ray, our douchebag of a mayor), many don’t think of it as the home to one of the most progressive indie scene in the US.  Well, there’s something new brewing down here in the delta, and the New Orleans Indie Rock Collective is busy stirring up the pot.  The NOIRC is a one-of-a-kind, grass organization that fosters the development of and creates awareness about the burgeoning NOLA indie music scene.  And they actually get shit done (collectively)… unlike our local bureaucrats!  Apart from producing kickass compilation albums featuring the local talent, they host a biannual showcase.  Last weekend (March 5th-7th), I attended the second New Orleans Indie Rock Fest to sample the cookin’ from the underground.

On Thursday, March 5th, the first showcase was held at the Hi Ho Lounge and featured the college rock of the Blue Party, the punk fury of The Pharmacy, and the garage barrage of Caddywhompus.  The Blue Party ushered in the evening with a set of springy, sunny early 20s anthems.  Uniting soul-searching travelogues (“Honduras”) and hip party chorales (“Homeless”), they showed why they are quickly becoming favorites with the campus crowd – plus, it’s kind of hard not to get behind a band with a bouzouki.  Next, new comers to the NOLA scene (but not the national scene) The Pharmacy rattled the walls of the Hi Ho with an onslaught of punk.  Songs like the prophetic “WAYDWYL” and the clamorous “Adieu, Adieu”  (which for a brief moment broke off into Sam Cooke’s “Bring It on Home to Me”) surged through the enthused onlookers.  Three minutes, a cloud of feedback, and may the last one left standing be victorious – that’s the way punk rock should be played!  Caddywhompus the final group of the evening – also the festival’s most astonishingly awesome – laid waste to everything in their path.  The duo of guitarist Chris Rehm and drummer Sean Hart unleashed a maddening sonic onslaught that teemed with sheer tenacity and utter virtuosity.  Someone told me that these kids were college freshmen?!  I could swear that they were robots!  There’s just nothing quite like the beautiful chaos of rock n’ roll.

The second night (Friday, March 6th), madcap rockers Big Rock Candy Mountain, freak-folksters The Zydepunks, and street survivors Silent Cinema commanded the stage at One Eyed Jacks.  Despite its brothel-like magnificence, it’s common knowledge around the Crescent City that the security staff here – much unlike the bartenders – are complete turds.  This night certainly proved to be no exception as I waited in a rather short line (about 10 people) for well over 30 minutes, missing most of BRCM’s set while the bouncer was busy flexing his pecs for the honeys and snarling at the fellas.  Luckily, I was able to catch the end of their show, which, sadly, was drummer Leo DeJesus’ last with BRCM.  While I was a little perturbed at the situation, their zany, rave-ups brought me back to my senses.  At least I made it in, in time for the emphatic closer, “Bang, Bang.”  Crazy Cajuns, The Zydepunks were next on the bill, and their unhinged, ramshackle jigs whipped up quite the hoedown.  Fiddles, accordians, amplifiers, and unrelenting vehemence – I have no idea how why this local, cult favorite hasn’t kicked the crap out of Gogol Bordello yet.  For all the talent in New Orleans, no other group captures the raw energy of the crowd like these shoeless bastards!  Fittingly, the final act of the night, Silent Cinema sealed the evening with guttural wails and gristly waves of Americana.  Their blue-collar dissonance, blaring horns, and soulful swagger thoroughly riled up the bar.  Like no other group in the Crescent City, they capture the true splendor of a hole-in-the-wall and a Pabst Blue Ribbon.

The final night of the New Orleans Indie Rock Fest took place Saturday, March 7th at the Howlin’ Wolf where the post punk of The Public, the alt-country of the Happy Talk Band, the wistful lullabies of The Peekers, and the bizarro progresso of Glasgow were on display.  The Public, who were playing their first show since the death of bassist Ryan Plattsmier, were hands-down my festival favorites.  More than any other group at this fest (or at the previous NOIRF), they flat-out owned their performance.  There could have been no one else in the club and they still would have shaken it to its core.  It was a dazzlingly cataclysmic, New Wave dance party charged with post-apocalyptic atmospherics, angular squalls, and surging rhythms.  Following The Public, the Happy Talk Band treated the crowd to a sweeping set of outlaw country.  Ragged and rhapsodic, their long, winding hard-time tales of living, drinking, and dying on the fringes of the Big Easy are some of the best written songs on the musical landscape.  This night, they rustled up one hell of a hootenanny!  Shreveport Louisiana’s The Peekers, the next band to take the stage, were my biggest disappointment of the weekend.  Peppy and zestful, the large ensemble’s artsy, singsong melodies often feverishly exceeded their dynamic capabilities.  Without any rhythmic contrasts their effervescent crescendos turned into grating, discordant calamities.  Though talented, it was apparent that they have neither found comfort on the stage nor the necessary live balance required to match the grandeur of their studio material.  Glasgow, the brainchild Sam and Jack Craft, closed out the festival with a tightly orchestrated set of prog-pop that seemed to bridge the gap between Frank Zappa and Devo.  Quirky, jagged, intricate and infectious, their jerky junket was both fun and fantastical.  Apparently, when carried out with exacting precision and packed with twisted power-pop, brainy, experimental opuses are all the rage.

And that’s how it all went down.  Check out our monthly photoblog for more images from the second New Orleans Indie Rock Fest.

Related Websites
New Orleans Indie Rock Collective
The Blue Party
The Pharmacy
Caddywhompus
Big Rock Candy Mountain
The Zydepunks
Silent Cinema
The Public
Happy Talk Band
The Peekers
Glasgow

CaptAbernathy
Remixing the Musical Landscape
Groovescapes 2009