Bindle "live rehearsal," 6th Street Live, 10.20.2007
"This is the best band you never saw," said Justin Pate's dad Greg just before the reformed Bindle broke the seal on their set at 6th Street Live last night. And he was right.
They've been rehearsing at his lake house for the past couple of months, and they're scheduled to headline their own bona fide gig at Wreck Room impresario Brian Forella's new spot on 11.16.2007. Pablo & the Hemphill 7 frontman Joe Vano, whose gig they were opening, pulled my coat earlier in the week. On every level, it was wish fulfillment at its best.
I never got to see Bindle back in their day (1998-2002); back then, I was busy chasing Detroit echoes from Europe and Australia. But while scribing for the local giveaway arts rag, I had the experience of being transported by music made by people I knew while listening to bands like Woodeye, Pablo, and Goodwin, and I knew the latter two were built around ex-Bindle musicians. I wrote a lengthy Bindle "history" on this blog around the time of its inception, and had been trying to agitate for a Bindle reunion ever since bassist Matt Hembree started letting me hear some recordings of the band via a secret (now less so) web location. Last night, I finally got to hear some of those songs live. It was everything I hoped for, starting when they opened with the song I'd been singing in my head on the way home from work that night: Standing in the market of moon and star / Farther from myself than I ever was / Voices like stones break this heart / The sweetest lullabies ("Yusuf"). Dre Edmonson was running sound, and Daniel Gomez (Goodwin evil dictator and original Bindle guitarist) plugged his mobile recording deck into Dre's board.
Bindle music's melodically and rhythmically complex, almost prog-like at times (as on "Helicopter," "Robot," "Spinning," and "Automatic"), but also funky (dig "Blink" and "Mosca"), aggressive, and overflowing with raw emotion; after all, frontguy Tony Diaz is the original "Mr. Heart-On-Sleeve" -- an advantage in this context, where his almost operatic crooning summons the spirits of Ibrahim Ferrer and Jeff Buckley. When he sings stuff like We are robots, walking around with insides so wired that just a hello would shut us down, you believe him. He and Justin Pate -- who supplanted Tony in the band's final incarnation, just before an abortive attempt to record a "real" studio CD -- blend their voices well, and Justin solos on his own Ben Foldsian ballad "Next Year," besides adding depth and color to all the arrangements with his arsenal of keyboards. (One wonders if they're gonna have "Red Hair," a popular favorite on their Myspace site, stageworthy by next month.)
Drummer Kevin Geist is the band's "X the unknown factor;" alone among 'em, he had been musically inactive since Bindle's demise, but he was the one member whom all of the others agreed no reunion could take place without. He demonstrated why with pulsating polyrhythmic power, locking it in the pocket with Hembree's ever-inventive bass. Steffin Ratliff proved yet again why he's the most underrated guitarist in the Metromess, utilizing a highly syncopated attack and an array of effects ("Why would I want to play straight through the amp when I can add all these complications?") to weave melodic magic and add the sting to relatively straight-ahead rockers like "State of Girl" and "Pop Tart." What the musicians perceived as nervousness came across to the crowd as energy, regardless of any rough edges. Better rock music would be impossible to imagine. And issues of complexity and public taste aside, "Yusuf" and "10,000 Miles" still sound like hits to these feedback-scorched ears.
Remember the date: November 16th. Bindle at 6th Street Live. You have been warned.
(Speaking of wish fulfillment, Gomez says the Goodwin CD is finally mixed, and goes out for mastering next week. Film, as they say, at 11.)
They've been rehearsing at his lake house for the past couple of months, and they're scheduled to headline their own bona fide gig at Wreck Room impresario Brian Forella's new spot on 11.16.2007. Pablo & the Hemphill 7 frontman Joe Vano, whose gig they were opening, pulled my coat earlier in the week. On every level, it was wish fulfillment at its best.
I never got to see Bindle back in their day (1998-2002); back then, I was busy chasing Detroit echoes from Europe and Australia. But while scribing for the local giveaway arts rag, I had the experience of being transported by music made by people I knew while listening to bands like Woodeye, Pablo, and Goodwin, and I knew the latter two were built around ex-Bindle musicians. I wrote a lengthy Bindle "history" on this blog around the time of its inception, and had been trying to agitate for a Bindle reunion ever since bassist Matt Hembree started letting me hear some recordings of the band via a secret (now less so) web location. Last night, I finally got to hear some of those songs live. It was everything I hoped for, starting when they opened with the song I'd been singing in my head on the way home from work that night: Standing in the market of moon and star / Farther from myself than I ever was / Voices like stones break this heart / The sweetest lullabies ("Yusuf"). Dre Edmonson was running sound, and Daniel Gomez (Goodwin evil dictator and original Bindle guitarist) plugged his mobile recording deck into Dre's board.
Bindle music's melodically and rhythmically complex, almost prog-like at times (as on "Helicopter," "Robot," "Spinning," and "Automatic"), but also funky (dig "Blink" and "Mosca"), aggressive, and overflowing with raw emotion; after all, frontguy Tony Diaz is the original "Mr. Heart-On-Sleeve" -- an advantage in this context, where his almost operatic crooning summons the spirits of Ibrahim Ferrer and Jeff Buckley. When he sings stuff like We are robots, walking around with insides so wired that just a hello would shut us down, you believe him. He and Justin Pate -- who supplanted Tony in the band's final incarnation, just before an abortive attempt to record a "real" studio CD -- blend their voices well, and Justin solos on his own Ben Foldsian ballad "Next Year," besides adding depth and color to all the arrangements with his arsenal of keyboards. (One wonders if they're gonna have "Red Hair," a popular favorite on their Myspace site, stageworthy by next month.)
Drummer Kevin Geist is the band's "X the unknown factor;" alone among 'em, he had been musically inactive since Bindle's demise, but he was the one member whom all of the others agreed no reunion could take place without. He demonstrated why with pulsating polyrhythmic power, locking it in the pocket with Hembree's ever-inventive bass. Steffin Ratliff proved yet again why he's the most underrated guitarist in the Metromess, utilizing a highly syncopated attack and an array of effects ("Why would I want to play straight through the amp when I can add all these complications?") to weave melodic magic and add the sting to relatively straight-ahead rockers like "State of Girl" and "Pop Tart." What the musicians perceived as nervousness came across to the crowd as energy, regardless of any rough edges. Better rock music would be impossible to imagine. And issues of complexity and public taste aside, "Yusuf" and "10,000 Miles" still sound like hits to these feedback-scorched ears.
Remember the date: November 16th. Bindle at 6th Street Live. You have been warned.
(Speaking of wish fulfillment, Gomez says the Goodwin CD is finally mixed, and goes out for mastering next week. Film, as they say, at 11.)
posted by stashdauber at 4:06 AM
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