I’ve spent the last week completely in awe of Montreal-based post punk band Ought. The post-punk outfit channels Joy Division and Television with angular guitar riffs, but retains their own voice with ambling, swirling grooves that begin reticently and build to powerful cathartic heights. “Wanted! Wanted! Wanted! Wanted! Wanted!” frontman Tim Beeler shouts during the epically frenetic “Gemini” as the arrangement converges into a primal thudding beat before erupting again.
Beeler’s talky lyrical delivery works perfectly as the stabilizer to the ever-chaotic music that rages around his vocals. Beeler doesn’t exactly lose his shit onstage, but with subtle movements and the inexplicable raw emotive energy he emanates, you just can’t turn away. With each song the band played, I became more entranced, more convinced, and more affected by their utterly astounding live show. The band’s album More Than Any Other Day is breathtaking, and you should buy. And if this band comes through your town, do not miss it.
Teenage rock band Dub Thompson, who recently released an album on Dead Oceans, seems to defy categorization. Their album was full of strange production tendencies, wandering jams, and sometimes punky sensibilities. Their live show fell more wholly into a garagey punk rock style with the young members pounding on instruments and screaming into microphones. I can’t remember the last time I saw a live show diverge so greatly from a band’s record, especially with a show in such proximity to the album’s release. The youngster’s certainly have a brazen and raw onstage demeanor, but it seems like their still figuring out how the pieces of their music fit together. Or maybe that’s just it: what Dub Thompson does so well is break the pieces apart and defy expectation.
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