Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Mystery Juice

The tile record release show exceeded all expectations as far as I was concerned. In fact, my only complaint would be that due to my advanced age that a) all of my friends who go to shows have moved out of the lehigh valley or b) are no longer interested in DIY shows. What that means is having to attend shows solo, which kind of sucks, but I am getting used to it.

Before tile, Middle America played and they sounded tight. The last time I saw them, their set was like a lightning strike: fast, energetic and over quickly. This time they were a lot more comfortable winding through songs, abusing their equipment and really turning out a solid set.

tile's set proved to be even more impressive. This was the first time I have seen tile live and they are clearly a band to be seen live. All of their recorded material is good, but hearing them live is just crushing. Guitar, bass, drums, vocals were all in sync and created a rythmic drone that left the crowd banging their head or throwing their bodies around the room. tile played a good mix of new stuff and earlier songs all of which buzzed and blasted the crowd with their heavy groove. It was good to hear the familiar ones and the newer songs were some of their best stuff, particularly, "Murder House", which I thought was one of the best all night. Judging by the crowd reaction, they were just as impressed as I was.

Going back to the attending shows solo idea, I was a little hesistant to snap pictures which is weak I know. Anyway, here is a picture of the LP, put out by Limited Appeal Records. The thing is just massive in sound. The record sounds much bigger than their past recordings and it contains some of their best stuff to date. The one sided LP contains six tracks all of which fit together nicely into one complete package that will flatten you on your ass by the end. Seriously, it is that good. After only a couple spins, it surpasses "Adult Video Cassette" as my favorite tile release. The copies were coming with a CDR track, "Free Pizza, Free Haircuts", which is a bit different than the more serious tone of the songs on the LP, but equally good in its own right. Go to Limited Appeal, order one and stay psychadelic.
What's on the other side of a one sided LP? A crazy etching done by Eric De Jesus. The photo does not do it justice:

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