On The Scene: XP 13-04-2013

Time to play catch up folks!! Rolled into XP to check out Nanjing-based band 8 Eye Spy. Frankly, I was a bit skeptical after listening to their material online – it lacked any substance. No wave, post-punk, whatever genre it was implementing there was no true direction. Well, it’s always nice to be proven wrong.

Assured, sassy, disobedient and offbeat enough to leave one eyebrow raised their entire set, I do indeed like this kind of music. Read on to check out Streets Kill Strange Animals and Snapline provide more post-punk sugar. And that sugar is doused in blue lighting cause I have to clue how to work my friggin camera.

It’s been sometime since I last caught Streets Kill Strange Animals, the post-punk outfit who have been kicking around for some time now.

I love the way they dig into a song, with numerous tempo changes which dip in and out of building the tension in a given song. Definitely not the easiest sound to follow, but hey post punk never is.

There’s a rambunctious bone in the trio for sure – would love to see them cut loose a bit more, kick in some shackles, or blow a fuse. Seriously, someone needs to break something in XP.

Awww, Snapline – you goofy bastards. As much as the group tries to weird-me out, turn me off, and throw me off guard (and believe me, they get close time to time), I’m gonna toot their horn.

Fact still remains, Snapline fascinates me and when their songs hit, there’s something thematically bitchin, even emotionally manipulative about their music that burns long after their set.

While I’m given up on turning people onto Snapline, I’m jumping on the bandwagon, even if that wagon goes down.

Eager to retreat to bed, I figured I would give the no wave group, 8 Eye Spy, a fighting chance – a few songs to win me over. Well, good on them, as I found myself wide-eyed and grinning forty minutes later.

There’s a fuck all DIY attitude that’s essential to their sound. Awkward rhythms, tortured vocals, and erratic song structures – they are looking to provoke and boy do they succeed.

Like walking through a field full of landmines – each step, each chord, each pause has the potential to stir a reaction out of you.

You cringe and eagerly await all at once. Nanjing’s 8 Eye Spy is bold, uncooperative, and feisty. I kinda loved it.

And I was supposed to be in bed by now.