Maxband (Album Release Show), Landowner, Docents

Knitting Factory at Baker Falls
101 Avenue A - New York, NY 10009

Sat May 4 7:30 pm (Doors: 7:00 pm)

21 and up

$12.00 Tickets

+ Google Calendar

Artists

Maxband

Maxband, a project fronted by Parquet Courts drummer Max Savage, this week share their debut album on UK band Sports Team’s Holm Front Records.

‘On Ice,’ produced and mixed by Jonny Schenke, picks up where breakthrough EP ‘Top of the Stairs’ left off across 12 tracks of direct, hook-laden indie rock — at times recalling New York luminaries The Strokes but also dipping into murkier waters. The sardonic ‘Rich Man’ brings to mind the best of early Weezer, while the sprawling six-minute epic ‘Lines’ emerges from a verse groove reminiscent of Neu’s ‘Hallogallo’ into a duelling guitar solo worthy of a nod of approval from Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd of Television.

“The songwriting has matured, both lyrically and instrumentally,” says Savage, who admits he would have “gone crazy” without the outlet of writing. “We’re a much tighter band now, and we’ve improved as musicians individually. Everyone’s voices can be heard on this record, and our winsome personalities are reflected in each song.”

Savage isn't merely paying lip service to a rehearsal room democracy. All four members of the Brooklyn quartet — completed by Patrick J Smith of A Beacon School, drummer Eric Read and lead guitarist Tim Nelson — assume the role of lead singer on at least one song over the course of On Ice’s 41-minute run-time.

Landowner

Western Massachusetts band Landowner play abrasively clean minimalist-punk. Singer Dan Shaw defined Landowner's sound as a drum-machine driven solo project on the Impressive Almanac cassette in 2016, and when the full band came together in 2017, the group made a deliberate effort to preserve that sound while playing live. The result, so far, has been four LPs released on Born Yesterday Records. Landowner's music is built from its own unique set of blueprints, in which clean tones, abrasive minimalism, and caricatured hardcore make space for lyrics that reflect on the global systems our lives are tangled in and the dark absurdities we take for granted.

The name “Landowner” conjures images of a tough guy collecting rent, building fences into square shapes on a round planet, hoping to win the fight against nature, exhausting the soil into sand, starving to death surrounded by money, well-respected in the community, walking thanklessly through the doors that were opened to him.