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Venue

Basel Venue

Av. Independencia 565, Comuna de Independencia, Santiago, Chile

www.baselvenue.cl/

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Blonde Redhead biography

Diverse and creative indie-rockers from New York City, US, Blonde Redhead have been intriguing audiences since 1993, blending no wave, dream pop and shoegaze to create their eclectic sound.

Italian born brothers Amedeo (guitar) and Simone (drums/vocals) Pace moved to New York City after earning Bachelor's degrees in jazz, where upon the two met Kazu Makino (vocals/guitar), an art student, randomly at an Italian restaurant, deciding to form a band shortly after. Maki Takahashi joined as a bassist. Their caustic art rock soon gathered attention from Sonic Youth's drummer Steve Shelley. With Shelley acting as producer, their self-titled debut album was released on his label, Smell Like Records. Takahashi left the band shortly after, with Blonde Redhead continuing as a trio, releasing a second album, "La Mia Vita Violenta" in the same year.

For their next release, "Fake Can Be Just as Good," they were joined by Unwound's bassist, Vern Rumsey, who was a guest on the album. In their following releases, they scaled back their sound to just guitars and vocals, with "In an Expression of the Inexpressible," "Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons" and "Melodie Citronique" released between 1998 and 2000. Guy Picciotto from Fugazi assisted in the production of these albums, as well as lending his vocals to "Futurism vs. Passeism Part 2." Folowing and accident where Makino was trampled by a horse, a few years were taken for recovery. But In 2004, they had signed with 4AD, and returned to making music, coming out with "Misery is a Butterfly."

Whilst they had scaled back their sound, their music became increasingly more influenced by electronica. Their following releases continued with this developing sound, incorporated delicate textures of dream pop, making for a less chaotic listen. 2007's "23" and 2010's "Penny Sparkle" were a success, with several songs featured on television soundtracks. The band also wrote and recorded 15 tracks for the soundtrack of the film "The Dungeon Masters" in 2010.

Beach Fossils biography

Beach Fossils was originally the name of Dustin Payseur’s indie/surf rock solo project when he began recording in his bedroom in Brooklyn, NYC, USA. The current, expanded line-up was finally cemented after numerous personnel changes.

Although frontman Payseur and drummer Tommy Gardner were the only full-time members of the band with song writing credits on 2013’s ‘Clash the Truth’, the two are now joined by Jack Doyle Smith and Tommy Davidson, and are signed to Brooklyn indie label Captured Tracks. Past members have included DIIV’s Zachary Cole Smith and John Peña, who left to form Heavenly Beat.

Their 2010 self-titled debut album on Captured Tracks featured a somewhat modest attitude towards song writing – simple yet catchy lead guitars chime out over rhythmic bass lines, whilst Payseur’s echoing vocals float on alongside on gentle waves of reverb. This first full-length was followed by the release of the 2011 EP ‘What a Pleasure’, which saw the band draw comparisons to fellow lo-fi/indie purveyors Wild Nothing, whose frontman Jack Tatum appeared as a vocalist on the track ‘Out in the Way’.

By contrast, 2013’s ‘Clash the Truth’ was both more complex and more ambitious; the lo-fi approach they had previously favored was refined rather than replaced, but the addition of new elements to their sound such as the dream pop instrumental sections of single ‘Careless’ and the droning, atmospheric interlude ‘Modern Holiday’ led to an altogether more in-depth, unpredictable album. The circumstances surrounding its recording could have easily been disastrous for the band – ‘Clash the Truth’ was put together after the line-up that toured for the album ‘Beach Fossils’ had all but dissolved, and then Hurricane Sandy destroyed Civil Defense, the studio they had been working in. In spite of these setbacks, ‘Clash the Truth’ received positive reviews and reached number 40 on the Independent Record Chart.

Beach Fossils are known for their animated, passionate performances and have toured with their friends and label-mates DIIV and Heavenly Beat, as well having played with indie favorites Real Estate and Mac Demarco, among others.

Live reviews

Great band great venue.
Glad l made it. Not a huge catalogue yet but pure energy.
Reminds me of the Fall Delta 5 but the observed lyrical nuances are something else. How we live today.

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hodges-music

Blonde Redhead have been going for 21 years. That’s pretty remarkable if you ask me. There’s definitely a strain in their music that harks back to the days of Sonic Youth and No Wave, although by now they certainly have their own sound, call it Alt Rock, Dream Pop, Nu-Gaze… Onstage at The Pageant they seemed a bit distant or detached. I’m told that they certainly have changed their stage presence since earlier days, but there’s still not a lot of interaction on their behalf with the audience. Not that it bothers me, their music is interesting and captivating enough without resorting to any stage antics. They’re a seasoned group, by all means, but it’s still great to hear a band sound so tight together - brothers Simone and Amadeo Pace, who are on drum/vocal and guitar duties respectively, lay down some pumping, syncopated beats, over which Kazu Makino’s ethereal voice drifts. Great sound too. Throughout the evening they play songs from their extensive back catalogue, but it’s perhaps the songs from ’23’ that gather the most enthusiastic crowd response. All the same, Blonde Redhead are totally adored by the crowd, who cheer when Kazu Mikano goes to the mic and says, in a slightly awkward way, “I feel… at home?”. There’s a lot of energy and passion in their music, along with the dream-like quality that pervades nearly all their songs, but more than anything else there’s an overarching feeling of mellowness, which is delightful.

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philsomervell

If you’re not familiar with Brooklyn record label Captured Tracks, here’s a couple of quick facts about them; first of all, there’s a certain inventiveness with guitar tones that has effectively become their calling card these past few years - there’s some hugely diverse bands forming their roster, but that imaginative approach to guitar playing is the one thing that seems to unite them. The second thing I’d say about them is that, if you look at their release history, they clearly have a very sensible policy in place; they don’t sign bands that are anything less than excellent. That’d explain, then, why they’ve been home to Brooklyn four-piece Beach Fossils for quite some time now; the band made a lo-fi indie pop sound their trademark on early releases, and perfected it on their excellent 2011 EP What a Pleasure, which also introduced surf pop influences. On their second full-length, though - last year’s Clash the Truth - they aimed for a grittier, noisier sound, one that was a little darker than their previously sunny outlook, and their fast and furious live shows began to reflect that; they played a number of incendiary dates across the UK in May of 2013, and aren’t to be missed when they return with new material.

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