KILLER MOON
PIT ER PAT
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It’s always been tough to pin down exactly what it is Pit Er Pat are trying to be. An avant-garde pop group? Purveyors of bizarre ersatz reggae? An art-damaged jam band? Not even “all of the above” seems like an adequate answer. Bassist Rob Doran left the band after 2008’s High Time, and Fay Davis-Jeffers and Butchy Fuego, who now split their time between Chicago and LA, decided to proceed as a duo—instead of recruiting another member, they’ve incorporated a sampler. Their passion for their new toy shines through on The Flexible Entertainer: most of the songs ride on percussion loops that reference hip-hop and dance music, albeit crowded with polyrhythms and tweaked with odd skips and fills; and synth samples constantly flicker around their edges. Though samplers are popularly believed to produce rigidly robotic music, Pit Er Pat demonstrate that the Akai MPC can be a part of spontaneous-sounding songs. The new album, “mostly recorded live” according to Thrill Jockey, replicates the band’s recent performance style, where human musicians playing keyboards, guitar, and drums come together with multiple loops (a stuttering snare, a trotting conga, a snatch of highlife guitar) to create heady grooves that can satisfy artsy kids and Phish fans alike.
Drumming for Pistols
(mix tape)
If you could strip away the Arcade Fire’s taste for grandeur and the awe they seem to feel toward their own music but maintain their perfectly cluttered arrangements and sense of camaraderie, you’d end up with something considerably improved—something that might sound a lot like We Will Eat Rats to Survive. A quartet of punks with feelings of emotion, they build rickety, awkwardly beautiful piles of guitar, glockenspiel, ukulele, and whatever else they can get their hands on. “Let’s Take Pictures of Us Dancing on Their Graves” gets a slightly Balkan feel from accordion, cello, and crashing cymbals, but at its core it’s a rock song, its brisk tempo and start-stop structure reminiscent of ramshackle DIY folk punks like This Bike Is a Pipe Bomb. For most of the album’s 25 minutes We Will Eat Rats to Survive indulge in the rowdy, rousing sentimentality of a bunch of old friends working a nice beer buzz, but they take a break to brood on “Blanket and Bluelight,” where they get about as sweeping and majestic as they ever do. Even that still feels as humble and unpretentious as the CD’s hand-sewn canvas sleeve.
Sat 2/6, 10 PM, Cobra Lounge, 235 N. Ashland, 312-226-6300.
Puerto Muerto Mon 2/22, 9:30 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, 773-276-3600.
Hustle Simmons, Dott Brooks, Dillaman, Dom Kennedy, Carter, Curtains, Ra the MC, Big Homie Doe, Fly.Union, BBU, Rockie Fresh, Keyel & J-Clark
Thu 2/11, 9 PM, Wild Hare, 3530 N. Clark, 773-327-0868, $10.
