Bound to have a flashback from time to time.

Last week, I went to a Streetlight Manifesto show at Towson, MD's own Recher Theater. Barring the end of a set from Zox (a band I had up until that moment successfully avoided seein) who would benefit from a sense of direction, I was soon victim to a rush of happy memories.

I don't know about anyone who actually takes the time to read this blog, but I sure do enjoy dating myself when it comes to my past musical tastes and the great shifts in attention that accompany different times in my life. Freshman year in high school specifically. It was that fall that I was finally allowed to go to shows in the dingy clubroom at Pearl Street Nightclub, subjecting myself to hours of low ceilings and thick clouds of secondhand smoke. There, I learned that ska-punk was really as cool as my wasted time downloading Goldfinger and the Aquabats on Kazaa suggested. (At this time, my memory seems to gravitate towards a couple of Infamous Jake and the Pinstripe Mafia shows. Their EP is still available here, on their myspace.) So, there I remained until taken over by a fast-changing taste and the real emergence of blogs and torrents as effective ways to attain any and all music. What's really important here though, is that the hold of punk-ska only loosened its grip on my sense of fun.

It'd been too long since I was forced to push and shove with the rest of the crowd, to nearly fall only to be picked up by other sweaty fans, to duck with arms extended overhead in the hopes that the next adrenalin-crazed teenager would get tossed forward without kicking me in the back of the head. The best part of all this is that beyond IJATPM, Streetlight is probably the most energetic and best punk-ska band I've seen. (Finally, someone really gives the horns priority.)

So it only makes sense that a trip to Towson's public library to raid their racks of CDs yielded the borrowing of a Secret Machines album. (Don't worry, I'll explain.) A few summers ago, a few friends and I made out way to the Bank of American Pavilion in Boston to see Bloc Party. Blasting Silent Alarm down the highway, we had little concern for Secret Machines and their opening set. We had no idea in the world that the stage would first be graced by Mew, a band who I to date have no real knowledge of. Secret Machines however, have evaded me by happenstance, appearing in Turn it Up!'s new arrivals rack when I had my eye on other records and garnering headline space on Pitchfork when I wasn't in the mood to learn about a new band. I'm now on my fourth spin of Now Here is Nowhere.

It so often happens that we invest a little more time in music after the fact. Turns out this album puts me way behind, since it was released in May of 2004 and when I saw them they were touring in Ten Silver Drops. Even so, they've grabbed my attention for the time being (ADD-ridden as my mind is these days, this is pretty impressive for just one band).

So what grabs my attention. Secret Machines and Bloc Party were actually a great match (at least on record). While the energy of the Bloc was outstanding, much more so than Secret Machines, at the show, they share the same tight, big, heavy-guitar arrangements on record. I'm often drawn to a band that has an easy time making 5 pieces sound a lot more like 15, just based on how they stratify their sound. This is especially notable on the album's first track "First Wave Intact" which makes me think a lot about the epic-ness (sue me later) of Wilco's "Spiders (Kidsmoke)". Secret Machines also seem to have a sense of soft orchestral beauty (trust the synth strings on the second track) that Bloc Party is known for on some tracks like "Bluest Light". The presence of a female voice and a drummer who remains persistent but subtle help distinguish their sound. Overall, it's tough not to get excited that they'll be around this summer.

Now that I've lapsed into amateur discussion of arrangements and sounds, it's about time to call this entry to a close. Pictures from Streetlight to come later, as well as pics from Spoon (with The Walkmen and White Rabbits).