The Loom/Arms
Pianos
1/6/09
Brooklyn’s DIY scene has had its year. Vivian Girls, Crystal Stilts, and High Places all saw loads of attention from the media in 2008. And while this scene will continue to thrive, the ever-present lack of attention span and need for something new by indie fans and bloggers means that this might not be the scene that gets all the attention in 2009.
Watching The Loom at Pianos on Tuesday night, I couldn’t help but think that maybe it’s finally time for the chamber pop scene to get its proper attention. Chamber pop scene? Well, yes. Over the last few years, there has been bunch of new bands with big lush sounds and poppy hooks. With the start of a Pianos residency, history suggests that The Loom have success on the horizon, as many popular local bands have done the same.
Along with The Loom, Frances, The Silent League, This is Ivy League, Hopewell, Harlem Shakes, La Strada, Ravens & Chimes and The Lisps are all making pop music with all the bells and whistles. A big year for this scene makes perfect sense, as a reaction to the overload of new music being produced that sounds like it’s been tape-recorded in a garbage can with Coby stereo.
These bands are not your average kids who just recently learned 3 chords after drunkenly deciding to start a band. Instead, they’re filled with multi-talented artists with formal training, who’ve studied Stravinsky and Charles Mingus just as much as they’ve listened to The Beatles and REM.
It may only take one of these bands for the scene to take off, and Tuesday night’s performance by The Loom proved that they’re just as likely to make it happen as Frances. The 6-piece played a sparkling set of beautifully composed songs that often utilized slide guitar, French horn and mandolin. Every instrument seems vital in the arrangements, each adding an extra element to the songs. Particularly, the best of the bunch were the songs that featured slide guitar.
Arms (above), the side project of Harlem Shakes guitarist Todd Goldstein, followed The Loom on Tuesday with a much more stripped down solo set. Equipped with only a guitar (or occasionally ukelele), Goldstein still managed to totally captivate the room with his intimate bedroom pop songs. After having recently hearing comparisons to Mark Kozelek, I finally caught some of those connections in his guitar arrangements, but Goldstein’s is more uplifting than Kozelek’s incredibly saddening tone.
The Loom continues their Pianos residency on January 13, and 27.
Arms plays A Benefit for NYC After-School Programs at The Belll House on Sunday January 18 with The Forms, Ford & Fitzroy, and Frances.
