Rez and I headed into Death By Audio expecting a noisy raucous affair, but were treated to a sonic wonder to start the show in U.S. Girls. The one-woman show that is Meghan Remy — a Philly-based noise conductor drenched in fuzz and reverb a la Wavves or the Dum Dum Girls, but with vocals that will send shivers down your spine. Unlike the lazy drawl of many of the lo-fi deconstructionists, Meghan takes an almost R&B vibe on her vocals, and she belted out emphatically over the heavy beats and blips, including her cover of The Dave Clark Five’s “Bits And Pieces”. [Derek Evers]

[US Girls]

And then there’s Fiasco, the band I’ve seen countless times only to keep saying they get better with age. Which was ironic on this night as one of them actually became legal — guitarist Jonathan Edelstein celebrated his 18th birthday with the help of The Homosexuals. With two new songs to their repertoire and the usual array of blistering beats and tapping guitars, Fiasco remain one of my favorite bands to witness live. [Derek Evers]

[Fiasco]

I’d only heard NYC’s Sightings on record and never knew exactly how they concoct their weird, damaged soundscapes. I was pretty impressed to find out that they construct their sound with nothing more than a guitar, a bass, electro-acoustic drums and a bunch of effects pedals. The whole show was like one blistering assault of damaged noise, with guitarist/vocalist Mark Morgan laying down his baritone vocals over the grand cacophony. Their drummer is really sick/technical and all three members are interesting to watch but by the second half of the set, every song seemed to kick its feet into the next and the crowd grew a bit less enthusiastic, rather than the other way around. [Rez Avissar]

[Sightings]

AIDS Wolf tore the roof off the place. I was thinking of adjectives to use to describe the show… “frenzy”…”pandemonium”…”intense.” The band was tight, the singer Special Deluxe was extra vicious on the mic (and looked amazing in her purple sequin dress), and the whole place went fucking nuts. I haven’t danced this hard in a long time and in between paused to snap some glimpses into what basically was sweet, sweet mayhem. [Rez Avissar]

[AIDS Wolf]

[Death By Audio]

So last night I went to a show at Death by Audio that featured the likes of well known noisemakers AIDS Wolf, Fiasco and Sightings. Opening the show was Meghan Remy, a Philly-based noise concoctor who goes by the name of U.S. Girls. I’ve been catching word of her performances for the past few months, but after finally seeing her for myself, I suggest getting acquainted.

A one-woman show drenched in fuzz and reverb a la Wavves or the Dum Dum Girls, but with a much more cerebral approach (see: not as poppy) and vocals that will send shivers down your spine. Unlike the lazy drawl of many of the lo-fi deconstructionists, Meghan takes an almost R&B vibe on her vocals, belting out emphatically over the heavy beats and blips. She’s put out a handful of cassette and 7″ releases, so in an attempt to auralize her wide range, we’re going to offer up an original U.S. Girls track — “Found On The Ground” — and her cover of The Dave Clark Five’s “Bits And Pieces”.

U.S. Girls – “Bits And Pieces”

U.S. Girls – “Found On The Ground”

Bands like Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Beirut and Chairlift may be the names who will bring the most people out for the Sounds Like Brooklyn Festival, but two authentic Brooklyn bands played last night to much less fanfare. It’s rather strange seeing BIG A little a and Fiasco playing without hundreds of sweaty kids packed around them (usually in a warehouse setting), but such was the case last night at Southpaw when both of these bands graced the stage.

We’ve talked about them a lot in the past, so we’ll leave it to the photos. Although we would like to quote Julian from Fiasco when we say that BIG A little a might just be the best band in Brooklyn. We know that’s lofty praise, but it’s deserved. Too bad they don’t get the love of bands who transplant here, but hey — at least Steve Buscemi was there to watch them play (also a real Brooklynite).

[Fiasco]

[BIG A little a]

So on one of our regular searches around the world wide interweb looking for new music, we have a few regulars we like to scout from. Problem is, then you feel guilty taking the credit for it. Such is the case with the next teen sensation, Fungi Girls.

In case you missed the hint, we found these guys via Impose — who ironically is responsible for Brooklyn teen noisemakers Fiasco’s most recent record — because they are currently hosting a link to download Fungi Girls’ Psilo demo.

Maybe the fact that they are only 14 and 15 years old will help you want to dig out from under their lo-fi murky garage rock and the obvious Vivian Girls and Wavves comparisons. Or maybe it will make you realize how novice bands like those are at such “advanced” ages. Or because that at such a young age, Fungi Girls’ list of references ranging from Suicide and Pavement seem that much more impressive. Whatever the case, the beyond-their-years song writing of Fungi Girls has paid off in the way of two soon to be released split tapes. One with Natural Numbers on North Carolina’s Neon Aztec Records and one with Philadelphia’s Reading Rainbow on California’s Not Not Fun. Not bad for “three Texas teenagers who make noise pop.” The track below, “Crystal Roads”, is on their Psilo demo.

Fungi Girls – “Crystal Roads”