12/17/2006

performance :: chavez

i have two strong memories of listening to chavez in high school and college. one, blasting ride the fader in my friend's car and driving down the broken arrow expressway in oklahoma; two, taking a road trip from los alamos to denver, and climbing through the taos mountains with the windows rolled down and gone glimmering blasting. i even had a cassette tape of matt sweeny's first band, skunk. the chainsaw mxr distortion guitars, james lo's pumping drumset. definitely music for people with an ear from drumming. chavez always represented to me raw rock, extremely under appreciated raw rock. they came out in the late nineties under matador records, and went also rather unnoticed by indie circles. i think i remember matt sweeny joking about how no one came to their shows in an interview once. then all of a sudden, chavez disapeared from the rosters. since then matt has been playing musical chairs, collaborating with bonnie prince billy on the superwolf album, and then a brief stint will billy corgan's failed zwan project.

:: listen to unreal is here/guard attacks

chavez returned to stage this saturday at the warsaw in brooklyn, in response to their reissued cd package, better days will haunt you by matador records. it was amazing to see a band i've been listening to for ten years, finally live. they rocked as hard as their recorded songs. the band chemistry on stage was great. charmingly alpha male, earnest, and comedic. not one thing in matt's voice has changed. the guitars still burned. i head banged and hopped with every tune. i only hope that they actually start writing songs together again. here's a small clip from what i recorded:



top pocket man




repeat the ending

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