Pains of Being Pure at Heart; Cause Co-Motion! @ Mercury Lounge

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart; Cause Co-Motion!; The Depreciation Guild; ZaZa
@ Mercury Lounge
New York, NY - February 7, 2009

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart are a fast-rising distortion-pop band in the vein of the Jesus & Mary Chain, Magnetic Fields, and B-Major Raveonettes but with a clear devotion to putting the pop side of things before the distortion side. It makes for an affable, inviting sound and a feel-good atmosphere - which is important considering how ungodly crowded their shows are, and are certainly going to be.

Cause Co-Motion! is a vintage punk/new wave band. Forget "retro". They are vintage. There is no way to discern that they are not from the late 1970's except by their obvious youth in 2009. The way they pull it off certainly lets them fit onto this distortion bill. The fact that they use their powers for the forces of friendly boppin' about, and not for moshing, is something we should be thankful for. Despite the vintage, there is a definite sense of "now" going on here, which be could also be said of the Pains. The packed crowds consist of whomever, whatever you want to think of them as, but among the area bands getting hyped up the wazoo in the last year, these two certainly merit it.

The Depreciation Guild (great name) and ZaZa are pretty much identical psychedelic distortion bands except ZaZa has a girl, the Guild have a fourth dude, ZaZa stands in front of pieces of art, and the Guild play in front of a screensaver type display on a screen.