KGNU & Illegal Pete's Present
El Ten Eleven
Boyfrndz, Common Anomaly
Fri, October 12, 2012
Doors: 8:00 pm / Show: 9:00 pm
Hi-Dive$12.00 - $14.00
Off Sale
This event is 18 and over
http://www.hi-dive.com/event/154225/
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El Ten Eleven
“I really hope people don’t say that we are a math rock band!” doubleneck guitar/bass virtuoso Kristian Dunn exclaims while discussing his duo, El Ten Eleven’s, new album Transitions. Acoustic and electronic drummer Tim Fogarty adds, “We get labeled all kinds of things from post-rock to ambient to experimental... all of those make us cringe. So far my personal favorite label for the band has been 'Power Duo'... it's kind of ridiculous but I like it.”
Despite the absence of lyrics, their latest release, their fifth studio full-length album, may be the most personal to date. “Tim and I have been through a lot in the past couple of years,” Dunn reflects. “We’ve both been divorced, moved to different cities, Tim went through some really dark times, I got remarried and had a kid … for a while things were uncertain and we threw ourselves into the new record and it called for more than just short pop structures.”
Thus, the title track, “Transitions,” which clocks in at over ten minutes long, is a twisting journey of sublime unpredictability. But the band’s ability to write catchy, emotional hooks hasn’t been lost.
“The problem I have with most math rock bands or prog rock bands is that they are usually just showing off for other musicians. ‘Ooh! Look what I can do!’ We’re just not interested in that. We want girls to come to our shows, too!”
And they do. The band has been touring almost non-stop for the last eight years. 2012 has already seen them headline their own tours as well as play big festivals such as Capitol Hill Block Party, Camp Bisco, Osheaga and more.
Armed with merely a doubleneck bass/guitar, drums and a dizzying array of foot pedals, the band creates complex, deeply felt music, from scratch, onstage, with no help from laptops, click tracks or additional musicians. They utilize multiple looping pedals to create songs that sound as though they are being played by at least six people. Most first-timers to an El Ten Eleven show are stunned that the band is a duo.
Despite the absence of lyrics, their latest release, their fifth studio full-length album, may be the most personal to date. “Tim and I have been through a lot in the past couple of years,” Dunn reflects. “We’ve both been divorced, moved to different cities, Tim went through some really dark times, I got remarried and had a kid … for a while things were uncertain and we threw ourselves into the new record and it called for more than just short pop structures.”
Thus, the title track, “Transitions,” which clocks in at over ten minutes long, is a twisting journey of sublime unpredictability. But the band’s ability to write catchy, emotional hooks hasn’t been lost.
“The problem I have with most math rock bands or prog rock bands is that they are usually just showing off for other musicians. ‘Ooh! Look what I can do!’ We’re just not interested in that. We want girls to come to our shows, too!”
And they do. The band has been touring almost non-stop for the last eight years. 2012 has already seen them headline their own tours as well as play big festivals such as Capitol Hill Block Party, Camp Bisco, Osheaga and more.
Armed with merely a doubleneck bass/guitar, drums and a dizzying array of foot pedals, the band creates complex, deeply felt music, from scratch, onstage, with no help from laptops, click tracks or additional musicians. They utilize multiple looping pedals to create songs that sound as though they are being played by at least six people. Most first-timers to an El Ten Eleven show are stunned that the band is a duo.
Boyfrndz
"New Austin, Texas, band Boyfrndz, is very well-put-together, with a decidedly math-rock bent. (You don't pack a six-string bass for nothing, right?) But they're much more than that. They merge kinetic, head-exploding release with an airy sense of song. This melodic heavenliness makes their technicality an invigorating punch and not a dragging anchor of overreaching display that kills the humanity in their music. It's the kind of experimental rock with real beauty, the kind that doesn't lose sight of the emotionality of music. Boyfrndz is just one of those bands you don't want to label with technical mumbo-jumbo. One moment you're caught in the hook with eerie vocals, bobbing your head, and the next a complicated guitar riff slams and faster-than-light drums hit you in the back of the head. If music is a journey, Boyfrndz is weaving in and out the back roads on a schizophrenic highway."
Common Anomaly
These four friends have spent past three years developing the odd blend of dance-rock, alternative, and electronica that is Common Anomaly. While the group's numerous influences range all the way from The Mars Volta to Daft Punk, their sound ultimately falls somewhere among the likes of Foals, Minus The Bear, and The Faint. Their polished, high-energy live performances have earned them a growing loyal fanbase and a regular schedule of shows all over the Colorado Front Range, where they can frequently be seen with fellow up-and-comers The Photo Atlas, The Epilogues, and The Knew, as wells as opening for national acts such as Bear Hands, Biffy Clyro, and Royal Bangs.
