Battles - May 25th - TBMC

porn_star

Coming back on May 25th, in TBMC
bit of a misprint on the myspace page.

www.myspace.com/battlestheband

DadaKopf

Yeh, this is going to be amazing. t'll be, like, my 5th time seeing them! I'm mad dubious about TBMC, but Dinosaur Jr. sounded good on the night. At long as I'm up the front, it'll be cool. Again. HAHAHAHAHA. SOOOOO EXCITED!!!! Dunno about the haircut situation, though.

u:mack

U:MACK present

BATTLES

Friday 25 May
Temple Bar Music Centre

DOORS 8pm (early show)
TICKETS €18 from Road Records, City Discs, Sound Cellar and online at www.tickets.ie

BATTLES

The amazing Battles return to Dublin on may 25 in the temple bar music centre. Featuring ex members of Don Caballero, Helmet & Tomahawk, they played there debut Irish show to a sold out Whelans last july.

Battles' debut album MIRRORED will be released on 14th May, preceded by ATLAS the single released 2nd April.

Some bands need biographies written on them, some bands don't, yet someone still foolishly insists on writing one. Brooklyn's Battles fall squarely into the latter category. Nonetheless ...

Rising from the ether of a pop-scarred 2004, the enigmatic EP C announced Battles's arrival like a blinding succession of Morse Code strobes across an aphotic landscape. Even as a short-form debut it was clear that band members Ian Williams, John Stanier, Tyondai Braxton and Dave Konopka had established something utterly unique. Instead of the conventional band dynamic of individual players waiting for their turn to be showcased, the members of Battles are more analogous to a tangle of brain synapses all firing in time with each other.

Having served time in seminal acts Don Caballero, Helmet, Tomahawk, Lynx and The Mark of Cain amongst others, Battles draw from a sprawling range of styles and sounds and distill this erratic static into the tightest mind**** jams to be committed to playable format. Closely following EP C, Tras/Fantasy served as another definitive dose of labyrinthine, juggernaut rhythms and equilibrium-shifting textures that would safely place the band outside the orbit of any contemporaries.

On this first pair of EPs, Stanier's drumming is like pinpoint buckshot, Williams' guitar is sharpened schizophrenia, Braxton's sound manipulations are fragments focused and Konopka's guitar is malleable granite ... which is to say, all are nearly impossible to define yet none can be ignored. Late in 2004, Battles unleashed B EP and set their cryptic marks in stone. Centered by a set of extended musical movements, B EP was a fitting conclusion to the band's inception-as-trilogy.

In 2005 Battles set off across the globe on tour with Prefuse 73 and his crack live collective, combining driving atonal grooves and bombastic improvised fury that landed them in Japan opening for The Mars Volta and establishing their reputation as one of the most exciting live acts to crisscross the globe. The sheer musical breadth of their first three EPs and the lasting impact of their live shows have left fans and skeptics alike in perplexed anticipation of their debut full-length.

May 14th 2007 will see the release of MIRRORED, Battles first album proper and a significant measure of evolution from a band that has yet to cease moving. Still entirely intact are the unflinching experimentations and metallic angles of their young catalog, but a new melodic insight has manifested itself in the form of some of their most engaging tracks yet. "Tonto" opens with and off-kilter series of chimes and chugs which are welded to a forcibly shuffling drumbeat and a foreboding chant that gives way to a soaring midsection. First single "Atlas", out 2nd of April is a verifiable anthem, unrelenting and gigantic, but never surrendering the skewed aesthetic of the band's past.

Offering insight into Mirrored, the band said: "This record is a culmination of ideas that we were working with in the past and directions in music we were going individually. It's not so much a new direction as it is taking what we've done and going in four different directions with it. I think the record is more dynamic and shows the band maturation. Being that we're more comfortable as a band the record is more fun.

We were excited to test our hands at writing songs for the record still using frame work from the EP's. We wanted to use lyrical vocals this time around to see what it would be like to have that incorperation and to push ourselves to integrate new elements that would evolve the band".

With snaking, entrancing harmonies and thundering percussive force, Battles are a distorted reflection of an entire musical diaspora ... a view of innovation and tension reverberated as a flash, mirrored.

DadaKopf

The album is amazing.

yevveh

Anyone heading along? I've just got into them recently. Heard Atlas on Myspace ages ago, thought it was ****e, but revisited it recently after I heard B + T on last.fm radio and am not getting into them quite a bit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpGp-22t0lU // myspace.com/battlestheband

The album 'Mirrored' is out today I believe! They're playing TBMC, €19.50 on tickets.ie. Worth a look if you're a fan of Helmet, Tomahawk, Don Caballero or any post-rock/math-rock stuff (note: they don't exactly sound like Helmet or Tomahawk, but it's the same drummer).

Silverfish

Oh no no no.

I won't be here for that. Oh no.

feylya

Can't wait for this.

Eirebear

Can't make this one , seen them in Glasgow last year though and they quite literally rocked
John Stanier is quite possibly one of the best drummers on the planet, i so wish he was still in Helmet coz there new stuff is godawful!

DadaKopf

Eirebear wrote:

Can't make this one , seen them in Glasgow last year though and they quite literally rocked
John Stanier is quite possibly one of the best drummers on the planet, i so wish he was still in Helmet coz there new stuff is godawful!

Ha, I was at that gig, too! I was over to see Silver Jews and things just worked out so we were there for the Battles/Hebden-Reid/Sun Ra Arkestra night.

I'm totally stoked about this gig. By the end of summer, I'll have seen Battles 6 times!

I've been listening to the new album a lot over the last few months. It's sort of like all the EPs in one - some amaizing bits, some OK bits, some bits I just don't get, but they really have to be seen live. Up front and centre.

yevveh

I didn't realise the album had been leaked for at least the past 2 months until today.. oh well, I've decided to wait and buy it anyway

honru

Just got a ticket off tickets.ie. Nice that they don't pummel you with booking/transaction/bs fees.

Apperantly the gig is close to selling out on presales, so hurry!!

bringitdown

Should be excellent. The album is amazing, and with a sell out the place will be rocking....

yevveh

Hell yes, booked my tickets online! I really hope I get actual tickets as it really pisses me off when I go into the TBMC and just get that little slip of paper.. it doesn't look half as nice sticking that up on my wall

I'm really glad there's other promoters springing up. The last time I heard of Tickets.ie it was but a fledgling organisation. Where did it come from? Where will it go? Eitherway, Battles for €19.50 isn't a bad price.

bringitdown

Anyone know if there is support?

Or rough stage times...

Toast

Someone who may or may not want to be named was telling me last night that there was no support and it was an extended gig. Battles on at 8.30. Considering its the TBMC on a Friday there will be a strict curfew of 10.30.

MikeHoncho

This gig is going to be savage. That is all.

ogy

sold out, arse

DadaKopf

Mannnn... told you. Still available on www.tickets.ie. There should be some at the door, too, but GET THERE EARLY.

ogy

sound cellar sold out but city discs still have a few so im sorted!

DadaKopf

Yeah, I gathered that. 20 left. HURRY!

MikeHoncho

Word on the street is that it is sold out now!!!!

porn_star

waaaah
i was gonna get my ticket tomorrow

Mr Rivers

Some phone pics:

tonyhiggins

Heck of a phone you've got!

yevveh

quite!! bloody great gig wasn't it. very nice guys too hanging around after the show to talk to everybody.

MikeHoncho

As predicted this gig was savage. Was really cool the way they just came off stage with their cans of Guiness into the crowd and chatted with everyone. They are really great musicians. Playing the guitar and the keyboard at the same time is no easy feat and the drumming as expected is just out of this world. Atlas was definatly the highlight for me. Twas awesome.

Spicy Lauren

aye, twas brilliant!

Eirebear

Gutted...actually ended up being in Dublin at the weekend...but anable to get anywhere near the gig, oh how annoyed i was :mad: