After yesterday's somewhat heavy September 11th post, we're lightening it up quite a bit today with an ode to a local cult phenomenon in Los Angeles (scarcely) known as Meho Plaza. A.K.A., Casio keyboard, meet Mini-Moog synth. And make sweet sweet love.
Since their debut in 2003-04, this trio has been cranking out independent, synth-based punk-pop-experimental rock-new wave tunes through periodic live shows, a few self-released EPs, one full length LP, and an EP of remixes. They cut one video for MTV, 'I Sold My Organs,' back in 2008, and performed a handful of tunes live on Los Angeles' public radio station 88.9 KXLU's 'DemoListen' series in 2010. You can find a smattering of these performances on YouTube, in addition to the MTV video spot I've attached below.
Influences of Devo and Sonic Youth aside, they've been characterized by a host of amusing adjectives attempting to define their style and sound, including, but not limited to:
Angular
Anti-melodic and Melodic
Atonal
Anxious
Cerebral
Confrontational
Detached
Difficult
Eccentric
Enigmatic
Herky-Jerky
Hypnotic
Intense
Minimalist
Nocturnal
Quirky
Rollicking
Street-Smart
Stylish
Tense
Urgent
Warm and Fuzzy
And just who exactly leads this shit-storm of a band-branding brigade? Well, allmusic.com is certainly quite the guilty party, leading the pack with their laundry list of labels. But certainly they're not alone in the naming game. The music press (whatever modest Meho coverage there was out there) never shied away from the fray. Normally, I'd be averse to such list making, but I must admit, from what I know about the Plaza first hand, it's kinda spot-on!
Still, 'difficult' and 'confrontational' make me chuckle. I mean, are we talking about rock and roll animal street thugs here?!? And speaking of 'street,' 'street-smart,' 'rollicking,' and 'stylish' are so oxymoronic, anachronistic, or perhaps just plain moronic characterizations. Are we living in the age of West Side Story lingo? Stylish, rollicking, street-smart heavies? The 1950s, this is not.
Anywhoozers, I must confess that through direct experience, Meho Plaza is almost all of these things. At least, the Meho Plaza I experienced in the late Spring of 2007, when I stumbled into one of their shows at the legendary Spaceland in Silverlake, now less ceremoniously called The Satellite. My buds Matt and Baz and I had made another of our semi-regular pilgrimages to this dark, smoky live music den (yes they still had an enclosed smoking/billiards room in those not-so-long-ago days), populated with the usual cadre of shaggy hipsterdom and androgynously emo skinny-jeaners.
We had no idea who the opening acts, mid-act, or headliners were, and the whole experience was, as was typical of a pilgrimage to Spaceland, literally and figuratively hazy. Very much so.
As the evening slinked forward, the swirl of sweaty humanity coalesced around the stage/dancefloor area, eventually congealing into a headbobbing, undulating mass of groovers. The Plaza themselves melted right in, to the extent that there seemed little if any separation of stage and dancefloor. Aptly named singer/guitarist Mike Thrasher led the electrified charge through a blistering, frenetic set. I felt as if the mop-topped, bouncy synth player (who seemed to be playing a Mini-Moog) was going to bobble-head himself into a groove-induced aneurysm, and yes, I said HE, not she, because as cute as current Synth queen Jennifer Hwang is, I could have sworn the dood I saw laying down the synth blips, bloops, loops, and bassy, booming, quake-shaking, infectious riffs was, yes, a dood, not Ms. Hwang! (no dis, Jennifer!) And driving all this delicious mayhem off the space-cliff was none other than the manic maestro, drummer James Connelly.
The three of us agreed it was one of the best live shows we had seen in L,A., and the fact it was a happy accident of happenstance made it all the more wickedly enjoyable.
Not long after the show, I tracked down some free downloads the band was offering from an upcoming EP self-release, a lucky seven tracks to be exact. Some of them eventually ended up on Meho Plaza's official eponymous 2008 debut LP, although copious post-production seemed to render the sound a bit too slick, and in fact I could swear some of the tunes were also a bit too sped up on tempo for my liking. When I listen to these 7 songs, it takes me back to that show 6 years ago, and I still hear the raw, exhilarating energy of that show in the demo-esque tracks I hold in my digital possession.
So without further ado, it's about time you get to sample some of what I first stumbled upon in 2007, and that has stayed with me ever since. In Sound, and Vision, I present to you:
Meho Plazaaaaaaaaa!!!!
And here are digital links to my two favorite Meho Plaza tracks.
1. Sky Dome
2. George Washington
The wry, brilliant, paranoiac vibe of 'George Washington,' in lyrics and sound, always makes me smile broadly!
'One Person, These People, They Had the Place Surrounded.
One Person, These People, That Summer They Decided.
Let's.
Take.
Over!'
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