BLANK DOGS: ON TWO SIDES (TROUBLEMAN UNLIMITED/FUCK IT TAPES, 2008), THE FIELDS (WOODSIST, 2008)

On Saturday night, I threw a couple of cans of Sparks in my purse, made sure I looked adequately homeless, and headed downtown to go to the WAVVES/WOODS/BLANK DOGS/NODZZZ show, organized by the infamous Todd P and taking place at the LESS ARTISTS MORE CONDOS loft space. My companion and I had a false start, what with the long-suffering doorman telling us, "It's sold out," but after we stood around on the sidewalk for about ten minutes, moodily smoking cigarettes, Todd P himself came out and asked us if we had been waiting to get in to the show upstairs. Our answer was "Yes," and his reply was, "Come up, come up!" I guess we looked cool enough.

The New York Times (!!!) has already written a lame/hilarious review of the show focusing on Wavves, and FADER has already written a brutal/sarcastic review of the NYT review here, so I'm going to skip Wavves and instead focus on the important thing, and that important thing is BLANK DOGS.

I was standing in the back behind some extraordinarily tall guys, which I usually do not mind at all, but I craned my neck a bit to get a few glimpses of the band, and I'm glad I did: the air in the space was sticky-hot and close, but the frontman was almost completely covered. He had a black hoodie on, and you better believe the hood was up over his head. My companion filled me in: Blank Dogs is actually just frontman Mike Sniper making music in his bedroom and employing a band in order to recreate this music live. He is apparently terrified of letting people see him: one of the covers of his releases features him completely swathed in bandages, another under a sheet. Okay, Mike Sniper, I'm intrigued.

My personal predilection for cripplingly shy, (probable) never-nudes aside, Blank Dogs sounded great. The negative things people seem to be saying about them/him around the internet are pluses for me: melodies are buried under tons of distortion, lyrics are nonsensical, it's pretty serious, it sounds like the Cure sometimes, Mike Sniper is scary, etc. Sometimes it is abrasive, sometimes it is catchy as hell, sometimes it is really fucking weird, more often than not, it is all of the above. I cannot stop listening to it. "Maybe (it's because) we are pussies?" FADER said, in response to not "getting" Blank Dogs. Sorry FADER, but I think you might be right.

To download (via MediaFire):

On Two Sides (2008)
The Fields (2008)