the scowl

Venture to Bound Stems‘ Wikipedia entry, and you’ll find this relatively innocuous opening sentence: “Bound Stems is an indie rock band with math rock influences from Chicago, Illinois“. And that’s great and all, but I prefer to think of them as the band that caused the staff of BD Riley’s think that I was a drunken lunatic earlier this year. There are bands that provoke in me a visceral reaction in the live setting — The Wrens come to mind, as do Part Chimp — and, as of their set at Flameshovel’s SXSW showcase, Bound Stems have joined them. I’ve been thinking about exactly what makes this band so compelling for a while now; among other instances (plug!) I have a review of their new album The Family Afloat in the next issue of Death+Taxes. Following last night’s Mercury Lounge show, I daresay I get it. But it’s probably not going to make much sense.

Like peers The Narrator and Oxford Collapse, Bound Stems hang out on the noisier side of rock. Unlike those bands, though, there’s a much less overt pop sensibility at work; in fact, you could argue that a lot of the charm of their songs comes less from hooks and choruses and more from the stream-of-consciousness form that those songs take. A song might begin in one place and end somewhere radically different, and the interplay between vocalists BobbyGallivan and Janie Porche feels wholly spontaneous, less rooted in harmonies or melodies. Hearing one of their songs, especially live, gives one the feeling that that song is being composed on the spot, that each vocal line is arising out of conditions that exist in that specific moment, that each guitar part and time change is unique. (Molly has, I believe, made some Modest Mouse comparisons, and I’d think that said band’s earlier albums are arguably the best point of reference for this sense of controlled improvisation.)

All of which made for a fine set last night. While perhaps not the frenzied occasion that the BD Riley’s show was, the band’s energy and spontaneity was clearly on display. Most of the songs played came from The Family Afloat, with a few Appreciation Night standards in the setlist as well. That said, the set closed with a song that had filled the same role in Austin, introduced tonight as having the French Revolution as its subject. It ends withPorche agitatedly repeating the line “It’s revenge!” again and again over a musical cacophony; it was as gripping a way to end a set that compelling as anything one could imagine.