It is a good thing that I keep a close eye on the show schedule on the Spaceland website. The addition of Modwheelmood to the Sara Lov residency was a can't miss bill. I had heard many whisperings of Sara Lov's enchanting songs but was excited to see Modwheelmood, as they were outstanding when I caught them last year at the Henry Fonda when they opened for Ladytron.
Pink Mochi
My late arrival at Spaceland was costly. Pink Mochi was dispensing some floating keyboard lines that gave way to a ripping solo by their guitarist Michael. It turns out that I caught the last song by Pink Mochi.
Unfortunately, their home page is having some registration issues so it is difficult to dig up any more information than what is listed on their myspace page. As always, Pink Mochi gets extra points for having a theremin on stage.
Learning Music
Was it 15 or 18 ? It was hard to ascertain how many people were on stage for Learning Music. The voluminous amount of members on stage translated to a bevy of instruments. It would be easier to list all the instruments that weren't on stage. John Wood (Vocals/Banjo) is the mastermind behind this ambitious project. I can only imagine the Spaceland sound engineer must have been going crazy trying to mix all those instruments together.
Sara Lov
Sara Lov was nothing short of enchanting. Was I at a Mazzy Star concert? Sara Lov was one of half of the Devics with Dustin O'Halloran who has since enjoyed a burgeoning solo career. Sara Lov has been gaining her own traction with her cover of Arcade Fire's "My Body Is A Cage" featured as KCRW's top tune.
Spaceland had filled out nicely, as Sara continues her residency every Tuesday in January. Sara is gearing up for the release of her album on Nettwerk Records by unveiling a sampler EP entitled The Young Eyes, which also has a cool cover of Beck's "Timebomb". Sara sufficiently captivated the crowd with her deceptively simple tunes.
Modwheelmood
The midnight slot at Spaceland is a difficult proposition. Modwheelmood didn't have any problems keeping the room full. Alessandro Cortini (Vocals/Bass) gently tapped out the programmed sequence for "Problem Me" to kick off their set. Pearls To Pigs Vol 3 was released back in June 2008 and was one of my favorite EP releases of the year with its incorporation some snippets of Buchla synthesizer.
"Bellevue Ave." featured the swirling guitars of Pelle Hillstrom who had two Line 6 delay pedals and an Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man to help forge his tone. Jesper Kristensen (Drums) rounds out the trio. The driving bass line signaled the start of "Crumble" from Pearls To Pigs Vol 2. The ping-pong mechanical electronic drums of "Mhz" gave way to some propulsive drumming by Jesper with Pelle adding washes of guitars to the mix. The whole set went by in seconds as they closed with "Things Will Change".
I think Spaceland should book them for a residency judging from their performance and the amount of people who stayed late. For all you lucky Canadians, Alessandro will be heading out for a mini-tour of Canada for his other project Blindoldfreak. I will be checking Youtube for some of those videos.
