That Was The Show That Was: Kestrels with Adult Dude, Fake Boys, SoftPyramids | TT The Bear's Place | 16 July

[PHOTOS: Dylan Stein] The notion of influence is particularly relevant when engaging with the music of Halifax-based shoegazers Kestrels. The act traffics in bountiful Creation Records-inspired swirling guitars, but Kestrels' brand of navel-gazery scans as far more self-realized than that of your average hip millennial nostalgists. Its songcraft and attention to detail pushes the Canadians' music beyond the realm of mere skillful homage; the songs buried underneath all the distortion and digital delay boast serious hooks, as their stripped-down, immediate live performance made plain when we saw the band last week. As fronter and guitarist Chad Peck puts it, these dudes live in the middle of the Canadian woods, not exactly a hotbed for progressive art, and yet the trio's approach to noise-pop -- and Mr. Peck's collection of Jazzmaster guitars -- speaks to a distinctive devotion to genre. We are fans of their most recent EP The Moon Is Shining Our Way, and were eager to see how the threesome reconstructed their wall-of-sound live when the act performed at TT The Bear's Place Wednesday.

Slotted third on the bill, Kestrels took to the TT's stage to a regrettable lack of fanfare. A sizeable crowd amassed front-of-house for Brooklyn-based fuzzstompers Adult Dude's preceding set, but significantly fewer stuck around for their Canadian tourmates. Poor decision-making, Boston, because Kestrels delivered a masterful set on the historic stage (one they expressed gratitude to be able to play upon). Opening with the title track of the aforementioned EP, the band punctuated its concise set with laudable instrumental interplay. While their music certainly favors texture over technicality, both Peck brothers (Devin handles bass duties for Kestrels) impressed in their own right, with Chad in particular laying down some impressive soloing amid stacked layers of squalling guitar. Drummer Paul Brown was no slouch either, applying thick Bonham-weight beats to a slow-churning rendition of Shining closer "The Double." Elsewhere, the band proferred some unreleased material, which evidenced more pronounced rhythmic variation without forsaking the thick guitars that characterize Kestrels' catalog to date. The earworm chorus of set closer "Eternal and Debased" days later continues to perambulate in our consciousness, rattling around along to the incessant ringing in our ears.

Local jangle-pop standouts Soft Pyramids, who we regrettably haven't heard from of late, opened with a pleasant set, while Lowell punks The Fake Boys batted cleanup. You can grab The Moon Is Shining Our Way on a 12" circular disc along with the accompanying digital files from Sonic Unyon right here. Care to try before you buy? Stream the entire EP via the embed below. -- Dillon Riley UNPUBLISH

Kestrels: Bandcamp | Facebook | Interzizzles



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New Highway Hymnal, Speedy Ortiz, Kestrels, Soccer Mom | Radio | 8 March
Today's Hotness: White Laces, Soccer Mom, Airiel, Kestrels

New Highway Hymnal, Speedy Ortiz, Kestrels, Soccer Mom | Radio | 8 March

Allston Pudding has partnered with Kevin Hoskins' Rogue booking concern to make a strong move into the 02143 Friday night via a dome-denting bill at Radio in Union Square top-lined by Boston psych-punk luminaries The New Highway Hymnal. The evening commences with a performance by Soccer Mom, an act for which Clicky Clicky readers need no introduction. Assuming the building remains habitable after that opening set, Canadian indie-punk trio Kestrels -- the pride of Halifax, Nova Scotia -- will perform should-be-hits from its tremendous 2012 long-player A Ghost History (Sonic Unyon). Although we'd be happy if they just played "Brindle," a mid-album cut from that sophomore collection, over and over and over. As it turns out, Friday night is not only the first date of New Highway Hymnal's tour, but also Kestrels' own early spring perambulation. Indeed, the Canadians play with Soccer Mom once again in New York on Sunday, and on Tuesday night with Clicky Clicky faves Golden Gurls in Baltimore, before drawing a bead on Austin and the annual SXSW music, tech and blah blah blah confab.

Rounding out Friday's bill is Speedy Ortiz, the rapidly rising and itinerant quartet who spend so much time in Boston-area clubs it is almost ridiculous that they are based out of Northampton. Almost. As it happens, Speedy Ortiz's show is the first of seven it will perform this month, and next month the quartet heads off to MacRock in Harrisonburg, VA, a show that is but one of about a dozen contemplated April live dates -- and then hopefully the band will get around to releasing its hotly anticipated debut long-player. Based on all this touring it would seem the indie rock business is booming, and of course we couldn't be more pleased. The Hymnal are coming off their selection earlier this week for the annual Rock 'n' Roll Rumble, a decades-old battle of the bands dealy here in Boston, and earlier tonight the trio recorded a live radio session for WMBR's legendary Pipeline! radio program. We know: all of the above was a lot of information for you to deal with all at once. So here's the important takeaway: get your bad self to Radio Friday night. It's the right thing to do, and the right way to do it. Here's the Facebook event; now how about some songs?

Stream / download The New Highway Hymnal live on Pipeline! right here.

Today's Hotness: White Laces, Soccer Mom, Airiel, Kestrels

>> White Laces are set to re-emerge next month, when Speakertree Records -- best known for releasing the LP version of Cloud Nothings' Turning On -- will issue the Richmond, VA-based space-pop quartet's hotly anticipated full-length debut Moves Aug. 21. The first single from the long-player is the track "Crawl/Collapse," a video for which is forthcoming and an embed of which you can stream below. The song serves as a tidy mission statement for where White Laces is in 2012, pushing and pulling at the parameters of well-crafted guitar-pop numbers until they start to lose their shape and shimmer like a noble gas under extreme pressure. And so we hear "Crawl/Collapse" almost immediately begin to rise off a rigid foundation of choppy guitar chords, getting lighter and lighter and stretching further and further until it is released into an ascending shaft of light for the song's final two-thirds. There is as yet no pre-order information for Moves, but watch the Speakertree Records blog here for signs of movement. White Laces have kept very busy over the past year writing and putting out a startling number of releases. For those of you keeping score at home, there was a split single with Philadelphia's Arches on Worthless Junk; a split 10" with fellow Richmond scenemates Snowy Owls on Harding Street Assembly Labs; and a cassette release of a live set put out by Bad Grrrrl. It's kind of exhausting, right? Dudes should sleep more. But that said, we are extremely eager to get our mitts on Moves when it comes out next month.



>> Let's gaze into our crystal ball at what's happening a month from tomorrow. No, not that... not that... uhhhhhmmmm.... right, this: Boston noise-pop heroes Soccer Mom are on a titanic bill at PA's Lounge in Somerville, MA on Thursday, Aug. 16. Shoegaze vets Airiel are on the bill, making what we imagine is a fairly rare local appearance, and C86- and emo-inspired Canadians Kestrels perform as well. A fourth act is being arranged, but this evening already qualifies as remarkable. Airiel is touring in support of the reissue of its Kid Games EP which will be released by Shelflife July 31; the original pressing was released in May and, apparently, sold like hotcakes made by someone without the foresight to have made more hotcakes in the first place. Kid Games contains four tracks, including the shimmering dreamer "Flashlight Tag," which is embedded below, and which is wholly beautiful. It helps that fronter Jeremy Wrenn sounds a fair bit like Pet Shop Boys' Neil Tennant. But that's just one dimension of the Chicago-based quartet, whose music boasts brilliant energy and sublime melodies. You'll find "Flashlight Tag" encased in vibrant reverb, appointed by tasteful synths, dense guitars jangling under six inches of echo into infinity. It's a brilliant song, and you would be well advised to buy the entire EP right now, right here. But wait! There's more! Kestrels will also be supporting a new release, the full length A Ghost History, which was issued by Sonic Unyon June 5th. You already know this because you read Chromewaves like a good little indie rock girl or boy, right? Just in case, click this link and read Frank Chromewaves' assessment of the full-length. Hint: if it is as good as the promo track "Dumb Angel," which is embedded below and which sounds like it hails straight from Slumberland Records' first heyday, then the entire record is tremendous. Soccer Mom, for its part, has begun recording new material, but there have been no publicly stated release plans as of yet. The Boston foursome issued its crushing 10" EP You Are Not Going To Heaven last October.