Oh My Rockness

Brooklyn's Life Size Maps are a weird band whose sound goes all over the place. This is not meant to be disparaging. After all, this profile is for a section on the site called "Band We LIKE." No, Life Size Maps are eccentric and befuddling and meandering in the very best way.

Using an array of traditional and non-traditional instruments (a car's metal suspension coil... a Steinway with screws in its strings... or weirdest of all, a cello), this trio manages to create epic and euphoric noise rock that sounds like no other epic, euphoric band that has come before them. And since the history of music spans a few million years (hieroglyphics were simply Cavemen scratching rhythms on the walls, don’t you know), I’d say this is pretty darn impressive.

But if you had to do the band comparison thing, I'd say maybe No Age meets Melt-Banana meets... man, I don't even know. It's hard to describe Life Size Maps. But luckily, they're really easy to like. Go see them play and you'll see for yourself what I mean.

Speaking of shows, Life Size Maps have most recently played with other Rockness favorites like DIVE + The Babies + Alex Bleeker and The Freaks. But that's just most recently. These three play out a lot. And they're getting good because of it... really good.



Life Size Maps play Death by Audio, on Tuesday, February 28th.

Montreal's Pat Jordache is an enchantingly quirky guy with a strange booming baritone that makes ramshackle lo-fi noise pop with slightly goth-y undertones. Let's just say this outright: Pat Jordache's music is weird. Definitely. And his jams give the overall feeling of sounding just sort of... broken; and that's what makes them sound so right. This guy is clearly on his own path.

A frequent tUnE-yArDs collaborator and an ex- Islands man, Jordache uses his past skills to pull out lots of jerry-rigged sound tricks which help to create the most bizarre melodies you will ever find yourself singing in the shower. This shouldn't be so catchy, because it's pretty crazy, but catchy this is.

Jordache has mentioned Ariel Pink as an influence, so if you're familiar with the mighty Pink's work, you're going to be on the right track to like this. But to my ears, this definitely sounds like uncharted pop territory. It's one thing to listen to something so uniquely bizarre. It's another thing to listen to something so uniquely bizarre and then want to play it again...and again... and again.

Whatever Pat Jordache is doing, not too many people are going to come along and try to replicate it. But with jams as strangely satisfying as this, you can be sure as hell the kids are going to try.

Shogun shodown by patJORDACHE

Pat Jordache plays Glasslands (with Javelin!), on Friday, February 24th.

3/17 Obits @ Cake Shop
3/23 Keyboard Kid @ New Museum
3/28 DJ Shadow @ Irving Plaza
4/10 Kraftwerk @ MoMA (Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8)
4/11 White Rabbits @ Maxwell's
4/11 Kraftwerk @ MoMA (Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8)
4/12 Tanlines @ Bowery Ballroom
4/12 Kraftwerk @ MoMA (Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8)
4/12 Kraftwerk @ MoMA (Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8)
4/13 Kraftwerk @ MoMA (Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8)
4/14 Kraftwerk @ MoMA (Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8)
4/15 Kraftwerk @ MoMA (Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8)
4/16 Kraftwerk @ MoMA (Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8)
4/16 Mayer Hawthorne and the County, The Stepkids @ Webster Hall
4/17 Bad Brains @ Irving Plaza
4/17 Kraftwerk @ MoMA (Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8)
4/18 Bad Brains @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
5/03 Light Asylum @ (le) poisson rouge
5/04 The Cranberries @ Terminal 5
5/08 The Beach Boys @ Beacon Theater
5/09 The Beach Boys @ Beacon Theater
5/09 Horse Feathers @ Bowery Ballroom
5/16 Willie Nelson @ The Wellmont Theatre
5/17 Willie Nelson @ The Wellmont Theatre
AND MORE...