Also this issue: Junk Science -Paul Burress Get Your FREAKOUT! -Jeremy Smith Tour de Force -Brian White

May 8-14, 2003

list cap

Black Eyes

The core of dance music is percussion, but this is freakin’ ridiculous. Outdoing even Brooklyn’s revered Liars in the booty-moving post-punk realm, Washington D.C.’s Black Eyes gets heavy on the beats with not one but two drummers. The kits face one another and drummer A (Mike Kanin) stares fixedly at drummer B (Dan Caldas) to keep intricate time and not miss any cues. Adding yet more rhythm, the two are supplemented by Jacob Long, who works half of a drum kit and plays bass, and Daniel Martin McCormick, who pounds the other half of the kit in between bashing a poor guitar into oblivion. Oh, right, let’s not forget the other bass, the keyboards, saxophone, cryptically stirring lyrics by vocalist Hugh McElroy, etc. While Black Eyes’ self-titled Dischord Records debut is one of the most engaging albums of the year thus far, the production is sparse and downplays its complexity. (Damn you, Ian MacKaye, get out from behind the mixing boards and make with the next Fugazi album already!) Onstage, however, everything is there, most notably at the point where all four percussionists crescendo into a simultaneous rhythmic assault. Bring your earplugs, it’ll be damn loud.

Sat., May 10, 2:30 p.m., $7, all ages, with An Albatross and The Faux, First Unitarian Church, 22nd and Chestnut sts., 800-594-8499.

—John Vettese