Lavis Bloke

I get to see Lavis Blake tonight who are "taking Philly by storm." I will probably heckle something like "What the fucks is your name a reference to?"(edit: to a homeless woman that squatted in the abandoned house next door. I see a trend! Omar, Lavis Blake... someone needs to start a band about "Spare some change for cup of coffee" Liacouras guy.)

I was really bummed when they took their old songs off their site in favor of some more Philly math-lite. It seemed weirdly self-conscious of them. This is another case of me reading way too far into the activity of a local band but, come on, it was kind of drastic. And though the guitars got noodly and open tuned, I've determined this isn't a turn for the worse. LB's place, now, (no longer outliers which, even though I know very little about the band past their Myspace page, I will declare them,) is somewhere between Spraynard's posi-stoke and Algernon's elated emoturity.

Dag Nasty-informed lyrics and annunciation in "On The Road" (which for some reason, conjures images of Fozzybear:) "We live and learn respect." "We live in library stacks" which is even better. Share some motifs with the 'nard dogs: "As the sun goes down/across those hills." Kyle, the singer, is seriously great. His shuddering vocal on "Era of Hopeful Monsters" gives me the chills.