The B List: O'Death, Art Brut, Muscles and Soulwax

Venturing out to Studio B in toxic Brooklyn is, no matter which way you cut it, a schlep. Fortunately, I was able to maximize my travel and see two full shows there last night. On the early tip, it was O'death and Art Brut, followed by the Fixed curated Soulwax/Muscles jump off. Here's a quick and dirty run down of the night.

The first time I saw O'death, they impressed the shit out of me. One killer SXSW show later, I was sold on the band and made it a point to catch their very early set last night. The O'death live experience is halfway between a hootenanny and a punk show. Rusty Appalachian stomps collide with Pixies-esque moments of minor mayhem. It's a good fucking time. Watch for a new LP to drop later this spring on City Slang.

As for the Brut, they played it smart and didn't ham it up too much with the cheeky info-tainment. The focus of the show seemed to be on the newer, more melodic jams (coppable here) than the brainy showboating. A good move on the band's part. The new jams speak for themselves.

After a super swift change, it was time to check the man one man synth pop outfit Muscles. I dunno dudes, some peeps have been saying good things about him and I'm not totally mad at his single "Ice Cream", but yo, it sorta sounded like Jesus Jones, or some other fifth generation neo-rave pop band. If one of those Choose Life shirts could make a sound, it would sound a lot like Muscles. Not really my thing.

As for Soulwax, they were better, louder, tighter, looser and just insanely more into it than the night before. Danced my ass off the whole time.