Fuck Buttons played (Le) Poisson Rouge

England's Fuck Buttons dropped by (Le) Poisson Rouge for a one-off performance during New York City's sprawling CMJ music marathon week to deliver an astounding set of their wildly experimental brand of electro-noise. Combining the enthralling elements of high intensity electronica with pulverizing blasts of dense textures washed in droning reverb sounds like a daunting task, but this duo makes it seem so effortless. For a band that makes such brutally loud and heavy music, it's remarkable how well they're able to translate their efforts live and make it appealing towards an audience that might not particularly enjoy music on such an extreme scale. Their recent release Soft Focus is perhaps some of their most accessible music to date, one friend put it as "M83 and Godspeed You! Black Emperor coming together to make a hardcore record" and that isn't too far off the mark. Still, while that might not sound like something enjoyable, there are certain aspects of the music that can be appealing to anyone with a taste for driving beats and pulsating rhythms. Fuck Buttons are far from the EDM scene, but you'd be hard pressed to find someone in the crowd who wasn't getting their groove on to the exceptionally sharp trance inducing tempos unleashed during their live set. It's rather hard to find a band that has the ability to make abrasive music sound so appealing (Deafheaven's recent metal masterpiece Sunbather and My Bloody Valentine are two others that come to mind, but are still so different) and yet Fuck Buttons are seamlessly able to bridge a gap that most others cannot come close to replicating. Hell, even their name is rather intimidating, but once the overall shock of their grating tendencies wears off, you're left with beautifully intricate sonic pleasures that leave one craving more. In-fact, after the house lights and music came on once the show seemed to have come to an end, fans weren't ready for the night to be over so the band came back for one more song. To no surprise, they totally obliterated it and before waving farewell to rapturous applause.

Fuck Buttons - "The Red Wing (Edit)"

Electro-noise duo Fuck Buttons, are set to release their first album since 2009's awesome Tarot Sport. The new record, Slow Focus, is out in July and today the band shared the first single, a radio edit version of "The Red Wing". Fans need not to worry about the term 'radio edit', this is classic Fuck Buttons!

Battles played Astoria

It had been a while since I had seen a show so I was particularly excited tonight when I went to see Battles. Mirrored was one of my favorite albums of last year so I couldn't wait to see these tracks live.
The opening acts were also something I was looking forward to seeing. British band Fuck Buttons opened the show and I must say these guys were as impressive as they could be considering the way in which these guys make music. There is only so much two guys mixing sonic sounds of swirling samples can accomplish in a live act, yet these guys were pretty good. They mixed stuff up and had some really killer beats that got the crowd moving. Overall I was left with the same feeling I get off their record. These guys build some killer sound, but it doesn't seem to go anyway. I keep waiting for it to peak and it never quite does. Still I was impressed with what I saw.
Originally Liars was supposed to take the second slot, but they had to back out in order to open for Radiohead. Instead they were replaced with Dirty Projectors, a band I knew nothing about. Even now after seeing them I'm not too sure what to think. I was not sure what I was supposed to walk away with afterwards. They had some great female harmonies, a eccentric drum with some really awesome beats, and a guitar player that jumped all over the stage. In the end I wasn't really sure what I was supposed to take away from the performance. It seemed as if too much was going on for me to really be able to take in the band as a whole.
When Battles took the stage I was in complete awe. Their recordings are such intricate works of art that I was unsure of how they would translate live, but I was anything but disappointed. They were one of the tightest bands I have ever seen and performed more like a well-oiled machine then a band. Just watching them was amazing let a lone the sounds they were producing. They started things off a little slowly, but eventually built things up and had the place rocking. From the time "Rainbow" came out of the speakers until the end the place didn't stop rocking.