Nana Grizol Plays Basement Show in Bloomington
As the sun went down last Saturday night, a crowded, dusty basement on the west side of Bloomington played host to three tastefully jarring bands.
Local three-piece Pink Houses opened the show, fronted by Defiance Ohio’s upright bassist and vocalist Ryan Woods, who also founded Bloomington’s volunteer-run art and record shop Sweet Hickory. For a fairly upstart band, Pink Houses has it together. Their sound mixes fast, steady drums and discordant vocals with grungy guitar riffs, creating an old-school punk sound with biting lyrical sensibility.
Hitting on a more alternative sound, Bloomington’s Landlord played second. Landlord consists of Chris Mott and Matte Cathcart, members of The Door-Keys, and Will Staler, who plays drums and harmonica for Defiance Ohio. Landlord rages with the fortitude of a punk band, but sounds more like Midwest rock-n-roll with a sprinkling of pop punk vocals and power chords. Pop sensibility and dark, heady riffage make this band worth watching.
To complete the trifecta of bands who share members with Defiance Ohio, Theo Hilton (drummer for Defiance Ohio) was an exuberantfront man in Nana Grizol.
Matte Cathcart, drummer for the Door-Keys and Landlord, rearranged his drums and played his second set of the night in Nana Grizol.
Laura Carter also played along with Cathcart on another set of drums in some songs. She and Robbie Cucciaro, both former members of Neutral Milk Hotel, accounted for the eclectic array of brass and winds instruments that give nana Grizol its jazzy, DIY sound. The energetic, heartfelt lyrics that pour from Hilton’s throat are the crux of every song on their last album, “Love It Love It”, released on Orange Twin.
Bloomington was the band’s third stop on their six-day tour. They played the previous day at Idapalooza in Dowelltown, TN. They will be making pit stops in Chicago, Detroit, and Lexington before ending up back at home in Athens, GA, where the band then plans to begin recording a new album. The album is not yet titled but Nana Grizol’s songsmith Hilton said, “It’s called – ‘we’re really excited about making it’.”
