R5 Productions and Dungen.
I have never been to CBGB’s, I never really had a reason to, in my mind the place was run as poorly as a popsicle stand in the sahara that has no freezers. I am a self proclaimed muscial nut, I buy lots of cds, I never stop listening, in college I would go to shows that were anywhere from 3 to 5 dollars at the door (they usually were terrible but anything was better than seeing that stupid cover band again). So it’s not that I’m against going to see the acts that they tell me they have (had) down at CBGB’s, you know the fact they “let anyone play”, because I really just enjoy seeing a person create something, looking into themselves and creating something. The problem was that when you get to a place where your nationally renowned you have to obtain some level of quality, CBGB’s didn’t, and is gone. It’s ok though, because the “spirit” involved still lives on, through R5 Productions. I truely believe if Sean Agnew of R5 had the oppurtunity to book shows for CBGB’s there would be no threat of shutting down, for heaven’s sake they turned a Church, an actual operating church in Philadelphia, into the city’s best rock venue, and they did it all by being both fair to it’s audience, and faithful to it’s artists, take that Clear Channel. R5 brings in small to mid level indie bands, occassionally scoring a big get, such as The Polyphonic Spree fresh after their appearance on an MTV Awards show, all the while staying true to the local scene by booking them as opening acts, and exposing them to a larger audience.
While browsing through R5’s upcoming shows I stumbled across Dungen, which is a band I read a lot about, but never really thought about giving them a chance. I read things like pshychrock or pshych pop, ala 60’s bands, I thought they would be just another Shins type band and didn’t really pay attention. Upon downloading “Panda” I became an instant fan, they are much more The Who than The Shins, which is good, I thought I would hear rolling sparse melodies, but what is happening here is DENSE sonic blasts of distorted guitars, basically the best way to explain the sonic landscape is tight. Remarkable for a band, but to find out its mostly the brain child of a single mutli-instrumentalist, Gustav Estjes, most of the other track names I can’t even pronounce, or didn’t really try to, everything is in Swedish, and everthing sounds good.