Scene and Heard

Underwater Peoples Showcase at Market Hotel

Photos by Karen Aragon » A few months ago, Underwater Peoples put out a surprisingly deep compilation of largely unknown bands a lot of people really loved, and they threw together a huge lineup at Market Hotel last week that a lot of people from New Jersey went to.

Text by Impose Automaton
Posted on August 27, 2009

Jokes aside, there were equal-parts curious folks from just down Bushwick Ave or Broadway dropping by to see what the fuss was about with this Julian Lynch guy or maybe to catch another Real Estate show (just can't get enough can you?), but the bands and their fans brought cargo shorts to a place they perhaps had never been before.

Good luck keeping tabs on all that transpired. Between Lynch and Real Estate there was Fluffy Lumbers, Andrew Cedermark, Alex Bleeker and the Freaks, Family Portrait, Pill Wonder, and Air Waves, and that was just the second half of the show. Standouts remained Pill Wonder (best track on the first UWP compilation) and Air Waves (appearing on their next comp), and while most of the bands we caught displayed solid performance chops, Underwater Peoples has done something slightly novel here by pulling baby bands out of their gestation periods in suburban basements and bedrooms and forcing them straight on stage. One band admitted mid-set that they were playing their second show and we got the sense they weren't alone.

There remained a maddening gulf between some of these band's recorded material on the compilation and their jammier, straight-laced interpretations on stage. It's like our Garage Band generation has figured out how to make sumptuous oddball recordings for songs that are actually pretty square. That said, there's nothing wrong with a good song, if you got a few, and the night closed out with two full sets of them in Real Estate and Air Waves.

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hey Karen, I too attended the show and I just wanted to fill in one gap that bothered me... the band that proclaimed it was 'their second time performing together' was Andrew Cedermark, formerly of Titus Andronicus. He meant very literally, this was the second time he pulled together that specific crew to back him. I wouldn't consider that a "baby band." On your personal blog, you admit to missing most of the acts. so when you say "and we got the feeling they weren't alone." It begs the question, what other bands did you even see?

— walter on August 31, 2009

camouflage cargo shorts make you play drums better

— madfarm on August 28, 2009

you weren't exaggerating about the cargo shorts.

— blake on August 27, 2009

effing shoulda been on this show, i heard their drummer always wears cargo pants

— Always Right on August 27, 2009

i can confirm thusly, always right...

— jenz on August 27, 2009