THE MEANDERWALKER

Friday night, we went to the Local506 in Chapel Hill to see Matthew Dear’s Big Hands and Mobius Band, and a local band from Chapel Hill called Opening Flower Happy Bird.

If you don’t know much about Matthew Dear, you should at least know this: He is a DJ. Around 2003, he started receiving a lot of attention for his techno club hits, remixes, and minimal tracks created under his own name, as well as pseudonyms like Audion, False, and Jabberjaw.

In other words, you are more likely to see him slumped over a laptop at 3am in a poorly lit Detroit warehouse than onstage at a rock club in a small town with a guitar slung around his neck, belting into a microphone with maracas in hand, accompanied by other band members.

While Matthew Dear doesn’t attempt anything avant garde with this album, he recreates experimental pop music with his own style. Something like a darker Postal Service with haunting, yet upbeat, lead vocals reminiscent Jim Morrison and a touch of David Bowie, with a Wayne Newton flair (which could be attributed to his snappy vest outfit that night). Then add in some laptop-generated beats and a few folkish ballads, and there you have it.

One of the things I couldn’t stop thinking about while watching Big Hands, though, was how he must have felt about the rockshow setting — people standing there, looking at him, foot-tapping, crossed arms — and how awkward and strange it must feel for someone who is used to DJing minimal beats in dark clubs with people dancing and cheering. In an interview with Blender, he actually talks about that transition and how it feels for someone so used to a club scene:

When you DJ in a dark club, the people in the audience just want to listen and dance. But when you have a guy onstage with a microphone, he immediately becomes somebody to stare at. It’s more of a visual show, and chances are people won’t dance as much. In techno, if something happens in the middle of a song, people applaud and cheer, whereas when I do more of a rock show, it’s different because people just sit there with their arms crossed and stare at you. That’s not a sign that they don’t like it, because at the end of the song they’ll clap, but it kind of changes the whole system I’m used to. It definitely took some adapting for me, but it’s been fun trying to figure out what works.

It’s this kind of keen awareness and understanding of the relationship between music and setting — that I believe many experimental musicians might fail to realize — that sets Matthew Dear apart from other musicians like him. Differences like that could make other musicians think they are failing, and ultimately get stuck in what they feel familiar with. But Matthew Dear acknowledges the difference and learns how to tailor his performance to it. And unlike, oh, say RJD2, he seems to genuinely enjoy this diversion, is proud of what he’s doing, and it actually means something to him.

If you’re interested, Cool Hunting and Slices both have cool video interviews with Matthew Dear in which he talks about everything from growing up in Texas, to the differences between each of his pseudonyms, to all the influences he uses in his music.

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Mobius Band. I’ve always liked them, but seeing them live has propelled them into my current top ten bands. And other than that, you should just go see them if you can. The vocals are beautiful, the synth beats are really catchy, and they genuinely have fun even if there are 60 people in the house (which there were on Friday).

They did, surprisingly, attract a handful of college bro-dudes that I wasn’t expecting, but I suppose that proves what a good band they are that they can even penetrate that flip-flop-clad, DMB-loving market a little bit.

And the drummer has a really silly mustache right now.

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And the opening band from Chapel Hill, Opening Flower Happy Bird, fit really nicely into the show. What they lacked in experience, they more than made up for with enthusiasm, energy, and fun, dancey beats. Like the two touring bands, they combined synth beats with live percussion, guitar riffs, and vocals with an air of Clash-era Joe Strummer’s youth and dissonance. And while there are only two members of the band, they generate songs with multiple layers and an impressively full, complex sound.

Unfortunately, their drum pedal broke and they had to quit early:

Very sad.