Fredrik - Meredith Bragg - Pree -- Black Cat - Feb 22 2010

Pree - A five piece with the usual instruments and one woman adding backup vocals, keys, glock, guitar and more. The music is delicate, but had a good head swaying loose rock feel on more than one occasion that was quite nice. The vocals were a bit soft and came close but didn't descend to the Joanna Newsome/Cocorosie style which is too frequent for me these days. All in all, a nice set by a band that is worth checking out. I enjoyed this and would like to see them again some day. Good luck to them on their SxSW visits soon.

Meredith Bragg - This is one man act--a guy with an acoustic guitar and voice. We've all seen it thousands of times, but he captured my attention instantly with an excellent first song. Very deep with his singing and delicate finger work. He then varied it a bit from a British psyche-folk feel to an Americana type song, to light rock and more. He's not Roy Harper, but any variety in this format when you can write a decent song is a good recipe for a good set. He had a percussionist come out briefly and a cellist for about half the set. That only enhanced things and brought about a well received ovation at the end. Next stop, a few sets at SxSW, as there are lots of bands I am seeing that are warming up for the 2010 version.

Fredrik - Two guys from Sweden are Fredrik. One plays guitar and sings lead. The other does stand-up drumming and electronics. The percussion was mostly maracas on floor toms with a large film reel set up as a cymbal (Reminds me of one of my rare recorded works where I had a home made drumkit with a cookie cover lid as a cymbal. You will not receive further information on this). I thought the sound was going to be very electronica, but it was more of a smooth guitar that went a bit into the shoegaze style, but also rocked lightly and had a good smooth psyche feel. They pretty much strived for an accessible pop rock sound and succeeded. The vocals were more Dead Can Dance light sort of non-word chants with some lyrics now and then. I was just listening to Neu! right before the show, so the percussion reminded me a bit of Neu!'s motortik, but instead of a quick highway beat, it was more of a slow canoe ride in icy waters. Good stuff. They have created their own space and I enjoyed being a part of it tonight.

Quote of the Night: "I just realized I played the one song with swearing on it" from Meredith Bragg after a song that he played that he had introed by introducing us to his pregnant wife and told us to watch our language as his baby was hearing everything.