Ebony Bones, CMJ set at 205 Chrystie, NYC 10/22 Part 1 of 2
Last night at 205 Chrystie, just after 1 am, Nirvana’s cheerleaders got an update during Ebony Bones’s set, as one of the coolest singers and the two awesomest bandmate/back-up vocalists I’ve seen in a minute, went through alternately joyous and solemn dances in the spirit of “A small village in Africa”, per lead singer Ebony’s quip. And while their garb was tribal, they are far more steeped in subculture, namely that great tradition of conceptual British art-pop informed by a societal, political, and historical consciousness, expressed by the Bones crew to an at times harrowing and often rapturous and delirious pitch. During one moment the back-up singers vamped with a boppy, New Wave dolly coo, while asking a question pondered since time immemorial by thinkers like Morrissey, Eldridge Cleaver, et, al- “Why do we smile at the people that we hate?” As Ms. Bones’s alarmed and stern tones occasionally erupted to an at times righteously guttural wail, more vengeful than plaintive, and if at times indifferent to perfect pitch, then all the better for it, the entire unit, from the Pharaoh head-garbed, shirtless guitarist to the more trad-dressing keyboardist and drummer whose dark brooding fantastical notes and tom-tom heavy on-the-third new wave stomp-friendly arrangements kept shit at a very high place for the entire set. Coming to this show after having heard a lovely set dripping with soul courtesy of Stones Throw, followed by the screening of the must-see documentary on 50-year plus traveling bluesman Andre Williams, “Agile, Mobile, Hostile”, this set from Ebony Bones capped off a brilliant night. This is one of the best bands I’ve heard in a while. You could compare ‘em to Blood Brothers, or Lene Lovitch, or Rip Rig & Panic, or The Higsons, or APB, or The Selector, or countless other groups, but these cats aren’t mercenarily derivative; what sounds Ebony Bones do carry of the past are the stuff that’s best worth remembering. — Michael Vazquez
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