About this Event
Keeping the garage in garage rock, Monica LaPlante's fuzzed riffs and frank lyricism lay bare while they grind into your psyche like a steel-toed boot into wet cement. -Minnesota Public Radio
Monica LaPlante is blue collar goth.
Ari Blaisdell (Lower Self, The Beat Offs) and Matt Jones (Male Gaze, Blasted Canyons, Castle Face Records) are System Exclusive: a Pasadena based two piece band bearing an armful of mini synths, making heart-throbbing capital P pop cut with more than a hint of post-punk. Blaisdell’s vocals hearken back to openhearted 80’s hitmakers unafraid to quaver in the name of love, and they’re buoyed by Jones’ laser-gridded synth concoctions and heavy hand on the ones and twos. Their forthcoming self-titled debut, System Exclusive, is coming out on Castle Face Records in February 2022, and was recorded in their home studio by Enrique Tena Padilla (Osees, Wand, Beach House) and features artwork by Miles Wintner (Mr. Elevator, LA Takedown, Devon Williams).
“Often when music is constructed with synths and other electronically generated sound makers, their level of exactitude and control is such that the vocalist will either wittingly or otherwise seek to emulate the relative artifice of the soundscape. This is often done to great effect, think Kraftwerk. But what if there was a unit whose music was synth-generated but the vocals were coming from a hot-blooded, singing-for-the-cheap-seats approach? If done well, it’s a case of two great tastes that taste great together, which brings me to System Exclusive.
Their multi genre/time period collision is like a car accident where all parties walk away not only unscathed but sure they had a great time, like two different recording sessions sharing the same space and making it work. Vocalist Ari Blaisdell (previously of Lower Self, The Beat Offs) co-exists excellently amidst the driving beats and synth waves and her guitar further helps to jailbreak the tunes from the often sterile entrapments that synths provide. Matt Jones (previously of Male Gaze, Blasted Canyons, and continuing Castle Face behind-the-scenesman)’s smart use of live drums bring great juxtaposition against the machines. Ari’s irony-free sincere delivery is the perfect closer on this very cool record, recorded ably by Enrique Tena Padilla (Osees, Wand, Beach House) in their backyard studio mid-pandemic and adorned with original artwork by Miles Wintner (L.A. Takedown, Mr. Elevator, Devon Williams). If you don’t get this slab of goodness, well, that act of non-compliance will confirm you as the pain-in-the-ass that many have described you to be in great detail during Zoom chats. How dare they! Prove them wrong! Reduce their snark to mere pseudo-intellectual piffle! Your lifeline arrives in March. Grab it.” - Henry Rollins
Partial Traces is an indie rock band from Minneapolis featuring members of The Soviettes, Banner Pilot, Off With Their Heads, The Dirty Hits, and more. Our debut album Glass Beach was released in 2017, followed by our 2nd album Low Definition in 2019. 2020 saw a series of three EPs, and our third album, Wild Surf/Quiet Blues, came out in 2021
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Palmer's Bar, 500 Cedar Avenue, Minneapolis, United States
USD 15.00