Side projects of The Strokes are coming 2 a penny: in between the slow burning realisation of Albert Hammond Jr, and the recent album from bassist Nikolai Fraiture, kit playing Fabrizio Moretti held on to a rambling all night pipedream conversation with Ridrigo Amarante (singer with relaxed Brazilians Los Hermanos and player with the King of Present Day Hippiedom Devendra Banhart) and ran with it, once musical seeds were sown deeper with the support and inclusion of then friend / now girlfriend Binki Shapiro (daughter of 60s pop songstress Helen). This realisation of a notion, this birth from drunken perusals of what if, this genesis of a laid back coastline cocktail on a beach vintage vibed charm fuelled collective, deserves recognition beyond the inclusion of a Stroke. Any thought held to fruition, any belief taken to life, any positivity brought to the fore, raise a toast, kudos, hats of....
How can four guys from Portland (The City of Roses!) turn 60s breeze surf pop to the whitest Velvet Underground noise, while sweating out a country twang sheen? That’s a question only support band The Dead Trees can answer, over on these shores looking for their first UK clap on this night. They find it, with their influences (Pavement, Wilco) culminating in a furious mash up instrumental.
Reodrigo Amarante walks on alone, standing centre stage with a low light and plucks acoustically to hushed lullaby “Evaporar”, a Portuguese sung romanticism shining. Fabrizio and Binki wander on subsequently, the former swapping sticks for strings, handclaps and soothing backing vocals; the latter dreaming and cooing with percussive and keyboard duties. She takes lead on occasion, very sweet and subtly soulful. As a live outfit, they are supplemented on a bunch of songs by members of The Dead Trees (who incidentally are almost honorary Strokes Associates given their support dues paid to Albert Hammond Jr previously), to bolster that otherwise empty drum stool, and thicken with bass.
Personal history plays a part, a definite affinity with The Strokes emerging on a few songs (see the driving repetitive chord progressions of “No One’s Better Sake, although with vocals even more relaxed than Mr Casablancas, a sharp world percussive groove, calypso bangs and organ splashing against a Jamaican shore, there’s a tendency towards California sunshine than New York grey; or the closing “Brand New Start”, a swinging collective doo-wop crooner that belies the beach rather than the subway, but nevertheless evokes a NY insouciance.)
Binki shines on “Unattainable”, a fragile take in Mama Cass / Mo Tucker territories, and as she purrs about “this deep secret that hasn’t come out yet”, there are duelling harmonies from the boys, as they face each other to stepping stone guitars. As notes seemingly alternate from each, its like a mouse bouncing between elastic band trampolines.
“With Strangers” is almost a gypsy lament. Reodrigo taking a gentle melody to a prescient impact, and moving to “Keep Me in Mind” to croak out a rasping hawking that still brings with it sunshine through lo-fi slink, another Strokes cousin. He is naturally the frontman, taking lead duties for most of this current collection of tracks, although it’s Fabrizio who steps up to the mike between songs occasionally, smoothly attired and bearded, thanking the gathering for venturing out for them on such a cold miserable night.
A cover of her mother’s 1961 single “Walking Back to Happiness” demonstrates Binki’s Persson / Feist tones to perfection that takes you to the terrace of the cocktail lounge bar on Sunset Boulevard from whence they take their name. It bounces; it surfs; it plays like a slight breeze through your hair; it sounds perfectly suited to a Quentin Tarantino soundtrack. Talking of such, there’s a new song in the set already, sounding like it was recorded by The Doors for a Desperado style flick. Backed by demolishing kit beats and strips of psychedelic keys.
Fab lights up, an obliterated freedom of choice fighting glowing ember stick flirting with a futile piss in the ocean penalty, and welcomes The Dead Trees back for “Don’t Watch Me Dancing”. As Binki fulfils a lovelorn epistle, a finger picked tribute to campfire peculiarities ambiently builds to instrumental echoes and spirited chanting, continued into the blissful verve and swoon of hippyish closer “Brand New Start”.
Muita alegria!