Like a lot of people, I first encountered Brooklyn rockers The Giraffes when they released their self-titled album in 2005 on Razor & Tie. To be honest, I didn’t think much of them at the time. Straightforward rock that was decent, good enough songwriting. I kept the album but never really went back to it, never kept up with the band. Out of the blue, half a decade later, the live album Show, released by Wisconsin’s Crustacean Records (celebrating their 15th year), drops on my doorstep and I’m wondering what the hell I’ve let slip my grasp all this time. Not only did Dave Catching – he wasn’t saying goodnight at the end of Queens of the Stone Age’s Songs for the Deaf, he was just saying — produce their last album, 2008’s Prime Motivator, with Joel Hamilton mixing, but more importantly, the songs on show are fucking killer, professional grade rock with attitude to spare. I feel a bit the fool.

The CD/DVD Show, with one disc adorably labeled “Earhole” and one labeled “Eyehole,” compiles 12 songs recorded at Union Pool in Brooklyn last year, playing tracks off the aforementioned Prime Motivator, the self-titled and beyond, igniting a raucous melee the likes of which few bands could. They kill, and as I listen/watch (let’s be honest, mostly listen), I can only wonder what Brooklyn does with this band. I mean, they’re actually rocking, and they’re actually good. In a borough whose music scene is populated by shitbird 20-year-old hipsters playing jagged math rock like they invented it, a band like The Giraffes must stand out like the most kickass herpes ever. On Show, the songwriting is tight, the performances are tight, the band is taking names and there’s no sense of self-conscious irony, no smugness to it. I watched the DVD and their pants aren’t even that tight! Hey guys, you might want to consider moving.

Vocalist Aaron Lazar seems to revel in the humor of “The Power of Fatherhood” as much as the band behind indulges in the quirkiness of the track, the vaguely Middle Eastern minor key influence in the guitar of Damien Paris, Andrew Totolos’ consistent snare, Jens T. Carstensen’s steady low end rounding out the proceedings. The thing about The Giraffes is that all of these dudes can seriously play. They laugh at themselves throughout, joke about how sloppy they are, and if that’s true, they’re sloppy in such a way as to balance out the energy in what they do. In truth, The Giraffes are a remarkably fused unit, with all four members making a lot of riff seem silly in comparison. I’m not usually much for live albums, but the recording on Show really does bring the best out of the band, and if you actually sit and watch the whole DVD and its charmingly-titled special features, there’s a good chance you’ll come out of it glad you did, which for a concert DVD is saying a lot.

At 56 minutes, you’re making an investment in a full concert by listening, so if you’re new to The Giraffes, you might have an easier time taking Show in halves so as to better appreciate each of the songs. I know I did. Should you choose that route, I’d recommend ending the first session with the slower, darker “Medicaid Benefit Appliqué” – conveniently located in the middle of the record – and starting again with the frantic “The Border.” That way, as you ride through the trio of tracks “The Border,” “The City” and “The Kids,” you do so with a fresh start for the second half of the set, so that as the surprisingly metallic groove of “Having Fun” comes on, you’re right there with its chorus repeating the line “Having fun with assholes,” enjoying a rare crack in Lazar’s voice.

But however you choose to tackle Show, all at once or not, consider it definitely recommended you do so. Now tasked with getting my hands on a copy of Prime Motivator as soon as possible, I consider that a mission happily undertaken. The unabashed, unashamed good time atmosphere of The Giraffes is both refreshing and well matched by their obvious talent and chemistry together, and I feel after listening to Show that if these guys were in Los Angeles and not Brooklyn they would have taken over the universe by now. Whatever the locale, The Giraffes shine with Show, and it’s a pleasure to have rediscovered their unique but familiar take on true heavy rock.

The Giraffes on a dead social network

Crustacean Records

Tags: Brooklyn, Crustacean, New York, The Giraffes

This entry was posted on Friday, July 23rd, 2010 at 11:43 am and is filed under Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.