Weekend Music Guide: saajtak

Is it too early in the week to already be looking forward to Friday?

I’ve got three shows to set your sights on, and we’re starting with saajtak:

1.) This Friday…
saajtak @ Encore Records
Break out of the ordinary with creative, modern avant garde jazz from saajtak. With arrangements that move, rush and crash in these cresting tides, the ensemble detach themselves from traditional structures and free themselves to explore every emotion in any winding intonation.

Their Spokes EP from last March is a dazzlingly stormy affair, with the elemental thrum of Alex Koi’s trilling/echoing vocals gusting gracefully over Jon Taylor’s measured spill of symbols and Ben Willis’ agile bass. While the rhythm section has moments that could be of the droney-doom-rock variety, Simon Alexander-Adams adds a splash of the celestial to the soundscape with those synths, adding an ambient electronica vibe. What awaits you at Encore is a refreshing reformation of expectations, when it comes to live music… All this transcendent jazz odysseys will be contained within the wax-stacked shells of the Encore Records store.
More info

2.) …also Friday…
Haunt-rock & eclectic folk at W. Cross Station
None of these bands are explicitly dark or gothic, but they each have an eclectic sound and lots of songs about fantastical/freaky-sounding or straight-up strange subject matter. While I mentioned saajtak’s compositional structures breaking you out of your comfort zones, THESE bands, Zombie Jesus & The Chocolate Sunshine Band, along with Jamie Norte, from Detroit, and Ypsi’s Bubak and Old Man, are more inclined towards surreal or dry-wit lyrics and vocal stylings.

Blends of zesty rock strains like indie-punk, post-grunge, and avant-folk… Find more info, here.

3.) and Saturday…
Power-Pop at Maidstone on Saturday.
The bands on this Saturday lineup leap for something more than just the catchy hooks of the Beatles, or the crunchy gusto of The Who, or even the fast-and-loose grooves of The Clash… Power pop’s charm is the unabashed embrace of earworm melodies, but adding the urgency and velocity of arena-rock-sized anthems. Punchy drums, lassoing hooks, surfy basslines, and heart-on-the-sleeve vocals.

Aim Lower, The Major Minor, Young Pioneer, Kayak Jones, Table Talk, and Ypsilanti’s own Foiled., will be at the Maidstone.
Click here for more info

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Jeff covers music for Current, posting weekly show previews and highlighting new bands in the area.

Jeff Milo
Jeff Milo
Jeff covers music for Current, posting weekly show previews and highlighting new bands in the area.

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