Ninja Academy are a two-piece from LA and man, damn, they really do have ninja-like skills on the drums and bass. Seriously. Check this video as proof:



I say that they have ninja skills, but I don't want to give you the impression that these guys are taking themselves too seriously as ninjas. Their stage names are "Indo-Ninja" and "Outdo-Ninja," for instance. And Indo-Ninja shouted something bizarre — like how you can hear him in that video yelling at someone he dubs "Mr. Lion-On-T-Shirt Man" — before most songs. One time he just mumbled "Gimme the fuckin' keys you fuckin' cocksucker" (twice, of course). Also, according to their website they have trademarked the phrase "Buy our shit!"

According to a friend I ran into at the show, Ninja Academy normally have a real ninja onstage with them doing martial arts with swords and nunchucks and stuff. I'm really pretty sorry I didn't get to see that. But Ninja Academy's musical kung fu chops were well worth the price of admission, all the same.

We Be The Echo’s musical kung fu was just as strong. I really enjoyed the hell out of their show, especially because of the fancy new "light show" they were testing out that night. In the interest of full disclosure, I’m pretty much a sucker for instrumental, “post-rock” music, as I suppose you could categorize We Be The Echo if you wanted to take the easy way out (which, yes, I just did). But how many bands have the chops to lay down some intriguingly transcendent instrumental rock while also being unafraid to bust out instrumental cover versions of Beyonce and Lady Gaga? Not many, I’m thinking.

Here’s a taste of We Be The Echo’s set:



I recorded the whole dang thing (by which I just mean We Be The Echo's set, sadly, not all of Ninja Academy's) for me and Olivia’s “Bay Area Live” show on BreakThruRadio airing today. Click that link and check it out!


[STREAM] We Be The Echo: Various Tracks
[STREAM] Ninja Academy: "Idiotech" (their version of Radiohead's "Idioteque")

MakeMe’s latest album, House of Brakes, deals in the futile art of trying to stop the unstoppable. Musically, however, it’s all about tension and release. Full of bracing melodies, jarring guitars, lush textures, frenzied beats and a sweet/punky playfulness, House of Brakes is as energizing as a cold shower and as satisfying as a hot bath.

Set into motion with a brash, panning guitar, it chugs right into Riot Grrrl-charged opener "Valley Fever,” an alternately discordant/melodic song that sets up the album’s cliff-like dynamic shifts. The urgent and angular “Black Ants” follows, a hook-filled, post-punk anthem that perfectly illustrates MakeMe’s ability to sound at once chaotic and measured. Its start/stop intro and erratic rhythms burst into scorching ephemeral squalls, haunted by Claire Haynie’s hovering keys. You can almost smell the rubber burning as things screech to a halt and the line “It all comes down to our rational selves” exposes the main source of tension inhabiting the album.

Comparable in energy, the cacophonic yet melodically rich “Matters” charges ahead with tremendous momentum, propelled by Wes Chase’s rapid-fire drumming. The album’s centerpiece, it pits guitarist Jeremy Sullivan against bassist Zola Goodrich, their well-matched vocals singing the same disheartened lines without hearing the other: “I am everything you’ve wanted / When I disappear, don’t look so disappointed.”

Perhaps the most complex song on the album, “ru486” is also the longest, clocking in at 6:48 minutes. Sharing its name with the prescription for the morning-after pill, its split-screen nature feels like two songs soldered into one. But it works. Keys and guitar trade off melody, and the conflicted chorus of “I shoulda but I didn’t want to / I shoulda but I just wanted to...” sees the rational and irrational selves meeting again for the ultimate tug-of-war.

Resolution is finally found in the gauzy layers of epilogue-like closer, “Youth Without Youth.” Taking a more ruminative turn, MakeMe slow down enough to realize: “We could never stop, we must always go.”

And so they go.

www.makememakeyou.com

[Katherine Hoffert]