By Jen Snyder
Man, San Francisco, you are a very musically incestuous city.
On Friday, Oct. 10, I traveled to Chinatown’s Li Po Lounge for a show. I really appreciate any reason that sends me to Chinatown, be it a mission as a tour guide for house guests or a dire need for new China Flats, but this was a particularly promising trip. Li Po Lounge is a totally legitimate dive bar, plus it has one of those excellent creepy basement show rooms that you usually only can find in Oakland. The sound isn’t super-great, but the lighting (there basically is no “lighting”) and the mood is perfect. To top it off, Will Ivy of Bridez was performing his solo material.
I knew it was going to be good: I’d already listened to a few of Will Ivy’s lo-fi tracks on MySpace and totally dug them, particularly the song "Scrap Plastic," but my hunch was based slightly more on the fact that most good bands have members with excellent side projects. I've always been a fan of songwriters and the diary-style lyrics and the mood that's created when you’re writing things alone in your room.
Luckily, Ivy came with some pretty good ammo. His backing lineup of musicians is always subject to change, and this night's set included local greats like Christopher Owens of Girls, glockenspiel wonder Dinah Hanson-Carrillo, and Andrew Lux of Passionistas. It was kind of like a non-crappy, non-geriatric, San Francisco version of the Travelling Wilburys or something.
Originally Ivy thought he’d have to “dictate” to bandmates exactly what he wanted, but instead he let everyone take their own talent to the songs, making everything sound better and bigger. “Suddenly four friends who are amazing are giving me directions and suggestions,” he explained later.
The set was a varied mix that ranged from pop-influenced, sweet songs to lo-fi grunge. The music gave off the eclectic feeling of an old mix-tape, transmitting a full range of emotion and energy while simultaneously showcasing Ivy's many tastes.
After the show I asked him about his influences, and Ivy told me that knowing them wasn’t very productive. “With all the new gadgets and the Internet, it’s so easy to access every movement in music," he said. "So music is less an extension of your thoughts and more of a melting pot of what you listen to. It’s like wine snobbery. Notes of oak or notes of butter. Notes of some band. But it doesn’t mean anything.” True. Maybe there’s just good and bad now. Good pop, bad pop, punk or country. I’m filing Ivy under “good.”
The very idea Ivy would ever perform his songs live arrived by chance. He started writing songs as a form of personal expression, available online only. Busy with Bridez and without a proper band to perform with live, Ivy only planned to play if someone asked. Thank heavens to SF outfit Milk Shake for asking, because without them, we may never have gotten this ball rolling.
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