The ambient/drone/
psych/shoegaze/dreampop/minimalist/experimental/space-rock duo Windy
& Carl may garner comparisons to Brian Eno and M83, but they are
most like Houston natives and Kranky labelmates Charalambides: a
married couple that makes spacious, desolate, largely instrumental
music based on guitar processed heavily with reverb and delay. Of the
two groups, Windy & Carl’s music is purer and even more subdued,
and can be almost stoic in its unbending attention to an extended
drone. The 2008 release Songs for the Broken
Hearted, their fourth for Kranky, has some vocals, but is
mostly comprised of an imposing expanse of drone and murmur —
unforgiving, but nonetheless pretty as heck. The couple was most active
in the late 1990s; since 2001, they have reportedly put most of their
efforts into running Stormy Records in their hometown of Dearborn,
Michigan, and this is their first tour in quite some time. Local
quartet Golden Cities favors a loud, rock-oriented approach to
experimentation that draws on Mogwai and other post-rock bands; this
show kicks off their first tour, which will take them to the Atlantic
coast and the Midwest. The band’s self-titled debut came out last fall.
This article appears in May 28 – Jun 3, 2009.