Love is Chemicals, This Isn't It, Empty Rooms February 1, 2007

Love is Chemicals: official site | myspace

"Love is Chemicals have the quietly seismic, underground-darling routine down to a T." -- Flavorpill SF

“With its wicked smart instrumentation and tasteful melodies, ‘Claw Your Sweater’ is the delicious type of brainy bumblerock that indiebees will buzz about happily for hours.” -- Palebear.com

"A harmonious sound that envelopes you in sweet sugary pop bliss." -- Smother.net

This Isn't It: myspace

Influenced by the energy of 80's new wave, the darkness and drama of iconic bands such as the Damned, Bauhaus, and Birthday Party, This Isn't It combines richly- textured, intertwining guitar leads, careworn vocals, dramatic percussion, lilting piano, and tortured, synthesized symphonics to create love songs that eschew sentimentality for the starker terrain of waning affection. Comprised largely of veterans of Santa Cruz's early nineties music scene, the band draws on its members' own musical pasts - in particular, the modulated abandon of Bakamono and the free, organic tones of Thuja - to make music equal parts indie pop, dirge rock, and 80 new music scene.

When friends Eiso Kawamoto and Rob Reger, recent casualties of romance, sought refuge in Rob's basement with guitars and a keg-erator, moody melodies in odd timings resulted. Rob enlisted vocalist/lyricist Buffy Visick to help them form the queer guitar dirges into songs, and This Isn't It took shape. Rob discarded standard guitar picks, preferring to strum with plastic novelties and broken glass. Eiso, experienced shrieker, began to sing. Buffy soon moved away, but the beer held out and so did the momentum. Deciding that misery sounds better with a beat, Eiso enlisted his longtime Bakamono collaborator, Dan Martin, to join on drums. Dan skillfully located the backbone in the oozing musical mass, and so the alienation of Rob's next door neighbor began (the Berkeley cops said they sounded good). Wondering what a little good old-fashioned synthesizer could add to the mix, Dan tapped his cat-sitter and unemployed bass player friend, Joe O'Donnell, to noodle around on keyboards.

When they are not behind their instruments, Rob Reger is creator, owner/president and creative director for Emily the Strange. Eiso Kawamoto is proud papa to a perpetually peppy pug. Dan Martin is an unofficial deacon in the Church of the San Diego Padres. Joe O'Donnell flirts with employment while fretting about geopolitical affairs.

Empty Rooms: official site | myspace

Aquarius Records review: "New SF band Empty Rooms made quite an impressive first impression when we pressed play on this, their self-titled debut five-song EP. The band oozes with composure as they unfurl their solemnly brooding, verging on goth style of rock. They'll undoubtably draw plenty comparisons to the moody likes of Interpol and their forefathers Joy Division and Bauhaus. One song that particularly stands out is the second to last, "Form Has Two Faces" features additional female vocals from Carly Schneider which offer an effective counterpart to lead singer Andy Beyers' deep dour delivery. Hopefully she'll surface again (and more frequently) on their next release. Another highlight is the final song "Black Sugar", a super catchy smoldering pop song."

Buy tickets here. $8, 21+.

Official Website: http://12galaxies.inticketing.com/evinfo.php?eventid=14561