Tonight! Pattern is Movement, Grampall Jookabox, PWRFL Power at the Billiken Club

Tonight at the Billiken Club at Saint Louis University, a triple bill of epic proportions. First up is local favorite (and Pitchfork darlings) Pattern is Movement, whose new album, All Together, is out now. When the group came to town in February, Shae Moseley had this to say:

This Philadelphia duo's creations are not senseless, artsy ramblings but beautifully intense studies in theme and variation that take melodic or rhythmic figures and find unexpected ways to invert, contort and reverse their structures over the course of a concise three-minute song. The spastic, gyrating drum pattern that launches album-opener "Bird" builds in intensity through layers of harmony and keyboard lines before morphing into a soothing, dreamlike sea of pentatonic Eastern influence that calls to mind the impressionism of early 20th-century composers such as Claude Debussy.

MP3: Pattern is Movement, "Bird"

MP3: Pattern is Movement, "Right Away"

Also on the bill is Grampall Jookabox, which hails from Indianapolis.

The band's forthcoming, November-released Asthmatic Kitty disc is called Ropechain. While decidedly in the psych-freak-folk movement, the band often reminds me of listening to TV On the Radio underwater; rhythms and vocals are warped and distorted, but the soulful grooves are still intact and spooky.

MP3: Grampall Jookabox, "The Girl Ain't Preggers"

PWRFL Power is one person, 23-year-old Kazutaka “Kaz” Nomura, whose quiet, introspective songs have much in common with K Records' DIY singer-songwriters (Calvin Johnson, Mecca Normal, Beat Happening) and other musicians who find beauty in just a wispy guitar and simple, trembling voice.

-- Annie Zaleski