Scenestar

ARTICLE BY JON BUCHANAN

DEC. 16 | LOS ANGELES—The gloves came off at The Vanguard, as local disco-punk outfit Moving Units jostled with “Juke Music” queen Kid Sister for decibel superiority as part of The Red Bull Sound Clash series. In a daring modernization of the basic “battle of the bands” concept, two high-energy acts from different genres are pitted against each other to determine who does what they do the best. Contenders sandwich the audience with sound from two stages during four rounds of escalating importance and increasing intensity. Everyone clear on the rules?

Round one was a warm-up set. Kid Sister, Chicago’s Melisa Young, stormed on stage in knee-high boots and immediately established her presence with three infectious tracks from her debut LP, Ultraviolet, released last month. The room was won over half-way through glitchy opener “Big and Bad,” in which Young takes great pleasure in really stretching out her midwest drawl against a thundering, digital marching band.

Young graciously responded to encouraging whistles and catcalls before a massive, synthetic voice began chanting the mantra, “Got her toes done up wit her fingernails matchin.” The inescapably catchy single “Pro Nails,” the track famously plucked by Kanye West in 2007, places Young in a comfort zone, where she can appropriately deliver such hopelessly cocky lyrics with a big, tongue-in-cheek grin.

Kid Sister’s strong showing didn’t deter the small army of party boys on the other side of the room. Moving Units countered with “Birds of Prey” and “Emancipation,” both from the group’s 2004 debut LP Dangerous Dreams. We turned to Moving Units as our local affiliate during the dance-punk craze a few years back, but crazies like myself will move real close to you and point out that they formed in 2001 and began making fun and easy music long before it was fashionable. The group’s second LP, 2007’s Hexes for Exes, is heavily garnished with the same sorts of electronica elements enjoyed by Kid Sister, but for some reason, the guys chose to focus on early stuff, early on.

Blake Miller seemed to be enjoying himself from the start, even when things took a turn for the bizarre with the cover round. Contestants were given the task of singing an acapella rendition of “Don’t You Want Me Baby” by Human League. A cute duet between Miller and Kid Sister was fun, but after two high energy sets that had the venue shaking and people excited, I was confused as to why you would shut down the equipment and throw on the house lights for a quiet moment. Needless to say it was kind of a downer, especially during an event sponsored by Red Bull.

Next came “The Takeover,” in which artists were asked to complete one of their opponent’s signature tracks. Moving Unit’s garage band rendition of Kid Sister’s menacing “You Ain’t Really Down” was the highlight of the night. Moving Units finally broke out the programed beats for “The Clash” round, when they fired off throbbing house-party jam “Crash ‘n’ Burn Vicitims.” The rules of rounds three and four were confusing and pacing issues slowed things way down to the point where it was impossible to sustain any sort of buzz in the room. Each round was very close, with the winner usually relying on a single decibel of crowd noise to push them to victory. Moving Units ended the night as champs, winning three out of the four rounds.

Had I been a mega-fan of either act, and this was my first and only live experience, I would’ve probably preferred the standard 10-song set. That being said, I took great pleasure in watching already fragile musicians being pushed way out of their respected comfort zones and enjoying the hell out of it. Both Moving Units and Kid Sister seemed to relish the challenge and were clearly having fun with the unusual format. The Sound Clash is an excellent idea on paper, because who among us can resist the fusion of hip hop with guitar-driven music? However, with such a lagging format, and attention spans being as fleeting as ever, it felt like people around me quickly became disinterested in who would better “showcase their musical abilities.” Because the content remained strong from the beginning, and the chemistry between Moving Units and Kid Sister was almost inherent, attendees made the best of the stoppages in play.