Sold Out: Cheekface
Mississippi Studios
∙
Portland
Monday, April 22 at 8 pm PDT
Concert Venue
Monday, April 22 at 8 pm PDT
Concert Venue
Entry Options
Details
Artists
Description
w/ Yungatita
When we last left the arguably interesting adventures of Cheekface, they'd released the minor phenomenon "Emphatically No." The band's sophomore album bowed at #1 on Bandcamp's alternative and vinyl sales charts, became a college radio staple, and propelled the L.A. talk-singing trio into packed houses of Cheek Freaks across the US. So I guess now is a good time for Cheekface to return with their third LP, "Too Much to Ask."
You might say "Too Much to Ask" builds on the strengths of the first two Cheekface albums, but also refines and evolves their sound a little, and why would I argue with you? The band's songwriting battery of guitarist/singer Greg Katz and bassist Amanda Tannen show their lyrical trademark, a strangely inviting sad and sideways wit, right from the jump — "life hands you problems, make problem-ade," they announce in the almost-unglued 1-minute-25-second album opener "When Life Hands You Problems" — and then across the record's 11 tracks, the band proceeds to make hay out of many of life's mysteries.
There's the problematic popularity of quinoa (the what-if-Stephen-Malkmus-fronted-Television headnodder "Pledge Drive"), the boundless desires of American imperialists and the political complacency that enables them (the relentlessly hooky and bleak "You Always Want to Bomb the Middle East"), the physical toll of daily routine ("I would get so much done if I didn't have to sleep anymore, but then I would be tired," they observe on The Cars-via-Rosenstock "I Feel So Weird"), the questionable marketing of a certain quacky soap bottle doctor (beach-blanket strummer "Election Day," which features a guest verse from kindred spirit Sidney Gish), and the seemingly sabotaged pointlessness of it all — pick any track really, but I like "coffee from the bank / Fritos isn't free / I only want to be with other people like me" from "We Need a Bigger Dumpster," a singalong single that exposes Cheekface's most fundamental components as clear as a deep-sea fish: a simple drum beat, a nasty bassline, a neatly catchy guitar riff, a suprisingly memorable chorus, and a funny fatalistic wisdom that unites it all.
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MOSTLY STANDING / LIMITED BALCONY SEATING
THIS EVENT IS 21+
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