Saturday is the new Friday. At least that's what Friday Night Rock wants you to believe.
At 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, July 30, the band Saturday Looks Good to Me will rock the Fuel Rocket Club. Admission is free, food and drinks are provided and dancing is encouraged.
As sophomore family weekend will be in full swing, the folks at Friday Night Rock are psyched about their first Saturday show.
"The scheduling worked out best this way, though I suspect some eerie subconscious compulsion to coincide with the band's name," FNR General Manager Matthieu Pierce '06 said.
If FNR has ever hosted a band that's appropriate for when parents will be on campus, Saturday Looks Good to Me is it. Their music brims with oldies overtones and is reminiscent of 1960s pop catchiness.
"Imagine Belle and Sebastian recorded for Motown, or maybe Brian Wilson jamming out with the Magnetic Fields," said FNR Financial Manager Brendon Bouzard '06. "But more than that, they've got this whole recorded precedent in the Wall of Sound production of Phil Spector, that whole '60s girl-group sound. It's just infinitely catchy pop music."
Infinitely catchy pop music? At Friday Night Rock? Remember, these are the people who brought you Xiu Xiu.
But the upbeat celebratory style of Saturday Looks Good to Me is undeniable; their swinging beats and hyper rhythms are dance-inducing even to the most cynical of cross-armed wallflowers. After listening, you can't help but feeling simply happy.
"Saturday Looks Good to Me is definitely more accessible than bands like Xiu Xiu ... they're basically on par with Mates of State or Ted Leo in terms of pure accessibility, since those bands are essentially pop bands at heart. Saturday Looks Good to Me just wear that on their sleeve a little bit more," FNR Booking Manager Sean Adams '07 said.
Saturday Looks Good to Me hails from Detroit, Michigan, emerging from the Michigan indie rock scene of the late 1990s that produced such bands as The White Stripes and Electric Six. The twelve-member band is centered around male vocalist and principle songwriter Fred Thomas -- other vocalists and musicians alternate in and out depending on the song. Guests such as Ted Leo and Jessica Bailiff have made appearances on several albums.
Their latest albums "All Your Summer Songs" and "Every Night" have received critical acclaim, the former finding its way to many year-end best-of lists. Singles such as "Underwater Heartbeat," "Lift Me Up" and fan-favorite "Alcohol" keep their style consistent without allowing it to become boring.
Their lyrics are usually playful, such as, "Meet me by the water underneath the big beehive / Bring your record player and your Raincoats' 45s / We can dance together as the river rushes by / To wash away the cities that somebody else designed" from "Meet Me By the Water." Rarely do Thomas' lyrics slip into melancholy, but even those go along with '60s Motown style.
Indie music website Pitchforkmedia.com gave "All Your Summer Songs" a rating of 8.6 out of 10 back in 2003, and since then the band has been hailed as a unique sound that brings pop and unapologetic pep to the underground music scene.
Rob Mitchum of Pitchfork Media said in his review of the band's album, "All of these songs are filtered through enough layers of reverb and ambient noise ... to sound like they're coming from the past-their-prime speakers of Dad's old station wagon, a process that, paradoxically, strips them of their nostalgia and lends them fresh personality."
"I think their sound would appeal to anyone who likes to dance, anyone who likes catchy tunes ... I can't imagine anyone actually disliking them. It's just beautiful, smart rock that anyone with a pulse can appreciate," Bouzard said.
Detroit-based Karenin's Smile, with front man Andrew Sandoval '06, will open for Saturday Looks Good to Me at 10 p.m. Saturday Looks Good to Me should take the stage around 10:30 pm.
While Friday Night Rock does not have anything else planned for the term, Saturday Looks Good to Me promises to provide the campus with a term's worth of entertainment, courtesy of a much-loved indie band.
