I recently wrote about Mossyrock and Toof, two compact bands from out of town that routinely get into a compact car and do compact little tours of our fair land. The two bands, which both favor the fusion of electronic and live instruments, recently paid a visit to the valley Friday, May 19, and I caught most of their sets at CounterCulture Cafe.

_{Press photo courtesy of Mossyrock}

First up was Mossyrock, an electro-organic band from Brooklyn, which singer/violinist/laptop operator Dominica Page kept reminding the nine people watching the show, is in New York. This time Mossyrock is touring as a duo (Marc Hug makes up the other half), and the two with their gear and assortment of instruments created a nice fractured, living musical landscape. They would capture live sound and loop it, using some sampled beats but for the most part creating the elements for their musical pastiche on the fly.

When I talked Hug previously (“read that interview here”:), we talked about how the band played guitar, mandolin and controlled some mystery machine hidden behind a big black thing that glowed like the trunk in Repo Man. I secretly suspect it was a laptop, but I will never know…

I was surprised more people weren’t at the show, and few of the people in the actual music room seemed to be there specifically to see them, but it didn’t seem to bother the band and I suspect they have better audiences elsewhere in the country. Their fusion of quasi-classical elements with electronic dance with live loops and subtle vocals made for a nice ear meal.

Next up was Toof, he of funny interview and even funnier songs and onstage banter. He is a character and played his dancy, live bass and sequence driven electro-pop with his tongue firmly in cheek, but the silly content and presentation couldn’t hide the real musicianship taking place.

I was with some friend who had never heard of either band beyond a couple of songs I played as a primer before we left my house and they enjoyed them both. When they had to leave during Toof’s set one of them remarked that his favorite song was the one when Toof took a step back from being wacky and rocked the hell out of his bass in strange tapping, harmonic, guitar strumming, frame bending ways.

Toof was funny and good, and though electronic based stuff doesn’t usually do it for me, both the bands this night were enjoyable. This may have something to do with the smart use of available technology, and using it as an element of the composition and not the whole.

Again I can imagine Toof winning over an audience at a larger show, and might even be best if a total surprise. The small audience wasn’t unfriendly, just sober, and Toof might do better in a 21 and older venue with plenty of booze. I wasn’t sure what the group of five teenage girls were thinking when every Toof song was opened with a rambling, funny monologue that eventually ended with him muttering “um, this song is about… about… buh, bu-ha, bu-ha, BALLS!”

I sent some questions about the tour to weary travelers Mossyrock and received some answers after the band arrived in Austin to end their micro-tour. Here’s what Dominica Page had to say:

AZNightBuzz: How has the tour been going? Any strange tales from the road?

Dominica Page: The tour was quite successful, thanks. There are always ups and downs, but this one was rather enjoyable overall. Mossyrock got a lot of press and good reviews. Marc and I are partial to being on the road; I’m fond of watching the world slip past at 80 miles per hour.

_{Click to enlarge
Photo by Jonathan Bond/AZNightBuzz.com}
Mossyrock duo Dominica Page and Marc Hug perform at the
CounterCulture Cafe on Friday, May 19.

There is one bizarre story that sticks out. In Salt Lake City, this Danish man named Flemming read about us in the weekly and came to the show. He was a total blast, and we ended up staying in his hotel room with him. Morning comes, and we awake to him standing in front of us in his boxer-briefs with his plentiful package emphasized, and he’s holding up Toof’s wallet. “I do not know what is happening, but this I found in the toilet.” Toof is completely delirious, trying to process the information at hand. A Danish man with a well-endowed package is standing in front of him quizzically, holding up his urine-soaked wallet. Toof had apparently dropped in it in the toilet during a midnight bathroom break. We all had a big laugh at his expense.

AZNB: What was the best show on the tour (tell the truth)? Looks like you guys are parting ways with Toof for now, how did this tour stack up against others?

DP: Austin and Denver are my personal favorites. Great crowds, great reactions. Juarez was surreal. Our first tour with Toof was probably the most fun; being our first adventure together, we were in this constant state of rowdiness. Last summer we did a northeast and Canadian tour together, and that one was very draining. I’m still not certain if I’ve recovered from it.

AZNB: How was Juarez this time? Please tell the readers about the first Juarez show.

DP: Juarez was certainly more adventurous this time around. El Segundo Piso, the venue where we were booked and where we played last year, decided at the last minute that it was no longer going to be an all-ages show, and many of the kids who came out were underage. We ended up moving the show to another place a few minutes away – down a mile-long dirt road. I’d be lying if I didn’t say I felt a slight anxiousness on the way there. It turned out great, though, in the end. Everyone was quite sweet to us. All these little indie rock Mexican kids came – they were terribly adorable. They were totally into what we were doing – clapping along and singing the words and cheering, which is worlds away from the too-cool-for-school attitudes of New Yorkers. They bought us strange presents like lollipops and Spam and chocolate flavoured condoms. They made us sign autographs and lined up for handjobs from Marc.

AZNB: Did Marc give any dollar handjobs?

DP: No, but he gave one for 11 pesos in Juarez.

AZNB: Do you really think people in Phoenix don’t know Brooklyn is in NY? Phoenix, for all it’s strip malls and heat is the fifth largest city in the country…

DP: You mean y’all have maps in Phoenix? I thought everyone lived in shanty towns, mined all day long, and raised cacti in their spare time.

I’m fairly certain people in Phoenix know where Brooklyn is – that’s just my dry humour. Still, with the American public education system being what it is, one never can be sure.

AZNB: Explain again how you hook up your gear, how much is live and how it all works.

DP: We run everything into a Mackie mixer which allows us to use the auxillary sends to run sounds through our laptops. That way, we can grab loops of the guitar, mandolin, cello, viola, and vocals and run them through effects and build or create new loops off of them. It’s all live, really. The drum loops were made by us and are sequenced live using a program called Ableton Live. Everything is created for the moment.

AZNB: Will you be back in Arizona anytime?

DP: Eventually. During the winter months, certainly. Our tours used to be quite long; we’d go on the road for the upwards of two months at a time. With gas prices being what they are now, that’s a bit harder to do, so we tend to split up the country into sections. We’ve a month-long tour planned for the Pacific Northwest and Canada for July. We’re going to Europe mid-August, and then we’ll do the East in the autumn. So, my long-winded answer is yes, but not for some time.

AZNB: Just how tired are you?

DP: I’m in bed this very moment.