It’s going to be an interesting bill at The Canopy Club on Saturday night.
There is Mhondoro Rhythm Success, the Afro-dance band, Zmick, the local jam band that can play an easy 10 minutes and not think twice…and Datagun…the noisy electronic band that sound absolutely nothing like the other two.
The Iowa City-based band is currently doing a few shows just to get out of the recording studio (their debut album, Wild, will be out in the fall), making its stop in Urbana on Saturday. There is no doubt that the crowd’s reaction will be an interesting one, but keyboardist/guitarist Andre Perry is up for the challenge.
“I’m down for it all,” Perry said. He said he was told by The Canopy Club that the bill would take him a bit out of his comfort zone, but he knows what he’s looking for.
“I hope they’re so high, we can totally fuck people up if they’re high,” he said. “Wait, now I’m stereotyping the jam band scene. I like the guys in Zmick.”
In fact, Perry said he likes playing on these kinds of bills. The band has opened up for many different kinds of bands, ranging from indie rock (Sunset Rubdown) to straight-up noise (HEALTH) to sexually-charged, um, whatever you want to deem it (Handsome Furs).
Datagun came together last year. The basis of the group was simple: three people very active in the Iowa City decided to come together and make their own music.
“We all have disparate music tastes, but we are all into noise music and house shows and stuff like that,” Perry said. “Although, our tendencies go toward more pop. We try to find a space between noise and pop.”
A lot of their inspiration came from the album Street Horrrsing by the band Fuck Buttons. While Datagun may not sound anything like them, it ended providing a cornerstone for some great music that can at times be beautiful, abrasive and very, very emotional.
“We can get sounds that express what’s on our minds, sounds that express something, like poetry,” Perry said. “People write so they can capture human feelings. We’ll have things on our mind and capture a sound musically, that will inform lyrically what will happen.”
He is quick to point out, however, that while what they are doing is not always the most accessible, it’s not even close to as crazy to some of the things coming out of the Iowa City scene.
“Even though we are interested in that noisy, out-there aspect, we can’t get away from just writing a traditional song,” Perry said.
Maybe this home of a U of I is being given a run for its money. They’ll come together on Saturday night though, and for that, it’s going to be an interesting bill.