This is the writing of the whiner's bio

So I've been immersing myself in the Mates of State albums I picked up at the show at the Variety on Friday night. We showed up a little too late to catch the first opener, Maria Taylor, whom I was looking forward to after checking out the stuff she's got posted on her myspace page. We did, however, get there in time to see the other two openers, Destroyer and Magnolia Electric Co.. I didn't know much about these two bands coming into the show, but I had heard positive reviews so I was hopefully curious. I must admit I was a little disappointed. Okay, I was very disappointed. I won't go into too much detail on these guys, as I'm still trying to convince myself that they weren't that bad. I mean, they've both been enjoying some level of recognition (or hype?) as of late, so there must be something about them that people are responding to, right? There had to be something of substance there, and I was becoming frustrated with myself that I couldn't break the code. What makes this music good, valid, even necessary? If anyone is familiar with these guys and can tell me their take, I'd welcome a second opinion.

The way things were going so far, I felt bad dragging Lamkini to the show. What's worse, he even managed to get us in for free and then ended up bailing after awhile. If only he'd stayed for about twenty more minutes, when Mates of State took the stage with their humble two-piece ensemble. By this time my anticipation had been lowered a notch from hopefully curious to cautiously optimistic, but I still hadn't given up hope. Thankfully, my fears were allayed as the first few notes were played. The combination of Kori's raw synth/organ playing with Jason's loose drumming, along with their conversational vocal dialogue and high-register harmonies, all resonated together to produce a full-bodied sound vastly exceeding the sum of its parts. I had to call my high-school physics teacher after the show to tell him that the Mates of State had just obsoleted the first law of thermodynamics.

Going to see Death Cab play the Tabernacle this Wednesday. They're playing back-to-back sold-out weeknight shows here in Atlanta before going on to play for the Cameron Crazies in Durham (a town that needs a good distraction after LSU dashed the mens b-ball team's hopes for the final four, and the lacrosse team dashed their own hopes for any kind of respectable future).

UPDATE:

Apparently I missed this April Fool's stunt pulled on Mates of State by the openers during the show at Variety. Okay, so despite my earlier comments, I at least have to give these guys some credit for having a sense of humor and the balls, if you will, to pull this off. Well played. Thanks to Dumb Nostalgia, where I found this posted originally.