UNARTIG

(((unartig))) regulars are probably more than familiar with Aa (BIG A little a) by now. Excerpts of their song “Thirteen” appear during almost all our clips’ intro- and outro credits. It has little to do with the band’s generosity of letting us use their music for free that there’s tons of (((unartig))) recorded Aa footage to share with you all, but more to do with the fact that Aa is one of the most mesmerizing New York City powerhouses around. Over the course of the last four years I have attended over a dozen of their shows and captured most of them. Below is an overview of said material and words by Christopher R. Weingarten, writer for Rolling Stone, Spin, The Source, The Village Voice, author of the book “Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back” and former drummer for Parts & Labor. A song index is located at the end of the feature.

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[Christopher R. Weingarten | @1000TimesYes]
Having spent seven years writing and playing music in Brooklyn, I’ve had the pleasure of sharing stages with Aa, sharing sides of vinyl, sharing hypnotic jams sessions at Tonic, sharing karaoke rooms (John does a deadly Tony Toni Tone—ladies beware). I even got to sit in with the band and bang along for song at local sweatbox Market Street Hotel, completely destroying their tympani mallets in the process. Hopefully this introduction will serve as some sort of penance and they’ll waive my debt.

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A rhythmic charged bout of yawping and octo-flailing, Aa was never exactly tailormade to be the band to change your life—but they will almost always change the tenor of your evening. From their earliest Dead-fried noizedoom to their middle period clatterdance on down to their most recent triumphcore tent-revival twurk, Aa have always had a giddy, feral energy that was infectious. That many drums clattering around a basement space always felt extra dangerous, all sweaty dudes hopping around and screaming and writhing and snarling and gnashing and screaming gibberish and whipping about—and you could dance to it? Fuck Animal Collective, these dudes are animals!

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And it’s one step ahead of you. The most entrancing thing is the way they set up their rhythms. It never sounds like a drum corps or drum circle or a clusterfuck—everything has a logic, everything interlocks like a Timbaland stutter, interesting patterns that tug at each other but never pound on each other in a macho, chest-thumpy way. They somehow made a 13/4 rhythm in “Thirteen” as catchy and memorable as the biggest Taylor Swift jam on the radio. That natural tendency to “rock out”? They cut it into sevenths and whack it with a fire alarm bell—think This Heat jamming with Adam And The Ants and you’re getting close. The official dance band for the post-apocalypse. Meet you at the riot.
Christopher R. Weingarten | October 2009

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Song Index
502 Warren Street 28 Jun 2008
Full Set

Death By Audio 31 Jan 2009
Gown Tower
Thirteen

Roosevelt Island 15 Jun 2007
Full Set

Solar1 02 Jul 2006
Flag Day
Manshake
Best Of Seven

The Stone 16 Sep 2008
Manshake

Goodbye Blue Monday 31 May 2008
Mario

Roosevelt Island 04 Jun 2006
Full Set

Union Docks 08 Mar 2008
New Machine

Market Hotel 01 Mar 2008
Mossy
Glowwreath

Continental Army Plaza 20 Oct 2007
Depth Charge

Monster Island Block Party 08 Sep 2007
Away Away

Glasslands 13 Jul 2007
Mossy

Dead Herring 09 Jun 2007
New Machine

Above The Auto Parts Store 26 May 2007
Away Away

Cinders Gallery 15 Sep 2006
Surgery Summer

339 Scholes Street 09 Sep 2006
Promsac!

84 Clinton Ave 13 May 2006
Thirteen