Pink Mountaintops in Berlin by Matt Carter
“this was stripped down rock and roll, lean and ready for new mobility”
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When the summer heat reaches its peak in the city of Berlin, so too does the feedback from guitar amps in its many non-air conditioned rock clubs. The tour stop for Vancouver’s Pink Mountaintops seemed to walk in hand in hand with the sweltering temperatures as a night of perspiring rock and fevered psych. It had been almost three years since Stephen McBean’s Pink Mountaintops, his side project to Black Mountain, had played in Berlin, leaving a sheer dearth of mountainous themed band names performing in the German capital.
First up for the night was the Dysnea Boys, a foursome of skate punk and sub rock veterans that feature the former vocalist of 1980s Bay Area hardcore band Social Unrest, Jason Honea. Coming together as transplants to the Berlin scene, their ranks also feature members of Vancouver bands The Spitfires and Radio Berlin. Other than bringing veteran experience to the table, the Dysnea Boys long for a time when Santa Cruz Skateboards were the newest thing, and the Bay Area of California was brimming with 80s hardcore.
Frontman Jason Honea began the set with the eclectic spoken word he is known for in his solo project the Shitty Listener, mainly a mic level check of impromptu rambling about putting ferrets in pantyhose and wearing them like a sweater. When the band dropped into “Find Water” and “Violent Waste” it became futile to resist Honea’s stage presence and the vigorous low end of power trash guitars. Honea’s lines have certainly matured and diversified, making good use of his time in projects outside of the punk scene with an increased range of searing shouts and melodic croons.
“Mind Stories” was a meeting between the cruising low end of bassist C.C. Voltage and guitarist Chris Frey, with Honea’s vocals reaching a compelling level of fierce yet spellbinding cadence. Think Buzz Osborne of the Melvins or even Danzig before he got lawyers. “Here She Comes” in opposite was a swaying twang of lyrical sentiment about awkward horniness and sexual tension that we can all recall from our teen years. By the end of their set the crowd was anxiously primed for Pink Mountaintops to begin as the heat inside Privat Club had already reached an uncomfortable level.
Pink Mountaintops walked onstage in a line up configuration that is far more condensed then past touring personnel of the band. If you’re familiar with the family tree of the Montreal, Canada post-rock community of Godspeed You! Black Emperor or Thee Silver Mt. Zion, it should be said that McBean previously tapped their auxiliary members. But tonight this would not be the 10+ member formation that McBean has recruited for previous tours, this was stripped down rock and roll, lean and ready for new mobility as a quartet.
McBean has always been borrowing friends to record his more experimental songs that couldn’t quite fall under the Black Mountain atmospherics or angular use of chords. With around 37 members who have contributed to Pink Mountaintops in some way or another, the bands 4 album roster dwarfs even that of progressive rock mega-band King Crimson.
McBean’s hiatus from the psych scene and move to Los Angeles has had a profound effect on his songwriting and choice of guests on the album Get Back. Seeing as how session musicianship is like the new prostitution of LA, McBean had to go with some ringers he knew personally. This lead him to incorporate anything from J Mascis’ guitar solos to Giant Drag’s Annie Hardy doing a freestyle rap about her empowering love for jism. In his exodus from Vancouver, McBean had altered his pool of talent, and on Get Back the strain of living in a city as morally bankrupt as Los Angeles isn’t calmed simply by being among friends.
PMT began their set with several minutes of buzzing feedback and distorted sound curtains before sending the audience’s sweat glands into overdrive with mid-tempo tunes always caught in semi chaotic wall of sound that McBean creates. Songs off of Get Back like “Ambulance” are rawer, and have less of the presence of electronic and vocal effects as McBean’s screams ring out primal and loose over driving melodies.
You won’t hear the twinkling keys on “Sell Your Soul,” because live the slow syrupy tune is more like if Counting Crow’s Adam Duritz had spent more time singing baked and layering guitar fuzz peddles. It’s moments like this we see the side of McBean he isn’t able to express in Black Mountain, and with help along the way from his friends he is able to come out of his shell to vent about the trappings of Los Angeles living. On “The Second Summer of Love” McBean’s recounts his experiences as a teenager that are in the same key of “Sell Your Soul,” giving you a flutter of being young again before your liver became overburdened and resistant.
When McBean and crew reverted to tracks like “Execution” off the five years senior album Outside Love, it was less like the sprawling harmony heard on that album and more like the rock grit of Get Back. McBean’s vocals are still heartfelt and true, but he owns their experience even more greatly by singly his lyrics starkly alone, forgoing a female backup singer. By reducing the amount of people on stage McBean not only lets us see deeper into his own vision, but is a side of him that can be hidden by an excess of instruments and an exhausted touring budget.
At the nights conclusion the soggy audience left having had more than their share of sweating fits, and satisfied at McBean’s revisiting of his past, knowing our experience with rock and roll is not too unrelatable from the person next to us. Each time that McBean delves deeper into more personal songwriting, we’ll all be there to feel it radiate from him and resound within us. For some of us, getting to live as a bearded, long-haired rocker just wouldn’t have flown, and we are happy to live vicariously through McBean.
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Matthew Carter studied abroad in Trondheim, Norway, where he played drums for college credit. After graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary studies: Journalism with Poli Sci from SDSU, he then moved to Portland, OR, and continued his career as a music venue manager. Now living in Berlin, Germany, to further pursue journalism, his work has appeared in Redefine Magazine, Truth-Out and Occupy.com. Matt currently works as a guide giving tours of street art in Berlin.