Side Stage

Spotlighting the best of local music: Icebird
by Evan George

Something horrible happened around 1994 that fundamentally changed the face of modern music: the fuzzy, flannelly gruffness of so-called “grunge” was stripped from the wimpy arms of thoughtful, college-educated dudes like lunch money and bestowed upon the posed laurels of jock apes. For the latter part of the ’90s, these idiots were open-picking all over the airwaves (see Seven Mary Three, Collective Soul), causing all of us sincere guitar fans to run into the open arms of synthesizers and irony. But alas, it’s 2006 and there are bands like L.A.’s Icebird who are trying to make right what went so tragically wrong a decade ago.

Icebird is a Koreatown trio (Barry Monahan on guitar/vocals, Kate Wise on drums and Mike Monahan on bass) that unflinchingly pays tribute to real rock bands like Mission of Burma, the Wipers, and Jesus Lizard without sounding retro. In fact, the three are so adept at breathing new life into the oft-neglected art of rocking powerfully, they’re like revisionist historians. The band’s pace-27 percent faster live than on record, they claim-and their tight, sweaty chops separate them immediately from the vast majority of those playing music in this city. After all, L.A. may have a slew of great bands, but few of them are rock and roll bands.

On their 2006 debut full-length Magnitude, Icebird doesn’t bother with the periphery stuff (poetics, lengthy concepts, scene posturing) so much as they shoot straight to the heart of the matter. Like any stellar three piece, the bass is more percussive than tonal. Between the younger Monahan’s bass work and Wise’s impeccable pounding, the album chugs along like a well-oiled machine. Above the groove, the elder Monahan warbles like a regular northwest warrior.

Icebird won’t make you wonder what year it is. They’ll make you mourn the 12 years we’ve lost, and all the riffing we’ve missed out on.