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River of Life Café - Irwindale, CA
Live Review: 5/1/09
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Candles and couches, the anti-hipsters fill the River of Life Café in Irwindale, CA on Friday, May 1st to hear Armár play along with bands Set to Sea and Brother for the First Fridays set scheduled for the beginning of every month. The crowed hushed as Omar Arellano and Arthur Pacheco readied themselves on multiple keyboards a slew of electronic equipment.
Watching them fiddle with knobs, buttons and experiment with tapping on plugs to make beats and looping their own voices is just as intriguing as watching Arthur play a guitar solo. With a mesmerizing quality similar to electronic band Tycho, it’s music you want to fall asleep to, and I mean that in the best possible way. While at times during the show, some technical difficulty delays were, ahem, annoying, it was worth the wait. “Untitled” was a favorite. Ten minutes long, it sounds like an afternoon in late fall, when its raining and you can hear distant voices from the hallway as you drift off to a nap. “Canteen”as well proved to be a beautiful and slow, with Yorke-ish vocals, as well as “Panda,” some of it so sweeping and light as Sigur Rós. A major highlight, however, was four lads joining at the stage apron to sing four part harmonies into already enlightening ambient rock.
Equally as entertaining was watching Arthur zip around, dancing and hopping between machines. Hitting a note on the keys while stretching his leg to tap a pedal; bounce while singing a falsetto note and looping it with the sound of an unplugged cord tapping on his fingers. Slightly awkward in their young twenties, Armár is an innovative approach expanding on recent rock geniuses and the live show is truly rewarding. Maybe a legitimate CD will be released soon, but for now you’ll have to enjoy them via free myspace music streaming, where you can also check out when they’ll be playing next. I’ll probably be there.
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You can find Armár at www.myspace.com/theeunconformed. First Fridays is held at the River of Life Café every first Friday at 8pm, more information on the Facebook First Fridays page. - Evil Monito Magazine
Discography
4 track CD: Infant Demonstration
Photos
Bio
Every sound Arthur and Omar have heard since they were children has influenced where they are now. Each song they write has it's own personality. They're musical education has strictly been from experience and experiment. Both of them became friends in high school choir and it all began when Omar asked Arthur to tune his guitar. Since the beginning Omar provided more of the pop mainstream perspective, and Arthur provided the abstract experimental input. They are very different people, but they're vision holds them together. They won't stop until the world has been able to experience their music about love, spiritual struggles, celebration, and life. The sincerity in the music can be heard with every note and breath. They're music has taken them to different places around Southern California, and they are determined not to let stop there.
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