Elden Calder/Tar Pet/Inboil/Battle Rat; December 28, 2008; The Frequency

Elden Calder is an anomaly in this digital age. They don’t have a website or a MySpace page, when you Google their name all you get are a few local paper listings of the show and links to pictures, YouTube videos and reviews posted by the few people who have been lucky enough to see them. Leave it to a band this puzzling to put out their first release on vinyl only. I was still trying to figure out how to transfer the record to CD so I could actually listen to it when I discovered the download card inside. Not just any download card, it is perhaps the coolest one I’ve seen. While it is quite obviously a copy of lead singer/songwriter Eric Duerr’s driver’s license, it doesn’t give you any more information about him or the band. No, instead the vital statistics are those of the record. Waxed, mono, 12” and 145 gram are the answers to hair, eyes, height and weight.

I’m not much of a downloader, but I did manage to get the songs onto my computer and onto a disc. Despite the fact that (tradition) came out in the waning days of 2008, screw the rules, it is going to make my best of 2009 list. I’m certainly not giving up my Café Montmartre bootleg disc that Momo’s awesome sound guy Andy was nice enough to give me, but now I have twice as much Elden Calder to listen to. My only complaint about the recordings, and their shows, is that they are far too short.

Even in the headlining slot they barely played more than 45 minutes. In addition to all the songs on the disc (er, I think) they also threw in a song that didn’t make the disc, that I’ll call “American,” paired with a George Harrison tune that didn’t make the White Album, “Not Guilty.” The latter featured a guest guitarist and saw the whole band venturing further into jam land than they normally do. Eerily reminiscent of Philly’s the Trouble With Sweeney, Elden Calder for the most part play ridiculously catchy, fantastically tight pop songs that don’t leave much room for improv. The time I saw Duerr solo was good, but something about the band makes the songs magical. The keyboards especially seem essential instead of just ornamental. I may be gushing, but hell, I don’t care, I really like this band.

Duerr is an employee at Shop Bop, Madison’s haven for musicians looking for flexible schedules and decent money, so it is no surprise that his band is assembled from current and former employees. Sleeping in the Aviary’s Elliott Kozel lends backing vocals and plays the keyboard with such intense fervor that nearly every picture I take of him is a blur, while This Bright Apocalypse’s leader Luke Bassenauer is their drummer. Despite the distinctive style of both of their bands, none of that creeps into Elden Calder, this one is quite definitely Eric’s thing. I just wish he did it a little more often.

It shouldn’t have surprised me that the other three bands on the bill were equally enigmatic, but I did have my hopes that at least one of them would involve other Aviary cast members. After the first band finished, I was delighted to see Phil Mahlstadt on stage. The only SitA boy who hasn’t released a solo project disc, he may be getting ready to do so. Despite an unsurprising Adam Sandler fixation (he appropriated one of his jokes and played “I Wanna Grow Old with You” from the Wedding Singer on the ukulele), his set was decidedly charming. Early on he called Elliott up to “bang on something.” Which he was more than happy to do, pulling off a shoe to thump on a suitcase with while banging a tambourine on the floor. It was all terrifically entertaining and I couldn’t stop smiling. I can’t wait to see Inboil again.

I confess that I paid absolutely no attention to the other two bands after deciding that the female led groups weren’t my thing, electing to hang out in the bar instead. So sue me.