It's been two years since Durham's All Your Science has played a traditional venue. The duo's own record of shows, listed on its website, reveals a string of art gallery engagements and house parties, all the way back to an April 2010 Pinhook show. Before that, so many of the rooms bear names like The Space and Bull City Headquarters, speaking to All Your Science's intractable and traceable roots in Durham's DIY culture, back before there were many rooms to play in the Bull City. Still, All Your Science was finding places to play.
From petroleum-averse drummer David "Z-Man" Zielinski's homemade trap kit, designed to fit in a knapsack for ease of bike transport, to Lu Lubenstein's uncluttered, clarion guitar tone, there's something homemade and simple to the constituent elements of this band. But the simplicity ends there; the often-instrumental arrangements range from celebratory electric bluegrass and noiseless Sonic Youth-isms to the occasional darkly poetic piano number.
All Your Science is a band that belongs at a house show, as a room with no stage boundary is the right fit for these intimate art-rock sketches. Yet All Your Science ought to do well at Motorco, if for no other reason than to show the unaware that, yes, a proudly homemade tradition is alive and well in Durham. With Mugen Hoso. —Corbie Hill