Monday, November 30, 2009
Shameless Self Promotion
I decided, in an act of blatant and shameless self promotion, to post a streaming player of the new Coalmine Canary EP "The Company We Keep" on my blog. Right now it's only available through digital download from Itunes, so if you're into physical copies you'll have to wait a little bit longer.
Next week I'll be posting my long overdue review of the new Brave Little Abacus record.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Snowing - Fuck Your Emotional Bullshit
Snowing –Fuck Your Emotional Bullshit
Download for free
Self- admittedly, it took me a few listens to fully appreciate the brilliance of this EP (My Itunes count being somewhere in the 30s upon starting this review). Having been enamored with the promise ring flavored pop sensibility of former band, Street Smart Cyclist, I hoped that Snowing would pick up where SSC left off. While I would place both bands within the spectrum of 90’s emo revival, I would adamantly argue that they inhabit separate ends of this spectrum; SSC fitting somewhere in between Nothing Feels Good and Four Minute Mile and Snowing in between End of the Ring Wars and Where You Are and Where You Want to be (If you think this is a Taking Back Sunday album, promptly stop reading this review).
In Fuck Your Emotional Bullshi t, Snowing channels a fantastic urgency—guitars that are simultaneously jaunty and crushing, mathy drum tempos, and wailing vocals coalesce into a flood of emotion that would overtake Noah’s ark. Lyrically, Snowing is among the best; emotional without being whiny, powerful without being melodramatic. There is a biting honesty in these songs, a confessional candor that seems especially remarkable in today’s world of contrived sentiment and cryptic mumblings. In “Kirk Cameron Crowe” the singer, John Galm, sputters, “I only wish you were staring at me when I roll over because I can't sleep at night, or I'm smiling because there's snow falling outside, or when the breaks lock and we're clearly gonna die. I'm gonna grab your arm and scream, "I love you!.”
The EP opens with “Sam Rudich” a perfect opener to showcase Snowing’s angular dexterity, complete with noodly guitars and Galm’s strident voice, growling out the lines, “I feel nothing like my father. He's been sleeping underground. Don't wait around. There's nothing there at all.” Track 2, “Important Things (Spector Magic),” carries on the tap-your-feet-pump-your-fist tempo of the EP, while lyrics spell out post-college ennui, part discontent-part disillusionment.
The next song, “Pump Fake” is easily my favorite song on an EP full of really good songs. “Pump Fake” slows down the blistering pace of the EP in favor of twinkling guitars which swell up and pour out as the song progresses, finally concluding with a vocal indictment of a love gone sour, “And what do you think I would do after you left? Would I stay sober? I think it'd be much worse. I'd cut my arms off. No regeneration.”
The two final tracks, “Kirk Cameron Crowe” and “Methuselah Rookie Card” carry on the EP’s frantic energy, complete with an At the Drive-In reference (I'll drive home screaming At the Drive-In. I've been driving this thing for too long) and a slew of sing-alongable lines (I've been living like a sailor, my sea legs are wearing down).
This EP is not only remarkably good but furthermore, I commend Snowing on treading new ground in what has very much a genre of repeated, and sometimes obnoxious, derivation. I hear a lot of bands who are interested in recreating the Midwestern emo sound without adding to the equation, I mean if your band sounds exactly like Cap’n Jazz, well I’d just as soon listen to Cap’n Jazz. Thankfully this is not the case with Snowing or a few choice other Penn-Jersey bands (I also recommend Pirouette, By Surprise, Hightide Hotel, and Everyone Everywhere).
Download for free
Self- admittedly, it took me a few listens to fully appreciate the brilliance of this EP (My Itunes count being somewhere in the 30s upon starting this review). Having been enamored with the promise ring flavored pop sensibility of former band, Street Smart Cyclist, I hoped that Snowing would pick up where SSC left off. While I would place both bands within the spectrum of 90’s emo revival, I would adamantly argue that they inhabit separate ends of this spectrum; SSC fitting somewhere in between Nothing Feels Good and Four Minute Mile and Snowing in between End of the Ring Wars and Where You Are and Where You Want to be (If you think this is a Taking Back Sunday album, promptly stop reading this review).
In Fuck Your Emotional Bullshi t, Snowing channels a fantastic urgency—guitars that are simultaneously jaunty and crushing, mathy drum tempos, and wailing vocals coalesce into a flood of emotion that would overtake Noah’s ark. Lyrically, Snowing is among the best; emotional without being whiny, powerful without being melodramatic. There is a biting honesty in these songs, a confessional candor that seems especially remarkable in today’s world of contrived sentiment and cryptic mumblings. In “Kirk Cameron Crowe” the singer, John Galm, sputters, “I only wish you were staring at me when I roll over because I can't sleep at night, or I'm smiling because there's snow falling outside, or when the breaks lock and we're clearly gonna die. I'm gonna grab your arm and scream, "I love you!.”
The EP opens with “Sam Rudich” a perfect opener to showcase Snowing’s angular dexterity, complete with noodly guitars and Galm’s strident voice, growling out the lines, “I feel nothing like my father. He's been sleeping underground. Don't wait around. There's nothing there at all.” Track 2, “Important Things (Spector Magic),” carries on the tap-your-feet-pump-your-fist tempo of the EP, while lyrics spell out post-college ennui, part discontent-part disillusionment.
The next song, “Pump Fake” is easily my favorite song on an EP full of really good songs. “Pump Fake” slows down the blistering pace of the EP in favor of twinkling guitars which swell up and pour out as the song progresses, finally concluding with a vocal indictment of a love gone sour, “And what do you think I would do after you left? Would I stay sober? I think it'd be much worse. I'd cut my arms off. No regeneration.”
The two final tracks, “Kirk Cameron Crowe” and “Methuselah Rookie Card” carry on the EP’s frantic energy, complete with an At the Drive-In reference (I'll drive home screaming At the Drive-In. I've been driving this thing for too long) and a slew of sing-alongable lines (I've been living like a sailor, my sea legs are wearing down).
This EP is not only remarkably good but furthermore, I commend Snowing on treading new ground in what has very much a genre of repeated, and sometimes obnoxious, derivation. I hear a lot of bands who are interested in recreating the Midwestern emo sound without adding to the equation, I mean if your band sounds exactly like Cap’n Jazz, well I’d just as soon listen to Cap’n Jazz. Thankfully this is not the case with Snowing or a few choice other Penn-Jersey bands (I also recommend Pirouette, By Surprise, Hightide Hotel, and Everyone Everywhere).
Monday, October 5, 2009
Giving Up - Gthrowing Up (Sophomore Lounge)
Giving Up – Gthrowing Up
Buy it here
Years ago, I remember reading a quote about the Boston based folk band, Christians and Lions (the quote was about their record More Songs for the Dreamsleepers & the Very Awake). Jack Younger, the band’s producer, said: “[More Songs for the Dreamsleepers] is somehow comfortable, yet unsettling...like a Cadillac someone died in.” The quote stayed with me because one, it was a good simile and I appreciate good similes, and two, because I didn’t think the quote really fit the Christians and Lions sound which can be said to be both powerful and intelligent, amongst other things, but perhaps not unsettling.
Unsettling is a word I don’t throw around too often. Not many things seem unsettling in 2009; punk has been commoditized, metal has outlived its shock value, alternative is mainstream, and rock & roll doesn’t mean anything. I’m sure audiences felt unsettled when Bob Dylan played an electric guitar at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. I’m sure people were unsettled when someone was killed at the Altamont Festival during a Rolling Stones set. But now?
I digress. The reason I’m bringing up the notion of unsettling is because it is the first word that came to my mind upon listening to Giving Up’s full length album Gthrowing Up. The Iowan trio have created a sound that marries lo-fi fuzzy grunge with front porch country, music that is undeniably Western but perhaps more at home in a zombie flick than any movie starring John Wayne. The absurd postmodern panache of the lyrics are sung out and screeched by the boy-girl pairing of Mikie Poland and Jenny Rose, who are never quite in unison. The vocals, charmingly off of kilter, are delivered over distorted guitar and chord organ melodies with tinny drums clanging in the background (Sean Roth played these). The final outcome is yes, unsettling (I’m done using this word, I promise) but furthermore, oddly catchy and sometimes just flat out beautiful.
The album opens with an Intro which my Itunes clocks in at 789 hours, 57 minutes, and 13 seconds (though it only plays for a fraction of a second before flipping to track 2, “Lord and Savior, Sandy Cohen”). “Lord and Savior” feels like it was written in an Indian burial ground; the vocals whine and howl over what sounds to be a rain stick and harmonica paired with the characteristic distorted twang of country guitar.
The next song, “The Potential of Constant Happiness” is a folk-punk flavored triumph, musically reminiscent of the fantastic disbanded plan-it-x band Rosal. Mikie and Jenny sing, “I measure the night by the dirt on my feet. The dirtier they get, the more the blood—the better the night, the fuller the love. The dirt’s piled on thick so the love must be overflowing.”
My favorite song is called “Inlaws? More Like Outlaws,” which features a noisy choral backdrop of whoa’s and ahhhs behind a humming organ and the tap-your-toes-pump-your-fist-and-sing-along vocal lines: “I wanna play with you all day long. Let’s grow our food on the front lawn. When it rains down the factory’s chemicals we get cancer from our tomatoes. When the state says this land aint ours and they take it back, let’s plan a terrorist attack.” Something about the way Mikie enunciates the word tomatoes gets me every time and I find myself singing this song everywhere I go.
The album continues on, waxing poetic on Police Academy One, a haunted lake where Freddy Killed Jason, and “that fucker from Pantera” while the guitars crunch and clear up, sometimes grinding and sometimes spacey, entwining with the chord organ and a few other featured instruments (is that a kid’s piano on “Holes?”) . The end result is impressive; a full length record, available through Sophomore Lounge records, that is both strangely charming and bizarrely satisfying—like sex in the back of a Cadillac that a whole family died in.
Buy it here
Years ago, I remember reading a quote about the Boston based folk band, Christians and Lions (the quote was about their record More Songs for the Dreamsleepers & the Very Awake). Jack Younger, the band’s producer, said: “[More Songs for the Dreamsleepers] is somehow comfortable, yet unsettling...like a Cadillac someone died in.” The quote stayed with me because one, it was a good simile and I appreciate good similes, and two, because I didn’t think the quote really fit the Christians and Lions sound which can be said to be both powerful and intelligent, amongst other things, but perhaps not unsettling.
Unsettling is a word I don’t throw around too often. Not many things seem unsettling in 2009; punk has been commoditized, metal has outlived its shock value, alternative is mainstream, and rock & roll doesn’t mean anything. I’m sure audiences felt unsettled when Bob Dylan played an electric guitar at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. I’m sure people were unsettled when someone was killed at the Altamont Festival during a Rolling Stones set. But now?
I digress. The reason I’m bringing up the notion of unsettling is because it is the first word that came to my mind upon listening to Giving Up’s full length album Gthrowing Up. The Iowan trio have created a sound that marries lo-fi fuzzy grunge with front porch country, music that is undeniably Western but perhaps more at home in a zombie flick than any movie starring John Wayne. The absurd postmodern panache of the lyrics are sung out and screeched by the boy-girl pairing of Mikie Poland and Jenny Rose, who are never quite in unison. The vocals, charmingly off of kilter, are delivered over distorted guitar and chord organ melodies with tinny drums clanging in the background (Sean Roth played these). The final outcome is yes, unsettling (I’m done using this word, I promise) but furthermore, oddly catchy and sometimes just flat out beautiful.
The album opens with an Intro which my Itunes clocks in at 789 hours, 57 minutes, and 13 seconds (though it only plays for a fraction of a second before flipping to track 2, “Lord and Savior, Sandy Cohen”). “Lord and Savior” feels like it was written in an Indian burial ground; the vocals whine and howl over what sounds to be a rain stick and harmonica paired with the characteristic distorted twang of country guitar.
The next song, “The Potential of Constant Happiness” is a folk-punk flavored triumph, musically reminiscent of the fantastic disbanded plan-it-x band Rosal. Mikie and Jenny sing, “I measure the night by the dirt on my feet. The dirtier they get, the more the blood—the better the night, the fuller the love. The dirt’s piled on thick so the love must be overflowing.”
My favorite song is called “Inlaws? More Like Outlaws,” which features a noisy choral backdrop of whoa’s and ahhhs behind a humming organ and the tap-your-toes-pump-your-fist-and-sing-along vocal lines: “I wanna play with you all day long. Let’s grow our food on the front lawn. When it rains down the factory’s chemicals we get cancer from our tomatoes. When the state says this land aint ours and they take it back, let’s plan a terrorist attack.” Something about the way Mikie enunciates the word tomatoes gets me every time and I find myself singing this song everywhere I go.
The album continues on, waxing poetic on Police Academy One, a haunted lake where Freddy Killed Jason, and “that fucker from Pantera” while the guitars crunch and clear up, sometimes grinding and sometimes spacey, entwining with the chord organ and a few other featured instruments (is that a kid’s piano on “Holes?”) . The end result is impressive; a full length record, available through Sophomore Lounge records, that is both strangely charming and bizarrely satisfying—like sex in the back of a Cadillac that a whole family died in.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Makeout Party - Carried Names
I’ve been meaning to write this review for a long time.
I first heard Carried Names in May, right after the CD release in New Jersey, and over the past two months I can say with confidence that I’ve listened to this EP at least 200 times. I got a good 30 listens just from driving back to Massachusetts from a show in Delaware. For 8 Hours my band mates and I listened to the album on repeat. No one complained or asked to listen to anything else. Carried Names is honestly that good.
I confess that I was probably emotionally predisposed to this album through my friendship with the band (the song “7 Durant” is about my house). Regardless, I feel it’s necessary to point out that while I think that Makeout Party are all great dudes, my appreciation of Carried Names is based on the fact that it’s a near perfect album possessing the emotional depth of End Serenading Mineral, the musical intricacy of American Football, and the melodic grace of mid-career Getup Kids.
Carried Names begins with the mid-tempo “Mid-Twenties Relapse”. Lyrics wax on about post college ennui and the failings of love while the song builds up instrumentally until collapsing into a twinkling guitar outtro where Carmen croons, “We couldn’t float, we were capsized. Can’t say I wasn’t surprised. Everything wasn’t all right.” The song transitions perfectly into the next track “Restore” which showcases Makeout Party’s tight knit sound along with a renewed sense of urgency; the drums and guitars coax each other to drive the song harder and faster.
The next track, “The Worst Fourth of July Ever” may be the best track on a CD full of really good songs. The guitars entwine perfectly, one brightly strumming while another picks the strings longingly. Carmen sings about the difficulty of living on the road while maintaining a life at home; “If I knew that the time would just stop on a dime, then I’d have been sold to stay home. I could sleep on our plans for one more year and wake up to thoughts that this time it was clear.” The song ends with a haunting vocal melody with everyone in the band harmonizing together; it is slightly evocative of Transatlanticism Death Cab but not obviously derivative.
Carried Names continues on with the stripped down “A Year Plus One Month,” a bittersweet ballad about the elusiveness of love and the refuge of religion. Though I generally abhor when bands drop the God bomb, there is something truly beautiful in Carmen’s imagery and delivery of the lines, “Remember sneaking into the church? Remember praying in its pews? It’s been a year plus one month so let’s apologize for our sins.”
The last two songs on the album, “7 Durant” and the title track “Carried Names” are just as remarkable as the previous four songs. “7 Durant” marvels at the wonder of cheap champagne, house parties, and long drives while “Carried Names” is a testament to longing with the song reaching a fist pumping crescendo complete with driving guitars and pleading vocals; powerful without being excessive, emotive without coming across whiny.
I strongly recommend this album to anyone who appreciates mid-90s emo but I feel good recommending Carried Names to anyone who likes music. Makeout Party are tight, inventive, and honest, possessing an emotional depth that feels like a breath of fresh air in a world full of shallow music and oversaturated markets.
Friday, March 27, 2009
The 2nd Annual Mass Recovery Fest- Day 2 : A Report
Day 2 began with Boston’s the Susan Constant. The Susan Constant are refined musicians with a knack for unpretentious power-pop/rock. They are some of the nicest guys I’ve met in the music industry who just genuinely enjoy playing music.
Zanois, the brainchild of Zane McDaniels played next. After some initial technical difficulties they served up a blend of keyboard oriented electro-rock that sounded like a Cake fronted MGMT as conceptualized by high-school prodigy. While we’re on the topic of high-school musical prodigies, How to Catch Shadows, not quite old enough to have a driver’s license, took stage next. HTCS is a one man band, acoustic guitar and vocals with a heavy Ben Gibbard (Death Cab/All-Time Quarterback) songwriting influence.
Free Idea sponsored Flight of the Navigator were up next. Flight of the Navigator, aside from having a brilliant name (go see the movie if you haven’t), are adept at writing catchy neo-emo songs in the vein of Taking Back Sunday.
Battleships, playing one night only as a 3 piece (normally there are 5 members) stormed the floor next. The local hardcore heroes captivated everyone in the audience with anyone who knew the words yelling along. Another local favorite, Sans Heroic (who have a CD release show @ Andrew Hall on May 15th) played right afterward. Sans Heroic have mastered entwining soaring melodies with driving alternative/rock instrumentation and it was noticeably appreciated by everyone in the audience.
After Sans Heroic had retired for the evening, swirling lights began to take shape on the opposite wall and I knew the Scopes Trial was up next. The Scopes Trial is a small army of a band with songs about how Alexander Hamilton sucks, Jon Bon Jovi killing vampires, and a port-a-potty space ship that explodes in outer space. They are equal parts entertaining, talented, and absurd, I don’t think anyone was able to look on without thinking, “What the fuck is this?” and then convincing themselves, “Whatever it is, it rules.”
From Sky to Sea, armed with a light show and projector, began their ambient set. FStS’s intricate instrumentation produced a sound that is both atmospheric and haunting and no one said a word, just listened with mouths open, as they unveiled each song.
It was nearly 10PM at this point and I was worried that everyone would head home soon, but almost everyone stayed to see Quixote and Sincerely, the Management rock the rest of the night away. Quixote played first, introducing their folk-twinged indie-rock sound to a foot-stomping audience. Then Sincerely, the Management, glowing under the black lights, got everyone to move their feet with their dancey sing-a-long-invoking sound. It was a perfect way to end the Second Annual Mass Recovery Fest.
Without the help of these people Mass Recovery Fest would have not been possible or at least not nearly as sweet: All of the bands that played, Andrew Mello, Nick Stockwell, Tim Jobin, Vanessa Roberto (thanks for taking pictures), Justin Demers, Kevin Padden, Chris Londa, Mike Ellison, Rob Wilcox, Dan Saraceni, Shannon & Erin, and anyone who danced and enjoyed themselves. Stay tuned for more Mass Recovery + Andrew Hall shows.
4/11 @ The Coalmine (7 Durant Street, Lowell, MA). Coalmine Canary + State Champion + Mansions.
4/24 @ The 119 Gallery (119 Chelmsford Street, Lowell, MA). Math the Band + Coalmine Canary + Factors of Four + the Brave Little Abacus + the Sinbusters.
4/25 @ The Coalmine (7 Durant Street, Lowell, MA). Quixote + Factors of Four + Packrat.
5/15 @ Andrew Hall (39 Main Street, Lunenburg, MA). Sans Heroic (CD Release Show) + the Sharpest + Always the Underdog.
Zanois, the brainchild of Zane McDaniels played next. After some initial technical difficulties they served up a blend of keyboard oriented electro-rock that sounded like a Cake fronted MGMT as conceptualized by high-school prodigy. While we’re on the topic of high-school musical prodigies, How to Catch Shadows, not quite old enough to have a driver’s license, took stage next. HTCS is a one man band, acoustic guitar and vocals with a heavy Ben Gibbard (Death Cab/All-Time Quarterback) songwriting influence.
Free Idea sponsored Flight of the Navigator were up next. Flight of the Navigator, aside from having a brilliant name (go see the movie if you haven’t), are adept at writing catchy neo-emo songs in the vein of Taking Back Sunday.
Battleships, playing one night only as a 3 piece (normally there are 5 members) stormed the floor next. The local hardcore heroes captivated everyone in the audience with anyone who knew the words yelling along. Another local favorite, Sans Heroic (who have a CD release show @ Andrew Hall on May 15th) played right afterward. Sans Heroic have mastered entwining soaring melodies with driving alternative/rock instrumentation and it was noticeably appreciated by everyone in the audience.
After Sans Heroic had retired for the evening, swirling lights began to take shape on the opposite wall and I knew the Scopes Trial was up next. The Scopes Trial is a small army of a band with songs about how Alexander Hamilton sucks, Jon Bon Jovi killing vampires, and a port-a-potty space ship that explodes in outer space. They are equal parts entertaining, talented, and absurd, I don’t think anyone was able to look on without thinking, “What the fuck is this?” and then convincing themselves, “Whatever it is, it rules.”
From Sky to Sea, armed with a light show and projector, began their ambient set. FStS’s intricate instrumentation produced a sound that is both atmospheric and haunting and no one said a word, just listened with mouths open, as they unveiled each song.
It was nearly 10PM at this point and I was worried that everyone would head home soon, but almost everyone stayed to see Quixote and Sincerely, the Management rock the rest of the night away. Quixote played first, introducing their folk-twinged indie-rock sound to a foot-stomping audience. Then Sincerely, the Management, glowing under the black lights, got everyone to move their feet with their dancey sing-a-long-invoking sound. It was a perfect way to end the Second Annual Mass Recovery Fest.
Without the help of these people Mass Recovery Fest would have not been possible or at least not nearly as sweet: All of the bands that played, Andrew Mello, Nick Stockwell, Tim Jobin, Vanessa Roberto (thanks for taking pictures), Justin Demers, Kevin Padden, Chris Londa, Mike Ellison, Rob Wilcox, Dan Saraceni, Shannon & Erin, and anyone who danced and enjoyed themselves. Stay tuned for more Mass Recovery + Andrew Hall shows.
4/11 @ The Coalmine (7 Durant Street, Lowell, MA). Coalmine Canary + State Champion + Mansions.
4/24 @ The 119 Gallery (119 Chelmsford Street, Lowell, MA). Math the Band + Coalmine Canary + Factors of Four + the Brave Little Abacus + the Sinbusters.
4/25 @ The Coalmine (7 Durant Street, Lowell, MA). Quixote + Factors of Four + Packrat.
5/15 @ Andrew Hall (39 Main Street, Lunenburg, MA). Sans Heroic (CD Release Show) + the Sharpest + Always the Underdog.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
The 2nd Annual Mass Recovery Fest- Day 1 : A Report
The Second Annual Mass Recovery Fest- Day 1: A Report
Last year I put together a free compilation with a bunch of local/touring bands that I really wanted other people to hear. Mass Recovery Fest was something of a two-night release show featuring all the bands (or rather most of the bands) on the compilation. I generally dislike shows that feature an ungodly amount of bands, but armed with 2 PA systems and a hall big enough to create two “stages” the whole thing went smoothly and everyone I talked to had a lot of fun.
This year, I was a little less ambitious and decided against doing another compilation but wanted to put together another two-night celebration, a concert featuring everyone from the area and a handful of bands from out of state.
The week before Mass Recovery Fest, this year, I got a shock in the form of a message from the Scopes Trial’s Chris Londa, who informed me that Day 2 of the fest was actually the same night as the Lunenburg High track team banquet, which was also set to go down at Andrew Hall. After a week of panic and maneuvering, the track team relocated their banquet elsewhere, so if you are responsible for this move, thank you.
Saturday, Day 1, I got to Andrew Hall early to begin the arduous task of setting up for the show. Luckily, Tim Jobin of Sans Heroic helped me set up the second PA and a bunch of friends helped with setting up tables and all that jazz.
The night began with a set from Andrew Mello, my roommate/bandmate/friend. I am familiar with all of Andrew’s songs as a consequence of living across the hall from him but even those who weren’t seemed to enjoy his Daniel Johnston influenced indie-pop clap-along melodies. After a half an hour, Andrew switched to bass and was joined by Streight Angular, Al Polk’s quirky songwriting vehicle which started the dance party while it was still light outside.
Thunder Asunder, who first played Andrew Hall more than four years ago now, christened the other side of the hall with synth and drums. Thunder Asunder has, over the years, gotten smaller in terms of band members but have only gotten better in terms of not-quite-dance avant-garde songwriting.
The Bynars brought the action back to the other side of the hall and played a set of their signature synth-laced upbeat power-pop songs. The Bynars are both tight and inventive, lacing their love of Next Generation era Star Trek with brilliant songs that are both catchy and tight.
At this point in the night, Roebus One from New Jersey, was supposed to become the first person to ever play a hip-hop set at Andrew Hall, but he didn’t show up. I found out why the next day, when he called me confused and hung-over from his Aunt’s house in Staten Island where he woke up with bruised knuckles and the biting feeling that he got in a fistfight with his dad while black out drunk.
So instead, my band Coalmine Canary played. It was our first time playing an “unplugged” set in such a big venue. But everyone came real close and stayed quiet except for a couple of impressive sing-alongs where the crowd sang louder than I did.
Lima Research Society played next. The other side of the hall was decked out in black lights, illuminating everyone’s teeth a neon purple color. Lima Research was fantastic, they had everyone in the hall dancing, and rarely do I see such an elaborate stage show paired with excellent musicianship. It was at this time I went out to my car and realized that my trunk door was no longer fully attached to my van. I tried in vain for a few minutes to fix it but went inside when I heard Horny Vampyre’s fuzzy synth-dance sound fire up in the PA speakers.
I wrote a pretty extensive review of Horny Vampyre’s debut 10” and this was actually my first time seeing them live. They invited everyone to stand as close as possible to them, erasing the performer/audience divide. Everyone who knew the songs danced and chanted, stomping on a stage light in the process and sending broken glass all over the floor which didn’t deter anyone from dancing. I found a broom and dustpan in between songs and they played an electro-cover of Jawbreaker’s “Boxcar” which prompted my good friend Rob Wilcox to walk through the crowd and stare in awe.
Math the Band headlined the show and had everyone on their feet and dancing. The ceaseless energy of both Kevin and Justin translates perfectly through their songs and prompted everyone to keep singing, stomping, and clapping the entirety of their set. At some point, Mike Ellison grabbed me and lifted me up and, to my surprise, no one dropped me and I made my way through the crowd. It was the first time I, or anyone I can think of for that matter, managed to crowd surf at an Andrew Hall show. Math the Band stopped playing but the audience demanded an encore which they willingly obliged with a cover of Andrew W.K.’s “She is Beautiful.”
I went to thank everyone for coming out and someone started chanting, “Speech! Speech! Speech!” which caught on pretty quickly. I jokingly began, “I have a dream…and Mike Ellison was in it…” and continued with, “but seriously, this whole night was amazing. I’ve been to so many shows where people stand cross-armed and aren’t interested in what is going on musically but you guys danced and that is an amazing, albeit rare, thing. Thank you to everyone who came out tonight, I hope to see some of you tomorrow.” I’m paraphrasing of course, I was probably even less eloquent in person.
Andrew and I cleaned up the hall and several people attempted to help me fix my trunk door which I eventually just bungeed shut.
I’ll post about the Day 2 shenanigans tomorrow evening.
If I forgot to mention you in the Day 1 report, look for your name tomorrow.
Last year I put together a free compilation with a bunch of local/touring bands that I really wanted other people to hear. Mass Recovery Fest was something of a two-night release show featuring all the bands (or rather most of the bands) on the compilation. I generally dislike shows that feature an ungodly amount of bands, but armed with 2 PA systems and a hall big enough to create two “stages” the whole thing went smoothly and everyone I talked to had a lot of fun.
This year, I was a little less ambitious and decided against doing another compilation but wanted to put together another two-night celebration, a concert featuring everyone from the area and a handful of bands from out of state.
The week before Mass Recovery Fest, this year, I got a shock in the form of a message from the Scopes Trial’s Chris Londa, who informed me that Day 2 of the fest was actually the same night as the Lunenburg High track team banquet, which was also set to go down at Andrew Hall. After a week of panic and maneuvering, the track team relocated their banquet elsewhere, so if you are responsible for this move, thank you.
Saturday, Day 1, I got to Andrew Hall early to begin the arduous task of setting up for the show. Luckily, Tim Jobin of Sans Heroic helped me set up the second PA and a bunch of friends helped with setting up tables and all that jazz.
The night began with a set from Andrew Mello, my roommate/bandmate/friend. I am familiar with all of Andrew’s songs as a consequence of living across the hall from him but even those who weren’t seemed to enjoy his Daniel Johnston influenced indie-pop clap-along melodies. After a half an hour, Andrew switched to bass and was joined by Streight Angular, Al Polk’s quirky songwriting vehicle which started the dance party while it was still light outside.
Thunder Asunder, who first played Andrew Hall more than four years ago now, christened the other side of the hall with synth and drums. Thunder Asunder has, over the years, gotten smaller in terms of band members but have only gotten better in terms of not-quite-dance avant-garde songwriting.
The Bynars brought the action back to the other side of the hall and played a set of their signature synth-laced upbeat power-pop songs. The Bynars are both tight and inventive, lacing their love of Next Generation era Star Trek with brilliant songs that are both catchy and tight.
At this point in the night, Roebus One from New Jersey, was supposed to become the first person to ever play a hip-hop set at Andrew Hall, but he didn’t show up. I found out why the next day, when he called me confused and hung-over from his Aunt’s house in Staten Island where he woke up with bruised knuckles and the biting feeling that he got in a fistfight with his dad while black out drunk.
So instead, my band Coalmine Canary played. It was our first time playing an “unplugged” set in such a big venue. But everyone came real close and stayed quiet except for a couple of impressive sing-alongs where the crowd sang louder than I did.
Lima Research Society played next. The other side of the hall was decked out in black lights, illuminating everyone’s teeth a neon purple color. Lima Research was fantastic, they had everyone in the hall dancing, and rarely do I see such an elaborate stage show paired with excellent musicianship. It was at this time I went out to my car and realized that my trunk door was no longer fully attached to my van. I tried in vain for a few minutes to fix it but went inside when I heard Horny Vampyre’s fuzzy synth-dance sound fire up in the PA speakers.
I wrote a pretty extensive review of Horny Vampyre’s debut 10” and this was actually my first time seeing them live. They invited everyone to stand as close as possible to them, erasing the performer/audience divide. Everyone who knew the songs danced and chanted, stomping on a stage light in the process and sending broken glass all over the floor which didn’t deter anyone from dancing. I found a broom and dustpan in between songs and they played an electro-cover of Jawbreaker’s “Boxcar” which prompted my good friend Rob Wilcox to walk through the crowd and stare in awe.
Math the Band headlined the show and had everyone on their feet and dancing. The ceaseless energy of both Kevin and Justin translates perfectly through their songs and prompted everyone to keep singing, stomping, and clapping the entirety of their set. At some point, Mike Ellison grabbed me and lifted me up and, to my surprise, no one dropped me and I made my way through the crowd. It was the first time I, or anyone I can think of for that matter, managed to crowd surf at an Andrew Hall show. Math the Band stopped playing but the audience demanded an encore which they willingly obliged with a cover of Andrew W.K.’s “She is Beautiful.”
I went to thank everyone for coming out and someone started chanting, “Speech! Speech! Speech!” which caught on pretty quickly. I jokingly began, “I have a dream…and Mike Ellison was in it…” and continued with, “but seriously, this whole night was amazing. I’ve been to so many shows where people stand cross-armed and aren’t interested in what is going on musically but you guys danced and that is an amazing, albeit rare, thing. Thank you to everyone who came out tonight, I hope to see some of you tomorrow.” I’m paraphrasing of course, I was probably even less eloquent in person.
Andrew and I cleaned up the hall and several people attempted to help me fix my trunk door which I eventually just bungeed shut.
I’ll post about the Day 2 shenanigans tomorrow evening.
If I forgot to mention you in the Day 1 report, look for your name tomorrow.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Factors of Four- Whoa!!!
It is sometimes difficult to qualitatively describe one’s experience in listening to music. I’m reminded of a cereal commercial where adults ask a group of children why they like Apple Jacks when it doesn’t taste like apple, and the kids kind of shrug and say something like “we just do.” I’ve been listening to this Factors of Four’s Whoa!!! over the past several weeks, essentially since they gave me the CD in January, and while I can say definitively that I like it, a lot even, until now I haven’t been able to defend my position other than to say, “I just do.”
I met Factors of Four when my band played with them in a basement, amorously referred to the Crack House, in Honey Brook, PA. They started playing a blend of up-tempo power-pop garage rock and everyone in the room started to dance. Two songs in I found myself crowd surfing, after my band mates hoisted me up, and much to my surprise everyone held me up and I made my way across the room. This is when I became really impressed with Factors of Four because while I’d like to consider myself a basement show connoisseur, rarely does any band energize the room in that manner to where you can actually jump on people and have them not be mad.
Right. I digress. On to the review.
Whoa!!! begins triumphantly with boy/girl vocals stretching the word “whoa” into a 5-syllable melody. Bright guitars strum through the song while the lead singer, Naomi, introduces her unconventionally beautiful voice, slightly off of kilter, resembling a young Caithlin De Marrais of Rainer Maria mixed with some deeper tones of Fionna Apple. The dual vocals return at the end of the song with the suggestion, “Go ahead boy (girl), go ahead get down,” and then a chorus of voices chime in with a few more ‘whoa’s’ (I have no idea how to effectively use quotations marks here.)
The album has a garage rock feel without being classifiably lo-fi. You can tell the recording was done in a basement, actually the Crack House basement by Pirouette’s Scotty Leitch, but rather than hurt the recording it helps accentuate the full sound. If you’re listening to it for the first time it possesses all the rawness of a well recorded live show with my only critique being that the guitars are mixed a little loud at points which can overshadow the vocals.
Whoa!!! has six tracks, with all of them being impressive and a few being exceptional. Track 3, “Happy Hour”, shines both musically and vocally, Tim’s guitar picks through the intro while the lyrics contemplate life’s little obstacles and obscurities, “Then on a slippery road it is easy to fall and the road is so big and the snow so tall.”
The song, “12th Street” is another exemplary track, where Naomi harps, “I am waiting for a change of skin” and observes that “moving on is such a chore,” while the guitars palm mute through the verses and strum lazily through the chorus. “12th Street” as well as most of these tracks on Whoa!!! are linear in their composition but catchy as hell. If FoF aren’t exactly groundbreaking they’ve certainly refined a sound that is both inviting and memorable.
Ultimately, Whoa!!! is an impressive debut that introduces Factors of Four as a band fully capable of writing clever garage-tinged pop songs. These songs present a double consciousness in FoF’s desire to play upbeat and catchy songs and their desire to occasionally rock the fuck out. Listen to this record if you can appreciate the pop sensibility of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs but want the garage aesthetic of You’re Living All Over Me era Dinosaur Jr.
Hopefully, I’ll go back to one review every week, February was a weak month in terms of content.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Horny Vampire 10"
The problem with dance music (electro-pop and the like), for me at least, is that by in large it requires a suspension of intelligent thought in exchange for catchy hooks and dancey beats. Some artists have opted to go a more psychedelic route, MGMT comes to mind, but this feels like cop out to me; ignoring the central issues facing the generation they write songs for. Yet a little band from Dover, NH, Horny Vampyre (yes it’s a ridiculous name) have created a record that is every bit as brilliant as it is pertinent. Their self-titled debut is a dancey concoction of skuzzy electro punk with lyrics that will resound with anyone struggling to get by, both in economic and existential terms, and those who refuse to get down and grow up. Though this band, as well as their label, Hidden Apparatus, seemingly appeared out of nowhere, this is quite honestly the best record I have heard in the better part of a year.
The album begins with the song, “Foreign Home”, which immediately introduces the synth-clap-and-tap electro elements of Horny Vampyre’s music; a mixture of 8-bit Nintendo MIDI, 1980’s Devo, and Atom and His Package-esque synth-lines. The group vocals that define this album come in a minute or so later (there are at least 2 vocal tracks being occupied during every track) with the lines, “And when she goes to her foreign home by the deep boring sea/ she’ll drink cheap wine trying hard to think of me/ and I’ll still be here running this business straight into the ground…” The “here” refers to the dead end town the album’s narrator is perpetually stuck in, despair painted as a landscaped suburbia.
The album pops and beeps into the next two songs, “High Court” and “Rent Money”. The first is an indictment of humankind as being “a miserable mess of secrets/man is a miserable mess of lies,” as well as a personal confession, “And lately I’ve been having trouble looking you in the eye.” “Rent Money” outlines the inequity of low wages vs. the high cost of living and the desire to revert back to adolescence where this problem had not yet presented itself. Mike and Jer (this is all they have listed under band members) both proclaim, “My entire life is split/ between wanting to work here/ and wanting to quit,” and furthermore, “I don’t know about you but I gotta go back to where we lived when we were kids/ to where I first saw you when your clothes didn’t fit.”
Side A ends with, “Think Back”, which expands on the theme of growing up in uncertain times and the inability to really do much about it except look to friends with “big hearts” and “stricken faces” for solace. If Side A functioned as a means to identify the problems facing this generation, Side B is a contentious attack against these problems in the form of a unified front against menial life.
“Drink Deep”, the first track on Side B, is arguably the best song on the album. The beats and synth lines are intoxicating, it is literally impossible to stay sitting down when this song comes on. Then the vocals come in, triumphantly chanting, “drink deep from this goblet of fuck it all/ I wanna remember but I already forgot it all.” You will most likely be first pumping and yelling, “when he saw me smoking he said smoke up smoke up/ when he saw me drinking he said drink up drink up.” In my mind this song challenges Andrew W.K’s “Party Hard” as the reigning champ of best song to party up to.
The next song two songs, “Friendship” and “Our Lungs” are nearly as mind-blowing as the previous. The first of the two declares, “we’re gonna tear this fucking building down,” while the latter worries about growing up and things getting worse, “I’m afraid that all my friends will someday still be working shitty jobs/ that they’re too afraid to quit.”
“Big Life” counters the despair in “Our Lungs” with lyrics about growing up but never losing the drive and ardor of youth, they sing, “When I grow up I wanna burn money do drugs/ never half-ass when it comes to giving hugs.” Maybe it is futile to resist change, in all of its various forms, but this song gives me hope that, while capitalism will continue to exploit far into the future, we may take refuge in both friendship and music.
The record ends in brilliant fashion with the song, “Wet Backyard,” which sums up the major themes of the album in the line, “What’s good for my heart isn’t good for my health”. In just nine songs Horny Vampyre has outlined the grievances of an entire generation and set them to danceable electro-synth beats.
This record is at worst just impressive and at best brilliant, the fact that this 10” is a debut is mind-blowing. My only critiques seem to counter themselves; the vocals at times are not dynamic enough but are always perfect for group sing-alongs and the synth lines can get repetitive but are so good that is seems to be worth the repetition. If you don’t have a record player, it’s worth buying one just to play this record.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Coalmine Canary - Doppelgangers in Disguise Tour Diary
Coalmine Canary (myspace.com/coalminecanarymusic)
Doppelgangers in Disguise Tour Diary
Wednesday, January 21st
Since we don’t believe in being overly prepared, we started packing today. After hand washing our laundry (the pipes in our washing machine froze) I headed to work and left all the packing up of equipment up to Justin and Andrew. Work was uneventful (I work at a perfume store in Burlington, MA that no one goes to). I got back to Lowell at 10PM, we packed up my van (which only has one working door) and hit the road.
It’s a 7 hour drive to Baltimore. Andrew mostly slept. I drove the first 3 hours and Justin the last 4. We talked about our childhoods and listened to the terrible music that reminded us of those awkward adolescent years (Limp Bizkit’s 3 Dolla Bill Y’All in its entirety as well as Korn’s Life is Peachy).
Thursday, January 22nd
We arrived in Baltimore somewhere around 6AM, stopped at a Dunkin Donuts and asked for directions to the nearest hotel. We don’t have enough money to stay at a hotel but we figured that a hotel parking lot would be a safe place to crash for awhile without being bothered by anyone. We were in the parking lot for about 10 minutes before we got sketched out by the security cameras and the non-executive borders at the Executive Inn. We consulted the GPS and found a Wal*Mart 15 minutes away. Despite my absolute disdain for the business ethics of Wal*Mart, the parking lot, being huge and not well lit, is a perfect place to crash.
At noon, Tovio Roberts, of the Calliope of the Future , called me and told us to head down to the collective his friends live at, just a few minutes away. The collective is really amazing, a lot of radical literature and musical instruments all over the place complete with friendly residents. The people living there (Ilanna, Emily, and Porter) had accumulated a bunch of wool coats from an abandoned factory down the street and since they had so many, all of us are now decked out in 1970’s style wool jackets.
After talking and hanging out for awhile, we heard a chopper overhead and someone on a loudspeaker say, “The cops have the place surrounded, you’ve got nowhere to go.” Straight out of a movie, cinematic really. We all ran outside to see what was happening, took seats on the wooden fence and watched a swarm of cops stomp through the backyard to arrest some guy on a roof across the street. The suspect was up on the roof, already in flexcuffs, where he was jumping from rooftop to rooftop. I have no idea how he climbed up a roof while in handcuffs or how he escaped from the cops in the first place but there he was, looking scared but determined not to be arrested (though the situation looked futile from our perspective). Someone in the house decided that he deserved some musical encouragement, so we found a guitar amp and blasted “The Final Countdown” and “Breaking the Law”, imagining him escaping in some kind of montage. After everything subsided we heard several different accounts of what happened. Someone said he fell through the skylight and died. Someone said the cops found him and arrested him. Someone else said he fell through the skylight, lived, then the cops beat him up. I’d imagine the last account is probably the most accurate.
After eating some food, (thank you Kayne and Ilana for feeding us) we went up the street to Red Emma’s, an Anarchist bookstore/coffee house. Though I am not an anarchist in the strictest sense of the word, I can really appreciate both the community and the literature and I firmly believe that we can always use more class-conscious book stores. We met our friend Jane, who is the newest member of our band (she sings and plays tambourine on a bunch of our songs), at the bookstore. She is also from Massachusetts but was down in D.C. for the inauguration and decided to hitch a ride back up and play a few shows with us.
Our new friend Sine opened the show with an acoustic performance, which was utterly fantastic. Her picking/singing style reminded me of Appalachian-inspired folk. Lyrically, Sine wrote imaginative narratives about dead cowboys and tiny robots, getting the crowd to join in with appropriate sounds. I think I speak for all of us when I say that I was really impressed.
We played next and played what I consider to be our best set so far. Justin is always lecturing to me and Andrew about how we play better in acoustic settings, and though I disagree to an extent (who doesn’t love a good dance party), there is definitely something to be said for playing a more intimate show that doesn’t rely on amplifiers. We added a new song to the set, a song called “Ivory Towers”, which got a really solid response from the audience. I managed to tell the story of the police chase and the free coats (though a couple people in the audience thought I said free coke, which was certainly not the case) in between songs. Everyone clapped and a bunch of people sang the end of “A Willie Nelson Song.”
The Calliope of the Future, Tovio and Kayne, played next. It’s difficult to describe the Calliope of the Future but I will do my best for the purposes of keeping an extensive account of our tour. Tovio sings and plays accordion and Kayne plays Glockenspiel. As for genre, I would say it is something like Eastern European-influenced sci-fi oriented Vaudeville circus music. Tovio is a wanderlust world traveler with amazing stories about all the absurd people he has met in his travels and it translates perfectly into music. The only word for it is brilliant.
After the show we sold a few CDs to some really generous people who all gave us more money than we had suggested. Marcus, who volunteers at Red Emma’s, gave us $20 for a CD and told us that if we sent him the files for the CD he would remix them, which would be amazing. After we said our goodbyes, we headed out to drive to Haddon Heights, New Jersey, a 2 hour drive, to stay with our friend Rob Wilcox of the fantastic band, By Surprise.
We arrive sometime around midnight, watched a BBC show about a 476 pound (that’s 34 stone!) teenage girl, and quickly passed out soon after.
Friday, January 23rd.
Justin and I woke up to Rob jumping into bed between us. I expected this, as every time I have ever slept in the same house as Rob, he has never let me wake up on my own. One time Rob put on a fake wig and screamed lines from the musical, “Oklahoma”, until I quickly woke up in a panic, my fist missing his face by an inch. After we had all showered and dressed, we went to visit Devin, also of By Surprise, at Grindhouse Coffee where he works.
We stepped outside and realized that our hats and coats weren’t necessary. 54 degrees. Dead of winter. No clouds in the sky.
Anyway, Pat, also happened to be at the Grindhouse and we all sat down and talked about politics and Sega Genesis. Afterwards, Rob, Justin, Andrew, Jane, & I went into Philly to adventure around. We found a really amazing record store, AKA records, where I bought the Casket Lottery’s Moving Mountains for 2.99 (I’ll spare you the details of our other purchases because…you most likely don’t care). Afterwards we drove to a vegetarian restaurant/bakery for vegan cheese steaks which were amazing. Fake meat products are pretty hit or miss with me but these were really really good.
Our next stop was at an outdoor art gallery of sorts; a public garden full of mosaics (broken mirrors, bottles, and other assorted glass). I can’t accurately describe how beautiful everything was, so please see the pictures (or go to Philadelphia and see it in real life, it’s called the Magic Gardens).
We stopped at Village Thrift where we picked up a copy of D2:The Mighty Ducks 2 (my favorite movie of all time, which may have stared a young Pat Gartland) before we headed back to Robs to meet up with our friends Shannon and Erin who drove down from Massachusetts to hang out for the weekend.
Later we all went out to get some groceries and visit Dan at the record store he works at, where we of course spent an unhealthy amount of time and purchased more records. When we got back we cooked a family dinner and all sat around the table and exchanged stories. Dan explained the intricacies of an Alabama Hotpocket and we had Jane explain how “roping” works and the story behind “Eight Ropes” which I will certainly not recount here.
When we all went to the backyard we noticed a strange blue glow coming from down the street and on closer examination realized it was a giant neon sign, attached to the church, that said “Jesus Never Fails”. Not being able to resist we grabbed a camera and took group photos, most of them jump shots, under the sign. On the way back Rob told us how his friends were planning on making a B-Horror movie called, “Jesus Never Fails…To Kill You.” If they never end up making it, I might steal the idea.
I fell asleep watching D2 and the next morning I woke up to Rob Wilcox jumping on me.
Saturday, January 24th
Since Shannon and Erin hadn’t seen Philly yet we decided to venture back into the city after everyone woke up and showered. We spent most of the day shopping in the innumerable stores that line South Street. Justin and I bought more records, Andrew bought a sweater, Jane got a shirt that said, “Your man can stand under my umbrella”, Shannon and Erin bought clothes. We all spent too much money.
Rob took Justin, Andrew, and me to Tattooed Mom’s, a punk inspired bar, where we drank PBRs and talked about how we all want to move to Philly. Rob said if it didn’t work out he’d come live up with us in Lowell.
After filling up on falafel and pizza we headed back to Rob’s house to meet up with the rest of By Surprise and head to the show. The show was in Honey Brook, PA, a town an hour from Philadelphia and roughly the same amount of time to get to civilization in general. We arrived at Scotty’s house and loaded our stuff into his basement, which at that point was already packed with kids.
We played first to a responsive crowd. It felt good to be in such an intimate setting with everyone clapping, dancing, and singing along with our old friends in By Surprise and Pirouette (along with our new friends we met in the other bands and in the crowd) in attendance. CJ, who we met in Massachusetts at Philachusetts Best Friend Fest, came in halfway during our set and forced us to take our shirts off (this is actually not the first time this has happened). We finished our set shirtless, sweaty, and satisfied. Please make some kind of joke about that.
By Surprise played next. I’ve seen By Surprise somewhere in the realm of 5 times over the past 2 years and in that time I’ve become really good friends with everyone in the band and have committed all of their lyrics to heart. This was, by far, the best By Surprise set ever (and not because I wrote the set list). The energy was unprecedented and everyone in the crowd was singing and clapping along.
Factors of Four took the floor next. I had heard them previously on myspace but their live set was fantastic—girl-fronted energetic indie-rock that had everyone up and dancing. The basement was alive. Everyone was dancing or moshing and a few kids even managed to crowd surf (including myself thanks to Justin lifting me up from behind). It was ridiculous. Monster Machismo, from New York, kept the energy going with a set full of fast technical prog-inspired post-hardcore—something like Fall of Troy meets Maps and Atlases.
There was an impromptu acoustic / hip-hop performance afterward and then Pirouette took the floor. Seeing Pirouette in their own basement was a borderline religious experience for me and by the looks of it everyone else there. The basement was filled to the brim with moving bodies and sometimes you couldn’t hear Amanda and Scotty because everyone was singing so loud. You could tell that everyone was there because they wanted to be, not to get drunk (well, there was plenty of that) but to be amongst friends listening to amazing music. No big venues or productions just a lot of heart. During the last song Pirouette played, “I’ll Never Leave You Alone”, everyone moved all the way up, stood in the spaces between band members and sang along. It was beautiful in so many ways that I can’t convey here other than to say it was one of the few things alongside the movie “Life as a House” and the Penfold song, “I Will Take you Everywhere,” that actually makes me cry (I should throw in there that I’m kind of a wuss though).
It was my favorite show I’ve ever played and in my top 5 favorite shows I’ve ever seen, right between the Braid Reunion show and Texas is the Reason’s last show.
Afterwards, By Surprise+ Coalmine+ Shannon & Erin + Devin’s Girlfriend (I’m so sorry I forgot your name!) went to the Crystal Lake diner for a late night meal. My GPS thought the diner was in the middle of the woods so it took us a little longer to get there but once there, we all ate and laughed and basically passed out, getting to Rob’s somewhere around 4:30 in the morning.
Sunday, January 25th
We woke up around 1, or rather Rob woke us up in his usual manner and we decided to hang around the house for awhile and relax. When we finally got going we stopped at a Starbucks for coffee, to Target for blank CDs (it felt really good to run out of CDs), and then we all headed to this place called the Pop Shop (Not the Pop Shot much to my dismay) for lunch because it supposedly had more than 20 varieties of grilled cheese. We didn’t end up sticking around because of the wait, we had to be in NYC in a few hours and were worried about traffic.
After heading to our respective cars, we all hugged and told Rob how much we loved him and how fantastic it was that he took us in for the weekend and showed us such a good time.
The ride to NYC wasn’t bad at all, not even two hours. We got to the Parkside Lounge around 7:30 and got to check out Dan Strauss and the Ericksons who were both immensely talented. The Parkside is a cool place, the website calls it the “champagne of dive bars”, but mostly it’s just really nice. When you walk in there’s a large room with a stocked bar, a pool table, vintage table-top arcade games, and a really good jukebox (we listened to Dylan, the Beach Boys, Elvis Costello, and New Order). If you walk to the back there’s a separate room with a reasonably sized stage surrounded by chairs and tables.
When we first got the show at the Parkside, Jenny the person who does all the booking told us we could find someone to split the bill with in order to get a few more people at the show, since we don’t really have a following in NYC yet. I first asked Jason Anderson, who is amazing and who I knew would be in the city, but he wasn’t available so he directed me to his friend Jesse. Jesse has a really awesome noisy-indie folk project called the Wailing Wall. I asked Jesse and he couldn’t play either but he told me about Alixandra and the Tailor Sea, an alt-country singer songwriter with a full backing band. I sent her a message and she said she would be getting back in town the week of the show and that she was down to play. I realize this digression is kind of superfluous, but anyone who’s booked shows away from home can relate to how difficult the process of finding a venue and good local support can be.
Alixandra played a solo-set that was absolutely mesmerizing. The melodies she comes up with are original, well-executed, and really catchy. There seems to be a market for cute singer-songerwriters and I honestly feel that Alixandra outdoes Michelle Branch or Vanessa Carlton or any other pseudo-country radio darling in both talent and originality.
We played next and by the time we took the stage a bunch of our New York friends had filed into the room. A special thanks to Gilroy and Katie for being there and buying us drinks. It was kind of a weird setting for our music since I find that we are pretty solid as an acoustic act when we play a coffee shop setting or as a loud dance-party band but we have trouble finding the middle ground between those things. Regardless, the sound was really good (it’s weird playing somewhere with a professional sound guy) and our set was well received by everyone in the room.
Afterwards, we drank and drank and drank, or rather everyone else did—I was DD, and we all talked and played pool and met a lot of really cool people, including one of the guys from the Snake the Cross the Crown who just happened to be there. Some guy, who gave the illusion of having not been sober in the course of several weeks, came up to us and gave me an American Spirit cigarette box. He said something like, “Yeah you guys we’re really good…you know if McCartney and Tom Petty were mixed together… well…that would be cool…by the way, there are no cigarettes in that box.” It was probably more nonsensical, and certainly more slurred, but you get the idea.
After hanging out for a few hours we loaded up the van and headed to our friend Jenn’s apartment in Brooklyn. After being fucked with for a little while by my GPS (TomTom has quite the sense of humor) we arrived and trekked up the four flights of stairs to get to her apartment, which is really spacious and nice—contrasting the sketchiness that stretches out on the street just 40 feet below. We fell asleep almost immediately, or rather after we had a contest to see who could crack the most bones in their body and Jane politely asked if we could wait to be dicks until the morning.
Monday, January 26th
Jane had to get up at 5 AM to catch a bus back to Boston so she could make it to class in time. We actually all had class but Jane is apparently the only dedicated student in our band and we figured missing the first day for a show in Brooklyn was well worth it. I woke up around 7:30 when Jenn was leaving for work in order to move the car (8:00-9:30 street cleaning) and when I came back to the apartment, the bed had been annexed by Justin and Andrew. I took the floor and slept for most of the day, only getting up to eat a late breakfast and to watch D2 in it’s entirety.
On a side note, if you haven’t seen D2 recently I can’t reiterate enough how good of a movie it is and how necessary it is to watch it immediately. Sure the acting at times is atrocious, but the hilarious antics, Emilio Estevez, and the messages relayed in the film ( the anti-consumerism sentiment and the necessity to make a life over a living) more than make up for it.
After spending the day relaxing, we braved the cold to get take-out Chinese food from a freezing corner restaurant (the term “restaurant” used in the loosest sense of the word) with a completely unresponsive cashier who didn’t acknowledge the fact that we existed never mind that we wanted to order food. Regardless, after a while we got our food and headed back to the apartment to eat it before we drove the half mile distance down the street to Goodbye Blue Monday.
Goodbye Blue Monday, formerly the Trash Bar, is a bar/café decorated floor to ceiling with junk-art and old records. The decorations help to provide a creative atmosphere for all kinds of musical performances and movie screenings and it makes me wish we had something equivalent in our area. When we got there around 9, Alanna Fugate and Ray Rizzo started playing a split set of their respective solo songs. Alanna reminded me a lot of Ani Difranco in both the way she sang and her picking and strumming patterns in different open tunings. Ray is a little harder to pin down, but I remember Andrew and I looking at each other in mutual agreement that he was fantastic as soon as he started playing.
We played next what was to be our last set of the tour. Everything flew by so fast and it seemed like only earlier that day we were in Baltimore. We ended on a reasonably good note playing in front of a few of our good friends (Tovio and Kayne were there along with Jenn and Hannah) and since the show was streamed live online, everyone watching at home as well. At one point Andrew’s drum machine fell off the table, but remarkably didn’t break or even turn off.
We stuck around to see Tovio and Kayne play another brilliant set. Just from seeing them twice and listening to their CD a few times I was able to sing along to a bunch of their songs and anticipated the well constructed stories that accompanied them. It is really remarkable to me that Tovio and Kayne just travel around everywhere, making money doing street performances, and get by without so much as a car to take them from place to place.
After they finished we talked for a few minutes, met a new friend, Emily, who was originally from Ann Arbour (I have a theory that no one is originally from New York City) and packed up our stuff. We said goodbye to everyone, wished Tovio and Kayne luck in Europe, and saddled up for the 4 hour drive back home.
Andrew and I talked the whole ride while Justin was passed out in back. We made it safe and sound back in Lowell around 4 AM. Kevin was up waiting for us and we filled him in on what happened during the tour, though most of the stuff he had already heard since we had been texting him as it happened in return for random quotes from the movie “How High” (no, that’s the ivory).
This tour, though relatively short in time and distance traveled, has been life affirming for me. The ability to wake up somewhere new and play the music you love every night is something I will never take for granted. Being able to travel and see the people you love dispersed all around the place is something I will never cease to appreciate. I’ve already said my thank you’s to the people that made this tour both possible and exceptional but saying thank you is something that one should never hope to grow tired of, so—
Thank you to Tovio, Kayne, Ilanna, Gabby, Porter, Emily, Marcus, Sine, Rob Wilcox (you are our collective favorite person right now), Dan, Pat, and Devin (all of By Surprise), Scotty, Amanda, Kyle (Happy Birthday again), CJ, Shannon, Erin, Alixandra, Gilroy, Katie, the American Spirit guy, Jenn, Hannah, and everyone else we met who watched us, bought a CD, or said some words of encouragement.
Please listen to these bands/artists:
The Calliope of the Future ( myspace.com/thecalliopeofthefuture)
By Surprise ( myspace.com/bysurpriserock)
Sine (myspace.com/sinebean)
Factors of Four ( myspace.com/factorsoffour)
Pirouette ( myspace.com/pirouettemusic)
Alixandra & the Tailor Sea ( myspace.com/alixandratailorsea)
Doppelgangers in Disguise Tour Diary
Wednesday, January 21st
Since we don’t believe in being overly prepared, we started packing today. After hand washing our laundry (the pipes in our washing machine froze) I headed to work and left all the packing up of equipment up to Justin and Andrew. Work was uneventful (I work at a perfume store in Burlington, MA that no one goes to). I got back to Lowell at 10PM, we packed up my van (which only has one working door) and hit the road.
It’s a 7 hour drive to Baltimore. Andrew mostly slept. I drove the first 3 hours and Justin the last 4. We talked about our childhoods and listened to the terrible music that reminded us of those awkward adolescent years (Limp Bizkit’s 3 Dolla Bill Y’All in its entirety as well as Korn’s Life is Peachy).
Thursday, January 22nd
We arrived in Baltimore somewhere around 6AM, stopped at a Dunkin Donuts and asked for directions to the nearest hotel. We don’t have enough money to stay at a hotel but we figured that a hotel parking lot would be a safe place to crash for awhile without being bothered by anyone. We were in the parking lot for about 10 minutes before we got sketched out by the security cameras and the non-executive borders at the Executive Inn. We consulted the GPS and found a Wal*Mart 15 minutes away. Despite my absolute disdain for the business ethics of Wal*Mart, the parking lot, being huge and not well lit, is a perfect place to crash.
At noon, Tovio Roberts, of the Calliope of the Future , called me and told us to head down to the collective his friends live at, just a few minutes away. The collective is really amazing, a lot of radical literature and musical instruments all over the place complete with friendly residents. The people living there (Ilanna, Emily, and Porter) had accumulated a bunch of wool coats from an abandoned factory down the street and since they had so many, all of us are now decked out in 1970’s style wool jackets.
After talking and hanging out for awhile, we heard a chopper overhead and someone on a loudspeaker say, “The cops have the place surrounded, you’ve got nowhere to go.” Straight out of a movie, cinematic really. We all ran outside to see what was happening, took seats on the wooden fence and watched a swarm of cops stomp through the backyard to arrest some guy on a roof across the street. The suspect was up on the roof, already in flexcuffs, where he was jumping from rooftop to rooftop. I have no idea how he climbed up a roof while in handcuffs or how he escaped from the cops in the first place but there he was, looking scared but determined not to be arrested (though the situation looked futile from our perspective). Someone in the house decided that he deserved some musical encouragement, so we found a guitar amp and blasted “The Final Countdown” and “Breaking the Law”, imagining him escaping in some kind of montage. After everything subsided we heard several different accounts of what happened. Someone said he fell through the skylight and died. Someone said the cops found him and arrested him. Someone else said he fell through the skylight, lived, then the cops beat him up. I’d imagine the last account is probably the most accurate.
After eating some food, (thank you Kayne and Ilana for feeding us) we went up the street to Red Emma’s, an Anarchist bookstore/coffee house. Though I am not an anarchist in the strictest sense of the word, I can really appreciate both the community and the literature and I firmly believe that we can always use more class-conscious book stores. We met our friend Jane, who is the newest member of our band (she sings and plays tambourine on a bunch of our songs), at the bookstore. She is also from Massachusetts but was down in D.C. for the inauguration and decided to hitch a ride back up and play a few shows with us.
Our new friend Sine opened the show with an acoustic performance, which was utterly fantastic. Her picking/singing style reminded me of Appalachian-inspired folk. Lyrically, Sine wrote imaginative narratives about dead cowboys and tiny robots, getting the crowd to join in with appropriate sounds. I think I speak for all of us when I say that I was really impressed.
We played next and played what I consider to be our best set so far. Justin is always lecturing to me and Andrew about how we play better in acoustic settings, and though I disagree to an extent (who doesn’t love a good dance party), there is definitely something to be said for playing a more intimate show that doesn’t rely on amplifiers. We added a new song to the set, a song called “Ivory Towers”, which got a really solid response from the audience. I managed to tell the story of the police chase and the free coats (though a couple people in the audience thought I said free coke, which was certainly not the case) in between songs. Everyone clapped and a bunch of people sang the end of “A Willie Nelson Song.”
The Calliope of the Future, Tovio and Kayne, played next. It’s difficult to describe the Calliope of the Future but I will do my best for the purposes of keeping an extensive account of our tour. Tovio sings and plays accordion and Kayne plays Glockenspiel. As for genre, I would say it is something like Eastern European-influenced sci-fi oriented Vaudeville circus music. Tovio is a wanderlust world traveler with amazing stories about all the absurd people he has met in his travels and it translates perfectly into music. The only word for it is brilliant.
After the show we sold a few CDs to some really generous people who all gave us more money than we had suggested. Marcus, who volunteers at Red Emma’s, gave us $20 for a CD and told us that if we sent him the files for the CD he would remix them, which would be amazing. After we said our goodbyes, we headed out to drive to Haddon Heights, New Jersey, a 2 hour drive, to stay with our friend Rob Wilcox of the fantastic band, By Surprise.
We arrive sometime around midnight, watched a BBC show about a 476 pound (that’s 34 stone!) teenage girl, and quickly passed out soon after.
Friday, January 23rd.
Justin and I woke up to Rob jumping into bed between us. I expected this, as every time I have ever slept in the same house as Rob, he has never let me wake up on my own. One time Rob put on a fake wig and screamed lines from the musical, “Oklahoma”, until I quickly woke up in a panic, my fist missing his face by an inch. After we had all showered and dressed, we went to visit Devin, also of By Surprise, at Grindhouse Coffee where he works.
We stepped outside and realized that our hats and coats weren’t necessary. 54 degrees. Dead of winter. No clouds in the sky.
Anyway, Pat, also happened to be at the Grindhouse and we all sat down and talked about politics and Sega Genesis. Afterwards, Rob, Justin, Andrew, Jane, & I went into Philly to adventure around. We found a really amazing record store, AKA records, where I bought the Casket Lottery’s Moving Mountains for 2.99 (I’ll spare you the details of our other purchases because…you most likely don’t care). Afterwards we drove to a vegetarian restaurant/bakery for vegan cheese steaks which were amazing. Fake meat products are pretty hit or miss with me but these were really really good.
Our next stop was at an outdoor art gallery of sorts; a public garden full of mosaics (broken mirrors, bottles, and other assorted glass). I can’t accurately describe how beautiful everything was, so please see the pictures (or go to Philadelphia and see it in real life, it’s called the Magic Gardens).
We stopped at Village Thrift where we picked up a copy of D2:The Mighty Ducks 2 (my favorite movie of all time, which may have stared a young Pat Gartland) before we headed back to Robs to meet up with our friends Shannon and Erin who drove down from Massachusetts to hang out for the weekend.
Later we all went out to get some groceries and visit Dan at the record store he works at, where we of course spent an unhealthy amount of time and purchased more records. When we got back we cooked a family dinner and all sat around the table and exchanged stories. Dan explained the intricacies of an Alabama Hotpocket and we had Jane explain how “roping” works and the story behind “Eight Ropes” which I will certainly not recount here.
When we all went to the backyard we noticed a strange blue glow coming from down the street and on closer examination realized it was a giant neon sign, attached to the church, that said “Jesus Never Fails”. Not being able to resist we grabbed a camera and took group photos, most of them jump shots, under the sign. On the way back Rob told us how his friends were planning on making a B-Horror movie called, “Jesus Never Fails…To Kill You.” If they never end up making it, I might steal the idea.
I fell asleep watching D2 and the next morning I woke up to Rob Wilcox jumping on me.
Saturday, January 24th
Since Shannon and Erin hadn’t seen Philly yet we decided to venture back into the city after everyone woke up and showered. We spent most of the day shopping in the innumerable stores that line South Street. Justin and I bought more records, Andrew bought a sweater, Jane got a shirt that said, “Your man can stand under my umbrella”, Shannon and Erin bought clothes. We all spent too much money.
Rob took Justin, Andrew, and me to Tattooed Mom’s, a punk inspired bar, where we drank PBRs and talked about how we all want to move to Philly. Rob said if it didn’t work out he’d come live up with us in Lowell.
After filling up on falafel and pizza we headed back to Rob’s house to meet up with the rest of By Surprise and head to the show. The show was in Honey Brook, PA, a town an hour from Philadelphia and roughly the same amount of time to get to civilization in general. We arrived at Scotty’s house and loaded our stuff into his basement, which at that point was already packed with kids.
We played first to a responsive crowd. It felt good to be in such an intimate setting with everyone clapping, dancing, and singing along with our old friends in By Surprise and Pirouette (along with our new friends we met in the other bands and in the crowd) in attendance. CJ, who we met in Massachusetts at Philachusetts Best Friend Fest, came in halfway during our set and forced us to take our shirts off (this is actually not the first time this has happened). We finished our set shirtless, sweaty, and satisfied. Please make some kind of joke about that.
By Surprise played next. I’ve seen By Surprise somewhere in the realm of 5 times over the past 2 years and in that time I’ve become really good friends with everyone in the band and have committed all of their lyrics to heart. This was, by far, the best By Surprise set ever (and not because I wrote the set list). The energy was unprecedented and everyone in the crowd was singing and clapping along.
Factors of Four took the floor next. I had heard them previously on myspace but their live set was fantastic—girl-fronted energetic indie-rock that had everyone up and dancing. The basement was alive. Everyone was dancing or moshing and a few kids even managed to crowd surf (including myself thanks to Justin lifting me up from behind). It was ridiculous. Monster Machismo, from New York, kept the energy going with a set full of fast technical prog-inspired post-hardcore—something like Fall of Troy meets Maps and Atlases.
There was an impromptu acoustic / hip-hop performance afterward and then Pirouette took the floor. Seeing Pirouette in their own basement was a borderline religious experience for me and by the looks of it everyone else there. The basement was filled to the brim with moving bodies and sometimes you couldn’t hear Amanda and Scotty because everyone was singing so loud. You could tell that everyone was there because they wanted to be, not to get drunk (well, there was plenty of that) but to be amongst friends listening to amazing music. No big venues or productions just a lot of heart. During the last song Pirouette played, “I’ll Never Leave You Alone”, everyone moved all the way up, stood in the spaces between band members and sang along. It was beautiful in so many ways that I can’t convey here other than to say it was one of the few things alongside the movie “Life as a House” and the Penfold song, “I Will Take you Everywhere,” that actually makes me cry (I should throw in there that I’m kind of a wuss though).
It was my favorite show I’ve ever played and in my top 5 favorite shows I’ve ever seen, right between the Braid Reunion show and Texas is the Reason’s last show.
Afterwards, By Surprise+ Coalmine+ Shannon & Erin + Devin’s Girlfriend (I’m so sorry I forgot your name!) went to the Crystal Lake diner for a late night meal. My GPS thought the diner was in the middle of the woods so it took us a little longer to get there but once there, we all ate and laughed and basically passed out, getting to Rob’s somewhere around 4:30 in the morning.
Sunday, January 25th
We woke up around 1, or rather Rob woke us up in his usual manner and we decided to hang around the house for awhile and relax. When we finally got going we stopped at a Starbucks for coffee, to Target for blank CDs (it felt really good to run out of CDs), and then we all headed to this place called the Pop Shop (Not the Pop Shot much to my dismay) for lunch because it supposedly had more than 20 varieties of grilled cheese. We didn’t end up sticking around because of the wait, we had to be in NYC in a few hours and were worried about traffic.
After heading to our respective cars, we all hugged and told Rob how much we loved him and how fantastic it was that he took us in for the weekend and showed us such a good time.
The ride to NYC wasn’t bad at all, not even two hours. We got to the Parkside Lounge around 7:30 and got to check out Dan Strauss and the Ericksons who were both immensely talented. The Parkside is a cool place, the website calls it the “champagne of dive bars”, but mostly it’s just really nice. When you walk in there’s a large room with a stocked bar, a pool table, vintage table-top arcade games, and a really good jukebox (we listened to Dylan, the Beach Boys, Elvis Costello, and New Order). If you walk to the back there’s a separate room with a reasonably sized stage surrounded by chairs and tables.
When we first got the show at the Parkside, Jenny the person who does all the booking told us we could find someone to split the bill with in order to get a few more people at the show, since we don’t really have a following in NYC yet. I first asked Jason Anderson, who is amazing and who I knew would be in the city, but he wasn’t available so he directed me to his friend Jesse. Jesse has a really awesome noisy-indie folk project called the Wailing Wall. I asked Jesse and he couldn’t play either but he told me about Alixandra and the Tailor Sea, an alt-country singer songwriter with a full backing band. I sent her a message and she said she would be getting back in town the week of the show and that she was down to play. I realize this digression is kind of superfluous, but anyone who’s booked shows away from home can relate to how difficult the process of finding a venue and good local support can be.
Alixandra played a solo-set that was absolutely mesmerizing. The melodies she comes up with are original, well-executed, and really catchy. There seems to be a market for cute singer-songerwriters and I honestly feel that Alixandra outdoes Michelle Branch or Vanessa Carlton or any other pseudo-country radio darling in both talent and originality.
We played next and by the time we took the stage a bunch of our New York friends had filed into the room. A special thanks to Gilroy and Katie for being there and buying us drinks. It was kind of a weird setting for our music since I find that we are pretty solid as an acoustic act when we play a coffee shop setting or as a loud dance-party band but we have trouble finding the middle ground between those things. Regardless, the sound was really good (it’s weird playing somewhere with a professional sound guy) and our set was well received by everyone in the room.
Afterwards, we drank and drank and drank, or rather everyone else did—I was DD, and we all talked and played pool and met a lot of really cool people, including one of the guys from the Snake the Cross the Crown who just happened to be there. Some guy, who gave the illusion of having not been sober in the course of several weeks, came up to us and gave me an American Spirit cigarette box. He said something like, “Yeah you guys we’re really good…you know if McCartney and Tom Petty were mixed together… well…that would be cool…by the way, there are no cigarettes in that box.” It was probably more nonsensical, and certainly more slurred, but you get the idea.
After hanging out for a few hours we loaded up the van and headed to our friend Jenn’s apartment in Brooklyn. After being fucked with for a little while by my GPS (TomTom has quite the sense of humor) we arrived and trekked up the four flights of stairs to get to her apartment, which is really spacious and nice—contrasting the sketchiness that stretches out on the street just 40 feet below. We fell asleep almost immediately, or rather after we had a contest to see who could crack the most bones in their body and Jane politely asked if we could wait to be dicks until the morning.
Monday, January 26th
Jane had to get up at 5 AM to catch a bus back to Boston so she could make it to class in time. We actually all had class but Jane is apparently the only dedicated student in our band and we figured missing the first day for a show in Brooklyn was well worth it. I woke up around 7:30 when Jenn was leaving for work in order to move the car (8:00-9:30 street cleaning) and when I came back to the apartment, the bed had been annexed by Justin and Andrew. I took the floor and slept for most of the day, only getting up to eat a late breakfast and to watch D2 in it’s entirety.
On a side note, if you haven’t seen D2 recently I can’t reiterate enough how good of a movie it is and how necessary it is to watch it immediately. Sure the acting at times is atrocious, but the hilarious antics, Emilio Estevez, and the messages relayed in the film ( the anti-consumerism sentiment and the necessity to make a life over a living) more than make up for it.
After spending the day relaxing, we braved the cold to get take-out Chinese food from a freezing corner restaurant (the term “restaurant” used in the loosest sense of the word) with a completely unresponsive cashier who didn’t acknowledge the fact that we existed never mind that we wanted to order food. Regardless, after a while we got our food and headed back to the apartment to eat it before we drove the half mile distance down the street to Goodbye Blue Monday.
Goodbye Blue Monday, formerly the Trash Bar, is a bar/café decorated floor to ceiling with junk-art and old records. The decorations help to provide a creative atmosphere for all kinds of musical performances and movie screenings and it makes me wish we had something equivalent in our area. When we got there around 9, Alanna Fugate and Ray Rizzo started playing a split set of their respective solo songs. Alanna reminded me a lot of Ani Difranco in both the way she sang and her picking and strumming patterns in different open tunings. Ray is a little harder to pin down, but I remember Andrew and I looking at each other in mutual agreement that he was fantastic as soon as he started playing.
We played next what was to be our last set of the tour. Everything flew by so fast and it seemed like only earlier that day we were in Baltimore. We ended on a reasonably good note playing in front of a few of our good friends (Tovio and Kayne were there along with Jenn and Hannah) and since the show was streamed live online, everyone watching at home as well. At one point Andrew’s drum machine fell off the table, but remarkably didn’t break or even turn off.
We stuck around to see Tovio and Kayne play another brilliant set. Just from seeing them twice and listening to their CD a few times I was able to sing along to a bunch of their songs and anticipated the well constructed stories that accompanied them. It is really remarkable to me that Tovio and Kayne just travel around everywhere, making money doing street performances, and get by without so much as a car to take them from place to place.
After they finished we talked for a few minutes, met a new friend, Emily, who was originally from Ann Arbour (I have a theory that no one is originally from New York City) and packed up our stuff. We said goodbye to everyone, wished Tovio and Kayne luck in Europe, and saddled up for the 4 hour drive back home.
Andrew and I talked the whole ride while Justin was passed out in back. We made it safe and sound back in Lowell around 4 AM. Kevin was up waiting for us and we filled him in on what happened during the tour, though most of the stuff he had already heard since we had been texting him as it happened in return for random quotes from the movie “How High” (no, that’s the ivory).
This tour, though relatively short in time and distance traveled, has been life affirming for me. The ability to wake up somewhere new and play the music you love every night is something I will never take for granted. Being able to travel and see the people you love dispersed all around the place is something I will never cease to appreciate. I’ve already said my thank you’s to the people that made this tour both possible and exceptional but saying thank you is something that one should never hope to grow tired of, so—
Thank you to Tovio, Kayne, Ilanna, Gabby, Porter, Emily, Marcus, Sine, Rob Wilcox (you are our collective favorite person right now), Dan, Pat, and Devin (all of By Surprise), Scotty, Amanda, Kyle (Happy Birthday again), CJ, Shannon, Erin, Alixandra, Gilroy, Katie, the American Spirit guy, Jenn, Hannah, and everyone else we met who watched us, bought a CD, or said some words of encouragement.
Please listen to these bands/artists:
The Calliope of the Future ( myspace.com/thecalliopeofthefuture)
By Surprise ( myspace.com/bysurpriserock)
Sine (myspace.com/sinebean)
Factors of Four ( myspace.com/factorsoffour)
Pirouette ( myspace.com/pirouettemusic)
Alixandra & the Tailor Sea ( myspace.com/alixandratailorsea)
Monday, January 19, 2009
the Minus Scale - Hotter
I always have this nagging feeling that nothing new is coming out that music now is just a rehashing of the past. We’ve invented all the genres, covered all the chord progressions, and have come up with every possible instrumental combination. This is the pessimist in me. The optimist in me recognizes that regardless of whether or not this is the case, some bands are really good at what they do whether the ground has been covered previously or not.
The Minus Scale are really good at writing indie infused powerpop songs that are easily better than 95% of the shit they play currently on alternative stations. Hotter is their latest record, an 8 song long player-EP that sounds something like the Gin Blossom’s New Miserable Experience mashed together with the electro-dance elements of the Killer’s first album, Hot Fuss.
The issue is, this power pop-electro dance synthesis is not a perfect one, and really the Minus Scale are much better at the prior than the latter. You only need to listen to the first two songs on Hotter to understand what I mean. The first track “Hotter and Hotter and Hotter,” is a dancy little number set to a toe-tapping beat, but the vocals overextend themselves a bit and while the instrumentation is tight, the melodies are ultimately forgettable. However, the very next track, “Oh Disaster,” while not sacrificing any musical technicality, is absurdly catchy from the very first line, “Oh forgive me, if you’ve heard this one just stop me, stop me.” Lavasseur’s vocals are heartfelt, without being overdone; there is an underlying honesty that permeates through this record, and it only fails to come through when they are experimenting stylistically.
While the next song, “Trust” is forgettable in the same way as the first track is, the following track, “No Matter What I Say You’re Going to Do It” is the best song on the album. It starts at a slower pace and strummed guitars allow the vocal narrative to take the foreground. Lavasseur sings about the party scene and the alcohol induced disillusionment that comes with it, “We’re taking shots off the counter, we’re taking shots at each other.” Ultimately though, it’s a song about unrequited love and our willingness to endure, “Even now, in the deepest depths of doubt, there is no other one. You could take me downtown, you could take me out now. Your public is waiting, your hands are shaking, but we’re walking steady in a straight line.” The song gets dancy, builds up to a yelled out chorus, and concludes with a piano outro.
In the next four songs (labeled Side B on the back of the CD insert), the Minus Scale seem content in sticking to their guns with really good indie-rock inspired powerpop songs that are well constructed musically and well written lyrically. “Say What You Mean” makes me want to mimic the lead guitar with Bill & Ted air fingertaps. Side B makes me think of I’m Sorry About Tomorrow Hot Rod Circuit, soaring guitars paired with catchy vocals that avoid clever-clever wordplay and opt instead for real life inspired confessionals.
Ultimately, I think Hotter would be stronger as a 6-song EP, omitting the well intentioned, though ultimately contrived, pseudo-dance stuff. It’s not that track 1 or 3 is bad, all the songs are well-written, and it could be my personal preference, but it just feels like the Minus Scale are just better at writing songs like “Oh Disaster,” and the concluding track, “I Can’t Stop Laughing,” which are both catchy and sincere without overextending themselves into unknown territory.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Everyone Everywhere- A Lot of Weird People Standing Around
I wish I had the musical hindsight to appreciate some of the amazing music produced throughout the 1990’s while it was happening. Of course at the time I was busy trying to imitate Jonathan Davis, of Korn, and actually believed that music couldn’t get any better than Limp Bizkit’s 3 Dolla Bill Y’all. Tragic really. It was only much after the fact, well into the 2000’s, that I discovered the Promise Ring, Texas is the Reason, Braid, and Mineral. At that point they were all disbanded (though I did witness the Braid reunion tour and the final Texas is the Reason show). Regardless, I can appreciate bands that pick up where the 90’s indie-emo scene left off and wholeheartedly support any band that can actually expand on it. Philadelphia’s Everyone Everywhere, are, in many ways, the new flag bearers of 90’s emo (the poppier end of it anyway), and they are running with it.
I picked up a copy of their 7”, A Lot of Weird People Standing Around when my band played a show a couple weeks ago with them and their Pennsylvania/New Jersey cohorts, Pirouette and By Surprise. After listening to the 4-song EP several dozens of times (it actually hasn’t left my living room record player) I can say assuredly that it’s really fucking good.
The EP opens with “Everyhow Everythere” which is a perfect introduction to the band; bright guitars strumming through the tap-your-toes bass/percussion. The lyrics are simplistic, and though at times vapid , “Everyone’s everywhere when you’re stuck at home in your underwear,” the minimalist sentiment works for them and at points during the album, borders on profound (see Cool Pool Keg Toss Pete). The next song on side A, “Thermal Dynamics” is equally as brilliant; bittersweet and longing without sounding whiny (“Am I letting out the heat or am I letting all the cold air in?”).
Side B, is even better. “Cool Pool Keg Toss Pete,” is my personal favorite (it’s already made it’s way to a mix tape). Every time I hear it I think it should be in one of those party movies where lots of ridiculous stuff happens, yet, in the end everyone learns a bunch of really important stuff and is a better person for it. On one level the song is about one of those ridiculous parties, “Do a dance you’ll regret in the morning, do flips off the diving board with your clothes on…I’m glad you have a pool because we’re going to need somewhere to throw the empty keg and store our lawn chairs.” On another level the song is the acknowledgement that life could be completely different somewhere else, that the world is bigger than your friends and hometown. A friend comes back from spending a year abroad and the lyricist wonders, “Are things like this in Germany? The parties? Everything?” The vocals are propelled by fantastic guitar work, humming, building, and coming to a crescendo at the song’s conclusion.
Everyone Everywhere has their shit together. They are tight and inventive, every song memorable in both melody and technique. There is no weak link in A Lot of Weird People Standing Around, it’s a well constructed record that expresses both the wonder and confusion of growing up and living as a twenty-something in suburban America. It is reminiscent of Nothing Feels Good era Promise Ring, yet isn’t a carbon copy, presenting Everyone Everywhere as a band capable of getting nostalgic about the past, looking forward to the future, and spending the meantime partying, having fun, and writing great music.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Math the Band - Tour de Friends
A few weeks ago I read an article reviewing the previous Math the Band record, Banned the Math. The author charged Math with writing music that is, “brainless, grating, and a chore to listen to,” which Kevin, the lead vocals/guitar/programming half of Math, took as some kind of backhanded compliment to be displayed proudly as their myspace headline.
I, on the contrary, think Math the Band is brilliant, and even at their very worst, undeniably entertaining. I challenge anyone who has witnessed their live show to say the opposite. I’ve seen tough crowds burst into dance, or sometimes speechless awe, when confronted with the electro-but-not-quite-nintendo tracks, the yelled out chant-along mantras, and the relentless fun loving charisma of Kevin and Justine.
Tour de Friends is their latest endeavor and though not as ambitious length-wise as their previous record, certainly smarter in song composition. The EP begins with “Hang Out/Hang Ten” an ADD dance track that crescendos into the fist pumping chant, “everybody have fun tonight!”
The album continues at a manic pace (I’m dancing as I type this), but the next track “Almost!” just doesn’t aptly demonstrate Math the Band’s ability to construct catchy vocal hooks. The one major weakness of this album is that the vocals are at times incomprehensible, like someone yelling into a telephone with loud noise in the background.
Despite the at times unnecessary vocal distortion, the next track, “Cardboard Room,” is one of my favorites. The song is about when Kevin and his roommate covered their apartment in cardboard hoping to set a Guinness world record and become famous. The track also features one of the best synth lines ever conceptualized, that is by humans, which nicely bridges the song together.
The EP ends, though there are actually two secret songs, with the title track. “Tour de Friends” encapsulates the progress Math the Band has made in the past few years of existence. It has the characteristic electronic let’s-dance-like-idiots feel, but underneath is a well constructed rock-it-in-the-right-places pop song. I’m not entirely sure what the song is about in terms of subject matter but I have had the line, “What’s the deal with the horses?” stuck in my head the better part of this week.
Tour de Friends is a well constructed, and good intentioned, EP that will have you up and dancing the entire 13 minutes of duration. Though it displays some of Math’s enviable talent, I’m expecting the next album to more wholeheartedly encompass the incessant energy and brilliance of their live show. If I used stars I’d say this album is roughly a 3.5 out of 5.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Legitimacy - An Introduction
Hunter S. Thompson once said that, “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture- it’s really a stupid thing.” We can never truly convey the experience of listening to music through word; the millions of little nuances and intricacies in song cannot be replicated by the pen. However large the disparity between word and song, I believe it is a worthwhile endeavor to try to connect them. There are hundreds of music magazines in existence, both in print and online, and millions of people who read them, which suggest I am not alone in my thinking.
With the advent of the internet, and the rise of blogging as a means of conveying and critiquing information, there has been a recurring question of legitimacy in regards to the online world. John Doe creates a music blog and starts reviewing music; hypes some bands and dismisses others—consciously evaluates the art created by others. But who the fuck is John Doe, and, does it matter? He, or she (let’s not be presumptuous), could be a 16 year old high-school dropout writing in his parent’s basement, located in
But let’s assume, for the sake of argument, the first blogger is a better writer; more honest, more descriptive, and with a better sense of humor. The internet, albeit full of bad information and porn, presents us with voices that would otherwise go unheard. This goes for writing, this goes for music, and I suspect this goes for a myriad of other fields. The internet levels the playing field; you don’t need a piece of paper from a college saying you’re qualified or to have someone on the inside to get you in.
The major problem we encounter now is that there is just too much fucking information coming at us from all directions. This forces us to not only function as readers but as critics as well. The task can be daunting but the ability to seek alternate truths, not present in mainstream media, is worthwhile compensation. The notion that we, as people, no longer must rely on bourgeoisie owned mediums for information, is undeniably important in our development as individuals and as a unified class.
If you’re not convinced, still need some background information, a list of credentials if you will, here you are. My name is Shawn Massak and I am 21 years old. I live in Lowell, Massachusetts and am finishing up my senior year at UMass Lowell where I will be graduating with a Bachelor’s in English Literature. I have been involved in the local music since I was 15, singing in various bands, and booking and promoting shows for nearly as long under the umbrella name of Mass Recovery Promotions. Here are some links:
Mass Recovery- Booking/Promotions and sometimes a label.
Andrew Hall- A hall that has been transformed into an all ages venue of sorts in
Coalmine Canary- My current project- Indie/Folk/Electro-Pop.
Shawn Massak- A page for my poems, spoken word and in print.
In this blog, I’m going to write album reviews. These are records I picked up at local shows or were sent to me by the artist. Sometimes I’m going to write about my friends’ bands, and while I don’t believe there is a such thing as objectivity, I’m going to do my best to critique the actual work and to remember that, “The singer and the song are separate.” (Moment – Endall) I’m going to try to write a review for everything that comes to me, and if you want me to write about your record, send it to me at:
Shawn Massak
Questions/ Concerns as well as all love letters and hate mail can be sent to:
-Shawn Massak
In the Next Month:
Math the Band – Tour de Friends
The Bynars—00111100 00110011 EP
The Minus Scale—Hotter
Everyone Everywhere—A Lot of Weird People Standing Around
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