After a productive afternoon of record shopping and conversation with The Casket Girls at Som Records, we meet up with the eerie-pop act from Savannah Georgia at DC9 to catch their live show and capture a few photos of the ladies in action.
What seemed like a revolving cast of interchangeable band-mates through the night’s four-band line-up was in actuality a roving tour of musicians that play together on each other’s sets seamlessly. The guitarist from the third band was the bassist for the first, the guitar player from the first group played keyboard in the fourth band’s set, and so on. I even think the drummer played on three out of four sets that night. It was obvious that this tour was a tight-knit operation, and all the musicians played extremely well together.
Coined as the “Graveface Roadshow 2014,” the evening’s line-up included The Casket Girls, The Stargazer Lillies, Dreamend, and special guests Creepoid.
With a single featured on the show Parenthood, and an album called his “strongest effort yet,” I’d say that even after ten years in the industry, folk singer-songwriter Brett Dennen is still going strong.
Dennen began his music career in 2004. Two years later, after the release of his second album, So Much More, the Californian artist landed in the spotlight, earning comparisons to artists Paul Simon and Tom Petty. Dennen recently released his fifth studio album, titled Smoke and Mirrors. Released last October, the album marks Dennen’s return to the acoustic, folk sound that launched his career nearly ten years ago.
Dennen is currently on tour, performing in venues across the country before heading to Europe later in the year. As a part of the US leg of tour, Dennen is playing at the 9:30 Club on Wednesday, February 26, and we’re giving away a pair of tickets.
It’s been a rotten winter in New Jersey. It snows, and then it snows some more, and then it stops occasionally to sleet. Someone has broken the handle on the weather machine.
Going to shows in the winter, in this winter can be a daunting task, something you can easily talk yourself out of when you match the joy of digging your car out with the hazards of catching pneumonia and breaking your tailbone on a patch of ice. I can fully understand employing a “see you in April” policy when it comes to any extra-curricular activities.
But I’m here to tell you this Saturday is not the time to hibernate. James Dewee (Get Up Kids) is bringing his schizophrenic, synth-punk trip Reggie and the Full Effect to Asbury Lanes to promote their latest release No Country for Old Musicians. The album (their first in five years and available on vinyl) was financed through a Kickstarter campaign last spring.
I don’t know if the great soul singer remembers, but she played during Carnival at least once before. It was at the Muses Ball back in 2009 and she threw down. She returns to New Orleans for a show at the House of Blues on Saturday night.
Jones has faced some medical problems recently, but she bounced back with a strong new album, Give the People What They Want, which is getting rave reviews. I checked it out and loved it.
However, despite the ace production and great songs, her strengths are in performance. The band grooves and supports her regardless of the tune, and she brings the songs alive with passion and power.
Greater Manchester’s most in the know radio host Shell Zenner broadcasts the best new music every week on the UK’s Amazing Radio and Bolton FM. You can also catch Shell’s broadcast right here at TVD, each and every Thursday.
“On this weeks show my ROTW is ‘Keel Her’ by the lady of the same name KEEL HER. I’ll be playing three gorgeous songs from the album on the show and letting you hear exactly why Fire Records were bang on the money to sign her up.
I’ll also have that new feature to share with you the #shellshock, a song that simply stopped me in my tracks when I first heard it—a kind of track of the week if you will. It was a tough call this week but an old school soul feeling from Cody ChestnuTT made any other decision frankly stoooopid.
There will be the usual accompaniment of new and emerging music as I spin some of the best new alt releases from Beaty Heart, Novella, Sister, Superfood, The Bohicas, Connan Mockasin, Antlers, and more. Love music? Don’t miss it.” —SZ
A beautiful eccentric residing in mid-20th century NYC, Louis Thomas Hardin aka Moondog also possessed extraordinary musical vision. An associate of Leonard Bernstein, Arturo Toscanini, and Charlie Parker, a collaborator with Julie Andrews and the Brooklyn Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, a key influence on the minimalism of Philip Glass and Steve Reich, covered by Janis Joplin, Kronos Quartet, and Antony and the Johnsons; there was truly nobody else like him. After a handful of singles and EPs his long-playing debut arrived with 1956’s Moondog.
A simply fantastic photograph of Moondog is used for the jacket of the 2LP compilation The Viking of Sixth Avenue; it finds him on a ‘50s Gotham street corner standing in front of a lamppost and decked out in full regalia. He cuts quite an appealing figure, but what makes the snap such a kick is the older couple passing by on his left side.
For other than Dwight and Mamie, one would be hard-pressed to find a better, or perhaps I should say more stereotypical, representation of Eisenhower-era America. The contrast between Moondog and this strolling pair is so sharp that the cynic in me has occasionally suspected the pic was staged in an attempt to play-up the legendary composer’s unconventionality.
This is not to insinuate that Moondog’s image was some sort of con. To the contrary, the legit uniqueness of the man’s background rivals that of sui generis American boho-hobo Harry Partch. Born in 1916, Hardin lived in Kansas, Wyoming, Missouri, Iowa, Arkansas, and Tennessee, with exposure to Native American tribal ceremonies having a profound effect on his art. After moving to NYC in 1943 he lived as a street musician and sporadic recording artist until the early ‘70s.
Valentines Day: as old lovers and new young couples lined the streets of our lovely city holding hands and walking closely to one another, a large crowd gathered in the foyer of George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium.
The smiling faces and soft whispers in the crowd were a definite sign of everyone’s anticipation for the night’s upcoming show. Love was in the air, and the wide-eyed show-goers were all there to see the talented and lovely Rosanne Cash, whom we also interviewed a few weeks ago.
Her presence on stage was warm and inviting as she confidently walked out to greet the packed auditorium.
As she strummed the first chord on her guitar, you could just see by the look in her eyes that she brings the same love to greet her fans that she puts into her music.
Everyone’s favorite Brit is back. You might remember him, the former lead singer of The Smiths turned top-charting solo artist. Yes, it’s Morrissey, and in honor of his recently announced 25-date tour around the United States and updated releases of Your Arsenal and “Satellite of Love,” we’re giving away a prize pack.
Morrissey began his career as lead vocalist for The Smiths, one of the most important alternative rock bands to emerge during the ’80s. After deciding to go solo, Morrissey released an album that sent his career stratospheric in the US, titled Your Arsenal, highlighting Morrissey’s sharper pop/rock glam vibe and landing him recognition by the Grammys for Best Alternative Album in 1992.
This Tuesday, February 25, Your Arsenal will be available on CD/DVD. “Satellite of Love,” a tribute to the late and great Lou Reed released on January 28, is currently available as a 12″ single and a 7” picture disc with previously unreleased live tracks of Morrissey and a rare Renaud Monfourny photo of the singer.
In sixth grade we were assigned to enact a scene from our favorite book. I decided, no kidding, to enact the leg amputation scene from 30 Seconds Over Tokyo. I sat in a chair at the front of the room, said grimly, “I’m ready,” then commenced to scream bloody murder. For like two minutes. Needless to say, I freaked out both teacher and fellow students, and flunked to boot. I still think it was a gross miscarriage of justice. It was, after all, my favorite scene. And I may well, at that moment, have invented performance art.
In hindsight, I wish I’d had Rocket From The Tombs’ musical psychodrama “30 Seconds Over Tokyo” to enact that day—that really would have messed with some heads. Or “Life Stinks,” “Sonic Reducer,” “Final Solution,” or any of the other great tunes the seminal punk band wrote and played live during its brief heyday (from mid-1974 to mid-1975) in Cleveland’s green and pleasant land.
Rocket From The Tombs—whose “classic” line-up included Peter Laughner on guitar and vocals, David Thomas aka Crocus Behemoth on vocals and alto sax, Craig Willis Bell on bass, Gene O’Connor aka Cheetah Chrome on guitar, and Johnny “Blitz” Madansky on drums—was originally a Thomas “joke” band until Laughner joined and talked Thomas into getting serious. RFFT played out rarely, and bequeathed us only demos, live recordings, and several radio broadcasts, being too shaky an edifice to ever record a real album.
The band was divided by factionalism (i.e., art punks vs. pure punkers), arguments over Thomas’ singing abilities, and drug problems, the common cold of rock bands. Chrome recalls a desperate attempt to mend fences at Thomas’ parents’ farm in Pennsylvania: “For one brief weekend the bucolic setting of Franklin, PA was disturbed by loud music, gunfire, a drunk pig, and drunker Rockets.” But RFFT’s problems proved insoluble, and the band finally packed it in following a gig at The Viking Saloon.
Local songstress Katie Frank and her band of rowdy Pheromones take over Milkboy this Friday night to celebrate their new album, Counting Your Curses. We were able to catch up with Katie and two members of the Pheromones, Josh Werblun and Jon McNally on the inner-workings behind their latest record.
In just the short amount of time that has passed so far in 2014, the buzz behind, Counting Your Curses, the upcoming album from Katie Frank and the Pheromones, has quickly built to become one of the most anticipated new albums from within the Philadelphia music scene. The clever songwriting, soaked in a rustic Americana sound, has matured from their debut EP “Covered Bridge Road.”
On Friday, February 21st Katie Frank and the Pheromones will unveil to the world what they have been hard at work for much of the last year. WXPN, one of the leaders in Philadelphia radio, has taken a like to Katie Frank and company ever since getting a taste of “Covered Bridge Road.” Other local press outlets picked up on them as well and after a break out year in 2013, Katie Frank and the Pheromones have their sights set on making 2014 even better. This record release show is only the beginning.
It’s a fact of Carnival life—the ancient celebration continues to evolve as the latest generation gets into the act. Hitting the streets for the second time, this new all-female marching krewe will be appearing in four parades in 2014: the Krewes of Freret (February 22), Nyx (February 26), Tucks (March 1), and Thoth (March 2). The Big Fun Brass Band provides their musical accompaniment.
This year they pay homage to places long gone but not forgotten, to the theme of “Ain’t Dere No More.” Once-familiar scenes from all around New Orleans and outlying areas are depicted in perlage within the intricately hand-beaded bustiers and headdresses. See images below of perlage depicting the Dew Drop Inn and the Funky Butt.
Led by Dames Julie Lodato O’Day and Christine Clouatre, the group seeks primarily to respect and help preserve the art of perlage—French for beadwork—used by royalty, captains of traditional Mardi Gras krewes, and, of course, Big Chiefs, Spy Boys, Wild Men, and other members of the Mardi Gras Indian tribes of New Orleans.
The remastered and augmented edition of Indoor Living hits racks next week as the second installment commemorating Merge Records’ admirable 25th anniversary in the biz of quality music production. It also returns to print an LP that’s initial release inspired a diversity of reactions, from vociferous praise to the promulgation of the notion that Superchunk had outlived their usefulness and overstayed their welcome. The band is still alive and well 17 years later, and this reissue underscores that one of the most important elements in the evaluation of any worthy album is time.
Naturally, this fresh version of Indoor Living will serve a variety of functions; some will use it as an introduction while others will seize the occasion to get reacquainted with a disc they once knew and maybe even loved but somehow lost track of as the years passed by. Additionally, a sizable number of consumers will repurchase Indoor Living for the physical upgrade, many retiring terribly battered compact discs as younger fans jump at the chance to acquire a copy on sturdy 180gm vinyl.
In every instance, smart cookies. And for writer Anna Marie Cox, it allowed for a reconsideration of the record she reviewed in Spin magazine upon its first release. That might seem dissimilar to the other examples listed above, but what they all share, either now or at some point in the indefinite future, is a relationship to memory.
So please allow this humble reporter to add to the mountain of remembrance. To begin, I’ll make no attempt to obscure my belief that Superchunk is simply one of indie rock’s finest long-serving representatives. Self-deprecating yet driven and confident in a manner that can only derive from a healthy artistic ego, as their releases have amassed, the group has also been extremely cognizant over what exactly it is they do well.
PHOTOS: RICHIE DOWNS | Cloaked in a black, pointy hooded cape and resembling a haunted porcelain-faced clown, Nvek Ogre emerged, huddled under a dirty yellow umbrella. He shielded himself from the audience in dramatic tension as The Fillmore Silver Spring’s long-awaited Skinny Puppyshow began. A flood of images projected not only onto the band, but a tiled series of screens behind them. The effect was cinematic and intensely visceral and paired perfectly with the band’s iconic electronic sound.
It’s been eight years since Skinny Puppy have released any music or toured. The current line-up is a far cry from the original line-up, lacking Dwayne Goettel on keys, but at least contains seminal members Nvek Ogre and cEvin Key. Skinny Puppy’s new material is cleaner and not as experimental or heavy as the earlier catalog, but this doesn’t detract from a brutal and theatrical performance from the current line-up. Army of the Universe and DC’s Technophobia joined them for the magical evening.
With a dozen studio albums and two current releases, the Vancouver BC group had a lot of material to choose from to perform. With the release of two current albums, it was anticipated that the set would consist of newer material, and that was the case for the most part. They opened with “Illisit,” off of their recent 2013 release Weapon, and launched into a few songs off The Greater Wrong of the Right. The set included classics such as “Warlock,” which samples Charles Manson mid-song, saying, “Now is the only thing that’s real,” “Spazmolytic” off Too Dark Park, and “Curcible” off The Process.
On Saturday night at the Black Cat, Cibo Matto played a show filled with ’90s nostalgia to a crowd enthusiastically welcoming back this eclectic electronic band after a decade-long absence from the stage.
The two founding members of Cibo Matto, Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori, are Japanese expats living in New York. It’s been seventeen years since the release of their debut album, Viva! La Woman. It was weird and electronic and progressive for 1996, a thematic album with an unusual focus—food. While the band added additional members for their second album, 1999’s Stereo * Type A, their newest effort is the work of the original two members.
Hotel Valentine was released the night before their show at the Black Cat, giving fans little time to preview the band’s evolution—or lack thereof. If the neon, psychedelic video for “MFN,” released well before the album in December 2013, was any indication, Cibo Matto is just as weirdly avant-garde as it was in the 1990s. But it also left the obvious question intact—will their new music and live show hold up in 2014? Will the nostalgia for ’90s clubs be enough to keep them relevant today?
“I think I have to come on out and say it; as the only child of a working class family in far West Texas, I didn’t grow up with vinyl. I’ve always loved music, though, and we listened to the radio a lot.”
“That was back in the days before Marfa Public Radio. There was one country station in Alpine that streamed from 6am to 10pm. I would lie in bed past my bedtime and quietly listen to those last songs around 9:45 before they would play the national anthem. Then the waves were down until dawn.
I do remember the first time I saw a record at age five. It was that sexy scene in Dirty Dancing where Johnny puts on an Otis Redding song and things heat up with him and Baby. I fell in love with soul music then and still am obsessed with Otis Redding.
I left West Texas for the Pacific Northwest in 2000 and got into the independent record store scene pretty quick. It just sort of happened. I must have been good at convincing the owners to hire me. So I began collecting. New, used, inherited, found, classical, rock and roll, whatever. If it was good, I kept it.
