Month: November 2012

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Don’t Follow Me (I’m Lost): NYC Premiere

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Don't Follow Me (I'm Lost) Bobby Bare Jr documentary poster

 

As people continue to salvage their homes and lives, life in New York continues on. (You may slow New York down, but you will not stop it.) And this Sunday, November 11, the Bobby Bare, Jr., documentary Don’t Follow Me (I’m Lost) will be seeing its NYC premiere as a part of the DOC NYC festival.

The film will be screening at 9:30 p.m. on November 11 at the IFC Center and will include a Q & A with Bobby Bare, Jr., and director/producer/director of photography William Miller. You can purchase tickets here.

There will be an additional screening at the IFC Center on Thursday, November 15 at 9:00 p.m. Tickets are available here. Bobby Bare, Jr., will not be at this second screening, but he will be playing a show down the way at the Mercury Lounge. (Note: the show is a separate ticket.)

A portion of the proceeds for the Don’t Follow Me (I’m Lost) screening will go to Sandy disaster relief. For more details, e-mail bbjrdoc@gmail.com

 

Don’t Follow Me (I’m Lost) Official Website

Don’t Follow Me (I’m Lost) @ Twitter

Don’t Follow Me (I’m Lost) @ Facebook

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Candidate, Psychic Dissonance from the Unself

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Do not be fooled by the title of this record. It might sound terribly heavy and serious, but really it’s a collection of jams that stretch across the mellow-bouncy spectrum. There’s some fuzz but no drag, which is an intriguing change of pace, and draws me back to it over and over again.

For example:
 

 

 
Candidate is: Cedric Sparkman (Vocals), Laurence Adams (Lead Guitar), Jason Matuskiewicz (Bass), Chris Infusino (Drums) and Justin Craig (Guitar, Synth), and they are from Brooklyn.

They survived New York’s recent Weather Event unscathed, but the studio where they recorded the record – Translator Audio – was completely destroyed.

To encourage donations to hurricane relief, they will be giving a free copy of the record to anyone who sends them an email with the subject line “I donated.” They solemnly swear no spam shall be forthcoming, only delicious music.

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Build A Fortress Around My Tears: Picardy III, Lonely Songs

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Lonely Songs, by Picardy III, a musical collective led by James Summers of Austin, Texas, starts with a spoken word track, As You Climb The Mountain, which sets the mood for the rest of the record: quiet, meditative, embued with the quality of sadness that goes with rain on foggy windowsills and low, heavy skies, but can be banished by a warm cup of tea.

And what comes after the introduction is music that called me out of my bedroom, away from my unpacking of bags and boxes of things lately liberated from storage, that said: I require your full attention. You have to listen carefully.

The record is officially out in January 2013, but a partial version is available for free for a limited time from both bandcamp and Noisetrade.

The Noisetrade download also includes a special bonus track, a folk-rock cover of What Is Love by Haddaway, and, you guys, never has a club banger been so magnificently transformed into a mournful lament.

As encouragement/enticement, here are a couple of his tunes: Going (The Lonely Song) is the first single; Ever Be is the one that punched me right in the heart.
 

 

 

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Mutts: Separation Anxiety

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Mutts, Now That's Class, Cleveland, Ohio

 

Your teeth are diamond studded
You’re always smilin’ at me
When I ain’t got any teeth

 

 

Happy Voting Day, friends! This lyric from the Mutts song “Washington (Still) Owns People”, from their album Separation Anxiety, seemed like an appropriate way to start this Election Day post.

I’ve been putting this post off for a while because I’ve had a difficult time getting a handle on exactly how to talk about their music. I was intrigued by the album from the start – it’s hard not to be when an album starts with a rhythmic, imaginative gem like “So Many, So Many” that makes you want to find a bucket and a wooden spoon so you can beat along.

 

 

But then they bring in the amped instruments, and things get complicated. Elements of rock, hardcore, progressive, thrash, funk, blues all throw in together for a meaty stew in songs that lyrically explore subjects from politics to religion to maintaining a romantic relationship as a touring musician.

 

 

It’s a compelling mess (and I mean that in the best way) Mutts are making here, never falling into cookie cutter parameters or imitation. Many of the elements used are familiar, but the direction these elements are taken is not, and that keeps your attention, wondering where Mutts will go next.

My favorite song on the album is the title/closing track that leads in like a raise-the-rafters gospel stomper, but then devolves into a drunken, shambling barroom sing-a-long.

 

 

The digital version of Separation Anxiety is available on a name-your-price basis, and CD and vinyl version are available for just a little scratch, including the beautiful “Mending Wall” LP.

Now here’s the part that really excites me: Separation Anxiety was funded in a Kickstarter campaign as part of a double-album deal. The second album, Object Permanence, will be an acoustic album and a sampler listen shows the album running in a vein similar to “So Many, So Many” and “Separation Anxiety”, so keep your ear to the ground for that one.

 

Mutts Official Website

Mutts @ Twitter

Mutts @ Facebook

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Mosey West, Merica and Vaca Money

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Mosey West are: Mike McGraw (vocals, bass), Adam Brown (vocals, guitar, harmonica), Matt Weitz (drums, piano) and Cody Russell (Pedal Steel/Banjo/Dobro), they are from Fort Collins, Colorado, and they play some A++ folk/rock.

They have two EPs out right now, Merica and Vaca Money, both of which are – for a limited time only! – available for free at bandcamp.

Some highlights / personal favorites of mine:
 

 

 

 

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Old English, We’ve Been Here Before

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A song for all those times you knew better, but didn’t care. Or, a brief essay on how new and interesting pain is sometimes also old and familiar pain, hearts and flowers edition, by Old English.
 

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Postcards from the Pit: The Darkness / The Dirty Pearls / Sweatheart, 10/22/12

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This show fell into the time period I refer to as “Halloween or Tuesday?”, in which, due to New York’s ah, vibrant populace, it is sometimes hard to tell if the person / group of people wearing what appear to be costumes are on their way to/from a Halloween party, or if they customarily rig themselves out in, say, top-hats, tails and corsets just to make a quick run up to the store.

So when Sweatheart came out in their vaguely Medieval-looking outfits, you could probably see the Hmmm thought bubble floating above the crowd. I wasn’t really sure but was willing to come down on the side of Halloween. (I was also wondering what The Darkness would come up with as Halloween costumes.)

As soon as the next band came on, though, it became apparent that we were not at a Halloween show, and snakeskin bodystockings, furry cuffs and monk robes were just Tuesday for Sweatheart. (Or Sunday night, as the case may be.) I appreciate that kind of ridiculousness in a band. They had excellent tunes, too, raunchy and hilarious in equal measure and driven by big crunchy riffs. And to top it all off they had a puppet playing the keyboards:
 

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The Dirty Pearls were next, and they swung the pendulum back a hair or two in the direction of Very Serious Heavy Metal. They also had great tunes, including a particularly good ballad. (Heavy metal love songs are my weakness, yes they are.)
 
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And then it was time for The Darkness. I really love The Darkness. They have all of the things I love(d) about glam metal – sing along choruses, shredding, big riffs, ridiculous outfits – and they manage to, I don’t know – revive? celebrate? acknowledge? – the genre in a way that’s playful, knowing, and funny but not mocking. Attending their show is a genuine joy, from overhearing serious discussions about Poison in the line to joining the crowd in singing along to a A Thing Called Love.
 
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Postcards from the Pit: JJAMZ and Beast Patrol, the Studio at Webster Hall, 10/19/12

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One of these years I will get myself together and actually acquire a CMJ pass. This year was not that year. That said, while I only saw two CMJ sets, they were very good sets.

The event I attended was the CAA Showcase in the Studio at Webster Hall, and the first band was Beast Patrol, from Brooklyn. Beast Patrol are much heavier, aggressive, and face-melty live than they are recorded. Seriously, the music they have on-line is a shadow of their live show. They can shred.
 

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Sample track:
 
Disbeliever by beastpatrol
 

And then, switching genres at CMJ’s traditional breakneck speed, it was time for JJAMZ, of Los Angeles, who were their usual delightful power-poppy selves:
 

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Sample track via their latest video, which I love because it is a lyric video with French subtitles that uses mashed up footage from B-movies and anti-drug PSAs from the ’50s and ’60s:
 

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Friday Link Session

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  • The Kickstarter for Danny Says, the documentary about Danny Fields mentioned here a few weeks ago, has 15 days left as of this posting.
  • Fiachna Ó Braonáin of Hothouse Flowers has been cultivating a television and radio career the past few years, and he’s currently hosting a great weekly program on Irish radio station 100-102 Today FM called Poetic Champions Compose. Each program focuses on a classic Irish album and includes interview clips and background stories as well as music. Featured artists include the Pogues, the Boomtown Rats, Thin Lizzy, My Bloody Valentine, and more. You can listen via the web every Sunday through December 2, and past programs are being posted to the site.
  • The Dad Horse Experience recorded a Daytrotter session! I’m so excited to see one of my favorite NTSIB discoveries getting coverage in the wider world.
  • Check out a great NPR Tiny Desk Concert from Dirty Three. Beautiful sounds! Warren Ellis standing on someone’s desk! Thanks to friend and guest blogger Brucini at the Black Keys Fan Lounge for bringing it to my attention.