The Kneads – Letting You Let Me Down (PotLuck Foundation/Records)

Greensboro’s The Kneads are a band haunted by ghosts of the past… specifically early to mid ‘90s indie ghosts.  And that’s fine by me, because for all that era’s resurgence in popularity, I’ve heard few new bands actually continuing to mine the vein. 

Which is not to say they’re derivative.  It might sound like they wear their influences on their sleeves.  People (even their press kit) cite influences like local heroes Superchunk, as well as DC post-hardcore band Fugazi.  I also hear Midwestern acts like Poster Children and Braid, and another great DC band, Jawbox.   But these can’t rightfully be called influences.  Members of The Kneads were playing in indie bands of some note back then (going back to The Raymond Brake), so they were really more contemporaries.  Now, with The Kneads, they’re just continuing to do what they’ve always done. 

The thing about “indie guitar rock” is, it’s a vein with plenty more left to tap.  When done well (and The Kneads do it well), it’s not just thrashing of guitars with a melody buried in the din.  Within the simple guitar-bass-drums dynamic (here, sometimes guitar-guitar-drums), there’s ample opportunity for the unexpected:  complex instrumental and vocal interplay, surprising chord and tempo changes, etc.  And the unexpected, for me, is what makes music worth listening to. 

Their debut CD, Letting You Let Me Down (great title, btw), on Durham’s PotLuck, is full of dense, dissonant guitars, with unanticipated little twists and turns embedded throughout.  The first cut, North and South of Temperament, is a perfect example.  The bridge slows and slips you into a completely different melody -- almost a different song entirely -- before resuming the driving hook that opened the song.  Call-and-response lyrics here, and in other tunes like Persistence Changes Everything, add yet another layer.  I do hear Fugazi in Persistence and a few other places, but the similarity is more vocal (courtesy bassist/guitarist Michael Joncas) than musical.   No, check that.  Maybe also in the jazz-ish complexity of the instrumentation.  While there are more straightforward head-bobbers like Jaded and Rejuvenated and Toto Recall (and more great titles), they always have a more-than-par-for-the-course intricacy, often via syncopated rhythms from drummer Joe Garrigan.  

Toto Recall and Microcelebrity visit the music scenes of yesterday and today, respectively.  The former flashes back to the summer of ’95, post-adolescence, and self-doubt, twisting Tom Petty’s discontented lyric into the more open-ended, even optimistic (?), “start draggin’ my heart around”.  It then pleasantly ventures into a little psychedelic spacey-ness near the end.  Microcelebrity bemoans the current crop of “pseudo-indierock” bands trying to claim the overused mantle.  With indie having long-since become a buzz-word, guitarist Joel Darden laments singers that have “no virtues to extoll / just cheap-ass hood-rat dime-store rock’n’roll” and have “read the Pitchfork poll”.  Or… is he one of them?  Self-doubt, it seems, is always there. 

At the end of Microcelebrity, Interpol-esque guitars devolve into still more spacey sounds, before the space theme becomes lyrically overt in I Miss Your Underdog Days.  I must say this one had me flashing back to Poster Children’s Junior Citizen, with all the mission control terminology, though it’s more relationship than music metaphor (“Did you wake up in the thermosphere?  It don’t matter, get your ass back here!”).  Fistful of Contradictions brings it way down with an almost experimental number, answering-machine “vocals” struggling from underneath acoustic strumming and chiming electric.  Then the album returns to the rawk with its driving closer, the Fugazi-meets-Smashing Pumpkins Frames.   

Of course, there’s yet another surprise at the end… and not just because it’s a hidden track (and, due to the chorus of “Not gonna let you let me down”, I assume the title track).  It veers WAY left into a twangy, reverb-laden, light-pop vibe, and it’s a wonderful way to (actually) close the album.  Don’t touch your dial until it ends! 

Overall, Letting You Let Me Down is a nice bridge between hardcore & indie-rock, from a band clearly schooled in these genres, but smart enough to mix it up throughout to keep it interesting.   

Jenny Besetzt - "Teenage Lions" (Video)

Greensboro's Jenny Besetzt perform Teenage Lions from their CD, Only, at Duke Coffeehouse in Durham, NC. (1/18/13)

Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands - Muses and Bones

When I first listened to this CD two or three of months ago, it immediately struck me as the best NC album I'd heard since the Love Language's Libraries (the recent T0W3RS release is in that mix now, too). Now, to qualify that, I hardly listen to every release from every local band, and there's a plethora of great recordings coming out around here every year.  So before gushing ridiculously, I thought I'd wait awhile and let it digest. Plus I hadn't yet gotten back into the milieu of CD reviews. Since then, however, I've reviewed a few good local releases, and this one is way overdue.  So now for the ridiculous gushing...

Muses and Bones is, quite simply, a stunningly beautiful collection of music. But you need to give it time. It starts with a deceptively upbeat tone, and if you don't get past the first two or three songs, you're won't get the full breadth of this album. On the opener, Especially Your Mother, the accordion gets moving, and it feels like a party is starting. Crystal sings of a spirited flirtation destined to failure ("You walked around me to see what's on the other side, what's behind / you walked beside me and before you walked out the door, I adored you").  But in a playful -- and danceable -- way, the idea of being stuck in an unhealthy relationship, and the difficulty one has in finding the strength to extricate oneself from it, is introduced.

By the sixth song, Today, this same idea will break your heart.

Drowned Out follows the opener, and it's a rollicking number bemoaning the over-consumption and hubris of humanity.  Jumpy accordion and a marching beat are backed by trumpet, with the overall feel of a manic cabaret.  It's a great song, and may be many listeners' favorite.  But I think it somewhat interrupts the flow of what is otherwise a very cohesive album.  Once past it, and you really get into the meat of Muses.  A gentler, darker tone begins with The Misplaced Zygote: Down the Wrong Chimney. Vocals and other instrumentation really start to shine, and the arrangements, in sparseness, blossom. Diego Diaz' spanish-influenced guitar softy accompanies Crystal's high, soft voice and some eerie musical saw, before accordion, trumpets, and percussion kick in.  Her vocals are earthy, mysterious... Kate Bush perhaps an octave lower.  Zygote introduces the ideas of empowerment and independence that run throughout the album: "I will be free of this and everything you want me to be"; "I can no longer feel this way if I ever want to live again."  There's also some neat animal imagery: "feeding me worms when I'm meant to eat lilies and violets, chickweed and hay."

The next three songs grab the themes and feel of Muses and Bones and run with them.  First comes Adungu, a sensual, spellbinding song of someone who is themselves spellbound, against all better judgement.  She knows it's wrong, but she begs the lover to "lie to me lie to me..." and promises to "stay right here where you want me to be".  The song's namesake, the adungu (an African harp), hypnotically draws the listener in, and is joined by a symphony of percussion (exceptional on this cut).  Ghostly electric slide and soft trumpet fill in the spaces.

Corpus Callosum is Adungu re-cast, sort of an organic remix.  In fact in some ways, it's almost the same song... a gutsy move, and one that probably takes someone with an advanced musical education (which Crystal has) to pull off (which she does).   Where many of the lyrics ("lie to me, lie to me") and some of the musical progression are shared, the instrumentation and arrangement are totally different.  But moreso, the delivery and resultant meaning are 180 degrees from Adungu.  This is a person who is coming to a realization... waking up.  Now, when she sings "so what if everything works out fine and I stayed right where you've always wanted to be", it's with disdain, if not outright contempt.  At least with eyes open, as she adds "But there's always the chance of leaving, and I told you to stop waiting / It's true, I do, continue to play this game with you".   At the end, she proclaims anyone who can explain this dichotomy within as worthy of "taking my paw in yours and resting upon my floor all night."  The word "night" is delivered with bite.  And she'll only go so far... you can rest on her floor.  Love the animal imagery again.  In short, Corpus Callosum is Adungu with a push rather than a pull.

By the time Today softly begins, the push has become a break, complete with the deep sadness that comes with it.  There's still the doubt ("Why must you stay, why must you take"), but there is realization, and strength, found in the grief ("I could be so kind, but I am not blind").  And on Today, the beautiful piano Crystal plays makes it's first real appearance.  I'm reminded of George Winston, whom I never really liked.  But this... it just works.  It accentuates the heart-rending feel of the song.  Simply beautiful.  And the wonderful percussion and trumpet also highlight what is a very minimalist song. 

As the album gets quieter, more goes on.  December continues pulling at your heart.  The quiet piano continues, this time accented by musical saw and accordion.  It's another minimal tune with a lot in it.  When the piano starts jumping and rolling about two-thirds of the way through, I'm thinking Broadway... another genre I don't especially like.  But again, it just works. 

Now, I don't want to give the impression that this is just some technically proficient, show tune-new age hybrid of a band.  There is clearly accomplished songwriting and playing at work here, but also spark and originality.  Plus, the Silver Hands understand the importance of a little chaos... especially among such beautifully orchestrated music.   Amid the beauty of swelling keys and vocals, mystical guitar, and more exotic stringed instruments, room is made for groaning, squealing, and at times just slamming the keyboard.   This comes off even more in their live show, where they seem more like a gypsy troupe, circus rejects in the Spanish countryside.  It's a feel captured somewhat by the first three songs, Toy Hammer, and the little interludes Bones and Lilies and Chimera March (you half expect Tom Waits to chime in with his inimitable growl during March).

The last third or so of the CD -- December / Killing Table / Spiral Sky / Bones and Lilies / Little Match Girl -- work together as a stunning unit, in the same way Kate Bush's Ninth Wave (the B-side from her classic Hounds of Love album) did.   Frankly, they'd make a damn fine musical... one even I'd pay to see.  It's not surprising that the band often collaborates with circus performers, dancers, and other artists, as they recently did in at FlowJo in Chapel Hill.

Crystal has said that Muses and Bones is not meant to be autobiographical, that the aim was to write a song cycle about a woman's journey of discovery and self-realization. It's hard to believe, as the songs sound so intimate and personal.  But what that does make clear is we are listening to a first-rate songwriter, singer, and musician (one who backed by equally accomplished players).  Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands are one of the best North Carolina acts I've heard of any genre...  hell, they're sort of "of every genre".  They're scheduled to tour all over the Southeast in the coming months, so you should have plenty of chances to see them, beginning this Thursday at the Cave in Chapel Hill.  While the fun, gypsy vibe of the live show is somewhat different from much of this album, it's equally as good.  Go see them!   

Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands / Dirty Bourbon River Show (Motorco Garage Bar, Durham, 1/13/12)

I love it when you go to see a band -- this time, my hometown compatriots Dirty Bourbon River Show -- and in the process discover something entirely new and unexpected. In this case, as is often the case, it was the opening band. But it's more than just the musical excitement that comes with finding a new band. It's the more general revelation, yet again, that there are... simply... still... entirely new and unexpected things to discover in the world. Even after, personally speaking, a rough year or two. Even after a jaded life of way too many live shows and bands.

I enjoyed DBRS immensely, and there's more on them below. But I had listened to and read a good bit about them already. However, I had only just heard of the opener, reading about the show earlier in the day. Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands are from Greensboro, NC, and led by (again, as I had just read) "multi-instrumentalist" and "ethnomusicologist" Crystal Bright. So I expected something rather interesting, maybe a little staid, a pleasant warm-up to the raucousness that is DBRS.

Crystal started by teaching the crowd, then asking us to join in singing, a simple, falling, melody. It was the opening melody for "Especially Your Mother" (from the upcoming release, "Muses and Bones"), which the band promptly kicked into as everyone sang. So we were literally made a part of the performance from the very beginning. What a wonderful way to engage the audience! This instantly set the tone for a friendly, comfortable, fun night.

Her bio rattled off a plethora of instruments to be expected -- accordion, musical saw, a Ugandan harp called an adungu, piano, various percussive instruments -- with the concomitant international influences. But what was unexpected was her main instrument: her voice. And WHAT a voice!


After the show, she told me she was just finding, or had only recently found, her voice. Are you kidding me? Despite all of the interesting, complex, novel things going on with this band, Crystal's voice was clearly the focus. Think Kate Bush with an earthier, less artsy, and more worldly bent. Like Bush, she has range and demonstrates it. Also like Bush (but unlike many female vocalists with range), she uses it creatively in ways that don't sound like she's just showing off. Crystal's voice is captivating and mysterious.


Meanwhile, she was usually cranking on the accordion, or bowing the saw, to danceable Eastern European, cabaret, or Spanish-flavored melodies, or to dark fairy/folk tales. Also meanwhile, the "Silver Hands" were being just that. Diego Diaz playsed electric slide and an excellent guitar, notably on the long Spanish traditional song, "Malagueña Salerosa". On other songs, such as "Toy Hammer" (see video below, tuba player from DBRS sitting in), he played the slide like a theremin, and its eerie sound harmonized with Crystal's vocals, adding to the effect. The standup bass and percussion were great as well. I've seldom heard a bass make so many different sounds, from high "electric" tinklings to tuba-lows.


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Crystal Bright and the Silver Hands' show was a warm, welcoming, circus-like atmosphere, with a bit of a dark edge. Which could just as easily describe Dirty Bourbon River Show's performance immediately following... after adding a lot of brass (and a little drunken debauchery) to the mix.


Both bands had the circus/cabaret thing going, with DBRS sounding perhaps a bit more vaudevillian. Both bands reminded me at times of Paris Combo -- who, like Crystal Bright, also mix Eastern and Western European sounds in the blender. But DBRS brought that down-home jazzy soul that I miss so much from my home. They mixed older styles with New Orleans funk, soul, and brass to get the crowd on their feet.


The multiple singers' vocals ranged from downright operatic to a soulful sound remininding me of Tom Waits or NOLA's Alex McMurray (ex-Royal Fingerbowl, now Tin Men). A full brass contingent complemented sometimes multiple guitars, turning the night into more of a "rock/revival" show, not unlike those of NC's Holy Ghost Tent Revival, with whom they have been known share a stage or two (and, I'm sure, a tailor).



Their songs were often of women, and drink, and deals with the Devil... subjects so intertwined in that any one can, of course, lead to the other two. Late in the show, they encouraged a little audience participation of their own (though in a way more befitting their style). They quickly stomped out, then asked the audience to stomp along, to the thunderous intro beat to "Train Is Gone" (see video). We all happily complied. Near the end, their version of "Iko Iko" had me back home again.

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That's what both of these bands did for me, and the crowd... they took us to other times and other places, some real and some surreal. It was a great, somewhat unexpected, show to start the new year. While each band has released excellent CDs, you're really not getting the full experience unless you see them live. I'm not sure when DBRS will be up in these parts next, but Crystal Bright will be performing with dancers (a performance art piece of some sort) in early March, at FlowJo in Carrboro.

Holy Ghost Tent Revival - Local 506, 1/21/11

I'm finally starting to appreciate the local music around here a bit more. And by "local", I don't mean the locally grown indie/punk/post-punk/post-wave/whatever-catchphrase bands that are always integral to a local scene (and that I have always supported). But I'm talking about the local indigenous music.

Where I come from, that's jazz, and funk, and brass, and blues, etc. (I'm from New Orleans). There's no problem getting into that. It's the roots of everything. But so far, the "roots" music from these parts, either played in the purist way or melded with new sounds, hasn't caught my ear. At least not a specific act.

That was until I caught Holy Ghost Tent Revival.

Their show at Local 506 last week was a barn-burner. And the loyal (and packed) crowd proved it wasn't the first. This Greensboro combo bring all the elements of a good ole', well, tent revival!, to a rawk show. The tenor of their show reminded of days of yore catching local psychobilly punks Dash Rip Rock at their earliet hows in Baton Rouge... where so many broken bottles were danced and stomped upon that the floor ended up like sand. Smokin' hot roots music, with an ear to the past but blazing a path to the future. Banjo, horns, keyboards, plus the usual, melded punk, bluegrass, 1920s jazz, all into a downright hoe-down. They had the crowd in their hands, and sang along with them, to tunes like the rollicking "Getting Over Your Love" and the anthem of dysfunction "Alcohol"(see video below).

Stephen Murray acted the quintessential frontman, crooning wildly into the mic and switching between banjo, guitar and trumpet. Trombone and main trumpet filled out what bordered on Dixieland at times (especially when all 3 horns kicked in). The keyboardist was apparently an ex-member from long ago, filled in admirably due to the regular guy's illness. The band danced and jumped all over the place, along with the crowd (in what little room there was... I've seldom seen the 506 so packed).

In New Orleans, ever since the long-forgotten NOLA band All That first melded brass band and hip-hop to make "Brass-Hop" -- which Coolbone also promoted -- I have been a fan of such cross-decade (-century!?) hybrid bands. Galactic are perhaps the masters of that now, melding among other things, hip hop, Mardi Gras Indian, and straight jazz music into a funk-a-licious brew. But (apologies to the late Squirrel Nut Zippers) HGTR are the first NC band I've caught that are doing the same thing w/ the "local" music up in these parts.

More pictures, and video, below.