Phuzz Phest Phriday Night - Winston-Salem, NC (4/4/14)

This post is long overdue (Do I ever post anything lately without mentioning how busy I've been?  Answer:  No.)  Anyway, I still want to give my propers to Winston-Salem's excellent festival, Phuzz Phest, which happened about a month ago.  Phuzz Phest is run by Philip Pledger and Drew Bladen, members of the Winston-Salem band Estrangers (translation for hipsters: "is curated by").  This was my first time attending, and only for the Friday night shows.  But if that night was indicative, I'd say Phuzz Phest is sort of a scaled-down version of Raleigh's Hopscotch; equal in both quality and style, but with fewer venues.  

Phuzz Phest also has you popping around town, mostly to venues within walking distance, and trying to choose between overlapping good shows.  It's held in various clubs, coffee shops, record stores, etc.  Given the nature of this type of fest, your experience is contingent upon how you plan and which shows you are actually able to make.  Whether there are 5 venues or 15 and a big stage, you can still only go to one show at a time.  In this case, my Phuzz Phest experience was every bit as entertaining as a typical night at Hopscotch.

I spent most of the night at Krankie's Coffee, which had a pretty good slate lined up.  It started with the above-mentioned local heroes, Estrangers.  They're a favorite of mine, but I hadn't seen them in a while.  I heard a lot of newer material, maybe with a harder edge moving away a little from the phuzz-y, beach-y flavor of their recent release, Season of 1000 Colors.  But it was just as fun.  

Estrangers...

The Tills, from Asheville, followed. They were sort of a mix of Beach Boys and Beatles influences, which you surprisingly don't hear more of.  Oh, maybe if Brian Wilson convinced Paul & John to move into a SoCal garage somewhere, stripped it down a bit, and brought in the Troggs' lead singer to occasionally sit in.  The Tills will also be playing Hopscotch this year, definitely on my to-do list.

The Tills...

Memphis' Ex-Cult followed, and I gotta say, they rocked my world. It's like I was watching the Tills in their garage, a wormhole opened up, and I walked though to the "other" garage.  They rocked extremely hard, but they were still garage-y and poppy.  I'd compare them favorably to locals Flesh Wounds (the singer is even a bit of a lookalike with that band's Montgomery Morris), but Ex-Cult is heavier and less garage-ier.  

Ex-Cult...

Then the garage moved back across the pond, with the more Brit pop influences of White Fence, a project of Tim Presley, who has worked extensively with Ty Segall (Segall produced his latest album).  A little more experimental, a little more electronic, bowing of the guitar (see below), interesting.

White Fence...

All that was at Krankie's.  I finally moved on over to the Garage to catch a bit of local Merge faves Mount Moriah.  I had (criminally) only seen them once before, and recently, at WKNC's Double Barrel Benefit 11.  That was on the big stage of the Lincoln Theater, but the Garage's more intimate environs only intensified what is already a deeply intense vibe.  I wished I had shown up early enough to see the whole show (again; a festival of choices). 

Mount Moriah... 

I closed out the night (as did most of the festival attendees, it seemed) at Single Brothers.  T0W3RS played a great set of their (his; Derek Torres) usual danceable electro-pop.  Everyone there really, really enjoyed it, from the guy with the hair from the last Ex-Cult photo (see above), and the great Mitch Easter (who was head-bobbing the whole show right next to me, and spoke to Derek for some time after).  

T0W3RS (and hair guy)...

Phuzz Phest is the perfect thing to do on a spring weekend if you just can't wait for September and Hopscotch.  So next year, head over to Wintson-Salem.

Rogue Band of Youth - Rogue Band of Youth

I haven't reviewed many local releases lately...  this despite the fact that there have been an ungodly number of great releases by local bands in the past several months.  It's time consuming, I'm at a sort of bottleneck in my writing stream, and I've been ridiculously busy of late.  But sometimes, the music demands it.

I didn't think I'd like Rogue Band of Youth's debut release this much.  They're the project fronted by Patrick O'Neill, who also frequents local stages as a member or Schooner and Some Army.  It's folky, rootsy, country-tinged rock.  It's very well played.  I enjoyed their live show a lot.  But I can usually take or leave this kind of music.  Sitting here, however, up later than I should be after a stressful evening trying to derail an autistic meltdown from my beautiful progeny, listening to this record for the fifth or sixth time... this is heart-just rendingly beautiful stuff.

It starts with a little Dodos-flavored guitar on Fair Shake, a song of trying to back out of a life of repeated failures.  Bittersweet, beautiful harmonies and violin kick in, elements which repeat throughout, setting the tone of the record.  Jazz-tinged guitar & keys anchor the more forward-looking The West In My Eyes, which musically and lyrically takes you from coast to coast, but on a journey perhaps born more of necessity than pleasure.  Daedalus follows, echoing, maybe, Bowerbirds?

Slow Down has the album hitting stride, with harmonies that are almost CSNY-reincarnated, and ... is that a theremin?  And the violin.  Georgeous notes alternate with this beautiful, squeaky, tonal chaos that I'm sure has a classical term, but I'm too uneducated to know it.  I say "violin" despite this band having country-ish roots and you expecting me to say "fiddle".  This is VIOLIN.  What I know must be the classical roots of violinist Chloe Gude show.  This sublimeness is balanced by a dark, minor-key bridge and a rebellious shouted chorus.  Frogs and crickets back the instrumental intermission, ...And the Tiny Strings, leading into the more optimistic (sounding anyway) Smoke Screens and Blind.

Sharp and wonderful lyrics abound. "Ink has a funny way of taking away everything we know"... "All messed up, never got a fair shake / All fucked up, no one left to blame"... "Silently falling from the heights of my desire."  The use of the lyrics with the music is often exceptional as well.  When O'Neill sings "I've got the west in my eyes", it's done in a way that beckons an escape across the country; then the wide-open guitar that follows almost physically pulls you there. 

There seemed to be some anticipation in the local music community to this release.  The more I listen to it, the more I can see why.  I wasn't planning on writing anything at all tonight, and probably never a review of this record.  But like I said, sometimes the music demands it. 

After a brief tour of the region to promote their album, Rogue Band of Youth returns to the Triangle to play  Slim's in downtown Raleigh Friday night, with Prypyat and Woolens.

North Elementary - Honcho Poncho (and "Albums Release" Show with Lud)

North Elementary and Lud held a sort of joint "albums release" show for their respective new releases, Honcho Poncho and Defenestration Boulevard, last Friday.  Lakes&Woods opened, but I missed them (sorry!).

It was kind of an early show, which promted Lud frontman Kirk Ross to wonder why the fuck they ever went on at 1:00am back in the day?  Maybe starting relatively early was more conducive to the slow build of this night.  Lud's first few numbers were a kind of mellow-but-intense brand of Americana, and it was a nice way to begin. Then, gradually, the intensity turned less mellow, and by the end, they were burning down the newly-constructed Cat's Cradle Back Room (shame on them).  Not being from these parts, I'd only seen Lud, I think, once before.  I remember that entire show being heavy and fast... but it was the Cave, and I'd had a few.  The slow-to-fast burn of this show, however, really worked.

I'd also only seen North Elementary once or twice, and a while ago.  Listening to Honcho Poncho, I'm starting to realize how much variety they have within their sound.  This is a trait shared by frontman John Harrison's solo music (as Jphono1).  On it's face, their sound is your basic, mid-tempo indie-pop-rock.  But as you listen, all manner of detail reveals itself.  Mid-90's (Sebadoh-esque?) guitars are complemented by rolling organ, and sometimes a quieter, more pleasantly tinkling piano.  Male/female vocal harmonies courtesy Harrison and keyboardist Betty Rupp give the crunchier songs a soft edge.  While there isn't as much of the technology-assisted trickery and layering providing the variety as on a Jphono1 record, the guitars and rhythm section pull from the styles of decades ranging from the 60's until now (Decade Styling, I guess, to lift a song title from one of their earlier releases). The farfisa of Way Out (Happy Here) sounds almost Mersey, while the House Your Home could be a Pink Floyd/midnight movie soundtrack.  Then there are the songs by (new?) member Sean Parker:  Hi-Lo and Left Doubt.  These are unmistakably cut from 80s cloth... I personally hear Modern English in both Parker's vocals and the meld of new (but not too) wave and harder post-punk, and the keyboards.

There are a lot of songs that grow on you in this collection:  the 80's vibe of those two, the summer breeziness of Eventually Everything Connects and the opener, Return to Couches, and the barroom rocker Undressed and a Place to Go.  Again with the variety.

So good album, and good show.  Oh, and, um, not to take anything away from the band -- but if they had pulled the plug on the music when the cat videos started playing, I would have still been plenty entertained.

Buy one (or both!) of these bands' new CDs:  North Elementary's Honcho Poncho and Lud's Defenestration Boulevard.

Rogue Band of Youth - "Our Hunter" (Nightlight, Chapel Hill, NC, 3/29/14)

Here we have Chapel Hill's new-ish Rogue Band of Youth performing the song "Our Hunter", from their eponymous debut long-player.  This was from their record release show at Nighlight in Chapel Hill, NC.  The song was apparently Grateful Dead-inspired.  Lately, I've been having my musical tastes challenged quite a bit, which is a good thing.  At recent shows, it's been the dance-y vibe of T0W3RS, Body Games and the like.  Now, it's the opposite extreme: the Deadhead vibe of RBOY (at least on this song).  I thought I hated these things!  Turns out, even my jaded ol' musical ears have room for expansion.

Anyway, this is a beautiful song, and it was a great show... I'll try to post photos later.  Apologies if the distortion provided courtesy the "great" audio of my DSLR takes away from the wonderful harmonies.  If you want to hear the original in its pristine state, buy the album at their bandcamp page.

The Human Eyes / T0W3RS / thefacesblur (Nightlight, 1/24/14)

Great show at Nightlight the other night (they've had quite a few great shows lately).  Since this blog's been asleep for awhile, let's start with impressions...

The Human Eyes make leaps and bounds fleshing out their 80s-heavy pop...
T0W3RS slowly (but surely) perfects their solo (but bigger than a full-band sounding) vibe... thefacesblur carefully stakes out a claim in our growing dance-pop-indie scene...
incidental smoke and mirrors...
soundz by D. Starport...
etc

Adam Graetz has put on some incredible backing graphics for live shows by T0W3RS, Lilac Shadows, and others around the Triangle for some time.  As thefacesblur, it's impressive that he can do the same thing while playing music.  Cool, mellow, dancey, electronic music with a slight international vibe.  Great overall début.

thefacesblur (no pun intended)...

Artist Barbara Barnes (Art Images Live) sketching thefacesblur...

T0W3RS is now solidly progressing as a solo act.  But with the energy and songwriting Derek Torres brings to the stage, I don't know if there's room for anyone else up there anymore.  Few local artists can hold a room rapt as well as T0W3RS (and still make them dance).  I once said that walking around taking photos in my hometown New Orleans is, for a photographer, like cheating.  Shooting Derek onstage is like that, too.  But doing so with a cool lightshow is downright criminal.  Can't wait to hear the record he's finishing up.

T0W3RS...

The Human Eyes are really coming into their own.  Thomas Costello's synth-laden pop-rock is still referenced to New Order, et al, for sure.  But he's bringing a live performance that's thicker with guitar-jangles, and tangles... probably not unlike a lot of bands back then if you were lucky enough to have seen them live.  A breezy, bitterwseet, rolling twang also underscores the electric edge of some numbers, like Another World, Let Me In, and Alex.

The Human Eyes...

T0W3RS play on a bill with The Love Language, GHOSTTE BLLONDE, and Hammer No More the Fingers at Cat's Cradle Friday, February 7, for WKNC's Double Barrell Benefit 11.  Soon after, the Human Eyes open for Merge artists Hospitality at the excellent new Cradle Back Room (Saturday, February 22).  Both promise to be great shows.

Lilac Shadows - Back from the Dead (Fellowship Hall, Durham, 11/1/13)

Lilac Shadows popped up for the first time in quite a while, with a new line-up and a series of three small shows around Halloween, fittingly billed as Lilac Shadows Back from the Dead!  I caught the one in Durham, where some of the band have re-located.

Fellowship Hall is an intimate little community space which kind of reminds me of Pensacola's old Mystic Garage.  BYOB, cozy (read, curb-rescued) couches, funky painted walls.  You'd never know it was there if Lilac's Nathan Price (and DiggUp Tapes impresario) wasn't hanging out at the door.  Durham (and the Triangle) need more spaces like this.

Besides the constants of Price and frontman Sam Logan on guitars, Lilac's new line-up includes Reed Benjamin (ex-Jenny Besetzt) on drums, Brian Corum (Lonnie Walker) on bass.  They've talked about a change in sound from the more atmospheric material on the EP A Shallow Madness.  Well, based on this show, they're still "atmospheric"...  a hurricane is part of the atmosphere, right?  A more appropriate word would perhaps be "onslaught".

The first song was like New Order devolving back to Joy Division as it progressed.  Lilac has been compared to both of those bands in the past, but this new sound was more rhythm-driven.  I swear Reed almost broke the drumkit once or twice, and as good as he is fronting Lonnie Walker, Corum seemed to relish his role as sideman, kicking in the bass.

Oh yeah, and they're now noisier.  Much, much, noisier.  Much.  Maybe the small venue intensified the effect, but at times the dual guitars drove so hard you would just get swept up in a tornado of over-stimulation.

So the new Lilac Shadows?  Still atmospheric, but feeling the effects of global climate change.