Category: Rock ‘n’ Roll Photog

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Doesn’t Matter Where You Take Flight: Milan Jay

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Milan Jay is John Millane (left, above) and Joseph Kenny (right) – the name of the band is a loose reverse anagram of Millane’s name – and they are from Ballinasloe, just outside Galway City, in County Galway, Ireland. Millane began making music on his own in 2008; Kenny joined him 2010, and their producer/mixer Mike O’Dowd is currently helping out with drums. Right now, in addition to working on new music, they are contemplating a SXSW bid.

I’m hoping they get to go, because I have told pretty much everyone who asked me for new music recs in the last two weeks (and several who didn’t), y’all need to listen to this. Since their discography is tiny but very rich, like a Fabergé egg, I’m just going to talk about all of it:

1. Mellow Funk (2009) [available at: Bandcamp]

This record, their first, is available in its entirety as a free download from Bandcamp. It’s wholly instrumental, and “Mellow Funk” is a very appropriate title. I’ve been putting these songs on when I need some quiet, and yet also need to drown out very annoying people on the train.

This is the video for Terracotta Nights, which is the last song on the record, and will be your five minutes of Zen for today:

 

Milan Jay - Terracotta Nights

 

2. To The Sea and Swim (November 2010) [available at: Bandcamp; iTunes]

This is the first EP of what will eventually be three-part cycle – more on that below – and it is about half instrumental, and half not. The two tracks with singing are With The River Flow and We Believe, the latter of which is a free download at Bandcamp. Their sound continues to be pretty mellow here, though it is definitely does get deeper and more complex. I like listening to both To The Sea And Swim and Jupiter Falls just to count the instruments as they come in and then track them through the mix.

Here’s Jupiter Falls for you to listen to:

 

Jupiter Falls by Milan Jay

 

3. To The Night and Sky (June 2011) [available at: Bandcamp; iTunes]

This is the second EP of the three-part cycle. I can’t really declare a favorite here, because a) there are only five songs and b) I’ve been listening to all of them kind of a lot, however, I will say if you’re dipping in and out rather than taking the plunge, pay special attention to these:

Interconnected the first track, starts almost literally with a bang. It has a big thudding beat and includes a sample from Repo Man. The video they made for it, below, is comprised entirely of what seem to be black and white home movies of regular people doing Irish step dance. Now, I (voluntarily!) took a couple of years worth of step dance lessons when I was in high school, so I can almost hear the thudding and clicking of their feet on the floor, but even without that background the way the music and the action synch is pretty amazing.

 

Milan Jay - Interconnected

 

Time To Leave Computers Behind is the third song, and is a free download at Bandcamp. This is the one I put on to get myself moving either in the morning or after class, and I have a feeling it will be on every road trip / travel mix I make from now on. Here’s the video, starring the band and the beautiful Irish countryside:

 

http://youtu.be/EOpvkNhP-RQ

 

And finally, there is 421 Wilson St., song number five, which is an instrumental track. It starts with a mixture of electronic and real rain – the latter was recorded by sticking the mic out the door of the studio and waiting for breaks between passing trucks – and slowly expands to include more instruments, including keyboards and guitars.

 

421 Wilson St. by Milan Jay

 

4) Robot Revenge (September 2011) [available at: Bandcamp]

 

This song, also a free download from Bandcamp, is the first single off the as yet un-named third and final EP in the “The Philosophor Trilogy”, named after their label, Philosophor Records, which will be out at the end of November. (Americans: Just in time for post-Thanksgiving shopping! Buy yourself a present on Black Friday!)

It combines punk swagger and bravado with meta-commentary about punk swagger and bravado, and, in the video below, they have Punisher stickers on their equipment. This was actually the first song I listened to, and those stickers as well as the fuzzy guitars were what drew me in and made me want to know more.

 

http://youtu.be/FwyyF4Psbz0

 

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Notes on a Final Show: The Academy Is . . . (2003-2011)

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The second night of the Fueled by Ramen 15th Anniversary celebration happened the Friday after Labor Day, the end of a week that had been both somewhat short and unbearably long. Summer was not quite done with Manhattan yet; it was hot, sticky, and close. I was tired and perhaps a little bit feverish, worn thin, or perhaps worn out.

I almost didn’t go.

But after a (slightly longer than planned) disco nap , I made my way down to T5 and eeled my way into the pit. Oversleeping meant I was further back than I really wanted to be, but it was early yet, and the crowd was loosely packed. I’ll move up as we go along, I thought, and I did, slipping into breaks in the ranks as the crowd shifted between sets.

Oversleeping also meant I missed the first band, so I started the evening with A Rocket To the Moon, and my notes on them were “So that’s who Halvo is” and “Oh, you’re the ones responsible for the Fueled By Ramen Holiday Sale song!” The former is their bassist, and is properly known as Eric Halvorsen; the latter is a remarkably infectious earworm – part commercial and part community in-joke – used (or, I should say, deployed) in annual winter holiday promotions. I realized it belonged to them when they sang it for us.

The Academy Is . . . were next. The first I saw of them was the flash of skin and color that is Andy “The Butcher” Mrotek’s chestpiece. I was both wryly amused by my ability recognize him by his tattoos from practically the back of the venue, and pleasantly surprised / relieved to see him climbing behind the drums, as at that point, the last I heard he had left the band. (Michael Guy “Chizzy” Chislett, their second guitarist, also recently left; he was not there.)

 

IMG_1436Andy “The Butcher” Mrotek

 

Then the rest of them came out. It took me a few songs to realize they were playing their first record (Almost Here, 2005) straight through, with only one later song (We’ve Got a Big Mess on Our Hands, from Santi (2007)) added at the end. I was slightly late to their party, arriving only in 2008, shortly before the release of their third record, Fast Times at Barrington High.

The girls around me certainly knew what was up, though, because they were singing along and shuffle-dancing as best they could, hemmed in as we were by the sheer volume of bodies. This was the thing that stuck with me: they way they were grinning at each other, hearing these songs that they probably listen to all the time, but have slid out of the regular show rotation as the band moved forward.

 

IMG_1438Adam “Sisky Business” Siska (l) and William Beckett (r)

 

It made me happy, too, though I’m somewhat more partial to Fast Times, and the way it sounds like the summers in high school felt. A little bit happy, a little bit sad, a little bit frustrated with the pressure cooker and suburbia, mixed with a certain amount of bravado and longing.

And then it was over. The band melted away into the wings. The Butcher came out again, briefly, bearing a tambourine, his presence ruffling the front row into a burst of cheering. He extended his arms and – well, it wasn’t quite a bow, but it was clearly a gesture of farewell. Here was where my heart clenched a little bit, though I was glad to have the moment, and to be able to say good-bye properly. (William Beckett appeared again at the end of the evening, but more on that later.)

At the time I thought I was only saying goodbye to the Butcher. The others, we had been told, would be soldiering on, while he and Chizzy pursued other, separate projects. I was warily hopeful for the future – some bands can survive a radical fissioning (i.e. Panic! at the Disco) others cannot – and I was curious what kind of music TAI . . .  would produce in a post-Butcher, post-Chizzy future.

 

IMG_1442The Butcher and Mike Carden

 

Meanwhile, the show kept rolling. Gym Class Heroes came out and played a tight, focused set. They had also been away for a while, and clearly it had done them good. Cobra Starship closed the evening down with more old favorites, including – and here is where William Beckett reappeared – Snakes on a Plane.

I know the song is (or was supposed to be )a joke. It is nonetheless one of my favorites, not least because of the way Beckett’s voice punches through the layers of noise and soars above it all, sweet, clear and true. This ridiculous song from an equally silly movie was the song that made me say Who is that? and go in search of his (their) non-silly-movie related music.

I slipped away as the last notes were fading out, sweaty, thirsty and tired, but suffused with warm concert glow. The pictures I got of TAI . . . weren’t that great, but I put them up anyway, since the internet always appreciates new pictures. They’ll be back, I thought. I’ll get better ones later. (The ones of Gym Class Heroes and Cobra Starship were better, but only marginally so. But that is a story for another day.)

 

IMG_1428William Beckett

 

And then last Saturday, they announced the fissioning was actually going to be a complete dissolution. The Academy Is . . ., is no more. (I will still probably get more pictures of them in their new, non-TAI . . . adventures, but, it will not quite be the same.) It was a jolt – a sharp, unexpected punch to the heart – because it always is, when a band you love comes completely unscrewed. But it was not truly a surprise.

 

IMG_1439William Beckett

 

When I heard (or rather read; I found out via Twitter) I thought some more about this show, now their last, and was extra glad that I had gone.

I also thought about the other shows of theirs I had attended. The first time I saw them, at the New York stop of the mtvU Sunblock Festival, held in the back parking lot at Jones Beach. It was July, and it was also pouring with rain, blowing hard, and so cold the kids were drinking hot chocolate between bands. (The Butcher, who normally plays the drums in booty shorts and a smile, was fully dressed and wearing jeans. Every time he hit a cymbal there was a spray off water.)

I was wearing a poncho, but it didn’t help very much. By the time TAI .  . . came out I was soaked almost to  the skin, standing in puddle, and having a somewhat serious discussion with myself on the topic of “can we go home now?”  Then, as sheets of rain blew across the stage, they started their set with About A Girl, and for the next 15 minutes, it did actually feel like summer.

The second time I saw them was last summer, when they went out with KISS. That show was also at Jones Beach, though on the main stage, and was (mercifully) warmer and drier than the first one. The vibe was a little off – the KISS crowd was definitely not their crowd – but they came out and valiantly bounced through their set just the same.

And then there was this last time, when I finally got to see them indoors. I was thinking the next time I might get all the way to seeing them at their own show, but it is not to be.

Still: I am grateful for this last gift, this last show, for the fact that they managed to hold on this long, and that I was able to be there when the whole room sang with them, even all the way at the back.

Because you don’t get that kind of magic very often.

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Limited Time Offer: Always on My Mind / The Last Day, by The Rest

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Readers, The Rest have a present for you: two of their songs, downloadable for free at their bandcamp, until Halloween. This offering is particularly special as these songs were, along with the rest of their upcoming record, almost lost when their hard drive crashed and were resurrected only with the help of black box technology.

The name of the salvaged record is SEESAW, and it will officially be out in 2012; until then, there are two songs from it to enjoy. Always on My Mind is dreamy, heavy, and crunchy at the same time. (Honestly, my first reaction was This is like a big bubblebath of noise. I may or may not be a weensy bit over-fond of fuzzy guitars.) The Last Day is a hair lighter and a shade bouncier, but no less delicious.

As a preview of what to expect, here is The Rest with Modern Time Travel (necessities), from their first record, Everyone All At Once:
 
http://youtu.be/QYwu_Zum-hs

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Take That Hovercraft Straight To Paris: Holy Ghost Station, by Dustbowl Revival

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Good morning, NTSIBbers. Today I would like you to meet Dustbowl Revival, a roots/jazz collective from Venice, California. They recently put out a record called Holy Ghost Station, and if you like your bluegrass to have some jazzy swing, this record is for you.

Also, if we have any swing dancers in the audience – or people that love swing dancers and want to provide them with snazzy new music – I am reliably informed that Dustbowl’s tunes are, in general, ideally suited to the St. Louis Shag, the Collegiate Shag, Balboa, and the Jitterbug. Furthermore, Lowdown Blues, one of my favorites, is perfect for the Lindy Hop.

Zach Lupetin, founder / ringmaster of the Revival / Collective, was kind enough to answer a few questions about the group:

What inspired you to delve so deeply into this particular era / genre of American music?

I’d say first, I started writing songs when I was in high school and my father (a great blues harp player in Chicago who often plays with Dustbowl when he’s in town) was blasting a lot of big band, blues and early rock n’ roll – British invasion stuff. My mom was heavy into the sixties folky scene and Patsy Cline and those country artists that had crossed over.

In college it sorted started seeping in and I had some friends in a band there that pushed me to look earlier, which sort of started a love-affair with close-harmony bluegrass and jug-band style tunes, Dixieland, that playful Fats Waller piano boogie and the earliest form of all – the church music and Mahalia Jackson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and so forth.

I lived in the Village in NYC for a little while and there is this crusty old bar called Arthur’s Tavern on Grove and there is a Dixieland band that has played ever Monday night for the last 59 years or something absurd. Old cats who can really blow. Something about that sound, the raw happiness in it, that really stuck in my mind – not sure why. It’s like seeing into a past life or something. You’re deep in it without any real reason to be.

Seeing what C.W. Stoneking and The Del McCoury-Preservation Hall Jazz Band are doing combining roots and pre-war jazz forms really got me going. The band has been together for over three years now and keeps getting bigger.

Do you ever go out on tour, or is it a strictly catch you in Los Angeles kind of affair?

The band is a bit of a large gang (usually 7-9 of us at a time) so extensive touring has not quite happened. Though we have played a good deal in San Francisco and the Bay as well as Seattle, Anchorage, Chicago, and San Diego.

The LA area is so diverse that it’s easy to fall into a nice rhythm of playing clubs and events here. I’ve traveled extensively in Europe and lived in Prague for a bit so I’d love to bring the group across the pond – would be a blast.

How many of you are there, exactly, and who plays what in the band as of right now?

Our core instrumentation is usually: acoustic guitar (Z.Lupetin), mandolin (Daniel Mark), fiddle (Connor Vance), trumpet (Matt Rubin), trombone (Ulf Bjorlin), clarinet (Nate Ketner), a gal singer (Caitlin Doyle) (plus washboard), drums (Josh Heffernan), upright bass (Austin Nicholsen + often we have a gypsy guitar player (Ray Bergstrom), blues harp (JT Ross), tuba, banjo (Matt Breur) accordion (Gee Rabe) and pedal steel.

We even had a bagpipe once! We act as a collective so we are constantly having new musicians in the area come in and out.

Thanks Zach!

Now, as examples of the Dustbowl Revival’s groove, I give you my absolute favorite song of theirs, Le Bataillon. Be sure to listen carefully to the lyrics, as they are amazing and kind of trippy:

Le Bataillon by dustbowlrevival

And also some video:

"Riverboat Queen" performed by The Dustbowl Revival live at the Echoplex

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Tour Alert: Colour Revolt / Empires

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Empires, of Chicago (and yes, still the Scrappy Little Band of My Heart) are teaming up with Colour Revolt, of Oxford, Mississippi and visiting some cities  this fall. I can’t get to their Brooklyn show – law school is once again interfering with my rock and roll lifestyle – but I encourage all y’all to go and check them out.

As enticement, I give you some video. First up, there’s Empires, with Spit The Dark, from Howl, the first song they wrote as a band:

http://vimeo.com/7093690

 

And then Colour Revolt, with Eight Years, from their new record The Cradle. It’s the story of eight years playing together – the highs, the lows, the sublime, and the totally, grossly ridiculous:

Colour Revolt "8 Years"

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The Felice Brothers / Nicole Atkins and the Black Sea / Diamond Doves, Webster Hall, 9/29/11

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It’s been almost approximately a year since I last saw the Diamond Doves (formerly the Dearland in Elvis Perkins and Dearland, now doing their own thing) and in that time they’ve changed: they’ve become tighter and more focused, and their drums are bigger and louder and roll like mighty waves.  They were good before, but they’re better now. I’m also pleased to report that they are still making the hipsters dance. Here they are in action:

 

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Next up was Nicole Atkins and the Black Sea. I (once again) had never heard them before and had no idea what to expect. Ladies and gentlemen: this band rocks. Nicole Atkins has an amazing voice – powerful, flexible, commanding, and sultry at the same time – and she and the band bring some serious jams. If you haven’t experienced them yet, you should get on that right away.

 

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And then there were The Felice Brothers, who are on tour right now. The crowd was a little bit flat at first – some of them perhaps hearing songs from Celebration, Florida live for the first time – but they perked right up and made the floor vibrate with their joy when the band launched into familiar favorites like Run, Chicken, Run, White Limosine and, of course, Frankie’s Gun.

The one I was waiting for, though, was River Jordan. It’s one of my favorites, mainly for the steady, thudding, mournful drums; the line about Fuck the House of Blues; and also the point near the end where either the band cuts Ian Felice loose or he breaks free, but either way he’s soaring.

This time it came at the end of the main set, and it was spellbinding, all the way down to the last two minutes or so when various band members stopped playing and walked back into the wings, until it was just the drums ringing out under the lights.

They came back, of course, and the mood changed. They did a cover of Springsteen’s Darkness on the Edge of Town that made that song expand and thrum with new energy, followed by a raucous rendition of Helen Fry, and then the show really was over. These are some of the pictures I took during the festivities:

 

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And here is one more of the Diamond Doves (& friend), in their capacity as the Felices’ horn section:

 

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Nick13 / Brett Detar, The Bell House, 9/24/2011

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When I last wrote about Brett Detar (formerly of The Juliana Theory) I had just listened to his new solo record and loved it. Last Saturday night I got to see him sing some of those songs live, and it was fantastic.

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It was just him and his guitar (and later banjo), so the songs – with the exception of Cocaine Whiskey and Heroin – were at times little slower and more subdued than on the record, but they were no less lovely for being stripped down. He has a big powerful voice and it was a pleasure just to listen to him sing.

Anyway, here’s one more of him, this time with the banjo:

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Next up was Nick13, formerly of Tiger Army, who I had never heard before in either of his incarnations – Tiger Army happened while I was in cultural exile – and thus had no idea what to expect.

I realize this has become something of a trend with me. I promise I do go to concerts where I am familiar with the work of all of the acts ahead of time! It’s just sometimes (okay, often) I’m perfectly content to go on a voyage of discovery.

And as for Nick13, I am once again happy to report that I was pleasantly surprised.

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For those of you who have heard of Tiger Army and are wondering how the new sound compares, I have since corrected my deficiencies and can tell you that what he is playing now is really, really different. The psychobilly has left the building.

The new sound is – well, it’s kind of old, in the sense that it harkens back to what country sounded like in the middle of the 20th century. My reactions were basically We play both kinds, country and western, though referencing the score of Greater Tuna, not Blues Brothers, and also He’s like Gene Autry with neck tattoos.

Though I do also have to say that he’s less tinny and schmaltzy than Gene Autry, or at least, Gene Autry as presented by Spotify. There’s definitely some punk and/or rock sensibility swirling through everything as well, but it’s subtle – just enough to give the rhythm a little bit of kick.

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Mostly I thought the music was sweet, and kind of gentle, but most certainly not dull. I put his CD in my iPod, and while it’s only been in rotation for a couple of days, I can tell it’s the kind of thing I will be returning to at the end of long days and when exams are making me crazy. It’s also music I will play for my parents, as I think they might enjoy it.

If you would like to check both Nick13 and Brett Detar out for yourself, the tour is still on the march, and will be making stops across the Mid- and South-West through early October.  If they’re coming to your town and you have the evening free, go down and visit with them. I promise it will be a good time.


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Everything All The Time: Mojo Fury

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Mojo Fury is: Michael Mormecha (guitar/vocals), James Lyttle (guitar/vocals/keys), Ciaran McGreevy (bass) and Gerry Morgan (drums), and they are from Lisburn, just outside of Belfast, in Northern Ireland.

The title of this post is a lyric fragment from Pill Pigeon is an Orange Wheel, song number six on Visiting Hours of a Travelling Circus, their first record, released earlier this year by Graphite Records. It is also an accurate summation of their overall sound.

There are sharp syncopated synths layered over precise quasi-industrial drums, and the remaining space is filled with heavy, slightly fuzzy guitars and Michael Mormecha’s voice. (If there are any fans of Pretty Hate Machine-era Nine Inch Nails and Rage Against the Machine in the audience, this band is for you.)

There are two breaks from the whirlwind: the first one is We Should Just Run Away, which is as close to a pop love song as they get, which  is not all that close, really. The (somewhat) softer side of Mojo Fury still contains thudding industrial echoes.

The second one is Electric Sea, which really is the aural equivalent of walking into the sea. It starts with a simple almost-acoustic guitar and cymbals that skitter through like foamy wavelets on a shell-strewn shore, and then layers of sound build gradually, until suddenly you’re out past the breakers and it’s time to play jump or dive with the whitecaps, or, rather, a sudden wall of guitar. In this case the correct answer is dive: just sit quietly for a moment and wrap yourself in the last minute or so of the song.

As an examples/enticements to explore further, here they are with (WARNING: CONTAINS CLOSE-UPS OF BUGS!) The Mann:

 

Mojo Fury - The Mann

 

and (BUGLESS!) We Should Just Run Away:

 

Mojo Fury - We Should Just Run Away

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Water Tower Bucket Boys: Sole Kitchen

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Pictures courtesy Water Tower Bucket Boys

Dear Water Tower Bucket Boys,

You had me at “we hung out and drank beer, sang Rancid songs late into the night on Telegraph Street”. I am hoping a New York date gets added to your schedule soon, so we can have a proper visit.

xo

Jennifer

Dear everyone else,

That lyric I quoted above is from the aptly-named Telegraph, song number three on their fourth record Sole Kitchen, which was engineered, mixed, and produced by MxPx/Tumbledown front man Mike Herrera at Herrera’s Monkey Trench Studios in Bremerton, Washington.

In addition to name-checking one of my favorite punk bands, the Water Tower Bucket Boys (say that three times fast!) also bring some serious bluegrass. There are sweet harmonies and delicate picking (Telegraph, again) fast fiddles (Blackbird Picking at a Squirrel), some good sing/stomp-along songs (Since You’ve Been Gone; Goatheads), and one where they sing in French (Fromage).

Readers, they are really, really good, and I encourage you to stop what you are doing and introduce them to your record collection.

Or, if you happen to be joining us today from the North-East of England in general and the outskirts of Nottingham in particular, to get out to a show, as they are on tour in your corner of the world through Sunday, September 18.

Right now it looks like after the UK tour they’ll be doing a few shows in their home state of Oregon before heading out to visit portions of the American South and South West in the fall, so readers from those locations, you should also have a glance at their schedule.

Meanwhile, here they are with my personal favorite, Telegraph, from a performance at Mississippi Studios earlier this year:

 

Water Tower Bucket Boys @ Mississippi Studios 2/9/11 - Telegraph

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Ones to Watch: Will Hanson

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Every once in a while a new (or at least new-to-me) musical act settles into my collection as if they have been there forever, rather than just for a week or a month. Les Wampas was one such act, and Will Hanson is another.

Moving a Body (12/26 Records), Hanson’s first solo effort – he was formerly a member of Proxy – came out in late August, and while I have only been listening to the whole thing for a week or so, every time his voice floats up on shuffle, I feel like I’m visiting with an old friend.

Originally based in London, Hanson recently moved to Glasgow, Scotland to record his (mostly) dark and sometimes dreamy, sometimes noisy tunes with producers Jamie Savage (Chemikal Underground) and Oli Bayston (Keith, Howls) at Chemikal Underground. His work with them was funded by Creative Scotland, and Mr. Hanson has additional Scottish connections via his 6 piece Glasgow based band.

Here they all are performing one of my favorite tracks, The Bats: