Author Archives: othersideoflife

ENDLESS BOOGIE and CROSS at the SWAN DIVE Thursday, September 24

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ENDLESS BOOGIE (New York, on No Quarter)
CROSS (Lexington)

Thursday, September 24
The Swan Dive
921 Swan Street
9 PM, $6, 21 and over

ENDLESSBOOGIE

ENDLESS BOOGIE began with no delusions of grandeur. They started off as an “old mans hobby” – just dudes jamming on riffs, locking into grooves, finding that transcendental part of a song and stretching it into eternity. Then they were offered a show. They played more shows. They self-released two very limited 12”s and were called the best kept secret in New York by Paper magazine. They toured with Dungen and Circle and were invited by Slint to play All Tomorrows Parties. What more needs to be said? Well, actually, here’s a couple of things: ENDLESS BOOGIE is a “nonstop stoner-rock delight” (David Fricke, Rolling Stone). Also, ENDLESS BOOGIE is “the best heavy-minimalism rock band in New York… [with] enough guitar loudness to make it as heavy as the Great Boston Molasses Tragedy of 1919” (Joel Hunt, Baltimore City Paper).

CROSS

Based out of Lexington, CROSS is comprised of MA Turner and R Clint Colburn. CROSS started playing music together directly after guitarist MA Turner’s group Warmer Milks dissolved in early Spring 2009 and immediately went on a bi-coastal U.S. tour. Currently working on their first full length record, CROSS live at the Rat Vex house in Lexington’s north end where both members draw on the walls and listen to records.

Check out the Facebook invite: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=126239187860.

For more information, check https://othersideoflife.wordpress.com/upcoming-events. To join our email list, send an email to hstencil@gmail.com.

Maserati, Young Widows, The Genitalmen and DJ Joel Hunt at ZANZABAR, Tuesday September 15

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I’m happy to announce that I’ll be djing at a fantastic show a week from today — MASERATI, YOUNG WIDOWS, and THE GENITALMEN at Zanzabar on Tuesday, September 15th. Here’s more information from the Facebook invite:

MASERATI www.ihaveadagger.net – www.myspace.com/maseratirocks

with YOUNG WIDOWS www.youngwidows.net – www.myspace.com/youngwidows

and THE GENITALMEN www.myspace.com/genitalmen

late night & between bands with DJ JOEL HUNT https://othersideoflife.wordpress.com

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

at the Zanzabar www.zanzabarlouisville.com
2100 South Preston Street
Louisville, KY 40217
(502) 635-ZBAR

doors at 9:00 P.M.
SHOW at 10:00 P.M.

Formed at the edge of the new millennium, MASERATI (of Athens, GA) is as sleek, sexy and sophisticated as the legendary Italian sports car they take their name from. It is fitting, then, that the band has dragged the glory years of psychedelic arena rock kicking and screaming into the 21st Century, with the pomposity (and vocals) carefully removed. In its place are white hot flashes of light pulsing to an unstoppable rhythm that will make you want to punch air and drive really fast in a car with wings instead of doors. Label mates and Louisville rockers, YOUNG WIDOWS, will be sharing the stage as well as THE GENITALMEN on Tuesday, September 15th at Louisville’s newest venue… the Zanzabar.

For more info on the latest Maserati and Young Widows releases, check out: www.temporaryresidence.com

This is going to be lots of fun, I can’t wait! Most likely I’ll play a pretty eclectic mix of musics — punk, hardcore, post-punk, krautrock, new wave, Afrobeat, highlife, rai, West African guitar jams, dancehall and dub, and maybe even an IDM track or two… come on out to hear it all!

Meah!/Phantom Family Halo split 7″ (Sophomore Lounge)

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(Both covers of the Meah!/Phantom Family Halo split from the Sophomore Lounge web site, http://sophomoreloungerecords.com.)

Normally when one thinks of happenin’ musical hotspots, I’m pretty sure that Jeffersonville, Indiana doesn’t come to mind. Right across the Second Street Bridge over the Ohio River from Louisville, Jeffersonville has a sort of sleepy reputation, not possessing notable attractions nearby such as the Horseshoe Casino (just west of New Albany, aka Portland North) or even the Theatair X (that’s further north, in Clarksville). Yet Jeffersonville’s Sophomore Lounge Records is worth paying attention to, and not just for the eventuality that J’ville becomes the next music mecca.

Okay, just kidding. SL were nice enough to send their latest release, a split 7″ between Chicago-based Meah! and Louisville’s Phantom Family Halo. Now as a rule, I’m not a huge fan of split singles, as they’re usually not long enough a format for either band to express much. Honestly, I’m not big on split releases of any format in general. But this single gives a good impression of what to expect from either band (even though the PFH side is a cover of the Red Crayola‘s “Hurricane Fighter Plane.”)

That said, the impression I get of Meah!, with their two short songs on the first side of the split, isn’t particularly positive. While the trio definitely has instrumental skills, the first song “Kids/Summer” is probably a bit too wacky for my tastes. Second song “Mystics” brings Meah! into a little bit more acceptable territory, only by being close to a 1980s funk/punk style (think Minutemen or Big Boys, just not quite as good). Overall, though, I have to give them an A for effort, even if I wasn’t super-into it.

Being a huge fan of the Red Crayola, as well as appreciative of Phantom Family Halo, I didn’t know what exactly to expect of their B-side. “Hurricane Fighter Plane,” from the RC’s debut album The Parable of Arable Land, is probably their most iconic song, having been covered by numerous other bands. However, I wasn’t let down by Dom Cipola’s interpretation of a classic. There’s enough reverential space here to classify as a worthy version, plus a changed chord and excellent guitar work (by guest Benny Clark of the Broken Spurs) shows plenty of inventiveness to keep me interested.

Limited to 500. Order it from Sophomore Lounge here: http://sophomoreloungerecords.com/meahpfhsplit.html.

Little Wings and Zak Riles (of Grails) at the SWAN DIVE, Sunday September 6

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Jeremy over at the Swan Dive put together a doozy of a show for this Sunday. Here’s what he had to say about it:

LITTLE WINGS is Kyle Fields’ music project. Little Wings songs are quickly becoming modern folk classics. I spoke with him the other day and we had a conversation about Fiest, who is all over iPod commercials, covering one of his songs, “Look at What the Light Did.” Kyle is also an artist, who has picture in galleries all over the globe. I could go on and on about his song writing skills and how good his art is but i”ll spare you the hubbub.

www.myspace.com/littlewings2
www.myspace.com/littlewings3
www.kyledraws.com

Zak Riles is a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist in the Important/Temporary Residence band Grails. His creative contributions to the group are immeasurable and can be heard clearly on this self-titled debut solo outing. In fact some of the pieces on this solo record have been reinterpreted into Grails favorites. Like his band Grails, Zak Riles’ solo work is an elaborate mansion built of inspiration but with so much strength and originality that it stands firmly on its own. On these rocky shores come crashing waves of Sandy Bull, Mogolar, Deuter, Popol Vuh and the Ventures while Persian breeze drifts by wafting the melodies of Hossein Alizadeh. Essential listening for followers of Important Records who favor the likes of Grails & James Blackshaw.

www.myspace.com/wmzacharyriles

You can also listen to a podcast with Zak Riles at LEO Weekly here: http://bluecat.leoweekly.com/2009/09/02/leo-music-%E2%80%99cast-zak-riles/. And here’s the Facebook invite: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=138386594728.

LITTLE WINGS
ZAK RILES (of GRAILS)

Sunday, September 6th
The Swan Dive
921 Swan Street
$5, 9 PM, 21 and over

DR Country, WAND, Little Gold at the SWAN DIVE Saturday, September 19

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DR COUNTRY
WAND (from Knoxville, on Ecstatic Peace!)
LITTLE GOLD (from NYC)

Saturday, September 19
The Swan Dive
921 Swan Street
9 PM
$5, 21 and over

DRCOUNTRY

DR COUNTRY features longtime Louisville veteran Darren Rappa and Caitlin Kannapell, with a rotating cast of characters and comrades playing his unique style of bent country tunes. Rappa, who played in such amazing Louisville bands as Verktum and King Kong, has a unique voice and presence, and his songs in DR COUNTRY will have you alternately weeping and laughing out loud, asking for more.

WAND

James Jackson Toth has been playing and recording (and releasing) music for over a decade, most notably as leader of the now-defunct New York-based collective Wooden Wand and the Vanishing Voice. After a solo album in 2007 on Rykodisc, he continues under the name WAND with new releases on both Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace! label and the Mad Monk label. Abandoning the psychedelic wail of WW&VV for a starker, more direct songwriting style, WAND’s most recent tunes are harrowing and hellaciously good.

LITTLE GOLD

New York’s LITTLE GOLD presents mellow country rock born from years of playing basement punk shows. Christian DeRoeck spent a good chunk of the past decade leaning on the whammy bar in Meneguar, and was one of the two founding songwriters in Woods. Now he joins up with viola/violin player K. Dylan Edrich (of K. Records’ Chain and the Gang), and drummer Patty Conway, and spins some tunes that are a bit more down home than his previous work, but still as ragged and catchy as ever. Replete with killer 12-string leads and psychedelic autoharp musings.

Check out the Facebook invite: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=129429972442.

For more information, check https://othersideoflife.wordpress.com/upcoming-events. To join our email list, send an email to hstencil@gmail.com.

Just Announced! Lexington’s CROSS to open for ENDLESS BOOGIE 9/24

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CROSS

Exciting new Lexington, Kentucky band CROSS will open for ENDLESS BOOGIE at the Swan Dive, Thursday September 24th (click the link for more information about the show).

Here’s the “official” CROSS bio:

Based out of Lexington, CROSS is comprised of MA Turner and R Clint Colburn. CROSS started playing music together directly after guitarist MA Turner’s group Warmer Milks dissolved in early Spring 2009 and immediately went on a bi-coastal U.S. tour. Currently working on their first full length record, CROSS live at the Rat Vex house in Lexington’s north end where both members draw on the walls and listen to records.

CROSS just completed a cross-country tour with Castanets, and their performance with ENDLESS BOOGIE will be their Louisville debut! You can listen to some of their tunes at their MySpace site, http://www.myspace.com/foreverintothecross or at their blog at http://tombstonegravy.blogspot.com.

Sapat, Crazy Dreams Band, Jana Hunter at the SWAN DIVE Friday, August 28

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(photo of CRAZY DREAMS BAND from Baltimore’s City Paper.)

SAPAT
CRAZY DREAMS BAND (Baltimore, Maryland; on Holy Mountain)
JANA HUNTER (Baltimore, Maryland; on Gnomonsong)

Friday, August 28
The Swan Dive
921 Swan Street
9 PM
$5, 21 and over

Spawned from the formidable Louisville, KY collective known as Black Velvet Fuckere, SAPAT resides as the centrifugal force in this Midwestern psychedelic madrigal set in the psychosexual backwaters of the mighty Ohio River. For the entirety of the ’00 decade, members have kept busy collaborating with and/or massaging the egos of various and sundry avant-pontiffs such as Robert Fripp, Magik Markers, Dead Child and Eugene Chadbourne — when not honing the orgone energy of SAPAT.

Grooves that confuse? CRAZY DREAMS BAND is an outfit that presents its guitar free “thug pop” of dirge rather than drone with creeping crooning and brassless horn blasts [note: Crazy Dreams Band will actually have a guitarist in tow at this show —ed.]. Like the best of Giallo films you’ll be as turned on as you are terrified. As tender as Coco Rosie, as brutal as Magik Markers and as cool as Royal Trux “Radio/ Video” vibe. Imagine if Bruce Springsteen and Martin Rev collaborated on songs for Patti Smith or Catherine Ribeiro. Channeled inner voices are expelled as cave anthems into neon text in Linear A while bones poke through the skin atop a witch’s brew of venomous sludge. This is the urban tribal music that survives whatever “end is nigh” theory you choose. They’re jamming this music outside the thunder dome, beneath the planet of the apes and the day after tomorrow. CRAZY DREAMS BAND has released one self-titled album on Holy Mountain, and features members of Lexie Mountain Band, Harrius, Religious Knives, and Mouthus.

A dark pop musician hailing originally from northern Texas, JANA HUNTER has been writing and recording, if not releasing, songs, for the past 16 years. Intensely private, raised in a large, religious family, and an orchestral violinist from an early age, followed melodic obsessions and a gift for striking listener’s as being near-“haunted” (Chas Bowie, The Portland Mercury, 2.9.06), developing a signature sonic topography. These elements caught the rapt attention of critics and the enthusiastic endorsement of many of the day’s most respected musicians upon the 2005 releases of a split LP 12″ with Devendra Banhart and Hunter’s solo debut, “Blank Unstaring Heirs of Doom”. She followed with 2007’s “There’s No Home” full-length and and EP bearing the title “Carrion”. Hunter’s newest work (a full-length due out in 2009) is still at times bleak, even grim, but more often rapturous, lush, and resplendent, and a marked refinement of her already considerable melodicism and sensitivity. “Jana Hunter is…making stark and mysterious songs full of a weird will, as if they’re writing themselves.” (Ben Ratliff, New York Times, 4.29, 07)

Check out the Facebook invite: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=114594818591.

Nothing People, Late Night (S-S)

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My review of Late Night, the newest album by Nothing People, appears in this week’s LEO Weekly:

As far as careerist schemes go, naming your band Nothing People and titling your first album Anonymous has to be pretty high up on the list of bad ideas. Yet California’s Nothing People’s lack of such ambitions is refreshing in an age where seemingly every band has a marketing plan. Thankfully their music is unique enough for them to be noticed. Whereas their debut mined proto-punk in the vein of Chrome or Public Image Limited, Late Night presents a bleaker, lonelier vibe (hence its title). Some of its simpler songs don’t even seem to feature the entire band but still reveal an emotional complexity lurking beneath the surface. While Nothing People are seemingly hard to know, so far it’s been worth the effort.

Buy it from S-S here.

Ofege, Try and Love (Academy)

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The following review ran in today’s LEO Weekly:

Continuing the current explosion of excellent 1970s African music being reissued in the West for the first time, Brooklyn’s Academy Records (a reissue label started by quite possibly the best vinyl store in the country) has reissued Try and Love, the 1973 debut album by Nigeria’s Ofege.

Whereas Nigeria’s most well-known superstar, Fela Kuti, might be superficially comparable to our James Brown, Ofege could also be considered the continent’s Jackson 5. Consisting of five unrelated teenagers, Ofege took their country by storm but missed greater opportunities because their parents didn’t allow them to quit school. However, unlike the J5, Try and Love’s music has a conspicuous maturity that surprises. But the album doesn’t forget to rock, complete with super-psychedelic, post-Hendrix guitar over African polyrhythms.

You can buy this excellent record from Academy here.