I saw Joseph on a video from the Newport Folk Festival a few years back and I loved the way the three sisters of the band sounded singing together. The power of their voices and the harmonies they sang were just stunning.
Natalie, Meegan and Allison Closner are Joseph. The band name, Joseph, is a real problem, at least if you are trying to find them on the internet. (They are apparently named for their grandfather or their father or the town they are from or something).
I had put them on my list of bands I wanted to see, so I was pretty excited to see that they would be playing in Sellersville Theater. But I had a weird experience by the tickets. I first saw a notice about the show listing in January. I immediately grabbed tickets up close. And then all notice of the show seemed to vanish. It wasn’t on the band’s website. It wasn’t on the Sellersville theater website. It wasn’t listed anywhere. I kept checking to see if the show was cancelled, but there was no word at all.
And then about a month and a half later the show was officially announced again and my ticket was good. (more…)
I hadn’t heard of Becca Mancari before this show. So when Becca’s pedal steel player came out and sat at the instrument, I wondered if this is what she looked like and what she played.
Well, after a minute or so of pretty, trippy, soaring pedal steel (which Sarah said reminded her of Sigur Ros), Becca came out in a jump suit and goggles and started playing her guitar. I have no idea if this outfit is typical.
The first song was rather serious, so I was surprised that after the first song, she started chatting with us and was very funny and quite silly.
This was my third time seeing Built to Spill. I had seen them as a five-piece and a three-piece. And this show was another three-piece set up.
I thought it was strange that the drummer’s drums were set up off to the right of the stage instead of in the middle, but that was how they left them. And, indeed, that’s how they played at Stone Pony with drummer Steve Gere off to the right and bassist Steve Albertini to the left.
The two guys don’t do a ton–that’s not their job. They are there to anchor whatever Doug feels like doing. And it’s amazing the way they can adjust to whatever he decides to do–jam, change tempo, whatever. They’re an amazingly tight band,
My friend Al knows the members of Overlake and he thought he might be attending this show. I was bummed he wasn’t there (and even moreso when I tried to text him to see if he was there and realized that I didn’t have his cell number, gah).
I wound up getting to the show really early and parked literally against the stage. I was fascinated that at the start of the show all three drum sets were set up. And how fascinating that Overlake (the opener) was right in the middle.
I looked up the band before the show and the description of the band sounded like I’d really like them:
Overlake is a three-piece band from Jersey City, comprised of Tom Barrett (voice, guitar), Lysa Opfer (Bass, voice), and Nick D’Amore (drums). When they’re not incessantly waxing philosophical about the musical merits of both MBV and GBV … Overlake is busy honing their own unique brand of noisy dreampop, drawing from such stalwart influences as Dinosaur Jr, Slowdive, and Yo La Tengo.
Rituals of Mine was a band I hadn’t heard of. They were opening on the co-headlining Afghan Whigs/Built To Spill tour. I don’t know why Built to Spill played this one-off, solo headlining show in Asbury Park, but I was super thrilled to see them alone. I do really like Afghan Whigs, but it didn’t seem like a double bill I wanted to attend. Rituals of Mine came along with Built to Spill to Asbury Park.
I looked up Rituals of Mine and learned that they used to be called the worst band name ever: Sister Crayon. They even released an album as Sister Crayon and have since re-released it as Rituals of Mine.
Before the band came out, the stage was covered with drums. And Rituals of Mine’s drummer was off to the left. When the lights dimmed, a strobe light started flashing in the bass drum, which was kind of cool. (more…)
SOUNDTRACK: “WEIRD AL” YANKOVIC-“The Hamilton Polka” (2016).
Lin-Manuel Miranda has declared his love and respect for “Weird Al” on many occasions. So it makes perfect sense that he would ask Al to contribute to the online Hamilton project known as HamilDrops. The Decemberists’ “Ben Franklin’s Song” is amazing too.
But seriously, how could Al parody a more or less biographical story of a historical figure (that’s two hours long)?. By not parodying it at all.
Rather, he makes one of his polka mashups which he’s been doing hilariously since his second album. They are often a highlight of each new album. This song compresses (almost) the entire musical into 5 minutes.
“The Hamilton Polka,” provides what’s essentially a CliffsNotes-style run-through of the musical’s hooks and highlights — just enough to get the entire musical stuck in your head all over again.
I love the way in the original, the third sister, poor Peggy, is sort of musically dissed whereas Al is just explicit about it. And of course, how could he refuse to include some actual gun shots for “Not Throwing Away My Shot?”
So they cram in quite a bunch of melodies (and aside from the “bastard” line in the beginning, manage to keep it clean. Although I do wish he’s added at least one Hercules Mulligan line
Alexander Hamilton
Wait For It
The Schuyler Sisters
Yorktown
You’ll Be Back
The Room Where It Happens
Guns and Ships
Washington On Your Side
Non-Stop
History Has Its Eyes On You
My Shot
And Al can really sing and rap some of those lyrics quickly. It’s a really fun mashup.
[READ: January 11, 2018] Alexander Hamilton: The Graphic History of an American Founding Father
Before the musical, most people’s familiarity with Alexander Hamilton probably came from this (awesome) commercial (even if none of us could remember what it was ultimately for).
Actually, my father worked for (and owned for a time) Alexander Hamilton Printing in Paterson, NJ, so Alexander Hamilton has always been a part of my life. Although I had no idea why. Not really.
There’s a new reason why people know about Alexander Hamilton (can you even say his name without singing it?).
And I’m sure that reason has something to do with the creation and publication of this book. But Hennessey is not just jumping on the Hamilton bandwagon. Well, maybe he is, but he has two other historical graphic novels out already: The United States Constitution: A Graphic Adaptation (2008) and The Gettysburg Address: A Graphic Adaptation (2012). He also has books called The Comic Book Story of Beer, and The Comic Book Story of Video Games so he’s not all stuffy.
The musical is far more catchy than this book–far more steamy. But this book is really chock full of details that the musical skips (for various reasons, obviously). The book is a lot less interested in the romantic dalliances of the founding father, although it certainly does acknowledge them.
Indeed, the book is 176 fully illustrated pages jam-packed with information. It reads a little, if not dull, then certainly more academic. That’s because there’s a lot of text and a lot of history. (more…)
I had never heard of Bit Brigade, but I saw an ad in Johnny Brenda’s for a band who would be playing music from The Legend of Zelda and I was very intrigued.
Clark and I have been to see Symphonic Zelda twice, so I thought it would be interesting to hear a rock version of it.
But as I investigated, I saw that they also had a “Player One” who played the game while the band played. What was going on here?
It turns out that, as bassist Luke Fields explained to us:
Noah is going to play The Legend of Zelda as fast as he can. And we are going to play the soundtrack as loud as we can.
I first heard about Double Ferrari when NPR covered them for their SXSW special.
They were described as “a thrillingly over-the-top throwback to a time when guitar virtuosos noodled their way to arena-sized stardom, Double Ferrari crafts giddily triumphant odes to giddy triumph.” And why would you only have one Ferrari when you could have a Double Ferrari?
The song on the show was an instrumental based around guitar riffs. That’s what they do. I felt like they took the best solos from classic British heavy metal and built songs around them–with two guitars playing the parts in delicious over the top harmony. And of course I love that the band Double Ferrari has a song called “Double Ferrari ” from the album Double Ferrari. (more…)
[ATTENDED: April 21, 2018] Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O.
Several months ago I purchased a ticket for Ministry in Morristown, NJ. I’d loved Ministry’s brand of industrial noise in the early 90s, although I pretty much stopped listening to them altogether before Y2K.
But I saw that they were touring and that they were playing some older songs so I thought it might be a cathartic experience.
Then I found out that Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. were playing at a small club the same night. Acid Mothers Temple is one of my friend Lar’s favorite live acts and it was fairly easy for me to decide to get a ticket to them and sell my Ministry one. (I decided I’d rather be pummeled by psychedelia than vitriol and anger).
It was the right decision because Acid Mothers Temple was amazing. (more…)
I hadn’t heard of Montreal’s Yoo Doo Right when I saw they were touring with Acid Mothers Temple. But I may have been the only person there who hadn’t.
Before the band even started to set up, a guy with (reasonably) professional looking audio equipment set up his microphones right up on stage. And another guy with a camcorder propped himself up near the side of the stage to record the whole set.
The band got their name from a Can song and they play a kind of psychedelic Krautrock-inspired indie rock. It was a really great set and I totally got into it.
The band came out and set up their gear (poor John Talbot on drums needed a bigger cinder block as his drums kept sliding forward). Charles Masson on bass stood center stage anchoring the flights of noise and melody from Justin Cober on guitar/keyboard/vocals.
Off to the left somewhat was Charles Bourassa on keys. At first it didn’t seem like he was an integral part of the show, but I gather that after letting the other guys get the noise out of their system he was there to anchor the songs with synth melodies and more noise. He was also lead vocals on a few songs.
I loved the noisy guitars that Cober played. And how he switched back and forth between guitar and keys. Between him and Bourassa, I’m not sure who was making what sounds.
There were some great sections of droning guitars and walls of sounds. And they often has great moments when the bass and drums came in to anchor the song.
But when all was said and done they were just there to rock.
I chatted with the band after the show and they were super friendly. They have two EPS out on bandcamp right now.
I saw Joseph on a video from the Newport Folk Festival a few years back and I loved the way the three sisters of the band sounded singing together. The power of their voices and the harmonies they sang were just stunning.
