Distortion and reverb are their friends, but none of their music feels consumed or overwhelmed by such effects. A mix of dreampop, shoegaze, and grunge, the LA-based trio balance their stone-heavy rhythmic section of bassist Hunter Martinez and drummer McCoy Kirgo with the swirling melodies and heaven-reaching vocals of singer-guitarist Shawn Marom.
Their music is quite stark and spare, though for all the reverb. There’s also a sense of 50s girl group about them. I’d be curious to see how that translates live.
SOUNDTRACK: FLEETWOOD MAC-“The Green Manalishi (With the Two Pronged Crown)” (1969).
I know this song from Judas Priest, who made a killer cover that they played for years. Rob Halford’s voice on the song (in their live version from 1976) is incredible.
I didn’t even know there was an “original” until a decade or so ago. It seemed out of character that Judas Priest would cover a trippy Fleetwood Mac song (of course they also covered Joan Baez, so…). But wow, this song is a trip.
I mean, the lyrics alone are the stuff of legend at this point. There’s dozens of places where you can read about the song. Here’s a few paragraphs from Uncle Stylus.
Peter Green said it’s a song about the corrupting influence of money, which he equated with the devil. In 1969, the huge success of Fleetwood Mac had brought them a considerable income and Green had agreed with the band that they would would give it all to charity. One can imagine that “morning after” moment when he demanded they made good on their idealistic rush of blood. A massive quarrel ensued, and Green never forgave the other bandmembers for reneging on the idea and claimed that this was what inspired the song.
Manalishi is a word that Peter Green made up for the song. The sound of it rolling around the tongue is exotic and menacing, suffused with the mystery of demons and gremlins from a medieval Italian dark night.
Listening now it’s clear that he was really, whether consciously or unconsciously, telling us about his depressive schizophrenia and even the dark persona unleashed within him when he took certain drugs, the “green” of the manalishi being Green himself. It reads like the beginning of a story by Edgar Allan Poe.
The Judas Priest cover doesn’t really follow the original all that much (the ending wailing is so much cooler the way Halford does it). But the riff here is pretty spectacular (understandable why they’d want to cover it). Also, it was a big hit in England when it came out, so it’s not like the band was crate-digging for rarities. I had just never heard of it.
There is something some sinister about the slow menace of the Fleetwood Mac version. It’s incredible to think that this is the same band who put out Rumours (although really it isn’t, but whatever).
Check out the live from Boston version for some real heaviness. And marvel that this weird song was a hit.
[READ: November 2022] Collectibles
Evidently Lawrence Block has created several of these anthologies all loosely based around a theme. This is the first one I’ve read, although I see another one called Playing Games is on the horizon.
This collection is about collectibles. Most but not all of the stories are crime or mystery based. A couple have a touch of the supernatural as well. The term “collectible” is pretty broadly defined from one story to the next, but it’s a decent prompt to let you know what you’re getting.
Lawrence Block – The Elephant in the Living Room (An Introduction)
This is an essay about the book which includes an amusing story about Lawrence’s Uncle Jerry who ha a collection of giraffes. There were presently none in the collection because he hadn’t found one up to his standards. (more…)
Back in May of 2021 I was pretty excited that Måneskin won Eurovision 2021. I am in no way a Eurovision watcher, but during the lockdown I decided to do some dives into recent Eurovision happenings. Måneskin was unusual–a rocking band who were glammy but heavy. Their song “Zitti E Buoni” had it all (in a tidy three minute package).
I enjoyed the song, played it a few times and then kind of forgot about them.
So it was weird when, a few months later, my daughter became obsessed with them. I realized that in 2022, it’s easy to be obsessed with a band from a non-English speaking country, but it still made me happy because obviously I am obsessed with lots of bands from far away places.
Måneskin announced a small concert in October 2021 and I missed out on the announcement and it sold out very quickly. That sucked because she would have loved to see them (and it would have been pretty cool to see them in a small club before they toured the States).
It took almost five months for Måneskin to announce a proper U.S. tour. There was no way I could miss out on these tickets and I grabbed them immediately. She was thrilled and I was pretty excited to see them as well. I was somewhat surprised, but not really, that it sold out. But I was a bit more surprised that they announced a second show in Philly.
That one didn’t sell out and as the show approached, the idea came to us to go to the non-sold out show instead. There was also the possibility of a few her friends going to–we may have been our own crowd. Various things came up and it turned out to be just my T, S and me. But i did manage to sell our Monday tickets, so it worked out. (more…)
I bought tickets to this show back in march–the day they went on sale and old out. My daughter and I were excited to go, although wasn’t sure how much she’d enjoy a sold out show.
As the day grew closer, we thought it might be more fun to go to the second night–not sold out, tickets still available. I also bought one for my wife so the three of us could enjoy the show together.
I was able to sell these tickets and all was well. We may have gotten more poseurs at our show, but it was still more fun.
~~
Back in May of 2021 I was pretty excited that Måneskin won Eurovision 2021. I am in no way a Eurovision watcher, but during the lockdown I decided to do some dives into recent Eurovision happenings. Måneskin was unusual–a rocking band who were glammy but heavy. Their song “Zitti E Buoni” had it all (in a tidy three minute package).
I enjoyed the song, played it a few times and then kind of forgot about them.
So it was weird when, a few months later, my daughter became obsessed with them. I realized that in 2022, it’s easy to be obsessed with a band from a non-English speaking country, but it still made me happy because obviously I am obsessed with lots of bands from far away places.
[DID NOT ATTEND: November 25, 2022] The Menzingers / Touché Amoré / Screaming Females
I have seen The Menzingers twice. The first time I missed most of their set. The second time I was in a terrible location and the sound was dismal. I told myself that I really wanted to see one good set with them.
I had tickets to this show and then the Guster show came up. So clearly we pick Guster over this. But when we decided not to go to Guster, I didn’t feel like going to this either.
I think I’m done with them.
I love the name Touché Amoré, although I don’t know much about the band. This Pitchfork review of their album Lament, gives a fascinating look into the lead singer’s headspace. Sounds like a pit was inevtiable.
Screaming Females is another band that I really liked for a pretty long time but I’m a little over at the moment. Maybe I’ll come back to them again.
[DID NOT ATTEND: November 25, 2022] Guster / Alex Edelman
When we saw Guster at the Wellmont, they announced that they would be playing Carnegie Hall. Carnegie Hall!
We went on vacation and I grabbed tickets from a museum on vacation.
And then late November rolled around and we realized that it was the Friday after Thanksgiving. BLACK FRIDAY. There was no way in hell we were going to New York City on Black Friday. I’m going to posit that this is something only someone from New Jersey would say.
So, we did not see Guster at Carnegie Hall.
Alex Edelman is a comedian. I just watched a clip of one of his bits on Stephen Colbert and it was hilarious. Must check him out more. And, frankly, I think a comedian is a good opening act for certain bands.
[DID NOT ATTEND: November 24, 2022] Ty Segall / Charles Moothouse
I have become a fan of Ty Segall in the last few years. He releases far too much music to keep tabs on him, but I’ve wanted to see his fuzzed out live show for a while now.
He has been in Philly three times this year. Once with his band Fuzz. Next with the Freedom Band and now as an acoustic solo artist.
I was trying to slow my shows down a bit by the end of this year (I had seen so many!). Plus, when I finally do get to see Ty Segall, I want it to be with a big noisy fuzzy band, not as an acoustic performer.
So, I opted to give this one a miss. Wonder if I’ll regret it someday.
Charles Moothouse was an unfamiliar name to me, but that’s because I’ve never read Ty Segall’s liner notes. Wikipedia tells me
Charles Frances Moothart is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter. … Moothart is the drummer for Ty Segall’s current backing band, The Freedom Band. He was previously the guitarist for Segall’s backing band, the Ty Segall Band, and is the guitarist and vocalist in the pair’s hard rock project, Fuzz. Additionally, he is a member of Segall’s collaborative project with Ex-Cult’s Chris Shaw, GØGGS.
I saw Jinjer almost exactly one year ago to the day. It was also the night before Thanksgiving (that’s kind of weird, no?}
When they announced this show I bought a ticket immediately. Last year, there was no war in Ukraine. There was no crisis or concern. This year, I wanted to support them and their country. I didn’t even really pay attention to the rest of the bill.
P.O.D. (really?), Vended and from Ukraine, Space of Variations.
I didn’t want to see any of these other bands (well, maybe Space of Variations). And I didn’t want to spend two and a half hours standing around listening to bands I didn’t really want to hear.
So I thought I might not go. But I listened to some Jinjer and decided that I did want to see them after all. Especially when I saw that they were playing “Pisces” on this tour (which they didn’t play for us last time). (more…)
When this tour was announced I practically screamed with delight. It was listed as a dual headlining show with the bands switching who would play first. It just happened that we had Suede as the second band and I feel that, given how exciting Suede was, we saw them in the right order.
The first Suede album (or The London Suede, if you must) is one of my favorite albums of all time. It’s glammy and trashy and catchy and wonderful. Brett Anderson’s voice is unique and magnificent and Bernard Butler’s guitar work was like nothing else at the time. When Butler left during the recording of their next album, it seemed like curtains for the band, but young guitarist Richard Oates stepped in and is a force unto himself. I still think of him as the new guy, even though he’s been in the band for over twenty years.
Suede broke up in 2003 and I guess I lost touch with them. But they reunited in 2010 and have been putting out new albums ever since. Although I wasn’t really aware of these records–they really fell off my radar. I had never seen Suede live (and they haven’t toured the States in something like twenty-five years). I looked at their European shows and saw that they were playing a lot of songs from the new album. But I hoped that they would throw a bone for the U.S. fans and play some oldies too.
The band came out and set up their first song, a lengthy instrumental opening. And then Brett Anderson slowly marched out. He shuffled and danced and was surprisingly goofy. I evidently didn’t know anything about Suede’s live show, because I wasn’t expecting anything like the way Anderson bounced around, crawled on the floor, and, yes, climbed into the audience and sang with us. It was awesome. (more…)
[ATTENDED: November 19, 2022] Manic Street Preachers
When this tour was announced I practically screamed with delight.
I saw the Manic Street Preachers 23 years ago. And while I haven’t kept up with their releases, I have listened from time to time. But their albums from the 1990s are some of my favorites of the era. And I have never seen Suede and their debut album is one of my favorite albums ever. They haven’t toured the US in about 25 years. I bought a pit ticket and was pretty psyched.
I was quite surprised to find out that it hadn’t sold very well. But the people around me were super into the show and knew every word to every song (which is more than I knew).
My favorite two MSP albums are Everything Must Go (1996) and This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours (1998) and they started off with a song from Truth, the roaring “You Stole the Sun from My Heart.” The followed it right up with “Everything Must Go.” I was so excited to find out that James Dean Bradfield still sounded amazing. He hit some great high notes and was full of power. Their touring musician (whose name I didn’t catch) added some nice deep backing vocals to the songs.
I was more or less in front of bassist Nicky Wire who was pretty chill–although he did wear a boa for one song. He used to wear dresses or skirts, but he was just wearing a MSP T-Shirt. He said a few things (he is known to be controversial), but I didn’t really understand anything he said. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 