Battles, Sex and Death

As I write this, I’m listening to the BeeGees’ “Trafalgar” (on vinyl), inspired by a viewing last night of “That Hamilton Woman,” a 1941 film starring then-newlyweds Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh as, respectively, Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson and Lady Emma Hamilton, who carried on a long-term affair while both were married to others and Nelson was keeping England safe in perpetual naval battle with Napoleon.

It was a big, grand, old-fashioned movie, part manly action flick (the sea battle was quite impressive for its time) and soapy chick weepie. Watching old movies, especially ones with torrid love affairs, shown in chaste 1940’s style, where passionate kisses are strictly lips smushed together (no tongues, please!), makes me wonder how the great screen couples of that period – Leigh and Olivier, Hepburn and Tracy, Gable and Lombard – would have handled the Nearly Anything Goes style of today’s sexy films. How would these great screen icons have played tonsil-hockey?

Olivier has a death scene, too, as Nelson is killed in battle at Trafalgar (hence, the inspiration for today’s musical selection and accompanying visual). I know I’m watching way too much MSNBC when, in the middle of our tragic hero's death throes, I’m thinking to myself that he kinda looks like pundit David Corn, of Mother Jones magazine…And then there’s the moment when Leigh/Lady Hamilton gets news of Nelson's demise and goes into a immobile stare before collapsing to the ground. Cinephiles tend to talk about so-and-so’s death scene, but I’m actually more fascinated by actors who need to portray the intense emotion of hearing that a beloved one has died. On the whole, Vivien Leigh did a pretty good job.

Anyway, that’s the sex and death part. As for battles of the non-naval type, I was asked to judge again this past week at Jammin Java’s6th Mid-Atlantic Band Battle. I was there for two nights; seven bands competed on each night for top honors and the right to return for the finals in February. Fourteen acts in two nights...it's still a bit of a blur.

Local musician Nate Ihara, of We Were Kings, hosted again and he always does a good job of pimping this here blog when he introduces me in the Meet the Judges moments, promising photos, videos and scandalous backstage stories. Sorry to say there’s no scandal here, but I did post a story and photo slideshow of Wednesday night’s event at examiner.com. So, please visit there and you can get a full(er) report.

In that article (part two, covering Thursday night, will follow soon), I gave background on the competition and tried to give each band at least one photo; most got two. Needing to stay put at the judges’ table, I wasn’t able to get up close, and some bands were just easier than others to shoot from a distance. I have a few random shots that didn’t run in the examiner story as they would have looked redundant. Here, then, are some outtakes for y’all:

The Dirty Jacks won the night, although there was some stiff competition.

Grand Rivival opened the show. Turns out, I had seen them at a previous MABB (put their name in the search and you'll see). With a new drummer, the band has really tightened its sound since then.

Grand Revival again (note shirtless guitarist on left).

Here's Groove 8, whom I would definitely try to catch again.

The Later Sun brought some nice folk-rock harmonies to the evening.

Finally, the "dreamy" (he likes me to say that) Nate Ihara, opening the envelope that contains the name of the winning band.

As I said, a second examiner.com story will go up soon. My twitter account (@mariannemeyer) will announce it right away, or you can watch this space. 

Hey, it's Saturday night -  go out, have fun, be safe!

Heavy Metal Ha-Ha (first of 2012!)

Some of the best music writing out there - or at least the most entertaining -  comes to me in the form of press releases about heavy metal (or super hard rock, grindcore, etc. It's a pretty wide field...of blood!).  From the names of the bands to the album and song titles to the descriptions of music that wants to rip your face off, it's a thesaurus of aggressive fun. Here then, my first HMHH entry of the new year, with two bands featured. (Both are excerpts, with my emphasis added.)

1. Following their first ever trek through Brazil with Aborted, California goregrind ministers EXHUMED will spray their blood overseas next month on the Grind Over Europe Tour 2012.

  

EXHUMED will be touring in support of All Guts, No Glory, issued earlier this year via Relapse Records. The band's first new record in almost eight years offers up 11 slaughter-filled tracts of soul-raping, grind-infused death metal that toppled an array of Year End lists including Decibel, Pitchfork, NPR.org, MetalSucks and Skulls N Bones.

[CPF NOTE: yes, you read that right – NPR. The socialist propaganda outfit covered Exhumed's show at Maryland Deathfest 2011.]

“… fans of dripping blood, gaping autopsies, and ravenous zombies will absolutely adore this record.” — Revolver 

“EXHUMED has aged like corpse putrefaction: that is indeed the highest compliment you can pay to one of 2011’s best records.” — Brave Words

And here’s a little something about another band, Toxic Holocaust:

"If The Exploited and Nuclear Assault had a kid, TOXIC HOLOCAUST would take its lunch money and toss it in the dumpster." -- Hails & Horns

“….sweetly redolent of thrash, d-beat, and raw sewage, the album simmers with tar-thick riffage, staggering breakdowns, and a corroded dose of self-loathing. — The Onion’s A.V. Club
Throw your devil horns, people!

Singular Sensations? Not So Much.

OK, so I had every intention of posting, as mentioned last time, my top singles of the year, as submitted to the Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll, but now I can't find my original list nor can I access the site to see the titles. Why can't I just name them, you ask? For the same reason I couldn't get past number 7 in the final list - individual songs just didn't have the same visceral impact on me in 2011 that I felt in years past. There was Adele, of course. You couldn't escape "Rolling in the Deep," be it at a middle age dinner party, grabbing a drink at Starbucks, stealing cake at a tween neighbor's birthday party or eavesdropping on a drunken night of twentysomethings. Luckily, the song was so good and so rife with pure talent, that you didn't mind hearing it yet one more time. 

And for me more personally, there was Fleet Foxes' "Helplessness Blues," a song so rich in gorgeous harmonies and heartfelt emotion that I bought it immediately upon hearing it and played it over and over in that manner one used to do with actual physical singles that you feared you might wear down the vinyl. The album is lovely in a general overall sense, but no other track comes close to that one shining beacon of musical beauty.

After that...not so many new classics. I had "No Light, No Light," from the new Florence + The Machine album on the list; not even sure if it's a real single (by which I guess I mean featured track), but it's the only song on that much-anticipated new album that stands out to me and even then, only after an SNL appearance gave it a boost.

When I attempted to boost my list-making memory, I pulled up a few Great Songs of The Past Year articles from the usual suspects - Spin, Rolling Stone, Paste, etc. - and will admit that, for every compilation of 100 supposedly great songs, I literally didn't know dozens of them and couldn't quote you lyrics or hum you the melody of many that I sort-of-had-heard-of. It's such a fractured market out, with so many niche styles and I rarely listen to any commercial radio. So, I'm content with my album choices and there are many wonderful songs to be heard therein.

Anyway, I've had two beers tonight and that's just enough to fog my faculties so that I cannot recall the other four songs that made the cut. Another day, then. Sleep tight (as I will), friends.

Looking Back to Good Albums and Forward to More

I'm actually pretty optimistic about the year ahead, but this illustration, from yesterday's New York Times, was too good not to share:

Anyhoo, as 2011 was drawing to a close, I got my reminder from the Village Voice Pazz & Jop poll to list my ten favorite albums and singles of the year. I had a hard time whittling the album list down to ten, but here's the final list as submitted to the poll, which will be published in the January 18th edition of the esteemed alternative weekly:

Elbow - Build a Rocket Boys! (Downtown/Cooperative Music)

Paul Simon - So Beautiful or So What (Hear Music)

Coldplay - Mylo Xyloto (Capitol)

Wilco - The Whole Love (dBpm/ANTI)

James Blake - James Blake (Universal Republic)

Frank Turner - England Keep My Bones (Epitaph)

Ballake Sissoko & Vincent Segal - Chamber Music (Six Degrees)

Scattered Trees - Sympathy (Musebox)

M83 - Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming (Mute)

Radiohead - The King of Limbs (Ticker Tape)

As for the singles, in sharp contrast, I had a hard time coming up with ten songs that reached out and grabbed me in the way that a great single is supposed to do. What made the list? I'll get to that tomorrow.  (I'm really gunning to blog every day, if possible, so I need to pace myself!)

Keep On Rockin' In The New Year

Greetings, Close Personal Friends, and a most happy new new to all!  

For a change, the hubby and decided to get out of the house on New Year's Eve and drove off to my favorite local venue, Jammin Java, for a "Big Ol' Super Classy Throwdown" celebration with Native Run (formerly known as Big River) and other local musicians who've helped make the club a hub of great area talent. It was an all around wonderful night, with dancing, laughter, kisses and a champagne toast for all at midnight.  A nattily-dressed Nate Ihara opened the show.

Native Run's Bryan Dawley joined Nate for a few songs, adding beautiful mandolin accents to "3000 Miles."

Among the added guests, the Miller sisters, Justina and Marie, whose harmonies worked very well on two covers, "Moon River" and "Kiss Me" (the Sixpence None the Richer track)

Luke Brindley's solo set showed off what a fine songwriter he is, with "You Are Not Alone" and "We Go Together" as standouts, again with support from Bryan.

Brindley Brother Daniel came onstage to add his musical support...

...alas, I didn't get a good shot of Daniel playing what appeared to be tabla drum as he accompanied Luke on the always show-stopping instrumental, "Dervish."

I grabbed a shot of Nate, his lovely girlfriend Aleksandra and producer/musician Mark Williams as they posed for someone else.

This was actually the first time that The Band Formerly Known as Big River performed as Native Run.

A peek inside, from outside.

You lookin' at me?

Native Run has energy to spare, always an invigorating show, and a great way to welcome in 2012.

Heavy Metal Ha-Ha (Halloween edition)

This just in (verbatim from the press release, with my bold added):

Sweden's whore-filth death metal horde, BASTARD PRIEST, return to stink up your speakers with latest full-length, Ghouls Of The Endless Night.

Featuring eight flesh-tearing tracks, the follow-up to 2010's Under the Hammer of Destruction is set for release via Pulverised Records on November 7, 2011! Recorded in mere days at Parasit Studio with Fred Estby (Necronaut, ex-Dismember) and mastered at Enormous Door Studio (Poison Idea, Phobia, Extinction of Mankind, etc.), Ghouls Of The Endless Night offers up a decomposing smorgasbord of primitive death metal and snarly hardcore punk perfectly fit for fans of Master, Autopsy, Dismember, corpsefucking and grave digging...

Ghouls Of The Endless Night Track Listing:
1. Pestilent Force
2. Ghouls Of The Endless Night
3. Enter Eternal Nightmare
4. Poison
5. Fucking Slaughter
6. Sacrilegious Ground
7. Last Scream
8. Enormous Thunder Of The End

Play this for the little kiddies coming to your door for trick or treat and you'll scare the crap out of them and their parents!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Pruning the Bonsai - Learn from My Mistakes

A typical Saturday afternoon finds me playing with the music collection, sorting through new CD/digital releases and old LPs, trying to decide do they stay or do they go? Trying to revive the O/CD Tally, I started a new database which allows me to sort by artist, album title, digital or physical delivery, purchased or promo, etc. Why? Because I want to.


If a new CD replaces an old LP, I check to see if the vinyl is worth selling on amazon.com (it has to fetch more than $10 and not have more than a dozen copies available to make the process worthwhile). If it isn't, it goes into the pile for the trade-in store. Going into the LP shelves invariably leads to finding stuff I haven't heard in ages and want to hear again. Today's "Oldie But Goodie" - Aztec Two-Step's "Second Step." I was especially excited to hear "Faster Gun" again - a gentle love song that knocked me out Back In The Day, when I saw the acoustic duo perform at my early alma mater Stony Brook (two years there and then I finished at NYU) - yeah, it was that long ago. And I rediscovered "Humpty Dumpty," a sweet/sad song that tells of unrequited love and asks if the Eggman jumped. (Sounds goofy but trust me, it works.)


And then I found some old Arlo Guthrie (I heard he and Pete Seeger showed up at OWS, NY, so good on them) and I thought I'd see if "Washington County" is worth holding onto. Frankly, listening to it now, I'm surprised I put up with that nasal-y whine as much as I did. Not to bash AG; he's written some fine songs, it's just that a little of that voice goes a long way. Ultimately, I think I'll just use my remaining emusic.com credit for the month, grab a few songs from this LP and add it to the Outta Here bag.


Oh, and while I was ripping some songs from CDs that don't need to be kept (if it's not a favorite artist and there's nothing special about the packaging, I convert to digital and trade/sell off the physical copies) I discovered that I've lost a bunch of previously ripped tunes! My own damn fault; I wasn't paying full attention to the iTunes playlists. I have just learned the hard way that, if the time of the track is "Not Available," that means it wasn't transferred at all. And there's a bunch of songs that are suspiciously short. Checking them out, there are a few tracks under 30 seconds that are meant to be that way - interstitial (great word!) bits and band introductions, dialogue snippets, etc. - but again, a really short time listing is a sign that a song didn't get fully transferred. Oh, poop!


As I have often told the kids, if I can't set a good example, let me be a horrible warning...

Heavy Metal Ha-Ha

I love press releases touting very heavy rock music. Not because I listen to deathcore or grindcore or extreme metal or whatever the variations are, but because it has the most descriptive writing, and it's often unintentionally hilarious. Like this (emphasis added):

"NUNFUCKRITUAL's In Bondage To The Serpent crawls from the gutter like a diseased, decayed and decrepit corpse; a choking dirge; a hideous, malformed infestation of filthy underground metal that ignores trends, defies categorization and brings together some of the darkest, blackest, nastiest manifestations ever committed to tape. Degraded and corrupt, these six blasphemous conjurations call upon decades of extreme metal experience to devastating effect, resulting in an album so gross, rank and genuinely disturbing that it is the aural equivalent of being cannibalized by the leprous sisters Plague and Death. An insidious poison running through your veins, slowly devouring your life force, until nothing remains, but ruin. Obsidian incantations seethe with pure evil energy, summoning ancient deities to commit terrible atrocities against organized religion, a celebration of the ultimate triumph of mankind's dark side. Swarming, swirling and shimmering with mal-intent, In Bondage To The Serpent breaks new ground with its omnipresent, all-consuming evil vibe. This eerie, potent brew is, quite simply, a manifestation of pure, undiluted evil. Sickness never sounded so real..."

Damn. I just missed my mom's birthday...

The Final Battle (for Now) of the Bands

Last Friday, I returned to Jammin’ Java for the finals of the 5th Mid-Atlantic Band Battle but this time, I was not a judge. And though I missed the camaraderie – and free food – at the judges table, I was able to float around more, chat with some of the bands without fear of seeming partial and got a little closer to the stage for photos. So, still a pleasure.

I had seen two of the acts – Lightspeed Rescue and Bethany and the Guitar - before. LSR had made it to the finals in a previous Band Battle in which I was a judge, in February, where they lost out to Delta Rae. (The Silver Liners were also on the bill that night, making it a particularly tough competition.) BATG (the initials want to make me call the band Batgirl) were the victors of one of the semi-final nights I served as a judge for in July. So I knew coming in that I was going to enjoy at least two of the sets.

When I came in the door, the first act onstage was a new one to me, Static Cinema, a quintet from Warrenton, VA. They were impressive right away, with a tight, muscular rock sound, a charismatic frontman and smooth moves from quiet melody to hard-bouncing party noise. Having just Googled the band for more info, I’m even more impressed to see that the group “consists of five members ranging from ages 16-19.”
Well-played, young sirs! Here’s a few shots from their performance…

Next up was Bethany and the Guitar, as good as I remembered them with bright harmonies, sweet acoustic guitars and friendly, female pop of the Sara Bareilles, Ingrid Michaelson school.
I just looked back to my older posting on the subject and saw that that’s pretty much how I described them last time. And these new pictures show pretty much the same stage visuals (So sue me.) You can listen for yourself to a few songs at the band's web site.

During a break between bands, a few members of Lightspeed Rescue (it’s a Power Rangers reference) came up to say hello. I could honestly tell them that I was looking forward to seeing the group again, as I’d thoroughly enjoyed their set last time.
Though there was a little hiccup in the momentum, with sound set-ups taking a bit longer than usual, the band came out roaring.

You can hear a few tracks from LSR’s debut EP, “Celebration,” at their site and, while I was happy to get a copy from them after the show and listen on the ride home, it’s not half as much fun as seeing them live, when the boundless energy, dueling guitarists and buff hip-hoppin’ vocalist Brandon Bester (he’s taken his shirt off both times that I’ve seen them) kick it up many notches. The group sites influences such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Outkast, which is all well and good, but I daresay Lightspeed Rescue can carve out a niche to call its own someday.

The final act on the bill was The Understudies, who had a strong fanbase present - lots of people walking around with black T-shirts with the band logo on it. At the risk of alienating those nice people, this was the one act of the night that didn't rock my socks. I think it's a genre-thing; I'm just not one for mid-tempo, kinda MOR blues rock, however capably performed. The drummer was kind enough to give me a cool bumper sticker ("Piano is the new sexy," it said) and a copy of the band's EP and I gave it a spin, but songs about the blues guitar player in Memphis who broke my heart are not my cuppa...

And thus, with four finalists having shown their stuff, it was time for the big announcement. The night’s Host With the Most, Nate Ihara, took to the stage with club staffers David Silberstein and Amy Jones, to open the envelope…

And the grand prize winners of the Mid-Atlantic Band Battle 5? Bethany and the Guitar.

Those last moments of the Band Battles are always a little bit sad. One act gets to celebrate while the others have to deal with disappointment. Having sat at the judges table in the past, I know that the final result can come down to very small numbers. I can't argue with the outcome, as I thoroughly enjoy Bethany and the Guitar and wouldn't say they didn't deserve the win.

Still, Lightspeed Rescue had an energy that couldn't be denied, even if, in a sense, it was by the final vote. I saw the guys in the band bunched together in a consoling group huddle after the winner was announced and I wanted to pat them on the back and say, "Don't give up. You're winners in my book."

But that's just me, not a judge, speaking.

We Get Out (part one) - Scattered Trees at Red Palace

I'm rather ashamed to admit it but, since I'm among friends, I'll cop to the fact that I've been living in the DC area and writing about local music for double-digit years and, until last Sunday, had not been to the NE club area. Despite being a transplanted New Yorker who knows full well how people cop out of enjoying all a city has to offer for dubious reasons, I hesitated to go into this unexplored territory. Is there safe parking? (I once had my car broken into two blocks from the 9:30 Club, albeit many years ago.) Would I be okay wandering the streets alone? (I'm comfortable going to most NW places alone, but was waiting for someone to go exploring with me this time.) Bottom line, I was a wuss.

Push came to shove when I got word that Scattered Trees would be playing the Red Palace (former home of two clubs - The Red and the Black and the Palace of Wonders - which knocked down some wallage to form one new entity) on H St. NE. The band's album, "Sympathy," was advanced to me earlier this year, and I was pretty quickly smitten, especially by one track, "A Conversation About Death on New Year's Eve," which is, happily, available as a free download from the group's publicity gang. Take a listen and see if you don't love it, too.

Finally, spurred by my love of the album, I was determined to suck it up and see what NE has going on. My trusty Plus One pal, Sally, agreed to come along. Lesson learned - when in doubt about taking a chance on something that's intimidating (but not actually dangerous) - just do it! We had a great time. After taking a few wrong turns on our way into the NE quadrant, we came upon H Street - wide, well-lit, filled with cool-looking shops and free street parking - and walked into the Palace, a neat venue with a fascinating collection of carnival and burlesque signage and props (including a few that would be downright creepy if they weren't so obviously fake), a pleasent outside patio and a small (150 max?) performance space upstairs.

We ran a little late and so caught only the last song of the show's opener, Australian singer-songwriter Paul Dempsey, and even that was just as we walked up the stairs. Dempsey's publicist was kind enough to send a zip file of his debut, "Everything is True," when I told him I was going to the show and, having heard some of the songs pop up on the iPod shuffle since, I can say I'm sorry I didn't hear more. Again, there's a song available to share - "We'll Never Work In This Town Again," so hear it here. And, as a former Brooklynite, I gotta post this pic of Dempsey at a C train station.

The next act on the bill, the Alternate Routes, is one that Sally and I have seen before, a fine local act that tills the rootsy rock field. To give their music a culinary metaphor, I'd call them a Five Guys burger - nothing fancy or exotic, but a simple, solid, comfort recipe done with care and good taste. The guitarist who was closest to me is kinda cute, too...

Here's the whole group...

One song featured a tool box as a percussion instrument...

And I just happen to like stage accessories...

But the night, for me, was all about Scattered Trees who (staying with the food theme) are like finding a great all-night cafe that adds just the right new accent to a favorite dish. In this case, the sound is meditative, melodic rock with layered harmonies and melancholy, but not depressing, lyrics. Lead singer Nate Eisland wrote the album after the death of his father, making its beauty all the more bittersweet.

I've been enjoying "Sympathy" since I first downloaded it in January (it came out in official physical form in April) and the Chicago-based band started its first full U.S. tour earlier this month. So I was psyched to finally get a chance to see them. And they didn't disappoint.

Given the album's quiet charms, it's one that I frequently listen to in the late evening but, not unexpectedly, the band ramps things up in concert, adding muscle to the songs without stripping them of their tender sentiment.

Besides lead singer Eisland, there's a double threat guitarist/keyboard player guy and a cool female (in this photo), another guitarist and a drummer...

When I win the lottery, I'm getting a digital SLR camera that can be pushed past these orange exposures. Until then, here's an example of what happens without flash...

And what I get with it...

And we'll end the photo gallery with a second low-angle shot that features another visual obsession of mine, Shoes of the Stars...

Apologies for the randomness of this posting, BTW. College girl was watching "Hairspray" while I was working on it and I was continually and happily distracted by the upbeat musical action. You can't stop the beat!

Beauty Pill - the pictures

So, when we last left me (see the previous entry), I was sitting in the balcony at the Artisphere, watching Beauty Pill record in the Black Box Theatre. Here's how it looked from that perch...

I was expecting that, since it was the last day the band was scheduled to be in the space, it would be a time of reviewing finished tracks. And yet, as I was watching, a guitarist came in and Clark began talking to him about a new track he wanted to add to a previously-recorded bit. It took about a half-hour to set up the guitar...
(making records is a lot like making movies or TV, a lot of waiting between actual creating)

And while I'm watching this, someone new arrives to check out the scene as well. We chat about how cool it is to watch the process unfold and, when I ask the guy if he'd heard Beauty Pill before, he tells me that he's Chad Clark's brother! Ha. I hand him one of my bizniz cards and ask him to pass it on to Clark and tell him I said hello and would have something on the blog later. Shortly thereafter, the guy's phone rings and Clark looks up to wave him down. We exchange goodbyes and he heads off. A few minutes later, Clark looks up and seems to be waving for me to come down, too. I look around me. Yep, I'm the only one here. I point to myself. "Me?" He nods.
I guess his brother put in a good word.

And so, I returned to the actual studio, where the adventure started, and sat quietly while the guitarist finished his track. My view got much better.

In a break, I asked the photog who the guitarist was and he told me it was Ryan Nelson, who co-wrote the song in progress with Clark some time ago. (BTW, Nelson said he had a terrible toothache, so more praise for his playing and good attitude.)

After Clark signed off on the guitar part, there was a brief break while the mics were being reset for a vocal part to be done by Jean. Clark and I chatted briefly and, though he didn't seem to remember our correspondence about the film, he was very gracious about having me crash his party. I'll keep y'all posted when the next phase of the project - the album release "exhibit" takes place.

In the meantime, here's a piece that explains the project in more detail and tells the story behind the song that was being recorded.