The Guru, Chalk Talk, Black Churches and lots lots more

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Location:
Peace Cafe
37 Main Street
Southington, CT

$5 - 5:00PM - All Ages


The Guru

Chalk Talk



Black Churches



Bandname



FigureHead



White Savages

Hard Water

...and more... EMAIL ME LINKS YOU NINNIES

Happy New Year!

Murdervan and White Bronco

Thursday, December 30, 2010, Die Hipster! Records presents

Location:
Cafe Nine
250 State Street
New Haven CT

FREE - 9:00PM - 21+

Two solid bands playing tonight. There's a long piece on Murdervan in the New Haven Advocate: check it out here.

Brushback talked a bit about White Branco earlier this month: here.

Amazing Ghost: "i getuppa"

Words: John Panos

Most anyone who has lived in New Haven within the last ten years know/remember/hate/have slept with Eddie Pren, renaissance man, New Haven pizza hustler, master of the sartorial arts and former musical/cult leader of Pencilgrass. He disappeared a few years ago, but is back with a new band, Amazing Ghost, a new piece of vinyl, a new video and exactly the same attitude about life. We think the video speaks for itself.

Amazing Ghost @ Cafe 9, 2009

The Outer Space - NEW VENUE

The Outer Space is a new cafe and louge, that will be a "sister" venue to The Space. This new spot will soon serve beer and wine to the 21 and over crowd (liquor license in the works). The Outer Space is located in a separate building just over a hundred feet from The Space in the same parking lot.

The Outer Space will have a soft opening in mid-January. The Grand Opening Splash will be the first two weeks of February. Two full weeks of fundraiser shows will be held with the purpose of helping to cover a portion of the project budget. Various local promoters will be presenting a few of these shows. To further assist in raising the funds to help cover the building expenses and opening costs The Outer Space has launched a Kick Starter campaign. This campaign is for 60 days starting Dec 23, 2010. Consider donating as little as $1 to support the cause.

Here's some of what's to come to The Outer Space:

Thursday, Jan 6th- Midair, Good Citizens, Suns, Vasudeva, Wess Meets West, Grown Ups- Doors 6:30 $8

Sunday, Jan 16th- Tom Conlon (amazing traveling songwriter / storyteller), support TBA- Doors 7pm $10

Friday, Jan 28th- Joe Ladenza, Carolann Solebello (of Red Molly), The Backyard Committee (featuring members of The Alternate Routes)- Doors 7pm $10

GRAND OPENING SPLASH-Feb 2,3,4,5,6,9,10,11,12,13

Saturday February 5- Mighty Purple (feat. Steve Rodgers - owner of The Space and his brother Jon Rodgers), openers TBA- Doors 7pm

The weekly open mic, hosted for years on Tuesday nights at The Space, will be moved to Wednesday nights at The Outer Space starting on February 2, 2011. The last open mic at The Space will take place on January 4, 2011.

The Baxter Special - new LP from Thank You Mr. Keating

Released in July of 2010, The Baxter Special [Ø Records] is a full length by Thank You Mr. Keating, the alter ego of New Milford, CT native Travus Palmer. A visit to The Baxter Special website brings you into a world of Guided By Voices collage and Shock Cinema schlock. Using a late 70's TV show called Gemini Man as a take off point (or more specifically, the record is a retelling of the incoherent movie version Riding with Death), the record is basically a story about a heroic race car driver. (I suppose since Gemini Man was based on the H. G. Wells science fiction novella, The Invisible Man, The Baxter Special is yet another chunk in our cultural backwash). The LP comes close to being on par with a Circus Devils concept album. Serious or not, the lyrics are strong and clever, there's nothing annoying or inane about them. Tough to believe Palmer did this based on a movie once spoofed by MST3K. Or maybe this is perfectly believable to anyone born to love bad movies.

Almost every single tune on this record makes me think of a cross between Tynan Cooney's songwriting from Werewolf Police and post-Nirvana Dave Grohl. Another local band, Dead Wives, comes to mind, but The Baxter Special is more refined, even for what is essentially a lo-fi power pop record. The guitars have the same beefy buzz of the Rentals, but the Moog hooks get replaced by straight up muscle. With very few exceptions, all songs are stripped down, no intro, get-in-and-get-out efficient. Only one song sneaks over the three-minute mark. Vocals are buried, but there are some hazy harmonies in there that shine through. The momentum mimics the pace of a seventy-something Dodge Charger burning rubber around ever turn. The title track is oddly buried halfway through the b-side, and even more odd, turns out to be more of a lullaby than anything like the crank-able beasts on the rest of the record. Songs like Elusive 1 and The Understudy get a little lighter, too, switching off the fuzz, but still they keep the energy high. The acoustic-based Warning is a highlight of how mindful Palmer is about what he's doing. It builds and builds with staccato urgency into a song that feels like Sebadoh when at their most heartfelt.

Buy your copy now: CLICK




Takes off at around the 0:30 mark:

Fugue, Empire! Empire!, Annabel, Wess Meets West, Martin Luther King

Monday, December 27, 2010:

Location:
Heirloom Arts Theatre
155 Main Street
Danbury, CT

6:00pm - all ages - $5.00












Fugue




Empire! Empire! (I was a Lonely Estate) (MI)



Annabel (OH)



Wess Meets West



Martin Luther King - not sure about these dudes, but I guess this was originally going to be a house show, and someone in MLK was the host.

Empire! Empire!, Annabel tour dates:

DEC 27 – Danbury, CT @ Heirloom Arts Theatre w/ Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate), Fugue, Wess Meets West, Martin Luther King
DEC 28 – Allston, MA @ O’Briens w/ Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate), The Clippers
DEC 29 – Bethlhem, PA @ St. Bernards w/ Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate), Snowing, For Serious This Time, U.S. Male
DEC 30 – Richmond, VA @ The BP House w/ Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate), Sundials
DEC 31 – Wilmington, NC @ The Soapbox w/ Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate), SWTHRT, DJ Chason
JAN 01 – Baltimore, MD @ Charm City Art Space w/ Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate), Monument, Hightide Hotel
JAN 02 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Garfield Artworks w/ Empire! Empire! (I Was A Lonely Estate), In the Wake of Giants, Hisdayhascome

Missed Releases: Fugue, Hrishikesh, Ohsaurus, Smojphace

Screw the holidays. Way too much seems to go wrong around this time, assholes crowd the roads and stores, pressure and stress abound, but work and life is being quite a bitch to me lately so maybe I'm just grouchy. The new Estrogen Highs LP is still sitting next to the turntable waiting for a listen. I got a killer release from someone called Thank You Mr. Keating called The Baxter Special waiting for attention. Just need things to calm down before touching those.

Meanwhile, a handful of releases came in throughout 2010 that didn't get mentioned. There was a plan to do a review column type thing to cover all these that never panned out. So, here's a quick rundown of a few of those that got neglected.

Hrishikesh (aka David Scaramella) is a solo folk-ish-indie-pop-like project that someone sent in who wasn't Hrishikesh. The album called A Blossom in the Snow was put together at somewhere called the "Yellow Room" in Cromwell between 2007 and 2008. Scaramella did all the instrumentation. His vocals are effeminate, with oo's and ah's as harmonies, and lines like "fucking tasteless joke." He pulls it off pretty well. Timing and pitch get a little wobbly here and there, but it's a good enough release to put on with your toast and coffee in the morning. I am not sure where to find this release, though. I don't think I can post the download link. Maybe visit the Hrishikesh MySpace if interested.

Ohsaurus sent in a few things. Mentioned one, but missed the Mazecity Records link. Pay a visit for some relaxed minimal idm. There's also been the Grappa Frisbee guys jumping in to the mix these days. The insanely named Smojphace has some abstract bugged out chill electronics to check out on Grappa. Smojphace is based in New Haven, and had played Stella Blues the first week of December.

Fugue's Siblings

Fugue have some sick tracks up on their bandcamp. Their math-rock is similar to the Dischord band Faraquet. Actually, they're like post-hardcore yacht-rock, if there could be such a thing. Well, probably not, because they do get heavy. Definitely a tight band pulling some brave moves without sounding like eggheads. The jazz influence gets ground up by strong Chavez-like indie rock influences. Fugue will no doubt end up getting big if they keep at it.