Dream pop / shoegaze maestros Chromatics have released a new single, “I Can Never Be Myself When You’re Around,” from their long-awaited new album Dear Tommy.
The new single is another fine example of their ethereal sound and a further tease for the Dear Tommy album that was announced two years ago.
Keep your mind open.
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Fort Wayne’s first “destination” music festival, Middle Waves, was last weekend and a big hit with the crowd. Future festivals will only be better judging by how well the first one went.
I knew it was going to be at least an interesting festival when I walked into “The Village” area (where all the vendors were) looking for my press pass and saw this.
Deep fried chicken on a stick. I didn’t eat there. For my money, the best deal and food there was from the Vietnummy food truck. A bahn mi lemongrass chicken slider for only five bucks? I’m in. I’m in all day long.
Bahn mi slider in hand and press pass around my neck, I went to check out my first band of the festival – Nashville’s Bully. I’d only heard a couple tracks, and I liked their mix of heavy rock and post-punk.
They killed the Maumee Stage with a fierce performance that won over the crowd within minutes. Seeing them might be the closest I get to seeing X-Ray Spex in concert. It was full of wild guitar and drums, Cure-like bass, and frantic vocals. People were still talking about them the next day.
I finished Friday night like many others – by seeing Best Coast on the main (St. Mary’s) stage. I’ll admit that I hadn’t heard a lot of their material before this, but there were many in the crowd who sang to everything they played. I liked the blend of surf-psych with dream pop. The gay man going nuts next to me when they played “Boyfriend” was one of the highlights of the crowd for me.
Heavy rain hit the area overnight and through most of Saturday morning. I hoped it wouldn’t keep the crowds away, and I’m sure the Middle Waves staff was watching local weather radar like a hawk the entire day. One band was playing on a makeshift stage in the covered food vendor area when I got there due to the Maumee Stage being rained out that morning.
Luckily for all, however, the rain cleared around 3:00 and the sun came out bright and happy. The St. Mary’s stage field had straw scattered all over it to prevent massive mud pits from forming, so it soon smelled like a wet barn out there. You didn’t notice the smell once Jeff the Brotherhood began playing, because their sonic assault almost knocked us flat.
They played several tracks from their new album, Zone, which I need to get soon. A lot of it has a great stoner rock vibe that borders a bit on doom metal. It seems heavier than some of their previous stuff, which is fine by me.
I took a break after their set to drive down to Neat Neat Neat Records (profile coming soon), and they were playing Bully. The clerk and I raved about their set and I was soon walking out with three used CDs. I made it back in time to see Ft. Wayne’s hometown psychedelic heroes – Heaven’s Gateway Drugs. They put on a fine set of their sun-soaked psych on the bank of the Maumee River to a welcoming crowd. I hadn’t realized until this set how some of their stuff sounds like early New Pornographers (which is a good thing).
I took an extra long break to get in a full meal (Smoked pulled chicken, cole slaw, and potato chips for eight bucks? Sold!) before seeing The Flaming Lips. People had been camped out all day to claim spots for the show. My favorite ones were these two.
I thought, “That’s my wife and I in twenty years.”
The Flaming Lips didn’t disappoint. It was a party from the very first song.
The crowd was jumping, singing, smacking around balloons, and cheering for lizards in yellow suits and boat captain catfish.
Their light / stage show is something you have to see to fully appreciate. Strings of lights, kaleidoscopic gongs, confetti cannons, and glitter are all thrown into the mix.
Lead singer Wayne Coyne kept the crowd cheering and moving, especially when he came out in a giant bubble during the band’s cover of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.”
It was a great performance under a full moon, and a good omen for future festivals. The early afternoon rain was the only thing keeping the first Middle Waves festival from being an out-of-the-park home run, but that’s nothing the promoters and staff could control.
I’m sure the number of national touring acts will grow in the future, as all of the ones there this year praised the festival and the crowds. A master stroke by the festival is having two free stages. The Maumee and St. Joseph stages were free for everyone. The St. Mary’s main stage was the only one with paid admission. Anyone could’ve come to the festival with no money and still have seen twenty bands (including that jaw-dropping set by Bully, mind you).
Here’s to the future, Middle Waves. It looks good for you.
Keep your mind open.
[Many thanks to the Middle Waves staff and crew, and especially to Emma and Maggie for setting up my press credentials for the festival.]
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Don’t miss your chance to see Night Beats if you’re on the west coast. They’re hitting it hard through November and touring with Mystery Lights – a band I’ve been meaning to check out for a couple weeks now.
The Night Beats are killing it right now, and I’ve yet to see them put on a bad show. They are well worth your time and money.
Keep your mind open.
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Guitar / rock legend Jimmy Page has remastered the excellent double album The Complete BBC Sessions. The album drops tomorrow (September 16th) and has eight new tracks previously unreleased. The original BBC sessions album was released in 1997 as a two-disc set, but this newest edition will be three discs and contain rare versions of “You Shook Me,” “I Can’t Quit You Baby,” “Sunshine Woman,” “Communication Breakdown,” and “Dazed and Confused.” There’s also a 48-page book in the deluxe edition.
In even better news, Page has announced that he has a new album in the works. Look for it next year.
Keep your mind open.
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Electro duo Phantogram are set to release their third album, appropriately titled Three, on October 7th. The first single, “You Don’t Get Me High Anymore,” is a dark track about a relationship that’s lost its fire. I don’t know if the album cover image reflects that lost passion or a rekindled one, but Three will probably be one of the kinkiest records of the year. Just watch the video for “You Don’t Get Me High Anymore” if you don’t believe me.
Keep your mind open.
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Beck‘s new album still doesn’t have an official title, but it does have a release date – October 21st. Beck has said in interviews that the new record is inspired by some of his recent live performances, and two of the first tracks released, “Wow” and “Dreams,” are lively cuts that portend a return to Beck’s upbeat funk records like Midnite Vultures and Odelay.
Keep your mind open.
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I love a good instrumental, and Gravel Drag‘s (Chris Bowyer – bass, Ben McKinney – drums, Steve McKinney – guitar) Sly Fox EP has four of them. All are tight stoner rock tracks that each clock in under four minutes. Gravel Drag doesn’t have time for spacing out for long stretches. They’re too busy making hard-hitting swamp metal.
“War Beast” sounds like Helmet and Sleep met in a dark alley and got into a fight. Ben McKinney’s drums remind me of classic Helmet fills and Steve McKinney and Chris Bowyer supply the heavy Sleep-like riffs.
“The Legend of Sly Fox” is peppier than “War Beast,” but it’s no less heavy. I love how crisp Ben McKinney’s snare is in this. “KnockoutKing” is a knockout. Loud, squelching guitar, one-two punch combo bass, and mosh pit drums all equal a great tune.
The closer is “Radio Curse,” and I wonder if the title refers to the lack of radio play for instrumental riff rock like this. Bowyer channels his inner Peter Hook with his bass at first and then drops stuff heavier than Hook ever did in Joy Division.
It’s a shame this is only a four-song EP because it’s heavy enough to be a full album. An LP from these guys would probably have the mass of a dwarf star.
Keep your mind open.
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Consisting of two members of Morphine (one of my top 5 bands of all time) – Dana Colley (saxophones, vocals) and Jerome Deupree (drums) – and their pal Jeremy Lyons (vocals, guitar, bass, banjo, and more), Vapors of Morphine are reclaiming low rock and bringing it back when we need it most in this time of 24-hour news cycle cacophony.
A New Low opens with a short instrumental and then a traditional Tuareg song, “Renoveau / Daman N’Diaye” (and a second version of it near the end of the record). The inclusion of Tuareg music on this (with vocals by Boubacar Diabate) is a great choice and shows the band’s love for low-fi world music as well.
Their new version of Morphine’s “Shiela” is great, and slightly darker than the original. “Baby’s on Fire” has some of Colley’s best electric saxophone work. I still don’t know how he gets those sounds out of those things. Their take on Morphine’s “The Other Side” turns it from a song of lament and regret to one of paranoia.
Dana Colley often plays two saxophones (one tenor, one baritone) at once, but it sounds like he’s playing four on “Sombre Reptiles.” “If” is a great example of low rock as Lyons sings, “If the ocean was whiskey or full of gin, would you lead me away or push me in?” and Deupree drums are cooly reverbed and Colley’s saxophones do a creepy crawl through your stereo.
“Red Apple Juice” is an old Appalachian standard, and the band does a great job with it, turning it into a near goth-country song with Lyons’ banjo leading the way.
Colley sings leads on “Souvenir,” another great Morphine track. He also goes blissfully bonkers with his saxophone work on it by the end. “Rowdy Blues” reminds me of Treat Her Right tracks, which is always a good thing (and a natural progression since THR’s Mark Sandman went on to form Morphine with Colley and Deupree).
The album ends with the instrumental “Interstellar Overdrive,” in which Dana Colley plays a spaceship. The track is proof that the band could go full-blown psychedelic if they wanted.
A New Low is proof that low rock has returned and is just as good as it’s always been.
Keep your mind open.
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Thanks to all who listened to my last WSND show of summer 2016. I should be back on the airwaves Wednesday nights for the first half of Christmas break and then Sundays in the second half. Here’s my set list from last night:
Keep your mind open.
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I’m a big fan of The Police. They were the first band I loved as a kid, and the first band who made me appreciate their craftsmanship. Plus, everyone forgets they were punks at the outset who played songs about their dickweed landlord, working dead-end jobs, and shagging blow-up dolls.
So I was intrigued when I learned Police frontman Sting is releasing his first rock / pop record, 57th and 9th, in a decade. Producer Martin Kierszenbaum claims Sting hasn’t “rocked like this since Synchronicity.”
The album drops on November 11th, and the deluxe editions come with three bonus tracks – one of which is a live version of the punk Police classic “Next to You.”
Keep your mind open.
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