Tropical Fuck Storm
Australian post-apocalyptic acid punk disco scuzzheads TFS are coming to the US and Canada for the first time since 2019. For the last two years they’ve been holed up in a bush bunker pursuing their sonic experiments which have produced 2021’s Deep States album, and feature film Goody Goody Gumdrops. Tropical Fuck Storm members Gareth Liddiard, Fiona Kitschin Erica Dunn and Lauren Hammel will be bringing their wild, destructive and unstoppable chaos to the Northern Hemisphere stages performing songs from A Laughing Death In Meatspace (2018), Braindrops (2019) and Deep States (2021).“Everyone I could see, myself included, had a smile on their face I’m not even sure was voluntary. The looks on the faces of the crowd after the band had left the stage were ones of awe—multiple mouths were left agape and eyes were wide open, almost in disbelief. It was a remarkable performance. One that anyone in the audience would attest to it being phenomenal. Throughout the entirety of the set, down to how the band dealt with their technical issues, it felt like witnessing the best guitar band in the world” Spectrum Culture @ Elsewhere, Brooklyn“A Tropical Fuck Storm gig is like putting your brain in a blender for an hour straight” Beat Magazine“The darkly hallucinogenic world of Melbourne weirdos Tropical Fuck Storm is a borderless realm, its edges blurry like a fever dream. … Any time you think you’ve sussed their murkily psychedelic approach, the quartet take another thrilling, freewheeling detour.” Kerrang“In Tropical Fuck Storm’s determination to engage as fully as possible with the reality of human existence, in all its ugliness and contradictions, they are tapping into its truths.” The Quietus“Beyond such vivid, often thrilling caricatures, however, the acrid smoulder of The Donkey, the mysterious haunt of Legal Ghost and the nuanced pop of New Romeo Agent prove that Tropical Fuck Storm have yet to succumb to glib nihilism, and that tenderness and poetry are still within their grasp” Mojo“What makes Tropical Fuck Storm as vital as they are unsettling is how well their songs, which often seem chaotic, fractured, and as brutal as the subjects they consider, speak to the currents of our contemporary worry. They’re making a strange sort of musical magic, to be sure. But they’re also demanding that we confront a world where change isn’t necessarily gonna come.” New City MusicLinks: Website | Bandcamp | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook
Jon Shain & FJ Ventre, Shannon O’Connor’s CD Release of “Stay, My Darling!”
Jon Shain is a veteran singer-songwriter who’s been turning heads for years with his words and his fiery acoustic guitar work, and his evolved musical style – combining improvised piedmont blues with bluegrass, swing, and ragtime. Shain had the good fortune to learn directly from a number of North Carolina’s older blues players, and became a member of Big Boy Henry’s backing band. He is the 2019 winner of the International Blues Challenge in the solo/duo category. In addition, Shain was a finalist (along with FJ Ventre) in the 2009 International Blues Challenge, he won both the 2008 and 2018 Triangle Blues Society’s Blues Challenge and was the 2006 winner of NC’s Indy award for Best Folk Act. Shain’s most recent solo disc, Gettin’ Handy with the Blues: A Tribute to the Legacy of WC Handy, was released in January, 2018. Shain’s newest album, Never Found A Way to Tame the Blues, recorded along with long-time collaborator FJ Ventre was released in July.FJ Ventre and Jon began playing music together in 1982 when they met in high school. FJ went on to University of Massachusetts-Lowell, earning a B.A. in Music Performance and Sound Recording. He remained in the Boston area, performing in the city’s vibrant music scene. Since relocating to Chapel Hill, NC in 2000, Ventre has performed with his own group The Swang Brothers, as well as most of the Triangle’s roots acts. In addition to performing as a sought-after sideman, he spends his time behind the mixing board, engineering at his own Good Luck Studio. With Jon, they have become sought-after producers in the folk/Americana genre, producing several charting Folk and Blues albums in the last few years. https://jonshain.com/jon-shain-and-fj-ventre/ Shannon is a local singer/songwriter known for her playful, gritty, and brutally honest songwriting. She coined her style “Sultry Americana” at the turn of the century. She is known for her strong solo performances and is often called to open for national acts that come through town. Shannon independently released several records and was thrilled to work at Good Luck Studio to make this latest release, “Stay, My Darling!” Jon & FJ played, produced, and engineered this project and will be joining her for this special CD release event. https://shannonoconnor.hearnow.com/?fbclid=IwAR31HC5u2ORnIyzWNfWlvCsQMQxV8ISIzqKLnIoK0p3SGUKXgsxeKR-U4ng
Michigan Rattlers
Lifelong friends and deep-north natives, musical group Michigan Rattlers play heavy-hearted folk-rock with an aching dose of Midwestern nice. Graham Young (guitar), Adam Reed (upright bass), Christian Wilder (piano), and Tony Audia (drums) began writing music and performing together in their Northern Michigan high school. They regularly played every bar, cafe, and stage in town, developing a musical chemistry informed by the likes of AC/DC, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Bob Seger, and more. After a few years apart, Reed and Young settled down in Los Angeles, recorded a short demo, and began playing locally. The demo found its way into the hands of super-producer Johnny K (Plain White T’s, 3 Doors Down), and they cut the bulk of their first EP at NRG Studios in just one day.This self-titled Michigan Rattlers EP attracted glowing reviews from No Depression, Bluegrass Situation, B3 Science, and Rolling Stone, who named the band one of their “Ten New Country Artists You Need To Know” in 2016. In 2018, following a massive summer tour that included stops at Bonnaroo, Firefly and Electric Forest; the band released their highly anticipated debut full length album, ‘Evergreen,’ on September 28th. “This is a band with solid songwriting chops and instrumental skills,” says No Depression. “‘Evergreen’ shows this three-piece from Petoskey, Michigan making a stand, making their way.”Links: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Apple Music | Soundcloud | Spotify
BRONCHO
BRONCHO return to the road for the first time in three years with the I KNOW YOU TOUR 2022 where the Oklahoma band – Ryan Lindsey, Penny Pitchlynn, Nathan Price and Ben King – will be performing songs from their landmark first four albums; the catchy, playful vibe of Can’t Get Past the Lips (2011) and Just Enough Hip to Be Woman (2014) as well as the deliberate sonic intent of 2016’s sludgy, moodier art piece Double Vanity and of course, and perhaps the most critically-acclaimed album in the quartet’s decade-long career, Bad Behavior (2018); with its fan faves and urgent, bonafide pop songs, “Sandman,” “Boys Got to Go,” “Get in My Car” and “Keep it in Line.” Broncho crafts sing-along anthems that combine punk and garage-rock. You could make all the likely comparisons to punk bands of the ’70s — Ramones, Iggy Pop and The Stooges — or even bring up the new-school garage-rock undertones of The Strokes and The Strange Boys. But that would sell the band short. If anything, it combines the best elements of both genres: raw guitar chords and energy, plus DIY sentiment, but with hi-fi production. Their pop sensibilities create a world where T. Rex, Tom Petty and The Cars collide.Links: Website | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube
The Bad Checks
The Bad Checks Afterparty will be included with the $25 admission to the Southern Culture on the Skids show at Cat’s Cradle Back Yard. If you want tickets to just see The Bad Checks, they’re available here for just $5.The BAD CHECKS formed in Cig-City, Durham, NC, as a three-piece garage/punkabilly band in 1980, brothers, Robin and Clifton, with high school friend Larry Tally. They played their first show with Butchwax on New Wave night at the infamous Cat’s Cradle and opened for the Bad Brains at The Station. They released their first single, “I’m Paranoid”, in 1982 on their own label, Loretta Records. Spotting a potential frontman with “Crash” Landen and the Kamikazes, Hunter Landen joined the band and played his first live show in his high school graduation gown in 1984. The Checks’ released “Graveyard Tramp” in 1985 (replacing Larry with Mike Griffin) and played shows with the Dead Kennedys, Replacements, Jeffrey Lee Pierce, Sonic Youth, Mike Watt, Fishbone, Suicidal Tendencies and many others.Their second album, “Innocence” was released on the French Label Music Action and in the US on Blackpark Records. Mike Griffin returned to his studies, and the Checks burned up a few drummers over the next few years. Mike Grealing played on the next release “Live at 9:30”, Rob Ladd sat in for a while as well as Scott Carle, Jon McClain and Chuck Garrison. In 1997, the Bad Checks found ex-Smooch frontman Rock Forbes who has been drumming ever since.The Bad Checks are more than a band, they’re here to stay!Links: Facebook
Bay Ledges
Zach Hurd started Bay Ledges in his bedroom after moving to Los Angeles from a small town in coastal Maine in 2015. It began as an attempt to make fun, creative sounds with no expectation. Chopped up guitar lines, playful beats and manipulated vocals created soulful, glitchy songs with a feeling of nostalgia. The project took off when Hurd’s 2016 single, “Safe,” jumped to the number three spot on Spotify’s Global Viral Chart.In the years that followed, Bay Ledges toured all over the US and Canada, sharing the stage with such acts as Yoke Lore, Magic City Hippies and The Palms. In 2020 Hurd utilized time off the road to get back to the more personal process of making music – writing, producing and mixing his 2020 EP, New Daze. The result was a more intimate exploration and an evolution of the Bay Ledges sound.After the release of New Daze, Hurd packed his bags and relocated back to Maine. He explains, “My partner Clara and I were feeling ready for a change from Los Angeles and the idea of returning to Maine, where I’m from, was exciting. There’s a lot of nostalgia here from my youth and coming back is like seeing everything with this new perspective.”Hurd is currently working on Bay Ledges’ debut album and will be releasing the first track “Changing” on August 27th via his new label Nettwerk. He adds, “I wrote half of the song in Los Angeles and the other half after moving back to Maine earlier this year. Recording while we were staying with friends and renting short term apartments. Among other things, the song’s about saying goodbye to a time in your life and relationship, acknowledging your own growth.” “Changing” is the first step in a new chapter for Bay Ledges. Stay tuned for more to come.Links: Website | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud
Chimurenga Renaissance
Under the waters, we’re waiting with paws each larger than the head of a lion, rows of teeth, and jaws stronger than a Megaladon. Together, we are the black leviathan, panther of the deep.Chimurenga Renaissance is Baba Maraire and Hussein Kalonji.Mixed by Erik Blood, riZe vadZimu riZe also features Palaceer Lazaro, Mall Saint, M1 of Dead Prez, and THEESatisfaction. Discover it.Links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Spotify
The Mayflies USA
Links: Bandcamp | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify
Family Vision, Blood, The Veldt
“Plastic Form”, the second full length from New York via North Carolina punk outfit Family Vision, dives headfirst into an unhinged burst of kinetic energy. Opener “Gaze/Game” gets straight to the point, packing years of pent-up stagnation and refinement of artistic process into a sub-minute barn burner. The track list wastes no time, moving steadily through powerfully crafted hooks, adorning Kabir Kumar-Hardy’s clear and plaintive lyrical gripes with mischievous and ingenious window dressings that lack no urgency for all their catchiness.Pulling values and structures from multiple corners of the east coast underground, Family Vision’s penchant for concise statements and bleating rhythms come directly from their roots in the hardcore-leaning house show circuits of the Southeast, but are crucially injected with the ambitious and restless sonic processes of the big city post- punk canon. Arrangement choices are lifted from the harmonic playbook of Pere Ubu, Wire and Orange Juice, but take timely departure to the chiming hooks and ennui ridden lyrical spunk of their generation’s indie rock.While their 2019 self-titled was firmly lo-fi by default and necessity, the recording of “Plastic Form” took a measured step towards control of the sonic elements, harnessing a scrappy and blown-out character when desired but able to achieve bitingly clear and lushly layered textural density. Here, control allows true freedom. The band was able to let loose, hit harder, and mold their impatient sentiments into an injection of momentum to the mental system. This is music that is tired of waiting, and is anxiously capable of carving out its own path. Kabir wants to light a fire under his feet, and we can feel it burning.Links: Bandcamp | Instagram | Facebook | Spotify | Soundcloud
Spiritualized Live
SPIRITUALIZED EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL While some people imploded in the lockdowns and isolation of the epidemic, others were thriving.“I felt like I’d been in training for this my whole life” said J Spaceman in a text conversation last June or so.He was referring to his fondness of isolation and when you reframe loneliness as “beautiful solitude” then it isn’t so bad.He would walk through an empty “Roman London” where “even the sirens had stopped singing” and where the world was “full of birdsong and strangeness and no con-trails.”He used the birdsong walks to listen and try and make sense of all the music playing in his head. The mixers and mixes of his new record, a ninth studio album, weren’t working out yet.Spaceman plays 16 different instruments on Everything Was Beautiful which was put down at 11 different studios, as well as at his home. Also he employed, more than 30 musicians and singers including his daughter Poppy, long-time collaborator and friend John Coxon, string and brass sections, choirs and finger bells and chimes from the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. So, there’s a lot going on.“There was so much information on it that the slightest move would unbalance it, but going around in circles is important to me. Not like you’re spiraling out of control but you’re going around and around and on each revolution you hold onto the good each time. Sure, you get mistakes as well, but you hold on to some of those too and that’s how you kind of… achieve. Well, you get there.”Eventually the mixes got there and Everything Was Beautiful was achieved.The result is some of the most “live” sounding recordings that Spiritualized have released since the Live At The Albert Hall record of 1998, around the time of Ladies & Gentlemen, We Are Floating In Space.The opening track “Always Together With You” is a reworking / supercharging of a track originally released in demo quality in 2014. This new version is a perfect Spiritualized song; a breathtaking, hard edged, psychedelic pop tune where themes of high romance and space travel collide. In one of the most sublime refrains of the band’s career, the backing singers call out “if you gotta lonely heart too”.And don’t we all? Sometimes?On “Best Thing You Never Had”, we meet characters who blew their mind but “never had a mind to blow” over backing instrumentation that sounds like a New Orleans funeral procession band who’ve been drinking thinners all night. It’s possible this Stones at Exile-era stomp is auto-biographical, but maybe not. It’s hard to remember.“Let It Bleed (For Iggy)’’ is heavy eye-lids and the romantic intricacies of emotional intimacies, a honeyed song that careers into choir-fueled intensity. A country number “Crazy” is even sweeter, a lorazepam Tammy Wynette ballad with backing vocals by Nikki Lane.Spaceman: “When we were mixing, I relied a little bit on what I knew of Ladies And Gentlemen…, that if you start throwing mixes together, it stops sounding like what you already know from the past. Andy Capper Sept 2021 Links: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Spotify | YouTube | Soundcloud
