Skull Valley

Jerkagram in the Mail

On July 26th I played with some very cool bands at the Shop in Bloomfield. I got on this show via Facebook message from the touring band Jerkagram, who I knew nothing about. The other bands on the bill included the inimitable Cyrus Gold and the widespread, but unknown, Highdeaf.

I played first. I've continued moving towards a more crystalline sound, longer pieces of musick, and longer sets. I accomplished everything I set out to do with this. I started with a minimal, reverb-y, crystalline sound that evolved over time. As layers built up, it became noisier, waves of fuzz coming in from the sea of static, until we were floating away into an ocean heading to lands far beyond what the eye sees. I did a second more rocking song after I got Jackson to turn the lights off.

Cyrus Gold played second. I helped with the sound, the Shop not having the best PA to work with. People think Roboto's PA is weak, but recently I've come to learn that it is totally capable and way stronger than some other well-liked venues's. Keith told peeps to donate to Karl Hendricks and then the band got noisy and weird before getting into punk/black metal. The set was really heavy and sounded really great. I like this band more and more every time I see them. Keith and I also made up for some past issues we had when Cyrus Gold was done playing which was cool.

After Cyrus Gold's set I went to Sunoco to get some stuff to drink, and make an important pfone call, but Jerkagram started quickly, and I came back in during one of their first songs. They sounded a lot like Satyr/Elfheim as a band or similar to my former band, Red Ginger. I loved the guitar tone, the vocals, and the drums; Jerkagram is a complete package despite only having two members (brothers!). They incorporated elements of free jazz, drone, post-hardcore, and math rock for a totally unique sound. I had a conversation about the always infamous Manny Theiner after Jerkagram had finished playing.

Last was Highdeaf. The members of that band run the very popular Sickhouse in Homestead where I've never been. Highdeaf is a two-piece, mathy, but a little sloppy. I'm not big on tapping, but I did like the samples they used and the strange synth sounds. I wish the guitar player had some more headroom on his amp, but he had a really thrashy/trashy distorted sound. Jackson read a poem to a song; I'm not sure if he wrote it, but it was really cool. Highdeaf played a short, but focused set which is always cool with me. It'd be cool to play another show together soon.

Check out Jerkagram here: http://jerkagram.bandcamp.com/.

-Show Review , Garfield Artworks , Znagez

Znagezin' with Mortis and Curt Oren

My second show as a member of Znagez was on July 21st, 2014 at Garfield Artworks. We were playing with Brian Hecht's new band, In Arthur's Court; a Cislon-Weeks production, Mortis; and solo saxophone, Curt Oren. Manny had originally asked Satyr/Elfheim, but I had too many solo shows close together. My camera was running out of batteries pretty bad for this.

First up was In Arthur's Court. More Joe Hogle, less Sasha, same Brian Hecht. There were some more beats, and still some horse sounds. Joe Hogle sat on the floor in a priest outfit and prayed to some higher being while chanting. The set was like eight minutes long.

Second up was Mortis, who I hadn't seen before. It included Jordan Weeks, Greg Cislon, and someone else I didn't know. They wore masks and strange outfits. A little plush troll-looking guy got dragged around the floor on fishing line. Mortis played free jazz/noise rock with some strange instrumentation.

Curt Oren played third. He played a minimalistic set: just him and his saxophone. He told us about working on Idaho farms, printing shirts with his ass, and writing songs with his dog. Curt Oren had dog treats and cookies for sale which was pretty funny. His music was a lot like Philip Glass.

Znagez played last, lacking both Bens. We asked Curt to play sax and the guitarist from Mortis ended up playing some wild drums. Our set ended up being extremely free form; it wasn't the greatest. Brian improvised some lyrics at times, and some of the songs went way beyond their lyrical structure. Rob and I had talked about slowing it down before we started playing, feeling it out. We might have sounded better if we had done that.

-Show Review , Garfield Artworks

Fins pt. 2

Back on October 30th, 2012 I booked the band Fins with another band called Ghosts of Chance for a spooky Devil's Night costume party show at The Mr. Roboto Project; nobody showed up. On July 17th, 2014, Fins was coming back and I was playing with them. I got the band Wealth for an additional local, replacing the since disbanded Pants from last time.

I played first, wearing a feathered mask and without my guitar. I used the Audible Disease Sequencenator, mic'd some objects like bells and a water bottle, and leaked in noise from a shortwave radio. I had some trouble getting everything to come in without feeding back, but it worked well. The sequencer provided a backbeat with blips of radio static coming in. Towards the end I let the radio bleed in more and more, classical music and rock riffs from the airwaves. The bells and water were quiet, but rubbing a balloon on the mic and then letting it fly away made some serious noise. I threw some Halloween-themed bouncy balls at the crowd. Manny said I should play some VIA shows.

Fins played after the Satyr/Elfheim carnival. They had expanded to include a bassist and gotten heavier. When I had last seen Fins, I felt like they were a little shoddy and falling apart, but I was also nervous because of the lack of an audience and a little cold. They also had a weird experience on that tour so I definitely don't blame them for rocking 1,000,000 times harder this time. Fins is really fast with a throbbing bassline and vocals that resemble the Nation of Ulysses or Rites of Spring. They're pretty garage-y, punk, noise rock. Their guitarist, John Lydon (not that fucjing Sex Pistol), looks really cool jumping around with his hair flying all over. I now know what people saw in Nirvana in the early 90's.

The newly formed Wealth played third, and last. Wealth includes Bender and Ken from Pants, on bass and guitar respectively, with Tyler McAndrew from Toxic Parents on vocals and noise musician Dan Malinsky on drums. Tyler has some of the most intense vocals I've ever heard, though he might have some trouble with a DI box.

-Show Review , Howlers , Znagez

Znagezin'

On July 8th, 2014 I was going to play as a member of Znagez, the amorphous band headed by former Rouper Brian DiSanto and featuring members of Secret Tombs, Psychic Boots, and Ali & the Haitians. The show was at Howlers and booked by Keith DeVries. Brian had recruited me to fill in a seemingly, but erroneously, deflated lineup. I was really excited to be playing with Znagez! I first saw them earlier this year on April 19th, at SAD Fest III and aglow with neon encased in synth sounds. Earlier in the day I had to work, so I made due with a smaller setup than usual and rode my bike to Howlers afterwards.

The first band to play was the very straightforward Wrecked Lexus who I had never heard of before. They played thrashy, but still melodic, punk that bordered on garage rock. I was originally kind of turned off by the band, but by the end of the set I wanted to see more. The frontman looked really cool playing with a jerky motion.

Second up was one of the touring bands, You, from Albuquerque, New Mexico. They played some heavy psych rock with some post- or math or emo influence. Their songs had dance beats which I usually hate, but not this time. The guitarist on stage right looked like Efrim Menuck from Silver Mt. Zion and had a huge pedal board. Towards the end You sounded a little like Hawkwind with some really spacey stuff.

Pours, who I thought were called Purrs, were third. They were minimalist and jazzy/indie with only a drummer and a guitarist/vocalist/keyboardist. Like You, Pours also had elements of dance in their music, and could be hypnotic at times. They used some interesting sounds at times, dripping water and 8-bit pulses. I was reminded of Marcona, Nat Homer's band, who I had played with in Brooklyn in May (more on that in a later post).

Znagez played last. We ended up having eight people in the band and causing quite a ruckus. The whole room was filled to see the madness. I brought my smaller travel guitar and three pedals since I had to come from work; I had to use Pours' amp. Andrew played a tiny synth through a tiny amp as he walked through the crowd. Ben Klahr played bass through the PA with Ben Hickling on drums. We also had a drum machine and an additional guitar and synth respectively along with Brian's vocals. I mostly played bursts of white noise, but played some actual chords and stuff when I felt like it would add to the songs. It seemed like a huge mess at the time, but everyone in the crowd seemed to love our set.

Garfield Artworks , Review , Secret Paper Moon

Second Secret Paper Moon

July 7th, 2014 was the second show that my new band, Secret Paper Moon, played. Secret Paper Moon features Stew Schmidt on guitar and me on drums; sometimes we switch. We were playing with In Arthur's Court, which is Brian Hecht's new solo project, Cloud Becomes Your Hand, and Ryan Power. I'd seen Cloud Becomes Your Hand a few years ago, and I was excited to be playing with them.

Secret Paper Moon played first. We had practiced a lot before the show, having written three songs since our last performance at Abandoned Store (where we only had two). We started the set with a short improve piece and then went into "Golden Gate", the first song we wrote. After "Trilobite", our second written song, and "Calvin Johnson", the power strip came out of the wall during "Simulacrum". Stew kept playing, even unplugged, but we ended up starting again and doing half of the song. We did a Velvety song called "R.A.F.", and then at the end we did another improve piece with Stew on drums, Sasha (from Actorcop and In Arthur's Court) on vocals, and me on guitar. It was a lot of fun, but a little bit messy.

The mysterious In Arthur's Court was second. Brian put on a crazy costume with a moon-shaped headpiece before starting to play his black telecaster. Sasha played some keyboards and added some beats and samples. In Arthur's Court declared that music had taken a turn for the worse since the year 1215. The sounds of animals making a ruckus mixed with 1000 year-old medieval chord progressions filled the air. In less than ten minutes it was over. Everybody cheered for more horse solos.

The show ended after all of that. Nobody was at the show to see the touring bands; they figured they might as well get a start to the next city. Everybody who was there seemed disappointed, but understood. Maybe next time.

Elks Lodge , Fundraiser , Girls Rock! , Review

Girls Rock! June 2014 Showcase

The first 2014 Girls Rock! Showcase was on June 28th. I missed the last one because I got there on punk time, but I made it to this. Girls Rock! is a one-week camp where girls aged 8-18 learn to play instruments, make zines, write songs, and other such things. It took place at the Northside Elks Lodge.

I had never been to the Elks Lodge before, but after entering it was what I expected, sort of a school auditorium filled with parents with a huge bar on one side. There was a line around the bar for free pizza. I ended up getting a few different vegan slices (from Spak Bros.) and I got a weird bingo ticket from one of those machines (and didn't win anything). Near the bar there was all kinds of Girls Rock! merch: tote bags, t-shirts, the 2013 CD, and shirts for each band that the members had screened themselves. A booth for Wolfepack Goods was also there. On the opposite wall was a raffle with items like free admission to a few different museums, a gift card to Soundcat Records, and an origami tree. I bought an arm's length of tickets for $5 and put in for a few things, mostly Soundcat, but didn't win anything.

Before the bands started there was a big speech about what Girls Rock! meant, how it operated, and what things the girls had learned. The crowd was really excited as the first band got onto the stage. I was surprised to see that the bands each included members of vastly different ages. Before each band the announcer read the girls' bios, which often included facts about being royalty or being related to Amy Lee from Evanescence. The bands sounded sort of no-wave, but with elements of pop, punk, and pop-punk. The last band was super cute, color-coordinated, and played a poppy, Beach Boys-esque song. I hope the August showcase will be just as exciting to see to see.

Review , The Mr. Roboto Project , Zine Release

Drag Me Home

In March I wrote a piece for Ricky Moslen's zine, Drag Me Home. My piece was an analog version of Skull Valley, and the first article published this year; it encouraged me to get back into doing this blog. I haven't looked over the Drag Me Home zine significantly yet, but it features local musicians (via CD), writers, and visual artists (who are illustrating each a band). If you haven't got it yet you should definitely check it out. Lizzee Solomon and Step Neary have some really great art inside.

June 27th was the release show for the zine. Half of the show was at The Mr. Roboto Project and the other half was at Bunker Projects. I got to the show a little late, having worked earlier in the day, and had missed the first set of the night, a member of Legs Like Tree Trunks doing some acoustic stuff. I'm not a big fan of that band so it wasn't a big deal to me. In addition to just wanting to see the show, I was helping out with the sound for the Roboto portions that night.

The second band, first for me, was Allies. They seemed way different than when I had seen them before, perhaps a less interesting band, but maybe I have too much allegiance to Greg Cislon, former drummer. Allies plays a Dischord-esque punk, somewhat post-hardcore and somewhat post-rock but a little bit mathy. They sound similar to the band Rodan. The room was already pretty crowded even by their set so it was hard to maneuver to take pictures and some people came near me behind the mixing board to do so.

Cyrus Gold played third. Keith, former Roboto treasurer, is the vocalist; I don't know the other members. They combine noise rock, black metal, Swans-esque stuff. Very loud, it's amazing to hear Keith screech like he does despite his soft spokenness, and better than when I last saw them (and imagined John Roman on drums). We're both playing with Jerkagram and Highdeaf on Saturday, 7/26, at the Shop at 8pm (don't miss it!).

The Lopez played upstairs in Bunker Projects, the first band of the night to do so. It made the break between bands very brief, which is something I tend to dislike, but the Lopez are really great. Not enough people danced, but there were definitely attempts. The PA had no mixer so Jesse and Steph had to share a mic, which was cute. They played a super solid set, and I really liked seeing the Lopez in a small room like that; it made the set more intimate despite the loudness.

We returned to Roboto to see Harlan Twins, a five-piece band. It was my first time seeing the group, though I had heard about them from friends and seen the name on flyers and on Facebook events. Their set reminded me a lot of CCR or Neil Young, especially the male vocalist who started on guitar and then switched to a pair of stacked organs.

Last, back upstairs, was Trapper's Harp. There were some serious feedback issues that I attempted to fix for much of the set. I'm not sure if it really helped. Coleton and Margo and a drummer I don't know played their Sonic Youth-ish indie rock. I've only seen Trapper's Harp once before, and that time I was annoyed by too many breaks between songs for Coleton to tune his guitar. Here it was a much quicker pace; the songs stood out more from each other. Margo's singing voice reminds of a little bit of Nico (it may just be the delivery).

I'm glad I ended up attending the release for Drag Me Home. All of the bands were good, some new ones but a lot of old favorites, some of which I saw in a different light (or maybe just a different space) after today. Despite being well put together, the show felt really loose, more of a fun party, which I enjoyed a lot. I can't wait until the next issue of the zine comes out! Maybe there will even be another release show? Check out Drag Me Home, and like the FB page: https://www.facebook.com/dragmehome.