Nov 14 : "Half Truth" - Dead Leaf Echo (New York)

OCTOBER 24

I love this song, "Half-Truth". Very intriguing juxtaposition between the drums and the vocals. And the backdrop or foundation of some interesting chord progressions as well. I've never heard another song quite like it. Listen to it below.

This was one of the songs I enjoyed when I went to the Pilam to see New York band Dead Leaf Echo do a live show on October 24.

October 24 is a key date. Like The Silence Kit that I wrote about a few days ago, I've been having a difficult time trying to find free time when Dead Leaf Echo happens to be doing a show. Also, they don't get to Philly that often.

I hadn't heard them since 2008, coincidentally on October 24, when they did a show at Rehab, aka Club Midway. When I saw them on the previous October 24 they were a three-piece; on this October 24 they were a five-piece.

The song "Half-Truth", from their EP, "Truth", is playing right here on my blog page. Check it out: listen to those alternating drums and vocals :::

I like this band and I hope I don't have to wait until October 24, 2016 to hear them again. :)

To visit Dead Leaf Echo, here is the click ::: Dead Leaf Echo (CLICK HERE)

Nov 14 : "Electricity Through the Heart" - Ra Ra Rasputin (Washington DC)

A couple weeks ago I went to the Pilam to see Dead Leaf Echo. One of the other bands playing there was Ra Ra Rasputin from Washington DC. They did an interesting show

One of the band's songs, "Electricity Through the Heart", is playing right here on my blog page.

To visit Ra Ra Rasputin, here is the click ::: Ra Ra Rasputin (CLICK HERE)

Nov 12 : "Mousetrap" - Ten Kens (Toronto)

New Music / Freshly Posted (September)

November is my busiest month for the community work. That added to business work meant that last week I only had Monday where I could stay up real late and go see bands. I was working in New York and had a "mix and match" in mind where I would go to Mercury Lounge for their early show and then spend most of the night at Pianos, and then top off the evening with the last late show at Rockwood.

I was all set to do this, but that Noreaster put a wrench in all my plans. While Philly wound up not getting a lot of snow, New York was having accumulation as well as some ferocious winds. I decided to do a double check of the venue websites before I left the office. While I was disappointed to see that Toronto band "Ten Kens" had been pulled from the Pianos lineup (this was the one I thought I would enjoy the most, not having heard before any of the bands playing at the three venues), I thought that there was still enough good music that the evening could certainly be worthwhile.

So I headed downtown but was real disappointed when I got to Mercury to find that they had cancelled the whole event (It would have been nice if their website had said that). ... I figured that, at that point, there would be too much waiting (a long wait) and too little music to warrant being up most of the night ... so I decided to cut my losses and return home.

The one band that I was really disappointed about not hearing was Ten Kens. Here, playing right here on my blog page, is one of their songs that intrigued me when I took a listen to their website. The track is "Mousetrap", which, they list as having been posted two months ago.

Ten Kens · Mousetrap

To visit Ten Kens on Soundcloud, here is the click ::: Ten Kens (CLICK HERE)

Nov 06 : "Uncertain" - The Silence Kit (Philly / NJ)

IN PARTS

I can almost tell in advance when an important meeting or job is going to come up. All it takes is for The Silence Kit to announce a live show, and, sure enough, a couple days later, a meeting will be announced for either the night of the concert or early the next morning. Such has been the case over the last couple years.

I first heard The Silence Kit in about 2006, and, for a while, heard them fairly regularly. Then a couple years ago our schedules diverged and I never was free at the same time they did a show.

So I was very happy when, a couple weeks ago, I saw that The Silence Kit was going to be doing a show at Kung Fu Necktie. While I listen to their cd's regularly at home, it's just not the same compared with seeing the band live.

Over these six years I've seen the band go through some personnel changes. These can be difficult transitions for a band. But The Silence Kit has always retained its signature sound, a solid and dark post-punk, steered by the band's creator and mastermind, Pat McCay.

The band came out with several new songs in 2011. A bunch of them are on their new ep "In Parts". Pat gives some background :::

Not sure if I'd mentioned it to you but "In Parts," is actually one of two EPs we released the same day... After TJ (guitar) left the band in 2009, we decided to go on at the time without replacing him. We had our keyboard player James cover on guitar and he switched back and forth from keys to guitar as needed. We recorded our practices and for a good bit of it we just jammed, coming up with things on the fly, based on some guitar parts I'd written. After the other guys left one night I scribbled down some lyrics that came to me on the spot, recorded vocals to two of these jams, and kind of forgot about them. These songs wound up being 'I Can Tell' and 'Uncertain' from the "In Parts" EP.

And here, right here on my blog page, is the band's song, "Uncertain":::

The band has another show coming up on November 23 at The Fire.

To visit The Silence Kit on Bandcamp in the meantime, here is the click ::: The Silence Kit (CLICK HERE)