AUGUST MUSIC HIGHLIGHTS
SCOTT TURNS 40
This has been an unusually busy month with work, and I know now that I have a string of good shows building up, waiting to be written about; I'm never going to get the time or enough psychic space to write individual stories about them; so here goes with an "August Highlights", grouping together the best shows I've seen for the month.
The month's music began on August 6, when my friend, Scott Dinsmore, invited a bunch of his friends to go with him to World Cafe Live to celebrate his 40th birthday and to see his all-time favorite musician, Mike Peters. ... Mike Peters is the front man for the Welsh band The Alarm..
The World Cafe Live show was a solo project. Mike was doing a lot of songs from The Alarm, but by himself, with occasional electronic backups. Before this event I had never heard of either Mike Peters or The Alarm, so I was very intrigued when he interspersed between his songs narratives of his career going back to the 80's, including his connections with many well-known performers.
Here is a sample of a song by The Alarm. This is "Direct Action".
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6/27/20 UPDATE! ::: OOPS! Looks like the band removed this song from their page!
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Mike Peters does have a couple more September shows in the U.S., one in New Hampshire, and one in Boston, (but none in our area). To visit Mike Peters and The Alarm in the meantime, here is the click :::
The Alarm (CLICK HERE)This was a busy music week because only three days later on August 9, I went to see my friend, Alden Towler, do a Tygerstype show at Johnny Brenda's.
Tygerstype is working on a new album, and, that night, showcased a lot of it, doing almost all new work.
The next week was dry musically, but the week after that I had another big week where I saw eleven bands total. And I saw Tygerstrype again. This was at the Magic Death Sounds Block Party, which is an annual event put on by the music collective, of which Tygerstrype is a member.
I really liked this show a lot better than the one at Johnny Brenda's for a few reasons. This show was in the street and the musicians weren't constrained by the equipment on or the boundaries of the stage. And the sound system was much better. Both Gabe and Alden were more animated in their performance; it was more alive. And the event itself was very well-planned and executed very smoothly. There were two stages, one located at each end of the block. Performances alternated between the two; this minimized the down time between each act. ... Smoooth.
Here is a sample of one of Tygerstrype's newer pieces, "Computer LV (Zapp)" :::
Tygerstrype doesn't have any additional shows coming up in the next couple weeks, but here is the click to their Facebook page :::
Tygerstrype (CLICK HERE).
One of the bands I heard for the first time playing with Tygerstype at Johnny Brenda's and than again at Magic Death Sounds was Philly's Dream Safari.
Nice electronics! Dream Safari's sound also had much more clarity at the Block Party than at Johnny Brenda's. A much more enjoyable performance.
Here is a sample of Dream Safari's work. This is "Emerald" :::
Dream Safari doesn't have a show coming up in the next couple weeks, but here is their Facebook page :::
Dream Safari (CLICK HERE)A band that I had the opportunity to see again at the Magic Death Sounds Block Party was Banned Books, whom I had not seen since their performance at the Comly House Basement Sound Laboratory on December 29, 2011. They did a new rendition of their song "Human Head", which is on the ep "Man Maker". Here is the original version :::
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6/27/20 UPDATE! ::: OOPS! Looks like the band removed this song from their page!
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The biggest musical tragedy for me this past month was Philly band Left Of Logic closing up or closing down / I'm not quite sure what words you use when a band says they've finished.
I've been following Left Of Logic since soon after they formed; these are three guys who've been working at music for years and all have professional training besides. Here they are playing "Momentum" at the "Brewerytown Spring Festival" a couple years ago: (Their show overlapped / went past the end time of the festival!).
I'm very saddened by their "last show" announcement, which was this past week (which I couldn't get to). I contacted them but haven't found out a reason. Here is the review they asked me to do almost exactly two years ago when they released their brilliant cd "In Formation" at a show at the Arts Garage.
Bob's Review of "In Formation" and Arts Garage show I'm hoping they reconsider and come back! :)
But back to shows I was able to see. The same week I went to the Magic Death Sounds Block Party, I also did an all-night "Mix & Match" in New York & Bushwick.
It had been a very long time since I had heard Philly band Instamatic. They seemed to have disappeared with no clue of when they were coming back. While they never did a huge amount of shows, this hiatus seemed to be a little TOO long. Then they announced a few shows bunched together for late August. Ironically my work schedule / early mornings prevented me from seeing this Philly band in Philly, so I saw this Philly band in New York, at Pianos. (Actually I'm getting to like Pianos more and more. They're very customer friendly in that they stick to their schedule without making fans wait an undetermined and indeterminable amount of time for the music to start. ... And the sound work is better than at a lot of other places).
But a short time before the concert was to have happened, Instamatic disappeared from Piano's schedule. WTF? ... They were replaced by another band I had never heard of. THEN I found that Instamatic had changed their name, added in a guitar, and was busy doing stylistic tweaking to become 10 Million.
The heavy-duty synths were still there, but now they've got guitar as well. Here's one of the band's new creations, "Defcon (demo)" :::
10 Million doesn't have a show coming up soon, but here is their Tumblr page where you can keep track of them :::
10 Million on tumblrAfter seeing 10 Million play at Pianos, my plans were to do a "Mix & Match" and go out to Bushwick to visit Palisades for the first time and see Wild Yaks, which I had seen before and liked a lot.
However, after I got there, something didn't seem quite what I expected. The bands seemed different than what I remembered was listed on their Facebook event page. I asked the sound guy who was playing, then looked at my Facebook printout and realized OMG I had printed out the show listings for the wrong date. Oh nooooooooooo!"
But all was far from lost. In fact, I got to hear four new outfits that had not yet been on my radar screen.
One band that seemed to stand out that evening was a duo from Chicago named Earring.. These people were the fuzz experts of the evening. They were ambitious in the number of songs they played; high energy here. I had a hard time picking out exactly which song to feature, but here is "Hearts On Fire" :::
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6/27/20 UPDATE! ::: OOPS! Looks like the band removed this song from their page!
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They don't have any other shows coming up soon, and I don't know when they'll be traveling back East, but here is the click to their Facebook page, so you can keep tabs on them.
Earring (CLICK HERE)So August turned out to be quite decent musically. With still a busy work schedule plus a couple doctor visits coming up, I'm trying to squeeze in some more good music in September, maybe even another all-night Mix & Match. Have to start exploring and cross-checking venue and band pages.
