Feb 28 : "Every Day Is An Odyssey" - Drama Section (Brooklyn)

BEATING THE ODDS

Friday night I went to Palisades, one of my favorite venues, and heard "populist zombie jazz band" Drama Section do a live show. While their genre could generally be described as jazz and their style generally described as free-form, they venture into some noise and electronics as well, making their sound unique.

One of the first songs they played was "Every Day is An Odyssey", which was an excellent demonstration of the band's versatility. It starts out with a single four note phrase that's played by itself and then repeated. Gradually the other instruments join in one by one. The tempo increases gradually, the volume increases gradually until we've got a frenzy. As the "day" comes to a close, the music quiets down and the last thing we hear are those original four notes which we heard at the odyssey's beginning.

The band is a four-piece, having a saxophone, guitar, "big bass", and drums.

Here is "Every Day is An Odyssey" played by Brooklyn band Drama Section. This is the second track from their 2014 album, "Things Are Great Right Now: Live Selections Vol. 1".

I had a chance to talk for a few minutes with Nate Mendelsohn, the group's sax player. He told me that the band is newly arrived in Brooklyn, having come here from Oberlin, where the four first met and studied. They originally came from places as geographically diverse as Boston and Portland, OR, to name two. After graduation, they all decided to keep the band and move to Brooklyn together.

What they've done is something unusual; they've beat the odds. There are too many stories of excellent bands of college musicians that end tragically when the bandmembers go separate ways after graduation. Drama Section isn't succumbing to those patterns; these guys are keeping their band together and vibrant and moving forward. In fact they're coming out with a new tape, releasing the album on March 15th when they headline at Trans-Pecos. In the meantime, if you would like to visit Drama Section on line, here is the click to their Facebook page: Drams Section on Facebook (CLICK HERE)

Feb 19 : "Red Dress" - Sleepy Hahas (Buffalo)

Another band I heard at Pianos last week for the first time was Buffalo garage band "Sleepy Hahas". They did a powerful high-energy show. I liked it and am ready to see them again!

There's a lot going on in their music, and you've got to listen to the songs a few times in order to catch everything. Not only to catch all the instrumental nuances, but I would say you've got to read the lyrics as well (which happen to be printed on their Bandcamp page). Here again is some intense writing, but also with some subtleties that only come through after a few reads. Intense, passionate, and raw.

The way the music was mixed last Thursday at the Pianos show, the keys really stood out, maybe more than in the recorded versions. One of the songs that appears on both their Soundcloud and Bandcamp page is "Red Dress", which is the seventh track on their 2014 album "Dull Days".

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6/27/20 ::: UPDATE! ::: OOPS! Sleepy Hahas appears to have removed the song from their page, and they seem to have removed their entire Facebook page!

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Here is the click to the band's Bandcamp page showing the lyrics to "Red Dress". From there you can find links to the other songs in the "Dull Days" album ::: "Red Dress" music and lyrics on Bandcamp. And here is the click to the band's Facebook page ::: Sleepy Hahas on Facebook (CLICK HERE).

Feb 11 : "Dance (Get Off Your Ass)" - Queen of Jeans (Philly)

New Music / Freshly Written & Recently Released

Philly Music!

I thought I would make last Thursday "music night", so I went to Pianos after work, and, coincidentally enough, heard a band from Philly!

"Queen of Jeans" is a women-fronted rock group from Philly. They've been busy working on a new album which they released just a few weeks ago, and they played a lot of the new work at the Pianos show on Thursday. There were beautiful vocal harmonies which were much more pronounced in the live performance than on the recorded versions. Also interesting guitar work and instrumental arrangements.

Here is a sample song, "Dance (Get Off Your Ass)", which they played at the show and which is the lead song on their Soundcloud page :::

If you would like to hear them live, you're in luck! They're doing two live shows next week, one at Johnny Brenda's on Feb 19th and the other at Cake Shop on Feb 20th. Here is a list of their upcoming shows on Songkick. And here is the click to their Facebook page ::: Queen of Jeans on Facebook (CLICK HERE)

Feb 01 : "Keep Myself to Myself" - Repelican (Baltimore - Philly)

Back to the music. January 22 I went to Johnny Brenda's. This was my first full night out since last Spring, having had foot surgery with an unexpectedly long recovery.

First up for the evening was Baltimore & Philly - based artist, "Repelican". If there ever was an example to illustrate my suspicion that "Openers steal the Night", this was it. I was drawn into the performance right away. Even though this was a "solo" act, the sound was full and textured. At times the vocals would be live with a background of recorded percussion, or maybe a live onstage guitar with other instrumental backup, or maybe spoken word, or maybe rock, or maybe noise, or maybe jazz, or maybe a news recording. And how about if all this was in just one song? There were some shorter standard-length songs as well as a couple long pieces that included a little bit of just about everything.

In listening to Repelican, I never knew where we were going to go next. The instrumental arrangements were different in each piece, as were the tempos and stylings. Yet, pulling it all together, there was a "Replican" sensibility throughout. He also had some very engaging melodic lines.

I really enjoyed this show and am clicking in all the right places to find out about the next one. Can't be in two places at once? It seems he just might be. On Bandcamp he's based in Baltimore, but on Soundcloud he's based in Philly.

Here's a sample of some of the newer work he has posted. On Bandcamp his most recent album is "Pall Mall Blues". This is the second track, "Keep Myself to Myself". It starts out with a long intro, and the vocals join in at the 1:14 point :::

Repelican doesn't have any upcoming shows listed at the current time, but here is the click to the Facebook page, where you can find out more ::: Repelican on Facebook (CLICK HERE)