May 29 : "40s and Blunts" - Trash Boy (Philly)

Philly Music!

I tried my best to get there on time, but transit from work made me wind up seeing only half of Philly's trashy punk rock Trash Boy's recent show at Milkboy. It was almost a year to the day since I had seen the band for the first time. And this was the first time I saw them in a venue as compared to a basement house show.

So what's new? What's changed over the past year or even since I saw them last, a few months ago? The biggest change is that they've expanded from a 3 person team to a 4 person team with the addition of Davey. And, along with that change has come some new arrangements of their standards, with some increased texture in the process.

I asked Chris Fortunato about what was going on and what their future plans are. He told me: And yes we’ve got an album in the works! ...

Regarding the lineup changes: we had been talking about getting a dedicated bassist for a while, mostly because we had more ideas for riffs than we had hands. We knew Davey for a while, and played with his old band, Hand Me Downs. and when we ran into him at a show (the final show of legendary Kensington DIY venue Hazzard Hall as a matter of fact) he told me that he wasn’t playing with anyone and didn’t do anything besides work, so after a very brief discussion with my band mates we invited him to come practice with us. We rewrote the whole album to be oriented around 2 guitars very quickly, and Davey surprised us with a more or less fully written song based on his bike getting stolen, You Stole My Bikeage (an homage to an older punk song called Bikeage), which should be the 2nd track on the album (if the track order doesn’t change). So yeah, we think we’ve finally arrived at a sound that we can stick with and take with us both in recording sessions and in live shows. It took a lot of trial and error, but it was a very organic process, and very DIY. Unplanned. Based on spontaneous need and instinct.

The music that the band has on line right now is "pre-Davey", from when the band was still a three-piece. I'm highlighting "40s and Blunts" which is the second track on their 2017 album, "The Future Is Trash".

I don't know of any other band where economic issues and social structures weave their way into so much of the lyrics. And maybe almost equalling the sentiment on the economy in "40s and Blunts" is an extremely strong undercurrent for people to be genuine and authentic and not artificial.

At first glance I wondered why the band puts down a society's being a meritocracy if indeed that is what we are. It's a term I don't see used in many other places. It seems that a meritocracy might be what they would want. But we learn through the lyrics of their song "40s and Blunts" a lot of meritocracy can refer to one's position, but not what one does with that position when they have it, or whether they even achieved their position by merit in the first place. And, for those who do achieve success, they don't always use it to the advantage of society but squander it away. " all the smart boys in silicon valley think they'll save the world but they wont ".

We learn how society marginalizes people so they can't reach their full potential, that society does what it can to keep people down. And status is not really based on merit. Throughout their work they make it clear that society doesn't give everyone equal access and opportunity to make those achievements, so, in some ways that nullifies the very definition of meritocracy. It becomes bogus.

And also appearing in their work in several songs is the concept that a person'a place in life is not determined by merit but by chance or lottery or who their mother and father are.

So the band rejects and calls out the inequality in society and the inauthentic means that people use to get where they are. The character in the song would rather not have it all than use a bad means to an end. He doesn't want to play the game so he makes do with what he has. There is no hope for the future. Everything including a family is unaffordable. The only thing on the horizon is 40s and blunts.

At first the title might almost sound like that of a party song, but, in the end, we have to acknowledge the bleak and tragic scenario that this song paints, and, not addressed in the song itself, wtf how we got here, where do we go beyond this?

Here is "40s and Blunts" by Philly punk rock band Trash Boy :::

If you'd like to read the lyrics to the song, here they are ::: 40s and Blunts - Lyrics (CLICK HERE).

Trash Boy is about to go on tour, but they do have a show in Philly next week on June 6. Here is the click to their Facebook page where you can find out more ::: Trash Boy on Facebook (CLICK HERE).

May 11 : "Coffee" - Petty Vandal (Philly)

Philly Music!

When I turn the volume up and blast away, this track sounds very close to what I heard at the Petty Vandal live show at The Wormhole a couple weeks ago. Of the bands that played that night, Petty Vandal's web music was closest to the live performance.

One of the songs they played at the show was "Coffee". The song enveloped me at the beginning with the mellow instrumental vibe and the lyrics about having coffee "in my favorite mug". But it's only a few lines later when we start to sense some underlying relationship tensions.

Here is "Coffee", which they played at the show.

This was my first time seeing Petty Vandal. I liked their show and am hoping to see them again. Here's the click to their Facebook page ::: Petty Vandal on Facebook (CLICK HERE).

May 03 : "Electribe Jam to Tape" and "Electribe Jam to Tape II" - Sam Seeger (New York)

New Videos / Recently Released (April 11 and 22)

NEWS! SAM SEEGER RELEASES DUAL VIDEOS ::: ::: Over the last few weeks Sam Seeger has done two video releases. The first video especially is a break from what we see in his other video work. First, it's entirely instrumental, no lyrics, and, secondly, the camera is focused almost entirely on the equipment, very few shots of Sam himself. The second video does have lyrics and it does focus on Sam a little more, but it all seems to be in the context of highlighting the instruments and the equipment. Both videos feature Electribes, which he has used for years in his recordings.

Nice music; nice beats. I asked Sam to tell us more about how he created these videos and what they're all about.

Hey Bob, Hope your holidays were great as well!

I got introduced to Electribes when I was in middle school. My father had gotten the ER-1 and the EA-1 because he wanted to make beats during his karate class. His DJ Sensei phase was short lived though, and I’ve been using them ever since—and accumulated two of the newer generation models along the way. I use them on pretty much all my recordings, but usually in a disjointed fashion, tracking parts individually and mixing everything in Pro Tools. I was curious to hook them all up together and capture more a “performance” with them. I also thought it would be cool to record to tape for the texture, but also to be locked to what I got. I’ve released two of these performance videos so far, and I have a third one in the works.

Another project I’ve been doing with these machines is making songs out of voicemails from my family members. So far I’ve done my grandmother and my brother Ben. Not yet sure who’ll be next. In the meantime I’m heading to LA to compete in the Shred For Your Life guitar battle on May 11th at Zebulon!

Good luck in the competition. And thanks, Sam, for the stories!

So here's the first of the Electribe performance videos :::

Electribe Jam to Tape (with Slide Guitar and Bass) ER-1, EMX and ES2 "Electric Tape"

And here's the second :::

Electribe Jam to Tape II (with Slide Guitar and Bass) "Apple Z"

Sam has been on a roll and has put out several videos over the last few months. Am looking forward to seeing what's next. ... He says there's a third "performance" by the Electribes coming soon!

Here's a click to Sam's Facebook page where you can watch what's going on ::: Sam Seeger on Facebook (CLICK HERE).