Jun 18 : "High Tide" - Babes In Canyon (Seattle)

OFFERING EVERYTHING

Last week I went to see Seattle band "Babes In Canyon" at Nikki Lopez. I had found some intriguing stylings in the music they have posted on line and I wanted to check out their show.

I've been especially liking their song "High Tide" which has moving lyrics along with some inventive instrumentals. Seems like the people in the song already know each other. We find the song's main character expressing and offering his love to the other mystery person in many ways, and he hopes that that someone will recognize and reciprocate. Is "high tide" symbolic of the depth of his feelings? The precariousness of a high tide? Or just being high?

Babes In Canyon is a duo from Seattle. One band member plays the synth, the other various alternating stringed instruments. I like the online music, well-balanced; sound mixing at the show had a little bit of a bumpy start.

But back to "High Tide". The song is the lead on the band's 2023 EP "Year to Live EP". A heartfelt declaration of love. :::

Babes In Canyon is still on tour, but they've already passed through Philly and New York. Here is the click to the band's Facebook page where you can keep up with any new releases and any new tours. ::: Babes In Canyon on Facebook (CLICK HERE).

(pic is from band's Facebook page)

May 28 ::: "Hey, Crabman!" - All Systems Go (Delran)

New Music / Freshly Written and Recently Released (Feb 19)

GOOD KARMA

"Finding Closure" is the title of Delran band All Systems Go's new album, issued recently, on February 19. I went to see their show on Friday night at Bonk's Bar in Port Richmond.

The work that the band has posted on Bandcamp goes back to 2019, with the first album "Garden State Skies". The album is largely upbeat with a travel-related motif in many of the songs. The songs are also about a relationship, and maybe the traveling along the highway is a metaphor for traveling through life in that relationship.

But as time moves on in later albums we seem to start having more questions about life and maybe even having doubts about our relationships. The instrumental stylings are also becoming a little less crisp.

Fast forward to 2025 and the album "Finding Closure" where we've done some deep introspection about the past and wonder how it might impact the future. We've come to the observation that Feeling lost is my one true constant.

Here is the first song from the "Finding Closure" album. The title is "Hey, Crabman!" In this song we see where we've made some mistakes in the past and vow to learn from them. We have confidence that the good karma we've built up in life will help us in the future. (maybe good advice for all of us!)

On Friday night when I saw All Systems Go they were five instead of four; one of the musicians was doing vocals after an injury and they had a substitute doing his regular guitar work. That was my first time seeing them. I enjoyed their show and I think five works. Maybe the number five should be in their future!

All Systems Go doesn't have any other show in Philly coming up soon, but here's a click to their Facebook page where you an see shows coming up in the wider area ::: All Systems Go on Facebook (CLICK HERE).

(pics from the band's Bandcamp and Facebook pages)

May 14 : "Best Supporting Actress" - Vesuvian (Philly)

Philly Music!

A FINE TRIBUTE

It's rare to see tribute songs. But that's what's on Philly band Vesuvian's 2023 album "More Treble". The song is "Best Supporting Actress", which is a story about Lee Grant, who was targeted and blacklisted by Joseph McCarthy's House Unamerican Activities Committee, dashing her hopes to win the best supporting actress academy award. Last week I went to Century to see Vesuvian do a show.

On their Bandcamp site, Joey DeGrado, who is the mastermind of Vesuvian. said, as they were putting together the album, They say write what you know, so I wrote an album about rock singers, actresses, horror movies, and the ancient Mediterranean.. And the album shows he does a good job in all those areas.

"Best Supporting Actress" traces Lee Grant's life as she encountered HUAC and how she afterwards withstood years of unemployment and hardship.

"Life lived on the margins
Trying to stay the course
That kinda thing would kill most of us"

In the end she worked her way back, and, in 1975 did win Best Supporting Actress for her role in "Shampoo".

She expanded her career beyond acting to do documentaries, and in 1986 won Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film for "Down and Out in America". She's said to be the only person who has ever won both those academy awards.

"Best Supporting Actress" is a comprehensive and caring tribute.

Here are the song's complete lyrics along with the rest of the band's music ::: "Best Supporting Actress" lyrics - Vesuvian Bandcamp page (CLICK HERE). It looks like Bandcamp is Vesuvian's main online presence.

An oddball night. While I did go to Century to see Vesuvian's show, I did wind up missing them (personal scheduling complications).

(pic is from band's Bandcamp page)

May 07 : "Weirdo" - More Fatter - (Intl)

It's the BRASS! I like complex instrumentals, I did a second listen to their music samples, and decided pretty quickly to go see "More Fatter" do a show at Kung Fu Necktie a couple weeks ago. Part of the intrigue was the brass in the mix, which is unusual for a rock band.

So brass did show up at the Kung Fu show, but not right away. Songs towards the beginning featured the traditional guitars, keys, and drums. Brass came into the lineup later when some of the band members switched over from the guitars. More Fatter is versatile in their instrumentation. Pic above shows them with the brass.

A capella? Well, that was a surprise! At the show I did like the instrumentals as much as I thought I would, and I was very surprised to see the band do some a capella work as well, which I also liked. The band is versatile in a number of styles and I almost felt like each song was a new beginning, what style would it be. I also felt like there were new beginnings inside some of the songs; some formal song structures thrown to the wind. There were bumps in the song structures that would wind up taking us down new paths.

Here the band decides "what to do" when you "quit the masking". This is their video, "Weirdo" :::

More Fatter is "international", its members come from Brooklyn, Los Angeles, and Paris. While only four members appear in the "Weirdo" video, the band has five members and all five showed up at that great show at Kung Fu.

The band's music ranges from the playful, such as in "Weirdo" above, to the more serious, as in their song "Infinity". A couple lines from "Infinity" have stuck in my mind. "How many ways are there to love someone? The answer is 'Infinity'."

You should try to see them on their next tour. To keep up-to-date with the band, here is a click to their Facebook page ::: More Fatter on Facebook (CLICK HERE)

(Top pic from band's Facebook reel; bottom pic from Kung Fu's website.)