Jul 30 : "Who's Next?", "National Brotherhood Week" - Tom Lehrer

Sad to hear the news this week that Tom Lehrer had died. A great pianist and humorist, and way ahead of his time on many issues, his satirical songs lampooned many of the policital and societal issues of the day. Back in the 60's he was one of my favorites.

In the song "Who's Next?" he warned us about nuclear proliferation :::

And lampooning prejudice in "National Brotherhood Week" :::

All seems so ridiculous when he shows us the universality of prejudice.

Later in life Tom Lehrer did return from entertainment back into academia. "The Guardian" featured a very good piece on his life this week.

(pic is from "Who's Next" video)

Jul 23 : "The Welcoming Committee" - "Ring Of Fire" - "Hotgrits" - Indoor Yves (Philly)

Philly Music!

Another artist who is versatile in a number of genres is Philly's own "Indoor Yves". I went to The Fallser Club over the weekend and saw his show.

His Bandcamp page shows quite a variety of styles in his work. One track that's quite unusual and striking is "The Welcoming Committee", which is the first track on his 2023 EP, "Indoor Fish" :::

And here he does his own take on the song "Ring Of Fire". His version is stiff competition for the originals :::

And dramatically changing gears again, here is "Hotgrits" :::

To find more music, check out Indoor Yves' Bandcamp page ::: Indoor Yves on Bandcamp (CLICK HERE), and his Facebook page ::: Indoor Yves on Facebook (CLICK HERE).

Here is the artist description off his Bandcamp page: "Somewhere J-walking in the great city of Philadelphia, Pa, crawling between cars and dive bars, and sticking his nose in old books, Indoor Yves developed a penchant for "extreme genre bending," indiscreet bass, psychedelia, synthesis, 70’s tube warmth, and overall chaos."

And chaos it certainly was on Friday night when I went to the show at The Fallser Club. Indoor Yves started off by himself playing some chords as a drummer slowly started to join in. But no particular songs and no other band members. After a little while another band member showed up and joined in. It seemed that some band members had emergencies that night. A fourth member later showed up who took the place of the original drummer. While they explained they normally have five members, they wound up with no more than four on Friday. This was my first time seeing the band.

I paid for my ticket well in advance and I had the expectation that the band would actually show up! As fate MIGHT have it, sure, everybody can have emergencies all at the same time, but it does seem far-fetched and a little unbelievable. I hope that Indoor Yves will fix any personnel issues that might need his attention.

(Pics are from artist's Instagram page)

Jul 09 : "Sick Summer" - Lady Lychee (New York)

What would you do?

Picture yourself on summer break. You develop a new romantic interest over the summer, but the summer person shows up unexpectedly as you reconnect with your partner and your regular life in the fall.

This is the scene that's set in New York artist Lady Lychee's song "Sick Summer". It's the opening track on her 2023 album, "Rockstar Cosplay". The album talks about relatiionships, some good and some not so good.

A brilliant album. Lyrics full of depth and nuance, and instrumentals showing a wide range of textures. In listening to "Sick Summer", we hear the song's main character talking in a matter-of-fact way about the summer break and to meeting a mysterious new love interest. As soon as she starts to talk about how intense her feelings have become, the instrumentals start backing her up with some forceful grunge and bass work. I like this transition about 1:26 on the clock. And then when the summer is over and she goes back to her regular life, the forcefullness of the instrumentals recedes, at about 2:43 on the clock. I like these sudden transitions and the way they're integrated with the story.

Nuanced deftly, as a lot of her work is (even when she's hitting with a sledgehammer), the work never brings up an end to the story itself. Maybe Lady Lychee leaves the end of the story to our imaginations. ... So what would you do?

Lady Lychee is a good story teller. Here is "Sick Summer" by Lady Lychee :::

To hear more tracks and read the lyrics to everything, here is the click to her Bandcamp page ::: Lady Lychee on Bandcamp (CLICK HERE).

(Unfortunately I myself didn't get to her show a couple weeks ago; had personal scheduling complications; gotta stop blaming SEPTA for everything.)

(pic is from the artist's Instagram page)

Jul 02 : "All You Fascists Bound to Lose" and "Your Death" - Hena Punk (Bristol UK)

We're living in a time when we see a disturbing spread of fascism around the globe, not only with our own Trump regime but also in other countries as well. But this is not the first time that the world has faced something like this. Years ago musician Woody Guthrie wrote and sang about it, and his song "All You Fascists Bound to Lose" seems now more timely than ever. Bristol UK's musician Hena Punk is giving new life to the song by doing a cover.

Hena came to Philly and performed the song with a lot of original work back at the end of May. Bonk's Bar in Port Richmond was the scene and the first stop on his American tour, and, after doing shows in New York State and Connecticut, he circled back around and did another show at West Philly Porchfest. Great show at Bonk's. With good stage presence and excellent engagement, he talked back and forth with the audience in between songs.

Hena took us through an interesting show, telling stories and playing music, and, at some points inviting us to sing along. Here we are in Philly singing along with his cover of ::: "All You Fascists Bound to Lose" :::

I thought we did a fairly decent job singing along, but his people back home did a more robust rendition :::

And here is taking a look at some of Hena Punk's own work. This is one of the "spoken word" pieces on his site.

The video above, "Your Death", is a tribute to his deceased friend, Chris. Chris didn't have the fame for his name to be splashed all over major media to tell the value of his life, so this video is a tribute to their friendship because the world can almost stop turning when someone who is important in your life dies.

Here is the link to Hena Punk's Facebook page where you can keep up with what he's doing ::: Hena Punk on Facebook (CLICK HERE).

(pic is from artist's Facebook page)

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.)