Sunday, March 27, 2011

Mmoss / Black Norse / Megafauna @ The Toadstool

Photo from Megafauna's Facebook page.
March 25th, 2011.  On Friday night The Toadstool Bookstore in Peterborough, NH hosted another fantastic show.  After hours, in the heart of the store a small but inviting space had been cleared and prepared for three acts.  The first was Manchester's Megafauna, a once one-man band singing over his home-brewed, elaborate, poppy backtracks, turned full group with the addition of bass, guitar, and electronic drum kit.  The band was off to a rough start between technical difficulties and an awkward approach; they attempted to keep time with the original backtracks, which already included percussion, bass, and guitar.  After some monitor and level adjustments, Megafauna finally found their feet at the third song.  Megafauna's music is eclectic, well thought-out, and lively.  Singer/songwriter Ian Hughs holds nothing back - shaking, hopping, and twitching as he belts out his lyrics in an ecstatic manner.  Their music is some shade of alt-pop...which I must admit I know very little about.  What I can say is that it was certainly a different experience seeing him will a full band, and I found it to suite his music quite well.  They rounded out their set with a Siouxsie & the Banshees cover and Brian Eno cover, clearly two of Ian's influences.  You can listen to Megafauna on their SoundCloud page here.

Photo from Black Norse's Myspace page.
Up next was Keene's Black Norse - a Sabbath-worshipping, sludgy, stoner/doom duo.  Since the show was off to a late start Ben Troy and Ryan Harrison wasted no time diving right in to their set.  It had been a while since I had listened to anything like this and it brought a great smile to my face.  While there's a plethora of stoner metal bands out there, Black Norse still manage to pull you in and demand your undivided attention.  There is an honesty and vital energy present in their performance; the music and expression are the means and the end.  At one point, after missing a change, they decided to start a song over again - an example that these guys really are the inverse of pretentious.  With just a minimal drum set and an amplified guitar, Black Norse create a full wall of sound - raw and rich with overtones, the less-is-more law clearly in effect.  Of course, the guitar is heavily distorted and detuned to somewhere around C, which helped to fill our ears with a healthy spectrum of sound.  Bass lines would have been an interesting augmentation, but at no point do any of the songs really beckon for it.  No, Black Norse are complete as they are...hear for yourself at their Bandcamp site.  Though my recording doesn't do them justice, here's a track from the show...

Photo from Mmoss' Facebook page.
The final band for the evening is something of a paradox to me.  Somehow Mmoss channel a bit of the Summer Of Love - a time long before any of its members were even born (or so I speculate) - with a strange ease, and a haunting vibe.  The first time I saw Mmoss sealed the deal for me; they filled the old Toadstool music space with an energy left over from the late 60's and early 70's, formerly trapped in some sort of vortex to which Mmoss magically hold the key.  These sonic time-travellers do what they do very, very well.  When I tell someone about Mmoss they shrug, likely thinking "that doesn't sound particularly original."  But without hearing Mmoss, it's not possible to understand what makes them great and unique.  Friday's show was another affirmation....Mmoss are Mmoss, and Mmoss are good.  In the small space, encompassed by bookshelves and several pairs of ears, the band worked its magic.  Their spell simultaneously sent us back in time, but also forward from our nostalgic thought patterns, up to the leading edge of active creation - hence the strange riddle of this exceptional band.  Multipart vocal harmonies, eerie twangy guitar licks, lush modulated organ, jangly drum beats, thumping basslines, and smooth flute leads makeup Mmoss's exquisit sonic backdrop. At times they trance you out in a droney, buzzy, heady jam and other times they get you tapping your foot, pulling your strings to put a flower in your hair and dance with whomever is next to you at the moment.  Last night they unfotunately played a short set, though quite tasty it was.  For your enjoyment, here are a couple of tracks from the show...
[Wander]

[Grow Down]

Previously Mmoss' I album was only available as a digital download or audio cassette, but any day now the vinyl LP will be available.  You can snag it at Toadstool or online here.  Prefer lossless digital audio?  Visit the band's Bandcamp site to listen to I as well as two other great tracks, Wander and Another Dream.  Also, Moss will be at this year's The Thing In The Spring festival, which you shouldn't miss if you're in the New England area.

Photo from Mmoss' Myspace page.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

The Picture Of...

I am listening to the Dorian Gray debut EP once again, with a sense of pride knowing that this originated right here in New England.  While their Facebook page claims they hail out of Boston, they have no real home base - the members are scattered between New Hampshire and Massachusetts.  Dorian Gray play a blend of traditional melodic metal and hook-laiden modern metal...and they play it well.  They have also been doing quite well with bookings, opening for Paul Dianno, Death Angel, and Apocalyptica.  Not bad, right?

Their EP is impressive.  The six songs are well conceived, and refined to a point that one might not expect from a band's first do-it-yourself record.  The variety of song style on the EP is a bit more broad than one would anticipate as well, which is refreshing coming from a local start-up metal project.  This variety is likely due to a wealth of varied influences and the fact that the songs were penned by different band members.  Being a young band, Dorian Gray have not had the time to write much as whole, and though the songs vary in heaviness and form they never stray to the point where you're wondering if you're still listening to the same band.  All the tracks have an strong element of melody and thoughtful lyrics, and save for the last track the audio mix is pretty consistent.  In a interview with singer and songwriter Myke Havoc I got a peak into the beginnings of Dorian Gray and what they're all about...at least so far.
Openeing for Apocalyptica (photo from DG's Facebook)
Back in 2008 Myke was trying to get his project Straight Razor Halo off the ground when he was asked by a Guitar Center coworker to front the band Zero Point.  "I ended up kind of falling in love with it (Zero Point), and sticking with it for a while.  We (Zero Point) found Tony (Gravell), the bassist, from Townsend where the other two guys were from.  ...He and I wanted to do something different after a while, after about a year and a half of playing same, you know, 8, 10, 12 songs over and over again.  We weren't writing enough.  We weren't practicing enough.  We weren't striving for better shows and we weren't recording anything to the quality that I thought we deserved. ...We wanted different things...I didn't feel that they were focused on the same sort of things that we were.  So me and Tony sort of bonded and we decided to start demoing new songs and...that's what (Dorian Gray) kind of came about." (Myke Havoc)

Though Myke had written and reformatted much of Zero Point's material, he left it behind when he and Tony started writing for Dorian Gray.  Instead Myke resurrected songs and motifs from his own personal past into which Dorian Gray would breathe new life.  Mouth Of Madness, I Cannot Sleep, and Memento were penned by Myke and brought to the band.  Similarly, guitarist Axxe Ferrero brought in Strength Within and In Waiting, rounding out the other side of the Dorian Gray sound...the somewhat poppy, catchy side.  From there the band acted as a melting pot, blending ideas and influences.  "Axxe loves...hairy traditional ragged fighting power metal.  That is his thing.  He's in Shadows Sanctuary, one of the more long standing local traditional metal bands that still kind of fight the fight.  Tony and Tyler, ...they're more into modern (metal)core music...the tech/core stuff...Derek...he comes from more of a classic rock background. ...He and Tyler were forming a more -core sort of band so he got into that stuff.  ...He kinda likes rock/metal stuff.  Those guys like the harder stuff, I like the more melodic stuff....dark suff.  Axxe likes the more happy stuff.  Each band member kind of takes artistic license (with their part)...but whoever writes like 90% of it gets credit.  Axxe especially loves adding little bits...that kind of sways the direction of riffs.  I don't want to be closed off to those ideas." (Myke Havoc)  The one song on the EP that was a collaborative writing effort is the first track, Lair Of The White Worm.  If it is any sort of sign post as to where they are headed I would no doubt expect to see them on a national tour sometime in the next couple of years.

Bryce Kariger, Myke's former band mate, eventually went on to form Forever The Fallen, and also produced the Dorian Gray EP.  Production-wise the EP sounds good but suffers from some minor issues - the most obvious being the programmed drums.  Many bands now are using virtual drums in the studio to save time and/or money, or to get a desired sound more easily.  However, it does take a considerable amount of time to tweak and "humanization" to end up with something that's not only good, but also unique.  The drums on the Dorian Gray EP are certainly not bad; they just sound a bit mechanical and could have been mixed better.  When you hear Dorian Gray play live Maskalenko really fills the gap; his live drumming adds a tremendous amount of energy and feeling to the songs that just isn't found on the record.  I hope their next recording captures more of a live sound as Dorian Gray absolutely shine on stage.  Their live show compared to their EP is like organic homemade soup versus Campbell's in a can.  I don't say this to keep you from buying their EP (because you should), but rather to make sure you go out and catch them playing somewhere.  Speaking of which, check out the band's Facebok page for upcoming shows, including Wake Up Fest this Saturday in Lowell, MA.
According to Myke the next EP will have fewer songs, but they will be more focused and probably written by the whole band.  And Myke, if you're reading...a few more screams here and there please!  Just too few on the EP...without going overboard, show us what you can do, brother!  ...and let's hear the bass this time!  I am really looking forward to seeing where these guys go.

Dorian Gray is:
Myke Havoc - Vocals
Axxe Ferrero - Guitar
Tyler Olausen - Guitar
Tony Gravell - Bass
Derek Maskalenko - Drums

Listen to their EP for free, or please buy it for only $1 here.

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Comes the sunlight summer day...

As I write this extremely belated post I am sipping a hemp shake and enjoying the sounds of the new Mogwai record, "Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will"...both are quite good.  I've been neglecting my hipster duties for a few weeks now on account of life being a bit more hustley and bustley than I'd have deliberately intended.  I've been thrown into an interesting whirlwind of excess stress at work, part of which left me unexpectedly stuck in Detroit for two days.  A warning to potential air travelers: avoid Delta.  The good news is that while I sat at DTW for hours on end, I fell in love.  Patti Smith's Just Kids is a powerful and beautiful testament: a loving memorial to her friend, lover, and soul mate Robert Mapplethorpe.  It begins with a heart-wrenching memory, and even though the reader presumably knows not of the history to be described on the next couple of hundred pages, it makes quite an impact...it is raw and unmistakable.  You can absolutely feel Patti's emotions shape-shifted into words, vessels of her transmuted energy; they reverberate with the part of yourself that is ever-present, the core of your being.  The book is lush with treasures of poetry.  Even in a narrative Patti's way with words is astounding, as I suppose one would no doubt expect coming from one of the greatest rock-and-roll poets of all time.  As cliche as it might sound, she doesn't bring her history to you but rather brings you into her history; you become part of it through the experience of the book.  The focus of Just Kids is to tell the story of Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe, as only Patti can...but it also somewhat serves as a general autobiography.  Patti leaves out large portions of her own experience that are separate from Robert's, which is OK since this thread can found and picked up elsewhere (interviews and other books).  She fills in nearly all the gaps left by other sources by detailing the journey on which she and Robert embarked: two somewhat shy but inspired kids becoming two successful, powerful, and matured artists.  It is a story that constantly tugs on your heartstrings whilst simultaneously inspiring you as a creator in the world to stop seeing what you are doing as a risk and to realize your true calling.  If you are an artist you must read this book.

Other than reading in airports and coming home to a very broken car, I've finally set up my turntable again.  It's an old belt drive Technics hooked up to a pair of vintage Sony speakers via a Realistic stereo amplifier.  I've been spinning alot of Isis, Opeth, Jethro Tull, and Blue Oyster Cult.  Rosemary sometimes brings over her Cat Stevens, Simon & Garfunkel, and Joni Mitchell records, which are always welcome.  It is really nice to see many new albums are being released on vinyl with free digital downloads.  It's a perfect blend for those of us who adore the nostalgia and quality of vinyl records, but also embrace the portability of the digital audio era.  I am excited to do a bit of vinyl hunting when my tax return comes in.  On the hit list are The Doors' self-titled, Patti Smith's Horses and Easter, Lou Rhode's One Good Thing, and Comus' First Utterance.  If you've never heard Comus you're missing out on some very interesting and inspired stuff.  Here's a tasty psychedelic treat for you...ripped from vinyl of course...


...so...fucking...good...


Outside of my analog indulgance I've been spinning some Nick Drake, the new and very lullaby-like Radiohead record, the new Mogwai, the The Fountain score/soundtrack, the last couple of Do Make Say Think records, and the Isis/Aereogramme colaboration.  I also just found out yesterday that William Fitzsimmons will be playing at The Starving Artist in Keene, NH - a small, homey artists' studio.  It is going to be a wonderful, intimate show.  If you are in the area I'd highly recommend getting a ticket ASAP.  Here's a track from William's forthcoming record...


What's next...
A couple of weeks ago I interviewed Myke Havoc of Dorian Gray, a new New England metal band.  They recently released their first EP, which I will be reviewing in my next post with some excerpts from the interview.  Hopefully, the fact that I am updating this blog now is a sign that my life is making its way back on track.