LOCAL SPOTLIGHT NYC
At the risk of relinquishing my last shred of dignity, I sat down to interview the core members of No Eye Contact. To say that I am a groupie is an understatement. No Eye Contact – whose ever-shifting members have finally united to tour – is one of the best bands to have emerged from our humble hood last year. In spite of – or perhaps because of – my bias toward classic folk songwriting, I appreciate how precarious it is to do it, and how narrowly one must carve his delicate, original path. The band’s wholly refreshing brand of fuzz-garage folk recalls the best of Neutral Milk Hotel, while sifting in perfect percussive elements, found objects, and untampered mixing. The album is certainly al dente, or as Sastri describes it, “handmade, imperfect, and rough;” curious to see them live? Check No Eye Contact out tonight at the Jezebel Music Feature Show.

JM.com: How did you guys come together?

Raky: Josh and I went to high school together. He is three years my junior, so we met my senior year, in the theater department. We did a play together.

Josh: My Favorite Year. It’s really bad. We did that and we played in a Jeff Buckley cover band together. Although I couldn’t really play guitar very well at that point.

JM.com: What was it called?

Raky: Buckley Band. I played drums in that and Josh played silent guitar.

Josh: I didn’t know the chords so…

Raky: We turned his volume down and he just strummed a lot.
More on No Eye Contact

LOCAL SPOTLIGHT NYC
Kalpana has been playing and releasing their music, which they like to refer to as their “boring stories of glory days,” in the city sporadically since 2004.  With members split between cities, this four-piece collective has just recently released their second full length Teeth on the Wheel three years after the release of their last EP, This Dead Horse. Their debut LP, Hors de Combat was released in 2004. JM.com’s Gordon Sharp connected with guitarist/singer/designer Aaron Powers to talk about Kalpana’s new record and their development over time.

JM.com: Kalpana’s been playing in NYC for over 5 years. Tell our readers a little a little about the time before Kalpana. I know some of you are from upstate and now spread also to Philly, how did it all come together?

Aaron: The first Kalpana material came from a handful of experimental rock songs that Andrew, Blair and Michael put together for a school project back in 2002.  The following winter there was this idea to bring me in, develop the sound further and start up an actual band. We spent a few months rehearsing in a basement outside of Rochester, NY, getting to know each other musically and rehearsing songs that probably made the neighbors wonder if robots were murdering each other next door. Following our first record in 2004, we all moved into an apartment together in Astoria and began life as a New York band where we have made some friends and played a bunch of shows, as you know. We live separately now, with Michael in grad school in Philly and the rest of us in NYC.

JM.com: Redder Records released 2006’s This Dead Horse. You’re now releasing your new album Teeth on the Wheel as a free download through your own label No Funeral. How do you reason with the fact that by making your record free to the public in an attempt to open it up to a wider audience you at the same time contribute to making digital music a worthless commodity?

Aaron: I don’t think we’ve ever viewed our music as a commodity, which is why we didn’t hesitate in making Teeth on the Wheel available on a donation basis (for the time being, anyway). We produced and mixed the album ourselves for very little money. So we consider it a gift to the folks who stood by us for the last few years, with the hope that some new fans might chip in and help recoup our modest costs. There are also plans for a physical version with interesting packaging because we realize the importance of being able to hold something tangible in your hands. And right, the new record was released on Kalpana’s own imprint, No Funeral. Redder hasn’t been as active lately because of key members taking on graduate studies at home and abroad. But there are some interesting things going on behind the scenes that they are excited about.
More on Kalpana

LOCAL SPOTLIGHT NYC
I can’t help it, there’s something about surf music that’s always felt very wholesome to me: I think of Colgate smiles and a healthy flush from the California sun, shiny surfboards and shinier cars. But don’t let the surf label fool you like it did me: The Vandelles are fun, but they’re sneaky too…let’s not forget that they also draw their aesthetic from film noir and fifties spy movies. And The Vandelles’ music isn’t pure sunshine, it actually can be quite dark…let’s not forget that those surf riffs are just a frame over which they pile layers of noise. Even in their live show the band is often intentionally obscured by projections and crazy lighting – but it’s these aural and visual, even biographical layers that make them all the more interesting. I sat down with drummer Suzanne Pagliorola, bassist Lisha Nadkarni, and guitarists Jason Schwartz and Christo Buffam last week at Satellite Lounge to prepare myself for what’s in store tomorrow night when they play the JezebelMusic.com Feature Show.

JM.com: How did you get started? I read that you were two different bands, right?

Jason: The thing is, don’t trust anything we say because nothing is officially true. We’re probably the only band that’s honest about the fact that we just lie about everything.

Suzanne: Everything is a web of lies. Tell her the real story. Come clean.

Jason: Well, we met at school. Initially Dave and I – Dave who was one of the original members – started playing together with some demos that I put together in high school. I found Sue online through Facebook.

Suzanne: I’m convinced that they were completely messed up when they wrote this message.

Jason: No way.

Suzanne: It was this incoherent thing like, “You like The Jesus and Mary Chain, and you go to my school and also you play drums! Do you want to be in a band?” I was like, “I really don’t have anything to do, so I guess so.” I went to go meet them and I was like,“they seem a little scary” so I brought my boyfriend at the time. We went to their house and they were terrifying.

Jason: That’s not true, we were barbequing!

Suzanne: You guys had some Pink Floyd video on the TV like blasting.

Jason: Oh yeah.

Suzanne: And then you started playing and my boyfriend grabbed me and was like, “You are not going to be in this band.” And I was like, “yes I am!”

Lisha: I was friends with Sue in college and she tried out for the band and was like ,“Hey come be in this band with me we need a bassist.”

Suzanne: Our old guitar player ended up quitting. He’s still our really good friend and kind of an auxiliary member. So we had played a show in Boston with his [Christo’s] old band and we were like, “Oh we’re really hungry,” and he was like “I will take you to an IHOP.” So then when we needed a guitar player it kind of fell into place because we were like, “What about that dude from the IHOP?”
More on The Vandelles

LOCAL SPOTLIGHT NYC
It’s Friday night in Greenpoint and I’ve just walked into an apartment that reminds me of an archetypal grandma’s house, albeit cooler: paintings and sketches in ornate gold frames hang on the dark red walls, there’s a Persian style carpet on the floor, and the curtain in the corner has a pattern that looks like it belongs on a porcelain tea set. But no Dave Mustaine look-alike in a Mark Bolan outfit ever answered my grandmother’s door and offered to play me a new cut of a song called “Cum In My Kitchen.” Tonight I’m meeting up with local glam band Sorceress at their lead singer Ian’s apartment, and we’re talking about the tracks they just recorded with Sean and Daniel of The Phenomenal Handclap Band as producers. “Disco production with rock music,” is how Ian describes his ideal recording aesthetic, but you could describe a live show from Ian, bassist Dave, guitarist Gregg and new drummer Josh as straight-up, blues-inspired glam rock. And for now, at least, Sorceress is solely a live band – these new recordings are the embryo of Sorceress’ very first single, though you can hear some previously recorded tracks on their Myspace.

JM.com: Obviously you guys listen to T. Rex and the likes. Are there any influences that might be surprising?

Gregg: From the outset, we were also into psychedelic elements, and prog elements too, but when the band was evolving we wanted it more stripped-down.

Dave: I have a bunch of disco and soul and funk and that has definitely influenced my bass playing.

Gregg: I mean [with this recording] it’s coming full circle, because Sean and Daniel are notorious soul and funk DJs, also rare groove especially. There’s this natural progression when you DJ. You start with soul, want it a little bit dirtier and you head to funk, and then you want more production and you head to rare groove. And then if you want to get even sassier: disco.

Dave: And I love the rock bands that put that all together like Rare Earth.

Ian: Or even some stuff that you wouldn’t think of as funk influenced, like Nazareth’s “Hair of the Dog,” that even has that nyeer-nyungh-nyang, that thing? Talk box?

Dave: Vocoder.

Ian: It’s got that really funky rhythm. I love that song. It’s got this really funky bluesy riff to it that we try to go after – with a lot of twang. And that’s something also that’s really important to us. Where we see us trying to stand out is more on the funkier side of rock ’n roll and the blues.
More on Sorceress

LOCAL SPOTLIGHT NYC
It is surprising that until this August, Afuche had not yet played Zebulon, the Williamsburg bar, restaurant, and music venue known for hosting an eclectic schedule of performances, ranging from jazz to world music to funk to folk, and a wide range of boundary-blurring genres in between. Not unlike this venue, Afuche successfully merges an array of varying musical styles and influences into a singular, form-defying entity. The difficulty in categorizing Afuche’s music of has less to do with their cacophonous and experimental sounds, and more to do with the passionate appreciation of musical expression shared by the band’s members. In Afuche’s distinctive all-instrumental song repertoire are traces of jazz, funk, soul, off-time prog rock beats, and exotic rhythmical and melodic textures born from the music of Latin America.

Performing live, the group pours itself wholly into each moment, fervently sketching and sculpting aural art before the ears of captivated crowds. This music burrows deep – through skin with entrancing melodies, and into bones with penetrating rhythms. A whirlpool of wild, pounding, off-time percussion, inventive, colorfully-toned guitar and keyboard, vivid saxophone harmonies, and impermeable, ground-defining bass build profoundly rich and layered textures; sinister horns crawl and weave, snaking over a locked down rhythm section and buzzing bed of keyboards; melodic interludes lurk and prowl like a mad, stalking giant, accompanied by unison chants and yells, and swerving into crazed breakdowns of tortured, wailing saxophones. Afuche’s palpable onstage energy is key to the unique corner the band has carved for itself in the ever-saturated Brooklyn music scene. Such refreshing music is not accompanied by a shelf life, only an opportunity to blossom.

Before the first of what will undoubtedly not be their last performance at Zebulon, JezebelMusic.com sat down with Ruben Sindo Acosta (drums, keyboards), Zachary Ryalls (guitar), Keith Parker (drums, percussion), Denny Tek (bass), and Jordan Goldstein (saxophone) to talk about the Brooklyn-based band called Afuche.
More on Afuche

SEE IT LIVE
JezebelMusic.com June Feature Show
July 9, 2009 @ Public Assembly
Featuring The Drums w/ Living Days, Zambri, and Kordan

[All images copyright 2009 Jen McManus]

Living Days

Zambri

The Drums

Kordan

SEE IT LIVE
JezebelMusic.com Showcase @ the Northside Festival
June 12, 2009 @ Cameo Gallery
Featuring  The Press, Bottle Up & Go, The Art of Shooting, Neckbeard Telecaster, and Patrick Bower and The World Without Magic

[All images copyright 2009 Jen McManus]

Patrick Bower and The World Without Magic

Neckbeard Telecaster

The Art of Shooting

Bottle Up & Go

The Press

LIVE JOURNAL
JezebelMusic.com @ the Northside Festival | June 11-14, 2009

From June 11-14 The L Magazine’s Northside Festival took over the bars, galleries, and, most importantly (to us anyway) music venues of the “north side” (i.e., Williamsburg and Greenpoint) of Brooklyn. With somewhere around 80 showcases crammed into just three and a half days, the number of musical options was dizzying and, for some, agonizing. One frantic text I received during the weekend read: “Quick, who do you think I should see? Les Sans Culottes (ye ye esque) or Wild Yaks (drunk rock). I’m suffering from crippling indecision!” The sentiment was the same among others – especially when having to choose between the big headliners (Bill Callahan, The Hold Steady, Sunset Rubdown, The Dodos, Asobi Seksu, Bishop Allen) at bigger venues (Music Hall of Williamsburg, Studio B) and lesser-known acts (Pet Ghost Project, Ava Luna, Glass Ghost, Knight School, Browns) at smaller, more intimate spaces (Trophy Bar, Bar Matchless, Coco66, Cameo Gallery). I tended to opt for the latter and was happy I did. I caught some of the liveliest, rawest, most refreshing performances I’ve seen in a while – Drink Up Buttercup banging the shit out of their “smashcans” with maracas and bells, Tune-Yards wailing atop her primitive, soulful, pummeling beats, The Albertans singing sweetly in the sun, during an acoustic sidewalk set, Ghost Gamblers howling out their hearty Americana-cum-country tunes. At our own showcase, I was thoroughly impressed by the total talent that characterized the night. I repeatedly caught myself thinking, “Wow, these guys are good,” and then finding my surprise silly – I had, after all, booked the bands. What was especially notable about the weekend was that nearly every act involved was Brooklyn-based, a testament to the vitality of the current local music scene. The festival had it’s flaws, of course – badgeholders not being admitted to shows, set time screw ups – but, especially given that it was its first year, I would say an overall success.

Below, the reactions and reminiscences of some of our writers and, here, a slideshow capturing some images from the weekend.

[All images copyright 2009 Jen McManus]

Artists pictured (in order of appearance): Patrick Bower and the World Without Magic, Neckbeard Telecaster, The Art of Shooting, Bottle Up and Go, The Press, Ghost Gamblers, Katie Eastburn, Tune-Yards, The Dodos

by Elana Jacobs

JezebelMusic.com Northside Coverage:

Northside Ladies by Erin Sheehy
Tallest Man on Earth by Eva Meszaros
Cymbals Eat Guitars by Max Sebela
1928 Recordings Showcase by Erin Sheehy