Live: Samiam with I Hate Our Freedom @ Santos Party House 3.12.11

I like me some Samiam. A lot. To the point where it was getting to be a little bit absurd that I'd never seen them live. Sadly, as of late the JS-NYC travel budget has precluded travel to Brazil or Germany, the two places Samiam play with any regularity in this epoch, and frankly the last show was pretty shitty, so I played the scene card and Sergie threw me on the list.

Santos is weird. After a search that left me pretty sure I was dating the security guy afterward the first time I went, I got a cursory search and walked in without passing a ticket person or security or anything. I Hate Our Freedom were up in short order. IHOF have grown on me a bunch over the last six months or so. They have been on the lions share of the decent bills around town of late, to the point where I'm pretty sure I've seen them six times now without ever intending to. I wasn't crazy about them at first, but they have really grown on me. I think this may have been kind of the release party for their debut, Seriously and it was a pretty good showing. The record's good too.

As much I enjoyed I Hate Our Freedom, Samiam were the reason for the evening. I was really hoping for a marked improvement (read: lower blood alcohol level in Jason) in the set and was pretty pleased. Man, do Samiam have songs. They've got enough records that cherry-picking from them makes for one hell of a set. Jason was in better form, although the second show I've seen from the Samiam made obvious the fact that in addition to being time keeper, a big part of Charlie's gig is to start the songs when Jason starts talking for more that ten or fifteen seconds between songs. As Jason seems prone to spouting inappropriate Asberger-isms given any opportunity, the set moved along pretty quickly but still garnered us a solid eighteen quality songs before things shut down for a disco party. Evidently the gents are playing a couple shows to get some cash together to cover overhead for a songwriting session for a new record. Don't recall hearing any new tracks, but stay tuned to JS-NYC for info on the new record as it arises.

Santos is a good place to see a show. If you have the chance, budget extra time for the strip search and see a show there. Thanks to Sergie and Tony from Southern Lovin' for making the guest list happen.

R

The Arrivals - Volatile Molotov

The Arrivals have been around for six or seven years now, representing for the Chicago area and playing some blue-collar punk rock for older punks to have a beverage to. They first came on my radar through their sharing Patrick Costello in the bass slot with the mighty Dillinger Four. There are a lot of parallels between the two franchises spiritually, if not out and out musically, so the uninitiated would do well in considering The Arrivals a Chicago D4 as a touchstone. There has always been a Celtic and Clash leaning to their sound, but wonderfully enough the Thin Lizzy has erupted in them with strong stead with the new record. Volatile Molotov reminds me a whole lot of Lizzy with the guitar solos cut out. Granted, that removal does put a lot of pressure on the song end of things for The Arrivals, but our boys hold up their end of the bargain nicely. Isaac and Lil Dave are in fine form; paired with Matt Allison in the production chair and some help from Neil Hennessey you've got a new-school Chicago dream team. Not really a bad song here, Pull Down The Willows and Simple Pleasures In America have been the personal faves of late, but Volatile Molotov has received lots of spins at JS-NYC HQ in the last couple months and lots of tracks here are vying for the top slots. This is one of maybe 5 records I've paid for this year. Do the same here from your friends at Recess Records. Hopefully we'll get them back in town soon for a slot that isn't 2am on a Tuesday.

R

Samiam - Orphan Works

I like me some Samiam. They are no Jawbreaker, but I have a dozen or so Samiam releases in the collection that get pretty regular airplay at the JS-NYC corporate offices, rivaling the post-Latterman Canino catalog and the Suburban Home roster for top number of spins. My long-delayed first time seeing them live was pretty much a bust, but these recordings and this German footage lends credence to Samiam actually being a decent live entity when Jason isn't drunk.

Orphan Works compiles a bunch of live and other rare-ish stuff from the You Are Freaking Me Out and Clumsy (1994-98) eras. Save for too many versions of Stepson, there is very little to speak poorly of on Orphan Works. 18 tracks for your hard-earned dollar, and its on No Idea, so how can you really go wrong for $7? I think not, so let's cut the crap and start buying, shall we? Here's a link to save you the time and trouble.

R

Worn In Red - In The Offing

This has been sitting in the pile for a while now. I think it's because I confused it with the Mike Hale band that I kept passing it over. That's not a burn on Mike, who is undoubtably one of the nicest guys I've ever met, but after being not so crazy about his acoustic stuff, I was wary of not liking that either and feeling even more guilty. For the record: this isn't the Mike Hale band.

No ambivalence here. At all. I'm all about this fucking record. Screamy vocals over tight, heavy arrangements with great recording quality? Sign me up. Worn In Red are from Richmond, VA and sound like it. Rarely have I found that to be a bad thing and In The Offing is no exception. Four dudes, probably with a high beard percentage, playing their hearts out. You can't go wrong with that. Pony up the $8 and get In The Offing from No Idea right away. They are streaming it over there, too, if you're a doubting thomas. The gents are on tour currently, so pop on over to their web presence and see if they are coming your way. If In The Offing is any indication, I can't see Worn In Red doing anything but fucking killing live.

R

Eddy Current Suppression Ring

Australia has brought many fine musical entities into the world: The Saints, Hoodoo Gurus, Paul Kelly. Then again there is most of the INXS catalog, Silverchair and Wolfmother. Add the ever-popular "garage rock" tag and you've got a pretty hard sell for this asshole. I can't say that I'm the hugest fan of the GR genre, but I know a number of serious players and connoisseurs and have spent enough time absorbing to know this isn't terrible. If you are a GR guy, you'll probably eat this up. Or maybe already own it, as this is a reissue. It's got a good backstory in that there are brothers in the band and EDHC were initially a drunken lark at a vinyl pressing plant's holiday party that had their besotted recordings duped and have gone on to be huge down under. Whouda thought? Get the whole story at the Eddy Current Suppression Ring web presence here, along with some audio and video delights. If you like what you hear, Memphis garage titans Goner are handling this reissue. You can grab it here, along with Primary Colors, the record that blew them up last year.

R

Small Brown Bike - Composite, Volume One

Whouda thunk? The Small Brown Bike is back! And with the original lineup even. Works for me. I've had an SBB sticker on my Surly for years now and while it garners the odd bit of mockery from the odd Figg drummer here and there, most of the feedback has concerned how great they were back in the day and how scads of bands have ripped them off. While the ex-members have started various ill-fated side projects like Able Baker Fox and LaSalle, none of the post-Bike projects caught fire on a level of the original franchise.

Small Brown Bike played The Fest this year to much adulation from fans old and new. The nice young(ish) men that they are, they have been kind enough to actually trot out some new material to commemorate their return. It's a 7" on No Idea called Composite, Volume One and I'll be damned if it doesn't sound a lot like some of the best stuff from their early years. While you should, don't take my word for it. Var and Co. have both tracks streaming over at the No Idea web presence here, so why not try that shit then buy that shit. It's the perfect gift for Mom for the holidays.

R

The Copyrights and The Brokedowns split 7"

So this is the 7" that I alluded to in my cursory coverage of the recent Copyrights shows. The Brokedowns have been getting a lot of notice lately, playing most of the good Midwestern punk shows with D4, The Dopamines and our heroes, The Copyrights. They have two songs here, none of which really rock my world, but I suspect that if I had a handful of Old Styles in me, I might very well feel differently. I'm not prepared to relegate them to full-on Cobra Skulls over-rateddom yet. Pairing themselves with The Copyrights will certainly get them some shine, but they sure do pale in comparison from where this asshole is sitting. The Copyrights lead off with the banging I'd Rather Die Than Be Alone and seal the deal with Get Got, another number that will enrich your life in many ways. No Idea is the bestest, so why not drink one less beer and help all the parties involved keep the lights on. Here's a link to enable your expenditure.

North Lincoln: Midwestern Blood at PopMatters

Hey Kids:

Some punk rock review action of the new North Lincoln record is now available for your perusal over at PopMatters.

Thanks to Sarah Zupko at PopMatters!

Here's a link.

R

The Fest 8 Lineup Announced

Crumbs:

The lovable beardos of No Idea have released the initial confirmed lineup for The Fest 8. You can peep the skinny here.

Parties interested in sending me for promotional purposes should get in contact immediate-like.

R

New North Lincoln!

Hey Kids:

Michigan rock juggernaut North Lincoln have a new record coming down the pike courtesy of the good folk of No Idea.

Review soon, but stream that shit here in the interim.

R

Live: Tim Barry, Austin Lucas and Josh Small @ The Knitting Factory 4.23.9

If you've been around JS-NYC in recent weeks, you are probably aware of my newfound obsession with all things Austin Lucas. Tony from Southern Lovin sent me Somebody Loves You a month or so ago and I promptly went bananas over it. As luck would have it, a bunch of places were looking for someone to write about it and Austin was coming through town with Tim Barry and Josh Small. Tony got Austin put me on the list and in the interim, I came to find out that Rut's lady Jamie knew him from Bloomington. Suffice to say, I was pretty stoked.

Josh Small opened up the night with a short set and a big rack of instruments, I only caught the last five or six songs of his set, but he's got a record out called Tall By Josh Small that I definitely want to hear. He's been playing a lot with Tim Barry and was the jack of all trades on last Summer's revival tour with Ben from Lucero and Chuck Ragan (Hot Water Music). Check out Josh here and get Tall here from Suburban Home.  

Austin came out and played on Josh's last song and Small repaid the favor by sticking around for the first song of way too short a set. I was pleased to find that Austin sings as well live as you would expect him to. The set was far too short, but feature most of the high points of Somebody Loves You, save for Shoulders. I would have like to have heard Kith and Kin, but the only disappointment in the set was that it passed far too quickly. Check out Austin here and buy a copy of Somebody Loves You here immediately.

Tim Barry was next up. He took the stage like a panther and immediately launched into Dog Bumped, a take of a man who has to deal with his sister's abusive husband. The crowd went pretty apeshit and for the life of me I can't see why. I have a ton of respect for what Tim has accomplished with Avail. He's worked damn hard at plying this folky troubadour route and seems totally sincere about it. Sadly, from where I'm sitting (read: far away from his wrath) it's pretty contrived and not especially good. He was playing in the crowd two songs into the set (and pretty excited to tell everyone how he was going there) to much adulation, but after three more songs, I bailed to the front bar. I have all the respect for the Coe and Paycheck set of populist, working man's music, but the problem lies in the genre being co-opted by the Toby Keiths of the industry. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to hear Lefty crap by punk bands (or Steve Earle) either. Something about Tim's solo songs and his crowd just don't resonate with me, especially after seeing Austin Lucas. Still, if you're into that sort of thing, you can get Tim's most recent record Manchester here from Suburban Home and keep tabs on his whereabouts here.

Thanks to Tony Weinbender at Southern Lovin for the hook-up, Austin for putting me on the list (good luck in Mexico!) and Rut and Jamie for the company.

R

Mike Hale - Lives Like Mine

You may (or should) remember Mike Hale from his time fronting the mighty Gainesville punk rock triple threat that is/was Gunmoll. They were sort of a Gainesville Jawbreaker and were no strangers to bringing the noise to a basement or house show. They broke up sort of acrimoniously a couple years ago. In the interim, Hale has moved out to California and formed a new band called In The Red that have a record called Volume 2 out courtesy of the good folk of Suburban Home. You can get it here. Look for a review soon on JS-NYC.

In The Red are still a band, but Hale has decided to quit his job and give up his lease to become a full-time musician. It ambitious, especially in this day and age, but he's got a decent record to springboard with.  Lives Like Mine is all Hale, with spartan guitar and/or piano backing. It's nice, if not especially engaging for me personally. Hale has a nice voice and the songs are all better than the average stuff you'll hear. Forgive me, but Austin Lucas has raised the bar improbably high for me as it concerns solo fare in this day and age. It's definitely worth checking out and, as luck would have it, Suburban Home and Vinyl Collective are giving away Lives Like Mine away for free here, so check it out yourself and spread the gospel, if you see fit. Hale has a running series of posts from the road at punknews.org that you can keep up on here. His social networking engine can be found here, if you do that sort of thing.

R

Mouthbreather review up at The Tripwire

Ladies and Gents:

Review of the new Mouthbreather record is currently up at The Tripwire. Pop over and check it. Here's a link.

Thanks to Derek Evers at The Tripwire!

R

Shaking Hands review up now at The Tripwire!!

Hey Kids:

Have almost detoxed from two days of Holding Steady. Look forward to recaps of that soon, but in the interim check out my review of the new The Shaking Hands record that is up now at The Tripwire. Here's a link.

Thanks to Derek Evers at The Tripwire and Tony Weinbender at Southern Lovin'.

R

O Pioneers!!! - Neon Creeps

O Pioneers hail from the Lone Star State of Texas, Houston to be exact, but damn if they don't sound like they are one of the If You Make It bands from my fair city of NYC. Think Thousandaires or Get Bent. There are some gruffer parts, like on 9am Every Day, where it gets kind of early Hot Water Music, but for the most part Neon Creeps seems indebted to the mid 90s Midwestern rock that I hold so dear. 

O Pioneers have released just under a million records since their inception. If you believe what you read on the interwebs, there have been six members in and out of the band since the last recording. The ones that stuck around sure have made one hell of a good record.  Neon Creeps is the first for Asian Man. I suspect Mr. Park will be pleased with results. I know I was. I'm even more pleased to find that they are playing at Lost & Found, provided this winter weather doesn't strand them somewhere. Buy a copy of Neon Creeps from Asian Man here, see them at Lost & Found, and keep tabs on their Texas asses here. 

R

Mouthbreather - Thank You For Your Patience

Mouthbreather are from Richmond, VA, like so many other quality punk franchises these days. Must be something in that river water. I like me some RVA punk, and while I will mention that the guys here used to be in Wow, Owls and The SetUp, I can't say that I've heard either of those bands. Mouthbreather bring the post-Flag ruckus with wiry guitar lines and lots of pounding and/or shouting. They sound like what I always wanted Planes Mistaken For Stars to sound like, with a of Bronx-y psychotic edge to it. There are strains of melody and even a hook or two in the sonic barrage. You can probably expect a gang of drunken beardos crowding the front line of their shows shouting along with the tunes here. 

There are some cool moments on Thank You For Your Patience, especially on the horribly titled When A Chemist Dies, Barium and the raging The Nazarene. They certainly are interesting harbingers of a direction that asks the sonic question: What would happen if Evan Patterson helmed Meneguar? The answer is: You would have the a band that rocks the shit out of you. A happy coincidence, as I very much enjoy having said shit rocked out of me. 

Mouthbreather have postponed their tour that was going to jump off the month, but are evidently touring with local heroes Bridge And Tunnel on their way to Harvest Of Hope. I'm kinda bummed that I'm not going, but hopefully we'll see Mouthbreather in the NYC area in the Spring. Keep tabs on Mouthbreather activities here. In the meantime, pop over to Kiss Of Death and pick up Thank You For Your Patience. I'll be drinking coffee and shouting along with Best Of Seven.

R

Harvest Of Hope Fest 2009

If my trip to Turkey taught me anything, it's that my Dad is a far better person than I am. Now it looks like No Idea and Harvest of Hope have upped the ante their own bad selves. Looks like this asshole might need to write a check or find religion or something.

Ryan from No Idea (and True North) had been working with Harvest Of Hope as part of his Grad Program. He called in a bunch of markers with a gang of bands like Against Me!, Bad Brains and a gazillion more, got a 50,000 grant from St. John's County in FL, and now there is a three day Harvest Of Hope Fest, raising money for what looks to be the largest benefit for Migrant Workers Rights in recent history, if not ever. While it doesn't make me feel any better about my shitty, selfish self; kudos go to Ryan and the rest of No Idea, Tony Weinbender at Southern Lovin' and Harvest Of Hope for doing such a great thing.

Check out all the skinny about Harvest Of Hope Fest here.

R

Useless I.D. - The Lost Broken Bones

Unless you're a native or Tim Krysko from Punk International, chances are that Useless I.D. are your favorite Israeli punk band. And probably your only. They've been around since the early 90s, releasing their records on their own Falafel Records before a fortuitous tour with the Ataris begat a split cd and dalliances with Kung-Fu Records and Fat Wreck.

2008 finds Useless on Suburban Home. Virgil puts in work, but lately he's really been knocking it out of the park internationally, too. Hopefully by this time tomorrow we'll hear that he's signed Yesterday's Ring and will be releasing the 20 or so songs I hear Hugo and the boys have recorded of late. If that happens, I may move to Denver. All digression aside, Useless ID play their trade in the SoCal Lagwagon/NUFAN end of the melodic punk spectrum. It's pretty smooth, with sung vocals, but fast enough to get you in trouble. They are another happy client of The Blasting Room, having recorded their last couple records there with Bill Stevenson. He's done his usual great job. Everything sounds bright and shiny. If there were still MTV and radio, I'd expect to hear stuff like The Lost Broken Bones on it.

Save for the song that sounds a little uncomfortably like the new-school neutered Alkaline Trio, The Lost Broken Bones is a great record, and I only point out the A3 thing because it seems a little bit of a stretch toward a sound that isn't exactly theirs (and very probably because I'm sort of a dick). Useless ID sound enough like their own band on the rest of The Lost Broken Bones that they really don't need to make concessions to win more Warped fans.

Virgil and Suburban Home have been displaying a Midas Touch for a while now. It's been twangier fare of late, but leave it to those kids to pull a punk band out of their hats just to remind you where they came from. What's next? A Gamits reunion record? I wouldn't put it past those kids. Keep up on the daily goings-on at Suburban Home here and Useless ID here. That said, someone really needs to get cracking on an all-female punk band called Useless I.U.D. Just a thought. Thank me later.

R

Virgins - Miscarriage

This group of Virgins is from Florida and is punk. As their Myspace points out, they are still not the crappy disco band from NYC. That's very much a good thing, although I do miss the opportunity to really lambast a truly shitty band.

My personal issues aside, these particular Virgins rose from the ashes of New Mexican Disaster Squad, a band I very much wanted to like but was always pretty bored by. While I never met them firsthand, they were always held to be solid dudes. NMDS has splintered into a number of projects as of late, this band features Sam from NMDS singing and playing guitar in the time-honored power trio format. That's the ideal paradigm from where I'm sitting: Shellac, Husker, Jawbreaker. Virgins don't resemble the aforementioned trios, save for maybe a little bit of Jawbreaker, but they bring some pretty fierce punk rock and roll to the table with Miscarriage.

There are a couple tempo nods early in the record to the rampaging tempos of NMDS, but most of the Virgins songs are pretty reminiscent of early Replacements, at last musically. Don't run too far with that. Sam doesn't have the lyrical or vocal depth of even early Westerberg, but Virgins still manage to make a pretty decent racket over the ten tracks here. I'd put them up there with The Tim Version at their best parts. Props are deserved. Virgins keep it interesting for the duration of Miscarriage They are good with a tempo change, especially on songs like Atheist In America where they start off Red Light Run It, then break it down all Mr. Whirly. Good times!

Miscarriage was recorded with Chris Owens from Lords at his Louisville studio. It's a good match, Owens is no stranger to working with rampaging bands like Akimbo, but he's equally as adept capturing hookier fare while still lending a DIY grittiness to the proceedings. If songs like Guitarmageddon (I know) and Wwzd were cleaned up Blink 182 style, they would be much lesser for it. Virgins would be great to see at a house show or a small bar. After having played this a dozen or so times, I'm really regretting not seeing them play with Monikers at Silent Barn earlier this year. I shan't make that mistake again.

See that you don't either. Keep up with the gents at their FL digs here. I don't see any tour dates soon, but hopefully we'll see them come through in the coming months. You can buy Miscarriage for that special someone from the stand-up kids at Kiss Of Death for $8 US here. Tell 'em JS-NYC sent you.

R

Live: Bridge & Tunnel with Get Bent, Antillectual, One Win Choice & Little Lungs 11.8.8

After the previous night, it was hard to come down to Earth, but it was a crappy day and Get Bent were playing the lead off slot on a matinee a block away, so I figured I'd make the trip.

If I may digress into a bit of a tired old man rant. I don't think that it's too much to ask for the actual venue to know when a show will start or the order of the bands, in at least a relative sense. This is sadly not possible for the collective, but its location allows me to not have to hang around like an idiot because I only showed up 45 minutes after the show was supposed to start. Silly me. Another 45 got me a copy of the new DonDiva and an arrival halfway through a band that was not Get Bent, the purported opener. 

The band proved to be Little Lungs. They are pretty decent, but young, so I see leaps and bounds being made in the next year or so. The rocking is in the trio format, with two ladies up front on strings and microphones and a lone gentleman pounding the skins. Think Sleater-Kinney with a dose of The Measure and you've got a good start. The things was, they were not Get Bent, begging the question: where exactly does a project band with only five (non-Pelican length) songs appear in a set in this day and age? No one really seemed to know.

Soon enough One Win Choice set up, although I didn't know at the time.  Evidently hail from NJ and have been around for a while. They seem very earnest, so it'd be wrong to clown them too hard, but I am kind of a dick, so: they were kinda silly. Strike Anywhere tattoos, bad logo that one guy (assumably the designer of said logo) had spray painted on his cab and tattooed on his calf and frontman moves cribbed Tim from Rise Against are not a recipe for good times for this guy, so I went home to realign my perspective. A couple of kids really seemed to dig them and their hearts do seem to be on the right place, so make your own call. Maybe you can throw it on when your Mom won't let you go to the Gaslight Anthem show cause it's a school night.

I got back to see a pretty good bit of Antillectual's set. They had been touring with One Win Choice (in the same van, even) for a couple weeks and ABC was the last stop on the tour before they went back to the Netherlands. Good, sort of of a better version of OWC, although the foreign factor does tend to skew bands towards to better end of things. They've been around for eight years and tour hard in their homeland. They definitely seem to have earned their following, although it was a fairly meagre turnout here in NYC. They are no Manifesto Jukebox, but if you'd like a crustier version of Strike Anywhere in a three-piece format, check them out.

Get Bent finally materialized next and judging by how the room filled up, they seem to be getting quite a name for themselves. Dave Bierling had told me about the demo and I enjoyed it a bunch, but always seemed to miss them when they played. I'm glad I finally caught them. Despite nearly inaudible vocals, they got the best response of the day playing the songs off their demo and maybe a new song. Good times from a band that really deserves to go places. Pick up their demo here and see them next week at Death By Audio with Lemuria.

This was Bridge and Tunnel's homecoming show. They had been out on the road for two months previous behind their No Idea debut and really tightened their shit up. I'm a little too negative for their relentless positivity, but they played a great set. Lots of delay and interplay with single note lines and dual vocals that almost approach a Jawbox vibe, or Rainer Maria on a really good night. I liked their record a bunch before and am definitely going to spin it a lot more after this set. They may be fresh off tour, but they aren't letting any rust settle as they too, are playing with Lemuria on 11/14, making this a show you should probably make it out to. The Steinways/Unlovables show is on Sunday, too, so get your rest. See you there.

R