Bowery Boy Blue and Lesser Lights - Now We Will Be Brothers

Ah, Bowery Boy Blue! Despite being located individually all over God's creation, the fearsome foursome sure do make a nice sound when they are in the same room. It's been a good year for the Boys. Their debut full-length Stalk This Myth dropped about a year ago on Space Photo Records to almost universal regard. Short tours over the last year were exceedingly well-received and showed the Boys that are both Blue and of the Bowery to be one hell of a force on the stage. Live, the Stalk songs took on dimensions that the recordings only hinted at, boding well for the band's future.

Now We Will Be Brothers is the product of the last days of the historic Looking Glass Studios in NYC. Bowery Boy Bluesmen Zeb Gould and Sam Crawford brought Lesser Lights proprietor Nate Baker to see the space while the SF-based Lesser Lights proprietor was in town playing shows. As luck would have it, the fabled Studio A was open for the afternoon and BBB ended up backing Baker for the two tracks that appear here. It seems to have been a happy coincidence for both parties. Bowery Boy Blue play wonderfully, but their backing is unobtrusive to say the least. Crawford adds wonderful vocal backing to the opening Waving At Trains That No Longer Run, but for the most part the Lesser Lights tracks feel a little bit more solo songwriter. Baker's vocals here show a warm sonority that is equal parts unsettling and engaging. Think Mark Kozalek or Kurt Wagner, maybe Tim Barry on an exceedingly good day. The two Now We Will Be Brothers tracks are a nice introduction and I like what I hear. Suffice to say, I'm excited to hear the EP that I hear is coming in the new year.

At the inception of Bowery Boy Blue, Zeb Gould arguably filled the role Baker holds in Lesser Lights, wherein he would bring songs to the table and flesh them out with players as needed. It lent a Jason Molina meets Neil Young vibe to the proceedings that was wonderful to listen to, but didn't do justice to the BBB live sound. The last couple of years have found Bowery Boy Blue coalescing into a band and fostering a new direction that incorporates a lot more Pixies/Cake rock quirk into the sound. The two songs here show both sides of the band. Now We Will Be Brothers shows more of the early sound, with violin and steel adding texture. It's wonderful, but the closing Give 'Em What They Want melds an arpeggiated guitar riff to a gritty lead that should make waves in eardrums from dorm rooms to home theater systems all over. It is a track that lives up to its name.

As does the record's title. Now We Will Be Brothers pairs two great up and comers in Bowery Boy Blue and Lesser Lights. These are artists that are two sides of a single coin, players that come closest to capturing whatever is still relevant in the increasingly nebulous term that is Americana. Now We Will Be Brothers is American music in the truest sense, combining classic elements of folk, rock and country music with the alternative sounds of their collective youths to form something beautiful and new. You would be foolish not buy this. Get Now We Will Be Brothers from your favorite digital retailer or grab a hard copy from the good folk of Space Photo Records. Tell 'em JS-NYC sent you. Look forward to both parties being out on the road in the new year and keep an ear out for the second Bowery Boy Blue record coming next year.

R

Teenage Bottlerocket - They Came From The Shadows

Teenage Bottlerocket is another band that has really got under my skin (in a good way) in the last couple months. Their CMJ set this year was a real rager that Luke and I really enjoyed a ton. I revisited all their records after that and continue to be astounded that I wasn't as into them the three times I had see them previously. I'm sure I've whined here previously about the show at the Leonard St. Knit TBR played with Chixdiggit where the Alberta crew was utterly terrible, with a thrown together band backing KJ that barely knew any songs. The TBR kids offered to back KJ to try and salvage the proceedings, but it was all in all a total disappointment that probably tainted my feelings about these proud sons of Laramie.

I seem to have put that behind me now. I can now state definitively that if you like the Ramones, and by proxy your Riverdales and your Screeching Weasels, you would be hard pressed not to enjoy TBR in general and They Came From The Shadows in particular. The addition of Kody has expanded their sound slightly, but Teenage Bottlerocket aren't broken and they aren't about to try and fix it. It's odd that a wizened old man like myself would take to songs like Skate Or Die or The Jerk, but I have and, judging by the number of times I've played this and the rest of the TBR stuff of late, I will continue to do so. Please do the same and buy They Came From The Shadows from Fat via this link. Note: leather motorcycle jacket not included.

R

Whiskey Trench - Television

Ah, Whiskey Trench! If I may digress from the onset, it's fairly irritating how much of a dick tease the internet can be. As it regards Whiskey Trench, for a while now I've been trying to figure out if Hugo Mudie is still in this damn band? Given the terse assertion that he is not on the web page, I'm given to think that I am right that he was, but that some sort of acrimony has facilitated his departure from the WT ranks. Not that Whiskey Trench are Rush or anything, but it'd be nice if there were somewhere one could get the skinny on the current lineup.

Not that I'm such a slavish Mudie jocker that I would disregard the band if he wasn't a member, but truth be told, The Sainte Catherines/Yesterday's Ring connection was the reason I got into the band in the first place. I grabbed the first Whiskey Trench record from the download section of If You Make It last year and was pretty taken with the Canadian inflected Jawbreaker-isms therein. Television keeps that legacy alive, adding a little Ben Deily era Lemonheads to the mix to keep things interesting. There is also an interesting Green Onions meets Planet Of Sound kind of instrumental turn on No Money For Bus Fare that heralds some interesting directions in the band's future. The fourteen tracks are all pretty sold, with Vicious Sore and Life Long Sentence taking the top two slots to these ears. As luck would have it, the gents are playing Bar Nine tomorrow night, so it appears I'll be able to get to the bottom of the Hugo thing and see if Whiskey Trench can pull it off live. See you front and center at the rock show. If you can't make it out, check the record out at their web presence or just buy Television from Kiss Of Death. Think about maybe buying two. It's the perfect holiday gift.

R

Fugazi

Hey Kids:

While there seems to be very little chance that we'll be seeing the Fugazi do any live stuff anytime soon, there is no need to deprive yourself of the inimitable stage patter the gents doth provide.

Download this 45 minute comp of Ian and Guy waxing eloquent on issues like dancefloor douchebaggery, ice cream consumption and their drummer's financial woes. Here 'tis courtesy of Henry at Chunklet and Jerry Burns.

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

Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx 2 review at PopMatters

Hey Kids:

Review of the new Raekwon opus is currently up at PopMatters. Thanks to Sarah Zupko at PopMatters! Peep it here.

R

Figgs for the Holidays!

Hey Kids:

America's finest rock band The Figgs is taking a break from recording their new record and procreating to play some shows for the holidays (and the New Year).

Peep the dates below and note that there will be holiday single available for stocking stuffing courtesy of the good folk of Peter Walkee Records.

It's on Figg-approved vinyl, with complimentary digital downloads.

Come to the shows and thank them personally for the holiday gift, willya. We don't get the boys playing shows outside of Green Bay casinos much anymore. See you Thursday in Brooklyn.

Holiday Shows!
12/3 - Brooklyn, NY - Bruar Falls
12/4 - New York, NY - Cake Shop
12/5 - Staten Island, NY - Cargo Cafe
12/11 - Albany, NY - Valentines
12/12 - Saratoga Springs, NY - Putnam Den
12/18 - Cambridge, MA - TT The Bears
12/19 - Dover, NH - Brick House

2010!
1/4 - Carrabassett Valley, ME - Sugarloaf
1/5 - Newry, ME - Sunday River
2/26 - Saratoga Springs, NY - The Irish Times
2/27 - Saratoga Springs, NY - The Irish Times (Matinee Family show)
2/27 - Saratoga Springs, NY - The Irish Times (Late Show)