Tag Archives: wes bands

EVENT
Art House House Warming Show

Ryan Heffernan ’16 is feeling artsy:

slide22Art House will be hosting their first house warming show this friday, featuring MFDP, Phat Rabbit, Murdertones, Ladd, and Honeylung. Before the show they will be hanging submitted student art work in their common room gallery! If you would like to submit any and all visual art for the event shoot an email at rheffernan[at]wesleyan[dot]edu. Are you starting to think that maybe your self portrait isn’t getting the attention it deserves in your low rise basement? Give it the chance it deserves to succeed! All submissions are welcome and will be appreciated. Art House can’t wait to see all of your work.

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Photos: Leaves of Green Come to Earth House

Photo by Rachel Pincus '13.

Leaves of Green, photographed by Rachel Pincus ’13.

This happened last night at Earth House. The living room was as packed as it has ever been, and squished bodies erupted into moshing ones several times throughout the night, while people spilled out into the other two adjoining rooms, making for a full house throughout all three acts.

Blackbird & the Cherry Tree began the night with their bluesy soul-rolling tunes. Recently graduated songstress Mel Hsu ’13 cradled us with her cello, Jess Best ’14 with her keyboard and powerful voice, Sam Friedman ’13 on harmonica, and Mark Bennett ’13 on drums. The music contained elements of Hsu’s own collaborative work with Josh Smith ’11, with added soul elements.

They were followed by O Presidente, a San Francisco-by-way-of-Wesleyan based band, including Tobias Butler ’13, Andrew Zingg ’13, and Charlie Ellis ’13, who recently came out with their debut album, Club de Futebol. After WESU ranked them No. 2 in their top 30, CMJ “discovered” them, too. Audience members coined their sound “surf punk”, “a little bit of Clash”, or as someone else put it, just “fun-awesome.”

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The Rooks Go Pro, Reflect on 2012

Ahoy! It’s been a good while since we’ve last heard of the long lost band The Rooks since they left Wes to the real world AKA “beyond the outer-rim,” but dry your eyes, don’t you cry, I come bearing good news and sugar treats! Above is a brand new video the Rooks released on New Years to reflect on 2012. It’s a Stevie Wonder medley the band performed at their live show in the ’92 in April, and it features the Mad Wow horn section and guests vocalists Claire Randall and Bridget Read.

The Rooks’ own Garth Taylor ’12, who says the Rooks will be releasing more material from that show in the coming months, comes bearing word:

We’ve performed pretty steadily in New York since we left M-town in May. We opened up for Talib Kweli at the Highline Ballroom in September, which was a total blast, and performed at the Bitter End and other NY hot spots. Gabe Gordon ’11 (keys) and I actually took a day trip today to perform an acoustic-y set at Midnight on Main, and took a little stroll around College Row. Our last live full band show was in October—we took three months off to prepare new material for an EP we’re going to be recording in January.

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Pictures of Burrows and of WesKids Bashing Into Each Other During Burrows’ Set

Burrows performed at WestCo Cafe Saturday night. So did Bakshi. So did Curmudgeon and Let’s Party Hats! Hats! Hats! But I didn’t catch them. Which is too bad, but probably okay, because I would like my memories of Bakshi to be tied to their performance last month at Music House, where they opened for Author & Punisher. I caught Burrows. This post is about Burrows.

Burrows is a trio from Wallingford, and they played a vicious set of doom-inspired sludge-punk with low-growled screams and generous double-bass drum. Their Facebook page alternately describes them as “Loud Sounds Coming from Instruments” and “Four Dudes learning about the deaths of neighboring loved ones,” which I suppose are both accurate enough. The band sludged through songs with titles like “The Holy See” and “Slow Fires,” and the crowd was surprisingly large, with a decent population of Wesleyan students moshing into each other (and the floor) with sloppy abandon. More notable to me was the sizable number of local Connecticut punk fans (and at one local alum) at the show, which merged local and student bands on the same bill. This is the second time this week I’ve seen local community members and students united together for the same cause. I guess thick, bass-heavy doom-punk is as good a cause as fighting that bookstore development, when it comes down to it.

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EVENT
It’s Chinatown @ 122A Knowles

Remember It’s Chinatown? Featuring Jon Patten ’11, Aaron Khandros ’13, Howe Pearson ’12, and Owen Callahan ’12, the band soundtracked the Wes Pacific theme song, dropped a raucous album, and generally bulldozed its way through Wesleyan’s music scene. For one night only, they’re back. Aaron Khandros ’13 sent Wesleying a naked picture of one of the band members that appears after the jump (NSFW), as well as this blurb:

Furthermore, Malachi Martin goes as far as to say “…no person can be Possessed without some degree of cooperation on his or her part,” and “The effective cause of Possession is the voluntary collaboration of an individual, through his faculties of mind and will, with one or more of those bodiless, genderless creatures called demons.”

It’s Chinatown doesn’t come around too often anymore.

Date: Thursday, October 11
Time: 11:00 pm – 12:00 am
Place: 122A Knowles
Cost: Free

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Photo Evidence: Bones Complex, Wes Cardinal @ Senior Barbecue

 No, we didn’t snag video proof of Dean Brown belting out “White Rabbit” and “Be My Baby” at Saturday’s Senior Barbecue, but here’s a pretty close estimation.

The Senior Barbecue ensued as planned in the Fountain/Pine backyards, with grilled chicken, smiles, and bright orange wristbands for all. Also, there was a raffle. Congratulations to whoever won that cool thing. Scroll on for photo coverage of a performance by Bones Complex (following closely on their performance at The Mash last week) and general shenanigans by Wes Cardinal ’13, who frolicked boisterously around the green and then got brutally attacked by “Big Willie Style” Feinstein ’13. Images by me and Goatmilk.

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MUSIC
Study: The Mash Exactly Like Spring Fling, Except Not

No, we didn’t film President Roth’s dance moves, but this link is always good.

The Mash, a first-time-ever Music & Public Life initiative, totally happened, and it was totally like a cross between Fête de la Musique and Spring Fling, what with the whole people-chilling-on-the-hill-in-beautiful-weather thing going on. There were bands all over the freaking place—Mattabassett (more like Mattabadass, amiright?) String Collective jamming out with President Roth outside Usdan, Yeoman’s Omen and Featherwood Bee at WestCo, Bones Complex and The Taste outside Olin, and a bunch more that I’m not bothering to name. For images of the Mattabassett/Roth collab, check out the University’s photo album. Here’s Roth, and here’s his fan club:

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MUSIC
An Assortment of Crayons Produce “Epic Musical Excursions of Synthesized Shredding Funk

“Swung Funk Rock with a touch of Math and the kitchen sink”

An Assortment of Crayons, otherwise known as “those dudes who were going to open for Ishmael that one time when ‘bureaucratic bullshit’ got in the way,” has an album out. Though plagued by misfortune, that lineup made good sense. Like Ishmael, AAOC favor jamming over jangly guitars, and they’re unafraid list Phish as a key influence (“The Shelf” and “To Trust a Stranger” are especially indicative).

If those elements sound innocent enough to you, check the album out on SoundCloud, where it’s available for free streaming. It’s titled Styles, and members have labeled it “EPIC MUSICAL EXCURSIONS OF Synthesized shredding funk soulful space odyssey of jazzy rock.” Jack Singer ’15, the only WesKid in the band, emailed me with some further information on the history of the band:

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Will Feinstein Makes Lioness Perform Athletic Task, Films It

“I think the setup is: ‘Laugh at Lioness While Lioness Frailly Tries to do This Physical Task'”

Trill Feinstein ’13 is bored (well, you can’t be a rap sensation 24/7), so he’s speed-editing outtakes from Wes Pacific (you know, that web series he created?) and popping them out like chickens. Think of it like Wes Pacific’s special features. These are the deleted scenes. And they’re about to make your Wessickness much, much worse.

In the first segment, Feinstein treks into Lionessrise, otherwise known as LoRise A5, and challenges challenges the burly, well-toned fitness freaks of Lioness to a chin-up contest. “We’re basically proving that we are all very unathletic, skinny people,” observes percussive demon John Snyder ’12, who went on to win seven Oscars for his performance. The clip features an introduction by Future Islands shortly before their April performance with Cloud Nothings; according to Feinstein, a full interview is forthcoming, which is pretty awesome news.

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Amanda Palmer ’98 on Crowdfunding, the Future of the Music Industry, and Neil Gaiman

“If you really love the people who support your work, they’ll go to the ends of the earth for you.”

Speaking of Kickstarter campaigns, remember that time our very own Amanda Palmer ’98 put up a plea for a modest $100,000 to finance her new album and tour? Instead, the Dresden Dolls frontwoman ended up raising—wait for it—$1,192,793. Sure, you could say there’s a unique cult of fandom surrounding Palmer. Just recall the reaction to her impromptu “ninja gig” in Eclectic last September. Or consider that two donors fronted $10,000 for the chance to have dinner with the singer while she drew a portrait of her guest. But, Palmer says, crowdfunding is a viable model not just for the beloved and few. In a fascinating video interview with TIME, the singer argues, convincingly, that “we’re really looking at crowdfunding as a new, future model for how musicians and artists can connect with their fans and audiences and put out music.”

“I think this can pretty much work for anyone, but you need to keep your goals pretty realistic,” says Palmer, whose goal turned out to be a hell of a lot more realistic than she realized. For her, the story of independence began when she left her record label after 2008’s Who Killed Amanda Palmer?. She describes her thought process as: “My fanbase is pretty big now. These guys [at the record label] aren’t understanding me. . . . I think it’s time to go and do this myself, and I think I know how to do it.” So she did. And she let her freak flag fly. As TIME points out,

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