Alt-Nation Interview: for the Love of Sloane,The New Year Brings
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Mike D’s Top Five: The Can’t Miss Shows in April By Michael Delehanty #1 Friday, April 5: Brown Bird (Fits of Reason album release), Last Good Tooth, Alec K Redfearn and The Eyesores. $15 advance, $17 day of. 8pm. All ages. The Met, 1005 Main Street, Pawtucket. Brown Bird have been touring like crazy in the last year, not only repping Rhode Island while doing so, but also taking some of our best talent out with them for support like Joe Fletcher and the Wron #2 Sunday, April 21: All The Punks: Benefit for Lisa Gourley with Hope Anchor, The Loud Ones, Tony Jones and the Cretin 3, Gentlemen Soundsystem DJs and more. $10 donation. 3pm doors. McNeil’s Tavern, 888 Charles Street, North Providence.g Reasons and Last Good Tooth. Come give them a big welcome home and support for their new album, Fits of Reason. Go to brownbird.net to check out some of the new album. Lisa Gourley has been chronicling the Providence music scene for longer than I can remember, taking amazing photos and sharing them with the community for free. She is a Providence music scene institution, and we love her for it. This is a great way for us to say thank you. #3 Saturday, April 6: WBRU Rock Hunt Finals with The Brother Kite, Kid Mountain, Lolita Black and Torn Shorts. $6. 7pm. All ages. The Met, 1005 Main Street, Pawtucket. WBRU’s annual talent showcase really hit a home run this year as all the bands are great. Will The Brother Kite and Kid Mountain split indie rock votes? Will the darkest of dark horses, Lolita Black, stun alt-rock nation? I predict Torn Shorts take the belt, but it’s definitely up for grabs. #4 Saturday, April 13: Brown University Folk Fest. 1 Prospect Street, Providence. This is a great showcase of the best and hardest working local folk rock revival movement with Smith & Weeden, Vudu Sister, The Sugar Honey Iced Tea, and The Mighty Good Boys. Who’s playing when? No clue. What time does it start? No idea. Check out posts from the bands and make sure to get there early. #5 Tuesday, April 23: Big Boi and Killer Mike. $25 advance; $28 day of. 8pm. All ages. Lupo’s, 79 Washington Street, Providence. Killer Mike’s 2012 album R.A.P. Music was one of the best of the year; pairing him with El-P for production turned out to be perfect. Add Big Boi to the mix and you’ve got a classic veterans of hip-hop mega show. Holding out for an Outkast reunion show? Buy a ticket to the 2018 Superbowl. By Michael Delehanty, Talent Buyer at Lupo’s and The Met Alt-Nation: New CDs, a Road Trip, and the WBRU Rock Finals Brown Bird – Fits of Reason (Supply and Demand Music) Brown Bird is another in the recent run of successful local bands to graduate out of the Providence scene to the national realm. They spent much of the past year on tour and played the main stage at festivals like the Newport Folk Fest. It gets tricky doing things like the nominations for the Motif Awards last month to judge when it is time to start disqualifying bands for being national. Truth is, there is no higher compliment to a band to say you’ve graduated out of this. Brown Bird was one of the bands I didn’t nominate for this reason. Brown Bird may have gone national, but they still have their local roots. Their new CD, Fits of Reason, was recorded at Machines With Magnets in Pawtucket. They’ll also be doing a local CD Release show at The Met Café on April 5th. Fits of Reason, the third full-length (fourth in total) release from Brown Bird, builds sonically on the dark folk from their earlier releases. As a two-piece composed of David Lamb and MorganEve Swain, they have become known for using simple percussion with an array of instruments such as cello, violin, and upright bass. It doesn’t take long to notice the changes when the first track, “Seven Hells,” features an electric guitar. The minimal thump and biblical imagery of the Lamb’s lyrics mesh well to create a vibe of urgency. “Bow For Blade” is another winner, coming in a guitar then switching over to violin. The lyrics paint a stark picture of turmoil in the town square as Swain sings, “falling through the sky, crowds have gathered mouths gaped open wide, some are shouting, some are stupefied, others would rather be home.” The lyrics as a whole on Fits of Reason are interesting as Brown Bird list influences from different stages in history, such as Thomas Paine, Omar Khayyam, Christopher Hitchens, and Plato. The philosophical bent becomes more apparent with repeated listens on tunes like “The Messenger” and “Threads of Reason.” I’ve never been the biggest folk music fan, but Brown Bird is much more than traditional folk. There are elements of blues, Americana, and rock that make songs like “Threads of Reason” sound like rock ‘n’ roll demos. Swain and Lamb’s combined harmonies on the closer, “Caves,” is downright hypnotizing over a simple beat. Fits of Reason shows an evolved Brown Bird trudging forward without straying from their strengths. Brown Bird will release Fits of Reason on April 2nd. The CD Release Show for Fits of Reason, featuring Brown Bird, Last Good Tooth, and Alec K Redfearn And The Eyesores, will take place at The Met Café on April 5th. There will also be a Fits of Reason after party at Local 121 immediately after The Met show with Ark Life (featuring Jesse Elliott of These United States), Smith & Weeden, and Tristan Omand. Caroline Hecht – 10 Song Digital Download Release For the past few years, Providence has had the pleasure of enjoying Caroline Hecht’s music as a member of Tig and Bean and as a solo artist. Unfortunately, that is about to come to an end as Caroline is soon to leave town to go on a six-month unchartered tour around the country in her car playing music wherever she can. But no goodbye is any good without a party, and Caroline will be throwing one and giving out her new album that she recorded a few weeks ago. Caroline’s music is dark folk with undercurrents of blues, kind of like Cat Power or Mazzy Star. Last year she released the well-received album, Avenue of Giants, which was a four-years-in-the-making undertaking. For her new album, she changed it up and recorded everything over three days. The album hadn’t been mixed and mastered at press time, but Caroline let me hear a few tracks on the condition that I post it all over the Internet. My favorite is “Apothegm,” which is a great tell off song, somewhere between PJ Harvey and Ani Difranco. “Something So” has a kind of wistful yearning of raw emotion. “Swallowed By Swells” has a slow blues/indie folk feel. “Orchid” is another winner in the same vibe as the above. I’m usually more of a rock guy, but I really dig Hecht’s work. Caroline Hecht’s Release/Bon Voyage Party will take place on April 6th at Local 121 in Providence. The Doors are at 9 pm with $10 cover that includes a digital download card for Caroline’s latest release. DJ Micah Jackson will handle the turntable honors for the post show dance party. Consuelo’s Revenge – Self Titled Debut CD Consuelo’s Revenge are poised to release their debut CD. I remember seeing their first show and thinking they had a Tom Waits type of thing going on. After listening to this disc, I can say they really sound nothing like Tom Waits. I couldn’t be happier about that. Lead singer Amanda Salemi has one hell of a powerhouse voice. The band also features Nick Smyth (Guitar/Piano/Vocals), Alexandra Gibbons (Violin), Kirk Anderson (Electric Guitar/Accordion), Kurtis Bento (Drums), and Ian Lacombe (Double Bass, Vocals). As for the biscuit itself, I never thought that I would really like something from a band in this style as much as I do! The verse of “Just The Drugs” may play out like an amped up waltz of Deer Tick’s “Ashamed,” but the song is really good. Salemi’s vocals make this tune, especially with the chorus hook and lyrics. Laccombe takes over the vocals on “Leave The World Behind,” which has a waltzing flamingo flavor, although the melody bears some similarity to Hope Anchor’s “Go.” This could just be a sign that I listen to too much local music, though. I’m pretty sure nobody else has these thoughts. “Pasadena” is another killer cut with Salemi back on lead vocals that has an up-tempo blues vibe. “Smile” has a kind of New Orleans meets Jessica Lea Mayfield vibe that hits you in the gut. On “When I Die,” Consuelo’s Revenge even branch out to dip into some gospel. Consuelo’s Revenge does three traditional covers in “Forest Flower Waltz,” “Well Well Well,” and “Henry Lee.” The cover of “Well, Well, Well” has the band sounding like early Nick Cave, while their version of “Henry Lee” may top Cave’s version on The Murder Ballads. I get a lot of things sent to me to review, but rarely does a CD make me want to go out and see the band right now. In fact, because I listen to a CD over and over in a short period of time, the last thing I want to see is usually the band I just reviewed.