Solid State

I can now scratch one more thing off my to-do list: I finally caught Lendway, who played the Higher Ground Showcase Lounge last night. Their mellow, sometimes melancholy, other times lilting sound was the perfect complement to a dreary Wednesday night in March. Picture Weezer covering Pavement's "Range Life" or Pavement covering anything off Rubber Soul, and you'll start to get an idea of what they sounded like. This isn't entirely fair, though, because they have a pretty unique sound that no other band in Burlington is doing right now (to the best of my knowledge- feel free to set me straight in the comments section). One thing's for sure: they're definitely shoegazers. Literally.

They spent a lot of time staring at the floor during their set. The band seemed a little uncomfortable in their own skin, and the between song banter was blind-date awkward. But maybe they were just feeling out of their element; it was an all-ages show and there were a lot of young kids there. In fact, the tween courtship rituals going on all around me were pretty distracting. That's probably why I didn't stick around to hear any of the other bands on the bill.

Lendway's sound is clean, featuring reverb and echo instead of fuzz and distortion. The two guitar players meshed really well together; at times (like in the song "Two Sleepy Arms") playing a point-counterpoint rhythm that reminded me of the first Strokes album, which I am very fond of. "Hollywood" also caught my ear with a nice hook in the chorus and intelligent lyrics ("you're my Hollywood"). But where they really shined was in their vocal harmonies, another factor that sets them apart from the pack. Solid vocal harmonies give a song so much more depth and substance, and you just don't hear a lot of bands doing it. Lendway did it well, especially in the coda of "Yardsale", where all four members leaned into their microphones. The band impressed me enough to make me want to hear their album, which they were selling at the show on cd or vinyl. You can hear a few tracks for yourself at their MySpace page.

This just in from Grace Potter and the Nocturnals: bassist Bryan Dondero has left the band. GPN made the announcement today on their blog, This is Somewhere, but didn't cite specific reasons for his departure.

My guess is that Dondero, who also recently left GPN offshoot Blues & Lasers, plans to focus on blogging for Solid State . . . ahem. Or, and this is purely speculative, to spend more time working with Americana-noir favorites, Farm, with whom he has recently been playing and recording. If only Dondero had some sort of public forum to let us know what's up . . .

Seriously though, Bryan is a geuninely great guy — and a uniquely funny writer, as you folks well know. Whatever this next phase of his life brings — hopefully more blogging! — I wish him the best of luck.

As I said to a friend who posted this link on my Facebook page, "that's just fuckin' cool!" For those too lazy to click on said link, the article is about a bat that supposedly latched itself on to the side of the Space Shuttle Discovery as it was launched from Cape Canaveral this past Sunday. Side note: as my Facebook friend points out (he's a math guy) they must have had one crazy camera to be able to spot a flippin' bat on the side of a shuttle as it traveled roughly, I don't know, 17,500 mph!!!  Anyway, the article left me with a whole slew of thoughts. For example:

Have we inconsequentially just started some strange sort of alien life form? Maybe this bat's DNA will be picked up by an extraterrestrial being and used in an intergalactic experiment that will result in the creation of an entity the likes of which the universe has never seen. Maybe said "entity" will evolve over millenia into a whole species of MEGA-BAT-ALIEN-SUPER-CRAZY . . . um, things. Things that will return to Earth and seek their vengeance on the human race for swatting them with brooms for thousands of years, for making shitty movies about them, for following our inane tendency to keep wild animals as pets (see also my previous blog about Monkeys), and for subjugating them to god awful musical montages such as this.

In hindsight, perhaps thousands of years from now, we will have realized that we should have payed closer attention to Adam West's interpretation of the bat.

But really, my Occam's Razor for all of these musings is this: This bat, in my opinion, quite possibly had the coolest death in the history of all species!

Happy Amateur Night, Solid State!

In the close to ten years I've been "legally" able to celebrate my sorta-Irish heritage, I've rarely been able to fully partake. Most years, I worked as a bartender and/or bar back in Boston or Burlington. Although just prior to becoming of age, I was actually in Dublin for Paddy's Day — anyone who tells you it's really a "religious holiday" in Ireland is takin' the piss out of you. It's an orgy of drinking, just like it is here.

Being free of obligation on Paddy's Day is a relatively recent development for me. And I gotta say, I much prefer being behind the bar. I'm not sure who exactly decided that wearing a green hat entitles one to behave like a complete jackass. But I'm pretty sure it wasn't St. Pat. In any event, I'm actually glad the "holiday" falls on a Tuesday this year. It provides a built-in excuse to stay the hell home.

Still, I do have a bit of soft spot for drunken tomfoolery. So to that end, I offer you this, in the spirit of the day:

This just in from Higher Ground: Third Eye Blind is playing the Ballroom on Tuesday, May 5.

In other news, Third Eye Blind apparently still exists.

Out of morbid curiosity, I simply had to go to the show page to check out the details. Upon removing my jaw from the floor after seeing the $35/37 price tag — for Third Eye Blind! By contrast, Jeff "I'm Jeff Fucking Tweedy" Tweedy reduced his ticket prices . . . to $25! Now, where was I?

Oh right. After absorbing the absurdity that a band like Third Eye Blind would command such an outrageous sum, I composed myself and perused their press clipping. I don't mind telling you that it is among the finest examples of PR speak I have ever seen. And by "finest," I of course mean "inscrutable." Check it out:

Since 1997, San Francisco’s Third Eye Blind have recorded three best-selling albums and assembled one career retrospective. 3EB will release ’Ursa Major’, their first studio collection in five years, in autumn 2009.

Led by Stephan Jenkins, 3EB won wide success during a tumultuous group of years when the major-label recording industry was finally losing its grip on an enterprise that for decades it had dominated with steely efficiency. Nothing could have made 3EB happier! 3EB, however, have experienced no comparable loss. Instead, they have gained artistic clarification -- and, surprisingly, a fan base larger than ever.

Participation in the older, untouchable realm of nervous star-making could color a band’s identity. In the case of 3EB, it often blurred the perception of their brilliant musical creations. In recent years, those creations have recast the band among a current generation of fans.

3EB now write, tour, record, and communicate in a fluid new world where their music continues naturally to evolve. Their exchange with their audience is unfiltered.

I'm not even sure what most of that is supposed to mean. But I feel dirty. Verrrrry dirty.

Happy Friday, Solid State.

This Sunday I'll be sitting down with student filmmaker Kieran Delaney, who is producing a short documentary for State of Mind magazine examining the current state of the Burlington music scene with "an emphasis on the history behind it." Nifty. Since the words "scene" and "history" are fairly nebulous and sorta depend on your point of view, I asked Delaney to send along some questions so that I could have a better idea of what it was he was looking to unearth about our cozy little burg.

Here's what he sent, along with my initial take on each — I won't go into too much detail here, since I'll be discussing these in depth on Sunday. But feel free to jump in to the fray below.

How would you describe Burlington to someone who had never been here and has no familiarity with the city itself. Complete the sentence, "Burlington is . . ."
Eden, four months a year.

Why are so many musicians drawn to Burlington? Is it a result of the college population? Of various venues? Is it more of a local group or do people move into the scene?
In a word, yes. On all counts.  Burlington's arts scene certainly gets a boost from the college population, especially since it turns over annually and provides us with a constant infusion of new blood. People move in, they move out. And, to crib Stephen King, sometimes they come back.

How has the scene changed since you've been here? How long have you been here. What brought you/kept you here?
I've been involved with Burlington music as a fan, performer or both since I was 15 — I'm 30 now. And yes, the "scene" has changed considerably over that time. In fact, it is always changing and evolving. But that is precisely what keeps it interesting and healthy.

How does the city's size affect the scene? How would things be different if Burlington were a larger or smaller city?
It's a double-edged sword. The city's relatively small size makes the music scene readily accessible for performers and fans alike. By the same token, there is a perceived glass ceiling that leads artists to seek supposedly greener pastures like Brooklyn or Boston. Though I suspect that has as much, if not more to do with Burlington's location as it does size. Despite the old aphorism, you actually can get there from here. It's just kind of a pain in the ass.

Do you think the politics/lifestyle of local people helps to create an atmosphere of creativity? If so, how?
Definitely chicken. Although maybe egg . . .

Who are your favorite local performers? Favorite venue? What music do you find is popular here?
Too many to choose from. Ditto. Almost everything.

What effects has the success of bands like Phish and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals had on the scene?
Negligible. Though you could argue that Phish's ascent in the 1990s shined a bit of a spotlight on Burlington music and helped out the Strangefolks of the world. But any success achieved by other local bands from that era had little to do with the popularity of the Phab Phour. Trickle-down doesn't really work in music either.

You may be familiar with the idea of the "the San Francisco sound." What combination of genres or influences do you think best describe local music as a whole? What part of the music being created here is unique to the setting. Complete the sentece, "The Queen City Sound is . . ."
I don't think there is one. Although, if you really dig, the one true constant in Burlington music over the last 20 years or so — and maybe longer — has been hardcore and punk. Alt-rock came and went just as indie-rock will. The same with jam bands — Phish reunion notwithstanding, you could argue that scene has already gone. But heavy music, though frequently overlooked and underappreciated, has been and continues to be perhaps the city's only true "scene." In a thoroughly unscientific poll conducted just now off the top of my head, practically any local band you dig right now has at least one member — and probably more — who spent at least a little time in a punk or hardcore band as a teenager.

To me, the fact that Burlington music can't be pinned down to one style is its greatest strength. In the 15 years I've been involved with it, I can't remember a time when there has been such a wide variety of music being made here. Maybe we don't have Toast. Maybe Nectar's isn't birthing the next Phish — then again, maybe they are. Who the hell knows? But what we do have is a stunning array artists and venues that combine to make a whole larger than the sum of its parts. 

This just in from Higher Ground: Andrew Bird's performance on Sunday, April 5 has been canceled. If I may . . . DAMMIT!

Though no official makeup date has been announced, a letter from the band states that they'll try and catch us in the fall. Here's hoping.

As a consolation prize, Bird is offering a free download of a recent show in Montreal via the HG site. Click here to go directly to the HG calendar page and access the link. A word of warning though: I downloaded the concert and it's pretty good. But you'll need to navigate through a bunch of spam pop-up offers — A free WalMart gift card?! Gee, thanks!

It's been about six months since last we heard from Rebecca Kopycinski's — aka Nuda Veritas — "monthly" local music TV show Burly Song. Due to time and money constraints, it seems biannual editions will be par for the course for the foreseeable future, which is too bad. It's a nifty show and offers nice exposure for local bands. But in these troubled times, we'll take what can get.

This time around, we get local indie-rock outfit Villanelles. I haven't seen the band since I wrote a live review of a show they played at Radio Bean with reigning Queen City pop-punk darlings In Memory of Pluto last year. IMOP was clearly the more polished act that night and have gone on to become one of the area's more dependably excellent live bands. By comparison, Villanelles displayed a healthy degree of potential but were a bit rougher around the edges and seemed about a year or so away from really hitting their stride.

Judging by this video, it seems they've done just that — and almost a year to the day after I first saw them, no less. The sound quality here is a little rough. But it certainly whets my appetite to catch them live again soon. Say, maybe this Friday at The Monkey House? Take it away boys . . .

They came. They saw. They got arrested.

As numerous media outlets are reporting, last weekend's Phish reunion shows in Hampton, Va resulted in a perhaps predictable flurry of activity on the city's police blotter as 194 concertgoers were arrested and cops seized — are you sitting down? — an estimated $1.2 million in drugs and another $68,000 in cash. Read those numbers again slowly . . . holy shit, right?

In other Phish numbers, Hampton's Daily Press is reporting the shows infused more than $7 million into the local economy and apparently was a boon to . . . wait for it . . . Hooters. As DP staff writer David Sturdevant reports:

Hooters at the corner of Coliseum Drive and Mercury Boulevard had atie-dyed banner that read, "Hooters is Phish friendly." Servers dressedin their trademark orange shorts and tie-dyed tank tops played aroundin the parking lot with water balloons and hula hoops as Phish fansfrom as far away as Germany and Hawaiicame to get burgers and beer. Some fans were in head-to-toe costumes,and servers made as much as $400 in tips on just Saturday and Sunday.

Read that last sentence again. "Some fans were in head-to-toe costumes . . ." Oh man. That definitely gets my vote for Best Unintentionally Funny Reportage of the Year. I guess Virginians just aren't as accustomed to Heads as we are here in the Jam Band Republic. If I'd had the time, money and patience, it would have been fun to go and report the show from the Hamptonites' perspective. Maybe next time.

I know I've been especially snarky regarding the Phab Phour reunion — just wait until you see tomorrow's column . . . ahem. But in reality, I think the whole thing is great for Phish fans. Really, I do. That doesn't mean I'm going to stop poking fun any time soon. You guys just keep serving up hanging curveballs like this little, um, nugget from Phish Twitter-feed aggregator PhishTwit: "RT @jcrawfor: The cultural relevance of Twitter is gay. Rick Sanchez digs it. Senator Grassley digs it. I joined so I can follow #Phish." I mean, come on.

When I was a lad, "following Phish" meant hopping in your parent's luxury SUV clad in patchwork corduroys with a cooler full of shrooms and nitrous and hitting the road for months at a time, stopping only only to put gas on your parent's credit card and/or dance barefoot at rest stops. There was none of this namby pamby "free bootleg downloading" and "Twittering." We had to smuggle recording equipment into shows and tape on crappy cassettes to trade for even crappier cassettes of the same show. And we liked it dangnabbit! Kids these days.

But I digress.

Back to the point, anything that makes so many people this happy can't really be a bad thing. Congrats Phish-heads. 

To some, they invented shoegaze. To some others, if it weren't for band in-fighting they could have beat Nirvana to the punch and brought slacker rock to the masses. To Wikipedia, "their distinct sound, characterized by high gain, extensive use of feedback and distortion . . . and melodic guitar solos, were highly influential in the alternative rock movement of the 1990's . . ." To me, Dinosaur Jr is just a great fucking band and anyone who loves great fucking music ought to check 'em out!

Our brothers from Amherst bring their gargantuan rock to Higher Ground on Saturday, April 4. Tix are 20 bucks and include a free tour only 7" or digital download!