Purling Hiss at 285 Kent

I think I just found Philadelphia's answer to Ume. The lead singer of Purling Hiss is also the band's only guitarist and is easily its most energetic member. During his solos he thrashes away at that guitar like a product tester for Gibson. Perhaps he should grow his hair longer?

On their albums Purling Hiss play gritty but energetic hard rock with a vaguely stoner vibe. Strangely they have much cleaner live sound. Same songs, less fuzz. Normally you would expect the opposite, right? So many bands release overproduced albums but still rock live. Well, apparently these guys are the opposite of that. Honestly I was hoping for a fuzzed out noisefest so I guess I was a bit disappointed. Still, their live sound is pretty heavy has plenty of energy. It was enough to get the mosh pit going so it was good enough.

Posted: 2/3/2013 at 2:39pm     Tags: 285 Kent  Purling Hiss 

M Shanghai at Rockwood Music Hall

The Snake Oil Review evolved out of Traditions, a long-running (32+ years) radio show on WFMU which features the best of every kind of folk and traditional music. Of course the live version would feature M Shanghai! They are quite possibly the finest bluegrass band in New York City. Unfortunately they may also be the most unwieldy. Not every member of the band could make the show (which is perfectly normal for them) yet they still packed the Rockwood stage. The band which followed them actually joked about it. It was a wee bit awkward.

There are advantages to being such a large band. With four albums' worth of material (plus standards) of course their performances have variety, but the fact that most members of the band write songs takes their variety to another level. This is a band with a dozen different styles which all work. Their catalog includes everything from beautiful ballads to wild near-rock songs, from moody dirges to silly dittys, and furthermore Phillipa Thompson's ballads are distinctly different from Hilary Hawke's ballads which are distinctly different from Austin Hughes's and so on. On top of that the songs themselves are a bit flexible. Like most bluegrass bands anyone can step up and solo in certain parts of most songs. They mix up the vocals on some songs. This particular show featured a rare lead vocal performance by Glendon Jones on the song "Vivian Girls". I have heard at least four band members sing lead on that song.

Variety is the musical equivalent of a preservative: it keeps music from getting stale but does not make it enticing in the first place. Fortunately these guys know how to write tasty tunes. If fact the really impressive thing about M Shanghai is how they can put on two completely different sets of killers every month at Jalopy. The sheer number of their songs which have become "classics" is impressive. With all those songwriters in the band I imagine that each new song goes through quite a gauntlet before we get the chance to hear it. Do be sure to catch them sometime.

Posted: 1/21/2013 at 2:08pm     Tags: M Shanghai  Rockwood Music Hall  Snake Oil Review 

A-Bones at Brooklyn Bowl

Have you ever heard some random old song from the early days of rock-n-roll and said to yourself "Wow, that's really catchy?"  Then as a sense of deja vu sets in it occurs to you that every time you hear a song from back then it seems so fun, so energetic, that you wish you could hear that sort of thing more often? It seems that the A-Bones not only had this experience but really took it to heart. They play nothing but that great early rock-n-roll. Some songs are covers, some are originals, but all of them are great fun.

A-Bones singer Billy Miller and drummer Miriam Linna are also the head honchos of Norton Records, a record label which releases exactly that same kind of awesome early rock-n-roll plus newer stuff along the same lines. Their warehouse in Red Hook, Brooklyn was hit pretty hard by Hurricane Sandy. I see something in that article about "four feet of water". Yeah, that's not good. Apparently most of their stock (meaning "records" and so on) was either damaged or destroyed. The Norton Records website has more info. Anyway, folks from the musical community are helping out by throwing fundraiser shows such as this one (I think). Hopefully Norton will recover quickly.

Posted: 1/20/2013 at 6:41pm     Tags: A-Bones  Brooklyn Bowl  Norton Records Benefit 

The Swingin' Neckbreakers at Brooklyn Bowl

The Swingin' Neckbreakers are as close to being a punk band as a band can be without actually being punk (got that?) They're loud, aggressive, and have all sorts of attitude. They were giving the bowlers shit ("You kids suck at bowling!") the audience shit ("What an ugly crowd!") and even themselves shit ("Who's that fat guy on TV?" while pointing to a screen which showed them on stage). The difference is that their music is not raw. The band is sharp. The tunes have actual melodies (and they're catchy as hell too). This is almost punk, but really it is rock-n-roll played with maximum attitude, and it is a blast.

Posted: 1/20/2013 at 6:06pm     Tags: Brooklyn Bowl  Norton Records Benefit  The Swingin' Neckbreakers 

The Piggies at Brooklyn Bowl

Writing about your friends' band is always a little awkward. They are likely to have an opinion about your opinion and to actually tell you. Don't you hate it when other people tell you their opinions of you? Horrible!

So anyway, the four members of The Piggies have probably been in fifty bands between them. I'm pretty sure that every single one of those bands was either a punk band or a garage band. So while it might be accurate to say that The Piggies are a blues-rock band they still have some pretty deep garagepunk roots. They aren't as heavy or introspective a blues band and some of their guitar solos sound more like rock solos than blues solos. On average, that is. They also have straightforward blues rambles like "Dumptruck" and songs like "As Sweet As They Come", a bass-heavy grinder which sounds completely different for the rest of their stuff.

The most distinctive feature of their music is probably the quirky lyrics. And yes, I am well aware that "quirky" is one of those gets-you-in-trouble words. If challenged on this the lyrics of the song Wanna Go To Heaven are probably my best defense. Let's just say that The Piggies's lyrics contain some creative turns of phrase, some just brilliant, others kind of odd. And again, not every song is like this. They do have some songs which are relatively straightfoward "love" songs (for a rather horny definition of "love") and for that matter an instrumental or two. The important thing is that their stuff is really catchy. It just happens that if you pay close attention you might be in for a surprise.

Posted: 1/20/2013 at 5:55pm     Tags: Brooklyn Bowl  Norton Records Benefit  The Piggies