Friday, May 18, 2018

New Stuff for a Weird Friday from Quiet Slang and The RockNRoll Hi-Fives

The RockNRoll Hi-Fives

Closure

This has been a weird Friday around here. On the Jersey Shore, we're on like day 47 in a row of rain. The fact that Asbury Lanes is forever gone will be driven home this evening as the new venue at that address holds its "soft opening." This morning, I watched the guy who caused my brother's accident get handcuffed and taken away to serve out his seven-year prison sentence. Weird, to say the least.

At times like this, when I'm feeling kind of disconnected and disjointed, I turn to music that holds meaning for me.

Quiet Slang, "Bad Art & Weirdo Ideas"

Beach Slang's James Alex released Everything Matters But No One Is Listening today. Put out under the name Quiet Slang, the album re-imagines the melodramatic, romantic, and loud punk rock of Beach Slang. Alex calms things down, adding piano and strings where before there were "Guitar, bass, and drums. Played loudly."

Beach Slang were the last band to play Asbury Lanes before it closed in 2015, and I always associate  "Bad Art & Weirdo Ideas" -- and screaming along to that song with friends old and new in the front row -- with that evening.

It seems appropriate that we get this sad, quiet version of that song, along with the rest of Everything Matters..., on this dreary, rainy day when it becomes official that Asbury Lanes is never coming back.

Everything Matters But No One Is Listening is out now on Polyvinyl.



The RockNRoll Hi-Fives, "Hold On"

The RockNRoll Hi-Fives played the first set I got out to see following my brother's accident. I don't know if it was the best set they ever played. I don't know if it was the worst set they ever played. I don't know if it fell somewhere in between. What I do know is that show was exactly what I needed right when I needed it. The songs that The RockNRoll Hi-Fives played that night gave me the push I needed to get myself through the immensely difficult next few days and beyond.

I recently accompanied Joe, Gloree, Eilee, and Evren Centeno on their tour of Japan. We spent lots and lots of time together; and I got to feel that same lift, that same push, at each show. It was like getting a little refill every couple of days of the fuel I needed to keep on keeping on.

Earlier this week, the band released the first single from their forthcoming LP, Re-Introducing the RockNRoll Hi-Fives. With "Hold On," the family band take their sound into the glam stratosphere; and it's one of the songs on which Eilee really comes into her own as front-person. I can't help but see her flaming Vans stomping around the stage every time that chorus comes around.

Re-Introducing The RockNRoll Hi-Fives comes out June 29th on Little Dickman Records, and the band will play Asbury Park Yacht Club next week, May 26th, with our good friends in Dentist.



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