Content Blast: Pics of The Battery Electric, Smalltalk, Dentist, YJY, NGHTCRWLRS, The Cold Seas, Accidental Seabirds, Radiator Hospital, GayGuy / StraightGuy, more

Asbury Lanes, Wonder Bar

For various reasons, I fell a bit behind on picture editing this weekend. I did make it to shows on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday nights, however. On Thursday, Accidental Seabirds kicked off their tour at Asbury Lanes; and I got all teary as Andy Bova played his last set with Dentist. On Friday, The Wonder Bar hosted a fantastic bill that, among several other moments, saw Alex and Brent of The Battery Electric covering "Territorial Pissings" with GayGuy / StraightGuy. Sunday night brought our friends YJY back to Asbury for a show with their labelmates, NGHTCRWLRS, Illinois band Campdogzz, and The Cold Seas.

My apologies to gods, who played last on Friday night at Wonder Bar. CoolMom and I had to leave so that we could wake up early on Saturday. Please do yourself a favor and check out gods' Endless Stunner, a really good collection of psychedelic garage rock; and keep your eyes peeled for the next time they play a show around here.

Asbury Lanes, 7/30/15 -- Drummer Andy Bova's Last Show with Dentist

Bone & Marrow

Dentist

Accidental Seabirds

Radiator Hospital

Saintseneca

Wonder Bar, 7/31/15

GayGuy / StraightGuy

Smalltalk

The Battery Electric

Asbury Lanes, 8/2/15

NGHTCRWLRS

Campdogzz

YJY

The Cold Seas

The Vansaders, Accidental Seabirds, Hollywood Blanks Played Happy Mondays, 10/13/14 (PHOTOS)

The Vansaders with Alex Rosen on guitar.

Guest Guitarists, Homecomings, New Friends

Two local favorites and one band from out of town made up the bill for last night's Happy Mondays at The Wonder Bar. Baltimore's Hollywood Blanks joined The Vansaders and Accidental Seabirds for an eclectic evening that saw Alex Rosen (The Battery Electric, Hot Blood) taking guest rhythm guitar duties for The Vansaders, Accidental Seabirds returning home after a monthlong tour, and Hollywood Blanks playing -- in their words -- the largest stage they've played as a band.

Each band provided something different. Hollywood Blanks gave us their expansive, psychedelic take on electric folk. Accidental Seabirds played their genre-defying jams, loud and electric this time. The Vansaders brought the evening to a close with their high-energy, barroom anthems that included a cover of Avoid One Thing's "Lean on Sheena" (Yeah. That's right. Avoid One Thing. Look it up.).

Here are some photographic highlights. The rest are in the galleries.

Notable Local Releases from Little Big Toe, The Blind Tellers

Don't Overlook These

I haven't been running as much as I used to. I won't bore you with the reasons, but it's not purely laziness. That has meant that I don't get to as many albums as I did in the past. It may be weird, but a nice, solitary run is maybe my favorite way to experience recorded music.

I don't want my declining fitness to penalize some really deserving local albums, though. Here are a couple of recent releases that you should definitely give a listen.

Little Big Toe, Blind Sober

Accidental Seabirds' guitarist Jimmy James Cutrera is a big part of that band's dense and varied sound. On his latest release as Little Big Toe, Cutrera takes on most of the instrumental duties himself. He gives us 18 varied tracks that range from instrumental opener "a blind man's words are a sober man's thoughts" to the tight, compact "bodies exhibit." to the expansive "having your cake" to the sad and forlorn "barstool paperweight" (which contains the great line, "The words never spoken have clearly exposed the fakeness disguised as a friendship."). The jazzy "pulled hamstring" is a particular standout for me.

The mostly instrumental "am / pm" closes the record; and its outro especially, like many moments on the album, makes me think of the early 70s prog rock I used to be so into. The difference here, though, is that the sound is made more personal, stripped of its bombast and silliness by Cutrera -- who had to go as far as learning the drums to play them on this record -- in what is clearly a labor of love.

You can stream / purchase Blind Sober over at Little Big Toe's Bandcamp page.

The Blind Tellers, The Blind Tellers

Bagpipes, organs, strings, horns, lap steel. The Blind Tellers self-titled EP has a big, soulful sound underscored by the big, soulful voice of Matt Gentile. Opener "Here with You" comes on almost like a sermon, Gentile declaring, "Wait a minute now. I won't choose to be used by you this time around," before Dominic D'Angelo's horn comes in and the song swirls around his playing for its second half.

Guitarist Devin Crosby manages to coax some varied tones out of his axe, from the southern rock sounds on "One More Time" and "All We Said" to a hint of Hendrix on the opening of "Sunday Sorrow." Lap steel, harmonica, and some lovely vocals from Jamie Coppa give closing track "Angela" the feel of a windswept, dusty road.

The Blind Tellers bring some instrumental virtuosity and complex arrangements to American blues rock. They keep things interesting, even changing things up within individual songs.

You can stream / download The Blind Tellers over at Bandcamp.

I'm gonna try to work my way back to plodding around the neighborhood on the regular. That should be good for a weekly album review or two. Though, I may have to stick with EPs during the first few weeks. It's gonna take a while before I'm in good enough shape to make it through a whole LP on a single run.

Accidental Seabirds Played Asbury Lanes with Thomas Wesley Stern, The Porchistas, and The Creeptones, 1/10/14 (PHOTOS)

Release Party for The Greenpoint Spill

As CoolMom and I pulled up to Asbury Lanes at about 9pm on Friday night, the parking situation told us all we needed to know about the show going on inside. The place was absolutely packed. Lakewood's Accidental Seabirds celebrated the release of their latest LP, The Greenpoint Spill, along with Thomas Wesley Stern, The Porchistas, and The Creeptones.

Unfortunately, CoolMom and I lingered a little too long over dinner, so we missed The Creeptones' set. I did catch the rest of the night, though, and it was a wonderful celebration. Accidental Seabirds gave away copies of their CD in packaging sewn together and printed by hand on recycled cardboard six packs. All of the bands raffled off merch packages, and the crowd danced all night and just had a fantastic time.

Here are some pictures of the final three sets of the evening.

Accidental Seabirds, The Greenpoint Spill, 2014

Album Review

Anything worth doing requires commitment. It's what I tell my daughter on the way to swim practice. I was never particularly good at following that advice; but over the last almost two years, I've gotten much better at it.

The latest album from New Jersey via Brooklyn via New Jersey band Accidental Seabirds, The Greenpoint Spill, is a nice lesson in commitment. Frontman and songwriter Jesse Lee Herdman displays a commitment to an aesthetic that defies easy classification. The now full band (Accidental Seabirds were formally a Herdman solo project) committed fully to this record, producing a collection of seventeen songs that comes in at over an hour. And it's a commitment on the part of the listener in these days of digital music to settle in, hunker down, and spend that amount of time with this record. In each of those cases, though, the commitment pays off.

The Greenpoint Spill takes its title from one of the largest oil spills in U.S. history -- three times larger than the Exxon Valdez spill -- located in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, former home to the members of Accidental Seabirds. The estimated size of the spill has doubled since its discovery 35 years ago and clean-up continues to this day. The title could work on a few levels as a metaphor, I guess: the spilling out of songs and ideas, maybe the growth of the album itself into something so large, even rebirth and renewal.

Following the non-musical interlude of "Metensarkosis," "Shipwreck" opens the record. Herdman's vocals ride on top of an acoustic guitar-anchored arrangement that, coupled with the song's lyrics ("We'll swell with the sea"), gives the song the feel of being tossed on the waves.

"Bright Red" is probably the album's most conventionally structured song. Piano gives it the hint of 70s power pop; but, like much of the record, the song grabs that influence and plays with it a bit, turning it into something recognizable but slightly askew. "Isabel" is an almost bluesy rocker, and there's the acoustic prog of "Luvuhu (Last Feast)" and "A Pool of Pianos and Violins."

All the songs here are musically and lyrically pretty complex; and while it's fine and perfectly enjoyable to just listen an take in the songwriting and musical talent on display here, I think it takes a little bit of commitment to get all of the detail and nuance that The Greenpoint Spill has to offer. It's worth it.

Accidental Seabirds will be at Asbury Lanes for the release of The Greenpoint Spill on January 10th. True to the band's attention to detail and -- yes -- level of commitment, copies of the CD will be available at the show, packaged by the band in hand cut, sewn, and silkscreened sleeves "upcycled" from cardboard six packs.

Coming Around Edition (and Ducktails)

Get Well Friday (and Ducktails)

I think I'm finally getting over this cold / flu thing or whatever it is.  That's good because there's quite a bit of stuff going on this weekend and coming up over the next several weeks.

CoolMom and I are heading out to see Thanks and Accidental Seabirds at the Berkeley in Asbury Park tonight (Price: FREE).  The whole family is taking a trip up to the Medieval Times Lyndhurst Castle tomorrow.  And we've got the usual slate of kids' activities on both Saturday and Sunday.

Late February and early March are packed with shows I'd like to see, some of which I've already got tickets for, so it will be interesting to see how many I can make.

In unrelated news, Ducktails released a video for The Flower Lane standout, "Letter of Intent," over at Rolling Stone.

Maybe I'll see you at the Berkeley tonight, and...

Rock on.