Notes from the Road: American Lions' Pat Moran

American Lions in Virginia Beach. Photo: American Lions Facebook

Tour Blog

New Brunswick's American Lions recently left for a tour with their friends in Semiotics. The tour will take the two New Jersey bands from New York to Virginia to Georgia to Kentucky with stops in between as they circle back to their New Brunswick home base.

American Lions drummer Pat Moran asked if I'd be willing to share some of his thoughts as he sweats his way down the coast with his buddies, and I was more than happy to oblige. Here's his first dispatch from the road, and it looks like Pat has found his first week pretty inspiring.

American Lions and Semiotics should be in Somerset, KY today. Have a great show, guys; and keep spreading that New Jersey good will.

American Lions / Semiotics on Tour, Part 1

by Pat Moran

Driving down the coast in 103-degree weather with The Sidekicks' Awkward Breeds in the tape deck. It’s enough inspiration for me to start jotting down some of the goings-on of the past week we’ve had. I’m Pat. I play drums in a band called American Lions and we are currently on a 2-week tour with our fellow New Brunswick friends, Semiotics.

Between van-battery problems in Virginia Wal-Marts, booking a last minute show with a day's notice, and just generally being the smelliest and sweatiest I’ve ever been in my entire life, the first week has been nothing but interesting. The best part has been meeting all of these creative and artistic people along the way. You can’t help but want to throw some of them in the back of the van and take them back to our little New Jersey scene where they would thrive.

If I could have people take away any sort of thought from reading this, it’d be to appreciate the musicians and talent around you in New Jersey. I feel like we sometimes forget to give everyone enough credit for what they’re doing. Whether you’ve been involved in music for a month or for 7 years, you are still a part of something bigger than yourself, and you deserve credit, at the very least, for having the guts to give it a try.

New Brunswick's Semiotics Announced a Tour w/ American Lions and Are Playing The Saint on Monday

Semiotics at New Brunswick's Court Tavern in January

Supporting For How

A few months back, we premiered a video from New Brunswick's Semiotics. It was an acoustic version of their song "M. Connolly" performed at their home base(ment), The Banana Stand. Since then, the band have been busy. They headed into Barber Shop Studios with Brett Romnes of I Am The Avalanche to produce their forthcoming EP For How. That one is due out early next month.

Today, the band announced that they'd be hitting the road this spring / summer in support of the new record. Joining them will be their New Brunswick compatriots in American Lions who will be out in support of their own upcoming 3-song EP, recorded out in California with Sam Pura at Panda Studios.

The tour makes a stop in Asbury Park at The Saint on June 13 before heading through the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast with a little poke into the Midwest. Check out all of the tour dates below.

You can catch Semiotics a couple of weeks before they head out when they come to The Saint on Memorial Day for a show that also features Goodbye Tiger, Control, Howlish, Press, and Jess Elliot. That's an early one with a 4:30pm kickoff.

Bands Who Are Always in the Listings: Debt League, Weird And Wonderful Words, American Lions, Books.

EP Roundup

I feel a little bit like I've been dropping the ball lately. So much stuff comes into my various inboxes. Stuff goes by on Twitter and Facebook. Shows happen. Life happens. I'm lazy. I can't really get to it all, and I feel lousy about it.

Through it all, though, my one point of pride has been that I've been able to keep up with my weekly listings without interruption since they began last year. Vacations. Business trips. Procrastination. I've managed to get them out there every week.

Week after week, I see several bands that keep popping up in the listings; and I say to myself, "I've got to check them out." They work hard. Constantly book shows. Play out week after week. I've featured a few of those bands here along the way: ROMP, The Blithedale Romance, Maeby Funk, The Great Depression, and more. Today, I thought I'd do a mini roundup of a few more of those bands. This way you'll know what you're looking at when you go through the listings... ...crap... ...tomorrow, and I can cross a few things off of my backlog.

Debt League, Debt League, 2014

This Woodbridge Township trio released their self-titled, four-song EP at the end of last year. Recorded at Red Bank's Retromedia Sound Studios, Debt League features the frenetic guitar-playing of Brian Chesney paired with the staccato, bouncing rhythm section of Zachary Nocciolo and Joshua Spielman.

The songs fit somewhere in that space between rock and pop-punk covering subjects like what relationships can do to your brain ("Toxoplasmic Schizophrenia") and sitting around wondering what you're gonna do with your life ("Beer and Coffee). I got kind of an 80s Clash-type punk feel during a few moments, though the arrangements and musicianship are a little more complex than that.

You'll see Debt League twice in tomorrow's listings as they play New Brunswick's Banana Stand on Thursday and The Pigeon Pad on Friday.

You can purchase or stream the EP over at Debt League's Bandcamp page.



Weird And Wonderful Words, The Right People Will Get This, 2015

Weird And Wonderful Words is the solo acoustic project of New Brunswick's Andy Marc. Andy released The Right People Will Get This on St. Patrick's Day. Unfortunately, the (hopefully) last snowstorm of winter 2014/15 blew out his record release show last week. But you can catch Weird And Wonderful Words this Friday at that Pigeon Pad show with Debt League.

Marc's debut EP is a mostly acoustic version of post-rock emo, and the record does a nice job of creating that big instrumental sound with some relatively sparse instrumentation. The recorded versions of the songs feature piano, percussion, electric guitar and strings along with acoustic guitar. Standout track "Disconsolate" features plenty of soul-baring lines like "give me your love and security" and "I would die for you if it would save your life" and closes with some shout-alongable vocals. "Canoodle" gives the outline, especially in its chorus, of what WWWs would sound like as a multi-guitared emo act. I've seen Andy play totally solo before, though, and the emotions in his lyrics come through just as strongly when he's alone as they do when he has a little help like he does here.

The Right People Will Get This is available as a Name Your Price download at Weird And Wonderful Words' Bandcamp page with cassettes due via Girls Cartel Records in the near future.



American Lions, Peru, 2014

So I'm lying in bed last night reading about how some scientist just transplanted wooly mammoth DNA into the cell of a living elephant. The article went on to wonder about the ethics of spending resources to bring back extinct species while so many extant species teeter on the brink. Should we even be trying to bring back animals like mammoths, mastodons, and American lions? "Wait, there was an American lion? Cool!"

That reminded me of New Brunswick's American Lions who I'd seen play with Casual, ROMP, and California X a while back. At that show, the band went kind of bananas in the small space, kicking out cables and rolling around on the floor at Paradise Lost. You can hear that energy on 2014's Peru. It's pop punk. All of the songs feature plenty of power chords and shouted vocals, but "Drifter" and "Rose" each feature some brief and ethereal breaks. Closer "Novril" is a good example of how American Lions keep the adrenaline pumping without losing focus on crafting a tight pop song.

They'll be in next week's listings as they've got a show at New Brunswick's In The West on April 3rd.

You can purchase or stream Peru at American Lions' Bandcamp page.



Books., Orchard Drive, 2014

Vernon, NJ's Books. are the acoustic alter ego of Brian Paris, frontman of punk act Bomb Paris. Books. released Orchard Drive last spring. The collection really does showcase Paris's skill on acoustic guitar. Each song is over five minutes long and provides some space in which to get lost.

"Maypoles" and "Black, White, Red All Over" pair guitar with some softer, Elliott Smith-style vocals; while "Capo 7th Fret" goes for something a little more forceful as Paris sings over some almost proggy acoustic guitar. Epic closer "Fly Past The Sun" adds a lot more electric instrumentation, Paris repeating, "You're on your own" as things steadily build.

Brian Paris is a busy guy. His other band, Hidden Cabins, will be in tomorrow's listings for their show on Friday at Krogh's Brewpub in Sparta.

Orchard Drive is out on Oak Apple Records and available from their Bandcamp page.

California X, ROMP, Casual, American Lions Played Paradise Lost, 1/24/15

MA's California X finished their tour at Paradise Lost last night.

I Did the Basement Thing

I had the best time last night.

My complaining over the last week or so has been well-documented here. I've been kind of under the weather -- just enough to be annoying, but not enough to keep me laid up at home. I'd been looking forward to this show at Paradise Lost in New Brunswick since I got the invite a few weeks ago; but, when the day came, I wavered.

"It's all gross and snowy out. I'm gonna see ROMP next week, and I'm gonna see California X two weeks from now in Brooklyn."

I sucked it up, though. Went and grabbed Chris from Speak Into My Good Eye, and we drove up to Hub City together.

Paradise Lost is a dark, low-ceilinged basement somewhere in New Brunswick. Bands perform at one end, and the "green room" area is at the other, behind the furnace. Did I mention that the ceiling is super low?

New Brunswick's American Lions started things off with a wild set of pop punk. The tight quarters caused a few cables to get kicked out at points -- something that would happen throughout the night. It didn't slow anyone down. Things were pretty packed out from the beginning.

Casual, the Flemington band I'd seen open for Screaming Females, were next; and they seemed a lot more comfortable playing to the tightly-packed basement crowd than they did standing up on stage, playing to the early arrivals at The Lanes. I liked what I heard both times and put their self-titled cassette on again when I got home.

Chris and I decided to make our way forward for California X, a band whose latest LP came out on Don Giovanni on my birthday and who Chris and I have been enjoying since their self-titled debut two years ago. We slotted ourselves in at stage left, just next to the stairs. It was way too dark and crowded for any significant picture taking, but I think I managed a few shots of California X that capture the feel of the night.

For the band's part, they played a great set with all of the fuzz and riffage anyone could want; and it was kind of amazing to see them in that environment. I'll have the experience in the back of my mind during their set at The Knitting Factory on February 7th so that I can compare.

ROMP were just back from tour. Singer / keyboardist Madison Klarer had "won" a poll conducted by the band, receiving the most votes as the band member who would wear a bike helmet for the entire set. The helmet butted up against the ceiling joists a few times, but she was a trooper.

The audience turned out in force to welcome ROMP home and screamed along with every song, causing Klarer to stop a few times and declare her amazement. Picture-taking was out as our little area filled up with friends and fans of the band making any kind of movement extremely difficult. Guitarist Lucas Dalakian pogo'd throughout the set, stopping once to take a selfie with the section of the crowd on his side of the performance area.

Again, it will be interesting to see what the vibe is like when ROMP play the Court Tavern next week with Monterey, Semiotics, Deal Casino, and Dollys. The Court Tavern is in their hometown and "basement-y," but there's definitely more room to move around. I feel like the wild expressions of love and adoration may be a little bit less up-close and personal. We'll see.

There were definitely moments last night, as I wheezed and coughed in the tight space, when I wondered about my choice to head out to the show. But, by the time it was all over, I was feeling pretty good. As we left, I heard someone say, "Wow. That was the biggest, wildest show we've had here in a while."

I'm glad I didn't miss it.

Here are some pics of the set by California X. The rest are at Flickr.