Lots of Stuff from Some Favorites This Week: Cayetana, White Reaper, Single Mothers

Single Mothers at Baby's All Right in 2014.

Holiday Friday

It's a long weekend. The cooldaughters have a half-day at school today. CoolAunt is bringing her kiddos down from Buffalo. I'm going to see the Yankees tomorrow. It's our wedding anniversary on Sunday. The weather sucks! Yeah! Memorial Day Weekend 2017!

Here's a bunch of stuff that came across my virtual desk this week, from some of my current favorites.

Cayetana, "Bus Ticket"

Earlier this month, Cayetana released the follow-up to their much-loved debut album Nervous Like Me. New Kind of Normal finds the Philly trio coping with the idea of pursuing their dream as a band, while people around them "grow up" and start doing adult-type things like getting engaged.

Single "Bus Ticket" is ultimately inspiring. Singer / guitarist Augusta Koch sings of hitting rock bottom before finding that she has the strength and toughness to turn things around.

Director Adam Peditto uses the metaphor of having the band play through a rainstorm that ultimately gives way to the sun, and the clip looks beautiful.

New Kind of Normal is out now on Cayetana's own Plum Records.



White Reaper, "The World's Best American Band"

Louisville's White Reaper just released the Simon Young-animated video for the hyperbolically-named title track from their latest album, The World's Best American Band. The song opens with the sound of a cheering crowd; and the band lay all of their stadium-sized, classic rock influences out there.

Having seen the band play to about 12 people at Asbury Lanes and, maybe, 212 people at Barracuda in Austin, TX, I can attest to the fact that they do play every show as if they're in front of a stadium full of adoring fans.

The World's Best American Band is out now on Polyvinyl.



Single Mothers, "Leash"

London, Ontario's Single Mothers didn't even have any songs when they decided to start recording their sophomore LP, Our Pleasure. Songwriter / vocalist Drew Thomson and drummer Brandon Jagersky booked studio time on a whim, assembled a band, wrote and recorded a new record which comes out on June 16th via Dine Alone Records.

The latest single from Our Pleasure is "Leash." It's more melodic -- with a sing-along-able chorus -- than lots of Single Mothers' other stuff, but it retains the edge that permeates many of Thomson's musings. He sings of being tethered to events from the past, being the subject of someone's grudge, maybe. "That was just so long ago, man. I thought that you could let it go, man."

Cool Pre-Spring Break Stuff from Sharkmuffin, Single Mothers, and The Planes

Single Mothers' Drew Thomson at Baby's All Right in 2014.

Packing for Florida

I'm trying to break with my usual M.O. -- the one I've followed ever since I used to travel extensively for business -- which is to pack all my stuff moments before I get in the car to go to the airport. I've made a little progress this morning, but I always think, "Eh. They have stores there if I forget anything..."

Anyway.

I'm on a little packing break right now and figured I'd tell you about a few things that I noticed over the course of this week.

Sharkmuffin, "Little Bird"

Sharkmuffin are preparing to release their second LP, Tsuki, via Little Dickman Records on May 5th. Earlier this week, they gave us a video for single "Little Bird."

Sharkmuffin take elements of garage rock, surf rock, punk, and pop and blend them together into a noisy, gritty stew. "Little Bird" is no different as Tarra Thiessen wails over a squall of noise that somehow manages also to be a two-and-a-half-minute earworm. The video gives us a small taste of what everyday life is like for the world's most famous bird.



Sharkmuffin have several local dates coming up prior to heading off for a tour of the UK. On 4/20, they'll be joining Sheer Mag at Paul's Tavern in Lake Como. They celebrate the release of Tsuki with a show at Brooklyn's Sunnyvale on 5/3 and follow that up with an Asbury Park release show on 5/4.

Single Mothers, "East Van Band Van b​/​w Night School"

A band of self-identified London, Ontario "townies," Single Mothers hit me hard back in 2014 with LP Negative Qualities. The album is simultaneously angry and inward-looking as singer and songwriter, Drew Thomson, paints himself as an outsider -- not only as a local in a college town but also as someone who can't quite fit with society's expectations.

The band made a return this week, releasing two singles via Bandcamp. "East Van Band Van" imagines that maybe we've actually all been living in a post-Y2K-apocalypse heaven / hell for the last 15-plus years. The "b-side" -- "Night School" -- seems to find Thomson feeling impervious to both any kind of positive change or negative feedback. Both songs feature the raw, thunderous guitars and Thomson's talk-sing delivery that drew me to Single Mothers in the first place.



You can grab this pair of songs over at Single Mothers' Bandcamp page.

The Planes, Wax Diamond

The on-again / off-again project of Stephen Perry and friends, The Planes, released Wax Diamond this week. Now a trio with Perry on guitar, Jaclyn Perrone on bass, and Jason Maksymillian on drums, The Planes add a little 90s rock to their jangly indie pop.

"Red Shift" opens with a bubbly bass riff and rapid fire drums before Perry's willowy vocal and jangly guitar join in. The distorted guitar that almost acts as the chorus sounds like it could have been inspired by the work Perry did in his short-lived Dinosaur Jr. cover band.

Throughout the album, the distortion contrasts with the jangle ("ATMs," "Trident"); the tweeishness of the lyrics contrasts with the beefiness of the music ("College Crush"). The Planes draw as much inspiration here from R.E.M. as they do from Dinosaur Jr. or even Nirvana, and it's all done with a lo-fi charm. The combination works amazingly well.



Wax Diamond is available over at The Planes' Bandcamp page.

Single Mothers Played Baby's All Right, 12/5/14 (PHOTOS)

Half-Lit

The PTO was running a holiday fundraiser at the Barnes & Noble in Monmouth Mall last night. CoolDaughter #1 is in the school chorus, so she would be singing with them to give a holiday feel to the proceedings. It was pretty chaotic in there, but all of the orchestra, band, chorus kids acquitted themselves pretty well. I left directly from there, in a pretty steady rain, for my first-ever trip to Baby's All Right in Williamsburg.

I was heading in to see London, Ontario punk foursome, Single Mothers, thinking that it was pretty unlikely I'd be seeing them in New Jersey anytime soon. The trip in was a smooth one, and I made it to the place before the first band took the stage. I ran into our good buddy Mike V, which was a nice surprise (You can run into him next Sunday at 610 Bangs in Asbury when he plays a rare acoustic set for us at our holiday benefit show.).

Single Mothers went on at about 11; and, within the first few seconds, a sparsely populated but energetic mosh pit developed right in front of the stage. A large percentage of the crowd hung back and stood relatively still, prompting Single Mothers' frontman Drew Thomson to give them a little crap for it.

Thomson himself was a whirlwind. He leapt, fell over himself, knocked over mic stands, spilled beer all over the stage, and climbed into the crowd, all the while letting loose with his scathing, snarky lyrics about the frustrations of living in a small Canadian city. He had a few sharp words for current Brooklyn baddie, Vice Media, who were holding their holiday show somewhere else in the borough. Then he was back to opening his shirt, removing it entirely, doing push-ups on the stage, and finally birthing and nursing his microphone during the band's performance of "Baby" from their self-titled 2011 EP.

The set also included songs from the this years' fantastic Negative Qualities. I shouted along from behind my camera to "Half-Lit," "Marbles," "Overdose," and others. The band -- Mike Peterson (guitar), Evan Redsky (bass), and Brandon Jagersky (drums) -- were just as relentless as Thomson. Jagersky had "Brandon Jagersky feat. Single Mothers" printed on his bass drum.

So two good shows last night: a bunch of kids playing / singing holiday music in a shopping mall followed by some of the best punk out there right now. Who says you can't have it all?

The stage was enveloped in fog for the whole evening, and most of the lighting was at the rear of the stage. That made for some interesting shots: blown-out in some spots and way dark in others. Here are highlights. The rest are in the Flickr galleries; and, soon, I'll put shots of the openers up there, too.

Single Mothers, Negative Qualities, 2014

Sunday Run Album Review

I'm a lucky guy. I have a wonderful family. We are all healthy, and we have a good time together. So I feel pretty guilty about all of my complaining. Complain I do, though. While I do my share of out loud complaining, most of my ranting and raving takes place inside my head. It can be cathartic and freeing for me, therefore, when someone else lets me inside the roiling sea that exists inside their head. It makes me feel not so alone in my internal raging against myself, "idiots," the world, the Man.

A while back, Speak Into My Good Eye asked me to write up a little blurb about Single Mothers' video for single "Half-Lit." They know what I like over there; and the song, a track off of the Ontario quartet's debut full-length, Negative Qualities, manages to pack lots of stuff I like into its too short two minutes. Highlights for me are the aggressive, explosive guitar and drums and the talk / scream singing of frontman and songwriter Drew Thomson.

Having obsessed on that song for a little while now and having listened to Negative Qualities a few times, I figured the album would make a great companion for my 1323rd attempt to return to running on the regular. "Overdose" opens things with just what I was looking for: a relentless, hard-charging barrage from the band that -- a little frustratingly at times -- obscures a few of Thomson's lyrics. A few key moments of clarity manage to escape like, "I'm so sick of your fake rock and roll...," "Caught up in my head...," and "If no one else is gonna do it, then I guess I'll destroy me." Lashing out at others, admitting to living inside his head, lashing out at himself. There are times I can identify.

"Marbles" contains my favorite line on the record. "She's all like 'Blah, blah, blah, blah, something about McSweeney's, something about her thesis, something about its meaning, something about whatever, something like why you gotta be so mean.'" Thomson then admits, "I'm a hypocrite, and I'm okay with it. I'm so self-aware that it's crippling." He's obviously a literate guy, but he's not into comparing reading lists. On some level, though, this sounds a little like my own railing against Corporate America during the time between conference calls at my corporate job. You're there. You're in it with them, but being able to see the bullshit for the bullshit that it is drives you nuts.

"Feel Shame" has kind of a 90s thing going on. Guitarist Mike Peterson, drummer Brandon Jagersky, and bassist Evan Redsky give things a dark, Northwest alt-rock feel. Thomson gives his unsurprising view that "existence is sarcastic" while exhorting us all to, "Feel shame. It's ok."

"Ketamine" is a slight departure with a darkly melodic guitar riff winding itself around the noise as Thomson admits, "I'm good at avoiding things and bleeding into the scenery." Sonically, "Money" is another outlier with a more indie-rock feel to it. Thomson even kind of sings as he breaks it off with someone, telling them to, "Get out of my head already." And later, "All I wanna do is sit here complaining."

I've seen reviews in which Drew Thomson loses a few points for sounding too much like The Hold Steady's Craig Finn. Obviously, I see the fact that his wordiness and delivery bear some similarities to Finn's as a plus, but that's not the only appeal of Negative Qualities for me. I don't know Drew Thompson or the band; and, even though I've read quite a bit about the band's history, I really don't KNOW their background. But there are moments in these songs that feel like they're being pulled from my own brain.

As I finished up my 3-mile slog today, during which I got through Negative Qualities 1.5 times, I felt a sense of relief and release that I haven't felt in a long time. And I'm sure it wasn't because of the run.

Negative Qualities is out now on HXC Recordings. Single Mothers play Baby's All Right in Brooklyn this Friday. CoolMom's outta town until late Friday night. Who wants to babysit for me?