PHOTOS: Screaming Females Played White Eagle Hall with Mal Blum, Radioactivity, No Men, 2/22/20. On Tour Now with PUP.

Marissa Paternoster of Screaming Females by Rose Lamela

Garden Party

Most words and all pics by Rose Lamela

This is my fourth February seeing Screaming Females start the year off with a live show, and they always bring a good lineup along. The fact that they played one of my favorite venues, White Eagle Hall in Jersey City, made it even more special. They shared the stage with No Men, Radioactivity, and Mal Blum.

No Men

Radioactivity

Mal Blum

It was Screaming Females' Annual Garden Party and the show was sold out. I could hardly move from the spot I got in the front of the stage, but I managed to get some photos. The highlight of the night for me was my first time hearing Screaming Females play "Boyfriend" live. I've got to say that they are still my favorite band to see live. They always deliver to a full house of loyal fans, and it feels good to be a part of that.

Screaming Females

CoolDad Notes

I'll concur with Rosi on a few things:

• White Eagle Hall is great. I've said it before. They have been wonderful and accommodating to this site ever since they opened.
• Same goes for Screaming Females. We're coming up on 8 years since they first blew me away with their set at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park; and, ever since, they have been true friends to CoolDad Music.
• "Boyfriend" was a highlight for me as well. Marissa Paternoster handed her guitar to the crowd and threw the full force of her being into delivering the song. At one point, a helpful fan unplugged the guitar and set it gingerly on the stage only to have Paternoster walk back over, plug it back in, and send it back on its way into the hands of the audience.

Other stuff:

• I don't know. In my old age, I'm less about fighting for a spot up front and staying there all night to shoot shows. It's a good thing, I think, that I'm getting back to the point where I can enjoy shows without a camera in my hands.
• On that point, Rosi has been an invaluable contributor here. She's a fantastic photographer, and she always brings her unique voice to her posts.
• This was a typically solid line-up curated by Screaming Females. It was my first time seeing both No Men and Radioactivity, and both bands were great. Mal Blum is someone we've followed here for a long time, and they've just gotten more and more rocking with each passing year.
• State Champion Records put together an after-party at the tiny Wine Bar in the basement of Pet Shop JC just a few blocks away. That was packed to the gills for Vacation and Unclaimed Diamonds. People hanging from the pipes and lighting things on fire (I didn't find the fire thing particularly cool or intelligent if I'm being honest). Really dark in there, so no pics
• Check out all of Rosi's pics at Flickr.
• Screaming Females are currently on tour with PUP:

New Stuff from Hodera, The Skullers, Mr. Payday, and Glazer

Hodera released a new single this week.

Beach Friday

CoolMom and CoolDaughter #1 are continuing their Southeast Asian adventure in Thailand and Cambodia. CoolDaugter #2 is getting ready to head to Maine with CoolGrandma. She had a big week of activities, but this was our one, free day. We headed down to the beach for a pretty glorious and cool early afternoon. I'll be on my own for a few days come Sunday, but I did want to send you into what is a huge weekend around here with a few new things from some of our New Jersey paisanos.

Hodera, "North Dakota"

There really isn't any artifice when it comes to Hodera. All you have to do is go to one of their live shows to see that they lay everything out there. Their sound features the lyricism and instrumentation of Americana with the energy of pop punk.

Hodera will be releasing First Things First on October 20th via Take This To Heart records; and, earlier this week, they shared the album's first single, "North Dakota." The song contrasts the freedom of lying, dreaming in a cornfield with those things in real life that drag us down.



The Skullers, "Meet Me in Memphis"

Jack Skuller released his first single at the age of 14. He followed that with a Radio Disney-sponsored, 15-city tour. In 2014, The Songwriters Hall of Fame gave him the [Buddy] Holly Prize, which recognizes "an exceptionally talented and inspired young musician /singer / songwriter whose work exhibits the qualities of Holly's music: true, great and original."

Skuller now fronts rock and roll three-piece, The Skullers. The band will be releasing Meet The Skullers with Mint 400 Records on September 22nd. This week, they gave us single "Meet Me in Memphis."

The Skullers worked with producer Joel Hamilton (The Black Keys, Highly Suspect, The Pretty Lights, Tom Waits) on the EP, and the collaboration results in a bluesy, high-energy introduction to the next chapter in Skuller's musical journey.



Mr. Payday, Welcome to the Modern World

Mr. Payday singer / guitarist, Doug Vizthum, turns 56 today. What better way to celebrate than by releasing his band's third album? Welcome to the Modern World is loud, tight power pop that draws influences from as far back as The Rolling Stones all the way to Bob Mould.

The album opens with "Club Test" which asks, appropriately, "Are you ready for some rock and roll?" "Now and Forever" is simultaneously crushingly loud -- Nick D'Amore's drumming is relentless -- and catchy, the vocal harmonies contrasting with some huge guitar sounds. "Set to Automatic" has a new-wave feel; while "Written in Stone" is more melodic and wide-open as it features keyboardist, Caroline Feinman, on lead vocals. "Sun Shine Down" is a countrified garage-rocker, and "Double Barrel" is careening hard rock / punk.

The title track closes things out in winding, driving-down-the-highway style. The song feels like it could have been written and recorded in the last week or so as it goes through some of the features of our modern world: climate change, hatred, Donald Trump.

Welcome to the Modern World weaves its way in and out of many of the sub-genres of rock music over the course of its 10 tracks. It's all rock and roll, though, so things hang together well.

Mr. Payday celebrate the release of Welcome to the Modern World tomorrow, 8/26, at Pino's in Highland Park. Joining them for that are Dentist, Atom Driver, and Sux. You can pick up a copy of the album there or via Mr. Payday's Bandcamp page.



Glazer, On a Prairie, Live in the Dirt

New Brunswick's Glazer are a band who have been on my radar since the first time I saw them a couple of years ago at one of only two New Brunswick Basement shows I've ever been to as a middle-aged dad. Guitarist / singer Phil Connor engineered the band's latest release, On a Prairie, Live in the Dirt, at his In The West Studio in New Brunswick; and he managed to capture one of the most interesting guitar-based rock records I've heard in a while.

On a Prairie, Live in the Dirt is that kind of off-kilter guitar rock I always love. Songs like "Disaster Footage" and "People's Monument" feature elements of both the slackery indie rock of the mid-90s and the metal-inspired grunge that came before that. "Amplified Mind" does as well; but, rather than blending those sounds throughout the song, it breaks them up into a few distinct parts.

"Trim Yr Limbs" transitions from an epic, noisy intro into angular noise pop. "Pollution" goes from plodding to racing over the course if its 5 minutes. Similarly, album-closer "Will You Be Here Tomorrow?" moves through stages of quiet twang and buzzsaw noise.

All of this is to say that there is tons of weird and interesting stuff happening here -- more than I can really cover in a capsule-type review -- but there's always something, some structure for a listener to grab onto. I love it when things work out that way.

On a Prairie, Live in the Dirt is out now on State Champion Records.

NJ-Based State Champion Records Announce Launch Party at JC's Monty Hall for July 9th

with Spowder, Decoration, Snakeskin

State Champion Records is a new, NJ-based label founded by Screaming Females' bassist, King Mike Abbate, and punk librarian, Tracy Robinson. They announced their existence about a month ago with three new releases; and, wouldn't you know it? All three bands will be playing a launch party for the label at Jersey City's Monty Hall on July 9th.

Those bands and their respective State Champion releases are:

Spowder, Health Palm (LP) -- State Champion will be handling the vinyl release of the debut LP by these young, New Brunswick "swamp rockers."



Decoration, More Piles (Cassette) -- Featuring members of Glazer, Casual, Stranger Cells, and Pinkus, Decoration bring their own off-kilter spin to pop punk.



Snakeskin, I Love My Room (Cassette) -- I Love My Room is a collection of home recordings by NYC's Shanna Polley covering the years 2014 to 2017. Snakeskin will play as a full band at the launch party.



You can grab all of these over at the State Champion store.

The founders say, "In just one short month, this label has already helped us to build our own little community, not just of musicians and artists, but of people who enjoy sitting together, playing records, and wasting long hours on menial tasks. All of the packaging is handmade by us and our friends. We do all of the screen printing, spray painting, stamping, cutting, gluing, folding, you name it. A lot of this will probably end up in garbage dumps and garage sales, but we like it."

State Champion keeps the pressure on with a busy July that features, in addition to the launch party, tape releases from King Mike's power pop band, Sweaty, and our good friends, Exmaid. Also in the pipeline is the cassette release for the upcoming Recess Records album by one of America's very finest punk bands, Vacation.

...but first...

It's time to celebrate the launch of a new, totally DIY NJ label with the party on July 9th. You can get tickets at this link right here, and I would get right on it. I'm sure this will sell out.