Published January 6, 2010
Sarasota float-around guitarist Dan Rixon unleashed a solo project in December with help from a number of other local hired guns. The album, fittingly called In My Head, is heavily Pink Floyd-inspired, especially Wall-ish, with random infant squeals, droning machines and thunderstorms filling the breaks between songs to add some natural rhythms to the tight instrumentation. Rixon admits that Floyd’s sound has always had an effect on him: “They’ve been my biggest influence since I discovered them in high school,†he says.
Rixon currently plays in a band called The Living Man with Matt Frost, who lends his keyboard and vocal talents throughout the project. Siesta Key staple Garrett Dawson takes up much of the drumming with fellow Key rat and Berklee College of Music student Steve Duerst filling in the bass and drums on other tracks. Rixon also attended Berklee in 2001 and his developed skills are apparent in the intricate reverb-laden guitar techniques he weaves together through alternate solo and riff. Layered vocal harmonies and Frost’s driving organ take you on a trip through drastic key and song structure changes. (more…)
Published January 13, 2010
It’s not too often you see a band throwing its debut CD release party on the same night as their final show, but that was the scene at Cock & Bull on Saturday night. The six members of Youth, all relatively fresh out of high school, finished hand-stamping the cases and handwriting the inserts of their self-titled LP just hours before singer/mandolinist Sam Robertson would perform her final gig with the band. She took off for the Lone Star State Sunday morning to attend the University of North Texas, but Saturday night, at least, music was priority number one. (more…)
The latest band to emerge from Sarasota’s steam-gaining Finch House Collective started as a rough side project and has now come to fruition as the party-in-your-pants known as Fancy Rat. Frontman Brian Yoder set aside his experimental folk solo project JesusChryslerSupercar to join with bassist Adam Marret (previously of The Silent Film Exhibitionists Club), lead guitarist Toby Norton and drummer Adam Brammer. The eventual addition of French horn player Sarah Mobarekeh and tambourinist beat-boxer Daniel Dean Demerin rounds out one of the most unique original sounds to rise from the local scene yet. (more…)
The Equines’ debut EP “Hearts on Faces”Published Nov. 24, 2009
(Photo courtesy finchhouse.com)
Local music review: Maid Mosephine and the Equines’ Hearts on Faces
Maid Mosephine and the Equines: \”Easy St\”(Maid Mosephine and the Equines: “Easy St”)
Sarasota’s own Maid Mosephine and the Equines kicked off the PR blitz for their debut EP — Hearts on Faces — at a Saturday night CD release party at The Box Social. The Maid herself, Miss Erin Murphy, preceded the set with some gracious thanks and love for all the folks who helped to make the album happen, right before her Equines broke into a speedy rendition of “It’s My Birthday and I’ll Cry If I Want To,†as it was, indeed, her birthday. The lone and uncharacteristic cover was followed by the seven tracks off the new EP, with the painful but pleasant vibrato of Mosephine’s voice for the most part never veering far from her in-studio performance.
The album follows the tried and true indie formula of happy songs about sad things. The heartbreak and frustration found throughout Murphy’s lyrics seem to disappear behind the playful glee of Greg Ferris’ xylophone work. “Easy St†(which you can stream at top) is, for example, a tune that will have your body bobbing to such cheerful lines as, “It’s so much easier to just hold on, than to just let go of everything I know.†Mosephine’s clean-tone punk riffs fit right in line with her brother Mike’s steady, choppy drumbeats. Throw in the hypnotic motion of bassist Andrew Sink’s zoned-out stage presence and the live show becomes quite a spectacle. Costumes normally play a part too, with Ferris’ ever-present wolf head hat complimenting whatever fairytale fantasy Mosephine pulls out of the toy box — pirate or princess, the Equines will take you to a magical place. And now that they’ve got a record out, you can visit there as much as you want. 3.5 stars
The Scenestress and I got hooked up big-time with an opportunity to see Matisyahu perform a couple songs for a radio spot on WMNF 88.5 FM in Tampa yesterday. The tall, bearded Hasidic reggae star waved us in the studio with a big grin as his band finished setting up. They played two songs from their upcoming album, Light, which is due out August 25. The first single off the release, a tune called “One Day,” is unusually accessible as far as modern reggae goes, which means it’s bound to earn some substantial radio play. The second song they played, my favorite of the two, was called “Thunder,” and featured a more traditional Matis sound with nature-tinged lyrics and an uplifting vocal melody that gave it a definite Bob Marley vibe. After the radio show Matisyahu signed some copies of the new single for us and we had a quick chat about my borderline unhealthy obsession with “Live at Stubb’s” when it came out in 2005. Unlike the usual “I’m smiling and nodding but I don’t really care” attitude that you get from exploding artists in the prime of their careers, Matisyahu was refreshingly genuine in his demeanor and conversation. He has an air of peacefulness and righteousness in his personality that matches the message in his music.
After the radio show we made our way from Tampa to St. Pete to catch the real concert going down at Jannus Landing: a full set with Matisyahu backed by fellow Brooklyn-based reggae group Dub Trio, then a Lord-only-knows-what’s-in-store-for-us set from the legendary Les Claypool. Click through the break to hear about the concert and watch some of the videos I took:
The Matisyahu performance was a hop-around mess that topped my expectations even as a professed fan. Matis danced from stage left to right, only stopping to contemplate intricate vocal lines, which to him are more reverent prayers than showtime schticks. You really can’t get a sense of the talent it takes to be an amazing beat-boxer until you hear it live. The production process usually silences the short breaths and imperfections that make you realize that it isn’t a drumkit or a synthesizer you’re listening to. It’s just a guy and a microphone. Matisyahu and his tribe of Judaic hip-hoppers broke out both of the songs he played at the radio station, plus all the classics from his first two albums. Here’s some video from “One Day”:
The crowd was an eclectic mix of dreaded jam-dancing hippies, black Primus T-shirt sporting stoners, and a few kooky creatures that could have come straight out of a Primus video. Les Claypool appeared on stage wearing a long-nosed mask that conjured A Clockwork Orange and busted out a few hot slappers before revealing his signature ‘stach. He was backed by a beyond impressive line-up of clearly classically-trained musicians who all wore tuxes and face-disfiguring masks that made them look half Hanible Lector and half Pork Soda pig. A cellist, drummer and percussionist (who broke out a marimba, xylophone, tambourine and even a set of tablas) brought parts of old Primus songs to life with an almost surreal classiness. Here’s a video of Claypool sporting a pig mask as he bows over his upright:
Claypool switched instruments as often as facial identities and at one point came out with a monkey mask and a strange one-stringed upright-like instrument with a handle on the top that he used to tighten and loosen the string. He short-stroked the bow over the string as he levered the handle up and down to create some oddly appealing sounds. Here’s a video of Claypool playing this contraption before monkey-running off stage to let his drummers duel it out for the crowd:
After seeing shows from backstage and the lighting booth, I finally got a chance to catch a performance at the Van Wezel from the actual seats. The venue is a truly unique hall that kind of made me feel like I was in the inside of a sea shell. The celebration of pastels is purely Florida yet strangely neutral. It’s no wonder so many types of shows fit well in the hall.
The performance I had the pleasure of attending was the Budapest Festival Orchestra, and i will have to guess that they effectively blew people’s minds. Conductor Ivan Fischer was a charming host and preceded each piece with background stories about Hungarian folk music and how it has evolved. The audience seemed to encompass a huge Hungarian population and most of the talk I could hear before the show involved words absent from my vocabulary. Fischer’s accent rounded the vibe out with a wholly Eastern European feel.
The orchestra played a number of powerful pieces from Brahms and Liszt, but the highlight of the night was the father and son violin duo of József Lendvay Sr. and Jr. It was incredible to really hear the differences between the old traditional folk style of father and the new classically-trained style of son. The pair rarely play together, so it made for an intimate family gathering that the audience felt a part of. It was made all the more astounding at the end of József Lendvay Junior’s solo when he broke out with a string of jaw-dropping virtuosic runs – the kind only seen in the world’s most accomplished musicians. All together, the evening made for a very enjoyable mix of traditional European flavors, calming melodies and world-class talent.
Published June 30, 2010The latest band to emerge from Sarasota’s steam-gaining Finch House Collective started as a rough side project and has now come to fruition as the party-in-your-pants known as Fancy Rat. Frontman Brian Yoder set aside his experimental folk solo project JesusChryslerSupercar to join with bassist Adam Marret (previously of The Silent Film Exhibitionists Club), lead guitarist Toby Norton and drummer Adam Brammer. The eventual addition of French horn player Sarah Mobarekeh and tambourinist beat-boxer Daniel Dean Demerin rounds out one of the most unique original sounds to rise from the local scene yet. (more…)
