MUSIC
Gorgeous Machines
Chybucca Sounds
chybuccasounds.com/2011/02/06/gorgeous-machines-gorgeous-machines-self-released/
"Gorgeous Machines are ahead of the wannabe Californian desert rock posers, they share the warm relaxing tones of Yawning Man. The Brooklyn quartet's debut is likely to be filled alongside the tags of 'cinematic desert grooves', as each track is dunked in reverb and delay, while each riff is carefully crafted -- cyclical and massaged."~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Heavy Creatures
KEXP 90.3 (Seattle)
http://depts.washington.edu/kexp/blog/?p=5036
Through frequent tempo changes, they challenge their audience while insistently commanding their attention at the same time. Fans can look forward to seeing them as more of a presence on the music scene this year.
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"Tudd’s Mudd"
http://tudsmudh.typepad.com/tuddds_muddd/2008/02/the-big-sleep-w.html
These guys had my head bobbin' and toe tappin' as they tore through an assemblage of nifty little riffs, plus their bassist (Christopher Peifer) was popping off some supercool John Paul Jones-esque melodies pretty much the whole way through. I especially enjoyed how many of their tunes crammed seemingly unrelated riffs right up against each other back-to-back, making the longer songs less gassy. Fun band.
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Rock Insider (LA)
http://www.rockinsider.com/2008/02/big-sleep-hidden-track.html
I've been really digging this band Heavy Creatures lately. I somehow stumbled on their myspace page, which is doubly strange/lucky for me because I don't spend that much time on myspace, but I was drawn to their name. Anyway, I love their artwork, I love their taste in guitars, I love the sound of their records, but most of all, I LOVE their songs. They're classic rock influenced, which in a lot of cases just means tired sounding and unoriginal, but not here, because the songs are just so good. I can't stop playing the riff to "Family Tree" in practice. So it's really crazy to me that they aren't really playing that many shows around town (NYC). They should be all over the place.
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RCRD LBL http://www.rcrdlbl.com/2008/07/09/exclusive_download_heavy_creatures_family_tree_love_come_down
Band names are important. If you're named the Fluffy Princesses and sound like Brutal Knights there is certain to be a tragic disconnect. Then there is Heavy Creatures. They could be Dirty Animals or Sexy Beasts - essentially you'd just need an adjective to convey purringly thick swagger and a noun that remained as primitive as possible and you would get the idea. Heavy Creatures is fronted by two women who use classic 60s female harmonies in "Family Tree" as effectively as they combine their vocal power to create a primal drum circle feel in "Love Come Down." And the music - well, shit is heavy. It chuggs along beneath grandly gesturing keyboard and guitar lines while toying with the blues and psychedelic music so cleverly you're hard pressed to assign them a genre. These creatures understand the meaning of "momentum" and "build" and "crescendo" so well, you'd swear they were mounting a charge on all the mediocre bands in NYC. Heavy Creatures is the closest thing to Jefferson Airplane when they were interesting, sexy and just a bit creepy we've seen, so put on something beaded and dig.
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Perpetual Toxins
http://www.perpetualtoxins.com/080822-creatures.shtml
NYC's Heavy Creatures have developed their own special blend of organic rock reliant on viscous grooves and a sweeping ethereal spirit showcased on the quartet's latest eight-track excursion, The Cymbal and the Skull. There's an underlying darkness swirling through the Moog keyboards and Neil Young-esque fretwork that emits a kind of barren Midwestern farm night scene on cuts like "Crimson Canyon," while the hypnotic shuffle of "Landing of the Fall" harkens back to the days of surf rock psychedelics as interpreted through the walls of a dank metropolitan rehearsal space. Meshing entrancing drone rock with a free love, make peace not war sensibility, the smoky vibes emanated by Heavy Creatures teeter on the brink of rock 'n' roll danger with a tribal swagger with an underscored riot grrrl grit leading the charge.
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"Curiously potent" -- Timeout NY
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Another Saturday Night"I went home, put this LP on the Victrola, and was in rock 'n' roll ecstasy enjoying the best new Stones album the Stones never made. Jaggerian jaggings with L.E.S. track marks murking up the madness makes for some serious hot, cool shit." -- Roctober Magazine
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"Damn, this shit is tight as a vintage Robert Mitchum noir thriller. Same sorta swagger and cocksure deliverance. Timeless stuff. New York heroes like Johnny Thunders and Velvet Underground come to mind as well as some of the more rowdy late-60s Stones albums. Classic rock and proto-punk engages beautifully in a soulful street party with bruised dames and cheap liquor. I really dig the stripped down production that aids the 11 songs. Raw, devil-may-care and ballsy – I bet they slay on a stage. “Secrets And Whispers” even recalls The Humpers (remember them?). Don’t waste your money on the latest lim[p] offerings from the ashes of The New York Dolls or Stones, Another Saturday Night’s debut album is your ticket to gut level decadent rock’n’roll that actually oozes with cojones and heart. The band hails from - of course - the Big Apple." -- LowCut (Denmark)
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"These songs are sassy, full of bare knuckle truth and put together very well, a great introduction to this band. It’s got me wanting to hear more. I’m surprised and regretful at the same time, because I missed them the last time they rolled through Cincinnati. I’m also a bit surprised that this band isn't a huge success already and really, I realize from the perches of my self-imposed exile, that they really might be. Or rather, they should be playing packed holes in the wall anywhere they go. Like a locked groove record, rock and/or roll will never stop... The beast is too unruly now, it can only be shuffled around and kept at bay, but with a band like Another Saturday Night you can hear an example of how the battle still rages." -- Neus Subjex (Cincinnati)
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"Best of 2008" and "Best of 2010"
-- GORILLA GOT ME RADIO - WMBR 88.1 FM BOSTON
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"Seven inches of vinyl ... Another Saturday Night's latest bar room rocker ... Howlin' guitars and steady rollin' tunes. Grab a PBR and bring on the night."
-- Starr Tucker, NY Waste, Fall '08
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Another Saturday Night ist purer Amerikanischer Rock’n’Roll, vielleicht sogar typisch New Yorker, wenn man sich manche an die Dolls oder Fleshtones gemahnende Gesangsparts anhˆrt. Auch das Songwriting ist zeitlos, einfacher, rauer und energischer, in allen Epochen des R&R verwurzelter Garagen Rock mit Backgroundgesang, wie man ihn nur gern haben kann. Hier sollte man die Augen nach einem Longplayer offen halten, denn die beiden hier vorgestellten Songs machen Appetit auf mehr.
(Another Saturday Night is pure American rock n roll, maybe even typically New York if you're listening to some of the vocal parts that are reminiscent of the Dolls or the Fleshtones. The songwriting, rooted in all the epochs of rock and roll, is also timeless, simple, raw and energetic Garage Rock with background vocals, just like you want it. With this one we should keep our eyes open for a LP because these songs whet your appetite for more.)
-- Flying Revolver (Germany)
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"Plus! Crazy Music d'Aujourd'hui . . . Encore plus de myspace d»mentiels de groupes ESSENTIELS . . . ANOTHER SATURDAY NIGHT . . . Stones + Penetrators = pas la tÕte ‡ toto."
( "More! Crazy Music of Today . . . Still more irrational myspace of ESSENTIAL groups . . . ANOTHER SATURDAY NIGHT . . . Stones + Penetrators = not the head with louse.")
-- ROCK IN NICE, NICE ROCK AND UNDERGROUND MUSIC (France)
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Yep, it's another Saturday night in NYC, and you're heading out to your favourite local bar, having finally managed to scrub the dirt out from beneath your fingernails. You shoot the shit with the bartender, Dale, who knows your preferred brand of beer without you having to tell him. You say hey to some friends playing pool in the corner, adjust your balls, take a long pull from the cold bottle, head over to the stage and nod your head in time to the Stones-by-way-of-Dolls garage rock the band is playing. It's Another Saturday Night, man, and the world is A-okay.
-- Sleazegrinder (Boston)
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New York’s Slow Gold Zebra label sent us a whole bundle of vinyl joy this issue. Their package didn’t just serve to reassure that someone else still appreciates the beauty of shiny 7 inchers in grainily photocopied sleeves, but offered a comforting indication that there’s still some sleaze strung out on the streets of the cleaned up Big Apple.
Whether or not you can offer a "yes" when the leading ladyboy with Another Saturday Night inquires, "do you remember the Giants of Love?" in a hearty Johansen baritone on the A-side to their single, it’s certain these Doll-y boys will bring back memories of the City’s golden era, with a twist of The Stones gritty Brit groove for good measure comes B-side "Sidewalkin’".
-- Bubblegum Slut (UK) 7" Round-up
THEATREDark Hollow
TimeOut NY
http://www.timeout.com/newyork/theater/dark-hollow-an-appalachian-woyzeck
"On the dimly lit stage of Theatre 80, a band of folk musicians dives into traditional gospel song "John the Revelator" while a hellfire-and-brimstone baptism takes place. This is just one of several memorable scenes in Elizabeth Chaney's powerful, haunting adaptation of Georg Büchner's 19th-century expressionist drama Woyzeck. Eternal salvation, economic exploitation and social disadvantage are still the main themes in Chaney's version, which is set in an impoverished mountain community during the Great Depression. Woyzeck (Kevin Kash) is a well-meaning but deeply tormented soldier plagued by apocalyptic visions; verbally abused by his superiors (a sergeant and the army doctor), he breaks under the strain and brutally murders his unfaithful girlfriend, Mary (Danyel Fulton). The Appalachian twist on this dark social commentary is best expressed through the use of American roots music scattered throughout the drama, including spiritual-style songs and traditional folk ditties like "Rye Whiskey" (performed by the cast with a delightful lack of polish). Rowdy soldiers, ragamuffin townswomen and plenty of onstage boozing provide comedy that balances the harrowing weight of the story. (Visit fringenyc.org for more information.)"
-- Sarah HucalCurtain Up
http://www.curtainup.com/fringe12.html#DarkHollow
"Soldier Woyzeck, a coil ready to spring, suffers apocalyptic hallucinations, abuse by his doctor and his army superior, and infidelity by the mother of his child. The play's adaptor (also producer, scenic/lighting designer and sometimes librettist) Elizabeth Chaney, hews tight to Büchner's original plotline, but moves the story from a German town in the 1800s to the Appalachian mountains during the Depression. Weighed down in tatters and poverty, provincial religion, and military irrational authority, Dark Hollow adds a Southern Appalachian twang and an infusion of traditional mountain music performed by supremely skilled musicians. Unlike a traditional Broadway musical, the many songs aren't belted out, but sung simply and well, as befits a rural story. Directed by Alkis Papoutsis with music direction by Christopher Peifer and performed by a disciplined and talented cast, the sure, deliberate pace accretes the palpable inevitability of a classic tragedy of grave consequence. It's a stunning and serious pleasure. At Theatre 80. 1 hour, 45 minutes. [Osenlund]Village Voice
http://www.villagevoice.com/2012-08-08/theater/fringe-binge-2012/
"You only had to walk back into Theatre 80 for another mountainous musical, the atmospheric Dark Hollow, which sets Gëorg Büchner’s Woyzeck amid the Appalachian hills … this production does claim a stirring bluegrass band and a song list drawing on terrific traditional ballads. The original ones, by Elizabeth Chaney and Christopher Peifer, aren’t too shabby, either.”
-- Alexis SoloskiTheater Mania
http://www.theatermania.com/off-off-broadway/reviews/08-2012/2012-fringenyc-roundup-1_60465.html?page=3
" … The challenge Buchner presents -- and Chaney has taken up -- is to maintain interest in the hapless protagonist when he richochets through life as an army barber and as the spouse of a loving woman who eventually strays with another enlistee.
Alternately docile and irrationally outraged and in time homicidal, this Woyzeck (Kevin Kash) sometimes barrels, sometimes shuffles through his scenes with stooped shoulders. Indeed, the bent-over, defeated posture seems to be the one concession to characterization that Kash -- as directed by Alkis Papoutsis -- allows.
Chaney does add something to Buchner's 1836 work, which is based on a story taken from the 1821 headlines. By opening her version with Woyzeck sitting center stage while behind him a preacher rants and a choir member raves, she implies some of that old-time religion triggered his initial disorientation.
She enforces that view by making Dark Hollow a play with music, much of it carrying religious overtones. The most pertinent inclusion -- all are played by a gritty quintet at stage right -- is the traditional "Man's Life's a Vapor," which repeats the lyric, "Man's life's a vapor, full of woes -- he cuts a caper, down he goes." And just as the refrain repeats the "down he goes" part, the production keeps up the unrelenting going-down action."
-- David FinkleNYTheatre.com
http://www.nytheatre.com/NytheatreNow/Review/fringenyc2012-dark-hollow-an-appalachian-woyzeck
"What a crazy powerhouse of a play Georg Büchner's Woyzeck is. Its reputation often seems to rest on its formalistic innovation, its ahead-of-its-time expressionistic shape of thematically related scenes that deliver atmosphere over strict narrative.But what makes Woyzeck so resonant is in fact its story, which hits deep archetypal wellsprings of the human potential for cruelty through a tale of a beleaguered young solider Woyzeck, who murders his common-law wife after the world's humiliations grow too fierce for him to handle. Dark Hollow: An Appalachian Woyzeck, currently being performed in FringeNYC, makes the choice to transplant Büchner's story into Depression-Era Appalachia, which seems high-concept but ultimately translates the play's cynicism in remarkable ways. It maintains Büchner's scene structure and characters but frames them around a live band and a plethora of haunting songs (most traditional) that are steeped in a willful acceptance of death and futility.
… Some of the songs - like "Pretty Polly" or "Shady Grove" - carry deep wellsprings of strength and darkness that the play discovers through a well-controlled atmospheric staging. There are funny moments but they come out of the dankness rather than overshadowing it, and even the excitable crowd scenes maintain the air of a Christ-haunted society unable to manage its original sin. As Woyzeck, Kevin Kash brings a severe intensity that is constantly deepened as he is consistently battered by his doctor, drill sergeant, and even the mother of his child. And the adaptation finds a similar complication to that of the original play through its setting: while much of Woyzeck's ultimate crime can be explained in terms of poverty, small-mindedness, and social cruelty, his visions come from somewhere much deeper than simple conditioning. There's a nearly religious conviction to his mania (even if we do explain it in terms of the experiments he agrees to suffer for money) that finds an effective equivalent in rural Christianity. Considering it's a FringeNYC show, the well-oiled production, which manages to deliver this atmosphere with seeming ease despite a large cast, live music, and complicated transitions, is particularly noteworthy.
… what this team (adaptor Elizabeth Chaney and director Alkis Papoutis) has done is stay true to a legend while not letting themselves be hampered by it. For both the overly-familiar and the neophyte, it's a great production that can make you forget why the play is so great so that you can remember why it's so damn scary.”
– Stephen Cedars
All content Copyright by Christopher Peifer
