Hailing from Northeast Philadelphia and its surrounding 'burbs, Creepoid has spent 2014 putting out new music at a fervent pace. Releases include Wet, an EP they dropped in April, and their self-titled sophomore LP which was released March 4th. The band will also be releasing a second EP before 2014 is through. This is the first taste of new music that fans have received since the Band’s full-length 2011 debut, Horse’s Heaven.
There’s an excess of ten inches of snow on the ground, more in the process of falling and I am having difficulty getting a phone signal. In the end I am well over a half hour late initiating the scheduled phone interview with Norwegian arms. I am told there are "no worries" as in celebration of being stuck at home due to the sow, Kieth Birthday was making his Jitterbug 7" a free download on his bandcamp just for the day. Keith Birthday is Norwegian Arms: a minimalist "weirdo folk”outfit singing about the human condition and recreational slumming. He accomplishes this armed with only his vocals, a mandolin, synthesizer and occasional drums.
The Jim Jones Revue unleashed a brand of fast-paced punk, marked by heavy guitar riffs and a violent, yet soulful piano that lay the backdrop for Jones’ irrefutable energy and presence. Songs like the Princess and the Frog which include separate guitar and piano solos that hit equally hard, and verses that include extended pauses from the Band so Jones can uncork his melodic screams, untethered, embody the Jim Jones experience.
I met The Sun Flights by happy accident while smoking a cigarette outside of Johnny Brenda’s after a Purling Hiss show. Natalie Butts (vocals & guitar) and Claire Duncombe (vocals) make up the folk inspired, song writing duo armed only with an acoustic guitar and ethereal harmonies. We share a mutual friend who can not sing enough of their praises and after introductions I pass them a business card while making plans to see one of their shows.
I have to wait a minute while Matt escapes the beer and conversation fueled rehearsal session with his band mates. When the background distraction ends, the graphic artist by day, song writer and guitarist by night is on a atmospherically high from their April 16th digital download debut of their self-titled, full length L.P, and their April 26th album release party at Kung Fu necktie. With colored vinyl, full color coded covers and a twelve page lyric insert, this indie band is willing to invest in and support the music they want to create and listen to.
Sadly, I arrived too late to hear Foxhound play more than one song but, after a brief intermission, Vinegar Creek Constituency took the stage. Their set played out nicely. The music they play is bluegrass and folk with just a tinge of pysch. They warmed up the slightly stiff audience with their alt-psych-folk tunes, and gently nudged them into straight-ahead up-tempo bluegrass. A couple of 60-somethings took to their feet and gently swayed with the beat. Another white haired man sat at the edge of his seat, khakis riding up his shins exposing long white socks, enthralled by the bands’ riffage; well into middle age but expressing the rapture of a 6 year old. One woman stared at her phone for much of the set; she must’ve been engaged in an intense game of Sudoku.
The band is playing on a small stage that appears to have been transported straight out of Haight Ashbury complete with red trimmed Oriental rug, cracked brick walls, and a monochromatic tapestry hanging from the ceiling. Michael Southerton in his jean and plaid ensemble conjures up classic rock circa 1970, with beautiful honey burst Les Paul strung around his shoulder. After playing a track from their EP, Song Dogs and the Nightjar, the band launches into something a little slower, Buffalo Crossroads a track that tells a story with a nice country alt rock feel. The highlight of the set was Wrong Side of Town, is my favorite track on the album, definitely the most aggressive, guitar driven and reminiscent of Neil Young. There is a moment of crisis with a feedback glitch the band seamlessly showcases Dan Cooper’s dexterity on drums, faultless in his yellow modest mouse tee. The crisis is quickly resolved and the set goes on.
It’s cold, the brittle brown leaves shuffle loudly across the porch as the band takes their respective seats in the antique school desks precariously placed around an ashtray. They are dressed in analogous skinny jeans, dark hoodies but Eric has a sweet vintage leather jacket. They aren’t your typical hardcore band, almost soft spoken and reserved at first, which makes sense because their music stands out as melodic hardcore, a tongue in cheek gesture to the genre.
Our favorite shows are the up close and sweatiest ones, but we like different venues for different things. When we play downstairs at World Cafe we know the sound is going to be top notch, but it's a different kind of show then say Johnny Brenda's or Kung Fu Necktie where things tend to get pretty rowdy.
Inspiration, for this harpist, is drawn from many places. I asked Mary about this, and she told me, “I get inspiration for the pieces from my friends, from paintings and images and scenes from movies, from beautiful things out there and bummers, from the guy I play music with (Jeff Zeigler), and from good memories of traveling around.” With such a diverse group of muses it should come as no surprise that her pieces are as varied in sound.
Pissed Jeans is honest. It’s folk music. I have this sense right now that every electric guitarist is running out to Guitar Center, buying an acoustic, putting on a country twang, and proclaiming him/herself to be folk. It’s the most disingenuous approach to folk. If you don’t believe it then YouTube search “Dropkick Murphys Today Show.” It’s an escapist route. “I sure love my ma and pa,” get real! You resent your parents just as much as the rest of us and you call them “mom and dad.” Pissed Jeans is working through the catalog of their youth and rehashing those sounds to suit their current perspective. That’s folk. Imagine yourself in a position where you couldn’t afford the time or the mason jars to undertake your aspirations of canning and you will find yourself here and now, ready to listen to Pissed Jeans. That is why their latest album Honeys is the most genuine thing I’ve heard in years. It won’t match up with your suspenders and mustache, or whatever other costume you don, but you might find some common ground in your flannel shirt.
Little Feat doesn’t follow the industry protocol, or what Fred described as “the grooming,” “the toys,” and “the machine.” Instead they follow a strategy that is typically most identified with their subculture counterparts, that is, the punk/hardcore world. They are quite possibly one of the hardest working bands in America. “We just keep kinda touring all the time… it’s usually between 80 and 100 shows a year.” Over the course of 42 years they have released 16 studio albums, or on average an album every 2.5 years.
In Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania there is a place located under a Septa bridge called “the Tressels”. The kids go there with the intent of getting high, drunk, or just goofing off. Andrew “Butch” Fullerton informed of this in response to a question I posed during our e-mail interview, as a side-note he added, “Every generation has a “Tressels” story.” While that may be true, every generation does not have a band like the Tressels.
