Thursday, May 30, 2019

SAVAGE RADIO PLAYLISTS MAY 2019: WVMO 98.7 FM-THE VOICE OF MONONA

SAVAGE RADIO EPISODE #170
"AN EVENING WITH SPECIAL GUEST DJ, DASH HOUNDS' ALIVIA KLEINFELDT"

MAY 1, 2019
1. "Clover" performed by Dash Hounds
2. "Billion Dollar Babies" performed by Alice Cooper
3. "Love In Song" performed by Paul McCartney & Wings
4. "Serpents" performed by Sharon Van Etten
5. "I Forgive You" performed by Protomartyr
6. "Baby We'll Be Fine" performed by The National
7. "Nicki" performed by Priests
8. "Words (Between The Lines Of Age)" performed by Neil Young

SAVAGE RADIO EPISODE #171
MAY 8, 2019

1. "Questions/Heaven Sent" performed by INXS
2. "15 Step" performed by Radiohead
3. "Freedom Fighters" performed by Utopia
4. "Face The Facts" performed by Foxygen
5. "Ramona" performed by Beck
6. "Unknown Caller" performed by U2
7. "Mr. Ambulance Driver" performed by The Flaming Lips
8. "Ziggy Stardust" (demo version) performed by David Bowie
9. "Hi Ho The Righteous" performed by Jonathan Wilson
10."On Top Of The World" performed by Cheap Trick

SAVAGE RADIO EPISODE #172
MAY 15, 2019

1. "Ghost Of A Friend" performed by Supergrass
2. "No One Escapes" performed by Astral Drive
3. "European Me" performed by Johnny Marr
4. "Bread and Butter" performed by The Waitresses
5. "Ritual" performed by Reignwolf
6. "New Media" performed by Slow Pulp
7. "Bullet Holes" performed by The Dream Syndicate
8. "Dogwood" performed by Jenny Lewis
9. "At My Most Beautiful" performed by R.E.M.
10."Skateaway" performed by Dire Straits
11."You Can Still Change Your Mind" performed by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

SAVAGE RADIO EPISODE #173
"1989: HAPPY 30TH ANNIVERSARY"
MAY 22, 2019

1. "The Want Of A Nail" performed by Todd Rundgren
2. "The Prisoner" performed by Howard Jones
3. "Topaz" performed by The B-52's
4. "King For A Day" performed by XTC
5. "Eye Know" performed by De La Soul
6. "Hot Zoo" performed by Adrian Belew
7. "What Do Pretty Girls Do?" performed by Kirsty MacColl
8. "Heads We're Dancing" performed by Kate Bush
9. "Let Love Rule" performed by Lenny Kravitz
10."Vicki Waiting" performed by Prince
11."Gouge Away" performed by Pixies

SAVAGE RADIO EPISODE #174
"THE LAST SONG"
MAY 29, 2019

1. "Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five" performed by Paul McCartney & Wings
2. "Kiss Of Life" performed by Peter Gabriel
3. "Come To Mama" performed by Pete Townshend
4. "Young World" performed by Slow Pulp
5. "Saudade" performed by Love And Rockets
6. "The Senator's Daughter" performed by Fountains Of Wayne
7. "Survival" performed by The Pursuit Of Happiness
8. "Thorn Tree In The Garden" performed by Derek and the Dominoes
9. "Timeless" performed by Badfinger
10."High Flying Bird" performed by Elton John

NOW PLAYING IN THE SAVAGE JUKEBOX MAY 2019

"ENTER THE WU-TANG (36 CHAMBERS)"
WU-TANG CLAN
Released November 9, 1993
"THE BEST OF THE WAITRESSES"
THE WAITRESSES
Released October 23, 1990
"3 FT. HIGH AND RISING"
DE LA SOUL
Released March 3, 1989
"PLASTIC FANTASTIC"
FLESH FOR LULU
Released September 19, 1989
"DOOLITTLE"
PIXIES
Released April 17, 1989
"#1 RECORD"
BIG STAR
Released June 1972
"PEARL JAM"
PEARL JAM
Released May 2, 2006

Sunday, May 26, 2019

SAUDADE: "BIG DAY" (EP) SLOW PULP

"BIG DAY" (EP)
SLOW PULP

SLOW PULP: 
Alex Julian Leeds: Bass Guitar
Emily Massey: Vocals, Guitar
Teddy Matthews: Drums
Henry Stoehr: Guitar

Mixed & Mastered by Henry Stoehr
Cover Artwork by Alex Julian Leeds

Composed, Produced, Arranged and Performed by Slow Pulp
Released May 15, 2019

saudade (noun): a feeling of longing, melancholy, or nostalgia for an absent something or someone that one loves and may never return

It's too short.

At just under 11 full minutes, "Big Day," the latest EP from the Madison, WI. originated now Chicago, IL based quartet Slow Pulp, is over and done with its four songs within that scant time frame. Now, I am certain that you may already be wondering if this observation and exclamation is indeed a criticism towards this new effort. On the contrary, I wish for you to think of this quality just as I do as it solely means two things: that I am anxious for even more music from this band and most importantly, I just did not wish for this EP to conclude.

Slow Pulp's "Big Day" is the full culmination of of the band's evolution from existing as a trio under a completely different band name (and corresponding EP which is no longer available), the arrival of songstress Emily Massey and her full inclusion into the band for the captivating, transitional "EP 2" (released March 9, 2017) and the two outstanding singles "At Home" (released June 5, 2018) and "Steel Birds" (released November 1, 2018). For me, it has been a pleasure without question to regard this group from my vantage point, witnessing how these four individuals arrived, grew and congealed together with such rich, textured, and multi-layered skill, talent and confidence.

With "Big Day," Slow Pulp has elegantly us with a diminutive package that contains a bounty of musical gifts, showcasing a band announcing its full arrival glowingly and with a deeply felt lushness that surprisingly conjured up powerful emotions that exist somewhere in the realm between bittersweetness, melancholy, discovery, warmth, grace, and an inexplicable state of nostalgia while also living and breathing exuberantly within each passing moment.

In doing so, Slow Pulp's "Big Day" is the band's finest moment to date as it is a work of enormous, urgent beauty.

1. "Do You Feel It"
The first selection clocks in under two minutes and possesses lyrics that do not extend terribly further than the song's title. And yet, with the song's immersive drone that is augmented by Henry Stoehr and Emily Massey's cyclical guitar patterns that ascend to triumphant Pete Townshend-esque strums, Teddy Matthews' percussives that phase into the proceedings to gift the track with a gently driving urgency and Massey's ethereal vocals which ask if we are feeling the purposefully undefined "it," this song is an wondrous introduction that contains the rising emotion of a new day's dawning.

2. "New Media"
A work of utterly stunning timelessness, as the EP's first song proper arrives as if from some unknown dimension in which the dreamy 1970's haze of Massey's intoxicating vocals and a musical bedrock that feels like the post punk 1980's, the post rock/shoegaze of the late 1990's into the 2000's, and even some musical territories as delivered via their contemporaries in Madison, WI's Post Social, can co-exist in sublime harmony.

It feels like an Autumnal wind at dusk.

3. "High"
"I have too much in my pockets. I wish they were empty," sings Massey on the EP's third track during which Slow Pulp begins as if in a dream and then, gets loud and vibrantly awakened. Opening with a somnambulistic daze, complete with acoustic guitars that sound as if transported from the 1990's alternative rock scene (mostly like a time period during which the band members were perhaps toddlers) and descriptions of sweaty palms and feelings of unreadiness ad overall reluctance for some significant event soon to arrive.

And then, the band crashes in, forcing the song's narrator to floor along with the changes or be swept away by them. Thankfully, the song and singer settle into a rhythm that compliments each other, possibly signifying the full acceptance of the forced changes, and therefore, the emergence into new territories.

4. "Young World"
"Big Day" comes into its full fruition with the EP's final track, a breathtaking, heartbreaking, emotionally resounding wave that exquisitely brings all of the EP's elements together, fully informing everything we have just heard while also serving as an expansive, cumulative statement.

With a musical bedrock that is off the same musical universe as "New Media," "Young World" gorgeously, compassionately takes flight into the mystic, the philosophical, the existential as the band contemplates experiencing something for the first time and pondering precisely what such an experience would be like--as if viewing the world through the eyes of a child being introduced to the world itself.

"How does it feel to be so young?"

For me, that lyric propelled itself from the speakers and burrowed firmly into my heart and consciousness, partially due to the way Massey sings the line but mostly, due to the sentiment and overall concept. It was striking to me to hear such a lyric expressing a question as the band members are young people themselves. For whom are they posing the question? To the listener? To a child? To themselves?

The journey of "Big Day" rests within that very question for when we do experience something for that very first time, we are able to recognize and reflect upon that experience and the emotions it conjured much more easily as we age due to our ability to readily engage with our perceptions, emotions and consciousness. Yet, what of that small child? A figure who is most likely so firmly relating to the present, to being so completely within the NOW that the question itself is meaningless because for them, there is no real answer to be had or given.

So, in essence, even though we gain perspective and the ability to articulate our emotions as we grow older, even when we are young people, what do we ultimately lose when we are not simply engrossed with the act of being? Hence the inherent melancholy of growing older.

Saudade, indeed.

I honestly do not know if this is indeed what Slow Pulp had in mind when they composed the song, but this is the band's crowning achievement to date, making the entire release a work of art that rewards you with repeated listenings, growing in its sublime lushness.

When the surviving members of The Beatles were creating their celebrated "Anthology" series during the 1990's, I vividly remember George Harrison remarking about the full length of the band's "Anthology 2" (released March 18, 1996), a double disc collection which clocked in at 2 hours, by expressing confusion with having a work that possessed such a duration because The Beatles attempted to place as much music as possible within 2 minutes!

I found myself returning to that comment as I listened (and still listen) to Slow Pulp's "Big Day," as the band clearly placed as much music as possible into the scant 11 minutes of the entire EP, ensuring that what the listener received was not something abbreviated or weakly conceived but truthfully, a complete statement that needed no more than the time span the band allotted for their material. 

With a production aesthetic that finds the band at their most glistening, Slow Pulp continue to solely serve the needs of the song itself, rather than attempting to have one band member's own star shine brighter at the expense of their bandmates.

Yes indeed, as the lead singer and now official frontwoman, Emily Massey more than deserves any and all attention she is bound to receive as she has possessed a certain je ne sais quoi that is perfectly made for the role she plays in music, from her time in the celebrated and now defunct Madison, WI based Modern Mod, the intriguing but also defunct Melkweed to now, her place in Slow Pulp, a band she seems to be tailor made due to her warm, seductive, enveloping presence throughout.

That being said, her bandmates in bassist Alex Julian Leeds, drummer Teddy Matthews (who often evokes the glide of Pink Floyd's Nick Mason)and guitarist Henry Stoehr, lifelong friends and veterans of more Madison, WI based bands including Dolores and Trophy Dad, respectively, are completely armed with formidable musical gifts that showcase their tastefulness as well as their overall melodicism.

By joining forces so seamlessly, Slow Pulp has more than effectively achieved that very inexplicable quality that several of the bands of the Madison music community has amassed, the ability to  lovingly reference the music that has influenced them and yet, to invent a musical identity that sounds like no one else other than themselves.

Slow Pulp's "Big Day" remarkably announces itself at the perfect time, a period during which the band's notoriety is beginning to ascend to new heights...and as far as I am concerned, deservedly so. During a current music era where so much of what we are being given is dangerously homogenized and becoming increasingly relegated to being an innocuous accessory rather than art to be treasured, Slow Pulp has beautifully delivered music designed to attract and engage potential audiences desperate to feel something when listening.

Slow Pulp's "Big Day" is precisely a work during which you are being asked to get in touch with some deeper emotional territory and arrive on the other side unquestionably moved by that elusive, evocative feeling that you cannot quite capture but you know it intimately once it arrives and settles into your hearts.   

Yet, as a side note to the band...do you think that next time, we can have a full length album? Just to make the feelings last even longer??? Even when they are filled with as much melancholic longing as "Big Day."

BANDCAMP:
https://slowpulp.bandcamp.com/album/big-day

Tuesday, May 14, 2019

MESSAGES SENT, MESSAGES RECEIVED: THE RETURN OF DISQ

"COMMUNICATION b/w/ PARALLEL"
DISQ

DISQ:
Raina Bock: Bass Guitar, Backing Vocals
Isaac De Broux-Slone: Lead vocals, Backing Vocals and All other instruments

Written, Arranged, and Performed by Disq

Mixed by Anthony Saffery & Isaac De Broux-Slone

Recorded in Isaac's basement

Produced by Isaac De Broux-Slone
Released January 25, 2019
via Saddle Creek Records

It has been nearly three full years since the release of "Disq 1" (released July 11, 2016), the debut album from Madison, WI's Disq, the power pop duo consisting of life long friends, bassist/songwriter Raina Bock and songwriter/singer multi-instrumentalist Isaac De Broux-Slone.

When I first heard that album, I was astounded to the point of immediately reaching out to their Madison music community peers for any information about them ("Disq?! They're prodigies!!" gushed Modern Mod/Dash Hounds singer/songwriter/guitarist/bassist Alivia Kleinfeldt), and then to De Broux-Slone himself all before I had even finished listening "Disq 1" in full.

Just as with the debut and sole album releases from their contemporaries in Post Social and Modern Mod, respectively, Disq's debut album was fully realized as the participants were still high school students yet the artistic reach within the album fully belied their comparatively young ages. While the album did indeed display an end-to-end "kid in a candy store" dynamism, "Disq 1" was unquestionably a work of enormously enthusiastic yet such highly controlled artistry that showcased a seasoned, mature and almost veteran approach to music composition, performance, production and most importantly, the songwriting.

As Bock and De Broux-Slone are both self-professed Beatles enthusiasts (De Broux-Slone is known throughout certain circles as being able to meticulously deconstruct and therefore reconstruct Beatle songs completely on his own in his home studio for fun--I have heard his cover of "Help!" and it is stunning in its perfection), their deep studies in the classic power pop genre were in full evidence within the compositions on "Disq 1," deftly showcasing the excellence and depth of their knowledge.

Where the spirits of The Beatles, Todd Rundgren, Big Star, Badfinger and the like were clearly in the songs' DNA, what Disq achieved so grandly were not copycat selections but wholly and defiantly original songs starring two young, idiosyncratic artists who already sounded like no one else other than themselves.

"Disq 1" was an album that not only made me want to listen over and over again (which I  most certainly did), it instantly made me curious as to where the band would head next. And now, three years later, we have a taste...or better yet, a sumptuous first bite of the future music that will most assuredly arrive.

In late January of this year, Disq released a new two sided single via the Saddle Creek record label and it is a BANGER!! Continuing with their musical aesthetic which blends power pop, garage rock and lush psychedelia, Disq conceptually and lyrically builds from their debut of teenage angst into songs of a grander universality and the cumulative effect is of an even higher quality as before: the single makes me want to immediately hear it all over again while making me salivate for whatever arrives in the future.

A SIDE: "COMMUNICATION" 
-With the sound of slightly warbled, unsteady guitar, "Communication"  opens gently, yet with a quiver. Once the drums and the entire groove of the song kicks into gear, the song finds is gait allowing De Broux-Slone to make his first statement, which becomes a series of a questioning pleas to finally a pained confession.

"Can you hear me--understand what I said
I know you don't understand the way I felt
You come near me--could you hear what I said
Can you hear me--I don't know what I said

and again communication takes me farther away
and the blame falls in between perception
communication takes me farther away
will I change or will it stay this way"

Already, we can see that we are far away from the exclusivity of the high school hallways and into an on-going interpersonal quandary and aspect of the human condition that exists upon a continuous loop for each and every one of us as we attempt to navigate society and ultimately, the world. "Communication" questions if we, as individuals, are being heard, understood, ignored, accepted or rejected by others and how those feelings and impressions formulate how we communicate with ourselves in addition to others.

Additionally, and especially when De Broux-Slone sings "I feel busy--I don't know where to go," I wonder if the song could also be viewed as a commentary concerning our level of distractions with the business of living life, most crucially our smartphones and social media, distractions that affect our ability to communicate and to being fully understood, sometimes by those closest to us.

While the song's narrator is lost in a state of confusion, the music keeps barreling full steam ahead with a propulsive riff and rhythm that brilliantly deviates from its track within a gloriously arranged and performed zig-zag mid section before returning to the song's main theme complete with lyrical guitars flowing through the grooves until crashing in a brief wall of feedback.

B SIDE: "PARALLEL"
From the start, Raina Bock grounds this absolutely spectacular song with a growling, menacing bass performance which not only sets up the track's main groove but hauntingly sounds like the dark, insecure thoughts of the song's narrator relentlessly creeping up on him in an endless pursuit, threatening to take over his mind and heart.

"I feel like you've been slipping away--we walk beside but I never see you
If I did, would you have something to say--I know you do but I feel like never
Do you think about me every day--I wonder if you lied when I told you something
Something's sinking and I hope it's not the both of us and my feelings about you..."

As the narrator's anxiety begins to mount, Disq echoes the emotions by gradually speeding up the tempo with each increased worrisome thought, evoking the feeling of spiraling out of control before settling into a disturbed stasis.

"But I don't remember asking for my life to get torn down
But it hit me so shocking--hit my head all around
When I told you that I hate you--didn't want you to believe it
When I told you that I love you--don't you understand I mean it...

...am I parallel to you--how can I know what's true..."

And with that, Disq has delivered a palpable exploration of psychological ache and pain, concluding with an explosive psychedelic finale.

For two songs that richly explore the concept of disconnect, Disq have superbly created material that connects instantly. With a musical approach that packs a dynamic instrumental punch combined with strong lyrics that are direct, intimate and expansive, Disq again proves that they are indeed the real deal as they are able to generate material that can easily go toe to toe with long established artists and force them to look over their collective shoulders.

Just as with "Disq 1," I am fully impressed, amazed and enthralled with De Broux-Slone and Bock's artistic skills which unquestionably prove that they are serious musicians who are unwilling to waste any opportunities that may arise to showcase their abilities. And to that end, it is clear as a bell that they are having a blast doing just that. Isaac De Broux-Slone's remarkable vocals warmly draw you inside each selection as rapidly as his instrumental prowess with Bock, as they have devised precisely how to make each song a musical universe unto itself, therefore making a full statement with the complete work. In doing so, they have truly made it a privilege to engage with their music, as they are not remotely...ahem....phoning anything in, and never presenting even one moment that feels jaded or drenched in any sense of self-congratulatory indie rock superiority.

"Communication" and "Parallel" are songs tailor made to be blasted from open windows even as they break your heart and trust me, Disq is a band I implore you to keep your eyes and ears at the ready to receive them because I am feeling that they might be on the rise.

Since the release of this single, the band has already received positive attention from the independent music press based upon their triumphant performances at this year's SXSW festival in Austin, TX. Furthermore, the band has also been hard at work recording the next full length album, this time receiving assistance from their auxiliary members when performing live, Post Social's Shannon Connor (guitar) and Brendan Manley (drums) and Logan Severson (guitar), who is soon to  unveil his own musical project called Lameena.

Such is the talent that resides here in Madison, WI and Disq have proven again that they stand especially tall. Yet with "Communication" and "Parallel," they have ascended even higher.

"COMMUNICATION" b/w "PARALLEL"
is available at...

BANDCAMP:
https://disq.bandcamp.com/album/communication-b-w-parallel

SADDLE CREEK:
https://saddle-creek.com/collections/disq/products/communication-parallel?variant=12786458361879

Sunday, May 5, 2019

SYNESTHESIA'S SESSION NOTES MAY 2019: SAVAGE RECORDS


FROM THE DJ'S STUDIO DESK:
Near the conclusion of Nick Hornby's High Fidelity, as well as the Stephen Frears directed, John Cusack starring film version, our wayward leading protagonist, the perpetually restless and admittedly miserable record store owner Rob is questioned by his girlfriend Laura about ideas of what he would do with his life if his choices and opportunities were unlimited. He hedges his responses until she reveals a list that he made himself some time in the past on which he compiled his choices with his number #1 choice being the following: starting and owning a record label, which he eventually does begin and thus names "Top Five Records," a nod to the infinite categorization tactic he has applied to not only his favorite music, but to essentially all areas of his life,  most notably, his romantic life.

That sequence, among so many within that story, hit home with me and for the purposes of this blogsite, I am happy to now reveal one of those similarities with you: the idea of starting and owning my own record label.

Dear readers and listeners, I am not a man of considerable means and I am certainly, and firmly,  grounded in reality. I do not have the funds or expenses to even begin such a life altering project. This idea of having my own record label is a pipe dream that will undoubtedly remain as as such. But that said, it is indeed a fun pipe dream to have and it is one that in uncomplicated by the realities of the music business as I really wish to just submerge myself in the romance of the music business whenever I think of this imaginary label.

At this time, and regarding the mythical label, I am thinking of the musicians and artists that populate the Madison, WI music community, the very figures that I have become so deeply fond of as artists and as people over these last several years. So often, I have housed the fantasy of having a physical space and place where all of these people would be able to have a home base at which to write, record, and produce without interference from myself, and without expense to them. They could be as creatively free and fearless as they wished to be and I would just be happy to have that environment for them.

To that end, when it came time to release new material the physical place would also be the environment of the record label. And the record label's name, you ask. Of course and why not? I would call this imaginary venture...

Savage Records.

I have been thinking of this idea more and more recently because as I regard these musicians and their activities, I could not be prouder of them as they are all in stages of either renewal, re-structuring or even some sense of ascension.
DISQ
(L-R: Logan Severson, Raina Bock, Shannon Connor, Isaac De Broux-Slone and Brendan Manley)

The very end of 2018 found Post Social releasing a new two track digital single while January 2019 saw the release of a new two track single from Disq, as released on vinyl by Saddle Creek records--incidentally two releases I have yet to write about.

Two of Post Social's lineup--singer/songwriter/guitarist Shannon Connor and songwriter/drummer Brendan Manley-- have joined forces Disq's singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Isaac De Broux-Slone and songwriter/bassist Raina Bock as auxiliary members for live shows. This union, which also features Logan Severson, who is also readying his own project known as Lameena, has already soared through triumphant performances at this year's SXSW Festival in Austin, TX and as I write, they are reportedly in Los Angeles recording the second official Disq album and preparing for a late Spring tour!

SLOW PULP
(L-R: Alex Julian Leeds, Emily Massey, Henry Stoehr and Teddy Matthews at the bottom)

Slow Pulp, the collective of Alex Julian Leeds, Emily Massey, Teddy Matthews and Henry Stoehr, relocated from Madison to Chicago, IL last year and they too have returned from celebratory performances at SXSW and are about a week and a half away from the release of their next EP entitled "Big Day" plus the end of the month start of their next tour.
WOOD CHICKENS
(L-R: Griff Chickens, Alex Wiley Coyote and Justin J. Johnson)

More behind the scenes, I have been privvy to works in progress by Anna Wang, Skyline Sounds and Squarewave.  

Singer/songwriter/bassist Abby Sherman of Trophy Dad and her own project Addison Christmas has excitedly informed me that work has finally begun on her own new recordings (with assistance by De Broux-Slone). Singer/songwriter/bassist/guitarist Alivia Kleinfeldt is prepping material to be recorded for the very first full length Dash Hounds album. And Trent Prall's alter ego of Kainalu is just this close to releasing a full length album this June.

Even further, I have somehow made an appearance upon a recording as shockingly, my own laughter was used as a sample upon a recent track by Wood Chickens, who also released a new album in late 2018, produced by Madison music luminary Bobby Hussy, himself the bandleader of The Hussy and Cave Curse.

As I regard all of these bands and musicians, I remain awed by their sense of community, as support for each other is free flowing. In my role as a DJ and having an avenue to support them on the radio, I am certainly going to keep trying to have them join me on-air for as long as I am able to have them as in-studio guests. But who knows, some of them may soon be unreachable due to further success. A possibility to be sure but you know, it would be more than worth it to see these individuals grab that brass ring for I am cheering all of them onwards and upwards from my vantage point.

Savage Records...sigh...I enjoy the sound of that for so many reasons, partially because it is yet another one of my musically themed hopes and dreams, regardless of how out of reach it actually is. Yet, with this one, inside of it is the love and excitement I hold for all of these musicians and the grander hopes and dreams I carry for all of them as they have all proven themselves to me, as artists and as good, genuine human beings.

If I had a magic wand, I would make Savage Records a reality for all of them and I could get their music out into the world so it could be as widely heard as far as possible...

...and their music would always be designed to be PLAYED LOUD!!!!!!!!!!!!