Clear Static Review

The Black Angels in Heaven or Headliners

Oct 252011

The Black Angels at Headliners 10/21/2011

If the soul of the Highlands had a sound, it would be what was heard at Headliners on October 21^st. Venturing through the door into a room, was like going into a kaleidoscopic hall filled with neon lights and psychedelic ambience. The Black Angels, who are currently on a world tour promoting their third album and first on Blue Horizon Records, Phosphene Dream, put on an amazing show. Their sound lies somewhere in between that of Jefferson Airplane and The Verve. The group eclipsed a fitting backdrop of imagery projected behind them, accompanied by the neon glow of stage lights. Their stage setup featured a sort of mixing board of effects to help generate the appropriate sound that the band is known for, neo-psychedelic rock as stated on the groups website.

The band, from Austin Texas, has done quite well for themselves, with a world tour and having their latest album mixed by Dave Sardy, who has worked with such groups as Wolfmother and Oasis. Their song “With You in My Head” is also featured in the Twilight film.

It should be noted that while the main act of the night was The Black Angels, the other bands, Dead Meadow and Spindrift, gave an equally entertaining and enjoyable performance.

For more information on The Black Angels visit http://theblackangels.com.

Elephant Revival At Uncle Slayton’s

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Sep 212011

In a small brick wall room reminiscent of an old speak easy, the Colorado based band Elephant Revival, gave something more along the lines of a spiritual performance than a concert. The five piece group eloquently alternated between a wide variety of instruments, including banjos, fiddle, upright bass, djembe and a washboard. Their sound ranges between folk, Celtic and Indie Rock; however, the group defines their style as “Transcendental Folk” on their website. Whatever one may call it, the tone had a very honest and organic feel.

Currently promoting their latest album, Break in the Clouds, from their Ruff Shod label, Uncle Slayton’s provided an excellent atmosphere to host a band with such an earthy sound. Audience members seemed duly impressed with the music, giving a round of applause after each piece and a standing ovation at the end of the set.

After the show the band graciously met with fans, signing autographs and posing for photos. The group was down to earth and pleasant, much like their music. Overall, the show was a wonderful experience and provided a break from the standard format of much of today’s music. For more information on Elephant Revival, visit http://elephantrevival.com. The site lists tour dates, band information and merchandise and album sales.

Special thanks to Travis Dykstra for providing the photography for this article.

BY KURT REYNOLDS

Sailing Black Kites

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Sep 052011

Silver Tongues - Black Kite

Black Kites
Silver Tongues
By Kurt Reynolds
The appropriately named Silver Tongues new album, Black Kite, on Karate Body Records, portrays a musical expedition of life’s events and does a pretty good job of it. What started as a one-man project in Louisville became a five-piece group endeavor. The record comes off as a somewhat epic soundtrack to a movie that was never made. “Ketchup,” the first single, released on July 1, 2011, sounds like a voice in the darkness, beckoning to be heard. On this particular track, the instruments slightly overpower the poetic melody of the shouted vocals. Just under two minutes, the band tries to convey a lot of emotion on the track and seems to do it rather well.
The band has an orchestral sound with good lyrics, great melodies and harmonies. As stated on their Facebook page, the band examines the good and bad of life’s events and writes with a hopeful outcome in the future. Between the first and last track on the album, listeners may hear a style similar to the Coldplay. For instance, some songs open with a one or two instruments and vocals, and then progress into something more symphonic.
Overall, Black Kite is a good listen, althoug – despite the effort of writing with a positive outcome – somewhat melancholy. During a live show, on the other hand, people might get their fingers burnt from holding up their lighters for the whole set. But this band is definitely worth checking out live, which is easily done since they are from this area. More information can be found at facebook.com/silvertonguesmusic. The album should be available at ear-X-Tacy.

Fake Problems Are Looking At Real Ghosts

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Aug 292011

Real Ghost Caught on Tape (SideOneDummy Records), the third studio album by the band Fake Problems, proves to be a fun, upbeat listen. Somewhere between the intersections of pop, punk and indie lies the sound of the band; “beach punk,” as they classify it on their Facebook page. The first single released off the album, “Soulless,” starts off like something out of a 1950’s grease movie soundtrack (The music video for the song is rather entertaining, as well.) The band hails from Naples, FL and has been on the road touring for the better half of the year. The group also maintains a video blog on YouTube dubbed “Highlights & Lowlights,” which is rather entertaining in itself.

As mentioned earlier, Real Ghost… is quite upbeat, with a ska-like happy vibe to it. The record starts out on a very upbeat song, “ADT,” and ends on a rather melancholy lament, “Ghost to Coast.” All the members seem to be quite proficient in their playing and as a whole make good songs. There is nothing on the album that could be considered too dull. There is a lot of versatility in the vocal range and tempos and hooks in the majority of songs, though there are a few slower grooves on the record. The band also has some nice little play-on-words-style lyrics.

Overall, I would recommend this album to anyone who enjoys pop-punk/beach punk music. As the band is currently on tour, a close venue to catch a live show may be worth the trip. (You just missed there show at Uncle Slayton’s. More information about Fake Problems can be found on various websites such as Facebook, Myspace, YouTube etc. however, their main page is http://fakeproblems.tumblr.com. The record can be purchased online at iTunes for $7.99 or any local record stores such as Ear-X-Tacy.

- Kurt Reynolds

Hazy Jane Makes the Blues Happy

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Aug 192011

Just before eleven o’clock at night, one could walk into Main Street Tavern and easily find a place to sit. Fifteen minutes later, that option changed. Even though the room was as hot inside as out, if not more so, the heat didn’t stop people from keeping their eyes and ears to the stage. Hazy Jane brought an electric current into the atmosphere that night. Performing an up tempo, blues and jazz-influenced rock sound, the band made the eardrums of the audience dance in delight.

The set started strongly with “Face!”, a great example of the band’s upbeat blues-based sound and continued that way for the greater part of their performance. With an ensemble of progressive guitar, vocals, bass and drums, the band provided enough entertainment to keep even non-blues fans satisfied.

About mid-way through the forty-five-minute set, the band slowed the pace down for a more jazz-inspired song. The band finished strongly, moving back into their indie rock specialty; in fact several audience members demanded an encore.

Prior to the band going on stage they kind enough to sit down for a brief interview. The members, Troy Mercer, Rob Bingham, Mike Oswald and Tyler Montgomery came from a former band, The Hemmingways. Hazy Jane was started by Rob and Mike as a funk, rock, blues, jazz and indie collaboration. The band, which has been together nearly a year, prides itself on their live shows. They stated that during a live show, listeners should be able to better feel the music rather than just listen.

During the interview, they elaborated on how songs came about, stating that it was more of a jam style of writing. Rather than one or two members coming in with an overview of how a song should sound, the members prefer to collaborate on all their music. However, Mercer, the lead singer, is primarily responsible for the lyrics, which, as he explained, are somewhat of a story with a lot of information missing. He expanded on that statement, explaining that the band wanted the audience to have their own interpretation of what the song means rather than have it spelled out to them.

The band recently entered the studio to start recording their first EP, with the expectation that six or songs would be recorded. Meanwhile, the group continues to book shows, with their next couple of performances at the Bard’s Town on August 6 and Stevie Ray’s on August 12.

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Aug 122011

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