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CD Review: Matt Gouette - Sunnyside
CD Review by Adam Wujtewicz
It seems like it's been a while since we've heard from pop songster Matt Goutte. Seems only appropriate that he releases his latest effort Sunnyside as winter turns to spring. It also seems like he's been taking his time to get the perfect blend of his rockin' Cassingles project and his previous melancholy pop solo work.
Sunnyside is upbeat tunes and sad tales, melodic hooks and lonely lyrics. It's the Get Up Kids without the indie rock pomp or Weezer without waving the "geek pride" flag. I don't believe that New London has ever had a more true pop rock songwriter than Matt Gouette. There is a purity to his style that no one else can boast. This album more than anything else I have heard of his seems to have been written so that everyone would like it. I say that without any irony or malice, I say it with the utmost respect. Matt just seems to have tapped into a sound that people everywhere couldn't find fault with. It moves and it's got some push to it but it never loses it's sense of melody or it's hooks.
CD Review: Fatal Film - Self Titled
CD Review by Adam Wujtewicz
New London indie rock stalwarts Fatal Film are releasing their new self titled CD at 33 Golden Street on Friday. Released by local record label The Telegraph Recording Company and having been ¾ recorded by Jason Banta (Recur Occurrence, Burnouts from Outerspace) this record is a celebration of all things local.
While most of their back catalog was rife with angst and angular sounds this album features a kinder gentler side of Fatal Film. The ryhthm section still pounds away with a steady slab of low end. Bassist Dave Freeburg still has a good mix of rubbery bounce and fat clipping distortion to his tone. Drummer Mike Winslow is as in the pocket as a metronome and his tom work adds great texture to the high end assualt of the guitars. It's really Matt Potter's vocals that are the first thing to give away this poppier direction.
CD Review: The Rivergods - Never Grow Old
CD Review by Adam Wujtewicz
The Rivergods are releasing their Never Grow Old EP on January 25th. If you’re familiar with the Rivergods then you are expecting nothing less than the lush Pop Americana sound they’ve been cranking out for years. If you’re unfamiliar with the Rivergods than allow me to paint you a quick picture of this 4 song outing.
Picture this; Blood on the Tracks era Bob Dylan and Harvest Moon era Neil Young in a poppy, less guitar centric, package. Now remove the vocals (because as iconic as both Bob and Neil’s voices are neither one is winning any awards for pitch and technique) and Ben and Nancy Parent both have wonderful and easy to listen to singing voices that work incredibly well together. It’s this 60’s folk rock and pop influence mixed with a more modern tonality, song structure and recording techniques gives you the groundwork of Never Grow Old. It’s channeling your forefathers through the lens of your own life and experience.
The Rivergods are releasing their Never Grow Old EP on January 25th. If you’re familiar with the Rivergods then you are expecting nothing less than the lush Pop Americana sound they’ve been cranking out for years. If you’re unfamiliar with the Rivergods than allow me to paint you a quick picture of this 4 song outing.
Picture this; Blood on the Tracks era Bob Dylan and Harvest Moon era Neil Young in a poppy, less guitar centric, package. Now remove the vocals (because as iconic as both Bob and Neil’s voices are neither one is winning any awards for pitch and technique) and Ben and Nancy Parent both have wonderful and easy to listen to singing voices that work incredibly well together. It’s this 60’s folk rock and pop influence mixed with a more modern tonality, song structure and recording techniques gives you the groundwork of Never Grow Old. It’s channeling your forefathers through the lens of your own life and experience.
CD Review: Anne Castellano and the Smoke - Electric
CD Review by Adam Wujtewicz
Anne Castellano and The Smoke are releasing their debut LP entitled Electric. Recorded by the band’s drummer, Tony Castellano, (also Anne's brother), Electric is 13 tunes of swirling melancholy with an early alternative backbeat.
Front and center is Anne’s voice - whether strong and scornful like on the opening track “Enough” or calm and learned on “Listen”, she makes you believe every word she sings. Right behind her is a mist of chorus and flanger soaked guitars. Vince’s icy lead lines leans towards the right speaker and Anne’s steady rhythm in the left. The separation spreads the sound out and allows the rhythm section to anchor the songs in a very direct way.
CD Review - When the Deadbolt Breaks - Drifting Towards the End of the Earth
CD Review by Adam Wujtewicz
2013 has been a pretty good year for metal of all kinds in my humble opinion. The new Inter Arma, Kvelertak and Vhol records make that a true statement. There is, however, another band that is putting out an album that I think is on par with, but completely unlike any of those records. Drifting Towards the Edge of the Earth by Preston/Norwich natives When the Deadbolt Breaks, is a masterful 120 minute voyage into the depths of the darkest parts of the human psyche. Sprawling doesn’t even come close to doing this album justice. Doom cannot begin to encompass the feeling you get when you listen to this album.
The album’s opener “The Woods are Full of Killers” begins with a dark, minimalist (though thoroughly fuzzy) guitar lead that drones through the entrance of a super melodic and lyrical bass line. The hints of feedback between the hanging notes add tension until about 3 minutes in when the lead line turns into a torrent of distorted guitar chords. The song moves at a glacier’s pace; adding in more pronounced feedback between chords and morose vocals that are reminiscent of Nick Cave on “Red Right Hand” or Layne Staley on “Angry Chair”. When the original lead line returns, this time more menacing and with full band behind in tow, it is offset by unearthly howling that is bound to make you look over your shoulder. Eight minutes in, the whole song hits the wall and completely breaks down to nothing but feedback and guitar that sounds like a car made of evil concrete revving its engine in slow motion. After another minute the bass and drums join in the assault further grinding your spirit into the dirt. Some more melodic notes are peppered in between the chords, drums come in and out along with layers of guitar to give you a slight reprieve and then take it away. Finally, at 12 minutes the beast collapses into feedback and allows the next song to start.
Having by this point possibly prepared yourself for another slow motion assault of deceivingly melodic funeral doom, “The Scavengers Daughter” kicks in with a solid stoner rock riff, complete with wah pedal and driving up tempo rhythm section. This is no Fu-Manchu, dune-buggies-in-the-California-desert stoner rock, this is more Acid Bath style, NOLA sludge. This song just throws you over its shoulder and runs away with you. Nothing like the first song but after a verse and chorus you are completely on board running right alongside, rather than letting it carry you. Then about halfway through, the song halts back to a stuttering crawl, this time with death metal growls and dissonant and unsettling guitar leads. That ugliness is only multiplied when they turn around into a straight ahead hardcore breakdown to carry the song out into samples of random and scary conversations.
After my play by play of the first 2 songs you might be thinking to yourself that this album is going to sound disjointed somehow. You’d be wrong. Through careful building and deconstructing of layers, the use of space and the sheer patience of the rhythm section WTDB are able to pull together an incredibly cohesive album. The variety of sounds both in the music and in the tone of vocalist Aaron Lewis’s voice, allow them to move seamlessly between sub-genre’s of metal and beyond. “Sleeps in the Burning Hills” has splashes of Isis and Mogwai, “Gunswallower” has shades of early 6 Feet Under, and “California Comes Rain” hints at Tool as well as Mark Lanegan’s solo work. The entire second disc, a 5 part single song entitled “My Coffin is Loaded with Sand and Fire”, plays the more ambient moments of Wolves in the Throne room against the progressive and story conscious elements of …And you will know us by the Trail of Dead.
Despite the comparisons and genres that I’ve hinted at, Drifting Towards the Edge of the Earth is a devil like I’ve never seen before. It comforts you with one hand while the other picks your pocket and its foot kicks you square in the ass. The places between quiet and loud, fast and slow, melodic and atonal is not where WTDB live but they are well traveled paths they use to get from one extreme to another. Whether it’s during the crushingly heavy parts or the mellower interludes the musicians are working at creating a mood and atmosphere. This is something that metal by and large was missing for a very long time but that WTDB are doing like pros. They are leaving no stone unturned and are putting their all into every second.
2013 has been a pretty good year for metal of all kinds in my humble opinion. The new Inter Arma, Kvelertak and Vhol records make that a true statement. There is, however, another band that is putting out an album that I think is on par with, but completely unlike any of those records. Drifting Towards the Edge of the Earth by Preston/Norwich natives When the Deadbolt Breaks, is a masterful 120 minute voyage into the depths of the darkest parts of the human psyche. Sprawling doesn’t even come close to doing this album justice. Doom cannot begin to encompass the feeling you get when you listen to this album.
The album’s opener “The Woods are Full of Killers” begins with a dark, minimalist (though thoroughly fuzzy) guitar lead that drones through the entrance of a super melodic and lyrical bass line. The hints of feedback between the hanging notes add tension until about 3 minutes in when the lead line turns into a torrent of distorted guitar chords. The song moves at a glacier’s pace; adding in more pronounced feedback between chords and morose vocals that are reminiscent of Nick Cave on “Red Right Hand” or Layne Staley on “Angry Chair”. When the original lead line returns, this time more menacing and with full band behind in tow, it is offset by unearthly howling that is bound to make you look over your shoulder. Eight minutes in, the whole song hits the wall and completely breaks down to nothing but feedback and guitar that sounds like a car made of evil concrete revving its engine in slow motion. After another minute the bass and drums join in the assault further grinding your spirit into the dirt. Some more melodic notes are peppered in between the chords, drums come in and out along with layers of guitar to give you a slight reprieve and then take it away. Finally, at 12 minutes the beast collapses into feedback and allows the next song to start.
Having by this point possibly prepared yourself for another slow motion assault of deceivingly melodic funeral doom, “The Scavengers Daughter” kicks in with a solid stoner rock riff, complete with wah pedal and driving up tempo rhythm section. This is no Fu-Manchu, dune-buggies-in-the-California-desert stoner rock, this is more Acid Bath style, NOLA sludge. This song just throws you over its shoulder and runs away with you. Nothing like the first song but after a verse and chorus you are completely on board running right alongside, rather than letting it carry you. Then about halfway through, the song halts back to a stuttering crawl, this time with death metal growls and dissonant and unsettling guitar leads. That ugliness is only multiplied when they turn around into a straight ahead hardcore breakdown to carry the song out into samples of random and scary conversations.
After my play by play of the first 2 songs you might be thinking to yourself that this album is going to sound disjointed somehow. You’d be wrong. Through careful building and deconstructing of layers, the use of space and the sheer patience of the rhythm section WTDB are able to pull together an incredibly cohesive album. The variety of sounds both in the music and in the tone of vocalist Aaron Lewis’s voice, allow them to move seamlessly between sub-genre’s of metal and beyond. “Sleeps in the Burning Hills” has splashes of Isis and Mogwai, “Gunswallower” has shades of early 6 Feet Under, and “California Comes Rain” hints at Tool as well as Mark Lanegan’s solo work. The entire second disc, a 5 part single song entitled “My Coffin is Loaded with Sand and Fire”, plays the more ambient moments of Wolves in the Throne room against the progressive and story conscious elements of …And you will know us by the Trail of Dead.
Despite the comparisons and genres that I’ve hinted at, Drifting Towards the Edge of the Earth is a devil like I’ve never seen before. It comforts you with one hand while the other picks your pocket and its foot kicks you square in the ass. The places between quiet and loud, fast and slow, melodic and atonal is not where WTDB live but they are well traveled paths they use to get from one extreme to another. Whether it’s during the crushingly heavy parts or the mellower interludes the musicians are working at creating a mood and atmosphere. This is something that metal by and large was missing for a very long time but that WTDB are doing like pros. They are leaving no stone unturned and are putting their all into every second.
I AM Festival Info & Schedule
*Last Updated September 6 - 8:22pm
One day. Five stages.
Over 25 bands. Dozens of DIY and indie craft vendors. One of
Connecticut's biggest indie music festivals returns to downtown New
London on September 7th. The festival is FREE for all to attend. Acts
will take over five stages throughout downtown New London on the
Parade, at Hygienic Art Park, and Oasis Pub, 33 Golden, and The
Telegraph with music running from 1pm to 2am. Our
INDIE MARKETPLACE will return extending up the Parade along State
Street. Please note that performances at Oasis Pub and 33 Golden are 21+ only.
Make sure to tag your twitter & facebook posts and pics #iamfest2013
LIVE VIDEO COVERAGE
The Day will be streaming live video from The Parade,
Hygienic Art Park, and The Telegraph!
http://theday.com/section/iamfest2013
Hygienic Art Park, and The Telegraph!
http://theday.com/section/iamfest2013
MORE INFO
SCHEDULE
PARADE PLAZA
12:30 The WTO Dance Crew
1pm Anderson Family Picnic
2:15 Straight To VHS
4pm Fatal Film
5:30 Camp
7pm Echo & Drake
8:30 Cymbals Eat Guitars
10pm DEATH (headliner)
12:30 The WTO Dance Crew
1pm Anderson Family Picnic
2:15 Straight To VHS
4pm Fatal Film
5:30 Camp
7pm Echo & Drake
8:30 Cymbals Eat Guitars
10pm DEATH (headliner)
HYGIENIC ART PARK
3:15 Bedroom Rehab Corporation
4:45 Elison Jackson
6:15 Daphne Lee Martin
7:45 Mark Mulcahy
9:15 The Guru
THE TELEGRAPH
2pm James Maple
3pm Viking Jesus
4pm Violent Mae
5pm Roz Raskin and the Rice Cakes
OASIS PUB (21+)
6:25pm Slander
7:30pm Slim Wray
11:15pm Pretty & Nice
12:20am Ava Luna
33 GOLDEN (21+)
6:30pm Camacho / Skobie Won / Erik Lamb
11pm Empty Vessels
12am New Highway Hymnal
1am Horns of Ormus
Save this stage schedule to your smart phone
OR print it out!!
OR print it out!!
Finalists Announced For CT Music Awards
Finalists for the Connecticut Music Awards have just been announced! LOTS of New London acts!!! Camacho, Daphne Lee Martin, Suicide Dolls, Chumzilla, Bedroom Rehab Corporation, John Fries Band, Frank Lo, Hempsteadys and MORE!!!!! Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on Tuesday September 17th at the Bushnell in Hartford. Tickets go on sale Monday August 5th at 10am.
Check out the list of finalists here:
http://www.ct.com/entertainment/music/connecticut-music-awards/wtxx-2nd-annual-connecticut-music-awards-the-finalists-20130801,0,4659198,full.story
Sailfest Info & Schedule
This article will continued to be updated as new information becomes available.
Check back often!
Check back often!
Last updated July 13- 12:01pm
Sailfest Hours:
Friday - July 12 (5pm to 11pm)
Saturday - July 13 (10am to 11pm)
Sunday - July 14 (10am to 6pm)
Friday - July 12 (5pm to 11pm)
Saturday - July 13 (10am to 11pm)
Sunday - July 14 (10am to 6pm)
Street Closures: (Sat & Sun ONLY)State Street
(from Eugene O'Neill Drive to Bank Street)
Bank Street
(from Tilley Street to State Street)
(from Eugene O'Neill Drive to Bank Street)
Bank Street
(from Tilley Street to State Street)
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