FEATURE INTERVIEW with Brian Lee Skidmore of The Weird Beards

Interview by Corrine Jensen 
April 19, 2011

WC: So, you’re Brian Lee Skidmore… how awesome is that?
BLS: It’s about as amazing as a butterfly emerging from a cocoon.

WC: That is pretty amazing. What’s also amazing is your music. Recently you traveled up to Vermont and performed some solo gigs. How was that experience?
BLS: It was fantastic. It was just me and my Uke and everyone was just so kind and my music was very well received.

WC: Well, that’s cool. What knowledge did you take away from the shows?
BLS: It really showed me that I need to be on the road. I need to be out there making music. There’s a market for it. People want something original and creative, something just… different.

WC: Ha. Well you are certainly different! 
BLS: Yeah, it’s true. But different can be exciting and unusual and people need that. Some of these people, they don’t even know it yet.

WC: Speaking of things that are different and exciting and unusual, let’s talk about the New London music scene. Are there any New London bands out there that you’re digging?
BLS: Definitely Straight to VHS. Their passion and drive are constantly inspiring me.

WC: What would you tell up and coming musicians and bands emerging onto the New London music scene today? 
BLS: I would tell them that this city is absolutely the best place to start. This city has evolved so much musically over the years. New bands can survive here, they can thrive here. It is a good place to ‘come from’ but hopefully they can break out onto a larger scale.

WC: What do you mean by ‘break out onto a larger scale’? 
BLS: Just, New London is great, but if you perform in the same city over and over again people lose interest. There will always be the die hard fans, and I love each and every one, but the appreciation and interest in your style of music comes in waves. You need to keep it fresh.

WC: Speaking of, your band, the Weird Beards, are coming out of a 5 month hiatus. What did you guys do during that time? 
BLS: We’ve been working on our first full length album ADED (All Day Every Day) and practicing and lining up gigs.

WC: What’s up next for the infamous Weird Beards?
BLS: The big show coming up is the 4/20 Uke fest at the Oasis Pub. What started as a celebration of our bands birth (4 years ago) is now a New London tradition and this year the line up is huge. Everyone should come.

WC: I’ll be there!
BLS: Awesome. We’ve also been talking with the talented Chris Castle about a summer tour on the East Coast and Mid-West. We also plan on making some music videos this summer and will be looking for actors, models, dancers to partake. It’s going to be epic.

WC: So should we be on the lookout for the Weird Beards name on the Whalie awards ballot next year?
BLS: Definitely. We have big things looming in the future. We’re just constantly changing and evolving and growing with no end on the horizon.

Look for an upcoming full length from The Weird Beards titled ADED! Arreaka!

CD Review: A Honey Wagon - How Come Every Time We Get Kentucky Fried Chicken It Rains?

Published April 8, 2011
By Adam Wujtewicz

A song that’s both easy to listen to and artistic seems like an impossible feat in today’s musical climate.  Most people believe in order to make artistic music you have to be so abrasive that you alienate people from your sound.  Most pop music is watered down formulaic garbage.  Why is no one aiming for the bull’s-eye anymore?  Is it the artist or the audience?  Does any of this really matter?  How come every time we get Kentucky Fried Chicken it’s raining outside? by Honey Wagon proves that it does matter.  It’s equal parts Kinks and Exploding Hearts; it’s careless and fun without ever being sloppy and thoughtless. 

Terry Flynn (vocals & guitar), Chris Moore (bass) and Jay Curland (drums) have raw musical energy that they’ve crafted into beautifully produced, listenable pop rock songs.  Simple, energetic, four chord rock songs are usually turned into lo-fi recordings that intentionally sound bad in order to give them credibility.  Honey Wagon took pride in this recording and labored to get a fully formed product and layered sounds to fill in all the spaces that a live show can have.  The vocals are doubled and harmonies added with great care taken to add the correct effects rather than just slapping a huge amount of reverb on them.  The guitar may be thin and jangley (ala the Jam) but again with multi-tracking and proper application of effects it loses its abrasiveness and fits into the mix. 

With all that being said about Terry’s contributions to the record,  it’s the rhythm section that makes this record complete.  The bass lines are elastic and melodic and the drums play to the songs and really accent the performance.  Instead of just being the backbone of the band Jay and Chris are more like the entire body; receiving signals from the brain and actually making them reality.  The quality of this album is typified by "Sleepwalker" and "January 33^rd".  These songs will stick in your head and show you what it means to really build a recording from the ground up.

CD Review: The Hempsteadys - The Beat That Moves Hempstead Street

Published April 1, 2011
By Adam Wujtewicz

Punk rock reggae enthusiasts rejoice... The Hempsteadys are releasing their debut EP.  It's been a long time in the making but when you have something like 6 million and 30 band members... booking studio time is difficult.  Well the wait is over and it was worth it.

Knowing their punk rock tendencies, The Beat That Moves Hempstead Street has surprisingly clean and polished production.  All the instruments are separated and panned and you can hear them all.  This is welcome change from the mush of sound you can sometimes get from 3 guitars playing at the same time, which this band often has live.  The dynamics show through with this kind of production so that you don’t lose the ups and downs of songs like "Bad Government".  With Isaac's vocals being as gruff and forceful as they are, this song could beat you over the head verse after verse... but it's not until 2/3 of the way through the song when the band builds to match his intensity then fades out at end of the song.  The "quiet-loud-quiet" dynamic of "She Only Loves Me When She’s Drunk" is something you wouldn't expect from a band labeled as a "party band" but the huge choruses with heavy guitar strumming and skankable bass line reminds you why they got that label.

The dynamics and production are all well and good but for my money, the best part of this EP is "Judas Priest".  What this song lacks in ups and downs it makes up for with raucous wall of sound that the rest of the EP doesn't showcase but their live shows are known for. This song is full tilt from beginning to end and is still sounds clean throughout.  The crack of Matt Covey's snare drum makes this song jump, then the steady thud of the kick brings it back to the floor.

The Beat That Moves Hempstead Street is everything you'd expect from a Hempsteadys EP but with more thought put into it than some may give it credit for.  These guys have done their homework within the genre often dubbed "dirty reggae" and deserve more credit than being labeled as just a "party band".

CD Review: The Rivergods - Signs

Published March 20, 2011
By Adam Wujtewicz

Stalwart alt-country folksters The Rivergods have been pleasing audiences with their unique blend of all things "Americana" for over 10 years.  Their brand new full length Signs offering is full of everything you should expect from a word like Americana.  It’s not just another day at the office though, there are moments that, if they don’t surprise you, then they’ll at least make you smile a little wider than you already were.

For all of the instrumentation on this record the sound is surprisingly sparse, not to be confused with "hollow" or "lacking".  Due to meticulous mixing and panning none of the instruments jockey for position and none of the sounds overlap or muddy each other up, a place for everything and everything in its place.  This doesn’t add up to a wall of sound but it allows your ear to drift from instrument to instrument and catch sounds as they come into and fade out of the songs.  A song that’s as quiet and personal as “Shallow End” most people would not play with anything but an acoustic guitar.  The Rivergods took that song and used full instrumentation and by keeping everything subdued and minimal they made it even more powerful.

On the poppier side of that coin "Runaway Mind" is another tearjerker of a song set to a very choppy piano driven  verse which makes it skip along so you’re hopeful rather than crawl along and make you cry in the dark.  This is my vote for best song on the album.  The lead guitar pop’s and chirps over Nancy’s natural and fluid vocals while the piano and bass boost her up and let her shine.  The Rivergods have always been an “all inclusive” band, they know how to pull people in, keep their attention and make them listen to and enjoy things they wouldn’t expect.

The biggest surprise on Signs is the Neil Young meets Black Angels "Roadrunner Blues".  A tense psychedelic journey through the rock n’ roll desert.  The clicking snare drum is a time bomb that explodes during the choruses.  Guitars sneak up on you from all sides and the low distortion rolls over the whole song like a fog.  This is probably the most atypical song on the record and though it may surprise some listeners it’s the song that showcases the production of the album the best.
Signs is a collection of great songs that you would have to try very hard to wear out.  There is plenty of variety and nothing to push you away from it.

CD Review: Gone For Good - Lightning Behind The Grace

Published March 13, 2011
By Adam Wujtewicz

Gone for Good is back in full swing and their new full length Lightning Behind the Grace, is all the proof you need.  The record was recorded by Jason Banta of the band Recur Occurrence, mostly in a run down room of a downtown New London building that just happened to have perfect acoustics... this is a home grown affair.  A little more agro and intense then they once were, they've focused that energy into creating a fully formed and cohesive LP.

The quality of sound on this record is top notch.  The guitars are huge, full and round.  There is a large Queens of the Stone Age influence in the guitar sound and riff writing on the album, but what they diverge from the 'Queens is the amount of vocal melodies and harmonies that add whole new dimensions the songs.  There is plenty of force in Nick’s voice but even when he's pushing his voice to breaking there is always pitch, (with the exception of the Phil Anselmo-esque monolog on "Devilish Grin").

The sound of the rhythm section is one of a train rolling downhill with a belly full of coal.  Ryan's bass is driving and keeps the sound from getting too top heavy with the amount of guitar on the record.  The overdriven bass breaks are great reminders that Ryan is present... pushing and shoveling fuel on the fire throughout the record.  Gene's drumming is as steady as it comes and it's constantly inventive and attention grabbing.  The best example is the snare work on "House of Ghosts".  This could have been played straight the whole way through but he keeps your ear working with the extra rhythms.  The crack of the snare and the boom of the toms are great compliment to each other.

There is a much heavier straight ahead rock sound on Lightning Behind the Grace than the poppy, swinging sound of Gone for Good’s previous EP The Bright Lights.  This should in no way deter anyone from listening.  GFG knows a song needs a melodic chorus after an intense verse, and they know that songs need rhythmic breakdowns when a song has been rolling at a steady tempo for 2 minutes.  The songs don't have the Pixies style 'loud-quiet-loud' dynamic formula but are dynamic in tempo and feeling which allow them to smooth out all the edges without sacrificing the integrity of their sound.

What truly makes a great LP is cohesion and flow.  There are a few things that most small market bands won't bother to do either because of money restraints or because they simply don't think about it.  Songs like "Nowhere Reprise" give continuity and allow the listener to relax before they're hit with another whole song to absorb.  The album’s closer "Big Sleep" is a nice wind down with an interesting sound so that you don't hit stop before it ends.  Young bands take note, it's these things that take a collection of very good songs and turn them into a great album like Lightning Behind the Grace.

CD Review: Anne Castellano - What's Been Going On

Published November 10, 2010
By Adam Wujtewicz

Armed with a drum machine and rack of guitars Anne Castellano is releasing What’s Been Going On this Friday November 12th at the Hygienic Art Gallery.  Performed and recorded on her own, (except for the first 2 songs which Matt Potter of Fatal Film recorded and played bass on and having the mastering done by Jim Carpenter of the Hoolios), Anne acted alone and took the time to really think this one out.

The guitars and effects are stacked high up on top of each other leaving only the drum machine and bass tracks to keep them from toppling over.  Their sound drifts like a dense electric fog over every song.  The guitars do have a lot of high frequencies and chorus effects that give them their airy quality and this allows the drum machine and bass to do a more than adequate job holding up the low end.  Anne’s voice is the focus of this album though.  Her voice is strong, melodic and shines through the music without trouble, but this is not a white light at all.  Anne has a dark and brooding quality about her voice that makes her music what it is.  The songs are upbeat enough to be pop but almost all of them have a minor tone and feeling to them.

There are a lot of early 80’s alternative bands, like Psychedelic Furs and the Cure that Anne is drawing influence from but she absolutely puts her own stamp on everything.  When those bands did a single it was decidedly more pop than anything else they did.  Anne has melded enough pop sensibility and recognizable song structure into her own brand of dark alternative songwriting.  This makes for an easy flow through the album and allows the listener to decide which song to grab ahold of rather than having the band tell you.  “How Much More” is my favorite song on the record - it’s got a steady driving tempo and vocal melody that will easily get stuck in your head.  The mix between the vocal and the guitar on this song is much closer than the others which makes it into a tighter, denser package.

What’s Been Going On as a whole is an easy listen and you will instantly feel like you’ve owned it forever.  The songs are familiar but not overplayed and they all give you something a little different to key in on.

CD Review: Erik Lamb - Shoot Everything

Published October 30, 2010
By Adam Wujtewicz


I always wondered why there weren’t more hip-hop artists that embraced beats with more of a techno/electronica sound.  I may have been looking in the wrong place all this time but Erik Lamb is doing it and he’s making it sound like a viable option.   

Shoot Everything is as professional sounding an album as you’ll hear.  All the sounds are crisp, the vocals are all duplicated in the right places and the beats all bounce at the right tempo.  None of this makes Shoot Everything sound cookie cutter… it means it’s easy on the ears, it means that there is more than likely going to be some fist pumping going on at his shows.  Actually I think the thing that takes the longest to get used to is Erik’s voice.  It’s got an Aesop Rock sort of nasal quality that gives it character.  I personally love Aesop Rock and think his voice is his best attribute and similarly with Erik Lamb.  He’s got an incredibly laid back sound to his voice no matter how fast his rapping or what he’s rapping about.  It’s a sort of quiet confidence that is incredibly refreshing when compared to the soulless mainstream hip-hop chest-beating and materialism.  

Speaking of mainstream hip-hop, stealing a page from Jay Z and twisting it into a clever turn of phrase Erik says "99 problems, the past is done, I’ve got 99 bananas let me pass you some” in “Peapod”.  Things like that make me laugh and that’s what makes hip-hop fun, and isn’t that why we’re listening?  The song after “Peapod” is “7:30” and that’s my vote for best beat on the record.  Just about every tone in the song has the skipping CD sound to it and when you line them all up it sounds amazing. 

Shoot Everything is equal parts indie rap intelligence and mass appeal madness.  This may be one of the only records that fist pumping goons, uber stoned cheeba monkeys and everyone in between can agree on the merits of.

CD Review: Get Haunted - Volume 1 & 2

Published September 30, 2010
By Adam Wujtewicz

Get Haunted Vol. 1 was recorded and co-produced by Bobby Crash and includes Kevin Hodge of Brava Spectre, on slide guitar.  Despite the subject matter of death and monsters, Bobby was able to make these songs sound jumpy and fun. The banjo is distorted and slashing, the drums thump and clip and the slide guitar floats above the whole thing like an angry spirit.  The music is like a snake handler keg party... it’s fun and dangerous and you will never forget it.

Joey’s voice absolutely booms over this spastic junkyard band.  It’s got melody and heft which is not usually a combination you hear anymore.  There may be a little Johnny Cash twang and low end in his delivery but let it never be said that Joey doesn’t have his own style.  The chorus's on this record are what really puts the final nail in the coffin though.  Almost the entire album, especially "1,000’s of Devils" and "Jim", is meant to be shouted along with.  Yeah it might be a strain on your voice and it’s certainly creepy but these are really catchy and easy to sing to choruses.

The charm of the entire record is that it brings us all to the same place.  Most people will tell you that you can interpret music however you want and that’s the beauty of it.  I disagree; I think what makes something great is the ability to make many different people feel the same way.  Get Haunted reminds us why it’s fun to watch horror movies and why we don’t care if we step on each others’ toes or get hit with an elbow when we’re dancing.  It’s just the ability to throw caution to the wind and get caught in a moment that makes us alive.

Get Haunted Vol. 2 is a much more somber and concentrated effort.  Done completely by themselves, except for "Silver Eyes" where Bobby Crash plays drums, Joey and Sarah show you what 2 people that have a passion for each other and music can do on a record.  Vol. 2 has a sort of folk/gospel feel to a few of the songs and it colors the entire album with a sort of supernatural/spiritual feeling.  Not so much like creep show and horror motif on Vol. 1, but a real life 'the-killer’s-outside-your-room-and-he’s-sending-you-to-see-your-lord', sort of way.

This albums' sound is much more reminiscent of the band 16 Horsepower or Them Poor Bastards than O’ Death or Can Kickers... it’s lively, but never overexerts itself.  The production values are the definition of lo-fi.  There is no polish or trickery on the entire CD and if there was it would ruin the atmosphere.  I’ve said this about other recordings that have been purposefully lo-fi but this is the real McCoy.  Not everything clips, but some things do, the distortion doesn’t bleed all over everything, but the tracks weren’t meticulously cleaned up either.  There may be a weird guitar note here and there or an off drum beat but you never lose the feeling. This recording just sounds honest, it’s not trying to be anything more than what it is and that’s refreshing.

If you think everything I’ve described does not sound like the Get Haunted you’re used to... don’t fret... there are still up tempo foot stompers on Vol. 2.  In fact my favorite song on the album, "Jean Jacket Kids", is one of them.  The songs will still get stuck in your head.  "Horses" which has a sound that’s similar to "Earth Angel" if it was sang by a mortician, has been stuck in mine for days.  Sarah even sings a couple tunes on Vol. 2.  "Silver Eyes" and "Falling Stars" are well thought out songs that keep with the somber sound of the record but give the listener something completely new to grasp on to with Sarah’s shy but simultaneously strong voice.  Vol. 2 is still Get Haunted but it’s fleshed out. There is a solid identity to the band and it’s now gone beyond death and monsters.  It’s about people and the things that scare all of us or make us sad or excite us.

CD Review: John Fries - EP

Published August 26. 2010
By Adam Wujtewicz

If you know John Fries "the Lo-Fi Radio Star" you know that he can wail on a cranked up electric guitar.  If you know John Fries "the Original Sinner" then you know that he is also familiar with an acoustic guitar.  Well the latter John Fries is releasing a self titled CD.... it's seven tracks of live solo performances... just a man and his guitar. 

There are guys who've become famous doing the sensitive man with an acoustic guitar shtick and there are a great many bluesmen that most people have never heard of that are incredibly soulful and out of this world guitar players.  John walks this huge difference in styles like a tightrope made of dental floss.  He sings like a sensitive guy; he's always on key and does have a tendency to show off a little with his vocal runs.  He plays guitar like a bluesman; finger picked, slapped and plucked until most people would cry out for mercy.  It is this dichotomy that allows John Fries to tell a story two ways in the course of one song.

Songs like "Out of Place" and "Another Love" were originally played under the Lo-Fi Radio Stars moniker.  This may seem like an old MTV Unplugged trick to get you to buy a song again in a different format but I promise you that these songs aren't just stripped down... they're transformed.  You can really hear the craft in the song writing when they're played and recorded like this. 
While the songs all sound similar because it's just John and his guitar... they were all live recordings from different places and times so they all have their own personality.  I don't think a format like this would work for most bands but for this recording it's exactly what John needed to do.

For more info:

https://www.facebook.com/JohnFriesMusic

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Red-Hot-Stove-Tops/135646006471779?ref=ts