Friday, June 28, 2013

BSG at The Black Squirrel DC July 21

Thanks to Patrick my band now has a show on July 21 at The Black Squirrel in DC. What a better way to finish up your weekend than coming down for some Sunday rock n roll!!

The Black Squirrel is on 18th Street in Adams Morgan. Evidently they have an awesome beer list and great food. Come be the judge! The cool thing about this is it is a FREE show! Zoinks, Scoob!!

Times and other acts are still getting sorted out but it shouldn't be too late a night. Keep an eye on our Facebook event page for details. Come on down or the squirrel gets it! And by "it" I mean awesome rock n roll!!!

Sunday, June 23, 2013

BSG Origin Story: Part 1

I learned to play guitar around about 1998. By 2000 I was playing at open-mic nights and doing shows with friends, friends who were very supportive in that I wasn't particularly good. We mostly did covers, mostly alt-country tunes like Wilco and Gram Parsons, Johnny Cash, Son Volt, Ryan Adams and Uncle Tupelo but occasionally more rocky stuff...Neil Young, Big Head Todd, Radiohead. I started writing my own songs around then. I did my first album in 2001, recorded and produced by my good friend Mike in his basement. The fruits of that labor can be found here!

I had a songbook of about 15 songs of varying degree. The shows I would do, usually just me and my guitar opening for my friends' bands, focused on covers but I began to work the originals in. I played in a sort of band with my friends James and Clay but nothing ever came of it. Part of it was that it just didn't quite click, but mainly I wasn't as in to being in a band as I was doing my own schtick. Then around 2004 I stopped. The writing dried up; I felt I didn't have anything to say anymore. I got married and all the angst that fed the creativity seemed to be sated. And I had always had a kind of disdain for cover bands. Well maybe disdain is too strong a word; doing other people's songs just didn't interest me. I loved the creation part of the music experience. Without that I lost interest. So I put my guitars away; even sold my electric Rickenbacker 330 (something to this day I regret immensely).

Original lyrics to "Fall"
including notes on the
demo I created on my
little Tascam 4-track
But music always stayed important to me. My wife will attest to this as she noted my regular CD buying, which in time became digital downloading (legally, I care to add). But there was no juice to playing out, to writing songs. I felt that had become a short interest, a strange little detour.

Then about two or three years ago (time has really become an odd concept to me...I really have no sense of it anymore) I finally accepted the suggestion from my friend Tom, whom I had played softball with for many years and who I knew was a guitar player, that we jam sometime. I had put it off for years, mainly because I hadn't played my guitar in years but mainly I was intimidated by playing with anybody of real talent. Finally he wore me down. I dusted off the songbook, got myself familiar with some of the old tunes, and drove over to his place in Centerville to play.

The thing I remember most about that first jam was how well Tom took to the songs. He seemed to generally like them. That was a kick; I was flattered more than anything else that someone would think well of my little stories. By then those songs were almost 10 years old in spots. The ones later in the book had been written with a band in mind but I had just not progressed that far. And then Tom finally badgered me enough where we jammed and it just clicked. So I started going over once a week to go through these songs with him. It didn't take long before the bug bit me again and songs started pouring out. So joining the ranks with older songs like "A Lot To Ask" and "Fall" and "Zero Confidence Level" and "My Waterloo" and "Take Control" came new ones like "Confederate Gold" and "Roadside Crosses" and "Maria With Child" and "California Specific" and "Any Day Any Way" and "Into Your Arms" and "Another Teenage Dream" and "Girl Gotta Gun" (with music by Tom!).

I knew it really clicked when Tom played me a snippet of "Take Control" on his portable recorder. He was working on the solo so he put together a basic rhythm track and programmed a drum beat behind it. He played me the track he had so I could get an idea of the solo. Now, "Take Control" was a song I was ready to jettison because I was still playing on my acoustic and felt it really wasn't working. Until I heard what Tom had done with it, which was to turn it into a noisy rocker. My jaw dropped. I will be the first to admit it wasn't like Jimmy Page hearing "Stairway To Heaven" I am not that delusional, but I was shocked that a song I wrote one way could be re-interpreted another, and that it would sound so great. I said to Tom over and over "That's my song! That's really my song!" It sounds dorky but it was really the moment Braddock Station Garrison was born; that I knew we were on to something pretty good. If not good, well at least something we would enjoy.



I am reminded of this because on my trip to the Record & Tape Exchange in Fairfax I bought, amongst other things, a copy of Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water for $3. And on that record is a song called "The Only Living Boy In New York" which to me is one of the best written and best produced songs ever. Let's give it a quick listen:


If I could write a song that is 1/16 as good as this song I'd be ecstatic. I love everything about this song. Paul Simon's (completely and criminally) under-appreciated guitar playing, the amazing lyrics, the perfect production, and that singing. Christ, that singing...those harmonies. Listen to the bridge where the voices sound like angels coming down. This song pretty much convinced me I was a hack and I should just stop trying to write songs because nothing I write will come remotely close to being as beautiful and perfect as this.

Happily I got over that. I won't even say too late because I think if I hadn't of stopped for a while I might not have started playing with Tom and I wouldn't have met Michael and Patrick. Braddock Station Garrison is a band. While it might be my name in the song-writing credits (something that will be changing) it takes all four of us to breathe the life into the songs. Each member brings his own touch and personality and interpretation to the song. And for me, I have grown enough to not be put out by that, to not be intimidated by that. Sure, there are sometimes things I hear in my head that I think are essential for us to capture, but for the vast majority I want my bandmates to take the songs in the directions they think best.

Bandmates is an accurate term but it's not the right one. These fellows are my friends, and I am damn glad to have finally found them. I will save the story for when we met those two guys for another time.

By the way, if you want to hear and see what we are up to, we'll be doing a free show at The Black Squirrel in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of DC on Sunday July 21. We shall be back with the electric instruments so we'll be making a wonderful ruckus.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Metal Show Musings...Part 2

So after a rocking trip to the Rock n Roll Hotel Saturday night, I was back at it Wednesday, this time to see Kylesa supported by Blood Ceremony, White Hills and Lazur/Wulf.

Quick thing about the RnR Hotel: every show I have been to there (which is now four) I have been less than impressed with the sound. All the shows have been on the loud side, but the vocals are always way down in the mix. So while I like the location, the beer list, the rooftop bar, and the general sight lines making it a great place to SEE a show it's not a great place to HEAR the show. Let me know if you think otherwise. I first thought it was just where I was: for Lazer/Wulf and White Hills I stayed to the stage right side. Especially for White Hills, where I was in front of the bass, I could barely hear the guitar. When I moved center stage right in front for Blood Ceremony and Kylesa it was still fairly muddy. Maybe that's just how the bands are but it just doesn't sound right to me.

Lightning not too good but that's Lazur/Wulf in there
Ah well, what about the bands, man!! First up was Lazur/Wulf. I admit I was late for these guys so I only caught their last two songs. I listened to their latest record The Void That Isn't on Spotify and thought it was pretty cool. They are a three-piece and they are in the experimental zone of the metal spectrum. Their show was also pretty cool. Mainly instrumentals with occasional vocals. I liked them OK but wasn't broken up about missing most of their set.



White Hills...SMOKE!
Next up was White Hills. They are a spacey kind of metal thing. I listened to their 2012 record Frying On The Rock and was not terribly impressed. It had a lot of weird stuff going on, a lot of stuff that sounded like filler. When they took the stage though I was pleasantly surprised. First, the bass player is a good-looking blonde. Every band should have a good looking blonde bass player. Including mine. And they had a smoke machine, which I loved and want my band to get. The music was MUCH better live than the one record I heard. They only did four songs so they were on the longish side but they got into some seriously good grooves. I was moving along with it and enjoyed it immensely. I should have bought the live vinyl they had available because I listened to it today on Spotify and liked it a lot. They are coming back in August with The Cult, so a trip to Silver Spring may be in my future.

The next band, Blood Ceremony, I was VERY excited to see. I listened to their new record, The Eldritch Dark, and just fell in love with it. It's out on CD but I want the vinyl, but it's still just pre-orders till later this month. Nor did they have any at the show to buy. Curses!! I did get their t-shirt, buying it directly from a guy who I later observed was the bassist. That would explain why he seemed very pleased to sell me their t-shirt. NICE! They are from Canada and sound like Black Sabbath doing Jethro Tull. But with a super-hot-kind-of-witchy woman singing, playing keyboards that sound like an organ, and playing the flute (hence the obligatory Tull reference).  Their songs are just awesome, a great mix of mellow meets heavy. They sing about witches and sorcery and summoning devils and imps but it's all in good fun. Their set seemed to fly by but I recognized much of the stuff from the new record. Once the vinyl shows up I'll go deeper into the music, just trust me they were outstanding and I will see them again if I can. Sweet!

Blood Ceremony...more bad lighting
Finally, the headline, Georgia's Kylesa. I've already covered how I love their new record Ultraviolet. The show did not disappoint. Heavy and head banging mixed with groove oriented swagger. They have two drummers, which is a bit much to me but hey whatever, bass (duh) a guy guitarist and a girl guitarist who reminds me of a friend of mine but with significantly more tattoos (see the extra pictures below).

Kylesa...they brought it!
A few observations. They have a shit load of pedals. As you can see, guy-guitarist (Phil I think it is) has not just a keyboard in front of him but some sort of weird theremin as well as a skateboard rigged into a stringed instrument which with an assortment of effects pedals he made all kinds of batshitcrazy sounds. Girl-guitarist (Laura I think it is) had even more pedals and did the leads. I liked her light green Chucks...I liked her playing better. Real good guitarist, not flashy or showoff-y but right in the vibe of the music. You don't have to shred all the time in metal (which they can certainly do) to kill it. For me, it's all about groove. And in the fast numbers I banged my head harder than I have in years...probably not since I saw Iron Maiden the first time in 1990...wow that's a long time ago. Laura is the better singer between her and Phil; she sings while Phil just sort of yells. That's fine it works I like it. Also, the bass player does not have two heads, as the picture above suggests; I had to use panorama-mode because I was right the frak in front and the nerve of that guy moving around during my picture taking.

So...killer show, all four acts were great but especially BC and Kylesa. Two t-shirts procured (guess who) but no vinyl (doh!). Very pleased and worth my still ringing ears!

Here's some more pictures since I was nice and close.


White Hills dude

White Hills lady...see what I mean?

Blood Ceremony guitarist with a SWEET looking Yamaha
Dude I bought the BC shirt from

Witchy woman

Alia something or other from Blood Ceremony

Kylesa Phil's effects

Kylesa Laura's pedals

Kylesa bass dude

Kylesa groove

Laura and tats and sweet Les Paul

Crazy sound time!

Set list

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Metal Show Musings...Part 1

On Saturday night the missus and I headed into the city for adventure. We headed down to the H Street District in DC to catch Torche and KEN Mode and Lo-Pan at the Rock n Roll Hotel. My wife is no metal head but she is always up for a good time. We started with dinner at Star and Shamrock where we ate lattkes and I had an amazingly delicious fried bologna sandwich washed down with delicious half-and-half...in this case half Guinness and half Harp. Mmmmm beer.

Before the show we spent about 45 minutes on the RnR's rooftop bar. It was a beautiful evening so hanging out watching the Nationals on one TV and the Hawks hockey game on the other while drinking Hipster Juice (aka PBR) was a great way to relax.

This was a show I hadn't really thought about going to but decided earlier in the day that we needed to get out for the evening. I got some terrible news about the passing of a good friend and I felt that staying in was the wrong idea...best to get out and enjoy life, even if it is bone-crunching metal.

I like Torche just fine but they are not amongst my favorites. Their latest record Harmonicraft just missed my top 5 metal records of the year. I checked out the other two bands on the bill before hand and was excited for one and lukewarm on the other.

The opener I was interested in was Lo-Pan. I listened to their latest Salvador a couple times before the show and really liked it. They are a metal band with a classic hard rock-cum-metal vibe, meaning they have a good groove and a singer who sings. They have good sense of humor evidently: their name is taken from the bad guy from the Kurt Russell cult favorite Big Trouble In Little China.  The band was interesting to look at: 2 very hefty guys who we thought might be related (they don't appear to be), a drummer in a Sonics jersey, and a guitarist who looked like Father Time if he went on a bender. That said, they fucking ruled the evening. The vocals were way down in the mix which was a drag because the singer can really belt it; very soulful classic sounding rock vocals. The guitarist could shred with the best of them. Very impressed with these guys. And I loved the gear: bassist had a beautiful Geddy Lee-style Rick 4003 with a huge bass cab sporting an American flag grill; guitarist had a beauty of a tobacco burst Les Paul. He broke the low E string about halfway through the set...finioshed the song including a solo with the string dangling off, in fact he tore the string off in the middle of a solo, then took about 45 seconds to put a new string on. A real pro!! Bought their t-shirt and would have bought vinyl if they hadn't sold out (good for them!!).

Next us was KEN Mode from Winnipeg. These guys were more of a hardcore and math rock thing which I don't really get into it. Musically it was a lot of screaming and a lot of yelling and they were incredibly loud but they put on an interesting performance. Lots swinging guitars over their heads and jumping around and funny face making. It was evident they are very good at what they do but it isn't really my bag. They have one song on their new record that made it onto my Spotify mix but the rest of it just didn't grab me.

Headlining was Torche from Miami. Like I said I dig them just fine. They are an interesting band in that their songs can shift abruptly from a very hardcore sounding pummeling to a great metallic groove. The melodic parts of their records tend to stay out because they are a welcome respite from the onsluaght. Their songs tend to be pretty short and they didn't take much of a break between any of the songs; they segued right into one another without a pause.  The bass player looked a little like Chris Daughtry. The one guitarist had a sweet looking twelve string that he was making do what 12 strings usually don't.

So all in all a very enjoyable evening of metal. We finished it off with a trip to Dangerously Delicious Pies for after concert snacking. Jodi deserved a sweet reward for being such a good sport.

This is Part 1 because Wednesday I am going back to the RnR Hotel to see Kylesa and Blood Ceremony and Lazer/Wulf and another band I already forgot the name of.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Out With The Old, In With The New

Let me first off say I love Black Sabbath. Even the Dio days had two strong albums and one amazing song ("Neon Knights"). But Sabbath at the peak of their powers is unassailable. I am one of those weirdos however that doesn't like Paranoid as much as others do; I love the debut record and Sabotage (for it's prog leanings) and especially Sabbath Bloody Sabbath the best.

The latest Sabbath record 13 isn't bad; it's just there. It's not even disappointing because honestly how good did we expect a new Black Sabbath record to be? Bill Ward is out and Rage Against The Machine's Brad Wilk is in; that IS disappointing because Bill Ward is one of rock's most unheralded drummers and because it was an ugly legal split. But the material is just meh. It has some nice grooves, like the second part of opening track "End Of The Beginning" but it just seems so much been-there-done-that. I am not looking for Sabbath to tread too much new ground, but the record has a feel of "why?" When Ozzy was 20 and cried "No...no!...please God help me!!" you honestly feel dread. Now when Ozzy sings about the devil it just seems forced.

And mark this...Black Sabbath is NOT a devil band. They are one of the most Christian bands out there. Not just this record. On 13 Ozzy proclaims:

But still the voices in my head
Are telling me that god is dead
The blood pours down
The rain turns red
I don’t believe that God is dead

This isn't a new thing; this isn't an old man finding religion. Case in point, the lyrics in this new song that echo "After Forever" from 1971's nearly-brilliant Master Of Reality:

Perhaps you'll think before you say that God is dead and gone
Open your eyes, just realize he's the one
The only one who can save you now from all this sin and hate
Or will you jeer at all you hear? Yes! I think it's too late.

This album cover used to scare the shit out of me. But it was also backed by this on the back.

Then there is a new metal album that I love. That would be ASG's Blood Drive.  This is great melodic metal. I piss and moan all the time about metal not being melodic anymore. Not true; you just have to know where to find it.

ASG used to be called All Systems Go before they shortened it. They hail from North Carolina. Vocalist Jason Shi has a great great voice; in spots he reminds me of Ben Bridwell from Band Of Horses; sort of high and nasally (his voice that is). He doesn't growl, he sings. You can understand what he says and though the lyrics aren't T.S. Eliot they will do just fine.

Blood Drive comes storming out with heavy riffs: "Avalanche," the title track, "Day's Work" make a brilliant and heavy start. Things mellow out with the Sabbath-y "Blues for Bama" and Earthwalk and the acoustic-gives-way-to electric "Children's Music." Then it's back to the throat with "Hawkeye" and "Stargazin." The loud parts remind me of Queens of the Stone Age when they are at their tightest and grooviest. The songs are catchy, you'll find you toe tapping along to them...or your head banging to them.

Here's album opener "Avalanche." Rock on, dude!


Sunday, June 2, 2013

Kylesa's Ultraviolet is Ultra-awesome

Something must be in the water down in Georgia because they are cooking up some seriously good metal. My nephew Scott got me into Mastodon a few years ago; Baroness' Yellow & Green made my top 5 favorite metal records of the year in 2012. Now Savannah's Kylesa enters my radar like a cruise missile with Ultraviolet. This record will easily make my top 10 favorites of the year and has a very good chance at being number one.

There's many things to like about this record. It is a loud aggressive record that also balances in a great melodic sense. It's not sing along, but it has a great metal groove to it. The vocals like most metal records these day is buried in the mix, which is a slight shame because co-vocalist Laura Pleasants has a great voice for the songs. I like this trend of women showing up in metal bands. Or maybe I am just getting around to appreciating it. But I don't remember bands like Kylesa or other great bands like Christian Mistress, Blood Ceremony and even Black Mountain which use female vocalists to great effect. Ms Pleasants shares vocal duties with Phillip Cope; they bring a nice counter to one another. There's not just the requisite metal screaming but strong singing as well. For me good grooves and good singing are what propels a metal band ahead.

The sound is forward-thinking metal. It's heavy, it has elements of Slayer-ish thrash, and Sleep-esque stoner, but it's modern. Steven Hyden had a great piece in Grantland in which he began talking about the new Queens of the Stoneage record before talking about Ultraviolet and the new Deafheaven and their place amongst the new metal scene (obviously a far greater and insightful piece than my drivel). His most interesting statement is that metal is the last bastion where forward-thinking rock music is being made. I couldn't agree more. That isn't a knock on the more mellow stuff or the garage rock I listen to but testament to the chances metal bands are taking and the challenges they are meeting. Black Sabbath is used as a touch point so often and it doesn't really mean anything. Sabbath were great and their influence on metal is so ingrained that it isn't even worth mentioning anymore. Any band can tune down and play a bit slower and be called Sabbath-esque. On the other hand any band that plays super fast will immediately be compared to Slayer. Hell, I already did it at the start of this paragraph. But the interesting thing about Kylesa is they are building on that foundation instead of just laying out. This album rocks in getting to a good cruising groove, then drops a gear to kick you in the ass again. A percussionist will find a lot to like; it's very drum-oriented and Carl McGinley is a great drummer. Drums are the engine of the band and Kylesa is able to rev very nicely. My only complaint is the production is a touch muddled, but that's the way metal seems to be going these days. I think a clearer production would have been good here.

All the songs are strong, but especially choice cuts include "Long Gone," "Unspoken," "Vulture's Landing" and the fantasticly groovy "Steady Breakdown." Not just a great metal record but a great record period.

Here's "Unspoken."