Several weeks ago I ran into a friend whose day-job used to be at a Café that I frequent. The Foglifter Café is where I actually met him. We hit it off because we were both musicians that were into metal. He's actually the growling front man for "Condemn The Infection" out of Flagler Co, FL.
On this particular day, he was selling tickets for an upcoming show that his band was trying to be one of the three local acts that would open for a Major Act. That Major Act just happened to be OTEP, who was touring in support of their just Released Smash the Control Machine. Needless to say, I bought four tickets for the the show being held at Brewster's Pit in Jacksonville, FL.
We positioned ourselves right upfront Stage Right.
Opening the show was my friend's band, Condemn The Infection. Like the other two local bands that were given the opportunity to open for a Major Act, they were given a real short set. Theirs was a meager 11-15 minutes. They made good use of their time it gave it their all.
They were currently with-out a Bass player but didn't let that hamper them whatsoever. Their performance was straight forward hard driving metal that took no prisoners. Their musicianship was extremely tight for such a young band. Once they get a another bass player to fill in the bottom end of their sound, they could be a contender.
Next up was Jacksonville's Tempest Reign. They had an old school metal meets Nü Metal sound. They list Black Sabbath, Pantera, Suicidal Tendencies and Slayer as well as many current bands as influences. Their melodic brutal performance would do those bands proud yet make them say, "Why didn't I think of that..."
Front man Joe De Luca was a class act by getting the fans in attendance to shout and cheer for all of the bands performing that night.
The last local band to play was an obvious local Jacksonville favorite, My Own Sin. I actually had heard their music before this concert on ReverbNation where I had added them to my favorites and joined their mailing list.
They are a female fronted band from Orange Park, FL, that incorporates keyboards into their musical arsenal. Front woman Danie Ross combines beautiful, ethereal melodic vocals with uncommon screams and growls that punctuate the solid wall of sound from the instrumentalists.
No usable live video. Here's a ReverbNation player instead:
Taking the stage next was the national touring opening act, Seven Year Existence. This band hails from Champagne, IL and caught on fire quickly with their old school Thrash and Death Metal sound. This band got the Mosh Pit into high gear.
Vocalist/Guitarist, Luke Heppe, was good at working the crowd. He kept telling the crowd to "..show me those horns!" He made eye contact with several of us in front of him and stopped playing the guitar long enough to give us the horns back. He would make this unusual sound in a couple of songs, especially during Of Thine Father's Flesh that could best be described as a growling whistle.
Musically speaking, Heppe, Jason Ellett (guitars), Phil Solgard (bass) and Wenis (drums) crank out the music that would make the founders of the genre sit up and take notice.
The fifth band to take the stage was Des Moines, Iowa's Destrophy. They are more of your traditional Nü Metal band mixing melodic and gutteral vocals.
They put on a great show that was perfect for psyching up the audience for the headliners. Near the end of their set they got the crowd to start yelling enough "so she can hear you!"
Finally, OTEP took the stage. Bassist "Evil" J. McGuire got the show cranking with his mad playing skills to which drummer Moke and guitarist Rob Patterson. Otep "Danger" Shamaya leaped up onto her monitor and grabbed her mike and started in on their first number.
Through-out the entire performance, Otep had the now fully packed venue bouncing, fist pumping and shouting "Rise! Rebel! Resist!" Otep commanded a stage presence like none other and had the audience's undivided attention and admiration.
The band played likely a finely tuned sports car and Otep's voice was perfect through-out the melodies and fits of guttural growls. Her voice was the truest and purest that I've ever heard when compared to her recordings. What you hear on the record, is what you hear live, only better.
A week or two ago, Shakira's new video for the her first single, the title track, from her soon to be released album, She Wolf, was debuted on VH1's Top 20 Video Countdown. It was not in the countdown, just aired in the middle of it. In an introductory interview, Shakira said that she tapped into the spirit of the she wolf (la loba) for her "Wolf Cage" performance.
There was absolutely nothing wolf-like in any of her performance. The "cage" routine had her in a nude coloured body suit and she slithered and swung around like a novice cage dancer at some seedy go-go joint. The other dancing performances that were intermingled with it in the video were extremely weak, lame and just plain awful.
Moving onto her vocals, the verses were like a parody of her usual powerful performances and only occassionally did one hear her unique vocal style come through. When the prechorus started, I kept waiting for her to sing, I want to dance on your disco stick, a la Lady Gaga. The chorus itself sound more like she was whining the words in a futile attempt to sound ominous.
If this lead single is her best forward for her exploration into Electro-pop and Dance Hall, than she may be in trouble. I am sure that legions of loyal fans will greedily snap it up, but I won't be one of them, this time.
MissP is one of the regular visitors to Teatro Triste de Clown where I am a regular contributor. I often visit her 80's Music Site, Rave and Roll Blog where she occasionally posts about today's undiscovered musical talent.
After reading Miss Parker's glowing review, I downloaded Ms. Roxie's self released album, 2009's New Limerent Object, which is/was being distributed as a free download.
Once I started listening to it, I was amazed by the proverbial outside of the box creativity that greeted me. From the ethereal to the surreal, it is an eclectic mix ofelectronica ear candy.
Notable tracks:
Drift Along/Distortion takes us on a ride as we drift through a surreal musicscape.
And There I Was has a silk road flavouring to it.
Indigo has a great depth in its simplicity and could be the electronica of parlour music.
Out in the Moonlight emits a fantastic Middle Eastern sound.
You can download your copy of this album free at Ms. Roxie's Official Website.
If you want a hear something first, below is the just released video for Indigo.
NPR is now streaming Dark Night of the Soul, a musical collaboration between Danger Mouse, Sparklehorse and David Lynch, featuring cameos by the Flaming Lips, Iggy Pop, Frank Black and Vic Chesnutt, among others.
This is an interesting collaboration piece and somewhat of a departure for both bands leading one to believe that the guest vocalists helped steer and/or influence some of the musical direction.
According to TFA:
It turns out Dark Night Of The Soul is an album and the songs were written by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse, though the myriad singers featured on each track also had a big hand in composing and producing the work. The album was initially going to be packaged with a book of photos taken by David Lynch. But now there's word that the music may never be officially released at all.
An unnamed spokesperson for Danger Mouse says that "due to an ongoing dispute with EMI" the book of photographs will "now come with a blank, recordable CD-R. All copies will be clearly labeled: 'For legal reasons, enclosed CD-R contains no music. Use it as you will.'"
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MissP is one of the regular visitors to Teatro Triste de Clown where I am a regular contributor. I often visit her 80's Music Site, Rave and Roll Blog where she occasionally posts about today's undiscovered musical talent.
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