Category Archives: Ball of Wax

Ball of Wax 45 Songs: gemmules / Julia Massey / Foghorns

gemmules‘ “Olympic” is the perfect last sixty-two seconds of a late ’80s alternative gem . . . without Bono’s singing over the top. Ball of Wax Volume 45 (One Minute Singles II) by gemmules Julia Massey‘s “To Us Too” shows … Continue reading

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Ball of Wax 45 Songs: GravelRoad/Harvey Girls/Darryl Blood

GravelRoad brings the sped-up scuzzy road rock with “Med Pass,” sounding like ’70s ZZ Top on bath salts. Ball of Wax Volume 45 (One Minute Singles II) by GravelRoad The Harvey Girls‘ “Butterfly2” is a haunted, back porch dirge, like … Continue reading

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Ball of Wax 45 Songs: Mike Votava/Orphan Train

Unless your first name is ‘Weird,’ funny songs can be tough to pull off, but – as Mike Votava demonstrates on “Pants Are Optional” – if you have a severely constrained time limit and a sweet keyboard hook, anything is … Continue reading

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Ball of Wax 45 Songs: Colin J Nelson/Frustration Club

BoW stalwart Colin J Nelson, realizing that the perfect thing to do with a 60-second song is to create a jingle, gives us this musically and lyrically adept “Treatment for Online Dating Promotional Content.” Ball of Wax Volume 45 (One … Continue reading

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Ball of Wax 45 Songs: Storm the Palace/Brite Lines/Emory Liu

Leave it to Storm the Palace to squeeze more technical skill into an opening piano chord than I will obtain in a lifetime; also note that vocalist Sophie Dodds, with whom, despite the fact the she’s a sophisticated Brit, I’ve … Continue reading

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Ball of Wax 45 Songs: Luminous Craft/The Vanities

Luminous Craft‘s Dominick Campbell (performing the BoW 45 release show September 2nd) opens the fragile “Don’t Fret, Charlotte” with a groovy Fender Rhodes riff, which he quickly abandons for fingerpicked acoustic guitar and an electric guitar gently strumming chords with … Continue reading

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Ball of Wax 45 Songs: Ken Cormier/Natalie Quist

With “No Hall Pass,” Connecticut’s Ken Cormier (one of many BoW 45 artists also heard on the first One Minute Singles) pivots from lo-fi automotive absurdity back to the breezy, perfect pop I originally fell in love with way back … Continue reading

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Ball of Wax 45 Songs: Sindri Eldon/Electric Dylan

Maybe it’s because I’m most of the way through volume 5 of Karl Ove Knausgaard’s epic autobiographical novel My Struggle, but I find something very Knausgaardian about the solipsistic, manic intensity of Sindri Eldon‘s “I Can’t Feel Anything” – and … Continue reading

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Ball of Wax 45 Songs: Territory & Hombre/Sam Russell & the Harborrats

[Given the “One Minute Singles” theme of Ball of Wax 45, we here at the Blog of Wax have decided to embrace the spirit of brevity in our track reviews, which will come two at a time and one sentence … Continue reading

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Ball of Wax 45: One Minute Singles, Friday, 9/2 at the Sunset!

Ball of Wax 45: One Minute Singles Release Show! Featuring Sam Russell & the Harborrats (celebrating 10 years!) / The Foghorns / Levi Fuller & the Library / Terwilliger Curves / Seth Howard / Natalie Quist / Luminous Craft Friday, … Continue reading

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