Ball of Wax 67 Songs: autOaudiO – “Cardinal Points”

Posted on March 4, 2022 by Jon Rooney

[Editor’s note: In continuing our quest to become a complete cultural ourobouros, it seemed like the best way to cover this autOaudiO cover of a Virgin of the Birds song is for our own Jon Rooney (who wrote the song) to discuss this interpretation of it with fellow Bloggers of Wax Aurora and Patrick. Their conversation, which may only be delightful to me, the three of them, and hopefully Paul/autOaudiO, follows.]

Patrick: Is “Cardinal Points” a middle-aged cat?

Jon: No, “Cardinal Points” is not a middle-aged cat. It’s a song that I originally wrote a few years ago that our friend and Seattle musician extraordinaire Paul Baudry has recently covered as part of his autOaudiO project for Ball of Wax Quarterly Volume 67 (67!).

Aurora: or is “Cardinal Points” what happens when you ask His Eminence where the restroom is?

J: “Cardinal Points” refers to directions on the compass, you know – North, East, South, West – the classics. I took the title from a short novel from 1927 by the Surrealist Michel Leiris (which is often collected with the short novel Aurora) that I really liked. The novel opens with the line “I was at the theater” and keeps chooglin’ from there. Now that that’s out of the way, let’s chat about how great Paul’s music is. Right? That dude can do it all, he’s simultaneously deeply rooted in traditional Americana and has a rad vocabulary of electronic and ambient music. And I know I’m biased since he plays bass in Virgin of the Birds but screw it – Ye Olde Blog o’ Wax fears no conflict of editorial interest. Continue reading →

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Ball of Wax 67 Songs: Seth Howard – “Ever Given (Space Cowboy Version) “

Posted on March 4, 2022 by Levi Fuller

[Editor’s note: Ball of Wax 67 is out now! And today, Bandcamp Friday, is a great day to buy it, and/or a ticket to the Ball of Wax 67 release show on March 12th! You can do it all right here.]

Longtime friend of Ball of Wax Seth Howard is back with a little something different this go-round. “Ever Given (Space Cowboy Version)” is, as the title suggests, a new version – a “radical reworking,” in Seth’s words – of the song “Ever Given,” which was included on his lovely Uneven Bars EP, released last fall. In addition to his obvious skill as a songwriter and singer, I know Seth primarily as a supremely talented guitarist, so it’s fascinating to hear him put the guitar down and rework this song entirely from the ground up as a spacey, tripped-out electro jam. The lyrics and melody (and chords, I presume), are all the same, but everything else is completely new. And it works! Lo-fi, delay-heavy drum machines keep the relaxed beat going, tinkling and pulsing synths phase in and out delightfully. I love this idea of covering one’s own work and bringing a completely different approach to it, and I kind of want to hear a whole album of Seth doing this to his (or other people’s?) songs.

Seth will play as part of the Ball of Wax 67 release show on March 12th, but I’m pretty sure he’ll be leaving the synths at home in favor of guitars, which is always a delight as well. Join us!

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Ball of Wax 67 Songs: Mt Fog – “Sunny Afternoon”

Posted on March 3, 2022 by Steven Scribner

Walking down the street on a sunny afternoon, singing this happy walking song, I was hoping . . . The keyboard music follows along; watching, listening, commenting on my mood — I catch glimpses of it like a mountain materializing out of the distant fog.

Mt Fog will perform as part of the Ball of Wax 67 release show on March 12th at the Chapel Performance Space. Get your tickets now!

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Ball of Wax 67 Songs: Spinster – “Wait Alone”

Posted on March 3, 2022 by Patrick J Gibbs

Though you bear the weight alone
You are not alone

Like a well-crafted short poem, Spinster’s “Wait Alone” expresses so much within its brief form. Twice repeated lines echo against somber, lo-fi instrumentation then fade out. An undefined isolation folds into a quiet wash of synthesizer. A simple melody is introduced changing tone and feel. What was once heavy lightens. A dread weight is shared, perhaps to be lifted, and “Wait Alone” closes within 50 seconds.

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Ball of Wax 67 Songs: James Kelly Pitts – “T0ngu3”

Posted on March 2, 2022 by Levi Fuller

The sound of an orchestra warming up and a smattering of applause provides the transition from the preceding track to James Kelly Pitts’s “T0ngu3.” Where Alejandro Magaña Aviña brought us a mini-movie soundtrack, James has given us a soundscape for some other, stranger experience. The 8-bit sounds and head-bobbing beat call to mind a goofy video game, with strange interjections of human voices and almost-human almost-voices adding another layer – perhaps interference from a neighbor’s cell phone, or a local TV station cutting into the signal from your Sega set? Before you can wrap your head around it all there’s a busy signal (do people even know what that is anymore?), the end sequence is playing, and you’re not quite sure if you won or not. At least you know you can always play again.

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Ball of Wax 67 Songs: Alejandro Magaña Aviña – “Postales”

Posted on March 1, 2022 by Levi Fuller

Alejandro Magaña Aviña, who first came our way via the TELEPHONE project, has returned with a brief, yet cinematically evocative orchestral piece. “Postales” (whose title translates to “Postcards”) appropriately calls to mind a series of images, packing quite a few  scenes into its less-than-two-minute running time, almost as if an entire movie score had been compressed into 113 seconds. We have (at least in my mind) blissfully dancing fairies, a shock and a scattered chase, a sneaky stalking hunt through the woods, someone hiding behind the bushes, and a last-minute rescue from the heavens, deus ex machina-style, as the credits roll. Your mileage may vary, but without a doubt, these postales are worth flipping through again and again.

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Ball of Wax 67 Songs: Triskaideka – “Red Blue”

Posted on February 28, 2022 by Matty P

Tinty guitars, Western fanfare, brilliant dissonance, church organ lines, and an all out epic build up. This song plays a bit like an old western silent movie in black and white. Except, with electric guitars and organs. The song has moments where the tension builds and builds, only to release into a bit of an organ fugue followed by that surf-esque guitar sound. There is a great deal happening and a lot of listening to be had in the less then two and a half minutes of “Red Blue.”

Triskaideka is an instrumental band from Seattle.  They borrow some surf rock sounds, though don’t fall into that category by any means.  Likewise, they seem to have their psychedelic moments, and yet again, they don’t fully fall into that category either.  For their current offering on bandcamp, you will find a half dozen songs all worth purchasing and many listens, all featuring their signature organ, guitar, bass and drums combo.  

With “Red Blue,” as well as their other songs, I like their clean execution.  I like their ability to tell a story without words through their play with music.  This song is dynamic, going from soft and reserved to loud and explosive.  They tease out themes in the quieter sections with their organ and guitar parts. The six-eight measure makes you sway along.  Everything fits together well. Beautiful instrumental parts perfectly fitting the song. It’s not so complicated that they lose the listener’s interest.  Rather, they take you through the cathedral and on out through the desert. It’s easy to have your own movie play through your head while listening to “Red Blue.”

A stripped-down duo form of Triskaideka will perform at the Ball of Wax 67 release show on March 12th at the Chapel Performance Space. Join us!

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Ball of Wax 67 Songs: Tite Nauts – “Gender Reveal Party”

Posted on February 28, 2022 by Matty P

“Gender Reveal Party” is my introduction to Tite Nauts. I’m drawn to the attitude, sarcasm, and drive of the band and this jam. “Gender Reveal Party” tackles a rather odd ritual for which many partake in today’s modern society. Rituals, which in the worst cases, and as referenced in this song, have resulted in terrible forest fires.  

The song starts off with a straightforward bouncy lick while quickly getting serious and down to business. Robin’s vocals come in with utter enthusiasm for learning the gender of your baby. The tempo keeps up and drives forward. I can’t quite make out the lyrics on the chorus, but it seems to be something along the lines of pyrotechnics, explosions and forest fires burning pink and blue. And so I dance around my apartment like a maniac to “Gender Reveal Party” with my neighbors staring in at me thinking, WTF is up with this dude? 

Tite Nauts are putting out the best local songs from Chico, California.  I wasn’t too surprised to learn that this is where they are from. We don’t tend to get music this explosive and edgy up in the more mild-mannered Pacific Northwest. I remember growing up on the Punk-O-Rama mix cds in the late ’90s and early 2000s. Some of my favorite unheard of bands came from these compilations. Tite Nauts’ “Gender Reveal Party” is just that type of song from an unheard of band that I’d fall in love with.  

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Ball of Wax 67 Songs: Spritle – “Let Me Eat Cake”

Posted on February 25, 2022 by Levi Fuller

Our newish friend Bryan Brophy has brought us something completely different for Ball of Wax 67 – a blistering, blown-out stack of heavy guitars and drum machines produced under the moniker Spritle. This is perfect Friday-afternoon-at-the-end-of-a-completely-fucking-ridiculous-week music, which is appropriate – for me as I post this, anyway. There are no dynamics, no letting up, just go-go-go, Bryan barking four-syllable phrases that seem to point to the divide that can arise between what one knows needs to happen in the world and what one is doing with one’s own self. Sure, everything is falling apart and we have a responsibility, but also, can’t I also just eat some damn cake? The chorus – which we don’t get to hear until the very end of the song, one of my favorite songwriting devices – lays it out: “you’re gonna change the world, don’t try to change me / you’re gonna save the world just don’t try to save me.” It’s unclear to me whether this is Bryan working out some internal conflicts, writing in the voice of a character, or just venting a semi-stream-of-conciousness rant over some loud fucking guitars? Any way you slice it, you’ll want to play this loud and repeatedly. Note to Bryan: More please!

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Ball of Wax 67 Songs: E – “Any Information”

Posted on February 25, 2022 by Levi Fuller

I feel like we’ve used the term ‘supergroup’ a bit too much around here of late (i.e., like, three times), but E is truly worthy of the title – at least to me and likely many others who spent much of the ’90s rattling around the rock clubs and loft spaces of Boston, Allston, and Cambridge. I could probably write a book – or at least a long, rambling essay, you know the kind that goes along with a recipe for kung pao broccoli that you just looked up online and why do you have to scroll so damn long just to get to the actual recipe, what does this person’s neighbor’s dog have to do with broccoli? – about what the mere existence of this band means to me. But then you’d get sick of scrolling before I got to the song itself, so I’ll just say that in Gavin McCarthy (Karate), Jason Sidney Sanford (Neptune), and Thalia Zedek (Come), the band E is composed of some of my very favorite musicians from a part of my life that contains some of my very favorite music. And it turns out they’re still making some of my very favorite music!

Let me be clear: “Any Information” (the title track from E’s forthcoming EP) is a JAM. After a quick four-bar march intro Gavin drops in with a steady, propulsive beat and never lets up, while Jason and Thalia’s guitars play off each other in a delightful manner, one bringing frenetic percussive attacks, the other bringing more melody and texture, occasionally unifying into a wall of trebly mayhem, both players also adding layers of noise from radios and other devices – and somehow I never even miss the bass. (This is not something I often find myself saying.)

It’s not all fun and games, though: The lyrics, delivered in a clipped rush of hushed urgency, are simple and repetitive, but communicate so much about this moment (both the broader moment we’ve been living through for some time, and this exact moment in history): in seemingly every aspect of our lives, information is so important, reliable information so hard to get. I don’t know when these words were written or what was on the mind of their writer, but hearing this song on February 24th and 25th, 2022, I can’t help but hear a refugee pushed across a border by forces beyond their control, or a helpless observer doomscrolling from across the globe, seeking information, any information at all: “any information that you have about my brother, any information that you have about this place.” It’s a darkly compelling counterweight to the rollicking noise it accompanies.

I am far from an impartial observer here: I was an instant fan of this band before I heard a note. That said, each successive release of their has only solidified that fandom and given me more reasons to keep listening. E is touring Europe this spring. If you live in or near one of these countries, go.

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