Single Review: Seth Howard – Flags for New Nations/Cartoon Crown

Posted on January 20, 2021 by Lattney B. Jones

Seth Howard – Flags for New Nations/Cartoon Crown
(Self-released, 1/20/2021)

On the day of Joe Biden’s inauguration as the 46th President of the United States of America, Seth Howard brings us what I’d like to call a “Double A-Side as informed by Modern American Democracy.” No, I’m sorry, that’s just too cynical-sounding. Isn’t it? But it’s also just as fitting as the titles of his newest sonic offerings: “Flags For New Nations” and “Cartoon Crown.” I almost don’t have to go any further for you to intuit the messages you’re about to receive. And yet.

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Ball of Wax 62 Songs: COVID​-​19 Performance Duo – “All the Same”

Posted on December 30, 2020 by Levi Fuller

The last track on Ball of Wax 62 (to recap, this volume exclusively features music written in the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election) is a blistering piece of sonic catharsis from Rache Riot and Nate Daly, aka COVID-19 Performance Duo. “All the Same” finds Rache and Nate doing exactly what I’ve wanted to do for  – well, really the past four or so years, but particularly the last 9 or so months: Play as loud as possible while shrieking incomprehensibly and giving zero fucks. The result is bracing, invigorating, a manifestation of musical freedom the likes of which we rarely get to enjoy. I think even if sludgy bass/drum riffage and screaming isn’t your bag, “All the Same” should resonate with just about any listener hearing this in December 2020.

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Ball of Wax 62 Songs: Colin Ernst – “If I Were President (I’d Be Shot)”

Posted on December 28, 2020 by Ken Cormier

It’s not a simple task to match up a spoken-word performance with music and make it all work, but Colin Ernst does it with ease in “If I Were President (I’d Be Shot).” This piece has a kind of King-Missile-meets-Spaulding-Gray allure, which is also not an easy thing to achieve.

As the story unfolds, we can’t help rooting for the “atheist-like-me” narrator who “has to say God bless America” when he makes the wide-eyed realization that he meets all of the Constitutional criteria to be able to run for president. What follows is a dream(y) sequence in which the narrator’s long list of lofty ideals ends up sparking a triumphant online funding campaign (complete with pinball-machine bell sounds), propelling him into frontrunner status for America’s highest office. Can you imagine a world in which common sense and compassion are the fuel for firing up the base? At any rate, the wild ride continues, the narrator wins it all, and the musical accompaniment  insinuates itself into every twist and turn, making this a truly compelling listen. Wouldn’t it be nice if the audio-book industry took some cues from Colin Ernst and started producing narratives that were actually exciting to listen to?

I won’t give away the ending—though you can probably imagine, having looked at the title—but I will venture to say that listeners everywhere will be glad they stuck around to experience the story’s satisfying conclusion.

Ernst makes it seem easy—but of course it’s not—to capture the zeitgeist of the moment and channel it into a hilarious, well-crafted, finely detailed, and skillfully performed monologue. In the end, this piece is an important reminder (especially to the weary masses of post-beat, semi-optimistic, hipster-nostalgic devotees of an America that probably never was) that, despite everything, you still need to give a shit about the things that truly matter.

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Ball of Wax 62 Songs: Bryan Nicolas Brophy – “Killer Brother”

Posted on December 28, 2020 by Ken Cormier

I know we all need to try and understand one another. And I guess there’s a pervasive feeling that we all need to figure out how to do that now more than ever. But it’s so hard. And it often feels so empty to hear that sentiment again and again, right? I mean, I get it. We’re all connected. We have more in common than we think. We shouldn’t be so quick to judge, to dismiss, to hate. But sometimes, doesn’t it seem like all these ideas have become empty platitudes, rather than sincere aspirations?

The magic of Bryan Brophy’s “Killer Brother” is that it manages to shake out the cobwebs and to remind us that we are all human beings, and that that’s what matters, above all else. How does he do it? Well, first of all, he hooks us in with a set of direct and moving lyrics. “I know you’re hurting now,” he sings. “I’ve been hurting longer.” Hmm. That’s an interesting balance between an expression of sympathy for another and an articulation of the weight of one’s own pain. It’s interesting enough, in fact, for him to earn the next lines: “I know you think you’re strong / Together we’re stronger.” Finally, when he admits in the chorus that “Oh, you’re part of me, Killer Brother,” even a slouching ne’er do well like me has to nod his head in agreement.

And it doesn’t hurt that I’m already nodding my head to the infectious rhythm of the song. It makes you want to close your eyes and let yourself be drawn in. The drum track thuds and slaps hypnotically. The haunting chords and arpeggios on the keyboard cast a sort of spell. And the smart, sad melody of a solo horn almost makes you want to cry. And that’s the kind of mind-state the song puts you in even before a single lyric has been sung. It’s a complete musical and lyrical package. “Killer Brother” is a song with a message that really deserves to be heard.

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Ball of Wax 62 Songs: Seth Howard – “The Understudy Caught the Cold”

Posted on December 24, 2020 by Ken Cormier

The guitar strums for only a measure before the vocals enter. No exposition. The story begins in medias res. We see pixels flickering. We hear dishes jittering. If you type out the lyrics to Seth Howard’s “The Understudy Caught the Cold,” it looks suspiciously on the page like a piece of micro-fiction. Or maybe it’s an imagist poem with a narrative arc. The language is spare, stripped down, but it’s not devoid of ornament. It’s descriptive, evocative. The action rises on a cast of characters—artists, musicians, and actors—whose optimism and ambition are matched only by their resignation and helplessness. The story ends with a sad climax (everyone is sick and defeated, even the audience) and a quick denouement (“It was quite a sight to behold”) before the guitar simply stops strumming. No falling action.

Howard’s rich voice provides the song’s liquid center. He projects a daunting melancholy without ever being maudlin. The melody is captivating and serpentine—an accumulation of distinct verses, a series of new musical moments, one after another, which thankfully never arrive at a chorus. A low synthesizer, an electric guitar, and a vocal harmony gradually join in, populating the song like characters. The song feels friendly and intimate, even though its mood is fatalistic and stoic. It’s a mood that resonates, especially these days. And so maybe that’s why it feels, even upon the first listening, like such a familiar and comfortable tune.

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Ball of Wax 62 Songs: Joshua Dennis – “Hold On Till Dawn”

Posted on December 23, 2020 by Levi Fuller

Joshua Dennis – who has appeared on Ball of Wax under a few different monikers over the years – wrote this song the day after election day, after a restless night/morning. He’s based on the east coast now, so it was around dawn for him that it started to look like the election might turn out okay and he was able to sleep. With its lush production and Josh’s soothing voice and vulnerable lyrics, “Hold on Till Dawn” beautifully captures the contrasting terror and hope that have infused this moment (a moment that, as I write, a month and a half after election, continues to ooze its way toward some kind of resolution). In the verses, as many of our BoW 62 artists have, Josh expresses frustration and anger, disbelief that this is the moment we’ve arrived at. The chorus, with the refrain “Hold on till dawn . . . it’s a brand new day,” offers some hope, but it’s tempered by the knowledge we’ve all gained, or relearned – that we’re far too close to the edge, and that’s not changing any time soon.

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Ball of Wax 62 Songs: James Kelly Pitts – “God Is Not a Cop”

Posted on December 23, 2020 by Isaac Person

In hushed tones barely louder than a whisper, James Kelly Pitts exhorts the listener to “Do anything at all.” Simple guitar chords and minimalist percussion frame this quiet demand to break the inertia of the everyday and to think past the easy metaphors of trust and authority most prevalent in our society. Randomized synths fade up and down to provide sonic texture or drop in and out abruptly for emphasis where required. After the final lyric, where most songs would play out the theme four more times for balance, Pitts cuts off after the second repeat, leaving a sense of unease at the end. A tidy summation of a moment of stasis in America. Only through action can we change things. Whether that change does us any good in the long run can’t be known, but it’s better to try than do nothing.

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Ball of Wax 62 Songs: Virgin of the Birds – “Delco Saved the World”

Posted on December 22, 2020 by Sam Russell

In the Virgin of the Birds Cinematic Universe (or the VOBCU, itself a subsidiary of the Ball of Wax Cinematic Universe, aka the BOWCU), Pennsylvania is our HQ. Jon Rooney (humble leader of Virgin of the Birds) is making it his life’s mission to include as many references as possible to PA in as many songs as possible. And on “Delco Saved the World” Jon gets to carry on with his noble cause while celebrating the state’s crucial role in this past presidential election.

With its 1st verse listing notable people, food and accents from Delaware County and the 2nd verse repeating “no one likes us we don’t care,” three times, “Delco” comes off as a jingle Jon was commissioned to write by the Pennsylvania tourist board, but that he decided to “go another direction with” at some point while discussing honey buns in said 1st verse. That’s bad for the tourism board but good for Ball of Wax.

Between this song and Jon’s cover of “You Don’t Bother Me” on the You Don’t Bother Me: A Fundraiser for Ballard Ave Music Venues compilation this past May (plus a couple of other demos I’ve personally been privileged to hear), Mr. Rooney is coming along nicely with his man-and-a-drum-machine productions. The unflappability of the beats and iciness of synths underpins Jon’s words and voice (double-tracked to add to spookiness) quite well in a way that makes inherent declarations that much more official sounding . . . and in canon with the rest of the VOBCU.

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Ball of Wax 62 Songs: Invasion Boys – “Bone Tired”

Posted on December 22, 2020 by Eric Leckbee

Taking their name from a line from a Guided By Voices b-side (“Playing tricks on the invasion boys”), I was on their side even before I hit play. Daunting, true, but the song earns my faith. My suspicion is this wasn’t meant to be a commentary on this year but the times in which one first hears a song inevitably colors how one receives it. Like the narrator, I too am Bone Tired. My clothes are being worn through. Insomnia is a constant and when I’m not losing sleep, then I want to sleep all day. We are all waiting on the next mistake (and where it will come from), the next big break (not all big breaks are good), the next go round (if nothing else, 2020 has felt circular). The song structure mirrors how I’m experiencing this 12 months – starting out full of gauzy enthusiasm, thrown into choppy moments of shock that drain the marrow, followed by an unsettling stability that never comforts. And then it just ends. There is not enough energy for even another verse or chorus or even a word. Just a fading away into . . .

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Ball of Wax 62 Songs: Love Scenes – “A Smooth Transition”

Posted on December 21, 2020 by Levi Fuller

Man, you know what I miss? Being in a room with two other people, playing music together. Sometimes you play actual songs, sometimes you just mess around with riffs and try things out, and sometimes the messing around turns into an actual song. And sometimes you just sit and talk about your jobs or whatever.

Band practice.

I will be honest: It will be hard to get back into the habit when it becomes a thing again, but I promise, I will not take it for granted – for at least a month or two.

Which brings us to “A Smooth Transition.” A couple days after the election, Jesse Hall, Greg Hopkins, and Nate Daly – at least a couple of whom are members of Sex Hogs II – got together and hashed things out with their instruments. (I am positively salivating at the very idea.) (And I will assume they were fully masked up and had room to be set well apart from each other.) The piece you hear here was pulled together – seamlessly, I might add – from different elements of this session. Sometimes, all you really need to sum up a pivotal moment in history is bass, guitar, drums, patience, and the willingness to get weird.

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