Ball of Wax 63 Songs: Bike Monday – “The Snow”

Posted on March 10, 2021 by Patrick J Gibbs

Do you believe in love at first sight? Do you believe in love at first sight when it comes to a song? I do.

Listeners of vinyl records are aware that certain songs will grab you simply by the way their grooves appear on the platter. You can read the tonal differences within a track by the texture of the vinyl. There are songs that make your heart flutter when you turn the record against the light and see the tone shifting from soft to loud and back again; songs that make you swoon where you can sense the pulse and beat of the cut by the shimmer from the record’s surface.

You can, of course, read digital tracks in a similar manner on many modern music applications. Many songs do not distinguish themselves from others when viewing them. A common form is to have the soundwave peak early and then maintain more or less a long plateau until a quick fade at the end. Some, however, will make you gasp when you see their form on a screen for the first time.

When I saw the visual representation of Bike Monday’s contribution to Ball of Wax 63, “The Snow,” I issued forth a gleeful utterance and then a loving sigh. The waveform looked like a beautiful medieval castle blanketed in snow. I was excited to click play to hear this track and how Bike Monday crafted their song to build the form before me. The song opens with crystalline notes repeated from a synthesizer establishing a cool, dreamlike tone for the piece. A wall of fuzzy arpeggios drift in establishing a new layer atop the first. More synth washes into the soundscape and delicately delivered vocals fall in place. Drifting across the piece, tones and melodies stack, disappear. A coherent structure is formed with a strong foundation, transitional ramparts, and rising turrets.

Bike Monday has rewarded my initial reaction. I love “The Snow” even more than I did on first sight after listening to it.

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Ball of Wax 63 Songs: Virgin of the Birds – “Moon Chariot”

Posted on March 10, 2021 by Levi Fuller

I feel like every time I sit down to write about a Virgin of the Birds song, I can’t help but comment on just how dang Virgin-of-the-Birds-y it is. And here we are again. “Moon Chariot,” Jon Rooney’s newest idiosyncratic gem, is a languid, dreamy slice of pop heaven, stamped all over with Jon’s songwriting calling cards. Obscure mythical references? Check. References to beloved obscure bands? Hello, Giantess and Storm the Palace! Totally out-of-left-field quoting of a hugely popular song from the ’80s? Come on, Noreen, you know it!

As usual, I have no idea what Jon is talking about here – I have a way of letting metaphorical lyrics just kind of wash over me without getting too bogged down in what it all means – but I adore how it all pulls together. The dreams of giants and serpents and winged horses, the love for Noreen, whoever that might be; it’s all beautifully evocative, both surreal and specific in just the right way, a technique Mr. Rooney has long-since proven his mastery of.

“Moon Chariot” is a musical treat as well, of course – relaxed without feeling lazy, joyful without being overly earnest – and he’s even got some multi-tracked group vocals in there to really up the Dexy’s Midnight Runners vibe. In short, another master class in weirdo pop songwriting from our dear friend Jon Rooney.

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Ball of Wax 63 Songs: Elisa Flynn – “Stand Tall”

Posted on March 9, 2021 by Shannon García, Esq.

This song is reminiscent of something just at the tip of your tongue. It’s a song you already know and love. You haven’t actually heard it before. Yet it feels familiar. “Stand Tall” has a super ’80s vibe with the pulsating drum loop and the reverb effects on the guitar. It sounds atmospheric, with a floating, almost spooky, guitar line. However, the vocals feel assured, grounded, and assertive rather than ethereal and airy. Elisa Flynn’s voice has rich, velvet vibrato. Her voice perfectly evokes primal emotions and feelings. It is the voice you want to hear celebrate you in your victories and vindicate you in your losses. The juxtaposition of the upbeat drum loop, the atmospheric elements, and the groundedness manages to not fight itself but instead layers itself into a poetic complexity. Like a love song to the human condition. The song, to me, signifies struggle and hope. That even when we fall harder and further than anyone else, we can persevere and be seen, standing tall, in our power.

In short, I like it.

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Ball of Wax 63 Songs: Mike Votava – “Broken Heads”

Posted on March 9, 2021 by Lattney B. Jones

To hear a Mike Votava song is to find yourself wanting to call him up immediately and bypass the whole “getting to know you” thing and go straight to hanging out and laughing about life’s ridiculous inanities. I don’t know that I’ve heard a single shred of evidence that he takes himself too seriously as an artist* or even a human. Heck, every release on his Bandcamp page is “supported” by the guy’s fan account (c’mon, all of us artists do it, but Mr. V has the gonads to own the crap out of it with comments, even!).

“Broken Heads” is no different and thank the stars for that—I didn’t know I needed a song in my life that makes me picture a female Clint Eastwood circa Gran Torino, bolt-action and all, but goddammit, here it is. Riding a jangle-blues wave into a full-arrangement assault of giddy guitar parts and low low bass, “Broken Heads” drips with the sort of seemingly-off-the-cuff-but-surely-well-studied wordplay at which Mr. Votava excels. It’s jaunty and it’s fun and it’s too freaking short and I really want to dial in the crisp sound of that lead guitar and put it in every song I record. (*I take the first part back—the guy’s got killer guitar chops!) Plus, decoder rings get a nod!

BONUS: After you’ve fully integrated “Broken Heads” into your daily routine, go listen to the album on which it appears (Tuesday Groove Kabobs) and laugh like a damned fool (I did!) at “Leaves of Grass My Ass,” the greatest ode/rotten tomato to Walt Whitman in the history of music. Then, let’s all go to Seattle and make Mike Votava go out for a pizza with us.

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Ball of Wax 63 Songs: Arthur C. Lee – “The Storm”

Posted on March 8, 2021 by Levi Fuller

I guess I should start by saying you’re welcome and I’m sorry for bringing you Arthur C. Lee’s snappy new single, “The Storm.” You’re welcome, obviously, because this sweet and boppy little number will provide some much-needed spring to your step and bob to your head as we finally round the curve on this multiply-traumatic winter and bear down into a spring of hope such as many of us have never lived through before. I’m sorry because, if you’re anything like me, this song will be running through your head pretty much non-stop for weeks to come. It will soundtrack your dreams, and you will wake up with it circling through your mind, wondering at first what classic pop gem you latched onto during your last trip to Trader Joe’s, before you realize no, it’s Arthur C. Lee’s “The Storm,” from the new Ball of Wax, and you’ll go listen to it for real just to set the right tone for the day.

Actually, you know what? I’m not sorry. Sure, earworms can be annoying, but this is an aural nightcrawler of the highest caliber, a tune that Brian Wilson himself would be delighted to have wriggling around in that big ol’ California noggin of his. Apology retracted! Now go listen to “The Storm” again.

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Ball of Wax 63 Songs: tidepools – “II. Yoyogi Park”

Posted on March 8, 2021 by Lattney B. Jones

[Editor’s note: Ball of Wax 63 is available now for pre-order! Grab your copy now, and join us for a live streaming release show on Saturday, March 20th at 7pm PDT on Facebook Live!]

I’ve found myself introduced to several multimedia/multidisciplinary works in the last year. While I’ve yet to produce such a piece of art myself, the idea has long intrigued me, and it’s both inspiring and thrilling to see independent artists diving in, sharing their myriad talents, and essentially baring their souls for us.

“II. Yoyogi Park” is one such work and, if I’ve followed the right threads, is the second movement of a musical extension of a poem narrative called One and Half of You by one Leanne Dunic (who I’m hoping is the artist here called tidepools). I have not yet read the book, but my feelers are out for a copy. In the meantime, I have fortune and Levi to thank for bringing into my orbit this gorgeous opener to the newest edition of Ball of Wax.

Melodically playful and lazily ebullient (work with me here) like an orchestra made of toys, synths, and offstage pianos filtered through a transistor radio as conducted by a microdosing maestra making up the composition on the spot, “Yoyogi Park” hooks the ear immediately and refuses to let go until the last chord, adding and stripping away layers in a way that insists on repeated listens. Full disclosure: I am a headphone listener because I need to hear those little nuances that make the best music come alive and build its nest in your brain. This is what “Yoyogi Park” has done for me and for that I am warmly thankful. Added disclosure: I’m having difficulty getting through this review because I have this song on repeat and I’m constantly interrupting my typing to whip my hands about in the air after the manner of the conductor I’ve imagined.

BONUS: Go to tidepools’ Bandcamp page and listen to all three movements of One and Half of You and become as enamored as I have with these aural confections!

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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.

Continue reading →

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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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