Ball of Wax 58 Songs: Tom Dyer and the True Olympians – “(I’m a) Lonely Little Christmas Tree”

Posted on November 18, 2019 by Lattney B. Jones

Levi has chosen wisely to begin the new volume of Ball of Wax with selections by strong vocalists. Like Sam Russell, Tom Dyer is something of an area legend, and even moreso a “musical chameleon.” In fact, if you ever have a day to spare, check out the insane catalog of Green Monkey Records, in most of which Dyer has had at least a vocal or instrumental hand, and all of which span a dizzying variety of genres and styles. I’m convinced that Dyer can do, play, and sing anything (his vocal impressions alone go from Elvis to Bryan Ferry to David Byrne with plenty of stops on the way) and it’s frankly intimidating.

All of which is meant to provide context for the oddity that is “(I’m A) Lonely Little Christmas Tree.” Dyer (or at least Green Monkey) has put out several Christmas/Holiday albums, so the general theme and its trappings are not uncharted territory—but I don’t think I’ve ever heard anything quite like this. Musically, it’s an academically arranged swing and either completely programmed or played by the best session musician(s) around. With Dyer’s chops, it would be hard to understand him leaving the instrumental duties to MIDI, but I’ve come to believe that everything he does is 100% calculation, so it’s clear that the backing track is exactly as it should be. I think he simply wanted to present a clear recording, focus on his vocal, and parody those Christmas originals many of us grew up with.

That, or his aim was demented cabaret croon karaoke where the house band are nothing if not professional. Speaking of the croon, Dyer moves from confident low-end to near-scat to blues-inflected howl with ease. But I have now listened to this song (on repeat) more times in the last several hours than to “Jingle Bell Rock” or “Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer” in my entire life (intentional listens—played over the PA at department stores from August to December does not count), and I still don’t quite understand the story or get the metaphor. All I know for sure is that this Lonely Little Christmas Tree does have a significant other, they’re somewhat anthropomorphic, and Santa Claus is kind of a skeezy bastard. There also seems to be some arboreal adultery taking place.

And this, my friends, is what makes memorable Holiday music. It’s different, it’s sonically clean as a whistle, it’s narratively devoid of wise men or babies in the hay, and it’s just damn fun.

Tom and his True Olympians will open up the Ball of Wax 58 celebration on Saturday, November 30th at Conor Byrne. Don’t be late!

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Ball of Wax 58 Songs: Sam Russell and the Harborrats – “Wisconsin Polka”

Posted on November 18, 2019 by Lattney B. Jones

Do you know what I think of when I hear Sam Russell’s voice? Reckless abandon. Thirst for life. The kind of friend who will lead you on a wild adventure to the very edge of your sanity, the kind that transforms you and changes your whole outlook on life but leaves him already looking for the next adventure. I don’t live anywhere near Seattle or Kenosha and have never met Sam, but there’s an electric fear of complete liberty that shoots through me and brings the cold sweats when I hear him really tear into a song.

“Wisconsin Polka” – a cover of the 2017 classic by our dear friends The Foghorns – is the opener on the Ball of Wax Winter Spectacular (aka Volume 58!) and, bumping right in on an understated waltz-time beat, it couldn’t be more fitting for the job of introducing us to the wonders ahead. The arrangement of the first few verses soothes like a December evening dinner around the kitchen table, with Russell’s voice barely holding back the passion that you know is coming and allowing a bit of fiddle to lead the proceedings between verses.

That passion I mentioned? It comes in spades, backed by a choir made of up the aforementioned family dinner party and joined by possibly every neighbor in the area. Sprinkled judiciously with accordion, horns, and additional percussion, “Wisconsin Polka” builds in intensity with each round, and wonderfully pulls off the trick of changing an earlier stanza into accompaniment for a late-song refrain, and leaves one feeling as exhausted, filled with fire, and buzzing as that wild transformative adventure.

Sam and the Harborrats will play this and other seasonal (and unseasonal) favorites at the Ball of Wax 58 show on Saturday, November 30th at Conor Byrne. Be there!

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Ball of Wax Winter Spectacular: Saturday, November 30th at Conor Byrne

Posted on November 14, 2019 by Levi Fuller

Ball of Wax 58 (songs of winter, holidays, and winter holidays)
The Foghorns, Sam Russell and the Harborrats, The Julia Francis Band, and Tom Dyer and the True Olympians
Saturday, November 30th, 9pm
Conor Byrne Pub
Ball of Wax 58 CD included with entry

Yes, the time has finally come for Ball of Wax Audio Quarterly to release a winter holiday-themed compilation. Some songs are cheery and jingly, some are dark and foreboding, some are outright Christmasy, while others just have snow in them.

To celebrate the release, we’re throwing a show on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, with four of the compilation’s 20 contributors – our old friends Sam Russell and The Foghorns, our new friend Julia Francis and her band, and our old friend Tom Dyer playing his first-ever Ball of Wax Show (how is this possible?). It’ll be fun.

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Album Review: The Wayside – Anything But Blue

Posted on November 8, 2019 by Casey Ruff

The Wayside - Anthing But Blue album coverThe Wayside – Anything But Blue
(2019, self-released)

The Wayside is an Americana band, comprised of acoustic guitar playing, songwriting, vocalizing Shannon Fulgham; and electric guitar playing, singing, and songwriting Dan Walker; a bass playing Bill Dougherty; and a drumming Brad Robertson. Further combing of government and social media databases place this musical group in Ballard, Washington, USA, and they have a new album called Anything But Blue. It’s competent to the point of sophisticated Country music that hearkens encouragingly forward.

Continue reading →

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Submit to Ball of Wax 58: The Ball of Wax War on Christmas!

Posted on September 23, 2019 by Levi Fuller

I don’t know what this is supposed to be, but let’s call it a reindeer. Photo courtesy Francis Mariani, via Flickr

Yes, it’s true: In over 14 years of quarterly compilation-releasing, I’ve somehow never gotten it together to do a winter/holiday themed release, and I think the time has finally come.

I don’t particularly want or need this to be a “christmas comp”; I’m looking for music about any and all winterish holidays or celebrations, or just wintry songs in general. And they don’t have to be celebratory, either. Previously released is fine, but newish material is preferred!

Deadline: October 13th (or so – sooner is great too, if you’ve got something ready to go)
Guidelines: here
Questions: here

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Ball of Wax 57 Songs: Green Light Cameras – “Weather Balloon”

Posted on September 14, 2019 by Lattney B. Jones

I hadn’t realized until listening to Green Light Cameras’ gorgeous “Weather Balloon” what a soft spot I have in my heart for drum machines and keyboards. And a softer spot for pop music executed properly. How’s that, you say? For starters, wholly accepting of the terrific shittiness that life can be. Embracing the abyss and then seeking to escape it, living with one foot in the grave—wanting to just be an eagle, for chrissakes! Not this “party all the time because we’re all young and beautiful social media influencers” bullcrap. Sure, it’s fun to hear a stomping four-on-the-floor and clap your hands and sing along with the crowd, but it’s an empty, transitory joy. Sing those pop lyrics later, home alone in your bed, and see how fun they are.

Phil Chamberlin knows better. As Green Light Cameras, he takes the essential elements of pop and crafts works of art. On “Weather Balloon,” he begins by imagining himself the aforementioned eagle and proceeds to deliver some of the most visual poetry you’re likely to hear in his all-but-beaten baritone. The straight-eight pulse of the drum machine serves as a metronome, a time-keeper for the few points at which the regal keyboards have a break to gather themselves for the next round of the song’s simple-but-stately progression. Throughout the song, the avian metaphor is released in favor of grounded truths, pained longings, and morbid realizations, but all of these lead to the song’s essential refrain. It’s the question we have all asked ourselves at one point or another in our lives: “How the fuck am I gonna get my drunk ass home tonight?”

Okay, maybe you’ve never actually been drunk or even had a peet of the moloko plus. But that’s a bit of the beauty in good pop music: metaphors abound. Have you never been so depressed, anxious, or miserable that you did something crazy like go out and run around with people known for making bad decisions? Or pressed the accelerator to the floor on an open road with tears streaming down your cheeks to see how fast you can really go? Or eaten an entire tub of ice cream, a jar of peanut butter, and a box of thin mints in a single sitting? In any (or all) of those cases, did you not once suddenly realize how out of control you were? Did you not realize that you had traveled to the brink of oblivion and then had to ask yourself how you got to this point? And how you were going to get back to where you began?

There, you’re getting it. Now, listen to “Weather Balloon” again and let yourself be taken to whichever place the music of Green Light Cameras takes you.

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Ball of Wax 57 Songs: Pampa – “Una de Cal y una de Arena”

Posted on September 14, 2019 by Jon Rooney

Seattle via Buenos Aires band Pampa returns to Ball of Wax with “Una de Cal y una de Arena” and it’s an outstanding example of the band’s elegant-yet-naturalistic guitar-driven sound. Singer-songwriter-guitarist Moon Baillie (a better band name than Pampa? methinks so) has developed a lush, flowing sound with the band, a bit like the War on Drugs sans the reverb bath or the great, unheralded Spanish band Migala with a sunnier disposition. The guitars sound crisp and the organ swirls tastefully around Baillie’s dynamic vocals, which are sung entirely in Spanish(Google translate tells me the title means “One of Cal and one of Arena” which doesn’t help me out a whole lot to grasp any lyrical content). The song cleverly builds and shimmies to a bit of a full-throat-ed crescendo in the last minute (are those horns? I think they’re horns! Horns are great, people), capping off a dreamy, flowing vibe perfect for both lazy afternoon listening and friend-filled get-together sound-tracking. Expect to hear a lot more from Pampa.

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Ball of Wax 57 Songs: The Laughing Group – “The New Meritocracy”

Posted on September 13, 2019 by Lattney B. Jones

In an all-too-brief (yet perfectly succinct) lumbering sway of a rocker in 6/8, The Laughing Group call out “The New Meritocracy” in modern life (society and politics, I’m sure, but more the latter) by painting a picture of entitlement, cronyism, and carelessness, and then coloring the whole thing over with very gray F# minor tones that serve as a warning for the eventual doomsday to come if we fail to remember the lessons we’ve learned as we’ve journeyed to this particular moment in time. By the close of the song, we’ve learned several things: The Laughing Group are a tight rhythmic unit, they can pull off strong vocal harmonies, and they’re well-read (all three of which make for some of the best music out there).

On its face, meritocracy should be a good thing—achievement of jobs, positions, and callings based on skill and talent. But Michael Young, the man who coined the term in his 1958 satire, The Rise of the Meritocracy (NOT a Star Wars film), came out against Tony Blair’s use of the word 40 years later and said, “It is good sense to appoint individual people to jobs on their merit. It is the opposite when those who are judged to have merit of a particular kind harden into a new social class without room in it for others.” And this is where The Laughing Group shows that they understand what Britain’s former PM didn’t: no system works exactly the way it was designed when there is power to be had, however moral or beneficent the intents of the powerful seem to be—less so when money is involved and the intents don’t even seem moral or beneficent.

The great trick of “The New Meritocracy” is within its half-minute intro: crashing drums outline physical collapse over a bassline that attempts several melodic ascents only to find itself rooted to a descending chord progression driven by the rhythm guitar, all of which neatly foreshadow the only course possible for a society or government operating under misguided ideals, summed up in the song’s final lyrics: everything’s gonna sink.

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Ball of Wax 57: Bundy – “LOA”

Posted on September 13, 2019 by Levi Fuller

Seems like Ball of Wax 57 is the volume for new music from drummer side projects we haven’t heard from in way too long. In addition to blouseusa’s “Sisters,” we have this beauty from Bundy – aka Mike Bundy, who’s played with many Ball of Wax-adjacent bands over the years, showed up a Bundy on Ball of Wax 24, and was a part of our delightful Ball of WAX 40 Harry Candy project. Unlike the energetic, drum-forward indie rock of his previous submission, “Col. Capt. Boss Man,” “LOA” is a relaxed, dreamy track, perfect for the wistful, waning days of summer. Mike shows here that – like most drummers I’ve known – he can actually do it all: singing, playing keys and guitar, and, most importantly, writing a damn fine song that manages to turn the Pacific Northwest pastime of complaining about the weather into an exercise in simplicity and beauty.

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Ball of Wax 57 Songs: Doug Haire – “Holocene #5”

Posted on September 12, 2019 by Levi Fuller

Doug Haire is a master musician and composer whose instruments are usually field recording devices, tape machines, and digital audio workstations. He has engineered and produced ten billion albums for other artists over the years, and has a deep catalog of field-recording- and found-sound-based works that I strongly encourage you to dive into. Sometimes he goes out into the world and gathers his own recordings, which he uses as raw materials for his – often place-based – compositions (see Vol. 51’s “Ilwaco“), and sometimes he finds recordings made for other purposes and turns them into new works.

“Holocene #5” is from the latter category – although there may be some Haire-generated field recordings involved as well. The primary voices are a solo organist – possibly a church recording from somewhere/somewhen? – and a letter-by-tape, which mainly seems to consist of the woman who created it talking about the fact of its existence. (Which makes me wonder, when people first started sending letters did they often write about the phenomenon of putting pen to paper, sending it through the mail, etc.? I’m sure a lot of early emails [my own included] were mostly about how cool it was to be sending an electronic message! Through the wires!) These elements complement each other well. The bed of inspirational organ music provides some playful gravitas (is that a thing?) to the speaker’s words, and her voice gives us something to latch onto while the music blurs by. A little over a minute in, another voice starts to sneak in, crickets in the night singing their crickety song. Gradually the voice fades away, then the organ drops out; all human-generated sound has disappeared and we’re left outside, staring up at the stars, listening to our own breath. I sincerely hope the title of this piece indicates that it’s one of a series, because if it is I want them all.

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