Ball of Wax 56 Songs: Breichiau Hir – “Penblwydd Hapus Iawn”

Posted on June 3, 2019 by Lattney B. Jones

Breichiau Hir waste no time getting to the point. On an insistent beat and an opening scream of “OKAY,” the band jump right into insistent beats, mad guitars, and shouted verses on “Penblwydd Hapus Iawn.” Punctuating each stanza with staccato thrashes on the guitar and bass strings (complete with all of the distorted squeaks you could ask for—a complement and a gem of a sound in this world of overproduced pop music) is a great touch. It adds to the mayhem and creates a stop-start feel.

This band always bring strong vocal melodies, though on “Penblwydd Hapus Iawn” it’s the verses that run wild, while the chorus is more subdued. It’s the gentler chorus that hints at what’s to come at the halfway mark—see, where their last appearance on Ball of Wax dove into harder territory, the change here goes for more of a mellow break, though you wouldn’t know it from the drums. While the percussion plays with the beat (another of the band’s motifs), everything else fades except for the bass, which buzzes out the roots of the progression. Guitars return one by one as the vocals return to calmly narrate and things steadily pick up until a morphed instrumental version of the opening progression brings everything to a close and the listener can breathe again.

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Ball of Wax 56 Songs: Sun Tunnels – “Brynn”

Posted on May 31, 2019 by Lattney B. Jones

With an intro that almost feels like a false start, Sun Tunnels announce to the listener in the first few bars of “Brynn” what they’re ostensibly about: psych-garage rock built on the trio of guitar, bass, and drums. They spend the next four minutes showing what kinds of magic can be woven with those tools in regard to arrangement, dynamics, structure, and even tone.

From that subdued opening to its near-frenetic close, Sun Tunnels apply a number of tricks to suggest various types of movement. The guitar and bass follow a progression centered on a D Mixolydian mode with a mediant borrowed from D minor and a return to the major tonic, followed by extended rests from both instruments on each run. This adds both color and a sense of unrest (that borrowed flatted third also suggesting power), while the drums alternate between straight beats, rests, and semi-fills. But the band never actually stray from their chosen tempo, even when they turn the dynamics from grinding chug to soft breakdown and then bring everything back up for a payoff outro.*

Guitarist/vocalist Louis O’Callaghan uses his voice to great effect, moving from keen-eyed victim to yowling accuser to half-hearted philosopher and finally determined victor as he lets his subject know that he’s more than aware of what’s up and has designs of his own and that, ultimately, it’s all good—”you can play me because I’m playing you and we’re none the worse for it,” in a sense. Modern romance, except that some small sense of remorse or hurt peeks through in those occasional strangled yelps and breaking coos.

Sun Tunnels will play at the Ball of Wax 56 show on June 20th at the Blue Moon. Don’t miss it!

*About that payoff outro: built on the strength of a rhythm section going for broke, O’Callaghan twice delivers a simple ascending-descending tremolo riff that declares “modes and scales be damned” even while reaffirming the mixolydian on the way up and allowing the inclusion of the flatted third on the way down. But why are you reading about it? Go listen and then thank Levi for knowing exactly how to open a compilation!

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Ball of Wax 56: June 20th at the Blue Moon

Posted on May 30, 2019 by Levi Fuller

Photo courtesy Flickr user xavib

Ball of Wax 56 Release Show
with Frames in Motion, Sun Tunnels, Amanda Winterhalter, Holly Small, and Schruggs (Josh Schramm and Kevin Suggs)

Thursday, June 20th, 8pm
The Blue Moon, 712 NE 45th St.
$8 / Ball of Wax 56 CD included with entry

Here comes a new volume of Ball of Wax Audio Quarterly! There is no theme to this one, just damn fine music from a damn fine group of musicians at a damn fine venue, marking 14 years of . . . whatever this is. We’ll start rolling out tracks tomorrow right here on the Blog of Wax, so stay tuned!

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Album Review: Nic Masangkay – DARK AT DUSK: The Final Suicide

Posted on May 28, 2019 by Julia Massey

Nic Masangkay – DARK AT DUSK: The Final Suicide
(2019, self-released)
Exclusive Ball of Wax preview link!

Nic Masangkay’s DARK AT DUSK: The Final Suicide tells the story of how one might create something deeply strong and beautiful out of intense trauma and seemingly insurmountable pain.

What becomes evident immediately with “Trauma Is a Metaphor” is Masangkay’s mastery of production. Working with Camelia Jade Lazenby at Jack Straw Cultural Center, they interweave beats that showcase a background steeped in pop, R&B, and hip-hop, among many other genres. Polyrhythmic bass lines move the lyrical content along in waves of understanding. It’s easier to comprehend these difficult experiences through this music.

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Album Review: Virgin of the Birds – Numberless Needs

Posted on May 10, 2019 by Sam Russell

Virgin of the Birds returns to Seattle for their first Pacific Northwest show of 2019 at the Conor Byrne on May 11, joined by The Foghorns (also playing their first show of 2019) and Sam Russell’s new old-soul band Doug Hood & The Wholly Heathens. Sam, along with Bart Cameron and Casey Ruff of The Foghorns, make up the Ballard supergroup The Cupholders, who have taken it upon themselves to review Virgin of the Birds’ latest release, the Numberless Needs EP.

Virgin of the Birds – Numberless Needs
(2019, Abandoned Love Records)

Casey Ruff:

Jon Rooney of VOTB (once again) builds upon the casual brilliance of his previous releases with the latest, Numberless Needs .

The opening track “I Fought a Turk” is led by the wonderful Faith Eliott, and whatever modesty Jon might’ve been attempting via concealment had, alas, backfired- because we can tell that we’re listening to a true, blue JR original.  It has the hallmarks that make a VOTB song important- narratives that sound more akin to a conversation that you may have never had but felt as if you did.  Complementing this interpersonal acuity is almost a history lesson, so his reputation of producing further entries within the genre of Wiki-Rock continues unabated (thanks to the genre coinage by BoW reporter Patrick Gibbs).

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Album Review: Darryl Blood – Parse

Posted on May 1, 2019 by Lattney B. Jones

Darryl Blood – Parse
(2019, self-released)

Darryl Blood’s works are often based around piano motifs or chords (major, minor, 7th or augmented, jazz, and a kind of “dark jazz”) played straight on the beat, and this works perfectly as both rhythmic and harmonic bed on which to lay the listener. Many of Blood’s compositions are minimalist to a point—a jarring but welcome respite in these times of overproduction and packed arrangements—and, while some of his melodic sheets are content to stay close to that bed, others get up and wander around the room, while a few even stray into the hall and down the creaking stairs, going as far as the threshold of his aural haunted house before returning to that bed or evaporating altogether.

After numerous listens in various contexts and environments (how I wish I had my own haunted house in which to experience this album!), I still can’t decide if it’s a concept work. I’m a literal person and so words mean everything to me. Naming a collection of instrumentals “Parse” adds a level of mystery that feels at once both off-handed and coldly calculated. I’m driven to believe that Mr. Blood knows exactly what he’s doing when he applies a title—“The Staircase,” which I reviewed when it was included on  Ball of Wax Volume 52 last May, evoked for me a nerve-wracked journey on the titular structure. The song is included here in an extended and even more frightening version, complete with sinister beat and low-in-the-mix voices and disembodied, breathy howls.

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Jarrod Paul Bramson, RIP

Posted on April 1, 2019 by Levi Fuller

Jarrod at the Ball of Wax 17 show
(photo by Jody Poorwill)

As you have probably heard by now if you are connected with independent music in greater western Washington and are on any kind of social media, we lost a dear friend last week with the death of Jarrod Paul Bramson. Jarrod was an integral figure in the Port Townsend music scene, and singer/songwriter of the band Solvents, along with his wife Emily Madden.

Words pretty much always fail me at times like this. Death, especially sudden death, is horrible and devastating, and grief is complicated and insidious. Suffice it to say this loss will continue to reverberate across our extended musical community for a long time. I’ll pretty much let the music speak for itself from here on out.

I first met Jarrod in person at the release show for Ball of Wax 17, the first volume on which Solvents appeared, with their tune “Cozy Mo Came Home” (which has been stuck in my head on repeat for a while now).

Solvents at Ball of Wax 47.
Photo by Melissa Wax, courtesy Ballard VOX.

I didn’t see or hear much from Solvents for a while, although we’d occasionally play shows together (or talk about playing shows together). They released a phenomenal album, Modern Dystopia, setting aside the sweet acoustic tunes for a loud, raucous band sound. Jarrod and Emily were always game, it seemed, to hop on a ferry and head to Seattle to play a show for a small audience and little (if any) pay. I always loved to see and hear them play together, and to catch up between sets. They clearly shared a deep connection, both personally and musically. They were (and I know Emily still is) funny, warm, kind humans.

Solvents finally returned with “Song for President Trump,” which was seemingly tailor-made  for Volume 47.

And soon after that, they returned for Volume 49 with the slow, gorgeous roll of “Sea.” “As long as you still love me I am free,” he sings. “Hold my hand and jump into the sea.” (And now I’m crying again. Fuck.)

Jarrod, we miss you. Emily, we love you. Everyone else: Go buy their music and/or contribute to this Gofundme to help Emily figure out where she goes from here.

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Ball of Wax 55 Songs: Levi Fuller – “Fuck Your Wall”

Posted on March 15, 2019 by Lattney B. Jones

You remember that guy in high school who used the ubiquitous sex bomb as an intensifier to the point that it lost its impact and became indistinguishable from the rest of his drivel? How about the girl who uttered it almost randomly and took great joy in using it as every one of the parts of speech? What of the mousy elderly Math teacher who, spreading chalkdust about the room as she wiped algebra from the blackboard, caught a snag in the classroom carpet with her 5$ Payless low heels and sprawled to the floor, shouting it briefly and irrevocably for all the students to hear and gape at, their horror solely drawn out by that most sacred of profanity? This is none of that.

Over a beat so split, divided, wrapped in itself, and otherwise fucked up, Levi Fuller evokes every American punk act from St. Paul to Minneapolis (with a healthy dose of Seattle’s own shambolic rock quartet named for a certain Russ Meyer film) in his righteous indignation over self-made problems, vanity, stupidity, hate, missed chances, irrelevance, racism, and the fear and hatred that are inseparable from xenophobic nationalism. As you might imagine from its title, the song is peppered with the multipurpose cognate so lovingly metamorphosed from the Germanic fock, focka, ficken, fokken, and fukka, but the magic of its every yawp, yelp, wail, and whoot is that Levi finds a way to sound incensed and unhinged, almost crooning it at one point, and yet . . . amused. Darkly, painfully, defiantly, but amused nonetheless. His secret? He knows that, for all of the cajoling, peddling, huckstering, shutting down, and threatening, such a damn fool endeavor as building a wall the length of an entire national border is just too ridiculous to ever actually succeed.

Right?

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Ball of Wax 55 Songs: Behind These Scars – “This Is Just Dirt”

Posted on March 14, 2019 by Levi Fuller

Ahhh, remember way back before 2016, when people weren’t screaming and foaming at the mouth about all the bad people trying to come across our border? Ha ha, just kidding. The origins of this current wave of xenophobia stretches way back before our 45th president – and even before 2008, when Ryan Reese-Beltrand (the man behind Behind These Scars) wrote “This Is Just Dirt” as a response to the racist backlash to Obama’s election – which backlash, of course, ultimately blossomed into our current situation. In any time or any political climate, this rousing emo/post-punk anthem (whose title neatly states its thesis) would be an important reminder to everyone living anywhere on Earth: We made these lines up. They mean nothing. They’re not worth killing or dying for. I don’t think a song on an obscure compilation series is going to change any hearts and minds, but in this moment in history I’m proud to help put this seemingly obvious message out into the world. Thanks to Ryan for sharing it.

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Ball of Wax 55 Songs: Jacopo Andreini – “9 borders to cross”

Posted on March 13, 2019 by Levi Fuller

Jacopo Andreini‘s “9 borders to cross” is, alas, the only track on Ball of Wax 55 to come from outside the US border. Jacopo is Italian, but the music he makes crosses many borders, as you might guess from the title. If I had to guess, I’d say the instruments brought to bear – bouzouki, bendir, riqq – are played across many more than nine borders. There are no words here, but while listening it’s easy to imagine a long, dangerous journey from one harrowing situation to another in hopes of reaching something like safety or welcome – but without any guarantees on that front. In the US we tend to focus on the one border to the south that we see as a problem – whether with sympathy or antipathy to those trying to cross it. “9 borders to cross” reminds us that, for most refugees, many borders must be crossed, each filled with its own dangers and judgments. Many thanks to Jacopo for sending his music across so many borders to our ears.

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