Ball of Wax 54 Songs: Medejin – “Untitled 4”

Posted on November 2, 2018 by Zach Warnes

If you are a fan of moody, atmospheric pop that makes you want to dance in your headphones, then make sure you give “Untitled 4” by Medejin a listen. At just under three minutes, Jenn Taranto and company deliver the goods with a spellbinding piece of beat driven music for bedroom listening and beyond. “Untitled 4” has an undeniable pop sensibility from the opening delay-drenched guitar hook to the climactic vocal end. The movement of this song, the sweeping arrangement, the catchy melody – all great pop songs have these attributes, and this one is no exception. Probably most impressive is Taranto’s vocal performance. She sells the longing and frustration that comes with waiting for a lover and paints a picture of defiant loneliness in waiting. Great stuff. Can’t wait to hear more from this group!

“Untitled 4” was produced by Simon Nicol, and is featured on the Eleni EP, which will be available for purchase Nov 7th. The release show will be at the Sunset Tavern with DoNormaal and Beatrix Sky.

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Ball of Wax 54 Songs: Andrew Daniels – “Anywhere, Right Now”

Posted on October 31, 2018 by Lattney B. Jones

In keeping with these everything-turned-upside-down times, I’m going to be uncharacteristically brief. Tucked safely away on Ball of Wax 54 is a 4-minute nugget of self-loathing and -pity, sprinkled with angst and wrapped in sonic fragility. Andrew Daniels (aka Brendon Helgason, with Steven Andrea)’s “Anywhere, Right Now” is one of the most unassuming tracks I’ve ever heard on any sort of compilation; just the tone and timbre of the “I’m going to cash it in the moment this song ends” vocals makes one wonder if the very act of offering the track up for inclusion caused heart-wrenching despair and anxiety for the artist. Sound overly melodramatic? If so, then I’m selling Brendon’s work short and doing him a disservice. Let me state, in all sincerity, that “Anywhere, Right Now” conveys—from its broken words to its aural accoutrements—a depth of humility and pain that most “sad bastard” (I assure you, this is a compliment—I f*&$%ng LOVE this kind of music!) artists can only cry about. If Daniels’s lyrics and delivery don’t take you to an emotional place both damaged and familiar, then you don’t deserve to be listening to music.
I suggest listening with headphones for auditory bonuses galore, such as mourning synths, half-buried effects, ethereal backing vocals, gentle rimshots, and WHISTLING.

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Ball of Wax 54 Songs: Grumpy Bear – “Offer Up Sound”

Posted on October 30, 2018 by Levi Fuller

I’m so delighted that Grumpy Bear has arisen from their long slumber, and that they (and their members) keep sharing weird new music – and writing – with us. With “Offer Up Sound,” Tyler and Lattney offer up a song that would be simple, short, and sweet (acoustic guitar, some pretty arpeggiated guitar and keys, straightforward vocal delivery) were it not for the ever-shifting time signatures, which provide complexity and a vague sense of unease that keeps you clicking back to the beginning to grab ahold of it with one more spin through its all-too-brief running time. Lyrically, I don’t know exactly what’s being talked about here (I never do), but I love the line “with my ears to the ground and my hand in yours, I’ll offer up sound when sound occurs.”

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Ball of Wax 54 Songs: Al Mustaqil – المستقلة – الحرية بين أشجار الزيتون

Posted on October 29, 2018 by Levi Fuller

One thing I treasure about this series – and a reason I keep doing it, 14 years in now – is the new artists I’ve been exposed to from all over the world, who seem to think this thing is worth being a part of and keep sending me music to share with you. Jacopo Andreini is one such artist, and so far everything he’s sent my way has been strange, challenging, and thrilling – although never under his own name, for some reason. For volume 48 his Katacomb Trio brought us the Sicilian-language track “Puttana di Tu Mà,” and now we have this inspired gem from his new collaborative solo project Al Mustaqil. This track blends Jacopo’s skills with tenor bouzouki, flute, turntable, and programming with a sample of Palestinian activist Ahed Tamimi, to evoke the sounds of the Mediterranean underground and to provide “a soundtrack to the contemporary clashes of the area.” This track is a fascinating window into a culture – or cultures – I know very little about, and  its lo-fi sound, hectic structure, and multi-layered, multi-cultural melodies and rhythms create a tension and unease that provide a tiny glimpse into life in a conflict-ridden area. It is unsettling and blistering, but at the same time demands to be listened to again and again.

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Ball of Wax 54 Songs: Breichiau Hir – “Portread O Ddyn Yn Bwyta Ei Hun”

Posted on October 26, 2018 by Lattney B. Jones

I don’t speak Welsh (sad, considering my surname), but listening to Breichiau Hir makes me wish I did. As far as I can understand from Google Translate—and I’m embarrassed even to admit that I resorted to that—the title of this track means, roughly, “Portrait of a Man Eating Himself.” Rarely has a title evoked such colorful imagery and opened up more the possibilities as to what the song may actually be about.

My need to understand lyrics is often subdued by the actual sound of a song and that’s exactly what happens with “Portread O Ddyn Yn Bwyta Ei Hun”—the whole thing threatens to explode from the start, the first portion of the central riff doled out several times before giving way to the delicious bass and slightly-more-than-restrained vocals. One rhythm guitar hangs in the back for a stanza or two, its brother-in-arms jumping in to help build momentum and a third adding bit of whine, all of which builds to a rousing stop-time chorus wherein everything goes a bit crazy.

If Breichiau Hir simply repeated this pattern, the song would be good enough, but no—following the second run-through, the band slips into post-rock/post-hardcore territory with a drum-and-bass bit that defies the song’s meter until the guitars return to reclaim it, reinforce it, and finally pummel it into submission, allowing the track to outro on the same central riff. I still don’t know what’s being said lyrically, but I do know that I’m going to be spending some time researching this band’s back catalogue.

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Ball of Wax 54 Songs: Levi Fuller & the Library – “News to Me”

Posted on October 25, 2018 by Lattney B. Jones

“News to Me” hits a lot of aural touchstones in the “best of my favorite acts” catalog that I keep tucked safely in my head, but I’m going to go against my own style and avoid mentioning them because I don’t want to diminish or distill the impact of what Levi Fuller & the Library are doing here.

Looking at “News to Me” – from the forthcoming ep such bad things happen – on the merits of its vocal delivery and lyrical message reveals a songwriter passionate about environmental activism, or at least that’s what the verses will tell you. That bridge and chorus, though: taken separately from the verses (and especially the final chorus, delivered after a blistering bass vamp over which guitars first chime, then crunch, and then chug along with the drums), these words could just as easily refer to the state of American (or any ideologically divided) society. Fuller’s dolorous refrain, “I wish that I could say that this was all a big surprise,” and the admission that we watched as things changed before us and even went so far as to make ourselves deaf and blind to those changes . . . it speaks directly to every person alive today that has any power to change things (and really, isn’t that every one of us to some degree?) and says that we’ve essentially allowed all of this to happen—because we never thought it actually would happen.

“News to Me” isn’t so much a protest song as a contrition song. Laying the blame at our collective feet is heavy-hearted stuff, but the confessions of complicity aren’t the saddest part of the lyrics; it’s the “I wish that I could” (and the implied “but I can’t”) for giving the impression that this activist, resigned to defeat, has all but lost his belief in the power of the people and the concept of “the greater good.”

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Ball of Wax 54: November 23rd at Conor Byrne!

Posted on October 25, 2018 by Levi Fuller

Ball of Wax 54
with The Cupholders, Zachary Warnes, The Daphnes, and Kevin Sur
Friday, November 23rd, 9pm
Conor Byrne Pub, 5140 Ballard Ave NW
$8 / Ball of Wax 54 CD included with entry

It’s time to release the autumn 2018 volume of Ball of Wax Audio Quarterly! And what could be more autumnal than partying on the night after Thanksgiving? Maybe we can even pile up some fallen leaves outside Conor Byrne and do some jumps, that would probably up our autumn game a bit. But I digress.

BoW 54 is chock full of 20 songs from friends new and old – which we’ll be rolling out here on the Blog of Wax starting today. There is no particular theme, but the time signature 5/4 does show up more than would be statistically likely in any normal collection of 20 songs. Representing for the live experience will be Cupholders (the Ballard supergroup formerly known as Doug Hood and the Wholly Heathens, chock full of BoW friends) and three artists newer to the fold: Zachary Warnes, The Daphnes, and Kevin Sur. It’s going to be a great time – and, as always, everyone in the door gets a free copy of the new volume of Ball of Wax.

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Submit to Ball of Wax 54 (no theme, just good)

Posted on August 30, 2018 by Levi Fuller

Another volume of Ball of Wax Audio Quarterly is behind us, which means it’s time to start putting together the next volume! I was thinking about doing songs in 5/4 for volume 54, but I chickened out, and we’re just going themeless. Bring it! (That said, feel free to submit songs in 5/4 if you’ve got ’em.)

Have a new album out or coming out? I’m totally open to previously released or just-about-to-be-released material. My main criteria are good and newish.

Deadline: September 16th (also -ish)
Guidelines: here
Questions: here

Please spread the word. I can’t wait to hear what you’ve got.

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Ball of Wax 53 PS: “Cluster (Atmosphere)” Video

Posted on August 7, 2018 by Levi Fuller

Ball of Wax 53 is out in the world, and its individual parts are floating about in their own ways, like so many particles of carbon polluting our atmosphere. But in a nice way. To wit: Darryl Blood and Green Light Cameras have produced a video of their track “Cluster (Atmosphere).” Like the piece itself, it’s gauzy, somewhat inscrutable, and probably best enjoyed late at night in a darkened room. Maybe if we’re very nice they’ll produce a whole video album for us to sit quietly and contemplate the end of the world with.

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Ball of Wax 53 Songs: Tom Dyer – “Everything in the World Is Returning to a State of Nature”

Posted on August 3, 2018 by Levi Fuller

This collection of songs about the environment closes with this strange, sad, beautiful, fatalistic yet oddly hopeful(?) piece from Tom Dyer. Tom and fellow iconoclast Jim of Seattle (whom you might remember from BoW 32) have created a unique musical meditation on the state of the world and the inevitable pull of entropy. The main thesis: Plastification of the oceans notwithstanding, everything will eventually return to a state of nature and neutralize our effect on the planet. Of course, as I was just saying, we don’t want to be too fatalistic about things; but it is true that, at some point, humanity will no longer be a problem for this planet. I think we can acknowledge that while saying we should do our part to push that date back as far as possible, and try to keep it somewhat habitable for other forms of life.

Anyway, back to the music. “Everything in the World . . .” is almost like a musical collage, pasting together strings and synths in various moods and tempos with Dyer’s voice – alternately singing and speaking, celebrating and mourning the many wonders of this world that may or may not perish along with humanity. Like the gravity of our current global situation, this piece takes a while to sink in, but once it grabs hold it’s almost impossible to shake.

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