Ball of Wax 51 Songs: Whetzel – “Slow Waves”

Posted on February 13, 2018 by Jon Rooney

We last heard from Seattle producer James Whetzel back in volume 48, [he was also on volume 49; he’s a busy guy -ed.] and he returns to this volume of long songs with “Slow Waves.” With a wash of reverberating guitars and a minimum of harmonic movement, “Slow Waves” is dreamy minimalism at its most welcoming and appealing. There’s not real percussion to force order to the swaying electric guitar parts nor dynamics to differentiate one section from the other, it’s just a kind of hip, blissful drift. This could be chill-out music or on the soundtrack of a cool film about cave diving or space travel. I had it on a loop so its 10 plus minutes spread to the better part of an hour and it ended up being a really nice hour. Nicely done, James.

Whetzel will perform a solo set to open up the Ball of Wax 51 release show on March 9th at Substation.

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Ball of Wax 51 Songs: autOaudiO – “Belzinbox”

Posted on February 12, 2018 by Levi Fuller

Ball of Wax 51 is going to be quite a long ride, so I thought it would be nice to get off to a mellow start. If you’ve been to a Ball of Wax show in the past few years you’ve probably seen Paul Beaudry in one group or another. He is or has been a Foghorn, a Virgin of the Bird, a Caleb or a Walter (I guess he’s Walter? Not sure how that works), a member of Double or Muffin (more on them later), and probably a million other things. He’s a ludicrously talented and omnipresent multi-instrumentalist and singer, and somehow it never occurred to me that he probably squirrels himself away in his down time (ha ha!) and creates beautiful electronic music by sampling things he finds in his garage. And yet here we are, with “Belzinbox,” from his solo project autOaudiO (which, if you check out that Bandcamp page, you will discover has been active forever and produced an enormous pile of albums).

You probably wouldn’t know from listening to it that “Belzinbox” was created from the sounds of tools and other found objects, but it is a really lovely assemblage of electronic pings and booms and drones that, if you’re me anyway, totally puts you in the mood to sit down and listen to 7 more hours of long-form music. My computer tells me it’s over 14 minutes long, but every time I sit down to listen to it, it’s over too fast. Before I would just skip back to the beginning, but now I seem to have some Bandcamp digging to do . . .

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Ball of Wax 51 (Long Songs): March 9th at Substation!

Posted on February 12, 2018 by Levi Fuller

Are you ready for this? I’m not sure if I am.

Volume 51 will be, by far, the longest volume of Ball of Wax Audio Quarterly to date. For the first time, I’ve decided to go download-only to enable the theme of Long Songs. And I do mean long; each track is from 10 to 30 minutes in length, and the full running time is about 7 hours, an expanse of expansive work from a broad swath of artists, from weirdo rockers like Freeway Park and Double or Muffin to experimental icons like Doug Haire and Bill Horist, and much, much, much, much more – even a couple songwriters, like me, who just wrote really long songs.

We’re celebrating the release on March 9th at Substation. Everyone in the door gets the usual Ball of Wax handmade packaging with liner notes and a handy-dandy download code. (For Bandcamp purchasers and subscribers, we will have the option of a custom- or randomly-selected CD-R of 70-80 minutes of music.)

Join us!

Ball of Wax 51 Release Show
Friday, March 9, Substation
645 NW 45th St.
With Double or Muffin, Freeway Park, Afrocop, Bill Horist, The Antenna Project, and Whetzel
7pm doors / $8 / 21+

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Submit to Ball of Wax 51: Loooooooong sooooooooooooooongs!

Posted on January 2, 2018 by Levi Fuller
51

Photo courtesy kathuw56 on Flickr. I don’t know, it came up when I searched for ’51’ and I fell in love. Let’s presume he’s listening to some long songs on those headphones.

With apologies for the relatively short notice, I wanted to make sure I publicly announced our call for submissions for Ball of Wax 51: Long songs!

I love (and sometimes make) long-form music, but when I get a lot of great submissions for any particular volume, such tracks often tend to get the first cut, just due to space considerations. So I’ve decided to have one volume that is not an audio CD, devote it to long works, and make it however damn long I please! (We’ll either do a data disc of MP3s with full-quality download, or just the usual packaging with only a download code; I welcome your feedback/ideas.)

What does “long” mean? Let’s say 10-30 minutes per track. (Oh lord, what am I getting myself into?)

Oh, and when I say “songs,” I don’t really mean just songs. We’re quite open to/expecting droney/minimalistic/experimental/improv, what have you, as well as long rambling ballads or stoner-rock anthems. Music! (However you define that.) Long! That’s it.

Bring ’em on!

Deadline: January 14th (give or take)

Guidelines: here

Questions? Comment or drop me a line!

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Ball of Wax 50 Songs: Tom Pearo – “Plains”

Posted on December 15, 2017 by Bart Cameron

Not that words absolutely have to be the end all be all. Tom Pearo, by appearances a good-natured Vermonter, can say a lot relying on soaring guitar tone.

On first hearing “Plains,” I was reminded of pleasant nights when some locals here used to put on something called the Cumulus Festival. If only that festival still existed. Cumulus Festival, for me, was a chance to hang out in someone’s daydream. That also is the effect of Pearo’s track. The guitars are choice, the drums assist in building to a natural crescendo. It is low-key orchestral jazz as interpreted using the tools of, well, rock.

I’ve long been curious about what grown-ups can make with the tools of rock n roll, and this track is nothing to take lightly. Like a lot of Levi Fuller’s curated tracks, this song grabs the subconscious but also appeals to the intellect. Here’s hoping Tom Pearo relaunches the Cumulus movement.

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Ball of Wax 50 Songs: James Kelly Pitts – “I Knew Those Words”

Posted on December 15, 2017 by Bart Cameron

Leave it to the author of the previously drooled over “Night Shift” to present a somewhat optimal set-closer. You can follow a lot about James Kelly Pitts in the recent issues of BoW. He’s been building expressive seemingly DIY tracks depicting, as Mattie said about “Night Shift,” the feeling of life in the 21st Century.

History aside, “I Knew Those Words” brings it home, especially as he introduces gentle counter-melodies toward the end, almost suggestive a French horn. A good tune, suggestive of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and especially fascinating set against the other recent tunes submitted by Mr. Pitts.

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Ball of Wax 50 Songs: Crystal Beth & the Boom Boom Band – “Battle Cry”

Posted on December 15, 2017 by Levi Fuller

Beth Fleenor – aka Crystal Beth – is an undeniable, unstoppable musical force, and one of Seattle’s treasures. She uses her voice and clarinet – not to mention the deep connections she forms with her collaborators – to channel strange, disturbing, and beautiful sounds into existence from beyond most of our imaginings. “Battle Cry” has no words that would be recognized in any language, but words would be needless ornament here. The band’s joyful, stomping skronk and Beth’s chants and shrieks bypass the language centers of the brain and drill directly into the deepest, primal folds, beckoning you to surrender to sound, to find peace and clarity through a modicum of musical insanity.

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Ball of Wax 50 Songs: Elisa Flynn – “Sugar”

Posted on December 14, 2017 by Jon Rooney

Brooklyn’s Elisa Flynn is a newcomer to Ball of Wax, though her gritty, wired music evokes a lot of the touchstones (PJ Harvey, Infinity Girl, Lync) that many of us old-timers grew up absorbing. “Sugar” is the kind of sweaty buzzsaw guitar workout you’d expect to hear in a basement show or at a club whose bathroom you hope to never have to use (what up, old Comet?). The song starts with a huge drum beat that gives way to an edgy minor-key melody sung over a two-chord arpeggiated guitar part. At the chorus, a fuzz-filled guitar sweeps in as Flynn’s vocals take a more dramatic turn. This is beefy punk rock and a welcome change-up for ye olde Ball o’ Wax.

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Ball of Wax 50 Songs: Razor Clam – “ITB”

Posted on December 14, 2017 by Aurora Fonseca-Lloyd

“ITB” is a perfect piece of ’80s-style punky girl pop. If you ever want to run around the streets with a ton of Aquanet in your pink-streaked hair, wearing a big lacy skirt, dancing with a pack of your best girl friends, this Razor Clam song has to be on your playlist. While they are nostalgic, however, the song’s well-deployed synths, guitar, bass and drums feel authentic and modern, not at all costumey. Lead singer Aya Mara’s agile voice is by turns breathy and forceful, cute and yelpy, just the right vehicle for the lyrics, which deal with a struggle many modern women are faced with: a boyfriend* who wants anal sex when she really doesn’t.

One of the fun things about feminism and the sexual revolution is that it’s become more and more acceptable for women to enjoy sex and to try lots of different kinds of sex with lots of different people. One of the less fun aspects of that shift is the feeling that a woman must have all the kinds of sex or she’s not going to be considered cool, and the way the supreme importance of a man’s pleasure in bed hasn’t lessened for some people over the years. So a girl finds herself in bed with some guy she likes a lot and he want to put it in her butt, and this is her song. It has the least decorative use of the exclamation “ow!” I’ve ever heard in pop music. It’s fun and cheeky and kind of hilarious, but it’s haunted by the unease of wanting to be chill and fun while navigating the feelings of a guy who is not quite taking no for an answer. Honestly, this is a brilliant song about butt sex and modern romance, a real gift to us all.

*I don’t want to be heterosexist in assuming the song is about a man who’s doing the pressuring, so please feel free to sound off in the comments about women who have pressured you for butt stuff.

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Ball of Wax 50 Songs: Modo72 – “Ritual”

Posted on December 12, 2017 by Levi Fuller

We last heard from drummer/multi-instrumentalist Mike O’Doherty almost exactly a year ago, as half of Stereo Sons. With his Modo72 project, he has branched out to create his own music: instrumental, driving, percussive, with a satisfying blend of live and virtual instruments. The propulsive electronic beat that kicks off “Ritual” contrasts with the laid-back feel of the guitars and keys, with drums building to a frenzy until everything drops into a slow half-time groove, which gradually builds back up, the drums coming back in to drive everything back home again before one final slow slide to the finish. Not unlike the music of Stereo Sons, “Ritual” has the feel of some of my favorite bedroom electronica from the early ’00s – which seems way too recent to already be a source of nostalgia, but it turns out it we’re 17 years into this millennium, so hey, bring it on!

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