Ball of Wax 39 Songs: Joseph Allen Beltram – Meditation in D

Posted on February 25, 2015 by Levi Fuller

Cleveland’s (soon to be Seattle’s) Joseph Allen Beltram has quickly become a BoW regular. He first joined us with a swoony love tune on Volume 35, and “Meditation in D” marks his third contribution since then. This is an older, unreleased track, featuring Beltram’s now-familiar rich baritone and densely strummed acoustic guitar, backed by the estimable instrumental rock outfit The Six Parts Seven (who played a similar role behind one of my favorite singer-songwriters, Richard Buckner, on a tour that I regret missing to this very day). Lots of reverb and syncopation, an ocean of D, a little slide guitar . . . that’s a whole lot of musical sweet spots for me. I hope the full album that spawned this tune sees the light of day some time soon.

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Ball of Wax 39 Songs: Coast – Beads of Light

Posted on February 25, 2015 by Levi Fuller

Port Townsend’s Coast is another new band to Ball of Wax, and another band so new to the world that they didn’t have a name when they first sent me their music. Singer-songwriter (I think?) Spencer Johnson is accompanied by three members of the roots rock outfit Cold Comfort (including, full disclosure, Dekker Deen, who also plays drums in my own band) on this breezy pop track, tastefully produced and arranged, with hooks to spare. Coast is an appropriate name for this project, both geographically and musically: We Seattleites like to think we live on the West Coast, but PT is a heck of a lot closer. The music itself (evocative somehow of that other state that takes up most of this coast) seems to coast along smoothly under its own power; just click the play button and let it do its thing, and then try to get it out of your head.

I think Coast is making their live debut – certainly their Seattle debut – at the Bow 39 show on March 7th. I’m looking forward to seeing their sparkling tunes roughed up a little bit in the live setting.

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Ball of Wax 39 Songs: Virgin of the Birds – In the ’90s

Posted on February 24, 2015 by Levi Fuller

Our old friend Jon Rooney takes a bit of a left turn with this newest Virgin of the Birds track, which fits very nicely in the electro-chill section of Volume 39 in which we find ourselves. Not unlike the Harvey Girls track Jon just reviewed, “In the ’90s” has a hazy, languid feel, although instead of the sadness that seeps through that track, we have pure, unadulterated nostalgia (which is maybe a form of sadness? discuss). There is something about the decade in which one entered one’s twenties that has an undeniable pull on a person. Since Jon and I share that decade, this track speaks to me without the need of translation, though for some of you it might be the ’70s, or the ’00s, or even the very teens we currently occupy. That decade can feel like a place, which is what Jon turns it into here, a place we wander in search of lost loves, friends, and name-brand outer garments. “In the ’90s,” he sings, “you were gold.” Weren’t we all?

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Ball of Wax 39 Songs: The Harvey Girls – The Long Haul

Posted on February 24, 2015 by Jon Rooney

The Harvey Girls, who first contributed to Ball of Wax with volume 38, are back for volume 39 with “The Long Haul,” which also closes their 2014 full length release, Complicated Lady. “The Long Haul” has a mellow, spacey vibe, with vocals layered on top of a fluffy bed of electric piano, bubbling bass and occasional bursts of percussion, wah-wah electric guitar and synth-y bleeps. Despite the Stereolab-ish feel of the instrumentation, the song strikes me as a dramatic ballad, a torch song in an anachronistic setting. Vocalist Melissa Rodenbeek sings this like a lonely cabaret burner, injecting otherwise straight-ahead chill out music with a sultry sadness. Over the course of almost five minutes, “The Long Haul” seems content to mostly drift and sway through a repeating three chord sequence rather than shift gears or built to any sort of climax. More meditation than pop song, “The Long Haul” offers an interesting change up to volume 39.

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Ball of Wax 39 Songs: Lost Wisdom – Who’s from Aleppo Again?

Posted on February 23, 2015 by Levi Fuller

Ball of Wax 39 contains songs from a bunch of new artists – some of them so new that they didn’t have band names when they initially submitted their songs. One of those artists, Taylor Delph, contacted me out of the blue with a few tracks he’d recorded and wasn’t sure what to do with – which is exactly why I started this whole thing in the first place, so thank you Taylor – and I believe only named his project Lost Wisdom just before I needed that info for the physical CDs.

On “Who’s from Aleppo Again?,” Delph takes one simple chord progression and milks it for all it’s worth (one of my favorite approaches), adding and subtracting layers, building complexity, weaving melodies and harmonies and mysterious lyrics into a blissful three-minute chillout. This is the kind of track that John Cusack could cue up in his record store and say “I’m about to sell five copies of Ball of Wax 39.” Heads would start nodding,  wallets would open, and the coffers of Ball of Wax would be $13.75 richer (after the store takes its cut). I don’t know if this blog post will have the same effect, but I’m open to it. (Click here to buy BoW 39!)

Lost Wisdom is unfortunately not playing the BoW 39 release show on March 7th, but hopefully Taylor will be out there playing live soon.

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Ball of Wax 39 Songs: Julia Massey and the Five Finger Discount – Turn It Into Everything

Posted on February 20, 2015 by Levi Fuller

Julia Massey and her band return to Ball of Wax for the second volume in a row, giving us another track from their fine new album, A.L.I.T.E. (You know I really like this band because I keep having them back, despite the challenge their seven-word name adds to the CD face formatting.) “Turn It Into Everything” is a swirling, expansive ode to the universe, packing a lot of dynamics and emotion into less than three minutes. There’s a lot to like here, but I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the bass wizardry of Geoff Gibbs, whose playing adds so much to this track. The guy is all over the fretboard, alternating seamlessly between deep-pocket rhythms, melodic leads, and percussive bursts of chords. This is the kind of playing that can easily veer into tasteless wankery, but everything he does makes sense and has its place – imagine Les Claypool as a session guy on prescription mood stabilizers – and the end result is a really richly developed piece of music. Word has it that A.L.I.T.E. was Gibbs’s last outing with the band, I can only imagine he’s already sorely missed. I know we’ll soon be  hearing more great songs from Julia and whoever else she chooses to associate with, though.

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Ball of Wax 39 Songs: Soft Blows – Landine

Posted on February 19, 2015 by Jon Rooney

Soft Blows‘ “Landine” opens with a decidedly disco drum part, which makes sense because, for a little over 3 minutes, the song lays down a sweaty, dance-y groove in the tradition of rock bands seemingly inspired by Prince to get funky, be sexy and keep the guitars loud (a formula most notably executed by the Afghan Whigs). Soft Blows trade between male and female vocalists, with Alicia Romero playing the role of the sultry straight man to Seth Swift, the easily-excitable loose cannon. F-bombs are dropped, syllables are seductively stretched and cooing is handily applied. “Landine” stays pretty much in the dance groove pocket, with occasional flourishes of electric guitars and a screaming climax from Swift towards the end of the song.

The Soft Blows seem like they’re a lot of fun live, which we can all confirm as they play the Ball of Wax 39 release show at Conor Byrne on Saturday, March 7th.

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Ball of Wax 39 Songs: season of strangers – Yellow Moon

Posted on February 18, 2015 by Jon Rooney
this is how to make that whooshing airplane sound

this is how to make that whooshing airplane sound

season of strangers‘ “Yellow Moon” is a brief burst of retro indie rock, recalling at times both the crooked fuzz of Archers of Loaf and Superchunk and the flanger pedal-drenched dreaminess of Cocteau Twins and the Cure. High-pitched voices lay low in the mix beneath a block of synths, drums and distorted guitars. I can’t really make out any of the lyrics, but the melodies cut through, making “Yellow Moon” a perfectly viable answer to the question “what do you mean by ‘noise pop’?” On the basis of this song alone, the band seems to fit nicely alongside Seattle-area shoegaze bands like Black Nite Crash and Vibragun. While season of strangers is new to Ball of Wax, many of the members came from the now seemingly-defunct Bandolier, who appeared on Ball of Wax 35.

You can see season of strangers live at the Ball of Wax 39 release show at Conor Byrne on Saturday, March 7th.

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Ball of Wax 39 Songs – Almsss – Status

Posted on February 18, 2015 by Levi Fuller

Krist Krueger (Southerly, Sndtrkr, Yardsss, Healersss, and Self Group in general) can be a tricky guy to keep a bead on, as you might guess from that parenthetical list following his name. You can read my previous attempt to keep his various projects straight in this piece from 2011, but he has zigged and zagged a couple times since then, retiring most of his other projects and focusing on Almsss, the newest incarnation. (At least I think that’s what’s going on.)

But honestly, none of that really matters. The music – as always with Krueger, whatever the moniker – is solid: a dense forest of thick, blasting beats, overdriven guitar, and simple, chanting melodies spooling out in his clear, unaffected baritone. Whether he’s hunched over a Fender Rhodes behind a projection screen, creating drone soundscapes, or singing and playing a guitar, the sounds he makes are always worth paying attention to. Plus, I’m a sucker for songs in 5/4, and stoked that I get to start this volume with two different examples of the form.

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Ball of Wax 39 Songs: Sean Kiely – This Might Be True

Posted on February 17, 2015 by Jon Rooney

New Jersey’s Sean Kiely is a newcomer to Ball of Wax, making his first contribution with “This Might Be True.” “This Might Be True” begins with voice and acoustic guitar looping through a melodic figure which largely drives the song.  Gentle and folky, the song seems to capture one side of a romantic negotiation, enumerating reasons for doing something (that something revealed later in the song). After a few cycles, booming acoustic bass and drums fill in the sound  for dramatic effect before the settles into more mellow instrumentation. Brief stabs of brass appear before the song title appears in the line “I guess some of this might be true.”  A short, pretty bowed bass solo surfaces in the back half of the song before it builds to a crescendo with the refrain, “yeah, it looks like New York is a good idea for a few.” After blasts of horn and “oooh”s, “This Might Be True,” and the vague, romantic negotiation therein, resolves with “Seven: I can see how you might / take the train to Rockaway.” Sean Kiely’s introduction to Ball of Wax is subtle, well-constructed folk pop with tastefully regional subject matter. If you’re in the Tri-State Area (NY/NJ/CT – not PA/NJ/DE), track down Sean Kiely and his band.

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