what do Elton John, Dave Grohl, Lorde, Kylie Minogue, Stevie Wonder, Jake Bugg, Chrissie Hynde, and Brian Wilson have in common?

The folks in the title of this post are among the 27 artists who joined the BBC Concert Orchestra in this glorious, less-than-3-minute video of a collaborative cover of The Beach Boys’ “God Only Knows”. Seriously, take it full screen and turn it up:

The occasion is the launch of BBC Music.

Larry Jack’s Magical Music Tour 10/9/14 – 10/13/14

Hey guys,
In case anyone noticed, sorry I missed last week. I have been on Internet blackout. Actually, Bill is posting this one for me. Looks like this week doesn’t have the volume of shows we have been seeing lately, but there are some real quality bands playing this week. Here are some of my recommendations.

Thursday 10/9 – I’ll probably spend most of my time at Molly’s with Matt and Zac of the Accomplices, playing as TimeCop vs DangerSnake. I hope to walk down the road to the Barrelhouse sometime to check out Archnemesis, who I have never seen. And I will definitely be dropping by the Bayou to see Ray Lundy of Bottles & Cans fame.
Ray Lundy & FriendsBayou Cafe
TimeCop v DangerSnakeMolly MacPherson’s
Archnemesis, RelapseBarrelhouse South

Friday 10/10 – Not sure where I’ll end up tonight. I haven’t caught most of these guys, so I’ll probably just see where the wind blows me.
Duo Hound DogFlip Flop (Mark Molloy)
S.S. Web, Ando EhlersJinx
Nashville GunshowSocial
RosiesAmpersand
Universal SighBarrelhouse South

Saturday 10/11 – I’ll be starting off the evening at The Wormhole, with a founding member of The Faces, Ian McLagan. I hope the show ends in time to make it to the Jinx and catch most of the Cusses show. There maybe even be time to see a song or two from Bottles & Cans.
Ian McLaganWormhole
Cusses, Baby BabyJinx
Bottles & CansMolly MacPherson’s

Sunday 10/12 – I hope to catch a little after noon blues Ironing Board Sam before the Atlanta Falcons football game
Ironing Board SamFolk Music Festival at Grayson Stadium (1:40-2:40)

Monday 10 /13 – I always enjoy seeing Waits & Co and this will be the debut of Isaac Smith”s new band.
Waits & Co, Tyler Edwards, Isaac SmithGraveface ( 7p)

Sauna Heat kicks off fall tour on 10/15 at Hang Fire

Check it out:

That Wednesday, 10/15 gig at Hang Fire to kick off the tour should be a really good one. If you don’t know Sauna Heat’s garage rock sound, check out the most recent Bandcamp post:

never heard of Ian McLagan? here’s why you should see him at The Wormhole on Sat., 10/11

How often will we get the opportunity to see a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee play a venue the size of The Wormhole?

Indeed, Saturday should prove a rare opportunity, but if that’s not enough to get you out to the Bull Street venue, here’s some additional encouragement:

Ian McLagan was inducted into the Rock Hall for his organ and piano work with both The Small Faces and The Faces. Despite featuring a vocalist by the name of Rod Stewart, The Faces never achieved household-name status; however, they can count future Rock Hall shoo-ins The Replacements, Wilco, and Ryan Adams amongst their acolytes.

Beyond his membership in those two bands, McLagan deserves a place in the pantheon of great rock keyboardists for his studio resume. To date he has recorded with artists such as Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart (when Stewart was still good), Paul Westerberg, Ryan Adams, Frank Black, and Lucinda Williams.

As a solo artist, McLagan has continued on in the great barroom rock tradition of The Faces. His latest album, United States, was released earlier this year. Below, check out McLagan’s chops on a live performance of a song from that album:

Click here for the Facebook event and here to purchase tickets.

Caustic Casanova, Taze Daze and Sunglow at Hang Fire Wednesday – preview

In my final shipment of my Retro Futurist subscription, there was a seemingly random 7″ single included amongst the other insanely cool goodies (seriously, have you guys seen the 12″ Kylesa Live Studio Improvision?), Pantheon: Volume 1, by Caustic Casanova. An initial spin revealed, to my ear, a heavy take on the melodic, hooky, post punk of the late era Dischord Records/Washington D.C scene. A conversation with Philip Cope of Retro Futurist a few days later confirmed that Caustic Casanova would be joining their growing, excellently varied roster of artists. I highly recommend checking them out at Hangfire Wednesday if you like your rock on the heavy side (but not really metal) with real melody running through it. Actually, just check out their Bandcamp or the video below and then come out to the show.

Opening the show will be Sunglow, which is Daniel from Crazy Bag Lady’s electronic project, and Taze Daze, which is Hunter from Wet Socks solo. That alone should be interesting.

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Retro Futurist-1

Those Darlins + She Keeps Bees + Crazy Bag Lady at Dollhouse Productions – photos

So I was riding in a friend’s car over to Dollhouse Productions on Friday night when a couple of sedans apparently in a high-speed chase barreled through a stop sign right in front of us. We had no trouble stopping in time, but a cab slammed right into us. And then fled the scene. Seriously?

So I missed Crazy Bag Lady, but Tom got some great shots, as usual, of the Savannah band that’s channeling an old school punk sound.

Crazy Bag Lady-1

Next up was She Keeps Bees in a really impressive Savannah debut. Jessica Larrabee’s vocals are especially intense.

She Keeps Bees-1

And then the return of one of the standout acts of the 2014 Savannah Stopover: Those Darlins. The three core members — Jessi Zazu, Nikki Kvarnes, Linwood Regensburg (gotta be fake names, right?) — each bring a different quality to the stage, but the three seem seamlessly connected, as if they were born to be right there together. The band travels with different drummers — this time it was Matt Hearn of Turbo Fruits, I think. Special thanks to MusicFile Productions — Stopover’s parent company — for getting Those Darlins back to Savannah. Here’s hoping we’ll now be a regular tour stop.

After Jessi Zazu stared us all down near the end of the set, a friend leaned over to me and said something like, “I feel like she just stole my soul.” I’ve seen Those Darlins three times in 2014, and that’s how I’ve felt at each show. In a good way.

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Click on through for more photos taken by both Tom and me.

a preview: Those Darlins + She Keeps Bees + Crazy Bag Lady at Dollhouse on Friday, 10/3

We’re really excited that Those Darlins are headed back to Savannah for a show at Dollhouse Productions on Friday, 10/3. Brooklyn’s She Keeps Bees and Savannah’s Crazy Bag Lady will open. There’s a $10 cover — so freakin’ cheap! — with the doors at 8:30 p.m. and the sets scheduled for 9, 10, and 11. Because Savannah’s age policies are ridiculous, this is a 21 and up show (sorry kids). Click here for the Facebook event invite.

Those Darlins put on a stellar show at the Knights of Columbus during the 2014 Savannah Stopover — and this gig at Dollhouse was arranged by Stopover parent company MusicFile Productions. Several contributors to this blog and other Those Darlins fans were lucky to see the band over the summer at Bragg Jam, but the sheer energy in the room made the Savannah gig a true standout.

Don’t trust my take on it? As Jim Morekis noted in his preview in Connect Savannah, Jessi Zazu was asked by Ten Minute Interviews about the best crowd the band ever played to; here’s her reply:

That question is literally impossible to answer. We have played in front of so many awesome crowds that it would be an injustice to name one above the other. I will say that the crowd at Savannah Stopover would be included in my favorite audiences of all time list if I ever made one.

Here’s the video for “Be Your Bro”:

From Joshua Peacock’s preview in Do Savannah:

With three albums down, Those Darlins are on everyone’s radar now. They released “Blur The Line” in 2013 and caused some controversy with an early unveiling of the cover that featured a conservative nude of the band members’ lower halves, epitomizing the hard rock, sexy edge of the album.

While a whisper of country western remains in Those Darlins’ sound, coming through in lyrics about love and heartache, they are every bit as rock ‘n’ roll as The Runaways and just as fun to see live.

Do editor Heather Henley is also pretty excited about Those Darlins’ return.

“In the Wilderness” from Blur the Line:

Maybe if we’re good, they’ll do this one too:

She Keeps Bees sounds great too, and Crazy Bag Lady is always crazy. It’s going to be a good night at Dollhouse Productions on Friday. A couple shots that we’ve posted so far in 2014, with more after the jump.

ThoseDarlins-17

ThoseDarlins-13

hissing lawns is 1 year old

hissing lawns was founded in early September 2013, but the 1st anniversary caught me unawares. So I’m a little too late for a proper celebration.

For years I had been telling local writers, college students, and music fans that Savannah needed another music blog — hardly an original idea. But no one started a site like the one I envisioned, so I launched this blog with the dim hope that others would join as contributors and/or readers.

When I registered the domain, I didn’t realize just how few people would recognize the reference to Joni Mitchell’s The Hissing of Summer Lawns, but if I had to do it over again, I’d pick the same name. I love the symbolism of it. You can decide on its meaning for yourself.

We’ve had some down days and even down weeks in terms of traffic, but in a short 1 year hissing lawns has established itself as a vital forum for chronicling the Savannah music scene. I read a lot of music blogs, and I’d say our content — especially the photography — stands up pretty well compared to sites around the country, including many that have been operating for years.

And we have room to grow. Maybe you can help.

We have five really active contributors right now, but it would be great to have two or three times that many. Four of us regularly post photo galleries (just look over at the gallery thumbnails in the sidebar), but I’d like to see a lot more images here too.

Going forward, we’d like to make sure that at least 50% of the posts have a specific Savannah connection, but right now we’re at 90% or more. That means we could use more record and concert reviews, festival coverage, streams of new music, and so forth and so on. We’d like to see more local coverage too. Right now, we are heavy on male voices on the site (not that there’s anything wrong with that!), and we tend to have a lot of coverage from the heavier end of the spectrum — metal, hardcore, punk. We also post a fair amount about various southern and Americana-ish acts. Those tendencies are encouraged by the general Americana and metal focus of The Jinx, the venue where our contributors probably spend more combined time than any other.

Given the prevalence of metal and Americana in the Savannah scene, we could even have more coverage of those styles, while also adding coverage of hip-hop, blues, soul, pop rock, etc, We’d like to have more coverage of venues outside the downtown area, more coverage of very young acts and of acts that have been around for years. In other words, we’d like more of everything.

If you think you’ve got something to contribute, please feel free to hit us up and introduce yourself. If you don’t know what any of us look like, try sending us a message via the hissing lawns Facebook page or @hissinglawns on Twitter.

Wet Socks album release party at Hang Fire – photos

I scrambled to make it to Hang Fire just in time to catch Wet Socks‘ set at their album release “party”. Let’s be honest though, every time Wet Socks plays (especially Hang Fire) it’s a party. High-spirited, surf-infused, insanely catchy garage punk coupled with a young, dedicated following well lubricated with giant PBR’s is pretty much a recipe for a good time. Friday night was no different…no wait…actually it was, my $7 cover got me a copy of Wet Socks new CD Drips. The live show was still a party, but I’m more than a little glad that Philip Cope of Retro Futurist Records(who are building one hell of a stable of artists) captured that same atmosphere in the studio. The CD sounds great.

Not only are Hunter and John writing garage punk tunes in the vein of Jay Reatard, Ty Segall, and King Khan and The Shrines, the best of their songs are on par with those artists, too. Seriously. That’s really saying something. Sure, it’s a little pared down due to the fact that they’re a duo, but somehow that just adds to the whole thing.

If you enjoyed the Shonen Knife show, enjoy early punk or love the higher energy songs on Nuggets: Original Artyfacts from the First Psychedelic Era anthology, you owe it to yourself to check out Drips from Wet Socks, or better yet, get to a show. Yes, there may be a pit, but it’s not bone-headed aggressive moshing, it’s the kids not being able to stand still in the face of the music. That’s always been a good thing, from the formative days of rock straight through to the present. Long live garage rock, long live Wet Socks.

Wet Socks-3

Wet Socks-12

Click through for more pictures, apologies that I didn’t catch the opening bands.

Velvet Caravan at Savannah Jazz Festival – photos

The guys from Velvet Caravan hardly need an introduction for anyone living in Savannah, as their brand of ‘gypsy jazz’ has proved to be one-of-a-kind in this town & region. The band pulled off a two night stint with the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, recorded & released a CD, played the Cabaret Series at the Lucas Theatre, won the ‘Best Band’ award in Savannah Magazine, and recently performed at this year’s Revival Fest…just to name a few of their more recent accomplishments.

Each member of Velvet Caravan is a professional musician in their own right, performing regularly in a variety of other well known groups & break-downs in addition to the full band version of Velvet Caravan.

The accompanying photos were shot at last weekend’s Savannah Jazz Festival in Forsyth Park.

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COEDS and Shonen Knife at The Dollhouse – more photos

Last Friday saw legendary Japanese trio, Shonen Knife, make their debut in Savannah down at The Dollhouse. Their sequined dresses and songs about cats, green tea ice cream, and ramen noodles were just the tip of the iceberg as they sporadically threw in heavy breakdowns that drew some definite influences from acts like Black Sabbath as well as some hardcore inspired riffs to keep things interesting. Not quite the kind of ear crushing sounds you’d expect to hear from Daisy Rock guitars for sure.

The power pop/punk act had nothing but good things to say about their short time in Savannah and were certainly just as excited to be in Savannah as we were to welcome them to the city. Here’s a few shots of them as well as Savanannah locals COEDS who opened up the night to go. A few more photos after the jump and Tom has posted some pics from the show too.

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Shonen Knife and COEDS at The Dollhouse – photos

Ultra eccentric super cult punk pop band (their words, not mine) Shonen Knife played a great, high energy set of Buzzcocks/Ramones indebted rock to a good crowd of music fans at the Dollhouse Friday night. It was impossible not to get sucked in by their sweet, speedy tunes about the usual rock stuff……green tea ice cream, ramen, chocobars and the like. The long running legendary outfit from Osaka, Japan has toured with Nirvana, recorded multiple Peel Sessions and even had a video featured on Beavis and Butthead. Matching outfits were worn, devil horns were thrown, pop punk was played, and it was all very, very, very great. Check out each member’s thoughts on Savannah here, here, and here (totally worth clicking through).

Savannah’s own Coeds opened with their modern take on classic alternative music. The band is tight and energetic, and Anna’s vocals recall the best and more aggressive of the female new wave singers, maybe headed toward Riot grrl at times. And, hey, you don’t see a broken bass string too often, especially the low string. That might be a first for me, actually. Great set, and an inspired choice to set the stage for Shonen Knife.

What a great night of music.

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Shonen Knife-4

Click through for more images of attractive people doing visually interesting things.