Came to type up my Bragg Jam review & saw Bill beat me to it, but we did catch different bands, so hopefully a second review isn’t one too many!
I had never been to Bragg Jam before, so upon arriving in Macon, I spent a little time figuring out where all the venues were & reacquainting myself with the schedule. There were a lot of neat venues on display, all easily accessible via walking, & tons of great bands — my only complaint is that it was often tough to decide what bands to miss & what bands to see!
I started off with the New Orleans-based Motel Radio. The young up and comers were playing outdoors at the shady Bearfoot Tavern. They put on a good set. I love their drummer, he often fills in for a lot of other acts (Tedo Stone for one) & he always has a ton of enthusiasm & looks thrilled to be on stage.
If I had to sum up my 2016 Bragg Jam experience with one vignette from the day-long festival, I’d have to pick the moment Justin Osborne of SUSTO realized that most of the crowd at Gallery West knew the chorus to “‘Friends, Lovers, Ex-lovers, Whatever” and invited us all to sing along.
If you don’t know the song, it’s worth a listen:
Osborne also performed “Chillin’ on the Beach with My Best Friend Jesus Christ,” which he apparently played because I had asked him about it the previous week at Service Brewing in Savannah. Another super song from one of the most talented songwriters I know.
But it’s really impossible to distill such a crazy day and such a sprawling festival (something like 80 bands on 20 stages) down to one moment. A group of Savannahians took the MusicFile Productions bus to Macon again, but there were quite a few of us who drove separately. I went up pretty early on Saturday, arrived at the festival just after 2 p.m., and headed straight for Daddy Issues at Fresh Produce Records only to discover that the band had to cancel after getting tied up in traffic.
So the wandering started and didn’t end until I got back to my hotel about 2 a.m.
First up was singer-songwriter Owen Bolig at the coffee shop Taste and See, and then Me and Molly at the packed Just Tap’d. Next, I made my way again to Fresh Produce for Savannah’s Sunglow on the Savannah Stopover-sponsored stage and Mighty at the Bearfoot Tavern Beer Garden.
Hey guys,
It looks like a pretty good week coming up. There is a nice variety of music, you should be able to find something that interests you. These are most of the shows around the downtown area.
Thursday 8/4 The Good Band – Molly MacPherson’s No Need (FL reggae-rock) – Barrelhouse South Valore (Sav’h hip-hop), CunaBear (Sav’h hip-hop), YaniMo, Allen Thomas, Tokalos (Sav’h rock) – Jinx US Nero, Pussy Launcher (Sav’h punk) – Wormhole ($5)
Friday 8/5 Danielle Hicks Band (Sav’h rock) – Rail Pub (6-9p) Britt Scott & Craig Tanner (Sav’h rock), Peck & Penn (SF Americana) – Abe’s on Lincoln The Mustard (Sav’h funk) – Congress Street Social Club Jordan Miller, Maradeen (Halifax pop), Villa Nova (SC rock) – Barrelhouse South Moon Dance – Foxy Loxy Cafe Clouds and Satellites (Sav’h Americana), McLeod (Sav’h psych-prog) – Jinx Wood and Steel (Sav’h rock) – Molly MacPherson’s
Saturday 8/6 Cray Bags (Sav’h punk), Tight Genes (Orlando punk), Death Stuff (Atl punk), Feeding Tube (Sav’h punk) – Sulfur Studios ($7, 8p “sharp”-11p) Damon and the Shitkickers (Sav’h outlaw country) – Jinx Happy Hour Bottles & Cans (Sav’h blues) – Jazz’d Charlie Fog Band (Sav’h Grateful Dead covers) – Barrelhouse South Georgia Flood (Atl roots rock) – Congress Street Social Club Jake King – El-Rocko Liquid Ginger (Sav’h rock covers) – Boomy’s Jeff Two-Names & The Born Agains (Sav’h punk), Canker Blossom (Baltimore punk), Between Symmetries (Sav’h emo), The Neckbeards (emo) – Jinx
Sunday 8/7 Josh Johansson, Abe Partridge, Sarah Tollerson, Sarah Poole – Tybee Post Theater ($10, 7-9p) Voodoo Soup (Sav’h rock covers) – Congress Street Social Club
Monday 8/8 Main Street Trio (Sav’h jazz fusion) – Cocktail Co (8-11p) Craig Tanner & Mr Williams Open Mic – Abe’s on Lincoln
Tuesday 8/9 Mitch & Neko – Wormhole Happy Hour (6-10p) Ray Lundy (Bottles & Cans frontman) – Jazz’d A Brilliant Lie (Orlando rock), Pseudo Future (Dallas rock), Whaleboat (Sav’h rock) – El-Rocko Ben Keiser Band – Bay St Blues Eric Culberson Open Jam – Bayou Cafe
The Weeks returned to Savannah last Friday for their second show here — the first was at the 2014 Savannah Stopover — before a packed house at The Jinx. The Weeks, one of the most exciting young bands in the South, played some great material from their forthcoming album along with older songs that had most of the crowd singing along. Another great night of music thanks to MusicFile Productions.
The beautiful night was made even more beautiful by the presence of a wedding party. The happy couple had their first date at a Mississippi show by The Weeks a couple of years ago, and they recently discovered that the band would be playing in Savannah on their wedding night.
I’ve seen Chief Scout a couple of times, but the band has never sounded better to me than last Friday. The band has seemed to try out some different sounds over the last year or so, but I think they’ve got a winner with this current sound, which I’ll rather pathetically call southern rock infused with blues and jazz.
Savannah’s Breakers opened with yet another strong set, their first gig with new bassist Derek Lynch. The band should be releasing some new material later this year (I hope).
All in all, a great night, and I took a lot of photos. We might have another photo post in the next week or so.
Service Brewing on Indian Street here in Savannah celebrated its 2nd birthday in grand style a couple weekends ago, as a packed house enjoyed beer samples, the new Big Bon Pizza, and great sets from The Whigs and SUSTO. The event was also a fundraiser for Savannah’s Tiny House project.
The Whigs, even with a brand new bass player, were as tight and powerful as ever, and SUSTO, which was playing as a 3-piece, showed why they’re one of the best up-and-coming bands in the South.
Happy August everyone. Here’s our New Music Monday, an ongoing feature here at hissing lawns. Relax and enjoy.
The Bouncing Souls New Brunswick, NJ Simplicity
The Bouncing Souls has been playing classic 3-chord, heartfelt, pogo-punk rock for nearly as long as I’ve been alive and they don’t seem to show any signs of letting up anytime soon. Simplicity, their 10th studio album, brings more of their classic sound to a younger generation and is sure to get fans new and old singing along. – Petee
. Balance and Composure Doylestown, Pennsylvania
“Postcard”
Post-hardcore outfit Balance and Composure has always straddled a fine line between roaring, aggro tracks and more subdued, emotional (aka emo) tracks. Postcard, off of their upcoming album Light We Made, leans more towards the latter but takes an interesting twist by adding in an almost electronic feel through the use of what seems to be an electronic drum kit and plenty of ambient guitar riffs. – Petee
Butch Walker’s career has been as long as it is eclectic, so his fans can never be sure what kind of album their getting when he releases a new one. While Walker’s last album, Afraid of Ghosts, was more of an emotional exploration, his latest single, East Coast Girl, seems to be taking a more lighthearted approach to things. Whichever way the coin falls, Walker’s next album, Stay Gold, is sure to please. – Petee
. Russian Circles Chicago
“AFRIKA” off Guidance due Aug. 5 on Sargent House Records
Instrumental post rock/metal foot soldiers Russian Circles return with more moody, atmospheric guitar meditations. The band certainly gets the building and release of musical tension. Killer. – Tom
. Merchandise Tampa, FL
“End Of The Week”
Second single and video from Merchandise’s new album, A Corpse For Wired Sound, out 9/23 on 4AD. It’s dark and gloomy and fantastic (with dare I say an homage to the sounds of Joy Division?). Frontman Carson Cox explains of the symbolic use of mirrors in the video:”It’s the broken image of humanity reflecting back at everyone when they read the news”. – Kayne
. Avers Richmond, VA Omega/Whatever
Collaborative-minded Avers dropped their sophomore album on 7/29 and it’s a hook-laden gem. All the members are in other bands (most notably Tyler Williams from The Head and the Heart) and every member writes songs. That can sometimes lead to a schizophrenic result but in this case, it’s a cohesive straight up rock and roll winner! – Kayne
“We’re usually jarred out of our comfortable sense of normalcy anytime we stop at rest areas and gas stations along the way. We still feel like average mid-westerners on the inside…”
…But I believe they are aliens that have tuned into some performance frequency rarely witnessed by our generation. Who is to tell me my beliefs are wrong, especially when I have seen it with my own eyes? The first time I saw Not Blood Paint perform they literally peeled their own faces off right there in the basement at Webster Hall.
“We then become acutely aware that our caked ear makeup, silver toenails, and banter with one another is highly irregular.” Well, yeah dude, not to mention they play highly irregular music. Yes, there are prog-rock guitar riffs a la King Crimson, and yes the vocal harmonies are reminiscent of Queen, and the drums at times harken back to Q And Not U…but more, there is a fully-constructed theatre in the music. There is a unique world for their music to live in, with its own fundamental gravity and man when you see it live… you fucking believe it.
Not Blood Paint is a rock band from New York City, but I picture them more like a traveling troupe of actors. They’ve been performing together for almost a decade but it could also be centuries. Who knows?
From what I gather, each album is a thematic platform, each song is an opportunity to develop a character or characters, and each live appearance is it’s own play or production. Music is the tool they use to design and build their sets, to present the scene if you will. The actors wield guitars, bass and drums like prop-swords and shields and their lyrics give them dialogue to tell their incredible stories.
Hey guys,
This is another week with plenty of good shows to choose from, starting tonight (Thursday) and running all through the weekend. Don’t forget that Bragg Jam is this Saturday, just in case you feel like making the trip to Macon for a Stopover-type festival. If you choose to stay in town, there is more than enough good music to keep you company. These are some of the shows around town.
Thursday 7/29 The Fritz – Barrelhouse South John O’Mary – Molly MacPherson’s Triathalon, Cray Bags – El-Rocko Duppies, Gumps, Control This – Jinx ($7)
Friday 7/30 The Weeks, Chief Scout, Breakers – Jinx American Hologram – Molly MacPherson’s Corbitt-Clampitt – Barrelhouse South Hypnotics – Congress Street Social Club Scattered Hamlet – Wormhole
Saturday 7/31 Damon and the Shitkickers – Jinx Happy Hour McLovins, Those Cats – Barrelhouse South Sapphire Bullets Of Pure Love – Tybee Post Theater ($25, 8-10p) The 200’s – Wormhole Bonnie Blue – Congress Street Social Club Sarah Poole – Molly MacPherson’s Zruda, Spore Lord, Canopy, Death Hour – Jinx
Sunday 8/1 Voodoo Soup – Congress Street Social Club
Monday 8/2 Craig Tanner & Mr Williams Open Mic – Abe’s on Lincoln
Tuesday 8/3 Ben Keiser Band – Bay St Blues Eric Culberson Open Jam – Bayou Cafe
As I write this, there are still tickets available for the MusicFile Productions show tomorrow night (Friday, July 29th) at The Jinx with The Weeks, Chief Scout, and Breakers, but it just might sell out. So I strongly urge lovers of great rock and roll to go ahead and snag an advance $12 ticket, which with the service charge is about the same as the $15 tickets at the door (if any are left).
But there might not be any better preview than checking out some of The Weeks’ songs. Here’s a live 2012 version (with over 1/4 million plays) of one of my favorites, “Brother in the Night”:
The band’s stage show is a barely constrained chaos — it’s an energy that I can’t get enough of:
Those shots are all from earlier this year at Cosmic Charlie’s in Lexington — lots more pics from that show here — and I also shot sets at the free show in Ellis Square at the 2014 Savannah Stopover and at the 2014 Forecastle Festival in Louisville.
The production team Dad Joke pulled off quite a coup last Monday. Savannah wasn’t included among Las Robertas‘ original tour dates, but a Monday at Sulfur Studios worked out just fine between gigs in West Palm and Washington, D.C.
Las Robertas is based in Costa Rica and affiliated with Burger Records. The band has opened for Pearl Jam, but their garage rock felt right at home in the intimate gallery at Sulfur. Great stuff.
Savannah’s Twisty Cats (Blake and Peter of Dollhouse Productions) opened with a loud, raucous, electronic-infused set that included a Suicide cover. Sunglow‘s sprawling electronica closed out the night, but I had to take off and didn’t get any photos of his set. I heard later that all the night’s musicians jammed at the gallery until late in the night. Click on through for more photos.
As regular readers know, we started our weekly New Music Monday feature earlier this summer. We’re covering a really broad range of stuff in these posts, and we’re always including embedded music. Enjoy.
Mild High Club Chicago/Los Angeles
“Skiptracing,” on Skiptracing out 8/26 on Stones Throw Records
The title track from the band’s imminent second album; the sound is warped, lo-fi, you could say jangle pop a la Mac DeMarco, with a jazzy undercurrent. Unexpectedly danceable around the 2-minute mark, at the lyrics “gift that keeps giving,” I realize this song grows on you with a couple of listens. Check out “Homage” too, another track that has me looking forward to the rest of the record. – Elena
. Feeding Tube Savannah Demo
The Hostess City’s best old school, nasty, punk outfit with a confrontational, gimp masked frontman has released a album of speedy, noisey blasts that are absolutely worth checking out if the preceding description hasn’t turned you off. – Tom
. Thee Oh Sees California
“The Axis” from the upcoming album A Weird Exits, due out 8/12 on Castle Face.
A hazy, keys driven slow build that falls apart toward the end of its 6 minute run time, super prolific John Dwyer and Thee Oh Sees unsurprisingly sound in fine form. – Tom
. Sleigh Bells NYC
“Hyper Dark” off the upcoming album
A little bit different vibe on this new Sleigh Bells track, with the signature overdriven guitars a little further back in the mix. I will forever check out new tracks from the band on the strength of their first release, this song shows definite maturation while still retaining some teeth. I’m hopeful. – Tom
. PWR BTTM Hudson, NY
“Projection”
PWR BTTM just released their first single since 2015’s acclaimed debut album Ugly Cherries. Those trademark guitar wails are still there but beautifully interspersed with darker lyrics about isolation behind a gorgeous melody. They’ve cemented themselves as one of the most exciting new voices in music; can’t wait for more! – Kayne
This year I was hired to document the Summer Cabaret Series for Lucas Theatre for the Arts, and while unable to photograph the entire series due to prior commitments, I was on hand to shoot five of the performances. The cabaret set-up is a bit different from normal concerts at the Lucas, in that the audience is actually onstage with the performers and facing towards the grand theatre as the entertainer’s backdrop. The often sold-out crowds are usually a more ‘mature’ audience than a lot of the rock & roll shows that we (hissing lawns) are known for covering, but according to Artistic Director & cabaret performer Natasha Drena, plans are being discussed to bring a wider variety of music to the cabaret shows. I look forward to seeing what those ideas & conversations bring about, as the venue, series, and intimate performances are a unique treasure to have in our city.
Tickets are still available for some of the remaining shows this summer, so click on the highlighted text above to see the schedule. Many thanks to the Lucas staff & entertainers for allowing us to use some of the photos for this post, and also being incredibly supportive of live music in Savannah.
