Nothing, Culture Abuse, Kewl, Sunglow at the Graveface annex – photos

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Graveface Records threw a free 4th of July party at the new Graveface Annex, a work in progress in the southeast corner of the sprawling Southern Pine Company building off East Broad Street here in Savannah.

We’re stoked about the prospect of a new all-ages venue, and label founder Ryan Graveface certainly seems to have some cool things lined up for the funky space.

The headliner Nothing praised Ryan Graveface for being among the band’s most important early supporters and played a dense, fuzzy set that seemed perfect for the sweltering summer night.

Culture Abuse was new to me, and I loved the high energy and the punk sensibility. John Zimmerman’s new/old project Kewl, which has had a low-key Bandcamp presence for a long time but which just recently came into the real world, played as a raucous 6-piece, and JZ has suddenly vaulted from the somewhat withdrawn if manic drummer of Wet Socks to one of the most entertaining frontmen on the Savannah scene. Daniel Lynch’s electronic project Sunglow got the evening off to an appropriately moody start with some subtle and beautiful songs.

The lighting changed a good bit as the sun set, and sometimes the musicians were backlit by the one dangling bulb (which was still better light than several prominent Savannah venues have), so this gallery is a mix of flash and no-flash shots.

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New Music Monday – 7/4/16

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This week’s New Music Monday marks the 5th installment of this regular feature, which will always include embedded music so it’s easy to listen and easy to click through to learn more about the artists. Check out our previous posts here. Enjoy.

Blood Orange
New York City
“Augustine” from Freetown Sound

Freetown Sound, a nod to his father’s birthplace in Sierra Leone, finds Devonte Hynes (aka Blood Orange) grappling with what it means to be Black in today’s world. Musically, there are no rules or boundaries; he combines 80’s R&B (with obvious nods to Michael Jackson) with funk, jazz, hip-hop, spoken word and African elements -often in the same song. Lyrically, Freetown Sound is to 2016 what Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly was to 2015, yet Hynes manages to soothe and unite while still shining a light on oppression and inequality. Key tracks: “Augustine”, “EVP”, “Hands Up”, Love Ya”. Check out the full album. – Kayne

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Shovels & Rope
Charleston, SC
“I Know” from the forthcoming album Little Seeds, out October 7th on New West Records

Blistering isn’t a word I’ve often used to describe Shovels & Rope, but the lead single off of their third studio album (which comes out this fall) is a welcome departure for them. It’s a tale of two bands on the rise together who become mired in jealousy and spite, and at first listen I thought, “This sounds like a J Roddy Walston song.” It’s not, but it’s a ramp up on the rock ladder for the duo in a really good way! – Kayne

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Nice As Fuck
Los Angeles
“Door” from Nice As Fuck, out now.

This is a weird one. A new trio fronted by Jenny Lewis, instrumentation is minimal bass/drum post punk with occasional synth. Sounds great to me, headed toward the sound of Lewis’ own Rilo Kiley at times, which is a good thing. A very, very, good thing. Listen to the full album on Spotify. – Tom

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Gringo Star and Deep readers at Stopover in the Yard at The Grey

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Gringo Star played the most recent Stopover in the Yard, a super-cool (only, this time, bloody hot) collaboration between Savannah Stopover and The Grey.

The versatile and talented Atlanta-based band has a new album coming out in August, and I’d love to see them back here in the fall. Seriously, it was really hot last Saturday — hot even for Savannah at the end of June — which obviously hampered the turnout.

Readers from the amazing non-profit Deep Center took the stage before the show and between sets. The literacy and writing initiative has achieved great successes since its 2008 founding, including being honored by Michelle Obama at the White House.

Tough lighting conditions at The Grey for these shows — seriously, I don’t know what to do with all that light — but I got a few shots of the band and the readers. More after the jump:

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Larry Jack’s Magical Music Tour – 7/1/16 – 7/6/16

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Hey guys,
It’s not too bad a weekend ahead, although I wish there was more stuff going on Sunday night. The biggest show of the week is, of course, the Punk Mess, with shows at Jinx both nights and at Sulfur Studios on Saturday afternoon. The Sulfur show will be the debut of Shoplifters, Keith Kozel’s (GAM, Superhorse) new band. I also hope to drop by Molly’s and Barrelhouse on Saturday night, for the Hypnotics and Augusta’s Funk You. Both bands know how to keep the party going. The best music seems to be on Tybee on Sunday night, with another great Tybee Post Theater show and Eric Culberson at Huc-A-Poo’s. There are a few good shows at the beginning of next week, any of those listed should be a good way to spend an evening.

Friday 1st
Feeding Tube, Exit Dust, Rubbish, The Mold, Manatees, Post Teens, Without – Jinx Punk Mess ($10)
White Abott, Scholar’s Word (Jacksonville reggae) – Barrelhouse South
Orange Constant (Statesboro jam band) – Molly MacPherson’s
In For A Penny (Sav’h Irish folk punk) – Rail Pub 21st Anniversary
Versatile (Sav’h R&B) – Congress Street Social Club
Ricky Stein – Foxy Loxy Cafe (7-10p)

Saturday 2nd
Areolas, Jeff Two-Names & The Born Agains, Sherman’s Boot, Greta O & Toxic Shock, The Lipschitz, Woven In, Soda, Shoplifters – Sulfur Studios Punk Mess (2:30p)
Anxiety Junkies, Natural Causes, Tight Genes, Trampoline Team, Sick Thoughts, Cray Bags, Coffin Daggers – Jinx Punk Mess
Hypnotics (Sav’h garage rock) – Molly MacPherson’s
Mustard (Sav’h rock), Funk You (Augusta funk-rock) – Barrelhouse South
Pretty Sweet Party – Congress Street Social Club
Liquid Ginger (Sav’h rock covers) – Boomy’s

Sunday 3rd
At Sundown, Tell Scarlett – Wild Wing Cafe
Eric Culberson Band (Sav’h blues) – Huc-A-Poo’s
Thomas Claxton (Sav’h rock) – Warehouse
Sean McNally, AM Rodriguez, Gary Swindell, Kris Youmans – Tybee Post Theater Savannah Songwriters  ($10)
Don Coyer – Bayou Cafe

Monday 4th
Main Street Trio (Sav’h neo-soul) – Cocktail Co (8-11p)
Broccoli Samurai (OH jamtronic) – Barrelhouse South
Mallory Jen Open Mic – Bayou Cafe
Open Mic – Wormhole
Craig Tanner & Mr. Williams Open Mic – Abe’s on Lincoln

Tuesday 5th
Southern Holiday Jazz Band (Sav’h) – Foxy Loxy Cafe  (7-10p)
Castle Of Genre (VA), Big Awesome (SC), Generation Pill (Sav’h garbage), Grimsel (Sav’h) – Sulfur Studios  (7p, $5)
Eric Britt – Jazz’d
Ben Keiser Band – Bay St Blues
Eric Culberson Open Jam – Bayou Cafe
Open Mic – Molly MacPherson’s

Wednesday 6th
Anders Thomsen Band – El-Rocko (7p)
Frameworks – Dollhouse Studios

Funk You plays Barrelhouse South Saturday night

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Hot on the heels of their first full-length album release, along with some more big news, Augusta, GA’s Funk You returns to Savannah on Saturday to play at Barrelhouse South.

The band’s highly anticipated LP, Apparitions, dropped in April. Inspired by the likes of Umphrey’s McGee, the Meters and Stevie Wonder, the album features a smooth compilation of the funk-oriented jams and innovative songwriting their live audiences have grown to love. “It’s been a long time in the making and we’re incredibly proud of the album,” said keyboardist Will Foster. “We stuck with our guts on the song selection, it’s diverse and really reflects where we were at the time we wrote them. But we have grown, and you can expect a more heavy-hitting sound on the next one.” Foster says the band plans to hit the studio again this summer. Meanwhile, you can have a listen to “Apparitions” here:

Funk You announced just last week that they’ve signed with Hoplite Booking, a tour management company whose clients include Consider the Source, the Heavy Pets, and Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band, among others. This comes as an exciting opportunity for the band after 5 years of hard work and heavy touring all over the Southeast and beyond.

They’ve recently played at festivals including Wakarusa and Sweetwater’s 420 Fest, sold out the Georgia Theatre in Athens, even headlined alongside the James Brown Band at JB’s Birthday Bash in their shared hometown of Augusta. With such momentum, these guys are sure to climb up the festival circuit. The booking deal also means big things for new tour stops including the Southwest and Colorado, so we’ll be keeping an eye open for that announcement soon.

Catch them for no cover, Saturday night July 2 at 9pm with Savannah locals the Mustard, at Barrelhouse South in Savannah, where they always pack the house. “We love playing Barrelhouse,” Foster said. “Other venues in town are great but the crowd really comes for the music and stays the whole show […] People are artsy and friendly, they’ll stop us between sets to talk about art and music.” Sounds like they hope to see you there, just come ready to dance.

Funk You at the Major Rager, photo by Phillip Douglas Photography.

Funk You at the Major Rager, photo by Phillip Douglas Photography.

My Maiden Name EP release party with Mitch and Nico – photos

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My Maiden Name released their first EP — My Thoughts, The Same — last week in a show at Ampersand. It was my first time catching the newish band and their eclectic sound. Anna Chandler of Connect wrote last week that the band’s “new wave, Brazilian pop. ‘90s alternative, and hip-hop influences meld into a contagious, summery sound.”

My Maiden Name has a busy schedule lined up for much of the summer, and I suspect you’ll be hearing about the talented four-piece again soon.

Mitch and Nico opened and were backed by a brand new drummer. They played mostly covers — good ones, fun ones — but they’ve apparently been playing a lot of original work in regular appearances at clubs like The Wormhole and The Tree House. It was my first time catching them, however, and I was really impressed by the playing and the singing. Another act we’re going to hear from more often, I’m confident.

The Gumps closed out the night, but I had to head out before they took the stage. (Click here for Petee’s review of The Gumps debut album.)

A couple of friends of My Maiden Name — Kristan Patton and Thomas Rodriguez of Artisan Soul from Miami — also took the stage for one song, and you’ll see on pic of them along with several more of My Maiden Name and Mitch and Nico after the jump:

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AthFest day 3 – review + photos

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[Editor’s note: click here for Lisa’s post on Athfest day 1 and click here for her take on day 2.]

I took a much needed morning off on the final day of Athfest, as the high temperature was around 100 degrees. I headed out at 4:30 p.m. and caught an excellent set by Five Eight, an Athens-based band that’s been around for more than two decades. The first few songs I caught sounded a lot like R.E.M.’s early work (not surprising, as Five Eight toured with them in the early 90s). They were incredibly enthusiastic and rocked out like they were the headliners. The lead singer played the first few songs in a suit jacket while bouncing up and down like a little kid — this alone would’ve impressed me since it was sweltering outside — and he ended up stripping down to shorts by the middle of the set. I really enjoyed their energy and performance, they were one of my favorites of the day.

1 Five Eight-7

Next up was the popular Darnell Boys on the smaller Hull Street stage — they probably needed to be on the bigger stage, as they are pretty well-known in Athens and the area in front of the stage was absolutely packed. The twangy five piece put on a good performance that was enjoyed by the eclectic crowd of all ages.

2 Darnell Boys (1 of 4)

I grabbed a quick bite to eat then headed back to the Pulaski Street stage for Monsoon, a talented Athens punk group fronted by Sienna Chandler, a young beauty in a red sequin dress, torn fishnets, and black high heels that she danced and jumped like a natural in. She had the punk scream down to a tee, but her speaking voice was amusingly childlike. The band’s been getting a lot of attention over the last few years and has gotten accolades from Yahoo Music and Atlanta Magazine, but Miller nevertheless seemed grateful to be on stage and made a point to thank Athfest, her family, her band members, and the audience for being there.

3 Monsoon (3 of 7)

Yip Deceiver! was next back at Hull Street. 80s synth pop is hard to do right, but the duo succeeded and put on an enjoyable show. Frontman Davey Pierce is a member of the indescribably unique of Montreal, but the side project lacks of Montreal’s weirdness and theatricality — no costumes or signs to be seen, just a synthesizer, drums, and Pierce’s passionate twirls. A lot of new wave style music has a tendency to run together and sound the same, and I had to laugh when Pierce announced he was going to play a sad song, because it sounded a lot like the (presumably) happy songs that preceded it. Nevertheless, I very much enjoyed the show.

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Premiere: “FREEBIRD” by The Winter Sounds from their forthcoming album “MAXIMUM REALITY”

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We’re thrilled to premiere The Winter Sounds’ “FREEBIRD” from their forthcoming album MAXIMUM REALITY, which will be released on New Granada Records. Check it out:

In conjunction with this release, the Nashville-based band is also offering their entire digital discography, which includes unlimited streaming and high-quality downloads of eight releases on Bandcamp, for just $21. Click here to take advantage of that amazing deal.

Even in a world where many bands can claim to defy genres, The Winter Sounds has a particularly hard-to-describe sound. The band has settled on “epic indie new wave dance folk and punk anthems,” but I’m not sure that even covers it. I find the evocative songs full of surprises and emotion.

Just take a listen to these other recently released tracks: “Nineteen” and a cover of the Wrens’ “Boys, You Won’t”.

You can follow The Winter Sounds on Facebook and on Twitter.

We also conducted a short q+a with band founder Patrick Keenan, who shared some background on the band and his thoughts on the forthcoming album. Enjoy.

hissing lawns: The Winter Sounds was founded a decade ago. Can you tell us a little about the band’s backstory and that wonderfully evocative band name?

Patrick Keenan:The name ‘Winter Sounds’ came after the first album (Land of No Output) was recorded. It felt good, seemed to fit the music, so it stuck. We started in 2006. When we first started touring, we’d print MapQuest directions to go from city to city. We’d book shows by day in coffee shops in random cities sometimes a few weeks or even a few nights out, trying to keep going. To find out about gigs, you’d look up a band’s MySpace page and see where they were playing….Indieonthemove.com was not yet a thing.

hl: Has that extensive touring contributed to the band’s longevity in today’s super-competitive market?

PK: I think “longevity” isn’t necessarily the right word for what we’re doing. I just keep doing it, so that’s my strategy. The band kind of lives in obscurity, really, so although I feel creatively dynamic, I am kind of lost as to how to “get the music out there” without touring. We actually haven’t done a lot of touring over the past couple years. The focus has been on the new album. I think, when we were touring a lot, the focus drifted to managing relationships and trying to financially survive. It didn’t make a lot of sense to “live” on the road like that. But it was fun. It took away from time spent writing, but it truly grew our fanbase in a way that can’t be duplicated.

hl: So what can we expect from the forthcoming album?

PK: MAXIMUM REALITY is the fourth full-length from the Winter Sounds, recorded off and on over the past 3 years with our buddy Derek Garten at Prime Recording in Nashville, TN. The album is tender and epic all at the same time. Its definitely a pop album, but I think it will be hard to pin down a more specific genre.

As of my writing this, the album is fully mixed! We are gonna do a special sale on Bandcamp to help with mastering and some remaining production costs. For $21 you can buy nearly everything we’ve recorded including the two new songs “FREEBIRD” and “Nineteen”.

AthFest day 2 – review + photos

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[Editor’s note: this is the 2nd post about AthFest with words and photos from the intrepid Lisa Sammons, daughter of our own Larry Jack. Click here for her post about day 1.]

Went out early Saturday for The Welfare Liners, a twangy five piece string band. I loved their cover of “Squeeze Box”, but they also played some good originals.

1 Welfare Liners

Next up was The Welcome Home, a young Athens-based group that got their start playing sorority and fraternity parties. They’re now starting to play at concert venues and they looked thrilled to be at Athfest. The crowd was small that early in the day, but very enthusiastic, with many phones out filming the guys on stage and lots of people singing along.

2 The Welcome Home2

I headed back downtown for Trae Pierce & the T-Stones, and man, am I glad I did! I feel like my write-up doesn’t sound believable since I’m complimenting so many performers, but I saw several great acts at Athfest. The promoters did a fantastic job of attracting talent and I was particularly impressed by how lively the performers on the outdoor stages were considering the heat. We were roasting out in the crowd and we were just standing there, I can’t imagine being on stage performing and still having the energy to bounce around in near 100 degree temperatures.

Trae Pierce & the T-Stones were a particularly active group — they drummed on the stage, they jumped down into the photographers’ pit and drummed on the rails, they drummed on each others’ drumsticks, basically they just hopped around & drummed on everything for a good portion of the set. They knew how to ham it up for the crowd and their energy was contagious, all the spectators were on their feet dancing. Trae played a wonderful rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” à la Jimi Hendrix and he teased the crowd at the end, pretending to throw his bandmates into the crowd to crowd surf (it was probably best that he didn’t go through with the toss, since there was a good four feet barricade between the stage and the crowd).

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Q & A with Markus Kuhlmann of Clouds and Satellites

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Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work. – Stephen King

A cowboy, a speed freak, and a college student are sitting at a bar when Markus Kuhlmann walks in through the front door. The cowboy says, ‘Hey, that’s Markus from Waits & Co.’. The speed freak interrupts and says, ‘No, Man. That’s that dude that fixes my drinks over at the Coffee Fox.’, and then college student says, ‘No, he plays drums for Nightingale News’. Markus walks over to the bartender and tells him he’s here to do the sound check for the Clouds and Satellites show later that night. It’s a bad joke, but it’s true.

Here is a man of many talents and one on a mission. Coming out of South Carolina and showing us Georgia folk the meaning of hard work, here is Markus Kulhmann. He’s a down-to-earth guy who greets everyone with a smile and then puts his shoulder to the wheel to roll out some awesome bluegrass music. But he doesn’t stop there. No. Not only can he play the backwoods, he also harbors the soul of a punk rock, shoegaze, hair-band artist who knows the meaning of a driving riff. Just check out some of his work on his Clouds and Satellites Sputnik Demo if you don’t believe me.

So, who is Markus Kuhlmann, what all does he have his fingers in, and can he really play just about anything? I sat down with him to find out a little bit about his past, the bands he plays with, a few hard knock lessons, life on the road, and life outside of music.

So, without further ado, here it is for you as well.

hl: When did you start playing music?

MK: My Mom was a music major/ piano teacher. So, I started taking piano lessons in kindergarten. I didn’t like piano lessons. I always thought guys shouldn’t be playing piano for some reason. I was good, but as I got older, I just didn’t think it was cool. Most piano teachers always wanted to teach songs, and I wanted to learn to play for myself so I could play the stuff I was hearing on the radio. So, that’s why I didn’t really take to piano.

During that time I was air drumming all the time and driving everybody crazy. My brothers were embarrassed, and my parents just took to the “I don’t know” attitude. So, they finally got me a drum kit when I was twelve. I still have that kit.

Markus Kuhlmann

Markus Kuhlmann

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New Music Monday – 6/27/16

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Welcome to our 4th New Music Monday, a new feature that we launched at the beginning of June. Each week, our contributors are teaming up to share new songs, records, and videos that they recommend. Click here for previous NMM posts. If you want more info on any of these bands, it’s obviously easy to click on through the embedded media. Enjoy!

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Chlorine
Lexington, KY
Peace With Nothing

Chlorine is the brainchild of Joey Elsinore of The Elsinores and Salad Influence. On this album, Elsinore fuses dark, lo-fi synths with post-punk/Husker Du-style songcraft; the results are wholly fresh. – Andy

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Mrs. Magician
San Diego
Bermuda

Ever wonder what happens when you mash up riff heavy surf rock with a bit of fuzzy garage rock and synths and then take the entire thing down the most melancholy path you can think of? As it turns out, you apparently get a contender for album of the year. – Petee

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AthFest day 1 – review + photos

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[Editor’s note: So who do you call when you want someone to spend the weekend seeing tons of music at AthFest so you can get reviews and photos for your blog in Savannah? Lisa Sammons, who happens to be the daughter of our own Larry Jack, graciously agreed to cover the festival for us, and this post is entirely by her. More to come!]

The music kicked off at Athfest Music & Arts Festival at 5 p.m. Friday with a nice acoustic set performed on the Pulaski Street outdoor stage by Kevin Kinney, singer/songwriter frontman of Driven N Cryin. The crowd was a bit sparse, as many attendees were still coming into town or getting off work, and tended towards the older side. Kinney repeatedly laughed off requests for Drivin N Cryin’s best known hit, “Straight to Hell”, saying he had heard it too many times, but ended the set with it.

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Next up was Athens-based T.S. Woodward on the smaller Hull Street stage. Woodward’s seven piece band had a unique sound thanks to the addition of brass that gave off a dancey jazz/Latin vibe difficult to describe. The mustachioed Woodward announced at the end of his set that he had recently set up a Kickstarter to fund the release of his first album on cassette.

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I took a brief break from the festivities and headed back up to the Pulaski Street stage for Family And Friends, a six piece group of Athens purveyors of “Georgia-style Indie Rock.” The crowd was full of enthusiastic college kids who sang along and cheered at the release of a giant shark balloon. This was Family & Friends’ second time at Athfest and they looked thrilled to be on stage.

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Next up was The Howling Tongues, playing a loud and rocked out set in a small room at Cine, a popular independent film theater. The tattooed four piece from Atlanta seemed to have a great time and it was obvious the members had a lot of chemistry with one another. Frontman Taylor Harlow played it up for my camera and reveled in the small crowd’s attention.

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