hissing lawns

CUSSES set to release new EP in May

by joshua peacock • March 4, 2015

Savannah based rock trio CUSSES is giving the public a little taste of their sophomore album this spring.

As they hold back on a full release of Golden Rat, a follow up to the 2012 self-titled debut album, CUSSES will self-release a four-track EP with select songs from the new album on May 5.

Here Comes The Rat will be available on limited cassette tapes. A t-shirt/poster package will also be available. CUSSES will also be releasing a video on May 5 to coincide with the EP.

The band is hoping to build some momentum up for the public release of Golden Rat, which as of now is still being shopped to several labels.

Fans who backed the record on Kickstarter have already received the new album, and a vinyl pressing has been finished as well.

CUSSES is also planning on hitting the road this spring to tour the new album. They will replace guitarist Bryan Harder for the tour. Harder, who splits his time as an architect and father, has been unable to dedicate the time needed for extended touring. As is common throughout the music industry, front woman Angel Bond and drummer Brian Lackey will bring in an outside guitarist to fill in for Harder on tour.

Bond and Lackey explained the band’s decision in a recent interview with Do Savannah:

“We have to tour,” Bond said. “There’s so many bands out there. People are going to forget about you if you don’t get out there in front of their faces. That’s how we make our living. He (Harder) was very sweet and said I think you need to find someone to replace me on the road. I don’t want you to be upset with me or resent me in any way.
“Which we wouldn’t,” Lackey quickly added.
“No, we never would,” Bond also said.
“We understand it fully,” Lackey said. “We know he has a family. We saw him when we were gone for a hundred days or so and it was hard on him.”

Meanwhile, the five-year-old band will play Savannah Stopover once again. They are slated to rock The Jinx, March 7 at 11 p.m., ahead of Diarrhea Planet.

Savannah Stopover V – a preview

by joshua peacock • March 3, 2015

Here we go. The fifth annual Savannah Stopover is days away.

bill and petee already have a few great posts up about some acts they are looking forward to. I thought I’d add a list of bands that I am hoping to check out. Considering the daunting lineup, it’s a rather incomplete list, but it’s a start.

First, I wanted to share a thought on the festival (which ties into my short list below).

If you’ve got your tickets, I am sure you’ve have already honed in on the specific acts you want to see, and maybe even have a backup list of possible shows. (If you haven’t got tickets, here’s a link)

One thing I learned last year was to keep an open mind. Well, as my 87-year-old grandfather puts it, “Keep an open mind and give ‘em hell.”

Even if you’re really into music, there’s a chance that not all the names on the lineup popped out at you. That’s OK. It’s all good.

Besides focusing on giving touring bands a place to stop on the way to SXSW, Stopover’s mission is to bring bands to our wonderful city who are on the verge of breaking out.

One great example from last year is St. Paul and the Broken Bones. (Check this awesomeness out!)

I have a good feeling that San Fermin’s sophomore album Jackrabbit, which is due out in April, is going to be huge. I was fortunate to get a preview listen, and it’s pretty epic. Hope they include some of the new tunes at Stopover.

Matthew E. White’s new album Fresh Blood is pretty stellar and is probably going to get some attention. (Stream the new album Fresh Blood via NPR’s first listen. )

My point is, take a chance. Stumble into a show you were not planning on. Find a new band or several. You can listen to most of these bands somewhere on the Internet, as my list below will demonstrate, but the live experience will most likely be even better.

I should note here that as a Savannahian and frequent patron of live music in the Hostess City, I’ve had the pleasure of seeing most of the local acts playing Stopover.

To be real, I am going to be seizing this opportunity to see touring bands. I am going to try and see as many of the locals as possible. And so should you.

I’ve said this in private conversations since they announced it: the folks at Stopover did a great job with the local lineup. It represents the diverse music scene in Savannah really well.

So, here’s a list of some must sees for me. But, it’s not a complete list. I am leaving my plate open on purpose, and fully intend on giving these three days hell!

Parlour Tricks

San Fermin

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Savannah Stopover 2015 Spotlight – All Them Witches

by Peterson Worrell • March 3, 2015

For all those looking for a little something heavier from this year’s Savannah Stopover lineup, the roster of touring bands may look a little light and that’s not totally surprising. It’s hard to deny that last year’s line up of acts had no shortage of punk, post-punk, and metal acts including bands like Pile, Big Ups, and Peelander-Z as well as the Retro Futurist showcase that had bands such as Crazy Bag Lady, Irata, and Kylesa taking over The Jinx one night. But don’t fret, that doesn’t mean that there won’t be any bands that will cater to your need to headbang this year.

Introducing All Them Witches out of Nashville, TN. While the band describes their sound as “Psychedelta Blues”, there’s certainly a bit more to their style than that. While the blues influence is certainly apparent on tracks such as “Funeral For a Great Drunken Bird” and “Swallowed By The Sea”, they certainly aren’t afraid to let a little shredding happen as well as seen in other tracks off of their latest album, Lightning at the Door, such as “Charles Williams” and “Romany Dagger”. There’s plenty of sludgy riffs and woeful vocals to please listeners of all types and I’m sure that this won’t be All Them Witches last time playing Savannah anytime soon.

Catch All Them Witches Friday night at 12:30am at The Jinx along with other acts like Capsula and locals Crazy Bag Lady. Get those schedules ready guys, just a couple of days left!

Savannah Stopover V preview: Turbo Fruits

by bill • March 3, 2015

According to Consequence of Sound, Nashville-based Turbo Fruits “display newfound maturity” with the upcoming release No Control, due out on 4/20.

Honestly, I don’t know how I feel about that.

Turbo Fruits put on a stellar show at The Jinx for Stopover a couple of years ago, and it’s really exciting that they’ll be playing Savannah Stopover V on opening night. It’s an early show — 7 p.m. — during the March 5th Opening Night Event featuring Southern Culture on the Skids at Trustees Garden.

Check out the new track “Don’t Let Me Break Your Heart Again”:

Here’s “The Way I Want You,” which was produced by Patrick Carney of The Black Keys; the video (kinda hot, right?) was directed by Stewart Copeland.

Immediately after Stopover, Turbo Fruits will be touring with Surfer Blood:

Post by Turbo Fruits.

Savannah Stopover V preview: Adia Victoria

by bill • March 3, 2015

Savannah Stopover is a perfect festival for discovering new artists.

One of the up-and-coming talents that I’m most intrigued to see for the first time is Adia Victoria, whose limited online footprint includes a Facebook page with fewer than 1,800 likes, a couple of songs, some arresting imagery, and provocative writings like this one regarding Victoria’s identity as a black artist in the U.S. and this amazing open letter to Kendrick Lamar.

Immediately after Stopover, Adia Victoria will be touring with Hurray for the Riff Raff — you can check out the full schedule at Brooklyn Vegan.

For Stopover, Adia Victoria will be performing on Saturday, March 7 at 5 p.m. That’s an all-ages show at Wild Wing Cafe in City Market.

Post by Adia Victoria.

“Stuck in the South” is definitely stuck in my head:

Savannah Stopover 2015 Spotlight – Gap Dream

by Peterson Worrell • March 2, 2015

Just a few more days until one of Savannah’s biggest music festivals officially takes off! Hopefully, you’ve gotten a chance to familiarize yourself with a few of the touring acts on that ever-so-daunting list of Savannah Stopover artists, but if you’re like me, you’re more than likely still perusing the list on a daily basis as to not miss any awesome acts. Well, allow me to make at least one decision a bit more simple for you and introduce you to Gap Dream.

[EDIT, 3/5: It looks like Gap Dream has had to drop out of the Savannah Stopover lineup.]

Gap Dream is the brain child of Gabe Fulvimar out of Fullerton, CA. Taking a look at some of Fulvimar’s label mates on both Suicide Squeeze Records as well as Burger Records, Gap Dream may seem a bit out of place when grouped with other acts who lie decidedly more on the garage/lo-fi rock side of the spectrum. Don’t be deceived though, although Gap Dream makes heavy use of synthesizers and electronic effects meld into a stellar synth-pop/psychedelic fusion, Fulvimar’s influence from 60’s psych-rock as well as 80’s/90’s No Wave is quite apparent as well. Gap Dream’s latest release, Shine Your Light, is a prime example of this. Tracks such as “Love Is Not Allowed” and “Come Home” exemplify Gap Dream’s ambient and synth-heavy side while other tracks such as “You’re From The Shadow” and “Immediate Life Sentence” display a more rock oriented style which actually sounds a bit similar to a fleshed out, effects-laden version of The Black Keys.

Be sure to catch Gap Dream Friday night (or Saturday morning if you take things a bit more literally) at midnight over at Hang Fire. Also, keep an eye out right here for a few more “not to be missed” gems from the awesome selection of touring bands at this year’s Stopover! See you there!.

Wet Socks at Hang Fire on 2/26 – photos

by Tom Cartmel • February 28, 2015

I spent Thursday night between Hang Fire and The Jinx, bouncing back and forth from corpse paint and black metal to indie rock and youthful energy.

Wet Socks was the only full set I caught at the Dad Joke production, and, as always, they ripped. You’d be crazy not to catch the garage/surf/psych/fuzz duo at the coming-up-oh-so-quickly Savannah Stopover. Hunter Jayne and John Zimmerman play The Jinx Saturday, March 7 at 9 p.m. You won’t be disappointed.

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condo board, city of Savannah nix music at Moon River beer garden, Savannah Stopover adjusts schedule

by bill • February 27, 2015

First off, I guess it’s worth noting that Savannah Stopover isn’t going to be critically impacted by the loss of Moon River Brewing Company‘s beer garden as a venue for the 3-day indie music festival on March 5-7. There are other venues that can be relied on a little more heavily, and, given the chilly weather last year for a few shows, some might be perfectly happy to see more shows inside.

But Moon River was a pretty sweet venue for acts like Hurray for the Riff Raff. The beer garden is comfortable, large, and well-designed, and the space provided a nice break from the local clubs.

Why is Stopover not using Moon River? From the Stopover website:

The venue change was precipitated by a request from the city for a written agreement between the neighboring News Place Condominium board, Moon River and Savannah Stopover due to prior noise complaints from condominium residents. The terms of the agreement requested by Savannah Stopover were rejected by the condo’s board and the city would provide no assurance that the shows would not be shut down.

Festival Founder/CEO Kayne Lanahan released this statement. “We are disappointed in this outcome given that the music planned for Moon River was scheduled to end by 9:30pm and focused on folk, americana, bluegrass and all ages, family-friendly music. We bent over backwards to make this work for everyone. In the end, our commitment remains to the bands and festival attendees that these artists are allowed to perform without threat of interruption or cancellation and we are grateful to the support from Moon River throughout this process and from our other venues in accommodating these changes.”

News Place extends from Whitaker to Barnard streets along Bay Street. All these are busy roads and busy areas for tourist activity in a city with pretty mild weather much of the year. Moon River’s beer garden is across Whitaker Street from the building, and only a portion of the News Place condos even have windows on that side.

Noise issues are tricky, and I often find myself siding with residents in noise disputes about all manner of distractions — from overnight train horns to unnecessarily loud bass from a nearly empty nightclub. But theses owners know that they’re living in condos — or renting them out via sites like Airbnb — in an active downtown district with lots of restaurants, bars, and clubs, including ones with outdoor areas. If a festival like Savannah Stopover that’s doing so much good for the city and a low-key business like Moon River can’t have outdoor music until 9:30 p.m. on one of the busiest weekends of the year, then we have some serious problems in this town. This is ridiculous.

Larry Jack’s Magical Music Tour – 2/26/15 – 3/3/15

by Larry Jack Sammons • February 26, 2015

Hey guys,
As usual, there is a lot of good music coming up this weekend. There are several interesting-looking shows, but my pick of the week would be City Hotel’s CD Release Party at Southbound on Friday. I was lucky enough to get a sneak preview of their new disc, Dogged Days, last week, and I have been humming songs from it ever since. One of my criteria for liking a disc is that I prefer it to sound like the band sounds in concert, and I thought they captured their “live sound” quite well. Just in case no one has been paying attention, there have been several exciting recent CD releases by local bands in the last few months. The Accomplices, Train Wrecks, American Hologram, and Wet Socks all immediately come to mind, but I am sure there are lots more (sorry about those I forgot, it doesn’t mean I didn’t like it, it means I’m old and my memory is shot).

Here are some more recommendations for the week.

Thursday 26th
1349 (Norwegian aural hellfire), Origin (Kansas death shred), Wolvhammer (death metal)- Jinx ($15)
Blackrune (Sav’h dream drone) – Sentient Bean
Eric Culberson Band (Sav’h blues) – Bayou Cafe
Morning Fatty (funk reggae rock band), Chris Stalecup & The Grange (Atlanta Americana) – Barrelhouse South
Giving Up, Life Partner, Curbdogs, Wet Socks, DIP, Boyfriend – Hang Fire (9:15, $5)
Main Street Trio – Ampersand (10p)

Friday 27th
City Hotel (Sav’h bluegrass) CD Release Party – Southbound Brewery (8p, $20)
Alex Raffray (Forced Entry frontman), Jeff Zagers (Sav’h electro-acoustic), Hot Plate (Sav’h instrumental progressive rock), Dope Sandwich (Sav’h hip-hop) – Hang Fire
Bottles & Cans (Sav’h blues) – Jazz’d
Dirt Queen (Philly rock), Waitress (Athens rock) – Jinx
Lovely Locks (Sav’h rock) – BarFood
Stereo Reform (Greenville dance-a-funk-a-rock-a-tronic) – Congress Street Social Club
Whitley Deputy (Hilton Head rock) – Barrelhouse South
Woven In (Florida sappy surfy love songs), Whiskey Wednesday (Sav’h dixie punk blackgrass), Sunglow (Sav’h electronica), Denedra Bloodbath – Graveface Records (6:30-10p)

Saturday 28th
Ben Keiser Band (Sav’h rock) – Rocks On The Roof
The Congress (Richmond rock) – Barrelhouse South
Crazy Man Crazy (Sav’h rockabilly)- Tybee Social Club
Hooten’ Hallers (Columbia, MO blues, soul, rock), Hurly Burly, Savannah Sweet Tease Burlesque – Jinx ($10)
Incredibly Tall People – World of Beer
Reckless Abandon (NC rock) – Congress Street Social Club
Velvet Caravan (Sav’h gypsy-jazz) – Jazz’d

Sunday 1st
Anna Chandler, Crystina Parker, Brit Scott, Thomas Oliver – Savannah Songwriters Series – Johnny Harris Restaurant (6p, free, all ages)

Tuesday 3rd
Payne Bridges (Sav’h singer-songwriter) – Foxy Loxy Cafe (7p)
Redneckromancer – Sentient Bean (7p)

Blind Boys of Alabama at A-Town Get Down 2015 – photos

by JWaits • February 26, 2015

Here is another of my A-Town Get Down 2015 posts, and I’ve saved headliners Blind Boys of Alabama for last, but most assuredly not least. While I may be a bit biased, having performed at the event for the third year in a row with Waits & Co., I’d have to say that this year’s festival was not only my favorite, but the best that I’ve attended yet. The weather held out, the music lineup was spot-on, and the hard working volunteers made the day a special and cohesive one for artists, musicians, and the attendees alike.

Blind Boys of Alabama

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Creepoid teases new album

by joshua peacock • February 25, 2015

Those ever cool shoegaze cats in Creepoid have recorded some brand new tunes.

The Savannah-based, Philadelphia transplants just released a 33 second teaser of their next album, which was recently recorded with veteran producer Peter Mavrogeorgis at Dollhouse Studios in Savannah, and is due out in June of this year.

They’ve also announced they are teaming up with Collect Records (Sick Feelings, Thursday, Black Clouds, Vanishing Life) for their third studio album. They released the EP Wet Bread with Graveface Records here in Savannah last year.

Creepoid continues their “on tour forever” circuit, just finishing eight dates with Against Me! They are currently on a 15-date swing with A Place To Bury Strangers that ends at South by Southwest. (See the full tour schedule below).

They last played Savannah with Ex Hex and King Tuff at the Savannah Stopover Pre-Party at Hang Fire (What a great show!)

Also, here’s a friendly reminder to get your tickets for Stopover, and a handy link to do so: ticket’s link

Here’s some pictures from various hissing lawns’ contributors who were at that show, which was just about all of us! (Shameless self-promotion: here’s a link to my review of that show.)