Friday, Sept 19


With a soulful and tender, Jim Croce-esque voice, Maine’s Micah Blue Smaldone sat alone with his guitar on the Mercury Lounge stage Friday night.  Picking skillfully away at folky, mostly strophic songs, with a melancholy reminiscent of Chad Vangaalen, Smaldone charmed a seated audience with his intimate performance style and stage presence, admitting at one point he “only got an hour’s sleep last night, ‘cause I got ants in my pants.”  He ended with an impassioned cover of “Row, Fisherman, Row,” before setting up to play bass in the next band, Rhode Island’s Death Vessel.

A name like Death Vessel can only mean one thing for a band’s sound: a blend of folk, indie rock, and rockabilly; and, of course, a lead singer with an uncannily beautiful high voice.  One song featured a bass line out of a Western; another, adventurous melodic interactions between the guitars.  “Bruno’s Torso” featured a sweet vocal melody, bursting into life during the choruses with heavy snare work.  There was a surprising amount of completely dead air in between the songs, which turned out to be kind of refreshing.  The band went full on hillbilly when one of the guitarists picked up a banjo and the bassist (playing an upright bass) put down his bow to finger-pluck.  Another song was country-styled for the choruses, while the verses were rhythmically free and aleatoric sounding.  Check out Death Vessel for the lovely and unusual.

 

 

Thursday, Sept 11


Chicago’s The Musical Outfits brought their unconventional but engaging blend of modern pop and circa-1970’s rock to Pianos Thursday night.  Their set began more on the pop side, with songs like the touching, folk-esque “Warning.” The indie rock song “Junky Shuffle” energized the set with its straight up rock verses and an adventurously lyrical and subdued chorus, reversing the quiet verse/loud chorus norm.  “Good Company” found the band more in the 70’s rock world with skillful three-part vocal harmonizing and an extended guitar solo at the end.  The Musical Outfits’ sound was somewhat out of place in the line-up that night (even with their detailed vocal harmonizing and use of slide guitar), which was more country music focused, but better placement in future NYC gigs would surely mix in more new fans among the core of old fans shouting out requests that were already there.

Sunday, 24 Aug


Clever and enticing riffs, found in extended instrumental introductions—hear “Steel City”

Lead vox sung with air-gulping passion a la Matthew Bellamy—hear “Desert Reef”

Unconventional chord progressions creating a distinctive sound and peculiar moods—hear “New World”

Propulsive beats, conducive to movement—hear “Morning Star”

 
With a style that’s hard to pin to any one rock sub-genre, Telecom brought something that felt familiar and at the same time entirely new to The Annex’s stage with their seven-song set on Sunday night.
 
Hear Telecom.