DaveCromwell Writes: November 2015

Thursday, October 15 began with a late afternoon show at emerging Brooklyn venue Our Wicked Lady

An official CMJ showcase presented by Noise Love and SugarmamaBK, a number of noteworthy emerging bands took the early stage.

Fruit and Flowers were particularly intriguing as some friends from previous shows covered were stepping out now on their own in this project.

Along with some new friends made at this show.

This song of theirs is particularly tasty.

Images too good to pass up

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Baby Acid followed, and brought their own particular brand of Psych Rock to the stage.

Although the music played falls into a female vocal pop music category, guitars, bass and drums are delivered with a much harder edge.

That surely has everything to do with the dedicated creative tandem of guitarist Vadim and bassist/vocalist (and band visionary) Lindsey.
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Contributing further to this afternoon's Brookyn "psych fest" was a set from the ever expanding universe of Acid Dad.

This band plays a more swingin' groove, hook-laden version of that psych sound.

There’s a touch of that “Madchester” vibe in their recorded works, in particular a Stone Roses-style vocal delivery on the song “Grim.”

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Once again the magnetic presence of Sharkmuffin graced the stage.

Opening the show with their classic "Foul Play" immediately set the tone for a set even wilder than the one witnessed two days prior.

Play with the troll dolls

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What I find most appealing is how they’ll go off on short-burst instrumental interludes, with Tarra mad-riff noodling like an amped-up jam band.

Tarra goes throw herself down . . .

. . . and prays to the God of Thunder.

Linz, Deano and The Croms check out the show.

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Sticking to the night's game plan, I headed out to "slightly more legit than your average DIY space" Alphaville in Bushwick.

Catching the much adored (and already blogged about here more times than I can keep count) Ringo Deathstarr as the primary goal, the show also featured other long-time friends of this site.

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Attending this band's shows every time they come back to New York is always an exciting event.

They've just released their fifth studio album "Pure Mood" and as expected this tour features a number of songs from it.

Listen to cascading three-quarter time vocals from dreamy Alex Gehring, while drummer Daniel rips mad drum rolls throughout the track “Guilt.”

Down Angel (Dumb Angel)

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Just prior to the above performance, another long-time friend of this blog Dead Leaf Echo put on a dazzling show of sound and light projections.

The trajectory of their career has been covered numerous times both here at DCW and on The Deli Mag, and I'm always impressed with how they continue to evolve.

In addition to what seems like a constant touring schedule, the band continues to release new material.

Their latest song "Lemonheart" was recently released on Dallas, TX based label Moon Sound Records.

This night's live performance showed the band exhibiting a less gauzy, harder edged sound.

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Leading up to that performance was yet-another familiar-to-this-site band, Lazyeyes

Jason and Jeremy remain as the core members, as the band continues to refine it's dreampop sound.

Opening the night were bands from the Toronto, Canada scene who release music on the Hand Drawn Dracula label.

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Both Beliefs and Vallens had interesting sounds that fit right into my wheelhouse, and I found myself predictably drawn to the presence of guitarist Robyn Phillips.

Reviews of their latest works are now emerging, and although the words I would write might be somewhat different, and I can't disagree with what is already being stated.

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Friday the 16th kicked off with the night show portion of The Deli Magazine Indie Showcase in Pianos showroom.

Arriving just in time to catch Eternal Summers' set just underway.

I've previously written about the professional network of producers and engineers contributing to their impeccable sounding recorded works in this blog here.

Counted among their fans would be this evenings very next act, who's primary figure - Drew Citron, was overhead calling out requests from the audience.

Once again, Beverly graced the stage of Pianos, playing their umpteenth CMJ show this week.

The room was packed (as expected on a Friday night) and a more streamlined version of the band played a looser set this go round.

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After having reconnected with an old friend and band-mate from a number of years ago - we agreed to meet up here and catch up with each other.

I played drums in Justin's band back-in-the-day, and it was a somewhat surreal experience hanging out with him again after all this time.

We used to play gigs all around NYC at the same time Joey Ramone did.

This image was taken from a photo shoot we did at the time. Check out those fancy jackets!

Here's a link to one of my personal fave songs we did.

And this one too.

Taking a break from the tight spaces at Pianos, we headed over to nearby Katz's Deli for a quick bite to eat.

Along with the great food, the place is full of so much history, and the walls just covered with photos of celebrities who've frequented there.

Heading back to Pianos for one last performance, we caught the 2 am set from Brooklyn dreamrockers Ohnomoon.

After wandering around the streets a bit more, Justin and I headed our separate ways. It was great to learn how he's had a long career as a painter and is still making new music as well.

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Saturday the 17th would see this final night of CMJ commencing even later at night.

On the walk over to this evenings show at Rough Trade, a moment was taken to photocapture this magnificent mural out front of New York Martial Arts Academy on North 8th street.

After chattering with friends spotted inside, I caught the set from Welsh singer-songwriter Cate Le Bon and White Fence's Tim Presley, who've put together a band called Drinks.

Though the surprisingly quality extended guitar jams (especially from Le Bon) were well worth experiencing, songs designed solely for their sonic weirdness felt like time wasted.

San Francisco Bay Area buddies of No Bunny - Shannon and the Clams were next, and I couldn't quite get their appeal. Perhaps it was my desire to see the next act that kept me from fully grasping what they had to offer, but the overall initial sense was of a band playing a slightly camp version of garage-punk-doo-wop that lacked any of those genres real excitement.

Finally it was time for the main reason for being here at all - another show from the always glorious Ringo Deathstarr

Eager heads bobbed up towards the stage as the band whipped another Texas Tornado on Brooklyn.

Impressive high-quality on-screen video projections behind the band created a bigger time visual experience than the show at Alphaville just two day prior.