Desert Sharks have long been one of NYC’s great bands, solidifying that rep with 2019’s kickass record, Baby’s Gold Death Stadium. Now a power trio, they can add brilliant interpreters of classic songs to their resume. On the heels of their thrilling cover of ‘Til Tuesday‘s “Voices Carry” (read our review) comes their version of T. Rex‘s glam rock classic, “20th Century Boy.”
Some of the glitter remains from T. Rex, but Desert Sharks give their “20th Century Boy” a more menacing edge with their distinctive veil of gloomy grunge. Guitarist Sunny Veniero enters snarling, putting extra blues swagger into the main riff. Rebecca Fruchter’s backbeat punches underneath, maintaining the original tune’s bounce but giving it significant weight. If T. Rex’s boy was ecstatic, clapping and shimmying, Desert Sharks’ subject sways dreamily to the beat, head down, long black hair hanging and moving in time—the boy is perhaps no less joyful, but he’s in his own world.
On Desert Sharks’ originals, singer/bassist Stephanie Gunther’s voice rises above the high-octane shredding and pounding to provide powerful melodies and hooks. Lots of bands can rock, some can even swing, but it’s the special ones who can do both and have you humming their tunes for days. On the band’s two cover choices thus far, Gunther does what all truly gifted singers do: makes the songs her own. You find yourself engrossed in the song itself, not necessarily the differences between their versions and the originals (that stuff is for nerdy blog writers anyway).
The two covers have been a fun treat this year, two years after their debut full length. We here at FTA are stoked to hear what’s next from a band that only gets better and better.
“20th Century Boy” is out now on Substitute Scene and available on all streaming platforms. They will play a release show for the singles on Friday 8/20 at The Windjammer along with Frida Kill, Ugli, and Basic Bitches.
Hooks abound on “Jawbreakers,” the energetic new single from pop punk wiz kids For Lack of a Term. The band recruited Another Astronaut singer Nick Quiles to add even more melodic earworms to this tune. This track is the lead single from the the forthcoming album, Welcome To Your New Normal, due out this winter.
The band—Ryan Dempsey (vocals/guitar), Chris Beairsto (drums), Arthur Wernam (bass), and Conor Cullen (guitar)—delivers explosive pop punk in “Jawbreakers” with Dempsey’s voice soaring throughout alongside guest vocals from Quiles. The two vocalists complement each other nicely on this track, Dempsey’s smoother and higher range contrasting Quiles more direct and and cutting approach.
“Jawbreakers” landed on streaming platforms this week and is available now, along with a video directed by Dempsey and shot and edited by Brandon Lane. Watch the video below.
It’s always exciting and a little jarring to hear a record from an unknown-to-you band whose sound arrives fully formed and whose songs are not just catchy and well written, but transcendent. The latest EP from Creek and Kills, Unstitching,is a truly enchanting and essential listen.
“The Parade Now” opens the record, with some The Edge–like guitar delay effects from guitarist Marc Montgomery that quickly gives way to the powerful harmony blend of bassist/singer Kate Bell and drummer/singer Erin Harney. There’s a bit of an 80s college rock vibe to the song that is positively infectious, but not derivative or nostalgic. The whole EP also features touches of Americana and power pop, but filtered into their own sound that is fresh and distinctive.
The lead single “Swelter” demands the listener’s attention. Bell’s voice soars right from the start, above Montgomery’s jangly arpeggios and acoustic strumming. The tune hypnotically flows to and from various melodic passages, none of which act as an overt chorus, adding to the drama.
In a previous life, Bell was a heralded New York City jazz vocalist and composes before moving into the rock realm. Also an accomplished bassist, her formidable skills are on full display on “Night Service,” with the opening bass line haunting as it grooves. Harney plays off the riff as Montgomery tastefully plays above the rhythm. The groove evens out into the chorus, Bell still driving it all, her bass providing as much melody as her and Harney’s vocals. An absolute highlight on a record full of ’em.
The cohesiveness and moody sound of Unstitching, which sonically recalls R.E.M.’s Fables of the Reconstruction, is as much of an achievement as the six stellar songs. A true pandemic record, each member of the group recorded their parts separately at their homes. Bell took on a crash course in GarageBand to put the tracks together, and engineer Danielle DePalma expertly mixed and mastered the EP, using the rawness of the home recordings to create a soundworld that is neither lo-fi nor polished, but compelling and a little mysterious.
The EP shows a band confident in its playing and songwriting abilities, somehow able to sound live in the room together when they weren’t even in the same place making this record. Accordingly, the band sums up its sound better than any writer could (or at least this writer):
“These are wild siren songs from far reaches of an urban estuary. Creek and Kills rock out like a mermaid party in a Superfund site…a little dirty, a little dangerous, a little sexy, luring you to sink in the dark water.”
Allow yourself to be lured by this entrancing and seductive band.
Creek and Kills performing (photo by Kate Hoos)
Unstitching is out everywhere on Friday 8/20/21. The band will perform a release show that night at 18th Ward Brewing along with Groupie and Sweetbreads.
Donia Jarrar, the creative force behind Phonodelica, has dedicated much of her musical endeavors to uplifting and amplifying the voices of Palestinians and illuminating the harsh realities of their lives under brutal Israeli occupation.
“Offerings” is a stirring piano improvisation piece that is the first part of an upcoming project, “Into the Ether and Out of Our Anguish,” which will be a large scale collaborative effort of Jarrar’s solo piano improvisations along with a string quartet, field recordings, and testimonials from survivors of the latest Israeli assault on Gaza this past spring. The testimionials were collected by Shareef Sarhan and Rana Batrawi, both Gazans themselves. Jarrar plans to send these recordings back to people in Gaza as a form of healing. This brings to mind her previous project Seamstress which featured interviews with Palestinian women interspersed with her operatic compositions.
For “Into the Ether and Out of Our Anguish,” Jarrar was recently awarded the 2021 Palestinian Young Artist of the Year Award by the AM Qattan Foundation in conjunction with the Mosaic Rooms in London. The theme for this year’s award is “Divinations: The Art of Remembering The Future,” curated by novelist and writer Adania Shibli. It focuses on ways artists, academics, curators, historians and critics can work towards imagining a liberated Palestine, and is largely focused on process rather than outcome.
“When working on this set of piano improvisations and eventually transcribing them, I thought of them not only as offerings for the Gaza Valley and the wildlife that has gone extinct due to the brutality of the Israeli occupation, but also as offerings for the visitors of anxiety and depression which come into your life during times of healing,” Jarrar said. “A non-linear and repetitive process, healing requires a spiritual sacrifice and cleansing.”
She went on to say the piece was “Inspired by the five elements: air, water, earth, fire and ether, the sonic space in a future where Palestine exists outside of the boundaries and politics of nation statehood and of earthly, material alliances. Ether is the space where we come together amidst the constantly changing environmental forces to adapt and change with them, a place where residents value the natural world, rather than being neglectful and incredibly wasteful of its natural resources”
Jarrar plans to tie the Palestinian struggle for freedom to other struggles around the world by featuring different non-Palestinian artists throughout the project to forge “transnational connections between intercontinental struggles.”
“Offerings” itself is part of 45-minute improvisation that she may release in full in the future.
“Offerings” is available to purchase directly from Bandcamp and to stream on all major platforms now.
A halftime show featuring a robot marching band, strutting in perfect formation. A future disco in which robots…do The Robot. A montage scene from a dusty sci-fi relic where we see our hero successfully building the vehicle necessary to escape their certain doom.
The new single from Sensoren, “Ejector Seat,” evokes all these images and more. Supremely catchy and fun, this could easily be a club anthem if heard by the right folks (whoever they are). The beat pulses hard, with a relentless hook that remains the focal point as other synth sounds build and layer to a sustained, ecstatic crescendo. A cool call-and-response middle bridge allows the listener to recalibrate before the party resumes its fever pitch—but, then a twist. The mood turns slightly darker and goth-like before it suddenly stops, leaving a minute of John Cage–like structured silence to contemplate when exactly the party took a turn.
“Ejector Seat” is the third single from Sensoren, a new electronic music project from songwriter/producer Mike Sorensen. A versatile songwriter, he brings more indie rock vibes to his synth production under the moniker async await, which released new tracks in 2020 and earlier this year. With Sensoren, however, this release represents more of an immersion into full on electronic music experimentation. Without having to adhere to traditional rock structures and trappings, it has opened up Sorensen’s songwriting and soundscape possibilities. Definitely keep an eye out for what comes next from this project.
“Ejector Seat” is out now via Chameleons Risen and available for download/streaming from Bandcamp.
