Bombadil 6/24/19 Cafe 9

Bombadil is a trio of young men from Durham ( one syllable, like Derm). Drums, bass/keys, and guitar was their configuration. The interesting component was that they all sang, all the time, on all songs. While the bass player seemed to sing lead on most tunes, the other guys were capable of taking the helm, contributing to harmonies, and adding nice vocal effects. The sound reminded me of the 70s, not quite the Beach Boys or America, but an old familiar jean jacket of a sound. A perfect cover came in the form of The Left Banke's 70s hit Walk Away Renee. A woman in front of me turned and said " they were adorable". While that wasn't the praise line these three were hoping for, they did have an easy going style that put them in a recent Relix " bands to watch" article.

Tanya Tagaq 6/20/19 College Street Music Hall

One of the few interesting performances associated with the unfortunately emaciated International Festival of Arts and Ideas. Tanya Tagaq is an Inuit avant garde vocal improviser, which must be a lonely category. Joined by drummer ( and pocket trumpeter) Jean Martin, Jesse Zubot on electric violin and synths, and Christine Duncan on vocals, synths and theremin, the group forged an hour of challenging improvised music. Tagaq's performances allege themes of environmentalism, human rights, and post colonial issues of indigenous peoples. I read that she accepted an award while standing in front of a video feed of thousands of  names of women "disappeared" by colonial intruders. Wordless vocalizations took the form of huffing, whinnying, child-like squiggles, and an unnerving exorcist rasp. Tagaq is a true performance artist as she prowled and pantomimed in conjunction with her sounds. In the improvised jazz realm, it seems that interplay, soloing, and return to a common theme is the modus operandi. In this setting, Tagaq was central, and the other musicians had to cue off her sounds. At one point, violin and tribal drumming seemed the perfect backdrop. Tanya must be exhausted at the end of a set due to the continual full body contact of her art. I was interested to see the cue to stop and it turned out to be a sigh ( which was not heard previously), as if she was saying " damn, I made it through another performance!"

Nadah El Shazly, Reduction Plan, Stefan Christenson 6/6/19 State House

The deal with the State House is that the music starts approximately one hour after they list on the website. With this in mind, one can navigate the start times of the main act. On this evening I saw all three performances. Stefan Christenson is a local knob twiddler who is part of the incestuos noise avant rock scene that includes The Mountain Movers, Headroom et. al. A lefty guitarist, SC creates noisy static-laden loops with some kind of an old lo-fi noise box then layers guitar shards over them. Occasional lyrics reminded me of the simplicity of Madcap Laughs-era Syd Barrett.
SC was joined on stage by Alexander ( aka David Shapiro) on guitar and drummer to get noisier and call themselves the Reduction Plan. A power trio of sorts, RP played one extended song sequence that showcased dueling guitars and drums.
Nadah El Shazly is an Egyptian (Cairo to be specific) electronic sound artist. I have seen her posted on some great international festivals like Le Guess Who. She played a modified keyboard with synth board and sang in her native tongue. She was joined by a young man on sax and Shayna Dulberger on standup bass. The sounds were modern and exotic, NES coaxed some middle eastern sounds from the synths. Dulberger was half the size of her instrument but was able to fling it around with ease. The sax man was understated, rhythm sax if you will, but offered good shading to the sounds. NES's 2017 release was produced by Montreal electronic wizard Sam Shalabi. Decent crowd on hand to welcome this globe-trotting artist.

Brian Krock's LIDDLE 5/31/19 Firehouse 12

Final event of the Firehouse spring set had Krock on sax and clarinet, Olli Hirvonen on guitar, Marty Kenney on bass, and Nathan Ellman-Bell on drums.  A full sound with Krock's explorations out front. It was amazing to see the other three move from traditional jazz backing to a churning prog-metal canvas to accept the sax and clarinet work. Hirvonen was great and would be interested to see him in other contexts. The clarinet veered from snake-charmer to bandsaw mode. A couple tunes had titles based on James Joyce references, and Krock told a story about meeting modern classical composer Elliot Carter at his 103rd birthday party. Krock gave a shout out for his other band, Big Heart Machine which alleges to be some sort of prog-metal big band.

Meat Puppets w/ Sumo Princess 5/14/19 Spaceland

California duo Sumo Princess consisted of a guy on drums and a woman (the SP?) on bass and vocals. Like the Meat Puppets, these two were no spring chickens. The woman's bass had some distortion pedals that made her sound like a guitarist who played low notes, the definition of bass I guess. The drummer kept a frantic pace and hit the skins with such force that his kit might be "single use". The woman had leopard print pants, a shirt with a ghost emoji, and some misplaced bangles that put forth a scary "don't fuck with me" persona. The vocals vacillated between Julia Child warble and riot grrl snarl.
I had never seen the Meat Puppets back in their heady start in the 80s and 90s. A couple viewings in recent years have made me appreciate their arc and longevity. Arizona-based brothers Kurt and Chris Kirkwood were joined this outing by their original drummer, Chris' son Elmo on rhythm guitar and vocals, and a keyboard player. The sound can best be described as "desert-country-punk-grunge-psych". The brothers must be in their 50s and are gray and grizzled like a couple of grunge Moses's who have witnessed the burning bush. In this case, the burning bush was being pals with and touring with Nirvana ( and a late great Kurt). The songs Plateau and Lake of Fire are firmly etched on Nirvana's Unplugged recording and were highlights on this evening. Their recent recording Dusty Notes, a mixture of country and punk templates were jumping off points for Kurt's almost Hendrixian guitar psych noodlings. The venue was packed to get a glimpse of these truly original artists. I heard a snippet of a 90s interview with Kurt who said" I don' t know man, I just wanna play music and connect people with my imagination".

Here Lies Man 4/30/19 Cafe 9

If a band bio describes them as melding Afrobeat and metal, with a guitarist from Antibalas and The Daktaris, you know that will get me out of my chair. Here Lies Man, an LA based quartet, boasts such a pedigree. Guitar and frontman Chico Mann (aka Marcos Garcia) led the charge with crunchy fretwork and vocals. Joined by keys, bass, and drums, it was hard to draw the line to Afrobeat, which usually implies more bodies and horns. No matter, the sound was infectious. One tune started out like Locomotive Breath, while another had strains of Mississippi Queen. The Afrobeat parallel could best be attributed to the drummer Geoff Mann, who is the son of jazz flute legend Herbie Mann, and was reminiscent of Ginger Baker's stint with Fela. The bassist had long hair and rose colored glasses with an extendo- strap that made it look like he was tickling the back of his knee when he played. The keys were understated but added positive shading in the form of creepy wind noises at the beginning and end of some tunes. Many tunes were pulled from HLM's recent release You Will Know Nothing. It would have been nice to get an explanation of the band's moniker.

Multiplex 4/28/19 State House

Another afternoon of uneasy listening courtesy of  local skronksters Bob Gorry and Joe Morris. First up was Ann Rhoades and Adam Matlock with a trio of local teenagers billed as Gneiss. Disciples of Anthony Braxton, Ann and Adam conducted the youngsters with a series of hand gestures. I got a peek at the sheet music, which was circular, and looked like a star chart. The teenagers, two young women on flute and clarinet and a young man on guitar followed the dizzying conducting. Matlock and Rhoades fresh off vocal detail on Braxton's recent 20 CD "opera", were weird bookends to the group. Ann chirped and giggled, sometimes looking like an avant garde ventriloquist, moving her mouth only slightly shading the improv with vocals. Adam, who also played accordion, sounded like a crazy-haired love child of Paul Robeson and Frankenstein.
Next in line was a trio of Morris on guitar, Carl Testa on standup bass, and Mike Pride on marimba. Morris' spider like hands are familiar at the State House. Testa was all over the bass, bowing and plucking all surfaces of the instrument. Center stage was Pride on marimba, he had many types of mallets that coaxed all manner of sounds from the marimba.
The third group was Gorry on a sweet hollow body guitar paired with local legend Stan Nishimaura on trombone. Gorry seemed psyched to pair with the tiny Asian octogenarian. One might think Stan would play soft given his age, but in fact some bleeps and blaps felt like a face slap.
The final group was Morris on standup bass, Paul Gunsberg on drums and soprano sax, and Chicago- based fireball Jaimie Branch on trumpet. Branch's recent release Fly Or Die, topped many jazzbos best of the year in 2018. Jaimie's delivery was all growl and gut punch with some excellent plunger mute work. The take home lesson was the wide berth of viewers and players. From the African American teens to the 80 year Nishimaura, jazz improv players and fans come in all stripes. Not all of us are hatched from a nest behind the train station.