Sophie’s choice

That’s how I felt selecting these pictures — should I go with movement, action, and mayhem? Or should I go with cookie cutter pictures of a band, whose sound deserves more than concert portraiture. There’s the right way of doing things and then there’s our (The Whiskey Dregs) way of doing things. I guess maybe it wasn’t Sophie’s choice after all. When you’re getting smashed between the stage, girls fighting to kiss each other, and legs kicking the body of your camera, you realize real quick that photographing a show like this one isn’t going to be about about photography at all, it’s going to be about freezing the moment so everyone can experience some semblance of quite possibly one of the best shows this year.

Fuck cookie cutter concert portraiture.

Dim red lights cast the shadow of shoegaze-leaning Violens over the crowd that had gathered in the East Village cavern also known as Mercury Lounge. It’s literally a black box inside where sound is trapped into its surrounding black walls. It’s where labels like Warner Brothers go to showcase prospective talent. So despite its isolated appearance, the venue is more corporate than it appears but despite these leanings, bands like Violens play there without the need of any of the Big Four. Verging on new releases, the band came to Mercury Lounge, played their asses off, and set the guitars down for the night, leaving the rest of us in a vibrating state of musical satiation. Their music playing in our ears, so loudly that when the Nite Jewel played, some of us had to leave. As much as this venue caters to the larger, bigger name labels, there are many nights to hear and see a band of this caliber play.

Christopher Willits
Tiger Flower Circle Sun
Ghostly International

Christopher Willits latest effort, Tiger Flower Circle Sun continues his repertoire of airy, lush, electronic compositions. The San Francisco-based artist controls many of the elements used to build this album, from the whining pangs of his guitar to the vibrating bass rhythms that serve as the bedrock for this very alive album. To begin, Tiger Flower Circle Sun is unlike other touted summer albums. It is not a collection of pop hits; instead it is reflective. Once zoned into its forces, one could begin to hear the album really breathe.

Willits’ techniques implement nano-editing, the art of cutting beats up and put together until it sounds machine gun-like or a CD skipping. The effect of this is hypnotic and when juxtaposed with the soft electronic pads and gentle tapping of seemingly familiar percussion, the “voice” of the album is heard. The ambiance of the album is comforting, warm, as if being inside a womb, gestating until lulled into a sense of abandoned repose.

This work of fifteen tracks sounds like an incubator for a life form; a bio-mechanical offspring from Willits’ imagination — fifteen sectors of an organism, each operating as a stanza for a poem tapped into a sequencer and resonating as electronic sounds. There are songs which nearly touch the composition of a pop song, such as “Sun Body,” — one of the few songs featuring vocals — but before the song ends, its meanderings are burned up by…the sun.”Hands Connect To The Heart” is an example of Willits’ exploration of his theme; to illustrate and provide the soundtrack of connectivity with all life.

Tiger Flower Circle Sun is a personal endeavor, uncontrolled by structure or commercial viability and a work of art that intends to line all of the chakras together for an imitation of  Kundalini.

Release Date July 27, 2010

Track Listing

1. Portal
2. Sun Body
3. Sunlight Is You
4. Green Faces
5. Uplifting The Streets
6. Plant Body
7. New Life
8. The Hands Connect To The Heart
9. The Heart Connects To The Head
10. Intend-Evolve
11. You Are Always Surrounded By Stars
12. Subconscious Transmission
13. Light Into Branches
14. Branches Into Flowers
15.Flowers Into Stardust [CD/Digital Bonus]

As part of the ongoing River to River festivities in New York City, electro-pop group, YACHT played a free show on at the South Street Seaport with the panorama of old schooners and behemoth downtown skyscrapers lit by the setting sun over the horizon.

The organizers of River to River have ceaselessly pursued artists who are not only relevant but also quintessentially summertime New York (another example of event organization as art). The large gathering converged before the stage and expanded upon every square inch of the outdoor space. From the grace of the setting sun, the band strolled onto stage, donning tuxedos, and elegant wares — some of which Claire Evans tore off in favor of a black tight-fitting one-piece. Jonas Bechtolt’s stage presence was that of a sideshow barker, injecting humor into the band’s jaw-bangingly bassy set. People heaved about, undressing their inhibitions in exchange for dance and singalongs. YACHT finished their set and New York City felt like a better place to be in.

It’s not too late to be in New York, particularly Brooklyn, to enjoy the last throes of this sun beatup summer. Brooklyn Bowl, a bowling alley dually frequented by the hip and not-so-hip, provided an air-conditioned space for a gathering to convene. Live music — the keynote feature of this spectacularly hot season in New York — shook the industrial foundation and old brick walls of Brooklyn Bowl when it was handed over to Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers last Thursday night.

The band’s flawlessly tight set exhaled thunder and inhaled applause, drowning the sound of bowling balls colliding into pins. It was the largest crowd this reporter has seen at this venue and for good reason. Shilpa Ray’s audience was crammed together to watch her stage antics, chugging at the lip of her bottle of Jim Beam and howling into the microphone. The band ripped through a pastiche of hypnotic rhythms and throat-slashing compositions in this convention for furiously raw, emotive music.

Shilpa Ray tugged and pushed the bellows of her harmonium as an extension of the raw and vicious sexuality of her band’s music. Leaping from their residency at another classic New York venue, Pianos, the band has made the rounds through the local club circuit, adding to another reminiscent quality presented by Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hooker’s music and debauched lyrics. She and her band recall the ambiance of legendary provocateurs such as Jim Morrison and the rest of the beloved Doors or a 1970s Patti Smith — all welcome in this epoch rife with cookie cutter rock and roll.

Much of their set included songs from the Shilpa Ray’s latest album, released in 2009, entitled A Fish Hook, An Open Eye. Word on the street is that we can expect her next album to be released later this year or in early 2011. She is currently signed with Knitting Factory Records.

Located in a former factory in Long Island City, Queens, 5 Pointz has become the Mecca for graffiti artists since its inception in 2002. Here is the result of a recent Dregs’ field trip to 5 Pointz.

P.S. I realize one of the pictures are not from 5 Pointz but a neighbor. It’s the one with the EYEEYEYEYEYESSS.

Strange House

I’m a DJ by trade. Maybe you know this but if you don’t then I’ll tell you. I’m a DJ by trade and DJs are peculiar folks because they begin to see the world the way a painter sees a palette. So if the painter’s canvas is the conduit for his perception of the world then this site, The Whiskey Dregs, is mine and I have to admit… things have been a little bright and sunny lately (I blame it on summer). Consider this next entry the written backspin for something a bit darker. If the the Dregs have been Shaun of the Dead lately then this entry is the Night of the Living Dead or Cannibal Holocaust as performed by Barnum and Bailey’s Circus. If you haven’t heard The Horrors’ Strange House then it’s likely anything I previously wrote won’t mean anything but if you haveheard this fantastic post-punk, rockabilly showdown between King Kong and Baron Samdi then you get the mood I’m in.

The Horrors released this seminal effort, Strange House in 2007, quietly, or not so quietly, developing their legion of fans, raiding their ears with pointy daggers, fangs, and curled rotting fingers. Naturally I love this album. It’s a cartoon world of mayhem, murder, and fun in the vein of ’60s garage music and classic horror films. Ed Wood would have loved this album. Bela Lugosi not so much. The Horrors helped to reanimate goth and post-punk horror, which began with this album — well that’s not entirely true because they released an EP before then but I digress. It is no wonder why so many disappointed fans burned their already classic album, Primary Colours since the cause was abandoned by this band of pariahs.

If you miss Halloween, haunted houses, and getting sick of the sunlight as I am, then rediscover this, re-listen to it, reanimate your insides with this album. Apologies in advance for the cheesy horror references but I’m missing Elvira and bats and skulls and poison candy and graves. Soon enough, my friends. Soon enough.

Key/Killer tracks

+ “Horrors’ Theme”
+ “Sheena Was A Parasite” (admittedly not one of my faves but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention it)
+ “A Train Roars” (This one is a helluva steady anchor for the album)
+ Truly…the whole album is key and killer.

It was like this:

All of us, fans, press, sound guys, PR folks, and record label types — holed up we were in the small back room of Pianos and we were all in on a secret. Even the people outside of the bar must have known because those older guys, the ones looking slick and detached from the scene, looked important.

Oh yes, the secret in the LES was that Deluka was playing, a BK transplant from Birmingham, England is going places — huge, big places like LA and Grammys and other European music awards. It was one of those rare moments when you can see a band’s ascension before the closing of their set – and others, too, must have had that feeling because the room was packed, which is not unusual for an opening band, however it is notable when it’s packed by people in the Lower East Side who don’t look like tweens or hipsters but disguised corporate folks.

Anyway, they were great, played a tight set, and gave the impression of a band being groomed for stardom. Deluka will be huge if the band continues on its trajectory. Mark my words.

P.S. Ellie Innocenti looked great.

Carlos Detres

Deastro
Mind Altar EP
Ghostly International

When Moondagger was released in 2009, we saw a benchmark Randolph Chabot (aka Deastro) album in his progressive rise as indie pop phenom. Chabot’s live shows were electric and pulsed with the exuberance of a musician whose brain brimmed with so much musical energy that he had to release a new single or EP every few months just to be able to walk straight. And after his tours ended, after people lulled, playing their new favorite Deastro album while quietly walking solo on some industrial street, the musician produced this EP, Mind Altar. Although that’s not a complete statement because he also released Orange Summer Red Swimmer EP for free on his blog but don’t worry — those songs were remastered and are featured on this disc, too.

The first song and the EP’s title track is  a tight composition of child-like bells, noise, and a whipping beat that can be a bit disorienting on the first listen. Typical of Deasto fashion, the EP is remiss of predictable structure but unlike Moondagger or Keeper’s, Mind Altar comes across as a musical sketchpad, with more surreal elements than previous works, and less attention paid to audience-friendly songs, which is why people may like it. Chabot seemingly orcestrated this album via automatism, a method surrealists implemented to channel subconscious thoughts or feelings, unrestricted by prohibition or judgement. He uses samples, loops, stabbing drums, and noise to materialize the space orchestra that’s in his head, which makes it a fun collection of songs to listen to in the dark.

This isn’t an ambitious group of songs. There are no killer singles (although “Mowgli The Linx” comes closest). This EP is part of his lesson book. Mind Altar may be more of a thrill to listen to in the future than it is today and one could argue that it was meant to be heard that way. A clue about the origin and meaning of his latest work is mentioned by Chabot in an interview by ClashMusic: “It was summer. I was making a ton of new friends, going to my friend Klair’s house on Mondays for this vegan brunch. Me and Adam, my good friend, would just drink 40’s in a kiddie pool in front of her house. We did weird shit all summer. My mind was a puddle of neon green ooze.”

Remember that Orange Summer Red Swimmer EP that was previously mentioned? The songs are included on this EP as bonus tracks and couldn’t sound any more different than if you had put an elephant next to a donkey and heard them bray at each other. These three tracks are the highlight of Mind Altar and definitely deserve an ear’s listen. Even if you downloaded these from Chabot’s blog, pick them up again because they aren’t quite the same.

Mind Altar a slight departure from his more pop work found on Moondagger, such as “Vermillion Plaza.” One could possibly presume the artist relinquished caution and uninhibitedly created new music to explore himself in. His lyrics, conveying a musician curious of his constantly changing surroundings, are still there but sonically, compositionaly, the music has changed. He reintroduces his voice on the album on a spread of ethereal reverb, mimicking last year’s critically favorite album by Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavillion. Once a listener’s head cocks in that direction, it’s clear that this is a good move for Deastro. As his sound continues to mature, lessons like these will bring about that truly great record he’s capable of writing.

Release Date June 22,

Track Listing

1. Mind Altar
2. Genesis Weapon
3. Pastor Kid Redux Edition
4. Mowgli The Lynx
5. The Concept Of Land Ownership
6. Divali
7. Get Frostied
8. World Of Shadow
9. Shield Whip (Bonus Track)
10. Seven Fell From The Firmament (Bonus Track)
11. Orange Swimmer (Bonus Track)

ZAZA
Cameo
Kanine Records

ZAZA is a New York based duo  made up of two members Danny Taylor and Jennifer Fraser, the latter formerly of then LA-based, The Warlocks. The band draws from the same thread that sewed Joy Division, Radiohead, and a plethora of other bands who’s melancholic rhythm sections and minimalist instrumentation provides the wind for many a-hair swaying fan of shoegazer music. The EP consists of songs like “Sooner Or Later,” which is reminiscent of a song that could have potentially found it’s way onto Radiohead’s Kid A.

Their latest EP, Cameo was released last year and is still making the rounds through the blogosphere with positive news of these talented musicians. Fraser’s punchy bass grooves and inventive hooks gives the mopey music the bounce required to make this band stand out. Taylor’s guitar work enhances the ambiance, giving the current for his breathy vocals to follow into the ambient depths of recorded sound. An ideal example of Taylor’s and Fraser’s blended orchestration is on “Arms Length” — a song that ties both halves of the EP.

Cameo is an insight into what this band can achieve. The words are fleeting to describe the thin collection of artists who separate themselves from the saturated and overrated pack of New York-based bands. This duo lifts the standard. It is likely that ZAZA will continue from this EP with a substantial album that will turn a lot of ears in their direction.

Release Date August 18, 2010

Track Listing

1. The Call
2. Sooner Or Later
3. Always On
4. Arms Length
5. Repetition
6. Faith In The Faithless