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The Bands of Summer – Mind The Gap

19 Jul

Mind The Gap

“A Korean, a Sri Lankan, a Mexican, and a Jew from Cleveland. four musicians from four corners of the world aiming to shotgun blast through the insipid airwaves of current music using acoustic harmonies fused with modern technology.”

The beginning of Los Angeles based Indie band Mind The Gap’s introduction on their short biography page on their website sounds like the premise of a bad joke. But this neat band objective effectively explains the band’s sound in few words. So why I am I needed here? Good question. Just listen to this:

Before I proceed with my flowery praise for Mind The Gap, let’s celebrate the second week of The Bands of Summer. I know I said it was only a week special, but I have decided to make it an every Tuesday post. There are so many great new bands to profile. Today that band is Mind The Gap. I’m sure by now you have listened to the song above.

Mind The Gap has to be one of, if not the most ethnically diverse indie foursomes in the world (as you have read above). The band is a melting pot of diversity and mature rhythms, acoustic and electronic. Put the pot on a stove and after just a few songs on their debut 12-track album the intense laid-back creativity of Mind The Gap begins to boil over.

Mind The Gap’s debut release The Good Fight (released May, 2011) is one of those rare albums where every song is not only enjoyable, but also different. The album is like a good mystery film, there are just so many twists and turns that you are not sure what the next song will bring. The first two tracks are a good example of this. “Fall,” track one of the album, plays like an alt/rock hit with a fast-paced guitar riff carrying the verses with underlying electronic sounds. And then track two, “Smile Back At You” introduces itself with basic chords and manipulative keys and the alt/rock of track one fades away and is replaced by a blissful, effervescent pop song carried by lead vocalist Greg Cahn’s melodic voice and the band’s choral harmonies which are soft like a cool pillow. This is a diverse album. The band is composed of wonderfully talented musicians, each who makes their voice heard in their tremendous instrumentation. Whether it is Cahn’s magical vocal, Ozzy Doniz’s moving bass and rhythm guitar, Ruwanga Samath’s significant keyboard work, or Alex Yang’s skilled lead guitar and piano work, the band works together to create music that knocks down the walled conventions of pop/indie/electronic/acoustic music and blends them together into a high-quality, low calorie shake, one that you just feel good about drinking.

I will leave you all with “Once You Leave” which has a little more fun with modern electronic sounds. But while electronic sounds often seem tasteless and gratuitous in music today, Mind The Gap uses them with precision and they are vital to the advancement of “Once You Leave” which, when completed, is a fine indie/pop track.

Mind The Gap stands true to their band objective. They are skillful mashers of acoustic instrumentation and electronic sounds. They are definitely a band to follow.

Enjoying the music. For another 13 hours you can obtain the whole debut album for $5 on GroopEase where Mind The Gap’s album is being offered at a discount price. I bought it. Here is the link.

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Harry Chapin – The Untimely Death of a Good Man

16 Jul

I originally wrote this story for the LI Press which can be accessed by clicking on this link

The epitaph on Harry Chapin’s gravestone is a lyric taken from his song “I Wonder What Would Happen to this World.” Carved into the speckled gray stone, under his name and the years 1942-1981, are the lyrics, “Oh if a man tried to take his time on Earth and prove before he died what one man’s life could be worth I wonder what would happen to this world.” Today, Saturday, July 16, marks 30 years since Brooklyn-born folk singer/songwriter Harry Chapin died in a car accident on the Long Island Expressway, but the tireless philanthropic work he did when he was alive has transcended time and made a man consistent with his epitaph.

“Chapin’s legacy to finding an end to hunger has lasted because he went after the cause with such passion,” says Paule T. Pachter, executive director of Long Island Cares, the organization Chapin founded in 1980. “Harry was walking through the halls of congress when he was talking about hunger. No one has come by with that kind of passion and conviction. There really hasn’t been another voice to fill his void.”

In memory of the 30th anniversary of Chapin’s death, Long Island Cares has created a 10-day celebration of Chapin’s life running from July 8-18, which will culminate over the next three days, beginning with a concert today and closing on Monday. Today, the anniversary of Chapin’s death, members of the Chapin family will gather at the Chapin Rainbow Stage in Heckscher Park, Huntington for a concert to support Long Island Cares. The concert is free but donations are appreciated. For a donation of $100 per person to Long Island Cares, each donor will receive an invitation to a special Meet and Greet reception with the Chapin Family one-hour prior to the concert at the Heckscher Museum. On Sunday, Pat Fenton, author of “Harry Chapin’s America, Remember When the Music,” will join musician Paul Gomez at Borghese Winery in Cutchogue for a tribute to Chapin from 2-4 p.m. Gomez will perform some of Chapin’s songs and Fenton will read excerpts from his book. And at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, July 18, a free Harry Chapin tribute concert will take place at The Harry Chapin Lakeside Theatre in Eisenhower Park, East Meadow.

Chapin first broke into music during the early 70s. His tender croon and cozy acoustic guitar made him a well-known folk musician. In 1974, Chapin released his fourth LP Verities and Balderdash, which is perhaps best known for its chart-topping single “Cats in the Cradle,” which skyrocketed Chapin’s album sales and made him a millionaire. But Chapin thought of money as an entity that could abet him helping those in need. And so, while his music made him popular, his charity work lifted him to the degree of legend.

“It’s hard to overestimate the amount of good [Chapin] did,” said Sen. Patrick Leahy in an interview with Associated Press. “There are a huge number of people who probably have no idea who he is. All they know is they got fed because of him and they wouldn’t have otherwise, both in this country and abroad.”

Long Island Cares provides nutritional food and support services to Long Islanders in need. It also provides educational services on self-sufficiency and the causes and consequences of hunger on Long Island. Along with Long Island Cares, Chapin also founded the organization World Hunger Year, now known as WhyHunger, with radio D.J. Bill Ayers in 1975. The group seeks to address the causes of hunger and poverty. But his work benefiting Long Island cannot be overstated.

“He established the first food bank on Long Island,” says Pachter. “In 1980 there were only two other food banks in downstate [NY]. He was also so accessible. If you saw him, he stopped and he spoke to you. That resonates with Long Islanders. He influenced people to be that way. Harry was just there and he was tremendously passionate about this island. This was his home.”

Just one year after founding Long Island Cares, Inc., Chapin was traveling in the right lane of Long Island Expressway on his way to a free concert he scheduled at Eisenhower Park when, after passing exit 40 in Jericho, he put on his emergency flashers, presumably because of mechanical issues with his Volkswagen Rabbit. Chapin slowed to about 15 miles per hour and swerved in the center lane directly in the path of a tractor-trailer truck. The truck rear-ended Chapin and his car burst into flames, and while the driver of the truck was able to remove Chapin from his vehicle, he could not be revived. Officially, Chapin died of cardiac arrest, but there was no way of telling whether it was before or after the accident.

Despite Chapin’s untimely death, his indelible impact on Long Island has been perpetuated by people devoted to keeping his eleemosynary work alive.

“We were recently at Bethpage ballpark and we were there doing a food drive,” says Pachter. “There was a collection box by our tent with Harry Chapin’s name on it, and this young father was walking with a child, and he stopped in front the box and he looked at the box and said to his son, ‘You see the man of this man on this box? He made it possible for people to eat.’”

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The Bands of Summer – Common Grackle

15 Jul

GroopEase has a creative approach to selling albums. They feature several new artists a week and allow viewers to purchase the artist’s material for special prices for one or two days. It is the Groupon of music. I found out about this site a few days ago. So, naturally, I went prowling for cool new bands. And, even though I missed the special, I found Common Grackle, a hip/hop, indie blend. A what? I said the same thing. I pressed play. Out of my laptop speakers came the dopest Indie music I have ever heard. Why did I just write dopest? Because, I’m bemused, I have no clue what to call it. The music is a hugger-mugger of mashed-up rhythms and depressed lyrics. There is a slowed-down keyboard beautifully juxtaposed with lyrics about not wanting to die at a grindcore show (I’ll explain later). There are imprecations and rapping over spacey synthesizers. Then there is Gregory Pepper’s remarkably passionate voice that mixes witty sarcasm with true pain. It is an amalgamation of so many musical elements that my ears explode when I listen. But it’s a good thing. Let me make one statement before I move on.

Common Grackle is one of the most exciting indie acts to come out of the wide world of music in a while. And I think lead-singer Gregory Pepper has a response for my observation and it comes straight out of the lyric of “Down With The Ship,” track six of Common Grackle’s debut album The Great Depression (I bought it on Amazon for $5. Yeah, I’m cheap and poor). The line? “Told them all to take care but I don’t care a bit.”

The band formed at the suggestion of record label Fake Four Inc founder Ceschi Ramos (who raps in two of the songs including “The Great Depression” which is featured below). Singer/songwriter Gregory Pepper and hip/hop producer Factor were label mates and they began making music together in 2009. What formed was a magical combination of creative beats, hearty lyrics, intelligent instrumentation and one powerful vocal that sounds like it was chained up for years prior to this album. That is how effective Pepper’s voice is. Pepper and Factor churned out tracks with the help of Pepper’s band and a memorable 12-track album was created.

So where do I start with the music? There is bluegrass rap, a short dubbed ballad about a violent brawl at a laundromat. I think I am going to profile two of my favorite songs on the album, “The Great Depression” and “At The Grindcore Show.”

Oh, so I see where they were going with the title. How do you like that psychologically unstable video? How about the music and the lyrics? The music can best be described as indie/psych/pop/hip-hop fusion. Factor dreams up this swooning rhythm that hugs the rapped lyrics like a blanket. There is just so much sound and then, at the end, harmony. Harmony. Really good harmony, at that. The lyric is dark. “Dumb sh*t spilling out of his stupid f*cking mouth, I’m sorry mom and dad but I had a bad year, keyboard cut out hanging on the walls of heads of ex girlfriends.” It is downtrodden, melancholic and defeated. But, even with the rhythm, it works well.

This little ditty is hilarious, but scary. The melody itself is like a kid who just got ice cream, small and gleeful, but the lyrics are about how our protagonist is drugged and scared at a grindcore show where everyone is fake and he is lost. Sad but happy. Barret-esque. A lot of the music takes on this psychedelic quality and I am loving it. Keep rocking Common Grackle, it’s working well.

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The Bands of Summer – Marcus Foster

14 Jul

Marcus Foster

Marcus Foster has soul. No, not that superficial junk that is sometimes played off as soul today, but that true guttural, passionate soul. Only a few artists are capable of creating this sound today (i.e. Ray LaMontagne) and Foster’s powerful crooning makes the 24-year-old London musician a part of this exclusive club.

Foster has released one EP thus far in his burgeoning career. The link embedded in EP brings you to a page where you can purchase the four-song release in full or individually. If folk singer/songwriters are your thing, then give Marcus Foster a listen.

“Shadows of the City” is the first track on Foster’s EP Tumble Down. The song’s introduction features Foster’s robust voice demonstrating its impeccable range. The main draw for every singer/songwriter is their voice. When it comes down to it, only those with great, original voices survive in the cutthroat world of singer/songwriters. There are far to many creating similar tunes for everyone to succeed. A singer/songwriter is judged on their voice first and then their music. Foster easily passes the voice test. It is his clear strength. His voice is vigorous, but trained. Foster knows when to unleash it to its full potential. At the end of “Shadows of the City,” a melancholic percussion-driven piece with pleasant acoustic rhythms, Foster impressively displays a controlled scream that is shocking, but interestingly refreshing.

With the above acoustic home recording of the EP’s title track “Tumble Down,” I wanted to express Foster’s folk roots. He is clearly most comfortable in stripped down string-heavy folk recordings. The song is over six minutes, but it does not lose its charm. The additional acoustic instrumentation is nice, but I even feel that the song would succeed with only Foster and his acoustic guitar.

Soon, Foster will release his first full-length LP and if you like what you listened to on this post feel free to click this and pre-order his album Nameless Path.

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The Bands of Summer: Dog Is Dead

13 Jul


Dog is Dead is not exactly a new band, having released their first EP in 2009, but the five member indie/pop band has started gaining some well-deserved attention recently. Their skilled amalgamation of catchy rhythms and jazz influences makes them a force to be reckon with in the voluminous indie/pop world.

Dog is Dead formed in Nottingham, England, and is currently represented by Atlantic Records, the first band on our list that has signed to a major record company. Three members of the band met at co-educational school called West Bridgford School and the other two members latched on after the band met one at a party and the other at a play rehearsal. The five members started playing together in 2008.

While they released their first EP in 2009, their recently released EP Your Childhood is garnering more attention because, frankly, it’s better. The four songs on the May released EP demonstrate tighter and more mature sounds. Here is “Glockenspiel Song,” the band’s first single.

The song teases listeners with a near-identical MGMT “Kids” opening, but this chorus of desultory children is quickly replaced by a smooth saxophone and a fun riff. The bright opening seamlessly erupts into a tasteful harmony. I love bands like Dog is Dead because talent just oozes out of every pore. Not only can each individual play an instrument, but also the members of the band can strike appropriate vocal notes with precision. The chorus is anthem-like and this is a great example of powerful pop. My favorite portion of the song is when the band strips everything down three minutes in and focuses on raw vocal energy. The entire song is manufactured well.

“Young,” another song off of Your Childhood, sounds a bit different then the version I am providing you with. I wanted to highlight the “stripped down” acoustic sound because it portrays the talent of the act. The song is vocally pleasing and acoustically beautiful.

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