9/17 500 BLOCK DNTN WPB: Bumblefest 5 w Unwed Sailor, Surfer Blood, Spirit & the CosmicHeart, Room Thirteen & many more! 6pm - 2am REVOLUTION LIVE: Spider Gang 8/21 PROPAGANDA: Sweet Bronco, Lavola, Vudra, Mega Fluff 8/23 HAROLDS COFFEE: Neil Bacher & Friends Jazz Quartet
9/4 REVOLUTION LIVE: Nirvanna Tribute to Nirvana RESPECTABLE STREET: Emo Night Brooklyn PROPAGANDA: FANG, Nothing but Enemies, 1983, Rat Sex
8/25 HAROLDS COFFEE: The Therapy Sessions
9/5 RESPECTABLE STREET: Camp Trashfire Talent Show
8/26 MATHEWS BREWING: Jordan Richards PROPAGANDA: TR3E
9/7 REVOLUTION LIVE: Beartooth
8/27 MATHEWS BREWING: Crazy Train PROPAGANDA: Leander, Dirty Rivals, Last Disaster, Least HAROLDS COFFEE: Creatives Pop Up Mkt 8/28 REVOLUTION LIVE: Bayside MATHEWS BREWING: Metalucious 80’s Arena Extravaganza PROPAGANDA: Mad Props Comedy HAROLDS COFFEE: Depop Up Mkt 9/1 REVOLUTION LIVE: The Struts
9/8 MATHEWS BREWING: Tree of Life Paint Night 9/9 PROPAGANDA: Weird at First 9/10 RESPECTABLE STREET: Limitless Agency 10 Year Anniversary MATHEWS BREWING: Weird at First NORTH BEACH BANDSHELL: 25th Infinite Brazilian Film Fest RESOURCE DEPOT GALLERE: Flight Patterns: 2C by Autumn Kioti Opening
9/2 MATHEWS BREWING: Products of Rage PROPAGANDA: The Shake, Sons of Paradise
9/11 REVOLUTION LIVE: Dashboard Confessional PROPAGANDA: Goddamn Gallows, Zoo Peculiar, Helffire Hooch
9/3 PROPAGANDA: Systemic Attack, 46 & Tool
9/16 PROPAGANDA: TR3E
9/18 KIMPTON GOODLAN: FemAle Brewfest @femalebrewfest RESPECTABLE STREET: Colony House, Fleurie REVOLUTION LIVE: The Disco Biscuits PROPAGANDA: The Uproar Art Crawl DOWNTOWN HOLLYWOOD: Artwalk 9/21 RESPECTABLE STREET: Hail the Sun, Kurt Travis, Kaonashi, Body Thief 9/22 REVOLUTION LIVE: J.I RESOURCE DEPOT GALLERE: Exploring Collographs 9/23 PROPAGANDA: Spred the Dub 9/24 REVOLUTION LIVE: Jake Miller 9/25 REVOLUTION LIVE: State Champs RESPECTABLE STREET: Ghost Horses, Radiohead Tribute NORTH BEACH BANDSHELL: Axis of Love - Takht al-Nagham 9/26 NORTH BEACH BANDSHELL: Flamenco Sephardit 9/23 PROPAGANDA: The People Upstairs 10/29 9/23 PROPAGANDA: Halloween Bar Crawl 10/2 RESPECTABLE STREET: The Ocean Blue, Sweet Bronco 10/3 RESPECTABLE STREET: Combichrist, King 810 10/9 REVOLUTION LIVE: Manchester Orchestra 10/15 REVOLUTION LIVE: New Found Glory, Simple Plan FILLMORE MB: Modest Mouse 10/16 REVOLUTION LIVE: Poppy RESPECTABLE STREET: Bodysnatcher, Boundaries, Left to Suffer, Mouth for War FILLMORE MB: Thievery Corporation MATHEWS BREWING: Pound Fitness Halloween Class RESOURCE DEPOT GALLERE: Exploring Cyanotypes DOWNTOWN HOLLYWOOD: Artwalk 10/17 RESPECTABLE STREET: Hunny 10/21 GENERAL PROVISION DNTN: NFT’s and the Future of Art 10/22 REVOLUTION LIVE: Surfaces RESPECTABLE STREET: We’re Wolves 10/23 REVOLUTION LIVE: The Crystal Method 10/24 REVOLUTION LIVE: Chase Atlantic Beauty In Death 10/26 REVOLUTION LIVE: Black Label Society 10/27 REVOLUTION LIVE: The Psychedelic Furs 10/29 RESPECTABLE STREET: DOVYDAS 10/30 HATCH 1121: Dia De Los Muertos
ROOM
THIRTEEN by Amanda Moore
It’s no surprise that Florida native Danny Clifton concocted the idea of Room Thirteen over a “tiki drink,” as he ROOM THIRTEEN tells the story. A typical Room Thirteen song is a leisurely pour of liquefied sound that summons the Florida of another era, like a drive along Worth Avenue in a vintage two-toned Corvette. So please welcome Room Thirteen to Bumblefest on September 17 in downtown West Palm Beach. Room Thirteen’s tropical, wavy lounge pop pays open homage to the father of exotica, the late Martin Denny. Composer and bandleader Denny introduced Americans in the 1950s to instruments and rhythms from across the globe in frothy, jazzy tracks also teeming with bird noise and other fun oddities. In its heyday exotica was synonymous with midcentury Sun Belt glamour — “Mad Men” fans heard Denny’s music weaved into an episode, “The Jet Set,” situated poolside in Palm Springs. Clifton expands on Denny’s work by introducing a strain of eerie psychedelia — hence the Gainesville band’s self-description of a dualistic sound “inspired by gold oldies” with a touch of “dark, spooky, goth lounge.” The upshot is a feeling of “a vacation that lasts too long,” in their words. Room Thirteen songs, like the faded era they mine, start out summery and dissolve into an uneasy twilight. Room Thirteen albums “Daytona Beach View” (2019) and “Roccopulco” (2017), and the first songs from the forthcoming LP “Crooked Palm,” are also nostalgic nods to a bygone Space Age concept of the future. The shiny, beaming industrial trade fair version of tomorrow that never came to pass. The effect of listening with eyes closed is transporting and intoxicating, eerie and a little sad. Listeners new to this revived subculture will find echoes of classic exotica in the music of Tiki Tones, Misun, Lana Del Rey and Julietta. So before checking into Room Thirteen at Bumblefest, be sure to slip into their psychedelic swimming pool for a good long soak, and your summer mood will be set. BUMBLEFEST, celebrating 10 years of PureHoney, is Friday, Sept 17 on the 500 Block of Clematis Street, Dntn WPB, feat. Unwed Sailor, Surfer Blood & more. 6pm, 18+, $20 Adv. at BUMBLEFEST.com
SPIRIT AND THE COSMIC HEART
by Abel Folgar
A black screen sits silent just past that point of discomfort, then the movie begins. Outside a home on a windswept valley, a young woman looks away from the camera. Her gaze is fixed on the dirt road SPIRIT AND THE COSMIC HEART glimpsed through dancing grasses. A nostalgic synth rises as a dust cloud forms in the distance. Maybe it’s a car. Cue the wistful strumming of a guitar and as the dust cloud nears, the drums kick in. As sweet vocals whisper “… time to know what you mean,” the woman turns to the camera. Her smile is confident, her future is bright. We don’t know where she’ll go – if that car’s even coming to get her – but we know she’s going somewhere. The movie, of course, does not exist (yet) but the music does. It’s called “Moments,” the title track of the newest EP by Lakeland’s Spirit and the Cosmic Heart, who are performing at Bumblefest in downtown West Palm Beach on September 17. The band has refined an impeccable cross of jangle rock with shoegaze and saccharine pop over three EPs. “Moments” builds on 2019’s “Memories” and 2018’s “Dreams,” a progression influenced by the isolating circumstances of the last year, guitarist and vocalist Joshua Miller told PureHoney. “Covid and the distance it caused allowed us to reflect a little longer on our writing process,” Miller said. The band “scrapped some work and refocused on common threads,” he said, a step that “helped solidify our intentions.” “Moments” is another melodious nocturne in four parts. Beyond the title track, “In Between Dream” musters danceable pep even with its ghostly, gothic air. “Voices” throttles up, like a high-speed nighttime chase in that imaginary movie. “Shadow” brings the EP to an airy, ambient close. Miller is joined by brother Daniel Miller on bass, percussionist Ian Lopez, Dallas Smith on keyboards and trumpet, and Melody Wells on vocals and guitar. He said they’re working towards a first full-length whose songs “will likely feel familiar and tackle the realities of existence and feeling.” BUMBLEFEST, celebrating 10 years of PureHoney, is Friday, Sept 17 on the 500 Block of Clematis Street, Dntn WPB, feat. Unwed Sailor, Surfer Blood & more. 6pm, 18+, $20 Adv. at BUMBLEFEST.com
Zak Bennett
SURFER
BLOOD by Olivia Feldman
Knocked off schedule and off the road like every other touring band in America, West Palm Beach indie rockers Surfer Blood made the most of their pandemic-induced lot. They took up jamming in the band members’ South Florida back yards, filming performances to share online with fans. They SURFER BLOOD reunited with the Brooklyn indie label that first signed them, Kanine, and celebrated the tenth birthday of their 2010 debut album, “Astro Coast,” with a double-vinyl Record Store Day reissue. They finished a new album and named it “Carefree Theatre,” after the old movie house and concert hall in West Palm Beach that was demolished in 2016. This summer they have returned to live, in-person performances: Following a string of West Coast dates in August, Surfer Blood headline Bumblefest on September 17. It’s their first time playing the musical block party presented by PureHoney Magazine as the event returns to downtown West Palm Beach after two years away. Bumblefest 2021 is also doing double-duty as PureHoney’s own tenth birthday party. Looking back on a year and a half of being grounded, Surfer Blood singer and guitarist John Paul Pitts told PureHoney it wasn’t all bad. “It gave me a chance to try experiments because there was no pressure. That’s how you write your best stuff,” Pitts said. He contrasted the experience to making “Pythons,” the 2013 “Astro Coast” follow-up that Surfer Blood recorded for a major label, Sire. “It was very polished and produced,” Pitts said of the sophomore album. “When you put that sort of pressure on a situation, you come to it like a college essay rather than being honest.” “Carefree Theatre” radiates honesty. A decade after “Astro Coast,” the band’s sixth LP — including a 2019 covers collection — harkens back to Surfer Blood as four buddies just making music and rocking out. It demonstrates maturity without sacrificing fun. Building on 2017’s “Snowdonia,” it also showcases a lineup that cohered after the wrenching loss of guitarist Thomas Fekete to cancer at age 27 in 2016. There is a tone-setting power on “Carefree Theatre” in the handiwork of the two newest members: the gritty bass lines provided by Lindsey Mills and the vocal harmonies Mills shares with guitarist Mike McCleary. “They sing really well; it’s great to have harmonies in the band,” Pitts said. “Parkland (Into the Silence)” — released as a single on the second anniversary of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting — is surprisingly and pleasantly upbeat considering its subject. Instead of re-enacting trauma, in the manner of Neil Young’s “Ohio,” Pitts emphasizes the young survivors’ resilience, singing, “I’m sick of hearing that there’s nothing we can do / This time could be the spark, the start of something new.” And it’s been hard lately to hear the name “Karen” without picturing a middle-aged white woman who needs to speak to the manager. A track bearing the same name here evokes a more youthful free spirit. Surfer Blood also spent 2020 mastering the home movie. A spin through their YouTube channel turns up favorites such as “Floating Vibes” and “Fast Jabroni” performed houseconcert style. “I learned more about editing videos than I ever wanted to know,” Pitts said. There’s also a spry cover of The Shins’ “Know Your Onion!” and an official video for the new track “Summer Trope” proving that a clip doesn’t have to be busy, sleek or expensive to entertain. A fake beard, a wig and one’s hometown beaches will do. Pitts also flexed producer chops at Shade Tree, the Boynton Beach recording studio he owns with McCleary, making an EP with local outfit Soul Particles and an LP with American Sigh, both of whom will play Bumblefest. “Someone is coming to you with their vision to help you realize it,” Pitts said. “There’s no better feeling than that.” But he’s happy to be gigging again after a year and a half without. “I missed playing my music even more than I thought I did,” he said. “Writing in your bedroom gets a little lonely.” Pitts said the band — with Mills, McCleary and co-founder Tyler Schwarz on drums — is in a good place today. “There’s never any drama,” he said. “Any hit of tension, we just talk about it and work it out.” “We’ve accomplished a lot in 10 years,” he added. “It still just feels like playing with your friends, I hope that never gets lost.” BUMBLEFEST, celebrating 10 years of PureHoney, is Friday, Sept 17 on the 500 Block of Clematis Street, Dntn WPB, feat. Unwed Sailor, Surfer Blood & more. 6pm, 18+, $20 Adv. at BUMBLEFEST.com
Charles Elmore
UNWED
SAILOR by Abel Folgar
If hearing Unwed Sailor evokes longing or returns you to a cherished memory, founder and bassist Johnathon Ford has accomplished what he UNWED SAILOR set out to do over 20 years ago. The instrumental band’s seventh and latest album, “Truth or Consequences,” is a lush accompaniment to recollection, from the peppy opener “Blitz” through seven more tracks delivered with aplomb and the severity of a guided meditation. Unwed Sailor are headlining Bumblefest, which returns to downtown West Palm Beach on September 17 after two years away that included a pandemic hiatus. This year’s edition is also a celebration of PureHoney’s tenth anniversary. Ahead of his first tour and live shows since December 2019, Ford talked with PureHoney about the new record and his career. (An extended version of this interview is at purehoneymagazine.com) Tell me a bit about “Truth or Consequences” — how much did isolation and the pandemic year influence its crafting? ”Truth or Consequences” wasn’t recorded or written entirely during the pandemic, some of those songs had been written a couple of years before so it’s a little bit of a hodgepodge. Some before and some last minute, but you know, I write a lot of stuff ahead of time and then I’ll kind of go through this catalogue of ideas that I have or songs that I’ve demoed and then just pick those out to place on records. I’ve got quite a database of songs to choose from. That explains the large catalogue over the past 20-plus years. And recently, the past two or three years. I seem to have gotten into this rhythm in which I’m able to write songs faster. They’re coming to me with more ease so that’s definitely accelerated the output even more. You’ve gone through phases like that before. But even in the longest pause between records you still released singles and EPs. Yeah, I just found my groove and just really went with it. I have found what I love and makes sense to me. I found that if I don’t play music, I simply don’t feel like myself and I feel like I’m going crazy so I should fully dive into this and put a record out every year and let nothing hold me back. I also have a great team to work with, David Swatzell on guitar and Matt Putnam on drums. We write well together and musically we interact well together. Everything has lined up for that to happen and I’m just going for it. Is there a correlation between the album art and the feeling your instrumentals evoke? One thing I’ve learned with Unwed Sailor is to not try too hard so I’m not out there on this hardcore search for album artwork. What I’ve usually done, and it has worked, is I just let things come to me. For “Truth or Consequences” I had an idea of fruit in a bowl that was rotting. You think someone one day will sit with the record in their hand and wonder, “What’s this snail doing? Why is there a bug here? Are these cherry tomatoes? What does this fruit mean?” TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES Hey, that’s great! If someone wants to dive into it that hard, that’s awesome. It’s weird — I put a lot of thought and work into these records but at the same time I don’t think too much about it. If I think too much then things don’t work as well. Almost like a Buddhist thing, you know: Be in the moment, be in the now. I don’t practice this in my life, but in music it’s what naturally works for me so I go with it. So now you’re hitting the road after a long time and getting back on stage, how do you think fans will react to “Truth or Consequences”? I want people to connect with it like they’ve done with every other Unwed Sailor album. You want people to feel something and reflect. I’m very nostalgic, probably to a fault; I just want to live in the 1980s again to the point where I get sad knowing that I can’t. I want people to think back on times that really did it for them. Peaceful times. Times they spent with people they love. That’s what I hope, get lost in reflection and have fun watching live music again. BUMBLEFEST, celebrating 10 years of PureHoney, is Friday, Sept 17 on the 500 Block of Clematis Street, Dntn WPB, feat. Unwed Sailor, Surfer Blood & more. 6pm, 18+, $20 Adv. at BUMBLEFEST.com
JAMES
H. EDDy by David Rolland
The person behind this year’s Bumblefest poster was dealing in art long before he went public with his own: James H. Eddy is a partner in Divers Gallery, a San Francisco gallery with an outpost in the Rio Grande Valley capital of McAllen, Texas. Divers represents several artists, and exhibits even more, but it’s only recently that Eddy’s own output hangs next to that of his clients. To these untrained eyes the Bumblefest poster — as well as Eddy’s banner illustration for the September 17 music festival’s Web site — is reminiscent of the kid-friendly claymation universe found in Nick Parks’ “Wallace and Gromit” adventures, and their wholesome predecessors from the 1960s, “Davey and Goliath.” Eddy, for his part, emphasizes folk art from the Americas in his artist biography: “Retablos (small oil paintings on tin, often of saints) and exvotos (devotional paintings offering thanks for miracles performed) are major influences.” He also cites “proverbs from oral traditions, ledger drawings, modern advertising, spoken cliche, comic books, salesman’s samples, story boards, street art, broadsides, and pop art” as other means “to render stories about events in his life”. His Instagram bears out the smorgasbord of influences and the strangeness of his vision. Side by side
In a site devoted to his retablos, Eddy is often the protagonist in paintings captioned with backstories: getting vaccinated against COVID-19 (“My ticket out of hell”) or the day he decided to give up drugs (“the miracle of San Jesus Malverde’s intercession and James’ sobriety”). His work can be an almost literal expression of the adage about a picture equaling a thousand words. One example is a self-portrait (featured on the Bumblefest landing page) of Eddy on his knees before a piano-playing saint who floats above Eddy’s turntable and LPs. The text begins “James Eddy gives infinite thanks to Santa Cecilia, the patroness saint of music and musicians, for giving us Johnny Cash, Mac Miller, The Clash, Chilly Gonzales, Frank Zappa, Nina Simone, The Velvet Underground ... ” and continues on for close to a hundred more acts. It’s a glimpse inside the mind of an outsider artist, and way of explaining things that one wishes Pablo Picasso would have considered for “Guernica.” James H. Eddy: Modern story teller, painter, artist. Follow James on Instagram: @james_h_eddy Work available at Divers Gallery @divers_gallery Divers Gallery is a contemporary art gallery based in San Francisco, CA with a presence in McAllen, TX. Divers strives to make quality artworks available at competitive prices. All works are guaranteed authentic. Divers is committed to supporting artists and pays no less than 70% of each sale directly to the artist. Divers Gallery partners James Eddy and Matt Gonzalez have curated exhibitions, written extensively about art, and operated galleries for over two decades. https://www.artsy.net/ partner/divers-gallery BUMBLEFEST, celebrating 10 years of PureHoney, is Friday, September 17 on the 500 Block of Clematis Street, Downtown West Palm Beach, featuring Unwed Sailor, Surfer Blood & more. 6pm, 18+, $20 Adv. at BUMBLEFEST.com
Carina Mask
sit affectionate portraits of dogs and other domestic animals, childlike portrayals of family home life, saints and devils, ambiguous female nudes, a profane depiction of a famous superhero duo, recurring images of a certain orange-haired political figure, and dreams of personal and professional glory rendered as thought bubbles.
FEM-ALE BREWFEST by David Rolland
Love for a good beer is gender neutral. And while popular culture lacks a female beer aficionado to rival Homer Simpson or Norm from “Cheers,” scores of talented women in real life are brewing and studying what makes a great pour. FemAle Brew Fest highlights FEMALEBREWFEST.com their work with an event-packed afternoon at the Kimpton Goodland Fort Lauderdale Hotel. FemAle Brew Fest debuted in 2017 as “South Florida’s first ever beer festival celebrating women.” But event founder Frances Antonio-Martineau and friends welcome anyone of legal drinking age — “all beer lovers (men included),” to quote the first sentence on the festival’s Web site. There won’t just be suds — although there will be plenty, with representatives from more than twenty local, state and national breweries, and music by DJ Anna de Ferran and DJ LaTrice Perry. There’s also an artisanal marketplace, a full liquor bar and a special event menu provided by the Kimpton Goodland’s restaurant, Botanic. A general admission ticket of $45 buys three hours of boundless beer sampling and access to virtual beer talks. Specialized $65 packages combine beer tasting with higher knowledge: Female beer experts and brewers in the industry will lead tastings and workshops and offer insights into a field that is increasingly open to women. We’re sorry to report that one of these sessions — sensory training in beer palette essentials with Kristen Lorow-Hunter of Oakland Park’s very own Funky Buddha Brewery — is already sold out! Other ticketed events were still on offer as of press time: a hop analysis seminar with Kelly Lohrmeyer of Yakima Chief Hops in Washington state; a survey of gluten-free brewing and fermentation diversity by brewer and brew-verse influencer Michelle Pagano; and a reading and book signing with Tara Nurin, author of “A Woman’s Place Is in the Brewhouse: A Forgotten History of Alewives, Brewsters, Witches, and CEOs.” But the main draw is the beer and the brewers, and this year’s stacked roster includes Cigar City (Tampa), Barrel of Monks (Boca Raton), Ivanhoe Park (Orlando), Yeasty Brews (Lauderhill), Green Bench (St. Petersburg), Hydrosaurus (Mims), Orchestrated Minds (Fort Lauderdale), Wolf Branch (Eustis) and more. FemAle Brewfest is 21 and over, and runs 1-5pm on Saturday, September 18 at Kimpton Goodland Fort Lauderdale. femalebrewfest.com
WAVVES by Abel Folgar
No matter how you say Wavves — straight ahead or with a slight lull over the double-v so a little bit of static forms on your lips — their blended style of rock ’n’ roll is as infectious today as it was when they first blipped on the radar 13 years ago. And it’s been quite a ride for San Diego singer-songwriter and guitarist Nathan Williams and company. With a public meltdown receded in Williams’ rearview and a not-so-happy split with major label Warner Bros. done, Wavves are minding their music. “Hideaway,” their seventh and latest album, is another satisfying blend of pop, bubblegum punk, surf and mid-aughts alternative rock. WAVVES
It’s fun if not heady and it makes you want to bop around. It’s “what happens when you get old enough to take stock of the world around you and realize that no one is going to save you but yourself,” as they explain in their album biography. They might think it a move into maturity but in reality, the album captures that youthful energy that propels rock ’n’ roll. On “Hideaway,” Williams, Stephen Pope, Alex Gates and TV on the Radio’s Dave Sitek, who produced and contributed synths and guitars, drive through nine solid rockers. While there are tinges of dreamy surf rock strewn about, the writing veers more into the punk areas they’ve explored before — maybe even in a more gruff manner. It’s good, and pushes the fun along with a sense of urgency. Maybe that’s because Williams is contemplating the aforementioned troubles — explicitly in the opener, “Thru Hell.” But the punch-up job the track does to set up pace and tonality works as detoxifier for him while keeping the song approachable. There’s no gloom and/or doom here – when there could be. “Sinking Feeling” and “Help is on the Way” were the singles floated this past spring ahead of the album’s release in mid-July. By the time the “Hideaway” bookends with “Caviar,” you’re ready for its airy, almost introspective coda. Shit, maybe they really have grown up after all. If it turns out they haven’t, at least they’re walking towards it. Wavves play The Ground Miami on October 14. https://wavves.net
Darin Black
THE OCEAN BLUE by Olivia Feldman
Signed out of high school to the same label as the Pretenders and Talking Heads, The Ocean Blue were four teen-agers from Hershey, Pa., who arrived on the heels of The Smiths and Modern English, and certainly could have been mistaken for post-punk Brits. A self-titled debut in 1989 yielded a memorable single, the starry “Between Something and Nothing,” and the band made two more albums for Sire Records, the legendary imprint run by Seymour Stein. They never attained the stature their lineage might have predicted, but The Ocean Blue never completely receded, either. Through lineup changes and into middle age, and on the other side (hopefully) of a pandemic, these indie pop stalwarts greet their fifth decade on an upswing. They visit West Palm Beach in October for a show at Respectable Street rescheduled from 2020. THE OCEAN BLUE
The band’s second-to-last album, “Ultramarine,” came out in 2013 to the delight of fans who hadn’t heard any new music from The Ocean Blue since an EP in 2004, “Waterworks.” But it’s on their latest, 2019’s “Kings and Queens/Knaves and Thieves” that The Ocean Blue really shine as experienced hands. The sound is tighter and more refined. The music travels a Smiths-era jangle-pop corridor but also fits in with the contemporary dream pop of Beach House. Singer David Schelzel is still the captivating crooner of the early records. Bassist Bobby Mittan, the other original member still on board, and longtime drummer Peter Anderson provide a distinctively crisp pulse. Multi-instrumentalist Oed Ronne adds painterly atmosphere and detail on guitar and keyboards. “All the Way Blue” could be an Echo and the Bunnymen track, with Ronne lending a tart, melancholy edge on piano to Schelzel’s entreaty: “Show me the colors of romance / I can see through your rosy glasses.” There’s a maturity audible in songs such as “The Limit,” sung by Schelzel with an air of recognition that time is limited and nothing wastes it like an unequal relationship: “I’m supposed to be cool, I’m supposed to be kind / But you push it to the limit, then way past the limit.” The Ocean Blue w/ special guests Sweet Bronco on October 2 at Respectable Street in West Palm Beach. theoceanblue.com
Third Pupil
CRUMB
by Tim Moffatt
Crumb epitomize the stoner meanderings of bedroom shoegaze music. They sound like what it feels like to be high at home while looking through a drawer of ephemera collected over a short lifetime. In that sense, they sound like our teenage years — but that phase in its quiet and reflective moments, or at least in what teenagers think of as self-reflection. Others have picked up on Crumb’s indebtedness to ’60s psych rock and their sometimes jazzy, improvisational bent. But this wide-ranging indie pop combo from Brooklyn, N.Y., will also veer into ’90s triphop territory at moments. It’s not quite Portishead; it’s a little too mellow for that group’s spite-infused balladry. Crumb makes a more direct invocation of CRUMB Mono, whose dreamy and less dire trip-hop variations were used to such brilliant effect in the 1998 movie version of “Great Expectations,” with their 1996 song “Life in Mono” as a gorgeous narrative centerpiece. Crumb are emerging from the pandemic with a new album, “Ice Melt,” and a maiden single, “Trophy,” that are their first releases since the long-ago summer of 2019. The wistful “Trophy” arrives with a strange, nonlinear video that drifts from live action to animation as it riffs on the song’s contemplation of loneliness. “House, car, bed, trophy/Someone there to hold if only,” Lila Ramani sings in an ethereal, submerged voice while standing at an awards podium. Ramani, Jesse Brotter, Bri Aronow and Jonathan Gilad are hitting the road for a lengthy U.S. tour that stops at III Points in Wynwood in October. It’s a show of determination that we’ll get to make up for lost time after last year’s lockdowns and now a Delta wave crashing into “Hot Vax Summer.” As our blurry quarantine nightmare recedes, a clearer picture of artistic achievement comes into view: Crumb aren’t the only ones who used the unavoidable downtime and situational anxiety to create beauty. If anything good has come from the restrictions imposed by COVID-19, it might be the rebirth of live music with a vengeance — a return to touring, a fervor for in-person art and, hopefully, a new respect for conviviality and presence of our fellow beings. Crumb play the III Points festival, October 22 in Miami. https://www.iiipoints.com
Kohei Kawashima
BEACH FOSSILS by David Rolland
BEACH FOSSILS
The music of Beach Fossils has the laid-back aura of a day along the coast, but it never wallows in place: There’s always some forward momentum and drive to the songs that hits like an unexpected discovery.
After a few low-profile years, the Brooklyn indie pop trio is on tour and reemerging with a new single, “L.I.N.E.,” a cover of Welsh electronica artist Kelly Lee Owens that appears on “Secretly Twenty-Five,” a compilation by Indiana-based Secretly Canadian with proceeds going to charity. Beach Fossils’ version puts a peppy, danceable spin on the quiet, haunting original. “I’ve been friends with Kelly for over a decade,” frontman Dustin Payseur wrote on the band’s Instagram. “It’s been inspiring to see her evolution as a musician/songwriter/producer. ’L.I.N.E’ was my favorite track of 2020. The first time I heard it I stopped what I was doing and had to play it over and over. I’ve always believed that a great song lends itself to being performed in any genre, so I was excited to take on the challenge of covering it in my own style.” The Beach Fossil style has evolved over a dozen years since Payseur first put the band together as an expansion of his solo recordings. Described by some as lo-fi dream pop, Beach Fossils were compared to indie peers such as Best Coast and Surfer Blood. But you can go further back to bands like the Zombies as a point of reference, with their mixing of catchy chords and harmonies seemingly recorded in a closet. Yet Beach Fossil’s biggest brush with “fame” required them to forget about all of that. They were cast as members of the band Nasty Bits in HBO’s ‘70s-set series “Vinyl,” where they pantomimed to some bad blues rock. “Play like you’re losing your mind” is what the directors told Payseur, he said in a Pitchfork interview in 2016. It was about as far removed as possible from actual Beach Fossils music, and who knows — maybe if they’d been allowed to perform their own tunes, HBO’s prestige period rock drama would have been renewed. Beach Fossils play The Ground Miami on October 20. https://www.beachfossils.com
Tonje Thilesen Gretel
ALEX G
by Amanda Moore
He started out making music in his bedroom at age 13, released his first four albums in his teens, and he would have played Coachella in 2020 as a statesmanlike 27-year-old had the California desert music festival not been postponed on account of a pandemic. But Havertown, Pennsylvania’s Alex Giannascoli, a.k.a. “Alex G,” has never sat around waiting for any music industry entity to confirm his talents. He’s done that himself with his mellow, experimental brand of electronic-acoustic indie rock and folk.
As his following grew, he picked up profile-raising gigs like a spot in the 2016 Sound on Sound Fest in Austin, Texas, and a slot opening for Brand New on ALEX G tour in 2017. He was a guitarist and collaborator on two albums by genre-bending hip-hop visionary Frank Ocean. But his lo-fi bedroom pop style endures.
Nedda Afsari
Sitting on a catalog of more than 100 songs, it’s difficult to predict what Alex G might play on any given night. Anyone catching him at III Points in Miami in October can hope for cuts from his latest album “House of Sugar,” which came out in September 2019 but won’t sound out of place in a pandemic-altered world: The songs merge into an intimate album-length suite with recurring themes of longing, fear of loss and of letting go, and the desire to be with someone. Alex G’s territory covers everything from youthful crushes to drug overdoses and the whole spectrum of human connection, loss, wanting, grief, and relationships of all kids. Even as he’s refined and evolved his sound, he’s consistently crafted songs that are formatted like short stories that preserve his adolescence for future consideration. People in Alex G’s age bracket might feel a tug of nostalgia on hearing him, as he’s captured so many of their growing-up pains in songs about his own. Reminiscent of the soundtracks to “Juno” and “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist,” Alex G’s music is a euphonic coming of age story. Regulars at Respectable Street’s recurring Indie Night and Emo Night events are certain to find solace in the tunes of Alex G. Alex G plays the III Points festival in Miami on October 22. http://sandyalexg.com
BOY HARSHER
by Tim Moffatt
They come from a filmmaking background but Boy Harsher, the duo of Jae Matthews and Augustus Miller, make mesmerizing electronic music that wouldn’t be out of place in a David BOY HARSHER Lynch movie. The band is a minimalist fever dream of synths and beats with hypnotizing vocals that owe a debt to bands like Suicide and Yello. But we don’t compare; we celebrate the awesomeness of artists pushing boundaries. Forming in Savannah, Ga., in 2014, and resettling in the artist colonies of middle Massachusetts, they’ve been grinding out recordings at a prolific clip on a label they created, Nude Club, and which they share with likeminded creators. Nude Club’s catalog includes remixes of the New Orleans punk-industrial band Special Interest and Miller’s own music for two short films, “Orgone Theory” and “Hydra.” The latter are pieces in a “techno-dystopian” adult film series called “Machine Learning Experiments.” Miller previewed a new installment, “Automaton,” in June with a cheerful tweet announcing, “I have scored another porn!” Boy Harsher’s remixes with everyone from the Soft Moon to Perfume Genius find Matthews and Miller creating interesting pastiches with their signature darkwave sound as a foundation. For many — probably most — musicians, style and aesthetics take a backseat to the music. But some, like Matthews and Miller, see them as equal and inseparable, a complete package. Their art seemingly can’t exist if the sound doesn’t contain visual inspiration or doesn’t reflect a sense of things seen and dreamed as well as heard. It’s a philosophy that has served Boy Harsher well: Mixing Lynchian overtones with dark minimalist music evokes a noirish sensation of impending danger in a smoky red room, where what lies behind the curtain could be the murderous “Twin Peaks” dwarf or the promise of some forbidden carnal delight. Maybe both. Boy Harsher might be the soundtrack to our doom in an apocalyptic age of disease, climate collapse, political stalemate and total denial. One last romp through vice and cool before it’s all gone — although their social media presence rings lighter: As post-pandemic life stirred in 2021, Matthews and Miller flew to Texas to buy a used truck and drove it home 2,000 miles with their dog. Boy Harsher play III Points Festival, October 22 in Miami. https://www.iiipoints.com