2/5 THE PEACH: Open Mic Comedy 2/6 GRAMPS: Wednesday, Hotline TNT, They Hate Change CULTURE ROOM: Gaelic Storm 2/1 NSU ART MUSEUM: Mini Muse LIBRARY SPEAKEASY: Wax On Wax Off BAR NANCY: Hardcore For Punx CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Brenda Johnson Band LW PLAYHOUSE: Constellations thru 2/11 2/2 REVOLUTION LIVE: Highly Suspect, Dead Poet Society THE PEACH: Eric Gallery Show, Art Walk ‘Luv Hurts’ HATCH 1121: EMBARK a group show opening CULTURAL COUNCIL PBC: Suzi K. Edwards: Chinese Zodiac thru 2/8 NORTON MUSEUM: Art After Dark – Delta Trio SANDBOX STAGE: Fuakata, The Big Skandal PROPAGANDA: Modern Native, Killed by Florida, Shakers, FWA CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: The Flyers 2/3 REVOLUTION LIVE: Static-X, Sevendust, Dope, Lines of Loyalty RESPECTABLE STREET: The Haunt THE PEACH: It’s All Love Art Walk HATCH 1121: EMBARK & artist talks COASTAL KARMA BREWING: Adam Frishman Duo
CULTURAL COUNCIL PBC: Culture Talks: Miami City Ballet’s Lourdes Lopez w Tara Mitton Catao PROPAGANDA: Vitalis,Chasing Airplanes, The World I See, Fatal Frames, Royal Hearts BAR NANCY: The French Horn Collective TOUGH TIMES: DirtBike, TC Silk, The Dreambows CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Subliminal Doubt 2/2-4 BERGERON RODEO GROUNDS: South Florida Folk & Acoustic Music Festival Bob Lind, Toney Rocks, Dave Nachmanoff, Clare Cunningham, Marc Black, Doug Spears, Kuyayky, Carolena, Cecilia St. King, Holt & Cabe, Ron & Bari Litschuaer, Steff Mahan, Tim LaRoque and many more! MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: GroundUP Music Festival Snarky Puppy, Los Munequitos de Matanzas, Grupo Afrocuba de Matanzas, Louis Cole’s Huge Band, Nate Wood – Four, Kinga Glyk, Varijashree Venugopal, Bassekou Kouyate and many more! 2/4 HATCH 1121: EMBARK a group show ARTS GARAGE: Jane Monheit Quartet
WINTERLAND 6 by SEAN PICCOLI
When the creators of Winterland stood up their live music and arts festival in downtown Jacksonville, Florida starting in 2018, it was a very do-it-yourself affair. “The first couple of years, I was running sound,” Winterland cofounder Glenn Michael Van Dyke tells PureHoney. Winterland collaborators Van Dyke, Lena Simon and Matthew Shaw — who also play together in the adventurous Kairos Creature Club — can now delegate a good chunk of the technical labor. Their focus is more on assembling the varied musical lineups — a kind of record collector’s dream — and the other attractions that have turned this northern Florida city into an annual cultural destination. Winterland Six takes place over three days in late February with performers including Blonde Redhead, Caroline Rose, Osees, Wombo, cumgirl8 and Thelma & the Sleaze. Where the festival has really evolved, Van Dyke says, is in the audience experience. The first years saw Van Dyke, Simon and Shaw applying their knowledge as touring musicians to making Winterland attractive to their peers. From live audio to creature comforts, “We really built it from the back of the house forward,” Van Dyke says. With the band-pleasing elements firmly in place, Winterland can conceive of more ways to delight audiences and tickle the senses with total immersion into “a little universe of art and music,” Van Dyke says. Art exhibitions, photo booths (a new addition), enclosed lounge space and more will fill the lawn at downtown Jacksonville’s James Weldon Johnson Park alongside the band stages. Music remains Winterland’s heart. “We’re kind of a music discovery platform,” Van Dyke says. “We decidedly don’t subscribe to one genre. We actively seek out a diverse lineup.” The talent hails from near and far, and spans psych-rock, punk, jazz, hip-hop and experimental for an occasion that also helps to fund Jacksonville-area arts and music activities year round. (Winterland operates as a nonprofit venture.) As always, Kairos Creature Club will perform their own slyly genre-hopping music at the festival. “That’s a selfish thing that we do,” Van Dyke quips, adding that the band’s 45 minutes on stage is sweet release for the months of work that make Winterland go.
Winterland Six runs February 23-25 at James Weldon Johnson Park in Jacksonville. winterlandpresents.org
2/7 THE PEACH: Crochet Workshop, Creative Corner S1, Brass Tacks S3 BAR NANCY: Strange Bass THE CLUB: INC: DAS INC Green Room Parti PROPAGANDA: Fuakata! & Friends 2/8 BAR NANCY: Stereo Joule PROPAGANDA: Til Now, Hvshi, Done For ARMORY ART CENTER: Armory Artist & Faculty Show 2/9 REVOLUTION LIVE: Veeze THE PEACH: Flying Lutenbachers, Paint & Sip, TV Dinner & Movie Night HATCH 1121: EMBARK a group show CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: The Long Run ARTS GARAGE: The Motowners NORTON MUSEUM: Art After Dark – Mr. Cao’s Trio BAR NANCY: Nil Lara PROPAGANDA: Shovel Pit, Revelations, Gunnar Gill, Castration Under the Matriarchy SANDBOX STAGE: Breaking Sound 2/10 MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: Locos Por Juana presents Locos Por Marley THE PARKER: Man in Black: Tribute to Johnny Cash HATCH 1121: EMBARK a group show BAR NANCY: Strangelove SANDBOX STAGE: Molly Takedown CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: The Resolvers ARTS GARAGE: The Motowners: PROPAGANDA: Moment of Violence, Exigent, Low RPM MATHEWS BREWING CO: 430 Steps, Blamscam, Burn Club, Maximum Friction, Gargantua Tarantula, 1983, Vicious Dreams, Billy Doom is Dead, Young Cassidy 2/11 MIAMI BANDSHELL: West African Beats ft Jean Caze NORTHWOOD WAREHOUSE: Beats & Brunch 2/12 THE PEACH: Open Mic Comedy 2/14 THE PEACH: Quick Flick Night, Creative Corner S1, Brass Tacks S3 BAR NANCY: Nicolle Chirino CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Bobby Nathan Band 2/15 MIAMI BANDSHELL: N. Bch Social ft Liset Alea REVOLUTION LIVE: North Mississippi AllStars BAR NANCY: Stories in Song CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Bruce Katz 2/16-4/6 CULTURAL COUNCIL PBC: Nicole Doran 2/16 REVOLUTION LIVE: Thursday, Rival Schools, Many Eyes MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: Here Come The Mummies, The Sh-Booms NORTON MUSEUM: Art After Dark, Gold Dust Lounge THE PEACH: Music Under the Bridge PROPAGANDA: Stop the Presses, Louser, Spred the Dub, Fuakata! CULTURE ROOM: Ripe, Fox Royale CRAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Smokin’ Aces ARTS GARAGE: Yoko Miwa Trio
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/17 EVOLUTION LIVE: Emo Prom ANDBOX STAGE: Always Lunes Festival ULTURE ROOM: G Love & Special Sauce, Jakobs Castle RTS GARAGE: Blues Legend John Primer
/18 EVOLUTION LIVE: Digable Planets MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: Nando Reis HE PARKER: Drum Tao 30th Anniversary ULTURE ROOM: Pigeons Playing Ping Pong, Tand
/19 HE PEACH: Open Mic Comedy
/20 AR NANCY: Bowie Tribute
/21 HE PEACH: Creative Corner S1, Brass Tacks S3 AR NANCY: Glass Cities, Metromover, Veta Ceti ULTURE ROOM: Rick Springfield
/22 ESPECTABLE STREET: Thelma & the Sleaze EVELRY: Wax On Wax Off ROPAGANDA: Ceschi (Codefendants) & Friends
/23 WJ PARK JAX: WINTERLAND 6 ft Blonde edhead, Wombo, Thelma & the Sleaze, airos Creature Club, Visitation ROWARD CENTER: Nickel Creek, Gaby Moreno HE PEACH: Paint & Sip, TV Dinner & Movie Night ESOURCE DEPOT: ReFashion Weekend VIP Party AR NANCY: Alexa and the Old-Fashioneds ROPAGANDA: Codefendants, Spred the Dub, lly Doom is Dead, Young Cassidy ORTON MUSEUM: Art After Dark – Film: ower, Dance: Natural Movers Foundation ANDBOX STAGE: Chaos in the Veil, DJ Jason RAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Greatest Decades Of Rock RTS GARAGE: Amanda McBroom Crimes of the Heart
/24 WJ PARK JAX: WINTERLAND 6 ft Carone Rose, Cumgirl8, Ebony Payne English, va Mendoza, Bebe Deluxe, Laney Tripp, ambler Kane, Rude Television, Lindsey Mills, Ebonique, Huan EVOLUTION LIVE: JP Saxe, Nicole Zignago MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: Jam Cruise Pre-Party ESOURCE DEPOT: ReFashion Weekend ULTURAL COUNCIL PBC: Art Talks: Norton Musem of Art’s Ghislain d’Humieres w Gretel Sarmiento ROPAGANDA: Morones (The Ramones Tribute), erro Negro, The Pop Disasters (Blink -182 Tribute) RAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Southern Blood
/25 WJ PARK JAX: WINTERLAND 6 ft Osees, aiah Collier, Donzii, Seagate, Coyboi, aupon Holly, K.utie, Erica Reese, Soapar, The Dreambows, Bobby Kid MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: SOBEWFF Drag Brunch HE PARKER: Napoleon Dynamite Live! ULTURE ROOM: August Burns Red RTS GARAGE: Steve Forbert Duo
/26 HE PEACH: Open Mic Comedy
/28 ESPECTABLE STREET: cumgirl8, alomino Blond HE PEACH: Creative Corner S1, Brass Tacks S3, uick Flick Night HE LIBRARY SPEAKEASY: Tiny Gear Concert HE PARKER: Maria Bamford RAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: Mitch Herrick Band
/29 RAZY UNCLE MIKE’S: The Nighthawks
DIGABLE PLANETS by DAVID ROLLAND
When Digable Planets arrived in 1993 with Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space), the Philadelphia trio with the enlightened flow and easygoing vibe sounded undeniably fresh. But an air of nostalgia also bubbled up in their jazz and funk samples and name-checking of pop culture figures from decades past. Enough time has gone by since the Digables released their two seminal albums, Reachin’ and 1994’s Blowout Comb, that they can now inspire their own nostalgia. Digable Planets are celebrating three decades of Reachin’ with an anniversary tour that includes another milestone: their first South Florida performance in 30 years. Reachin’ was the last cassette I ever purchased — at the Spec’s at the bottom of the Miracle Center in Miami — before moving on to CD’s. I was immediately transfixed by the lyrical smoothness of Butterfly, Ladybug Mecca and Doodlebug. If A Tribe Called Quest could have been any more charming and laid back, Digable Planets would have been the result. They mixed intellectualism with silly rhymes to a blissful result. I remember arguing back in the ’90s that Digable Planets were the greatest hip-hop group ever, only for the rejoinder to be that they needed to put out more music. In 2016, I interviewed Butterfly, aka Ishmael Butler, when he was touring with his art rap group Shabazz Palaces, and asked about that. “We’re not opportunists,” Butler said. “We recorded all that when we lived in a five-block radius. We want to record new music, but not as an exercise. It’s difficult living far away with responsibilities of an adult life. But we’ve been discussing it a lot more than we ever have now.” Eight years later we’re still waiting for a third Digable Planets LP, but in the meantime we get to celebrate their timeless classics in person. Butler told me that he’s most in his element on stage: ”Innately, music is my calling. To release it commercially allows you to earn a living. I prefer the troubadour aspect of being a musician traveling around playing. That’s what leaves me fulfilled.” Digable Planets play 7pm Sunday, February 18 at Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale. officialdigableplanets.com
CHARLES BILLOT
BLONDE REDHEAD by TIM MOFFATT
Art in its purest form is a conversation with the audience: sometimes a dialogue intended to teach and spur debate; other times, an ethereal exposé of its creator’s innermost thoughts. Sit Down For Dinner, by New York noise rock/ art pop auteurs Blonde Redhead, could be considered both. Co-founder Kazu Makino has said that the band’s 2023 album — their tenth, and first since 2014’s Barragán — is in part a contemplation of death and mourning. The sense of loss, moving through veils of sound, is acutest in the album’s centerpiece: a pair of title tracks, labeled parts 1 and 2, inspired by the late Joan Didion’s 2005 book, “The Year of Magical Thinking.” Makino has said that she was working on a follow-up to Barragán when COVID-19 struck. With the world on pause, Makino happened to pick up Didion’s memoir about losing her husband, the journalist and writer John Gregory Dunne, who died suddenly at the couple’s dining table. “You sit down for dinner/and the life as you know it ends/No pity,” Makino sings in Part 2, channeling Didion’s own text. Music about endings isn’t an unexpected development for a band that formed 30 years ago and has managed to keep its core trio intact through everything that conspires against growth and continuity. It’s helped that Blonde Redhead have always embraced change. They started out in noise-rock territory and, over time, employed more shoegaze and dream-pop elements to fill out a sound that aligned with Sonic Youth and is now something unto itself. Sit Down For Dinner is quiet and melodic, a different animal from the group’s past output but one that keeps the bones of the band’s sound in place. Makino has also said that she came into the latest collaboration with sibling bandmates Amedeo Pace and Simone Pace in a different frame of mind. “I’ve been quite aggressively chasing some kind of independence,” she told Pitchfork in 2023. “I could see (my bandmates) were a little intimidated, so I took advantage of that. My approach is a weird combination of naiveness and experience.” Blonde Redhead plays Friday, February 23 at Winterland Six in Jacksonville. blonderedhead.com winterlandpresents.org
@the_grandbabadook
WOMBO by AMANDA E. MOORE
“BINGO SCHLINGO, it’s #WOMBOWEDNESDAY…” yells indie-rock band Wombo in one of their chummy-personality-fueled Instagram captions. Broadcast from drummer Joel Taylor’s basement (no, not his mom’s), the Kentucky-based rockers regularly livestream jam sessions and new singles on their social media accounts.
Wombo’s carefree charm and dreamy, cryptic melodies prevent doomscrolling from ever taking hold. Instead, swiping through their channels feels like an intimate online exchange with the quintessential mysterious, quirky alt-girl — whimsical, intriguing. If Wombo were personified into a cult-classic crush, it would probably be the love child of Donna Pinciotti and Ramona Flowers. Ya know, drop the Evil Exes, add a few extra dashes of flower-power basement party vibes, and turn up the stereo. It all began when Sydney Chadwick (bass guitarist and vocalist) and Cameron Lowe (guitarist) joined forces with Taylor a few years after exiting an earlier band. At first, the three started jamming, as friendly musicians do, but eventually, in the words of aquatic hero Patrick Star, “You know, I wumbo, You wumbo, He she me, wumbo,”... and a band was born. Sometime in 2016, Wombo started wumboing, making their official live debut in August 2016. As organic as their origin story is their sound — an unaltered fusion of the artistic talents, sensibilities, and tastes of the three friends and bandmates. Staring at Trees, their first EP, begat 2018’s debut full-length, Blossomlooksdownuponus, and by now Wombo have an honest-to-goodness oeuvre of dream-rock rooted in escapism and curiosity, 2022’s Fairy Rust LP and a 2023 EP Slab being the latest beguiling examples. Maybe you know Wombo. Maybe you don’t. Maybe you wombo know Wombo (sorry, we had to). No matter what, you will want to see the trio perform live at Winterland in Jacksonville alongside alt-rockers Blonde Redhead and psychedelic-surf-rockers Kairos Creature Club. “It’s been a while!” since these Bluegrass Staters have performed in the Sunshine State, Chadwick told PureHoney.“We’re excited to be coming back to Florida to play.” In classic cool-girl-mystique-style, she left it there with us wanting to know more. Wombo perform Friday, February 23 at Winterland in Jacksonville. instagram.com/ womborocks winterlandpresents.org
EPITAPH
THURSDAY by TIM MOFFATT
Some bands thrive on contention. The give and take of cantankerous relationships can help to inform the music, to say nothing of the lore. Fraternal mashups aren’t the entire story with post-hardcore heroes Thursday, but they’re a part of this band’s arc along with the music and the misfortunes. In 2004, vocalist Geoff Rickly had an allergic reaction to his epilepsy medication on stage at Coachella and began coughing up blood mid-set, leaving his bandmates and the audience horrified. It was an awful break for the creators of 2001’s Full Collapse, which would go on to become an influential 21st Century punk album, a blast of melody and brutality that embodies post-hardcore’s collisional potential. The health emergency disrupted touring for Thursday’s 2003 album, War All The Time, and it heightened internal tensions that RIckly told Revolver magazine were too much to overcome. He was preparing to quit. Cooler heads prevailed and Thursday put out three more full-length albums between 2006 and 2011 plus a pair of EPs. But behind the scenes, Rickly’s heroin habit was one factor in an impending split. Thursday dissolved in 2011 and the breakup seemed permanent until they re-emerged in 2016 to play Atlanta’s Wrecking Ball festival. Rickly was still struggling at that point to get clean, but he spoke optimistically about Thursday being able to reconcile after five years apart. They haven’t made a new album since 2011’s No Devolución, but lately they’ve stayed busy: playing Riot Fest; touring with peers including New Jersey comrades My Chemical Romance; and collaborating with the creative collective Two Minutes To Midnight on a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s ”Dancing in the Dark,” a tribute to their home state’s most iconic rocker. Rickly published his debut novel in 2023, “Someone Who Isn’t Me,” drawing on his own experiences in 2017 using psychedelics to treat his addiction. War All The Time, which turned 20 last year, is the centerpiece of the current tour. It might be safe to say that Thursday is back for good, but who knows what tomorrow will bring. Thursday, with Rival Schools and Many Eyes, play 6pm Friday, February 16 at Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale. thursday.net
BRANDON MCCLAIN
WEDNESDAY by TIM MOFFATT
Asheville, North Carolina has become quite the destination for hipsters, artists, musicians and anyone who can appreciate the je ne sais quoi that informs free thinking and creativity. It should come as no surprise, then, that a band like Wednesday would emerge from there, bearing a mélange of empathetic and ethereal southern rock with a hint of murder ballad quintessence filtered through classic country and shoegaze.
At its core, it’s Americana personified by the players’ hopes and dreams, good and bad. Karly Hartzman, the heart of Wednesday, weaves tales of love and loss, singing and playing guitar on the band’s acclaimed 2023 album Rat Saw God (a best-ofyear selection by Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, The Fader, NME and Stereogum). With MJ Leenderman on guitar, Margo Schultz on bass, drummer Alan Miller and steel guitarist Xandy Chelmis, Wednesday build, in their own word, “a shrine to minutia.” “Rat Saw God is an album about riding a bike down a suburban stretch in Greensboro while listening to My Bloody Valentine for the first time on an iPod Nano,” the band writes of its fifth full-length, “past a creek that runs through the neighborhood riddled with broken glass bottles and condoms, a front-yard filled with broken and rusted car parts, a lonely and dilapidated house reclaimed by kudzu.” “All of the art I appreciate is that same style,” Hartzman told Variety in 2023. “It’s very southern, an appreciation of slowing things down and noticing details. Vic Chesnutt is the person that comes to mind, someone that could write entire songs about a single detail pulled from a day of his life, and all the novelists I like that I talk about all the time, like Mary Karr and Richard Brautigan. Indicative of Americana players who came before them — think Jason isbell and Caitlin Cary — but never derivative, Wednesday are self-aware myth makers birthing new legends from stone and steel in a flawed land that struggles to live up to its ideals.
DANIEL JACKS
Wednesday, with Hotline TNT and They Hate Change, play 7pm Tuesday, February 6 at Gramps in Miami. wednesday.band
THELMA AND THE SLEAZE by CARLY CASSANO
Founder, singer and lead guitar player of Thelma and the Sleaze, Lauren “LG” Gilbert has talked about how to be “sexy and scary at the same time.” To do it, LG once told World Cafe, “you have to not take yourself too seriously, so it’s safe for everyone, first and foremost.” Over the years, the touring members, mostly queer women, have been honest about their own desire to feel safe. When LG, who grew up in Illinois listening to hard rock and riot grrl bands, moved to Nashville for school on Music Row, she took all that energy, along with inspiration from bluesy artists like Beth Ditto, and turned it into sexy, scary, shredding southern rock that’s also safe for everyone. Comradeship as women (as exhibited in Thelma and Louise) and in queer spaces can be full of sexual innuendos, so it’s no surprise so many Thelma and the Sleaze songs are full of them. Just read any random song title. But there’s something Sacred as Hell — to quote the band’s 2020 album title — about rocking out to live music in formerly bigoted and misogynist spaces. They’ve recorded at legendary studios from Joshua Tree to Nashville. But the band is known for touring non-stop, everything from sold-out shows to small towns, for months at a stretch. When she was starting out, LG knew throwing down for live shows would be key to the band’s success, because even without “serious training,” she said, “I do know how to go crazy.” LG’s singing and shredding are as raw as ever, and the live shows are always full-throttle. The tour for their latest album, Holey Water (innuendo intended), was with members Bailey K. Chapman, the drummer and also a visual artist; Liliana Jones on keys; and Livi Dillon on bass. The lineup may change but the message is the same: Women have been part of the southern music tradition forever. What’s changing is the way it’s perceived. It’s sexy, scary, crazy and whatever else it wants to be. Thelma and the Sleaze perform 8pm Thursday, February 22 at Respectable Street in West Palm Beach and Friday, February 23 at Winterland Six in Jacksonville. thelmaandthesleaze. com winterlandpresents.org
DIGABLE PLANETS by DAVID ROLLAND
When Digable Planets arrived in 1993 with Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space), the Philadelphia trio with the enlightened flow and easygoing vibe sounded undeniably fresh. But an air of nostalgia also bubbled up in their jazz and funk samples and name-checking of pop culture figures from decades past. Enough time has gone by since the Digables released their two seminal albums, Reachin’ and 1994’s Blowout Comb, that they can now inspire their own nostalgia. Digable Planets are celebrating three decades of Reachin’ with an anniversary tour that includes another milestone: their first South Florida performance in 30 years. Reachin’ was the last cassette I ever purchased — at the Spec’s at the bottom of the Miracle Center in Miami — before moving on to CD’s. I was immediately transfixed by the lyrical smoothness of Butterfly, Ladybug Mecca and Doodlebug. If A Tribe Called Quest could have been any more charming and laid back, Digable Planets would have been the result. They mixed intellectualism with silly rhymes to a blissful result. I remember arguing back in the ’90s that Digable Planets were the greatest hip-hop group ever, only for the rejoinder to be that they needed to put out more music. In 2016, I interviewed Butterfly, aka Ishmael Butler, when he was touring with his art rap group Shabazz Palaces, and asked about that. “We’re not opportunists,” Butler said. “We recorded all that when we lived in a five-block radius. We want to record new music, but not as an exercise. It’s difficult living far away with responsibilities of an adult life. But we’ve been discussing it a lot more than we ever have now.” Eight years later we’re still waiting for a third Digable Planets LP, but in the meantime we get to celebrate their timeless classics in person. Butler told me that he’s most in his element on stage: ”Innately, music is my calling. To release it commercially allows you to earn a living. I prefer the troubadour aspect of being a musician traveling around playing. That’s what leaves me fulfilled.”
JESSICA CALVO
Digable Planets play 7pm Sunday, February 18 at Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale. officialdigableplanets.com
OSEES by ABEL FOLGAR
John Dwyer’s output as the sole constant in garage punk/psych band Osees could one day nip at the ankles of prolific geniuses like Merzbow or Sun Ra. With an Osees catalogue large enough to have its own corner of the record store, Dwyer is certainly worthy of the company, although the multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, songwriter, visual artist and record label owner might humbly disagree. Osees kick off their 2024 at Winterland Six in Jacksonville, teeing up dates across North America, Europe and Japan. It’s the latest full-band incarnation of a project that Dwyer launched in 1997, first as a solo artist, under the name Orinoka Crash Suite. He’s ridden the highs and lows ever since, relocating up and down California, steering Osees through personnel changes and seemingly endless variations on the name (Thee Oh Sees, The Ohsees, Oh Sees, among others), exercising and exorcising his demons through variations of freak folk, acoustic punk, noise, and alt psych. Always driven by the fringe resonance of heavy-duty psychedelics, the band shoulders the weighty history of garage rock and its wailing offspring with confidence, and deploys its influences in concentrated bunches to achieve a sound that is pure rock n’ roll bliss. For many it was 2008’s The Master’s Bedroom Is Worth Spending a Night In that brought them into the fold, with bangers like “Block of Ice” and dreamy drivers like “Maria Stacks” and “Poison Finger.” But curious listeners won’t stop there, and the rewards aren’t strictly sonic. The album artwork is often indicative of the accompanying musical state. Floating Coffin (2013) pays subtle visual homage to Pink Floyd’s The Piper at the Gates of Dawn (that is Lucifer Sam peering through the strawberries, isn’t it?). Carrion Crawler/The Dream (2011) is steeped in Vic Rattlehead tea. Last year’s Intercepted Message— Osees 28th album — is a lean, 41-minute, punk-rock romp that’s been primped and preened at the synthesizer salon. Not necessarily a new direction for the band but certainly a departure from a recent suite of more punkforward albums. Osees perform Saturday, February 25 at Winterland Six in Jacksonville. theeohsees.com winterlandpresents.org
JOACHIM LAMBRECHTS by KELLI BODLE
Look! Up on the wall! It’s Superman! The Man of Steel is just one of the original costumed do-gooders being celebrated in “American Superheroes,” an exhibition of works by artist Joachim Lambrechts at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery in West Palm Beach. The PureHoney featured artist for February 2024, Antwerp, Belgium-based Lambrechts — known professionally as Joachim — will be at the Thursday, February 1 preview in person to discuss his newest series of enamel paintings of Golden Age comic book covers. The late 1930s to the mid-1950s were “a fruitful period for superheroes,” Lambrechts says in an interview, reeling off Captain America, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel and more from the original superhero explosion, many of them featured in his paintings. Saving the world one canvas at a time, his “joyful form of escapism,” as the exhibition press release puts it, is sure to delight gallery-goers. Lambrechts encourages you to make up your own stories to accompany his art, and he won’t mind at all if you swoop in on February 1 to share your superhero fanfic. Beginning as a self-trained street artist, Lambrechts developed his style of thickly applied paint, boldly outlined forms and simplified iconography. This exhibition consists of these iconic characters as they appeared on the trade comic book covers, rendered in Joachim’s signature style. “I focused on what was strictly necessary: There are no fancy backgrounds or minute details that are often typical of comic book covers,” Lambrechts says. “My works are a simplified and naive version of the original. They comprise large areas of color and only the necessary lines to represent a shape or movement.” Another element of superhero comic books that appeals to him is the typography. “Not only does it often contribute to the composition,” he says, “but it also helps to make an image or painting more narrative. And text makes a comic a comic, a narrative image.” Besides the expected cast of characters from popular DC and Marvel titles, Lambrechts has also unearthed some more obscure heroes. “A favorite of mine that was hugely popular during the 1940s, but is now somewhat forgotten, was Spy Smasher, a superhero who worked for the U.S. government and fought behind enemy lines against the Nazis during World War II,” he says. “It may be difficult for us to grasp now, but people drew strength from those stories. Things like that fascinate me.” American culture, in general, captivates this Belgian. “Many of my subjects are intertwined with American culture,” he says. “That’s because America has always fascinated me. Undoubtedly, it’s because of the music, movies, and art I grew up with. One of my biggest childhood dreams was to come to New York and experience it. That fascination still seeps into my paintings. Americans can certainly appreciate that because I’ve had a loyal fan base in the States for years.” Though “obsessed with comics and cartoons since childhood,” as he says, Lambrechts doesn’t collect comics. What he does have are action figures. A lot of them. “A whole collection of vintage action figures from the ‘80s and ‘90s,” he says. “Ghostbusters, ThunderCats, Transformers, G.I. Joe, you name it.” Nostalgia is a driving force in this series and his life. “You can call me a dinosaur, but many new things aren’t for me,” he says. “This preference ranges from music to fashion and cinema to comics. I find the drawing style of old-school comics much better and more enjoyable.” His preferred listening tends toward late 20th Century: Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, the Pixies, The Cure and Joy Division. “There is a good chance if you walk into my studio, you’ll hear music from these bands blasting through the speakers,” he says. Lambrechts emphasizes that truth and justice aren’t just the province of Golden Age caped crusaders. “Real-life superheroes who perform superhero acts are needed now more than ever because of global warming, increasing poverty, war, and violence,” he says. “It’s about little things,” he adds. “Be nice. Check if your neighbor is doing well and if they need something from the local grocery store. Things like that.” Preview Joachim Lambrechts, “American Superheroes,” 6:30pm Thursday, February 1, at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery. The exhibtion runs February 2-March 2. @joachimofficial kristinhjellegjerde.com