REVOLUTION LIVE: Say Anything, Social Animals, Circus Trees, Runt
CULTURE ROOM: The Fixx
THE VELDT
by david rolland
There’s always going to be interesting sounds coming from a band featuring twins. Whether it’s the disco of the Bee Gees or the indie rock of
The National, there’s some kind of chemistry and harmony that only comes from sharing genes. Guitarist Danny Chavis and singer Daniel Chavis, with their nearly identical names and their band, The Veldt, are just such a case study.
Formed in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1986, The Veldt are often categorized as shoegaze — Pitchfork named their 1994 debut, Afrodisiac, one of the 50 best shoegaze albums ever. To these ears The Veldt’s early work is more reminiscent of the early ’90s lo-fi grunge of Mudhoney or Screaming Trees. But since shoegaze heroes The Jesus and Mary Chain and Cocteau Twins had The Veldt open for them it’s probably best not to split hairs.
The Veldt’s newest LP, 2022’s Entropy Is The Mainline To God, does have a more effectsheavy wall of sound of the kind attributed to shoegaze. It’s also the first long-player The Veldt have put out since 1998’s Love At First Hate. And unlike with many veteran bands The Veldt’s later work is their best: The newer songs sound more assured, confident and accessible.
In the decades between The Veldt releases the brothers put out music and recorded as Apollo Heights after a music executive requested a name change. In the 2010s they reemerged as The Veldt, the name they adopted from a Ray Bradbury short story.
Being African-Americans in a cultural space that skews Caucasian hasn’t been a deterrent. But it has posed challenges. The brothers have talked about being asked early on by club bookers if they were r&b or reggae, and later being pressed by industry suits for not sounding white enough. Danny Chavis told The Guardian in 2016 that the twins feel vindicated by following their own lights: “A lot of young black cats write to us, saying, ‘Hey man, I’m glad to see you guys doing this.’ Them telling me that is success enough for me. … Sometimes.”
The Veldt, open for the Chameleons, 7pm Monday, October 28 at Respectable Street in West Palm Beach. Pub Note: Don’t miss them! Saw Apollo Heights open for TV on the Radio at Fireside Bowl in Chicago early 2000’s... kinda blew ‘em off the stage;)
AIR
by olivia feldman
The 1998 debut album by the French duo Air lives on as an end-of-century wish. The vibe shift, post-grunge, was already positive just as Air’s Moon Safari surfaced: Electronic music was wafting out of clubs and into our headphones, cars and homes. And then
there were Jean-Benoît Dunckel and Nicolas Godin, using vocoders and synths to create their funky, winsome, chilled-out, ethereal space-pop retro dreamworld. It was social and outgoing yet also perfect bedroom music. As Air continue to celebrate Moon Safari at 25 by performing their downtempo classic on tour, here’s a track-by-track breakdown.
“La femme d’argent” -- On the impossibly groovy opener, you can faintly hear rain pitterpattering about four minutes in just like you might on a gloomy day lying in bed. Or strapped into a spaceship watching the water bead on the window before liftoff. Whichever version of
“The Silver Woman” you like.
“Sexy Boy” -- Air extolling the male-model version of masculinity.
“All I Need” (feat. Beth Hirsch) -- My personal favorite. Tampa native Hirsch’s voice easily coasts along here. Just … listen.
“Kelly Watch the Stars” -- The artwork for the album’s flagship single depicts a woman’s curious eyes with a star inside each pupil. A hopeful jaunt with an inset of lovely piano.
“Talisman” -- Secret agent vibes here: strings, plucky bass and a damn cool drum machine track to heighten the drama.
“Remember” -- Daft Punk must have taken inspiration for 2001’s Discovery from this number, which simply asks the listener to remember a beautiful day.
“You Make It Easy” -- Could pass for ’60s girl pop, but Hirsch imparts much more: “You make it easy to watch the world with love / You make it easy to let the past be done.”
“Ce matin-là” -- Tuba and strings to make for a pleasant wake-up theme on “That Morning” after.
“New Star in the Sky” -- Soft acoustic guitar, vocoder vox, plenty of space FX in background.
“Le voyage de Pénélope” — A fitting, audibly self-satisfied closer. Were we all Pénélope on this journey the whole time?
Air perform 8pm Saturday, October 26 at the Fillmore Miami Beach at Jackie Gleason Theater. airfrenchband.com
PALOMINO BLOND
by abel folgar
How many searing emotional experiences Miami’s Palomino Blond crashed into the local scene in 2018 with the fury of an angry ocean, laying down a tidal field of sonic odds and ends that wink at you and invite close inspection. To the swirl of influences, history, attitude and raw feeling that marks this alt-rock powerhouse trio, add a new fulllength album, You Feel It Too
“We were able to tap into influences that we weren’t able to tap into before,” singer and guitarist Carli Acosta tells PureHoney about the group’s first album for Brooklyn’s Kanine Records. “We like bands like Boris, My Bloody Valentine, Smashing Pumpkins and Hum, which we’ve capitalized on.”
Engineered separately by local go-to’s Jonathan Nuñez and Ryan Haft, You Feel It Too is palpably heavier than the band’s previous output, drawing on shoegaze and grunge with hints of airy dream pop. “We’ve been collaborating with Jonathan since 2019 and ever since we got a taste for his sound, we felt it clicked with us,” Acosta says. “Similarly, when we got a taste of what Ryan can do in his space with his gear, we split it in half.” The result is a cinematic, lush and full-bodied foundation that fully supports Acosta’s vocals without undermining the album’s titular challenge. For Acosta and bandmates in a recently changed lined-up — drummer Emma Arevalo and lead guitarist Peter Allen — the record is a pact with listeners.
“I think that some of the lyrics can be intense and revealing, but with writing music, you sometimes talk about stuff that you wouldn’t talk about otherwise,” Acosta says. “Everyone’s their worst critic, but we were asking ourselves throughout the entire process, like, does this work? Is this cohesive enough, or is it too personal?”
The answer is in the songs. Palomino Blond are blending gritty guitar riffage with undisguised emotion to create anthems that have resonated far beyond the Magic City’s shores. A tour with Tampa’s electronic hip-hop duo They Hate Change takes them through eight states. In South Florida in October, they’ll play Gramps, III Points and Revolution Live Palomino Blond album release with They Hate Change, 7pm Friday, Oct. 4 at Gramps Miami. palominoblond.com
GOOSE
by david rolland
Goose is loose! The Connecticut-bred jam band is set to play its first-ever Miami Beach shows, and first anywhere in South Florida since gigs in 2017 at Funky Buddha and Guanabanas
So just what is this non-native waterfowl returning to our shores? Goose formed in 2014 and took a road-warrior mentality toward live performance to gain a (webbed) foothold in jam circles. Their recorded music, though, is quite different from the holy touchstones of jamdom, The Grateful Dead and Phish. There’s not so much country or Americana in this Goose; instead their latest studio album, 2022’s Dripfield, gives off pop-jazz shades of Steely Dan and the world-music vibes of Vampire Weekend
But one thing Goose have in common with their jamophone brethren is the steady drip of live recordings: thirteen concert albums just since 2020, each with a different set and variations of recurring audience favorites.
Goose have received plenty of notice for their work ethic. In June The Atlantic featured a long profile, ”The Improbable, Unstoppable Rise of Goose.” Last year Uproxx ran an interview proclaiming Goose “(Still) America’s Next Great Jam Band” and quoted member Peter Anspach crowing about Goose crowds: “With the sold-out shows on this tour, it feels like everyone who wants to be here really wants to be here. And they really want to be here to see us do our thing.”
Fans on Reddit flock to r/jambands and r/GoosetheBand to post about songs, setlists and band members’ doings on stage and behind the scenes — “Goose discourse,” as one Redditor wrote. Gooseheads share their cover songs, tour posters, Goose memes and handmade art.
But it might be among the celebrity set where Goose boast their biggest following. They have a knack for getting bold-face names to step on stage to shake a tailfeather with the band. Noteworthy Goose guests on tour have included Jimmy Fallon, Big Boi from Outkast, alt-folkie Father John Misty and Phish’s Trey Anastasio. Who knows if, say, Pitbull, Gloria Estefan or Tua Tagovailoa are down with Goose enough to do local cameos.
Goose perform 8pm Tuesday and Wednesday, October 29-30 at the Fillmore Miami Beach at Jackie Gleason Theater. goosetheband.com
DANIEL PRAKOPCK
MANNEQUIN PUSSY
by tim moffatt
Philadelphia as a music city is often overshadowed by the likes of New York and Nashville and Los Angeles even though a ton of popular music has come out of the City of Brotherly Love. Think Hall & Oates, the Roots, Cinderella, Patti LaBelle, Jill Scott, Frankie Beverly, Will Smith in his Fresh Prince days, and everything you’ve ever heard from Philadelphia International Records
And then there is Mannequin Pussy, who are admittedly not like their predecessors from The 215, but more in line with other Philadelphians presently having a moment such as hardcore punkers Soul Glo (whose Tiny Desk Concert on NPR in April came with an “explicit language” advisory). Don’t tell anyone, but Philly has a fantastic punk scene — The Dead Milkmen and (honorary Delaware Valley denizens from New Hope, Pennsylvania) Ween would be proud.
As Mannequin Pussy, Marisa Dabice (guitar and vocals), Maxine Steens (guitar and synths), Kaleen Reading (drums) and Colins “Bear” Regisford (bass) play, in their own words, “cathartic tunes about despairing times.” Careening from gritty bombastic punk to dreamy pop, they’re a fully realized statement from top to toe. Their growth and evolution since forming in 2010 are most evident on their latest full-length album, and second for Epitaph Records, 2024’s I Got Heaven — especially on a title track that interrogates ideas of the sacred and the profane.
Lest anyone think that contemplating such weighty matters might be a musical buzzkill, please keep in mind that Mannequin Pussy are still a punk band. And don’t be lulled into false submission by the pretty music saying bad things; a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down.
Dabice has said the ethos of Mannequin Pussy is to bring people together, which they have been doing quite a lot and effectively of late through consistently sold-out shows. Mannequin Pussy also found time to pitch in on the latest album by Miami shredder du jour (and 2024 Survivor finalist) Ben Katzman. That’s them as well joining forces with California’s Scowl on the incendiary Destroy Boys single “You Hear Yes.”
Mannequin Pussy and Margaritas Podridas play an all-ages show 7pm Thursday, October 24 at Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale. mannequinpussy.com
On a mission to transform lives, four eccentric Broadway stars aim to bring attention to a small-town prom. Joining forces with a courageous girl and the town’s citizens, the result is love that brings them all together. Winner of the Drama Desk Award for Best Musical, THE PROM expertly captures all the humor and heart of a classic musical comedy with a message that resonates with audiences now more than ever.
THE EXPLOITED
by tim moffatt
With DIY as the traditional battle cry of punk rock since its inception, the genre and its adjacent accouterments have made some bold style statements with homegrown graphic design. A lot of people know the crimson ghost Misfits logo, Ramones presidential seal design and CBGB awning signage better than their corresponding bands and locations.
Add to that list of resonant symbols the Mohican skull of the Exploited, a logo that has a way of turning up if you’ve ever seen a punk in a leather jacket in real life or on celluloid. It is a perfect avatar for Wattie Buchan, the singer and engine of the Exploited.
A controversial figure in a world overflowing with contentious characters, Wattie has opinions on everything — some prickly, but that is baked into the punk pie. The Exploited were a revolution in the 1978 English punk scene; their original street punk moved the genre away from wanky rock music and closer to the chaos that would become hardcore. Evolving into a crossover thrash band, the Exploited became the precursor to D-beat bands like Discharge, Chaos UK and Broken Bones.
Some bands play punk rock, and some are just Punk, capital P; that would be the Exploited. Wattie’s reputation for destruction and debauchery is legend. The man has had several heart attacks, some of them on stage mid-set, and still, the Exploited carryon with Wattie as the face of smash-and-grab punk rock for over 40 years.
They’ve not released an album of new music since Fuck The System in 2003 but have no trouble mustering an extended set’s worth of pit fuel from a stockpile of anthems that go back to the Army Life EP in 1980 and the Exploited’s indestructible, still, full-length debut of 1981, Punks Not Dead. And really, why do we need new when we all know we want “Dead Cities” rolling right into “Don’t Pay the Poll Tax”? I guess it would be nice, but unnecessary as a catalyst for the hell-raising energy of an Exploited show.
The Exploited, Total Chaos and Tarah Who? play 7pm Monday, October 7 at The Culture Room in Fort Lauderdale. the-exploited.net
PIG
by erik kvarnberg
Self-proclaimed “Lord of Lard,” Raymond Watts of KMFDM, The Joy Thieves and Schwein renown is on tour with his marathon of a musical project, PIG. Watts launched PIG in 1988 and in May released the industrial rock band’s 20th album, Red Room. He has delivered again in his endless search for entrancing and nefarious soundscapes: Synth patches swirl around metal guitar riffs in an inescapable push and pull, while the drums march on into perdition.
The lyrics outline the silhouette of PIG’s dark intentions. “Bleed me be my eraser/My tightrope walker on my razor,” Watts growls on “False Flag,” from the new album. “Read my riot act of shame/Patron saint of pain come down.” But there’s an inherent playfulness coloring the gloom and doom. This is the crux of PIG’s brutal flavor of melancholy, the Lord of Lard capitalizing on a dark and discordant sense of humor. (The PIG catalogue overflows with release titles such as Pigmata and Swine & Punishment.)
At a PIG gig in South Florida that happens to be one night after Halloween, expect a horrifying and spine-chilling series of noises to emerge from the mind of Watts. It could be the perfect soundtrack for dancing in a crumbling factory, where explosive caveins make for great snare tone and the guitar sounds like walls of slurry. Watts’ dogmatic vocals are laced with something equally sinister and disturbed, suspended as if in an atmosphere of noise and smog.
Watts’ list of co-conspirators over the decades testifies to his durability and restless creativity since co-founding KMFDM forty years ago. En Esch (KMFDM, PIG, Slick Idiot), Steve White (KMFDM), Alexis Mincolla (3TEETH) and Chris Hall (Stabbing Westward) are just a few of the noteworthies. PIG’s history is a veritable grocery list of every innovative and influential industrial band, cementing Raymond’s place among the well-known names like Trent Reznor, who Watts has opened for many times, or internationally renowned groups like Buck-Tick. Watts has also worked prolifically as a producer for the Berlin and Hamburg underground scenes, leaving his bloody fingerprints all over danceable heavy metal.
PIG, unitcode:machine and Wicked Playground perform 7pm Friday, November 1 at Respectable Street in West Palm Beach. pigindustries.com
RYAN HESHKA
by kelli bodle
Ryan Heshka wants you to “stay weird.”
The Winnipeg-based “lowbrow” artist draws on vintage pop culture to make work that embodies and upholds true weirdness with an embrace of the eerily familiar.
“So many people I admired growing up were ‘weird’: comic artists, filmmakers, publishers, and so on,” the PureHoney artist for October says. “Now that I’m in my 50s, my early instincts to follow these people and become my own brand of weird, and stay true to my vision, feels like it was the right choice.
“Maybe it wasn’t even a choice, but fate,” Heshka adds. “I’ve tried my hand at animation, interior design, and illustration, but making my own art is the only thing that I feel I’m truly good at. It’s not an easy path to stay weird, sometimes people don’t want your weird.”
His subjects would surely agree: B-movie femme fatales, hoary sea monsters and robots from outer space — outcasts, strangers and misfits all — rule his canvases. Childhood inspirations like King Kong and characters from the Universal Monsters franchise – Frankenstein’s creature, Count Dracula, the mummy Imhotep – feature in his current projects.
“Stop-motion films like ‘King Kong’ or the works of Ray Harryhausen stopped me in my tracks as a kid,” Heshka says, “but ‘Star Wars’ was the gateway drug.”
Pop culture characters abound in his comic presses and oil paintings. Most recently, though, Heshka printed an offset comic titled “Frog Wife.” It has a twisted Mad Men vibe and storyline featuring the titular bored housewife with the standardissue philandering husband. But Heshka’s series doesn’t end in the typical wretchedly dull divorce. Instead it takes a turn for the … toady.
Heshka isn’t leaving his formative influences behind as he evolves. “Old imagery from pop culture has always been a driver in my own art-making and continues to be,” he says. “But, as I began to want to distance myself from simply rehashing old material, I set aside that material and began drawing and observing the outside world. I’d use quirky people, clothing, design, nature everything and anything that caught my eye or ear.”
SPARROWS
His style and his toolkit encourage spontaneity and creativity while maintaining legibility, which is key in today’s diverse artistic landscape. He says artists should “combine their own unique interests to create work that only they can make.”
IN BETWEEN CRIMES
And retro influences persist. For “Frog Wife”, he used a risograph, a mechanical hybrid of screen printer and photocopier popularized in Japan in the 1980s. “It’s the closest thing I could find to a traditional comic book,” Heshka said in an interview with Chet Zar. “Sometimes it’s off-register or the ink fades out in a certain area. I selected three colors for the last one – blue, yellow, red — and then you make the colors out of those three for one press.”
Another exception to Heshka’s classic pop culture aesthetic that observers might pick up on: a feminist streak that subverts the Golden Age horror movie and comics portrayal of women as shrinking damsels or goodhearted sidekicks. Mid-century Madonnas run the show in his series and the femme fatales are emphatically “fatale,” more pulp fiction than plucky Lois Lane.
“When I did my first comic, ‘Mean Girls Club,’ it evolved into a very pro-female work,” Heshka says. “Subsequent comics also took on that form of anti-patriarchy without me being very aware of it. The same with my paintings: they have gone from robots carrying off women in my early days to women carrying off robots. Being more conscious of this feminist slant in my work, I embrace it now. I have a young daughter and hope that she’ll be proud of this work someday, when she’s allowed to read it.”
What motivation drives his projects? “I am super excited to be in the pencils stage of my new comic book, to be self-published via risograph printing,” Heshka says “ I don’t want to give too much away, but in my previous comics I covered the genres of juvenile delinquents, horror, and science fiction, and now I am moving into arena of the giant monster. I continue to pick away at my personal paintings. My goal for the upcoming year is to experiment, to play, and to continue to push myself into zones of discomfort.”
