Having worked and re-worked its baggy-psychedelia cocktail, Brooklyn-based trio Dinowalrus set off in March towards its best efforts to date with ‘What Now‘, pulling the droning vocals out of the washed-out depths of their reverb’, picking up the pace with some fast steady drumbeats and glorious effusions of synth and guitars. Dropped five days ago, the shimmering ‘Grounded‘ pursued this fuller, more fluid sound, only slower, so very laid-back that one can’t help but notice the confidence they’ve gained over the last couple of years. If we’re going to extrapolate here, there’s a bigger and bolder Dinowalrus to be expected from their album to come (produced by Jorge Elbrecht).

The band will be playing this Friday (8.24) at Public Assembly, for a show introducing Ken Griffin’s latest project August Wells and headlined by Variety Lights, Chicago-based duo featuring ex-Mercury Rev David Baker. All of this and more (including a Dj Set by Spacemen 3’s Rosco) courtesy of the lovely Lady Bree.

Photo Source: Dreamdecay

Dreamdecay are playing at The Josephine this Friday, August 24th. The other groups performing are Matt Akers, Mutant Video, Gag, and Nudes.

These musicians have penned a document overflowing with sonic fury in Fern, which was released earlier this calendar year. Dissonant and chaotic, intensely cathartic and rhythmic – Dreamdecay’s feedback frenzy spins a web that is hard to disentangle from.

Take track "II" for instance, whose opening riff would not sound out of place in a Fugazi song. This vibe quickly dissolves into a heavier, punchier affair as the cymbals come crashing and the vocals meander on in – landing somewhere on the measuring stick near Michael Gira of Swans, and the vocalists of Young Widows and Daughters.

Song "IV" captures their most balanced blend of angular math rock and noise rock; except it has been tossed in a blender and coughed back out as a mass of raw venom. 

Their music is fearless and peerless in the Northwest because of its thirst for unadulterated noise and energy. They carry with them the relics of noise rock’s forefathers – bands like The Jesus Lizard or Sonic Youth – and yet they ultimately convey and champion their own passion rather than another’s.

See Dreamdecay at The Josephine coming up on the 24th of August. You can stream "IV" below and then visit their Soundcloud to hear all of Fern. The record is available for purchase via Great Plains Records.

– Cameron LaFlam

(Photo by Todd Zimmer)

Thee Water MoccaSins are one of the most well-known, yet most elusive bands in Kansas City. While frontman Billy Smith is now making his mark in New York, the other members of the group (Steven Tulipana, Wade Williamson and John Berusch) remain busy with a host of other projects. This week, we get a rare chance to sit down and talk with the group and find out a little more.

The Deli: Gun to your head: One sentence to describe your music. What is it?

Thee Water MoccaSins: We call it Psychedelic Electronic Fractal Pop. It is music that was made with a sense of urgency with an overall goal of keeping all things casual. Not only musically but internally as a band member. Easy Breezy.

The Deli: Let’s talk about your latest release or upcoming shows. What can we expect?

TWM: We have a show coming up on Thursday, August 23 at The Riot Room with Be/Non and Olivetti Letter.

The Deli: What does "supporting local music" mean to you?

TWM: The members of our band have spent most of our lives creating, participating and nurturing the local music scene by being booking agents, club owners, studio producers, haunted house builders, back patters and bartenders. All vital cogs in the local music machine. We take great pride in how the local music community represents itself.

The Deli: Who are your favorite "local" musicians right now?

TWM: We like bands that like are more exploratory in the live setting. Expo ’70, Be/Non, Ad Astra Arkestra, Gemini Revolution, Surroundher, Conquerors, Soft Reeds.

The Deli: Who are your favorite not-so-local musicians right now?

TWM: Digging bands like Tame Impala, Django Django, Tinarwen, Caetano Veloso.

The Deli: What is your ultimate fantasy concert bill to play on?

TWM: Queen with Einstürzende Neubauten, Stone Roses, My Bloody Valentine & The Residents.

The Deli: Would you rather spend the rest of your life on stage or in the recording studio?

TWM: Each one has a personal satisfaction. In the studio you get that instant song playback that gives you chills when the mix is perfect. I love to push the boundaries of what the studio can offer. It always helps when the producer/engineer is willing and able to help us experiment with sounds and non-traditional ideas when tracking songs. Chris Cosgrove really helped guide this record. And so far we have all been lucky with working with great producers and engineers. Thee Water MoccaSins could easily maintain and flourish within the settings of only a studio. Live: We love to play these songs live. We get to open the songs up a bit more like how we originally wrote them. Feeding off each other and being able to reach a psychic level of playing is about the highest mental plateau that humans can reach. And we push to open a communal bliss between us and the audience when we play live by adding an intense light show and percussive audience participation during some numbers. It is our attempt to say that All Are Welcome here.

The Deli: A music-themed Mount Rushmore. What four faces are you putting there and why?

TWM: Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, Mark Mothersbaugh. Wise Man, Protector, Lover, Human Dissent.

The Deli: All right, give us the rundown. Where all on this big crazy web can you be found?

TWM: www.theewatermoccaSins.com. You can download or listen to our full record. It sounds a bit silly when you just stream it due to some songs being strung together. Just buy it.

The Deli: Always go out on a high note. Any last words of wisdom for The Deli audience?

TWM: We would like to thank everyone for their continual support. Support your locals. Never bite the hand that feeds you. Please be good to each other. Start Now.

Thee Water MoccaSins will be bringing their psychedelic electronic fractal pop to blow away The Riot Room this Thursday, August 23 with special guests Be/Non and Olivetti Letter. Since they rarely play live shows, this is your chance to see them. Prepare to be impressed.

–-Zach Hodson

Zach is a lifetime Kansas City resident who plays multiple instruments and sings in Dolls on Fire and Drew Black and Dirty Electric, as well as contributing to many other Kansas City music, art, and comedy projects.  He is very fond of edamame, treats his cat Wiley better than he treats himself, and doesn’t want to see pictures of your newborn child (seriously, it looks like a potato).

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Chris Riffle could be New York’s unlikely mellowcore champion of the year. A mix of folk authenticity and offbeat sentimentality, Riffle has just released his second full-length ‘Another Dream‘ that charts many of his unrequited hopes for love, with topics ranging from his wishes for the shapes of stars, to his wishes for the names of stars. In songs like ‘Kiss On The Cheek‘ and his fantastic cover of ‘And I Love Him,’ Riffle proves New York is still a home for hopeless romantics at heart. Like Bright Eyes and M. Ward, Riffle’s tenor brings home passionate urgency to matters of the heart. See the troubadour when he plays this Thursday, August 23rd at Spike Hill. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

Remember how big and scary everything looked when you were a kid? Well, either Jennifer Charles and Oren Bloedow never grew up, or things really are that big and scary. From ‘Red Riding Hood’s big bad wolf, to the ‘Old, Old Wood, Elysian Fields paint a vivid series of grownup myths with steep shadows and forbidding proportions.

Personal fave ‘Villian On The Run‘ from new record ‘Last Night On Earth‘ takes Jennifer through a twelve-bar blues form that links her casual sexiness to a Lynchian darkness. Admittedly setting a unique mood, this band makes it work by possessing their settings intimately and immediately. You might even find yourself forgetting this really hasn’t been done like this before. Definiftely recommended for anyone who enjoys a good fairy tale or bedtime story. See the band September 7th when they play Le Poisson Rouge. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)

Channeling the unholy trinity of deceived youths, i.e incomprehension, anger and boredom through the raw force of strong 90s indie rock female leads – think Deal twins – Brooklyn-based pop punk quartet Swearin‘ came forward barely a year ago with the oh-so-self-explanatory first EP ‘What A Dump‘. As a follow-up that saw them off on an extensive US tour, they released last June their first self-titled full-length, twelve-track burst of laid-back energy fuelled with loud guitars, leaning at one extreme towards pathetic stripped-down ballads, diving on the other right into hardcore tendencies for rabid drumbeats and shreds-a-go-go, with in mind one goal: getting the local crowds shaking to some effective, effervescent r’n’r in the broader cathartic sense. An act on the rise which you can catch at Cameo Gallery on September 21st. – Tracy Mamoun

(Photo by Todd Zimmer)

Life can be an asshole sometimes. It is without balance and as unstable as a drunken college girl with daddy issues. We’ve all been there. Everyone knows that girl. The date is going fine. She’s enjoying her dinner and talking about her cats when suddenly and without warning she’s crying about needing a hug. Her makeup streaks and the cheerleader you brought to Applebee’s suddenly looks like Alice Cooper. Out of nowhere life and everything that exists within it takes a 90-degree turn and the relaxing evening you had planned melts into a shitmess. By the end of the night there is no room or need to question why cheerqueen’s dad never returned.

But what does this have to do with music you ask? Aren’t you reviewing The Architects?

Okay, okay. I’m getting there.

Much like the above scenario, music can be a fickle, fickle bitch.Take watching a show for example. On any given night, fans are making a 20-dollar commitment on a 50/50 bet. Generally speaking, catching a good show is nothing more than a coin flip. Any band, even ones commonly known for owning the stage could have an off night without warning. Because guitars sometimes untune, members sometimes get drunk, venues hire underqualified sound guys, and people have bad days, there is no getting around the fact that sometimes good bands are going to let you down. There is no exception to this rule.

Except that somehow The Architects DO seem to be the exception to that rule.

Plagued by sickness and nausea, Kansas City’s punk poets pushed through their return to the recordBar, pressing out one of the most full tilt takes on music that 2012 has presented to me. Drenched in sweat by the third cut, the brothers Phillips and guitarist Keenan Nichols put in more cardio on stage than most people do in a lifetime. Twitching, jerking and slamming around the room, every note becomes a point of exclamation. Not only are the guys not fucking around, they’re going to make damn sure you know that they know what they’re doing. Night in and night out, their blue-collar, punch-the-clock approach to their craft can be felt as fluently as the stand in front of you. They not only intend to bring the rock, they intend to slap you in the face with it.

Unlike all other measures of life however, that aggression is a commendable quality in music. Take, for example, the way the band approaches headcount. Lesser bands might raise a stink about playing a three-quarters full recordBar after adding tours with My Chemical Romance and Flogging Molly. However on this night, a casual observer would assume the band was playing Shea Stadium in front of a sold-out crowd. As every night is their Super Bowl, your cover charge is taken care of before the end of the first song. There is no room for disappointment, musically or visually.

Combining the pure elements of punk with their obvious 1990s influences, the diversity of the band is rather amazing. This isn’t your average three-chord punk band. With sounds dating back to their time as The Gadjits, elements of calendar days long gone bleed out of their set lists. Twitching from influences by The Clash to particles of a rockabilly sound to a “Banditos”-like The Refreshments sound, anyone who has liked music in the last 15 years can find something familiar about the band. Furthermore, even if you were born after the fall of flannel, watching the band flex its musical muscle is unquestionably for everyone. As Brandon leans from the mic and howls his message with sweat dripping down across his nose, it is impossible not to be touched a little by the passion of the group. But if that isn’t enough for you to be convinced, I’ve formed a small list to leave you. You can read it below:

The totally unbiased list of reasons why you should love The Architects:

1. No one in Kansas City drums harder than Adam Phillips.
2. The band not only still writes guitar solos, Keenan Nichols owns them.
3. Zach’s bass lines, combined with Adam’s drums, will make you shake your ass.
4. They’re the hardest working band in Kansas City.
5. Chances are they were making music when you were learning to color. They know more about music than you do.
6. It is better than dating a girl with daddy issues.

And with that, I’ve gone full circle.

For more photos from this show taken by the amazing Todd Zimmer, follow the link here.

 –Joshua Hammond

After stints drumming for both The Afternoons and Jenny Carr and the Waiting List in the Lawrence/Kansas City music scene, Joshua Hammond found his footing as a music journalist, launching the national publication Popwreckoning. After running the show as Editor in Chief for 6 years, Hammond stepped away from the reigns to freelance for other publications like Under The Gun Review and High Voltage Magazine. This shift allowed the adequate amount of time for him to write passionately, allow the Kansas City Royals to break his heart on a daily basis and spoon his cats just enough that they don’t shred his vinyl.

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There’s a surprise ’round every corner and corners in plenty to be found on Brooklyn-via-New Orleans duo Callers‘ third album ‘Reviver‘. When you think you’re about to comfortably dive into some light-hearted pop the skippy beat breaks down; once you’re settled in the groove, Sara Lucas’ soulful R’n’B vocals pierce through and you’re heading towards memories of Motown classics but then, as you begin to be seduced by her sultry tones, a barely-there punk cadence or jerky rhythm kicks in and you’re in for ‘something completely different‘.

Fact is though, all twists and turns flow seamlessly, and the experimental dexterity with which Sara & Ryan drift back and forth between one another’s influences would make any middle-ground, if they were to seek one… well to put it bluntly, a waste of creative potential. The album only comes out October 9th via Partisan Records, but here’s a teaser for you, streaming below; meanwhile, you can catch Callers as they head back to NYC in the course of their current tour, on September 20th at The Music Hall Of Williamsburg. – Tracy Mamoun

Brooklyn based trio Life Size Maps have amped up the oddities on their new EP,”Weird Luck”.  Venturing off from their more traditional indie pop debut, “Magnifier,” Life Size Maps’ sound has come into its own, establishing the band in the noise pop genre.  The new, three-song record shows us a band that can employ random sounds and seamlessly incorporate them into their music, which is also fed with impressive hooks and moderate and occasional doses of math rock. They’ll be on stage at Brooklyn’s Public Assembly on Wednesday (8.22), Big Show Buffalo Lodge on Thursday (8,23), Cheap Storage next Saturday (8.25) and finally, Shea Stadium the following Friday (8.31). And that’s it (for August!). Read Jen Mergott’s interview with Life Size Maps here. 

Spirit Family Reunion released their ‘proper‘ debut album “No Separation” on June 15th , a follow-up to their widely celebrated self-titled EP. “No Separation” highlights the band’s infectious sound with a blend of bluegrass and gospel revival, poised with soulful honesty. Marked in traditional roots, few New York-based bands can achieve an authentic, banjo-laden country sound while maintaining such an effortless appeal. As of August 31st, they’ll be playing a series of shows across Northern Ireland & Ireland, kicking off at Omagh’s Bluegrass Festival; however, before they leave, you can catch a last NYC show at Brooklyn’s Sycamore on Tuesday (8.21). Read Devon Antonetti’s interview with the band here. 

Like a gospel music for urban atheists, Weeknight has created a spiritual haven for arpeggiated synths, retro drum machines and roof-raising vocals to co-exist together. It’s somewhat unclear what GOD it’s lead monks, Holly and Andy are worshipping, but it’s pretty clear it’s not far from where The Raveonettes go to church.

Their first EP ‘Dark Dark Lights‘ (the band’s less than a year old) contains three hard-hitting meditations geared toward this sort of dark transcendence. Equally appropriate in the dark or with the lights on, this is a mysterious and heavy band whose path will be interesting to chart. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets)