The man behind Seaflower must have listened to at least a little Black Sabbath during his teenage years. Ozzy’s tradition of nightmare guitar riffs and psychotically warped vocals is continued with rare aggression by Jersey native Joseph Biondi’s dizzying brand of hard rock.

But if anything, the solo project of Joseph Biondi is much more to the point than many of his influences. It seems when Seaflower needs to make a point, he prefers the axe to the scalpel. ‘Opossum Dreams’ (streaming below) has a hook and enough dissonance to justifies any amount of blank, while ‘Fuck You, Steve‘ is about well…. maybe just listen to the song yourself. Biondi’s brand of hyper-intense passion is bound to scare off some, for those left behind… it may be exactly what you need after a long week at the office. – Mike Levine (@Goldnuggets) – This bandsubmitted their music for review here.

Editor’s note: Today we begin a weekly Q&A of Kansas City musicians. We’ll be using the same questions each week so you can get to know the artists a little bit better. And if you’d like to be included, please send us a message at kceditor@thedelimagazine.com and we’ll get you in!

This week we’re joined by Jesse Kates, frontman of The Sexy Accident.

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

So it looks like Emily Wells (who recently relocated from LA to NYC) has finally let her guard down. After several records spent experimenting with her sample-based mix of chamber instruments and rock attitude, gypsy vocals and even some brief rapping interludes, she has released the first single to her new record ‘Mama,’ and it is something far bolder than expected.

‘Passenger’ contains that rare sort of rapture which is as surprising as it is comforting. With this track, Emily Wells may very well have crafted one of the best songs of the year, while proving the theory that to be a true badass, you have to be vulnerable.

Emily on tour will be supporting Minneapolis folk band Dark Dark Dark, a group that should help let the holy ghost in before Ms. Wells comes out. Join the bands when they return from national tours to play Friday, October 12th at The Knitting Factory. – Mike Levine

Darrin Bradbury (http://darrinbradbury.bandcamp.com/), the front-man for the North Jersey thrash-folk outfit Big Wilson River, will play a solo show at The Studio at Webster Hall on July 31st. In preparation for the show, Bradbury has organized his back catalog to chronicle his eight-year (and counting) career. Included among the traditionally recorded EPs are live tracks and demo tapes. One such demo is “Biscuits and Gravy,” which sounds reminiscent of a long-lost John Prine track. Check out Bradbury at the Studio Tuesday next week, and listen to “Biscuits and Gravy” streaming below. –

Joshua S.Johnson

At a DIY junction between industrial, goth rock and contemporary noise, Brooklyn’s Dolores Boys introduced themselves at the start of the year with a dark self-titled debut (Psychic Mule). Drilling, screeching, rasping sounds, distortion, bad recording and ominous drumbeats, inspired by ‘sado-masochism’ and ‘confusion’… neither techniques nor influences matter much as long as the sum is unhinging. Even ‘Jesus Gave Up On Blues Singers’, filled with silence and minor tones, is somewhat a soft torture of a blues track. Recording in ‘a claustrophobic coffin of a box 6 steps down’ with a balance of pedal effects and odd electronic noises, the duo sustains the angst as the soundtrack to their horror scenario drifts from chaos to eerie calm. On July 19th they played a noise rock party at Xpo929 with Insect, Hot Tub Panorama and Ice Balloons. Tracy Mamoun

Anya Skidan is a young Brooklyn based singer songwriter who’s not afraid to charge her tunes with melancholy and sadness. Haunted with emotion, her voice floats on a layer of sparse, dreamy tracks. In the first song off of her LP ‘Shine the Brightest,’ her raw, natural voice has an eerie vibe reminiscent of a darker Kimya Dawson. The track, “Spiritual”, sets an interesting tone for the whole album, and showcases Skidan’s knack for portraying deep emotions and drastic tones. "Hidden Treasures" (streaming below) and “Soft and Gentle” have a more up-tempo feel, while “Summer is Gone” sounds like some kind of nightmarish litany where the singing-in-the-round technique is used, in conjunction with a an arrangement full of mallets and other percussions, to enanche the loss of the warm season. This is a budding artist we should keep an ear on. Anya Skidan will be performing on July 26 at Bowery Electric in New York, NY.

(pictured above: The Brannock Device)

There’s no rhyme or reason for what took place. 

No explanation that the normal human mind can calculate.

But it takes those elite few who bring sounds and experiences into our being. Doing the very things our brains only attempt to wrap themselves around.

There are those moments that you find yourself entranced by what you’re hearing. Saturday night at Davey’s Uptown was one of those nights.

The strangely odd but fitting combination of Steady States, The Brannock Device and The Ants was an evening of music for musicians. Three bands with decidedly different styles but conjoined by a passion for the placement of each beat or the merging of each intricate melody.

(pictured above: Steady States)

Steady States began the evening early with a heavy kick to the teeth. There’s no question that this 4-piece group—former members of Mother Culture, Ste. Simone and Last Call (New York)—has a definitive hardcore sound with a quirky sensibility. 

Compared to the bands that followed them, Steady States is relatively new to the scene, only playing in town for the past year. Nonetheless, this resulted in a 35-minute massacre of brute force, knowledge and style. Frontman Joel Shields gives off the mild-mannered vibe of Clark Kent, and explodes out of nowhere with an Ian McKaye sort of intent. At the surface, they have a raw noise post-punk sound. But as the name suggests, each screeching guitar note or yell continually creates another element as it expands and comes into itself. Steady States are unapologetically hardcore punk, with a minute but intelligent invasion of math rock.

Next up, The Brannock Device, a veteran Kansas City group. Watching Brannock can be like going to the symphony. You listen to the congruent convergence of several pieces and attempt to analyze each one in the tiniest of details, whether it be in the machine-like flow of Bernie Dugan’s drumsticks cracking snare hits; Jason Beers’ harmonic bass chords; Marco Pascolini’s ungodly guitar arpeggios; or Elaine McMilian’s theatrical vocal delivery.

The band’s clear connection to one another is evident in each progression. While Brannock’s experimental approach may not be pleasing to every musical palate, there’s an absolute sense of the song composition and execution. It’s a music lesson on how to bring a glowing warmth to each low tone and a melodic depth to each dissonant note. A performance by Brannock brings forth an inner study on how to play music and how to derive satisfaction from creating the exact part you want to create. One that fits together while simultaneously existing on its own plane.

(pictured above: Chad Bryan and Sean McEniry of The Ants)

Rounding out the evening was The Ants from Lawrence, a band fully adept and bent on making music on its own terms. Much like the bands that preceded them, The Ants played their own peculiar brand of music and had a hell of a time doing so. The group has been around almost as long as The Brannock Device and has been crafting its own signature sound ever since.

Frontman and guitarist Chad Bryan knows how to captivate an audience simply by writing bizarre licks and entertaining lyrics. But he goes further by singing with a purely honest vocal style, injecting The Ants’ overall personality. The music is progressive Americana, and never apologizes for being such. Like all of the other bands of the evening, The Ants played exactly what they wanted to, with vigor and expertise. Each song had a sway-inducing quality, often steered by a jangly guitar and just a touch of country swagger. 

At the last song of the set, The Ants invited Marco Pascolini to the stage for a long jam session. From ripping punk notes to disjointed but oddly connected guitar riffs, Pascolini and Bryan performed a battle of wits and wizardry set off by an eccentric expression laid out on keyboard, bass and drums.

This final scene showed us exactly what we had seen that evening: a group of musicians coming together to showcase what they loved, and entertaining and educating its fans at the same time.

–Michelle Bacon

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Here’s the thing about The Riot Room; it is loud. Always and without fail. This is as constant as the Northern Star. In fact, if Las Vegas were to handicap the betting odds on the room being flooded by noise, the percentages would linger at 100%. This is always a safe bet regardless of who is playing. An alternative country band from Raleigh; maxed. A metal band from the suburbs of the gates of hell; if it is too loud, you’re too old. Spinal Tap; cranked to 11.

There is no getting around it. However, sometimes there is also no excuse for it. Watching O, Giant Man open for The Henry Clay People, this principle was never more relevant. The group’s fidgety sound is best served wrapped in complex layers and complicated shifts. The group flutters throughout styles, touching on multiple approaches to writing throughout the set. A sparkling Rhodes organ will bleed through for a moment, meshed with the band’s controlled chaos, before subsiding and surrendering to a room full of drums. The organized clutter is thick and tricky in its ability to fool listeners into determining if it is actually planned. The casual observer might even assume the set list and the collection of tunes were an act of improvisation. However, broken down it is clear that O, Giant Man has meticulously constructed not only a set of tunes, but has managed to arrange them in a way that the evening becomes one long, flawless track. Each song is intentionally placed before the next and sown together with a cross stitch creating a warm, inviting quilt of songs.

Yes, watching O, Giant Man is like staying the night at your Grandma’s house. And who doesn’t love their Grandma? Nazis. That’s who.

What was I saying? Oh, yeah. Group frontman Christopher Robbins guides his group through their set like a ship’s captain guides his crew. Throughout the night his eyes dart around the stage as he intently directs traffic and shoves his band through the crosshairs to the intended destination. Yet simultaneously, he also manages to make his guidance look as effortless as listening to a GPS. "Turn left here." Wham! Hit single.

It is important however to remember that the crew behind Robbins is as talented as he is. There is no denying that they are the real deal once you’ve heard them play. Their structure, which is unique to the Kansas City area, sets them apart from the sometimes incestuous music scene, often complicated by having the same signature sound in every band. There is something rather fresh about the way O, Giant Man is an island unto itself.

However that island holds something for all types of vacationers. Swirling guitars and harmonic vocals are both in check. At any given time the band can shift from dance-friendly indie pop to a straight rock sound that will knock your teeth out. Sometimes, I can hear The Clash, then suddenly I think I’m listening to Ryan Adams. Then vocally, I would swear they were Counting Crows. However, regardless of what the shifting sounds, I expect big things from O, Giant Man. I’ll be disappointed with Kansas City and the world if they offer this extremely talented band anything less.

-Joshua Hammond

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Photo Source: Orca Team

Orca Team will soon appear at The Funhouse’s annual Pizzafest; the show date is Thursday, August 2nd. They are currently touring the U.S. leading up to the homecoming performance in Seattle.

The trio released their second full-length album, Restraint, just last month. Without exception, each of the eleven songs on the new record play out under three minutes. Brevity clearly suits them well, for they waste little time in advancing their plentiful melodic hooks.

"Night Moves" enters the atmosphere with a bass riff and drum beat attached at the hip; the tune then swiftly swims into contact with a catchy-as-all guitar part. It is precise and refined, lifting the underlying rhythm with splashes of reverb.

Leif Ander’s (bassist/vocalist) voice slides words off effortlessly, painting stories that listeners will swoon to. Their sound oozes with the innocence and earnestness of 1950’s and ’60’s rock and doo wop. Combining post-punk and surf vibes too, Orca Team’s two minute pop portraits are the antithesis to noisy, sonic affairs. Grab ahold to drift off into their contemporary reveries.

Check out Orca Team at Pizzafest this year on the 2nd of August – other bands that night include Sonny and the Sunsets, The Wimps, Fuckaroos, and Brandon Daniel & The Chics. Tickets are $12 and the show begins at 9pm.

Give "Strains" a listen down below and carry on to their bandcamp to hear all of Restraint. The album is available for purchase on CD or LP over at HHBTM Records.

– Cameron LaFlam

Brooklyn’s music Conveyor presents an intriguing blend of styles and influences. Combining the percussion of afropop with moody electronics and rhythmic patterned vocal placement, their sound is bouncy and creative. Many of the songs are the result of a collaborative writing process, giving the defined sections an air of intricacy. Time signatures that break out of the 4/4 mold suggest artists not content to rely on the safety of familiar patterns. The band released their debut full-length album on Paper Garden Records and is currently touring the US. – Read Dave Cromwell‘s interview with the band here.

Upbeat, catchy and serenely produced, Skaters‘ debut EP Schemers is a refreshing return to groove in an otherwise frenetic aural genre. Their songs call to grand truths of times past. They sing love songs shrouded in clairvoyant wisdom. Skaters’sound teeters on the edge of two musical genres – one foot in the up-tempo pop-punk world, the other knee deep in worldly grooves that feel timeless. Their live shows feature impromptu improvisations and unexpected interludes – proof that they are competent musicians, masterful in their ways. Three different people, hailing from three different places (Boston, LA and the UK), Skaters come together with a coherent melancholy that harkens back to The Strokes when they were cool. Schemers has the exciting feeling of the start to something beautiful. – Read Ed Guardaros’ interview with the band here.