#awesome cover by my friend Jacob Keith

[doctornolonger]

From the official Arcbeatle Press announcement:

Cwej: Down the Middle established itself as a unique journey in science-fiction, and now it’s back in a new and updated edition from Arcbeatle Press on March 21st, 2023. Featuring new art and corrections to the original edition, this is the definitive version of the story. “It’s how I always wanted Cwej: Down the Middle to be experienced,” said the book’s editor and creative force, Hunter O’Connell.

[rainydawgradioblog]

Interview: Guerilla Toss - 09/26 @ the Vera Project

Guerilla Toss is a NYC-based experimental rock / synthpop / psychedelic / post-funk / prog-whatever / everything in between band signed to DFA records who is currently touring all throughout the continental US. This past Saturday, before their show with Calvin Johnson and Behavior at the Vera Project, my friend Anna and I were graciously invited into their tour van decked out with psychedelic decorations to chat with vocalist Kassie Carlson and hang out with her internet-famous Chow-Chow Watley. Enjoy the interview and catch them in these cities in the coming weeks!

Elliott: Hey! Thanks for taking the time to talk to me! How are you doing?

Kassie: Good, good! Just got done with soundcheck.

Elliott: Cool! How far into your tour are you guys at this point?

Kassie: Not that far actually, we’ve only done four dates or something, but we drove out here.

Elliott: That’s a long drive.

Anna: You guys just did Salt Lake, right?

Kassie: Yup, Diabolical Records. We were just in Portland, then Vancouver, then here.

Elliott: Cool, enough talking like a normal person, I’m gonna ask you a bunch of convoluted questions now. First of all, this bill is kind of wild, Calvin Johnson is another one of my favorite artists. How did this show come together? Are you guys big K Records fans?

Calvin Johnson and band opening the show.

Kassie: Calvin actually played at our light and projections person’s record store in Macon, GA. So that’s how we made the connection, and Calvin was really interested in coming here!

Watley gets up and walks around.

Elliott: Hi Watley!

Kassie: Sit! Watley…

Elliott: Have you had any other particularly cool openers this tour so far, or in recent memory?

Kassie: Well, the other opener tonight is Behavior, a couple members of Wand, the drummer and guitarist, so I’m really excited about that!

Elliott: Nice, I just saw Wand open for Stereolab!

Kassie: Cool, yeah, it’s an epic bill.

Elliott: I’m excited! I also noticed last time I saw you guys, you busted out a violin which was a bit unexpected but really cool! Are there any other instruments members play that you would maybe want to use on Guerilla Toss stuff?

Kassie: I also recently got an OP-1, which has been cool to experiment with. There’s lots of sounds, and this guy Cuckoo on Patreon puts a lot of samples for the OP-1 online for super cheap, like you can buy stuff for a dollar. He always puts up new stuff, so I’ve been getting down that rabbit hole, but yeah! I’ll be playing it tonight, it should be fun!

Anna: That’s a difficult purchase to make these days! Those things are not easy to come by.

Kassie: Yeah, me and the drummer split it. And we got it on eBay or something, it was used.

Anna: Those things are great.

Elliott: I’ve also heard you guys like to do band hikes. I also interviewed your friends Palberta on Rainy Dawg a while ago…

Watley steps on voice recorder, and tries to get out of the van door.

Kassie: Watley!

Elliott: Haha! Anyway… Palberta told me they bring a rice cooker and camp every night on tour. Are there any other activities people typically forgo on tour that you like to make time for?

Kassie: Yeah, we just went to Moab on this tour, to the arches. It’s good to get out of the van and stretch your legs a bit. That was fun. It’s cool to drive around, sometimes there’s not time to do the hiking thing, but we took some days off this time around so we’re not in the car for 8 hours. It’s good for morale.

Anna: Moab especially, it’s so nice.

Kassie: Yeah I’d never been, so it was cool to make it out there.

Elliott: So, it feels lately like vocals being more forefront in recent material, that the music is driven more by lyrics and melody. I got into you guys via Gay Disco, but my favorite of yours is GT Ultra. It feels like my experience as a listen has changed a lot, you cover a lot of ground in that there’s different ways to enjoy Guerilla Toss as a listener. Do you feel like your writing process has significantly changed?

Kassie: Well we’ve mostly just been shifting things around and trying different things to keep it fresh. It’s lots of fun, yeah!

Elliott: And about writing stuff, I know you’re very into jamming, you improv a lot live. Does writing material ever come out of that?

Kassie: We mostly just improv between songs. They’re all through-composed, and all have parts that are pretty specific. Sometimes we’ll write songs by jamming for a few hours, but a lot of the time, say Peter (drummer) will come in with a part of a song, or a skeleton of a song, or even a full song, which is how it’s mostly been lately, and then I’ll put some vocals on it, and we’ll try different things, different instrumentation.

Anna: Are there any members that bring more in terms of song structure?

Kassie: Definitely Peter brings the most, but I do all the vocals, everyone does their respective parts.

Elliott: Cool! Do you have a particular favorite piece of gear? Anything that might have inspired a song or a moment in a song?

Kassie: Yeah, I have a red Boss V-20 vocal pedal, that I use a lot and I really like. I use it for harmonies, there’s chorus on there, there’s delay and reverb, harmonies and doubling. I feel like it just helps my voice feel a lot thicker and more present, you know. It gives me more control over my sound. A lot of the time in venues, especially DIY venues, it can get buried. And also I want to be more true to the recording, like in “Betty Dreams of Green Men,” there’s those harmonies that come in off and on, so I use the pedal to create that harmony.

Anna: And what you said about DIY shows, getting sounds that are accurate. Do you play a lot of stuff like that now?

Kassie: No, not as much lately. But even in bars and stuff, it can be tough. We don’t travel with a sound person, we’re not playing stadiums.

Anna: Is that a shift that you miss at all?

Kassie: Not really. I like being able to hear myself when I sing, so it doesn’t hurt my voice as much. Of course I love the vibe of DIY venues but there’s good things in the middle, where your friends from DIY shows will come, but it won’t get shut down, and we have money for gas and stuff like that.

Elliott: Gas money is definitely important.

Trucks passing by.

Kassie: Watley’s scared of the trucks…

Elliott: So I have a question that’s part fun fact, part question. Your Wikipedia page, where it says you encourage tapers at your show, it used to say you encouraged tapirs, like the weird little animal. It was a typo but it actually linked to the tapir page!

Kassie: Oh weird! I didn’t notice but that is sick.

Elliott: Yeah, someone actually linked it to the page!

Kassie: That’s awesome!

Elliott: So that got me thinking, there probably haven’t been many tapirs at Guerilla Toss shows, but I think it would be sick! What sort of animals would you want to see at a Guerilla Toss shows? Also, these hypothetical animals have all the hypothetical ear protection they need.

Kassie: A lot more chows! We also really like otters. We were talking a lot during our soundcheck about snails. So snails would be cool. Snails all over the place. But really animal would be interesting!

Anna: Species-inclusive venue!

Kassie: Yeah! Oh, and bison, Watley loves bison. A few cows. He loves cows, he’s always looking at me like “Mom, did you see that? Woah, look there’s cows!” Yeah, good boy!

Elliott: Does Watley have a favorite Guerilla Toss song? Is he gonna get a feature anytime soon?

Kassie: He might actually, yeah!

Anna: A bark sample, that must be fun to work with on the OP-1! 

Kassie: Yeah, that’s one of the many things that are on my to-do list for sure.

Elliott: Hell yeah, I’m stoked for that whenever it happens. You guys seem to have a lot of collabs, one-off releases, live albums, splits and stuff. Do you usually come into those thinking “we’re gonna write an album” or just a song, or working with somebody, or is your writing process usually the same for those?

Kassie: We usually just create a whole album, we only did that one split with the Sediment Club. The live album was a cool project, that was completely live, we recorded it in Nashville.

Elliott: You also have that remix album with Jay Glass Dubs?

Kassie: Oh yeah, that was just a DFA thing, he totally did that himself.

Elliott: Cool! So visuals are clearly an important part of Guerilla Toss, I was wondering if you look at these different forms of visuals in the same way, like do you tie in live projections, music videos, album art or do you view them separately?

Kassie: They’re kinda separate. Lots of different people do our album art. Keith Rankin did a few, the most recent one was by someone named Yu Maeda, and before that was Jacob van Loon, he did Twisted Crystal. And then GT Ultra is actually acid strips from the 70s.

Anna: That one was a particularly cool design. Do you mostly reach out to the artists to do the art?

Kassie: Thank you! And yeah, it’s usually something they already have done that we use, but a couple of the ones from Keith Rankin were commissions.

Elliott: Cool! So, I feel like your albums tend to have a coherent sonic palette, but they cover a lot of ground as far as the songs go. Do you come into recording an album with a bunch of songs you’ve written or do you write specifically for an album?

Kassie: I think Peter is pretty much always writing music, and we already have new music we’re working on for after What Would The Odd Do, so it’s just kind of a constant stream of stuff, lots of never-ending recording and never-ending writing.

Elliott: Cool, well I didn’t write anything else down.

Kassie: Alright! Any other random questions?

Elliott: Not that I can think of. I’m excited to see you guys play!

Kassie: Hell yeah!

Anna: Actually, I usually ask touring bands this. What kind of stuff have you been listening to on the way over?

Kassie: Oh all kinds of things! Listened to a little Battles.

Elliott: Oh nice! The new one, Juice B Crypts?

Kassie: All of the albums! I think it was a consensus that we liked the earlier albums better, but hey, that’s something people always say. I like it all! It’s pretty cool.

Elliott: Cool, well thank you for letting us in the van and talking with us!

Kassie: Of course! Can you unhook that leash?

Elliott: Sure!

Kassie: (to Watley) Let’s go pee!

- Elliott Hansen

[theavengingmusicjournalist]

Noise in the Attic this Mother’s Day, May 14, helping families faced with cancer through The Beauty Foundation Friends

All interviews are conducted through social media messaging

articles published as written

Jacob Schneck

Jacob Schneck of Edison turns 29-years-old Sat. May 13 (today), and we surely wish him a happy birthday as he enters into Sunday’s Noise in the Attic extravaganza.

“My father battled prostate cancer, so I've been around the struggle of supporting a family member who's trying to get better,” said Schneck, “Any organization that devotes the time people like that need is worth donating time to.”

Schneck is new to playing Noise in the Attic and says that it feels great to be playing his music for Noise in the Attic and at The Inkwell. “I’ve wanted to do this for a long time,” said the musician.

We are absolutely happy to have you Schneck—as excited as you are to play, we are excited to have you (FYI: we are probably more excited though).

Since this Saturday is the soak/blues/rock style musician’s birthday, he asks for one thing and he is surely going to receive it. “Doing an original show is all I want,” said the birthday human. What if I also brought you a Dutch Coffee with a candle in the whip cream? I’m feeling like that would be the icing on the cake and I am serving the show after all!

Speaking of more birthday’s, Schneck had the utmost pleasure of meeting his heroes and musical influence, Richie Havens on his sixteenth birthday. I’m curious to how you met Richie now—you must share, Schneck!

“The first time I’ve performed was for three-hundred people when I played the song “Freedom”,” said the performer. Schneck also mentions that he loves making music for its honesty, having the ability to tell the truth about his flaws, fears, and growth in a way that others identify with. Isn’t it beautiful when the world can empathize and see the other’s experiences as a reflection of their own? I know that I love Noise for the power of this reflection coming to life. Definitely be prepared for the audience, fellow musicians, and inkwell employees to feel all that you described. It’s going to be a rad night.

With this being mentioned, Schneck says, “This Sunday people can expect to think about themselves with a song stuck in their head for a few days lol.” I look forward to it. Also, Schneck may or may not be performing as a duo, if this is so, that’s pretty rock n’roll. Keep on keeping on, Jacob.

Keith Monacchio

“I always like to play shows that give back and helps people in need,” said 46-year-old Keith Monacchio from Hamilton, “My father passed away from cancer when I was very young, so charities that help people with cancer have a more personal meaning to me.”

This Sunday we are donating to The Beauty Foundation Friends that helps families facing cancer. Hopefully we give and help families that need some love and support for their loved ones, friends, and, or, family.

“I’m happy to play Noise in the Attic, and to also play at The Inkwell,” said Monacchio. The musician discusses that he has been a performer for very long, but has somehow never played at The Inkwell.

“…So this will be my first time,” says the Hamilton native. As said for Jacob Schneck, we are surely happy to have you. I am glad we could be a place you can rock your heart out with good people, for good causes, and good vibes.

Monacchio has played in rock bands since he was 20-years-old, having toured in his younger years, as well as playing solo acoustic for the last 11 years of his music career.

“I've released a bunch of records with my bands and 3 solo records,” shares the solo acoustic musician. His latest release is The Dust-Up, which was released this past fall.

Having written a lot of music, Monacchio goes on to say how many of his songs are autobiographical, while others are fictional stories. Although some songs are written as fictional stories, the long-time rock musician says that those fictional songs still have extensions of himself in them.

Inspired by anything from life experience, people, movies, books, and other artists, Monacchio says inspiration is everywhere and it changes with each year of his life. That is really a brilliant detail to learn about you, Keith. 

“You can expect me to play some songs from my latest release as well as some songs that I've been working on over the last few months.  You can expect my best self, whatever that is, that's for sure,” says Monacchio.

Jessie McCormick

Jessie McCormick, soon to be 23-years-old this May 17, is from Lincroft, and has been playing the ukulele for nearly five years now!

“I don’t have a particular style,” said McCormick, “A lot of music I play is pretty relaxed and the musicians I cover are people who inspire me.” McCormick says that she loves people like Julia Nunes and Dodie Clark, as she describes them as, “two badass women who write mainly on ukuleles.” (She also loves Frank Turner, who of which, is actually a big Inkwell favorite).

The more recently serious ukulele musician states she has become a musician on accident. The energized heart that is McCormick explains that her music sort of manifested out of the Jersey Shore music scene.

McCormick goes on to share: “Then one night, I came to the Inkwell when it happened to be an open mic night. I was talking to Avery after she got off the stage. She had just sang "Bike Song" with Fern, and I wanted to know who sang it.”

The musician was introduced to the most encouraging Matthew Fernicola (A.K.A. Fern) by the very sensational Avery Mandeville. Sharing that she plays the uke, Fern emboldened McCormick to get up on stage at that weeks following open mic night and perform… and so she did!

“It all snowballed from there. Fern kept encouraging me to come to open mic night, which turned into other open mic nights, which turned into singing with his band, and now I've made a bunch of new friends and connections that I never thought I would! It's awesome. I couldn't be more thankful for the scene and everyone in it, including my Inkwell open mic night fam,” shares McCormick. 

And we are thankful for you too, Jess! It is always a beautiful sight to hear and see you play with a smile, Jess. You always have a smile to shine and a hug to give and you should be sincerely proud of the strength you have in your sound and artistry.

With this all being said, Sunday’s Noise in the Attic is Jessie McCormick’s first show with us and we are certainly proud to see her and maybe some of Fern and his Foes! 

“It's my first show ever! I'm mainly excited, but also really nervous. I've only ever played at open mics with two or three songs, or sang back up for friends where I wasn't front and center.” The up and coming musicians said that it is weird being a feature, but nevertheless, that she is proud and has seen herself come far in the music scene in a short period of time.

Right on Jess, you keep on keeping on and feeling the pride you do in your heart.

Additionally, McCormick discusses the importance in giving to the The Beauty Foundation Friends: “I'm excited that I get to give to a great cause! I used to be heavily involved with my friend's family's charity, Breast Intentions, which is a charity that supports families affected by breast cancer struggling with bills or groceries.” She adds that this cause is quite important to her… I am happy you have this chance to play for a cause that means so much to you, Jess.

Let’s Rock n’Roll tonight!

MACK (Mackenzie Brown)

“Playing a show for a cause like this is so humbling and it gives me a new perspective on what music can do and what I can do even as a local artist,” said 23-year-old Mackenzie Brown, known under the moniker, MACK. Brown says that being a part of something contributes to the health of a family is inspiring, hoping to do more shows like the one we are hosting under Noise in the Attic.

It is indeed Brown’s very first time playing Noise in the Attic, so we shall give her a warm welcome on this gorgeous spring evening. “I was so happy to be added to this show,” said the West Orange native, “I’m really looking forward to it.”

Right on! So are we MACK! It is always a pleasure having new music coming in and out of Noise in the Attic. We are pleased to share the love.

Brown has an intriguing style, as she describes herself as Paramore meeting Fleetwood Mac. I would say a brilliant pairing… I am a huge fan of Fleetwood Mac and, of course, Paramore! This is exciting. I think you are going to shake things up, MACK!

“I like upbeat, belty melodies, but I also have a lot of classic rock roots in me that naturally come to me just by listening to it my whole life,” said Brown.

I would say that the power you describe music to have takes  hold of our styles and inspirations. Like you even said in the embracing of your classic rock roots—you’ve listened your whole life… I think that totally does do something to your art and how you manifest it.  

Discussing this power, Brown says that music has the ability to affect so many parts of a person, continuing on, “It triggers memories, relationships, emotions, all of your senses, etc.; it can heal many situations, and I'm so thankful to be around it so often and experiment with making my own music as well.”

The artist is inspired by the people around her that invigorate and teach her to be a better artist. “Without the support of my friends and family…” continues Brown,  “…I don't think I'd be growing into the artist I am today.”

The audience can expect an intimate performance from MACK as she will be fitting her Paramore meets Fleetwood Mac style to fit the acoustic set up of Noise in the Attic. Brown says, “I'm so excited for this show and to listen to the other performers as well!”

We are excited for you too MACK and I am positive that the other musicians are just as stoked to witness you perform as you are them… I find that quite beautiful. Welcome to the party!