Music

Riveting newcomer Lauren Sanderson has announced summer U.S. headlining dates, aptly dubbed the Trust The Universe Tour, her first major trek since signing with Epic Records this past spring. The live run kicks off in Milwaukee, WI on July 12 and hurtles through much of the country’s heartland, winding down in early August. It’s an enticing rollout from the Midwest-reared 22-year old whose alluring blend of alternative, R&B, and hip hop has captivated music fans and critics across the globe. She will be in Columbus on July 31 at The Basement, 391 Neil Ave, 

Rob Collier, a composer/performer from Milwaukee, Wisconsin is doing a tour and will be playing at It Looks Like its Open, 13 E. Tulane on Saturday, July 14, 7:30-10:30pm. He is touring with Ben Aguilar (from Louisville, Ky) and performing a new composition called Music in Transparent Layers. They will record every performance on the tour and play the recordings at each subsequent show as we add a new layer live. Thus, each performance is a unique stage in the development of the piece. The music is ambient/minimal/experimental.

MUSIC IN TRANSPARENT LAYERS is a new composition by ROB COLLIER. Multi-timbral motives, pseudo-ambient textures, process-driven harmony. Performed in duet with BEN AGUILAR.

NOISTERIA EMISSION - Experimental electronic from Dayton, OH

HABITEUR - Coaxing beauty from ugliness, Habiteur works with machinery, junk, repurposed electronics, tapes, and various objects.

There is a restaurant in Las Vegas called the Lotus of Siam. It’s a pretty unassuming place, and until recently was actually located in a strip mall. Despite this, people in the know tell me that it has the best Thai food anywhere in the world except (maybe) Thailand. I was lucky enough to be taken there recently by a friend who happens to have a lot more money than I do.

Although I’m not really a connoisseur, the food was certainly good. In particular, they had a crispy rice appetizer which was an explosion of flavor – sweet, sour, spicy and licorice all coming at you at once. The phrase “it’s like a party in my mouth” is probably overused, but it was totally like a party in my mouth.

Which brings me to “We Don’t Dream We Worry,” the new EP from the band Sussman Can’t Sleep. Sussman, which bills itself as “dark rock for the masses,” serves up a wide swath of everything from punk to Britpop with a generous helping of mid-70’s Neil Young and even some surf rock. Sometimes it throws all of these at you in the same song or even at the same time. Somehow they make it work, embracing variety but avoiding cacophony.

Brett Burlison.

Eddie Bayard.

Roger Hines.

Shane Willis.

Alex Burgoyne.

Folks, that is how you spell ‘beauty’ in this day and age of the Beast – those five jazz-men’s names.

And boy, did I soak up these marvelous jazz players’ collective and individual beauty at their last Wednesday night residency at Dick’s Den in June. I don't mean to be inarticulate, but you're going to hear a lot of the ‘b’ word in the next few hundred words.

From my notes:

First song, Charlie Parker’s Billie’s Bounce – great opening energy...saxist Bayard firing on all valves, his weathered tenor bell blasting brash...Hines on a stool, his big ol’ violin-shaped double-bass layin’ in his lap like a French whore left over from the German occupation getting tickled high and low...Burlison chording color...Willis’s ticking, tapping and timing on the drums, cymbals and foot-pedal was precision itself...can precision be creative? Willis’s, yes.

By song’s end, I was smoking hot.

And that was just their first song!

Sunday, June 24 - Comfest
5:50 PM - Live Arts stage
Spoken Word with African Dance and Drumming

6:35 PM - Bozo stage
Saturday, June 23 at Comfest
Goodale Park
This is a rock n' roll band that paints with the psychedelic volumes of 68 and 69

This is a music story that begins, oddly enough, in a courtroom at the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Cincinnati, Ohio. Around a month ago, I happened to be present when arguments were being made in the case of PGP, LLC vs. TPII, LLC, et al. PGP is a corporation owned by a Nashville talent manager named Herbert Graham. TPII is the corporate face of Keith Burns and Hattie Newfield, two of the three founding members of the pop-country band Trick Pony.

Trick Pony is godawful. I’m not sure if their songs “Pour Me” and “On a Night Like This” were the absolute nadir of late 2000’s pop-country dumbassery, but if they weren’t it certainly wasn’t for lack of trying. Every cheap trick (sorry) in the book, from exaggerated accents to American flag themed guitars. Their website even features an adorable listing of the band members likes and dislikes. For the record, Newfield dislikes mean people and blue cheese and Burns is a fan of cold beer.

It felt like last football season we weathered the President's attempts to use racism to make himself appear patriotic.

In 1985, our president (pre-presidency) tried to move the USFL into direct competition with the NFL. After winning a lawsuit regarding monopoly laws his method of conflict ran the USFL into the ground.

Is it weirder that the guy is using racial divisiveness during football season instead of caring about American citizens, or that the NFL wouldn't sell this guy a team 30 years ago so he ran another league into the ground out of spite?

One of the people who seemingly led the victory over the president's divisiveness is Lebron James, who showed complete class in uniting sport fans. In 2018, my guess is whoever the MVP of this month's NBA finals will not be visiting the White House.

In Columbus, Ohio, you can't think Lebron James without thinking about his support of local Hip Hop group Fly Union. Jay Swifa of Fly Union just released his first solo album called Enigma.

This is a little weird so bear with me, folks.

I'm gonna write you about the best night o' music I've had so far this year--the Andyman tribute a month ago at the Little Rock Bar on N. Fourth Street by the Joe Peppercorn congregation. Joe and bros performed their original music as The Whiles and then a solid couple of hours of stuff by a quaint if daftly named British boy band from yesteryear and Liverpool called The Beatles.

But first, my short essay on the first 16 seconds of the first song on the third Black Sabbath album and what that precious quarter of a minute has spawned, like a cross between a supremely fertile devil rabbit and a bat-eating alcoholic slob with a fantastic lashed-to-the-mast voice.

The song: Sweet Leaf.

The album: Master of Reality.

The guitarist: three-fingered Tony Iommi.

The chord pattern: bow-bow/babba-bow/bowww/bow-bow!

Repeat. Again.

Bang head on study hall table. Do it in detention six hours later. Never stop. Never give in. Sabbath rules.

They love to do the dog all night long!

And from everything in the good and the bad books and magazines I have read--anytime of day. How 'bout that?

This may come as no surprise to you. In fact, it is biblically and scientifically important that the entirety of humanity desires to do and indeed does go at it all night long--or there would be no more humanity. What is hidden in this is how often sex is and isn't the driving force in human behavior. Predators beware, we're getting hip to your trip.