February 7, 2025

Freak Scene #52: wolfears Runs Wild on 'WOLFPACK'

Plus, Frank Viele goes all 8-bit in a series of music videos, and we check out jepyang.

A Guide to Music in Western Mass. (and sometimes Connecticut)

We’ve reached Freak Scene #52, which means this newsletter is marking its first birthday. I knew from the outset that there was a ton of overlooked musical talent in Western Mass. and Connecticut. Even so, the amount of great music that people are making here has come as a very pleasant surprise. Thank you for subscribing, reading and sharing your music over the past year.

Let’s keep the party going this week with new albums from wolfears and Frank Viele, as well as checking in on older projects by the electronic musician jepyang.

Just to cut down on guesswork, wolfears offers a summary right there on the cover of their new album WOLFPACK of what listeners will find within: “Eight Songs About Queer Love, Heartbreak, Dysphoria and Happiness.” In other words, it’s a broad-spectrum approach.

The project of a Connecticut musician who goes by Ceej Wolf, wolfears has an off-the-cuff feel, as if Wolf found a banged-up microphone, plugged it into a cassette recorder and let the songs fly. The sonics on WOLFPACK are often crackly, especially on the vocals, and the acoustic guitars that carry many of these tracks don’t have much bottom end. Yet there’s an emotional richness here that outpaces the sound quality as Wolf unburdens themselves. They’re a lively presence whose mood ranges from gleeful and caffeinated to righteous anger, but always with a sense of showmanship. Wolf made WOLFPACK with mostly on their own, with occasional contributions on instruments, engineering and production from Matthew Sullivan.

Album opener “PLAYER PIANO” runs more toward gleeful, and Wolf drops in a Twin Peaks reference and disses Connecticut drivers (deservedly, if we’re being honest) while singing a lilting melody over warbling acoustic guitar. The musical arrangement unfolds to include keyboards and a multi-tracked chorus of backing vocals before reverting to acoustic guitar and coming to an abrupt end. Wolf finds their own sort of idyl on “SPEND THE DAY,” where they pass the time doing nothing much at all, accompanied by canned Casio beats and lush, lo-fi acoustic guitars.

The tone changes on the second half of the album, starting with “I WANNA SWEAR!” It’s an indignant kiss-off to an ex that rattles along on a fuzzed-over drum part topped with guitars and, midway through, a brief keyboard interlude. A track later, “CHALLENGER,” likens a relationship to the Chernobyl meltdown and the Challenger space shuttle explosion (1986 represent!) while 8-bit keyboard parts ping and swirl over a speedy beat and growling guitars.

Wolf views the album as having two distinct halves, more or less divided into love songs and love-gone-wrong songs. Yet even on the latter tunes, the singer maintains a barbed sense of humor that lightens would could have been heavy lifts.

“It is a conscious approach,” says Wolf, who also recently joined Perennial on drums (and we know how I feel about them). “Despair and joy are two sides of the same coin for me, and I’ve always had an affinity for dark comedy for that reason.”

Wolfears performs Feb. 15 with Stay at Home Dads; Wow, Okay, Cool; and August Galactica at the house venue Tori Town in Holyoke. Get in touch here or here for the address.

Frank Viele Plays for Keeps in 8-bit Video Series

It’s one of the better music-video conceits: New Haven’s Frank Viele over the past year has released a string of clips for songs from his new album, The Trouble with Desire, designed to look like ascending levels in an 8-bit video game. Through five installments (collected below), Digital Viele pursues quests and faces off against dastardly bosses in the mountains, the Old West, on the moon, accompanied by a second character titled “the love of my life” until — spoiler — she’s seized by a dragon.

The videos lend a conceptual air to Viele’s latest, which isn’t a concept album unless you count songs about love overcoming the odds. The Trouble with Desire is chock full of those. They’re roots-rock tunes with a Nashville vibe, though Viele recorded them in Muscle Shoals, Ala. He favors arrangements that alternate between burly guitars and heartfelt twang, propelled along by chugging rhythms and crowned with vocals that seek a middle ground between gruff/strong, and tender.

The songs are sleek and professional, and each one sounds radio-ready — in fact, first single “Hearts We Leave Behind” was the song of the week on Boston country station WKLB-FM, 102.5, when it came out in January 2023. Though Viele doesn’t skimp on hooks, the songs do blend together a bit, and his lyrics stick close to the usual Americana tropes on songs like “Dive Bar Poet,” “Sleepless Nights Alone” and “Mountains We Can Climb.”

The Trouble with Desire is Viele’s first release on his own new Bigger Beast Records. He views the label as an incubator for up-and-coming musicians, as well as a vehicle for his own projects. What that will look like remains to be seen, but it’s no secret that finding an audience is trickier than ever for young musicians. If Viele can help them do it, more power to him.

Now then, what about the love interest kidnapped by a dragon? Let’s just say that Nintendo Viele is keen to rescue her, more than once if necessary. Also, don’t miss the dancing pickle in “Necessary Evil.”

Catching Up with … Jepyang

Novelists have National Novel Writing Month in November and mustache enthusiasts have Movember (also in November). Musicians have claimed the first month of the year for Jamuary, when participants attempt to write, record and release a new song every day for the month of January. The Pioneer Valley electronic musician Jepyang has taken up the challenge twice, resulting in a pair of releases in 2019 and 2024. Each consists of tracks (25 and 16, respectively) that are just one minute long.

“The first time I did Jamuary in 2019, I was primarily active on Instagram, and at the time IG limited all videos to one minute,” jepyang says by email.

Turns out the one-minute stricture also offered a secondary Jamuary challenge that appealed to jepyang.

“I realized that one minute also just seemed like a good fit for how I approached the challenge,” jepyang says. “Long enough to incorporate some structure so it still feels like a ‘song,’ short enough that I can reasonably complete it within one day, and bonus, it’s just a fun creative limitation to work within.”

Though jepyang has released other songs, their Jamuary projects afford them an opportunity to stretch their creativity in new directions with bursts of dance music, ambient sounds and more lush orchestral arrangements flowing into each other, like a DJ set in miniature.

“I do a lot of experimenting on those recordings, trying new techniques, instruments, effects, and samples I’ve been curious about but not yet applied in my long-form work,” says jepyang, who occasionally takes part in the open-mic-style Western Mass Electronics Night at Quarters in Hadley. “Sometimes it’s a little mini-challenge I give myself, like an entire track on one underused piece of gear; other times it’s more free-form, just trying out new timbres and listening for what’s compelling about them.”

This Weekend

Original Cowards, who featured in Freak Scene #14, perform with Brandee Simone Saturday at Hutghi’s at the Nook in Westfield. Show starts at 8 p.m., and there’s a $10 cover. Simone, formerly of the Salvation Alley String Band, is performing with her new group, which comprises Jim Bliss, Rebecca May-Dubs and Bob Fay.

Also Saturday, De La Luz Soundstage in Holyoke (formerly Gateway City Arts) presents Deejay Theory and Ecuadorian-Lithuanian sound artist and DJ RIOBAMBA (tickets).

Upcoming Concerts

The 14th annual Beatles Open Mic happens March 8 at Marigold Theater in Easthampton. It’s a benefit for the Northampton Community Music Center (my kid takes guitar lessons there — it’s amazing). The show features a full backing band to accompany people who sign up to sing any Beatles song they want, with one catch: no repeats are allowed. Last year’s version included 56 Beatles songs. There’s a sliding-scale donation from $10-$20 for admission.

Eilen Jewell performs Sept. 11 at the Shea Theater in Turners Falls (tickets).

The Iron Horse in Northampton hosts the Nth Power April 10 (tickets), Kalliope Jones with Hazel Foucault (Jeffrey Foucault and Kris Delmhorst’s kid!) April 11 (tickets), Loudon Wainwright III April 25 (tickets) and Medium Build and Petey USA May 2 (tickets).

The Drake in Amherst features Vapors of Morphine March 21 (tickets), Sardinian guitarist Paolo Angeli March 22 (tickets via Secret Planet, which presents this one) and Mikaela Davis June 19 (tickets).

More at De La Luz: Lisa Fischer Feb. 28 (tickets), Kat Edmondson March 2 (tickets), Glen David Andrews Band March 7 (tickets) and the Colombian all-female salsa ensemble Las Guaracheras March 23 (tickets).

Twin Tribes and Chameleons play District Music Hall in Norwalk May 2 (tickets).

The Mission perform June 19 with Poppy Jean Crawford at the Space Ballroom in Hamden (tickets).

The Warehouse at FTC in Fairfield hosts Big Bad Voodoo Daddy March 21 (tickets) and Clare Maloney & the Great Adventure March 22 (tickets), while StageOne at FTC presents Improvement Movement March 25 (tickets), Sam Greenfield March 30 (tickets), Midnight North April 2 (tickets) and Jelly April 5 (tickets).

Freak Scene is always seeking submissions. You can send music for coverage consideration to erdanton at gmail or reply to this email. Check out these guidelines first.

Thank you for reading, and for sharing this newsletter. Previous issues of Freak Scene are available in the archive.