Freak Scene #58: Drifting North Converge on 'First Harvest' EP
Plus, Ciarra Fragale's new single "Jazzercise Is on TV" and a quick dip into Ted Leo's "Shake the Sheets"
A Guide to Music in Western Mass. (and sometimes Connecticut)
This week in Freak Scene, New Haven group Drifting North is honing a cosmic-American vibe of their own, Ciarra Fragale evokes a bygone era on her latest single and I have the rare opportunity to make reference to Streets of Fire, a movie no one remembers (and justifiably so) but whose cast included Willem Dafoe and Rick Moranis.
New Haven band Drifting North describe themselves as a “convergence of sonic forces” with the release of their debut EP, First Harvest. It’s a true statement, but one that reflects only part of the story. The group is also the latest installment of an ongoing musical collaboration that singer/guitarist Jon Schlesinger and drummer Michael Kiefer have been charting for years, most recently as More Klementines and before that in No Line North and Myty Konkeror.
“As Jon kept writing more tunes and we kept jamming free with More Klementines, we roped in some friends to explore Jon’s songs but with a looser and freer spirit than what we were doing with No Line North,” Kiefer says by email.
Those friends include guitarist Richard Brown, who has played with Miracle Legion, the Sawtelles, Happy Ending and others; keyboard player Scott Amore, who runs InnerSpace Sound Labs in Durham, Conn.; and a newer acquaintance, bassist Joe Sepi, of Least Best Beast and Discount Fireworks. The group began playing together in 2019, and then, well, there was that whole pandemic situation. Since then, though, Drifting North have been hard at work.
“We’ve been woodshedding and recording for the past few years at Scott’s InnerSpace Sound Labs studios, and we’re finally starting to close in on an LP,” says Kiefer, who calls First Harvest “just a taste.”
It’s a fine way to whet the appetite. The three songs on First Harvest have a cosmic American feel, shot through with earthy guitars and touches of psychedelia that make the tracks feel firmly rooted, with experimental elements: swirling wah-wah and a shifting drum pattern on the title track, or the string noise shuddering just below the pastoral surface of “Protest Kids.” Both tracks are instrumental. “Easy Pass,” the only one with vocals, surrounds Schlesinger’s deep voice with reverb and accompanies it with acoustic guitar and keyboards that blossom into a fuller arrangement after the first section of the song.
Though we’ll have to wait for a full-length, the band offers another taste with a recent performance in New Haven.
Ciarra Fragale Limbers Up With ‘Jazzercise Is on TV’
It’s disappointing to have only recently discovered Ciarra Fragale’s new song “Jazzercise Is on TV,” because I could have been listening to it since the Western Mass. musician released the track in February. Initially written as a tongue-in-cheek genre study, the first song from Fragale’s upcoming album Get What You Want turned into a pulsing ’80s-style pop anthem.
With a mid-’80s drum-machine beat and glossy synths, you can practically see the permed hair and leg warmers as Fragale recalls an era when exercise shows aired on daytime television. All those morning aerobics pay dividends at the club, where Fragale’s narrator “is hot for the rhythm and a freak on the dance floor.” Her vocals are multitracked on the chorus for a prismatic effect, and the whole thing sounds like it should have been the breakout hit from an ’80s B movie (sort of like how “I Can Dream About You” is all that anyone remembers from Streets of Fire).
Fragale recorded the track with Eric Slick of Dr. Dog. Get What You Want, out May 16, is the follow-up to her 2023 release Live & In Between; she also released a sleek version of Robyn’s “Dancing on My Own” that year.
Upcoming Concerts
She’s 85 and still at it: Judy Collins performs July 13 at the Shea Theater in Turners Falls (tickets).
Tree House Brewing in South Deerfield hosts Andy Grammer Aug. 26 (tickets).
The Iron Horse features Black Joe Lewis & the Honeybears June 5 (tickets), Chris Smither & the Motivators Nov. 15-16 (tickets here and here) and fiddle-cello duo Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas Nov. 18 (tickets).
The Drake in Amherst hosts an album release show by Western Mass. band Splendid Torch May 9 (tickets) and Deerhoof with Asher White June 27 (tickets).
The Marigold Theater in Easthampton presents Lost Film, Slant of Light and Nanny April 11 (tickets), Boston jazz-fusion group City of Four April 25 (tickets) and the Leafies You Gave Me, Cheap City in what’s billed as their last Western Mass. show and Pearl Sugar May 17 (tickets).
Lyle Lovett & His Large Band play College Street Music Hall Aug. 5 (tickets).
Steve Earle plays a solo-acoustic show June 8 at District Music Hall in Norwalk (tickets).
The Space Ballroom in Hamden, Conn., hosts Dead Heat May 13 (tickets), that same Deerhoof/Asher White show June 26 (tickets), Friendship June 27 (tickets), Phantom Planet July 30 (tickets) and New York sibling soft-rock group Infinity Song Oct 27 (tickets).
Resistance Postscript: Ted Leo
Though he doesn’t go around beating his chest over it, Ted Leo is one of the most socially conscious musicians around. His songs reflect a personal ideology of solidarity and compassion, which is sometimes obscured by the fact that they’re also catchy and overflowing with energy.
Leo and his band, the Pharmacists, are on tour this spring to (belatedly) mark the 20th anniversary of their 2004 album Shake the Sheets, including a show this Sunday, March 23, at the Iron Horse (tickets). The album is one of his best, and he addresses issues from eating disorders to health care to war, but never in a doctrinaire way. The themes on Shake the Sheets continue to resonate two decades later, and though he wrote the track during George W. Bush’s war on Iraq, there are present-day parallels throughout: “I want to take it to the president, him and all his cabinet, with a broom / I want to sweep the halls of arrogance, sweep the walls of the excrement of these baboons,” he sings, and, well, YEAH.
Last year Leo released a collection of demos for these songs and annotated them. “So much of my approach during these years became less about singing in some vague hope of affecting the people making war, and much more about affecting the people living through war,” he wrote in part about “Shake the Sheets.” That’s us, right now, but we’re not alone. “There’s a relationship right here you can start with, and then, you know, WE go from there.” Read the full text here, and see you Sunday at the show?
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.