Freak Scene #8: Taxidermists Spike Your Heartrate on New EP
A Guide to Music in Western Mass. (and sometimes Connecticut)
This week in Freak Scene, Hadley duo Taxidermists return with a surprise EP, Montague fusion trio Vimana bring wide-ranging influences to their new album, and Bridgeport hockey fanatics the Zambonis hate it when their team commits unforced penalties.
Taxidermists’ latest opens with a jolt. The Hadley duo begins KO EP with a mallet instrument tapping out a rhythmic melody that bears enough of a resemblance to the “marimba” setting on an iPhone alarm to trick your brain, just for a moment, into sending a shot of time-to-get-up adrenaline coursing through your bloodstream. The sudden spike in your heartrate is useful preparation for KO EP. As on Taxidermists’ 2020 album Tax, Cooper B. Handy and Salvadore McNamara pair gritty, elemental guitar riffs with stuttering rhythms on five songs that clock in at just under 10 1/2 minutes. It’s lean, in other words. KO EP is also lo-fi: it’s mostly just guitar and drums (and, on “Shipwrecked,” piano from Red Herrings’ Girshwin Chapdelaine, though you’ll need to pay close attention to hear it).
KO EP follows close behind 100% PROD I.V., Handy’s latest album as LUCY, which came out in January. On his own, Handy favors hollered vocals and spare electronic backing tracks on songs that straddle the line between confessional and self-indulgent. Taxidermists, by contrast, are more rooted in melody. Their songs are catchy in a who-cares-what-you-think kind of way, as if the duo let the tape roll and jammed it out until something they liked took shape. With a limber, descending guitar figure and taut, snappy beat, “Shipwrecked” is arguably the most tightly constructed track on the EP, while “Stay Gone” is the catchiest. A meandering verse with free-associated lyrics slides into a sharply drawn call-and-response chorus mixing pop with punk (the tune it reminds you of is probably “Buddy Holly” by Weezer). Though it seems like LUCY has become Handy’s primary focus since Tax, reconvening with McNamara in Taxidermists broadens the musical perspective, without sacrificing the first-thought, best-thought aesthetic.
Vimana Head Skyward on Space Triangle of Love
Who knows if “heavy jazz” is even a thing, but that’s pretty much what’s happening on Space Triangle of Love by Vimana. The Montague trio describes itself as a fusion band that blends disparate influences from blues to funk, Portugal to Korea. The result is a collection of 11 instrumental tracks from a band that jams, but is not, strictly speaking, a jam band. The tunes on Space Triangle of Love have more structure, and feel more intentional: these guys know where they want to go, and have a notion of how they want to get there. Plus, they have chops. Guitarist Leo Hwang dials in a variety of tones and textures, bassist Brian Rodrigues is equally at home on big, splatty basslines like the one that opens the album, on “Greenline,” and subtle accents, as on “Blue 74.” Hwang and Rodrigues lock in on “NFWO” while drummer Bruce Todd steers the tune through muscular riffage into spacey section full of reverb punctuated by quick bursts of growling guitar.
“Sand Plains” hews closer to the blues, with a ringing arpeggio that opens the song before the trio slides into a thick, hypnotic groove that’s more about sludgy power than nuance as Hwang cycles through a series of lead lines that keep the song moving. Vimana goes exploring further afield on “Triângulo Espacial do Amor” (that’s Portuguese for ... well, you know). The band builds the song slowly from the murky opening, increasing in power and intensity to a whirling tornado of fuzz-tone wah-wah guitar in the middle, followed by a gradual easing back to earth. Though Hwang’s guitar is front and center, Todd is the one who holds it all together: he sits back in the pocket, playing with restraint and subtly shifting the rhythmic pattern until he needs to step up with a forceful fill. It’s an example of how the members of Vimana contribute to the overall sound: it’s clear that they’re listening to closely to each other. Hwang, Rodrigues and Todd are each capable of playing with flash, but their prime directive is serving the song.
The Zambonis Bemoan 'Unforced Penalties'
You know what really grinds the Zambonis' gears? Unforced penalties. That's the subject, and also the title, of the latest track from America's best (and only) hockey-themed band, which hails from the icy environs of Bridgeport. "Unforced Penalties" has a vintage garage-rock vibe, full of tremolo guitar and wiry lead lines. "We wanted to try to write a hockey song that perhaps The Sonics would have written in 1966," leader Dave Zamboni writes. "Well, we tried."
That's not all the Zambonis have been up to. The long-running band—"30 years, EVERY song about hockey," they boast—has a gig April 20 at StageOne in Fairfield (tickets here), where the Zambonis will also be inducted into the New England Music Hall Of Fame. This year's other inductees include a pair of New London acts: the punk-rock stalwarts the Reducers, along with roots-rockers the Rivergods.
New Shows Booked in the Valley
DSP Shows has another crop of bands coming to perform in local venues: Kathy Mattea comes to the Iron Horse in Northampton June 10, the Sam Grisman Project is there June 13, Jazz Is Dead: Explorations into the Music of the Grateful Dead performs Aug. 4, Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore with the Guilty Ones are there Aug. 21 and Ana Popovic plays Oct. 11. The Academy of Music in Northampton hosts Blackmore's Night June 30, Shawn Colvin and KT Tunstall July 13 and Connecticut's Sammy Rae & the Friends Nov. 12-13. The Beths play Sept. 5 at Summer Stage at Tree House Brewing in South Deerfield, and the Old 97's come to the Drake in Amherst on Sept. 11. Check here for ticket information for those and a whole lot of other shows.
Next week: The stunning new album from Cloudbelly, I Know I Know I Know.
To submit your music for coverage consideration, send a note to erdanton at gmail or reply to this email. Check out these guidelines first. You can find previous issues of Freak Scene in the archive. (Freak Scene is free, but donations are gratefully accepted.)