This past Tuesday, the Royale was blessed to be rocked by the supergroup of Ty Segall & The Muggers with opening sets from CFM and Midriffs. The show served as an opportunity for Ty and his new alter ego, Sluggo, to find their mommy. Ty Segall/Sluggo stomped around the stage for a majority of the set wearing a denim jumpsuit, a surprisingly terrifying baby mask, and a very thick rendition of an umbilical cord. Sluggo was also joined on stage by members of WAND, King Tuff, Mikal Cronin and Cairo Gang. The supergroup shredded through a majority of their new studio album (Segall’s 8th), Emotional Mugger, and also hit favorites from Manipulator and Melted. Check out shots from the show below and be sure to support baby Sluggo’s college fund by picking up Emotional Mugger from Drag City now!
Navigating the stars is hard. A couple weird astrology enthusiasts at Allston Pudding are here to help. Let us provide you with monthly synchronous soundtracks, and some planetary advice along the way.
March Planetary Overview
March 5th 5:23 AMMercury enters Pisces March 5th 9:29 PMMars enters Sagittarius March 8th 8:54 PMNew Moon, Total Solar Eclipse in Pisces March 12th 5:24 AMVenus enters Pisces March 20th 12:30 AMSun enters Aries March 21st 8:19 PMMercury enters Aries March 23rd 8:01 AMFull Moon, Penumbral Lunar Eclipse in Libra 1 March 25th 6:01 AMSaturn Retrograde Sagittarius (until August 13th)
Wtf it means:
Intuitive Pisces ultra present this March, as the Sun, Mercury, Venus and a solar moon occur in the sign. Mercury rules communication, and this planet in Pisces means an interest in the perspective of others, new information, and making plans for your future. Venus under the Piscean influence will, yes, up the romance factor; but it will also magnify our general love for beauty, art, creativity, and compassion. The solar eclipse in Pisces on March 8th will be more impactful than a new moon might, but they have similar effects, both working in an ~energetic portal~ kind of way. We’ll all have to get used to doing things the Piscean way— trusting your intuition, as far as balancing your duties and independence goes. This eclipse will also have us embracing our sense of empathy, opting for a more gentle, helpful approach when working with others. Meanwhile, Mars is really at home in Sagittarius, and we could harness the fearless energy of the planet of action in this position. The Sun enters Aries, the first sign on the zodiac, and marks the Spring Equinox, a new astrological year, and a time for new journeys. When Mercury transitions from poetic Pisces to assertive Aries, we’ll find ourselves expressing our thoughts more impulsively and innovatively. The second eclipse of the month is lunar, and a little more passive. Over the past three years, all of us have been in major flux concerning our ways of thinking about commitment and fairness. This struggle will come to a close at the end of the month.Saturn turning retrograde in airy Libra will slow everyone down, this month. This planet rules boundaries and structure, and when in retrograde, it can can make us feel more insecure about what’s expected of us. You may find yourself saying “Yes” when you should say “No.” Watch out for that through August.
March is a month spent yearning for the bygone romance of February, the most amorous of months. It’s like the candy hangover you wake up with after binging on heart-shaped chocolate, leaving me with nothing to do but daydream about my Valentine’s Day and sweep shameful amounts of Hershey’s Kisses wrappers from under my couch. This Valentine’s Day, more commonly known as The Day That Kanye Released The Life of Pablo, Larz Brogan and I took shelter from the sub-freezing weather with a romantic dinner date at Roxy’s Grilled Cheese, where we discussed love, life, and the pursuit of discounted chocolate over beer and Rookie Melts. No disrespect to my boyfriend, but I can’t think of a more romantic way to have spent my V-Day than by dissecting modern love with this cute creative powerhouse (and hogging that one big table in the back that’s clearly meant for, like, eight people).
This Humpday Hottie spent her Valentine’s Day going to a “totally lesbo hockey game” at Harvard Stadium with Ellen from Palehound. “It was way better than my Valentine’s Day last year,” she says, dunking the tip of her grilled cheese in a cup of Sriracha. “Last year [my ex-boyfriend] and I went to a P Funk concert. And I think it was because all I had that day was a heart-shaped pancake and then some SoCo on the rocks, but I fucking passed out. And it sucked, because it was right in the middle of my favorite song. So this year’s been better, going to a gay thing.”
Besides being one of Allston’s most eligible crushes, Larz is also known for singing and playing bass in dæphne, as well as drumming in Rictus Grin, Gay Sin, and Sexy Coyote. She’s smart as hell, she’s funny, she’s creative, and she rocks green hair and a dope sweater she stole from her mother with the cool ease that only True Crushes have. Smitten? Obviously. Peep her ~crush stats~ here:
Sign: Cancer, Sagittarius Rising, and Venus in Gemini, meaning this cuddly crustacean has an idealistic wanderlust to her (and perhaps some commitment issues. Shout out to Gemini).
Status: S-I-N-G-L-E. “Right now, since I just got out of that serious relationship, I’m just doing my own thing. Kind of babe-ing out here and there. I don’t really have one specific person that I’m after, if you will.”
First Kiss: Curt Ford, her fifth-grade bully. “He would buy this specific brand of Sprite. It was this fruity thing… You know how they have those weird flavors that are once-in-a-lifetime? It was one of those. So he would drink that, and we would make out under the fucking slides. And I was like, wow, this tastes so good! But he was a dick.”
Ideal First Date: In this universe: “Playing a lot of Zelda and Tony Hawk and eating a lot of pizza and chilling.” In another universe: “We would turn into motorbikes together and then drive through the desert and swim at the bottom of a lake, as motorbikes. And maybe eat some applesauce, like, as motorbikes. The applesauce would go into the exhaust pipe. And then we wouldn’t be motorbikes anymore. We would turn into a tree, and Eryka Badu would be singing about us because we’re an apple tree.”
Celebrity Crush: Lady Gaga, Kristen Stewart, and “Stevie Nicks, but not in a lusty way. I just wish she was my mom.”
Least Favorite Types of People: People who misgender other people, people who think football is more fun to watch than hockey, and gear heads. “You have, like, the shitty gear dudes, which is about ninety-five percent of them, and then there’s the cool dudes who actually know a fuck ton about gear. Ryan, who’s in daephne, he knows so much about gear, but he’ll never man-splain at you.” Nice work, Ryan!
Favorite Types of People: No phonies need apply. Larz’s ideal crush is all about honesty and chillness. “I’d like someone I can hang out with and vibe with, someone in touch with themselves and not fake. Someone who’s a cool hot dog with ketchup on the side.”
Opinion of Kanye West: Not favorable. “I don’t like him. His head is way bigger than his dick, and I think doesn’t have enough intelligence to back up all the shit that he spews from his mouth. I haven’t listened to his new stuff. I saw mixed reviews on Facebook—some people thought it was dumb, some people thought it was good. I just see him as a celebrity in the same way that Donald Trump is a celebrity–by being an asshole.”
Stats aside, what truly makes Larz crush-worthy are her astute opinions about Allston’s music scene. She doesn’t suffer fools well; she has no tolerance for people who sexualize or belittle female musicians, but she notes gradual improvement with these issues over the past few years, at least in Allston. “I think straight, cis men tend to have this sort of predetermined mindset where they minimize women because they think women can’t be as good,” she says. “But there are a lot of men out there who are very respectful and are trying to make the scene a better place with safe spaces that incorporate shows with female-identifying musicians. Because how boring and old and stale is it to go to a show and see acts that are just white dudes? More people seem to be kind of over that.”
The same goes for instances of sexual assault in the community–to put it plainly, people aren’t tolerating as much shit as they used to, and safe spaces are more prevalent than ever. “Things like sexual predators and assault, people take very seriously, which I think is great,” she says. “Even five years ago, some of this stuff would have just been brushed off… It’s interesting, because in this kind of scene, this Allston DIY one that I’m in, I think female-identifying musicians are taken a lot more seriously than they would be in other places. If anything, they’re sort of respected more, because of what they have to put up with.”
Larz preaches tolerance for all artists who are willing to work hard and stick their necks out, which is the ultimate Allstonian turn-on. And though Larz says she may be fickle in romantic situations, it’s apparent that she’s a softie at heart. “I think my ideal person is someone who just wants to hang out and be with me,” she says. “Someone who doesn’t care that my feet smell.” And isn’t that what love really means, when you get down to it–finding someone who doesn’t care that your feet smell?
If you were a reader of Allston Pudding back in our early days, you’d be quite familiar with our love for Worcester indie rock legend, DOM (see here, and here). If you like pure indie rock, then DOM is for you. Stream a few tunes below. DOM is returning to Allston on Thursday March 9th, and he’ll be joined by local public drinkers, Idiot Genes as well as Is Tropical.
Naturally, we’re co-presenting the show, and we’re giving away a pair of tickets to the show. Fill out the form to enter, and we’ll contact the winner on 3/8.
Over 30 bands played Fuzzstival 2015, but one of its more memorable highlights came on the last night when Black Beach held the stage.
As the band assumed post behind their instruments, it was hard to guess what the trio, well-dressed in short sleeved button downs and tidy haircuts, was about to perform. They looked neat and calm—you mostly expected them to invite you to a bonfire on a beach later that night; certainly not play a destructive, punk-inspired rock set that climaxed with the gnarliest version of “Surfin’ Bird” anyone in attendance had ever heard.
Steve Instasi laid his moaning vocals and feedback-laced guitar work atop a rolling boulder of a rhythm section, made up of bassist Ben Semeta and drummer Ryan Nicholson. You almost got the feeling that each member was on the verge of detonation. There was something under their tense veneer that was going to be let out, one way or another.
Maybe it was the fact that their bassist has become a local legend of sorts after putting out House of the Rising Fuzz, a compilation of garage-rock bands representing Boston’s most prominent music scene. Maybe it was the fact that the new songs they played were wild, untethered in a way that just felt right.
During the final moments of the set’s conclusion, Instasi flung his guitar over the stage’s side railing, leaving it to bombinate as the rest of the band concluded the surf-rock anthem.
Not many bands can boast the kind of reputation that Black Beach has already amassed, and without even putting out a full length. This week, that’s about to change. Friday, Black Beach is releasing their first LP, Shallow Creatures, and it feels more like a victory lap than a debut.
Instasi, Semeta, and I are chatting as we repackage vinyl records in Semeta’s apartment. There was a problem with the printing of the album’s artwork on the first batch, so four days before its release we’re pulling the discs out of the old packaging, placing them into the newly designed sleeves, aligning corners and delicately slipping them into their respective plastic tissues.
Erica from Littlefoot and Midriffs is watching Workaholics in the living room and a few members of Nice Guys are on their way over to help. The smell of freshly delivered pizza blankets the entire apartment. Everyone is in warm spirits.
I joke about the value as collectibles the original misprint may have in a few decades, which seems to surprise the two.
“I’ve never had the mentality that we were going to put out a record,” Instasi admits. “It just so happens that we have this many songs.”
“In the past, it was all just us writing a song apart,” Semeta adds. “That’s why we have all these three-song releases… Eventually, we just realized we had eight new songs.”
The three have been playing several of these for upwards of a year, allowing them to hone in on what they want, fitting to each others’ grooves, making the knocking of an album out in one charge seem effortless.
Shallow Creatures was recorded in just one eight-hour session at Q Division records. The opening track, “Self Portrait,” was done in only one take.
“You’re your own worst critic,” Semeta says. He has meticulously mastered the album for what seems like ages to him.
“After putting out House of the Rising Fuzz, I kind of got the gist of what it was to put out a record. And I was like, I can’t wait to do this for my band. But selling yourself isn’t as easy as selling, like, this project that everyone’s a part of.”
He adds that taking themselves more seriously as a band—touring, putting out a full length—really “helps with that anticipation of a record.”
The three have known each other for most of their lives, having played together in a lazy-susan-style rotation of many different, but still very much the same, bands.
“I’ve never had the mentality that we were going to put out a record… It just so happens that we have this many songs.”
After losing a lead singer of one of these when he moved to Florida, the band eventually re-settled just writing what they wanted to hear. They adopted the moniker Black Beach as an homage. “Black Sabbath, Beach Boys, Black Flag—all the coolest bands have at least one of those words, so I figured it’d be helpful to have both,” Instasi beams.
The influence shows. Black Beach manages to be simultaneously inspired by surf-rock riffs as well as the punch of hardcore punk in a sound that makes their cover of “Surfin’ Bird” not too far-fetched.
Shallow Creatures takes this to a new plane. The record is at once fast-paced and doomy, distilled with as much punk as psych-rock. Raw tempo changes and Instasi’s echoing, anxious lyricism make it complex in ways that are by no means overt.
Though the eight tracks conclude just shy of half an hour, they are the band’s most patient work. There is an air of violent restraint to Shallow Creatures. The instrumentation is spacious, spare but never empty. Each repeated phrase or frantic solo is given the attention it deserves.
“I’ve always wanted to put out a record. I’ve been playing guitar my whole life, I’ve wanted to be in a band my whole life, I’ve wanted to put out a record my whole life,” Instasi says. “Now they’re here… It’s a personal milestone.”
The album may be a milestone for the three, but, despite it not even being released, they’re already eager to craft the next. Black Beach is currently working on a handful of skeletons that may soon work their way into an upcoming performance.
Allston Pudding is proud to premiere the full stream of Shallow Creatures. Listen below. If your face begins to amorphously drip upon contact, do not be alarmed. This is normal, expected even.
Shallow Creatures is out Friday, March 4 via Basement Sounds. Be sure to catch the album’s release show the same day at the Middle East Upstairs with Dent, Steep Leans, and The Mardi Kings, presented by Illegally Blind. The show is 18+ and tickets are available for $12 here.
Amidst the nonstop Super Tuesday coverage and seemingly every other band on earth dropping their new single (s/o to Mitski, m83, Eskimeaux, and The Kills), Northampton-based Mal Devisa closed out yesterday by self-releasing her long awaited full-length on Bandcamp.
For those who have witnessed one of the singer/multi-instrumentalist’s sets, Kiid offers live staples like the haunting “Everybody Knows” and “Daisy”, but shines when it emphasizes Mal’s uncanny ability of making songs feel viscerally off-the-cuff, yet deeply intentioned. “In the Neighborhood” thumps with a viciously distorted synth bass as Mal assures that she’s doesn’t “look hip enough because [she’s] not hip enough in [her] neighborhood.” “FAT” thrives in a similar candidness as howls of “you mad?” come with enough force to divorce it from 4chan troll lexicon.
Stream the album in full below and purchase via their Bandcamp. A compilation tape of the For Daisy With Honey and 4U EPs has also been announced via DZ Tapes.
Ok, drop everything and listen to the new Mitski single, “Your Best American Girl,” released yesterday on Dead Oceans. Sure, it’s a huge bummer, but that’s the name of the game when it comes to this New York-based singer/songwriter.
So in case you hadn’t heard, Mitski’s fourth LP is out June 17, and it’s called Puberty 2– as you’ve probably gathered by now. She actually talked a little about the album cover and racial identity on Puberty 2 in an NPR interview from this morning.
If you’ve been sleeping on Mitski and haven’t listened to her 2014 release, bury me at makeout creek, do yourself the favor. She’s known for music that’s loud, but intimate enough to reverberate through your veins. And her new album is said to be just as personal, just as heavy-hearted, if only a bit more welcoming. Her summer tour stops by Brighton Music Hall on June 22nd, so mark it in your calendar a.s.a.p. I’m calling it now– this show will reach capacity.
Puberty 2:
01 Happy
02 Dan the Dancer
03 Once More To See You
04 Fireworks
05 Your Best American Girl
06 I Bet on Losing Dogs
07 My Body’s Made of Crushed Little Stars
08 Thursday Girl
09 A Loving Feeling
10 Crack Baby
11 A Burning Hill
Tour Schedule:
03-12 McAllen, TX – Galax Z Fair V at Yerberia
03-16 Austin, TX – Hype Hotel – YVYNYL x S&S x Hype Machine
03-17 Austin, TX – Barracuda – Secretly Group & Friends
03-18 Austin, TX – PEN – Portals SXSW 2016 – solo show
03-18 Austin, TX – Hole in the Wall – Stereogum x Exploding In Sound’s Austin Invasion 2
03-19 Austin, TX – Studium – She Shreds x Punctum Records Presents
04-17 Brussels, Belgium – Ancienne Belgique – solo show
04-19 London, England – Birthdays – solo show
04-21 Paris, France – La Mécanique Ondulatoire w/ Twin Peaks – solo show
04-23 Amsterdam, Netherlands – Paradiso Basement – solo show
06-20 New York, NY – Bowery Ballroom 06-22 Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall
06-23 Philadelphia, PA – Boot & Saddle
06-24 Philadelphia, PA – PhilaMOCA
06-25 Washington, DC – Rock & Roll Hotel
06-26 Durham, NC – The Pinhook
06-28 Atlanta, GA – Masquerade: Purgatory
06-29 Birmingham, AL – The Syndicate Lounge
07-01 Houston, TX – Walter’s Downtown
07-02 Austin, TX – The Sidewinder
07-03 Dallas, TX – Three Links
07-05 Phoenix, AZ – The Rebel Lounge
07-06 Santa Ana, CA – The Constellation Room
07-07 Los Angeles, CA – The Echo
07-08 San Francisco, CA – Bottom Of The Hill
07-09 Oakland, CA – Starline Social Club
07-11 Portland, OR – Analog Theater
07-12 Vancouver, British Columbia – The Cobalt
07-13 Seattle, WA – The Crocodile
07-15 Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Court
07-16 Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge
07-19 Minneapolis, MN – 7th Street Entry
07-20 Chicago, IL – Lincoln Hall
07-22 Toronto, Ontario – Horseshoe Tavern
07-23 Montreal, Quebec – Bar Le Ritz
“I had a phase when I was sixteen or seventeen where I thought nothing was real,”Dimitri Giannopoulosconcludes after some silence. “Like, I thought I was living in a constant dream. I refused to believe anything I was seeing was happening to me or even happening at all. I was just freaked out by everything.”
He’s quick to mention that it was just teenage thinking, that the feeling doesn’t stress him out much anymore, but it’s still the kind of abstract honesty that defines a person like Giannopoulos and a band like Horse Jumper of Love.
As we’re talking, his roommate’s dog Merlin alternates between teething on his boots and trying to eat loose change around the apartment. John Margaris, the bassist for Horse Jumper and one of Dimitri’s best friends, sits on the couch opposite Merlin, adding relatively minimal statements to the conversation, but remaining cheerfully affixed to whatever Dimitri has to say. Their drummer, Jamie Vadala-Doran, is en route from virtually endless undergrad study sessions, texting in periodically to ask if they can sneak him into a friend’s 21+ show later that night. And, within their small circle of known reality, their debut album as Horse Jumper of Love lies finished on a small handful of laptops and cassettes.
For all intents and purposes, Horse Jumper of Love have earned a prominent place on the city’s “bands to watch” list in the last year, even if the trio themselves are still reckoning with the fact that they’re being mentioned at all.
If we’re looking at local culture more clinically, their ascent is obvious: the concept of three guys playing unorthodox guitar parts rooted in ‘90s college rock bands has been championed in the Allston scene over the last five years, but to box Horse Jumper into that would ring sour to anyone that’s seen them live. Where records like Wowee Zowee and Doolittle get thrown out relentlessly as scene-wide influencers, Horse Jumper skew closer to Silver Jews’ American Water as a touchstone for their slowed down aesthetics.
Beyond influences though, the album put forth by Dimitri, John, and Jamie is the wholehearted effort of three friends with years of musical discovery, friendship, and love for one another established before a song was even recorded.
Growing up between Jamaica Plain and Dorchester, the trio officially met, rather ironically, as each other’s competition. “Dimitri and I basically formed a new band for my school’s Battle of the Bands and we were going against John,” Doran explained. They were playing as the Late Greats, a self-proclaimed “light indie rock” band that took its breezy cues from Local Natives, against John’s slightly more seasoned band Bridge to The Moon.
“I knew who John was,” Dimitri recalled. “He was, like, this big shot. His band sounded like Coldplay. They were good though!”
“I grew up very religiously and almost exclusively listened to Christian rock music for a long time,” John added. “We basically sounded like Coldplay because we were a Christian rock band.”
Unbeknownst to either of them, Jamie had already had a mythic encounter with John. “I remember I was at junior jazz band practice and John walks in wearing the same faded Old Navy v-neck shirt I was wearing with black jeans. I was like, ‘oh my god, this cool, older male is dressed similarly to me and that makes what I’m doing okay.’” Despite the hero worship, the Late Greats won the Battle, resulting in the three future bandmates keeping tabs on one another over the years.
“[John] found me on Facebook two years later and was like, ‘hey, you should come over and watch Lord of the Rings with me and my girlfriend,” Dimitri added with a laugh. “We went to a party first and I watched him throw up in a sink. That was my first impression of John since high school and I was like, ‘this is my guy.’”
The partnership between Giannopoulis and Margaris seemed defined from that first party by relishing life’s uncomfortableness and the ways people cope. “We sat outside on the stoop of that Berklee bro apartment [after the party] smoking cigarettes. John was like, “yeah, sometimes I get anxious,” and I was like, “hey, sometimes I get anxious too.”
“I was, at that point, flunking out of Berklee,” John added. “I had a very bizarre experience, growing up in this evangelical, ‘sons of God’, Pentecostal church. I was very on board with it all, but I decided to go to Berklee instead of bible college. [Dimitri] kinda rescued me from hating everything.”
2/17/16-Cambridge, MA-Julia Cumming of Sunflower Bean performs at The Middle East Restaurant and Nightclub on Feb. 27, 2016. (Mia Lambert / The Tufts Daily)
NYC’s Sunflower Bean rolled into Boston this past Saturday night for an early evening show at the Middle East Upstairs and absolutely lived up to the hype as one of the best new rock acts out there. The band, nothing short of overhyped this year for being penned as “NYC’s coolest young band” and receiving a four star review for their recently released debut record Human Ceremony would put the everlasting credibility of Rolling Stone magazine to the test. However meaningful a four star review can be these days or vague the word “cool” can be taken as, “young” couldn’t have been more accurate. The trio, all under the age of twenty one looked wide eyed and fresh faced as they wandered the club, shaking hands and exchanging pleasantries with excited fans before and after the show.
The show was put together by the always fringe worthy bills of Illegally Blind and began with Worcester’s Secret Lover. The four piece kicked off the evening with a surprising trip back to seventies and eighties glam rock, in a category they self proclaim as “graveyard glam.” Lead singer Sally Horowitz worked the stage with seemingly veteran show-womanship reminiscent of a bygone era of lead singers whose energy and charisma could transform an audience from that of slightly sober head bobbing to full on drunken head banging and/or thrash dance swaying. She transcended her times as she serenaded the crowd with quirky psychedelic love songs like “Montana,” about her drummer’s cat, and “Sometimes My Wine becomes My Lover” and eventually you couldn’t help but just smile and enjoy how much fun Secret Lover was to see and hear.
Up next was another NYC band Honduras whose sound and energy paired well with and continued to set up the headliner. The four piece tore through a set of garage rock stompers that was at times reminiscent of early Strokes material and when songs became somewhat extended presented hints of Parquet Courts.
By the time Sunflower Bean was transitioning between the bands shared stage set up the energy in the room seemed to be building. The nearly sold out crowd pushed closer to the front and giving less room for the noticeable scents of beer burps and farts to meddle without inevitably finding your nose. Lead singer and bassist, Julia Cumming chugged a red bull, tuned up her bass quickly and asked “how is everyone doing?” between gulps. Then she said that would be the only question of the night and the band was quickly off and running. Her wit combined with the bands quick set up into a big full sound presented a finely tuned band that without hesitation was about to steamroll through their debut album in about fifty minutes.
The album’s title track “Human Ceremony” opened the night nicely as it showed off a band that balanced out Cumming’s sweet and sultry vocals with lead guitarists Nick Kivlen’s more psychedelic echoey tones with perfect glimpses of harmonies between the both of them at times. The flange riff’s of “This Kind of Feeling” present almost prog rock vibes of Rush or a modern day Tame Impala, which is ironic because they followed up with a song named after the Australian psychedelic revivalists. Kicking off with an aggressive baseline reminiscent of Tame’s “Elephant” but twisted with Cumming’s squeaky yelp’s and Kivlin’s dreamscape vocals, something far more sinister was brought out of Sunflower Bean’s. The aggression and precision in which the Sunflower Bean plays with at times almost made them a metal power trio band that crosses over into psychedelic and dream-pop vibes instead of the vice versa descriptions they’ve been garnering. “Wall Watcher” played in the middle of their set might be the best example of all of these influences blended together and perhaps is the best example of all that Sunflower Bean brings to the table.
The band showed just how much of a raucous they could potentially cause when Cumming’s jumped into the middle of the crowd and continued to flawlessly punch out thundering baselines on “Somebody Call a Doctor” while inciting some light moshing. One could only imagine how wild this band could make a bigger crowd get on a bigger stage. Then they turned on a dime and got hazey and dreamy with songs like “Creation Myth” and their catchy melancholic single “Easier Said.”
Overall, Sunflower Bean is a band that can growl when its wants to and then melt your heart moments later. Perhaps the most impressive takeaway from their show is how sincerely talented the trio is at their instruments and craft and how this talent allows them to explore all of their influences in a cohesive manner that never seems clouded or misguided. Even though they are still out delivering debut performances for most of their audiences you already can’t help but wonder what Sunflower Bean will do next.
Photo by Caitlin McCann
For all intents and purposes, Horse Jumper of Love have earned a prominent place on the city
Unbeknownst to either of them, Jamie had already had a mythic encounter with John. 
