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On New Recording, O.K. Company Stays Strong

by Brian Slattery | Jan 5, 2022 9:10 am | Comments (0)

“Bright Lights,” the first song from O.K. Company’s new album Stronglove, is built on a set of luscious, chiming piano chords that at first has only a hi-hat keeping the backbeat for accompaniment. But that’s more than enough to buoy the singer, who delivers lyrics that speak of a different time and our own. ​“All alone on a crowded afternoon,” she sings. ​“I miss you lately / because everybody needs somebody.” 

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Today's Ted Toon

by Ted Littleford | Jan 4, 2022 9:58 am | Comments (1)

Andy Daps Makes A Necessity Of "Virtues"

by Brian Slattery | Jan 4, 2022 9:46 am | Comments (0)

“The 99th Day,” the first song from Andy Daps’s new album Small Virtues, starts off with a driving beat and a fuzzed-out guitar. But Daps’s vocal is even-tempered, almost serene. ​“It happened on the 99th day / At the time it was surely a sign / Recurring ordeal / Battle scar, surreal,” he sings. As he hits the chorus, instead of an electric guitar, a sitar takes the lead, making way for a break involving tabla and flute. It’s the kind of musical left turn that you don’t see coming but brings all the more satisfaction for the surprise. It’s also a proper opener to an album that’s filled with similar musical moments — smart, unexpected, and totally accessible.

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Student Art Crew Brightens The Shack

by Maya McFadden | Jan 2, 2022 10:53 am | Comments (2)

Maya McFadden Photo

Honda Smith, Nijaya Brown, Barbara Hawke-Lopez, Rhieanna Rubertone, Nashali Nieves, and Rebecca LeQuire by new mural at spruced-up Shack.

With the help of four high school students who found a fun way to spend part of their Christmas break, the late New Haven rapper known as Stēzo has been brought back to life on his home turf of West Rock/West Hills. 

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Piano Piece

by Lary Bloom | Dec 23, 2021 9:45 am | Comments (0)

A few weeks ago, I walked past a house near my own and heard the strains from a piano. It was a real acoustic keyboard, of the pre-electronic kind. 

And it set me off on two adventures, one mental and one physically intrusive.

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Neighbors Pillory Design For Columbus Statue Replacement

by Allan Appel | Dec 22, 2021 3:58 pm | Comments (19)

Mark Massaro's design for a new statue in Wooster Square Park.

Is the art too saccharine? Obsolete on arrival? 

Does it tell only an Italian story and not one that reflects the diversity of Wooster Square today? 

Has the community not truly been engaged in the process?

And where in the original charge to artists a year ago was there permission to pave over more than a thousand square feet of precious green space?

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Thou Shalt Go With The Flow

by Brian Slattery | Dec 17, 2021 1:15 pm | Comments (2)

A new 50-year retrospective exhibit displays works by artist Bruce Oren (below), including the above sculpture of Moses.

Artist Bruce Oren renders the face of Moses in fine detail in marble, from the wrinkles worn into his face to the weight of his eyelids. He conveys the heaviness of the tablets on his shoulders by the angle of his elbow, the definition of the muscles. But as we move away from Moses’s face, the details begin to grow coarser, until we see the edge of the block that Moses came from.

The figure emerges from the marble, but Oren leaves room for the stone to have its say, too. We get to see not just the finished figure, but the path Oren took to get there.

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Dusty Stays True To Barnard

by Courtney Luciana | Dec 16, 2021 3:26 pm | Comments (11)

Courtney Luciana Photos

Rapper Dustystaystrue back at Barnard Thursday after a national tour.

Five hundred students gathered in the courtyard of Barnard Environmental Science and Technology School roared with excitement Thursday morning as Dustystaytrue’s ​“Never Change” blared from the speakers — and the rising rapper himself arrived on scene.

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Indie Hip Hoppers Keep It In The Family

by Brian Slattery | Dec 16, 2021 9:25 am | Comments (0)

Brian Slattery Photos

Sketch Tha Cataclysm

Four indie hip hop acts connected with the New Haven-based Fake Four record label made good on Cafe Nine’s nickname of the musicians’ living room by holding a show Wednesday night that felt personal and familiar, even as the acts themselves hailed from as close as the Elm City, and as far away as Dallas.

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Atticus Market's Beer Pitch Sparks Debate

by Allan Appel | Dec 15, 2021 3:06 pm | Comments (14)

Lisa Reisman Photo

Operations manager Brandi Hansen and manager Sam McGee awaiting order at Atticus Market.

Atticus Market, the new East Rock outpost downtown bookseller and café Atticus that which opened in the spring, has books. It has the groceries. It has pizza.

Now they want to add beer to the list. Neighbors turned up to show they love the store — but area package store owners had reservations about new competition.

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Three Bands Rock The Holidays At Space Ballroom

by Brian Slattery | Dec 15, 2021 9:31 am | Comments (0)

Before the electric guitars, before the bass, before even the drums, vocalist and guitarist Travis Shettel of the beloved Boston-based emo band Piebald opened the band’s set Tuesday night Space Ballroom alone, with a quiet rendition of Mel Tormé’s and Bob Wells’s classic ​“The Christmas Song.” It was a small moment of calm in a night filled with raging rock. But in the sincerity of its emotions, and its connection with the audience, it fit right in.

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The Problem With Kids Today Bottles The Energy On "Junk"

by Brian Slattery | Dec 14, 2021 9:14 am | Comments (3)

From the start of Junk, the debut album from The Problem With Kids Today, it’s all wrong, and that’s what makes it right. Four chops from an electric guitar at the beginning of the first song, ​“You’re In Love With Junk,” are supposed to set the tempo, but they don’t. The drums insist on a faster tempo, the guitar falling in. What follows is just over two minutes of building mayhem, as a heavy riff gives way to barking vocals. It’s pure party. But there’s something else going on, too. 

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Deck The Hulls Marks Its Tenth Year

by Karen Ponzio | Dec 13, 2021 9:14 am | Comments (0)

Karen Ponzio Photos

The Hulls

Celebrating tens: That is what a slew of local music fans did this past Friday night at The State House for the 10th anniversary of Deck the Hulls, the annual holiday fundraiser event hosted by local punk legends The Hulls. 

The tradition began at Rudy’s and proceeded to Three Sheets. It ended up this year at the State Street club, where the band was joined by two always-ready-to-party New Haven bands, The Simulators and The Right Offs, to raise money and collect food for a good cause while also gathering friends to get the holidays off to a spirited start.

Monetary donations as well as canned goods were accepted at the door for CT Foodshare (formerly know as CT Food Bank) while Christmas music played overhead and attendees greeted each other after a year off due to Covid closures.

First to the stage was The Simulators, six members strong and ready to get the audience good and warm. A fun and feisty set of rocking reggae-ska-punk felt like a party that welcomed any and all to attend. Guitarists Kevin MacKenzie and Julian Wahlberg traded off vocals and riffs while Frederic Anthony and Zachary Yost kept the beat tight on drums and bass and Cody Freedom and Brian Koopman shared saxophone duties. Together they melded into a smooth sweet sound that got the steadily building crowd to move around, though MacKenzie also egged the crowd on by telling them to ​“shake your booties.”

MacKenzie also thanked The Hulls for ​“putting this on,” to which Wahlberg countered with ​“you just thanked yourself, I think” — in reference to MacKenzie being a member of The Hulls as well. The crowd laughed, loving every minute of this set, which Wahlberg had mentioned earlier marked the band’s first show at The State House. And the celebration had only just begun.

“Good evening. We’re The Right Offs. How you doing?” said Maxwell Omer, guitarist and vocalist of the hard rocking trio, rounded out by Than Rolnick on bass and vocals and Robert Breychak on drums. The band immediately exploded into a stellar set of beloved originals that felt fresh and new again, complemented by a couple of holiday tunes that sparkled with the band’s indelible sound. 

Omer mentioned he was having a ​“hard time getting into the Christmas spirit,” but you would have never known that given the way he stomped and strutted through Chuck Berry’s ​“Run, Run Rudolph.” The band was joined on bells by The Simulators’ Cody Freedom, dressed in an elf hat and holiday sweater, adding a healthy dose of cheer to an already super-fun tune.

With some of the hardest driving beats around, guitar licks that sailed into the stratosphere, and lyrical songs like ​“Fire in the Theater” and ​“Post Bone Savvy,” the Right Offs’ set felt almost celebratory and definitively anthemic. The band mentioned recently on social media that they have only a couple shows left before they take a break. I suggest getting to one of those if you too are feeling the need to be rescued from the holiday blues.

The Hulls came to the stage decked out in holiday attire. Guitarist and vocalist Jess Corbett had on a colorful tree-studded suit, bassist John Meah wore a Santa hat and sweater, drummer Robert Breychak (fresh off his explosive set with The Right Offs) also sported a Santa hat, and guitarist and vocalist Kevin MacKenzie was decked out in a full Santa suit. Smiling and laughing from the get-go, with audience members shouting out to them even before a note was played — ​“watch what you wish for,” MacKenzie yelled back as requests were being made — the band immediately cemented the holiday tone even for those of us not quite there yet by beginning the set with Darlene Love’s ​“Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).” Freedom, now dressed as an elf, joined the Hulls on saxophone for this one and came back to play bells on a few other songs, including Wham’s ​“Last Christmas,” which in their hands became a pulse-pounding punk rock proclamation of loss. 

The band added its own spin to a multitude of classics, such as Tom Petty’s ​“Christmas All Over Again,” Jose Feliciano’s ​“Feliz Navidad,” and The Kinks’ ​“Father Christmas.” They also sang originals, including a holiday song called ​“Christmas Time on the Picket Line,” which Corbett said he wrote years ago for union members; he added to not forget those out there on the lines right now.

For that one the Hulls were joined by Michael Cooper, who also delivered a spirited performance of The Ramones’ ​“Merry Christmas,” dressed as his alter ego from The Hymans, a local Ramones cover band that includes members of The Hulls. A well-known local artist as well as performer, Cooper made the flyer for this show and has made them for the band for years. 

The crowd got crazy in on the action during ​“Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” sung in the style of Bruce Springsteen’s cover of the song, singing and dancing along, and many kept going for the next one, Midge Ure’s and Bob Geldof’s ​“Do They Know It’s Christmas?” 

By the time the Hulls got to its last song, a riotous punk version of ​“Auld Lang Syne,” the crowd was deep in party mode and deeply appreciative. While the night had been a joyous respite from the recent ills of the week, it also did what the best shows often do: instilled a sense of community and hopefulness that could be carried away beyond that evening.

“Here’s to a better year next year,” said MacKenzie. ​“If we all stick together, we can do it.”

Kehler Liddell Gallery Decks The Walls

by Brian Slattery | Dec 10, 2021 10:45 am | Comments (0)

The crisp, heightened color and the vertical symmetry immediately draw the eye to Penrhyn Cook’s photos, Mexican Tub and VW at Sunrise, side by side on the wall at Kehler Liddell Gallery in Westville. They’re just normal manmade objects, and in the world there are many like them, but Cook’s treatment of them imbues them with substance, meaning — even dignity. 

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Ely Center Exhibit Is A Light In The Dark

by Brian Slattery | Dec 9, 2021 9:10 am | Comments (0)

A darkened room filled with luminous yet ruinous shapes. A wavering eye at the top of a crooked tower, never blinking but always bleary. One wall has been transformed into a pale blue screen. The words ​“I wouldn’t do this to you if you didn’t deserve it” are typed out in a primitive font. Across the room is a chair with the word ​“guilty” projected onto it; on the wall behind it, a more expansive message: ​“Everybody’s guilty of something.”

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Artist Takes The Long View

by Brian Slattery | Dec 8, 2021 10:02 am | Comments (0)

Susan Newbold

Island Magic

The vivid colors make the title of Susan Newbold’s piece — Island Magic — appropriate enough, but Newbold’s treatment of the subject moves the image well beyond a travel postcard. There’s enough information in the texture of the painting that, with a small imaginative leap, the viewer can be on that coastline, feel the grit of the sand, the roughness of the rocks, the cool water. It’s not just a picture of a place; it’s a record of Newbold’s experience of being there.

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Going For The Big Ohm At Never Ending Books Drone Workshop

by Brian Slattery | Dec 7, 2021 9:32 am | Comments (0)

Brian Slattery Photos

Conor Perreault, part of the Volume Two collective that runs Never Ending Books, was seated at an organ in the State Street space. He let out a long, low bass note from the instrument’s foot pedals. 

“You’re all set,” said Tim, a musician who was setting up a laptop rig. ​“Get a brick.”

Perreault left the room for the yard behind Never Ending Books, and in fact returned with a brick, which he placed on the pedal. The sound went on and on.

“Fantastic,” Tim said.

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