Mahayla’s cover of the Beach Boys’ “You Still Believe In Me” is telling. Singer/songwriter Dave Fera shares a fragile, young quality in his voice and lyrics with Brian Wilson. His songs aren’t as ornate—the only variation from traditional rock instrumentation is violinist Harry Hardin—but they share an unguarded, emotional quality that works both on their self-produced six-song disc and live. On disc, the songs are lovely and generally quiet, but live they find a fire only hinted at by the recordings, and the seemingly-offhanded performance makes the whole thing sound more like a spontaneous expression than a performance of songs.
That’s pretty impressive for a band that has only been together for a year and that has only had a stable line-up for five months. After becoming “tired of the politics” in Richmond, Virginia’s music scene, Fera moved here and started Mahayla with drummer Mark Davis. Since starting, they have been carefully charting the band’s course, trying to build an audience without overexposing the band. “You have to be tactical,” Fera says.
Just as Mahayla hasn’t rushed headlong into the arms of any bar or audience that will embrace the band, Fera seems ambivalent about success. He wants people to hear their music, but if it doesn’t come on his terms, it looks like he’d rather not have it. “Too many bands want to be on major labels,” he explains, “but our approach is to take small steps.” Instead, he’d rather be on a small label, “a good indie.” At this point, the band plans to record in Richmond in November—“analog on two-inch tape. It just sounds better”—and if it lives up to the promise of the live show and disc, they should find one.
Bad Luck, Better Nights and Other Stuff
Suplecs released a second album, Sad Songs . . . Better Days weeks before their label, Man’s Ruin was, well, ruined. The label was owned by graphic artist Frank Kozik and specialized in heavy rock, but since the demise of the label, the only way to get the very good disc is from the band at shows.
For many of us, the Howlin’ Wolf became a regular stop on the weekend when the summer Sunday nights featured barbecue and the Swinging Haymakers or the Wild Peyotes. Alt.country and roots rock have returned to the Wolf with Deep South Sundays, early evening (8-ish) shows featuring combinations of local and touring talent. Locals like Jim McCormick, Jeremy Lyons and Jeff and Vida are figuring regularly in the mix, and last month there were shows by Susan Cowsill, Charm City Brokers and Mississippi’s Hangtown. One of October’s highlights should be the Hot Club of Cowtown and the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash on October 14.
Self-taught artists Myke Adams, a one-time New Orleanian, is returning to show a series of paintings done while listening obsessively to 1000 Hurts by Steve Albini’s Shellac. Fans of Shellac and self-taught art may want to see these paintings at Tower Records on October 13 and 14. The rest of us . . . um, we’ll take a pass.
What I Got/ What I Thought
Digital Guild: These days, I seem foolishly partial to electronic music, maybe because of my affinity for the electronics that help get these words to you, the OffBeat reader, but this is awfully subtle stuff. It’s agreeable, but it drifts to the background a little too easily.
Babalon Mojo—Machine Screw: Is a hard Supertramp either possible or desirable? Not to me, but then again, the actual Supertramp didn’t speak to me either. I worry here that if it you took away the distortion on the vocals, guitars and sax, there wouldn’t be anything left.
Wiggle Your Thang—Lee Telle: I was praying this country record on Ralph Records would be more wrong, what with the great title and the guy on a motorcycle roping a playmate on the cover. The liner notes further got my hopes up when he dropped names like Slash, Nikki Sixx and Dimebag Darryl of Pantera, but such promise is never fulfilled. Instead, it’s Southern rock minus the stack of guitars and the personality. I’d be lying though if I didn’t admit to getting a kick out of the title track, much the same way I like “Talk Dirty to Me” by Poison (who are also name-checked in the notes).
Experimental Music: the Home Game
After a few martinis to help close The Top of the Mart, I went through Harrah’s and was reminded of an art project by the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne. He wrote music, then taped the different parts and loaded them into the stereos of cars parked in a circle. On a signal, the tapes were all started and played at the same time, the idea being that the combined music was the composition, but that it would sound different to listeners depending on where they stood in the circle of cars. If you walk through the ground floor of the casino, you’ll notice this remarkable drone as the slot machines keep playing the same riff, with minor variations in volume and rhythm depending on where you stand. As you walk through listening for this, you’ll start to think of the other sounds as part of this remarkable found composition. It’s almost enough to make me try to parlay my OffBeat paycheck into a down payment for a house on the Northshore to hear it more.
Techno never moved me because dancing to your computer seems only interesting in theory, but Japanese artists like Fantastic Plastic Machine make electronic/DJ music that is as much for listening as dancing. It’s—actually, his—newest, Beautiful, isn’t as pop art-savvy as his two previous albums—a little too house-y—but on tracks like “Love is Psychedelic,” bossa nova samples meet a Barry White vocalist to wonder if love might just be the result of drinking too much. Technology was invented for just such uses.
Coming Attractions
Tenacious D: October 10 at House of Blues: Jack Black from High Fidelity and the upcoming Farelly Brothers movie is one half of this acoustic duo that thinks like the Scorpions. Their brief appearance on the MTV Video Awards was one of the few funny moments on this year’s show, along with the “die” look on Jennifer Lopez’s face when the insult dog asked to sniff her butt.
Bonerama: October 13 at the Old Point Bar: Mark Mullins’ trombone freak-out is the wittiest of the recent attempts to find a variation on the brass band, loading it up with trombone players. The band’s first full-length disc, Bonerama Live at the Old Point, features typical brass band fare, but when it ventures into classic rock staples like “Moby Dick” and “Frankenstein,” it really gets somewhere. This is the CD release party.
The Strokes: October 25 at the Howlin’ Wolf: This Scottish band has a lot of Next Big Buzz (sold out L.A.’s Troubadour in hours, tickets for New York shows being scalped on ebay). My copy of their new live disc, Is This It was a gift from friends who have seen them and are rabid for the band. The disc suggests the Velvet Underground and New York punk tinged with new wave pop which sounds good, but I’m guessing there’s more heat live.
6th Annual Masked Ball October 27 at the Mermaid Lounge: The theme, “1991: The Year Punk Broke” sounds great, with local bands in costume doing sets of music by Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Babes In Toyland, Dinosaur Jr. and the Melvins. In the past, themes like that have fallen apart, but the evening is often the best Halloween event, and the costumes in the audience are as important as whatever’s onstage.
Freedy Johnston: October 30 at Carrollton Station: He isn’t getting the buzz that 1992’s Can You Fly and 1994’s This Perfect World earned, but that’s not because this singer/songwriter’s gift for impeccably precise lyrics and pop-wise songs have faded. It’s hard to imagine a more perfect venue for this show.
