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The Security Project

The Center for the Arts Natick

December 2015

When I was first informed that this show was being put together I immediately started to recruit some of my friends to get tickets. Having seen Peter Gabriel during his tour for the second solo release (aka Scratch) I knew the show would be a fascinating trip back into my early days as a Genesis/Gabriel fan. Also, having been inside TCAN in the past I knew this room would be amazing to catch this show as it is intimate and the acoustics are great.

The Security Project lineup includes Jerry Marotta on drums, Jerry was in the studio on drums for Peter Gabriel's second, third and fourth records. Trey Gunn on the Warr guitar who's had the distinction of playing with King Crimson for almost ten years. Michael Cozzi on guitar who spent years touring with the UK band Shriekback. David Jameson on a custom keyboard setup that also uses iPads and iPhones in the control scheme, the Eigenharp is also used to create some of the more amazing sounds generated by this band. David also performs in the band Beyond The Wall. Last but certainly not least is vocalist Brian Cummins who has been touring with the UK band The Carpet Crawlers and had just finished up a 40th anniversary of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway tour.

The show opener was Casey Desmond, a former Voice contestant from Boston whose parents were from the Boston band Bentmen. Casey's set was filled with vocally driven pop drenched in keyboards. Casey also filled in marvelously for Kate Bush during the "Don't Give Up" duet with Brian later on in the evening.

The nights material focused heavily on the music from Peter Gabriel's first five solo records but did dip into the Genesis catalog as well (see set list) with the excellent renditions of the first three tracks from that amazing record.

The entire night was a showcase of talent, the band excelled at playing the material that others would shy away from due to the complexities of the music. Some of the highlights of the almost two hour show were the aforementioned duet with Casey Desmond, Trey Gunns solo was incredible, Jerry Marotta showed why he is one of the top rated drummers around with an amazing sound and a recording resume to die for. Another was the remarkable, new to me, instrument the Eigenharp prominently featured in the song Biko. Evidently it uses velocity sensitive multi-expressive keys, each of which act like a 6-way joystick. This allows simultaneous pitch bend and modulation of each note played.

The band having just finished up this tour are planning a return in the October / November time frame. If you are a fan of Genesis or Peter Gabriel, do yourself a favor and catch one of these shows you will not be disappointed.

Set List

1- Lay Your Hands on me - 1982, Peter Gabriel (4th solo release aka Security)

2- I Don't Remember - 1980, Peter Gabriel (3rd solo release aka Melt)

3- Family Snapshot - Melt

4- No Self Control - Melt

5- The Family and the Fishing Net - Security

6- I Have The Touch - Security

7- Moribund the Burgermeister - 1977, Peter Gabriel (1st solo release aka Car)

8 - Solsbury Hill - Car

9- The Rhythm of the Heat - Security

10- Don't Give up (with guest vocalist Casey Desmond) - 1986, Peter Gabriel (5th solo release titled So)

11- Mercy Street - So

12- San Jacinto - Security

13- Intruder - Melt

14- Here Comes The flood (including Trey Gunn solo) - Car

15- The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway - 1974, Genesis (The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway)

16- Fly on a windshield - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

17- Broadway melody of 1974 - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway

18- On The Air - 1978, Peter Gabriel (2ne solo release aka Scratch)

19 - Biko - Melt

As fans many draw a close relationship with their favorite artists. For whatever reason a personal statement shared within this realm seems to strike many in a very serious way. there are many musicians that cross realms of art into new ventures to varying degrees. it could be argued that no one before, since or possibly ever has done it with the conviction, lucidity, intelligence or poise the way David Bowie did in his lifetime.

This is a goodbye to a true artist that is both academic and personal to me.

The fact is it would be hard to say whether music and the arts would have played quite the role in my life as they have if not for Bowie. He showed what confidence and intelligence can create. With the knowledge of what he reperesented i was drawn to him from a young age.

I recall seeing the video for "Let's Dance" on MTV and being mezmerized. I couldn't explain what it was that made it work. It was a song that seemed all too simple almost innocuous compared to the hip hop and metal that i would generally listen to. The hooks were simple yet they burrowed into your brain. The video itself was something almost obscenly 80's bright and dancey. Yet there was something unexplainable about the person presented as the singer. something almost alien he stood out beyond the other people in videos at the time. He stood tall with a flexible face that showed something intense. 

These few sentences could be said about any representation of David Bowie. He alsways was able to illicit something with an incredibly modest economy of words, yet could be verbose and hyper literal. He always stood beyond whatever was going on in popular culture at the time. Stood as an outlier, a true alternative nothing could actually compare and nothing could touch him. 

Those feelings are exactly why for some almost unexplainable reason his death hit me so hard. in an almost childlike naievity on my part i almost believed he would never die. He never seemed of this world to begin with. He spoke of being a spaceman a martian and these things felt true to him. Bowie seems intrinsically drawn down the path of opposition in art and seemed capable of making it a road for eveyone to travel after him. 

To think he could've been something smaller than a blip in musical history. His reinvention made him and gave him the fame that he had. Very few artists have truly reveled and almost relied on reinvention. With each Bowie album one could never be certain what expect. Whether it be the alien folk of Space Oddity, the biggest glam band in the world as Ziggy, or the plastic soul star of Station to Station. All of these thing were merely beginings, yet all were complete ideas coalesced into music that stands outside of time with a presentation to match.

Truly his music was just part of a public persona that belied his impact in every other cultural medium. While his music is what he is best known for nothing can take away his painting, acting and even a lasting impact on video games. These were generally looked at as musings to music fans but every plunge into a new medium showed another side of Bowie showed another impression of the artist as a man. Even his contribution in music is relatable to acting. No role lasted too long once it showed a chance at becoming stale it was jettisoned for something new something that felt interesting.

Bowie managed something that no artist has even with his final goodbye of an album, the recently released Blackstar, he continued to show what he was truly capable of. It is an album outisde of time yet absoulte in how precise it's message is. This was his goodbye something simple yet intricate not played for cheap record sales. The man knew he was leaving us but gave us a farewell only he could. 

David Bowie influenced many facets of my life, he introduced me to new ideas of how music could be presented. He gave me confidence to try and show different facets of my personality through my art, in whichever form that would take. he gave a lasting influence to any artist to follow their ideas alone and leave everything and everyone else behind, if need be, to follow their muse and no one elses. His music was an early bond between my wife and I, a bond that grew into something truly special. 

Bowie is, not was, a person who lived outside time and gave himself to the world. The starman can now return home, can stay there and rest well knowing that his influence will be everlasting upon the world's culture. 

Agent Orange

Factory Theatre

Sydney, AUS

January 3, 2016

Mike Palm and his two partners in crime held court in the confines of the intimate performance space downstairs, which proved to be a suitable forum for their reverb-drenched, fuzzy, angst-ridden pop-punk. 

When Agent Orange started out, they were ahead of their time: They pioneered a distinctive melodic sound and thereby laid the foundation for what was to eventually became labeled as "pop punk" some 10 years later - cue The Offspring's bloodstained plea to come out and play.

Sure, the biggest reference was definitely "surf culture" grounded on a reverb-drenched guitar, but calling Agent Orange just a "surf punk" band would not do them justice. 

Apart from having a knack for "spy-vs.-spy" melodies, a preference for the Fender amplified "wet" spring reverb, love for Blue Oyster Cult and a poppy appeal, the alienation and at times Wipers-esque melancholy that pervades their oeuvre is what made their songs a tad more compelling than those of their peers.

With surf culture being an integral part of the Australian  national fabric, it does not come as a surprise that Agent Orange and their ditties speak to Australian punk rock aficionados. 

The audience lapped up every chord as the trio delivered a good selection of songs around the classic hits of the Living in Darkness era, inevitable cover versions and ornamental, rolling instrumentals paying homage to the likes of Dick Dale sprinkled with more recent compositions.

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Photo by KAVV

El Vez

Newtown Social Club

Sydney, AUS

December 26, 2015

1977.

The Germs play their first show ever opening for The Zeros, followed by The Weirdos.          

A wet dream come alive for any KBD-style punk rock aficionado. 

A 17 year-old young hopeful named Robert Lopez was playing guitar for The Zeros. 

Fast forward 24 years. 

Robert releases a 7" called Esta Bien Mamacita under the moniker El Vez, mixing an Elvis Presley homage with his Latin-American musical heritage. 

The 7" is released on the independent garage rock and punk label Sympathy for the Record Industry. 

A promotional copy of the aforementioned slab of vinyl found its way to groundbreaking Placebo Radio Show, a radio show moderated by the affected, rumbling voices of the Toyota Herges bros, the more agreeable input of the lead singer of ABC Diabolo and other luminaries from Germany's smallest Federal State. 

Placebo often provided the first German coverage to international punk, hardcore and other fringe acts. 

It was the first time yours truly was exposed to El Vez.

Fast forward another 24 years. 

Boxing day, 2015.

El Vez materializes in a Santa suit, flanked by his charming back-up singers, The Elvettes, and sustained by a stoical, tight backing band. 

High kicks, splitso jumps, costume changes, an array of cover versions and medleys with altered lyrics to suit his mild political activism. 

A potpourri of pop and rock quotations.

Robert Lopez, baby boomer who recently legally qualified for "senior discounts," is pulling it all off with ease and gusto.

Si - not unlike a quesadilla it is intentionally cheesy at times, but overall his energetic show is like Mexican cuisine: Well done basic staples, the occasional flavourful kick and a colorful presentation.

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Photo by KAVV

In the month leading up to the holiday, it's often difficult to escape the near-continual assault of schmaltzy Christmas music. It seems virtually every artist of note in the last half century (and quite a few that are best left forgotten) have, at some point or other, produced some sort of Christmas song or album, from The Beatles, The Ventures and The Beach Boys to Rob Halford, Weezer, and Sharon Jones (to name but a few), meaning in the end that there's an absolute glut of different, sometimes only moderately compelling, versions of instantly familiar, classic songs. Despite of this, Christmas albums seem to have inherent commercial punch that other albums sometimes lack – Josh Groban's 2007 Noel, for instance, moved an astonishing 3.7 million copies in its first three months of release, making it the second highest-selling holiday album of all time (number one on the list – Kenny G's Miracles: The Holiday Album, which sold nearly three million copies in just the last two months of 1994).

It's not difficult to imagine artists like Groban or Kenny G cutting a holiday album however – their music appeals to a significantly older audience that would be perhaps more willing to listen to another batch of the same old holiday tunes. Given that Christmas albums are (apparently?) in such high demand, it's not surprising that some definitively bizarre records have been released over the years, ranging from novelties like the Star Wars-themed Christmas in the Stars and Disco Noel to things like Julien Koster's The Singing Saw at Christmastime, The Moog Machine's Christmas Becomes Electric, and Alexander Goodrich's Organ and Chimes at Christmas that may have been good ideas initially, but become positively maddening when drawn out to album length.  I'm still haunted by memories of listening to a beat up LP of Li'l Wally "The Polka King" Sings Polish Christmas Carols, which somehow found its way onto the record player at my childhood home numerous times every holiday season.

It's might not be all that shocking then that it's generally the more offbeat Christmas albums that appeal to me today - and I would suspect many others whose Decembers sometimes turn into a nightmare of repetitive, frequently obnoxiously chipper tunage whether they want them to or not, feel the same way. Punk rock bands have released a fair share of Christmas songs over the years, though for my money, it's the older singles (originals like The Raver's amusing “(It's Gonna Be A) Punk Rock Christmas,” TVTV$'s “Daddy Drank Our Xmas Money,” and Fear's impactful “Fuck Christmas,” along with the classics - Stiff Little Fingers's furious “White Christmas” and The Dickies's “Silent Night”) that take the cake for fury and enthusiasm over more recent efforts that often seem to have been dialed in (My Chemical Romance's cover of Mariah Carey's “All I Want for Christmas is You” for one).

Among the snottiest and funniest punk bands around, British group The Boys (recording as The Yobs) and The Vandals perhaps released the finest full-length holiday records from the genre. The Yobs Christmas Album, released in 1980, slams through various traditional songs in amusing ways (“White Christmas” becomes a faux-reggae number, while “Stille Nacht” samples Adolf Hitler), but it's the downright filthy “The 12 Days of Christmas” and “C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S” that steal the show. The Vandals went for much the same sort of amusingly tasteless vibe on their 1996 “Oi to the World,” which is fairly unique for containing mostly original (if very irreverent) songs along with a Yobs cover, Tchaikovsky rendition, and a (frankly, irritating) version of the religious hymn “Here I Am Lord.” While “Christmas Time for My Penis” and “My First Xmas (As a Woman)” set the stage, I rather like downer album closer “Hang Myself from the Tree” for its complete reversal of the usual holiday cheer.

Though the late, venerable British actor Christopher Lee made it a habit of dropping a Christmas-themed heavy metal release yearly from 2012 until 2014 and doom metal has occasionally toyed around with this sort of material from time to time (Type O Negative's “Red Water [Christmas Mourning]” being one that stands out in my mind), Old Man Gloom's 2004 Christmas is arguably one of the best and most singular seasonal releases from the genre. North Carolina's Silber Records, meanwhile, has unleashed a slew of holiday-based noise and experimental music on and off since the year 2000 (2015 saw the release of 8 EPs), but one of my favorite albums of extreme Christmas music is the 1996 Japanese compilation simply titled The Christmas Album. Featuring the likes of Melt-Banana (performing a hectic version of “White Christmas”), Seagull Screaming Kiss Her Kiss Her (delivering a somewhat smarmy, easy or maybe even sleazy listening cover of “Here Comes Santa Claus”), Gastr Del Sol (putting forth a serene and almost ambient rendition of “The Bells of St. Mary") and God is My Co-Pilot (with a harsh, menacing version of “Marshmallow World”), the album culminates with noise god Merzbow's haunting “Silent Night.”

While I could rattle off the highpoints of both The Raveonettes's 2008 Wishing You a Rave Christmas (which starts off with a buzzy cover of Darlene Love's “Christmas [Baby Please Come Home],” then proceeds through a trio of original, dream and/or noise pop tracks) and Narwahl Decimation's DØD SNØ GØD JUL (the idea of an electronically-based Christmas album strikes me as a lousy one, but this sometimes destructive combination of experimental electronics and grindcore is actually surprisingly decent and rather fun), my choice for the best, most overlooked definitively off-kilter holiday album is 1997's Christmas in Stereo, released on the Kindercore label.

Each of the 19 bands featured on this compilation were given two weeks to put together a track. Some chose to cover traditional songs in a unique way, with the results ranging from excellent (The Catskills and Kincaid producing bummer rock covers of, respectively, the aforementioned Darlene Love track and “White Christmas,” Aden's gorgeously executed rendition of “Silent Night) to positively odd (a shrill, anything-goes version of Louis Armstrong's “What a Wonderful World” produced by the Elephant Six Collective supergroup Major Organ and the Adding Machine). Among the original songs on the album, Gritty Kitty's hazy “Why They Chose the North Pole,” Bunnygrunt's comical “I Am Going to be Warm This Winter,” My First Keyboard's playful “Christmas Is Only Good If You Are a Girl (Boy),” and The Autumn Teen Sound's relaxed “Christmas Wish” may fare the best. Still, while individual taste may vary and not everyone will like everything included on this incredibly eclectic disc (one which even throws in a old-school country tune from The Starroom Boys as well as a straight-up sound art experiment courtesy of the Olivia Tremor Control), every track here is interesting in its own way. I also like the fact that this may be one of the most pervasively melancholic Christmas albums I've ever listened to: the perfect antidote for that inevitable overdose of tiresome holiday pop.