New Music: Among Savages, Vinny Vegas deliver sophomore albums

Summer 2017 is ripe with new sounds vibrating coast to coast. Whether you reside east, west or somewhere in between, we've got new music to help you wind down from the work week. 

On July 21, from Los Angeles, Among Savages released a sophomore album entitled Accounts of Friend and Foe. Meanwhile, Maryland-based Vinny Vegas also introduced its second full-length album, Clear the Walls. 

Each anthology is rather melancholy but artfully conveys the emotion in two stylistically different ways.

Among Savages - Accounts of Friend and Foe

Among Savages is the musical vision of songwriter Peter Barbee. Accounts of Friend and Foe is a 38-minute compilation of nine songs that meld alt-pop and contemporary classical undertones through an electronic listening experience. The songs are often characterized by ambient synthesized strings and effects accompanied by layered vocal choruses and tribalistic percussion. "What Goes Around," "If You See Her," and "Getting Older Quicker" open the album on an uptempo dance-pop whim that is swiftly swallowed by slow, pressing ballads. Among Savages' promotional website describes the act as a "living, evolving musical." When you listen to Barbee's works from The Wanderings of an Illustrative Mind to this latest release, the compositions truly read that way. The challenge that Barbee successfully executes across Accounts is that each song is undeniably tied but uniquely defined in its own right.  

The one to hear: No Such Thing 

The one you'll be singing: If You See Her 

The official release party will be held August 21, 2017 in conjunction with School Night! presented by Chris Douridas and Matt Goldman (MFG) at Bardot in Los Angeles. 

Album available on iTunes and Spotify.
Vinny Vegas - Clear the Walls 

Vinny Vegas is a multi-instrumental progressive rock band that The Rhythm Report first discovered during its first run at an underground music club in Canton, Ohio in 2011. Clear the Walls is a nocturne collection of 10 songs spanning 36 minutes saturated by crawling guitar medleys folded into panoptic harmonies of keys, an ever-present bass and assaulting drum patterns. The songs seemingly blend together in casual listening but as a collection deliver a soulful, steady theme that are electrified by front man Scott Siskind's yowling vocals and Aaron Emmanuel Lee's talent on keys. 

• The one to hear: Slow Burn Dopamine 
• The one you'll be singing: Greens into Blues

The band's four-stop record release tour begins in Boston, Mass. on July 28 with additional shows to follow in New York City, Philadelphia, Penn., and Baltimore, Maryland. Visit VinnyVegasMusic.com for details.

Album available on iTunes, Spotify, BandCamp and SoundCloud.

12 artists 'Live from Bad Racket'; studio announces first compilation release

Source: Bad Racket Recording Studio
http://badracketrecording.bandcamp.com/

A multitude of sounds have been projected in the craft studio space of Bad Racket. During two years of operation, the production team has recorded and engineered a mix of full-length records and EPs and coordinated numerous live shows (on- and off-site events). Hundreds of songs have reverberated off the aged walls and colorful hand-fashioned partitions that enliven the open performance space.

Arguably one of the most successful endeavors helping to launch the studio out of Northeast Ohio obscurity is the Live from Bad Racket video series it launched in collaboration with Ohio Authority in 2010. To commemorate the growth of the video series, Bad Racket assembled––and will release on Nov. 20––its first compilation album reflecting the sundry musicians with whom the studio worked in its infancy.

The musical corpus comprises the first dozen artists and bands to be featured in the Live from Bad Racket series from 2010 through 2011. It is a diverse audio showcase, which includes tracks by Signals Midwest, Nick Zuber, The Family Womack Band, and Thaddeus Anna Greene. [Full track listing available here.]

"I've been planning this for a long time. Basically, since we did the first video I wanted to release the audio," said Thomas Fox, Bad Racket co-owner and studio manager. "It's been two years since I first started thinking about this."

Signals Midwest was the first band to appear in a Live from Bad Racket music video. The group's guitarist and vocalist, Max Stern, recollects his early experiences with the studio.

"I was kind of the guinea pig," Stern said, attributing his Bad Racket introduction to his acquaintance with studio co-founder Adam Wagner. Stern was working at Go Media, a marketing and design agency located two floors above the studio on Lorain Avenue in Ohio City. Wagner invited him and his band to demo some tracks in the recording space, which was still bare-walled and lacking a proper audio control panel. Despite meager aesthetics in the performance chamber, Stern said the pre-session hangouts and listening parties made the difference. He scheduled Signals Midwest for a recording session in October 2010. That month, the Live from Bad Racket series was born with the recording and filming of "In Tensions."

"I didn't know Live from Bad Racket was going to become this big thing," Stern said, adding, "We must have played that song 15 to 20 times that day because the director, Aaron Freeder, only had one camera."

Stern admitted he was sick of the song by end of the day. However, the overall experience and resulting product led to an official recording session for Signals Midwest's full-length album, Latitudes and Longitudes––another first for Bad Racket. [Wagner and Stern recount the experience in this recent Bad Racket blog post and interview.] 

"I feel like we got on the ground floor of something really awesome," Stern expressed.

Since then, the band has recorded several smaller projects, including a couple of split 7" records with ally bands French Exit and Shady Ave. Stern even recorded a solo acoustic project, Meridian, at the studio.

"I don't feel the need to go anywhere else," Stern said. Describing Bad Racket's recording process as "open, communicative," he explained, "I felt really taken care of as a musician, like they wanted the output  to sound as good as I wanted it to."

Launch event – Part I

Signals Midwest will headline the first of four launch events to promote the Live from Bad Racket compilation album on Friday, November 16.

"Thomas has put together four really cool shows. Each kind of reflects a different genre so this is kind of the 'punk rock' show," Stern said. "I'm excited we're headlining. I feel like we've been together since the beginning. It's cool to carry it over into this."

Accompanying Signals Midwest for Friday's show are:

• Ma Jolie (Philadelphia, Pa.)
• Worship This! (Cleveland/Akron)
• En Garde (Akron/Kent)

The event will be held at Bad Racket Recording Studio, 4507 Lorain Avenue, Cleveland, Ohio 44102.

Official release details

On Nov. 20, the Live from Bad Racket compilation album will be available through online vendors i-Tunes and Amazon. Hard copies will be available at exclusive Northeast Ohio venues: Music Saves, Room Service and The Root Cafe. Pre-ordering for digital or hard-copy editions of the album is open now through BandCamp.

Music video: Tom Evanchuck "Mother Lewis" CD release promotion

Tom Evanchuck is releasing his third acoustic album, Fadin' Glow, along with first full-length electric album, Tom Evanchuck is back as The Evanchucks, in a dual record release on May 21, 2011, at Beachland Tavern. Visit www.tomevanchuck.com for more information.

Song: "Mother Lewis" by Tom Evanchuck
Album: Nebby Thomas and Zrenner Lewis
Bad Racket Recording Studios

This video was filmed by The Rhythm Report's video production unit, De los angeles Productions, under the direction of Priscilla Tasker, with the help of Megan Medgyesi, production assistant and photographer.

Ty Kellogg to release second full-length album April 2

A cool spring breeze is blowing up from Appalachia and on it the tintinnabulation of a bronze-stringed guitar plucked by Ty Kellogg. Raised in Geauga County, Ohio, Kellogg does not hail from the misty mountains of the eastern United States but that is where he’s found the muse for the music he creates.

Kellogg is releasing his second full-length album on April 2. The self-titled folk country record, originally planned for release in 2010, features 10 songs, nine labeled and one untitled “hidden track.” He calls it "dirt" music, nitty-gritty tunes from another time in which the vocals aren't clean but gruff and a twang of the guitar may result from a misplayed chord.

"It's about how into the music are you," Kellogg said.

Kellogg shared with The Rhythm Report a sneak preview of a song on the album called "Chain Gang," a call-and-response work song inspired by Tom Waits and Cool Hand Luke, the 1967 film in which Paul Newman plays the role of a man imprisoned in a harsh Florida prison camp for popping off the tops of parking meters. Kellogg actually used chains to recreate the sound of leg iron dragging in the dirt on the side of a road. It is like listening to a record pulled from an early 20th century archive; one almost expects to hear the pop and crackle of the 45.

"This song will likely never be played live," Kellogg said. "It would be to hard to recreate its sound in a live show."

However, music fans can hear it here by clicking the video below and, if they're lucky enough to pick up one of the albums at Saturday's show, can add it to their own collection.

The album release show is being held at The Hambden Grange in Chardon and starts at 8 p.m. on Saturday.

Special guests will include members of Gypsy Dave & the Stumpjumpers of Pennsylvania, The Ruckus Juice Jug Stompers of New York, Rebekah Jean, Leah McCoy, Bluebird and many more. Rumor has it, Kellogg and his band of misfit musicians will be equipped with banjos, a mandolin and a cross between the two called a banjolin, an upright bass, harmonicas and even a tuba to put on a show that is sure to be a boot-stompin’ delight.

“I’d like to think, even if someone doesn’t like folk music, they’ll be entertained,” Kellogg said.

Preview: "Chain Gang" Ty Kellogg

Article written by Priscilla Tasker, editor and creator of The Rhythm Report