BREAD AND CIRCUSES OFFICIAL CMJ SHOWCASE
Saturday // Doors at 8:00
$8 advance, $10 at the door, free for badge holdersOld Monk
: website
Bio
The two founding members of Old Monk were separated by thousands of miles when they began writing their first EP. It took years of swapping answering machine recordings and exchanging lo-fi demos over the internet to complete. The successful collaboration finally convinced drummer Ian Burns to leave his native Colorado, joining guitarist Joshua Carrafa in Brooklyn. The two dubbed their project Old Monk, and began playing around Manhattan and Brooklyn's underground venues. In need of a bassist, the two then enlisted Tsugumi Takashi and Old Monk became a trio. Joshua, Ian and Tsugumi create frenzied noisy rock and roll, built on solid pop backbones and piercing hooks. Old Monk is currently living in Brooklyn.
Bliss Blood and Al Street
: website
"Evanescent" is the first original cd released by a duo project featuring Bliss Blood (The Moonlighters, Pain Teens) on vocals and ukulele, and Al Street on guitar (Sugarman Three, Sweet Divines). They formed the band to write original songs in the summer of 2010. They released their first 10-song cd "Evanescent" in February 2011 and have two songs featured in the NY indie film "Hello Lonesome." They released their second cd in September 2011, "Live on the Lilac", a 17-song live performance recorded in July 2011 on the Lilac lighthouse tender boat on the Hudson River, NYC.
They play regularly in New York City area. Their songs are erotic, sensual, stripped-down rhapsodies to longing, love, heartbreak, and secret desires, and tap into musical styles from across the sound spectrum, from flamenco to jazz to punk rock to North African music, anchored by Al Street's lyrical, virtuosic guitar, and Bliss Blood's dreamy, cinematic, and deeply amorous lyrics.
Bliss Blood began her career as vocalist and songwriter in the band Pain Teens in Houston and continued to write music and perform with The Moonlighters and Delta Dreambox, among other bands, in New York City since 1995.
Al Street is a master of style and of the guitar itself. He has played at the world's top festivals, and can be heard on the Major Motion Picture "American Gangster" soundtrack, as well as "Three Days of Rain" with Grammy winner Bob Belden. Al Street has traveled to Venezuela, Honduras, Peru and Syria as a U.S. Department of State Jazz Ambassador.
Room Full of Strangers
Room Full of Strangers began in late 2009 and it was in less than a years time of performing and touring that the band was discovered by legendary producer Mark Kramer; whose credits include, Monotonix, Daniel Johnston, Butthole Surfers and many others. Musically Room Full of Strangers is a 'genre bending' unique blend of garage, proto/post punk and psychedelic rock, written with a pop sensibility. The RFOS live performance has been praised by fans and press alike as being a highly energetic, entertaining 'show'; hence the bands catch phrase "You don't know, till you go"and on one occasion the band was described as a Freudian rock experience. It is with the bands eclectic musical blend, live presence and fun rock n roll revelry vibe, that the band engages it's onlookers. And this is coupled with just enough sardonic dark comedy and creepiness to keep you guessing. In conclusion, the Room Full of Strangers experience is known for a 'peak and valley' journey, that intersects where the Monkees meet the MC5.
The Living Kills
Since 2010, The Living Kills have been quietly bridging the gap between Brooklyn's garage punk and lo-fi scene, pairing the best 60s psychedelic rock with B-horror films, spaghetti western soundtracks, and electronic samples, to create a sound they like to call "psychotronic." After a self-released single, "You'll Miss Me Most," the band's first full-length album "Faceless Angels," mixed by Alex Newport (Death Cab for Cutie, Mars Volta, At the Drive-In), was picked up by Austin and Chicago based label Past/Futures Records. The album, which charted in the CMJ Top 100, was commended by Spinner for its "creeping organ, tons of noise, and a great mix of 60s guitar nostalgia and modern shoe-gaze."