Album Reviews 20/07/30

Boris, NO (self-released)

Already charter members of the cool kids club, the Japanese experimental bliss-metal trio are completely indie as of a year or so ago; this LP was released through the direct artist-to-consumer service Bandcamp. Not to get too inside-baseball with it, but that tells me they weren’t deliriously happy with Jack White’s Third Man Records imprint, but regardless, the band’s 27th album is up. As always a self-indulgent joint, NO’s obligato forked-finger-salute song-intro comes at the Motorhead-like speed-punk tune “Anti-Gone,” a welcome departure from album-opener “Genesis,” which treads a middle ground between Sunn(((O))) ringout-drone and singer-less Pelican riffing that had me wondering why I was bothering with the record. Don’t get me wrong, bandleader Wata still reigns as Japan’s answer to Iggy, but I was far more entranced by the absolutely spastic “Temple of Hatred,” the slow-mo black-metal dooming of “Zerkalo” and the Misfits-nicking “Fundamental Erorr” than that sad excuse for a leadoff track. Oh whatever, fine, it’s awesome, don’t mind me. A+

The Clientele, It’s Art Dad (Merge Records)

To hear Pitchfork tell it, this Monkees-twee band should have called it quits 10 years ago; it was a bit odd reading the ravings of the nerd who got assigned 2017’s Music for the Age of Miracles, who actually complained about that’s album’s overabundance of complacent cheeriness (I was like, now I’ve heard everything, literally). Forgive that segue, as there’s really not much to complain about here, particularly if your tastes run to Columbia House Record Club fodder from the 1960s, or if you ever wanted a more melodically astute Field Mice, but then again, this is composed of old tunes from the first half of the 1990s, which may mean that the band took such criticism to heart, one never knows. The crew does have, as alleged by critics, a dream-pop/shoegaze aspect, mostly due to the Alasdair MacLean’s Spacemen 3-level fetish for drowning his voice in reverb (sometimes he even plugs his microphone into a guitar amp for a modicum of extra weirdness), but other than that, it’s antique radio Britpop mellowness with quite a few hooks. A

Retro Playlist

Eric W. Saeger recommends a few of albums worth a second look.

At this point, it doesn’t feel like we’ll ever see another blockbuster movie in an actual movie theater. And that stinks, at least for me; the wife and I have accumulated around $200 worth of free movie passes at last count, once-valuable swag that feels like worthless Monopoly money now. It’s unfair. The loss of big-screen escapism isn’t only felt by “cinema” nerds; music fans feel the void as well. After all, soundtrack albums have been a big sell for many decades, starting with the very first one, Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1938. And deservedly so —‌ soundtrack albums allow us to relive awesome cinematic and theatrical experiences.

I’ve only bought two, ever. The first one was the soundtrack to the 1987 vampire film The Lost Boys. Around 75 percent of the songs are still awesome: Lou Gramm’s “Lost In The Shadows” (in which the guys bomb around trails on motorcycles), saxophone hack Tim Cappello’s “I Still Believe” (the bit with the beach concert), the two Jimmy Barnes tunes, even Roger Daltry’s cover of Elton John’s “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me” (if you can make it to the end, you’ll be treated to a solo guitar playing the riff to “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting,” which is so cool it makes me sweat just thinking of it).

The other one was a film score. I’m not big into scores, although The Hunt For Red October and The Usual Suspects had some great moments. My software-tech friends were all into The Lion King soundtrack in the early ’90s, which really made me worry for humanity. But yeah, I did buy one, the soundtrack CD to Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Yeah, yeah, I know, “hurr durr, Jar Jar sucks,” but the version of the main theme on that album was and is the best one ever, loud, unabashed and relentless, a reckoning. The battle droid war theme is cool; the music to the “there’s always a bigger fish” scene is awesome, and so are several other pieces.

Now, as for “Duel Of The Fates” (the “Darth Maul vs. the two Jedi dudes” battle), I didn’t really like it. Too contrived. Like, why not just have the choir singing “Look! It’s the Devil!”

(I’m anticipating hate mail for that last part, but don’t do it: You’ll only become more like me if you allow the Dark Side to grow in you.)

If you’re in a local band, now’s a great time to let me know about your EP, your single, whatever’s on your mind. Let me know how you’re holding yourself together without being able to play shows or jam with your homies. Send a recipe for keema matar. Email [email protected] for fastest response.

PLAYLIST

A seriously abridged compendium of recent and future CD releases

• The next traditional CD release day is July 31, when, among several others, the new album from Creeper, called Sex Death & The Infinite Void, wings its way into the stores and Soundclouds. I wasn’t aware of the Southampton, England-based band, but I’d heard of AFI and Alkaline Trio, two bands they are usually compared to, which means we are dealing with some sort of emo concoction here. But — and here’s where you really need to stop paying attention — the boys of Creeper consider themselves a “horror punk” band, which means that they are not only emo but scary emo, which is actually an oxymoron, because there’s nothing scary about emo except when your little brother is playing it cranked to 11 and your mom won’t let you throw him and his stupid emo CD out the window. Oh, let’s just get this over with, because I’m still trying to find something decent on Netflix and have already wasted at least two hours by selecting a movie that looks cool but then, after I start it, I find out it has subtitles, because it was made in Turkey or Zanzibar, don’t you totally hate that? This new Creeper album has a single called “Annabelle,” and it isn’t “horror punk” or anything of the sort, it’s more like My Chemical Romance, in other words “listenable emo that isn’t completely awful.” Actually it’s more like old Cheap Trick than regular stupid emo, so maybe these guys are actually OK, but to be honest, my stomach is feeling really fragile from my last 10-hour binge of stuffing my face with random food as a way to cope with coronavirus boredom, like there’s no way my body could deal with a “decent emo” record while also trying to figure out what to do with some Saku takeout and Ruffles cheddar and sour cream chips and Stonewall Kitchen blackberry jam on Ezekiel sprouted grain bread, which can only be bought, apparently, at Whole Foods. Yes, I’m fragile right now, sorry.

• The band Land of Talk is an indie band from Montreal, so I automatically hate them, but they have a girl singer, so maybe they aren’t awful, I just don’t know yet. The band’s new LP, Indistinct Conversations, has an annoying title, but other than that, I don’t know if the music itself is annoying, because for that, I will need to visit YouTube and see what the song “Compelled” is about. So the first two parts of the song are mellow, ’90s-ish and not terribly annoying, but there is of course, haha, nothing hooky, and then it goes into some messy chillout part that made me run for the bathroom. (Really man, does every indie band in Montreal suck this badly? Serious question for the floor. My God, my God.)

• Steve Howe, the guitarist from arena-prog band Yes, may be 73, but he still makes albums, because he just must, you know? His 21st album, Love Is, contains a song called “The Headlands.” It starts off like some awful old Motels tune, but then he plugs in his guitar gizmos and it suddenly becomes rather awesome, and he does some solos, but after three minutes there’s no singing, so I gave up on it.

• Our last target-bot this week is the new Fontaines DC LP, A Hero’s Death! The video for the title track stars tertiary Game of Thrones mandarin-dude Aidan Gillen as Conan O’Brien, while the singer babbles some stream-of-consciousness nonsense in a Cockney accent over art-punk guitars. It is OK. — Eric W. Saeger

Local bands seeking album or EP reviews can message me on Twitter (@esaeger) or Facebook (eric.saeger.9).

The Weekly Dish 20/07/30

• Jewish food festival goes virtual: The New Hampshire Jewish Food Festival, normally held in July at Temple B’nai Israel in Laconia, has transitioned this year into a takeout event only, according to a press release. Now through Aug. 10, orders can be placed online and picked up curbside by appointment at the temple at 210 Court St. in Laconia. A drive-through system will be used and masks are required for all customers. The online takeout menu features many of the popular items that have been staples at past festivals, including blintzes (lightly fried crepes filled with cheese), matzo ball soup, homemade traditional brisket with gravy, New York-style knishes filled with ground beef brisket or seasoned potatoes, challah (hand-braided honey-sweetened egg bread) and more. All items are sold frozen and include instructions for heating. Place your order now at tbinh.org.

• On the Cooking Channel: Mr. Mac’s Macaroni & Cheese was one of several restaurants across the country that was featured on a July 22 episode of the Cooking Channel’s popular series Food Paradise, according to a press release. Content for the episode, titled “Seafood — Eat Food!” was shot in November at the Mr. Mac’s location in Tyngsboro, Mass. According to the release, the restaurant was transformed into that of a movie set for a day of shooting, featuring Mr. Mac’s VP of Corporate Operations Mark Murphy and Tyngsboro store franchisee Harry Cheema. Visit cookingchanneltv.com for details on future air dates.

• The Foundry burglarized: The Foundry Restaurant in Manchester is open for business again after having to close for several days last week due to damages from a burglary on July 21. According to a press release from the Manchester police, the restaurant sustained around $250,000 in damage during the burglary including multiple broken windows and broken items, including liquor bottles, inside the restaurant. Police arrested Michael Grove of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, who police say they found inside the restaurant when they responded to the report of a burglary in progress, and charged him with burglary, reckless conduct, criminal mischief and resisting arrest, the press release said. According to the Foundry’s Facebook page, the restaurant reopened for dinner service on Friday, July 24.

• Messy Mike’s trailer on the way: The Derry-based Messy Mike’s Barbecue & Catering Co. is launching a 30-foot mobile food trailer in the coming weeks. Owner Michael “Messy Mike” Massiglia said you’ll soon be able to find his trailer at least every Thursday through Sunday in the parking lot of Rockingham Acres Greenhouse (159 Rockingham Road, Derry). The menu will include various meats sold by the pound, sandwiches and sides, including cornbread provided by Cheryl Holbert of Nomad Bakery in Derry. A former master electrician by trade, Massiglia quit his day job to pursue his barbecuing dream full-time in 2014. Since then he’s catered for all kinds of events across New England, like birthday parties, cookouts, weddings, golf tournaments and corporate gatherings, offering a menu heavy on smoked meats and fresh sides. He also makes his own bottled hot and regular barbecue sauces, which are available for sale online. Visit messymikesbarbecue.com or follow him on Facebook @messymikesbbq for updates on the trailer

Sour power

Summer is the perfect time to explore sours

I often talk about sour beer as if it’s simply its own category of beers, just like IPAs or stouts or Pilsners. But that’s not really accurate. The category, if we can even call it that, is much, much broader.

Sour beers run across styles. They vary greatly in both flavor and color. Some are so bright and tart that you have to pucker up. Others are much, much more mellow, featuring more earthy tones and layers upon layers of complexity — and everything in between.

Lambics, Gose, Berliner weisse and wild ales are all styles that can qualify as sours.

Regardless of the style, sours are unified, in my mind, by an extremely vague standard that I will describe as: they taste funky. See, not a whole lot of science behind that analysis.

Bacteria creates the tart acidity most have become accustomed to with sours, and wild yeast adds the earthiness; admittedly, this is a pretty dramatic oversimplification, but that’s what we’re going with.

On a hot day, a tart, crisp, salty Gose is perfect and a Berliner weisse, which is a variant of a wheat beer, is a perfect summer brew, thanks in part to its super-low alcohol level. A lambic can be heavier and and downright syrupy and wild ales can sprint across the spectrum.

In the summer I want brews that are crisp, refreshing and on the lighter side but still have plenty of flavor. What I’ve really started to enjoy about lighter sours, particularly Goses and Berliner weisses, are the unique combinations of flavors sours can bring together.

The SeaQuench Ale by Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, for example, is “a session sour mash-up of a crisp Kölsch, a salty Gose and a tart Berliner weiss brewed in sequence with black limes, sour lime juice and sea salt.” I don’t know what black limes are and I’m scared to ask, but the resulting brew is super light and refreshing, extremely tart and crisp, but still overflowing with big flavor.

Ballast Point Brewing Co. features a Citrus Cove Gose that boasts a similar salty-lime profile.

Both of these brews are approachable and eminently drinkable but the tart acidity coupled with fruity flavors adds a new dimension to the drinking experience.

Here in New Hampshire, breweries are not ceasing to experiment. Throwback Brewery in North Hampton currently features a Plum Luck Sour, a Gose brewed with salt and plums. Stoneface Brewing Co. in Newington offers All the Raspberries & Blackberries, a Berliner weisse brewed with “copious” amounts of blackberries and raspberries and which “strikes the perfect balance of sweet and tart,” says the brewery.

603 Brewery produces its own take on a refreshing lime-flavored sour with its Margarita Gose, pairing the flavors of lime, salt and bit of orange. Henniker Brewing Co.’s Sour Flour is an exciting dry-hopped brew boasting bright, tropical fruit flavors with the flavor of tart lemon.

Poppy’s Moonship, a brew by Schilling Beer Co., is another interesting Gose featuring a “gentle salinity” and which is brewed with Schilling’s own house culture.

Basically, what I’m trying to say is if a brewery wants to toss a bunch of fruit, some salt and some crazy bacteria and yeast into a brew, don’t sprint in the opposite direction. Dive in face first.

What’s in My Fridge
Evil 3 Triple IPA by Heretic Brewing Co. (Fairfield, Calif.) Full disclosure: This beer was just too much for me. I’m not ashamed to admit it. This ultra-aggressive triple IPA comes in at 11.5 percent ABV — full stop. I woke up the next morning after having a single beer wondering what exactly happened the previous evening. I think others will probably disagree but I just felt like the alcohol made it hard for me to fully appreciate the other characteristics of this beer. But I could also be a big baby. I do look forward to trying this again to see if I feel any different about it. Cheers!

Featured photo: Light-bodied sours are perfect for summer. Courtesy photo.

In the kitchen with Michael Simmons

Michael Simmons of Manchester is the head chef of Angela’s Pasta & Cheese Shop (815 Chestnut St., Manchester, 625-9544, angelaspastaandcheese.com), overseeing all kitchen operations and developing his own menus every week for lunch and dinner specials. Angela’s has been in business for four decades, offering all types of specialty food items, like cheeses, wines, pastas and heat-and-serve meals, as well as a selection of products from a variety of local businesses and catering menus around the holidays. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the shop has pivoted to offering curbside pickup and local deliveries for its products. Prior to joining the kitchen staff at Angela’s four years ago, Simmons worked in several seafood restaurants on the South Shore of Massachusetts, where he grew up. He also served as the executive chef at the Wildcat Inn and Tavern in Jackson for four years.

What is your must-have kitchen item?

A pair of tongs. It’s like an extension of your hand. Nothing beats a good solid knife either.

What would you have for your last meal?

I would do a Dijon-crusted rack of lamb and a big glass of merlot. I’m really passionate about good food and wine together.

What is your favorite local restaurant?

My favorite restaurant hands down, I would say, is the [Hanover Street] Chophouse [in Manchester]. I really enjoy a nice rib-eye with a glass of wine there. It’s a phenomenal place. The Crown [Tavern] is great too. In fact, they buy our sausages from us for their pizzas.

What celebrity would you have liked to see trying something that you’ve made?

I would have taken Jerry Garcia [of the Grateful Dead] in a New York minute. I just think his influence and his outlook on life were very unique.

What is your personal favorite thing to cook at the shop?

The passion is there for everything I do, but any time I get to venture off into something that I haven’t [done before], I get into it incredibly. A few weeks back I did a braised duck arancini, which had a raspberry compote sauce and crumbled goat cheese on it. It was awesome.

What is the biggest food trend in New Hampshire right now?

Farm to table and locally sourced produce are huge. A lot of grain salads and heart-healthy things like quinoa and avocado are too.

What is your favorite thing to cook at home?

I like to seek out the freshest swordfish I can find and grill it with some rice and a vegetable. That would be my go-to. I’m a big seafood lover.

Fried crab cakes
From the kitchen of Michael Simmons of Angela’s Pasta & Cheese Shop in Manchester (makes roughly 8 three-ounce crab cakes)

½ cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 whole eggs
1 teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon white pepper
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
½ cup breadcrumbs or ground cracker meal
1 pound jumbo lump crab meat

In a bowl, combine the mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, eggs, black pepper, white pepper, cayenne pepper and Old Bay seasoning with a whisk. Use the mixture to form little patties with the crabmeat and breadcrumbs. Drop the patties into 350-degree frying oil until crispy. Remove and drizzle with fresh lemon juice (optional).

Treasure Hunt 20/07/30

Dear Donna,
Can you help with an approximate value on old 1930s to 1940s Christmas cards? I just don’t want to put them in the trash. Could you give me some advice and possibly let me know of someone who would want them?
Cecile

Dear Cecile,
I understand why you wouldn’t want to throw them away. So many have such sweet graphic designs.

Some holiday cards can bring a value for age, designs, content (like antique Valentine’s Day pop-up cards, for example). The ones that are worth the most would be from before the 1900s, so the earlier the better, and condition is very important. People kept cards over the years so they are not as uncommon to find, especially from after the 1900s.

I have seen many cards from the same era as yours. They usually are in a shoe box or small bags for around $20. If the cards were unused it would be a bit more (they are not as common).

No matter what they are worth they are such a fun piece of nostalgia and can be fun for framing, repurposing, etc., so no, they are not trash.

Beyond perennials

Making your garden a very special place

By Henry Homeyer

[email protected]

My garden is the place I go in times of sadness, worry or stress. It makes me feel better. I took a few moments one morning recently to really look at what was in my garden to see what made it so special. I saw that in addition to the plants (and who cannot be happy snacking on red raspberries or Sun Gold cherry tomatoes?), I have many things that remind me of friends and of good times. Let’s take a look at my garden, and perhaps you’ll get some inspiration for yours.

I’ve been working on my gardens for about 40 years and have created some nice stone projects. As a young man I built a low 80-foot stone retaining wall to create a terrace that would allow me to plant some fruit trees — most of my full-sun space was near a small stream with a high water table, which is not good for fruit trees.

I worked with my stepson, Josh Yunger, who was a young teenager at the time. It was fun working with him, finding stones on the property and from a tumbledown wall a neighbor, George Edson, had allowed me to pick through. I knew little about walls but had the basics. One stone over two. We mostly found stones with rounded shapes, not flat stones.

And I didn’t know to use crushed stone, not round pebbles, to act as drainage and support for the wall. So those round stones sitting on round pebbles, over time, moved and the wall has slipped and fallen in places. But now it is mostly hidden by plants, and its ramshackle appearance doesn’t bother me. And I feel good when thinking about the work Josh and I did.

If building a stone wall is too much for you, how about placing a long, thin stone standing vertically as an accent in the garden? I have a few of those, and they look great all year round. Just stand up a 36- to 60-inch-long pillar of a stone in a hole 18 to 24 inches deep. Add some loaf-of-bread sized stones in the bottom, and dump in a bag of dry concrete mix. Fill in the rest with soil and pack it well.

I have three nice Japanese red maples that bring fond memories. Two came from my parents’ home in Connecticut, another from a friend. I dug two of them as foot-tall saplings, one bigger. One of these I planted in the early 1970s and it is now 10 feet tall and wide with a 6-inch-diameter trunk at the base. I see it and often think of the 60-foot-tall “mother plant” I climbed as a boy.

Other things are easier than stone projects. I have two nice blue ceramic bird baths. They contrast nicely with the flowers around them, even though no birds ever bathe there. But I love the water in them, and that my wife Cindy Heath floats cut flowers in them. (Yes, my longtime partner and I finally got married July 1 in a Zoom wedding attended by loved ones all over.)

I have a lovely high-temperature fire urn in the garden, a birthday present from Cindy this year. It makes me happy every time I see it. It has a drainage hole and the potter, Stephen Proctor of Brattleboro, Vermont, tells us that it can stay outside all year. Always a bit of a worrier, I will bring it inside before Christmas. It’s too nice to risk having it crack.

A new garden this year is just an oval 7 by 10 feet. I put in a Y-shaped path so it looks like a peace sign from the 1960s. One section is dedicated to milkweed plants for the monarch butterflies. The milkweed will, I suspect, eventually take over the entire garden. But for now? I love seeing the peace symbol —‌ it reminds me of my activist youth.

Then there is my 16- by 20-foot barn. I had a barn raising event in the late 1990s and had more than 30 friends show up. My late friend Bernice Johnson, then in her eighties, showed up with a little hammer in her hand. It makes me happy when I think of that day, and that we got the walls up and rafters on in one day. And now Cindy keeps it tidy inside —‌ something I never managed to do.

Speaking of Cindy, this year she built a gravel walkway down that 80-foot terrace I built for fruit trees in the ’90s. She did an amazing job, lining the path with old bricks I had salvaged from chimneys I removed. The path has a crushed stone base, landscape fabric and then a pea stone layer on top. And of course, Cindy has removed the weeds along the sides, and mulched the beds nicely. It makes me happy to walk along it.

I love the perennials I have gotten from friends and from gardeners I have interviewed. I remember every plant given to me, who gave it to me, and often when I got it. It’s part of what makes my garden so special to me. Now I tend to add little white plastic tags labeled with that information so it will be available even if I am not always around to provide that information.

I recently saw two Doric-style white wood columns free by the side of the road. I stopped. Garden art? Sure. I was in my old green truck, so I loaded them in, and now I have a new project. Not sure how I’ll use them, or where. But they’ll make me happy and remind me of traveling through Europe back when I was a young man. Gardens are good that way. Mine provide plenty of happy memories.

Featured Photo: Peastone walkway. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

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