Tag: 260521

Album Reviews 26/05/21

Simon Hanes, Gargantua (Pyroclastic Records)

If you’ve already read the Playlist piece this week, you know I am presently besieged by self-indulgent experimentalists, and this Brooklyn, N.Y.-based composer is not a departure from that; the inspiration for this concept-album-but-not-really-a-concept-album came from 16th-century novelist François Rabelais’ five-volume satirical pentalogy Gargantua and Pantagruel, about a father-and-son pair of literal giants (it gets scatological, for one thing). So, for this, Hanes assembled a large band comprising three drum sets, three electric basses, three trombones, three French horns and three soprano voices, but before you give up on me for the week, know that this is a hypnotizing earbud trip that’s worth taking if you have time for it. Rich sounds morph and combine and then morph into something else, mostly to aurally agreeable effect, but irreverence is indeed a main ingredient here, especially in “Gigantes,” in which comedic nyeah-nyeah vocalizings serve to reveal that the line between regal posturing and self-mockery is and always has been a blur. Lots of interesting twists and turns. A-

Crow and Gazelle, Truth Be Told (self-released)

Usually when I know I’m about to review an Americana record, I start anticipating a lot of dreamy incidental dobro and unabashed prettiness. That may seem dumb to people who’re familiar with the genre’s full range of sound, which can trend a little edgy when things like fiddles and banjos are added, but vocal stylings can also serve up sounds that are outside the (usually sleepy) norm. In the case of this harmonizing Texas couple — Red Dirt pioneer Mike McClure and multidisciplinary artiste Chrislyn Lawrence — the first thing any reviewer would do is scramble for comparative boy-girl pairings from years past, and when they don’t appear (because there aren’t any, really), it’s easy enough to focus on the duo’s messaging, a series of anecdotes from a loving couple trying to navigate the utterly unlivable current era. There’s an appealing honesty in their sound as well, mostly driven by Lawrence’s creaky but adamant voice, which is equal parts Patti Smith and Stevie Nicks. Well worth any folkie’s examination. A

PLAYLIST

A seriously abridged compendium of recent and future CD releases

• Yee-hah, nothing like a new pile of CDs hitting the virtual racks at Soundcloud and Pirate Bay, I always say, and there’s a big pile arriving this Friday, May 22, and now this message. Regular readers know that I’ve been promising to get down to Jewel Nightclub in Manchester to check out its goth music night, lovingly known as Resurrection, which takes place on the second Thursday of every month. And so, on May 9, I donned my ace reporter’s fedora with the PRESS card in its brim and headed down to Jewel to, you know, check out and investigate, etc. Full disclosure, I hadn’t been to a goth night in maybe eight or so years. Upon my arrival I was presented to Lilz, who goes by DJ Sawtooth, the resident DJ there. According to Lilz, they’ve been holding the Resurrection night at Jewel since 2020; before that it was held at the Breezeway Pub, a popular gay bar on Pearl Street (it’s still active), and before that it was held at the now-closed LGBTQ+ establishment Doogie’s on Manchester Street. And so Lilz and collaborator Jim (DJ Pet) have been essential to the local goth scene for quite a while now; we puzzled over the fact that there’s no actual “velvet rope” trance/techno club in the city, which, let’s admit it, sure is strange, but anyhow, the atmosphere at Resurrection is pretty neat, remindful of ManRay in Boston when the crowd really starts to thicken (there were at least 100 people dancing and making out and such in the main room by 9:30 p.m.). Like at ManRay, there are hot dancing girls dressed up like Rammstein groupies writhing in front of big video screens, and on this night the music trended toward industrial and darkwave, which I found, you know, pleasant. The hidden gem is the back room’s “Interference” sideshow, where your all-encompassing $10 cover charge also allows you in there to check out experimental music artists. I met Acton, Mass.-based performer A. Campbell Payne there; his set was heavily steeped in drone (he generally tries to soundscape with a much wider palette of “pattern, chance, time, and perception” in his tuneage, but that night he was heavily fixated on a French experimentalist whose name I didn’t write down because I couldn’t hear what he was saying). Whatever, it’s a fun night, you should go to the next one on June 13; feel free to adhere to the Jack Skellington-inspired dress code or of course your “DAVE MATTHEWS 2013 TOUR” T-shirt if you must (but please don’t), and that brings us to the new album from, coincidentally, Portland, Oregon, experimental duo Visible Cloaks, which started as a project focused on “rare groove new age music and ambient music from Japan.” The pair’s new album, Paradessence, includes the advance track “Disque,” which, between long silent breaks, consists of gentle, woozy, highly melodic experimentalism you’d imagine playing through the overheads at the Boston Aquarium.

• Greenville, North Carolina, is home to retro synthpop band Future Islands, whose new full-length From a Hole in the Floor to a Fountain of Youth includes “The Ink Well,” which combines (of course) Depeche Mode-style angst with an early Cure drum sound.

• Geez, Bleachers’ new album Everyone For Ten Minutes makes it three DIY albums in a row today! “The Van” is lo-fi bliss if you like Jose Gonzalez and old Beach Boys.

• And finally we have Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien releasing a new LP titled Blue Morpho. The title track will appeal to fans of Sigur Ros, but then again it is very immersive and melodically charming, so maybe they won’t like it, I have no idea anymore.

Featured Photo: Simon Hanes, Gargantua and Crow and Gazelle, Truth Be Told

Double chocolate orange cranberry cookies

  • 1 cup (120 g) all-purpose flour
  • ¾ cup (80 g) dark rye flour
  • ½ cup (42 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ¾ teaspoon baking soda
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter, melted
  • 1 cup (213 g) brown sugar
  • zest of 1 orange
  • 2 eggs
  • ¼ cup orange juice
  • 6 ounces (about 170 g) dark chocolate chips
  • 1 cup (71 g) dried cherries or dried sweetened cranberries

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Line three or four baking sheets with silicone liners or parchment paper

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients — the all-purpose flour, rye flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a stand mixer, or with an electric hand mixer, beat the brown sugar and melted butter together. Add the orange zest and juice, then the eggs one at a time. Beat the mixture until fluffy — about two minutes.

Turn the mixer to its lowest setting, then spoon the flour mixture in, until it has all been incorporated. Stir the chocolate chips and dried fruit into the batter, then chill in your refrigerator for at least 45 minutes.

Scoop six golfball-sized balls of cookie dough onto a baking sheet and bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet, then transfer to a plate or a storage container.

These are dark, fudgy cookies that are brightened by the zippiness of the orange and the flavor of the dried fruit. While not overly sweet, these are very rich. One to two of these cookies is perfect with an ice-cold glass of milk.

Featured photo: Double chocolate orange cranberry cookies. Photo by John Fladd.

Blood harmony

The Janzen Boys make first New England visit

While anchored by steady acoustic bass, joyful strumming and finger-picked flourishes, the not-so-secret sauce of folk trio The Janzen Boys is their gorgeous harmonizing. The Canadian band — guitarist John “JJ” Janzen and his sons Mick (mandolin and drums) and Simon (bass) — delivers utterly transcendent vocals.

A stellar example is “Flight To JFK,” a single released early in the year. Their blending on the Theo Kandel cover evokes memories of hearing Crosby, Stills and Nash first sing together in Cass Elliot’s Laurel Canyon home in 1968. When it happened initially for The Janzen Boys, JJ was just as stunned by their blood harmony.

“I would cry like a baby the first few times,” he said in a recent Zoom meeting that included Mick. “They’re like, ‘Dad, why are you crying?’ and I’d say, ‘It’s OK … I’m just happy, and sometimes the happy comes out of my face like that.’ Because it sounded so good, and I couldn’t believe it.”

That it happened at all was a product of coercion, albeit gentle.

After living in Japan for most of their lives, the Janzen family moved back to Ottawa in the early 2010s. At the time, they were taking a break from music.

“My marriage was kind of falling apart,” JJ explained. When a busking gig opened up in 2012, Simon wanted to restart the band. This bothered Mick, who felt the initial idea to form a group was his.

However, Mick played drums because, JJ explained, “He hated being at the front of the stage,” and he also didn’t sing. “I saw an opportunity … I said, ‘OK, you can be in, but only if you sing and play, because Simon sings and plays and I sing and play. You have to sing too.’ And then he said, ‘OK, fine.’”

With that, three voices became a breathtaking chorus. Fourteen years later, The Janzen Boys are a mainstay in their home country and recently began touring in the U.S. They’re also readying their first visit to the U.K. later this year. Critics liken them to a male version of The Wailin’ Jennys, as well as fellow Canadians Neil Young and Barenaked Ladies.

A sad truth of the modern music business is that talent isn’t everything. Fortunately, they’ve found novel ways to succeed. Mick is their social media maven, posting compelling mini-clips of the band’s music on social media to drive ticket sales. A recent a cappella version of the Scottish traditional song “The Parting Glass” on Instagram is a good example.

JJ does booking and a few years back found a unique and quite lucrative approach to it that finds them performing in a lot of places that are new to hosting live music. Two such venues are part of their upcoming area run — Bradford’s Town Hall on May 24, and a May 22 date at Peterborough’s Community Theatre that’s already sold out.

Their self-promotion strategy “is not brand new, and we didn’t invent it, but there are not a lot of bands doing it,” JJ said, “but it’s becoming more popular mainly because it can make music possible and profitable in a time where it’s been pretty challenging. We just find a community hall with a stage that rents for a reasonable price, and lets you set up chairs.”

Ultimately, the music carries them, sometimes in unexpected ways. Like the fan in Kentucky who wanted the band to play her daughter’s wedding enough to spend thousands of dollars to clear a months-long visa roadblock, because she believed their harmony could settle down two politically fractious families.

“She actually said, ‘I want you to come sing some peace into the situation,’” JJ recalled. The gathering became an anchor for their first Stateside tour in 2024. “She said, ‘I’m dreading how this wedding could possibly go. Your music makes me feel calm and peaceful, so I want you to come and sing.’”

It’s soothing music, agreed Mick. “A friend of mine said to me, ‘Harmonies are a drug, and you guys are smoking it.’”

All Your Friends

Featured photo: All Your Friends. Courtesy photo.

Dessert walk

Try a sample of treats at the Springtime Sweet Stroll

“In a nutshell,” Emma Stetson, the owner of Wine on Main in Concord, said, “there are five stores, all in a row on North Main Street, and during regular business hours on Saturday, each of us will have a local baker with a different treat that they’ve chosen. We’re calling it a Sweet Springtime Stroll.”

Stetson regularly partners with small baking businesses for wine tasting events, she said, and felt inspired to take that idea a little further.

“I have longstanding connections with a couple of bakers,” she said. “One woman named Katie Pope [of Confections by Kate NH] I’ve worked with for many years on cookies. Another woman, Ashley [Savoy] from Savvy Sweets and Treats, we work together on cupcakes and macaroons. There are so many talented local bakers who want to collaborate with us, it’s been hard to find space for everybody, because I already have existing connections and people that I work with for our regular in-store events. So I thought that if we were able to do a bigger event with multiple bakers and multiple stores involved, it would be a great way to showcase people I wouldn’t otherwise have kind of the space in the regular schedule to work with. I wanted everybody to be able to have a platform, so I figured this was a way for all of the people who were coming asking to work with us to have a day where everyone could feature their products.”

The concept of Sweet Springtime Stroll is fairly straightforward, Stetson said.

“Everybody buys a ticket ahead of time. It’s $25 per person. They check in here at Wine on Main and get a passport and a wristband. In their own time, throughout the day, and in any order they want, they can visit each store and each baker and show their wristband and passport and redeem a different sweet treat in each store. It’s all included in the ticket price. If they don’t eat all the various sweet treats — which will include macarons, cookies, cupcakes, and peanut butter cups — they’ll be able to take them home with them, with no additional purchase required. The $25 gets them a treat in each store. And additionally each store that’s hosting a baker will have special coupons and promotions that day for people who are participating.” Stetson will offer a discount on wine purchases, for instance.

Carol’s Confections (carolsconfections.com) will be the guest-bakery-in-residence at Wine on Main on Saturday.

“She’s going to have some really decadent cookies for people to collect,” Stetson said. “I love her chocolate cookies with a bold red wine, like a cabernet sauvignon.”

Ashley Savoy of Savvy Sweets and Treats will serve cookies and French macarons.

“I’ll be actually stationed with two businesses,” Savoy said. “And so I’ll have sourdough chocolate chip cookies and macarons. I haven’t decided which macaron to make yet. This is great exposure for all of the businesses that are going to be involved. Sometimes it can be hard as a cottage baker to get the word out to people about what you do, without a brick and mortar location. This is a way to connect with the community, and give people a little taste of what’s local and what’s around.”

Sweet Springtime Stroll
When: Saturday, May 23, between 1 and 4 p.m.
Tickets are $25 and can be purchased in person at Wine on Main (9 N. Main St., Concord, 897-5828) or through the Wine on Main website at wineonmainnh.com/event/sweet-springtime-stroll. All proceeds will go to the bakers.

Featured photo: Ashley Savoy from Savvy Sweets and Treats. Courtesy photo.

The Music Roundup 26/05/21

• Blues power: Until he stumbled into a Chicago nightclub in the early 1990s, Johnny Burgin planned to be a writer. But the city’s blues scene captivated him, and before long he was playing in a band and sharing stages with legends like Sam Lay, Billy Boy Arnold and Pinetop Perkins. Thursday, May 21, 7:30 p.m., Brickhouse Restaurant & Brewery, 241 Union Square, Milford, johnnyburgin.com.

• Laugh tonight: A night of standup is headlined by Jay Chanoine, with Klia Ververidis and Rick Gauthier. Friday, May 22, 7 p.m., American Legion Post 81, 169 Bound Tree Road, Hopkinton, $20, eventbrite.com.

• Guitar hero: Early on, guitarist Quinn Sullivan knew his destiny. His parents taught him the Mt. Rushmore of rockers: Beatles, Stones, Dead, Allmans. It was a vital inculcation; Sullivan picked up a guitar at age 3, guested on Ellen at 6, was mentored by blues giant Buddy Guy when he turned 8, and as a teenager he played with rock music giants at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Festival. Friday, May 22, 8 p.m., Tupelo Music Hall, 10 A St., Derry, $40 and up, tupelohall.com.

• Country man: The outdoor venue behind Town Cabin Restaurant & Deli is now open, with Willy Chase one of four weekend performers (Sunday Ave. plays Friday, Justin Federico’s on Sunday, with Taylor Hughes on Memorial Day). Chase is nearing completion of a long-awaited EP; a teaser from one of its tracks is on the socials — “Pushin’ My Luck” is a great drink and regret song. Saturday, May 23, 6 p.m., The Barnyard, 285 Old Candia Road, Candia, candiabarnyardvenue.com.

• Rock doll: With her first official live album set for release next month, Samantha Fish has a pair of upcoming shows in New Hampshire.Sunday, May 24, 7 p.m., Nasha Center for the Arts, 201 Main St., Nashua, $55 and up, etix.com.

Taco party downtown

Manchester’s Taco Tour returns

Manchester’s annual Taco Tour will take place Thursday, May 28, from 4 to 8 p.m.

For one afternoon each year, the city closes downtown to traffic and invites the world to dive deeply into dozens of interpretations of tacos.

According to the event’s website, tacotourmanchester.com, “Taco Tour Manchester is the one day of the year where downtown Manchester restaurants and venues all serve delicious tacos! Elm Street will be shut down for locals and visitors alike to have a terrific time sampling all the tacos that they can possibly eat during the four hour long festival. Taco Tour Manchester is most importantly a chance to visit our wonderful downtown and discover something new from our amazing restaurants.”

Restaurants and civic organizations from around Manchester will present their versions of tacos to an estimated 20,000 taco enthusiasts for $3 per taco. According to its organizers, more than 100 area restaurants will participate in this year’s event.

One of those restaurants will be Slightly Crooked Pies (1209 Elm St., Manchester, 661-4575, slightlycrookedpies.com). Lauren Cline is the owner. She is excited about seeing Taco Tour “from the other side of the table.”

“My family and I have done it a number of years in a row, even in the rain,” Cline said, “and it is amazing to see the energy downtown with all of those people. I can’t wait to watch it from that perspective.”

Cline and her staff are preparing two taco-inspired pies for Taco Tour, she said.

“We’re doing our mini hand pies, which are basically the same as an empanada. And we are going to do a peach mango one dusted in Tajin [spice mix] and apple cinnamon churro. They look like a crimped taco,” Cline said.

Dakota Jones is a New Hampshire-based food influencer, who publishes content under the name Food With Heart [instagram.com/foodwith_heart]. She is a big fan of the Taco Tour. It is the way many people discover Manchester, she said.

“It is the world’s largest taco tour. … It combines local community and tourism, but with a kind of community feeling,” Jones said.

Jones’ advice for going to Taco Tour is to go with friends. “It’s great to go alone,” she said, “but it’s also great to go with more people. I like to have someone else with me, so we can get in different lines. … If you go with a group, you get to actually experience more because you can all share a taco.”

Restaurants will be competing for the title of Best Taco and Most Creative Taco, the website said. Last year’s winners were Thai Food Connection for Best Taco and Stashbox for Most Creative Taco, the website said.

There will be two contests for die-hard Taco Tour fans this year, the website said.

“For the first time ever, Taco Tour Manchester is opening the Grand Marshal selection to the community. One lucky attendee will be randomly selected to eat the inaugural taco and officially open Taco Tour Manchester 2026 in front of thousands of fellow taco lovers at the all-new Inaugural Ceremony at Veterans Park. One winner will be selected at random during the Taco Tour Manchester Inaugural Ceremony at Veterans Park on May 28, 2026. Entrants must be present at Veterans Park by 3:30 p.m. on May 28, 2026 to be eligible to win,” the website said.

Additionally, Taco Tour fans can register on the Taco Tour website to win “an ultimate Taco Tour Manchester 2026 experience”: “This year, Taco Tour Manchester is giving away two VIP experiences, with each winner receiving access for themselves and one guest to join the exclusive VIP Tour through Downtown Manchester … VIP guests will skip the lines, enjoy tacos included at participating Greater Manchester Chamber member restaurants, meet local restaurateurs, and sample beverages along the way — all while experiencing Taco Tour like never before.”

The evening will also feature music. There will be a stage on Hanover Street featuringDave Corson (4 to 5 p.m.), Alli Beaudry (5:20 to 6:20 p.m.) and Brother Seamus (6:45 to 7:45 p.m.), the website said. A band stage will be at the Brady Sullivan Plaza on Elm Street will feature Joe Deleault and Cody James (4:15 to 5:30 p.m.) and The Jonathan Sarty Band (6 to 7:30 p.m.), according to tacotourmanchester.com/concert.

Saint Philip Greek Food Festival
When: Friday, May 15, and Saturday, May 16, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Where: St. Philip Greek Orthodox Church, 500 W. Hollis St., Nashua, 889-4000, stphilipnashua.com.
More: There will be free parking, a shuttle bus, Greek dancing and live music. Visit nashuagreekfestival.com.

Featured photo: Taco Tour 2025. Photo by Vinny Marino. Courtesy Greater Manchester Chamber.

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