Go To School

The Lemon Twigs

Go To School

4AD

This is a great album with a great anti-bullying message. It's as theatrical as Tommy, with a vastly different plot, in which a childless couple take in Shane, a chimp, and raise him as a human boy. Shane goes to school, and like all misfits, gets bullied, found, fucked, and forgotten by the queen of the school. He snaps and commits an act of violence, setting his school on fire. A hundred people die. He goes on the run, into the woods, getting away clean by blending in with the other primates.

Brian and Michael D’Addario, who are the Lemon Twigs, clearly side with Shane, and you will too, even if you’ll recoil from the violence, knowing enough never to be that way.

If you’re a bullied kid, get help any way you can. Don’t be like Shane, or your life is over, and maybe the lives of others. Just be yourself, as clichédas that is, and be true to you, and you will come out on top eventually.

The music is why I compare this album to Tommy. It's a mix of Broadway show tunes, 70s AOR, and Big Star. Todd Rundgren sat in for an authentic 70s sound, with Jody Stephens of Big Star on drums for one track. It belongs on the stage or even TV or film just as much as any classic musical or Glee. Tommy is psych-rock that eventually wound up as a film and musical, and achieved it’s full effect there, as the plot was incoherent in spots on the album. This is true of Go To School, as well.

Does Shane’s mom cheat on his dad, and does his dad cheat on his family with Daisy, Shane’s once and future girlfriend? A song or two showing how badly Shane is bullied would have helped clarify things, too.

But all in all this is, as I say, a great album, and one that should not be missed. It really is for real.

Andrea Weiss

The best concerts so far this year. All at World Cafe Live unless otherwise noted:

1 Phobee Bridgers/Soccer Mommy.

2 Peace Train

3 Posies/Terrra Lightfoot/E Joseph and the Sparrows

4 Waxahatchee/Hurry For The Riff Raff - Union Transfer

5 Rayland Baxter/Okey Dokey

Andrea Weiss

The Lemon Twigs

Small Victories single

4AD

This delightfully authentically 70s prog/pop- sounding single, produced by Todd Rundgren, speaks for itself lyrically, as it’s about just that, the small victories of everyday life. It’ll be on their upcoming album Go To School, a concept album about a chimp named Shane, raised as a human boy, which is a very interesting concept. The album comes out August 24. The single is out now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6LodGUpmxY

Andrea Weiss

Rayland Baxter

World Café Live, July 14, 2018

Philadelphia, PA

He’s been around since 2012, but I’d never heard him until now, with the deeply quirky single "Casanova." College loan debt is likened to overbearing women who you’ve never met, yet who call you every day telling you to behave. For real. And that was enough to convince me to buy his new album, Wide Awake, and go see him live.

The album is great, a mix of folkish songs and adult rock. Some are political, like "Strange American Dream," about the US now, and "79 Shiny Revolvers, about gun control, but the relationship songs are sad in a "why did you go away" vein, and also a "don’t know where I stand" one. I like his gentle touch, and his guitar playing.

Live he shredded on guitar, was a lot rowdier than on the album, and the band kept things moving smoothly. When they took a break, the older, folk-like songs on solo acoustic guitar sounded right at home. I loved it.

When they played "Casanova" everyone sang, including his friends in the very good opening act, Okey Dokey, on the refrain, making an already strange song even quirkier.

https://www.facebook.com/RaylandBaxterMusic/

Andrea Weiss

Peace Train

World Café Live, July 13, 2018

Philadelphia, PA

This has nothing to do with Cat Stevens. This is an interracial, female duo from South Africa, Sharon Katz and Nonhlanhla Wanda. They make Afro-pop, but with an indie rock edge, somewhat dream pop with guitars instead of keyboards. Katz is an excellent guitar player, Wanda a great singer. They are official musical ambassadors, internationally acclaimed, and Grammy nominated, who burst onto the world stage with a 150-voice choir, a 10-piece band, and a tour with Ladysmith Black Mambazo in South Africa in 1993, right when apartheid was crumbling.

When I saw them live they were on the verge of going to the US/Mexico border to lead a march from the US side into Mexico, to meet up with a choir there to protest the forced separations. There is more here about it. http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/entertainment/music/sd-et-artscal-sharon-20180715-story.html

They turned the Café into party central. People got up and danced in the aisles, walked up to the front and danced, and these were retirees. But who cares about age with this much fun to be had? They played songs from their wonderful new album Side By Side, and their edge came from the fact that they were musical freedom fighters, helping to end apartheid at home, and in the US.

I loved every bit of it, even as I was exhausted by all the high energy by the end. This is a duo and band to delight in, to protest with, and not to miss if they come to your town.

https://www.facebook.com/SKPTrain/

Andrea Weiss

Jonatha

Jonatha Brooke

World Café Live, June 14, 2018

The Posies, who I saw the night before, and Brooke represent very different types of 90s music. She’s an overlooked singer/songwriter, and great. The Posies are a wonderful, overlooked power pop band, and while I’m not going to slam grunge or alternative rock, I will say that back then, and what I realize now more than ever, is there were many alternatives, not just a few. These days that is indeed the case with all types of indie music.

Brooke played acoustic guitar, mandolin, and electric piano, and Sean Driscoll played electric guitar. He made a lot of noise, good noise, a fitting counterpart to Brooke's quirky lyrics and playing that were by turns wry, sweet, and gently depressing. Her subtle, nuanced singing was sweet and gentle.

She touched on her catalog, from the early 90s when she was one half of the Story, with Jennifer Kimball, to her new album "Midnight. Hallelujah." All are excellent, and a joy to hear live. When I said hello to her after the show, she seemed nice.

If all of this makes you curious to hear a type of 90s alt that never got its due, start with her wonderful latest album and work backwards. You’ll be rewarded with underrated music.

Andrea Weiss

Posies

The Posies

E. Joseph and the Sparrows

Terra Lightfoot 

World Café Live, June 13, 2018

I never tire of WC Live. It's clean and comfortable, with good food and great music. Like tonight.

Terra Lightfoot is Canadian, on her first extended tour of the US. She plays feminist indie rock--noise rock, that is--and she's great.

E. Joseph and the Sparrows play more straightforward hardish indie rock. While I’d heard both them and Terra on Philly’s WXPN, I didn't know who those songs were by until this show.  I liked both bands a lot live and bought their albums.

The Posies' set leaned 80s and 90s, with a few songs from their post-Geffen period. I felt their set tonight was better than when I saw them back in January, but that may be because the club they played in then wasn’t so hot.

Their loud, hard, power pop with a hint of darkness is my kind of music right now. Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow showed off their rock star moves, and their twin lead guitar playing was excellent. Funny onstage banter featured horror stories about their tour, including a less than perfect set the night before in Harrisburg, PA. 

I’ve been into them since the 80s, and I'm glad I finally got to see them in a good setting. 

If you want to see three bands who have something to say, and play, this is the tour to see. 

Andrea Weiss