Tag: Gavage
Boston’s The Noise reviews The Lincoln Tunnel, Jets Can’t Land, Radio Carbon, and Gavage
RADIO CARBON – Caveman Ballads
7 tracks 75orless Records
There are no ballads on this record, although there might be some cavemen. The Troggs have influenced all punk and rock in a way, but that’s about it. This Providence band can destroy you, literally, if they want to. (The singer is a big man.) Based on my experience of seeing Radio Carbon live a few times, the only thing they want to hurt is your ears. The volume and energy is intense, and the songs and musicianship are polished but gritty. A solid release with one good song after another. It’s punk with elements of stoner and noise rock, and all that’s still good in this world.
THE LINCOLN TUNNEL – Today 2.0
75 Or Less Records
10 tracks
Christian Calderone is a smart songwriter and lyricist; one of the best around, judging from this debut effort. “Damn, I Wear It Well” begins this epic collection of brilliant songs with a circus-like romp, replete with a bass played like a trombone, an attenuated oompah rhythm, and some scorching guitar. “Big Decision” has a preening and brittle punk guitar rhythm and world-weary trailing vocals. “All Together Wrong” is lively, frantic indie rock bravado in the vein of the DBs; eminently hit-worthy. “Friend of the Roses” is a tuneful romp with an electrifying guitar-bass-drum hook and wistful trumpet filigrees courtesy of Ellen Block. “Makin’ Cents and Takin’ Vows” features liquescent guitar and is otherwise an inoffensive ballad. “Elemental Sun” features slapping drums and ingenious harmony vocals in the lead-up to the chorus. “Our Mother’s Sons” combines twangy guitar and echoey glad-making vocals with a lonesome trumpet melody. A surprisingly touching song, and Best of Show. “Ordinary Sky” is elevated psyche interspersed with an irresistible cascading guitar riff; it comes to a climax which is short and sweet. “Memphis” is a straight-ahead, paint-peeling, numinously buzzing rocker. “Line My Pockets” is a mysterious and spacy yet upbeat and surly love song. This is mostly excellent all the way through; the songs are smart and the band uses instrumentals like a good painter mixes colors for effect. Definitely a band to watch.
JETS CAN’T LAND – You Can’t Linger On
6 tracks
Some tasty retro ’9’s alt-pop from Rhode Island that you could probably seduce middle-aged chicks with, especially if you were slumming it in Providence. Very lightly psychedelic and jangly (in a non-’80s way), You Can’t Linger On will remind you of whatever obscure local indie-rock sensation you were into in 1994. Plus the lyrics are good, with MASH and ELO references and bummer lines like “Here I am watching things go bad again.” I’m not sure that I would personally listen to this regularly – I hate the ’90s except for that one song by Matthew Sweet – but if you’re still laboring under the delusion that everything was swell back when we were young and eating ramen for dinner six times a week, then this is your new favorite band.
GAVAGE – self titled
10 tracks
Gavage is a Providence punk rock group. There are catchy parts, heavy parts, and sax from Adrienne from one of the town’s best bands Downtown Boys that adds a slight undercurrent of avant garde to the rock ’n’ roll. I like that the CD comes with a lyric sheet, not many bands bother with this anymore. This is a good album to listen to as you stroll drunkenly down a dark alley, just before something crazy happens. If you make it out of that alley, you’ll want to listen to this album over and over again.
Motif Magazine reviews the new Gavage Self Titled album
Gavage – Self-Titled (75orLess Records and Port of Providence Records)
A couple of years ago, my friend Mike Kelly recommended checking out Gavage. I took notice mostly because in the 20-plus years of our friendship I only recall him turning on to one other band. It evolved into Kilgore and went on to become local legends that played all over the world on things like OzzFest. My friend might have missed his calling in life as a record label A&R scout because my first impressions of Gavage was, “FINALLY a punk band doing something different!” They had a saxophone going off like a lead guitar reminiscent of X-Ray Specs. I could hear influences varying from Stooges pre-punk to ’80s post-punk and everything in between, but it all comes across as natural.
The oft-delayed self-titled full-length from Gavage does a good job harnessing the energy of the band’s live show. It even has a tie in to the aforementioned Kilgore as it was produced by singer Jay Berndt. The twisting roads that Gavage drive down can be seen in tunes like “The Platonic Verse,” which starts with a jazz-like swing before winding up with an outro closer to the Dead Boys. “Five: Sixteen” takes its title and “inside outside, nowhere is home, inside outside, leave me alone” bridge from The Who song “5:15” while sounding the Raw Power era of The Stooges. “(Downtown) Where The Killers Are” is the total package as far as a jam for getting fired up on a Saturday Night. “Diamonds In The Mind” has a late ’60s Kinks-like sing-along-at-the-top-of-your-lungs chorus while “Terribly Sane” channels the Ramones. On their debut release, Gavage manage to capture the harmony of chaos that is a staple of their live shows and preserve it like a photograph. I threw some questions at Kevin Toth, David Simione, Chris Fragale and John Hoder from Gavage to find out about how the band came together, creating their debut release and what is next.
Marc Clarkin (Motif): How did Gavage come to be?
Kevin Toth: Well, Chris and I knew each other from college. When he moved to Providence, I used to visit from Brooklyn on some weekends. He eventually met David (at what would soon become our regular haunt, the E&O Tap) and it was there one night where we all decided that we wanted to start a punk band called Gavage. This is especially funny when you consider that neither Chris nor I had played in a band in over a decade, and David had once dabbled in drums but hadn’t so much as touched a drumstick in just as long.
David Simione: One night after a particularly long session at E&O, I bought a drum set off Craigslist, then immediately made Chris buy an amp and we initially set up camp at my friend’s practice space. Kevin moved to Providence from Brooklyn soon after, and Gavage became a real-life band. After a few months, a friend introduced us to John, who’d recently moved to Providence from Michigan. We thought he was cool because I’d seen a photo of him on Facebook playing a Rickenbacker bass. The first night we met John, the four of us ended up a few too deep, hopelessly trying to cover “Hybrid Moments” by The Misfits even though none of us could remember how it went; to this day, we still haven’t figured it out. We played our first show at Muldowney’s a few weeks after, and I guess people liked us.
MC: What were some of the influences that bonded the band?
KT: The greatest thing is the fact that we all came from very diverse musical backgrounds that you wouldn’t necessarily think could “add up” to anything. There is some overlap, for sure, but musically speaking we all come from different places. For me, I’d have to say The Adverts, Buzzcocks, Dead Kennedy’s and early The Damned are my biggest influences.
John Hoder: Hubble Bubble. I love this band in general, but definitely in relation to Gavage. This is what I draw from.
DS: In terms of playing drums, I would definitely have to say Jawbreaker, The Libertines, and The Menzingers; although Saves the Day and Beck are shamelessly my quintessential soundtrack to life.
Chris Fragle: Yeah, one of the greatest things about Gavage, at least to me, is that we’ve managed to pull together a coherent style that is reminiscent of other things, but we don’t sound like a copy of any one genre. If it’s not obvious from my guitar playing, my two biggest influences are The Jesus & Mary Chain and Sonic Youth.
MC: You recently finished your oft-delayed debut album – what were some of this issues you ran into?
CF: First off, Jay Berndt did a fantastic job with us on this. He really saw through the few rough edges we had and helped us make the record how we’d imagined. The toughest part was capturing the raw energy over anything else. As far as issues we faced, it took a lot of time to find the right mixes. The first pass was too huge and we came off sounding like a Butch Vig record … this was totally awesome, but not for Gavage. Then the next pass came back anemic and weak. We finally landed somewhere around Steve Albini, which did the trick.
MC: What makes for a great Gavage show?
JH: A hip-hop crew breakdancing in the audience.
MC: Now that the record is finally out – what is next for Gavage?
JH: We are looking to add another element to our sound with a keyboard player and another guitarist, which will most definitely change things up. Our next moves will really start to show once we meet the newest members of Gavage.
KT: You’ll just have to wait and see.
Gavage’s self-titled debut is available on online streaming services and in local record stores. After a raucous release party at AS220 as part of the Providence Garage Party, Gavage will be hosting a special listening party at E&O Tap in Providence on December 12 at 9pm. Copies of Gavage’s debut release will be available on CD and limited edition pink vinyl.
Gavage – Self Titled CD
75OL-205/POP002 Gavage – Self Titled Compact Disc
$8.00 S&H Included
Digital download is available here
——-> Vinyl is available here <——–
Track Listing:
1. Clowns Only
2. The Platonic Verses
3. Five : Sixteen
4. Small Actors
5. The Suggestibles
6. (Downtown) Where the Killers Are
7. Wheelwell
8. Diamonds in the Mine
9. And I Don’t Wanna Be Alone
10. Terribly Sane
Contact Gavage on Twitter or Instagram: @gavagetheband
Gavage at AS220
shybluespaceman takes over the AS220 complex with 10 bands from Providence, New Bedford, Boston, and Philly. Record Show & Vintage Flea Market. Weird & Strange Movies from the 60s & 70s
Sponsored by Narragansett Beer
Rhode Island Antiques Mall
The Time Capsule
Line-up:
Eric & the Nothing (RI)
The Nebulas (MA)
Future Spa (MA)
NEUTRINOS (MA)
Gavage (RI) Album Release Show!!!!
THE WORRIED (RI)
Black Beach (MA)
Party Pigs (RI)
Midriffs (MA)
Malyssa and the Sugar Cones (RI)
ST JAMES AND THE APOSTLES. (PA)
Advance tickets are only $12 and are available at:
http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2432116
Tickets at the door (if still available)l are $15.
Movies:
Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill!
Foxy Brown
She Devils on Wheels
Werewolves on Wheels
AS220
95 Empire St
Providence, RI
STARTS AT 5PM!
VanyaLand covers the Self Titled Album by Gavage
Album Premiere & Preview: Gavage unleash debut LP ahead of Providence Garage Fest
With their first show being at a house party on New Year’s Eve back in 2012, Providence punk band Gavage have come a long way in a short time. Their talents exude a vibe that’s reminiscent of vintage B-52’s and Gang Of Four, guaranteeing to start a party wherever they play. The fourpiece will be officially unveiling their long-awaited debut album, released dually via POP Records and 75orLess Records, on sexy hot pink vinyl during the first-annual Providence Garage Fest at AS220, which lands this Saturday. Taking their name from the French term to administer food or drugs by force, when you blast this bad boy through your record player, you’ll keep on wanting more.
Frontman Kevin Toth’s crazed style of storytelling on the mic sets the mood for each track. Christopher Fragale on guitar absolutely rips everything to pieces with his electrifying riffs and raw tones. Drummer David Simeone keeps everything at a feverish pace while John Hoder gives a jazzy vibe on bass. What makes the album something special has to be Downtown Boys’ saxophonist Adrienne Berry guesting on the entire record. Her immense skills on sax make the whole album seem as if it’s a soundtrack for a ’50s crime noir flick filled with endless action and intense car chase scenes.
The legendary Jay Berndt (who you might know from ’90s metal band Kilgore) produced the album at his studio Moto Destructo in Providence. You can tell that he wanted to capture Gavage’s rawness during the recording process. A fan favorite, “(Downtown) Where The Killers Are” is an ode to the danger that goes with being out at night. The song is bound to stick in your head for days once you give it a listen. Hoder starts the groove on bass in “Small Actors” and then the intensity gets raised when Berry joins in with her sax and Toth takes hold on vocals. The most energetic track is “Wheelwell”, from start to finish lyrically and musically it’s a perfect examination of the famous lifestyle of sex, drugs, and rock and roll.
The Providence Garage Fest is going to be one of the most insane times of the year in the Creative Capital, props to the “Shybluespaceman” John White for organizing such an extravaganza. Along with Gavage you also have Attleboro surf-punk dynamos Neutrinos, Middleboro fuzzheads Black Beach, Providence riff masters Party Pigs, Philadelphia psychedelic soul act St. James & The Apostles and many more. Also worth noting is that Friday night’s Providence Garage Fest Kick-off And Pizza Party at Dusk is sponsored by Caserta Pizzeria (which means: FREE PIZZA!!).
Gavage at Clash Bar
with MOTO, Brimstones Edison, and Wyldlife
Clash Bar
39 Harding Ave
Clifton, NJ
8:30pm
$8
21+
Gavage and Black Oil Incinerator at Narragansett’s Neighbor Days Block Party
Come for a day of beer, food, local music, raffles, outdoor fun and games, and much more.
Live music from:
Forest Fires
Jay Berndt and the Orphans
Gavage
Black Oil Incinerator
Ravi Shavi
Gym Shorts
The Quahogs
Cannibal Ramblers
The Johnsons
Less Than A Felony
Us and Y’all
Mike Manchester
Food from local trucks and restaurants
‘Gansett beer garden, local vendors and artisans
18 Luongo Square Providence, RI 02903
Gavage at The Met
with Viennagram and The Neutrinos
for a taping of Live from The Met on RIPBS
The Met
Main Street
Pawtucket, RI
9pm
Gavage at Jimmy’s Saloon
with Sex Coffee, Nymphidels, Dust Ruffles, and DJ Nook
as part of Bridgefest
Jimmy’s Saloon
Memorial Blvd.
Newport, RI
Baylies Band and Gavage at LibertyFest
July 4 at Dusk
Harris Ave
Providence, RI
Noon – 2am
featuring:
Atlantic Thrills
Beta Motel
Big Huge
Black Sheep
Blackletter
Cross-Armed Calculator
Eric & the Nothings
Feedback Psychosis
Frenzy of Tongs
Gym Shorts
Happiness
Headless Nixon
Honest John
Hope Anchor
I Eat Rocks
Itchies
Izzy True
J
Jacques Le Coque
Lucky United
M.O.T.O
Mis(s) Invader
New Maps
Pals
Pyramid
Radio Carbon
School of Rock
Sure
Smith & Weeden
Swan Point
Sweet Release
Teazer
The Chiselers
Throne of Saturn
Tomorrow & Tomorrow
Trunkweed
Viennagram
Vulgarrity
World’s Greatest Lover