Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Balmorhea


Constellations
Western Vinyl


So, start with a guitar. That sounds pretty nice. Layer on a violin, and that sounds a little nicer. Oh, is that a banjo? Double bass? Percussion? Now that just sounds swell, and as smooth as butter. That's how you can describe Balmorhea's (pronounced bal-more-ay) new album "Constellations." It's a strictly instrumental, minimalistic, acoustic experience taking you through an array of moods and emotions. Each song is like a musical parfait. As you listen to each layer, delicious music is unveiled until it culminates into this moving, tasty movement of acoustic music tinged with classical and bluegrass stylings.

The album takes on a darker mood compared to Balmorhea's previous albums, but the charm remains. It starts off with "To the Order of the Night," a haunting piano solo with delicately dark emotional phrasing, leading to the gem of the album, "Bowspirit" which layers it on best, leaving you with a message so clear yet unable to be put into words, like a hug when there are no words to say. The rest of the album follows a deliciously dark and melancholy tone right through "Palestrina," which wraps up the album. You'll find yourself searching for a faint melody through the audio textures backed by a faint chorale of voices, which may not be voicing anything audible, but seem to be saying, "thank you for listening, and I hope the introspection involved in listening to this album has made you a better person."

To that, I would say "No 'Constellations,' thank you."

- Frederick J. Pecor / MOVEMENT Jax

Murder Junkies & Ghostwitch Family Band Live

at Landshark Café

When the Ghostwitch Family Band started their set, I could tell it would be an amazing show. They have a very unique sound to their music, it’s good ole’ southern hellbilly rock. A few of their songs that really stuck out to me from their set was “Black Mass Baby” & “Wastin’ Time”. Ryan Gunwitch-Black, the singer, acoustic guitar player, & mastermind behind Ghostwitch does amazing job performing on stage. Ghostwitch may be a local band but I could see them being the next big thing. They do many different shows throughout the Jacksonville area, so I’d suggest if you get the chance, to go to one of their shows.

The Murder Junkies set was short but really good. I think their singer PP Duvee is doing a great job leading the band vocally. I like him the most since GG Allin was alive. Dino Sex played the drums in the full nude, like always, and was so fucking good pounding away on the drums throughout the set. Merle Allin bass lines shook the building and made their set so much more intense. The Murder Junkies produce the sound track to mayhem, murder, & madness. For the short period of time that they played, it was punk rock at its finest.

There was this one annoying drunk annoying guy which caused the set to end extremely early. He thought since it was a Murder Junkies show it had to be exactly the same as a GG Allin & The Murder Junkies show. He just would get on the stage and bump into different members of the Murder Junkies who would shove him off the stage. At one point he ended up hitting PP Duvee in the head. The second time he attack PP Duvee, he picked up his microphone stand and hit him extremely hard in the back of the neck twice. This caused a huge gash on the drunk idiots neck which immediately followed with bloodshed. Landshark security had to through the drunk guy out because he was causing problems & starting fights with anyone who he saw. This ended the Murder Junkies set about five songs into it.

- Kent Donohoe / MOVEMENT Jax