Dig ‘in: Neptune’s Core, Martin Frawley, Robyn Hitchcock
Check out what the No Wristbands team is listening to and what’s in our show calendars this month on our latest Dig ‘in.
INCOMING
Neptune’s Core - Pivot (Shuga Records LP)
This dual pair of Chicago sisters find themselves on an evolutionary track with Pivot. Having origins dating back to middle school and now being college-aged, there’s a natural progression built into their musical growth, but their transformation is also due to a self-described intentionality to further push the limits and intricacies of their material. This turns up most prominently in their use of bridge parts and multiple harmonies that provide their songs added weight and complexity.
Neptune’s Core lightheartedly refer to their music as Lemon Rock: “It’s citrusy, bright, punchy, and a little reckless” according to the band. The lead single of Pivot is “Lemon Car—an undeniably catchy number with a group chorus that fits their genre description to a T. “Arc” is a whirlwind of sound as Sofie Richter and Jackie Cywinski joust back and forth on guitar, propelled into action by Kaitlin Cywinski’s manic drumming.
“Tethered” and “Skeleton” operate on different ends of the spectrum. The former features the smoldering R&B vocal workout from Sofie Richter, while the latter is a hushed acoustic ballad with Jackie Cywinski taking the lead on the mic. They’re representative of Pivot as a whole, where Neptune’s Core are exploring new avenues but not limiting themselves in any preordained direction. -Bruce Novak
Martin Frawley - Peppermint Tea (Coast 2 Coast EP)
2023’s solo album, The Wannabe, found Martin Frawley in a good place five years after the cratering of the beloved Twerps—recently married and coming to terms with his fraught relationship with his father, also a well-regarded musician who passed away prematurely from liver cancer at age 55. It re-awakened his passion for music that has only been furthered by the subsequent birth of his daughter and his quest to have her grow up in a creative world.
Unlike The Wannabe, which Frawley recorded with a full band, Peppermint Tea is a purely solo endeavor that came from his home studio with an acoustic orientation that reinforces its intimacy. With both Trouble In Mind and Spunk Records, the labels that released The Wannabe, now folded, Peppermint Tea is a digital only release who’s aim isn’t tied to any level of commercial recognition.
It would be a mistake to assume Frawley’s domestic contentment has mellowed his musical outlook. Opener “Fed To The Wolves” calls out a fair-weathered friend for staying on the sidelines while Frawley spirals downward. The tangled opening chords to “No Apologies” foreshadow the feisty declarations of unsentimentality for a fabricated relationship.
The finger gets pointed inward on “Breaking You (Peppermint Tea)” where Frawley tries to reconcile his quest to always have the upper hand. Shades of The Clean’s David Kilgour surface on “Easier Over Time”—a heartbreak ballad of withering love. Redemption finally surfaces on “Morning Sunshine,” where Frawley reassures his infant daughter that things are going to turn out alright…after all, there’s a world of creativity out there that surely awaits. -Bruce Novak
Robyn Hitchcock - The Confuser (Tiny Ghost Records LP)
“Golden feelings call for golden times / Golden feelings are not mine.” So says Robyn Hitchcock in “My Dead Astronaut,” pulling the rug out from under his own fake gravitas with a shrug--as is his wont, as a master of witty juxtaposition and surprising observations. Hitchcock’s new album, The Confuser, rife with such contrasts, is a hooky, perfectly distilled song cycle that tours the stages of existence: self-awareness, disintegration, loss, reemergence, and love. He mixes humor and a healthy mistrust of humanity with a romantic, hopeful nature.
Hitchcock has always been a brilliant composer, populating indelible melodies with carefully crafted, often cryptic or absurd—but remarkably apt–imagery. Whimsy serves serious intent, cynicism is punctured by a goofy non sequitur or a jaunty “doo-do-do-do.” Anger is tempered with humor, sadness with hope, energy with languor; and ultimately it all coalesces.
It’s easy to focus only on the songwriting, but Hitchcock also is a wonderful instrumentalist and producer, and his band—who also backed him up on his recent tour–is a splendid mind-meld of musicians who clearly are having a blast. Jeremy Fetzer (guitar), Todd Bolden (bass), and Eric Slick (drums) run their paces with lively rock, jangly pop, smooth funk, romantic synth lines, and Bo Diddly grooves. They’re buoyed by co-producer Brad Jones on keyboards, and Robyn’s former Soft Boys bandmate Kimberley Rew enriches several cuts with his inimitable assertive guitar.
And Hitchcock is in fine voice throughout, altering his usual clear tenor, as appropriate, to portentous grumble, tender croon, or gruff baritone, sprinkling in the occasional Beatles-y “Oh yeah” and Elvis-y “Uh huh huh.”
The first three songs hurtle us, fueled by pop-rock energy, into the themes. “I Am This Thing” charges into the declaration, “I am I am this thing… / I grew from a seed, a fleshy seed / I am alone in thought and deed.” Then, the jaunty caveat: “Touch me and I’m gone.” The aforementioned “My Dead Astronaut” is goofy, slightly ghoulish funk with a bit of a “Munsters” vibe. “Yesterday’s Rain” bouncily reminds us of the inevitability of consequences: “Well the beat goes on / Louder than a mustache on a face / Would anybody miss the human race? I didn’t think so…. / Yesterday’s rain falls on tomorrow’s parade.”
The tone then changes for several lovely tracks to quieter, more tender and emotional. “Ghost in Sunlight” is so poignant in its expression of mourning: “They tore up the tracks this morning / The tracks they laid the day that you were born / Look at them, they’re gone….” Guest artist Gillian Welch’s ethereal harmonies and background spoken words add texture.
“Building from the Ruins” opens with a wah-wah pedal and proceeds to skewer greed and politics to a chugging boogie beat. Robyn drops into a gravelly sneer: “I miss democracy like my wisdom teeth…. / How are you getting out of here alive? I don’t know baby, how? / …On a sea of mirrors in a grail-shaped cup.” But, as the title indicates, there are glimmers of a plan: “Our best defence is to just share our goals…we never give up.” After a brief, spiky guitar solo, a surprisingly flock of “ah ah ah ah ah” harmonies segue into a brilliant aural intimation of progress.
The marvelous “Monday For Me” sways and chimes, blending acoustic and electric guitar for a litany in Byrds-y waltz time: “I’m a-working on Monday / Just to save it for Tuesday / We can build a new Wednesday / So keep your Thursday free.”
There’s brilliant wordplay to the last. The decadent, old-fashioned country ramble of “Wasted” could be about more than one meaning of the word: “Whatever’s cooking in my head I cannot baste it… / There’s a label on my box and it says wasted.” Is he unnecessary, is he drunkenly surrendering, is it just forbearance? Or–most likely, because Robyn Hitchcock contains multitudes–all of the above? -Tina Woelke
UPCOMING
Debris Bardot at Dreamland - August 19, 8:00 PM
Debris Bardot are an upstart Brooklyn trio composed of Liam Barton (guitar & vocals), Oscar Mooney (bass) and Findlay Fullarton (drums). Their tensile, shambolic music is cut with a healthy dose of snark that sometimes play out like inside jokes. Each of their three digital releases from last year are adorned by a cover image of a safety-pin-pierced Lacoste alligator logo presented on different fabrics. That motif turns up in their song, “The Collar and Lacoste,” a trebly, neo-psychedelic number that showcases their irreverent approach.
The DIY event is a Nitroclycerine and Dreamland co-production spearheaded by Cole Hunt (aka Johnson Rockstar) and Alex Azul. In addition to Debris Bardot, the adventuresome line-up includes Louisville’s PARKiNG, Current Union TM (the latest project from Twin Coast’s Kira and Reid Isbell) and the Chicago duo, Instrument. Details can be found through the Luma event platform. -Bruce Novak
Reserver at Reed’s Local - August 21, 9:00 PM
Local outfit Reserver are hosting a release event for their debut album, Reverser, that dropped on August 14 via Funambulist Recording Company. The ten-track record is a testament to the perseverance of vocalist/instrumentalist Chad Preston, who began writing the songs when he stepped away from The Laureates, a band that included current Reservers Adam Penly and Crawfie Ward, to care for his wife Kerri who was diagnosed with cancer and tragically passed away after a four year struggle.
The process of recording the album with Penly, Ward and new drummer Dan Wendt proved therapeutic for Preston. On the track “Server,” he observes: “When your loved ones are all long gone / And you’re staring at the sun / Remember you’re the only one / That keeps their memory in your blood.”
Reserver’s music has a soaring presence, reflecting a lineage to ’80s noise guitar rock with a dollop of shoegaze. In the process of memorializing a loved one, they’ve created a memorable and poignant work of art that’s worthy of notice. -Bruce Novak
Frankie Cosmos at Empty Bottle - August 23, 9:00 PM
Frankie Cosmos will be performing their second studio album, Next Thing, in its entirety to celebrate the recording’s ten year anniversary and a newly remastered deluxe vinyl edition. Circling back to that formative period where Greta Kline confessed that “Im 20 / Washed up already / I’d sell my soul for a free pen / On it the name of your corporation,” will engender some reassessment of a moment in time when everything took on added weight and significance.
Coming on the heels of her relatively breezy 17-minute debut LP, Zentropy, Kline was more purposeful in crafting Next Thing and you get a sense of her mind working in overdrive as songs spill out from pages of prose into a dizzying array of tempos and moods. On “What If,” she attempts to carve out her space while recognizing “When you’re young / You’re too young / When you’re old / You’re to old,” before adding “Too few ideas / Or too many.”
In a measure of reverse progression, the band will be returning to the spartan instrumentation that was used to record Next Thing—a vintage Danelectro guitar sans effects pedals, a basic Casio keyboard and a spartan drum kit will not only frame that album’s songs, but will also be utilized to recontextualize newer compositions. -Bruce Novak
UNCOVERED
Kimberley Rew - The Bible Of Bop (Compendium LP)
One might argue that Kimberley Rew has never fully received his due. On the surface that sounds incredulous considering he’s authored the hit songs “Walking on Sunshine” and “Going Down to Liverpool” for Katrina and the Waves, the latter of which was also a single popularized by the Bangles off their Columbia Records debut, All Over the Place. Hell, just being a core guitarist and backing vocalist for The Soft Boys elevates him to godlike status in my book.
The Bible of Bop is a compilation or Rew’s initial solo forays, coming from three separate sources. The three earliest tracks date back to 1980 when he was still a member of the Soft Boys, and includes Robyn Hitchcock, Matthew Seligman and Morris Windsor as his backing band. It’s easy to envision how the irresistible “Stomping All Over The World” served as a prelude to “Going Down to Liverpool”—jangly guitar goodness that winds into an absolute killer chorus. “Nothing’s Going to Change” is a slice of psychedelic pop that surely must have grabbed the attention of LA’s soon-to-develop Paisley Underground gang. The riveting “Fighting Someone’s War” could sit among any of the soul deep compositions that Alex Chilton penned for Big Star’s 3rd album.
When The dB’s were on tour in the UK in 1981, Rew gathered with the group to track three numbers that draw from ’60s pop. “My Baby Does Her Hairdo Long” is a hoot, reveling in unabashed grooviness, while “Fishing” registers as a touching love ballad.
The compilation’s other two tracks were culled from the initial recordings of the Waves that included Katrina Leskanich on guitar and vocals. They are quite scruffier than the material that would later bring the group international success, with “Hey, War Pig!” sounding particularly fierce. -Bruce Novak
We recommend listening along over at our Spotify page. Here’s this week’s content: