Dig ‘in: White Fence, The Bevis Frond, Season 2
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
White Fence - Orange (Drag City LP)
During the timeframe of 2021-2025, Tim Presley approached the making of Orange with a back-to-the-basics mentality. Upon kicking an opioid addiction, Presley was unable to constructively engage in his usual songwriting process and instead turned to his passion for painting and drawing to clear his mind. In due time, his passion for music reemerged in spurts, giving way to the extended creative process for the album.
From the get-go, Presley opens up emotionally, exposing both a naked honesty and a persistence to overcome uncertainties. “Oh, money gets me what I want / I need just enough to medicate my thoughts, if at all,” he begins on “That’s Where The Money Goes (Seen From The Celestial Realm).” Yet his conviction to heal remains undaunted as expressed on “I Came Close, Orange For Luck”: “Just wait till I get stronger / “It’s not just nothing left to lose.”
Time and time again, Presley extols the redemptive power of love—“Your Eyes” and “Giving Up My Heart” hit like tender mercies. The meditative “Unread Books” pairs Presley’s wistful recollections with Alice Sandahl’s perfectly placed synth interludes. The ringing jangle of “Evaporating Love” is as grand as its sentiment: “It’s the ocean-sized desire / Impossible to satisfy.”
Recorded over the course of a week at Ty Segall’s Harmonizer II studios, Presley deliberately bypassed his past employment of tape manipulations and effects for a clean, spartan sound on Orange to the extent that he grew hesitant to release it. Thank goodness he ultimately decide to put himself all out there for all to appreciate. -Bruce Novak
The Bevis Frond - Horrorful Heights (Fire Records LP)
Depending on how you count the records, this may be The Bevis Frond’s 30th release since 1987! While the productivity is admirable, it’s the remarkable consistency across all those records that makes Nick Saloman’s (aka The Bevis Frond’s) achievement so special. An ace ax slinger, Saloman’s well-established sound is a masterful mix of classic hard-rock, psychedelia, folky balladry and straight up pop hooks.
The double-disc Horrorful Heights kicks off in classic Frond style. “A Mess of Stress” is a ripping, infectious 60s/Wipers-style rocker, a mode that’s become a Saloman staple over the years. “Best Laid Plans” is a slight surprise: a tuneful midtempo number appealingly flecked with country-rock lead guitar work. Given how steeped Saloman’s music is in British rock history, the country-rock move might seem like a stretch, but “Best Laid Plans” is one of the new disc’s most melodically appealing numbers. “Quietly,” on the other hand, slips deftly into brooding 60s-style psychedelic spell-weaving, with its tendrils of swirling, sustained guitar lines. Elsewhere, “Square House” and “Naked Air” start off like pedestrian, chugging rockers, but quickly grab you by the collar with snappy, lilting choruses that could get a dead man’s toes tapping.
The second disc of Horrorful Heights isn’t quite as compelling as the first, although there are a couple of ace pop numbers (“Romany Blue,” “Buffaloed”) and some typically torrid Saloman axe excursions. If Horrorful Heights falls just a bit short of Saloman’s absolute best, it’s still strewn with the engaging, tuneful, varied rock that many of us now simply refer to as “classic Frond.” -Rick Reger
Season 2 - Power of Now (Upset The Rhythm LP)
After Melbourne’s Phil & The Tiles ran their course, guitarist Freya McLeod began casually jamming with former Stroppies bassist Claudia Serfaty. In time, the nucleus of Season 2 came together with Serfaty switching over to keyboards, Parsnip’s Carolyn Hawkins coming aboard on drums, and McLeod’s former bandmates—Charlotte Zarb (bass) and Matt Powell (guitar) joining the ranks. While McLeod and Serfaty handle most of the lead vocals, all members pitch in singing, providing a sense of spontaneity.
“What For” launches the record with a percolating mix of swirling keyboards, staccato-strummed guitars, bouncy rhythms and infectious melodies. The snappy “Becomes a Dream” follows with a Dolewave sound driven by the counterpart soaring and scratchy guitars and contrasting vocal mix. McLeod and Serfaty trade-off verses on “Abundance of Power”—a bass-driven post-punk number questioning hierarchical social structures. “Videos Are Gone” captures the frenzy of McLeod realizing that she’s accidentally deleted her archive and the mounting realization that retrieval efforts are futile.
Power of Now captures the immediacy of locking into the moment. By being highly present, Season 2 have made themselves known and provide a compelling case to be remembered. -Bruce Novak
UPCOMING
Armlock at Schuba’s Tavern - May 17, 7:30 PM
Simon Lam’s and Hamish Mitchell’s pivot away from the electronic music they produced with I’lls and Couture to the sparser, acoustic guitar-based material of Armlock signaled a fairly dramatic change on the surface. As professional sound engineers out of Melbourne, Australia, a key component that they carried forward was their ability to layer sounds and construct songs over time without the concern of booked studio rates. With Armlock, their modus operandi is to subtract extraneous elements that lead to a more streamlined sound and organic feel. Lam’s hushed vocal delivery gives their songs a comfortable landing zone and the combination of thoughtfully considered instrumentation with a dollop of well-placed sound manipulations takes what’s familiar into pleasurable new horizons. -Bruce Novak
Chapterhouse at Aragon Ballroom - May 22 and 23, 6:00 PM
Reading, UK band Chapterhouse had an abbreviated, but significant tenure; releasing two studio albums over their existence—Whirlpool (1991) and Blood Music (1993). A lawsuit over some altered poetry that was incorporated into the instrumental track “Deli” off of Blood Music on the suggestion of the studio engineer effectively derailed Chapterhouse’s career when the release had to be pulled from store shelves. When their record label, Arista/Dedicated, insisted that they needed to deliver a “hit” third record to recoup losses, the writing was on the wall and the band folded in1995.
Chapterhouse reemerged in late 2009 for a performance at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts, followed by a slate of shows the next year in Tokyo and select North American cities (that included Chicago’s Lincoln Hall). This latest comeback is in conjunction with the 35th Anniversary of their debut, Whirlpool. That record’s amalgamation of hazy psychedelia, noise rock and melodic pop has aged quite well and sits amongst the finest work of their peers that include Swervedriver, Ride and Slowdive. Both Aragon shows are part of the Slide Away festival that the band is co-headlining with Hum and Nothing, and that will also feature locals Loveliescrushing and Sunshy for the Saturday gig. -Bruce Novak
Weird Nightmare at Cobra Lounge - May 28, 7:00 PM
When METZ guitarist and vocalist Alex Edkins released his pop-flecked self-titled Weird Nightmare album in 2022 it felt like a surprising one-off. Since then, METZ went on indefinite hiatus in 2024, and Edkins has returned with Weird Nightmare’s second LP, Hoopla, released this month on Sub Pop Records. Both albums are the result of Edkins leaning into his formative love of killer hooks and addictive melodies. Whereas the first record was born out of Edkins escaping on his own to METZ’s Toronto rehearsal space during COVID-19 times to hash out the material, Hoopla was recorded with engineer Seth Manchester at his Providence, Rhode Island Machines with Magnets studio with a full band line-up of drummer Loel Campbell (Wintersleep) and bassist Roddy Kuester (Sadies), and co-production help from Spoon’s Jim Emo. The debut’s shaggier, distortion-fueled songs have given way to more well-rounded timeless pop constructs. Edkins appears fully in his comfort zone and his listeners can’t help but to be equally charmed by the luxurious pull of his new direction. -Bruce Novak
UNCOVERED
Slovenly - Riposte / We Shoot for the Moon / Highway’s to Hanno’s (SST Records LPs)
Slovenly was—without question—one of the most distinctive and interesting bands of the ’80s indie rock explosion. Sadly, they’re also one of that era’s most overlooked acts. Made up of guitarists/bassists Tom Watson, Scott Ziegler and Tim Plowman, vocalist Steve Anderson and drummer Rob Holzman, this bay area quintet carved out a sound that was, by turns, punk-ish, avant-garde, free-jazzy and richly melodic. That mix—along with Anderson’s resonant, spoken-sung vocals—proved a bit too “out” for the record buyers of that era. But those of us who took the plunge were rewarded with a string of compelling, truly unique-sounding records powered by first-rate musicianship.
Slovenly’s third album, Riposte (1987), was the first where all their diverse influences were flawlessly integrated into a near-perfect record, one that’s always in my Top 10 lists. Songs like “Enormous Critics” and “The Way Untruths Are” hit you with an infectiously propulsive drive fueled by razor-sharp rhythm section accents and Anderson’s passionate vocals, which are vaguely reminiscent of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis. There are also genuinely lyrical moments, like “Myers’s Dark” and “As If It Always Happens,” with their introspective vocals and chiming acoustic guitar arpeggios. Yet Riposte also spins you through “A Little Resolve” (electronic musique concrete), the torrid punk/free jazz mashup of “Prejudice” and the delicate, gracefully strummed instrumental closer “Emma.” A masterful 30 minutes of music.
The band’s fourth album, the aptly titled We Shoot for the Moon (1989), included many of those same stylistic features but pushed a bit further into the avant-garde side of the band’s ethos. Remarkably, the disc also includes excellent covers of Neil Young’s “Don’t Cry No Tears” and the Blue Orchids’ “A Year with No Head,” which accurately convey the wide range of Slovenly’s influences. “Self Pity Song” and “A Warm Night” are bracing, addictive rockers soaring atop killer guitar riffs and rhythm grooves, beautifully accented with Anderson’s arching vocal lines. But this disc also escorts you through dissonant, spiky instrumentals “You Cease to Amaze Me,” gritty recordings of urban street noise “No Unlawful Sex” and the adventurous 20-minute final track “Things Fall Apart,” a pastiche that stitches together post-punk song fragments, electronic tape splicing, random instrumental clips, dub-like grooves, jazz skronking, melodic strings and more. I’m not convinced it coheres into a compelling listen, but it’s unapologetically daring.
Slovenly’s final album, Highway to Hanno’s (1992), has a bit of an elegiac vibe as it again showcases the band’s core strengths with an even healthier dose of “out” explorations. As usual, there are some tuneful, midtempo rockers skimming by on powerful grooves (“Comes Alive,” “Pig Farmers Daughter,” “Blood Revealed”), instrumentals adorned with prickly harmonies and shifting tempi (“To Tito with Love,” “Carnival Knowledge”) and even freely improvised pieces (“Hamster Wheel,” “Thank You Purple Jesus”). “Crawl Inside” is simultaneously delicate and introspective, while dappled with unusual guitar tonalities, and the record’s last tune, “Vision Head,” draws the band’s career to a close with a gently beautiful meditation on life’s fleeting beauty.
If you’re open to music from skilled musicians that’s willing to trod both well-beaten paths and wander off into much thornier byways, Slovenly has a LOT to offer. A truly rewarding band! -Rick Reger
Discogs: Riposte, We Shoot for the Moon, Highway to Hanno’s
We recommend listening along over at our Spotify page. Here’s this week’s content: