SONIC BOOM! MAGAZINE Issue 1

ALTERNATIVE, PUNK, HEAVY METAL, ROCK N’ ROLL

Volume 1, Number 1, November 2016

The Tomb Of Nick Cage Scarecrow Sonic Boombox Steve “What Style” Williams Dylan Hemard . . . and more

ATTENTION BANDS! WE WANT TO REVIEW YOUR MUSIC email us at SBPalz@outlook.com Subject line “SONIC SOUNDS!” for more information

Music . . . such a varied and powerful word. Ask ten random people what good music is and you are likely to get ten different answers none of them being right none of them being wrong. Music means different things to different people and to disregard any genre of music for any reason is not really fair. That being said we all do it we have our favorite styles of music and music that we dread being stuck in an elevator and stuck hearing and nothing can change that right?

Sonic Boom! Magazine is a little dream I had that aims to let music fans know that their are other things out there in the world of music that they may not have heard of and we hope to bring these things to you in a positive way. We will be providing interviews with bands and doing reviews of albums so that you the fan can be exposed to something new and different.

Sonic Boom! is largely focused on New Orleans based musicians but this is not a limitation it is just trying to speak for our hometown artist and show the world what we have to offer. Bands from other parts of the world are

certainly welcome in this magazine and will be included as often as possible.

The music talked about in Sonic Boom! will focus on the many forms of Rock N’ Roll from Punk Rock to Heavy Metal to Alternative Rock and anything else in between . . . and maybe some things outside of that as well. If we love something or have something good to say about a band we are certainly going to included it here in our pages. We are also taking time to write about visual artist that have a connection to the music industry and do wonderful things as well.

We hope to have bands contact us in the future with music to review and interview request so that our reach is much more than our local scene. With issue number one we are trying to lay down the groundwork for what this magazine could be.

Thank you for being part of issue number one of Sonic Boom! Magazine may it be the first of many.

- Kevin P. Johnson

SONIC BOOM! MAGAZINE, VOLUME 1, NUMBER 1, NOVEMBER 2016 - Published by Kevin P. Johnson. SONIC BOOM! MAGAZINE is Copyright Š2016 Kevin P. Johnson. All rights reserved, no part of this work may be reproduced without express written consent of Kevin P. Johnson. Published in the United States of America with a budget of ZERO dollars.

B M TO

E G A C K NIC

OF

Illuminati Confirmed

By Kevin P. Johnson

The Tomb of Nick Cage are a band that some of you will say that I am biased about and that I will never say a bad word about . . . well that may be true but it did not start that way. It was early on in my adventure of taking photographs of the local New Orleans rock music scene when the band One-Eyed Doll was coming to town and unheard of local band The Tomb Of Nick Cage got to open the show. It was in fact Tomb’s first show ever. I was friends on Facebook with lead singer and mastermind of this project Kym Trailz. I’m not even sure how we became friends it has to be through someone else we both know but that really isn’t important what is, is that Kym offered me a free ticket to the show and the debut E.P. simply titled T.O.N.C. I met up with Kym at the local library and their was some weird Italian man dancing happening that was both bizarre and interesting. We talked a bit and watched the dance show and she told me that her music was horror punk inspired by horror movies and Nicholas Cage campy movies with some conspiracy theory mixed in that may or may not be taken seriously (probably not).

So I take this CD home not knowing what to expect hoping that it was going to be good, hoping that I would not have to have to report to a friend that I didn’t like the music . . . well I pressed play and within ten seconds of the opening track “Vampire’s Kiss” I knew this was everything I could ever want it to be. It was old school and new at the same time it was punk, it was poppy, it was aggressive, it was funny, some of it even kind of gross and it was mine all mine and the lyrics are clear and understandable so I can sing these songs at the top of my lungs in the car.

Only a handful of people knew about this music at the time and it was my secret little record to fall for and give myself the sense of being on the inside of something that deserved to be bigger and known throughout a much bigger place than New Orleans or my little apartment.

The four songs on the T.O.N.C. E.P. hit me right in the musical heart that needed to be filled with something other that the standard everyday radio mumbo jumbo.

In the time since that first introduction to the band I have become good friends with the band members (past and present) and done the artwork for some of their releases, taken more pictures of them than anyone probably should have the right to do and I believe that I have seen them live more than anyone else.

When I think about the Tomb of Nick Cage’s place in my music collection and how I view the history of Rock and Roll they are to me much more than a local band they are in the upper echelon of bands that no matter what changes in music happen over time they will always be a favorite of mine.

Sonic Boom!: How did you start the Tomb of Nick Cage?

Kym Trailz: I was asked to score a short film for the 48-hour film festival (in New Orleans) for the second year. The first year I did a really relaxed instrumental arrangement, but for the second year I wanted to complete a full song. I went into the studio with Lewis D’Aubin of C.O.G. (Consortium of Genius) Secret Lab and wrote, recorded, mixed and mastered a song in four hours. With the continued assistance of Lewis and Sean (Mooney), I cranked out several more for fun and completed an E.P.

It was never supposed to be a live project, but we got offered the One Eyed Doll show at Southport Hall, recruited Kevin and Brian of House of Goats and Aaron from Converts and began arranging the songs to work in a live setting.

Sonic Boom!: The Tomb of Nick Cage plays with the ideas of conspiracy theories in the music and live performances. Is this taken seriously or is it just a vast and endless well of content to have fun with and create more and more songs.

Kym Trailz: Honestly, a little bit of both. Everyone in the band loves conspiracy theories in different measure.

Some of us are way more “Mulder” than “Scully” but we all entertain the ideas from the viable to the outlandish and incorporate that into our work. I’m fascinated by the story telling aspect of it all. It’s ghost stories for adults.

Blondie, the Ramones, even Megadeth how do you decide what are the right songs to cover?

Kym Trailz: Some are requests and some are just because we want to. The hard part is flushing out how you can make them work for a new audience with the tools you have at hand.

Sonic Boom!: You have a new album coming out in the near future, and two more E.P.’s can you tell us about these?

Kym Trailz: We will finally be releasing full rock versions of our self-titled E.P. as the songs have grown exponentially since I originally recorded them. I have great people on my team and they have added so much to the sound. We have new songs too that range from metal to electronica to new wave, all while retaining the original spirit of the band. It will be called “The Pharaoh of New Orleans” and will be out early next year. We also have two Sonic Boom!: You base most your songs that are E.P.s in the works. One a much darker work that focuses currently available around horror and sci-fi movies (the more heavily on the conspiracy aspect of what we do and worse the movie the better the song it seems). What is it will largely be Aaron Maguire’s compositions. He’s such about these movies that gets your creative flow going? a talented artist and I haven’t been able to showcase his Kym Trailz: Though a lot of the movies are bad now, writing the way I want to yet. The other E.P. may be a as a kid they scared the hell out of me. I carried that solo Kym Trailz work based on the legendary “Gates of love of genre film into adulthood and this is my way of Guinee” that lead to a murky underworld that exists in the paying homage to an art form that gave so much joy and thin veil between New Orleans and the Afterlife. It will company to a lonely, oddball little girl. probably be more somber and introspective in tone.

Sonic Boom!: The Tomb of Nick Cage has released Sonic Boom!: As Kym Trailz you have created this two cover songs and covered others live and they all get larger than life personality. Is there any stopping where the TONC treatment that usually works. You’ve covered she will go?

Kym Trailz: No. Kym is brave and fierce and unstoppable. She is a storyteller and speaks the truth about the world in the singular way that she sees it. She is a warrior and I love her very much. She is also batshit crazy. She is the love child of Aunty Entity and Jeffrey Goines and I want to be her.

Kym Trailz: Just that I’m overwhelmed by the amount of support that I’ve gotten from the guys in my band as well as vastly unlikely and varied collaborators in the New Orleans rock scene and of course Lewis D’Aubin who always supports my vision no matter how crazy. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for this project. It’s never too late to do what you love. I finally have the project I’ve always wanted and its’ been way more rewarding that I could have ever imagined.

Sonic Boom!: The New Orleans area has a mixed local music scene but seems like it is dominated by brooding all male metal bands. How do you feel you fit in as the Punk Rock Queen of New Orleans.

The Tomb of Nick Cage is not only Kym Trailz but a Kym Trailz: Haha. I wouldn’t say I’m the punk queen. band of interesting characters and talented musicians that That title could be reserved for Stephie Whitesox, Deb I spoke to separately (in no particular order). from The Siouxsies, Barbara Menendez of The Cold, Jenn Attaway or a host of others. And honestly, I don’t First up I talked with Sean Mooney on Bass: think I fit in, but that’s ok. People like it or they don’t, but it can’t stop now. Kym took over. I’m not driving the bus Sonic Boom!: Aside from Kym Trailz you are the only anymore. other true original member of Tomb of Nick Cage. Kym has said that the band was never intended to be a live Sonic Boom!: Will the Tomb of Nick Cage tour project but it has become a really good one, what do you following the new album. think of what Tomb of Nick Cage has become over the Kym Trailz: We will be taking weekends out and we last two years? have a mini-tour planned for early next year. I’d love to Sean Mooney: We are lucky to know so many talented one day go to Europe and my plans are to work on that people who also want to have fun being in a band instead possibility after the album is finished. of treating it like a job, which is why adding band members and changing the original concept of the project has gone Sonic Boom!: Anything that you would like to add? so well.

Sonic Boom!: You not only play bass for Tomb of Nick Cage you are currently part of 11 Blade and The Jak Locke Rock Show and have played with House of Goats, She’s Still Dead and a number of other bands. What I have noticed is that most of the bands are very different styles of music ranging from punk rock to thrash metal to good old alternative rock and roll and I also know that you have been in a SKA band and a goth band or two. This tells me that you love all kinds of music. My question for you is, is it difficult to transition between the styles you play or is it a natural reflex for you?

Sean Mooney: I really enjoy playing in original bands with a clear vision of what they are trying to do and why.

I’ve only played with Jak once, but the brilliant thing about that particular project of his is that he has a group of people with very different musical backgrounds he can call upon to perform the rock show live with. He’s very familiar with the varying styles of each player so if he is looking for a specific sound or energy for a particular show he knows who he wants to call. 11 Blade is the brainchild of Jason Vecoli. That band is a lot of fun to play in because his style of punk is not what is usually associated with in connection to the New Orleans area. It also allows me to explore a playing style that I’ve always been a big fan of, but never really had the opportunity to play until I joined the revamped version of his band.

Transitioning between styles isn’t really an issue because

it’s all about the song itself and what it needs or doesn’t need in the foundation.

Sonic Boom!: You play so many styles of music you must be influenced by a variety of different performers who are they? (Go ahead say Depeche Mode) Sean Mooney: HA! Depeche Mode is definitely up there, but so is just about every other 80’s pop band, especially The Police. They were experts at exploring many different genres of music. Cliff Burton of course, because his contribution to thrash metal showed that you can have a unique style of your own in a genre where a lot of bass players just played the root note of what the guitarist was doing.

Sonic Boom!: Tomb of Nick Cage has an album coming out and an two E.P.’s can you tell us anything about it?

Sean Mooney: There is no one single influence on the sound or subject matter of the upcoming releases.

Sonic Boom!: Where do you see Tomb of Nick Cage going in the future? Touring? More albums?

Sean Mooney: I would like to see us perfect teleportation without any nasty side effects like mutation.

It would make the idea of touring a lot more convenient.

Perhaps Dr. Pinkerton (Consortium of Genius) could help us out with that.

Sonic Boom!: Anything that you would like to add?

Sean Mooney: I’d love to discuss the same thing we did in our last interview but it seems as though the Mandela Effect has altered that experience.

Next up I talked with one of the newer members of the band, drummer Edward Joubert: Sonic Boom!: You came into the band after playing in No Room For Saints a heavy metal band how has the transition from heavy metal to what is mostly punk rock been for you?

Edward Joubert: It’s not that different. No Room For Saints was really a rock band and Tomb of Nick Cage is basically a rock band with some punk thrown in, so it was a smooth transition.

movie fan and being in this band must be a dream come true for you. Have you been involved in any song writing for the upcoming album or will you be adding anything in the future?

Edward Joubert: Yes, I love all things horror. Kym messaged me asking if I would be interested in playing with Tomb of Nick Cage and It was a no brainer. This is definitely the most fun I’ve ever had playing music. As far as song writing goes, We all contribute whether it be riffs, lyrics or arrangement of songs. Most of the songs were already written when I got in the band, so I’m looking forward to new material.

Sonic Boom!: Who are some of your influences?

Edward Joubert: I grew up in the 70’s so I like a lot of 70’s music and if it weren’t for KISS I wouldn’t be a musician. I like all kinds of music. My ipod goes from Sonic Boom!: You are the second drummer for Tomb Elton John to Cattle Decapitation. As far as musicians, of Nick Cage and you came in a pinch but you picked up Buddy Rich, Peter Criss and Charlie Benante. on the songs right away, was this difficult?

Edward Joubert: No it wasn’t difficult. The songs are Next I spoke with guitarist Arron Mcguire who has pretty straight forward rock songs. I just needed to learn been with the band since the very first show.: the structure of the song, the changes, then just added my own touch to the songs.

Sonic Boom!: You came into Tomb of Nick Cage after the first E.P. was recorded but have recorded on everything Sonic Boom!: You are well known to be a horror since. What has it been like for you in this band?

Aaron Maguire: I love Tomb of Nick Cage It’s been Sonic Boom!: You are one of the newer members of just awesome. A crazy rollercoaster ride. It just keeps Tomb of Nick Cage and I don’t know much about your getting better and better all the time. past work aside from you playing in the heavy metal band She’s Still Dead with Sean Mooney. What has it been like Sonic Boom!: I’ve only seen you play with Tomb of to reunite with Sean in a band that is very different than Nick Cage but I know that you have played guitar for She’s Still Dead? many years with other bands, is Tomb of Nick Cage like Taylor Suarez: It’s nice. Sean’s a cool guy and we get any band that you have ever played in before? along really well. Tomb of Nick Cage is a lot more laid Aaron Maguire: No, Tomb of Nick Cage is different back than our previous band. than other music I have played . . . I mean I still play crunchy crazy guitar . . . but our approach Is different. I feel a sense Sonic Boom!: After joining the band some of the older of unity with this band and everybody communicates and songs have transformed a bit because of your playing and everybody participates in song-writing . . . and we are all like the band has rerecorded some older songs based around . . . looking out for each other. I really like that everyone what you have added. How has it been to be in a band is on board and ready to rock . . . and we don’t have any that openly accepted your additions so quickly? sketchy shit going on . . . and I think that’s because we are Taylor Suarez: It’s fortunate for me. They already had all very considerate of each other. an idea for how I play so there weren’t any surprises.

Sonic Boom!: Kym mentioned that she wanted to involve you in more song writing in the future. Are you wanting to do more songs based around horror movies or do you want to do more songs about of the conspiracy theory side of the band?

Aaron Maguire: I have a shitload of songs that I have written for The Tomb . . . and we are developing them and creating some really interesting stuff. Topics vary from conspiracy to mind-control and other spooky shit.

Sonic Boom!: Who are some of your major influences in your guitar playing?

Taylor Suarez: Jeff Loomis and John Denver

Sonic Boom!: The band has recorded a new full length album. What can you tell us about that and were you able to contribute to the writing process of the new songs?

Taylor Suarez: I was given the opportunity to put my spin on the guitar parts but for the most part I tried to Sonic Boom!: Can you tell us anything about the new keep them a similar to the originals as I could. album coming out?

Aaron Maguire: The new album is going to kick ass Sonic Boom!: Anything that you would like to add big-time. I CAN’T WAIT!! There is some amazing shit that we don’t know about you or the band? on there man.

Taylor Suarez: I have information that will lead to the arrest of Hillary Clinton.

Sonic Boom!: As a guitar player you must have influences that range from many different styles can you So there you have it the Tomb of Nick Cage a horrortell us some of your major influences are? punk band from New Orleans, Louisiana who are Aaron Maguire: I like Punk-Rock and Metal, but I constantly evolving their stage show and look and adding also am into Delta-Blues and Bluegrass. As far as major new wild and crazy things to their sound. You can find all influences . . . there are so many . . . it’s hard to really pick of their music on iTunes and many other digital download out my absolute favorites . . . Greg Hetson, Spike Cassidy, websites. If you have the chance you should check them Mike Derks, Joey Cape, Brian Baker, Buzz Osborne . . . out they play mostly in the southern parts of Louisiana hahaha . . . I dunno . . . but have taken the show on the road and are willing to battle evil shadow governments and prove or disprove Sonic Boom!: Anything else you would like to add? one conspiracy theory at a time to keep you safe from the Aaron Maguire: We will be finishing up the new lizard people. Be sure to check out the upcoming album album pretty soon . . . hopefully.

The Pharoah of New Orleans it is sure to take you on a rock n’ roll journey that will leave you questioning all that Finally we got in touch with the last of the new you know. members Taylor Suarez on guitar: OBEY! REPRODUCE! CONSUME! CONFORM!

Steve “What Style” Williams New Orleans’ Rock Art Ringmaster

By Meli

ssa Cro

ry

Photos in this article courtesy of the Steve “Whatstyle” Williams collection

For as long as I can remember, Steve “What Style” Williams has been a solid fixture in the New Orleans rock and punk scene. His work has graced thousands of flyers and album covers as well as patches, stickers, tattoos and almost every available surface of New Orleans’ musical landscape. He is our visual archivist and pictorial historian.

I’ve always been fascinated with not only his steady dedication, but also his prolific contribution over the last two decades. I recently got a chance to ask him about his Rock Art Circus, The Bones-Brah-Gade, his weekly radio show and what his plans are for the future.

Sonic Boom!: When did you start illustrating for the local scene and what drew you to it in the first place?

Steve “What Style” Williams: I would say in 1992. I returned home in 1991 from 4 years tour in the U.S Marines Corps and was looking for the music scene. I just left Southern California and was a bit spoiled ‘cause I got to see some cool shows. Well, it seems everything was metal! I journeyed to Decatur St. to the Blue Crystal.

I liked the post punk/new wave/ gothic and punk rock. I met Carl Elvers who was doing shows and knew a bunch of other people doing shows, so I started drawing flyers. Not only did I draw them, I even made thousands of flyers for free at my job. That lasted for 4 years, but I continued to draw flyers for the love of flyer art. Things just fell into place, and I worked with a bunch of non-metal kids. I guess I helped fill in a void that needed some attention in the 90’s.

Then “504 What Style!” To make things even crazier “LSW” became “Little Stevie What Style!” So, as the years continued, I made more and more art and merch. My taste in music is a wide range and it just helped me market my art in a wider pallet within the scene. Back then, 504 was Baton Rouge, Houma, Mandeville and hours outside of New Orleans. No internet, and everything was flyering and word of mouth. If you wanted underground music you had to seek it out. Throughout all these years it was my love for art and music that keeps “What Style” alive.

Sonic Boom!: Your art style is singular and immediately recognizable. Did it come naturally, or did you draw inspiration from outside sources when developing your craft?

Steve “What Style” Williams: It came from comic books, cartoons, skateboarding, hot rods and album covers. Mad Magazine, Heavy Metal Comic/Movie, Kiss, Big Daddy Ed Roth, Playboy comic artists and Pink Floyd: The Wall movie really changed how I saw things. I think it all changed in when I picked up a calligraphy pen in 1991. Using small and large lines to show depth. I just tapped into to it and it seemed to work for me. No one around here was doing anything like it and people recognized it. So, I keep on creating.

Sonic Boom!: Your art is not limited to one-dimensional space. You work with many different mediums including tattooing, jewelry design and my personal favorite – paper mache! How did you conceptualize the Bones-BrahSonic Boom!: Where did the “504 What Style” name Gade that marches during Mardi Gras? It’s always a come from? Your moniker has evolved over the years, but visual wonder to see you guys strutting down the street.

“What Style” has been persistent throughout.

Steve “What Style” Williams: I always wanted to Steve “What Style” Williams: In Cali 1990 I was have a float with a punk band on it! I drew what the making fun of a friend and said, “Man, you ain’t got no doubloon would look like in college. I was born into the style!” His mom, Candy Elena, laughed and said, “What Zig Zag Marching Krewe of my father krewe. Then, in style are you?” It stuck with me. 1991- in commercial art 2006, I joined the Skeleton Krewe that marches in front school -we had to come up with a name, signature or brand of Krewe d’E’tat Friday night before Mardi Gras Day. for your art. I had “LSW” and then I was like “What Style.” We had to make a new skull head every year. “Skullvis”

was born! Then, in 2009, I put together a float with the band Suplecs. We had to come up with a name and using the skate crew name, but gave it that funny “Yat” feeling everyone could relate to! The Bones-Brah-Gade was born.

Sonic Boom!: Your 11th Annual Rock Art Circus is coming up in November. In my opinion it’s THE “must attend” event of the year. Tell us a little about it, what your mission is and what to expect out of 2016’s festivities.

Steve “What Style” Williams: This all started in the back yard in 1992 and then became larger and larger. The 504 Rock Art Circus is built on a foundation of artist and musicians that work in, or support, the music scene in New Orleans to show their work. Galleries didn’t give me a chance and didn’t care for my type of art. Like, always I had to do it myself. I just wanted to have my art move from the street poles to galleries, hair salons, coffee shops and flower shops to be seen and bought.

It started to catch on, and in 2005 I came up with the 504 Rock Art Circus. It is not easy gathering up 30-plus artists, bands, burlesque performers and videos to be in this event. Year after year it becomes a bigger mess and money, but works out! Places see you bring the crowd in and want to take advantage of it and I have to move to

suit the event. My event is unique and you will see some of the best art in this city at my show. I’ll have some big rock stars show their art with my event and I’m honored! Through the years it has moved around, upsized and down sized. This year it will be a little more intimate.

It will be held at the WHIV 102.3 FM Radio Station with a bunch of great artists, music, burlesque, sideshow acts and we will be broadcasting live over the FM dial!

Hopefully I will grab another place next year to accommodate my show.

Sonic Boom!: The Rock Art Circus also strives to honor Native Americans and recognize their invaluable contributions.

What are your goals for this personal labor of love?

Steve “What Style” Williams: Well, this labor of love and pride is about bringing the attention to Native

Americans. November is Native American month and I am a member of the Southern Louisiana Indian Tribe, United Houma Nation. I came up with this when I couldn’t have more bands at the 504 Rock Art Circus. So, this is the music part of it. I would do it over Thanksgiving weekend. This is a tough one to pull off because of the Bayou Classic weekend traffic and people can’t get down to the quarter, blah, blah, blah! But, I pull it off. It is very hard for me to organize all these events back to back. I’m one person and I do my best at keeping it together. I’m very grateful that all the bands enjoy working with me time after time. It is getting stressful and paying a toll on me!

Sonic Boom!: Not only do you do good work there, but you also have recently teamed up with WHIV 102.3 FM which strives to fight social injustice, destigmatize HIV and strengthen the community. How did you get involved with the station and what influenced you to create your “Underground Music Show?”

Steve “What Style” Williams: I worked with Liana on my 2006 Rock Art Circus, and with her husband, Dr.

Mark Alain Dery, got a grant to get the radio station. Dr. Dery is an infectious disease doctor and gave it the title “WHIV!” Infectious Radio was born within 2 years! As a friend, they got me to do some branding for the station and asked if I had an idea for a show. I came up with a time capsule of vintage Louisiana rock, punk, garage, rockabilly, goth, and alternative music ranging from the 50’s to the present and called it the 504 Underground Music Show every Thursday 9-11pm.

I’m living out all my rock-n-roll dreams!

Sonic Boom!: Luckily, everyone will soon be able to get a look at your decadeslong, instrumental body of work in the form of a new book. When will it be released and how can we get our hands on a copy?

Steve “What Style” Williams: My 313-page book, “What Style New Orleans: The Art Adventures of L. Steve Williams, Jr.” will be out Nov. 12th for the 504 Rock Art Circus. I will sell it myself, along with Amazon, Lulu and any other bookstores. I never did a book before. This is all new to me. I did covers and illustrations for books, but never my own book. This book will show three decades of my art,

the flyers of the 90’s, some 80’s and never seen before poems, art and paragraphs from band members and fans. Remember the main part of this book is before the internet and social media. It was a heavy feeling opening up that Pandora’s box of the past. As I got this book together, I saw I could do a to follow-up with another book in color. I have enough art and poems to do a few, but I want to see how this one goes first.

Sonic Boom!: Finally, tell us one of your favorite stories involving rock music that you’ve experienced here in New Orleans over the years.

Steve “What Style” Williams: It was 2006 – the first show after Katrina with Suplecs and Hazard County Girls at One Eyed Jacks. I had a Suplecs wear “Aints” paper bags on their heads. Suplecs really didn’t want to do it, but it was a welcome home show and we had to do it!

The curtains were shut and they were playing the intro.

A minute passes, the curtains open, and the sound of the whole room inhaling together and then exhaling in screams! It gave me an orgasmic feeling in how the crowd reacted. That is a feeling you can’t pay for.

Make Me A Mix Tape

By Kevin P. Johnson There was a time in the not so distant past when you could change your world with a mix tape. Younger readers are probably saying what did he say? A mix tape? Somebody Google that. What could he be talking about?

The mix tape a random (or not so random) assortment of songs that are put on a cassette to be played by or for someone. A mix tape could consist of current hits or genre specific songs or whatever the creator of the mix could imagine. The mix tape has long been replaced with digital music players and but the art of the mix tape holds a very special place in music history.

For me personally the mix tape was a thing of special thought and precision that meant getting great songs on a tape that fit on each forty-five minute side with no wasted space. Casettes generally could be found in 60 minute or 90 minute versions with some other lengths available. I stuck with the 90 minute versions it just felt right to me.

When I was young maybe around 1984, I think it was 1984 . . . had to be 1984 I asked for a dual cassette radio (boombox as it were) for my birthday or Christmas . . . it had to be 1984 because I got a used copy of Zebra’s debut album from my sister as a gift and that came out in 1983 so let’s agree that it was 1984.

So back in 1984 I got this boombox and some blank cassettes but I had no real access to any music on cassette aside from the Zebra album and a rap album called Doc-

tor J.R. Kool & The Other Roxannes – The Complete Story Of Roxanne . . . The Album. So I couldn’t do much with that and my friends didn’t have many cassettes either so I did what most kids did I recorded songs from the radio and this was a hit or miss process because you wanted the entire song but the radio disc jockey would often talk over the beginning or ends of songs and that made the song (at least to me) inferior. I had to plan and figure out how to get the songs I loved without interruption and maybe with some cool intro. What I would do is find out when radio shows like American Top 40 or some other show was on recording each song (unless I didn’t like it) making a “master tape” to be used later to record the songs on to mix tapes that were awesomely themed like “Rock” or “Pop” or the ever so dangerous “Heavy Metal” I did this until I got to high school when I was able to start my real music collection.

So as I started to build a pretty decent music collection I would make better mix tapes for myself and then even would make them for other people. This was always fun because I would be sure to give them songs I knew that they would know from the radio but I’d stick in some awesome song that they had never heard of and just about always had a good reaction to it.

Then of course the part that changed a lot of peoples lives they met a girl or a boy. This made the mix tape take on

a whole new meaning. The songs had to mean something. In my case it was a girl I never got we’ll call her “C” and a girl that I did get for a while we will call her “L.” Now “C” was the first one that I ever fell in love with who had a boyfriend and all that tragic teenage stuff that everyone hates so I only made a few mix tapes for her and if I remember correctly I had to kind of subliminally try to get my feelings across to her through music . . . it didn’t work but I did send her one for her birthday I think it was her 18th that included a song from every year of her life and she said that her friends all wanted copies of it so there was that.

Now that “L” girl was the first (and maybe last) that ever loved me back so with her the mix tapes probably reached eighty or one hundred different ones. By this time CD’s had come out but not recordable ones so even more music options were available to me. She didn’t know much about music back then so I could take her on a new adventure every week or so introducing her to all the things that I loved and hoped that she would too. Love songs, funny songs, alternative rock songs, hair bands, or whatever, it worked (for a while anyway). I even made one for her that I recorded myself as a DJ and had personal and silly dedications to her throughout. We lasted about two years with a good bit of that being long distance when she went to college in Texas. When it ended I kind of lost my mind for a while and I put all of my music away, packed up all of my records, and cassettes and CD’s and everything in boxes and almost got rid of it all. Before I did this I made on mix tape that I know I still have but my cassettes are all packed away these days. I do remember three songs from it though I Alone by Live, Can’t Help Falling In Love by Elvis Presley, and Love Is Stronger Than Death

by The The. The tape was my depression soundtrack but I think it got me through the most difficult time of my life. I hope that girl is having a wonderful life.

So a few months later I started to find my music again and I stopped making mix tapes for other people and started making them for myself again. I had tons of them for walking or biking across a pretty big college campus my favorite thing to do was make greatest hits tapes of my favorite bands and they usually had to include some rare song from a single or E.P. that not everyone had. The mix tape was once again a happy time awesome thing.

As the years went by cassettes gave way to CD’s and by the early 1990’s were all but gone from the average persons music collection as people replaced cassettes with CD’s. Fortunately the recordable CD was right around the corner and became the standard on almost every computer that you could buy.

This took the mix tape to a whole different level be-

cause not only was it easier and faster to sort out the songs you wanted on your mix. The quality of the songs became a lot better (some will argue than it lost something but I could never hear that something anyway). No longer did you have to worry about tape hiss or the tape player eating up your precious mix tape you have a new kind of mix tape that was superior in a lot of ways . . . well aside from the part where you had only 80 minutes to work with instead of 90.

For me I always have used the term mix tape no matter what format the songs are recorded onto it just sounds right.

With CD’s you could organize your songs and know exactly how much time they were and how you could fit them on a CD. With cassettes it was always a guessing game on how much time you had and you could end with a song cut off.

With the age of the CD I was very into making mix CD’s and creating covers for them for myself as well as for friends. I made quite a few greatest hits (according to me) disc and still have quite a few in my collection. These were great times for music in my life . . . but the beginning of a boom also meant an end of an era.

In the late 1999 something called Napster came out. At the time it was an illegal file sharing service that allowed individuals to share music files all over the world. Well this was like the promised land for many people. For me I never shared any songs I just took from what was available and mostly made these random mix CD’s (TAPES!) I’d listen to them for a few days and usually end up going out to buy the CD’s by the bands I really liked. I found so many bands that way but I got away from it because I started to feel like I’d rather just sample things on YouTube and obtain the music in what is a more honest way.

The mix tape boomed for about two years in my life and then quickly died in 2001 when the iPod and other digital music players came out. The mix became playlist with seemingly unlimited length to the amount of songs you could put in your mix . . . and you could make tons of them on one device. This made me sad but I joined the world in embracing this new format.

The mix tape was gone but every song I owned was now in my pocket and I couldn’t complain but I do get nostalgic for the old days of making a tape for someone special or a friend who wanted something new or even just myself. Kids today may never know what it was like to make a mix tape for someone or even better to recieve one made specially for them from someone who thought the world of them. That is a shame but hope still survives that somehow the mix tape will rise up once again.

All this talk about mix tapes got me curious and I went to find a box of cassettes from the closet and I stuck my hand in only to find SONGS 36 HEAVY METAL. It seems that I named a lot of tapes simply SONGS and a number. I was quite the wordsmith back in those days.

The SONGS 36 HEAVY METAL tape was recorded from two radio sources but probably the same station.

The D.J. is can be heard announcing some of the songs and I know this came from California based Z-Rock (it lasted a year or so in New Orleans I think) and something I think was called The Metal Show.

This tape has a few songs that I probably do not have anywhere else.

SONGS 36 HEAVY METAL Side A: 1. Last Caress/Green Hell - Metallica 2. Altered State - Sepultura 3. Future Tense - Sanctuary 4. Caught In A Mosh - Anthrax 5. Milk (Ode To Billy) - Anthrax 6. Shadow Of Doubt - Zentrix 7. Tribal Dance - Armored Saint 8. Rain Of Fire - Armored Saint 9. Anarchy In The U.K. - Megadeth 10. Protest And Survive - Anthrax 11. Dance Of The Dead - Corrosion Of Conformity Side B: 1. War Ensamble (Live) - Slayer 2. Dead Skin Mask (Live) - Slayer 3. Wasteland - Warrior Soul 4. Sunless Saturday - Fishbone 5. Captain Crude - Galactic Cowboys 6. Sugar Ain’t So Sweet - Mind Funk 7. Run To The Hills - Iron Maiden 8. Rhyme Of The Ancient Mariner - Iron Maiden

dang break up tape . . . that jerk! The cool thing was that she took five minutes to make a cover for it that had dark picture of a female angel, she taped some sort of fishnet material over it to cover the front and on the back was part of a poem that I assume she liked . . . not sure how that part relates.

Iritated/sensitive Irritated Bitch Side: 1. A Mistake - Fiona Apple 2. I Need - L7 3. Sleep Together - Garbage 4. For Lovers Sake - Goodness 5. Pet Names - Smashmouth 6. Gagged & Tied - That Dog 7. Casa Nova - Nerdy Girl 8. Love Is Never Equal - Jill Sobule 9. Love Is Nothing - Liz Phair 10. Sleep To Dream - Fiona Apple 11. When I Grow Up - Garbage 12. Torn - Natalie Imbruglia 13. Batmobile - Liz Phair 14. Certainly - Erykah Badu Sensitive Sweetheart Side: 1. I Try - Macy Gray 2. Seven Years - Natalie Merchant 3. Don’t Speak - No Doubt 4. Everything Changes - Matthew Sweet 5. Linger - The Cranberries 6. Marry Me - No Doubt 7. Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover - Sophie B. Hawkins 8. Don’t Leave Me On My Own - Chris Isaac 9. Home - Duncan Sheik 10. Not When I Need It - Matthew Sweet 11. Suzanne - Leonard Cohen

This is an interesting mix too though a lot of mixed That’s like a time warp intro to Thrash Metal with a messages for a girl that was very confused about her life. few extras to balance it out.

It was an interesting few months.

I dug around a little more and found a tape that was So now that you’ve seen a little bit of my history in a given to me by this girl that I briefly dated who really mix tape. What was on yours? What would you put on didn’t want to be dating me but anyway it was a long one today? Send me an e-mail to SBPalz@outlook.com enough time to exchange tapes. She made a tape for me with the subject line MIX TAPE and I’ll try to put it in an called Irritated/sensitive. At the time I didn’t realize it but upcoming issue of SONIC BOOM! MAGAZINE. about 15 years later I listened to it and was like this is a

Bringing the Boom With

Scarecrow

Sonic Boombox

By Austen Krantz

Few bands manage to channel the influences of great rockers from the past while creating a compelling sound that’s clearly their own, but Scarecrow Sonic Boombox is one of them. The New Orleans power trio channels classic punk rock hooks and tones while consistently incorporating new musical elements and styles of songwriting into their music.

There’s something mesmerizing about the band’s Loud, relentlessly pounding riffs and crashing drums, as well as singer/guitarist Hex Windham’s venomous lyrics that he seems to hiss out like a rattlesnake. Throughout their raw, heavy, metallic-sounding recordings, their tight playing and smooth transitions make it clear the three piece is a natural fit, and has been playing together for a while.

And while SS Boombox has branched into new territories by incorporating electronic elements like synths and drum machines, they manage to constantly maintain this crunchy, dirty rock aesthetic.

We spoke with SSB about they’re about their beginnings, they’re latest, soon-to-be-released single, they’re recently finished album “Zion City Magic.“

year now. We have one that’s ready to put out, but we just have to either save up a little money so we can put it out ourselves, or work with someone else who can put it out [on vinyl] for us.

Sonic Boom!: Have you had those songs for a while, or were they written before you guys were together as a band?

Hex Windham: The first little batch of songs were songs I had written before I had met the guys. But when we started playing together we pretty much started writing new songs.

The first six songs on the record are the oldest, almost chronologically, and the end of the record has a couple of brand new songs we had written right before recording it.

We actually have a ton of songs – we have this big backlog of songs that we just have yet to record, and we’re always writing new songs. Sometimes we’ll just spontaneously write and record a song at the same time.

Sonic Boom!: It sounds like you guys have a lot more material to work with when you play besides what’s on Sonic Boom!: You guys put out We Are The (United) your record. last summer, but you’ve been a band for a while right?

Hex: It’s always a discussion of what “are we going Scarecrow Sonic Boombox: We’ve been together to play tonight.” There’s always some jockeying back and over five years. The record has been out for little over a forth and light-hearted argument.

Hex: It’s really just a storage shed Kyle: if it was a garage, you would think there would be air conditioning.

Hex: You know, when it rains hard enough, our shit gets wet, and when we practice we leave the door open.

I think that is actually part of the sound. The sound doesn’t bounce off of all six walls, because the six wall isn’t there. Half the noise we make probably goes out the opening.

Don: I think we book as many live shows as we do so we can play in the air conditioning (laughs).

Sonic Boom!: Was releasing the album on vinyl a milestone you always wanted to reach?

Don: Honestly part of it is “how much gear are we going to bring tonight?”

Sonic Boom!: There’s a lot going on in your album, how did you guys record it?

Hex: We wanted to leave something behind, and that record will still be around after we die (laughs). We sold enough, and we made enough from gigs that we’re almost ready to release our next record, which we already have recorded and mastered.

It’s just a matter of sending off the master CD. Sonic Boom!: Did you guys record this new album in your practice space as well?

Hex: We recorded that one when we were on tour in New York. We spent four days in New York. We played in Manhattan and we played in Brooklyn for two of the days.

One day we did a podcast, and the other day we recorded.

We went to Sirius business studios in Manhattan.

Hex: Everything on the album we recorded our selves.

I have a digital four track, it’s a somewhat obsolete piece of technology — it’s pretty obsolete (chuckles), but it works for us. In fact, I think that stuff sounds good recorded on it. We’ve even tried to record directly to a computer and Don: Its run by Travis Harrison, he playing drums I felt like it didn’t sound right. There’s this quality to the in ESP Ohio with Bob Pollard [Guided By Voices] I’ve recorder that makes it sound more natural. known him a long time and that’s how we ended up playing in that studio.

Don: And it was all recorded in our practice space, which seemed kind of illogical, because we actually Kyle: we wouldn’t have been able to play there practice in a garage. It’s all metal siding on the walls. So otherwise. you would think that trying to record this on digital fourtrack with a couple of mics in the room, through this Don: Exactly, he gave us a good deal. sort-of tin structure that it would come out terrible. But for us, it sort of worked in our favor, it had this sort of Sonic Boom!: So it was a pretty different recording lo-fi, overdriven feel to it. experience?

The fact that that room spoke to our early aesthetic, as part of the early part of our band. it made so much sense Hex: It sounds good, It sounds like us, but its less raw, to go into this practice space — this tin box — with a less lo-fi perhaps. digital four track and just bang [the tracks] out.

Don: Some of the songs have more of a longer, more

winding feel to them to, which is more fitting to recording don’t listen to just one type of lyrically intense music. in an actual studio.

Sonic Boom!: You mentioned that you had written Sonic Boom!: What were some of your lyrical the last couple of songs on the album later, the last few influences in this album? It’s pretty chaotic instrumentally, stuck out because they were different stylistically too. but you do have some really clever lyrics. I noticed you had them written out on your Bandcamp page, and not a Hex: They have drum machine and keyboards, which lot of people do that. we’ve been doing more now. Those were a couple of our earliest attempts at playing any electronic music. We’ve Hex: I like people like Richard Howel, Tom Verlaine actually been doing a lot of it lately. We recently played one from Television, Lou Reed. I like that sort of more poetic show where it was just Kyle and I with a drum machine. side of rock and roll. I don’t strictly listen to pretentious We’ve been doing more stuff where Don is playing a art punk, but I do appreciate a good lyricist. I think synthesizer — he’ll play a mini Korg, and we have a drum Iggy Pop has clever turns of phrase for as primitive and sample playing. We’ve been doing more stuff like that. cavemanish as he acts, and he’s also pretty smart.

We’re figuring out how to execute it live and make that I also listen to a lot of folk music and folk ballads — blend with our other songs. songs that are hundreds of years old and have stood the It would be easy if we showed up with just a synth tests of time. I’m also an English teacher, so I read my and drum machines. It’s really hard to transition between share of poetry and novels and what not. live drums to using a sample, or from a loud guitar to a Edgar Allen Poe is just as much of a poetic influence keyboard. But with a good sound guy, we’ve been able to as any rock and roll people. I like Jeffery lee pierce from pull it off. A patient sound guy helps a lot. gun club, I even like Black Flag — really nihilistic type lyrics like “Thirsty and Miserable,” “we’re fighting a war Sonic Boom!: Did a lot of that newer electronic stuff we can’t win,” just really bleak stuff that sticks with you. I seep into your new record?

Hex: We had a song on a compilation with Dry Birth Records. A friend of ours collected some local bands for it. We had a song on that where we used a vintage drum machine that Don borrowed from a friend, and we made two drone-y guitar tracks that have me singing on top.

The next thing that will get released — it might get released before the next record actually does — is two songs on this tribute compilation to Alan Vega, the singer for Suicide, who just died last year. Those are going to have drum machines and keyboards too.

We even did a bounce track — a psychedelic, punk rock bounce track. It’s cool stuff, it’s just a matter of releasing it.

THIS SPACE FOR RENT

Sonic Boom!: It sounds like you guys have written a lot of stuff together. When you first met up did it mesh together easily?

Hex: Honestly I feel like I lucked out in meeting both these guys. We weren’t childhood friends or anything. We met through two separate craigslist ads. I said I wanted to make “trance-inducing punk” or something like that, and Don responded.

We played as a two piece for a little while. I put out another ad that said I wanted to play with a basisst like bruce foxen from the jam, another one of my favorite bands.

Kyle responded to us and came and saw Don and I play at Saturn Bar. He came and jammed with us over at our practice space, and it went really well. When we practice, we don’t really talk about what we’re gonna do.

I get the feeling a lot of bands say, “hey let’s do this song that sounds like this other band, or you play this and you play this,” we don’t ever talk about what we’re gonna play.

We just do it, and we all play off of each other. All the songs that we write, we start them just by making noise.

Someone plays a beat, or a guitar riff or a bass riff, and then the rest of us listen and then we all just fall in and hammer away at it until it turns into a song.

Don: The latitude we give each other and the amount of freedom we give each other to express ourselves in the realm of our practice shed is a liberating experience for us, and has probably helped us keep going through the years. I think we’re all very comfortable with any farflung ideas, and we’ll never push ourselves to be contrived.

Hex: No aim toward excess or reaching a mainstream audience or even reaching an indie hipster audience. It’s very primal and very personal I think, but it works out for us. People get it, and people dig it. I really like it when we play a show and I can tell the audience gets it.

CONTACT SONIC BOOM! MAGAZINE at SBPalz@outklook to find out how to get an advetisement in the magazine

21 year old Dylan Hemard has the style and chops of a seasoned veteran. Every time I’ve seen him play I have been thoroughly impressed. Dylan played with Metal/ Hardcore/Punk band Royal T originally and is now lead guitarist for New Orleans Bluesy Hard Rock band Green Gasoline. Dylan plays with style and swagger that reminds me of Joe Perry (Aerosmith) and Green Gasoline is a great band for Dylan to explore that style of music. Turns out Joe Perry and Aerosmith are a huge influence on this young guitar wizard.

I spoke with Dylan a bit about his current band and his limited past in the New Orleans music scene: Sonic Boom!: You are 21 years old and have been playing since before you could legally be in a bar. What was that like before you could stay for the other bands?

Dylan: “Well when I first started playing out at venues and clubs, there was a few all ages venues that we could play at so I was able to stay for the shows and have nothing to worry about.” One was this place in Metairie (Louisiana) called The Cypress, it was called the Highgrounds at one point also. But I used to play there all the time. The other place was in Baton Rouge and was HTGT (Here Today

Gone Tomorrow) Thrift Store and was a bad-ass all ages venue. So from when I was about 17 to 18 years old I had a place to gig at with not worrying about my age.

Sonic Boom!: How long have you been playing guitar?

Dylan: “I’ve been playing guitar sinceI was about 13 years old.”

Sonic Boom!: What are you playing? (Guitar, Amp, etc.)

Dylan: “Currently I have a Gibson Les Paul Classic Goldtop. The classic series was modeled after the 1960’s Les Paul. They were know for having a thinner neck. My guitar is, from what I’m told, to be one of the lightest weight Les Paul’s. I love it. Also a Fender Mexi Stratocaster, and a Gibson SG Junior. My amp rig is a Marshall vintage modern half stack.”

Sonic Boom!: What bands have you played with?

Dylan: “A lot of different bands, back in the cypress days Royal T (when it was pop-punk\punk rock) opened for this band called State Champs. At the time they weren’t that big but now they are a fairly well known pop-punk band.

As Green Gasoline we played with Bad Moon Lander, Jak Locke Rock Show, Stereo Fire Fire Empire to name a few.”

Sonic Boom!: You are now playing in Green Gasoline, a much different type of band. Is it a better fit for your style or do you feel comfortable with any music?

Dylan: Green Gasoline I am definitely more comfortable and happy with. We are all on the same page in this band and we all know our goals and where we come from. And as for the Music, it’s the most hardhitting grooving Rock N Roll I’ve ever experienced. I love it, Green Gasoline is more of my bread and butter.

Sonic Boom!: Green Gasoline is releasing its first E.P. can you tell us about it?

Dylan: “Yes our E.P. is going to have 3 songs. We recorded with Chris Billiot of 35 PSI and it couldn’t have been a more smooth recording process. He also mixed and mastered it for us. I was very surprised how professional it came out. And it is on our bandcamp up for pre-order and we will have the hard copies at our E.P. release show Sept. 17th at Banks (Banks Street Bar).”

Sonic Boom!: Finally where do you hope to take your music career?

Dylan: “All the way, as far as it can go, right now the short term goals are as soon as the E.P. is out to start working on the album, then go a short south tour.”

Sonic Boom!: Oh one more important thing I almost I forgot to ask, who are your influences as a guitar player?

Dylan: “My influences- GN’R, Aerosmith, Jimi Hendrix, Pantera, Santana, Red Hot Chili Peppers. I really look up to all the guitar players in those bands- Slash, Joe Perry, Hendrix, Dimebag Darrell, John Frusciante. I listen to a lot more music but that’s my main.”

Dylan is a must see live player at 21 years young and I can’t wait to hear the new E.P. Honestly I really want to hear what he is doing in five years with hopefully two or three albums under his belt and maybe a big tour that gives his band a ton of fans and huge success.

Sonic Boom!: I meant to ask what bands have you played “in” ... but that’s good info too.

Dylan: “Oh I’ve played in Royal T and currently Green Gasoline. Royal T went through different band I will be talking to other members of Dylan’s band members so it was almost like 2 bands. When Royal T Green Gasoline for an article in a future issue of SONIC started we were more punk rock/pop punk/Rock N Roll. BOOM! then when we changed band members it became more Hard Rock\Metal.”

Sonic Boom!: You were in Royal T, a band that was a bit of a hardcore metal band. What is happening with that band?

Dylan: “For now I’ll say we are on a hiatus”

song (that is a huge complement in my book).

This E.P. is only four songs but when you are done listening to it you will assuredly feel like you just heard an entire album of great songs.

Rooftop Junkies http://rooftopjunkies.weebly.com -Kevin P. Johnson

Rooftop Junkies

Rooftop Junkies E.P., 2016 Independent The second E.P. from New Orleans own Rooftop Junkies is nothing less than amazing rock and roll fun. Four tracks that will take you back to a time where you were really into bands like R.E.M. and the BoDeans. The four songs on this E.P. are 1980’s-90’s style catchy sing along quality alternative rock gems with a hint of punk rock for good measure. As catchy as these songs are they never get silly and will leave you feeling pumped up for more.

The Rooftop Junkies could be radio heroes if they are not careful. With a great and infectious song like “Between The Lines” a breakup song that will actually make you feel happy as you listen to the tale of lost love . . . but don’t worry it will have you screaming from the rooftops “WHAT’S THE MATTER, WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?” “Unleashed” is another great track that the first time I heard it thought it was a new Refreshments

The NoShows

Root for the Bull, 2016 Independent SKA Punk is something most fans either love or hate and it seems that there is not much opinion in between. SKA had it’s most popular days back in the 1990’s but is being kept alive today in New Orleans by the seven members of The NoShows.

The album “Root for the Bull” hits on all of the standard Find out more about Bad Moon Lander at http://bad SKA sounds and does it well. The songs range from slow moon-lander.bandcamp.com paced “Baby, Please” to full on Ska-Punk assault on “War.” -Kevin P. Johnson The NoShows sound makes you want to dance and skank and move all over the place. “All I Am” and “On My Way” are my go to tracks if I need to grab the dog and dance around the living room.

If you love SKA you need to go pick up this album it is a great tribute to what once was and a precursor to what will be again.

Find out more about the NoShows at www.thenoshows. bandcamp.com -Kevin P. Johnson

Skyjelly

Blank Panthers / Priest, Expert, or Wizard, 2016 Doom Trip Records

Bad Moon Lander

Bad Moon Lander E.P., 2015 Independent Indie Garage Rock from the Covington/Mandeville, LA area. Bad Moon Lander gives us 5 solid tracks on this self titled E.P. that rock hard but stay accessible to most alternative rock fans.

The disc starts out with my favorite track “Ghost Of A Ghost” this song has been on my list of favorite songs in the last year. This song just gets me going, it’s fun and makes me ponder just how close a person needs to get to another to become a Ghost Of A Ghost?

“Nonstop Elevator” is a fun song that picks up the pace and rocks out like every hit from the 1990’s and for some reason I want to see it on a movie sound track during a chase scene.

This tape is 60 minutes of unapologetic, rock experiments.

Pick a song — any song — out of this 16-track journey, and you’ll find yourself in a dense web of guitar hooks, gliding, looped vocals, and tribal percussion. Black Panthers / Priest, Expert, or Wizard is an abstract double album, but each song is mesmerizing in its own way, and most are built on relentlessly infectious grooves. Even the noisiest track on this record will pound your attention into submission with a constantly driving hook or beat in the background.

It’s also immediately clear that the enigmatic bandleader, “Skyjelly” Jones, serves as the driving force and spiritual guide for this album. The guitar guru’s plunky tone, croony vocals, and constant drive for experimentation make him unmistakable on any track. Rarely using a guitar pick, Jones tackles each track with the finger-plucked precision of a technical guitarist while maintaining the raw enthusiasm of a punk rocker.

Jones loops whimsical riffs and hazy vocals into focused songs with clear direction. While some of these songs sound like they could have been birthed out of an extended jam session, others sound very focused and tell clear, captivating stories. Yes, the instruments on this

record are indulgent, and catchy songs will fall into long lapses of guitar solos, but each chord change moves into deeper, unexpected territories, and each song brings a new mood.

Whether you land on a mellow track banked on soothing singing and light guitar riffs, or a chaotic track that incorporates electronic elements and searing guitar solos, it’s clear that Skyjelly wanted to fill every second of this double album with something interesting. Zero space is wasted.

start and finish the E.P. respectively. These songs have a double edge to them as they stand alone as great songs but for those who have seen the movies they are based on will get an extra kick out of the lyrics.

Nightbreed may be my favorite track on the disc but there is not way that I can keep up with the rapid paced vocals during parts of the song . . . I just wait for the chant NIGHTBREED! and pump my fist in the air.

Find out more about the Tomb of Nick Cage at https:// www.facebook.com/thetombofnickcage/ Find out more about Skyjelly at https://www.facebook.

-Kevin P. Johnson com/skyjelly -Austen Krantz

Green Gasoline

Green Gasoline E.P., 2016 Independent

Tomb Of Nick Cage T.O.N.C. E.P., 2015 Independent

This is simply my favorite E.P. in about 1,000 years . . . are you kidding me how good this is? This E.P. hit me right in the needs it. It’s modern, it honors the past, it’s punk rock, it has enough pop playability to pull in fans of the mainstream, it honors bad horror movies as if they were sacred and it is simply fun.

4 songs that will have you pumping your fist while driving in your car . . . especially on Tub Of Blood . . . Melissa Crory finds a way to sing about some fairly gross imagery on this song and yet it sounds so happy and fun.

Two songs dedicated to the bands namesake Nicholas Cage appear on this debut, Vampire’s Kiss and Wickerman

Green Gasoline come out swinging on this three song hard rock disc. The songs here are fast paced but are not trying to over do it and the vocals are clear so that you can sing along to them after just a listen or two.

The songs are old school kind of bluesy 80’s style hard rock that fits somewhere between Aerosmith and Gun’s N’ Roses but really reminds me of an early 1990’s band called Animal Bag. Three songs “Mountain” “On A String” and “Trash Talk” will get you rockin’ for about 24 minutes at a time (because you will listen to it twice every time). I want to pick a favorite song out of the three but they all have that something interesting that just keeps me rockin’ the whole time.

“Mountain” is a full on rocker that is fast paced with great hard rock solos and clean vocals. “On A String”

continues the pace and rocks out but makes you want to move maybe even get a hard rock version of a mosh pit going. “Trash Talk” ends the E.P. with a little bit slower pace but rocking out and this is the one that I think could be a radio single. The chorus is very 1990’s alternative rock friendly and the guitars just draw you in and wear you out by the end.

the feelings of a band that needed to go on even when it lost one of it’s most vital members.

Find out more about the Morrison Road at https://www. facebook.com/morrisonroadnola/ -Kevin P. Johnson

Find out more about the Green Gasoline at https://www. facebook.com/GreenGasolineBand/ -Kevin P. Johnson

Sic Hop

Gold Crack, 2016 Independent With a title like Gold Crack, you already know this EP is going to bring twisted vibes to some classic gangster rap subjects.

Morrison Road Gold Crack marks Sic Hop’s second official release, Music Therapy Vol. 1 (A Collection Of Unscripted and it demonstrates the well-rounded capabilities of Jams) By Morrison Road, 2015 this abstract-minded New Orleans hip-hop collective.

Independent With seven polished tracks, producer Gl!nn takes Music Therapy Vol. 1 is a stoner rock free form jam album. listeners through multiple soundscapes that seem to It is heavy on the instrumental and is a tribute to their sample anything from Looney Tunes sketches and jazz instrumentals to horror film scores and sci-fi synthesizers. drummer Brandon Rome who passed away.

This is not radio rock by any means it is moody and All the while, rappers Shawn A and Anthony Demar are raw with mostly spoken word lyrics sprinkled throughout locked and loaded with rhymes that are just as murderous the twelve tracks. The sound of this album would most as they are hilarious.

The center track, “Bates Motel,” is a great example definitely fit as the backdrop for a dark smoke filled bar of how Sic Hop’s signature mixture of moods comes with maybe some shady business going on.

Morrison Road travel down the Blues and Funk trail and together. With a down-tempo drum beat, a terrifying have strong bass lines that lead the songs throughout but it piano progression, and some sighing vocals, Shawn and also takes you into Psychedellic/Stoner Rock places that you Anthony detail a surreal tale of their violent stay at the Bates (a reference to 2012’s TV series prequel to the could get lost in with wonderful and trippy guitar parts.

This album will take you on a 70 minute voyage inside classic horror film, Psycho). Anthony brings the brutality

in this track, listing his crew’s knack for cartoon-esque violence, while Shawn spits a biblical verse about selftransformation and multi-dimensional travel — and his search for halal meat?

From track to track on this EP, Sic Hop demonstrates their creative flexibility. Songs like “Cosmic in December” take a more introspective turn, and show off the duo’s knack for telling their personal stories. Others, like “Shuriken” demonstrate the group’s ability to make catchy songs rooted in technical ability. And as always, Gl!nn’s production morphs into an elegant beat that fits the mood.

Gold Crack is a ultimately a short showcase of what Sic Hop is capable of when the members combine their abilities. Between their knack for collectively creating comedy, telling stories, and producing a mesmerizing flow, Sic Hop should soon have more innovative hip-hop releases in store for New Orleans and beyond.

Find out more about Sic Hop at https://www.facebook. com/shawnawesome504 -Austen Krantz

Hotstream and the Mid City Drifters - who many may know by their heaven-sent “Spaghetti Western Sundays” at Banks Street Bar where they were known to serve up a mix of originals, tributes and more set to a backdrop of some of the best, growliest, gunslingery classic films.

They’ve recently returned from one of their successful European tours and have released a disc of 12 originals and 3 covers entitled “13 Days” sure to appeal to fans of Waylon Jennings, Merle Haggard and the great Johnny Cash. Beautifully crafted, “13 Days” is their first studio CD and was recorded/produced by Mike Harvey who also is known for producing the Hot 8 Brass Band’s Grammynominated album. Self-described as “Truckerbilly” or “Ameripolitan” the band incorporates vintage twang with rolling piano, lilting fiddles and the supernatural sigh of lap steel guitars. Rounded out by Hotstream’s confidant and expressive voice, and nicely complimented by the mellow and perfectly placed backing vocals this record is a joy. Whether playful, mournful, rollicking or exalted each track shines.

Find out more about Ron Hotstream at https://www. facebook.com/ron.hotstream -Melissa Crory

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Ron Hotstream And The Mid City Drifters 13 Days, 2016 Independent

Country music is often greatly overlooked in all of its forms in New Orleans, and it’s a cryin’ shame. Tucked away in clubs all over the city are the sublime, heartbreaking or playfully grinning sounds of bluegrass, honkey tonk, folk and western swing just begging to be discovered. Some of the most talented and accessible of the bunch are Ron

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