Manic Presents / Premier Concerts Guest Post:
Welcome to this week’s installment of our Redscroll blog post! Just announced at College Street Music Hall we have – EDM artist ZHU on Friday (3/1); Citizen Cope performs with his full band (4/18); and iconic classic rock band Blue Öyster Cult is back in Connecticut on (6/7)! Tickets for these shows go on sale Friday at 10AM!
Coming to Space Ballroom, we have Kenny Vasoli of The Starting Line’s dream-pop group Vacationer (1/23); NYC hardcore band Madball (1/27) with Death Before Dishonor, Palehorse, and Cast In Blood; Philly prog-metal band Dysrhythmia (2/10) with Cleric and Pyrrhon; New Jersey indie rockers Pinegrove (3/8); and Australian singer/songwriter Stella Donnelly (3/20) with Faye Webster! Tickets for Vacationer and Dysrhythmia are On Sale NOW! Tickets for these shows will be on sale Friday at 10AM!
Additionally, at Cafe Nine we have the sister duo Lily & Madeleine on (2/18) as a part of our weekly Manic Monday series. Be sure to RSVP for FREE admission!
We have a busy week full of shows for everyone kicking off TONIGHT (12/6) with Mihali (of Twiddle) performing at Space Ballroom with Tracy Jo (acoustic). On Friday, (12/7) at Space Ballroom is the D.C. post-punk band Priests with Empath and Psychic of Orange. On Sunday (12/9) J Mascis (of Dinosaur Jr.) returns to Space Ballroom for a solo performance with Luluc. On Monday (12/10) we have The Talbott Brothers at Cafe Nine and Haunted Continents (featuring James of Call It Arson/End of America) and Patrick Dalton (of The Proud Flesh) as a part of our weekly Manic Mondays series. Also on Monday (12/10) we have our monthly comedy series HaHa Hamden at Space Ballroom with comedian Adam Parsi headlining. And lastly on Wednesday (12/12) is Old 97’s Holiday Extravaganza featuring punk rock magician CASEYMAGIC and a special solo acoustic set by Rhett Miller. Get your tickets today because they won’t be available for much longer!
CONTEST TIME! Enter for a chance to win a pair of tickets to our J Mascis show and copy of Elastic Days on vinyl!
Enter here: https://goo.gl/forms/ hnXy4DyYz9If34dz1
We’ll see you back here next Thursday!
Upcoming Shows…
TONIGHT December 6th
Mihali (of Twiddle) w/ Tracy Jo (Acoustic)
$20 ($15 adv)/All Ages/Doors at 7:00pm
Space Ballroom- Hamden
INFO: Mihali Savoulidis is the lead singer and guitarist for Vermont rock quartet, Twiddle. Barely 30 years old, the Jersey native has already drawn crowds at such notable rock shrines as Red Rocks, The Capitol Theatre and Bonnaroo. Twiddle’s fan base is growing rapidly, and Mihali’s signature vocals and guitar work are more than partly responsible for this undeniable momentum.
Most laud Mihali for his dexterity on guitar, but it’s his lyrics and songwriting capabilities which set his solo act apart. It is the soul of what many hope to find in a solo act. His mastery of pedals, specifically the repetitive phenomena known as “looping,” beat boxing, and guitar riffs, all prep a multi-textured canvas for song. Mihali’s words are genuine. Shaped by his journey through grief and redemption, he writes songs that serve as a light to many who find themselves lost in their own darkness.
TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE: https://ticketf.ly/2QScfh4
Friday, December 7th
Priests w/ Empath, Psychic of Orange
$12 ($10 adv)/All Ages/Doors at 7:00pm
Space Ballroom (Front Room)- Hamden
INFO: Formed in 2011, the band has proven a valuable force for strangeness in a city that is increasingly terraformed by norms. At a time when few groups were making serious moves beyond the Beltway, Priests toured throughout North America and Europe. More significantly, they’ve helped to raise the general standard of show-going at home through cassettes and singles released on Sister Polygon, including music by bands like Sneaks, Snail Mail, Pinkwash, Cigarette, Downtown Boys, and numerous Priests-affiliated groups like Gauche and Flasher. Still, even amidst thriving hometown creativity, Priests possess a singular gravity. They are physical and combustible, urgent and visceral.
Following the release of Bodies and Control and Money and Power, Priests began to tweak their songwriting process – concentrating more deeply on melody, dialing down the distortion, and experimenting with dynamics. New songs evolved in performance, starting off tentative and gaining confidence and character on tour. The band recorded and scrapped versions of Nothing Feels Natural for almost a year before enlisting Hugh McElroy (Black Eyes) and Kevin Erickson, who worked with Priests previously on Tape Two, their Radiation/Personal Planes single, and half of Bodies. Nothing Feels Natural was tracked throughout summer of 2016 at Inner Ear Studios in Arlington, VA.
TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE: https://ticketf.ly/2NkTCot
Sunday, December 9th
J Mascis (of Dinosaur Jr.) w/ Luluc
$30 ($27.50 adv)/All Ages/Doors at 7:00PM
Space Ballroom- Hamden
INFO: In 1991, Dinosaur Jr. disbanded and Mascis released More Light, his first recording under the moniker J Mascis + The Fog. Members and collaborators of the Fog have included Mike Watt (Minutemen / fIREHOSE), Ron Asheton (the Stooges), Robert Pollard (Guided By Voices), Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine) Dave Schools (Hard Working Americans / Widespread Panic) and Kyle Spence (Harvey Milk). Aside from his work with The Fog, Mascis finds himself behind the drums in the band Witch, and most recently playing guitar with garage rockers Sweet Apple. He is also known to perform solo acoustic proving that there are truly no limitations to his abilities. Fans of Mascis’ huge guitar wails will not be disappointed by his intimate acoustic performances as he always brings in plenty of pedals to pepper these performances with the sonically enhanced solos he’s best known for.
TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE: https://ticketf.ly/2PeAoyr
Monday, December 10th
The Talbott Brothers w/ Haunted Continents, Patrick Dalton (of The Proud Flesh)
Free with RSVP (or $5 at the door)/21 and over/Doors at 7PM
Cafe Nine- New Haven
INFO: The Talbott Brothers are a Portland based duo composed of brothers Nick and Tyler Talbott. Born and raised in Imperial, a small town in Southwestern Nebraska, they began writing and performing together in the summer of 2012 before relocating to Portland, OR. Forming an alternative blend of folk, rock and blues, The Talbott Brothers creatively combine blood harmonies with storytelling and infectious melodies.
In their latest full-length album, Gray, The Talbott Brothers illustrate the tension between conflicting relationships and the various trials of the human condition. Ear To The Ground Music describes it as, “Equal parts optimistic and captivating, inspiring and hopeful.” Following the album’s release, The Talbott Brothers made their debut at KINK FM’s Skype Live Studio, embarked on a national headlining tour and shared the stage with artists such as Johnnyswim, ZZ Ward and Dead Horses.
In addition to having their music featured in national campaigns such as the Buckle and Tennessee Tourism, The Talbott Brothers are endorsed by Elixir Strings and have joined forces with Sennheiser for product showcase videos and annual performances at The NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA. After playing more than 500 shows and independently releasing 3 albums, The Talbott Brothers’ deep-rooted passion and growing fanbase continue to drive them full steam ahead.
RSVP HERE: https://ticketf.ly/2PgS8sV
Monday, December 10th
HaHa Hamden feat. Adam Parisi and more!
$5 (Tickets exclusively sold at the door) All Ages/ Doors at 7PM
The Space Ballroom (Front Room)- Hamden
TICKETS AVAILABLE AT DOOR
Wednesday, December 12th
Old 97’s Holiday Extravaganza! w/ CASEYMAGIC, Rhett Miller (acoustic)
$30 ($25 adv)/All Ages/Doors at 7:00PM
Space Ballroom- Hamden
INFO: “Rock and roll’s been very very good to me,” Rhett Miller sings on “Longer Than You’ve Been Alive,” an epic six-minute stream-of-consciousness meditation on his life in music. It’s a rare moment of pulling back the curtain, on both the excesses and tedium of the world of a touring musician, and it’s the perfect way to open the Old 97’s new album, ‘Most Messed Up.’
“I wrote that song very quickly and didn’t rewrite one word of it,” Miller explains. “It’s sort of a thesis statement not just for this record, but for my life’s work.”
To say that rock and roll has been good to the Old 97’s (guitarist/vocalist Miller, bassist/vocalist Murry Hammond, guitarist Ken Bethea, and drummer Philip Peeples) would be an understatement. The band emerged from Dallas twenty years ago at the forefront of a musical movement blending rootsy, country-influenced songwriting with punk rock energy and delivery. The New York Times has described their major label debut, ‘Too Far To Care,’ as “a cornerstone of the ‘alternative country’ movement…[that] leaned more toward the Clash than the Carter Family.” They’ve released a slew of records since then, garnering praise from NPR and Billboard to SPIN and Rolling Stone, who hailed the band as “four Texans raised on the Beatles and Johnny Cash in equal measures, whose shiny melodies, and fatalistic character studies, do their forefathers proud.” The band performed on television from Letterman to Austin City Limits and had their music appear in countless film and TV soundtracks (they appeared as themselves in the Vince Vaughn/Jennifer Aniston movie ‘The Break Up’). Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan told The Hollywood Reporter that he put the band on a continuous loop on his iPod while writing the show’s final scene.
TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE: https://ticketf.ly/2x83pDo
SHOW ANNOUNCEMENTS
Wednesday, January 23rd
Vacationer
$15/All Ages/Doors at 7PM
Space Ballroom- Hamden
INFO: The third full-length from Vacationer, Mindset is built on delicate melodies and crystalline rhythms that seem to alter the very texture of the world around you. Ornately composed but breezy in energy, Vacationer’s warm-hearted dream-pop perfectly mirrors frontman Ken Vasoli’s intentions in making the album. “The objective was to write songs that remind me how my brain needs to operate for my own wellbeing and happiness,” Vasoli says. “That’s where the title comes from—the record’s filled with all these reminders that put me in a good mindset for the day.”
Despite its often-euphoric effect, Mindset began in frustration for Vasoli. After countless false starts on the follow-up to 2014’s Relief, the Philadelphia-based musician decided to completely upend his creative approach. While Vacationer’s previous albums came to life in close collaboration with fellow members Matthew Young and Grant Wheeler, Vasoli shifted his focus from songwriting to production and worked entirely on his own for months on end. During that time, he immersed himself in exploring the nuances of Ableton and analyzing the construction of beloved albums by artists like the Beach Boys, Barry White, and Curtis Mayfield.
“Those albums feel like the magic moments that I’m always chasing after in my own music,” says Vasoli, who co-founded Vacationer in 2010. “It’s such an unbelievable display of production and composition happening at the same time, and it inspired me to keep that integrity of ’60s and ’70s record-making while using the technology that I’d been studying.”
TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE: https://ticketf.ly/2zaRkiK
Sunday, January 27th
Madball w/ Death Before Dishonor, Palehorse, Cast In Blood
$18/All Ages/Doors at 7:00pm
Space Ballroom- Hamden
INFO: Maintaining urgency, authenticity and integrity has never been an issue for New York City’s hardest, and hardest working band, Madball. Twenty-five years along as a recording and touring entity, MB brings forth its ninth aural chapter, For the Cause; a signature collection of lionhearted, groove-laden, street-level New York Hardcore as only Madball can bring it.
The aptly titled album doesn’t so much revisit where the group has been since 1994 – although Madball released its first EP, Ball of Destruction as a virtual Agnostic Front side-project back in 1989 – but forges forward and represents where the fellas find themselves collectively and personally a quarter-decade down the road.
Throughout the band’s storied history, Madball has asserted its mission; carrying forth a simple yet righteous cause, and this time around, they’ve chosen to define that cause more succinctly than ever before. Tornadic vocalist/front man Freddy Cricien explains, “If you’re not fighting for a cause, you’re not participating in life. Simple as that. Speak up, fight, educate yourself, make a difference and make sacrifices for what’s important to you.” Words to live by.
TICKETS ON SALE FRIDAY 12/7 @ 10AM: https://ticketf.ly/2FLvzf3
Sunday, February 10th
Dysrhythmia w/ Cleric, Pyrron
$12/All Ages/Doors at 7PM
Space Ballroom (Front Room)- Hamden
INFO: The band was formed in August 1998 by guitarist Kevin Hufnagel and bassist Clayton Ingerson, who were joined six months later by drummer Jeff Eber. The band entered the studio in early 2000 to record their debut album, Contradiction, which was recorded, like every other Dysrhythmia album to follow, completely live with minimal overdubs. Shortly thereafter, the band reentered the studio in 2001 to record the No Interference record. The new album helped to define and expand the band’s sound, and was followed by extensive touring. In 2002, the band released two split albums, a 10″ vinyl record with Thoughtstreams and a 7″ split with Technician.[1]
The band signed to Relapse Records in October 2002. Entitled Pretest, their first album with Relapse was released May 13, 2003 to positive critical acclaim. Metal Hammer Magazine named Pretest one of the Top 10 Essential Mathcore albums of all time,[2] while Revolver Magazine ranked the album among the top 20 albums of 2003 alongside of records by Radiohead, Metallica and others.[3] The band began touring with bigger named acts such as Mastodon, Cephalic Carnage and The Dillinger Escape Plan, and playing large music festivals including the 2003 and 2004 Relapse Contamination tour, the Relapse Records South by Southwest showcase in Austin, Texas, and the New England Metal and Hardcore festival, where the band was profiled by both MTV2 and Fuse. Ingerson left the group in November 2004.
To replace Ingerson, Dysrhythmia recruited Colin Marston, a member of the group Behold…The Arctopus (in which he plays a 12-string Warr guitar). Dysrhythmia next embarked on tours with Isis and These Arms are Snakes. They recorded and released their fourth full-length album, Barriers and Passages, at B.C. Studios in Brooklyn with engineer Martin Bisi, who had previously worked with John Zorn and Sonic Youth. Barriers and Passages was released on May 2, 2006 in North America and May 9 internationally. The band continued touring throughout 2006 and 2007, and released a split album with Rothko in late 2007.
After a short break, Dysrhythmia entered their own Menegroth Studios in Queens, New York to record their fifth full-length release, Psychic Maps. The album was engineered and produced by Marston and was released July 7, 2009 in North America and July 13 internationally via Relapse. They began touring in October 2009 in support of the new album.[4] Tours included their first European run in June and July 2010, and a U.S. and Canadian tour following shortly after, supporting Cynic, and Intronaut. In May 2012 the band entered Marston’s studio again to record their sixth full-length studio album entitled Test of Submission, released on August 28, 2012 on Profound Lore Records. Their seventh full-length album The Veil of Control followed in 2016, also released on Profound Lore Records.
TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE: https://ticketf.ly/2FWfHGI
Monday, February 18th
Lily & Madeleine
Free with RSVP (or $5 at the door)/21 and over/Doors at 7PM
Cafe Nine- New Haven
INFO: Lily and Madeleine Jurkiewicz create candid music with deep emotional and personal resonance. The sisters, who record under the moniker Lily & Madeleine, boldly explore what it means to be women in the 21st century, and aren’t afraid to use their music to call out injustices or double standards. This fearless approach has permeated their three albums, which are full of insightful lyrics and thoughtful indie-pop.
But with their fourth studio album, Canterbury Girls—named after Canterbury Park, located in their hometown of Indianapolis, Indiana—the sisters are coming into their own as women and musicians. “This is the first record Lily and I have ever done where we have full control over all of the songwriting,” says Madeleine. “We did co-write with some people that we really love. But everything on this record is completely ours. I feel like I have full ownership over it, and that makes me feel very strong and independent.”
That assertiveness reflects new geographic and professional realities. For starters, Lily and Madeleine—who are now 21, 23 respectively—moved to New York City in early 2018. And instead of recording Canterbury Girls in Bloomington, Indiana, which is where they recorded their previous efforts, the pair headed to Nashville to write and work with producers Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk. “I feel like it was time for us to leave the nest and move on and try to make a record our own way,” Madeleine says. “We decided to work with some new people, and it turned out to be the best decision, because we finally figured out how to voice exactly what we wanted in the studio.”
Using an eclectic playlist of songs as sonic inspirations—soul tunes and waltzes, as well as cuts from Midlake, ABBA and Nancy Wilson—Lily & Madeleine worked quickly, recording Canterbury Girls in just 10 days. They spent the first half of the studio sessions working out the framework of the songs with Tashian and Fitchuk, and the rest of the time fleshing out the music with additional instrumentation, harmonies and other arrangement details. “By the end, I felt like the songs had their own life; they had their own energy,” Madeleine says. “It was incredible to see them blossom so quickly.”
RSVP HERE: https://ticketf.ly/2FO5wE0
$30-$35/All Ages/Doors at 7PM
College Street Music Hall- New Haven
INFO: Steven Zhu, (born 1989) better known by his stage name ZHU (or), is an electronic music producer and singer who has been active since the beginning of 2012, signed to Mind Of A Genius Records. Until mid-2014 Zhu remained anonymous, asking to be judged by his music alone.
TICKETS ON SALE FRIDAY 12/7 @ 10AM: https://ticketf.ly/2zFT8jX
$20-$24/All Ages/Doors at 7PM
College Street Music Hall- New Haven
INFO: Pinegrove are a band from Montclair, New Jersey.
TICKETS ON SALE FRIDAY 12/7 @ 10AM: https://ticketf.ly/2yE4nJl
Wednesday, March 20th
Stella Donnelly w/ Faye Webster
$15 ($12 adv)/All Ages/Doors at 7PM
Space Ballroom- Hamden
INFO: Western Australia-based Stella Donnelly is a young songwriter with a knack for wrapping unapologetic, brutally honest and witty lyrics with a soaring lullaby to mesmeric effect. Her endearing and relatable way of writing is her lens to the world in which we live, a glimpse into what it’s like to be a millennial woman in the age of Trump, Tinder and third wave feminism. On the heels of Donnelly’s fall North American solo run supporting Natalie Prass, she announces her return to the states for a full band headline tour in 2019. Label mate, Faye Webster, will open. Next year will also see the release of Donnelly’s debut full-length album on Secretly Canadian (details still to come). This follows her “Thrush Metal” EP, featuring the standout “Boys Will Be Boys,” which she wrote in 2016 about society’s tendency to blame the victims of sexual assault.
With only an EP released thus far and two tours of North America behind her, Donnelly has already been recognized by the likes of The New York Times for “Boys Will Be Boys” and being one of “17 Acts That Stood Out” at SXSW, and NPR Music which named Donnelly a 2018 Slingshot Artist (stay tuned for her Tiny Desk Concert). Preceding their Sunday Arts profile, The Los Angeles Times recognized Donnelly for being “openly frank about real life and remarkably cognizant of the audience, so much so that her songs extended a hand as much as they told a story or presented a point of view.”
For those looking for a taste of something new from Donnelly, check out her recent performance on WXPN’s World Café where she performed new song, “Beware of the Dogs,” and more.
TICKETS ON SALE FRIDAY 12/7 @ 10AM: https://ticketf.ly/2FdKvTc
Thursday, April 18th
Citizen Cope
$35-$50/All Ages/Doors at 7PM
College Street Music Hall- New Haven
INFO: Citizen Cope is both a person (singer/songwriter Clarence Greenwood) and an acoustic-driven band. Born in Memphis and raised in Washington, D.C., Greenwood is the leader of the group, and he steers the band’s soulful sound by serving as keyboardist, guitarist, lead singer, DJ, songwriter, and producer. Greenwood first broke into the music business by appearing on albums by Maryland-based rapper Basehead(1993’s Not in Kansas Anymore and 1996’s Faith), and he used that momentum to issue his first Citizen Cope album, Cope Citizen, in 1992. Greenwood spent the rest of the decade donating songs to several independently issued compilations — including 1997’s Settling the DC Score and 1999’s Anti-Racist Action Benefit — and appearing on the soundtracks to movies like Eat Me and Clubland. He also performed on Lazy K’s 1997 album Life in One Day and inked his own deal with Capitol Records.
Although Greenwood recorded an entire album, Shotguns, during his time with Capitol, the label never released the record and he was eventually released from his contract. Dreamworks took the opportunity to sign him in 2000, and Citizen Cope’s self-titled album was released two years later. The bad luck continued, however, as Greenwood felt the label mishandled his record. Using an advance from Arista, he bought his way out of the Dreamworks contract and settled into a partnership with his new label. The Clarence Greenwood Recordings hit shelves in September 2004 and received considerable attention, with the track “Son’s Gonna Rise” even appearing in a GM Pontiac commercial. The band remained with Arista/RCA for the release of Every Waking Moment two years later, but Greenwood had grown tired of the boundaries presented by any record label. Accordingly, he released The Rainwater LP himself in 2010, although the band’s fusion of blues, folk-pop, and laid-back hip-hop remained intact. Greenwood returned two years later with a mellower, more laid-back sound on 2012’s One Lovely Day.
TICKETS ON SALE FRIDAY 12/7 @ 10AM: https://ticketf.ly/2zIIyc6
Friday, June 7th
Blue Öyster Cult
$35-$75/All Ages/Doors at 7PM
College Street Music Hall- New Haven
INFO: For over four decades, Blue Öyster Cult has been thrilling fans of intelligent hard rock worldwide with powerful albums loaded with classic songs. Indeed, the Long Island, NY-‐based band is revered within the hard rock and heavy metal scene for its pioneering work. Blue Öyster Cult occupies a unique place in rock history because it’s one of very few hard rock/heavy metal bands to earn both genuine mainstream critical acclaim as well as commercial success.
The band is often cited as a major influence by other acts such as Metallica, and BÖC was listed in VH1’s countdown of the greatest hard rock bands of all time.
Upon the release of BÖC’s self-‐titled debut album in 1972, the band was praised for its catchy-‐yet-‐heavy music and lyrics that could be provocative, terrifying, funny or ambiguous, often all in the same song. BÖC’s canon includes three stone-‐cold classic songs that will waft through the cosmos long after the sun has burned out: The truly haunting “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” from 1976’s Agents of Fortune, the pummeling “Godzilla” from 1977’s Spectres and the hypnotically melodic “Burnin’ for You” from1981’s Fire of Unknown Origin. Other notable BÖC songs include “Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll,” “Then Came the Last Days of May,” “I Love the Night,” “In Thee,””Veteran of the Psychic Wars,” “Dominance and Submission,” “Astronomy,” “Black Blade” and “Shooting Shark.”
The intense creative vision of BÖC’s original core duo of vocalist/lead guitarist Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser, and vocalist/rhythm guitarist Eric Bloom are complemented by Richie Castellano on guitar and keyboards, and the longtime rhythm section of bass guitarist Danny Miranda, and drummer Jules Radino.
We realized we’re a ‘classic rock’ band. That’s what we are, that’s what we do best, that’s what we know. The band members are proud of BÖC’s classic sound, and pleased the band is creating vibrant work for disenfranchised music lovers who don’t like the homogenized, prefabricated pop or sound-‐alike, formulaic rap-‐metal, which monopolizes the radio airwaves and best-‐seller charts.
BÖC has always maintained a relentless touring schedule that brings new songs and classics to original fans and, as Bloom puts it, “teen-‐agers with green hair.
TICKETS ON SALE FRIDAY 12/7 @ 10AM: https://ticketf.ly/2FUmSPy
**Tickets are available for all these shows in the shop (cash only for ticket sales) without the online fees. **