The Friday Morning Listen

First posted on Mark Is Cranky:

Sometimes, the 'why' of a record purchase can be pretty interesting.

Wednesday evening, I picked up the wife at her place of work (because I took the Jeep that morning to deal with yet another snow storm...please, make it stop!!) and we then headed back into town to partake of an American tradition: The Diner. Oh yea, this is the real deal. Blue plate specials, coffee in those curvy-sided mugs, homemade desserts. Places like that just can't be beat.

After dinner we walk across the parking lot to the local bookstore. I head to the back room to check out the CDs and shoot the breeze with my friend Eric, who runs the music room. We got to talking about his band, Death To Tyrants. Specifically, that he'd really, really like to go out on tour for a while. I asked him where his upcoming schedule would be bringing him. One of the towns was Wallingford, Connecticut. Wallingford happens to be one town over from where I was born, Meriden. Not a very interesting place really, though it used to be a hotspot for silver production back in its day (which ended some time in the 1960's). Oh, and the movie Jacknife was filmed there.

Before we moved to Maine in 1974, we lived in Middletown for a couple of years. My school, Central Middle School, was just down the street from Wesleyan University. The school used to send us up there for all sorts of cultural events. Dance, drama and music. We just loved the stuff. Years later, as I got more into music, especially improvised music, I discovered a man named Anthony Braxton. Braxton happens to be based out of Wesleyan.

I namechecked Anthony Braxton to Eric (who I figured must be interested since he's quite the Coletrane freak) and he asks me if I've ever heard of Tyondai Braxton. Nosir. Is he Anthony's son? Why yes he is. Tyondai is very active in Connecticut's new music scene. His 'specialty' is the creation of looped music using voice, guitar and found sound, manipulating everything in real time with guitar effects pedals. His current project is Battles, a band consisting of Braxton on keys/beat box, Ian Williams (of Don Caballero) on guitar and keyboards, John Stanier (Helmet, Tomahawk) on drums and David Konopka on guitar.

I've made it a point of letting Eric give me more or less blind recommendations on music since he seems to have great taste and knowledge of areas of music that are out of my zone. Let me tell ya, there's nothing better than buying something completely new and having it knock you right outa yer chair. The music of Battles did just that. It's tough to describe. Maybe, Don Cabalerro on acid....or how about Godspeed but more down to earth and less cinematic. Dunno. I'm also reminded of very early Firehose, but without the monster bass of Mike Watt. There are tons and tons of intertwined guitar figures, sometimes playing more or less in harmony, other times coming at each other from funny angles. Great stuff.

Article Author: Mark Saleski

Mark Saleski is a writer and music obsessive based out of the Monadnock region of New Hampshire. He is an editor and writer for Jazz.com. He also writes reviews for Blogcritics.org and produces the weekly feature The Friday Morning Listen. …

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