Friday, November 7, 2008

NYC Gig Announced and New Review

After playing only Brooklyn in the New York City area for the last several months, we are excited to announce that we will be playing in Manhattan in December. The show will be:

8:00 PM
Tuesday, December 2
at Otto's Shrunken Head
538 E 14th St Between Avenues A and B
New York NY 10009

We are friends with several bands who have played Otto's and spoken well of it, so we're grateful to them for giving us a gig and are really looking forward to rocking out there. Hopefully our fans in Queens, Manhattan and our home borough of Brooklyn can make the trek out for what will likely be our last show of 2008. There is no cover, they instead pass a tip jar for us. We hope that despite the recession our trusty fans will give generously.

Folks on the mailing list may have already seen this, but I have yet to post it on the blog. So here is an awesome review of our latest disc, Sky Full of Messages, from the nice folks at IndieMusic.com:

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In the 1980s when New York's CBGB was the musical Mecca and the Ramones reigned supreme in the punk rock world – and seemingly couldn’t have cared less – the punk rock music was as raw as an open wound highlighted by angry, in-your-face (but still decipherable) vocals, crashing symbols and drums and the heaviest guitar sounds around.

Fans of heavy metal bands such as Metallica and Megadeth will no doubt vehemently argue this point, but for many music lovers punk was (and to a large part still is) the only sound that truly encapsulated youth angst, anger and in a strange way hope for change.

One listen to Victor Bravo and that uninhibited, "we’re the new order and anything is possible," feel is back. "Final Friend" may well be the stand out song on this disc, just because of the superb, somewhat muted vocals and under produced feel. Don’t let the heavy drums and guitars get in the way – listen closely and you’ll hear these two guys who hail from Maine but in their words "escaped" to NYC have a remarkable, fresh sound.

According to the band's reps, "Alien Homeland" is the members' favorite song on the disc. The sound is splendidly harsh – something like The Clash meets The Sex Pistols and they all discover Red Bull. While I can understand the excitement the track produces, it's just a bit too jangly for my taste, teetering a bit too close to the line of wanna be Ramones. That's not to say it’s not well played, only that it’s not the stand out to me.

Some reviewers note a strong flavor of grunge in Victor Bravo’s sound. Certainly "Motherfucker" has hints of Kurt Cobain-type grunge, but it still seems like New York City punk circa 1980s to me. And what a welcome sound that is.

Review by Nancy Dunham

1 comment:

Sarah Valeri said...

Yeah!!! Can't wait for the show!!