I want you to hear this song…
Put some headphones on… The drums shuffle along a nice groove and the guitars breeze steadily under our singer’s voice (a silky little croon with a Buckley-esque trill), it’s an otherwise cool cruiser of a moderately muffled rocker, but soon weirdnesses waltz in: those rich organ purrs start digging us downhill to a mystical murky hideaway where, suddenly, whirling wind instruments bustle in and it strikes 7-seconds of strange circus swirls.
But we’re soon back up on the bike track, pedaling along – the drums start hitting harder and the resonant pianos start fuzzing the corners of the soundscape and you start making out, through the delicate pouring of reverb, what our balladeer has been melodically bestowing, “Dull Hums (form the hymns of thee)…” Only briefly though, because soon all starts to swoon, to gargle, to wish-n-wash-around, like you’ve just slipped into a cool azure river and the world’s sounds are sluicing away from you, blurring together then blurring away…
Graham Parsons came to this writer’s attention when he backed Chris Bathgate on that AA-singer/songwriter’s initial Salt Year tours, but he’d already had a couple records penned and recorded at that point (in early 2011, bolstered by his group, the Go-Rounds). The young Americana-tweaking, fuzz-folk dabbling singer/songwriter has since securely enmeshed himself as a bright burning sparkplug inside the verdant Kalamazoo music scene.
This month, the Go-Rounds celebrate the release of this 7” single (Feathername / Rain Boogie) along with a new full length album Feathername – via their own record label Double Phelix (named for a recording studio / creative-co-op / musical clubhouse that features several other talented K-zoo area performers and songwriters).
The Go-Rounds (including Gitis Baggs (Guitar), Andy Catlin (Keyboards), Adam Danis (Drums) and Tod Kloosterman (Bass)) won’t be comin’ round here (Ypsi/Arbor) anytime soon – though, they get close on June 28th when they play at Lakeview Farms Barn in Dexter.
Still, traveling out to Kalamazoo on June 30th to see them might certainly be worth the trip, considering they’ll be backed by a 14-piece Orchestra, featuring Double-Phelix-facilitated players on harmonizing back-up singers, horns, strings, keyboards and multiple drums. (more info: http://www.facebook.com/DoublePhelix)
Listen to more via the band’s Bandcamp
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And then, listen to this while you’re at it – it’s a song that’s haunted me (in the best way possible) for more than three years.
You’re in the room with Shane Firek. C’mon – put your headphones on – it’s like your ear’s right up against the wood of the guitar and his leathery rasp is melodically creaking, it’s coughed quaver from the rickety rocking chair right beside you and those drum sticks are clacking right at your toes, along the edge of the porch rail. That fucking voice, I can’t tell you, majestically animalistic, with buzzy accentuations almost like a vaudevillian’s sense for theatricality, a blue flame torching the folk aesthetic.
The Ferdy Mayne has since evolved into a louder, just-as-fiery, psyche-tinged rock quartet and will soon be releasing a, as Firek put it, “new ‘interpretation’ of older songs. The boys are all excellent players and bring their own magnificent flavor to a project that has already reveled in eclectic leans, picking from each members’ own musical leanings.”
The Ferdy Mayne perform at YpsiArbaroo in a couple of days (you can read the full story on that here: https://mispymag.com/2012/05/festival-hopping-shop-local-ypsiarboroo/)
This Ypsi band’s been churning on and off (but mostly on –if you don’t count the months Firek spent away from his home during his time down south) for almost five years and it pleases this writer to hear that new recorded releases are on the horizon.
“It’s certainly more focused and electric, now,” Firek said. “It shakes a bit more. But it hasn’t necessarily dismantled my own focus in songwriting.” I underline those words, focus, and songwriting, because for me, Firek strikes as a true writer, yes a songwriter, but an inventive winder of words, just read on…
Ferdy Mayne (Josh Aratay-drums, Brad Hale-guitar, Nick Zomparelli-bass) are “all solid fellows,” Firek said. “And it’s fun. It’s important to be free and having fun. Once that dips then you leak from several places in your heart and mind. If you never struggle within your guts then I don’t think there is a sort of fruition or growth.”
Striking.
Listen to more of the Mayne’s songs here:
