Paper Garden Records @ 3rd Ward Review

Multiverse Playground event was presented by Paper Garden Records @ 3rd Ward in Brooklyn, a member-based design center. Sponsors included: 3^rd Ward, Uncensored Interview, Art Battles, Lomography, 1776, The BLDG, Project Fathom.

Paper Garden Records' current roster, Peasant, Emanuel and the Fear, and Darla Farmer, represent a perfect diverse live line-up. I endured Art Battles and Comedy Central's Kurt Metzger before the bands started. It was an "Experience" for me, but both were enthusiastically received by the crowd.

Peasant's slot was to follow the comic, a difficult feat for a guy with a guitar at best. Fortunately, everyone who slowly reentered the backspace and committed to staying soon realized Peasant (Damien DeRose) is not standard singer-songwriter fare. His is a voice to follow. He played some new songs from Shady Retreat to be released in 2010, and one never performed live. We were treated to two older songs from On the Ground. "Your Good" was fabulous without the drums, and Damien said he usually plays "Manners" when an audience is polite. "Hard Times" was appropriate and gave me pause to think about Peasant's ability to weave topical content without being preachy. Peasant is a quiet but reflective voice of his generation. And his voice penetrates in a subtle but lasting way.

Emanuel and the Fear

Emanuel and the Fear are a great live experience with multi-layers of sophisticated composition and an accomplished orchestra. Emanuel Ayvason, on keys, guitar, and vocals, leads the pit with dynamic zeal and musical prowess. He is a music force with a vision and is willing to fuck with it in a good way. Adding drummer Jeff Gretz's metal magic adds an aggressive contrast to the mix. The sound leaves the listener on edge and shakes things up with untimely structures and raw and in-the-moment vocals without ever losing the sensuous full embodied sound. Aggressive Orchestral Pop!

Darla Farmer

Darla Farmer makes me smile. They are an ambitious six-piece outfit plowed through a lively, diverse set. Take guitar, bass, and drums, mix some horns and keys and grind it out. Their geeky awesomeness is appealing, blurring art rock, noise, metal, Orleans-style jazz, and screamo with the quirkiest nasal vocals of lead singer Bryce Leonard. We were treated to what seemed like impromptu Devo-style Hip Hop with the best awkward dance moves. It was a rip! Darla Farmer's original sound might be a result of geographical southern roots. Whatever the inspiration, I'm looking forward to more. 

At about 1:00 AM, more folks invaded to catch Boy Crisis and Das Racist, and for the young, the night was just starting. I left at 1:30. Flickr Set is not up to par, but I found the staging area too long with little depth making it difficult for band interaction.

CMJ Day Five

Emanuel and the Fear @ The Delancy rooftop, Afternoon Scores

Emanuel Ayvas’ brought an ensemble of four and delivered lush scores with tabulators, and music stands in place. His poetic writing and emotionally delivered vocals, accompanied by violin, cello, and guitar, created a toned-down but perfect acoustic orchestral pop and afternoon score for a roof garden space. Their set was a smaller representation of a group.

Listening to Emanuel and the Fear recordings exemplifies the lush, ambitious arrangements full of complexities and swelling of orchestral passages with smart, lyrically emotionally delivered vocals.

Bryan Vaughan, founder of their label Paper Garden Records has a passion for music he loves and believes in, so I should have followed through and heard them sooner.

Flickr Set

                     Drink Up Buttercup @ The Delancey rooftop, Acoustic Muscle

Drink Up Buttercup is a very different band in the early afternoon. But this is not Drink Up Buttercup Lite, anything but. Although they abandoned their drums, amps, garbage cans, and kinesthetic body contortions, they highlighted the muscle of their vocal muscle. They stretched their harmonic layering of show-stopping standards, adding detailed appendages. Showing off their incredible versatility and giving the tired genre "Barbershop" a vibrato edge.

Flickr Set

Cale Parks 2 The Delaney Warmth to Techno

Cale Parks brings warmth to Techno, blending cascading dance beats and looping of original music with synth and drum machine. Live Cale Parks drumsticks twirl through the air and hit his mark. The baton twirler, soft crooner, and synth composer do it with precision and finesse. Adding two new players on guitar, bass, and keys to his live line-up. Performing as a one-man band is hard, he said as he introduced his new bandmates, saying, “how nice it was not do this alone.” The packed, dank basement at the Delancey was the perfect setting to be transformed into another place. Cale Parks and Company took me there.

Flickr Set